~Lando's POV~
"Hey, isn't Mara supposed to be here by now?" Leia suddenly piped up, interrupting Han's outlined explaining of the new sparring room for Luke and Leia inside of the Millennium Falcon, assuming that they were indeed getting out of the Palace anytime soon.
The others looked up. Lando, who had been sitting on the landing ramp, watching as Luke and Han outlined the blueprints, yawned.
"That's what I was thinking," he agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. He fell on his back, staring at the ceiling contemplatively.
"Well, you're the Force sensitive's, can't you sense her or something?" Han asked grumpily, peeved at being interrupted.
"It doesn't work exactly like that. Besides, as strong as the Dark Side is here, we can't sense much of anything," Luke replied.
"Well, they've already started the meeting with the Council over in the Jedi quarters," Lando told them, having snuck down to check earlier. He had found the elders deep in debate over something, obviously looking at some holo thingy doe-twinkle had brought back.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that," Luke decided, eyebrows shooting up.
Lando grinned, and examined his nails with exaggerated vanity. "I have my ways," he assured the younger boy.
"He probably did a you guys and snuck into those thrice-cursed vents," Han predicted, giving away valuable secrets because of his big mouth.
"Shut up, Han," Lando told him. His best friend flashed an impish grin, well aware of his crime and pleading guilty without shame.
"Should we go looking for Mara?" Leia wondered, getting back on track. Lando pursed his lips, exchanging a glance with Luke. Luke narrowed his eyes, worriedly.
"It isn't like Mara to be late," he said slowly.
"Guys, calm down," Han called over to them, his voice echoing in the virtually empty room. All of the mechanics children had either snuck away to sleep elsewhere or were huddled in corners, back turned towards them. Han's eyes slid back down to the blueprints of the Millennium Falcon, ever engrossed on his schematics.
"She has Ventress for a teacher, remember? I betcha she has to wait until she's positive she won't get caught before she can get out," he guessed.
"And if that isn't the case?" Leia demanded.
Han shrugged and glanced up, eyes hard. "Then we search the hells and back for her, of course," he proclaimed with perfect seriousness. Lando nodded, unsurprised. Han was a street kid, and one of the rules of the streets was a life for a life. Mara had saved them once before, now if ever she needed them; both he and Han owed her a life. "But until then," Han glanced back down, the seriousness closed behind a mask of keen intent on his machinery once more. "Luke, the Millennium is going to need some more cables," he pointed out.
Luke hesitated, but eventually nodded as he stood. "Han is right," he told Leia, who looked most unhappy. Lando was suspicious too. Mara loved coming to practice with Luke and Leia about her Force skills, and listen to old Jedi folktales. Why would she be late? Half the time the kid complained about the fact that she could never sneak away fast enough to be early.
"Patience, Leia," Luke advised his sister, before kneeling down beside Han. Heads close together as they discussed wires and ship parts.
Leia crossed her arms and sat down next to Lando. "I hate patience," she whispered to him. Lando had to agree. He propped his knee up, thoughtfully. If Mara did need help, how were they supposed to know if they did not look into it? The twins couldn't sense it, and stars knew that waiting around forever wasn't going to cut it.
Besides, I am not planning on spending half the night listening to those two talk machines for that hunk of weirdness, Lando decided. Usually he watched Leia and Mara practice Mara's saber skills, his eyes following the red blade with every move, dearly wishing that he had something similar.
"Come with me," he told Leia, standing.
"Hey! Where are you two going?" Luke called when he noticed them wandering off.
"We're going to go see what we can find out about why Mara is taking so long," Lando called over his shoulder.
"Are you coming or not?" Leia hopped to her feet.
"Right behind you," she replied quickly, eager to be off.
"Lando, Leia, Mara is fine. She'll probably be here in about five minutes," Han sighed with exasperation.
"Han is right, guys. You shouldn't just go promenading around. And how would you figure out where she is anyway?" Luke agreed, brow crinkling with worry. Lando wondered what the heck promenading meant. He glanced at Leia, who shrugged.
"You think too much, Skywalker. I know some people," he casually replied anyway, not slowing his pace. Leia followed after him, trotting to keep up, Lando was not exactly sure that he should bring Leia to meet these types of people, but hey…Sometimes sacrifices had to be made. It was about time that she got a load of the real world anyhow.
"You boys keep talking junk. We're going to find some answers!" She taunted sarcastically. Lando hid a smile. Way to go, Leia. She knew as well as he did that neither of their friends could resist a challenge, especially Han.
"Fine! But I don't want to hear a single complaint when you two explorers get lost!" Han shouted after them.
"Yeah!" Luke added enthusiastically. "Or get captured by Sith!" he cried.
"We'll give you a call from prison!" Lando replied. They were almost to the door now.
"Let you know how the torture session went," Leia said without much scruple. Silence. They exchanged a look of amusement. They had this one in the bag. "Five," Leia muttered.
"Four," Lando continued with a slight nod.
"Three," he heard Luke mutter something to Han who frowned after them disparagingly.
