Penance - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Darth Penance

Mustering all the anger and hatred that she can, Kendra Theil viscously attacks her opponent with her light saber.  Her movements are quick and sharp.  Her opponent, surprised by the flurry, quickly begins to back peddle.

         “Yes, yes.  Use your anger.  Feel it flow though you,” a voice calls from the darkness.  “I can feel it welling up within you.  Use it now!!”  The voice commands.

         In one deft move Kendra ducks while releasing the trigger to extinguish her blade.  She moves close to her opponent, under the swinging arc of his saber.  She pivots to the left and then reignites her own weapon, severing both legs at the knee.  When her opponent begins to fall back she pivots forward switches hands with her blade and coming up from underneath his clasped hands slices both arms off the man at the elbows.  As the man screams, writhing in pain among his burnt and severed limbs the voice once again calls from the darkness.

         “Well done.  Now finish him!”  He says stepping from the shadows, his heavy footsteps clacking along the deck plating of the ship. As he reaches the top of the stairs he commands, “Kill him now and your training will be complete.”

         A mess of emotions she stands there both hating this man and terrorized by the thought of actually killing him. 

         “I can’t do it.”  She sobs uncontrollably as she backs away from the man whose screams are echoing against the Durasteel hull.

         The figure moves slowly down the stairs of the cargo bay past force crushed piping and debris.  As he moves, his long cape wafts behind him giving his smooth footfalls a flowing almost gliding effect. 

         “This man has taken everything from you.  Your husband is dead along with the child you both awaited.  You will never see him.  You will never know the man you always thought he would be.  He has left you bereft and alone.  It would have been better that he killed you, but he didn’t.  His final act of cruelty is to leave you alone and broken without the will to carry on.”  Her crying has increased as her hatred slips into despair.  By now he is very near her.  She can hear his respirator feeding enhanced oxygen and air molecules into his burnt and damages lungs.

         “No, no I can’t, I shouldn’t.”  She gasps through the tears.

         The breathing mask hides his features, but he is smiling beneath it for he knows that she has turned the corner.  Just one more small push should do it.

         “This is the moment you have been waiting for. He is the same as the first one.”  He says as the sobbing woman cringes back from his dark visage.

         “No that was different.  He had attacked me.”  She sobs.

Putting her hand up she waves him off and cries, “NO!!!, No not like this.  I wanted justice.  This is revenge.”

         “Very well, I will finish him myself,” he says as he draws his own saber and ignites its red blade.

         As he prepares to sever the man’s head from his body he says to her, “Justice or revenge, what is the difference.”  He raised his blade and prepares to strike.

         His words echo in her ears.  She thinks back to when this all started, when she was just a wife and soon to be mother.  The hatred comes back into her mind. It fills her heart and steels it against the horror she sees lying on the floor.  A minute longer and she will be too late.  The man will be dead and he will have robbed her of only thing that she has left; revenge. The gyroscopic sound of the arcing light saber rouses her.  Instinctively she ignites her own saber and blocks the downward swooping arc.  The two blades collide and for a moment there is only the crackling of their mating.  Vader lowers his blade, his breathing quickening as he reaches out with the force to sense her feelings.  Is she going to try to kill him or the man lying on the floor?  He tenses up, probing to find the answer in her mind.  Kendra’s face is a mask of coolness, only her eyes, bright and orange, steeped in the power of the dark side betray her calmness. 

         “He is mine!” she growls.  Raising her blade above her, she points it down and pierces the screaming man through is chest.  As the blade punches through the deck plating she hears his last breath gurgle from him as his own blood boils over in his mouth.

         Switching her blade off she stands up and feels an overwhelming sense of euphoria as endorphins in her brain finally take hold.  She wipes her face off in disgust at having wasted tears on the loathsome creature beneath her boots. 

         “Good, good my apprentice, you have done well.”  Darth Vader says as he replaces his light saber onto his belt. 

         Her eyes still flooded with the rage of the force she looks at him and says, “But there are more out there aren’t there?”

         His breathing evening out he responds, “Yes, but they will wait for another day.  For now you must meditate on this day on your feelings.  You will grow stronger with the force and through its power will you be unstoppable.”

         “Yes, my master.”  She says with a slight bow.  Vader turns on his heel and makes his way back towards the blast doors.  She follows stepping over the body of the man she has just killed as if stepping over nothing more than a crack in the floor.  As she quickens her pace to catch up he suddenly stops and turns to face her.  He looks at her with his optic eyes that convey none of the emotions of the man beneath the mask.

         “One more thing,” He tells her, “Kneel.” She obeys fully, kneeling at once and lowering her head.

         “Give me your light saber.”  He commands.  Once again she hands it over without hesitation.  Carefully he inspects the weapon. 

“Perfect. Clean lines and uncluttered controls.  A weapon built for function rather than the more austentatious jedi sabers,” he thinks as he strokes the body of the casing.

         “The last phase of your training is complete.  Kendra Theil is dead.  You must bury her along with her husband and unborn child.  From this moment forward you will be known as Darth Penance.”  He says has he reaches down to hand her light saber back to her. Reaching up she takes it from him and for the briefest of moments her fingers close over his gloved hand. 

         “Rise Lady Penance.”  He commands as her fingertips slip over his and onto the saber hilt.

         “Yes, my master,” is her only reply.

         The two walk in silence back to the hanger of the ship where both of their ships await.  His X1 and her Sprite sit waiting for their owners.  Vader makes note of the Sprites black matte finish.  It looks like some large sinister arrowhead ready to pierce the void of space.  It is a far cry from the taupe and beige of Obi Wan’s fighter.  It is the same model, but the color difference makes her sprite look cruel and grotesque, a thought that he quickly dismisses as he catches his own reflection in canopy glass.

         “You will wait for further instructions from me on Vjun.”  He says to her before turning to his X1.

         “Yes, my master.”  She says softly turning to her Sprite.