After sacrificing himself to save his son, and returning to the side of the Light, Anakin Skywalker was able to spend the last moments of his life with Luke, showing him a remnant of who he had been before falling into the temptations of the Dark Side. The blond boy looked tenderly at his dying father, broken in body and spirit, with that heavy black armor, the scarred and hairless skull, the greyish and prematurely aged skin. The lightning thrown by the cruel Darth Sidious had devastated what little remained of the man's health.
He was only forty-five, but it was as if he had lived a hundred years longer.
Now he could have enjoyed eternity in the Light, in the company of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Yoda. The sweetness of his son, who had seen in him a father and no longer the criminal he had been, had given him the peace of letting himself go without fear. Sidious was now dead, and the Galaxy could have put the years of terror behind it, to flourish in a glorious future.
The ex Darth Vader, however, had a gripe: not having been able to do the same with his daughter Leia, whose family bond he had discovered shortly before his death.
However, he would've been able to make up for it through the Force, as he had become a Spirit of it and Leia could communicate with him, being sensitive to Force too. She had never used it though, as she was aware that she was more prone to the Dark Side than her twin, due to what she had been through.
Leia... How much she resembled his lost love! The long dark brown hair, gathered in an elaborate hairstyle... The piercing eyes, the straight nose and the lips curved in a severe expression... The white dress, symbol of her status as a princess and her pursuit of justice...
If Luke resembled him as a young man, but with Padmé's mild temper, Leia resembled Padmé, but with his fiery temper.
One evening, as Leia was on the way to her room, she saw him. The ghost of her father.
It had been a few months since the battle of Endor.
The candles were lit on her bedside table and their flames danced tremulously, spreading a scent of flowers into the air. The young woman herself wore a long nightgown richly decorated with graceful golden flowers, which did particular justice to her princely figure.
Leia jumped when her room entered her field of vision, but at first she didn't understand: who was that tall man with long curly hair, and what was he doing in her room?
There was a certain resemblance to Luke, only his hair appeared darker and his gaze more determined, intense. In a corner of her mind, Leia remembered all the compliments that had been made to her on the power of her gaze, and at that moment the sensation they aroused in her wasn't pleasant at all.
At a closer look, the woman realized that the man lacked solidity, that the faint evening light passed through him, and that his outlines were blurred.
In that instant, she remembered what her brother had told her about Obi-Wan's apparition, and she had to admit that in her case too the description matched: that being also emitted the bluish halo that Luke had seen around the Jedi.
"Are you... A Force ghost?" she asked him, in a low, trembling voice. The world she had painstakingly kept away from was unfolding before her.
Anakin stood still and just smiled, not answering that question. He faced the window so that Leia couldn't see his face.
It was a quiet night, which gave the ghost the melancholy of the old days, when he watched the sunset with his beloved Padmé.
Troubled, Leia insisted:
"Who are you, then? What are you doing in my private room?"
The woman had leaned against the large wardrobe positioned against the wall, fearing a possible rash movement of the unknown entity.
At that point, the Jedi turned to his daughter and reassuringly told her not to fear him, and that he was her father, Anakin Skywalker; his figure had become intensely luminous, with the surrounding light shining with blue, white and yellow. His face was beaming with joy, as if all he was expecting to see was her, Leia Organa.
It was a moment: a poisonous gush rose overwhelmingly on Leia's scarlet lips, which whispered "Vader" like the hiss of a snake.
Soon after, fear began to run down her spine like a cold shiver, while remembering all the times she had felt hunted down by him, all the pain he had inflicted on her, all the horrors he had perpetrated.
Suddenly, she felt an incandescent mass rising from her chest towards her throat, and her breathing became labored: it was adrenaline, pure adrenaline. Or more simply, the physical manifestation of her hatred for him.
The Phantom noticed Leia's aura getting darker, torn by a fierce feeling that would've probably never really found peace, and hastened to appease her:
"Leia, listen to me! I have been forgiven! I'm here to humbly ask forgiveness from you too... Please, don't let anger consume you, or the Dark Side will call you to itself..."
That heartfelt appeal sent thousands of frozen splinters into Leia's soul: how dared he talk to her about anger and negative feelings? About the Dark Side? Him... The last person who should have had the right to speak, and the last being who should have appeared in front of her.
Leia's gaze became sharp, cold as steel:
"It is I who beg you to leave and never be seen again."
Was it possible to contain all that repressed hatred in a human body? Leia was wondering it at that very moment, wondering if that horrible feeling that was running through every vein like a poisonous snake was also responsible for Jabba's strangulation, and if she too would've ended up poisoning herself like every Sith Lord had done. Sith. The very thought of it horrified her.
"Leia, I beg you! I am no longer the man who terrified you, but a foreigner who came to kneel in front of you. A foreigner who hopes you will give him a second chance."
That was too much.
Leia's wrath exploded with the power of a supernova.
"YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING! NO ONE WILL EVER GIVE A SECOND OPPORTUNITY TO ALDERAAN AND THE TWO BILLION PEOPLE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! NO ONE WILL RETRIEVE THE PIECES OF MY PLANET LOST IN THE GALAXY! NO ONE WILL REFORM THE RIVERS, THE LAKES, THE SEA, THE PLANTS AND THE ANIMALS THAT MADE IT UP! NO ONE WILL MAKE MY MOTHER BREHA OR MY FATHER BAIL ORGANA COME BACK TO LIFE! ALL THOSE YOU HAVE KILLED, ALL THOSE YOU HAVE HURT... I CAN'T FORGET WHAT YOU DID!"
Leia was practically in tears, overwhelmed with emotion. She hated him, she wasn't afraid to admit it. He had taken everything away from her, every drop of happiness... Her mother's smile, her father's warm voice, the beautiful building where she had taken her first steps, the birds singing in her garden, her childhood friends, her dolls, her books, the servants who as a child gave her some extra sweets after dinner… All lost, pieces of heart pulverized in the madness of a moment.
"The Rebellion has grown stronger with my actions. Now the Empire is gone, Leia... I beg you again, it could be the last time we'll see each other, I may not be able to visit you again..."
"Good!" Leia interrupted him, practically screaming. She had listened too much, not only did that man expect to be forgiven after everything he had done, but he had also had the courage to say that his actions had fueled the Rebellion! He hadn't the slightest shame, and in her heart Leia thought that his being considered a Jedi was a real offense to those who had always sought justice.
The princess became even more impatient when she saw the Spirit take her hand and squeeze it between his smoky fingers, again begging her to forgive him.
"I have obtained forgiveness from your brother, but my soul will not be at peace until it gets yours, my daughter."
Outraged. This is how Leia felt.
"Stop saying nonsense. Those five minutes of heroism are worth nothing to me, they are not enough to erase the abominations of a lifetime. Just because Luke is my twin brother doesn't mean I have to forgive you like he did. I'm not Luke. Apparently, I haven't suffered enough by fate. Having the ghost of my tormentor here is yet another cruel game of the Galaxy, as if having the same blood wasn't already abominable enough."
A sudden thought crossed Leia's mind: how had her biological mother managed to bond with such man? Leaving aside Vader's cruelty, his exasperating her with his requests for forgiveness gave her the idea of a suffocating, controlling and paranoid person. So was the marriage of those who brought her into the Universe like this? A cage made of sweetness and submission? From bad to worse.
Anakin went on and on begging her, desperate. Leia, however, had no mercy.
"I see you continue to haunt me. So be it. I could almost forgive you for torturing me on the Death Star, or for hurting all those rebels. On the other hand, your actions have strengthened them, haven't they? But there is one more thing that will forever be unforgivable, besides the destruction of Alderaan... You hurting Han Solo in Cloud City, and dehumanizing him with carbonite. After this endless list of crimes you have committed, are you still here making yourself pathetic in front of me? You don't know dignity even after being dead? Go away, and don't you dare to present yourself again in front of me."
Having said that, Leia abandoned the room, with an agitated step and trembling hands, as she vigorously opened the door and slammed it behind her.
Anakin's Spirit, wrapped in sadness, slowly dissolved, drawn upwards by the Force.
Furious, Leia literally bumped into Han, who had come to look for her in her room.
"Oh, baby... Did you miss me already?" the handsome pilot joked, and Leia smiled in spite of everything.
The man, however, noticed the afflicted look of his partner and gently took her face in his hands. The girl just wanted to cry.
"What is it, Leia?"
"I saw Vader. The Spirit of him." she told him, without hesitation and looking at Han straight in the eyes.
Han winced.
"He kept asking me to forgive him. I will never be able to do it."
Leia looked down, her voice was dead in her throat and her head ached.
Han, who had always been skeptical about the Force, initially believed that Leia was simply still reeling from the war against the Empire, but knowing the rational nature of his beloved, and also noting her paleness and the tremor that ran along her entire body, he was convinced.
He then tried to bring her some relief:
"Leia, your father was a dangerous and very skilled man. You are his daughter and you inherited that strength, but unlike him you have used and will use it to do good."
The two embraced and the woman let herself be lulled by her future husband, and her heartbeat resumed its regularity. She could never have changed her history or birth parents, but she could have built a family the way she liked.
Time passed, and Leia often meditated on Han's words. She no longer saw her father's ghost, but she didn't mind.
A year after that unpleasant and fateful meeting, Leia found the diary that had belonged to Anakin's mother, her grandmother Shmi.
In her little, worn and dusty tome were all the beautiful things that young Anakin had done for her, all the little tricks that had made her life as a slave easier, all the nice encouraging words he had in her moments of discouragement.
From the words of her paternal grandmother emerged an Anakin profoundly different from the cruel dictator who for years had scourged the Galaxy, and she wondered, for the first time, about the pains and sufferings that this boy had to experience, what had led him to completely close his heart.
In her heart, she forgave him. Of course, she would never have forgotten all the pain she suffered, and the souls of those who didn't make it would have always resonated inside her, but at least now she had some answers, she knew that great unhappiness can cause great evil.
After all, they had all been pawns in Sheev Palpatine's hands.