A/N: Happy New Year! I hope you all had safe & joyous Holidays. Now, on to the show…

Chapter 21: The Eternal Light, Part II

"Father, help me- please!" Luke moaned in agony.

In her solitary chamber, Padmé gasped as she abruptly felt Anakin's torment.

It was like a fist to the stomach and she could hardly take a breath. Something was terribly wrong. She could actually sense Anakin's feelings, something that had not happened in a long, long while. She then knew that Anakin had to decide something that would change the course of Fate. He was torn. She was buffeted with his anguish. She was terribly anxious; would he make the right choice?

Anakin, don't do this; Luke is our son!

She had to find him. And when she found her husband, she would find Luke.

For the first time unescorted, she exited her chamber and used her senses to find Anakin. It was the only thing she could rely on at this point. She knew she could find him as she fled down the corridor and let her feelings guide her path.

Time was running out… for all of them.

x x x x

The glow from the deadly bolts of blue fire reflected off of his dark mask and helmet.

Darth Vader impassively watched the Emperor torture his own son. Luke twisted on the floor in pain as the Sith lightning seemed to make the blood boil inside him. The Emperor's pale face twisted with sick pleasure.

Outwardly, Vader seemed completely immune to Luke's agony. But inside, he was far from serene. His gut twisted and he tasted a metallic bitterness in his mouth. He had bitten down on his own tongue.

Padmé…I can not let her down again.

He remembered her dark liquid eyes. Those eyes that had only recently looked at him in horror, anger, and pity…the eyes that had also looked at him, so long ago, with passion and love. Luke was a product of that love…their love.

Luke is my son…our son!

Vader knew then that could not let their son die. He moved swiftly.

He picked up the Emperor. The lightning moved from Luke and instead engulfed him. Anakin, who could neither produce Sith lightning nor protect himself from it due to having lost both arms, was engulfed in unbearable pain.

Anakin!

Padmé's voice echoed in her husband's head as he held on to the last threads of consciousness through the searing pain.

x x x x

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

Padmé felt a lightning bolt of agony slice through her and she collapsed face down on the floor of the corridor, struggling to breathe. She forced herself up. She had to continue; Anakin was suffering and she had to find him.

He needed her.

x x x x

Anakin had quickly grasped the Emperor from behind and hoisted the warped creature high above his head. The flashing blue streams now engulfed Anakin's form and shorted out his life support system and broiled the scarred flesh attached to the metal limbs. He used all the strength he had left and threw the Emperor down the bottomless reactor shaft.

Mortally wounded, he collapsed backward as his former Master was incinerated with an intense blast of energy. Anakin's breathing, heard through his voice projector, was now weak and irregular.

Luke, still weakened from the life draining Sith lightning, forced himself to his feet and rushed to his injured father's side. He could not believe what had just happened. He was sure that he was going to die. Now it was over. They could leave this place.

Still conscious, Anakin could hear the Death Star's howling warning claxons and realized that evacuation procedures were now engaged. The Rebel attack on the space station must have been a success. Luke had to find Padmé and escape immediately. Anakin, his voice breathless and weak, tried to speak clearly through his mask.

"My Son, you must leave...there is not much time…"

x x x x

There was panic on the Death Star as all hands rushed to the escape pods. It was utter pandemonium as Padmé made her way against the swarming throng to Anakin.

Padmé…

Padmé fell to her knees and cried out as intense pain shot through her body. She had heard his wounded voice in her head.

"Anakin," she whispered, when she could get her breath back. She sensed that something was horribly wrong. He was gravely injured. He was in agony.

Anakin is hurt! He's suffering.

Her eyes went wide with terror.

He's dying.

She had to find him. She pushed herself off the floor and onto her feet. She could not fail him!

Padmé…

Anakin was calling out to her again through the Force. She was frantic to locate him.

There was not much time left.

­x x x x

Vader called out breathlessly to Luke: "Your Mother…Padmé…"

Luke now knew the name of the sad, beautiful woman who had saved him on Cloud City…his Mother. Luke crouched beside his Father, distressed and uncertain. He broke out in a cold sweat.

Where was she? How will I find her?

He was in a real quandary; if he left now, his Father might die alone. But if he didn't find her-he turned and saw Padmé approaching. Her eyes were grave as if she knew what was soon to happen. Luke was completely puzzled.

How did she know?

Anakin, struggling to sit up, held his left hand out to Padmé as she approached. She grasped it tightly and knelt down at his side, wrapping her arms tightly around him and bringing him close to her. She no longer feared that frightening mask. Anakin turned his focus back to his son.

"Luke…let me look at you with my own eyes," Anakin's words were in dispersed with a sickly irregular breathing. Luke turned back to his Father, incredulous.

"But you will die without your mask."

The voice projector's harsh monotone replied: "Nothing can stop that, now..."

Padmé continued to hold Anakin as Luke began to unmask his father.

Luke leaned in close, removed the helmet and placed it at his side.

Padmé held her husband to her as the hiss of the mask's seal opened and revealed Anakin's pale marred visage. The dreadful scars were now visible and the toll that the Dark Side of the Force had taken on Anakin could now be seen. He had aged considerably and his features were twisted with his suffering, but his eyes, at once sad and so full of love, were the bright blue that Padmé remembered so well.

Padmé held Anakin closer, tears streaming down her face.

"My poor Ani…" She pressed her lips to his pale, mottled head and held him in a tight embrace. Anakin's eyes fluttered closed as he savored her touch.

At last.

He did not want it to end. But it would soon have to.

Anakin opened his eyes and turned his tender gaze to his son. Luke could see his Father trying to smile; he was struggling.

"You must go now…" Gasping, Anakin's face twisted with worry. He knew there was not much time left for them to escape.

"No, Father, I'm not leaving without you. I'm going to save you!"

"You have already have…" Anakin eyelids fluttered; he was fading, but with his last breath, he wanted Luke to know something very important.

"…You were right about me, Luke" he began in a breathless whisper, "…t-tell your sister…tell Leia…you were right…"

With that said, Anakin's eyes rolled back into his head, his body went limp, and his spirit joined the Force.