Jedi Dawn

Disclaimer:
None of the characters, planets, creatures, ships etc. I use in here belong to me.
All rights of the SW universe and its creations belong to George Lucas and the authors of the SW universe.
I receive no money for this and it's just for fun.
This fanfiction will include adult scenes and language in future chapters and is therefore rated PG-17.

Author's note / summary:
This is an alternate univers fan fiction.
I have never been quite content with the way the NJO series is processing, so I decided to write an alternate fanfic.
This story takes on at the end of "Dark Tide II: Ruin" and contains major spoilers for it.
More spoilers will most probably appear when the story continues, so you're warned :D
The main characters are set to be Han, Leia, Luke, Mara and the rest of the gang.
It is a crossover between action, romance and drama, for I love writing dramatic things.
But you'll soon see what I mean.
Please tell me your opinion on the list or privately at sienn@handshake.de

Jedi Dawn - Part 1

The Planet Ithor, New Republic Ship Ralroost, Bridge
It was calm - no sound could be heard. Every being on the bridge, human or non-human, stared at the man standing before the captain's chair, right arm brought up toward the battlefield in front of the ship, still and like a statue.

Noone, not even Leia Organa Solo herself, could quite believe what had happened just minutes ago.
For decades, people all over the galaxy had been discussing Luke Skywalker's power, his might, had guessed what he really could accomplish and what lay even beyond his abilities.

Their thoughts had ranged from realistic, underestimating, up to totally ridiculous - or so had Leia thought.

Her brother had proven everyone wrong. What he just had done - she would never have thought this possible.

Just three minutes ago, the space before the Ralroost had been ablaze with blaster fire and superheated plasma, warships pounding on each other while coral skippers and New Republic fighters chased each other, trying to get as many kills as possible.

Three minutes ago - Leia slightly shook her head, as if trying to clear it.

In three standard time parts, the combatants on Ithor had seen for the first time in their life what the Force could do when used by a true Jedi Master - by Luke Skywalker.

The fate of the galaxy had been decided over Ithor - the planet where the only known weapon against the Yuuzhan Vong had its origin, the planet which the Yuuzhan Vong had therefore decided to overthrow - or to destroy.

This incredible short three minutes ago, it had seemed as if the New Republic had nothing to counter the Yuuzhan Vong attacks - the enemies had wreaked havoc on their forces.

The Jedi had battled fiercely and bravely onto the planet itself, but they were heavily outnumbered and had no real chance to lead the New Republic to a victory against this terrible, unfamiliar power.
But then, everything had changed.

In her mind, Leia remembered the past four hours in lightspeed, wondering frightfully what this victory may have cost Luke.

Ithor,4 hours ago
Leia Organa Solo was all too aware of the things laying ahead of her.

After all these years fighting the Empire and building the New Republic, they had never ever faced such an enemy. An enemy who just wanted to extinct or to force beings to believe in their proper gods, not interested in any truce or peace contract.

Leia guessed, out of the few things she actually know about the Yuuzhan Vong, that they considered all species in this galaxy they wanted to make their own to be feeble beings without a trace of honor - especially the human race.

She would really like to learn from the Vong, as Elegos A'kla had done, in order to fine somehow, some time, a way to peace.

But this culture from outside the galaxy had made it all too clear that they didn't think anyone of the New Republic's politicians to be worthy of negotiating with them.

President Borsk Fey'lya had taken care of Leia being totally excluded from anything formal going on between the Republic and the Vong, cutting her off of every possibility to get herself a clearer picture of the enemie's psyche and the things he wanted.

Leia sighed soundlessly. It hurt to see what had become of the New Republic. Borsk Fey'lya headed straight down the dooming path the Old Republic had taken so many decades ago.
He himself and the senate, they saw themselves as invincible, as wise beyond wisdom - all this while loosing the link to their people and the reality - the reality of deathly dangers.

Old biases resurfaced fastly, people who became uncomfortable were disposed of quietly.
Fey'lya's special concerns were with the Jedi. He missed no opportunity to stir sentiments against them and he had no problems to get partners in his revengeful quest - underlining false decisions of Jedi like Kyp Durron were enough to get the arrogant, self-centered senators to help the Chief-of-State.
The Bothan especially relished in accusing Luke as an unable and dumb man loosing control of his people - or he charged him with treason, accusing him to encourage his Jedi Knights to act as they did.
True, the common humans and non-humans of the galaxy still believed in the Jedi, that they were there to do good only - but that was no cause to relax, Leia knew. As did Luke.

When Fey'lya continued, they would sooner or later fall into his demagogic trap. And give the Bothan the possibility to get rid of the Jedi who threatened his every decision.

Leia could barely cover her anger and disgust when she remembered the way Fey'lya had refused to acknowledge the threat the Yuuzhan Vong embodied, his arrogant smile when he had assumed formal control over the defense fleet dispatched to Ithor.

This Bothan and his hand-picked senate would succeed in bringing down what she and all her friends had so hard fought to build. They would throw it right into the Vongs' hands - out of dumbness, arrogance and hunger for power.

It had cost Leia and Luke not so much as a minute to recognize that Fey'lya saw in Ithor just a possibility to further denunciate Luke, to shatter the public trust in the Jedi. Perhaps he would succeed in this.

The escapees of Dubrillion and Dantooine saw still the hero in Luke, the defenders and protectors in the Jedi - what they were in reality. But the myriads of beings not even aware of the Yuuzhan Vong threat, carefully shielded by the government, would be very prone to believe the Bothan's presumptious lies.
Leia sighed, aloud this time, and placed her hand onto the sensoric field in order to get the lift leading to the hangar bay of the floating city Tafanda Bay.

There was no use in breeding about this now. She had to concentrate on the coming attack of the Yuuzhan Vong.

And this attack would come. Although Corran and his team had done their best to blur their traces on Garqi, the enemy sooner or later would come after them, figuring out what had happened - that the New Republic had accidentally stumbled over a possibility to cause the sudden, violent death of the Vong's living armor.

And if they came behind this, they would destroy Ithor.

Leia would soon board the Ralroost, along with Fey'lya and the other Senate members, in order to watch the battle from there - and perhaps in order to die there.

Leia didn't permit herself much hope. True, Fey'lya and his "friends" didn't feel threatened, they didn't know any fear.

But Leia had seen what had happened on Dubrillion and on Dantooine. She knew that it was possible that noone survived the coming encounter.

And she had become used to being close to death while fighting for the Alliance. She accepted the possibility to die and so could be fully active until the moment would finally come.
Crouching somewhere in fear, hiding from the inevitable, was no option for her, denying her the dignity she deserved as a human being.

She would not waste the slightest second till she would have to become one with the Force.
When she entered the climatized, sun-filled hangar bay, she saw her brother Luke Skywalker standing before an empty ship place, staring up into Ithor's sky.

Curious, she followed his stare, recognizing the Jade Saber blazing away in high speed - as if fleeing from something.

"Luke?"

When he heard her voice, Luke turned around and stared at her. The barely surpressed desperation in his eyes and the feeling of incredible pain radiating from him let Leia go faster.
"Luke, what happened? Was that Mara?"

Even while standing beside him and laying her hand onto his shoulder, she felt Luke calling on the Force and calming himself with mental violence. But she was almost sure that he was all but calm deep in himself.

He nodded, smiling tiredly: "She said she wants to be alone. She can't stand me worrying so much about her."

Despite his smile and his best efforts to maintain his composure, he could not hide the truth from Leia. Perhaps from everyone else, but not from Leia.

"I'm so sorry, Luke. I'm so sorry."

She whispered, embracing him tightly. He embraced her back every so shortly, then withdraw himself again.

"That's unimportant, Leia. The Vong are coming. I can feel the danger. We have to concentrate on defending Ithor now."

Leia didn't think it would do Luke any good to ignore Mara's actions, but she knew that he was right. They DIDN'T have any time to think about feelings.

"Did Kyp accept your orders?" she asked instead, accompanying him to the ship intended to bring them up to the Ralroost. Luke frowned and Leia knew at once that this, too, hadn't gone as her brother had hoped.

"Kyp has left the Order. He has taken his followers with him. Said something about a new, better Jedi Order as soon as the Vong are taken care of - he doesn't believe them to be dangerous, you know."
The pain in his voice was carefully hidden behind the soft, mocking tone, but Leia could hear it nontheless She was his sister, she always knew what he felt or thought. Always.
The Jedi Order had been his dream - he wanted to create it new, for Ben, for Yoda, for his father. And now, this dream was gone. The government for which he had sacrificed that much had let him down, didn't believe in his powers, nor in his intentions. Often enough, Fey'lya had accused Luke of things which had hurt his peaceful and tender nature deeply. And Leia was the only one who really knew how deep Luke was affected by all this.

Now his dream was shattered without him being able to do something against it. He couldn't force Kyp to stand by him and to obey his orders. The respect and the obediance of the other Knights weren't the result of Luke somehow having the right to give them orders.
They followed him because they believed and trusted in him and his ways. That went at least for the ones still being on his side.

But this wasn't the time to talk to Luke and to soothe him. Not now. The first Yuuzhan Vong ships had been seen in the system.

Above the planet Ithor, Bridge of the Ralroost
President Borsk Fey'lya had stopped smiling for a long time. In face of the burning planet and bursting, exploding ships before him, he couldn't possibly deny the deadly peril the Yuuzhan Vong were - as much as he would want it.

The Ralroost was the last intact warship left to the defenders - the rest had been badly damaged or totally destroyed, although everyone still able to fight didn't surrender.
The Ralroost wouldn't have much means to withstand the Yuuzhan Vong warship approaching it mercilessly for long.

The infantery on Ithor itself had had no chance against the trained Yuuzhan Vong warriors. The Jedi fought better, but still were without any real chances - there were just too few of them.
The Bothan glanced nervously around.

Luke Skywalker sat at one of the communication consoles, giving orders with this unnervingly calm voice of his, coordinating the small group of still intact fighters - between them Rogue Squadron, the only squadron still more or less complete.

Besides, he received reports from his Jedi teams whitch tried everything to hold onto the planet.
They had suffered heavy losses and at every new loss report, Skywalker shuddered, as well as Organa Solo, who sat beside him and led the rescue missions of the still maneuverable medicinal frigates.
"Kyp's Jedi..." Luke's voice was rough, his eyes full of pain.

"They are all dead - Kyp is the only survivor. I dispatched Daeshara'cor and Ganner Rhysode to go get him out if possible."

Leia nodded, her lips thin lines. She was worried deeply by the lifelessness of Luke's voice, his face.
Even she, as untrained she was, could feel the tremors in the Force caused by all these victims of the battle and the myriads of living beings dying in the burning forests of Ithor.
"46." Luke said calmly.

Leia was jerked back to reality: "What?"

"46 of us alive. 46 Jedi Knights. And the battle is not over yet."

Before Leia could even think of something to answer, the Ralroost shuddered violently. For a moment, all energy was cut off.

Some seconds later, the emergency lights popped on.

"A piece of debris just hit us starboard. It came from the Pride of Yavin. The Pride is destroyed. Thus, we're the only rational choice for the Vong to attack.

Their ship hasn't so much as a scratch. Should anyone have the slightest idea how to get out of this situation alive, I'd appreciate it if he or she would speak freely now."

Leia admired the admiral's composure in face of almost certain death and remarked surprised that she wasn't as afraid as she'd have thought.

Luke was with her, she thought. As long as Luke was with her, nothing could be so bad.
"He!" a voice shouted over the bridge, followed by a furred arm pointing straight at Luke.
President Borsk Fey'lya stumbled over to the Jedi, a nasty-looking scratch on his forehead.
"He shall use his ominous Force. He's a Jedi Master!"

Teeth shown in anger and fear, the Bothan presented the contrary of his composed relative.
"A Jedi Master whose use of the Force you have often enough condemned, Your Excellency. Whom you have acused of being a liar."

Luke's charactersitic calm, his natural dignity, earned in all the trials he had been through in his life, let the Bothan seem to be nothing more than a crying child - and Fey'lya knew it.

He knew that Luke was aware that he was right. He knew that Luke had known from the beginning that Fey'lya didn't believe with all his heart in the principles of the New Republic.

"I've always known you're a traitor, Skywalker. Just as your damned Jedi." Fey'lya snarled enraged.
Luke just smiled, somehow sad, while he rose and went over to Admiral Traest Kre'fey, to a point from which he could overlook the entire battlefield.

"You understand nothing, Your Excellency. You understand nothing of the way of the Jedi, the way of the Force. But that's not necessary."

Leia watched when her brother lifted his arm and closed his eyes. She knew he didn't do this in order to take a point over Fey'lya or anyone else.

Just minutes ago, she had caught his decision to end this battle. She also had been aware of his inner torment going on for hours - it went against Luke's very nature to use the Force in attack. Though Leia didn't doubt that he was a very capable warrior.

But she wasn't prepared for what happened next. Never ever had she imagined her brother being THAT powerful.

At the moment he lifted his arm, she could feel the Force around her, everywhere, could feel how all these fine strings of life were drawn into one direction - in Luke's direction.

She could feel how he took them together, more and more of them, and how he throw them against the Yuuzhan Vong ships. She felt his taking on his very reserves to hold on to so much power, to control it and not letting himself being controlled and destroyed by it.

If one could forget the dead inflicted by it, the spectacle was just fascinating.

Leia watched in awe while her brother skillfully took control over the enemie's black holes, using them against their very owners, dropping coral skipper after coral skipper, ground vehicle after ground vehicle in their own defense gravity anomalies.

No less skillfull, he manipulated the weapons of the big ships, causing them to implode spectacularly when he sent the superheated plasma right back into their holds.

Leia felt herself vibrating with the Force flowing around her, thick and mighty, unleashing all its power under Luke's guidance.

She shifted uncomfortably when she remembered what such a use of the Force had cost Luke at Dantooine.

It took barely fifteen minutes and the Yuuzhan Vong fleet had been nearly extinguished.
Noone spoke a word on the Ralroost's bridge. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Luke, unbelieving and shocked. Even while Leia hurried to his side, Luke turned and looked Fey'lya straight in the eyes.
The Bothan stepped back, violet eyes wide with fear of the Jedi Master. Luke's voice trembled, but his words were clear and understandable all over the bridge - and all surviving fighters could hear tthem over intercom.

"The Force is created by life and protects it. The Jedi are the protectors of the Force and of the weak. A Jedi never feels contempt upon killing or hurting. You and the senate, and only you, are responsible for the deaths of so many beings."

When Leia took his arm and lead him out of the bridge, she suddenly felt the wave of panic appearing in her brother - a wave he could barely control.

Luke trembled all over his body when they arrived in the captain's chambers and Leia had some problems to get him to the bodyform couch in the corner of the narrow cabin.

The panic and fear radiating from him almost knocked her off her feet. This storm of emotions, enhanced by their bond in the Force, almost led her to flee and her heart broke when she imagined what passed through Luke's head, his soul, right now.

He had killed thousands of beings deliberately - for the first time in his life, he had let free this incredible power which had slumbered in him.

But it had cost him every single body reserve. And though Leia was sure that his body would recover exceptionally soon, she didn't know whether his soul would equally be able to.
But she could worry about this later.

