Argh, I'm so sorry about the delay, but to make up for it, here are two chapters. I for one hate drawn out apologies and I hate it whenever an author tries to give the same old excuses all the time. So all I have to say is that I have no real excuse for taking so long to write an update. Now in the upcoming chapters, Luke and Mara finally meet!
Chapter Three: That Skywalker Charm"What was that?" Ardock asked, his head coming up sharply,
Luke and Wedge exchanged exasperated glances. This was perhaps the seventh time in half an hour since their quarry had asked the same question. To say that the two were annoyed was making an understatement.
Wes frowned as he glanced towards the door that led to the living room. "No," I hear something too," he said. "Some kind of… humming."
Now it was Luke's turn to frown as he focused on the elusive sound. His face lit up in shock as he heard it but not only that, he recognized the sound of the weapon. "A lightsabre!" he exclaimed.
Hobbie and Tycho glanced worriedly towards their commander and in turn listened for the sound, though like Wes, they heard it too, they couldn't identify it as easily as Luke had. Cursing under his breath, Luke brought out his weapon and held it up for them to see.
"This, a lightsabre," he answered. "I recognize it."
"Great," Wedge muttered. "There aren't too many people out there in the galaxy who knows how to use one, and I'm guessing that this new guy could be dangerous." He shot Luke a guarded look but saw no offense in his friend's expression. At the moment, there was only a faint mix of fear and even anger on his face, but not directed towards Wedge.
The young Jedi tightened his grip on his weapon and then directed stern glances towards Hobbie and Tycho. "You two, into the refresher now. My guess that whoever it is must be trying to get at Ardock, you'll need to be in there for back up. Wes, go with them. Wedge, we'll go into the closet." He was already marching towards the closet when Ardock spoke up. The aged man clambered after them and tripped.
"What about me?" he exclaimed and got a hold of Luke's tunic. His tugging nearly brought the Jedi down. "You can't leave me alone!"
Luke pulled away from his grasp and whirled around abruptly, his stern expression turned into mere pity as he stared at Ardock, a defect who had nowhere left to go but to the Rebellion. He was alone and trying his best to survive.
"You stay out here, sir," he said gently. "We'll take care of things. Just don't get yourself killed."
"And you'll protect me?" he asked.
A small smile played on Luke's lips before he answered, "I will… I'm a Jedi, that's my duty."
Luke quickly ducked inside the closet, joining Wedge behind a large, musty coat. From his position, he could see very clearly into the room through the slits of the closet door, but he didn't try to get any closer for fear that he might be spotted.
The young Jedi nearly jumped as the door swung open with a loud crack. He saw the spider web cracks on the door when it crashed into the wall. The door splintered, but by that time, Luke's attention was focused on the woman who stood in the doorway, her leg up in a wide high kick. She was dressed in black, half her faced was covered and in her hand, she held a small blaster. He could see bulges under her tunic, which he knew must have concealed weapons. Her body was neither a muscular, bulky form nor the skinny, nearly half starving one. She was almost catlike and lithe, she appeared graceful even when she closed her high kick and bounded into the room in what almost seemed like a single leap to Luke. And all of these features screamed at Luke to give her a name, a role, an identity.
Imperial Agent.
The woman did a quick scan of the room, and if she was Force sensitive, a question that Luke had been asking himself, then she wasn't very good at it, for she made no indication of acknowledging his presence of the presences of the other four Rogues. Instead, she was staring at the wizened man who had scrambled behind a chair for any meager cover. There was a flash of victory in her eyes as she cocked her blaster in his direction. Luke felt the warning in the Force and pulled out his blaster, but Wedge was faster. His pilot friend jumped forward, pushed the closet door open and took aim. He fired one shot and a blue ring of energy jumped from his blaster. It hit her in the small of her back. The Agent made a sound that was a cross between a gasp and a choke and tried her best to turn and face them.
Luke had to admire the woman for her strength, usually when a person got stunned, they'd crumple the minute the beam hit them, but the agent lasted longer than most people. He deduced that she had to be either very physically able or just very tolerant towards stun blasts.
Ardock too had cried out, but not in pain as the woman had, but in relief. He was still trembling but the relief was still evident in his face. The feeble man had to grasp the chair to brace himself. Though he jumped again when the refresher door opened and Hobbie, Wes and Tycho rushed into the room.
Luke saw Hobbie open his mouth to make a smart mouthed remark, but Luke having neither the patience nor the time to tolerate it, cut him off by directing his attention towards Ardock. "All right, sir?" he asked.
