Disclaimer: All movie characters belong to George Lucas. Mara Jade is the creation of Timothy Zhan. I just play with GL's toys.
This viggie series is dedicated to Little Vampire Bites, without whom it would never have been written.
To Give Without Reward
I'd always known you were meant for more than a slave's life. You were so gifted, so talented, and it seemed that fate was on your side when a Jedi came to Mos Espa. It hurt to see you go, but sometimes love involves giving up the one you love. I loved you to much to want to keep you here as a slave for the rest of your life. I've been here since I was a little girl, and life as a slave in the desert does take a toll on you, even if your Master isn't particularly harsh. There are transmitters, hard work, poverty, and the harsh desert to contend with, even during the best of times.
My Ani, you were a gift from the Force itself. I don't understand it, can't explain it, but I'm sure it's true. And the gift given away comes back to you more often than you know. That's what I tell myself when it's terribly lonely without you or when your friends ask me if you're ever coming back. I don't want to tell them anything to get their hopes up, so I keep my answers to their questions as noncommittal as I can.
But then I wonder how the life of a Jedi is. I'm sure that Qui-Gon was right when he said it is a hard life. I know you can sent anywhere in the Galaxy, doing any mission that nobody else is willing to do. Still, I know you'll learn to make use of your gifts and will be able to see the Galaxy. Maybe you will be the first to visit every system, just like you dreamed of.
And you're not terrifying me by racing pods anymore. As proud as I am of you for helping strangers get the money they needed, it killed me every time you raced. How could it not, knowing that it might be the last time I would ever see you? And if you'd stay here, you'd likely keep racing until you were too big to fit into a pod. The way life is now, I still have hope that I haven't seen you for the last time.
You'll always be my son, and I hope you never feel that I gave you away. That I sent you to face the Galaxy at too young an age. For as willing as you were to go, I'm afraid the Galaxy harsher than you wanted or expected.