Chapter 1

"You cannot hide forever, Luke."

"I will not fight you," replies the disembody-conflicted voice.

"Surrender yourself to the dark side." Vader feels his intentions are increasingly ambiguous in this conflict; the purity of his evil is being compromised. The boy is clever indeed—the Sith Lord knows he must move with extreme caution now.

Emotions such as remorse, regret, and abandonment. Shades of pain. But somehow now directly related to Vader. To others, to…Endor. Ah, that is it—the Sanctuary Moon where his friends shall soon die. Luke will learn soon enough: friendship was different on the dark side. A different thing altogether.

"Give yourself to the dark side, Luke," he entreats. "It is the only way you can save your friends. Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong, especially for—"

Vader stops. He senses something.

Luke withdraws further into the shadows. He tries to hide, but there is no way to hide what was in his mind—she is in pain. Her agony cries to him now, and his spirit cries with her. He tries to shut it out, to shut it up, but the cry is loud, and he can't stifle it, couldn't leave it alone, had to cradle it openly, to give it solace.

Vader's consciousness invades that private place.

Vader is incredulous. "Sister? Sister!" he bellows. "So, you have a twin sister?! Your feelings have now betrayed her, too!" he roars triumphantly. "Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me, but now his failure is complete." His smile is clear to Luke, through the mask, through the shadows, through all the realms of darkness. "If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will."

This, then, is Luke's breaking point. For his sister is everyone's last unflagging hope. If Vader turns his twisted, misguided cravings on her…

"Never!" he screams, aiming his green lightsaber towards Vader's chest.

He rushes to his father with a frenzy he never was aware he has. Two sides of the Force are making contact with one another, the boy who has risen from nothing is now a fully prized Jedi standing against the overwhelming presence of the dark side. The dark flames are bemused briefly but begin offering his defensives.

Strike after strike, Luke begins sending him back with all his might, determined to protect his friends and family under any means necessary.

And as much as Vader wishes he can just call upon the young man's fears and error in giving into emotions, he is incapable of doing so. How? He'd killed many Jedi after the rise of the Empire yet why can't he just cut down this one too?

The Dark Lord allows himself to be driven to his back, seeing that his son now becoming nothing but a green blur that is raging down upon him before one of the blows makes it through, disarming him within a second.

The hand, along with bits of metal, wires, and electronic devices, clatters uselessly away while Vader's lightsaber tumbles over the edge of the span, into the endless shaft below, without a trace, surprised across his face at now standing above this dark figure.

Vader is surprised himself, surprised to see that his son now is standing above him, surprised to see that he was unable to kill this boy and cast him aside. This boy rose emotions in him unlike anyone haven't done for decades.

'Luke, no.'

The Emperor's evil cackle echoes behind him as Luke drowns in darkness, Vader hopes that message reached him through the Force as his son aimed his emerald blade toward his chest. He hears Sidious's dark laugh and sees him walking down towards him and his son.

"Good!" Sidious cackles. "Your hate has made you powerful! Now fulfill your destiny, take your father's place at my side!"

Vader reads Luke's emotions through not the Force but by his eyes, seeing the emotions across his face. He can see the boy is fighting to force the anger and furious emotions out, trying to call back to Yoda and Kenobi's teachings no doubt.

Anakin has been in this position before when he was the fully developed and the other has been just a Jedi Master who was seconds away from killing Sidious. For some time, Vader wondered what would have happened had he not turned and betrayed Master Windu all those years ago, and allowed Windu to kill Sidious, or finish him off himself. He would have been cradling his children right.

As unlikely as it is to the eyes of the common people, Vader once been a man too. It was those times when have been given the option of making a choice and not the Emperor's attack dog. That same man who many depended on - a time when he was happier, hadn't been one of oppression and served for a greater good instead of serving to kill for a tyrannical monster. Now, he is the second most feared man in the galaxy. But no one knows who is truly behind that mask.

Sidious has taken everything that defined him yet the boy seems to be so determined in saving Anakin Skywalker, a determination that would be his downfall. Vader felt emotions burning in him that he hadn't felt for a long time. Luke stares down at his robotic arm and then back at his father.

