Jedi Dawn – Chapter 20
By Sienn (2001)
Rating (for chapter): PG-13
Protagonists: Luke/Mara
Category: Drama/Action/Angst
Time Frame: 26 A.Y.
Spoilers:
See Chapter 1
Disclaimer:
See Chapter 1
Coruscant System, Yuuzhan Vong Ship Criarto, Bridge
The bridge of the Yuuzhan Vong warship was an even stranger experience than its hangar bay or the room they had had their conferences in. Although it was fairly obvious that all the Yuuzhan Vong were working on instruments similar to the ones on a ship like the Falcon, the "boards" looked that unfamiliar and exotic that it was hard to orient oneself.
"It seems the Priestess has completely underestimated the situation," Tsavong Lah growled, standing in front of the viewport, watching as the enemy fleet was destroyed one by one by the joined might of New Republic Mon Calamari Cruisers, Hapan Battle Dragons and the coralskippers of the Criarto. The wounded ship itself lay behind a protection ring of light Corvettes of the New Republic, unreachable for those who wanted to destroy it.
"She couldn't even guess that we would have established a truce in this short a time," Leia replied thoughtfully, standing right beside Lah. She received many astounded looks from Yuuzhan Vong officers and warriors all over the bridge, but they didn't utter a single word when they saw that their Warmaster obviously accepted the human woman as equal.
"Perhaps she's just dumb," Mara added in a dark voice, a contented smile playing on her lips while she looked on as the Priestess's fleet was decimated more and more.
"No. Elan is NOT dumb," Luke hissed beside her, causing Mara to turn surprised and eye her husband more intently. His face was set and he looked anxious, afraid and angry at the same time. His eyes were narrowed slightly and followed the movements of the flagship.
"Well, she must be if she thought she could just pop into this system and vanquish the Criarto," the ex-trader said slowly, feeling unease build up inside her.
When she reached for Luke, she felt a curious mix of anger, frustration, worry and fear. It was carefully measured and didn't even come near the slightest Dark Side feeling, but it was there nonetheless and for the first time in her entire marriage, Mara had the feeling that her husband was bound to do really unpredictable things at the moment.
"It seems so. But Elan is no idiot. She has something in mind," Luke insisted, his eyes suddenly searching hers, seeing the doubt in them. He frowned and opened his mouth to explain himself, when Lah interrupted him.
"I would listen to the Jeedai Master, Mara Jade Skywalker. Even if he has broken the shaping, he has had a link with Priestess Elan for some days. He knows her better than anyone of us."
Luke went white as snow at this, but nodded nonetheless. Taking a deep breath, he continued. "She has something in mind and she is not alone. Kwaad is with her and she is..." He stopped, briefly closing his eyes, then opening them again: "She is a highly intelligent being."
"Well, if she has something in mind, then why does she retreat?" Han crossed his arms before his chest and gestured to the viewport. The battle was already far away from the Criarto and almost done. There were two ships left, one of them the flagship of the enemy fleet. Its companion shielded it from two Mon Cal cruisers that had set off on an intercept course.
Luke spun around, staring at the distant blotch that was the enemy flagship. "Still, I don't trust this," he murmured, his artificial hand opening and closing again and again. Mara, Leia and Han exchanged worried looks. The Jedi Master's obsession with Elan and Kwaad was slowly getting out of hand. Could his fear go that deep that he thought them to be invincible? It couldn't possibly be.
The Yuuzhan Vong communications officer barked something in surprise and before Tsavong Lah could answer, the bridge's central villip formed itself into a delicate, female face.
"Priestess Elan," the Warmaster growled, crossing his arms before his chest and staring in the obsidian eyes. "You are surely aware that you're wanted for multiple heresy."
The laugh the Priestess uttered sounded genuinely amused and her eyes sparkled: "Lah, you are the most pathetic creature I've ever seen. Do you really believe that's important for me?"
"Actually, I'm not interested in what's important for YOU. Surrender or your ship will be destroyed." The Yuuzhan Vong warrior was visibly infuriated, but his voice was even and with a touch of disgust in it. And no trace of respect.
As he had anticipated, Elan's cheeks flushed with anger, but she kept her composure admirably well.
"We will be away before those abominations can reach us." A haughty grin accompanied this statement.
"You will be found. Either by your own people or by us," Mara spat in the villip's direction.
Again, Elan laughed: "Now I'm afraid, infidel."
