Using the momentary distraction, as he dove out of reach, Jacen flung out some of the torn duraplast toward Mara. At the same time, he was shouting for Ben to join him, to use the blaster on Luke before it was too late.

Watching Mara, worrying that their battle to keep Ben safe was rapidly devolving into madness, as Luke moved closer to his family, he kept bombarding Jacen's location with blaster bolts.

Mara was in the midst of it all. Obviously trying to keep Jacen from leaving as well, she shot several lazerbolts at the flying debris, twisting as she did so.

There was a sudden lurch, the room tilting. As Luke glanced over, he could see that Mara landed hard against the jagged console, her groan clear in the noisy madness, her arm pressing up against her side, red spreading outward.

Jacen didn't seem at all surprised. Instead, not pausing a moment, he took advantage of it, shoving more shattered fragments into the air toward Mara. And toward Luke. A storm of battle wreckage threatening them all with destruction.

Ben was shrieking, too, calling out to Jacen to make sure he was all right, using his strength in the Force to try and break free of Mara's hold on his blaster. An instant later, the Force black with warnings, Mara's strength must have failed. As she let go, Ben stumbled away, Mara following him. Straight into the path of the storm.

Luke tried desperately to stop it, throwing up a partial shield to keep them both from being torn to pieces, even as he shot more blaster bolts in Jacen's direction. Mara, hurt as she was, seemed to pull strength from the air, tearing into the Force, pulling Ben out of the way, flinging him back. Her blaster was glowing red with continuous fire bolts, adding to Luke's barrage, tracking Jacen's location even as she slumped down in agony.

But Ben was struggling, too, seemingly desperate to help Jacen. As he shoved up, trying to run past Mara, she caught him by the tunic, pulled him down, shouting at him to keep still. And in doing so, she stopped the onslaught of blaster bolts toward Jacen.

Jacen must have seen his chance to escape. Sending a volley of lazerbolts and wreckage, ragged and sharp, toward Luke who was hunched behind the console to give him cover, Jacen started to race for the exit.

Ben was calling after him, begging him not to leave him behind. But Mara pulled him down again, both of them rolling on the floor, struggling to claim Mara's blaster. Finally managing to free it from Ben's grasp, Mara sent another volley of bolts toward Jacen.

Jacen dove for cover, then thrust more debris toward Mara's location. The room was filled with blaster bolts and smoke and pain, and it was increasingly difficult to see. The Force, too, was roiling in darkness. Black streamers of hatred poisoned the currents, twisted the Light into shadow and desperation and fury.

Still, half-blinded with agony, Luke edged his way toward Jacen, hoping to bring him down before he escaped.

But he hadn't counted on Ben's rash belief in his master.

Ben was solid, and trained enough that even Mara was having difficulty. Out of the corner of Luke's eye, he could see that Ben and Mara were struggling, rising and falling out of Luke's line of sight as they wrestled for control. Mara was strong, though, and determined as she sent another jumbled line of blaster bolts toward Jacen. But Mara wasn't the only one with a blaster and Ben was desperate enough to use his.

Some warning in the Force made Luke turn just a moment to see Ben pointing his blaster and firing point-blank at Mara's. There was a brilliant explosion as pieces of her ruined weapon, melted and blindingly bright, flew apart.

It was only a millisecond, but the diversion was enough.

Mara recoiled, her right hand smoking, a scream of agony and fury piercing the air. Holding it to her chest, she tried to rise again, her other hand scrambling for her lightsaber.

Ben stumbled toward Mara, his blaster loose in his hand, his face half-horrified as if he hadn't realized what would happen. He cried out, "Mom, I just wanted to stop this. I thought… are you...I didn't mean to…."

Luke didn't hear any more. Jacen was on the move again, taking advantage of the distraction.

If it had been a storm of debris before, now it was nothing if not a hurricane of glowing wreckage and dagger-sharp transparasteel, swirling chaotic within the control room. There were groans of metal twisted all around them, and underneath the floor, there was growing heat.

Try as he might, Luke couldn't see much beyond smoke and ragged edges in all the moving debris, but there light pulsed, Mara's lightsaber making infinity loops as she staved off the worst of it.

