Chapter 28: Connected, Everything Is

Luke was awoken by a navigation alert.

During the long trip through hyperspace he had fallen asleep, having let the X-Wing fly on autopilot for the boring part of the journey. The alert had him awake immediately, and he quickly turned off the noise. He checked the navigation computer to be certain, and the X-Wing was approaching their destination. Then he heard Aang snoring in the backseat, having slept right through the alert. Luke knocked on the side of the cockpit a few times, until Aang finally woke up and remembered where he was right now.

"Are we there yet?" Aang asked.

"Almost," Luke said. "We're coming out of hyperspace… now."

The blue void changed into the white streaks that in turn changed into stars, and the X-Wing returned to the black void of normal space. One star was there to greet them, floating in the void without any stellar companions for parsecs around. There were a handful of planets around this star, most on the far side of their orbits, only one terrestrial planet nearby. From afar it looked like a dark green dot, steadily growing bigger as the X-Wing approached. That planet had a single small moon, hardly notable in any way.

"There it is," Luke said. "That's the Dagobah system."

Looking over Luke's shoulder for a better view, Aang saw the planet and wondered what it would be like. He had some trouble believing his eyes. "Makes you think, when an entire world looks that small."

"You get used to it," Luke said. Soon the planet filled the view, and he searched for a suitable place to land. "R2, are you picking up any clearings down there. The whole planet seems like a giant swamp."

A long series of beeps came from the droid, telling Luke what the X-Wing's sensors picked up.

"Figures," Luke grumbled. He flew the ship toward the equator, slowing down as much as he could before entering the planet's gravity well. "Well we'll just have to come in and see things up close."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Aang said. "Cause I sure don't have a clue."

In a few moments the X-Wing hit atmosphere, beginning its descent toward the planet's surface. But then the ship's sensors went dead, strong turbulence shook the ship, and Luke scrambled to keep the ship under control. Aang simply held on to his seat and tried to stay quiet, trusting in Luke and trying to avoid being a distraction. But despite Luke's best efforts the ship would not return to his chosen course, as if the ship had gained a mind of its own and wanted to go somewhere else. He couldn't even tell where that was, given the clouds they were passing through right now.

"Hold onto something," Luke ordered. "This is going to be rough."

"Already doing that," Aang said.

Beneath the clouds came the treetops, a massive canopy that stretched to the horizon in every direction. The X-Wing crashed into the canopy and tore through the treetops, branches snapping off on contact, leaving a long gash in the foliage. Underneath the canopy the X-Wing narrowly avoided dozens of tree trunks, tore apart hundreds of hanging vines, and crashed into the swamp. An explosion of water erupted on impact, drenching the X-Wing in the sheer volume, and the ship came to a sudden and abrupt stop in a bog.

Somehow the X-Wing remained in one piece, though with small stress fractures in the wings and covered in muck. After taking a moment to breathe, Luke finally let go of the controls. "Well that could have been better. Hey are you alright back there?"

"I've been better," Aang said, feeling several bruises in odd places. "So what happened up there? Why did we crash like that?"

"Lost control somehow," Luke answered. He checked the sensor logs to find out what went wrong, but there was nothing to provide an answer. "R2, did you pick up anything I missed?"

A single beep signaled the droid's confusion.

"Figures," Luke grumbled. He pressed the button to open the cockpit, letting in the moist swampy air. "Well we're here, we should look around."

Luke climbed out of the ship and stood on the front of it, most of it submerged in the bog. The ship was tilted nose down, engines sticking up in the air, and it looked like he could get it out with enough thrust in reverse. Aang leapt out on a gust of wind, landed on the starboard wing, and felt great to have his airbending back. R2-D2 was being lifted out of the ship by a small rising platform, and in a moment it was free to move around. Suddenly the ship tilted to the right a little, R2-D2 slid down the incline, and fell into the bog.

"R2!" Luke yelled, seeing the droid disappear in the murky water.

"I got it," Aang said. He moved his arms around in gentle motions, and a whirlpool formed and spread apart. "Huh…"

"What is it?" Luke asked.

