At point blank range
Part 3: Forest Trek
By SJ (skyjade@globetrotter.net)
02-02-02/06-02
________________
Disclaimers: Nothing in the Star Wars Universe belong to me; everything belongs
to George Lucas. Also, everything related to the spoken parts of Heir to the
Empire belongs to Timothy Zhan. I'm only borrowing it to make more sense with
Mara's or Luke's missing thoughts (when we follow Luke's thoughts in the novel,
this story will cover Mara's, and vice versa ;). Naturally, everything related
to the events of Heir to the Empire also belong to T. Zhan. Please don't sue
me, it's only for fun; I'm not making any money out of this.
See my homepage for more details.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/3702
Special thanks to my shy, secret beta-reader and best friend, Adrianne, for her
help with the final editing of my new stories. Thanks for giving me some of
your precious time, my friend :)
__________________
As Mara expected, the foolish Jedi stepped into her ship; he slowly came closer
to the back of her seat... then remained silent, as if studying his options.
Fortunately for her, he chose the least wise of the lot: he moved to check on
her--- and stared right into the muzzle of her blaster once again.
"I figured you'd come," she smiled meanly at him. "Back up. Now."
He wisely obeyed her, but he also tried to keep her under his spell with his
attempts to be friendly; this time he pretended to worry about her. She
bitterly told him off as she retrieved the emergency communication kit from
under her seat, then instructed him to retrieve the emergency pack.
A few seconds later, they had reached the main hatch; the Jedi was the first
through the hatch. Once on the soft ground, he commented about not hoping to
walk back to the base.
She couldn't help but sneer in annoyance at his vainness.
"I won't," she retorted--- and noticed how high she was from the ground.
Her ankle was only slightly tender at the moment, but if she jumped--- She saw
how Skywalker noticed her hesitancy; out of pride, she jumped down but was
careful to land more on her left than her right foot. She quickly recovered her
balance and proceeded to back the Jedi away from the ship while she informed him
about where things exactly stood for him.
Skywalker didn't budge, either physically or mentally, at her threats.
"Finishing what you started with this?" he asked instead with what looked like
the first traces of anger in his voice since he had woken up in the barracks.
She countered his reply with an angry retort, especially since she admitted out
loud her mistake of following him from too close... She also admitted to herself
that she had also hesitated to shoot him down... And that she still felt so.
Right now, she was once again in an excellent position to kill him... yet still
didn't do it.
Suddenly feeling more irritated with herself than with him, she avoided more
confrontation by ordering him to recover his droid.
However, she wasn't completely done with herself. Even as she sat down and
opened the communication kit, she asked herself once again what was so difficult
to pull the cursed trigger. It wasn't her; she hated the Jedi. It wasn't
Karrde either, she didn't owe him anything. No matter what he had done for her,
she reasoned, she wasn't attached to him.
That only left the Jedi. That darn murderer was doing something to her,
something which had to do with his eyes, but she couldn't, for the Emperor's
sake, figure out what it was.
Even worse, she admitted while she fiddled with the content of the case, it
wasn't only his eyes either: she couldn't shoot him in the back either. Perhaps
the lightsaber would be easier, she decided as she glanced up to check on her
prisoner. He had finished to free his droid and was waiting for her.
She coolly instructed him to behave--- then froze.
Far away, but coming closer, was the sound of repulsor lifts. Already, she
frowned? Was Karrde wise to send a rescue this fast with the imperials still in
orbit?
She began to instruct her prisoner for their recovery---- then froze again. It
wasn't just any ship, she suddenly recognized. That was an imperial pitch!
Not knowing how Skywalker's presence would look to them, she decided that they
couldn't be found. She slammed the computer shut even as she gathered their
survival kit.
"Move!" she ordered sharply.
When Skywalker hesitated, she entertained the thought of firing at his feet to
get him running, but changed her mind. She couldn't take the risk of hurting
him right now.
"Into the trees--- both of you. I said move!" she spat more forcefully; the
Jedi finally obeyed her.
She ran straight behind him, making sure that he wasn't attempting anything
while they were running for cover.
Finally, she estimated that they were far enough. She told him to hide his
droid, then to hit the dirt. She kept an eye on him as he complied... and was
greatly surprised when he laid right beside her on the ground, as if he trusted
her, but she wasn't dupe. 'She' didn't trust him. She brought her blaster
closer to his jaw even as she positioned herself halfway over him so that he
wouldn't escape her easily.
Skywalker felt it too.
"Not a move, not a sound," she whispered warningly as she viciously wedged her
weapon in his jaw before settling in to wait. Skywalker followed suite.
In the clearing, stormtroopers spread around the crash's site, looking for
traces of their presence. The more she watched them, and the more her resolve
to not hand her prisoner over to what remained of the Empire hardened.
They didn't deserve to be called imperials anymore, she sneered at the far away
troops. They were closer to mercenaries than true servants of the late Emperor.
She wouldn't give them the privilege of killing the Emperor's murderer.
Under herself, the said man began to grow impatient--- then a subtle shift of
his muscles informed her that he wasn't as quiet as he looked. She warned him
to remain quiet or else he wouldn't survive for much longer. The man nodded
silently and forced himself to relax.
While the other relaxed, she herself began to grow aware of her 'exact' position
against the Jedi's body... and her memory of what she had seen three days ago
brought back feelings she didn't want to even think about. No, she berated
herself even as she hurried to focus on her hatred, she wasn't the least bit
interested by the Jedi's work-of-art body.
