A/N

The following chapter may be the wildest in the whole story. The least action happens here, yet the way SW galaxy (aka GFFA) was connected to Earth, its existence explained within the framework of Biblical metaphysics and events, blew my mind. Didn't expect that when I began writing it. And Luke must begin to deal with his altered relationship to the Force he has had since the duel on the mountain. Enjoy the read!

The view was enlarging rapidly, offering majestic vistas as Luke and the three visitors from another galaxy rode the repulsor funicular. A sigh of contentment and rest escaped Luke's mouth. He felt energized both by the marvelous surrounding nature and by the company of those peaceful strangers. As if all of that was Force-sent. He felt rising back from his valley of despair. After a minute of silent enjoyment, he asked, "Did the One create all this?"

"Yes. And no," Moses said. "It was even more beautiful than this when he created it."

"More beautiful than this?!" Luke said with an incredulous stare. "Impossible."

The visitors smiled good-heartedly.

Then Luke realized. "Wait, who else did create this?"

"Not created in its full sense. Formed, or rather, deformed the existing creation," Moses replied as the funicular reached its destination. They all disembarked onto the tiled path that led further up the mountain and immediately began to walk in it, admiring the enchanting golden-green grass and silvery-purple wild Rominaria flowers. Small low clouds passed quickly over the mountain tops, offering a spectacle of light and shadow. "The planets of this system were even pulled from another place in the galaxy, not without unfavorable consequences. It was done by the ancient inimical spirits," Moses paused, "whom you know as the Celestials or the Architects."

Luke stopped walking. Until now, the visitors' story was fascinating but seemed distant, relevant only to the galaxy far, far away. Now it has come right at his feet. "You can't be serious?"

"We are telling you the truth, brother," Enoch said.

Luke almost expected to hear the injunction to search his feelings, as this seemed like that painful moment in the Cloud City where he learned of his personal origins. And he felt the same conviction he isn't lied to. He sat on the ground. "Why do I keep getting such revelations? They are hard to bear, you know," he complained sheepishly to the visitors.

All three sat beside him. "We know," Enoch responded with an understanding nod, "but it is not more than you can bear. Otherwise, the One would have not sent us to share it."

"Alright." Luke tried to sound unconvinced. "So how did the Celestials, or... the ancient inimical spirits, end up in our galaxy?"

"As I already mentioned while sharing my personal history," Enoch began as Moses and Elijah listened respectfully along with Luke, "my generation was the most wicked generation in our planet's history and, after I was taken up into the Beyond, they continued to advance in their course of evil. Though they were intellectually brilliant and inventive, they used their talents for terrifying purposes, filling the planet with violence, utter injustice and disgusting rituals." His tone of voice was a blend of subdued outrage and remembered pain. "With a heavy heart, the One declared in the Universal Council that all of that wicked generation, except one loyal family, would have to perish. The whole council agreed, feeling it was a rightful and long-due judgment." He paused for several long moments.

The delay caused Luke to look up and observe Enoch's face. It emanated both sorrow and deep thought.

"Though he and everyone else knew it was the only way to save the planet..." he stuttered. "I will never forget the forlorn sadness I saw in the face of the One as he was about to pronounce the judgment." Enoch paused, and for a moment, it seemed as if all the birds stopped chirping. „Yet he was also firm about it, beyond doubt that it was the right thing. Moments of anguish were complemented by moments of resolution to save what can be saved: the blameless judgment was executed." There was almost a relief in Enoch's voice as he concluded this bit of report.

A white banshee bird screeched from afar, to which hosts of small birds resumed their playful chirping in the coniferous forest, some fifty meters below the altitude where Luke and the three men were sitting.

"No other being," Enoch added, "was ever allowed such decisions, because none other gave life itself. And such drastic measures were never required before nor after that generation."

Luke was trying to imagine the corruption of such generation.

"However, when the Enemy learned about the plans of the One, he instantly flew from our planet and barged into the Council auditorium." Enoch frowned slightly as he recalled.

Luke gazed and listened intently as he noticed how personal this history was for Enoch.

"That was before he was banned from the meetings of the Universal Council," Enoch continued. "He expressed his displeasure that the generation he was so prospering would come to an abrupt end. He demanded from the One to let him choose a group among them for a transfer to another galaxy, where they would be given enough time to develop galactic civilization and where he would be permitted to endow them with special supernatural powers," he paused, his eyes fixed upon the Coronet City in the distance.

Luke's mouth opened inadvertently.

"The Enemy argued that the technological advancement, prosperity and special supernatural powers would, in the end, secure peace and order in the galaxy, without the need for the law of love. He dauntingly challenged the One, saying that the refusal of this demand would show to the universe that he is knowingly afraid such government would reveal the deception of the law of love. Looking over millions upon millions of radiant delegates in the vast gleaming auditorium under the dazzling starry skies, he piercingly pronounced to the One, not even bothering to look at him, 'They will forever wonder whether I would succeed in such endeavor.'"

