The Nature of Good and Evil

Anakin dropped to the floor as he fell through the Force wall. His boots clanked against a metal floor. He gazed around in shock upon realizing that he was in the detention center of the first Death Star. He shook his head and silently cursed as he stood. The familiar sound of screaming and wailing echoed from one room. He knew what to expect if he went to that room, but he was not confident that he could handle it.

He opted to walk on past the room. The familiar screaming grew louder. When he was right in front of the door, he found himself unable to continue walking. He struggled to move, but something (the Force, he thought) was holding him still. He remembered the speeches about trusting the Force he gave Leia, and knew the Force wanted, or demanded, that he go to the cell.

"It won't bite," he told himself aloud. "I've been through this before." As a different person, in a different life, he thought. Anakin waved his hand towards the door to open it and stepped inside. As soon as both feet hit the floor, he fell to his knees and grabbed his head. The screams, Leia's screams, intensified inside his head. He felt the pain of interrogation and could faintly hear an interrogation droid in the background.

He then heard, beyond the screaming and the beeping of the droid, laughter. It was his own voice, filtered behind a shiny black mask.

(X)

Leia didn't know how she had reached the room. She looked across towards the balcony to see the Coruscant nighttime skyline. She remembered seeing Palpatine and Anakin, but she had no memory of what happened between then and the moment she awoke on the couch. She sat staring through the window in total silence. Her attention was finally stolen by the sound of someone entering the room. She turned just enough to see Anakin.

He was followed by a woman. Leia instantly recognized her as the girl she saw on Tatooine, though somewhat older. Leia listened quietly to their conversation, though she didn't understand most of it. Her mind felt like it was floating outside her body, but she caught something about a death premonition, a baby, and Anakin's mother. She became disoriented. She lay against the couch and closed her eyes.

"What am I doing?" she heard herself ask. "What does all this mean?"

"Ask your father," the woman's voice echoed through her head. "He has all the answers."

Leia awoke suddenly and sat up. "That didn't last long." She saw the woman sitting beside her. A phantom image of Anakin Skywalker was on the other side. The woman wore a long dark dress. She was obviously pregnant and close to delivery. She wore a square shaped necklace with a smaller square and lines carved into it. "That was you," Leia said to her. "In my head."

"It was."

Leia didn't have to ask, but she wanted to hear it from this woman. "Are you my mother?"

The woman nodded. "My name is Padmé Amidala."

"So, you're the one who married the monster and gave birth to the heroes of the Republic."

"So I've been told. Though I am disconcerted by your judgement of your father."

"You'd understand if you were there."

"I was there," Padmé insisted, "and I do understand."

"Then what can you possibly tell me that I haven't already heard?"

"The question is, what can I tell you that you will listen to? You're so caught up in the pains of the past, that it has blinded you to everything else around it."

Leia sighed as she glanced towards Anakin. "In other words?"

Padmé folded her hands in front of her belly. "Are you so stuck on someone's mistakes that you would forsake what he did right?"

"No. I know what my father did for my brother on the second Death Star, but that cannot erase every evil act he commited."

"Evil is relative, Leia. I'm sure you would consider having a family as innocent, yet it was that very thing that was indirectly responsible for what happened to Anakin."

"How do you know?"

"You were indirectly responsible for the destruction of Alderaan. All those people died because of you, though I'm sure no one would call you evil for it."

Leia leaned back as if she'd been slapped. "That's different."

"How so?"

Leia turned away. She didn't know if her expression betrayed anger or shame. She couldn't tell the difference between the two anymore. "Anakin isn't the only one in search of redemption," Padmé said. "We all are, in one form or another. You are free to hate him with your dying breath, but what will you have gained from it? As long as you do so, then darkness will cover and manipulate your path. You must forgive him, for yourself if not for him."

"It is not wrong to hate evil."

"Just what are you hating, Leia? The evil, or the person who was unable to see it for what it was?"

Leia was silent. She didn't know how to respond. "I'm certain," Padmé continued, "that if circumstances had allowed it, Anakin would have been a wonderful father, even in secret. I'm sorry that you and Luke could not have experienced that. That you couldn't see him and love him the way I did."

Leia spoke before she was aware of the words. "What is a person to think when evil is capable of love?" Leia had no idea where that question came from.

