Chapter 2 of 3

This couldn't be happening, Luke thought. This had to be a nightmare, a perverse nightmare. He couldn't be dead!

Obi-wan gave him a sympathetic expression. "I'm afraid it's the truth, Luke. The blow to your head killed you."

The two of them stood in a small, sterile chamber aboard the medical cruiser, watching Too Onebee tend to a prone form that Luke was shocked to recognize as himself. A plastic mask was taped over his nose and mouth, and monitors had been connected to his arm, chest, and temples to record his vital signs. One monitor showed a slow but steady pulse; another measured respiration rate and volume. The droid was keeping a careful eye on one screen in particular, one that remained ominously blank.

"He's attempting to measure your brain waves," Obi-wan explained.

"No," Luke insisted, shaking his head. "I'm not dead, Obi-wan. Maybe I'm having a near-death experience, but I'm not dead." He pointed. "Look, I'm breathing…"

"Only with the aid of the respirator," Obi-wan replied.

"But I have a heartbeat! How can you be dead with a heartbeat?"

"Your body lives, Luke," Obi-wan said sadly. "But your brain does not. The human body is a marvelously complex thing, but without consciousness, without a brain, it is merely a sack of meat. And I'm afraid that, during the accident, your brain was almost totally destroyed. There remains enough of the brainstem to ensure your heart beats, but that is all."

Luke stared at his mentor, then at his body. Not now. Not when everything had finally been going so right!

The door hissed open, and a Mon Calamari medical technician led two figures in.

"Stang," Luke breathed. "Leia, Han, no…"

He had never seen Leia so shattered. Only once had she come close to this kind of devastating sorrow in his presence – when she had told him of Han's capture and freezing at the hands of Fett and Vader. But even then, there had been a fierce hope in her eyes, the knowledge that they would find and liberate Han. Now there was no such trace of hope. All Luke could read in her deep brown eyes was grief.

"Luke," she choked, pushing past the technician and kneeling at his body's side, clasping his hand in hers. "Luke, I'm here. Please, Luke, if you can hear me, give me some sign…"

"He cannot hear you, Princess," Too Onebee told her. "His faculties have ceased to function."

Han stood over Leia and clasped her shoulders. The pirate's face, which normally bore a smirk or a look of exaggerated indignation, was now set in an expression of deep pain.

"My readings have shown no sign of activity," the droid informed them. "And the cranial scans indicate that the damage is irreversible." The droid paused, as if arranging the words in a manner that would inflict the least amount of pain. "We have Skywalker's organ donor files. As you two are the closest he had to a family, it is my responsibility to ask your permission before…"

"No!" Han replied quickly. "You're not cutting Luke up for spare parts!"

"The operations will be as non-invasive as possible," Too Onebee replied. "When the retrieving of the organs is complete, the body will still be available for burial."

Leia pressed the body's hand against her lips, tears glistening on her cheeks. "Please… give us a little more time to think…"

"That is acceptable." Too Onebee left the room.

Luke wanted to go to Leia, to embrace her, to assure her that he was all right and that nothing had happened. But some otherworldly influence prevented him. Somehow, he knew that attempting to touch Leia would violate some unspoken code.

"They are truly your friends," Obi-wan murmured, smiling. "More so than you know."

Luke watched Han reach down and touch the blond hair, like an older brother would stroke a sleeping sibling. Han… Han, who had been like a brother, who had always joked and kidded with him, who had saved his life several times… who had been a true friend for so long…

Leia… his first crush, now his sister… an odd combination of damsel in distress and warrior queen, something to both protect and rely on for protection… who had accepted Luke without question from the first moment he had seen her in person aboard the first Death Star…

"Please," Luke pleaded, turning to Obi-wan. "Let me talk to them. I have to say goodbye, at least. I never got to say goodbye…"

"Soon," Obi-wan assured him. "But not now. There is another we must check on."

And in the time it took to blink, they were in a different room. Luke shook his head, bewildered. It hadn't felt like they had moved an inch. Rather, it was as if the rooms had moved around them. It was all very confusing…

"Father…"

For there lay Vader, cuffed to the bed, his torso heavily bandaged, and a guard posted at the door, nervously fingering a blaster and eyeing the wounded Sith warily. But Vader showed no sign of hostility toward the guard. Indeed, if it hadn't been for the hiss-whoosh of his respirator, Luke would have thought his father was dead as well.

"The knowledge of your death has cut him deeply," Obi-wan murmured. "You were right, Luke. There was good in him."