She had barely helped him lay down onto the couch, as Luke already slipped into blissful, deep unconsciousness.

Jedi Dawn - Chapter 2

Ralroost, Captain's Quarters, 3 hours after the Battle of Ithor

"I still cant' believe what your brother has done, Your Highness. I
never imagined what power he can summon." Traest Kre'fey, never a
being for formal chit-chat, bowed respectfully before Leia Organa
Solo, then gazed over to the bodyform couch.

Skywalker lay there, seemingly deep asleep, but unnaturally pale and
still. It took Traest over a minute to confirm that the human man
really was breathing.

The alderaanian princess smiled faintly: "I think noone could,
Admiral. Not even I would have thought this possible."
Although not very familiar with the body language of human beings,
Traest noted the somewhat haunted look in the female's eyes, directed
straight at her brother's unmoving form. "Excuse me, Ambassador, but
wouldn't it be wiser to send for a medic? I'm sure that we can
arrange for anonymity some way or the other. I even would offer my
personal medic droid." This time, Organa Solo's smile was genuine and
broad.

"Thank you, Traest, I appreciate this offer. But my brother is
alright."

"But, Leia, he..."

"He is currently in a Jedi Healing Trance. Even as we watch he's
gaining his strenght back. You don't have to worry about him."
"If you say so, Your Highness, then I'll have to trust you. I hope
you understand me, I don't want to be blunt. Your brother just saved
the New Republic from a hopeless future and I just want to make sure
he's fine - we owe him our lifes."

A low sigh let the both of them, woman and bothan, turn around to the
bodyform couch.

Luke Skywalker's eyes were open and now looked straight at them.
The Bothan went over to the Jedi Master and grasped his hand in his
furry paws.

"Master Skywalker, I want you to know that I'm eternally grateful for
what you did just hours ago. You saved not only my men, but Ithor and
probably the whole galaxy from certain doom. I always held you in
high regard, but I only now see what an exceptional being you really
are.

I'd be honored if you'd stay here in my quarters for as long as you
wish."

Skywalker just sat up and stared at the Bothan, trying to find words
to answer, but nothing came over his lips.

Alarmed, Leia went over to her brother, slid beside him on the couch
and lay an arm around his shoulders.

"Luke? Are you alright?" she took his free hand into her own,
startled to feel how cold it was. He gazed at her, eyes wide and
shocked, then stared again at the Bothan's hand holding his own.
"I destroyed them all?" he asked lowly.

The Bothan's face split in an admiring smile, but Leia couldn't bring
herself to such a reaction. Luke's voice sounded different. Absent,
irritated - scared.

*Luke?*

she asked tentatively over their bond in the Force, furrowing her
forehead worriedly when no reply came from him.

"Almost, Jedi Master. The command ship and several smaller vessels
managed to escape and we took one coralskipper and its pilot alive.
The rest of their fleet has been completely destroyed. And we owe
this to you - you and the Jedi. This debt will never be repaid."
"Thank you." Luke whispered, then rose and went over to the small
bulkhead, showing the planet Ithor slowly rotating on his axis.
His hand slipped out of Leia's grasp as a non-living piece of stone
would have done and finally, even Traest seemed to recognize that
something was wrong. The Bothan cleared his trhoat.

"I think I will leave the both of you alone. You surely are tired. As
I said, feel free to stay as long as you want. Princess Leia, Master
Skywalker." He bowed once again deeply and vanished without another
word.

For some moments, it was quiet in the room. Leia hoped her brother
would say something or turn around to look at her, but he did nothing
but stay there and stare down at the planet.

Worried, Leia joined him, taking his left hand into her own,
frightened by the lack of reaction from him.

"Luke?" he didn't even look at her when she said his name.
*Luke! Come back to me!*

The mental shout sent him a step away from her, gazing at her in wide-
eyed fear and panic. Leia began to get a very bad feeling about the
situation and was careful not to scare him anymore when she took a
step toward him.

"Luke, tell me what's wrong." She demanded lowly.
"I... I just killed over five thousand living beings. I just killed
them. And Ithor ----" he stopped, gazing at the black scars all over
the otherwise green continents of the once peaceful planet. All
around it, battle debris was floating, burning wrecks, ugly crippled
corpses - through the Force and the eyes of a man like Luke, it had
to be a picture of horror.

Since the destruction of Alderaan, Leia had just lost the ability to
become so utterly confused and shocked - even faced with incredible
pain and numerous death.

But although her brother, her dear brother, had seen so much in his
life, had fought so hard and lost so much, he had always been the
purest being she had ever encountered. Violence, death - these things
were deeply troubling for him and the fact that he himself had caused
them this time had to be downright disastrous for his soul.
"I killed them all..." Luke whispered, beginning to tremble once again,
eyes transfixed on the bulkhead and the space beyond it.
"Luke, you had no choice. If you hadn't done it, we all would've died
and the Yuuzhan Vong would have overrun the entire galaxy. Millions
of innocent beings would have been killed." She assured lowly,
tentatively touching his forearm with her right hand.

Luke's gaze shot at her hand unbelieving and unsure and Leia began to
see that her fears had come true.

For all the pain and distress this war had brought to his body, his
heart and soul had been onslaughted even more.
"You...you touch me." He murmured, sounding so irritated and startled
that Leia felt as if her heart would break any moment. "I'm a
murderer... "

"No." she interrupted him softly, but firmly. "Luke, you're not.
You've saved billions of lives. You're no murderer."
"But they're all dead - I killed them all with my thoughts... I..." he
stammered, retreating from the small window and deeper into the
shadows of the room.

"Luke, you are NO murderer. Do you hear me? You didn't MURDER anyone.
You defended your galaxy, your people - INNOCENT people. A Jedi can't
let innocent people be butchered, can he?"

"Innocent... no... A Jedi has to defend the innocent and the helpless..."
Luke searched her eyes, obviously unsure and even more irritated than
before.

"Absolutely right. So you did what was necessary. Noone blames you
for anything."

Leia made another step toward him and this time, Luke didn't shy
away. But that was no relief for her for it seemed only to result out
of complete irritation.

Slowly, she swung her arms around him, pressing him gently against
herself. She felt his trembling and knew, even before he actually
blurted it out, what was going to be his next word.

"Mara!"

It was a desperate cry, filled with the strong sense of betrayal,
longing and the feeling of not understanding anything what happened.
"She's gone!" he cried, burying his head in her shoulders, shaking
and sobbing violently. But it took him only seconds before freeing
himself again from her tight grasp and he stumbled away from her.
His eyes wandered around the room, as if searching for something - or
someone. Then he turned towards the door.

"I got to talk to her. I got to find her and talk to her." He mumbled.
Leia forced herself not to cry and approached him again.
Luke's appearance stroke her deep in her heart. He stood there, right
in the middle of the room, still pale, eyes red-rimmed, hairs in
total disorder from his trance and gazed around unfocused, arms swung
around himself.

"Luke.., "she said quietly, taking his arm and guiding him back
toward the bodyform couch.

"Got to find Mara." He repeated, his voice clearly showing that he
didn't realize anymore where he was or who was leading him to the
couch, forcing him gently to lay down.

Leia pushed the hairs out of his forehead and knelt down. Taking his
hand into hers, softly caressing the trembling fingers, she whispered:
"Try to sleep, Luke. Everything will be alright again, my dear.
Everything."

She bent forward and planted a light kiss on his lips which moved
steadily, repeating one and the same over and over again.
"Got to find Mara."

"Sh.." she whispered compassionately, startling him by planting her
hand firmly over his mouth. For this, she received a look she knew
she would see in her dreams.

There was not a trace of the Jedi Master in this pure, blue eyes, so
wide with fear, helplessness and self-distaste.

She held her hand firmly on place while she lay down beside him, then
released him only to cradle him in her arms, stroking his hair and
sending soothing thoughts of love and peace into his soul.
His azure eyes met once again with hers, giving the impression of a
little, frightened child more than the one of a distraught Jedi
Master.

"Got to find Mara."

He said again, curling up into ball and leaning into Leia's embrace.
While Luke continued to mumble lowly to himself and occasionally
convulsed and twitched uncontrolled, Leia reached over him and
pressed the button of the comlink built into the console beside the
couch.

"3PO?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Please call for a medic - take on Kre'fey's offer and get his
personal 2-1B droid. It shall prepare itself to treat a shock
patient."

"Why, of course, Princess Leia. Poor Master Luke. I'd never have
thought Mistress Mara to be so cruel and leave...."

"3PO, please. Just get the 2-1B."

Leia interrupted the protocol droid tiredly.

"And check if anyone of our friends or family is currently aboard the
Ralroost. Send them here, if you find them."

She added as an afterthougt and, without waiting for 3PO's
confirmation, cut the link.

Corran Horn and the Kre'fey's personal medic droid arrived at the
same time, the first one sinking baffled and somewhat horrified in
the chair 3PO had brought into the room, the latter immediately
attending to Luke who had stopped mumbling.

Instead, his body shook with steady convulsions and it became obvious
by Corran's pain-filled eyes that Leia wasn't the only one to receive
the ripples of pure mental agony radiating from her brother.
It took the droid, named C-12, only three minutes to state in his
cool, unemotional voice that the patient had suffered an acute
nervous breakdown, due to extreme physical and psychological
exhaustion.

After an affirmative nod from Leia, it took only another minute to
prepare an infusion and give Luke a sedative. Mere seconds later,
Luke became still, his arm slipped lifelessly from the droids own
body extension.

Although C-12 seemed eager to explain every single symptomatic
specialty of a nervous breakdown, 3PO, for the first time in his life
catching on the moment's sadness, guided him out of the room, not
without glancing one final time at Luke and muttering something about
locating R2 as soon as possible.

Once alone with Corran and her now peacefully sleeping brother, Leia
practically fell onto the chair in front of the Jedi, suddenly near
to tears.

The silence was long and uncomfortable, but neither of them quite
knew how to begin such a conversation.

Finally, Corran cleared his throat.

"We heard rumors that Luke destroyed the enemy fleet single-handedly.
And we felt a movement in the Force - I can only describe it as
exceptional. Is it true, Princess? Did Luke do this?"
Leia nodded glumly: "It is true, Corran. He did it alone. I've never
seen him wield such power. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I would've
never believed that such a thing is possible." "I understand."
Horn murmured, though his expression clearly showed the contrary.
"Mara left." Leia blurted out after some more minutes of silence. She
had to talk to someone. To see her brother in a condition like this,
her beloved Luke, felt as if someone had cut her heart into neat
little pieces.

She longed for Han's embrace right now, someone to lean on, and was
angry at him for not being there for her - and for Luke.
Corran's green eyes narrowed, a sudden understanding dawning in them.
"When?" He asked, his tone slightly changing to the one he always
assumed when falling back into his famous CorSec manners.
"Before the battle started. She took the Jade Sabre and vanished
without a trace."

Leia felt hollow when she leaned back and stared at Ithor, continuing
it's path behind Corran's head, not influenced by the fates of the
humans and aliens who had fought and died around it.
"So that's why he broke down." The Corellian stated, throwing an even
more compassionate gaze toward Luke's sleeping form.
"Partly. His use of the Force was not only an ordeal for his body,
though. It shattered his soul, shattered it very deeply."

She paused, breathing deeply, then added:

"He considers himself a murderer, a butcherer, everything we call the
Yuuzhan Vong for their actions. He feels betrayed by Mara and doesn't
know why she's gone."

Corran nodded, some of his reddish hairs bobbing in front of his
eyes: "I can feel his loneliness and his despair. Did they have an
argument before Mara left?"

Leia had to smile indeliberatly. Already now Corran was beginning to
investigate, to search for causes and certainly already forming some
plan to help Luke in this stubborn Corellian Jedi brain of his.
"I don't think so. Luke just told me that Mara said she coulnd't
stand his worrying anymore."

Corran snorted.

"I really like and respect Mara, Ambassador, but I doubt that she's
ever fully understood what she demanded from Luke by forbidding him
to worry about her. For me, that sounds like a feeble excuse for her
true reasons."

Leia considered this some moments, then nodded hesitantly.
"You could be right, Corran. I never actually saw him worry about her
openly. She didn't allow this a bit. But we can only be sure about
that after speaking to her - or to Luke."

Corran glanced again to the Jedi Master.

"That could take some time." He murmured.

Leia forced a smile.

"It could. Corran, would you please stay here with Luke? I have to
contact Han. He has to come here. Luke needs him."

"Of course I'll stay. Don't worry, Your Highness, I'll take care of
him." Leia smiled, this time genuinely and vanished.

The communication room had been emptied for her, so she could be
alone and talk privately to her husband, currently on Coruscant.
Although they had parted in another argument, she really looked
forward to see him again and talk to him.

Thus, she almost fumed when noone answered her call. So she had to
record the message and hope that Han cared to check the message box
sometime in the future.

Therefore, her message was all but kind regarding Han, she just gave
him a summary of Luke's condition with the plea to come to Ithor as
soon as he could.

When she severed the link to her home comlink, she was surprised to
see a blinking, red light, indicating that someone called her from
Coruscant.

Well, if that was Han, she would consider forgiving him.
To her utter surprise, though, the head of former Chief-of-State Mon
Mothma appeared. The elder woman gently smiled at Leia.
"Greetings, Leia."

"Mon Mothma! What can I do for you?"

Mothma grew serious.

"I've got not much time, Leia. Since we got word from Ithor an hour
ago, everything has been pretty busy in the Senate. I just thought
you'd find it interesting that there's been the word of a vote-of-no-
confidence against Fey'lya."

Leia's eyes widened and she could not oppress a satisfacted, little
grin.

"Well, they seem to finally get some brains working again." She just
stated.

Mon Mothma smirked.

"You could say that. Anyways, the almost-disaster of Ithor is blamed
on Borsk and I think he and his fellow Jedi-haters will have a bad
stand with everyone here in the future."

"That are the first good news for today. But why did you want to tell
me this personally? I'd have learned it soon enough."

Leia frowned when her counterpart became serious again.
"I just wanted to warn you."

"Warn me?"

"Yes. If they succeed and Fey'lya has to step down, then they will
press you to come back. They have already silently elected you to
replace him, once the formalities are taken care of."
Silence.

"I've to go now, Leia. Take care."
The line was cut and left Leia doumbfounded.

finally finished chapter 3.
Hope you enjoy it.

Jedi Dawn - Part 3

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, Solo apartment, 3 days after the Battle of Ithor
The sunrise of Coruscant was a wonderful sight, appreciated by many of the billions of beings living on the city planet.

When all you could see day in day out were gray buildings of permabeton and glass, it was a renewing experience to witness the sun turning everything into a brilliant landscape of red and orange.
Similar to a lava flow, the sun's rays poured over the skyscrapers, speeders and public places, setting them on fire and announcing another beautiful day in the planet's summer.

On this planet, milliards of kilometers away from the battlefields on which the fate of the galaxy had been decided, people were blissfully unaware that they were threatened.

The Senate had issued a complete stop of news reports concerning anything related to the Yuuzhan Vong.

All possible efforts had been taken to get the refugees to planets as far away from Coruscant as possible.

