From Dark to Light

Darkness.

Nothing.

Death.

Silence.

Emptyness.

Anakin Skywalker felt all of these things. His conscience was trapped in the netherworld of the Force, and fading slowly away. Within an hour, he would be completely gone.

His mind wandered back to his last minutes alive, as his son had dragged him through the exploding Death Star, after Anakin had sacrificed himself to save him from the Emperor. A small smile crept across his face, despite the fact that he had no face that he could tell, and was glad that after all he had done to the galaxy, he had been able to end the nightmare in the end.

He sighed, growing tired of the void he was in. There was nothing, and he waited for his thoughts and feelings to fade, and for him to pass out of exsistance.

But then, a glimmer of light. A glimmer of hope. He stared in awe and silence as the white light grew and grew, changing shape into the form of a woman. She had long white hair, that seemed to flow into eternity. Her eyes were orbs of bright white light, and her skin was a glowing pale white. She had no clothes, but Anakin wasn't focused on that.

"Who are you?" he asked, almost feeling his eyes burning from the intense light. But then again, he had no eyes, at least, not anymore.

The woman smiled slightly. "I have been with you most of your life, you have depended on me more times than you can remember, and yet you don't know who I am?" Her voice was angelic, sounding like a heavenly chorus in the middle of this nothingness.

Anakin thought for a minute. "I've never seen you before," he replied trying to think back the best he could with his mind slipping away into oblivion.

"Anakin Skywalker," she said, closing her eyes. "I am the Force. I had chosen this method of communication to offer you a second chance. After you fulfilled the prophecy of the Chosen One, it seem to me to be a waste to let you fade off into non-exsistance."

Dumbfounded, Anakin tried to piece together what she had just said. "Your giving me a second chance? After all I did?"

"When people die, they come here, and I judge them for what they have done in their lives, and then decide what to do with them," the Force said, calmly floating in the darkness. "I have deemed you worthy of another life."

Anakin's mind, what was left of it, was racing, thinking about all that he could do with a new life. He could be with Luke and Leia, attempt to atone for his sins by helping rebuild the Republic, to reestablish the Jedi Order, to-

"However, there will be a slight catch."

Releasing a deep breath, Anakin groaned. "Of course there would be."

"You won't be taken back to the world that you came from," the Force told him. "You will be put into another world, as a test to make sure that I have made the right decision. Once you either pass or fail, then I'll decide whether or not to return you to your world." She paused, letting that sink in. "Do you accept?"

"I accept," he replied instantly. "But before I go, what happened to Padme? Where did she go?"

The Force smiled, raising her hands as white light surrounded them. "That is for me to know, and me only."

Then...

Whiteness.

Yeah, short chapter, I know. Upcoming chapters will be longer, garanteed. My other story, The Journey Ahead, wasn't doing as good as I had hoped, so I'm going to work on this, along with Hearts of Darkness. TJA will still be updated when I can.

So, next chapter: Anakin wakes on the UNSC Infinity, we meet some new characters, and the main villian.