A/N: A little more explanations here. Winding down on Part 1 of my story. More at the end :) Enjoy!

Chapter 10

The lights in the ship weaved by him as he struggled to fully wake up. He could hear murmuring voices around him but wasn't able to identify any of them. The pain in his chest was starting to ebb just a little, which was making it easier to come to.

"I want a fleet to stand guard here. We can't have Snoke coming back to help free his master."

"Make sure you have men who don't have families. Maybe have them volunteer for the position. They could be out here for years," a familiar voice said, very clearly standing right next to him.

"You don't think we should just rotate them?"

"Oh, do that as well, I'm just saying that since we are so far out, it would be better to have soldiers who don't have families at home waiting for them?"

"Why not have them bring their families with them? Then they can set up a makeshift camp here until fighting starts." The Republic commander offered.

"Putting children in the path to the Emperor?" Depa's voice sounded shocked at this suggestion.

"We are not doing that!" Leia could be fierce when needed; that made Luke smile.

"I see someone is waking up," Depa leaned over him. "Stop just listening in and wake up already. Then we can have a proper conversation."

Opening his eyes slowly, Luke looked around him. He was lying in a hospital bed in a small infirmary room on the New Republic ship. In the room with him made him stop and stare for a moment: Yoda, Obi-Wan, Depa, his father, and then two men he only partially recognized.

"What are all of you doing here?" Luke managed to ask, sitting up slightly and waving off the medical droid.

"Oh, Master Luke! R2 and I are so grateful that you are safe! He kept saying that he wanted to go with you, and of course I had no idea where you had gone, but I told him that if you had needed him then he would be with you, so it was silly to-"

"3PO, can you give us a few minutes?" Leia asked, interrupting him.

"Oh! Uh, yes, Princess!" 3PO left, but R2 remained behind, beeping at all of them and firmly rooting his wheels in the ground. "Get going, R2! They need a few moments to talk!"

Finally, once the droids had left, Anakin walked over to Luke and looked down at him. Luke sat up all the way and enveloped his father in a giant hug. Being able to get a hug from his father was probably the best feeling he'd ever had to that point. But concern over the why of the situation dawned on him.

"How did this happen? How long are you here?" Luke asked, leaning away from his father, glancing up at all of them. Leia stood to the side a bit just listening, not sure who any of them were.

"We are here to help you, as we said we would be," Obi-Wan said, sitting on a chair next to the wall. "As to how long, we do not know."

"Obi-Wan, start with why, you should." Yoda sat on the floor next to the chair and looked up expectedly.

"When you had your premonition, this shocked all of us to our core. We were not expecting this of the Emperor. Only one Sith that we knew of had mastered the art of never dying, and it wasn't Palpatine. But as you got further into your vision, we knew it to be true. We had to act. The Dark was overwhelming us, and we couldn't allow that to happen."

"So, while we were training you, we were also devising a plan that would help you all in the long run. It was not unheard of for Jedi to come back, temporarily, to assist in the destruction of the Dark side. Especially one who threatened so much." Anakin added.

"The Dark side has always seemed stronger, to those who do not understand the Force," a man in the back said. Luke recognized him as Master Windu. "But, with the Force, it is as strong as your belief in it is. The Dark side seems stronger because they care little about what's around them. They manipulate and ruin wherever they go without heed to consequences; thus, they appear stronger. We know this to be false."

"But, really, they were being very stupid. The Emperor really lacked the strength to mask what he was doing. You should have never been able to see Snoke, the forces on Exegol, or any of the future that you had seen, child." Depa walked closer to Anakin, next to Luke's bed. "Because of this, we knew he was too arrogant to remember the Light had tremendous power also. We knew he wouldn't have shielded himself from what we could rain down on him."

"Hmm, too arrogant, he is. Too sure of our fate to consider his own."

"But he initiated that false vision!" Luke said, sitting up a little taller. "He was trying to throw me off his track."

"Yes, son, but that was already after you had figured out what he was doing. He was trying to throw you off because you had seen the true future."

"What was that you did to the Emperor?" Leia asked, finally stepping forward and into the conversation. She still looked a little bewildered standing amid all the Jedi, but Luke was sure that no one else could tell that. She was very good at hiding emotions.

"Ah, that was the brilliant plan of one of our colleagues. He opted to stay behind, but not before sharing all of his knowledge with us," said a Jedi that Luke couldn't quite remember. He looked familiar, but not enough to place a name to. The Jedi's eyes turned to Luke. "I am Qui-Gon Jinn, young one. I was your father's advocate to the council and Obi-Wan's teacher."

Luke nodded in greeting to him, but his mind was still focused on hearing the answer to Leia's question. Understanding, Qui-Gon continued.

"Odan-Urr, a Jedi master hundreds of years ago, trained us to construct a Force wall. Like what we helped you construct around young Ben. This wall is made up of Light-side energy, a power the Emperor has long forgotten. He believes the Jedi to be weak, and this helps us. He was not expecting this attack, and it will contain him." Qui-Gon made eye contact with Anakin.

Luke looked between the two men. "What aren't you telling us?"

