Hello readers - sorry to leave you hanging for so long. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. -T.

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In less than forty-eight hours, they learned that Forder was not, in fact, dead.

Mara finished pulling a twelve-hour stint reassigning people, mired in the documentation required for repairs, and redirecting a half-dozen shipments, stifling a yawn as she finished off yet another tiring conversation with Karrde. "I'm going to keel over if I don't get some sleep," she explained tersely.

Karrde's expression seemed to register that perhaps he had been driving her too hard lately, and he nodded reluctantly, studying her for a moment. "All right, I'll see if Aves can swing that one."

"Just six hours," she mumbled, getting to her feet from her desk at the console. Her eyesight was starting to blur. "After that I'll be a whole new person."

"You know there's an extra bunk for you on this ship," he offered behind her. While the Wild Karrde was undergoing repairs, they were set up on the bridge of the Sunchaser, a dated yacht that hadn't seen the outside of a shipping yard in probably a decade.

Mara shook her head. There was an umbilical set up between the Chaser and the Fire for a reason. "No. Thanks for the offer. My comlink's going to be off and my hull battented for the next six hours."

Not five minutes after she'd arrived in her cabin, sinking gratefully into the give of her own bed, her hand fumbling to turn off the comlink, it began squalling at her.

Cursing under her breath, she scanned the ID, imagining the choice words she would have for Karrde or anyone else who couldn't leave her alone for even a few minutes. When she saw who it was, she froze. It was not Karrde on the other line, but Solo.

Her heart leaped into her throat, even as she thumbed the toggle. Why was the former smuggler calling her? Was something wrong? Had something happened to Luke? In the whirlwind that had been the last few sleepless days, she'd kept herself very, very busy in order not to think of the Jedi she had left back at Y'bur. Now a tide of guilt swept through her. What kind of friend was she not to check in?

"Hello?" her voice cracked. She cleared her throat. "Solo?"

"Sorry Jade, did I catch you at a bad time?" The smuggler's voice oozed sarcasm. She cringed, gaining her feet, almost pacing. Here came the lecture on loyalty.

"Of course not," she snapped. "Is everything okay? Is Luke still with you?"

"Thought you should know," Solo warned, ignoring her questions. "Forder is very much alive."

She went cold, ice trailing down her spine. "What? How do you know?"

"A pathetic attempt to knock Luke off in the medcenter, for one. Don't worry - Chewie nabbed the guy before he could even get in the room. We took that as our signal to bug out, even though Luke hadn't been discharged yet. Found the homing beacon they attached to the ship."

"Do a scan for explosives," Mara interjected. "That's what happened to Karrde's ship."

Solo sounded dismissive. "Yeah, it's all clear. I just wanted to give you a heads up though."

"Is Luke okay? Can I talk to him?"

"Yeah, he says he's fine, whatever that means. Right now he's resting in the bunkroom. He wants to go straight back to Yavin, but we're taking him back to Coruscant for now. He can stay with Leia and me until his apartment is repaired and he's recovered."

Mara sighed, running a hand over her eyes, thinking again of the vindictive nature of the cartel. Luke was square in their sights now. "Watch your back," she warned. "Get an extra security detail to guard your place."

"Yeah, okay." The smuggler sounded tired. "You be careful too, all right?"

She signed off and flopped bonelessly back into her bed. Would she be able to sleep, knowing the leader of a cartel was still at large and was bent on exacting revenge from her and from Karrde's organization? She shut her eyes, briefly reaching out with the Force, wondering if it was possible to find Skywalker at this distance. Luke…

But there was nothing. No matter that she used to be able to hear Palpatine halfway across the galaxy, she must not be strong enough to reach Luke. Or she was just too tired.

Instead she reached for her comlink to call Karrde.

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The New Republic decided at last to get involved.

The catalyst had been a bombing on a small NR planetary outpost near Ubacca. It had Forder's fingerprints all over it.