The Chief-of-State had been all too aware of what would happen if the New Republic's population would learn about this extragalactic peril.

But there also was one man who had access to all available data - a man who was intertwined directly into all this terrible fights and battles - a man who did his best to make himself forget the rest of the galaxy.

Han Solo groaned wearily when he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling of his bedroom where shadows were playing whenever speeders and freighters made their way out to space.
In times of peace, he and Leia had often enjoyed this early hours of day, watching the shadows play and relishing the feeling of being wrapped in each others' arms.
In times of peace.

But there was no peace in the galaxy anymore. Han sighed louldy while he made a vain attempt to sit up.
'Too much ale. ', he thought sarcastically. It was always too much ale.

Since this day on Sernpidal, since he had seen the last minutes of his best friend, Han had lived in a kind of bubble, isolated from the world outside it.

Chewie's death had shaken him deeply and had shown him that his family was in danger - not that they hadn't been before.

But as Han had said to Leia this day some months ago, now the invincibility was gone.
Not one of the many forces which had arrayed themselves to defeat first the Alliance and then the New Republic had succeeded in killing anyone of Han's close friends.

And then there came some freaky guys of another galaxy, just murdering his very best friend.
Although this incident had shown Han all too clearly that he could loose anyone of his family in the next second, especially with the Yuuzhan Vong involved, his reaction to this had been absurd.
In his rare, clear moments, he recognized this himself.

Instead of being at the side of his family, he created a wall around himself, pushing them away, refusing all attempts to help.

Han didn't know why he had done it and why he still did it.

At moments like this, when memories of his life during the rare times of peace washed over him, he missed Leia terribly.

He wished so much to have her in his arms now, to talk to her - to tell her that he was sorry that he had treated her like this, but that he just wasn't able to act otherwise.

But Leia wasn't there.

Han didn't even knew where she was. Probably on the front, fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, risking her life to guarantee the freedom of the galaxy. And he should help her, for Force's sake.

Instead, he hid in his apartment, drinking, mourning and heading straight down the path towards a nice depression.

Han snorted.

'What is it', he wondered, 'that people always know that they're making a mistake and can't prevent it, though?'

And he knew that it wouldn't help him any to drink and to bath in all the old memories. It was over. Chewie was death and he would never return.

'Why is it so hard to accept this?' Han silently asked himself, looking at his picture in the mirror in front of his bed.

"Scruffy-looking. Yeah, babe, you're right." He mumbled, smiling thinly when he recalled Leia's vivid anger so many years ago.

Leia.

He needed her so desperately. Nevertheless, some stubborn pride in himself prevented him from investigating on her whereabouts, from finding her, going to her, talking to her - apologizing to her.
The last months, he'd usually ponder this question all day, carefully balanced with grief and sadness over Chewie's dead, and while pondering, he would drink one ale, two ale, three ale ---up to a number where he just slumped over on his table and fell asleep, to wake up sometime in deep night, stumbling to his bed and sinking again into oblivion.

And as every morning in the past months, Han got out of the bed, stared at his haggard face with the red, glassy eyes and the beard - he had just forgot to shave - and almost shuddered with disgust.
Again, he promised himself not to drink alcohol today, not to sink into this sea of self-pity and to finally get things straight with his family and Leia. 'You won't make it.', this vicious little voice of his conscience whispered.

And Han knew it was probably right.

Slowly he went over to the kitchen and forced himself to make a caf instead of going over to his mini-bar and taking a little corellian Whiskey.

Perhaps when he was more awake, he could shave this beard of. Leia had never liked him with a beard, anyways.

Thinking thoroughly, it wouldn't be bad to take a shower, too. Just for fun, Han tried to remember when he last had taken a shower. He was definitely not able to recall it.

Shaking his head, Han poured down a whole cup of strong caf and was utterly surprised that it seemed to work.

He felt a lot clearer. A look at the caf maker showed him why - he had forced the machine to give caf powder intended for six cups into one single cup.

He pursed his lips. Well, he must be really down if he did drink something like THIS.
'But when it helps...' he muttered. After another cup of this dead drink, he decided to really take a shower and shave.

And if his mood was still ok after this, he'd try to contact someone with influence and find out where Leia was.

Yeah, he would probably be able to manage that.

Happy to have finally decided to do SOMETHING Han began to make his way to the bathroom, passing the communication unit in the living room.

Surprised, he remarked that there were two lights blinking.

Someone had called him!!

Seen for itself, that was, of course, nothing special. But since Han hadn't been answering calls for his person in a few months now and people had just given up to try it, he was more than a little bit apalled that someone dared to intrude into his little world.

Gruffly swearing to himself, he keyed in his access code and chose the first communication.
He almost dropped his half-empty caf-cup, the third, by the way, when Leia's head appeared.
God, she was so beautiful. It hurt him when he realised that he had almost forgotten how beautiful his wife was.

Enchanted, he sank onto the sofa, not listening to what she said, but watching her face intently, the familiar brown eyes, her soft features, this beautiful lips.

He longed for her, wanted to hold and to kiss her. But it was already wonderful to just see her.
What she said was not important.

When the communication ended, Han found himself smiling dumbly, pressing the button for the next communication, hoping absurdly that it was another call from Leia.

He grinned broadly when she appeared again, indeed, but one close look at her face let him inhale sharply. She was pale and obviously more than a little bit worried. Once and again, her eyes darted to her left, to something or someone not to be seen for Han.

Worried, Han forced himself to listen.

"Han, I don't know if you didn't get my first call two days ago or if you're not at home at all.
Anyways, if you hear this, please come to Ithor. Luke's condition has not significantly bettered - he needs you. I try to be there for him as often as I can, but there is so much to do after the battle." 'Battle?' Han thought, 'Which battle? Luke's condition?'

"If you get this message, Han, and if you still care, then come here as soon as you can."

With this, she ended the transmission abruptly. No 'I love you', no 'I miss you'.

But Han noted this just at the fringes of his perception. What had him worried far more were the words 'Luke's condition'.

Was the kid injured? What battle, Minions of Xendor?

Angry at himself for having become that oblivious of what was going on, he keyed for the Fleet Office, said his proper code and accessed the newest memorandums.

It had advantages to be married to a former Chief-of-State and now official Ambassador, he thought - again, as he had often in his life.

But his small grin faded when he read the reports.

The New Republic's ships had been totally messed up by the Yuuzhan Vong on Ithor. Nearly noone had survived.

Nonetheless, the encounter was listed as victory. Han thought what curious view of a victory the Fleet Office had when his eyes shifted to the last lines.

"The Yuuzhan Vong fleet has been almost completely destroyed due to the single-handed effort of Jedi Master Skywalker. Damage to the planet of Ithor itself has been prevented more than we could have hoped for, for which we have to thank the Jedi Knights who have fought bravely, though outnumbered, against the warriors assaulting Ithor."

'Single-handed effort??' these words left Han dumbfounded. Luke, alone against a whole fleet of Yuuzhan Vong?

It sounded incredible. But Luke or Leia would never have allowed this to be written if it were not true.
So there had to be some truth in it.

Nervously, Han asked for the current whereabouts of Luke Skywalker and demanded a connection to the ship he was on immediately.

First talking to Luke - making sure that he was ok and then investigating lowly how Leia was - in regard to him.

Strangely enough, he had to find out that he wasn't able to establish a connection with Luke. As to the com unit, Luke didn't even exist.

Dread washed over Han when he recalled Leia's words - 'Luke's condition'.
He had to be injured then - gravely injured obviously.

Han tightened, deciding to listen to Leia's first call, three days ago.

"Hello, Han. As I see you're once again not at home. Anyways, I just wanted to inform you that we have won above Ithor. The kids are fine."

Han sighed and relaxed a bit

"However, Luke is not. Han, you've to get to Ithor as soon as you can. Please take the Falcon immediately when you get this call and come here. Luke needs you." She paused.
The dread Han felt slowly became outright fear.

Leia continued: "This channel ought to be secure. I can't give you all the details, though, only so much: Luke suffered a grave nervous breakdown and he's asking for you."

For the first time, her eyes became a little bit softer: "I know you still care for him, Han. Please come soon."

The transmission ended.

'I know you still care for him'?? What did she mean? Of course he cared!!

Swearing, Han darted back into his bedroom and began packing some clothes into his traveling back.
Three days!!! She had contacted him three days ago! Luke was ill and he had been drinking and sleeping, snoring and amusing himself with sabbacc games against a computer nearly as bad as the kid.
Han paused when the events finally sank in totally. He had been so centered on his own grief that he had completely negelected his friends. He didn't even know what had happened in the last months. Since the victory on Helska 4, Han had been in this depressive state, ignoring everyone and everything. And now he heard that Luke, his friend, his little brother, had had a nervous breakdown!!

It jerked him out of his stupor. He had to go to Ithor. And on the way, he'd bring himself up to date with all developments concerning the war against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, Senate's Chambers

Borsk Fey'lya leaned heavily into the seat in front of the Senate, stunned by the defeat.
Not that he was really surprised.

The moment Luke Skywalker had erased the enemy fleet almost completely, Fey'lya had known that his career as Chief-of-State of the New Republic had come to an end.

They would ridicule him for years - the President who had almost disposed the Jedi Order, the only chance for survival.

Inwards, Fey'lya laughed bitterly. What did they know? They hadn't the insight HE had. After all, he was a Bothan, a master in those plays.

Skywalker had once again cemented his heroism, his invincibility.

Now more than ever people all over the galaxy would see in him some sort of god, in the Jedi Knights the extensions of this god's will and power - and protection.

And as soon as he was back on Coruscant, Skywalker would try to get the position of President.
There was nothing that could stop him.

The vote that had been held just now had been all too clear.

Everyone, except Fey'lya himself, had agreed to the vote-of-no-confidence against him. He wasn't President anymore. He wasn't even allowed to come into the Senate's chambers, once he was dismissed from this gathering.

He glanced angrily over to the slender, white-haired woman sitting in front of him. Mon Mothma had been asked to lead this assemblance and she had done so with the same dignity and power she always had posessed.

No doubt that she had taken care of the whole senate being informed about Fey'lya's secrecy policy towards the Vong threat.

Now, with the near disaster of Ithor, it was all too clear how the Senators would interprete his not giving them those informations.

They had even agreed on releasing the whole data, every information, audio and movie file to be seen by the whole population of the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant.
Fools. Stupid fools.

"Citizen Fey'lya." Mothma's calm voice jerked him out of his dark musings. "The vote is clear. You're instantly dismissed from your position as President of the New Republic. You're not to assume any other political position within the governing apparatus of the New Republic, but you are free to stay on Coruscant as long as you wish. You also may return to your homeplanet and engage in politics there, but the galactic playground is closed to you from now on.

You are asked to give every password and key to secret areas over to me later this evening.
If you have to say anything or try to defend your actions concerning the Yuuzhan Vong and Ithor one last time, you will now be given this possibility.

You may also apologize to the present Senators for keeping them uninformed of life danger."
Fey'lya growled low in his throat. He would not give Mothma the pleasure to see him wiggling under her stare or those of the other senators. Never.

"I can't see the mistakes I made - according to you all. I handled the situation as I thought best for the New Republic. To protect the people of our galaxy."
"You mean to hold yourself into your position, hide your weakne

ss and further gaining support in working against honored Master Skywalker and his order." A female-voiced protocol droid translated dutifully for the Wookiee chairman of Kashyyyk.

"My opinion towards this traitor and his fellow cowards hasn't changed a bit." Fey'lya stated cooly.
An outraged murmuring started, telling Fey'lya that he had been right. The Senate was now more than ever prone to Skywalker's nice talks, more prone than ever to honor this criminal order of his.
The senators that had supported Fey'lya in his quest against the Jedi Knights in the months prior to Ithor had silently left his side even during the destruction of his entire fleet over the fertile planet.
"Gentlebeings, please calm down. We should not be enraged about words spoken in defeat. Now that Citizen Fey'lya has said the last words to this gremium, we will close this assembly. I shall assume the position of Interims-President until our new Chief-of-State will arrive.

I suppose noone has changed his mind and the election is as clear as it was yesterday."
Affirmative nods all over the seat rows.

Fey'lya frowned.

The new Chief-of-State had yet to arrive?

He had assumed Mon Mothma would be his successor. If not she, then who....
Fey'lya jumped to his feet: "No." he hissed.

Every head or adequate body part in the room turned towards him.
Mon Mothma cleared her throat: "Pardon me, Citizen Fey'lya?"
"So I was right. You've elected this Jedi sorcerer for President." He hissed.
Mon Mothma smiled gently, as if to a child, but her eyes were cold. Something had changed between the two of them.

In the past, Mon Mothma had never been a friend of his, but there had been no open hostility.
But now, there was anger in her clear, blue eyes, anger and no trace of respect.
"I can assure you, Citizen Fey'lya, that we have not elected honored Master Skywalker for President. He would never have accepted, anyways. We all know that he is certainly no politician."
Some of the older senators smiled and laughed lowly, gently, remembering all the occasions on which Luke had spoken to them, not with the cool rationalism of a politician, but with the passion and idealism of a young man with outstanding visions and dreams.

Before Fey'lya could put up another question, Mothma continued, obviously more than pleased to be the one who broke the news to him.

"His sister, however, is, as she has proved so often in the past, more than fit for this position. Her actions on Ithor and her foresight in the whole Yuuzhan Vong matter are further evidence of this. Ambassador Princess Leia Organa Solo will be asked to once again become the President of the New Republic as soon as she returns to Coruscant."

Dumbfounded and boiling with anger, Fey'lya sat down again, waiting for all the formalities of a closing assembly being finished.

Organa Solo. He should have known it.

She had worked against him since he had become president.

But he would have his revenge on her. Even if he was forced to begin anew, on his homeplanet Bothawui, he would find a way to get the better of Leia Organa Solo and her whole traitorous family.

Hyperspace, Jade Sabre

Mara Jade checked the navi computer, making some calculations in her head and stated satisfacted that she would arrive in shorter a time than she had originally assumed.
Well, Luke held the ship in tip-top shape.

Her brilliant green eyes became darker as soon as the name appeared in her thoughts.
Skywalker. Luke. Her beloved husband.

Probably he had no clue as to how close he had been to make her drop her decision and stay with him.
His arguments had been dominated by his love for her only, and so Mara had tried to not to hear them at all.

That he loved her was wonderful, she loved him, too, but it clouded his perception. He could not think clearly as soon as it came to her and her illness. And he had to think clearly, above all in this regard.
Mara sighed.

She had left because of two reasons. The first one was wholly egoistical and she already now felt guilty of doing this to Luke.

But it had been not to bear. Mara had always been a loner, she had never needed anyone to protect her and she had never been someone who wanted to be pitied and kept like a bird in a golden cage if she was ill or something.

And Luke had first tried to do this. He had tried to isolate her from every possible danger or difficulty, favoritely sending her to bed, doing everything for her - except of accepting that she didn't want this.
That had been at the beginning of her disease. Then they had talked about it, she had explained her feelings and Luke had given in. He had let her do what she wanted, but he hadn't liked it a bit and Mara had felt it all the time.

