Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own any of this, the characters, the setting
nothing.
Author's note: Thank you to all of my great reviewers. I can't believe how many people have been reading this story.
As soon as she had Mara securely restrained to the chair she had previously occupied, Jaina Solo flicked on her comm. link and called Jag.
"Fel," he snapped immediately.
"Hi, Honey, "Jaina replied lightly forgetting her anger at Jag's unfortunate timing.
Before she could get another word in his anxious voice erupted from the comm. link. "Jaina are you all right? I was worried when you didn't answer your comm."
"I'm fine Jag. I was just in the middle of something." Jaina suppressed a snicker at the truth of that statement and then continued, "Um, listen, Honey, I have to take care of some things right now, but if I'm not back in a few hours, come drag me out. I miss you already."
"Sure, Jaina, I miss you too."
Jaina took a moment to savor the warmth she had grown to associate with Jag's presence and then said, "Thanks, Jag, I'll talk to you later."
"Bye, Goddess."
"How disgusting," came a bitingly sharp voice from behind Jaina, where Mara was tied up.
Determined not to give in to the older woman's goading, Jaina replied serenely, "Listen Mara, I'm sorry I had to do that, but I though you might be more inclined to listen to what I had to say like this."
Mara's face showed only a blank uninterested look. Jaina stubbornly kept trying, "Look Luke Skywalker did not murder the Emperor, and there are a few things you should know before you go try to kill him."
"Like what," demanded Mara, "that he's kind to little lost Banthas. That's really going to change my mind."
Jaina barely suppressed a laugh. "Actually I wouldn't know if he was kind to Bantha cubs or not, but I do know that the Emperor wanted you to kill Luke Skywalker, not for yourself, but as a final revenge against Darth Vader, by having you kill his son."
"What are you talking about?" Mara asked suddenly confused.
"When the Emperor died, Luke Skywalker was laying on the floor practically paralyzed. Because he hadn't turned to the dark side, Darth Vader was watching the Emperor kill him. Darth Vader, though, turned away from the dark side and saved him by throwing the Emperor over the railing."
"You lying piece of filth," Mara spat, "What kind of spice are you on? I saw him die with my own two eyes. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader chopped him to pieces with their lightsabers."
"Were you actually there?" Jaina asked with surprising intensity. "No, you saw it through your master's eyes, your master who was very skilled at deception and illusion."
Mara's face was like a mask, a deadly calm mask. Jaina could feel Mara's emotions through the force. They were a jumble of mixed emotions and only half-coherent thoughts. Her emotions were so confused that Jaina actually felt sorry for doing that to her.
Jaina sighed wearily feeling for the first time since the fight with Mara, all of her recently gained bruises and lacerations as well as the dull, nagging aches from her brief trip EV. Jaina casually leaned against the wall and gingerly touched the back of her head gently probing the place where Mara had hit her and knocked her unconscious. "You pack a pretty good punch, you know. I remember why I've never been that fond of upsetting you."
"So let me go and make my day."
"Well, I would," Jaina remarked glad that Mara had at least responded, "but you'd probably go try to kill Skywalker again and I can't let you do that just yet."
"What do you mean, 'yet'? Do you have plans of your own?"
"No nothing like that. It's just that you aren't supposed to meet or you try to kill him for a few more years."
Suddenly to Jaina's immense surprise she felt herself pinned to the wall, this time with a burst of force energy directed by Mara. Hanging 3.2 meters off the ground, Jaina focused her eyes on Mara.
"Is that the best you can do, Jade?" she taunted.
"No," Mara snarled, "I can do this."
As she and Mara continued staring at one another and Mara began to focus intently, Jaina felt her windpipe begin to close. Reacting with instinctive self-preservation, Jaina immediately used the force to open her windpipe. As the struggle continued, both women vying for supremacy, Jaina choked out.
"Didn't want .do this y' know, but .forced me."
