Playlist:

❶ "Luke and Leia" — Return of the Jedi OST

⊘ Silence

❶ The Senate summoned Master Skywalker to advise them about the dark creatures they had encountered on Telti. Naluma attended each meeting with him, hovering in the background. She acted as his adjutant, his bodyguard, and his personal medic.

Even though allocated their own box in the Senate Hall, the Jedi did not have voting powers. During these tedious sessions, Naluma scanned the hall for ill intent, keeping her Force senses open to any distress.

For Luke, these meetings tested his patience and brought unwanted exhaustion—illogical discussions and bickering, resulting in no actions taken.

After a few weeks of these senatorial meetings, Naluma's continual proximity to Luke stressed his resolve to honor the Jedi Mandate.

Maybe it was their being together all of their waking hours. Maybe it was their comfortable camaraderie. Maybe it was the intimacy generated during mindspeech. Or maybe it was that she was the only sane person in these meetings.

No matter the cause, Luke thoughts wandered to Naluma in every spare moment.

As she followed behind him back to their shuttle, Luke felt her Force senses scanning him. He breathed in deeply, dispelling the attraction that overwhelmed him.

She's not making it easy for me. Ever since the mission ... I wonder if she knows what she's doing to me every time our arms bump or she looks at me that way? And our Force-bond continues to strengthen. It's more difficult each day.

Face it, Skywalker, it's your problem, not hers. He clenched his teeth. Think back to the day you met her ... Ah, that's not helping. I need to get away from her. I need to re-center and focus my thoughts back to serving the galaxy and not obsessing about my Padawan every moment.

He stared at her for a moment. Her steel-gray uniform hugged her frame as her lightsaber swung at her side. Luke did not want to hurt her, but the Jedi Mandate was clear—Jedi must not form attachments.

He berated himself as they approached the landing bay. He could feel the battle against the light and the dark swelling in him now. He took a deep breath and decided to take action.

As soon as they had entered they shuttle, he said, "Naluma." Force, her name is so pleasant on my tongue.

"Yes, master?"

"We need to talk." He looked at the deck at first and then in her deep, black eyes. "About us."

Dread crossed her face. "Master?"

"Naluma, you know the Jedi Mandate ... we need some time apart." 

Her face fell in despair. 

He quickly added, "It's not your fault. It's mine." He lowered his shield and opened his mind to her. He shared his deepest feelings ... how he loved her ... and the despair that his love was a forbidden love.

Naluma opened her heart to him as well, reciprocating that love. She looked at him, her face set in rebellion. "I can't leave you, master. I can't."

"You must." It's so hard to hurt her this way.

"If you feel this way, how can you ask me to leave?" She closed the distance between them.

"Because I feel this way, I ask you." He shook his head. "Naluma, these feelings will only lead a Jedi to the dark side. They will turn you—or me. I've seen my father there. I never want to see you there—not you." He sucked back a sob.

"Then why was it okay for you to love your sister so much that you almost turned? I think this whole mandate is a lie. Is it wrong to love? We are told to love others more than ourselves. Well, I do. I love you, Master Skywalker."

The Padawan waved her hands to punctuate her thoughts. "When we were on Telti and I thought I would lose you ... well, I vowed I would never leave your side again. Why is this wrong?"

"When you serve your own emotions, the dark side moves in. A Jedi must be at peace, passive." Luke closed his eyes that were filling with tears. "Naluma, if something were to happen to me, and the only way you could save me was for you to turn to the dark side yourself, would you?"

She looked at him, her face clenched in anguish. After a moment, she looked away in shame. "Yes."

"And I would turn for you. That is why we cannot allow this to continue," he murmured. "Please—time heals many things, and we need to be apart ... get re-centered. Jedi serve the galaxy, the universe, not ourselves."

"What if I don't want to be a Jedi anymore?"

"I still will. It is what I am. It is my destiny, and I cannot change," he whispered with regret, breathing heavily.

"Can't we just run away from all this and live like two normal people?"

"You know we can't. That is not your destiny, nor is it mine," Luke whispered as he grabbed her arm. "Stay here on the shuttle for a few weeks ... and forget about me." 

Crying, she headed to her quarters and shut the hatch.

In silence, he shoved a few uniforms into his kit bag and tramped off the shuttle toward Han and Leia's. Luke used every ounce of his will not to run back and hold her in his arms. "What have I done?"

⊘ As soon as Luke closed the ramp on the shuttle, the ghost of his father Anakin accosted him in the landing bay. "Are you happy with yourself, Son?"

"Go away, Father."

"No. I won't let you do this, Luke. You are making a mistake ... and for what? Some dilapidated Jedi Code that never should have been resurrected?" Anakin stepped between his son and the exit.

"It's the way it must be," Luke said, restraining himself and his own feelings. "I'm not going to ruin the Jedi Order by violating one of its most sacred mandates. I'm not going to turn to the dark side."

"Luke, my love for your mother was not what made me turn. I was seduced by the dark side, tempted by Palpatine, lied to by both Palpatine and Obi-Wan."

"Well, I hear they weren't the only ones lying. You reap what you sow, Father."

"Know that it was lies that turned me, not love."

"And that is why I must keep my vows, Father." Luke clenched his fists.

"You're breaking her heart, Son. I thought you were the compassionate one," Anakin accused. "Love is not a weakness. It's a strength."

"I can't, Father. I just can't. I took vows. I'm not going to dishonor them in a moment of weakness." Luke looked away. "Now go away."

Anakin stared at his son, anger flaring in his ghostly self. "As you wish." He evaporated before Luke's eyes.

The Jedi Master marched out of the landing bay, tears streaming down his face, fighting within himself to honor his vows and not to run back to the woman he loved, to the woman he knew he was hurting.

He could feel her pain through the Force-bond they shared as Padawan and master. He clamped down on that cord and squeezed it down to a trickle. He could not risk it opening further.

Did you know ...

● The Force was responsible for Anakin's existence. He was the Chosen One to restore balance. The Force did not object when Anakin married and had children. You have to wonder how the Force feels about the Jedi Mandate. 

● Naluma gave logical arguments in her impassioned speech, but those arguments were also Anakin's years ago when he was courting Padmé.

Tell me what you think ...

● What are you hoping happens in this relationship?

● What would you have done in Naluma's place? Run after Luke and drag him back? Deny her feelings and try to live by the Jedi Mandate?

● What would you have done in Luke's place?