Twin Suns.
A (very) short story
Lexi Soulstar felt the air go out of her lungs in a single decompressive whooosh! The instant she heard the snap-hiss of his lightsaber igniting, she immediately knew that the wound would be fatal. The attack itself was perfect, clean, and instant. The lightsaber had penetrated her abdomen, searing flesh and organs in an instant. It wasn’t enough to kill her immediately; this was a wound that was inflicted to make dying slow and painful. She felt her grasp on the Force immediately begin to fade. She looked, eyes wide with shock, into the eyes of her lover and her killer, the face at once familiar and alien, and began to feel the tears streaming down her cheeks. His eyes were not the twin blue pools like the vast oceans on Mon Calamar or the sapphire-blue blade of her lightsaber, that she had often found filled with warmth and love for her. These eyes were a fiery red, like two volcanic pits filled with anger and hate andsadness. They were Sith eyes!
He had found her during her evening meditation, alone, and when they embraced, he placed the hilt of his lightsaber to her stomach and ignited it. He had masked his true purpose in the Dark Side of the Force using her old feelings for him against her. Lexi’s legs buckled and she began to fall. Her attacker extinguished his red blade and reached out with the Force, caught her, and, wrapping her in his powerful arms, gently laid her down on the durasteel floor of her apartment. It was only then that she noticed that he too was crying, the tears spilling onto his face. Lexi tried to speak and found she was already growing weak so she projected her question through the Force:
“Why?!” she asked.
“It was my final test….I had to sever all ties to my emotions, to sacrifice that which I loved most….you!” He said, an icy stillness in his voice.
“No Magus, WHY?! Why, me? Why this?!” She projected more forcefully. Her body seized with the effort, going into shock and she coughed, spitting up blood.
He could feel the rawness of her emotions in the Force. The betrayal, sadness and fear mixed with his own and he felt it draw into his being and actually fortify his wavering emotions. He crouched down and looked into her eyes feeling the old anger beginning to reappear.
“You betrayed me….us….Lexi, to the Jedi Council. We were in love! Why would you let them tear us apart?” He hissed. “Why? Out of some sense of duty or loyalty to their misguided teachings and distaste for attachment?” He spat out this last sentence like mynock venom as he stood bolt upright with enough anger to make Lexi recoil. “You let them assign you to kriffing Ryloth, one of the farthest outposts in the galaxy, leaving me alone! You abandoned me! I loved you and you abandoned me!” He shouted a little more forcefully than he planned. His pulse continued to quicken and he stopped and settled himself for a moment wiping the tears from his cheeks, then continued in a more even tone. “I have been on the run since then. Fighting for my life and trying to survive, alone. That was until I found my new master and began my new apprenticeship. Lexi, the Jedi Council has been trying to hunt me down ever since I left to pursue my…new…training.” He said.
“Your…Sith….t-t-training” Lexi replied weakly. She groaned as another wave of pain wracked her failing body.
“Yes. The Jedi way is no longer my way. Their teachings are weak and corrupt. The Dark Side is the true path. The galaxy needs a strong hand to rule it. A strength that can only be projected by the Sith.” Magus intoned. “This was my final test….to be able to follow the path of a true Sith Lord, I had to be able to sacrifice everything I held most dear to prove myself to my new master……and that meant that I had to kill you. Now it is finished.” His voice became hollow and far away.
Lexi felt him retreat into the Force, felt the turmoil inside him. She coughed again, more blood. He kneeled down next to her and gently wiped it from her lips with a tenderness that she remembered. They had been lovers, once, secretly following their desires for each other away from the ever watchful eyes of the Jedi Council. Only, they had been discovered and reprimanded. Attachment was not a tenant of the Jedi, it was seen as a distraction that could lead, ultimately, to anger and the Dark Side. They had continued in secret, but Lexi felt herself betraying the Jedi Order and she had confessed out of a sense of duty as well as guilt. As penance, the Jedi Council assigned her to assist the Twi’lek Master Anoon Bondara on the planet Ryloth identifying Force-sensitive Twi'leks and sending them to Coruscant for training. Located at one end of the Corellian Run, it was one of the few worlds of the galaxy further from the Galactic Core than Tattooine. The Council figured that between the work and distance, this would create a suitable “distraction” that would allow Lexi to refocus on her duties as a Jedi Knight. It was difficult at first, but Lexi had learned to deal with the pain and had returned herself to the nearly monastic ways of Jedi life.
“I’m sorry Lexi, there was no other way. This is my destiny.” Magus continued sadly.
“There is….always….”
“…Another way? Not this time my love.” Magus finished for her sadly. He noticed her breathing was growing fainter and he could feel her hold on the Force slipping. The end was drawing near for her. He turned away for a moment, head bowed, shoulders slumped. Lexi could see his shoulders convulsing as he silently sobbed to himself, his grief pouring into the Force like a black tidal wave. Once under control, Magus turned around and reached out through the Force causing Lexi’s lightsaber to fly into his outstretched hand. He clipped the weapon on his belt next to his own, stood and turned to leave.
“Would you k-kiss me? One l-last time…..then l-leave m-me….to…die in….”
“…to die in peace? My love, there is no peace...Peace is a lie.” He said, uttering the first line of the Sith Code flatly. He kneeled down and took her in his arms kissing her deeply, tenderly, then laid her down, crossing her arms over her chest and brushing an errant lock of her long silvery hair back in place before he stood up. The last thing that Lexi Soulstar heard was the sound of Magus sobbing as he brought the hood of his dark cloak over his head. With the footfall of his boots echoing on the floor he walked away, this time abandoning her.
With a final gasp, Lexi’s body went limp her tear-stained face turned towards the ceiling, eyes staring blankly into nothingness as she succumbed.
