Author's Note: Hi. This is my first Star Wars fic, which takes in the middle of Star Wars: Force Unleashed. In order to avoid confusion, I am presenting the Force Unleashed canon as being a composite of all of the mediums for Force Unleashed (which is how I think the established canon for it works anyway). Or, for the purpose of this story, I think that Galen possibly did start a fight at the bar on Nar Shaddaa and wind up killing a bunch of Imperials there, but did not find Kota until arriving at Bespin. Then he went to the Jedi Temple for the last time. But I digress. On with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own one single thing in the entire Star Wars industry except for this story, copies of the DVDs, some books, and a few action figures. Thus I am completely immune to any kind of lawsuit. I think... Oh, no! The suits are here! Oh, no wait. That's just the pizza guy. False alarm.
Star Wars
Echoes of Pain
For the third time in over a year, Mara Jade was making for the Jedi Temple. For the third time, an urgent call for reinforcements had been sent out from the small garrison stationed there. For the third time, the Emperor's Hand had been dispatched to kill a Jedi.
Mara sighed in frustration as the trio of MAATs swept over the enormous five-towered temple. For the third time, her quarry was long gone.
One of the shadow guards who had been attached to Jade and the 501st for this mission heard the sigh and turned towards her.
"What is it, ma'am?" he asked.
"Can't you tell?" the Emperor's Hand retorted, "Can't you feel it in the Force? The Jedi's gone again, and we're back to doing damage assessment.
"Uh, yes, I understand," the black robed guard answered cautiously.
Mara rolled her eyes. Of all the elite Force warriors that the Emperor had in his employ, she had to get one that didn't even bother to listen to the Force on important missions. Or at least what should have been an important mission.
Mara sighed once more. The past year or so had been one disaster after another.
First, the TIE construction facility over Nar Shaddaa had been attacked by the Jedi Rahm Kota; but by the time that Mara had arrived, Kota was gone, everyone aboard was dead, and somehow the entire factory had been split in two. Then twice in as many weeks after that, there had been break-ins into the Jedi Temple, resulting in the death of over a hundred stormtroopers. Six months later, a squadron, a squadron of stormtroopers, shadow troopers, and a shadow guard had been slaughtered along with a bar full of bounty hunters after being dispatched to capture a Jedi. After about another six months, an Imperial garrison on Cloud City had also suffered heavy casualties at the hands of a rogue Jedi. Now, days later, a third attack upon the temple of the Jedi.
The sudden occurrence of so many Jedi attacks when the Jedi were supposed to be dead was bad enough. However, the Emperor's changing reactions to each of these incidents were proving to be of even more concern to Mara. Master Palpatine had been furious after hearing of the destruction of the TIE factory and the first raid upon the Jedi Temple. Upon hearing of the second raid, however, he had been merely contemplative. The news of the Jedi on Nar Shaddaa and Bespin seemed not to have concerned him, and when he had ordered her to investigate this third raid (and he had said "investigate," as if he knew that the Jedi would not be there again), he had actually sound rather bored!
Mara was used to being kept in the dark, of course. Her master had every right to keep from her whatever information that he wished, for she was nothing but an extension of his will. Yet for some reason this time it made her nervous, and perhaps (though she would never admit it even to herself) even a bit afraid.
She shook her head slightly in order to clear these distracting thoughts from her mind as the MAATs' repulsors changed in pitch as the large gunships came in to land. She had to be at her best at all times, even if it was just damage assessment.
She shielded her eyes as the doors slid open, filling the transport's hold with bright light. A moment later, the thirty passengers aboard each ship leapt out and charged up the temple steps. Eighty-six stormtroopers of the elite 501st Legion, three members of the Shadow Guard, and the Emperor's Hand filed out to bring down the Imperial justice against the enemies of the Emperor.
Upon attaining the entryway, however, every one of them stopped dead. Corpses lay strewn all about, even before entering the temple proper. Just as the Hand had predicted, they were once again too late.
"Your orders, ma'am?" the lead stormtrooper, a clone commander called Bullseye asked Mara after failing to make contact with anyone over his helmet comlink.
"Wait a moment," the assassin replied while closing her eyes and stretching out with the Force as her master had taught her.
Every time the temple had been broken into, the number of troopers stationed there had been doubled; and every time every one of those troopers had been slaughtered. Yet it was not the enormous amount of carnage that most disturbed the young dark sider, for as the Emperor's Hand she herself had been made to create mountains of corpses before. No, what had been causing Mara the most anxiety with these missions was the emotional echoes within the Force that this mysterious raiding Jedi had been leaving behind.
During the investigation of the original raid on the temple, the first that Mara had noticed about this Jedi was that he was fueled by the power of the Dark Side like herself, as well as possessing an immense amount of power. Upon further inspection, however, the Emperor's Hand had found something carelessly buried beneath the anger and the fear. She had sensed confusion and uncertainty: as if the mysterious Force-user had recently been revealed something strange and shocking; and perhaps even a trace of sadness as well.
