Divided Heart
Part 6: Revelations
By SJ and Rhea Jediknight (skyjade@globetrotter.net and
jediknight@mail2master.com)
05-04-03/
____________________
Disclaimers: Nothing in the Star Wars Universe belong to us; everything belongs
to George Lucas. We're only writing stories for fun. See my homepage for more
details.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/3702
Special thanks to Rhea for bringing up the plot bunny of that story and
accepting to work on it with me :) Working with you is a pleasure, my
friend!
Rhea: Thanks to SJ for working on this with me. It's been fun!
____________________
After a few other near squeezes under falling ceiling plates, their group
managed to make it out of the generator building unscathed. On their way out,
they recovered Artoo Detoo, who had been trapped under a fallen wall and
perilously close to falling into a gaping hole.
Once outside, they gasped in horror as they saw the effect that the numerous
tremors had had on the city around them.
Buildings collapsed, or listed everywhere. There did not appear to be a
structure that had gone undamaged. The low groan of metal attested to the
unstable nature of the buildings around them.
As they gazed around them, Luke spotted a small shipyard was just a few meters
away. A large transport appeared undamaged, beckoning to them.
"It's not fancy, but right now I'm none to picky." Han muttered.
"Leia, take Han and the rest to the Medcenter. It should be fairly safe since it
was built on swaying struts." Luke instructed.
"But what about you? What do you intend to do?" Leia asked her brother.
Mara answered instead, "I have a pretty good idea where the Seismic Accelerator
was placed."
Luke nodded. They would go together.
"You're not going deeper? Luke, this isn't safe. The whole place might collapse
any second." Leia protested.
Luke met her gaze and seemed about to say something and then shook his head
instead, "We have to stop this thing, Leia, or none of us will be safe."
"I don't have time to argue with you, and . . . you're right. Just promise me
you'll be careful."
"I promise." Luke said solemnly.
"I'll take care of him, Leia." Mara said impishly.
Luke hid a smile behind his hand. Han chuckled, but the motion made him wince
and his wan grin turned into a grimace.
Luke and Leia's less-worried moods faded away to be replaced by concern about
their friend's state.
"All right. Call us the moment that you're safe," Leia warned her brother,
kissed him on the cheek while she held him as strongly as she could without
bouncing her husband anymore than she already had, then they parted company.
Mara and Luke watched as the rest of the group entered the vehicle. nce they
were sure that they had made it to safety, they headed toward the nearby Bothan
Embassy
"It's in through here," Mara said, sweeping her luma across the high-ceilinged,
darkened main entrance. Here too, the floor had already given into the strong
forces that had been pulling at it. It was peppered by several, baying holes.
Careful to not fall into any of them, the two Jedi slowly made their way forward
and toward the nearest stairwell, probing the sturdiness of the floor with both
the tip of their feet and the Force.
Just as they reached the main stairwell, a hand appeared out of one of the
surrounding doors and pulled Mara toward it. "Mara!" Terren Macay said as he
pulled her into his embrace, from which Mara expertly freed herself, dancing
around a nearby hole in the deck as she did so. The young man gave her a sad
expression, but she could feel that he was not hurt in the least by her
rejection.
"What are you doing here, Terren? How did you find me?" Mara asked
incredulously.
"I could find you anywhere, my dear. After all, we still have a bond through the
Force."
Mara frowned even as Luke's eyes went wide and his barriers slammed into place.
She wanted to explain to him, that the bond was nothing like the one she
experienced with the Jedi Master, but Luke had blocked her off completely. Now
was not the time to be stubborn!, she wanted to shout at him, then chose another
tactic to communicate with the frustrating farmboy.
She confronted Macay's lie.
"Really, Terren?" she perched an eyebrow at the other. "Then why did it take you
so long to discover that I was even alive? You did say that you thought that I
had died in the destruction of the Second Death Star."
Even as she felt Luke's senses open once again as he understood what she had
just implied with her challenge, Terren's face twisted in an ugly, evil grimace.
Luke reacted instantly.
"Mara watch out!"
At the same time, the ex-assassin noticed that Terren had somehow pulled a
blaster from behind him and was almost already aiming at her. Before she had
cleared her own weapon, or moved out of the way, Luke pushed her out of the path
of the already incoming blaster bolt.
As she landed on a sturdy part of the deck, the Jedi took the brunt of the
impact in his shoulder. Just then another tremor hit, challenging the young
man's balance further. When the tremors worsened in strength, he uncontrollably
spun on his heel and fell into the nearby hole.
Mara yelled, "No!" and ran toward the falling Jedi, who had hit his head on the
edge of the deck before disappearing in the darkness. She could feel that he was
already unconscious unable to do anything to prevent his fall. She reached out
with the Force, attempting to grasp onto Luke's falling body. At first she
thought that she had succeeded, but Terren grabbed her arm, breaking her
concentration. The tremor slowly subsided as he pulled
her back to her feet.
Fury filled her. Her hand went to her lightsaber hilt, but her captor pulled
harder on her arm. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned, waving his
blaster menacingly in front of her eyes, angling it toward her jaw.
"Why did you do that Terren? Why!?" The anger and sorrow clouded her ability to
use the Force properly. Her green eyes filled with tears.
The sight of her mourning Skywalker enraged the ex-Imperial," Tears for the Jedi
Master?" he sneered, then shoved her away from himself. "You disgust me, Mara.
The Emperor would be most displeased."
Stopping herself from falling into another hole of the deck, Mara swiftly turned
toward her enemy. "The Emperor is dead, Terren. He's a nightmare long gone from
my life."
"Ah, but there is another about to ascend the throne once again." Terren said.
A look of dawning comprehension came across her face, "You didn't find me
because of a Force bond, you came to stop us from taking out the Seismic
Accelerator. You're the one who is trying to destroy Coruscant."
"I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out Mara. I was hoping that
you would join us, and I still hold out hope that you will remember where you
really belong."
