I do not own Star Wars. Those greedy people at Disney do.
"She is, shall we say, an experiment." ―Palpatine.
The Force Works In Mysterious Ways.
Chapter 2 – The Emperor's Hand.
Mara Jade's life was never an easy one, but that was how she like it. She hated 'easy'! Easy was no challenge, it did not test her skills or her intellect, but most of all easy never pleased her master! So she relished the difficulties of her life. The more difficult the assignment, the more in her element she was. Which is why she hated the mundane ones.
The simple assignments, Take out a smuggler, Spy on an aristocrat, Etc, Etc. Those type of mission's never allowed her to receive any praise from her Emperor. No he only noticed and praised the most difficult ones. The ones that nobody else could pull off. Those pleased him, and so they pleased her.
For that was her life. To serve her Emperor, and help him bring peace and prosperity to the Empire. Still, when needed she weathered the mundane missions for those would only add to her record of effectiveness. So she could not have suspected that on a mission to take out a Spice Kingpin on Taris, that her life would take a turn for the worse.
That had been one standard year ago. The Mission had been going well, she had assumed the identity of a serving girl at a local cantata. Most payed her no mind, and those few who did, just assumed she was a teenage orphan from the lower city trying to make a living. Aside from the occasional pervert who would offer her credit's in exchange for a night with her.(Not that she would ever consent to bed anyone from this Shavit-hole of a world.) Everything was going smoothly.
For two standard months, she cased her target. Learning his movements, his habits, looking for exploitable openings in his security. The piece of filth, only seemed to have one exploitable weakness. He liked to handle his finances himself. That is to say, he didn't trust very many people with his money. But this was fortunate for her, as the man was also a creature of habit. And every Zhellday of the second week at exactly 1500 hours, he would personally take his credits to the local bank.
This created a small opening from when he exited the bank, to when he got in his speeder for a well placed sniper shot. No doubt that he had someone on his payroll in the bank to laundry his credits for him. She would have to inform the Emperor of this upon her return to the Imperial Palace.
So she would lie in wait in an adjacent building, and wait for her shot. The building she was using as a sniper roost was far enough away to allow her time to evacuate after taking out her mark. But not far enough away to impede her shot. The shot would have to be timed just right, as the man didn't just stand around outside the bank waiting to get shot. But she was confident in her skills to get the job done.
With the plan set in her mind, she lied in wait, sure enough. Like clock work, at exactly 1500 hours. Her mark entered the bank. Now all she had to do was wait for him to exit, and she would complete her mission. On the slim chance she fail, she could always resort to a more hands on approach.
She didn't much like the thought of it. As she had thus far, manged to avoid using her body to get to a target. But she was not naive, she knew she may one day have to give herself to someone to get close to them. If that was a sacrifice she had to make in the service of her Emperor, than she would make it without hesitation. But until such a time her body was her's and her's alone! So it would do her well not to miss!
Taking a deep breath, she steadied her DXR-6 disruptor rifle. A waited for the soon to be dead man to exit. She didn't have to wait long. She first spotted the Kingpin's bodyguards exit and scan the surroundings. Not that it would do them any good, she was using an advanced Stealth field generator, that would hide even her body heat. The only way she would be noticed would either be moving, or having someone trip over her, both not Kriffing likely.
The slime ball exited the bank after his goons had given him the all clear. This was it, two months of work, was about to come to a close. And she could return to her master with another successful mission under her belt. Putting the man in her cross hairs, took a deep breath than exhaled slowly. Squeezing the trigger of her rifle, she awaited the slight surprise of the rifle's recoil. Then she could beat a hasty retreat, to her ship, before the goons could trace the shot to this room. Sadly this is where things went very wrong for her, and life as she knew was changed forever.
Right as she felt the slight kick of her rifle, a pain she had never known lanced through her. Starting from her mind, but soon it fulled the whole of her body. She thrashed in agony, unaware that in her movements her stealth field generator had become dislodged. The Emperor's Hand couldn't stop the ear splitting scream that lift her throat, as she felt something that had been a part of her for as long as she could remember, being torn asunder.
