Master

"Help me Doctor Arber, help me to forget about her."

"Lord Vader, I will do all that I can. You would remember during the rise of the Clone Wars that it was I that developed the Zone of Containment."

"Better than most."

"It was used on Jedi, I have no doubt that I can help you. I even used it on the Chosen One."

"I remember," Lord Vader recalled. "And that is exactly why I need your help. I need to forget about Padme Amidala. She had been a thorn in the my side for years."

"Even after her death?"

"That is not your concern. You will be adequately compensated for your assistance."

"As you see fit, Lord Vader."

"Betray me and yours will be the same as hers." He had returned within the weak to find her no better than a drone. Experimenting on herself she had lost the ability to function, and it had been a kindness ending her life.

"Padme, is she alright?" Vader asked in his trance-like state. He heard the voice of his once-friend, and saw the smile on his face, that manically smile. He was glad Padme was dead. How could anyone with a heart be glad that Padme was dead? She had been a light in the darkness, a beacon holding back the dark side. His master had been pure darkness, all the kindness he had shown him had been an act, he had manipulated him. 'I'm afraid, my friend, that in your anger, you killed her.

"I couldn't have. I felt her, she was alive. It's not possible. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed, and he vaguely heard other words as he reached out with the Force to destroy everything!

"Father! Father! Stop this!" Padme was dead. His child was dead. There was no light, there was nothing left. Nothing but darkness. He heard the cracking of glass, the breaking of droids, the smell of oil, as they were destroyed. "Father! It's Luke, please." Luke. His son. As he came back to himself, he remembered. He had destroyed the Emperor. And he had children. Luke was there. His son. He was his son, and he was good, could some of his goodness come from Anakin? He struggled to open his eyes as he felt the light in the darkness. Luke was trying to reach him through the Force, but he had put up his mental shields to ward off an attack from any Jedi. He wished he could destroy the Emperor, he had to remember that he was dead. He withdrew his attack with the Force as his eyes opened and he focused.

"Are you in pain?" his son asked him.

"Every moment of my life," he answered, even though his voice came out a whisper.

"What hurts? They used anesthesia. I made sure." The man known as Darth Vader, surveyed the damaged he had done. The doctor was hiding from him, and there were small cuts on her as she quivered underneath her chair. Luke stood in front of him, unsure to reassure his father or the doctor. If his father felt enraged, the doctor could be in danger.

"I'm just weak," he whispered.

"This room would say otherwise," Luke joked. Darth Vader wouldn't have been sorry, he hadn't been in another time. He had never liked being sick or injured. It was then that he noticed the stale smell of the room.

"I can breathe on my own?" he questioned, still weak. Although there was oxygen attached to his nose. He could smell. He weakly looked at his arms. As requested one had been left, the right arm had been mechanical since the age of twenty, it defined him, but the left arm, it was flesh and blood. He twitched his feet, also flesh and blood. There were times when he was with the Empire that he had questioned his own humanity, but he was human. "Tell the Doctor..."he whispered to Luke, "See to her..." Luke nodded and Vader receded back into the void of his memories.

"Your home?" Padme had stated, a smile curving her lips into a smile of invitation. "They didn't expect you home for another few months."

Anakin had smiled, "My padawan was able to tie up the campaign rather quickly. She's pretty well versed in politics," he admonished bringing his lips down to hers. "I would tear the very fabric of the galaxy apart if it meant coming home to you sooner."

"You mustn't say things like that."

"Why not?"he asked pressing his face into her hair, he inhaled, remembering the smell of her. "I've missed you, Mrs. Skywalker," he whispered.

"And I've missed you. There are always rumors that something has happened to you and the 501st."

"My men are well trained, but sometimes mistakes are made. We aren't perfect, Padme, and neither am I."

"I know, Ani. Was it bad? How much longer do you think the fighting will continue?"

"Be patient my love, it cannot last forever. And you have me on your side."

"There is that," she stated, her lips curving into a smile as she ran her hands along his chest. Yes, she had missed this man, more than she could ever say.

"As soon as the Separatists are brought to justice. We have discovered the Count Dooku wasn't lying about the Sith. Be careful, Padme. He is supposed to be a politician. It was how Bane was able to break into the Senate."

"Oh, Ani, my Ani," and she kissed him. "How long?"

"Two standard days."

