Outer Rim

"Does Hondo Ohnaka deliver or not?" Hondo exclaimed as he swept his arms like a Realtor at the surprisingly picturesque mansion and grounds that were not occupied except by the staff robots. The planet was basically unoccupied. In fact this appeared to be the only place on the moon except a trading outpost in the other hemisphere. It was nighttime local when they landed, and the outside showed the giant gas planet that the moon orbited, not unlike Yavin.

"You have indeed done well, my friend," Kit said as the children and their keepers went into the mansion to prepare the place for their stay. "Are you quite certain, however, this place is uninhabited?"

"Well, it's inhabited now," Hondo said laughing. "But seriously, no. It belonged to my beloved momma who unfortunately is no longer with us. And she left it to me. Look at this place, though. Artistic beauty, slight minimalist taste- hardly my style."

Kit refrained from asking if he had a style other than ostentatious.

"The place is yours to remain as long as you need it for, I simply require a place to crash if I'm coming through the area," Hondo said.

"Are you sure we cannot pay you?" Kit asked.

"Tutt, tutt, tutt! This is for my good friend Katoonie! Besides, I do not deal in Republic credits or any currency you are likely to have," Hondo stated. "And well, also because Maz said she would never allow me back into her place if I did."

Kit watched as the children were already sliding down the banisters. "Thank you."

Correlia shipyards

The group had met up with Jesse and Rex. Rex had slung the kid over his shoulders to anyone from thinking it was a kidnapping. Padme hadn't said anything, but she caught even under their helmets the looks directed at her when they informed the troopers of the boy's name. Her mind was spinning at the coincidence- or was that just the world spinning? This late in the pregnancy she couldn't decide. Either way, Ben had administered a stim shot. Before reaching the ship, Han had come back to consciousness within time to see the Falcon. The boy was stunned when he realized where he was heading, to Vestara's surprise he kept his mouth closed. Ben had walked ahead to get the boy some more suitable clothing: leather jacket, vest, ect.

Dagobah system, Several days later

The Falcon came out of hyperspace near the planet with Han and Anakin at the controls. It had taken all of two hours for Han to go from the mandatory griping about being kidnapped to being the galaxy's biggest fanboy. Ben wasn't quite sure what to make of that. He had never heard of Han being a fan of either Anakin or Obi-Wan, but he figured several decades and Bespin hadn't done any favors for Anakin's popularity, though his cousin was named after him. Vestara couldn't believe the two actually got along, but the two bonded over their love of ships and apparently Han had been in the docking area to get a closer look at the Falcon. Anakin and Ahsoka had both been showing Han the Falcon's controls which he took to like Mon Calamari to water.

Anakin, however, controlled the helm going planet-side as the weather made it impossible to see. Surprisingly, though, the instruments worked perfectly well. Ben wondered if Yoda had been the one to interfere with his father's instruments on his original landing on Dagobah since he never had a problem landing on the planet again.

The master was waiting for them on the landing as the group stepped off the ship.

"Young Skywalker," he said looking at Anakin, "much calmer you are than when last we met, though I expect you to be panicking in the not-so-distant future," he said laughing as he looked at Padme, who was well past the point where she could hide being pregnant. "A comedian, I predict one to be to his teacher. Come, young Skywalkers, follow me." He pointed to Ben and Anakin and hobbled into the woods.

They followed, Ben getting the uncomfortable feeling he knew right where they were walking to. Sure, enough, several minutes later they came to the clearing in front of the cave of evil. Ben looked down at Yoda suspiciously.

"No thanks. I'll skip the rush if you don't mind," Ben said.

Yoda cackled. "Not for you it is, it is he who must enter." He pointed his gimmer stick at Anakin. "You, I brought for company."

Anakin shrugged, gave a dubious look at the cave and entered, leaving Yoda and Ben alone.

Once he was out of earshot, Ben looked at Yoda and said, "I've been learning about our family history, namely who my great grandfather was."

"The son of Revan, Anakin is," Yoda said firmly.

"You knew?" Ben said, surprised.

Yoda nodded. "Since the day I first saw him."

"You never told my father," Ben said, again surprised.

"I never told Anakin either. Big and hard enough heads Skywalkers have already," Yoda said.

Ben laughed. "Dad said you made him stand on his head for two hours, allegedly to soften it when he was annoying you."

"Very mysterious are the ways of the Force," Yoda replied.

Jedi Council Chamber 32 BBY

The council eagerly though hesitantly waited for the arrival of the boy that Qui-Gon had gone out of his way to bring back to the Order. Yoda was very interested in what his grand padawan had found but he was not prepared for what he sensed when the boy entered the room. His colleagues were all interested and intrigued by the potential they saw, but Yoda knew this was no vergence.

