Chapter 11. The Visit

Another four months passed. It had now been seven months since I arrived on Coruscant. Right after we returned from Endor, Obi-wan had asked Yoda about why he wanted us to go to Lothal. Yoda had been mysterious and had not directly answered Obi-Wan's question, only saying that he would know when the time was right to take me there. Catman had become the unofficial mascot of the Padawan dormitory. I kept him in my room, and after I finished my training for the day, we spent time together outside in the gardens. There had been some minor grumbling among some of the stickler Jedi Masters about not having pets, but no one had fussed too much. Even Master Yoda had come to meet Catman, petted him, and pronounced him to be a fine animal.

It was now Melona, the seventh month of the year, or what would be July on Earth. My parents and I were all set for our summer visit to Naboo. I was taking Catman with us, of course, and we planned to stay for a month with the Skywalkers.

When I saw Anakin and Padmé's house, my jaw dropped. I had never seen a bigger house in my life. I was certain that the Council would frown upon one of their Masters owning what was truly a mansion. Well, I supposed it actually belonged to Padmé's parents. At least it originally had belonged to them. They had given the house to their daughter as a gift upon the birth of her twins. It was located in the Lake Country. Her parents had a grand new house built for Anakin and Padmé about a mile from Padmé's family home, Varykino Villa. It was a private and quiet part of the country, picturesque and unspoiled. The house was made of red brick and had turrets just like a castle. My parents' room was huge and featured a balcony that looked down upon a lake. The views of the bordering mountains and valleys were breathtaking. My guest room, which was painted a mint green, offered stunning glimpses of a beautiful outdoor garden. It was a peaceful place to meditate first thing in the morning.

Here, on Naboo, everything moved at a more leisurely pace than on Coruscant. In this place, at Anakin's home, I was able to observe exactly how much he had changed. Anakin was different than he had been in Revenge of the Sith. He didn't seem obsessed, fearful, or angry. He had always seemed to be possessive of Padmé, and clingy. He didn't behave like that at all. Gone was the fear-filled and uncertain boy and young man of the prequel trilogy. This Anakin was relaxed and confident, not looking around the corner for the next shoe to drop. His mind was at ease. He was kind to me and my mother, friendly and joking with Obi-Wan. He was a good and loving father. He often played with Luke and Leia, who were now nine months old. Now that his marriage was out in the open, he radiated certainty and peace. Also, I surmised that having kids and being a father changed him for the better. My mother had always said that becoming a parent changed people; it made them less selfish and more loving. Parents learned unconditional love. It was almost as if something had happened to assure him that his life would always be like this; that there was no foreboding future waiting for him.

We had been there for three weeks. Obi-Wan spent most of the day training me, and occasionally he and Anakin had Council business to discuss. We all ate dinner together, the five of us, with the twins usually napping in their playpen nearby.

The weather on Naboo was pleasant and mostly dry, at least in the summer. In fact, it hadn't rained once since our arrival. It was ideal weather for training out-of-doors.

One morning, I was training outside on a cliff overlooking the lake. I was in a handstand.

"Focus," Obi-Wan instructed me.

I felt like Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, training with Yoda. Or like Ezra from Star Wars Rebels, training with Kanan. "Don't tell me. I should focus on letting go?"

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. That was where I had gotten it from.

Catman, who sat perched on a small boulder nearby, meowed loudly as he swatted at a butterfly. I opened my eyes and watched him play.

"Don't let him distract you. Close your eyes again. Let go."

"Rather hold on if you don't mind," I replied with a grin.

I stopped teasing him when I saw the expression on his face.

"Stop playing and focus on your work," Obi-Wan said mildly, but with an edge of steel to his tone.

"What am I supposed to be doing?" I asked him. "Seeing the future?"

"Just concentrate and use the Force," was Obi-Wan's reply.

Catman hovered a few feet above the ground, then slowly drifted upward to the top of the cliff. He screamed in alarm.

"Don't worry," I called up to him. "I got this."

I enjoyed practicing telekinesis. It was truly my greatest skill. I felt confident as I saw how much I had improved over the past few months.

Next, I lifted a huge boulder, and it joined Catman in the air, suspended right next to him.

My control had gotten much better. It still took an enormous amount of willpower not to crash everything I lifted, but now I could do this with less difficulty.

I hoped I would start to levitate myself, but that didn't happen. Another day, I told myself.

