CHAPTER 3 - Surrender

For all its dark and sterile surroundings, the Imperial Palace was not without elegance, Mara thought as she admired the secluded garden. This atrium, located in the center of Lord Skywalker's private residence, was truly a work of horticultural art.

Trees of all variety formed a canopy over lush greenery and bursts of vibrant, exotic flora. A clear stream bubbled past the intricately carved stone benches where she waited, feeding a pool peppered with multi-colored fish.

Somehow, it did not surprise her that Skywalker would have a place such as this, for he himself was a creature of mysterious beauty. Beneath his glacially calm composure pulsed a raw sensuality that permeated his every move, and she found herself anticipating their time together with growing eagerness, a reluctant addict to the allure of his presence.

Mara had not seen him for several weeks, as he had been gone on an errand for his father, and she repressed a tingle of anticipation as he entered the clearing. She stood in greeting, "Welcome back, my Lord. I trust your mission was successful."

"Always," he answered coolly.

In contrast to their initial sparring match, Skywalker had been reserved, almost formal, during subsequent training sessions, which had been rudimentary, consisting of little more than a review of what she had learned under Palpatine.

Wasting no words on preamble, he lowered himself onto a bench and motioned for her to remain standing, "It is time for you to move beyond the pathetic excuse of Force skills that you learned from the late Emperor. There is a pile of stones behind me at the edge of the stream. Lift them and bring them over here."

Bristling at his comment about her master, she lifted six stones and called them to her, levitating them in a perfect line between them.

"Now, raise them over your head and rotate them."

Mara obeyed and the stones circled around her head like a halo.

Skywalker rose and produced a length of black cloth and training remote from beneath the bench. Standing behind her, he tied the blindfold around her eyes and removed the lightsaber from his belt. Hoisting the remote in front of them with the Force, he wrapped his arms around her, pressing his chest against her shoulders, and guided her hands onto the hilt of his saber.

"Remember the stones," he instructed, stepping back while activating the remote.

Mara struggled to keep the stones over her head while deflecting bolts from the remote. She faltered, grimacing with each sting that evaded the blade.

"Your master held you back," Skywalker commented as one of the stones fell, striking her on the shoulder.

"I was wondering," he continued smoothly. "How old were you the first time he offered you as payment for services to the Empire?"

Three stones crashed to the ground, "What?"

His voice hardened, "You heard me. Did you think it was a secret? The nights you were sent to 'entertain' diplomats."

Mara pursed her lips into a scowl, "It wasn't like that."

"Wasn't it?" his eyes narrowed. "How old were you?"

"I didn't-"

"How old?" he demanded in a flash of suffocating anger.

"Thirteen!" Something inside her crumpled.

Skywalker stepped close, his breath warm against her neck, "And why didn't you kill your assailants? You could have, easily."

Mercifully, the remote had stopped firing. Mara whispered, "My master wouldn't allow it."

"How many times?"

"I don't remember," she winced. "They were all the same."

"All greedy?…Repulsive?"

An image of thick, sweaty flesh flashed into her mind. Dirty teeth leering at her young naked body…the night her childhood was stolen… "Stop," she gasped. "I don't want to think-."

"Your pain will make you powerful," Skywalker's sultry voice continued. "Did they hurt you?"

She could not answer. Tears leaked down her cheeks, bursting through the damn of her hardened resolve.

"And where was your master…when you were suffering?" he asked.

She gritted her teeth, "He didn't know."

Skywalker removed the blindfold, "Open your eyes. Of course he knew."

Mara blinked, trembling at the scene that greeted her. She hadn't heard them enter the garden, but a squad of stormtroopers stood guard around a group of men dressed as Tierian diplomats – the same men who still appeared in her nightmares.

"That isn't them," she rasped, suppressing a sudden wave of nausea.

"No, but they are men like them. Criminals who did not hesitate to ravish a child. You could have your vengeance," Skywalker provoked.

No! her mind recoiled, fighting to push the horror back to the depth of her soul where it had been banished.

Revenge would speak the events of that night into existence - that her master had betrayed and abandoned her…

Mara fumbled for a foothold of control against impending rage that threatened to consume her soul. "They are unarmed," she rationalized.

"So were you, the night the Emperor relinquished you to their demands."

Her face burned in humiliation as the recollection hit her like a blow to the stomach: the calloused fingers that had bruised her wrists, held her down, and invaded her body. The hardened lust that had violated her, ripping her in half. She had begged for reprieve, even called out to her master for help, for permission to fight back…

We all make sacrifices, child.

That voice had inserted itself into her mind for as long as she could remember. Panting now against the unpardonable memory, she wondered how she had ever believed it benign.

Skywalker spoke from somewhere on the fringes of the maelstrom that obscured all thought or reason. She could not understand the words, but she knew them to be true.

The ground seemed to shift and her mind's eye turned to a chasm of light opening at her feet.

The world tilted around her, this time it was Skywalker's voice inside her head, "Destroy them…"

She swayed on the precipice as the void below called, promising release. Unable, unwilling to resist any longer, she surrendered to righteous anger, to the hatred she had sacrificed on the altar of misguided devotion. Spreading her arms as if to take flight, she leaned over the brink…and jumped.

The fall was exhilarating. Winds of power coursed around and through her. Mara closed her eyes, laughing at the sensation. The Emperor had indeed held her back. Anger that he had denied her such bliss fueled her descent, heightening the thrill of satisfaction. For the first time, she felt entirely…alive.

It was over too soon and Mara opened her eyes. Bodies of prisoners and stormtroopers alike lay strewn before her. She gave them barely a glance as she lifted her gaze to this new world. Intoxicating awareness infused every fiber of her body. Melded with the energy of life forces around her, there could be nothing beyond her reach or capability.

The stones that had been so troublesome earlier sprang into the air with a mere flick of her mind. She lofted the entire pile effortlessly and set them spinning around the clearing, a cyclone in which she stood as the eye.

Turning slowly, she faced her master.

Lord Skywalker watched, almost envying that first drink of dark power. He remembered it well: the sudden acuity of the senses, the energy that pulsed with near orgasmic intensity.

Mara turned, a feral grin matching the yellow glow behind her green eyes. Force generated wind whipped red-gold hair around her face as she approached and knelt before him.

"Stand up," he commanded quietly. "I do not want or need empty gestures of servitude."

She stood gracefully, the blaze of his lightsaber casting a red hue across her face, "What do you want?"

The combination of her wild beauty and seductive question left him momentarily breathless. Exacting exquisite control over flesh that ached with desire, he held himself in check and brushed a stray lock of hair from her face, gently.

"I would ask the same of you," he countered steadily.

Grasping his hand, she placed it over hers on the cool hilt of his blade. "Teach me…Master."

to be continued…