Well, I'm kinda late, am I not?

Once again, sorry for the lack of updates, but let's say life has some tricks up its sleeve... And they tend to make you very busy. The whole lockdown thing, although boring, has presented me with a great opportunity to focus more on my studies for getting into university, which in my country requires quite a lot of knowledge (essentially all the subjects you learn in high school, yeah a bit too much).

But I also wanted to wait for The Siege of Mandalore to be over before I could continue with this story. That last arc exceeded all my expectations, in ways I didn't even think were possible. I could praise those four episodes non-stop in here, but that's not what you guys came for. Just know that the finale for The Clone Wars has certainly shaped the way this story will be handled going forward, in ways I know many of you will enjoy.

Speaking about enjoying things, I hope you guys find this chapter entertaining. And I promise you, the big Battlefront II-hero brawl is coming...

(Review or PM me for thoughts, opinions, and suggestions!)

Chapter 10 : The Little Green Friend

"Uh, a little help please?"

Anakin turned around to find Rey entangled in several bush ropes, again. He merely rolled his eyes and with a swift swing of his saber cut the vines off, letting them fall easily around Rey and down to the ground.

"You gotta chop them before you go through them, otherwise you'll keep getting tangled up."

Rey shook the remaining leaves off her body "I can handle myself." She stepped forward only to get her foot stuck on a tree root, nearly falling on her face if not for her Force Reflexes.

Anakin held back a chuckle "Sure thing, 'Ms. Handle Myself'." He held out his hand, helping her up. She sighed in frustration, walking past Anakin with dropped shoulders, making his smirk quickly disappear.

"Hey, I was just joking! Don't take it pers-"

"I'm not." Rey said, pressing her lips "It's just that I'm too distracted."

"Well, then what is distracting you?" Anakin asked, making Rey subtly get frantic thoughts. Holding back a gulp, she replied.

"I got a bad night's sleep. That's all."

She had indeed gotten little rest, but of course, she wasn't going to tell him the real reason as to why. The awareness of the Bond, of him being in this place made her unsettled, and her mind was going rampant. What should she do? Try to find and confront him, or avoid any sort of contact at all costs? What kind of assurance did she have that he wouldn't hunt her down instead? She knew what he was capable of doing, both for evil and for good. That hand touch, although seemingly insignificant, had shown her all about him.

But he'd made his decision, killing his master and becoming the most powerful man in the Galaxy, and for what? Just power in itself? Why had he turned his back on the choice of redemption when it was so close to him?

For nearly a year she'd refrained herself from thinking about all these questions, and for the most part, it had worked. Since the battle on Crait, the Bond hadn't manifested to her, and when the Resistance settled on Ajan Kloss, the planet's seclusion from galactic knowledge aided in her efforts to forget anything concerning their connection.

But suddenly she'd woken up to this strange place, with a man long thought to be dead and the Bond feeling stronger than ever. Being caught completely off guard by this turn of events made Rey's head feel like a hurricane of emotions, one that was difficult to contain which resulted in her being distracted to her surroundings.

And the fact that a random forest popped up overnight, replacing the previous barren desert in which she and Anakin had encountered themselves in at first didn't help the matter at all. It just complicated things further.

She managed to mask the scared shiver she got from Anakin putting his hand over her shoulder.

"Look, if you are tired we can settle down for a few minutes..."

"No, I'm good." She said, composing herself before turning her head to him "C'mon, the sooner we discover where we are, the quicker we'll get to leave this place."

She moved forward, igniting her lightsaber and cutting down the vines before she walked through them, just as Anakin had instructed.

Continuing their path in the forest, Anakin could tell something was wrong with Rey. Her presence in the Force was unstable, explosive, pulsating with the strength of a neutron star, yet she was doing a good job at hiding what was bothering her. If he wanted, Anakin could simply pierce through her mind and find out what was going on, but he elected not to do so. For a long part of his life, he forcefully took things from people, and he was done with it. He wanted to forget that side of his.

So he chose to keep his distance, making sure the girl managed her way through the plant life around them, and being patient, waiting for the best moment to talk to her.

