Jedi Dawn – Chapter 14

By Sienn (2001)

 

Rating (for chapter):  NC-17

Protagonists: Luke/Mara

Category: Drama/Action/Angst

 

Spoilers:

See Chapter 1

 

Disclaimer:

See Chapter 1

 

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, The President's Personal Landing Bay

It seemed like an eternity, but finally, slowly, the pain in Leia's neck subsided and allowed her to see clearly again. Slightly surprised, she found herself lying on the floor, gathered in the arms of her husband, his distraught voice calling her name again and again.

Swallowing to work moisture into her aching, dry throat, she patted his left biceps lightly. "It's ok, Han. I'm back," she croaked, letting herself be helped into a sitting position.

Han's face was unnaturally grey when he eyed her, his voice almost as rough as hers. "Luke again?" he whispered, his eyes betraying the fear that had once again settled into his heart.

Leia just nodded, rising shakily and looking around, suddenly remembering what had happened before the intense wave of pain and panic had hit her. She didn't even want to think at what the Yuuzhan Vong were doing just now to her brother, but horrific visions of her own torture by Darth Vader and Tarkin kept coming back to her mind.

She knew that the Empire had been almost kind in comparison to what the Yuuzhan Vong did to their prisoners. Though why they tortured Luke instead of killing him immediately she couldn't imagine at all.

Some two meters beside her, Mara picked herself up, pushing her heavy, red-gold hair out of her face and looking dazed into her direction. Leia greeted her questioning, jade-green stare with a cold one, feeling the strong urge to strangle the other woman.

A warm hand laid itself onto her strained shoulders and squeezed slightly. She turned her head, catching Han's worried gaze. Leia wondered how he managed to be so calm in face of the woman who had almost destroyed Luke.

Some weeks ago, she would have thought he just didn't care anymore for his brother-in-law. But all the times she had seen him talking quietly and softly to Luke, embracing him and giving him support - it had changed her picture of Han once again.

Leia had always known that he hid a soft, caring core in himself, but exactly how soft it was, that she had only seen after Luke's breakdown. Even before their arguments and problems in the wake of Chewie's death, she would never have guessed that Han would be capable of caring for Luke this way. That he was indeed able to show his emotions in this way. She had been positively surprised that he had and had not exaggerated when she had said to Han that she thought he had saved Luke's life. Her brother had been endangered - had Han not been there for him, who could know what Luke would have done to himself?

While these thoughts passed through her head, Leia nodded slightly in Han's direction, assuring him that she would not strike at Mara again. She didn't mention, though, that this was only due to her extreme fatigue. The pain at the base of her skull had subsided into a strange tickling and she felt the strong need to just fall asleep. Stubbornly, she pushed her tiredness away. There were things to be cleared and a brother to be saved. She had absolutely no time to relax.

While Leia straightened her gown, Mara had risen, too, and made her way over to her sister-in-law and her husband. Leia smiled sarcastically when she caught Mara's attentiveness - the other woman seemed not too sure about the Princess's intentions. Good. Should she be unsure.

"Well, Mara," she spat towards the red-head, "did it please you?"

Mara's eyes widened in shock and the knuckles of the hand she held her lightsaber with became white.

"How dare you say something like this?" Her voice trembled, her lips twitched and it was all too obvious that she slowly lost her countenance.

Han's discomfort returned at once. Now, that the shock of seeing Leia once again in this much a pain had almost vanished, the seriousness and danger of the situation returned to his awareness.

Both women were dangerous and capable fighters, but unlike Leia, Mara had been trained as a perfect killing machine. And if Leia continued to prod her further this way, there was no telling what would happen. Mara was already on edge and Han could see that she was truly horrified by what she had felt and what Leia had said to her.

In this moment, he recognised that Mara regretted that she had left Luke. She regretted it with all her heart and when her green eyes now sought his gaze, his last doubts disappeared. Of course that didn't erase the guilt she had taken on by leaving him this way, but it hadn't been out of cruelty or because she didn't love Luke anymore. It had been out of other reasons, and he knew that she had to get a possibility to explain these reasons.

