There were times that Mara wondered just how much the people around them knew. From the staff at the palace to the pilot flying them and the small collection of stormtroopers to be dropped off along with - but never responsible for - two twelve-year-olds on the planet, did they ever ask questions? Did they know who they were, what they were doing? She didn't think so. The Emperor functioned on a need-to-know basis, and those around him had to rely on - to trust - that he had the bigger picture.

It was that trust in a larger plan that had demanded that Vader send Natus off with her after suffering retribution for his failures, and, Mara cautiously assumed, trust in the larger plan that had eventually bent his knee to the Emperor's demands. Granted, he'd nearly choked the life out of her when she'd come to collect his son, but the end result was the same. Trust was given, even if that was the only available choice to make.

Though that didn't necessarily extend to her. Natus had talked his father out of killing her and had gone with her without a fight, but the usual excitement had washed out of him and there was nothing friendly in the cold look he gave her, if he looked her way at all. He hadn't initiated conversation and hadn't bothered to ask where they were going. The real worry came when he boarded the ship and hadn't needed to be run off from the cockpit. While his father had been giving him flying lessons, he never left Coruscant's atmosphere. No matter the reason, Mara had thought he would want to see their jump to hyperspace firsthand. Instead he'd found an alcove and sat with his eyes closed in what looked like a meditative state. Fantastic. The kid that never seemed to stop preferred to meditate than talk with her. That boded well for the mission.

Mara watched him from the short passage she'd taken from the cockpit. She pursed her lips and drew in a breath. She'd given him all the time she could. Time to clear the air.

"We'll be coming out of hyperspace in a couple hours," she said by way of greeting. "You should get caught up."

"I take it I need to know this time?" he asked without opening his eyes.

Mara snorted at that. "Listen, I get you're not happy with me —"

Blue eyes snapped open and there was a sharpness in his voice that matched his expression. "You don't matter. It's your Madter that doesn't think I'm ready. You're just his eyes and ears. You proved that much."

She tried not to grimace at the razor sharp words. "Natus…. Luke."

There was a flash of anger in his eyes and her skin tingled as she felt a brief pressure from the Force pushing in around her, reacting to his mood. "You're not going to manipulate me."

"I'm not trying to," she answered, trying to keep her voice calm. There was very little about him that reminded her of his father until that moment. Under the boyish features ran an incredible amount of power, and while she had her own set of talents, she knew she couldn't match him in the Force. If he was going to start developing the same paranoid streak his father had, there was no telling if she'd live long enough to prove she wasn't his enemy.

"What's the mission?"

She blinked, startled out of her thoughts. With a small sigh she pulled a datapad from her pocket and took a seat on the floor with him so that he could see as well. He wanted to act like she hadn't been his only friend for years? Fine. She could be professional about this.

"The planet is called Myrkr," she explained, the datapad zeroing in on the planet in question. "Type One atmosphere, forest covering most of the terrain, inhabited."

"It says we already have control over it. So what? There's an uprising?"

Mara swallowed the snort she normally would have given him. He wouldn't take it as their normal teasing today. "That's more your dad's area of expertise. You and I are going in to confirm a rumour."

Natus - because apparently she was only allowed to refer to him by his real name if she was in his good graces - scrunched his nose. "That's a waste of talent."

"You want to tell the Emperor that or should I?" She felt his reaction a fraction of a second before his head snapped up to glare at her and she raised her hands in mock surrender. "I don't mean literally. I just mean that he didn't tell me why, just assigned the mission. If he gave it to me - to us - there's a reason."

"You trust him."

"Of course." She swallowed down all the reasons why that he wouldn't be ready to hear in that moment. If the Emperor was right - and he always was - about his split loyalties, then she had to ease him into the understanding. She had to show him. Otherwise she'd drive him further away and she wasn't willing to dwell on what that would lead to. She slid her finger across the screen, pulling up the next page of data that included a holo that popped up of a small, lizard-like creatures. "These little guys are what we're looking for. The ysalamiri. Supposedly they reside in the jungle."

Now Natus looked even more insulted. "Anyone could verify they're there."

"He wanted us."

"He wanted you."

Mara let a small smirk touch her lips. "Exactly. That's how you know he needs his best."

