Chapter 9: City in the Clouds

Mara awoke with an uneasy feeling in the early morning hours and found herself alone in bed. She called into the dark, seeking her usual companion "Luke? Luke, are you here?" Receiving no response, Mara quickly dressed herself and left the tent she shared with her fiancé after checking that her son would continue to sleep for a few hours still. She followed Luke's sense in the Force and finally found him by his X-Wing, running a check on the fighter's engines. "Luke, what are you doing?"

Luke turned to face Mara, his face showing signs of fatigue and worry. Based on his appearance, Mara could only assume he never fell asleep the night before and she had a good idea why. The dreams hadn't allowed him a good night's sleep for nearly a week now. "I can't get the visions out of my head. They keep coming back, each time clearer than the time before it. It's almost as if by sitting here, I'm sealing their fate. I have to go to them. Han and Leia need my help."

Before Mara could formulate a response, the couple's attention was drawn by the voice of their teacher at the edge of the clearing they were standing in. "Decide you must how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could. But you would destroy all for which the have fought and suffered."

Luke stood silent for a moment, contemplating the Jedi Master's words. Finally he set his jaw and turned to look his teacher eye to eye. "They're my friends. I've got to help them."

Yoda's voice had a sense of urgency and pleading when he spoke. "Luke! You must complete the training."

Luke responded without hesitation. "But Han and Leia will die if I don't."

Mara took a step toward Luke and reached for his hand. She spoke in a soft, concerned voice. "You don't know that. Even Master Yoda can't see their fate."

Luke was quick to reply, unmoved by her worry. "But I can help them! I feel the Force!"

Mara's tried to reason with her stubborn fiancé. "Luke, please. Don't do this. It's a trap. I can feel it. Vader is using them as bait. He wants to draw us out."

Yoda backed up his female student. "Yes. To Mara you must listen. Your abilities the Emperor wants. Use your friends Vader does to bring you to him."

After looking at his teacher for a moment, Luke turned to face his fiancée. He reached up and cupped Mara's cheek, speaking softly with a grave tone in his voice. "And that is why I must go."

Yoda stamped his gimer stick to get Luke's attention once more. "The cave. Remember your failure at the cave!" Mara froze at the mention of the cave, but Luke was undeterred.

Luke released Mara's hand and walked toward his teacher. He crouched down to be at eye level with the diminutive Jedi Master. "But I've learned so much since then, Master Yoda, I promise to return and finish what I've begun. You have my word."

Yoda looked at his eldest student and spoke gravely. "The Emperor and Vader. Stopped they must be. On this all depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the Force as his ally will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil."

Luke turned his gaze away from his teacher, looking toward the sky. "And sacrifice Han and Leia?"

Yoda's adamant response came quickly. "If you honor what they fight for…yes!"

Luke stood up and continued to gaze at the cloudy Dagobah sky, considering every reason why he should remain on swampy planet. Finally, he made a decision. Luke turned to face his X-Wing. "R2, fire up the converters." He turned to Mara who was looking at him through narrow eyes. He brushed a lock of hair from her face and kept his hand behind her neck as he spoke softly. "I promise I'll come back."

Mara soon responded, turning toward their nearby shuttle exclaiming "You're damn right you're coming back because I'm coming with you."

Luke reached for her arm, hoping to convince her to stay, but he shrugged off his grip. "Mara…"

His plea never escaped his lips as Mara spun and pointed a finger at Luke's face. "Don't you dare try to argue with me. Someone has to keep you out of trouble since you can't seem to do it yourself." Before Luke could mount an argument, Mara walked over to Yoda and kneeled down to be eye level with her teacher. The worry she had for what was going to happen was evident in her eyes and her voice was quiet as she spoke. "Master Yoda, promise me you'll watch over our son…no matter what happens."

Yoda closed his eyes and looked down for a moment. He knew that he could not keep the couple on Dagobah. He took solace in the fact that at least the boy would not be put in harm's way. He finally opened his eyes again and looked at Mara. "Watch your son for you I will until you return. Continue his training I must. Powerful Jedi will he some day be."

