CHAPTER FOUR
The white of stormtrooper armor filled the 2-demensional flat-screen before Mara Jade's face. All twelve of the cloned troopers had formed a protective arch around her Headhunter. Mara could sense that they were all unsure as to what would happen next.
It was time to spring her trap—now or never. Mara reached out to what she had left of the Force and freed her senses to it. With it, her nervousness subsided, along with her anger and hatred. The Force was a strange topic when it came to Mara Jade. Though she had served the most powerful living force of darkness, Mara wasn't on the dark side of the Force. But neither was she on the light. For Mara, it was more of a "gray" side of the Force. Indeed she had murdered many in her time, she was a professional and therefore never felt any emotion for them or anyone for that matter—except the profound honor she used to feel when fulfilling her master's commands. Mara was not evil, nor was she good. She had always been something in between, something special. But now, since the murder of her master—her reason for living—that "gray" was steadily growing darker in shade. A voice that had no sound and spoke no words told her that the darkness was the reason she still had a few Force-skills left. It said that if she embraced the darkness fully, all her troubles would disappear. Mara wasn't sure what to make of it.
"If the iniquity you abandon, than have true power, you will!" A gruff, dyslectic sounding voice reverberated.
What was that?, Mara asked herself.
She hadn't actually heard that voice. It had clearly sounded in her head. But this new voice actually spoke to her, not merely stated its advice by projecting feelings. What could it be? Had her head suddenly turned into the battleground for the war between light and darkness?
Mara rubbed her eyes and shook the puzzlement from her head. This was not the time for philosophical thoughts. She had a mission to complete and time was running out.
The scanning crew appeared at the back of the bay; four men dressed in protective armor and face shields designed to safeguard the wearer from an explosion. It was clear to Mara that the imperials did believe that there was a bomb in her ship. And if the bomb squad got any closer, they would tell the stormtroopers to back. That would put them far from the Headhunter—too far to be accurately be affected by a surprise like Mara intended. She couldn't let that happen…
Mara Jade hit a button at her fingertips. The lid to her hidden compartment sprang-up along with the canopy of her fighter. What emerged was a blur of motion that shot from the Headhunter, somersaulted in the air, and landed in the middle of the platoon of troopers. The black cloaked figure let loose the violet-pink blade of her lightsaber. The weapon sliced the muzzle off one trooper's blaster carbine in a flash. Blaster fire whizzed over Mara's head as she turned the blade back brilliantly and decapitated the man beside him.
Mara shoulder-thrust the weaponless man to the ground, deflected three shots away from her, and continued on as she deactivated her lightsaber. Faster than the eye could see, the saber was gone. Mara turned, cross-drew two automatic blaster-pistols, and brought them to bear on the troops to her right and left. Three men went down on both sides of her.
Scarlet beams of energy moved this way and that as Mara whirled into a crouch, crossing her arms and opening fire on the remainder of the men standing. Her hood had flown back, exposing her braided mane of fiery red hair and flawlessly beautiful face. She let out a relieved breath, flicked her blaster to semi-automatic with her thumbs, spun around as she stood, and aimed her guns in the skull-like face of the stormtrooper that had been knocked down. She lingered for a split-second so the dimwitted trooper could realize that he should have stayed down, then blew his head off.
Ten meters away, the cowardly scanning crew stood frozen in shock and fear. Mara faced them and knew out of necessity that they could not be allowed to live. They suddenly came to their senses and tried to bolt back the way they came, but Mara Forced the door to close then blasted the console. A shot at each of them into the less protected joint at the neck of their armor erased them from the equation.
Mara re-holstered her pistols, then shrugged of the black cloak. The Emperor's Hand wore a form-fitting black body suit underneath. Had it not been black, it would be next to impossible to discern where the suit began and her flesh ended. It was Mara's style of choice when the mission called for it. The tight, lightweight, but durable elastic material, perfectly complimented her compact body of a dancer. She also enjoyed the fact that it helped to distract any male enemies of a low cast of mind. Clinging just as tight was the charcoal-colored leather belt that squeezed her waist and the accompanying holsters. It all served to allow Mara smooth, fluid movements that were completely unhindered. In fact, only her black-handled lightsaber lie loosely at her side for easy access. Mara was the perfect assassin.
She reached out to the Force, searching the massive installation for the presence of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Immediately, she felt an immensely powerful Force-presence on the other half of the station. It was focused, powerful, the aura of one directly in tune with the flow of the Force. That had to be Vader. The other presence she felt was much closer. Wild, untapped, potential—strong like Vader's. That one perplexed Mara. Clearly it had to be Skywalker, the Emperor's executioner, but before, when she had first got wind of him in Jabba the Hutt's palace, he hadn't felt that raw. What could it be besides Skywalker?
Movement up above caught Mara's eye, shattering her thought process. That second, a blaring alarm rang through the bay and she had no doubt it played in many other places as well. The frightened faces of two officers stared out from the docking-control booth, but ran-off as soon as they locked eyes with her. Mara followed with lightning reflexes, drawing her lightsaber and giving life to it once more. She leaped up, aided by the Force, and flipped, latching on to a durasteel partition extending from the booth's wide viewport. The skinner of the two men was darting for the open doorway to the halls outside when Mara caused the door to slide shut in his face. He bounced off the hatch with blood running from his now broken nose while the pudgy officer hopped back with a squeal that Mara was unable to hear from the booth. He looked on in horror as their invader drove her blade into the transperisteel, carving a circular hole. The four-centimeter thick circle fell out as Mara swung her self in, landing next to the men.
Sweat rolled down the face of the over-weight-man, filling the heavily recycled air with the wretched stink of fear. Mara knew that smell very well, as did she recognize the helpless whimpering of a wounded animal coming from the second imperial.
The standing officer pulled up his chubby arms and cried, "P-P-Please don't kill me." Tears were rolling down his face as he moaned pathetically, "It was all his fault, all his idea!"
