Chapter Text
Anakin Skywalker was dying. The redeemed man knew it well and was at peace with the fact. There would be no place for him in the New Republic, he was aware, and Luke would be much better off when he would not need to stand in his father’s dark shadow. The young man had made his own place in the Rebellion forces; he would only suffer if his friends and allies would find out who exactly his parent was and what he had done – perhaps sometimes later some of them might be told, but not right now, not when the damage Darth Vader had helped to force on the Galaxy was still hurting so much.
Luke was not taking his approaching demise well; Anakin could feel it through their fragile Force bond, a connection that was not supposed to form and yet was there and was hurting the young man greatly right now – as it was also how Luke knew so surely that his father would not stay alive much longer. The young man wished otherwise, prayed with his whole heart to any deity that might be listening to him there and then, but deep down he had to know that his efforts were meaningless – Anakin had already been saved, it was the soul that mattered, not the flesh that would rot and turn into dust one day anyway.
Yes, Luke had saved him, the boy had done the impossible in his selflessness – and his father would be equal selfless and would not burden him any longer than necessary. But there was one wish Anakin still had – one simple, and yet significant thing he felt he needed to achieve before he parted with his son and the world of living forever. He wished to see his boy, this wonderful being of pure light with his own eyes – not through the red googles of Darth Vader’s mask. And so he asked the boy to remove his helmet and let him have just that – to say his good-bye in person, face to face, and not through the dreaded mask he had learnt to hate so much.
Luke stared at him, taking in the bald and scarred head, desperately clutching at his father’s metal hand that was still safely covered by the dark suit, deep companionship clear in Luke’s startlingly blue eyes, full of as of unshed tears. The boy’s core was also spilling regret and Anakin could clearly feel Luke’s great wish that his father could be preserved for him, so that the two of them might have some meaningful time together, so that they would truly get to know each other, so that the father could teach his son as it should have been – and tell him more about him, his mother, Ben, the Jedi… Anakin felt very sorry that he would not be able do this for his boy, could not repay at least somewhat the great service his son had granted to him – but there was no hope now, no way back…
Just as he thought that, Luke’s latest prayer to save his father’s life was finally heard out by the Force – and Anakin was Force-transported to the only place which might perhaps help his battered body to heal still, to some degree anyway, leaving his boy’s lap empty and his son despairing at his loss. In his greatly weakened state, Anakin could do only one thing – he attempted to sooth the boy through their newly developed Force-bond, astonished at the sudden great distance between them.
One moment he was resting in his son’s strong arms on the board of the second Death Star; the other his broken body found itself in a white, soft bed of the Jedi Halls of Healing of long past – or what was very much resembling them anyway. As the weary man let his aching and failing body rest against the pillows, Anakin felt how his connection to his son shifted – and despite the boy in some form or other evidently existed also in this new reality, the former Sith Lord knew he was not the same as mere moments before, the fact confusing him greatly.
Just then the Jedi chief healer of his youth appeared at his side, Master Vokara Che, and Anakin could feel both her shock at finding an unexpected patient in her care as well as her great desire to help the apparently dying man – and perhaps for the first time ever, he felt glad to just be there, looked after and cared of. On some subconscious level aware that he was safe there, as much safe as he could be anywhere in the Galaxy at that moment of time anyway, he closed his eyes and allowed his body and mind to pass out. Perhaps he would not wake again – but Anakin was at peace with that eventuality – or, if he was lucky and Master Che and her healers would be able to do something for him, there would be enough time to find out what exactly had happened and where he found himself. No one would harm him here, he felt so much – and he was reasonable sure that Luke was safe too, in whichever parallel reality his son was at that moment, living on thanks to Anakin taking the right way in the end. The Force was finally balanced, its Chosen One fulfilling his task – if years later than the Jedi Masters had once thought.
ooooo
Master Vokara Che finished treating her unexpected patient and left him under surveillance of one of the medical droids belonging to the Temple. She had seldomly seen such a big damage as this mysterious man had suffered – despite her best efforts, it was still touch and go and it would continue to be so for the next few days if the man lived that long at all. This was why she had to leave the infirmary room and speak with one of her fellow Jedi masters – the matter was rather urgent if the results of her tests were right.
ooooo
Obi-Wan Kenobi stared pensively at the badly injured man in the bed in front of him. The man was terribly scarred and his head almost completely bald; his breathing still labored despite the breathing apparatus covering his mouth and nose; his battered body kept alive only with the help of the numerous IV lines feeding various healing substances into his blood stream. The younger healers had cut the man out of the dark suit he had first appeared in – and now Obi-Wan could see that all four of his limbs had been amputated at some point and replaced with metal prosthetics, so much like Anakin’s artificial arm. And that was just that – based on Vokara Che’s blood tests, this middle-aged, potentially deadly hurt man with traces of great darkness in his Force signature was – and Obi-Wan very much hoped that Vokara Che was mistaken – Anakin Skywalker in his forties.