Star Wars: Saving Evil

"Please Master Skywalker, tell us one more," a young voice, only barely recognizable as male, pleaded.

    "Come on Master Skywalker, just one," another little voice said, its slightly higher pitch identifying it as female.

    A small circle of students sat cross-legged around an elderly man in a comfortable-looking dark brown chair with soft cushions, obviously used for many years by the myriad dark stains and small tears across its surface. The figure sitting in it was the consummate grandfather: wrinkles covering his thin but soft face, his hair stark white but sparse, but heavy lids and wrinkles not concealing the brightness of life radiating from his eyes and smile.

    Master Skywalker groaned as if greatly fatigued and leaned back in his chair. "I don't know... It's getting pretty late..."

    And as he had planned, the young students gave pleas in unison for just one more story from the legendary Jedi's near-mythic life. They had heard about his destruction of the evil Death Star, his confrontation of the menacing Darth Vader, then facing both Vader and the sinister Emperor Palpatine - and dozens other tales from the many terrible and wonderful things he had experienced over his near-hundred years of life.

    "Oh... alright, one more then," he said and grinned as the children cheered and beamed in anticipation.

    Luke Skywalker laid his head against the back of the chair and closed his eyes, breathing deeply as he recalled all the things he had seen and somehow lived through over so long. He always tried to tell them the most so-called "heroic" things he had done, cutting out the violence and death; they would experience those things later, he knew, they didn't need him filling their minds with it now. But, as Jedi students, he also wanted to tell them stories with morals and meaning, to guide them in their own lives. So after several long moments contemplating which story to tell, the children gazing at him on the verge of bursting in excitement, he opened his eyes and smiled at them.

    "Ok, let's see now... Oh, this one was very long ago, only a few years after the evil Sith Lord Emperor Palpatine was defeated," Luke began, leaning forward in the chair for suspense, recalling the events to his mind - and a little to his surprise, they seemed as fresh as they had when he experienced them the first time. "I had just begun rebuilding the Jedi Order and was traveling the galaxy in search of those strong in the Force to train. It was very difficult, and at first I didn't know if I would ever find any, much less enough to rebuild a whole new order. But by the Will of the Force, I began finding apprentices.

    "After about three years of gathering new apprentices and sending them to the old Jedi Temple on Yavin IV, I was finishing my exploration of the ancient pyramid we were going to use for the Temple, when in one of its hundreds of rooms I found a very old text. It was just a simple leather-bound journal with ancient, thick, light brown paper pages in it. I tried to read it, but I couldn't decipher its words - it was in some archaic language. But on every other page, it had drawings made in deep red ink. At first I had no idea what they were drawings of, but after meditating on them for many hours, I realized, by the Force that they were not drawings - they were maps. And maps of locations on Yavin IV itself."

    He paused and grinned as he looked at the students' enraptured faces. When he had first started telling students stories about his life - or, rather, when other people had began using stories from his life as examples of Jedi heroism and morality - he had initially felt as if he were being prideful or too attached to the past. But he soon realized he was not proud of himself: he was proud of the Jedi and the lightside of the Force. And so he was very happy to have been guided by them so, and to have his life used as an example for future generations of Jedi.

    Taking a small sip of hot chocolate, his old favorite drink given to him by his friend Lando, he smiled and continued. "I called in a couple geographers familiar with Yavin IV's landscape, but none of them could tell where the maps were indicating. They knew the maps were about Yavin, but just couldn't quite place them. So I started exploring the planet myself."

    "Weren't you afraid Master Skywalker?" a Mon Calamari with deep blue skin said, his voice the watery gurgle of their species.

    "Yes I was," he said. "But I knew my mission was important, that the Force was guiding me - so even though I was afraid, I did what I knew I should do."

    The students beamed at his courage and he couldn't help but blush as he sensed their admiration through the Force. He took a deep breath and rubbed his chin again as he continued with his story. "I brought a backpack of supplies with me, but without the Force, I could not have made it. The Yavin forests seemed to go on forever, and I was attacked by a new kind of deadly predator almost every night. I traveled for a week, with no real direction. I just looked at the ancient maps and let the Force guide me. Finally, I found the site.

