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Title: 6 A.D.
Chapter 4: Time
Author: EC-Chan
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Thanks Lady Vader for beta reading!
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Disclaimer: Own Star Wars I do not.
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AN: I'm sorry about not updating last week. It was my spring break and I was dragged to a million places. I thought that I would be able to write and post this fic, but I never got the chance to. I'm not even sure if it was possible. Sorry for the delay.
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The woman stepped off of the line, her brown eyes focused on only one thing: the man in front of her. His hand was still held out, urging her forward to whatever mysteries lie beyond. It was old and callused, but she took it firmly in her own with a familiarity that surprised herself. He smiled down at her, pulling her towards the wall, and she frowned at it uncomprehendingly.
"It's a door," He said, smiling softly at her.
She stared at him, "A door?"
"Open it," He motioned her forward, and she hesitantly took a step towards the door. A foreboding feeling stopped her in her tracks: there was something awful in whatever laid beyond. She knew it somehow. Something that was better left alone.
Turning back to the man, she shook her head helplessly, "I.can't."
"You have to," The man said, his crystal blue eyes beseeching her brown. He tried to reach for her now, but the woman reeled away from him, shaking her head profusely.
"I won't," She said, her head bent low and her hands clutched to her heart. "I won't go in there. I don't want to remember," Her head shot up and she glared at him now. "Bad things happen in there."
He stared at her imploringly, his eyes almost panicky as he reached out one last time, his hand thin and shaking: one last attempt. She slapped it away, ignoring the flash of pain and distress that flitted across his face.
"I WON'T!" She cried her throat painfully constricting from its long disuse. And suddenly she found herself in a strange disorientating place. It was small like her cell but bright like the room she had been taken to before.with that man.
~ My dear- the New Republic may have ordered for your eventual release, but the key word is eventual. ~
That voice.the hard cold voice of the man she recognized- that face staring down at her.laughing, laughter that never ended. Pain- he brought pain. She clutched her arms around herself shivering at the thoughts. No. She wouldn't open the door. She wouldn't ever.
"You won't what?" A woman on the far side of the room straightened from her reclined position, her emerald green eyes and dark jumpsuit contrasting the bright pallor of the room. When she was given no response except a confused look, she merely sighed. "I'm Mara Jade- the man that brought you here was Luke Skywalker. You got a name?"
"A.. name?" Her voice was painfully soft and thick.
"Yeah, a name," She said, frowning at the other woman. "What do people call you?"
"Call.. Me?" The words were only making a half sense, but she struggled to think of an answer. What people called her- what people called her.. shouldn't this woman know? No. That wasn't right at all. But what had that man called her- that strange man? It was no use- she couldn't understand.
"I'll be back later," The woman said.. Mara? Is that what she meant? That she was to be called Mara? She was too confused for the other woman's departure to register in her mind.
*
Mara Jade frowned as she entered the cafeteria, her frigid green eyes searching for the familiar annoying figure. Of all things Luke Skywalker could dump into her lap it had to be something like this- a half-dead woman who couldn't even remember to speak? And he expected her to know what to do.. Well, Sithspawn to that!
The only reason she had agreed to this was because she had experienced the same kind of dreams Skywalker had, and she could understand why he would search so feverously for a woman he didn't even know- the dreams were convincing. More then convincing- it was almost as if she was being forced to do something by a nagging mother and the annoyance would not go away until she completely the task. And like a sulking child that had finally given in, she stamped into the cafeteria.
"Skywalker!" She gritted her teeth in annoyance. Clearly this was all his fault. She may not know how at the moment, but these things always were. A figure in the far corner jumped up from his seat, a light smile crossing his clean-shaven features, and she could only frown at him as he sauntered over to her.
"So what do you think?" He asked, clearly talking about the woman whom he had brought.
"You didn't tell me half as much as you should've," She growled at him, and turned towards the door. "Come on- we'll talk in my office."
It was a short walk, and a very silent one. Luke had sensed that she was irritated with him and knew better then to try to start any conversation with this fiery haired woman. He could judge Mara's moods well: which was a survival tactic he had learned when she was still half convinced she'd be better off killing him- not that she fully convinced not to now.. She opened the blast door and motioned for him to go in in front of her, which he did without hesitation. She turned on the lights and he sat down in the chair facing her desk.
"She doesn't understand basic," Mara commented as she sat down. "Do we even know she did once or are we just confusing her more?"
"I don't know," Luke intoned, bowing his head.
"Skywalker," Mara growled under her breath. "Did you figure out anything about her? Did you even try?"
"A boy found her for me on the streets- I don't think anyone knows how long she was wandering around there," Luke said. "No one really cares about time on that planet.. But they did think that she was odd or so the boy said."
