Well, I'm finally posting this story. This little chapter-that's-more-a-prologue is the seed of a story I've had in pieces in my head for years (since I first started writing fics, to be honest), and I decided it was time to finally sit down and do it. Also, if it's not immediately obvious, this takes place post-Apocalypse. And will be AU, for reasons I don't want to disclose, but most of you can probably guess at. I do not own Star Wars. Please, review or comment (as that's the only way I know people want to see what happens next).

Star Wars The Dark Return

Chapter 1

She let herself sink back into the seat, and tried to figure out what she was supposed to feel.

Sorrow, she guessed. Not for those who were dead. She didn't much care for any of them. More for the ideal they strove for, what they represented, now dead as they were. For herself, for the life she had now lost.

Shock, most definitely. At how suddenly they'd been attacked, how overwhelming it had been. How she was still alive and well.

Confusion, at the mysterious man who had saved her life. She hadn't recognized him. His clothes, armor, style of fighting, all were unknown to her. But he had saved her life, so she supposed that was all she needed to know.

Now, the question of where to go. She had no doubt that all the other strongholds they'd set up were no longer safe. If they had been found and attacked in so open a manner, they could not be safe anywhere. Sighing, she resigned herself to the one choice she knew she would end up making.

Vestara could only guess as to whether she had just chosen to go to her death, after having just escaped it.

Though she found a small comfort in the fact that if she was going to die. she'd die at the hands of someone he respected. Someone she loved.