Consequences

Chapter 16 - Old Friends

The sound of a walking stick tapping the earthen floor of the cottage comes closer as Yoda steps into the room where Luke and I are seated. He looks so much older and weaker now then I've ever seen him before, and that really worries me.

"Hmm. That you face you make. Look I so old to young eyes?" Yoda asks suddenly, amusement in his tone. I try to cover my worried expression and notice Luke doing the same.

"No," I insist pointlessly.

"Of course not," Luke hastily denies.

Yoda chuckles in response. "I do, yes, I do! Sick have I become. Old and weak." He points a finger at us. "When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good you will not. Hmm?" He chuckles again and hobbles over to his bed.

"Soon will I rest. Yes, forever sleep. Earned it, I have." No. No, no, no. I stubbornly shake my head in denial, even though I know it's true. He can't die too!

"Master Yoda, you can't die," Luke insists.

"H-how will I go back to my time?" I can't be stuck here forever, not with everyone I know from my own time dead. As much as I love the twins, it's just not the same.

"Send you back, someone strong with the Force shall," Yoda assures me. Just from the way he says it, I get the feeling he knows who, but isn't going to tell me. "Strong am I with the Force, but not that strong," he adds again after a few moments of silence. Who's stronger than him who could send me back? I don't have any more time to contemplate it before he speaks up again. "Twilight is upon me and soon night must fall. That is the way of things, the way of the Force."

"But I need your help," Luke protests, "I've come back to complete the training."

"No more training do you require," he replies. As I suspected. He has learned so much since when we first met. "Already know you that which you need."

With a sigh, Yoda lies back against the bed. I don't want to see what I know is going to happen any minute now. He's going to die now, the only one left who I used to know other than him...

"Then I am a Jedi?" inquires Luke.

Yoda shakes his head. "Ohhh. Not yet. One thing remains. Vader. You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi will you be. And confront him you will." He never said kill. Which might mean he also believes Anakin's not beyond redemption. Maybe over the years on Dagobah, he's come to believe it is possible to turn back from the Dark Side?

Luke stares at him in silence for many long moments before finally breaking it, asking a question he already knows but apparently wants further confirmation on. "Master Yoda, is Darth Vader my father?"

Yoda looks at him sympathetically before smiling sadly and rolling over, turning away from us. Clearly, it's not a question he wants to answer.

"Mmm... rest I need. Yes... rest."

"Yoda, I must know," Luke insists after many long moments.

"Your father he is," he answers finally, "Told you, did he?"

"Yes."

"And I felt my bond with him, then..." I trail off not wanting to dwell on another painful topic right now when what's about to happen is hard enough.

"Unexpected this is," murmurs Yoda, closing his eyes, "And unfortunate."

"Unfortunate that I know the truth?" exclaims Luke.

"Why?" I inquire, slightly confused.

With difficulty, Yoda rolls over to face us again. "No. Unfortunate that Luke rushed to face him, that incomplete was his training. Not ready for the burden was he."