Luke turned to look at the white-haired Jedi. The man looked upon Vader with sadness, sympathy… and oddly enough, regret. There was no anger here, no hatred. Not that Luke had ever pictured Obi-wan to be the type to harbor a grudge, but he reasoned that, if there was a creature in the galaxy Obi-wan had good reason to hate, it was Vader.

"I think," Obi-wan murmured, "that it's time you learned the entire story about your father."

Luke nodded. "I think so too."

Break…

Han and Leia spent hours in Luke's room, talking to him, holding his hands, silently hoping for a flicker, a movement, a sign of life. Other visitors stopped in briefly, exchanging comforting platitudes, but for the most part, they were alone in their vigil.

Chewbacca and Wedge were the last visitors, the former moaning softly upon seeing Luke's silent form, the latter with a stunned, pained expression, as if he had just been slapped by a close friend.

"I didn't want to believe them," he murmured. "I thought it was a rumor…" He knelt beside Leia and stared at Luke's still face. "I can't believe he's gone."

Chewie threw back his head and gave a long, low, emotional howl. Han left his post at Luke's side and embraced the Wookie, burying his face in the long tangled hair to hide his tears.

Leia felt hollow, as if someone had cut out part of her heart. Luke had filled a void in her life, a void she hadn't realized was there until it was suddenly empty again. He had always been a brother to her, even before his startling announcement…

She closed her eyes in fresh pain. She had lost her brother… but her father remained.

Only Han knew of their bond. She had explained it to him right after the Death Star had exploded. And surprisingly, he was quite accepting of it – even of her blood link with Darth Vader. "At least it explains how you got so stubborn," he had joked.

She would never forgive Vader, father or not. He had caused her too much pain, physically and otherwise. He had tortured her, forced her to watch as her planet was destroyed, frozen Han and given him to Boba Fett, harassed the Alliance for so long…

And if Luke had never attempted to save Vader's life, Luke would not now lay here, a vegetable, devoid of life. She couldn't -- wouldn't – allow herself to hate Luke for that, and so she directed her anger toward the Sith Lord. It was damnably unfair. The beast who had wreaked destruction and pain wherever he went lived, while her brother, the last of the Jedi and a noble, kind warrior, was lost to her forever. Tears burned her eyes again. Why couldn't it have been Vader who had suffered that head injury…

Too Onebee entered the room. "The visitor limit is four. I must ask one of you to leave."

"But there's four of us," protested Wedge.

"A fifth has requested permission to see Skywalker," the droid replied. "Darth Vader."

Chewie snarled.

"Vader?" Wedge repeated, shocked. "Why in the galaxy would he want to see Luke?"

Han looked at Leia. "Wedge was… is one of Luke's closest friends, Leia. He should know."

Leia nodded. "Wedge… Luke is my brother."

Wedge's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Then this is a deeper loss than I first thought…"

"There's more. Vader… Vader is Luke's father."

Wedge nodded. "I know."

Leia blinked, surprised. "You know?"

"Luke talks in his sleep," Wedge explained. "One night I got up to use the 'fresher, and I heard him saying something about Vader and his father, ending with 'Ben, why didn't you tell me?' I never told anyone, and I never treated him any differently for the knowledge." His gaze moved to the silent form on the bed, then hardened as it moved to the doorway. "But Vader hasn't exactly been a stellar father, has he? Why would he want to see Luke now?"

"There is no reason why he cannot enter," Too Onebee pointed out. "He is a blood relation. And there will be guards at the door for your protection." He paused, calculating. "Under these circumstances, I shall overlook the four-visitor limit. You may enter, Vader."

A hiss of breath, a whirr of a repulsorchair's anti-grav…

The Dark Lord was not quite as she remembered him. No proud, intimidating warlord here – this was a man wounded and broken in more ways than one. Leia could tell that any movement caused him pain, and there was something about the slump of his shoulders that indicated that he, too, was deeply grieved by Luke's death.

Vader didn't look at any of them, only maneuvered the repulsorchair to Luke's side. With a trembling black-sheathed hand, he brushed back the hair that covered his forehead.

"My son…" he murmured.

"Don't touch him," Han ordered sharply.

Vader drew his hand back slowly. "I intend no harm."

"If you haven't noticed, we don't exactly trust you," Wedge informed him.

Vader's gaze never left Luke's face. "I did not come here expecting trust or sympathy. I came to see my son. As his father, am I not allowed that right?"

"You were never his father," Leia snapped, the agony she felt finding an outlet at last. "He might be your offspring, but you were never a true father. Why, all of a sudden, do you want to be a father to him now?"