Ben, too, must have finally come to his senses, must have realized that he was as much in danger as Mara. His blue blade was cutting through the bedlam along with Mara's. For a moment, the two of them were working as one, mother and son, a family reunited at last. Two blossoms of blue painting the air in light, keeping each other from destruction.

But that didn't mean that the threat was over.

There was a sudden sharp groan. The floor tilted abruptly down, much more than before. A gush of scalded air broke through as a corner of the control room fell away into the lava river below. The reflections of bright red lit up everything, washing what was left of the control room in the color of blood.

Luke tumbled back, scraping his skin on ragged panels, sending sheets of fiery pain into his skin, his vision greying.

But Mara, moving faster than thought, her lightsaber falling, falling as she grabbed onto Ben's jacket with her good hand, and pulled him away from the edge. Even as she staggered toward the exit with their son in tow, Luke could see blood staining her tunic. But worse, she wasn't paying attention to Jacen.

In the madness of battle, there was a sudden tumble of blue light and a familiar hum. Mara's lightsaber, dropped in her attempt to save Ben, was hurtling toward her, black strands of a corrupted Force wrapped around its hilt.

Jacen had taken control.

It was swinging wildly, Mara's lightsaber cutting through stabilizing struts and a tangle of wires, even as it tumbled end on end toward her.

Instinct rising, Luke tried to wrest it from him, straining with all his might in the Force. Dark spots in his eyes, and a buzzing sound in his head, unconsciousness was calling out to him. For a moment, Luke thought he'd lost.

But the room tilted again and Ben was there, his saber knocking Mara's aside, and as the light of both lightsabers died, Ben's voice was filled with relief. "Mom, I…."

He never finished what he was going to say.

One of the overhead struts, weakened by heat and stress, the end sheared off into a mess of knife-sharp edges, gave a sudden metallic groan. There were tendrils of Force energy wrapped around it, Jacen again, and with a yank, the strut swung down. Aiming straight for Ben's head.

Without thought, Mara jerked forward, shoving Ben aside.

It struck her instead.

As she staggered back and then down, Ben was screaming at her, begging for help, begging for her to stay with him, not to go. Luke was lost in the pain of the Force, beyond his own, feeling her agony, feeling her slipping away as blood sprayed out. The hole in her chest was a crimson crater mixing with lava red. Impossible and unbearably final.

He had to save her before it was too late.

As Luke staggered toward her, Jacen must have seen his opportunity. Pinning them down with a flurry of blaster fire, he raced toward the exit. Then aiming his blaster, he sent more firepower into the doorway nearest Luke, melting the rock so that it blocked the way out.

Under all that noise, there was a creak of stressed metal, the room vibrating with it. Jacen sent another barrage of blaster bolts into the ceiling above Luke, bits of hot metal and transparasteel raining down.

In the distraction and the hellish black agony that Luke could feel in the Force, Jacen was gone, escaped into the night through the only other exit.

In the next moment, Luke heard an explosion just beyond, the far door bulged, groaning under the attack. The exit where Jacen had escaped now appeared to be jammed, and they were entombed inside a precarious trap, the room fast melting into the lava river below.

It didn't matter, though. Mara was hurt, Mara's chest was a bright blossom of red and more red. And Ben was begging her to stay.

Luke dragged himself up, staggered over to her, and thudded down next to Ben. His body was a mass of pain, his vision tunneled and black around the edges, but he shoved that aside. He needed to be strong, he needed to be focused, he needed to save her.

Ben was shaking his head, kept asking Mara to forgive him, saying that he was so sorry. But Luke could only look down as blood reddened her mouth and trickled down her cheek. Her good hand was clutching at Ben's sleeve, and although her face was contorted in pain, she seemed to be comforting him. Soft murmurs of acceptance and rebuilding his life after this was all over.

But Luke was beyond that, was beyond forgiveness or comfort or anything else. Despair was quickly morphing into fury, burning hot in his chest, growing with every beat of his heart.

"Ben!" Nodding toward the melted doorway, Luke snarled, "Go find a way out of this hell-hole."