"Then we'll have to make the most of it. Sometimes, I hate that our duty must come before our love."

"It won't always be this way, Padme. As soon as the war ends, we will be safe. No more hiding, no more running around, no more secrets. And I will confess before the Jedi Council. They can throw me out and it won't matter. The galaxy will be safe."

"We will have a family? Do you want a family, Anakin?"

"I have a family, Padme. You are my family," he said as he began to undress her and she let the conversation drop.

This time when Anakin woke up it was more peaceful, he reached up and scratched the top of his head, feeling the beginnings of hair. He opened his eyes, looking at the hairs on his arms. He was real. He was still weak, but he slid out of bed anyway, drawing on the Force for strength, it was like the days before he had become Darth Vader, he hadn't eaten anything or slept in weeks, and then later he hadn't had the opportunity to eat. It had all by liquified injection as food supplement.

Anakin had always enjoyed food and he would sit there because Palpatine ordered it, with the Senators who ate too much and know that he would never taste food again. The rage churning inside him at the unfairness of it, the pettiness as they squabbled, vying for his favor, envying his power, it was like the Jedi all over again. He was always bored over there pettiness, and that was when his dreams took hold.

He would dream that he was still a Jedi, that he had told Obi-Wan of his marriage to Padme and they had found a way to keep him in the Order. He was married to Padme, who had become...Chancellor of the Republic. They had two children who were strong in the Force. He had become a Master of their Order, and now trained younglings in swordsmanship, in lightsaber techniques. He thought he would have liked that. Then, Palpatine would probe his mind and he would feel the dream dissipate to be replaced with images from Mustafar, and later he would be punished, it was why he had sought out Zan Arbor in the first place.

He saw Luke enter the room and stand before him. "Father."

"I'm alright. How's the Doctor?"

"A little shaken, but she will be fine. Before...you weren't supposed to wake up. Something about the operation must have triggered something that happened. When the Emperor put you in the suit..."

"I won't discuss that with you," Anakin replied, his eyes flashing yellow, before returning to their normal hue. Luke became more subdued at the change in Anakin's eyes.

"I never noticed how much like me you look, Father."

"You are more like your mother than you will ever know."

"I wish I could have known her."

"So do I, son, so do I."

"As soon as your feeling better, you need to make contact with the Grand Moffs."

"Always business, always duty," Anakin snarled and then felt immediately guilty. "I'm sorry. Your mother and I were married just after the start of the Clone Wars. Because I was a Jedi, and she was a Senator, we had to put our duty before everything else. We had to keep our relationship secret. It was hard for us both. If anything happened to her, I couldn't get a message to her, every time I went into battle, it was a constant struggle not to use the Force to check on her. It was forbidden, using the Force for personal reasons, and it would have drained some of my Force powers, powers I sometimes had to call on during the battle. A Jedi gains power through understanding, a Sith gains understanding through power, someone once told me. You have to live in the moment not dwell on the future. I will help you find Ahsoka. I don't believe anyone else can."

"When a master and a padawan form a bond, only a great betrayal can sever it, unless the padawan and master chose to sever it. I fear she may have suffered through our bond. I should have severed it when she left the Order, but I worried about her safety. She was still a child. A Jedi, who didn't know of life outside the Temple."

"And your bond with Ben?"

"It was severed before our fight on Mustafar. It was severed when I joined Sidious. By then though, Ahsoka had been gone, and I hadn't thought to sever my bond to her. It is entirely possible that she felt my turn. I never sought her out. I wanted to keep her untainted."

"But you can find her?"

"I could summon her. I could have at any point."

"Father, we must restore balance to the galaxy."

Anakin wondered if his son had been told of the prophecy. As he squinted his eyes he saw a blueish form before him. "Anakin," the form spoke a single word. So many emotions tore through Anakin. "Luke, can you give your father and I a moment."

"Here to taunt me again?" Anakin asked remembering how he had showed up before the final battle between him and the Emperor.

"Exactly the opposite."

"You can't hurt me, Obi-Wan."

"I'm not here to hurt you, but to help you."

"You, a Jedi, wish to help me. You kept my children from me. You allowed me to believe that I killed Padme."

"A necessary evil, Anakin. To protect Luke and Leia, and Padme."

"What do you mean and Padme?"

"You will have to find that out for yourself. The truth is inside you. You allowed yourself to be twisted by lies, the truth will set you free."

