Only a Dream
You know you are dreaming.
You know this because in the dream you are a man, and everyone calls you Anakin Skywalker. It doesn't matter that in the part of your mind that knows this is a dream you are repeating over and over, "I'm not Anakin Skywalker, I can't be, I can't be..." It doesn't matter that you've renounced him completely. It doesn't matter because no one believes you anyway, and you don't even believe yourself.
There are voices in the dream. They whisper about things hidden and too painful to dwell on. They whisper as though they realize who you are and are trying to conceal themselves. You hear them faintly, but you don't know any of them.
Only that's not true because there is one voice you recognize, or at least you think you do. It's been a lifetime since you heard it, and you don't dare hope that it could be her. You're not sure if you really know her voice, but in a deep part of your soul you know she's always been there. And you are Anakin Skywalker, and she is calling to you through a mist of time and sin and regret.
She's saying she's sorry. She's sorry she wasn't strong enough.
She's sorry she couldn't stay with you.
And in the dream and for real you forgive her because you know it was never her fault things turned out this way. You are Anakin Skywalker, and you did this to yourself.
That truth chokes you, and yet you revel in it. You are glad it is true. The part of you that swears you are not Anakin is rejoicing in your failure, in Anakin's failure. That part of you refuses to believe that he is a part of you. But your fall from grace still hits you as hard as it did the day you betrayed the Jedi, bringing you to your knees as you cry a generation of tears. And though this is only a dream, you wish you really could be Anakin so that you could undo every treacherous and evil deed and not have to live with the consequences of a life marred by darkness.
Then suddenly you are not Anakin Skywalker anymore. You are the person of your waking life; you have the body that has become so familiar to you over the last two decades. You knew you would wake up eventually. You always do. So when you hear the whisper of a footstep behind you, of course it can't be him.
You turn around.
That's when you realize you are still in the dream. Because Anakin Skywalker shouldn't be standing there, face to face with you, as separate from you as any other person. He shouldn't be holding his hands out like that, as if he's pleading with you to come back to him, to accept him, to make him a part of you. He shouldn't be smiling sadly, as though he understands the pain you've endured all these years.
The rage you've carried within you breaks free as you launch yourself at him. You beat your fists against his chest and curse him in every tongue you know, swearing with each blow that you won't stop until he is driven from existence. You wait for him to hit you back, but all he does is grab your wrists and keep you from continuing your assault. You want to fight and kill and scream and die, but he is holding you now, whispering something you can't hear. At first you refuse to listen. You growl, hiss, seethe, spit...you do everything in your power to enrage him, to make him worthy of your hatred, to make him guilty of his crimes against you. But he just holds you, drawing close so that you can hear him.
Finally you stop struggling, and you hear the words he's been whispering over and over:
"I'm sorry, Leia. I'm so sorry…"
And then you wake up, and you are Leia Organa once more. You tell yourself it was only a dream and that you'll never forgive him. But you know it isn't true.
The End