Leia sighed as she looked at her brother across the small table in the lounge of the Falcon. For the past week and a half, he had been restless, often staring out at the starlines of hyperspace in the cockpit. She could sense that something had happened to him shortly after they had left Coruscant, but he would not open up and tell her what.
Mara had been only slightly less restless than her husband. She constantly sparred with her lightsaber for practice and usually it was with Leia. Luke would beg off from the practice, always giving some idle excuse. Normally, Mara would not have left his excuses alone, but for some reason now she did.
It was driving Leia, and Han for that matter, off the wall.
"C'mon, kid," Han was once again trying to get Luke to help him tinker with the Falcon. "I could use a hand."
Luke turned downcast blue eyes to his friend and slowly shook his head. "No," he gave his typical response, "not this time."
Leia had had enough.
As Luke walked out of the lounge to more than likely sit in the cockpit again, Leia rounded on Mara.
"Enough is enough!" She snapped, her patience at an end, startling both Han and Mara. "You either tell me what is going on right now or I find a way to put something in your food that will highly make you sick!" She put her hands on hips, her eyes flashing with anger.
Mara let her full lips curve upward in a small smile. "Very well then," she said as she sat down at the table, gesturing for Leia and Han to join her. "A night or so after we left, Luke was sent a warning by Brakiss through the Force." Her penetrating green eyes locked on Leia. "If he does not willingly give himself up to die, then thousands, possibly millions of innocents will die instead."
Han blinked. "Is Brakiss crazy? Luke bested him once already in battle; why would he challenge him again?"
Mara sighed. "I do not think it was a challenge for battle. He wants Luke to land on planet, come to him, and somehow let him chose Luke's death. He wasn't very clear on the details."
"Who?" Leia asked, confused. "Who wasn't clear on the details? Luke, or Brakiss?"
"Both."
Mara stood again and leaned against the table. Her green eyes look sad and lost. "It seems as though I'll be a widow soon. You both know Luke. He'll do it if it means saving others."
Leia frowned at her sister-in-law. "Why are you just meekly sitting by and letting Luke do this? This isn't like you."
Mara rounded on her, scowling. "Have we landed yet? No! I am not giving up my husband without a fight, Leia. We need to be prepared against anything he might try with us. Because he will. We all know it."
Han and Leia nodded.
Luke sat staring at the starlines of space. He kept hoping that the hypnotic stars would help ease his mind enough that he could meditate, but so far it had not. It had been years since he had been so troubled that he could not focus enough to mediate.
He sighed.
And what was he to do with Leia, Han, Chewie and Mara? They would certainly insist on coming with him. How could he convince them not to?
There was no way to convince them.
So what could he do as Jedi to make them stay on the ship and take off without him? Something that would not take him over to the dark side, that was for sure. But what?
Well, he still had four days to think about it. He would come up with something.
His eyes narrowed. And then this business with Brakiss would have to be finished…one way…or another.