'Regeneratation' (Chapter Two)
by Ennon
Disclaimers: Same as before
A/N- The thought occured to me while watching ROTS that since everything else Palpatine said and did to Anakin would prove to be a lie and deception, wouldn't it be possible the even Vader's trademark armor and machinery was for Palpatine's benefit instead of Vader's? In this piece I'm exploring that possibility.
Only the fact that daylight weakly shined through the ceaseless storms of the watercovered Kamino's clouds indicated that night had ended and morning had arisen.
"Luke, don't tell me you slept here all night?" Leia sighed as she re-entered the Cloning Tank Colliseum and found Luke asleep on the florr next to Anakin's bacta tank with all theother tanks shattered thanks to Anakin's fury over finding out that Palpatine had been responsible for Shmi's torture for the purpose of luring HIM to the Dark Side.
"I wanted to be here, in case Father woke up in the night," Luke explained while Leia put the blanket on him she'd carried from her own Kamino guest quarters-having already suspected her brother would sleep on the floor.
"I hope he appreciates what. ."Leia started to say.
"Good morning, Children!" Anakin exclaimed to both Luke and Leia's thoughts via the Force.
"Father?" Leia exclaimed with a gasp- simultaneously curious yet apprehensive of their new interaction and his deformed , prematurely-aged, physique floating in the tank with only ventilation and nutrient tubes linking him to the outside.
"Daughter, you don't know how much I wish could make right all the harm I've done to you and all those you loved, " Anakin said via the Force to her.
"I'm not going to pretend to be totally aghast at Han's viewpoint or totally agreeing with Luke's," Leia started to say aloud.
" I know. It would be arrogant and foolish of me to expect instant and total forgiveness of what I've done," Anakin groaned via the Force.
"However, to best preserve everything what my fah. .adoptive father Bail and my mother stood for, I'm hoping you can be healed in body and we can all be healed in spirit as soon as possible," Leia choked while she kissed her hand then extended it and warmly patted her hand to the spot in the tank where his scarred right facial cheek was visible and looked directly into his still intense blue eyes thru the transparent tank wall.
"Thank, you, Leia. Your kind wish will help me through this time," Anakin proclaimed through the Force.
"Aren't you going to stay with me and Father?" Luke asked.
" You two will be in my thoughts constantly but I must return to Endor soon so we can safely establish the New Republic with as little anarchy and chaos as possible," Leia sincerely replied.
"And you also need some time to sort everything out, My Daughter," Anakin conveyed to both Leia and Luke via the Force.
"Thanks for not holding my lack of instant bonding against me," Leia quietly said with a sigh.
"No offense but Luke's your mother's son in that capacity but you're more my daughter," Anakin wryly laughed via the Force.
Although not entirely comforted by that phrase, Leia sincerely gave a small smile at that.
"Fah. .ther, can you promise to teach me how to send verbal thoughts through the Force when next we meet? It would save me from having to shout and repeat myself so much with Han," Leia wryly laughed.
"What is it about you and your mother and scoundrels anyway?" Anakin laughed via the Force, as Leia gently kissed her hand then pressed the transparent tank wall again.
"Must you go?" Luke asked.
Leia nodded.
"Don't try to force her, Son. She has to find her own path. Besides, we have all the time we need here but she'd be missed soon," Anakin proclaimed via the Force.
"That's right! Everyone thinks me and Father perished on the 2nd Death Star," Luke exclaimed with a snap of his fingers.
"I've already sworn Chewie and Han to secrecy about you two. I know I can trust Chewie to honor that pledge and Han knows he'd never hear the end of it from me if he didn't," Leia wryly laughed while hugging Luke.
"May the Force be with you, Daughter," Anakin exclaimed via the Force as Leia warmly walked away to find her way back to Han and the Falcon.
A few hours later, the Kaminoan female doctor made her way back to Cloning Colliseum.
