Chapter 9

"If you want to hurt him," Luke said, "You're going to have to go through me."

Luke grinned, and spun counter-clockwise as he moved his arms, pushing Mara's lightsaber off to her right. It collided with the wall and severed a section of conduit. The lights flickered, and the room went dark. Then, the red emergency lights turned themselves on, casting an eerie glow throughout the room.

She stopped and swung back, slashing horizontally at his shoulder.

Luke, as he spun, moved his arms above his head and brought the lightsaber down between him and Mara, blade pointing down. She hit his block and he deflected, still spinning. Coming back around, he ducked below her left-to-right spinning slash and tried a stab at Mara's left knee.

Sensing his next move, she back-flipped backward about ten feet as Luke jumped to his feet. This entire exchange lasted barely longer than a second.

"This is the legacy of the Jedi?" Mara mocked.

Luke shook his head. "I'm just getting started." He spun the lightsaber in a circle above his head, and began a graceful kata of spinning slashes and blocks. Mara backed up, stopping his strokes as adeptly as he sent them. The collisions of their weapons flashed sparks through the room.

Their lightsabers collided, each pushing against the other. Mara's came within a foot of her face, its purple blade casting an eerie hue over her face. She smiled.

"Ugghh," Andover moaned from the side, finally coming to.

"I see your friend finally woke up," Mara exclaimed between strokes.

"He's a resilient one," Luke agreed, pulling his lightsaber up to deflect a strike at his face.

"Let's see if he can withstand this," Mara taunted, pummeling Andover with a powerful force-blast. He cried out, and clutched his side in pain. He crumpled up into a ball, slowly losing consciousness.

Luke descended into a fit of rage. He accelerated his speed, viciously threatening Mara with his strikes. She noticed that he was a lot better than the Emperor had given him credit for.

Now, she could see him, this simple farmboy, destroying the Death Star. It was all starting to make sense. He was a true threat to the survival of the Empire.

She sped up her deflections, parrying shots and trying to free up an opening. She jumped onto a console, which Luke cut in half. She fell through, and lost her grip on her lightsaber. It clattered to the floor a few feet away.

She scrambled backward, calling her weapon to her hand with the force.

He attacked with a downstroke wildly, missing Mara both times. By the third attempt, she had activated her lightsaber and blocked his just in time. The stalemate gave Luke enough time to gather his composure and let go of his anger.

They parried shots. Mara's strikes were easier to predict, due to less-specific training. They often followed patterns or katas, usually with a slight variation, but it was simple enough and Luke could easily deflect the few strokes that were actually dangerous.

She spun, and sliced horizontally at his abdomen. He did not deflect the attempted slice, which left Mara off balance. He used the momentum to push her lightsaber far to her left, and with a spin of his wrist, cut her hilt in two.

Mara looked at him, truly scared for the first time in as long as she could remember. Her instincts kicked in, and he grabbed his lightsaber with her now disarmed hand. They struggled for a few moments, until Mara flipped over Luke and stood behind him. She re-grabbed the hilt and began to shake it from his hand. At the same time, she delivered a hard kick to his left calf.

Luke cried out in pain, and fell to the ground. Just before he hit, he turned so his right side hit the deck. With a powerful force blast, he unceremoniously lifted Mara across the room. She landed on a console, shattering it.

Andover, now able to open his eyes, commented on the situation.

"Gee, girl, you broke it! You need to lose some weight!" He smirked, but it turned into a wince, noticing the pain again. Mara used a Force-stasis trick, knocking Andover out and accidentally disabling the senses of the captured crew. They all fell to the ground, seemingly incapacitated.

Luke was thrown to the side wall by the shockwave, and landed behind a console. He, however, was not unconscious. The energy in the shockwave was not sufficient to neutralize his incredible Force-aptitude and he stood back up along the wall.

Mara smiled, looking at Andover. He was in a near-catatonic state, and so was everyone else. She didn't notice that Luke was okay, as the Force Stasis technique had momentarily cloaked his presence.

