Beyond - Legends "... More Than Blood" (AU; Mara, Karrde, others; darkish)

A/N: A semi-sequel to Splinterfang: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...t-order-some-tfa-spoilers-angst-etc.50037622/

The rating is less for what's said (although there's plenty of IU language) and more for the general tone. Given the events of the preceding 'fic, Mara is NOT in a happy place ...

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23 ABY: Keldooine, Hutt Space:
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It was a nameless bar in a backwater part of a minor world on the edge of the galaxy's cesspool.

The kind of place I started out at when I strove to master what Car'das threw my way. It's not the sort of place someone with my reputation is expected to be seen ... which works in my favor, the traveler mused.

He dodged a minor scuffle - well, as minor as two Weequays sparring could be; it wasn't Gamorreans, so by Hutt standards, the duel hardly mattered as a bar brawl - and ordered an ale, finding a booth.

The woman sitting across from him looked up, her expression promising a mildly painful, fast death.

For her, it was basically a look of annoyance. Actual wrath would've metaphorically frozen the target.

But there was something hauntingly missing from the redhead's glare, something that the traveler mourned the absence of. Oh, he was sure she could hurt him - and the rest of the bar - if she wanted.

But the focused passion she so frequently exerted and channeled into her art - deadly though it could be, and had been at the height of her reputation-making days - was gone. The traveler missed that spark.

For that matter, he missed the woman's usual composure. She looked ... well, disheveled.

Her hair was clean, but a mess; her makeup, basically absent (although he'd seen her without it, and she could look high-class with nary a trace of eyeliner or lipstick if she wanted). For someone who prided herself on appearance and poise, the woman was quite simply not caring about such things.

Be charitable. It's been more than a year since the incident; she has more important things on her mind, the traveler thought, smiling faintly beneath his hood as the woman relaxed - a bit.

At the very least, the man didn't think she wanted to kill him quite as much.

"You came a very long way for little return," she said, masking her Coruscanti accent well.

"I'm not asking you to rejoin me. I just ... there were rumors, of your ... wandering, and-" he started.

Twin chips of emerald ice pierced him, but he refused to show fear. She'd pounce on it.

After a moment, the woman leaned back in her seat and sighed, her lips twisting. "I was using old personae to infiltrate Hutt slave markets. I had to make sure I looked everywhere," she admitted.

The man nodded; it was a horribly unsettling possibility, but one he knew she'd had to examine.

"And did you find -?" he asked, thanking the Nikto waitress when she brought his drink.

"No," the human woman replied, her voice very near absolute zero - but not out of anger.

This was a struggle for self-control, and the man was more afraid than he'd ever been - but for her.

For Talon Karrde, seeing Mara Jade-Skywalker - Mara - nearly at her wits' end was ... haunting.

She gave him another angry glance, muttering, "I don't want pity, Karrde. I want leads."

"Fragments of shards of ghosts, unfortunately. The Second Imperium doesn't seem to be the group who took your children," Karrde breathed, keeping his voice low - even in this hole, there might be ears.

Mara nodded, something near relief in her eyes, replaced by a blazing death-rage that almost warmed Karrde.

Homicidal Mara was better than Emotionally Fragile Mara. At least Karrde was used to Homicidal Mara.

"Dare I make a joke about which parts of Brakiss' anatomy he should fear for the most?" he asked.

Mara's laugh wasn't quite as brittle as Karrde had feared, and she cut it off quickly - the barflies glanced their direction, but went back to their drinks, games, or banter at Mara's warning glance.

"Eh. Jaina's probably already redecorated those idiots' base with their shebse. Girl's got the makings of a fine Knight, but without the stunting that Corran suffers from. Not that I want my niece to take after Durron. The idiot's got his uses, but he and his are getting too caught up in their damn fool crusades," Mara rambled, glancing at her drink as if it'd offended her.

She turned just the minutest shade of pink - suggesting she "blushed" had usually resulted in the speaker's vocal apparatus suffering some kind of painful, temporary dysfunction - then frowned.

Karrde merely nodded, replying, "You're a grown woman. If you want to get drunk, get drunk."