Mara placed a hand on Yoda's shoulder as she rose. "Thank you."

Wordlessly, Luke followed Mara to prepare the shuttle for take-off. Yoda watched in silence as the coupled prepped the craft for flight with the help of their loyal droid. Once the ship was prepared to launch, the pair walked quietly to their tent to say goodbyes to their still sleeping son. Mara left quickly after speaking an unheard goodbye, knowing she would never be able to do what she had to if she lingered. Luke could almost see his son's face turn troubled at some dream as he whispered to him "I'm sorry we have to leave you like this, but you'll be in good hands. You'll understand someday that this was something we had to do. I love you my son." Luke's gaze lingered for a moment on his sleeping child before he turned and left to face what lay before him.

When the coupled returned to their ready shuttle, holding hands with somber expressions on their faces, R2 rolled up the ramp. Luke and Mara were about to follow the droid when they heard Yoda's urgent voice. "Strong is Vader. Mind what you have learned. Save you it can."

Luke turned and spoke confidently to his teacher as Mara bit her lip. "We will. And we'll return. I promise." The pair walked aboard the shuttle. Yoda sat down on a nearby log as the ship's ramp closed.

The Jedi Master watched sadly as the ship left the ground and angled up to leave Dagobah's atmosphere. As the sound of the shuttle, faded into nothing, Yoda turned to speak to the spirit which chose to remain a silent spectator to what just transpired. "Told you, I did. Reckless is he. Now, matters are worse."

Obi-Wan chose to materialize to speak to his old master. "That boy was our best hope."

Yoda turned to look at the apparition at his side. "You forget. There is another."

Obi-Wan's luminous form looked skeptically at his former teacher. "Do you really think she will be able to accept that role?"

Yoda got up and began to walk toward the tent where he could feel his young charge waking. He could tell that the boy was already troubled by his parents' unexpected departure. "Someday, find out we may. Until then, the boy must I train. A vital role will he have in what is to come."

As they entered the atmosphere of Bespin, Luke looked upon the city in the clouds which he had seen in his dreams so many times. In spite of the picturesque view of the city, the young Jedi could not help but feel a sense of foreboding. Something big was about to happen. His gaze did not break from the scenic view in front of him as he spoke. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Mara gave her fiancé a sharp look out of the corner of her eye and spoke somewhat bitterly. "You just had to say that, didn't you?"

Luke and Mara quietly made their way through the deserted corridors of Cloud City, easily slipping past the security measures thanks to Mara's training in covert operations. Luke noticed the dangerous looking armored man from his vision enter the large hallway in front of him accompanied by two guards pushing a hovering slab. A group of stormtroopers came into the hallway immediately behind them. Luke spotted Leia and Chewie being herded forward by the soldiers and removed his blaster pistol from its holster.

Just as he was about to move to help his friends, Luke felt Mara's hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her, a slightly annoyed expression on his face. She whispered to him to avoid drawing attention. "Wait. We need a plan." Luke wiped the annoyed expression form his face and nodded. It was lucky for him she kept him from doing something rash.

Mara turned to their astromech companion. "R2, plug into the city's central computer. We need a map of the city and the destination of those stormtroopers." R2 beeped an affirmative and plugged into a nearby jack, setting to work.

Luke looked down at the scorched floor at his feet and then up at Mara apprehensively. "Are you sure about this?"

Mara gave Luke a confident smile. "They'll never know what hit them. Let's go." Mara kicked the section of floor she had previously weakened with her lightsaber, sending it crashing into the hallway below. The pair dropped down through the hole Mara created and ignited their lightsabers upon landing. They looked up to find a surprising sight. The stormtroopers were already rounded up and were being led away by city security forces.

Leia looked over at the two 'rescuers.' "You're a little late."

A dark skinned man neither Luke nor Mara recognized spoke up as he handed Leia a pair of blasters he had confiscated from the now apprehended stormtroopers. "Actually, they're not. If we hurry, there's still a chance to save Han. Follow me."

