Author's Notes: In Restless Walks, you make a lovely beta! Thanks!

In came Leia, Han, Karrde, and the two droids. "Luke!" exclaimed Leia Organa Solo, rushing over to hug her brother.

He stood stiffly. "Leia."

Mara wiped at her face before finally looking up with slightly red eyes. "Took you guys long enough."

"You can blame that on the chaos," Karrde said. "What have you two been—" he cut off, seeing two humans enter. "Is that—?"

"Kantasha Pellaeon, Leia's former aide," the dark-haired woman offered as she aimed a blaster and fried the ysalamiri that Mara had privately tried multiple times to kill. The creature was pointless now. Something strange flickered across Luke's face. Kantasha gave a grim smile."My companion is Grand Admiral Thrawn in human guise. Surrender or die."

"What?" Han snorted. He looked over at Luke, whose face was expressionless. "Tell me she's not serious, kid. Thrawn's dead...What have you been doing?"

Luke's blue eyes flared. "You know fully well what I've been doing, Han. Tearing down the New Republic. Breaking things is what I'm best at, remember?" The look in his eyes did not belong to his face. His was supposed to be innocent, peaceful...Not monstrous and evil...

"I'm afraid I truly am Thrawn, Solo," the Chiss said.

"Oh, really? How'd you survive, then?" Han stared, daring the other man to rattle off some tall tale.

Thrawn's eyes glinted in amusement. "It's a rather long story."

Leia was staring at Luke and fighting the urge to cry. This cruel-faced man couldn't be her brother.

"It's true, Solo," Mara spoke up.

"Are you with them, too, Mara?" Karrde couldn't help but ask.

"I—I tried to pretend, but..." she couldn't finish.

Han stared at Thrawn for a moment. His gut told him they were right. Only Thrawn had that chillingly powerful presence. He tried to wipe thoughts away of how in the world the humanoid had survived. He looked at his brother-in-law. "Why'd you do it, Luke?"

"If the New Republic could fall this easily, it's not a worthy government. I merely saved time and pain by pointing out true wrongdoings. I accelerated the inevitable collapse."

"You didn't answer my question, Luke."

The Jedi stared at the former smuggler, finally allowing the question to sink in.

Why had he done it?

For power? Power had never had any appeal to him.

For pleasure? Bringing down the government he had helped create couldn't exactly be construed as pleasurable.

To prove himself? He'd done that time and time again.

Why?

He'd murdered a man unintentionally and been sent to prison by people he had once called his friends. Why? Because they considered him a threat.

He'd been sent to a prison planet where he was jailed with an Imperial mastermind. Why? Because the mastermind had practiced manipulation to get there.

He'd been convinced that his friends and family didn't truly care and that the New Republic had poor leadership. Why? Because they were fears he had already held.

"The New Republic had poor leadership. You sat in many of the Senate meetings, Leia, Han. You know how few things get done. The government didn't work out. A strong government should be able to withstand such chippings away at its corrupted members." Ice seemed to suddenly form in the Jedi's eyes. "But that wasn't all. I've done so much for the Republic and for you all. And yet I was locked away without a second thought. You never even considered breaking me out until things got too tough for you back home and you needed your friendly neighborhood Jedi to help you get out of the mess you found yourselves in. Well, guess what? I'm no longer the man I was. I helped bring down the New Republic, and I'm erecting an Empire in its place."

A sadistic grin spread about Kantasha's face, which alarmed Thrawn, who knew her far too well. But it was too late to do anything about it now.

"You had no faith in him. You were willing to write him off as a murderer. But guess what? He didn't kill that fool Novell. I did it, to prove your lack of faith and to bring him and Thrawn together." She looked at Luke, from whom shock was radiating. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. The proper opportunity didn't present itself."

The Jedi blinked, thinking back to the incident.

He'd been in a foul mood. A man had run into him.

He'd been in a foul mood. Why had he been in a foul mood? There had been no reason for him to be in a foul mood...

His mood...

His mood had worsened when Kantasha had killed the ysalamiri...

Why had he been in a foul mood at all in that time?

He had believed that he'd killed the man because he was mad and the man did die. He'd thought it was his anger lashing out...But why would he have been angry?

He'd loved teaching Jedi and hated killing people. If he'd ran into a man, he would have ordinarily apologized profusely.

Why had it been different?

Thrawn watched the play of emotions across Luke Skywalker's face, and he knew that Kantasha, like a fool, had released information at the worst possible time.

Mara was also watching the play of emotions, and hundreds of thoughts cascaded through her mind. Finally, she grabbed onto one and exclaimed: "The witch!"

Everyone looked at her. Even Luke was startled out of his deep contemplations.

Mara began speaking rapidly. "She's been affecting your emotions the entire time! I thought it was you, thought that you were a cheating scoundrel," (at this, several people began wondering what she was talking about) "but in actuality she was manipulating you! When she killed the ysalamiri, she was able to control your emotions again. Your confusion was caused by her and multiplied when you went in and out of the ysalamiri bubble and your brain told you to believe different things...And you do not actually have feelings for her!"

It was then that a strange glint began to show in Kantasha's eyes as she realized everything was falling apart. "I did it all for you!" she sobbed, a manic glint in her eyes. "All of it! When I first saw a picture of you and heard of what you could do, I knew we were meant for each other. All that I did...I just wanted us to be together, like it should be. The two greatest Force users in the galaxy..."

Luke's anger was now directed at her. "You..."

"It would have worked if it hadn't been for Jade!" Kantasha Pellaeon turned with maniacally gleaming eyes toward Mara. She conjured up her lightsaber and extended the blade. "It's all her fault!" she shouted as she rushed at her.

