Chapter 16 Angela NORMAL Angela 2 18 2001-10-15T02:45:00Z 2001-10-15T02:45:00Z 11 3495 19923 166 39 24466 9.2720 6 pt 6 pt 0

Chapter 16

Mara stood bolted in place.  Had she heard him right?  Did he just clam that his daughter was still alive?

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I know this sounds crazy, Mara " Luke said, his voice taking on a pleading tone.  "But that was MaCayla.  Don't you see?  I have been feeling something out of place in my life for a long time now.  I have never been able to put the pieces together... until now."  He paused, and took a deep breath.  "I have no proof, Mara, but right now it feels right." He paused and took a breath, his brow creasing in thought. "No, it's more than that.  I have never felt anything like this before." Luke hands rose in frustration as he finished talking.

"Luke, you may be jumping to conclusions," Mara told him.  She knew how easily Luke would cling to something like this.  After everything that had happened to him over the last few months he would be looking for anything to latch onto.  However, Mara knew she could not blindly accept that Luke's daughter survived an ordeal fifteen years previous, when there was never any doubt that she was dead.  Even if she had survived, Mara had to ask herself why she suddenly trying to get back in his life?

"Mara, please believe me.  This is real I can feel it.  This was why I felt I had to be here tonight.  Don't you see, the Force was trying to tell me something."

"But how can she be alive?" Mara asked, wanting desperately to understand what was happening.  "How could she be in this room?"

"I don't know," Luke admitted, his eyes traveling the room. "But I intend to find out."  He started out the door, and Mara stopped him.

"What, you intend to go now?" Mara asked, shocked.  Luke had always been impulsive, but he needed now was to think this though.

"She just left the room, Mara," Luke started to explain.  "I need to find out where she is going.  I need to talk to her."

"How are you so sure that she is that girl?"

Luke looked around a bit, thinking.  "It just feels right, Mara.  I noticed her, remember.  With a casual scan I picked her up like I would pick up you or Leia.  When I did I felt a connection there.  I dismissed it at first, but I know what I felt.  I have to go talk to her."

"Well, if you are going, then I think I need to go with you."  There was no way she was willing to let him out of her sight in the state he was currently in.

"Thanks." 

Mara followed Luke out the double doors of the grand ballroom.  She stumbled once and chided herself for her lack of concentration.  She was letting herself get wrapped up in the emotions Luke was broadcasting.  Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and pulled back a little from Luke's mind.  One of them had to keep a level head.  Looking around she could see no sign of the girl they had spotted earlier.  Closing her eyes, Mara joined Luke as he used the Force to try and locate her.  As she did she used the opportunity to get another read on her friend.  He must have picked up on her thoughts because he was now incredibly calm.  Searching the surrounding area with the skill of the seasoned Jedi that she knew he was.  He did not show any of the desperation she had felt pouring off him just a few short moments ago.  He acted nothing like a father searching for a daughter, merely a Jedi looking for another Force sensitive.  Maybe he realizes that he may be jumping the gun here, Mara thought.   Whatever he was thinking, however, did not change the fact that by the time they started looking, there was no trace of the girl.

"OK, this is not working," Luke admitted just as Mara was about to suggest a change in action.  "We need to try a different approach.  I have an idea."

"The transports?" Mara inquired.  The idea had suddenly popped in her head, but any idea was better than standing in the middle of a hallway looking for someone that was long gone.

"Exactly," he said, his hand extending to take her hand.  They started walking as he continued to speak.  "She had to have arrived on Coruscant somehow.  We just need to find out how, then we can track her from there."

"Well, at least it's a place to start," Mara agreed.  She followed Luke silently as he went in search of a computer terminal.  It had been on the tip of her tongue to try and talk Luke out if this crazy search.  She wanted to convince him that this was just some poor soul's idea of a joke.  However, she stopped herself, knowing that if she stopped him he would always wonder.  Even though Mara feared that this would turn to pain for her friend, she knew it was something he had to do.  All she could do is help him, and be there if he needed her.

