At point blank range
Part 7: Truth
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 she waited for Skywalker to finish with the droid, Mara rummaged in the nearby survival kit and finally broke out the salve stick. She opened it, then slowly, carefully, brought it closer to her mauled right shoulder; just seeing the slashes made her wince despite herself.
The beast certainly hadn't missed her, she realized, then conceded that she really couldn't have strangled it today like she had done with several vornsks during her exploration of the forest. Her injuries were serious enough to keep her from straining.
Had she been alone, or had Skywalker not come to her help, she shamefully admitted that she wouldn't be alive to be angry at herself... and at him. Why had he rescued her? Her saving his life put aside, he could have killed the vornsk and run for it, or fight her while he had recovered his weapon, but no... he had stayed around to help her; he had not even defied her nor tried to overcome her. Instead, he had dropped his weapon without resistance, then had sighed in... what? she wondered uneasily.
Annoyance at her aiming constantly at him? Tiredness of her considering him her enemy? Or was it even worse than that?..
What if, she wondered in worry born from her tiredness, Skywalker was truly trying to be her friend? What if it wasn't a ploy?..
Nonsense, her cooler, more alert self retorted in despise. A movement on her left caught her attention; she looked up just in time to see the Jedi sit against the tree that was right in front of her.
"Well?" she asked, refocusing back on her injuries, which were now stinging thanks to the salve.
"He's okay for now," the Jedi answered her, leaning back against his chosen tree.
"I'm so glad to hear it," she scoffed at the thought of her worrying about a robot, then glanced at the number-one-droid-worrier around--- and refrained her next comment. She gazed longer at him, unsure if she had seen well or not, then the Jedi shifted slightly under her scrutiny; she saw that he indeed bore marks from a good hit from the vornsk's tail. "He got you good, didn't he?" she asked him with a very dim trace of warmth in her normally cool voice.
The Jedi gingerly brought his hand to his face, then shrugged slightly. "I'll be all right," he commented.
Instantly rebuffed by his own lack of opening, she berated herself for worrying about him and assumed her cooler attitude once again
Terrific evening, she growled even as she grimaced at the sting of the salve on yet another mark. First, there had been her inability to save herself, then the humiliation of being saved by Skywalker, and now her involuntary worry about his injury only to find her unusual care almost sneered at!..
If she weren't still weakened by her shock, she would shoot him right there and then for his insult. However, she conceded, the attack had left her in a secondary state; other than tending to herself, she couldn't imagine even walking on her feet for the moment.
What a pathetic agent she had bec---- She suddenly snapped her eyes up and glared at the staring Jedi. "I said thanks, already. What do you want, a medal?" she snapped at him, suddenly considering more seriously taking a potshot at him.
To her surprise, the Jedi didn't sigh, nor glared, nor reacted much in fact. Instead he spoke softly and told her that he was wondering about her.... She noticed that he had used the same tone that he used when he was talking with his robot.
At first, she almost, almost made a move for her blaster at the thought that he was now comparing her, the Emperor's best and personal agent, to that tin can of his... then she gazed for a while a longer in his eyes and calmed down. Skywalker 'didn't' know who she used to be, she reminded herself. He didn't know 'how' he had ruined her life; at least she thought so now.
"You happened to me," she finally commented bitterly, with heavy resent.
The Jedi was stricken as he listened to her vision of the events.
She couldn't help but sneer as her feeling of his not knowing about her confirmed itself, then she proceeded to tell him what he wanted to know... but She didn't tell him everything; that would be too easy. Instead, she led him onward, guiding his reflection while not providing him with any good answer.
At first, Skywalker seemed to put pieces of her puzzle together, then he frowned. She surmised that he had hit a rock in his reasoning. Well, she smirked meanly in contempt, let him figure the rest. If he wanted to know the truth, then he might as well work for it.
And he did, surprising her with his insight. Although pleased that he had figured out her agent front from what he had seen during their trek together, giving her a solid proof that she wasn't as bad an agent as she had the feeling to be these days, she also conceded that he was much, much more clever than she had first surmised. 'That' was not a pleasant surprise.
"Very good. That vaunted Jedi insight, no doubt," she commented, trying to insult him although she knew that Jedi or no, his figuring out her secret didn't have anything to do with the Force. She dared him to find the rest by himself.
For a moment, Skywalker continued to frown as he undoubtedly tried one theory after another, then his features lit up... almost like a child discovering a surprise, she reflected dimly.
"Vader knew I'd go there to try and rescue Han, and he sent you to capture me," he commented in one breath.
"Vader?" she spat in contempt. Of all the insults... "Don't make me laugh," she snarled at the Jedi, then told him exactly what she thought about 'Vader', then what her real mission had been.
As she spoke, the Jedi's features blanched noticeably, as if in stark terror, something that she had yet to see in the man.
"And you master," he all but whispered, "was the Emperor."
"Yes," she hissed, "and you destroyed him."