Mara felt the brush of Jaina's mind against hers and with a mental laugh raised her mental shields, confident in her ability to block out Jaina's mental intrusion. To her complete shock, the girl seemed to know exactly how to get through her mental shields and did so easily.
During her initial training, before the Emperor had taught her how to ever so carefully shield her thoughts, many of the Emperor's dark Jedi had crudely ripped into her mind. She would never forget the sense of vulnerability, fear and insecurity that she had quickly grown to hate more and more with each intrusion. This, though, was something altogether different. Mara was not inclined to trust, anyone and instinctively, defensively disliked everyone. However, as Jaina opened her mind to Mara, she realized that Jaina truly meant her no harm. A burst of images from Jaina's mind flashed through Mara's giving first hand experience of her life through Jaina's eyes.
****An often told family story of how Mara had bravely saved the infants Jacen and Jaina as well as Han and Leia. Mara dropping by one afternoon when she was on Coruscant training with Luke, to see how much the twins had grown, now that they were three and Anakin. Working together with Leia and laughing after the battle on Correlia with Luke. Mara saw herself and Luke announcing their engagement to Luke's family and their delight, especially the children's. She experienced Jaina's memory of the feeling of peace, love and completion that had permeated the air at Mara's wedding to Luke. The memories flashed by faster now showing her happiness and love of Luke, Jaina's apprenticeship, her illness, Luke's dedication throughout and then there began to be gaps in time and Jaina's sadness at her absence from Mara and her family. She felt her own joy through Jaina at the birth of her son and the incredible pain and sadness at the death of her nephew.***
When Mara and Jaina finally came out of their trancelike state exchange of pictures and emotions, tears were running down the cheeks of both.
When Jaina recovered slightly, she said, "That's why you can't kill Him."
"No," Mara almost screamed, "no I can't be in love with him. He destroyed my life."
"And if you will let him, in the future, he will give you a new and much better one." Jaina leaned forward as if trying by her proximity to make Mara understand. "He doesn't control you or want to. He loves you, even though, it will be quite a few years before you both figure it out."
Sensing Mara's current state of confusion and if it had been anyone else, what Jaina would have thought was terror, Jaina quickly made up her mind. "I'm sorry I did that to you Mara, but you had to know." Jaina began reaching out to the force and gathering it around her. She imbued her next words with all of the force strength that she could muster.
Waving her hand in front of Mara she said, cutting off Mara's startled exclamation, "You will not remember me or this conversation until it is necessary." She paused again to stress her next point. "You will not kill Luke Skywalker."
"I will not kill Luke Skywalker," Mara intoned under Jaina's force persuasion.
"You will find Talon Karrde."
"I will find Talon Karrde."
While Mara was still dazed Jaina eased Mara into a healing trance and then untied her from the chair. Gently she propped her aunt up, sitting her up against the wall and placed her weapons on her lap. Quickly kissing her aunt on the cheek, Jaina ran out into the outer room and then ducked into a familiar but darkened corridor. Jaina was only slightly surprised to find herself aboard Luke Skywalker's Mon Calamari Command cruiser. She was probably down on a lower deserted level, she reasoned.
An hour later she was walking exhausted up to the doors of the suite where Jag was waiting for her. Jag was there the moment she stepped through the doorway, enveloping her in his strong embrace. After she had rested in his arms for a moment, she pulled back slightly to kiss him. After the kiss ended, Jag picked her up as if sensing her exhaustion and carried her to a bed.
Jaina started to protest that she could walk just fine, but decided that this felt too good to ruin it. As she sank gratefully down into the warm inviting bed, she gestured for Jag to sit beside her. Acting more awkward than she had ever seen him, Jag perched on the edge of her bed. Their hands immediately twined together, while Jag's free one reached up to soothingly stroke her hair.
"Go to sleep, Goddess, I'll watch your back."
".love you Jag." Was all she managed to mumble out before she fell into an exhausted slumber.
