Destiny at Work
Part 2: Planning
by SJ 23-03-99/2002 (skyjade@globetrotter.net)
__________________________
Disclaimers: Nothing in the Star Wars Universe belong to me; everything belongs
to George Lucas. Also, everything related to the spoken parts of Dark Force
Rising 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 events of Heir to the Empire also belong to Timothy Zhan. Please don't sue
me, it's only for fun; I'm not making any money out of this.
See my home page for more details.
Http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/3702
Special thanks to Adrianne for her help with beta-reading. Thank you for
giving me some of your precious time, my friend; I appreciate.
_________________________
Luke was floating through a bland nothing when a groan attracted his more
conscious attention and pulled him out of his dozing state.
He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head in the direction of the repeated
noise.
"No..." Mara whispered sleepily as she tossed her head to the side while she
gripped the armrests of her chair until her knuckles were white. "No!..." she
exclaimed again, turning away from him as if she were trying to fight her way
free of something.
Completely awaken now, Luke carefully approached the nightmare-plagued woman and
hesitantly touched her hand.
"Mara," he called softly, wary for any dangerous reaction from the woman.
She didn't even seem to feel his touch. Instead, she continued to groan even as
sweat broke on her forehead. "Master, no, they will..." she muttered
incoherently.
Suddenly aware that she was having a nightmare about the late Emperor, Luke
swallowed his second attempt to wake her up, shocked by the intensity of the
woman's reaction to what she was seeing. If her grip on the chair was anything
to go by, she was ready to strangle anybody who was her enemy in the dream.
And somehow, he had the strong feeling that it was him.
Would she attack him upon wakening?, he wondered even as he lightly sensed her
re-surging hatred and lust for revenge, or would she make the difference
between----
All of a sudden, he wasn't simply sensing his companion's emotional output; he
was witnessing her nightmare as well. Even though he hadn't even meant to touch
her mind, he was close to it now... and could only watch in dumbfound horror as
he saw himself and his father turn on the Emperor to kill him. Far away, too
far to intervene in time, was Mara, struggling against her dream-sluggish body
to stop them this time. She opened fire on them with her pocket blaster; the
bolt of energy dissolved before it had even reached the men's location. He
winced for his dream-self when the Emperor unleashed his all-too-well remembered
bolts of energy on himself and his father, but they were shielded against them.
They kept advancing, their lightsabers, one green blade and one red blade, ready
for the final kill, and then, he saw it.
Saw the very source of Mara's continued hatred of him... of the pain that was
inhabiting her beautiful eyes: the Emperor locked his gaze on the far away
figure of the desperate woman and implanted a cruel command in her mind.
"You will kill Luke Skywalker."
Then he and his father stroke---- and Mara snapped awake with a gasp of terror.
Luke, who was still slightly holding her hand, barely blocked her left hand
before she crushed his throat with her hatred-fed, powerful punch. He locked
his eyes on hers, aware that she was not completely awakened yet.
"Mara, it's all right, it's Luke," he reassured her while not letting go of her
hands.
He was all too aware that her blaster would be the weapon she would go for if he
freed her right hand, and he doubted if he would be able to stop her from
killing him in her actual state.
"It was just a bad dream, not real," he soothed her.
'And the very opposite of what really happened,' he thought in disgust at how
the Emperor had twisted the truth to maintain Mara's devotion until she
had avenged his death at the hands of Anakin Skywalker.
In front of Luke, the woman tugged against his hold, but it was lacking the
strength of will which he had come to associate with her.
"It's all right, just take your time to wake up," he said gently, slightly
tightening his hold on her right hand to physically help her break free from the
remnants of the horrible vision.
How long had she been seeing this?, he wondered sorrowfully at the thought of
the pain she had had to bear because of him. To his surprise though, he felt
the sudden warning to not talk about the fact that he now knew about her
nightmare. The Force, he realized, wanted him to wait until Mara would be ready
to hear the truth about this before bringing this up with her.
Otherwise, he conceded, he might not be able to defend himself for long if she
chose to kill him for his accidental invasion.
Mara was thoroughly lost. One moment, she was seeing yet again the death of her
master, and the second, she was awakening in the presence of the hated Jedi...
who had restrained her somehow.
She fought against her bonds, pulled against them to be able to finish him once
and for all--- when she realized that he hadn't tied her up in any way.
Instead, he was holding her hands in his hands and was trying to comfort her.
