Star Wars: Starkiller

The scream escaped my throat before I could stop it.

"AAAHH!"

I sat up with a start, gasping, as cold sweat ran down my forehead. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by lush vegetation and trees that towered like green colossi toward a barely visible sky. I had never seen such tall, majestic trees. Their presence was imposing and, at the same time, calming. For a moment, I allowed myself to admire the landscape, letting the scent of damp earth and fresh leaves fill my senses.

However, something broke the stillness: a sound, a barely audible murmur, as if several voices were whispering to each other.

"Maybe they can tell me where I am." I muttered aloud, and without hesitation, I headed toward the source of the voices.

With each step I took, the terrain beneath my feet seemed to transform. The dense vegetation began to fade, replaced by firmer ground, and the giant trees stood back as if they were a curtain revealing an unexpected scene. In front of me, a house completely made of wood emerged. Its design was simple but sturdy, with architecture that reminded me of the Wookie shelters on Kashyyyk. A carved crest on the door, depicting a phoenix in mid-flight, caught my attention.

"This must be it...Kashyyyk." I said, loudly confirming my suspicion.

Before I could ponder further, my eyes caught movement in front of the house. A human man dressed in traditional Jedi garb stood there, next to a blindfolded child. The little boy was holding a blue lightsaber in his tiny hands and trying to intercept some small projectiles that the man was carefully throwing. On one of the attempts, the boy managed to deflect a projectile, causing the Jedi to smile proudly.

"That, Galen, very good. Keep it up and you'll be a great Jedi in the future," the man said with palpable warmth. The boy responded with a beaming smile.

My heart stopped.

"Galen...? That name...does that mean... father?"

A flood of repressed memories hit me with force, but before I could process them, the scene began to fade, distorting before my eyes to make way for another image.

Now, a figure wrapped in black armor was walking through the thicket of the forest. His rhythmic, mechanical breathing echoed ominously in the atmosphere.

"Vader, what's he doing here?" I asked aloud, confusion growing inside me.

The scene changed again. Vader stood in front of the same wooden house. From inside stepped out the Jedi I had seen before, now with a serious and determined countenance.

"Dark Lord...," the man said in a steady voice, though his hand trembled slightly as he reached for the lightsaber at his belt. "Whatever it is you seek, you will not find it here."

Vader took a step forward, and the light filtering through the treetops briefly illuminated his mask.

"You cannot hide it from me...Jedi." he declared coolly.

They both ignited their lightsabers, and the confrontation began. Red and blue flashes danced in the air, but before I could see the outcome, the scene fell apart again. My hands were shaking.

"What...what is this, why am I seeing this?", I thought as panic began to take hold of me.

The next fragment of this nightmare showed the defeated Jedi in front of his home. Vader entered the house, his presence looming like a menacing shadow. Reaching out, he grasped the Jedi by the neck with the Force, lifting him effortlessly.

"I sense someone much more powerful nearby," Vader said in an icy, calculating voice. "Where is your master?"

The Jedi, fighting through the pain, stared at him. "The Dark Side has clouded your mind. You killed my master years ago."

"Then now you will share his fate."

With a swift movement, Vader raised his saber, ready to deliver the final blow. But before he could do so, the weapon was wrenched from his hand and flew through the air. It landed in the small hands of a child watching the scene.

Vader turned to the little boy, bowing his head slightly.

"A son..." he muttered.

"Run!" the Jedi shouted with his dying breath.

The Dark Lord clenched his fist, and the dry sound of the man's neck snapping echoed through the air. His body fell to the ground with a thud.

"No... no... no... NOOOOOOOO!" I screamed in despair as I watched helplessly.

I woke with a jolt, my heart pounding furiously in my chest. Darkness. That was all that surrounded me. I blinked, trying to adjust, and the first thing I noticed was the coldness of the chains binding my hands. I couldn't feel them; they had placed cortosis immobilizers. I knew exactly what they were: handcuffs designed for Force users, made of a material that made it impossible to use a lightsaber to break them. I also noticed something else.

Rancisis' lightsaber was no longer with me.

All this served to make me realize that something, I had been captured, which was good because I wasn't dead, meaning it would only be a matter of time to escape.

'Where am I?' I thought as I tried to move some of my limbs but it was useless, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't do anything.

However, the sound of a door opening and the lights coming on made me look up, apparently I was in some sort of subway cell as the only part that was not reinforced was above.

The sound of rhythmic breathing that was very familiar was present so once I looked up, the familiar silhouette of Vader entered my field of vision. For a few seconds he said nothing, I didn't even manage to sense that he was surprised to see me alive, so he must have sensed it already, hence the reason for my capture.

"How long...how long was I asleep." I managed to say, I felt my mouth and throats dry, I must have been unconscious longer than I thought.

"3 days. Impressive, after that stunt you did, you should be dead and yet, and despite your resistance to it, the dark side is still your ally."

"What do you mean?" I asked trying to move again, but it was useless, my body was completely immobilized.

Vader didn't answer, he just stood there for a few seconds looking at me, perhaps analyzing if I had a chance to escape or maybe he was taunting me without me knowing it. Finally he spoke again.

"We both know that an interrogation would be useless with you, I taught you enough to resist any of these after all, so I will simply let you perish here, unless you have something to say." Vader said to which I couldn't resist the urge to laugh loudly.

"And...we both know I won't tell you anything so go ahead, leave me rotting here, it won't make a difference."

With my response I had made it clear that it was all said and done, Vader knew me well enough to know that anything he said to me would be useless so to bother. And so he did, he turned and without a word left, the lights going out once the door was closed, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

What did he mean by resisting the dark side? Does he mean I'm resisting using it? That's ridiculous' I thought, but then I thought back to the confrontation against him and....

The force lightning! I didn't use it, but why?' I thought as I tried to remember why I hadn't used one of my best techniques and no answer came to me, it was as if...unconsciously I had been reluctant to use them.

'But why?' I thought to which, I quickly came up with something.

'Maybe I can use it to escape from here, maybe if I concentrate the energy in one spot long enough this will make the handcuffs break.

So I tried to do just that, trying to concentrate the dark side energy to create lightning but quickly realized I couldn't...I couldn't do it.

The combination of surprise and disbelief made me despair.

"Why it doesn't work? Why? WHY IT DOESN'T WORK?" I shouted but I knew no one could hear me.