Summary: Luke and Mara's first face to face encounter, from Mara's own POV. OneShot. Placed in “Heir to the Empire”. One of my first Fics, written back in 2006. Note: English in not my first language, so please go easy on me. Constructive feedback on my grammar will be welcomed. "Autopsy of An Enemy" by Jâd Sphera (JadeSphera). Five years after the Battle of Endor. The woman sat in the dark, in one of the side-ends of the room, staring at the figure that lay still on the bed. Sitting in a high-backed chair, she kept her arms draped loosely over the chair’s arms, her legs casually crossed; keeping a compact but wicked-looking blaster laying on her lap. She watched him carefully, slowly scanning him with her eyes. She knew everything about this man… at least everything that had been held in Imperial records –medical, schooling, age, his life history as a moisture farmer… and also his ‘extracurricular’ activities -his campaigns against the Empire, his Rebel Alliance rank, the gifted piloting skills, his responsibility in blowing up the first Death Star, Darth Vader’s strange obsession towards him… Everything on record that was available about him, she knew it; and also a few more couple things that weren’t. She knew everything about the lore that enveloped him, all those fictitious stories that lesser beings had made up about him. She just knew the kind of Rebel scum he was. She had studied him carefully, going through holo-vids and pictures repeatedly; memorizing his every feature, every single freckle or birth mark on his face, the spectrum of his voice, his height and built and the exact color of his sandy blond hair. His stride and body posture so she could recognize him even in disguise or when spotting him from far away. She even knew the exact shade of blue those eyes were supposed to be, if once open. She had studied him just like a predator to its pray. A farm boy turned hero by a bunch of ignorant traitors; just how despicable could that be! The damnable Jedi and his pitiful band of Rebels had turned the Galaxy into chaotic disarray, ripping it off from all of its glory -she thought about it in contempt. Just a whole bunch of opportunists, that’s what they all were. He came from a tenth-rate planet in the outer rim, a simple farm boy of Tatooine; she detested the dune planet just as much as she did its prodigal son. That planet had been the place where she had had the chance to have a first glance of him from the distance, the time he had gone to rescue his friend, Solo; and, the place where her greatest failure had taken place. He had just gotten lucky that day, lucky that Jabba hadn’t allowed her on the barge with him. She clenched her fists at the memory. If she had been there, that very same day, the Jedi would have been no more. Yes, he had been lucky indeed, but he had just run out of luck. The Rebel bastard had also murdered her Master, the vilest of all his actions as far a she was concerned. Joining forces with the traitor Darth Vader, in a coward move, both had turned on the Emperor, outnumbering him and sealing his dreadful fate. Good thing that Vader hadn’t survived that encounter. The Jedi had, but she always fixed everything. She had remained loyal to Palpatine all of her life, doing for him the jobs that the Imperial Fleet and stormtroopers couldn’t handle. She had exposed traitors, bring down enemies, helped him to keep control. She could hear the own Emperor’s call across the Galaxy and report back to him in the same way. She had been the Emperor’s Hand; what the Emperor knew, she knew. What the Emperor wanted, she saw it done. Before this particular Rebel happened in her life, she had had everything: prestige, and power, and respect. She had failed her Master that one time, and because of that… the Rebel had to pay. This man had taken it all away from her, and only for that he deserved to die. After the Emperor was gone, she hadn’t had a place to go after the fall of the Empire. No connections, no contacts; no one knew that she even existed. She had always worked outside the normal lines of command and protocol; no records were kept of her activities. No one but a few knew, and all those few were gone. There had been no one or nowhere to go to after Endor. And with what was left of the Empire now, at the rate it was going down, there was nothing to go back to. She had dreamt about the Jedi’s death every single night of the first year after the Emperor’s death. She had run through a thousand scenarios, trying to find the exact way to do it. Her obsession about disposing him had been the closest thing she had gotten to a permanent companion. He had destroyed her life; it was only fair that she destroyed his. So, during the past four years and a half, she had wandered around the rotten underworld of the Galaxy, using fake IDs until she was able to save enough money and to contact a professional counterfeiter good enough to get one clean ID of her own, so she could move on and find better job opportunities than scraping tables and dancing in lousy taverns and entertaining centers. And then, she found Karrde; and things started to look up for her. In the past years she had forged a new life for herself, she had worked hard to achieve it, at only six months of working in Talon Karrde’s organization she had