Leia quickly dashed down the hall after him. Luke and Mara looked at each other and shrugged before setting off down the hall after them. Luke stopped when he heard Chewie howling. Turning around, he noticed that the Wookiee was still bound by a pair of stuncuffs with complaining C3-PO in pieces in a pack on his back. "Chewie, hold out your arms. This will only take a second." Chewie did as he asked and Luke cut the cuffs with his lightsaber. "Come on. Let's catch up to the rest of them."

Luke and Chewie caught up to the rest of the rescue party just as a group of stormtroopers spotted them from an adjacent hall. Luke quickly ran down the hall to intercept the troopers. As he deflected the first of the stormtroopers' shots with his lightsaber, he shouted back "Go! I'll take care of these guys and catch up with you."

Luke expertly blocked the shots of the stormtroopers, his blue blade moving fluidly in front of his body, sending the blaster bolts ricocheting away from their target. The narrow confines of the hall made it easy to deflect the blaster bolts back at the shooters and they soon fell one by one. Once his opponents were dealt with, Luke turned to go back the way he came, but found his path blocked. During the fight, the door at the end of the hall had closed and he couldn't find any sort of mechanism to open it. Inspecting the hall, Luke found only one path available to him. In spite of the warning sent to him by the Force, Luke set off upon this path to an uncertain end.

The remainder of the rescue party arrived at the landing platform just in time to see a pair of guards push Han up the boarding ramp of the Slave I. They moved to attempt to rescue him from the ship's cargo hold, but a group of stormtroopers stationed on the platform noticed them just as they began to move forward.

The stormtroopers' commander ordered his men to open fire. Leia, Lando and Chewie dove for cover behind a stack of nearby crates as Mara switched on her lightsaber to deflect the barrage of red bolts heading their way. The snap-hiss of Mara's lightsaber activating drew the attention of Boba Fett who spat out "Jedi" as if it were a curse and opened fire on Mara with his blaster rifle.

Luke made his way through the dim corridors before him. With each step he took, he felt colder. Luke tried to draw the Force to him to warm himself but was unable to. He began to grow nervous, but was undeterred from following the path set before him. Whatever lay at the end, he would face it. Luke removed his lightsaber from his belt and turned it in his right hand. He felt like he was ready for anything.

Leia returned the fire of the stormtroopers on the other side of the platform as best she could from her hiding place behind a stack of durasteel shipping crates. Although her friends were doing the same, their opponents were similarly covered from fire leaving them at a stalemate.

Mara continued to stand her ground in front of the crates, her violet blade a blur of motion as she deflected all the shots fired her way by the bounty hunter. 'This isn't doing any good. We're at a standstill. I have to do something.' Seemingly sensing the same thing, Boba Fett launched a rocket in Mara's direction and moved up the ramp of his ship, content to leave with the prize in his hold. The Force screamed a warning to Mara and she called on the Force to leap over the durasteel crates behind her and landed just as the rocket impacted the ground where she had been standing.

Seeing the ramp to the Slave I begin to shut, a desperate look flashed across Leia's face. The princess began to run toward the ship, shooting wildly at its hull. Seeing the stormtroopers lining up to pick Leia off, Mara pulled her back with the Force and yelled. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

Leia rose from the tumble Mara had caused and turned to look at her. Leia's eyes blazed with fury at Mara for holding her back. She yelled at the young woman. "I don't care."

Undeterred, Mara moved forward and held Leia's arm in a vice like grip. Mara closed her eyes and reached for Han's encased form in the ship's hold as she raised her other hand, still holding her lightsaber. Leia was becoming furious at Mara's behavior and tried to wriggle out of her grip as Mara softly said to herself. "There is no try."

Luke reached the top of a turbolift and found himself in a smoke filled room. All the lights were out and the room was silent except for the ambient noise of idling machinery. The cold feeling he had been experiencing was nearly unbearable now. He would not allow himself to waver, however, and stepped off the lift. Luke tightened his grip on his lightsaber and moved toward a nearby staircase. The lights of the room came on bathing it in an orange glow and Luke turned around upon hearing the sound of mechanical breathing. He looked to the other side of the room and saw Darth Vader standing ominously at the top of the stairs.

The Dark Lord's booming voice filled the room as Luke looked up at him. "The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet."