Why Me

In all the years, that being eight hundred and twenty one, that he had taught students, he had never encountered such an impossible, horribly rude, unwieldy, impatience brat. And he could have gone longer to explain the exact reason why the kid was driving him to the dark side, that is if the kid would stop asking the same question over and over. It was enough to make him want to grab his stick and smack the kid hard on the shins. Oh but, no, he could not do that yet. There was still testing to be done, however painful it was turning out to be.

“I told you, I’m not hungry.”

Luke had probably been flying for hours with nothing worth calling food. How could the kid turn down food when his stomach so rudely growled and no apology followed. What made this all the worse, was he knew without the help of the Force, what the kid was going to ask for the forth time in less than an hour. He had to speak quickly to retain his sanity.

“Patience, it’s time to eat.”

He gave the pot one last stir and stuck his nose into the rising steam. Yes, this would do wonderfully for a young man who was so clearly starving. Never had he failed to keep up with any boy’s appetite. Of course, that could be because most boys found his food rather uninviting.

“Look, I’m sure it’s delicious, but I don’t know why we can’t see Yoda now.”

That was because the immature brat couldn’t just sit down for two minutes and rest. Ah, those bouncing youths so full of energy, reckless and never able to wait.

“It’s the Jedi’s time to eat, too.”

Really, that was aimed toward himself. He wanted a bite of this wonderful stew before he got on to serious matters. He watched Luke out of the corner of his eye take a sip from the pot and made a face. The boy put down the spoon and inched away from the stew. It was almost good to know that his cooking still had not changed in this strange universe.

“Will it take long to get there? How far is he?”

He had just located his own spoon and was about to settle down to his meal, when the kid had to ask again. By the Force the kid knew no patience. He sighed quietly to himself and put down the spoon, resigning to the task before him. It was time to start the final questioning.

“Not far, not far. Be patient. Soon you will see him. Why wish you become a Jedi?”

“Because of my father, I guess,”

Oh his father eh? What did he know of his father or had Obi Wan told him already. He reached out into the Force, but sensed nothing that hinted that. Luke seemed almost thoughtful and lonely for a father. At least this was good. The truth would only cause distraction and danger to his training.

“Oh your father? A powerful Jedi was he. Powerful Jedi.”

Powerful enough to destroy all Yoda knew, dreamed, and worked for. But this was a secret not ready to be revealed. He picked up his spoon at last and took his first bite. He briefly closed his eyes, enjoying his cooking and only vaguely picking up the anger coming from Luke.

“How could you know my father? You don’t even know who I am. I don’t know what I’m doing here!...”

Great, he should add on angry to his list of words to describe the brat. He laid down the spoon. Just as his hopes had started to raise, the boy showed his true nature. An angry, unreasonable nature that came with age and bad parenting.

“No good is this. This will not do. I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience!”

Luke gave him a wild, bewildered look, trying to understand who he was talking to and what did he mean. Yoda was not talking to him, but the presence of Obi Wan, who he knew had been in the room the whole time. As fast as Luke lost his anger, he gained fear and shock. It took the boy long enough to pick up on his clues. Really, if the kid was going to be this slow, this wouldn’t work at all.

“He will learn patiences.”

Ha! What a confident voice from someone who was dead!

“Much anger in him, like in his father.”

There was no way he was going to train another Skywalker to become a sith. Once was already too much.

“We’ve discussed this before.”

So they had, several times, but Obi Wan had left out the many flaws of this young man. Speaking of the boy, the youth was trying desperately to locate the ghost like Jedi and having no success with his task. Finally he gave up looking and stared intently at Yoda, trying so hard to look serious, only to come off as immaturely and pathetically frantic.

“I can be a Jedi. I’m ready, Ben Ben.”

Like Obi Wan could really help him now. The boy was under the judgment of the oldest, strongly, and only Jedi master known to still be alive. The boy would do better to stop begging Obi Wan for help in front of him, and simply face the Jedi Master of the once Grand Order.

“Ready are you? What know you of ready? I have trained Jedi for eight hundred years. My own counsel I’ll keep on who is to be trained.”

Luke did not seem to take this well.

“Why not me?”

Why not? Did the kid truly want the whole list?

“To become a Jedi takes the deepest commitment, the most serious mind.”

“He can do it.”

This was getting to be too much. Was Obi Wan’s past love and pride for one Skywalker blinding him again with an innocent looking boy?

“This one I have watched a long time. All his life has he looked away…to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing. Adventure, excitement. A Jedi craves not these things.”

There had been too many Jedi of the late order that had these flaws. It was this carving Skywalker had and it was that flaw that helped bring down the order.

“I have followed my feelings.”

That was hardly an excuse for his faults. Luke was dangerously close to being turned down and sent off planet.

“You are reckless!”

“He will learn.”

There was a smoothness in the past Jedi’s voice that took the edge of his anger and made him think.

“He’s too old. Yes too old, too set in his ways to start the training.”

Luke softened his face and body, finally acting more mature and like a Jedi.

“I’ve learned so much.”

He gathered the Force around him and looked through the kid to see what he really had learned. Beneath the ever presence wild nature of the boy was a kind heart that had endured a fair amount. The boy may be new to the idea of a Jedi, but he was not naïve to death, pain, and suffering. He was dedicated to something, probably the rebel cause and seemed to really want this. Perhaps, just maybe, he could learn.

“Will he finish what he begins?”

There was no point in starting this if the boy would run off for some pointless cause.

“We’ve come this far. He is our only hope.”

Sadly, that was true. Luke finally figured out roughly were Obi Wan was and turn to speak to both of them at once.

“I will not fail you. I’m not afraid.”

There was no bigger than that. There was much fear in him, like his father. But this was an issue that could be worked out by several methods.

You will be, my young one. Heh. You will be.”

There were many things to fear while training. The darkside was one of them. He could only hope this was not a mistake on his part. The galaxy did not need another sith on the loose.