Notes: Next up is the 1500 Word Dash (a 1,500-word story about your character with any theme). The events in this story have been in my head in some form or another for a long time, and yet it still came out a bit different than I'd imagined it would. And I was sort of kicking myself for using this for the 1,500-word story, because there was so much more I could have written; but ultimately, I think it works. Prepare for some pain, and a bit of horror. The title is yet another film steal, this time from RotJ.

Also, this vignette runs concurrent with certain events in my short story, The Lands of the Dead. Just in case this story isn't heartbreaking enough on its own.

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IV. "Night Must Fall" | 44 ABY | 1500 Word Dash

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"Mara."

Tahiri's voice crackles across the comm channel, urgent and serious. Ben exchanges a look with his mom as she plucks the comlink from her belt. "Go ahead."

"We found the kids, but there are only six of them. The others…"

Tahiri's words trail off, and the static hiss of the comlink fills the silence. Mom closes her eyes, then shakes her head.

"I can sense more," she says, concentrating. "They've split them up."

On the other end of the comm, Tahiri inhales. "They knew we were coming."

"Looks that way."

He can sense the slight waver in his mom's presence, the weariness that has gnawed at the edges of her ever since Dad died; but it lasts only a few seconds, and she rolls her shoulders back and looks straight at him.

"You two keep setting the charges. If you find any of the kids, get them out of here."

Ben glances over at Elias, the bag of detonators suddenly heavy in his hands. "You want to split up? There's at least half a dozen Sith Lords in here."

For one second, he thinks she'll scold him for questioning an order in the middle of a mission; instead, she reaches up to touch his chin, her green eyes full of an emotion he doesn't quite understand. "All teams," she says into the comlink, her eyes never leaving his. "Find as many of the children as you can, and get them to the ship. There isn't much time."

She clips the comlink to her belt and gives him a tight smile. "Now go on. Those charges aren't going to set themselves."

He swallows hard and nods. "Come on," he says to Elias, turning away from his mom. He senses her as she runs off in the opposite direction, heading deeper into the fortress.

They work as quickly as they can, moving from room to room, setting charges and searching for some sign of the remaining prisoners. There are vacant cells and an empty tactical suite, and plenty of rooms that seem to serve no other purpose than to impede their search and keep them trapped in this place even longer. He can feel the rest of the strike team spread throughout the fortress, but the bonds that connect them are shrouded in a pall of darkness.

"Ben!"

His head snaps toward the sound of Elias's voice, toward the sudden horror that surrounds his friend's presence. Elias is standing just outside an open door at the end of the corridor, frozen in place. He opens his mouth to speak again, but nothing comes out. Ben tries to ignore the pounding of his heart as he jogs to his friend's side and turns to look into the room.

"Gods," he whispers as he stares at the bodies left behind by the Sith doctor, failed experiments cast aside like waste, piled haphazardly and left to rot. How many? How many that they never even knew about? Ordinary people stolen from their homes just because they possessed a trace of Force-sensitivity, without a way to resist or fight back. Adults and children alike – Force, so many children…

A ragged breath beside him rips him from his thoughts. He looks over at Elias, at the tears spilling onto the younger boy's cheeks.

"Why— why would they—?" Elias cuts off with another shaky breath, swiping the back of his wrist across his eyes.

Ben reaches out a hand to touch his friend's elbow. "Come on," he says gently. "Let's go."

Elias doesn't resist as Ben leads him away, but he can feel the boy's anguish bleeding into the Force.

"I think we found them." Mereg's voice fills the air. "Bor and I are in the upper north wing—"

The transmission cuts off for a second, then he hears the deep, distinct snap-hiss of a Sith lightsaber activating, and a scream that ripples through the comlink and through the Force.

"Mereg?" He grips the comlink tight in his hand. "Bor!"

Next to him, Elias backs up against a wall, then doubles over and reaches up to grab the sides of his head. "They're dead," he moans.

Ben looks all around him, trying to find his center, trying to gain his bearings. The upper north wing… that's the farthest point from where the strike team entered, and if what Ben is sensing is correct, he and Elias are the ones closest to it.

He puts his hands on Elias's shoulders, gripping them hard. "Hey," he says, pulling his friend upright. "I know it's hard, but we're not done yet. There are still kids here who need our help."

Elias looks up at him, his eyes red with tears and from the force of trying to scrub them away. Then he nods quickly. "Okay," he says, a broken whisper.

The shroud of darkness grows heavier as they climb the tower, finally reaching a turbolift with only one discernable destination. As the lift rises, he feels an echo of pain screeching through the Force, like shards of glass dragged along a durasteel surface.

The door opens on a blindingly white room, its floor littered with an array of medical instruments that shine under the harsh overhead lights. A nearby computer sparks, the console melted and cleaved in two by the blade of a lightsaber. And in the center of the room, on an operating table, lies the bloodless body of Karanya's youngest child.

Neither of them is able to move or speak for those first few seconds.

"We can't leave him here," Elias whispers.

Ben's throat is dry, and his tongue sticks in his mouth. "I can take him."

"No." Elias takes a halting step forward, steeling himself. "No, I'll do it." He crosses the room and scoops the boy into his arms, wiping blood from his neck with his sleeve. Then he carries him to the turbolift. Ben steps inside after him, glancing one last time at the lab before the door slides shut.

In spite of the labyrinthine construction of the fortress, Ben and Elias manage to stumble upon another group of children on their way out. There are only four of them, all barely able to move, left to waste away in a prison cell. Elias can only carry one more, so Ben juggles the other three in his arms, convincing one of the children to climb onto his back. He tells Elias to go ahead of him, that he'll catch up.

The little Twi'lek girl is nearly gone; he can feel her lifeforce fading, and he holds her close to his chest, trying to give her as much warmth as he can. He sees daylight through the door ahead, and he hears voices shouting across the comm, and he thinks of all the detonators scattered throughout the fortress, ready to blow. As he emerges from the building, wind whips up around him, and their starship touches down in time for Elias to run aboard. A few more seconds, and he'll be there, too.

Then he sees her in his mind's eye, surrounded on all sides by darkness and rage and…

The word escapes him in a whisper of breath: "Mom."

Go, she tells him.

No, no. He's not doing that again; he's never leaving anyone ever again. He promised. He can make it back to her if she just holds on—

Not this time.

Just wait! he calls out to her, almost stumbling as he sprints up the ramp. I'm coming for you!

He sets the children down on the deck of the cargo hold and spins around, ignoring Elias's stunned look as he runs back down the ramp. He can't lose her, too. He can't, he can't—

I love you, Ben.

She leaves this world not as an exploding star, like his dad, but as a sunset, her last moment stretching on for what seems an eternity before slipping suddenly below the horizon. His boots hit the ground, and he skids to a stop, unable to tear his gaze from the fortress, from the darkness that now rushes to fill that space where her light so fiercely glowed. He realizes, a bit distantly, that Yalena's actual sun is setting behind him, and he nearly lets loose an ugly, strangled laugh at the absurdity of it all.

"Ben!" Tahiri shouts from inside the ship, her voice raw. "We have to go!"

He turns and staggers up the ramp in a haze, barely aware of what is up or down as he collapses onto the deck next to the rescued children. In his rational brain, he understands that some of the kids were left behind and that an explosion will consume them along with the fortress and the Sith. In his rational brain, he knows he should grieve for all the people they lost today.

But he's not feeling very rational right now, and in the wildness of his primal heart he screams and screams and screams, a lost boy crying out for his mother.