Jaina's Rebellion

Chapter 2

Mara Jade Skywalker was checking items on the cargo delivery list that a harrowed Rodian docker handed to her when she felt a small ping on her senses. She turned around, but there was nothing, so she shook her head and carried on.

A mynock? She thought.

After the supplies were loaded and the shipping manifest signed, Mara headed to the bridge and ran a scan for lifeforms. If there was some vermin trying to make itself at home on her ship, she was getting rid of it before she left the planet!

The lights on the display blinked in red. Something alive was detected in the cargo hold and it was pretty big. Mara grabbed her blaster and set it to stun, then stalked to the hold. She didn't turn on the lights so as to catch the pest unawares, but she cast out her senses, trying to locate it. A faint feeling led her to look behind one of the containers, but all she found was some disturbed air. Mara ground her teeth in annoyance and kept looking. In times like this she wished she had some backup, like Luke's astromech droid.

She checked her chrono and swore. She didn't have time to play cat and mouse with some mynock!

"Poison gas, that will get the little kriffer," Mara muttered to herself, her voice carrying in the quiet cargo bay.

A soft 'eeep!' that didn't sound anything like a mynock caused Mara to raise a brow as she went to investigate.

Jaina, who was huddled down behind a nearby tall stack with a pounding heart, slapped a hand over her mouth and scrambled to run but it was too late. The sound of boots rounded the corner.

"Hold it right there!" Mara ordered. "I have you in my sights. No sudden moves or I shoot."

"Please don't shoot! It's me, Jaina!" the girl cried out in fear.

"Jaina?" Mara lowered her blaster, but didn't holster it until she came closer and confirmed it was really her niece. "What in the blazes are you doing here?"

The girl got up from the floor, knees still wobbly from the scare. She thought quickly on her feet. "W-Well… I came to visit you, because you didn't even come to say hello to me earlier when you were at our place…" she made up a plausible excuse.

"Then why were you hiding here? I was just standing out front the whole time," Mara pointed out.

Jaina stared in panic. "I-I was trying to surprise you!"

Mara snorted. "Not a bad lie, but a terrible execution. I'd expect better from you," she said. "I'll tell you what I think this is about. You sneaked in here because you wanted to stowaway on my ship. Nice attempt, by the way. I'll have to up the security defenses on the Sabre when this is over." She tapped on her commlink. "I'm leaving soon, so your mother will have to sort this out."

"Wait! Please don't call my mom!" Jaina asked.

"And why shouldn't I?"

"Please… I don't want to go back. Please let me come with you to the Jedi Academy. It's the only place where I belong," Jaina pleaded heartfully.

That gave even her stern aunt a pause. "What do you mean? You have home and family here."

"Yes, but I'm going to be a Jedi. I need to train and hone my skills, but my mother sends me back and forth whenever it suits her, not me. She doesn't want to deal with me, off to the Academy! She needs me to attend some stupid party, she brings me back against my will. It's like she thinks being a Jedi is something you can just turn on and off. Maybe she can do that, but I can't!" Jaina burst out into a rant.

Mara pursed her lips. "Look, kid, I don't know everything that's going on with you two, but I'm sure your mother is doing what's best for you."

"No, don't you see?! She's trying to turn me into something I'm not. I don't want to be some Alderaanian, I want to be a Jedi!" Jaina protested furiously. "Please, Aunt Mara, take me with you."

Mara rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "I can't." She raised a hand to stave off Jaina's argument. "If I took you off-planet with me without your mother's knowledge and permission, I would be charged with a kidnapping."

"But you're family! She wouldn't do that to you!" Jaina replied.

"And I wouldn't do that to her. Leia is my friend and sister-in-law. She believed in me when even I doubted myself. I owe her a lot and I would never kidnap her daughter." Mara shook her head and Jaina realized that the argument had been lost from the beginning. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'm calling Leia now," Mara said and opened a channel on her commlink.

Leia Organa Solo was going out of her mind with worry, organizing search parties for Jaina, when her private commlink buzzed. She glanced at it and saw that it was Mara calling. Leia's brows drew together. Wasn't she supposed to be gone already? What did she want now?

