Chapter Thirty-Six: Fate is Secured

"Ha!" Luke said in triumph when the wires were finally separated. With a final smile of victory on his features, he twisted the two disconnected wires together, and following a loud groan, the blaster door hissed open.

Glancing back at Mara Jade to check to see if the redhead was still behind him, Luke headed through the blaster door and immediately located a ladder leading up the wall and out of the tunnel. Above was the faint light of the sky.

"It's about time," Luke said with relief. They had been stuck in the tunnel for close to an hour, talking only in tense clips. After their conversation about the Emperor, Mara had seemed even more on edge than usual, making Luke believe that what he had told her had really stirred her up. Although he liked to think that perhaps her loyalty had been swayed, he could not deny that her tumultuous emotions were now taking their beating on him.

Luke headed straight for the ladder and climbed it, not waiting to see if Jade was going to follow. She did, however, and they both found themselves in an alleyway, with the Coruscanti sky and buildings towering above them.

"And there's the exit," Luke told her, heading towards a barbed wire gate that lead out of the alleyway.

Mara Jade caught up with his quick steps towards the exit, her brow furrowed with an unasked question.

When they had reached the gate and Luke had pulled wire clippers from his utility belt, Mara finally spoke.

"What do you mean Vader is still alive?"

Luke could not help it; he froze for a moment, before forcing himself to resume a normal expression. "Just what I said. He's still alive."

"Do you know where he is?"

"No."

Luke knew that she suspected his lie, but she seemed to drop that line of inquiry. Her interests seemed to lie more in the truth of what had happened; she also seemed to know that pursuing that topic might cause Luke to shut down.

"He killed the Emperor, didn't he?" she asked him.

"He had little choice."

"What do you mean?" Jade asked him.

Luke clipped the wires with a vengeance, as if getting done faster might give him a chance to evade her question. He gave a frustrated sigh, as if to let Jade know he was irked by her pestering, and then replied, "Palpatine was asking him to do something against his moral beliefs."

Jade scoffed at that, as he suspected she might. "Vader didn't have moral beliefs." When Luke was silent in reply, she seemed to realize there was some truth in the answer, however, and the smirk was wiped from her face. "What did he ask him to do?"

Luke just set his jaw and gave a final snip to the wires, therefore freeing the gate. He grabbed it and swung it open, perhaps harder than he intended. He would not answer the question.

Jade seemed to realize this as well, and her mind seemed to return back to the original revelation. "How could you have just stood by and allowed it to happen?" she abruptly challenged him, growing angry as he started a brisk pace away from her. "Watch Vader commit treason? Aren't Jedi bringers of peace and justice?"

"You're free to go," Luke told her when she continued to march after him. She reminded him surprisingly of Leia, who, like Jade, persisted with questions until she got what she wanted to know. "Isn't that what you want? To go back to plotting assassinations?" As Luke turned around to look angrily at her, however, he was soon met with a set of hands that pushed him against the alleyway wall.

"I need to know," she hissed, her face near his. "Why did you just stand by?"

Even though Luke knew that her anger was coming more from the upsetting of her previous life than anger because of him, it was still the final straw for Luke. "I wasn't standing by," he snapped. "I was being tortured by your dear master. Vader saved both our lives by killing him."

"Vader could have killed him plenty of times!" retorted Mara, eyes narrowed.

Luke shook her off. "He was just as dead as I was!" he snapped. "The Emperor wanted him gone too. He uses people and then he disposes of them! It's his nature!"

"I think you're lying," Jade growled.

"That the Emperor doesn't dispose of people?"

"No-" she began, but Luke cut across her.

"Admit it, Mara, you've seen it too!"

"I'm not denying I've seen it," she returned angrily. "But I don't think you're telling the whole truth."

"You think there's a whole truth?"

"You have some sort of a connection to Vader, don't you?" she continued. "I knew there was a reason for his obsession with you besides your abilities. What was it? A business partnership? A deal to overthrow the Emperor together?"

"Yeah, I make deals with Sith lords every day," snapped Luke. Mara's line of thinking was much too close to the truth for his liking.

"No, it's not that," she continued. "You're too much of a Jedi. You obviously turned him down, or you would be ruling together. Yet he still saved you, and he is still living a quiet life."

