A/N And here's the next part! Hope y'all enjoy!

Part Six

Mara Jade let herself into her apartment with a bone weary sigh. Karrde was a fantastic boss to work for, but he did expect a lot out of his employees, and this last assignment had worked Mara into a near state of exhaustion. All she was looking forward to now was a hot bath and then her bed, in that order, and nothing else for at least twenty-four hours.

Which of course, with the way her luck was going lately, explained why her comm station was buzzing with seventeen urgent messages. Seriously, couldn't Talon give her one day to rest up? She'd managed to secure a deal with the damn Moritti Council, a reclusive group that hadn't welcomed outsiders into their ranks in nearly two decades. That wasn't enough? She grimaced as she listened to the first message, fully prepared to tell Talon she was quitting if he reneged on her promised two-week vacation.

To her surprise, it wasn't Talon Karrde, but Han Solo on her comm…all seventeen times. The first few messages were fairly straightforward, of the 'Jade, I need to talk to you, please call me' variety. However, as the messages went on, Solo became increasingly nervous and frantic, until by the last one, he was on his knees and begging her to answer her damn calls before he ended up facing utter doom.

Just as Mara was trying to decide whether she should try some of the drugs Solo was apparently indulging in, he called again. Taken off guard, Mara stupidly answered.

"Thank the stars you've finally decided to pick up, Jade! Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to get in touch with you?!" he demanded.

"Frankly, yes, Solo. Since about 1500, if my timestamp is right. Now give me one good reason why I shouldn't just hang up on your ass. You've got about five seconds to convince me," she snarled.

"Right, right, I'm sorry, Jade. Didn't mean to be so, um, harsh. Just don't hang up, okay? Please don't hang up?" Solo said, as he raised his hands in a pleading gesture.

Mara was intrigued enough not to cut him off instantly. Solo was acting very odd and very, well, un-Solo-like. "Explain," she said sharply.

If she were a lesser woman, the story that came pouring out of Solo might have caused her mouth to drop open in shock. As it was, she couldn't help the reflexive raising of one incredulous eyebrow.

"So, basically what you're telling me is that you let one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy get high on drugs, then you lost him and he's now wandering somewhere, completely defenseless, on the most populous planet in said galaxy? And you want my help to find him because you're afraid that if your wife finds out you've lost him, she'll cut your balls off?"

"That's pretty much the gist of it, yeah," Solo said with a sheepish grin. Then he looked at her with an obviously practiced entreating expression. Mara supposed that it must work wonders on his wife. "So will you help?"

"I don't know, Solo. You'd owe me. And I do mean big time owe me."

"I'll do almost anything, Jade."

She noted that he wasn't so desperate for her help that he didn't fail to qualify that 'anything'. But she knew it didn't matter anyway. As soon as she'd heard that it was Skywalker that needed help, Mara had known she was going to do it. There was something about that blasted Jedi Master that just kept pulling her back in to his sphere, no matter how hard she tried to resist. Of course, that didn't mean she had to let Solo know that.

"I'm thinking an exclusive contract with Karrde Industries and the Coruscant Trade Council might be a good start," Mara said slyly.

Solo's jaw clenched and he glared, but he somehow managed to refrain from saying what he was probably thinking. And it was no doubt something not very nice.

"I'll see what I can do," he said tightly.

"And perhaps a couple of tickets to the Smashball Galaxy Championship Tournament wouldn't go amiss either."

"What!? Are you insane!? Do you have any idea how much tickets to that thing go for?" Han screeched.

"Do you want my help or not?" Mara said with a vicious grin.

Solo closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, muttering a few things she couldn't hear under his breath. "I'll see what I can do."

"I knew you'd see it my way. Now, when exactly was the last time you saw Skywalker?"

~*~*~

Mara eyed the seedy-looking club – and that was perhaps being a little bit nice in describing the place – warily. Ever since Wayland, there'd been an odd connection between her and Skywalker, but she'd never tried to use it to track him like this before, so maybe she'd gotten it wrong.

Her instinct, and the Force, was telling her that he was in that place, though, so Mara squared her shoulders and marched over to the doors. Naturally, her hand stayed on her blaster, just in case, as she cautiously opened the door.

She could have come in blasters blazing for all the attention that anyone inside was paying the entrance. It was very unusual, since Mara knew that one of the hazards of entering a small pub like this was having every patron inside size you up the minute you stepped in the door.

Instead, the attention of every person in the dingy club seemed to be drawn to one of the back corners. And oddly, every single person had the same look of horrified fascination on their faces. Then, the noise hit Mara's ears. It was a little less intense than the caterwauling of a drowning feline, but not by much. Morbidly curious, Mara stepped forward around some of the people standing between her and the back of the club.