Comfort?, she frowned even as she shook her head to see past the strange haze
that was obscuring her vision. Why would the murderer of the dream want to
comfort her?
He had sneered at her after he had killed her master, had even relished in the
painful death of the Emperor by stroking him twice with his blade before he had
died. He was a monster, a killer, a...
"It was just a bad dream, Mara," a gentle, somewhat familiar voice told her,
pulling her out of her thoughts and back to reality.
She re-opened her eyes, which had drooped closed once again, and looked in the
direction of the voice.
Skywalker was looking at her, worry etched on his face. She dimly noticed that
he was really holding her hands, slightly squeezing them in his warm hands in
reassurance, but what caught her undivided attention was his eyes.
They were not at all like the ones of the sneering man in her dream.
"Are you all right?" he asked her solicitously.
For the briefest of moments, her true self expressed herself, barely nodding as
if still under the shock of the dream, then she caught herself and pulled her
hands out of his hold.
"Yes, no need to fuss over me," she answered as tartly as she could while
suppressing the still reflexive reaction of wanting to kill the man of her
nightmare.
This wasn't the man of her nightmare, she reminded herself. This was the
real Skywalker, who was here to help her rescue Karrde. He was the kind being
she had never thought even existed.
At least, when she was loosing it, she scolded herself before scowling at her
companion who was still looking at her as if she were a lab experiment.
"What? Have I lost an ear while I was sleeping?" she asked him even as she
swiveled her seat away from him and stood up to pace a little in the small space
that was behind the piloting station.
"Huh, no, I..." the Jedi hesitated slightly.
"And what were you trying to do when I woke up?" she inquired, whirling toward
him to pin him with her green glare.
"To wake you up, nothing else. You were not giving signs that you would wake up
by yourself," he explained as he leaned back against the console that was behind
him.
"Well next time, leave me alone, Skywalker," she warned him, then turned away
from him.
Considering what had happened lately, and although it went against what the
dream was telling her to do, she really didn't want to take the risk of his
trying to wake her up and her killing him thanks to the hatred she was always
feeling whenever she woke up from the cursed nightmare.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and worked on purging her emotions back
down to the bottom of her mind where it wouldn't represent any danger for the
Jedi for the time being.
She needed him to save Karrde... and she still didn't want to kill him although,
perhaps, this would be the only way to break free from the nightmare... She was
so tired of them, of the torment they caused her...
A sudden, firm grip on her right arm made her snap her eyes open to glare at
Skywalker once again.
"Are you all right?" he asked her again, this time definitely worried about her.
"Let me go, Jedi, or I won't be responsible for what happens next," she warned
him even as she tried, although half-heartedly, to shrug free from his touch.
To his credit, the man understood her warning and let her go, but not before
helping her to a more upright position.
She belatedly realized that he had caught her just as she had been crumpling to
the deck.
"Look, I'm just concerned about you. This thing has really shaken you up," he
observed seriously.
'No kidding,' she glared silently at him before turning away from him once
again.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," she stated with finality.
No, she didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to tell her confusing target
that she was plagued by visions of how he had killed her master...
Or had he?
"All right, Mara. I won't insist. If you need to talk though," he offered her
simply, "I'll be there for you."
And with that, he returned to the piloting station and called up a report of
their current location in hyperspace.
Reluctantly, almost guiltily, Mara eventually turned half-way around to study
the back of her companion's head.
He would be there for her...
No one had ever been there for her, had ever even cared about her set of mind...
her emotions.
True, up to not so long ago, emotions had been prohibited in her world. Or had
they? She had always been filled with anger, hatred, even fear in order to
crush it. Yes, she had dealt with emotions before, but not the same kind of
emotions than what Skywalker had brought into her heart: care.
And he cared about her, he really wanted to help her...
Well, she decided even as she squared her shoulders, she didn't need his help
for this. She would face it alone, just as she had always faced everything
alone and come out stronger for it.
'Then', her mental opposition offered, 'why do you need his help to rescue
Karrde. You're a tough girl, you can do it by yourself.'
True, she conceded, and yet... now that she was 'reunited', in a way, with the
Jedi, she couldn't imagine going aboard the Chimaera alone.
Somehow, she had grown dependent of him as a helper.
First the vornsk, then the Chimaera; she hoped that it would be the end of it
after this and that she would be able to return to her more normal routine such
as hunting him down and avenging her losses at his hands.