Locating a terminal was not difficult and they quickly went to work running searches on the massive amounts of passenger carrying ships that had arrived in system recently.  Through it all, the name MaCayla did not turn up any results.  Deciding not to give up, Mara went back another week and ran another search.  Still nothing.  She watched Luke as he sat back in his chair and sighed.

"Thanks, Mara, but this seems to be another dead end."  It surprised her that he seemed to be giving up so easily.  She was about to voice that thought, but the words died on her lips however when his com unit suddenly beeped.

"Skywalker," he barked into the tiny device.

"Luke?  Is everything all right?"  It was Leia.  Luke had mentioned Leia's name during one of the few moments they talked while searching the records.   He told her that he had felt Leia brush his conciseness a few times since they left the party, but she had not tried to contact him until I now.  Mara suspected that she had merely waited until he stopped focusing so much on the search before trying to find out what he was searching for.

"No, Leia, it's not OK...," he continued, his eyes darting to Mara.  Oh, no.  Looks like another idea brewing there, she thought.   "Have you got a minute?" Luke continued into the com.  "I need to ask you about something."

"Sure," Leia said, the concern in her voice coming through clearly.  "We are at home.  Come on over, and bring Mara too."

Both Luke and Mara smiled as the com clicked off.  Mara held her breath as she studied the twinkle in his eyes.

"I don't think I want to know how she did that," Mara said, indicating the com that Leia had just been connected to.


"She's just showing off," Luke explained, his head shacking in bemusement.

"What, that she knows we are together?" Mara exclaimed lightheartedly.  "I am sure that just has her imagination running overtime."  She laughed at her own comment, and was pleased when Luke started laughing with her.

"Come on, let's go."

"And here I thought you had given up for the night," Mara said as she followed him away from the terminal.  "I should have known better."

"Yes, you should have," Luke said, looking over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow and a grin.  They walked down the hall a few minutes before Mara spoke up again.

"So, what do you plan to tell your sister?"

"Huh?" Luke asked.  He looked at her like he had no idea what she was talking about, and Mara suspected that he probably didn't. 

"Why are we going to talk to her?"  She asked him.

"Because she would know how to trace anyone at that party tonight," he told her in a voice that showed he did not think he should have to explain.  "She should be able give us a place to start."

"Us?"  Mara asked, her pervious question forgotten at his choice of words.  "You still need my help?"

"I'm sorry," Luke said, his face dropping.  "Really.  I just assumed you wanted to help.  I should have asked first."

"No, it's not that I don't want to help," she quickly tried to explain.   "I just can't say that I am convinced that this is MaCayla... I mean ... How would that be possible?" she asked, then noticed the concerned look on Luke's face.  "However, I would like to help you get to the bottom of this."

"Thank you, Mara."

It was a short walk from the hall of the ballroom to the elevator that would take them up to Leia's apartment.  They walked in silence, both lost in their own thoughts.  She was replaying everything she could remember about the girl in the ballroom.  The list was extremely limited, but it might help if she could remember anything about the girl that she had now ran into twice.   Glancing over at Luke as they exited onto Leia's floor, Mara studied her friend.  His face was like stone, and all she felt from him was a sense of peace.  She had no idea what he was thinking.

Leia greeted them with a warm smile as she opened the door.  She likes seeing us together, Mara thought to herself.  Luke hasn't told her yet.  She needed to talk to Luke about that.  The thought brought back the situation full force.  They had both been concentrating on finding this girl so much that she was able to forget about Luke's health, at least for a few hours.  He was not as well as he would have everyone believe.  She knew how much pain he was in.  She also knew enough about it call to Yavin asking Cilighal to come for a visit.  She had received a message from Kyp asking her if everything was all right.  He was worried that there was a message from Luke, following which the Jedi Healer hurried to leave without any explanation.  It was apparent to Mara that Luke was only telling those people that needed to know.

She still thought that he needed to talk to his sister.  He needed to tell her something.  Leia, when left to assume about any given situation, had been known to try to take matters in her own hands when things did not go her way.  If she got it in her head that they needed help she was bound to hurt someone, without even knowing it.

"Come in, you two" Leia said eagerlyShe obviously knew something was up and was just itching to know what it was.  "Can I get you something?"

