'Luke help me take this mask off.'
'But you'll die.'
'Nothing can stop that now. Just for once let me look on you with my own eyes.'
The black helmet was slipped off and the mask pull away from his face. The once blue eyes that now sat in the glacial white face came to rest upon the face of his son, Luke Skywalker. A lump formed in his throat and he wondered about Leia. Was she liked him? Was she like Padme? Was she like him? It was hard to know that he would never see her but at least he had seen Luke. Luke was there, right in front of him. Luke had believed in him. Luke had believed that there was good in him. He was no longer Darth Vader, he was once again Anakin Skywalker and he would die as Anakin Skywalker.
'Now go my son,' he rasped. It hurt speaking on his own and not through the mask as he had done for so many years now. 'Leave me.'
'I can't leave you here,' came Luke's voice. It sounded different to him now his ears were free of Vader, 'I've got to save you.'
If he could cry maybe he would have but he couldn't and therefore didn't. Luke was trying to save him and he couldn't see that he had. He had brought him back to Anakin a man he had forgotten for so long a time.
'You already have Luke,' he rasped again his voice still sounding strangely foreign. 'You were right, you were right about me. Tell your sister, you were right.'
As he leaned back slowly dying his breath running out of him he could picture is doom. He would not go to join all the other Jedi's, the Jedi's that he murdered. He had killed them all but he would not join them. He could hear Luke's voice.
'Father, I won't leave you.'
And then his life slipped from him.
The light was blinding to him and he was walking down the light tunnel. Yet it felt different to him. His body was walking in a way he had long forgotten. He glanced down to see, not the black suit that he had worn but the Jedi clothing that he had once worn. He put his hands out in front of him. He had both. No even one metal arm was there but he had both arms that he was born with. He smiled what felt like the first true smile he had given for a long, long time.
He steadily came to the end of the tunnel and entered into what looked exactly like the Jedi temple. His heart cringed at the memory of what he had done there. All the Jedi dead, younglings and all. Everyone had been murdered and at that point he had truly become a Sith. He looked up to see Obi-Wan Kenobi, his old master and Yoda standing side by side.
'You again you have become,' said Master Yoda softly as Obi-Wan smiled at him. He smiled and moved slowly towards them. He dropped to his knee in front of them.
'I have done so much wrong to you and to the Jedi and to the galaxy why have I come to rest here?' he asked softly his voice recognisable as the one he had used long before.
'Anakin,' said Obi-Wan Kenobi, 'you were the chosen one after all.'
He looked up sharply feeling almost surprised to hear that name used once again. As he did so he caught sight of himself in a pane of glass. Unlike Obi-Wan he had not gone aged but as himself before he had turned into Darth Vader. He came as the Young man he had once been.
'What?'
Obi-Wan and Yoda exchanged glances and smile.
'The Chosen One you were,' continued Master Yoda, 'Sith Lords defeat, you did, the master and yourself. Brought balance to the Force you have.'
He rose slowly to his feet. It was strange to think of it that way. He had brought balance to the force. Having killed Darth Sidious and turned good himself at the same point he had fulfilled his destiny as the chosen one. It was hard to believe but he was the Chosen One. He had done what he had been destined to do and brought balance to the Force.
'Anakin!'
At the sound of the soft voice he turned and there standing in the Jedi temple wearing a simple blue dress but still looking as gorgeous as the day he met her was Padme. She was smiling and looked at him. Without a second thought and ran to her swinging her up in his arms. He hugged her tightly not wanting to let her go. He had loved her with all his heart and that was what had led him to the Dark Side. Seeing it now from where he was he could not blame her from leading Obi-Wan to him and he loved her still. She was his all and there was nothing else.
'Our children?' she murmured to him.
'Beautiful,' he whispered.
They stood there for a moment and then he remembered. It hit him. He had murdered her. He had killed her for leading Obi-Wan to him. It had been him that had seen the end of her.
'I … Padme … I murdered you,' he said softly withdrawing from her to look in her eyes. 'I … I …'
'You didn't murder me,' she whispered. 'I couldn't live without you.'
In surprise he looked at her in shock and then wrapped his arms around her. Her head rested softly on his chest. He hadn't murdered. Sidious had lied to him. He had suffered the pain thinking he murdered her for all those years and it hadn't been the truth.
'If I hadn't been a machine,' he whispered into her brown curls, 'I couldn't have lived without you.'