Disclaimer: Disney owns it now, so I use Legends. This should be the last chapter with flashbacks.

"They will die a death that will last millennia, until all that remains is their code, their history, and in the end, the shell of their armor upon the shell of a man, too easily slain by Jedi."

Darth Traya, on the fate of the Mandalorians

Chapter 6:

Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace

"So," said Han, "what happened to this 'Master Yoda' you keep mentioning."

Luke's face tightened, "He's dead."

Then…Two Days Ago, Dagobah

Three young Jedi crowded into the small hut that Yoda had called home for over two decades, sitting around the bed where—at last—the nine-hundred-year old Jedi Master was dying.

"That face you make," Yoda said, "look I so old to your eyes."

"No," Luke said, "of course not."

"I do," said Yoda, "Yes, I do. Sick have I become, old and weak."

"Master Yoda," Leia said, "you can't die."

"Strong am I with the Force," said Yoda, "but not that strong. Twilight is upon me and soon night must fall. That is the way of things. The way of the Force."

"But there is so much more we need to learn," Luke said.

"A Jedi is always learning," Yoda said, "the master always learns as much from the student, as the student learns from the master. But no more training do you require from me, learned you have what you need to do what you must."

"What are you talking about?" Leia asked.

Yoda looked at Luke, "Now is the time, tell them."

Both Mara and Leia looked at Luke, puzzled.

Luke sighed and said, "When I was facing Vader on Bespin, he told me…he said that he was my father." Luke locked gazes with the shocked Leia. "Our father, though I don't think he knows about you."

"Yet," Yoda admonished, "Know he will, soon enough."

Leia's head was spinning—both from this revelation—and the fact that Luke had kept it from her for this long.

Mara, though as surprised in her own way as Leia, felt as if the last pieces were finally clicking into place. Now so many things suddenly made a lot more sense.

"How," Leia finally said, "how is that possible?"

"Vader was not always the monster you know," said Yoda, "A great Jedi he once was, and a great man. But seduced by the Dark Side, he was. Confront him and the Emperor, you must; then, Jedi Knights you will be. But do not—," Yoda briefly succumbed to coughing, "Do not underestimate the powers of the Emperor; from the Dark Side, unnatural abilities he has gained. Beware of fear, anger, hate, the Dark Side are they; if once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

Yoda turned to Luke and Mara. "Very careful, you two must be, in your attachment; save you it could, but dangerous it is as well; be prepared to let go, you must, or suffer Vader's fate you will." Yoda lay back in his bed, "When gone am I, the last of the Jedi you will be. Pass on what you have learned."

Yoda breathed his last and his body vanished.

They sat there for a long moment, thinking about all that had been said. Abruptly Leia rose and moved out of the cramped hut. Luke and Mara followed her but no sooner had Luke gotten to his feet outside than he did find himself facing Leia, who had whirled about with an angry expression on her face. Her hand came up and she struck Luke across the face.

"You had no right to keep that from me!"

"Up until four months ago, we didn't even know that we were siblings," Luke fired back at her, "So when should I have told you? The day after I learned it? I didn't even want to believe it six months ago, I was still half-convinced that Vader had lied to me, so why would I or should I have said anything to anyone else? What would that have accomplished?" Leia just stood there, hands propped on her hips, glaring at him, "And even after Yoda told us we were siblings, I was still in denial."

"He must have confirmed it to you at some point, didn't he?"

"While you and Mara went off running in the swamp for the first time," Luke admitted.

"And so why didn't you tell me when I got back?"

"Because," Luke said, "We both decided that you weren't ready to know."

"You had no right to make that decision."

"Just stop and think for a moment," said Luke, "You hate Darth Vader—,"

"And with good reason!"

"Yes, I know," Luke said, "And that was why Yoda believed that you were not ready; remember what he taught us about the Dark Side."

For a moment Leia's glare intensified, then she threw up her arms and crossed them, turning away from him and lowering her head.

Much though she didn't want to admit it, Luke did have a point. She sighed.

