A/N: Hello everyone! Sorry for taking so long to update: things have been hectic and there's been some writers block. Anyway, thanks for reading, and a shout out to those who followed, favorited and reviewed. You're all amazing! Maracollins: Thanks! Get ready for more, the angst is not toning down anytime soon. AnakinandPadme: I'm sorry… I'll go put myself in writer timeout now… JOUNOUCHI sama: I do plan for Anakin (with the addition of a few scars) to mostly end up looking like his old self. So… chances are good. I am, however, going to stick with the canon timeline. I'm looking forward to Ben growing up with Anakin around (How might that change his perception of Vader?), plus, can you imagine Anakin's response when Snoke starts hanging around Ben? He's seen this before, after all, with Palpatine and himself. Hope this satisfactorily answers your questions. Rey Skywalker112: I think you're going to get answers to some of that in this chapter. The kidnappers do serve a purpose. The Rebellion isn't all sunshine and rainbows, and not everyone is in agreement. At least some of those young people joined the Rebellion specifically to gain vengeance for their families and kill Vader (Those lines ended up cut, sorry). There is good and bad on both sides, and nothing is clear-cut. Thank you! Have a chapter. StormSkye: Yep! Guest: No offense taken. I admit, I've been too busy to watch any of it for a while, and my characterizations have been getting rusty. I'm glad I'm starting to get it right. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you stick with me until the end. SableDreamer: Welcome! Great to meet you. Have a chapter! All will soon be revealed…

I do not own Star Wars or its characters. Both are property of Lucasfilms and Disney.

Chapter 6

Han fell back into step beside Leia as his girlfriend approached, her jaw set and tension pervading her stance and walk.

"Hey. What'd he want?"

Her voice was as tense as everything else, "I don't want to talk about it."

He nodded, "Okay." Silence followed. Finally she spoke, "How dare he bring my father into this! He doesn't know the first thing about my father."

The man found himself confused, "Isn't he-"

She sighed exasperatedly, "My real father."

"Ohhh… King guy."

Suddenly her glare was directed at him, "He wasn't a king."

"But… you're a pri-"

"It's Alderaan. Everyone's drowning in titles."

Han's face screwed up slightly in confused thought, "Didn't House Organa rule Alderaan?"

Leia stopped walking, turning to shout at him softly, "That's not the point!"

"Well what is the point?" he hissed back.

"The point is… The point is…" She glared at his triumphant smirk, "The point is he's trying to use my father to manipulate me, and it's not going to work, and…" She huffed exasperatedly, "Will you just stop defending him?!"

"Who's defending him? I just think you should take a moment to look at the whole picture, that's all." Han paused, "What did he say, anyway?"
Leia shook her head, "Nothing! Just… he's proud of me and he wants me to forgive him, all that rubbish. I shouldn't be angry because I might end up like him…"

"What's wrong with that?"

She paused, anger building, "NOTHING! Oh, you're impossible."

He followed her as she stormed off, "How about you stop yelling at everyone."

Luke, meanwhile, was talking with Rex, trying to gain further answers on his father.

"You were there. On Endor. Why didn't you step forward then?"

"I didn't know it was him. No one ever told me Vader was him." The clone looked down, shaking his head, "Believe me, if I had known…Well, there's nothing to do about it now."

Luke glanced at him, "So, you two were close."

Rex nodded, "I was assigned to General Skywalker shortly after Geonosis," He paused to explain, "Near the beginning of the war." He sighed, continuing, "I served with him from that point almost until the fall of the Republic. He was a great leader… and a good man. I'm sorry that this happened to him. That he would go down that road… it's incomprehensible to me."

"Why?"

The other paused, "Kid, the Clone Wars were long, hard, brutal fighting. We were going up against droids, separatists, even Sith. There was never anyone with more hatred for the Sith than your father. And he was loyal to the Republic. He never would have willingly betrayed it. Never. I can't imagine what could have made him join them."

Luke tried to offer up a suggestion, "Yoda said hatred is a path to the dark side."

Rather than responding to the statement, as Luke had expected, Rex's eyes widened in a shocked expression, "General Yoda's alive?"

"Um… no. He died a few years ago on Dagobah."