—-

Luke squinted against the bright sun as they exited the shuttle on a small landing platform and adjusted the pack that Mara had tossed his direction on one shoulder. Inside, tucked between supplies, was his lightsaber. He'd been informed that it was too conspicuous to wear in the open without the dark cloak he typically wore on their adventures in the lower levels of Coruscant to hide it. He felt naked without it - exposed - and he resisted the urge to touch the bond he shared with his father for reassurance and guidance. If he truly wanted to travel with his father on the Executioner, he had to learn to hold his own in any part of the galaxy. That meant against enemies seen and unseen. Against any obstacle. He took a breath, his goal in mind, and he allowed it to sharpen his resolve. His lightsaber wasn't his only weapon, and any enemy that found him would learn that all too quickly.

Locals lingered at the edges of the permacrete as if they thought they were being inconspicuous, watching stormtroopers march out onto their world. There was an unease that flickered through them, their attention fixated on the white-clad soldiers as they whispered amongst themselves. Why, Luke wasn't sure. There were countless stormtroopers on Coruscant and only the tiniest fraction visible here. They kept the peace. The people should be relieved, not afraid.

It didn't matter. They didn't matter. Getting to the creatures - the ysalamiri - and confirming whatever rumour Mara had been tasked to confirm was all he needed to focus on. He didn't have time for distractions.

Speaking of… Luke moved to where Mara was quietly looking between her datapad and the thick foliage in the distance. "Exactly what rumour are we supposed to be confirming?"

"Not beneath you anymore?" she popped off, not bothering to look at him and he bristled. She didn't have any right to be mad at him in all of this. She was the one that had broken confidence and he and his father were punished for it.

He set his jaw. "I'm just not interested in being caught unprepared."

Mara's datapad chimed and she sighed, finally looking up. "I don't know the details because the intel didn't provide them. An ISB agent caught a transmission and was able to decrypt part of it, but not enough to know more than, if these things exist, they're worth an exceptional price on the black market. The kind of price people only pay for weapons. We're supposed to confirm that the ysalamiri are actually here and see if it's worth sending a retrieval team in."

Well, now that he knew more, it sounded like even more of a waste of time. And maybe it was. Maybe the whole point was to see if Luke would follow Palpatine's orders and how he'd react paired with someone he no longer trusted. Maybe this was his test. "In there?" he asked, motioning to the trees.

"It looks like the way."

The two almost-teens started towards the outside of town in silence. With the arrival of stormtroopers, no one paid any attention to them and they made it to the forest in just under half an hour, which was quicker than Luke would have predicted. The foliage was thick, tendrils of plants he'd never seen in either the Palace gardens or in planetary studies reached out from beneath. While they were likely reaching for the sun beyond the shade of the other growth, Luke couldn't help but feel like it was reaching for them. There was something strange that he couldn't quite put his finger on, and it lay beyond what they could see. If Mara felt it, she didn't show it. Instead she started picking her way along the edge, looking for the opening to make her way inside.

Luke let his gaze sweep the treeline, the sounds of the forest filling his ears. He pulled in a deep breath as he let his eyes flutter closed, reaching out with his senses and letting the noise blur together and pull him in. It felt…. thick. Congested. So much so that he felt like he was running into a wall not too deep into the forest.

Mara's curse pulled him out of the moment and he saw where she was sucking on the side of her hand like a thorn had snagged her. Without warning, he reached forward and tugged at a nearby branch with the Force, ripping it from its tree and sending it and the wall of vines clinging to it crashing down. Mara jumped back with a surprised yelp before she whipped around. "Some warning next time?"

"Pay attention then," he snapped back and strode past her, feeling a bit more smug over her boiling frustration than the situation probably warranted. For half a beat, he thought she might lash back out, but instead he just heard her push a breath out through her nose and stalk after him.

"Did you feel anything?" she asked after several moments of wordless walking, even if not quiet. There was no way to keep their steps completely silent against the thick underbrush biting at their boots.

"Something," he acknowledged. "Not sure what though. You?"

He could practically feel her frown. "There's a lot of noise."

On instinct, he almost started to walk her through how to filter some of it out. They had always helped each other before, sharing bits of knowledge that the other lacked. But then she'd taken the trust he'd given her and handed it straight over to Palpatine. She'd put his father at risk. She'd put him at risk. She didn't deserve his help.

He turned to look at the thick forest ahead of them. They could make it through, but unless they knew where they were going, they'd be wandering aimlessly. Even as he paused, she pushed ahead, pulling her datapad out to supplement what she couldn't feel through the Force. Not willing to be left behind, Luke followed, jogging a couple of steps to catch up with her quick stride and reaching out to try to get some sense through the thicket.