Her jaw almost hit the floor when she finally got clear of the small crowd to see what was holding everyone's attention so rabidly. Luke Skywalker was up on a tiny stage…and he was singing.

Badly.

Really, really badly.

Mara had heard some mangled versions of popular songs on karaoke before, but well…Skywalker was just truly awful. The worst part probably was the song he'd picked to sing. It was a sultry, sexy number that had been made popular by some Zeltron singer a few years ago, and the lyrics were really more suited to someone like her – Mara couldn't be bothered with remembering her name – than a Jedi Master who apparently had zero singing ability.

Those lyrics began to really sink into her consciousness now and Mara realized she had to stop this before everyone in the audience was permanently mentally scarred.

I love myself
I want you to love me
When I'm feelin' down
I want you above me
I search myself
I want you to find me
I forget myself
I want you to remind me
I don't want anybody else
When I think about you
I touch myself
I don't want anybody else
Oh no, oh no, oh no

When sung by the Zeltron, who had a body that would have made Darth Vader himself reconsider his allegiance to the Dark Side, the song was sexy…seductive…made men and women both want to throw themselves at her feet. When sung by Luke Skywalker? It was a bit on the creepy side. Almost vomit-inducing, actually.

Yeah, she definitely had to put a stop to this, cause no way was she going to chance wading around in vomit. Not in these boots, which had cost her a small fortune. And then she realized she had to do something very quickly, because surely he was not going to do in gesture what he was singing about in the song? Oh stars, yes he was!

Mara leapt up onto the stage and grabbed Luke by the arm, conveniently the one that had started to wander, ignoring the startled shrieks that had begun in the audience. Without giving him a chance to say anything, she yanked him off the stage and started to drag him towards the door. Apparently, she'd moved so quickly that she'd taken Luke by surprise, and they were outside on the sidewalk before Luke even managed a protest. Mara let the door close on the relieved cheers from inside the club as Luke began to yell angrily at her.

"Hey! You interrupted my set!"

"Thank the Force, someone had to," she retorted.

He glared and then narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "Do I know you?"

Mara blinked in surprise. Solo hadn't told her that Skywalker was quite that far gone. Great, if he didn't even recognize her, how in the hells was she going to convince him to come with her back to her apartment so that he could sleep the rest of those magic shrooms off?

Mentally gritting her teeth, she decided to go the same route that Solo told her he'd used…humor the bastard.

"Of course you do, Skywalker. I'm your contact. We have to go back to home base so we can discuss our next move against the Imperials." And didn't that just sound weird coming from her, but Mara chose not to think too hard on the irony there.

Luke continued to eye her warily and then took a mutinous stance, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down his nose at her. "I don't believe you and I'm not going anywhere with you. You didn't like my singing, so that proves that you're not on my side."

Mara barely held in her groan of frustration. There was no way she could tell Luke that rabid vornskrs wouldn't have liked his singing, as it was just that horrible, because then he would really get stubborn. He was stubborn enough when he was in his right mind. What to do?

Well, hells…he was still a guy.

"So, then, do you just want to go back to my apartment and have sex?" she asked, not at all sure that this would work. Skywalker was a moral, pious Jedi, who probably believed that the body was too pure for such-

"Okay!" he said eagerly. "Is it very far?"

"Er…no, it's just a couple of kilometers, actually," Mara said quietly, a little bit shocked that her outrageous suggestion had met with agreement so quickly. She wondered if he was really as addle-brained as Solo had said he was, before she decided that Luke's assent was probably thorough proof that he was temporarily loony.

The real Luke Skywalker would never want anything to do with a former Imperial assassin. Not like that. Mara tried not to notice how that realization made her stomach clench a little uncomfortably. It wasn't as though she was attracted to him or anything. Not really.

This was all just a pretense so she could get him out of the public eye before he did anything disastrous to his reputation. Which was probably already ruined if any of the bar patrons who had seen his 'performance' had recognized him. Oh, well, she could always come back later and knock a few heads about just to make certain that they didn't remember anything they saw.

Luke was following her quite happily now, chattering about the many different 'missions' he'd supposedly been on. Mara wondered if he wasn't starting to regain a little bit of his senses, because she recognized a little bit of truth in his tales of his exploits, although they were admittedly exaggerated. It wasn't very long before they were riding in the turbolift up towards Mara's apartment. Now she just had to figure out a way to knock him unconscious – nicely – before he expected her to make good on her promise.

TBC...