    "As soon as I got to it, I could feel the cold evil of the darkside pulsating from the single pyramid in the area. Its strength almost overwhelmed me, but I pushed on, letting the lightside fill me and carry me on. I let it give me peace and serenity, even though the darkside coming from that place tried to force feelings of hate, fear and despair into my mind."

    The students audibly gasped and Luke raised his hands menacingly as he described the darkside, trying to make them understand how terrible it was, to be avoided. "Even though the pyramid was surrounded by thick forest, filling the air with wet humidity and heat, the darkside coming from that building made me feel cold and my breath to frost, and its death-giving nature made the area around the pyramid barren and lifeless. Even the trees at the edge of the forest were black and misshapen.

    "But I kept going. I knew I had to go into that place, even though I didn't want to, and I had faith that the Force would guide and support me - and it did.  I knew that the builders of these ancient pyramids liked putting booby traps all around them, so I had to be aware of every step I made. To my surprise, its massive stone door opened for me as soon as I walked up to it - which made me relieved and anxious at once.

  "I kept my lightsaber activated in one hand, for light and defense, and the ancient journal in my other, opened to the pages displaying the maps. I flipped through a few pages, and on one, the Force touched my mind, showing me it was the map I needed to use here. But I couldn't verify that the map was for the pyramid: when I tried to reach out with my mind to sense the layout of it, something was blocking me. I couldn't sense anything; only a deep, empty darkness filling the entire building. It made me shiver, even colder than it had felt outside, so I didn't try to sense into it any deeper.

    "The first area I was in, when I first entered the pyramid, was a tiny square room with pale suntan walls that were etched with ancient designs. As I looked at them, I recognized what they were: symbols from the same language used in the journal, so I had no doubt I was in the right place. I examined the journal's map of the pyramid and I was able to point out where I was: a room at the entrance, with three hallways leading away in front and to either side of me. Instinctively I was compelled to try to feel the hallways for some hidden danger or clue about where they led, but I felt the empty chill again, and because I was vulnerable a tendril of the pyramid's darkside energy touched my mind. It felt like needles across my skin, and I saw faces in my mind that I had never seen before. All of them looked angry and gaunt, like corpses."

    Luke blinked. He had gotten carried away by his reverie, he realized; he never told them the scarier parts of his life's events. He looked down and saw fear in the children's wide eyes, and he smiled comfortingly, sending out a wave of calm and assurance to them in the Force. "But, don't worry about those things. The darkside is not as strong as the lightside. I made it out of that place alive and well by the Force's guidance, as any Jedi could."

    By his supportive words and feelings, the children smiled and looked visibly soothed. Luke let out his breath, relieved he hadn't given them a frightening thought, and then looked up to see another aged Jedi: his sister, Master Leia Organa Solo. He smiled warmly at her and she was grinning, obviously having been listening to his story the whole time. A younger man would have felt a pang of shame at not sensing her before now; but a Jedi as old as Luke knew such things were only important if it was necessary. He had no reason to sense her. Or... maybe the story he had been telling engrossed him more than he had expected.

    "Leia. I knew you were there."

    She grinned at him and laughed softly. "Of course you did, Luke. Nothing gets past you."

    He grinned back at her and got up from his chair with a grunt, his knees stiff from sitting for so long. Leia sauntered across the room and they hugged. Even though she was his exact same age, Luke didn't think she looked much different than she had when he first met her on the Death Star, nearly eighty years ago. Her hair was still a rich brown with only a few strands of gray tastefully interspersed, and her frame was small and slender as it had always been.

    "You know, Luke," she said, talking to him but looking down at the students who were gazing up at her with as much admiration as they had shown to Luke. "I don't think I've ever heard that one before."

    "I've never told it before," he said, grinning at her. The children giggled and Leia laughed softly, her smile as bright and comforting as it had always been.

    "But students, it's time for you to go to bed."

    "Awww...." they groaned in unison and both Jedi Master smiled down at them.

    "Come on now, I will finish the story another time. You've all trained very hard today and you need your rest. Off you go," Luke said and the students groaned against, hanging their shoulders as they slowly walked out of the room.

    "Got time to finish it for me?" Leia asked genuinely, pulling up a chair to sit across from Luke as he sat down again.

