Disclaimer: I don't own it; it belongs to George Lucas, yada, yada, yada.
Once again Yoda had him upside down, his hands planted firmly in the Dagobah muck, but this time, it was easier. He wasn't straining, barely had to use his body to balance. All around him, he felt the warmth of the Force enfolding him. Various packing crates rose up into the air, followed shortly by Artoo, who began to whistle and squeal in fear.
Across the clearing from him Aurora mirrored his pose, her face calm and composed.
Yoda sounded pleased. "Concentrate…feel the Force flow. Yes. Good. Calm, yes. Through the Force, things you will see. Other places. The future…the past. Old friends long gone."
Suddenly Luke's face contorted as terrible images began to flow through his mind accompanied by searing pain and fear.
"Han! Leia!"
Distantly he heard Aurora suck in her breath on a harsh gasp and then he was losing control of his grasp on the Force. The packing crates crashed down into the mud, followed by a squealing Artoo and then his own balance teetered and he landed hard on his side in the mud.
Yoda shook his head in disappointment. "Hmm. Control, control. You must learn control."
Luke pulled himself into a sitting position. "I saw…I saw a city in the clouds."
"Mmm. Friends you have there." Yoda nodded.
"They were in pain."
"It is the future you see." Yoda replied.
"Future?" Aurora questioned. From the way she was rubbing her shoulder, Luke guessed that she too had lost control of the Force when he yelled. "Will they die?"
Yoda's eyes closed and he lowered his head as he concentrated. "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future."
"We've got to go to them." Luke stated, sharing a frightened glance with Aurora.
"Decide you must how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could. But you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered."
Aurora looked appalled. "You mean just abandon them there?"
Yoda turned to face her fully. "Know what their purpose is there, do you? Know for why they have gone?"
"No." She muttered.
"Then know you not what action to take. Always moving is the future. If go you do, set in motion these events you might."
"Or we might save them." Luke said defiantly. His face reflected the extreme distaste he felt at the idea of leaving his friends in danger.
"Hmm." Yoda nodded. "Possibly. Risk yourselves, would you?"
"Yes!" He shot back.
"And them?"
The little alien held Luke's eyes for a moment, before the student turned away from his master's gaze, unable to answer. Silence held in the clearing for several long minutes. Abruptly, Luke slammed his hand against the damp ground in frustration and then rose and left, almost running.
Aurora rose wordlessly and began to pick up the various crates, studiously avoiding looking at Yoda while she worked, righting the boxes and then turning to wipe away the mud Artoo had accumulated when he had tumbled unceremoniously to the muddy ground. She kept her eyes on her task, focusing on each streak and smear as if her life depended on making sure the little droid was spotless, all the while avoiding even his mechanical gaze. It was better to focus on minutiae like this than to have to think about what Yoda was asking them to do. Because somehow she knew he was right about this and that they should stay right where they were and leave Han, Leia, Chewie and Threepio to get out of whatever fix they had gotten themselves into. But the very idea went against everything that she believed in and even considering the possibility of leaving them made her cringe inside. So, better to get the mud off Artoo and not think about it.
Of course, when had ignoring something bad ever made it better? It was with a sense of inevitableness that she heard Yoda sigh behind her. "Agree with him you do."
Aurora stilled, her eyes on the plating of the droid in front of her. She didn't want to have to think about this. Because of course she agreed with Luke. Completely. What humane being wouldn't? To abandon her friends to an unknown but probably dangerous future was unthinkable; especially when there was the possibility that they could prevent it. But somehow, she knew it wasn't going to be that simple. Nothing ever was anymore. Not when she could feel the Force stirring around her.
When she didn't answer him, Yoda continued. "Think you that cold and heartless am I. Unfeeling and uncaring."
"Yes." She answered him, but she wasn't certain who she was speaking of. Her master or herself? She kept her back to him, afraid he would see more than she wanted him to. Stupid really. When had Yoda ever needed to see her face to know her mind?
"An unenviable position a Jedi has. To see both sides at once."
She spun around. "To see both sides, but not to know which one is right? What good is that!"
"Tell you, the Force will, which is right. Listen you need to."
Frustrated, she turned away again. Easy to say, but not as easy to do. Not when she couldn't shut her own conscience up long enough to listen to anything else. Listen to the Force…abandon her friends…
"Unlearn what you have learned." Yoda whispered.
Aurora turned on him, fury burning through her. "I don't want stupid Jedi platitudes!"
"Guarantees you want." Yoda said calmly, still standing in the same spot, his hands crossed casually over the top of his gimmer stick, unfazed by her anger.
"Yes, dammit!"
"Have one for you, I do. If go you do, in grave danger he will be."
Aurora stared at him, cold shock replacing the blazing anger that had been coursing through her. "What? Luke?" She asked him numbly, all thought processes seeming to have shuddered to a halt.
"Seen it I have. Danger waits for him in that place. Terrible danger."
Aurora shook her head. She couldn't seem to get her brain to start working. The dim images that she had seen during Luke's vision kept playing through her mind, but now they were intermingled with images of Luke: Luke's fear and terror, Luke screaming in pain and anger. Aurora dropped to her knees, pressing both hands against the side of her head to stop the images, her fingers digging into her temples as if she could physically reach in and tear away the mental pictures. After a moment, the visions stopped and she gained back some control. Gasping, she let her hands fall and sat back on her heels. Her head was pounding and she swore she could feel each individual beat of her heart in the pulse at her temples. She didn't know if what she had seen had been the Force or own overly vivid imagination.
