Beyond - Legends ~Things Fall Apart~"50 Titles" L/M AU **Chap 4 Jun 30th!**

I'm a L/M fan too, and you do their pairing great justice. I've loved a lot of lines in particular, but so far my favorite is when she pitches her comm at him. That's so Mara.

Great job! Please let me know when you update this!

 

This is a fact. Oh Irish_Jedi_Jade - the banter blended with conflicting emotions shown so brilliantly through the introspection and topped by a seamless wonderful flashback.

When I can get updates to devour by you, divapilot, and JadeLotus in one sitting, I'm one chuffed puppy! (ThreadSketch would put it over the top too much.) LOL

 

Thank you lady! That's what I was going for here...Mara is a professional in every sense of the word, and I wanted to show that she is a very successful and skilled person in her own right. You're the best!

Thank you!! I'm glad you think she's in-character

Thanks!! I'm glad you liked them both. I wanted to show Luke's playful side, but also who Mara is independent of him or Jedi-ness. Glad you're along for the ride!

Thank you!! It was really important to me to show that she is her own person, and a very awesome person at that! As to the flashback...

Oh thank you!!! That's what I was going for--did you ever read Gabri_Jade's "Infinite Possibilities"? It was one of the first L/M fanfics I read, and it was just so. darn. good. So I wanted this to have a bit of that feel...before I go and muck it all up

Thank you so much for hopping on the ride! I'm glad you liked that bit--it's something I could see her doing, but it's almost playful? Because I feel like if she really wanted to hurt him, she would have...so by missing...it must be intentional, right?

Haha I agree!! I hope Sketchy comes back for good someday soon!! I'm very glad you're enjoying it my friend!!!

 

Chapter 4
This Chapter Word Count: 2,961
Challenge Word Count Total: 10,271
A/N: So this is a LONG chapter...and I'm sorry. I couldn't find a good way to break it up, so I just went for it. I hope you all enjoy! The first italicized section is a mishmash of stuff from me and Tom Angleberger's, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!(YES…its the children’s adaptation. Don’t judge me. It worked )



Pushing the low table out of the way, Luke cleared a largish space in his living quarters for the morning’s events. Sitting down, he took a deep breath and reached for calm—something that had been eluding him with increasing frequency lately. It wasn’t that Mara’s presence made him feel nervous or agitated inherently. Her prickly exterior no doubt led others to experience such emotions in her presence, but not him. But what was it about her that made him feel so…well, adventurous? He still remembered the way the skin of her hand had felt against his lips when he had kissed it in her office several weeks ago…such things weren’t normal actions for him, but it had felt right. More than that, it had been fun.

Fun to see one of the most deadly assassins—one who openly was gunning for your head a few weeks ago—get angry? He admitted to himself it was a bit suicidal, but he couldn’t help it. Something about her flash of anger or the rare smiles she would let by called to him, made him want to see more of her.

Her personality, of course. He mentally corrected his thoughts, and then double checked his shields were still up. It wouldn’t do to let the fiery redhead know that he thought of her with anything but the utmost respect and professionalism. Even if he didn’t know what he actually thought about her…and sometimes couldn’t his thoughts went a bit astray. To the way her hair shimmered when she would flip it over her shoulder. The unwilling smiles he could eke out of here every now and then. The lithe beauty of her body and movements when they trained, her grace and confidence as she laid him out time and time again. The irrational desire that would rush through him when she would have him pinned on his back to push his head up and kiss her…

The door chimed its tone, and he felt her presence on the other side of the door. So much for seeking calm. Using the Force, he opened the door, and called out to her.

“In here.”

Setting down her bag and removing her shoes, she walked into room and stared down at him.

“You develop a sudden aversion to chairs, Jedi?”

A quick smile touched his lips as he shook his head. “No, I just figured that this would give us more room to work.”

She sat down heavily…which seemed out of place from her usual catlike grace. As he looked closer, he noticed darker-than-normal circles under her eyes and uncharacteristic wrinkles on her tunic.

