The Fallen Savior

Summary: For the deadliest and most powerful man in the galaxy, Lord Vader, all seems to be in his grasp, all except for his redemption. Redemption, it comes in many forms. It comes for those both of the light and the dark. In a world where there is no black and white, but shades of gray, Lord Vader discovers what it means to be a Jedi, and a father.

Chapter 3: Last Light

There was series of furious beeps and whistles.

"R2, be careful," said the hooded Skywalker standing behind R2.

The beeps and whistles escalated to a high pitched siren.

"R2! Pull the socket, unplug," shouted Luke. R2, continuing his panicked beeps, started to smoke slightly from his sides. Luke put his two hands on his astromech droid, and pulled. There was a sizzle of circuits, and R2 disconnected from the door console. The little droid spun out of control, wailing in distress. Luke sighed, and steadied his now smoking and sparking astromech droid.

"R2," Luke admonished, "you have to be careful about what you're doing. Luke wiped a smudge of R2's dome head with the edge of his cloak. "You shouldn't over push yourself."

R2 beeped sadly.

Luke chuckled. "You don't have to worry R2, you've saved my life plenty of times, and of coarse you're useful."

Content on hearing the complement, R2 started to do a run-through on his damaged systems. Luke looked sideways at his astromech droid, he was glad he never gave R2 those blasted memory wipes.

"Another locked door huh?" Luke thought out loud. They had been stuck for the last hour, wandering through countless empty corridors. But Luke felt as if he were being guided somewhere, no, he knew that someone was guiding them somewhere. In this maze of white corridors, he had taken the one single path for a purpose, almost as if…

In a swift movement Luke Skywalker pulled out his blue lightsaber. He fingered the hilt; this was a gift from Old Ben. Luke's grip tightened, his knuckles turning white from the strain. Old Ben was killed by Vader. The Vader that now held his friends. The friends that were now in danger! He was running out of time, he felt it. The strong presence of Han and Leia that first guided him, guided him away from Degoba, guided him to Bespin, was fading. His vision, no, he couldn't let his vision come true. NO!

R2 beeped questioningly.

"We're not going to play his game R2." His lightsaber blurred forward once, twice, three times. Raising his knee up, he slammed the door with a force assisted kick. In less then five seconds the class III durasteel security door lay in ruins.

Behind the door lay a blanket of darkness. Without a second thought Luke Skywalker stepped into the shadows.

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R2 rolled forward erratically; still recovering from the shock he had received earlier. As Luke walked into the darkness, R2 followed. Navigating over the charred door, R2 stopped to turn on his scanners, and a little satellite dish popped out of his domed head. His scanners picked up someone else in the room. But moment that R2 found something wrong, a hatch opened beneath him, and R2 found himself falling down a chute.

R2 beeped what could only have been an equivalent to a droid sigh, as he tumbled downwards.

There was a loud thunk as R2 reached the end of the chute. R2 found himself in a droid disposal room, and in a crate of rundown droids. He heard the sound of approaching stormtroopers, and quickly put himself in standby.

"Hey, looks like we got ourselves another astromech droid."

"Yeah, an Old Republic model by the looks of it."

The taller of the two stormtroopers picked up the little astromech droid. He opened a side panel, and a buddle of scorched wires tumbled out. R2 made his circuits spark a little for added affect.

"It's busted, incinerator?"

"Yeah, it's not worth the trouble."

The taller stormtrooper took a backswing, preparing to throw R2 into the incinerator when the little droid sprang into action. He shocked the stormtrooper holding him right in the chest, dropping R2 on his side. The other trooper had about a second to figure out what was going on, which wasn't long enough, and he to was on floor like a sac of potatoes.

R2 righted himself, and using a little mechanical arm, put his wires back in place, and closed his side panel. Beeping inconspicuously, R2 rolled out of the room.

……………………………………………………………………………

The blue lightsaber shot towards Vader's head like a bullet, its deadly blade spinning at an insane speed.

It stopped suddenly, the hilt quivering, seemingly willing itself to go forward. Vader stretched out a hand, and grasped the hilt, forcing the tremors to a stop.

"This lightsaber… I recognize it… yes… it is Obi-wan's I believe." The little Jedi padawan was hiding his presence well, without stretching out his senses; he could barely feel him in the force. "Obi-wan could never understand me," Vader said, speaking into the darkness. "He was like a brother, even a father, but he didn't understand." With these words he felt a faint ripple in the force. "Old Obi-wan was a naïve fool." He found the source. "He fell because he was weak." The pulse grew stronger. Vader pulled out his lightsaber, and ignited the blood red blade. He looked down at the weapon he held and said, almost to himself, "This blade was his undoing."

