Note: Canon-compliant with Zahn's books and Union. (Unless I forgot something and stuck my foot in my mouth... lol) The story is set after Survivor's Quest and takes a very alternate path from that point onward. Anyway, feel free to let me know what you think. Thanks!
Star Wars - Bound
(Mara's POV)
Chapter 1
There was something wrong about a cantina in the upper echelons of Coruscant. Something too well put together, something too…clean? No dirt underfoot, no threatening looks from a shady guy sitting in the corner. It almost made the warning bells inside my mind tingle. Too easy…is what I would have guessed.
Except, I wasn't expecting trouble. It was supposed to be too easy. Simple drinks with friends were like that.
I half smiled to myself. I was beginning to think I was actually paranoid.
Karrde swished the liquor in his glass; a look on his face that could nearly read my mind.
"Would you have rathered a seedier part of town?"
I snorted. "Maybe a little."
A smile of his own rose at his cheeks. "You haven't changed, Mara."
I grinned back, even though we both knew how untrue it was. A lot was different. A whole lot.
I leaned back in the booth, the plush cushioning threatening to relax me. Everything I'd been thinking a few hours ago drifted to the frayed edges of my mind. Just one more little push and the worries would topple out of sight. Except reminders had a way of pulling them back in…
Karrde's eyes glanced quizzically at the glass of water sitting in front of me; the cylindrical pieces of ice bobbing up and down within it. I didn't need any Jedi tricks to know the gist of the question. Tracing my finger along the glass rim, I changed the subject completely.
"So, is this just a social call, or should I have taken the Sabre out of dry dock?"
"No, no, it's nothing urgent per say…"
I cocked a suspicious eyebrow. "Then what is it, per say?"
He toyed with the beveled edges of his drinkware. "Just an interesting rumor."
I leaned into my hand playfully. "Ah, exactly how most major catastrophes begin."
"No, not this time," he laughed slightly. "It's just what I said it is, a rumor. It's only interesting because the word Jedi is attached to it."
My face sobered a little bit. "Jedi what?"
"I work in information, I hear lots of rumors. But every now and then one of them will get my attention."
Was he stalling? "Yes, so…?" I pressed, failing to hide my impatience.
He took a sip of his drink before looking back at me. His face now matter of fact. "A stone."
"Like a Jedi stone?" I asked, realizing the phrase made no sense even as I said it.
He grinned a little. "Not exactly. According to what I hear, it belonged to a Jedi."
I sighed, the suspicions creeping in on all sides. "A Jedi rock collection, huh? Just the kind of crazy thing to get Luke going. I can see it now, another lengthy wild bantha chase halfway across the galaxy..." I frowned at him, attempting to look more upset than I actually was. "I should really thank you, Karrde."
He shrugged with a smirk of his own. "Don't mention it. But no, I didn't want to bother either of you, but… Well, it's not everyday that anything pre-clone wars comes up, not about Jedi I mean…"
"So," I asked, biting the blaster bolt. "Where is it? What's the intel?"
"It was auctioned to a private collector on Tatooine, according to reports. Funny thing is…it was stolen shortly afterward."
His words hung in the air around us. I didn't like it, not even a little. "So? The auctioneer probably lied about the whole Jedi thing to get a higher price. Then somebody else dumb enough to believe it pocketed it."
He shrugged again, taking another sip. "Yes, you're probably right."
I crossed my arms. "Except you're here, so…"
He sat his drink down softly. "I am, and I do believe it just might be important. Call it…intuition."
"Oh please, don't tell me the Jedi stuff is catching?"
He laughed. "Hardly, I'm no Jedi. But, I imagine the force can maneuver even we common folk to its ends sometimes." He ran a hand through his hair; bits of grey intermingled with dark. "Or it could just be a stolen rock," he admitted.
I rolled my eyes at him. "Sure it is, that's why you're here, to tell me about a shoplifted rock."
He smiled at me, a warm sort of smile that said he knew me so well. "Thank you, Mara."
I huffed, still trying to act annoyed. "For what?"
"Telling Luke about my stolen rock."
"My?" I picked up on the wording. "Wait, are you-"
"The private collector that happened to be on Tatooine at the time?" He looked a little meek suddenly. "Yes, I'm afraid so."
I sighed again. "So, exactly why are you suddenly into rocks?" It was a dumb question I realized. Con job or not, putting the Jedi label on something was a sure fire way to have trouble come out of the cracks after it. And the thought of an actual relic of importance falling into the wrong hands didn't sit right with me.
"I had planned on giving it to my two favorite Jedi, but…" His lips pressed into a thin line. It was obvious the fact he'd failed at keeping his hands on the rock was a source of embarrassment. But it also didn't sound like Karrde, he'd been around the solar system plenty of times. To get taken by some petty crook…?
"What happened, how'd you lose it?"
"I never really had it. By the time the auction was over I was informed it had been stolen from its safebox."
"You're kidding? Are you telling me this auction was a double con, they lie about rocks and then say it was stolen and sell it to another sucker later?"
Karrde winced slightly.
I frowned. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply…"
He smiled. "No, I thought the same thing. Though I will say that the auctioneer seemed rather genuinely upset."
"More intuition?"
"I suppose so. At any rate, I thought I'd leave it to your and Luke's judgment. If you'd like to pursue it, then so be it. If not, I'm only out a small sum and a stone."
I leaned back, thinking it over. An exercise in futility. I'd tell Luke and he'd get that eager curiosity behind his eyes, the same way as always when you mentioned Jedi anything. He'd try to hide it, but I'd see it as plainly as could be. Then he'd ask what I wanted to do and I wouldn't have the heart to tell him to forget about it. Then it would be yet another wild trek to who knows where doing who knows what… Rinse and repeat.