* * * * * * * * *
Countless parsecs away and twenty-five years in the future, Mara Jade Skywalker woke with an unexpected start. Hand reaching for her lightsaber instinctively, Mara relaxed slightly as she realized they were just on a battered freighter heading back to Borealis. With a last glance around the room, Mara relaxed, released her lightsaber and lay back down on the bunk next to Luke.
Smiling at her husband of about ten years, she was suddenly struck by an echo of a voice long gone. YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER.
Mara blinked in surprise. It had been years since she had heard the Emperor's voice like that. She had thought that voice had been banished years ago at Wayland, when she had killed Skywalker's clone. Why she was hearing that command again was a mystery and quite, frankly, it disturbed Mara more than she would ever care to admit.
Slowly Mara forced herself to relax and fall in to the orderly pattern of Jedi meditation. Sensing a disturbance in the force, the one that had woken her, she realized abruptly, she almost woke Luke, too, but in the end decided against it. This disturbance felt too. personal to share with anyone yet, even her beloved Skywalker.
Sinking even deeper into her meditative state, Mara allowed the force to flow through her and guide her. In an unexpected move the force directed her probe inward rather than outward as she had expected. Suddenly it was as if a switch had been flicked on in Mara's head and a torrent of jumbled images assaulted her.
*"How disgusting." "You will not kill Luke Skywalker." " I, am from the future."*
She saw flashed of herself fighting with Jaina, pinning Jaina to the wall and choking her. More and more pictures flashed through her mind. Finally as the memories stopped coming she began to piece the situation together. When she absorbed what had happened, after ten or fifteen long minutes of Jedi calming techniques, she smiled. So much was going through her head at that moment, but the quandary foremost in her mind was about Jaina. She couldn't decide whether to kill the girl for messing with her mind or thank her for saving Luke's life and pointing her towards Karrde.
Well, that would have to wait, this memory had been triggered by something and Mara was willing to bet a significant amount of credits that, that meant Jaina needed help. Shaking her head at the memory of the angry young woman she had been, Mara allowed herself a second and only a second to regret that Jaina had been exposed to that side of her, before waking Luke.
Smiling gently, something Mara realized that she did all too infrequently even when she was alone with Luke and or Ben, she said gently. "Wake up, Luke. We need to talk."
Half an hour later, he sat staring at his wife, stunned. "But I didn't think time travel was even possible.I don't remember any of it."
Mara tried to suppress a laugh, she had rarely seen Luke this flustered. Finally he seemed to accept what she was saying. "How do we help Jaina? We don't even know if it's happened yet. Did she say anything to you about the time she came from?"
"I wouldn't know Skywalker," Mara almost snapped, "I wasn't exactly in a friendly mood."
Instantly Mara regretted her outburst. "Guilt won't help the situation, Love."
"I know Luke, it's just." Mara's eyes glazed over then snapped back to Luke's. "Jaina and Jag were a couple."
"What!?" Luke exclaimed loudly.
"Say it a little louder, Farmboy, and Leia will hear you on all the way across the galaxy." Mara answered sarcastically.
Ignoring her, he began thinking out loud. "Well we haven't spent much time with Jaina recently so, it's either a fairly new development or coming in the near future."
"And either way, Luke, we need to get back to Borealis and Jaina soon."
"There's nothing we can do about it until we get there, so we might as well relax, you know, Mara." Luke pointed out reasonably.
Mara shot Luke a dark glare although, she suspected the look was ruined by the wide smile on her face. "Oh go meditate until you brain floats apart, Skywalker."
Luke's laughter, soon joined by Mara's, echoed throughout the small ship for quite a while, startling almost everyone on board.
* * * * * * * *
Jaina groaned, waking up for the first time in days without a pounding headache. She was beginning to hate this disoriented feeling. Her annoyance however, dissipated as soon as Jag's face swam into view. "Hey Handsome," she drawled with a fake heavy Corellian accent.
"Right back at you, Goddess."
They sat or rather in Jaina's case lay in comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Jaina sighed wearily.
"Are you still tired, Jaina?"