The clone looked sad, "Oh." He paused, "Perhaps hatred was the wrong word. The general was… diametrically opposed to everything they believed or stood for, and he wasn't particularly sorry to see them die, but that went for all of us. However things between them tended to get personal."

The young man looked confused, "What do you mean?"

Rex smiled dismissively, "Oh, pay me no mind. I'm just an old fool, talking on about things past that don't matter."

Luke didn't buy the 'senile old man' act for a second. There was a brightness to his eyes and a sharpness to his look that belied his story, and he watched Luke like he was waiting for him to swallow it. There was something he didn't want to talk about.

He decided to drop it, moving around to another tack, "You're kind of old to have fought in the Clone Wars, aren't you?"

"I'm a lot younger than I look, Kid." He sighed, "Well, we're here. Let's see what was so blasted important." They walked through the blast doors into the bridge, ending the chance for conversation.

Anakin lay on the roasting gravel, pain more intense than anything he had ever felt slicing through him. He felt his brain slowly going into shock as it registered the sudden loss of multiple limbs.

He looked up at the man above him, reaching out to him in supplication as tears of pain and regret ran down his face, "Please, help me."

"You killed Padme. You killed me. You betrayed everything that we ever fought for. Why would I help you?"

"It was a mistake." He plead, "I'm sorry. Please, let me come back. Help me fix this."

Obi-Wan paused, his hair whipping in the dry, volcanic air of Mustafar, "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you once, but no longer. I loved you, but I could not save you."

He could feel himself slowly sinking down the gravelly incline, the heat drifting up to him gradually growing more intense as he approached the lava. "No! No, please, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Obi-Wan. Please! I'm gonna- I'm gonna burn. Help me. Help me please!"

The other man shook his head, staring stonefaced as Anakin sank too far. The younger man started to scream as tendrils of red and yellow agony began lapping their way up his body to engulf him.

"Please," Anakin weakly begged, "Kill me. End this."

Obi-Wan looked at the lightsaber in his hand, "You're right. To kill you now would be a mercy." Still dry-eyed and calm, he reclipped the weapon to his belt and looked back into Anakin's eyes. "I am not feeling merciful." Slowly he turned, starting to walk away.

"Master!" Anakin pleadingly called out one last time, reaching out his remaining hand in supplication.

The other turned back momentarily, "You are only a master of evil now, Anakin. You did this to yourself. I cannot help you."

He turned away, making his way up the incline. Then he was gone.

"No! Come back! Don't leave me!" He screamed once more as the pain became unbearable.

Anakin jolted awake, alone, sobbing and shaking as he tried to calm himself. He closed his eyes, thinking, It wasn't real. It wasn't real. It wasn't real. It's okay; It wasn't real.

He looked up, freezing as his eyes drifted to a far corner of the dark room. It had only been there for a moment, but for a second he could have sworn he had seen his friend sitting there, staring at him. He had thought he felt his presence. No. No; it was just his imagination. It would be impossible. There was no way.

The moment on the death star flashed before him. Obi-Wan smiling over at Luke, glancing back at him then raising his saber in front of his face, refusing to continue the fight. The bright swing of the Sith weapon as it sliced through him. Anakin felt sick thinking of it.

Memories flooded his mind.

"…Only a master of evil now, Darth."

"I HATE YOU!"

"You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind until now… you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."

"You are weak, Old Man."

"I will do as I must."

"I didn't mean it," he sobbed, "I didn't mean it, I swear. I'm so sorry; I didn't mean any of it. Please, come back. I need you… Forgive me… Just stop being dead. Please…"

He tried to compose himself as the door opened, wiping unsuccessfully at his face with his metal hand.

Dr. Gormul turned on the light. "Hey. I just thought I would come check on you." She walked over, speaking as she moved. "The droids said you have some cracked ribs. Is that true?"

"Well, they hurt."

She sighed, leaning down and pulling the open medical shirt out of the way to look at the affected area. "Yeah, you do." She glanced over him, "And I don't like this bruising either. It looks like they beat you up pretty badly."

He moaned slightly at her gentle proding, but spoke, "What are you going to do? I'm going in a Bacta tank, right?"