"I still do not see how that monster could ever have been a normal person. Or how we can defeat him and the Emperor without Master Yoda?"

"Yoda and I will always be with you."

The three young Jedi turned to see Obi-Wan's ghost. Leia and Mara's eyes widened, for this was their first time they'd seen him. Leia recovered quickly, though.

"How are we supposed to defeat Vader and the Emperor," Leia demanded, "when hundreds of Jedi more experienced than us failed?"

"And how do you define experience?" Obi-Wan said, "If you mean knowledge of the Force, then yes; by the standards of the old Jedi Order, you would all still be considered Padawans. That you still managed to learn as much as you have in such a short time is nonetheless impressive. But there are other types of experiences, experiences that the old Order did not have for we took our students while they were still very young. But that proved to be one of the factors that led to our downfall, which is why your training was different."

"But how did Anakin fall," Leia asked. "How did he become that…that monster, Vader."

"It was not something that happened overnight," said Obi-Wan, "And Yoda and I are at least to blame as Anakin and the Emperor are. It was a different time, in addition to taking students while they were still children, the old Jedi Order banned romantic attachments."

"Why?" Luke asked

"Because we were afraid," Obi-Wan admitted, "afraid of the Dark Side, though no one at the time would have admitted it. Too many students in the past had been lost to the Dark Side, and so we tried to protect future generations of students from temptation—and in the process we turned ourselves into a parody of our enemy and allowed our fears to blind us to the truth that was right in front of us the whole time. Into that mess was brought Anakin, who started his training at a much older age than was typical; because of that, and because the Jedi Council was reluctant to even accept him at first, Anakin always felt like the outsider—never fully trusted or accepted, not even by me I am sorry to say. Palpatine exploited that and became the accepting mentor figure that Anakin craved but couldn't find from me."

"And what about our mother," Luke asked, "Who was she? How does she fit into this?"

"Your mother," Obi-Wan said to Luke and Leia, "was Padme Amidala."

Leia's eyes widened. "I know that name; my fa—Bail has told me stories about her; he said that she was his close colleague in the Senate, and her niece Pooja is a dear friend from my own time in the Senate."

"Yes," said Obi-Wan with a wry smile. "Padme was quite the character; in her own way, she was at least as headstrong and as stubborn as Anakin; a passionate idealist and fervent believer in democracy and the Republic to the end. I am not surprised that they fell in love and married, but Anakin did more than just love her. He was obsessed with her and in the end it was that obsession, and his inability to let go of it, that led him to the Dark Side."

"There is still good in him," Luke insisted. Both Leia and Mara shook their heads vehemently. Leia remembered too well Vader torturing her and then forcing her to watch the destruction of Alderaan. Mara, from her own brief encounters with Vader, had also seen too much of his evil.

Obi-Wan also sadly shook his head, "Padme said those very same words, right before she died after giving birth. But he's more machine now than man, twisted and evil. You cannot escape your destinies, you must face Darth Vader and the Emperor."

Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace

"So," said Han, "How exactly did things go down you showed up on Jabba's doorstep? What did I miss?"

Then…Jabba the Hutt's Palace, Tatooine

Disguised once again, Leia pulled the handcuffed Chewbacca into the audience chamber in Jabba's Palace. In her best Ubese, she said, "Greetings, Mighty Jabba. I am Boussh. I found this Wookiee sneaking around in Mos Eisley; I have come for the bounty on him."

"Ahh," Jabba said in Huttese, "At last someone has brought me the mighty Chewbacca. I bid you welcome, Boussh, and will pay you the reward of 25,000.""

Remembering what Guri had told her about this particular bounty hunter, Leia replied in Ubese, "I want fifty thousand, no less."

Jabba visibly raged for a moment and then finally said, "And what makes you think that I will pay you that much."

Leia produced the thermal detonator, flicking it to deadman mode. The bomb began ticking and beeping, causing many in Jabba's court to suddenly back up as if that would help them. Boba Fett and the guards all drew their blasters but Jabba just laughed.

"This bounty hunter is my kind of scum," he said, "fearless and inventive. I offer a sum of thirty-five thousand for the Wookiee, but no more."