Luke was smiling, too. One of the things he had learned from recovered Jedi Archival information was that he could harness the Force energy of his opponent and use it as an advantage. He presumed that if you could use it as a weapon, you could use it as a cloaking device. He was right.

Mara's aura permeated the room, and combined with the shockwave, was a decent enough cover. He put on his sabacc face, and force-jumped in front of Mara. She was too surprised to react.

He grabbed her wrists in his hands, and backed her up against the wall. Her arms landed hit first, held in place by his hands. She tried to kick him, but then realized his left leg was twisted across her to prevent any motion.

"Nice try, Emperor's Hand," Luke hissed, with a venomous edge to his words.

Mara was desperate now. She was truly afraid for her life. She sent out three force-stun waves, but Luke donned a force-shield and her attack merely bounced off of him in all directions.

She tried another Force-stasis next. She opened her right hand, her wrist straining in Luke's grasp.

The Force merely rolled off of him like it did for the first time. She tried again, with the same result. He smiled haughtily, and tightened his hold on her forearms.

"Having fun there?" she asked, struggling in Luke's imprisoning hold. With all other options eliminated, she attempted to create a Stasis Field to stop the Jedi.

Palpatine had trained her personally, but he had overlooked some areas of her training. The idea was to keep himself more capable than her, so she would pose a threat to everyone except him. Now, she wished that he had taught her a little more, because she could not remember how to start the field.

She tried, but all she succeeded in doing was another weak Stasis blast. But her force aura was exhausted, and she felt the force within her implode.

Luke sensed it, too. He instantaneously implemented a protection bubble around himself, and it encompassed Mara. The Stasis "misfired" inside the bubble, and had the side effect of momentarily deactivating her own shields.

Then she felt it.

Where Luke was holding her arms, it felt like a lightsaber was stuck through the bone. The pain became excruciating, and the spot began to glimmer. It turned into a visible bright gold orb on her skin, and the pain started moving up her arms.

Luke let go, racking his brain for an explanation. He came up with nothing. Mara felt the pain work its way up her neck.

"What did you do?" she asked. Her senses began to dull, and she felt suddenly lethargic. She cried out in pain, and collapsed unconscious at the base of the wall.

"Hello?" Luke asked, genuinely confused.

Suddenly, Luke felt like he'd been shot in the head. He moved over to the wall and sat against it. Then he passed out too, leaving everyone in the room unconscious.

When he woke up, he was back in his cell again. The pain in his head had mostly subsided. He groaned.

He heard a voice inside his head, but it wasn't his own. All right Farmboy, what did you do? It asked.

Luke blinked. He must be going crazy. Then, the flood of memories hit him. He began to experience things he had never done. It was like someone had invaded his mind.

Nearby on the deck plating, Mara sat watching him curiously. "That was some trick you pulled," she muttered accusingly.

He raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. "I didn't do anything."

She scowled, but didn't verbally say anything. But Luke could pick out her thoughts.

Damn rebel. How did he force a mind-meld?

I didn't do anything, he repeated telepathically.

She laughed dryly. "But somehow you can read my thoughts."

The awkwardness was tangible.

"Mrrrrrrgh…" mumbled a voice across the room. Andover, fighting his injuries, had regained consciousness yet again. How does he survive everything? Mara asked herself.

"I told you, he is very resilient," Luke reminded her.

In his own cell, Andover rolled onto his back. "Help," he cried faintly.

"He'll be fine," Mara assured. "The droids put some bacta on him."

As if on cue, he sat up, looking around. He blinked, then went back to scratching the lines on the wall again.

"Is that all he ever does?" Mara asked, annoyed. "It's not like he'll make it through the wall."

"I do plenty of other things," Andover replied, with mock-offense. "I build spaceplanes, and I fight Imperial women with bleeding scalps."

"For the last time, it's my natural hair color!"

"Sure," he said skeptically, working on the paint.

Sorry for taking so long. I've been busy. I know, a lame excuse. But hey, at least I posted the chapter.

REVIEW!

-ClaptonJr.