Let me tell you a brief story, the story that I witnessed.
For in a galaxy far far away, centuries within the past and millenia from your time. There was a man, honest, true and unfortunate.
Born within uncertain times, he had been slaved and sentenced to a life of death and pain. But he endured, he had seen many endure more so the figures that had once tried to save those like him.
The Jedi.
As the year passed and the wars drew far and near, he met a girl. A fellow slave just like him, ome he fell deeply in love with.
But as faith would have it, the weak had little choice and the war arrived upon a planet they had recently been transferred to.
It raged violently as hundreds fell within hours, amongst them were the few simply trying to survive, they were just trying to survive.
A detachment of republic forces led by a Jedi had gotten to them and offered shelter and escape, they accepted gleefully and moved to safety. They almost made off world, so close to the dream of a life together away from death and masters.
Almost.
A sith strike force engaged their rescue team, they were out numbered and out classed. The Jedi force had to pull out and not many to follow them.
Many of those rescued by them never made it to the ship, they never made if off world. The boy made it but the love of his life?
She was lost to him but not forever, not while he lived for he swore he would one day find her once more.
And so, the years passed. Each bringing the guilt to bear even higher but he persevered and hoped.
It was rewarded for one day he encountered her once again but...she was not the same.
For you see, while he had been accepted, nurtured and trained within the vast halls and safety of the Jedi temples.
She was taken, tortured and broken in the training barracks of sith acolytes. Proving to be gifted in both the use of the force and in harnessing her rage, she soon came to be the end for many republic troopers.
On that very day, that very field - they met once more and they fought.
The battle was fierce and losses began to mount. All the while within it all, the boy sought to draw her back, to draw her into the light. To return her into his embrace.
Locations moved and the very foundations were destroyed.
But it came to a standstill as they both stood upon a field of corpses. He - willingly - dropped his blade. Choosing to rather be struck down than to strike against his beloved and this show of faith, of absolute trust and loyalty...broke her further.
She fell and surrendered, confessing words of pains and eagerness to escape her personal hell. With a brief embrace, they planned to leave it all and fulfill their dreams of a peaceful life together.
Thus, they took to the hills and abandoned their duties but duty was not so easily forgiving for the war enveloped the planet.
Like a sick joke, they were hunted and soon dragged into another battle, first a minor one and then another and another.
The boy sought to aid those who could not aide themselves, the girl - used to a life of betrayal and pain - at first confused and dissaproving, slowly came to understand and fall in love with it.
The battles than reached them only strengthened their bonds until it was to their demise.
They knew they had to reach off world and knew only of a faction willing to aid and with the capability to see it done.
The republic, in exchange for their martial prowess, promised escaped as they performed a hasty retreat. But the commanding general, unwillingly to allow the sith any gains choose a brutal and ruthless strategy.
Orbital bombardment.
It caused a great deal of damage to the sith forces but it also caused damage to the lovers for during one such engagement and a hasty decision. They were once again seperated and with an anger so life depriving, the boy watched as his lover was plunged in deep flames.
It broke him.
Utterly consumed in lost memories and hate, he cut down the general who ordered it and when they tried to restrain him, he cut down his former allies.
His anger only grew with each passing time as he saw vengeance on the republic, blaming them and seeing the whole as just another sith empire.
To the amusement of none of his allies, he saw some truth within the movements and beliefs of the sith. But he knew they were also at fault for the loss of his beloved and so he moved to form his own faction.
One that while minut compared to the others, was enough to turn entire battles around. The years only grew worse for him as he, in his sorrow, drowned his pain in rage and ambition.
But it was not the end of the story for to the surprise of him, his lover had return. Scarred, damaged but a beacon of light and justice.
She spoke of her tales, of her struggles and her continued and undying wish to spend her finals days in his embrace. Willingly to drop it all for a chance at normal life.
But a mind of ambition could not so easily let go. He refused.
No matter how much she persuaded, she could not get through to him. So she resorted to forceful methods, cutting away at his little cult, killing off its members and diminishing its presence in the greater scheme.
But it only drove him deeper and deeper. Soon, she realised that...it was the end for him so she resigned herself and chose to simply stay by his side. Hoping that in his final moments, she would be there to share it with him.
He payed little head to her and the madness of ambition only drew him deeper.
The primary base of his cults activities had turned into a world of nightmare, being the battle ground for dozens if not hundreds of battles.
The stench of death had never been stronger and it was reaching its apex.
Sensing this, the boy began a ritual. One that would seem him transcend the chains of mortality and become a figure of great strength and will.
But as with all things, there are costs and the Sith, in their self ego, could never see it.
But she saw it and she acted on it.
Cutting her way through the entirety of the cult, she buried everything and in her final moments - just as the ritual reached its apex - she struck her beloved down.
Thrusting the blade through his back and into her heart, ensuring that they died within each other's embrace.
***
The mask cracked further, pieces falling off as its integrity struggled to hold. The man brushed his hands against it, still it remained stuff on his face though he felt its grip weakening my the minute.
He looked through the lenses of the mask and she looked back into his eyes, an unspoken realization slowly creeping into his mind.
Questions that he had not previously asked, did not previously even bother to think up on.
His mind surged with pain as he remembered, he remembered so painfully that it scared him.
This planet....this place, it was something they had not foreseen and he was now unsure for just how long he had been here.
He had to hurry.
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Notes
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Fish