Fall

A/N: This is a Star Wars vignette I wrote junior year at LC. I remember this because I finished it in Hasty's class. It is about Padmé's death, but contains absolutely NO SPOILERS.

"Fall"

Troopers and droids surround her, and she draws her blaster, fighting fiercely, bravely. She knows, now, that she will be destroyed. If she has any choice at all, she will go down fighting. Then he approaches. The Emperor. Darth Sidious. Palpatine.

She meets his gaze. "It was you. All this time. I should have known."

He smiles a sinister smile. Then he asks about the child. There was never a child, she answers calmly, but he senses a flicker of fear. He calls her bluff, not even changing his tone. "You're lying, m'Lady."

"You think I am? There is no child." Just as if this was any other political debate in the Senate.

"The father, I'm sure, would be most eager to know. He might even find it useful... should I choose to inform him... Or perhaps the matter should simply be dealt with..."

"You don't dare!" All pretense of cordiality vanishes, a fire kindles in her eyes.

"Be careful with your words, m'Lady." His voice drips with malice. "I could kill you in seconds."

"Then do it." Her voice low, she stands straight and dignified in spite of her torn clothes and skin smudged with dirt, sweat, and blood. "Strike me down. You can kill Anakin Skywalker, and you can kill me. You already have. You killed us years ago. But you cannot kill hope. It's in a place you'll never reach."

"You don't know of what you speak." But the confidence and certainty of her tone strikes a spark of doubt in his iron-hard mind. And the doubt, that feeling he so rarely knows, begets a strange fear. A fear that she speaks the truth.

"Don't I? I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid of you." She is sincere, and he knows it. There is no fear in her eyes. "In the end, darkness never triumphs."

Her certainty causes fear to grip at his heart. And, as in the mind of every dark lord, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. She dares foretell his downfall?

"This is the end."

She does not flinch as he raises his hands, only closes her eyes.

Force lightning. It is the work of an instant. A brief scream of pain and she crumples, somehow gracefully, to the ground.

On Tatooine and Alderaan, Luke and Leia cry out.

Anakin Skywalker falters in the duel and is pushed by his former Master into a molten pool, from which he will emerge as Darth Vader, more machine than man.

And Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious, curses himself. He curses himself for letting it be quick, for not making her suffer. He curses himself because, although he has killed her, she has won.

It is not the end.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is the property of George Lucas and Lucasfilm. I mean no infringement and make no profit. Please do not copy or republish Erin's work without her express written permission. Thank you!