The Birth Of Acceptance 

Chapter 11

By Sienn (2002)

 

Rating (for chapter):  PG-13

Protagonists: Luke/Mara

Category: Action/Angst/Drama 

Series: Part III of "Soul's Trial" Trilogy 

Time Frame: 26 A.Y. (immediately after "Soul's Trial II: Healing") 

Spoilers:

See Chapter 1 

Disclaimer:

See Chapter 1

 

Yuuzhan Vong Ship Criarto, Same Afternoon, Miiram Shimrra's Quarters

Miiram's words seemed to float in the air. They had been reasonable and spoken in an intense voice. But at this very moment, Mara felt beyond reason. Her urge to follow Luke was simply overwhelming.

"Trust me, Mara. You need to stay with me and listen. His life may depend on it." The Yuuzhan Vong woman repeated, her dark eyes resting on the human woman with the faintest glow of anxiety.

Green eyes met her gaze, wide with suspicions, grim determination and worry. "He needs me, Miiram. Now."

"Yes, he does. But not with him. Your mate needs you to hear what I have to say. He needs you to know what you can do to keep him safe, to prevent him from becoming what Mezhan Kwaad wants him to be."

Mara bit her lower lip, her eyes darting to the coral door, then to Corran. He nodded, his complexion paler than usual, but his eyes mirroring her own resolve to help Luke, no matter what it took.

The ex-Emperor's Hand inhaled deeply and sank back into one of the coral seats: "All right. Let's make this quick, then. I don't want him to be alone for longer than absolutely necessary."

Khalee Lah chose this moment to participate in the discussion, breaking his brooding silence: "Do not worry, Jeedai, this will not take long. My betrothed has done thorough research."

"Speaking of research, where did you get all this information?" Corran chimed in, training a suspicious gaze on the Supreme Overlord's daughter. "It doesn't seem as if Kwaad went bragging about what she's going to try. At least not to people she doesn't trust."

"Corran, she is our ally." Mara gently admonished, shaking her head at him softly. All she got in reply was a perched eyebrow, then Corran focused back on the object of his interrogation. To his - and Mara's - utter surprise, Miiram merely smiled.

"I have been told that the Jeedai Corran Horn is not one to take any information for granted. Shedao Shai's files on you have been extensive and, as it seems, correct."

"Shai had FILES about me?"

"Of course he had. We have information about most of our adversaries. Every good Warrior seeks to know the one he fights against. Don't infidels teach and learn this rule of war?" the Warmaster's son asked, a faint sound of contempt permeating his voice while he went over to stand behind his betrothed.

"I don't think this is what we should be talking about right now." Mara's voice resembled a deep growl and her impatience was obvious.

Miiram nodded at her, cleared her throat and folded her hands into her lap.

"To tell you how far exactly your mate has already fallen victim to 'Slayer's Mind', I would have to examine him thoroughly, with the help of a Shaper. We could…"

"No member of this caste is going to touch Luke."

"Mara, I think you should reconsider this. It could be the best course of action at this point." Corran said slowly, realising that they all were walking a dangerous path at the moment. The redhead was close to loosing her countenance and patience with them all and if pushed too far, she would leave the room immediately to be with her husband.

The Corellian understood how she felt, remembering all too well the terrible time in which he had known nothing but worry for his wife, Mirax Terrik. But nonetheless, he knew that this was important.

Miiram Shimrra didn't seem to be someone who wasted words. If she said she had to tell them something of life importance to Luke, then it was probably just like that.

"I think you heard me quite fine, CorSec." The female Jedi Master's voice was cold as ice and her emerald eyes blazed in barely contained anger. "No Shaper is going to even look at Luke from a distance. Period. I don't trust them and I never will."

The Yuuzhan Vong woman stared at her friend for a while, then nodded curtly: "As you wish. Judging by what we have witnessed ourselves, I would say that the Jeedai Master Skywalker has been lucky. Kwaad doesn't seem to have progressed further than the first stage of the protocol."

"And that means what?" Corran demanded to know, folding his legs and crossing his arms before his chest.

"It would mean that the Master Shaper has so far only tuned his soul to herself."