As the truth penetrated her, Mara Jade quieted her mind, gathering the Force
around herself. Now in deeper touch with the Force, she felt a flicker of
awareness and realized that Luke Skywalker was injured but still alive. She had
to act fast if she wanted to save him and stop the accelerator from continuing
its destruction.
Terren's eyes narrowed, feeling the power of the Force build around the woman.
"I never belonged with you, Terren," she defied him, locking her green gaze on
his. "The Emperor twisted your mind, used you like he used me, but instead of
breaking free, you've allowed him to continue to rule you even years after his
death."
"It's not the Emperor that I serve, Mara. I have a new Master, one more powerful
then the Emperor ever dreamed."
Mara shook her head, not understanding the man.
"The Sovereign."
With her Force senses heightened, she suddenly felt the coming of the next
tremor. She timed her motion to coincide with the beginning of the quake. She
pulled her saber free, igniting it in one quick motion. Terren pulled the
trigger on his blaster and Mara blocked the bolt. It crackled against her blue
blade and deflected it back right into Terren's face. He barely dodged out of
the way in time; the bolt of burning energy left a red mark on his cheek.
Outraged by his injury, the other pulled another blaster from his belt and
opened fire on her.
Luke..., Mara thought reflexively as she delved deeper in her connection with
the Force.
Aware that her friend was still unconscious and on a precarious perch,
she opened her eyes and stepped closer to her enemy, skillfully walking on the
unstable floor as if it were not half-destroyed. Her blue blade kept flashing
right and left in the darkness, intercepting bolt after bolt of deadly energy.
"You will pay for your betrayal, Jade," Terren snarled as his shots became
more rapid in an attempt to break past her guard.
Closing her eyes to focus on her center of awareness, Mara allowed the Force
to flow freely through her, guiding her through her defense like Luke had
taught her to do ever since she had begun to train with him. Taking a deep
breath, she intercepted a new blaster bolt with her saber; then, remembering
that shooting had never been Terren's forte, nor had the combination of
different types of attacks at the same time, she planned her next move.
Taking a deep breath, she blocked yet another shot, angling her blade in front
of her chest as she did so, then, maintaining her weapon and hand at that level,
she dropped low to the floor and closer to her assailant, then swept her legs
through his shins.
Even as the other fell down, suddenly losing his balance, she intercepted
another blaster bolt with her still deflecting saber; the bolt rebounded against
her blade and flew back in Macay's direction.
It hit him square in the chest as he fell on his back; by the time that he
touched base, he was dead.
Straightening to her feet, Mara barely spared him a slightly regretful gaze
as she realized that not so long ago, she had not been so very different from
Terren. She had only broken free from the Emperor with the help of Luke
Skywalker. Then, she whirled about and returned near the hole that had swallowed
the Jedi.
She peered into it, but could see no sign of Luke. She could not see any sign of
Luke. She had to descend through the deserted Embassy complex then. But that
was all right, she thought as she hurried to reach the nearby stairs, it was
where she had to go anyway. The seismic accelerator could only be found in the
lower basement, at ground level, so going down for Luke, or going down to save
the planet, she still needed to reach the only ground level of this area of the
city.
As she considered her plan though, a new round of quakes hit; it finished the
tear lose the remaining structures of the upper staircases. They came crashing
down on the lower ones, effectively cutting off Mara's route. Behind her, the
holes of the floor kept widening so much that she reflected that a ship would
fit through the hole----
She stopped on her thought.
A ship. Or a speeder!
Raising her head to look in the direction of the entrance of the complex, she
suddenly remembered that she had come to this location aboard Skywalker's YP.
She prayed the Force that it would still be waiting for her near the generator
complex. Then, closing down her lightsaber, she gathered the Force to her once
again and leaped far and above the still enlarging gap. After landing on the
once again shaking deck, she ran as fast as she could toward the exit.
Five seconds later, she vaulted over its edge, barely settled in the pilot seat,
then revved the engines and flew toward the edge of the platform. She angled the
nose of the vehicle downward and dove at full throttle toward the lower levels
were Luke's dim presence was still detectable.
As she skillfully avoided askew girders and other falling obstacles, she
remembered the way Luke had taken the blaster bolt that was intended for her. No
one else would have been willing to sacrifice their life for her. How could she
have allowed Terren to trick them like that? And why had it taken her so long to
realize how important Skywalker was to her?
Quickly whipping her head around to scan the different levels as she zipped past
them, she tried to feel his presence. He was closer now, and using the Force to
guide her. She suddenly righted her speeder, efficiently halting her descent.
Fortunately for her, Skywalker had chosen his speeder well and the engines were
able to compensate for her maneuver without failing.
Swiftly, she brought her speeder closer to the structure, looking for a place to
enter. Then, she spotted him. A long swaying bridge was crossing an abyss;
Luke's limp form was slumped in the middle of the durasteel walkway. Slamming on
the breaks, Mara jumped out of her speeder and ran toward him, aware that sheer
luck, or the power of the Force, had put the bridge in the pathway of his
descent. He was barely hanging on, his head lulling over the edge. His blond
hair hung down, so that Mara could not see his face, but she could tell that he
had not recovered his senses since falling.
She reached him, just as another tremor shook the building. The bridge swayed
under the effect of the strong geological forces, threatening the Jedi's
precarious balance as it did. She caught him just as he was slipping further
forward, preventing him from falling from the bridge. She pulled his unconscious
form off the unstable bridge, then onto a nearby platform. There, she set him
on her lap and held him against her chest. His left shoulder looked painful, but
the blaster wound had cauterized the skin, stopping the bleeding. As if he
sensed her presence, he moaned softly; Mara reflexively tightened her grip on
him. The tremor subsided and Luke's eyelids fluttered open.
"Hey, welcome back," she said softly.
His blue eyes searched hers, slowly taking in their situation, then he attempted
to sit up. Mara released her grip on him, but he seemed reluctant to leave her
arms.
"Are you alright? What happened to Terren?" he asked, his voice sounding dry,
unused.
