Chapter XXIII - Awakening Anakin
No one was particularly surprised when the FBI showed up at the Osmonds. Indeed, most everyone was past caring. The entire Elite had taken the news of Trapper's death pretty hard.
"Whaddaya want?" demanded Cody, opening the door.
"Officer Matthews of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," said the shorter of the two agents, a brown-haired square-bodied man, as he flashed his badge. "This is my partner Officer Li." He gestured toward the tall, lanky Asian-American. "May we come in?"
Under normal circumstances Cody would have made some smart-alecky comment about what FBI really stood for or screamed "Crap, it's the cops!" and slammed the door. Thankfully, today was not a normal day. "If you have to," he replied, backing away from the door so they could enter.
"Who is it, Cody?" asked Leia just as the two agents met up with her.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," Li greeted. "Officer Li, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and my partner Officer Matthews."
She shook his hand. "You're here to investigate the abduction case?"
The brief look of puzzlement on Li's face indicated not. "Actually, we were sent here to investigate the arrival of extraterrestrials."
All eyes were on Li after that statement. Some of the Elite had been crying, others simply staring into space in depressed funks. Conrad and Diana were red-eyed and quite frazzled-looking with worry. Austin sat on a stool at the counter island in the kitchen, head buried in his arms, Liberty with comforting hands on his shoulders. The atmosphere was uncharacteristically solemn.
"I'm sorry, did we come at a bad time?" asked Matthews.
Austin lifted his head. "No sir. This is a fine time for you to be asking about aliens. Doesn't matter that my son is dead and a little girl is being held captive by a deranged Sith monarch! No, the aliens are top priority!" He burst into tears again.
"Austin, calm down," Liberty said gently. "I know you're going through hell right now, but they didn't know about Trapper."
"Your son?" repeated Matthews. "A little girl? What's all this?"
Luke handed him the datapad. Matthews and Li skimmed the text and returned it. "We offer our condolences for your son, sir," Matthews said kindly. He turned to the Churches. You're the girl's parents, I presume?"
They nodded.
"I'd like to say we'll do our best to find your daughter," Matthews said sadly, "but in a case like this, our resources are obviously inadequate for the task."
"Almost anyone's resources would be insufficient," declared Vader, striding in at that moment, recovered from his shock. "The Emperor is not one to be trifled with."
The agents stared, wide-eyed, at the hulk of a man.
"So you found us," Vader remarked. "Our efforts to blend in weren't as successful as we thought. May I ask how you traced us?"
"It -- it started when NASA discovered unusual activity in space this past month," Li, explained, his voice starting out weak but strengthening as he regained confidence. "At first they thought it might be a meteor shower or a fragmented comet, but upon closer examination..."
The door slammed. Jason was about to rail at whoever had simply let themselves in uninvited when a gray-haired, bearded, bespectacled man in jeans and a blue button-up shirt entered the living room. The Stargeeks gawked as Matthews displayed his badge to the intruder.
"Sir, I'm Officer Matthews of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We're conducting an investigation of this household. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"I would think I'd be allowed to talk to our outer-space visitors, seeing as I introduced the world to them," the man replied in a mild voice, giving an amused smile.
"George Lucas?" gaped Zack. "What are you doing off Skywalker Ranch? And where's your flannel?"
"Zack!" snapped Liz.
"What?" demanded Zack. "I was just asking!"
Lucas laughed. "I'm fully aware that I go by 'The Flanneled One' in some circles," he said with a grin. "I received a phone call from the CIA telling me what was going on here in Colorado. I was pretty sure it wasn't a hoax, so I called a hiatus on the Episode III work and flew up. I stopped at a diner for lunch and saw the news of the kidnapping, and in the garbage can I found this." He held up a wadded up napkin.
"Looks like doodles to me," Matthews noted, smoothing it out.
"It's Aurebesh," Han corrected. "Our main written language."
"It reads 'Mothma, at the following address, meet me there, Piett,' and it gives this address," Lucas explained. "Piett, I presume this is yours?"
