Authors: Co-written by rhonderoo and Jedi Trace
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
A/N: This will be the final chapter before the Epilogue. We are toying with the idea of writing a short sequel. Thanks for reading and we appreciate all the feedback!
CHAPTER NINE
The lift opened allowing Darth Vader and his son to enter the Emperor's throne room aboard the Death Star, the space before them stretching out like an eternity. The Emperor watched as his apprentice and the young Jedi walked across the dark space to stand before the throne, father and son - side by side. Vader felt the disgust of his son at the hideous appearance of the Emperor ripple through him. How then, would he view me? Crippled and mutilated, that would be how. He mentally shrugged off the disquieting thoughts and focused on the scene at hand. Obediently, he bowed to his Master.
"Welcome, young Skywalker, I have been expecting you," the Emperor proclaimed arrogantly.
Vader turned to see his son regarding the hooded figure defiantly.
"You will no longer need those." The Emperor motioned with his finger and Luke's binders fell away, clattering to the floor.
"Guards, leave us."
Vader watched as the red-cloaked guards turned and disappeared behind the elevator, a sense of unease settling upon him. He knew, even without the Force, that the coming confrontation would be the hardest of his life. Suddenly, his heart was thumping in his chest.
"I'm looking forward to completing your training. In time you will call me Master," the Emperor gloated.
"You're gravely mistaken. You won't convert me as you did my father," was Luke's reply. Irritatingly, his son exuded the calm and peace of a Jedi in the face of the Emperor's spiteful diatribe.
"Oh no, my young Jedi, you will find that it is you who are mistaken...about a great
many things."
"His lightsaber," Vader said, handing his Master Luke's lightsaber.
"Ah yes, a Jedi's weapon, much like your father's. By now you must know your father can never be turned from the dark side. So will it be with you."
Luke squared his shoulders and looked at the Emperor. "You're wrong. Soon I'll be dead...and you with me."
The Emperor laughed an impious, gleeful laugh and Vader felt an unnatural shiver run down his spine.
"Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack of your Rebel fleet," the Emperor said to Luke.
Vader knew that the Emperor had prepared for the arrival of the Rebels and soon, the blight of the galaxy would be gone. In this, at least, he could feel satisfaction.
Luke looked up sharply. The Emperor has found a crack in his armor, Vader thought with satisfaction. Perhaps this wouldn't be as hard as he feared, and his son would embrace the darkness. He must see that it was the only way. If he could just be turned, he could live and serve by his father's side. Together they could bring peace at last and rid themselves of the Emperor. Vader was thankful for his Master's fixation on Luke, realizing the treacherous thoughts came too easy these days.
"Yes...I assure you we are quite safe from your friends here."
The Emperor's voice pulled Vader back into the moment. He watched as the Emperor taunted his son, using his words to prod his son into the submission that he himself had so freely given as a young man.
"Your overconfidence is your weakness," Luke replied.
"Your faith in your friends is yours," the Emperor spat back at him.
Vader knew the method the Emperor was employing. He would wear Luke down, using Luke's own fears and uncertainties against him. "It is pointless to resist, my son," he said.
"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design," the Emperor gloated, pointing to the glowing sphere in the viewport.
"Your friends up there on the Sanctuary Moon are walking into a trap. As is your Rebel fleet! It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them."
Luke's eyes darted from the Emperor to Vader and, finally, to the lightsaber that lay under the Emperor's hand.
"Oh...I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive," the Emperor mocked Luke.
Vader observed objectively as a horrified Luke watch the aerial battle out the window. A Rebel ship exploded against the protective shield of the Death Star.
"As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station," the Emperor bit out.
The Emperor pushed a button on the arm of his throne and ordered, "Fire at will, Commander!"
A Rebel cruiser exploded before them.
"Your fleet has lost. And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Alliance will die...as will your friends," the Emperor continued sadly.
Vader watched his son guardedly, Luke's presence in the force changing in front of him. He could feel his son's power swelling around him.
"Good...I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon! Strike me down with all your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete."
The will to resist gone, Luke used the Force to reclaim his lightsaber. The saber flew into Luke's hand and he ignited it in one swift motion and swung. Vader's lightsaber blocked Luke's blow before it could reach the Emperor. So it would come to this...
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The Emperor laughed as father and son locked their lightsabers in battle.
The duel was fiercer than their encounter on Bespin. Vader had been on the attack, forcing Luke on the defensive, but Luke would not be beaten so easily this time. His son was a worthy adversary now, and Vader could not deny the pride that threatened to weaken his resolve to turn the young Jedi. Luke flipped to the catwalk above them.
"Your thoughts betray you, Father. I feel the good in you...the conflict," Luke said knowingly.
