Meet The Dark

They called her The Green Lady and she was one of the last. It was only herself and the four little ones here. There was Obi-Wan still out there, somewhere, and she hoped he had been more successful in hiding his tiny and vitally important charges than she had been in saving these children, three boys and a girl. Maybe, she prayed desparately to the cold and uncaring stars, there were others. Maybe. She whispered the names of dead friends.

Never in her bleakest nightmares had she imagined they would kill the children. She closed her eyes, trembling at the memory of the small, dead bodies. The four clinging to her robes were even younger than the slaughtered children, younger than the boy had been when he became Obi-Wan's Padawan. They had been kept safe until now. Master Yoda once told her that she should never underestimate the power and evil of the Dark Side but she had done so.

She cursed her weakness with uncharacteristic vehemence. She was strong in the force but her skills lay in healing, not fighting. She was young and inexperienced, the last female Jedi to reach Knight before the boy came. Now her failure would cost the lives of the little ones as well as her own.

The shadow was approaching and there was nowhere to run and no hiding place. They had run for so long and the children were exhausted and terrified. She knelt and embraced the children one last time, kissing each small forehead. She ushered them into a corner and told them to be brave. Then she knelt again, arranged her dark green robes around her and steeled herself.

Boy no longer, He swatted aside her best efforts to use the Force to keep the door closed and came in. Boy no longer, he approached her as inexorably as night overwhelms day, a shadow. She knew she would die now but she would fight nonetheless. She lifted her light green lightsaber. There was no talk or other preliminaries. The only sounds in the room were the electricity of light sabers connecting and the sobbing of the children. It was not long before his greater strenth brought her low. She looked at the faces of the children and said a quick prayer for them and for Obi-Wan and the two babies before making a final, desparate lunge. She met the dark one last time and the Sith Lord stepped over her body and moved toward the children.