The Admiral nodded.
"You might want to see this," Steve said, giving the datapad to Lucas.
His face went grave as he read. "This is terrible," he said.
Vader stared down at the film tycoon, stunned. This was the man responsible for revealing his past to the entire planet? The Force confirmed it -- this was the object of his quest. This was the mysterious Lucas. And now that he'd found him, he realized he hadn't the desire to carry out his original intent.
"There was a time, Mr. Lucas, when I would have terminated you to prevent you from releasing information about my fall," Vader said quietly. "That time is past. I'm very glad to meet you in person."
"And it's a pleasure to meet you," Lucas beamed, shaking Vader's hand.
"How'd you KNOW?!" squealed Darcy. "Like, how'd you get it all right, right down to the buttons?! All but 'Return of the Jedi,' of course, but still..."
Lucas shook his head. "I honestly don't know, miss. It just... fit, that's all. I could sense when it fit. Maybe that's why something always felt off about 'Return of the Jedi,' no matter how much we tinkered with it. Maybe that's why we felt compelled to release the corrected version, the Special Edition, even though many fans raked us over the coals for some of the changed sequences. Everyone working on the film could feel when it was right -- the actors, concept artists, effects teams, animators, even the hair stylists. Everyone knew. And we didn't let it alone until it was the way we knew it was supposed to be. That's all I can say."
Vader had been expecting an answer of this sort. It didn't exactly excite him, but it wasn't disappointing either. "Mr. Li, you were saying..."
"Yes," Li continued. "On closer examination the so-called 'meteor storm' turned out to be what looked alarmingly like Star Wars style starfighters, as well as a larger 'mother' ship. Several members of the team happened to be fans of the series and identified the ships as X-wings, TIE fighters, a Rebel transport, a Firespray, and a Super Stardestroyer. As first NASA thought these fans had played some kind of joke and had them suspended, but when three of the ships actually landed in the Rockies and the Stardestroyer began orbiting Earth, we realized it was real.
"NASA informed Washington DC, who ordered NASA to keep the discovery confidential and investigated. They found the three ships in White Deer National Park but no other signs of extraterrestrial visitors. They were about to withdraw the investigation when reports came from Star City of a skirmish at a party. Reports are garbled seeing as some witnesses only got a glimpse of the tussle and others were too drunk to recall details. But all the stories bore one common thread -- lightsabers were drawn.
"We kept an eye on the area, and reports continued to trickle in. Homeowners reported unusual sounds near this address, including blaster shots, screams, and what was described as a Wookie roar. A mysterious explosion was reported in the Leapfrog Diner's restroom, an explosion that yielded machinery that closely resembled a Star Wars robot -- or droid, if you want to get technical, and I know you Stargeeks do.
"In Denver a seven-vehicle car chase resulted in various wrecks that left twelve people injured and six dead. Autopsies performed on five of the dead revealed a startling fact -- the deceased men were genetically identical. The government seized the bodies and did further tests. Sure enough, the men were clones. The sixth fatality was a woman, positively identified by an eighteen-year-old mugging victim as her assailant. The woman had attacked her, knocked her out, stolen her clothing, and left her in a dumpster near the convention center.
"We tracked the license plate numbers of the cars involved in the chase. Six of them had been stolen, but the seventh was a totaled Chevy Citation that had been abandoned at the scene. The plates identified the owner as Amethyst Andrews, a twenty-six-year-old cashier with no previous brushes with the law apart from a speeding ticket. Family members told us she was a member of a Star Wars fan club that met regularly at this address." He gave an all-encompassing sweep of his arm. "And here we are. Too late to avert tragedy, I'm afraid, but still willing to help in any capacity."
After a long moment's silence, Piett turned to Vader. "So what's our next move, m'lord?"
"What?" Vader said, surprised by the inquiry.
"Lady Mothma never showed. You're the highest-ranking person here, and you've had more experience with these matters."
"What matters?"
