Knight-Errantly Chapter Fifteen
Main Theme- Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd
Qui-Gon Jinn hasn't seen or heard from Anakin since learning of his twin grandchildren. Against Xanatos's and Dooku's protestations, he decides to check on his fourth-would-be-padawan. The door slides open, and Qui-Gon finds Anakin sitting in front of his viewscreen watching a holofilm. Luke's red-haired ex shouts orders on her comlink while laboring to bring the twins into the world. Qui makes sure to focus on Anakin rather than what's on the viewscreen.
"Anakin, how long have you been watching this?"
"Eight hours," he said without blinking.
"Why?"
"I was watching the twins' major milestones and saved the best for last: their birth."
"Did Padmé participate in this?"
"She stopped shortly after Jaina stabbed her first pirate. She was five."
"That's a milestone?"
"The pirate didn't die until Mara got to him."
"I can tell Mara is some kind of leader in presumably smuggling organization, but I sense she was something else before that."
"She was the Emperor's Hand, or well the best of his Hands since all the Hands thought they were the only ones. The Emperor's Hands were his Imperial agents that had some training in the Force and loyal only to him; their primary job was to take out traitors to the Empire."
"Sounds a lot like the Inquisitors."
"Well, like my old Sith Master, they were molded to be subtle. More like his personal assassins," Anakin said. "Thing is I honestly forgot that Mara was a Hand because she was such a good dancer at court. Sidious didn't spare no expense for her training."
"Mara Jade isn't secretly his child, is she?"
"Hells no! My M—Sidious—intended for no heirs. He was trying to find a way for the both of us to rule forever. Why would we need children if we can live forever?" Anakin then added, "Besides, the Force would've told me if she was his child."
"I don't think the Force can do paternity tests."
"Okay, not exactly like it, but when I met Luke the first time, I got this feeling. Like a jolt to the brain. I would've had that feeling around Sidious and Mara if they were related."
"I thought it took you a month to figure out Luke was your son."
"It took me a month to confirm he was my son. No one else in the galaxy has Skywalker as a surname."
"Obi-Wan was never creative when it came to aliases."
"But he did drill the Jedi basics into Luke well enough," Anakin noted while defending his former Jedi Master.
"That he did, and now your son is leading the New Jedi Order."
"He's the only Jedi Master left."
"I didn't find all of the Jedi Masters of our era here. Some must be still in hiding. Perhaps, they'll return and help Luke when word of the New Order spreads."
"Or they won't. I'm sure that the recent Purge is far too fresh for any of them to trust the Republic ever again."
Finally, Mara screams.
"Oh, look! There's Jacen's head. Aww, he was redheaded from birth!"
"Well, when you're done with this, I'll be in the library," Qui-Gon quickly said and got out of there before he sees any more of the birth.
Mara Jade watches as Jacen sleeps. He has the yellow comforter pulled up over his head, so only his red hair is visible. She and Jaina find such a way of sleeping suffocating, but Jacen finds comfort in it like a shield. His breathing comes in short, anxious bursts; he's drowning in his nightmare or being choked out by some unseen force. Perhaps, he's imagining Darth Vader coming back to life and killing the entire family. It's one of his most common nightmares. She does not peer inside his head, not wanting to wake him, and pets his hair. His breathing calms, and she wants to believe that the nightmare is over. For now.
She looks to her left side and sees Jaina snoring away in her futon. She's kicked the green comforter away at some time in the middle of the night. Her long curls stretch across her overstuffed pillow along with her puddle of drool. She sleeps like the dead very much like Zev in his futon situated some ways from the family.
Mara slips out from the room and goes to the fortress's garage. The Warlord has hovercars, miniature Nagai ships, and some swoop bikes. Currently, he's working on a shell-shaped vehicle only suitable for a child. He doesn't look up as Mara examines the array of swoop bikes. The gaudiest of them all is a swoop bike with flames and a sidecar.
"Take the one with the tacky flames. You'll catch your Jedi in no time with that."
"If you're hoping that I will exact my vengeance upon him, then you are sorely mistaken."
"I am not a Sith hells-bent on the Light's extermination."
"Curiously, I didn't see any of the Fallanassi nor the Gray Paladins."