Mara, who had until this point done an admirable job of keeping her nerves, blanched even more and jumped to her feet: "She did what?!"

Miiram joined her in the upright position and began to slowly pace the room, hands clasped firmly behind her back.

"When you talk to your mate this evening, you should ask him to search for memories beyond the ones of Elan and his shaping to a familiar. There have to be more. Kwaad has reached an atonement that allows her to sneak into his thoughts and exact a certain amount of control over them. Mara, when he spoke in his sleep, what did he say?"

Mara frowned in concentration: "Mostly, he simply sighed. One time.... " she interrupted herself, her eyes growing wide: "One time, he said 'Sernpidal'."

The Supreme Overlord's daughter nodded: "Exactly what I thought. This is the final prove we need; Mezhan Kwaad is responsible for the sabotage on our worldship above Belkadan."

Khalee smiled grimly: "Now we can convict her of even another crime."

"Hold on a moment, please. I'm afraid I don't really understand this. So, Luke said 'Sernpidal' in his sleep. What about it?" Corran interrupted, his features tensed.

"Your friend," Miiram explained, stopping in front of the Corellian's chair and peering down at him, "told Mezhan Kwaad where he would be next."

Mara nodded, her face suddenly relaxed, as if some question she had pondered for half an eternity had suddenly been answered: "It's because of this that he's so sleepy, isn't it?"

The Yuuzhan Vong royalty smiled, obviously impressed: "Yes. It's the first stage of the protocol. Establishing a deep contact with the Force user's subconscious. Her link to your mate is buried deep within him. Even his skills in your Force can't detect it. She has merged it intrinsically into his own biorhythm, into his own thoughts and instincts. If you want so, she has mixed a Yuuzhan Vong with a human and has done it that carefully and brilliantly that her victim couldn't possibly catch on it."

"So what you mean," Corran summarized, "is that this Yuuzhan Vong personality she has implanted in him tries to get the upper hand, but for it is rooted in his subconscious, it has to wait until he's asleep and lets down his guard."

Miiram nodded: "In a sense, yes. When he sleeps, he is guarded against outside influences, if I have understood the Jeedai correctly so far," turning to Mara, she received an acknowledgement and continued: "but in sleep, he doesn't need to have a reign about his own emotions and thoughts. Thus, it's the perfect opportunity for the Yuuzhan Vong personality to seize his thoughts."

"And his sleepiness is induced by this personality. It wants to create a state in which it can assume complete control." Mara added in a hushed voice, feeling anguish and regret flood her heart. All the clues and she had never given them enough attention. The scene on the worldship could have been prevented.

The former CorSec officer rose, too, scratching his head in a gesture that had grown into his behaviour many years ago. "So, if we assume Mezhan Kwaad has faked the message that asked Luke to come to the growing worldship, what did she want to achieve?"

"Confrontation." Khalee curtly answered, his features holding a challenge that made the experienced Rogue-turned-Jedi a little uncomfortable. While the Yuuzhan Vong continued, Corran tried to assess whether any weapons were visible on the other's body armour.

"By presenting him with an environment as completely from our galaxy as possible and having almost no one but him present - thus she chose this worldship and no other - she overwhelmed him. Jeedai Skywalker didn't expect an attack from within. The Yuuzhan Vong personality in him could strike swiftly, without encountering any resistance."

Mara closed her eyes for a moment, massaging her left temple: "I could have lost him right then and there, couldn't I? Couldn't I, Miiram??"

The female Yuuzhan Vong pressed her lips together: "If we hadn't come, she could have used the link to your mate to instruct the Yuuzhan Vong presence. Had she actually given him an order, we wouldn't have stood a chance. He would have been focused on fulfilling the order and you wouldn't have been able to bring him back to the present."

The ex-Emperor's Hand turned away from them, her shoulder heaving for a couple of times until she had gathered enough calm to face her friends again. When they finally could see her face again, she seemed to be all business.

"Why do you think Kwaad didn't order him to come to her?"

Miiram sighed, laying a clawed finger onto her chin: "I assume she wanted to play with him. His hearing her voice that often suggests that she wants him to be aware of his becoming more and more Yuuzhan Vong. She seems to be a weird individual. I wonder.... Did the Jeedai Skywalker ever say anything about his name? I mean, his name in our tongue?"

