Opal rode her sky bison to Zaofu, landing in the courtyard. After getting off, she hugged her father, while Bolin and her mother got off the flying beast. "It's so good to see you," Baatar Sr said to his younger daughter. "Your brother has finally gotten the hang of those prosthetics Dr. Raylen gave him."
"If I am correct, Wing will be able to go back to playing Power Disc again, today," the Imperial doctor revealed as he walked into view. "All that is left, is the test itself." Everyone excitedly went to the Power Disc court to see Wing join his twin Wei for the first time in over a year. When Wing's legs were burnt by Ghazan, everyone thought he'd be lucky to ever walk again, never mind going back to the sport he loved. After a little hesitation, Wei tossed the disc at his brother...and he leapt into the air and bounced it back, to the cheers of his family. After the final test of his limbs was completed, Wing hugged his parents, and then bowed his head respectfully at Dr. Raylen.
"Thank you for all you've done for me," the patient said to his doctor.
"It's my duty," Raylen smiled back. At that point, Wei noticed that Opal was wearing a ring and asked if she and Bolin were now getting married. The two confirmed it, and everyone cheered again. Even Huan smiled at the news of his sister's engagement. As they celebrated later that evening, Baatar Sr asked his daughter's fiancée when they would wed.
"As soon as Baatar returns from his training mission, next month," Opal replied, knowing her oldest brother was busy teaching his and Kuvira's soldiers on another world about how to work with the Empire more closely. As they sat down to dinner, Su invited Dr. Raylen to join them in thanks for what he'd done for Wing.
"So, I don't believe I've ever heard your first name," Su asked the Imperial medical doctor.
"Barristan," he revealed. He mentioned how he'd met Korra and Mako on Maridun, a mostly-jungle world filled with spear-throwing worm-people called Amanin, pretty much immediately after they were tossed through the portal by Zaheer. He credited them with saving his garrison, which also included their notable friends Director Krennic, KB-2016, and Agent Kallus, from being overrun. "And Lord Vader saved us from corruption and/or stupidity."
"Uh, what do you mean?" asked a curious Wei.
"One of the pilots had taken the last craft we had into space, to signal for reinforcements," the doctor revealed. "He made it to a Star Destroyer in the area under the command of Vice-Admiral Griggor Tower. Upon hearing this, Tower decided to blast our base to cinders to deny the Amanin our equipment."
"While you were still there?" a shocked Wing asked.
"Tower was the sort of navy man who regarded ground battles as a curiosity from the past," the doctor replied. "And the people who fought them utterly disposable. But Lord Vader, coming to investigate the disturbance in the Force caused by Mako and Korra's arrival, doesn't believe that, so he ordered Tower's ship to break off until further notice. When Tower didn't acknowledge our lord's order, he choked the admiral to death with his mind." The Beifong family didn't know what to think of what they'd heard. They'd heard that the army and navy of the URN would argue over budgets and compete in a Probender game once or twice a year, but not even in the Hundred Year War had a rivalry between military branches been this murderous. Suyin was slightly bothered by how Vader could apparently commit summary executions of fellow Imperials, but the case she heard wasn't the strongest argument against such a thing.
"So, you continued working with Korra, afterward?" asked Wing. After he confirmed the question, Raylen was asked more about himself. He came from a world called Humbarine. Humbarine was a massive city planet in the same region of the galaxy as Coruscant, and capital of a heavily industrialized swath of space.
"Why'd you become a doctor?" asked Opal.
"I wanted to prove my father wrong," Barristan answered. He went on to explain how, for much of his life, he wanted to save people. His father, however, didn't feel the same way. "He worshipped the alter of destiny, saying everything is determined by fate, or as he called it, the Will of the Force. As if it's a god with its own will as opposed to a source of energy to be used. And since he wasn't Force-Sensitive, I have no idea why he believed in it so much. But he pointed to Shadda-Bi-Boran as an example of 'fate can't be defied'."
"What's Shadda-Bi-Boran?" asked Huan, who'd been rather quiet until that point.
"It was a primitive world whose people, the Shadda, rarely left their planet for long," the doctor explained. "About thirty years ago, its star started to die. There was this huge effort to raise money and ships to evacuate the Shadda before their sun went supernova, with a few figures like the future Queen Amidala of Naboo leading the way. Eventually, they narrowly managed to evacuate enough Shadda to save the species, even if some of their ships didn't outrun the explosion in time. But it turned out to be for naught. The star Shadda-Bi-Boran orbited emitted a type of energy apparently unique to it. The Shadda were so used to this energy, they couldn't live without it, and all the ones that were evacuated died within two months."
