Luke was quietly standing in the elevator, on the Death Star, about to meet his fate. He knew that this moment would come. He was the one who surrendered himself after all. He had to. The solemn, dark form of his father standing next to him, his presence still as overwhelming as it always was and Luke felt the strange, chilling sense of déjavu he couldn't quite explain.

These opened doors, the chill, dangerous, predatory presence waiting behind them, these conflicting emotions he so clearly felt in his father's soul despite him not admitting them or showing any signs of this silent inner battle outside... He felt like he already had been there before. Like he already experienced these feelings and sensations. Like slipping, ethereal echoes of memories buried deep under the surface. Slipping and unreachable, beyond his grasp, yet still there. He hesitated before entering, but only a little.

The feeling became even stronger with the Emperor's taunting words meant to sink it's dark claws into his soul and tear it apart, fill it with void and darkness, they were hauntingly familiar, as well as his own defiant answers, and when he held his lightsaber and struck, some part of him knew that Vader will intervene, that the dark lord will block his blade, green against crimson, and they will engage in the duel.

But after a while these feeling's vanished under the waves of Luke's raging emotions, fuelled and taunted by the haunting cold voice echoing from the throne. He was starting to feel consumed by them, becoming faster, stronger and more vicious and his oponent was starting to slow down, and then Vader was lying there, defeated and literary disarmed, and Luke, gazing at the smoking wires and metal of his father's severed limb, felt the sudden chill, the sense of grave danger. No, not from his father, who he was supposed to kill now - no, he couldn't, he couldn't - and he instinctively moved away, his blade ready for the unknown just in time to avoid the worst of the burst of lightning cracking from the Emperor's gnarled hands.

How did he know? A forewarning from the Force? It... made sense. It would not be the first time. He had no time to think about it more because the lightning struck again, filling much larger area, making it impossible for him to completly avoid it. He tried to instinctively block it with his green blade, and partialy succeeded, but the convulsing pain gripping him as the part of it still found it's way towards his body, was still too much to hold against long.

Luke instinctively wanted to call out to his father who was standing on his fleet again, still watching motionlessly, but just before the words could leave his lips, that sudden sense of wrong washed over him, and it took the shape of instinctively, almost panicking thoughts of "No, no if he helps you he will die!", and he swalloved hard, trying to resist the inevitable.

He lost the focus of his surroundings when more and more of electricity started coursing through his body, and he had no idea how long he can hold like this, but he had to. The pain became too much and Luke dropped his lightsaber. The wave of electricity hit him with such strength it sent him flying and the next thing he knew was that he was falling down into the infinite depths, not unlike on Bespin, and the Force was roaring by echoes of rage and grief...Then everything went dark and when Luke regained his consciousness, he was back in the elevator again.

Just what did just happen? He thought franticaly. Was this some kind of warning, the strange vision, like the one he had before Bespin? No, the Force ringed wrong and... It felt too much real. Luke was sure he really lived through it. The fight, the lightning, falling down... He.. He died. But if he... If he l really did, then what was he doing here? How could he even be here? Could... Could time just go back? Was it even possible?

He eyed his father who seemed to not be aware of anything, but had no chance to search for answers because they were in front of the throne room again. And he knew that if he doesn't do something, it will end in dissaster. Could this be the reason while Luke was back there? Was this some kind of blessing from the Force the second chance to save both himself and his father and make things right? His chest was burning with anticipation and hope. It had to be his second chance.

But what could he do now? How to avoid another failure? What should he do diferently? Not to attack the Emperor like he did? Not to fight his father? He tried to stay calm, Stand his ground but no drawing his weapon as the first one. He ignored and squashed the roaring fire of rage, know it was the trap, the bait set by the emperor who seamed very displeased by his silent defiance.

"It seems that perhaps you need some... More encouraging..."

And the lightning struck (again), but to Luke's immense dread, it was not directed at him, but at Vader, and that was what made Luke's self control crumble, blewing out of the window, because that was not supposed to happen it was not! He didn't even remember how the fight ended this time, the only thing seared into his mind, his soul, was the dark presence of his father slipping away into nothingness... And then he was back in the elevator.

