RISE AGAIN ─ star wars

XI. The Dark Saber

Chapter Eleven
Leera

It doesn't take long to find where Bo Katan chased Moff Gideon to. In the midst of a battle to take over the planet where does the great moff go? The throne room, where he can show off his strength and try to assert his dominance, even in the face of possible defeat.

What a jackass.

He's standing in front of the Mandalorian throne now, the dark saber ignited, pointing downwards towards a wounded Bo Katan clutching her stomach.

I hear Raymen gasp next to me, and this small noise manages to catch Gideon's attention. The bastard grins, his eyes settling on me. "The irony of finding you here, Ms. Ambar; in the throne room of the Mandalorian palace during a rebel uprising, just like your father had been before he was killed with his own blade." Gideon raises the dark saber for emphasis, and he has the audacity to laugh.

He's trying to bait me, I know he is, and man is it working. My hand twitches with the restraint it's taking not to reach for my blaster right now and wipe that grin right off his smug mouth. But I take one look at Raymen and I find the strength I need to resist his words, resist his baiting.

"How poetic it will be to die the same way your father did, by the same weapon, in the same place," Gideon begins stalking towards us slowly, dragging the tip of the dark saber against the ground, making a high pitched noise sound through the room. "Though, there still is a way you could escape your father's fate."

"And what might that be?" I ask mockingly.

Gideon ignores my tone. "Accept my earlier offer and join the Empire. You know as well as I do that this rebellion will fail, just as all rebellions do. They all have one fatal flaw; a higher purpose, hope, the ideals of freedom. The Empire doesn't have room for these things, and neither do you."

"You know nothing about me." I spit out.

"Oh I think I do," Gideon argues, stopping his stride and standing a few feet from us, the dark saber still tightly gripped in his hand. "You haven't been here on Mandalore trying to fight for freedom and justice like Bo Katan Kryze or Jayce Daulton. You're a bounty hunter, you only look out for yourself, you're an opportunist, a survivor. You remind me of a younger me, before I joined the Empire and gained more power and wealth than I could have ever comprehended. You could have all of that and more if you'd only join the Empire."

He's right, I haven't been here trying to free Mandalore all these years, not like Raymen or Bo Katan. Instead I've been a bounty hunter, fighting and killing and running away from my past like a coward. I became an opportunist and a survivor because I chose to leave my past behind me instead of trying to free our home, instead of joining others as lost and hopeless I was and trying to make sure others didn't feel the same way.

The Armorer was right. I have let my hatred of my father and what he did poison me. I let it poison my judgement, my desires, my mind, and most of all my heart. My hatred poisoned me into becoming the very thing I tried to avoid becoming by running from my past; someone like my father and Gideon. Someone who doesn't care about anyone and is only our for themselves. Someone who is selfish, someone who is arrogant, someone whose a coward.

My father fought for what he thought was the greater good, but all he really sought was power and control, just like Gideon. They are one and the same, and I was wrong to think that everyone who has claim to power or fights for a greater purpose would be corrupted like them. It's just like Raymen said, those who succumb to their worst temptations while having power are weak, and there are many who are strong enough to hold onto who they are while in power and truly make the galaxy a better place.