"So, they died from being sun-starved?" asked Wing, surprised such a thing was possible.
"No sun could replace theirs," Raylen replied. "Well, I wasn't ready to give up on helping others, just because a species went extinct after the environment they needed was lost. I got my degree, just in time for the Clone Wars to break out. I wound up assigned to an assortment of hospitals and refugee camps. Then came General Grievous and Admiral Trench, the most vile of all Separatist commanders." He showed a picture of Admiral Trench, a hairy spider creature with red eyes. Trench was a Harch, a race distantly related to the Aqualish. Some colonies of the Aqualish had declared independence, and Trench led the armada to beat them back into submission. The Republic intervened before it could turn into a massacre, but Trench refused to accept defeat. So, he destroyed a massive refugee colony of the people running from him, making it look like he died when he caused a solar flare to cook away the colony and most of the ships trying to stop him.
"About fifteen years later, Trench returned, with the Aqualish government joining the Separatists, but his first confirmed sighting was at Christophsis, leading a blockade of the planet," the doctor continued. "A stealth frigate with a Jedi piloting ran the blockade, so Trench fired torpedoes locked onto its magnetic signature. But the Jedi scraped his ship against Trench's own vessel, confusing the torpedoes and sending them flying back into Trench's face. He almost died, and when he returned almost two years later, he looked like this." The doctor pulled up an image of the admiral, his entire left side was covered in metal, with his arms on that side now cybernetic, as well. Even his left mandible had been replaced with a prosthetic.
"What about General Grievous?" asked Opal. With that, the doctor revealed an image of a different figure. It was shaped like a man, but its skin was reddish-orange, with talons on its hands and feet. Its head looked like a bat, before being covered in a mask of bone with stripes painted onto it.
"This is a Kaleesh," Raylen explained. "Their world is on the edge of the galaxy, largely tribal. Once, there was a Kaleesh named Qymaen Jai Sheelal. In his youth, his people had been fighting a race of insectoids called the Huk for decades, and he rose to become their greatest hero and leader. Both races said the other started it, but the Republic Senate believed the Huk, and punished Kalee. Something this warlord didn't like, and he started commanding armies of droids for the InterGalactic Banking Clan as a mercenary. At some point, he took to calling himself Grievous, and, for reasons no one is entirely sure of, was transformed into a cyborg." He then switched images, showing a metallic machine which looked vaguely similar to the Kaleesh before, complete with a similar mask and protrusions from its head which looked a little like bat ears. Looking closer, however, they could see the same reptilian eyes of the Kaleesh. What was strangest, however, was how, instead of five fingers on each hand, like the Kaleesh he once was, Grievous had an extra thumb for both hands. "He could split his arms in half, surprising his enemies with four weapons instead of two," the doctor explained, noticing how Bolin was focusing on the extra thumbs.
"Uh, how much of him was replaced?" a curious Bolin asked.
"There was his head, then his spine, his heart, and his lungs, contained in preservative fluid under his chest plate," Raylen revealed. "All else, was machine. Even his mind, save for his rage and the hatred which drove it. He hated the Republic for siding with the Huk, and especially the Jedi for being the face of that intervention. So much so, that he trained how to use lightsabers against the Jedi, along with some tricks to get around their use of the Force. But when he wasn't taking lightsabers as trophies, he was leading his forces in battle, on the ground or the bridge of a warship, killing all in his path, enemy, ally, or neutral. He killed almost every Ugnaught in their own system, completed his work of exterminating the Huk, and effectively cleansed Duro's surface of life, after destroying several of its orbiting cities. But the worst, was yet to come."
"What could be worse than that?" asked a shocked Suyin, speaking for her whole family.
"There is a disease called the Brainrot Plague," Raylen revealed. "It does exactly as it says to the point that when you look at a victim's brain, it has enough holes to pass as a sponge. First it causes inability to read, then hallucinations, and finally death. To announce his glorious return, Trench bombed a hundred worlds, including the one Director Krennic and his boyfriend are from, with Brainrot Type E, a strain that only affects humans."
"I've heard about warlords chucking dead animals over a wall to make people sick," Bolin replied in response to that, horrified by the tale. "Were you one of the doctors sent to help?"
"I was lucky enough to be sent to that camp of people fleeing Loedorvia and other plague worlds," Raylen replied bitterly. "I had to wear HAZMAT gear whenever checking out a patient, and go through a thick shower afterward, but I wasn't on Humbarine."
