Until We End

'Until we End is a short story written by Katana Geldar which is a companion to the Jedi Padmé Trilogy.

Characters

 * Mar C'Seo
 * Kuan Yin Nevu
 * Para Laren
 * Kyro
 * Inola

Story
Kuan Yin Nevu and Mar C’Seo raced through the streets of the grimy city. Between them was Para Laren, the Twi’lek intelligence agent they had come to extract. She had been on the run from bounty hunters for the best part of a standard year, and though she was wounded in the leg so that she couldn’t walk she was being taken to safety.

Kuan Yin had hoped for a routine mission with her former Master, or at least some time with him as her Padawan was away on a solo mission. Yet with the bounty hunters following them, it was purely up to the will of the Force if they managed to get away.

Suddenly a stray blaster bolt hit Mar and he went down with a groan. Somehow, Kuan Yin managed to support Para as well as help him into a side alley. She put a hand to his wound.

“No,” he murmured, he moved his hand from his side, it came away bloody and the red was spreading. “Too deep, nothing you can do.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Kuan Yin urged, reaching forward with the Force to help him.

“You’ll have to get away, Kuan Yin,” Mar said dryly, nodding to the very pale Para. “You’re her only hope. I’ll only slow you down.”

Kuan Yin examined the familiar outline of her former Master’s face. The tawny blond hair that frame his face, the several braids that fell down his shoulders. The deep blue eyes that were pleading with her to understand.

It happened to every Jedi, there came a time in their life that the paths of the Master and Padawan diverged and not purely due to circumstances. It was just difficult to accept that that day was finally here.

“I understand,” Kuan Yin said resignedly, bowing her head. It was her duty as a Jedi to accept change as it came, yet this didn’t make it any easier.

“They’re coming!” Para gasped as the blaster bolts grew louder and nearer.

Mar got to his feet, wincing considerably. For the last time he embraced his former Padawan, she was all he had hoped her to be and more and only regretted the fact that he would be there for no longer. Yet it did no good to dwell on such things, it was the way of things, the way of the Force.

“You’re the daughter I never had,” he murmured as their embrace broke.

“Thank you, Master,” she said softly, “I will remember, may the Force be with you.”

“May the Force be with you,” Mar returned, stressing the last word as much as he could, “always.”

After she had gone Mar C’Seo, Jedi Master and Council member, ignited his lightsaber and went to face his fate. It would end here, he knew, and he accepted it just as he accepted that Kuan Yin had to get away.

He closed his eyes, letting the Force fill him like a solar sail absorbed sunlight, the full luminescence and power giving him strength. Then he opened his eyes. The bounty hunters, a Rodian named Kyro and a Dug by the name of Inola had stopped to stare at him. Mar had made no move to attack, only holding his lightsaber vertically in front of him.

“What are you doing?” Kyro asked in Huttese, raising his blaster rifle.

Mar only smiled. “You will not pass,” he said simply.

“Jedi poodoo!” Inola spat, firing several shots.

Yet not one of them touched the Jedi, and he hardly moved at all. With a few subtle twists he had managed to evade the blaster bolts. The Dug fired again and Mar moved his lightsaber to intercept the blasts, it was going exactly as he had planned.

Supporting Para with one arm Kuan Yin replaced her lightsaber on her belt and reached into her pocket for a small device. It was a beckon call, before they had arrived to free Para, Mar had reluctantly slave-circuited their ship on Ord Mantell. An action that was going to prove the success of the mission.

The sleek Corellian runner appeared in the skyline, Kuan Yin pressed another button as she ran and soon the ship had landed and they were on board. Leaving Para on the co-pilot’s seat, Kuan Yin took up the controls putting all power so they could leave the planet.

When he heard the whine of repulsor engines, Mar let himself look up at the fleeing ship. He smiled again, the bounty hunters looked up too.

“Looks like you’ve missed out,” the Jedi Master said lightly.

In response the Rodian fired on him again.

Mar fought on bravely, letting the Force flow through him and direct his actions. He would stand there to the last, no matter what. He could feel his body failing him; his entire left leg was red with blood now.

The bounty hunters knew this, and were quick to shoot the Jedi Master in critical places. He might be a Jedi, but he was not invincible.

When a blaster bolt exploded against his chest Mar C’Seo was silent. As he fell he smiled, accepting his end as he had when he knew it would come.

After all, there is no death, he told himself as he stared up at the empty sky, there is the Force.