Heroes Die

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Thank you... thank you so much..." gasped an old and weary voice. It belonged to an elderly man with thin white hair. He was donning a antiquated Jedi robe. His skin, where visible, was as cracked and dry as the many brittle leaves and lifeless tree husks that littered the floor all throughout the bleak forest that now surrounded him. His arms were clasped protectively around a silent young girl with golden curls and trembling aquamarine eyes – beautiful, clear eyes, that reflected a grotesque scene.

On the ground before her laid the blood-soaked, armored corpse of a bounty hunter. Streaming from the cadaver's abdomen, several feet of intestines hung in the air. Blood dripped from trail of raw flesh.

The old man's milky eyes began to follow the organic, glistening cord, steadily moving further away from the bounty hunter's remains. He was unable to stop himself from acknowledging the stranger who had saved his - and his granddaughter’s - life.

The vivid trail ended in a tight, glistening coil, and at the center of that coil was a thin, gloved hand. The old man's breathe quickened. The alien holding onto the dead bounty hunter’s entrails had enormous, white-feathered wings - both of which were drenched in blood – ghostly-pale skin, uniformly black eyes, jaw-length black hair... and some kind of dark perversion of a Jedi’s robe. And then at his belt, a lightsaber.

"Thank you." the old man managed to say one more time before looking away from his dark savior. He placed his calloused hand over his granddaughter’s eyes. He wanted to shield her from the world.

"I should be thanking you." Jeseth replied calmly as he wiped the blood from his hand along the inside of one of his own wings. Casually releasing his grip on the body hunter's once-vital organ, he said, "If you hadn't brought her out into these woods at precisely the time that you did, then the bounty hunter would have found two days ago... and I would have arrived too late. Dead children are of no use to me. Just imagine if -"

"Use?" the elderly human cut Jeseth off, a defensive edge to his tone.

"Yes." Jeseth clarified coldly. "I've gone to great lengths to find her. And you - well, you're no match for me." The winged Dark Jedi drew a lightsaber, and a moment later, he drew another. Both weapons waited quietly in his nimble hands.

"Close your eyes." whispered the old one into the little girl's ears. She complied, compelled by the sheer Force of the washed-up Jedi's will. "And if I'm not able to stop him, please forgive me... and forgive yourself... for whatever you may one day become."

She forgave her grandfather... but nothing else made sense now. She was so... inexplicably... tired. She just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep. And she did.

The sound of three lightsabers snapping to life pierced the gloomy forest.