He had destroyed her life, she viciously reminded herself; he would pay with
his.
Eventually, the troopers finally re-entered their shuttle, then the clearing
recovered its peace and quietness. Under her, Skywalker moved to get up; she
stilled him with a stronger pressure of her blaster against his jugular.
"Quiet," she hissed, then pointed out that they might not be as safe as they
thought they were. Once she had convinced her prisoner of following her lead,
she instructed him to remain quiet and lead the way 'away' from the clearing.
A minute later, Skywalker was once again walking in front of her, stopping then
and again to help his droid over roots or out of long grass.
At long last, she called for a stop and found a log to take her weight
off her aching ankle; the Jedi sank to the rough ground.
"Thank you for not turning me over to the stormtroopers," he told her in that
irritating earnestness of his.
"Save it," she bit out. While she re-opened her computer pad and resumed her
triangulation operation, she told him 'exactly' why she hadn't killed him. Were
it not for their situation, she thought in hatred, the murderer would already be
dead.
"You could call him," the Jedi naively offered her in the silence.
Had she not hated him so much, she conceded that she might have laughed at his
stupid offer, but she had never been in the habit of laughing anyway. Instead,
she curled her lips into a disgusted sneer and told him what she thought about
his 'brilliant' idea before telling him to shut up and let her do her
calculations.
The Jedi obeyed once again and fell silent. She called up data, then, with the
help of the computer's infrared link with location satellites, pinpointed their
current location. From there, she plotted the shortest path to the edge of the
forest. All the while, she kept an eye on the Jedi, wary for any of his tricks
even though he couldn't touch the Force anymore.
Finally, she had her answer.
"Three days," she informed her prisoner.
"Three days to what?" he asked somewhat suspiciously.
"The edge of the forest, civilization, well, Hyllyard City anyway, which is
about as close as this part of the planet gets to it."
"And how many of us will be going there?" he asked her defiantly, slowly
acquiring a less relaxed position.
He sure was clever, she admitted even as she picked up her blaster from her lap.
"That's the question, isn't it?" she taunted him, calling up all the hatred and
anger that she felt for the Jedi. This time, she resolved seriously, she would
pull the trigger... yet challenged him to give her one reason to spare his life.
To her surprise, he did have a reason. She couldn't help but chortle in
disbelief at his thought that she would need a droid. She refuted his argument
by telling him about the very soon-to-come fate of the robot.
"In pieces?" the Jedi gaped, throwing a worried gaze at his robot.
As if he cared, she reflected dimly, but shoved the upcoming about such behavior
away from her mind. At last, she sighed in bliss, she was going to kill Luke
Skywalker; there would be time for the rest once she were done.
However, she didn't kill him right away; instead, she continued to justify her
decision about the robot, generating more questions from the stupid 'hero'.
When he asked her what she meant about knowing too much, she barely kept herself
from rolling her eyes in annoyance. He was supposed to be a hardened fighter,
she wanted to remind him, not a green-horned kid.
"You, Karrde, me---- this whole stupid mess," she still specified for him.
It had been supposed to be simple, she thought angrily. A shot, the Jedi
killed, she was free. But instead, it just kept getting more complicated with
each new development. But no more, she reminded herself sternly.
Meanwhile, Skywalker was still trying to convince her to save the droid. She
didn't let him sway her 'hand'. Further more, she promised herself that if he
didn't drop that pretense of being kind, she might just take a shot at him after
all, if only to shut him up.
The Jedi seemed to fail to understand this and instead continued with his plea
for his robot. He also failed to decode her hateful glare when he suggested
that she would have to keep him alive to use the droid.
Protect, really?, she silently sneered even as she glared at him and tightened
her grip on her blaster. Her weapon was now unwaveringly pointed at the Jedi's
heart.
He saw it too and swallowed hard in obvious fear.
So he wasn't as courageous as others made him to be, she smirked inwardly.
Good. She would make sure everyone knew what a coward he was.
"Are you sure you're not letting your emotions get in the way of your judgment?"
he asked her next instead of begging for his life.
While his answer surprised her, it wasn't a welcome surprise. That self-
righteous, little---- Did he think that she would abandon her duty for anything?
And she could sure survive without any help. She slit her eyes even as she
closed in for the kill, lowering herself to her knees until she stood on three,
her blaster aimed steadily at her target.
"Let me tell you something, Skywalker," she snarled lowly, savoring his gradual
loss of serenity.
At last.
And while the Jedi took his last breaths, she told him 'exactly' what was her
relationship with him, how much she hated him. While she retold the past five
years of her life, her finger pulled back the trigger to the almost shooting
point as unpleasant memories assailed her mind: her pain, her anger, the cold
disappointment and fury of her master... "You can call it a cloud on my
judgment if you want to; I'm used to it by now," she bit out bitterly even as
she tried to avoid his piercing... disturbing blue gaze.
He was always looking at her, she dimly noticed with unease; ever since he had
woken up in the barracks, he had never, ever gazed at her weapon or away...It
was really beginning to unnerve her, was even beginning to make her doubt
everything she had read and heard about him. In fact, deep down, she barely
conceded that he seemed to be a nice guy --- but instantly shooed that thought
away from her mind. It was a trick, she reminded herself, it was all a trick:
his eyes, his body, his kindness, it was just a strategy to save his life, but
it wouldn't work, she resolved, tightening her grip on her weapon even as she
brought her weapon level with his head.
