Saga A Coward's Courage COMPLETE 9/6/04(Jedi Purge Challenge Fic)

A Coward's Courage: Part One
by Suzuki_Akira

This vignette is a response to a Jedi Purges challenge. Took me a while to write it so I hope its original.

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Cobard Temero ran forward through the dusty desert of Tatooine, drawing on the Force to keep both the dust away from his nose and mouth and to keep him energized. But even as he drew upon the Force he felt his strength leaving him. A dark presence in the Force, stronger than the presence of even Master Yoda, was growing nearer with every passing second, no matter how fast each stride took him.

He's coming.

Cobard thought it with grim clarity as he rushed forward out of the nighttime desert and into nearby Mos Eisley. He registered the irony of taking refuge in such a place of ill refute with dry humor as he strode onward.

Running, running, always running. How could such a coward be a Jedi?

"Urgent incoming transmission, Master Temero," Cobard's R1 unit rang in. Cobard walked to his pilot seat on Coruscant and punched in a code. A hologram of Master Windu arose from the holoprojector.

"This is a distress call to all Jedi on Coruscant. The Jedi Knights are needed desperately on Geonosis, not only to save Master Kenobi and his Padawan, but to save the Republic."

Cobard's mind raced. A full battle already?

"The Seperatists are fully prepared for this. Come prepared yourselves."

Battle with an army? Just a handful of Jedi? Cobard froze. If I stop the message from finishing, no one will know I got it, Cobard thought. His hand neared the cancel button.

But if I don't go, I'll know that for the rest of my life.

Cobard wrenched his eyes shut, figures streaked with anguish, and thrust his finger blindly, perhaps subsconciously hoping that a miracle would occur and he'd miss the mark before he could deny his fellow Jedi. But his thrust was true, and the hologram clicked off just as the message was ending.

Cobard stood still, staring at the empty space where Master Windu had been. His breath came raggedly as if the strain of pushing the cancel button had been physical and not emotional. And yet, through the turmoil of his soul's warring Jedi and coward clans, only one intent, one spark of clarity remained.

I've got to run.

Cobard ducked into an alley, panting hard. Ever since he ran from Geonosis, he had kept pushing that cancel button. He had pushed it through the Clone Wars, and he'd even pushed it when his best friend, Tyron Halcyon, had begged him to help start an underground navpath of sorts for Jedi on the run. Cobard slumped against the wall, when he heard a slow, rhythmical breathing.

"Your fleeing has been futile, Jedi," spat Cobard's worst nightmare. Cobard took off in the other direction, only to be flattened by a Force wall harder than durasteel. Cobard called on the Force to help him ignore the pain, and then directed its flow to shove him forward, but Vader made an indistintive gesture with a gloved finger and Cobard was sent sprawling backwards to Vader's feet. Cobard rolled forward and sprang upward to face Vader.

Vader laughed, slowly and menacingly, at his horrified prey. Cobard turned to run once more, but again a Force wall halted his ambitions. Cobard turned to face Vader again, and finally drew his lightsaber.

Snap-hiss!

Vader's sprang from his hilt, igniting in mid air, just as Cobard thumbed his activation switch.

That's it! Cobard thought. His suit slows him down, so he has to rely on his Force power and reaction time rather than his speed of body. So if something slows his reaction time...

Cobard delved deep into the Force and flung sand up in torrents. Vader roared in anger more than surprise, as Cobard jumped as high as he could, deactivating his blade.

At the last moment...

Cobard came down upon Vader from within the sand blast and slashed down hard with the hilt of his blade. Near the end of the swing he thumbed the blade back on. With

 

I can't wait to read more. This is a very orginal take on the chanllenge. Great premise so far. Keep going please.

 

Heehee, I knew I'd like this! Great cliffie (if you don't know what's going on already, like me) and great character name,

 

Wow, what a non-ending. Great cliffie! I'll be looking for more.

 

OH, evil author! I can't wait to see what happens next. I won't have to wait long, will I?

Great work!

 

Webogirl: Thanks! I had hoped it was original.
DarthIshtar: Thanks for your help(and for concept-betaing)! You rule.
dianethx: Hehe. Yep. I think there'll be one more post, but I don't know if I'll post it seperately or in here. What do you guys think?
VaderLVR64: Thanks! About waiting...hmmm...

