Summary: "Your son fell to the Dark Side because he loves you," Obi-Wan says quietly.

Savior

The only thought that goes through Vader's mind as he holds Luke's limp body against his own… is that this isn't what he wanted.

The wind is blowing fiercely, whipping his cape around and howling with a fury and Luke is so badly hurt.

He has become… something else in the last year that they have been together. Dark and slowly becoming twisted and cold in his dealings with others; he is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. His potential is unmatched and he is an able and fiercely loyal ally to Vader.

And… he suffers for that loyalty.

Because he won't leave. Hasn't left. Doesn't ever plan to leave his side, it seems.

Luke picked a side and it seems that no force or power in the galaxy can move him from it. His love burns deep and it is as much his strength as it is his downfall.

Palpatine. Their Master. Because he rules both of them now.

He has put Luke on his knees too often. He has broken and slowly chipped away at Luke's defenses and his goodness and his kindness and all the wonderful, beautiful qualities that he inherited from his mother until all that seems to remain is the same stubborn tenacity that had once been Anakin's.

It is going to kill him.

Or worse, it will keep him going until he is nothing but a husk and a shell of who he once was.

Luke should have never surrendered on Endor. He would have been better off leaving Vader to his fate instead of trying to pull him back from the Dark Side.

Now they are both trapped, unredeemable and lost, because of the choices that they each had made.

Vader has called for a shuttle and it's only a waiting game now. He holds Luke close, unable to tear his eyes away from his lax expression, trying to shield his son as much as he can from the wind.

He doesn't know how long he waits for something to happen or for someone to appear.

But… eventually, the Force flickers and shifts and then someone is standing in front of them both.

It is Obi-Wan.

Vader can only stare, torn between anger and defeat. Mustafar was a long time ago but the memory of it still burns. It hurts and he thinks it hurts worse now than it used to because he understands better that it isn't really Obi-Wan that he hates anymore.

He hates himself and everything that he became that night.

"Go away," Vader says hoarsely, looking away from the man that had once been his brother. He can't handle the pity in his old, wrinkled eyes and Luke is the only thing he has the energy to care about now.

There is a moment of silence.

"Come back, Anakin."

He wants to be angry but he's not. Instead, he shakes his head.

"It is too late for that now."

"Luke did not think so."

"And look where that got him," Vader said bitterly. Despite his tone, he pets his sons hair with a feather light touch, wishing for so many different things. Mostly, he wants to see Luke open his eyes again. For them to be blue and not yellow.

"Your son fell to the Dark Side because he loves you," Obi-Wan says quietly. He fixes Vader with a look, as if the last twenty some-odd years had never happened and Vader was still his padawan who was in need of instruction. As if Vader were someone he still loved and had hope for. "You have always enjoyed a challenge. Come back and bring him with you."

"It doesn't work like that," Vader snaps at him, feeling uneasy. As if it could ever be that easy. Obi-Wan knows - perhaps better than anyone else, how far Anakin had fallen that night and in the years since. The atrocities that he had committed. "You know that it doesn't." But Luke staying by his side and Vader letting him stay when he should have pushed him away - far, far away from all of the darkness and evil that surrounded him - is perhaps the worst one of them all.

He had been too weak. Too selfish. Too lonely and desperate to do the right thing.

Obi-Wan shrugged and there is still kindness and pity in his eyes, even as the image of him seems to flicker and dim with each word that he says. "You love your son and his fate is bound to yours. He'll go where you go. Save him, if only because he tried to save you first."

*insert devil emoji here*

The real question here is who saves who in the end? Does Luke save Vader? Does Vader save Luke? Or does Obi-Wan save both of them? Food for thought. :)

Thanks for reading!