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Chapter 1
"You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister you were right."
"Father... I won't leave you."
So this was how it ended.
Darth Vad-no, Vader was already dead.
Anakin Skywalker lay there yet again, resurrected. This wasn't how he once expected to die. One scenario was the inevitable day that his son would fall to the Dark Side, golden eyes staring deeply into his soul, taking the finishing blow. Another was the Dark Side abandoning him at last and allowing him to die after his torturous existence.
He closed his eyes, the pain and agony from the Emperor's lightning mere seconds ago cutting into his physical body underneath the black mechanical suit.
That was why Darth Vader became so powerful, wasn't it? Because of his failure. Because of his injuries on Mustafar. Having lost all that he had turned to the Dark Side to preserve, and having no other path, he fully embraced the Dark Side and became, in the Emperor's words, a "true Sith." Consequently, he devoted himself fully to furthering his relationship with the Force and expanding his power. Both due to what Palpatine taught him about the relationship between Sith Master and Apprentice and his tendencies, Vader in his early apprenticeship was completely devoted to the Emperor-betraying another who was a son to him as well for his Master: Galen Marek. However, as his power increased, and particularly after learning of his son's existence, this devotion dwindled considerably.
Over the years, Vader developed a new, more hardened and disciplined persona. He became utterly ruthless, virtually devoid of mercy. Considered to be the Empire's first terror weapon and noted for employing antiquated diction, he was mucilaginous and unmovable and made most Imperial naval officers fearful. After his cybernetic reconstruction, Vader's connection to the Force strengthened considerably, to the point where his Master Sidious once complimented his powers as being "unparalleled". Though his injuries had physically crippled him, Vader believed that the suffering he had experienced had both perfected his spirit and freed him from the needs of the flesh, allowing him to concentrate solely on his relationship with the Force.
Oh, what a stupid fool he had been.
And now he recognized the truth about the Force. It had taken this long for him to know it. His children. His son standing before him and his daughter, whoever she was, as well. Overall, the Dark Side offered no solutions to problems, only death and destruction, an infectious disease that only helped spread to others, warping the mind and turning one into everything they've sworn to destroy.
While some abilities were used and even advised, it didn't mean that it had anything that could be used to preserve connections and such. The Light Side didn't either. Only a person and their choices could do that. If Anakin had made better decisions when offered, everything could have been different.
The Jedi, for all their imperfections, were superior when it came to the Sith and their twisted views on morality and how the Force worked. The Force wasn't balanced with the Sith. One had to practice inner peace and control to become at one with the Force. If only Skywalker recognized that. If only he realized killing Jedi spanning from the youngest in their cribs to the oldest who proudly wielded their lightsabers would result in nothing but death at the end.
How many lives had he ruined? Of all ages. The Dark Side had been coercing him on. He was morally corrupt and lost. If only Kenob... Obi-Wan had finished him on that lava bank years ago and stopped him before he could have killed all those people...
Death was inevitable in war.
But he'd acted with the power, grief, and all previous pain warping his mind and twisting him into a monster.
And he'd known he deserved a far more painful death.
The galaxy would think so.
He did as well.
His tough background provided no excuse for his actions. He had been a fool. A servant to the Dark Side. Lost in the monstrosity of his own making. He didn't deserve to see Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, or Padmé again. He had done this.
The Jedi were flawed — Anakin would be the first to admit that — but they didn't deserve to be exterminated. Perhaps they should have been reformed. It was unlikely that all of them would have agreed to that, but at least some of them deserved a chance to rebuild into something better and stronger.
Anakin caused this.
He should know pain...
It was painful, at least at first.
It was like he was relearning how to breathe and walk all at once time and time again. Eventually, he got the flow of it, though it was agonizingly slow. Likewise, his lungs were clear and rose and fell like a human all over again.
A familiar voice called out from afar, "Anakin."
That voice was familiar. "Obi-Wan? Master, I'm so sorry. So very, very—"
"Anakin, listen carefully," Obi-Wan interrupted. "You are in the netherworld of the Force, but if you ever wish to revisit corporeal space, then I still have one thing left to teach you. A way to become one with the Force. If you choose this path to immortality, you must listen now, before your consciousness fades."
Confusion and remorse threatened to overwhelm Anakin's psyche even as he answered, "But Master ... why me?"
"Because you ended the horror, Anakin," Obi-Wan said. "Because you fulfilled the prophesy. Because you were... and are... The Chosen One." A lengthy silence passed until Obi-Wan added, "Because I was wrong about you. And because I am your friend."
Shame boiled inside of him. His friendship with Obi-Wan sometimes felt like it transcended lifetimes back when he was a Jedi, and yet, it hadn't stopped their bond from straining as much as it did. But now, for Anakin to be given this small request, he would be grateful forevermore.
Something clicked into his side, and Anakin's vision blurred as he felt fire cutting into his body just like on Mustafar. The fire cut through him ever so deeply for a moment, passing and being submerged.
He blinked, and his mouth curved up into a frown. And then he recognized his breathing, feeling it travel through his body as he inhaled and exhaled. He analyzed himself and saw that he was now in brown robes, truly centered in the Force in this sincerity.
