Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi, faces his toughest challenge yet. After taking his Jedi vows, he assumes the misbelief that love has no place in his life. As a result, he denies the love he craves in order to establish the New Jedi Order and maintain...
❷ "Yoda and the Younglings"—Attack of the Clones OST
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When the sun had set, Leia was more at peace. As the terrace cooled, she led Luke back inside to the opulent living room. White furnishings with a few touches of color in accent pieces reminded Leia of the Mountain Palace on her homeworld of Alderaan, and a pang of homesickness touched her heart.
Ben wandered out of his room to them, holding a few toys. "Mommy, mommy, pway wif me. You can be Daddy in the Fawcon, and I wi' be Dawt Vaduh in his TIE fighter." Then he gave Uncle Luke the toy X-wing Luke had left on the table earlier. "And you can be a Rebew fighter."
❶ He raced around the room, pew-pewing. He came up to Luke and shot down his fighter, giggling. He said in a dark voice, "You're dead, Jedi. That was all too easy."
Luke looked at Leia. "Hey, Ben, where did you learn this?"
Ben looked at him. "Nursewy."
Leia said with a nervous laugh. "It's part of the curriculum, to teach our children what it cost to form this New Republic. We don't want them ever to forget."
Luke scowled and wrinkled his brow. "Well, that's not how it happened, you womprat." He grabbed the little boy and tickled him a bit. "I'm right here, alive, in front of you."
Ben wiggled out of his uncle's grasp and continued playing with his TIE fighter. "Yeah, but that's not how it was suppost ta happen. He to'd me so."
"Who? Who told you?" Luke asked.
"Him," Ben said as he held up the TIE fighter. "Vaduh."
Leia dropped her mouth and raced forward.
Luke raised his hand to ward her off. "How do you know it was him, Ben?"
"He comes to me at night, in my dweams. He wears a dawk bwack mask and says he is Dawt Vaduh. He shows me how to do reawy neat fings, too. See." Ben narrowed his eyes, and the toy shot at the vase.
Luke snatched it with the Force at the last moment, stopping it microns away for a rare Alderaaian vase. Ben fought him for a moment and then lost interest.
Luke knelt beside the boy and placed his hand on Ben's scalp above his ears. He sent tendrils of the Force through the cortex into the hypothalmus, first calming him and then sending him into a Force-trance. Then he built a wall around the head, a glowing shield of energy pulsing.
Leia crossed to her brother on the couch, staring at the still form of her son in a Jedi trance. "Luke, what did you to do him? And is this safe? Won't Vader come to him in his dreams again?"