Scared and uncertain, she turned to her teacher, but something in his face made her stop. For a moment, there had been something there that almost looked…pleased. Aurora narrowed her eyes. Now that the horrific onslaught of images had ceased, she was regaining the ability to think again, and one thought came through loud and clear as she stared at the old Jedi master. How convenient….
"You saw Luke in danger?" She asked now, her voice emotionless.
"Yes."
"You're positive that if he goes to this city in the clouds that he'll be in danger?"
"Yes." Yoda repeated.
Aurora's hands clenched in her lap. "What happened to 'Difficult to see' and 'always in motion is the future'?"
Yoda scowled at her. "Smart ass students a trial to their instructors are." He muttered, digging his gimmer stick into the mud. With a loud, put-upon sigh he responded to her question. "See some things, I do, more clearly. Accept you will, more power have I than you?"
She shrugged, but she felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. Yoda was considerably more powerful than she or Luke. So it was very likely that he did see things far more clearly. It was also entirely conceivable that the pleasure she thought she had seen on his face after those visions (if it even was pleasure; Yoda's expressions were sometimes hard to read) was a result of her having mastered those chaotic visions or even for having had them in the first place. It didn't necessarily mean that she was being manipulated into doing what he wanted. She just wished she could shut up the cynical side of her mind that kept telling her that was exactly what was happening.
Realizing that Yoda was talking again, she turned back to him.
"Agree with me on this, the boy does not. Caught in his emotions he is. Seeing clearly he is not." The old Jedi master sighed. "Need you to talk to him I do."
"What?" Aurora blurted, startled. "Why me?"
Yoda looked irritated. "Listens to you he does." When she failed to respond, he scowled and stamped his walking stick against the ground. "Think you noticed I have not?"
Inexplicably, Aurora felt herself blushing. She wasn't even sure why. Yoda wasn't accusing them of having done anything, but for some reason, she had a feeling he knew about that night spent sleeping under the same blanket.
"Go to him. Stay here he must. Convince him of this you will." Yoda stated, ignoring the confusion he had caused.
Aurora rose to her feet at her master's gesture, feeling as if she had been running for miles. Her head still ached and her muscles were sore. "Fine. But I don't know how I'm going to convince him that staying here is the best option when I can't even convince myself of it." She muttered.
"Convince him you will." Yoda repeated. "Risk him you will not."
She was almost out of the clearing when the little Jedi's next words stopped her cold.
"Choose between him and them you must."
Aurora stared at him in horror. "I can't do that!"
"You must." Yoda's face was implacable. "You will."
For a moment, the two continued to stare at each other across the width of the clearing, before Aurora tore her gaze away and hurried into the safety of the trees, a shiver making its way down her spine. Him or them….
Page Break (I'm simply typing this in since this damn site seems to remove any page breaks that I attempt to put in.)
Aurora found Luke some time later in her favorite spot at the water's edge. He was pacing back and forth, occasionally stopping to pick up a branch or rock and hurl it into the murky water. The air around him was almost foaming with his frustration. Sensing her presence at the edge of the trees, he spoke without turning. "We need to start packing up."
Aurora frowned at his back, Yoda's words still running through her head. Terrible danger…stay he must…choose, him or them….
Despising herself, she tried to avoid the issue. "Luke, we don't even know where they are."
He turned around to face her. "I saw a city in the clouds…" His voice trailed off.
"Which could be anywhere in the galaxy." She finished for him. Seeing his face fall, she stepped towards him. "Maybe we can get Artoo to search for any planets that have cities like the one you saw. We might be able to narrow it down a little."
"Yes! He can use my X-wing's computer. Then, I can check them out and see if any of them resemble what I saw." Frowning slightly, he slowly sat down on a fallen log near the edge of the water. "That could take a while though. What if we're too late?"
There it was. No way to avoid the issue now. Steeling herself, Aurora sat next to him and put her hand gently on his shoulder. "Luke, have you considered that maybe Master Yoda is right?"
He turned so sharply to look at her that her hand fell away. "You want to leave them there?"
"No! It's just that –," She picked at a stray thread on the knee of her pants as she tried to think of what to say. Any suggestion that it was too dangerous would only make Luke scoff. He would never hesitate to risk his own life to save his friends. Neither would she, for that matter. But to risk Luke's life on such a nebulous thing….Because something was telling her that Yoda's words hadn't been an attempt to manipulate her, or at least, not just an attempt to manipulate her into doing what he wanted. Frustrated, she shook her head, still staring at her lap. "Nevermind. I don't even know what I'm trying to say."
Luke's hand suddenly came into view, covering hers and stopping her compulsive fidgeting. The action brought her eyes up to his.
"Aurora, I can't leave them there if they're suffering. Can you?"
Staring into those startling blue eyes Aurora was very afraid that the answer was yes, if it meant keeping him alive. And she was even more afraid of what that meant.
Page Break…
Over the next few days, Luke seemed, on the surface at least, to have accepted the need to wait until Artoo could find any planets that had cities located in the clouds. In the few breaks in training allowed them, he had already viewed several of the images that the little droid had presented to him. But none of them had matched the vision he had had, and he'd sent Artoo back to his search. From time to time, Aurora saw him standing motionless, staring up into the canopy overhead, and she knew he wasn't seeing the trees, but an image of glowing pink clouds gathered around the dark gleam of a city. At night, several times she had heard his breathing quicken as if in a dream, and once he had cried out, his hand reaching out for something in front of him, before he had suddenly awoken. Each time, she had quickly closed her eyes, pretending to sleep to avoid meeting his gaze; sickened inside by her own actions. She couldn't even offer him comfort because of her own cowardice. Each day found her avoiding his company as much as she could in an attempt to put off the moment when she must finally answer the question he had asked days ago, because she still didn't know the answer.