The problem was that Leia wasn't in any emotional condition to think logical. Two times she had felt a fracture of the torment her brother was in, she had witnessed his breakdown, his depression, his self-torture - it would be hard for her to rebuild the trust she had once had in Mara Jade.

"You left him. You destroyed him. It is your fault that the Vong caught him," Leia barked, crossing her arms before her chest.

"I didn't even know Luke was taken captive, Leia. I came back to warn him," Mara hissed, forcing herself to clip her sabre back onto her belt.

"I'm not interested..." Leia began furiously, but was interrupted by Han, who placed himself between the two women.

"Just hold on a moment there, ladies. You came to WARN him?" Han concentrated befuddled on the ex-trader.

Mara nodded, her lips a thin line, her eyes showing distress, nervousness and, most of all, regret. "I overheard a talk between two Yuuzhan Vong about kidnapping him," she explained, now also crossing her arms before her chest.

"That leads us to the question where you have been in all these weeks." Leia's voice was like acid and Han didn't doubt a second that she would have Mara arrested if the woman said a wrong word. And Mara seemed to be aware of that.

"I was on Dathomir. Ask Augwynne," she stated, finally returning to her cool demeanour, more often focussing her eyes on Han. Probably she could feel that he was willing to hear her out.

That left Leia dumbfounded: "On Dathomir? What, Minions of Xendor, did you do on Dathomir?! And what where you thinking when you left Luke like that?"

Ok, Han thought for himself, Leia wasn't going to cool down anytime soon. The two women would have to make this clear here and now or they would kill each other as soon as they were alone.

"I think, " he said, cheerfully clapping his hands, "we're going to go to someplace more private and discuss things right from the beginning."

Leia's eyes narrowed and for a moment she seemed to want to refuse, but finally she nodded. Mara sighed, then gestured to her ship: "I think my prep unit has still some caf in it. Interested?"

Han gave her a lop-sided grin: "Caf? Always." Dragging a fuming Leia along, he followed the redheaded woman up the ramp.

*~~

Two hours later, Han decided that the only thing that could smooth out the relationship between Leia and Mara again was time - time, and, if it went perfectly, a healthy Luke Skywalker popping out of the floor right in front of them.

He sighed soundlessly. At least Leia had cooled down. Though the look of disgust, resentment and anger hadn't vanished from her beautiful face. She looked absolutely deadly, whereas Mara sat somewhat slumped in her seat, sipping occasionally on her steaming mug.

The only thing all three of them had agreed on was that they had no time to give each other a sum up of the last few weeks. A general overview was everything they could manage and then they would try to find a way to get Luke back.

To come to this conclusion, though, two hours of hot discussion and insults had been necessary. Two hours in which not a single piece of information had passed between Leia and Mara. Han swore that, if Leia ever dared to call HIM stubborn or temper-ruled again, he would just about kill her.

When another inefficient argument began between the two fiery women, Han lost his temper.

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?! NOW!" he shouted, hammering his blaster onto the small table in the Jade Sabre's mess.

Two pairs of beautiful eyes, one green and one brown, turned to him, brows perched, a look of total annoyance wrinkling two exceptionally beautiful faces. Now that he had their attention, he suddenly wasn't so sure whether he did want it at all.

Clearing his throat, he began to speak in as much of a controlled voice as he could summon right now: "You're behaving like little children." When Leia opened her mouth again, Han cut her of cruelly.

"No. Now you are quiet and listen, Leia." Seeing Mara's sly smirk, he added: "And you, too, Jade. Am I the only one who's thinking about how we get Luke out of the mess he is in?"

The simple question let both women pale and lower their gaze in embarrassment. Han snorted: "Just what I thought. To get him back, to save him, we have to work together. To forget the animosities - at least until he is safe again. Is that clear?"