For a moment, Skywalker looked as if he were going to defend himself from this, but he didn't. Instead, he told her that the Emperor had tried to recruit him.
She refuted his reasoning, then, pushed by her sudden need to speak about what she had lost with the man responsible for that loss, she revealed to him her whole secret: the life of the Emperor's Hand.
To her disbelief, Skywalker seemed to understand what she had been through, and even asked her what had gone wrong in her mission at Jabba's. Seconds later, he even shocked her mute when he answered her as only a caring person would.
While she tried to figure 'him' out, she noticed that he was still considering something. Well, she thought to herself, now he knew, so perhaps he would begin to fear her---
"You would have succeeded," he commented briefly in the silence, locking his gentle with her pained ones.
"I'm not asking for understanding or sympathy," she spat angrily at him as his friendly attitudes came true and clear to her. "You wanted to know, fine, now you know."
'Now,' she added to herself, 'start acting like a regular prisoner.' That last comment had been from anyone but someone who was afraid for his life while with her. It wasn't nor---
"So why are you here?" he asked again, his voice still gentle and soft.
Suppressing a growl of frustration, she focused on her untended shoulder and resumed her tending. "What Empire?" she sneered. "It's dying, you know that as well as I do."
"But while it's still there---" Skywalker began earnestly.
"Who would I go to?" she asked as she whirled back toward him and pinned him with a sulfurous glare before reminding him that she had been a loner, only known from the Emperor.
From there, their discussion became about what had happened to her during the following, horrible five years which she had spent in the arm-pits of the galaxy... Five years she had been trying to make some kind of living---
She focused back on Skywalker's eyes, summoning her best cold glare to get her message across this time. "I worked hard to get where I am, Skywalker. You're not going to ruin it for me."
The Jedi reassured her that he wasn't out on a vendetta against her; he only wanted to return to his friends.
Just like she wanted to return to her former life, she reminded him before trying some philosophy comment about not always getting what one wanted.
The young man agreed with her.
For a moment, she felt as if he were mocking her once again, then understood that he had understood what she meant; he 'knew' that she would eventually kill him... or at least even the score with him. But first, she reminded herself, they needed to survive the imperial enclave in Hylliard City.
She scooped up a tube of salve and tossed it at him, then instructed him to get some rest.
Hours later, in the darkest of the night, Mara fought harder than ever to not go to sleep. Unlike the previous night, there weren't any nearby river to keep her awake, and her body was still under the shock of the vorsnk's attack. Thank the gods, her shaking, which had begun when Skywalker had turned in for the night, was now over, but her mind was simply begging for sleep.
However, more than ever, she knew that she couldn't sleep, not because of Skywalker's danger, but because of the forest's. Strange how her going after Skywalker had turned out, she tried to think to keep herself awake.
Less than a week ago, the only thing that had saved his life had been Karrde's body, but now, she dimly admitted, she herself 'might', just might defend him with her own body. Oh, she conceded to herself, she still despised him and hated him for what he had done to her, but at the same time, it was in the past... and her present experience with him was weighting heavier and heavier in her scale of whether she would kill him or not.
Tonight, it was leaning heavier on the not-killing-him side, but even if she didn't kill him, she couldn't not exact some kind of vengeance from him either. Returning him to the New Republic was out of question.
So, she thought seriously, how could she make him pay for what he had done without killing him... nor physically hurting him, she conceded. At first, she hadn't paid much attention to her reaction to his fresh welt, but now that she had taken some time to analyze it, she knew that she couldn't cause him pain like that. She didn't know how it was possible, but seeing him injured had made her wince in worry.
Of course, it was a most despiteful discovery and she wouldn't accept it, but the fact was still there. When she had tried to convince herself that she could 'at least' hurt the Jedi, she had not even been able to bring her hand to her knife before being assailed by questions which had, in the end, made her relent... just like when she had tried to pull the trigger.
Fortunately for her that the Emperor was already dead, she sighed tiredly. Otherwise, she would sure be punished for such a weak attitude, but tried as she might, she simply couldn't make her body cooperate with her mind.
Even worse, she admitted as she fastened her gaze on the Jedi's sleeping features, her mind was also beginning to betray her, working hard to convince her that the Jedi truly was a nice man...
Well, she conceded even as she made her decision, he was unlike any man she had ever met or chased, not even her farmboy, and he certainly wasn't the cold murderer she had been led to believe. That element still greatly puzzled her, especially since the data had been given to her by the Emperor himself, but... considering how he had died, she estimated that he had been deceived about Skywalker, but by whom? she wondered.
Vader? What would be the point? Or Prince Xizor from Black Sun?.. But again, to what end..? Even as she tried to figure out her new puzzle, she decided that no matter what would happen in Hylliard City, she would make sure that Skywalker wouldn't leave the planet.
He would remain with her for the time being.
