Disney owns everything Star Wars, please don't sue me!
Luke Skywalker was lying on his bed inside one of the Ewok treehouses on the forest moon of Endor. His hands folded behind him under the back of his head. Earlier he had paid last respects to his father, Anakin Skywalker and set fire to the empty shell of his Darth Vader armor. He had discovered much to his surprise there was no body inside the armor. Later he saw the Force ghosts of Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and then his father, but he wasn't old like Obi-Wan and Yoda, he appeared to him young, in his prime as a Jedi Knight. Many thoughts ran through Luke's mind. He thought of why did his father turn to the Dark Side of the Force? His thoughts also dwelled on his mother whom he never knew and had no memory of. His sister, Leia said their mother was very beautiful and that she had died when Leia was very young. Luke didn't even know the identity of their mother. These were questions he vowed he would find the answers to, he had to. He had to know the full truth about his family history, his heritage, and what it meant if he was to have a complete understanding of his place in the universe.
"Hello Luke," a friendly and familiar voice said from behind Luke. Luke sat up and looked behind him. He saw the apparition of Obi-Wan Kenobi looking at him.
"Obi-Wan, I was just thinking about-"
"Your father and mother?"
"Yes. I must know, I have to know why my father turned to the Dark Side... And who was my mother? Did you know her?" An inquisitive Luke asked the Jedi Master.
Obi-Wan's ghost sat down on the bed next to Luke. Obi-Wan seemed to be deep in thought for a few moments before he smiled and nodded. "Yes, yes I most certainly knew your mother. Her name was Padmé Amidala. She was the former Queen of Naboo, and later served as the planet's Senator in the Galactic Senate. She met your father when he was a boy on Tatooine. I was just a Padawan back then. Me and my master, Qui-Gon Jinn were on a mission to protect your mother. Our ship was damaged, and we set down on Tatooine, where we met your father who was just a little boy back then. He took to your mother right away. Later, when your father was inducted into the Jedi Order, he crossed paths with your mother ten years later. In short the two of them fell in love and secretly married." Obi-Wan told Luke.
"Secretly married?" Luke asked, puzzled.
"Ah, yes, the Jedi back then were not allowed to marry. So, your father's relationship with your mother had to remain a secret. It was a tragic love story..." Obi-Wan said looking down at the ground, his face had a solemn and sad expression. He looked back up and over at Luke. "Actually, your astromech droid, R2-D2 I think has some holo recordings of your mother. If you would like to see her, ask your droid.
Luke anxiously stood up from his bed. "I'll be back Obi-Wan," he said as he quickly stepped out of his room and sought out his faithful astromech droid. "Artoo!" Luke called out to his astromech droid. Shortly thereafter the small astromech droid appeared, beeping and whistling at his companion. Luke knelt beside Artoo.
"Artoo, did you know my mother? Padmé Amidala," the young Jedi Knight asked.
Artoo whistled sadly, looking down at the ground with his optical sensors. All Luke could ascertain was something tragic had happened to his mother and judging from Artoo's reaction he might have been there when it happened.
"Artoo, Obi-Wan Kenobi said you had some recordings of her, may I see one of them please?"
Artoo whistled and beeped in response and began to project a holo recording. A beautiful young woman appeared. She was dressed modestly in a full length long sleeved gown with a high collar surcoat. Her hair was arranged in an elaborate bun that rested behind her head.
"Members of the Galactic Senate, in this darkest hour we cannot forget who we are! The day we stop believing in democracy is the day we will all lose it! You cannot gain freedom by trading it for security, you will deserve neither if you do! I plead with the members of this august body to not allow anymore emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor. We stand at the precipice of an impending dictatorship! Do not be blind to see it!"
Then the holo recording faded away. Luke reached his hand out and grabbed the spot where his mother's holo-recording was just playing. "Mother..." He said to himself quietly.
"She was the most beautiful creature in this cruel galaxy," Anakin Skywalker's voice said. Luke looked up and saw his father standing next to him. A surprised Luke stood up. He had many questions he wanted to ask his father.
"Father, what happened to her? Tell me," the young Jedi Knight asked to his father's Force ghost.
Anakin's face turned to one of great sadness and he looked down in what seemed to be shame. Obi-Wan's Force ghost appeared behind Anakin.
