JEDI STARFIGHTER (COCKPIT) – NIGHTFALL
MARETH sits in silence, the cockpit dark except for the pulsing
blue light of the nav panel. His hand hovers over the controls, but he doesn’t move. Outside, the sands of Korriban swirl like ghosts in the night.
His eyes close. He breathes. And the past rises again.
FLASHBACK – 18 YEARS EARLIER – REFUGEE TENT, VHAL’TOR – NIGHT
ZARA, young, wrapped in a threadbare blanket, sits beside a small heating unit. Her eyes are hollow but focused on something beyond the world.
YOUNG ELIAN kneels beside her. He offers her a ration, but she doesn’t take it.
YOUNG ZARA (ZORI) : "What happens to the ones you leave behind?"
YOUNG ELIAN: (softly responds) "We never forget them."
YOUNG ZARA: "Then why does it feel like you already have?"
She looks up at him. There’s pain. Anger. But something else—connection. Something neither of them understands yet. Or dares to.
YOUNG ELIAN: "I shouldn’t be here this long."
YOUNG ZARA: "Then stay longer."
He hesitates. The pull is real. It terrifies him. But he stands anyway, retreating into the shadows, leaving her behind.
PRESENT
Elian opens his eyes. They’re
damp.
He presses a button. A small hologram flares to life—ZARA, a grainy old ID photo, age 16. The file is marked MISSING –
PRESUMED DEAD.
(whispers)
"I didn’t forget you.
I tried to stop thinking about you… because I couldn’t."
He clenches his fist. The conflict plays across his face—regret, guilt… longing.
((They taught us to let go. To forsake attachment. But what if attachment was the only thing that could’ve saved her?))
Images flash—Zori on the throne. Her eyes like fire. Her words, her fury, her power.
((
What if what she became… was because I walked away?))