"No, I'm fine," Luke said.  "Mara?"

"No,  thanks."  Mara suddenly felt uncomfortable inside the Solo's home.  She had only been there on a couple occasions, never enough for her to feel comfortable.  Looking around she saw plenty of proof of the three children she knew had to be there somewhere.  The apartment was nowhere near messy, but there was enough clutter around that she knew it was not just a couple of adults living in the home.

"So, where's Han," Luke asked.  Mara guessed that he was probably wondering if he should expect him to walk in.  It was hard to get someone caught up on a conversation when they missed the most of it.

"In the boys room referring an argument," Leia told him.  "Would you like me to go get him?"

"No, don't bother," Luke assured her.  "I just have a few questions about the guest list of tonight's party." If Mara did not know better she would not have guessed that there was anything wrong, and Luke truly just needed her help.  His tone and manner gave nothing away.

"Well, I did not personally make it out," Leia said, already deep in thought.  "But I would be glad to help."  There was a loud crash down the hall that caused all three of them to jump.  The loud bickering of two angry boys immediately followed it.

"Leia!" came Han's disembodied voice.

"I'll be back in just a minute," Leia said, her hand touching Luke's arm as she passed.  Mara raised an eyebrow at Luke and he shrugged.

"She always seems to be doing that," he told her, his brow creasing in wonderment.

"Doing what?" Mara asked.  What was he talking about now? Mara wondered.

"Walking out of the room when I am trying to talk to her," he said straight faced.  Mara looked at him astonished then they both started laughing.

"Mom?" The voice coming from the top of the stairs caught their attention.  It was a young female voice that Mara immediately identified as Jaina's.

Luke made his way up the stairs to talk with Jaina, leaving Mara standing there alone. She had just wandered to the couch to sit when Luke called out.

Mara!  He mentally yelled to her.  He sounded upset, shocked.  She dashed up the stairs two at a time.  She skidded to a stop at the door where Luke was standing, and froze when she realized what had him so upset.

That's her, Luke sent her.  It was a useless statement since Mara had already come to that conclusion.  Looking around the she scanned all the pictures on Jaina's walls.  Quiet a few were of the same girl, the one they had been looking for all night.

"Where's Mom and Dad," Jaina asked. 

"Um, they are taking care of your brothers," Luke explained.  "Everything all right?" He was trying to keep all the emotion out of his voice, and he was successful for the most part. 

"Oh, yeah," Jaina said.  "They just told me to tell them when I got done cleaning my room.  Is everything all right, Uncle Luke?"

"Huh?  Oh, yeah, everything's fine, Jaina."  Luke was looking around the room in amazement.  Mara did not have to use the Force to know what he was feeling.  He was looking at pictures of his daughter.  He was convinced of that.  "You have just changed your room since I have been in here last."

"Yeah mom said I could.  I have spent all day on it," she announced proudly.  "You like it?"

"Sure, it's wonderful," Luke assured her, his voice beginning to get back under control. "But, Jaina, who are all these people."

"Holovid stars, singers," the child explained.  "They are all great.  Don't you know any of them?"  It was a simple question, coming from a child who knew her uncle met lots of people.  She had no idea of the impact the question had made.

Luke walked to one of the walls.  Not speaking, but projecting an air of only minimal interest in the pictures on the walls.   "I have seen her before," Luke said, turning to Jaina while pointing to a picture of whom he thought could be his daughter.  "Who is she?"

"She's a singer, Uncle Luke.  She's great, has such a pretty voice.  You heard her songs before, right Uncle Luke?"

"Not that I can remember."

"Here let me show you one of them."  She busied herself putting on the music and Luke stole a look at Mara.  He listened to the song, realizing that he was hearing his daughter for the first time.  Her voice was beautiful as she sang, just as Jaina had told them.  The song struck a cord in him, and he began to wonder where he had heard it before.  In the speeder on Tatooine.  He had felt a tingle in the Force then, and stopped.  But then he had not paid attention to it much after that.  He knew now that the Force was trying to tell him even then.

"Do you remember now Uncle Luke?"  The persistent child asked.

