Chapter 55

Yoda was training, he tried his best to incorporate movement with force powers. According to his old friend, "small tricks can lead to big outcomes," and Yoda had little choice but to agree with him. The way he fought was unpredictable, even with the force telling secrets. Yoda struggled with his friend's unique fighting style.

It was hard to add a new, unfamiliar fighting style to his repertoire of Jedi lightsaber styles. It didn't help that he was old, and his bones and flesh didn't have the greatest flexibility and power they once had.

Yoda slowly practised form four, the way of the hawk-bat, with a single coin floating by his side. Yoda knew of the incredible versatility of the force with its push and pulls but each time they were used cost a sum of concentration that didn't mix well with fast-paced lightsaber duels. Concentrating to force pull or push sapped the greater ability to predict your opponent's next move. It wasn't worth it until he had seen it done beautifully.

He witnessed his student and old friend flip through the air in odd angles that would leave you vulnerable to attacks, only to pull himself out of the way and deflect a stray bolt of energy with a casual flick of his lightsaber and then hop on a floating piece of metal left Yoda inspired and a little awed. By all standards his old friend had invented a new form for lightsabers and yet it was more than just the form.

Using the force in combat was hard to do well but to do it while swinging blades was nearly impossible. The old masters of a few thousand years ago could hold three lightsabers using telekinesis and circle around their bodies like moons but Yoda's old friend was doing more. It was damn impressive.

Yoda wasn't sure if what he was doing would result in anything useful but it would be a new way for his training to move forward, maybe it will be useful in the future.

The soft humming coming from Yoda's weapon was interrupted by a knock on his door. Yoda's lightsaber stopped and the floating coin dropped in his hand. Confusion hovered in Yoda's mind, he couldn't sense a mind on the other side and yet he quickly realised who it was through the years of experience he had built up. There was only one person who knocked on his door instead of activating the coms and that was his old friend. The door opened to reveal a unique battle droid, there it stood with a holoprejector waiting for permission to continue.

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Yoda sighed to himself. His old friend was unusually paranoid for such a powerful person. He hid in the shadows, made powerful and wealthy deals behind the scenes and kept his name out of the public eye. Even now Yoda had to strain his memory to recall his old friend's name. Yoda wondered why Bee would clean the very existence of his name out of the records when the Galaxy was at the most peaceful it had been for five hundred years.

The holoprojector came to life with a bright colourful image of Bee sitting at his desk. Yoda listened with rap intensity, Bee wouldn't send him a message unless it was important.

"I'm leaving" the Holo Bee announced. "Of course, I will still be around but I won't make any connections with you for the foreseeable future"

Yoda wanted to ask why but this was a prerecording that wasn't interactive.

"There are changes in the Galaxy that suggest that a great war is coming, something that I as a single person can't defend from if the public knows about me, I am just one person after all"

Yoda's stomach twisted as he heard these words. Bee had been preparing for something for years and told Yoda to do the same. Yoda had complete faith that something was coming as Bee was a survivor and fought with the brotherhood of darkness, if he was going to disappear for a while then there was good reason to do so.

"In the case of both of our survival, I hope you destroy everything to do with me and wish you only the best of luck. Perhaps if my premonitions are false we will meet again"

The droid then held out a square piece of tec "If you are in trouble..... deep trouble that risks not just you but everything you hold dear press the button and I might......might help out"

The droid handed it over "I'm sorry I can't explain better but the force isn't clear....which in itself is something to worry about, good luck and remember if you want peace, prepare for war, if you want to win, be ever vigilant even if you think you have won."

The holoscene blinked out of existence and within a second the droid crushed the holoprojector into dust and left.

Yoda was worried. The force was calm, it hadn't warned him of any ill effects or plans of a galaxy-sized war. This was the age of peace and the golden age of the Jedi. All signs pointed to good times and great growth, nothing suggested anything bad. But you don't live a long life dealing with pirates, Hutts and the scum of the galaxy if you were careless.

Yoda had learnt to trust the unusual instincts of Bee. If he said that the moon was made out of cheese then Yoda would have sent an investigation to check it out. However, the force was telling him one thing and Bee was practically telling him the other. Spending his whole life with the force it was a hard choice to prepare for war when all signs pointed to peace. Still, it wouldn't hurt to stockpile a planet or two.