Apologies on the long wait for this chapter. I had to get ready to go back
to college in another state...then move...then get settled. But at last here it
is. Enjoy! :}
Chapter Seven
Mara crouched in the darkness, watching and waiting. She kept her senses on high alert, but to every appearance it seemed as if Callista were asleep in her tent.
Mara had never trusted appearances.
When she had been the Emperor's Hand, Palpatine had taught her a trick to shut her mind down so that another Force user could not sense her presence. Since being engaged to Luke, she had not used her old defensive patterns—she had had no need. Now, even after being out of practice, she had found that it was fairly easy to use these defensive techniques again.
The real question was if Callista, since the older woman was a Jedi Knight from Palpatine's time, would know how to use the same techniques. If so, could she use it with her access to the Force being very limited?
Mara was about to find out.
Stealthily, she crept up to Callista's tent, her eyes, ears and Force- senses alert. The quiet of the desert night grated on her nerves. As she neared Callista's tent, she suddenly felt that something had gone terribly wrong. The Force screamed at her to return to where Luke was laying, trying to recover from his tangle with the kyrat dragon.
Mara wasted no time in returning to her husband, but even then found she was too late. A sand camouflaged Callista stood over Luke, her lightsaber on and raised above his motionless head.
Callista smirked at Mara. "You're too predictable."
Mara hid her anger at herself. Of course Callista would not have been in her tent. The woman would have heard the kyrat dragon's death scream and known instantly what had happened.
"I knew that that stupidly fragile cage wouldn't hold you for long and you'd go dashing to his rescue," Callista continued, her yellow lightsaber a gleam of deadly light held directly above the center of Luke's chest. Mara didn't dare make a false move while Callista was positioned above Luke, and they both knew it.
"What do you want?" Mara said quite calmly. Her mind, though, raced furiously, trying to figure out how to save her greatly injured husband.
Callista glanced at her as if she were a speeder without an engine. "For you to leave Luke with me...and stay away from us forever."
Mara slowly inched her hand toward her lightsaber. She kept talking to distract the gray-eyed beauty's attention from being directed to what she was doing. "You could keep him for now," she pointed out logically, "but what will you do once he is recovered? You and I both know that he has a mind of his own and will do as he wishes."
Callista shifted slightly and Mara had the feeling that she had been standing there for a while, waiting for Mara to return. That could prove useful to Mara.
"In time, if he is only given it, he will see he still loves me. He loved me first, you know," her tone was wistful.
Mara glanced at the other woman sharply, for the first time alerted to the fact that Callista might not be entirely mentally stable. What had happened to make her that way Mara didn't know, and really didn't care. It was simply another weakness for her to exploit later.
Callista's gaze caught Mara's. "You won't give him up, will you?"
Mara shook her head, her red hair flying about her face. It must have gone undone from its braid in the fight with the kyrat dragon. "You know better than that," she said in a gentle tone, as if she were talking to a child who did not quite understand why they could not jump from Coruscant's highest building.
Callista nodded once. "Then perhaps we should solve the choice for him," she said.
Mara let a smile play on her lips as she smoothly unhooked Luke's lightsaber from her belt. "Gladly," she responded.
Callista slowly walked backwards, leaving Luke unprotected. Mara briefly bent down, checking on his progress through the Force. His sense was weak—he needed more intensive medical treatment for his internal wounds.
This will be quick, my love, she promised him as she narrowed her eyes and stood again, facing Callista.
The two woman took themselves a few paces from where Luke lay in order to not trip over him during the battle. Mara watched Callista carefully, determined that it would be she that began the ending to this feud.
Callista obliged her by spinning around, whipping her lightsaber across to slice Mara's midsection. Mara thumbed on Luke's lightsaber as she ducked backwards to avoid the strike, knowing that Callista was just testing her. Callista struck three times more, always fluidly, almost unhurriedly. Mara easily blocked her each time, wondering when the old Jedi would begin in earnest.
"Don't play around," Mara said easily. "Let me see what you really can do."
Callista took a half-step backwards and let a smile play on her lips. "Oh? You think you're ready?"
