Invaders of Darkness

Epilogue

Author's Note: Enjoy the ending! Thank you all so, so much for reading, voting, and/or commenting on this story! :D:D:D

~ Amina Gila

Sometimes, Kanan thinks that he's literally the only member of the Ghost crew who still finds anything strange about this.

Kanan stands in the tall grass near the outskirts of the city of Lothal where they're living now, watching as Hera and... Vader? – or should he be calling him Anakin? – continue a very long discussion that has something to do with ships.

Generally, Vader never talks to them much or spends much time around them – even if they're technically living right in the same area – but the biggest exception to that seems to be whenever something about ships comes up. The technicalities of the conversation between him and Hera right now totally lost Kanan a long time ago.

It's been five years since what happened on Malachor. Five years in which the galaxy has changed completely. They were fighting a seemingly losing battle against the Empire before, but now it's gone. The main part of it is, anyway. Of course, there's still some groups here and there that still support the former Empire and are fighting for control against the new Republic, but they've still actually won.

They chased the Empire off Lothal within not much more than a year after Malachor, and after that, it seemed to be nothing but defeat after defeat for the Empire. Although he and the rest of the Ghost crew still helped somewhat with the Rebellion, they've been staying mostly on Lothal ever since to help get the planet back to normal like it used to be. Besides, someone had to stay around to make sure the Empire didn't try to move in all over again, and the Rebel Alliance wasn't going to do anything like that for any individual planets.

While they were busy here, Luke, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka – along with the help of Vader – were able to defeat the Emperor, which officially ended the Empire. Although the four of them are also still working on trying to get the rest of the galaxy back in order, they've been mostly living on Lothal too.

Getting to know Vader was... weird, to say the least. It was beyond jarring to realize what had happened to the one person Kanan had literally spent half of his life worshipping. Still, seeing the way Vader often acted, especially at first, often disturbingly reminded him a lot of the way Ezra was initially after getting back from being with the Inquisitors.

No, it wasn't exactly the same, because it's not like Vader remembered nothing of his old life, but the whole seeming tendency to follow orders when he wasn't in charge of the situation and acting quite... robotic a lot of the time, is something they actually did have in common. Which had to mas to make Kanan wonder how much say Vader really had in any of the things he did under the Empire.

Kanan already knows that being a Sith or using the Dark Side doesn't make someone inherently evil. It's the intention. He lost his way himself, once, not to mention what happened to Ezra. So, he's not going to judge Vader for things that he doesn't really understand.

Besides, Luke clearly trusts him a lot and cares about him deeply, so that's good enough for Kanan. Even if he still finds interacting with the former Sith to be quite awkward. He's pretty sure the feelings are mutual, regardless. That, or the former Sith isn't the most comfortable around Jedi, in general, which is hardly surprising considering that he apparently was one of the ones who was involved in destroying the Order in the first place.

The door to their house opens, and Ezra steps out, approaching Vader and Hera. "Hey!" he calls cheerfully. Remembering the way he used to be when the Ghost crew first found him, it's still jarring to see how much he's grown up. Even if he still often acts like a literal child. He is only going on twenty-three, after all. He was finally able to lay the past to rest when his memories fully came back. At least Ezra has assumed they have, though given how tricky the mind is, Kanan knows that it's hard to be certain.