#even so...

I DID IT FOR YOU

His breath caught in his throat as Luke looked around and the death and destruction surrounding him. Members of the Red Guard, various other Imperials, and a select smattering of Alliance contacts lay scattered through the room in varying degrees of injury. Many were dead at his father’s hand, even more incapacitated, and several others at the Emperor’s.

At the far end of the room, slumped against the wall, was Vader. The wheeze of his damaged respirator echoed throughout the hall, and he cut a far less intimidating figure with his shoulders hunched and the way he swayed on his feet. On the ground just in front of his boots, however, lay the lifeless form of the Emperor, blank eyes seeming to stare right at Luke, filled with anger and shock, almost daring him to partake in the same defiance as his father.

“What... what have you done?” Luke winced at how hoarse his voice was, how soft his words were, how much of his pain he couldn’t quite conceal. He stood away from his father, still, hardly daring to get any closer, but feeling drawn onwards...

“Son,” Vader rasped, feeling weaker in the Force by the second, “I did this for you.”

Luke was stunned. “For me?” Instantly, he felt dirty, the blood shed as much on his hands as his father’s. “I never wanted this... Father, all I ever wanted was peace - ”

“Your mother,” Vader cut in, a degree of desperation making its way into his voice, “I wanted to give her everything. She wanted much the same... peace... but it could only ever be attainable in one way... through the death of the Emperor. Even at the cost of my own life.” He paused

A pang rippled through him, wanting nothing more than to ask more about his mother, but his words pulled him in another direction. “I - all I ever wanted was to be with you... to know you. Please...”

“You will inherit this galaxy,” Vader declared, voice more steady than it had been until this point. “I had hoped your mother might have... but in her stead, you shall serve its people. You will become the rightful Emperor. As you deserve.”

“Father, no, I - ”

Farmtober - Day 25 - Sacrifice

Happy Gal Paloween everyone!