Redemption

(4 ABY)

The still unfinished Death Star rocked underneath their feet as Serina helped Luke drag her dying master all the way from the throne room into the turbolift. Long moments later, they finally stepped out onto the deck where the main hangar bay was located. As they hurried along the long corridors as fast as their fading strength could carry Vader's heavy frame, they passed stormtroopers, pilots, and other troops stationed on the battle station, but nobody approached the threesome or tried to stop them. One glance at the masked figure between them was enough to deter any question and to quickly clear a path for them.

Finally, they arrived at the entrance into the hanger bay. A huge cavern greeted them. Everywhere, signs of an evacuation could be seen. The deck heaved underneath them. Smoke started to billow as small fires erupted from broken electrical wiring in the bulkhead.

Serina pointed toward an Imperial shuttle located toward their right a few hundred meters away. "That one is Vader's," she informed Luke. Nobody had bothered to try to use it to depart the condemned battle station. It was commonly known that it had been coded solely to the Dark Lord and whomever he supplied with the appropriate authorization codes.

The young Jedi gave her a short nod and pulled his father's hulk further up onto his shoulder. It was the same vessel that had carried him onto the Death Star just a few short hours prior. Then he started forward.

Serina did her best to not only ease some of the weight off of Luke but to also continue to feed as much of the living Force around them as she could draw upon into the dying man between them.

Halfway there, they stumbled as the battle station rocked again under the attack of the rebel fleet. Luke's strength gave out and he collapsed under the heavy weight, pulling the slightly older woman down with him. They landed in a heap, but Serina quickly extricated herself out of the tangle of limbs. Then she dragged Luke back to his feet and urged him to move on. Together, they pulled Vader's unmoving form toward the waiting shuttle.

At the ramp leading up into the vessel, they finally rested the armored body on the ground and knelt on either side of it. Again, the deck shook violently.

Vader motioned his son closer to him. "Luke, help me take this mask off."

But Luke shook his head. "You'll die!" he protested.

The Dark Lord's voice was weary. "Nothing can stop that now. Just once let me face you without it. Let me look on you with my own eyes."

Serina could feel the fear in both of them, the fear in Luke to face the person who had fathered him and Leia and then had become so dark and evil and the fear in Vader to remove his shield and let his son see him as he truly was. Carefully, Luke lifted off the heavy helmet from his father's head.

For a moment he fumbled around with the magnetic latches that held the mask portion attached to Vader's head. Gently Serina put her hands over Luke's and looked at him. "Please, let me do it." For a moment he gazed into her pleading eyes. Then he pulled his hands away. Amazed, he watched as she proficiently unfastened the various latches and disentangled the diverse mechanisms from the hermetic collar. He realized that it wasn't the first time she had done this.

Questions rose in Luke's mind. Who was this woman? What had she been to Vader? He would have to find out quickly. There was much more to her than he had first anticipated since he could feel her distinct presence in the Force. And he had noticed the lightsaber latched to her belt as she had knelt beside him. Had she been one of his father's apprentices?

When she was just about to lift off the mask, Serina turned to Luke, her voice thick with emotion, "Please allow me a moment alone with him."

After a short hesitation, Luke nodded and turned away.

Serina put the mask aside and gazed into Vader's face. Tears filled her eyes and she found herself unable to choke down the thick lump in her throat.

Her master was not surprised to see her face instead of his son's. He had felt her presence since she had rushed to their side in the throne room and he had also felt her feeding him her energy, enabling him to cling to life just a little bit longer. She was doing it even now. With a thankful expression, he looked up at her. "You couldn't stay away, could you?" He smiled at her.

"No, I knew what was going to happen. I've foreseen it already for several years. I just had to be here. I had still hoped it would somehow turn out differently, but I should have known better. My visions always come true."

Serina lifted her hand to gently touch his unblemished cheek and reached out through the Force for his presence in the way that had bound them together for the past fifteen years. She could feel the sadness that penetrated his soul, the shame at what he had done during his years serving the dark side. But the chains had been broken. The spirit she now sensed was no longer the Vader she had come to know as teacher, master, and lover, but the Anakin she had sensed all along buried deep down in the evil Sith Lord, the Anakin she had fallen in love with those many years back.

