LOST KINGDOM ─ star wars

XXXVII. The Return

Chapter Thirty-Seven
Vader

Luke lets out a huff of frustration and pushes against our combined blades, making me stumble backwards a few feet. He steps away from the Emperor, his lightsaber still ignited, but then he turns it off, saying confidently: "I will not fight you, Father."

A tightness forms in my chest at the sound of him calling me that, which worsens when images of his mother appear in my mind, a person equally as stubborn and determined as him.

I glance at the Emperor, who is enjoying every second of this, his smile so wide his yellow teeth are on full display. The plan, according to him, was to kill Luke, 'the last Jedi', but this whole time he's been working to recruit Luke, not kill him...just another thing he's lied to me about. I feel a rush of relief knowing that Luke is safe from him, for now at least. The Emperor is wise, cold, and calculating. The only way Luke will survive this is by turning to the dark side, and if he's anything like his mother, which I know he is, he'll never turn. The alternative is death, and I know I will not allow that to happen.

If I want to protect him, I have to move this process along.

"You are unwise to lower your defenses." I say as I swing at him. He reignites his lightsaber and meets my strike, his training kicking in as I attack again, then again, then again. Unlike our last fight on Naboo, Luke is taking the defensive here, only blocking my attacks, not making any of his own. He truly doesn't want to fight me. My chest tightens even more, but I brush it off. I have to focus. I have to keep my son alive.

"Your thoughts betray you, Father. I feel the good in you. The conflict." He grits out as I swing at him again, but this time he ducks, then uses the force to shove me back. I don't move very far, but it's far enough to give him time to put some distance between us, maneuvering around the many chairs to achieve this goal.

"Why are you fighting for him?" Luke asks, gesturing to Sidius. "Don't you know what he's done to you? To my mother, to our family?"

I pause, glancing between Sidius and him. Luke takes this as a cue to continue. "You turned to the dark side to save my mother's life. You thought she was going to die in childbirth and you were willing to do anything to save her. The Emperor knew that, he knew he could manipulate you because of how fiercely you loved her. When my mother went into labor, she was killed not because of giving birth, but because the Emperor drained her of her life force to save you. Then he claimed it was your fault, that you killed her, just so he could manipulate you more."

My eyes slide from my son to my master, and I see the confirmation of what Luke is saying in the anger and annoyance in Sidius's gaze.

"My mother is dead because of him. Our family was torn apart because of him. We could have been happy, the four of us. We could have been together. He took that from us." Luke finishes, his anger nothing compared to the anger flowing through me.

I remember the sound of Fallon's screams in the memory I saw in Aiden's mind. I remember the pale and sickly look in her eyes, the pain filled expression she had. All this time I thought her death was my fault, I thought I had killed her, that I wasn't strong enough to save her from the visions that plagued me of her demise. But it was him. It was the Emperor. He used me, manipulated me, took everything I loved away from me. Because of him, because of his craving for power, he corrupted my soul and turned me into the same power hungry monster he was. He stole my future away from me, stole my wife, my son, my daughter. He stole everything.

What should I do? Could what Luke was saying be true? Could I find my way back to the light? I've been drowning in darkness for so long I can't even remember what the light feels like. I have only known coldness, not warmth. The Jedi taught me that once you you go down the path of the dark side that you will never be able to return. What if they were wrong? What if that was just apart of their own hubris? Since I lost Fallon and thought I lost my child, I stayed Sidius's apprentice because I thought I had no other choice. I thought that I had dug my grave and now must lie in it. But now is there another option?