For some reason though, she doubted that her hope would be granted to her.
******
One day and a half later, they broke their self-imposed silence and began to
plan their rescue.
They were now down to choosing one option out of what they had come up with
during their brainstorming session.
"The direct approach won't work, Mara. They are too vigilant at those stations,"
Skywalker commented for the third time since they had begun to discuss their
rescue plan.
"Are you listening to me?" she asked him, crossing her arms over her chest in
frustration. "I have all the codes to make it appear like an official order."
"and what if they decided to double-check with a superior?" the Jedi countered
seriously. "I can't cover that kind of exchange."
"But you can tell them to forget about checking," she retorted suavely.
"I'd rather not count on it working," he answered lamely, turning away from her
to stare out the main viewport.
"Why? Aren't you all powerful?" she sneered reflexively, glaring askance at his
profile before turning away from him.
"Not all the time, no," he admitted seriously, then lapsed into silence.
Mara couldn't help but turn back toward her passenger to gape at him; she was
unable to believe that he was admitting a weakness, and yet, as she gazed at his
profile, she couldn't deny his action.
Skywalker had just told her that he was not as invincible as everybody thought
he was... and he was admitting it to her, the woman who had sworn to kill him,
or at least avenge the past one way or another.
The depth of his trust in her literally stunned her.
The cockpit remained silent for an extra minute or two before she gathered her
composure and admitted her own beliefs that she was not invincible either.
"Suppose that I also have my doubts," she began somberly, "do you have any other
idea?" she inquired without any trace of resent nor anger in her voice.
Skywalker refocused her attention on her until their eyes met from across
emotional distances until they were truly face to face for the first time since
they had met.
At this very moment, they were equals, without any pretense on either part...
and the young man understood it; he shyly smiled at her, as if in encouragement,
she noticed.
"As it is, yes I do have an idea," he finally answered her previous question.
"To what extent do your codes work?" he asked, looking at the plan of the ship
that was projected by the tactical display of the main control board.
"Everywhere inside the ship," she specified as she waved her finger all around
the hologram of the traditional imperial Star Destroyer. "The code is a
backdoor which gives me access to the main computer."
Luke whistled in amazement as Mara explained what exactly she had at their
disposal.
"I didn't know something like that could exist," he half-whispered in awe.
"well, now you know," the beautiful young woman shrugged. "What's your idea?"
Having been distracted by the glinting of the overhead lights on her shining
red-gold hair, Luke forcefully pulled himself out of his fascination and
refocused on the task at hand.
Freeing Talon Karrde.
"Can you also control the garbage compactors?" he inquired, turning toward the
board and programmed commands to enhance that part of the holo.
"Yes...," the other answered uncertainly, a frown slowly creasing her smooth
forehead.
He understood that she had no idea about what he was up to, then had to admit
that he too was wondering about this because last time he had visited a garbage
compactor, he had promised himself to never dare the dianoga again.
And yet, here he was, willingly considering that very possibility.
"I could infiltrate the detention levels through the garbage compactor's
grid," he explained simply, then waited for the other's reaction.
She was flabbergasted.
"What?!? Are you crazy?!" she gaped at him, her eyes wider than usual. "You
don't even know what a compactor looks like!"
"No, I do," he informed her in turn. "I... visited one before," he admitted, a
foolish blush creeping up his cheeks at the thought of the first time he had
attempted a rescue aboard an Imperial station.
"What?" his companion frowned, truly stumped now.
"It's a long story," he shrugged, waving away her question with a movement of
his hand. " Let's just say that I'm planning to make the trip backward this
time. You could narrow the walls so that I can climb up to the shaft," he
explained seriously, "then I'll wait for the guards to change, get Karrde and go
down again. Piece of cake really," he finished with a boyish smirk.
Mara stared at him. She could not tell him, she reminded herself, but she was
truly impressed this time. He was not only skilled for physical stunts, but was
also clever and shrewd.
She had thought that the victory on Myrkr had been a stroke of chance, but she
was now aware that she had been wrong. He had been as genius on Myrkr as he was
at the moment with her.
Even if she was trying hard to not grow anymore interested in the man than she
already was, she couldn't help but find most interesting this side of him.
She shook her head, both to clear her insane ideas as well as to express
disbelief in order to hide her feelings.