Mara shook her head: "No. Why?"

"During my research, I found out that the name 'Liin' doesn't exist for as long as our common names. Indeed, the Shapers have invented it. Elan knew only the meaning every average Yuuzhan Vong knows - 'Delicate Treasure'. But for any Shaper, the name Liin means 'Slayer'."

"I don't believe it." Corran breathed, plopping down into his seat again and staring off into eternity.

Mara, for her part, was trying to not let her hands clench into fists: "She was toying with him from the very moment on she heard of him. I swear, if I get my hands on her, I will...."

"I'm afraid I will have the pleasure, then." Khalee Lah interrupted her. "As Yuuzhan Vong and son of the only Warmaster present in this galaxy, the execution of Mezhan Kwaad is granted to me. Unless my father or the Supreme Overlord himself takes it from me."

"Then you have to be faster than I am." The beautiful woman with the red hair growled, giving him a ferocious grin before turning back to his betrothed.

"What can I do to help him? Can I do ANYTHING at all to prevent him from succumbing to Liin?"

"Indeed, you can. First and foremost, he mustn't sleep unprotected."

"Protection meaning...?"

"Protection meaning," Miiram continued, "that you have to hinder his subconscious from seizing control as long as it isn't cleansed from Liin Kwaad."

"But is there a way to cleanse him? Really cleanse him? The way I have understood it, no Shaper alive is better than Mezhan Kwaad. She exceeds them all. So how can anyone even hope to outdo her in this task?" Corran wondered aloud.

"An interesting question, Jeedai Horn."

"With a satisfying answer, I hope." Mara quietly said.

"Only partly. I am afraid the only solution to the problem will have to be the radical one." The Yuuzhan Vong woman replied in a soft voice.

"What..."

"Mezhan Kwaad has to die. Only when she perishes, Liin Kwaad will cease to exist. It's that simple. We have to find her and kill her. Before she gets the Jeedai Skywalker under her control." Khalee chimed in, his voice quivering with a mix of anticipation and anxiousness. Obviously, he had understood quite well what would happen to him and his kin in case the Master Shaper would succeed in her ploy.

"Indeed, simple." The Corellian Jedi murmured sarcastically.

Mara sneered, her face assuming the mask of the deadly assassin Corran had never had the dubious pleasure to meet. "Trust me, CorSec, I WILL find her. And I will make sure that Luke is protected wherever he is."

Turning to the two Yuuzhan Vong which stood shoulder to shoulder, features as expressionless as was common in their caste, yet dark eyes shining with enthusiasm and intelligence, she added: "I assume this is it for now."

Miiram extended a hand, grasping the smaller, softer one of the human woman with a kind of affection she had seldom displayed to anyone else: "For the moment, yes. Someone has to inform your leader - Leia Organa Solo. My betrothed's father will want to discuss tactics with her. We have to expect that the Master Shaper won't rely solely on 'Slayer' to achieve what she desires. Defence, prevention - it has to be discussed and has to be the joined effort of both our people."

"I will take care of that." Corran offered. "I think it's better if Mara goes to Luke now. He will have to be told what he has to do. For what he has to look out." 'And he shouldn't be alone right now.' He added silently.

The ex-Emperor's Hand gave him a grateful smile: "Thank you, Corran. And thank you, too, Miiram. Without you, I would have lost my husband. I owe you a lot."

The Yuuzhan Vong smiled: "Hardly. But I may still get back to you about that one."

Mara grinned, nodding curtly to Khalee in good-bye, then turning on her heels and leaving the room without further paying attention to the words that were traded between the three remaining people.

She had to go to Luke. All the time, she had felt like sitting on glowing, hot coals. Her husband was out there and he suffered. The yorik coral still dampened everything in the Force, but a look into his eyes before he had stormed out had sufficed to show her that he hurt. Hurt incredibly.

Mara shuddered while walking swiftly through the corridors, having memorized the Criarto's set-up thoroughly. It was so hard to imagine Luke as a merciless killer. Her gentle, wonderful, tender Luke. It was that much against his nature - the mere thought had to repulse him, make him sick.

