A/N: Once again, it has been longer than I would have liked between updates, but life has a way of getting busy. I hope you all will enjoy and leave a review if you would like.
"The fact that you found a Kyber Crystal here, is indeed astounding," Zordon said after he and Alpha had heard Tommy and Kat recount how they found the crystal at the bottom of Angel Grove Lake.
"If there's one of them here in this dimension, much less on Earth," Kat began shooting a glance at Tommy, "does that mean there could be more?"
"We believe so, Katherine," Alpha answered before handing the two un-morphed rangers a printout from the computer. "I had the computer scan the area while you were diving. It came up with this."
"So the computer here can potentially track the locations of Kyber Crystals?" Tommy asked as he rubbed his chin in thought. His eyes went wide and he shifted his gaze to Zordon. "Have you found any more?"
"No Tommy, for now until we can be certain that Zedd and Sidious cannot track them, through our efforts Alpha and I thought it best not to scan for any more crystals unless it became necessary."
"That's probably for the best," Tommy agreed with a nod of his head.
"So, what will you do with that one?" Kat asked as she pointed toward the glowing crystal that Tommy held in his hand.
"I brought back plenty of components for repairs from my time on Dagobah. I'll do as Master Yoda instructed, meditate, and allow The Force to guide me in building another lightsaber."
"Did Jedi use two lightsabers?" Kat asked.
"Yes, there is even a fighting style dedicated specifically to the use of two sabers."
"Well, now that I think about it, that's not all that surprising," Kat said rubbing her chin in thought.
"I think we should head home, I've got some work ahead of me," Tommy said as he picked the newly discovered Kyber Crystal up from the computer bank it was sitting on.
"Right," Kat said with a nod before both teens teleported home.
"Ah!" Monica Oliver screamed as her son suddenly appeared in the kitchen. In her fright, she threw her hands up sending trey of freshly baked cookies into the air. She gasped in surprise as the cookies stopped in mid-air, and slowly floated back down to the trey.
"That's a nice trick," James laughed from the doorway to the living room.
"Sorry about that, Mom," Tommy said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.
"That's okay, I'm going to have to get used to you just appearing out of nowhere."
"Well, all the same, sorry again," Tommy said as he grabbed a cookie. "If you need me, I'm going to get some things from my room, then I'm headed to the garage."
"Alright, what are you working on anyway?" James asked, taking a cookie for himself.
"When Kat and I went for our walk through the park, we found this," Tommy said holding up the Kyber Crystal for his parents to see.
"What is it?" Monica asked with a confused look on her face.
"A Kyber Crystal, a key component in a lightsaber," Tommy answered before exiting the kitchen and heading down the hall to his room. Once he got there, he grabbed the shoe box full of parts and supplies from under his bed and went to the garage. "Alright, focus," Tommy thought to himself as he took a deep calming breath while sitting on a stool at the workbench in the garage, his box of spare parts and components laid out before him.
"You know what kind of tool is the best kind of tool, Tommy? A tool that has multiple uses," the voice of his Uncle Jack rang repeatedly in his head as he began to meditate. on the construction of a new lightsaber. Over and over he heard his uncle's voice and visions of a heavily modified lightsaber filled his mind. After a few minutes while still in a deep meditative state, his hands began to move guided by The Force. A little more than an hour later, it was done. Not only had he built a new lightsaber identical to his original, but he had also modified his original to work with the new one.
"Hey Tommy, your mom wanted me to tell you dinner will be ready soon," James said as he walked into the garage. Seeing that his son was done with the second lightsaber he took a second to look closely at it. "It looks just like your first, except for those two gold spikes you put on it at the top, and the two others at the side," he continued as he took notice of the difference between the two hilts.
"Actually Dad, that's the original. I modified it to incorporate The Dragon Powercoin."
"Why?" James asked with a slight laugh.
"Partially for aesthetics, partially for functionality," he said as he took the two hilts in his hands, and grabbed what looked like a small gold sculpture of The Dragon Powercoin. "As I started meditating on a new lightsaber Uncle Jack's voice kept echoing in my head.
"Oh?"
"That saying he has about tools. You know the one right?"
