Author's Note and Disclaimer: Hopefully this means that my writer's block is going away. Thanks to Lurkz for proofreading this. I don't own Star Wars.
"Anakin?"
The voice was familiar. It reminded him of a dream he had had long ago.
"Anakin, look at me."
I don't know how, he thought. He was drifting in the ether.
"You need to open your eyes."
He did. It was an odd feeling, since he was sure his body was no longer his body. He had spent so long encased in that cursed armor that he had forgotten what it was like to have a real body.
Nothing was distinct except for her. He saw her and cried out in joy and pain.
She was at his side in an instant. "It's all right, Ani. Everything's all right now."
He sobbed helplessly at her side. Nothing's all right. I killed you. I killed so many people.
"I forgive you, Anakin. We all do."
I can't forgive myself. I never will.
"You've done great things as well. You destroyed the Sith."
He gave a short, harsh laugh. It echoed. I only wanted to save my—our—son. I wanted to do something right in my cursed, miserable life.
"Your life was neither cursed nor miserable. We had each other for a time."
And look how that turned out.
"Everything happened how it needed to happen. I've accepted that."
I can't.
She gave a sad smile. "You never could just lie back and accept things. That's what I love about you."
I was a fool. A shortsighted, arrogant fool.
"I'm not denying that."
Now it was his turn to smile. You always did know just what to say.
"How differently would things have turned out if you weren't so arrogant? Palpatine would have just found another pawn. You would have been labeled a threat and destroyed. You needed to be at the right place at the right time, and you were."
I suppose.
"How are our children?"
"Good," he said, surprising himself. He felt a bit more solid now. More centered, more real. He supposed that vocalizing, such as it was, was part of this. "Luke was there with me at the end."
"I know."
"I cut off his hand, you know." He looked at her, but her expression didn't change. "And I tortured our daughter. Afterwards, I destroyed her home and the only family she had ever known." I'm a monster.
"Darth Vader was a monster. You are Anakin, and that's all you ever were."
"I've always been Vader. I was just waiting to learn how to be."
"You were Anakin in every way that mattered. Vader was a mask you wore. Vader kept you going when you thought you had nothing, and you don't need to be Vader anymore."
"I forgot how to be anything else."
"You can be Anakin again."
He looked around. Everything was changing. He saw something that may have been fire, and trees.
"Padmé!" She was fading as everything else took shape.
"I'm right here, waiting. I'll be here when you get back. Say hello to Luke and Leia for me."
He realized he wasn't alone. Two others were beginning to take shape along with the forest. "Obi-Wan? Yoda?"
Obi-Wan looked like he had aboard the Death Star, years before. He wore the appearance of his age with dignity, like a comfortable cloak. Yoda looked like he always had.
"Hello, old friend."
"Can you forgive me?"
"We already have."
"Forgive yourself, you must."
"And forgive us for not having faith in you. Luke and Padmé's faith in you was not misplaced, but we didn't see it."
"I don't blame you for that."
"It all balanced out." Obi-Wan gestured to the scene of revelry that was beginning to materialize in front of them. "You just needed to remember who you were."
Anakin saw his son look towards them. For a second, Anakin saw him as he was in the Force: a radiant presence, a magnet, and a Jedi. Luke smiled, and Anakin decided that maybe he had done something right, after all.
Leia approached to pull him back to the celebration, and Vader wondered how he could have ever not realized that she was Padmé's daughter. Her presence, while not as entangled in the Force as Luke's was, was no less vital and bright. She would do great things.
He, Obi-Wan, and Yoda stayed a bit longer, looking on the fruit of their efforts. It was as if a stain had been washed away, leaving a canvas blank and ready to be repainted by the next generation of legends.
He returned to Padmé, ready to heal.