"Piece of cake, uh?" she challenged him. "Okay, we'll do it this way. After
all, it's your life on the line," she reminded him seriously.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," the Jedi answered earnestly---
Earning himself a glare from her.
"I'm not worried about you, Skywalker," she reminded him reflexively,
vehemently. "My sole concern is the completion of the operation, is that
clear?"
For a moment, their eyes met again, this time filled with defiance or animosity.
"Crystal." he clipped, then turned away from her.
"Good," she muttered before she too turned away from him.
And sulked.
Why in Sith did she feel so attracted to him??, she asked no one. And why was
he so kind with her? Even when she had explicitly reminded him that she wanted
to kill him, he hadn't glared at her. He had not smiled either, but he had
seemed more... disappointed than angry at her, she admitted reluctantly as she
remembered his latest gaze.
Any other man would've left her high and dry after such an outburst, but not
Skywalker...
What was wrong with this Jedi???, she frowned, hastily throwing a look over her
shoulder to check on him before refocusing on the bulkhead beside her. Could he
possibly have changed so much from cold murderer to kind man??, her cold self
wondered as she too began to cool down.
'Unless...', her warmer self offered.
She clenched her teeth at the very thought, yet couldn't ignore it anymore, not
even with the part of her being that was still devoted to the Emperor.
Unless, Skywalker had never been an assassin in the first place... which would
mean... that the Emperor had lied about him too----
No! It couldn't be, her cooler self objected vehemently. Her Master would never
have lied to her about this. She had been and still was loyal, devoted,
professional. He would've had no reason to lie to her and yet...
Skywalker didn't fit at all in the standard description of a careless, cutthroat
murderer. She had seen it on Myrkr, had come to understand that Skywalker was a
caring man now, yet had never really dismissed the possibility that he had
merely changed since Endor...
Until today, and knowing that the Emperor had lied to her about the very basis
of her life,... and probably about her target too.
In fact, she didn't need to ponder it further because with was she already knew
of the Jedi, she 'knew' that he was the exact opposite of what she had been led
to believe.
How had that journalist described him?.., she tried to remember as she called up
her memories of the early reports she had seen about him after Endor.
Benevolent.
Yes, she agreed, at long last. Skywalker was benevolent. He was proving it
again by helping her, his personal nemesis.
Could she possibly even hurt such a man?, she wondered uneasily. Yes, she was
an assassin, but she also had a morale... and if her order was based on a lie,
she thought seriously, then that made it completely immoral.
'And what about avenging herself on him,' her warmer self added to her
confusion, 'If her pain resulted from the Emperor's actions instead of
Skywalker's...'
'Oh, shut up!' she snarled at herself, not ready at all to wander in the
unpleasant territories of really considering the truth of what had been hidden
from her so far.
Especially not with the nightmares and orders that kept inhabiting her soul.
Skywalker suddenly broke the silence.
"You said that Karrde was caught because you led them to your base," he
commented as he swiveled his seat back toward her to see her. "I take it that
you weren't on Myrkr anymore."
She also turned her seat to stare at him, once again surprised despite herself
by his interest in others. She herself had rarely bothered to even think about
her enemies unless it would teach her something about them.
"We moved out as soon as possible, but almost got caught again on our next
stop. Thrawn wanted Karrde very badly," she answered, matter-of-factly.
"What about the rest of the group? Are they safe?"
She raised an eyebrow in surprise. He really was worried about the wellbeing of
the group... Definitely more a caring attitude than anything else... and not
something that could result from a change but from the very nature of the man,
her inner self reflected warmly.
"Yes, they are," she informed him. "Aves's led them to another secret base."
"I'm sorry I brought the Empire down on you," he answered earnestly, then turned
back toward the side viewport and closed his eyes.
Mara was speechless once again.
'They' had been the ones who had captured him and dragged him on Myrkr, 'they'
were responsible for the trouble with the imperials, and yet, here he was,
apologizing for the results. For the briefest of moment, she wanted to tell him
that it wasn't his fault, but she caught herself before she could reveal too
much of her unwelcome feelings for him.
Instead she played the arrogant smuggler.
"Thanks," she answered shortly.
Another silence stretched between them, then also stretched in time, leaving
them both alone with their thoughts.
Eventually, sleep claimed them once again.
As usual, nightmares invaded Mara's soul, tormenting her to no end with the
untimely demise of her former master.
TBC in part 3: Partner
Copyright 1999/2002, SJ (skyjade@globetrotter.net)
Webmaster : Skyjade(Any positive stuff is welcome, but any mean stuff won't even
be read.)
