Rating:
No language, some violence.
Disclaimer:
I don't own Star Wars, but this story is mine.
He'd killed a man.
He'd choked the man's life out of him, and, as if that weren't enough, he hadn't realized he'd done it until it was too late.
Afterwards he'd been shocked, staring unbelievingly at the body slumped on the floor in front of him.
His first impulse was to run away. Far away.
But he couldn't do that. He had to hold himself responsible for his own actions.
He hadn't meant to murder the man.
No, he wasn't like that.
He hadn't even meant to hurt him.
His mood had been getting worse all day, fueled easily and quickly by his anger at the wrong turn his life had been making, and he'd finally snapped when the man ran into him, despite the fact that it was a harmless accident.
He'd lifted the helpless man up by the throat and yelled at him. He'd shouted until his face was red, and it was only then that he noticed the other man's was blue.
He had instantly released his grip and stared with horror at the man whose name he didn't even know. As he was now.
You've become that which you hate...
Murderer...
You killed a man...
Murderer...
There is no excuse for what you've done...
Murderer...
You don't deserve to live...
Murderer...
A helpless man, and yet you took his life...
Murderer...
It was an accident, not an assassination attempt...
Murderer...
Voices from deep inside hissed at and taunted him, accused him...and battered him with his already depressed emotions into an even more alarming state.
He could take his own life...But then, that would be the easy way out.
He had to admit what he'd done, and bear the consequences.
No matter what they were.
Eyes in the court stared at him, all around. Accusingly. Unbelievingly. Sadly. Pityingly. Angrily.
His were on the ground. He couldn't bear to meet their gazes with his, for he had let them down.
He was guilty. He knew he was. He deserved to get whatever punishment was coming.
His lawyer didn't think so.
Of course not. The alien wasn't paid to think of him as guilty.
Leia had hired him. "The best in the galaxy," she'd said. He'd refused to talk to her, not trusting the words that would come out of his mouth.
But even she had been a bit discouraged by the situation.
Although the information of the deceased's assignment wasn't released to the public, and the information given to the stunned murderer had been rather sketchy, the public had been allowed to know that the man he'd killed was a New Republic agent. The details given to the accused were that the man, Darius Novell, had been undercover, checking out a big, secretive spice exchange that was supposed to happen sometime on Coruscant between a few of the most powerful crimelords of the galaxy, possibly even high Imperial leaders, and that would most likely result in a bloodbath that would end many innocents' lives.
Just like he had killed an innocent man.
And he would never forgive himself.
It was one thing to kill nameless faces in a war when they belonged to someone on the opposite side, and quite another to murder an unsuspecting person during peace for no reason other than that he was in a bad mood.
Perhaps if he had seemed to want to defend himself, a hero of the Rebellion, more people would be on his side. But many were shocked that he had committed a crime of a magnitude that they (as did he) thought him incapable of, and they instantly went against him.
There was so much opposition against him that Mon Mothma knew she had to punish him in a way that would satisfy the suddenly blood-thirsty public, or the consequence would be a scream for 'real justice,' with people claiming that the Alliance was a supporter of things that were just only until one of their own was involved. But she knew better than to order the execution of a powerful Alliance figure whose assistance might someday be greatly needed. And, on a more personal note, she didn't want to cause the death of a man that she highly respected, and even considered something of a friend.
Since he was a strong man, she still held much hope for his survival and his continued support of the New Republic, despite the ruling against him, even if she didn't understand his strange outburst and uncharacteristic lashing out at an unknowing man.
And so it was to the prison planet saved only for the most ruthless of criminals and New Republic enemies that Mon Mothma sentenced Luke Skywalker to stay. For life.