"No, I was just thinking about all of the head aches we have to think through."
"Yeah," Jag replied with a grin, "but I'm not too worried. Together we can figure it out."
"What an optimist!"
Jag smiled and seemed to restrain himself from making a comeback. He was surprised when Jaina's face suddenly adopted a serious expression. "Jag," she said steadily, "I think we need to leave here. I don't want to take anymore chances with messing up the future."
Trusting Jaina enough not to question her sudden change of opinion, Jag simply said, "Where do you want to go and how?"
Two hours later, they emerged from the suites guest room. It was still night on that part of Bakura, so they were startled to find Luke sitting on the couch in the suites living room nursing a glass of Corellian whiskey.
Jag's jaw almost dropped at the sight of the galalxy's most famous Jedi master drinking, but it didn't seem to phase Jaina at all.
"Got any left?" she asked quietly.
He didn't act surprised at their presence and instead merely gestured at the bottle sitting on a table across the room.
Using the force to bring both the bottle and a glass to her, Jaina took a seat across from Luke, "Who was it?" she asked with great empathy.
"Dan Sel-tar. He flew with the Rogues. Not the greatest pilot, but he came with us through both Death Stars."
Reaching out gently to touch his arm, Jaina quietly said. "I'm sorry. I've lost more comrades than I care to name in my war. It never gets easier."
"No it doesn't," Luke said, seeming to pull himself together, "but life goes on."
"It does."
Luke paused and cocked his head at Jaina. "What do you need?"
For the first time Jag entered the conversation, "We want to leave, to disappear."
"The risk of changing history is too great," continued Jaina, " but I have a solution for one of our problems at least."
"What's that," Luke asked.
Jaina smiled although Jag supposed it should really have been called more of an evil grin. "Do you remember what Ben Kenobi did to those two storm troopers that got nosy about R2 and Threepio when you entered Anchorhead?"
* * * * * * * * *
One long conversation and several force assisted memory alterations later, Jaina and Jag stood next to a small antiquated freighter as the prepared to leave. Jaina had considered whether or not to tell her parents good bye. In the end she had decided not to since their memories would be erased anyway, and it would be pointless.
However, Jaina thought as she and Jag prepared to leave, it was her good bye to Chewbacca, a good bye that she couldn't give up, that kept flashing through her mind.
She had met Chewie outside the Millennium Falcon. "Chewie," she explained softly," I have to go. Jag and I can't stay here any longer, it's too dangerous. We don't know how much this will effect the future."
[ I look forward to meeting you again then, young Solo] Chewie growled out. [ I will miss you but, I do wish you much happiness with your boyfriend. You look, happy, little one, cherish that.]
"Thank you, Chewie," Jaina choked out as she found herself, wrapped into the Wookie's protective embrace, "I love you."
[ And I you, Jaina. Now go you don't want to miss your ship].
It had taken Jag's knowing support to get her back to the freighter before she broke down into uncontrollable sobs. Once they were in safely in hyperspace, Jag turned to look at Jaina in the copilot's chair. She suddenly looked much younger than her actual age, with her feet tucked up in front of her and, her arms wrapped around them tightly. Not needing to be force sensitive to see that Jaina was not all right, Jag grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. Gently Jag wrapped her in a tight embrace.
Jaina seemed to stiffen at first and then relaxed in his arms, letting her emotions out and relaxing her constant control. When she regained her composure, she smiled ruefully at Jag.
"I guess that was really bad for my tough fighter pilot image huh?"
"Moderately bad," he replied with mock seriousness. Jaina's giggles at his response soon became infectious and he was laughing with her. Once they caught their breath, Jag looked up at Jaina who had sunk back in to the copilot's seat behind her and noticed that she was staring at him. Looking questioningly at her, Jag was soon rewarded with a response. "I really do love you, Jag, don't forget that."
Before she could continue speaking a wave of blackness enveloped them. Jaina's last conscious thought was a string of curses so vile that they would have made both Talon Karrde and her father blush.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Reviews are always read and appreciated.