This man was a disgrace to the memory of the Emperor in every. His mere being sickened Mara.
She clicked off her lightsaber and reattached it to her belt. At first, the man seemed relieved by the move, but then suddenly tensed up when Mara sneered. She grabbed her pistol that lie on her left thigh, brought it up, and shot the man between the eyes. He went down with a loud thump.
Mara looked to the door suspiciously, knowing that a dozen stormtroopers would be upon her in moments, then blasted the panel beside it. It should buy her the time she needed.
Mara bent down and grabbed the other man by the collar. "Don't extinguish me!" he snapped.
"Get up," she ordered him, giving a little tug.
The captain did as told, but was tossed onto the computer consoles nearby. Mara was on him quick, the muzzle of her blaster stuck in his forehead. The brave officer of the imperial navy wet his pants in fright.
"Where is Skywalker?" she demanded to know, forgoing the attempt to influence his mind.
"Sk-Skywalker?"
Mara pressed the gun to him harder to intimidate him further. "Where is he?"
The officer stuttered as he searched his mind to the best of his ability. "His-His accommodations are on the divergent side of the complex. He-He must be there."
Mara searched the Force and still found the presence much closer than that. "You lie, imperial scum! Skywalker a lot closer than that. Tell me where he is!"
They both turned their heads, as the shouts became audible on the other side of the door, monotonous voices of stormtroopers preparing to blow down a door. They would be in her in a moment.
"You're running out of time, captain!" Mara stared him dead in the eye.
"I don't know where he is, I—"
Mara slowly prepared to fire, so that the man would see what was about to happen.
"Wait! Wait," his eyes went wide as if he suddenly remembered something important. Mara hesitated for a moment. "He-He's been spending a lot of terms at the detention blocks—AA-20, I believe! Not far from here!"
Mara grinned. Yes, that would explain why he felt so close—the detention blocks! And here she had thought she wouldn't get any real information out of the imp. This was good. Skywalker was isolated from his father, which meant she might stand a chance of killing him! Things were looking up after so many days of hardships.
Jade pulled the gun away from the man and pistol-whipped him across the head. The alarm had sounded and her secret was out, no need to kill the man to keep him quiet.
Mara dashed to the side of the entryway and upholstered her second gun. She held them up, parallel to her face and switched them back to automatic fire. Her breath was labored from both physical exertion and nervousness. Mara called upon a Force calming technique she learned early on. It was an elementary manipulation of the mystic energy force that any child could easily master, but now Mara felt nothing. She could hardly feel the Force now, let alone use it to her advantage. Her breathing remained at a stressed pace even as the door shot up into the frame.
Mara smacked the first stormtrooper that entered with the butt of her pistol, spinning him around. Without halting, the Emperor's Hand brought her arms up under the armpits of the trooper and opened fire on rest of the squad outside. A few returned the assault before they were mowed down, but struck only her human shield.
Jade threw down her dead shield and ran for the opening of a corridor in front of her. Red bolts of energy zipped by as stormtroopers on both sides tried to bring her down in the open. Mara reached her cover just as a Death Star trooper emerged from a room she hadn't been able to see before. He apparently didn't see her until she was right in his face and attempted to back away to fire his imperial-issued blaster pistol. Mara wasted no time and shot the man in the chest at point-blank range with her right gun while placing the left under her arm. She grabbed the man's weapon, to conserve her limited ammo, as he fell and turned to face the coming onslaught.
Mara pegged one stormtrooper around the corner in the faceplate and dropped the two flanking him. The others stopped dead and fired, clipping the edges of the bend as Jade went for cover and holstered her personal weapons. She knew that she couldn't hold the troops off for long, but if she continued down the hall they'd get a nice shot at her back. Stormtroopers were cold enough to do that to a person (when they actually hit somebody). All imperial soldiers were that way and Mara regretted that she fell under that category as well. She had been thinking a lot about that lately.
Mara wasn't so naïve as to think that what she did—her life's work—was in anyway justified or for that matter morally acceptable. She killed people for a living. She killed the enemies of the Emperor because he willed it. Sure, not everything she had ever done for her master involved extinguishing someone's life, but for the most part it did. But why the dictator of the of the galaxy had needed someone to fulfill his will discreetly when he could just as easily had it done straightforwardly without infliction was never Mara's place to ask. But now she did ask her self that question and it pained her that she would never know the answer. Just what was her true purpose in life? Why was she here—A blaster bolt that singed the bulkhead beside her snapped Mara back into focus. Rampaging at her from the opposite side of the adjacent corridor was a squad of stormtroopers, their feet clacking on the durasteel flooring. Mara added to the din the repeat of her imp-issue pistol. One, two, three went down before they realized that they had even less cover than Mara did. They scrambled for cover that didn't exist in the halls and where picked off more easily.
Mara felt a slight twitch in her waning connection to the Force, nothing more. That was all her warning that the men she had turned her back on where closing in. She turned just as a crimson bolt passed so close to her leg that she would swear that it had grazed her. Jade popped one in the chest and unleashed all her Force power on the trooper no a meter away. All that achieved was the man stumbling back a foot when Mara had expected him to go flying into his comrades. She blasted him and four others, sending the rest reeling back. Now more came from her aft. She spun and pulled the trigger, but got only a soft click. Jade cursed and dove away to avoid being shredded by energy fire. She hit the ground gracefully right next to the dead Death Star trooper and damned him for not having his pistol fully loaded.
Like lightning, Mara Jade turned on to her back, auto-pistols out. The barrage of deadly coherent light killed five stormtroopers before they slammed against the ground. She did a backward somersault, coming up on her knees and continued her defense.
The influx of troops died down just long enough for Mara to hop to her feet and continue on. With the whole station on alert like it was, it wasn't likely that Skywalker would stay put in the detention block. Mara could still perceive a fuzzy haze in the area of brig. Darth Vader, on the opposite end of the station, burned like massive glowrod amid stark lightlessness. She couldn't discern what it was, but Vader seemed twice as powerful as usual and Skywalker's power more savagely unfocused than when she had seen him on Tatioone. But it didn't bother her, though. She merely attributed it to her own dying power in the Force.