    He smiled. "Oh yes. I just didn't want them to hear this story anymore. It's... a bit scarier than I remembered at first. I don't think they're ready yet. I'll tell it to the teenagers sometime."

    She grinned and crossed her legs, her violet and cream robes tight but comfortable against her as she crossed her arms. "I have never even heard of the journal from your story."

    Luke took another drink of his hot chocolate as he adjusted in his seat, making himself comfortable. "Hm... to be honest I forget what I did with it. Maybe at the end of the story I will remember."

    Leia laughed again at her brother and they both smiled at each other.

    "Well," he said, unconsciously touching his chin again as he continued his story, his tone a bit less flamboyant and boisterous as it had been for the children, replaced with a low solemnity. "I saw the faces, dozens of them. They were so similar to Palpatine's that I instantly knew they were Sith. They laughed at me as they passed in and out of my mind's vision. The strength of their darkside power made me fall to my knees, but I regained control and let the Force push the visions from the darkside out of my mind. Then I looked at the map again and let the Force guide me to which hallway to go down, and eventually I decided on the one to my left.

    "But as soon as I stepped on the passageway, a thick wall of rock closed me off from the entrance room and before I could react, the floor beneath me fell out from under me. I almost dropped my still-activated lightsaber as I started sliding down a rough, square-shaped stone shaft. I was terrified; I didn't know if the shaft would end in deadly spikes, a poisonous gas chamber, a room with a rancor in it, or any of the other traps the ancient Sith developed for their tomb pyramids. That fear made me unable to calm and use the Force to slow my descent or sense what my destination was, and at the time I didn't even think to try it.

    "Fortunately, at the end of the shaft, the only immediate danger was the height: I came out at a chamber's high ceiling and fell on my shoulder, almost knocking it out of joint. I laid there for several long moments and tried to compose myself, alleviating my fear and once again allowing the Force to flow through me. Eventually I got to my feet and looked around the chamber. It was massive and rectangular, but was well-lit from the torches placed systematically on the walls behind me and to either side. But I noticed that the far wall across the room had no torches, and the area just in front of it was completely dark, even more so than it should have been. The light from the other torches in the chamber seemed to be absorbed by the unnatural darkness, disallowing it to illuminate any part of its space.

    "Curious but cautious, I slowly walked towards the dark region and just as I came to its edge, I held my lightsaber and activated it. The dark green light from its blade somehow got through the darkness, and my heart sank as I saw what the darkness concealed: I saw my Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, alive and well as I had seen them so long ago on Tatooine, before Vader's stormtroopers had murdered them.

    "I had to struggle to breathe as I saw them, huddled together on the cold floor, tightly embraced and shivering, but wearing the same clothes they had the day I saw them, before their deaths. At first they didn't see me, but then their heads turned in unison towards me - and they smiled at me. I felt a warm tingle go up my spine at the sight I had missed so much, and that's loss had created such a hole in my heart. I had always felt like I failed them, not being there to protect them and somehow causing the stormtroopers to find them - foolish feelings, but I felt them anyways, as anyone would. I had forgotten those feelings, but when I saw them there before me, the emotions welled up again and my eyes immediately ringed with moisture.

    "The Force touched my mind, trying to warn me that my uncle and aunt were just illusions, as I knew in the back of my mind they were. But I consciously denied it. I wanted so much to see them again, I was willing to suspend any doubt. They greeted me and stood up together, then walked towards me and hugged me in turn. It felt as if they were physically there, touching and comforting me as they had for the first twenty years of my life, something I had grown so accustomed and attached to. I just stood there, holding them and crying.

    "But...," Luke whispered, barely audible to Leia, who had to lean forward in her chair to hear him. She was astounded by her brother's story and deeply sympathetic for what he had gone through. Luke took a drink of his hot chocolate and paused, closing his eyes and leaning his head down.

    "Luke, you don't have to continue if it's too hard... I understand," Leia said in a gentle, loving tone.

    "No... no, it's alright. It was a long time ago. I just... haven't thought about it for decades. But, I'm fine."

