Trigger Warning: This chapter foresees the Canon death of a character and may be difficult for those dealing with real life grief of a family member or elder. If you must skip this chapter, don't worry. You'll probably be able to understand the next chapter, and I think it will be less emotional. Fingers crossed, I won't know that until I've written it, but will warn again if I must.

Chapter 88 - Carnage

"Anakin." Obi-Wan felt dizzy. After news like that, he wanted to crawl into his own hole and meditate to restore his peace of mind. But of course, Anakin found out right at the same time he did, and the man was trumpeting his displeasure into the Force right now as he stalked away. In the old order he had established a ten foot rule around Anakin. Anything traumatic, and the Council knew to alert him AHEAD of Anakin. But here…

"Anakin, stand still for a moment!" Obi-Wan wheezed.

"I'm a failure!" Anakin did stop. He collapsed and put his hands over his head.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes in shock. "This isn't your fault, Anakin. This is no one's fault. Just nature taking its course." Despite his words, tears still gushed from his former Padawan's eyes.

"I should've done something. THIS, this is what he tempted me with back then. Palpatine said he could show me how to save people from dying."

"A sith doesn't have that power," Obi-Wan insisted. "And if you accepted his offer…"

"Don't worry. I'm not thinking of joining him now. It's just that I had years! I should've done something to learn it." Anakin looked like a boy again. His tears were flowing without stopping. "But I didn't… Because Padme was… And now…"

Obi-Wan looked down at the boy with pity in his eyes. "Anakin, you can't blame yourself for not learning what is impossible to learn. Palpatine was lying. Plain and simple. If it were possible, the Jedi, wielders of the Light, would've discovered it long before a Sith!" Obi-Wan searched Anakin's eyes desperately for any sign that he was buying it. "Look, there's nothing you can do about this. What we need to do now is, we need to tell the kids." An old fallback when plain logic doesn't work, change the subject and distract him with a different problem.

"Oh no! I can't tell them this." Anakin shook his head.

"It'll be better if it comes from us." Obi-Wan sighed in relief, glad his former Padawan had taken the bait. "I'll talk to Bail about giving us a little mission. We can tell them on the way. They are strong kids. They will be okay. Then we will come back and let them say goodbye. We should have the time."

Anakin sighed dejectedly, then nodded. "Okay."

Obi-Wan rubbed his little brother's back, and led him towards the General's office. Truthfully, he wanted to do this next part away from the rebellion because he didn't know how their patient would react to another explosion in the Force, and he did know that Anakin wasn't done exploding yet.


Leia boarded the ship and looked around. Earlier that morning she had received an official order to report here. She understood that there would be a mission, and details would be provided as needed. She carried her bag into the hold, disturbing the one already there.

"What are you doing here?" Luke asked.

"Did you get a notice this morning too?"

"Yeah. Oh, you too. Wow! If the job needs two Jedi, it must be some mission!"

"You're not kidding." Leia slid her bag onto a bunk and looked around. "Did they tell you anything yet?"

"No, I just got here. Don't even know who else we're working with. Waiting for the mission commander now."

"I hope it's Ahsoka." Leia sat down next to her brother on the bunk. "You should hear her stories. She's been on some of the best missions."

"Maybe, but if Ahsoka had this mission, why would she need us?"

Leia groaned. It was such a drag when her brother was logical. She didn't get a chance to respond, however, because just then footsteps were heard heading for them. She looked up, still hoping for someone cool… to see her father and Uncle Ben walk in, followed by their youngest brother and cousins. Leo and Ella-Reese were nineteen now, so they would be able to participate in an adventure, if that's what they were about to have. But Eli-Jinn was still sixteen. He had just arrived the other day from Tatooine to spend time with his father. Leia intended to spend some time with him too, but not by going on a mission together. Her hopes that this would be any definition of fun were quickly drying up.

"Hey Kids. Everyone here. Good." Obi-Wan looked around and seemed to do a subtle headcount.

"So, what is this about?" Luke asked.

"Yeah. Do we have a mission or something?" Leia added on.

"Yes, actually… Uh, your father and I want us all to spend a little time together. And Bail had this mission ready. We're going to go to Mon Cala, and we're going to pick up a fleet of new ships for the resistance. You are all excellent pilots."

Leia noticed her father was unusually quiet. His mind was shielded and his eyes: though they were clear, were staring off far away, even when they looked at you.

Luke, Leo and Eli-Jinn all smiled at the concept of flying a rebellion x-wing back to base. Leia wasn't buying it and she glared at her still silent father.

"So everyone, get your bags unpacked, and strap in. We take off in five minutes." Obi-Wan turned and ran to the cockpit.

"Dad… Dad!" The man really did have his head in the clouds. "Are you going to go after him?"

"No. Obi-Wan is going to fly." He answered.

Leia eyed her brother who shook his head.

"I'll go see if he needs any help," Luke said. They both knew their Uncle hated flying. Something was definitely up!


'Lift propulsion. Thrusters down. I think that's right.' Obi-Wan was really wishing he'd paid more attention to new equipment demonstrations when he was on the council during the war. Truthfully, he hadn't done much flying since Anakin turned sixteen. And a lot changed with spacecraft in nearly thirty years.