"Are you sure you want to know the answer to that Luke?"
Luke had already known from his sister Leia that his mother died when they were both extremely young. He felt he was prepared to learn the truth.
Obi-Wan's Force ghost walked up to Anakin and placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Anakin?" He asked gently.
Anakin appeared to inhale deeply, and he nodded before looking up at his son. "Luke... When I was a few years younger than you are now, when I was still a Jedi Padawan learner, I had several visions of my mother suffering in great pain. I was assigned by the Jedi High Council to protect your mother, Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo. While protecting your mother from a would-be assassin I told her about my dreams about my mother. She agreed to journey to Tatooine with me. While there I learned my mother had married a man named Lars."
"My foster family?" Luke asked.
"Yes, I met them along with your foster father's father. I learned from him my mother was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. I set out to find her and bring her back safely... Only I was too late. I held your dying grandmother in my arms. I was filled with so much anger and rage... I then slaughtered the entire village. I knew I was a Jedi and I was better than that... But your mother forgave me. We grew even closer after that. After the Tusken Raiders incident I swore to myself I would never let anyone I loved or cared about die again. I promised your mother I would become the most powerful Jedi in all of history. Shortly thereafter I married your mother in secret. And a few years later when she was pregnant with you and your sister I had another vision, this time of your mother dying in childbirth. I set out to find a way to prevent that from happening. The Emperor offered me a chance to save your mother using the power of the Dark Side. He preyed upon my fear of loss to turn me to the Dark Side. And it worked. I pledged myself to his teachings in the hopes I could learn to stop people from dying. But... Shortly after pledging myself to the Emperor I did terrible things. I participated in the Great Jedi Purge. I killed many Jedi... Including Younglings. I took one step after another down the dark path because I felt I had nothing to lose..."
Anakin choked up and placed a hand on his forehead, shaking his head. Luke could feel his father was overcome with remorse and sorrow. He walked over to his father.
"Father-" Luke began.
"No, son... You don't understand the true horror of what I did... Artoo has a recording I think of what happened..." Anakin said, gesturing over to the little astromech droid.
"Artoo... Show Luke what happened on Mustafar between me and Padmé," Anakin said, he looked to be crying now.
But the astromech shook his domed head and beeped sadly.
"Please Artoo... For Luke's sake... He needs to know the truth..." Anakin said pleadingly.
Artoo whistled again in a sad tone before projecting out another holo recording. Luke, Anakin, and Obi-Wan watched as Padmé embraced her husband.
"I saw your ship, what are you doing here?" Anakin, or rather Darth Vader asked his wife.
"I was so worried about you! Obi-Wan... He told me terrible things!" Padmé said to her husband, her voice almost frantic.
"What things?"
"He said you turned to the Dark Side... That you... Killed Younglings!"
"Obi-Wan is trying to turn you against me."
"He cares about us."
"Us?"
"He knows, he wants to help you. Anakin, all I want is your love."
"Love won't save you Padmé, only my new powers can do that."
"But at what cost?! You're a good person don't do this!"
"I won't lose you the way I lost my mother. I am becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of. And I'm doing it for you, to protect you."
"Come away with me, help me raise our child, leave everything else behind while we still can!"
"Don't you see? We don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor, I-I can overthrow him. And together you and I can rule the galaxy as husband and wife! We can make things the way we want them to be!"
"I don't believe what I'm hearing... Obi-Wan was right! You've changed!"
"I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me! Don't you turn against me!"
"I don't know you anymore! Anakin... You're breaking my heart! You're going down a path I can't follow!"
"Because of Obi-Wan?"
"Because of what you've done! What you plan to do! Stop! Stop please! Come back to me! I love you!"
The watchers of the holo recording could now make see a younger Obi-Wan standing at the top of the boarding ramp of Padmé's starship.
"Liar!" An enraged Darth Vader said in the holo recording.
"No!" Padmé pleaded in desperation.
Darth Vader in the holo recording extended his right hand out to Padmé. "You're with him! You brought him here to kill me!" In a display of uncontrolled rage and anger, Vader then clenched his fist and began to Force choke his beloved wife.