And when he tried diferent aproach next time, to avoid hurting his father at all and instead suddenly turn back on the Emperor, no lightning came but Vader still came to his aid when the Emperor was just about to throw Luke into the shaft with the Force, only for him ending in the abyss with his master, Luke desperately trying and failing to pull him back, why, why, why, why he was not strong enough? He felt immense relief when everything went back again, it meant that he still had another chance to make things right and save his father.

But several unsuccesfull atempts later, he found out that no matter what he did, his encounter with the Emperor ended in failure. And chilling dread started gnawing him from the inside, because what if this chance will be his last? Or worse, what if he will be stuck in this forever without any hope for victory, forced to watch his father dying countless times? No, he refused to accept that. Something deep in him kept telling him that there must be a way. He could save his father. He just had to find out how. But what to do?

He remembered his father's words on Bespin. He remembered his offer. His promise of destroying the Emperor together if Luke would join him... And ruling the galaxy... No, he didn't want to rule the galaxy at all and nothing changed about that. But what if this was the way how to survive, how to defeat the Emperor? Was he meant to join his father in darkness in order for them, for him, to survive? Everything was screaming at him, that this was not the right way. He should not even consider it. But if things were continuing the same way like before... He was already as good as Fallen... Because how many times could he watch and feel his father dying with his soul and sanity intact? He already felt like he was balancing on the edge. If he let his father know that he is willing to accept his offer, that he was ready and willing to strike Vader's master down together, there might be the way out for them. The tiny voice was telling him that this way his father might never come back to the Light and he might codemn himself and the galaxy to Darkness. But they could live. His father could be free from the clutches of his master. Luke would get his father back, one way or other. They will have future. And it's worth for the risk. And perhaps, he could still guide his father back toward the Light afterwards...

"So... You accepted the truth."

"I did... I accept that you are my father... And that our destiny is to destroy the Emperor here and now... Together..."

Even with his father's help from the start, the fight with Sidious was not any easier. Lightning and the Force powers were not his only weapon. When both father and son simultateosly attacked the Sith, he revealed his hidden lightsaber, and despite his age and his seemingly whittered and gnarled appearence, his fighting skills and his speed were terrifying. At first, they lost again and one more haunting memory of Vader cut in half by deadly crimson blade was haunting Luke's mind. Despite the searing pain and desperate wish to forget this sight, he did not backed up. He learned from it. And when time went back once more, they finaly did it. The emperor was dead! They both were alive! This was their moment, their chance for the future..! Luke was realizing that they were still running out of time as the second Death Star would still soon to be destroyed, but the intense joy and relief and satisfaction was warming him and overcame everything. This was it, this was their moment...

They were on their way to the ship when Luke suddenly felt something wrong in the Force... And in next second he felt the sharp pain as the blaster bolt hit him, then another and another... He collapsed more bolts hit their target - him. The last things he saw and felt before everything faded into darkness was searing, overhelming crushing wave of grief and sheer roaring rage, the grey floor covered by crushed bodies in white armor and the tall dark figure basking in the fear and pain and crimson light of his blade...

He was back again,barely holding himself. He thought this was it. He believed they made it. They did! The emperor was dead and they were not. This was not supposed to fail! Except... It failed. But even that did not made Luke to give up. His head was swimming with flashes of images of death, echoes of pain from all times when all went wrong and he was desperately trying to come up with something new, something else, something that could make a change. He was still clinging to the tiny spark of hope. There has to be the way. It has to.

Maybe... maybe if he could manage to stop his father taking him to the Emperor at all right now, if they could just turn and run away, get some more time (he is always running out of time), come with some plan. But whatever he said, made no diference in his father's intention. Not yet. Not until it would be too late.

Once, in the fit of reckless desperation, Luke blocked the path towards the throne room, his lightsaber ignited, determinted to not let them come to the dreaded throne room. He knew he was able to defeat his father before, if he could do it again right here, he could be able to get them out. With that thought, he lunged forward. Even as their blades were clashing against each other and leaving fiery marks on their surroundings, he was trying to reach out, to make his father understand. His heart was racing as their duel was getting more and more fierce with his growing desperation, but he could not back down now. He had to make a change. He had to. His raging emotions of fear and despair overhelmed him, consumed him, made him blind and furious and too late he realized that he went too far, his strike was too much, and suddenly he stared frozen in shock and sheer panic at the collapsing body of his father, his chest torn appart by deep, gapping gash, still hot and smoking from the swish of the green blade, his, his blade! His heart stopped and shattered into pieces, his lightsaber suddenly dropped on the cold floor like it just burned Luke's palm, he collapsed next to his father, his eyes burning with tears and something else.