Part 2: Planning
by SJ 23-03-99/2002 (skyjade@globetrotter.net)
__________________________
Disclaimers: Nothing in the Star Wars Universe belong to me; everything belongs
to George Lucas. Also, everything related to the spoken parts of Dark Force
Rising 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 events of Heir to the Empire also belong to Timothy Zhan. Please don't sue
me, it's only for fun; I'm not making any money out of this.
See my home page for more details.
Http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/3702
Special thanks to Adrianne for her help with beta-reading. Thank you for
giving me some of your precious time, my friend; I appreciate.
_________________________
Luke was floating through a bland nothing when a groan attracted his more
conscious attention and pulled him out of his dozing state.
He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head in the direction of the repeated
noise.
"No..." Mara whispered sleepily as she tossed her head to the side while she
gripped the armrests of her chair until her knuckles were white. "No!..." she
exclaimed again, turning away from him as if she were trying to fight her way
free of something.
Completely awaken now, Luke carefully approached the nightmare-plagued woman and
hesitantly touched her hand.
"Mara," he called softly, wary for any dangerous reaction from the woman.
She didn't even seem to feel his touch. Instead, she continued to groan even as
sweat broke on her forehead. "Master, no, they will..." she muttered
incoherently.
Suddenly aware that she was having a nightmare about the late Emperor, Luke
swallowed his second attempt to wake her up, shocked by the intensity of the
woman's reaction to what she was seeing. If her grip on the chair was anything
to go by, she was ready to strangle anybody who was her enemy in the dream.
And somehow, he had the strong feeling that it was him.
Would she attack him upon wakening?, he wondered even as he lightly sensed her
re-surging hatred and lust for revenge, or would she make the difference
between----
All of a sudden, he wasn't simply sensing his companion's emotional output; he
was witnessing her nightmare as well. Even though he hadn't even meant to touch
her mind, he was close to it now... and could only watch in dumbfound horror as
he saw himself and his father turn on the Emperor to kill him. Far away, too
far to intervene in time, was Mara, struggling against her dream-sluggish body
to stop them this time. She opened fire on them with her pocket blaster; the
bolt of energy dissolved before it had even reached the men's location. He
winced for his dream-self when the Emperor unleashed his all-too-well remembered
bolts of energy on himself and his father, but they were shielded against them.
They kept advancing, their lightsabers, one green blade and one red blade, ready
for the final kill, and then, he saw it.
Saw the very source of Mara's continued hatred of him... of the pain that was
inhabiting her beautiful eyes: the Emperor locked his gaze on the far away
figure of the desperate woman and implanted a cruel command in her mind.
"You will kill Luke Skywalker."
Then he and his father stroke---- and Mara snapped awake with a gasp of terror.
Luke, who was still slightly holding her hand, barely blocked her left hand
before she crushed his throat with her hatred-fed, powerful punch. He locked
his eyes on hers, aware that she was not completely awakened yet.
"Mara, it's all right, it's Luke," he reassured her while not letting go of her
hands.
He was all too aware that her blaster would be the weapon she would go for if he
freed her right hand, and he doubted if he would be able to stop her from
killing him in her actual state.
"It was just a bad dream, not real," he soothed her.
'And the very opposite of what really happened,' he thought in disgust at how
the Emperor had twisted the truth to maintain Mara's devotion until she
had avenged his death at the hands of Anakin Skywalker.
In front of Luke, the woman tugged against his hold, but it was lacking the
strength of will which he had come to associate with her.
"It's all right, just take your time to wake up," he said gently, slightly
tightening his hold on her right hand to physically help her break free from the
remnants of the horrible vision.
How long had she been seeing this?, he wondered sorrowfully at the thought of
the pain she had had to bear because of him. To his surprise though, he felt
the sudden warning to not talk about the fact that he now knew about her
nightmare. The Force, he realized, wanted him to wait until Mara would be ready
to hear the truth about this before bringing this up with her.
Otherwise, he conceded, he might not be able to defend himself for long if she
chose to kill him for his accidental invasion.
Mara was thoroughly lost. One moment, she was seeing yet again the death of her
master, and the second, she was awakening in the presence of the hated Jedi...
who had restrained her somehow.
She fought against her bonds, pulled against them to be able to finish him once
and for all--- when she realized that he hadn't tied her up in any way.
Instead, he was holding her hands in his hands and was trying to comfort her.
Comfort?, she frowned even as she shook her head to see past the strange haze
that was obscuring her vision. Why would the murderer of the dream want to
comfort her?
He had sneered at her after he had killed her master, had even relished in the
painful death of the Emperor by stroking him twice with his blade before he had
died. He was a monster, a killer, a...
"It was just a bad dream, Mara," a gentle, somewhat familiar voice told her,
pulling her out of her thoughts and back to reality.
She re-opened her eyes, which had drooped closed once again, and looked in the
direction of the voice.
Skywalker was looking at her, worry etched on his face. She dimly noticed that
he was really holding her hands, slightly squeezing them in his warm hands in
reassurance, but what caught her undivided attention was his eyes.
They were not at all like the ones of the sneering man in her dream.
"Are you all right?" he asked her solicitously.
For the briefest of moments, her true self expressed herself, barely nodding as
if still under the shock of the dream, then she caught herself and pulled her
hands out of his hold.
"Yes, no need to fuss over me," she answered as tartly as she could while
suppressing the still reflexive reaction of wanting to kill the man of her
nightmare.
This wasn't the man of her nightmare, she reminded herself. This was the
real Skywalker, who was here to help her rescue Karrde. He was the kind being
she had never thought even existed.
At least, when she was loosing it, she scolded herself before scowling at her
companion who was still looking at her as if she were a lab experiment.
"What? Have I lost an ear while I was sleeping?" she asked him even as she
swiveled her seat away from him and stood up to pace a little in the small space
that was behind the piloting station.
"Huh, no, I..." the Jedi hesitated slightly.
"And what were you trying to do when I woke up?" she inquired, whirling toward
him to pin him with her green glare.
"To wake you up, nothing else. You were not giving signs that you would wake up
by yourself," he explained as he leaned back against the console that was behind
him.
"Well next time, leave me alone, Skywalker," she warned him, then turned away
from him.
Considering what had happened lately, and although it went against what the
dream was telling her to do, she really didn't want to take the risk of his
trying to wake her up and her killing him thanks to the hatred she was always
feeling whenever she woke up from the cursed nightmare.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and worked on purging her emotions back
down to the bottom of her mind where it wouldn't represent any danger for the
Jedi for the time being.
She needed him to save Karrde... and she still didn't want to kill him although,
perhaps, this would be the only way to break free from the nightmare... She was
so tired of them, of the torment they caused her...
A sudden, firm grip on her right arm made her snap her eyes open to glare at
Skywalker once again.
"Are you all right?" he asked her again, this time definitely worried about her.
"Let me go, Jedi, or I won't be responsible for what happens next," she warned
him even as she tried, although half-heartedly, to shrug free from his touch.
To his credit, the man understood her warning and let her go, but not before
helping her to a more upright position.
She belatedly realized that he had caught her just as she had been crumpling to
the deck.
"Look, I'm just concerned about you. This thing has really shaken you up," he
observed seriously.
'No kidding,' she glared silently at him before turning away from him once
again.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," she stated with finality.
No, she didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to tell her confusing target
that she was plagued by visions of how he had killed her master...
Or had he?
"All right, Mara. I won't insist. If you need to talk though," he offered her
simply, "I'll be there for you."
And with that, he returned to the piloting station and called up a report of
their current location in hyperspace.
Reluctantly, almost guiltily, Mara eventually turned half-way around to study
the back of her companion's head.
He would be there for her...
No one had ever been there for her, had ever even cared about her set of mind...
her emotions.
True, up to not so long ago, emotions had been prohibited in her world. Or had
they? She had always been filled with anger, hatred, even fear in order to
crush it. Yes, she had dealt with emotions before, but not the same kind of
emotions than what Skywalker had brought into her heart: care.
And he cared about her, he really wanted to help her...
Well, she decided even as she squared her shoulders, she didn't need his help
for this. She would face it alone, just as she had always faced everything
alone and come out stronger for it.
'Then', her mental opposition offered, 'why do you need his help to rescue
Karrde. You're a tough girl, you can do it by yourself.'
True, she conceded, and yet... now that she was 'reunited', in a way, with the
Jedi, she couldn't imagine going aboard the Chimaera alone.
Somehow, she had grown dependent of him as a helper.
