The Beginning of an End.

[Sene Unty]

This is the beginning of my end. A story told to no one and everyone all at once. To die would be a grand thing, but to die in a grand way would be perfection. I know not what I will do...


"The Jedi act with little consequence for those that surround them."

I listen to the words and I turn away. They aren't speaking to me. I sit in a bar, as always, waiting for the arrival of a friend. I pause when I realize I have none. The eternal wait, the expectation of something great. I am consumed with my inaction.

"The Jedi are elitists nothing more. They expect us to pay them homage for their grand deeds."

I smile and continue to sip at my drink. The Rodian behind me is not my companion. I have none of those. He is a simple drunk, with high thoughts and dumb friends. I wonder if he would speak such things if he knew what I was.

Jedi Knight. Sworn protector of the righteous and weak. Defender of peace and enemy of Evil. We draw clear lines in the sand and I know who it is I fight.

I sense something in the air and I turn my head toward the entrance. An up swelling in the force. Someone enters with evil intentions. The sand is cleared and I draw my line. I see him for what he is. A humanoid of vast girth and strength. A humanoid with murderous intentions.

Another face along the way. I have seen them all before. The same men, just different shades of the same personality. They are nothing in the long run. He intends to murder one of his own. Gambling debt. A spice deal gone wrong. Does it matter?

I look towards his target and I feel nothing for the one I am expected to protect. He is no better in the end. Evil slaughtering evil. Should I step in and make my presence known? Around me the room does not halt its activities. They sense nothing. Innocents may die, but no one is really innocent here. No one is ever innocent anywhere.

I reach to my belt and feel the cold of metal.

Lightsaber, instrument of my peacekeeping ability. A weapon capable of cleaving a man in half with one stroke. A weapon of war in the hands of a knight of peace.

They speak to one another in hushed tones. I wait and watch, unable to hear and not caring to do so.

Peace. To keep the peace I should stand and stop them. Halt their evil intentions and set them on a new course. I could play with their minds. Make them play nice.

I stand despite myself. The beast at the other end of the room reaches behind his back and withdraws his weapon. Moments hang in the balance and a shiver goes up my spine.

"..son of a..."

He screams and heads twist to view the action. Seconds pass. Slow motion. How cliché.

The victim's mouth hangs wide. I start to move, grasp my Lightsaber in my hand and prepare to ignite its fire.

His shot rings out. I stop dead in my tracks. The man falls back in his chair his face turned sideways, his mouth gaping as some invisible scream escapes his lips. I grit my teeth and watch as the man dies.

I do nothing.

Death is death and no one can reverse its effects. I know he will grow cold. His heart will fail to pump. His brain will lose the ability to think and he will drift into a cold abyss. Evil has killed evil. The man that dies is a child molester. The man with the gun is the father.

I do nothing.

I watch as the killer escapes, shooting at the ceiling as tears well up on his face. I get this all through images in his mind. I am unable to see through clenched quivering eyes.

The door swings open and he is gone into the Coruscant night. I breath again and find my seat. Chaos erupts as people crowd to see the body.

I finish my drink and exit quietly into the night.



The wind is cold on my bare skin high atop the building I stand on. Naked from the waist up I peer down upon the city that moves below me.

I am Jedi. There is no doubt about this. I am Jedi.

Somewhere a scream escapes a young woman’s mouth. I let it sing to me and I do nothing.

To do nothing...the idea of it is startling. I am a Jedi and I can do nothing. The power I have can serve no one I if I wish it. I smile despite my fear.

I can do nothing.


Same bar, different day. The usual collection of undesirables that frequent the establishment have not left. I would not be surprised if they haven't left since yesterday. I order the usual and I find my seat. Same angle, but now my view has changed. I let the world play around me and I pay it no heed.

A drunk approaches me and I ignore him. I sip at my drink. His skin is dirty and he stinks of vomit and urine. I wish he would go away.

"Jedi..."

He whispers at me. I look up at him startled. He smiles.

"I saw you yesterday I did. Oh yeah I did."

I frown.

"You din't do nuthin for that poor man who was shot in the heart. Straight through the heart and nuthin. I saw you."

"You are mistaken." I turn away.

"No saw you I did. With your little sword. You din't do nuthin and now that man is dead."

"I have never been here before."

"LIAR. You lie. I saw you."

His shouts draw attention. I stand to go.