After a few more incidents with bush ropes and Anakin 'accidentally' cutting down a huge trunk to attempt making Rey laugh to feel better, a failed attempt, they reached a small clearing in the middle of three large trees. Rey sat on a nearby rock, taking a moment to breathe and close her eyes, trying to ease her brain. Anakin, realizing she needed some space immediately took action.

"I'm going to look around the area. To make sure it's safe to rest here."

Rey simply nodded in agreement. Anakin gave her one last worried glance before heading out to scout the perimeter.

She held her head in her hands, containing a scream that if let out would absolutely warn him of her whereabouts. She felt conflicted, unsure of how to proceed with this situation, and all that'd happened was one brief, a blink-and-you miss it moment in which they both just muttered each other's names, and it had that impact on her.

She needed to vent this unbalance out. Looking behind her, she saw one of the three huge trees around the clearing, that seemed stable and strong.

Without thinking twice, she reached for the lightsaber and, bringing the blue blade to life, slashed it across the tree trunk, leaving a scorched line as a mark. It felt oddly satisfying, so she reverse-gripped her saber and struck the trunk again. And again. And again. And again.

After what seemed like hours she dropped to the ground, her arms aching from the continuous swinging, resulting in her leaving the lightsaber discarded amongst the forest floor as well. In front of her, the tree trunk, it's front half melted down to charcoal, with tiny flames still holding on to existence on its edges. The tree was so massive and strong not even the multiple lightsaber strikes Rey had dealt to it seemed to affect its stability.

"If only I were like that."

She remained silent on her knees, closing her eyes to empty her thoughts. The worries and questions were still there, but her tired state had given her enough to unfocus from them, even if for a brief minute.

Lifting her head to the sky, she savored in the tiny light rays that got through the treetops, enjoying the warmth they brought with them. Growing up in a desert world made her accustomed to hotter climates, and although this place wasn't Starkiller Base, it was still cooler and more humid than she was used to.

"Be with me." She murmured, thinking about Leia's teachings. In the time the Resistance spent settling on Ajan Kloss the General took the little, yet substantial Jedi training she'd gotten from Luke in her late teens and passed it on to her, aiding with her progress in connecting to and mustering the Force whenever needed. Besides, Leia had huge wisdom and an even bigger heart, so each moment Rey could spend with her she considered a blessing, like a chance to live beside the mother she'd never had. Leia was one of the few people that manage to make her feel at peace, and she was very grateful for that.

"Be with me. Be with me. Be with me..."

"The Force is with you..."

Rey opened her eyes in surprise. A voice had answered her, and she'd heard it before, in a dream. No, a vision.

She looked around, analyzing her surroundings to find out where it'd come from.

"...With you, it has always been..."

There it was again. She turned around, looking at another one of the huge trees in the clearing. Moving closer to it, she raised her hand, trying to feel the Force as Master Luke had shown her back on Ahch-To.

Surfing through the waves of the mystical power field, she found her arm to be an arrow, and her mind a compass. Using the voice as a pattern, she searched for the mysterious presence, eventually finding it...

...behind her.

Looking to her back, she found a small, green creature with pointy ears and rag robes holding her saber curiously, pointing the emitter directly at its eye.

In shock, she jumped toward the being "BE CAREFUL!"

The creature held the saber away from her, grunting "Me, careful? Careful you should be the one to be, hmm?"

He pointed the saber at the tree she'd previously attacked with it, finding its trunk with a huge crack in its circumference along the burnt axis. Then, a loud snapping noise. Before Rey could realize what happened, she saw the tree trunk start to fall, directly on top of the green creature.

"WATCH O-"

As the trunk went down, the small being lifted his free hand, stopping the fall midtrack. Rey watched with amazement at the minimal effort he was putting to keep that tree levitating freely in the air. Rey could lift heavy objects too, but it required a lot of focus and strength on her part to do so as she'd done on Crait. In sudden situations like this one, she wouldn't have been able to harness enough power in time.

The little creature waved his hand to the side, slowly moving the trunk away from harming him and gently putting it down to the ground. Grunting yet again, he turned to Rey, still holding her lightsaber.

"Too irrational, you are. Let your emotions control your actions, you cannot. You must find the balance between your feelings, your reason, and your spirit to think clearly. Otherwise..."

He looked again at the fallen tree, with Rey listening to him attentively.