"I'm fine, but I can't say the same about him." Mara said simply. "Luke, I
wanted to tell you, about the Force bond." Luke shook his head, but Mara
continued, "I could communicate with Terren, but I didn't have a bond with him,
not in the same way that I do with you."
"I know that, Mara. I figured that out when he tried to kill you." He smiled
slightly.
"Why did you do that?"
"Did what?" Luke asked.
"Why did you take the blaster bolt that was intended for me?"
Luke's hand cupped her cheek and he said, "I couldn't let you die, Mara."
"But you almost died yourself." Mara said, her heart constricting at the
thought.
The Jedi Master could feel her pain at this thought and it gave him the courage
to share his feelings, "I would have died anyway, if you were no longer in my
life."
She started to shake her head in denial, and he continued, "You know it's true,
Mara. I know you can feel my heart, just as I can feel what's in yours."
Mara's eyes went wide and she didn't protest when Luke sat up and pulled her
into a kiss. Their lips moved sensually, their bodies pressed intimately
together. Everything became centered on this one point, nothing else existed.
There was just Luke and Mara. She felt as if her blood was on fire and that her
heart would pound out of her breast. She could no longer form a coherent
thought, all she could do was feel. The Force swelled around them, binding them
on an even deeper level. Luke pulled back, gasping, trying to draw air into his
lungs, overwhelmed by the pleasurable sensations caused by their kiss and their
joining in the Force.
They gazed at each other in amazement, both of them too moved to speak.
Then the tremors started again. Mara was the first to act, "We don't have much
time, we have to get to the accelerator before it's too late."
Luke nodded, and he smiled faintly, putting a fingertip to Mara's mouth before
reluctantly standing up.
With her help, Luke hobbled as fast as he could toward the nearby speeder.
His speeder, he belatedly realized when they were just beside it. "How did this
get here?" he inquired while he slipped in the passenger seat, following Mara as
she edged toward the pilot seat.
She shrugged. "Short Stuff took me to it."
Lifting his hand to his head, Luke winced as a headache quickly took shape
behind his temple. "Artoo? So you were at my quarters then?"
"I was trying to prevent something from happening to you, but couldn't reach
you." Mara's voice was sardonic, "Now, tighten your seat belt. The flight
downward might be bumpy."
As if to concur her statement, new tremors shook the remaining struts. "I just
hope that we'll be on time to save the planet from breaking up," Luke muttered
while he obeyed her.
"Yeah, let's just hope," she said wryly, then ignited the engines to their full
power.
Luke's stomach leapt into his throat when then dove nose-first toward the
undistinguishable lower levels of the city.
After minutes of dodging and break-neck piloting, they finally reached their
targeted level. Mara reduced their speed, then righted their trajectory. The
powerful headlights of the speeder illuminated the surrounding concrete walls of
what had once been some type of building. While she kept her blaster handy, her
companion held his lightsaber handle in his right hand; both pair of eyes were
darting back and forth around them, searching for clues that would inform them
about the location of their enemy.
*Any ideas?*" Mara inquired through the Force.
*Not really, you? You said that---*
*What?* she inquired, focusing her eyes on him as she felt him freeze as if in
horror.
"Ahead and to our left, do you feel what I feel?" he whispered.
Following his instructions, she reached out to sense what he had detected. "I
can't find anything," she shrugged... then paused as she pondered her own words.
She reached out again; she truly couldn't find anything.
Not even the Force.
"They've got ysalamiri," Luke nodded grimly, "and they've probably heard us
coming by now. Do you have a plan?"
"I think we need to take a look from above then," she commented as she turned on
the engines and headed back the way they had come. The moment that they left the
ground, new tremors shook the walls of the surrounding building, which didn't
look like they could take much more of that rude treatment.
Mara noticed that they were increasing in strength with each repetition. *We'll
have to be careful to not lose footing, again,* she teased her companion.
She pulled the controls toward herself; the speeder climbed up a wall and
stationed itself beside a series of resisting girders.
"Ha, ha, very funny," the Jedi quipped. "As if I had meant to fall like that. I
would have been satisfied with only saving your life." He climbed out of the
speeder and held himself steady against the still shaking framework.
"And that's why I'm coming with you Jedi. To keep you out of trouble," she
teased him, following him onto the girder and sent: *hero.* She smiled at him.
*Hey, I like being the hero. Besides, the hero is always the one who gets to
kiss the maiden in distress,* he answered more seriously--- then quickly leaned
closer to her and pressed his lips fully against hers. She was startled, her
eyes wide. Once again, Mara was intoxicated by his powerful, naïve, and strong
presence. Despite the danger surrounding them, everything faded into the
background, as she returned his spontaneous kiss.
*Be careful,* he finally sent her, along with all his feelings of care and love,
then began to pick his way along the main struts of the metallic girder.
*Same to you,* she answered him as she followed him.
The quakes had yet to stop and were growing in intensity; they were running out
of time. Quickly and carefully, the two Jedi made their way back toward the
Force void. While Luke's usual blacks provided excellent camouflage in the
darkened corridors, Mara's light-blue, short-sleeved shirt shone more like a
beacon for the enemy. Thus, they stopped advancing the moment that they spotted
the enemy's presence in the distance.
They were also outside of the ysalamiri bubble.
Luke and Mara crouched low, hanging onto the main frame of their perch ,
continuing to sway from the ongoing quakes. No less than ten troopers were
forming a semi-lose circle around a protuberance that was almost completely
buried in the ground. They had found the Seismic Accelerator. The troops were
carrying ysalamiri frames on their backs.
*Do you think you can take care of the lizards from here?* Luke inquired through
the Force, turning his head toward her.
*I can probably shoot five of them before they spot us, but the moment they are
alerted, we'll be exposed and we don't have much protection from their blasters.
Unless...* she paused briefly.
"I should be able to block with my saber any shots that come our way. I think
it's the best plan that we have." Luke assured her.