Mara waved the glowing green blade. "I know I am."
Suddenly Callista spun a second lightsaber into her other hand—Mara's lightsaber that had also once been Luke's. The blue blade hummed quietly.
"Then let us begin," the other woman remarked.
Callista leaped at her, bearing both lightsabers down, each in a different direction. Mara was forced to hastily knock the blue blade aside and then dive out of the way of Callista's own blade. She landed on her back, and found both lightsabers already striking at her legs. She tucked her legs to the side, though her left was nicked by Luke's old blade before she could safely get it out of the way. She hissed in pain and rolled back onto her feet, feeling warm blood trickle down her injured leg.
Callista raised an eyebrow mockingly. "Having problems?"
"Of course not. What ever gave you that idea?" Mara spat out. "I'm doing just fine against someone who cheats to win."
"I never cheat, Mara," Callista chuckled. "I merely find an advantage. Or create one."
Mara decided that she had done enough defensive fighting. It was time to bring this to an end—Luke needed serious help. Without another word, she charged at Callista, making it seem that she would swing her lightsaber around in a two-handed grip at the older woman's stomach. At the last second, she dropped to her knees to slide on the sand underneath Callista, stabbing behind her back as she did so.
Callista grunted in pain. When Mara turned back around, she saw that she had gouged a small hole in the other woman's side, indicating that Callista had sensed something and turned at the last second to avoid the killing stroke.
"Now who's creating an advantage?" Callista hissed.
Mara smiled mockingly. "I don't need to create one, Callista. I am an advantage." So saying, she spun around in a spinning side-kick that caught Callista squarely in her injured side.
Callista let out a clipped yell and tried to swing Luke's lightsaber around at Mara, but Mara was no longer there. She had dropped to the side, rolled, and came at Callista's exposed flank. She swung Luke's lightsaber hard, hoping to make contact.
Unfortunately, Callista managed to block her swing with her own lightsaber. As the yellow and green blade tangled, Callista heaved the blue blade up at Mara. Mara was forced to quickly back away to avoid being neatly sliced in half...but she hadn't noticed that they had gotten close to Luke again. As she backed up, she tripped on Luke's outstretched arm and fell down hard.
Callista immediately held both lightsabers over Mara's head. She was panting heavily, blood running down her side to mix with sweat. Mara glared up at her, though she really felt no anger, just disappointment in herself. She lay beside the shallowly breathing Luke and rapidly thought out a plan that she wasn't quite sure would work, but she had no other options.
Callista smiled grimly. "Any last words, Jade?"
Mara nodded. "Yes, but not to you." She glanced over at Luke and said, "I love you."
Callista scoffed. "He's in a trance—you just wasted your words. Now it's time for you to go and leave a space for me in his life." The older woman turned off Luke's older blade and tossed it to the side...where it quietly rolled into Luke's slack hand.
The brown-haired woman smiled with self-congratulation. "He's mine," she crowed, then slammed her lightsaber down toward Mara's chest.
The lightsaber never reached Mara. So intent on finishing off Mara, Callista had never seen nor sensed Luke wake up at the code phrase and pretend to be unconscious. He had sensed immediately Mara's predicament and known what to do. As Callista's yellow blade flashed downward, Luke heaved himself up on a hand and pressed his lightsaber into Callista's back, then thumbed it on in one smooth movement.
Callista shrieked in surprise and rage as the laser of deadly light passed through her, melting her insides. Her gray eyes stared in shock at Luke's stricken, pain-filled ice-blue ones before her life faded and she slumped, dead, to the ground near Mara.
Luke collapsed.
Mara knelt beside him. "Luke? Luke, answer me!"
Luke coughed, wincing in pain. In a very quiet voice, he answered, "I...love you..."
"No!" Mara's green eyes widened. Had that one movement cost him so much? She finally began to fully see how well he was hiding the depth of his injuries from her. "No, Luke! I refuse to let this happen!"
She focused into the Force faster and more deeply than she ever had before. She drew on as much of the living Force that she could, pulling it to her to fill her body. Only when she felt as if she would die if she held one ounce more did she stop and then pass it on to Luke with a single, desperate thought.