And, finally free from the constrictions of the dark side, Vader allowed himself to admit his love for her too. Not like he had loved Padmé - she had been the love of his life and would always be - but in a different, yet not at all lesser way. A love that had been there since the day he had realized that she had known all along who he had been and what he had done and still had accepted him, had given him her heart and her whole self. With sudden clarity, he realized that she had been instrumental in keeping the Anakin alive in him, yes, she had been keeping the small spark of good alive in him. Her unconditional forgiveness for everything he had ever done - no matter how horrid or cruel or selfish it might have been and regardless against whom the act was committed, even if she herself had been the recipient - had finally enabled him to forgive himself, to accept his son's love and to, at long last, fulfill the prophecy of the Chosen One: to bring back balance to the Force.

Serina bowed down closely and kissed him a last time on the lips. "I love you and always will!" she whispered into his ear, too low for even Luke to hear. "And our child lives, I just remembered." Before she broke the physical contact, she imparted him with the memory of the healthy baby girl her mind had just allowed her to retrieve after ten long years. Then she arose with a swift motion and, after an encouraging squeeze of Luke's shoulder, started up the shuttle ramp to prepare everything for lift-off, cherishing the last unspoken thought he had conveyed to her full of love and gratitude, "Thank you."

As Vader's breathing was getting more labored by the minute, his lungs only kept from faltering by his own will and Serina's transferred strength, he concentrated his attention on the young man at his other side.

Feeling his father's gaze upon him, Luke turned toward him. He had tried to prepare himself for what he was about to see. Luke would never forget the face he saw, a face full of meaning. Regret and shame he saw there, memories of rich times, of horrors and of love, too. He could not hold back the tears anymore. They started to stream down his face.

His father looked up at him with a smile. "Luminous beings we are, Luke, not this crude matter." Luke wanted to tell him it was alright, that nothing mattered now and yet everything, but he couldn't.

Vader's strength was fading swiftly, the lack of oxygen causing a rapid shut-down of his battered body. "Go, my son, leave me."

Luke finally found his voice again. "No. You're coming with us. I've got to save you."

"You already have, Luke," his father whispered. Then he pulled his son very close and spoke into his ear, "Luke, you were right ... and you were right about me ... tell your sister ... you were right."

With that, he closed his eyes, and Darth Vader - Anakin Skywalker - died.

Luke wanted to just sit there, unable to fathom the depth of his loss, but Serina shook him out of his grief. Together their carried Vader's heavy body up into the shuttle and escaped the collapsing hangar only moments before the Death Star flared into brilliant oblivion.

The young Jedi gazed at the woman beside him. Again, he marveled who she might be. He could feel that she was still trying to keep a tight check on her emotions, but tears had already started to flow down her face. She had been close to Vader - or to Anakin? - that he was certain of. But as what? Somehow, she was even familiar to him. He hadn't noticed it before, but now the impression was getting stronger, the longer he looked at her.

When the shuttle had landed, Serina switched off everything and finally turned to face Luke. She saw recognition dawn on him. The moments up at the Death Star had been too preoccupied to allow Luke to search his memories. But now he knew. He had once met her at the Weary Traveler's Cantina in Anchorhead. She had been serving tables there. It must have been at least ten years ago. Ben Kenobi had also been there that day and he had noticed some kind of exchange between them but had quickly disregarded it again. And now she was here.

"What did you plan on doing with his body?" Her question interrupted Luke's train of thought. What was the right thing to do? For a moment he hesitated. Then he was certain. "We will burn it. It cannot remove the memory of what he has done from the galaxy, but it will set his spirit free." Serina nodded. It was the answer she had hoped for.