Two stormtroopers popped around the corner some five meters and nearly slammed into the adjacent wall and each other when they spotted the intruder right before them. One shouted frantically to others around the bend as he and his comrade leveled their blaster carbines and fired wild bolts that sprayed only the walls. Mara Jade's retort was far more accurate.
The others came around, but only in time to catch the fury of Jade's glowing violet–pink blade. In the tight space they put themselves in, melee weapons like a lightsaber had an extreme advantage over blasters. The stormtroopers were slaughtered with the slightest of movements.
Beyond the open doorway littered with shredded armor and body parts, was a dark grey, non-railed catwalk that cut through four massive spires lined with lights and controls. A dozen like passages flanked the walkway on either side for more than a hundred meters. Mara stopped, regardless of the sound of approaching troops behind her, and plunged the first half of her lightsaber's blade into the deck. She pulled it to the left, leaving behind a trail of white-orange metal that indicated the end of the catwalk had been severed from the hallway outside.
The clacking of boots got louder, now from forward as well as aft vectors, prompted Mara to proceed quickly across the walkway. The troopers at her front showed up first, knowing all ready she was there.
The first deflected shot went wide, off into the ceiling, but the second and third fired from the two stormtroopers caught them dead center in their chests. Another stepped over his fallen comrades and continued the fight. Mara was at his face by then and easily skewered the armored man with her lightsaber. She disengaged the trooper and instinctively threw a hand up to the two around the corner, but if any tendrils of the Force had struck them, they weren't showing it.
Mara ducked back around the doorframe, kneeling on the catwalk once more. Blaster bolts peppered the bulkheads fore and aft as the two teams converged on her position. First thing first, she had to finish sabotaging the walkway so no more could follow her. Then, she could finish the stormtroopers in her way.
Without anymore procrastination, Mara sliced a gash in the durasteel walkway behind her, nearly severing it from the battle station entirely. But not yet, Mara told herself. That would be a little surprise for her stalkers.
She got up again, careful not to put any weight on the unstable plank of metal, and faced the oncoming assault. It had doubled to four troops now, but that didn't faze her. Mara sprinted towards them, batting away energy darts as she covered the distance in a second. Her first swipe took one man's gun-hand away, while her second ripped his and his partner's torso clean away from their bodies. She sent the third down with a deflected shot, then decapitated the final soldier. Mara reattached her lightsaber and sped on even before the last two bodies hit the floor.
Out on the walkway, the weight of a mob of stormtroopers proved too much for the wounded catwalk and the remaining connection snapped with an echoing death-wail, eclipsed only by the screams of the plummeting troops.
Mara Jade rounded a corner, devoid of any beings, and in an instant later, was in her first destination. A massive room filled with rows of turbolifts that led to all sections of the station. One would be taking her to the detention block.
"There she is! Get her!" Shouted an officer in imperial olive-gray. He waved his pistol to beckon stormtroopers down a corridor.
But to Mara's horror, platoons of soldiers dispersed from all openings. More than she could count. More than she could possibly control. She gasped, which she could not remember having done in years. It would be impossible to make it to the lifts at the other end of the room. In fright, she went for cover.
"Concentrate child. The Force…let it flow through you. Calm…you must be…if you wish to survive…"
There was that voice again. It was a comforting, wise voice, but not one that she had heard in all her years of service to the Emperor. Who could she be remembering? What was her subconscious trying to tell her? For surely that was all it was.
Mara focused inward, slightly at first, then more deeply as it came more comforting. Suddenly, it was back, though only a brief flicker. She could once again sense life around her. She could briefly glimpse the Force in entirety as she once could. But it was somehow different this time. The lingering chill she always felt was but gone completely. This new sense, which she could only taste, seemed more inviting, comforting to her. It was untainted, unspoiled, a luminous beam of warmth on her soul.
A chunk of durasteel beside her flashed then went black with smoke. Then the wall in front of her was rained down on. Mara drew her pistols and knew it was now or never. She had to make a run for the lift tubes, elevated just above her position.
"Concentrate on the Force, child. Their assault…nothing but a hindrance to your success. Believe in the Force…save you it will!"
No time to question the source of the voice now. It was life or death time. Mara was the Emperor's Hand, and be it ten soldiers or a thousand, nothing would stop her vengeance.
Mara Jade shot out of hiding and laid down suppression fire that knocked at least seven troopers in close proximity to each other down. She ran for the stairs leading to the lift tubes, mowing down stormtroopers and officers to her left and right. The entire room was ablaze with blaster fire, with at least a dozen deaths to friendly fire as all tried to quell Mara's invasion. An overwhelming sense of commitment to her goal drove Mara on to her destination without fear of being lanced by a scarlet bolt. She fired and fired and fired, vowing never to give up, never surrender no matter how tired or hurt she may be. The Emperor would be avenged!
Suddenly, all the shooting stopped and she didn't know why. Even her own weapons were silenced. She shook her head to relieve the perplexity and abruptly realized she was safely inside the turbolift. She had been awash in a daze she had never felt before in her life. Mara had acted without conscious thought, slipping completely into reflex and will power. The thought left her awed.
Then, it hit her like a ton of duracrete. The pain, fatigue, and stress of her fight for the turbolift overwhelmed all her senses and there was nothing she could do to make it go away. She felt weak and tired, her knees buckling under the pressure of holding her aching body up. Mara slumped to the ground and into the darkness…
Moff Jerjerrod straightened his olive-gray uniform and matching cap in uneasiness. Straightening the rank squares on his chest, he let out a deep breath and tapped the button that slid the immense double durasteel doors to their flanks. There, inside the ominously darkened room sat Lord Darth Vader and his son, Luke Skywalker. What they had been conversing about was none of Jerjerrod's business and thus he refused to even wonder.
