Star Wars

As he threw the emperor into the chasm, Anakin felt every last day of his life catch up to him. The force lightning had a profound effect on his body, causing his mechanical lungs to become supercharged. And although he was missing his right hand, he felt no pain from the severed wires. Although it hurt initially, it felt nothing like his experience with Obi-Wan on Mustafar. As the plasma reached up the chasm he could feel his body registering the extreme shock. He gasped for air trying to remain conscious. He then felt his son kneeling next to him supporting him. He could hear Luke repeating the same words over and over again as he dragged him out of the chamber, "Just hang in there dad, everything's going to be fine."

As the minutes went by, Anakin's strength was coming back and he began to walk feebly. As they arrived at the shuttle, he was able to walk up the ramp a ways, until he collapsed and fell back into Luke. Luke kept pushing him up the ramp and helped him into his seat.

"Hang on," Luke said.

And although he was too tired to talk, Anakin gave a thumbs up of approval. Luke then raced into the cockpit to get the ship out the "soon to be destroyed" Death Star.

"He's a new man now Luke," Luke said to himself as he tried to convince himself of his father's new conversion, "It's your father and you can trust him." He grimaced as the shuttle began to shake as it made its' hasty exit. And then as he began to move away for the Death Star, he felt a great tremor in the force, and closed his eyes, knowing full well that the Death Star and all of its occupants were now gone.

After stopping the shuttle outside the atmosphere of endor, he ran back to his father to see how he was feeling. The two began to tell each other more about themselves, trying to make up for the lost twenty years between them. Luke had much trouble trying to look at his father. The disfigured and pale face was nasty and Luke wondered if his father could even feel the scars. There were too many questions he needed answered.

"Who was my mother, and what happened to her? And why were Leia and I separated?" Luke asked. He decided to keep the darker questions for later.

"Well your mother was Padme Amidala. I was told that I killed her in a fit of rage, but I am unsure of that now. She hadn't born you or your sister when I saw her last on Mustafar, and here you stand so she must have lived and died soon after you were born." Anakin paused to catch his breath. "And I guess you were separated so I couldn't sense you more easily."

Luke took all of this in and let his father pause for a minute. "Why did you turn to the dark side?" Luke asked. He was unsure about asking this question merely because of how his father would react.

Anakin took a deep breath and looked at Luke. He never wanted to think about his past again, but he knew he must answer Luke to maintain his trust. He could see in his eyes that he wasn't going to settle for some half-truth.

"Some time after I left Tatooine to become a Jedi, I began to experience nightmares of my mother calling for help. I disobediently went to go help her. I discovered her captured in a Tusken camp." Anakin paused as Luke urged him to continue. "I slaughtered every one of them…this was my first step to the dark side. After a time when Padme I had married, I began to have nightmares that she would die during childbirth. I became desperate and turned to Chancellor Palpatine for help. I then learned he was a Sith lord claiming to be able to show me how to save Padme. Unfortunately I listened to him and became his apprentice."

Luke began to go over all of these details in his mind. He could see his father as a little boy struggling to survive in the harsh climate of Tatooine. He could understand now how the old laws stated how young a potential force sensitive child must be discovered. He also realized the importance of no marriages within the Jedi order. Any one of these situations had the potential to create another "Vader" if given the proper motive.

"Strange how the force still seemed to use me to fulfill the prophecy." Anakin finished.

"Can you show me how to use force lightning?" Luke's curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"I was never able to learn that because of my arms, it is a very dangerous thing to use anyway and I'm not going to be teaching anything until I have rested."

Luke was disappointed but tried not to show it. "Well first off we need to get you to a med center to fix your hand," Luke stated. He then returned to the cockpit to pilot his way down to the surface of Endor.

He began to wonder how all of the galaxy would react to having Darth Vader, one of the most feared individuals in the galaxy, walk among them. More importantly, how would Leia react to the same individual who had her tortured for information? "I hope with compassion and understanding, but I'm not counting on it." Luke thought as the shuttle set down. Suddenly he was aware that although the Death Star was gone, Imperial troops were still on the planet and may have seen him land. He swallowed hard as he saw storm troopers stained with grass and mud run out of the forest towards the shuttle.