Disclaimer: Disney owns it now, but I neither know nor care what they're vomiting out these days. I use only Legends in my fics.

"Our enemies make us, and we make them."

Jal Shey proverb

Chapter 2:

Then...Five Months Ago, Zhar system

Two heavily modified freighters—a Suwantek TL-1800 and a CEC YT-1300—dropped out of hyperspace in the Zhar system, named after a gas giant in the system by the same name. The planet Zhar had a dozen moons, only two of which were habitable—Gall, which had the Imperial Enclave, and Kile which was on the far size of Zhar from Gall.

Luke would have preferred everyone traveling in the Falcon, but the Suwantek had one major advantage over the Falcon—it already possessed a docking cradle for Starfighters, meaning that one wouldn't have to be jury-rigged up to hold his X-Wing. Now Luke noticed on the Suwantek's sensors a dozen more X-Wings approaching their position and the comm. crackled to life.

"Is that you Luke? Where'd you pick up that trash heap?"

Mara's eyes flashed and Luke quickly spoke into the comm. "Hello Wedge. This ship belongs to a…new friend of mine, let's say. And while this ship may not look like much, appearances can be deceiving."

"Sure, whatever," said Wedge

"So, how are things going?"

"Oh, you know," Wedge said, "Another day, another credit—before taxes of course. I hope you've got something interesting cooked up, things have been rather slow lately."

Luke undocked his X-Wing for the final approach and landing. The ships headed to and landed at the secret base Rogue Squadron's techs had established on Kile. The base wasn't much, just some hastily assembled prefab buildings with basic amenities. They found Dash Rendar lying in a chair, apparently sleeping but he leapt to his feet when they approached.

"Princess," Dash said with a sweeping theatrical bow," Welcome to our humble castle."

Leia rolled her eyes, "Turn off the charm, Rendar," she said, "My cousin Javul told me all about you."

"Only good things I hope," Dash said with a roguish smirk, "how is she, by the way?"

"Last I heard she was fine," Leia replied.

Lando was looking back and forth between them and finally raised an eyebrow at Leia, "Cousin Javul? I thought your family died on Alderaan?"

"My adopted family died on Alderaan," Leia corrected him, "Well, except for Winter of course, but she was adopted too. Javul Charn is—,"

"—Javul Charn?" Lando exclaimed, eyes widening. Luke and Mara also stared at Leia, surprised. "The HoloNet star? She's your cousin?"

"Yes, she is," said Leia.

"I met Luke on Hoth," said Dash and turned to Mara with another bow, "But I don't think I've ever seen you before, fair lady."

Now it was Mara's turn to roll her eyes; she crossed her arms.

Lando made the introductions, "Dash, this is Mara Jade; Mara, is this is Dash Rendar—thief, card cheat, smuggler, and an okay pilot."

Dash's grin increased, "What do you mean, 'okay', Calrissian? I could fly rings around you in a one-winged hopper with a plugged jet."

"Modest too, I see," Mara said drolly.

Dash gave another bow, "I see the lady has a keen eye to go with her stunning beauty."

"Bottle the serpent oil, Dash," Lando said. "Let's take care of business."

"First good idea you've had in years, Lando," Dash said.

Wedge powered up a holoprojecter and began reviewing the recon data they and Rendar had collected, including maps of the moon's surface and the Enclave itself. They'd identified the docking bay where Fett's ship was landed. With two Impstar Dueces guarding the enclave, there were a total of one hundred and forty-four TIES, making the odds just slightly better than 12-to-1.

It was best, Luke decided, to keep things simple and so he presented his idea. The others looked at him as if he'd suddenly announced he could fly by flapping his arms.

"What?" Luke said

"That's your plan, Skywalker?" Mara said, "Attack the Imperials head on at twelve-to-one odds as a diversion while loudmouth Rendar here leads the rest of us to Fett?"

