Well everybody, I was running out of chapters I had written ahead, but now, thanks to corona virus quarantine that has affected everything in my day-to-day life, suddenly there was more time on my hands. So more chapters. Enjoy, and everybody stay healthy out there! - T.

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Luke was balanced perfectly in a handstand. A small part of him was still amazed he could do this. At first, it had not been easy, of course, but with perseverance and repetition, he had gradually acquired the skill.

Carefully, he shifted his weight to lean completely on his right hand, freeing his left to lift slowly in the air. Two large stones were already balanced on top of each other.

"Concentrate," Yoda's voice urged in the background of his focus.

Luke was centered on the power of the Force, feeling it course through him, the connection between the ground and him, the stones, and Yoda. He felt the life pulsing through his surroundings - the plants, the insects, and the animals - all of it supplied him with the power to do this.

Slowly, splitting his concentration, he lifted two more stones in the air. With a little more effort, he set them rotating around each other, gradually faster.

"Through the Force," Yoda said evenly, "things you will see. Other places. The future, the past….old friends, long gone."

The words filtered through Luke's consciousness. His eyes were closed and he was picturing those stones rotating around one another faster, faster, becoming dizzy in their speed. They spun in orbit of one another, blurring together into a gray circle. In his mind, this gray blur suddenly bloomed to light.

He saw Leia. She was dressed in a brick-red pantsuit and long, gauzy gray jacket that reached to the floor, billowing behind her as she walked. She was walking down a corridor, he could make out; a long, drab hallway, poorly lit, flanked by what appeared to be members of Alliance security, dressed in pale blue.

Leia passed and paused at a window. Luke could see what she could see: cloudy gray skies, something white on the buildings - was it snow? She was several stories up. The buildings surrounding her were rectangle, flat-roofed, drab brown stone. Some of them had wrought durasteel stairs bolted to the sides. Fire escape, Luke thought, having seen them on several old buildings on Tatooine, buildings more than several stories high that weren't modern enough to have back-up fireproof turbolifts on the inside.

Suddenly there was a sound and Leia turned her head sharply. Luke saw/felt one security officer at her side lurch forward, as if struck. Leia shouted for the man's name. There was a burst of laser fire and the two other officers went down in short succession.

Luke caught a flash of stormtrooper armour, and then the heavy breathing - the hiss of a respirator. Darth Vader. His breath caught in his throat as Leia backed away in fear. She was pressed against a wall. Vader was moving toward her, then one of the troopers fired a stun bolt, its green flash blinding Luke's eyes.

"Concentrate!" It was Yoda's voice, louder now, more urgent. Dimly Luke was aware that he was falling, the stones he had set spinning flying out the orbit that held them close, one grazing past the Jedi Master's ear.

Luke came to himself where he had fallen from his handstand, lying on his back, elbows coated in mud, gasping for a full lungful of air, as if he had been holding his breath, forgotten to breathe.

"Will you never learn, Young Luke?" Yoda's voice reprimanded, sounding tired.

Luke shut his eyes, squeezed them tight against the vision, wishing the sight of the Princess in Vader's clutches would stop replaying before him. "I saw Leia," he whispered. "She was in trouble - captured by Darth Vader." He gained his feet, running his hand over his eyes.

Yoda nodded sagely. "That is the future you see," he answered calmly.

"The future?" Luke shook his head, alarm rising in his throat. "You mean, this is something that will happen?"

The old Jedi Master shut his eyes in concentration. "Difficult to see," he allowed finally. "Always in motion the future is. The possibilities...change they can."

Luke searched for the right words, fighting down the dread that curdled in his stomach. "I have to go to her, have to warn her."

"Best to complete your training, it is," Yoda replied calmly. "Or useless to your friends you will be."

Luke felt anger creep in. "You mean, just stay here and hide out while Vader captures her?" His voice was rising in volume. "You expect me to do that?"

Yoda's expression crinkled in thought, his eyes boring through Luke. "If you honor what she fights for - yes."

Luke frowned. "How does ignoring her peril honor what she's fighting for?"

"Your duty to the Jedi, to the Force, comes first and foremost," Yoda answered gravely. "On a galactic scale, you must think. What is for the good of the many, not just the one."

His duties on a galactic scale? What did that include? Waiting until he was adept enough in the Force to defeat Vader and the Emperor? What of the people he cared about, who cared about him? There were so few of them left at this point. Was it selfish and evil of Luke to consider the cares and needs of those in his immediate circle?

Could he ever forgive himself if something happened to Leia and he sat back and did nothing?

"No," Luke whispered finally, very sure. "I can't do that. It's too much. What you ask of me is too much."

Then without another word he turned his back on the Jedi Master, walking the path briskly back to the Falcon.

He reached the ship, stormed up the ramp to the hold. The ship's computer could perhaps tell him something of the architecture of the buildings he saw in his vision, give him a clue to the location and the timeline.

He pulled up Leia's message. The rendezvous she had set was in a few days' time. Luke had not decided if they would go through with it or not, had not messaged her back.

Now he called up images of the third moon of Tintian IV. There were a few mid-sized cities, farming fields, colossal mountains, white with snow - but nothing of the architecture he had seen in the vision.

Still, he could not get the vision out of his head.

He called the message back to the screen. Knowing what he now knew, he couldn't in good conscience remain on Dagobah and let the Princess face whatever danger might be lurking. That alone made his decision for him.

We will come, he sent. Send coordinates and location. Be careful of Imperial trap. He could not send much more in a deep space message. Besides that, he didn't know much more from what he'd seen in the vision. Leia could be anywhere. Vader could be anywhere. All Luke knew was that he needed to get to her as soon as possible.

Booted feet echoed in the corridor. "Hey kid," it was Han. "Did old Leather Ears give you a lunch break?"