"Why did you contact us, if you despise us that much?" Leia queried, her eyes switching between the Priestess and the blotch that was her flagship. It was retreating more and more and the President saw no point in the female's call. Elan was rather endangering her escape route being given away by the link of the two communication creatures.
"I didn't want to contact YOU, infidel queen," Elan spat, then let her dark, glittering eyes rest on a spot behind Leia and beside Mara. It took the ex-Emperor's hand a few seconds to realise that Elan was looking at Luke. Worried, Mara gazed at her husband, swallowing when she saw the way his eyes had widened.
A strange fluttering in the Force let her know that he was absolutely paralysed with fear.
"Hello, Liin," the Yuuzhan Vong priestess said slowly, softly. Having Luke's hand grasped firmly in her own, Mara felt him shudder.
"I'm not Liin, Elan. I'll never be," he said with a firm voice, his hand in Mara's trembling uncontrolled. She grasped it only harder, to soothe him and show him she was there and to hide it from the eyes of the Vong. Who knew how they'd react upon seeing the great Skywalker trembling with fear of a female Yuuzhan Vong.
The black, glittering eyes narrowed, hardened, and Luke involuntarily made a step backwards. "You have to address me as Mistress. Did you already forget what you've been taught? You have to obey me, you belong to..."
"Be quiet!" Luke shouted, now advancing towards the villip as if it were indeed Elan. Fearing he would throw himself onto the thing out of sheer desperation, Mara tugged with all her power at his arm, causing him to shoot her a glance over his shoulder.
The fear she saw in his ice-blue eyes tore at her heart and the struggle she felt in himself almost let her embrace him, pressing him at herself.
'Mara I... I wanted to obey for a moment I wanted to call her mistress.' His mental voice whispered in her head.
'It's just a memory, Luke. Your mind belongs to you. Fight it. You know who you are and where you belong,' Mara assured, smiling lovingly at him.
"I see you have lost all your manners, Liin. I will have to teach them anew to you as soon as you're with me again. After you have been punished properly, of course," Elan hissed, obviously leaning forward in her seat.
"Stop calling him that!" Han growled, his eyes filled with anger and nailed on the Priestess's face.
Elan just smirked at him, then focused again on Luke.
"It's your choice, my dear familiar. Come back to me and I may spare your infidel friends. Perhaps I'll even let you have one or two memories of them."
"What are you talking about?" Lah bellowed, giving Leia only a sideways glance when she hurried at her brother's side. He had swayed slightly, grasping his head between his hands and bending forwards.
"Luke?" she asked worriedly, supporting him gently. His eyes were pressed closed firmly. "My head. It hurts so much," he murmured between clenched teeth.
"I want to hear your answer now, Liin," Elan persisted, obviously not surprised by Luke's attack of pain.
"If you don't shut up immediately and let him be, then I swear that you'll regret the day you've touched him," Mara hissed, letting Luke in his sister's care and stepping as near to the villip as she could. She had watched the animals quite intently and knew that Elan's villip would mirror her movements as well as the Criarto's villip did with the Priestess's movements.
"Please stop boring me, infidel," Elan said, imitating a yawn. "Perhaps you don't understand that, but I just gave him a CHOICE. And he will return to me. Out of his free will."
"You arrogant, despicable..." Mara began, only to be cut off by Luke's feeble voice.
He stood more or less upright, his sister still at his side: "Let her be, Mara." Motioning to Han, who stepped beside the ex-Trader immediately and laid a hand soothingly on her shoulder, the Jedi Master squared his shoulders and met the obsidian stare of Elan for the first time.
"I won't ever come back. I will NEVER be your familiar. Never."
Elan's smile vanished and with it every beauty. She looked only cruel and angry. "Then your friends will die. I promise I will take care of you if you survive."
"What are you talking about? Your ships are destroyed. You're retreating. How can you dare threaten us?" Leia cried over to her, her voice clearly showing her anger. She still felt Luke shivering in her embrace and the turmoil of emotions she got from him hurt her as much as it did him and Mara. And this woman had caused all this. She had caused her brother that much pain only because of her petty desires.
The Priestess grinned broadly: "Ask Liin. He knows everything."
The moment Elan closed her mouth and all eyes on the bridge settled on him, dizziness enveloped Luke. He vaguely felt how he sank deeper into Leia's arms. He heard murmurs and voices, but couldn't understand them. The walls around him changed and without warning, his mind was assailed with memories. Memories that had been buried deep within him.
Memories of a state of complete helplessness and irritation. He had awoken to chilling cold, to a head as empty and blank as the desert. What was his name? Where was he? What did he do here?