The investigation of the second raid had been even more interesting. At first, the echoes left within the Force had seemed the same as before, albeit the sadness may have been stronger. Upon reaching the bottom level of the archives though, the echoes had changed drastically. Amongst the wreckage, and fear, and shattered holo-books, there were now echoes of pain, echoes of anger to hatred, and definite echoes of a profound sadness.
Now the tele-empathic echoes were even more confused, even more disturbing.
As Mara stepped over the body of an Imperial Sentinel in Force Lightning-blackened armor, she swept her head back and forth, taking in both the physical carnage and the chaotic swirl of raw emotion. It was all so agonizing and confused that the red haired assassin could hardly stand it. She guessed that they couldn't have missed him by more than an hour this time.
Then a particularly powerful echo swept over her, and Mara was overcome by the emotions for a moment. Confusion, betrayal, regret, sorrow, hatred, pain. There was even a series of brief mental images: Darth Vader on a jungle world at night with the flickering glare of fire reflected on his helmet; Vader his arm stretched out and his fist clutched in either a Force Grip or a Force Choke; a friendly faced droid of an unknown model; Darth Vader his lightsaber extended; an attractive blond woman in an Imperial Officer's uniform; a hard-faced old man with crisscrossing scars; Vader; a crazed-looking alien with a strange long-legged mechanical harness being thrown against a wall; Vader; a female Togruta dressed in furs and wielding a blue lightsaber; Vader and the Emperor; a shattering transparisteel window and the void of space, accompanied with feelings of intense physical pain and even greater mental and emotional anguish; the blond woman trapped in a suspended animation containment unit; the old man, now covered with grime, sweat, and with a filthy rag wrapped over his eyes; a man with a sad, care-worn face dying in an unseen man's arms; Vader…
When Mara finally resurfaced from the dizzying slideshow of images, she found herself leaning weakly against one of the tree-like pillars of the temple's entryway and breathing heavily.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" Bullseye asked in a concerned tone.
"Yes, I'm fine," Mara replied, pushing herself back to her feet and commanding her body to remain strong. She then led her command on into the temple proper, he short tan cloak fluttering in the breeze.
The grand hallway was a mess. Rubble, and bodies, and shattered statuary lay strewn all about. Heads and limbs without bodies were plentiful, and many dead troppers lay crushed beneath tons of stone.
Yet for all the carnage, the only thing that occupied Mara's mind was the echoes; beckoning her onward.
"Orders, ma'am?" asked Bullseye.
Mara shook herself out of this second reverie, cursing herself for being so easily distracted.
"Fan out," she finally said, "Check for any survivors. If you find something, contact me immediately."
"Will do, ma'am," Bullseye nodded. "And yourself?"
"I have something that I want to check out for myself. I'll comm you if you need anything."
"Roger," the clone commander saluted, then turned and began issuing orders for patrols.
The Shadow Guards watched Mara intently for a moment. Though she could not see their faces behind those black masks, the Force made their thoughts all too clear. The young assassin gave them a scathing glare and a dismissive gesture, and the guards reluctantly turned away.
Mara knew that the Shadow Guards were also being affected by the storm of emotions brought on by the Force echoes; and she also knew that they mistook her being more strongly affected for weakness of will, rather than because she was stronger and more in-tune with the Force than either of the three combined. Mara made a mental note to keep her guard up, for she knew that those guards would now being looking for an excuse to have her dismissed from the Emperor's service so that one of them could become Emperor's Hand. She had no intention of giving them any such excuse.
She watched the three stalk off in a different direction than any of the stormtroopers, seemingly off searching for clues on their own. Mara knew the truth though. The Emperor had heard that somewhere near the temple's base, in a cavern within the mountain upon which the temple had originally been built, a previously unknown tunnel had recently been uncovered; and the Shadow Guards had been tasked to search it for any Jedi artifacts that might have been hidden within. Admittedly, she had been a bit hurt when she had found out that she would merely continue her previous task from the first two raids and would have nothing to do with such a potentially important assignment, but she had gotten over it quickly.
Then the young assassin felt the psychic tugging of the echoes, and so turned to enter into the temple's depths. Quickly and silently she stalked down the halls of the once glorious home of the Jedi, finding more and more bodies, and always feeling the increasing strength of the echoes as she tracked them to their source.
