DISCLAIMER: Some guy named George Lucas owns Star Wars. Not me. How unfortunate.
This is an old drabble that's been wasting away on my computer, gathering figurative dust, so I thought I might as well post it here and see if anyone likes it. Please review and tell me what you think. This is my first time ever posting anything, so be gentle.
[3 years after the fall of the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Council]
From behind, Imperial troopers press down on his shoulders. He lurches to the wet ground before the temple. Rain patters gently against the stone pavement and his blood intermingles with the water, staining the stone red beneath him. Flinus attempts to look up at the sound of footsteps clambering down the temple steps, but his body refuses to move.
Boots squelching against the wet stone, Darth Vader comes to a stop only a few feet away. "Lift your head and face me, Flinus Dalereq."
With the last of his strength, Flinus forces himself up onto his knees, chest heaving, strands of dark hair plastered to his face and sopping, bloodstained clothes clinging to his body. He gazes impassively at Vader's black mask.
"Do you see now, the futility of defiance?" Vader's says. "This is what your foolishness has brought you. You cannot defeat me. The Empire will reign supreme, and Jedi will soon become myths. Merely forgotten remnants of the past. All your resistance has been in vain."
Flinus sucks in a painful breath. It rattles in his chest. "That is your foolishness, Vader," he grunts. "No resistance is in vain."
Vader approaches. "You believe that you can make a difference? A lone Jedi against the Imperial army."
Despite himself, Flinus grins. "No. No, not me. My time's finished, but others will take my place."
"And they will fail," Vader retorts, looming menacingly over him and glaring through that black, rain-pelted helmet.
"Perhaps, at first," Flinus admits. "But any act, no matter how small, has the potential to change the course of events."
"The Jedi are nearly extinguished. There is no power left to challenge the Empire."
"The Empire will fall," he states with conviction. "That is the way of the corrupt and depraved. Light eventually outshines the darkness."
"There will be no light left," Vader says.
Flinus blinks slowly and looks up at the sky, where stars twinkle and shine brightly. "There will always be light. And the darker the place, the brighter it shines."
Darth Vader is quiet for a moment, then he outstretches an arm and Flinus' lightsaber shoots into his gloved hand from where it had clattered to the ground earlier.
"You've been a worthy opponent, Flinus Dalereq, but your time has come."
Unbothered, Flinus says, "I am ready to meet my fate."
The storm has finally settled. Now the rain is but a slow drizzle. He lets his head fall back and closes his eyes.
The buzz of a lightsaber is the last thing he hears.
As Flinus Dalereq is struck down by Darth Vader, on a planet far, far away, Jayms Fa'rey is born.