Vader trembled as if her words had been a physical blow, and she regretted the outburst immediately.

"You're right," he acknowledged. "I have never been a father. Until a few years ago, I did not even know I had a child. My wife… Luke's mother… died many years ago. And I believed the child she carried had died with her. But when I learned that a young Skywalker existed, one the exact age as Padme's child would have been… I was determined to find him."

Padme… Bail had once told Leia that her mother's name had been Padme…

"I loved Luke. I never wanted to hurt him. I will never forgive myself for cutting off his hand on Bespin. And I will never stop hating the memory of the Emperor for convincing me that the only way to see my son again was to turn him to the dark side." His gloved fingers closed around Luke's hand. "After I killed the Emperor, I wanted nothing but death. It was the only fate I deserved. But Luke would have none of it. He practically dragged me into a shuttle and belted me in. He saved me… he saved my soul from the Emperor… and he saved me from death…"

Those great shoulders shuddered, and he lowered his head in shame. "My son… why didn't you listen? I told you to leave me… my life was not worth yours…"

Leia stared, uncomprehending, at Vader as his words sank in. He loved Luke. As impossible as the notion seemed, it was true. And he had never wanted Luke to sacrifice himself for Vader's sake.

Chewie was the first to move. He stepped forward, growled something, and placed a massive paw on Vader's shoulder.

"He says he's sorry," Han said quietly. A pause as the pirate wrestled with himself, then, "I'm sorry too."

Vader didn't look up, but he did nod. "Thank you."

Leia knelt beside Vader, keeping her gaze upon Luke's face. "He would have wanted you here. I know it."

"He wasn't the type to hold a grudge," Wedge added quietly.

Slowly, Leia, Han, and Wedge began to open up, sharing observations on Luke's character, recounting stories and memories. Vader mostly listened, absorbing the information like a sponge, determined to learn all he could of his son's life.

And during that time, Leia found it very hard to hate him.

Break…

Far away, in a seldom-visited glade deep in the Naboo forests, Luke and Obi-wan stood before a stone marker. A cluster of blossoms had been hewn into the granite, and etched into the stone beneath the flowers were the words "Padme Naberrie Amidala, daughter, sister, Senator, Queen, friend, mother."

"The last was added at my insistence," Obi-wan informed Luke. "Her family did not want it included, as they believed the babies had perished with her, but I convinced them that, simply because the children had never been born, it did not mean she wasn't a mother." He smiled sadly. "I often think back on that terrible day and wonder if there is something I could have done differently… but I think nothing I could have done could have changed it."

Luke knelt before the grave marker, silent, contemplative. He and Obi-wan had spent hours here as the Jedi Master had told Luke the entire story of Anakin Skywalker's fall. It had quite surprised Luke to learn that it had not been hunger for power itself that had convinced him to choose the dark side. The power he had sought had merely been a means to an end – saving a life. Vader had acted despicably, yes, but he had acted out of love, not selfishness or greed.

"It had been my hope," Obi-wan said suddenly, "that you would carry on the Jedi tradition once the Sith were abolished. But there is little you can do now, I'm afraid."

Luke gazed up at Obi-wan. "Are you sure there's no way to heal me?"

Obi-wan shook his head. "Palpatine was lying to your father when he said there was a way to keep people from dying. If there is a means for the Force to preserve life, it has yet to be discovered." He placed a hand on Luke's shoulder. "I have spoken with Yoda, and it has been decided that there is some guidance you can provide beyond the veil. However, another will be needed to ensure the Order lives on."

"Leia?"

"She would be the most logical choice. But she is untrained. She needs a mentor."

Luke sucked in his breath. "You'll have Father train her?"

"It is the only way, Luke. Vader… no, I suppose it's Anakin now… Anakin is the last Jedi. It is up to him now to resurrect the Order."

Luke's gaze moved back to the grave. "Father's so badly hurt, though…"

"Quite right. His internal organs are severely damaged. His heart and lungs were crippled during our duel on Mustafar, and shrapnel pierced his liver during the crash that killed you. He is very weak now, and will probably die if nothing is done."

Obi-wan was hinting at something, Luke knew. There was something Luke had to do, but he wasn't going to tell him. He was going to let him figure it out for himself. Furrowing his brow, he considered…

"I think I know what to do," Luke replied. "The problem will be getting everyone to agree to it."

Obi-wan nodded. "Then go, Luke. Talk to Leia. She will handle the rest."

Luke stood, embraced his mentor thankfully, and was gone.