"Hey, Uncle Ben." Luke waved down at him.

"Hi Luke," Obi-Wan waved back.

"Leia and I were wondering, what's going on?" Luke squinted appraisingly.

"Nothing's going on."

"Come on. You. Flying." Luke looked at him like the idea was preposterous.

"I do know how to pilot, kid," Obi-Wan replied.

"Then why do you have the Thrusters down?" Luke questioned.

"Because. Because I was still making my initial evaluations." Obi-Wan lied. "Yup, all ready to fly." He pulled the lever up. Then he noticed Luke eyeing his computer settings. "Do you want to help? If you want to co-pilot, you can sit there." Obi-Wan said with some sarcastic irritation. Truthfully, he'd be happy for the help. He only talked Anakin into letting him fly because he knew the man was not exactly stable right now. And the last thing anyone wants to do is ride with Anakin when he gets emotional. Plus, he knew his other former Padawan was unlikely to keep questioning him if he had something to do.

For a moment Luke stood there thinking, and Obi-Wan held his breath. Then the young knight nodded and sat down. Relieved, Obi-Wan began to type their destination coordinates into the Nav computer, as Luke corrected his controls.


"Alright, here we are." Obi-Wan switched off his controls after he'd landed on Mon Cala's moon. Then he turned to Luke. "If you can go back and gather everyone in the front compartment. Your Father and I have some things we want to say to all of you before we get the new ships."

"Okay," Luke accepted the duty and left the cockpit. Obi-Wan let out a deep breath. This was it now. He took a moment to enforce a shield around them all, before he followed Luke. Mom Cala was officially in imperial custody, after all. It's why they were meeting Bail's contact on the moon.


When Obi-Wan walked out, he found Leo and Eli-Jinn sitting at the table playing a card game. Ella-Reese sat back watching them and nodded, talking to Luke. Leia was sitting back by the door to the rear cabin, and Anakin was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked.

Ella-Reese pointed past the door to the back cabin. "He sealed himself in there. Didn't last five minutes."

"You ask just a few questions," Leia moaned.

"Um-hmm." Obi-Wan figured this was bound to happen. He thanked the stars that he only had Luke to distract and not his more tenacious twin. He closed his eyes and used their old bond to send, 'We've landed. It's safe to come out now.' A few minutes later the door opened and Anakin slowly stepped out.

"Everyone, sit down. I apologize for the deception. The trip out here was for two reasons actually. First, the resistance does have a new fleet to pick up. Second, we have some news that we want to tell you about." Obi-Wan looked down. This was a lot harder than he anticipated.

A few moments later he felt a wave of Peace through the Force. It came from Anakin. The man spoke up, "As you know, the Rebellion Medics do health checks regularly on all members…"

"Dad, are you dying? Uncle Ben?" Luke looked worriedly back and forth.

Obi-Wan coughed, and Anakin shook his head, then he said, "No! No, we're both fine."

"No. This concerns Grandmaster Yoda," Obi-Wan said.

"Yoda's dying!" Luke jumped in.

"Yoda's not dying!" Leia spat. "He's just old, and getting slower. Is that what this is about?"

Obi-Wan found that, as much as he willed himself to look up, he could not meet his children's eyes, and their hope which he was about to crush.

Anakin took a deep breath, then said, "Yoda has a condition. The medics are keeping him comfortable, but there is nothing else they can do. He… won't have long." His voice ended sounding very weak.

Luke and the others blinked, holding back tears, but Leia gasped. "No! No, he CAN'T DIE! NO!"

Anakin reached out to hug Leia as she broke down. Obi-Wan pulled out handkerchiefs for the others and patted their backs as they released their emotions. The Force around them rocked and swerved, and Obi-Wan was glad they had done this away from the base. On his second thought, he regretted not going further. Anakin was crying now too, and Obi-Wan's shields were starting to buckle…


Elsewhere in the galaxy, an elderly man wrenched in his sleep and awoke suddenly.

An attendant dropped his bowl in shock and ran to get a towel to clean up his mess.

But Emperor Palpatine didn't spare him a glance. As he awoke he let a smile grace his lips. If his Sith training taught him anything, he'd know he just felt emotional tremors in the Force. And something else too. He recognized those emotional tremors. Sure, it was an out of body experience not to be the one causing the pain, but oh, it was beautiful.

Sheev reached out to pick up an item from his desk with the Force. He pulled out a pen and began to write notes. As he wrote he let out a cackle. In his sleep, he'd dreamt up the perfect plan for carnage, and didn't want to forget any of it. "Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh what fun!"


Hello Everyone,

Yoda's death is Canon. I know I didn't have to go down that road, but I have some ideas that will hopefully surprise you for what happens after. I may skip over the parts where Luke, Leia and all go back and have a last conversation with Yoda, though I'm not sure yet. And I am technically a year before his death in the Canon Timeline, so they may all get to go on another mission before he actually goes. Anyways, when Yoda dies he's got to pass the baton, and everyone will have to adapt to the change in leadership. Some more things will happen. Like I said before, I've got plans for this.