Stranger Than Fan Fiction
Characters: Mara Jade, an OC, and the written words of fan fiction
Settings: In the Galaxy Far Far Away and in the galaxy that's...right here.
Time: Sometime in the EU in an AU time zone at an OMG setting with a dash of BS.
Disclaimer: Mara Jade is Timothy Zahn's with about a million or so adoptive parent's. The settings in the Galaxy Far Away is all George "I've Got A Bad Feeling About Fan Fiction" Lucas. And the OC is all Madman's! (Don't fret; I won't ask for a percentage.)
Also may mention that this is based on the premise of the Columbia Pictures movie, Stranger Than Fiction, from a different point of view...to quote Obi Wan.
Ok, lets begin.
Once upon a time...no, not that way!
In the galaxy far, far away...(that's better)
The assembly of Jedi Knights in one area together was almost overwhelming. It was a joy to see them gathered in the old Jedi Temple on Coruscant. There was also a sadness lingering because of the purpose of the gathering. Some Jedi were missing. The casualties of war. They were awaiting the word of their most powerful leader, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
He sat along the sides of the crowd for now. Soon, he would address them and speak. The question the crowd asked themselves was if their Master would speak of peace or further bloodshed. His look of calm on his face was evident of neither. Passive. The way the Jedi had fought up to that point. The way some Jedi had lost their lives. Many of the Jedi present were hoping Skywalker would yield his current philosophy of just letting things be as they were.
Mara Jade Skywalker stood close behind her husband and looked out at the old and new Jedi and couldn't help but feel a bout of desolation. Many of them will die in the oncoming battle.
She placed a hand on her husband's shoulder.
Her confusion was at its height when she heard a voice just explain the action she just did.
"Hello?"
She looked around to see who was speaking not at her but with her, describing her actions as she made them.
"Yes, I know I'm turning around to find you. Where are you?"
She took her hand off of Luke's shoulder.
"Hey, I just did that. You don't have to tell me I did."
She ran her fingers through her red-gold hair in exhaustion.
"I know my hair is red-gold. And it wasn't out of exhaustion. Why do you keep saying what I'm doing?"
Luke turned around to her and asked, "Everything all right?"
She leaned closer to him and whispered, "Do you hear a voice? Just now it said I leaned closer to you and whispered."
Luke looked at her plainly. "My love, I know you don't use death sticks. Are you hearing these voices in the Force?"
"No. It's only one voice and it's not part of the Force. I don't feel the voice. I can only hear it."
Luke looked worried. "What does it say?"
"Basically, it's describing exactly what I'm doing and thinking. Almost as if it were narrating. It just said you looked worried right before you spoke."
"Mara, that's–" He stopped short of saying crazy.
"You were about to say crazy, weren't you?"
"You read that from our bond?"
"No, the voice said you stopped short of saying crazy. Maybe I am."
"Do you think it's the poison that's taking its toll?"
"The poison's made me weak. It's never made me hear voices telling what I'm doing."
The crowd outside was starting to get rowdy, as a few Jedi were in a heated discussion.
Luke kept his blue eyes on Mara and said, "I've got to speak now. The crowd is getting–"
"Rowdy? I'm guessing," she answered.
"The voice said I was going to use the term rowdy?"
"Pretty much."
"Uh huh. Stay here and wait. We'll talk about this later." He strode off to appear in front of the crowd and they were silenced. He called out to them.
"Welcome Jedi. I thank you for coming here on such short notice. There are those who should be here, but are not. We must think of their sacrifice when we decide our next action."
A Jedi student in the front cried out, "Does that mean we're taking the fight to them?"
Luke gathered his poise and stated calmly, "It means that we will face more tragic options. It means we are going to take this war to the Federation of Planets."
Amidst the applause, Mara stared blankly. She repeated to question, "Federation of Planets?" She leaned over to Corran Horn ignoring the voice overhead that told her he was nearby. "What is the Federation of Planets?"
Corran looked at her with concern and replied, "That is our enemy, Mara. Who else did you think?"
"What happened to the Yuuzahn Vong?"
"The what?"