"What arrogance!" Luke said as he began to abhor the boastful character of this Enemy.

"Indeed." Enoch nodded.

"I would have cut off that pretentious deceiver right there," Luke said.

"Many thought the One would indeed do so," Enoch responded, "but the Enemy, formerly the closest associate of the One, knew best his patience and desire for transparency, and that's why he dared to be so bold. Though the One knew that the greatest revelation of his love is yet to come and that it will be enough to convince every intelligent being of his righteousness, he accepted the challenge for the sake of all the citizens of the universe who would have been troubled by this question."

The first vehicle they saw today swooshed over the slopes several hundred meters below, quickly descending to the sea surface and continuing to speed toward the city.

Enoch added, "This was before our fallen home planet reached a high level of technological prosperity and wide-spread practice of spirit-contacting, after which the most horrible century of war ensued, clearly demonstrating that it cannot produce peace and order." He turned his gaze to the left, basking in the view of a grand flower-filled mountain pass graced by a paved path leading upward. "Thus the One agreed."

Following Enoch, Luke also turned to look at the mountainous beauty.

Enoch observed an ugly rogue gluttonbug that landed on a beautiful indigo and yellow flower several meters away. „The only condition was that it had to happen in an unfathomably distant past, before the creation of intelligent beings in the universe, even before the creation of any other galaxy, so that it would not disturb their peace. The Enemy agreed. He chose six hundred threescore and six of his most loyal and most intelligent subjects. They were models of vicious brilliance," Enoch paused as he appeared to search for words. "As I was continually walking with the One and then taken into the Beyond to live with him, so were they continually walking with the Enemy and then taken into the new galaxy to live with him."

Luke listened with undivided attention. Moses and Elijah gazed in the distance, reflecting.

"And so, without knowledge of any humans on our planet," Enoch said, "the One by a miracle transferred the Enemy with his army of inimical spirits and six hundred threescore and six most vicious humans back in time to a galaxy far, far away," he paused and turned to Luke, "your galaxy."

With eyes that were widened by intense reflection, Luke looked down at the flowery ground he was sitting by. The rogue gluttonbug was buzzing annoyingly in the distance, echoing a slight irritation that began to rise inside.

"The One created all the nature and animals," Moses spoke up, "but he left the diffusing of intelligent beings throughout the galaxy to the wicked group who arrived. In addition, the Celestials, that is, the inimical spirits, tampered with much of the natural environment, animals and humans in this galaxy, terraforming, bioengineering, bringing many new, horrible beasts and species into existence. The Rakata were one of them, and..."

„Here is another devastating discovery of my origins", Luke interrupted, sighing in frustration. „So, all of us humans in this galaxy came from that wicked group from your planet?"

"Yes," Moses replied calmly, compassion gracing his eyes, "but the One and his unfallen spirits were not banished from this galaxy. He was still the Creator of its original nature and the one who enabled the transfer."

Luke looked away, face tightening.

Moses continued, "That gave him the right to counteract the evil by influencing the consciences of galactic settlers. Though many generations passed before it happened, the One began to win over the hearts of some of your ancestors. He had pity on them and wanted to save as many as possible."

Luke stood up. "Well, it would have been much easier if he never let the evil come to this galaxy in the first place!" he said. "It was easy for your planet! After just a few generations, the whole army of evil spirits departed to our galaxy and you had to battle only against your human frailties."

"No," Enoch replied, "the long history of your galaxy was less than a blink of an eye to our world's history. After your history ended, the Enemy and his spirits were transported back to the exact moment when they were taken, and continued to influence the wicked generation until the judgment ensued as decreed."

Luke sat back down, thinking for a few moments. Rogue gluttonbug still buzzed in the distance. "But how did that help anyone? The universe didn't have a look at what happened in our galaxy," he questioned.

"Do not forget that the One had the right to transfer the unfallen spirits, too," Enoch said. "They were cooperating with him in winning over the hearts of the galactic settlers, but they were also witnesses of all that happened. Moreover, all the unfallen planets of the universe sent representatives who were willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of their peaceful years to serve as record keepers in your galaxy. They suffered long watching horrible proportions of evil in this galaxy. The One awarded them with special honors and privileges when they returned to give their report."

"But tell me one thing," Luke said, "how can the Enemy and their spirits be so short-sighted as to inspire the hearts of the people in our galaxy with hatred, aggression and everything else that doesn't help bring peace and order to the galaxy, which their supposed goal?"

"That is the point, my friend," Moses replied, "they can inspire deceptive behavior that looks good on the surface, but they cannot inspire even one good motive."

