Chapter 2
Three days. Three days in hyperspace, and he'd barely made a peep. Mara leaned back against the bulkhead, contemplating the back of Skywalker's head as he stared silently out the view port. He'd hardly moved from this position since they'd coaxed the dilapidated freighter out of Coruscant's atmosphere, much less shown signs of wanting to engage in a heart-to-heart. Until now. Somehow, she sensed he was finally ready to talk, and she was more curious than ever. Secrets among the Skywalker clan tended towards the earth-shattering.
Their briefing had been awkward, to say the least. Organa Solo had done the honors, and the room crackled dangerously with the tension between the siblings, though outwardly both remained composed. A sacred artifact had been spirited away from a temple on Kholas, she informed them, her tone crisp and all business. The Kholasi was in a panic and demanded nothing less than Jedi to investigate the menace.
"So what is this precious little trinket?" Mara wanted to know. Organa Solo blinked.
"A mummified bantha," she said primly, almost daring them to laugh. They didn't. Not then, and not during the remainder of their 'briefing.' Apparently there was only one food group on Kholas: milk. For centuries, an ever-diminishing and rather diminutive local species supplied Kholas with just enough sustenance to keep their race alive. At last, on the brink of their extinction, a Republic ship crash-landed on the planet, giving Kholas its first taste of technology, space travel, and most significantly, banthas. Why there was a bantha on the transport was never established, but that perhaps only added to the legend. It didn't take long for the Kholasi to discover that female banthas possessed incredibly active mammary glands. The original bantha, the 'bringer of life', quickly evolved from hero to demi-god to the center of a new monotheistic religion. When she died at an obscenely old age, her body was preserved in near-perfect condition and retained its status as an object of worship. At the present date, the elaborate Kholasi religion revolved around that corpse, and every aspect of Kholasi life revolved around their religion. Simply put, it had to be recovered.
"They have identified the culprits from a security holo recording. However, Kholas is a pacifist culture and employs no armed law enforcement. They demand nothing less than Jedi to deal with the menace, or they will immediately withdraw from the New Republic. We cannot lose the good faith of Kholas." Organa Solo stared hard at them. "Any and all threats to them must be annihilated." The words were directed to both of them, but her eyes were on her brother. They lingered on him for a moment, hard as durasteel, and then she turned abruptly and stalked out of the room without so much as a goodbye.
"A mummified bantha." Mara stated, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that they were going halfway across the galaxy to retrieve a dead animal. "There must be a kriffing good market for gods." Skywalker didn't crack a smile.
Mara should found the scene amusing. She didn't. That disturbed her. She had expected Skywalker to fill her in, but he hadn't said a word. That disturbed her too, since he usually couldn't shut up about his observations on everything in the galaxy, mundane to profound. Today, though, there had been a shift. She was sure he would let her coax it out of him. So Mara proceeded to coax.
"Skywalker," she said abruptly. "Spill." His shoulders tensed, and she could see that the question did not take him by surprise. There was a long silence. Finally, he swung the chair around and looked up at her.
"You've been wondering about Leia and I," he began. Mara snorted.
"Those Jedi perceptions…astounding, Skywalker." He ignored her and plunged on ahead, words spilling out with a certain wearied relief.
"A few days before that last mission of ours, I accompanied my sister on a diplomatic visit to some Outer Rim system. Like usual, she told me to let her do the talking and to just smile, nod a lot and look heroic. So I did, and like usual, she told the whole planet that I single-handedly killed the galaxy's two most evil men. I got… frustrated with her. I asked her to stop giving the wrong version of what happened. I reminded her that Anakin Skywalker had been our father, that he was good in the end, that he had given his life for mine. Then Leia, well, she got frustrated at me. She told me the galaxy couldn't accept my version, and in her heart, neither could she. All anyone needed to know was that I came back and Darth Vader blew up. 'Just like Alderaan,' she said." He shivered.
"Hatred and glee emanated from her Force-sense so strongly, Mara. …it frightened me." The hurt bewilderment in his voice gave Mara the sudden, crazy impulse to put her arm around his shoulder. She killed the errant thought quickly and waited for him to continue.