It took Mara and Leia just a few seconds, then they nodded, their faces set, but their minds connected in the wish to get Luke back in one piece. Han nodded contentedly: "Fine. That's what I want. And now each of you gives the other a summary of what has happened and then we're making rescue plans. Mara, it's your turn."

Mara nodded, then focussed her stare again on her mug before beginning to speak softly: "I know that what I did was wrong, Leia. I'm sorry I hurt Luke that much and I want nothing more than to apologise to him and make up for it. When I left, I was sure I did the right thing. My illness was taking its toll on him, too, and on our relationship. I felt cornered. I didn't want him to worry so much and I felt as long as I was with him, I wouldn't find any solution, any cure."

She took a deep breath, relieved at seeing the features of her sister-in-law soften - only a little bit, but still, it was a pprogress.

Fluently, she told Leia and Han what had happened in the weeks she had been on Dathomir, leaving out only the details about her healing. This was something she first wanted to discuss with Luke before sharing it with anyone else.

After Mara had explained herself, Leia gave her a general overview about the peace talks and a description of Luke's breakdown and behaviour after it. She didn't even try to hide the reproaches she had for Mara.

After both stories had been told, they were quiet for a time, letting it all sink in. Han used the time to take a longer look at both of them. Leia's features were pale and sad - the reliving of all her brother had been going through hadn't cheered her up, of course. Though it seemed that Mara's explanations had soothed her anger - still, reproach and incomprehension were evident in her big, brown eyes when she looked at Mara, but she would be willing to work with her. If nothing else, than she would work with her to rescue Luke.

Mara, on the contrary, was as white as snow, her mug forgotten on the table, her eyes brimming with something Han had never seen on her - tears. Her lips trembled when she sought her sister-in-law's eyes and whispered: "I'm sorry, Leia."

Leia nodded, her features not softening though: "I can imagine." Then, quietly, she added: "He did it for you. If it hadn't been for you, he would never have accepted Elan's offer. He would never have taken the risk of getting engaged so closely with the Yuuzhan Vong."

Han expected Mara to deny that, but she just nodded. For all three of them, it was clear now that Priestess Elan somehow was behind Luke's abduction. They didn't know why, or how, nor what she wanted from him. But after Mara had described the female Vong she had seen on Dathomir, talking about the kidnapping, they had all agreed that it most probably had been Elan.

"Can you forgive me?" Mara asked finally, touchier sounding than Han had ever heard her. He guessed that she just asked this to hide the fact that she was barely able to forgive herself. Han was familiar with self-reproach; he had often enough seen it in Leia's eyes, and more often even in Luke's. And it was what he saw now in Mara Jade's eyes.

Leia met Mara's gaze openly, but she was distanced: "That's not what's important, Mara. Luke has to forgive you."

Mara bit her lower lip, then repeated: "Can YOU forgive me?"

The Alderaanian princess took her time to reply, then she slowly shrugged: "I don't know, Mara. Honestly, I don't know."

The ex-trader nodded, accepting that their relationship had fallen back to the old days, in which Leia just knew that Mara had vowed to kill Luke. No hate, but suspicions, a certain amount of trust, but no friendship. Sighing, she decided that she had to do everything to make up for all she had done.

Pushing everything back, Luke's nervous breakdown, his obvious mental problems, the fact that he had taken all these risks for her, everything that remained in her head was one thing: She had to rescue Luke. No matter how.

Han seemed to have the same thoughts: "At least we have something to start with now. We'll have to talk to Lah about Elan. Perhaps we get the permission to question her or something."

Drawing in a sharp breath, Leia squared her shoulders: "I will arrange a meeting with Tsavong Lah immediately." Without another word, she left the ship's mess. A few seconds later, they heard her steps on the ramp, then she was gone.

Mara focused her attention on Han: "You've been awfully quiet, Han." She stated, eyeing him attentively, unsure.

Han met her eyes and smiled thinly: "Whether you believe me or not, Mara, I can understand why you left." Mara's eyes lit up, but he lifted a hand to prevent her from speaking: "That doesn't mean I forgive you. I have seen how he was - how it hurt him, how desperate he was. It has destroyed a part of him, Mara." He paused, then couldn't restrain himself. "Why don't you want a child with him?"

