Disclaimer: Absolutely, totally and utterly not mine.
Rating: Absolutely, totally and utterly M.
Luke stared at Mara, greatly concerned. Strong emotions were emanating from her, creating ripples in the Force around them, forcing him to steel his mind against the assault. Uncertainty flooded him until he sensed the change in her, the focused intensity of her desire a shock to his system. She approached him, her eyes alight with a dark flame as she ran her fingers over his body. He knew instinctively not to move, to let her examine him in whatever way she wished. He willed himself still beneath her touch as her hand traced along his abdomen. Her fingertips skimmed along the sensitive skin below his ribcage and he fought with his body's reaction, struggling to remain in control. She was searing his mind and scalding his body.
"Mara…"
She met his pleading gaze, the deep forest green of her eyes burning with passion and craving. He briefly felt her presence in his mind before she murmured, "No need. Not anymore."
She stepped back and the sense of her overwhelmed him as she opened her mind to him. Her pale robe cascaded down her shoulders and landed in a heap on the floor, leaving her naked before him.
"Your turn."
Luke swallowed, his breath caught in his throat.
Mara was exquisite. His wildest fantasies couldn't have prepared him for the woman that stood before him now. Desire poured through his veins, quickening his pulse and igniting every nerve in his body into awareness. He'd hoped for this, but he never anticipated the level of raw hunger he saw in those emerald depths. He had no clue what he'd done to cause this change in her, but he was delighting in it just the same.
Cautiously he touched her cheek, needing to be certain she wanted this as much as he. Her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned into his touch with a soft sigh. He needed no further validation. He wrapped his hand behind her neck and threaded his fingers in her damp hair, pulling her to him. The skin on skin contact of their bodies seared as he covered her mouth with his own, stifling her cry.
He was drowning in the smell of her, a light floral scent that was uniquely Mara. His hands caressed her as he deepened their kiss. He found her a willing participant as she freely explored his body in turn. They moved towards the bed instinctively, never breaking contact. Her fingers tugged at his pants, and he disconnected from her and quickly remedied that problem.
He felt a new wave of her passion flood his mind as her thoughts became more serious, more urgent. The Force was with them, mixing their emotions and overloading his senses. The lone rational piece of Luke's mind questioned why, but it was soon drowned out by the thunder of unrequited passion finally finding its release.
They were intertwined together on the bed when their bodies joined, the physical connection of heat and flesh coinciding with the deeper merging of their minds as they were again united as one within the Force.
Passion and pleasure burned within her - he could feel every sensation of her body and knew she perceived his as well. They used this knowledge to their mutual advantage, testing each other, teasing, craving, driving each other higher and higher towards an unspoken goal.
In his mind he saw Mara, not as herself, but as an entity within the Force, nebulous reds and greens and whites swirling in front of him. They flashed and swayed and pulsed in time with his own thundering heartbeat. Through her mind Luke saw something similar, an ever-changing sea of blue, gold, grey and white.
Overcome with need to be closer to her, he strained to reach her, driving himself deeper. She somehow knew what he wanted and what to do. He felt her submission as she surrendered herself freely to him, allowing him total and complete access to her soul.
Waves of power and desire surged within him as he recognized the significance of what she'd done. Her colorful glow hovered a scant breath away – he sensed he needed only to reach out with his mind to claim her for his own. She would be his, now and forever within the Force. He felt compelled to extend that small tendril, to touch that tantalizing light, to consume her within him, yet something deep within his heart caused him to hesitate.
Instantly he saw himself again through her mind, his colorings twisting, raging, morphing, the grey darkening to black.
No!
He would not let the dark side consume his path any longer. Searching deep within his soul, he gathered all thoughts of himself and his needs and purged them from his mind, forcing them outward where they hovered in the distance. The effort left him raw and broken, only his love and hope and compassion remaining. It was this he offered to her, in the only way he knew how.
I love you, Mara. I am yours.
With a jolt that rocked him to his core he felt their energies mix, the greens and blues, reds and golds, aligning, shifting, blending into the purest white he'd ever seen. He felt the release of energy flow through them, a blinding flash in his brain that erased all traces of darkness. In its aftermath he was flooded with the most powerful sensations of pleasure he had ever experienced. His physical body was wracked with them, his mind dimming from the onslaught as wave after wave cascaded over him. When they finally ebbed, he felt their intertwined spirits drifting away from the Force, their lights diminishing in intensity.