"You know. Strange beings from the Unknown Regions. We can't detect them in the Force. Big ugly scars and hideous appendages. Using only living mechanisms. Amphistaffs. The World Brain. One of them poisoned me a few years ago. Any of this sound familiar?"
Corran looked as if she had grown scales–
"Oh, he does not!" She looked to the sky aimlessly.
Corran answered, "Mara, you were poisoned by a Romulan spore those years ago. Those beings did come from a worm hole in the Unknown Regions, but we can definitely feel them in the Force. Many of them are human, except for the Klingon."
"The Klingon?"
"Yes, brutal species. One of them killed Chewbacca, remember?"
"No. Chewbacca was killed when the Sernpidal moon collapsed on him."
"Now, that's absurd. Are you sure you're ok?"
"I'm fine. What else don't I know that I should?"
"You don't remember Admiral Kirk? He tried to seduce you when you were captured last year."
"I'm sure I would remember something like that." She cursed and exclaimed, "What in kriffing Hell is going on? And I know I just cursed!"
Little did Mara Jade Skywalker know that these would be among her last hours to come as death awaited her.
"Uhhh...what? When? How? Why? Nooo!"
In another galaxy far away from the galaxy far far away...on Earth...in Iowa...in a secluded basement room. The year is 2003.
Scott Daring sat at his computer screen with his notebook beside him and staring at what he had just typed in. Was he really doing this? Was he really killing his heroine of a little more than a decade? Was he killing off Mara Jade Skywalker for the sake of the story? He kept telling himself that this is where the story should go. He was only at Chapter 53 of The Oncoming Battle, but did killing her at that early point make sense? He reminded himself of the ultimate famous death in Sci Fi, The Search For Spock. They killed him and brought him back. He could do that with Mara. He could kill Mara with the poison but bring her back somehow. They could clone her. Or maybe they killed the clone instead. She could have a long lost identical twin. The possibilities were endless.
Still, he couldn't dismiss the idea that he had just committed the literary version of murder. And was that a tear in his eye?
That tear quickly turned to rage as he heard the basement door swing open.
"Scott! Time to take out the garbage. C'mon, there's things to do around here!"
"Coming mother!" he cried. Scott cherished the fact that in the world of fan fiction he was known as Master Daring, author of the most famous epic stories with crossovers and alternate universes on his site. In real life he was Scott Daring, man with an average job working well below his intelligence level for minimal pay and still living at home with his mother because it was cheaper.
He looked across his basement room filled with Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly/Serenity, Sandman, and Tomb Raider collectibles, memorabilia, and books. He collected these things off of ebay because he could never attend any of the conventions. None had ever made a stop in Iowa. And even if he could go, whom would he take? He had yet to find a girl with red hair and green eyes like that of Mara Jade.
Since he was bored at the moment, and was sure his mom would space her commands at him at another half hour to an hour interval, he went back to the computer screen. He spaced down a few lines from his last sentence.
Little did Mara Jade Skywalker know that these would be among her last hours to come as death awaited her.
He stared at the words. Am I really killing her off? The professional writers of the official Star Wars time line would never do that. Would they? Would they kill off the most popular character in the Extended Universe? Surely they will find a cure to her poisonous disease in the future New Jedi Order books.
But I, Master Daring, have other plans.
He expressed silently as he had several times when writing...fan fiction rules!
He could post any story on the boards and call it an Alternate Universe. He could crossover any other genre into the Star Wars realm. Why, he could even write something outrageous.
He typed: Mara Jade then disappeared from the Jedi Temple to reappear in the basement room of Master Darling in Fair's Cove, Iowa.
He stared at the words and laughed to himself. He muttered, "Yeah, like that's gonna–"
"Where in kriffing Hell am I?"
He heard the voice from behind him and turned around. When he saw her, he jumped out of his seat so fast he almost fell into his computer. The system was safe, but a few collectibles were not so lucky. His Sandman Death statue toppled over as well as his Lara Croft figure. He then stared back at the woman who had suddenly appeared in his basement room.
He saw a woman in a one piece tunic, red-gold hair, and the greenest of eyes. She stood erect with a aura of confidence about her, though she did look a bit confused now. He was staring at...Mara Jade.