“Was this too early to meet up? You don’t look like yourself, Mara, are you alright?”

She glared at him from under her hair as she began to sweep it up into a high tail.

“I’m fine.”

He knew better than to press the issue, so he let it go. “Well, I was thinking we could work some more on some split-concentration techniques—hence the larger space.”

Nodding, she rolled her shoulders around in a few quick movements, and then nodded. “Sounds good.”

As the morning progressed, he quickly realized things were not “good” at all. Mara’s concentration continually faltered, and she was unable to grasp the techniques he was attempting to show her. They had moved to a less challenging set of exercises that she had previously mastered, and she struggled to perform up to her previous benchmark. Luke could sense frustration growing in her, as she tried to perform the task up to her exacting standards…and failing. He ached to help her, to somehow bolster her fledgeling skills, but knew that would do nothing but anger her, so he simply tried to be as encouraging as he could.

Finally, the three cups she had been holding up around her and slowly revolving in a lazy circle fell to the ground, and she smashed her fist into the carpet with a quick flash of anger.

“Today’s clearly not my day, Skywalker.” She pushed back the hair that had fallen in her eyes, and glared at the mutinous cups. “Let’s just call it, no point in wasting time.” She reached for one of them, and Luke decided to ignore the advice of the rational part of his brain, and jump into the Rancor pit.

“Mara, whatever’s bothering you…I promise I’m a really good listener, if you want to talk about it.”

The look she gave him could have frozen mercury, but he could feel the emotions swirling around in her mind, like water circling a drain. She was furious with herself for her lack of focus, she was frustrated by failing to make any progress and felt like she was taking a step back rather than forward. There was something else pulling at her too, beyond the obvious fatigue, but he wasn’t sure what it was. For a fleeting moment, he wondered why he could pick up on her emotions so easily, but pushed the errant thought away when she sighed, and seemed to deflate. Scooting backwards, she leaned against the couch and pulled her knees up to her chest, glaring at the spot by where the carpet where the cups lay.

“I’ve been having dreams, ever since Wayland. At first it was just every now and then, but now it’s every night, and I can’t sleep afterwards.” Luke tried to reign in his desire to ask her questions, and hoped she would continue talking if he stayed silent, gave her space. “I keep reliving missions, and the whole time I’m trying to figure out if it was really a justified thing I did, or if I’m just doing something because he wanted it…not because it was right.” She wiped a hand over her face. “It always ends up back in the throne room, and the two of you are killing him. I try to tell myself that isn’t the way it happened, and that either way, he deserved it…but…”

Her voice trailed off, eyes far away in the mists of the past. Then they came back to him with startling sharpness, and she started to stand. “Not like it’s your problem, I can’t believe I’m telling—“

Swiftly, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back down to the ground, then shifted so he was directly in front of her. That tingling feeling in his hand was back, coupled with an ache in his stomach like he was about to jump off a ledge or face a foe. She didn’t snatch her hand away, and he held it—warm and small—as he spoke softly.

“Do you…would it help if I showed it to you, what happened?” Green eyes flashed up to him, filled with questions, distrust, fear, and something else he couldn't quite place. Her lips pressed together into a thin line, and she nodded once, sharply. The emotions fled from her eyes, replaced with steely resolve. He took her other hand, voice soft. “It…might hurt. I’m not sure how much of what I experienced I’ll be able to filter out for you.”

Hard didn’t necessarily mean brittle he realized as she answered, voice full of confidence, as if she was finally glad to accept a burden she only needed her own internal fortitude to carry.

“I can take it. Show me.”