"Okay, so it's simple—,"

"Simpleminded," said Mara. "Not to mention, crazy, suicidal, stupid—,"

Luke set his jaw and narrowed his eyes at her. "So, you have a better idea," Luke challenged her.

Mara started to say something, as the germ of an idea came to her, then hesitated as she realized it was an even stupider idea than Luke's; her Suwantek had a rack of false transponder codes, so it would be easy to use one to pose as free-traders—which wasn't such a bad idea by itself except for the fact that the Suwantek wasn't actually carrying any cargo, which would make it rather more difficult to pose as free-traders since they never operated their ship empty, they simply couldn't afford to. Other potential covers that occurred to her either posed similar problems or would take too long set up. And time was clearly an issue here as they only knew that Fett was on Gall at the moment and they didn't know his schedule; the longer they delayed to plan, the greater the risk that he would be gone before they could execute their plan.

"Well..." she began.

"That's what I thought," Luke said with a small note of triumph in his voice.

Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace

"At first," Lando said, "Things went as well as can be expected. In his ship the Outrider, Dash guided us toward the starport while Luke and the Rogues kept the Imperials occupied. Of course, even though we were flying at tree-top level and trying to remain inconspicuous, Dash still couldn't resist showing off."

"Of course not," Han agreed, "because then he wouldn't be Dash."

"Unfortunately," said Leia, "Dash bailed on us right as we found Slave I and we were unable to stop Fett from escaping. We barely managed to get out of there in one piece."

"Then there two more attempts to kill me," Luke said, "first when we were disengaging from the Imperials; Janson's astromech droid took control of his fighter and attempted to shoot me down."

"Why would it do that?" Han asked

"We were just as confused," said Luke, "But it turned out that the chief technician of the Rogues had been bribed to do so; she later attempted to shoot me but was killed. Tracking the money was...difficult."

Then…Five Months Ago, Rebel base Kile, Zhar system

"Well," Wedge said, "it seems there was a transfer for ten thousand credits into the chief's account a few days ago, just after Rogue Squadron arrived here. There was also second pending file of credit, most likely for the rest of the payment after the job was done."

"The money came from Buckley Investments," Lando said, "we checked the paperwork, it's a dummy corporation. We traced the money back through several more dummy corporations: Frontier Acquisitions, Celanon Finance, Delcas HoloVid and finally wound up with something called Saber Enterprises."

Mara frowned and said, "I'm not sure about the first two, but I know that those last three are fronts for Imperial Intelligence."

"So somebody in the Empire paid the chief to kill Luke," Leia said, "this has Vader's gloveprints all over it."

"No, it doesn't," Mara and Luke said simultaneously as they shook their heads, then glanced at each other. Luke gestured at Mara to go on, "first of all, those last three are specifically fronts for Renik, which is the counter-intelligence branch of Imperial Intelligence's Bureau of Operations; although Renik does carry out covert operations, they are always against other spies and spy rings. But Luke isn't a spy, so any official operation to kill him would have gone through the Assassination branch. And Assassination has its own shell corporations set up for this express purpose; there is literally no reason for them to use any of those belonging to Renik, let alone three of them in the same transaction. Furthermore, an official op would have done a much better job of covering its tracks; no, this looks much more like someone else trying to point the finger at the Empire."

Leia, Lando and Wedge all stared at Mara for a moment.

"I can see your reasoning," Leia admitted, "but this would mean that some outside agency managed to penetrate the Empire's own counter-intelligence outfit. Just how likely is that?"

"It wouldn't require full penetration," said Mara, "it wouldn't even require an inside agent, just one greedy bureaucrat in the right place."

"Perhaps," Leia said with a sigh.

"It also makes sense that it wouldn't be the Empire," Luke said, "because Darth Vader wants to recruit me, which he can't do if I'm dead."

"So who are your other enemies?" Lando asked. "I'm sure after three years in the Rebellion, you've got quite a list."