With his left arm injured, he would have a harder time wielding his lightsaber,
but he didn't have any other choice, he reminded himself. He would have to 'do'
it, once again.
He could feel her hesitation and he assured her, *We don't have many other
options,* he replied grimly. *We'll have to time it just right if this is going
to work.*
*It might be best if we concentrated, merging our resources* Mara said.
Luke met her gaze, knowing that she was suggesting that they connect on a deeper
level, merging their minds to operate on a more efficient and intimate level. He
nodded slowly, and then smiled slightly. He couldn't help but be touched by her
wiliness to trust him, even though it was only common sense that this would
increase the likelihood of their survival.
Mara nodded, then edged closer to him, making sure her aim was clear of any
obstruction, then pulled her pocket blaster from her wrist holster.
As he watched her prepare herself, Luke dimly made a note to himself to ask her
one day about the story behind her blaster set. He had never seen anything that
even closely resembled her peculiar weapon. It was intriguingly unique, just
like the red head that owned the blaster.
Then, the time for introspection was gone and Luke began to focus. He could feel
Mara's shining presence in the force, they stood just outside the empty zone
created by the ysalmiri. It would take a tremendous amount of concentration to
react quickly to the shots as they entered the meager area between them and the
void. He would not be able to sense the blaster fire until it cleared the empty
zone, leaving him no room for error. When the troopers became aware of their
presence, he would have to block all of the shots while Mara destroyed the
remaining lizards. With each ysalmiri that Mara took out, it would become a
little easier for him to maintain their protective barrier.
Luke focused his complete attention on Mara, deepening his awareness with the
beautiful red head. Almost instantaneously, he could hear her thoughts, and
sense her professionalism as she estimated the distance of each target as she
prepared to fire at their enemy's lizards. The young woman barely warned him
before she initiated the attack. Careful to not disturb her he watched,
captivated, aware that he was witnessing the side of her that was the result of
her training as the Emperor's assassin. However, unlike what he might have
thought, this side of her didn't upset, or repel him. Instead, the more he
watched her at work, the more he realized that the Emperor had merely used
Mara's abilities. He was seeing her as he had never seen her before and she
captivated him.
Two bolts of energy quickly left her weapon. By the time the first ysalmiri had
fallen, Mara was aiming at the third. It made a low moan and then slumped the
moment the blaster bolt hit true. She quickly disposed of the fourth creature.
Luke couldn't help but gape at her shooting skills. Even though he himself was
considered to be an expert, he realized that her skills surpassed his own.
The troopers were at first startled by the sound of blaster fire and quickly
spotted them on the ground level. They ran closer, and opened fire on them. Luke
quickly turned on and raised his saber, fighting past his aching left shoulder
to do so, and deflected the first blasts back at the closest trooper. Mara
continued to fire at the next target--- while the remaining five troopers
focused their intense blaster fire at them continuing to run toward them. Luke
understood that the troopers were intending to cut them off from the Force by
bringing them within the influence of the remaining ysalmiri. They knew that if
they managed to come a few meters closer to them, he and Mara would once again
be within a Force void. As he continued to fight against his body's messages of
complaint, he pondered how the enemy had known that they would need ysalmiri in
the first place?
Luke and Mara were aware that the only way to survive their predicament was for
them to quickly dispatch the remaining guards with their ysalmiri frames on
their backs. Mara attempted to open her mind more fully to Luke. She lowered all
her barriers; her spirit merged with Luke's, allowing them to work on the same
pattern of thought. Their coordination was precise. They became an extension of
one another.
She managed to kill three more lizards---- when a glancing bolt caught Luke in
the left shoulder blade, the pain searing through both of them as it
reverberated though their link. They were knocked out of their Force connection.
Luke then lost his balance and weapon and fell from their perch. Recovering her
breath, Mara used the Force to stash her blaster in her waistband at the small
of her back while she reflexively threw herself along the horizontal support.
She extended her hand and used the Force to pull Luke back toward her.
She unfortunately caught him by his injured arm, aggravating the injury by
pulling all his weight on his bad shoulder. Luke, who was still reeling from the
attack, recovered his senses at that and gritted his teeth against a cry of
pain. His eyes sought hers--- then the Force was gone. The troopers had
surrounded them.
They were trapped.
But how had they failed? she wondered while she warily eyed the troopers who
were under them. She shouldn't have killed the ysalamiri, she then reflexively
rebuked herself when she caught sight of Luke's grimacing features; she should
have taken out the troopers. But if she had done so, she reminded herself, she
would not have acted as a Jedi. Luke had taught her well to choose life over
death. "Give me your other hand, Luke," she told him while she tried to
reposition herself for better balance.
"Aaaah," Luke groaned when he tried to reposition himself. "It hurts too much."
"My, my, my," a hauntingly familiar low voice sneered from below them. "What a
touching sight, yet such a waste. Still, it should provide my troops with
adequate target practice."
A new bolt of energy hit Luke in the foot; he was unable to suppress a yelp of
new pain. He tried to twist around and see who had spoken. Mara tightened her
grip on his hand. The troopers held their blasters aimed at them. There had to
be a way out of this, the ex-assassin thought desperately. If only she could spy
an opening, she would be able to save her friend, whom she loved. She was also
pretty sure now that he loved her too.
They would get through this, she promised herself. She would not allow the enemy
to kill them now that they had finally found each other.
New bolts of energy filled the air around them; Mara reflexively twisted her arm
around itself, trying to protect Luke from further injuries. When the bolts
stopped coming, she and Luke glanced at each other, then turned toward the
source of the latest bolts.
"You should have kissed me with more feeling Skywalker," the other sneered, her
voice becoming clearer as she stepped closer. "When you walked away from me, you
signed your own death warrant," she continued her voice dripping with menace.
She stepped out of the shadows.
Both Mara and Luke gasped in shock as their enemy's identity became apparent.