already accomplished to be named second in command. She had a promising future, and her tortuous failure had almost slipped into oblivion… And a few days ago, while running a cargo shift, she had run into the one man she would have never ever expected to see back again in her life; the one man capable of destroying everything she had worked so hard to build, but ironically the one man who could give her back her dignity and self-pride. Strangely enough, she had felt the urge to be in that exact spot in space, at that very moment. The terrible nightmares and the manic flares of her ‘danger sense’ had awaken again, so in a way this explained her unconscious compulsion to track him down; and she just knew that this wasn’t going to be over until her enemy was destroyed. Ironically, life itself had now presented her with the golden opportunity, and she was going to make good use of it. Yes, finally she was going to be able to look at her most hated and elusive enemy right in the eye… and do something about it. She had just administrated him the antidote which should start making effect any time now; an antidote to suppress the drug that had kept the man asleep for the past few days, putting him out of action and making it easier for Karrde’s people to move him around and install him in their base. And now the moment of confrontation was up, and that was why her boss had sent her for him. As she looked down at the sleeping male, she thought of the many reasons why this man should be gone from the face of any planet in the Galaxy. At this very moment all she had to do was to place her blaster against his head and pull the trigger… and simply get rid of him. Or use his own lightsaber to terminate his life. Still, there was something that kept her from doing it; she could have even poisoned him a while ago while giving him the needle with the antidote… that option was too, far gone now. Why was she keeping herself from dispatching him right now and there? Anyhow, she was the one who had found the New Republic’s X-Wing floating in the middle of nowhere, so she was the one who should have the final say on his fate. Why Karrde did believe he had a saying on it? Karrde’s organization had treated her well; still, she did not owe him anything. Despite that, and for some strange reason she couldn’t exactly determine, she felt a strong duty towards her employer; and only because of that, the blue-eyed man had safe passage until he’d met with her boss. Until then, there was not much she could do; but afterwards she was going to make sure she had the satisfaction of killing him herself. Suddenly her whole body stiffened as she watched him move and open his eyes in an attempt of fighting the residuals of the drug in his system. She looked at him with eager anticipation. After a few moments of struggle, he shut his eyes back and drifted into unconsciousness. He was going to need a few more minutes. The damned Jedi looked so peaceful while asleep, she thought while gazing at his boyish features. How a man of such appearance could have been catalogued as the Empire’s most wanted? That was the contradiction in it all: the most dangerous and lethal creatures often offered ways of disguising themselves under appealing and innocent looks. And she knew exactly just how twisted this man was. She felt him stir on the bed again, his profile lit by the sunlight streaming across his face. She watched him open his eyes and lift his head. He first looked down and noticed he had his orange flight suit still on, then he noticed the small but comfortably furnished room, and directly across from him he spotted the open window. Through the window she was sure he could see the edges of the forest, and the yellowish-orange sun that hovered –rising or setting, which he certainly didn’t know which for her own amusement. She knew that by now he was well aware that the room was not a cell. She decided to make the introductions. “Finally awake, are you?” She called him in a crisp, clear voice. She got great enjoyment when the startled man twisted his head towards her voice. No, it was not a commlink, and she was right there in the room with him, but he hadn’t been able to sense her. Of course, he hadn’t, with the whole planet plagued with ysalamiri he would be cut off from his precious use of the Force for as long as he remained on it. This was so entertaining and provided her with some wicked joy. He finally spotted her, showing a bewildered expression on his face. She inwardly laughed at the confusion showing on his face. She knew he was studying her carefully as he passed a trained eye on her, the eye of a man who had seen a lot of action, measuring her up. Well, if he tried anything he would be in for a surprise. She noticed when he spotted the blaster laying on her lap. ‘I’m armed, and I don’t like you one bit, so don’t try anything pretty.’ She thought to herself, sending out an unspoken threat. “That’s right.” She said favoring him with a smile. A smile made up of equal parts of bitterness and malicious amusement. “Welcome back to the world of mere mortals.” Planet Myrkr’s special trait was that it was home to these special animals which had the ability to produce Force blocking bubbles. With all the ysalamiri plaguing the whole planet, she just knew he could not sense anything. Not that she would favor him with that knowledge. “Don’t like it, do you?” she mocked. “It’s not easy to suddenly lose everything that once made you special, is it?” The man slowly, carefully, eased his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, giving his body plenty of time to get used to moving again. Mara watched him carefully, letting her right hand drop to her lap to rest on top of the blaster. “If the purpose of all this activity is to impress me with your remarkable powers of recuperation,” she offered, “you don’t need to bother.” “Nothing so devious. The purpose of all this activity is to get me back on my feet.” She heard the man say, and noticed that although he was breathing hard, he tried not to wheeze -maybe there was much pride in him as to not let her see him physically vulnerable; then he looked her hard in the eye, like wanting her to flinch away from his gaze. So, this was going to be a staring contest? She’d show him who the queen at staring was. Challenging him she held his gaze and didn’t even twitch. “Don’t tell me; let me guess. You’re Mara Jade.” He evenly told her. So, this was how it was going to be… a proud one and a feisty one too, she thought in delight. All right, she would play along, she was eager to finding out just how long he was going to last. Out of own experience, they never lasted long. “That doesn’t impress me, either,” she said coldly. “Karrde already told me he’d mentioned my name to you.” She watched the other nod, “He also told me that you were the one who found my X-Wing. Thank you.” ‘What?’ Why was he thanking her? It certainly had to do with all that false Jedi grandeur façade. If it were up to her she would have left him to die where she’d found him. She had been talking to the man for five seconds and he was already so unbelievably irritating! Oh, but yes! She almost forgot… He was supposed to be the noble hero! She mockingly recalled. He was so infuriating! Her eyes flashed. “Save your gratitude.” she bit out. “As far I’m concerned, the only question left is whether we turn you over to the Imperials or kill you ourselves.” She added, trying to intimidate him and feeling really annoyed at not succeeding. She had seen men bending at her feet, but this stubborn Jedi seemed to be made of a different determination. It didn’t matter, she was going to break this one too, no matter how hard he fought her. It was just a matter of time. ‘Enough of this!’ Abruptly she stood up, the blaster ready in her hand. “On your feet. Karrde wants to see you.” She tracked the man with her sight as he slowly stood up and caught the little sparkle of recognition in his eyes when he spotted his own lightsaber attached to her belt. Purposely, she reached down her hip, fingering the lightsaber with an experimented hand. Now she was sure he was going to wonder whether she had something to do with Jedi or not –or with Sith, perhaps? She gloated at the other’s very likely inner questions. “I can’t say that either of those options sounds appealing.” He commented. Of course not, she snorted. “There’s one other one.” She took half-step forward, moving close enough that he could have reached out and touch her. Lifting the blaster, she pointed it directly at his face. “You try to escape… and I kill you right here and now.” She told him in a deep menacing tone of voice. ‘And please, just give me the excuse…’ she deeply wished. For a long moment they stood there, frozen. She could feel the bitter hatred taking hold of her and was also sure it was blazing in her eyes already… but even as the man gazed back at her, she didn’t see any signs of him feeling intimidated by her hateful stare… Instead, what she saw in his eyes was… an absolute compassion for her. Just like if he were reading deep down inside her own soul, into that place where she stacked all her anger, all her lingering pain. She didn’t need his compassion! And of course, he could not possibly read her! Not without his Jedi abilities, anyways. So, maybe she was just imagining things. She never thought that her first encounter with the man on which she poured all of her hatred would rattle her in such a way. He stood quietly, not moving; ‘You have guts, Jedi. I have to give you that.’ She conceded, and almost reluctantly, she lowered the weapon. “Move, Karrde’s waiting.” She led the man outside, walking a few steps behind him and keeping her eyes on him at all times; wishing them to be vibroblades she could stab in him right there on the spot. But she had to be patient… yes, patient. She had already waited for almost five years… five long years. A smile of satisfaction appeared on her lips. And now, she was going to have her chance, she just knew it! She was going to get rid of him for once and for all, it was just within her grasp. And after getting what she had longed for, for so long, she would cherish it and treasure it for the rest of her life. She would spend the rest of her years going over it, dissecting and putting apart every tiny part of the whole plot, analyzing it thoroughly, savoring it, relishing it, and then putting it all back together. Replaying the glorious scene over and over again in her head. Yes, even in death, Luke Skywalker would remain the closest thing she had ever gotten to a permanent companion. THE END