"But…." Tears in his eyes, he looked down at Mara, then back up at Luke. "I don't…."

Luke would have none of it. If Ben had only listened to Luke instead of defending that monster. If it hadn't been for Ben's defection, they'd be home, all of them, whole and happy. Instead of watching Mara slowly bleed to death.

"Do you want to die here, too?" As Ben recoiled, Luke snapped, "Find a way, then. Before it's too late."

With that, Ben's face hardened, and he gave a sharp nod. Picking up his lightsaber, he hurried over to the near doorway and began to cut away the rock. He didn't look back.

Mara's hand was clawing at him. "Luke, he's…." She gave a cough, all bloody froth and pain, then choked out, "… r… son."

Under it all, he knew she was right. Their son, the one they'd sacrificed so much for. But it was all so much noise and he couldn't think about it just then. Later, later, when he had time to reconsider it all. For now, he needed to focus.

Desperate, knowing that he had to stop the bleeding somehow, knowing, too, that there was bacta in the shuttle, there was only one thing to do. Use the Force to heal most of the damage and hope it would be enough until they could get back to base. He wasn't adept at it, but Mara's life was at stake.

Taking a deep breath, letting it out again, letting go of pain and fury and the constant worry that they'd be engulfed by lava before long, pulling at the threads of the Force until he was sure they wouldn't slip away, Luke looked down at Mara.

"I'll have to hurt you for this to work, Mara. Can you…?" Luke couldn't go on, couldn't say it.

But Mara knew. "Skywalker, … do what you have… to do."

Even that seemed to cost Mara. She fell back, panting, and Luke knew he was running out of time.

His vision wavered, black spots dancing on the edge. His hand, too, the one hovering over her wound, was trembling, but he drew a deep breath, let it out slowly, and began.

At first, Luke's good hand skimmed over the worst of it, using the Force to see where he needed to begin the healing process. There was so much damage, too much for him alone to heal. But he had to try. Once they got her back to base, the long process of recovery could begin.

For now, he focused in with the Force, finding skin and muscle around her wound a mess of destruction. Blood vessels had been sliced open with jagged bone, the fragments almost too numerous to count, and everything was leaking lifeblood into her chest.

Determined, he pressed in with the Force, began to knit the pieces where he could, weaving cells and nerves and flesh into a semi-healed whole. But Mara, strong as she was, must have been in unbearable pain. She fainted, her eyes rolling back as she slumped into unconsciousness.

Ben must have felt it, her pain, Luke's despair. He was there, pulling at Luke's arm, yelling at him to stop, that he was hurting Mara.

Luke shook him off, snarling at his son as he did. "If you don't let me finish, she is going to bleed to death." With that, ignoring the horrified look on Ben's face, Luke turned away, and started again. But he couldn't keep the fury out of his voice. "Now leave me alone and get back to work."

Although Ben stood back, his whole Force signature radiating silent accusation, with Mara unconscious, it was easier to work. Luke followed the bleeding, sealing the wounds as best he could, enough to stop the worst of it. But she'd already lost so much blood, he couldn't help but worry.

At last, he was done. Luke said, "The bacta should begin the healing process and once we get back to base, she'll be fine." Still not looking at Ben, Luke scooped Mara's limp body into his arms, then struggled to his feet.

It was a near thing. Luke was in no shape to carry her, but he'd be damned if he'd let Ben do it. It wasn't because Ben had helped cause all of this, had hurt Mara in the battle, although it was a small part, maybe even an important part. But even if his son thought himself capable, he was still a child and Mara was heavier than she looked. If Ben dropped her, it would only make things worse. Luke staggered toward the exit, Ben in his wake.

If he had been in his right mind, Luke would have thanked his son for clearing the doorway or told him that he still loved him no matter what he'd done, but he wasn't thinking. Luke was still fighting agony and fury and he knew once Mara was well, he'd try and mend this horror between him and Ben. But not now.

So instead, he stumbled along, through rough-hewed corridors and the echoes of hatred and encroaching magma, trying not to jostle Mara any more than he could. Still, no matter how gently he tried to move, his tunic was soaked with her blood when they finally escaped into the heated air.