'So, this is how it ends,' Vader thinks.

But then Luke deactivates his lightsaber, proving himself a Jedi to the end. He is not a murderer. He is not someone who would allow himself to be limited as much as his father has been.

"Never!" Flinging the weapon aside, he declares, "I'll never turn to the dark side. You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

The Emperor scowls. With immeasurable displeasure, he declares, "So be it... Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed."

Still lying against the bridge railing beside the elevator shaft, Vader watches the Emperor extends his gnarl fingers and unleashes blinding bolts of blue lightning from his fingertips. The lightning strikes Luke, who tries to deflect the crackling bands of energy but is so overwhelmed that his body crumples to the floor.

Luke is nearly unconscious beneath the continuing assault of the Emperor's lightning. Tormented beyond reason, being taken of a weakness that drained his very essence, he hoped for nothing more than to submit to the nothingness toward which he was drifting.

The Emperor smiles down at the enfeebled young Jedi, as Vader struggles to his feet beside his master.

"Young fool!" Palpatine rasps at Luke. "Only now at the end, do you understand. Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side." More lightning and Luke collapses from the wailing he is laying on. "You paid the price for your lack of vision."

He laughs maniacally; and although it would not have seemed possible to Luke, the outpouring of bolts from the Emperor's fingers actually increases in intensity. The sound screams through the room, and the murderous brightness of the flashes is overwhelming.

For a brief moment, Luke feels the torrent's ending.

"Now, young Skywalker, you will die!"

Luke's body slows, wilt, and finally crumples under the hideous barrage. He stops moving altogether. At last, he appears totally lifeless. The Emperor hisses maliciously.

At that instant, Vader springs up and grabs the Emperor from behind, pinning Palpatine's upper arms to his torso. Weaker than he has ever been, Vader has lain still these last few minutes, focusing his every fiber of being on this one, concentrated act—the only action possible; his last, if he fails. Ignoring the pain, ignoring his shame and his weaknesses, ignoring the bone-crushing noise in his head, he focuses solely and sightlessly on his will—he will defeat the evil embodied in the Emperor.

Palpatine struggles in the grip of Vader's unfeeling embrace, his hands still shooting bolts of malign energy out in all directions. In his wild flailing, the lightning ripped across the room, tearing into Vader. The Dark Lord fell again, electric currents crackling down his helmet, over his cape, into his heart.

Vader stumbles with his load to the middle of the bridge over the black chasm leading to the power core. He holds the wailing despot high over his head, and with a final spasm of strength, hurls him into the abyss.

Palpatine's body, still spewing bolts of light, spins out of control, into the void, bouncing back and forth off the sides of the shaft as it fell. It disappears at last; but then, a few seconds later, a distant explosion can be heard, far down at the core. A rush of air billows out the shaft, into the throne room.

The wind whips at Lord Vader's cape, as he staggers and collapses toward the hole, trying to follow his master to the end. Luke crawls to his father's side, though, and pulls the Dark Lord away from the edge of the chasm, to safety.

Both of them lay on the floor, entwined in each other, too weak to move, too moved to speak.

For the first time, the Death Star rocks. The collision with the exploding Destroyer was only the beginning, leading to various systems breakdowns, which led to reactor meltdowns, which led to personnel panic, abandonment of posts, further malfunctions, and general chaos.

Smoke is everywhere, substantial rumblings come from all directions at once, and people are running and shouting. Electrical fires, steam explosions, cabin depressurizations, disruption of chain-of-command. Add to this, the continued bombardments by Rebel cruisers—smelling fear in the enemy—merely heightens the sense of hysteria that is already pervasive.

For the Emperor is dead. The central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire was gone; and when the dark side is this diffused, this nondirected—this is simply where it led.

Confusion.

Desperation.

Damp fear.

Amid this uproar, Luke manages to make it, somehow, to the main docking bay—where he is trying to carry the hulking deadweight of his father's weakening body toward an Imperial shuttle. Halfway there, his strength finally gives out, though; and he collapses under the strain.

Slowly he rises again. Like an automaton, he hoists his father's body over his shoulder and stumbles toward one of the last remaining shuttles.

