Crimson Eyes ~ Sequel to: The Valkyrie, An Obi-Wan Story (completed)

Chapter 59: No turning back

The king and queen of Valeria in all their glory ^^

Beware the darkness of power, -

Smoke was rising above the ruined city. The queen stood upon the hill; eyes locked onto the fire that burned within the former homes. The flames licked the foundations, leaving nothing but ashes in their wake. Her power, which was often seen as a salvation to her people, was now turned into a maleficent force that tore down their life's. A force that now swallowed everything that once was, and left them with nothing but ruin.

Beware the stalker of dreams.

Amidst the streets legions of men in white armour marched with blasters gripped tightly in their fists. The sight was a familiar one, but there was one thing that was missing; their generals were nowhere to be seen. Not a single lightsaber had lightened up the dusty streets, not one had led their battalions into battle.

Their absence was both a relief and a curse. A relief, because it hadn't been them that had betrayed her in such a way. They hadn't turned against her and decided to take away that what was most precious. A curse, because now she had no idea what had happened to them. The jedi, for all she knew, were all gone.

Beware the corrupted once trusted,

But those clones, they remained. They were the ones to start this destruction. They'd torn down the city they had protected almost a year ago. Up till 4 days past she'd considered those men her friends. They'd even considered her their 'Valkyrie', their protector amidst the fields they had braved together. Now they were marching through the streets of her kingdom and laying waste to the place she called home.

Velen was all but destroyed. The city that they had spent the last year rebuilding, gone, within a day. She didn't even know how many casualties there had been. She didn't know what had happened, how they had tried to defend it before they had lost the fight. How long it had taken for their formations to break, to succumb under the endless legions of the Republic.

All she knew was that she had arrived too late to save those trapped in the turmoil.

Beware one who is not who he seems.

Lyanna glanced down at the single blaster she'd recovered from the war ridden streets. She'd glanced into its past, saw what had happened the day before when she'd felt that pain tearing her apart. She'd seen how the clone wielding that weapon had pointed it at his leader, a jedi she'd never known, and pulled the switch without a second thought.

All it had taken was a single order from a cloaked man she recognized to be the one that had attacked her all that time ago in Coruscant. He'd given the order to eliminate all jedi, and the clones had followed his wishes within a heartbeat. To give that devastating command, he'd simply muttered 3 simple words. They continued to echo in her head, his voice repeating the same command over and over.

Darth Sidious.

Her eyes narrowed into a deep, hateful glare. Flames licked her knuckles as they clenched, the skin turning white while a single tear fell and smudged the black war paint down her cheeks. The first part of the prophecy now finally made sense. It'd warned her of the plot to take down the jedi, and she had ignored it.

She could've known. She should've hunted the sith down after he'd attacked her and prevented all this. She shouldn't have given up on the fight and let Obi Wan go alone. She should've been there, defending her land, her people. She shouldn't have let her guard down like she did. She should've fought to her very last breath, she should've, -

"My queen, -" Stefan ripped her out of the emotional spiral she'd fallen into. He watched as she flinched at the sound of his voice, her head slightly turning in his direction. "We've rescued the last of the soldiers. The city of Velen..." He took a moment to steady his voice while he watched her closely. "Has fallen."