Thankfully the sweet nothingness of oblivion overtook her and for awhile her world was darkness, where nothing mattered. Not her mission and whether or not she had been successful. Not what had caused this unfortunate turn of events. Not even the guards, quickly making their way to her location.
Mara awoke with a groan of pain, her body feeling sore and heavy. Opening her eyes, she tried to sit up. Wincing slightly as she did so, her ribs felt bruised. Shaking the cobwebs from her head, she took a good long look at her surroundings. Hoping to ascertain just where in the Seven Corellian Hells she was!
The last thing she remembered she had been about to take out a Drug lord. Then pain and now she was here. But just where was here?! Putting her hands on the ground, she felt dirt and dry dead grass beneath her fingers. It was dark there was no sunlight, with the only light coming from metal structures all around her. There was no sky, it appeared like giant metal roof covered everything for miles. It was with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she realized where she was... The Tarisian Undercity!
Before coming to Taris for her mission she had studied the planet's history. And what a colorful history it was! Taris much like Coruscant, was a Cityworld. But unlike Coruscant, this had a strange and cruel practice that it had kept until the planet was bombed by the Sith in the Jedi Civil War. They would banish their undesirables beneath the surface of the City. The more undesirable the person the lower they were banished. With the Undercity, being reserved for criminals and outcast!
The practice was done away with after the world had been rebuilt, but apparently Drug Cartels didn't get that memo. From what she understood the only ones who ever ventured down her now days was the occasional maintenance droid. And with good reason, Rakghouls! Rakghouls were horrible flesh eating mutants, that inhabited the Taris Undercity. What made them so bad though, was they could turn someone into one of them simply by biting them.
Luckily for her, the were much, much fewer in number than they had once been. Thanks mostly to a lack of steady food that they had once found in Tarisian Outcasts. But that didn't mean there weren't any around here. She needed to get back to the surface, before any of them stumbled upon her! But first she would need to make contact with her Master! She knew he would be greatly displeased with her failure, and she dreaded informing him. But knew she had no choice, he would be even more displeased with her if she didn't just own up.
It was then she made a horrible discovery. She could no longer communicate with her Emperor! It was as if their bond had been completely erased! This lead to an even worse discovery, if that was even possible. For now it seemed as if she could no longer consciously touch the Force. Thankfully for her, her survival instincts kick in, and she shook her head to clear it. She couldn't wast time on this right now, first she needed to get out of here. Then she could figure out just what in the Kriff was going on!
Standing to her feet, she ignored the pain for her body. Whomever had deposited her down here, had NOT been very gentle about it. Checked herself over for her weapons and equipment only to curse out loud, when she saw that they had been stripped for her. Up to and including her lightsaber! It would seem that she was going to have to get out of this one on her brains alone.
Spotting a lift door not far from her, no doubt the one she had been thrown from. She made her way towards it. Only to curse once again, when she saw that it had no call button or access panel. Apparently it needed a remote to call the lift. This was not going to be as easy as she had thought. So she began looking for some kind of vent, or any other type of way up.
Twelve standard hours of looking, and Mara Jade elite assassin for Emperor Palpatine was as close as she had come to tears in a very long time! But she would not allow them to fall! She may only be sixteen, but she was also one of the deadliest beings in the galaxy. She was Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand and was far from being helpless! She just needed to keep looking. She would find a way up, and then she would make the ones who put her in this position pay dearly!
So steadying herself, she began her trek across the Undercity of Taris. Looking for her way up. But it was all for naught, she found nothing! Soon thirst then hunger began to gnaw at her, then sleepiness. For two or three days(but felt even longer) she walked. When she was sleepy she would find any enclosed space that she could to hide and sleep, but there was nothing she could do about the thirst and hunger. For there was nothing she could eat or drink down here.
It was around the third day, at least she suspected it was the third day. It was hard to keep track down here. She began to get delirious, seeing and hearing things that weren't really there. It was around this time, that she experienced a vision. The first of many to come, but dismissed it due to her delirium. The vision showed a young man in a desert world. She couldn't make out a lot about him other, than he was blond and around her age.
It was on the fourth day, that she began to resign herself to death. And was about to collapse from the thirst and hunger, that she saw it! The thing that might be her salvation, a SHIP! She knew it wasn't a hallucination, for she doubted she would hallucinate a ship so busted! But busted or not it was a ship and a ship meant a galley, and a galley meant a Food Synthesizer!
