[Short Stories] - Dark Emperor 1(5)
Boda looked to be about sixty-five years old. His hands were large and rough with calluses from many years of gardening. The many wrinkles near his eyes were shadowed by his thick brow. Boda perpetually squinted from long years of looking at the sun. He had a patient, calm demeanor, gleaned from contact with the peace of slow growing things. Boda’s simple, sleeveless brown robe was worn loose in the style of the Jedi. It concealed a lightsaber that was never taken out when someone might see it. His clothes and shoes were dirt-stained, old, and worn. He had a gruff voice, but he rarely used it, preferring the silence of the gardens and his private thoughts of Palpatine’s defeat. It was best that he stayed solitary. People tended to feel uneasy around him, they sensed that there was something strange about him despite his ordinary appearance. Boda did not want to be noticed, so he stayed alone.
But he hadn’t always been alone. Once, he had lived with his brother…a brother with whom he had disagreed deeply and passionately. It had, in fact, been a disagreement to the death. Just thinking about it made the whole memory start to replay itself in Boda’s mind. It was a powerful memory, with strong emotions attached to it. Boda couldn’t resist it, and it took him back, back to where this had all started…
“No, Vantos, I…won’t allow you to go through with this,” said Ashka Boda. He gasped with exhaustion as he clambered onto the broad ledge next to his also tired brother. Vantos Boda looked at him, panting and incredulous. The brothers were standing on a rock cliff face, full of protruding ledges and natural stone stairways. The base of the cliff was a considerable distance below them, and even further up above them was the lonely house where the child of Vantos’ vision lived alone with his father. Vantos had insisted on approaching the house this way in order to avoid being spotted on the wide mountain road. His plan was to scout out the house unobserved, wait for a chance to catch the child alone, and then kill him quickly with a lightsaber.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Vantos spat, “You can’t be serious! Ashka, you disgust me. How can you do this to me now, when we’re both so deep into it? I thought I had you convinced. Why did you come all this way with me if you were going to back out at the last second?”
“I never said I agreed with you, Vantos,” Ashka said with weary anger. “I could never condone the murder of a child. I came with you so I could be at your side, in case you abandoned your evil goals-” Vantos growled, but Ashka ignored him. “Yes, evil, Vantos. Don’t try to fool yourself. You’re on the path that leads to the dark side. I don’t want to lose you…but if you do this…you’re already lost. I want you to understand me very clearly. I’m not ‘backing out’ and letting you finish this alone. I’m…I’m going to stop you right here. Whatever that takes.”
Vantos looked steadily at his brother. “Oh, I understand you, Ashka. You’re threatening me, your own brother. Would you kill me if you had to? Is it worth that much to you? Listen to me. It doesn’t all have to happen this way.”
Ashka didn’t reply. He held Vantos’ gaze with his own, his eyes full of dread.
“You’d kill me,” Vantos continued, “and let that child live. He’ll grow up, and murder trillions! Do you want to live with that? All those deaths will be on your head. You talk about the dark side…that child is going to be the greatest Master of the dark side that ever lived! He’s going to destroy our order—wipe out the Jedi. He’s going to build a machine that can shatter an entire world! He’s going to bring down the Republic and become the Emperor of a galaxy in chains. But I have a chance to prevent all that. I was given the vision for a purpose. The Force itself wants me to be the savior. Just like it says in the Journal of the Whills! ‘And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the son of the suns.’” Vantos choked out the words. “Ashka, what is the life of one child, set against so many billions? What is my life, even? If I had to die for this, I would. Even if…even if you have to…” Vantos looked away from his brother’s eyes.
Ashka adopted a pleading tone. “These arguments didn’t persuade me before, and they won’t now. Listen to reason, Vantos. This child, this Espaa Pestage, he is only a child. He hasn’t done any of the things you’re talking about. The Republic and the Jedi Order are fine! What you say doesn’t make any sense. No one child or adult is going to be able to do all those things. Remember what our Master taught us when we were training? She said you could try to see the future, but it wasn’t set. Anything could change it. This vision of yours could be the stuff of fantasy.”