Vader blanched, his breathing labored. He looked up at the catwalk to his son.
"There is no conflict."
He would not allow his son to deter him this time.
"You couldn't bring yourself to kill me before, and I don't believe you'll destroy me now," Luke claimed.
Luke's confidence in Vader's weakness galled the dark lord. He would rid Luke of this incessant need to see the light in him at all cost. "You underestimate the power of the dark side. If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny."
Vader threw the lightsaber, its fiery red glow cutting through the supports under Luke's feet, and then returning to its master's hand.
Luke tumbled to the ground in a shower of sparks and rolled out of sight to land under the platform that held the Emperor. Vader moved to find him, spreading his senses out like an animal stalking its prey.
"Good...good," the Emperor crowed from above. Vader hardly heard him. He was on the scent now, the dark side surging through him.
"You cannot hide forever, Luke." Vader walked around the steps of the platform and ducked to get inside.
"I will not fight you," Luke insisted. His son's lightsaber rolled toward him on the duracreet floor.
Using the Force, Vader drew Luke's lightsaber up to his left hand, and stalked the low-ceilinged area looking for his son. "Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your friends. Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for..."
Vader stopped. His senses were reeling with an undercurrent of recognition. A vision flashed before him, something Luke was hiding. With clarity one could only get from the Force, he saw brown eyes and his wife's likeness before him...
...in the face of the Princess.
Awareness blossomed in him, filling him with an unmitigated sense of satisfaction. So, there had been a second child – a twin. A daughter...Padme's daughter.
Suddenly, he knew the key to turning his son, for it was the same weakness he, himself, shared. He turned towards Luke smugly.
"...sister. So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she will."
Suddenly Luke's lightsaber was pulled from his grasp.
"NEVER!" Luke yelled.
Vader looked up as Luke launched himself towards him, his lightsaber drawn. With an intensity that surprised him, even knowing his son's power, Luke came at him repeatedly. It was all Vader could do to deflect the blows as Luke tumbled into the abyss of the dark side, his hatred forcing Vader to retreat out of the low area and to the catwalk that stretched above the chasm below.
Luke's lightsaber moved so fast that Vader couldn't see it, each stroke driving his father towards defeat. Vader yelled as he was knocked to his knees, his saber raised to block another assault. Dark side energy was pulsing around them, elated to finally have its prize. Suddenly, he felt the sting of circuits being cut in two in his right arm. He realized with a faint sense of shock that Luke had cut his arm off above the wrist. His lightsaber fell uselessly away, over the edge of the platform and into the bottomless shaft below.
Luke moved over his father and held his lightsaber at his throat, a look of wild, unrestrained rage on his face.
Was this me? Did I look like this as I tumbled over the edge? The realization struck Vader that he had gotten what he wanted. Why did he feel a rising sense of dread? He heard the Emperor walking down the steps, cackling miserably.
"Good...," he said hypnotically. "Your hate has made you powerful. Now fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side."
Vader watched with a sense of trepidation as Luke looked at his hand and then his own. Time seemed to stop and remembrance was flung at him from somewhere outside of his awareness. A moment where another young Jedi had been faced with the same decision, and had failed.
Luke de-activated his lightsaber. "Never," he said, with a note of triumph as he tossed aside his lightsaber.
"I'll never turn to the Dark Side."
He watched as Luke walked slowly towards Palpatine. "You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi. Like my father before me."
With those words, images of a young handsome man came to Vader's mind – brash but compassionate, arrogant but needy, good yet misled - the face that belonged to the voice rose in his mind. The man he had given his soul had just offered his place to his son. He thought of the years of subjugation, a small flame of defiance welling in him. It occurred to him that he had never really been free. There was no such thing as freedom.
His son had just passed the test he had failed so miserably so many years ago. His mother would have been proud.
The Emperor's glee turned to rage. He walked dangerously toward Luke.
"So be it...Jedi," he spat.
"If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed."
Vader watched in mounting horror as the Emperor raised his arms. He knew what was to come next. He had lost Mara to the vicious torrent of dark side energy that the Emperor so loved to call on, and now Luke would suffer the same fate.
With every fiber left in his body aching, he pulled himself up off the floor, as the Emperor released a violent wave of blue Sith lightning into his son.
He saw that Luke tried to use the Force to deflect the storm that was being unleashed, but the bolts of energy were coming with such swiftness and power that Luke wavered before them, his knees buckling.
"Young fool. Only now, at the end, do you understand," Palpatine continued. He walked down the steps towards Luke slowly.
Luke clutched a raised cylinder on the bridge to keep from falling into the shaft as the lightning tore through him.
"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side," the Emperor swore.