And then it crashed into him hard enough that he stumbled. He reached out, fingers searching on instinct for some sort of invisible forcefield that would have caused his body to react that way, but there was nothing there. He looked to Mara who had also stopped, and he reached out to get a feel for if she'd been hit by it too or if she'd merely stopped because he had.

There was nothing.

Luke blinked hard, stretching out again, but he couldn't feel her. He couldn't feel anything through the Force. It was like suddenly going blind and deaf. Fear crept up and he swung the bag around, reaching for his weapon even as Mara tilted her head curiously.

"Interesting," she murmured and took two steps back in the way they'd come. She looked around before motioning. "Come here."

Fingers grasping his lightsaber, and Luke kept his thumb close to the trigger as he swung the pack back around and followed Mara's instructions, confusion overwhelming his earlier need to be obstinate for obstinacy's sake. As quickly as he had lost his connection, it came flooding back, and his fear hardened into anger as he turned on her. "What the hells is that?"

"I don't know. The forest, maybe? Something blocked our connection to the Force." She reached into the folds of her tunic and removed her lightsaber. He watched her step forward, step back, then to the side as she tested the limitations.

"It can't be the trees," Luke murmured, gaze sweeping upward. "They're the same kind we've seen since we entered."

"Something else then," she answered and her purple blade snap-hissed into existence. She swung it forward, lightly marking a tree. She moved again and marked a second one. Then she stepped back through the invisible wall and glanced back thoughtfully. "Your training may have focused more on it… is there any weapon that can nullify the Force?"

"No," he answered immediately. "It's in everything."

"I mean, I know that, but maybe it can be… contained? I don't know."

"What are you thinking? The ysalamiri are doing it?"

"Maybe. They're supposed to be a weapon right? And the Emperor wanted two Force sensitives to confirm the rumours." She started forward again.

Luke didn't dare cross the threshold again. "Consider it confirmed."

She turned a look on him like he'd lost his mind. "We haven't confirmed anything. We haven't even seen one."

"Then let's find another way in," he pressed, looking down the way. Maybe it was the trees. Who knew what was hidden in all of this?

"You really are reliant on it, aren't you?"

"What?"

"You can't do anything without the Force."

"Of course I can!"

Mara snorted. "Good. Then you won't slow me down."

Luke stared at her as she practically bounded deeper into the forest, clearly pleased that she thought she had the advantage. It wasn't that, he told himself. Not at all. He just had a bad feeling about this. A bad feeling that stayed with him even as he crossed the barrier and felt the punch to the gut that was being cut off from the Force. And it stayed with him as he and Mara trudged deeper into the forest.

—-

She had been more curious about it than worried. Hells, Natus was worried enough for both of them. The further they made their way into the forest - both with their lightsabers drawn and clearing a path forward at this point - the more the silence weighed on her. Not the auditory silence. Every sound still screamed in her ears, making it hard to rely on her hearing for any forewarning of danger, but the silence in the Force that had begun to feel like a wet blanket draped over her face. It was thick and warm in all the wrong ways, limiting her view and throwing off her senses. Mara had given Natus grief before about his reliance on the Force, but - and she wouldn't dare admit it to him - she was finding herself right there with him.

A creature scurried off to their left and both of them turned, lightsabers held ready and Mara reached for a blaster she had holstered at her hip. They stood still for a long, tense moment before nothing happened. Natus was the first to let his guard drop and she followed suit, begrudgingly reminding herself that her instinct to follow his Force sensitivity above hers was null and void in this place. The deeper in they went, the more she felt like her theory had to be right. They just had to prove it and they could get out of this Force-forsaken place.

They made it another standard hour before the sun set too low to safely continue. They prepared the camp, Mara directing Natus on what needed to be gathered, stacked, and situated. Once they'd gotten the fire going, they huddled on either side of it, both still shivering. Mara looked through the flames to see the strained expression etched into her - former? - friend's face. She hugged her knees a little closer. "He can't hear us, if you wanted to talk," she ventured.

Natus looked up, startled by her words or maybe just her voice. "What's there to talk about?"

Mara pursed her lips together. "I don't know, maybe the fact you blame me for something stupid?"

"I blame you for selling me out," he growled, shoulders hunching down a bit more as he bent forwards the flames. "I shouldn't have expected anything more from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're the Emperor's Hand. That's who you're loyal to."

"That's who you're loyal to too," she reminded him.

There was a longer moment than she would have preferred before he grunted a soft affirmation. "Sure, but you didn't have to tell him about what my father did. If you'd just kept it to yourself, Palpatine wouldn't have hurt him."