Breathing heavily, the defect nodded vigorously and eyed the stunned agent suspiciously. Luke followed his gaze and approached the woman, his hand hovered above her face for a few seconds before he pulled her mask off. He was shocked by how striking her appearance was, not the glowing beauty of Leia's but certainly she was very beautiful.
"What should we do with her, Boss?" Wes asked, coming up to Luke's side to examine the agent.
Luke hesitated, there was no way he could turn her into the authorities, if he did then they would question who he was and then Rogue Squadron's mission would be blown out of the waters. He could leave her there, but it went against his very nature of being a Jedi to protect people, it just seemed wrong to him. Finally Luke came to his decision.
"We take her along with us," he replied, turning to face Wedge. "We interrogate her, get whatever information we can, bring her to Hi-C and then let her free. This isn't up to us, she's a prisoner of war for the time being until our commanders figure out what to do with her." His tone offered no argument but it was evident of how his Squadron felt about bringing an Imperial agent with them, especially one who'd shown such strength. Despite their differences, no one made an attempt to argue with Luke, not even Ardock, who felt very strongly about having someone who'd tried to kill him to be on the same ship as him.
The young Jedi arched his eyebrow, as he saw none of the other Rogues moving to obey his command. At his demanding gaze, Wedge and company quickly scrambled to help lift the young woman from the ground and to transport her. Hobbie and Tycho rushed ahead, peering over corners and down corridors to check for a clear coast, yet their attentiveness was unnecessary with a Jedi Knight in their midst. Luke though, allowed the pair to do their jobs, while he was alert to the Force.
It took the escort part of the group more than an hour to get back to their transport, where the rest of Rogue Squadron awaited them. Luke hadn't realized how difficult it would have been to move an unconscious woman from one location to another. There had been close calls when the agent had nearly awakened and it'd taken a few stuns to knock her out again. Luke worried about what kind of damage that kind of treatment would do to the woman's health, but a quick scan in the Force told the rebel commander that she was still stable.
Once on board their transport, Luke handed the take off to Wedge while he made sure that the woman was secure. Both he and Hobbie checked to make sure that she was unarmed, and were both surprised when they found a heavy supply of weapons on her person.
When they were certain that she was weaponless, the two then took her a bunk and strapped her against a cot. More bindings and cuffs were added until Luke was satisfied. He then assigned both Hobbie and Wes on guard duty while he went and checked on the other Rogues.
*~*~*~*~*
There were times when frustration would get the better of people and Leia at that moment felt as if she wanted to throw herself out the airlock. It was already well past midnight for her and she knew that she would have an early morning too and knowing this she should have been in bed earlier.
Of course, early nights were nearly impossible now that she was a political figurehead for the Alliance. There was a steady flow of reports and meetings pouring into her schedule and considering her importance, all of them were too much to over look. She wondered if this was the reason why her father never went to bed until late at night. She remembered those few times when she'd awaken to the sounds of Bail Organa retiring to his room.
She shuddered to think how life would be for her if she ever became a political leader. Well maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she did there was always the chance for her to hire a personal aide.
Leia was near growling as she flipped through yet another pointless report that had no reason to be on her desk. She did growl when her comlink beeped and called for her attention. She was in absolutely no mood for another lazy commander to dump more work on her.
"What is it?" she snapped and then felt herself blushing as she realized her greeting was not the most cordial one she'd given.
"No need to snap, beautiful," the voice on the other side of the comm crackled. "Just me, wonderful ol' Lando."
A wave of relief washed over Leia, what would the Alliance Leaders had thought of her if they'd been the one on the other side of the line? With this relief, Leia grew considerably calmer. One could say she was even glad to be able to speak to an old friend, even if this 'friend' had been the cause of Han's absence in her life.
Of course, Leia was ready to give chances to someone who was trying so hard to make things right. He did after all, help her escape Bespin and saved Luke and now Lando was trying his best to bring back Han. And though she wouldn't admit it, his flirting was even flattering.
"Lando," she greeted. "Sorry
about that."
"No offense taken," he replied.
Leia's heart then began to flutter as she wondered about the reason behind Lando's call, could it possibly be that he'd found Boba Fett? No, she wasn't going to get her hopes up but still, it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Have you found Han?"
The gambler's silent pause was all she needed for an answer. She'd told herself not to get excited, but despite her great self-control, she still couldn't stop the optimist within her. As she came to her conclusion, something within Leia cracked.
"No, he's not here yet," Lando answered. He too was good at reading the tension between silences and knew immediately what Leia was feeling. "But don't worry, we'll find him, sooner or later."