Author's note: Thank you to all of my great reviewers. I can't believe how many people have been reading this story.
As soon as she had Mara securely restrained to the chair she had previously occupied, Jaina Solo flicked on her comm. link and called Jag.
"Fel," he snapped immediately.
"Hi, Honey, "Jaina replied lightly forgetting her anger at Jag's unfortunate timing.
Before she could get another word in his anxious voice erupted from the comm. link. "Jaina are you all right? I was worried when you didn't answer your comm."
"I'm fine Jag. I was just in the middle of something." Jaina suppressed a snicker at the truth of that statement and then continued, "Um, listen, Honey, I have to take care of some things right now, but if I'm not back in a few hours, come drag me out. I miss you already."
"Sure, Jaina, I miss you too."
Jaina took a moment to savor the warmth she had grown to associate with Jag's presence and then said, "Thanks, Jag, I'll talk to you later."
"Bye, Goddess."
"How disgusting," came a bitingly sharp voice from behind Jaina, where Mara was tied up.
Determined not to give in to the older woman's goading, Jaina replied serenely, "Listen Mara, I'm sorry I had to do that, but I though you might be more inclined to listen to what I had to say like this."
Mara's face showed only a blank uninterested look. Jaina stubbornly kept trying, "Look Luke Skywalker did not murder the Emperor, and there are a few things you should know before you go try to kill him."
"Like what," demanded Mara, "that he's kind to little lost Banthas. That's really going to change my mind."
Jaina barely suppressed a laugh. "Actually I wouldn't know if he was kind to Bantha cubs or not, but I do know that the Emperor wanted you to kill Luke Skywalker, not for yourself, but as a final revenge against Darth Vader, by having you kill his son."
"What are you talking about?" Mara asked suddenly confused.
"When the Emperor died, Luke Skywalker was laying on the floor practically paralyzed. Because he hadn't turned to the dark side, Darth Vader was watching the Emperor kill him. Darth Vader, though, turned away from the dark side and saved him by throwing the Emperor over the railing."
"You lying piece of filth," Mara spat, "What kind of spice are you on? I saw him die with my own two eyes. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader chopped him to pieces with their lightsabers."
"Were you actually there?" Jaina asked with surprising intensity. "No, you saw it through your master's eyes, your master who was very skilled at deception and illusion."
Mara's face was like a mask, a deadly calm mask. Jaina could feel Mara's emotions through the force. They were a jumble of mixed emotions and only half-coherent thoughts. Her emotions were so confused that Jaina actually felt sorry for doing that to her.
Jaina sighed wearily feeling for the first time since the fight with Mara, all of her recently gained bruises and lacerations as well as the dull, nagging aches from her brief trip EV. Jaina casually leaned against the wall and gingerly touched the back of her head gently probing the place where Mara had hit her and knocked her unconscious. "You pack a pretty good punch, you know. I remember why I've never been that fond of upsetting you."
"So let me go and make my day."
"Well, I would," Jaina remarked glad that Mara had at least responded, "but you'd probably go try to kill Skywalker again and I can't let you do that just yet."
"What do you mean, 'yet'? Do you have plans of your own?"
"No nothing like that. It's just that you aren't supposed to meet or you try to kill him for a few more years."
Suddenly to Jaina's immense surprise she felt herself pinned to the wall, this time with a burst of force energy directed by Mara. Hanging 3.2 meters off the ground, Jaina focused her eyes on Mara.
"Is that the best you can do, Jade?" she taunted.
"No," Mara snarled, "I can do this."
As she and Mara continued staring at one another and Mara began to focus intently, Jaina felt her windpipe begin to close. Reacting with instinctive self-preservation, Jaina immediately used the force to open her windpipe. As the struggle continued, both women vying for supremacy, Jaina choked out.
"Didn't want .do this y' know, but .forced me."
