Acceptance

Leaving only memories of the innocents who dwelt in its path, the darkened mist left the village square, to continue its mission of seeking out the one who will elude death no longer. It spread out, going house to house, searching, seeking, and trying to find the one it longs for. It leaves only bad dreams and pain. Each house it visits, the occupants are left cold and shuddering, the sweat of nightmares collecting on their brows.

Finally it comes to the final house. Within it can sense the one it has been searching for, longing for.

From the mist, a form appears. It is a dark form, wrapped in cloaks of despair and nightmares, it pushes open the door. It is ready for this. The path to acceptance lies through that portal.

Looking around, he takes in the scene around him, the cheerful décor, the still holos of family. Grim amusement comes rolling forth from him, as he picks up a vase and lets it fall to the floor to shatter.

With a sudden snap-hiss, the dark room is flooded with a bright green light. In the corner, sitting in a chair is an ancient man, his skin withered from age, his hair, thin and grey, with the appearance of being wind blown, even within the climate control building.

“So, you have finally come for me have you? What? Was your master to feeble to come kill an old man himself?”

He merely laughs. When he decides to speak to the old man, his voice is low and guttural, and causes cold shivers to swim up the old man’s back. “No, my Master thought it best for me to kill you myself. After all, you are the final link to who I was. Once you are gone, I will be who I was meant to be.”

“Not who you were meant to be youngling, just who that fool you call a master convinced you to be. Now, are we going to sit here and talk all night?”

He feels confusion, unsure of what to do. He knows he should complete the mission. To do so means acceptance, a chance to fully become a Sith. Yet still, he hesitates, he almost feels an eagerness to continue the discussion. “So eager to die are you?”

“I am not afraid of death, in fact I long for it, to be one with the Force. It has been to many years since I’ve seen her.”

He watches the smile that covers the old man’s face at the thought of his beloved bride. The dark one remembers back to when his Master killed her, and the rage and pain that caused him and the cold calm acceptance with which the old man accepted her death.

“You worry today that it has been so long since you have seen her, yet I remember when she was killed, you did not care.”

“In that you are wrong youngling. When Jacen killed his aunt, it hurt me deeply, that was my mortal wound, I have been dying slowly ever since. Remember, I lost my wife, and my son turned from me all on the same day. You, my son, were just too wrapped up in his lies and your own hate to realize it.”

He looked at this shell of a man, and saw him for what he truly was, an old man who had fought too many battles, and lost one thing to many.

He watches as the old man stands, and hobbles towards him. The old man extinguishes his blade and tosses it aside. In his confusion, Ben is unsure of what to do, what to say, but his father knows, as he wraps his son in a hug.

Luke Skywalker pulls back slightly, keeping his hands on his shoulders and looks at his beloved son and says “I always accepted you Ben, I always loved you. Now, it is time for me to sleep. If you wish to complete your mission, I’ll be upstairs in my room. It’s the first door on the right. If you wish to stay the night, the guest room is the first door on the left.”

Ben watches his father, once more lost to confusion as he says “Dad what can I do?”

“The choice has always been the same; you can do what is right or what is wrong. Good or evil. I cannot make that choice for you. Jacen cannot make that choice for you. Only you can make that choice. But know this son; I am proud of you regardless. If we’re both still here in the morning, I’ll make para-rolls for breakfast.”

Ben watches as his father finishes his climb up the stairs and turns into his bedroom, leaving the door cracked open. Ben calls his father’s lightsaber to his hand and ignites it. Then he pulls the saber that his cousin gave him and ignites that one as well. He stares at the two blades, one the green of a Jedi, the other the red of a Sith. He considers the meanings of this, the meanings of choices. He considers the acceptance of the love of a father for his son, and the acceptance of a Sith Master for his apprentice.

He wonders what is good and evil and extinguishes the sabers.

Finally making up his mind, he climbs the stairs, and turns left.