As the lightning continued, Vader walked to his Master in a daze. From somewhere outside his realm of hearing he heard Palpatine taunting his son again.
"You have paid the price for your lack of vision."
Luke reached toward Vader, "Father, please. Help me."
Vader watched numbly as Luke screamed in agony. He looked at his Master, then back to Luke on the floor.
"And now, young Skywalker, you will die."
Dragging himself from the conflict within, Vader realized he didn't have much time, as he looked to Luke writhing on the ground in front of him. This choice would be the greatest thing he could do with his life.
He thought of the people - his mother, his wife, the Jedi, and his apprentice – all of the people he had forsaken with his choices. He thought of these people that had believed in him and counted on him. It was time to end the enslavement and give in to the will of the Force.
With a heave of his body, Vader grabbed Palpatine from behind, and picked him up over his head. He fought for control of the robed figure despite his weakened body and missing arm. The Emperor struggled in his embrace, the lightning now arcing back onto Vader.
Vader stumbled with his load as the waves of blue fire rained on his helmet and down over his black, lighting him with excruciating agony. He could feel the circuits blowing and shorting in the suit that had kept him alive for the past two decades. He held Palpatine over his head and fought for a final burst of strength, from somewhere it came and he threw the Sith over the edge of the abyss at the central core of the throne room. As Palpatine fell, his body exploded, creating a rush of cold air through the room.
Vader staggered toward the edge of the abyss and collapsed, his cape whipped by the force the wind.
He felt rather than saw Luke at his side, pulling him away from the edge to safety. When Luke was successful he fell at Vader's side. Vader moved his fingers and realized that Luke was holding his hand.
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Suddenly there was chaos surrounding them. The Death Star was being rocked by explosions as the Rebel fleet unloaded a heavy barrage of laser fire. Imperial troops ran - confused and desperate to escape.
In the midst of the cacophony, Luke tried carrying the mass of his father's ever-weakening body toward an Imperial shuttle. Panting and unable to go any further, Luke collapsed from the strain. The explosions were growing louder.
Vader thought about Luke's belief in the man that was Anakin Skywalker, and knew that this was who he was. He was Anakin, not Darth Vader. Suddenly, the overwhelming need to speak with his son, as his father - not his pursuer, came over him. He drew Luke closer.
"Luke...help me...take this...mask off." The feeble words felt odd coming out of his mouth.
"But you'll die," Luke warned him.
Darth Vader knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was dying. He knew that death would be his repayment to the Force when he had made his decision to fulfill the destiny that he fought for so long. He struggled for the strength to speak.
"Nothing...can stop that...now. Just for once...let me look on you...with my own eyes," he pleaded.
Hesitantly, Luke removed the mask from his father's face. He felt the coolness of natural air on his face for the first time in twenty years. It felt like a lifetime. His eyes slowly focused and he managed to finally see his son.
This should have been what kept him from the dark side, he thought sadly. Luke and his sister should have been enough, Padme should have been enough. What a fool had had been. He had turned his back on Mara. He had hurt his family, and betrayed the Jedi's faith in him. In that moment he missed Padme terribly. But for now, he smiled at the sight before him. Luke was looking down with him with regret, so many years lost.
"Now...go...my son. Leave me," he said weakly.
"No. You're coming with me. I can't leave you. I've got to save you," Luke said, his cheeks wet with tears.
There was love written on Luke's face, he hadn't felt that since before... There were so many memories – of podracing through the canyons of Tatooine, of receiving his Obi-Wan's treasured rock, picnics in fields, his wedding, the curve of his wife's neck where her hair fell on her shoulder...
He turned his waning attention back to Luke, desperate to make him see his victory. "You already have, Luke. You were right about me. Tell your sister...you were right." He managed to get the last words out before Luke's face blurred before him.
Hazily he saw his daughter with the pilot, Han Solo, surrounded by laughing children. He saw a laughing Luke holding an infant with piercing blue eyes and red hair, his other arm around the blurry, yet familar figure of a beautiful fiery woman who stood with her arms wrapped around them both.
Ani, it's time.
An overwhelming sense of joy came over him as saw his wife before him, her outstretched arms open for him. Prepared to be there with him for whatever may come. Goodbye, Luke...
"Father...I won't leave you," Luke sobbed.
With a sigh, Darth Vader closed his eyes, and Anakin Skywalker died.
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On Endor, Luke set a torch to the logs stacked under a funeral pyre where his father's body lay. He had put the mask back on because he couldn't bear to see his father's face as the flames took him. It didn't matter now what the visage looked like, as he would forever be Anakin Skywalker. He stood watching sadly as the flames leapt higher to consume his father. In the sky above, fireworks exploded and the Rebel fighters celebrated victory.
Peace at last...