If she had been in her right state of mind, she would have noted that the ship looked ancient and that the very City of Taris seemed to have been built around it! Indicating that the ship was even older than the rebuilt City-planet! But none of that mattered to her now. Running as fast as her tired and worn body would carry her, she headed to the ship. Some type of Cruiser of ancient design.
Climbing into the ship through a small tare in the side, she had to wait a second as her eyes adjusted to total darkness. Feeling around the bulkhead of the ship she stumbled upon and ancient computer console. She let out a breath of relieve as the console powered on. Thanking the Force, that how ever busted and old this ship may be, it still had some power left in it.
Bringing up the schismatics of the ship. She saw that there was enough power left in it, to power the lights and life support for a little less than a year. But that was more than enough for her. Setting the power to the appropriate areas of the ship, she than brought up a map, that would lead her to the main food galley. Fifteen minutes later, and she was gorging herself on a Melahnese cuisine of Fodu in Green Fire Sauce. The Food Synthesizer desperately needed cleaning, but she didn't care. At that moment it was the best food she had ever eaten.
After she had eaten and drank her fill, she began looking for a safe place to sleep. Going to a near by console she once again brought up a map of the ship. Finding out on what level the living quarters were on this ship. She headed there, it was along the way. That she started to notice things, now that she was thinking more clearly. There were tall tale signs of fighting all around this ship. This ship didn't just crash, it was in a battle. And had obviously been boarded.
She could clearly make out the scorch marks of blaster fire, the damaged of grenades, and unless she was mistaken. What looked like lightsaber cuts, in the walls of the ship. Force-Sensitives had fought here! Shaking off her thoughts, she continued to her destination. Promising to herself, that she would go through the ship's logs at some point.
Reaching the room, that she had pick out on the map. She thanked the Force that it was relatively undamaged. Things were, a bit thrown around thanks to the crash landing. But nothing that couldn't be straightened out. She had picked this room for one very important reason, it had its own Refresher! She really hoped it had a sanisteam and not a sonic.
Thirty minutes later, her quarters was straightened up and she was sighing in relieve after a good long sanisteam. It felt so good to be full, clean and in a nice comfortable bunk! For the first time in days she felt hopeful. Now all she had to do was find a way up. She would explore more of the ship tomorrow, to see if she could find something to help her. But for now she really needed a good night's sleep.
She dreamed of the boy again, this time he was racing what appeared to be a T-16 Skyhopper through a Canyon. She watched as he navigated the twits and turns of the canyon with flawless precision. Whoever he was, he was a very skilled pilot. This time she paid more attention to what he looked like.
She had to admit that he was very attractive looking. He was tall, with sun bleached blond hair. With deep soulful blue eyes, that held a gentleness to them that she had rarely seen in another human being. Yet at the same time they were guarded, and spoke of someone who knew he was strong, and knew he could really hurt someone if he wanted. She had seen those type of eyes in older Stormtroopers, who had fought in the Clone Wars. The were the eye's of a warrior.
But who was this boy? And why in the Force was she dreaming about him? Before she could learn anything else about the boy, she awoke from her vision. Setting up in the bunk. Mara took a moment to collect her thoughts. It was the first time in awhile, that she could truly focus on her thoughts and trying to figure out what had landed her in the position she was now in.
Obviously after she had passed out from the pain, some of the Drug lords thugs had traced the shot. And found her passed with the rifle that had been fired. At first she wondered why they hadn't just simply killed her. Then she realized that they must have wanted her to suffer, but didn't want to get their hands dirty doing it themselves. Giving her to the Rakghouls, would certainly constitute suffering.
But the question remind. What was that pain?! The only answer she could come up with that made any since, was that it came from her bond with her master being severed. But that brought up a new question. Why had her bond been severed? There were only two likely conclusions. One, her Master had died. Or Two, He severed it himself. She knew it wasn't the Former, as she would have known if her Master had been killed. She was sure of it. So this left the later, he had severed it. But why?