"Obviously," Mara growled, "she hasn't been there for long if what you're saying is correct. She's too..lifeless to be able to take care of herself. Any idiot could see that," She frowned at him. "So, therefore; she must have come from somewhere else. Even without any information about the planet you could have figured that out at least and acted on it."
"Information on the planet?"
"I had Ghent hack into Garqi's computer system," Mara leaned back. "There's not a lot of information known about it besides that it's an Imperial planet and owns quite an extensive prison which holds- I should say held- prisoners of war. The New Republic has ordered for all prisoners' eventual release, and it's more then likely that she was in this prison. Ghent found out a lot more information of course- I doubt much would interest you. He downloaded all of the prisoner records so it's just a matter of time before we sift through them and find the right one. If there is a right one- it's a possibility that the Imperials may have deleted her record before we got to it of course."
"Why would they delete her records?" Luke asked.
"Your sister placed the orders so she would know more specifics then I could tell you, but according to what Ghent's found out all prisoner's were sent on a transport ship to some world," She frowned. "But the guy who runs the prison's smart- he knows that if he shows the New Republic any of the prisoners that were too mistreated then he would be like.. Well you fighting that rancor in Jabba's Palace intentionally."
"Okay.. Do you want me to go back and talk to those who were in charge of the prison?" Luke asked, frowning. "And that wasn't intentional."
"You could have saved us the trouble if you had done things correctly to begin with Skywalker," She frowned at him and he suddenly felt like he was back on Tatooine receiving a disapproving look from his teacher for skipping an important class. "I swear- what did Obi Wan Kenobi teach you?
"But I didn't know all that about Garqi before.." Luke searched desperately for a better excuse, but could find none. She was right of course- what had him been thinking not finding out who had been taking care of her. It was incredibly obvious to him now that she could never have taken care of herself and just a few simple questions.. He shook his head: what was done was done. There was no point in thinking about it now.
Mara sighed. "I suppose I have to go with you too or you're bound to mess something up again. I swear Skywalker- you cause more problems then your worth sometimes."
Luke couldn't help but smile. "Does anyone but Ghent know about her?"
"Besides Karrde and everyone else here? No- they'll take care of her for us while we're gone," Mara began jotting down some notes. "You may want to contact Leia or Han or someone else you trust. We may be gone for a while."
"If it's possible," Luke said calmly. "I'd like to keep this just between the people who already know- at least until we know more about her."
Mara raised an eyebrow, but decided it was better not to ask. Instead she cleared her throat; "Well I have a lot of things I have to finish up here before tomorrow. Meet me by the Jade's Fire in the morning."
He nodded absentmindedly and turned to leave, a frown lining his face as if he was deep in thought. Mara watched him go, unable to keep a small smile from twitching at her lips- same old Skywalker.
*
Luke punched in the code to the blast door, smiling thinly as he saw the woman sitting on the floor on the opposite wall, her dark eyes focused steadily on him. It was like dealing with an extremely fragile child.. And for some reason he felt more bothered by this thought then anything else at the moment. He shook the feeling off in a silent deliberation.
"Hello again." He said softly, smiling gently down at her. She stared back at him, her eyes suddenly almost vacant. With a sigh, Luke sat down on his knees, holding his hand out palm up. She stared at it weakly and then slowly- very slowly- imitated his exact movements. Seemingly surprised by her own actions, she stared down at their strange position.
Luke couldn't help but smile more broadly now- he was actually making some progress.. At least he thought he was. He hadn't really meant to prove anything at all actually- it was a position that Leia had showed him a long time ago, telling him that he should assume it while greeting some random species- he didn't even remember which one it was anymore.. But she had responded in the proper way which had to mean.. something. Right? Okay so maybe she had just gotten the idea from his movements and was following his lead or something.. But still..
He was still sorting through his thoughts when she jerked away from him, her brown eyes wide as she shakily stood up, stepping back from him and cowering to the wall. Cautiously, he stood up as well just in time to here her whimper. "No- I won't open it. I don't want to remember! Leave me be.. Please.. Go!"
"Calm down," He said soothingly, but she looked only more frightened at the sound of his voice. Automatically he reached out to the force, using it to calm her down and she crumpled to the floor, still trembling. He bent down once again and took her hands in his own, forcing her to look into his eyes. As much as he hated to do this too her he had to know. He might not have known why he had decided to visit her when he entered the room, but it was glaringly obvious now. "Please tell me who Anakin is."
For a moment she simply stared at him, and then a dawning look crossed her face and she whispered, "Anakin?"
