' Last Eyewitness' (Chapter Eight)
By Ennon
A/N- Here come the reviews(and I hope that those writing about previous chapters catch up to this to read these):
Sitaan(re #1)- Yep, Han sure WAS but would this story have been as entertaining had there not been a doubting Thomas here- and don't worry Anakin wouldn't be the only one who'd change for the better here but I've tried to keep both of them as in character as possible throughout.
Skywalking- (re#6)- Glad you really liked this and I guess you don't consider Anakin being a drama queen a bad thing. Well, glad you thought he was right re Palpatine and thought General Rexler's attempt to force choke HIM was funny. Happy you thought this chapter great.
Doreenthatshot-(#7)- Happy that you consider this interesting but, no that wasn't the actual end- but, you might say, it was the end of the beginning (Hint: there are clues in the text as well as this story's title).
Raijan (#7)- I'm gratefulyou consider this marvelous. Interesting suggestions but I'm not ending this just yet(and don't worry, I'm not going to get into crap at least what I consider crap. I'm very happy you believe that, so far, it's the best Star Wars story you've read. I hope you like the next part coming up.
CHAPTER BEGINS:
Anakin marced right past the mirrors of the refresher after he changed into his training trunks. It used to be that he'd avoid mirrors' glares so he wouldn't be repulsed by what he'd become inside Vader's Suit. However; for a time after his face and body were restored and then honed to physical perfection through intensive training, he couldn't stop looking in mirrors and admire. But, for some time now, he didn't bother to look anymore for he knew all too well how unchanged it had become.
For some two hours, he was doing backflips underwater in the Training Temple's basement pool of Yavin Four's New Jedi Temple Complex. Nothing had changed in so long and he had been too restless to sleep. Water had always been considered a precious commodity to him as a child in the desert world of Tatooine so when Padmé first returned his love, he learned to swim like a fish in Naboo's waters so he could feel surrounded by its luxury and her essence. Then he was shut out of that for so long by Vader's hated suit. However; since Anakin had his body restored, he couldn't get enough of it! Now, it was a means to find solace and to silently commune with. . .
Anakin was upside down on his 2nd completely underwater backflip when he sensed something- and looked through the 3 meters of water overhead to see an image. Someone was wearing Vader's hated black Mask and running around the pool platform brandishing Anakin's blue Jedi lightsabre that he'd left in his utility belt with his other clothes. Anakin swam up so abruptly, he felt something drop from his neck. He couldn't lose it, so at the last possible second, he felt for and grabbed it with his left toes and was able to stretch his left leg over to replace it over his neck right before he sprang straight out of the water and landed on the platform next to this somewhat shorter and much younger opponent.
"The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet!" the opponent (wearing a tunic top ,pajama bottoms and slippers) exclaimed as he ran towards Anakin- dropping his voice an octave and making those breathing sounds with his mouth.
Anakin immediately used the Force to yank his blue lightsabre from his opponent's right hand into his own.
"Kit! You think what Our Founder and I have been teaching you is a joke?" Anakin shouted.
"Pops, take it easy!" 10-year-old a New Jedi Progeny named Kit Banai laughed.
"The Dark Side and the Sith are nothing to play with. We keep that Mask in the case along with Our Founder's Metal Hand as reminders of what can be lost if we give into the Dark Side!" Anakin fumed- as he pulled off Vader's Mask that Kit's much smaller head was swimming inside.
"I don't know why you think it's so bad. It's kind of fun to talk like that and startle people from inside the mask," Kit laughed.
"Suppose your Nana or any of your other ancestors heard you talk like that?" Anakin gasped.
"But things sure turned out well from you and it didn't do you any harm," Kit scoffed.
"No harm? If it weren't for the Light Side, it's too horrible. ." Anakin gasped.
"Yeah, yeah," Kit snorted.
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this but you leave me no choice. You think the Dark Side's fun? Let me show you how FUN it can be!" Anakin fumed as he put Vader's Mask back on Kit while placing his own hands over the temple area of it.