Luke rests his father on the ground, trying to collect strength one last time, as explosions grew louder all around them. Sparks hisses in the rafters; one of the walls buckled, and smoke pours through a gaping fissure. The floor trembles.

Vader motions Luke closer to him. "Luke, help me take this mask off."

Luke shakes his head. "You'll die."

The Dark Lord's voice is weary. "Nothing can stop that now. Just once let me face you without it. Let me look on you with my own eyes."

Luke is afraid. Afraid to see his father as he really is. Afraid to see what person could have become so dark—the same person who'd fathered Luke, and his sister. Afraid to know the Anakin Skywalker who lived inside Darth Vader.

Vader, too, is afraid—to let his son see him, to remove this armored mask that had been between them so long. The black, armored mask that had been his only means of existing for over twenty years. It had been his voice, his breath, and his invisibility—his shield against all human contact. But now he would remove it; for he would see his son before he died.

Together, they lift the heavy helmet from Vader's head—inside the mask portion, a complicated breathing apparatus had to be disentangled, and a speaking modulator and view-screen detach from the power unit in the back. But when the mask is finally off and sets aside, Luke gazes at his father's face.

It is the sad, benign face of someone who is supposed to be middle-aged yet disfigured and old. Bald, beardless, with a mighty scar running from the top of his head to the back of the scalp, he has unfocused, deep-set, dark blue eyes, and his skin is pasty white, for it has not seen the sun in two decades. The old man smiles weakly; tears glaze his eyes, now.

It is a face full of meanings, that Luke will forever recall. Regret, he saw most plainly. And shame. Memories can be seen flashing across it… memories of rich times. And horrors. And love, too.

It is a face that hadn't touched the world in a lifetime. In Luke's lifetime. He sees the wizened nostrils twitch, as they tested a first, tentative smell. He sees the head tilt imperceptibly to listen—for the first time without electronic auditory amplification. Luke feels a pang of remorse that the only sounds now to be heard were those of explosions, the only smells, the pungent sting of electrical fires. Still, it is a touch. Palpable, unfiltered.

He sees the old eyes focus on him. Tears burn Luke's cheeks and fall on his father's lips. His father smiles at the taste.

It is a face that had not seen itself in twenty years.

Vader sees his son crying, and knows it must have been at the horror of the face the boy beholds.

It intensifies, momentarily, Vader's sense of anguish—about his crimes, now, he adds guilt at the imagined repugnance of his appearance. But then this brings him to the mind of the way he used to look—striking, and grand, with a wry tilt to his brow that hinted of invincibility and took in all of life with a wink. Yes, that was how he'd looked once.

And this memory brought a wave of other memories with it. Memories of brotherhood, and home. His dear wife. The freedom of deep space. Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan, his friend…and how that friendship had turned. Turned, he knows not how—but got injected, nonetheless, with some uncaring virulence that festered, until…hold. These are memories he wants none of, not now. Memories of molten lava, crawling up his back…no.

This boy pulled him from that pit—here, now, with this act. This boy is good.

The boy is good, and the boy comes from him—so there must have been good in him, too. He smiles up again at his son, and for the first time, loves him. And for the first time in many long years, loves himself again, as well.

Suddenly he smells something—flares his nostrils, sniffs once more. Wildflowers, that is what it is. Just blooming; it must be spring.

And there is thunder—he cocks his head, strains his ears. Yes, spring thunder, for spring rain. To make the flowers bloom.

Yes, there…he feels a raindrop on his lips. He licks the delicate droplet…but wait, it isn't sweet water, it is salty, it is…a teardrop.

He focuses on Luke once again and sees his son crying. Yes, that is it, he is tasting his boy's grief—because he looks so horrible; because he is so horrible.

But he wants to make it all right for Luke, he wants Luke to know he wasn't really ugly like this, not deep inside, not altogether. With a little self-deprecatory smile, he shakes his head at Luke, explaining away the unsightly beast his son sees. "Luminous beings are we, Luke—not this crude matter."

Luke shakes his head, too—to tell his father it was all right, to dismiss the old man's shame, to tell him nothing mattered now. And everything—but he couldn't talk.

Vader speaks again, even weaker—almost inaudible. "Go, my son. Leave me."