"Yes Anakin," He nodded encouragingly, not quite sure if she would understand what he was asking of her. "Is he by any chance Anakin Skywalker who later became Darth Vader?"
She cringed at the last name, her eyes loosing focus and she looked at the ground. "Anakin.. Anakin is.. I.. The man-!"
"What man?" Luke asked, squeezing her hands reassuringly. "I'm sorry, but I have to know this. You see- Anakin Skywalker was my father."
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AN: This chapter is double the amount I usually give you. I might make the chapters a little longer then this in the future- I'm not sure. I keep on getting stuck in places with this ficcy because I don't know what things are called..never really paid much attention; So it's taking forever ^^; And I still have a research paper to write *falls over*
*
Thanks:
Leap of fate, I, GoldenRose, Kazzy, lynx amd vader, AznGurl, smeagol's preciousss, Renee, BlackWings or Master Solo, and Lady Vader
For reviewing- I love you guys!
I: fyi- AD stands for 'ano domini' or somethin like that, which i think is 'year of our lord', not 'after death'... other than my obsessive nitpickyness it's fun so far tho...
Yupyup ^^; I know this- I take latin and all three of the teachers I've had love yelling at us about it; Annus is year, Dominus lord- u put on different endings though (the endings u have;;). I wasn't going by our calendar though. Before the Gregorian calendar (this is the one we use) there was the Julian one which went by the first Roman building and ours goes by Christ's birth. I just figured that if there ever would be a universal calendar in Star Wars then they might change things like Gregory did to the Julius one when they became the New Republic and because the Emperor's death is the beginning of..well the New Republic, then I thought that it would make sense if they went by that as their starting point and so it would really be ADE but I shortened it to AD..it's all because I was being lectured about calendars for an hour and a half and trying to remember it all and then wanted to think up a title but couldn't come up with a good one.
GoldenRose- Of course you're right about the way to make it Vader/Padme- I'm just trying to decide how I would like to do the flashback and if I even want to do a flashback and I think I probably do..
lynx amd vader- that's not good that you and Darthy are one person.. *shakes head* how on earth did that one happen;;?
BlackWings or Master Solo- Hm.. I've been to that site once but I never went back; I have this bad habit of doing things like that, sorries..and that was a long time ago so u kinda confused me there ^^;;;; I should probably go back to that website though sometime..when I actually have time;
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Title: 6 A.D.
Chapter 4: Time
Author: EC-Chan
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Thanks Lady Vader for beta reading!
*
Disclaimer: Own Star Wars I do not.
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AN: I'm sorry about not updating last week. It was my spring break and I was dragged to a million places. I thought that I would be able to write and post this fic, but I never got the chance to. I'm not even sure if it was possible. Sorry for the delay.
*
The woman stepped off of the line, her brown eyes focused on only one thing: the man in front of her. His hand was still held out, urging her forward to whatever mysteries lie beyond. It was old and callused, but she took it firmly in her own with a familiarity that surprised herself. He smiled down at her, pulling her towards the wall, and she frowned at it uncomprehendingly.
"It's a door," He said, smiling softly at her.
She stared at him, "A door?"
"Open it," He motioned her forward, and she hesitantly took a step towards the door. A foreboding feeling stopped her in her tracks: there was something awful in whatever laid beyond. She knew it somehow. Something that was better left alone.
Turning back to the man, she shook her head helplessly, "I.can't."
"You have to," The man said, his crystal blue eyes beseeching her brown. He tried to reach for her now, but the woman reeled away from him, shaking her head profusely.
"I won't," She said, her head bent low and her hands clutched to her heart. "I won't go in there. I don't want to remember," Her head shot up and she glared at him now. "Bad things happen in there."
He stared at her imploringly, his eyes almost panicky as he reached out one last time, his hand thin and shaking: one last attempt. She slapped it away, ignoring the flash of pain and distress that flitted across his face.
"I WON'T!" She cried her throat painfully constricting from its long disuse. And suddenly she found herself in a strange disorientating place. It was small like her cell but bright like the room she had been taken to before.with that man.
~ My dear- the New Republic may have ordered for your eventual release, but the key word is eventual. ~
That voice.the hard cold voice of the man she recognized- that face staring down at her.laughing, laughter that never ended. Pain- he brought pain. She clutched her arms around herself shivering at the thoughts. No. She wouldn't open the door. She wouldn't ever.
"You won't what?" A woman on the far side of the room straightened from her reclined position, her emerald green eyes and dark jumpsuit contrasting the bright pallor of the room. When she was given no response except a confused look, she merely sighed. "I'm Mara Jade- the man that brought you here was Luke Skywalker. You got a name?"