"Yeah, pretty sure he got that during his SEAL training."
"Yeah, I guessed as much. So since to a Jedi, a lightsaber is just as much a tool as a weapon, I took that to heart. Come on, let's go to the backyard for a second," Tommy said with a smile as he led his dad out to the backyard which was fenced in by a tall privacy fence. Once there Tommy activated both lightsabers. "The first modification I made was the ability to put the two hilts together," Tommy said as he pressed the two hilts together and gave them a quarter turn causing an audible click. He then began working the lightsaber like he would a bo staff.
"Ah, makes sense, given how familiar you are with a staff from your Karate," James said with an appreciative nod.
"I'd like to take the credit, Dad, but double-sided, or double-bladed lightsabers have existed for centuries. The second, modification I made, I took some inspiration from my Zord's warrior mode," he said as he held up the golden Dragon Powercoin sculpture. He then shut off the bottom blade of his lightsaber and held it over the sculpture to the lower emitter.
"And, what is that thing going to do?"
"If I got it right, the circuitry inside should react with the secondary power cell and reflect its charge into the upper hilt," Tommy said before screwing it over the lower emitter. a second later the blade nearly doubled in size and the two side spikes at the upper emitter opened wide and from the sides of the hilt two smaller blades shot out, forming a crossguard.
"Looks like you're ready to take on the world," James said with a laugh as Tommy shut off the lightsaber and clipped it to his belt loop by the clip that he had moved from the bottom of his original hilt to its side.
The next morning, Tommy stood alone in the training room at the Command Center with no simulation running. He turned to face the door when it opened with its telltale hiss. "Good morning, Leia," he said as he smiled at the Alderainian Princess.
"Good morning, Tommy. You wanted to see me before we go back to our dimension?"
"Yeah," Tommy said with a sigh. "I have a lot to tell you, and well, some of it is going to be hard to hear."
"What is it?" Leia asked with a look of concern.
"Computer, start program," Tommy said and a second later a hard light hologram of an attractive, athletically built brunette with her long hair in an intricate braid. She wore a white halter top, form-fitting white pants, and white boots. "Do you recognize her?
"She looks familiar, but why?"
"This is Padme Naberrie, after being elected to the office of Queen of Naboo, she adopted the regal name, Amidala. After her time as queen was up, she later served alongside your adoptive father, Bail Organa in The Galactic Senate."
"I've heard my parents speak of her, but only in hushed tones and they'd never say anything about her directly to me. I could never figure out why."
"She's your birth mother. She died shortly after you were born."
"How do you know this?" she asked, she did not doubt his words. As she looked closer at the holographic woman, the resemblance was hard to miss.
"The Jedi Master that instructed me told me all about her. Computer continue," Tommy said and another hologram appeared. This one was of a man in black Jedi Robes. He was tall with a lean muscular build and shaggy blonde hair. on his right hand, he wore a black glove that went to his elbow. "How about him?"
"No, but, he kind of looks like...Luke?"
"His name is, or perhaps was, Anakin Skywalker."
"'Skywalker?' Is he Luke's father?"
"Yes, Luke's and yours," Tommy answered.
"What!? Was he killed when Order 66 was issued? I thought Jedie couldn't get married or have families."
"We weren't at least not back then, but Anakin loved Padme from the second he met her on Tatooine when he was a child. After he destroyed a Trade Federation Control Ship during the Blockade of Naboo, Anakin was placed under the tutelage of Obi-Wan Kenobi after he was promoted from Padawan to Jedi Knight. Ten years later, Anakin and Padme would meet again when he was assigned to protect her in the days leading up to the beginning of The Clone Wars. That's when she fell in love with him, and they secretly married on Naboo shortly after The First Battle of Geonosis."
"So what happened to him?"
"He like the rest, or at least most of the rest of The Jedi Order served in The Grand Army of The Republic eventually being knighted before heading off to The Outer Rim Sieges. During this time, your mother, along with Bail Organa and others began to worry about the then, Supreme Chancellor, Sheev Palpatine. He had been in office long after his term should have ended. Little did anyone know that Palpatine was, The Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, and had orchestrated the entire war."
"Yes, my uh, adoptive father told me about that."