She didn't respond for a moment, pausing thoughtfully, "No… There's no way to get you in there with all the equipment. I'll have to figure out something else."

"Well, maybe you could hurry up."

She gazed at him pityingly, "I'm so sorry this happened. Not everyone is like that, I promise."

Anakin didn't meet her gaze, "It's okay. They were right to do it. I don't mind."

The sorrowful expression continued, but she retrieved a pad from her coat, "By the way, while I'm here, I was looking over your scans and I found something strange." She held it out to him, "There seems to be a foreign object in your body cavity? I was hoping you maybe knew something about it?"

He looked at the picture, speaking musingly after a moment, "So that's where it is…"

The doctor looked questioning, "What is it?"

Anakin motioned dismissively, "It's nothing to worry about. Just a chip; don't bother with it."

"A chip to do what?"

He seemed slightly defensive, "It's nothing. It contains some circuitry, a tracker, and a small amount of explosive."

She waved her hands incredulously, "Wait, wait. Let me get this straight… You have a bomb inside you."

"Just a very small one. It wouldn't cause any property damage if it went off, I promise."

"Well, what would it do?"

"It probably wouldn't even break the skin. It would just tear me up nicely inside, and then I would die, slowly and in horrible agony, over the course of about ten minutes. Nice and neat and scary." He continued, muttering too softly for her to hear, "Hutts like neat and scary."

"And you say it's nothing?" She paused, trying to process the casualness with which he spoke of such things, "You… you sound like you've seen this happen."

He sighed, not looking at her, "I have."

She paused again, uncertain that she really wanted to know more, "When? During the Clone Wars? Or under the Empire?"

"Oh, it was long before that."

"When?"

He paused, "I don't want to talk about it."

She nodded. Of course not. Who would?

"Don't worry. It was deactivated years ago… when I first came to the Jedi. The doctors on Coruscant all thought it would be too dangerous to try to remove it. It might go off if they messed with it, that sort of thing." He paused, gazing pleadingly up into her face, "You won't risk it, will you? You'll leave it alone?"

The woman stared, sighed, then nodded, "I'll leave it alone."

Anakin visibly relaxed, "Thank you."

The door opened once more and Luke walked in, "Hey. How's it going in here?"

She was still staring at the injured side. "I wonder…" Then she stood and left, a thoughtful look on her face.

The young man paused, "How are you?"

Anakin grunted softly then looked down, thinking, "Luke, what did you tell them about me?"

"What do you mean?"

He paused, "Han forgave me much more easily than I would have expected. What did you tell them?"

The young man paused awkwardly, "Um… I told them the truth."

"Which is?" Did he even know the whole truth?

His eyes shifted, determinedly not meeting Anakin's, "The Emperor had you under mind control. You managed to break free and save me."

His father looked down, sad and disappointed, "That isn't the truth."

Luke's voice grew insistent, a shriller edge creeping into his tone, "Yes it is! At least… from a certain point of view…"

Anakin stared at him, "From- From a certain point of view? What does that even mean? What sort of garbage have they been filling your head with, anyway? The truth is not subjective. Who told you that? Who trained you?" He sounded like a disgruntled parent ready to call his son's school to complain, only asking for names so he would know who to yell at.

"But I thought Yoda was a great Jedi knight."

"Master Yoda told you that?!"

"Um… No… He trained me. Ben told me that."

Anakin paused, confused, "Who?"

Luke paused, "Obi-Wan…? When I knew him he was Ben Kenobi."

"Ben… A known alias and his own last name?! What was he thinking?! We could have found him! He could have gotten himself killed-" He froze at the word, realizing what he just said, and then burst into tears.

The young man hesitantly approached, Anakin continuing to sob.

"Are you okay?" Luke remembered sitting in Ben's hut, listening as the old man told him about his father. He had said they were close… but here was the confirmation, in a miserable blubbering heap before him.

And he was a good friend. Luke didn't think he had completely realized the full meaning of those words until now.

Anakin spoke through tears, "And… and he told you the truth depends on your point of view?"

Luke nodded.

"What exactly did he say? What was the context?"

The other looked down, deciding he wouldn't say anything about the ghost. He didn't need his father to think he was crazy. "Well… um… I asked him about…" He sighed, "About my father, what happened, and… well…"

Anakin gazed at him, desperately craving news of his friend, "Well? What did he say? I know he didn't tell you the truth."