The commander of the Death Star came just far enough into the room to allow it to be once again sealed off from all others. He came to attention without saying a word. No matter how dire the news was that Jerjerrod had come to tell the Dark Lord, he would wait until ordered to explain his intrusion.
"I told you we were not to be bothered, Commander," Lord Vader spoke.
Jerjerrod swallowed hard, fearing he had indeed made the wrong decision to come here. Nonetheless, the Moff remained silent.
"What is so important that you are willing to die to tell me?"
"My Supreme Lord, we have an intruder in the station," The man told him, trying his best to hide his anxiety. "A woman." He raised his black gloved hand, holding in it a small holoprojector. It illuminated to show the still visage of a woman with a blaze of red hair and deep green eyes. "We've sent out whole companies of stormtroopers to stop her, but she's still coming through! She…she's armed with a lightsaber milord!"
Vader stood up to his full height and looked straight at the Moff. "That will be all, Jerjerrod."
The man nodded, bowed, and then left the room with all haste. Luke looked on in puzzlement. "What is it?"
"Mara Jade is here," Vader told his son. "I knew it would only be a matter of time before she found her way here."
"Mara Jade?"
"The Emperor's assassin. She means to avenge her fallen Master."
Luke's eyelids went half-closed as he probed with the Force. A moment later, he looked to his father saying in a surprised tone, "The Force is with her."
"No doubt she knows for certain that you struck the death blow…Very well, we shall give her the confrontation she desires."
Luke nodded, but his uncertainty flowed off him like an odorous stench.
"There is no cause for alarm, my son. Jade is weak. You will find no trouble in dispatching her."
Luke's expression betrayed his surprise at being solely picked to confront her. But Vader sensed he had faith in himself and his newly acquired abilities. "As you wish."
"Nonetheless," Vader warned with a raised finger. "As of now, her skills with a lightsaber exceed yours, though her experience with the Force does not. You will not find ease in destroying her."
"Yes, father," Luke said with more confidence and zeal now.
"Good. Now we will go to set our trap."
Mara caught herself almost instantly and jumped to her feet. She ran her hands over still covered eyes and blew out a deep sigh. That was the moment she realized the lift wasn't moving. With a start, she popped her eyelids open and was completely taken aback by what she now saw. A room, stark, blinding white, surrounded her. It seemed endless on every side, an infinite abyss of light.
What…Where am I, Mara asked herself frantically.
"Everywhere and nowhere we are, my child," A familiar voice sounded.
It was the voice in Mara's head, the one that had warned her and guided her through the Death Star. But this time it was an external voice. Coming from, Mara turned to look, three meters away. With lightning reflexes, Mara drew her twin blaster pistols…or she would have had they been there. They, along with her lightsaber were gone.
The less than one meter tall, greenish alien before her shook his pointy eared head. "A physical plane, you do not stand in now. Your weapons lay with your body…In your mind, we are."
"Who are you?" Mara demanded of the diminutive creature.
The alien dismissed the question with a wave of his small, cane grasping hand. "My identity will help you not, child. Grievous subjects do we have to speak about."
"Am I dead?" Mara asked.
"No. But not far from it."
Mara sneered. "Then listen you freaky little dyslectic dwarf! I don't have time to—"
"Much anger you have inside," The alien interrupted as he lowered his head. "Understandable."
Mara crossed her arms and retorted. "And what do you know of anger, Jedi ghost?" The assassin noticed the creature became slightly surprised by the comment. "Yes, I know about that aspect of the Force. Don't act so shocked."
The little green alien gave an unemotional grin, exposing his minute, sharp teeth. "Yes…Jedi I was. But all Jedi know anger at some point in life. Immune to it…none are."
Mara starred him straight in the eye. "You wouldn't understand. I have…—I don't have time for this! Leave me be, Jedi!"
"Much anger in you, yes…But do you truly understand why you feel so? Hmmm?" The Jedi of the past asked her. When there was no reply, save hostile thoughts, he continued. "Yes. Thought not, did I."
"You want to know why I'm angry? I'll tell you," Mara snapped. "Vader and his son destroyed my life! That's why! Before they took over, I had a purpose. I had a reason for living. And now I have nothing but revenge to live for."
"And if destroy them you do, what will you have accomplished? In their blood, your emperor will not be reborn."
"They killed my master!" Mara exclaimed.
"Freed you, they have! Freed you from the Emperor's evil. From servitude."
Mara was infuriated. "What? Don't tell me you support them!"
"I do not!" The Jedi replied strongly. "I merely tell you that you have a chance to change. Throw off your bonds to evil! Know in your heart, that you have no love for the Empire or its Emperor. Evil you are not. Twisted was the Emperor's spirit, but not yours." He struck the ground with his wizened cane for emphasis.
"You," Mara said with an uneasy chuckle. "You're trying to recruit me to your cause. You're trying to convert me."
"If to destroy Luke and Vader, you wish, I will not try to stop you," He told her. "But know this: You are no match for Vader and his son. But with help, you may someday."
"Help? What help?"
"When the time comes, you will know… "
Mara snapped awake, looking directly at the floor of the still descending lift car. A quick check showed that her weapons were on her person once again and the mysterious Jedi was gone. Had it all been a dream? Was Mara going mad? And if not, what help could she possibly receive that could destroy Skywalker or Vader? It would take someone more powerful than the Emperor himself to accomplish the task. Mara was more than sure she couldn't kill Vader—his son maybe—but not Lord Vader. Though she liked to think otherwise, she doubted she would survive an encounter with the Dark Lord of the Sith. Her mission was to kill Luke Skywalker and that was all. Escaping afterwards was not her plan. What could possible save her now?