Had felt his worrying, his fear, his concern. She could always hear his mind whisper 'Is Mara ok? Can she stand this?'

Always. It had driven her just nuts. She couldn't stand it anymore and so had decided to take a break from it. To give Luke a break from worrying.

Mara knew that there was no way to make Luke stop thinking this.

It lay in his very nature, so tender, so passionate, so caring. She loved this, actually, but not now. Not now, where her life was threatened. Not only her marriage, her whole life.

The second thing was directly linked to her departure. She sighed again, almost beginning to cry when she remembered Luke's hurt look, the shock and denying in his eyes.

Once again, he had talked about having a child. Mara knew that he wished that so much. And he would be a great father, of this she was sure.

But that was not the problem. She had also no negative sentiments towards being a mother. She could manage this - she could kill insane clone Jedis, so she would certainly be able to handle a Skywalker/ Jade child - and if she would have to extract every single Skywalker gene out of the child, she would get along with it, love it, care for it, raise it, educate it.

But not under this circumstances. She couldn't risk getting pregnant with this disease in her. What if her child would get it, too? She would never be able to live with this guilt.

Luke had argued again and again that the medics had found no prove of the illness being able to spread to other beings, for Luke had not been affected and he was closest to Mara.

He had even, against Mara's wishes and to her utter shock, injected her blood into his own blood stream to test whether he would get ill or not.

Mara had almost wished to kill him then. He could've been killed! He could have become as ill as she was! And he did it for her!

It scared her to no end, realising how deep his love for her was.

But although Luke was perfectly healthy, even after this injection with Mara's blood, what, by the way, had left the medics even more dumbfounded about the illness as they had been before, Mara had not agreed to have a child.

She fighted tears as she remembered the final arguments before they had parted - no, before she had left him.

"Mara, you have every prove you need to see that the possibility that our child would bear your illness is very low. It is actually 0. I don't know what more you want." He had said, desperately trying to soothe her anger at him for having brought up the subject again.

Mara had freaked out, she knew that now. She had been unfair and cruel.

"Then let me put it in a way so that even dumb farmboys as you can grasp it. I don't want a child with you Skywalker. Is that clear?"

Now, having calmed down, she desperately wished that she had added what she had originally wanted to explain to him. Not now, not under these circumstances, not in the middle of war. But she hadn't said that. Hadn't even thought it at the moment.

In this moment, she had been a Mara Jade which she thought had died the moment she married Luke.
He had not answered her on this, hadn't tried to keep her anymore. He had just stood there, watching as she made the start procedures, sealing the hatch, appearing in the cockpit.

She had felt his eyes on her all the time, had felt his gentle knocking on her soul, tender questions - she had blocked them all. Her anger had controlled her and she ignored him completely. When he got annoyingly close to make her melt again, she just cut the Force Bond with him.

Now, three days later, Mara could only try not to cry aloud about her cruelty and stupidity. He had backed away shocked, that she had seen.

And now, when she reached out to him in order to check if he was ok, she felt just nothing. It scared her to no end, but she was determined to get through with what she had planned.

She would try to find a cure for her illness. And then she would return to Luke, explain everything to him again and she would give him a child - a sound child.

Until then, until she had succeeded in curing her illness, she couldn't afford to let her feelings for Skywalker get the better of her.

Because as long as she was ill, she would risk to hurt Luke even more by giving him an ill child - or dying in the process, which was not much better.

As soon as she would have suceeded, she swore, she would make up for the words she had spoken to him on Ithor.
But until this day came, she w

as again alone - Mara Jade, a loner, but with the goal of never being alone again.

Sighing for a last time, now more determined and obeying to fate, she checked again the coordinates.
Four standard days and she would reach her destination. Dathomir.

Jedi Dawn - Part 4

Ithor, New Republic Ship Ralroost, Captain's Quarters, 4 days after the Battle of Ithor

"Luke, don't you want to eat something? At least a little bit of soup? It tastes delicious, really."
"I'm not hungry, Leia."
Leia sighed soundlessly, put the cup of hot broshka back onto the table and slid next to her brother onto the couch.
"Precious, you haven't been eating anything for three days now. You know that's not good, don't you?" She asked lowly, caressing his left cheek, worriedly eyeing his pale features.
He just nodded, not for one moment averting his eyes from the bulkhead, not one second stopping staring out into the black void of space.

He had insisted on moving the couch over to the bulkhead so that he could look out whenever he wanted to - and he did hardly anything else than that.

"Luke, please. Look at me if I'm talking to you." She demanded, her tone becoming slightly desperate when she forced his face over so that she could look right into his eyes.

"Ok." He said. Just ok. Leia felt like crying.

The state he was in took not only its toll on himself, but also on Leia. She had tried everything she could think of to get him out of his stupor, his apathy, but she hadn't succeeded. And now, she didn't know what to do anymore.

Luke's voice had become so utterly lifeless, his eyes had lost their shining blue - the muddy grey they were now seemed so tired, so terribly tired of living, that Leia was scared deeply whenever she saw them. The guilt he had obviously felt about killing so many Vongs had vanished surprisingly soon and she had triumphed when she had recognised that he had accepted her logic and her explanations.
But somehow, that had not helped him at all. He isolated himself, stayed all day in the cabin, refusing to eat and barely speaking a complete sentence.

Leia had her suspicions about that - it had something to do with Mara, she was sure of that.
Luke had not told her everything - if Mara had left only because she didn't like his fussing around her, Luke would have been long gone on an erratic search for her to promise her that he would change. And he would have changed, without doubt.

But Luke hadn't mentioned Mara since his breakdown, hadn't tried to talk with Leia about her - that was all his sister needed to confirm that he was hiding something from her.
Something that hurt him deeply - and something which he thought would be a cause to feel shame.
When he felt alone, in the evening, preparing himself for sleep, he stood in the small refresher, staring at his face in the mirror for minutes...
Leia had been shocked almost to death when she first had seen him like this, his handsome, still boyish features contorted in self-disgust. His hands had been clenched to fists, his lips pressed to thin lines. For a moment, she'd thought he would shatter the mirror.
Leia had wanted to interrupt him, to talk to him, but as soon as she had made the slightest noise, his expression had changed again to this tired, defeated mask which he had assumed to hid just the thing what made him hating himself.

Leia had thought about that again and again, had gone through every word he had said after and immediately before his total breakdown, but she didn't find any clue as to why he so desperately detested himself.
Mara probably had said something to him, but what?

"Come here." She said, dragging softly at his sleeve. Luke leaned into her arms eagerly, resting his head onto her shoulder, letting her caress through his hairs.

"Luke, may I ask you something?" she had to be subtle, careful, in order to not push him away from her, to don't destroy the trust he had in her.

He rolled onto his back, his head slipping into the crook of her arm and stared at her, nodded.
Talking seemed to tire him, seemed to be his most unwanted option these days.
Communicating through the Force was what he mainly did regarding her and Corran and the kids - to non-Jedi, he didn't talk at all, just nodding or shaking his head if someone should really ask him something.

"Are you angry at Mara?"

*No, of course not.* came the answer over her Force Bond.

"So, you think she was right?"

Leia almost didn't catch the short twitch in his check, in his whole body. He wouldn't react if he just had treated her too much like an ill woman.
There was more, Force's sake, but she just didn't get him to tell her what.

*Y...yes* his mental voice whispered, barely audible and more than a little bit hesitant.

"Talk to me, Luke!" she demanded, determined to not let him become even more isolated from the world.

*I AM talking to you*

"No, you're not. You THINK with me. I want you to TALK with me. Aloud. Was Mara right?" Leia insisted, keeping him firmly in her embrace, even as he wanted to get away from her.
He didn't like talking, he seemed to have an irrational fear of severing their force link.

"Yes." He murmured, his voice raspy and not used anymore to talking.

Leia permitted herself a small smile. At least he had really SAID something.

"So you think you have fuzzed too much around her, right?"

He nodded.

"Luke!"

"Yes, I have fuzzed around her too much." He practically whined. "Leia, please, think with me - not talking. I don't want talking."

"I won't think with you, Luke. And if you're trying to do that nonetheless, I'll cut our bond so you will HAVE to talk to me in words. Understood?"

Terrified, Luke almost nodded his head of and kept assuring her: "Yes. Of course. Don't need to cut the bond. I'm talking. Promise. Don't cut the bond."

Leia sighed again soundlessly. He was traumatised. Totally. Something terrible had happened between him and Mara and he was even too afraid to tell his sister what had scared him so much.

It was useless. She talked to him, but had only repeated a discussion they had had every day till now. Every time the same questions from her, the same answers from him. She made no progress in helping him.
He took in his surroundings again, true. But that was quite the only good news Leia could think of.

Slight vibrations on her belt kept her from musing further. Her comlink.

"Organa Solo." She answered angrily. Leia had given orders that noone, really NOONE, was to disturb her if she was with her brother. She wanted to be there only for him then, to help him heal the wounds his soul had suffered. His body had recovered totally, at least the medic-droid said so. But body and soul, these were two different things - especially when it came to Luke.

"My apologies for breaking your order, Ambassador, but the Millenium Falcon just asked for permission to dock in the Ralroost's aft starboard bay and I thought you'd probably like to be informed." The voice of a young communications officer squeaked over the channel.
The young woman seemed to be really worried about having disturbed her. Well, that was good.
"Apologies accepted. Thank you for the information. Organa Solo out."

Without another word, she cut the link and turned again to Luke. "Luke, I've to go for half an hour. Can I leave you alone??"

This question really seemed to surprise him. He was about to nod, but changed the movement just seconds after the beginning of it, forcing a small smile and one single word: "Yes."

Leia smiled back, trying to encourage him, and kissed him softly on the lips. "I'll hurry back." She promised and left.

Deep Space, Vong Ship Criarto

"Executor Nom Anor, stand up."

Nom Anor surpressed his slight trembling and stood stiffly, spine straight, as Warmaster Tsavong Lah stepped in front of him.

"Greetings, Warmaster." He said, hoping that his voice sounded as enthusiastic as he had intended.

"Forgive me, " Lah hissed, "if I don't wish you a nice day, Executor."

Wisely, Anor kept his mouth shut. One word and Tsavong Lah would cut him down - he didn't need a medium to tell that thhe Warmaster was boiling with rage. Rage directed straight at Nom Anor.
And he didn't even have to do anything with the recent events. Life was unfair.

"At least you seem intelligent enough to recognise when your words are appreciated and when not." The tall Yuuzhan Vong leader grumbled, laying his hands at the small of his back, gazing coldly down at his counterpart.

"Tell me, Nom Anor, was it you who send me these reports about the infidels being weak, ready for conquering and not able to defend themselves?" he then asked, his voice suddenly calm and nonchalant - a change Anor DIDN'T appreciate.
If someone was a better actor than he was, then it was the Warmaster.

"Yes, Warmaster." He forced out of his gritted teeth.

"And," Lah continued, his voice now becoming deep and threatening, "was it also you who assured me, swore me on his small, worthless life, that the Jeedai are NO match for us - that their powers can't influence us - that they're NO enemies to be taken serious?"

Well, that wasn't good. Anor had absurdly hoped that the Warmaster had not found out yet that it had been a Jedi who had destroyed their fleet at the planet the infidels called Ithor.
Against reason, the executor had made himself believe that Tsavong Lah would buy the fairy tale of a breeding failure in the generation of living ships and weapons - well, even a highly intelligent being as Nom Anor had to have his little wishes and fantasies.
And this time, it was about life and death, he knew this.

"Yes, Warmaster, it was me who said these words."

"Good. You're not refusing anything. Really brave, Executor. But I hope you're fully aware, that this will not make you any greater in MY eyes." With this, Lah shoved him forcefully against the wall of the ship.
Anor heard something crack - oh, fine, a rib. Great. It had really been a wonderful week for him.

"I think noone would think that to be real braveness - he just hopes to postpone death and pain." A new, female voice fell in.
A lanky, petite shadow moved out of a bulkhead behind Tsavong Lah.

Anor couldn't help hissing angrily at her.
"Priestess Elan - how nice from you to interpret me so utterly positive." He growled. Never ever had he liked this cunning witch. Probably she was now trying to get a nice connection to the warmaster - after she had recognised that his own star in the Vong hierarchy had made a sharp turn back to the deepest black hole one could find.

"I can't remember to have invited you here, Priestess Elan." Tsavong Lah spat over his shoulder.
Immediately, Elan bowed skilfully, laying her fists to her shoulders and presenting a defenceless attitude to him.
"Forgive me, Warmaster, but I thought I could help you determine the fate of this traitor." She purred, her delicate lips smirking devilishly into Anor's direction.

"He's no traitor. He's just an idiot." Lah mumbled, glancing furiously down at Nom Anor who didn't even think at standing up again without being ordered to do so.

"And as an idiot, he has cost thousands of us their lives." She added.

'Fine. Another one who wants to get rid of me.' Anor thought sarcastically. Not that he had expected anything else from Elan.
Since the day he had refused to accept her "friendship" and making her his partner, she had made it clear that she intended to finish him off one way or the other. With a daddy as influential as hers, that would have been bad enough even without the Warmaster joining in.

"And that won't change if we kill him now." Lah said, bringing his coat in order and turning towards the small female standing behind him.

"Oh?" Pouted Elan, blinking with her eyes, playing, again, on her fascinating beauty. "I thought that is our way of handling such a failure."

"Don't try to lecture me in the ways of my own people, Priestess. You're not WANTED here, you're just PERMITTED. And that only because of your father and Shedao Shai's likings." At this, he grunted.
"Don't you ever forget that." He added, bending menacingly over her.

Elan's cheek twitched: "Of course, Warmaster. But what, if I may ask this, are we supposed to do with this one?" she gestured over to Nom Anor as to a minor serving animal and the Executor had to rely on all his self-composure to keep from going at her throat.

"Very simple. The situation has changed. If our reports are correct and our fleet has been destroyed by ONE man - Jeedai Skywalker, his name is , I believe - then we are up against more than we could fight. We have to try to come to terms with them. Or avert it into a duel between Skywalker and myself."

This time, Elan was not playing anything. She became deathly pale and stared at Tsavong Lah.

"You're saying we're beginning negotiations with the infidels??" she breathed.

Lah grinned: "That's exactly what I'm saying. If we don't, they'll come after us and will destroy every ship of us that's still in their galaxy. But we need new homes for our people. And if we don't want to surrender, negotiations are the only acceptable alternative. And, " he lifted a clawed hand, "I'm not interested in YOUR opinion, Elan, or in your father's opinion. This is my field and not that of you religious ones."

Elan nodded glumly.

"So, I'll send a message to the infidels, telling them that I want to meet with their political leader - and Jeedai Skywalker. I want to know this warrior who could destroy us so utterly effortless. And as to Nom Anor..."
he turned around, grinning evilly, "Nom Anor will be a wonderful gift to begin the negotiations. I'm sure, absolutely sure, that Jeedai Skywalker will appreciate getting his hands on him."

While Tsavong Lah could see the sudden terror in Anor's eyes, he could not see the hatred directed at him from behind.
It was more than obvious that Priestess Elan was all but happy with the turn of events.

