Chapter 17

They did not have much to pack into the small backpack, just a couple of blankets and some food Annaïse had left for them.

"Before we go, I want to show you something," Luke said.

"What?" Mara asked.

"I found something interesting yesterday, but with all the commotion, I forgot about it until now."

Luke picked up the backpack and led Mara out of the hut toward the temple. They climbed the steep steps to the top, and he showed Mara the symbols on the back wall.

"Those are the same markings as on the artifact we brought!" she exclaimed.

Luke nodded. "I can't explain it. After discovering Guru's plan to lure us here, I thought the artifacts had to be some kind of hoax."

Mara noted that he left out Callista's part in the plan, but said nothing. "It does seem kind of odd. I don't know if I'd use real artifacts simply as bait. It would be too easy for them to get lost or stolen."

"I'm wondering if they even know what they have," Luke added. "Guru's fortress has been here for years. Do you think it's coincidence that he would have the perfect spice and the perfect lure? They may have discovered the hidden location of the Guardians of Light."

"Let's slow down for a moment," Mara suggested. "There were Force-sensitives on many planets before the Jedi Purge. Isn't it possible that Callista was looking for a certain type of a spice dealer, then once she found him, searched for any local mystery concerning Force-sensitives on whatever planet he may be on?"

"Maybe," he replied.

Mara could see Luke didn't like the light her theory cast Callista in. But he was just going to have to deal with the fact that she had turned to the Darkside. She was not at all innocent in this whole escapade – she was in fact the orchestrator.

"I just have a funny feeling about all this," he explained. "Like there is something we're missing."

"Well, I'll make sure to ask Guru about it while I'm pummeling his perverted little butt," Mara said.

Luke threw her an exasperated look.

"I know, violence is of the Darkside," she muttered.

He smiled. "Hey, sometimes you have to do a little pummeling in order to protect the innocent. Just remind me never to piss you off."

"Skywalker, you piss me off everyday," she threw back at him.

"You've never kicked my butt," he replied innocently.

"Funny, I seem to remember you sprawled on the deckplates of my ship not too long ago."

"I let you win," he argued meekly.

"Sure, farmboy."

"I did!"

* * * * *

Before the sun was directly overhead, they had set off for the mountain housing the Jade's Fire. As they hiked, Luke instructed Mara in the Force.

"Close your eyes," he commanded. "Relax and open yourself to the Force."

She complied without breaking her stride. Luke and Mara became linked with each other and their environment, though both of them maintained protective walls around their innermost thoughts.

"Do you see it?" Her brow furrowed slightly, so he explained. "The Force is energy that binds all living things, like a great web. Every living creature and plant takes from and contributes to the Force." He could feel her mapping out the surrounding forest in her mind. He marveled at her ability to concentrate and focus. She turned toward him with her eyes still closed and brushed away a fly that had landed on his shoulder. She opened her eyes and smiled triumphantly.

"Is this fast enough learning for you, farmboy?"

"Don't get cocky," he reprimanded her. "Remember, a Jedi knows no pride."

She grimaced and rolled her eyes at him. "Come on, Skywalker, I'm not exactly a novice. I already know the basics, so what's next?"

He sighed and looked hard at her. "Even the most skilled Master of the Force must come back to what is simple and basic. You must learn control, and to do that you must always be in harmony with the Force. You must be able to feel your surroundings in connection to the Force. A little patience couldn't hurt either."

Mara tried not to color under the light reprimand, but she could feel the corners of her mouth tugging into a frown. Now that she had finally decided to complete her training, she wanted to get busy completing it, not reviewing from chapter one. Philosophy was not going to help them defeat Guru and his gang. But she kept silent and tried to absorb what Skywalker was telling her nonetheless.

"Okay, I'm a blank slate. What exercises would you have me start with?"

"How about a morning run?" he asked wickedly. He frowned in sudden concern. "How is your ankle?"

Mara flashed her teeth and demonstrated a few hops. "Good enough to kick your butt!"

He threw her a warning look. "Mara –"

"I know, I know. Aggression is of the Darkside."

"I was going to say you couldn't even come close." Without another word, he darted off into the trees with Mara close on his heels.

Luke and Mara spent the rest of the afternoon sprinting, galloping and leaping through the trees. As they ran, Luke instructed her on the basics of the Force, teaching her to better use the Force to reenergize her body as it weakened under exertion. The island provided them with an excellent terrain for training with the high cliffs and deep valleys they had to scale in order to cross it. Luke had to admit that Mara was already in great shape, better shape than he had been in when he first met Yoda on Dagobah. The run had dredged up many memories of his time with Yoda, lifting rocks, lifting ships, climbing trees, eating that horrible porridge. A sudden thought brought a ridiculous smile to his lips. Maybe he should be making Mara carry him on her back while she ran.

