The
Eternity Jedi: Eternity Legion, Book 3
By J.C. Lords
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Prologue
Cloud City
A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away…
" No. No. That's not true! That's impossible!"
Luke Skywalker backed away from his tormentor. The pain of his severed hand was fading away as shock set it. And no physical pain could match the agony in his soul.
It couldn't be! Darth Vader could not be his father!
" Search your feelings. You know it to be true." The deep, inhuman voice of the masked figure delivered the words like knife stabs. Luke reached out with the Force -- and recoiled, in horrible realization. It was true. He had been lied to. Ben Kenobi, and then Yoda had lied to him.
Vader's seductive words ate at his spirit like a corrosive acid. Anger and hatred -- at Vader, at his teachers, at the Universe itself, for placing him in this situation -- flared inside him.
"Join me, and we can rule the galaxy as father and son," Vader continued. "Come with me. It's the only way."
They had betrayed him, all of them.
Darth Vader's light saber switched off. The dark Jedi extended his hand towards Luke. A simple that meant so much. Obi-Wan had treated Luke like a stupid child, and not revealed the truth except when it suited him. Yoda had been even worse -- rude, insulting, downright sleazy. Nobody had offered him friendship like this man, this enemy.
Luke Skywalker reached a crossroads. Behind him lay an escape of sorts. If he jumped off the gantry platform, he would free of everything. If he took Vader's hand, everything would change. Yoda had said he wasn't ready for this encounter. But Yoda had lied.
"Father!"
Luke clasped Vader's hand and embraced his destiny.
*****
"No!" Leia Organa snapped out of her daze and shouted in despair.
Chewbacca grunted in surprise. "What's wrong?" asked Lando Carissian. They were in the Millenium Falcon, beating a hasty retreat from Lando's former city, now seized by the Empire. Along with Cloud City, the Empire had also taken Han Solo, Lando's old friend.
"Luke. It's Luke. He…" Leia hesitated, and then did what she hadn't done even after she witnessed the destruction of her home planet: she burst into tears.
"Let's get going, Chewie," Lando said. "Nothing left to do here."
*****
Planet Dagobah
"Lost! Lost is he, and the fault mine is!"
Jedi Master Yoda's wail echoed darkly through the swamps where he made his home. To a mundane observed, the wizened little creature appeared to be talking to himself. To an adept in the Force, however, the spirit matrix of Obi-Wan Kenobi would have been clearly visible, facing Yoda with a sad expression in his face.
"Leia sensed Luke's fate as well. I believe the Force is awakening in her," Ob-Wan said.
"Our only hope she is," Yoda said, regaining his composure. "But too late I fear."
"Perhaps, my old teacher," Ben replied. "But I have learned something you may have not. There are more worlds than this. And the Force exists in every one of them."
"And matters this how? This world doomed is."
"Perhaps. The future is clouded, full of uncertainties. I sense that outsiders will seek to interfere with the fate of this world."
"The future clouded is," Yoda agreed. "Dark clouds, full of doom."