Father and Son

"I will not fight you."

He stands before you, unafraid, with the face and the plea of a woman you still love. You killed her, you remember, easily. You can kill him as easily.

He is not a knight, this Luke Skywalker. He is a boy fighting a man's war. 

A boy that the Emperor, an old man more dead than alive, strikes down in seconds. A boy who hugs the floor, his body shaking, his young face twisted in pain, and still he looms larger than you. He is light where you were dark, good where you were evil, brave where you were frightened.

Help me, he whispers. 

The silver lightning seems to illumine your life before you. 

This is a decision you have to make.

You make it, your best decision, seizing the hands that hold your chains, throwing the Emperor over into the darkness. And then you start to fade into the darkness, too, but the only thing that matters is that the words thank you echo in the eyes of your son. 

Luke Skywalker is a man who loves like a child. And it this that saves him, and you, and the galaxy in the end, for: how can a child believe his father is anything but good?

-

I can, the sneering expression before you seems to say. "Weak and foolish like his father." He is talking about you.

He stands before you, trembling, on a bridge as slim and tenuous as the bond from your heart to his. The corner of his mouth twists up in the lopsided smile you have felt on your own face, made terrible on his.

He is not a knight, this "Kylo Ren." He is a boy fighting a man's war.

A boy who offers a dangerous, barbed weapon to you. It trembles as violently as he does, sharp edges bathed in blood. In that moment you know he is stronger than you.

Help me, he whispers.

The red of his blade seems to reveal your fate to you.

This is a decision you have to make.

You make it, your last decision, feeling the nothingness in your chest, letting yourself fall into the towering darkness. There is still good in him. There is still good in him. There is still good in him. Like voices from a forgotten history, the words slip into your ears with the rushing air.

Kylo Ren is a child who hates like a man. A monstrous child, obsessed with a legacy that never existed. But he is your son. 

And it is this that undoes him, and you, and the galaxy in the end, for: how can a father believe his child is anything but good?