******
On the morning of the fourth day, something had definitely changed between the
two young people. Unlike the past three days, the fourth one began under the sign of a beginning of trust. The woman didn't give back his weapon to Luke, but she didn't hold him at point blank range anymore either.
Instead, they both walked side by side, scanning their surroundings while they approached the outer edge of the forest. Behind them, Artoo, still in his travois, clucked to himself as he continued to keep his sensors on to warn them of incoming predators.
After spending the rest of the night debating whether she was going crazy or if she had to kill SKywalker right away, during his sleep, Mara had settled on the intermediate decision that he deserved a break as far as her rudeness went... but she had also resolved that she wouldn't let him escape if he meant to use her softening against her; thus, she was more lenient with him yet constantly remained wary for a trick from his part.
However, the Jedi didn't try to take advantage of her looser supervision to escape her. Instead, he gladly tagged along without any prompting from her part. She for her part kept her blaster holstered and walked beside the young man; she even bore his attempts of light conversation with her and deigned answer without a scathing remark to his every question.
Naturally, it wasn't easy, but... the more she bit down on a few insults, and the easier it became to be somewhat nicer with the Jedi. Of course, she reflected as she listened to his accounting of one of his missions as a younger man, she would never be friend with him, nor would it save his life when the moment would come to obey her master's last command, or at least keep him from returning to his friends, but... it felt... good to speak with someone, not always block him out.
Still, she made sure to keep a cool voice as well as keep her attitude on the limit of being rough, but it was a teasing roughness now, she noticed, not a scathing one.
All of a sudden, Skywalker stilled beside her, his features indicating that he was focused on something.
"What is it?" she asked him even as she scanned their surroundings. Nothing seemed amiss.
"Do you hear that?" he specified even as he tilted his head to the side.
Mara strained to listen past the silence... and finally picked up what he had heard. It was a whining sound but too faint to identify it as anything more than the sound of an engine.
"They're far ahead of us," she commented.
"And behind," Skywalker added, attracting his attention to what was now coming from behind them.
Great, she thought in frustration, they were already pinpointed. "Let's go," she told him and resumed her walk.
Soon enough, they identified the sound as belonging to imperial speeder bikes; they took a moment to consider their options.
After some exchange of strategies, some natural disguise for Skywalker... and a reluctant change of role as far as Mara was concerned, they headed straight for the Rancor's pit that was waiting for them.
While they resumed their trek, with Skywalker keeping her own, loaded blaster trained on her, although more loosely than she herself would, she thought back to what she had just done.
Despite the fact that she hated the Jedi and wanted to kill him, she had given him her weapon 'and' his lightsaber, effectively freeing him from her custody. Now why had she done that? she wondered angrily. Sure they had been short on ideas, but to free him--- hadn't she decided to keep him prisoner just last night?, she reminded herself. And how, she continued in confusion, had she been able to make her body cooperate into this when she hadn't been able to make it kill him a few days ago?? What was wrong with her?? she asked to no one while she pulled the droid's travois after herself. Why hadn't she felt even a little misgiving when she had given the blaster's power pack to the Jedi? Let alone his lightsaber? It had, she reluctantly admitted, been almost as if she had always known him and that she knew that she could trust him. But it couldn't be, she reminded herself seriously. It was impossible; she hated the Jedi... didn't she?
Her bad ankle complained slightly as she trudged on but she forced herself to not slow her pace. However, she was almost glad when the imperials finally found them and stopped them. She watched silently as they took custody of both herself and Skywalker, then behaved while they took them to their main camp.
There, the officer in charge of the blockade asked them a few questions about their appearing straight in the middle of their net, then gave signs that he wasn't convinced about 'Jade's' story. He also gave orders to take Skywalker to the medunit to have his face's temporary puffiness treated.
The man knew. She silently glanced in Skywalker's direction as troopers cuffed them; the Jedi barely lifted his left eyebrow in uncertainty before they were both herded away from the small command unit and toward the nearby city of Hylliard.
Well so much for Karrde's and Solo's clever scheme, she pouted in frustration. Not only hadn't it fooled the imps, but it also left her weaponless and restrained. Of course, she calculated grimly as she glanced around herself, she could always jump the man behind her and kill the five others before they realized what had happened, but considering that there were other troops in the nearby streets, she knew that her success would be brief.
No, she decided, she couldn't risk something right now and be even more restrained afterward; better bear with the situation as best as she could and---
The group suddenly halted just as five men---- led by Chin!!, she recognized... came out of a nearby alley; the troopers instantly trained their weapons on the newcomers while the front guard confiscated their weapons. Mara threw a questioning glance at one of Karrde's men; he barely nodded in the direction of the houses near the main plaza. She nodded in understanding and settled in to wait for further information about what was planned.
The four men left a few minutes later, leaving a new prisoner in the custody of the imperials: Han Solo.
