Just so you all know, I hate myself for taking so long to update these! It's horrible having to tell the writing portion of my mind to shush cause I don't have the time to even hear it's ideas...I've been writing this chapter for days now! It's about time I had the time to get it done!
Anyway, thank you for allllllll of the AMAZING reviews, I love hearing from all of you and I apologize that it takes me so long to update. Blame school. Please, please continue to review, I am BEGGING YOU, and Enjoy!

(Original Timeline)

His skin was paper white, his breathing slight and raspy. Through the Force, his Signature was faint yet seemed to hum in agony. He was motionless on the ground, oblivious to the world around him.

Tears streamed down Luke's face, sobbing as he shook the figure that teetered on the edge of death. "Please, get up! Please! Don't leave me, stay with me!"

When Luke got no reply he pounded angrily on the figure's chest, desperation and hopelessness overwhelming him. "Please, don't die, I need you, I can't lose you!"

As Luke curled up on the limp form sobbing, the dark side curled around them, seeming to laugh at him as it tugged him toward its endless depths of suffering.

"Father, please..." Luke choked out.

Luke awoke with a gasp, hand flying to his mostly healed chest as he bolted up in bed. Frantically, he wiped the tears from his eyes and cheeks and stumbled out of the bed. He felt sick to his stomach and, sure enough, when he reached the toiled in the refresher he vomited. He stayed on the floor afterwards, trembling, feeling too weak to get up.

After a few minutes of staring at the wall, Luke realized he still had tears in his eyes. Scowling, he wiped them away and leaned his head against the cool surface of the wall beside him.

It was a dream Luke, nothing more, he tried to tell himself. However, the horrible sinking sensation in his stomach wouldn't let him deny the truth of what he'd seen. It had been a premonition, like the one he'd had of getting impaled.

Luke ran a hand down his face, feeling so much older than he really was. He couldn't bear the thought of losing his father a second time, not when he was so close to having the life he'd always yearned for. He'd known that the mission in the other timeline to Korriban was a dangerous one, but he'd never dreamed of the possibility of losing his father on that mission…

Don't psych yourself out Luke. You should know just as well as Father that desperation and fear brought on by a dream can yield disastrous results. You've got to have a calm approach to this…

Somehow he didn't see how he could possibly do that.

(Alternate Timeline)

Anakin awoke from his dream practically delirious.

The images he'd seen seemed to repeatedly play out on the walls of the room around him. He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut to get rid of them, yet it seemed the horrific scenes were burned into his very soul. The emotional pain was so strong it was physical, and Anakin curled over himself, trying not to retch, praying that the other two were oblivious to his agony. He knew right now Luke was awake taking his turn in the cockpit while Galen and Anakin got their rest…

Anakin recoiled as the images came flooding back to him, fingernails digging into his palms as he clenched his fists in his hair, trying to take deep, calming breaths. It wasn't working.

So many innocent lives, so many Jedi, the people he saw as his family, dead by his hand either directly or indirectly. The countless years of harsh treatment he'd inflicted on Galen, the pain he put his children through…

Anakin shivered at the image of himself causing a ceiling stone to trap his son and proceeding to slash his daughter repeatedly with his saber blade to torture her on the planet Mimban. For several moments his breathing all but stopped and he struggled to free himself from the memories from Darth Vader that had been dumped on him. There was so much sorrow and misery; he didn't know what to do with it. He didn't think he could shove all of that suffering into the Force either.

Unable to just sit there, Anakin stood from his bed, pausing to look at his reflection in the mirror. He was horribly pale, his face flushed of any color.

I look practically dead, he thought to himself, staring into his own haunted eyes.

He shivered once again. Why had Vader's life had to come to him all at once now? Why, of all the times that such a heavy burden could be dropped on him, had it been right before they landed on Korriban? Why now?

Well there's no point in complaining about it Anakin, it will get you nowhere, you know that, he thought with a sigh. He went into the refresher, splashing some cool water on his face to wake himself up. He stared at himself in the mirror for a few minutes until he felt like he looked well enough to not make the others suspicious before he made his way out of his room to relieve Luke of the cockpit. The boy needed his sleep. Anakin could handle being under strenuous situations with little sleep the night before: the Clone Wars had given him plenty of practice, and most of the times he was much less rested then than he was now.

As he entered the cockpit, he saw Luke struggling to stay awake, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. Anakin couldn't help but smile a little, putting a hand on his son's shoulder as he came up behind the boy. Luke jumped, but relaxed once he realized it was Anakin. "Go on and get some rest Luke, I can take it from here."

Luke sighed a little but got up from the seat, stretching. "Thank you Father."

Anakin chuckled a little as he took Luke's place. "Go get your rest Luke; I'll wake you and Galen when we're there."

Luke frowned. "What about you? You look like you need more rest yourself."

It's that obvious?

Anakin chuckled. "I'll be alright Luke, don't worry about me. I've done far more with much less sleep."