She knew how it was to be such an individual. Killing on order. Not caring whom or why or how. Still, Mara HAD had a conscience. She had been able to stop when she had decided she wanted to. If Kwaad achieved what she was desiring... Luke would have no choice. He would cease to exist and Liin would claim his soul, his mind and his body.

Her beautiful husband, this shining star in the Force, would simply vanish, converted into the figure she had seen in her dreams. His eyes, these beautiful, emotion-filled windows that could be so soothing, so enticing, would hold nothing but cruelty and hate.

It wouldn't happen. Not as long as she lived. She would rather allow the Master Shaper to do that to her than tolerate her touching Luke ever again. At least she, Mara Jade, the former Emperor's Hand, knew how to deal with the remorse, the regret and the self-disgust that followed an assassination.

Luke would break. He would fight Liin Kwaad as long as he could, would probably linger for years and decades somewhere in the other's soul, his incredible might in the Force preventing him from being vanquished entirely. But how would he be able to bear it, when his victims stared at him with big, terrified eyes before he took their life?

The answer was simple. He wouldn't be able to bear it. He would falter, crumple, guilt and pain eating away at his power and at some point, he would just vanish. Give up the fight and leave his life to Liin. The Slayer.

It was Mara's turn to prevent this from happening. After everything he had undergone because of Elan, she had sworn to protect him against any pain that might cross his path. And she intended to do just that.

Taking a last, deep breath, steeling herself against whatever she would find, she entered the hangar. And froze.

The place where the Jade Sabre had rested was empty. Luke was gone.

 

Mezhan Kwaad's Personal Craft Moota, Same Time

"THIS is a complete failure. You've wasted the potential of this animal." Mezhan Kwaad growled, pushing her apprentice Nen Yim away from the examination table rather rudely.

The young Yuuzhan Vong girl distanced herself from the form of her Master, glowering at her from behind. Kwaad had been in an especially bad mood for some time now. The Master Shaper hadn't shared what exactly was going on or what she had been doing alone in her room for hours instead of supervising and instructing Yim on her latest task.

But whatever it had been, Nen was sure it had gone wrong. And she had to suffer the consequences. As always. As it had been with every other Master she had had before. And there went another thing she had thought Kwaad to be special in.

At this precise moment, her carefully honed and trained patience left her. Nen Yim - for the first time in her life - literallly exploded.

"I did my best without instructions. If YOU hadn't chosen to lock yourself in your room, doing who knows what silly stuff, you could have SHOWN me how to do it. You SHOULD have shown me how to do it. YOU are the Master, I am the APPRENTICE!! I'm supposed to LEARN, not to be perfect from the beginning."

For a long moment, Mezhan Kwaad stared at her, her serious, intelligent eyes studying every inch of Yim's face. Finally, she smiled: "I didn't do any SILLY stuff. But you're right. I am the Master." When Nen couldn't hold back a satisfied smile, she quickly added: "I shouldn't have assumed your intelligence to be that amazing."

Waving impatiently, she prodded: "Come here and watch. It's not that difficult, really."

While Nen Yim - her skin still flushed from anger - came back to the examination table and focused her attention on the Master Shaper's hands which prepared another, identical animal for its task in her plan, Mezhan Kwaad allowed her frustration and hate to envelop her thoughts and heart again.

Someone knew what was going on with the Jeedai. Someone had figured out what she had in mind.

Could it be this annoyingly protective human woman - the one with the fire hair? Mezhan seriously doubted it. She seemed bright, for her race. But not bright enough. And oblivious to everything that had to do with the Yuuzhan Vong. But who else? Who else could have found out what was going on?

It was a riddle she had to solve, and that quickly. Her plans might depend on it. She had almost had him. Skywalker had been on the growing worldship and the moment he had left his abomination, Liin - her dear Liin - had seized control over his thoughts in a way much more intense and firm than ever before. She had guided him through the ship, Skywalker following her instructions without resistance. There was no way for his mind to escape from her without help.

Oh yes, he had struggled. At the beginning, a little. But even if she hadn't had the time to apply more than the first stage, THAT one she had applied thoroughly. He had stood no chance, succumbing to Liin in mere seconds.

