Chapter 12: In Dreams

In her bed onboard the Emerald Dawn, Mara tossed and turned under the duress of the nightmares once more occupying her mind. Repeatedly, men, women and aliens fell victim to a swift execution before her. The deaths came over and over, only interrupted by praise from the dark man with the yellow eyes for her loyalty and efficiency. Mara wanted to run and leave the darkness, but she had no control over her actions. In spite of her struggles, she just kept doing the bidding of her dark master.

Once more, Mara found herself kneeling before the dark man. She looked up to find a datapad being held out for her by a pale, bony hand extending for the robes of her master. Mara accepted the offered pad as the dark man started to speak to her. "My Hand, you have a new assignment. This Jedi upstart must be destroyed before he does any more damage to the order of my Empire."

"Yes, my master." Mara looked down at the datapad before her to find a familiar face. Luke's face. Without any action on her part, the words of the dossier below the holo of Luke started to scroll by. The information said that Luke was a cold blooded killer. A Jedi murderer who had killed over a million loyal Imperials with a single shot to the Death Star and was now terrorizing innocent civilians in his attempts to disrupt the Empire's control over outlying systems. Luke Skywalker was a Jedi: a terrorist and traitor of the worst kind and had to be destroyed.

Before she could even question what she was seeing, Mara found herself back in the vision she had earlier that day. The difference was that this time she was seeing things through her own eyes. She watched from a distance as Luke walked across the floor of the main chamber to stand firm in front of the Hutt sleeping in the middle of the room. Mara could hear herself plotting how she would kill Luke now that she had arrived. She struggled against the thoughts of her past. She wouldn't kill Luke. Whatever that dossier had said he had done, Mara knew it wasn't true. Luke was far from a cold-blooded killer.

Mara tried with all her will to keep her hand from reaching for a blaster pistol, but her efforts were for nothing. The dream kept going despite her protests. Soon, Mara found herself lining up a shot for Luke's heart. She was surprised, however, when the vision froze around her. The only thing left moving was Luke who spun on his heel to face her from the other end of the blaster barrel. His eyes were worried, but not for his life. Luke was concerned for her. "Mara, wake up."

With a start, Mara shot up in her bed, gasping for air with eyes now wide open. She rested her head against her hands and tried to calm her shaky breathing. Mara nearly jumped off the bed when she felt a hand on her back, but managed to simply jerk away to discover Luke sitting nervously on the edge of the bed. She let out a sigh and released the tension in her limbs. Luke must have noticed her nightmares and come to wake her up. Mara was thankful that he came when he did because she wasn't sure how much more of that dream she could have taken.

"Are you okay? I've been trying to wake you for close to ten minutes, but you kept thrashing on the bed until now."

Mara looked into Luke's concerned eyes and nodded slowly. Surely, he would want to know what was causing her to react so violently, but she didn't want to tell him. How could she tell Luke that she had a dream in which she was ordered to kill him and almost did before he woke her? And worse, how could Mara tell him that she was pretty sure that some of what she saw was from her own memory? She couldn't. "It was only a dream. I'm fine."

Luke looked at Mara skeptically. What she had been going through was far from a normal dream. Even without his Force senses, her violent thrashing before he was finally able to wake her was enough evidence to prove that what she was going through was far from normal. And with his Force abilities, the raw emotions he felt pouring off of Mara told Luke that this wasn't just a dream. It was a vision and a particularly intense vision at that. "Are you sure?"

"Okay, it was a nightmare. Happy?" Luke gave Mara a small smile at her sarcasm and decided it best to not press the issue any further. Whatever she had been seeing, Mara obviously didn't want to talk about it and he knew prying would get him nowhere. Hopefully, she would come to him when she was ready. Until then, Luke would make sure she knew he was there for her, regardless of the circumstances.

"Yes. That's much better." Mara rolled her eyes at the goofy grin on Luke's face when he responded even as she sighed in relief internally. The last thing she wanted to do was snap at Luke after all the help he had given her, but Mara knew she would have done just that if Luke had kept pressing her. Besides, when Luke was around, her mind felt more at ease. It was almost as if his presence alone was able to settle her mind somehow. It was a ridiculous notion, but Mara couldn't help but feel that it was true on some level.

With a small smile, Luke rose from his seat on the edge of the bed. Now that Mara was back to normal, he wasn't needed here anymore and they both needed their sleep. Luke made his way to the door of her quarters and turned back around to say his farewells. "I'm going to get some sleep. Did you need anything before I go to bed?"

Mara bit her lip and looked up at Luke with a slight hesitation evident in her eyes. She didn't want him to leave. If Luke left, the nightmares were sure to return and she knew it. But what would he think if she asked his not to go? Mara didn't think Luke would take it as her coming on to him, but she couldn't be sure. The concerned look that crossed Luke's face when Mara didn't respond finally spurred her into action. "Actually, umm… This may sound weird, but could you stay here until I fall back asleep? I'm still a little spooked from that nightmare and, well, I'd be more comfortable if you stuck around."

Mara let out a small sigh of relief when a gentle smile crossed Luke's face. She knew he wasn't reading anything into her request and that all Luke really wanted was to help her out. "Of course."

Luke hit the switch for the glowpanel and made his way back over to the bed. He lay down, making sure to keep a respectful distance from Mara as she settled back in to sleep once more. All he had to do was lie here quietly until she fell asleep and then he could head back to his own room. "Good night."

"Good night." Luke turned to lie on his side and watched as Mara's breathing slipped into a rhythm of sleep. Once he knew she was resting peacefully, Luke thought to himself that it was time to head to his own quarters. His body protested, however, and Luke found his desire to get up slipping away. Soon, Luke fell asleep where he lay, resting as peacefully as the other occupant of the bed as they breathed in time with each other.