Unless you want a crash course in gravity, I wouldn't recommend it, she shot at him. She paused under a tree, breathing heavily. They had been moving at a pretty good clip for several hours, Skywalker constantly instructing and philosophizing. It was beginning to frustrate her. Most of the things he was teaching her, she already knew. The sun had sunk low in the sky indicating that dusk would not be long waiting. She was tired and hungry, and not in the mood to play the diligent student.

"You've got to do something about that temper," he chided. "You must be calm, at peace –"

"Yeah, yeah, apathetic and lethargic, I get it," she muttered.

"-- and patient."

"Skywalker, you think too much," she said sharply. "It's good to rationally think out a situation, but if you sit on your butt meditating all day, nothing would ever get done!"

"Meditation will give you insight into when you must act. You must never lash out in anger, for that leads to the Darkside." He gently stroked her arms, trying to lend her some of his calm. Instead, she threw up her hands in frustration and walked off.

Luke followed her for several moments before he caught up with her. They walked in silence for several minutes, until he could finally take it no longer. "Mara, why are you the way you are?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're always so hostile. Why?"

"I'm not hostile, I'm assertive," she corrected.

"Aggressive, you mean," he countered. "But seriously, we're supposed to be friends. So why are you always on the defensive."

"Maybe because I'm always being provoked."

"I'm not trying to provoke you, just understand you. I thought we were starting to become more comfortable around each other. We actually had some fun at Guru's palace – despite the running for our lives and getting poisoned part. So what's changed?"

"Nothing's changed," she replied.

"You can never let your guard down for a moment, can you? What is it you are so afraid of?"

"Why should I let my guard down?" She stopped and pierced him with flashing eyes. "So you can feel free to walk around in my head at will? See every little dark corner of my mind? Know every little secret thought I have? Maybe I just don't want to be better understood."

"Do you really think that little of me?" he asked incredulously. Her last comments stung. "I would never intentionally invade your privacy."

"Ha!" she laughed humorlessly. "That was all you did on the flight here. Mind-talking may be all fun and games to you, but –"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" he interrupted her. "I was not invading your thoughts. You were practically broadcasting them. Any force-sensitive within 12 parsecs could've picked them up. And you've been doing your own share of mind-talking."

"You were broadcasting," she mimicked. Her every muscle had tightened into a tense coil ready to spring. Part of her begged her to stop acting so childish, but her mouth kept going regardless.

"You can't have it both ways, Mara," Luke told her. "I just thought we could open up a little bit and try a real friendship for a change."

"You don't know what you're asking." Her voice had sunk low with firmly controlled emotion. "I don't open up for anybody. I don't let my guard down for anybody. If that's a problem, then you can just hyperspace out of my life." She whirled on her heel and disappeared into the trees.

Luke watched her go with a mixture of feelings. Anger, hurt, sadness, emptiness, all saturated the area of the forest where they had fought. He wasn't sure which feelings belonged to whom. But confusion stood at the forefront. Every time he thought he was getting closer to Mara, she suddenly lashed out and closed herself off from him.

He shook his head ruefully. He certainly had some effect on women. Every woman he'd come across had eventually fled in the other direction. It appeared that Mara was soon to follow suit. He told himself he should be used it, but it did not stop the dull ache that grew in his chest.

"She certainly is stubborn, isn't she," Annaïse said from behind him.

Luke visibly jumped, and whirled around. The little girl sat on a fallen tree trunk chewing on a piece of grass. He wondered why he hadn't felt her presence in the Force, but shook it off.

"That's putting it mildly," Luke replied still a little flustered. "It would take a Death Star to blast away the wall she's built around herself. How long have you been there?"

"Her life must be hard," she continued ignoring the question.

"Maybe, but she loves her work. If it wasn't a challenge it wouldn't interest her."

"No, I mean her life," Annaïse corrected. "She has to be incredibly lonely. No friends, no family and a planet-sized chip on her shoulder. All of that was taken from her the day the Emperor stole her away. If she seems harsh, cold and unfeeling, it's because she's never learned anything else. The closest people to her hurt her the most. Now she lets no one that close. I think deep down, she feels like she doesn't deserve the same happiness that every one else in the galaxy seems to receive." At this she looked knowingly at him. "Sound familiar?"

"How is it that you know so much about us?"

"Lucky guess," she laughed.

Luke just shook his head. He probed her mind lightly with the Force, but she was strong-willed and gave up no new information. He would figure out who this mysterious girl was, he vowed, but first there was a mission to complete.

* * * * *

Mara muttered and grumbled to herself as she snaked her way through the trees until she came to a several meter high cliff. She didn't understand why Skywalker always made her feel so edgy. She shouldn't have blown up at him back there. But what did he mean by "real friendship"? Hadn't they been friends the past few years? She grasped onto the jutting rocks and began carefully pulling herself up the wall. Sure they hadn't seen much of each other except when she was helping him save the galaxy, but underneath it all, they were friends. Weren't they? What did he expect from her anyway? A few loose pebbles crashed down the cliff reminding her to pay attention to her climb. She couldn't spend every waking minute on Yavin IV, she had a business to run. Then what, birthday cards? She winced slightly as she realized she didn't even know when his birthday was.