"The girl, of course," Piett replied. "I thought you would be plotting how to rescue her. You know the Emperor's habits better than anyone alive. You're familiar with the Executor's interior, more so than I. And you're one of the most highly trained Force weilders in the galaxy." He saluted. "I follow you, Vader."
Vader shook his head in disbelief. "You're faith is ill-placed, Piett."
"C'mon, Vader!" urged Emily. "You have to!"
"You're the Chosen One, Vader," Lucas added. "Only the Chosen One can defeat the Emperor."
"You know my history, Lucas," Vader snarled, shaking a fist at the director. "You know the effects of my decisions upon the galaxy. Do I need to refresh your memory?" Anyone sitting on the floor scooted out of the way as he began to pace. "I, Lord Darth Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker, am responsible for massacring an entire Tusken Raider caravan; breaking virtually every law and code of the Jedi Order; almost single-handedly exterminating said Order; slaughtering upwards of nine thousand Jedi; helping to instate a bigoted totalitarian regime with a dark-sider lunatic at its helm; killing my own subordinate officers over petty errors; maiming, torturing, and psychologically brutalizing my own children and their friends; attempting to murder the last surviving Jedi, who happens to be my own son; and allowing two children to fall into the hands of a tyrannical Sith nutcase who's already killed one and has plans to turn the other into a female Darth Maul reincarnate!" He drove his fist into the wall so hard two pictures were jolted down, then whirled to glare at the others. "HAVE I LEFT ANYTHING OUT?!"
Matthews shrugged. "Sounds like a pretty complete list to me."
"Shut up," Li hissed.
"You did slice up the living room ceiling with a lightsaber," Steve pointed out.
"And you wrecked my car," Amethyst added.
"Thank you, Steve and Amethyst," Vader said sarcastically, sinking into a chair. "I'd forgotten those two." He cupped his masked face in his hands, the picture of utter dejection. "I should never have come here. It's brought no good."
Leia went and knelt by her father, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Father, you can do this. So you've made some mistakes. This is your chance to redeem them."
Vader did not reply.
"You ARE the Chosen One," Lucas declared. "You are meant to bring balance to the Force. To bring balance, you must do away with the Sith. There's enough evil in the galaxy without the Sith. Their very existence upsets the balance of the Force. You are the only one who can accomplish that balance. Even your fall is evidence of that. A Jedi could never hope to defeat the Sith. Nor could a Sith turn on and successfully overthrow his own Order. But a man of both sides of the Force, of both disciplines, may stand a chance."
"Do it for the galaxy," Piett encouraged. "There are thousands of planets and trillions of innocent lives at stake."
"And Rachel," added Brigham. "If for no one else, do it for Rachel. She trusts you and is counting on you."
Vader closed his eyes, only half-listening to what the others were saying. Most of his attention was focused within. The Force lay deep within him as always, waiting tentatively. It seemed to be anticipating his next move, as if his next choice, his next action, would determine his allegiance. And it did. It did.
He could surrender Luke to Palpatine. That would assure the permanent fate of the Skywalkers as fixtures of the dark side. The galaxy would continue its spiral into darkness and self-destruction, dragging every soul within to a dismal fate.
He could do nothing. That, too, would be casting his lot with the dark side. In not fighting the Emperor, he would hasten the Sith's corruption and oppression. And he would damn Rachel to the same torment he had suffered as a servant of the Emperor.
Or he could lead the strike against his former master. If he succeeded, he would fulfill the prophecy and spare the girl from harm -- but more importantly, he would declare himself an ally of the light. If he failed, he would die doing the right thing, and he might even take the Emperor with him.
His hand went to his lightsaber and tightened around the grip.
/There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no chaos; there is order. There is no death; there is the Force./
When Anakin died and gave birth to Vader, he had perished amid scorching flames and vapors. Now there was no fire, no lava, no phoenix-esque spectacle of any sort. But with the recitation of the Jedi Code and his subsequent decision, another metamorphosis took place within the sable armor.
Darth Vader died and Anakin Skywalker was reborn in that instant.