As she continued the hunt, her mind began to wander again. The Emperor had been strangely pleased upon receiving her report of the last raid. And then there was the matter of the intense hatred that she had felt accompanying those mental images of Vader…
Mara was snapped suddenly out of her chaotic jumble of thoughts upon seeing movement out of the corner of her eye. With a sharp gasp, she ignited her lightsaber and spun about face a figure in a form-fitting, sleeveless black jumpsuit with a short cloak, a lightsaber with a shimmering, violet blade, long red-gold hair, and a face hidden by a scarf which matched her cloak and a pair of goggles. Her own image, reflected in a window.
'Stop it!' she commanded herself as she deactivated her weapon. 'Stop being so jumpy! This isn't like you, so just stop!'
She took a deep breath and attempted to clear her head. Since when did it bother her that her master didn't tell her things? Since when did she care what anyone thought of anything? Since when did she jump at her own reflection!? She was the Emperor's Hand! She was nothing more and nothing less than an extension of her master's will!
'The echoes!' she realized. 'These echoes are what's affecting me this way!'
It was then that she realized that she had been walking about without paying attention to where she was. She checked her chrono, then cursed vehemently in Mandalorian upon finding that she had been wandering about in a daze for over an hour. The Emperor would NOT be pleased if he found out about this! Immediately, she took off down the hallway, intent on locating the source of the echoes so that she could get out more quickly.
At long last she discovered a turbolift from which the resonated freely. Mara stepped inside and, letting the Force guide her fingers, hit the button for the top floor. Moments later, she stepped out into a wide, circular room which, despite the thrown-about chairs, broken statues, and shattered windows, still commanded an impressive of Imperial City.
'So this is the source of the echoes,' she realized with satisfaction. 'At the temple's summit: The Jedi Council Chamber.'
Mara cautiously made her way to the center of the room, looking this way and that to take in her surroundings. The Force swirled all about in a way that left her with an odd impression of sadness, as if the room was mourning the days when the Council would meet here and send out young Jedi on missions of peace and justice. The newer echoes intermingled with the old ones, now seemingly illusive.
Suddenly, the new echoes broke free and rang clear and loud, and growing ever louder. Mara was fell to her knees as she was overcome by the screaming echoes of powerful emotions. The Emperor's Hand clutched her head as her mind was filled with a maelstrom of unintelligible sounds, and voices, and emotions. Some of these carried more force with them, and so could occasionally be heard over the rest of the noise. The snap-hiss of lightsabers. Vader's horrendous breathing. Her master's wicked cackle. Blaster fire. Screams of pain and fear. Love. Hate. Rage. Fear. Betrayal. Sorrow.
At last it all came together into four voices which carried with them more weight and emotion than anything that had come before. The first two and the last one were unfamiliar to Mara, though the third one she knew all too well- and even secretly feared as well.
"Vader thinks that he's turned you. But I can see your future! I- I see only… me!?"
"Poor boy. The Sith always betray one another. But I'm sure that you'll find that out soon enough."
"…No one must know that you still serve me. Now go. And remember, that the Dark Side is with you."
"I didn't want this for you. I didn't want any of this for you. I'm sorry, son."
When Mara at last opened her eyes, she found herself lying upon the ground and breathing heavily. The first thing besides this that she noticed was that the echoes had not only died down, but had even begun to fade away as well. The second thing was that her comlink was beeping insistently.
Drowsily she reached down to her belt for the buzzing device, held it to her concealed lips and flicked it on.
"Go ahead," she said simply without emotion.
"Ma'am!" Bullseye replied with relief, "Thank the Force! I've been trying to contact you for the last hour and a half! I was afraid that something had happened to you too!"
Mara glanced out one of the windows. The sky was dark, and the lights of Coruscant's night-life was on at full strength.
'How long was I out?' she wondered. Before she could look down at her chrono, however, the full meaning of the commander's message sank in.
"What do you mean 'Something happened to you too?'" she demanded.
"It's the Shadow Guards," the trooper explained hastily, "They went down together to temple's underlevels shortly after we arrived. Two hours ago, one of our patrols reported screaming and lightsaber noises near where they had last been seen. I pulled five patrols from their current positions and went down there to investigate.
"When we got there, those troopers and one of the Shadow Guards were dead, and another of the guards was missing an arm and a lot of his robe and screaming like a mad man. Then he attacked us. He killed one of my men and took an arm off another before we finally gunned him down. We haven't seen or heard anything from the other one."
The red haired assassin stood silently as she contemplated this.
"Ma'am?"
"Search for him," Mara finally said, "But don't engage him if you find him. Wait for-,"
"Ma'am?" the trooper asked more insistently.
"I'll call you back," Mara said, thumbing off her comlink and igniting her lightsaber as she turned to face the turbolift.
At last, the danger that the Force had warned her of reached the top floor. The turbolift doors slid open, and into the Council Chamber stepped the last of the Shadow Guards. With his right hand, the guard held his unlit saber pike, and with the other her clutched a black and red, crystalline pyramid which exuded a foul aura; while waves of twisted darkness flowed out from the guardsman himself.
