[Short Stories] - Dark Emperor 3(16)

“I’m your son,” Luke said simply. “I had to believe in the good in my father if I was to have any hope for the good in myself. Besides, once I accepted the truth that you were my father, I thought back to how on Cloud City, you could have killed me. But you didn’t. There must still have been something of Anakin in you.”

“It was a near thing, my son. You took a terrible risk. I would have killed you, had the Emperor commanded me to. You came close to killing me, too. Such is the power of the dark side. Never underestimate it, my son.”

“I did come close. Too close.” Luke remembered the moment all too well. The dark side had responded to him so quickly and powerfully once he had opened himself to it. “It was your threat to turn Leia to the dark side that pushed me over the edge. I’m not sure how to put this… I loved her, Father. I saw her image and followed it across the galaxy. I wanted her to be mine, to love me back. But she fell in love with Han, and then I learned she was my sister. I know she can never be mine, but I still love her, even now. I couldn’t bear to think of her going through what I was going through. But in the end, when I had you at my mercy, when the Emperor was calling out for me to kill you, what held me back was this.” Luke held up his prosthetic right hand. “I saw your severed hand, bionic like mine, and I realized that a vision I saw during my training was coming true. If I continued down the dark path, I would become Darth Vader. The hand that Vader cut off saved both of us.”

Luke couldn’t help but recall the horrible attack of the Emperor that had nearly killed him. “You saved my life, too, Father. The Emperor would have killed me then and there.”

“The Emperor’s hold on me was strong, Luke. I had to obey him, no matter what. Even when I realized he wanted me dead. When you and I fought, He didn’t aid me with his powers. On the contrary, he clouded my mind as he once did to Obi-Wan. That, combined with the power given to you by the dark side, was enough to seal my fate as your victim. You withheld, but still I went back to my Master’s side. I needed his presence to replace the emptiness of all that I had lost because of him. He knew that, and thought his hold on me was absolute. But then I saw you dying, and Anakin was reborn. I realized that what I felt for you was love, an emotion I had forgotten. Palpatine’s hold on me was broken. I suddenly saw him, not as my dark Master, but as a small, twisted old man, full of spite and cruelty. And this foul creature was killing my son. I knew what I had to do. Though it killed me, I had to save you.”

“Father, how did the Emperor come so close to winning? He seemed to know me completely, before I even arrived. He knew exactly what would tempt me to the dark side.”

Anakin replied seriously, “The Emperor could foresee many things. Before our battle, he told me that you would turn to the dark side if all you held dear was threatened. Your friends, and the Rebel Alliance itself were to be in mortal danger, driving you to seek the power you couldn’t find in the light side of the Force. He did know you, and so he would have won, except that he did not know me.”

Luke smiled grimly at the irony. Palpatine had kept the instrument of his own destruction by his side for twenty years. His overconfidence had been his weakness after all. A man who had been one of the Jedi had avenged his kind against their conqueror in the end.

“Yoda tells me that your destiny is a great one, Luke. He says that restore the Jedi you will. Excuse me, that you will restore the Jedi. I believe in you, my son. One day, you will be a Jedi Master. Through you, the Jedi will return.”

Luke smiled at his father. Anakin had begun to fade away. “I must leave you now, Luke. Be strong, and believe that someday, you will find love. The Force will be with you, always.”

“Good-bye, Father,” said Luke sadly. Luke’s father shimmered and was gone, leaving Luke alone in the quiet starlit clearing. And you shall always be with the Force, Father, Luke thought. Deep in his heart, he knew the Jedi had already returned.

Š Text copyright 1997 Brendon J.Wahlberg.