"I can't breathe! My limbs constantly hurt but I only feel stumps! I only feel sadness and only anger can stop it! I have to keep doing bad things to bury other bad things! There's no hope or anything good for me! Take it off! I can't stand it!" Kit started to sob while Anakin showed him images and feelings that he'd had as Vader.
"I knew you'd be smarter in a minute than I was in 20 years," Anakin groaned as he knelt down hugged Kit to him.
" But does the Dark Side always lead to. ..?" Kit sniffed.
"No, not always, but is it worth risking that?" Anakin asked as he lifted the boy's chin upwards.
"I guess not," Kit sighed.
"Why did you feel tempted anyway? Someone do you wrong?" Anakin asked.
"I worked all week on the Lightsabre Dual Drill with Norcot- and he was plain lazy and let me do all the work then took all the credit and Master Crobor believed him because he's better at Jedi Mind Tricks,"Kit groaned.
"So you thought playing with the Dark Side and using its hated relics as toys would work to your advantage," Anakin sighed.
"Well, yeah but it's not fair that I should do all that work and get none of the credit," Kit said angrily.
" As Master Qui-Gonn said that what's more important is that you know you what the truth is than it is to outflank your opponent. Lies will catch up and do their own damage soon enough," Anakin recalled.
"Are you sure?" Kit snapped."
"The Light Side with truth and calmness will give you contentment instead of resentment. It's long past midnight and you should be asleep," Anakin insisted.
"So should YOU!" Kit snapped.
"You're right but you're a growing boy while I. ." Anakin half-laughed.
"Kit, what are you doing with that. .. beetle head?" 60-year-old Padmara Skywalker Banai gasped with white-streaked brown hair and in a nightgown and robe asked.
"I was playing but. ..Pops… Jedi Anakin taught me a lesson anyway, Nana," Kit sighed.
"And you used the Force to break into the display case so it wouldn't alarm. Very impressive skills but for a bad purpose. You go to bed this instant and I'll decide your punishment tomorrow," Padmara sighed.
"I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished but I Shared with him Dark Side Consequences so don't be too harsh," Anakin sighed.
"Pops, he's just a boy. Why. .?" Padmara gasped as she clasped her grandson to her side.
"Some of the best lessons can be learned then," Anakin insisted.
" I suppose you're right. Are you sure there's no change with. .him?" Padmara half-whispered at which Anakin sadly shook his head.
"No," Anakin said in a low voice.
"Kit, I just found out that your big sister Amee and her new husband Vlercot Morgrec just had their baby and they're naming him Luke!" Padmara beamed while hugging both Anakin and Kit.
"So, it's time for all good uncles to get to bed!" Anakin exclaimed after swallowing while mussing up the boy's hair.
"Do you think the news will help?" Padmara asked.
"I'm not sure but I think I'd better tell him in person instead of just us via the Force," Anakin sighed.
"Do you need me to tell everyone else in case. ..?" Padmara started to ask.
"NO! He'll get better! He MUST!" Anakin declared as he stomped the floor hard enough to crack the tile and then marched straight to the sleeping chamber where he knew Luke was- still in his training trunks.
"Son, Padmara's now a great-grandmother and the baby's being named for you!" Anakin whispered as he gently touched Luke's forehead.
A/N- Some EU fanfic events and characters will be mentioned in this part but with my own touches (and, with some names changedfor the better IMO).
"Ben would have been a great-great-grandfather now!" Luke beamed.
"And Kitster Banai would have been a four-times great-grandfather!" Anakin exclaimed.
"Father, if only Mara ,Our Ben, Ben's wife Sabé, and Padmara's husband Wald could have seen. .,"Luke gasped.
" I know," Anakin groaned.
"Is it the 18th?" Luke croaked in a hoarse whisper.
"Luke, what does. .?" Anakin asked in a panic.
