A Thread of Gold – Part 2

Disclaimer - The characters in this story are owned by Lucasfilm. I'm only borrowing them for my amusement and hopefully yours. My thanks to JT, Angela and Mona for suggestions and help. This story is for Sheyla as she once told me she liked it.

Ash

The door hissed open and the cautious, bearded face belonging to Talon Karrde peered around it. The atmosphere in the room buzzed. He could feel it and he wasn't a Force sensitive.

"I hope this is important, Karrde," she said coldly. "I have things to do - important things."

"Mara," his face was serious, his voice quiet. Her legendary temper had been extremely erratic. The rest of his crew were actively avoiding her because of her mood swings. He hesitated but he had to tell her. Mara had to know.

"They've found him. Skywalker's been picked up in an escape pod somewhere in deep space." Karrde's pale eyes widened as realisation struck him. Mara had stiffened at the mention of the Jedi Master's name. She'd been preparing to go and find Luke – it was the only explanation. He knew her too well. She was brilliant, fiery and unpredictable but where Luke Skywalker was concerned - Mara Jade was probably in love with him. But she wasn't ready to admit that fact yet - if she ever did. Mara didn't want to be dependent on another human being again. As far as Karrde was concerned, it was far too late for that. Mara relied on the Jedi more than she realised.

Mara tried to read his expression. "Thank the Force!" she exclaimed. "I'll really kill him for putting his sister through hell again. He must be aware of how much she worries about him." She stopped. Karrde hadn't moved, his face unnaturally pale.

"Mara..." Karrde gestured helplessly.

She drew herself up stiffly. "Is he?"

He closed the door behind him and placed a comforting hand on her arm. "It isn't good…"

"Karrde." Mara's voice drawled a warning. "What do you mean 'isn't good'?"

 "He's alive - only…"

Mara's head jerked up and brilliant green eyes seared him in place. "He's alive!"

Karrde gently put his hands on her shoulders. "Mara - he's not expected to make it. I'm sorry."

For a moment she stared at him uncomprehendingly, and then the news sank in. Her face went abruptly whiter than Hoth's snowfields, her green eyes startlingly bright as they glittered with an emotion Karrde couldn't fathom.

"Come and sit down." He carefully guided her to a chair. "Here drink this." He produced a silver flask from his pocket. Mara coughed as a sweet fiery liquid burned down her throat.

"Sith, Karrde!" she sputtered. "What the hell is in that?"

"Namana nectar from Bakura," he said. "Finest brand of course."

"Quit stalling, Karrde," she bit out through clenched teeth as she rubbed her hand over her suddenly clammy forehead. "What are you not telling me?" Bright flashes of light went off behind her eyes and then her vision narrowed into a tiny little light. Everything swirled and finally went into a little pinprick of light and then nothing. "Mara…" Karrde's voice faded. "Mara!"

She found herself being bundled unceremoniously to the floor and more of the strong sickly sweet spirit being poured down her throat.

"Karrde!" Her voice rose as she choked and coughed. "Where is he?"

"Manarai Medical centre."

"He's here and they didn't tell me. Typical Skywalker, needing a dunk in the bacta" She struggled to sit up, her head swimming. "Force, Karrde. What is that stuff? It should be rationed out with a warning."

"It is." Karrde's face was solemn. "They flew him in half an hour ago. I came straight to find you. Leia and Han are with him. Mara, they're only thinking about Luke at the moment. It wasn't a slight or an oversight. Mara… he's dying. They brought him home to his family to die."

"No," she whispered. "This can't happen to us. He's my friend and I have few enough of those that I can trust." She lifted her chin and shot a determined look at her boss. "I want to see him."

"I would suspect that might be difficult."

"I want to see him. I have to see him," she muttered, her expression one of desperation.

"Then you shall see him," Karrde promised.

Karrde carefully helped her to her feet and walked from the room leaving the crumpled metal of the exercise droid as a kind of twisted monument. Mara's feigned indifference to Skywalker had vanished, but Karrde knew she still wouldn't want such vulnerability on display. What would happen when Skywalker died, Karrde could only guess and fear.

****************************

Manarai medicentre - Coruscant

Luke Skywalker's life essence in the Force flickered so low that Leia thought he'd left them forever, but the shallow breathing continued.

Han gave a gentle tug on her arm. "Come on sweetheart, they've arranged a room for you along the corridor if you want to sleep. Or you can stay in here with him."

She turned her white, anguished face towards her husband. "Can we go home and see the children. I feel their distress. They can sense Luke's condition and they don't understand. It's not far if we're…" Leia's voice broke, her trembling hands lifting to cover her eyes and Han helped his distraught wife away from her brother's bedside.

"Hell, I don't understand." He sighed deeply. "Very well. They'll contact us if his condition changes." Han rubbed his hand across his eyes and found it came away wet. Luke had been like this before but never with so little hope. Even Cilgahl the Jedi healer had shaken her head. It was to be only a matter of time. It could be hours or it could be days but it was inevitable. The Jedi Master was slipping from life in front of their eyes and nothing anyone could do would alter it.