"Just call into the meeting," Organa Solo had implored Mara over the vid, not eight hours after Mara had told Solo to be careful. Luke's sister appeared in the pickup, sat behind the ornate polished wood desk of the Chief of State's office, wearing a navy blue duster over a pale blue tunic, her hair plaited in a crown neatly around her head. "You have firsthand experience that they will want to hear. Please. Oh-nine-hundred Coruscanti."

Mara acquiesced and retreated to the relative quiet of her own ship's bridge a few hours later, during what was supposed to be another brief sleep shift, arms folded in her lap, waiting for the connection to come through. Finally, after some technical difficulties, she was patched into a large conference room, the vid screen showing her dozens of military and political figures seated at polished desks in the tiered levels, facing the main dais, where a single human was speaking. The speaker appeared to be Crix Madine. She turned up the volume in her headset and caught him mid-sentence.

" - to have Master Skywalker with us to weigh in on this matter." Mara realized just as Madine nodded to a person off-camera to take the helm, that Luke was indeed also present in the meeting. Did that mean he was well and already healed from his injuries? She sincerely hoped so.

The camera tracked forward, zooming in on Luke's face. Mara's heart unwittingly did a little flip-flop as the Jedi came into view. He was dressed in a fitted tunic of dark gray, his hair combed neatly, his face a mask of inexpression. Even through the grainy quality of the footage, Mara could see a gauntness to his appearance, the shadowed dark circles under his eyes like bruises.

Luke cleared his throat, lifting his eyes to face the audience before him. "I'm here to attest," he began evenly, his voice sounding tired to Mara's ears, "to the danger of Forder's organization to the New Republic. In recent months his cartel has not only engaged in illegal activities, to which we have all but turned a blind eye, but terrorist actions as well. I have personally witnessed a handful of these, as well as been a recent target. It is my belief that if the New Republic allows this to continue, unchecked, events will escalate to a scale of unfortunate proportions."

Luke hesitated, his eyes flicking for a moment to something off-screen as the camera panned back to show the audience sitting in rapt attention. His sister? Mara wondered. The Chief of State was sitting to Luke's right, her back ramrod straight, eyes on him. Luke was out of his comfort zone in a public political arena, Mara knew. She was probably silently coaching him on.

"The kidnapping of Mak Akto," Luke went on softly, "should have been in the Republic's interest. Instead his rescue was virtually forced to take place outside of legal means. The attack on the New Republic outpost of Prorhe was an unprovoked act against innocent civilians, designed to incite a response. The Forder cartel is dangerous and should be dealt with accordingly."

At Luke's shoulder Mara could see Madine smile tightly. The general would clearly like nothing more than to have the council's blessing to track down the remainder of Forder's organization. Luke stepped carefully away from the dais to retake his seat.

Madine reclaimed the floor, droning on for a few minutes before calling his next witness. Mara watched Luke settle into his seat, leaning over to catch a whispered question offered to him by Rieekan, sitting just to his left.

"Mara Jade?" Madine's voice caught her by surprise. "Do we have you on holo?"

Mara swallowed, toggling for a moment with her com. "I'm here, General," she answered aloud, straightening, her eyes focused now on the audience, who she knew could see her in the hold of her ship. In the corner of her vision, she saw Luke straighten too, his chin lifting, eyes zeroed on her. For a moment, she allowed herself to reach out with the Force and try again to brush his presence. Was he okay? But the distance was too great. She could not sense him.

She forced herself to focus on the task at hand, facing the sea of silent military leaders and elected politicians through the screen. "As Master Skywalker has already said, the cartel attacked members of the Smuggler's Alliance in direct retaliation for the rescue of Mak Akto. One of our team was brutally murdered. One of our command ships was bombed, resulting in a number of injuries and damage to property. I was personally captured and unlawfully imprisoned in deplorable conditions for…" how long had Luke said it was between the time she called to him and the time he was able to get to her? It had been longer than the few days she had initially thought. "... nearly two weeks before I was rescued." She took a deep breath. Best not to dwell on that. She would not let the trauma of those memories overtake her. She had a job to do. "And now we have this...attack on the outpost in Prorhe." She spread her hands, looking into the faces through the vid screen, her manner grim. "Where do they stop? What will it take for the New Republic to respond to this threat?"