"I am a Dark Sider, so they will shun any invitation from me." He finally looks up from his work and at her. His red eyes are not natural for Nagai; she suspects that his training in the Dark Side gifted him with those eyes, or perhaps a quirk in mutations. "I gave your Jedi clearance to be on this planet. Considering our partnership, I can revoke it if you wish."
"No, it's far too late to stop him." She grimaces. "I must negotiate with him."
"I know of the Jedi's view of bonds, but only of the Old Republic."
"Skywalker's New Jedi Order allows for families and bonds, but he's always held such reverence for the Jedi of Old."
"I will keep that in mind when I deal with him. I do hope your reunion will be insightful," Nihl ended with a ghost of a smile on his black and white lips. Mara goes to take the tacky swoop and hurries to the spaceport.
This time she will not hold back her feelings.
Luke Skywalker was surprised when he wasn't shot out of the skies since Leia needed the Warlord's permission and had to go through Den Siva to be allowed admittance. Perhaps, her invitation extended to him? He doesn't think about for too long, focusing on landing instead. When he and Artoo get out of the X-Wing, the spaceport has only a few, darkly dressed security guards milling about. Broken seashells make up most of the floor's tiles, while some the white and gray matter of dead corral take up the walls. He wonders if color is forbidden on Nagi.
"The Warlord wanted to evoke the time before the Tof Invasion, though he rid the ring motif since he found the associated caste system to be useless for this New Age of Nagai." She sounds the same as ever. Luke turns around and sees Mara after nearly a decade apart. Her long red hair is bound up in a messy braid. Her green eyes still have flecks of gold in them. Her lips are a rose red. She's even wearing her dark jumpsuit from her Imperial agent days, complete with swoop goggles. She looks tired yet alert to her surroundings. And to him.
"I didn't even sense you."
"I cut myself off from the Force."
"Mara, that's dangerous! You could experience a backlash from cutting yourself off all these years!" Luke exclaimed. She frowns and then shakes her head.
"I just did it now. You think I was so heartbroken over you that I would give up the Force?" she scoffed. "The best way to remain undetected by another Force-user is being a Force-null, hence cutting myself off from the Force temporarily. How do you think that Palpatine evaded the Jedi's notice for so long?"
"You never talked about him aside from that one time when you nearly killed me."
"I did kill you, Luuke, and was freed from Palpatine's haunting." She tosses her ignition key to Artoo who catches it. "Artoo, please get the swoop ready. We won't be long."
"[I doubt that.]" Artoo chirped in binary before he left.
"I couldn't feel you for so long."
"We don't have a bond anymore. Remember?"
"I know our bond is broken, but it's not gone." Ahsoka's journals confirmed it when she had to face my father. Their bond was broken, but she could still feel her old Master in Vader.
"Of course, it isn't," she scoffed. "Closure is never allowed for us. At least it doesn't get in the way of my work."
"And did your work prevented you from telling me that you were pregnant!"
"If I recall correctly, you wanted nothing more to do with me since I distracted you from your Jedi duties. And the children are half of me."
"It's out of revenge then?" Luke remarked bitterly. Her green eyes darken for a moment before she regains her cool.
"When you broke up with me and asked for the dissolution of our bond, I finally accepted that you would always put your New Jedi Order before me and anyone else," she replied quietly.
"You didn't even give me a chance to be involved with them. I could've been there if you gave me a chance," he whispered.
"I didn't want you to hurt them like you hurt me."
"I'm sorry that I hurt you."
"That apology is almost ten years too late."
"I'm here now, and I can't unknow this now, so may I be involved in their lives?"
"Well, that's up to them, isn't it?"
Author's Comments- There are no links this time.
By the way, the reference Anakin/Vader taking a month to find out Luke's last name comes from Vader's Quest comic, which had interesting ideas. It was set a few weeks after ANH, so he's characterized as a moisture farm boy that found out about his grand destiny, hence why he's written to be a bit naïve. The Luuke reference is to the evil Luke clone in the original Thrawn Trilogy where Mara had to kill Luke to shut up Palpatine's last order but killing Luuke satisfied it.
Next chapter: Armitage is finally released from medbay, and Dark-Star and Ben begin their plan.
