Archive: SWA-L
Disclaimer: George owns Star Wars. I don't own much of anything, but
I do own this story.
Notes: There isn't any slash in this series yet, but
there will be, I promise. Luke will get some booty soon.
Pairing: An/Am
Rating: PG
Series: Sequel to "Returning."
Spoilers: Some PM spoilers.
Summary: Anakin and Luke must face the music.
Anakin ran his hands over his scalp, feeling the scars that crossed the hairless surface. He had been blond, once, blond like his son. He flexed his new right hand, and was pleased with the excellent calibration he sensed in it.
He heard fireworks overhead, and the sounds of music. He felt afraid, but he controlled it. Fear had destroyed him once; he would not let it happen again. As they took the lift down from the landing platform, he caught sight of his reflection on the metal wall.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a black life-monitor on his chest and a face that had once been handsome. A scar ran across his nearly-white skin, right under his eye. The black breath mask crossed his nose and traced his cheekbones, and his eyes were tinted green by the healing drugs that had saved his life years and years ago. "I had blue eyes like yours, a long time ago," he said.
"I know. Uncle Owen told me." Luke looked up at his father, his face Jedi-calm. "This will not be easy, Father."
"I know, my son."
Luke only nodded.
They took a speederbike to the village and climbed into the trees. Anakin realized as they climbed that the Jedi robes gave him a freedom his black suit had not--they moved gently and allowed the wind to cool him. Luke was still in black, and his graceful movements reminded Anakin of Amidala, of the way she ran and fought and of her swift uncertain stride through the sandy streets of Mos Espa.
The music was louder, and he could hear voices now. Some Alderaanean cadences--he winced at that--and Captain Solo and Lando Calrissian, Corellians both, and both with reason to hate him. And yet--the fear within him evaporated. He still had his power, and he could escape them if need be. And Luke would not allow them to attack. He concentrated on the flow of muscles beneath his clothes, allowing himself to feel them in a way he hadn't in years. Darth Vader had never wished to examine his own body; Anakin was curious about the changes in it since...since he had risen from the dead.
He was older, but very little slower, and he had more muscle mass. And he was strong in the Force, stronger than Luke, strong enough to build the Jedi into their former power, and rule the galaxy with his son at his side. He had seen that future once before, covered in darkness; now the vision brought only joy.
A slender young woman met them on the narrow bridge and flung herself into Luke's arms. "Luke!"
"Leia!"
Leia Organa of Alderaan, who had pressed herself against him for protection from Tarkin, who hated him like poison and yet had trusted him to hold her while her world was murdered. Bail Organa's beautiful daughter--oh, no, he realized, not Bail Organa's daughter, but his. He wondered why he hadn't seen it before, when she was elected to the Imperial Senate at sixteen. She had Amidala's eyes and soft brown hair, and like Luke she had Amidala's slender body.
He stood silently behind his son until she leaned back and opened her eyes. He could tell she was shocked and confused, not quite knowing who he was, but suspecting the worst.
"Leia. You know what I went to do. I told you I could save him."
"No, Luke." She yanked her arms away from him. "No."
"I did tell you."
"And I told you not to!"
"Leia--"
"My son. Perhaps now is not the time." He saw her relax marginally then, although he knew his voice was still Vader's voice, filtered through the mask.
She faced him calmly, only her eyes betraying her true feelings. "Who are you?"
"I am Anakin Skywalker, your father. I fulfilled the prophecy and brought balance to the Force, and now I will rebuild the Jedi."
He could see Luke trying not to smile.
Leia Organa clenched her fists and he knew she wanted nothing more than to kill him. "I know who you are," she said, her voice low and dangerous.
"You know who I was, my daughter. Who I am now is another matter."
"How can you be so calm! You who have--" She broke off, her hands trembling.
Luke and Anakin answered together. "There is no emotion; there is peace."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Her voice was still low, barely audible over the music and laughter coming from within the central hut.
Anakin sighed. "It's part of--"
He never finished the explanation, because her blaster was out and she was firing--and the bolts bounced harmlessly from his hand.
"I haven't lost any of my abilities," he said, his eyebrows raised.
Luke glanced from his sister to his father and said only "You'll have to teach me that."
"It works best with artificial limbs, though I can still do it with my natural hand." Anakin studied his daughter, who had holstered her blaster but who still glared at him with undisguised hatred. "Perhaps the son is not the one I should have tried to turn."
"Father." Luke's tone was mild, but Anakin could hear the tension underneath the words.
"Son. I may not be Darth Vader, but he is now a part of me, as Anakin was once a part of him."