 

A Coward's Courage: Part Two
by Suzuki_Akira

---

Vader pulled back the hyperspace lever on the Imperial ship slowly and deliberately. As stars bled to starlines, he spared a glance at the cowering Jedi to his right.

"We'll arrive at Hoth in less than an hour. Muster up what little courage you have before then, Jedi."

Vader stood from the pilot's seat and walked out of the cockpit, heading presumably to his quarters. Cobard stared after him, half relieved, and half scared still.

[i]Kriff it, I'm already damned.[/i]

He had not pushed the cancel button this time, had not simply ran away-but he'd pushed the self destruct button. This destruction would not take something as trivial as his life. It would consume his soul.

[i]"Dozens of Jedi, you say?" Vader had asked him. In his small, shivering way Cobard had answered.

"Yes. Thirteen of them will be meeting on Hoth to decide how to coordinate the Jedi hiding efforts."

Vader had assaulted his mind then, blasting apart the pitiful excuses for mental shields Cobard had set in place and checked every recess of Cobard's mind for deception. Finding none, Vader had [b]laughed.[/b] But it was no laugh of mere humor, this laugh was mired with bitterness.

"You Jedi, for all your moral bravado, are no strangers to betrayal even for your friends."

Cobard looked down at the floor, knowing that it was too late to take back what he had done.

"You will direct me to this meeting, Temero. And we will destroy the Jedi."[/i]

Temero's reverie was brought to a halt as their ship entered Hoth's atmosphere.

[i]It's not too late,[/i] Cobard thought. [i]I can use my lightsaber to penetrate the hull and kill us both.[/i]

Cobard glanced at Vader hesitantly and then to his hilt. It was the right thing to do...but what was to say it would work? Vader might be prepared for such an assault, and so it was Cobard's duty to find a better way to help the Jedi.

Right.

"If your coordinates were correct, Jedi," Vader began, "we should have landed within a kilometer of this meeting house."

Cobard nodded as Vader clicked the hatch open. "I'll go up ahead to get within their complex. Use the Force or something to keep you hidden, and you can ambush them when I give the signal."

If Vader had a visible eyebrow, it would have raised. "What signal?"

Cobard shrugged. "You'll know it when you see it."

[hr]

Cobard wandered into the icy cold of Hoth, breathing heavily. He saw a hut straight in front of him and an icy cliff to his right. Knowing that the hut was a diversion, he turned to the cliff and projected his presence within the cliff. Soon enough, he felt a response from none other than his best friend, Tyron Halcyon.

He felt Tyron project the way to climb the cliff face and slowly made his way up with Force assisted jumps. Looking back over his shoulder, he noticed that Darth Vader was nowhere to be seen, even to him.

[i]That's probably for the better.[/i]

Cobard ducked into a cave, where thirteen Jedi greeted him with a hearty welcome. Tyron clasped his friend with a fierce hug.

"I thought for sure that you weren't going to show, Cobard!" Tyron exclaimed. "I'm proud of you, sticking your neck out like this." Cobard nodded slowly, melancholy managing to stay off his features.

"Well, I'm here," he mustered. Tyron gestured towards a chair and Cobard sat down gingerly.

"You all are here to coordinate the Jedi escapees, with the hopes that we can one day reestablish the Temple," Tyron began. He inserted a chip into the holoreader in front of him.

"This chip contains the locations of all the remaining Jedi we have contact with and their routes. As you can see..."

"Greetings, Jedi," a voice rang out from the opening of the cave. THe group of Jedi, with the exception of Tyron, immediately withdrew their lightsabers.

"You can thank your friend Temero here for your demise," Vader said. The Jedi cast shocked glares at Cobard.

"He led you to me well."

"You were supposed to wait for my signal,

 

::shiver...:: Creepy, even if the arrival of vader was a little premature and predictable.

 

Well, that was really intriguing but I must admit that I want the Coward to die!!!! Betraying faceless others is one thing but his own friend. Man, that's really a coward's way out!

Good job with the scenerio! I assume there's more....

 

ONe post left and I mean it this time.

 

Upping for readership.

 

A Coward's Courage:
Part Three

by Suzuki_Akira

---

Tyron ignited his red blade and raised it high, in a stance that bisected his facial features. Motionlessly, he held stance.