For a while, he didn't know and didn't care how long, he was just there, motionless like a statue, his grief and guilt bleeding into the Force, trying and failing to reach out towards the presence that already vanished. Then something cracked and grief transformed into fiery hot fury, and gripping his father's red lightsaber, his own staying abandoned and forgotten when it was dropped after delivering the killing blow which tore Luke appart, he rushed into the throne room, not really caring if he'll die there, but wanted to at least to take the Emperor down to hell with him.

He had no chance against the Sith (and he knew it) and after the fierce duel into which he was pouring all his rage, his raw grief, his burning hate for both the emperor and himself, he ended up on the cold floor, beaten and broken and expecting death comming for him soon. He desperately hoped that this is not the moment when the time won't go back anymore, yet the mercy of oblivion did not come. Everything was blurry, drowned in haze foggy veil of agony and grief. He could hear distant sounds of some machines beeping, his breaths were not comming to him, how could they when his throat was scorched by the swish of hidden red blade which almost decapitated him - how could he even still be there?

His body was numb and heavy and not entirely his own anymore, it didn't matter, nothing did, and the figure cladded in black was towering over him, sickly face twisted in the cold smile.

"Now, young Skywalker, you are indeed very much like your father. And like him, you will learn in time to use your pain and rage at my bidding. You will learn... to obey..."

And with the last echoes of these sickly words which mattered to what's left of Luke no more than anything else at this moment, something dark and heavy descended on his face and made his world bleed crimson red.

Drowning in apathy and despair, Luke didn't notice at first, when everything faded and he was back at the elevator, whole and intact and completly human again. It was the solid, familiar, dark presence in the Force which managed to bring him back from the depths of his misery, so strong and so alive, here, living, here, his thoughts became frantic mess and so overhelmed and he was struggling to keep his thoughts clear and he let his restraints fall completly leaning towards the towering form of his father not caring about any confusion or shock or whatever his actions might cause (he knew that unless some miracle would happen, Vader won't remember anything soon anyways and he needed this to ground himself, to not shatter into pieces, to make sure, to feel both physicaly and in the Force that his father is back and alive again, that he has at least one more chance. Yet the images of all what previously happened, what he did, still stayed with him and Luke doubted they will ever fade away, because it still happened and he couldn't change that no matter how much he wanted to. He swore to avoid this turn of events at any cost, he knew that he couldn't bear even the thought of killing his father like that even once more), so he never tried to go this route again.

Since that horrific experience when he himself became the cause of his father's death (and rightfully got the brief taste of his torturous existence) Luke's atempts grew more desperate, more extreme. More horrifying...

Once, he managed take his father's lightsaber from him during their duel in front of the emperor and and disarm him in worse way then before, both of his hands and legs gone, and while his heart was bleeding and he loathed himself deeply for doing this, the small, tiny part of him hoped that this way, Vader won't be able to get himself in the way of the Force Lightning and therefore he will survive (and Luke will fix this afterwards and make his new limbs much, much better, he swore he will) but while he was more successfull in blocking the Emperor's lightning with two blades (and with more then enough memories of experiencing it's effects in the past times) he did not expected him to suddenly redirect it on his father instead, while he could barely do anything. And this time, it was Luke who threw the Sith lord into that reactor shaft, watching him falling down with vicious glee, yet feeling hollow and empty because what it was for that Luke managed to take him down, when his father's life yet again slipped through his fingers, leaving only smoking, limbess husk behind?

The time had no meaning. The memories started blending together. Luke had no idea how many times the time went back, how many disastrous versions of events on the second Death Star he already lived through. Some of them were just brief flashes, blurring meaningless, insignificant and easily forgotten echoes of feelings, while others were forever burned deep into his very soul. With every new memory of failure, every new images of death, whether his father's or his own, he felt like slipping farther away, and wondered how long it would take for the last bits of his sanity to give out. Was there even a way out of this?

