Chapter 8 - Vader: The Moment Of Balance
Vader felt like a lost little boy as the Emperor's final punishment of Luke began. Too conflicted to understand all that transpired between him and his son, he called upon the Force to try to help him understand and assimilate the pieces of the puzzle together.
His son was now a Jedi. As a Sith, this should have meant nothing to him. But for some reason, it did.
Why? Why does it mean anything? Vader asked himself.
I was a Jedi once, long ago, a voice answered in his mind.
Yes, he was, but long ago. But what struck Vader as being most peculiar was the voice that spoke those words. It was not the voice that everyone in the galaxy feared. It was not a deep, menacing voice normally accompanied by the dark hiss of a breathing apparatus. It was his old voice, Anakin's voice - the voice he had last heard over twenty years ago before he became encased in this body suit forever.
Why did Luke spare my life? Why did he turn away from his destiny?
He was too moved by his son's actions to do anything but crawl back beside his Master, but carefully, to avoid getting electrocuted. At long last after moments of trying to sort it all out, it came to him.
Vader began to feel regret and remorse. His son, Luke Skywalker, bested the evil inside himself that nearly caused him to take Vader's life. Luke also risked his own life to save Vader. Vader had a daughter he probably would never know. The Emperor would surely destroy him when he was done taking Luke's life.
"Father, please!" a voice came from the present, drawing his attention away from his thoughts. "Help me!"
Vader was startled by Luke's anguished cry for help. He looked at Luke, simultaneously remembering his former identity, his former life. He remembered how much this youth reminded him of himself in that other lifetime, which now for some reason did not seem so long ago. He told Luke the name Anakin no longer had any meaning for him. His identity in his former self was lost when he lost Shmi, and then his wife. But here was his son, who came here to save that person.
He had a son, Luke.
He had a daughter, Leia.
Although he never knew them, never got to watch them grow up and become the heroes they were, they were still a part of him. They were his connection to that misplaced identity.
Did my former self still have meaning? He came back to save me because he loved me, because some part of him believed that my former self was not destroyed.
Then, a revelation hit him...The Chosen One...The Jedi Council had faith in him...the person who could bring Balance to the Force...Qui-Gon had faith in him. It all came back to him. Even now, he could still remember Qui-Gon's scream as he slaughtered the Tusken Raiders in the camp, one being at a time. He watched his son, Luke, defeat evil and redeem it within himself.
Luke did truly defeat me, in every sense of the word. He, Darth Vader, was the one that was corrupted and tainted and perverted by this truly evil being standing next to him.
Then, the last happy thought he ever had in his former life came rushing in...
...Padmé...
His mind flashed again to happier times in his life, escorting his would-be wife to Naboo, falling in love with her, marrying her against the Jedi Council's code. Their fates were forever bonded, and she was forever a part of him from the day he met her. The Emperor had tried vainly, but never completely severed the pain of her loss from Vader's memory. He thought all these years she was gone. But in a way, she wasn't. She lived on in this child (who was now a Jedi), and in Leia (one of the strongest leaders the galaxy had ever known). It all made sense now. Vader let the feelings come in, and called upon the Force to see the past. His past.
"I will even learn to stop people from dying."
But did I?
No. The deaths of billions of innocent beings were on his hands. His life had no meaning after Padmé's death, his only purpose was to kill anyone who displeased him and to serve the Emperor.
His son had shown him the way. No one truly loved him enough to believe in him since Padmé left his life. Palpatine's 'belief' in him over the years was too twisted to ever be construed as love. He was becoming overwhelmed by what Luke just sacrificed in front of him, simply based on the hope that his son's love could save him.
Still immersed in both the past and the present, two sets of spoken words entered Vader's mind, spoken by both father and son.
"I am a Jedi, like my father before me."
"I'm a Jedi. I know I'm better than this."
Both had conviction, both had pride. But only one of the people succeeded following those words, where the other had failed.
