A/N: I'm sorry. Please, keep reading. I promise I'll explain everything.

Chapter Nine

It was dark and cold. The sky had been overcast for the last two days and not even a single ray of sunshine managed to reach the planet's surface. There were large puddles everywhere, deep and cold and the falling rain was heavy as it sent ripples through the water on the ground. The streets were made of gleaming slabs of stone, and the further that the two Skywalkers went from the center of the city the more splinters and cracks appeared in its almost painfully correct surface. Mara cursed darkly as Luke directed the two of them down a narrow alley, his own face drawn with lack of sleep.

On either side of them, walls soared up into the clouds, the rain reflecting in distorted images on the dark metal. The atmosphere in the narrow street was muted, yet even so, it was odd that there was no warning or even worry when the two Jedi slipped out of it and into a square courtyard that was about ten meters wide.

Luke abruptly frowned, "There… Mara, I think-"

"Entirely too much?" Mara teased, trying to lighten the tense lines in Luke's back.

"Ha ha." Luke grimaced. "Everything is too… too calm."

Mara didn't say anything as she refused to smile at him.

"And don't say 'poor farmboy'."

Mara reached out and snagged Luke's left hand in hers and squeezed it gently. "I'll be good."

Luke harrumphed and rolled his eyes skeptically at her. "In this lifetime? Really Mara, you must be kidding me!"

Mara pulled her hand free and smacked his shoulder. "Cut the drama queen, farmboy. You're not Lando."

Luke shuddered. "Ma-ra," he whined. "You're going to give me nightmares now…"

"Hardly, Skywalkers. Is this the best you can do?"

Luke and Mara spun around, pulling out their lightsabers and dropping their smiles. A hologram of a tall woman stood in the center of the courtyard, a couple of feet behind them. Luke disengaged his lightsaber, but Mara only tightened her guard.

"Well? Aren't you going to ask me who I am? Or at least why I'm talking to you?"

Something about the hologram isn't right, Mara sent to Luke. Can you sense a way to turn it off? You're better with mechanics.

Don't be ridiculous, Mara. Luke's tone was mild. You have to learn to trust more.

"Greetings, madam." Luke bowed to the hologram, and the dull apprehension that had been following them all day suddenly twisted into vindictive glee as a blaster bolt hit Luke in the back and he was thrown forward onto the ground.

"LUKE!" Mara shrieked, her lightsaber falling from her numbed hands as she fell to her knees beside her husband. Her mind was fogged; the bond between them was splintered, fragmented and it was getting worse every second. Her fingers pressed into his neck, confirming what the Force told her, but she refused to believe that anything could happen to Luke. His admonishment was sounding in her ears when she raised her panic-stricken face to the hologram. "Please, call for help, I don't think he'll ma-"

"Well done." The hologram cut in. "It was all a game you know. Whatever you said, he would do the exact opposite. It's a method of control. If he is proven right, you doubt yourself more. That means that if you hadn't been suspicious, Skywalker wouldn't have been so trusting. Tell me, how does it feel to be the cause of his death?"

Mara's eyes flamed in her pale face, but words escaped her as she tried to control her emotions, to let the Force take her pain away so that she could resist the Dark side. Then the small voice inside her head whispered to her, and all of the fear, pain and loneliness that she had been holding back slid over her nerve endings, scraping them raw and – Are you willing to listen to me now? Can't you see that what she's saying is the truth? Luke has been using you. Controlling you.

No. Luke was just warm-hearted – he trusted everyone. He wasn't controlling me and get out of my head dammit! He wasn't controlling me!

"Oh yes, because you are. You know you are, Mara Skywalker. You've killed your husband, just like you've killed everyone else in your life. Tell me, how does it feel?"

"Burn in hell," Mara whispered, trying to keep the whispers away. "I didn't kill him! It wasn't my fault!"

Oh, but it was your fault. You couldn't have done it better if you had pulled the trigger yourself….

"Mara," the hologram said gently. "Turn around."

Mara twisted her head around and her entire body froze in horror. The first shot tore through the back of her shoulders and she tried to dive out of the way. The Force was silent – serene. Mara called her lightsaber to her and she held herself at the ready. She ignored the burning across her back, her entire body tuned for battle as black-armored soldiers slipped into the courtyard. Pale red barriers hissed into place in the exits, sealing them all into the small opening. She panicked, instinctively reaching out for the Dark side, the rich electric sensation sliding across her nerves, before she jerked herself back, her eyes dilated with the realization of what she was doing. Her breath came in harsh gasps.

The hologram sighed. "Deal with them, but remember your orders."

Mara tightened her grip on the slender metal hilt, rocking her weight back from one foot to the other. There was a sudden absence of something and Mara spun around, striking out with her lightsaber at where the hologram had been.

"The Lady is gone, Ms. Skywalker," one of the black-garbed men said politely as some of the others snickered at her hasty, and unwarranted, attack. "If we may?"

"May what?" Mara challenged, coming back to face them, refusing to be embarrassed.

"If we may get on with It," another man gestured with the modified DC-17a he held so casually in his arms.

"Killing you, that is," a woman added fiendishly. "Oh, wait, we're supposed to make your life a living hell first."

"What kind of mercenaries are you!" Mara broke in hysterically, the connection she and Luke had splintering in her mind, fracturing beyond repair. "Make my life a living hell! What kind of orders are those? And why aren't you fighting or- or SOMETHING?"

"We were waiting for that," a cool voice said behind her. She only had time to sharply draw a breath and twist her muscles to turn before the cool metal barrel of a rifle slammed into the side of her head, and the pain, disappeared.

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The sky was black when Mara awoke, and a thin crescent moon shone brightly through a hole in the clouds. It was raining heavily, but the water-drops were soft, and Mara didn't notice it at first. She opened her eyes slowly; her brain was heavy and unresponsive and it took a few moments for her to realize that the warmth she felt was actually physical pain. She gingerly lifted her head off of the ground, trying to look around. She grimaced, blinking in the falling rain, but she couldn't hold her head up, and it thudded back onto the ground. A high keening sound pierced through the air; at first she thought it might be her own voice, but only a few moments told her that it was sirens.

Sirens? But—Luke.

LUKE!

He's gone. A familiar, dry voice whispered in her mind. What? Did you really think he'd stick around with you after everything you put him through? First you abandon your Master, so it only makes sense for Luke to abandon you. You do see this, right?

Where's Luke!

Who's Luke? The voice seemed amused, and Mara's heart froze. You see, that shattered feeling that you're trying to ign-

He isn't dead, Mara begged. He can't die—I—I'm to be a Jedi. He's the father to my children. He—

Oh shut up. Children? You? Do you honestly think you could be a mother? You couldn't handle the responsibility. You'd leave them, just like you left your Master, and—

I didn't leave him!

DO NOT INTERRUPT ME! You left him. You doubted his power, you actually assumed that he could be killed. You could have saved him, if you had just wanted to, but, you didn't. Instead, you married his killer.

Why did you have to come back? I was happy. Luke loved me, that's something that He never did.

Oh Mara, the voice sighed. Don't you remember anything I've told you? He could've loved you, he really could've. All you had to do was be worthy of it. Besides, you weren't happy: you were in denial. I had to come back. I'm you.

No, you're not. I won't let you be.

Foolish child, you don't have to be scared of me. I just want to help save you. Protect you. Why would I want to hurt myself?

I don't need to be saved! Mara argued, desperate to make the voice shut up, desperate to make it go away. I'm a Jedi!

You could never be a Jedi, Mara. You're a killer.

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Next Chapter should be done in.. a week or so?