Flashback, secret Archives of the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order

Despite trying for centuries to avoid this job, Yoda had finally been forced to accept the position as the most senior Jedi whose whereabouts was known. He should have known his master wouldn't show up so he could throw the job on her. All she did was send a "cute gift" from a location that was unknown, but he knew she had done it. Now he had access to the secret holocrons of the most sensitive secrets of the Order. Most involved the training of Force masters, but there was one unusual ancient holocron that was listed as priority. Intrigued, the Grandmaster activated the holocron.

A woman appeared. "To the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order I bequeath this knowledge, to remain in the shadows except to leader of our Order. I am Grandmaster Satele Shan, descendant of the notorious Jedi Master, and sometime Sith Lord, Revan. The information is banned at the behest of my ancestor Revan to prevent the uprising of any more Revanchists movements. I am here to inform you that the Hero of Tython was no other than Revan himself, the Revan that the strike team defeated was a clone due a series of experiments when he was still the Dark Lord."

A man then appeared in the projector. "I am Revan, now called the hero of Tython. I have imbued a portion of this hologram with my Force presence so that the Grandmaster of the Order can detect if the Sith or Revanchists have attempted another clone." Yoda felt the powerful presence emanating from the holocron. Yoda meditated on memorizing the presence as the speaker continued. "As you are aware, a powerful Force user can generally detect when a child is the son or daughter of a Force user, until the child is of age and the signature becomes more his or her own and less that of the combined parts of the parents. My own son was not Force sensitive, but many others of my family are. The greatest danger of these clones is that they were mentally unstable." The holocron Revan then proceeded to tell the story of his experiments.

Jedi Council Chamber

Yoda was instantly disturbed upon sensing the boy. Either the Revanchists or the Sith were playing games. The fact that Qui-Gon believed a Sith Lord had attacked them upon them leaving the planet was either a major coincidence or some form of conspiracy. Either way did not inspire a great deal of confidence in the situation. As Mace conducted the examination Yoda probed the boy deeper. To his relief the boy was not a clone. In fact, he had the Force presence of a normal child. This boy, though, was clearly the son of Darth Revan with all his father's power and more. Yoda thankfully also didn't sense any form of Force training which would suggest a spy or trick. He was powerful, having taught himself the skill of piloting. Yoda firmly believed if this boy ever achieved his full potential, he would be far more powerful than perhaps any Force user in the galaxy, but at what cost? Yoda reached out into the Force hoping to get some glimpses. He received many not very inspiring scenes most involving battles and lightsabers. A warrior the boy would be, a great warrior if the council accepted his training. Qui-Gon had saved the boy from a terrible fate perhaps one darker than he realized, but to take a slave and make him a warrior? That could break him. The boy cared deeply about those around him and his friends, even new friends. He proved this by risking his life on Tatooine in a pod race. Yoda and his gimmer stick would be having words with Qui-Gon about that when everything settled down. To put this boy though in a situation where those around him would die, what would that do to his soul? His father had burned the galaxy down in a vain attempt to protect the galaxy from Vitiate.

The boy was too old to be taught appropriately the manner of controlling one's emotions the way most Jedi learn and attempting to reconcile them could prove disastrous. Even now he sensed the boy's fear for his mother. Yoda internally sighed. The power the boy possessed would make him a powerful Jedi yes, but he would not risk the kind-hearted boy's soul because he possessed the power of his father. Better it would be to be to find him a home with one of the galaxy's other Force user schools, such as the Guardians of Jeddha, or fight fire with fire, the Correlian Jedi. Both would welcome him in as one of their family as each accepted older members. The Correlians had actually perfected the art of teaching older students and though they were reckless, they rarely ever fell to the dark. The Guardians would teach him enough control to keep his powers from becoming a danger to himself and the organization assisted many through their sector, a good fit for the kind-hearted boy. The Correlians, being daredevils, would be scrambling over themselves to be able to teach the new hot-shot pilot. Since the Green Jedi usually only operated with Cor Sec against local smugglers, it would still be by far a safer, more comfortable environment for Anakin. The Greens also hadn't lost a Jedi on a mission in decades (at least not caused by their own reckless stunts). Yes, too old. A good reason to convince the Council not to accept his training, Qui-Gon he would have to convince that Jedhha or Correlia was by far better choices for young Skywalker when things settled down a bit from the hornets' nest he had stirred up.