"Yes, I do," he crocked, unable to keep his voice level.  This was his daughter.  No matter how he looked at it the feeling never went away.  He had tried to explain it to Mara.  But the words did not do the feeling justice. 

"You said she looked familiar," the girl asked, suddenly excited.  "When did you see her?"

"She was at the party last night," Mara offered, trying to give Luke a second to compose himself.

"Really?!" Jaina exclaimed, looking back and forth from Mara to Luke.  "You saw Kyia?  Did you get to talk to her?"

"Kyia?" Luke asked, looking intensely at his niece.  It did not escape Mara's notice the way the color was draining from Luke's face.

"Yeah that's her name," Jaina stated.  Her tone of voice indicating she thought he should have known that.

"No, I didn't get to talk to her," Luke explained.  "Sorry."  The disappointment in his voice seemed to satisfy Jaina because she did not ask any more questions.  "Look Jaina I need to get going.  I'll see you tomorrow."

"OK, Uncle Luke.  Is everything all right?"

"Yes, everything is fine," Luke said as he turned to leave.

Mara followed Luke out of the room then out the door.  She had to practically run to keep up with him as he left the apartment.

"Where are you going?  I thought you wanted to talk to Leia?" Mara said to him.  She needed to get him to calm down.  Not that she was worried about him, well no more than usual.  What she wanted him to do was slow down.  He was attracting too much attention as he rushed through the hall into the elevator and out of the building.  If he wanted to keep everyone out of his hair he had to stop drawing everyone's eyes to him.

"I can't talk to her right now," Luke said.  He stopped suddenly and turned to Mara.  She was glad she was on her toes, if she had not been she would have collided with him.  He took a deep breath and rested against the nearest wall.

"What was that about back there?" Mara asked, joining him.  "Luke, it's only a stage-name.  Most performers have them."

"I understand that,"  Luke said.  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.  When he opened them he was a bit calmer.  "It's her choice in names.  Kyia."

"Yes?"

"It just sealed it.  That is what I used to call MaCayla.  How could it not be her, Mara?  This is too much to just be a coincidence."

Mara opened her mouth to speak, but she could not think of anything to say.  Everything he had said so far supported his theory.  His daughter was still alive.

"Luke, I don't understand.  How could she be alive?"

"I don't know, Mara," Luke said, turning trouble eyes on her.  "All these years I have never even dreamt that she could be alive."

"But why didn't she tell me?" Mara asked herself.  It occurred to her that she said that aloud.

"Tell you what Mara?"

Mara rubbed her hands across her face in worriment.  "Luke is there some where we can go?  I need to tell you something."

Luke rubbed his hands roughly over his face.  Squeezing his eyes shut, he used the heel of his hand to and pressed it into his forehead, trying to relieve some of the pressure there.

 Calling on the Force he set to work pushing the pain back once again until it was nothing more than a dull ache.  "So, let me get this straight, you have, over the last month, had numerous visits with Arielle.  Is that what you are trying to tell me?"

"Yes."  Mara was sitting next to him on the couch in his apartment.  She sat still, her hands clasped in her lap looking at the floor.

"Mara why did you not say anything before?"

"What was I supposed to say, Luke?" Mara asked, exasperated.  "That I was being visited by your dead wife?"

"For starters, yes!" Luke said.  He shot to his feet and began to pace the room.

"I wanted to tell you…but I didn't."

"Why not!" he snapped.  He could feel the anger starting to build in her before he finished the short question.  All it did was fuel his own.

"Look, Skywalker," she said, her voice rising as she stood up to face him.  "No matter what you may be thinking, I do not have to report everything to you."

"You were being visited by Arielle, I think that qualifies as something I need to know about."  She started to say something then stopped herself.  He watched as she pulled her emotions back under control.

"Luke, it wasn't that I didn't want to tell you…I would have told you.  I don't know…it was strange.  Even Arielle thought you weren't ready to know."

"Oh great.  You are getting advice about me from my dead wife!" He took a deep breath, fighting to regain control.    "What did she say to you?"

"Lot's of things." 

"What exactly?" Luke asked, his tone extremely calmer.  Holding his breath he braced himself for whatever she was going to say.

