Work Text:
Leach bonds are terrible things, Anakin muses as he watches the shift in his grandson. Truly, before, Ben had wanted to be saved, but, now…
Anakin wishes he could look back and pinpoint the date. The date he had lost his own mind to the most evil creature ever to live. He can’t.
Anakin sighs, watching the scene play out before him.
“Women don’t like it when you ask them to Join You,” he says, “Or Jedi, for that matter.”
“Ben…” says the girl. Anakin had watched her from afar, and he’d worried over the Galaxy from the moment she was born.
Even if Rey got things right, the Force never created a child without reason.
He remembers when he’d discovered Leach bonds. He’d been Vader for four years, and Sidious had utterly broken him down.
And then, when he’d been reading over a few Sith texts and marveling at his own stupidity, he’d discovered the term. He’d discovered the meaning…
And he’d known, then, that he couldn’t kill Sidious without such a high risk of his own death. If his suit was injured in the battle, the breaking of the bond would kill him.
But, when it had finally come down to it… with Luke, he had wanted to die. His anger had led the pain at bay, his hatred had filtered the sorrow.
And, of course, there was a strong correlation found between loss of Leach bonds mental scarring and a loss of will to live…
But Anakin still believes everything he…
He is still a terrible man, he still deserved a worse death than he was given.
The saber, his saber, breaks, and a wave ripples out into the Force. Much to his pleasure, Rey wakes up first.
She looks at him in shock.
“Who are you?” she asks. “And how did you get here?”
Anakin smiles.
“I’m a man who made mistakes,” he says. “With a grandson that made even more.”
Rey takes a step back.
“Darth Vader,” she says.
Anakin sighs.
“For more of my life than I wish,” he says, looking down. “Leave. I… Kylo Ren’s future is clouded, but not without hope… and you are… not to be the center of his story, nor he yours.”
Rey looks at him.
“Then what am I going to do?” she asks.
Anakin smiles once again.
“You’re going to save the Resistance,” he says, “And then you’re going to give the Jedi the rebirth that I never could, marred by the Shadow of Sidious, that Luke never could have done, innocent of the past… you have a chance that we never had… and right now, on that planet, is the first step.”
“And my… bond, with Kylo?”
Anakin shakes his head.
“Snapped with the death of Snoke,” he says, “I’ll set up one last meeting, but use it to get away from him… my grandson has just…”
Anakin sighs.
“There are things that you don’t need to know, quite yet,” he says, “Now go.”
Anakin smiles as Luke groans (and he tries to ignore the twelve years Luke had on him).
“Why did I agree to this?” he asks. Anakin shrugs.
“We bicker,” he says, “Sometimes, when we’re bored, we make alternate timelines. Unless you’re mentoring the next generation, there really isn’t much to do, and it seems like you’ve shoved Rey onto me.”
Luke stares at him.
“I knew that was where you were,” he says, “But now I almost want to know what you did.”
Anakin just smiles.
“Nothing important,” he says. “Just a little bit of advice.”
He times it perfectly, and smiles at Rey as she stares Kylo down and shuts the door on his face.
“That’s right,” he whispers, making sure it doesn’t sound to the living. “You owe him nothing, Sister.”
And, as he watches Rey treated finally as a hero and a person, he smiles.
The moment Leia is alone-ish as there is room for on the cramped Falcon , she calls him. They’d found an understanding years ago (after Ben had Fallen), even if her side is pity and hurt, and his side is regrets.
“You spoke to her, didn’t you?” she asks. Anakin nods, and she sighs. “Of course you did, I could see it in her eyes. Our fire.”
Anakin just looks away.
“Kylo’s future is clouded, now more than ever,” he says, “I… you know that I’d never dare ask your forgiveness, and that’s why I have never told you unail after, but… Leech Bonds, they… they can wrap around you until all of your perceptions are warped, and… here’s the thing, Senator, when they break…”
Anakin lets the words hang, more clear than any words in any of the fifteen languages he knows ever could be. He sighs.
“Maybe,” he says, “Maybe there still is hope… but he is lost, now, and he revels in it… I’m so sorry, Leia.”
(Never daughter. She wasn’t his daughter, and he wasn’t her father. The Organas held that title because of his own mistakes.)
Leia just shakes her head before gesturing to Dameron, Rey, and Finn crowded around Tico’s bed.
“They’re the hope now,” she says. Anakin smiles, and he nods.
“Tico isn’t Force Sensetive,” he says. “But, yes, and… well, their futures are far clearer, and far brighter.”
“They always are.”
“You definitely were.”
Leia shakes her head again.
“No,” she says, “Han was… well, he was Han, Luke… well, he was innocent for the Outer Rim, and I… I put the mission first until it was too late.”
Anakin smiles.
“I think I’m proof that it’s never too late,” he says, but Leia sees through him in a second as she scoffs.
“You literally admitted that your death was a mercy you didn’t deserve,” she says. Anakin just shrugs.
“It’s true,” he says because it really was. Leia just stares.
“If Rey is who I think she is,” she says, “I hope she stays safe.”
Anakin smiles.
“If you think she’s the new Chosen One,” he says, “Then you got it in one.”
Leia finally smiles as well.
“Well,” she says, “I’m sure she has a great example to look up to.”
And Anakin laughs.
(Across the room, three of the new heroes stare.
“What are you looking at?” the fourth asks. Rey just smiles.
“I think we’re looking at Leia laughing with a dead man,” she says. When the others look at her, she just shrugs.
“I’ll tell you later,” she says)
“Yes,” he says, “A wonderful example.”
Leia just smirks.
“Just tell my brother to stop by when he’s sick of you,” she says, “Because I know he’s with you.”
And, as Anakin slowly fades away from the physical world, he allows a smirk to cross his own face.
“Don’t worry,” he says, “I will.”