Justification

Era: Intertrilogy, AU-ish
Summary: Wedge after the death of his parents, caught by Corsec after attacking the pirates that killed them.
AN: Not my fault. I swear it! I blame the English exam. (That's why no names are mentioned. ;) And Corsec was changed after the exam. It's also why it's so short.) They gave us a list of starter sentences to pick from. This was the best one they had. And I admit that the idea of a young, angry Wedge had been playing on my mind... so I had him captured by Corsec.

"There can be no justification for what you have done," the burly man said in a rough voice. The boy, no older than sixteen, was standing in front of him. Fire flared in his eyes as the words registered in his brain. Suddenly he jerked around, trying to shake himself loose of the two men who were holding him. Failing to do so, the boy sent a look of pure loathing in the older man's direction.

"How would you know?" the kid snarled at him, his voice filled with fury. "They killed my parents, they destroyed my home, all because they 'just felt like it'! And now you say I have no justification? What would you be doing it was you?" The words were spat out with such vehemence that the two guards holding the boy flinched from the force behind those words.

The older Corsec officer merely looked at him. His eyes were sad as he raked his gaze over the sixteen-year-old. He was barely out of school, a little shorter than average, brown hair and brown eyes. Brown eyes that were ready to start a forest fire by the look in them.

"Do two wrongs ever make a right, though?" he queried the boy quietly. "Has their death brought back all that you've just lost? Your parents, your home, your life?" The only response that he received was a glare that a few moments ago had still been as hot as lava, but now that lava was cooling and becoming positively icy in its intensity. The officer continued.

"Revenge doesn't make things better, it will only ever make them worse with each time that revenge is taken. What you've done here, apart from causing the deaths of people, you're also destroying your own life!" The kid's face was still expressionless as he finally broke his silence to give an answer.

"I don't care anymore," was the clipped, icy voice that emerged from his mouth, such a vast contrast to the fiery tones of a few moment before. "What I have I got left to care about?" he continued bitterly.

"Life, boy!" the officer responded heatedly. He grabbed the kid's shoulders and shook them as he made the boy look him in the eyes. "You can start again you know-" His reply was chopped of as the boy interrupted.

"Oh, yeah sure, after I spend who-knows-how-many-years in prison," he cut in, sarcasm tainting his already dark tone. The officer pulled back slowly, a mixture of sadness, pity and horror on his face. Seeing the look, the kid shook his head wryly. "See, you're thinking it yourself, what could I possibly do right now, what good am I going to be? And the answer your brain's coming up with is the same as mine. Nothing." A disgusted look passed over his face. "Don't even try to give me any of this empathy drivel, especially when you don't believe it yourself."

The officer just closed his eyes in defeat and silently motioned to the guards to lead him away. For many minutes after the boy had left, he just sat there cradling his head in his hands, mourning for a young life so irrevocably changed by hatred.

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