"My waterbending isn't like it should be," Aang answered. His whirlpool was getting bigger, but Aang was struggling to pull it off. "It's twice as hard to do this."

"Must be the Dagobah's moon," Luke figured. He couldn't see it through the treetops, but remembered it from the trip here. "It is smaller than Earth's."

Aang continued his waterbending, and the whirlpool reached the bottom of the bog. R2-D2 was exposed to the air, though it remained covered in muck. Now that he knew where the droid was, Aang stomped his foot to earthbend, and a pillar of rock topped with mud rose upward to carry R2-D2 to the surface of the bog. Aang let the water flow back into the bog proper, and when the waves settled he bent some water into a bridge of ice. R2-D2 quickly rolled across the ice bridge, and once the droid was on mostly solid ground Aang let the ice melt away.

"That makes three elements working, to some extent," Aang said. He held out a hand and stretched out his fingers, and a flame appeared in his palm. "Make that four."

"Right, that's a thing you do," Luke said. He jumped across the water to the shore, in which his boots sank up to his ankles in muck. "Come on, let's set up camp here. Then we can go looking for Yoda."

Aang took his staff out of the ship before leaping across, and he hardened the muck with earthbending to avoid getting his shoes stuck in it. "Okay, let's get to it."

It took some time to set up a campsite in this swamp, despite their best efforts to do it right. The work was slowed by the need to retrieve their things from a half sunken ship, needing to take care not to make it sink even further in the bog. The work was quickened by Aang's bending, using a mix of earth and waterbending to dry and harden the soft ground, making it easier to move around without slipping in the muck. R2-D2 wasn't much help, lacking proper arms for lifting and moving things, so it just stood there and watched.

Once the camp was set up they got a campfire going, and Luke had brought out trays of food for both of them. "I appreciate you coming along."

"Thanks," Aang said. After taking a bite he looked around, taking in the sight and sound of the swamp. It all seemed very familiar. "Hey, have you ever gotten the feeling that you've done this before?"

"You mean déjà vu?" Luke asked. He shook his head. "Not for anything like this? Are you?"

"Strangely, yes," Aang admitted. "Imagine, flying through the air minding your own business, when a freak storm pulls you into a swamp, and you have no idea where you've ended up. Next thing you know we'll be seeing strange visions, and eventually we will bump into the guy with all the answers we need."

Luke had taken a bit and was chewing while thinking about the matter. "I take it this happened to you?"

"Nearly two years ago," Aang said. "Just saying, this seems awfully familiar."

Still thinking about Aang's sense of déjà vu, Luke swallowed his food and reached for something. "Now that you mention it, there is this weird feeling here. It feels like-"

"Like what?"

Both Aang and Luke turned toward that voice, but Luke had grabbed his blaster and aimed in that direction. "Like we're being watched."

A very short green man was sitting on a tree root, holding up his stubby arms in a cowardly gesture. "Away with your weapon, I mean you no harm."

"Called it," Aang said, standing up while Luke slightly lowered his blaster. "Well almost, I wasn't expecting the green skin and pointy ears. Or are we having the visions already?"

"Why are you here?" the green man asked.

"We're looking for someone," Luke answered.

"Looking, found someone you have," the green man said.

"Oh yeah, strange way of talking," Aang said. "I forgot about that bit."

Luke turned his head toward Aang. "Still getting déjà vu?"

Aang nodded. "I think this might be the guy we're looking for."

The green man grinned, and with a cane in hand he walked off the tree root. "Again, found someone you have."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure you're the one we want," Luke said. He turned back to Aang again. "This guy doesn't look like a Jedi master to me."

"Jedi master," the green man repeated, his long ears somehow pointing upward. "You seek Yoda."

"And if I had to guess, you are Yoda," Aang said.

By now the green man had walked into the camp, facing Aang and smiling at him. "Certain of that, you are. May I ask why you think so?"

Aang shrugged. "A hunch, intuition, experience, take your pick, or not. Honestly, I don't think it's a coincidence we met you here, the only person in the middle of nowhere, so soon after we crashed."

The green man laughed. "Wise beyond your years, you are."

Luke crouched next to him, noticing something in the wrinkled green face. "So you are Yoda?"