Padmé clutched her throat and began gasping for air and was struggling to breathe. "Anakin, no! Please... Stop... You're hurting me... The... Baby..." Her voice became weaker under the ministrations of Vader's Force choking.
Luke stood there in absolute horror as he watched his father in the holo recording choke the life out of his mother. Luke could see tears of sorrow, pain, and betrayal falling down her face as she gasped for air and pleaded with her husband.
"Let her go Anakin!" Obi-Wan said, his voice authoritative and commanding as he descended from the boarding ramp. "Let-Her-Go!"
At that moment in the recording Vader released Padmé from his grip and she collapsed to the ground. "You turned her against me!" Vader shouted.
"You have done that yourself!" Obi-Wan replied back.
Vader took off his robe and began pacing back and forth. "You will not take her from me!" He declared defiantly in his anger.
Obi-Wan took off his robe, preparing for the inevitable confrontation. "Your anger and your lust for power have already done that. You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now. Until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."
The two began circling one another in the recording.
"Don't lecture me Obi-Wan, I see through the lies of the Jedi! I do not fear the Dark Side as you do! I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire!"
"Your new empire?"
"Don't make me kill you!"
"Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!"
"If you are not with me, then you are my enemy."
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes... I will do what I must."
"You will try..."
At that moment in the recording Obi-Wan and Vader activated their lightsabers and began dueling, soon thereafter they fell out of range of Artoo's visual sensors and the recording ended. Artoo made a sad whimpering sound.
Luke slowly turned his back to his father and Obi-Wan. His mouth open in shock. He killed her... He thought shaking his head in disbelief of the scene he had just witnessed.
Obi-Wan approached Luke. "What you don't know Luke, and you too Anakin was that Padmé survived. I took her to a remote outpost where she gave birth to you and your sister, Leia. Your mother Luke... Lost the will to live. She died shortly after giving birth." Obi-Wan then turned to Anakin. "What you did not realize back then Anakin was that love could have saved her. Padmé died because she no longer had the will to live, because you broke her heart. If you had flown away with her... History would be different."
Anakin's Force ghost looked down in shame for a beat, he then looked up at his former mentor, and best friend. As Darth Vader he re-lived the memory of what he did to Padmé many times over and never stopped blaming nor did he cease loathing himself for his crime. But this was the first time he had re-lived the memory of what he did not through the eyes of Darth Vader, but Anakin Skywalker. Every essence of his being wept for what he had done to his beloved Padmé. The only woman beside his mother who ever loved him, and she had loved him unconditionally. He had let his fear of loss consume him until all that was left was the hallow armor of Darth Vader. That suit was a prison. But now he had finally liberated himself from it, and in sacrificing himself to kill Emperor Palpatine he had somehow managed to redeem a small part of his past crimes. Anakin couldn't sit there and watch his son die. When the Emperor was electrocuting Luke he could see Padmé lying on the ground screaming in agony. Luke was all that he had left of Padmé, and he would be damned if he would let the Emperor destroy the last remaining piece he had of her. If it was his fear of loss that drove him to the Dark Side, then it was the love of his son that brought him back to the light. The Emperor gravely miscalculated. He manipulated Anakin and used his love for Padmé against him initially to turn him to the Dark Side, but it was that same love Anakin had for his wife that would be the Dark Lord's undoing. With Emperor Palpatine's guard down while he was torturing Luke to death, Anakin picked up the Emperor, carried him to the edge of the Death Star's reactor shaft and cast the abomination into the pit of the abyss for all eternity. In doing so Anakin finally fulfilled his destiny in destroying the Sith and bringing balance to the Force.
As Anakin ruminated Obi-Wan moved alongside Luke. "Luke, Anakin, you both should know what Padmé's last words were. She said: "There's still good in him, I know there is." "Padmé died convinced that the man who was Anakin Skywalker was still inside Darth Vader. I did not share that belief... Until now. Like your mother Luke, you never stopped believing your father could be redeemed, and just like your mother you always see the best in people and appeal to that aspect in them. In that way you are very much like your mother."