And then someone had dared rip him out of her grip. Only a minute more and she would have planted her order. He would have come to her, without any hope of ever breaking free of her creation anymore.

She allowed herself a small smile. It was a minor setback. In the long run, she would win. Skywalker would come to her and would vanish and be replaced by Liin Kwaad, her Slayer, and her tool.

Soon, her plan would enter its final stage and then, everything would come as she had planned.

 

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, Evening

The grass was soft under his naked feet, making him feel like walking on clouds. He had not been sure whether he would find the way again - the first time he had taken it, he hadn't been aware of it, the second time, he had only wanted to get away, plunging through bushes and trees and fields of carefully planted flowers.

But the moment he had reached the place on the stony way at which he had resolved to exercise his defence this very morning, he hadn't needed to even think about where he was going. His feet had developed a life of their own.

In the dusk of a Coruscant evening, the sun pouring through the trees, he had found the clearing again.

The sun had long set and darkness prevailed. Soft sounds of night birds and insects were the only things to be heard in the little wood, artificially grown and maintained in the midst of a world of transparisteel and glass.

Luke Skywalker kneeled on the floor, not minding that dew soaked the knees of his trousers wet. His eyes, wide and filled with the emotions of an inner conflict no one but him could really understand, rested on the two objects that were neatly laid next to each other in front of him.

A lightsaber. An amphistaff.

While the sun had sunken lower and lower, Luke had wondered why he had come here. He could have sent R2 or 3PO to get the weapons. He could have waited for Mara, could have been resting in her arms, trying to forget what Miiram Shimrra had told him. But he had done neither.

He had fled from the quarters of the Supreme Overlord's daughter, had started the Jade Sabre, had flown back to Coruscant and somehow ended up sitting here.

With a little fantasy, he could almost make himself believe he was alone, on Yavin IV, deep in the jungle. No one but him. Him and the Force. But in truth, it was a mere island in a world so unnatural it made a part of him hurt.

But which part?

Luke hesitantly extended a hand and stroked the handle of his lightsaber. The weapon of a Jedi. Constructed by himself, all those years ago on Tatooine, his home planet. This was Luke Skywalker. Upon looking at it, studying every dent, memories flooded back to him. Han, Leia, Ben. Lando. His father. Wedge, Corran. Mara. Biggs. Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen.

His friends. His family. That was what he was. That was where Luke Skywalker belonged. They loved him. He knew they loved him. He would always be able to go back there, to seek refuge in their love and their friendship.

Luke Skywalker was love of flying, was the delight upon immersing himself in the Force, the satisfaction and feeling of millions of butterflies in his stomach when Mara took him into her arms, caressed and kissed him. Luke Skywalker was the firm conviction of what was right and what was wrong, the desire to help and protect.

This lightsaber was a part of him, of Luke, and it belonged to him as his natural, left hand did. He couldn't imagine not having this weapon anymore. The security it gave, the memories and the symbolism were crucial to his personality.

And yet...

His hand now trembling, his breath catching in his throat, Luke grasped the amphistaff.

This was not Luke. This was Liin. Liin Kwaad. This was hate and anger and contempt. It was the Dark Side. Softly stroking the animal, the Jedi Master silently laughed at the irony. The Sith extinct. Dark Jedi unheard of. And yet, the Dark Side of the Force came to taunt him in yet another form.

He despised it. Probably there was no other thing in the universe he despised more than the Dark Side and what it made people become.

But how, he mused, his eyes never living the beautiful, living weapon, could it feel so GOOD if he despised it? Was Liin Kwaad the Dark Side? Or was he simply a part of HIM now? Was he able to fight him? Did he WANT to fight him?

Luke didn't want to become a killer. His soul ached and writhed under the prospect of being at the beg and call of Mezhan Kwaad to murder who knew how many beings, deserved and undeserved.

Yet, weren't there positive elements about Liin Kwaad, too? Hadn't it felt so wonderfully natural and comfortable to walk without his boots? To feel the yorik coral? To feel the grass? Wasn't it so much more beautiful to be surrounded by nature, by trees, by living beings, instead of cold steel?

Wasn't it so much more satisfying to interact with a ship by reading its thoughts? Becoming friends with him, one with him?