"It matters to me! By the Light Side. .swear," Luke pleaded barely able to get the words out.
"Yes, by the Light Side, it's the 18th," Anakin groaned.
"Today, it's been an entire century since I pulled Vader's Mask off from your head!" Luke croaked with some satisfaction while struggling to raise his ancient, gnarled arms and hands out fromatop the sheets
"Please,Son. Don't strain yourself! Don't go now. ." Anakin cried while hugging onto his son.
"That face you make. Look so old to young eyes do I?"Luke gasped.
"You're my son! You can't. ." Anakin gasped.
" Yes, I do! Haven't made it to 900 years but I think I look better than you did 100 years ago," Luke croaked and laughed while painfully coughing.
Luke's blue eyes had cataracts too embedded for even laser surgery to correct and had to see (and hear) via the Force, only had a few stray white hairs on his wrinkled and freckled scalp but a smattering of whiskers on his chin.His teeth were blackened, crooked and had become much smaller. His face was relatively uncreased but had a large number of tiny wrinkles that made his neck virtually invisible so his head almost appeared to pop directly from his sunken, bony and wrinkled chest under his tunic.
"Please, Son. You must get better!" Anakin pleaded- as he quickly lifted the oxygen mask to Luke's face to relieve the coughing.
"Father, I'm one-hundred, twenty-three years old. A good, admirable age to reach, don't you think?" Luke asked- as he breathed more easily.
"Of course!" Anakin exclaimed.
"But, soon, you'll be free of having to worry about tending to these ancient bones," Luke sighed-as he knew that any stranger seeing them would have thoughtAnakin was 22-year-old great-great-grandson instead of his 145-year-old father tending to him.
"Your mother said that about herself fifty years ago but she was my Heart!" Anakin sobbed with fresh tears.
"Mama didn't want you to be alone. She wanted you to remarry and I wouldn't mind half-siblings," Luke gasped.
"When I first saw her at nine, I knew she was the most beautiful creature in the Galaxy inside and out- and her white hair when she left this realm only enhanced that belief when I was ninety-five!"Anakin sighed.
"I know, Father," Luke gasped.
"The last thing she did was hand me the japor snippet I'd made for her so I wouldn't forget what was important," Anakin sobbed as he clutched the still wet snippet around his neck he'd saved from the pool bottom.
"You shouldn't feel bad. You gave her fifty wonderful years after all those years adrift!" Luke beamed as he patted Anakin's hand.
"It was she who gave to all of us! My Angel was the peacemaker. Without her, I'm not sure I could have ever reconciled with Han after Young Anakin and Chewbacca's. .." Anakin gasped.
"You could have. You've always had that ability. You just needed to relearn to use it," Luke gasped.
"Why did the first family I outlived after my revival have to be so precious? His older twins Bail and Shmi had their father's sarcasm but and even your Ben was not unlike. . .me,"Anakin conceded.
A/N- Yes, I know that in the EUs Leia and Han's elder two children are Jacen and Jaina but I detest the names as they evoke no family connections, have no evident meanings and they sound more like their parents were Malibu phonies trying to avoid REAL names so as per this AU where Anakin and Padmé survived to see their grandchildren, I believe their parents would more likely name them for important family members.
"He was a handful alright," Luke gasped while laughing.
"But Young Anakin was the toughest Force wielder of any of them- yet had his Nana Padmé's heart more than the rest. I would have sacrificed myself to save him from those creatures just like Chewbacca did!" Anakin proclaimed.
"I know but Chewie had been Han's only family for so long," Luke conceded.
"That didn't excuse Han from accusing Our Kino of letting Chewbacca die and I was right to tell Han that Chewbacca himself would have been appalled at the idea!" Anakin groaned.
"Kino hated it when you and Han argued- even if you were defending him," Luke recalled.
"Oh, how he had his Nana's heart. How could we have not loved each other at first sight? It's been 77 years and I still miss him. I don't think he'd have grown resentful of. . like the others,"Anakin groaned.