She spoke to him sternly. "Who are you and what brought me here?"
"I...I'm...Scott."
"Ok, Scott. Who are you?"
"I'm...I'm a writer."
"A writer. Uh huh."
He suddenly heard the familiar snap-hiss sound of a lightsaber and saw the flash of a blue-white blade instantly pointing at his neck.
He cried out, "Oh my God, that's a working lightsaber!"
"You're damned right, it works. Now, tell me who you really are."
"I told you. I write stories." He gulped.
"Wait a moment. Say that again."
"I write stories."
Sudden realization shown on her face and she said, "You're that voice I just heard in the Jedi Temple just now. Where I was just seconds ago. Now, I'm...here. Where exactly is here, Scott?"
"Uh...Iowa. In my basement room."
She carefully repeated, "Eyeohah. Never heard of that system."
"Well, I can tell you why. Wow, that is hot."
"Hey! Stop looking at my chest!"
"I...I wasn't. I was talking about the lightsaber. I never realized how a superheated blade could feel so...heated. Hey, that hilt. Is that Luke's first? The one that Anakin built before he became Vader?"
"How do you know those names?" she snapped.
"Everyone knows the names from Star Wars." He slowly realized. "Except maybe its own characters."
"What is this star wars?"
"Oh boy. This is going to be awkward. Uh, do you mind?" he gestured to the blade at his neck. "I'm not exactly the nefarious type, so I'm not armed."
"No, but you have the power to bring me here."
"I honestly have no clue how that happened. I was just typing." He gestured to his computer screen.
She glanced at the screen and saw the words. He was telling the truth. She shut off the blade and it disappeared with a swish. She looked closer at the words.
"What were you typing?"
"Part of my story," Scott answered simply. He could finally relax and appreciate who it was standing near him and he was in total awe. He reached with his hand in hopes of determining the realistic factor. While she was busy looking at the words, he inched closer to touch her arm.
"Are you a ghost?" he asked absently. "Are you real?"
He was barely centimeters away from touching her arm when he caught a blur of motion and was instantly in pain with his arm bent back from Mara grabbing a hold on it.
"Yep, yep, you're real. Ouch."
"Yes, I'm real. Real confused."
She let go of his arm when she spotted something familiar sitting on the opposite wall's shelf.
"That's the Falcon."
"Yeah," he acknowledged as he rubbed his arm, "I built that myself."
She looked at the other models on the shelf. "That's an X-Wing. A Lambada class Imperial shuttle. An Imperial Star Destroyer. Wait, that has the markings of...is that the Devastator? And there's a Firespray which I assume is Boba Fett's. And...no...is that supposed to be my old ship?"
He nodded. "The Jade's Fire. I had to improvise that one. Your stuff isn't exactly on the market."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're on Earth. In Fair's Cove, Iowa. In my house. In my basement room."
"How did I get here?"
"I have no clue. Maybe a temporal disturbance? Maybe a space-time continuum mishap? You know, there was this farmer down the road years ago who built a baseball field in his corn. People say they can see old ballplayers playing there. Maybe this place has mystical connotations?"
"No, when I was in the Jedi Temple, it was like you were narrating my actions."
"Yeah, I was writing it."
"And you wrote me...here?"
Scott looked at the screen and read back the line he wrote before she arrived.
Mara Jade then disappeared from the Jedi Temple to reappear in the basement room of Master Darling in Fair's Cove, Iowa.
Maybe he did bring her here. He thought to ask her, "You actually heard me narrating?"
"Loud and clear. And since only I could hear you, it made me look real sane in front of my husband."
"Luke," Scott confirmed.
"How do you know that?"
"I know just about everything that has to do with Star Wars. In fact, you and Vader are probably my two favorite characters."
"The honor is definitely all yours." She looked at the screen he was eying before and got a closer look. "This is what you just wrote? It is. That's the scene in the Jedi Temple. Verbatim. Except for what I really said. Hey, what is this Federation of Planets?"
"Oh, that's Star Trek."
"And that's different from star wars, how?"
"Ohhh, we don't have that long. I just wanted to do a crossover where a Star Destroyer defeats a Romulan Bird of Prey."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." She must have read further because she was silent for a minute. Then, her expression changed as he knew she was reading the passage that he wished she wouldn't have.