Luke furrowed his brow in thought, "Well, let's see, there's the Tagge Family—Domina Tagge specifically—,"

Mara placed her hands on her hands, "Let me guess, another old girlfriend who turned out to be a spy who wanted you dead or turned?"

Luke winced. "Not quite, but...close enough," he said.

"Do you have any old enemies besides Vader who aren't your old girlfriends?" Lando asked.

"Blackhole," Luke said.

Now Mara blinked. "Blackhole? When in the nine hells did you cross paths with him?"

Luke glanced at her curiously. "It wasn't in my dossier?"

"Not that I remember," Mara said, "but then it is a big file and I did skim parts of it, so I may have missed it."

"It's a long story," Luke replied, "But anyway, Blackhole doesn't hire assassins to do his dirty work."

"More than that," Mara added, "Blackhole is Ysanne Isard's boss, nominally at least, so he wouldn't have made the mistake of using Renik instead of Assassination."

"That can't be it," said Leia.

"Of my old enemies? No," Luke admitted, "But my old enemies who have the resources to arrange something like this and who are still alive? That's a much shorter list." It did not, for example, include people like Luke's childhood friend Janek Sunber who was an officer in the Imperial army.

"What about Jabba the Hutt?" Lando asked, "I mean, even if he has no reason to dislike you personally, Luke, he would know that you're Han's friend and thus bound to try and rescue him at some point, or do something to interfere with Fett's delivery—such as, say, rounding up some of your Rebel buddies for an operation like what we just tried."

"It's possible," Luke said, "Jabba certainly has the credits to hire people like the Pike Sisters. At any rate, it's something to look into."

Leia stared off into the distance. She'd already lost Han, she wasn't about to lose Luke too. He was too important to her and to the Alliance. Leia knew that she loved Han but she also loved Luke; she was starting to realize that it wasn't the same way as Han, but she still didn't want to see him hurt. And she had a feeling, an intuition, that these attempts on Luke's life were just the tip of something much bigger and much deeper.

Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace

"And so," said Leia, "That was about when I got the bright idea to go ask Black Sun for information."

"Black Sun?" Han exclaimed, "Leia, you don't want to get into bed with them; Black Sun is dangerous."

"Yes, we know," said Lando, "And I told her as much."

"Both Winter and Javul have told me all about their own run-ins with Black Sun," Leia said, "I knew the risks but neither the Bothans nor the Alliance had heard anything about the assassination attempts on Luke."

Lando said, "I took her and Chewie to Rodia, where I have a Black Sun contact at a casino."

"Oh, naturally," Han said dryly.

"The rest of us," said Luke, "returned to Tatooine where I spent a few days in seclusion meditating to complete my lightsaber."

Then...Five Months Ago, Obi-Wan's house, Tatooine

Luke emerged holding his new lightsaber and pressed the button. A green beam of light erupted from it. Luke held his hand close to it, felt no heat, nodded and then gave his new lightsaber a few experimental swings. It felt like an extension of his body, even better balanced for him than his old one.

"Farmboy," Mara greeted him as she emerged from the Suwantek, "You're finally done."

"How long was I in there?"

"Almost three days," said Mara.

In total, from to start to finish, it had taken Luke an entire month to finish the lightsaber. Obi-Wan's journal said that a Jedi Master could build one in just two days if he was in a hurry, but Luke knew that he still had a ways to go before he reached that level.

"So," Mara continued with a little smirk, "Feel up to a little sparring?"

Luke grinned, "You're on."

Mara ignited her own purple lightsaber; they switched the blades to low power so a hit would only sting and they took up stances. For a moment they locked gazes and circled around each other. Then Mara lifted her lightsaber and charged. Luke raised his blade and blocked her strike, then used the momentum to counter-attack; the blow would have smashed through her guard if she hadn't stepped back. Again they circled. Mara attacked again, this time with low cut towards Luke's chest. Luke turned the lightsaber to point down and blocked, then continued driving forward towards Mara, who again stepped back out of the way.

