• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Anakin slipped the modified data chip in place and straightened. “The Yuuzhan Vong make me angry, Master. They’re destroying everything I know, everything I love.”

“No. You make you angry. People die; you are angry because you could not save them.”

“You mean Chewbacca.”

“And others. Their deaths are inscribed on you.”

“Yes. Chewbacca died because of me. A lot of people have died because of me.”

“Death comes to call,” Ikrit replied. “You cannot hold water in your hands for long. It leaks away, goes where it is meant to go. To the soil and sky. To ions, and then space, where stars are born.”

Frustration hijacked Anakin’s lips. “That’s poetic, Master Ikrit, but it’s not an answer. My grandfather was Darth Vader, and he killed billions. But that was after decades of the dark side. I’m only sixteen, and look what I’ve done. Darth Vader would be proud.”

Ikrit fixed him with luminous blue eyes. “It is to your credit that you feel those deaths, that you mourn. But you did not kill those people. You did not wish them dead and then bring it to pass.”

“No,” Anakin said. “But at Centerpoint I wished the Yuuzhan Vong dead. I wanted to kill every last one of them. If my brother hadn’t stopped me, I would have. I think—often—that I should have.”

“Your brother didn’t stop you.”

“You weren’t there, Master Ikrit. I would have done it.”

“I was there, Anakin. In every important way, I was. Anakin, you must let your anger go. Angry steps have worn a rutted path to the dark side. It is an easy path to follow, difficult to avoid.”

Anakin turned to the power generator remote panel and fiddled with it a bit. “This might work,” he murmured. “I wish I had time to go out to the generator.”

“Anakin.” The Master’s voice carried a note of command.

Anakin didn’t look up from his work. “You know, Master Ikrit,” he said, “I used to dream every night that I would turn to the dark side, become my name, what my grandfather became. Now that seems silly. The Force doesn’t make a person good or evil. It’s a tool, like a light-saber. Don’t worry about me.”

“Listen to me, young Solo,” Ikrit said. “I never said the Force would lead you to evil. I warned you your feelings might.”

“Feelings are tools, too, if you don’t let them control you,” Anakin said.

Ikrit clucked his soft laugh. “And how are you to know when a feeling controls you? When anger guides your hand or guilt stays it?”

Anakin sighed. “With all due respect, Master Ikrit, we don’t have time for this discussion. The Peace Brigade will be here any moment.”

“This is the perfect time for it,” Ikrit replied. “Perhaps the only time.”

“What do you mean?”

Ikrit blinked, very slowly, then scratched out a long breath.

“I am centuries old, Anakin. I came here to Yavin Four to free the spirits of the imprisoned Massassi children, or so I thought. Now I think there was another reason, an even greater one.”

“Master? What could that be?”

“The task that drew me here was beyond my power to complete. It was beyond the power of any adult Jedi. You and Tahiri were the only ones who could have done it.”

“With your help and advice. Without you, we never could have released them.”

Ikrit ruffed his fur. “With or without me you would have done it,” he purred. “That is why I say I was drawn here for another reason, slept for centuries for another cause.”

“What reason?”

“To see something new born in you and Tahiri. And to give you whatever small help I am able to give to see that birth arrive.”

A chill spidered up Anakin’s back. He couldn’t say why, but Ikrit’s words struck something in his core.

Ikrit walked to the window. “They are here,” he said.

Anakin bolted over. Peace Brigade ships were settling everywhere.

“I’m not ready!” Anakin said.

“You are ready,” Ikrit replied.

“Not as ready as I would like. Ten more minutes would have been nice. I could have brought the automated defenses of the power generator on-line.”

“Tell me what you have done.”

“Well, I’ve got an energy shield up, though not much of one, and it’s only over the compound. A little pounding will bring it down.” Anakin