Leia Organa stood, taking the floor, her formal pantsuit flecked with gold that glinted in the light shining on the dais. "And now, we must make a decision." Her voice was firm. "Now. Here. In this room."

Again Mara's eyes flicked toward Luke, his gaze fixed steadily on his sister. Would they, Mara wondered, vote to have him infiltrate the organization and assassinate Forder the way the cartel leader was surely seeking to assassinate him?

She closed her eyes briefly. Could they possibly pass the torch to another and let Luke recover? Surely he had done enough on behalf of ridding the galaxy of yet another scumbag. Technically, she wasn't even sure he should be out of the hospital yet.

"I propose this operation be conducted in stealth," Ackbar offered. "A quick point and strike mission by a small, reliable team. Led by someone who knows their tactics."

Again Madine smiled tightly. "I concur," he nodded. "Someone with experience with their strategies would be the most useful."

Mara held her breath. Don't say it, don't say it...

"Master Skywalker would be a perfect candidate for this operation."

In the vid Luke glanced up sharply. At the front of the room, Mara could see Leia's strained features freeze. All eyes settled again on Luke.

There was a long pause. Luke stood carefully again, leaning this time against the edge of the polished wood desk. Mara wondered if he did it out of necessity. His exhaustion was apparent to her, even through the vid. "I - " he hesitated. His voice was not amplified this time, which made him difficult to hear. "Thank you for your vote of confidence...Admiral. General," he nodded to Madine. "I'm..." he trailed off, his pale expression tense.

Mara looked toward Leia who appeared to be about to speak up, toward Madine whose frown was furrowed deeply into a line between his brows, to Ackbar who simply blinked glass-like eyes at Luke, waiting for him to continue.

"Honored," Luke finally managed, his expression carefully neutral. "And...willing to serve the Republic."

Mara toggled her microphone. Was no one going to speak for him? His sister, who knew full-well Luke had only just left the medcenter after being on this side of death's door, and she was going to be silent? Let Luke self-destruct into another half-cocked mission and simply look away?

"Excuse me," she cleared her throat, aware of the attention turning back to her. "I would like to say something."

"Trader Jade?" It was Madine's voice. The general nodded to her, eyes narrowed in what might be irritation. She didn't care. This was probably not something Luke would feel capable doing on his own, she realized. Self-care was a foreign concept. Which was precisely where she came in.

"What Skywalker neglected to say about our experience with the Forder cartel," she blurted, seeing the heavy gazes settle back on her as she spoke. "Is that, because of my team's run-in with the cartel on Bonaden, he mounted a rescue operation of his own. He successfully freed me from imprisonment and single-handedly destroyed the cartel's main compound." She let the words settle on her audience for a moment. She hoped Luke would forgive her for betraying some of his privacy. But she knew he would not say no on his own. And his tendency for endless martyrdom was going to get him killed.

"Of course, his heroics were not without some cost. If you tell Luke you need him to do something, he will do it. You tell him to go back and fight the cartel, and it will be done. But I move that we nominate someone else this go around. What Luke won't tell anyone - and will hopefully forgive me for indulging to the council here - is that he just got out of the medcenter, having nearly been killed by another of Forder's brute tactics. He left the hospital too soon on account of an addititional assassination attempt by Forder's goon squad in the medcenter, and now here he is testifying of the dangers of letting the cartel run rampant through the New Republic instead being of where he should be - resting and recovering."

Mara paused, then added, "I'm frankly surprised that the council has such blatant disregard for Skywalker's well-being that they can't give him some sort of leave of absence from combat for a time."

At this, Luke, who had been standing, expressionless through Mara's brief tirade, straightened, his posture suddenly defensive, his frown on her. A murmur of conversation rippled through the council, the eyes of the room's occupants squarely on Skywalker. Mara swallowed. She would understand if Luke was angry at her interference. This betrayal of his privacy would feel exactly like that - betrayal.