    Leia smiled and nodded slightly, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs once more as Luke continued his story. "But, then, as I held them, they suddenly... shattered. They became black and broken, like old fireplace ashes, and crumbled in my hands, falling to the ground in a heap atop their clothes, which had become ragged and torn as if used for a lifetime. I was shocked, and I felt the same pain I had originally felt when I saw their charred bodies in front of our home on Tatooine, but deeper, as if I had failed them and caused their deaths once again. I dropped to my knees and put my hands on their ashes as I continued crying, but now out of a deep sorrow instead of a long-lost contentment.

    "Then, I felt the touch of the Force again, and I finally let myself realize that they had only been illusions - hallucinations of the darkside, like the faces of the Sith Lords I had seen before - and that although my aunt and uncle were dead, their deaths had been heroic, to protect me from the Empire, and that it had not been my fault, but the darkside's. I felt ashamed that I had let that delusion overwhelm me, but I tried to forgive myself and let the Force soothe me. I wiped my eyes and rose to my feet, but when I looked down, the remains of my aunt and uncle were gone. Their ashes had disappeared. I was shocked; I looked around the room, and couldn't see any way they could have just vanished like that. No hidden vent or trap door underneath where the ashes had lain or anything. I tried to sense the room with the Force to find a way, but as I reached out, the piercing, cold emptiness of the pyramid's dark spirit touched me and I quickly recoiled before it could enter my mind again.

    "Then I realized that not only was there no way the ashes could have disappeared, but there was also no way out for me. The end of the shaft through which I had come into the chamber could be reached, but it's walls were slick; there was no way I could grasp it, much less crawl up it for the long distance to it's beginning. So I just sat down in the middle of the chamber and meditated, letting the Force fill me and guide my thoughts as I tried to figure out a way to escape.

    "After several hours of meditating, I opened my eyes and was no longer in the chamber; but I wasn't in any other part of the pyramid either, or even anywhere on Yavin IV. Even though I knew the visages of my aunt and uncle had been illusions of the darkside, this new location I had been transported to was so real, I doubted what the Force told me. I was suddenly standing in the middle of the Dune Sea desert on Tatooine, endless sands surrounding me and the twin suns' heat as real as it had ever felt. I shielded my eyes with one hand as my other held my lightsaber. I looked around, but saw only sand and a pale orange horizon between the desert and bright blue sky.

    "But then, I started hearing an odd noise. It sounded like Threepio's walking on the Falcon's metal floor, but multiplied millions of times. Then I saw a black, misshapen mass at the edge of the horizon in front of me - and it was moving quickly towards me, growing as it went until it completely encircled me. I felt terror and panic building in me; I had no idea what to do, how to get out, or how I even got there in the first place. I tried to sense the Force, but even opening my mind to it invited the harsh cut of the familiar dark nothingness of the pyramid, making me think I was still in it, or at least nearby.

    "I began to realize that the scene was a hallucination, but my revelation was interrupted when the black mass - which I recognized as countless, tiny beetles with two sharp pincers at their mouths - got closer to me, making a meter-wide circle around me. I could barely breathe from anxiety, and without the Force to calm me, I found it excruciatingly difficult to force the fear out of my mind. I turned my lightsaber on and started slashing at the insects, but without the Force my movements with it were slower and required conscious effort instead of Force-guided intuitive maneuvers, so some of them got past my attempts and began crawling up my boots and leggings. With my free hand I tried to swat them off me while I continued slicing at the bugs on the ground with my lightsaber, but within seconds they had covered my entire body to my neck and were slowly edging up it, threatening to cover my head and suffocate me.

    "But, then... I suddenly felt the touch of the Force again. To this day I don't know how it broke through the darkside surrounding me, but it did, and its guidance saved my life - or my mind, I guess. I could barely feel its touch, as if it was struggling to push through the darkside enveloping me, but it was enough. I grasped onto it and gave it a channel into my mind, but I felt my heart sink as the only aid it gave me was one thought: don't fight them.

    "At first I thought it was the darkside simply impersonating the lightside to me, but I knew that was untrue. Defiant, I continued struggling against the bugs, but they had reached my mouth and the back of my head, closing in on my eyes, so I made my choice. I trusted in the Force. I deactivated my lightsaber, closed my eyes and fell backwards, letting the bugs do to me whatever they wished. Even though I anticipated the bugs devouring me, I let all my doubts and fears leave my mind and accepted whatever fate I would have, trusting completely in the Force.