"When the time comes, you will know…"
Mara shook the voice from her head. Right now she didn't need the lunatic ravings of a ghost. Like it or not, she had a job to do for her Emperor. After all, the Emperor may be gone, but his Hand still thrived. That Hand would die to serve his will. Why? Because her duty was to fulfill Palpatine's wishes and it always had been. If the Emperor were still around, it always would be. But alas, he was gone and Mara soon with him.
A thought entered Mara's head. One that was treasonous and made her no better than the men she sought to kill. Why did she follow Palpatine's orders? Why were his decisions absolute? Simply because he had conquered a weak government and declared himself master of all? That couldn't be right. There had to be a reason—A reason beyond the instinct of self-preservation in a cutthroat institution and beyond merely following a cause she believed in. Because, though she never admitted it to her master, Mara did not care for politics. It didn't matter to her if the Empire crushed the Rebellion or if the Rebellion triumphed over the Empire. She might have spent all her life listening and learning Imperial jargon, but Mara had a strong will and was not so easily brainwashed…was she?
If all this was indeed true, why did Mara serve the Emperor? Honestly, she couldn't answer that. Was her whole life a sham? Had she been brainwashed into following a person she felt no love for?
Mara grabbed her head and screamed. That damn Jedi was getting to her head. Corrupting her feelings and thoughts. Making her believe things she really didn't believe…wasn't he?
Before Mara could finish the analysis of her psyche, the lift came to a steady halt and the door slid open with the barest of sounds. Mara drew her two pistols, flicked them to semi-auto, stepped out and blew the heads off two stormtroopers in front of her. With a quick glance, she counted six other troops and two officers in the vestibule of Detention block AA-20. She moved without stopping, blasting apart the various holocams in the room, before she dove to the ground, somersaulted, and then came to an end with her back to the metal control station in the center. The survivors retaliated with their own blaster fire, but Mara was all ready covered before it made its presence known.
Mara dropped the empty charges from her blasters and slapped a fresh pack in. A stormtrooper came around on both sides of the station, blasters ready, but Mara was ready to shot their legs out from under them. They both yelped, but were silenced by a bolt to the helmet.
Jade popped up, burned a hole in the armor of three troopers and gave the officers an early retirement. The remaining three troopers fired back, but Mara was down again and out of danger. She sprang up, unbelievably still catching the men by surprise, and made them regret their mistake for the nanosecond it took for them to die.
Mara scanned the area for anyone she might have missed, and then sighed when she saw she was safe. She holstered her weapons and almost went stiff from what was bothering her. She shouldn't feel safe, she realized. Mara unclipped her lightsaber as she looked around again.
The purpose of her visit to the detention block was to encounter Skywalker. She could feel his presence distinctly, only meters away. But where was he? As far as she could tell, he was in one of the cells down the corridor in front of her—but why? He had to have heard the light fight in the room—the cells weren't soundproof. He couldn't be hiding, could he?
Yes, that was it wasn't it! The fool didn't know whom he was messing with. He must have thought that Mara couldn't sense his presence in the cell. Mara almost chuckled. She would sneak up to the cell and catch him in his own trap. He would know his mistake when he felt the blade of her saber in his chest. Nothing could surprise Mara today.
Mara Jade found herself eating her words in the next few minutes.
As she crept up into the corridor with the silence of the Emperor's most personal assassin, Mara began to feel that something was wrong. But at the same time, killing Skywalker sounded so right.
Mara came to the cell that she could feel the enormous power sense radiating from and flattened her body against the wall beside the door, her lightsaber ready to strike. But something felt very wrong about what she was about to do. She peeked into the small viewport on the door for reassurance and jumped back at the sight of the figure inside. Leia Organa, Princess of destroyed Alderaan.
Organa, Mara thought. What is she doing here? And where's Skywalker?
Mara could feel a familiar presence. A presence that was almost as strong, but drastically more raw, than Darth Vader's. It had to be Skywalker because she had been this close to Organa before and never felt even a talent for the Force in her. It couldn't be Organa that was giving off the raw potential. That was in possible!
Mara's mind told her that Leia Organa could never be as strong as Skywalker or Vader, but her heart and what little of Force sensitivity that she had left inside her told her otherwise. She knew that it was Organa's presence she had felt since she came on board, whether she liked it or not.
Of course! Skywalker's presence hadn't been that unfocussed when I tried to get him at Tatioone. But I was around Organa then too. She was no different, Force wise, than anyone else in Jabba's palace. What had awakened her abilities?
That meant that Skywalker and Vader were together and had been together the whole time. It would be impossible to kill the son as long as his father was around. It would take someone as strong as…
Mara had a crazy thought. No, that's just wishful thinking. What that crazy old Jedi had said couldn't be true. Organa would never go along with it, would she?
"When the time comes, you will know…"
Could Mara actually rescue Organa and then train her to kill Skywalker and Vader? Could Mara give-up on possibly losing toady in order to win in the future? Organa had no love for the Empire, she knew that much.
No, she decided. Mara lacked the knowledge to train an apprentice, especially one so powerful. But the alternative was to face Skywalker and Vader alone and surely die in the process. If only she could train Organa, then everything might work out. But she literally couldn't. Mara didn't even know all that much about the Force herself.
"Help you, I can…A Jedi could you become. And a Jedi Leia will then be…"
No way old man, Mara thought, not sure if the Jedi could hear her reply. Even if I train Organa, it won't be as a Jedi. I can assure you of that! I'll train her on my own terms.
All right, she decided. Mara was going to train Organa as her apprentice. It would be easy to do so. All Mara had to do was claim to be some long lost Jedi here to rescue the last hope, which Organa was, for the galaxy. Organa's fabled sense of duty should convince her to train in the Force and defeat Skywalker and Vader. And if the little old ghost didn't like, he could come down to reality and try to stop her! Mara knew that somewhere the Jedi had to be shaking his sparsely hair head in defeat.
There was a sound from the antechamber of the detention block that Mara knew all to well. If she was going to rescue Organa, she was going to have to do it now.