Although Solo had never been part of her targets, she had studied him just as she had studied Skywalker and the rest of his friends in hopes to find a way to get to Skywalker through them. As she had surmised back then, it would be useless. While the friendship between the two men seemed genuine and strong, Solo wouldn't allow the Jedi to give himself up for him... yet he himself was now risking his own safety to be with the Jedi during whatever was coming up.
Even though she pretended to not pay any attention to the two rebels, she listened attentively to what she could catch of their whispered exchange. So something was indeed organized to free them from the imps. Very well then, she would wait for their cue.
It didn't take a long while to come; Skywalker purposefully tripped his droid, sending it crashing on the rough ground, then whispered something to it.
As she gazed up ahead, Mara understood what he had in mind; she gasped despite herself. If it didn't work, she silently glared at him as the officer asked him what this had been about, she would personally hound him in the after-life for his stupidity.
Solo also expressed his doubts about the Jedi's plan, to which Skywalker answered confidently.
Meanwhile, the troops continued to herd them toward the main plaza... and its domed, stone-structure which Skywalker meant to use to his advantage. Sure, she conceded, the pillars would offer more cover than out here in the open, but it could also offer cover to the imps and allow them to entrench themselves if the chariot ships, which were now above them, landed to give more cover.
Slowly, unavoidably, they stepped closer and closer to the structure. The closer they came, and the more edgy she grew. What was Karrde waiting for?---
As if hearing her thought, the weapons, which had been confiscated from Chin's group, suddenly went off in a spectacular display of explosion.
Lacking even a fraction of a second of preparation, Mara reflexively reeled down as the thunderous cacophony assaulted her ears while the shock wave threw her off balance.
Her head was still ringing when rough hands suddenly pulled her from the ground and practically hauled her toward the chosen refuge of the imperials: the stony arch and dome. She grunted in complaint as the troopers threw her down in a corner; she took a moment to gather her thoughts before getting up once again.
Okay, the attack had begun, she still couldn't use the Force and was weaponless, but not harmless. She took a peek above the column that was hiding her and took stock of the situation. She cursed inwardly.
The Chariot was beginning to land.
Skywalker and Solo, who had also been brought in with her and had somehow freed their hands, were now watching and debating like two frightened children. She pushed herself forward and to Skywalker's side, then took hold of his biceps and squeezed hard in frustration.
"Whatever you're going to do, do it 'now'," she snapped angrily at him. "If the Chariot gets down, you'll never get them out from cover."
"I know," the Jedi answered her serenely, confidently. "I'm counting on it."
Unsure whether to strangle him right there and then, or to ignore him and take a jump at the troopers herself, she glared long and hard at him, meeting his blue gaze head on.
She thus realized that he was dead serious about this, that he wasn't risking the lives of Karrde's men just for the fun of it; he did mean to save them while saving themselves.
Stricken by this discovery, she let go of his arm while her eyes remained glued to his, piercing layers and layers of unsuspected strength and courage through them.
"Here, let me help you with these," Solo offered her even as he began to pick at her cuffs.
She took her eyes off the Jedi at that, watched Solo's short intervention--- then met the man's brown gaze as he too looked at her.
Unlike what she had just experienced with Skywalker, she didn't feel as if she were being drawn in a whirlpool of goodness, but she understood all the same that Solo stood by the Jedi and that he too didn't mean to sacrifice any unnecessary lives.
"Be ready to run for it," he advised her even as Skywalker gathered his feet under himself---- and suddenly, it was time to attack.
Mara turned her head in his direction just in time to see him jump over the fallen pillar behind which they were hiding; she thus noticed that the Chariot had finished its landing, effectively blocking off the incoming fire of Karrde's men.
Refocusing on the two rebels, she watched them in slight bewilderment as they effectively dispatched two of the rear guards before Skywalker called to his droid for something; she chose that moment to jump to her feet and joined the fray. If the rebels were going to save Karrde's men, who were strangers to them, then she decided that she herself would certainly not stand by and watch them at work.
Gathering her momentum on the fallen pillar, she jumped toward the nearest trooper who had backed away from the now lightsaber-armed Jedi. Her extended foot caught him straight in the back, throwing him off balance and against a nearby pillar. Before he could recover, she spun on her heel and kicked him on the side of the head, then jumped and completed with her other foot coming down on his exposed shoulder and back.
The man collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
She then meant to take on another man---- but she changed her mind when she understood 'what' was the Jedi's strategy. Even as he bisected yet another column of stone, her eyes darted up to the suddenly unstable stony dome. Large cracks had already opened in it and parts of the stones were already raining down on them.
"Come on!" Solo urged her---- then grabbed hold of her hand as he ran by her; he pulled her away from the collapsing structure.
"What about---" she asked as she ran after him.
Her head reflexively turned backward to check on Skywalker's progress. The Jedi was right on their heels, having cleared the edge of the structure in time. The troopers, who had found refuge in its middle, never stood a chance.
Behind them, the dome crashed down with the thunderous sound of inevitability.