"A.. name?" Her voice was painfully soft and thick.
"Yeah, a name," She said, frowning at the other woman. "What do people call you?"
"Call.. Me?" The words were only making a half sense, but she struggled to think of an answer. What people called her- what people called her.. shouldn't this woman know? No. That wasn't right at all. But what had that man called her- that strange man? It was no use- she couldn't understand.
"I'll be back later," The woman said.. Mara? Is that what she meant? That she was to be called Mara? She was too confused for the other woman's departure to register in her mind.
*
Mara Jade frowned as she entered the cafeteria, her frigid green eyes searching for the familiar annoying figure. Of all things Luke Skywalker could dump into her lap it had to be something like this- a half-dead woman who couldn't even remember to speak? And he expected her to know what to do.. Well, Sithspawn to that!
The only reason she had agreed to this was because she had experienced the same kind of dreams Skywalker had, and she could understand why he would search so feverously for a woman he didn't even know- the dreams were convincing. More then convincing- it was almost as if she was being forced to do something by a nagging mother and the annoyance would not go away until she completely the task. And like a sulking child that had finally given in, she stamped into the cafeteria.
"Skywalker!" She gritted her teeth in annoyance. Clearly this was all his fault. She may not know how at the moment, but these things always were. A figure in the far corner jumped up from his seat, a light smile crossing his clean-shaven features, and she could only frown at him as he sauntered over to her.
"So what do you think?" He asked, clearly talking about the woman whom he had brought.
"You didn't tell me half as much as you should've," She growled at him, and turned towards the door. "Come on- we'll talk in my office."
It was a short walk, and a very silent one. Luke had sensed that she was irritated with him and knew better then to try to start any conversation with this fiery haired woman. He could judge Mara's moods well: which was a survival tactic he had learned when she was still half convinced she'd be better off killing him- not that she fully convinced not to now.. She opened the blast door and motioned for him to go in in front of her, which he did without hesitation. She turned on the lights and he sat down in the chair facing her desk.
"She doesn't understand basic," Mara commented as she sat down. "Do we even know she did once or are we just confusing her more?"
"I don't know," Luke intoned, bowing his head.
"Skywalker," Mara growled under her breath. "Did you figure out anything about her? Did you even try?"
"A boy found her for me on the streets- I don't think anyone knows how long she was wandering around there," Luke said. "No one really cares about time on that planet.. But they did think that she was odd or so the boy said."
"Obviously," Mara growled, "she hasn't been there for long if what you're saying is correct. She's too..lifeless to be able to take care of herself. Any idiot could see that," She frowned at him. "So, therefore; she must have come from somewhere else. Even without any information about the planet you could have figured that out at least and acted on it."
"Information on the planet?"
"I had Ghent hack into Garqi's computer system," Mara leaned back. "There's not a lot of information known about it besides that it's an Imperial planet and owns quite an extensive prison which holds- I should say held- prisoners of war. The New Republic has ordered for all prisoners' eventual release, and it's more then likely that she was in this prison. Ghent found out a lot more information of course- I doubt much would interest you. He downloaded all of the prisoner records so it's just a matter of time before we sift through them and find the right one. If there is a right one- it's a possibility that the Imperials may have deleted her record before we got to it of course."
"Why would they delete her records?" Luke asked.
"Your sister placed the orders so she would know more specifics then I could tell you, but according to what Ghent's found out all prisoner's were sent on a transport ship to some world," She frowned. "But the guy who runs the prison's smart- he knows that if he shows the New Republic any of the prisoners that were too mistreated then he would be like.. Well you fighting that rancor in Jabba's Palace intentionally."
"Okay.. Do you want me to go back and talk to those who were in charge of the prison?" Luke asked, frowning. "And that wasn't intentional."
"You could have saved us the trouble if you had done things correctly to begin with Skywalker," She frowned at him and he suddenly felt like he was back on Tatooine receiving a disapproving look from his teacher for skipping an important class. "I swear- what did Obi Wan Kenobi teach you?
"But I didn't know all that about Garqi before.." Luke searched desperately for a better excuse, but could find none. She was right of course- what had him been thinking not finding out who had been taking care of her. It was incredibly obvious to him now that she could never have taken care of herself and just a few simple questions.. He shook his head: what was done was done. There was no point in thinking about it now.
Mara sighed. "I suppose I have to go with you too or you're bound to mess something up again. I swear Skywalker- you cause more problems then your worth sometimes."
Luke couldn't help but smile. "Does anyone but Ghent know about her?"
"Besides Karrde and everyone else here? No- they'll take care of her for us while we're gone," Mara began jotting down some notes. "You may want to contact Leia or Han or someone else you trust. We may be gone for a while."
