Disclaimer – Send no money, now! (the author is not legally entitled to it).
Notes – OK, I've seen this done before, but not quite the same. I may have one or two shocks planned ;o)
This is not my first fic, but it is a different style from what I'm used to, so I'm posting under a sock. Please tell me what you think.
Thanks to my awesome beta Michele!Mara Jade would not live forever. She was an excellent operative, and did her job very well, but in the end she was mortal. He toyed with the idea of having her cloned and transferring her sense, her essence into a new body each time she showed signs of slowing down, but decided that he didn't want to risk it. The process was dicey, particularly when performed on others. You never knew if you were going to lose something. For a Force-sensitive, such as Mara, there was a lot of damage that could be done.
Besides, doing so might alarm her enough that she would begin to question him. No, what he needed was a succession of beings he could raise from a young age. There would always be Force-sensitives around he could use, but they were not necessarily powerful enough and were becoming rarer. What he needed was a sure thing.
Slowly a plan began to form in his mind. Mara Jade was a powerful Force-sensitive, the likes of which he hadn't seen since he'd laid eyes on Anakin Skywalker as a ten year old boy. Only Anakin's son showed signs of rivalling his father, but Mara came close. Anakin's son. Yes, very nice. Luke Skywalker would come to him soon enough. There was plenty of bait around to tempt the boy. In the meantime, and if by chance he had to have the boy destroyed, he needed a back up plan…
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A few weeks later…Mara Jade slipped out of the bed of the nameless man she had met the night before. He continued his drunken sleep, snorting loudly and rolling over onto the place Mara had formerly occupied. She wondered what had possessed her the previous evening; he was hardly worth the bother. Yes, this last mission had been tough, but she didn't usually fall into bed with the first idiot she came across. Well, nothing could be done about it, now. Besides she would be expected back at the Imperial Palace within the next hour. She left trying to dispel the last few distasteful memories of the previous night…
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The next day…Mara woke to find herself in a strange room. She almost looked over to see if there was a man lying beside her, as the last time she'd woken in a strange place there had been. When she managed to fight through the final hazes in her brain, she realised she was in a medical centre. What? Moments later a young doctor entered her room and explained there had been an accident. She would be all right, but she should stay in for observation for the next day or so. She had herself released an hour later…
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One month following…Mara knelt on the floor at the feet of her master, head bowed and, for the first time in her life, trembling. He would not be pleased at the situation she now found herself in. How could she be so stupid? She awaited punishment.
To her surprise, it never came. Instead, her master expressed his displeasure then told her of how she could best serve him: by giving birth to the child that she was carrying. Had her training been any less, her mouth would have fallen open. She had expected to be ordered to rid herself of this affliction immediately, had wanted to be ordered to destroy it. If she hadn't been so sure he would find out anyway, she would have just gone ahead and done so herself.
She would not raise the child, which was one thing at least…
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Eight months later…Mara was young and healthy and had been expected to deliver her child by more or less natural means. The physical healing would have been faster. However, things had not been going well, so at the last moment it was decided to sedate her and perform a surgical birth…
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In a few hours…Mara woke, for the second time in nine months, groggy and in a medical centre. She was no more happy than the last time she had done so. Her mid-section ached and she remembered the event that had caused it. Sitting up slightly and wincing at the pain, that caused she looked down at her shrunken belly. Lying back she expected to feel relieved, but all she felt was vaguely empty…
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In seven years' time…Mara found herself thinking of her child clearly for the first time since its birth. She had wondered briefly through the years what had happened to him or her. During the Emperor's life her thoughts of it had been murky and faint, she wondered now if he'd deliberately clouded her memories on the matter. After his death she'd been obsessed with killing Luke Skywalker and had rarely taken the time to wonder if she should find it and raise it. Now, she had completed Palpatine's final order and killed Luke Skywalker's clone, and she found her thoughts returning to the baby that had been taken from her. Maybe she should look for him or her…
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Nine years later…Mara woke slowly, curled in a ball; her whole body ached from sleeping all tensed up. She took a moment to familiarise herself with her apartment on Coruscant. She had been dreaming of her child again, the nameless, faceless, even sexless being she had carried for nine months and then given up, without a thought, for her former master. Her pillow was damp and uncomfortable from the tears she had cried in her sleep, but for long moments she could not bring herself to move.
Every year that went by it became harder. Initially, she had searched and had hoped she would be able to locate her child. As time passed however, and she could find no sign of him or her, she began to believe she never would. Occasionally she felt as though she had never had a child in the first place, only the faint scar on her abdomen allowed her to believe otherwise. Now and again when she thought she had accepted the fact she would never locate her child, something would happen and she would be forced back to feeling desolate.
Normally, on this day, too, she would be sure to be extra busy. This was always the worst day in the yearly cycle, and for once she had no plans. She curled herself tighter into a ball, only to shoot out of bed and to the refresher. She retched over the sink, but nothing emerged; she had been unable to eat the day before. There was a deep pit of loneliness inside her and she was not even permitted this purge.
Slowly and wearily Mara began her day.
A/N: I'm nasty, aren't I? Where is Mara's child and what twists am I going to throw at you? What do you think so far?
Outpourings of delight, furious rages, and constructive criticism all welcomed with open arms!
