Lady Obscura: Vader's Shadow [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker]

Chapter 14

"Use the Force. Yes..." Athara didn't look up from where she was sitting several feet away. At the moment, Yoda was working with Luke, working on his focus and his ability to move objects with the Force.

He was making remarkable progress.

It was making Athara a little resentful though. She had been working with him for two years, and he had made more progress in the last two weeks than he had in all that time before. But she couldn't deny that his progress had everything to do with having a true Jedi Master with years—well, centuries really—of experience teaching young Force-sensitives rather than any lack of ability on her part. She simply hadn't had the knowledge to help him in a way that would've produced the kind of results she was seeing under Yoda's tutelage. She couldn't begrudge that.

Besides she was getting some training of her own out of the deal.

Yoda certainly wasn't pleased about the fact that she had all but shamed him into teaching her. In retrospect, it was a type of manipulation, something that Yoda likely saw as further evidence of her unbreakable dependence on the Dark Side. She truly didn't care though. Between her sessions in meditation and calming her mind with Qui-gon while Yoda put Luke through his paces, and the joint lessons on the Living Force and tapping into it with Yoda, she was learning a great deal.

She still had a long way to go, though. There were still many times when, if left to her own thoughts, she began to wonder if Yoda was right that she would never be able to turn from the Dark Side completely. It was moments like that when she questioned just what she was doing on the slimy little planet. She could tell that all of Yoda's lectures and lessons were aimed at Luke, and anything she got out of them was pure happenstance.

Yet...there were moments, small moments, when Yoda would make a point for her benefit or guide her toward a truth that he wanted her to understand. But they were few and far between.

Still, he wasn't ignoring her, which was something. He was slowly coming around to the idea that she was serious about learning to embrace the Light Side of the Force. From time to time, she would do something or say something that would cause him to look at her with consideration. For instance, shortly after the Jedi had agreed to help her, Luke had managed to wrench his knee during his morning exercises. Without a thought, Athara had tapped into the Force as she tended to the injury, earning a surprised look from the Jedi when she didn't rely on the Dark Side, but on the Light. After he had sunk into a healing trance, Athara had left Luke alone, only to run into both the diminutive Jedi and her ghostly mentor.

"That was very selfless of you, my young Padawan," Qui-gon had said, his pride obvious in his voice. His eyes twinkled as his gaze shifted from her to Yoda. The Jedi Master looked as though he wasn't quite sure what to think and was far from pleased that that was the case. Athara's temper had been rather shorter than it should have probably been, but she managed to remain (somewhat) civil. She had merely shrugged. She really hadn't thought much about her actions.

"If you insist. It needed to be done. Otherwise he wouldn't really be in the best shape for his lessons, would he." Yoda frowned. Qui-gon looked immensely pleased.

"You are making progress," he had said, "you didn't even have to think about clearing your mind of negative feelings, you just did it instinctively. You no longer rely on the Dark Side as you once did." Athara frowned. At that point she hadn't realized she didn't use her anger or frustration to access the Force, not even unconsciously. Qui-gon had proceeded to explain that in order to heal, one needed to be free of Dark feelings that would warp the benefit of the healing. She hadn't known that, though it made sense. She had never given healing a second thought. Healing trances had always come easily to her, just as healing Luke in the moments previous had just come to her. There even had been one or two occasions before Dagobah when she had tended minor injuries Luke had acquired during their sessions with the help of the Force.