"Oh, dear! I thought we'd lightning-proofed the tanks," the Kaminoan doctor gasped.
"Sorry about the mess," Luke groaned.
"Tell her from me that I'll repair it as soon as I'm restored," Anakin whispered to Luke via the Force.
"How!" Luke started to say.
"It's a very involved process but. .." the Kaminoan doctor started to say.
"Sorry, I just wanted to say that my compatriot and I would take care of them," Luke gulped.
"That's very nice of you. It's not that we need the funds but since our Coruscant patron quit using us some years back, we've not been able to put our skills to good use and none of us want to rust," the Kaminoan doctor groaned.
"If you're successful with my compatriot, we'll see to it that you have all the skill practice you can want for quite some time," Luke proclaimed.
"How?" Anakin asked Luke via the Force.
"No shortage of Imperial and Rebel soldiers and civilians maimed and deformed by this war," Luke replied to Anakin via the Force.
"I'm sorry to tell you that what we need to do next will likely be quite painful for your compatriot but it's necessary," the Kaminoan doctor sighed.
"What?" Luke asked (along with Anakin to Luke via the Force).
" To harvest the healthy skin, muscle, tendon and bone cells needed to regrow the damaged, we'll have to . .. SKIN him," the Kaminoan doctor gulped.
"Remember, through the Light Side there's healing! Hold onto it, Father! I'm here with you until it's over!" Luke proclaimed via the Force while both he and Anakin took deep breaths and gritted their teeth while the team of Kaminoan doctors and medical droids extracted him from the bacta tank with robotic pulleys and then carefully lasered off every milimeter of flesh on him before putting Anakin into a new solution.
"Luke, I don't know how anyone withOUT the Force and your guidance could endure this without going insane," Anakin groaned to Luke via the Force after it was over.
"Why is he in that large fleshy bag?"Luke asked the Kaminoan doctor as they finished adjusting the last of the monitors while also observing all manners of tubing popping out of the fleshy bag as well.
"It's a womb of sort- grown from his own skin. It will protect him in the solution until the bones, tendons, muscles and skin are all regrown. I must warn you that it should take a month for all that to occur and then he'll need physical therapy," the Kaminoan doctor explained.
"Luke, I'd rather you not stare at this now. How about asking her if you could test out some of the physical therapy equipment?" Anakin asked Luke via the Force.
"But I want to be with you," Luke pleaded via the Force.
"You always ARE with the Force- especially at this close range. We can talk with it while you try out the equipment I'll be using," Anakin explained via the Force.
So, for the next month Luke swam in the pool, climbed the rope wall, ran around the track, used the weight lifting equipment and did many acrobatic feats with and without the Force while practicing some of Yoda's exercises the Old Master had been taught- all the while he and Anakin talked about many things via the Force. Faster than anyone expected, the sonograms revealed all the stumps growing full-scale limbs. Then the day came in which the sensors indicated that the regrowth of all those bones, tendons, muscles and skin cells was complete and Anakin was ready to emerge from the solution and the fleshy bag.
As Anakin inside the fleshy bag was finally lifted from the solution tank by the medical droids and placed on the table.
"Instead of them just lasercutting you out. Father, may I?"Luke asked as he took out his green lightsabre.
"Can a Jedi ask for a better birth than this?" Anakin laughed via the Force as Luke carefully cut a cross into the layer of the fleshy bag atop the region of Anakin's head while Anakin closed his eyes until it was over.
"I LOVE PADMÉ!" Anakin shouted at the top of his lungs in triumph as he opened his eyes and pulled apart the fleshy bag with his strong left arm then eagerly felt the top of the scalp which had thick blond hair for first time in decades and then felt his for his two legs that were once again flesh, tendon and bone and happily put on the pair of shorts the medical droid handed him as he flailed on the examination table then, felt the stomach which no longer had a feeding tube attached and lastly his RIGHT arm with his left hand.