And amidst all the confusion, Elan had come, had taken him into her arms, rocked him back and forth, soothed him and had talked to him. First he hadn't understood a word, but then she had begun to speak Basic.
She had told him many things - among others, what she had in mind for him and for herself. Her plans! She had told him everything about her plans!
He knew what she was talking about! All of a sudden he knew! Desperation gripping him anew, Luke struggled to come back to reality.
*~~
"Luke? Luke, come on, don't faint on me here!" Leia shook her brother frantically, trying to hold him upright. Eyes half-closed, he murmured softly and was barely able to stay on his feet.
Mara's eyes were widened anxiously and, at the same time, an anger of an intensity she hadn't thought she'd be still able to feel had taken possession of her.
"What have you done to him?" she cried in Elan's direction, stepping directly in front of the villip, regretting with all her heart that this was not the real Priestess.
"Nothing." The Yuuzhan Vong female cackled. Lah went over to one of his officers and began giving him orders, glancing occasionally over at Luke, obviously contemplating whether he needed help or not.
"Prepare to die," she then added, directing her gaze to the side, to a point on her own ship they couldn't see.
"What the heck is she talking about?" Leia huffed, finally succeeding in shaking Luke completely awake. He gazed around disoriented, then his eyes came to rest on Mara standing still fuming before the villip.
His wife turned her head, smiling at him relieved. Her soul brushed his carefully and he would have relished the tenderness if it hadn't been for Elan's face. The Priestess had once again focused her dark gaze on him, eyeing him intently.
"I'm sorry, Liin," she whispered, sounding genuinely affected by the moment. Her gaze dropped to a point before her and with a soft sigh she pushed something.
Luke's heart made an anxious jump and with sudden terror, the last piece of memory fell into place. His danger sense tingling, he saw Mara spin around, staring at the villip suspiciously. She had also sensed the danger, but she couldn't possibly interpret it right.
"Mara!" he stumbled forward as violent shudders began to go through the ship and he had not even crossed half the distance between them when hell broke loose.
*~~
Elan sighed sadly when she watched how several explosions broke the Criarto open in at least seven places. Fire fountains erupted into open space and lots of smaller, black dots that she knew to be Yuuzhan Vong crewmen were sucked out into vacuum.
"Liin," she whispered.
"If he had been the right familiar for you, he would have come back," Mezhan Kwaad said coldly. Her anger about seeing Skywalker alive and well was obvious.
Elan couldn't bring herself to be angry at the moment. She had lost this battle, but she had probably won the war. And sacrificed her familiar.
"You don't understand anything," the Priestess said soundlessly, then gestured towards her navigation officer.
"Get us out of here as soon as possible."
*~~
When Leia came to again, she felt herself being laid onto the hard, cold yorik-coral floor. A strong wind pulled at her hair and she wondered how there could be wind in a starship.
Only slowly, the memories came back. Luke had stumbled forward and tried to drag Mara away from the big villip on the bridge when the thing had suddenly exploded. Leia had been pushed back into the hard wall by the shock wave and had only been dimly aware of the large gap opening in the viewport.
"Leia? Leia, wake up! Please!" She blinked slowly, recognising the voice of her brother. Now she could sketchily remember Luke pressing her against himself and crawling with her through the door. Han had been right before them and behind them, Mara had been... Luke had pushed her behind the wall, out of the wind channel, when...
Leia jerked awake at once. Out of the corridor, a big piece of yorik-coral had shot towards the door, hitting her on the head.
Rolling onto her back, she could see Han and Luke dragging Mara fully into the protected area. Behind the female Jedi Master, Tsavong Lah followed, who seemed not to have any problems at that point to withstand the wind with his own arms.
Her brother shot her an anxious glance, followed by a similar one of her husband. She smiled feebly and sat up. Blood trickled down her cheek and she felt slightly dizzy, but otherwise she was just fine.
"Elan will die for this," Lah huffed, grasping her and, surprisingly carefully and kindly, putting her onto her feet again. Leia acknowledged that with a nod and merged into Han's embrace. Luke and Mara looked both like a complete mess, their robes torn to pieces and some angry red burns marking the places hot villip tissue had gotten to them. They had been directly in front of the thing when it had exploded.
"Yeah, and I'll help you, but now, I'd appreciate you showing us a way out of this ship. It won't hold together much longer," Han said.
Lah nodded and led the way, Han following him, supporting Leia who was still a little bit dizzy. A couple of steps behind them, Luke and Mara made up the rear.
