Week 4: Peace

In another timeline, Luke does save his father. In that timeline, Leia scowls in the corner of the room as Vader's new prosthetics are replaced with new models, and he heals under the careful and concerned eye of his son. In that timeline, Luke drags his barely conscious body on board the shuttle and clasps his hands the entire ride to the rebel base, to a real doctor. Luke will not let him take his helmet off, and he feels Luke's presence in the Force, resolute in the light, but resolute also in his decision; he will not let his father die. Luke, untrained though he is, manages something like a healing trance. In that timeline, it is the first time Vader is touched by another living being in over twenty years –his son's hands soft and startlingly cool on his face before the healers get ahold of him.

In that timeline, Vader is put on trial, but the New Republic will not execute him (as a favor to Luke, he knows), and he is visited by Luke, and sometimes Luke and Leia together, and he teaches them what he can about the Force. And then, after ten years, he dies. He has a grandson (Ben, after Obi-Wan; in this timeline, Ben doesn't fall), and though Leia will not let Anakin meet Ben, he loves him nonetheless.

But in this world, Luke cannot save Vader, and the part of Vader that knows he does not deserve to live, and certainly doesn't deserve his son looking at him like he's decided that he will move worlds to keep him from dying, is grateful.

Luke is so much brighter in the Force than Vader can remember anyone else being. The Force settles around him comfortably, shimmers where Luke's body touches it. Vader can feel Luke reaching out, to Vader, to the Force in general, the way Obi-Wan had when he was alive, leaving his worries, his doubt, his fear all up to the Will of the Force. The way Anakin never could.

He's dying anyway. He wants to see Luke without the ghastly tinge of red, would like to see how much he looks like his mother. There's still a protest left hanging in the Force as Luke fumbles with his helmet and looks at the horror that is his father, but it leaves the second Anakin remembers himself. Luke must feel it, the wave of regret that washes over Anakin as the remnants of Vader crumble with his walls. The Emperor is dead, and with it all that Vader stood for. Everyone Anakin once loved is gone –killed by him. The horror of it should be too much, but for the first time in his life –either of his lives, as Anakin or as Vader –he is able to bear it.

It is so overwhelmingly wonderful to have what is left of his senses back, after all these years. Luke his young, his face hardened beyond his years by the war and by the Force. His eyes are clear, bright, and insistently blue. He could be the spitting image of Anakin, if Anakin had made it to twenty-three. The sounds of the second death star are both more muddled and crisper than anything else, a rumble of background noise, the most important sounds clear –the sounds of Luke's voice, cracking with emotion. He can smell his own (and Luke's) flesh and clothes still burning, and it doesn't make his stomach churn as much as he thought it would. It will be the last thing he smells, but it's not accompanied by the same pain as it once was, twenty years before, when he thought the same thing then, too.

There's only a little fear. Death never sat well with Anakin Skywalker, and now he must, finally face it. His own death. He's not sure that he is ready to transform into the Force, he is not sure he is ready to leave, especially since he has just now begun to live again. But he is sure that he does not have a choice.

Luke looks around fearfully. He knows that the Death Star is going to collapse. It's only a matter of time. And Anakin is going to die anyway. Luke will leave. Anakin will not blame him, and though Anakin wants nothing more than for Luke to stay, to find a way to save him, he knows Luke will not. Vader does not deserve for Luke to stay. Does not deserve Luke's love.

Luke's hand is still tight around Vader's. Anakin looks into his eyes.

"I'll not leave you here," Luke insists. Something fiery and familiar behind his eyes. Anakin's vision is starting to cloud, his fear starting to fade. Luke's grip tighten. "I can save you."

There's a nagging memory at the back of Anakin's mind, but he can't quite recall it. It would mean taking his eyes off of his son, and he is determined that Luke will be the last thing he sees. Instead, relief washes over Anakin. He is about to be freed from his suit, from his decomposing, injured body. Soon, there will be nothing but the Force. Soon Vader will be nothing to him but a distant, terrible, memory. The Emperor is dead, Obi-Wan is dead, Padme, his mother. Luke will bring a new generation of Jedi, as soon as he lets go.

Anakin has played his part in the galaxy, and the Force, for the first time in his memory is not quaking in anticipation of something to happen. This is the end of Anakin Skywalker's story. And for the first time, Anakin Skywalker is at peace with this.

He grips Luke's cybernetic hand. Luke is not like him. Luke will never be like him. Luke has saved him, done the impossible. Saved the unsavable, brought a Jedi back from the darkside. Brought Anakin Skywalker peace, balance at last.

A/N: Anyway, you may have some questions. For example: Isn't this two days late, technically? What is this? Did you even proofread this, jeez!? Wait, so Anna, who do you think is the Chosen One? Do you have any thoughts on The Last Jedi?

And to all of those questions, I can only shrug. Anyway, I hope you had a merry Christmas, rest easy in the knowledge that in spite of Star Wars being Anakin's story, Luke is probably the Chosen One after all, and regardless of any problems The Last Jedi had, you enjoyed it all the same.