Mara's eyes went wide: "He told you?" Han just nodded. His sister-in-law jumped to her feet and paced the mess nervously. "He was about to persuade me to stay, Han. But I NEEDED this time for myself. I really NEEDED it." She sought his eyes, searching for understanding and was relieved to see a flicker of it.

"I just freaked out. I had to find something that made him go away, quickly. It was the first thing that came to my mind. I wasn't thinking when I said it. I'd do everything to take it back."

"I can imagine. Let's hope you get the opportunity. Come on, you've got to eat something. You look starved." He dragged her away.

 

Deep Space

Stretching her tensed shoulders, Mezhan Kwaad rose from the back of the Jeedai, carefully manoeuvring her finger out of the base of his skull and watching as the second drev-membrane sealed the new wound.

The Jedi writhed on the floor, still coughing helplessly, blood fanning out over the floor. Annoyed, the Shaper shook her head. "Messy job, these shapings," she murmured.

"Why does he bleed so much? The wound you made was very small," Priestess Elan queried, dancing disgusted around the bloody blotches around her feet.

Kwaad snorted: "Think a bit. I cut the inside of his throat in the process - another thing that's unpreventable. And now I'm going to prepare the tizowyrm for his further lessons."

"What about me?" Elan asked eagerly, obviously keen to help. The Priestess didn't seem to be able to catch on the Shaper's annoyance about that. Knowing that the spoiled woman was an absolute nuisance if she had nothing to do, Kwaad thought of the next best thing.

"You can take care of him here. Stay with him as long as you like. You can begin the process of bonding already." As if it was possible just now, she thought to herself. But Elan had absolutely NO knowledge about shaping, so it was quite easy to fool her this way.

And already the Priestess's eyes lit up with excitement and she let herself fall onto her knees beside the Jedi.

Shaking her head, muttering about the curious likings of Priestesses, Kwaad left the cage-space and went towards her laboratory.

*~~

Carefully, Elan rolled Skywalker onto his back. Already now, he had begun to go absolutely limp. Mezhan Kwaad had explained to her that the second drev-membrane, in combination with the first one, would paralyse his body entirely, leaving only his mind active as soon as the brain damage had been taken care of sufficiently.

The clear mind was important, the Shaper had explained, for now she wanted to begin with the psychological manipulation. His fading memories, made even hazier by the second membrane, would only help them.

Settling his head into her lap, she began to clear the blood away from his chin and lips, smiling at him. His strangely blue eyes stared at her wide with panic, pain and disorientation. Summoning an enormous strength, he croaked roughly, dark, glittering drops of blood appearing on his lips: "Who are you?"

Elan grinned broadly.

*~~

The feeling of the Shaper's finger leaving his body was nauseating. Coughing up more and more blood, Luke tried to calm his breathing, to suppress the panic and the pain. It seemed to take him an eternity, but finally he had succeeded. He could still taste the blood that filled his mouth and feel it trickle down into his stomach, but the need to cough wasn't as overwhelming as before.

Tired and drained, he tried to roll onto his back to make it easier to breathe and felt panic grip him anew when he recognised that he wasn't able to move his body. And it was even worse than before. No matter how much of the Force he summoned, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move a single muscle in his body.

The sound of nearing footsteps terrified him. She came back! She would hurt him even more! He wanted to scream, or at least to moan, but he couldn't, he just couldn't.

Bracing himself, trying to get a grip on his feelings, he felt how he was rolled onto his back. Opening his eyes for the first time in what seemed like an eternity he gazed up in the face of... Who was that? He had the strange feeling of knowing the woman, but he couldn't find the name to the face, couldn't place her.

What he didn't know, would never know, was that the second drev-membrane had just about connected with the first one, effectively sealing off certain parts of his brain from his consciousness. To speak exactly, the parts which contained the memories of his family, of his life and everything in it before he had come into Elan's and Mezhan Kwaad's possession.