"A Jedi!" the guard yelled angrily upon spotting Mara. "How dare you enter this sacred tomb!"
"Tomb?" Mara asked in confusion.
"Don't mock me, Jedi!" I know why you are here! I know why one of your wretched kind would dare come to Korriban! You are after my master's holocron, just like those two heretics who I defeated earlier!"
"What are you talking about, you di'kut?" Mara demanded. "You know who I am: I am the Emperor's Hand! Now stand down, or I'll send you flying through that window!"
The ebony robed guard chuckled madly, then said, "You cannot fool me, Jedi. No one will keep me from my master's reward for his faithful servants. No one can stop me from learning his secrets. The others could not, and you shall not either!"
With that, the guard gently laid the small pyramid upon the cushion of one of the few remaining upright chairs, ignited his lightstaff, and charged at Mara.
Flipping her saber into a reverse grip, Mara blocked her opponent's blade with her right hand, and with her left she drew her customized holt-out blaster. Before she could get off a shot, however, her opponent spun about and hit the blaster out of her hand with the staff end of his weapon. As he completed his spin, the Shadow Guard lunged forward, attempting to spear her through the stomach, though the crimson haired assassin easily parried the blow aside.
The next several minutes were a blur of whirling violet and scarlet blades which seemed to catch the very air on fire. The council chamber rang with the snapping and hissing of the energy weapons as they struck against one another again and again.
At last, the Shadow Guard found an opening and struck Mara's kneecap with the butt end of his staff with enough strength to daze a wookie.
The scarlet tressed assassin heard a crack, and forced back a cry as the pain of the broken bone flooded her body. As she involuntarily fell to her knees (and inciting another explosion of pain), the insane guard swung his blade to decapitate her. Mara, however, was able duck and roll out of the way.
As the guard came after her, Mara realized that she was now quite close to both the abandoned Sith holocron, and her blaster.
Suddenly struck with inspiration, she threw her lightsaber, though her opponent easily batted it aside. But this distraction was all that she needed. With a quick tug of the Force, the Emperor's Hand brought the small yet powerful blaster to her hand, and without hesitation she pumped off two quick rounds: one to the head of her adversary, and one to the chest.
As her enemy fell, she deftly switched her aim to her immediate right and fired two more shots. The blood-red pyramid exploded in a shower of crystal, melted plasteel, and a violent eruption of released Dark Side energy.
Mara sighed in relief as the dark power began to disperse, and had slowly began to stand up- using the Force to prop herself up on her damaged knee- when she realized that the fight was not yet over.
"You- you vile, worthless Jedi!" the demented guard roared as he pushed himself painfully onto his knees. An indentation just above his visor revealed where the blaster bolt had failed to penetrate his helmet. Mara assumed correctly that the same thing had happened with the armor beneath the man's robes.
"Now you will die for defiling my master's holocron!" the dark sider bellowed as he reached for his saber pike. "Now you shall feel the wrath of the great Sith Lord-!"
With a swift horizontal wave of her hand, Mara sent the chair on which the holocron had sat flying towards the insane man. The chair struck with enough force that both of them continued to move until both went out and over the edge of a broken window. A swift, desperate catch was the only thing which saved the guard from plummeting to his death.
Slowly and painfully, Mara stood up and hobbled over to the window to look down upon her foe.
"Vile Jedi hypocrite!" the guard spat, "You are a pawn! A slave! You are nothing! Your master cares nothing for you! He will cast you aside at any given moment! He-!"
Strangely, the guard's mad ranting seemed to go straight to Jade's heart, reawakening every fear and doubt that she had ever pretended not to have. It was something she could not continue listening to.
Though she still had her hold-out blaster in her hand, Mara called her lightsaber back to her. The bright violet blade pierced easily through the man's helmet and skull, and a moment later his body disappeared into the darkness.
Deactivating her lightsaber with a harsh sigh, Mara fell back to her knees and dragged herself to the center of the chamber. At last she sat down, with her injured knee stretched out in front of her so as to lessen the pain.
"Commander," she said into her reactivated comlink, "We're done here. Pack it up and let's go home. I'm up at the top of the central spire, in the Jedi Council Chamber."
"Affirmative, ma'am," came Bullseye's reply. "Do you need anything?"
"Just a med kit, then I'll be alright."
"Copy that."
Once the commander had signed off, Mara laid down and stretched out so that she was flat on her back. Then she closed her eyes. She took the new-found silence with great relief. This whole experience had been most inconvenient to her, for she knew that seeds of doubt had been sewn into her heart. Doubt of her purpose. Doubt of her worth to her master. These were seeds that would not die easily.
With deep breaths, she began to clear her mind, so as to protect herself from the new echoes. Echoes that she could not escape. Echoes from her heart. Echoes of pain.
The End