Obviously she had somehow greatly displeased him. But she couldn't for the Force think of what she could have done or not done, to displease him. And speaking of The Force, why was it that she could no longer control it of her own free will? She had never had a problem touching it before. The only explanation she could come up with, was that it was further punishment from her Master. She would have to find away to get back into her Masters good graces somehow.
Pushing further speculation out of her mind. Mara Jade started to get dressed in the ragged remains of her body suit and armor. That was another thing she needed to do, find some new clothes. This was obviously a military ship. So there should be some uniforms and even better, weapons she could use! With that in mind, she left the room and began to explore the ship.
As she continued her exploring, she saw even more signs of the battle that took place onboard this ship. All she could think as she observed the damage done was that it must have been one hell of a fight. It was at this point that she found something that made her think maybe the Force hadn't forsaken her after all. A Lightsaber!
Rushing to the cylindrical object, she pick it up and began to inspect it for damage. The weapon was archaic at best, but seemed to suffer no noticeable damage. Taking a deep breath, she hit the activation. She watched as a glowing blade of brilliant bronze sprang forth, before it sputtered and died.
"Shavit!" She cursed to herself. She would need to recharge the power cell. Oh well, it would take a little mechanical ingenuity. But she could do it.
Later in the cargo hold, she discovered some in a container that made her jaw drop. Fenelar armor! Fenelar armor was extremely rear, as the species that made it had long been extinct. But what few sets of it remained were easily worth a fortune, as it was made with phrik. Phrik was one of the few materials that was Lightsaber resistant. Looking over the armor she saw that not only was it for female use, it was also her exact size! Which was either the biggest coincidence in galactic history, or the Force really was looking out for her. She hoped it was the latter! Slipping out of her old Armor, she dawned the new set. She couldn't help but be amazed at just how light it was, and it barley restricted any of her movement. With a renewed vigor, she began looking through other cargo containers.
By the time she was finished searching the ship, she was very upbeat. She had not only found the ship's Armory, which was full of Blasters, VibroBlades, and all types of grenades. But she had also found a droid maintenance bay. This by itself would not have been all that significant, had she not also come across several deactivated Patrol Droids. Which would defiantly come in handy if any Rakghouls came sniffing around the ship, which she had learned from the ships logs, was named the Endar Spire. And had been shot down right around the time the Sith had bombed this planet.
She had also come up with an idea that might speed up her search for a way up. It would take about a week to prepare, than all she would have to do is wait. Right now though she was eating a good lunch, and reading a datapad she had found in her search. It turn out to be the private journal of an ancient Jedi named Bastila Shan. She was quickly becoming engrossed in the Journal. It was a shame this woman was a Jedi and long dead, as Mara could see the two of them were almost kindred spirits. They had so much in common.
Still even if she were alive, she would be an enemy of her Emperor and therefore her enemy as well. But still, enemy or not, she couldn't bring herself to put down the Journal. It was as she was reading that she came across a part that went into detail about a Force Power, that made her almost invaluable to the Jedi Order. Battle Meditation.
Battle Meditation, was a Force ability which considerably boosted the morale, stamina, and overall battle prowess of an individual's allies while simultaneously reducing the opposition's combat-effectiveness by eroding their will to fight. With it one could coordinate entire fleets of ships, allowing them to perform at maximum efficiency, acting as a single entity with the ability to counter every enemy move quickly and effectively.
Mara was stunned at such an ability. If she could regain the use of her Force ability and learn this technique. Than her Master was sure to welcome her back! But that would have to be put off till later. Right now she needed to get started on her plan to get out of here.
The first step in her plan was to reactivate the Patrol Droids and program them to target Rakghouls. This took her one full day and a half to achieve. And not a moment too soon, for the very next day a small band of the foul creatures got a little to close for comfort. This made her decide to put recharging the Lightsaber, as her next priority. It took her over half a day to rig up a charger for the Lightsaber's power cell, but in her mind at least, it was time well spent.
The finial step in her plan was to use the parts in the Droid bay, to create Scouting Remotes. She chose remotes over regular Droids, as remotes were much smaller and faster. Therefore harder for a mindless Rakghoul to hit. As predicted it took her about a week to make ten of them, but once she was done. She sent them out in all different directions, hoping one would find a way up.