Together they collected enough logs and branches to build a great pyre; then they placed Vader's lifeless body atop it, armor, mask, and all. Luke himself set a torch to the kindling. As the flames enveloped the corpse, the heavy bodysuit suddenly deflated. With the mutilated body vanished out of its machine-controlled shell, Anakin's spirit was finally set free of the prison that had confined him for such a long time. Silently, with fierce sorrow in his heart, Luke said his last good-bye to his father.

At last, Serina allowed the emotions she had bottled up during the past hours and minutes to wash over her. She fell down to her knees at the far side of the burning pyre, out of Luke's sight. She wanted to be left alone, as she buried herself in her grief and sorrow. The pain she felt inside was nothing Luke or anybody else would have understood. Within moments she had lost her master, teacher, and lover, had found her true love finally set free to return her feelings only to lose him again moments later permanently. Her heart ached as if it would cave in under the sudden void she felt. Vader's presence in her mind, as evil, as it had been, had always provided her with comfort and had been a strength to draw from. It had combined with the joy of sensing Anakin deep inside of the Dark Lord to give her a true purpose for living, a proof that she was still fulfilling her destiny. But now that her task was accomplished, what purpose was left for her life?

Feeling a stirring inside her womb she remembered what she had caused the Dark Lord to impart to her without him even being aware of it. Their second child, a growing boy, would one day become as strong a Jedi as any other Skywalker before him. Just like his sister, thought dead for so many years and now so surprisingly alive, thanks to the help of the Anakin's former Jedi Master. A weak smile forced its way onto Serina's lips. There still was a purpose for living. She had two children to raise. This new task could not eliminate the heart-wrenching feeling of great loss that still gripped her, but it could lessen it enough to allow her to live on.

Luke had walked over to offer her his comfort should she desire it. He could sense that Vader had meant much more to her than he had thought possible. Sitting down beside her he waited until she finally looked up at him.

"Please, tell me your name," he asked her gently as if her name would reveal to him her whole life's story.

"My name. It does not really matter anymore now, you know," a sad resignation rang in her voice. "But if you really want to know, it is Serina, Serina Wanders."

"You loved him, didn't you?" It was a guess, no more, but for Luke, it was the only explanation possible.

Serina nodded slowly. "Please don't get me wrong. I know you believed in the little bit of good left in your father, but even Obi-Wan and Yoda doubted it. So perhaps you are the only person in this galaxy to really understand what I am telling you now. Yes, I loved your father, Anakin Skywalker, I have for a long time and I always will. But my loyalty and the part of me that served the dark side have always belonged to Vader. But he is dead now; your father is finally set free of the chains that bound him to the dark side. And so my bond to the dark side is broken as well. What is left is my love for Anakin."

Luke silently nodded his understanding. He wanted to find out more about this woman, about how she had come to Vader, why she hadn't betrayed Obi-Wan to him ten years ago, for it was obvious that she could have done so.

"Will you come with me? The others are waiting over at the village. I'm sure they will gladly receive you. Nobody will ask any questions about your past."

The thought was tempting, but Serina declined. "No, not at this time. Perhaps some months or years from now. But I have a favor to ask of you."

"Ask me anything. If it is in my power to do so I will see to it."

Serina stared intently into Luke's eyes. "You must not tell of my involvement up there. Just leave me completely out of the picture when you tell them what has happened, please!" Though he did not know why he understood from the pleading in her voice, how important this was to her. Slowly he nodded his agreement.

Serina arose and turned a final time to face the young Jedi. "Thank you. I will have to leave now. I hope you don't mind if I take the shuttle?"

"Go ahead, nobody will miss it anyway. Will I ever see you again?"

This time Serina smiled openly. "Does light attract moths? Sure, you will. One day I will need somebody to complete my training and that of my children. As far as I know, there is only one Jedi around, who will hopefully become a master soon. Or do you know of any others?"

With that, she turned and headed for the shuttle. For a long time, Luke just stood there, looking up at the spot in the night sky where the vessel had vanished toward the far side of Endor. No, he definitely hadn't seen the last of Serina. And one day, she would tell him her whole life's story. It would hardly be boring.