Chereads / Star Wars: Skywalker / Chapter 231 - V.3-C.29│Battle IV│

Chapter 231 - V.3-C.29│Battle IV│

Ki-Adi-Mundi. Jedi Master and member of the Jedi High Council... is dead.

Yoda couldn't believe his eyes, for what he had just witnessed is something that he would have never guessed would happen.

"No!" Yoda called out, seeing Anakin decapitate the Jedi Master, Ki-Adi-Mundi, but Yoda was also blinded as well, not knowing just what is going on.

A bright light encompassed whatever place the three, now two living beings were within. Anakin, Yoda and the now dead Ki-Adi-Mundi would be blinded by said light, as if something of great importance was taking place.

After the light show was over, what appeared before Yoda was an endless expanse that seemed to converge across the entirety of everything.

From one point to another, there was this endless nothingness alongside stars littering the surrounding view.

Yoda looked around, trying to sense through the Force and maybe even rely on his good old natural sensory organs of the eyes and ears, as to ascertain just where he was. 'Is this some kind of illusion?' Yoda thought to himself as he regarded this place.

For it is quite beautiful to view, but it wasn't a beautiful goodness that Yoda sensed... It was instead a grim beauty that came from this place.

Something that said this was the end of all things, yet also at the same time the only natural conclusion of how things were supposed to be.

The stars in this expanse started to go out one by one and Yoda still had no idea about what is happening. Nor did he even try to understand what is happening, as there are much more important matters on his mind that is distracting him from the core of the problem he is in.

'Find a way out, I must. Stars going out, seem not a good sign, it does.' Yoda thought to himself as he observed the changes happening.

One by one the stars were extinguished, leaving Yoda all alone. By himself, left to stew in his thoughts while his fears for what was to happen in the dark did not come true. That grim setting and grim beauty he sensed and maybe even appreciated should of told a different story.

However, nothing like that has happened so far, thus leaving Yoda to only one conclusion. An instinctive feeling that he knows may be wrong, but also cant help but feel as if it is right.

"Skywalker?" Yoda called out, his voice still being able to be heard, even in space where it is impossible to hear anything. This only further went to confirm to Yoda that he is within a separate space or frame of mind, within an illusion of sorts. "Skywalker! Show yourself, you will. Explain yourself, now, you must."

Yoda may not hold any actual bargaining chips right now, in the face of such a grand power but Yoda still had this feeling there is some sort of purpose behind the event he had just seen.

All of a sudden, the darkness of space was thrown away in exchange for the brightness of day.

"Dagobah. Located in the Sluis sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Despite being located near the Rimma Trade Route, it is reachable only by obscure hyperlanes." Anakin's voice was heard, as the place they were now in, both Yoda and Anakin, was a swamp of some kind.

Dagobah was a harsh, humid, swampy planet, mostly covered in shallow marshland, interspersed with stifling forests and at least one cave. There were very few truly open bodies of water on the planet: the water supply was thinly invested throughout the planet's main habitat, swampland, although there were vast expanses of mud fields.

"Skywalker. Brought me to this place you have. Reason, have, you must..." Yoda for now put aside the fact he had witnessed the death of Ki-Adi-Mundi, as obviously what is happening right now is of greater importance.

Not that he would put that behind him forever, but would instead indulge just what Anakin is currently doing. Knowing all the things that he does, Yoda knew that he should probably take a step back from his current emotions, whatever they may be and instead proceed with caution.

"You know of this place. A place you have decided to come to if the worst case scenario were to ever happen." Anakin responded as he looked at the diminutive, wrinkly green alien.

"You know of this how?" Yoda was now intrigued. "Seen visions you have as well? Brought this not to anyone's attention? Why?" Yoda is still confused about why he is brought here, if only as a illusion.

"I have brought you here to point out some things. That's all." Anakin replied.

"Point things out, you may..." Yoda is response is intrigued still, wanting to know just where this is going.

"See this cave here?" All of a sudden, the environment where Anakin and Yoda was changed towards another. Specifically they were still within a swamp, but there is a cave of some kind.

"This place..." Yoda seemed to hesitate a bit and take a few steps back from the cave, for it is steeped in the energies of the dark side. "Why here?"

"The Dark Side Cave, also known as the Cave of Evil contains a powerful dark side manifestation of the force." Anakin said, explaining what this place was, if Yoda didn't already know what this place is.

A cave of limestone and dirt, the Dark Side Cave was located deep in the equatorial swamps and contained a vergence in the Force as well as the apparition of a dark Jedi. "A focal point for the dark side of the Force, the cave challenges the perceptions of anyone who entered into its depths. Drawing visitors in, people will often experience visions of the past, future, or possible futures."

"Know of this place, I do..." Yoda responded.

Hundreds of years before the Clone Wars, the Jedi Minch battled and killed a powerful Bpfasshi Dark Jedi leader, and his energies absorbed into its surroundings, tainting the passage with the Dark Spirit.