"Wha-did your homeworld get hit with the plague too?" asked Wing.
"No," Barristan answered, rubbing his head in relation to the bad memory. "Grievous arrived with his armada and destroyed the ships above. Then, for the next hour, he blasted every inch of the planet-wide city from orbit. When he departed, the planet kept burning, and when it finally cooled, every skyscraper had melted into twisted shapes of metal." For a moment, the Beifong family thought on the story. The blaze must have been like what Ozai hoped to exterminate the Earth Nation with using the power of Sozin's comet.
"I'm so sorry," replied Wing.
"Yeah, well, my father was at peace," Raylen replied bitterly. "He contacted me from his apartment building, saying that it was the Will of the Force that the Confederacy win, and called my mother, who'd since divorced him, foolish for trying to defy it's will by looking for cover from the bombardment. He then closed his eyes and waited for the end to come, as opposed to trying to survive. Of course, his prediction that we'd lost the war was wrong, as well. A few months later, Trench led an attack on the stronghold of Anaxes, only to be decapitated by Anakin Skywalker, the same Jedi who'd sent his own missiles flying back in his face, with his fleet largely destroyed by the self-destruct device on his flagship."
"Who'd put a bomb on his own ship for the intention of destroying it?" a surprised Huan asked.
"Actually, it makes a lot of sense," Wing told his brother. "Many ship captains would rather scuttle their own ships than let the enemy steal it, or anything valuable onboard. And if it's a giant bomb, you might take some of the enemy with you."
"Exactly," Raylen said. "Also, if there is a lesson to be learned it's this: there is no such thing as destiny." Bolin firmly believed that, though the Beifong family wasn't as convinced. "Though the Bombardment of Humbarine remains the single worst atrocity in history," Raylen continued. "Oh yes, some are focused on others or declared more tragic for whatever reason, usually by the foolish poets of the galaxy, but Humbarine had over five hundred billion people on it, and Grievous killed all of them. No atrocity is greater in number than that." Suyin believed that Humbarine wasn't seen as unique by much of the wider galaxy, which was why the Air Nomad genocide was focused on even if the numbers behind it were fairly small, but Raylen wouldn't like or care for such reasoning about his homeworld's destruction.
"What about Grievous?" asked Wei.
"Of course, Grievous would start suffering defeats, with the Separatist Alliance being strangled through the campaign known as the Outer Rim Sieges," Raylen answered. "Eventually, Grievous and his master, Count Dooku, threw everything they had left into an attack on Coruscant itself. It was bloody, terrifying, and Grievous abducted Sheev Palpatine, the Republic Chancellor, to his flagship. But Anakin Skywalker boarded it, rescued Palpatine, and killed Dooku, with Grievous narrowly fleeing with the battered remnants of the Separatist military. Grievous was found shortly afterward, and killed on Utapau, with the only other Separatist leaders worth mentioning dying when they shuttle was blown up. And that is when the Jedi tried to usurp Palpatine, citing some irrelevant secret he'd kept about himself to justify murdering him. But Anakin Skywalker warned his old friend of what was coming, allowing Palpatine to survive and transform the ineffectual Republic into the Empire and purge the Jedi Order."
"You don't have a problem with Palpatine taking the reins forever?" asked a surprised Baatar Sr.
"He's done a good job," the doctor replied. "Also, the Republic was on its deathbed before he started changing things to fight the Separatists. Why would anyone in their right mind want to go back to the chaos of a desiccated zombie of a government?" Suyin was starting to better understand why Kuvira and Baatar Jr were so favorable toward the Empire.
"Well, I wouldn't, since I spent over a year with Kuvira and Baatar putting things back together after the monarchy finally imploded," Bolin added. "Still, I get the feeling that, even without their more prominent leaders, the Separatists wouldn't just give up."
"The bulk of the Separatist military was comprised of droids," Raylen answered. "After Grievous was killed, analysts rifled through his stuff and found an override, which they managed to decipher, and shut down almost every battle droid left in the entire galaxy."
"And their organic soldiers and local leaders?" Opal asked.
"Most of those organic leaders were cowards who hid behind endless walls of mechanical soldiers," Raylen dismissed. "What organics passed for soldiers were almost always inferior in training, equipment, and numbers, next to the clone army, being bolstered by normal recruits in the new Empire. And a common but amusing sight from those days was turning those droids back on and setting them against the Separatists themselves."
"And what about the Harch and the Kaleesh?" asked Su. "They don't strike me as cowardly or unskilled."