Vader was frozen where he stood. I am nothing. I could not succeed, for good or for evil's sake. I could neither turn my son, nor save him when he could not be turned. Leia will suffer the same if not a much worse fate at my Master's hands. Soon he will destroy me as well. I have failed. No one believes in me now. I truly am nothing.
What happened next only lasted a few seconds and only Vader saw it. He would never tell anyone of it, not even Luke. Vader saw an image flash over Luke. He could not tell if what he was seeing was a vision from the Force or a hallucination, but at that exact moment it did not matter.
It was her.
It was Padmé, as young and as beautiful as he'd ever remembered her. She was dressed in white and her straight brown hair flowed over her shoulders.
She was kneeling over her son as Palpatine paused his attack to say, "Now, young Skywalker...you will die". Her face was very sad.
Her tear-stained face looked longingly and gently up at Vader. It was full of the love Anakin Skywalker had once known.
The lightning continued, and Luke screamed even louder. Padmé vanished, her pained gaze still fixed on Vader as she disappeared.
No one in the galaxy ever knew on that day Anakin Skywalker had two tears running down his face under that mask.
He had two children that were all that remained of his and Padmé's love. That alone meant his life still had purpose. He had a choice. If he did not act, Luke would fall now, and the Emperor would surely destroy him and corrupt Leia.
Vader was suddenly aware he could read his Master's thoughts as Palpatine's rage at Luke boiled to an immense crescendo. This disgusting shell of a wretched old man standing next to him controlled the entire fate of every being in the galaxy, including his and his wife's fate. He was the single instrumental force in destroying the Jedi (many of whom had been Anakin's friends), destroyed his relationship with Padmé, commanded him to kill his former Master, and now was about to destroy his son, the last Jedi. Anakin then remembered Count Dooku, the Trade Federation, the Separatists, the civil war that led to galactic Armageddon that claimed the lives of countless trillions with this one man behind it all. He could feel the hatred for the entire Skywalker family burning brightly in his Master as he unleashed the full wrath of his power onto Luke.
"I'm a Jedi, I know I'm better than this," he heard in his mind again.
Anakin Skywalker was reborn in that mechanized monstrosity he had worn at the behest of the Emperor and the Dark Side.
He called upon the Light side of the Force, marshalling all the strength he could into every fiber of his body, and he lunged at his former Master from behind.
As he picked up the Emperor, he felt the old man's ribs crack and other body parts break. Palpatine cried out in extreme pain and could no longer direct his hands, but the lethal lightning, which was no longer pouring forth at Luke, was raining down uncontrollably on Anakin.
Anakin couldn't breathe. I have to make it to the catwalk above the reactor...I have to. He continued moving, calling on the Force with all of his will, maintaining his death's grip on the Emperor's body, making his way closer to the catwalk.
As Anakin escorted the Emperor to his oblivion, he spoke to him, but his voice was too low to hear over Palpatine's bellowing cries as well as the lightning that continued to rain down on him.
"You...are no longer...anyone's Master."
The Force protected Anakin long enough to get the Emperor up and over the rail and into the chasm. The Emperor, flung from the throne room, fell thousands of feet, screaming in partial pain and mortal fear, then exploded in a violent Dark Side Force storm that nearly sucked Anakin behind him into it.
Anakin collapsed onto the rail, unable to move at all. The lightning damaged most of his suit's life support systems, and his respirator-assisted breathing was very labored. Luke crawled to his father's side, holding his hand, neither of them speaking.
Anakin was redeemed because of his son's love. The Sith Order was finally destroyed, and the long awaited prophecy came to pass. He had finally brought Balance to the Force, but at a terrible cost to himself and to the galaxy. As he looked upon his weeping son with his own eyes, he kept his thoughts happy ones and remembered Padmé, Luke and Leia, imagining all of them as a family as he slipped into physical death, becoming one with the Force.
His spirit returned with his two former Masters to see his children one last time on Endor.