She turned and looked up at him stoically. "You have plans to kill me?"
He cringed and offered innocently, "I was going to bring you back."
"How can you bring someone back to life?"
Scott shrugged. "By writing it."
"How can you write something into existence? There are writers in my galaxy and their typed words don't come true. What makes you so special?"
"Hey, I'm as in the dark as you are. I'm just an average citizen and fan. I don't have an S on my chest."
She looked down at his shirt and looked at him smugly.
He looked down at his Superman T-shirt and gave an awkward grin. "Well, I do today. Maybe all of this happened just this once."
She stood up from the chair as if presenting it to him. "There's a way to find out."
Scott looked hesitant but did sit. He took his notebook and found a blank spot to write and grabbed his black gel ink pen. "What should I write?"
"Anything as long as you don't make me die right here and now. I'm just not ready to die yet, and when I do I want it to be in my galaxy."
He could detect her voice starting to break. He put pen to paper. "How about this?" He wrote: Mara started to feel ill at her stomach and started to bend over in pain. He stopped and looked at her, standing straight up and obviously not in pain. "Anything?"
"Uh, no. You just wrote that, though. Is that your rough draft?"
"Yeah, I have to literally write it all out first and then I make changes as type it in."
"Maybe you need to type that in to make it official?"
"Hmm...maybe."
"Although, don't make me sick. I'm already there now."
"Understood," Scott muttered. "Something simple. I know." He typed: Mara's comlink beeped.
Immediately, there was a small chirping noise coming from Mara's utility belt. Both of them stared at it in disbelief.
The beeping stopped. She snapped her demand. "Type it again."
He copied the line and hit paste.
The comlink chirped again for real.
Scott uttered, "What the fire truck?"
Mara squinted, "Fire truck?"
"Oh, I only write PG-13 stories. No hard cursing. Unless I use one of yours and say, what the kriff."
"Better." She stumbled back and landed in his recliner chair. "Whatever you type becomes truth. If you had written that Mara Jade died, I really would have."
Scott gestured to the comlink. "Are you going to answer that?"
She reached for it and clicked it on and they were greeted with weird static sounds on the other end. "Nobody there," she said in monotone.
Scott explained, "The signal has to travel through two million light years. Talk about roaming charges."
She asked outright, "Why me?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why did it have to be me who dies? Why now?"
"Well, it's just part of the story."
"But, I'm real. You touched me. You felt the heat of my lightsaber. All of me is real. You are playing with my life. What gives you the right to do that?"
Scott suggested, "Literary license?"
"Not in this case. There's no literary about this. This is non-fiction, now. Speaking of that, did you write this star wars?"
Scott laughed. "Oh no. That would be one George Lucas. Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Artoo, Threepio, all of them were written by Lucas. Twenty-six years ago this year."
"I wasn't mentioned in that group."
"No, you were created by Timothy Zahn twelve years ago. That's all official licensed Star Wars timeline."
"Oh boy, I'm only twelve. Wait a minute, if it's licensed, how can you just write anything you want?"
"Well, that's why it's called fan fiction. Written by the fans. And it can never be part of the official timeline, though some argue, like me, that the fan fiction storylines are more creative."
"So, you take what the professional writers write and change it?"
Scott nodded. "To our liking. In our minds, the way it should be."
"And you don't write anything else?"
"Oh, I have originals. I have a whole original novel about a hip sorceress. Man, I wonder if Kim Spencer really exists."
"I assume you would have these official star wars books."
"Several."
"Show me one with me in it."
"There's not much." Scott stood from his seat and went to his bookcase to the left. "Other than Zahn himself, not many writers could write you well for the most part. To tell you the truth, most Star Wars purists say that you're a 'Mary Sue'."
"Who is that?"
"It's a what in fan fiction terms. It's a character who is too good to believe. They miraculously save the day, they always have the right answers, and they are suddenly a long lost relative of a profic character."
Mara sneered, "Gather up these people who believe this about me. I have some words for them."