TBC in part 8: Aftermath
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 7: Truth
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 she waited for Skywalker to finish with the droid, Mara rummaged in the nearby survival kit and finally broke out the salve stick. She opened it, then slowly, carefully, brought it closer to her mauled right shoulder; just seeing the slashes made her wince despite herself.
The beast certainly hadn't missed her, she realized, then conceded that she really couldn't have strangled it today like she had done with several vornsks during her exploration of the forest. Her injuries were serious enough to keep her from straining.
Had she been alone, or had Skywalker not come to her help, she shamefully admitted that she wouldn't be alive to be angry at herself... and at him. Why had he rescued her? Her saving his life put aside, he could have killed the vornsk and run for it, or fight her while he had recovered his weapon, but no... he had stayed around to help her; he had not even defied her nor tried to overcome her. Instead, he had dropped his weapon without resistance, then had sighed in... what? she wondered uneasily.
Annoyance at her aiming constantly at him? Tiredness of her considering him her enemy? Or was it even worse than that?..
What if, she wondered in worry born from her tiredness, Skywalker was truly trying to be her friend? What if it wasn't a ploy?..
Nonsense, her cooler, more alert self retorted in despise. A movement on her left caught her attention; she looked up just in time to see the Jedi sit against the tree that was right in front of her.
"Well?" she asked, refocusing back on her injuries, which were now stinging thanks to the salve.
"He's okay for now," the Jedi answered her, leaning back against his chosen tree.
"I'm so glad to hear it," she scoffed at the thought of her worrying about a robot, then glanced at the number-one-droid-worrier around--- and refrained her next comment. She gazed longer at him, unsure if she had seen well or not, then the Jedi shifted slightly under her scrutiny; she saw that he indeed bore marks from a good hit from the vornsk's tail. "He got you good, didn't he?" she asked him with a very dim trace of warmth in her normally cool voice.
The Jedi gingerly brought his hand to his face, then shrugged slightly. "I'll be all right," he commented.
Instantly rebuffed by his own lack of opening, she berated herself for worrying about him and assumed her cooler attitude once again
Terrific evening, she growled even as she grimaced at the sting of the salve on yet another mark. First, there had been her inability to save herself, then the humiliation of being saved by Skywalker, and now her involuntary worry about his injury only to find her unusual care almost sneered at!..
If she weren't still weakened by her shock, she would shoot him right there and then for his insult. However, she conceded, the attack had left her in a secondary state; other than tending to herself, she couldn't imagine even walking on her feet for the moment.
What a pathetic agent she had bec---- She suddenly snapped her eyes up and glared at the staring Jedi. "I said thanks, already. What do you want, a medal?" she snapped at him, suddenly considering more seriously taking a potshot at him.
To her surprise, the Jedi didn't sigh, nor glared, nor reacted much in fact. Instead he spoke softly and told her that he was wondering about her.... She noticed that he had used the same tone that he used when he was talking with his robot.
At first, she almost, almost made a move for her blaster at the thought that he was now comparing her, the Emperor's best and personal agent, to that tin can of his... then she gazed for a while a longer in his eyes and calmed down. Skywalker 'didn't' know who she used to be, she reminded herself. He didn't know 'how' he had ruined her life; at least she thought so now.
"You happened to me," she finally commented bitterly, with heavy resent.
The Jedi was stricken as he listened to her vision of the events.
She couldn't help but sneer as her feeling of his not knowing about her confirmed itself, then she proceeded to tell him what he wanted to know... but She didn't tell him everything; that would be too easy. Instead, she led him onward, guiding his reflection while not providing him with any good answer.
At first, Skywalker seemed to put pieces of her puzzle together, then he frowned. She surmised that he had hit a rock in his reasoning. Well, she smirked meanly in contempt, let him figure the rest. If he wanted to know the truth, then he might as well work for it.
And he did, surprising her with his insight. Although pleased that he had figured out her agent front from what he had seen during their trek together, giving her a solid proof that she wasn't as bad an agent as she had the feeling to be these days, she also conceded that he was much, much more clever than she had first surmised. 'That' was not a pleasant surprise.
"Very good. That vaunted Jedi insight, no doubt," she commented, trying to insult him although she knew that Jedi or no, his figuring out her secret didn't have anything to do with the Force. She dared him to find the rest by himself.
For a moment, Skywalker continued to frown as he undoubtedly tried one theory after another, then his features lit up... almost like a child discovering a surprise, she reflected dimly.
"Vader knew I'd go there to try and rescue Han, and he sent you to capture me," he commented in one breath.
"Vader?" she spat in contempt. Of all the insults... "Don't make me laugh," she snarled at the Jedi, then told him exactly what she thought about 'Vader', then what her real mission had been.
As she spoke, the Jedi's features blanched noticeably, as if in stark terror, something that she had yet to see in the man.
"And you master," he all but whispered, "was the Emperor."
"Yes," she hissed, "and you destroyed him."