"What did I do to you?" her prisoner finally whispered in stark terror, showing
her a side of the Jedi that she hadn't thought existed.
He was not afraid like someone about to lose everything he had, she reflected in
puzzlement; instead, he was reacting like someone who was afraid of what he had
done. It's just another trick, she sternly told herself when she felt her
resolve falter yet again; the Jedi continued to stare wide-eyed at her.
"You destroyed my life," she answered him with deep-seated resent. "It's only
fair that I destroy yours," she stated to both him and herself as she felt
herself waver yet again under his intense gaze.
He didn't have the gaze of a murderer, a small voice seemed to tell her; she
slammed that voice shut and refocused on her mission.
Her duty.
Her target tried yet again to reason with her; she didn't let him.
"It is something I have to do," she stated coldly, "for myself and for---" she
suddenly froze inwardly.
The Emperor... She hadn't killed for him in nearly five years... The Emperor,
her bitter master who had given her a last mission and a nightmare to never
forget it...
Why had he done that?, she wondered for the first time since she had begun to
have her recurrent nightmares. Why had he left her with this agony---
Because she had failed him, her assassin personality told her, seeking to take
over her doubts, but somehow, she noticed that she wasn't willing to let her
take over this time.
Skywalker was---
"What about Karrde?" the reason for her pain asked in the silence, managing to
make her stop in her mental progress yet again.
Her cold self became even colder at his weak attempt to make her doubt her
decision.
"We all want things we can't have," she bit out acidly, then meant to pull the
trigger.
She still couldn't.
"I almost wish I could drag it out a little more," she commented to hearten
herself, "but I don't have the time to spare."
'Now!' she ordered herself... but her blaster still remained mute in her hand.
She was aware that she only needed to pull the trigger an extra millimeter
backward and he would be a goner... but she couldn't.
A small voice inside her head, one which reminded a lot of herself as a young
child before she had begun her training, was telling her to not do that. That
she would kill a nice man instead of a murderer.
'So what,' she mentally argued with the voice. She had already done it more
times than she could count. What was one more or one less kill?
Despite her cold argument however, she still couldn't take the life out of
Skywalker's eyes... eyes that didn't belong to the cold individual she had been
chasing for years now.
Even as she considered at least hurting him if only to spend her frustration,
which was currently directed at herself, he fought past his fright to think of
another solution.
"Wait!" he called, lifting his hands in defense. "You said you needed to find
out what Karrde had told the Imperials. What if I could get you a secure com
channel to him?" he offered her in his damnable earnest fashion.
"How?" she narrowed her eyes, wary for a trap which he would then use to exploit
her inconceivable, actual weakness.
The man exposed his new idea to her.
Mara barely threw a glance at the package of the survival kit, then back at her
prisoner. What did he have in mind this time?
She found out a few seconds later and understood that he was trying to save both
himself and the droid yet again. She challenged him about the flaw of his 'too'
perfect plan... and discovered that the Jedi might be clever after all.
He knew a lot about his x-wing and the astromech droid, and the plan was
sound... except for one, tiny detail.
"I thought standard procedure was to wipe and reload droid memories every six
months," she asked him seriously.
"I like Artoo the way he is," was Skywalker's unexpected answer.
It threw her for a loop.
He liked his droid? As in... care?? Was he insane?, she asked herself even as
she realized that she had made her decision, for the moment. She would keep the
Jedi alive for a little while longer.
Meanwhile, her prisoner answered her. "He and the X-wing work better together
this way."
"How much better?" she asked in subdued interest.
"I don't remember the exact number," the man began thoughtfully, "but it was
something like thirty percent faster than a baseline astromech/x-wing
interface."
And with that, she knew that he hadn't made this up.
"That's counterpart speed all right," she conceded slowly.
And that settled it, she decided even as she lowered her blaster from its
straight line of fire. Sure, the Jedi was still the same man she had to kill,
the man who had killed 'her' in a way; it was her duty to take his life, even if
she hadn't been able to pull the trigger here yet she had tried harder than
hard. Perhaps she needed him alive after all, she conceded reluctantly.
However, she thought more coldly, he would have to drop that annoying attitude
of his. Otherwise, he might still not make it if he got one too many times on
her sensitive nerves.
They discussed the details of their strategy for a short while longer, then she
refocused on their exact predicament.
"Funny, isn't it," she asked him in still lasting hatred. "this scheme of yours
just happens to require that I keep both of you alive a while longer."
Which meant, she realized, that she would have to deal with more confusing
thoughts because of him.
Still, she reminded herself seriously, she didn't have any other option. She
'knew' it.
She motioned to the droid with her weapon. "What about the droid?"
The Jedi offered to build a travois for it, if she would give him back his
lightsaber for a few minutes. Her weapon was reflexively trained back on him.
She might have spared his life... for the moment, but she wasn't about to trust
him, let alone give him back a weapon.
"Sit down," she snapped, herself standing up. "I'll do it."
She walked closer to the branches, studying them while calling back to her mind
her lessons about economy of movements with a lightsaber.
"Those two," he indicated, then added: "be careful, lightsabers are tricky to
handle."