At that, Luke finds his voice. "No. You're coming with me. I'll not leave you here. I've got to save you."

"You already have, Luke," he whispers. He wishes, briefly, he can meet Yoda, to thank the old Jedi for the training he'd given Luke…but perhaps he'd be with Yoda soon, now, in the ethereal oneness of the Force. And with Obi-Wan. "You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister you were right."

"Father, I won't leave you," Luke protests. Explosions jars the docking bay in earnest, crumbling one entire wall and splitting the ceiling. A jet of blue flame shot from a gas nozzle nearby. Just beneath it, the floor begins to melt.

Vader pulls Luke very close and speaks into his ear. "Luke, you were right…and you were right about me…Tell your sister…you were right."

Darth Vader is dead with Anakin Skywalker soon to follow.

A tremendous explosion fills the back of the bay with fire, knocking Luke flat to the ground. Slowly, he rises again; and like an automaton, stumbles toward one of the last remaining shuttles.

Closing his eyes as he slumps back against the shuttle ramp, Anakin Skywalker has every reason to believe that he is finally about to embrace perpetual darkness, about to embrace the hell that he deserves to be in.


Not for the first time, he is wrong.

Initially, there is darkness for Anakin Skywalker, a boundless shadowy realm, like a universe without stars. But then, from somewhere at the edge of his awareness, he perceives a distant, shimmering light, then heard a voice say, "Anakin."

The voice is familiar.

Although Anakin no longer had a body or a mouth with which to speak, he somehow answers, "Obi-Wan? Master, I'm so sorry. So very, very-"

"Anakin, listen carefully," Obi-Wan interrupts, and Anakin is aware that the distant light is either growing brighter or closer or perhaps both. "You are in the netherworld of the Force, but if you ever wish to revisit corporeal space, then I still have one thing left to teach you. A way to become one with the Force. If you choose this path to immortality, then you must listen now, before your consciousness fades."

Knowing he is beyond redemption, Anakin says, "But, Master... why me?"

"Because you ended the horror, Anakin," Obi-Wan replies. "Because you fulfilled the prophecy."

The light was very bright now.

Anakin's first thought is that he might be able to see his children again. He says, "Thank you, Master."

It is only so long before Anakin's essence passes in the Force. With the help of his old master, he managed to learn eternal life to live in the afterlife. He is grateful that his old Master allowed him to see his son and the Rebellion's celebration. For far too long, the entire galaxy, as well as Anakin, have been entrapped to Sidious, but now they are all free. And it is all because of Luke Skywalker.

Anakin thinks about how many people he'd reunited with. Even so, many of the Jedi who did became one with the Force feels like Anakin is unredeemable; murdered countless Jedi, both during and after the Great Jedi Purge, supported a ruthless dictator in establishing a totalitarian regime, one that replaced the Galactic Republic which was just as corrupt, murdered an unarmed prisoner, betrayed his sworn allegiance to the Jedi Order and to the Republic, killed military officers that displeased him rather than demoting or imprisoning them, tortured his own daughter for information concerning the Rebel Alliance, stood by and watched without comment or protest as the Death Star destroyed an entire planet, and thus became an accessory to murder, served as the personal executioner and enforcer of the tyrannical Emperor, murdered the legitimate leadership of an opposing government in slaughtering the leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, even attempted to kill his own wife, pregnant at the time with unborn twins, as well as his former Master, on Mustafar.

Anakin did have a rough childhood. He was a slave with no hope of the life he wanted: The life of a Jedi. His first father figure Qui-Gon Jinn was killed within just a few days of meeting him. He had to abandon his mother for Jedi training and was taught to just leave his selfishness behind, even though it was the only thing that drove him to be a Jedi. His mentor Obi-Wan, though a brother to him in every way, could not still understand him for what he was.

Then he met Padmé, someone who was his connection to a world outside of the Jedi world he was trapped in. She was the only person who led him to believe there was something worth living for. But, when he tried to see his mother, with the potential of rejoining his family, she dies in his arms. And worse, he had foreseen it in his dreams but was unable to do anything about it. The pain overcame him and he slowly gives in to the dark side.