Leia accepted the call. "Whatever this is, can it wait?" she said shortly. "Jaina's missing and I don't have the time to deal with another crisis."

"Actually, I found her."

"What? How?"

"She was trying to stow away on the Jade Sabre. Can you come pick her up?"

Leia grabbed her purse and keys to the airspeeder. "I'm coming," she said. On her way to the garage she called off the search. Once in the air, she broke the speed limit and committed several other traffic violations to get to the spaceport as fast as humanly possible. She might not love flying like her husband or brother (or daughter), but she was still very good at it. As she drove, she was occupied with thoughts about Jaina. That girl almost gave her a heart attack for a second day in a row! Leia had been terrified when she'd discovered her daughter was missing. Now she was livid and afraid. Would it happen again? What could she do to prevent it? Somehow, she didn't think microchipping Jaina was the right answer. Then what? What was she going to do with that girl?

Leia gripped the controls harder. At flying, she was a natural. How she hated that the same couldn't be the case with being a mother. They said it got easier when the kids grew, but for her it was the opposite—the older the kids got, the harder it became.

After making her call to Leia, Mara took her guest to the galley. She got herself a caf and a fizzy drink for the teenager. Jaina took the can grudgingly.

"Thanks," she muttered sullenly.

Frowning, Mara looked at the girl, then at the chrono. She wasn't going to leave on schedule, the docking fee would go up as a result, and she had a moody teenager onboard. She couldn't do anything about the former two, but at least she could deal with the latter.

"You were saying a lot about wanting to be a Jedi, but I can't see it right now," she commented.

Jaina glanced at her with tired offense. "I'm serious about it."

"Oh, really? Then why don't you act it?" Mara replied.

"I tried! I was trying to get back to the Academy to continue my training, but you had to ruin it," Jaina said with a grumble.

Mara rolled her eyes. "You think being a Jedi is about training? About how many boulders you can lift or doing a perfect backflip? With that kind of mindset, you will never become a Jedi."

Jaina bristled. "Then why don't you tell me what's it really about?" she asked challengingly.

Mara took a sip of her caf. Black and bitter, just the way she liked it. Caf tasted a lot like truth. "Sacrifice. Doing the right thing even when it's difficult, even if it costs you everything," she said as she stared into the distance, remembering the moment when she had finally chosen the Jedi path. The act that it led her to, when she had sacrificed what she had valued the most, everything she had worked so hard for, her very soul, for the sake of saving the galaxy.

Jaina's belligerent expression abated, the raw words and the pain lurking in her aunt's eyes making her take her seriously. She couldn't dismiss them.

"Take your actions today for example. You insist so much that you want to be a Jedi, yet you didn't even bother to consider how your actions could be detrimental to the Order," Mara said.

"What are you talking about?" Jaina asked in confusion. Training to become a Jedi faster was going to help the Order, there was still so little of them. How could that be detrimental?

"Suppose your stowaway scheme had succeeded and I hadn't caught you. Your mother would have organized a planet-wide search. And then it would've been discovered that I had taken you on my ship to the Jedi Academy. The whole story would have gone public. And do you know how it would've looked like to people? 'Jedi Master's wife kidnaps Chief of State's daughter and forces her into Jedi training', that's what they would've seen on the holonews. Do you know it was often an accusation against the old Jedi? Bringing it back would stir the anti-Jedi sentiments. Your uncle's Order would lose trust of the people it's supposed to protect. Parents would start fearing again that the Jedi would come and take their children away. Do you understand, Jaina? Those would have been real consequences of your actions, had I not stopped you."

Jaina rapidly paled as the magnitude of what could have almost happened hit her. She felt faint. "I… I didn't think…" she said.

Mara nodded. "Exactly. You didn't think. You just selfishly followed your own desires. Is that what a real Jedi would do?"

"No…" Jaina whispered, looking down in shame. "Aunt Mara, I… I'm so sorry," she said with tears coming to her eyes.

"Good. But what are you going to do about it?"

"I won't let it happen again," Jaina promised. "I will think through my actions and motivations and do the right thing."