"Agreed," Leia replied in Ubese and shut off the thermal detonator. The guards advanced and began dragging away the struggling Wookiee.

Jabba's band launched into another musical number.

Leia spent the rest of the day looking around the audience chamber, taking the measure of where everyone and everything was.

That evening the front gate at Jabba's Palace opened briefly, just long enough to admit Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade, C-3P0 and R2-D2.

As the quartet walked deeper into Jabba's Palace, a pair of Gammorrean guards moved to block their progress with their vibro-axes. Luke and Mara both raised a hand and called on the Force; weak-willed as the Gammorrean's were, they easily succumbed and seconds later were sleeping soundly on the ground.

The next person the quartet encountered was Jabba's majordomo, Bib Fortuna; he started babbling in Huttese about how they weren't welcome here…until another mind-trick from Luke had him sleeping on the ground next to the Gammorreans.

As they neared Jabba's audience chamber, the quartet was met by Lando Calrissian, who was disguised as a guard, and by Leia, still in her bounty hunter disguise. They walked up to the slab of carbonite in which Han was frozen. Leia lowered the slab to the ground and then started the thawing process. Soon Han was free and fell to the ground. Leia spoke to him, her voice flat and metallic from her mask. "Just relax, for a moment. You're free of the carbonite." Han managed to sit up and rubbed his eyes. "Shh, you have hibernation sickness."

"I can't see," Han finally said.

"Your eyesight will return in time."

"Where am I?"

"Jabba's Palace."

Han grabbed at Leia's mask and then drew back. "Who are you?"

Leia removed the mask and said, "Someone who loves you."

"Leia," Han gasped and for one long, precious moment they kissed with the fervent urgency of lovers torn from each other and then reunited. "Come on," Leia finally said, helping Han to stand, "Let's get you out of here."

But then came a booming laughter.

"What's that." The laugh boomed again and then Han recognized it, "I know that laugh." He turned towards it just as the curtain slid aside to reveal Jabba and his court laughing at them. Leia produced the thermal detonator that she'd used earlier to threaten Jabba, armed it and tossed it at Jabba. His laughter sputtered out abruptly as he recognized it and he had just enough to time to cry out in startled fear before the bomb went off.

Leia turned Han away from the explosion but they were still knocked off their feet by the shockwave; Jabba and his court, however, were incinerated.

"What just happened?" Han asked,

"Thermal detonator," Leia said, "Wait, hold on for a moment." Leia let go of him and quickly stood. Boba Fett was approaching with several thugs.

Three lightsaber blades activated—Luke's green, Leia's blue, and Mara's purple. Fett and the thugs raised their blasters and opened fire. The three Jedi deflected the initial barrage and then, following an old Jedi axiom, they advanced into their attackers.

Leia wove her lightsaber back and forth as a she advanced, redirecting each of Fett's shots into one of Jabba's thugs. As Leia drew closer, Fett stopped firing and shifted slightly, bringing up his wrist mounted-flamethrower—just in time for Leia to slice through Fett's wrists with her lightsaber. Leia used the momentum of charge to spin in a full circle and the next thing her lightsaber severed was Fett's neck.

Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace

Han sat in the pilot seat in the Falcon's cockpit, pondering and grappling with all the recent revelations about the last six months—even that was just a bare outline, the highlights as it were, but one thing disturbed him the most. Although he would never have expected that Leia would even think about reaching out to Black Sun, let alone that Lando would actually go along with it, one thing was even more shocking than that, even more shocking than Luke going two for two in the 'dating your own assassin department', even more shocking than Leia turning out to be Luke's twin sister and now having a lightsaber and Jedi powers of her own, even more shocking than the sheer audacity of sneaking onto Coruscant to rescue Leia from Xizor, even more shocking than Leia killing Boba Fett, even more shocking than the news of the new Death Star, and as they dropped out of hyperspace to meet up with Rebel Fleet in the Sullust system, it remained the one thing he still couldn't wrap his mind around:

"I still can't believe you let the droids fly my ship."