Demendora: You're so right. Luke lost his way when he lost Mara. He needs something to get him back on the right path. I guess the Force, too, works in mysterious ways. ;) Thanks!
Jedi-Lover: Girl, you know my m.o. too well. LOLOL! Thanks for peeping in!
salanderjade: You are so right! Mara is nothing if not practical. That's why I had her give Luke the clothes. And I love how you describe Luke with his 'head in the clouds'. Never his mind on where he is and what he's doing! And that's totally why she wants to kill him, I agree. I'm so glad that came off well and thank you so much for your wonderful comments. I hope that 'Death' won't be too hard to read. It should probably be titled, "After Death" since it deals with the aftermath, but I like the idea of the interludes being Birth, Death and... (spoiler) Love.
EmeraldEyedJedi: Your 'oh snap' made me LOL! I love it. Yes, it is embarrassing, especially after that kiss! Thank you!
Ellaisintheair: I agree! It makes me angry that Luke the character gets the blame for the crazy things the profic authors make him do. Stating that there is no dark side? Um, I'm not sure which movie those authors were watching, but it couldn't have been the Star Wars with Luke Skywalker that I watched! So that's what I'm trying to do... give him a blank slate to start over, well, not a blank slate but just a new feeling of purpose. Union makes me sad, too. So much hope after VOTF and then... well, meh. I'm so glad you're continuing to enjoy! I am finishing up work on chapters 14 and 15. Once they're done I will start posting 2x a week to speed things up! Thanks!
Curtis Zidane Ziraa: Hey, you! Thanks for popping in twice! You're so right. Luke doesn't know anything about this device. He could only hope that it would send him back. And now that it hasn't... Well, you know what they say about shavit and fans. ;)
Endor Solo: You know ginchy's a soft touch! And that I love Luke to distraction. LOL Thank you!
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'Death' is set prior to the beginning of EoA and is meant to show you the mindset of both Luke and Mara before the story begins. I hope it fills in some blanks. Thanks for reading, all!
Death
ALT 33 ABY
"He's asking to see you." Leia's dark eyes were concerned as she looked at Mara. "They said he's constantly asking for you, and the children."
Mara flinched almost invisibly, but set her mouth and shook her head. "Luke is dead, Leia. I watched his body disappear. All that was left was his hand and clothing. He's dead."
"I know," Leia soothed. She sat down next to Mara. "But this one…he seems to know so much about us, about Luke…"
"He read it on the HoloNet."
"Some of the things, though, about our father and our time in the Rebellion, seem so real. I guess I'm just projecting my own hope onto him."
Han entered the room with three glasses. He handed them to the women as he sat across from them. "We're just wasting our time going to see this lunatic," he said, his face dark.
Mara nodded in agreement and took a drink, smirking at Han when she finished her swallow. "Whyren's. Thanks. I needed that."
He gave her his infamous lopsided grin. "I think we all do, sister. I'm getting real tired of all these Luke wannabes showing up claiming to be the Kid."
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42 ABY
"Ben?" Luke asked through the door of Ben's room, knocking on it lightly. "Everything okay in there?"
"Leave me alone."
Luke heaved a sigh. Ben had just returned from an extended mission. He'd been livid to find that Luke moved them from the Temple to an apartment in another district. They fought and Ben retreated to his room. "I'm sorry that I didn't discuss moving with you. I just… Ben, I couldn't stay there any longer."
The room remained silent. He tried to reach out to his son through the Force, but as usual Ben was hiding his presence. After a long moment of trying, he gave up. He went into his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the wall. Mara's murder had decimated the already fragile relationship between himself and his son. He had never expected his life to turn out like this, that he would be a widower with a distant son in a galaxy that was once again in ruins around him.
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The trip to Ossus didn't take long in the Falcon. Ben had stayed home with Betrys, who had just celebrated her twenty-first birthday. She had been angry to hear that yet another man was claiming to be her father and refused to talk about it. She had the tendency to withdraw into herself, just like Luke had. Mara knew she would have to bully the pain out of Bets when she returned.
She wasn't sure why they were going to see this man, just another in a long string of men who pretended to be Luke since he died. The universal outpouring of grief after his death had been expected. He had been in the public eye for so long, the hero that the public had needed. There had been a State funeral and a private Jedi one, but here and there over the galaxy there had been memorials and statues erected. Every anniversary of his death led to HoloNet programming describing Luke's life and achievements. But the one thing Mara hadn't counted one was the sheer number of people who would come forward and claim to actually be Luke.
The first time she had been so angry that she punched the pretender in the face. After that she became almost accustomed to it, efficiently proving that each fake Luke was indeed a pretender. But it didn't make it any easier on her, to go through this time and again. Just when she would start to heal, another blond man would get a delusion of grandeur and take up her time.
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Ben deigned to come out of his room when Han and Leia stopped by for dinner. They had taken to doing that often, stopping in to see how Luke was doing. He appreciated the gesture, but didn't know how to tell them that it almost made his heart ache more to watch them interact and talk, to be the couple they'd always been.
He didn't begrudge them their happiness. They had lost more than anyone with the death of Anakin. But Luke was back to feeling like the third wheel.
"Hey, Kid." Han punched him lightly in the shoulder. "What's going on with you guys?"
Ben started talking about his recent mission, relating a humorous story that had Han chuckling. Luke bit back jealousy at how easily Ben conversed with his uncle. They had always been that way, close in a way that he and Ben hadn't.
When had things gone so wrong? He caught Leia's eye and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but he didn't feel reassured at all. Everything was falling apart and he had no idea how to fix it.
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It had taken even less time to debunk this faker than it had the others. He didn't even carry a passing resemblance to Luke and had gotten all of his information from an underground biography of Luke's life.
Han squeezed Mara's hand before taking his seat in the captain's chair to take them home. Mara sat on the couch in the lounge, the anger inside threatening to bubble out. Why did this keep happening? When would people move on and leave them alone?
Leia came and sat next to her on the couch, her disappointment noticeable through the Force. "I knew it wasn't him…but I just miss him so much, I guess."
"Me too," Mara whispered. "When he said that he had a message for me, that he knew Luke's last words to me…" She tried to stop the angry tears that leaked out of her eyes, but couldn't. "His last words were not 'I love you'. I should have known."
Eyes full of sympathetic tears, Leia gave a sad smile. "Everyone thinks his last words were 'I love you'. But, I've never asked—what were they?"
Mara took a deep breath, eyes far away as if in remembrance. "'It'll be okay, my love…'" She sniffled. "I don't think he expected the parade of wannabes that would insist on putting me through this every couple of years."
Leia hugged an arm around her and patted her shoulder. "I think he knew you would have the kids, and me and Han. But I'm so sorry, Mara…"
Mara wiped at the tears and pulled back from Leia's embrace. Her eyes were still glassy, but she gave Leia a wry smile. "I guess it just hurts because, for just a moment, I let myself wonder… 'what if?'."