"Chosen One, Dark Lord, Galaxy Liberator, New Jedi Strong Arm and ,for this last century, Ageless One. That's quite a bit for anyone to live up to- or be related to," Luke gasped/chuckled.
"Right as usual, My Son," Anakin sighed.
"Han eventually realized I was- at least with Kino," Luke chuckled.
"I'm glad Han appreciated My Angel's efforts to bring him back into the fold and keeping me from getting tempted to the Dark Side for Kino's sake! And who'd have thought I'd miss the Old Scoundrel these 60 years," Anakin chuckled.
"Just like who would have thought you'd be the peacemaker when I chose Mara?" Luke gasped.
"Can you blame My Angel for not wanting an assassin who'd tried to harm our only son for a daughter-in-law?" Anakin laughed.
"Perhaps not," Luke conceded.
"But poor thing was misguided first by Palpatine, then, after the Force destroyed his spirit, Darth Maul. I knew Darth Maul would try to find a loophole in the Force's Edict having someone ELSE try to do his dirty work without directly contacting any of my family!" Anakin sighed.
"Maul wanted to harm you via her but knew you were too strong in the Force for her to even approach then he came up with the idea of killing ME so you'd be turned back," Luke recalled.
"Instead of your compassion for her being your end, it was hers for you that awakened her from the Dark Side nightmare and proved Maul's end," Anakin beamed while patting Luke's shoulder.
"Just like Palpatine thought my compassion for you would be my end but it was yours for me that was his and re-opened your heart to the Light!" Luke beamed.
"If only more could be re-opened to the Light," Anakin sighed.
"Still hard to believe Mama would, at first, be less willing to give Mara a chance than she did you! She was even more hostile to us marrying than Leia was!" Luke recalled.
"She'd never known Mara before and not wanting to chance a daughter-in-law harming a son's a different matter than reclaiming a husband she'd never stopped loving or hoping would return to the Light," Anakin pondered.
"Funny that it took Mara's pregnancy with Ben to finally convince Mama to love her like she did everyone else,"Luke gasped and laughed.
"My Angel could never bear to see anyone else in pain or agony- and Mara had long proved herself in the Light," Anakin conceded while lifting and hugging Luke's upper torso out of bed to help him breathe.
"You learned from Mama- and from me. Take what you've learned and pass it on," Luke pleaded.
"I don't want that! I want everyone to know you for who you are not just your rep!" Anakin sobbed.
"Father, you used to call Leia your Resilliance!" Luke recalled.
"Even on the First Death Star as angry as I was at her defiance, I admired her loyalty to her cause and unshakable resolve even after so MUCH was taken from her with Alderaan," Anakin sighed.
"It's been 35 years since Leia left the mortal world, yet we've carried on. You can do so without me,too! Besides, we'll all be together in the next realm,"Luke beamed.
"You and me always together?"Anakin asked while Luke very slowly nodded.
"Since I've grown old, I've held you back but now you'll be free!" Luke beamed.
"I don't want THAT kind of freedom! It's too painful to think about," Anakin sniffed.
"Hot tears, I feel from you. Don't be sad, Father. It's the way of the Force," Luke gasped.
"But why you and not for ME? Luke, I'm scared!" Anakin gasped.
"You, the most powerful Force wielder ever in the Galaxy and, likely ,the physically strongest human being, scared? What can you be afraid of?" Luke gasped.
"You've been my Conscious for a century. To everyone else, Vader's become a boogeyman, maybe even a joke but you alone bear witness to how close Vader came to. ." Anakin gasped.
"You'll find your own conscious. A century on the Light Side is a good guide. The Force knows you're still needed here but my work's done," Luke proclaimed.
"I don't want your baby namesake triple-great-grandson to have barely polite interest in you the way his uncle Kit does HIS namesake ancestor," Anakin sighed.