"Perhaps he wanted to set up shop," Luke returned with sarcasm that would have made Leia proud. "Being a military man can do wonders to your priorities."

"You do know where he is," Jade continued. "You're protecting him, for some reason."

"You're the one who's been following me," Luke told her impatiently. "You tell me if I've had contact with a Sith lord." Then, with a final spin on his heel, he marched away from Jade at a brisk pace. To his relief, she didn't follow him. She seemed to know he would not reveal anything else.

When Luke was almost out of the alley, he could hear her calling after him, "You need to hold up your end of the bargain, Skywalker."

Luke did not bother to reply, instead continuing to head out, feeling very frustrated. And just as he was almost out of the alley, her voice suddenly rang out once more.

"Skywalker, wait."

If it had been any different of a tone, Luke perhaps might not have stopped. But there was something in Jade's voice that caused him to halt in his steps and turn around. Perhaps it was the resignation, or the weariness that seemed to emanate from her, but Luke shortly turned around to look at her.

"I know where the Boss is," she told him. "I know where he went, and I know that he's going to meet with Bogdaan Vadim."

Disbelief met her words.

How could that be possible? Struck simultaneously with the knowledge that she had been trying to trick them and was now providing them with valuable information, Luke was not sure what to think.

"What?"

Jade drew up to him. "I can help you."

"Why?" Luke challenged her, realizing suddenly that Jade knew more than she was letting on. She had the entire time. "You knew going to the Boss might be a trap," he accused her. "You were hoping he'd kill us off, weren't you?"

Mara's mouth opened and closed in silent protest. Her eyebrows lowered in anger, but Luke pushed on.

"But when he and his men turned on you as well, you have no choice but to ally yourself with us, isn't that true?"

Mara drew herself up to him. "Yes, mostly!" she admitted angrily. "Maybe I was hoping that they'd kill you off. I didn't tip them off, though, and I certainly haven't been working with them! Maybe I wished for once that my problems could be solved in one day. But it's become more complicated than that."

"That's for certain," Luke added, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "Now you've made enemies on both sides."

"I never intended to," she snapped back defensively. "Would you like my help or not?"

"Are you going to double cross me?"

"No-"

"How do I know I can trust you?" When Jade was silent in reply, he spoke again. "Will you try to kill me after we're finished?"

Jade's mouth clamped shut. Something in her eyes flickered in resignation and guilt, and she briefly lowered her head. When she looked back up at him, her gaze was firm. "I don't know," she answered finally, and he could sense her honesty. Such an abrupt change in mood caused the frustration in his head to evaporate. And although Luke wished to reply to such an ambiguous response, something in Jade's body language told him to wait, told him that the answer would come out by itself.

"If what you are telling me about the Emperor is true," Jade began, her eyes avoiding his, "Then I don't know what to think any more." The emerald orbs came up sharply to meet his blue ones. Luke could sense her honesty radiating through the Force, and he suddenly realized that she was more vulnerable now than she had ever been. And she had chosen to share it with him.

With one last wary glance, Luke spoke finally, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had settled in between them. "Very well. But I would like to meet up with my family before we go."

Hello, just another brief topic that I'd like to address. The question has often come up among my readers as to whether or not Mara Jade and Luke are a "thing" in this story. To tell you the truth, I've never liked that combination; it's because I've never read the EU novels, as I previously mentioned (and I don't really plan to), so I've just never been emotionally invested in their couple. If I had read them, this story might be a bit different. But I didn't, and so their relationship in this story is ambiguous (sort of a mutual respect thing), which leaves room for shippers and non-shippers alike to wish away. It's Luke/Mara if you squint, but I personally think that they're too different to get along (at least at this point), and no matter what change of heart Mara has in a 24-hour period, she wouldn't throw herself into his arms as they run into the sunset anyway. It's simply too early. She needs time to sort though and gather in her thoughts. So, fans of Mara Jade, you are welcome to view this as a potential setting-up for a future relationship. Go for it. Dream big. Non-shippers, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Han/Leia and Anakin/Padmé are the only "canon" couples in this particular story. Okay, rant over. Everyone happy.