REMEMBER ME

When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown

The fear clouded my mind, making rational thought impossible. The only
thing that was clear in the turbulent haze was one image: Padme.

I had to save her. I needed to save her. I could save her.

All it would take was surrender. A sweet, silent sinking into the
darkness that already had its tenuous hold on me. It whispered to me
like a lover. There was no other path.

When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone

The man I had for so long thought of as a father goaded me, tempted me.
Found my weakness and used it for his own malicious intent. The Jedi
betrayed you, this man said, It's them or Padme. That was it, then.
There could be no other way. Something roiled in my heart….it could
have been a moment of sorrow, or regret. But I cast it to the wind, my
heart turned to stone.

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire

Now only one thing in my mind. Something I'd said to her, once. I
will even learn to stop people from dying. This is my one desire. A
desire so deep that everything else I'd believed in or held sacred
has fallen into the abyss created by it. I will not fail her.

From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and the fire

And now here she is, pleading with me….begging me to go away with
her. She knows what I've done, but she's forgiven me. Come away
with me, help me raise our child…But it is too late. Out of the
cold, darkness of space onto this fiery hell of a planet, I have come to
finish what I've started…to make a new galaxy, a united galaxy.
She and I will rule. I am amused by the poetic irony of this
place….I feel as if I am being baptized by fire.

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night

And now, here you are. All these years later. I'd thought I'd
lost you, that night on Mustafar. I did not believe you would come, my
son, but I felt your presence moving toward me like the bursting of a
new star. Coming to me in this soft night, on a planet as full of green
as Tatooine is of sand. It must be as wondrous a place to you as it
would have been to me….all this green. Yes, here you are, coming to
me in the night.

When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars

And I had thought it would have ended so differently. I no longer
believed I had anything left inside of my soul…..I'd scourged it
out so many years ago with hate and anger and filled it with my own
black thoughts. But your light shone through again, Luke. Named for
light. What a wise choice your mother made, when she gifted you with
that moniker. She had believed, until the very end, that I could be
saved. She did not forsake the dawn….and neither have you, son. Your
love for me burned more fiercely than the light of the stars, humbling
me with the intensity of it. How could I deny you the Father you called
out for?

Though we share this humble path alone
How fragile is the heart

So here we are now, together, at the end. The only two Jedi Knights left
in the universe. Holding on to each other, afraid to let the other go,
lest they fade away, as in a dream. But you are not a dream, you are my
reality. My tired, sad heart feels, feels, for the first time in years,
and I am afraid it will burst for all the emotion in it now. I cannot
speak, I am overwhelmed.

O give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars

Help me back to the light, Luke. Help me fulfill my destiny. I can see
the hope in your pale blue eyes….so like my own. I cannot look at
you, son….you are so eager to bring me home, to save me. You
don't realize that you have saved me. I may be earth bound and
dying, but my soul is already soaring toward the light of the stars.

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear

You have breathed new life into me, even for only this short time. My
hate, hidden so long under a veil of thinly controlled anger, is lifting
from me, fading away like the ghosts of my past. I am no longer afraid.

Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares

I have such hope for you, my son. I know the Force will always guide
you, keeping you in the light. I may have been the Chosen One, but you
have brought balance to my life. My spirit will rise above these earthy
cares, and I will watch you become a greater Jedi than I could have ever
hoped to have been.

Cast you eyes on the ocean, cast your soul on the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Remember, my son….I will always be a part of you. I will always
watch over you with pride, and I will always love you. And when your
troubles and misgivings threaten to drag you down into a black
despair….remember me. Remember me.