TBC in part 7: Secrets Revealed
Written by Rhea and SJ, 2003
Part 6: Revelations
By SJ and Rhea Jediknight (skyjade@globetrotter.net and
jediknight@mail2master.com)
05-04-03/
____________________
Disclaimers: Nothing in the Star Wars Universe belong to us; everything belongs
to George Lucas. We're only writing stories for fun. See my homepage for more
details.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/3702
Special thanks to Rhea for bringing up the plot bunny of that story and
accepting to work on it with me :) Working with you is a pleasure, my
friend!
Rhea: Thanks to SJ for working on this with me. It's been fun!
____________________
After a few other near squeezes under falling ceiling plates, their group
managed to make it out of the generator building unscathed. On their way out,
they recovered Artoo Detoo, who had been trapped under a fallen wall and
perilously close to falling into a gaping hole.
Once outside, they gasped in horror as they saw the effect that the numerous
tremors had had on the city around them.
Buildings collapsed, or listed everywhere. There did not appear to be a
structure that had gone undamaged. The low groan of metal attested to the
unstable nature of the buildings around them.
As they gazed around them, Luke spotted a small shipyard was just a few meters
away. A large transport appeared undamaged, beckoning to them.
"It's not fancy, but right now I'm none to picky." Han muttered.
"Leia, take Han and the rest to the Medcenter. It should be fairly safe since it
was built on swaying struts." Luke instructed.
"But what about you? What do you intend to do?" Leia asked her brother.
Mara answered instead, "I have a pretty good idea where the Seismic Accelerator
was placed."
Luke nodded. They would go together.
"You're not going deeper? Luke, this isn't safe. The whole place might collapse
any second." Leia protested.
Luke met her gaze and seemed about to say something and then shook his head
instead, "We have to stop this thing, Leia, or none of us will be safe."
"I don't have time to argue with you, and . . . you're right. Just promise me
you'll be careful."
"I promise." Luke said solemnly.
"I'll take care of him, Leia." Mara said impishly.
Luke hid a smile behind his hand. Han chuckled, but the motion made him wince
and his wan grin turned into a grimace.
Luke and Leia's less-worried moods faded away to be replaced by concern about
their friend's state.
"All right. Call us the moment that you're safe," Leia warned her brother,
kissed him on the cheek while she held him as strongly as she could without
bouncing her husband anymore than she already had, then they parted company.
Mara and Luke watched as the rest of the group entered the vehicle. nce they
were sure that they had made it to safety, they headed toward the nearby Bothan
Embassy
"It's in through here," Mara said, sweeping her luma across the high-ceilinged,
darkened main entrance. Here too, the floor had already given into the strong
forces that had been pulling at it. It was peppered by several, baying holes.
Careful to not fall into any of them, the two Jedi slowly made their way forward
and toward the nearest stairwell, probing the sturdiness of the floor with both
the tip of their feet and the Force.
Just as they reached the main stairwell, a hand appeared out of one of the
surrounding doors and pulled Mara toward it. "Mara!" Terren Macay said as he
pulled her into his embrace, from which Mara expertly freed herself, dancing
around a nearby hole in the deck as she did so. The young man gave her a sad
expression, but she could feel that he was not hurt in the least by her
rejection.
"What are you doing here, Terren? How did you find me?" Mara asked
incredulously.
"I could find you anywhere, my dear. After all, we still have a bond through the
Force."
Mara frowned even as Luke's eyes went wide and his barriers slammed into place.
She wanted to explain to him, that the bond was nothing like the one she
experienced with the Jedi Master, but Luke had blocked her off completely. Now
was not the time to be stubborn!, she wanted to shout at him, then chose another
tactic to communicate with the frustrating farmboy.
She confronted Macay's lie.
"Really, Terren?" she perched an eyebrow at the other. "Then why did it take you
so long to discover that I was even alive? You did say that you thought that I
had died in the destruction of the Second Death Star."
Even as she felt Luke's senses open once again as he understood what she had
just implied with her challenge, Terren's face twisted in an ugly, evil grimace.
Luke reacted instantly.
"Mara watch out!"
At the same time, the ex-assassin noticed that Terren had somehow pulled a
blaster from behind him and was almost already aiming at her. Before she had
cleared her own weapon, or moved out of the way, Luke pushed her out of the path
of the already incoming blaster bolt.
As she landed on a sturdy part of the deck, the Jedi took the brunt of the
impact in his shoulder. Just then another tremor hit, challenging the young
man's balance further. When the tremors worsened in strength, he uncontrollably
spun on his heel and fell into the nearby hole.
Mara yelled, "No!" and ran toward the falling Jedi, who had hit his head on the
edge of the deck before disappearing in the darkness. She could feel that he was
already unconscious unable to do anything to prevent his fall. She reached out
with the Force, attempting to grasp onto Luke's falling body. At first she
thought that she had succeeded, but Terren grabbed her arm, breaking her
concentration. The tremor slowly subsided as he pulled
her back to her feet.
Fury filled her. Her hand went to her lightsaber hilt, but her captor pulled
harder on her arm. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned, waving his
blaster menacingly in front of her eyes, angling it toward her jaw.
"Why did you do that Terren? Why!?" The anger and sorrow clouded her ability to
use the Force properly. Her green eyes filled with tears.
The sight of her mourning Skywalker enraged the ex-Imperial," Tears for the Jedi
Master?" he sneered, then shoved her away from himself. "You disgust me, Mara.
The Emperor would be most displeased."
Stopping herself from falling into another hole of the deck, Mara swiftly turned
toward her enemy. "The Emperor is dead, Terren. He's a nightmare long gone from
my life."
"Ah, but there is another about to ascend the throne once again." Terren said.
A look of dawning comprehension came across her face, "You didn't find me
because of a Force bond, you came to stop us from taking out the Seismic
Accelerator. You're the one who is trying to destroy Coruscant."
"I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out Mara. I was hoping that
you would join us, and I still hold out hope that you will remember where you
really belong."