Again they circled. Mara cut to Luke's side. Luke half-extended his arm to again point his lightsaber at a downward angle and stopped her. This time the blades locked for a moment as did the gazes, in a struggle that was equal parts physical and psychological. Again Mara stepped back but this time only feigned retreat and instead immediately cut towards Luke's head. Luke halted his planned counter-attack midstroke and brought his lightsaber blade up almost horizontally and again their blades locked, this time with their faces mere inches part. Mara pulled back again, evading Luke's riposte, and they continued circling.

"You fight like Vader," Mara observed.

"I'm not sure how to take that," said Luke.

Mara launched herself into the air, flipping herself over Luke's head to strike at his back. But Luke pivoted on his heels and batted aside Mara's strike, using the momentum to try and distrup her grip on the lightsaber. But Mara managed to hold onto it and completed her flip, landing on her feet. "I mean," Mara continued, "that you're letting me press the attack, always counter-attacking but not pressing your own attack; he also does that alot."

Thinking about it for a moment, Luke realized that she had a point. In their initial confrontation on Cloud City, Vader had allowed him to press the attack and mostly only counter-attacked. It was only after Vader had been knocked off the carbon-freezing platform that he had become much more aggressive and forced Luke onto the defense.

Mara raised her lightsaber, about to launch another attack, when she suddenly hesitated. Luke was about to take advantage of that to press his own offensive when he sensed it too, something or someone was coming—something dangerous.

Acting purely on instinct Luke and Mara turned so that their backs were now to each other and switched their lightsabers back to normal. It started as a distant drone, faint but growing louder every second until it became an echoing racket and Luke finally recognized the source: swoops.

Swoops were similar to speeder bikes but that was like comparing a child's tricycle to a mountain bike; little more than engines with seats and controls, they were fast and maneuverable but difficult to control. Swoops were favored by many criminal gangs like the Nova Demons and the Dark Star Hellions; not everyone who rode them was an outlaw—Luke himself had spent a lot of time riding one as a teen—but there was no other explanation for why a more than a dozen swoops would be out here in the middle of nowhere.

The riders wore protective goggles, shock helmets and mismatched flight suits; fully half weren't even in flight suits, but the simple grey clothes usually worn by freight handlers. All had the same insignia on their jackets, which looked vaguely familiar to Luke but he couldn't quite place it, and they were all armed with blasters.

One of them raised his blaster and fired. Neither Luke nor Mara bothered even trying to block the bolt because it hit the sand in front of them, turning it into muddy glass. Another biker yelled above the racket, "Blow them to Bespin, boys!"

The swoopers roared in, snapping shots at them. Still filled with the Force, Luke and Mara whirled their lightsabers in a blur of motion, deflecting all of the shots. Two of the riders were close now, firing again; one missed and Luke redirected the other's shot back at the first one. The dead swooper fell off his bike and a slash from Luke's lightsaber damaged the swoop, sending it colliding with its neighbor, whose rider jumped free at the last second. One bike was smashed and useless, the other was damaged but not usable.

Mara swung her lightsaber in a feint and then slammed her boot into a rider, toppling the attacker from his swoop. She hopped onto the swoop, grabbed ahold of the handlebars and restarted the engine. She spun the swoop in a one-eighty, pointed it at a spiky alien wielding a giant axe, and opened wide the throttle. She was nearly unseated by the sudden acceleration but managed to stay in the seat. The axman's weapon shattered when it hit her lightsaber; Mara drove past him and used her lightsaber to sever the thruster control line of another nearby swoop, sending it spinning out of control and into the path of another swoop, and they smashed into each other and crashed.

The now weaponless spiky alien approached Luke but his attention was focused on turning back towards Mara; Luke took advantage of that and knocked the alien out of his own swoop, hopped onto it, pulled the ring to restart it and raced after Mara. This drew the attention of the leader, who used several hand-signals. The swoopers scattered and reformed.