Quickly, Mara ignited the blade of her lightsaber and dug it into the door, sweeping down until the electronic lock had been severed. The door popped open and Leia Organa, dressed in prisoner grays, was all ready on her feet.
Mara rushed in. "I'm Jedi Knight Mara Jade. I'm here to rescue you."
"Jedi Knight?" Leia asked quickly.
"Later. Here, take this." Mara took one of her blasters and tossed it to Leia. "We have to move fast. There'll be stormtroopers on us any second."
"This seems familiar," Leia muttered to herself.
Mara went out, bringing her lightsaber up to defend the two of them from the troopers down the hall. Leia followed, her blaster raised to pick off any threat in her sights.
"There she is! Fire!" A stormtrooper sergeant cried.
His soldiers ran to places near the corridor and let loose with the blaster bolts. Mara deflected the shots that would strike home while making sure not to step into the ones that went wide. She sent one man's blast back to him and Leia scored the sergeant on the other side. One bolt came close to striking Mara's forearm and Leia had to dodge out of the way. The supposed Jedi wasn't going to do anything but get them killed if she didn't think of a way out of this fight.
Leia took the risk of halting her fire and taking her eyes off the stormtroopers in order to scan the walls. She gave a satisfied grin when she saw what she was looking for. She fired off a few more rounds, and then yelled to Mara; "Can you move up a few meters?"
Mara sent a blaster bolt to the side, straining all her energy to hold on to the Force so she could keep up her defenses. She heard Leia's question and though she didn't understand what she was planning, decided that gaining some ground couldn't hurt. She could make short work of these troops with her blasters, but Jedi don't carry blasters. And Mara had no way of knowing if Organa knew that or not.
Jade knocked back a crimson dart, and then jumped forward, landing a meter from the trash disposal vent at the base of the adjacent wall. Leia took down a stormtrooper and went up to the vent. She held the blaster straight at it and hoped it had the punch of an imperial carbine. Organa fired, snapping the vertical bars in the center, but it took two more to make the hole large enough for the women's bodies.
"Mara, down the hole!" Leia called.
Jade looked behind her back for a second to glimpse Organa's achievement. She smiled.
Genius! I would never have thought of the waste disposal shaft.
"Go! I'll cover you," Mara told her.
Leia nodded, took a final shot over her rescuer's shoulder and took the familiar plunge into darkness. Mara slapped away more fire as she backed to the hole, grabbed her spare blaster, set it for overload, and threw it to the troopers. The Quick-Blast attachment to all her blasters had once seemed desperate to Mara, but now she was glad the Emperor had demanded their installation. The weapon exploded like a grenade a moment before it hit the decking. The troops near it were scattered and one went flying through the air. Mara took the time to make for the vent, a few wild shots trying in a last ditch effort to stop her.
The ride down the disposal chute was a precarious one, with twists and turns as it sent her to the wherever the garbage compactor in the station lay. Mara spied a light at the end of the tunnel and was just as soon plowing through it and dropping to the murky, cluttered waters below. She hit with a vociferous splash, avoiding nearly being impaled by a shaft of the metal.
Mara landed waist-high in water, but was quick on her feet before Leia could offer a hand. The princess looked worried and disappointed as she scanned the walls of the chamber. She eyed Mara, saying, "I forgot about the door. We can't blast it. It's magnetically sealed."
Mara moved to the door, clicked on her lightsaber and sliced it as easily as she had Leia's cell. She turned to Leia. "Magnetic seals can deflect blaster bolts, but it's no match for a lightsaber blade."
Leia chucked then took Mara's hand to help her out of the room. Regaining her composure, Leia brought up her blaster and swept the room with its muzzle. Mara was standing in front of her, doing the same with her lightsaber.
Mara closed her eyes and stretched out with all her abilities, gaining a mental picture of the life forms on the deck, or rather the lack thereof. Aside from Organa, her, and the diagnoia they hadn't met in the waste chamber, there was nothing. Not a single imperial, be it soldier, officer, or technician occupied the floor. Thus, she came to the same conclusion that Leia had.
"No stormtroopers," The assassin said cautiously, as if saying so would bring the entire Imperial Army on their heads. "They were crawling all over the station when I got here."
"We must have lost them," Leia reasoned.
"No," Mara said solemnly, the Force alerting her to the danger. She looked at her companion and said, "We have to get out of here…fast! C'mon."
Mara took the left passage of the T-junction before them, Leia not wasting anytime in following. They sprinted down the corridors, not surprisingly bare, without further speech. The Force was guiding Mara around the deck, telling her which corners to turn and what doors to pass through. Finally, she found what she was looking for, a bank of turbolifts. She hit the call button and opened herself to the Force, enabling her to sense if anyone was to be coming down with the lift car.
"Do you know where you're going?" Leia asked her, slightly winded after the long run.
"We're heading back to the docking bays. The ship I came in only seats one person, so we'll have to leave it and steal a shuttle," the other answered without averting her eyes.
The empty car settled and the lift opened up to them. Once inside and away, Leia asked, "Doesn't it contain the coordinates of the Alliance's rendezvous spot?"
"No. But we'll have to destroy it anyway before we leave. It should give us a nice distraction for our theft and escape."
"You don't have the Alliance's coordinates?"
Mara finally looked at her. "I don't work for the Alliance, Princess."
"Then who are you? What are you doing here?"
"I'm a Jedi, like I said," she lied. "I'm not with the Rebels. But that doesn't mean I'm against their cause, either. I came here, out of hiding, to destroy Vader and his son…for the good of the galaxy."
"Luke…" Leia mumbled sadly to the ground.
"When I got here, I felt your presence." Mara stage-chuckled. "I thought you were Luke Skywalker at first. But when I found you, I decided this was going to be a rescue mission instead of search and destroy." That part was true however modified.
Leia nodded, and then looked at the level indicator up above. "What's going on? Why are their no stormtroopers all of a sudden?"
"They're setting a trap for me and most likely you too, now."