By giving into Palpatine's manipulations, he believed his friends and family turned against him, but Luke cleared that fog when he helped him overcome Sidious and to destroy the Empire.

Anakin knew there was no way to reverse his atrocities and he shall hold that regret as a consequence for eternity, even after Luke and Leia become one with the Force.

This is not how it was supposed to be, yet it brings about a strange serenity that he hasn't felt for decades.

Perhaps it is bringing about a full circle.

Vader could never, in some ways, considers this as a true redemption. He was not a good person, but a monster who is unworthy of forgiveness. At last, he could rot in the several hells of the Force which he knows that he deserves no matter his son's claims about him being a good person.

It's not the "saving Luke" part. It's rejecting the dark side and killing the Emperor at the cost of his own life. Seeing his son in pain, and dying, is a motivator, but Vader does a lot more than save one person. He finally owns and repents what he's become, and he does what no one else could, albeit twenty-odd years late: he strikes down the evil mastermind who is the ultimate cause of millions if not billions of deaths. Everyone who has died because of the wars and uprisings and deadly political games on all sides died because Palpatine wanted unlimited power.

Anakin had a chance two, really, alone at Palpatine's reveal, and later when Master Windu was there to stop him. Up until the last one, he could never quite let go of things he was trying to cling to; Jedi codes, Padmé's life, his own but finally he accepted he must end this. He destroys the Emperor and enables the Empire's downfall, he doesn't just save his son.

Vader, Sith Apprentice to Darth Sidious, Sith Lord, Supreme Commander of the Galactic Empire, was dead. He had been wanting to die for quite some time now, ever since Padmé's death, but now he would be granted the freedom of knowing that his children; Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa can finally give the galaxy some freedom and peace that it has been waiting for decades.

This is how he would have never thought the end would come at one point; he thought he would have died an Enforcer of the Emperor instead of with the child who he never knew.

Vader closes his eyes, thinking about words he has said not that long ago, when his son begged him to run away with him and how he was so tempted to accept.

"It is too late for me, son. The Emperor will show you the true nature of the Force. He is your master now."

These are not the words of an unrepentant Lord of the Sith. Vader was bearing the weight of his actions but he believes that he is incapable to escape his fate. He gave his son a chance to join him, and Luke turned him down, surrendering himself to the will of the Force, instead of being captured. Therefore, at this point, Vader knew that the Emperor would attempt to turn his son, and to do that he will pit Skywalker against Skywalker. He would either have to kill his son or die.

Luke offered him the third option which Vader could not anticipate. He would refuse to fight his father at first and after losing control and almost slipping to the Dark Side, he would relent and refuse to kill him. His son effectively sacrificed himself to spare him and left his fate squarely in the hands of his father. At that moment, Vader's already shaken belief in the Dark Side collapsed. He had to do something to stop this wizened, hateful old sorcerer from extinguishing the life of the only person in the galaxy who believed there was still good in him.

This is almost like a parable: the sacrifice of the son essentially wipes the slate of the father's sins. Vader had done horrible things, these did not simply go away, but Luke's absolute faith in him made him realize who he was and what his only possible course of action could be. Yes, he could of course remain the lapdog of the Emperor and watch his son die (and possibly his daughter too) or he could be redeemed and at the same time fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One.

In that moment, and perhaps never again, it was simple.

'Padmé.'

The woman who he loved unconditionally, to the point of obsession, to the point where he became a monster and someone who killed innocent children in the false belief that Sidious would have saved her from certain death, willing to allow those who he fought and cared for to die if only to save her. He would have corrupted his children to the dark side so they would have been lost in power and delusions of grandeur if Obi-Wan hadn't intervened.

'Ahsoka.'

Someone who has been betrayed by the Jedi Order, cast aside like garbage by that pathetic Republic, and someone who has faced him, someone who he would have killed without hesitation if given the chance yet in the end she still forgiven him to the point where she saved his life. Did she make it out of their duel? He wonders. He cannot recall feeling her death through the Force upon the climax of the battle. If so, would she become a Jedi?

'Obi-Wan.'