"Liar. Jedi I saw you. Jedi I know what you did. I saw you."

Something grows.

"I saw you Jedi. Dead. Right through the heart and you did nuthin."

I push past him but he grips my arm. Something dark swells.

"Nuthin. You Jedi are nuthin. I saw it. I was there."

Something prepares to break.

"You are a liar and a cheater and you let a man die. An innocent man. You are evil."

I spin on him and grip is throat in my hand. My face bulges red and veiny. Something inside snaps.

"You dare to call me liar? You dare to call me evil, Marian Tittle? Lat year you robbed a blind woman of her purse so you could feed you addiction. Just last night you stabbed a man for the few credits he still had. I see all Marian Tittle and your weak mind is nothing to me. You are nothing to me."

The man's eyes are wide with fear. I let him drop to the ground and I continue to walk away. I hear him cough and standup behind me.

"You son of a...."

His last word ends with a vile noise as he spits at my feet. I turn and before I realize it my hand is holding my Lightsaber. It ignites and its red light cuts the dark cloud of smoke that hangs in the air. Then, just as it split the smoke in two, I split Marian Tittle. From left to right and he is no more. His scream catches in his throat. The screams of the other people in the bar do not.

In wide eyed fear I rush towards the exit....

[The Ace of Hearts]

Maddox had seen this scene play out before. Plenty of times. They call it a crime of passion. Murder in the heat of the moment, when emotion smothers reason and anger explodes in an action to bring abrupt resolution.

Any minute now, the slimey little stim addict would be toast. The Jedi - or 'so called' Jedi would wack him with his shiny lightsaber and all the twitching, scheming leachery that was Marian Tittle would be a memory only. If that.

Bambi lit her cigarra and stepped from the bar before the death stroke. What did she care? He was just another casulty of a debauched society. And she wasnt just referring to Tittle.

Letting the door bang behind her, the Black Sun assassin strode to her waiting speederbike, the squeaking crackle of her leathers as she walked a familiar accompanyment wherever she went.

It was bare moments later, when a frightened young man bolted out the same bar doors.

Reving the throttle on her bike, she drew his attention. Another loud rev was his invitation.

He would not get far on foot. And there was room on the back of her bike for one.

[Sene Unty]

I just sliced a man in two....

The words are an echo in my mind, resounding through my skull.

I think back in time to remember my first murder. I draw a blank. I have never killed a man.

My anger leaves me and I am left with nothing but an empty hollow where my stomach should be. Is this what the dark side is?

I burst into the night, frightened. Lights exploded around me along with the rush of sound. I hear sirens from a distance.

I am Jedi. I will accept my punishment...

The reving of an engine startles me. I turn. A leather clad beauty catches my eye. She has evil written all over her.

She beckons me with another loud rev.

I pause.

I am a Jedi. I should accept my punishment.

I am a murderer. There is only one punishment for one such as me.

The sirens grow louder. Like a startled beast I choose freedom and I flee...

I leap upon the bike and grip onto my savior.

"Who are you?", I whisper as the bike begins to move.

[The Ace of Hearts]

Flicking her cigarra off against the curb, Maddox releases the brake and the speeder shoots forward like the crack of a starter pistol, and Sene is forced to tighten his grip around her to save himself flying off the back. Bambi laughs to herself. He doesn't know it yet, but he just got on for the ride of his life. Murder will do that to you.

Weaving in and out, screaming by vehicles like a possessed banshee, the bike and its mounts leave the wailing sirens in the distance. Breathing with the rush of wind and g-force is difficult at best, talking near impossible. Even a shout is hard to hear, and while Bambi is helmeted, quite the waste of time. They can talk later. When they arrive at the destination of Bambi's choice.

The guy would need to lay low for a while. Atleast a few hours before he could formulate his plan. And judging by the way he had been adrenilised and trembling when he got on the bike, he probly did't have the first clue what to do next. He was obviously a novice at willful slaying. Bambi laughed to herself again. What a peach.

Easing back only slightly on the speed - the need for flight lessening the more clicks they put between them and the bar - Maddox loved the rush of the bikes power and freedom to do anything less than full throttle.

Twenty minutes on, and they would turn into the top level parking of her 148th story apartment suite. She hoped the guy didn't puke all over her before then, as part of the knee-jerk reaction to a first kill.

This thought didn't make her laugh as the others had.

Bambi picked up speed.