Mara felt the brush of Jaina's mind against hers and with a mental laugh raised her mental shields, confident in her ability to block out Jaina's mental intrusion. To her complete shock, the girl seemed to know exactly how to get through her mental shields and did so easily.
During her initial training, before the Emperor had taught her how to ever so carefully shield her thoughts, many of the Emperor's dark Jedi had crudely ripped into her mind. She would never forget the sense of vulnerability, fear and insecurity that she had quickly grown to hate more and more with each intrusion. This, though, was something altogether different. Mara was not inclined to trust, anyone and instinctively, defensively disliked everyone. However, as Jaina opened her mind to Mara, she realized that Jaina truly meant her no harm. A burst of images from Jaina's mind flashed through Mara's giving first hand experience of her life through Jaina's eyes.
****An often told family story of how Mara had bravely saved the infants Jacen and Jaina as well as Han and Leia. Mara dropping by one afternoon when she was on Coruscant training with Luke, to see how much the twins had grown, now that they were three and Anakin. Working together with Leia and laughing after the battle on Correlia with Luke. Mara saw herself and Luke announcing their engagement to Luke's family and their delight, especially the children's. She experienced Jaina's memory of the feeling of peace, love and completion that had permeated the air at Mara's wedding to Luke. The memories flashed by faster now showing her happiness and love of Luke, Jaina's apprenticeship, her illness, Luke's dedication throughout and then there began to be gaps in time and Jaina's sadness at her absence from Mara and her family. She felt her own joy through Jaina at the birth of her son and the incredible pain and sadness at the death of her nephew.***
When Mara and Jaina finally came out of their trancelike state exchange of pictures and emotions, tears were running down the cheeks of both.
When Jaina recovered slightly, she said, "That's why you can't kill Him."
"No," Mara almost screamed, "no I can't be in love with him. He destroyed my life."
"And if you will let him, in the future, he will give you a new and much better one." Jaina leaned forward as if trying by her proximity to make Mara understand. "He doesn't control you or want to. He loves you, even though, it will be quite a few years before you both figure it out."
Sensing Mara's current state of confusion and if it had been anyone else, what Jaina would have thought was terror, Jaina quickly made up her mind. "I'm sorry I did that to you Mara, but you had to know." Jaina began reaching out to the force and gathering it around her. She imbued her next words with all of the force strength that she could muster.
Waving her hand in front of Mara she said, cutting off Mara's startled exclamation, "You will not remember me or this conversation until it is necessary." She paused again to stress her next point. "You will not kill Luke Skywalker."
"I will not kill Luke Skywalker," Mara intoned under Jaina's force persuasion.
"You will find Talon Karrde."
"I will find Talon Karrde."
While Mara was still dazed Jaina eased Mara into a healing trance and then untied her from the chair. Gently she propped her aunt up, sitting her up against the wall and placed her weapons on her lap. Quickly kissing her aunt on the cheek, Jaina ran out into the outer room and then ducked into a familiar but darkened corridor. Jaina was only slightly surprised to find herself aboard Luke Skywalker's Mon Calamari Command cruiser. She was probably down on a lower deserted level, she reasoned.
An hour later she was walking exhausted up to the doors of the suite where Jag was waiting for her. Jag was there the moment she stepped through the doorway, enveloping her in his strong embrace. After she had rested in his arms for a moment, she pulled back slightly to kiss him. After the kiss ended, Jag picked her up as if sensing her exhaustion and carried her to a bed.
Jaina started to protest that she could walk just fine, but decided that this felt too good to ruin it. As she sank gratefully down into the warm inviting bed, she gestured for Jag to sit beside her. Acting more awkward than she had ever seen him, Jag perched on the edge of her bed. Their hands immediately twined together, while Jag's free one reached up to soothingly stroke her hair.
"Go to sleep, Goddess, I'll watch your back."
".love you Jag." Was all she managed to mumble out before she fell into an exhausted slumber.