Once the rumble from the crowd quieted, she added out loud, "At the very least, even if we don't purport to care for the man behind the title - which we certainly do - let's not run the New Republic's only Jedi Master into an early grave when there are others who are ready and willing and quite capable of doing the job well."

She cut her microphone, seeing in the vid Luke's eyes drop to the floor in what she feared was humiliation. Mara felt a stab of regret at that. Embarrassing him had not been her intention.

"Master Skywalker?" Madine asked, his voice clear in the too-long silence that followed. "Is it your opinion that we seek someone else for this job?"

Luke raised his eyes to the General, his voice strained, shoulders tensed. A certain steeliness came over his expression, like a mask. Mara went cold, knowing what he was about to say, suddenly wishing she was in the room to personally slap the idiocy out of him. "Sir...personal needs aside, I will serve the New Republic." He offered no excuses or further explanation, his tone final. "I will go where needed...do what is necessary."

A murmur of approval went through the crowd. Mara sank back in her chair in defeat at that, anger building in her gut. What right did the military and political brass, who themselves had no personal skin in the game, have to give any opinion on Luke's actions?

But a decision was apparently not to be made on the spot. "We will reconvene tomorrow at oh-seven-thirty to prepare a strike team," Madine announced, looking dubiously in Luke's direction. The Jedi's fixed stare was on the polished desk in front of him. He looked exhausted. "As Trader Jade was good enough to point out, we have no interest in running Master Skywalker into an 'early grave'. Thank you both for your input into the current situation."

The vid cut out shortly after, leaving Mara to sit alone on her ship's bridge. "Fool," she hissed at the now-blank view screen, anger still churning in her gut, unsure in that moment if she was berating Skywalker or herself. Was she the fool for thinking Luke would take kindly to her meddling and for once in his life not rush headlong into another potentially life-threatening situation? Or was Luke the fool for seeming to be absolutely determined to self-destruct? Her desire to help Luke was sincere, but had she unwittingly hurt him or humiliated him in front of the Alliance's command?

Like it or not, she had betrayed Luke Skywalker in a way that he might not feel able to forgive.

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He wasn't answering his coms.

At first Mara debated calling him at all, since that seemed pesky or annoying, but once she did finally call, and he didn't answer, the worry began to build in her solar plexus, and she found herself impulsively calling him again and again.

Finally, it was Solo who eventually picked up. "He left his comlink here," he growled. "Damn kid, I can't get him to stay in one place and rest like he needs to."

"Where did he go?" Mara demanded, the worry in her gut building into full-on panic. "Is anyone with him? Dammit, Solo, it's likely Forder knows he's on Coruscant."

The smuggler's voice was plaintive, laced with worry of his own. "One of the palace guards was supposed to be with him, but called in to report that he's lost track of him. Chewie - "

"Lost track of him?" Mara repeated incredulously. What kind of incompetents were working for NR security? How did they lose track of the person they were supposed to be guarding?

"Hey," Solo sounded defensive. "When Luke wants to be alone, he manages to shake everyone off. You, of all people, should know that."

She did, unfortunately, know that very well. Mara swallowed, repentant at the reminder.

"We'll find him," Solo assured. "He can't have gone far."

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Within the hour, she convinced Karrde that she had to return to Coruscant. She managed to skip over the details of how she had once again mangled things with Skywalker. And yet, her boss seemed to know instinctively that her sudden departure had something to do with Luke. Though he needed her there, Karrde was gracious enough to grant her personal leave, with no questions asked.

Mara uncoupled her ship from the Chaser, got clearance to depart the shipyards, and found herself in hyperspace before she had a chance to second-guess her actions. If Luke didn't want to be around anyone else, then Mara was probably the last person he wanted to see. And yet, she couldn't leave things unraveled like this. Aside from determining that he was safe, she owed him an explanation...and an apology.

