Chapter 5 - Vader: Torment

Vader barely had time to react as his son stabbed directly at him with his lightsaber, meaning to strike straight through his face. His blade narrowly knocked Luke's to the side.

No, Vader thought as Luke swung his lightsaber back and forth in wild, wide arcs at him, heedless of any returned blows. Vader thought of telling Luke to stop, but words failed him.

Still tormented by the image he saw of himself in his son, Vader clumsily tried to offer his blade to Luke to protect himself. Luke simply knocked it up into the ceiling, sending a shower of sparks down on them both. His son continued to swing at him wildly, the Dark power in him completely out of control.

By the time Vader regained control of his consciousness to focus on his opponent, Luke had already driven him back out from under the bridge to the throne. But Vader was still too distracted by what he sensed in his son's mind. Luke was full of indescribable strength, not caring how he killed Vader, but only that he did kill him.

Vader had felt this strength once before - the first journey he made to the Dark Side - after his mother's death, and remembered how it made him feel so full of power and of life.

But seeing it in his son made him feel very differently. Feeling the Dark Side within Luke like this was...almost hideous to him.

Vader tried to call upon the same Dark power to retaliate, but soon found he could not gain the anger nor the footing he needed to block Luke's relentless attacks. He could not get angry with his son. Luke's green blade drove his own back with an incredible force, pushing it away time and again.

Vader continued to step backward, wondering when he was going to run out of space. Luke's blade continued smashing into him. Vader felt Luke using both his lightsaber and the Dark Side of the Force to physically knock him back. Overwhelmed by the power his son wielded, Vader realized he was fighting for his life. He also became increasingly aware that his body was pushing the limits of his mechanical suit while fending off Luke's attacks. Vader could barely draw upon the Force to keep himself in the fight.

My son is going to kill me, just as I slaughtered those Tuskens many, many years ago.

Luke and Vader reached a catwalk crossway at the base of the stairs, with a very precarious railing behind them. Luke and Vader locked blades twice, and then Luke swung in a high arc from behind his head. Vader dodged, narrowly missing the blow. They locked blades twice again, then Luke swung high in the other direction, narrowly missing Vader again, but neatly severing a portion of the catwalk railing in two.

Vader could neither emotionally nor physically take any more of this onslaught from his own son. The implications of what Vader put Luke through on Bespin was becoming quite clear. Only now, Vader was the victim. He slipped for the final time, falling backward but ended up sitting against the catwalk rail, simply holding up his lightsaber in vain defense.

Luke slashed down from over his head at Vader's outstretched saber several times; so many times that Vader could not count. Vader wondered why Luke didn't just kill him then. Vader felt the internal mechanisms of his right hand being stretched and ripped apart by the repeated lightsaber strikes. As a result of this, he could no longer even maneuver his hand to stop Luke, but it did not matter. Luke's blade came down for the final time, even harder than all the previous strikes, and severed Vader's hand at the wrist. Having neural mechanisms tied into his hand, Vader cried out in pain, but his cry was far more emotional than physical.

Vader held up his hand in a gesture of surrender as Luke stood over him, holding his father's own power, a green lightsaber blade less than an inch from Vader's throat.