" I used the Force to see you and Kit just now. I'm proud of how you helped him see before he took the Dark Side too casually. It would have been too much for Padmara," Luke sighed.
"The widow of Kitster's youngest great-grandson- and a Nabootanean on her mother's side. Oh, how I wish My Angel could have seen her grow up. She's been a mother to all of us!"Anakin sighed.
"And she actually learned to cook!" Luke weakly laughed.
"The first Skywalker woman to do so since my mother," Anakin laughed.
"Remember how neither Leia or Mara could boil an egg?" Luke wryly laughed.
"And My Angel actually made water scorch when she got near a stove!" Anakin laughed.
"We had to learn ourselves or we'd have starved," Luke recalled.
"I think My Angel wouldhave beenproud to see Padmara grow up- and not just for the cooking!" Anakin sighed.
"What makes you think Mama didn't from the next realm?" Luke weakly laughed.
"Let me feed you some broth, Son! " Anakin pleaded as he brought the spoon up to Luke's ancient,cracked lips.
"No more. It's finished. From being each other's sworn foes to being each other's best friends, I'd say the Force knows what they're doing," Luke gasped.
"Son, I love you!" Anakin sobbed.
"As I do, you, Father. Lift me on my feet one last time," Luke gasped.
"But you haven't stood upright in a dozen. .." Anakin groaned.
"Sing to me that song I used to hear you sing Ben when he was a baby," Luke insisted while Anakin physically carried him out of his bed and placed his ancient,gnarled, rheumatic feet on the floor next to Anakin's youthful,athletic and nearly bulletproof feet while he supported Luke's entire weight and rocked him in his arms.
"I didn't realize you'd… " Anakin gasped.
"Shrunk some more? Father, I never was tall. Took after Mama's side. The song please," Luke sputtered.
"Born of The Angel/
Name Padmé Who
Came Down From the Sky/
And Brought Light to Our Hearts
By the Chaotic Son/
Of the Golden Hearted Skywalker
With the Name of Shmi
A Boy Named Luke
Came Forth From Desert Rock
And From this Templed Moon
With the Guidance of the Spirit
Of Obi-Wan and the Force Itself
He Destroyed the Terror
That Had Shattered Innocent Alderaan
And Brought Hope to Many
So They Could Be Free
He Freed His Worst Foe
Of the Prison Of His Walking Cage
And Together Brought Light
To The Whole Galaxy
"Father, let me hold your Lightsabre one last time," Luke gasped.
"Okay, Son!" Anakin choled as Luke felt the sheath.
"Unsheath it so I can hear its enticing song one more time," Luke gasped while Anakin unsheathed its blue beam.
"Father, I love you. I . .must join. … Ben, Mara, Mama, Leia and the others now but I won't leave you long. I'm sending others. I know what it's like to have a son go befo. .." Luke gasped then died.
"Son! Luke!My True Master! NO!" Anakin screamed- and woke up the entire New Jedi Temple Complex on Yavin Four.
"DAMN YOU, PALPATINE! You knew I was immortal when you tried to take over my body but I'd suffer by having to outlive my entire original family!" Anakin boiled and spat as Luke's mortal remains faded away the way Yoda's had done just barely a century earlier..
"Ani, you know Palpatine's been entirely destroyed for almost a century and it's not how Luke would have wanted you to react," the Spirit of Qui-Gonn pleaded as he became visible.
"Master Qui-Gonn, I'm so afraid of what I might do," Anakin sobbed as he knelt.
"Don't be. You have the Light Side and it will help you through this time," Qui-Gonn's Ghost pleaded.
"I know but how long will I have to be alone in the mortal world?" Anakin sniffed.
"I'm afraid all of us strong in the Force knew of your immortality that when we first encountered you, Chosen One but we knew it would be painful for you to accept the knowledge," Qui-Gonn sighed.
"Oh, twenty years after Kamino, I didn't understand why I wasn't aging and I tried to blame their devises," Anakin sighed.