As he helped Leia into their speeder he thought he saw Mara Jade dash into the medicentre, but it was a woman with similar colouring in a medic's coat. Force! He'd forgotten about Mara. Luke would have never forgotten about Mara. Han had often wondered about their confusing relationship and had seen signs of it growing and deepening. Now they would never know what may have been between the Jedi master and the fiery Emperor's Hand. He would have to let Mara know but he would do that later. He had to see to Leia first and what she was going to do – heck, what would all of them do without Luke?

**************************

Mara breathed a sigh of relief. Han had spotted her right enough and she didn't like using the Force to cloud minds, but she had to see Luke without getting in the way of his family. Solo had Leia to take care of. Karrde was right – they would only be thinking about the Jedi Master at this time.

Karrde stood at the security desk posing as an irate man demanding to see his wife who'd been recently transferred from another medicentre. "I'm telling you, droid," he thundered. "My wife was sent to this very centre and I know this for a fact."

The security droid tutted and sighed in a manner reminiscent of Threepio as he ran through the records.

"I'm sorry, sir," the droid placated nervously. "I'll ask the central computer to check."

"Do that."

As the droid was occupied, Karrde discretely fixed a scanner jammer under the desk and Mara wandered casually past him into the hospital. The security holocams blanked out just as she did so.

Stretching out with the Force Mara was horrified to find Luke's life sense so low. Finding the nearest computer console she accessed the whereabouts of the Jedi Master and hurried to the turbolift. He was in the private wing of the centre. Mara hoped Karrde's security jammer worked long enough for her to get to Luke's room. From her backpack, Mara pulled a medic's white coat and placed it over her tunic. This would have to do.

The turbolift doors slid aside and Mara emerged on a quiet corridor. She assessed the security arrangements outside the Jedi's room. Only one guard sat there. Mara spun a line using the Force and something toppled over with a crash farther down the corridor. It was easy to slip past the distracted guard and ease into Luke's dimly lit room.

He lay silent as death, the monitor's coloured lights indicating the patient was still alive. But only just.

"Oh, Luke," she whispered, her eyes filling with unaccustomed tears.

Moving to his side she sank onto the chair Leia had so recently vacated and sought his presence through the Force. But he was too weak to make contact and Mara was left alone without his bright warmth to ward away the chill of isolation.

Picking up his brown hand Mara gently stroked it, then lifted it to her lips and placed a gentle kiss in his warm palm. He looked paler than normal, his face almost grey, his firm chest bare with several bacta coverings and a nasty cut on his forehead was complimented by the livid bruising marring his handsome features. She reached out tentatively with the Force to see what was in his mind. Stricken, she drew back - there was only darkness - nothingness. There was no spark of the Jedi there. Luke's consciousness had gone.

For a moment fear and darkness threatened to take hold of her until Mara remembered Luke's sketchy lessons on Jedi healing and sought oneness with the Force again. One didn't try, one did.

After half an hour the effort became too much for her to hold alone and she fell out of the trance. Mara considered his appearance. The bruises on his temple had faded a little, but she still couldn't contact him. She wasn't strong enough by herself. If she'd only listened to him and agreed to train more, then she could have saved him. The dread she'd carried within her all day emerged quickly and Mara found herself clinging to Luke's hand with tears running down her face. "Please don't die, Luke. Please," she begged as she suddenly became aware that what she'd fought against was something she wanted badly and it had been fear of failure that had made her so obdurate. "I need you to help me become a Jedi," she declared in a low voice. "I must finish my training and you're the only one who can help me do it. Don't leave me on my own. I can't be that way any more." Her plea concealed the deeper need she harboured for Luke.

Eventually tired and overwrought Mara fell asleep her head resting on the pillow beside Luke's fair one and she dreamed.

The sun was high in the sky in Mara's dream and she was lying with Luke in a shady corner of a Coruscant park. His fingers trailed over her body, skimming over her flat stomach and higher towards where her sensitive breasts strained to meet his questing fingers.

"Not here," she muttered. "This is not the place."

Luke stopped what he was doing and stared at her, his blue eyes strangely haunted. "Why not?"

"Because you shouldn't be here in my dream. Because we never felt this way about each other. Because you're dying?"

"Am I?" He asked quietly. "But I'm not ready to go. I've got too much to do."

"Well, why don't you do and stop lying there like a corpse, Skywalker."

"I'm trying."

"Haven't you forgotten something?"

He turned quizzically towards her. "What could I have forgotten, Mara?"

"What Yoda taught you?"

"Oh, I get it. Do or do not there is no try."

"Please Luke." Mara could hear the tears in her voice. "I need you to be there for me. I'm so frightened."

Luke turned and kissed her gently. "I'm frightened too, Mara. I can't seem to get myself out of it this time. There's no lucky escape for me. No miracle. If it's my time to become one with the Force then I must accept it."

"No!" she pleaded. "Don't give in to this. You must fight. We all need you so much." Mara let out a little scream as she watched the skin wither from his face, the flesh puckering to a horrible mess.

"No!" She shouted again. "This is the dark side, Luke. Don't just give up. Fight it, for me."

He turned away then swung round and pulled her into his arms, the flesh smooth and handsome once again. Luke's lips captured Mara's, his tongue pressing for entry. She eagerly parted hers and waited for his, as it tasted her own.

"I have to go now, Mara."

"No-o-o!"

"Yes - you were right, Mara, you were right

And Mara clung to him giving him kiss after kiss after kiss until her world swirled blackly about her.

*************************************