Mara crouched in the darkness, watching and waiting. She kept her senses on high alert, but to every appearance it seemed as if Callista were asleep in her tent.
Mara had never trusted appearances.
When she had been the Emperor's Hand, Palpatine had taught her a trick to shut her mind down so that another Force user could not sense her presence. Since being engaged to Luke, she had not used her old defensive patterns—she had had no need. Now, even after being out of practice, she had found that it was fairly easy to use these defensive techniques again.
The real question was if Callista, since the older woman was a Jedi Knight from Palpatine's time, would know how to use the same techniques. If so, could she use it with her access to the Force being very limited?
Mara was about to find out.
Stealthily, she crept up to Callista's tent, her eyes, ears and Force- senses alert. The quiet of the desert night grated on her nerves. As she neared Callista's tent, she suddenly felt that something had gone terribly wrong. The Force screamed at her to return to where Luke was laying, trying to recover from his tangle with the kyrat dragon.
Mara wasted no time in returning to her husband, but even then found she was too late. A sand camouflaged Callista stood over Luke, her lightsaber on and raised above his motionless head.
Callista smirked at Mara. "You're too predictable."
Mara hid her anger at herself. Of course Callista would not have been in her tent. The woman would have heard the kyrat dragon's death scream and known instantly what had happened.
"I knew that that stupidly fragile cage wouldn't hold you for long and you'd go dashing to his rescue," Callista continued, her yellow lightsaber a gleam of deadly light held directly above the center of Luke's chest. Mara didn't dare make a false move while Callista was positioned above Luke, and they both knew it.
"What do you want?" Mara said quite calmly. Her mind, though, raced furiously, trying to figure out how to save her greatly injured husband.
Callista glanced at her as if she were a speeder without an engine. "For you to leave Luke with me...and stay away from us forever."
Mara slowly inched her hand toward her lightsaber. She kept talking to distract the gray-eyed beauty's attention from being directed to what she was doing. "You could keep him for now," she pointed out logically, "but what will you do once he is recovered? You and I both know that he has a mind of his own and will do as he wishes."
Callista shifted slightly and Mara had the feeling that she had been standing there for a while, waiting for Mara to return. That could prove useful to Mara.
"In time, if he is only given it, he will see he still loves me. He loved me first, you know," her tone was wistful.
Mara glanced at the other woman sharply, for the first time alerted to the fact that Callista might not be entirely mentally stable. What had happened to make her that way Mara didn't know, and really didn't care. It was simply another weakness for her to exploit later.
Callista's gaze caught Mara's. "You won't give him up, will you?"
Mara shook her head, her red hair flying about her face. It must have gone undone from its braid in the fight with the kyrat dragon. "You know better than that," she said in a gentle tone, as if she were talking to a child who did not quite understand why they could not jump from Coruscant's highest building.
Callista nodded once. "Then perhaps we should solve the choice for him," she said.
Mara let a smile play on her lips as she smoothly unhooked Luke's lightsaber from her belt. "Gladly," she responded.
Callista slowly walked backwards, leaving Luke unprotected. Mara briefly bent down, checking on his progress through the Force. His sense was weak—he needed more intensive medical treatment for his internal wounds.
This will be quick, my love, she promised him as she narrowed her eyes and stood again, facing Callista.
The two woman took themselves a few paces from where Luke lay in order to not trip over him during the battle. Mara watched Callista carefully, determined that it would be she that began the ending to this feud.
Callista obliged her by spinning around, whipping her lightsaber across to slice Mara's midsection. Mara thumbed on Luke's lightsaber as she ducked backwards to avoid the strike, knowing that Callista was just testing her. Callista struck three times more, always fluidly, almost unhurriedly. Mara easily blocked her each time, wondering when the old Jedi would begin in earnest.
"Don't play around," Mara said easily. "Let me see what you really can do."
Callista took a half-step backwards and let a smile play on her lips. "Oh? You think you're ready?"
Mara waved the glowing green blade. "I know I am."