Croaking, he asked the strange woman who she was. Just when he had finished, he felt also his lips going limp and out of control. The only thing he could still control was his eyes.

If he had remembered what Elan had done to him, what Kwaad had done to him, he wouldn't have accepted the woman cradling him in her arms, wouldn't have listened to the words in a strange language that were soothingly whispered into his ears.

But he didn't remember.

*~~

Elan was more than delighted. She was absolutely, hilariously, happy. Rocking him back and forth, she talked to him, repeating again and again that he would soon have no pain anymore and would become her familiar.

Of course she was aware that he didn't understand anything she said, but her tone and her rocking did the trick.

The terror and panic in his eyes slowly declined and finally vanished totally, leaving only pain and the first traces of trust. There was also fear - of course he was afraid, she mused, pushing a few strands of his amazingly coloured hair out of his forehead. He didn't know anything - not his name, not where he was, nor why he was here.

Reaching into her pocket, she took out her personal tizowyrm and let it slide into her ear.

"You don't have to be afraid," she said quietly, caressing his cheek and marvelling in the strange softness of his face. Once he was fully shaped, he would be the most exotic familiar that had ever been made. Everyone would envy her for having such a strange servant - a human! A real human.

She smiled more brightly, noting with contentment that his eyes had lit up at the words spoken in his own language - though he was of course not aware what language it was. He just understood it.

He moaned again, trying to move his lips, his eyes searching hers helplessly. Elan guessed what he wanted to say and answered, still smiling and caressing.

"Don't worry. You will remember soon. I will take care of that." Seeing the relief in his eyes, she held him more closely and added: "I will take care of you."

 

Coruscant System, Vong Ship Criarto

Tsavong Lah seemed a little bit annoyed as they met up with him in the now so familiar landing bay. It was already late in the evening and it was not so far-fetched that they had probably disturbed his sleep.

But Leia was not in the mood to pay any attention to this. Before she could begin her investigation, though, Lah's eyes widened and focused on Mara, open curiosity in them.

"Mara Jade Skywalker, if I'm not mistaken," he stated.

Mara's green eyes came to rest on the Yuuzhan Vong, measuring him and coming to the conclusion that he was more of an adversary she'd like to fight with than the last one she had battled against.

"You are not, Tsavong Lah," she replied.

The Vong nodded thoughtfully, ignoring Leia and slowly circling Mara. "So you are alive and obviously well. How do you manage to keep Anor's poison at bay?"

"I don't," Mara simply answered.

Lah was obviously taken aback, his glittering eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

"I don't keep it at bay. I don't have to." The Jedi Master allowed herself a wide grin, beginning to enjoy the obvious surprise of the alien.

If the Vong had had eyebrows, they would have risen now, of that she was certain. But he had none. His bewilderment was obvious nonetheless.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I'm healed." Her voice nonchalant, she relished in the frown that appeared on the Warmaster's head.

"So Nom Anor has been a failure - in any regard," Lah murmured, shaking his head. Only then, having taken care of this mystery, he turned to Leia.

"What do you want, President Organa Solo?"

"We need to talk to Priestess Elan. Immediately," Leia blurted out. When Lah crossed his arms in defiance, she hurried to give an explanation, cursing her lack of patience and diplomacy.

"My sister-in-law, Mara Jade Skywalker, has seen a Yuuzhan Vong female on Dathomir, meeting up with another Yuuzhan Vong male. They were talking about the attack on Corellia and the abduction of my brother, Jedi Master Skywalker. According to Mara's descriptions, the Priestess could have been this female."

Tsavong Lah had gone stiff and showed his teeth: "Priestess Elan has left the Criarto over a week ago. She said she had to attend a meeting of personal nature. I had no reason to deny her the permission to leave. Although I don't trust the Priestess, I need more evidence than the word of a human."

Now Mara narrowed her eyes: "I know the name of the Yuuzhan Vong she met up with - Denj Idao."