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There was a landing pad at the palace for guests of the Chief of State. As Mara guided the Fire to the place, a dozen unpleasant memories from her time in Palpatine's service flitted through her mind. This was one of the reasons she avoided the palace at all costs anymore.

She briefly thought of Luke, staying at the Chief of State's apartments; of how Solo had mentioned he had simply wanted to return to Yavin. His X-Wing, piloted by his little droid, had already been instructed by Luke to return to the jungle moon after Luke had landed on Bonaden, aware that the fighter would only hold one passenger, when he was determined to return with three. Effectively, he was stranded on-planet at Coruscant for the time being.

Perhaps the olive branch she offered would be a ride back to the Jedi training facility. Perhaps he would forgive her for what she had done in the meeting. She reached out for his presence nearby - in the palace - but was met with nothing. Was he blocking her in the Force? Maybe he was angrier than she realized.

It was only when she stood at the slightly ostentatious entrance to the Chief of State's apartments, presenting her ID to one of the blue-uniformed guards - good: at least they were taking her recommendations over additional security seriously - that she realized belatedly, she could not feel Skywalker because he was not there.

It was the moment Organa Solo greeted her in the foyer, a tightness in her eyes, that Mara suddenly realized Luke was not even on-planet. Had he already returned to Yavin? Had Solo taken him?

"Where is he?" she blurted, the same curdle of fear creeping up her spine, images of assassination attempts flitting through her mind.

The Chief of State pursed her lips. "Mara - come sit down - "

"Where is he?" Mara snapped, her voice harsh to her own ears. "Is he okay?"

Organa Solo froze where she stood, half-turned to walk into the receiving room east of the foyer. The distress in her features was unmistakable. "He's gone. They left this morning."

"What do you mean - where did he go? Who is - "

"Madine," Leia blurted, her hands clasping in front of her, knuckles white. "They took your advice into account and told Luke they would find someone else. Then, seven hours ago, we got news of a hostage situation."

"Hostage?" Mara echoed, frowning. The dread sat in the pit of her stomach like a stone. She knew she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear.

Organa Solo nodded. "On Ubacca. Seventy-two civilians taken prisoner by the Forder cartel. They announced they would free them in exchange for one person."

Mara went cold. A strange numbness took hold of her head, ringing in her ears. "You mean Luke," she breathed. "They will exchange seventy-two people to get their hands on Luke."

Leia nodded, swallowing hard. "Of course he couldn't hold out against that."

"Of course not," Mara shot back harshly. Of all the ugly possibilities, somehow this one had not crossed her mind. Luke's life, in exchange for seventy-two innocent people. "Stupid, idiodic….of course not," she rambled, feeling white hot rage rise inexplicably in her throat. She was going to kill him. Martyrdom was Luke's exact cup of tea, weeks out from a terrible split from his wife, dashing all his planned-for happiness and tearing away any shred of his will to be careful. He would plunge headlong into a no-win situation like this. "And he went to turn himself in?"

Organa Solo huffed a short sigh, as though she had forgotten to breathe. "He went," she acknowledged, "to rescue those seventy-two people."

"And get himself killed in the process," Mara retorted.

"Han and Chewie and the strike squad are with him. Han will keep him from doing anything stupid."

That would not be enough, Mara knew instinctively. Not enough by a long-shot. She spun on her heel, back the way she came. "I have to go," she mumbled.

"Where?" Leia snapped behind her. "Don't tell me you're headed to Ubacca now too? Mara, the situation is extremely volatile. A single ship in-system without some sort of fighter escort - "

Mara faced the Chief of State - Luke's sister - her strained expression tight around her eyes. She was clearly worried sick. Quite possibly she had already been talked out of chasing after her brother herself. It would not do to put the head of the New Republic in harm's way. Mara had no such constraints.

"He saved my life on Bonaden," she replied, resolute. He might be furious at her. He might be upset that she showed up to enter the fray. She didn't care. "I would never forgive myself if I didn't at least try to return the favor."

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