    "But, in amazement I felt the bugs abruptly stop, and then begin moving off my body. They continued away from me and I watched the ocean of blackness cross the distant horizons until they were no longer visible. I could barely breathe, both from the fear and panic I had just felt, and the shock of the truth the Force had given me. I was filled with relief as the Force flooded me again, wrapping me in its warmth and serenity.

    "Then, the desert suddenly started melting away - not just the sands, but the sky, the suns and everything around me, the vision coming to its end and returning me not to the chamber I had been in, but to a new room. It was triangular, with three corners angling its three walls that came to a point in the high ceiling, at least fifty meters above me. It was dimly-lit by torches set in each wall, but otherwise empty - except for the pyramid's original entrance, just behind me. I realized with a combination of sickness and relief that everything I had thought I experienced in the pyramid, even the first room I came into, was simply a series of illusions by the darkside.

    "But then, just before I turned to leave the pyramid, the image of a Force ghost appeared a couple meters from me. At first I doubted its authenticity, but I tried to detect any illusion with the Force and sensed none; the ghost was as real as Yoda and Ben's had been the several times I had seen them before. But this person didn't look like them, in any way. Though I knew he was a Force ghost, he was not a soft, peaceful blue, but instead was a translucent blood red; and unlike Ben and Yoda, and even my father, his face was not content and serene, but was twisted in hatred and the anguish of his afterlife, trapped by the evils of his life and the confines of the pyramid. He wore black cloth wrappings that covered his entire body except for his face, but they were torn and ripped as if he had worn them in many battles throughout his life. And a crimson cloak, itself lacerated and ragged, was wrapped around him, held tight against his bent form with his long, skeletal fingers.

    "He said to me, 'You have passed my tests, young Jedi. The Force is with you. You did not succumb to grief or self-loathing; you overcame fear for your own life and trusted in the Force to be passive. You are a true servant of the lightside. I am Velin Keirth. I have waited for so many years to be freed of this place. Millennia ago, I fought for the Sith and their Mandalorian soldiers as a Krath warrior. I killed... so many, ruthlessly, without regret. But, now... I feel the pain I caused them. The terror, the anguish my victims felt, I now suffer. To avoid death by the Jedi attack on this world, I chose to leave my body and trap myself in this pyramid eternally, rather than face death. But this prison is far worse. Though trapping myself here prevented death, it also prevented life: this site is a darkside nexus, as I know you have sensed. And while my soul is imprisoned here, I will forever feel the darkside penetrating my heart, filling me with all the horrible things I did in my life.'

    "He paused, and I could feel the deep sadness radiating from his trapped soul, and he continued: 'Please, young Jedi. You have passed my tests; the Force is your ally. I beg you: free me from this prison. Release my soul, so that it may depart from this confinement. As long as I am here, I cannot atone and become one with the Force. You are my only hope, noble Jedi. Save me.'

    "Though it was my choice to help him or not, I felt there was only one right thing to do. I called the lightside of the Force to me, letting it flow through me, and I released a wave of lightside energy towards the imprisoned soul. A bright light came out of me and hit the ancient ghost, and with an almost deafening sigh of relief, he dissipated, moving on from his millennial punishment and becoming one with the Force."

    Leaning back in his chair, Luke took a deep breath and closed his eyes - not fatigued from telling the story, but from reliving the memories that had affected him so deeply throughout his life that before now had been entirely his secret. He still didn't know why he had never told anyone about it; he initially gave himself the excuse it was simply unnecessary to tell anyone. But now, so many years later, he still did not truly know.

    "Wow," Leia breathed, leaning back in her chair as well and running a hand through her hair. "That was quite a story, Luke. You should use it more often in your teaching. As the Force spirit said, you really showed what it means to be a Jedi."

    Luke looked at her and smiled. "I suppose I could." He took a sip of his hot chocolate, now only moderately warm. "But before I do... I'm going to bed. You wore me out, making me finish that long story."

    Leia laughed and stood as he did and they left the room, towards their adjoining bedrooms up the long, winding stairs of the Jedi Temple.