A/N: Hello everyone! Well, due to a possible obsession, I am writing another Anakin/Vader redemption fic, this one definitely multi-chapter. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy it, and please leave me lots of reviews. :)
Edit: I am currently going through and editing this fic, for real this time. Grammatical and quality updates, as well as slight tweaks to account for new canon and changes to my own future plot. Thanks guys!
I do not own Star Wars or it's characters. All rights reserved to Disney, Lucasfilm, and the ever wonderful Filoni.
We begin on the rapidly collapsing second death star, hovering over Endor…
Chapter 1
Anakin held his damaged arm to his chest as Luke struggled to half-carry him to a shuttle, finally collapsing on the floor as the larger man and metal suit proved too heavy for him to support.
"Luke, help… me take… this mask off." The thready wheezing continued.
"But you'll die."
Anakin swallowed, studying his son through the red lenses and deteriorating data feed of his helmet, "Nothing… can stop that now. Just this once… let me look on you with my own eyes."
Luke continued to look pleading, "Surely the suit must be doing something."
"It is merely… prolonging… the inevitable. Th… The Emperor broke it, Luke. It… cannot help me anymore."
Luke peered up the ramp to the shuttle, "Well maybe it can last you until we get to the Rebellion. There will be doctors there."
Anakin smiled faintly at Luke's stubbornness. The boy was so like his mother. Or him. He tried to talk some sense into him, "You must… leave quickly. This station… is about to be… destroyed."
Luke seemed to have determined a course of action, "Yeah, it is." He looked back at the black metal mass, sighing, "Okay, here we go." Grabbing his hands once more, Luke dragged him slowly up the ramp into the shuttle, closing the door and running to the controls, "I won't leave you. Just hold on a little longer; you're going to get help."
Leia watched overjoyed as an Imperial shuttle hurriedly landed on Endor. She had known Luke was alive, or guessed since she thought she could still feel him, but she was still new to this whole "Force" thing and was glad of the confirmation. Then her smile dropped as he dragged a large black form down the ramp. "Doctor!" He yelled, "We need a doctor here!"
Are you kidding me, she thought.
Everyone was silent, unmoving, ranged about the area staring expressionlessly at the scene.
Luke knelt on the ground beside his father, pleading with the surrounding rebels, "Someone get a doctor, a medical droid, something! Please! He's gonna die!"
His attention was drawn back to Vader, who was at this point clawing at the throat piece with his remaining hand, dignity all but forgotten in his desperation. "I- I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Please, Luke! I can't-" He arched slightly, convulsing, trying to get air that was currently non-existent. "They won't help. They shouldn't. I should die. Please, Luke. I can't- I can't get it off myself."
"Just hold on a little longer." The young man clung to him, tears in his eyes as he turned to his sister, "Leia! You know who he is! It's him, I promise! He saved my life! Will you do nothing?"
That thing is not my father.
Seconds ticked by. The thready wheezing of the helmet continued to get weaker; now it was almost silent. Finally, desperate, Luke turned back to her, "He has information about the Empire. Troop movements, collaborators' names, weaknesses of weapons… Anything you could possibly want to know. He will gladly give it up. All you have to do is save him."
"Get this mask off me! I don't want to die in here. Please, get me out!"
Leia stared. It was bizarre, hearing the deep, artificial voice of Darth Vader sounding so frightened and desperate, as if he were panicking, as if there really was a person inside the suit and not a monster.
"Leia!"
Information. They needed it. The Emperor may have been dead, but there was still the entire Imperial machine to bring down. That additional intelligence could be invaluable. She sighed, "Bring a stretcher. We need to get him to the medical frigate."
No one stirred, looking at her as if she had lost her mind.
"Move!" They broke up, getting down to business, and soon he was being rolled onto a stretcher.
The field medic spoke, "We need to get the helmet off to administer oxygen." Anakin, by this point completely panicked and confused, not to mention air-deprived, was fighting them, pushing them away, calling for his son. Luke managed to calm him down, and after a few seconds succeeded in removing the top of the helmet, shortly followed by the mask.
A pale, sickly, deformed creature emerged, more akin to something that lived under a rock than a man. The only recognizably human part of his battered face, in fact, were the clear blue eyes shining out of sunken sockets. It gazed at him, smiling weakly, love radiating through their surprisingly strong bond. Luke only had a moment to take it in, however, before an oxygen mask was pulled over his father's head, obscuring his face.
Deep, quick breaths followed. Anakin put up his remaining hand to hold the mask, pressing it closer to his face. "Thank you." He gasped out, the words garbled and difficult to hear due to the rubber covering his nose and mouth.
Luke's earnest blue eyes met his, "You're going to be okay. We're gonna help you."
Anakin's right arm reached for the young man, Luke gripping the wire-covered end in lieu of the missing hand. Then it was pulled from his grasp as they wheeled him off.
He stood, staring after them, and shortly felt Leia's comforting presence by his shoulder, "Are you all right?"
Luke's voice was distant, "He saved me, Leia. He killed the Emperor so that I could get out. And he almost died doing it." He looked at his twin, "I was right about him. He could come back."
She paused, "I- I'm glad you feel that way, Luke. Truly I am. And I hope your trust is vindicated. Me? All I want is the information."
Luke looked unhappily confused, gripping her arm, "He's our father."
She pulled away from him, "My father died on Alderaan. If I had my way I would shoot Vader myself."
"His name is Anakin Skywalker."
"Who cares."
Anakin lay on a med-bay cot, trying to see around all the tubes and wires that now covered him. Where did he go from here? What did he do? In the split second he had made the decision he had imagined he would die killing Palpatine, that after that it would be over. Instead here he was, out of the suit and on life support. So, what next?
Kill them all and escape.
Anakin ignored the whispering voice in his head. That was another unforeseen problem that he had expected death to solve. He was back in the light, but for how long? Keeping the dark side at bay was already proving a struggle. What if he lost?
No, no. He wouldn't lose. He wouldn't become that thing again. He wouldn't hurt these people.
At least the pain was largely gone; he felt better than he had… well ever. He supposed since Mustafar. Whatever painkillers the Rebellion had, they worked. He leaned back, resolved to simply enjoy the medication and his ability to once more look out a window with his own blasted eyes. Maybe he could meditate, if he remembered how that was done as a Jedi, attempt to increase his connection to the light side. Yes… that would be a good idea.
He had just closed his eyes when a series of confused beeps sounded beside him, a mechanical voice he hadn't heard in over twenty years reaching his ears. Anakin turned his head, thankful that he had oxygen tubes in his nose rather than a mask. Slowly he cracked a smile, managing to talk, "Hey, little buddy. It's good to see you. Remember me?"
R2D2 stared confusedly at him for a moment as its recognition matrix ran Anakin's ruined features through its databanks. It took a while, the man looked so different, but then it exploded into happy beeps and whistles.
Anakin laughed a little at the droid's outburst, then stopped in a fit of pained coughing. It was strange; it had felt so natural. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed. "Yeah, R2, it's me. Yeah, I'm okay, I guess. Better than normal." The astromech moved closer, emitting a low, sad beep at the state of its master. Anakin navigated the tubes and wires with difficulty, finally reaching out a shaking, thin metal hand to rest on the droid's top, "I know. Neither of us is quite what we were. It'll be okay though." He paused, blinking away tears, "We'll live, somehow. And don't worry about those struts. I'll fix your jet propellers as soon as I get out of here." Another sad beep emitted from the droid, and it moved in closer to his master, ending directly beside the bed.
Anakin turned his head away, starting to cry silently as guilt overwhelmed him.
Why hadn't he died?