Leia had, quite a while before, put Luke's lightsaber into Artoo's hidden compartment. Artoo-Detoo, being the smart little droid he was, saw Kantasha's explosion coming and prepared the lightsaber for ejection.

Therefore, when Kantasha's blade came crashing down toward Mara's head, it was met by Luke's blade in the hands of Mara Jade.

The other occupants of the room backed up, not desiring to be too close to the lightsaber duel in the small amount of space available. Furniture littered the battling ground, and the room wasn't even near the proper size for a lightsaber duel. The group didn't need to worry about anyone walking in through the hole in the wall, however, for everyone in the vicinity had been properly stunned via stunbolt or Force (the former by Han and the latter by Leia).

Luke watched the blades clash, mesmerized. Mara wielded his green lightsaber just as well as she had wielded the blue one he had given her.

He studied Kantasha's blade color. He hadn't given it much thought during the breakout. It was a sickly yellow color. He supposed he should have noticed that before. Lightsabers said a lot about their owners.

This duel was not elegant, though it could not have been expected to be so in such a poor battlefield. However, a lot of the lack of elegance was due to the fact that both opponents were willing to fight dirty.

Kantasha slashed then kicked. Mara dodged, then retaliated with a roundhouse kick. The raven-haired woman only caught a little of it. She thrust her lightsaber, which was deflected by Mara's weapon, and then she batted Mara's saber to the side and leaped at her. The two sabers fell to the floor, deactivating, and the two females went rolling in a battle of fists, feet, teeth, and nails.

Suddenly, both broke away, grabbing the lightsabers before anyone else got the chance to consider taking them and turning them on.

Luke watched them expressionlessly, but his insides were in turmoil. What he had been told changed everything...

"Kid," Han said, placing a hand on Luke's shoulder.

The blonde-haired man jumped away.

Han looked at him seriously. "I never really thought you did it. It was just that, afterwards, you seemed so resigned to the fact. I didn't know what to do. I contemplated grabbing you that day and blasting off into smugglers' space, but it was as if something died in you that day. You'd lost your spark. I wasn't sure how to get it back...You know we love you, kid. Loved you before the whole incident and after. We've been worried sick about you. The New Republic's collapsed, Luke. We should be trying to paste it back together, but instead we're here with you kid. You're what matters to us."

Han glanced at the raging pair of women, then he looked back at Luke. "Remember how it was in the beginning? I cared only about myself, and Leia cared only about her cause...Then you came into our lives, and suddenly we saw that there are other things to care about...Luke, please come back to us."

The Jedi's blue eyes shimmered with unshed moisture as he gazed into the worried brown orbs of his brother-in-law.

Watching Luke Skywalker's face, Thrawn knew that it was all over. "Stop," he commanded. "Stop."

The two females clashed blades a few more times, then they seemed to realize Thrawn was talking to them. They looked at each other, contemplated returning to battle, then they thought better of it. When Thrawn spoke, it was best to listen.

"Give it up. This will gain you nothing."

"No!" said Kantasha. "The death of Jade is more than enough of a prize for me."

"And then what?" the Chiss asked. "You would be killed in return. Have you not seen? Skywalker, while he may or may not try to pull the Republic back together, is never going to support the Empire again. He knows you killed Novell. He believed himself unworthy, believed himself to be a murderer. He thought he didn't belong with his friends. Now he knows he was wrong."

Kantasha trembled. "But it was so perfect...Skywalker began doubting the Republic, and that nosy Novell was no longer able to prevent the spice exchange from happening...We had the funds to uplift the Empire...I thought his doubts were deeply ingrained. You led me to believe they were deeply ingrained!" She was shouting now, the manic glint in her eyes intensifying. "I provided the catalyst! Then we were to tell him later! We were to admit everything! I couldn't hide things from him for forever! I love him!" She began whimpering. "I worked so hard." Kantasha Pellaeon began rocking back and forth and whispering to herself.

Thrawn looked upon her sadly. She was no longer listening to anyone. "Her mother was insane," he said quietly to the others in the room, who now had no doubt about Kantasha's insanity. "That's where she got it. She told you that Vader sabotaged the cruise liner that her parents were on, but it wasn't true. She simply chose to think that...Actually, her mother killed her father and then committed suicide." The Chiss gave a grim smile. "It is rather ironic on several levels. Ironic that I have been involved with insane Jedi twice, though I thought maybe a sane Jedi or two this time could counterbalance it...It is ironic that she believed C'baoth to be insane and was unable to see her own madness." He gave a humorless laugh. "You thought, Skywalker, that she didn't see Gilad very often because he was away with the military? No...He simply didn't want to see her by himself. He knew she wasn't sane...He could not help but love his own granddaughter—he still loves her—but he knows better than to let any of his unease around her leak out where she can sense it."

He looked at Kantasha, who was still rocking back and forth, lost in her own world.

"Gilad's and my time with C'baoth helped us become skilled at hiding our feelings from Force users, though he'd had to pretend years before with her, so he was at a bit of an advantage..."

As Mara stared at her, her hatred drifted away. "I should have known."

"What is interesting and difficult about dealing with the insane," Thrawn said, "is that often they seem just like everyone else." He glanced at Kantasha, who was still rocking. "Though, I must say, I'm surprised that this didn't happen in front of you earlier. Her episodes are rather unpredictable."

"No!" exclaimed Kantasha randomly. She turned her lightsaber on and flung herself at Mara.

Mara, eyes tightly closed, brought Luke's lit lightsaber up to point at Kantasha.

And then it was all over.