"You see how well you do when you focus?" Obi-Wan said as Catman gently floated back down to the ground. He meowed in approval at the soft landing.

I smiled at his praise, something I never tired of hearing.

Catman walked over to me and whined. He looked at me reproachfully.

"You didn't seriously think I was going to drop you into the lake, did you?" I asked him.

Catman shook his head and then made a soft sound. I stared at him, not sure if I had heard him correctly.

"What is it?" Obi-Wan asked me.

"It sounded like he said no."

That afternoon, I got a private flying lesson from our greatest pilot, Anakin. At the designated time, I walked from my room and down the wide curving staircase to the lower level. The entrance hall was covered with black and white marble tiles. I met Anakin outside on the paved limestone walkway next to the garden.

"Where's my father?" I asked, looking around. Obi-Wan was supposed to come with us.

"Master Yoda called him into a holo meeting," Anakin explained. That was convenient. I figured Obi-Wan was looking for an excuse not to have to get into a ship with Anakin as the pilot. I clearly remembered the scene in Attack of the Clones when Anakin and Obi-Wan chased Zam Wesell in the speeder. Anakin's flying had terrified Obi-Wan. And after hearing Obi-Wan's story about how he was traumatized as a Padawan while flying his starfighter during his mission with Qui-Gon, I could understand why he didn't appreciate Anakin's "reckless flying maneuvers," as he termed them.

"We'll take my ship," Anakin told me.

All right! I was going to get to practice flying Anakin Skywalker's starfighter!

"Am you actually going to let me fly it?" I asked, wanting to make sure I understood the plan correctly.

"I'll fly, you'll watch," he corrected me. "Depending on how much you understand, I'll let you take the controls for a while. Strictly supervised, of course. And I'll be right there to take over if necessary." There was a mischievous gleam in his brown eyes. "If you do well, I'll even show you some fancy maneuvers."

Maneuvers that he wouldn't show me if Obi-Wan were with us.

"Cool." I paused. Then I asked him another question. "Where's my mom and Padmé? Are they with Luke and Leia?"

"I just saw them getting ready to practice yoga," Anakin replied.

My mother had introduced Padmé to her favorite hobby, yoga, and Padmé had developed a liking for it as well. Now the two of them practiced together. I had made my mother and Padmé their own yoga mats with my building powers.

So, the twins must be sleeping. It was just the two of us.

Now was my chance. I was going to be able to talk to him alone. I wondered how I could broach the subject I had been longing to ask him about, but Anakin beat me to it.

"So have you made anything else recently besides the yoga mats?" Anakin mentioned my building powers as we walked toward his ship, R2-D2 rolling along behind us. I had come to the conclusion that, of all the Council members, Anakin had been the most excited to learn about them. He had dubbed it "Force Building."

"Nothing besides the yoga mats and Catman's blanket," I told him.

"I wonder if you could build a starship," he mused. It sounded like a challenge to me.

"But I don't need my own starfighter yet," I countered. I was sure I could build it if I needed one. I remembered Yoda's quote about size from The Empire Strikes Back. "Size matters not," Yoda told Luke. "Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?" Luke couldn't believe it when the tiny Yoda lifted his ship from the swamp on Dagobah. I was fairly confident the same concept applied to building powers.

"What about a droid? I could use another one like R2." R2 beeped and whistled in protest. "There's only one R2-D2," I said, patting the astromech's domed head. R2 beeped in agreement.

"I wonder if the twins will have any special powers," Anakin mused.

I sincerely hoped Anakin would not turn this into a competition between himself and Obi-Wan, over whose kid was more talented and stronger with the Force.

Anakin turned to R2-D2 and told him he would call him when we were ready. R2 wheeled around and headed back toward the house.

"Have you had any visions recently?" Anakin asked me unexpectedly. Wait, he was asking me this again?

Why did he keep asking me if I had visions? Was he expecting me to have one?

"No, I haven't had any visions," I said slowly.

"I know Obi-Wan told you about Master Yoda's vision of a Jedi turning to the dark side," Anakin said. "I'm quite certain he was referring to me."

"Oh?" I feigned ignorance, wondering how Anakin knew about this. Well, he did know Obi-Wan well.

"I'm pretty sure things would have worked out differently the night Master Windu defeated Chancellor Palpatine," Anakin continued. "I was all set to leave, to go to the Chancellor's office to make sure Master Windu didn't kill him. I thought I needed his help."

