Empire Day ✓

Chapter 20 - Decisions

Padmé shivered in the damp as Grand Jedi Master Yoda instructed her son. The boy sat on the ground, eagerly absorbing every word from the little, green creature with the large, pointy ears and multiple chins.

As one of the leaders of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Padmé had visited Dagobah a few times in the last few years. She and Obi-Wan were the only two who knew where Yoda maintained his exile.

She wondered now if she should have brought Anakin here. If he chose the wrong path, then it would not be long before the Emperor, Darth Sidious, would hunt down and kill the ancient Jedi Master.

"Focus, Young Skywalker. Bring your thoughts under control. Focus only on the Force. Feel it move through you and out of you, binding everything around you—me, that tree, this rock, even your mother." Yoda taught with a wisdom that spanned almost a millennium.

Luke's boyish soprano voice flowed with wonder. "It's like ribbons. I do see it. I do feel it." He pulled his hands in, gathering as much as he could.

"Release it now, Young Skywalker. If you have no specific use, free it must be."

The boy flung his hands, tossing it away, but he quickly moaned and howled in pain, rolling into a ball on the ground, holding his knees to his chest. "No!"

Padmé ran over to him, holding her son. "Shh, Luke, it's all right. It's not real." She rubbed his back, trying to get him to focus on anything but the Force-vision. "Luke, open your eyes. It's not real."

Her son thrashed on the ground until Yoda put his hand on the boy's forehead, placing him in a Force-trance. He collapsed into the mud, still but breathing.

"What was that?"

"Anakin. His father's pain the boy feels. Connected are they."

"That's what Anakin is experiencing?"

"And worse. Coming to terms with things he has done." Yoda's face dropped in sadness. "Atrocities these last eight years have filled his life. Atrocities that cannot be reversed. Much terror they have caused."

"He's done them at the command of the Emperor. Master Yoda, Anakin's been under a spell. These last few days, he has not been the same monster that has done those atrocities." 

"But those atrocities he has done, spell or not. Shaded his life with darkness have they. The darkness does not want to leave."

"Can you break this spell he is under?"

Yoda shook his head. "Willingly submitted he to the power of the dark side. Willingly must he break free of it." 

The Jedi Master moved to Luke, picked up the boy with the Force to move him inside the hut. Padmé followed as Yoda continued.

"If choose the light he does, Padmé, no guarantee that the Alliance will accept him or trust him ever again."

"I understand."

"If stay with him you do, no longer trust you will they either. Or Luke. Or even Leia."

"Only Bail and Breha know she's mine—and Obi-Wan." Padmé bit her top lip, thinking through the implications.

"Maybe only they should ever know."

Yoda covered Luke with a blanket and sat by the fire. He gazed at Padmé. He suddenly bowed his head, closing his eyes, communing with the Force.

"Master Yoda? What's wrong?"

"Deciding he is. Uncertain he is. Afraid he is to leave his master. Afraid his master will hurt you and Luke if he does."