Author's Note: To the anonymous guest reviewer who begged me not to kill Mara, I can't wait to read your review for this chapter. Also, to my readers, my apologies for how long it took this chapter to get out. Personal things to attend to.
After more than a minute of dueling in place, Mara broke the stalemate by pirouetting her lightsaber around one of Jaina's defenses before elbowing her in the face. The younger woman stumbled back, but she was able to block a decapitating swing from Mara before leaping off to her left to try to skewer the Jedi from the side. The blind woman swiped the strike away before turning to fully face the Sith, only to be opened up to a stomp to her midsection that had her crash her back against the wall behind her.
However, Mara was able to pivot out of the way of a downward slash from Jaina before their blades clashed again. Unfortunately for the Jedi, she found herself on the retreat out of the bedroom. Even so, she still had the wherewithal to use the Force to launch the bed that Jaina overturned as a projectile for her opponent. The Sith, however, was able to flip toward the bed and slash right through it before swiftly turning back to block a downward strike from the Jedi, which she followed up with a kneecap to Mara's side.
In response, the Jedi used her free hand to Force-throw her niece back; this time, Jaina was unable to catch herself from crashing against the wall behind her before she collapsed to the floor. This gave Mara, who had been brought to her knees, some time to nurse the ribs that Jaina had kicked, but only just before the latter had regained her footing and fell upon the kneeling Jedi with another series of vicious strikes.
Mara was able to last five seconds before Jaina forced her to her back. But the Jedi kicked the Sith right in the solar plexus and sent her flying a few meters back. Once Mara returned to her feet, she ran toward the downed Jaina, only to be stopped in her tracks when the latter unleashed a torrent of Force-lightning from her free hand. Mara resisted this for about ten seconds before she used her own free hand to Force-fling one of the halves of the bed toward Jaina. This ceased the torrent when the Sith rolled to slash away that part of the bed, but it wasn't enough to prevent her from crashing her blade down upon what was intended to be a skewering strike from Mara.
Jaina followed up that defense with a double-kick to Mara's waist that sent her stumbling back a few steps, which gave the Sith enough time to leap back to her feet. The two combatants then resumed clashing blades with varying techniques as Mara asked over the sounds, "Why, Jaina?! Why are you doing all this?!"
"Because I have nothing left, Mara," was Jaina's simple response.
The Sith rolled off to her left again, thus resuming the position that she had when she had Mara's back up against the bedroom's exit. Then Jaina was the one to use the remaining intact half of the bed as a projectile for Mara, who predictably further halved it, but was once again placed back on the retreating defense out of the room.
Once they were in the living area of the guest quarters, Mara was backed up toward the rear end of a sofa. However, her Force-senses told her of the impending danger, so with a quick pirouette to swipe away one of Jaina's vicious attacks, she flipped back and over the sofa, and, in the process, kicked her left foot up along her niece's jaw. The Sith was still reeling from the attack even as Mara landed and used the Force to fling the sofa toward Jaina.
This time, Jaina was unable to deflect the makeshift projectile in time and it crashed right against her, pinning her to the wall behind her.
"You still have your family!" Mara yelled. "You still have us! You can still end this madness!"
Jaina then moved her weapon-wielding wrist around just enough to cleave the sofa in half before rushing back toward Mara with a frustrated scream. Fortunately for the Jedi, she was once again able to keep herself in place as she used Jaina's frustration to her advantage and countered each of her wild attacks with calm yet quick defenses that she hoped could be used to tire the young Sith out.
"I know you've lost so much!" Mara cried out. "We all have, in one way or another! The Vong, the Killiks, the Chiss, I understand! But that doesn't make any of what you're doing right!"
"You're not my teacher anymore! So shut up!"
In spite of the anger in Jaina's voice, it wasn't long before Mara found herself on the attack this time as she was now driving her back toward the bedroom.
But just when the Sith was about two meters away from reentering said room, she exerted an extra amount of Force-effort behind one of her defensive strikes, which allowed her enough of an opening to leap over Mara and land right behind her. But the Jedi was able to block the rear attack without even turning around before she performed a graceful spin and resumed her place in dueling the younger woman.
"I'm sorry I couldn't teach you more!" Mara exclaimed. "And I'm sorry I hurt you! But, please, Jaina, killing me or Ben won't solve any of your problems!"
"Don't try to pretend you're so righteous, Emperor's Hand! I know you gave Jacen extra strength to try to kill me! So you can shove your pleas up your ass!"
Jaina then flipped back thrice and used the Force to fling the only other sofa in the living area toward Mara. But instead of slashing through it, she leaped over it and allowed herself to sail through the air toward her opponent.