As the truth penetrated her, Mara Jade quieted her mind, gathering the Force
around herself. Now in deeper touch with the Force, she felt a flicker of
awareness and realized that Luke Skywalker was injured but still alive. She had
to act fast if she wanted to save him and stop the accelerator from continuing
its destruction.
Terren's eyes narrowed, feeling the power of the Force build around the woman.
"I never belonged with you, Terren," she defied him, locking her green gaze on
his. "The Emperor twisted your mind, used you like he used me, but instead of
breaking free, you've allowed him to continue to rule you even years after his
death."
"It's not the Emperor that I serve, Mara. I have a new Master, one more powerful
then the Emperor ever dreamed."
Mara shook her head, not understanding the man.
"The Sovereign."
With her Force senses heightened, she suddenly felt the coming of the next
tremor. She timed her motion to coincide with the beginning of the quake. She
pulled her saber free, igniting it in one quick motion. Terren pulled the
trigger on his blaster and Mara blocked the bolt. It crackled against her blue
blade and deflected it back right into Terren's face. He barely dodged out of
the way in time; the bolt of burning energy left a red mark on his cheek.
Outraged by his injury, the other pulled another blaster from his belt and
opened fire on her.
Luke..., Mara thought reflexively as she delved deeper in her connection with
the Force.
Aware that her friend was still unconscious and on a precarious perch,
she opened her eyes and stepped closer to her enemy, skillfully walking on the
unstable floor as if it were not half-destroyed. Her blue blade kept flashing
right and left in the darkness, intercepting bolt after bolt of deadly energy.
"You will pay for your betrayal, Jade," Terren snarled as his shots became
more rapid in an attempt to break past her guard.
Closing her eyes to focus on her center of awareness, Mara allowed the Force
to flow freely through her, guiding her through her defense like Luke had
taught her to do ever since she had begun to train with him. Taking a deep
breath, she intercepted a new blaster bolt with her saber; then, remembering
that shooting had never been Terren's forte, nor had the combination of
different types of attacks at the same time, she planned her next move.
Taking a deep breath, she blocked yet another shot, angling her blade in front
of her chest as she did so, then, maintaining her weapon and hand at that level,
she dropped low to the floor and closer to her assailant, then swept her legs
through his shins.
Even as the other fell down, suddenly losing his balance, she intercepted
another blaster bolt with her still deflecting saber; the bolt rebounded against
her blade and flew back in Macay's direction.
It hit him square in the chest as he fell on his back; by the time that he
touched base, he was dead.
Straightening to her feet, Mara barely spared him a slightly regretful gaze
as she realized that not so long ago, she had not been so very different from
Terren. She had only broken free from the Emperor with the help of Luke
Skywalker. Then, she whirled about and returned near the hole that had swallowed
the Jedi.
She peered into it, but could see no sign of Luke. She could not see any sign of
Luke. She had to descend through the deserted Embassy complex then. But that
was all right, she thought as she hurried to reach the nearby stairs, it was
where she had to go anyway. The seismic accelerator could only be found in the
lower basement, at ground level, so going down for Luke, or going down to save
the planet, she still needed to reach the only ground level of this area of the
city.
As she considered her plan though, a new round of quakes hit; it finished the
tear lose the remaining structures of the upper staircases. They came crashing
down on the lower ones, effectively cutting off Mara's route. Behind her, the
holes of the floor kept widening so much that she reflected that a ship would
fit through the hole----
She stopped on her thought.
A ship. Or a speeder!
Raising her head to look in the direction of the entrance of the complex, she
suddenly remembered that she had come to this location aboard Skywalker's YP.
She prayed the Force that it would still be waiting for her near the generator
complex. Then, closing down her lightsaber, she gathered the Force to her once
again and leaped far and above the still enlarging gap. After landing on the
once again shaking deck, she ran as fast as she could toward the exit.
Five seconds later, she vaulted over its edge, barely settled in the pilot seat,
then revved the engines and flew toward the edge of the platform. She angled the
nose of the vehicle downward and dove at full throttle toward the lower levels
were Luke's dim presence was still detectable.
As she skillfully avoided askew girders and other falling obstacles, she
remembered the way Luke had taken the blaster bolt that was intended for her. No
one else would have been willing to sacrifice their life for her. How could she
have allowed Terren to trick them like that? And why had it taken her so long to
realize how important Skywalker was to her?
Quickly whipping her head around to scan the different levels as she zipped past
them, she tried to feel his presence. He was closer now, and using the Force to
guide her. She suddenly righted her speeder, efficiently halting her descent.
Fortunately for her, Skywalker had chosen his speeder well and the engines were
able to compensate for her maneuver without failing.
Swiftly, she brought her speeder closer to the structure, looking for a place to
enter. Then, she spotted him. A long swaying bridge was crossing an abyss;
Luke's limp form was slumped in the middle of the durasteel walkway. Slamming on
the breaks, Mara jumped out of her speeder and ran toward him, aware that sheer
luck, or the power of the Force, had put the bridge in the pathway of his
descent. He was barely hanging on, his head lulling over the edge. His blond
hair hung down, so that Mara could not see his face, but she could tell that he
had not recovered his senses since falling.
She reached him, just as another tremor shook the building. The bridge swayed
under the effect of the strong geological forces, threatening the Jedi's
precarious balance as it did. She caught him just as he was slipping further
forward, preventing him from falling from the bridge. She pulled his unconscious
form off the unstable bridge, then onto a nearby platform. There, she set him
on her lap and held him against her chest. His left shoulder looked painful, but
the blaster wound had cauterized the skin, stopping the bleeding. As if he
sensed her presence, he moaned softly; Mara reflexively tightened her grip on
him. The tremor subsided and Luke's eyelids fluttered open.
"Hey, welcome back," she said softly.
His blue eyes searched hers, slowly taking in their situation, then he attempted
to sit up. Mara released her grip on him, but he seemed reluctant to leave her
arms.
"Are you alright? What happened to Terren?" he asked, his voice sounding dry,
unused.
