Hey folks, Grubkiler here.
Here's chapter 2. Enjoy.
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Jabba's Palace, Tatooine.
"Your exaltedness? Please?" Mara begged, sweetly. "I'm one of your dancers. Can I please come along with you?"
The Emperor's hand stood, in the scorching desert of the twin-sunned planet of Tatooine. She wore a thin, mostly translucent skirt and an equally translucent top which would have given an unhindered view of her breasts were it not for the pair of decorative blue wings that adorned her outfit's dress.
She stood before the mighty hutt - and his mighty oder, which smelled like a recently buried corpse was dug up and dipped in a sewer for a few hours - who sat on a hovering dais, which was filled with his entourage, including his twi'lek advisor Bib Fortuna, a gold-plated protocol droid, the legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett, a pair of hog-like gammorean guards, and the scantily clad Princess Leia Organa.
Mara couldn't help but smirk at just how low the Alderaanian terrorist had been brought.
On one of the skiffs that escorted Jabba's awaiting sail barge, was being filled with other notorious rebels, including the smuggler Han Solo, his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca, and her ultimate target, the one she was sent here to kill, Luke Skywalker, the young farm-boy turned rebel poster boy who had destroyed the death star.
He wore a black tunic and had blonde hair that shined in the sun.
He was so close, and yet he was so far. The only thing keeping her from being able to keep an eye on her quarry and put an end to him was a pile of slimy bile with stubby arms.
"The great Jabba the Hutt says no." The golden protocol droid said with an apologetically raised hand.
"Please your exaltedness?" Mara pleaded.
You must let me join you.
The Hutt opened his giant list and gave out a guttural series of grunts and words she couldn't translate.
"Maynu kawa lavado. Razh razh. Denubado eteera."
The droid translated.
"The great Jabba says you are to leave him now. A landspeeder will be placed at your disposal. You're not to be seen here again."
Mara closed her eyes and lowered her head, defeated. And with that, Jabba waved a stubby little arm, signaling his lackeys to carry him and his new prize towards the sail barge, leaving Mara to stand by and watch her target be carted off into the Dune Sea.
Trying to use the Force on Jabba didn't work except to give him a hint as to who she might be. And now her chance to get Skywalker was gone.
Maybe Jabba will do the job.
Mara shook her head in disgust. This line of work for the Emperor didn't have room for fleeting hopeful thoughts. Either get the job done, or you don't come home.
She had already missed her best chance earlier. Infiltrating Jabba's palace, posing as a dancer, and carefully scouting it out, flirting with and swooning over Boba Fett with the other dancers, and witnessing the bounty hunter who threatened Jabba with a thermal detonator.
"My name's Arica. I just came in today." She had said to Boba Fett, leaning against him, running her fingers seductively over her the stoic bounty hunter's beskar armor. "That thing with the bounty hunter, that was pretty scary. Does that sort of thing happen often?"
She then scoped out the security arrangements, studied the things jabba treasures, such as Han Solo on ice, and witnessed how his hungers were sated.
Then the boldness and timing of Skywalker's arrival surprised her. So she had to improvise, subtly pulling a blaster pistol out of a guard's holster. A shot would kill Skywalker. Surely she would be apprehended, but escape was always secondary to completing the mission.
But she was discovered earlier than she would have liked, with one of Jabba's undercover guards disguised as a dancer shoving a pistol in Mara's back, thinking she was there to assassinate Jabba. She was escorted to the prison cells below ground, but she escaped, using the Force to make her captor open fire on the other guards, before snapping her neck. She escaped into the vents and was able to witness Skywalker killing Jabba's rancor.
Impressive. I can see why he's the poster boy for the rebellion. Might even be cute if I wasn't here to kill him.
She shuddered again in disgust as she went over to her speeder, gunned the engines, and took off back to her ship.
"So you have failed," said a voice inside Mara's head. "I am disappointed Mara Jade. Disappointed indeed."
The voice sounded like it was coming from someone who was right in front of her. But in reality it was coming from the other side of the galaxy. Such was the bond that she and her master shared.
The Emperor himself was communicating directly with her. Very were entrusted with this ability. Just herself and perhaps Vader as far as she was aware. She could hear him and be able to carry out his will, whether she was in the throne room on Coruscant or in the Outer Rim.
But this was not the time that she would have liked to hear from him, for he could only share his disapproval with her.
"I know, Master. But perhaps Jabba can deal with him."
She could hear his all too familiar cackle in her ears.
"Do you seriously believe that?"
Mara didn't answer immediately. She was too embarrassed with herself to say anything else after saying something so stupid as that.
"In any case, Skywalker is of no immediate importance. When he survives Jabba's clutches, the trap that I have created for him will ensnare him, along with the rest of this pitiful rebellion. Return to the Imperial Center. We will discuss your failure when I return."
The contact is gone and Mara sets a coarse for Coruscant.
She failed this time, but she will fulfill the Emperor's wishes again soon enough.
In her service as the emperor's hand, she'd been given many difficult tasks to perform. More often than not, she was considered just another trinket of the Royal Court. Something eye-catching to be attached to the Emperor's arm from time to time when out in public. Very few thought any more about her.
But those few who did know, or at least suspected her, knew that she could be turned against them if the Emperor so willed it. What her master wished done was what she did. No questions, no regrets.
Total devotion to duty.
'But if I fail again, all of that will be lost to me.'
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Imperial Center.
Coruscant.
An ecumenopolis—a city-covered planet, collectively known as Galactic City— in the Coruscant system of the Core Worlds. Though debated by historians, it was generally believed that Coruscant was the original homeworld of humanity.
Noted for its cosmopolitan culture and towering skyscrapers, Coruscant's population consisted of approximately one trillion citizenshailing from a vast array of both humanoid and alien species.