Like turned to look at both Obi-Wan and his father. "I don't know what to say father..." And he didn't. Luke felt a rush of emotions, from sadness, to anger, even betrayal. He knew as Darth Vader his father committed many sins... But he never would have fathomed his father would be responsible for his mother's death. Could he even forgive his father for doing such a thing? He didn't know if he could. Then he remembered the last words his father said to him on board the Death Star. "Luke, you were right about me. Tell your sister you were right..." Those words almost mirrored what his mother had felt about his father as well. Even after all his father had done, even after choking his mother, she still loved him and saw the good in him. She had forgiven him. Right now, however, Luke wanted to hear what his father had to say. He turned to face him.
"Father... What do you have to say to me right now?" Luke asked.
Anakin pondered Luke's question for a few moments. He swallowed hard and looked at his son with a piercing gaze. "Luke... My life should serve to you as an example of what not to become. Did you know there was a Jedi prophecy? They called me the Chosen One. It was my destiny to destroy the Sith not join them. Bring balance to the Force. Instead... I left it in darkness, until now, until returning to the light and slaying the Emperor, Darth Sidious. The Dark Side consumed me Luke. I forsake the good man I was as Anakin Skywalker when I took up the moniker of Darth Vader. I was only able to regain my lost self because of you, because you never stopped believing my true self still lied within me. And now I know your mother felt the same way... You are just like her. You have so much genuine goodness in you Luke. You were able to resist the pull of the Dark Side while I could not. If your mother were here now she would be so proud of both you and your sister. And I am too... But I will have to carry the burden of regret for what I did as Darth Vader even now in the afterlife. I loved your mother more than anything else in the universe, and I love my son and daughter. I promise you I will not leave you, I will always watch over you and offer you my guidance whenever I can."
Luke pondered what his father has just said. This was the first time he had ever heard of a Jedi prophecy regarding his father, but it all began to make sense to him now. His father's destiny, and now his place in the universe. He was a continuation of his father's destiny. He and his sister both now had a major role to play in the universe. She would re-establish the New Republic, and he would establish the New Jedi Order and together the Skywalker family would help build a better universe on top of the ashes of the old one. He could forgive his father because that is what his heart told him to do. Luke approached his father.
"Father, I do forgive you. I love you. I can only hope one day you will learn to forgive yourself," the young Jedi Knight affirmed to his father.
Anakin's Force ghost began to disappear, along with Obi-Wan. He could faintly hear Obi-Wan's voice. "Luke, the Force and us will be you, always."
Luke gazed up at the heavens before he set off to find his sister. What would he tell her? How would she respond? One thing he was for certain about was Leia may not be as forgiving as he could be. He could see more traits of his father in Leia than in himself the more he thought about it...
The Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker sat at the top of one of Endor's vast trees. He gazed up at the heavens. His thoughts dwelled on his wife, Padmé. "Oh, my Angel... Where are you now? Have you gone to one of the moons of Iego where the other angels live?" Anakin said to himself. As he gazed up at the night sky he saw a shooting star fly across the sky. He couldn't help but smile, thinking the star might have been Padmé. He laid back against the tree and continued to gaze upon the stars. Just then he felt a gentle caress at the side of his cheek.
"Ani... Oh, Ani I've missed you so much," a gentle feminine voice said.
Anakin turned and saw his wife sitting next to him, she had appeared to him as a ghost just as he was. Anakin was awestruck, he could not believe what he was seeing. "Padmé... Angel is it really you?!"
Padmé smiled warmly and took Anakin's face in her hands. "Yes, my dear husband, I've waited for you to come back for many years... I knew there was still good in you. I never stopped believing. Anakin, I forgive you." Padmé then closed her eyes and kissed her husband tenderly. Anakin embraced his wife and held onto her tightly. After a few moments he broke the kiss, and gazed into her piercing angelic eyes. She smiled at her husband.
"Padmé... After all these years... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Anakin could not hold back the floodgates of 20 plus years of suppressed emotion. He rested his head on his wife's shoulder and cried. He was overjoyed to finally be reunited with his other half. Padmé caressed her husband's hair and laid her head against his, holding him tight, not wanting to let go of him.
"Do not weep, it's all right Ani. I love you."
"I love you too."
"That's all I ever wanted from you."
As Anakin and Padmé continued to embrace at the top of the forests of Endor, one thing Anakin Skywalker was sure of at this moment, was for the first time in a great while he did not feel lost. After being away for more than twenty hears, Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight had finally found his way back home.