New Republic Ship Ralroost, Captain's Quarters

It was just amazing, Han thought. Luke had changed totally since he had come into the room. He sat beside him, listening to Han's stories about the latest fixings due on the Falcon and smiled all the time.

Han had been shocked when he had first seen Luke - deathly pale, thin and fragile, he had almost not been able to bring himself to smile. But when Luke's face had exploded into a genuine, delighted smile, he HAD to give this smile back.

The surprise with which Luke had reacted on his being here had hurt Han. Had the kid really thought that Han would have let him down?

Now, Luke grinned eagerly, nodding and making appreciating sounds whenever Han said something what could be taken even slightly as a possible question.

Now, Han stopped and regarded Luke more thoroughly. Big eyes stared back at him, expectantly.

"Luke, why are you so surprised that I'm here?" he finally asked, straightforward as he was.

Luke blushed and averted his eyes.

"I thought - after Chewie's death - you didn't want me to help - and you sent me away.... - I thought - I thought - you didn't want me as a friend, anymore." He murmured.

Han's mouth feel open. Leia, as he remarked, nodded absent-mindedly at this and he suddenly became aware just how much he had done to the ones near to him.

"That is nonsense. We'll always be friends - you're my little brother, remember?" He tousled Luke's hair and relished in the genuine, happy laughter of his brother-in-law.
Leia smiled with tears in her eyes. Obviously, Luke had been very bad and only now thawed up a little bit.
Hesitantly, Luke explained to Han what had happened and Leia filled in all the gaps which Luke refused to tell...

3 hours later

Han had felt how Luke's eyes had kept being fixed on his back as he embrace his children, kissing them, hugging them, thanking fate lowly that it had left them all unharmed.

Now, he sat again beside his friend, Luke's left hand resting in his, and waited that Luke would come up with the braveness to ask what he seemed to want to ask desperately for more than one hour now.

Then, lowly, it came out.

"Did you and Leia.... Did you two talk about having children before she got pregnant??" he practically whispered.

Han was really surprised at this, but he was determined to see this through with Luke.

"Yeah. Actually, we had quite a long talk about it and decided that we both wanted children."

Luke bit his lower lip, avoiding Han's gaze, pressing harder at his hand.

"And... and if Leia had said she didn't want a child from you... what... what would you have done?" he asked further, his eyes darting around, making sure that noone but the two of them was in the room.

Han stared at him, shocked again. That was it. That was what Leia had talked about.
The thing Mara had said to Luke what had scared him so much.
That Mara didn't want a child from him.
No wonder that Luke was so distraught, so irritated. He wished so much to be a father and the woman he loved told him she didn't want a child from him.

Gently, he laid also his other hand around Luke's.
"I'd have asked her why."

"And..." Luke swallowed hard, his hand beginning to tremble. "And... if she were gone?? Totally? If you wouldn't be able to find her, to feel her??" he croaked.

"I don't know, Luke. It would hurt." He said lowly. Luke nodded frantically, fighting hard against tears overwhelming him.

"Then you should accept Leia's proposition and go to Wayland. Take a vacation. Calm down. Relax." Han whispered, pity and compassion roughing his voice.
Leia had proposed that some hours ago, when they had eaten all together and when she had happily got Luke to eat some cake.

Luke shook his head, sobbing a little bit, but then speaking with a firm voice.

"No, Han. The Vong aren't taken care of yet. And Ithor needs help. And the refugees from the other planets. And I have to reorganise the Jedi. Very much work."

Han sighed: "Too much work, Luke. You shouldn't do that."

"You know that I must."

Han sighed again: "Let us help you. In any regard."

Luke was silent some time, then he smiled: "I will. Thank you, Han. And tell Leia, that I'm sorry for the past days. I worried her so much."

Han punched him playfully on the shoulder.

"Tell her this yourself. And don't feel sorry for something like this. We love you, Luke, we all do. And if you need help, then we're there."

Jedi Dawn - Part 5

Flying City Tafanda Bay, above the planet Ithor, 10 days after the Battle of Ithor

Forty-seven lightsabers lay on a table in one of Tafanda Bay's hangars. They were polished adequately and the light from thousands of stars and the system's sun let them shine like long diamonds.
The row was too long and although it was a beautiful sight, neither of the forty beings standing around the table in a half-circle relished it or smiled at it.

The group of Jedi Knights turned silently when the door opposite to the hangar exit into open space opened and their Master stepped out. Clad into simple shirt and trousers of pure white material and a long robe of the same colour, he strode forward to the table, halted and looked down at the row of sabers.

For a long moment, his gaze lost itself into eternity and some of the younger Jedi averted their tear-filled eyes when he softly caressed some of the handles.
Finally, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker turned to face the assembled beings and slowly let his eyes wander, resting on every face, trying to give hope, reassurance and trust.
Only the ones closest to the Master, Corran Horn and Kam Solusar, saw the almost hidden twitch in Luke's cheek and the change in his eyes when his gaze reached the figure at the back of the crowd. Kyp Durron didn't dare to look up and meet the stare of his Jedi Master. Instead, he stepped farther away, into the shadows in the back of the hangar, almost hidden by his thick, black robe.
For a moment, Luke seemed to want to say something to him, but then he focused again on the group and lowly began to speak.

"With all the things going on around here, the rescue and rebuilding actions on Ithor and the dozens of other planets where we are eager to help and the problems in the fleet after the horrible losses in the battle, we have not as much time to mourn the ones we lost as we would love to have. We can't even hold our ceremony on Yavin IV, in our academy, were most of the victims have been trained and which they called their home for almost more than a decade."
Luke inhaled deeply and his big, blue eyes seemed to break with grief, but nonetheless, he continued with a firm voice.

"Everyone of us has lost friends, family or loved ones in this war and our order has suffered a terrible setback. Where there were 100 trained Jedi before the Yuuzhan Vong appeared, only 40 of us have survived." Shortly, his voice trembled, but he controlled it soon.

"Nonetheless, we mustn't surrender and we mustn't be paralysed by their death. If we return to our academy to isolate us in grief, we will not honor what they have died for.
To some of you it may seem cruel if I will soon send you on new missions, if I will rearrange teams. But it is simply a necessity. I would love to mourn myself, but we can't afford it. We can't stop here. We have taken a victory over the enemy, but he will return and we have to be prepared. In the meantime, there are thousands of beings in need of our help and I intend to don't let them be disappointed in the Jedi." Luke paused once again and the silence in the hangar became total and scary.
From now on, the ceremony would go on in this silence. Reacting on a simple hand gesture from him, the Jedi Knights formed a row. The ones who had lost their Masters or a dear friend stepped in front of the table and softly lay their hands on the proper lightsaber. The other Knights stayed back, hands folded before them, eyes closed.
Then Luke reached out for every Knight, holding a mental hand out to them and every of his former pupils, now being Jedis, reached back with his mind.
In this total silence, thoughts, feelings and emotions were exchanged, soothing was given and after an onslaught of grief, hurt and the short, but intense lust for revenge, Luke directed them to what he had intended to reach with this ceremony. Between this dark and desperate feelings appeared a new one. Hope and positive thinking. They had driven back the Yuuzhan Vong once. If they stood together and believed in the Force and in themselves, they could drive them back again and again. They would fight and try to protect and perhaps they would die, but that would not be the end.
The mind link ended as suddenly as he had begun. Luke again looked at every Knight, satisfacted to see new determination burning in their eyes. Each Jedi standing before the table took the saber of his died friend, love or master and clipped them to their belt. They would carry on their fight and they would never forget their fellow Jedis who had died bravely.

"By tomorrow evening, I will have talked with Admiral Kre'fey, the Ithorians and my sister, Ambassador Organa-Solo. Then I will give you details on the future teams and their missions. Until then, return to your quarters or separate tasks and meditate about this ceremony. I want noone to go onto his or her mission with hate or revenge in mind. Noone.
You are dismissed."

Each one bowed before Luke and they silently walked back the way they had come earlier. But there was a difference to them. While they had come in with eyes fixed on the floor, with faces contorted in grief and fear, they now walked straight, with heads high and a new air of confidence around them.

Only one figure stayed where it had been standing all the time. When Luke stood before him, Kyp Durron lifted his head and searched the face of his master unsurely.
Luke was thinner than the last time Kyp had seen him and his skin was pale, but he hadn't lost his charismatic presence and power spoke out of every movement. His presence bristled and shone in the Force, as it had always done. And as ever, Kyp felt slightly in awe and unsure encountering Luke Skywalker. In the years before, he had overplayed this uncertainty with dashing audacity and revolutionary talks - dumb talks, as Kyp had recognised now.
Once again, the Dark Side had come dangerously close to his soul and he hadn't remarked it. He just hadn't remarked it. It had dawned on him when he had lost Miko Reglia, but he had refused to accept it at that time. But now he had lost all of his followers. And they had died because they had believed in HIS ways. In ways who were the opposite of those of Master Skywalker. In ways who had lead them to death and close to the Dark Side.

"Kyp, I get the feeling my speech hasn't had quite the effect on you as on the other Jedi." The well-known voice sounded as calm and gentle as ever and Kyp's eyes widened in surprise. His throat was dry. He just wasn't able to answer.
"I also didn't feel you in our mind link." Luke stated, gesturing toward Miko Reglia's lightsaber which Jacen had brought with him from Helska 4. It was the only lightsaber who had stayed on the table. Many Jedi had taken one or three lightsabers, wanting to preserve and protect them in remembrance of their lost ones.
Kyp had refused to take the one of his former apprentice.
"Master, I... I'm so sorry. I was wrong all the time and I didn't recognise it. I didn't want to listen to your advice. And because of that, all these people have died."

"You didn't force them to follow you, Kyp. You can't make yourself responsible for their mistakes." Luke stated.

Kyp swallowed: "Surely, you have lost the trust in me. I can understand if you give me no new mission, Master."

Luke lifted an eyebrow: "Wanting to escape your responsibility again, Kyp? Didn't we go through this years ago?" he questioned.

Kyp pressed his lips together: "Master, this time..."

"This time..." Luke interrupted, "you made a mistake out of fear and the lust for revenge because you lost Miko Reglia, your apprentice. Last time, you made a mistake out of lust for revenge because you've lost your family. I see no difference between those two occasions, Jedi Durron, and I demand that you face your latest error with the same will and determination with which you faced the last one."

"But, Master, I was dangerously close to the Dark Side, I can't..."

"Kyp, you should know that you always can return from the Dark Side by now. You did it and you saw me do it. It's not a question of being able to. You have to want it."

Kyp was silent, his whole frame shivering.

Luke lowered his voice again to the gentle, soothing tone he was known for: "I can't help you find out whether you want it, Kyp. I just can promise you that you will have a place in the order as long as I have anything to say about it. Whether you are strong enough to begin again, that only you can know." He lay a hand on Kyp's shoulder and padded him gently.

"If you have made your decision, let me know." Kyp nodded, overwhelmed by the moment, and fled.

And Luke was left alone with the now empty table standing before the breathtaking panorama of open space.

~***

Leia and Han had silently waited at the hangar entrance while Kyp and Luke had had a quite exchange. They had been there during the whole ceremony, and although Han hadn't had the insight his wife had of what was going on, he pretty much knew that Luke had given his followers something important.

But Han himself hadn't really paid close attention to what Luke had said and to what had happened after this.
He had focused his gaze on Luke all the time and had searched for the smallest sign of exhaustion or a nearing breakdown.

Now, he and his wife hurried to go to Luke, who stared motionless out into the black.
In the past days, Luke's condition had bettered a little bit. He had left the cabin, had buried himself in work, travelling between their new quarters on Tafanda Bay and the control headquarter for the rebuilding process on the planet Ithor itself.
As far as Han knew, Luke hadn't eaten quite much and slept even less. Although the Jedi assured his friend that a trance was as effective as normal sleep, Han thoroughly doubted that whenever he saw Luke coming out of his chambers in the morning.

He moved slowly and without power and he still didn't talk much.
Han, Leia, Wedge, Lando and Corran were the only ones who knew that Luke was only acting.
His health condition had worsened after the last days of hard work and his mental condition had never been ok since his breakdown.

"Luke?" Leia questioned lowly, taking his hand. He turned his head, stared tiredly at her and murmured: "Take me home, please." Leia nodded and sent a gentle caress to his soul.

"Luke, I got a call from Coruscant. Mon Mothma wants me to return immediately."
The wave of sudden fear didn't surprise her much. Even Han could catch it, for Luke retreated physically, his eyes widening in shock.

"I will stay with you, Luke." He assured lowly, laying an arm around Luke's tensed shoulders.

"And I'll come back soon, Luke. I don't intend on staying very long on Coruscant. There's still much work to do here." Leia was eager to focus Luke's eyes on her, to assure him that she wasn't leaving him, too.

Luke nodded hesitantly, then leaned into Han's embrace, staring down at the floor. "I'm tired." He whispered.

"I know. Don't worry, you will have the whole evening and night to rest. I'll take care of that, promise." Han smiled lopsidedly and was relieved when Luke smiled back.

Dathomir, Singing Mountain Clan, 10 days after the Battle of Ithor

They were definitely challenging her patience now. Mara had understood that they wanted to confirm that she was who she claimed to be. She could also understand that they wanted to search her ship.
But she couldn't understand that they needed two days for this.

Impatiently, she paced her small room, feeling the strong need to beat something or someone. Preferred the leader of the clan, Augwynne. The only fact that prevented Mara from doing just this when Augwynne entered the next time was that the woman was old. Just plain old. And Mara didn't beat old people, children and idiots.

Well, ok, she did occasionally beat idiots if they were named Lando Calrissian, Han Solo or C-3PO. Or if they were imperial or Yuuzhan Vong.
But not old people.

"Master Jade-Skywalker?"

Mara spun around, her hand falling to clutch the handle of her saber, ready to slash at anything daring to intrude into her privacy.
But it was, ironically, only Augwynne, addressing her for the first time with her full title.

"What? Don't tell me you need another day for confirming that the clothes in my cabin are really mine and that it really is me who uses the toothbrush in the fresher." She spat out.

The old woman smirked amused. "Well, actually, I wanted to inform you that we have verified your identity and that we are ready to give in into your request. But if you insist, we could of course..."

"Spare me." Mara mumbled, cursing her own nervousness. If this would go wrong or would let her be only with facts she already knew, then she would have a real problem. And she had had, the Force knew, more than enough problems in the past.

"Well, of course. If you would follow me, please" Augwynne mock-smiled and gestured Mara to go before her.

"It is really heart-wrenching how much you trust me." Mara growled

"Your lightsaber, please." The old clan-leader held her hand out.

Mara snorted, but handed it over without protest.

Then she followed the older woman through the fortress and over uncountable stairs. Slowly, Mara was getting not only annoyed but also tired. As much as she tried to ignore her illness, in moments like this one, it was hard to forget it.
When they arrived at a wooden door with wonderful, artistic carvings, Mara panted and felt slightly dizzy.

Augwynne seemed to not remark it, or at least she pretended to, when she opened the door and pushed Mara into the semi-lit room behind.