Cobard eyed him carefully, then held his saber to his side, pointing at the ground and charged. Cobard reached Tyron and brought his saber upwards as fast as he could, to stroke across Tyron.

With one flick of his wrist, Tyron's saber intercepted the path of Cobard's and blocked it. With a slight downward arm motion Tyron's saber slid down Cobard's and at him.

Cobard backflipped back and under the attack, and in midair, redirected himself back at Tyron, slashing hard.

Tyron's sidestep was slow and calculating, and as he turned Cobard's slash met air and he pushed off of the ground into a handspring. Cobard landed three meters away, holding his saber down and to the right.

"You can't beat me, Cobard. The flashiness of your Form four is just a facade for your lack of substance," Tyron said, snapping his saber back up to protrude diagonally forward from his abdomen. "Like your character."

Cobard seethed with rage. "You think I asked to be this way?!" He charged again, springing off of the ground into a slashing somersault. With a deft turn, Tyron avoided Cobard's path and got in behind him as he landed. Cobard, now gripping the saber with both hands, sweeped his saber into a block just as Tyron's blade came crashing down on his. Bursts of crackling electricity sprang from the collision of the blades as the two ex-comrades pushed with all they had.

"You were always running, Cobard!" Tyron said. His blade began to push Cobard's back farther and farther. "You never even bothered to see what direction you were running to!"

Cobard turned to his right, and Tyron's overcommittance to the pushing brought him forward with his momentum. With a bursting hop, Cobard brought his shoulder crashing into Tyron's exposed abdomen, sending him flying backwards. The surprised Tyron managed to roll back into a crouch.

"We're in a nightmare. I just want to wake up," Cobard said.

Tyron rose to his feet. "That's funny, I was about to tell you to do just that." Cobard's eyebrows rose.

"What's that?"

Tyron's features betrayed his rage for the first time in the fight. "Because sometimes there's worse things than physical suffering, damn it! There's worse things than death even within life!"

Tyron burst into Force speed and launched himself at Cobard. Cobard managed to block the incoming saber strike by fading back, but another burst of energy and Tyron's knee connected hard with Cobard's stomach. As Cobard was sent spawrling back, Tyron launched himself in the air past the rolling traitor. He came down in a hard slash at Cobard's neck. Cobard wrenched his neck to the right, but the blade sizzled off a large chunk of his neck's skin.

Cobard screamed and flung himself safely away with the Force, sliding on the ice. He managed to stand to his feet, holding his wound and wincing in pain.

Tyron looked at Cobard pointedly.

"It hurts, doesn't it," he said. Cobard began to wrestle himself to his feet. "But I'll tell you, it hurt more to find that you betrayed us."

Cobard managed to raise himself to a knee. "Don't--don't you judge me. I lived [i]years[/i] in shame among the Jedi. Do you know how that feels?"

"You did it to yourself."

"Nothing changes, does it? The Jedi are dead and they aren't coming back. Why should I be dead too?"

Tyron let out a bitter, humorless chuckle. "You still don't understand anything. Some things are [i]worth dying for.[/i]"

Cobard's anger rose and he felt it fuel his body, enable him to rise to his feet. He fed off of his guilt, his rage, his shame and hatred of it, he fed off the helplessness, the dead friends, the running. He fed off the cancel button.

"Don't tell me what my life is worth!"

Simultaneously, Tyron and Cobard burst into Force speed at each other, Cobard screaming with rage. They passed each other with blinding speed. A

 

Heehee, love that first line. I wonder why? ::innocent grin.::

 

Very nice! Loved it, your OC was wonderful!

 

Thanks, Ishy and VaderLvr! I really wanted to get away from the cliche unknown Jedi warrior, so I created a different kind of character. Looking back, I see that I created a weird OJO incarnation of Ganner with a different main character flaw, so at least I had a nice parallel. Glad that you liked him!

 

And I contributed to the name and the last post. I love it...

 

Really enjoyed this, especially since his final act was not that of a coward but one who gives the rest of the galaxy hope. Great job on this.

 

Thanks, guys! One thing I'm interested in knowing, however:

Do you think Cobard's final sacrifice was enough to atone for his actions?