They were surrounded by the deepest sense of peace he had ever known.
He had just enough strength to disconnect his body from hers, rolling away as his mind finally faded to black.
~~~~/*\*/*\*/*\~~~~
Half a galaxy away, Leia Organa Solo bolted awake with a gasp. The disturbance in the Force was like nothing she'd sensed before. Instinctively she knew it was Luke who caused it. Luke and…she stretched her senses. Mara.
"Wow."
Han grumbled, bleary-eyed, "What izzit?" He blinked and then rolled to face her directly. "You okay?"
"I'm fine. I just, felt something."
Han looked at her intently. "Is this a bad kind of feeling? You know, a get-the-blasters and call-in-the-Noghri feeling?"
"No, nothing like that. It was Luke. And Mara."
"Luke and Mara? Luke and Mara what?"
She gave him a knowing, pointed look.
"No way! Good for them. It's about time. Wait, you can feel them like that? When they're…?" Han looked intrigued and horrified at the same time.
She cuffed him, "No it wasn't that. It was…good. Peace. Love. They have a powerful love."
"Mm…I'll bet. It's been building for years. Like shaking a champagne bottle. Builds up all that pressure until it explodes."
Leia scowled at her husband. "A sensitive romantic you are not, Han."
"Who, me?"
Leia laughed and pulled him closer to her. "Since we're awake, I know another Jedi who has a lot of love to give. Know anyone who might be interested in it?"
Han kissed her as he pulled her to him and they didn't discuss anything else for quite some time.
~~~~/*\*/*\*/*\~~~~
In another part of the galaxy, Talon Karrde felt a long dormant but vaguely familiar chill run down his spine. Given that he was comfortable and cozy in his bed, and given that the datapad in front of him was displaying an article on the changes in economic policies on Kashyyyk, he doubted his environment was the cause.
That meant Mara, and that meant Skywalker, and that meant he'd officially lost his protégé. Still, he was happy for her and for him. They belonged together, now that she finally saw him as the man he was and not some type of Jedi god.
With a sigh, he returned to his datapad, but the topic no longer interested him.
Perhaps he could ask them about their bond, but then again, perhaps that was too private for Mara to share with him now. There were other uses for two powerful Jedi, however. Karrde was sure his affiliation with them would come in handy someday.
~~~~/*\*/*\*/*\~~~~
Elsewhere, on a different plane of existence, two shadowy outlines were seated around something that resembled a sabbac table. One player was older than the other, and clearly winning, if sabbac was indeed what they were playing.
Their surroundings were a kaleidoscope of morphing colors that spanned onward and outward in every direction. Flickers of white and black along with every other imaginable color in the spectrum flashed and swirled and danced beneath them, over them, all around them. It was a phenomenal sight, yet the two didn't seem to be all that excited about it. They had something else on their minds.
"Did you feel it?" the older asked the younger. "The disturbance just now?"
"No, I'm oblivious to my son. Of course I felt it." The younger beamed with pride. "He is an excellent Jedi. Takes after his father."
The older scowled, "Did you train him? Did you guide him in the ways of the Force? I think not. Besides, he never would have gotten that far on his own, regardless of your blood in his veins. My grand-niece is the reason he will become a true Jedi Master."
A third suddenly appeared at the sabbac table, complete with a trimmed white beard. "There will be no arguing – you both know better than to disturb the Force with your incessant petty squabbles on this topic. Yoda will be incredibly displeased."
"Obi-wan, you are entirely too serious! Qui-Gon and I weren't arguing. It was a discussion. Besides, you should be proud too. I'm sure you felt what happened."
The older turned to the one called Obi-wan. "My apologies, my friend. I will keep our young companion under better control."
"Please see that you do." In a blink the oldest was gone.
"He's such a stick in the mud," the youngest muttered. "Always was, too."
The other said nothing as they picked up what appeared to be sabbac cards and returned to their game.
~~~~/*\*/*\*/*\~~~~
Mara stirred, the haze of their lovemaking still echoing through her thoughts and her body. Nothing in the universe could have prepared her for that. She turned to Luke. His mind was muted to her probing, but his heart was still beating firmly and soundly in his chest.
It's a miracle we didn't kill each other.