Luke looked up, "He told me my father was a hero. A great Jedi of remarkable ability, a close and loyal friend on whom he could always rely."

Anakin stared at him. After everything that had happened, that was the way Obi-Wan had spoken of him? Why? What had he done that could possibly deserve such fondness?

He hesitated, "Was there… was there anything else?"

"He said you were betrayed. That Vader, his apprentice, joined the Emperor, betrayed, and murdered you." Luke paused as Anakin's heartbroken, guilty expression deepened, eyes closed and head bowed. He hastened to continue, trying to pull some sort of positive outcome from the conversation, "Look, I know… it really was you, but I think it was true in a way. So is this. You and Vader may as well be different people for how different you are. And this a chance to start over. You can put it all behind you; get a blank slate. Just… leave it the way it is." He moved, starting to pace.

The door opened and the doctor returned, a wet bandage in her hand, "Okay. Let's try this." She situated herself beside Anakin and placed her hand on his back, urging him to lean forward, "Yeah, that's it." She started wrapping the soaked, dripping bandages around his ribcage, starting well below and ending well above the injured area.

The patient groaned faintly, "What are you doing?"

She sighed, not pausing in her work, "You cannot be put in a tank, so I soaked some bandages in bacta fluid and we'll see if they work."

"'We'll see?' You don't know?"

"Hey, you're forcing me to improvise. I'm doing my best here." She tucked in the end and stood, preparing to leave, "Now, that should work. If it does, it will really simplify your treatment so don't mess with it."

Anakin nodded, "Sure."

"Okay. I'll be by to check on your progress in a couple of days. Hopefully it will have cleared up by then. I want to move ahead with surgery on your lungs, but I can't do that until we've dealt with these new injuries."

Luke broke in, "Oh, right. I've been meaning to tell you. Um, apparently he told Han he has some brilliant plan for taking out that base, so they want to have that briefing before any surgery too."

She sighed, "Great. Just what we need. More delays. Well, see how quickly they can get it out of the way, okay?"

The young man nodded, "Sure. I'll see what I can do."

She nodded, glancing from one to the other, "Okay. Well, I'll get out of your way. There should be some droids around if you need anything." As she finished talking she rose, departing the room.

With her gone, Anakin spoke slowly, trying to make his point clear as he continued the discussion she had interrupted, "Luke, I spent half my life as a Sith. I think that I should at least be honest about where the blame falls."

The other turned, a determined, insistent note edging his voice, "Well, it doesn't fall with you. All right?"

"Then who?"

Luke threw up a frustrated hand, "I don't know… the Emperor?"

Anakin paused, "He didn't force me to turn. I made a choice, and it was the wrong one."

His son gazed at him, "Then why did you do it? You must have known what he was. You must have known what he was asking you to become. Why did you turn?"

Anakin sighed, a weight settling over his face, "I thought I had to."

Luke shook his head, "I don't understand."

The other sighed, going quiet. Finally he muttered, "I'm not ready for this." His voice returned to normal volume, "I'm sorry. I'm… kind of tired. Um… do you think I could just be alone for a while?"

Luke paused, then nodded, "Okay." He approached the door, pausing a moment in the open doorway, "Just… call if you need anything, all right?"

Anakin nodded, the door closed, and he was left once more alone with his thoughts.

Back on the bridge Luke had wandered away from, the communications officer patched through an incoming hail.

"Unknown ship, identify yourself."

An obviously disguised voice sounded through the space, "This is Fulcrum, requesting docking."

The room relaxed. One of the Fulcrum agents returning from a mission wanted to dock. Nothing worrying. There was a pause, then the voice continued, audibly troubled, "Are you all all right over there?"

The comm officer responded, "Explain yourself, Fulcrum."

"Are you in trouble? Do you require assistance?"

"…That's a negative, Fulcrum. We're all fine here. Why do you ask?"

Another long pause. "Nothing. Never mind. For a second I thought… it doesn't matter. Requesting permission to dock."

He nodded, "Permission granted, Fulcrum. Fly to the main hanger on the command ship."

"Acknowledged. Thank you."