Everyone in the room was quite astonished at what they saw. Not only did Anakin now have smooth, flawless, unscarred skin, well-defined muscles over his torso and restored limbs and a full head of blond hair but. .
"Sir, didn't you say your compatriot is 45-years-old?" the lead female Kaminoan doctor gulped.
"Yeah, "Luke said in astonishment.
"But he couldn't be more than 20, 21. Maybe 22 at the very most," the Kaminoan doctor gulped.
Anakin turned away from the full length mirror in front of the tank.
"Father, don't be afraid to look. You won't frighten anyone anymore!" Luke exclaimed- as Anakin slowly turned back around then touched his nose while watching his reflection do the same and then did the same with every single facial feature before running his fingers through his once-again thick hair.
"What can I say, doctor but THANK YOU! You've done an EXCELLENT JOB!" Anakin boomed- as he had an ear-to-ear grin at the sound of his OWN voice intact again.
"Well, he was about 22 when he lost his limbs," Luke hypothesized.
"But every other patient of all species we've tried this procedure on has emerged their actual physiological age ," the head female Kaminoan doctor explained.
"Perhaps, I'm like a Tatooine frog. Every see one of those after a rainstorm, Luke?" Anakin asked.
"Yeah, when I was about nine it rained a few hours and those frogs emerged," Luke recalled.
"Their skin's as dry as the desert itself and they appear totally lifeless if one happens to dig one up-but when there's a rare rain, they emerge, mate, lay eggs in runoff ponds then, if the ponds last the three weeks eggs grow to fullterm, they join their parents and burrow their way into the mud for up to 100 years until the next rain! Maybe I had just needed a special rain to re-emerge into my own skin after all that time in my own desert!" Anakin explained to the stunned doctors.
A/N- Here on Earth, there actually ARE frogs in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico that live the way Anakin described being dormant up to 20 years in the dry ground- and plants have been grown from seeds found in archaeological sites thousands of years old.
"Maybe it was a defense against Palp. .. that person's energy drain, "Luke pondered.
"The midclorinians outflanked after all," Anakin couldn't help but smirk.
"I feel my right arm, hand and fingers- as well as my left legs, feet and toes but why don't I feel like I can control them?"Anakin asked in frustration as the three limbs involuntarily flailed around.
"If what your compatriot says is true, your brain has spent so many years not responding to those parts that it's lost its capacity to control their functions. However; with intense physical therapy, they should be regained within a month," the head Kaminoan doctor explained.
" Oh, that's fine! I've got the best trainer I could ask for!" Anakin proclaimed as he hugged Luke with his left arm.
That night, Luke was asleep in a Kaminoan guest room for the first time since their arrival, and Anakin was taking in the feel of bedsheets in a bed for the first time in decades.
"Well, you've regained your limbs. Planning on using them for the good this time?" Obi-Wan's Ghost with a blue aura asked.
"Wha. .? You were old when . ..I killed you. Why do you look like you did right before Mustafar?" Anakin asked.
"!We Force Ghosts have our own appearances that mortals can't even imagine but we can appear in whatever stage of life we choose to those Force wielders we knew in our lives," the ghostly Obi-Wan explained.
"Why have you come here?" Anakin asked- not without some apprehension.
" Oh, to congratulate you," the ghostly Obi-Wan explained.
"Congratulate me? But it was Luke who believed I could be healed- even in spirit," Anakin said in awe.
"Yes, we owe Luke a great deal," the ghostly Obi-Wan sighed.
"Including not giving into you and comitting patricide. Where would the Light Side be had he done that?" Anakin laughed and pointed.
"Anakin, I wanted to destroy what you'd become and I didn't think there was any possibility that the man I'd loved as a brother still existed," the ghostly Obi-Wan sighed.
" I know. I didn't think so either. I sure didn't want to think so. I thought the Dark Side gave me power but it just drained and destroyed,"Anakin conceded.