The man saved his daughter from him because he would have allowed Tarkin to kill her, and he came when he didn't have to. And what did Vader do? He repaid him by killing him, too lost in the dark side to see through Sidious's manipulations, and it is because of Obi-Wan that Luke has managed to track the courage to become a fully deemed Jedi Knight, someone who is compassionate. He has been a fool to assume Obi-Wan was the traitor when in reality it was Sidious all along.

This only furthers his already saddening thoughts. In Anakin's opinion, he did not deserve his Jedi redemption. He committed too many atrocities for just 1 act of heroism to make up for it. Vader's death count exceeds the millions, most by way of his orders, but still, a considerable amount by his hand, many of which were his fellow Jedi. When Order 66 came into place, he, along with the 501st, marched into the Jedi Temple and slaughtered hundreds of Jedi, including younglings. After being put in the infamous suit, he launched a massive Jedi hunt, personally going on hundreds of missions searching and eventually killing any he found. Along the way, he annihilated any possible resistance. In his many campaigns, he ordered Orbital bombardments on cities, publicly tortured citizens, killed his troops, and allowed the slave trade to continue even though he had been a slave and vowed to free them. His actions alone would probably dwarf all dictators and tyrants and the deaths they caused for entire centuries. Yet, all he had to do for the Force to forgive him was kill again, by way of killing Palpatine.

Anakin faces the eyes of his son -as if he is still in the real world- and Anakin Skywalker smiles as if he is still in front of his child. The boy would do the galaxy good, bringing the galaxy wonders no matter what challenges would come with them. It fills Vader with shame at never being able to know who this brave young man is, to be able to learn and care for his child.

Vader remembers that first duel, remembers having been the man who willingly amputated his-his boy's arm.

The wind that shrieks through the reactor shaft entirely absorbs the sounds of the clashing lightsabers.

Luke moves agilely across the gantry and takes refuge beneath a huge instrument panel to evade his pursuing foe. But Vader is there in an instant, his lightsaber thrashing down like a pulsating guillotine blade, cutting the instrument complex loose. The complex begins to fall but is abruptly caught by the wind and blown upward.

An instant of distraction is all Vader needs. As the instrument panel floated away, Luke involuntarily glances at it. At that second, the Dark Lord's lightsaber comes slashing down across Luke's hand, cutting it, and sending the youth's lightsaber flying.

The pain is excruciating. Luke smells the terrible odor of his seared flesh and squeezed his forearm beneath his armpit to try to stop the agony. He steps backward along the gantry until he reaches its end, stalked all the while by the black-garbed apparition.

Abruptly, ominously, the wind subsidies. And Luke realizes he had nowhere else to go.

"There is no escape," the Dark Lord of the Sith warns, looming over Luke like a black angel of death. "Don't make me destroy you. You are strong with the Force. Now you must learn to use the dark side. Join me and together we will be more powerful than the Emperor. Come, I will complete your training and we will rule the galaxy together."

Luke refuses to give in to Vader's taunts. "I will never join you!"

"If you only knew the power of the dark side," Vader continues. "Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father, did he?"

The mention of his father arouses Luke's anger. "He told me enough!" he yells. "He told me you killed him."

"No," Vader replies calmly. "I am your father."

Stunned, Luke stares with disbelief at the black-clad warrior and then pulled away at this revelation. The two warriors stand staring at one another, father and son.

"No, no! That's not true…" Luke says, refusing to believe what he had just heard. "That's impossible."

"Search your feelings," Vader replies, sounding like an evil version of Yoda, "you know it to be true."

Then Vader turns off the blade of his lightsaber and extends a steady and inviting hand.

Bewildered and horror-stricken at Vader's words, Luke shouts, "No! No!"

Vader continues persuasively. "Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son. Come with me. It is the only way."

Luke's mind whirls with those words. Everything is finally beginning to coalesce in his brain. Or is it? He wonders if Vader were telling him the truth—if the training of Yoda, the teaching of saintly old Ben, his strivings for good, and his abhorrence of evil if everything he had fought for were no more than a lie.

He didn't want to believe Vader, and tries convincing himself that it is Vader who is lying to him—but somehow, he could feel the truth in the Dark Lord's words. But, if Darth Vader did speak the truth, why, he wondered, have Ben Kenobi lied to him? Why? His mind screams louder than any wind the Dark Lord could ever summon against him.