"What he didn't tell you, was that starting with the attempted Separatist Seige of Coruscant he began to manipulate Anakin who eventually because he wanted to save Padme's life, he turned to The Dark Side and led the march on The Jedi Temple himself."
"But Padme, my mother, died anyway. So what happened to Anakin?"
"He was gravely wounded in a duel with Obi-Wan on a planet called Mustafar. He would have died there but, Sidious saved his life and imprisoned him in a walking iron lung. That if you ask me, is the point at which Anakin Skywalker truly became," Tommy said before pausing. Taking its cue, the computer now cast a third hard light hologram, this one of the imposing figure of Darth Vader.
"No! No, it can't be!"
"I'm sorry Leia, but it is. Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker. Yours and Luke's father."
"That, that monster tortured me, blew up my homeworld, and killed nearly everyone I love and you're telling me he is my father!"
"Difficult to hear, I understand, but true."
"Why are you telling me this and not Luke?" she asked with a look of shock and realization on her face.
"Because," Tommy said as he took her hand and led the shocked princess to a bench at the side of the room and sat down with her. "Luke, I don't think is ready to know the truth just yet. He's too likely to charge off and do something well, rash and stupid." Slowly Leia nodded her head in agreement.
"There's something more to this, isn't there?"
"Yes, I want to offer you a choice."
"And what would that be?"
"I wish to train you as a Jedi."
"What!? Why me? Luke's practically begged you to teach him, and Obi-Wan started training him."
"Luke has a good heart, as do you, but he's not patient enough and is going to require a more experienced teacher. In time, he'll meet the Jedi Master who taught me."
"What do you want from me with the information you've given me? I mean I could just go tell Luke."
"What you do with it, is your decision, Leia."
"So you're telling me you'd let me go and tell Luke everything you just told me, even though, you don't think he could handle it?"
"I could be wrong about that, but, no I would not stop you, only advise you against it."
"And what of Darth Vader?"
"What about him?"
"He's my father and I despise him and you want to train me to fight him? That sounds like a bad idea."
"Not fight him, hopefully, I can train you to help redeem him, and maybe just maybe save him from The Dark Side."
"You must be kidding after all that he's done."
"He has done, terrible things that is for sure. But, the majority of the blame lies with Sidious for what he has done."
"How can you say that?"
"Computer, run simulation."
A little over an hour later the simulation detailing the major points of Anakin Skywalker's life had ended. Tommy looked over at Leia and saw tears silently stream down her face. "Okay, so maybe he's not all to blame. I still don't know why think he can be redeemed."
"Well I see a lot of me in him, or him in me, I guess."
"What do you mean? You're nothing like that."
"Not now no, but, I was, and while Anakin did ultimately did make a deal with The Devil, I wasn't given a choice. Computer run simulation two." This time the computer ran a simulation showing how Tommy had been noticed by Rita. How she had taken the Dragon Powercoin close to him and when it reacted, abducted him. How she had placed him under an evil spell and sent him to attack the other rangers how they had battled to save him from Rita's control, and how ultimately she had initially managed to strip the green ranger powers from him.
"I can understand why you see some similarities Tommy, but Vader, my father, made his own decisions. Well-intended or not, I just don't know if the good man he once was is still in there somewhere."
"I can certainly understand why."
"How exactly would this work, you training me as a Jedi?" she asked as she stood and went before the three hard light holograms that had once again appeared after the program showing Tomm's initial time as the green ranger had entered. "I mean we live in two separate dimensions."
"Well, with Zedd and Sidious working together, and since we're both members of The Rebellion, I have a feeling we'll be seeing plenty of one another.
Leia sighed as she looked between the three holograms, then back and forth between Anakin Skywalker as he once was, and as he was now. Despite herself, her hatred for the man who was very much the public face of The Empire slowly faded and was replaced by pity. All the terrible things he had endured in his early life as a slave on a desolate world. Being freed, but having to leave the one person who had always been there for him behind, finding a forbidden love, then desperately trying to save the life of the woman he loved. "What would I have done if that was me? What would anyone have done?" she though as she continued to think of her father's life, and the events that led to his fall to darkness. "When do we start?"