*~~
"Has she bought it?" Captain Astarta bent over the shoulder of her navigation officer, trying to make out the Yuuzhan Vong ship between all the other dots on the screen.
The young officer nodded with a wide grin on her face.
Astarta mirrored the expression contentedly: "Very good. The information of this Vong was indeed correct. Destroy the ship!"
On her command, seven Hapan Battle Dragons joined forces and opened fire on Priestess Elan's ship.
*~~
"Priestess, they have tricked us! They knew our exit vector all along!" a warrior cried over the bridge.
Elan jumped to her feet and stared at him unbelieving: "That is impossible. The only ones who knew the vector in advance were me and..." Stopping in mid-sentence, the Priestess spun around.
As she had suspected, the Master Shaper was gone. She had just sneaked out of the bridge.
"Seven abominations have a target lock on us! Our dovin-basals won't be able to stand that, Priestess!"
When the combined firepower of the Hapan ships tore the Yuuzhan Vong vessel apart, Elan had not much time to be angry or sorry about what had happened. In a matter of moments, she was nothing more than atoms flying into open space.
*~~
In the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, Luke Skywalker watched the expanding fireball of Elan's ship, motionless and seemingly emotionless, but everyone around him knew that this was only façade.
Slowly, Mara took his hand into her own and squeezed it softly. Luke tilted his head, staring at their intertwined hands, seemingly mesmerised and shocked by it at the same time, then met Mara's gaze.
"It's over," she whispered.
He nodded, brushed her presence in the Force softly, then withdrew his hand and stared out into space.
Mara sank back into her seat. Elan was dead, but the damage she had inflicted was not undone.
Coruscant, Imperial Palace, The President's Personal Landing Bay, 2 Days Later
"You will take care of him, won't you?" Leia pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders, giving Mara a tentative smile. Now, with the Yuuzhan Vong being no danger anymore, but a mighty ally and Elan being dead, things had cooled down.
Luke had spent the last two days partly in a bacta tank and in bed again, trying to recuperate after the new straining ordeal on the Criarto.
Now, some days later, Leia had finally learned how Luke had managed to protect himself and Mara from being killed. After all, they had stood immediately in front of the explosion's centre.
Luke had created a Force bubble around himself and his wife, had pushed all but the smallest debris away from them, had absorbed the heat - and had once again given all he could to use the Force in this way. It had exhausted him completely and, although he really wanted to help deepen the co-operation between the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong, he finally had to acknowledge that his body didn't allow that anymore. He needed rest and he needed it now.
Leia, Mara and Han had spent an hour talking to him, persuading him that he didn't have to worry about anything. In the time he'd take to recover, nothing that important could happen anyway. The comment about the "speed" of political procedures from Han had indeed brought a hearty laugh out of the Jedi Master.
Mara smiled genuinely and nodded: "Believe me, Leia, I will."
"Mara, are you ready? The ship is." Luke called over from the extended ramp of the Jade Sabre. He had already said his good-byes to Leia, Han and the kids, who had arrived from Ithor the day before.
He looked pale and thin, still, but his eyes had begun to shine a little bit more.
Mara embraced both of them, Han and Leia, then vanished into the ship. Only a couple of minutes later, the Jade Sabre sped towards the sky.
"They will work it out," Han said softly, laying an arm around Leia's shoulders and leading her in the lift's direction.
"You know, it's not that he can't forgive her. He did the day she went away."
"When they come back, Luke will be fine again, you'll see." Han kissed her forehead. Leia smiled at him, for the first time since Luke's breakdown willing to actually believe that.
Hyperspace, Jade Sabre
They had both stared out into the colourful chaos of hyperspace for a long, long time. Mara had the feeling it had actually been hours and she had almost dozed off when she felt a hand take hers.
Opening her eyes surprised, she met Luke's azure gaze. He squeezed her hand softly and smiled. In this moment, with this smile, he looked like her husband again.
It didn't matter that he had lost that much weight, that he was pale like a ghost, that he was so weak that he practically could fall asleep any moment.
He began to come back, to restore himself - the first step had been made. The way would be long and probably not easy, considering it was Luke Skywalker who had to go it, but he would make it.
And Mara would help him. Squeezing his hand back, Mara leaned once again into her seat and allowed herself to enjoy this moment in all its aspects.
He had opened himself to her help and she would not disappoint him. The first step was his alone, but the next ones would have to be done by both of them.
And Mara was sure that they would manage it. Together.
| End |