"I'd never been able to bring myself to talk much about what went on at Bespin and Endor. It was too… raw. Still kind of is," he said with a tired half-smile. "But I knew that I couldn't let Leia keep thinking this way if I could help it. I couldn't let her anger take her down the dark side. So I told her the right version." Mara could feel him gathering himself, could feel the effort the next words took him.
" I told her about the split second on Cloud City when I could have killed Vader, the moment the Force showed me the leap to make, the place to stab." That was interesting.
" I told her how I couldn't do it, how the opportunity passed and he defeated me. I told her how I gradually came to recognize what stopped me; the Force had shown me the goodness in him, too. I told her what Yoda and Ben told me, that it was my destiny to destroy him." Bitterness tinged his tone now. "Since the day I was born people have been deciding my 'destiny' for me." Mara pursed her lips at that statement and studied the man in front of her with new eyes. Open and honest as he was, Skywalker had never let her see this much of him before. A part of her felt a surge of comradeship for a fellow being who had been through hell and survived. Another part wondered why in worlds he was telling her this now.
"Finally I told her what happened on the Death Star, how when he was fighting me, the true battle was in his soul, how even though I won our duel, he won his." His voice cracked. "I told her how…I saw him, afterwards. I told her I recognized him because months ago the Force showed me the good in him evil hadn't completely crippled, even as it showed me how to kill him. I told her I understood then. The Force doesn't control our destinies. It only gives us an idea of what they could be."
"Hoth frost, I know that, Skywalker." He started, as if having forgotten she was there. Another wry grin flitted across his face.
"I guess you do, Mara. Anyway, Leia exploded. She couldn't seem to believe that I not only chose to spare Vader once, but also defied Yoda's last instructions and did it again. She insisted that I could philosophize all I wanted, but Yoda had been a great Jedi and how dare I presume to argue about the nature of my duty. She said like it or not, my destiny had been to rid the galaxy of its two most evil men. Then she quit talking to me."
"This explains the little farewell scene," Mara said thoughtfully. She paused, digesting all she just heard. "Hate to break it to you, but I'm on Organa Solo's side." What she expected to feel from him after that flat statement was anger, resentment, even betrayal. What she did not expect was a concentrated surge of the same strange sadness that had been trickling out of his mind for weeks now. Good, she thought after a moment of initial surprise. If I can keep him distracted it should be easy to pinpoint the cause of this ridiculous moping before he even knows I'm in. "Listen, sometimes people or situations are so far gone that in 'saving' them, more pain is caused than is worth it. Thousands of dead beings would be at home right now if Darth Vader had been decapitated nice and tidy right at Bespin. But no, you had to launch yourself into a typically messy quest to nobly rescue whatever miserable speck of humanity resided in that black armor, regardless of collateral damage." She knocked his shaggy pate none too gently. "There's a serious hero complex up here, Skywalker. Get it looked at. I would, you know, if I had one. Which I don't, of course..."
What?
"…And don't even bring up springing Karrde off that Star Destroyer. Loyalty to an employer is vastly different than bantha-brained…"
"That's enough, Mara," Skywalker interrupted gently. She withdrew from his mind with a twinge of guilt.
"Sorry, I suppose I was babbling." He locked eyes with her then, and she saw it again, the answer. The cause. Herself.
"That's right," he confirmed, and looked away. "You know, you could have just asked." For once, Mara Jade was speechless.
"But," was all she managed to get out before the transmitter crackled and a ponderous voice filled the cabin.
"Greetings, New Republic fighter. This is Kholas Ground Control. Please state your business." Skywalker leaned over and spoke into the transmitter.
"This is Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, here per request of a Kholasani delegation led by Senator Aein Raven. Sending identification codes now." There was a short silence.
" Welcome to Kholas, Jedi Skywalker," the voice said at last. "You have been cleared for landing on platform 8b."
"Thank you, Ground Control," Skywalker said. He strapped in. Mara took her place at the copilot's seat and mentally revised her itinerary.
Run Karrde's errand.
Deal with Kholas' 'menace'.
Make Skywalker talk.
Give Skywalker pain for making her come along.
Note: not necessarily in that order.
Author's Note: Joking aside, I know this is a very different kind of plot, even from the stuff I usually write (just check out my bio—angst, angst, and more angst!). So, I just want to thank those who are reading, even though Vader doesn't find Luke at a young age and Luke and Mara aren't having sex. Feedback would be appreciated…I'm branchin' out here!