Chapter 8: Spellcaster
The mission was to blow up a senatorial cruiser.
Mara had glared at the man Rian as he explained their objective, trying not to look like she was gaping at him. Cassian was asking technical questions about what ordinances were available to them (a hodgepodge, but an impressive one) and what defenses the target ship had (less impressive, but still durable). While his outer mind was focused on the answers and trying to look like he was more interested in them than the feel of Mara's hip under his hand (under the pretense of steadying them both. The ship did not have enough seating, and barely enough room for them to all stand, grasping the straps that hung from the hull), his inner mind was trying to process exactly what the long term plan was.
Chaos, clearly. An upset of the system they despised. A government could not be run without its governors. But every governor had their understudy, someone to step in if an assassination was successful. To really take down the government, the anarchists would have to…
Hit them on all levels at once.
The ship they were targeting now did not carry any leaders, but the higher-ranking staff of the senator from its sector. The senator himself, like Bail and so many others, was still on Coruscant, waiting out the end of this session. It could be weeks before it was over, but if the anarchists had their way…
Why the poison then? Why not wait until the session was over and the senators aboard their ships and knock everyone out at once?
The plan, so simple with its only two points, was nonetheless confusing. It was neither as dramatic nor as organized as he would have thought of a man such as Anders, who had a voice that would not rest until it was heard.
Cassian looked at Mara. Her eyes were angry, but calculating. She was drawing some of the same conclusions he was.
In an unexpected and dangerous wave of fondness, he reached to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
**RogueLegends**
Mara was having a hard time believing they were going to blow the ship. It was too…random, too simple for the man she assessed Anders to be. The destruction of one ship, with nothing to tie it to the Rebels, that was not the act of propaganda necessary to attain his goals.
So if they weren't going to blow the ship, what were they doing there?
One glance at Cassian told her his priorities. He was going to find a way to warn the passengers. The rest could be sorted out later. But it wasn't that simple for her. The problem kept nagging at her.
Mara.
She released her hold on the ship, dropping a hand to the back of her neck and clamping down to keep her teeth from chattering. The Emperor knew where she was, reminded her of his authority with a ringing in her skull.
"You alright?" By contrast, Cassian's voice was soft, soothing in its matter-of-factness. His eyes, though distracted, still took the time to gauge her condition.
Mara nodded, and he raised his eyebrows. She thought about claiming a headache, but they had an agreement. If he was going to start asking questions about the voice in her head, then she was going to ask for his full name. Neither of them was curious enough to make that leap. Not yet.
Besides, she told herself, when this is over, he's going back to Alderaan, and you don't need him taking your secrets with him.
They made their way onto the ship with more ease that she expected. For the their seeming disorganization, the Rebels had managed to get hold of a centuries old docking clamp, a fragment of some forgotten war. Mara found this as disturbing as anything else, but just then it allowed them to attach to the underbelly of the cruiser without detection. And they'd thought to bring pressure cutters. It was a simple matter after that.
They emerged in the maintenance room. Rian of course had laid out the plan for them already. Cassian and Boadacks would take the bow, Mara and Shimmer the stern. Cassian squeezed Mara's hand as they parted, shot Shimmer a look promising all the details of what she'd endure if something happened to his companion. Mara had been surrounded by guards and Force masters her entire life. Never had she felt so safe as when she watched him walk away.
**RogueLegends**
The trick was to get rid of Boadacks. There was the obvious answer, of course, but Cassian didn't want to leave evidence behind if he didn't have to, and he needed to find someone he could trust before he did anything else.
The opportunity came when they entered the left wing of the living quarters. Boadacks directed him around a bend, explained where to plant the charge. Cassian was familiar enough with the class of cruiser that he didn't need to be told, but he nodded and feigned small confusion, looking both ways before turning down a left hand corridor.
He stalked right up to the young man studying the ship's readout on a wall display. He was frowning at it, and Cassian had the distinct impression he wasn't lost so much as studying the ship's schematics.
It helped a little that he knew him.
"Wedge."
The young man jumped back half a step and turned, eyes wide, taking in Cassian's grisly state and civilian garb. "Cap-"
"Quiet."
Like a good soldier, Wedge Antilles obeyed. Cassian didn't know him well, was more familiar with his father, a fellow captain in the Rebel forces, and one of Organa's close confidants. But he knew the son was smart, resourceful, and could be trusted even with so delicate a mission as Cassian was about to hand him.