For a moment, Skywalker looked as if he were going to defend himself from this, but he didn't. Instead, he told her that the Emperor had tried to recruit him.
She refuted his reasoning, then, pushed by her sudden need to speak about what she had lost with the man responsible for that loss, she revealed to him her whole secret: the life of the Emperor's Hand.
To her disbelief, Skywalker seemed to understand what she had been through, and even asked her what had gone wrong in her mission at Jabba's. Seconds later, he even shocked her mute when he answered her as only a caring person would.
While she tried to figure 'him' out, she noticed that he was still considering something. Well, she thought to herself, now he knew, so perhaps he would begin to fear her---
"You would have succeeded," he commented briefly in the silence, locking his gentle with her pained ones.
"I'm not asking for understanding or sympathy," she spat angrily at him as his friendly attitudes came true and clear to her. "You wanted to know, fine, now you know."
'Now,' she added to herself, 'start acting like a regular prisoner.' That last comment had been from anyone but someone who was afraid for his life while with her. It wasn't nor---
"So why are you here?" he asked again, his voice still gentle and soft.
Suppressing a growl of frustration, she focused on her untended shoulder and resumed her tending. "What Empire?" she sneered. "It's dying, you know that as well as I do."
"But while it's still there---" Skywalker began earnestly.
"Who would I go to?" she asked as she whirled back toward him and pinned him with a sulfurous glare before reminding him that she had been a loner, only known from the Emperor.
From there, their discussion became about what had happened to her during the following, horrible five years which she had spent in the arm-pits of the galaxy... Five years she had been trying to make some kind of living---
She focused back on Skywalker's eyes, summoning her best cold glare to get her message across this time. "I worked hard to get where I am, Skywalker. You're not going to ruin it for me."
The Jedi reassured her that he wasn't out on a vendetta against her; he only wanted to return to his friends.
Just like she wanted to return to her former life, she reminded him before trying some philosophy comment about not always getting what one wanted.
The young man agreed with her.
For a moment, she felt as if he were mocking her once again, then understood that he had understood what she meant; he 'knew' that she would eventually kill him... or at least even the score with him. But first, she reminded herself, they needed to survive the imperial enclave in Hylliard City.
She scooped up a tube of salve and tossed it at him, then instructed him to get some rest.
Hours later, in the darkest of the night, Mara fought harder than ever to not go to sleep. Unlike the previous night, there weren't any nearby river to keep her awake, and her body was still under the shock of the vorsnk's attack. Thank the gods, her shaking, which had begun when Skywalker had turned in for the night, was now over, but her mind was simply begging for sleep.
However, more than ever, she knew that she couldn't sleep, not because of Skywalker's danger, but because of the forest's. Strange how her going after Skywalker had turned out, she tried to think to keep herself awake.
Less than a week ago, the only thing that had saved his life had been Karrde's body, but now, she dimly admitted, she herself 'might', just might defend him with her own body. Oh, she conceded to herself, she still despised him and hated him for what he had done to her, but at the same time, it was in the past... and her present experience with him was weighting heavier and heavier in her scale of whether she would kill him or not.
Tonight, it was leaning heavier on the not-killing-him side, but even if she didn't kill him, she couldn't not exact some kind of vengeance from him either. Returning him to the New Republic was out of question.
So, she thought seriously, how could she make him pay for what he had done without killing him... nor physically hurting him, she conceded. At first, she hadn't paid much attention to her reaction to his fresh welt, but now that she had taken some time to analyze it, she knew that she couldn't cause him pain like that. She didn't know how it was possible, but seeing him injured had made her wince in worry.
Of course, it was a most despiteful discovery and she wouldn't accept it, but the fact was still there. When she had tried to convince herself that she could 'at least' hurt the Jedi, she had not even been able to bring her hand to her knife before being assailed by questions which had, in the end, made her relent... just like when she had tried to pull the trigger.
Fortunately for her that the Emperor was already dead, she sighed tiredly. Otherwise, she would sure be punished for such a weak attitude, but tried as she might, she simply couldn't make her body cooperate with her mind.
Even worse, she admitted as she fastened her gaze on the Jedi's sleeping features, her mind was also beginning to betray her, working hard to convince her that the Jedi truly was a nice man...
Well, she conceded even as she made her decision, he was unlike any man she had ever met or chased, not even her farmboy, and he certainly wasn't the cold murderer she had been led to believe. That element still greatly puzzled her, especially since the data had been given to her by the Emperor himself, but... considering how he had died, she estimated that he had been deceived about Skywalker, but by whom? she wondered.
Vader? What would be the point? Or Prince Xizor from Black Sun?.. But again, to what end..? Even as she tried to figure out her new puzzle, she decided that no matter what would happen in Hylliard City, she would make sure that Skywalker wouldn't leave the planet.
He would remain with her for the time being.
