Week 14: "One bright spot…"
(The Force Unleashed - Starkiller, Juno Eclipse)
Whispering
It started so quietly that she couldn't even say when it began. A subtle look. A tentative touch. His hand lingering over hers for just a moment too long as she worked the controls. The gnawing fear that she pushed out of her thoughts and pretended did not exist until he came back safely from each mission. Cold faded into warm. Bitterness bled into acceptance.
She doesn't remember when her feelings shifted silently toward affection but she remembers that it was right. For the first time in more years than she cared to count, she was on the right path.
Haunting
He was so focused. So singular. So damaged. They had that in common. Regret was the level on which they first connected. In serving the Empire, they'd both done terrible things. She never had to ask why he cried out in this sleep at night for it was a sound she recognized all too well. She heard the screams of the people who died under her command at Callos.
But Starkiller –
Darth Vader was the Master that he served without question or hesitation. She didn't want to know what he heard - what he saw that tormented him in dreams.
Lingering
One kiss.
She could still taste it. He had never known intimacy – he had lived his entire life so alone - and whatever she'd expected when she pulled his lips to hers, she had not expected passion in return. His hands had moved slowly up her back as she'd leaned in to his tightening embrace. He'd burned with promise – with the intensity of what they could have. What they could be. A lifetime lived there on the ship's ramp over the Death Star.
One kiss.
It was all they had – all they would ever have but somehow, it was enough.
Echoing
He found Juno wasting in an Imperial prison - a life of loyalty to the Empire rewarded with months of neglect and starvation. When he carried her to safety, she saw a new determination behind his eyes.
She found Starkiller in the snow – battered, beaten and left for dead by the Master he'd served with unwavering devotion. When she knelt at his side, he told her his real name.
In the wake of betrayal, they found purpose and clarity. A new destiny. New hope.
With conscience as their only guide, they took the first hesitant steps toward the light together.
Murmuring
She thought of him every day. His alliance – The Alliance – grew with the steady momentum of a wave gathering beneath the ocean's surface. His family crest flew as the flag and freedom fighters rallied beneath the scarlet emblem, most never knowing the name of the man who had given his life to birth the Rebellion.
From wherever he was in the Force, she hoped he could see them. She hoped he knew that his sacrifice had not been in vain. Most of all, she hoped that the future would be a place where Galen Marek could have lived in peace.