"My heart was broken when you screamed you hated me in Mustafar," Obi-Wan recalled.
" It broke MY heart to scream it even though I meant it! The truth was too painful to see. I'm sorry," Anakin sniffed.
"For killing me?" Obi-Wan laughed.
"Yes, of course! Why are you laughing? You hardly EVER laughed," Anakin gasped.
"Because if you hadn't done that, there's a good chance Luke would have just considered me an Old Fossil and not listened to me either instead of wanting to learn the ways of the Force's Light Side," Obi-Wan explained.
" I wanted you to feel my pain that I felt when I lost my limbs," Anakin sobbed.
"I know," the ghostly Obi-Wan sighed.
"And I wanted to trample on your remains with my robotic legs but your cloak was as empty as my revenges usually wound up being," Anakin bawled as he actually tried to hug the air where the ghostly Obi-Wan appeared.
" I wish I could have taken that back," the ghostly Obi-Wan consoled.
"Until last month, that would have been my 2nd most ardent wish," Anakin sobbed.
"All because of Luke's presence?" the ghostly Obi-Wan asked.
" A good part of it but now I realize that if you hadn't done that, Palpatine would have done all he could to take over my BODY as thoroughly as he'd done my soul,l," Anakin sobbed.
"I know," the ghostly Obi-Wan quietly consoled.
" I miss and love you like a brother, Master, " Anakin sniffed.
"In time, as satisfying as hearing you call me that. I believe there's someone else who merits that title more than I," the ghostly Obi-Wan proclaimed.
" I know but Luke won't let me call him that," Anakin sighed.
" Nothing to stop you from thinking that, Ani!" the ghostly Obi-Wan proclaimed.
" So good to hear my real name called after hearing the other name used as a curse and a dread by everyone, " Anakin proclaimed.
" I must be going now," the ghostly Obi-Wan proclaimed- as he faded.
"Hurry back! There's so much I want to catch up on with you. If you could send Qui-Gonn, Mace Windu and even Yoda my way, I'd be happy!" Anakin laughed as he stretched himself out in his bed.
Over the next month Anakin relearned to walk, then to run while using his right arm and hand all over as he and Luke trained as though Anakin were in an intergalactic competition. In barely a week, Anakin's physical strength became equal to Luke's so by the time the month was over, it had astonishedly surpassed anyone's expectations.
" I WIN!" Anakin proclaimed as he made it to the platform after he and Luke managed to climb up 100 meters of knotted rope from the gymnasium floor below.
"Let me catch my breath," Luke gasped.
"Shouldn't that be MY line?" Anakin laughed as he banged Luke's back.
"And I thought caring for you as a baby clone would have been trouble, " Luke half-laughed.
" Glad you didn't choose that option."Anakin laughed.
" So many years I dreamed of what it would be like actually talking to my father- then after Bespin, I couldn't imagine HOW I'd talk to you," Luke recalled.
" I know. Whatever happens, these past two months with you along with the time I spent with your mother will give me inspiration, " Anakin proclaimed.
" Well, Father, any questions?" Luke asked.
"Luke, how did you survive your first encounter with me without totally giving into the Dark Side, "Anakin asked pensively .
"Father, I'm not really sure how but I just remembered getting angrier and angrier at you after Ben's. .. You embodied everything I despised and wanted to rid the Galaxy of forever," Luke sighed.
"What changed after I gave you the Big News?" Anakin asked.
"I thought back to that vision in Yoda's cave with my getting my most ardent wish and striking you down in the mask but then seeing MY face in your mask," Luke sighed.
" How I wish I could have seen that mask when I was your age. I'll have to envision Palpatine in his cloak and hood but seeing my ugly,old overboiled egg face inside it when I start to think about what he did to all of us," Anakin sighed.
"No one would ever imagine you were that person now," Luke beamed as he stood next to Anakin on the platform and was amazed at how much taller his father was than he- even factoring in Anakin's bare feet next to Luke's booted height.