Luke belted his lightsaber and donned a pair of spare goggles that had been clipped to the handlebar. He caught up with Mara and noted that she had done the same with her lightsaber and was also wearing goggles. Luke gave her a signal to follow his lead; she nodded and then Luke opened up the afterburners. A good swoop could reach speeds of 600 kph; they'd be at Beggar's Canyon in minutes.

'Let's see them catch me on my own turf,' Luke thought with a grin. He'd explored every nook and cranny of that canyon as a teen.

First up was a route called 'Main Avenue' which went mostly straight for about two kilometers and then made a sudden sharp right turn, Dead Man's Turn it was called as if you took it too fast you'd end up a splatter against the canyon wall. Luke slowed as he approached the turn, hit his retros and swerved hard right to make the turn. Mara's unfamiliarity with the canyon led to her taking the turn just a few seconds too late and she veered dangerously close to the canyon wall before correcting and straightening out. A rider behind them wasn't so lucky and crashed into the wall in a fireball.

The next turn was a long zigzag like a stretched out 'Z'; the trick was to stay in the center as the corridor narrowed in the middle. Seconds after emerging from the corridor Luke spotted a gray-suited swooper; he had to have been pretty good, or pretty stupid, to have gained on them this fast.

Up ahead was the Needle, a narrow slot lined with jagged rock teeth. Luke went through the slot and felt a shard of rock tear his jacket. Mara and most of the swoopers went around the Needle but one of them tried to follow Luke through it but didn't make it and instead hit the side in another fireball.

But there were still more swoops pursuing them and Luke was running out of tricks. He was throttling back for a sharp turn when he heard a voice yell hoarsely:

"He's got help! We ain't gonna win this one. Let's burn!"

'What?' Luke thought. He looked over and saw a swoop, engines off, dropping silently in free fall. The rider was wearing black, including a flight helmet with a polarized shield, and held a blaster which he was using to shoot at the scattering swoopers. For a moment Luke worried that the newcomer was going to crash but then the swoops engines ignited to slow its fall and it finally reached to within a handspan of the ground before stopping dead and hovering.

'Now that is flying,' Luke thought and brought his swoop into a hovering idle. Mara pulled to a stop next to him, breathing heavily. Then the stranger sidled up next to them and pulled off his helmet. Luke recognized him immediately.

"Dash?" Luke blinked, "What are you doing here

Dash shrugged. "Right now, I'm saving you from swoop scum."

"But why?" Mara asked.

"The Princess hired me to keep an eye on you —,"

"She what?" Mara exclaimed.

"Hey, ease up—," said Dash

"No, you listen pal," Luke retorted, "We don't need a baby-sitter."

"Oh, really," Dash said, "so you could've taken all of those thugs all by yourselves."

"We weren't doing so bad."

"No, you weren't. But you still woulda lost."

Luke gritted his teeth, then sighed and conceded the point. "Thanks," he said in a mumble.

"What was that?"

"Don't push it." Dash grinned.

Luke was definitely going to have words with Leia when she came back; he cared for her like a sister, but what gave her the right to hire him bodyguard? And it had to be a paying job because Dash didn't do anything for free.

"Did you catch their tattoos?" Dash was saying, "This is Jabba's gang." Luke took a second look at a downed swooper and suddenly recognized the insignia. "I was hanging 'round Mos Eisley when I overheard them talking about being ordered to kill you."

"We'd already figured that much out," said Mara, then shook her head, "But something about this doesn't feel right. The first two attempts—the Pike Sisters and then the bribed tech—were both professional quality hits; what kind of person follows that up with a gang of swoop thugs? Normally a crimelord like Jabba would send the amateurs out first and only shell out the credits for the professionals after they failed."

"So you think someone put Jabba up to this," said Dash and he let out a whistle, "There aren't many beings in the galaxy who could do something like that."