Sacrifice - A Star Wars Fanfic

Chapter 25

       "F-f-fath...p-pl-ea..." Luke struggled for words, another hacking cough leaving his tiny frame. Vader moved forward then, closing the ramp behind him and kneeling beside the cot. Using his uninjured hand, he took Luke's palm from Anakin's and grasped it in his own large, gloved one. He squeezed it firmly and stared lovingly down at the young Jedi.

       Then, with Anakin staring at him in shock, the redeemed Sith took advantage of the silence and reached for his helmet release. "Wait," Anakin cried. Vader looked up.

       "Won't that kill you?" He asked almost timidly, unable to process the scene.

       Vader sighed. "Only if I leave it off long enough. I...I have to see him. These ocular lenses only give me a red tinted view of the universe. I...I don't even know the real color of my son's eyes."

       Without listening to any further protest, Vader slid the helmet off, a rattling breath leaving his graying lips as he struggled to breath without his respirator. Luke smiled weakly, reaching up a trembling hand up to touch his father's true face.

        "I...saved you..." He mumbled weakly, getting a choked sob out of Vader and another small smile.

        "Yes you did my son...my little boy..." Vader tried to imagine what Luke looked like as a child and lowering his head in shame. He looked back up at Anakin and gave him a firm look. "You must fix this. All of it. Fix my mistakes."

        "I...I will." Anakin said, kneeling as well. Luke's blue eyes shifted towards him, full of love.

        "F-father?" Luke rasped, another weak cough leaving him.

        "Yes?" Anakin asked, knowing that Luke was talking to him now.

        "I...I'm sorry y-you had to...w-w-witness this. I...believe y-you c-can ch-change things..." His eyes suddenly widened. "L-leia...H-han...the o-others."

       "They'll be alright." Vader said, a weak cough leaving him as well as he hesitantly reached for his helmet again.

        Anakin studied his future self and thought back to the unbearable pain of the flames consuming every inch of him on Mustafar. He had thought he could kill himself to stop any of that from happening...and apparently so had Vader...but he now realized Luke had been right all along. If he simply embraced being a Jedi and his destiny as the Chosen one, defeating Palpatine and bringing balance to the Force like he was supposed to, then none of this would ever happen.

        But..."How will I get back?" Anakin asked.

        A small laugh left Luke, followed immediately by another dry cough. "I didn't s-stab myself j-just as a dis-distraction. H-hopefully my death will b-be a big enough shift in the F-force to send y-you home."

         Anakin blinked, not realizing that it could possibly work.

        Before he could ask more, the shuttle shook violently. "The Rebels." Vader said, his helmet now completely sealed. He stood quickly and rushed toward the cockpit, starting up the repulsorlifts and setting their course for the moon of Endor.

        "Luke?" Anakin asked his son, grasping his small hand firmly and not wanting the inevitable to happen...but knowing it had to.

         The young man smiled faintly, his eyes now looking somewhere only he could see. Just as they fluttered closed, a faint whisper left his parted lips, "M-mother?"

        And the tiny hand, much too young, fell limp in Anakin's grasp.

       The Force bond they had made over the time he had been here faded away as Luke Skywalker became one with the Force.