Will of the Force

"Lieutenant Vialla Janson?" the tall, dark man asked in his deep, booming voice.

Vialla saluted him. "Yes, Lord Vader?"

"Have you captured the Jedi yet?"

It was a struggle to avoid looking away as Vialla lied to him, but she managed. "I'm sorry, Lord Vader. We have received intelligence that seven hours ago, a woman matching her description boarded a freighter headed for the Y'Toub system. I'm afraid she's now outside of CorSec's jurisdi--" Her sentence was cut short with a gagging sound.

Vader held out his hand and Vialla clutched at her neck, her breathing made nearly impossible. "You are as deceitful as you are stupid. Did you imagine, for one minute, that you could protect the last Jedi on Corellia?"

"H-how did you...?"

"How did I know about her? I could feel her through the Force, and I had my personal cryptographer decode your conversation with that filthy Rodian. Whatever was going through that addled mind of yours?"

"What...do you...?"

"I don't care how you hoped to accomplish it. All I want to know is your motivation. Why did you help her?"

"B-because..."

"Because what?"

Vialla took a deep breath and choked out her answer. "Because...I love her!"

No sooner had the words left Vialla's lips than Vader was thrown backward, and his mysterious grip on her throat vanished. Wondering what had happened, she looked about and saw Drella, her lightsaber lit and her palm extended. "Run, Vialla!" she yelled.

"No, Drella, what...?"

"Run! I'll hold him off, you just escape! Get on the freighter!" By this time, Vader was back on his feet, and had lit his own lightsaber, which had a red blade.

Drella flicked her fingers, and Vialla flew through the docks, away from the two fighters. Vader bore down on Drella, who could feel his immense power immediately. "Anakin?" she asked, side-stepping one of his blows. "It really isn't you, is it?"

The man's movements became more rapid and less accurate. "No, Drella. That part of me is dead. I am now Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith."

"No, it's not," Drella said. "It's still very much a part of you. Fight the darkness, Anakin! You're stronger than it is. I know you!"

"You knew Anakin, and he is gone," Vader said, "Surrender to me, become my apprentice, and I will spare you."

"If you really have become a Sith," Drella jumped over Vader, landing behind him, "Then I have no reason to take you at your word. Sith are liars."

Vader turned to face Drella, redirecting a blow meant to sever his arm, but that only succeeding in singeing his cape. "You're making a terrible mistake, young one. I'll give you a chance to correct it."

"I will never join the Sith!" Drella said with conviction.

"Then we will let our lightsabers finish this conversation for us," he went in for a decapitating strike, but Drella ducked in time to avoid it. In a few moments, it was undeniably clear who had the advantage, as Drella parried Vader's blows while backing away from him. He held out his hand and Drella went flying, her back slamming against a nearby wall with a sickening slap. Thanks to her Jedi training, she was able to get her breath back before Vader closed the gap between them, and rolled out of the way of a killing strike.

Even from seven meters away, Vialla could see the sweat pouring down her lover's face as she deflected the powerful man's strikes once, twice, thrice...and then it was over as Vader knocked away Drella's lightsaber, and impaled her through the chest with his own. It was an image that permanently burned itself into the Twi'lek woman's memory. The Jedi's body fell to the ground. In a fit of rage, completely disregarding what Drella had taught her about the futility of revenge, she drew her blaster and fired a volley of shots at Vader, who effortlessly deflected them all with the blade of his lightsaber, one of the bolts lodging itself in her arm. She cried out in pain, clutching the spot with her hand, as Vader reached out, and her blaster flew from her hand into his.

Within moments, the blade of his weapon was at Vialla's neck. "Go ahead and kill me, Vader," she said with all the defiance she could muster. "I have nothing to live for."

Vader stepped back and extinguished his lightsaber. "You truly loved her, didn't you?"

"Yes. I was going to start a new life with her."

The man clipped his lightsaber to his belt, along with the one from the dead Jedi. "I will not kill you. At this point, killing you would be an act of mercy, and we Sith despise mercy above all else. Live with your pain. Live with the hole in your heart. Live with the knowledge that you helped to guide your lover to her death." Turning his back on the scene of carnage, he walked away.

Vialla strode over to Drella's body. A small gasp escaped the human's lips. "Drella!" she whispered, hoping to avoid re-attracting Vader's attention.

"Vialla..."

"Don't talk," Drella said. "I'll carry you back to my speeder and get you to a med droid. I can get traffic priority. Use your Force to keep yourself alive. C'mon, everything will be fine. Vader's not gonna look for you anymore. We can go live on Nar Shaddaa."

Drella coughed. "It...it's too late...for me. Just...grant me one last request."

"Stop it," Vialla growled, ignoring the streams of tears pouring from her eyes, "You're not gonna die. I won't let you."

"Burn my body," Drella choked out, "It's the ancient Jedi custom."

"Stop talking like that!" Vialla mustered all of her willpower to avoid shaking her.

"And...Vialla..." Drella raised a trembling hand, clasping Vialla's cheek in it.

"Yes?"

"I...love you, too." As the words escaped her lips, so did her spirit. Her head dropped back, her hand following with it.

Silently sobbing, Vialla closed Drella's lifeless eyes. She slung the body over her shoulders and set it in her speeder, which she drove out to a remote plain. There, she carried out her former lover's funerary request. This, she decided, would be the last thing she ever did to honor the "Force" that Drella had served. If the Force had a will of its own, why did it lead Drella to end her life so tragically? Why did she try to save Vialla's life instead of running to the freighter and preserving the Jedi Order? And why did the Force care so little for her when she had devoted her life to it?

These were questions that Vialla was sure she'd never find answers to.

THE END