Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars because it belongs to George Lucas. For this story I will be borrowing some characters from him and Timothy Zahn.
A/N: Please review, I really appreciate it when people take the effort to review my stories!
Author: Angel Kamiya

Making a Lightsaber

Chapter Nine

Mara Jade was lying on the ground as she started to wake up from her dream. It seemed that she had somehow fallen off the chair that she had been sleeping in. Getting up she slowly took a seat still feeling a little drowsy. It had taken hours after she came back with Vader last night before she could finally fall asleep because there had been so many things on her mind. Was she going to do well or was she destined to fail and get thrown out onto the street?

She had went to Vader's office earlier then he had asked her to because she was too excited to stay in bed and too afraid that she might oversleep. The mourning light that passed through the windows hit her skin bringing warmth and the promise of another wonderful day. After waiting a short while Vader finally arrived to his office carrying several bags.

She was sitting there wearing a green dress and trying to stay awake as Vader rummaged through one of the bags. He pulled out a robe after a while of searching. It was dark brown and he thought that it would be perfect for his new apprentice.

Mara only looked distastefully at it. She couldn't believe anything could look so bad and started shaking her head realizing why he had gotten it in the first place.

"I don't want to wear that." She announced. "I'd look horrible in a dusty old robe."

The Sith Lord threw the robe at her nevertheless and she caught it.

"Try that on or else." Vader answered.

Mara hesitantly wrapped the article of clothing around herself and fell forward after a few moments of standing. Much to her dismay not only did the thing look terrible but it was as heavy as a rock. He pointed his finger at her and then quickly waved it to the right. After trying to adjust to the thing she started walking across the room trying not to trip on the bottom part of the robe. She barely succeeded after finally stopping to sit at the couch.

"There that wasn't so bad was it?" The Sith Lord asked in a proud voice.

"I can barely move." Mara complained. "I have any idea! I'll be right back."

Throwing off the brown robe Mara ran into the room. Vader heard several crashing noises and what he thought was the sound of an animal yelling before Mara returned with something reddish in her hands. She had apparently been holding out on wearing that piece of clothing until today.

"How about this?" she asked as she put the piece of fabric on.

It was a light red small cloak which only fell to her knees. As she skipped around the room she pulled the hood over her head without any trouble.

"I'm wearing a robe and looking fashionable too!" she uttered.

"What I gave you was fine" Vader argued. "No apprentice of mine is going to wear bright colors when learning from me!"

"But Darrrrrrtttthhh!"

"Stop whining." Vader interrupted.

Mara ran out of Vader's chambers much to his surprise. He walked to the exit to try to find out where she went. This was starting to become routine but instead of having to look for her, he nearly walked into the Emperor! She was tugging his hand trying to get him in there.

"What is it Mara?" The Emperor asked. "I'm very busy right now. Oh I see. Your right what your wearing is much better looking then that thing on the floor."

Mara looked up at Vader in triumphant.

"Fine, then wear that wretched robe of yours" Vader muttered, suddenly getting the urge to blow up the galaxy. "But you must wear what I got you for at least today!"

As she started to change out of the her robe and put the new one over her dress, Vader turned his attention toward the Emperor. He had nearly forgotten to bid farewell to the Emperor today.

"Have a pleasant trip my Master" Vader said to the Emperor.

"Your going somewhere again?" Mara asked curiously.

"That's correct. I have to deal with an important planet near the state of uprising. My appearance should increase the Imperial support there. I hope you two stay safe while I'm away." He smiled.

Before leaving, Palpatine gave Mara a red lollypop as a treat. He left for his personal transport afterwards followed by his Royal Guards. The Sith Lord suddenly wondered why The Emperor seemed to always have an endless supply of lollypops on him. One of the many mysteries of the Sith he thought.

"Are we going to wait here all day, let's get going!" Mara exclaimed, trying out the piece of candy. "Do you want some Darth?"

"No." Vader answered.

Mara ran outside in the sunlight in joy. The Imperial Palace behind her she was staring to enjoy being outside way more then being inside.

"What a beautiful day!" She stated. "Perfect!"

Darth Vader remained silent.

"What's wrong Darth?" She asked. "Why are you always so dark and serious all the time?"

"That's just how I am! It's none of you concern. Now follow me."

Mara nodded and followed his order. The both of them walked to a less populated street not too far away from the palace. Vader walked to the left and right slowly as he tried to remember the speech that he had prepared last night. It a taken him a few hours to think up because he had never been an especially great speech writer.

"The galaxy is filled with a near infinite amount of people. A very few of those individuals are born with the gift and ability to tap into the Force. It's a source of knowledge and powers that few...... Mara pay attention!" He uttered, seeing that she was starting to stare around.

Mara stopped looking around and returned her attention back to her new Master.

"I mean it when I say pay attention! Well let's skip the introduction for today." He grumbled. "I will be teaching you three lessons over the next three days that you will have to memorize and then have pass a test at the end. If you don't pass I will have to tell the Emperor that you aren't ready to be taught by him."

"What's the first lesson?" she asked, starting to get afraid that she just might fail any tests given by Darth Vader.

"Exercising is the first step to becoming an effective apprentice."

"Like... running... jumping... sit-ups.... pushups...." She stated slowly.

"That's correct, an apprentice should be in good shape before even starting learning about the Force."

Before he could continue speaking he felt something latch onto his left leg. He looked down to see that it was Mara! She was looking at him with scared green eyes.

"Darth. Please don't make me run. I get tired very easily and...."

"You sure didn't look tired after all those times you ran away from me after blowing something up!" Vader interrupted. "Now go, Mara. Move. Move!"