"...Accidents such as this one, not preventable in the future may be."

He handed the saber to her, but when she grabbed it he still held on to it.

"Much to learn you still have, Padawan."

"You... I've heard you before. I don't remember when and where, but I recognize your voice." Rey said, still taken back by the being's presence.

"In the Force, always present we are. Even if you do not believe so." He said with a small grin in his face. He let go of the saber, reaching over for a stick on the ground, which Rey quickly realized was a miniature cane.

"Rey! I heard some commotion, is everything... okay?" Anakin asked as he got back from the forest, only to find the girl kneeling next to a very familiar face from his past.

"Master Yoda?"

"Hello, young Skywalker. A long time, it has been." said Yoda, who let a smile indicate that he was happy to see his long lost friend.

Rey's eyes widened in the sudden realization. The few bits of Jedi knowledge she'd gathered from relics and Leia mentioned the Jedi Grandmaster of the Republic, Yoda. One of the most renowned warriors of his time, and a galactic myth by the time she was born.

"You are Master Yoda."

The little green Jedi nodded "Yes, hmhm, why do you ask?"

"I-Uh, I mean, I didn't expect..."

"This? Judge me by my size, do you? Hm?"

Anakin chuckled at the exchange unfolding before him. Yoda had always had a weird, yet direct sense of humor.

"It's good to see you, Master." Anakin approached the two Jedi, also kneeling to the ground "I really mean it."

"Know that you do, I do. A new man you have become, Skywalker. And now, the time for you to make things right, it is."

Rey looked at Anakin, who also shared a look of doubt in his face "What do you mean, Master?"

"The Force works in mysterious ways. Know what this place is, I do not. But know that it has a purpose, I do, and that this purpose will soon unveil to us all."

"Then we will be ready for when it does." Rey said, sounding optimistic for the first time in the day, which made Anakin feel better.

Yoda giggled "Yes, but for now, rest we need. Come, bring you to a friend, I will."

Anakin and Rey looked at each other, surprised "Wait, you've found someone else?"

"Apparently, not alone we are in here, hm? Come now!" Yoda walked to the vines, with Rey and Anakin following him with excitement. There were more people in this place, and together, they could surely find an answer to what this place meant, represented, or even simply what it was.

They moved through the jungle for a while, taking few and sparse breaks on their way. Even with that much time taken with their roaming, the sun was still up when they reached Yoda's campsite, which comprised of nothing more than a few large rocks around a campfire, which was out.

"Friend? Arrived have I!" Yoda proclaimed, turning around to look at Anakin and Rey "A bit shy, he is, but nothing some friendliness won't solve."

They heard footsteps going around on the other side of the campsite. From the vines emerged a man carrying some dry wood to feed the fire, but when he saw the two individuals accompanying Yoda he dropped all in shock.

Rey was in shock too, because this was the last person she expected to be hanging out with an old Jedi Master.

"The Scavenger?!"

"General Hux?!"

Not gonna lie, this was probably my favorite chapter to write so far, I just love when characters like Yoda are thrown into the mix, always providing some comical relief while simultaneously providing the necessary knowledge for other characters to grow. And since Yoda's archetype is to be the wise, old and mystical mentor figure, he obviously had to be introduced in a way that would teach a lesson to one of the characters, in this case, Rey. Speaking of her, I hope you find the detailed analysis at her state of mind in this chapter interesting and complex, it's a trait I want to delve further down the line.

Now, for the reviews:

TaitanoRules555: Thank you! I hope the work keeps being as good as you expect!

Phantom Trainer: Once again, thank you mate! Keep the excitement up, I promise not to disappoint you!

(Guest): I'm glad you've found it to be a funny line, I always wondered how Han would act if he ever met his mother-in-law. Hopefully more funny chatters are to come!

pervy sage (Guest): That is a tricky question that I'll elect not to answer, for now, you know, not to spoil surprises. But like a certain former apprentice said, he is "in the shadows always, but soon, very soon, he will reveal himself..."

Thank you all for the continuous support and for the time you take to read. I hope everyone is doing great given the troubling times we're going through right now. If you have any doubts, suggestions, or just want to make a comment, review or PM me!

May the Force be with you.

Always.