Leia nodded and then realized that Lando wouldn't be able to see her. She cleared her throat and strengthened her resolve. "All right," she replied. "Keep working on it, I'm sorry for not being there right now… the Alliance is keeping me busy."
"Contact you soon," he replied. The comm crackled again as he disconnected. Leia too switched it off and sat there, staring ahead. It'd only been a few weeks since she'd last seen Han, but it was almost like years. She missed the way he held her and made little cracks at her. She especially missed those pet names he used for her.
"You certainly have a way with people."
Leia sat there, dabbing Han's bloodied lips with her white sleeve. There was a small smile of amusement on her face while she tended to his wounds. Han tried his best to do his lop-sided grin but ended up wincing as the smile stretched his wound.
"Don't do that," she admonished. The two were silent for a moment before Leia took Han's hand into her own. "Do you really think that Luke's going come here?"
"You know the kid," Han resisted the urge the cough. "Always thinks he's gotta be the hero."
"Well he was one," Leia admitted. "He still is one…"
"The moment he hears about us," Han muttered. "He'll come rushing here and try to rescue us."
Leia began to prop Han up and rested her chin on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his chest. She felt him stiffen as she hugged him but he soon relaxed and laid his own hands on top of hers.
"Don't you feel bad," she asked. "About doing this behind Luke's back?"
"I've considered it," he admitted. "But after all we've been through together, well I don't think I wanna to give you up, even for Luke."
Han's truthfulness and even crude way of expressing his affection for her would have been taken as an oath against a good friend. Yet Leia also saw this as his declaration of his caring for her, his affection ran deep enough that he would even turn his back against someone he'd known for so long, a best friend, just for her. She allowed herself to smile even more and then rotated around him to be face to face with the smuggler.
"Thank you," she said in an almost whisper.
"No trouble," he replied and leaned forward to plant his lips against hers. Leia relaxed against his body as their lips touched, every emotion they'd felt since their imprisonment on Bespin was expressed through that one kiss, but at the same time they dissipated while the two were in each other's arms, taking comfort from each other.
Leia rested her forehead against the palm of her hand. That moment in the cellblock always came back to her when she was at her moment of deepest grief. She sighed and went back to her work, too bad there just wasn't enough time for her reminisce.
*~*~*~*~*
Mara had always heard that regaining consciousness after being stunned was just like waking from sleep, she knew from experience that the claim was false. There been many times in her life where she'd been knocked out by a stun beam, most of them were part of her training as the Emperor's Hand, but the same feeling of disorientation and the wave of nausea was always present. She would lay there, with her eyes closed, half conscious while she tried to figure out where she was and of the reasons why she was there.
After invoking her mind for the reasons, memories began to pour in slowly. Her mission and how she'd reached her target came back and then how she'd stupidly dropped her guard and allowed for herself to be stunned. Anger at her failure spiked at the memory, but as quickly as the anger came, it dissipated and was replaced by panic. She was in her enemy's clutches and most likely, after showing off her abilities, locked and bound.
She strained her ears for any tidbit of information she could get of her surroundings, the sound of footsteps and the distant hum of a hyperdrive told her that she was on a ship that had at least more than seven men.
Finally deciding that it was time to play the guise of a disoriented prisoner, Mara let out a groan. Footsteps quickly clambered from across the room. Her eyes fluttered open and when Mara glanced up, she found herself face to face to the business end of a blaster. She tried her best to look frightened as the man holding it stared down at her with tired eyes. There was no doubt in Mara's mind that he was a pilot, and his companion, who was also tightly holding onto a blaster, was a pilot.
"Tell Commander Skywalker that the prisoner's awake," said the pilot who had his blaster aimed at her.
The man beside him cast a dubious glance at his direction, but gave no protest. Instead, he merely nodded and was soon out of the room. Taking her eyes away from the pilot, Mara cast her eyes down her body and saw the many chains and bonds that kept her strapped to what was certainly a cot. These boys were obviously taking no chances with her, though what they wanted from her, Mara was uncertain. She frowned as she thought about the name Skywalker, where exactly had she heard that from?
In the distance, she heard the sound of a clang as a door opened. She struggled to see who was entering the room. Mara recognized the other pilot from before, but not the new one, who had light brown hair and the most piercing blue eyes. Mara almost blushed as she fell under his gaze, this boy was her age and she was certain that he was this mysterious Commander Skywalker.
It suddenly struck Mara why the name Skywalker seemed familiar, the Rebel pilot who'd destroyed the Death Star and also the man who'd faced against Darth Vader, she'd even heard that he was a Jedi Knight. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, from the many reports she'd heard about him, Mara would have suspected someone taller or even muscular. There was no doubt that Skywalker had a rather muscular build, but he was not the type of person she'd considered to be able to duel with Vader and survive.
