Saga The Longest Fall - RotJ vignette

The Longest Fall


? The avalanche has begun; it is too late for the pebbles to vote?

It was an entirely unappreciative galaxy. He had dedicated his entire life to making the galaxy strong enough to survive the coming decades and he had succeeding beyond even his own wildest imaginings. He had succeeded because, in the end, that was the only acceptable outcome.
And now it has come to this, he was called on to make another sacrifice for a galaxy of beings that hated and feared him. For they had no idea the terrible burden he carried to ensure that when the time came they would be able to withstand the onslaught. They would never realise how much he had done for them. Never realise how much he cared.

He had been a Jedi once, many years ago, apprenticed to a great Jedi Master. He?d been a padawan for less than a year when the visions started, horrifying visions of war, death and an evil despot cackling his pleasure. He would awaken, drenched in cold sweat and shaking with terror. For months he tried to hide it, to forget it. But the visions were persistent, every night they would return and visit new horrors on the young padawan. His master knew, of course, but the master waited for his student to confide in him, patiently steering his lessons towards knowing your limits and when to ask for help.
The tactic failed. His student never did confide in the venerable Jedi. The Padawan awoke one night without the trembling fear, without the chill in his bones, because he had seen with perfect clarity.
It is a dreadful thing for a twelve year old boy to foresee his own death. But ?tis far more dreadful that he should understand, and accept, as this boy did, the awful fate that the Force asked of him. The greatest sacrifice a person can give, and he gave it willingly, without hesitation. The Force did not demand ?Right? or ?Wrong? from him, the Force demanded its very survival. And to fulfil that demand, the second-to-last student of Yoda walked away from the Jedi.


*****


?It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But a far more terrible thing is to admit it.?

The twisted, ?evil? old man that the young padawan had become chuckled as he remembered the old saying. The fall was indeed very quiet, peaceful even. Only the faint background hum of machinery doing its work and the soft roar of the wind in his ears disturbed the silence as Cos Palpatine hurtled down the reactor shaft. He found it somewhat ironic that arguably the most powerful and feared Dark Lord of the Sith, was finding peace in his imminent death. Admittedly at his current rate he still had over ninety minutes of freefall before the radiation from the reactor actually killed him, but when you?re tumbling at over two hundred kilometres per hour there?s not a lot even a Sith can do to stop. Besides, if all proceeded according to his plan there should be only minutes remaining before the Rebellion destroyed the Death Star. Without the power, the will or the need to delay death any longer, the single most evil man in the galaxy reminisced.

?Insolent Jedi WHELP!? The voice roared from the darkness, ?Give me one reason why I shouldn?t kill you where you stand.?
The seventeen year old Cos had learned many things in the four years since he left the Jedi. Not enough to defeat a Sith Lord of course, but enough to delay death at the hands of one. For a time. With an effort he broke Plagueis? Force-grip on his throat, ?because there must be two,? he gasped. ?Because when you have made me into a Sith, I will destroy you and take an apprentice of my own. Just as you have done.?
At first Palpatine thought the Sith Lord was coughing, but the deep, choked spluttering soon became hysterical laughter then, quicker than a sabaac card switching values, lightning poured out of Plagueis? hands and into the hapless teens body. Agony the likes of which Cos had never known tore through his nervous system and a desperate scream ripped itself from his throat. But the Sith Lord continued his assault, eliciting scream after painful scream from Cos unti