Luke smiled a little but sighed. "That doesn't mean you need to exhaust yourself on purpose Father," Luke said lightly. "Try to get a little more sleep tonight please?"

Anakin gave him a soft smile. "Maybe. We'll see Luke…"

Luke rolled his eyes but slipped out of the cockpit without argument, leaving Anakin alone with his thoughts and the stars. For a while he stayed in silence, struggling with the newly received memories, until he finally gave up on the solitude. He hesitated a moment, hoping that he wouldn't wake the person on the other end of the connection he's set up.

Padme's sleepy holographic image appeared almost instantaneously. "Ani?" she asked.

Anakin smiled a little. "I didn't wake you did I Angel?"

Padme smiled back. "No, no, I was just getting ready to go to bed. What's going on? You look exhausted…" she observed quietly.

Anakin sighed. "I didn't sleep well…"

"Nightmares?"

"More like memories."

Padme grimaced. "Oh lovely. Leia's had a few of her own since you left, and apparently not much of them are pleasant."

Anakin looked away. "Yes, I get that…"

Padme frowned. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Anakin sighed. "I've got an entire new set of memories, twenty-three years' worth all at once, and only a few towards the end are pleasant…even then they're bittersweet…"

Padme gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry Anakin…I'm sure it's a lot to handle…"

Anakin nodded. "I guess I just…needed to talk to someone about it. I'm not quite sure what to do with twenty-three years' worth of memories…"

Padme shook her head. "Just remember that you didn't choose that path Anakin. You're here with us now, you are a great Father, and you are with your family. You didn't do those things: you took the better path. Alright?"

Anakin smiled a little. "Thank you Angel…"

She returned his smile. "Have you arrived at Korriban yet?" she asked.

Anakin sighed once more. "We're nearly there. The other two are getting their sleep right now."

"You should get some rest yourself Ani. You look like you need it."

Anakin couldn't help but laugh a little. "I just woke up Padme."

"Well apparently you need more rest," she said gently.

"Luke would agree with you. I'll be fine Angel, you know me. Don't worry so much."

"It's because I know you that I worry," she chuckled.

"I'll let you get your rest now Angel…good night, sleep well," Anakin said softly.

"Be safe," Padme pleaded.

"I will."

He ended transmission and leaned back in the pilot's chair, running a hand down his face. Even if he wanted to get some more sleep, he doubted that he would be able to. They would be arriving on Korriban soon anyway.

Joy.

"Luke…Luke, wake up; we're entering Korriban's atmosphere…"

Luke groaned, wiggling his way further under the covers. "Just a few more minutes, please?"

Galen chuckled and pulled back the covers mercilessly, ignoring Luke's cries of protest. "Come on Padawan, you've got to be ready for the day! Bright eyed and bushy tailed, so on and so forth."

He ducked out of the room as Luke's pillow came flying at him, the pillow bouncing off the doorframe and falling to the floor.

Luke, grumbling the whole time, slowly dragged himself out of bed. As he pulled on his tunic and clipped his lightsaber to his belt, he allowed his mind to wander to the new memories that he'd received the night before.

It felt like he suddenly had a whole other life he'd lived. Granted he didn't have all of the memories of that time; things sort of cut off for him after his father's death on the second Death Star. Plus all of the memories before that were fuzzy, unfocused, and had holes in them. Also, it seemed he still didn't have any of the memories of what had happened when his other self had gone back in time, either. Still, he suddenly knew a lot more about a world that had thankfully not happened in his current lifetime. He was grateful for the life that he'd had. The way things could have been…well, he preferred this life to his other self's life.

Luke stretched, holding back a yawn as he made his way to the cockpit, wiping the sleep from his eyes before he entered the room.

"Ah, see Anakin, I told you he was alive," Galen joked as Luke came in.

His father chuckled. "It looks like someone's only half here. I take it you slept well?"

Luke smiled. "Yeah, apparently I did need the rest."

"I told you that you did."

Luke shook his head, taking his spot at the co-pilot's seat. "Did you get any more sleep last night?"

His father shook his head. "No, I was too awake. I couldn't sleep."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, alright."

Anakin sighed before he turned his attention to the task at hand. "When we land I want you two to stick close to me. Not because I don't think you're capable of handling yourselves, but because Korriban is a very dangerous planet for a Jedi to be roaming alone."

"We gathered as much," Galen said solemnly as he stared through the glass, even though all they could see at the moment were the clouds. Something twisted uncomfortably in Luke's gut and he averted his eyes from the glass back to his father.

"Well I'm being serious. No one splits away, no matter what, alright? The last thing I want is for one of us to stumble across a Hssiss…"

"Or a Tuk'ata," Luke added.

"Or a Terentatek," Galen grumbled.

Luke's father sighed again. "It's going to be a nightmare getting you two to behave, isn't it?"

"No, we'll probably be serious once we're actually on the planet," Luke said with a slight smile.

"Well, that will be any moment now," Galen said, pointing out the window.

Luke allowed his gaze to return back to the world outside of the ship, silently taking in the desolate planet that they were headed towards.