He nodded once, misgiving sweeping through him. Sharing a memory with words left many things out, and the speaker could edit as they wished. Through the Force…such polite revisions were not possible. Whatever information his brain had stored away about that fateful day would wash over them both, plunging the sender and the receiver into history with all the realism his five senses had imprinted. Pushing away his apprehension, he opened his mind to hers, finding her sense ready tinged with a shadow of his own reservation. Weaving together their consciousnesses, he reached back into the corner of his memory…
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“I’ll never turn to the dark side. You’ve failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”

[The words echo strangely in his head…maybe because they are bouncing between his own mind and Mara’s. He cringes, knowing what is coming next]

“So be it, Jedi,” hisses the Emperor, and blinding bolts of energy explode from his hands and instantly wrap themselves around Luke.

[He hears his own agonized screams, feels the lightning skitter around him like a thousand razor-edged serpents. His hands grip the guardrail, spasming as the discharge cramps his fingers into talons. He can feel the Emperor’s thoughts screaming in his own mind, the swirling chaos of fresh anger and long-held hatreds, dark memories, and darker hopes. They tear his meager defenses away, ravaging his mind as the lighting eats his body. He collapses to the ground, narrowly avoiding falling into the shaft.]

“Young fool…only now at the end do you understand.”

[He remembers the feeling of hopelessness, of desperation as he collapses—he had no idea that the dark side was this powerful, that the Force could be used this way. The Emperor’s words are nearly inaudible over the snap and sizzle of the lightning, but he feels the way he burned them into his mind. He remembers the way his eyelids felt like blast doors as he forced them open, to see Vader is back on his feet and standing behind the Emperor.]

“Father…please…help me…”

[He wonders with the disjointedness of the nearly-dead what his father is thinking behind the impassive black mask. He remembers the tiny, menacing, wholly confident smile that graces the Emperor’s lips, just before he speaks. Half-forgotten thoughts drift back to him—that these words will be the last he’ll ever hear, and he feels the heartbreaking sense of failure, of betrayal, of loss that weighs his down as heavily as his broken body.]

“And now, young Skywalker…you will die.”

The lightning erupts again but stronger than before…and Luke screams.

Then, at last, Vader acts. Grabbing the Emperor with what is left of his arms, he lifts his master and lumbers toward the reactor shaft.

[Luke remembers looking up, through the wisps of steam rising from his burnt and riddled flesh, and seeing his father, with his Master held high above his head. He sees countless blue bolts seethe across the black mask, and Luke remembers the pulse of sympathetic agony in his heart knowing the pain his father is enduring. For him.]

At last, Vader reaches the open shaft and hurls the Emperor down into the reactor…then comes a great explosion when his body finally reaches the reactor and a poisonous wind races up the shaft, knocking Vader at last to the floor.

With a gasp, Luke’s eyes snap open, the memory ending and his mind pushing him back with the force of a bruised predator, angry that it has been caught defenseless. He feels a trickle of sweat roll down his backbone, and his hands are shaking.

His hands.

He looks down and sees they are not empty, and he remembers someone else had seen what he saw, felt what he felt.

Mara’s eyes are open, locked onto him but not really seeing. Her hair is stuck to her neck and a thin sheen of sweat shines on her forehead. She is breathing hard, and somehow, inexplicably, it’s like their minds are still twined together—he can feel the way the memory is swirling through both of them, ricocheting off his to bounce around hers. There’s a darker texture to her thoughts that he is concerned by, and tentatively he reaches out towards it.

Suddenly he is swept up into a hailstorm of memories, each one falling like lead against the backdrop of her new understanding of the Emperor’s last moments. He saw snatches of blasterfire, the gleam of a vibroblade in dim light, and heard cries for mercy and the screams of the dying.

In the darkness he sees her, younger and somehow smaller. She is standing in the flow of memories, and they stream past her like a river thundering over a rocky outcropping, just below it turns into a waterfall. She stands, immobile, but her eyes are filled with a blazing purpose, with conviction. A purple lightsaber blazes in her hand, and the Force crackles around her like static discharge.