Now all she could do was wait, and wait she did. As days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. In that time she would have gone around the bend if she didn't have Sphere to keep her company. Sphere was a Remote that she had built in what she believed was her second or maybe third month here.(She had done lost track). Unlike the scouting remotes she had built. Sphere was more multipurpose, it could preform maintenance, help her slice into computer systems, and could even be used in combat.
Also in that time she had, had more dreams of the boy. She had learned his name was, Luke. And that Luke, was a Farmboy from Tatooine. It was strange, but she had began to feel an almost closeness with him. Despite having never truly met him, From her visions she had learned that Luke, was honest, hard working, brave, and occasionally reckless. If she were being honest with herself, she would admit that she had started to develop a small attraction to the boy. To bad for both of them she was not the dating kind.
But still, she came to look forward to her occasional peak into his life. At least that was until her last vision, had revealed a horrible truth about the boy. She had witnessed Luke and and older man sparing out on the sand dunes. Not just any sparing, no, sparing with Lightsabers!
Luke was a Jedi! An enemy of the Empire... her enemy! This cased her to squash all feelings she had begun to develop for the young man. Even though it made no logical sense, as the two of them had never really met. She could help feeling betrayed by him.
Why couldn't he have been the simple innocent Farmboy she had thought? Why did it have to be a lie? She had almost come to envy his simple way of life. But it was all falsehoods. He was a Jedi, and therefore he had to die... and she would be the one to do it! For her Emperor she would kill, Luke and his Master. There was a silver lining to this, if she killed Luke and his Jedi Master, the Emperor would surly take her back as his Hand. Though once again if she were honest with herself. She would admit this silver lining felt hollow.
She was about to head for the fresher, when a sound that she had just about given up on hearing, interrupted her. It was the sound of the datapad she had linked the scout remotes to. Rushing over to where the datapad laid, she grabbed at it with shaking hands. Reading over the message, she let out a very uncharacteristic, if not completely understandable, whoop of joy.
One of her remotes had finally done it. Had found her a way up and out of the Undercity! That was the good news. The bad news however was the the area the exit was located in was a sewer crawling with Rakghouls! It seemed as the only way to go up was to go down. But if she had to fight an army of mutants to get out of this hell hole, than by the Force that's what she would do!
The next morning, she loaded a speeder bike that she had repaired for just this occasion with Sphere and all the supplies she would need, and left the Endar Spire for finial time. One way or another she would never see this ship again!
It took eighteen full hours of driving the bike at insane speeds, but she made it to her destination. Look at the entrance to the sewer, she took a deep calming breath. With any luck the stealth field generator she had found on the Endar Spire would keep the Rakghouls from noticing her, and if not? Well, she was packing a small arsenal of weapons. Giving the signal for Sphere to cloak himself, doing likewise herself. With that out of the way, they descended into the sewers and into their only hope for freedom.
It was situations like this that made her sometimes wish she wasn't an elite agent. After all, a Holovid star or musician, wouldn't likely find themselves in a dark damp smelly sewer with flesh eating monsters. Well in all fairness she wouldn't have either, if her mission had just gone the way it was supposed to. That drug lord had better already be dead when she got back to the surface, or she was going to have a lot of fun making him that way for all the trouble he had caused!
She had been in this sewer only fifteen minutes, and already had to sneak pass five Rakghoul packs. Which consisted of about four Rakghouls apiece Surprisingly she was thankful for the rather atrocious smell of the sewer, as it seemed to make it more difficult for the Raks to locate her through sent. That being said, she was still having to move at a very slow pace, to avoid make any undue noise. Which would give her away in an instant.
But still, if things kept going as they were. Then she just might make it out of here, without having to fight any of them. At least that was what she thought, before she made her nest turn! There, blocking the exact passage she needed to take, was no less than eight Rakghouls. They looked to be eating, what she could only guess used to be Tach.
This was not good! There was absolutely noway she could sneak pass them without bumping into at least one or two of them. That meant she would have to kill them. The only problem with that was, there wasn't a way to do that silently in this situations. She could use her lightsaber, but with that many of them packed that close together.. it wouldn't be that advisable.