"The Harch made the mistake of thinking that, if they put their main strongholds next to their cities, we'd restrain ourselves," Raylen answered. "But there is no such thing as a Harch civilian, and no one would have cared if there was, so their resistance was easily crushed. The Kaleesh were far more resolute and cunning, and fought on much longer. Eventually, this new officer named Thrawn decided enough was enough. So, he found the greatest Kaleesh colony and commenced Base Delta Zero."
"What is that?" asked Opal, though she had an idea.
"To take your warship above a planet and blast it's surface until everything is dead," Raylen answered, sounding somewhat satisfied at the explanation. "While we didn't surrender to a Kaleesh destroying a much larger world, the Kaleesh themselves surrendered when the same thing happened to them."
"So, because one Kaleesh did it to your world, it's okay for you to do it to one of theirs?" a shocked Suyin asked, Bolin and the rest also rather shocked.
"Grievous is a god to the Kaleesh, and I don't mean icon, I mean 'ascended to their pantheon of deities because he was their greatest hero,'" Raylen replied. "They don't have a problem with what he did, it's something to celebrate for them! Also, Oban, as the colony was called, was less than five percent the population of Humbarine. The Kaleesh surrendered, are still alive, and even free to leave their homeworld, if they meet certain requirements. Also, it happened because of what THEY DID." Wing was a bit shocked but given Raylen's background, it was unsurprising he felt the way he did.
"So, what did you do after the war?" asked Wing, trying to stop an argument between his mother and his physician.
"I continued to serve on warships, and the occasional planetside garrison, like on Maridun," Raylen answered, happy to move on from this chapter of his life. "I love working in the field too much to give it up. Thats how I can best help people."
After the dinner finished, Suyin thanked the doctor for his company, and he returned to the apartment he'd been staying at while in Zaofu, reflecting on his life story, and how he'd described the wider galaxy.
After returning from the Spirit World, Korra had gone to bed with Mako, with Vader deciding to wait until tomorrow for his next healing session. After getting up the next morning, she kissed her husband and checked on her son while Mako looked after their daughter. As she finished with Harou, she saw a ghostly image appear. It was Avatar Aang, smiling at the sight of Korra looking after her son.
"I was much older than you when Katara and I had Bumi," he smiled. "It was a relief to no longer be the last Airbender. Sadly, my duties as Avatar interfered in my duties as a father. It was only later on, when they were grown, did I realize how I'd hurt Bumi and Kya by focusing on Tenzin."
"Well, I won't have to focus on any of my children over the other," Korra replied. "When I'm not having fun as the Avatar, I'll be there for them whenever possible. Also, Airbenders are rebounding in great numbers, thanks to me."
"Yes," Aang said, before looking a little sad. "Still, I'd begun working to correct my mistakes with Bumi and Kya. The anniversary of my greatest victory was where I began. But it wasn't to be." He closed his eyes for a moment, touching the spot where he'd been stabbed by Vader. "As painful as his...lightsaber was, what was more painful was knowing how I wouldn't finish making amends to my children."
"Well, maybe you should hash this out with Vader," Mako piped up, surprising Korra as well as Aang.
"You can see me?" asked the ghost.
"Yeah, though to be honest, I always pictured you as the fun-loving teenager who ended the Hundred Year War as opposed to the bearded, middle-aged monk, in your later life," Mako said, making a note of Aang's appearance as he sat his daughter down in the arms of KayBee.
"Only the current Avatar can converse with us," a new voice said. The next ghost turned out to be Avatar Roku, Aang's predecessor.
"Well, thanks to the power our master awakened within us, now I can see you, as well," Mako said. "Which means that you can talk to Lord Vader as well."
"So, he's your master now?" asked a surprised Aang.
"Pretty sure you called your teachers 'master' as well," Korra noted.
"Sometimes," Roku admitted. "Still, this is a talk for the Avatar, not for you, Mako of Republic City. Nor for this 'Darth Vader.'"
"In your absence, they've become a huge part of my life, so yes, they are entitled to participate," Korra replied, grasping her husband's hand. "Then again, I heard how miscegenation was illegal during your life, and you never had a problem with that."
"It wasn't my place to impose change," Roku claimed, not stating his opinion on it. Aang looked a little uncomfortable, remembering how, immediately after the Hundred Year War, Roku had tried to convince him to dismantle the Fire Nation colonies carved out of the Earth Kingdom. Roku firmly believed that the nations had to be separate, and that their members could never live together.
"It is when you decide it is," Korra replied, remembering all the times the Avatar had imposed change on the wider world.