"We're going after her."
No one was particularly surprised when the FBI showed up at the Osmonds. Indeed, most everyone was past caring. The entire Elite had taken the news of Trapper's death pretty hard.
"Whaddaya want?" demanded Cody, opening the door.
"Officer Matthews of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," said the shorter of the two agents, a brown-haired square-bodied man, as he flashed his badge. "This is my partner Officer Li." He gestured toward the tall, lanky Asian-American. "May we come in?"
Under normal circumstances Cody would have made some smart-alecky comment about what FBI really stood for or screamed "Crap, it's the cops!" and slammed the door. Thankfully, today was not a normal day. "If you have to," he replied, backing away from the door so they could enter.
"Who is it, Cody?" asked Leia just as the two agents met up with her.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," Li greeted. "Officer Li, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and my partner Officer Matthews."
She shook his hand. "You're here to investigate the abduction case?"
The brief look of puzzlement on Li's face indicated not. "Actually, we were sent here to investigate the arrival of extraterrestrials."
All eyes were on Li after that statement. Some of the Elite had been crying, others simply staring into space in depressed funks. Conrad and Diana were red-eyed and quite frazzled-looking with worry. Austin sat on a stool at the counter island in the kitchen, head buried in his arms, Liberty with comforting hands on his shoulders. The atmosphere was uncharacteristically solemn.
"I'm sorry, did we come at a bad time?" asked Matthews.
Austin lifted his head. "No sir. This is a fine time for you to be asking about aliens. Doesn't matter that my son is dead and a little girl is being held captive by a deranged Sith monarch! No, the aliens are top priority!" He burst into tears again.
"Austin, calm down," Liberty said gently. "I know you're going through hell right now, but they didn't know about Trapper."
"Your son?" repeated Matthews. "A little girl? What's all this?"
Luke handed him the datapad. Matthews and Li skimmed the text and returned it. "We offer our condolences for your son, sir," Matthews said kindly. He turned to the Churches. You're the girl's parents, I presume?"
They nodded.
"I'd like to say we'll do our best to find your daughter," Matthews said sadly, "but in a case like this, our resources are obviously inadequate for the task."
"Almost anyone's resources would be insufficient," declared Vader, striding in at that moment, recovered from his shock. "The Emperor is not one to be trifled with."
The agents stared, wide-eyed, at the hulk of a man.
"So you found us," Vader remarked. "Our efforts to blend in weren't as successful as we thought. May I ask how you traced us?"
"It -- it started when NASA discovered unusual activity in space this past month," Li, explained, his voice starting out weak but strengthening as he regained confidence. "At first they thought it might be a meteor shower or a fragmented comet, but upon closer examination..."
The door slammed. Jason was about to rail at whoever had simply let themselves in uninvited when a gray-haired, bearded, bespectacled man in jeans and a blue button-up shirt entered the living room. The Stargeeks gawked as Matthews displayed his badge to the intruder.
"Sir, I'm Officer Matthews of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We're conducting an investigation of this household. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"I would think I'd be allowed to talk to our outer-space visitors, seeing as I introduced the world to them," the man replied in a mild voice, giving an amused smile.
"George Lucas?" gaped Zack. "What are you doing off Skywalker Ranch? And where's your flannel?"
"Zack!" snapped Liz.
"What?" demanded Zack. "I was just asking!"
Lucas laughed. "I'm fully aware that I go by 'The Flanneled One' in some circles," he said with a grin. "I received a phone call from the CIA telling me what was going on here in Colorado. I was pretty sure it wasn't a hoax, so I called a hiatus on the Episode III work and flew up. I stopped at a diner for lunch and saw the news of the kidnapping, and in the garbage can I found this." He held up a wadded up napkin.
"Looks like doodles to me," Matthews noted, smoothing it out.
"It's Aurebesh," Han corrected. "Our main written language."
"It reads 'Mothma, at the following address, meet me there, Piett,' and it gives this address," Lucas explained. "Piett, I presume this is yours?"