"Two months ago," Skywalker volunteered. "But a card really isn't necessary."

She jumped slightly, but it was enough to cause her to lose her grip on the rocks. With a frightened shriek, she found herself plummeting toward the boulders at the bottom of the cliff. Before she could be smashed to pieces, a pair of strong arms and a tendril of the Force slid under her and halted her descent.

"You should be more careful," Skywalker admonished her.

His voice remained calm, but she saw his eyes wander briefly over her body inspecting for any new bumps, bruises or cuts. She jumped out of his arms, death bolts lashing out from her eyes. Before she could ream him up one side and down the other, he held up a silencing hand. Setting her jaw, she crossed her arms and gave him her best "you'd better make this good" stare.

"I'm not trying to invade your privacy, Mara," he began. "I don't know how it is that I can hear your thoughts so clearly, but I can. It is an amazing connection we have, and I would like to explore it more with you. But I realize that may be something you are not ready for."

Mara looked away. Can he really read me so easily? she wondered. On the surface she maintained her rigid calm, but inside claustrophobia began to rise in her brain as she felt like too many people were inside her head. Before she could think to react, his hands were on her arms guiding her like a child to sit next to him on a fallen log. She would never let anyone else handle her that way, so why did she let him?

"Mara, listen to me," he said forcing her to look at him. "What I said back there came out wrong. I've always considered you a friend, one of my closest in fact. I just wish that you would trust me enough to open up a little."

She stared at him uncomprehending for a moment. "I do trust you," she argued. "You probably know me better than anyone else in the galaxy. I just don't like having more than one person in my head. I had to live with that for the most of my life. Besides," added elbowing him gently in the ribs and trying to lighten the situation, "now that I know when your birthday is, how am I going to keep whatever I get for you a surprise if you are always reading my mind?"

Skywalker grinned back at her. "I guess you'll just have to be sneaky."

Mara chuckled and forced herself to relax. "I guess so." Playfully, she pushed him backwards off the log, and he landed with a soft thump in the grass. "Didn't see that one coming did you?" she taunted. She stood to leave but was unceremoniously pulled tumbling backwards over the log herself. She landed next to Skywalker who was grinning evilly at her.

"The Force is always my ally," he announced in a deep, god-like voice.

She punched him lightly on the arm. "A great teacher once told me never to get cocky."

"Oh, so you think I'm a great teacher now, do you?" he replied punching her back.

"What makes you think I was talking about you?" She slugged him again.

He poked her in the stomach.

She pinched him in the side.

Both began to giggle hysterically.

Suddenly, she felt him tugging her closer to him. She stiffened slightly, and he must have felt it, because he sent comforting waves to her through the Force. His arms encircled her, drawing her close until their bodies touched. "Don't ever think that I'm not your friend," he whispered. "Because you're probably the best friend I've got."

She smiled back at him. "You don't ever have to worry about losing me, Luke."

She felt him blush and figured she'd hit the mark. "You may annoy the hell out me sometimes, and I may not always be the open person you want me to be, but you're probably my best friend, too."

Luke squeezed her again, and she started to become acutely aware of how close they were. Best friends or not, she could only take so much mushy, gushy sentimentality. With an awkward cough and an unsteady smile, she pulled away.

"Besides, who else is going to fly halfway across the galaxy every few months to get your butt out of whatever trouble you've managed to get into?"

Luke smiled and pulled himself to his feet. "So what do you say we get back to the lessons?"

Mara groaned.

"Hey, you said you wanted to complete your training."

"I know, but I was thinking of doing it in a more active way. All this philosophizing is going to drive me nuts!" Luke opened his mouth to protest, but she continued before he could utter a single syllable. "I already know the basics, and I know that it is important to never forget them, but we are going to need more than talk to get ourselves out of this. Even if Callista does listen to us, I doubt Guru will, and I'm positive his men won't."

He nodded. "Okay, so what do you want to learn?"

"How to move things with my mind," Mara replied with a twinkle in her eye. She hopped up off the ground.

Luke rolled his eyes. "These aren't just parlor tricks, Mara."

"I know. But I can't even call my lightsabre to my hand. I think that skill could come in handy if I were, say, hung upside-down with my feet encased in ice and a hungry wampa eyeing me as a tasty meal."

Luke threw up his hands in mock-surrender. "Okay, okay. I get your point."

He took her lightsabre from her and laid it on the tree trunk. Then he motioned her to follow him several meters away. She obediently followed, her mind completely on the task at hand.

