Chapter Sixteen: Instinct
Screaming. That was all Mara could hear. It pierced her ears and struck her very soul. The Force around her shook with fear. The sound reverberated in her skull, pressing and pounding until she realised the strangled sound was coming from her. Padmé's body was still- no rise and fall of her chest. No life there whatsoever. Time must have been distorted as it took nearly a full thirty seconds for the Officer and the Neimoidian to register her.
She's dead. She's dead. Padmé is dead.
"Jedi!" the Neimoidian screamed. The Serenno Officer stared at her with both fear and understanding in his eyes. It was then she noticed the still-smoking blaster in the Neimoidian's hands. He had killed her.
"Get her!" the Neimoidian screeched. And then, Mara saw red. Her heart began to beat and every dark feeling she had been storing in her body rose. Every inch of her felt as if she was on fire. Her body hummed and sizzled, the Force burning its way past her flesh and burrowing into her bones. She had been surrounded by the Force her whole life. She knew the calm, serenity and power that came along with it.
This did not leave her calm and serene. This was anger. This was hate. This was fury.
Give in, the voice urged her, more excited than it has ever been. Do it. Finish it. As the Officer lunged at her, the Neimoidian caught her eye and took off in the opposite direction. The alarms still rang insistently and finally, doors began to open. Many people began to spill out in a panic. Mara didn't take her eyes off the Neimoidian.
Her eyes narrowed and partially hidden in the depths of his cloak, was the object she had been looking for. The remote looked so small and inconspicuous but Mara knew that with just one code, it could activate enough droids to cause the Jedi serious problems.
She needed that remote.
The fire in her veins spurred her on and finally, the officer reached her. Throngs of panicked civilians pushed and shoved in an effort to reach the staircase, but Mara took no notice. With a small flick of her hand, the officer went hurtling through the air.
Mara then sprang into action. A small part of her fought against the vast amount of darkness that was slowly taking over but the sound of the blaster and the vision of Padmé falling to the ground overtook every notion of peace she had.
She closed herself off. The rest of the strike team, not to mention her father and Master Windu, if he was indeed stationed here too, would execute the original plan. Kriff, she thought painfully, as the Neimoidian wove expertly through the people scurrying down the hall. The Skywalkers.
She fought back a sob as she pictured her Master, falling to the ground in grief and sorrow. She saw Luke, holding Leia as they cried, preparing their mother's body for the Nubian Funeral March. Except right now, they were all busy averting another galaxy-wide war and didn't know their matriarch was lying dead on the floor.
And she was supposed to be hiding.
The Neimoidian started to gain speed but Mara was faster. Suddenly, she heard her father's voice in her head.
Get out of here, young one. Your work is done. We've disarmed twelve of the remotes.
She was surprised they had worked so quickly. Something was not right about the whole mission. She wanted to tell him so badly but she couldn't risk it.
Padmé is dead. Padmé is dead.
She ignored him and rounded the corner. Her Master's eyes burned into her. He would have felt it too but he was a Jedi Master, he couldn't stop everything to avenge her. She pictured him ripping the Neimoidian's head cleanly from his slimy body with his bare hands, rage overcoming him.
The image nearly stopped her in her tracks. Had she just witnessed a vision? She didn't have time to think about it. Anakin wasn't going to kill him.
She was.
Get out of here, her father insisted and again, she ignored him. She was nearly with him, she was so close. She ignited her saber and the crowd hurrying through the corridors barely registered her. Finally, the end of the hallway was in sight. Her datapad beeped insistently, telling her that a remote was close. She had spotted it in the Neimoidian's robes so she ignored it.
The Neimoidian took a quick turn to the left and Mara followed him through an elegant archway, into a secluded room. This would be his tomb. With a quick hiss, the door closed behind her. It was her, the scum that had killed the only mother she had ever known and the hum of her now-ignited lightsaber.
He did it, the dark place in her mind rationalised. Gallispied and Serenno had no power since the end of the Clone Wars. The whole thing was a setup and history had taught her that the Trade Federation and probably all of Cato Neimoidia hated the Jedi. They had set them up and provided stockpiled battle droids and now Mara was going to get his remote and reprogram it to deactivate all the droids and remotes.