Lando could feel the resentment of the look burning into his back. His grin grew in size. "Two…"
"Alright, fine! We're coming, we're coming! This is stupid, though," Han surrendered reluctantly.
"Mega stupid," Luke sighed, as they ran to catch up.
"We are some stupid kids. Welcome aboard, boys," Leia laughed, slinging an arm around Luke's shoulders.
He gave his sister an annoyed look. "The things I do for you," he groaned. "So, where we headed?" he then asked Lando.
"Simple, pretty boy. We're going downtown," he grunted.
Han scowled. "You are sure?" He mildly asked, as if talking about nothing more pressing than the next day's weather forecast. He did not have to look at the other two for Lando to get the point he was trying to make. They were only twelve years old.
Lando nodded, solemnly. "We were younger," he reminded his best pal. Han stared into his face a long time before he gave a single nod, lapsing into abnormal silence.
"This should be good," Leia guessed.
~Mara's POV~
"Flip, turn, duck. Turn, duck, flip. Duck, turn, flip. Flip, turn, duck," abstractedly, Mara considered that to an outsider's point of view, the battle that she was waging could have been considered terribly funny. Like the part of the holo-movie that was used for comedy relief only, not the real struggle, merely the short skirmish before the actual war began in the next passage. Of course those moments of the holo-movies usually had the hero committing daring flips, commenting wittily upon his enemies attire and getting the upper hand of the villain.
Mara had never watched any holo-movies. They were not plentiful in a place where the instructor's believed in the power of pain to teach. Yet she somehow knew what one would be like, because at that moment she was living it. The only difference was that this was not a holo-movie. She was not an actor. The people surrounding her were not yielding plastic blasters that with a few tricks of computer and sound, could be made to seem as if they had real ammo in them. The fear and exertion on her face were not illusions.
This was real, as real as Mara had ever felt anyway. Even when she had attacked the garbage people in a desperate attempt to save the lives of her friends, that had seemed dream-like, surreal somehow.
This was not a game. She was the prey, the attacked, and her attackers? They would not show mercy to her just because she was a child. They would not even show it just because she was needed by Sidious, or could be a good hostage for them to take.
None of that mattered to men such as these, people who broke arms and legs for money, who had such little disregard for life that they would willingly take their own if there were not fresh supplies all around ready for the plucking… Including her. All that mattered was that Mara had gotten in their way and now that she was fighting back, Boba Fett and his monsters intended to kill her, wanted to kill her.
And they could. Mara realized that now. She may have had the Force on her side, but she was still learning, still just an inexperienced kid. She knew much, and yet knew absolutely nothing. She still had much to discover, much wisdom to absorb.
Too bad I learned it too late, she thought dizzily as a punch from one of Fett's things (it had felt like a droid had hit her) sent her flying backwards, head ringing. The sound of her own heartbeat thumped against her temples. Fear and weariness slowed her bones, made her hesitant.
Mara wished that Luke and the others were there with her. It would be easier to fight if she had others to watch her back. Get used to it, child. You played for high stakes and got your wish.
Mara was not sure if that were the Dark Side in her ear, or her own mind playing tricks on her. She had been hit on the head so many times that she would not have been surprised if something important were loose.
The sound of drums echoed numbly in her mind, screeching incongruent tunes of coming death, of failure, of pain.Or perhaps that was her saber, which spun in tight circles, defending, blocking, always there and ready even if her arms felt like lead.
"Give up, you worthless brat!" Boba yelled, as a shot richocheted off of her saber. Mara was gasping for breath that did not seem to do anything for her body, her chest heavy. Sweat oozed down her forehead, stung her eyes and spirled into her nose where she breathed it out, harsh as a snorting horse.
She dove behind something. She ducked down as a volley of shots pinged near the hiding place, sending pieces of the floor and other objects flying. After a moment, the attack ceased.
Mara fell back and felt fabric behind her. At the moment she did not precisely care what it was, and clutched at her heart. Force, it hurts, she thought, panting. Her palms felt slick where they held her saber. Mara had a feeling that that would not be good if her weapon slipped from her hands because of that.
Mara could hear the bounty hunters behind her, they, too, were out of breath. Between the seven of them, they had completely managed to destroy the already chaotic mess of her and Saji's home. Mara would feel grateful if she could survive this long enough to hear Saji scold her for getting the place into such a state of dissarray.
But that was assuming that she would survive. There were six of them and only one of her. Leia's voice echoed in her head. "Size matters not, numbers matter not," well, if they did't matter so blasted much, then why did she feel such fear now?
Mara gulped as the possibility of death became reality. She could die right now. She probably was going to die. Mara felt tears sting behind her eyelids, frustration starting to replace fear. She had never felt so helpless, she had rarely been so afraid, but the fear was not for her. What would Saji do if she came back and found Mara's dead body on the floor? Would she become the old Asajj again?
The merciless killer who would do everything in her power to get what she wanted? That other person whom Mara had not met deeply, but had caught glimpses of before. What about the twins, Han and Lando? What would they do?