What happened between them could never be forgotten. It bound her to him in a way that she would never fully understand, let alone be able to explain. She knew now she could never leave his side; she belonged with him, and he with her. Marriage ceremonies meant little to her now. They were already one.
She reached out and brushed a tendril of hair away from his temple. He was drenched in sweat, and dimly she noticed she was as well. The sheets entangling them were ripped in places and she was quite certain they were permanently stained. Karrde was not going to be pleased.
She laughed to herself. Karrde's ire was nothing compared to what she'd just seen - the tortured, haunting blackness they'd banished together from the farthest corners of Luke's soul. She knew with quiet certainty the dark side would haunt him no longer. Briefly she wondered how she'd known it was there; that it required the offering of her own soul to make it visible to him so he, no they, could defeat it. Perhaps it wasn't all that difficult to understand; this was the Force they were dealing with. Selflessness was the foundation of the light, the opposite the tantalizing draw of the darkness. Her act of love took on more significance because it was done directly within the Force, and therefore had much greater consequences.
She shook her head, wondering where her newfound philosophical wisdom had come from. With a sharp stab of insight she knew – she was a Jedi.
In theory, she was one before. She sacrificed the Jade's Fire to save the New Republic and finally heard the voices of the Qom Jha and Qom Qae. Was she now stronger, due to his influence? She'd have to ask Luke when he woke, maybe he'd know.
Luke. She stroked his cheek gently, noting the scratchy stubble from a day's growth of his beard. She traced his temples, the dark golden blonde starting to pepper with grey. She was his, and it gave her peace. She continued caressing him softly until she finally sensed his mind in hers.
Mara?
I'm here.
He blinked a few times, finally coming awake. The same hazy afterglow was hovering in his thoughts as well.
Mara ran her fingers through his damp hair. "Welcome back to the land of the living."
"How long was I out?"
"A few minutes more than me, I think. Before that I can't tell - it knocked me for a loop too."
He sat up in the bed, gazing down at her. "You saw it then…the light?"
"We were one. I saw and felt everything."
He peered down at the torn sheets in slight bewilderment.
"I've never experienced anything like that, Mara. Never. We were with the Force in a way I can't explain. And the dark side…" he shuddered. "It was there inside me. I saw it. I saw it through your eyes and it was me and it was horrible."
Mara sat up and pulled him to her, tempering his waves of regret and shame with caring and compassion. "Hey, it's all right. It's gone now."
Luke searched his feelings. "It is. I feel…I feel free. That's why we felt…why it was…"
Mara smiled. The aw-shucks naivete was as much a part of him as the passionate and driven man who'd set her senses ablaze. Chuckling, she kissed him gently on his forehead. "Beats me. This whole episode is a completely new chapter in my book."
For a time, neither spoke as they held one another. Mara felt the last hazy tendrils clear from his mind. He blinked as another piece of their newly created puzzle fell into place for him.
"You knew it was there."
She shrugged. "I don't know how, or why. I just saw you and knew what I needed to do."
They were silent as the reality of what she'd done and what they'd done together finally became clear to them both.
Luke turned to her, his face a mixture of awe and respect. "I never would have defeated it without you."
"Probably not, no."
His eyes met hers, glistening with emotion as he pulled her into a fierce embrace. She leaned against him, equally determined to never let him go.
"I can never repay you," he whispered.
"Untrue. You promised me dinner, remember?"
His eyes widened. "I did, didn't it? That seems like a lifetime ago." He turned from her, looking around the bedroom. "Wow. Busy day for us."
Mara focused her attention away from Luke and examined their surroundings. The room was a complete shambles. Karrde's beautiful dresser was cracked in two, the drawers collapsed on top of each other, clothing spilling onto the floor or crushed under the weight of the broken wood. The rectangular full mirror above it had shattered along a thousand different fracture lines, painting their reflections into an artistic mosaic. The night table was knocked over, the ornate antique Corellian lamp that used to sit upon it now in pieces on the carpet. There were actual scorch marks along the walls and ceiling, forming a complete circle around the center of the bed. The duvet cover and corresponding blankets they'd originally laid upon were riddled with gaping, singed holes and the deep velvet draperies were charred.
Luke fidgeted with the torn, tattered sheets. "Karrde's going to kill us, isn't he?"
Mara scanned the room again. "Yes. Yes he is."