"Close your eyes," he instructed. "And see the lightsabre in your mind."

Mara did as she was told. She found the Force threads that she had seen similar to the last time she had done this type of visualization. Everything around her glowed with Force energy. The energy expanded in tendrils connecting everything together in a giant web of light.

"See the lightsabre come to you," Luke said.

Her brow furrowed in concentration. She could imagine the lightsabre in her hand, but she still couldn't feel it.

Luke must have sensed her struggle. "Open yourself completely. It's almost like you're asking it to come to you. Don't try to order it. You and the Force exist in a symbiotic relationship, each one complementing the other. You must work together."

Mara relaxed and silently asked the lightsabre to come to her hand. Just as she felt the cold metal touch her skin, a loud crash a few meters from her jolted her out of her almost trance-like state. The lightsabre fell to the ground centimeters from her feet. She noticed that the large rock that had been near Luke was missing, but she soon spied it in the vicinity of the crash.

"What did you do that for?" she demanded. "I almost had it!"

"You must not allow yourself to become distracted. You must remain focused on the task at hand, but also be aware of everything around you."

Mara clenched her teeth. She didn't think it was fair to test her like that on her first try. But, she reminded herself, he was only challenging her in order to improve her skills. As long as they were doing some "active" learning in the Force, she wouldn't complain about his methods.

They continued to practice until the sun had sunk behind the mountains, and the forest was once again blanketed in night. Mara tried hiking while levitated rocks and tree branches, but she could only sustain them for a few minutes before letting them drop or running into an obstacle in her path. Her split-concentration skills definitely needed some work. The feeling of almost, but not quite controlling the Force was more frustrating than if she had never touched the Force in the first place.

"How about I levitate and let the rock do some hiking," she quipped, though there was no humor in her voice.

"Now there is a skill you'd probably like," Luke replied. "But I'm not sure you have the control yet. Using the Force to jump higher or run faster is relatively simple, but even I can't levitate myself over long distances or for a sustained period of time."

"I thought you said limitations were only in the mind," Mara pointed out.

"True. But then I guess I'm still learning that. We never stop learning, Mara."

"So let's see you do it," she said.

Luke's eyes took on that far away look he always got when he called upon the Force, and all his features began to relax. Gradually, his body began to separate from the ground. A few centimeters, then a meter, then finally, he floated with his feet about eye level. Then slowly, he descended.

"Now you. Just imagine a small repulsor on the bottom of your feet. You want to push your energy toward the ground in order to push yourself off."

Mara remembered learning something like that in her dance training. Dancers would gain stability by pushing their "energy" through the floor, in effect making them seem longer and taller. Closing her eyes, she tried the same technique, even going up on the point of her toes. She could feel Luke's amazed smile at that small feat.

"Yeah, but my turn-out sucks," she replied cracking her eyes open. Luke looked confused for a moment. "Never mind, dance lingo."

"Concentrate," he reminded her, but the smile remained.

Her body almost felt weightless, but some tiny thread still anchored her to the ground. She raised her arms above her head and stretched, but gravity would not release its grip on her.

Suddenly a familiar pair of hands were on either side of her waist, and she could feel the heat of Luke's body against her back. His presence eased into her mind. She fought to keep her concentration, but didn't fight him. They put their energy together, and soon the last tie to the ground was broken. She felt them float up, up, up.

"Open your eyes," he whispered. He voice had an odd note in it.

She opened her eyes, careful to keep her focus controlled. What she saw took her breath away, and nearly caused her to fall as her concentration slipped. But Luke reinforced their Force bond. They had floated above the treetops. The night sky spread out above them, sprinkled with a myriad of stars. The mountains were silhouetted against the western horizon where the last rays of the sunlight rapidly melted away.

Sweat began to trickle down both their foreheads as the exertion of maintaining their altitude quickly sapped their energy. Slowly they began their descent, neither speaking for fear of plummeting to the ground several meters below. Once their feet were firmly on the soil, they both sank into sitting positions breathing heavily.

"That was amazing!" Mara exclaimed between breaths. All her earlier frustrations were forgotten for the moment. "Did you see all those stars?"

"I've never been that high before," Luke uttered incredulously.

"Never?" Mara repeated.

"The Force is strong with you. Really strong," he said. "Now if you could just learn to control your emotions."

The moment was broken. Mara threw him a half-hearted glare and changed the subject.

"What do you say we find a nice spot to camp for the night?"

He gave her his infuriating know-it-all smile and nodded his head. "Well, we don't have much in the way of gear, so why don't we just crash here for tonight?"

Mara nodded. "Hopefully there's another river or stream nearby."

"I thought you were sick of water," he reminded her.

She grinned. "Yeah, but you stink."

"Well, you don't exactly smell like a flower either," he shot back. "Hey, if we're lucky, maybe it will start raining again."

"Bite your tongue, farmboy."