"Besides, it's always good for someone to remind the Avatar of the world she lives in, instead of the world the past ones lived in," Mako stated. "Though, shouldn't you be able to know all this? After all, if you were Raava's chosen in the past, you should have some idea of what Raava's current champion has been doing."
"For a long time, we did have an insight into the world through Korra," Aang confirmed, before turning to the current Avatar. "Then, Unalaq severed the connection. As for what happened after you reclaimed Raava, let me put it like this: once, there was a set of radios, with the listeners on one side being able to hear everything, while the other side frequently had trouble receiving. Then, the system was utterly broken, one day, before being reestablished. But the new system is far less effective. One side can only hear brief flashes of the other, while the other side can't receive anything at all. One day, it stops altogether, with no one understanding why, not even the spirits themselves. For a while, some of us start wondering if the reincarnation cycle was broken. But then, we receive the transmission again, as spotty as ever."
"What exactly did you see?" Mako asked.
"People coming from outer space, led by Aang's murderer, and helped by the two of you, among others," Roku answered, acknowledging the Avatar's husband.
"Well, if you did have a continuous insight into the world for so long, you'd have seen my parents explain the truth of Darth Vader," Korra replied. "And that his claims turned out to be true."
"Most people would consider the murder of the Avatar unjustifiable," Roku stated sternly, not actually acknowledging what she'd said. He remembered how Sozin had betrayed him and left him to die in a volcanic eruption so his dreams of conquest could be realized.
"Well, his latest healing session is about due, so you can ask him yourself," Korra said, kissing Mako before heading to her mother's healing house. As she entered, she saw the Sith Lord come in. He immediately saw the two ghosts, and commanded 'leave us' to the other people within, some Imperial, some Water Tribal, before heading to his private room
"I was not expecting to see you again," Vader stated to Aang. "Especially after I utterly destroyed you."
"Not sure if that's how I'd describe our battle," Aang replied. "You were a formidable opponent, to be sure, but it was Bumi's arrival with Appa that tipped the scales in your favor."
"I can arrange for you to tell your son you hold him responsible for your death, if that is your wish," Vader dismissed. "But while his arrival hastened my victory, it didn't cause it. But you want to hear me justify myself for killing you. Very well, ask your questions."
"I want you to know, that if you had come to me for aid, I would have helped you return home," Aang began, surprising Vader, Korra, and even Roku. "Even after killing Arlaq, I would have given you the benefit of the doubt when it came to Unalaq's word. And if you brought Tonraq and Senna to vouch for you, I'd have listened, even if I barely knew who they were. Some would expect me to bring you to justice for what you'd done in the North Pole. But I'd look at that devastation and wonder what the price of bringing you to justice would be."
"Then you are wiser than I gave you credit for," Vader said, genuinely surprised.
"Though, I suppose you were always going to return here," Roku added, less friendly than Aang. "With your army, to do what you are doing now."
"Our world would have been found eventually," Korra replied. "In fact, someone else got here the conventional way before we did. And they were much less friendly than Darth Vader."
"So, you have no problem seeing our world subjugated?" Roku asked, seemingly ignorant of what Korra had said.
"Brought into the wider world," Korra corrected. "Perfectly in line with connecting different people together, as I was taught being the Avatar was part of." She then looked at the clock and saw her mother would soon be there. "Listen, we'll continue this discussion later," Korra stated. "When we resume, no bringing up Aang's death as a reason to disapprove. I've long moved past that."
"Well, many people have-""Roku, they'll be busy for a while," Aang said to his predecessor, before turning to Korra. "Very well, we'll speak later," Aang said. As the specters vanished, Vader went to the harness which allowed him to take off his armor. It was time for his latest healing session.
Obi-Wan and Cal were now alone in the prefab, as Greez had led Luke and Mizuki on a tour of the settlement, while Merrin had taken the children to the doctor for their checkup. Obi-Wan looked at the younger Jedi, deciding to finally speak with him over his decisions up to that point.
"There is a reason why such close attachments are forbidden," he began.
"I'm firmly aware of the dangers of it, Master Obi-Wan," Cal said. "Bode is a perfect example of 'caring for someone' being turned into 'possessive of someone.' But it's really not as hard a rule as we were told it was, growing up. Leaving aside the stories I've heard of you and Master Anakin, Master Mundi was a rather blatant exception." Obi-Wan remembered Ki-Adi-Mundi: on the council, he was rather stiff and indifferent, as well as the first to doubt Obi-Wan and his friends, no matter how many times he was proved wrong. But then came his status as a Cerean. The cone-headed species had a bizarrely low birthrate and gender ratio. As a result, for every husband on Cerea, there were at least three wives. Most of the time, recruiting a Jedi meant compliance with the local authorities to some degree. On Cerea, that meant there could be Jedi with wives and children, or no Jedi at all.