She could try to use a blaster, but that would take to long and give one or two of them a chance to make it to her location. No, the only choice she could think of that would work was a grenade. And that meant her sneaking through the sewer was at an end! For once the grenade went boom, than every Rakghoul in the sewer was going to start to make their way to her at top speed. She was going to have to finish this journey in a dead run! Which would sadly cause her stealth field to fail.
Back tracking just a little, she set up a few proximity mines. Just a little surprise for any Raks that came at her from behind. With that out of the way she pulled out a frag grenade, it was a good thing they were packed so close together as just one should do the trick. Arming the grenade, she threw it with practiced ease right into their midst.
Once it was in the air, she duck behind an alcove and plugged her ears. Within the span of a few seconds a large bangshook the area. Not wasting any time she grabbed her saber in her right hand and a blaster in her left, and ran like the fires of hell were on her heals.
"Sphere! Fly ahead and take out any Rakghouls you see!" She shouted to the floating remote. Sphere gave a few tweets in binary, and floated off to do as his mistress commanded.
Mara ran without stopping, even when she heard three distinct booms. Telling her that her Proximity mines had detonated. As she ran down the corridor, she would pass the bodies of dead Rakghouls that Sphere had taken out. When she did make it to the surface that little remote was getting any upgrade it wanted!
She rounded another corner only to stumble upon a large pack of Rakghouls that Sphere was still trying to take out. In the remotes defense these Raks seemed to be a bit quicker the the usual ones. And he had managed to take out three, leaving five left over to deal with. She would need to be careful as one good scratch or bite from one of these mutants was enough to infect and turn someone into one of them.
Thinking quick, she lobed a Stun grenade at the vile beasts, then took cover. Once it detonated she sprang from her cover, taking out two of the creatures with two well aimed shots from her blaster. Before the things could recover. Sphere took out one more. Before she could take out the other two, they recovered. Finally taking notice of her, they lunged at her.
Spinning gracefully out of the way, she took out one with her lightsaber and the other with a shot to the back of it's head. She paused only for a second to catch her breath, before she was back to running, Sphere right behind her. She was close to her destination now, only a couple hundred more feet and she should be there. She heard Sphere let out a series of worried sounding beeps. Turning her head to see what was up, she let out the most crude curse words she knew.
There behind them and gaining fast was no less then twenty Rakghouls! She was almost there now. Another turn and fifty more feet, and she would be at the lift. By they would be overran before then if she didn't do something!
"Sphere, fly ahead and open the lift!" She yelled to the remote. She had to hope this lift worked as what she was about to do would make going back impossible. But she had no choice, she was that desperate!
Pulling a Thermal Detonator, she set the delay for thirty seconds and threw it behind her without looking. Putting every last bit of her energy into her run, she made for the lift counting down in her head all the while. 30,29,28,27...
15,14,13.. She took her last turn, there in front of her was the lift. But it still wasn't open! Which meant it either didn't work or the lift was making it's way to them! Hoping beyond hope that it was the later. She ran towards the lift and Sphere. 5,4,3..
This was it she was either going to die in an explosion or finally be free of this place! The lift door opened with a snap hiss. Praying this worked she lunged into the lift, hitting the door button as she did so. 1...
"BOOM!"
Mara closed her eyes, as she saw the light of the explosion racing towards them. And could already feel the heat on her skin. But before it could reach them, the door snapped shut, and the lift started to speed toward the surface of the city. Mara almost wanted to cry! She had made it. She was Free!
Now she could focus on winning her way back into the Emperor's good graces, which she realized, sadly meant killing Luke and his Master. But first,... She had a drug lord to pay a visit too.
(A.N) Well, what do you think? Originally I was just going to give a quick run down of what Mara had been doing when she found out about Luke, you know, just a quick back story. That was only going to be a few paragraphs long, before getting into her confrontation with Luke. But as is sometimes the case the story took on a life of its own once I started writing it. And well this was the final result. I hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter picks back up with Luke and Mara facing each other.
Oh yeah to answer a question that was asked of me. Mike, Luke's green bladed Lightsaber didn't travel back in time with him, he just recreated it. In canon, Luke created his green lightsaber in Obi-Wan's old hut. He just did it sooner this time around.
Well that's all for now. Please review.
Reddog24485.