They began walking in the direction that Luke had indicated. "So, "asked Anakin, "is now a good time to ask you to continue telling me why the Jedi couldn't stop Emperor Palpatine?"

Luke looked at him, and smiled a frustrated smile. "You don't give up, do you?"

"Not usually, no." returned Anakin.

"Well," said Luke, "let me give you an idea why. How many Jedi do you think there are in this galaxy currently?"

Anakin looked at him curiously. "Several thousand, at least, I would think."

Luke shook his head. "No. Currently, there are only two Jedi left in this Galaxy, and you are talking to one, and I'm talking to the other."

Anakin stumbled in shock. "What happened to the Jedi? Tell me please!"

Luke stopped and looked at his father, and noticed how tired he was looking. "I don't think we should continue this conversation right now. You haven't fully recovered from your wounds and we still need to get to Theed, and find shelter for the night." He looked at his father with compassion. "I don't think that you need any more shocks today."

Anakin looked at Luke, and then nodded tiredly. "Just so you don't forget that I need to know."

"I know you need to know, and I will tell you."

They continued walking along in silence, until, on the outskirts of the city, Anakin came to a sudden halt with a hiss of surprise.

"What is it father?" asked Luke, concerned.

"I thought I caught a hint of Padme through the Force, almost as though she is here somewhere. But it was rather fleeting, and it could just be wishful thinking on my part." Anakin looked at the ruined buildings and shook his head. "I don't know how anybody would still be living here."

"Mother is here?" asked Luke.

"Maybe. I don't know. From what you say, it's been a number of years, and it's quite possible that she is dead." Anakin paused, and found, to his amazement, that a tear was running down his face. "I hope she's not. I'd love to see her again."

They continued on down into the ruins of the city, with Anakin telling Luke about the first time he had ever visited here, about how beautiful everything was, and about the Trade Federation and their droid armies. They eventually found the relatively undamaged remains of a house and decided that there was as good a place as any to rest for the night.

Luke set his pack down by the remains of the front entrance to the house, and then turned to his father, who had more or less collapsed on the ground next to the entryway. Anakin looked up at Luke, "Force or not, I am tired."

Luke smiled. "Let me build a fire, and then we can eat some of these marvelous survival rations that we're carrying."

"Sounds great," said Anakin. He watched tiredly as Luke gathered wood for the fire, built it, and then lit it. Now that the sun had gone down, the night air was chilly and Anakin was grateful for the warmth. Luke dug into one of the packs and pulled a couple of ration bars out of it. Tossing one to his father, he collapsed tiredly next to the fire.

After taking a few bites and chewing them in silence, Anakin spoke. "I understand your reasons for telling me things in small doses, but I really need to know what's happened. The missing memories are like a gaping wound in my mind. Please, tell me what happened to the Jedi."

Luke stared into the flames of the fire, and then sighed. "All right, I'll tell you, or at least, what I know of it. But don't say I didn't try to warn you." He took a bite of ration bar, chewed, and swallowed. "Many of the Jedi were killed in the Clone Wars. But the rest of them were..." He paused and looked at his father. "Do you really want to hear this? It's not going to be pleasant."

"Luke...Son, please finish," said Anakin. "I can already tell by your reluctance that it involves me in some way—but I'd rather know than guess."

Luke nodded. "I guess I can understand that. The rest of the Jedi were betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader, acting on orders from Emperor Palpatine, who felt they were a threat to his power and his vision of a perfect galaxy."

"Darth Vader? Who was he? I thought you were going to say that I did it," said Anakin, with a puzzled look on his face.

"You did. You were Darth Vader, the Emperor's most trusted servant. I left the armor and respirator you used to wear back on the shuttle. As Obi- Wan once described you to me—after I discovered that you were my father, he said..."

"If I remember Master Kenobi properly, "said a new voice, "it was something along the lines of he's more machine than man now. He said that to me once, as well." A woman stepped into the firelight, a blaster rifle loosely grasped in her hands. "Hello, Anakin. It's been a long time."

"Padme!" said Anakin, and started to get up from his seat by the fire.

"Oh, stay there," she snapped, motioning with the blaster rifle, "I'm still deciding whether or not to blast you down where you sit. The only things that stopped me are that you aren't wearing that disgusting armor, and that you apparently brought our son along."

"Mother?" asked Luke.

"What are you doing here with him? Has he conned you into his vision of a 'perfect' galaxy? Are two Skywalker males serving Palpatine now in his twisted vision? Have you gone over to the Dark Side as well?" She looked at Luke angrily. "I thought Master Kenobi would have protected you better."

Luke looked at her in shock. "Mother, Ben did the best he could. But he... didn't get much of a chance. Shortly after I met him and discovered who he truly was, he was killed while making it possible for me, my sister, and some friends of ours to escape an Imperial space station."

"And as to your insinuations that I have gone over to the Dark Side..." He shook his head. "Look at him, mother. He no longer wears the armor. He can breathe normally again, and he has two flesh and blood arms again. The Force gave that to him, through me, as a reward for killing his Master Palpatine, thereby saving my life, and returning to the Light." He paused. "And furthermore, he's lost his memories. The last thing he remembers is marrying you."

"He's lost his memory?" asked Amidala, some of the ire in her eyes fading as she listened to Luke.

"Yes. I've told him some of what he's done, but he still hasn't completely regained his strength from the battle with the Emperor, and I didn't want to overload him with information."

"He's very stubborn, our son," said Anakin, "it's one of his more redeeming and annoying traits." He looked at Amidala with a roguish glint in his eyes, "I wonder where he gets that stubbornness from?"

For a second, Amidala looked like she was about to laugh, and her eyes lit up with the inner fire that Anakin remembered so well, but the moment didn't last, and her eyes darkened again. "You were always very charming, Anakin, but I can't forget who and what you are."

