Chapter 3: All the King's Horses

Mara.

She rolled over and lay back, staring into the darkness. There was no point in crying out, no point in sobbing. No one would hear her, and doing so would only reveal a weakness she had no desire to put on display. She wondered if he knew, if he had any idea about the unease living deep in the caverns of her mind, sleeping until she was no longer awake to fight it.

A stirring beside her, and she realized there was someone to hear, and that was a rare thing. Once…once there had been someone, but he had become a distraction and been dispatched to some distant outpost on a world no one cared to know the name of. Since then she had tried to limit her distractions to one or two night affairs. But Cass was different. As charming as he was skilled, he was also direct, and that was a welcome relief in the Imperial Court. She wasn't quite ready to be disinterested in him yet. She hoped he hadn't drawn too much attention, knew he probably had.

Did it matter? He wouldn't be on Coruscant forever.

Mara.

It wasn't so much a command as a constant reminder of his presence, a little pressure inside her mind. It had been more frequent lately, even though she wasn't on a mission. She wondered if this was due to Cass and shifted in discomfort.

He rolled over to face her, but didn't open his eyes. "What is it?" he mumbled.

"Nightmare," she answered.

He slid nearer, moving her on her side and facing away from him. One arm moved gently to slide under her head, cushioning it against his shoulder. His other hand twined his fingers with hers, resting up under her breasts and drawing her back against his chest until they were snug. She felt his face burrow into the back of her neck, and then he was still.

She fell asleep moments later, and neither dreamed, nor spoke to the ghosts in her head.

**RogueLegends**

Cassian was in another meeting with Bail Organa and other members of the Alderaanian delegation. He was contemplating how politics could be both cutthroat and boring when Mara appeared, followed by the droid.

The anterooms in which council members met with their retinue were bugged. Cassian had no illusions about that. He doubted Organa did either. Still, it felt like an imposition, a breach of trust and privacy, to have an Imperial simply walk in, without announcement, accompanied by a droid programmed for, among other things, close quarter combat.

Cassian's spine stiffened, and he kept one eye on the droid.

Mara thrust a datapad at Organa's chest. "I was asked to bring this to your attention."

Recovering from whatever shock he felt at her intrusion quickly, Organa frowned over the screen. After a moment's perusal, he sat back and met Mara's gaze evenly.

"We're aware of it. It's an internal problem."

"It's not an internal problem anymore. Read on."

With a swift glance at Cassian, of all people, the senator complied. The exchange didn't go unnoticed by Mara, who flicked her attention to her lover for just a moment. He met it honestly: I have no idea what's going on.

Finally, Organa sat back, this time appearing slightly defeated. Cassia wondered how he'd survived this long in politics, then wondered if it was acts like this that were exactly how.

"I'd like to amend my earlier statement. We were hoping to resolve it internally."

"Rebels, Senator? Operating out of your system?"

Organa scoffed. "Rebels? Hardly. We haven't found any evidence that these…pirates have any ties to the Rebellion. They're anarchists, certainly."

"They're terrorists."

Organa's false resignation was hardening rapidly into steel. "They're unorganized. They don't even match the likes of the Hutts for cohesiveness."

"They're lucrative enough to have spread beyond the Alderaanian system and dogged enough to destroy an Imperial base and the refugee camp it was protecting," Kay-Too put in.

Alarm bells were going off in Cassian's head.

"Admittedly, the problem has become bigger than we realized."

"I think it's becoming even bigger than we realized, Senator," Mara said. "How many more innocent lives will be lost before you pacifists take action? That's what you're always going on about, isn't it? Innocents? No-" She held up a hand. "–I'm not here to argue politics or failures. I'm here to tell you I've been authorized to take a little excursion into your little system. An excursion that will end in whatever action is necessary."

There was a long silence.

"Very well," Organa said at the end of it. "But I ask for one concession."

Mara waited.

"Take Cass, my assistant, with you. Alderaan should have a hand in whatever comes next. It is, as you say, our responsibility."

Mara smiled sardonically, but nodded assent.