Yoda had a vision of the Dark Side Cave during one of his meditations. In this vision, Qui-Gon Jinn had survived the battle of Naboo and had taken nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker as his Padawan.

He guided Skywalker into the cave to face his fears, telling Anakin that all that was inside the cave was 'Only what you take with you.'

Yoda didn't exactly want to be here, but it would seem that he is forced to come here. "I am here to guide you into this cave, for you must experience something. You must see things, the Force, balance and the fate of the galaxy yourself. This is no mere illusion. It is in many ways also a reality." Anakin said towards Yoda as he faced the cave.

"Guidance from the student I shall recieve?" Yoda asked Anakin.

"Student? I guess you can say that. Student that also just so happens to be a Master as well, meaning that you are in good hands." Anakin replied as he walked into the cave. "Come now. There is much for you to see."

Yoda promptly followed after Anakin, and for some strange reason started to experience a whole host of emotions. Whether this be fear, doubt or anything else related to emotions within the dark side of the Force.

[]

"Ok. That is all for today. You may all leave now." Aayla said as she gestured towards the children within the classroom they were in.

Aayla was kind of forced to not do anything that would be too strenuous in physical activity by not only Anakin, but the other girls as well. 'It would seem that they care for the baby just as much as they would care for me...' Aayla thought to herself.

"Miss!?" A voice called out to Aayla, as she is not to surprised to find that some Jedi younglings were also in attendance. It didn't take very long to start integrating the young ones, especially since she had gotten good at her current job of being some sort of maternal figure.

"Yes?" Aayla often got Jedi children coming to her, and often heard those that are currently teaching within the Academy that the Jedi children seem most curious. It probably goes a long way that Anakin had already implanted the idea since he was within the Jedi Order, which subsequently still survived within the younglings now.

It hadn't even been that long since Anakin and the others had left the Jedi Order, only being a few months now. 'Time really does seem to slow down a bit... How did that happen?' Aayla thought to herself.

"I was just wondering... You talk about the Force, both the dark and light sides of the Force as if they are both meant to be equal in some manner..." The Jedi child asked, which kept most if not all of the students back as they were interested in hearing Aayla's answer.

"Well-" She was about to start on a lecture, something that the children would be interested in, however she is interrupted by someone barging into the classroom.

"Aayla! Something has happened!" It was Barriss whom had just barged into the room and saw all of the children. "Oops..."

"Oops?" Aayla responded but got over the intrusion rather quickly and said. "Well? What happened?" Aayla asked, given that she wanted an excuse to not further delay things.

As the days passed by, and due to her pregnancy, she couldn't help the side effects of such a thing happening. Mood swings, cravings and other things including all of a sudden not wanting to explain things to her students right now.

"Well... Maybe we should talk elsewhere..." Barriss moved her eyes over towards all of the children here.

"Yes... That would be for the best." Aayla responded before she turned around to the children. "Off you all go now. I will answer questions next time, but now I have to leave with this big sister here."

The children responded in a positive.

Aayla and Barriss went off in another direction, somewhere where they would have some privacy to talk about things. "So, what is it then?"

"Its Ahsoka..." Barriss started.

"What with Ahsoka?" Aayla questioned, not knowing where this is going, but knowing the brat, it would surely be something mischievous in some fashion.

"She has, uh... She has gone with the Jedi leaving towards Coruscant." Barriss dropped the bomb, and it would seem that she had come to Aayla first before anyone else.

"W-What!?" Aayla is definitely shocked. "What is she thinking!?" Aayla continued to further question Barriss, to try and see if she had any idea why she had up and left with the Jedi.

"She did it secretly. She wasn't coerced or anything like that. She said something about seeing some sort of vision about Palpatine, the Yuuzhan Vong and some other mysterious presence similar to Eve and her family." Barriss explained.

"What about Ani? Does he know?" Aayla further questioned.

"I have no idea where he is, and Siri is most certainly not telling me anything. All I know is that he is here, on Tatooine physically but mentally he may be further away..." Barriss said, explaining that she had tried to get to Anakin first with this information.

"It would seem that the little one of our group is now being silly again." Aayla said, sighing in exasperation, for what Ahsoka is doing may be dangerous.

Who knows what is going to happen to her if she goes there, not excluding the fact she has gone there because of some visions she has received about a few things.

"Well, it isn't like this isn't within her nature..." Barriss replied.

"Whatever, I cant be going anywhere in my condition, so... You should gather the other girls to try and head towards wherever she has gone and then forcibly bring her back." Aayla said, referring to the others.

Or maybe even sequester some troops from the Empyrean to try and get some people to help them and the Jedi-Separatists-Independence faction heading towards Palpatine.

"Right! That sounds like a great idea!" Barriss responded, having started to go off in another direction to assemble the aveng-No, not the avengers but the other girls as they have gathered enough experience and training to be relevant in things to come.

'Things seem to be going awry...' Aayla thought to herself.