"I'm sure you would. Ah...here. Perfect." Scott chose from the shelf a longer and thinner book than a paperback. He handed it to Mara. "That one is all you."
Mara read the colorful cover depicting a figure swinging a lightsaber and wore obvious red hair. "That's me," she exhaled. She read the title, "'Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand'" She started flipping through the pages with splashes of color. She stopped at one page and read the panels. "This is about my last mission I had to finish after the Emperor died. Pretty detailed too. Why are my eyes look like they're always squinting?"
Scott chuckled, "You're just drawn that way."
"This is incredible." She stopped flipping and addressed Scott. "This is obviously the official timeline, or AKA My Life. So, why out of millions of fan fiction writers are you the only one I can hear tell your story and your words typed come true?"
"I already told you I don't know. Besides, I think the why isn't as important as the how. As in how to get you back."
"Hmm, I like your attitude. Ok, so write me back. And don't kill me."
"It may not be that simple."
"It was simple enough when you put me here."
"Ok, let me try this." He wrote in his notebook.
Mara's algid nature was growing more rapid as she demanded to go back in her galaxy to the exact point when she disappeared from the Jedi Council chambers.
The real Mara looked at his written words from over his shoulder. "Algid? Can't you just say 'cold'? Who talks like that?"
He scribbled out the word 'algid' and replaced it with 'cold'. "Better? I think it will get the job done."
"That line is still there that says I will have an impending date with death in a few hours."
"Oh." He highlighted the last line he wrote for the story and hit "Delete". "Now that I met you, I don't feel like killing you."
"Good to know. I mean I will die eventually. But, not now. And certainly not at the hands of a small time writer in another galaxy. No offense on the small time, but I assume you're not published."
"Someday. But, no offense taken."
She breathed before she stated, "I don't know about this gift of yours. As you probably already know from reading about me, I was trained by Emperor Palpatine. What you may not get from reading between the lines was that he was a control freak. He wanted total control over anyone who could benefit himself. I know because I was in his control for a brief time. To have that kind of control over a person's actions is power that shouldn't be given to any one person. Though your intentions are different, I hope you realize the results are the same regardless of the people being affected are fictional or real. And do you know how hard it was just now referring to myself as fictional?"
"I consider you real enough," he announced.
"Thank you. By the way, my morbid sense of curiosity wants to know how exactly were you going to kill me?"
"I actually don't know. The official storyline has you infected by the Yuuzahn Vong poison. Though, I really don't believe they would kill you off. You're too important to Luke and the two of you are the most powerful team in the galaxy."
"Couldn't have said it better myself."
"Besides, you'll have your baby coming soon."
Mara's eyes popped. "Baby? I...I only suspected something the other day. I haven't even told Cilghal yet. What do you know?"
Scott smacked his hand to his head and uttered, "That isn't in the official storyline yet. Ah, there has to be a way to avoid spoilers on the Internet."
"I'm going to have a baby? Will my disease harm it? What's her name? Or his? No–I don't want to know. How am I going to go back knowing all of this?"
"Simple." Scott turned to his notebook and wrote another sentence.
Once Mara returned to her own time and galaxy, she could no longer recall what had happened to her or where she had been.
"How's that?" he asked.
"Ok. Thanks. Ok, you ready to type it in?"
Scott turned to face her and said, "Look, not many people get this chance to actually meet one of their favorite characters. I just want to tell you thanks for bringing a whole new dimension to the Star Wars story."
"Don't get all mushy on me. The feeling's mutual. As you know, I don't get emotional."
"You do with Luke. He brings your emotions out of you. And you ground him with your practical nature that makes him less passive. It's what makes you two the perfect pair."
She smiled and it seemed like his crepuscular basement was suddenly awash in brightness. "You know us too well." She extended her hand for him to take. "Scott, it's been an experience." Instead of him taking her hand to shake, he bent down and was about to place a kiss on the back of her hand when she suddenly snapped, "Don't even think it."
He then reached his hand to shake hers. "Mara Jade, it's been a pleasure in meeting you. Sorry for bringing you here. It was very unintentional."
"I wish I could shrug it off and say it happens, but it really doesn't. Now, type away and send me home."
