Star Wars: Legacies

Anakin

Anakin groaned, holding the side of his head, his eyes still squeezed shut as he fought off a horrendous migraine. He was within the walls of a dimly lit, dark castle. Mortis, in the dwelling of The Father.
Luke was knelt on the ground at his side, also assuming a meditative position. His son was dressed in gold and white robes, side-eying Anakin warily. He had an odd, luminous light about him, like that of the sun. Behind him he felt another presence, that of his daughter.
"You have done what is forbidden," he told her, standing. Luke quickly followed suit, but Anakin waved a hand, wordlessly telling him to sit back down. Luke obeyed, reassuming his meditation.
"You have chosen the Dark Side, and allowed it to feed your anger and desire for power," he chastised Leia, facing her. She was dressed in black and red, her long hair in dark braids. They contrasted her painted white skin, the same face paint she used during her term as queen, with two red dots on her cheeks. She was scowling, her displeasure extremely apparent.
"By bringing Talon here, you've shown me my potential, you've only yourself to blame!" She shot back. Anakin tried not to flinch at her words, as they cut horribly deep.
"Do not do this, Leia. Do not become what you should not," he begged, walking with her down one of the illuminated paths of his castle, "Be strong, I implore you, or else I will be forced to contain you."
Leia stopped walking, her glowing red eyes looking cold and dim, "You look frail, Father."
"I am not dead yet," he assured her, approaching the door.
"Well," she paused, "perhaps I am tired of waiting!" She shouted, lashing out as scarlet bolts of lightning erupted from her fingertips.
Anakin fell backwards over the edge of the platform to the ground, electricity paralyzing his every nerve.
"I hate you!" Leia shrieked angrily, her voice seeming to reverberate throughout the entire dwelling. Anakin rolled to a stop on the ground as an ear splitting roar filled the air.
"Father!" Luke yelled in anguish as his sister morphed to the form of a massive beast and fled. The world shifted, and he found himself standing in a massive, dark throne room, yellow light filtering through the tall windows. His presence was there, but his body was not.
Leia turned towards the approaching figure, Luke, as he calmly walked towards her.
"Brother," she purred, "What a pleasant surprise."
"What have you done, sister?!" Luke demanded, glaring at her defiantly.
"Done?" she asked, looking genuinely confused, "I have done what is right... or what is wrong," she relented, sitting on her throne, "depending on your point of view."
Her form seemed to glitch like a hologram for a moment, and for a second Anakin thought he saw the visage of a pale man with red marks on his face, before reverting back to his daughter, folding her hands.
"Our father is dying. Did you do it?" Luke asked, his voice pained as he took a step forward.
"He is just so selfish, and was taking too long to die, so I decided to move things along. Now, why are you here?"
"I won't let you leave this planet," Luke resolved, clenching his fists and taking another step forward.
She grinned and stood up, "You are not strong enough to keep me here. If you will stand in my way, then I guess we must fight."
His vision blurred, but he could still hear them, the sounds of their struggle against one another. "You don't have to do this!" Luke pleaded.
"Then stand aside!" Leia demanded, followed by the crackling of electricity. "I can't, I won't!" His son insisted.
The struggle moving far away, Anakin found himself back within his own body, far away from his warring children. He charged forth into the night, determined to stop them.
Instead he found himself back in The Father's palace, but reality had shifted. His body felt younger and his mind more clouded and angry as he stood before the Father himself. He felt human, whereas before his being felt as if it were made up entirely of the Living Force. This was a memory, one from long ago, over 20 years.
"You cannot imagine what pain it is to have such love for your children, and realize they could tear the very fabric of our universe."
"I don't- understand," Anakin said in a voice that sounded so young and frustrated.
"It is only here that I can control them. A family in balance, the light and the dark, day with night, destruction replaced by creation."
His vision shifted again, and he suddenly found himself standing alone in the middle of a massive stone pavilion, surrounded by tall spires of rock. There was an intricate gold inlay to the stones, one that glowed and shifted. He could feel the raw power coursing through his veins as he pulled the two demigods to his will. The sky shifted from day to night above him, his own voice nearly unrecognizable. "On your knees!" he shouted in a voice that sounded deep and ancient. The creatures before him writhed and screamed, but were powerless against his will. The night shifted back into daylight, and the beasts before him reverted to the bodies of the Son and the Daughter, both on their knees as he had commanded.
"And now you see who you truly are," The Father said from behind him, "Only the Chosen One could tame both my children."
Anakin tried to catch his breath, shocked by how his lungs felt, as if they'd never been permanently damaged by Palpatine at all, however he was still tired and breathless. "I have taken your test. Now fulfill your promise and let us go."
"Ah, but first you must understand the truth," he looked past Anakin to his children, "Leave us."
He immediately knew something was off. The Father had said 'Now, all of you, leave us,' all those years ago, and suddenly, he realized that Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were nowhere to be found. He whipped around to look at the Son and the Daughter, his breath suddenly catching in his throat as he looked into the eyes of his own children.
Luke dutifully bowed to the Father's request, looking briefly at Anakin expectantly. Leia just stared at him sadly before the two of them seemed to evaporate. Anakin desperately reached out to grab his daughter's hand, but it melted to nothing.
All of a sudden, the sky shifted to the violet of dusk, and Anakin could feel himself age twenty years as he felt as if he'd just been woken up. His head cleared, and he realized all that had come before was nothing more than a dream. He was completely alone in this place, safe for the lingering of the Father's presence.
Anakin turned to face him, strangely calm.
"Am I dead?" he inquired.
"Why would you ask such a question?" The Father responded.
Anakin scoffed, "Because you are. This isn't a dream, it's a vision."
"You seem to have wisened over the years, young Skywalker."
"I'm hardly considered young anymore," Anakin countered.
"Oh you most definitely are," The Father assured him.
"What's going on?" he asked, taking a tentative step forward.
"You are near death, but not quite," The father explained, "This is the only state in which I am able to properly speak with you. I am one with the Living Force. As you edge closer to joining me, the nearer we become. Hence my desire to speak with you."
Anakin frowned, "It's the prophecy, isn't it?"
"Yes, and no," The Father stroked his beard, "I withdrew my children from the mortal plain to maintain balance within the universe. I created Mortis to contain them."
"So that's what those visions meant," he responded, despair heavy in his voice, "I am destined to exist as you did? Spend eternity trying to keep my children from killing each other?" Dark cracks began spreading across the sky and into the stone, like the entire plain of existence was a clay pot cracking to pieces. The pieces shifted as they broke, some showing the dawn, others the night, or the day.
"You misunderstand," The Father explained, "My son chose the Dark Side, your daughter has yet to choose the same. Destiny can change just as quickly as the love in one's heart can fade. Nothing is set in stone."
"Then what must I do?" Anakin asked, his voice heavy with grief.

"Have faith, Chosen One. Allow the Force to shape the way forward. Your children are on their own path now, you must only hope it is one you have prepared them for."
"So you want me to do nothing?" Anakin demanded.
"The Force requires balance, Anakin Skywalker. I implore you to let go, and allow it to guide your son and daughter as it did you."
"And if I don't?"
"Then your destiny is doomed to be the same as mine," The Father warned. The sky began to crumble around them, and Anakin stepped away from the fissures ripping through the ground. The Father too began to evaporate into the wind, and Anakin closed his eyes as the world shattered to pieces. He reached out, desperately trying to find Luke and Leia, to give them one final lesson.
"Trust in the Force."