"I had many frustrations with Master Mundi over the years," Obi-Wan admitted. "And the fact that he had an exemption on account of local customs did make me wonder sometimes. But you were never granted such an exemption, so I'm somewhat curious why you pursued a relationship with Merrin."
"I didn't, at first," Cal said. "I started thinking about her more and more during our time apart, then she kissed me on Jedha before we did something dangerous, in case she didn't get a chance later. I realized that, I needed people in my life to keep this fight from wearing me out. Merrin's a Force User who survived the slaughter of her people, so she knows what my struggles are. I gave our romance a shot after finding our way to Tanalorr, but it's what happened after that sealed the deal."
"What was that?" asked Obi-Wan.
"Denvik's base," Cal revealed. "I'd felt the call of the Dark Side before, but fighting my way through the Imperials, along with learning the full extent of Bode's betrayal, that was the first time I was actually tempted to embrace it. Merrin convinced me not to and listened to me as I processed my feelings. In short, my attachment to her STOPPED me from falling. I knew, at that moment, I couldn't settle for anything less." Obi-Wan reflected on that story. There were tales of Jedi rejecting the dark side because someone they loved got through to them but most Jedi Masters dismissed this as a possibility, saying attachment itself was dangerous. Obi-Wan knew the difference between Attachment and Poseseveness, but he understood that, if you weren't careful, one could turn into the later. Still, Cal's belief wasn't without merit.
"If this has worked for you, I have no complaint, especially under the circumstances," the Jedi Master said. "What of your current students?"
"Kata is the only one I'm training," Cal revealed. "The other children who've fled here, I don't know them that well, so Merrin and I are more focused on ensuring their safety than teaching them. Also, I keep thinking of this tale about how an ancient Jedi had two students betray him because he was training three people and therefore couldn't pay enough attention to any one of them." Obi-Wan remembered the tale in question, it was why a Jedi rarely trained more than one apprentice at a time. "Kata herself is fully aware of the danger of the dark side, and her power was on the verge of awakening by the time we met," Cal continued. "Either I could teach her how to handle the power, or risk things falling apart because I didn't do anything."
"That's one of the reasons the Council agreed Anakin should be trained despite being older than normal," Obi-Wan replied.
"Well, you seem to have walked even further away from that standard than before," Cal noted. "I'm guessing you had every opportunity to train Anakin's son from birth, and you chose to give him a normal childhood. I'm not questioning it, but I'm questioning your reluctance to train Mizuki."
"I kept a close watch on Luke his whole life, even if he didn't meet me until five years ago," Obi-Wan began. "Always ready to protect him and intervene in his life, if need be. Mizuki, however, is a complete stranger."
"Well, from what she's said, I'm sure she's had a nice, stable life on her homeworld, as the Firebender Princess," Cal replied. "Her power is strange, but not necessarily evil, like Merrin's. I even heard rumors of a Dathomirian Jedi."
"They were true, and I hope she's alive," Obi-Wan said, remembering the young woman he and Anakin helped bring into the Jedi Order proper. Her upbringing until then was very unstable, but she had a good Master to show her the right way. "I suppose it's a bit of the caution Yoda and Mace Windu engendered within us, when I feel reluctant to see her trained."
"Well, under the circumstances, maybe some changes are in order," Cal replied. "Maybe it should stop being one master, one padawan. Maybe, the masters should help each other and train the padawans together. Multiple teachers for multiple apprentices." That was a new idea but Obi-Wan thought it had merit.
Obi-Wan considered the options he had. The first was that he take Mizuki far away, but with the Empire chasing them, she was liable to be captured and tortured into either becoming an Inquisitor or at least betraying their location. Under the circumstances, there was no way to get her back to her homeworld, either. Taking Luke away to train him elsewhere was unthinkable under the circumstances, as if Vader hadn't learned the truth, he soon would, and not even Bail Organa could shield them better than this world hidden in a nebula. The second was to keep Mizuki here and not train her but given how the danger they now faced affected her, that wouldn't be fair, and could breed resentment, the seed of the dark side within many people. Especially since the Empire had somehow maneuvered her family into one of their parades. That could cause additionally doubt that might turn her against them. Ultimately, training Mizuki the best he could, alongside Luke, was the ideal solution, under the circumstances.