"That's a start," Mara said with approval. She sipped on her caf, feeling accomplished. She made a headway with the girl, but the rest was up to Leia. "Your mother will be here soon. What will you do?"

Jaina gulped, then set her shoulders straight with a look of grim resolve. "I will do the right thing."

She was going to face the music.

Leia's airspeeder flew into the docking bay and slid to a halt right in front of the lowered ramp where Mara and Jaina were waiting. The girl fidgeted nervously, so Mara put a steadying hand on her shoulder. It boosted Jaina's courage and she nodded to her aunt in thanks.

The speeder's door raised and Leia exited, looking harried. Her gaze zeroed in on Jaina and she went straight to her. The girl stood ramrod, bracing herself for the vicious lashing of her mother's cold anger.

Jaina's eyes flew open in surprise when instead she was enveloped in a tight, warm hug.

"M-Mom?" she stuttered.

"Jaina…" Leia took in a ragged breath and tightened the hug, then pulled away to look at her confused daughter. Her eyes were glistening. "Don't you ever do this to me again. Ever."

"You're not angry?" Jaina asked in a small voice.

Leia let out a sobbing laugh. "Angry? I am absolutely furious," she said and Jaina's face fell. "But more than that I'm so happy and relieved that you're alright," Leia added with a smile and hugged her again. "You scared me to death," she whispered.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm really sorry," Jaina said, returning the hug fiercely, as tears sprang to her eyes. "I won't run again, I promise!"

"Good," Leia replied. After taking a moment for the emotions to taper off, she released Jaina from the embrace. "We'll discuss this more at home," she told her, then turned to Mara. "Thanks for finding her. Did this make a lot of trouble for you? I'll be happy to help."

Mara shook her head. "No, no trouble. Just a small delay. Actually, I was thinking if I should stay on Coruscant for a day or two anyway."

"Then you could stay with us, we have extra room," Leia offered. "And you're family. I insist," she said, anticipating Mara's resistance to the idea. She knew just how independent the woman was.

"Well… Thanks," Mara accepted awkwardly.

What she didn't say was the reason for her decision to remain. Even from before she'd left Yavin IV to come to Coruscant, she'd felt a certain pull in the Force towards the planet. There was something important there and she was getting close to it. When she agreed to stay with Leia, the feeling in the Force got stronger and more sure. She was on the right track.

.

After returning home, Jaina was withdrawn and pensive. Aunt Mara had given her a lot to think about. Jaina accepted her punishment without any complaint. To her surprise, nothing was added to it, despite the running incident, and she wasn't locked up in her room arrest again. In their discussion, Leia even admitted that she might have gone overboard with punishment for the swoop racing incident. Jaina was allowed limited holonet access of one hour per day, with more privileges to be restored once she completed her other tasks. Knowing that it wouldn't be just one month of endless misery and boredom made all the difference to the girl and gave her motivation to work hard so she could return to normalcy as soon as possible. As a result, there was a palpable release of tension between her and her mother.

"Mom, you should take this too," Jaina said and unhooked the lightsaber from her belt.

"It's yours, you can keep it. I'm going to return boys' lightsabers too. I trust you all to know by now that they aren't toys," Leia replied.

Jaina shook her head. "No, Mom, I… I think I'm not worth it."

"Why?" Leia asked in surprise. Seeing Jaina without her innate confidence was disconcerting.

"Aunt Mara made me realize something about myself… that I wasn't acting like a Jedi should. So I shouldn't carry this with me until I can call myself a Jedi again."

"Jaina, everyone makes mistakes. Even the Jedi. Don't be too hard on yourself, you're still so young. You're still learning," Leia said, rubbing her daughter's arm comfortingly.

"I know, Mom. That's why I want you to keep it… and give it to me when you think it's right," Jaina requested.

Leia closed her eyes in thought. "Very well. But you will accept it back when I say so, no returns, alright?"

The girl agreed.

Her brothers whisked her off when she was free for an interrogation. Jacen was livid that she'd run away without him. As her twin, he felt it was his duty to watch her back. Jaina understood that, she would have felt the same way if she'd been in his shoes. They'd always gone together on their dangerous exploits since they'd been little. Anakin also wasn't too happy about her leaving without even a word. He would have covered for her. Jaina was heartened by their brotherly loyalty, but she explained to them that she was turning a new leaf.