The Admiral nodded.
"You might want to see this," Steve said, giving the datapad to Lucas.
His face went grave as he read. "This is terrible," he said.
Vader stared down at the film tycoon, stunned. This was the man responsible for revealing his past to the entire planet? The Force confirmed it -- this was the object of his quest. This was the mysterious Lucas. And now that he'd found him, he realized he hadn't the desire to carry out his original intent.
"There was a time, Mr. Lucas, when I would have terminated you to prevent you from releasing information about my fall," Vader said quietly. "That time is past. I'm very glad to meet you in person."
"And it's a pleasure to meet you," Lucas beamed, shaking Vader's hand.
"How'd you KNOW?!" squealed Darcy. "Like, how'd you get it all right, right down to the buttons?! All but 'Return of the Jedi,' of course, but still..."
Lucas shook his head. "I honestly don't know, miss. It just... fit, that's all. I could sense when it fit. Maybe that's why something always felt off about 'Return of the Jedi,' no matter how much we tinkered with it. Maybe that's why we felt compelled to release the corrected version, the Special Edition, even though many fans raked us over the coals for some of the changed sequences. Everyone working on the film could feel when it was right -- the actors, concept artists, effects teams, animators, even the hair stylists. Everyone knew. And we didn't let it alone until it was the way we knew it was supposed to be. That's all I can say."
Vader had been expecting an answer of this sort. It didn't exactly excite him, but it wasn't disappointing either. "Mr. Li, you were saying..."
"Yes," Li continued. "On closer examination the so-called 'meteor storm' turned out to be what looked alarmingly like Star Wars style starfighters, as well as a larger 'mother' ship. Several members of the team happened to be fans of the series and identified the ships as X-wings, TIE fighters, a Rebel transport, a Firespray, and a Super Stardestroyer. As first NASA thought these fans had played some kind of joke and had them suspended, but when three of the ships actually landed in the Rockies and the Stardestroyer began orbiting Earth, we realized it was real.
"NASA informed Washington DC, who ordered NASA to keep the discovery confidential and investigated. They found the three ships in White Deer National Park but no other signs of extraterrestrial visitors. They were about to withdraw the investigation when reports came from Star City of a skirmish at a party. Reports are garbled seeing as some witnesses only got a glimpse of the tussle and others were too drunk to recall details. But all the stories bore one common thread -- lightsabers were drawn.
"We kept an eye on the area, and reports continued to trickle in. Homeowners reported unusual sounds near this address, including blaster shots, screams, and what was described as a Wookie roar. A mysterious explosion was reported in the Leapfrog Diner's restroom, an explosion that yielded machinery that closely resembled a Star Wars robot -- or droid, if you want to get technical, and I know you Stargeeks do.
"In Denver a seven-vehicle car chase resulted in various wrecks that left twelve people injured and six dead. Autopsies performed on five of the dead revealed a startling fact -- the deceased men were genetically identical. The government seized the bodies and did further tests. Sure enough, the men were clones. The sixth fatality was a woman, positively identified by an eighteen-year-old mugging victim as her assailant. The woman had attacked her, knocked her out, stolen her clothing, and left her in a dumpster near the convention center.
"We tracked the license plate numbers of the cars involved in the chase. Six of them had been stolen, but the seventh was a totaled Chevy Citation that had been abandoned at the scene. The plates identified the owner as Amethyst Andrews, a twenty-six-year-old cashier with no previous brushes with the law apart from a speeding ticket. Family members told us she was a member of a Star Wars fan club that met regularly at this address." He gave an all-encompassing sweep of his arm. "And here we are. Too late to avert tragedy, I'm afraid, but still willing to help in any capacity."
After a long moment's silence, Piett turned to Vader. "So what's our next move, m'lord?"
"What?" Vader said, surprised by the inquiry.
"Lady Mothma never showed. You're the highest-ranking person here, and you've had more experience with these matters."
"What matters?"