First the vornsk, then the Chimaera; she hoped that it would be the end of it
after this and that she would be able to return to her more normal routine such
as hunting him down and avenging her losses at his hands.
For some reason though, she doubted that her hope would be granted to her.
******
One day and a half later, they broke their self-imposed silence and began to
plan their rescue.
They were now down to choosing one option out of what they had come up with
during their brainstorming session.
"The direct approach won't work, Mara. They are too vigilant at those stations,"
Skywalker commented for the third time since they had begun to discuss their
rescue plan.
"Are you listening to me?" she asked him, crossing her arms over her chest in
frustration. "I have all the codes to make it appear like an official order."
"and what if they decided to double-check with a superior?" the Jedi countered
seriously. "I can't cover that kind of exchange."
"But you can tell them to forget about checking," she retorted suavely.
"I'd rather not count on it working," he answered lamely, turning away from her
to stare out the main viewport.
"Why? Aren't you all powerful?" she sneered reflexively, glaring askance at his
profile before turning away from him.
"Not all the time, no," he admitted seriously, then lapsed into silence.
Mara couldn't help but turn back toward her passenger to gape at him; she was
unable to believe that he was admitting a weakness, and yet, as she gazed at his
profile, she couldn't deny his action.
Skywalker had just told her that he was not as invincible as everybody thought
he was... and he was admitting it to her, the woman who had sworn to kill him,
or at least avenge the past one way or another.
The depth of his trust in her literally stunned her.
The cockpit remained silent for an extra minute or two before she gathered her
composure and admitted her own beliefs that she was not invincible either.
"Suppose that I also have my doubts," she began somberly, "do you have any other
idea?" she inquired without any trace of resent nor anger in her voice.
Skywalker refocused her attention on her until their eyes met from across
emotional distances until they were truly face to face for the first time since
they had met.
At this very moment, they were equals, without any pretense on either part...
and the young man understood it; he shyly smiled at her, as if in encouragement,
she noticed.
"As it is, yes I do have an idea," he finally answered her previous question.
"To what extent do your codes work?" he asked, looking at the plan of the ship
that was projected by the tactical display of the main control board.
"Everywhere inside the ship," she specified as she waved her finger all around
the hologram of the traditional imperial Star Destroyer. "The code is a
backdoor which gives me access to the main computer."
Luke whistled in amazement as Mara explained what exactly she had at their
disposal.
"I didn't know something like that could exist," he half-whispered in awe.
"well, now you know," the beautiful young woman shrugged. "What's your idea?"
Having been distracted by the glinting of the overhead lights on her shining
red-gold hair, Luke forcefully pulled himself out of his fascination and
refocused on the task at hand.
Freeing Talon Karrde.
"Can you also control the garbage compactors?" he inquired, turning toward the
board and programmed commands to enhance that part of the holo.
"Yes...," the other answered uncertainly, a frown slowly creasing her smooth
forehead.
He understood that she had no idea about what he was up to, then had to admit
that he too was wondering about this because last time he had visited a garbage
compactor, he had promised himself to never dare the dianoga again.
And yet, here he was, willingly considering that very possibility.
"I could infiltrate the detention levels through the garbage compactor's
grid," he explained simply, then waited for the other's reaction.
She was flabbergasted.
"What?!? Are you crazy?!" she gaped at him, her eyes wider than usual. "You
don't even know what a compactor looks like!"
"No, I do," he informed her in turn. "I... visited one before," he admitted, a
foolish blush creeping up his cheeks at the thought of the first time he had
attempted a rescue aboard an Imperial station.
"What?" his companion frowned, truly stumped now.
"It's a long story," he shrugged, waving away her question with a movement of
his hand. " Let's just say that I'm planning to make the trip backward this
time. You could narrow the walls so that I can climb up to the shaft," he
explained seriously, "then I'll wait for the guards to change, get Karrde and go
down again. Piece of cake really," he finished with a boyish smirk.
Mara stared at him. She could not tell him, she reminded herself, but she was
truly impressed this time. He was not only skilled for physical stunts, but was
also clever and shrewd.
She had thought that the victory on Myrkr had been a stroke of chance, but she
was now aware that she had been wrong. He had been as genius on Myrkr as he was
at the moment with her.
Even if she was trying hard to not grow anymore interested in the man than she
already was, she couldn't help but find most interesting this side of him.
She shook her head, both to clear her insane ideas as well as to express
disbelief in order to hide her feelings.
