Forgetting what matters chapter 9
"Now Abby watch carefully" Leia said holding her lightsaber in both of her hands. She preformed a very simple downward cut then looked over at Abby who held a small training saber in both of her hands. Abby brought the saber up then swung it downward, her hands slipped from the saber and it flung to the ground. Even though the saber was just a training saber Abby still jumped back when the blade hit the ground. She stood there looking down at the saber as the blade retracted into the hilt. The whoosh of the saber and the sound it made when it shut off reminded Abby of her mom's sabers.
Suddenly Abby began to cry drawling the attention of Leia who kneeled down beside her "What's wrong Abby?" she asked concerned. Abby turned and wrapped her arms round her sister "Mommy hurt those people" she said. Leia shook her head, she should have known that what her mother did would have affected Abby more and the sounds of the saber is probably what triggered the memory to resurface to her mind. Leia turned off her saber and sat down on the ground pulling her little sister into her arms and hugging her. "Mommy was just protecting you" Leia said knowing that Abby wouldn't understand what that really meant and in no way did Leia think it was right to kill three people for the accident in the park but she had kept her mouth shut about it.
"Why?" Abby said sniffling with tear filled eyes looking up at her bigger sister. "Because mommy wants to keep us safe, she wants all of us to be safe" Leia said gently rubbing her sister's back trying to comfort her. "Because mommy loves us?" Abby asked wiping her tears from her eyes. "Yes because mommy loves us Abby" Leia said smiling. Abby nodded slowly "and bubba and daddy right?" she asked. "Yes Abby she loves bubba and dad too" Leia replied. Abby smiled and let go of her sister, she walked over to her training saber and picked it up. Her small fingers gripped the hilt tightly and her thumb hit the activation stub, with a snap-hiss the saber sprung to life. Abby jumped a little at the sound but relaxed after a moment as the saber hummed quietly, she lifted the saber up with both arms and swung down again this time not dropping it. "Very good Abby, now do it again" Leia said proudly.
Luke carefully piloted the ship through the red fog that covered the planet of Dathomir. He veered out of the way of the massive overgrown vegetation that was all over the planet looking for a good spot to land the ship that wasn't in a swamp. He indented to land as close as he could to the source of power that he hoped was the Sith artifact he felt in the force but with the size of ship he had brought made it difficult.
"I can barely see anything" Mara said looking out the window, "check the scanner and see if you cant find an opening for us to land" Luke said. Mara looked over at the scanner and began to widen its range "I think I found one but its about a mile east" she said pointing in the direction the clearing was. "That will have to do" Luke said turning the controls to the right and began heading east. After a few minutes Mara pointed to a spot that didn't have any vegetation around it "There" she said. Luke brought the ship just on top of the clearing and dropped the landing gear slowly easing the ship downward until it touched the surface.
Luke shut the engines down and ran his hand through his hair "Well the easies part over" Luke said. "Well then this is where the fun begins" Mara said getting up and clipping her belt around her waist that held her blaster pistol and two vibro blades. Luke rolled his eyes and got up making his way toward the ramp and hitting the button. The ramp dropped and the two walked down the ramp on to the planets surface both looking around at their surroundings. "Can't imagine why anyone would want to live here" Mara said more to herself rather than Luke "I think that's why they put the artifact here because no one comes here for the scenery" Luke replied. The two of them began walking back west toward the concentration of the darkside they had felt when ever they had first arrived on the planet.
"What traps do you think will be waiting for us?" Mara asked as they walked. "I don't know Mara, this is my first time looking for these kind of things so just be on your guard" Luke replied. They two continued in silence for a bit until, the thick red fog and the dense vegetation made it hard to tell exactly where they were going. It must have been almost thirty minutes before the finally had worked their though the dense vegetation and finally the two of them stood outside of a massive stone structure; the only structure they had seen since they got here but the two of them looked at each other and nodded. The darkside was concentrated from somewhere inside of the building so that was where they needed to go.
One day into their vacation and Vader notice Wraeththu was beginning to get restless. He watched her as she sat outside of the small house out next to the stream looking at the wildlife that had stopped to drink from it. Ever since he had know her she had always been active, always wanting to be doing something of course he was also the same but being older now he had learned to just take some time in relax; it looked like Wraeththu had yet to learn that. "Restless already?" he said walking over to her taking a seat beside her in the grass. "Its hard to just sit still and be doing nothing when most of your life you've always been doing something" she said "Every now and again its good to just step back, take a breath and relax from the stress of the world" Vader replied. "It's the fact that we left Abby home that bothers me" she said. "She's got Luke and Leia to watch out for her Wraeththu" he replied.
"I know but its not the same when I'm not there" Wraeththu said. Vader nodded and put an arm around her back pulling her closer to him "If it bothers you that much then call them to make sure she is alright" Vader suggested. She reached over to her mechanical arm and hit a button on it, a small panel slid back revealing a built in holoprojector inside. "When did you get that?" Vader asked curiously as he never remembered her having that in her arm. "I had it insulted while you were on one of your missions so I could always have a way to contact you" she replied. A moment later a small holographic image of Leia appeared "Hey mom, hey dad" Leia said. "Hello Leia how is everything?" Wraeththu asked. Leia smiled "It's only been one day and your already worried? Everything is just fine mom" she replied.
"Is Abby being good?" Wraeththu asked, "You can ask that to her yourself" Leia replied as the image turned to Abby who was sitting at a table eating breakfast "Hi mommy, hi daddy" Abby said happily. "Hi princess are you being good?" Wraeththu asked, Abby nodded happily "Yes mommy and so is Phantom" she said. Wraeththu smiled knowing her daughter was ok as well as her other children. "How's the trip going?" Leia asked as the imaged shifted back to her. "It's taking your mother a little while to adjust I have to teach her how to relax but things are going good" Vader said. Leia laughed as Wraeththu shot Vader a glare "Just relax mom we have everything under control. Well I better let you all go so you all can enjoy yourselves" Leia said. "I love you mommy and daddy!" Abby yelled, "We love you to little one" Vader said smiling before the transmission was ended. Wraeththu rested her head against Vader's shoulder, everything was going great. Little did any of them know that things were about to take a turn for disaster and they were in for a big surprise.