"As cryptic as ever, Obi-Wan. What do you know about truth? About love?"

"I loved you, Anakin. Why else would I have dwelled on your home planet overlooking your son."

"Self-imposed exile. I wish I could go into exile, but they expect me to end this dissent. I can do it, I just fear they expect too much from me."

"Once you find the truth inside of you, you will make the right choice. I have faith in you. You will not betray my trust."

"I...thought that once I destroyed you, things would be better, that I wouldn't miss you. That I wouldn't still worry about not living up to your expectations."

"As I told you before, you have become a far greater Jedi than I ever could be."

"Obi-Wan...I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything, old friend."

"Will I see you again?"

"If it's the will of the Force, my padawan." And he was given a rare gift. Obi-Wan stepped forward and became solid, and he put his arms around Anakin as tears spilled down his face. "Shh..now, padawan. Everything will be alright. I always knew you would be the death of me, I knew how much failure bothered you. The fault is not entirely yours. I too, played a part in the Rise of the Empire. Everything will be alright. Padme's last words were of you, that there was good in you." Finally, Anakin's sobbing subsided. "I will always watch over you."

"He was glad that Padme died. He had never intended to help me save her."

"So that's what it was, I always wondered."

"He promised me the power to save her...from my nightmares. I believed him."

"Oh, Anakin. That's why you are different. There were many reasons Jedi turned to the dark side. Pride, power, revenge, lust, greed. Anakin, listen to me, you didn't do it for greed. You did it for love. That makes all the difference." Anakin finally dried his eyes.

"I'm human, by the Force, Obi-Wan, I'm human."

"I know. I was wrong about you, I'm glad I was wrong. You are going to be just fine, Anakin, just fine. Help Luke rebuild the Order so that no one has to fall the way you did, Master Skywalker."

"Master Obi-Wan, I don't deserve to become a Master. I destroyed the Jedi, no one deserved it less than me."

"No one deserves it more than you. The Order failed you, I failed you. Begin anew. Anakin. On behalf of the Council, I grant you the title of Master."

"Master, no."

"You know the darkness inside of you and you can conquer it. Since the Emperor's defeat you haven't let it take it's hold upon you, nor will you. You are saved, and in being saved you will save others," Obi-Wan stood up and backed away, becoming blue again. "I am part of the Force now. And I will always be with you. May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Master," Anakin replied, watching as the blue wisps faded and he was left alone. Luke had heard everything, no wonder Ben had worried so. His father had fallen because of love. He had used the force to enhance his hearing as he stood outside, even though a part of him knew it was wrong, he wanted to know the truth and though his father had never lied to him, there were things he shielded him from. "Luke."

"Father."

"Put me in contact with Mon. No, on second thought, we should travel to your Rebel Base, and I will contact the Grand Moff's. I never want to see that suit again, when we rebuild the Order, let the suit stand as a warning to those that may fall. We must rebuild, in that you are right. Before you sits the last member of the Jedi Council," Anakin stated quietly.

"You must rest."

"I can rest on the starship. You are a great pilot, son. I can recover there. We will find Ahsoka and return to your Rebel Base. Inform them of my presence."

Luke looked nervous. He didn't think Mon would be happy, but if she wanted a peaceful resolution she would have to agree. "Artoo," Luke called as he punched in the coordinates to get in touch with Mon.

"Commander Skywalker, I trust you are doing well."

"Yes. We have a solution for the problem General Solo informed me of."

"I'm listening."

"My father will end it." Luke moved out of the way.

"What do you propse Lord Vader?"

"Skywalker. And I will use everything in my power to reign in the Grand Moff's and restore balance."

"You, why would you do that? How do I know this isn't some trick to assume Emperor Palpatine's place."

"You don't. You will just have to trust me, as you once trusted my wife."

"I don't understand," she stated confusion on her face.

"I am not just Darth Vader, I was once Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker as I'm sure you are aware. I was married to the Queen and Senator of Naboo, Padme Amidala Neberrie Skywalker. For her, and for my children, I will do what I must."

"Complete this task, and you will have earned my trust. I will do all that I can to protect you."

"That is not nessasary."

"Nonetheless, I believe Luke would rather see you alive and free."

"I have never been free, Chancellor," he said and bowed as he had before the Emperor.

"I trust you to complete the task, Jedi Master," she stated and ended the transmission.