"Hand it over," she hissed at him, extending her hand.
"Jedi," he hissed. "You are all scum!"
He killed Padmè. He killed Padmè.
And suddenly, Mara wasn't interested in talking any more.
The small part of her mind that her rage contained took over and then she was standing over him, the Force powering her darkened mind and body and with a precise cut, her blade cut through the Neimoidian's neck. She screamed with anger, fury, grief and the feeling of absolute power cut through her as his head rolled away from his body, the searing heat of the saber's power cauterising the wound.
There was a single word going through her mind which both comforted and frightened her.
Good.
And then, there was nothing but her, her now disengaged saber and the sick feeling in her heart. A Jedi shall not know anger. That lesson was everything to her, it was the cornerstone of a Jedi. Had she betrayed that? She dropped to her knees and fished out the remote from his pockets.
It hadn't been buried deep. She probably could have summoned it through the Force. She stared at the corpse on the floor and it finally occurred to her that she was a murderer. What was more startling was that she had murdered him in cold blood as an act of revenge and, even sitting here as there was finally drops of blood leaking onto the floor and probably onto her clothes, she didn't care.
She was glad she had done it. The Force had filled her completely and she had revelled in the feel of absolution as she killed the being who had killed Padmè.
Things were far from over, though and she remembered the remote sitting in her hands. Everything would be over, soon. She picked it up and noticed the distinct markings at the top. They looked like military markings from Serenno at first glance, but she would have to send them to be analysed.
A loud crash interrupted her and the door suddenly buzzed open. She sprang to her feet, certain she hadn't done that and then the sound of blasters firing outside confirmed it. She reignited her saber and moved to the side of the room. This was the end of the hallway, so if it was battle droids moving down, she would have to act fast and get out of there.
From memory, there was another room on the right further up. If she could just get there, then she'd be able to avoid entrapment. She steeled her nerves. If the droids were advancing down the hallway, she'd have to be on her guard and fast. She raised her saber and took a deep breath.
As she peered around the corner, into the hallway, her heart dropped as she saw a small battalion of droids coming down. "Kriff," she swore to herself. There were more than she had anticipated. They were equipped with life sign detectors so she had to be cunning and try and outsmart the machines, if that was even possible.
She stuck to her original plan. The sooner she was out of harm's way, the sooner she could help. Nobody had obviously been able to do more than pinpoint the locations, which meant that she was needed. Without even a glance to the corpse, she raised her saber and ran for the room.
The droids were faster than she thought. They had gained more ground that she had expected. Within seconds, blaster shots were being fired at her. She duck and wove through the onslaught and let the Force, which had stopped its fiery attack on her body, guide her hand to fight the shots hurtling towards her. The ease in which she could do it surprised her. She had been a steady hand in training before, but these were the movements of a Master.
She didn't have time to contemplate because through the droids, she spied a familiar figure before the Force alerted her to his presence. Luke.
"Mara!" he shouted, his own lightsaber in the air. In another repeat of slow motion, the back half of the droids immediately turned to face him. The front half kept their sights on her.
Padmè. Padmè.
Get out of here, Mara sent to him. It was no use. He ignored her request because that's what Luke did. The contrast struck her as they both fought on opposite ends of the unit. He was doing everything in his power to get to her and here she was, fighting her way out of the dead end and the being she had just murdered.
Luke could hold his own and Mara prayed to the Force to keep him safe. She finally spotted the door on her right, about three body lengths down.
Get to the door, she sent him. With the two of them there, they might stand a chance to hack the remote.
I'll clear a path, he sent back. As his lightsaber went up, his other hand went out and three droids directly in his way went flying in her direction. She moved her body to the right and struck down three more in front of her.
She moved through the gap and reached the door, striking down more droids as she tried to find the access panel with her elbow. Luke was close now and he pushed another two droids back, trying to wield his lightsaber with his other hand. Just as Mara found the manual control, the sound of two blaster shots rose above the others.
She followed them and watched as another four sounded and again, time slowed down. She whipped her head around to see a figure standing at the end of the hallway, covered in a cloak, a single lock of red hair peaking out. The blaster looked and sounded different to those carried by the droids. In a flash, the figure was gone and all Mara could hear was the tortured sound of Luke's screaming.
