(Untold Told) Oh No I've Been Shot

"Who are you?"

"Terribly sorry.  Please don't get up.  No!"

The drums return to Rene Achim's ears and he looks upon the bonfire, which he thinks seems to sway and dance with the drums.  And so the flames drop their arms to a low burn when the last pound strikes and silence falls.

Rene's cloak falls from his shoulders and with
an outstretched hand the flames rise to lick it.

RENE:  We hold this flame to be the spark

              of life for we are unharmed by it.

                     Just as no brother here would harm us.

CONGREGATION:  We give thanks for the spark of life.

The drums take up a slow beat.

RENE:  We hold that the spark of life

                to be an eternal flame to keep

            and to have, and to not lend

                away for this life or any other.

CONGREGATION:  The spark of life is inherence enough.

        We require no other.

RENE:  And by this vow we can suffer no enemies.

There are only the lost that doubt

the spark's eternity.                       

CONGREGATION:  Pray for the lost!  Pray for the lost,

                                     Brother Rene!  Let our brother          

                                               return to us.  Let him add fuel to our flame.

LASSNER:  I have returned.

The drums stop, to gasps.

LASSNER:  Why do you look so surprised, Rene?

                   So quick to take back your entreaty?

                    Do you not think me one of the lost?

RENE:  You know what path you walk.
         Lost does not describe you.

LASSNER:  And I have returned full circle.

                     I have come for the tyrant that 

               has oppressed my brothers.

RENE:  A tyrant he may be, but we

                  do not make war with the lost.

CONGREGATION:  We do not lend the spark

                                        for this life or another other.

LASSNER:  I knew that you would not fight.

                     So I will create an army the likes

                of which has never been seen.

RENE:  We will have no part in it.

LASSNER:  You will.  I have devised a lasting

                            snare for you and your precious spark.

Droids march in a soulless procession on through the bonfire and stomp out the flames.  As the fire is being trampled under, the offending droid's metal becomes glowing hot so that when Rene seizes one of their shoulders in an attempt to put a stop to it his hand comes away badly burned.

Rene lies on his side cradling his hand as the scene turns pitch black.  He is met with hundreds of specks of light that are the droids' white eyes.  Then a red glow ignites revealing Lassner standing over him.

LASSNER:  Perhaps I should inform you

                     of my new title of Sith Lord.

The droids have secured each member of the congregation to lab table slabs around the cold coals of the ceremonial fire.  Most are unconscious, but Lassner passes his hand over Rene's face.  Lassner moves on without a word to the far end of the front row that Rene lies as the center of and passes his hand over another man's face.

RENE:  The ways of the Sith are useless to you!

 You can do nothing to our flesh!

LASSNER:  I have the droids.  

                                     I have no need of your flesh.

Lassner stabs into the man with his lightsaber and draws forth a pillar of fire from the man's body with a telekinetic hand that he lofts to the fire pit.  The bonfire rekindles in an instant and a droid passes through taking the whole of the flame with it.

LASSNER:  With my new spirited droids 

        I cannot be defeated.

The next thing Rene knows he is looking out
through eye slits in a metal mask marching
toward a fortress illuminated by artillery fire.

LASSNER:  And you will never again 

                    hold union with the Force.

A bomb shell explodes beneath Rene's feat.  He is subject to a vision of a white void and then a mask descending over his face.  The world turns dark with the distant echo of commands for service, clinking cups and utensils before all getting drowned out by the whir of a drill.
Then next he is being left in a junk pile.

"I am C-3PO human cyborg relations."

ANAKIN:  Cool.

"No!"

The laser blast shoots C-3PO back into the clone wars.  Gunships descend on him in the Geonosian arena.  Anakin Skywalker's blue blade flashes before his eyes.  The clone troopers slip and are dragged under by the mud created by a torrential downpour amidst a storm of blaster fire that most will not survive.

"Stormtroopers?  Here?"

Then C-3PO witnesses the boarding of the Tantive IV and the
pursuit onto the Millennium Falcon escaping the Death Star.

"We're in danger"

Vader appears in the dining room.

C-3PO sees a golden hand take Padme's
and momentarily sees himself standing
in Anakin's place.

"I must tell the others"

"Oh, no!  I've been shot!"