Next day, the Solo siblings still had to attend another dancing lesson with their harpy of a tutor. However, this time Aunt Mara was in the house. After a heated argument, she sent the tutor packing and took over the lesson. She made what had been torture into a fun time, not that she wasn't demanding, she wanted their one hundred percent, but she was so much better at explaining the movements and helping them to get it right. Even their mother and Threepio were roped in to dance with them before the end of the lesson.

In the evening, Mara joined Leia for a cup of tea.

"This was a crazy couple of days," Leia said as she kicked back in her armchair.

"No kidding," Mara agreed.

"I can't ever thank you enough for what you've done for me and Jaina. When she had that swoop accident… I was losing my mind with worry. I tried to protect and punish her, but I only pushed her too hard… I'm scared to think what could've happened to her if not for you," Leia confessed.

Mara shifted uneasily in her seat. "No thanks needed."

"I saw you together with her today. You have a way with her," Leia continued undaunted.

"You're exaggerating."

"No, I'm not. I'm her mother, so I know. She listens to you. I think you're good for her Mara. That's why I have a request," Leia told her seriously.

Mara quirked her brow. "What is it?" she asked apprehensively. The Force around her stilled in anticipation.

Leia took in a breath. "I want you to consider becoming Jaina's Master."

The Force jumped in excitement. Mara gave a jolt, completely blindsided. "Me?" she choked out, at a loss of words.

"Yes."

"But, why me? What about Luke? Wasn't he going to train her?"

"It has to be you. Luke promised me to teach my children when I still wasn't fully trained. But I think he'd have his hands full with all three of them, don't you agree? You could take on Jaina and give her the individual guidance that she needs," Leia explained, sounding so rational. She'd really thought this through before bringing up the subject. Like a skilled politician that she was, she had Mara cornered. All her statements were true and irrefutable.

"But you're her mother. Aren't you going to teach her?" Mara brought up another point of contention.

"As much as I would like it, I can't. It's not just my duties. I'm not really a Jedi in the same sense as you or Luke are. That's the kind of Jedi Jaina wants to be. I was her first teacher in the Force, but now I can't teach her what she needs to know anymore. But I can at least guarantee she'd get the best teacher possible—you," Leia said with certainty that humbled Mara.

"I've never done this. I've never trained anyone. I barely finished training myself," Mara pointed out.

Leia gave her a smile. "I've seen you today instructing the kids in dancing. You did a great job as a teacher. And whatever you said to Jaina on the Sabre, she really took it to heart. She even gave me her lightsaber for safekeeping because she wants to earn it back," she revealed with a proud look. "Mara, I think you will be a wonderful Master to Jaina. Please, just consider it, that's all I ask."

Mara looked at her lap. "I… I will think about this." She stood up abruptly. "I'm going to retire. Goodnight."

In the guestroom, Mara was pacing as she battled with her thoughts. Luke had mentioned to her that she was ready to take on an apprentice, but she always cut him off when he started the topic. She wasn't ready. She was still working part time in business while being a Jedi. There was too much going on to add an apprentice, another responsibility, to the mix.

And yet, the Force compelled her to come to Coruscant, to find Jaina, to stay with the Solo family… And she couldn't deny that she felt a connection with the girl that went beyond mere familiarity as aunt and niece. She observed her in this time, evaluated, corrected… like she was already her teacher.

However, Mara's understanding of Jaina allowed her to notice something important—what the girl truly needed was her mother's attention and approval. And after their difficulties, things were starting to look better between them. Was it really wise to get between mother and daughter? How her becoming Jaina's Master would affect their relationship? Mara feared the girl would see this as another rejection by her mother.

Agitated, she stopped in the middle of the room and took deep meditative breaths. Then she glanced at the comm unit. Mentally, she calculated the time on Yavin IV. Early morning.

Well, Farmboy was going to get a wake-up call, whether he liked it or not. It was his fault anyway, he was the one who wanted her to get an apprentice.

.

AN: Anyone out there? Legends fans, are you alive?