Now we were getting somewhere. I listened intently to his story, waiting for the key that would enable me to solve the mystery.

Anakin waited, as if he expected me to say something about him going to Palpatine's office.

Then I took a deep breath. I might as well go for it. "Master Skywalker, I feel like you have given me a lot of strange signals since I arrived at the Jedi Temple. I have known that something was out of place by the things you have said since my arrival. The first day I met you, you acted like you already knew me. This is the second time you have asked me about visions. The first time was during my interview with the Council. Then, there seemed to be a deeper meaning to your words. The second night we ate at Dex's, you behaved as though I should have been super-familiar with the Jedi Temple after only two days there. Also, you said that I should have memories of the Council Chamber. Something is going on here."

"I was shocked to discover that you were Obi-Wan's daughter," Anakin said. "You never told me your name before."

"Before?" I wasn't following.

"I recognized you right away," Anakin said. "When I first saw you at your Council interview. I had seen you before. You were a little older then, but it was definitely you."

I just stared at him blankly. He wasn't making any sense.

"You really don't know, do you?" Anakin asked me rhetorically.

"Know what?" Now, surely, I would discover the mystery of why he had not turned.

"Either that, or you don't remember."

"What is it?" I wanted to know so much; I could not wait any longer.

"It was you, Emma," Anakin said, his eyes never leaving mine. "You were the one who stopped me from going to Palpatine's office that night."

I stared at him, incredulous. Surely, I had heard him incorrectly.

"Me?" I repeated in utter amazement. "You must be mistaken."

"I am not mistaken," Anakin said in a sure voice.

"That's impossible. How could it have been me? I was still on Earth then! I never set foot on this planet until my father brought me and my mom here." I was practically beside myself with shock and disbelief.

"Search your feelings, it is true. It was definitely you," Anakin said in a tone that brooked no argument. "I don't understand this either."

"But you know?" I said. "You know what terrible events would have unfolded if you had disobeyed Master Windu and gone to the Chancellor's office? Unbearable, catastrophic events?"

"So you said," Anakin told me. "Quite convincingly, I might add."

How had I, a mere child, been the one to stop him from turning to the dark side and making such a destructive mistake?

"You showed me your visions," Anakin continued. "You showed me very clearly what would happen if I went to that office."

Anakin had visions too. His visions came to him as dreams in his sleep. First of his mother, then about Padmé. The visions of his mother had proved to be true. That was why he had been so positive that his visions about Padmé were true as well. However, I remembered Yoda telling Luke that Force visions were not fixed. "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future," Yoda told him in The Empire Strikes Back. I wondered how I could possibly have convinced Anakin that my visions were absolutely true. Then I thought back to Revenge of the Sith. Anakin had been so distraught and fearful. He must have clung to my insistence that Padmé would live if he listened to me with the desperation of a drowning man.

It was like a lightbulb suddenly went off in my head. I now understand exactly what he meant, and what I must have done. The question was: How had I done it?

"You knew that everything would work out if I just left it alone and trusted in the Force." Anakin was still speaking. "And you were right."

And then, all at once, I knew the answer: Lothal.

Lothal was the key. The World Between Worlds. The secret doorway between all of time and space.

Sometime in the future, I would go to the Jedi Temple on Lothal. And I would experience time travel first-hand.

As inconceivable as it was, I had used the Force to access the secret entrance to the World Between Worlds and traveled back in time to the night when Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side. I had gone to the Council meeting room, where Mace Windu had bidden Anakin to wait for his return while he went to arrest Chancellor Palpatine. Somehow, someway, I had convinced Anakin to stay in that Council room while Palpatine battled the Jedi. I had told him that Padmé would live if he stayed there, that he would have everything he wanted if he just obeyed Master Windu's order. And, amazingly, he had listened to me. Me, little ten-year-old Emma Kenobi, had stopped the creation of Darth Vader. Or an older version of me had, if Anakin was to be believed.

I had wished that the World Between Worlds was real when I lived on Earth. My friends and I had played Star Wars, pretending we were Jedi along with Ezra and had gone through the portal to the past. Ever since I had first viewed that episode of Rebels, I had dreamed that it was possible; that I would one day find my way to that magical doorway on the other side of the ancient painting of the Mortis gods. It appeared that I would get my wish.