He fought countless times. He tried to play along. He made a deal with his father. He fell more than once. He tried to stop and turn them away (his most spectacular failure, no no, he doesn't want to think about THAT) Yet time still continued going back, circling and spiralling, capturing him like a prison with no hope for escape.

He was in the hangar now, barely holding himself from cracking completely as his body was still so much sore and spasming fom the aftereffects of the Emperor's Force Lightning, a sensation all too familiar for him by now, as well as from dragging the weight of his father's too far damaged body all the way here. He kept moving despite the searing pain and exhaustion. He just couldn't stop. But now it became too much and he sank to the floor, the weight of his father's suit draining the last bits of his strength, yet refusing to let go.

Tears were blurring his vision, every muscle hurt and he knew they will not make it out in time like this. Vader knew too, asking his son to leave him there and save himself and his words brought the same strong sense of déjavu Luke felt back the first time he could remember, and suddenly, he saw himself in this very place but in another time, so similar and yet still not the same, watching his father's pale, scarred face the same way like he was now, the same words echoing in his ears in the dual like voices as the past and present entwined.

And then the mind image of himself in the past diverted and the past him stood up, walking into the shuttle still standing here in the present, pressing the controls and making it flying out. He could see the shuttle outside, supposed to leave to the safety, yet still lingering near, like it was connected to the doomed station by the invisible string, and felt that it was he himself still stubbornly, desperately holding on the flickering, fading Force presence of his dying father. And he could hear in his mind the echoes of his own past thoughts and grief, longing and crushing regret, the silent plea, desperate wish bleeding deep into the Force, wish to not lose his father after he just got him back, wish to go back and save him, wish to find the way how they could stay together...

Echoes of the past, the first of many pasts, vanished. His father's words for Luke to leave still lingered on the edge of his mind, yet he had no strength, nor will left to do so... He left his father so many times before, eighter walking forward into the night, or staying behind. Not again, he thought. And beside, what is one more death if time will go back again? He leaned against his father's shoulder, holding his remaining hand in his, their Force presences firmly entwined. He did not know if it were his injuries or the explosion which sent him into oblivion...

When the sense of awareness returned to him, Luke noticed that something was off. He was not back in the elevator anymore. Where he was? He could not recognize. Everything was diferent, he felt different. Then he remembered what happened to him and his father before. How they both died on the Death Star, holding onto each other. And then he started panicking. Where was his father? Why didn't he come back like so many times before? But in that moment, he felt it, the immense, strong, bright and so radiant Force Presence embracing his own with sheer protectiveness and when the image of tall young man appeared in front of him, the smile on his face, love and affect ion radiating from his ethereal being oddly matching Luke's own, but also guilt shining through his eyes, he recognized him immidiately despite his appearence not being the same he knew from their interactions in the world of living, and he was desperately, anxiously clinging to him with his very being, like he was afraid that his father's presence would fade in the every moment. But nothing like that happened He was still there, still with Luke. Another presences, foreign and familiar enveloped them and Luke knew that the circle he was imprisoned in was broken. Later, he learned that it was his own desperate wish which cause the Force to move the time itself, hearing his plea to not lose his father, and so giving him infinite chances, all of which he failed in.

Why couldn't I save you then? Luke wanted to ask, but before he did, one of presences answered.

"Your father's, the Chosen One's, fate could not be avoided, no matter what you did. Yet you were unwilling to let go, much like your father often was...

And Luke didn't even need to hear the rest. He knew. If Anakin's fate couldn't be changed, if his death couldn't be avoided, then the only way how Luke's wish could be granted, how they could stay together was... Like this...

The strong weight of guilt which was not his own - you should never go through this, any of this, washed over him and Luke in response tightened his hold on his father, intertwining their presences as much as was possible, trying to express all he couldn't say by words. For long lonely years, Luke was longing to get to know his father. For long years full of pain and misery, Anakin thought he lost his child forever. When father and son finally, unexpectedly found each other, they were always running out of time. Now, they will have the eternity to make up for all those lost years apart.