I reached for my glass, took a sip, then grimaced as I remembered it was only water.
"Okay, you win, Talon, we'll look into it."
"Well, take your time and talk it over."
I shook my head a little wistfully. "I don't have to, I already know what he's going to say…"
After Karrde left, I took some time to just sit there. The endless city lights of Coruscant were burning outside the window, nightfall only half an hour away. All the thoughts I'd hoped Karrde's unexpected visit would distract me from, were now back in full force. I glanced back at the ice bobbing in my sad excuse for a drink. Ordering water…? I almost laughed. In a real cantina that alone would have gotten you shot.
From just a glance, the clear liquid could have been some pale alien ale, but one taste and you'd know better. A tough veneer on a fragile reality. The phrase felt like an insult as it ran through my mind. But there wasn't anyone to insult back. No, just me sitting in a too-clean joint with a pathetic glass of water…
Not the path I would have expected my life to take. But the realization wasn't a regret, just…the admission of a new vulnerability.
My hand fell to the lightsaber clipped to my side. I let my fingers trace over the cold shapes of metal. Reaching out with the force I took in the ebb and flow of the emotions around me. Calm, casual joy, and the trickle of pain that caused some to stare into the bottom of a glass. All of it was normal, no one here was a threat. For the moment, there was no threat. Which meant, that vulnerability, must have been coming from me…
"It's up to you, what do you think?"
I'd been right, again, for what, the hundredth time? That fact alone almost made me want to smile. But I kept my face impassive. "Sure, I already told Karrde we'd do it."
"You did?" Luke asked, that same innocent naivety in his voice.
I smirked as I pulled my boots off, letting them fall to the floor with an unceremonious thud. "I know you just a little by now."
"Sometimes, I'm still surprised just how much," he said with a shy smile. Bending over, he took my strewn boots and arranged them neatly to the side. Something I had planned on doing, but his unfailing sense of tidiness always seemed to beat me to the punch.
"So," he added as he sat down across from me. "Karrde didn't know anything specific about the stone?"
I shrugged. "Nope, Jedi rock seems to be as specific as we're going to get."
He tapped his chin, already seeming mesmerized by the possibilities. "It could be some sort of artifact that's particularly strong in the force…" he guessed. "Or…"
"Just a normal rock that happened to be owned by a Jedi?" I added, unintentionally dousing his enthusiasm.
He sighed, looking at me honestly. "Mara, if you didn't want to go, you could have said so."
I frowned. I didn't always like that he could know exactly what I was feeling. "You wanna go," I insisted. "And that's enough for me."
He nodded, also feeling the absolute truth in that statement. "Which I greatly appreciate, but it shouldn't always be about me, what about you?"
I had to look at him in disbelief for a second. No matter how long I'd known him, his absolutely earnest selflessness was still almost startling. Compared with all the underhanded cutthroats I'd known in my day, the contrast of Luke Skywalker was something I hadn't wanted to believe at first.
"You're really something, you know that right?" I said, sincerely hoping to flatter him. Because I'd meant it, but I also hoped we'd change the subject.
His face softened with gratitude, but his blue eyes didn't flinch from his question.
I glanced toward the window, the city lights now standing out like a million beacons in the night. Secrets between bonded Jedi were almost a joke. It was as great as it could be annoying when you really did have something to hide. So my few and far in between secrets were stashed behind what walls I managed to erect. Something that didn't really hide them at all. It just labeled the lump of emotions with a very grumpy 'don't ask' when he inevitably stumbled across them. Words that to Luke Skywalker meant: 'ask later, but definitely ask.'
My emotions tensed and I could feel him back away. He was always respectful of those prickly emotions, but I knew it didn't change anything, it was only a matter of time until I spilled it all willfully. But it wouldn't be tonight…
Not with the magnitude of this particular prickly secret.
"Anyway…" I whispered, my voice coming across as both playful and a little hoarse. "We're going, so that's that."
He smiled sweetly at me. "Yes, ma'am, I guess there's nothing else we can do then."
Standing, he retreated down the hall without another word. Several minutes later he came back balancing two thick mugs in his hands. He caught the flicker of my emotion and smiled knowingly. "It's only hot chocolate," he explained as he handed the steaming cup to me. "I know you've been avoiding alcohol lately."
My eyes narrowed as a frown suddenly cut through my disposition. Despite my best efforts, my mind felt completely open and exposed right then. But I didn't say anything, and neither did he… Instead, we both just sat there, staring out the window at the sea of lights. They almost looked like stars, he always idealistically said. Wonder in his voice, as if he were still that same farmboy seeing them for the first time. In many ways, I thought he was…
And life had so many things, infinitely more fantastic, than the lights of Coruscant. It made me wonder how he'd respond to all of them…? He who acted like he hadn't seen anything, and me who cynically acted like I'd seen it all. But the truth was, there were a lot of things I didn't have a clue about either…
I took an awkward sip, my thoughts a tangle I knew he could mostly discern.
"Mara," he whispered from behind.
I turned to see his face soften with a sudden tenderness. "I love you."
His tone had a sense to it, one that said the conversation could rest there. That I didn't have to explain, not now, not yet.
I was grateful, so grateful I ended up telling him so. "Thanks…" I mumbled as I looked back out the window. Saying words I'd once found unbelievable. Words that someone now could mistake as commonplace and ordinary.
"I love you too."
The statements needed no embellishment, no second-guessing, because we both could feel how simply true they were…
