Danny Skywalker
Chapter 4: Meditating
Garatos: Jedi Temple Student Quarters
Years of meditating, combined with the wonderful feeling brought on by the nature of Garatos gave Luke something that he had never felt in his youth, peace.
Throughout his childhood, Luke had always been frustrated as he desperately craved for action, adventure, and excitement. Instead of a boring life of a moisture farmer like the one his aunt Beru and uncle Owen Lars lived. He didn't want to spend his life repairing farm equipment, setting up droids to do tasks around the farm, collect water from the moisture vaporators, or any other task related to moisture farming. This, of course, did not become his fate so far, though unlike his past self, he now desired peace and quiet. Never would Luke's younger self have thought that eventually, he'd just want a sit down in a massive temple without any adventures on the horizon with his main focus in life being to simply teach to others what'd he'd learned over his years. Yet here he was, meditating inside the halls of the Jedi living quarters, waiting for his students to return from a meditation exercise.
As he meditated, he felt the force following all around him. The galaxy itself within him. Allowing him to see beings of a trillion different species from thousands of systems, doing a billion things within a galaxy that was living through an era of peace. An era that Luke intended to make sure lasted with the Jedi he'd trained, maintaining peace throughout the galaxy.
However, even in times of peace, Luke could feel a great darkness in the force that threatened to consume the galaxy. Luke had started sensing it right after Mara's disappearance. At first, he thought it was just the pain he felt over losing his wife; but as time moved on Luke began to sense this darkness spreading across the entire galaxy. Believing that it was a sign that the Jedi were needed more than ever, Luke tripled his efforts in finding and training new Jedi.
So far his efforts were showing success as over half of his students, (Brakiss, Hoss, Wulf, Jacen, Torin, Jazz and Ben), were almost ready for their final trials before becoming fully trained Jedi Knights. Guardians of peace and justice, sworn to protect the citizens of the New Republic, keeping the force in balance, and to help further rebuild and maintain the Jedi Order.
Though despite the rising hope of a new generation of Jedi, the darkness still continued to grow stronger and stronger each day. After carefully meditating on the subject, Luke had determined that this rising darkness was somehow originating from somewhere in the Unknown regions; the same place where rumoured remaining Imperial fractions had gone off to after the Empire's defeat at Jakku. To Luke, this was not just a weird set of coincidences, but a sign that a new threat to the galaxy was emerging. One that Luke refused to let allow the opportunity to conquer, or even destroy everything his family and friends had worked so hard to build over the years.
In an attempt to figure out what was happening out there, about a year ago, Luke requested the New Republic send a small team comprised of members of the military to explore the Unknown Regions for any remaining Imperials remnants and determine if/what they were up to. Despite protests from many members of the Senate, enough votes were given to persuade Chancellor Rudine Mukai to approve of this mission to the unknown territory of space. Though the team was comprised of only a small squad of Starfighters, (five to be exact), a few highly experienced explorers, and a non-heavily armed, light freighter. Nevertheless, the Jedi Master appreciated all that was provided and trusted that the team's leader, Wedge Antilles, would do his best. Hopefully whatever was going on out there wouldn't become a true threat till after Luke's new Jedi Knights were ready. But then again, Luke knew that things didn't always go as people hoped they would. For this reason, Luke had taken the precaution picking up the pass of training his students even more than before. He'd also sent his daughter Jazz, (who he'd been training since she was baby), and nephew Ben on a test that he'd hoped would determine whether they were ready to become Jedi Knights, or if they required further training. To do this, they would each have to face their greatest weakness.
Jazz was a strong, intelligent, and powerful force wielder. However, she'd lacked the ability to truly open herself up to the force. She could use the force to lift objects with her mind, and other force abilities that a Jedi was capable of, but she'd never been able to form a deep, emotional connection to life forms, intelligent, or otherwise; though with the exception of her friends and family. To her, mediation had always been a difficulty, for it required a Jedi to open up and see the universe through their soul. She believed that more could be learned from researching than through tapping into the force, which prevented her from truly understanding the will of the force. Luke hoped that by sending her to Dagobah with no knowledge about what her test was on would force her to meditate till she began to see the force in a deeper perspective than what she was used to. If she passed this test than Luke was certain that his daughter would be ready to become Jedi Knight.