Mara set her chin on her bent knees, watching him. "He would have known," she said softly.

His eyes flashed dangerously. "Not if you hadn't told him," he snapped. "Father warned me, but I didn't listen. I —"

Another sound caught their attention and both of them were on their feet in an instant, lightsabers in hand. Mara's gaze swept the dark foliage in search of the source. Across - with nothing to show for it - and then up until she saw it. High in the tree, claws hooked into the branch, a ysalamiri. She motioned up.

"Is that it?" Natus whispered.

"Yeah. I think so."

"How do we know if it's causing the… problems?"

"I don't know."

They stood there for a long moment, marveling at the creature that didn't seem to care that they were there. Their eyes were turned upward when the branches gave the barest rustle and a creature leapt forward and at them.

Mara reacted on instinct honed by her instructors rather than the Force, and swung out with her blade. It caught one of the canine creatures in the jaw, sending it yelping into the night. She held her humming blade up, ready for the next attack, but heard a cry that was all-too-human behind her. She spun, finding Natus sprawled out on the ground with his lightsaber just out of reach. The creature loomed over him, teeth bared, and for whatever reason Natus looked unable to move.

A snarl behind her was the only warning as another creature leapt out, whip-like tail snapping at her and it caught her left hand. A tingling sensation instantly spread, giving her the answer as to why Natus was still on the ground. These creatures paralyzed their prey and he had no connection to the Force to push the venom from his veins.

She sidestepped, lightsaber out to hold her own foe back as she reached for her blaster to try to take out Natus'. The creature was too smart for that and switched its trajectory. Mara gave a cry as it leapt forward. It threw her to the ground and the hilt of her lightsaber was all that she could put between its teeth and her throat.

The creature snarled in her face, straining the muscles in her arms as she struggled to hold it at bay. She swung up with her blaster, the butt of it slamming into its skull and it howled as it scurried away.

She rolled to her feet, a weapon in either hand, and she leveled her blaster at the ysalamiri. Time to test a theory.

One shot with a second for good measure and the creature fell dead to the forest floor. All at once the Force flooded her senses and it was like she could hear again. She looked up at Natus who was pinned under the creature who had already sunk its teeth into his left shoulder and looked ready to move to his neck. It didn't have the chance as power leapt off of him, slamming hard into the creature and there was a loud crack as it hit a tree. Any of its pack mates scattered at the display and Natus collapsed to one knee from where he had stood.

Mara was at his side in an instant, her voice as calm as she could muster as she swatted his hand away from the bleeding wound. "That bad?" he asked, taking a hard seat on the ground.

"I packed med supplies," she promised, a mental inventory running through her mind.

"Figured you needed to deliver me back."

His meaning caught up with her a fraction of a second later than it should have and she pressed down lightly on the wound. She thought every muscle in his body must have tensed. Served him right. "I'm worried about you, not the mission."

"Sure you're capable of that?"

She reached for her bag with the med supplies. "Listen, just because your dad's a paranoid son of a bantha herder doesn't mean you have to be. I was protecting you - and him - when I told my Master. And I want to help you now, so hold still."

She tugged at his dark tunic to get a better look at the wound and his back arched, the cry only barely swallowed. She reached for a bacta swab and dropped it, the hand that the creature had swiped at still partially numb. She switched hands and grabbed it, opening it after several tries and laying it across the wound.

There was a long moment before his muscles relaxed just a little and his chin drooped, a sigh escaping him. "Did it get you too?" he asks softly.

"Only with the tail."

"That's how it starts," he grumbled and she found blue eyes on her, only slightly unfocused. "How?"

"How did I get away?" she guessed.

"How were you protecting us?"

It was Mara's turn to sigh and she took a seat with him. For now, in this spot, they had warning and defense. "Your father killed an Inquisitor. That much would have gotten back to the Emperor from any number of spies he keeps in your father's ranks."

"He does what?" Natus demanded, clearly regretting the way his head had jerked up almost instantly. He grimaced and she waited a moment for him to work through the fresh wave of pain.

"Your father knows," Mara said softly. "It's expected. The Emperor also knows what I do… when he wants to, but you knew that. It's why you thought I could help you."

"So you were saving your own skin," he huffed.

"And yours. It's not often that he's caught unaware, but when he is he gets angry. He had time to plan before Vader returned. His reaction was controlled. I'm not saying it was pleasant, but neither you nor your father's lives were in danger. If I hadn't said anything, it could have gone much worse."

"Or better."

"I wasn't willing to gamble with your life," she murmured, and while the words could certainly be strategic to soften him, she found that she meant them.