It was Skywalker who spoke first. "I'm sorry for your current state," to Mara's surprise, the rebel pilot actually blushed. "But you must understand that with your abilities, we've decided to take extra precautions."
"Perhaps the only wise act the Rebellion's done so far," Mara retorted. Even if this pilot's appearance belied his strength, Mara was not going to be intimidated by him. "Though the wisest act was to have just left me on Ridel, Skywalker."
The young Jedi seemed somewhat startled at her knowledge of his name, but suddenly annoyance flickered across his face as he shot stern glances at his companions. The other two men stared at the ground sheepishly.
"Hobbie, Wes, outside and keep guard at the door," Skywalker ordered.
"Sure thing, Boss," the younger of the two answered. He gestured at the other man to follow, who hesitated but met Skywalker's hard gaze. His concern for his commander was palpable enough for Mara to catch.
Skywalker waited until he heard the sound of the door being closed before he turned his attention back towards her. His face was expressionless, but something in his eyes gave away what he felt. Mara was somewhat startled by the emotion she read in then, admiration… and even a mix of curiosity.
"So you're an Imperial agent," he remarked.
Mara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Apparently subtlety was a trait that had not been taught to the Rebels. She twisted her face in scorn as she turned her gaze away from him, a very apparent sign that she was going to ignore him.
"Aren't you even worried?" he asked. His question caused Mara to peer at him through the corner of her eye. "About what's going to happen to you? I mean… if I were in your position, stuck on a ship, not knowing where I was going and surrounded by strangers and immobile… I'd be pretty anxious." There was a wry twist to his lips that seemed almost natural, Mara had to fight back an urge to smile.
Yet somehow he seemed to know that she was amused for he continued with his drabble, speaking of useless subjects until she couldn't tolerate him a moment more. She snapped her head in his direction, a venomous glint her eyes.
"Will you…" she hissed. "Just leave me in peace!"
Instead of appearing hurt or even frightened, Skywalker smiled. If one wanted further detail, one could have also said he was grinning. Mara couldn't comprehend how someone as idiotic as he, could have become a commanding officer of the Rebellion. The Alliance have been getting desperate if they let someone like Skywalker in charge of a squadron.
"Finally got you to talk," he teased and as quickly as his smile came, it disappeared and he was serious. Mara wanted to shiver at how this pilot could shift guises so easily. So far she'd seen a naïve and even goofy pilot and now she was staring at someone else entirely. The words "stern" and "cold" easily came to mind when Mara tried to choose words to describe him.
What was more irritating was how Skywalker had goaded her into breaking her silence. She should have seen it coming, yet his play had been convincing. It was stupid oversight made by her, the second one she'd made thus far.
"If you want information from me, you're not getting any," she growled and stared directly into his eyes. "I'm not afraid of what you could do to me."
Arching an eyebrow, Skywalker clasped his hands behind him and began to move closer until he was beside her cot. "What I could do?" he asked. "I think you're confusing me with the Empire. We don't torture."
"Obviously a band of freedom fighters claiming to be helping the people wouldn't." Mara snorted and this time, she did roll her eyes. The other side of Luke Skywalker, the one who seemed so naïve would have been annoyed, but this personality, seemed undeterred. She wouldn't admit it, but Mara was beginning to grow slightly annoyed at the commander's calm demeanor.
"You've deflected my original
question you know," he pointed out. "What do you expect from us?"
His question resulted in a dumbstruck Mara as she stared at him. She knew by all logic, that the Rebellion would never torture someone for information, it just went against all of the 'morals' they stood for, the reason why they were so weak. Still at the same time, she did expect some form of painful treatment and it was natural fear that she'd tried to quell since she'd been young.
When silence hung in the air for quite a while, Skywalker got the message that she didn't want to answer his question. He shrugged and began to pace away and stopped a few steps from her cot.
"As a prisoner of war," he said. "You'll remain like this until we reach headquarters. And of course you'll be fed and allowed breaks for the refresher."
"You know, if you wanna appear to be like the charitable prison guard, you could just let me go and we can forget I was ever here," Mara suggested.
Skywalker smiled but was still in his strange guise, it suited him. "Not likely to happen," he replied and headed for the exit. "By the way I never got your name, or are Imperial agents not allowed to give out identification?"
"Who said I was an Imperial agent?" Mara retorted.
"I did," he returned with a smirk. "So am I stuck with calling you Red until I find out what your name is?"
Turning her gaze away from him, Mara tried her best to shrug. "Looks that way to me," she replied.