* * * * * * * * *
Countless parsecs away and twenty-five years in the future, Mara Jade Skywalker woke with an unexpected start. Hand reaching for her lightsaber instinctively, Mara relaxed slightly as she realized they were just on a battered freighter heading back to Borealis. With a last glance around the room, Mara relaxed, released her lightsaber and lay back down on the bunk next to Luke.
Smiling at her husband of about ten years, she was suddenly struck by an echo of a voice long gone. YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER.
Mara blinked in surprise. It had been years since she had heard the Emperor's voice like that. She had thought that voice had been banished years ago at Wayland, when she had killed Skywalker's clone. Why she was hearing that command again was a mystery and quite, frankly, it disturbed Mara more than she would ever care to admit.
Slowly Mara forced herself to relax and fall in to the orderly pattern of Jedi meditation. Sensing a disturbance in the force, the one that had woken her, she realized abruptly, she almost woke Luke, too, but in the end decided against it. This disturbance felt too. personal to share with anyone yet, even her beloved Skywalker.
Sinking even deeper into her meditative state, Mara allowed the force to flow through her and guide her. In an unexpected move the force directed her probe inward rather than outward as she had expected. Suddenly it was as if a switch had been flicked on in Mara's head and a torrent of jumbled images assaulted her.
*"How disgusting." "You will not kill Luke Skywalker." " I, am from the future."*
She saw flashed of herself fighting with Jaina, pinning Jaina to the wall and choking her. More and more pictures flashed through her mind. Finally as the memories stopped coming she began to piece the situation together. When she absorbed what had happened, after ten or fifteen long minutes of Jedi calming techniques, she smiled. So much was going through her head at that moment, but the quandary foremost in her mind was about Jaina. She couldn't decide whether to kill the girl for messing with her mind or thank her for saving Luke's life and pointing her towards Karrde.
Well, that would have to wait, this memory had been triggered by something and Mara was willing to bet a significant amount of credits that, that meant Jaina needed help. Shaking her head at the memory of the angry young woman she had been, Mara allowed herself a second and only a second to regret that Jaina had been exposed to that side of her, before waking Luke.
Smiling gently, something Mara realized that she did all too infrequently even when she was alone with Luke and or Ben, she said gently. "Wake up, Luke. We need to talk."
Half an hour later, he sat staring at his wife, stunned. "But I didn't think time travel was even possible.I don't remember any of it."
Mara tried to suppress a laugh, she had rarely seen Luke this flustered. Finally he seemed to accept what she was saying. "How do we help Jaina? We don't even know if it's happened yet. Did she say anything to you about the time she came from?"
"I wouldn't know Skywalker," Mara almost snapped, "I wasn't exactly in a friendly mood."
Instantly Mara regretted her outburst. "Guilt won't help the situation, Love."
"I know Luke, it's just." Mara's eyes glazed over then snapped back to Luke's. "Jaina and Jag were a couple."
"What!?" Luke exclaimed loudly.
"Say it a little louder, Farmboy, and Leia will hear you on all the way across the galaxy." Mara answered sarcastically.
Ignoring her, he began thinking out loud. "Well we haven't spent much time with Jaina recently so, it's either a fairly new development or coming in the near future."
"And either way, Luke, we need to get back to Borealis and Jaina soon."
"There's nothing we can do about it until we get there, so we might as well relax, you know, Mara." Luke pointed out reasonably.
Mara shot Luke a dark glare although, she suspected the look was ruined by the wide smile on her face. "Oh go meditate until you brain floats apart, Skywalker."
Luke's laughter, soon joined by Mara's, echoed throughout the small ship for quite a while, startling almost everyone on board.
* * * * * * * *
Jaina groaned, waking up for the first time in days without a pounding headache. She was beginning to hate this disoriented feeling. Her annoyance however, dissipated as soon as Jag's face swam into view. "Hey Handsome," she drawled with a fake heavy Corellian accent.
"Right back at you, Goddess."
They sat or rather in Jaina's case lay in comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Jaina sighed wearily.
"Are you still tired, Jaina?"