Behind him, the fiery remnants of heated rock were roaring away, and the sound of girders moaning as they twisted and melted and fell into the fiery abyss.

Mara, too, was moaning, holding on to Luke's soaked tunic with shaky fingers. But he kept going. If he laid her down, if he let her go, he didn't think he'd have the strength to pick her up again, and they had to reach the shuttle before it was too late.

And then it was too late.

Rounding the corner, Luke stumbled to a stop. Just behind him, Ben let out a gasp and then a long, horrified denial.

Scattered before them, in the hollow of the valley where Luke had hidden their transport, were the remnants of their last hope for Mara's recovery. In pieces almost too small to recognize, their shuttle had been blasted into oblivion. Nothing of use remained, not the bacta, not shelter or water or a way to communicate.

Jacen had been there before them, and dealt them all a fatal blow.

Sinking to his knees, Luke choked out a groan, then lay Mara down on the ground, whispering regret. Ben, too, crowded in, reaching out, then pulling back as if too afraid to touch for fear of hurting her.

But there was no comfort to be had in any of it. She was still bleeding, and even if Luke could use the Force to finish what he'd started and try to heal the rest of her wounds, it wouldn't be enough.

She was going to die and they all knew it.

"Sky…walker, don't," she gave a little grunt, then swallowing, she said, "don't… give in… to…."

Luke knew she meant hate, to give into the Dark Side, but at the moment, if that's what it took to save her, he would. Force help him, he would.

Reaching up, with a strength he didn't know she still had, with her good hand, she grabbed onto Luke's tunic, smearing blood and heartache as she pulled him down. "You… are better than… him. Prom… ise me."

Her beloved face blurred under Luke's tears. Furious, he wiped his eyes clear, blinking away grief and blood. Cupping her hand, eager to touch, eager to do something, anything to keep from admitting defeat, still with a boulder the size of a bantha in his throat, he choked out, "Mara, don't. I don't know if I can."

She must have understood what he was trying to say. Even fighting agony, she had always been stronger than Luke. Her hand tightening, as she tugged him closer, she whispered, sharp and final, "Promise me you won't…give…into it. Pro… mise… you will keep Ben… safe."

In some distant part of his mind, under all the agony of the now, much as he wanted to punish his son for the part he played in this, he knew someday he would forgive Ben. Besides, he could never deny her anything. "I promise, I promise, just don't leave me."

His desperation, his anguish, must have gotten through to her. But then she'd ever been a realist. She must have known that there was very little time left. She slumped back, letting go of his tunic, grimacing as she did. A couple of breaths, shallow and agony-laced, a rattling in her chest, but she smiled up at him anyway. She knew she'd won this round.

Shaking, her hand reached out to him, as if in comfort, and he grasped it, holding it against his chest. Her skin was cold as ice, even in the heat of lava flows and annihilation, but it didn't matter. She was still alive, still a heart beating in time with his. As it had always been and always would be.

Then she looked past him to where Ben was hovering, breathed out his name. "Ben."

That was all it took. Ben bent down, resting his hand on her uninjured shoulder, the other grasping her arm. Tears streaking, voice choked with grief, hurried, guilt-laced, he babbled his regret, "Here, Mom, I'm here. I am so sorry, I didn't think, I wanted you to... I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

Mara gave a little cough, rattling, more pain-filled than Luke could bear. With a shudder, Ben looked up, stared at Luke. "Help her, damn it."

"Do you think I haven't tried?" Luke couldn't keep the despair out of his voice. "Even if she went into a healing trance, the nearest station is 20 klicks away. Across lava fields and meteor strikes. She'd never make it. As it is, we might not."

Ben looked over his shoulder, nodded toward the mining station. "There might be something back at the…."

But before he could finish his accusations, there was a tortured groan of transparasteel twisting, ferrocrete breaking apart as what was left of the building disappeared over the ragged cliffs. A heartbeat later, a bright spray of lava reached up into the molten sky, and then spattered onto the black rock, hissing as it solidified.