Mara started to growl something - most likely a warning not to patronize her - and Karrde smiled.

She looked at the table, annoyed again, and said, "You know me too well. You're trying to play the whole 'concerned father-like mentor' routine without talking down to me. Murglak."

"I had to ... dissuade several of the more well-meaning, but not-understanding, members of the Order who knew you'd come here from attempting to talk to you. Luke has too few graduated Knights as it is; you take so poorly to others' offers of assistance that I feared for their safety," Karrde mused.

Mara snorted, killing her drink with a verve that made Karrde almost feel sad for the liquor.

Mara Jade does not get drunk. Mara Jade's gastrointestinal tract interrogates liquor, he recalled from one of Dankin's perennial lists of "Mara Jade is so bad-shebs" jokes.

They stood - Karrde had been sipping the ale steadily - and he walked with her, tossing a few credits on the table as they stepped into the temperate night. Keldooine had little polar tilt, so most of the world was remarkably welcoming to many species - boring, but livable.

The kind of life I now sometimes dream of. The spacer's adventures are for the young, and I ... I've grown old before my time, with the losses of those dear to me, Karrde thought, looking at Mara.

She wasn't drunk, not any longer. The star-filled sky had struck her silent; with few lights, the view was stunningly beautiful.

But Karrde could tell his once-protege was seeing something more - or someones.

"The triplets had such different views of the stars, Talon," Mara whispered. "Jemma was a bit scared of them - she was the most grounded of the three. Kylo liked them, but cared more for the Force."

Karrde felt a chill that had nothing to do with the hour of the night; the past tense sent ice down his back.

Mara's smile was thin, but warmed for a second as she added, "And Rey - Rey wanted to fly to all of them, you know. The best on the simulators, even as a little girl ... little ..."

Karrde risked reaching for her, and let Mara cling to him as she did the one thing she NEVER did.

She shook, silent, hitching as more than a year's worth of pain and fear and fury escaped her.

"You don't know they're ... gone," he whispered, wishing he could comfort her with certainty.

The viciousness of Mara's replying laugh made Karrde step back as she looked at him.

What was worse than the expected anger was the fearful loss that made her tears bite him deeper.

"Oh, they're not. That's the most WRETCHED thing, Talon. I'd KNOW, you see," Mara snarled.

"But the only thing worse than if they'd died? It's sensing them and not being able to reach them."

Karrde steeled himself - if he was going to suffer a spectacular, horrific death-by-Force, it'd be now.

But Mara just shrank within herself, in a way somehow worse than her lashing out, and frowned.

"They're distant - Wild Space, the Unknown Regions, somewhere. Still within our galaxy ... but I can't pinpoint where they are. That's why I've been avoiding Luke, even though I know we need each other - he wants to comfort me, and yes, part of me wants that, but if I let it all out and lose the urgency, or if I overlook some trail that gets by me while I'm resting ..." Mara trailed off, looking ... lost.

Talon Karrde's heart broke at that look.

He reached out a hand, but Mara managed a very weak, brave, not-very truthful smile.

"Take me back to Yavin, Karrde. The Jade Sabre is back there, with Luke - I didn't want a cantina sign blazing 'here's Mrs. Skywalker' while I tried to infiltrate the underworld," she asked.

Karrde nodded, still not quite sure what to say, so they just walked.

Mara glanced at him, a bit of her old steel back in her frame, and Karrde asked, "What is it?"

"... family is more than blood. Thanks for coming to get me," she said, her smile stronger now.

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For Talon Karrde, seeing Mara Jade-Skywalker - Mara - nearly at her wits' end was ... haunting.

She gave him another angry glance, muttering, "I don't want pity, Karrde. I want leads."

Love, love this characterization of Mara. Well done.

 

Daena - Thanks. This is a scene that suggested itself almost immediately after Splinterfang; Mara would use all of her skills and connections to find her children (not that the Force is something she'd brush off, but she's not about to sit meditating, either).

As you so kindly pointed out in your reply to Hoojibs, all of this will lead to something ... big for the Skysolos, Mara especially. The road will take a few twists and turns from my previous work, though, and it might take a while to get there.

- Thanks,
Onderon1