Then there was Ben. Ever since birth, the young Solo had great difficulty in controlling the conflict caused by his inner darkness, (that desired chaos), and the shining light inside of him, (that sought to help others). In many ways, Ben resembled his grandfather Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, due to how both possessed strong goodwills that constantly clashed with a dark evil that's goals were to destroy that goodness within. However, the difference between them was how Vader's darkness originated from his fear of losing the ones he cared about, while Ben's darkness came from two things, (though the second one was linked to Vader). The first one being his confusion about the force, as he'd always been unable to truly understand the meaning of balance between the light and dark side of the force. The second one came from inheritance. Though it shouldn't have been possible, Ben somehow inherited the great evil that had nearly consumed Vader long ago. If Ben was to become a Jedi than he would have to find balance within himself, or risk becoming the very evil he'd been raised to defend against.
Luke, however, would not allow this outcome to happen. For if Ben fell, then trillions of beings would suffer and die. That was why Luke sent Ben on this mission, to see whether or not he was ready to vanquish his inner darkness and accept peace within himself. If he passed that then he would be ready for the burden of knowing about his heritage to Darth Vader.
True, after the battle of Endor, it became common knowledge that Luke and Leia were brother and sister and that their birth father was Anakin Skywalker. But what most people didn't know was that Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were the same people. As far as the general public knew, Darth Vader was a rogue Jedi who'd murdered Anakin Skywalker during the attack on the Jedi temple at the end of the Clone Wars.
The reasons for this being that most would not respond well to the news that two of the galaxy's greatest heroes were the children of a dark, coldblooded killer. Many would even go so far as to not accept them, or their children, as members of the New Republic, preventing them from further rebuilding the galaxy after the war. Because of this, only those who the twins trusted most knew of the secret. Among those who knew were Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO, Lando Calrissian, Admiral Ackbar, Wedge Antilles, Mon Mothma, and Carlist Rieekan. Eventually, that list included Luke's wife, Mara Jade Skywalker when the Jedi Knight, (at the time), proposed to the former Emperor's Hand so many years ago.
Other than them, nobody else was aware of Vader's true identity, nor of his children's secret heritage. That is until three years ago when Danny, Jazz, Sam, Lowbacca, and Em Teedee stumbled across a recording of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin during the beginning of their duel on Mustafar while Danny had been fixing up R2-D2.
The recording left the young Jedi, (especially Danny and Jazz), shocked and confused. Growing up, they'd been told what the rest of the galaxy had been told that their grandfather was one of the greatest war heroes in the galaxy. Now all of a sudden their grandfather was the monster who'd nearly wiped out the Jedi Order. The two siblings then began asking R2 questions about what had happened in the recording, and other questions related to it. Though instead of giving them the answers they desired, R2 directed them to Master Luke who reluctantly told them the whole story.
Having been told the whole story by both his mentors and R2 before and after the battle of Endor, Luke was able to explain to his children, (and students), the truth about Anakin Skywalker being Darth Vader. It wasn't easy, especially given how the Jedi Master wasn't planning on telling his children, or the rest of his students, till their training was complete, just as his mentors had originally planned for him. Yet the force had other plans as it had for him so many years ago when he learned the truth from his own father on Cloud City.
After hearing everything that their father had to say, (including why Ben couldn't know till he was finally at peace with himself), Danny and Jazz, (along with Sam and Lowbacca), agreed not tell to Ben, or anyone else about the Skywalker secret; knowing the consequences that would most likely arise if the rest of the galaxy found out about the truth.
Luke had been very fortunate, as well as proud of how accepting his kids had been about how he'd hadn't told them about what had really happened to their grandfather. In Luke's opinion, these were the markings of true Jedi Knights.
Ben, on the other hand, was different compared to his cousins. Luke knew that his nephew would not be as accepting, nor forgiving about not being told sooner. This was another reason why Ben had been sent to Dagobah, in a quest to find his inner peace; so that he could at long last be able to be in one hundred percent control of his emotions. To accept things for how they were including the unique darkness that he was born with.
If he accomplished this than Ben would ready to know the whole truth. Allowing him to truly vanquish his inner darkness and become a true Jedi Knight like Anakin Skywalker before him. But if Ben failed to control his darkness, then he would ultimately become the very evil that Luke was fighting against right now.
Suddenly, the Jedi Master was snapped out of his train of thought by the beeps and whistles of his little blue astromech, R2-D2. Who was letting him know that some of his students were just returning from the training activity he'd sent them on earlier.
"Thank you R2," Luke said softly, not moving from his meditative position when he spoke.
Time for worrying was over, now the Jedi Master had to focus on the rest of students, and trust in the force as he always has.
Prepare for the next chapter. Dun. Dun. DUN!