To Understand -Q/O viggie

This vignette is dedicated to Shaindl, because it was re-reading Dreams Die Hard and seeing her talent at writing from the POV of someone other than the usual that inspired me to write this.


To Understand

They all say it. All the frightened men being rounded up after they've murdered opponents of the government they work for, or been on the losing side of some great battle. But there's some truth in those words. I was only following orders.

Because when you're fighting in a war like this one, where there is no-one you can trust except yourself, and any family or friends you might have had have fled in terror on been murdered, all that matters is which side you're on and whose orders you follow. If you choose the winning side, you might live. If you don't, you get nothing but pain and hatred for the rest of your life. And the rest of your life is likely to be very short.

And I suppose I might have chosen the losing side. Or perhaps, later, thanks to people with more luck than me, they'll emerge the winners after all. How am I to know? I'm dying now.




It started off simply. Me, and three others who I knew vaguely, were called before the Head Commander.
"The Jedi are here." he spat. "I want them dead. That's your job." And he glared at us four, and told us to get going. A man of few words, our Head Commander. Why do I think he's likely to die before the war's over,too? Not that it matters. Not that anything matters, now.

Me and the other three went after the Jedi. I suppose our beloved boss figured that four men againest two Jedi would be a easy win. He was wrong. I had to call for backup. But even with others attacking and shooting at them, they just wouldn't give in.

I'd never seen a demonstration of Jedi powers before. As far as things to see before you die painfully go, they were pretty impressive. I'd read about them, heard about their Force and their lightsabres-if you can tell, I wasn't convinced. I am now.

They fought spectacularly. They would deflect our blaster bolts and flip in every direction, each protecting the other with his life. To be honest, we didn't have much of a chance. I saw several people fall, but all I really thought was 'That isn't going to happen to me.'

But it did.

There were a great many of us soon. We surrounded the Jedi, and they seemed to almost be weakening. The two of them seperated slightly, and I thought I saw my chance.

The older man-the Master Jedi-sent at least fifteen men flying to the walls with his power-Force pushing, or something, I believe they call it. As those people hit the walls hard and were almost all knocked out, and as the younger man disarmed five people with a single move that any regular person would have been incapable of performing, I fired the shot.

I was lucky. It hit the younger man squarely in the chest, and he fell.

The Master gave a panicked gasp,disarmed his current opponent, taking his arm clean off- and struggled to reach his Apprentice. But that young one was back up,fighting desperately. There were very few of us left now. I fired another shot. I fired several at once. While the Master deflected most of them, even one with the skill he obviously had couldn't deflect them all. As the boy slumped to the ground, the Master struck down the remaining few men around him, and then came for me. There was so little anger in his eyes, more a terrible sadness. That was what struck me as I fell to the ground alongside the others.



I imagine the Jedi thinks I'm already dead. Not that it matters, I have very, very little time left, and I don't have the strength to raise a finger, much less a blaster. The Jedi has more important things on his mind anyway.

"Padawan," I hear him whisper. Through my blurred vision I see him kneeling by the boy and cradling him in his arms.

"Master," I hear the boy reply. "Are you alright?"

I see the man nod.

"You shouldn't..you mustn't leave me, Padawan." he whispers. "What will I do? You mean the world to me, like you were my own child."

"

 

Well done, I really liked this story, especially your final sentence. It was simple, yet said so much...