"She will try again." Anakin's voice rumbled through the speechbox in his breathing mask. "All she knows is hatred and revenge."

Luke sighed, sitting on the ground next to his father to watch the sun set over the trees. "I know, but I have to try to show her love and forgiveness." He turned toward his father. "I saved you."

"Yes. But I knew love once, and I had not forgotten. She was very young when Lord Sidious found her. I don't believe she has ever known anything else."

Luke pulled a few blades of grass from near his leg. Rubbing them between his fingers, he gazed into the distance. "I wonder what my life would have been like if he had found me." His voice was so soft, Anakin could barely hear him. "Wouldn't I be just like her?"

If not for his respirator, Anakin's breath would surely have caught. His son—this blazing, glorious light—darkened? Made into a tool for Palpatine's use? It was unthinkable. It was monstrous. Yet, he had tried to do just that on the Death Star, and when Luke had refused… "I would have done that to you," he rasped, his voice choked with the tears he couldn't shed. "I would have turned you into a monster, a shadow of myself."

Luke's hand on his shoulder lent him strength. "No, Father. When it really mattered, you chose the light."

"But what if we had found you when you were just a child?" Anakin turned to face his son, wishing he could look unaided into his eyes. "Owen and Beru raised you well, and they helped you become the man you are. But if we had taken you away from them before you knew the difference between right and wrong, before you could make your own choices, what then?"

Luke's eyes reflected Anakin's pain. "I don't know."

Anakin bowed his head, thankful that he hadn't had an influence in his son's early years. And yet… Luke hadn't inherited Anakin's temper, his tendency to overreact. "I don't see my weaknesses in you, Luke. You are more like your mother in the ways that matter. I was close to your age when I surrendered to the dark side." His voice grew quiet. "I thought it was the only choice I had. I allowed myself to be defeated." He raised his gaze to Luke's face again. "Padmé wasn't one to allow herself to be defeated, and neither are you."

Luke leaned over and wrapped his arms around his father. "You are not defeated."

For a moment, Anakin didn't move. No one had embraced him since his mother and Padmé, and his mechanical arms didn't know how to respond. But then he reached out and tentatively put his arms around Luke's shoulders, hugging his son.

Mara's fists clenched on her knees where she sat crosslegged on the grass facing Luke, her eyes closed. He could feel her frustration growing as her hands tightened. "Mara," he said softly. "Don't try so hard. Just let it flow."

Her eyes flew open. She took a sharp breath as if about to say something, opened her mouth, then snapped it shut, closed her eyes again, and took a slower breath. "I don't understand. How do I do that?"

Luke opened his mouth to respond, then paused. How to explain? Touching the Force came so easily, so naturally, to him. It was like a part of him, an extension of his body and mind. But there had been a time when he was new to this, when Obi Wan first taught him how to let go of his conscious self and to act on instinct, when Yoda taught him that size meant nothing to the Force.

He reached out and took her hands in his, opening her fists and turning her palms up. She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "What—" she began.

"Trust me," he said. "The Force both controls you and obeys you. It is a part of you." He squeezed her hands gently. "In order to truly touch it, though, you must let go of your conscious self and act on instinct."

She took another deep breath, this one a little shakier. "I'm not sure I can do that."

For all her bravado, she had trouble believing in herself. "I think you can," he said. "Close your eyes; they can deceive you. Reach out with your feelings."

"Okay, farmboy." One side of her mouth tilted up, and she closed her eyes. "I'll do it your way."

Her hands in his felt right, and she didn't seem to mind, so he continued to cradle them. The contact connected them in way he hadn't expected. Though he could always sense her through the Force, this was almost like the connection he shared with Leia, yet completely different at the same time. There was an undercurrent of something he couldn't define, that was somehow both peaceful and intense. Following his own advice, he stopped trying to figure it out, and just let it flow over him.

And then it was all light, pure and clear.

"Oh!" Mara's voice was faint, and she yanked her hands back.

Luke opened his eyes, a little overwhelmed, to meet hers. She stared at him, stunned. He smiled and let his hands fall onto his knees. "You did it." He allowed his joy to shine through the connection that was still there, though it had faded slightly when she pulled back.

The darkness was still within her, but the light was now stronger. With time, he would find a way to banish the darkness altogether.