"I am," Yoda answered. "Why are you looking for me?"

"Ben told me to," Luke answered. "He said you were this great Jedi master, able to teach the ways of the Force."

"And spiritual things," Aang added. "That's why I'm here."

Yoda closed his eyes, appeared to be listening to something, and then looked at both Luke and Aang. "I will think about it. But for now, we must eat."

"We are eating," Aang said, holding up one of the food trays.

"Ha," Yoda laughed, dismissing it out of hand. "Eat better food, real food. Come, my place not far from here. Have nice hot meal there."

Having little reason to argue with him, Luke and Aang put their food trays away and followed Yoda. Aang left a trail by earthbending rocks out of the ground, making a dotted line to follow back to the camp. Yoda led them down a path to a small hut nestled in some trees, though to someone of Yoda's size it looked like a comfortable home. Both Luke and Aang had to crouch to get through the front door, and once inside Luke was almost down to his knees while Aang got by with bending his back a little, for once glad he was shorter than most people.

Yoda's home had a fireplace inside, along with a small cooking pot already prepared. There was a gumbo of some sort simmering inside, with a strong aroma that filled the hut. Aang didn't want to know what was in there, certain that the ingredients were collected from various parts of the swamp. Luke sampled the gumbo and liked the taste, seeing why Yoda wanted to eat here. It quickly became obvious that Yoda had been expecting company, somehow knowing a ship would crash in the swamp next to his home.

When all three were holding small bowls of gumbo, Aang was sitting on the floor and looking down at the food. "I've been wondering. The crash in the swamp, did you have something to do with that?"

Yoda chuckled at that. "Perhaps, to some extent. The Force is everywhere, and guides us all. It has a way of ensuring we are all where we need to be when we need to be there."

"Yeah, pretty sure it was all you," Aang said. He took a small bite, forced himself to swallow what he though was a piece of meat, and put the bowl down. "This Force thing must be very powerful."

"It is, in more ways than anyone can comprehend," Yoda described. He ate some of his meal, watched Luke and Aang wait for him, and continued after swallowing. "There is so little you know, so much to learn, if you are truly committed."

"I am committed," Luke said. "Why can't you start teaching me now?"

Yoda grunted and faced Aang in particular. "Are you not committed, like your friend here?"

"I'm not here to learn about the Force," Aang said. He noticed a twinge of surprise in Yoda. "I just need help dealing with spirits. They refuse to listen to me and they abducted my friend. I'm told that you could help me with that."

"Spirits…" Yoda muttered, thinking about that for a bit. "It has been centuries since I've heard about them. A fickle bunch they are, prideful and arrogant in everything they do, often refusing requests for no other reason than to aggravate the asker."

"Sounds about right," Aang said. He folded his hands and leaned forward. "Can you help?"

"We will see," Yoda said. He saw Aang nod in understanding, and then he turned back toward Luke. "Now, why do you wish to become a Jedi?"

Luke only needed a moment to think about that. "Well mostly because of my father I guess."

"Ah…" Yoda muttered. "Powerful Jedi was he."

"Come on, how could you know my father?" Luke asked. "You don't even know who I am."

"Similar in the Force, you and your father are," Yoda answered. "Much anger in him as well, and just as he was not ready, neither are you."

"I wasn't ready either," Aang interrupted. He made a flame appear in his palm, remembering his experience with learning firebending. "If I had waited until I was ready, my world would have burned to the ground. Everything good in it would be gone, and all our sacrifices would have been for nothing."

"This is different," Yoda said.

"Not from where I'm sitting," Aang argued. He extinguished his flame and put his hand on the floor. "From what I understand, Luke needs to learn this. The longer we wait the more people suffer under the Empire."

"You both have no patience," Yoda said.

"He will learn patience."

All three of them heard the disembodied voice of Kenobi, and Luke looked for him but did not see him anywhere. "Ben, tell him I'm ready."

"You are reckless," Yoda said.

"So was I, if you remember."

"He is too old," Yoda argued.

"I was too young," Aang countered. "The monks were supposed to tell me at sixteen. I was twelve."

