AN: Because I am in such a good mood today I decided to go ahead and update this story before I updated Destiny's Hand. So enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-Seven:
Bail Organa quickly made his way towards Palpatine's throne room. He had just received word that Anakin and Obi-Wan were taking on the Emperor. Yoda had contacted him en route with Padmé and Alyssa to Naboo.
Bail silently hoped that Anakin and Obi-Wan were going to be able to defeat Palpatine and hopefully restore peace in the galaxy.
But one could only hope…
"Strike her down!" Palpatine yelled at Luke. "Prove your loyalty to the Dark side and the Empire!"
Luke tried with all his might to push his sister out of the way, but Leia wasn't budging. Anakin, still in shock, stayed in the same spot he was in. if something happened to Leia, it was going to happen to himself as well.
"Luke please," Leia begged, as hot tears streamed down her cheeks. "Please don't do this. Don't you remember?"
"Remember what? Remember that everything I ever knew was a lie!"
"No! Remember when we were a family…"
As Leia said those words, waves of memories swept over Luke. Images of innocence so long ago. A time when he was happy. A time that he never really remembered but never really forgot. That was how he knew what his mother felt like…that was how he knew what his sister felt like…that was how it felt to be a family.
"I…I…I remember," he barely whispered easing up on his stance somewhat.
"Then come back to us. Don't give in to Palpatine and his lies." Leia said still begging.
"Don't listen to her Luke! She's a liar just like your father!" Palpatine said moving closer to the trio in the center of the room.
"No I'm not! I'm telling you the truth!" she cried out.
Luke didn't know who to believe and who not to.
"This is what we do to liars!" Palpatine said, moving even closer.
He held his hands out as lighting come form them. Leia was struck in the middle of the chest and sent skidding across the floor. Obi-Wan's lightsaber that she had been holding dropped near Anakin. He quickly moved it to him.
As Luke watched his sister skid across the floor, something clicked in him. Leia was right. If Palpatine wasn't lying to him, then he wouldn't have hurt Leia. Because of him, his twin sister was hurt. He fell to his knees distraught.
"Come on boy! Get up! Finish off your father and sister!"
"No!"
"What did you say?"
"I said no." Luke said as he stood back up.
Anakin, too, slowly got to his feet.
"I gave you everything boy and now you just want to give it all up?"
"Yes. I've realized that you are the liar here."
Palpatine was about to strike Luke with Force lighting, when Anakin rushed him.
Luke watched in horror and shock, as Palpatine and his father struggle against each other across the room. And eventually their struggle caused them to crash through the huge picture window.
"Father!" Luke cried running to the edge.
By that time, both Leia and Obi-Wan were coming around. Obi-Wan rushed to Luke's side, while Kelista helped up Leia.
As Luke and Obi-Wan stared over the edge, a gloved hand grasped the ledge below them. "Can someone help me here please?"
Obi-Wan and Luke knelt down and pulled Anakin back into the room. In the fall he had managed to grab a hold of a small ledge underneath the picture window and hold on while Palpatine fell to his death.
Just as Anakin was pulled back over the ledge, bail rushed into the room. "What happened here?"
"The Empire is dead." Kelista said.
"And a family is reunited," Obi-Wan said with a smile on his face.
Bail, Kelista and Obi-Wan watched as Anakin hugged his children tightly. And for the first time in a long time, Obi-Wan witnessed Anakin crying.
"Come on let's go home," Obi-Wan finally suggested.
No one could argue with that.