That care again, she rolled her eyes. "Your concern for my welfare is
touching," she sneered, then drew the said weapon and neatly cut two branches,
then trimmed them so that they could be used as a travois. She turned back
toward her 'audience' and was pleased to see him dumbstruck. Now he would know
not to trifle with her, she thought grimly. "Help yourself," she commented and
returned the weapon to her belt, where it belonged, she thought with finality.
The Jedi's weapon would be hers, as a well-deserved trophy.
"You've used a lightsaber before," her prisoner commented as he crossed path
with her.
She confirmed his feeling with all the hatred and coldness she could muster
while looking in his eyes; the Jedi seemed to get her message: 'don't trifle
with me.'
She surveyed him while he demonstrated his talents of carpenter.
While he tried to understand what he had just witnessed, Luke pulled some rope
from the nearby trees, then wove the two ends into some kind of net which would
support Artoo's weight. Then, he set about securing his friend on it while
under the unwavering surveillance of his would-be assassin.
It had been a close call this time, he reflected. Without his plan, he had no
doubts that he would be feeding the grass now. Then, of course, there was the
question as to how long he would have a reprieve before her unhealthy hatred
resurfaced and convinced her to pull the trigger. Somehow, he knew that she
wouldn't do it, but since his naivete had a knack to get him into worst
situations than the ones he was already in, he decided to keep an eye open for
any change of attitude on her part.
He had been right though, he reflected even as he made sure that his droid
wouldn't fall off his mean of transportation. He had hurt her in a worse way
than he had first estimated, but he still couldn't understand what he had
exactly done to her. Who was she? She knew how to use lightsabers? Was it due
to a preparation for his death? Or was it a remnant of her old life?
"All right, let's go," the woman suddenly ordered in the silence, standing up
from her chosen seat on a fallen log.
Luke winced slightly. He didn't know if his travois would be sturdy enough to
support Artoo's weight.
"I'd like to test it first---" he requested, then fell mute when she stalked
closer and wedged the tip of her blaster in his jaw.
"Just so it's clear, Skywalker," she snarled at him, "you are still my prisoner,
and if you question my orders, you won't like the consequences," she warned him
darkly. "After all," she added meanly, "I can hurt you without killing you if I
wish."
Luke meant to remind her that he wouldn't be efficient if he were hurt, but
thought better than that. Instead, he met her cold glare with his defiant one,
then waited for her to leave him alone. And as he had thought she would, she
eventually pulled her blaster away from his jaw and jabbed him forward with it.
"Move," she snapped.
Crossing his fingers that he had done a good first job, the Jedi took hold of
the two makeshift handles, then slowly tilted the wooden travois until he could
drag it behind him. Artoo tchirped slightly as he adapted to the new position,
then, after a few tests to make sure that his metallic friend was held steady in
the contraption, Luke walked on without anymore prompting from his captor.
Behind him, Mara followed, expertly evaluating the Jedi's handiwork while
calculating the necessity to tie the prisoner's hands to his charge. Given the
confusing devotion that Skywalker showed to his robot, she surmised that he
wouldn't entertain thoughts of running away from her, thus leaving his 'friend'
to her dangerous aim.
Who had ever heard of devotion to a droid?, she sneered in disgust.
'But then,' her small, younger mental voice told her, 'who had ever heard of a
murderer adulated by the crowd?'
'Shut up!', she spat at it once again, but it was too late.
Doubts had already resurfaced in her mind. She had watched the reports after
the destruction of her life, had committed them all to her memory so that she
knew exactly what her target had done during the past five years.
Her first thought was that he hadn't killed anyone anymore.
It enraged her.
'So what,' she argued with herself while she kept her eyes riveted on her
prisoner. It had only been a ploy to rise to the position he was now enjoying
in the government. 'Besides,' she argued with herself, 'even the media might
not know everything about him.'
'And what if he had never been a murderer in the first place?' her small voice
inquired insistently.
Literally furious at herself, Mara almost, almost took a shot at her prisoner
out of frustration--- when Skywalker's droid squealed in warning. She refocused
on the present just in time to spot a big vornsk as it leapt down from its perch
which was located in the tree on their left.
"Duck!!!" she snapped even as she shifted her aim and caught the predator dead
in the head.
In front of her, the Jedi obeyed her command and dropped to the ground, letting
go of his robot's travois to do so. The small droid squealed in protest upon
the rough impact, then whistled something once the danger was over.
"I'm alright, Artoo," Skywalker answered him, then focused his blue eyes on her.
"thanks to you," he finished gratefully.
"Spare me your gratitude," she reflexively spat at him even though her weapon
wasn't trained on him anymore. "As you said, I need both of you alive," she
reminded him sarcastically.
"I see," he answered, non-committal, then pushed himself back to his feet.
As she watched him recover a straighter posture, she felt the fierce desire to
ask him what he wasn't telling her in his answer, but she bit her tongue to
silence herself.
She would not fraternize with her target, she reminded herself. Having been
unable to pull the trigger once had been bad enough. When the time would come,
she didn't want to face that problem again.
In front of her, Skywalker took hold again of the droid's travois, and they were
back on their way, searching for a clearing from which they would send their
heavily encrypted message.
TBC in part 4: Skywalker
Well, liked it? Had fun? Hope so ;)
2002, SJ (skyjade@globetrotter.net)
Any positive stuff is welcome, but any mean stuff will be thrown down the
Sarlacc's throat without even being read.)
