Revelation

 

Darth Vader dreams of Padmé just before capturing Luke on Endor.

  

Millions of stars twinkled outside the viewport of the ship, Executor, but Darth Vader couldn’t see them. Deep in slumber, one of the few he’d had recently, the Dark Lord’s mind drifted where time doesn’t exist – it just is…

 

In spite of the darkness, he could see her clearly, as she stood before him. Long, dark curls cascaded around her face. Brown eyes that sparkled with the love she carried in her heart. And her touch… She reached up and gently stroked his cheek…

He jerked away. He didn’t want her to see him this way – deformed and mutilated. The shame he felt from his injuries, inflicted by his former Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. How could she love him now?

In his dream, he turned…and ran… He couldn’t look upon her and see the pity in her eyes for what he had suffered. His Angel, how could she even bear to see him thus?

 

Suddenly, he stopped as if he’d run into a wall, his body roughly falling backward and onto the hard ground. He looked up, wondering what had stopped him only to gaze into his wife’s face. Her outstretched hand reached out to him. He looked back down at his limbs, encased by the technology he so coveted. His gaze traveled up toward one arm and then the other – both victims of the same fate.

And still she beseeched him with her hand.

“Take it and all will be well,” he heard inside his mind.

“All I’ve done… My crimes,” Lord Vader dipped his head to his chest. “I killed you, Padmé!” Suddenly his head jerked up and he stared hard at his beloved wife. “Don’t you understand? I KILLED YOU!” Tears he had repressed for over two decades began crashing down upon him like a brutal thunderstorm. “How can you still want me?” His voice was like a child wanting acceptance but also afraid and angry.

“You can’t keep running,” Padmé softly said, reaching out and laying her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “You are the ‘Chosen One’ and it is time to fulfill your destiny.”

“My destiny?” Anakin could hear the satire in his own voice. “There is no balance to restore, Padmé! It died when I became the Emperor’s slave.” Vader suddenly cringed. Memories of Watto and Tatooine began to circulate in his mind. “A slave…” he admitted dejectedly. “I had it all, Padmé. You, our baby, the Jedi, but I couldn’t stop there. I had to save you when you didn’t need it.” The Dark Lord considered his thoughts. “I-was-convinced…” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Power – it was all about power and having it all. I sacrificed all that I loved most for Palpatine’s lies.”

Padmé embraced him, her arms filled with the warmth Vader could only remember in his dreams. “You have one task that awaits you, my love.” Her melodious voice drifted into his ears, soothing his raging soul. “You know what you must do.”

“The Emperor,” Vader replied, his arms wrapping around her body, fearing to let go. For doing so may signal the end of his dream.

Padmé drew back just enough to look into his eyes and cupped his face in her delicate hands as she said, “Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, no longer exists. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker has returned. Our son needs his father. Save him and you save yourself.”

Her body began to shimmer and fade, but her eyes never left his.

 

“NNNNOOOOOOO! PADMÉ!” Vader shouted as he awoke, his face still wet from his tears. He quickly sat up in bed. “Light,” he ordered and then glanced around his quarters. Everything was as it should be. He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands wondering what had just happened. He had experienced dreams before but this was much more. The Force? Is it playing with my mind? he silently considered.

 

“Anakin.”

 

Then he heard her – her voice – calling a name that hadn’t reached his ears in over twenty years. It was a ghostly echo but he’d heard it all the same.

It was time. Time for the madness and suffering to end – for Palpatine’s rule to wither and die.

 

“I’ll see you soon, my Angel,” he avowed and lay back down. “My family…”

 

Lord Vader slept that night as he hadn’t since he last lay in his wife’s arms. It would be his last night on the Executor and of his servitude to the Empire. Darth Vader was dead – Anakin Skywalker had returned.

 

Luke Skywalker had been right – there was good in his father.

 

Finis