The low, predatory growl that came out of Lah's throat let Leia almost shrink away, but Mara didn't cringe. She was more than used to the inarticulate sounds of those aliens by now.

"You have SEEN them together? No doubt?" he persisted.

"Absolutely no doubt. She called him by this name."

Lah nodded grimly: "I suspected treachery from Idao's side already for a long time. We never got along good and domain Idao has long been an enemy of domain Lah. And I never trusted Elan - though it surprises me that she has the courage to act the way she does. What about Denj Idao? Where is he?"

Mara grinned wryly: "At least not in this universe anymore. I killed him in duel."

Lah perched a non-existent eyebrow: "YOU killed Denj Idao? He was a very skilled warrior - an admiral."

Mara just shrugged. Lah grinned at her, then became serious again: "What else did you overhear?" She frowned: "Elan talked about someone named Mezhan Kwaad. She is a Shaper."

Again, Lah went rigid, then he looked at Leia: "I suggest we concentrate our forces on finding your brother as soon as possible."

Frightened by his tone, Leia queried: "What do you mean by that, Warmaster?"

"That the Priestess made contact with a Master Shaper and kidnapped your brother doesn't tell us what her overall plan is, but it tells us what she wants from the Jeedai Skywalker."

"And that would be?" Han asked, regarding the Yuuzhan Vong attentively.

"She wants to shape him. " At the befuddled look of the humans, Lah explained: "She wants to alter him... you call it bio-engineering. She wants to alter him into a familiar. Every Priestess of Yun-Harla has a familiar. Elan lost hers to an illness, some time ago."

"What is a familiar?" Mara asked, feeling her voice go rough with fear.

Lah looked at her openly: "A pet. A companion. A distraction when she's unnerved. People of her class use their familiars for anything they want to. A human familiar would be something to show off with, I suppose."

"But Luke won't obey her," Han said, his voice trembling.

The Warmaster smiled grimly: "He will. The Shaper will erase his memories, torture him. No one has ever withstood a shaping."

"After ten days of imprisonment…. How far is the progress of the shaping?" Leia asked, glancing at Mara who was again deathly pale.

"Assuming that they have begun immediately…. They will now begin to erase his memories," Lah explained.

"Can we track them? Find out where they are?" Mara finally brought out, forcing herself to get her thoughts under control again.

Lah nodded: "You're lucky that I have been given this assignment, Mara Jade Skywalker. I have been distrusting Priestess Elan since the moment I have met her. We will be able to track her."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Han quipped.

 

Deep Space

Mezhan Kwaad smiled thinly when she saw Priestess Elan enter the laboratory. The petite Yuuzhan Vong female supported the shaky form of the Jeedai, who had just about fifteen minutes ago begun to feel his body again.

His disgustingly light eyes slowly took in his surroundings, but instead of showing horror and fear, as one should expect after everything he had been through, she saw mild curiosity in them.

Upon seeing Mezhan Kwaad, he cringed back, shooting the Priestess an unsure glance. Elan patted his hand and motioned him forward, helping him to lie down onto the living table that constituted almost the whole of her laboratory.

"You sure know that this is actually too early, Priestess? Instead of having erased his memory, as is done normally, I've just blocked them with membrane. What I will do now will have side effects - and it is not irreversible. Are you aware of that?"

Elan nodded, smiling, still patting the Jeedai whose gaze was wandering between her and the Shaper.

"Well then, my dear Jeedai," Kwaad bent over the human and smiled, too, "let's see to it that you learn how to behave in the future and how you're called." The blue eyes followed her finger as she extended it and patted the membrane on his forehead - his eyes rolling inward, the Jeedai fell into a state of deep unconsciousness, every automatic barrier falling down, as the membrane constricted around his brain.

"Sleep well, Liin," Elan whispered, withdrawing to make room for Kwaad. "What will you teach him in the first session?" she then asked the Master Shaper. Kwaad smiled: "Language, customs - and the duties of a familiar." Elan's eyes brightened, and the Shaper cackled: "Just another few days."

| To Be Continued | - Next chapter NC-17

 

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