"If it's possible," Luke said calmly. "I'd like to keep this just between the people who already know- at least until we know more about her."
Mara raised an eyebrow, but decided it was better not to ask. Instead she cleared her throat; "Well I have a lot of things I have to finish up here before tomorrow. Meet me by the Jade's Fire in the morning."
He nodded absentmindedly and turned to leave, a frown lining his face as if he was deep in thought. Mara watched him go, unable to keep a small smile from twitching at her lips- same old Skywalker.
*
Luke punched in the code to the blast door, smiling thinly as he saw the woman sitting on the floor on the opposite wall, her dark eyes focused steadily on him. It was like dealing with an extremely fragile child.. And for some reason he felt more bothered by this thought then anything else at the moment. He shook the feeling off in a silent deliberation.
"Hello again." He said softly, smiling gently down at her. She stared back at him, her eyes suddenly almost vacant. With a sigh, Luke sat down on his knees, holding his hand out palm up. She stared at it weakly and then slowly- very slowly- imitated his exact movements. Seemingly surprised by her own actions, she stared down at their strange position.
Luke couldn't help but smile more broadly now- he was actually making some progress.. At least he thought he was. He hadn't really meant to prove anything at all actually- it was a position that Leia had showed him a long time ago, telling him that he should assume it while greeting some random species- he didn't even remember which one it was anymore.. But she had responded in the proper way which had to mean.. something. Right? Okay so maybe she had just gotten the idea from his movements and was following his lead or something.. But still..
He was still sorting through his thoughts when she jerked away from him, her brown eyes wide as she shakily stood up, stepping back from him and cowering to the wall. Cautiously, he stood up as well just in time to here her whimper. "No- I won't open it. I don't want to remember! Leave me be.. Please.. Go!"
"Calm down," He said soothingly, but she looked only more frightened at the sound of his voice. Automatically he reached out to the force, using it to calm her down and she crumpled to the floor, still trembling. He bent down once again and took her hands in his own, forcing her to look into his eyes. As much as he hated to do this too her he had to know. He might not have known why he had decided to visit her when he entered the room, but it was glaringly obvious now. "Please tell me who Anakin is."
For a moment she simply stared at him, and then a dawning look crossed her face and she whispered, "Anakin?"
"Yes Anakin," He nodded encouragingly, not quite sure if she would understand what he was asking of her. "Is he by any chance Anakin Skywalker who later became Darth Vader?"
She cringed at the last name, her eyes loosing focus and she looked at the ground. "Anakin.. Anakin is.. I.. The man-!"
"What man?" Luke asked, squeezing her hands reassuringly. "I'm sorry, but I have to know this. You see- Anakin Skywalker was my father."
*
AN: This chapter is double the amount I usually give you. I might make the chapters a little longer then this in the future- I'm not sure. I keep on getting stuck in places with this ficcy because I don't know what things are called..never really paid much attention; So it's taking forever ^^; And I still have a research paper to write *falls over*
*
Thanks:
Leap of fate, I, GoldenRose, Kazzy, lynx amd vader, AznGurl, smeagol's preciousss, Renee, BlackWings or Master Solo, and Lady Vader
For reviewing- I love you guys!
I: fyi- AD stands for 'ano domini' or somethin like that, which i think is 'year of our lord', not 'after death'... other than my obsessive nitpickyness it's fun so far tho...
Yupyup ^^; I know this- I take latin and all three of the teachers I've had love yelling at us about it; Annus is year, Dominus lord- u put on different endings though (the endings u have;;). I wasn't going by our calendar though. Before the Gregorian calendar (this is the one we use) there was the Julian one which went by the first Roman building and ours goes by Christ's birth. I just figured that if there ever would be a universal calendar in Star Wars then they might change things like Gregory did to the Julius one when they became the New Republic and because the Emperor's death is the beginning of..well the New Republic, then I thought that it would make sense if they went by that as their starting point and so it would really be ADE but I shortened it to AD..it's all because I was being lectured about calendars for an hour and a half and trying to remember it all and then wanted to think up a title but couldn't come up with a good one.
GoldenRose- Of course you're right about the way to make it Vader/Padme- I'm just trying to decide how I would like to do the flashback and if I even want to do a flashback and I think I probably do..
lynx amd vader- that's not good that you and Darthy are one person.. *shakes head* how on earth did that one happen;;?
BlackWings or Master Solo- Hm.. I've been to that site once but I never went back; I have this bad habit of doing things like that, sorries..and that was a long time ago so u kinda confused me there ^^;;;; I should probably go back to that website though sometime..when I actually have time;
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