Week 7: Truth
(Mara Jade)
No Turning Back
The problem with truth is that once you learn it, you are never the same again.
It comes in many forms, truth - Facts. Knowledge. Understanding.
Acceptance.
For her, embracing the mantle of the Jedi was not the fulfillment of some nebulous destiny - Mara Jade did not believe in predestination - but rather the acceptance of the life she wanted. The choice she claimed as her own.
She knelt before friends and colleagues as the title of Knight was conferred upon her and the truth she had fought for years settled into her soul: that she was truly master of her fate.
No Backing Down
"No survivors." That's what the press release said.
The last remaining victim of the Yuuzhan Vong disease, the only other one living, was dead and Mara faced the unforgiving truth that she could be next. Any sensible woman would've started making preparations, writing final letters, putting affairs in order. And Mara considered herself to be a very sensible woman.
But not this time. She had never shied away from a fight in her life and she wasn't about to start now.
Mara crumpled the news flimsi in her hand and tossed it into the trash.
Never believe everything you read.
Nowhere To Run
Whoever said Truth Is A Liberator had never faced a devastating truth.
Palpatine had lied to her. The realization of his betrayal pierced and gutted her. Flattened her. Withdrew everything she held sacred in her heart and scattered it to the cold, mocking winds.
Skywalker sat there in damned, compassionate understanding and she knew his words were true, but she wanted to rip them from his throat and leave him bleeding and raw.
She tried to run. She ran until the daylight was gone and she fumbled, stumbling in the dark.
But you can't run from what is inside you.
No One To Trust
For as long as she could remember, he had extended his weathered hand to her and called her "child." Cushioned and secluded in her life of favor and privilege, she was safe. He was her world.
Until he was gone and there was no one to fill his place. She had no friends, no family. No refuge or confidant.
It was a hard galaxy - her service to the Emperor had taught her that - but it had never been hard for her until the walls of her shelter crumbled and she faced the world for what it truly was.
No Place To Hide
Luke had once offered to help her recover her lost memories. She'd seen no point in doing so at the time, but now that she was older - now that she had a child of her own - she wondered. What had happened to her parents? What would it take for her to surrender her son?
Thus far, she'd lived with the lies told by her childhood caregivers. Lies, she could handle. Lies could be ignored.
The truth could be tragically simple. Or equally horrible. What if it was too painful to know?
That's the problem with truth. You can't un-know it.