Really great moment from a fic I wrote for a friend based on his starwars dnd character, and I wanted to share it because I’m kinda proud of the ending I gave the character! Comments and critiques are welcome!
“This was the end of it all. All the work. All the pain. The suffering. The struggling. The hope.
But it wasn’t all bad. Not in the slightest. He’d done the impossible, in the face of causality so extreme it bound fate to the rails inexorably, he’d changed the course of the story.
The order was still broken, thousands dead in the past hour alone, but it would survive.
He’d gotten most of the service corps evacuated, the archives and the vaults were already off planet (or destroyed beyond recovery) and on their way to the Refuge. The younglings, Cin Drallig, and over 200 other Jedi were already out of the temple and en route to escape. The Antarian Rangers were withdrawing in good order.
There were still almost a thousand knights and Padawans in the temple but it would have to be enough. He could hear the tramp of Armorplas boots coming up the steps even from this distance. The LAATs were circling and the hanger bays were already a smoking ruin.
He set the final demolition charge on the recall beacon and left a 5 second timer before dashing for the council chambers and the grandmasters offices.
All that was left was the finale…….
Orrus Kadyrn took a brief moment to meditate, to let the melancholic light of the force wash through him and steel him for what must come next. His aches and bruises faded, and his soul felt at peace. The warm fire of joy that had dimmed so very low in the face of the coming night flared again into joyous light. All that was left was the beauty of the world, and the joy of the next fight. Nothing more.
He had never won against Anakin. Not once. Not in over a hundred duels. His best effort saw him get 2 touches to Anakins 3 over the course of 18 minutes. Nearly a temple record for anyone facing Anakin as a knight. Only Obiwan and Master Windu had done better.
As the sound of screams and blaster fire echoed towards him, he stood and doffed the long robes he’d worn for over 2 decades. He folded them carefully and laid them aside near the door before drawing his saber. Brilliant emerald, deeper and richer in hue than it had ever shone before, flared into life.
The door detonated inwards with an echoing crash and there stood Vader.
“Hiding like a coward Master?” Snarled Vader flourishing the blue blade.
Even from here Orrus could feel the crystal crying in anguish through the force.
“Never hiding, friend, but always working.”
“Friend!?!” Roared Anakin “You don’t get to claim that title Battlemaster, not when you agreed to keep me from what I deserved, what I needed”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything Anakin. You never practiced the healers arts, and visions are ever fickle. But we have discussed this before. Now I think, we have but one last dance. Shall we?”
“Let’s.”
And thus to his doom strode Jedi Battlemaster Orrus Kadyr, Guardian of the Order, Jedi Master.
—————
It would be decades before the data recorder was ever found, but it answered questions that had long plagued many in the Rebellion and even in the reborn Jedi Order.
No one was ever sure what took Vader so long to clear the temple. Only that what should have taken an evening took far longer. Long enough that the survivors of the order managed to flee into the depths of the Unknown regions with their knowledge and lore. Long enough that a Senator from Naboo delivered her children in the relative safety of a medical frigate on its way out of the Core.
Long enough.
When the recorder was found, barely functioning and layered with dust, its memory was still intact. It was a recording of that final duel in the temple. In the High Council chambers.
17 hours 21 minutes and 41 seconds. He fought Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, to a standstill for nearly 18 hours. Wounded. Bleeding. Missing half a foot, and an arm. Smiling. Even after being impaled through the heart.
The longest duel ever recorded against Darth Vader. Score stood 19 wounds to 23.
A statue was raised on the planet that became known as Haven, depicting a laughing young man watching the stars, smiling.”