Leia needed not to ask whom she meant by They. The answer was frighteningly obvious to her.
"We need to get out of here," she told her rescuer.
Mara gave her a sarcastic grin.
A moment later the lift stopped and the door permitted them to leave. They were in the first corridor Mara had seen in her assault. The bodies of all the troopers had been removed; blaster scorches the only evidence of the fight. Leia looked at the shear number of the pockmarks in amazement.
"Mara, wait." Leia sounded.
The other woman paused and turned to her. "What?"
"Before we leave, we have to find my droid."
Mara shook her head. "Sorry princess, but we simply don't have the time."
"But it's important," Leia told her, her voice getting sorrowful. "…He's the only thing I have left."
"I don't like the idea of losing my fighter, but I have to in order to get us out of here safely."
"Mara. Please. I've," A tear ran down her cheek, "I've lost so many friends…I can't live with one more getting destroyed. Please."
Mara considered it for a moment, but instantly decided against it. It was much too risky an operation. "All right," She lied. "After we set up the diversion."
"Thank you."
Mara nodded and motioned for them to continue on their way. It would be hard getting the princess on a shuttle without her droid, but nothing the Emperor's Hand couldn't handle.
A half-kilometer down the station, they found the main doors to the docking bay Mara had her fighter landed in. Jade slashed the lock and they were ready to set the first part of the escape into motion.
Behind the doors, her Z-95 Headhunter rested undisturbed. Nonetheless, Mara's danger sense skyrocketed. And as if on command from that sense, the fighter exploded in a blast that disintegrated any shrapnel that might cause harm. Leia collapsed, while Mara stood strong in the face of the blast.
Two figures emerged from the flames like a pair of sinister phoenixes rising from the ashes. With another step they resolved into the only two images Mara would fear. The Dark Lord Vader and his fallen Jedi son, Luke Skywalker moved silently towards their prey, all ready confident in a victory.
"We are honored by your presence, Jade," Vader sounded as the two stopped a meter away from the burning hulk. The bright, flickering light played devious shadows upon the gleaming deck plating.
Mara gained her wits back and shouted to Leia, "Run!" The assassin's lightsaber flashed to life in front of her, warding off her soon to be attackers with its telltale electric hum.
Leia's eyes were full of fear, as she looked at her father and brother, breathless in horror. She inched back for a moment before getting to her feet and bolting out the way she had come. In an instant, she was through the entryway with the door slamming shut just behind her. Sealed off from the danger in the docking bay, Leia frantically tried to decide what to do next. Oddly, Leia still felt threatened…
A blue flash was all Leia saw before she was sent to the floor. The imperial officer lowered his smoking weapon and motioned for the squad of stormtroopers to take her away.
Mara sneered at the two dark siders as she wove her blade threateningly. The attack had come as a complete surprise to her, but she dare not show it. She had to act tough in front of the two men and project all her anger outward at them. She could feel the dark side strengthening its grip on her soul and right now she didn't care. Anything that would give her the power to even survive this foolhardy encounter she had put herself in. It would seem that all her work to rescue Leia had gone down the proverbial sarlacc gullet. Where was that stout Jedi Master to guide her now?
"You rescued my daughter, assassin…Perhaps I have misjudged your intentions," Vader told her.
His daughter!
Leia Organa was Vader's daughter? How could that be so? Mara had read Organa's imperial file not too long ago—she had practically memorized it. The report had clearly stated that her father was Bail Organa, the Viceroy of Alderaan. But wait…the file had stated that Leia was Organa's adopted daughter—a fact only a dozen people knew. Could it be possible? Of course! It accounted for her sensitivity to the Force. But knowing the validity of a fact doesn't make it any easier to embrace.
"You have all ways underestimated my worth to the Empire, Vader."
"Perhaps…But that no longer matters," He wove his hand. "You have failed, Jade. And your attempt to rescue Leia has signed her death warrant. You will not survive and neither will she."
"That may be, Sith Lord, but I won't be shedding this mortal coil before I have your son's head."
Luke came forward, challenging her to make good on her promise. Vader interjected. "Stop," He told his son. To Mara he said, "If you are not careful, assassin, you might receive what you're asking for."
"Unless your boy is too frightened to face a competent fighter that is unafraid to vanquish him," Mara retorted.
There was a tense silence there that Mara doubted even her lightsaber could cleave through. But she knew that the Sith was trying to psyche her out. The Emperor's Hand was not as susceptible to mind games as Vader liked to believe.
"…So be it."
Luke's lightsaber was in his ebony-gloved hand in a flash, the yellow-green blade igniting with a metallic shriek. He swung the weapon up into an aggressive stance that lacked the polish of an expert duelist. The stance was now less effective as far as Mara was concerned.
Mara's blade no sooner came up into position than the young warrior sprang forward and delivered an overhead chop that was easily countered. The blades locked into their deadly dance of fate, Skywalker the less experienced of the two, but what he lacked in skill he made up for in talent. But this was but one of many duels Mara had engaged in, though her first to a life or death struggle. It had been drilled into her, but apparently not explained to Skywalker, that lightsaber dueling was not about trying to cleave your opponent the first chance you get—that could lead to you putting yourself in a dangerous situation. The essence of the art was to tire your opponent down and take him when he makes a mistake, a lapse in his or her guard. Mara Jade was counting on her particular opponent not realizing his faulty strategy.
The blades met high then low, with Mara striking at his neck at the end. He deflected the move with the tip of his weapon as Mara had planned, then swung a reverse diagonal attack at her opposite collar bone—attempting to sever her from shoulder to waist. But Mara moved away, causing Skywalker to stumbling when his energy met no obstruction. She slammed the pommel of her lightsaber into his back, sending him to the ground with a sharp groan.