"We should try your idea for training them, Master Kestis," Obi-Wan said. "Hopefully, Mizuki will become the first of her world to become a Jedi." Cal nodded and led Obi-Wan to where Greez had taken the teenagers. Obi-Wan wondered how they'd react to the news that close emotional attachments were viewed with caution.
Darth Vader emerged from the healing bath which Korra and her mother Senna supervised, levitating himself with the force as his armor was reattached. "Well, Darth, I would say you are doing remarkably well," Senna said to her patient as he put his helmet back on. "Your hair is starting to regrow, though I'm afraid your lungs are beyond me." Vader saw the of his eyebrows reemerging, with a tiny spot on his scalp also showing hints of a sprout, in the mirror as his helmet was fastened into place. What he didn't tell his Water Tribe friends was how, in order to heighten his pain, which he could then focus into rage for power, Palpatine had the armor designed to pinch Vader at random times when he moved. It was nowhere near as bad as it once was, but he still felt the sting as he walked.
"Your work is admirable, as is," Vader replied to the Avatar's mother. "I am pursuing...options for their repair." After he donned his armor, Korra asked her teacher if something was bothering him. "Indeed, there is," Vader replied, turning to Korra and her mother. "I think it is time your family heard the rest of the story of my life." Later that day, after Korra observed more of her father's work as chief, and Mako had done some training, Vader went into Korra and Mako's home, along with her parents, and turned on a scrambling device to make it impossible to eavesdrop on them.
"So, I heard that your son was abducted along with Princess Mizuki," Tonraq said to the Sith he'd sworn an oath of brotherhood to. "You never said you had any children, Lord Vader."
"Because I thought they were dead," the Sith replied. "Do you remember the Jedi I told you of, Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"Yes," Senna replied. "He refused to help your mother either when she was enslaved, or when you started worrying about her."
"At the time of her death, I had reconnected with another woman," Vader revealed. He proceeded to explain to Mako, Korra, and her parents who Padme Amidala was. "By the time she was expecting our child, the war was nearly over. As such, the Jedi started to look at Palpatine as the next threat. Eventually, they learned he followed the way of the Sith and made that their pretext to remove him." They accepted how the Jedi were close-minded, persecuting whoever didn't follow their Force doctrine, even if it was nominally legal. "I told Master Windu that, if the chancellor had committed a crime, either as Sheev Palpatine, or Darth Sidious, he should be brought to trial, if only to show that removing him was right," Vader said. "Windu ignored me, and swung his lightsaber, and when I blocked it, he attacked me, forcing me to kill him." With that story, Korra and the others agreed the Jedi Order had to be destroyed for its treason of attempting to kill the lawful ruler of the galaxy. Afterward, Vader went to eliminate the last Separatist leaders and shut down the droid army, only to be surprised when Padme came to him.
"She said she was worried about me," Vader answered. "But in truth, it was because Obi-Wan had gone to her and told his view of my actions. We started arguing, and then I saw Obi-Wan glaring at me from inside her ship. I...lost my temper, and concluded Padme had conspired with him to kill me. Then...I hurt her, before Obi-Wan and I began our battle on Mustafar." Korra, her husband, and her parents were shocked at the story.
"As much as I loved her, our love was secret," Vader replied. "The Jedi didn't want their members to have a life outside their duty, so it was extremely rare for a Jedi to formally marry someone. I spent most of our marriage on the battlefield, far from her in the Senate building, where she saw no shortage of would-be and former suitors. Neither she or I could even admit to loving each other, so mistrust was inevitable. Nonetheless, I should have seen how Obi-Wan had tricked her like he'd tricked me so many times." The Avatar and her family reflected on that tale of how secret love was unstable love.
"Wait, that would have been when you were maimed," Senna realized, noting how he'd mentioned his battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar.
"Yes," Vader confirmed. "I still had some hope that he'd see reason, but he wouldn't, and you know the rest. After my suit was attached for the first time, perhaps a whole day after the Emperor rescued me from the lava bank, I learned Padme was dead. I have carried the guilt of what I have done ever since. But while searching for General Iroh and the others abducted, I found something that belonged to Obi-Wan, and then a recording of Padme giving birth to our children. My son is named Luke, and Obi-Wan has been preparing him to be the 'perfect' Jedi I could never be. And my daughter is named Leia. She has been adopted by Bail Organa, a senator Padme frequently worked with, who has spent much of his career since railing against every change the Empire makes."
"How do you know these two are your Luke and Leia?" asked Mako.