"Listen to me very carefully. I need you to get a message to Senator Organa."
**RogueLegends**
Shimmer led Mara deep into the bowels of the ship. There were catwalks set under the massive engines. A hot and sticky place, the air thick around them. Light filtered through the grating. It was obvious why they had been chosen for this task. Shimmer was small, and Mara had an extraordinary grace.
She used every but of it now as she maneuvered into position. At the same time, she stretched out her senses, trying to get a feel of the ship around her. On the deck above, a couple of engineers mulled about their business. This was the night shift, she realized. In fact, the whole ship was more or less quiet, down to a skeleton crew. Small minds, malleable, barely alert in their drowsy half-attentive state. Perhaps if she reached out with just enough pressure…
But no. There were two active minds on that ship. One, young, younger even than her, though she was often loathe to admit her real age, was making rapidly for the captain's quarters, confusion, fear, all the weight of sudden responsibility heavy on his mind. The other was Cassian, anxious, wary, and, she realized with a pang, decidedly less guarded than when around her.
It wasn't until Boadacks caught up with Cassian that she realized he was awake too.
Mara smacked her head on the grating above her, the bang loud in the nighttime stillness. She hissed softly, and wiggled until she could see Shimmer.
The woman had a blaster pointed at her.
Mara smiled, thinking, as she always did, that the woman had no idea what was coming. Shimmer was opening her mouth to deliver a sneering explanation, but never got it out. The blaster ripped from her hand and shot into Mara's ready one, but she didn't need it.
Shimmer's eyes widened further still, bulging, not quite understanding, not quite appreciating the depth of her mistake.
Mara didn't have the time or the inclination to explain it to her.
She slipped over the body with the ease of a cat, only one thought in her mind.
She had to save Cassian.
**RogueLegends**
CASSIAN!
The cry was in his mind, but it was powerful enough to stop him dead in his tracks. A warning, not a cry for help. A –
His blaster was in his hand and aimed at Boadacks almost before he could finish the thought. His escort already had a weapon trained on him, however, and though he appeared surprised at Cassian's readiness, he did not seem ruffled by it.
"Well, well, I think what we have here is a Corellian standoff. Why don't you just put that shooter down, and we'll end this without any fuss."
"You mean without the sort of fuss that might alert security?" Cassian replied mildly. "Seems to me the odds are no more in your favor than mine, and you still have my companion to contend with."
"Your companion's already dead."
It wasn't true, he knew. Still the words hit him like a blow to his bowels.
"Or not," Boadacks went on, grinning. "Pretty thing. I could think of a few reasons to keep her breathing, if she's still twitching."
Cassian's hand tightened on his blaster, but his voice came out smoothly. "I would not attempt it, if I were you. She's not someone you want to underestimate."
And he heard her, or felt her. At any rate, he knew she was there, barreling around the corner at top speed. Boadacks and Cassian turned at the same time as Mara skidded to a stop at the end of the corridor, eyes blazing.
Boadack's blaster was torn from his hand, seemingly by the air itself. He stared at his fingers in shock for only a moment before Mara shot him.
And everything compacted in Cassian's brain at once.
Jedi. Mara was a Jedi. Or whatever the…what was it they called it? Force-sensitive servants of the Emperor called themselves. Vader, the Emperor…weren't they Dark Jedi?
The Emperor's Hand. The Emperor's bloody Hand.
The woman he'd been stalking was a Dark Jedi.
That Dark Jedi was now grabbing his hand, tugging him along, her green eyes as honest as any he'd ever seen. Honest and grim; as young as she was, she knew shock when she saw it and knew to take charge.
For all his promises to himself, he'd never imagined…
He was seated, his back to the cold, hard hull of the ship. Mara was yelling to Rian, but her hands were on his shoulders, holding him up, pressing him back. Her eyes met his, and he felt like he was drowning, and at the same time, like he wasn't deep enough.
Mara.
She wrenched back, one hand clasped around her forehead, and he snapped back into action, but he was slow, it all still felt so slow.
"What is it?" he was asking.
"Nothing," she was lying,
And he understood there would always be secrets between them, and not all of them his.
He was no believer, but right then he wanted to be. He wanted to believe the old witch who'd said Mara would outlive him.