Yoda sighed, thought about it for a moment, and looked up to where he sensed the presence of Kenobi. "Will he finish what he begins?"

"I won't fail you," Luke promised. "I'm not afraid.

Yoda knew better and looked him in the eye. "You will be."

The matter settled, it was time to begin the training. The meal was quickly finished, and everyone went outside the hut. The first step was physical training, meant to condition the body to better channel the Force, and the swamp was a suitable place for that. Yoda was small enough to cling to Luke's back, and he pointed the way through a path through the swamp, full of obstacles to overcome and test the body's limits. During the physical lesson Yoda also described the Force, how it was used by Jedi, and what pitfalls lay along the path.

Meanwhile Aang was left to his own devices, having no reason to take part in the Force lessons. He was content to wait his turn with Yoda, certain that Luke would have to take a break sooner or later. Aang stayed near Yoda's hut at first, with R2-D2 rolling around nearby, also having nothing to do while Luke was busy. Aang was sitting on a flat rock and trying to meditate, though it wasn't easy to block out the sounds and smells of the swamp. Eventually he gave up and stood up, and he looked around for something else to do.

Aang stopped next to R2-D2, and wasn't sure where to make eye contact with the droid's dome shaped head. "Hey, do you any good ways to pass the time?"

R2-D2 beeped in varying pitches and tones, his head swiveling back and forth, the little red light on it stopping on Aang's face.

"Huh…" Aang muttered, utterly bemused by what he heard. "Yeah, I have no idea what you said there."

More beeps followed, and R2-D2 rolled away from Aang.

"That's fair," Aang admitted. He walked in the other direction, looking around for anything interesting, until he came across something that didn't quite feel right. "What's this?"

Not far from the hut was a simple hole in the ground, a modest entrance to a much larger cave beneath the trees of the swamp. While it appeared rather mundane, it did not seem that way to Aang, for simply looking at it sent a shiver down his spine. There was only one other place that gave him this bad feeling, and so Aang prepared himself in the same manner. He calmed himself and made his face as stoic as he could, and then gently climbed down through the hole. The cave he entered was filled with tree roots hanging from the ceiling and clinging to the walls, but not much else at first glance.

Still, Aang got the feeling something was in here with him. It was strangely quiet inside the cave, only the cries of various reptiles breaking the silence. The air was thick and musky down here, saturated with moisture that filled Aang's lungs. His movements slowed with each step, almost as if time itself could not keep up. Then he heard steps from deeper in the cave, around a corner that he could not see past. Aang braced himself for whoever was back there, wondering who might be here, and what he might want.

When Aang saw him come around the corner, he stared at what he saw. "And here comes the visions."

That was the only explanation Aang could accept, given that what he saw was himself. However, the tattoos were red instead of blue, and the blank face lacked any sign of humanity in it. Aang got into an airbending stance, expecting the doppelganger to strike, only to see him prepare to earthbend. For a moment they simply stared at each other, and Aang saw something dark deep in those grey eyes. Aang thrust his hands to throw the wind, the doppelganger stomped a foot to raise a wall of rock, and the elements collided in the middle.

Aang switched to earthbending and made the wall shatter, only for the doppelganger to throw the wind at him. A quick jump got Aang out of the way, and he clung to a wall by hanging onto a tree root. From there Aang kicked more wind at his foe, which was blocked by a new rock wall, and Aang swung from one tree root to another to get over the wall and drop down the other side. The doppelganger was still turning around when Aang struck, the wind hitting him and knocking him back into the rock wall, which collapsed into a pile of rubble.

Aang's eyes and tattoos glowed bright blue in the Avatar State, and he used its power to summon wind that filled the cave. It blew away the pile of rubble and the doppelganger along with it, the wind carrying them towards the cave's entrance. But then the doppelganger's eyes and tattoos glowed bright red, and the ground moved up to block the wind. Large chunks of rock were hurled toward Aang, and he shattered them with earthbending, only for the rock to be followed by wind that knocked him back and toward the deep end of the cave.