But then, was atonement with nature really what he craved for? What he craved enough to leave behind his life, his friends, his one, true love? Hadn't he always relished the view onto the skyscrapers, brought afire by the setting sun and the clear, blue sky of Coruscant on a summer day?

Hadn't he always loved flying in his X-Wing or in starships, training with his lightsaber and talking to R2, to 3PO?

How did this fit with his feeling of anger and disgust for droids that had assaulted his heart all of a sudden, when he had crossed the hangar on Coruscant and wandered through the corridors, until he had finally stepped out into peace. Quiet peace, without the sounds of droids, speeders or anything else.

It didn't fit. Liin Kwaad and Luke Skywalker didn't fit. Clenching his teeth together, Luke let go of the amphistaff and forced himself to fold his hands into his lap. There was no chance to unite those two personalities. They were fighting each other, constantly. One of them had to win. And when that happened, the other would perish.

If he arrayed all thoughts on a line, compared advantages and disadvantages, his choice was clear. He was Luke Skywalker. He didn't want to become Liin Kwaad.

Since the peace treaty had begun to take shape, he had grown to respect the Yuuzhan Vong and their culture. He had even begun to understand more of their beliefs. But all that still didn't make him want to be one of them.

Luke didn't want to abandon his life, now that everything had cleared up. He loved Mara and she loved him. He was going to be a father. He had a family he loved. Would have another one all of his own, to protect, to love - to be loved by them.

The problem was that he had the feeling he was not the one to make the choice. He had been fighting for days now. True, it hadn't been until this afternoon that he had understood against what - or rather whom - he fought, but he had fought. And it had been useless. He was helpless against Liin Kwaad. There was nothing, not even the Force, that could help him.

He would lose his life to become what Mezhan Kwaad wanted him to become. Liin. Her assassin. Her personal bodyguard. Her way to the top of her people's government. He would succumb to a personality that would murder because it was ordered to and because it liked what it did.

He would take life after life, in cruel ways, as pleased his Master, and he would bring about the ruin of a culture. And judging by the disgust Mezhan Kwaad held for anything non-Yuuzhan Vong, he would, eventually, bring doom to the ones he loved, too.

Only that Liin Kwaad wouldn't be capable of love anymore. Before his mind's eye, he could see himself killing Leia, Mara, Han. Anakin, Jacen, Jaina. Wedge, Lando, Corran. Tahiri. Tionne, Kam and Streen.

Whether it was a horror vision sprung out of his own fear or whether it was a glimpse on Mezhan's plans, he didn't know. But he knew it would happen. Eventually, it would happen.

He was too weak to withstand - didn't KNOW how to withstand in the first place - and when he faltered he would be the one to destroy what generations had fought to build. In this galaxy and in others.

He couldn't let that happen. Whatever he could do to prevent it, he HAD to do it.

Rising from the meanwhile cold and damp floor, Luke Skywalker turned to the right and vanished into the trees. Two weapons were left in the clearing, one shining, and elegant and symbolic, the other dark, vicious.

If there were two choices, Luke mused, ignoring the sharp pain of stones under his naked feet, of which one was out of question and the other unachievable, a third one had to be created.

*~~

Mara was running. She didn't know why, but she was. And in the depth of her soul, she felt that it was the right thing to do.

Droids, humans, and non-humans --- she wove her way through them, ignoring angry barbs, just focusing on the presence of her husband.

Feeling that he was deep in thoughts of his own, she hadn't brought herself to his attention yet. He had to figure things out himself first. There was need for a talk between the two of them, yes. Especially about the blanks in his memory and about the voice. About the reason why he hadn't shared it with her.

But all this had to wait until he had found a measure of calm again.

Trusting completely in the Force, she took an elevator down to a garden floor she had seldom visited. She barely registered the number of the floor or that she had left the pathway. In fact, she barely registered anything but Luke's Force presence until the very moment she took sight of him.

"Luke?!" she exclaimed in shock.

A supple movement and two wide, sad eyes stared at her, their blue glittering while it reflected the lights of thousands of speeders and lit windows of skyscrapers. His back erect, the Jedi Master sat on the railing that separated the garden floor from the kilometre deep abyss between the Imperial Palace and the next building.