Mara continued her movement onto a twist that brought her facing Darth Vader and ready to defend. But to her delight, the Sith had moved to the end of the bay and showed no sigh of interfering. That meant this was going to be between her and Skywalker—as long as Skywalker didn't lose. Mara threw him a mocking grin, practically daring him to join the fight, then went back to Skywalker. With any luck, she could kill Skywalker and bolt before the Sith could get his gloves on her. She might just survive the day after all.
Luke was up now, angry at being toyed with by this mysterious assassin owing allegiance to a dead Emperor. He grumbled at her, and then readied himself to engage Jade once more.
"You're moves are sloppy, Skywalker," She goaded him. "That lightsaber's not a toy."
The man swung with all his fury and strength. Mara anticipated this and ducked under the glowing shaft of light. Mara thrust her blade at his chest, but Skywalker was quick enough to catch it and turn it away.
Though her words said differently, Mara didn't doubt the man's skills. He was, after all, the son of Darth Vader and as strong if not stronger than his predecessor was. But Skywalker was a long way from having the control that his father had, but something in his eyes and the way he wielded his weapon told Mara that Skywalker had the capacity to surpass his father in strength one day. Mara needed to see to it that it didn't happen. One Vader was bad enough.
Skywalker slapped his enemy's blade down and proceeded to send her reeling back. Mara's attention was completely focused on the duel, but still she was able to realize that she was being moved to the roaring inferno that had once been a gift from the emperor. But she would fool the man into thinking he had her. It was almost shameful his stupidity was going to get him killed, but Skywalker had perpetrated a crime for which he could never be forgiven.
Mara could feel the rising heat on her back and the flickering silhouettes on the ground were becoming more intense. Skywalker delivered an easily blocked chop then sprang his trap with a stab at her abdomen.
Jade hopped to the side, making Skywalker overstep into the flames. But the former Knight stopped and Mara's danger-sense flared to life. She back-flipped on instinct and narrowly avoided the small cargo box projected at her from behind.
Skywalker was more cunning than she had thought.
The box clattered to the floor passed Skywalker who was coming in at her for another round. Mara parried a barrage of attacks before she could fire her own combo. She effectively took the battle away from the blaze, but wasn't confident about abandoning it and any of her own ways of utilizing it. Perhaps, she thought as she ducked a swing and interposed her blade between her chest and the lance of energy meaning to scythe her in half.
It was crystal-clear by the way Skywalker so easily flaunted his Force-control that Mara was going to need a real plan to get rid of him. Her first notion had been to merely wait for him to make a mistake and cut him down, but that wasn't going to be easy. Unlike Mara, if he got caught open he could simply hurl her through the air or fire debris to batter her down. The reason that he didn't just do that in the first place told Mara that his skills weren't complete. But Vader's were…that was a problem for later.
Mara retreated back a few paces, knocking strikes aside without much difficulty, trying to lure Skywalker into a false sense of security. When he wasn't paying attention, Mara would retaliate and send him back the way he came.
The moment came, Mara felt the opening in his attack, and sidestepped. She deflected his trust with one hand, brought her weapon to both as she spun, and aimed for Skywalker's unprotected back. But the Jedi anticipated the maneuver, waving his saber over his head and down to catch the attack. Mara reacted quickly; reversing her attack, but was stopped short again by Skywalker's reflexes. He slammed her arms down and shoulder-checked her to the deck. Skywalker was on her a she fell back, the dark side coursing through his veins and gradually making his abilities stronger, ready to skewer her when she landed on the ground. Mara regained her wits fast, using her nimble body and acrobatic skill to back-flip and land in a half crouch with her lightsaber up and ready. Skywalker missed his target, scoring a thirty-centimeter hole in the floor. Mara slashed at him, but Skywalker snapped his guard up and caught the attack full-force, but not toppling. Instead, he used the inertia to spin himself around and go for her legs. Mara hopped over it then arrested an assault to her waist.
Suddenly, Mara felt an invisible battering ram slam against her. She went flying across the room at break-neck speed—which was exactly what was going to happen to her when she hit the fast approaching bulkhead. Mara flipped her self so that her back was to the ceiling and hit the wall feet first, rebounding off of it and landed safely on the deck. Her injured legs gave way and she fell flat. Though the impact on the wall had been a lot of stress on her lower appendages, the fall was merely an act to make Skywalker think she had broken them.
Skywalker approached methodically, a triumphant expression on his face. He stood over her, lightsaber held ready and smirked. "All too easy. Perhaps you're not as strong as my father thought." He rose his weapon up, turning the grip in his hands so that the point of the glowing blade faced her.
It was time. Mara closed her eyes in concentration, focusing her meager powers, and giving the impression she was preparing to die. But in truth, it was far from that.
Come on, little Jedi; help me out right now.
For a moment she thought it wouldn't happen, that her abilities had regressed too far from all the strain, but then it happened. Mara sent the image in her head to the mind of her distracted opponent. In response, Luke Skywalker's eyes narrowed as he received the mental image of his former master looking at him with disgust at his weakness.
"Yoda…" He mumbled, taken aback. He looked at the woman laying before him in shock. "Yod—"
In that instant, Mara came alive with lightsaber in hand. On her knees, she wove the purple beam of her weapon in an arc that severed Skywalker's right arm just below the shoulder.
The man cried out in agony as he stumbled back and eventually tripped himself. His dismembered arm thumped down just before him, the silver cylinder in its gloved grasp came loose and spun away.
Skywalker rocked backed and forth in pain, feeling for where his arm had just been. He was subdued for the moment and severely wounded. Mara had won the battle and now it was time to end it. She mimicked her enemy's victorious actions, but without all the frivolous pauses. Mara twirled her saber around and drove it toward Skywalker's chest…
Before the tip could meet flesh, the lightsaber flew violently from Mara's hand and slammed against a far bulkhead. It gave a snap and sizzle as the impact damaged the weapon beyond use. And before Mara could react, she to was flying through the bay and an adjacent wall with enough force to send a jolt of pain through her spine. Darth Vader's wheezing had become more rapid in succession as he strode closer.