"They told you that even when you lost limbs and were burned, you'd always had the ability to regrew and regerate any body cells anew but that you had been too constricted by the prosthetics and your own beliefs for your body to attempt it- and their cloning chamber merely let your own cells be free to regenerate the youth and strength inside you'd never actually lost," Qui-Gonn's Ghost recalled.
"Why must I be alone? My dearest descendent the last to go?" Anakin sniffed.
"Why always of yourself must you think?" Yoda's Ghost asked as he became visible.
"Master Yoda," Anakin gulped as he nodded towards the Old Jedi.
"So opposite, Luke and you," Yoda's Ghost laughed.
"Yet, they came together and did many great things all these years that neither could have done alone," Qui-Gonn's Ghost beamed.
"You've seen us together all this time?" Anakin asked.
"Indeed- and I'm anxious to talk to Luke face-to-face, so to speak, now that he's in the nether realm with us. He and I have communed for many decades,"Qui-Gonn's Ghost laughed.
"We've built the New Jedi Order the way I think you'd want it," Anakin beamed.
"A better Founder, we could not have asked for than in Luke," Yoda's Ghost conceded.
"Even with us welcoming attachments and family instead of forbidding them as per the Old Order?" Anakin asked.
"A mistake was made, we concede. But we wanted to spare you and the other Jedi from losing loved ones," Yoda's Ghost sighed.
"Master Yoda, it seems to have always been the Will of the Force that I live for a greatly extended epoch," Anakin started to say.
"Indeed- only fatal blows by Jedi or Sith could have stopped that," Yoda's Ghost sighed.
"But you know what it's like to live 900 years. How could you have done so without attachments? Did you ever wish you'd fallen in love?" Anakin asked.
"What makes you think I never?"Yoda's Ghost groaned.
"Really? What happened? Did she naturally grow old while you stayed young?" Anakin asked.
"Discovered the one I loved, Plageous did and. ." Yoda's Ghost groaned and actually started to cry.
"So it wasn't entirely out of defense that you slew that Sith," Anakin gasped with a start.
"No, Boy Who Destroyed Vader and His Emperor Through Compassion For His Son, it was not. Very close I came to going to the Dark Side. My path, I didn't want any other Jedi to follow," Yoda's Ghost groaned.
"Master Yoda, I pray you've been reunited since. ." Anakin groaned as he hugged Yoda's Ghost.
"What matters to you is to keep following the Light Side and your loved ones who showed you Its Path in the times ahead. Only by that way can you save yourself and so many others during the times ahead," Yoda's Ghost insisted as he straightened up.
"What's going to happen?" Anakin asked with a gasp.
"Too hard to say at this time and, perhaps, better not known but remember Chosen One, that the Force knows you can lead the way for so many- and not just to your son's faith!" Qui-Gonn's Ghost insisted.
"Go, we must to help prepare the way for Luke but we'll be back when needed," Yoda's Ghost insisted as he and Qui-Gonn's Ghosts faded.
"Padmara, Kit,Artoo, everyone, don't be afraid! You can come in!" Anakin pleaded as they entered the room where the New Jedi Founder Luke Skywalker had just died at the age of 123 years in the Year 104 After Yavin.
"Pops, are you sure?" Padmara Skywalker Banai asked while he hugged the dozens of relatives and Jedi who entered the room.
"I won't bite and for his sake- and mine, I intend to watch over you as long as possible! Come on, let's celebrate my son's life the way your great-grandmother Padmé insisted everyone to celebrate hers when it was her time!" Anakin exclaimed with a gulp.
"Pops, are we going to have to cancel the Free Day Fireworks," Kit groaned.
"Kit, how can you think of that after my Grandpa. .." Padmara snapped.
"No,we've had fireworks every Free Day these past 100 years and now your great-great-grandfather Luke's free,too, so he'd want us to celebrate, too!" Anakin gulped- as they left the chamber while Anakin clutched Luke's empty New Jedi tunic.