However, the shadow of his past deeds still hung over him. Depression, anger, and sadness burnt through his entire being. The Force provided him not with condemnation and anger, but comfort and reassurance.
And he'd spotted her.
His mother.
Her arms waited for him, beckoning him in. In a way only his mother could. He'd missed her for so, so long. Knew he would have disappointed her. For a moment, on Endor, he'd spotted his son and... the Princess of Alderaan. Organa's daughter. His daughter. He managed a small smile throughout the celebrations, satisfied and happy that at last the Emperor was dead and Luke and Leia would be able to lead the Rebel Alliance into hopefully a better position of power from the days of old.
As the celebration died down throughout the night, Anakin was certain that it was all truly over. The Force vibrated around him.
Suddenly, merciless and turbulent, his mind convulsed.
"Stop! Stop now! Come back! I love you!"
"Yes. I killed you. I killed you. I killed the child you carried. And I hate myself for all that I have done."
"I hate you!"
"You were my brother, Anakin, I loved you!"
"The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner. Now I am the Master."
"I've accepted the truth that you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father."
"By now you must know that your father can never be turned from the Dark Side. So will it be with you."
"I am a Jedi like my father before me."
"You were right."
Memories from the past filled his mind. He was supposed to be at peace. He was supposed to be balanced at long last. And in many ways, he was. He'd managed to forgive; to open his heart, to regain his humanity even with being One with the Force.
The Force had always been his sole companion, even when the unforgiving nature of the Dark Side so deeply corrupted him. It attempted to give him true freedom for so long, yet Anakin and even Darth Vader ignored its attempts. What had been on his mind was either remaining convicted of the Jedi's ways to rise through the ranks or finding a twisted sort of freedom in the Sith ways only for Darth Sidious to prohibit genuine freedom.
For so long, Anakin had been a slave to his own emotions, showering others with sacrifices of his own. Finally, Anakin spotted a memory of his younger self, his appearance not with the brunette he'd later grown it out to be, but with short hair and his old Padawan braid.
The young man hadn't seen him, sleeping restlessly, his control unraveled and unbalanced.
"Find your freedom, Anakin Skywalker. Follow the Force. Follow yourself. No longer be defined by the wants and needs of the others." A voice murmured in the corners of his senses. "This is your second chance. Take it."
And the Chosen One was compelled by the urge to reach out through the Force, outstretching his right arm and locking minds with his younger self.
On the consular ship in hyperspace, en route to the planet Coruscant, a young Jedi Padawan was resting after a taxing mission to Anison. He felt uncontrolled amounts of anxiety, his thoughts dwelling on his mother, on the reportedly new assignment that they were already tasked with when they arrived back in Coruscant.
Suddenly, he groaned as a Storm of the Force enveloped his senses, leading him to scream soundlessly. He attempted to call out his Master's name but only managed to utter a yelp of agony. Images of memories slowly flooded his mind; the Battle of Geonosis, the Clone Wars, Coruscant, Order 66, the Rise of the Empire, the Duel on Mustafar, his misdeeds as Darth Vader, the Death Star, haunting his son, and at last the events on the Second Death Star.
A conflicted soul merged with a matured mindset from afar.
A darkened soul was likewise winked out.
A new star was reborn through the ashes of the old, combining both attributes and powers of the older one.
All at once, he felt himself merging with another from afar. He'd spotted the twisted helmet belonging to that a figure of black metal staring down at him, and then a much lighter man with brunette hair doing likewise. A culmination of the two slammed into him all at once that it took the young man aback. The knowledge that he shouldn't have from both the Jedi and Sith was now embedded in his mind.
When his body stopped twitching and his head stopped pounding, he was at a pause for a moment, his closed eyes staring upwards as his body mellowed out in peace.
The Force coiled through his limbs, coursing down his entire body. He was far more powerful than Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader. It was not only traveling to a much younger body for him. A silent roar echoed through the galaxy. Despite his shimmering energy, the Force clouded over him, not wanting both the Jedi and Sith to rain down his radar.
The Reborn Anakin Skywalker opened his eyes for the first time in the past.
Author's note: My Luke Skywalker: Revived Hope has sparked a surprising amount of encouragement in me about writing into Anakin Skywalker time traveling yet again. I wanted to do one where he traveled to the beginning of ATOC and took it from there with many butterfly effects and changes to the timeline almost off the bat. I made stories like this multiple times in the past, but I was afraid of changing the timeline and adhering to the Original Timeline far too much, and it resulted in losing motivation very quickly. This time, I'm going all out.
While possessing good moral character, Anakin affiliated too much with the Jedi and Sith when they were both arguably terrible outcomes and didn't stand up for himself, thus ruining his own life as well since Anakin and Padmé had to live a toxic relationship, and I don't even have to go into detail why secret relationships never work. Here's my hot take, Anakin is the Simba, Zuko, Shadow, and Arthur Morgan of Star Wars but instead of rising to the challenge he fails to find his true self and thus falls into darkness until his son saves him. That aside, I grew with my stories and now at this time I realize that my older time travel stories also came from stories that wrote Vader post-ROTJ completely in the wrong way or limited his abilities and what he can do. While Anakin would still struggle in my opinion, he wouldn't be dark when peaceful situations present themselves and wouldn't let his life be ruined a second time over.
May the Force be with you all always.