That was when Aang noticed the pattern, the doppelganger responding to his elements with the opposite. He switched to the one element he preferred not to use, knowing that it would beat its opposite here. Aang punched to conjure a plume of flame, filling the cave with fire from time to bottom, and sent the flames toward his foe. The doppelganger bent water out from the cave's moist walls, creating a liquid shield in front of him, but it was only half a foot thick. Flames and water met, the water quickly boiled and evaporated, and the flames overwhelmed the doppelganger.

Aang extinguished the flames before tree roots could ignite, and then let the Avatar State's power leave him. The glow in his eyes and tattoos disappeared, and he surveyed the damage he had done. The doppelganger had been burned alive, the charred remains being a horrible sight for Aang to behold. But then the entire body turned red and purple, filling up the cave with dark light, and the physical remains disintegrated into ethereal mist. A new shape emerged from the dark light, filling up the cave from top to bottom, with a large red eye fixed in the middle.

A deep voice boomed from the dark light, saying only a single word. "Soon…"

In an instant the dark light vanished, and Aang was left alone in an empty cave. The strange feeling of slowed time had left with it, leaving Aang with the feeling that the vision was over. So he walked back to the entrance of the cave, leapt through the hole on a gust of wind, and landed back in the swamp outside. Aang stopped and took a moment to think on what he saw, wondering what the point of that vision was. Unsure of what to think, he walked away from the cave in silence, making his way back to Yoda's hut.

There he found Luke standing by a tree and Yoda sitting on a log, and judging by Luke's sweat Aang figured they had just finished a lesson. "Hey…"

"Where did you go?" Luke asked.

Aang sighed and rested one hand against a tree. "There's this weird cave back there. It showed me a vision, though I don't know what to make of it."

Yoda clearly knew about it, looking away from the others and poking his cane into the dirt. "That place is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is." He looked at Luke. "In you must go."

"What's in there?" Luke asked.

"Only what you take with you," Yoda answered.

Luke walked away to go to the cave, and Aang did not even try to stop him. Aang simply watched him leave, letting him go to face whatever vision awaited him. Once Luke was out of sight Aang sat down on another log facing Yoda, so tired that he wished he had a place to sleep right now. Yoda sensed his weariness and did not question him on the matter, knowing that the vision Aang had was his and his alone. For a little while they simply sat there in silence, occasionally looking at each other, until Yoda spoke up.

"Difficult it is, to reason with the unreasonable," Yoda said. He looked Aang in the eye, and saw that he had his full attention. "To get them to do what you ask is to not ask them at all."

"I'm not sure I follow," Aang admitted.

"In all my eight hundred years, on a handful of worlds, have I encountered spirits," Yoda described, thinking of days long before the fall of the Jedi Order. "Every time, when they have their minds made up, they did not change. Trying to persuade them otherwise will only strengthen their resolve."

"Yeah, I get that," Aang said. "So how do you get spirits to do what you want?"

"Seem like it is their choice, you must make them believe," Yoda said. "Do not persuade, do not reason, simply believe. Only then, will they act of their own accord."

"So in other words, pretend I don't need them," Aang surmised. "Somehow, that seems like an excuse for them to ignore me altogether. I mean, all the times I never even thought of spirits, they never bothered to show up."

"Easy, it is not. Convenient, it is not," Yoda said. "If it were, spirits would be everywhere."

Aang sighed and looked down at his feet. "There's got to be more to it than that."

"There are, but not for the likes of us," Yoda admitted. "Dark methods, using negative emotions, can sway the very essence of spirits. And even then, in their corrupted forms, they serve the forces of evil. No good can come from using spirits like that."

A distant memory came to mind, when the forest spirit Hei Bai had attacked a village. Aang remembered the dark form Hei Bai had taken at the time, violently lashing out at everything and everyone around him. At the time Aang had assumed the dark form had been Hei Bai's natural state, until it had reverted to the smaller panda-like appearance. Reminding the spirit that life would renew and continue had prompted that reversion, and it had left without saying a word. Yet while Hei Bai's rampage had been stopped, it had never lifted a paw to help in the physical world.

"If dark emotions turn them bad, will light emotions make them good?" Aang asked.

"Passive, at best," Yoda answered. "Disappointing, I know. Unfair it is, but the way of things it is too."

"That's what I hear," Aang muttered.