Its location in the center of many major trade routes made Coruscant a wealthy planet, with powerful influence, making it the most important planet in the galaxy, which was why, as the capital of the Empire, and the Republic before it, it was the center of the Empire's power and wealth, and a strong symbol of its legitimacy as the main galactic government.
It was a world with enough diversions for almost anyone. But due to her training, Mara Jade was hardly anyone. After landing her shuttle at the Imperial Palace, the former Jedi Temple, she put on one of her many backless evening gowns and treated herself to a trip to the Imperial opera, wherein she took in a play called The Agony of Tarkin.
The opera was fun and all, but Mara was more amused by the spectators who lingered about in the main lobby when it was over, chatting amongst themselves about the play or the news of the day.
Some offered critiques on the show they had just watched. Some talked about family with the friends they met with. Others talked about the war against the rebellion.
But one trio of Imperial officers peaked Mara's interest, talking about something that had just happened on Tatooine.
"Did you hear what happened on Tatooine?" One officer asked.
"No, what happened?" Another asked.
The first officer paused for dramatic effect.
"Jabba the hutt is dead."
His two friends looked flabbergasted.
"Shut up!"
"Get out of here!"
Mara couldn't help but smirk for even the briefest second. Even though this meant that Skywalker survived, she found some satisfaction that the thing that kept her from completing her mission was got what was coming.
"It's true. That slimy piece of worm-ridden filth was on his sail barge one minute and then the thing it just exploded and Jabba got vaped for his trouble. Now there might be a power struggle going on." The officer smiled and sipped on his champagne. Then he raised the glass. "Here's to the hutts finally being put in their place."
"Cheers." His fellow officers said.
Mara smiled and walked away.
For the rest of her vacation, waiting for the Emperor to return, Mara just kept herself busy. She spared in the training simulators for a while with some lightsaber-equipped PROXY droids.
She tried to go to the vault that was filled with souvenirs from her previous missions, but it was restricted. The galactic museum proved entertaining for a few hours.
The lack of companions made some activities awkward for her, but then again, companions could be overrated, especially when solitude was such a rare commodity on Imperial center, especially when in service to the most powerful man in the galaxy.
Mara used this new solitude to go for a hike on the Manarai mountains, one of Coruscant's few pieces of surface that wasn't covered in skyscrapers, or any other man-made material for that matter.
Wearing a blue pair of form-fitting jogging shorts and a matching shirt, with a small backpack full of sustenance, she hiked along the twin peaks, stopping to take breaks every now and then, allowing other hikers to walk passed her to continue in her solitude.
At one point she decided to find a nice spot out of the way of the main hiking trails to meditate. She cleared her mind of all distractions and tapped into the Force. She was suddenly aware of so much that was going on around her, like the small streams that bled from minuscule glaciers at the tops of the mountains, the plants that cracked and rustled in the breeze, and the loose pebbles that tumbled from the slopes.
But then suddenly, her meditative state was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Mara Jade..."
"Oh no." She muttered.
She had failed her master. Mara knew that she would have to admit to her errors and accept his displeasure, but she hadn't expected contact so soon.
"Behold, child, what unfolds above Endor."
At first she couldn't pinpoint what it was, not being all that advanced in the Force.
That's when she became all too aware of what it was.
The vision was blurry, but it soon cleared up, as she parsed through some of the chaos of what she was seeing.
She could see a window. A circular window with a spider-web design. A rotating, high-backed chair sat in front of it. It reminded her of the Emperor's throne room, though this one was definitely not on Coruscant. The view from the window was black, with the stars hanging against the dark backdrop. Only some of these stars were moving fast and flashing very rapidly.
Warships. Dozens of them.
They were mixed in around each other, blasting away at each other, with star-fighters zipping around in a mad dance of death.
But as fantastical as this scene was, it was nothing compared to the spectacle that she was about to witness.
Two men, armed with lightsabers, were lashing away at each other.
One red, one green.
Both were clad in all black, and they fought viciously. Several parts of the throne room had demolished console and slashed wall panels, with sparks flying all over. A small catwalk that ran above the throne room had collapsed onto the deck.
A familiar voice was cackling all the while, commenting on the battle.
"Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you."
She then realized who was fighting.
Darth Vader, supreme commander of the Imperial military and the Emperor's main enforcer.
The other was the blonde-haired farm boy poster child for the rebel fleet whom she was meant to assassinate earlier.
Luke Skywalker.
Both men were locked in a fierce lightsaber lock, yellow sparks dancing along their blades.
"Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!"
It was at this point that both men paused their epic battle to turn towards the man who was commenting on this final duel of the fates.
Without a second of warning, both men turned and rushed towards the Emperor, sabers ready to deal a killing blow. The Emperor tried to defend himself, hands raised, crackling with sith energy.
"No! Stop! I am ordering you both! Stop!"
Lightning shot from his two hands straight at the two attackers, but both men blocked the oncoming strike with their sabers.
"Death to you both!" The Emperor screamed, defiantly and desperately at the same time. "Death to you both!"
Lightning deflected off of their blades and back at Palpatine, the deadly energy and the seering pain it caused nearly paralyzing him, allowing both men to slash their lightsabers at the Emperor, leaving them to stand triumphantly over a crumpled mess on the floor.
"You will kill Luke Skywalker!"
Then the throne room exploded, along with the rest of the massive space station it towered over.
The vision was over, but the pain had truly begun.
"UGHHHH!" Mara screamed at she collapsed onto the ground.
Death agonies had accompanied the vision, and they were unbearable. The center of her life, the reason for her being, the one for whom she acted, had just been struck down.
Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand, had failed to prevent his death. If only she had killed Skywalker when she had the chance.
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Hey folks, that was part 2.
Hope you enjoyed.