Archive of Our Own

“Easy, my friend.”

Just three words, and yet, they were enough to have Mace Windu’s eyes flying open.

Was he really dead? Was that how becoming one with the Force felt?

“I said ‘take it easy’,” the familiar voice reiterated, and with quite some effort, Mace forced his head to follow the voice.

Which revealed a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn sitting next to his cot, his face lined with worry.

“How?... What?”

“We thought you could tell us that, Master Windu,” Kit Fisto cut in from the doorway. “All we know is that some younglings found you collapsed on the floor in a hallway. Our healers checked you out, but they came up empty.” The fellow Jedi Master leaned in, conspirationally. “And I for one don’t think that you’re one that just faints like that.”

“No, I’m not,” Mace replied, his mind running a mile per minute.

But so far, the only thing he actually remembered was getting thrown out of the window of Palpatine’s personal office, his hand cut off.

How in the heavens did he end up here, what seemed to be some point in the past?

Several hours later, Mace still wasn’t any closer to solve the mystery.

So far, he had managed to establish that he was indeed back in the past, a couple of days before they would receive the call for help from Naboo, which subsequently would lead them to Anakin.

Now “armed” with all the knowledge of what the boy would become in a couple of years, Mace tried to find a way to keep this all from happen.

But what way would be the right one? And even if he chose correctly, would preventing Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire from happen not make way for something else, probably even worse than what Mace had witnessed in the other timeline?

“Your mind, clouded it is with worry.”

Yoda’s voice always took you by surprise, no matter how many years you already were in the Jedi Order. But today, Mace had to put up a fight not to jump at hearing it appearing it seemingly out of thin air next to him.

“Well, Master Yoda, I still haven’t found out why I ended up in the infirmary. And for some reason, I can’t even remember what I was doing right before I, apparently, collapsed out of the blue.”

“Come,” Yoda told him, turning into one of the many side hallways of the Jedi Convent, “something to show, I have.”

With a shrug, Mace did as told, though he couldn’t quite fathom what could be that important. But then again, Master Yoda worked in strange ways, stranger than many of their fellow Jedi, so most likely, there was a plan behind it.

Soon enough, they were at one of the meditation chambers. Maybe Yoda thought meditating would open the blockade in Mace’s brain.

“Come,” he heard Yoda say, but when Mace crossed the threshold, the usual grey and dab color of the room changed into something he hadn’t seen before.

In the meantime, Yoda had passed the room to a small console, tapping in a command.

“See,” was all he told Mace, but in the next moment, a holographic recording of what seemed to be his last living moment was displayed in the middle.

“How?”

“Learned have you nothing about the Force, huh?” Yoda held Mace’s gaze. “Always reason, there is. Unfinished business, you have.”

“Any idea what kind of unfinished business the Force means?”

“Skywalker, a major part plays. Your padawan, he must become. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, good Jedi they are, not strong enough for Skywalker they are.”

“He hates me, at least the one I’ve met in my previous timeline.”

“Different, it will be. Stronger, the bond between you and him will be. Resist temptation, he will be able to.”

“Qui-Gon will not be happy, especially if he’s the one to find the boy on Tatooine.”

“To Naboo, you will go, with Obi-Wan. A different task, I give to Qui-Gon. Both the mother and boy, bring to Coruscant. A change, we must make to the Jedi Order.”

Mace got to his feet again and bowed to Yoda.

“Do you think that will be enough to stop our fate?”

“No, not it will be. But a beginning, it is.”

They both left the room, but while Mace turned in the direction of his own chamber, Yoda turned in the other.

“May the Force be with you, Master Windu.”

“You as well, Master Yoda.”

And with that, they parted ways, and while a lot was still shrouded in the proverbial fog of time, Mace finally felt like they really could change things around.

Or at least they finally would give a try.