The gluttonbug halted its buzzing, covertly devouring the flower's pistil, as if aware that it is not so imposing while separated from its swarm.

"The heart of a fallen man," Moses continued, "is beyond cure, and his only help is in receiving a new heart, which can be done only by the One who created it in the first place. Since the inimical spirits cannot inspire anything truly good, much less create a new heart, the people under their influence are left at the mercy of their evil passions that produce jealousy, impurity, hatred, aggression, and strife."

The gluttonbug suddenly took off, buzzing frantically from one flower to the other, eventually flying away down the slope.

"The inimical spirits have the unenviable task of making wicked people appear righteous, and producing peace and order in a galaxy where unrest and chaos rule the heart of its citizens," he paused as Luke was absorbing it. „By their very nature, the settlers of the galaxy desire power and satisfaction of their whims; not peace and order."

"And so they tried to enforce peace and order in the galaxy through fear," Luke said, recalling the Empire and its dreaded 'peacemaking' device – the Death Star.

"Yes," Elijah joined in, after a long period of being lost in thought. "However, not all were like that, my friend. Since the first generation of those who began listening to the voice of the One in their conscience, he has always had a people with different hearts – hearts under the influence of his regenerating power. The Jedi were among them," he paused.

Luke's attention was at the highest now, his eyes growing wide with keen interest.

"Yet working with the Jedi was always a special challenge," he paused. "By the very nature of their service, they were training abilities unnatural to their being – the ones which belonged to the angelic order of beings. Throughout their history..." He sighed slowly and quietly. "They have been seeking the supernatural powers which the Enemy requested to," he paused, "especially bestow on the settlers of this galaxy."

"No! That's impossible!" Luke stood up again.

"The hearts of the Jedi were places of the greatest conflict in your galaxy," Elijah said unflinchingly, though with compassion in his voice.

"No!" Luke yelled in denial, backing away. Suddenly a thought flashed through his mind. "Wait," he half-whispered and then said in a much louder tone, "if this galaxy is in an unfathomably distant past – before the creation of intelligent beings and any other galaxy – your planet doesn't even exist yet, nor do you!" He was growing doubtful of the whole story and the authenticity of these visitors.

"We have been transferred from the future, from the end times of our planet's history to your time, just like the ancient spirits and the group of wicked humans were taken from the early history of our planet," Enoch calmly explained.

"Of course, very convenient. There were two transfers – one for the wicked ones and one for you good guys. Too bad I can never verify that," Luke quipped.

"But you can verify that the Force does not obey you anymore, can you not?" Elijah asked quietly but .

Luke gulped, an intense emotional reaction sending a feeling of weakness throughout his body. He sat down and was silent for a few moments. "I... I can still feel the Force," he stammered, his heart racing.

"But you cannot control it," Elijah said.

"I once could," he began to raise his voice again, "and Ben still can – and has immense power in it!"

"You should be relieved by your loss of connection with that power," Elijah said firmly. "And you should be scared by the immense power that is with your apprentice." He looked toward the distant mount where they had met Ben.

"But isn't it that all life creates the Force?" Luke was not giving up.

"Even if it was so," Moses responded, "what creates life?"

Luke's vision of the universe began to expand. He could begin to discern the two foundational categories in the universe – the created, and the creator. He began to see the necessity of an uncreated creator. But that was so different from everything he has been taught so far.

As if responding to his thoughts, Elijah said, "You must unlearn what you have learned."

This familiar phrase incited another question. "Why did old Ben and Yoda not teach me those things?"

"They were not ready. They were too long in the Jedi tradition to accept new light," Elijah answered. "You and your nephew belong to the generation of the Jedi who could finally bring about the reformation."

Suddenly, Moses pronounced, almost in a solemn way, "We hoped that you would be as Caleb – the last of the old generation – who will finally enter Canaan, while Ben would be as Ezra – the first of the new generation – who will teach that generation the law of love."

Luke was confused. "Why do you mention Caleb Dume, that is, Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger? Those names are not widely known."

Moses was also confused for a moment, "I do not know those names. Caleb and Ezra were heroes of faith among our people, and Canaan was most known as a name of the Promised Land," he paused. Then he realized, "Yes... you see, our galaxies are more connected than you believe."

"In fact," Enoch said to Luke, "one of the four men who wrote a report on the mortal life of the One bore your name."

"And there are ducks on Naboo," Elijah added with his distinctive benevolent wit.

All four laughed innocently and then just sat in silence, interrupted by an amazingly loud scream of a banshee bird flying several kilometers away. "We have not walked far away from the funicular, have we?" Elijah said, smiling, and stood up. "Let us at least go to the closest viewpoint over there." The group began the short hike.