Part 3: Forest Trek
By SJ (skyjade@globetrotter.net)
02-02-02/06-02
________________
Disclaimers: Nothing in the Star Wars Universe belong to me; everything belongs
to George Lucas. Also, everything related to the spoken parts of Heir to the
Empire belongs to Timothy Zhan. I'm only borrowing it to make more sense with
Mara's or Luke's missing thoughts (when we follow Luke's thoughts in the novel,
this story will cover Mara's, and vice versa ;). Naturally, everything related
to the events of Heir to the Empire also belong to T. Zhan. Please don't sue
me, it's only for fun; I'm not making any money out of this.
See my homepage for more details.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/3702
Special thanks to my shy, secret beta-reader and best friend, Adrianne, for her
help with the final editing of my new stories. Thanks for giving me some of
your precious time, my friend :)
__________________
As Mara expected, the foolish Jedi stepped into her ship; he slowly came closer
to the back of her seat... then remained silent, as if studying his options.
Fortunately for her, he chose the least wise of the lot: he moved to check on
her--- and stared right into the muzzle of her blaster once again.
"I figured you'd come," she smiled meanly at him. "Back up. Now."
He wisely obeyed her, but he also tried to keep her under his spell with his
attempts to be friendly; this time he pretended to worry about her. She
bitterly told him off as she retrieved the emergency communication kit from
under her seat, then instructed him to retrieve the emergency pack.
A few seconds later, they had reached the main hatch; the Jedi was the first
through the hatch. Once on the soft ground, he commented about not hoping to
walk back to the base.
She couldn't help but sneer in annoyance at his vainness.
"I won't," she retorted--- and noticed how high she was from the ground.
Her ankle was only slightly tender at the moment, but if she jumped--- She saw
how Skywalker noticed her hesitancy; out of pride, she jumped down but was
careful to land more on her left than her right foot. She quickly recovered her
balance and proceeded to back the Jedi away from the ship while she informed him
about where things exactly stood for him.
Skywalker didn't budge, either physically or mentally, at her threats.
"Finishing what you started with this?" he asked instead with what looked like
the first traces of anger in his voice since he had woken up in the barracks.
She countered his reply with an angry retort, especially since she admitted out
loud her mistake of following him from too close... She also admitted to herself
that she had also hesitated to shoot him down... And that she still felt so.
Right now, she was once again in an excellent position to kill him... yet still
didn't do it.
Suddenly feeling more irritated with herself than with him, she avoided more
confrontation by ordering him to recover his droid.
However, she wasn't completely done with herself. Even as she sat down and
opened the communication kit, she asked herself once again what was so difficult
to pull the cursed trigger. It wasn't her; she hated the Jedi. It wasn't
Karrde either, she didn't owe him anything. No matter what he had done for her,
she reasoned, she wasn't attached to him.
That only left the Jedi. That darn murderer was doing something to her,
something which had to do with his eyes, but she couldn't, for the Emperor's
sake, figure out what it was.
Even worse, she admitted while she fiddled with the content of the case, it
wasn't only his eyes either: she couldn't shoot him in the back either. Perhaps
the lightsaber would be easier, she decided as she glanced up to check on her
prisoner. He had finished to free his droid and was waiting for her.
She coolly instructed him to behave--- then froze.
Far away, but coming closer, was the sound of repulsor lifts. Already, she
frowned? Was Karrde wise to send a rescue this fast with the imperials still in
orbit?
She began to instruct her prisoner for their recovery---- then froze again. It
wasn't just any ship, she suddenly recognized. That was an imperial pitch!
Not knowing how Skywalker's presence would look to them, she decided that they
couldn't be found. She slammed the computer shut even as she gathered their
survival kit.
"Move!" she ordered sharply.
When Skywalker hesitated, she entertained the thought of firing at his feet to
get him running, but changed her mind. She couldn't take the risk of hurting
him right now.
"Into the trees--- both of you. I said move!" she spat more forcefully; the
Jedi finally obeyed her.
She ran straight behind him, making sure that he wasn't attempting anything
while they were running for cover.
Finally, she estimated that they were far enough. She told him to hide his
droid, then to hit the dirt. She kept an eye on him as he complied... and was
greatly surprised when he laid right beside her on the ground, as if he trusted
her, but she wasn't dupe. 'She' didn't trust him. She brought her blaster
closer to his jaw even as she positioned herself halfway over him so that he
wouldn't escape her easily.
Skywalker felt it too.
"Not a move, not a sound," she whispered warningly as she viciously wedged her
weapon in his jaw before settling in to wait. Skywalker followed suite.
In the clearing, stormtroopers spread around the crash's site, looking for
traces of their presence. The more she watched them, and the more her resolve
to not hand her prisoner over to what remained of the Empire hardened.
They didn't deserve to be called imperials anymore, she sneered at the far away
troops. They were closer to mercenaries than true servants of the late Emperor.
She wouldn't give them the privilege of killing the Emperor's murderer.
Under herself, the said man began to grow impatient--- then a subtle shift of
his muscles informed her that he wasn't as quiet as he looked. She warned him
to remain quiet or else he wouldn't survive for much longer. The man nodded
silently and forced himself to relax.
While the other relaxed, she herself began to grow aware of her 'exact' position
against the Jedi's body... and her memory of what she had seen three days ago
brought back feelings she didn't want to even think about. No, she berated
herself even as she hurried to focus on her hatred, she wasn't the least bit
interested by the Jedi's work-of-art body.