The smell of burnt flesh struck her as she stared at what used to be Luke's arm on the floor. Her own arm began to throb but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind and sliced through the unfortunate droids who stood between her and Luke.
He finally clamped down on his pain long enough for Mara to pull him, pushing and slicing the oncoming droids. Between them, they had cut down nearly half but without any way to deactivate them, more could come around the corner at any moment.
"Hold on, Skywalker," Mara muttered and with a final blast of the Force, she pulled Luke through the door and it shut automatically behind them. Luke groaned and Mara lowered them both to the floor. If she didn't act now, Luke was going to bleed to death. She had just killed a being, she couldn't panic now. Too much had been lost already-and this was Luke.
"Kriff," she swore as she clamped her hand down on the stump of his arm. Everything from the elbow down was just gone. He was starting to turn white, and the blood was everywhere. Maybe if she could get to his arm, Master Offee or even Cilghal could save it.
Luke had heard her. "No," he croaked. Mara was surprised he could even speak. "It's gone. You go out there, you're dead."
Mara was the mistress of death, she thought bitterly. She had gone from grief to murder in a matter of minutes and here she was, praying to the same Force that had guided her hand to slaughter to save the man she loved. She feverishly looked aroud the room. It was nothing more than somebody's personal office. There was a HoloNet terminal and nothing much else- nothing to stop the bleeding or the pain of a severed arm.
"Just...hold on, Skywalker," Mara breathed, clutching his arm tightly. "Why didn't you get out of there?"
Luke coughed. "Could ask you...the same."
And then it hit her. She was supposed to be en route to her escape pod, ready to rendezvous with the Defender but she was there, avenging the death of Luke's mother. If she had gone, let the rest of the Jedi figure out how to stop the droids, Luke might not be bleeding to death in her incapable, murderous hands.
The Neimoidian didn't bleed, a little voice told her. You missed your chance.
She should have tried to shake the voice away, but instead, she listened. The Neimoidian hadn't bled because she had sealed his wound with her lightsaber. If there was any chance Luke could get out of this mission alive, she would have to stop the bleeding.
"Here, I'm going to help you sit up," Mara said over the sound of blast shots hitting the doors. She didn't have time to check the locks with her datapad so she tried to focus on keeping that button pressed with the Force.
She took a deep breath and ignited her lightsaber. To his credit, Luke didn't show any sign of fear- only confusion. "Kenobi?"
"I'm going hold your arm out," she said firmly. Realisation dawned on him. "This is going to sting a little."
"Do it," Luke breathed out.
The light shone in the darkened room and with a precise and firm touch, the smell of burning flesh returned and the sound of restrained screaming echoed in her ears. Mara fought back tears. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Nobody was supposed to get hurt, but here she was, holding a lightsaber to Luke's arm to stop him from dying.
His screaming finally ceased and Mara turned her head to check. "It stopped," she confirmed. Luke barely managed a nod and Mara helped him lean back against the wall. It was far from over but if Mara wanted to get them both out alive, she'd have to concentrate.
She ignored the pool of blood surrounding her and pulled out both the remote and her datapad, locking the door and turning on the lights as she stood.
"Where...?" Luke asked. "Mara?"
She ignored him and connected the two devices. Her earlier suspicions had been correct. This was the master controller. Finally, a victory. By her datapad's calculations, all the droids had their homing beacons activated which meant the Jedi were able to track them. A few units had been destroyed already, with Mara seeing four more units activated within the building already.
She had to deactivate them and do it quickly. Either her Master or father had locked the entrance which meant the floors had been evacuated. All that stood in her way was the encryption code screen, which blinked back at her. She looked closer. Something was very familiar about the screen. The decoration looked simple enough, but there was something that stood out.
Fear and confusion gripped her heart as she saw a familiar design emblazoned across the remote's small screen. It was the same crest as the one at Serenno. With a scratch of her nail, she drew blood, not stopping to even consider what was probably not coincidence. She pressed her bloody finger up to the screen and then, it beeped with approval.
"Mara? Did it work?" Luke asked quietly from the wall.
It took her three seconds and then the unmistakable sound of droids powering down echoed through the silent hallway.