"I think she had a message for us.  Well, she did, and I think that's the only reason she visited me."

"Mara, you're killing me here," Luke exclaimed, his voice stressed.  "What message?"

"It's a bit complicated."  Mara took a moment to prepare herself.  Pull yourself together! She scolded herself.  You have been trying to tell him, now is your chance.  It was Mara's voice.  He figured she had not meant for him to hear that. But nonetheless he had. "Ok, they way it worked is this…"  They spent the next couple of minutes talking about what was said and the possibilities it made.  He was shocked when he realized that his marriage to Arielle was all prearranged, but it was the next part that really threw him.

"Ok, so what you are telling me here is that there was an attack on the Jedi temple on the day of her birth, right?"

"Right."

"Then what happened?"

"According to Arielle, Kenobi dashed into the nursery and took the baby, taking her someplace safe."

"All this because she was supposed to be some sort of, what, soul mate for me?  They knew all this when I was that young?"

"Yes.  But there is more.  When Arielle died, Kenobi realized he had made a mistake."

"A mistake?"  The dread he was trying to hold back threatened once again to break through. 

"There were two girls born that day.  Kenobi, knowing what the child's destiny was, knew he had made a mistake when she was killed.  He took the wrong baby."

"Arielle wasn't the one I was supposed to meet on Tatooine?"  He asked the question slowly, trying to piece it all together.  "But then who?"

Mara did not say anything.  He could feel the agony of holding it inside as threatened to rip her apart, but still he felt how she was trying to protect him.  She did not want to tell him.

"All this time there was someone else out there?  Who is she?  Is she still alive?"  He was not excited, only confused. 

"It's me, Luke.  I was the other girl born that day.  I was born in that Temple, and when the imperials found me, they took me, leaving the other child.  Kenobi in his rush did not notice his error."

"I don't believe it."

"It's true… It was I." 

Those three words hung in the air between them.  Luke held his breath as the weight of that confession slammed into him.  All this time through everything that had happened, Mara would have, should have been there with him.  He thought of Kenobi, how he must of felt when he found out about his mistake.  That Mara, the child he should have taken was forced to grow up in Imperial hands because no one even attempted to get her back.  Luke closed his eyes again and sighed.  The Emperor knew.  Of course he knew.  It was the reason he had had Mara kidnapped.  He must have heard the rumors that a child was to be born.  But if he knew everything, why did it take nearly two decades before he came searching for me? Luke thought.  It was strange for him to think of the Jedi of the old Republic making such a big deal about him.  It made him uncomfortable to think of all they had left on his then tiny little shoulders.  As for the Emperor, he could not have learned his name then.  It must have been just rumors that he had been acting on.  He knew there was someone out there, but it was not until Luke stepped into the public eye that Palpatine knew who he was.  However, he knew who Mara was, and what the Jedi believed her destiny was.  That must be where the virus had come from.  He knew that Mara could not deny her destiny, even if he never let her know that.

While he was thinking, Mara had moved over to the window.  She stood with her back to him, studying the landscape.  Things could have been so different for her.

"I don't believe you, Luke," she whispered, not turning from the window.

"What?" he asked as he walked over to her.

"I just told you that they messed up yet another part of your life and you stand there thinking how much it affected me."

"It did.  Your life would have…"

"I know what my life would have been, Luke," she said, finally turning to face him.  "We can do nothing about that now.  There are a lot of things I wish could have been different, but what's done is done."  He ran his hands lightly down her cheek as her words sunk in.  She smiled.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

She shook her head, careful not to dislodge his hand from her cheek.  "There is something you can change."  She paused and he knew she was waiting for him to say something.  He opened his mouth to comply but could think of nothing to say.  "You can find your daughter," she continued.  "Find out how she is alive.  Go find MaCayla, Luke."

The feelings running through Luke at that moment would have been overwhelming had he stopped to study them.    He traced another finger down her cheek and across her lips.  He leaned closer, wanting nothing more than to feel her lips on his.  She stopped him with two gentle fingers on his lips.    She lowered her head, touching her forehead to his cheek.

"I'm sorry, Luke."