He had destroyed her life, she viciously reminded herself; he would pay with
his.
Eventually, the troopers finally re-entered their shuttle, then the clearing
recovered its peace and quietness. Under her, Skywalker moved to get up; she
stilled him with a stronger pressure of her blaster against his jugular.
"Quiet," she hissed, then pointed out that they might not be as safe as they
thought they were. Once she had convinced her prisoner of following her lead,
she instructed him to remain quiet and lead the way 'away' from the clearing.
A minute later, Skywalker was once again walking in front of her, stopping then
and again to help his droid over roots or out of long grass.
At long last, she called for a stop and found a log to take her weight
off her aching ankle; the Jedi sank to the rough ground.
"Thank you for not turning me over to the stormtroopers," he told her in that
irritating earnestness of his.
"Save it," she bit out. While she re-opened her computer pad and resumed her
triangulation operation, she told him 'exactly' why she hadn't killed him. Were
it not for their situation, she thought in hatred, the murderer would already be
dead.
"You could call him," the Jedi naively offered her in the silence.
Had she not hated him so much, she conceded that she might have laughed at his
stupid offer, but she had never been in the habit of laughing anyway. Instead,
she curled her lips into a disgusted sneer and told him what she thought about
his 'brilliant' idea before telling him to shut up and let her do her
calculations.
The Jedi obeyed once again and fell silent. She called up data, then, with the
help of the computer's infrared link with location satellites, pinpointed their
current location. From there, she plotted the shortest path to the edge of the
forest. All the while, she kept an eye on the Jedi, wary for any of his tricks
even though he couldn't touch the Force anymore.
Finally, she had her answer.
"Three days," she informed her prisoner.
"Three days to what?" he asked somewhat suspiciously.
"The edge of the forest, civilization, well, Hyllyard City anyway, which is
about as close as this part of the planet gets to it."
"And how many of us will be going there?" he asked her defiantly, slowly
acquiring a less relaxed position.
He sure was clever, she admitted even as she picked up her blaster from her lap.
"That's the question, isn't it?" she taunted him, calling up all the hatred and
anger that she felt for the Jedi. This time, she resolved seriously, she would
pull the trigger... yet challenged him to give her one reason to spare his life.
To her surprise, he did have a reason. She couldn't help but chortle in
disbelief at his thought that she would need a droid. She refuted his argument
by telling him about the very soon-to-come fate of the robot.
"In pieces?" the Jedi gaped, throwing a worried gaze at his robot.
As if he cared, she reflected dimly, but shoved the upcoming about such behavior
away from her mind. At last, she sighed in bliss, she was going to kill Luke
Skywalker; there would be time for the rest once she were done.
However, she didn't kill him right away; instead, she continued to justify her
decision about the robot, generating more questions from the stupid 'hero'.
When he asked her what she meant about knowing too much, she barely kept herself
from rolling her eyes in annoyance. He was supposed to be a hardened fighter,
she wanted to remind him, not a green-horned kid.
"You, Karrde, me---- this whole stupid mess," she still specified for him.
It had been supposed to be simple, she thought angrily. A shot, the Jedi
killed, she was free. But instead, it just kept getting more complicated with
each new development. But no more, she reminded herself sternly.
Meanwhile, Skywalker was still trying to convince her to save the droid. She
didn't let him sway her 'hand'. Further more, she promised herself that if he
didn't drop that pretense of being kind, she might just take a shot at him after
all, if only to shut him up.
The Jedi seemed to fail to understand this and instead continued with his plea
for his robot. He also failed to decode her hateful glare when he suggested
that she would have to keep him alive to use the droid.
Protect, really?, she silently sneered even as she glared at him and tightened
her grip on her blaster. Her weapon was now unwaveringly pointed at the Jedi's
heart.
He saw it too and swallowed hard in obvious fear.
So he wasn't as courageous as others made him to be, she smirked inwardly.
Good. She would make sure everyone knew what a coward he was.
"Are you sure you're not letting your emotions get in the way of your judgment?"
he asked her next instead of begging for his life.
While his answer surprised her, it wasn't a welcome surprise. That self-
righteous, little---- Did he think that she would abandon her duty for anything?
And she could sure survive without any help. She slit her eyes even as she
closed in for the kill, lowering herself to her knees until she stood on three,
her blaster aimed steadily at her target.
"Let me tell you something, Skywalker," she snarled lowly, savoring his gradual
loss of serenity.
At last.
And while the Jedi took his last breaths, she told him 'exactly' what was her
relationship with him, how much she hated him. While she retold the past five
years of her life, her finger pulled back the trigger to the almost shooting
point as unpleasant memories assailed her mind: her pain, her anger, the cold
disappointment and fury of her master... "You can call it a cloud on my
judgment if you want to; I'm used to it by now," she bit out bitterly even as
she tried to avoid his piercing... disturbing blue gaze.
He was always looking at her, she dimly noticed with unease; ever since he had
woken up in the barracks, he had never, ever gazed at her weapon or away...It
was really beginning to unnerve her, was even beginning to make her doubt
everything she had read and heard about him. In fact, deep down, she barely
conceded that he seemed to be a nice guy --- but instantly shooed that thought
away from her mind. It was a trick, she reminded herself, it was all a trick:
his eyes, his body, his kindness, it was just a strategy to save his life, but
it wouldn't work, she resolved, tightening her grip on her weapon even as she
brought her weapon level with his head.
