Star Wars: Daughter of the Dark Force

Chapter 20: Never Before Encountered in the History of the Jedi

Thank you guys so much for the great feedback, honestly it blows me away to see how much you're enjoying what I once thought would be a private story that I'd keep to myself. :) I appreciate each and every comment. You're great fans and I'm glad to have you. <3

This chapter is rather short but I will update once again in two weeks. Enjoy! :)

Kimmy (AKA DarthKemberli)

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CHAPTER 20: NEVER BEFORE ENCOUNTERED IN THE HISTORY OF THE JEDI

“I wish only to unite the galaxy under the banner of diplomacy."

 - Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic

Yoda was concerned as he had never been concerned before, not even as when Qui-Gon Jinn brought nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker to Coruscant and pleaded for his acceptance into the Jedi Order. In Anakin Skywalker he had sensed the pulls of the dark side, but in Kemberli Danoirr he knew for certain that the dark side had taken an unshakable hold on her heart. What troubled him the most was that before her loss of memory, Kemberli had not exuded such a darkness-invaded aura. Yes, in her he had foreseen the beginnings of darkness, but it had not been nearly as potent as what he felt in her right now.

Yoda knew that the fact was inevitable. Somehow this amnesia, this condition, that had taken hold of Obi-Wan's young Padawan had done something terrible to Kemberli. Something that he feared was irreversible.

Even now, as the girl struggled to answer his simple query as to why she had knelt to Anakin, he felt the dark side churning within her. Her thoughts were tainted with it, brooding with anger and fear and making them unreadable, even to him. Yoda condemned fear as a path to the dark side, and still he felt a slight twinge of alarm when he pondered the cloud that had recently descended upon the Force, particularly on Coruscant. It was unthinkable that the dark side was taking root in the heart of this Padawan, who, like Anakin Skywalker had, showed so much promise.

"Master, I - I don't know..." Kemberli finally said, not meeting Yoda's eyes. He sensed profuse shame and confusion in her. The confusion he understood, but the shame? Kneeling to Skywalker was indeed curious, considering that he wasn't her Master, and that she had never knelt even to Yoda, but it was nothing of a nature that she should feel so guilty for.

Even to Yoda, who over the many decades of his life had gathered much wisdom, this case was becoming increasingly complicated. The Force was virtually useless, so fogged with the dark side Kemberli's soul was. And so changed was she, that he couldn't depend upon anything that she used to be. For all his questions, he was no nearer to the cause of her amnesia than when he had first arrived at the infirmary.

Despite that, he knew without a doubt that the dark side had a hand in this. All those years ago, when Kemberli had been brought to the Jedi temple as a five-year-old toddler, too old to ordinarily be accepted, he had known that the dark side was strong in her, stronger even than in Anakin Skywalker. Young as she had been, she had had ties. Ties to her mother, to her homeworld of Solei VI-IX, to the younger sister left behind on that obscure moon of Solei VI. And young as she had been, she had held on to those ties, though Yoda knew that for the most part, she had refused to think about them. Which had been admirable, but of concern nonetheless: burying things in one's mind and refusing to speak of them was hardly advisable for one so young.

Her amnesia made matters all the more difficult. While forgetting her old ties may have been a good thing, being burdened with ambiguous premonitions was no better. He had overheard her conversation with Anakin, and it was strange that she remembered the Clone Wars, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker, and the circumstances of her birth, when she remembered absolutely nothing of her Jedi upbringing and Riü Lockstiyr. Strange, very strange...

"Master?"

Yoda opened his eyes to look at Kemberli. Though, as all humans, she was larger than him, she looked very, very small, almost cowering against the bedclothes. It was disconcerting to see her, once so bold and confident, shrinking before his very eyes. Her fear was palpable. Yoda assumed that she must have lost much of her emotional training with her memory, for he had never sensed such fear in her before.

"Yes, Kemberli?" he said reassuringly. It wasn't often that he let his softer side show, but at occasions such as this one, he didn't mind. "Worry do not. Finished I have for now."

Her chin quivered ever so slightly. Her struggle to control herself was remarkable.

"No, Master Yoda, that's not it."

She took a deep breath. Yoda steeled himself for the words that she would speak next. He had a feeling that they would be very, very bad.

"I can't feel the Force."