"I'm fine, but I can't say the same about him." Mara said simply. "Luke, I
wanted to tell you, about the Force bond." Luke shook his head, but Mara
continued, "I could communicate with Terren, but I didn't have a bond with him,
not in the same way that I do with you."
"I know that, Mara. I figured that out when he tried to kill you." He smiled
slightly.
"Why did you do that?"
"Did what?" Luke asked.
"Why did you take the blaster bolt that was intended for me?"
Luke's hand cupped her cheek and he said, "I couldn't let you die, Mara."
"But you almost died yourself." Mara said, her heart constricting at the
thought.
The Jedi Master could feel her pain at this thought and it gave him the courage
to share his feelings, "I would have died anyway, if you were no longer in my
life."
She started to shake her head in denial, and he continued, "You know it's true,
Mara. I know you can feel my heart, just as I can feel what's in yours."
Mara's eyes went wide and she didn't protest when Luke sat up and pulled her
into a kiss. Their lips moved sensually, their bodies pressed intimately
together. Everything became centered on this one point, nothing else existed.
There was just Luke and Mara. She felt as if her blood was on fire and that her
heart would pound out of her breast. She could no longer form a coherent
thought, all she could do was feel. The Force swelled around them, binding them
on an even deeper level. Luke pulled back, gasping, trying to draw air into his
lungs, overwhelmed by the pleasurable sensations caused by their kiss and their
joining in the Force.
They gazed at each other in amazement, both of them too moved to speak.
Then the tremors started again. Mara was the first to act, "We don't have much
time, we have to get to the accelerator before it's too late."
Luke nodded, and he smiled faintly, putting a fingertip to Mara's mouth before
reluctantly standing up.
With her help, Luke hobbled as fast as he could toward the nearby speeder.
His speeder, he belatedly realized when they were just beside it. "How did this
get here?" he inquired while he slipped in the passenger seat, following Mara as
she edged toward the pilot seat.
She shrugged. "Short Stuff took me to it."
Lifting his hand to his head, Luke winced as a headache quickly took shape
behind his temple. "Artoo? So you were at my quarters then?"
"I was trying to prevent something from happening to you, but couldn't reach
you." Mara's voice was sardonic, "Now, tighten your seat belt. The flight
downward might be bumpy."
As if to concur her statement, new tremors shook the remaining struts. "I just
hope that we'll be on time to save the planet from breaking up," Luke muttered
while he obeyed her.
"Yeah, let's just hope," she said wryly, then ignited the engines to their full
power.
Luke's stomach leapt into his throat when then dove nose-first toward the
undistinguishable lower levels of the city.
After minutes of dodging and break-neck piloting, they finally reached their
targeted level. Mara reduced their speed, then righted their trajectory. The
powerful headlights of the speeder illuminated the surrounding concrete walls of
what had once been some type of building. While she kept her blaster handy, her
companion held his lightsaber handle in his right hand; both pair of eyes were
darting back and forth around them, searching for clues that would inform them
about the location of their enemy.
*Any ideas?*" Mara inquired through the Force.
*Not really, you? You said that---*
*What?* she inquired, focusing her eyes on him as she felt him freeze as if in
horror.
"Ahead and to our left, do you feel what I feel?" he whispered.
Following his instructions, she reached out to sense what he had detected. "I
can't find anything," she shrugged... then paused as she pondered her own words.
She reached out again; she truly couldn't find anything.
Not even the Force.
"They've got ysalamiri," Luke nodded grimly, "and they've probably heard us
coming by now. Do you have a plan?"
"I think we need to take a look from above then," she commented as she turned on
the engines and headed back the way they had come. The moment that they left the
ground, new tremors shook the walls of the surrounding building, which didn't
look like they could take much more of that rude treatment.
Mara noticed that they were increasing in strength with each repetition. *We'll
have to be careful to not lose footing, again,* she teased her companion.
She pulled the controls toward herself; the speeder climbed up a wall and
stationed itself beside a series of resisting girders.
"Ha, ha, very funny," the Jedi quipped. "As if I had meant to fall like that. I
would have been satisfied with only saving your life." He climbed out of the
speeder and held himself steady against the still shaking framework.
"And that's why I'm coming with you Jedi. To keep you out of trouble," she
teased him, following him onto the girder and sent: *hero.* She smiled at him.
*Hey, I like being the hero. Besides, the hero is always the one who gets to
kiss the maiden in distress,* he answered more seriously--- then quickly leaned
closer to her and pressed his lips fully against hers. She was startled, her
eyes wide. Once again, Mara was intoxicated by his powerful, naïve, and strong
presence. Despite the danger surrounding them, everything faded into the
background, as she returned his spontaneous kiss.
*Be careful,* he finally sent her, along with all his feelings of care and love,
then began to pick his way along the main struts of the metallic girder.
*Same to you,* she answered him as she followed him.
The quakes had yet to stop and were growing in intensity; they were running out
of time. Quickly and carefully, the two Jedi made their way back toward the
Force void. While Luke's usual blacks provided excellent camouflage in the
darkened corridors, Mara's light-blue, short-sleeved shirt shone more like a
beacon for the enemy. Thus, they stopped advancing the moment that they spotted
the enemy's presence in the distance.
They were also outside of the ysalamiri bubble.
Luke and Mara crouched low, hanging onto the main frame of their perch ,
continuing to sway from the ongoing quakes. No less than ten troopers were
forming a semi-lose circle around a protuberance that was almost completely
buried in the ground. They had found the Seismic Accelerator. The troops were
carrying ysalamiri frames on their backs.
*Do you think you can take care of the lizards from here?* Luke inquired through
the Force, turning his head toward her.
*I can probably shoot five of them before they spot us, but the moment they are
alerted, we'll be exposed and we don't have much protection from their blasters.
Unless...* she paused briefly.
"I should be able to block with my saber any shots that come our way. I think
it's the best plan that we have." Luke assured her.