How had I gotten to Lothal? Had I gone alone, or had Obi-Wan come with me? I was almost positive he would have insisted on traveling with me.

And when would I go? Anakin had said that I would be older. How much older? Now that I knew what was going to happen, I wanted to go right away, right now. But first I would have to prepare. I would have to know exactly the right words to say to Anakin … and Yoda.

The more I thought about it, the more I was certain that I was going to time travel not just once, but twice. I was going to talk to Master Yoda about attachments and convince him to change the rule. Would I be shown a doorway to Kashyyk, where Master Yoda had gone to help the Wookies? Or would I talk to him on Coruscant, at the Jedi Temple? Or maybe in an entirely different location? Only time would tell.

"Are you alright, Emma?" Anakin was looking at me with concern. "You look a little pale. Do you want to sit down?"

"Maybe for just a minute," I said, letting him help me into a chair in the middle of the garden. I hoped he wouldn't think I was too weak now for my flying lesson.

"I didn't mean to spring all this on you all at once," Anakin said. "I thought it was imperative for you to remember."

"No, I'm glad you told me," I insisted. "You're right, it was something I definitely needed to know."

If I recalled correctly, the World Between Worlds opened doorways into the past and the future. I was convinced that I was only going to travel to the past. I didn't want to start changing the timeline too much or become corrupted by the unbelievable power I was going to have to change things. And I didn't want to visit the future anyway and know too much about my own destiny. That could cause problems as well.

When I had first arrived on Coruscant, I had wondered what kind of Jedi I would become. I had hoped, of course, that I would have adventures and amazing abilities. What I hadn't foreseen was the enormous responsibility and vast amount of power the Force would confer upon me. Building powers, time travel … It was almost too much for one ten-year-old girl to handle.

But it wasn't, I reminded myself. Anakin still looked concerned and asked me if I wanted a glass of water. I wasn't just any ten-year-old girl. I was a Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi's daughter, and I could handle any lessons thrown at me.

When we had tea and discussed my building powers, Master Yoda had told me it was the will of the Force for the Council to change the attachment rule. I had to believe that it was the will of the Force for me to enter the World Between Worlds and change things. I wasn't meddling where I didn't belong. No, this must be meant to be. Everything that had happened had led me to this point, to Naboo, to discovering the truth. My instincts told me that this was the correct path to follow. In order for Obi-Wan to be free to bring me and my mother to Coruscant, I had to alter the events of the past. I wasn't being selfish in this, I argued with myself. I would also do this to stop a horrible slaughter and the rise of the evil Galactic Empire. Now that I knew I would have the chance to change things, I felt it was the honorable and right thing to do.

I believed my situation and choice was different than Ezra's had been. If Ezra had saved Kanan, he would have created a time paradox where he himself, along with Hera and Sabine, perished in the fire. I recalled how Ahsoka had told Ezra, "I'm asking you to let go." Ahsoka told him that he couldn't save his Master, just like she couldn't save hers. Ezra had to learn to let go of Kanan. Did I have a similar lesson to learn here? Was I supposed to let go of someone or something? I didn't think so. It wasn't just about saving one person. I would be saving countless lives, and I didn't have a lesson to learn about letting go … did I?

I struggled with this. It had to happen so Yoda could change the attachment rule and I could come to Coruscant. It wasn't like when Ezra wanted to time travel and prevent Kanan's death. In saving Anakin from himself, I would be saving the Jedi Order and the galaxy from pain, death and destruction. Now that Anakin had revealed what I had done, I couldn't just turn my back on him, on my destiny. If the World Between Worlds indeed offered me the opportunity to go back in time, I would take it.

It wouldn't create a time paradox. At the time where I intended to go to change things, I wouldn't be on Coruscant yet. There wouldn't be two Emma's existing in the same place, at the same point in time. I could time travel, save Anakin, and not be stuck in a time paradox where I was in physical danger. Besides, if I didn't time travel now, wouldn't I make a time paradox where things never changed, and I would never have gone to Coruscant in the first place? What would happen to me then? I felt unsteady, and I was glad I was sitting down.

There were other potential perils to time travel. What about the allure of power? Would I fall into that trap, where I would want to change everything horrible that had ever happened in the Star Wars timeline? No, I had to remember this mission was specifically about saving Anakin and persuading Yoda to change his mind about the attachment rule, thereby creating a universe where I would be welcome to come to Coruscant.