"I have my own question," Padmé said. "If you hate him so much, then why did you name your youngest son after him?"

"Because I wanted to reclaim that part of him that was still good."

"Then can't you see Anakin Skywalker as that person, and Darth Vader as someone else completely?" Padmé didn't give Leia the chance to answer. She stood and approached the balcony. Her hand swept across the air. Leia saw the now familiar rippling of the Force wall.

"Hurry," Padmé said. "Anakin is in danger. He needs your help."

Not willing to ask for details, Leia merely nodded and walked to the Force wall. As she had done twice before, she used the Force to open a breach and stepped through. She landed on a cold metal floor. She stood to the sounds of screaming down the hall. A look around made her heart skip a beat.

"The Death Star," she whispered to herself. She was in the detention center. She heard the screaming again. "Anakin!" she called. She trotted past each cell until she came to the one she believed the screams were coming from. Without thinking, Leia channeled the Force with a wave of her hand. The cell door slid open. By then, the screaming had stopped. Leia ran into the cell. "Anakin?"

He was kneeling on the floor with his back to her. She heard sobbing sounds coming from him. Leia slowly walked around him and kneeled beside him. He made no move to indicate he was aware of her presence. Leia wiped streaks of tears from his face. He still did not move.

"Anakin?" Leia repositioned herself so she was in front of him. He stared straight at her, but he didn't really see her. Leia grabbed him by his shoulders. "Anakin, wake up!" She shook him, but he might as well have been a doll.

"You have to wake up," Leia pleaded. She was nearly in tears herself. "Please. I can't get home without you."

Remembering her training sessions with Luke to hone her Force skills, Leia decided to try something she'd rarely done. She placed both hands on either side of Anakin's head and closed her eyes. She concentrated on searching his mind so she could see what he was experiencing. She was instantly shot with a wave of pain. The sensation brought up long buried memories of her confinement on the Death Star. She forced down the pain and terror enough to continue pushing through Anakin's mind. She suddenly caught sight of herself sitting on the bench. She was seeing the interrogation in third person perspective.

"It stops right here." Leia waited for the scene to finish playing through Anakin's head. When they reached the end, Leia let herself go in the Force. "You have to help me, Anakin. I can't do this alone."

At first, he did not respond. She saw Darth Vader turn to leave the cell, while her younger self was curled on the bench. "What must I do?" she finally heard Anakin ask.

"We must turn time backwards. Undo what has been done. I don't know how to do it myself."

She sensed Anakin scoff at the idea. She felt herself hold her breath as Anakin tapped into the Force. Before her mental eyes, the image froze, then began to rewind itself. Both of them tensed as they went through the whole thing again in reverse. Anakin played it back to the moment Darth Vader entered the room. With an extra effort, he froze the image in place again. Sensing that he was struggling, Leia envisioned a durasteel wall that slid over the image. As soon as it appeared, Anakin lost his grip on the task. Leia felt him blank out as he fell to the floor.

"Get up!" Leia seized his arm and, with some help from the Force, hauled him to his feet. She pushed him against the wall and leaned against him to prevent him from falling over. "Are you sane yet?"

Anakin smiled absentmindedly. "You're getting pretty good at this Jedi thing?"

"I had a good teacher. Let's get the hell out of here."

Anakin kept one hand against the wall as Leia dragged him into the hallway. "Where were you?" he asked. "Where did you go from Tatooine?"

Leia hesitated to answer. "Somewhere unpleasant?" Anakin offered.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

Leia hesitated just a little more. "I saw Padmé."

Anakin pulled himself free from her grip and slid down the wall. Leia watched as he hit the floor. His expression betrayed disbelief. "What? What happened?"

"What? Are you saying you haven't seen her?"

"Of course I've seen her!" Anakin nearly yelled. "It's just, she's never gotten involved in these trials before. That's all." He rubbed his mouth with his gloved hand. "What did she say?"

Leia shrugged. "Just everything you and Luke have been trying to say to me for the past twenty something years. It was like invading a memory. Or a moment in time." Anakin's eyes revealed curiosity. "Rest assured, everything is taken care of."

Anakin appeared to think about it for a moment. "Fine. Let's get to the bridge."

"The bridge?"

"That's where the next Force wall awaits us."