"But just like that person carried me, I have to carry the burden of that person and what he did inside me the rest of my life,"Anakin groaned.
"Yes, but I'll help you carry the burden from now on," Luke exclaimed while he and Anakin hugged.
"Well, I promised I'd restore the Kaminoans' fish tanks after my Force tantrum and I mean to keep it," Anakin proclaimed.
"How?" Luke gulped.
"Watch and learn!" Anakin proclaimed as they walked over to the gymnasium's window that overlooked the Cloning Stadium and intensely concentrated.
The billions of transparent tank wall fragments all joined together and Anakin concentrated further and sealed them together via the Force.
"I know it looks like a glass mosaic. I never could do that quite as well as Master Yoda!" Anakin proclaimed.
"But all the seals are intact! We need to get out of here to scream it from the hyperdrive how STRONG the Light Side is!" Luke laughed.
"Ah, but complacency about the strength was where the Sith found the weakest link and broke its chain," Anakin cautioned.
"Shh! It's Leia and Han," Luke said quietly.
"Yes, I knew they were on their way here and they've brought. Nah, it couldn't be. .," Anakin replied quietly.
"How?" Luke gulped.
"You got too easily distracted by rope climbing,Son! Race you DOWN the ropes before they get here," Anakin shouted as they started climbing back down.
"You got it!" Luke exclaimed.
"My Daughter, Luke and I are in the Gymnasium. My appearance has drastically changed since you last saw me. Don't say anything to Solo when you two arrive! Welcome back!" Anakin proclaimed to Leia via the Force.
"Don't worry, Father. You ought to remember how GOOD I am at keeping secrets. Don't be too harsh on, Han," Leia replied via the Force.
"I won't but I'm going to have my fun!" Anakin laughed outloud (and via the Force).
"What are you. ..?" Luke asked as they made their way down.
"Nothing harmful but I'm not ALL good either, "Anakin said with a raised eyebrow.
"Whoa! Nobody told me Weirdoville had its own lake-sized pool!" Han proclaimed as he started to take off his boots and socks and shed his clothes to his shorts.
"Han, I think we should at least ask," Leia sighed.
"If it's okay by Luke, it's okay by me," Anakin shrugged.
"Sure!" Luke laughed.
"Great! I'm in! I see the water polo goals are set up. How about we play a game, Stretch?" Han laughed as he dove into the pool then pointed at Anakin.
"Stretch?" Anakin, Luke and Leia asked.
"Sure! Luke's the Kid but Stretch towers over him and he's gotta be Luke's and your cousin or somethin'! " Han proclaimed as he happily shook extended his right hand.
"Actually, it's. ." Luke started to say.
"Stretch will do for now. May I call you Han?" Anakin proclaimed- as he extended his own restored right hand and shook Han's hand.
" He sure didn't get his manners from your Pop's side!" Han laughed while pointing to Luke.
"You'd be sur. .." Luke started to say.
" Whatever. Why don't you two get out of those clothes and join the game?" Han asked.
"Han, we have to meet my father," Leia sighed barely containing herself from laughing but Anakin and Luke caught it.
"Shoot, he can wait! Stretch'll put in a good word to his Uncle Eggface, eh?" Han laughed.
"You won't have to worry about . ..'Uncle Eggface'!" Anakin nearly choked while trying not to burst out laughing.
"You don't have to play," Luke tried to caution Anakin.
"Oh, no. I think it would be even MORE fun than playing against you!" Anakin laughed as he jumped in the pool in his shorts.
"Don't be so tough on the Kid. He's too gullible. An easy win!" Han laughed.
"You think?" Anakin asked.
" Yeah, let's get to the game!" Han proclaimed.
The two of them played a vigorous game of water polo for the next hour when. . .
"How'd ja score 40 goals in 60 minutes to my 6, Stretch? You must have been playing since you were a tadpole," Han gasped.