******
On the morning of the fourth day, something had definitely changed between the
two young people. Unlike the past three days, the fourth one began under the sign of a beginning of trust. The woman didn't give back his weapon to Luke, but she didn't hold him at point blank range anymore either.
Instead, they both walked side by side, scanning their surroundings while they approached the outer edge of the forest. Behind them, Artoo, still in his travois, clucked to himself as he continued to keep his sensors on to warn them of incoming predators.
After spending the rest of the night debating whether she was going crazy or if she had to kill SKywalker right away, during his sleep, Mara had settled on the intermediate decision that he deserved a break as far as her rudeness went... but she had also resolved that she wouldn't let him escape if he meant to use her softening against her; thus, she was more lenient with him yet constantly remained wary for a trick from his part.
However, the Jedi didn't try to take advantage of her looser supervision to escape her. Instead, he gladly tagged along without any prompting from her part. She for her part kept her blaster holstered and walked beside the young man; she even bore his attempts of light conversation with her and deigned answer without a scathing remark to his every question.
Naturally, it wasn't easy, but... the more she bit down on a few insults, and the easier it became to be somewhat nicer with the Jedi. Of course, she reflected as she listened to his accounting of one of his missions as a younger man, she would never be friend with him, nor would it save his life when the moment would come to obey her master's last command, or at least keep him from returning to his friends, but... it felt... good to speak with someone, not always block him out.
Still, she made sure to keep a cool voice as well as keep her attitude on the limit of being rough, but it was a teasing roughness now, she noticed, not a scathing one.
All of a sudden, Skywalker stilled beside her, his features indicating that he was focused on something.
"What is it?" she asked him even as she scanned their surroundings. Nothing seemed amiss.
"Do you hear that?" he specified even as he tilted his head to the side.
Mara strained to listen past the silence... and finally picked up what he had heard. It was a whining sound but too faint to identify it as anything more than the sound of an engine.
"They're far ahead of us," she commented.
"And behind," Skywalker added, attracting his attention to what was now coming from behind them.
Great, she thought in frustration, they were already pinpointed. "Let's go," she told him and resumed her walk.
Soon enough, they identified the sound as belonging to imperial speeder bikes; they took a moment to consider their options.
After some exchange of strategies, some natural disguise for Skywalker... and a reluctant change of role as far as Mara was concerned, they headed straight for the Rancor's pit that was waiting for them.
While they resumed their trek, with Skywalker keeping her own, loaded blaster trained on her, although more loosely than she herself would, she thought back to what she had just done.
Despite the fact that she hated the Jedi and wanted to kill him, she had given him her weapon 'and' his lightsaber, effectively freeing him from her custody. Now why had she done that? she wondered angrily. Sure they had been short on ideas, but to free him--- hadn't she decided to keep him prisoner just last night?, she reminded herself. And how, she continued in confusion, had she been able to make her body cooperate into this when she hadn't been able to make it kill him a few days ago?? What was wrong with her?? she asked to no one while she pulled the droid's travois after herself. Why hadn't she felt even a little misgiving when she had given the blaster's power pack to the Jedi? Let alone his lightsaber? It had, she reluctantly admitted, been almost as if she had always known him and that she knew that she could trust him. But it couldn't be, she reminded herself seriously. It was impossible; she hated the Jedi... didn't she?
Her bad ankle complained slightly as she trudged on but she forced herself to not slow her pace. However, she was almost glad when the imperials finally found them and stopped them. She watched silently as they took custody of both herself and Skywalker, then behaved while they took them to their main camp.
There, the officer in charge of the blockade asked them a few questions about their appearing straight in the middle of their net, then gave signs that he wasn't convinced about 'Jade's' story. He also gave orders to take Skywalker to the medunit to have his face's temporary puffiness treated.
The man knew. She silently glanced in Skywalker's direction as troopers cuffed them; the Jedi barely lifted his left eyebrow in uncertainty before they were both herded away from the small command unit and toward the nearby city of Hylliard.
Well so much for Karrde's and Solo's clever scheme, she pouted in frustration. Not only hadn't it fooled the imps, but it also left her weaponless and restrained. Of course, she calculated grimly as she glanced around herself, she could always jump the man behind her and kill the five others before they realized what had happened, but considering that there were other troops in the nearby streets, she knew that her success would be brief.
No, she decided, she couldn't risk something right now and be even more restrained afterward; better bear with the situation as best as she could and---
The group suddenly halted just as five men---- led by Chin!!, she recognized... came out of a nearby alley; the troopers instantly trained their weapons on the newcomers while the front guard confiscated their weapons. Mara threw a questioning glance at one of Karrde's men; he barely nodded in the direction of the houses near the main plaza. She nodded in understanding and settled in to wait for further information about what was planned.
The four men left a few minutes later, leaving a new prisoner in the custody of the imperials: Han Solo.
