This year's Christmas prompt I got from Ghost's contest and challenges book with their prompt, to write your favorite character going through the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present or Future. I chose past, with my favorite character of all time, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Enjoy :)  

Darth Vader awoke from a restless sleep with nightmares filled with fire and agony. As he fully woke and sat up, imprisoned behind the black suit that fed him, gave him life, and even had sight for him, he realized that the pain wasn't simply a result of the nightmare. No, it was real and it coursed through his limbs, though they weren't there. Mechanical ones had been attached to both his leg and his left arm just a few short months ago.

Gritting his teeth, he limped off the bed and made his way to the door. It slid open with a sharp hiss, so he strode out into a narrow hallway. After a few turns, he found one of the lounges he had claimed for himself upon the Star Destroyer Annihilator. Alone, expression hidden behind his mask, he allowed tears to form in his eyes, though refused to let them fall. He stared through the mask's eyes out the window and into the void of space outside the ship. The mask's vision created a slight red hue to the world, which was just one of the many things Vader had been forced to grow accustomed to.

"Anakin..." a voice whispered.

It can't be, Vader thought as he whirled around. Only a year ago, his reflexes had been swift, giving him an edge in battle. Now, thanks to the suit and his mechanical limbs, he wasn't as nimble nor would he ever be again.

Standing before him, was a beautiful woman. Brown curls hung loosely down her shoulders against the light blue dress she wore. It did nothing to cover her bulging stomach and Vader could feel her presence as well as the presence of...

"Padme..." Her name left his lips in a whisper, but the mask's voice modulator made it sound deep and menacing. Once, his voice had been silvery, clear, and pleasant. Now, not only did the voice modulator deepen and mechanicalize it, but his voice was also filled with hatred.

Seeing his wife again nearly made his hatred leave. Nearly.

"How are you here? You... you're dead." Vader's voice would have choked, but the mask only made it sound flat and emotionless. When the exact opposite was true. He looked at Padme, his beautiful wife, his true love, gazing at her beauty, her face once again, and shame filled him. Disgust. Guilt. It tore at his soul, placing him in more agony than his physical wounds ever did.

He looked away from her, unable to bear it.

"I'm here to show you the past, Ani."

Vader cringed at the name, shaking his head. His eyes snapped back toward her as he took an involuntary step forward, feeling his anger return. Anakin had been weak! That boy had ruined Vader's life, had made all the wrong choices, had destroyed and killed everything he cared for. "Don't call me that. I'm not him anymore."

"Come with me." Padme's voice was barely a breath in the still air between them.

Suddenly, a white flash of light consumed them both, which disorientated the controls of Vader's mask. When they clicked on and his red-hazed vision finally returned, he wasn't on the Star Destroyer. His feet stood in a small, circular room in the side of the Jedi Temple.

Vader's heart constricted. "Why are we here? How is this possible?"

Padme gently touched his arm, or rather, the suit. Beneath it, his arm was mechanical. He would never feel her touch again... never. "Watch."

That was when Vader finally saw them; younglings, hiding in the back corner of the Temple. The door hissed open and Anakin stormed in, glaring at them.

Vader watched with mixtures of guilt, horror, and awe flowing through his confused mind.

"Master Skywalker, there are too many of them. What are we going to do?" a young boy asked, lips trembling.

Anakin ignited his lightsaber. No, not Anakin.

Vader.

Another flash and this time, Vader laid eyes upon a place he hated, a place that held too many painful memories for him; he and Padme's apartment in the center of Coruscant. Before he could ask Padme, or her ghost, what they were doing here, he heard voices from the living area. Vader shifted his technological gaze that direction. At the sight of his former master, Vader seethed in utter rage. He reached for his lightsaber, but it wasn't attached to the belt on his hip. He reached out to Kenobi with the Force, but he simply went through Kenobi as if he was a hologram.

Vader looked helplessly at Padme, but she stayed in the back, eyeing the scene. "I don't understand..." Turning back to Kenobi, he watched as his former master stumbled passed Padme, but this was the real her, living flesh and blood. "M – my love..." Vader's voice cracked, but through the voice modulator it only sounded like a whir.

"I have seen a – a security hologram of him... " Kenobi's voice trailed off, as he placed a hand over his mouth, expression twisted in pain as he continued. "... killing younglings."

Padme immediately shook her head without hesitation, her voice firm in her response. "Not Anakin. He couldn't." She sounded so certain and sure.

"But I did," Vader murmured. "I killed them all!"

Kenobi turned back to Padme, gently holding her arms. "He was deceived by a lie, we all were. It appears that the Chancellor is behind everything, including the war. Palaptine is the Sith Lord we've been looking for. After the death of Count Dooku, Anakin became his new apprentice."

Padme paled, staring at Kenobi in horror. "... I – I don't believe you." She stumbled back and the couch caught her as she collapsed. "... I can't."

Count Dooku's death... Barely had the thought crossed his mind before Padme's ghost teleported Vader once again to another location. This one seemed more familiar than the last in that it was a Star Destroyer not unlike the Annihilator.

If Vader's legs weren't mechanical, they would no longer hold him upright.

Palpatine sat on a chair, seemingly chained by restraints with shields on them. Count Dooku knelt on his knees in front of Anakin. Both of Dooku's hands were missing and Anakin held his lightsaber and Dooku's in an X in front of the Count's neck.

Dooku turned in horror to Palpatine. It was only a glance. Vader caught it and stalked closer to them. From his own, faint recollection of the memory, he had been in his own thoughts, not truly seeing what was right in front of him. At the time, Anakin had been asking himself, do I kill him? He's unarmed. What would Obi-Wan do? Yet, Dooku has caused so much turmoil in all the galaxy these past three years. The galaxy would be better off without him.

Now, Vader looked at Palpatine. His gaze hardened on Dooku's, who turned back to Anakin, opening his mouth to speak. Before he could, Palpatine spoke, his voice too calm, too collected. "Kill him, Anakin. Kill him now." Knowing what he knew now, that Palpatine was really Lord Sidious, Vader saw through it all.

Anakin sliced the lightsabers across Dooku's neck.

"Good..." Palpatine crooned with a laugh. "He was too dangerous to be left alive."

"Yes," Anakin started, using the Force to release Palpatine's restraints. "but he was an unarmed prisoner. I shouldn't have done that. It's not the Jedi way."

"It is only natural." Palpatine shrugged, rubbing his wrists. "He cut off your arm and you wanted revenge."

Vader paused as they continued, looking helplessly at Padme's ghost. "But I didn't. I hadn't been thinking of my arm, only of – the galaxy. That it would be better off without him."

Padme's hand gestured to the scene silently.

Irritation flooded through him. She would hardly speak to him, not explaining any of this; what was going on or how she was here.

"Leave him or we'll never make it." Palpatine narrowed his eyes at Anakin, who had rushed to save Obi-Wan from beneath a crushed balcony.

"His fate will be the same as ours."

He wanted me to kill him... Vader thought in shock. He turned back to Padme, but she had vanished. In fact, everything had vanished and he stood in the same lounge back on the Annihilator, staring out into open space. Sidious... Has he manipulated me? For how long?

This time, Vader's mind took him back to his own memory, back when he had first returned from the Battle of Naboo with Obi-Wan when he had been only ten years old.

"We will watch your career with great interest," Palpatine had said with a beaming smile.

He wanted me from the start, Vader realized. Ever since I became a Jedi...

What had he allowed Sidious to do?