"Piece of cake, uh?" she challenged him. "Okay, we'll do it this way. After
all, it's your life on the line," she reminded him seriously.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," the Jedi answered earnestly---
Earning himself a glare from her.
"I'm not worried about you, Skywalker," she reminded him reflexively,
vehemently. "My sole concern is the completion of the operation, is that
clear?"
For a moment, their eyes met again, this time filled with defiance or animosity.
"Crystal." he clipped, then turned away from her.
"Good," she muttered before she too turned away from him.
And sulked.
Why in Sith did she feel so attracted to him??, she asked no one. And why was
he so kind with her? Even when she had explicitly reminded him that she wanted
to kill him, he hadn't glared at her. He had not smiled either, but he had
seemed more... disappointed than angry at her, she admitted reluctantly as she
remembered his latest gaze.
Any other man would've left her high and dry after such an outburst, but not
Skywalker...
What was wrong with this Jedi???, she frowned, hastily throwing a look over her
shoulder to check on him before refocusing on the bulkhead beside her. Could he
possibly have changed so much from cold murderer to kind man??, her cold self
wondered as she too began to cool down.
'Unless...', her warmer self offered.
She clenched her teeth at the very thought, yet couldn't ignore it anymore, not
even with the part of her being that was still devoted to the Emperor.
Unless, Skywalker had never been an assassin in the first place... which would
mean... that the Emperor had lied about him too----
No! It couldn't be, her cooler self objected vehemently. Her Master would never
have lied to her about this. She had been and still was loyal, devoted,
professional. He would've had no reason to lie to her and yet...
Skywalker didn't fit at all in the standard description of a careless, cutthroat
murderer. She had seen it on Myrkr, had come to understand that Skywalker was a
caring man now, yet had never really dismissed the possibility that he had
merely changed since Endor...
Until today, and knowing that the Emperor had lied to her about the very basis
of her life,... and probably about her target too.
In fact, she didn't need to ponder it further because with was she already knew
of the Jedi, she 'knew' that he was the exact opposite of what she had been led
to believe.
How had that journalist described him?.., she tried to remember as she called up
her memories of the early reports she had seen about him after Endor.
Benevolent.
Yes, she agreed, at long last. Skywalker was benevolent. He was proving it
again by helping her, his personal nemesis.
Could she possibly even hurt such a man?, she wondered uneasily. Yes, she was
an assassin, but she also had a morale... and if her order was based on a lie,
she thought seriously, then that made it completely immoral.
'And what about avenging herself on him,' her warmer self added to her
confusion, 'If her pain resulted from the Emperor's actions instead of
Skywalker's...'
'Oh, shut up!' she snarled at herself, not ready at all to wander in the
unpleasant territories of really considering the truth of what had been hidden
from her so far.
Especially not with the nightmares and orders that kept inhabiting her soul.
Skywalker suddenly broke the silence.
"You said that Karrde was caught because you led them to your base," he
commented as he swiveled his seat back toward her to see her. "I take it that
you weren't on Myrkr anymore."
She also turned her seat to stare at him, once again surprised despite herself
by his interest in others. She herself had rarely bothered to even think about
her enemies unless it would teach her something about them.
"We moved out as soon as possible, but almost got caught again on our next
stop. Thrawn wanted Karrde very badly," she answered, matter-of-factly.
"What about the rest of the group? Are they safe?"
She raised an eyebrow in surprise. He really was worried about the wellbeing of
the group... Definitely more a caring attitude than anything else... and not
something that could result from a change but from the very nature of the man,
her inner self reflected warmly.
"Yes, they are," she informed him. "Aves's led them to another secret base."
"I'm sorry I brought the Empire down on you," he answered earnestly, then turned
back toward the side viewport and closed his eyes.
Mara was speechless once again.
'They' had been the ones who had captured him and dragged him on Myrkr, 'they'
were responsible for the trouble with the imperials, and yet, here he was,
apologizing for the results. For the briefest of moment, she wanted to tell him
that it wasn't his fault, but she caught herself before she could reveal too
much of her unwelcome feelings for him.
Instead she played the arrogant smuggler.
"Thanks," she answered shortly.
Another silence stretched between them, then also stretched in time, leaving
them both alone with their thoughts.
Eventually, sleep claimed them once again.
As usual, nightmares invaded Mara's soul, tormenting her to no end with the
untimely demise of her former master.
TBC in part 3: Partner
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