"No, I did a little when I was . .. training but hadn't really played until the last two weeks," Anakin replied.
" Well, no hard feelings. You're cool in my book! Great game, Stretch!" Han beamed-as they climbed out of the pool.
"Thank you, Han. You don't know what that means to me," Anakin said doing all he could to keep from laughing.
"Didja see my microchip . It's in your ear! Psyche 'em" Han laughed as he extracted a microchip he'd hidden in Anakin's ear.
"You're full of surprises," Anakin wryly laughed.
"And the microchip in the ear fools the Kid EVERY time," Han laughed.
"You're something else, " Anakin laughed.
"Yeah, if ya can't outsmart 'em, psyche 'em- that's my motto!" Han shrugged.
At that Anakin sprang his legs like springs and bounced on his hands- making sure Luke and Leia were behind Han, then bounced back on his feet, then repeated the process about ten times in five seconds until he was ten meters away from Han then used the Force to extract Han's blaster from his belt and hoist it into midair then Anakin used the Force to pull the blaster's trigger causing it to fire four rounds which he used his right palm to deflect the first one via the Force, then jumped up to use his left bare foot sole to deflect the second one via the Force, then jumped up to use his left palm to deflect the third blast via the Force, then finally jumped up and used his right bare foot sole to deflect the fourth blast- all in just under four seconds!
"And MY motto is you never get another chance to make a First Impression!" Anakin laughed while using the Force to yank Han's suspended gun from mid air to his right hand. .
"You're. .. you're. .. you're the. .you're the. .?" Han shuddered.
"Old ,ugly, stumpy egghead? Yep! I WAS!" Anakin declared as he sent Han's blaster back into its holster on Han's belt in his pile of clothes by the pool side.
"Allow me., Han, this is Anakin Skywalker," Luke started to say.
"OUR father!" Luke and Leia said together while getting on both each side of him.
"Could I lay down or have something to eat," Han gulped.
"Father, you were brilliant! About time someone called Han on his microchip trick!" Luke laughed while mussing Han's hair.
" That was FUN! If only your mother could have. .." Anakin started to sigh.
" But I DID and I agree with Luke's assesment!" 50-year-old Padmé Amidala Skywalker proclaimed.
Padmé was in white coveralls and boots with her hair in braids. While she had a few squint lines and a few grey strands, she could have easily passed for 35 and was still quite an attractive woman.
"My Angel!"Anakin declared.
"Mama!" Luke gulped as the two of them started running towards her open arms.
" I thought you were dead. Palpatine told me I'd killed you! I TOLD him I'd felt your presence," Anakin sobbed as he embraced her and lifted her off the floor.
"I'll explain about what I did and why I did it over dinner. Right now I want to reunite with my two favorite men!" Padmé beamed.
"What about me? I'm the one who. .?" Han whined.
" Thanks for bringing Leia and me here and we all should thank Mon Mothma for telling Leia where I was," Padmé exclaimed while Anakin and Luke both hugged her dearly.
"You sure DO know how to keep a secret, Daughter" Anakin half-laughed and half-sobbed.
"Let's all join Chewie, Artoo and Threepio for that banquet the Kaminoans are throwing for us!" Leia proclaimed.
"But I'm not dressed, " Anakin gasped.
"You're just FINE to me!" Padmé beamed.
"And you're the most beautiful being in the Galaxy inside and out- always WILL be!" Anakin declared as he kissed her on the lips before taking her hand and walking with her away from the pool.
"Look out, Galaxy! The Skywalkers are BACK!" Luke beamed.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Han whined as he walked behind the reunited family.
A/N- MissNave- Glad you think this a great start and hope the wait wasn't too long.
jacskellington666- Glad you think it's great and happy you REALLY like it, I hope this update was soon enough but I must warn you all that the next one may not be for at least another week. Life happens.