At that instance he felt a pulse primordial rage, and Vader threw the blue lightsaber to his right, the blade flying straight and true. It struck home, centimeters from the face of Luke Skywalker, who was hiding in the shadows. Vader clipped his own lightsaber back in his belt. He waited.

Luke's lightsaber remained pinned in the wall, half of the blade, sunk deep into metal mass. Its hum was the only sound in the chamber, its throb the heart beat of the room.

Luke stepped forward from the shadows, into the dim light red light of the room. He said nothing, and simply called his blade to his hand. He widened his stance, and put both hands on the hilt, then looking straight into the eyes of the dark lord, and charged.

Vader was caught somewhat surprised, and even more so when in two bounds, Luke had crossed half the chamber to reach him. Good, but not good enough. Still barreling forwards, Luke slashed upwards. Vader took a single step back, and evaded the blow easily. Luke transitioned his uppercut into swing intending to sever Vader's head. His blade hissed as he missed. Luke continued to press forward, and Vader willingly giving ground, but he couldn't land a single hit. There was a brief pause in Luke's swing and Vader extended his hand and force pushed Luke off his feet.

Luke fell into a deep pit. Vader waved a finger, and force flipped a switch, and the carbonization process began. "All too easy." A figure suddenly leapt out of the pit, lightsaber blazing. Vader forced jumped several paces back, and down the steps. Vader laughed, "Good, good!"

Luke gauged the distance and jump down to meet Vader's words with his overhead strike, then diagonal sweep, and then a flurry of stabs, all intending to be killing blows, and all missing cleanly. By now Luke's chest was hurting from his ragged breathing, but he pressed even harder. He increased his power and speed both two fold. His blue blade was a blur, dancing in the dark like an aurora. "Obi-wan has taught you well." He moved his head slightly, Luke's lightsaber swinging harmlessly by, "but I would have you know, Obi-wan fell by my sword." With that Vader gathered the force in the palm of his hand, and struck Luke in mid motion. Luke's body flew several meters, and his head struck the hard metal floor.

Vader approached his body, but Luke stood up. Vader stopped his approach, the boy was no longer rasping for breath, and most strangely of all, his stance. His grip on his lightsaber had shifted, and he held the blade in one hand, pointed downwards and away. Vader watched skeptically, but only had a second to watch when Luke decided to press the attack. What Vader confronted caught him by surprise. The blue blade struck from all directions, its speed nearly incomprehensible. Luke own body was twisting and turning, using the full weight of the body, as well as the force, in the power of the swing. This style, Vader smiled inwardly as he continued to doge Luke's attacks, though not effortlessly, was something he hadn't faced in years.

Vader shifted his balance to the left seeing the lightsaber coming in from the right side, no, from above. He crouched down slightly. But he was wrong on both accounts; the lightsaber was lunging towards him, about to pierce his chest. In that heartbeat, Vader moved his right hand, and deflected the blade with his hand. He saw the astonished look on Luke's face, but he gave the boy no time to think through what had just happened.

Now it was Vader that pressed forward on the attack. He planted a foot forward, locking his with Luke's. Luke brought his lightsaber up defensively, but Vader batted it away with his hand, he stuck Luke twice across the chest with the palm of his hand. Luke having been locked in position took the full brunt of both attacks, and those two attacks were all he could take. His body slumped against Vader's black armor.

Vader pried Obi-wan's lightsaber from Luke's hand. He hefted it in this hand, it felt so familiar, it felt... he tossed it in the air. Whipping out his own lightsaber in a lightning motion not seen in the fight previous, he struck other lightsaber through the core, destroying the crystal and other essential components. He tipped his lightsaber downwards, and let the now useless piece of metal slide off his blade and hit the floor.

"Thank you my son." Vader said quietly. Unconscious Luke looked like the young farm boy he once was, the young farm boy that… Vader chased the thought from his head. "Commander Massi."

"Yes my lord." Massi replied, bowing and emerging from the shadows.

Vader looked at Skywalker's face once last time as stormtroopers began filing in, a pair of them with a stretcher. Massi and Vader walked forward, and immediately several FA silently fell into line behind them.

Vader stated, "Commander Massi, I think it is time we take something that the dear Emperor owes us."