A few of you may be sick of hearing about Mara Jade. This chapter is titled Mara Jade but she only appears as a frozen holo image in it. The rest is Luke, Vader, and Leia. By the way I call the guy Lord Xauron who was assassinated. It is a made up name, its kind of like JRR Tolkien's villain except with an X. I've always wanted to use it.

Chapter 5: Mara Jade

As he was ordered Ravan led Leia down a hall of the Imperial palace. Her hands were bound in front of her and she didn't seem enthusiastic about meeting with Vader. Probably because Vader would want to meet with her several times, which would mean the Imperail Coruscanti prison, which had a reputation for being… terrible.

Ravan gently gave Leia a push in into the turbo lift. She sighed as Ravan came in and pressed the top floor button. He looked at her.

"You don't seem very thrilled."

She looked up at him.

"You're the one who shouldn't be thrilled. That monster is your father."

Ravan scowled at Leia and hit her across the face, not hard, but hard enough to get a point across. It made no difference if they were siblings or not, Leia would not talk about Vader that way. She would not.

"He is no monster. He's a great man."

"Machine." Leia muttered.

Ravan scowled but did not hit her, for there was truth in those words. Vader was more machine than man. Next time he got the chance maybe he should ask Vader why he didn't heal himself. They didn't have technology adequate to do it when Obi-wan fought his penultimate duel with Vader on Mustafar. But they had the technology now. Ravan glanced up as the turbo lift marked them on the top floor. The rounded cylindrical door slid to the left, letting Ravan and Leia out into the throne room of Vader. Formally of Palpatine. Ravan edged Leia out of the lift first and followed her past four red guards and up the steps. Vader stood in front of the Emperor's old chair, which was modified now so Vader could sit in it more comfortably. The back was cut down so Vader's helmet was not leaning against it, and the cushions were replaced with ones that would fit Vader in his suit perfectly. Ravan could almost see him smile beneath the mask.

"Princess Leia. Welcome, sit down please." Vader said almost politely. Taking a seat himself upon his throne. Two chairs floated down from the ceiling, one landing behind Ravan, the other Leia. Ravan sat down on his but Leia remained standing.

"I would rather stand." Leia said.

"Well I would rather you sit." Vader hissed.

Leia remained standing defiantly. Ravan groaned with irritation. He jumped up, ran to the nearest guard, took his force pike and went back to Leia.

"Sit, or I'll make you." Ravan said in a warning tone. Not that this was going to help when Vader revealed the truth to Leia about them being siblings but he couldn't help himself.

"Make me then." Leia said defiantly.

Ravan shoot his head. He set the power of the force pike to low, it would merely numb you when you were hit, numb you for about two hours. Ravan whacked it against Leia's left leg. He heard the buzz as electricity discharged from the thing, and both of Leia's legs gave way. She fell back into the chair. Ravan threw the force pike to the guard who caught it. Then he sat down.

"Leave us." Vader said to the guards. Wordlessly the floated out, making no sound, as though they were ghosts. But they were not, just highly disciplined and highly paid men. Vader turned his head back to Leia.

"We have news for you princess."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Is it that you're finally just going to kill me, or are you going to let me go?"

"Neither." Vader answered. "No, this is about Bail Organa."

"Is it? Well I don't really want to hear anything from you about him." Leia said in a soft, but hard tone.

"Well then you can continue living in a lie or you can be told the truth."

Leia's eyes flashed. "What truth?"

"We have preformed a blood test, and you are not Leia Organa. Bail is not your real father."

"And why should I believe you?"

"This should convince you." Vader said. He took out a small holoprojector and flicked it on, then tossed it to Ravan who caught it and gave it to Leia. It listed information on Bail Organa's blood and hers, and was quite authentic. Leia's eyes became glassy. She threw the holoprojector on the floor and it cracked down the middle.

"It can't be. You're lying, this is some sick joke you're playing on me to amuse yourselves!"

"It is no joke." Vader replied calmly. "You know all the information on there is correct, your blood types for one thing."

"Then who is my real father?"

Vader was about to answer, but it never fails. Just when you are about to tell someone something important, someone else bursts into the room with bad news. Just as it happened now, a young officer ran into the throne room and took the steps up to Vader by two. When he reached the top he bent down to catch his breath. Ravan, Vader, and Leia's eyes were on him.

"There…" He gasped, breathing heavily. "has… been… an… assassination!"

"There what?" Vader asked coldly.

"Yes milord… there has." The man replied standing up straight.

"Lord Xauron. The merchant is dead."

"WHAT!" Vader cried. "He cannot be dead, he was a major supplier of information on criminal dealings for the Empire!"

"He is dead milord. An assassin killed him with a shot to the head an hour ago."

"Is the assassin caught?"

"No milord, it seems the assassin escaped in one of the merchants' personal shuttles."

"Ravan!" Vader snapped. "Go to the crime scene, see what you can find out. I want that assassin caught and thrown into a fuel tank on a star destroyer!"

"Yes father." Ravan replied jumping up and setting off immediately, the man behind him, Vader called his guards back to take Leia away. He would have to tell her about her true family later.

XxX

Ravan burst in to the circular room of the merchant's building and walked straight up to the commanding storm trooper who was interviewing the chief of security. Ravan shoved the trooper out of the way and narrowed his eyes at the red uniformed chief.

"The Emperor demands to know what happened." Ravan said. "Who killed him?"

"I've been telling your kath hound here the same thing for half an hour," The man retorted. "I don't know!"

"Don't you have security footage of the assassin?"

"Of course, and I have tried finding a match to her picture in the Imperial database but—"

"Her?" Ravan asked cutting the man off.

"Yeah. I woman, she snuck in and killed the guy with a pistol and took out five guards, one she threw a knife into, the other three she shot with a grapple gun, and the last she shot with a blaster."

"Do you have a holo of this woman?"

"Yeah, yeah." The chief replied pulling a small holoprojector out of his pocket, he switched it on. When the image materialized Ravan felt his mouth drop open and his heart skip one beat. It was Mara Jade. Ever since he had met her he had liked her looks, and her style, but he had never expected to see her again after she never came back when Vader took over the Empire. Or more so, never expected to see her assassinate someone right under their noses.

"My lord?" The chief asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I have to contact the Emperor." Ravan replied. He looked to the captain trooper. "Continue the investigation."

Ravan turned his back and went around the inner wall to the other side of the room where he took out his comm link and punched in a frequency. Seconds later an image of his fathers helmeted head appeared.

"You found something?" Vader asked.

"Yes father. It was Mara Jade. She killed him."

"Mara Jade… the Emperor's Hand? She is still alive?"

"Yes."

"Why would she kill…"

"I don't know either father."

Vader didn't reply. He seemed to be in thought. Finally he looked back at Ravan.

"There is nothing we can do about it now. Come back to the palace and let the troopers continue their investigation."

"What about Leia?"

"We'll tell her soon enough."

Viola, your break from Mara, next chapters about her though.