"What did I do to you?" her prisoner finally whispered in stark terror, showing
her a side of the Jedi that she hadn't thought existed.
He was not afraid like someone about to lose everything he had, she reflected in
puzzlement; instead, he was reacting like someone who was afraid of what he had
done. It's just another trick, she sternly told herself when she felt her
resolve falter yet again; the Jedi continued to stare wide-eyed at her.
"You destroyed my life," she answered him with deep-seated resent. "It's only
fair that I destroy yours," she stated to both him and herself as she felt
herself waver yet again under his intense gaze.
He didn't have the gaze of a murderer, a small voice seemed to tell her; she
slammed that voice shut and refocused on her mission.
Her duty.
Her target tried yet again to reason with her; she didn't let him.
"It is something I have to do," she stated coldly, "for myself and for---" she
suddenly froze inwardly.
The Emperor... She hadn't killed for him in nearly five years... The Emperor,
her bitter master who had given her a last mission and a nightmare to never
forget it...
Why had he done that?, she wondered for the first time since she had begun to
have her recurrent nightmares. Why had he left her with this agony---
Because she had failed him, her assassin personality told her, seeking to take
over her doubts, but somehow, she noticed that she wasn't willing to let her
take over this time.
Skywalker was---
"What about Karrde?" the reason for her pain asked in the silence, managing to
make her stop in her mental progress yet again.
Her cold self became even colder at his weak attempt to make her doubt her
decision.
"We all want things we can't have," she bit out acidly, then meant to pull the
trigger.
She still couldn't.
"I almost wish I could drag it out a little more," she commented to hearten
herself, "but I don't have the time to spare."
'Now!' she ordered herself... but her blaster still remained mute in her hand.
She was aware that she only needed to pull the trigger an extra millimeter
backward and he would be a goner... but she couldn't.
A small voice inside her head, one which reminded a lot of herself as a young
child before she had begun her training, was telling her to not do that. That
she would kill a nice man instead of a murderer.
'So what,' she mentally argued with the voice. She had already done it more
times than she could count. What was one more or one less kill?
Despite her cold argument however, she still couldn't take the life out of
Skywalker's eyes... eyes that didn't belong to the cold individual she had been
chasing for years now.
Even as she considered at least hurting him if only to spend her frustration,
which was currently directed at herself, he fought past his fright to think of
another solution.
"Wait!" he called, lifting his hands in defense. "You said you needed to find
out what Karrde had told the Imperials. What if I could get you a secure com
channel to him?" he offered her in his damnable earnest fashion.
"How?" she narrowed her eyes, wary for a trap which he would then use to exploit
her inconceivable, actual weakness.
The man exposed his new idea to her.
Mara barely threw a glance at the package of the survival kit, then back at her
prisoner. What did he have in mind this time?
She found out a few seconds later and understood that he was trying to save both
himself and the droid yet again. She challenged him about the flaw of his 'too'
perfect plan... and discovered that the Jedi might be clever after all.
He knew a lot about his x-wing and the astromech droid, and the plan was
sound... except for one, tiny detail.
"I thought standard procedure was to wipe and reload droid memories every six
months," she asked him seriously.
"I like Artoo the way he is," was Skywalker's unexpected answer.
It threw her for a loop.
He liked his droid? As in... care?? Was he insane?, she asked herself even as
she realized that she had made her decision, for the moment. She would keep the
Jedi alive for a little while longer.
Meanwhile, her prisoner answered her. "He and the X-wing work better together
this way."
"How much better?" she asked in subdued interest.
"I don't remember the exact number," the man began thoughtfully, "but it was
something like thirty percent faster than a baseline astromech/x-wing
interface."
And with that, she knew that he hadn't made this up.
"That's counterpart speed all right," she conceded slowly.
And that settled it, she decided even as she lowered her blaster from its
straight line of fire. Sure, the Jedi was still the same man she had to kill,
the man who had killed 'her' in a way; it was her duty to take his life, even if
she hadn't been able to pull the trigger here yet she had tried harder than
hard. Perhaps she needed him alive after all, she conceded reluctantly.
However, she thought more coldly, he would have to drop that annoying attitude
of his. Otherwise, he might still not make it if he got one too many times on
her sensitive nerves.
They discussed the details of their strategy for a short while longer, then she
refocused on their exact predicament.
"Funny, isn't it," she asked him in still lasting hatred. "this scheme of yours
just happens to require that I keep both of you alive a while longer."
Which meant, she realized, that she would have to deal with more confusing
thoughts because of him.
Still, she reminded herself seriously, she didn't have any other option. She
'knew' it.
She motioned to the droid with her weapon. "What about the droid?"
The Jedi offered to build a travois for it, if she would give him back his
lightsaber for a few minutes. Her weapon was reflexively trained back on him.
She might have spared his life... for the moment, but she wasn't about to trust
him, let alone give him back a weapon.
"Sit down," she snapped, herself standing up. "I'll do it."
She walked closer to the branches, studying them while calling back to her mind
her lessons about economy of movements with a lightsaber.
"Those two," he indicated, then added: "be careful, lightsabers are tricky to
handle."