By then they heard footsteps approaching, and both of them turned to see Luke returning from the cave. The look on his face told of the vision he had, one that had disturbed him to his core. No one asked Luke what his vision was, respecting his privacy just as he had respected Aang's. Yoda recognized the need to give Luke time to process his vision, to understand the meaning of what he saw. So for a while they rested in silence, thinking about what they had gone through today, until they were interrupted by the one thing that didn't learn any lessons at all.

R2-D2 had rolled towards them, beeping loud and often.

"What is it?" Luke asked.

More frantic beeps followed, and R2-D2 rolled back the way he came in a hurry.

Everyone followed the droid at their own pace, and so Luke was the first to see what had R2-D2 so upset. "Oh no… we'll never get it out now."

Back at the place where they had crashed, Aang saw the X-Wing nearly completely submerged in the bog. "Crap. That is a big problem."

"So certain are you?" Yoda asked, seeing their predicament.

"Wait, hang on," Aang said, thinking of a way to fix this. "I've got it covered."

With subtle motions Aang commanded the ground beneath the bog, raising a portion of it to lift the X-Wing with it. The muck at the bottom gave way under the weight, and Aang needed to be careful to keep the ship from slipping to one side or another. Slowly but surely the X-Wing rose up and out of the bog, covered in all sorts of organic gunk from the water. When the ship was fully out of the water Aang solidified the ground, creating a new and permanent island in the middle of the bog, the X-Wing sitting on top of it with water dripping off everywhere.

"Thanks," Luke said. He watched Aang raise a muck-covered bridge to the X-Wing, appreciating his wide variety of talents. "It's still going to take a while to clean all that gunk off. Or can you bend it all off?"

"Never got the hang of bending plants," Aang admitted, eyeing all the vines and leaves and other soaked foliage covering the X-Wing. "Something to do with bending the water inside, and that's weaker here."

"Guess we'll need to clean it by hand," Luke figured.

"Use the Force," Yoda instructed. "See the ship, clean and pristine, and make it so."

Remembering the lesson from earlier today, Luke understood what Yoda meant. "Okay, I'll try."

"No," Yoda interrupted. "Do, or do not. There is no try."

Luke closed his eyes and held one hand forward, concentrating on his connection to the Force. He imagined the ship cleaning itself, just as Yoda instructed, and willed it to happen. Aang saw nothing happen at first, wondered what he should be expecting, until he felt a change in the wind. There was a slight breeze in their direction, and he saw some of the vines lift upward and stop dripping water. Yet they did not pull away from the ship, and after a short moment they fell back down and returned to the way they were before.

Exhausted from the mental effort, Luke sat down next to Yoda. "I can't… it's too much."

Yoda sighed, and he got to work. He closed his eyes and held a hand forward, blocking out everything except for the task at hand. This time the wind was stronger, and all the vines and other soaked plants lifted up immediately. Aang and Luke were staring at the X-Wing now, and their eyes widened when they saw the plants and muck come free from the ship all at once. In several hundred pieces the vegetation, water, and muck floated around the X-Wing, a maelstrom of matter around a ship restored to pristine condition.

For good measure Yoda made the X-Wing rise into the air, muck detach from the landing struts, and had the ship move towards him. Luke could only gawk at the sight, having believed that something like this was impossible. Aang wanted to believe that this was some form of bending he didn't know about, but knew it was something greater than that. Yoda guided the ship to a patch of dry ground and set it down there, where Luke could confirm this was real by putting his hand on the hull. When he was finished Yoda opened his eyes and saw Luke's amazement, this lesson sinking in.

"I don't… I don't believe it…" Luke muttered.

Yoda nodded. "That is why you fail."

Luke sighed and stood next to Yoda, looking back and forth between him and the X-Wing. "It seems I still have a lot to learn."

"More than you can imagine," Yoda said.

"Well we have the time," Aang pointed out. "Right? We're not in a hurry or anything?"

"I think Leia can get by without us for a while," Luke said. "If she can't, I'm sure she will let us know."

A/N: On that note, it's time for another time skip, and another hiatus along with it. Hopefully it won't be as long as the last one.