An old woman sat on a bed of the same wood as the door, protected by animal skins and fur rugs. Her white hair was incredibly thin and almost non-existent and her wrinkled skin covered with dark age specks. Nonetheless, when Mara approached the bed, the old one stared straight at her and a smile spread over her face.
"Mara Jade! How nice from you to visit old Rell!" her voice was high-pitched and raspy and her following laugh sounded slightly asthmatic.

"You are Mother Rell?" Mara asked dumbfounded.

"That's me, my dear. What can I do for you? How's your dear husband? He's such a nice, young man." Rell slowly crawled to the edge of the bed where Mara had sunk on the mattress.

Luke had told her that Rell was old, but somehow he had forgotten to mention that she was a living mummy.

The old woman giggled again. "Oh well, I'm not that old, you know. Yoda is much, much older and he's still healthy as ever." She giggled again.

And slightly crazy, Mara added in her thoughts.

"Everyone is slightly crazy, my dear. So, how is young Luke Skywalker? I don't know, I don't think he was here lately." These old eyes went unfocused and a trembling hand padded Mara's forearm.

"He is... he is well." Mara stammered, still slightly shocked. She hadn't quite expected this.
She had wanted to talk with a wise, old woman, similar to Yoda, with the connection to a people living in tune with nature.
The quite opposite of what the doctors on Coruscant embodied. But everything she found now was an irritated, old woman.

"Oh... that's good, very good. I thought he was pretty ill, you know. I felt it. The poor boy. But if you say he is well..." the voice died away and again Mara's forearm was padded. But Mara didn't really pay attention to this.

Luke had told Mara that this woman could see into the future or the past - that she was very strong in the Force, so strong, that the Force itself didn't want her to die.
Could it be that what Rell felt was true? That Luke was ill?
No. No, Luke was strong. He would be ok. He would be fine.

"So, Mara, I think you have come here to ask me for something." Rell cooed, still smiling knowingly.

Mara stared at her, surprised again. "Well, actually, I want your help. I'm..."

"You're ill. I have felt it the moment you came here." Rell mumbled.

A slight twinge of hope built up in Mara's heart.

"Yes--- yes, I'm ill. And the doctors..."

"Can't tell what you have. But of course they can't. How could they?" Rell continued in a low voice.

"What? What do you mean??" Mara's voice now trembled, as well as her hands. This woman knew something. She knew something.

"Because what you have is no virus and no bacteria...it's a plant... it's something coming out of nature..." Rell's hand wandered over Mara's body, her wrinkled face even more lined in intense concentration.

Mara held her breath... that was more than anyone on Coruscant had been able to tell her.

"Then...then you know a cure?" she asked, croaked actually.

Rell smiled sadly: "No, my dear. The only one who knows a cure is you." She padded Mara once again, then turned and looked out the window.

After some minutes, Mara recognised that Rell had again vanished into her state of oblivion. A huge lump in her throat, Mara rose and went to the door, the strong sense of defeat and disappointment resting in her gut.

"Greetings to young Luke. He is a nice boy..." Rell whispered before Mara went out.

Out in the corridor, Augwynne was waiting for her. With surprising gentleness, the older woman lay an arm around Mara's waist and guided her in the direction of the fortress's great chamber.

"Did it not go well?" she asked lowly.

"I... I don't know. She told me it... my illness... was something natural... but that only I know a cure for it..."

Augwynne gently pushed her onto a seat and gestured to one of the male slaves to bring something to eat and to drink.

"Mother Rell often speaks in riddles, Mara Jade-Skywalker. But it seems to me that if you're illness is natural, then the cure for it will also be natural."

Mara smiled sardonically. "But that doesn't tell me what the cure actually is."

"But it gives us a hint where to seek for it." The clan leader smiled and pressed a hot cup into Mara's hands.

The Jedi woman stared at her in utter surprise: "You... you wanna help me?"

"Of course. Luke Skywalker and his friends saved our planet a long time ago. And now we would be glad to repay this debt in saving what's dearest to him."

Mara couldn't restrain her tears anymore. She leaned willingly into Augwynne's embrace and sobbed, filled half with dread, half with new hope.

Coruscant, Senate's Chambers, 11 days after the Battle of Ithor

"And there's certainly no alternative?" Leia whispered uncomfortably in Mon Mothma's direction. They stood just outside the micro range of the speaker's podium in the senate.

Leia had taken on an exact copy of her old senator's dress, knowing that this awoke dear and fond memories of old times in many of the senator's old enough to have lived through the civil war and the downfall of the Old Republic.

"Actually, the senate has one alternative available." Mon Mothma muttered, pushing a strand of brown hair out of Leia's face.

The still very young looking alderaanian princess smiled relieved, but her smile froze when Mon Mothma told her what alternative this was.

"Luke?? That's impossible!!!!!!" Leia exclaimed almost too loud.

Mon Mothma, surprised, raised an eyebrow: "Now, now, Leia, you know perfectly well that it would be possible. He has talents in this direction, he only did never want to exercise them."

"Yes... but Fey'lya has sent me a message stating that he was glad that Luke hadn't been proposed..."

"I lied to him." Mon Mothma admitted.
"I didn't want to discuss this topic with him and he would have begun a discussion, you know that as well as I do."

Leia nodded.

"So, should I ask the senate to sent a message to Luke? You could talk about it, you two, privately."

"No... no, Luke mustn't get word about this. He is... he couldn't become President anyways." Leia muttered, still seeming to be shocked.

"By the Force, Leia, why? You didn't even ask him!"

"Mon Mothma, Luke is... he is ... he had a nervous breakdown." Leia muttered, looking around for making sure that noone was around who could have overheard that.

The former president became pale. "What?? Why??"

"I can't explain that to you now. Later perhaps, but not now. Now I have to accept the election."

Mon Mothma just nodded.

Coruscant, the President's Chambers, 1 and a half hour later

"I don't quite know if I want to hear what they have to say." Mon Mothma murmured, staring at the strange, small creature a senate servant had brought in.

They had been amidst Leia's speech when surprisingly, a droid had brought in this creature and told them that it had been given to a patrol at the outer fringes of the system.

"We have no other choice. Fortunately, the both of us are the only ones who will hear this... for now."

Mon Mothma nodded and Leia hesitantly stroked the animal. Luke had told her that it reacted on such gentle caresses. If it were a little more beautiful, Leia would have taken it for a little pet.

Soon, the face of a heavily distorted Yuuzhan Vong formed itself and began to speak.

"I greet the leader of the New Republic. I am Tsavong Lah, Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong and speak to you as a reaction on the battle above the planet your people call Ithor.
While most of your people don't seem to have any honor, we Yuuzhan Vong hold honor as a treasure and aren't afraid to admit when we are subdued.
Both our people have two possibilities. To fight till one of us is extinguished - and believe me, we would do this, too -- or to find an agreement which both of us can accept.
Thus, I'm offering you peace talks. If you accept, tap this villip twice. We will then meet in two weeks according to your time units. We will arrive at the outer fringes of the system you call Coruscant in one single vessel. This vessel will be armed, but we will not attack as long as we aren't attacked.
We will accept a delegation of your people to come aboard - seven beings, to speak exactly. Except of you, we only have a request for one further member.
The man who destroyed our fleet at Ithor. We want to meet him. We won't begin negotiations unless he is part of this delegation.
That will be our only offer for peace. If you are wise, you take it."

The face vanished and left only the small animal sitting on Leia's desk.
The princess's brown eyes were wide with surprise, but one look into Mon Mothma's eyes confirmed her own decision.

"We have no other choice." Mothma whispered.

"No - and it could be the beginning of respect and knowledge exchange... and their wisdom could be a treasure for us."
Leia breathed deeply, extended her hand, hesitated... - then patted the villip two times.

Jedi Dawn - Part 6
Ithor, 1 and a half week after the Vongs' offer for peace talks

Han Solo peered out of the tent that embodied the headquarters of rebuilding unit number 10 on Ithor.

In the past weeks, he had seen a fair share of these tents, each exactly alike except for the number painted in black between the oversized emblems of the New Republic.
Eager to help with the rescue and rebuilding actions, to soothe his conscious for not being there when the real fighting was going on, Han travelled every three days to another of the numerous rebuilding units, coordinating, helping, encouraging. Or rather, helping his brother-in-law doing this.

Luke had, from the beginning, practically taken the lead in the rebuilding efforts on Ithor and had worked out a remarkably well functioning system, based on exactly 39 rebuilding groups, each one with the reinforcement of a Jedi Knight or Apprentice.
Luke himself travelled in a three-day-cycle from unit to unit, coordinating, helping and doing everything he could do undo the damaging the planet had suffered.

Additionally, he also took often care of civilians searching for lost family members or the like, untiredly searching data banks or hopping in his X-Wing or, mostly, in the Falcon from herdship to herdship to find them.

And with every day Luke buried himself in his work, Han worried more about him.
The Corellian sighed and peered again out of the tent. Rebuilding unit number 10 was under his son's Jacen's command and was busy resettling plants and animals in the forests again, to repair buried or brandished sections. Luke, for his part, was sitting for three hours now before a couple of newly planted Baffor trees, eyes closed, legs crossed and obviously deep in a Jedi trance.

As Jacen had put it, Luke was actually TALKING with the trees, trying to help them to come to terms with a totally new environment. Almost tenderly, Luke had helped partially substituting the plasma-burned soil with new, furtive one and had then further helped to insert the trees.

Of course Han didn't think that to be wrong, helping with the rebuilding ops and all, but when he took just one single look at Luke, the fear crept into his stomach that Luke was close to another breakdown - a breakdown which could prove disproportionally more damaging than the first one had been.

Luke was deathly pale and had lost an considerable amount of weight - it took all patience Han could afford to really get Luke to eat more than just the military ration bars which were ever-present these days in the camps.

And it was more than obvious that Luke had just one cause to bury himself with THAT much work - he didn't need to think about what had happened before that.
He hadn't to think about Mara then.

Han allowed himself no illusions about Luke's condition. Although his body seemed to deal relatively well with his current straining actions, his mental condition worsened steadily.
When they were alone, in the Falcon or in the quarters on Tafanda Bay, Luke was very quiet and withdrawn - but at the same time, he searched Han's closeness. There was no way leaving him alone with nothing to do. As Han had already experienced, that left Luke deeply irritated - and who could blame him?

First left by Callista, then by Mara - the kid slowly but steadily built up a downright panic for being left again. That Leia was over a week overdue to return from Coruscant didn't make matters better.
Luke missed her terribly and although Han's presence helped him to hold together, the mind connection with his sister lacked obviously. Luke's thoughts were an almost complete secret to Han, except the few Luke shared from time to time with him.

The regular nightmares didn't help Luke either to get his mental stability back and Han was almost to the point of forcing Luke to take a sedative before going to bed in the evening.
It couldn't be healthy to work that much and not sleep properly. And Luke's health condition was, even if relatively firm at the moment, just too fragile to challenge it that way.

But now, Leia had called. The news weren't particularly thrilling and as far as Han was concerned, there was nothing Luke could need less right now than what Leia had proposed, but it would help the kid to know that Leia hadn't forgotten about him.
But at the other hand, that she hadn't even had time to talk with him in person would hurt him, no doubt about that.
Han sighed lowly, left the tent and approached his brother-in-law.

"Hey, kid, wake up. There are some news for you." He called over to the inert figure sitting in front of the trees.
Luke twitched shortly, then opened his eyes, rose and came over to Han.

"Hi, Han. What is it?"
Carefully eyeing Luke, noting the paleness, the dark circles under his eyes and the general, gloomy expression, Han cleared his throat.
"Leia has called just minutes ago."

Luke's face lit up, the eagerness in his eyes was almost heart-wrenching. Han knew perfectly well, although Luke had done it in secret, that the kid had more than once tried to reach Leia over hypercom - always as late as he could, so that the chances would be high that Leia was at home.

The connection had never been established, due to all possible failures on the way, and the totally devastated look in Luke's eyes had left Han swallowing hard - every evening.
But he had never gone up to him to soothe him. Luke obviously didn't want him to know exactly how much he missed Leia and Han would not intrude into his privacy more than he had accidentally already done.

"Good. I can tell her how much progress we have already made. And I'm almost done locating these two missing children, I'm sure the two holos I found yesterday night are the two girls...."

"Luke, you won't be able to talk to her. She had to attend a meeting or something again and I shall only tell you what she said."

Luke winced, smiled unconvincingly, his eyes darting around - his left hand twitched, as well as his cheek.
Han had occasionally seen this in the first days after Luke's breakdown, but now it seemed to have become a habit - a habit indicating that something had hurt Luke.

The self-composure Han had often admired, and sometimes almost hated, was wearing down and when alone or only with Han, Luke didn't bother maintaining it at all.

"Well, what did she want?" he asked, finally looking Han straight into the eyes, bravely trying to surpress whatever wanted to come out.

"Actually quite a thing. The Yuuzhan Vong have offered peace talks. They want to meet with her and a delegation in four days at the outer fringes of the Coruscant system."

Luke gaped at him, as surprised as Han had been when he had first heard Leia say these words.
"That's surprising. Has she accepted?"

Han nodded: "She has. And she has agreed to meet with them on their ship."

"What?! She can't do that! Who knows what they really have in mind. She can't go alone to them." Luke exclaimed, his worry for any of his family members increased after Mara's vanishing.

And he voiced exactly the thoughts Han had about this plan.
"My words, Junior. But she has set her mind and you know how your sister is when she's decided something. But you play a role in this, too."

Luke perched an eyebrow, eyeing Han curiously - but still, this sparkling in his eyes, the sign that he was mentally alive was almost gone. Luke was there, but Han had the terrible feeling that only a minimal catastrophe was needed to push him away from them entirely.

"Me? I'm not part of the government, nor the military. I've got nothing to do with this." Luke said.

"True. But you have destroyed their fleet."

Luke winced and shuddered almost visibly.

"They want to meet you - the great warrior who destroyed them single-handedly, Leia has said. They said they won't begin negotiations unless you're there, representing the NR military and the Jedi Knights."

Luke paled a little bit more: "I can't represent the military. I have no ranks - I have no political rights at all."

"You'll be given the rank of official Ambassador. At least Leia said they would find a way to give you this rank. Nothing but a little bit rank-pulling, I suppose." Han grinned half-heartedly.
He was not overjoyed with this. The worst that could happen to Luke was a confrontation with some guys of a race of which he had killed thousands of beings.
And then all the work, and the mental pressure of having to succeed - really not at all ideal for a mentally totally drained and hurt person to regain his mental stability.

Luke grinned back - again his hand twitched. Han frowned. He was worried about that - Luke lost control, slowly, but more and more. What the kid needed was a vacation - perhaps even just plain sleep.

"Well, then I'd say we should be on our way to Coruscant as soon as possible." Luke murmured, letting his gaze wander around the camp.
Without doubt, he was imaging all the similar camps and the refugees and homeless people waiting there for him to appear.
The word that Jedi Master Skywalker in person did everything to find dislocated or missing people had spread like a firebrand and everyone tried to get his attention.
And Luke, eager to do anything in order to forget about Mara, did everyone a favour. Just everyone.