"First you have to click your heels three times and repeat the phrase, 'There's no place like home.' It's an Earth tradition."
She merely glared at him and was silent for a few beats until she said, "I fear you."
He turned back around to his keyboard without a word and started typing what he just wrote. It took him no time and he hovered his finger above the "Enter" key. He shut his eyes and pressed it. He turned around slowly and he was once again alone. He already missed her.
He quickly thought he could bring her back. Maybe he could bring a Mara from a different era. He could have done so much more with this gift. Then he thought of her words to him, comparing the control of people's lives to that of Palpatine's. How could he write anymore stories if they became true in some form? In that sense, this ability was a curse. He made a decision right then.
He typed in, From then on, Master Darling's words no longer became truth in any form.
He then tested it by copy and pasting the phrase that brought Mara into his room in the first place. He hit the "Enter" key.
Nothing happened. He was still alone.
Whatever magic he had before was now lost.
He wondered how it must have looked in her galaxy when she reappeared. He may never know. He found he was all right with that lack of knowledge. He could not shake off the idea that somehow, somewhere fictional characters did exist. They were a part of their own reality set in a fictional story. How did he contribute?
He looked down at his current story as a whole. Fifty-three chapters. Good stories should have a beginning, middle, and end. A story with fifty-three chapters did not have an end. There really was no plot. He just kept writing with no structure. That was writing with no purpose. Writing just for the sake of writing.
He made another decision in shutting down his Word program and then his computer.
It just so happened that his mother chose that moment to yell down from upstairs, "Scott! Come on! Get your ass in gear and get moving!"
And with that, he did so. For four years, he would not touch his black gel pen nor use any of his notebooks for stories.
We jump ahead four years–because we can. We are still on Earth, in Iowa, in the same darkened basement room of Scott Darling. It is now May of 2007. Scott has just finished reading the latest Star Wars official novel. He is not doing so well.
They did it. They killed Mara Jade Skywalker. There will be no more future novels in the same storyline with her in it. Unless they do one set in her past. He thought that was unlikely. Sadness, pain, and anger swirled all around him. He could no longer flip through the latest Star Wars novel and stop at Mara's words. They have taken away his heroine. They have taken away his joy of more than a decade and a half. He could write letters to the publisher. What would that accomplish? Nothing.
Why was there such a hole in his heart? This was a fictional character. How could she be fictional if he had physically met her a few years ago? He did not feel this same way even when his own father died seven years ago of cancer. The difference was that his death was not so sudden. The body that had been laying in the hospital bed for the last several months of its life was not his father. He remembered he had just begun to write fan fiction after his father's death. His writing had been his therapy; his words were part of his grief. There would be no writing his father back into existence.
That gave Scott, formerly Master Daring, an idea for a story. Or in fan fiction-speak, a plot bunny.
He had all but abandoned his writing since he lost the ability to type in words that became truth. He remembered his encounter with Mara Jade Skywalker in great detail. The idea for the story blossomed too large for him to ignore. His fellow writers on his site missed him. He reached for a black gel pen and an old notebook. He found a blank spot towards the end and started an outline. He would have to buy some more notebooks, always college ruled, and some pens, always black gel. He wrote. And wrote more. He wrote in the morning before he went to work. He wrote during his breaks at work. And he wrote at night after work.
Within a few weeks, he was finished. Even while he wrote, there were other ideas for other stories waiting to be placed onto paper and then transferred into official words. The plot bunnies were hopping madly at his mental doorstep. The ache he felt for the loss of his favorite character was slowly dissipated as he wrote further into the story. His finale was just a rewrite of the last few chapters of the official Star Wars novel he just read. With a few major differences. It was so heartbreakingly obvious to him what should have happened. Mara Jade Skywalker did not have to die.
He read the last pages of his story proudly. He thought of the official Star Wars storyline. The last novel he read would, in fact, be his last he would read. It was dead to him, pun intended. He had far more fun in creating his own. As long as he and other fan fiction writers would write Mara Jade Skywalker and other beloved characters into their stories, none of their heroes would ever die.
He exclaimed once again in silence...fan fiction rules!
He typed, "THE END."
No plot bunnies were harmed in the creation of this story.