One thing that remained unclear from watching Rebels was whether the portal actually allowed anyone to change the outcome of any particular circumstance, especially those from the past. There were many things I was worried about now, but this confusion was chief among my worries. I had always thought, from watching Rebels, that nobody could change anything inside the portal. Ezra had pulled Ahsoka out and saved her from Darth Vader, but he had never actually stepped inside that scene. But to Anakin and Yoda, it was a fact that what I was contemplating had already occurred. It was their past, while it was my future. So, I must have succeeded. There must be a way to modify events.

I suspected I would find out soon enough.

How was this going to work? Was I going to see Anakin sitting in the Council Chamber right after speaking with Master Windu? Was I going to pull Anakin out at that point, talk to him, and then send him back into that moment in time? Or was I going to be able to actually enter that location myself? Was Obi-Wan going to have to stay in the World Between Worlds while I spoke to Anakin and Yoda, and then pull me out?

Ezra heard many voices in the World Between Worlds. He heard voices from the past and the future, including Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda, Kanan and Leia. What other voices was I going to hear? What other images would I be shown during my journey through the portal? There were so many unknowns. Yet I was now firmly resolved on what I must do.

Clearly, I was going to have an opportunity to change things. It must be the will of the Force. This meant it was possible to change time. It was possible for Anakin to be saved. In fact, I had already saved him.

This was very bewildering and complicated. And yet it wasn't. I had a choice to make, and I knew what I was going to do.

I realized Yoda must already know all of this. Of course he did. It always seemed that Master Yoda knew everything. So, I must have traveled back in time to stop Order 66 and subsequently talked to Yoda about what would have happened, and about changing the attachment and marriage rules. My conversation with him would be the reason why he decided it was necessary to change the rules. This must have been why Yoda mentioned Lothal to Obi-Wan, even if he had known Obi-Wan wouldn't take me there right away. He wanted me to think about Lothal, think about its importance and what was there. He wanted me to connect the dots.

How had Anakin been able to read my mind and see everything I wanted him to know, actually read my deep thoughts? I must have found a way to show Anakin and Yoda my knowledge, which they thought were visions, of the events of Revenge of the Sith. Maybe I had even shown them significant events from other movies as well. This was what Yoda had meant when he said I had the power to show others my visions. I must have developed some special power that enabled me to connect with others and show them everything I wanted them to see, without them having to read my mind. But Yoda must have realized they weren't really visions after Obi-Wan told him about Star Wars as it existed on Earth. Yoda's "visions" of a powerful Jedi falling to the dark side had actually been my knowledge of the Star Wars movies. I remembered from watching The Clone Wars that Yoda had a premonition of the rise of Darth Sidious, the fall of the Jedi, but not Order 66. Yoda had always firmly believed that Force visions were not absolutely certain and could be misread.

Were Obi-Wan and I going to have to find a way to close the portal afterwards, so that no one else could access it? Was Ezra even going to need to go there now, since Darth Vader no longer existed? Or would he need it for another reason? I wasn't sure about this. I decided I would cross that bridge when I came to it.

There were so many implications of Darth Sidious' death and the survival of the Jedi Order. Order 66 had not happened. Would Luke and Leia still meet Han Solo and Chewbacca? Would the Ghost crew even come together now that there was no Empire to fight? Now that I knew that I was the one who had stopped it, I felt somewhat responsible for all of the resulting changes, both positive and negative.

Lost in my reverie, I finally noticed that Anakin was speaking to me.

"Emma? Emma? Are you sure you're ok? Do you want to postpone your flying lesson?" he asked me anxiously.

"No, I'm fine," I assured him, forcing myself to smile, as if I didn't have a care in the world. "I'm ready now."

"All right, I'll get R2, and we'll be on our way," he said. He hesitated a moment, then resumed talking about how I could possibly have been older months ago.

"I will figure this out," he said with a stubborn lift of his jaw.

If my theory was correct, only Master Yoda, among all the Jedi, knew about the World Between Worlds. Master Yoda was probably the only Jedi who even realized there was a Jedi Temple on Lothal. Well, Obi-Wan now knew as well.

There was no way I was telling Anakin Skywalker about the World Between Worlds.

I had to tell Obi-Wan about this. He needed to know that I must go to the Jedi Temple on Lothal. He would want to help me get there.

So I could change history.