He kicked his left leg lightly to try to get her off but only succeeded in making both of them fall to the ground. There a loud crash that made everyone around them look in their direction. The Sith Lord tried using the Force to get her off of him but failed, since she was holding his leg too tightly.

"Mara get off my leg!" he ordered.

Mara shook her head quickly and started crying.

"Don't make me Darth, don't make meeee!"

"Get off!" Vader uttered one final time.

The little girl reluctantly started loosing the grip she had on his leg as he started raising his voice. The Sith Lord reached for her and lightly pushed her off. She took a few steps backward before hanging her head in defeat.

"Off you go" Vader said, gently poking her in the shoulder.

Mara started jogging very slowly after they both got back up. She wasn't very happy with what she had to do in her first day of training. Not happy at all.

After a few hours they lost each other because of the crowds. Mara sat down on the sidewalk in front of a cantina to take a break. Trying to ignore the loud music and strange noises she folded her arms and put her head down. This was too hard for her! She couldn't move her arms anymore and her feet were starting to hurt from being worked too much.

"I can't do this." she muttered to herself.

Mara didn't sense him as he appeared at the scene.

"Are you alright?" asked a familiar voice.

Looking up she saw the boy that she had helped last night. He was around her age if not older and had deep blue eyes that made him good looking.

"Hey! You didn't say thanks to me for helping you the other night" Mara teased. "Nice to meet you again my name is Mara."

"Sorry Mara, she was after me. Thank you."

Mara looked suspicious at him after his comment. Someone was after him? He didn't look like a criminal or one of those evil rebels the Emperor was always ranting about.

"Your welcome." Mara continued. "But you might not have enough time to get me a thank you present, because you might be seeing the last of Mara Jade tonight. I'm about to fail a test and have my life ruined forever!"

"Are you even trying to pass?" he asked.

"Of course I am!" Mara answered, furious. "I mean I'm trying my best. I've been running for hours and everything!"


"That's nothing, I can run for days without stopping! Want to race to that pole over there to see who is faster?"

Mara looked over to where he had been pointing at. The pole was several yards away which meant the race would be easy for her. She had almost raced Leia a short while ago but that had ended when they both crashed into Anakin. Agreeing to his offer they both started off the same distance away from the destination. At the same moment they both ran forward.

The race was close and Mara was even about to win. However before she could reach the destination she had tripped on her robe and fell to the ground. The moment she hit the ground she bursted out crying. Not only was she hurt but she had lost!

"I would have won if it wasn't for this stupid robe!" she complained, getting back up.

"You should've continued running, because I haven't crossed the finish line yet. You give up too easily Mara."

Mara really wanted tell him he was wrong, but she didn't think he was completely off.

"You might be right. One thing is for sure, I'm never going to lose to someone like you again! Thanks."

Mara smiled at him. Suddenly she noticed that he was slowly turned his head to the left and then to the right as if sensing someone was nearby.

"Oh no, she's back! I have to go. Good luck on your test!"

As he ran off she had the strangest feeling. It was as though she remembered him from before yesterday. Shrugging off the feeling she raced back to find Vader.

A few minutes later she had found Vader near a fountain. The sun was starting to set as Mara Jade continued to run through the busy street with Darth Vader following behind. He easily was keeping up with her since for each step he took she had to take three. The boy from yesterday had really helped Mara today by making her see that what was happening right now was important and she shouldn't give up so easily. Also she promised herself that she was never going to lose to anyone like him in a race again after embarrassing herself! As expected many people looked at them during the exercise because it was strange seeing Lord Vader and a little girl out together.

"Can I get some water Darth, I'm so thirsty!"

"No, keep moving."

Later the Sith Lord took a seat at a bench and he told her to run in a large circle around him. He was staring to get disappointed at her because she wasn't very good at this first training lesson. Mara didn't want to follow his directions at first but had to after a few seconds of pointing by Vader. Running she had wished that maybe she had gotten another master, because Anakin was so strict! As Vader turned his head distracted by a balloon passing by, Mara stopped to take a deep breath. She saw something on the ground and suddenly smirked a little bit.

Vader stared at the balloon that was passing by. It reminded him of when he had gone on a balloon ride along with Padmé when he had still been Obi-Wan's student. The memory brought some old feelings back to him and then anger when he remembered that she was gone now. He had missed having her around and....

"MEANY!!" came Mara's very bitter voice.

A spray of water came forward and blasted him. Darth Vader was pushed by a blast of water as got to his feet. She was blasting him with a water hose! Getting mad he moved forward but ended up slipping and falling to the ground.

"What?!" he yelled.

"That's for being so mean the whole day, and not letting me get any water!" Mara explained, out for revenge.

After a few seconds, the water that was shooting out of the hose suddenly stopped.

"Oh no! No!" Mara yelled, shaking and trying to make the hose work again.

Darth Vader slowly got up and leaned his head forward. Several droplets of water fell from off mask and onto the ground.

"Ekkk!" Mara screamed as she started to run away.

The Sith Lord gave her a few seconds head start and then started after her. During that run however he found it was pretty hard to catch up with her. She wasn't so bad at running as he had first thought! After a while though he did catch up with her and stopped her in her tracks with the Force.

"Please don't hurt me Darth! I was just kidding around." she pleaded, putting her arms over her head.

As Vader reached his right hand forward Mara closed her eyes bracing herself for anything. Instead of anything bad however she felt him lightly tap her on the head.

"You have done well today my apprentice, and have passed my first test. You can run fast after all!"

Mara opened her eyes surprised that she wasn't in major trouble.

"Let's go back and get cleaned up." Vader suggested, trying not to laugh at how ridiculous Mara looked at the moment drenched in water. "I suppose we can go out later tonight."

To be continued....