With his left arm injured, he would have a harder time wielding his lightsaber,
but he didn't have any other choice, he reminded himself. He would have to 'do'
it, once again.
He could feel her hesitation and he assured her, *We don't have many other
options,* he replied grimly. *We'll have to time it just right if this is going
to work.*
*It might be best if we concentrated, merging our resources* Mara said.
Luke met her gaze, knowing that she was suggesting that they connect on a deeper
level, merging their minds to operate on a more efficient and intimate level. He
nodded slowly, and then smiled slightly. He couldn't help but be touched by her
wiliness to trust him, even though it was only common sense that this would
increase the likelihood of their survival.
Mara nodded, then edged closer to him, making sure her aim was clear of any
obstruction, then pulled her pocket blaster from her wrist holster.
As he watched her prepare herself, Luke dimly made a note to himself to ask her
one day about the story behind her blaster set. He had never seen anything that
even closely resembled her peculiar weapon. It was intriguingly unique, just
like the red head that owned the blaster.
Then, the time for introspection was gone and Luke began to focus. He could feel
Mara's shining presence in the force, they stood just outside the empty zone
created by the ysalmiri. It would take a tremendous amount of concentration to
react quickly to the shots as they entered the meager area between them and the
void. He would not be able to sense the blaster fire until it cleared the empty
zone, leaving him no room for error. When the troopers became aware of their
presence, he would have to block all of the shots while Mara destroyed the
remaining lizards. With each ysalmiri that Mara took out, it would become a
little easier for him to maintain their protective barrier.
Luke focused his complete attention on Mara, deepening his awareness with the
beautiful red head. Almost instantaneously, he could hear her thoughts, and
sense her professionalism as she estimated the distance of each target as she
prepared to fire at their enemy's lizards. The young woman barely warned him
before she initiated the attack. Careful to not disturb her he watched,
captivated, aware that he was witnessing the side of her that was the result of
her training as the Emperor's assassin. However, unlike what he might have
thought, this side of her didn't upset, or repel him. Instead, the more he
watched her at work, the more he realized that the Emperor had merely used
Mara's abilities. He was seeing her as he had never seen her before and she
captivated him.
Two bolts of energy quickly left her weapon. By the time the first ysalmiri had
fallen, Mara was aiming at the third. It made a low moan and then slumped the
moment the blaster bolt hit true. She quickly disposed of the fourth creature.
Luke couldn't help but gape at her shooting skills. Even though he himself was
considered to be an expert, he realized that her skills surpassed his own.
The troopers were at first startled by the sound of blaster fire and quickly
spotted them on the ground level. They ran closer, and opened fire on them. Luke
quickly turned on and raised his saber, fighting past his aching left shoulder
to do so, and deflected the first blasts back at the closest trooper. Mara
continued to fire at the next target--- while the remaining five troopers
focused their intense blaster fire at them continuing to run toward them. Luke
understood that the troopers were intending to cut them off from the Force by
bringing them within the influence of the remaining ysalmiri. They knew that if
they managed to come a few meters closer to them, he and Mara would once again
be within a Force void. As he continued to fight against his body's messages of
complaint, he pondered how the enemy had known that they would need ysalmiri in
the first place?
Luke and Mara were aware that the only way to survive their predicament was for
them to quickly dispatch the remaining guards with their ysalmiri frames on
their backs. Mara attempted to open her mind more fully to Luke. She lowered all
her barriers; her spirit merged with Luke's, allowing them to work on the same
pattern of thought. Their coordination was precise. They became an extension of
one another.
She managed to kill three more lizards---- when a glancing bolt caught Luke in
the left shoulder blade, the pain searing through both of them as it
reverberated though their link. They were knocked out of their Force connection.
Luke then lost his balance and weapon and fell from their perch. Recovering her
breath, Mara used the Force to stash her blaster in her waistband at the small
of her back while she reflexively threw herself along the horizontal support.
She extended her hand and used the Force to pull Luke back toward her.
She unfortunately caught him by his injured arm, aggravating the injury by
pulling all his weight on his bad shoulder. Luke, who was still reeling from the
attack, recovered his senses at that and gritted his teeth against a cry of
pain. His eyes sought hers--- then the Force was gone. The troopers had
surrounded them.
They were trapped.
But how had they failed? she wondered while she warily eyed the troopers who
were under them. She shouldn't have killed the ysalamiri, she then reflexively
rebuked herself when she caught sight of Luke's grimacing features; she should
have taken out the troopers. But if she had done so, she reminded herself, she
would not have acted as a Jedi. Luke had taught her well to choose life over
death. "Give me your other hand, Luke," she told him while she tried to
reposition herself for better balance.
"Aaaah," Luke groaned when he tried to reposition himself. "It hurts too much."
"My, my, my," a hauntingly familiar low voice sneered from below them. "What a
touching sight, yet such a waste. Still, it should provide my troops with
adequate target practice."
A new bolt of energy hit Luke in the foot; he was unable to suppress a yelp of
new pain. He tried to twist around and see who had spoken. Mara tightened her
grip on his hand. The troopers held their blasters aimed at them. There had to
be a way out of this, the ex-assassin thought desperately. If only she could spy
an opening, she would be able to save her friend, whom she loved. She was also
pretty sure now that he loved her too.
They would get through this, she promised herself. She would not allow the enemy
to kill them now that they had finally found each other.
New bolts of energy filled the air around them; Mara reflexively twisted her arm
around itself, trying to protect Luke from further injuries. When the bolts
stopped coming, she and Luke glanced at each other, then turned toward the
source of the latest bolts.
"You should have kissed me with more feeling Skywalker," the other sneered, her
voice becoming clearer as she stepped closer. "When you walked away from me, you
signed your own death warrant," she continued her voice dripping with menace.
She stepped out of the shadows.
Both Mara and Luke gasped in shock as their enemy's identity became apparent.
TBC in part 7: Secrets Revealed
Written by Rhea and SJ, 2003