Suddenly Callista spun a second lightsaber into her other hand—Mara's lightsaber that had also once been Luke's. The blue blade hummed quietly.
"Then let us begin," the other woman remarked.
Callista leaped at her, bearing both lightsabers down, each in a different direction. Mara was forced to hastily knock the blue blade aside and then dive out of the way of Callista's own blade. She landed on her back, and found both lightsabers already striking at her legs. She tucked her legs to the side, though her left was nicked by Luke's old blade before she could safely get it out of the way. She hissed in pain and rolled back onto her feet, feeling warm blood trickle down her injured leg.
Callista raised an eyebrow mockingly. "Having problems?"
"Of course not. What ever gave you that idea?" Mara spat out. "I'm doing just fine against someone who cheats to win."
"I never cheat, Mara," Callista chuckled. "I merely find an advantage. Or create one."
Mara decided that she had done enough defensive fighting. It was time to bring this to an end—Luke needed serious help. Without another word, she charged at Callista, making it seem that she would swing her lightsaber around in a two-handed grip at the older woman's stomach. At the last second, she dropped to her knees to slide on the sand underneath Callista, stabbing behind her back as she did so.
Callista grunted in pain. When Mara turned back around, she saw that she had gouged a small hole in the other woman's side, indicating that Callista had sensed something and turned at the last second to avoid the killing stroke.
"Now who's creating an advantage?" Callista hissed.
Mara smiled mockingly. "I don't need to create one, Callista. I am an advantage." So saying, she spun around in a spinning side-kick that caught Callista squarely in her injured side.
Callista let out a clipped yell and tried to swing Luke's lightsaber around at Mara, but Mara was no longer there. She had dropped to the side, rolled, and came at Callista's exposed flank. She swung Luke's lightsaber hard, hoping to make contact.
Unfortunately, Callista managed to block her swing with her own lightsaber. As the yellow and green blade tangled, Callista heaved the blue blade up at Mara. Mara was forced to quickly back away to avoid being neatly sliced in half...but she hadn't noticed that they had gotten close to Luke again. As she backed up, she tripped on Luke's outstretched arm and fell down hard.
Callista immediately held both lightsabers over Mara's head. She was panting heavily, blood running down her side to mix with sweat. Mara glared up at her, though she really felt no anger, just disappointment in herself. She lay beside the shallowly breathing Luke and rapidly thought out a plan that she wasn't quite sure would work, but she had no other options.
Callista smiled grimly. "Any last words, Jade?"
Mara nodded. "Yes, but not to you." She glanced over at Luke and said, "I love you."
Callista scoffed. "He's in a trance—you just wasted your words. Now it's time for you to go and leave a space for me in his life." The older woman turned off Luke's older blade and tossed it to the side...where it quietly rolled into Luke's slack hand.
The brown-haired woman smiled with self-congratulation. "He's mine," she crowed, then slammed her lightsaber down toward Mara's chest.
The lightsaber never reached Mara. So intent on finishing off Mara, Callista had never seen nor sensed Luke wake up at the code phrase and pretend to be unconscious. He had sensed immediately Mara's predicament and known what to do. As Callista's yellow blade flashed downward, Luke heaved himself up on a hand and pressed his lightsaber into Callista's back, then thumbed it on in one smooth movement.
Callista shrieked in surprise and rage as the laser of deadly light passed through her, melting her insides. Her gray eyes stared in shock at Luke's stricken, pain-filled ice-blue ones before her life faded and she slumped, dead, to the ground near Mara.
Luke collapsed.
Mara knelt beside him. "Luke? Luke, answer me!"
Luke coughed, wincing in pain. In a very quiet voice, he answered, "I...love you..."
"No!" Mara's green eyes widened. Had that one movement cost him so much? She finally began to fully see how well he was hiding the depth of his injuries from her. "No, Luke! I refuse to let this happen!"
She focused into the Force faster and more deeply than she ever had before. She drew on as much of the living Force that she could, pulling it to her to fill her body. Only when she felt as if she would die if she held one ounce more did she stop and then pass it on to Luke with a single, desperate thought.