Star Wars: The Hero's Descent

Chapter 21: The Final Word

Body coursing with adrenaline and the Force, Master Yoda could not feel pain.

Not of the physical kind, anyway.

Intellectually, he knew his body was battered and bruised, possibly broken, but it still had a job to do and do it, it would. He would have time to dwell on this later, if he survived the conflict.

Physical pain was a paltry thing to a Jedi such as Yoda, especially in the heat of battle, but no amount of Force assistance could heal emotional pain. Every Jedi tried, of course, to stamp it out so this would not be a problem, but no one ever truly succeeded. Not even Yoda, Grandmaster of the Jedi Order himself.

Least of all Anakin Skywalker.

Yoda had sensed it from the beginning; the fear. He had commented on it when he had first met the boy thirteen years ago. Though Yoda had not sensed this level of fear in Anakin Skywalker for a long time, it worried him.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.

He couldn't just sense fear in Skywalker, but terror, not just anger, but wrath, and not just hate, but loathing.

The war had made him into this, a Jedi with feelings powerful enough to turn even the best Jedi astray. But, no, that wasn't it either. Yoda had the uneasy feeling that Skywalker had always been this way. Like he was born with it, this whirlwind of emotion that could be their undoing.

'You underestimate my power.'

The words, coming out of Skywalker's mouth only confirmed Yoda's worst fears. But Yoda was a true Jedi and so he let that fear go.

With the absence of fear, Yoda realised something else. Anakin Skywalker was probably the only Jedi who had a chance at stopping Sidious.

Anakin himself punctuated the realisation by breaking the lock he and Yoda had gotten into with the Sith Lord. Yoda jumped out of the way as Skywalker swung a kick at Sidious' face, powerful enough to send the Sith Lord stumbling backwards. He regained his composure as Anakin pressed forward, utilising the strength of Djiem So to beat Sidious back, out of the repulsorpod and onto the landing behind. Yoda moved to follow, add his own barrage to Skywalker's, but a nudge from the Force held him back. Something was wrong.

Obi-Wan should have returned to the fight by now.

The Force seemed to want Yoda to find Obi-Wan, but that would mean leaving Skywalker to fight Sidious by himself, which could result in the young Master's death or worse. Yet he could feel the pull of the Force, that little voice that Yoda had long since memorised, the whisper of the Force itself telling him, go to Obi-Wan Kenobi... Saving him is the key to saving the Republic...

Yoda had never disobeyed the voice in all of his nearly nine-hundred years and it had never once lead him astray.

He did not start doubting it now.

Just over twenty-four standard hours ago, Anakin Skywalker had been neither a father nor the last hope for the Republic. Now, it seemed, he had inexplicably become both.

Now, he was facing Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord who had almost taken everything from him, the Sith Lord who had escaped the concerted hunting of the Jedi for decades, the Sith Lord who wore the deformed face of one of Anakin's best friends.

Sheev Palpatine had betrayed the Galaxy, the Republic and the Jedi, but that wasn't the thing that propelled Anakin forward with enough strength to tear durasteel, or with enough fury to bring down the building. Palpatine had nearly killed Padmé and, with her, his children. Palpatine had betrayed Anakin's unwavering loyalty in the cruelest way possible.