Anakin shifted a little so that he was looking at Luke. "This is not a permanent solution. We can contain him, but not forever. Eventually, he will break out or the wall will crumble." He was hedging. There was more, Luke could feel it.

"And?"

"Do you remember what we told you of Ben? When you release the containment around him, that it could hurt him?"

"Yes. You said it was like a blind person gaining all of their sight at once, it would be overwhelming and painful…" Luke looked at Leia. "Oh!"

Yoda nodded, agreeing with Luke's inner thoughts. "Angry he must feel, even now. Worse it will be when the wall comes down. In pain, irate…more dangerous than ever before."

"How long will this wall last? We are stationing troops there, but we didn't know how long we need to keep them here."

"We are unsure of the length of this wall, unfortunately," Depa said.

"If we are unsure of the length, I'm going to tell the commander to do a 6-month solider rotation. Young men and women without families, so we don't have to ask them to be away from them as long," Leia began walking toward the door, after winking at Depa.

"I am going to take charge of you, child." Depa smiled at Leia.

"Charge?" Leia and Luke asked at the same time.

"The other reason we are here. We told you that we would help you, Luke, and we are completing that promise. We have succeeded in temporarily blocking the Emperor, but in order to fully defeat him you must have more." Obi-Wan leaned forward, clasping his hands together. "The Jedi school, Luke. It's time that was formed."

Luke shook his head a little. "I don't understand. I mean, I knew that I was going to create this Jedi school, but today has demonstrated that I am not ready to take on students. I have much to learn about the Force. There was a Force creature and massive shards of light that I had never even heard of until I saw them today. How can I teach if I do not understand?"

To Luke's astonishment, all the Jedi around him were smiling. He could feel their pride in his statement.

"Who said you have to know everything to teach?" Yoda asked, standing up and facing Luke. "Even now, know I everything the Force can do? No! And neither can you. Learn with your students, you will."

"It's the best kind of teaching," said Depa, smiling even bigger. "Leia and I will have a great time. We will learn from each other, won't we child?"

Leia, rolling with it as usual, smiled slightly up at Depa. He could see their friendship developing easily since their personalities were so similar. "Absolutely!"

Leia excused herself after that to go speak with the commander. The Jedi didn't seem to tire, but Luke certainly was. He asked to continue their talk later so he could rest. As they all began to file out of the room, Luke held his father back asking him for just a moment.

"Did we stop that future, Father?"

"It's difficult to tell at this point. What we did has changed the timeline, of that I am certain. But everything? I cannot see that, my son." Anakin shook his head, taking Luke's hand. "We will be here for as long as we can to help."

"Wait, you aren't back permanently?"

Anakin looked down for a moment before answering. "We don't know how long we can maintain these forms. I doubt it will be permanent, but we were not given all the answers prior. All of us made the choice to come back to help you and Leia; once our choice was made, we were not able to see past that decision."

Luke looked into the face of his father. Looking healthy and happy, as he had on Endor as a ghost. He was a far cry from the machine of Darth Vader; and in fact, had very little in common with that monster. His eyes seemed alive with humor. It was difficult to even tell that he should be a ghost.

"I am happy to have you here, Father. Even if it's for a short time. You can get to know your grandson now. Not to mention Leia and Han."

"Oh, Leia and I have had some time together, even prior to this. I expect our relationship to improve more now."

"Oh, I was going to ask about that! How much were you able to train Leia? I know that you were able to teach her to heal me, that came in very handy."

"She's going to be a brilliant Jedi, son. She doesn't have to unlearn anything and takes direction surprisingly well. She will be able to take down the wall around young Ben without help. What I trained her on was necessary. She still needs regular training."

"Wait, we can take the wall down from Ben already?" Luke was confused. It hadn't been that long since he had left, how is it possible that it could be removed already? "Won't Snoke just make his way back into Ben's mind?"

"Well, we are all of two minds about that. We believe that much of the power Snoke had was from the Emperor. With that cut off, I don't believe that he will be able to get to Ben as he had before. However, some others believe we must be cautious. Ben must stay near us for the foreseeable future during training, that way we can ensure Snoke is not coming back.

"Once Rey is born, we must locate her immediately. She is really the key to keeping Ben away from the Dark."

"Well, I guess that means we have at least 10 to 15 years to watch Ben like a hawk. We'll start looking for Rey then." Luke looked up at his father again. "Are you all really going to help me start this school?"

"Wouldn't miss it, son. We all have a lot to learn."

A/N: So, as I said, I have borrowed from existing lore for SW and made certain things my own. Part 2 is edited and ready, so look forward to Episode VIII to be posted on Saturday, following the final chapter in this part posted on Friday. Part 2 is very different, but I hope you like it anyway.

Follow or subscribe to me on FF or AO3 for updates. Once I post the last chapter for this part, I'll be sure to give you all the name of VIII.

I think part of my motivation here is that we simply do not get enough of some of these characters in the movies. I wanted "my" sequel series to have more than a "redemption upon death" storyline.

Thanks again to my wonderful beta Zombiefied419. Seriously, don't know what I would do without you my friend!

Chapter Sources:

Movies:

Star Wars A New Hope

Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars The Return of the Jedi

Star Wars The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Attack of the Clones

Star Wars Revenge of the Sith