That care again, she rolled her eyes. "Your concern for my welfare is
touching," she sneered, then drew the said weapon and neatly cut two branches,
then trimmed them so that they could be used as a travois. She turned back
toward her 'audience' and was pleased to see him dumbstruck. Now he would know
not to trifle with her, she thought grimly. "Help yourself," she commented and
returned the weapon to her belt, where it belonged, she thought with finality.
The Jedi's weapon would be hers, as a well-deserved trophy.
"You've used a lightsaber before," her prisoner commented as he crossed path
with her.
She confirmed his feeling with all the hatred and coldness she could muster
while looking in his eyes; the Jedi seemed to get her message: 'don't trifle
with me.'
She surveyed him while he demonstrated his talents of carpenter.
While he tried to understand what he had just witnessed, Luke pulled some rope
from the nearby trees, then wove the two ends into some kind of net which would
support Artoo's weight. Then, he set about securing his friend on it while
under the unwavering surveillance of his would-be assassin.
It had been a close call this time, he reflected. Without his plan, he had no
doubts that he would be feeding the grass now. Then, of course, there was the
question as to how long he would have a reprieve before her unhealthy hatred
resurfaced and convinced her to pull the trigger. Somehow, he knew that she
wouldn't do it, but since his naivete had a knack to get him into worst
situations than the ones he was already in, he decided to keep an eye open for
any change of attitude on her part.
He had been right though, he reflected even as he made sure that his droid
wouldn't fall off his mean of transportation. He had hurt her in a worse way
than he had first estimated, but he still couldn't understand what he had
exactly done to her. Who was she? She knew how to use lightsabers? Was it due
to a preparation for his death? Or was it a remnant of her old life?
"All right, let's go," the woman suddenly ordered in the silence, standing up
from her chosen seat on a fallen log.
Luke winced slightly. He didn't know if his travois would be sturdy enough to
support Artoo's weight.
"I'd like to test it first---" he requested, then fell mute when she stalked
closer and wedged the tip of her blaster in his jaw.
"Just so it's clear, Skywalker," she snarled at him, "you are still my prisoner,
and if you question my orders, you won't like the consequences," she warned him
darkly. "After all," she added meanly, "I can hurt you without killing you if I
wish."
Luke meant to remind her that he wouldn't be efficient if he were hurt, but
thought better than that. Instead, he met her cold glare with his defiant one,
then waited for her to leave him alone. And as he had thought she would, she
eventually pulled her blaster away from his jaw and jabbed him forward with it.
"Move," she snapped.
Crossing his fingers that he had done a good first job, the Jedi took hold of
the two makeshift handles, then slowly tilted the wooden travois until he could
drag it behind him. Artoo tchirped slightly as he adapted to the new position,
then, after a few tests to make sure that his metallic friend was held steady in
the contraption, Luke walked on without anymore prompting from his captor.
Behind him, Mara followed, expertly evaluating the Jedi's handiwork while
calculating the necessity to tie the prisoner's hands to his charge. Given the
confusing devotion that Skywalker showed to his robot, she surmised that he
wouldn't entertain thoughts of running away from her, thus leaving his 'friend'
to her dangerous aim.
Who had ever heard of devotion to a droid?, she sneered in disgust.
'But then,' her small, younger mental voice told her, 'who had ever heard of a
murderer adulated by the crowd?'
'Shut up!', she spat at it once again, but it was too late.
Doubts had already resurfaced in her mind. She had watched the reports after
the destruction of her life, had committed them all to her memory so that she
knew exactly what her target had done during the past five years.
Her first thought was that he hadn't killed anyone anymore.
It enraged her.
'So what,' she argued with herself while she kept her eyes riveted on her
prisoner. It had only been a ploy to rise to the position he was now enjoying
in the government. 'Besides,' she argued with herself, 'even the media might
not know everything about him.'
'And what if he had never been a murderer in the first place?' her small voice
inquired insistently.
Literally furious at herself, Mara almost, almost took a shot at her prisoner
out of frustration--- when Skywalker's droid squealed in warning. She refocused
on the present just in time to spot a big vornsk as it leapt down from its perch
which was located in the tree on their left.
"Duck!!!" she snapped even as she shifted her aim and caught the predator dead
in the head.
In front of her, the Jedi obeyed her command and dropped to the ground, letting
go of his robot's travois to do so. The small droid squealed in protest upon
the rough impact, then whistled something once the danger was over.
"I'm alright, Artoo," Skywalker answered him, then focused his blue eyes on her.
"thanks to you," he finished gratefully.
"Spare me your gratitude," she reflexively spat at him even though her weapon
wasn't trained on him anymore. "As you said, I need both of you alive," she
reminded him sarcastically.
"I see," he answered, non-committal, then pushed himself back to his feet.
As she watched him recover a straighter posture, she felt the fierce desire to
ask him what he wasn't telling her in his answer, but she bit her tongue to
silence herself.
She would not fraternize with her target, she reminded herself. Having been
unable to pull the trigger once had been bad enough. When the time would come,
she didn't want to face that problem again.
In front of her, Skywalker took hold again of the droid's travois, and they were
back on their way, searching for a clearing from which they would send their
heavily encrypted message.
TBC in part 4: Skywalker
Well, liked it? Had fun? Hope so ;)
2002, SJ (skyjade@globetrotter.net)
Any positive stuff is welcome, but any mean stuff will be thrown down the
Sarlacc's throat without even being read.)