Post Battle of Naboo

For the first time in his life, Yoda wanted the power to bring someone back from the dead for the solely selfish purpose of smacking them upside the head with his gimmer stick. "Qui-Gon Jinn, you headstrong stubborn idiot." Yoda fumed. "You got us in a pickle and then shipped off to the afterlife before fixing it." The Council had turned against Yoda in this matter after hearing about the boy's exploits in the battle of Naboo. To the Council it was all the reason they needed to allow him to be trained, along with him risking his life on Tatooine to save the queen and Jinn. To Yoda it was another reason to smack Jinn over the head and even more reason to send the boy to Correllia where they could properly teach him to get out of a bad situation you jumped feet first into.

Then to top it off Jinn had to gall to choose Obi-Wan, who hadn't even been knighted yet, to be the boy's teacher. The boy wasn't even a Jedi knight yet nor ready to be a teacher to young Skywalker, but he still had the recklessness of youth and was convinced he was ready. But Mace and the Council would take the last breath of Jinn's defiance to heart. Doing so had prevented Yoda from attempting to find a better teacher for the boy because frankly Kit Fisto or Plo Koon would have been a better choice with their enjoyment of robotics and natural piloting skills. Frankly though if he had to have picked, he would have dug through the Rim for his own former master and dragged her back to Coruscant by her pointy ears if he had to. It would serve her right for sticking him with the job of Grandmaster. Yoda closed his eyes and sighed. It would do no good to worry about this situation; he had to do the best could with what he had. The Sith were the more important thing to worry about at this second and for the first time in the half millennia since Darth Gravid's death he had a trail to follow.

Tatooine 31 BBY

It had taken far too long for Yoda's liking to be able to do his own searching for the Sith Lord. The Sith killed on Naboo had been a dead end but with the new chancellor's election, Dooku leaving the order, and the court case against the Trade Federation it took nearly a year for Yoda to get some personal leave to search. He feared the trail had long gone cold. Mos Espa spaceport wasn't quite as bad as Mos Eisley and was surprisingly frequently travelled to by commercial flyers. Thus no one batted an eye at the small green alien in the hood, hobbling around the town. That is until a group of local thugs thought they had an easy mark.

"Hey, traveler, you need to pay your toll," said a large man who came up to the elderly alien.

Yoda was about to give the thug a lesson in "size matters not" when a voice behind him called out, "Leave him alone."

Yoda turned his body so he could see both the rescuer and the thug. The rescuer was a middle-aged man with a beard. Instinct told Yoda to let this play out and after a moment the thug grumbled and turned away. After he had cleared out Yoda turned to his "rescuer".

"Thank you, sir," Yoda said.

"You're welcome. Travelers, though, should be wary about being by themselves in a rough place," the man said.

"After 900 years you live, worried about death you will not be," Yoda said laughing.

The mans expression lightened and he started laughing, too. "No, I don't figure I would be. What is your name, Elder?"

"Minch," Yoda said, as it was his favorite alias.

"Well met, Elder. I am Cliegg Lars," the man said. "Please join me and my son for mealtime."

Yoda went with the family and ate with them. There he learned more about the family. The Lars were moisture farmers out past Anchorhead. They were here in town because about 8 months ago on a yearly business trip Cliegg had fallen in love with a slave and he come back to town to see her. Yoda informed Cliegg that he was simply passing by not sure where his destination would be. He, however, skillfully implied since he had lived so many years, he should allow him to meet his prospective wife to ensure she was a good choice. Cliegg laughed and bade him to come visit with them.

Watto's junkyard

Watto had truly lost nearly everything in his disastrous bet at the podrace. The boy's mother was about the only thing he had left as his liquid assets were gone and the boy had far greater skill as a mechanic than his mother. And here was this farmer who kept coming by to interrupt in the middle of the workday. Granted, he always paid but he was becoming a nuisance and here he was with a small green alien who was wearing a robe. The Toydarian grimaced to himself. He wasn't fond of people who wore robes, especially since that Jedi had swindled him.

"Farmer, I hope you have more than a drill bit to have fixed this time, instead of wasting my valuable worker's time," Watto said with a glare at Cleigg and Yoda.

Yoda had hopped up on the table and was returning the shop owner's glare with one of his own.

"Tell me how valuable the worker is to you and I'll take her off your hands," Cliegg growled back at Watto.