"Mother," said Luke.

"Stay out of this son. I don't know how you can forgive him, given what he's done, but I'm not going to."

"Mother, I can't say that I have forgiven Darth Vader for what he did. I probably never will. But this man sitting before you is not Darth Vader. He is Anakin Skywalker, a man I very much wanted to meet." Luke looked at his mother passionately. "He doesn't remember anything since he was about twenty years old. The Force gave him a chance to start over—why can't you?"

"The Force may be all-forgiving, but I am not. Take a look around you—all of this was caused by him looking for me. When my people told him that they had no knowledge of my whereabouts, he refused to believe them, and began the systematic destruction of the few cities on my home world—trying to force them to tell him something they didn't know. I'll never forgive him for that."

"Do you know for certain that he did this, mother? Oh, I know Vader was quite capable of this sort of thing, but something about this doesn't feel right for him," asked Luke. "In fact, I don't think that Vader had anything at all to do with this."

"What makes you say that?" asked Anakin.

"Think about it. You're looking for the woman you love. You suspect that she's hidden somewhere on this planet. Would you risk her life by randomly destroying cities on the surface? Knowing that you may very well kill her by doing so?" asked Luke. "While Vader was far gone into the Dark Side, that doesn't mean that he was insane. This sort of behavior has the ring of Palpatine to it. He wouldn't have cared if he'd killed mother—in fact, he was probably hoping to do so in order to further drive you into his vision of a new galactic order. He probably blamed all this destruction on the Jedi in order to make you hate them all the more."

"That makes a lot of sense," said Padme uncertainly. "That is definitely the sort of thing that he would have done." She dropped the blaster rifle onto the ground next to her and sat down facing the two of them. "Luke, earlier you mentioned your sister; how is she?"

Luke grinned ruefully. "Probably worried sick about me—I wasn't able to tell Leia what I was doing before we got here. Things were a bit rushed."

Padme smiled. "So she's doing well, then?"

"She's one of the leaders of the rebellion against the Empire—you could almost say that she's the heart and soul of the rebellion." He frowned, and looked at his father for a moment. "She's also had some particularly rough times."

"What happened?" asked Padme.

"She was a prisoner aboard the original Death Star—held by Vader. Oh, he didn't know who she was at the time. Anyway, Vader wanted to know the location of the rebel base, but she wouldn't tell him, even after exposure to Imperial interrogation methods..."

Padme threw Anakin a glare full of anger.

"The commander of the original Death Star was a particularly nasty man named Tarkin, and he had his own ideas about how to get Leia to talk. He threatened to use the power of the Death Star on Alderaan—and it was quite capable of destroying entire planets." Luke closed his eyes for a moment and let out a deep breath. "The threat was enough to make her give them a fake location for the base—unfortunately, Tarkin was a sadist and he fired on Alderaan anyway. She had to stand there and watch as Alderaan was turned into an asteroid belt—as everybody she'd ever known was killed."

"Oh my..." breathed Padme. She glared at Anakin again, "how was he involved?"

"My understanding is that he just stood there and watched with Leia," replied Luke. "It's too much to expect that he would have countermanded the order at that point in time. He wasn't aware of the existence of either me or Leia at the time, and I think that is what began his transformation—his awareness of my existence—he was still fully under the influence of Palpatine at that time."

Padme's glare softened and she looked at her husband with something other than hatred in her eyes for the first time. Luke studied them covertly for a moment, and then, looking at the fire, said, "I'm going to go get some more firewood. I'll be back in a few minutes." Grabbing a flashlight, he stood up and walked away from the house.

Padme sat staring into the fire quietly while Anakin studied her quietly across the flames. Anakin cleared his throat and said quietly, "I missed you, you know."

Padme smiled across the flames. "I thought you couldn't remember anything?" "I can't." he answered.

"Then how do you know if you missed me or not?" she asked.

"Because you were one of the first people I asked about once I woke up. If I hadn't been missing you, I don't think I would have."

"Mmm." She responded noncommittally. "You yourself said that your last memory was of our marriage. You were simply wondering where I was. That doesn't mean that you were missing me when you were Vader."

He sighed. "Does it really matter, Ami? My feelings for you are the same as they have always been."

She looked away from him. "That's the problem, Anakin. Your feelings haven't changed, but mine have. It's been twenty years, Anakin. Twenty years that I sat here stewing in resentment and anger against you for doing this to my world. Twenty years that I couldn't forgive you for turning to the dark side and leaving me. Twenty years that I resented you for making me send my children away from me so that I could hide them from you."

She sighed. "Anakin, I realize that you don't remember any of those twenty years, but I do. And those feelings aren't something that I can just get rid of easily." She paused and tossed a twig into the fire, and then looked at him across the flames. "On the other hand, I am also extremely proud of you for saving our son, destroying Palpatine, and returning to the light. Even though you don't remember it; I know how hard that must have been for you. And it is for those things that I am willing to give you a second chance..."

She smiled at him. "We are still married, you know. It's a bit difficult to obtain a divorce when there's no government to obtain it from."

Anakin stiffened and held up a hand. "I think I hear..." At that moment, the roar of sub-light engines drowned out whatever he was going to say. The sound faded as the engines headed away from the house. "If I'm not mistaken, they're headed for the shuttle crash site." He said.

Luke came back in, carrying an armload of wood and looking somewhat concerned. "That was the Falcon. I guess we're going to have the rest of the family reunion quicker than I expected."

"You mean Leia was on that ship?" asked Padme.

Luke smiled. "Yes, she was. Along with some other friends of mine from the Rebellion. You should be seeing her soon enough, mother." He frowned. "I don't know how she's going to react to father, however."

"Probably not well," said Anakin dryly.