"Yeah. I already sent word to Tafanda Bay. They're fuelling the Falcon as we speak. And, kid, don't worry about the camps. Anakin, Jacen and Jaina will take care of them.
And if it comes down to total chaos, Corran and Kyp are there, too. They will do without you for some time."

Luke nodded, obviously not at all convinced - but what possibilities did he actually have?

Three hours later, Han sent the Falcon into hyperspace. Swivelling his chair around to ask Luke something, he smiled somewhat sadly.
Luke had fallen deeply asleep in the seat behind Han.

Dathomir, Singing Mountain Clan, Same Time

"You know, if you'd adopt the concept of money, you could just buy leather. You wouldn't have to drag out stupid worms to make your clothes." Mara growled, gazing with disgust at the brown soup gathered into a small pitch in the ground.
The man sitting in front of the pitch stared back at her blankly, clearly not able to understand her language.

Augwynne smiled: "We have no use for money, Mara. Why should we begin to use it now? We have what we need. Besides, what should the men do if not doing such things? They'd get bored - and bored man are even more of a nuisance than they're when they're not bored."

Mara perched an eyebrow, but smiled back: "You know, Augwynne, sometimes, only sometimes, I like the way you're handling men."

The old witch grinned: "I understand that the relationship between you and Luke Skywalker is not a similar one."

Mara's face darkened and a slightly melancholic smile crept into her features: "No, not all."

"You're thinking much at him, aren't you?" Augwynne asked, a compassionate tone creeping into her voice.

Mara nodded: "I left without a trace and... well, let's say I was rather... unfair with what I said to him. I'm feeling guilty. He hasn't deserved that."

The older woman nodded: "That is true and you obviously have made a fault. But I'd say it would be more productive if you take care of each problem step by step. First your illness, then your marriage."

Mara sighed: "You know, it sounds good, but it's pretty hard to actually do it. Rell made this remark about him - I don't even know whether he has survived the battle."

"But you said your bond is so strong that you would feel if anything happened to him."

"True. But if you have cut the bond, then you have to accept certain... communication inconveniences". She huffed, nervously fumbling her lightsaber.

"Oh..." Augwynne made, clearly not being able to imagine how it felt to cut a Force connection.

"Well, yeah, but done is done. And, to come back to my illness, I'm feeling much better since I'm here. The work I help you doing here seems to make me stronger... I don't really now how it works, but when I'm working in the nature, I'm actually feeling quite a bit stronger than usual."

"Then perhaps you'd like to accompany a hunting party tomorrow?? They're going out to catch a few wild Rancors. We need new blood in our tribe, you know."

Mara bit her lower lip, then nodded slowly. "You know, I think I'd like that."

Augwynne smiled knowingly: "Somehow, I knew that you'd say that. And I think you will perhaps find more solace in this than you can think."

The quizzical look in Mara's eyes let Augwynne laugh lowly.

Coruscant, 1 day later

It was, Leia mused, always strange to see old friends again after years of silence.
Teneniel Djo, now Queenmother of the Hapes Cluster, looked as young, beautiful and strong as she had so many years ago - only in her eyes one could see the maturity her position had given to her.

"President Organa-Solo. Please to meet you."

"My pleasure, Your Excellence. May I come straight to business."

Teneniel smiled and nodded. She understood that private chit-chat had to be pushed back.
"What can I do for you, Princess."

"Simple. I know you've notice the war against the Yuuzhan Vong and I know your fleet has been offering to join for some days now.
What you don't know is that we have got a peace offering from the Vong. A nice, little offering which will be due in two days.
I would very much ask you to come to Coruscant and attend this meeting with me.
The delegation will consist of seven members. Myself, my husband Han Solo, Admiral Traest Kre'fey, Admiral Gilead Pellaeon, hopefully you, Wedge Antilles and my brother, Luke Skywalker."

Leia frowned when she saw the short glittering in Teneniel's eyes when she mentioned Luke's name.
"Of course. I'll can be right there. But I'm afraid my husband won't be able to accompany me. He's currently on a voyage throughout our cluster."

"He is not needed, Your Highness. I await you then."

"Wonderful." Teneniel paused, then cleared her pause. "Um, Leia... how is Luke? I felt... something odd what I think came from him."

Leia blanched slightly. Even Teneniel had felt his breakdown.
"He is fine" she made eye contact with the other woman, clearly indicating that these were matters to be discussed in private surroundings.

Teneniel nodded: "Good. We're seeing each other soon then." She bowed slightly, smiled friendly, then cut the connection.

Yuuzhan Vong Ship Hijua, Deep Space

"Peace Negotiations!!!" Denj Idao cursed. "Peace negotiations with the Infidels!!! What, by Yun-Yammka, has gotten into Lah?!"

"I really don't know, but I felt I had to contact and inform you of this, Admiral. I considered it my duty."

"Well done, my child, well done. I appreciate it, believe me. Obviously you know me very well - at least well enough that you know I won't accept this." Idao hissed.

"Even if the Warmaster orders it?" the daring voice asked curiously - waiting for something, clearly.

Denj Idao paused, thinking a while, then, setting his jaw firm, he met the gaze on the villip with an equally fiery one.
"If Warmaster Tsavong Lah decides to negotiate with the infidels, the I consider himself to be an infidel.
And thus I'm not under his command anymore."

"And your fleet?" the dark contentment of the almost hypnotising voice coming through the villip was not to overhear.

"My fleet is loyal to me. Completely." Idao assured instantly.

"Perfect." The voice purred. "So I can be sure that you're on MY side, Admiral Idao?"

"Absolutely. Count on me. We won't accept the infidels as equals. Never. When will we meet in person."

"I will inform you as soon as I've found a suitable place. And until then.... Feel free to take your revenge for Ithor on any infidel ship you encounter."

Idao smiled: "Although I normally don't take orders from someone as you, I have to say that they're in this case too good to be ignored. I will impatiently await your next communication."

He patted his villip shortly and the face of his counterpart disappeared.

Yuuzhan Vong Ship Criarto, On Its Way To Coruscant

Priestess Elan gracefully stretched into her yorik-coral chair and smiled at her image in the polished mirror in front of her desk.

Her exquisitely raptor-like shaped teeth looked as menacing as she liked it. "Now, Tsavong Lah, you'll soon see what you have brought upon you by making ME your enemy."

Carefully, she lifted the villip from her desk, put it into its normal sleeping place and stroked it, still smiling to herself, till it feel into a slumber.

Jedi Dawn - Part 7

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, 1 Day before the peace talks shall begin

Leia Organa-Solo took a deep breath and straightened her non-committal senator's gown. It consisted of a simple robe of deep red colour, underlining her hair that she had left hanging down to her waist. Only at her temples, she wore two thin, long braids.

"The Queen's Pride should come into sight any minute now, Your Excellency." 3PO's voice sounded shrill and somewhat distant over the hauling of the wind.

The docking bay Leia had assigned to Teneniel Djo's transport was the very highest there were in the Imperial Palace and was highly guarded. Although noone really expected any Peace Brigade actions on Coruscant, Leia was not ready to take any chances.

And, judging the fifty-six ship strong fleet the Queenmother had brought with her, Teneniel obviously had the same thoughts as Leia.

While the sleek transport made its landing, Leia's thoughts drifted back to the events during which she had first met Teneniel Djo.

It seemed to have been an eternity ago - and although she had never been particularly befriended with the Dathomirian woman, Leia awaited their reunion eagerly.

After all, it was a part of her past that was obviously still the same. The Hapan cluster had not been afflicted yet by the Yuuzhan Vong conquest, but the numerous worlds seemed to be aware that their wealth in any matter was a strong incentive for the alien species to lay their eyes on this star cluster.
Thinking at Teneniel also brought dear remembrances of Han with it. After Dathomir, they had married - the adventure on this wild planet had actually been a proposing in Han Solo's own way. Chaotic, unplanned, but certainly appealing - if you lived through it, that is.

Leia smiled. Han had in everything he did a very unique way... and grieving about Chewbacca's death was no exception.

But when they had met above Ithor, Leia had felt the wall that had built up between them shatter a little bit. When she had seen how Han had cared for Luke, with so much friendship and love in every gesture, she had seen that the Han she had known for so long, the Han prior to Chewie's death, was still there.
And perhaps closer to resurfacing than she had thought. She would certainly be lucky to forget all the nasty things that he had said to her - and Leia admitted that she hadn't been decent either, if they once again had engaged in fierce arguments.

And now Han was on his way to Coruscant. He was supposed to arrive in the evening - just in time to be briefed about what he had to do.

And he would bring Luke along with him. Leia sighed inwardly. Luke was a problem that couldn't be solved with diplomatic talks, tactical or fighting skills.

Luke needed entirely other things to heal. And Leia was afraid that she, although she loved him with all her heart, wouldn't be able to let him recover totally from what he had been through - again.
The hissing of steam let Leia bring her head up. Deep in her musings, she had entirely missed the transport finishing its landing. The opening hatch popped open and the ramp was brought down.
Clad in a simple nightblue gown and wide trousers of the same colour, her hair complicatedly braided and brought up around her head, Teneniel Djo offered a stunning appearance.

With a quick flash of jealousy Leia wondered how the woman had managed to defy time. There was no grey hair to be spotted, same for wrinkles.

Then Leia chided herself. It was certainly not the time to pay any attention to such things.
With a genuine smile, the two women met on the roof and embraced each other.
"It's good to see you again, Leia. I was worried. The news we got on Hapan weren't particularly encouraging concerning you and your immediate family."

Teneniel smiled genuinely, eyeing her with friendly curiosity.

Leia smiled back: "Things have changed rather fast, Teneniel. Neither I nor the Jedi had a good stand before Ithor, you know. In this regard, this battle has done us good, as much as I wished it hadn't happened."

Teneniel nodded: "I understand. But certain things are necessary, Leia. If it hadn't been for the battle and your role in it, then this fluffy excuse of a President would still be in power - and Force knows what he would have made out of the New Republic."

Leia nodded: "I know. But it doesn't make me feel any better about what happened above Ithor. Though, we should talk about the immediate future." Teneniel nodded, then frowned when two black-clad, rather small figures attached themselves behind them.

"My bodyguards - they are Noghri. I'll introduce you to them later." "Fine. Now tell me what I'm supposed to do here." "Sure. If you'd follow me. I think we should discuss this in my rooms - out of the danger of being eavesdropped."

Ten minutes later, they had settled into comfortable chairs in the President's office and sipped at their cooled R'alla mineral waters. The integrated window-holofields gave a stunning view of a Bespin dawn.
"Ok, Leia, now we talk business. You know that the Hapan Consortium would have joined this war. I have offered that some weeks ago. I expected I and my planets would be welcome, but I didn't expect I'd be part of some delegation like this." The dathomirian witch folded her legs and pierced Leia with a cool, intelligent stare.

Teneniel had never been a dumb woman, but since she had left Dathomir and married Prince Isolder of Hapan, she had developed into a woman to be taken very seriously. Certainly, the common intrigues in the Hapan royal house played a role in this metamorphosis, too.

"Oh, if we had gotten this peace offering some time ago, say a month or two, you certainly wouldn't have been asked. Not by Fey'lya and not by me. But to speak frankly, Teneniel, I want your fire power in my back in case the Yuuzhan Vong play false."

Teneniel grinned: "I take it I have not exaggerated in bringing a fleet of this size with me?" The alderaanian princess smiled: "Certainly not. I very much appreciate it. To be honest, the New Republic Fleet is in quite a shortage by now. We have lost many ships and even more good men and women over Ithor and I feel a lot more save imagining your ships at my side when I engage with the Yuuzhan Vong."
"But they HAVE said, that they only bring one ship, haven't they?"

"They have indeed. But then, they also promised to leave Ithor alone if Corran takes the better of Shedao Shai. I suppose that says what I think of Yuuzhan Vong promises."

Teneniel frowned: "I think my sources weren't so reliable as I thought. Corran Horn had an agreement with ... this Vong??"

"Yeah. But don't worry about your not knowing this. I have arranged for a briefing this evening where the whole delegation will meet and we will again review all informations available of the Yuuzhan Vong."
"Fine. Then we can come to more personal matters now."

Leia's eyes darkened: "You talking about Luke?" Teneniel nodded: "You bet I do. What I felt, Leia, scared me. And I want to know what happened."

The Chief-of-State sighed: "You know, I can't tell you much. This is very personal and you have to ask Luke if you want to know more. But I can give you a general overview."
The hapan queen nodded: "That'll do."

Coruscant, an abandoned skyscraper, the same day

Lieutenant Kume Doknu, a Grannan, felt sweat trickle down his spine. When he had heard the news about Ithor, some weeks ago, he had not been able to do anything but gape at the subordinate bringing him the report.

And since this very moment, he had been wondering if he had chosen the wrong side all along the last year.

If the Jedi, Skywalker, was able to overthrow the Vong, to actually safe the galaxy from them, then he had been fighting the whole time against the very order and its leader who had been the saviour of his people.

Unfortunately, that had become clear to him only now - as well as in what mess he was in.
True, the Yuuzhan Vong had offered peace talks. The galaxy was relieved, the Peace Brigade was relieved - and officially didn't exist anymore. The respective Yuuzhan Vong anchormen and leaders who had lead the single Peace Brigade teams had just broke contact and ignored them.

So one could muse that it was simply bad luck that Kume Doknu and its men had been assigned to Admiral Denj Idao when they joined the Brigade.

The face of the Admiral, distorted in the common way and with the scars in the form of the signs of domain Idao on his forehead, he was certainly not in a good mood - and Doknu could not remember that he had ever been.

"But, Sir, I thought the Yuuzhan Vong had declared a ceasing of battle until the outcome of the negotiations is clear." He rasped, suddenly feeling very out of place here.

"Infidel, you're not to question my authority. I have sent you and your fellow vermin to Coruscant to give me information, not voice stupid questions. So, do you have my information?"

Doknu paled slightly. If he played this wrong, Idao would have him sacrificed or simply killed in a matter of hours.

And the few information he had been able to gather would not be enough to satisfy the Vong Admiral, that much was clear.

"Unfortunately, we could only come up with the information that Luke Skywalker is expected to arrive on Coruscant in time to attend the negotiations with his sister, Organa-Solo."

As he had foreseen, the expression of the Yuuzhan Vong became even more grim: "I already knew that, infidel. I wanted to know when, on which ship and on which vector he would. And how much time I have before the Warmaster arrives. I take it you're not able to provide me this information?"

Doknu swallowed. That was it. "No, Admiral, I'm sorry. We couldn't get a hold of these details. Security has been increased ten-folds since Organa-Solo has become president again."

Expecting to be sentenced to death, Doknu braced himself and began to think of a way to get out of the Admiral's control, when he was another time surprised by the Vong.

With a grunt, the villip before him collapsed into its natural form and the Admiral was gone.
Well..., that hadn't been so bad, hadn't it?? Nonetheless, Kume Doknu's legs felt like jelly when he left his shelter to meet up with the fellow members of his team. To talk about the return to where they originally belonged to - before Idao could do anything about that.

Vong Ship Criarto, still on its way, Elan's chambers

Elan furiously hissed at the head of Denj Idao projected by her personal villip.