Yoda meanwhile could sense the woman in the shop was in earshot but not noticed by either party. She was listening with great hope and was noticeably heartbroken when Watto gave a price greater than two years revenue of the Lars moisture farm. To Yoda's greater surprise, though, he could sense that the woman Cliegg had spoken of was Skywalker's mother. He had hoped that the woman could tell him where Skywalker could be found; he wasn't expecting to come straight to her. Listening to the conversation, he was getting more and more annoyed at the greedy Toydarian. He sensed Cliegg, outwardly calm and collected, internally struggling with despair at the price set by Watto. That's when he stepped in and said, "Done".

The other two looked at him, shocked as was Shmi from the back. Yoda pulled out a pocket full of large denomination coins of the local currency from and handed them to a shocked Cliegg.

The shocked Cliegg looked at him. "Elder, are you sure?"

"The price of dowry, I gladly grant you, Cliegg Lars. May you and your wife be happy."

That afternoon Yoda helped the family pack what few belongings she had onto their hovercraft and at the insistence of the bride, he went with them to the Lars homestead out past Anchorhead. That evening in a sunset ceremony the couple gave their marriage vows, unknowingly, with the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order presiding over the wedding. Yoda stayed for several more days through the traditional Tatooine wedding feast. On the evening before he departed, Shmi came out to speak with him as he watched the stars appear.

"May I ask a question, Elder?" Shmi said.

Yoda replied, "Indeed if you answer some for me as well."

"You did not come to Tatooine for a wedding party," Shmi said.

"No, an unexpected pleasure it was though."

"I must ask because I have a strange feeling that you were here because of me," Shmi said.

"Get these feelings often, do you?" Yoda inquired.

"Sometimes. Not as often as my son did though, but his freedom was won by a Jedi, and I am grateful that he will not live a life of slavery," Shmi said.

"Lived always on Tatooine have you?" Yoda asked.

"No, Elder. I was born and raised on the Ring of Glavis. My father had died of a terrible disease and my mother was the only family I had left. I was approached by a young scientist who said he thought he had discovered a cure and wanted help. My mother and I were poor and he offered a lot of money for testing a cure to the disease that killed my father. I accepted but one day as I went in to check my bloodwork his lab was attacked by the Hutts. I passed out from an explosion and woke up in chains. I felt my mother pass away sometime after," Shmi said.

Yoda closed his eyes. "How long ago was this?"

"About eleven years ago. I was only a teenager. The suns of Tatooine have an enormous aging effect on humans though, so I am younger than I look," Shmi said to Yoda.

"What was the name of this scientist?" Yoda inquired.

"Jost Eronoss. This is a curious line of questioning, Elder," Shmi said gently.

"Perhaps nothing," Yoda said, "but joy it brings me to see you happy again, Mrs. Lars."

They then watched the stars in companionable silence.

Yoda left the next morning with a friend of Cliegg's who had drove in from Mos Espa for the wedding after he once again told man he need not repay him as he wasn't hurting for money. He also didn't tell him he had secretly stashed most of his local cash in the Lars' savings box. He then bid the couple a good marriage and fond farewell.

Once he returned to Mos Espa, he sent a message from Shmi to Anakin telling him that she had been freed and where she lived, leaving his part out of it. That a dark force ensured no message ever made it from Tatooine to Anakin was never known to Yoda, who was unaware that the message never reached its recipient. But it was in this way that Yoda knew Skywalker's family and knew one of the most powerful Force users in the galaxy would be well taken care of.

The Jedi master made his way to the Ring of Glavis where to his disappointment but not shock, the trail was too old to discover whoever had funded the lab. Yoda then tried to trace back Jost Eronoss who he followed to the university of Naboo where he discovered a series of gambling debts had left the man destitute and desperate. He had even turned down an invitation from then Senator Palpatine's office to become a member of a premier Coruscant medical institute on the hopes he could make his fortune elsewhere. All records had been destroyed so there was no trace or trail back to the Sith or Revanchists. He couldn't even discount the possibility that Eronoss hadn't stumbled onto a cache of research by accident and saw it as his ticket to the big time. With the trail cold he was forced to return to Coruscant empty handed. For his new friend's sake though he kept up with young Skywalker eventually becoming a confidant and in time a good friend- a friendship that, had a honey-tongued Sith Lord not been undermining, would have perhaps kept Anakin on the straight and narrow in any timeline.

Author's note

So now we know the true story of what Yoda was planning with anakin and you people thought he was going to throw Anakin into the streets :P Yoda was also responsible for freeing anakkns mother from slavery which may i say the sovereign queen of a planet didn't do. While some may think I'm pushing things too far remember Yoda has a lot of trust in a group of strangers for no apparent reason to place one of the most powerful Force users in the galaxy in their care instead of having obi wan raise him.