It was Skywalker's turn to roll his eyes. With a shake of his head, the commander exited the room, leaving Mara strapped to her cot, staring at the ceiling.
*~*~*~*~*
The passage of days soon became impossible for Mara to tell. Usually she would rely on her internal clock, but without any source to confirm her intuition, Mara was left with a confused schedule. She slept when she felt tired and woke when her body told her she no longer needed sleep. The Rogues—she had finally learnt their squadron name—served her meals at the most random hours. She had a very strong suspicion that they were doing it on purpose.
Refresher breaks only happened every two hours and it was the only part of her day where she was allowed to stretch her legs. There were always four pilots on her, with their blasters trained on her head and chest. Their distrust in her was evident and just about the only person on the ship who seemed to enjoy being in her company was Skywalker.
To say that she didn't enjoy his visits was to lie. Mara did get excited when Luke entered her prison room and somehow always knew when he would visit her. After their initial meeting, Mara met another side of Luke, a mix of both the 'stern commander' as the Rogues would jokingly call him, and the 'naïve farmboy', it didn't surprise her when he told her of where he lived before the Rebellion.
"Don't you have better things to do then to sit here and fraternize with your prisoner?" Mara asked and stared at him.
Skywalker, who pulled a chair up beside her and apparently had his attention elsewhere, turned his head sharply in her direction. "Hmm?" he asked slightly offhanded. Mara could not explain the reason why she felt suddenly slighted.
"Well don't you?" she asked.
Skywalker shrugged and leaned against the backrest, a look of boredom etched on his face. "No," he answered truthfully. "I really don't… this was supposed to be a simple escort mission, I expected to be bored and unlike most of the time, I was right."
Frowning, Mara studied Skywalker, who today, was dressed in a black flight suit, which was no big change. She'd noticed from the start that his uniforms were usually in darker colours unlike his friends who wore brighter outfits. She wondered if the commander was singling himself out or just wearing it as a fashion statement.
Despite the colouring, Mara admired how well black seemed to suit him, but at the same time, she was oddly reminded of Vader. The two only seemed to share a similar taste in colouring, nothing else, they didn't bear a strong resemblance but she still saw the Dark Lord hovering above the boy like a sinister spectral.
"Of course," Luke broke into her thoughts. "Spending time here with a beautiful woman can't really be considered that boring."
"You know, Skywalker," Mara remarked. "You really should stop being something you're not."
Luke stared at her, startled by her statement. "What?" he asked.
"The way you're acting now," she replied. "It's just not you… this flirting. You've got friends like that, don't you?"
Chuckling softly, Skywalker
slowly nodded. He brought a hand to his mouth to cover a smile and turned his
attention elsewhere. "You're not the first woman who've said that to me. Is it
that obvious?"
"Well, short answer: yes," Mara replied.
Luke shrugged again, "I've been confused with my identity these days," he admitted. "Sometimes I feel like I'm someone else while other times I'm just me." He clenched his right hand and stared at it in what seemed like anger. Mara watched him in wonderment. She'd noticed him staring at his hand in such a manner a few times before. From what she could deduce, the boy had suffered some sort of tragedy very recently.
Her reverie was interrupted when Skywalker abruptly stood, a foolish grin on his face. "Well now, it's almost dinner, you hungry?"
Deciding to play along, Mara snorted. "Ration bars and water? Yum, I'm just eager to get my hands on that."
Amusement lit Skywalker's eyes as he turned to leave. "Be back in a sec, don't move," he called over his shoulder and disappeared behind the door.
Mara repressed the urge to groan at the poorly made joke and instead focused her attention towards the ceiling, which had become very familiar to her. What am I doing? She asked herself. Why do I feel as if I can say anything to him? He's so strong, but I feel so sad for him.
The Emperor's Hand glanced back in the direction that Luke had left, she certainly did feel as if she could trust Luke, in only a matter of days, she'd become closer to him then she'd ever before with anyone else. She felt as if she'd made a friend--and it was a comforting thought. During her whole life as an agent for the Empire, she'd never had one.
But there was a reason why. She had a duty towards the Emperor. What good would it serve her to make friends when they'd only get in her way? Making friends were futile and it was especially dangerous to make ones with an enemy. Had she been so easily swayed by Skywalker's natural charm that she'd forgotten her original objective?
So this was the Rebel Alliance's way of pumping information out of a prisoner, they'd fool them into believing they were friends and eventually convince them to relinquish whatever details they wanted.
Mara sighed, trying to relieve the tension from her shoulders. It was about time she planned an escape. There would be no more happy little chats with Skywalker for her; she needed to complete her mission first.