Mara did not now what hurt more, not knowing or knowing so deeply that she denied knowing. "Whoever you are, its over now!" She had noticed, thank you very kriffing much. A millisecond of silence passed them by. "Unless you tell us where to find Ventress, of course. I'll let you live then," Mara let out a breathless laugh. That was a good one.
"I'm no traitor, you intruding chosski!" She called back breathlessly. She was gratified when a blaster bolt skimmed past her shoulder in retaliation.
"Oh let her go, Boba!" A female voice gasped. Mara remembered kicking a smaller buttocks earlier. Maybe it had been that one. "She's of no concern. If you really want to get back at Ventress, then just blow the place," she advised as carelessly as if she were speaking of putting down some roach killer. Mara gasped softly.
They would place a bomb in here? "No way am I letting some snot-nosed kid get the best of me! Besides, do we have ones strong enough?" Boba snapped angrily.
"Heck yeah. I have an E-55 here. It's as strong as Empire missiles," if only Mara did not know just how strong that was. Her father had often proclaimed using E-55's to destroy villages and cities. With it, these idiots could blow up the entire building!
"But the other people here!" She cried, horrified. They were in a six story apartment building after all. If these monsters put a bomb inside of their apartment, not only would it go up in flames, but the entire building along with it. Boba Fett let out a malicious laugh.
"Who cares about any of them? Stitch, hand me the bomb. This place-and her- can go up in flames for all I care," Mara could already hear the moans of mothers who had lost their children to the flames, already smell the burned flesh. She could see the tears and heard the sound of screams in her mind. She closed her eyes as if to block out the image of the same death and destruction that she had tried to escape from when she ran from the Sith Palace all that time ago.
Hundreds of innocents would die if she let them do that. I will die if I try to get in their way. Dread ran a cold finger own her spine, making her shiver. Mara had never contemplated Death before.
It just had not seemed the sort of thing that she had ever had time to worry about. Not that she had never considered death as being an early option for her. Many times she had believed she would die. But Mara had never had time to feel anything but determination to go down fighting.
That was the last thing she wanted now, mainly because she had so much to live for. But what did any of that matter, how important were the people she lived for if she was willing to let others die for them? Mara huffed, and her mind went back to that fateful day weeks earlier when she had met her friends.
Luke. He had risked everything, had been willing to give his life, In order to make sure that Tabby and her crazy caravan were never able to get to the surface. He had been willing to give himself for the greater good. Lando and Han risked their own lives every day in order to help the Rebels get the intel that they needed. Leia lived by a code, never able to love or hate, because it was the right thing to do. And none of them had ever complained.
None of them had ever felt any fear or that what they did was particularly special because it was what they chose to do with their lives. It was just who they Mara understood what they had said about choices. Sometimes there wasn't actually a choice, an option maybe, not a real choice.
"We're Jedi…That's all there is to it. What we want doesn't matter, the fate of the universe does. It has too. We're Skywalkers; the prophecy is a consequence of war,"Everything was a choice. Mara inhaled a slow breath, emptying her mind of name, of origin and place and name, or pride and fear.
She may have not been a Skywalker, she was not part of any prophecy and she was not Jedi, but she was Mara and that had to mean something. She had not come all this way, made of these mistakes for absolutely nothing. It also meant that she was the opposite of her father, by law of principle. Tarkin may have let hundreds of innocents die, another casualty of war, but Mara Jade would not.
Even if she died trying. All of this took mere seconds to decide. Then Mara was standing, without conscious thought to the future. She kept her thoughts turned inwards, on the tiny blade of light offered to her there. She clung to it as if it were a lifeline.
She could not finish this fight without it. Humble before extinction, Mara felt the prevailing rivers of the Force's endless currents pull her under, drowned her beneath its powerful embrace.
It soaked into her bones, replaced her blood and seized control of her heart until there was no self, no time, no history, no doubt. The Unifying Force poured into her, and then out, circulating as if she were a conduit for energy, the wire between electricity and light bulb, as if she were a mere vessel, and indeed she was one. She had her directive, now she would finish it.
At any cost.
"You will not sentence all of these people to die," she stated, and it was command, fact, plea, and decision all at once, the words straight from the Force itself.
Her knees trembled beneath the weight of exhaustion, but she stilled the shaking. She did not have time for weakness. There were people she had to save. Boba stopped dead in his tracks, staring at her outline in the darkness of the room.
Mara could not see his face clearly, but she could sense his shock. Her saber sprung back to life, growling a last battle cry against injustice, ready to fall from her hand when it had been splattered with her life's blood, and only then. The crystal inside sang.
"And whose going to stop us?" Boba demanded harshly. The rise of his voice no longer startled Mara. She could see into him, courtesy of the Unifying Force. She could see into his heart and soul with a transparency that would have disturbed her had she any self to disturb.
He was weak, angry, and a coward. He was no match for the Force. Mara stood tall, and her saber howled defensively as she held her prized treasure before her, ready to die or live by the force's will. Her emerald eyes blazed with defiance.
"That would be me," she charged.