Jaina, however, pivoted out of the way while still clashing blades with her aunt and then used her free hand to Force-push her right toward the door that led into the corridor outside. Mara groaned sharply as her back collided with it, and just after she landed prone on the floor, Jaina used the Force to activate the door. Mara was still recovering before she was Force-flung out into the corridor proper.
With a menacing grin, Jaina rushed out to continue the duel.
. . .
When the turbolift opened, Ben hurried out into the corridor that led to the Errant Venture's bridge. But he only ran a few meters before he stopped in his tracks upon getting a closer look at the number of bodies, burned out lights, and computer and data terminals that littered the corridor. The sight of bodies with broken necks or burned flesh was something that Ben knew would haunt him for the rest of his life as he began a wary walk past all of them.
As he continued his slow and traumatizing trek toward the bridge, he couldn't help but feel betrayed and disgusted that his own cousin Jaina would do all of this. He had feared that something like this would happen—he knew that his mother feared that something like this would happen, even if she wouldn't say much of it—and they had both seen things from the Force to warn them before. But he never imagined the full breadth of the lengths, of the horror, that Jaina was willing to go to just to kill him and Mara.
And was it all for? Ben couldn't understand any of it, and he doubted he could even if he were older. And the sight of even more bodies appearing every which way in the intersections of the corridor made the questions in his mind become more and more unbearable to think about. It soon got to the point where Ben just had to shut his eyes and remember the tour that Captain Booster gave him when he and his mother boarded the ship from Shedu Maad.
Once he finally stumbled to what felt like a door, he opened his eyes and saw that, yes, it was the door that led into the Venture's bridge. Ben deliberately kept his head from turning to see anymore of the dead bodies as he pushed the button that would open the door.
A moment later, however, a strict female voice said, "Access denied. Unauthorized attempted entry."
Ben grimaced. He then remembered Captain Booster telling him in his tour that, in recent years, he had established a security system that would prevent anyone who wasn't a crew member access to the bridge and that the only way they could enter was with his permission or the permission of one of his senior staff.
But Captain Booster and his senior staff were all dead, Ben reminded himself grimly. So what could he do?
With determination dawning upon his expression, Ben took a deep breath in and out before he used the Force and concentrated on forcing the door open. He kept at it and kept at it for an amount of time that he wasn't aware of until the door opened upward by an inch.
But when that happened, a male voice that was as strict as the female one said from above him, "Attention, intruder. Cease your attempt to enter the bridge or you will be fired upon."
That broke Ben's concentration, and when he looked up, he saw a laser turret that had come out of an opening in the wall above pointed straight at him.
"Repeat," the voice said. "Attention, intruder. Cease your attempt to enter the bridge or you will be fired upon."
"But... but... but you don't understand!" Ben said with frightened tears coming out of his eyes. "Everyone's dead! I have to get to the bridge! I have to get to a comm! I have to call somebody!"
"This is your last warning. Attention, intruder. Cease your attempt to enter the bridge or you will be fired upon. You have ten seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight."
Ben didn't let himself hear the rest before he turned and headed toward an intersection where he sat himself down and closed his eyes again from seeing any of the corpses.
What was he going to do now?
It took him a while, but when he thought about it, he realized he had no other choice.
He had to see his mother, even if she was trying to protect him from Jaina.
So, with all the resolve he could muster up from his nine-year-old soul, Ben Skywalker stood up and headed back the way he came to return to his mother as he locked onto her Force-presence. His fear was renewed as he felt that Mara couldn't even sense him because of the intensity of her fight with Jaina; regardless, he didn't let that deter him from proceeding.
. . .
Since being flung out into the corridor from her quarters with Ben, Mara found herself being unable to stand her ground or even get so much as a punch, elbow, or kick to Jaina. Instead, her niece seemed to be scoring all of the physical blows as she forced the blind woman further and further back along the corridor in their lightsaber duel. And at various points, Mara was brought to her knees or hindquarters from a leg swipe or straight-up hit to the face, though her luck seemed to hold out as she was still able to bring her lightsaber up in time block off fatal blows from Jaina's blade.
Five minutes into the corridor duel, Mara found herself backed up to a closed turbolift door; she pivoted out of the way of one of Jaina's attacks, which sunk her blade right through the door. Mara was about to skewer Jaina when the latter also pivoted out of the way and delivered an elbow strike to the Jedi's weapon-wielding hand, pinning it next to the Sith's trapped lightsaber.