Despite the gravity of the situation, Luke laughed. "Yes, I know. The Emperor could not drive Anakin from Vader, and I cannot drive Vader from Anakin. Without him, you would not survive."
Leia spoke up. "This is incredible! I can't believe--"
"I will stand trial, my daughter. You will have your revenge. But the Jedi way is not the way of the civil courts; Luke turned me, and he knows me as no other living being knows me. He knows the power of the Dark Side, and he knows what it took for me to overcome it. What you, or the Alliance, or the courts think is of no consequence: Anakin Skywalker is a Jedi again--and to the Jedi, that is what matters."
She moved towards him quickly, almost too quickly for him to react, and he had to remind himself that she was strong in the Force, too--and that strength gave her Jedi-fast reflexes. She was very close to him, trying to use the sheer weight of her personality to intimidate him. "And the Jedi don't care about all the people you've killed?"
"Most of the people I killed were Jedi. The vast majority of the rest were fighting in a war, and in wars people die."
"What about Alderaan?"
"Even I obeyed Tarkin, Princess. As you may recall. Alderaan was his decision and his order."
"You did nothing to stop him!"
"Do you know that? Were you with us every instant? As it happens, I believed both that you would give in to me before such measures became necessary, and that the destruction of an entire world was an unnecessary and ostentatious display of power."
She looked up at him, her eyes black with anger. "For everything you've done, I hate you. And I will have my revenge."
He felt sadness clench his chest, and he knew when he spoke that sorrow colored his voice. "Then it is just as well that I never thought to examine your parentage too closely. You will never make a Jedi, Leia of Alderaan--you are too dangerous, and you would be too easy to turn."
"Father," Luke said. "She should be trained."
Anakin met his son's eyes calmly. "No. And neither you nor I should have been trained. The Force is too strong in us. But we will not make that mistake with her."
His son's eyebrows shot upward. "My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained."
Anakin laughed, and Leia started violently at the sound. "Master Yoda trained you! No wonder you're so damn good. Why didn't you tell me?"
"And let you know he was still alive?"
"Oh, I knew, I just couldn't find him. I felt it when he died. Pity. We could have used him."
"Yoda is my Master. He will always be with me."
Leia interrupted. "Luke, why are you talking to him? I can't believe--"
Luke touched her cheek, brushing his fingers across the skin. "He is my father, and we are the last of the Jedi. The Force tells me everything about him that I need to know." She turned her head away.
"I don't believe it. He's a murderer, Luke, and worse."
"He is a Jedi Knight, and a Skywalker--and we are good people, but our capacity for great good is matched by our capacity for great evil. Search your feelings, Leia. You know this already."
She did not meet his eyes, and Anakin felt his son resign himself to her hatred. "I will have my revenge," she whispered, and disappeared into the hut.
Anakin looked at his son, saw the browned skin where the Emperor had burned him. He remembered that body, convulsed in pain, and Luke crying out for his father to save him. Such unmeasurable trust and love, backed by a Jedi's knowledge. He remembered the brilliant shock of pain as Darth Vader gave way to Anakin Skywalker, as everything he had felt for Shmi and Amidala and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and for his two children, unknown until almost too late, rose up within him.
"Then my father is truly dead." The pain started then, started with the unexpected grief that those words inflicted.
"You won't covert me as you did my father." He had hoped, then, for something out of his reach, and had quelled the hope before the Emperor could sense it.
"I am a Jedi, like my father before me." A gift, contained in the jerk of a head, as Luke faced the Emperor. With those words and that movement, Vader knew--and the Emperor knew--that Anakin still lived, that Luke could see the Jedi Knight hidden beneath the Sith Lord.
"Father, please."
"Please, Father, help me."
The Emperor had foreseen that Luke Skywalker might destroy the Sith. He had not foreseen how easily Vader would yield before the simple fearless love of a son for his father. Amidala had loved Anakin, but had feared him. Obi-Wan had loved him warily, one eye always on the danger he sensed in his young Padawan. Palpatine had loved controlling him--but trying to control him through his son had been a fatal error.
"Father?"
Anakin shook himself. "I'm well, my son. But I...have a great deal of thinking to do."
"We all do. The Alliance will be delighted to get their hands on you. I'll have to see what I can do about that."
"I will stand trial."
"I'm not sure you ever did anything illegal. We'll have to see. Shall we go in?"
Anakin looked ahead towards the lighted hut. Inside, he could hear Leia, her voice agitated, and Captain Solo trying to soothe her.
Behind him there was only darkness.
"Yes," he said, "let's go in."