Natus sighed, hunching forward. "I don't want to hate you," he confessed softly after a long stretch.

"Then don't. You don't have any reason to. I'm on your side."

"You're on his."

Her eyes narrowed. That was the second time he had made it sound like he stood opposite of his Master's master. She reached forward, her fingers stained with his blood and they touched the back of his hand. Slowly, tentatively, they ghosted along his knuckles until she could wrap her fingers around so they touched the palm of his hand. His own fingers tightened on hers and those blue eyes of his were fixed on her. "I'm on yours," she pressed, her voice quiet but firm. "Always."

He watched her for a long moment, the emotions bubbling past his barriers bigger than she thought a person should have been able to have. And maybe that's what made them special, Luke and his father. Maybe they felt everything more strongly, with more ferocity than any other Human could. Love and hate, fear and determination. Loyalty. Betrayal.

Finally he gave a nod of acceptance and she could see the wariness pulling at him. She rocked forward, fingers as gentle as they could be as they peeled back the bloody bacta patch to reveal the jagged wounds left by the creature's teeth. She frowned and grabbed a second one, fitting it into place to continue the first's work.

A soft sigh escaped him. "It's all going to be different," he murmured tiredly, but she wasn't sure exactly what he meant. With the slight slur in his voice, she wondered if he'd know if asked later.

"You should rest."

"They might come back."

"I'll keep watch."

"You'll protect me?" he asked, his tone a little teasing and it pulled a real smile from her.

"Yeah, Luke. I'll protect you," she promised.

He didn't argue the name. Instead he shifted, laying his head against her bent leg and settling in, trusting her to keep them safe.

—-

He woke in stages, confusion hanging over him like a thick fog. He wasn't sure where he was. Certainly not in his own soft bed in his room on Coruscant. As he broke through another layer of fog, Luke could hear the sounds of nature all around him. Birds chirped, leaves rustled, and as he shifted he felt dirt under his fingertips. He pried his eyes open to see early morning light through a canopy of trees.

A soft groan escaped him as he rolled, fully intending on sitting up and regaining his bearings. Discomfort spread through his left shoulder and he felt a hand against his back. "Easy," Mara coaxed and she helped him sit up. "How're you feeling?"

"Groggy," he answered, the prior day's events slowly working their way back to his memory. He reached up to his injured shoulder, fingers exploring the dried bacta patch. It was stiff and sore, but nothing compared to the burning pain from the night before.

"Looks a lot better than last night," Mara murmured. "Can you stand? We should get going when you're up for it."

Luke grunted an affirmative and let her help him to his feet. "What about our proof?"

She shrugged. "I shot one of them and we got a pocket of access to the Force. It's up to the scientists to figure out how that works." Mara crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at the trees. "I'll make sure the Emperor knows."

"Knows what?"

"What you brought to the mission," she answered. "Technically you ran the rest of those things off last night."

Only after she'd found a way to not only prove that the ysalamiri were responsible for blocking the Force, but in taking the one that had been blocking it for them out. But she knew that. Of course she knew that. This was her trying to prove that she meant what she'd said the night before: she was on his side.

"You okay?"

Like turned to find Mara watching him curiously. He didn't feel the light pressure that would have told him she was prying. Instead, she was letting him decide how much he wanted to tell her. "Yeah," he said at last. "Just thinking."

She hummed softly, a little uncertainly, and he turned. It was his decision. He could fight himself the whole way, struggling to stay angry at his only friend who hadn't tried to betray him. Who truly did believe that she was on his side, and maybe she was. Maybe if it came down to it - and the truth was that, someday, it would. There'd be a day that Palpatine either killed him or his father or they killed him. There could only be two - she would choose him. He wanted to believe that.

He offered her a smile "You ready?"

Mara blinked, her own expression softening. "Yeah."

They started forward, passing through the bubble to where the Force was inaccessible and he tilted his chin and squared his shoulders, ignoring the pull on his healing muscles. He wouldn't let the weakness show. He wouldn't let it stop him.

TBC

Notes: I feel like it took me a bit longer to really find the story for this one because there was a lot of heavy emotional work that needed to be done and while these kids are definitely working above their age bracket here, they're still kids trying to navigate all of this emotional chaos. I hope all of you enjoyed the nods to Luke and Mara's first adventure in Heir to the Empire that I used as a backdrop to that! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Next Time: Luke is faced with a decision that will either bring him closer to becoming worthy of joining his father on the Executioner or destroy that hope forever.