The flow thunders away and they are suddenly standing in a room, silence like the grave permeating the dim space. He sees her square her shoulders, and walk away from him. He tries to follow her, but finds he is frozen in place. He can see the tension in the set of her shoulders, and feel the remorse and fear lapping at her like the tide. She kneels, and he hears a voice from the shadows.

“You completed your objective…but you were caught.”

She only bows her head lower, no words of excuse or pleas of forgiveness fall from her lips.

Lighting arcs out and catches her, knocking her slender form back onto the marble of the floor. The room is starting to lighten, and in an instant he realizes they are in the throne room of the Imperial Palace. He looks back to where she is lying, to see a familiar figure emerge from the shadows, hands held in front of him.

Palpatine.

Mara does not cry out, does not let so much as a gasp out as she slowly pulls herself back up and kneels before him again. He stands only a few meters from her now, and Luke can see her muscles twitching with the discharge.

“You know the cost for failure of any kind.”

She stays still, and the silent red-cloaked Royal Guards emerge from the shadows. She makes no move to defend herself as they converge on her, beating her with their Force-pikes, the coronas of energy arcing into her each time they connect with bruising force. With a final blow, one of the guards knocks the wind out of her, and she falls. They retreat back into the dimness, and Palpatine comes forward. He stands before her crumpled form, and Luke is amazed when she slowly, painfully pushes herself up to kneel at his feet. Her forehead touches the ground, and he can see her breathing in short, staccato gasps.

The Emperor bends down slowly and brings her head up. She looks him in the eyes, and Luke can feel the sorrow flooding her, the shame, the abject disappointment that she had let her Master down.

“Go my child, and succeed.”

His voice echoes with finality. Then he turns and glides from the room, leaving Mara to pull herself slowly to her feet and limp away.

Opening his eyes, the memory faded away, and Luke thought he could see the younger Mara in the woman sitting before him. She looked lost.

“I…I didn’t know he did that to you.” Her voice was uncharacteristically soft. “I thought I was the only one he used the lightning on that lived. It was his favorite way to kill those who displeased him.” She looked down at their hands, and then back up at him. Do you still have the scars, too?

Both their eyes widened in shock as the question echoed into his head, and he tentatively answered in kind. Yes…but they’ve faded quite a bit.

Mine too.

He could feel her mind trembling, vibrating like a rubberized band stretched tight, and he could feel the same level of confusion in his own thoughts.

“Why can I hear you?”

He shook his head, bewildered. “I…I don’t know.”

Green eyes bored into him, and after a moment he realized that his mind had started to wander again. To the shape of her lips. The beat of her heart that seemed to echo in his own chest. To the pain that coiled in her heart—the same agony that woke him screaming in the middle of the night, lightning sizzling away as the nightmare faded. The green of her eyes, the way her hands fit so perfectly in his…

And she had seen all of it. “Mara, I…”


A tiny smile quirked the corner of her mouth as she pulled her hands from grasp, brought them to his face and kissed him.




Tags: Jedi_Perigrine

 

You just amaze me, with each riveting enthralling word. The sharing of memories and the empathy Then the last line, oh you know that rates a big gooey SQUEEEEEEE!



If there is one thing I adore more than your Luke, it's the way you do Mara up just, absolutely perfect, particularly in the days of her unswerving loyalty to the Emperor and then to know how he treated her. This dovetails splendidly with Bri's latest viggie. Luke has troubled dreams and no surprise that Mara does too.

 

Mara and Luke are truly a pair, sharing memories and being there for each other

 

Wow. Wow. I love it so much.

I really like how you described such an intimate moment between them.

Also, Mara's memory was just shocking (I'm not sorry for the bad pun!). What Palps did to control her makes so much sense, but still caught me off guard.

Finally, this:

Ah! I love it so much!

 

Loved Luke and Mara sharing their memories and finding more common ground - and a kiss!

 

Mara & Luke share a lot of values: absolute loyalty, a history of pain & horror...

No wonder that they end up together, drawn to one another in mutual respect!