"Jaina, please," Mara said, "Zekk wouldn't want this. You have to-"
Jaina abruptly headbutted Mara, prompting her to stumble back as blood trickled from her nose. The younger woman then pulled her blade out of the door and swiped at Mara, only for the latter to once again block the attack so that both lightsabers scraped along the deck between them. The Jedi then used their interlocked blades as a pivot point to get her forearm along Jaina's collar and pin her to the bulkhead next to the turbolift; this accidentally had Jaina's free hand press the elevator's down button.
Then, before Mara could disengage their blades, Jaina brought her free hand up to deliver a torrent of Force-lightning upon her. The Jedi was caught off-guard this time and she flew so that her back collided with the bulkhead behind her; however, she was able to just barely land in a crouch and come up for a swiping attack upon Jaina.
The blind woman's attack backed her niece up into the turbolift that just opened, and from there, they continued their duel as they circled each other all throughout the elevator. At various points, their attacks and defenses slashed at their surroundings, sending sparks flying everywhere until, after about thirty seconds of dueling, Mara's lightsaber was forced into the elevator's control panel.
In an instant, the 'lift began a free fall.
Instead of continuing the duel, Jaina leaped up and slashed through the 'lift's ceiling, which allowed her to flip backward through the shaft. She turned in midair and slashed through a door that brought her into a roll upon one of the Venture's levels.
Quickly, however, she turned in her resultant crouch just in time to see Mara seemingly fly up from where the 'lift had been falling; but before the Jedi could soar into the level that Jaina entered, the latter used the Force to fling her aunt back across the shaft to collide against the wall behind her.
And, apparently, that had been enough to finally knock Mara unconscious, as her body slumped in place and her lightsaber deactivated and fell out of her hand.
But just before she would have taken a fatal tumble to where the turbolift would have landed, Jaina Force-yanked her unconscious form so that she landed prone upon the deck of this level.
With her booted foot, Jaina rolled Mara onto her back and used a brief burst of Force-lightning to wake her up with a pained scream. And before the Jedi could do anything, the Sith brought her booted foot down upon her chest again and used the Force to pin both of her hands to her side.
"Well, now," Jaina said, "we're right back to how we started this fight." She levelled her blade over Mara's face. "Feel that? That's the heat of your impending death, Emperor's Hand."
"Oh, what's the matter?" Now there was nothing conciliatory in Mara's tone; only vindictiveness. "Too tired to fry me with Force-lightning like with Jag?"
"Jag got what was coming to him," Jaina growled. "Just as you will."
"Tell me, Jaina, before you kill me and fulfill whatever twisted desires your black heart yearns for... do you even regret killing Zekk now?"
Jaina sneered. "Now? Honestly... not even a little."
"Then just get it over with, you little Sith bitch," Mara grumbled.
"Oh, no, I'm not gonna make it that easy for you. I want Ben to be here to watch. Or rather, I want him to die with you."
With a thunderous roar, Mara exerted a Force-wave from her whole body rather than from either of her pinned hands, which knocked Jaina up toward the ceiling. The impact caused her to release her then-deactivated lightsaber before she fell back toward the deck. But before she could land, Mara had leaped up and backhanded Jaina across the face, resulting in her landing on her back instead of her front.
Less than a second later, Mara landed upon Jaina, wrapped both hands around her niece's neck, and began to squeeze the life out of her. Vainly, the Sith grasped at the Jedi's wrists, only to find herself unable to break the grip.
"Yeah, that's right," Mara groaned with effort. "You wonder if Jag felt this helpless when you killed him? You think Zekk's gonna be happy to see you when he sees how dark your soul is? I wonder if you'll spend the rest of eternity thinking if you should have chosen between them and-"
"Mom!"
At the sound of Ben's voice, Mara was distracted just enough to loosen her grip on Jaina's neck.
"Ben?" she asked.
Taking advantage of that distraction, Jaina stomped both her feet down upon the balls of Mara's feet; the resultant impact had the older woman's bare toes break against the metal deck so that even her pain-resistant training couldn't prevent her from reeling back with an agonized yelp.
Thus, with the grip loosened around her throat, if only for the moment, Jaina reached up with both hands around Mara's head and once again used the Force to insert that same damned message from Palpatine into her mind.
YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER! YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER! YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER!
Then, just like that, Palpatine's face and voice disappeared so that Mara's sight only knew darkness again just as she felt a strong, powerful heat pierce through her stomach. Accompanying that heat was the sound of a lightsaber being held very still.
A few seconds later, she heard Ben scream, "NOOOOOO!"
"Do you wonder if Palpatine will be happy to see you, Auntie Mara?" Jaina's voice whispered.
Then Mara knew no more in the physical realm.
