Author's Notes: In Restless Walks, thanks for the great betaing!
Kantasha was dead.
Skewered on a green blade wielded by a redhead, the woman had said, "Take care of him," and then promptly died.
Mara had extinguished the lightsaber quickly, handing it wordlessly to Luke, who placed it at his belt. She grabbed Kantasha's deactivated lightsaber from off the floor and handed it to Han, who looked at it in bewilderment.
"If you ever need to slice something, it'll do the job," Mara said simply. She didn't want it, and she doubted Luke wanted it either.
Luke's chest was heaving, and his mind was reeling.
Kantasha's manipulation had gone deep, and even when she had been completely detached from everyone, her subconscious had tugged at his emotions and barriers and caused him massive amounts of confusion. Now, her demanding presence was gone, and he felt winded, relieved, and, strangely, scared...
No one really knew what to say.
Threepio, his internal logic processors telling him that it would be a good time to fill the silence with his chatter, spoke. "Goodness gracious me! What an awful lot of confusion this has been! First, Master Luke being with the Empire, then—"
Artoo blatted something that translated, simply, to: Shut up.
"Barbaric beeping bucket of bolts," Threepio muttered.
"Your name'll be cleared, Skywalker," Karrde said, looking at the pair of droids in mild amusement. "How do you feel?" Despite his seeming casualness, he was keeping a close eye on Thrawn.
"Better," the Jedi reported shortly.
"You don't have to worry about me, Talon Karrde," the Chiss said. "I've nothing to gain by attack, nor do I have the means. I know you are all wondering what to do with me, and perhaps I can help you with that. The first thing you should know is that if you kill me, then you will regret it."
"Oh really?" Han sounded skeptical.
"I knew that, in the end, with the odds as they were—for, after all, if one of your main assets is an insane Jedi, the odds certainly aren't in your favor—I would not win. However, I owed it to the Empire to try, whether I was destined to fail or not. Had this operation involved the possible deaths of several of my men, I would not even have considered it. As it was, I knew the deaths would be few if failure was met."
"And how did you know that?" Leia asked. She hadn't been very talkative. She was still wondering how to act around her brother.
"I am familiar with Rebel—excuse me, Republic—ideals. You kill enemies in situations such as mine only as a last resort. Now, in exchange for my life and for the fulfillment of one other condition, I will help you put your government back together." Thrawn's face was serious. He was an honorable man, and they knew he meant no deceit.
"Oh?" Han said suspiciously. "And what is that?"
"That you allow me to negotiate a truce between the Empire and the Republic."