"Luke Skywalker was on Tatooine, a world filled with painful memories for me, under the care of someone the locals knew as Ben Kenobi, who was assisted by the moisture farmer family that my mother married into but couldn't be protected by," Vader replied. "Leia Organa is an adopted child without a past who looks almost exactly like Padme and is being raised by a senator both she and Obi-Wan were close too, who has done nothing but criticize every change under the Empire. My investigator obtained Padme's autopsy report, confirming she had given birth. I also have evidence to suggest Bail Organa helped Obi-Wan and Yoda escape, after Yoda's own attempt to kill Palpatine failed. Both Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are fifteen, the exact age my own children would be, today." With that evidence, there was no doubt these were the same Luke and Leia Vader had seen in the recording.
"Where are they, now?" a sympathetic Senna asked.
"I don't know where Obi-Wan has taken Luke and the Fire Princess," Vader said. "My agents are looking for a way to retrieve Leia."
"Let us help you, then," Tonraq said. "We swore an oath of brotherhood, and you've been a better brother to me than Unalaq ever was. It is time I return the favor." Upon hearing the predicament Vader was now in, Tonraq remembered how, shortly after Korra was confirmed to be the Avatar, a group of terrorists tried to abduct his then-five-year-old daughter and force her into their ranks. Now, Vader had to face that very scenario himself. And given how Zaheer's ultimate plan involved killing Korra in a gruesome way, there was no doubt these extremists would be just as willing to send Luke and Leia to their deaths.
"Thank you, my friend," Vader said the Waterbender chieftain. "When I find her, you will have your part to play in rescuing her. Though, she won't recognize it as a rescue, at first." Korra and Mako quickly pledged to support their Sith master as well, knowing their own children would always be at risk because their mother was the Avatar. Korra herself concluded that Leia and Luke were what she would have been had Zaheer actually kidnapped her as a child: a brainwashed fanatic who thought her captors were her family, even as they plotted to send Korra to her death.
RIP James Earl Jones, you were our Sith Lord.
Showing Wing can again play his favorite sport is the perfect way to demonstrate he's bonded with his prosthetics. While the Beifongs are bothered by the idea of summary execution, and how the Kaleesh were intimidated into surrender, they understand that Raylen wouldn't be particularly bothered under the circumstances. Shadda-Bi-Boran was first mentioned in an AOTC deleted scene. Given how his father discouraged him from even trying to help people, he's rather skeptical of the Force being anything other than a source of power for the people who can feel it. Everything else is what the galactic population was told after the Empire emerged from the Republic's ashes. I know I changed Trench's background, but I thought this made more sense.
Korra never met Roku before and sees him as a failure plagued by caution and restraint. As well as a hidebound traditionalist who wants every Avatar to be like him. The radio was about to be commercialized at the time of Aang's death, and he has seen enough of the human world to know it's rather prominent, so he decided to use that as a metaphor. Given how none of the Avatar ghosts knew Aang was on a Lion Turtle, they aren't infallible when it comes to the wider world. And that was before Unalaq broke their primary connection to it. I do think Aang would have helped Vader if the Sith gave him the chance to, and that he'd be more upset at the unfinished business with his children than actually dying. BTW, they didn't see Vader's confession.
Obi-Wan is rather cautious but he's actually more open-minded than many Jedi about close relationships. Also, since Anakin had just been opened to the Force, on account of his race and first space battle, as well as the possibility of another Sith being out there, I always figured one of the reasons the council agreed to his training was to make the best of a bad situation. Obi-Wan understands, at this point, if Luke is to be trained, Mizuki should also be trained. The tale of multiple students turning on a single master is Exar Kun and Crado betraying Vodo Siosk Baas. Of course, the Redemption of Revan involves Revan convincing Bastila to choose a life with him to get her to reject the Dark Side, so most Jedi are aware of the concept, even if many don't believe it's worth the risk or that redemption is impossible in almost every circumstance. The Dathomirian Jedi, is a story for another day.
Vader's hair growing back is an effect of Spirit Water Healing. He's also begun looking for ways to replace or heal his lungs. Korra and her family see the attempt to remove Palpatine as a betrayal akin to the Dai Li joining Azula. The fact he was a Sith doesn't matter, as that wasn't technically a crime under Republic law. While they were shocked to learn Vader hurt his wife, they never met her. In addition, Vader revealing his greatest shame to them without trying to avoid responsibility is rather impressive to them, as Tonraq NOT doing so to Korra nearly cost them everything. And of course, there are the similarities between the Red Lotus trying to abduct Korra to use as their greatest but disposable weapon, and what Bail and Obi-Wan did.