The answers no longer seem to matter.

His Father.

With the calmness that Ben himself and Yoda, the Jedi Master, have taught him, Luke Skywalker makes, perhaps, what might be his final decision of all.

"Never," Luke shouts as he steps out into the empty abyss beneath him. For all its unperceived depth, Luke might have been falling to another galaxy.

Darth Vader moves to the end of the gantry to watch as Luke tumbles away. A strong wind begins to blow, billowing Vader's black cloak out behind him as he stood looking over the edge.

Skywalker's body quickly plunges downward. Toppling head over foot, the wounded Jedi desperately reaches out to grab something to stop his fall.

The Dark Lord watches until he sees the youth's body sucked into a large exhaust pipe on the side of the reactor shaft. When Luke vanishes, Vader quickly turns and hurries off the platform.

Vader remembers sensing his son's thoughts, his son's disgust at being his son, his son's acceptance of being lied to, his loss of confidence within his old Master, and his conflicting emotions about being the child of a monster.

For so long, Vader didn't know about love, all he knows is loss. He lost Padmé early on, and with that must have come a great deal of regret. He lost himself into darkness and lived, if one can call it that, in the shadow of an evil emperor. He was a powerful, frightening lord, but he was a slave to the dark side. He must have thought that ironic considering how Anakin had been born into slavery. When Luke comes into the picture, Vader only sees him as an opportunity to get out of a bad situation and to perhaps with Luke's help take the Emperor's place. That is the only thing he wants. He doesn't want to allow Luke to remain in the light. He attempts to drag him into the darkness, because that is all he knows and all he believes he can ever know.

When Luke cast aside his lightsaber and stood up to Palpatine, it was an awakening for Vader's dormant other half, Anakin. As Anakin awakened, Vader became weaker and gradually faded away. He never loved Luke at all. He wasn't capable.

And then there's Anakin. Because of Vader, Anakin did not know Luke until the very end. He was injured and dying, could barely breathe. One can imagine the gratitude he felt toward Luke and the admiration he must have held for his son in standing up to evil, giving this father the courage to break the chains that bound him to the Emperor. One might consider that Anakin did not have time to love as he died so soon after breaking free. He probably felt a great deal of relief and even joy. His gratitude toward Luke has been so overwhelming in the short time before his soon-to-be death, but if given the chance to live, he would have loved Luke most definitely.

It is finally the end for Darth Vader which would signify the end of the Empire. His death would be a symbol to the galaxy that tyranny is coming to a true end alongside Darth Sidious. Many would think Vader died, defending his Emperor to the bitter end which is why Luke would be the one who would be praised for killing them both.

Anakin scans his son one last time before his eyes fall onto his young daughter and make his heart come to a stop. How can she look so similar to Padmé? Anakin would have loved to hold her and raise her like he always wanted to along with his son and to show them many things that any parent would love to teach their children. To witness their first walk. To see them becoming young people. To witness their marriage. To see his own grandchildren.

There is one thing he wants more than anything on the list. Luke deserved a better father and a better life.

Anakin was a horrible son who willingly left his mother behind to die. He was a horrible friend who massacred everyone when they placed their utmost trust in him. And he was a horrible father who have been willing to sacrifice his son for Sidious if only to grow powerful in the dark side.

'You will be so happy, Padmé,' Anakin thinks, knowing that in the end, this is all Padmé wants. No war nor violence any longer. The galaxy has been torn apart, but with someone like Luke Skywalker, the galaxy would be better. He thinks solemnly about the Empire, an Empire that could have been so much more, and he thinks about how Padmé's life has ended too short. She didn't deserve to die.

So many events that could have been prevented if only he has been a better man, if only he has seen the truth all those years ago about Sidious's manipulations if only he didn't cave into the dark side so simply.

As Vader feels his eyes closing for the last time, soothing darkness taking over him, he accepts that any second now he would be with all of his loved ones.

'If only... if only I could have the chance to fix my mistakes.'

As if the Force had been listening to him, as if the Force has heard him and is answering him, Anakin is surprised when a white light blinds his vision and he is dragged into unconsciousness.