Although Solo had never been part of her targets, she had studied him just as she had studied Skywalker and the rest of his friends in hopes to find a way to get to Skywalker through them. As she had surmised back then, it would be useless. While the friendship between the two men seemed genuine and strong, Solo wouldn't allow the Jedi to give himself up for him... yet he himself was now risking his own safety to be with the Jedi during whatever was coming up.
Even though she pretended to not pay any attention to the two rebels, she listened attentively to what she could catch of their whispered exchange. So something was indeed organized to free them from the imps. Very well then, she would wait for their cue.
It didn't take a long while to come; Skywalker purposefully tripped his droid, sending it crashing on the rough ground, then whispered something to it.
As she gazed up ahead, Mara understood what he had in mind; she gasped despite herself. If it didn't work, she silently glared at him as the officer asked him what this had been about, she would personally hound him in the after-life for his stupidity.
Solo also expressed his doubts about the Jedi's plan, to which Skywalker answered confidently.
Meanwhile, the troops continued to herd them toward the main plaza... and its domed, stone-structure which Skywalker meant to use to his advantage. Sure, she conceded, the pillars would offer more cover than out here in the open, but it could also offer cover to the imps and allow them to entrench themselves if the chariot ships, which were now above them, landed to give more cover.
Slowly, unavoidably, they stepped closer and closer to the structure. The closer they came, and the more edgy she grew. What was Karrde waiting for?---
As if hearing her thought, the weapons, which had been confiscated from Chin's group, suddenly went off in a spectacular display of explosion.
Lacking even a fraction of a second of preparation, Mara reflexively reeled down as the thunderous cacophony assaulted her ears while the shock wave threw her off balance.
Her head was still ringing when rough hands suddenly pulled her from the ground and practically hauled her toward the chosen refuge of the imperials: the stony arch and dome. She grunted in complaint as the troopers threw her down in a corner; she took a moment to gather her thoughts before getting up once again.
Okay, the attack had begun, she still couldn't use the Force and was weaponless, but not harmless. She took a peek above the column that was hiding her and took stock of the situation. She cursed inwardly.
The Chariot was beginning to land.
Skywalker and Solo, who had also been brought in with her and had somehow freed their hands, were now watching and debating like two frightened children. She pushed herself forward and to Skywalker's side, then took hold of his biceps and squeezed hard in frustration.
"Whatever you're going to do, do it 'now'," she snapped angrily at him. "If the Chariot gets down, you'll never get them out from cover."
"I know," the Jedi answered her serenely, confidently. "I'm counting on it."
Unsure whether to strangle him right there and then, or to ignore him and take a jump at the troopers herself, she glared long and hard at him, meeting his blue gaze head on.
She thus realized that he was dead serious about this, that he wasn't risking the lives of Karrde's men just for the fun of it; he did mean to save them while saving themselves.
Stricken by this discovery, she let go of his arm while her eyes remained glued to his, piercing layers and layers of unsuspected strength and courage through them.
"Here, let me help you with these," Solo offered her even as he began to pick at her cuffs.
She took her eyes off the Jedi at that, watched Solo's short intervention--- then met the man's brown gaze as he too looked at her.
Unlike what she had just experienced with Skywalker, she didn't feel as if she were being drawn in a whirlpool of goodness, but she understood all the same that Solo stood by the Jedi and that he too didn't mean to sacrifice any unnecessary lives.
"Be ready to run for it," he advised her even as Skywalker gathered his feet under himself---- and suddenly, it was time to attack.
Mara turned her head in his direction just in time to see him jump over the fallen pillar behind which they were hiding; she thus noticed that the Chariot had finished its landing, effectively blocking off the incoming fire of Karrde's men.
Refocusing on the two rebels, she watched them in slight bewilderment as they effectively dispatched two of the rear guards before Skywalker called to his droid for something; she chose that moment to jump to her feet and joined the fray. If the rebels were going to save Karrde's men, who were strangers to them, then she decided that she herself would certainly not stand by and watch them at work.
Gathering her momentum on the fallen pillar, she jumped toward the nearest trooper who had backed away from the now lightsaber-armed Jedi. Her extended foot caught him straight in the back, throwing him off balance and against a nearby pillar. Before he could recover, she spun on her heel and kicked him on the side of the head, then jumped and completed with her other foot coming down on his exposed shoulder and back.
The man collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
She then meant to take on another man---- but she changed her mind when she understood 'what' was the Jedi's strategy. Even as he bisected yet another column of stone, her eyes darted up to the suddenly unstable stony dome. Large cracks had already opened in it and parts of the stones were already raining down on them.
"Come on!" Solo urged her---- then grabbed hold of her hand as he ran by her; he pulled her away from the collapsing structure.
"What about---" she asked as she ran after him.
Her head reflexively turned backward to check on Skywalker's progress. The Jedi was right on their heels, having cleared the edge of the structure in time. The troopers, who had found refuge in its middle, never stood a chance.
Behind them, the dome crashed down with the thunderous sound of inevitability.
TBC in part 8: Aftermath
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.)