Destiny (Star Wars)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I pledge myself to your teachings. To the ways of the Sith."

Anakin was kneeling in front of a hooded figure in Chancellor Palpatine's office. Three Jedi lay dead in the back of the room.

"Good, good," a throaty and mysterious voice said. Despite the strange sound, it was recognizable as Palpatine's voice. All that was visible beneath his hood was a distorted and wrinkled face. "The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth . . . Vader."

"Thank you," said Anakin in a small voice, "my Master."

Moments flashed by. Screams filled Ahsoka's head.

"Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!" A windy platform in a cloudy city, an all black figure called Darth Vader looming above a bleeding and exhausted young man, resembling Anakin Skywalker.

Another.

Darth Vader kneeling before a hologram of Darth Sidious. "What is thy bidding, my Master?"

More.

"He will join us or die, my Master!"

And more.

"The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet." Darth Vader taunting a young Jedi-in-training, a maintenance hall on Cloud City.

They wouldn't stop.

"You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did."

Ahsoka didn't understand.

"Luke . . . help me take this mask off." A barely recognizable and wheezing Darth Vader lay dying on the ramp of an imperial shuttle.

"But you'll die." Luke protested.

"Nothing . . . can stop that now. Just for once... let me... look on you with my own eyes." Anakin insisted, and Luke complied. He smiled.

"Now . . . go, my son. Leave me."

"No. You're coming with me. I'll not leave you here, I've got to save you."

"You already . . . have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister . . . you were right."

They broke her heart.

"So, you have accepted the truth?" Luke stands next to Darth Vader in binders on the forest moon of Endor.

"I have accepted that you were once a Jedi named Anakin Skywalker, my father."

"That name no longer has any meaning for me!"

The scenes blurred together, the voices becoming one, until they all stopped and a single sequence was left.

"Lord Vader, can you hear me?" Darth Sidious stands in a dark room, next to a large black body strapped to a table.

"Yes, my Master . . . Where is Padme? Is she safe, is she all right?"

"I'm afraid she died . . . it seems in your anger, you killed her."

"I couldn't have! She was alive! I felt her! She was alive! It's impossible! No!"

As the man bellows, his face became visible beneath the helmet. The charred and damaged skin reformed to reveal the face recognized by many as Anakin Skywalker.