Looking first at the death of all his hopes as the red heat cooled to gloom, then back down into Mara's shroud-white face, he sat there, stunned by it all.

Mara must have known what it meant. She pulled at his hand, squeezed it almost tight enough to break bones, as if reminding him that she was still there. Nodding toward Ben, she whispered, "Luke, keep him… safe." Then she tugged him closer, her lips parting, a grimace forced into a smile. "So glad I… didn't… kill you that first time."

Luke choked out, "Or the second."

Her eyes brightened at that, then dulled as another cough took her. When she could finally breathe again, never one to let pain get in her way, she said, "Kiss me, Skywalk…er. Kiss me. I dare… you."

He couldn't do anything but nod. Leaning down, he brushed his lips against hers, felt the warmth of her smile, her indominable spirit.

Then she was gone. As he pulled back, her body disappeared into the mist, and there was nothing left but a pool of blood stark against the rocks and a single strand of red hair.

He couldn't think at all.

All around him, sprays of lava boiled the air, blackened clouds were twisting, turning under the onslaught of lightning flashes and thunder and pain. The Force, too, was crying out, Hoth-cold and sun hot, churning in the fouled shadows. Darkness growing, growing as Luke's rage was made manifest.

It seemed to go on an eternity. Luke wasn't breathing as far as he could tell, subsumed in his grief. But it didn't matter. His heart has stopped beating when hers had and the pain in his chest was no match for his loss.

But there were other pains, too, fists pounding on his back, and the devastation of a child, wailing out his sorrow.

And it was only when a palm slapped him sharp and hard across his face that Luke finally woke up. He stared into Ben's horrified eyes, and for a moment, he didn't recognize his own son. What the boy was saying didn't make sense. Luke struggled to understand him.

"Dad, you've got to stop. You promised and she's dead. She's dead and you… you promised not to do this."

It hit him then. Luke felt like he'd died, too, like he was in some kind of personal hell where pain and more pain were nothing to the heartache of his loss.

But Ben was insistent, reminding him of promises made and promised meant to be kept. Slowly, slowly, he began to breathe again.

The clouds rolled back, the darkness still red-tinged but natural now, not some twisted form of the Force. But even when he came back into himself, there was still a hole the size of Tattoine in his chest, Mara-shaped, as cutting as knives, and every time he breathed, he could feel the sharp edges of it there.

Rolling away from Ben, he sat there, curled inward, rocking a little, staring out into the bright red sky, feeling, knowing that her loss was too much to bear. He wanted to go back to the moment before this all began, to turn the spaceship around, to have Mara scowling at him and hounding him and alive.

But she wasn't alive. She'd gone into the Force and what was unbearable must be borne. For all their sakes.

Ben were there, as grief-stricken as Luke, and hurting. And Mara had made him promise to take care of their son and she was wiser than he was because she knew he'd keep his word, come what may.

In a cruel twist, though, of the battle between darkness and the light, Jacen was still alive when Mara was not. He was still spreading darkness through the galaxy, and he had to be stopped before he engulfed everyone else in eternal night.

Jacen had very few vulnerabilities but Ben was one of them.

That, at least, gave Luke purpose. Even if Luke couldn't help his son in the way Mara would have wanted, he could guide him, he could use him in this war.

And once it was over, once Jacen had been defeated and sent into the Force as he so richly deserved, then Luke and Ben would mourn Mara properly, forgive each other for everything, would be a family again.

But only when Jacen was dead. Only then.

As Luke stood up, swaying as he did, he caught up the single strand of Mara's hair tangled at his feet and shoved it into the hidden recesses of his tunic. Then he said, "Ben, come. We've a long way to go to reach the outpost."

Ben stared down at the congealing pool of blood, then shuddered, and looked away, back up into Luke's eyes. There was grief there and a terrible kind of fury. "And Jacen? He should be made to pay for this."

Finally, finally, they were on the same page.

Reaching out, ignoring the wrench of torn skin and wounds left too long to heal, Luke pulled Ben to him, gave him a quick hug, then let him go. "We'll do it together."

Ben nodded. "Yes, together."

The end.