"No, I was just thinking about all of the head aches we have to think through."
"Yeah," Jag replied with a grin, "but I'm not too worried. Together we can figure it out."
"What an optimist!"
Jag smiled and seemed to restrain himself from making a comeback. He was surprised when Jaina's face suddenly adopted a serious expression. "Jag," she said steadily, "I think we need to leave here. I don't want to take anymore chances with messing up the future."
Trusting Jaina enough not to question her sudden change of opinion, Jag simply said, "Where do you want to go and how?"
Two hours later, they emerged from the suites guest room. It was still night on that part of Bakura, so they were startled to find Luke sitting on the couch in the suites living room nursing a glass of Corellian whiskey.
Jag's jaw almost dropped at the sight of the galalxy's most famous Jedi master drinking, but it didn't seem to phase Jaina at all.
"Got any left?" she asked quietly.
He didn't act surprised at their presence and instead merely gestured at the bottle sitting on a table across the room.
Using the force to bring both the bottle and a glass to her, Jaina took a seat across from Luke, "Who was it?" she asked with great empathy.
"Dan Sel-tar. He flew with the Rogues. Not the greatest pilot, but he came with us through both Death Stars."
Reaching out gently to touch his arm, Jaina quietly said. "I'm sorry. I've lost more comrades than I care to name in my war. It never gets easier."
"No it doesn't," Luke said, seeming to pull himself together, "but life goes on."
"It does."
Luke paused and cocked his head at Jaina. "What do you need?"
For the first time Jag entered the conversation, "We want to leave, to disappear."
"The risk of changing history is too great," continued Jaina, " but I have a solution for one of our problems at least."
"What's that," Luke asked.
Jaina smiled although Jag supposed it should really have been called more of an evil grin. "Do you remember what Ben Kenobi did to those two storm troopers that got nosy about R2 and Threepio when you entered Anchorhead?"
* * * * * * * * *
One long conversation and several force assisted memory alterations later, Jaina and Jag stood next to a small antiquated freighter as the prepared to leave. Jaina had considered whether or not to tell her parents good bye. In the end she had decided not to since their memories would be erased anyway, and it would be pointless.
However, Jaina thought as she and Jag prepared to leave, it was her good bye to Chewbacca, a good bye that she couldn't give up, that kept flashing through her mind.
She had met Chewie outside the Millennium Falcon. "Chewie," she explained softly," I have to go. Jag and I can't stay here any longer, it's too dangerous. We don't know how much this will effect the future."
[ I look forward to meeting you again then, young Solo] Chewie growled out. [ I will miss you but, I do wish you much happiness with your boyfriend. You look, happy, little one, cherish that.]
"Thank you, Chewie," Jaina choked out as she found herself, wrapped into the Wookie's protective embrace, "I love you."
[ And I you, Jaina. Now go you don't want to miss your ship].
It had taken Jag's knowing support to get her back to the freighter before she broke down into uncontrollable sobs. Once they were in safely in hyperspace, Jag turned to look at Jaina in the copilot's chair. She suddenly looked much younger than her actual age, with her feet tucked up in front of her and, her arms wrapped around them tightly. Not needing to be force sensitive to see that Jaina was not all right, Jag grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. Gently Jag wrapped her in a tight embrace.
Jaina seemed to stiffen at first and then relaxed in his arms, letting her emotions out and relaxing her constant control. When she regained her composure, she smiled ruefully at Jag.
"I guess that was really bad for my tough fighter pilot image huh?"
"Moderately bad," he replied with mock seriousness. Jaina's giggles at his response soon became infectious and he was laughing with her. Once they caught their breath, Jag looked up at Jaina who had sunk back in to the copilot's seat behind her and noticed that she was staring at him. Looking questioningly at her, Jag was soon rewarded with a response. "I really do love you, Jag, don't forget that."
Before she could continue speaking a wave of blackness enveloped them. Jaina's last conscious thought was a string of curses so vile that they would have made both Talon Karrde and her father blush.
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