Mara's heart skipped a beat; the realization of what he had intended to do hitting her like a punch in the stomach. For an absurd moment, she wondered whether she should forcefully drag him back from there, but it took her brain only a second to catch up with her emotions.

If Luke had really wanted to do that, he wouldn't have let her come near enough to see him here. Sometimes, her husband, her dear farmboy, was naïve and rash. But he was never stupid. In the end, reason always won over spontaneity and recklessness.

Carefully, she swung her legs over the railing and settled beside him, her left hand seeking his right one. He clasped it, a desperate edge to the movement, and leaned his head onto her shoulder. For a while, they simply watched the traffic lines that wove through the sky, oblivious to the cold wind and the precarious, nauseating height.

When he finally spoke, his voice was soft and somewhat subdued. "I just couldn't make myself do it, Mara."

"I know, my love."

"But it would have been the right thing to do."

She felt his mind beg her to say yes or no, to give him a reason to jump or not to, to make a decision, ANY decision - simply telling him what he should do. In the fraction of a second, Mara saw in his soul and thoughts how unexpected Miiram's revelation had hit him, how afraid he was of it becoming true.

"No. The right thing to do is fight."

When she swung her arm around his shoulder, he snuggled into her embrace. Though she still stared at the skyscraper opposite to her, she knew he had closed his eyes.

"Tell me how." He whispered, relaxing in the all-encompassing feeling of her love for him.

Of course he didn't expect an answer. All the better, she thought slightly amused, that she had one.

"I will, Luke. I will. You should have stayed. Miiram has found out more about this protocol. You're not helpless."

He shifted a little and peered into her face out of suddenly attentive eyes: "Seriously? You're not just saying that to keep me from jumping?"

Mara laughed genuinely: "You wouldn't, Luke. You love life too much. Besides, do you really want me to believe you'd abandon your child?"

No laugh, not even a small smile came from him. "Rather that than kill it. Or cause it any sort of pain."

Bending low, his wife kissed his forehead: "You'd never do that either."

He sighed softly, closing his eyes in bliss, then straightened: "What did Miiram say? What can I do against it?"

Mara swung back to safe ground, took his hand and dragged him with her: "I tell you on the way home. I need to warm you up. Do we fetch your weapons?"

Luke halted for a moment, staring at her anxiously: "How do you know?"

"Miiram told me." She grinned, punching him playfully on the shoulder: "Don't look as if a moon had dropped on your foot. We'll talk about this. Tomorrow perhaps. But now we have other things to do. So, DO we fetch your weapons?"

For the first time, Luke seemed to shed the tension that had gripped him so powerfully in the last days. Although he wouldn't have thought it, the knowledge that Mara knew everything was comforting. That she didn't despise him was encouraging. Perhaps he would really find a way to get through all this. No one was invincible. Not Mezhan Kwaad. Not Liin.

"My, you've understood it finally, haven't you?" Mara gently admonished, her arm sneaking around his waist.

"You know I'm kind of slow sometimes."

*~~

"I can't believe all that. It sounds so... so... unrealistic." Leia Organa Solo sat on the couch in the salon of the Skywalker apartment, her husband next to her, Corran Horn taking the seat opposite to the both of them.

The Corellian Jedi nodded: "That it does. But it's real."

"Well, at least we know what we're up against. How is Luke taking it?"

Before Corran could answer, Mara entered the room, closing the door to her sleeping room softly. "He's all right. The sleeping pills 2-1B gave me are working fine. Together with the Force, they had exactly the effect we needed."

"Knocking him out cold?" Leia asked, rising and going over to the door Mara had just closed. With a worried expression, she opened it slightly, peering into the room.

Her brother, usually already up the second someone would step into his bedroom, was lying on the mattress, still and deep-sleeping. It was unusual for him to stay unmoving while sleeping, but this was not normal sleep.

Corran had explained to them why it was necessary and feeling in the Force the reassuring touch of her brother before he had dozed off, she hadn't protested. It would be better that way.

Sedating him would give him a peaceful night's rest and would protect him from this Shaper. And it was only temporary - until they had found Mezhan Kwaad and taken care of her.

| To Be Continued |

 

 

Back to author's Page

Back to Fan Fiction