"The girl, of course," Piett replied. "I thought you would be plotting how to rescue her. You know the Emperor's habits better than anyone alive. You're familiar with the Executor's interior, more so than I. And you're one of the most highly trained Force weilders in the galaxy." He saluted. "I follow you, Vader."
Vader shook his head in disbelief. "You're faith is ill-placed, Piett."
"C'mon, Vader!" urged Emily. "You have to!"
"You're the Chosen One, Vader," Lucas added. "Only the Chosen One can defeat the Emperor."
"You know my history, Lucas," Vader snarled, shaking a fist at the director. "You know the effects of my decisions upon the galaxy. Do I need to refresh your memory?" Anyone sitting on the floor scooted out of the way as he began to pace. "I, Lord Darth Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker, am responsible for massacring an entire Tusken Raider caravan; breaking virtually every law and code of the Jedi Order; almost single-handedly exterminating said Order; slaughtering upwards of nine thousand Jedi; helping to instate a bigoted totalitarian regime with a dark-sider lunatic at its helm; killing my own subordinate officers over petty errors; maiming, torturing, and psychologically brutalizing my own children and their friends; attempting to murder the last surviving Jedi, who happens to be my own son; and allowing two children to fall into the hands of a tyrannical Sith nutcase who's already killed one and has plans to turn the other into a female Darth Maul reincarnate!" He drove his fist into the wall so hard two pictures were jolted down, then whirled to glare at the others. "HAVE I LEFT ANYTHING OUT?!"
Matthews shrugged. "Sounds like a pretty complete list to me."
"Shut up," Li hissed.
"You did slice up the living room ceiling with a lightsaber," Steve pointed out.
"And you wrecked my car," Amethyst added.
"Thank you, Steve and Amethyst," Vader said sarcastically, sinking into a chair. "I'd forgotten those two." He cupped his masked face in his hands, the picture of utter dejection. "I should never have come here. It's brought no good."
Leia went and knelt by her father, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Father, you can do this. So you've made some mistakes. This is your chance to redeem them."
Vader did not reply.
"You ARE the Chosen One," Lucas declared. "You are meant to bring balance to the Force. To bring balance, you must do away with the Sith. There's enough evil in the galaxy without the Sith. Their very existence upsets the balance of the Force. You are the only one who can accomplish that balance. Even your fall is evidence of that. A Jedi could never hope to defeat the Sith. Nor could a Sith turn on and successfully overthrow his own Order. But a man of both sides of the Force, of both disciplines, may stand a chance."
"Do it for the galaxy," Piett encouraged. "There are thousands of planets and trillions of innocent lives at stake."
"And Rachel," added Brigham. "If for no one else, do it for Rachel. She trusts you and is counting on you."
Vader closed his eyes, only half-listening to what the others were saying. Most of his attention was focused within. The Force lay deep within him as always, waiting tentatively. It seemed to be anticipating his next move, as if his next choice, his next action, would determine his allegiance. And it did. It did.
He could surrender Luke to Palpatine. That would assure the permanent fate of the Skywalkers as fixtures of the dark side. The galaxy would continue its spiral into darkness and self-destruction, dragging every soul within to a dismal fate.
He could do nothing. That, too, would be casting his lot with the dark side. In not fighting the Emperor, he would hasten the Sith's corruption and oppression. And he would damn Rachel to the same torment he had suffered as a servant of the Emperor.
Or he could lead the strike against his former master. If he succeeded, he would fulfill the prophecy and spare the girl from harm -- but more importantly, he would declare himself an ally of the light. If he failed, he would die doing the right thing, and he might even take the Emperor with him.
His hand went to his lightsaber and tightened around the grip.
/There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no chaos; there is order. There is no death; there is the Force./
When Anakin died and gave birth to Vader, he had perished amid scorching flames and vapors. Now there was no fire, no lava, no phoenix-esque spectacle of any sort. But with the recitation of the Jedi Code and his subsequent decision, another metamorphosis took place within the sable armor.
Darth Vader died and Anakin Skywalker was reborn in that instant.
"We're going after her."