Luke turned and faced the smuggler, pursing his lips. "I've made a decision," he announced, crossing his arms. He felt cold suddenly, unsure.

"Oh?" Solo raised his eyebrows, hands on his hips. The smuggler had a large streak of grease on the sleeve of his shirt. "Should I be worried?"

"We're meeting Leia in the Aurel Sector."

"Yes, I should be worried," Han answered his own question. "Why this sudden decision? Does Yoda know?"

Luke felt a flare of irritation. Did he have to run every decision past Yoda and Han as if they were his caretakers? He was a grown adult, for Force sake. "He will," the Jedi answered, neatly sidestepping the question of why he had suddenly decided this. "When can we leave?"

Solo's brow furrowed in concern. He wasn't about to be redirected. "Why this sudden change of heart, kid?"

Luke looked at the floor, concentrating on the seams in the deck plating. "I think Leia's in trouble."

Han's eyes widened. "Trouble? What kind of trouble? How do you know?"

"I - it's hard to explain," Luke faltered. "The Force…." He tried again. "I don't know what kind of trouble exactly, but I know it involves Vader, and Yoda said it's sometime in the future. We have to go to her."

Solo looked dubious. "And you know this how? From the Force?"

"Sometimes Jedi can see things from the future," Luke explained quickly, feeling foolish. "Please, Han. I was right about Vader on Cattairn, wasn't I? You have to believe me. I know she's in danger."

Han was frowning at Luke now, his sense in the Force turbulent. Luke met his gaze steadily, firmly.

Solo broke first. Luke thought he was going to deliver a lecture on reckless behavior or chide him for his stupid impulsivity. But all the smuggler said was, "Okay, kid, when do you want to leave?"

Luke opened his mouth to speak. "I…" he faltered. "I guess, now. Today."

Han grimaced. "Okay, we've got to put the heat modules back together, which will take a couple hours. Could use a hand if you're free." Han lifted an eyebrow. The question was loaded with more meaning than just his words.

Hesitantly, Luke nodded. It was slowly sinking in how much of Han's own life the smuggler had put on hold on his behalf, how preoccupied Luke had been with his training, his own emotional pain, to wonder if Han and Chewie would much rather be elsewhere, doing their own thing. Of course, Han was being paid well, but still, the monotony of parking his ship on a swamp planet for two months was surely wearing on him.

Luke searched for the words, how to thank his friend or at least acknowledge what he had done for him. Maybe this wasn't really the time. Maybe Han knew already and didn't want the awkwardness of Luke articulating it. Instead, he answered lamely, "Sure - I - tell me what you want me to do."

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Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

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"Stay, you must."

Yoda was sitting on the swamp's edge, stirring the shallow water absently with his walking stick, the motion dredging up circular eddies in the brackish liquid, twisting and distorting his reflection in the pool. Luke had walked slowly, deliberately down the path - the path he himself had worn these last few months - from the ship to the Jedi Master's hut. The old Jedi didn't look up, not once, as Luke came to stand to the side of him, tall and straight, resigned to what he knew he needed to do.

"I can't."

Truthfully, he had come to simply say goodbye. Not to get mired in a discussion on whether or not he should go. His mind was already made up.

"Susceptible to the dark side are you. Your training is not complete." Insects buzzed lightly against the surface of the water, against the stick restlessly stirring up the mud.

Luke bit the inside of his cheek. Everything made him susceptible to the dark side, it seemed. His constant underlying anger that would not go away, no matter how he banished it; his burning sense of betrayal by Obi-wan - the one person who should have told him the truth from the beginning; the outsized burden placed on his shoulders, simply because there was no one else to fight this fight for them. Somehow, his proximity to the dark side didn't scare him anymore, no longer filled him with shame or fear that his doom was his destiny. The abyss could yaw after him and he would stare it down.

Do your worst.

He shook himself free. He was not sure he would return - if Yoda would even allow him to return after this. He was giving up, leaving his training incomplete, disregarding his master's earnest advice. In essence that made him a failure. A failure of a Jedi.

Like his father before him.

"I have no other choice, Master Yoda." His voice was quiet, firm. Emotionless. Yoda should be proud.

Yoda jerked the stick with a startling splash. This was as close to anger as the old Jedi master ever came, perhaps. "No. You always have a choice. Rush headlong into battle with Vader, will you? And for what? You are not ready." He said this last, turning to face Luke now, pointing his stick with emphasis at Luke's much taller form.

Ordinarily, Luke would have crouched, respectfully meeting Yoda at eye level, ready to listen to what the old Jedi Master had to say. Now, he squared his shoulders, a flash of caustic words coming to his mind, aching to lash out.

"You say the Jedi are the guardians of peace and justice. Protectors of the galaxy." He shook his head angrily, willing himself to swallow back the words, knowing they would be hurtful, but they poured out anyway. "I don't care about Vader. I don't want to see him. I don't have to face him and I don't want to kill him. But Leia," his voice cracked now, and he felt the heat rush to his face, swallowing, trying to get his voice under control. No emotion. Right. So much for being a Jedi. He was failing, even at this.

He plowed ahead. "Leia is the last friend I have. If I can't be a guardian and protector to her when she is in need…." he paused, met Yoda's eyes. The Jedi master's wizened face was crumpled into a frown. He didn't care. His voice lowered to a whisper, quiet enough that Yoda may not have heard. "Then the rest of the galaxy be damned."

Neither of them moved for a long moment. When it was clear Yoda did not intend to speak, to offer a rebuttal to Luke's words, nor to give comfort to Luke's pain, Luke set his jaw, very determined now. His path was clear.

Yoda bowed his head. In defeat.

Luke spun without another word, back the way he'd come.