He could see mountains and canyons spanning out endlessly in different directions in earthy colors, though mostly brown and red. The sun blared relentlessly across the surface, causing the surface to appear to shimmer. He didn't see any signs of life from where they were, though he was sure that the closer they got the more he would see.

"Cheery place, don't you think?" Galen mumbled.

"Yeah, beautiful," Anakin said sarcastically.

The trio fell into silence as Anakin gradually made his way to the surface, tucking the ship into a well hidden spot in one of the many caverns behind several rocks in the shadows.

"This should be a good enough spot until we can find out what's going on here. That's all we need to do is find whatever's giving off this dark side energy everyone's sensing. Nothing more, nothing less," Anakin said as he stood up. The other two followed him out of the cockpit, hands on their lightsabers out of nervousness.

The ramp of the ship lowered, and the group found themselves blasted by a surprisingly cold wind. But that wasn't the only thing that immediately pummeled the group.

Anakin recoiled, Luke stumbled, and Galen froze as all of them were suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of pure, raw power and energy from the dark side. It seemed to drip from the very air around them it was so strong. It wrapped around their senses, calling out to all of them in a different way. Anakin's breathing became quite irregular, Luke's hitched, and Galen seemed to have stopped breathing altogether.

Something formidable, sinister, and malicious was dwelling here.

Luke shivered, bringing up his mental barriers as tight as he could as he retreated into himself away from the darkness he had rarely been exposed to. It was cold and unforgiving, and the darkest part of it was somehow…familiar. Some part of him, a part he had yet to understand, found the presence here extremely familiar. That same part of him was filled with dread and foreboding the minute that he had felt the presence on this planet.

Galen was swept away in a brief flash of a vision. It was cold, like it normally was in space, and everything around him was dark. The strange presence that they could sense in the darkness around them on Korriban was also here, right in front of Galen. It seemed to suffocate him as it closed in around him, and he heard a disturbing cackle before fire ripped through his chest and the vision disappeared. The experience left him shaken as his narrowed eyes scanned the canyon around the three of them.

Anakin closed his eyes and, strengthening his resolve, reached out towards the familiar segment of the darkness around them. It seemed to shrink from him, dancing just out of reach, goading him to delve further into the darkness. However, he knew better than to try that, and started to pull away.

At that moment, the presence they were there to investigate suddenly burst forth; attempting, it seemed, to attach itself to him. Anakin slammed his own mental barriers up, but not before he'd gotten a sense of the presence that had lunged out at him. Anakin was sure that his heart had stopped beating in that moment.

"It can't be…" he breathed. "That's impossible…"

His son seemed to pull himself out of his own trance, looking up at Anakin. "Father…what is it?" Luke asked softly. It appeared his son could sense the presence as well, and Anakin was sure he could detect a light of fear in Luke's eyes.

"I…I have to be sure. I don't want to make any hasty decisions…" he mumbled, descending the ramp and standing on the cool rock of the planet. Luke followed after him, though it took Galen a few seconds to join them. Galen's eyes roamed their surroundings, seeking out any hidden threats.

"I think I know…but if I'm right…" Anakin shook his head. He didn't know how to explain it. How could he? "We have to find them. If I'm right about who is here, we need to alert the Council as soon as possible…even if that means one of us gets left behind," Anakin said seriously, taking the time to look both boys in the eyes.

Luke paled a little and Galen's attention focused on Anakin as he continued. "I haven't felt this presence in a very long time, but if they are here…than the galaxy is at risk. I have to be sure."

They nodded in understanding and Anakin turned around to face the expanse of canyon and mountain laid out before him. "Don't let the darkness in. Keep yourself closed off from it, all of it. And keep your eyes open for any of those creatures I told you about on the ship."

Without waiting for their reply, Anakin stalked forward, keeping himself open enough to be able to follow the presence hidden in the darkness.

What made his stomach turn was the fact that it seemed to want them to find it.

(Original Timeline)

Luke had been meditating, soaking in the new memories that he was receiving from the other timeline, when he'd first felt it.

At first, Luke had thought that it was a feeling associated with one of the memories that he'd received. Gradually, though, he'd realized that it was something entirely different. He'd drifted away from the memories, following the feeling to its source.

Distantly he'd felt the sudden feelings of fear and foreboding. An image came to mind of Korriban, and after that came a presence he had not expected to feel.

The malicious energy, the raw evil all around, and the unpleasant and painful memories attached to it had caused Luke to come out of his meditation abruptly. Once his mind was clear again, it had all made sense to him.

That was how Luke had ended up in his sister's doorway, arguing with her to stop trying to kick him out and listen.

"Luke I don't want to hear another word about—" Leia was practically snarling. Luke cut her off though, grabbing her wrist in a firm grip.

"Leia, stop and listen to me! I'm not talking about Father, I'm talking about something worse, something really bad!" he said, struggling to keep from shouting. She paused, and he dropped his voice several octaves, as if he expected someone to hear. "Leia…

"He's alive."