"What you did was not only totally useless, you also risked our very cause, Admiral."

"Measure your tone, Priestess. Have I really to remind you that you are in NO position whatsoever to speak with me in this way?" the older Yuuzhan Vong growled.

Elan snorted: "I don't care a damutek's spit in which caste you are and which rank you have. You endangered our mission in the command of glorious Yun-Yuuzhan. And you know perfectly well that I could always mention your not obeying to orders to Tsavong Lah."

Idao's eyes narrowed to slits: "Don't try to threaten me, Priestess. My sympathies have never been with you and your sect, you know that. The circumstances are everything binding us together. And there is NO cause for me to not dispose of you and please Yun-Yuuzhan on my own."

"There is a cause, Admiral. Without me, you would achieve nothing. With me, you could achieve everything. The Warmaster doesn't even suspect me to be in contact with you. He won't suspect me to be in contact with the forming resistance against him either.

So I'll be your only source for reliable information - and I am the only one who can act directly against Lah. You need me and you know it." She grinned predatorily and relished in her victory. Warriors. If it hadn't to do with weapons, they were just as intelligent as a villip - or even less, if Idao was any example to go for
The Admiral clenched his teeth and Elan could see how much it cost him to remain even. Well, he would have to.

"Well, for this time, you're right. So what is it you want me to do?" he asked, his voice husky with barely controlled frenzy.

"Simple. Leave Luke Skywalker alone. I have my own plans for him. And none aspect of them involves you."

"But?" now the voice was just about audible and decidedly ready for attack. Stupid things, these warriors.

"This is not of your concern. Do what you're best at and leave the thinking to me. Fight and kill. But only if I tell you to. As soon as we have arrived above Coruscant, I'll send you a courier with the coordinates of our future meeting place. Until then, find yourself some hiding place."

With this, she patted the villip and the face of Idao vanished before he could answer her.
This stupid admiral would probably become a nuisance some time... hopefully, Elan would find a respectable replacement in his fleet. But at the moment, she had no time whatsoever to occupy herself with him.

She had indeed plans. And these plans called for another contact, another truce to establish.
She called for her aide, not bothering that the young female learned of what was going on. She was her cr?e-sister and would never turn into a traitor to Elan.

"See that you find me a possibility to contact the villip of Meezhan Kwad. And find it soon. I have a most interesting task for her. Tell her only so much."

Millenium Falcon, on its way to Coruscant

"Han, when exactly did you replace this couplings the last time?" Luke's voice sounded dull from the lounge. Han, sitting in the pilot's chair and trying to persuade the artificial gravity to pop back on, grinned somewhat embarrassed.

"Well, you really want to know??"

"No. No, I guess I don't want to know." Luke's voice sounded clear behind him and Han turned just in time to see the Jedi Master push his way towards the copilot seat.

Some black blotches of lubricant were neatly spread across his face and his robe was splattered grey with dust.

"You need to clean your maintenance tunnels, Han, or I will never ever set a foot in them again. I probably got a dust lung out of this." The kid grumbled, rubbing frantically and uselessly on another blotch on his right hand.

Han grinned: "Ah, you've been through worse things, Junior. Anyway, you think I can try it?"
Luke grimaced: "Sure. The gravity will be ok again, but I can't guarantee for anything else. You sure know that the usefulness of a colour code is in vain if you use the same colour for three different systems, don't you?"

Han pushed a few buttons and levers and with an unpleasant, nauseating feeling, the artificial gravity readjusted itself.

"Actually, Luke, these couplings haven't the same colour at all."

Luke abandoned the blotch on his hand and stared Han straight in the eyes: "Han, they're all green."
"Not if you are a Verpine."

The blue eyes in front of him widened: "Why, for Force's sake, did you ever buy a Verpine coded..."
Han waved the coming argument away: "Ah well, I was short of couplings and that were the only ones I could get. And I thought the colour was nice - well, at least the one I could see."

Luke sighed: "I will never fully understand how the Falcon actually flies. You have cobbled together parts of every sort of ship, haven't you?"

"Almost. You think a villip would look better than the communication unit?" Han smirked and checked the nav computer. Three hours to go, then they'd arrive on Coruscant.

Luke snorted and refused to comment that in any way.

"Three hours, kid, and we'll arrive. You should take the time to clean yourself a little bit. You look like a real mess."

Han laughed at the furious stare Luke shot him: "Han, you've consumed our entire water supply for making a stew which got us sick for hours. How exactly am I supposed to clean up?"

"Take something of the maintenance bay. These lubricants will stand ordinary water, anyways."
"I really missed travelling with you, you know. My life was so... pleasant, it almost wasn't bearable." Luke growled and rose to make his way to the maintenance hatches again.

"Oh, I know, Luke." Then Han became serious and added: "I missed that, too, Luke."
The Jedi stopped dead-track and stared for a moment at him, suspicion evident in his eyes. But when he saw it wasn't a joke, his features relaxed. "Thanks, Han." He smiled and left.

"Well, anytime." Han said, forcing the lump in his throat back. How he hated it to get all touchy...
Coruscant, Imperial Palace, Military Briefing Room 20, 7 hours later

"Well, that's pretty much what we know about them." Belindi Kalenda finished her report and warily eyed her listeners. She had never spoken before an assemblance of such galactic history and was utterly surprised that she actually had gotten along with it without stammering once.

Directly in front of her, Admirals Kre'fey and Pellaeon were sitting, two beings she more or less knew. Behind them, President Princess Leia Organa Solo was sitting, another familiar figure which hadn't changed much except some slight wrinkles at her eyes. Next to the President sat Queenmother Teneniel Djo from Hapan, very attractive in a darkbrown combination clearly not in the usual wardrobe of a queen. Behind the women sat Wedge Antilles, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, which had been, except of the Admirals, the toughest listeners she had ever had.

But now she was through and she was proud of it. "Any questions?" she asked, her throat feeling strained after almost three hours of continuous speaking.

"No. But it worries me that we know more about their... ships, than we do about their people." The president said, frowning slightly at the last hologram, showing one of the captured coralskippers.
"That will make the negotiations tricky." Kre'fey agreed. "And dangerous." Skywalker added. It was the first time he had said a word.

"It will lead to misunderstandings and they could lie to us without us recognising it. We have no way to know whether they're trying to sell us out or something. When they say they need that or that, we'll have to believe it."

"Well, we'll just have to be careful then." Antilles said, scratching his head and looking every bit as uncomfortable as everyone else in the room.

"Very careful." The Chief-of-State reinforced. "And we will not bring any technical weapons with us. No blasters, no vibro-blades."

Skywalker was about to say something, but his sister interrupted him: "You will of course carry your lightsaber, Luke. I think with three lightsabers and three people capable of fighting with them, we will have as much a chance if it comes to fighting their whole ship as if we would have with four additional blasters."

"Probably. Though I don't like it, Leia." Solo growled.

"Believe me, Han, I don't like it myself. Not a bit."

*~~

"Luke? Can I have a word with you?"

Surprised, Luke stopped his way down the corridor towards the lift-tubes and waited for Teneniel to catch up with him. Before him, Wedge and the admirals got into one of the tubes and vanished.
"Sure."

Teneniel reached him and eyed him suspiciously. "You were rather closed up before the meeting. Is that the way you greet old friends??"

Luke looked embarrassed for a second, then embraced her a little bit awkwardly and smiled: "Sorry, Teneniel. I was not in the mood for chattering." He sighed. "Actually, I'm still not. Please pardon me, but I want to get into my bed and sleep a few hours before it comes to business."

Teneniel bit her lip. "I understand that, Luke, but I hoped you would listen to me. It's... personal and I don't have anyone here. Leia is not quite as close to me as you are."

Luke frowned, eyed her more attentively now, then gestured her to follow him. "Alright, then. I won't let you down if you've got problems to talk about."

Her face brightened, then became serious again. "It's not so much the problem itself, but the consequences that bother me." She draw a deep breath, then said firmly. "Isolder and me... well, to speak plainly, we've got problems and we're almost to the point where we rather kill each other than talking like civilised people."

Luke gaped at her rather astonished and it took him some minutes to gather his thoughts.
"Oh... I'm sorry, Teneniel."

She smiled: "Thank you, Luke. Actually, I didn't want to bother you, because I heard you have your own problems, but I had to talk to someone..." When she saw Luke's features darken, she stopped and reached for his hand.

"Now, I'M sorry, Luke. I didn't want to..."

"Don't worry." He cut her off, surprisingly accepting her hand in his. "Not talking about it wouldn't make it better anyway."

"I would listen." She said lowly, catching his gaze and meeting it openly. She gently pressed his hand.
Luke smiled, but shook his head: "No. I appreciate the offer, Teneniel, but that's too personal, even for our friendship. And I've got Han and Leia to talk to if the need should arise." He pressed her hand in response, turned and vanished into the next lift tub.

Teneniel watched him go, slightly irritated, though not about his refusal to talk to her. She had expected this.

What made her wonder was that she obviously had forgotten how mesmerising and beautiful his eyes were - and that she just had remembered again.

Shaking her head, Teneniel decided to take the stairs instead of the lift tube and catch a little bit fresh air before going to bed.
Hi folks!

Jedi Dawn - Part 8

Dathomir, Wilderness

Spitting and coughing, Mara swung her legs around one of the stones at the lake's shore and refused stubbornly to let the stretched rope slid through her fingers.

If this nasty, little beast thought it would get the better of her only because it had been able to drag her into the water, then it would be disappointed.

"Take its feet!!" she shouted over to her companion, coughed once more and tried to make herself as heavy as she could.

The young witch cried a reply in her native tongue, which Mara of course didn't understand, and once again the Jedi cursed the fact that these people didn't learn Basic. How was she supposed to communicate with them?

The rancor around whose neck her rope was bound was just about a grown Wookiee's height and thus was counted as a baby - if Mara had known how big Rancor babies were, she would have refused to go along with this hunting party.

But then, probably that had been the cause that Augwynne hadn't told her about it.

Fortunately, Mara and the young witch had worked out some sort of Force communication code already days ago and the girl managed indeed to swing her rope around the young animal's feet. With an unbelieving howl and another angry pull, it went down into the water.

It struggled a few more moments, then became still when it understood that it only drowned itself with these movements.

Heaving, Mara pulled herself up, bound her end of the rope around the stone and went some steps into the rancor's direction.

"Who's got the better of this now, eh?" she murmured, rubbing her left elbow which had gotten a nasty cut from some sort of shell on the lakes ground.

Splashing behind her let turn her. Her young companion joined her, grinning widely. For the girl, this hunt had been a maturity test and this young rancor would now belong to her.

Although it eluded Mara completely why anyone would want to possess such an ugly, smelling beast. But then, if the girl was happy with it... Mara certainly didn't want to keep this trophy herself.

The young witch with the name Luana blabbered happily while she carefully examined her new pet and tried to calm it down with the Force. Still panting a little, Mara shook her head and padded back on dry land, just in time to greet the rest of the hunting party. Augwynne and three fellow clan sisters had accompanied them to supervise the young girl's maturity test. As it was tradition, Luana had been allowed to choose one capable woman to accompany her.

Force knew why that had been Mara, but, although she had first refused, she had to admit that it had been fun. Although the ache in her arms would probably last a few days longer.

The three witches on the rancors behind Augwynne were unknown to Mara and obviously not too keen to meet her, for they immediately surrounded Luana and began a vivid talk. Probably about how this "baby" could be tamed without killing it.

Only Augwynne remained behind with Mara. "How are you feeling, Mara? If I may say so, you look distinctly better than when you arrived."

Mara stretched her legs, and, while regarding the old woman, tried to untangle the mess that had been her hair only half an hour before.

"Actually, I feel much better than when I came here, Augwynne." At her slightly breeding tone, the clan-leader frowned.

"And that's not a reason to be happy, then?" she asked, sliding down her rancor's site and letting the animal join his fellows in the lake, to inspect the new addition to their tribe.

Mara sighed and let herself sink onto the warmed shore sand. "You know, of course it's wonderful to feel healthy again. But as long as I don't know why, it isn't much of a relief. I haven't any clue how to maintain this state, so how does it help me?"

"I don't know - yet. But we will get to the bottom of this. I promise. The answer has to be very close now. Mother Rell said it is in you."

Mara couldn't help but snort. "Excuse my, Augwynne, but did you ever consider that Rell is wrong? She's not exactly in her best years, you know."

The dathomirian woman smiled: "Once I thought as you do now. But Rell has proven that she's to be taken serious. More than serious. Her visions and forebodings have never been wrong."
"Stars, Augwynne, she believes that Master Yoda is still alive!!!" Mara shouted, jumping to her feet and beginning to pace impatiently along the water.

"She may have her little flaws, Mara Jade-Skywalker, but the Force is speaking through her and that you can't deny." When Mara didn't answer, the voice of the old woman got lower, more gentle.
"I think you're missing someone, Mara, and that's the reason you're so impatient."

Mara stopped and her green gaze nailed Augwynne on the sand: "I never denied to you that I miss Luke. I miss him terribly. And I am angry at myself for leaving the way I did. I want to return to him - but I only can do so if I'm healthy again."

"Really? Why? Do you think your husband would not take you back because you're ill?"
"Of course not." Mara shot back, biting her lip.

"Then what are you afraid of?" Augwynne insisted, never letting herself be intimated by Mara's icy stare.
Not that she maintained it long. With another sigh, Mara turned her eyes skyward. "I don't know, Augwynne. I really don't know. I think I don't want to be a nuisance for him. I think I don't want to deny him the possibility to have a family." Augwynne opened her mouth, but Mara cut her off: "Aw, never mind. Let's talk about something else. Are we finished? Luana has her new pet."

Augwynne shot her a last, questioning stare, then abandoned the topic. "We will continue our voyage to another clan. We will do some trade - it has been set up for weeks. But you can return to the Singing Mountain, if you want to."

Mara thought about that some moments, then shook her head: "No. No, I'm feeling perfect - except that I am wet through to my bones. I think I want to accompany you. After all, it's more interesting than sitting all day in my chamber. And somehow it feels right to be out here." She added thoughtfully, gazing out over the mesa with its plants, avians and some big mammals drinking farther away down the river.
Augwynne smiled, but did not reply.

*~~

Mara sighed in her sleep. At the fringes of her consciousness, she heard the deep breathing of the sleeping rancors and noted the warmth of the burning fire some half a meter beside her.
She knew that she lay there, sleeping and yet awake. It took her some time to recognise this state - it was not like a dream. It was actually a vision.

As soon as she recognised what it really was, she let her barriers fall and embraced it. Although this sort of premonitions were often more unnerving than useful, it could do her no harm to admit it to unfold before her.

And suddenly she found herself on a battle-field. Witches clad in their warrior outfits and the signs of the Singing Mountain Clan on their clothes battled and died around her, fighting against dark, cloaked figures she had never seen before. Fires were burning, rancors were howling and the women were shouting at each other. The Force boiled with dead, violence and despair.

But there was a spot of it that didn't boil, although it was in motion. Compared with the wild waves she felt around her, this seemed more like a shining spot, vibrating with a might she could almost taste. It draw her dream body in a certain direction and for she had no particular need to watch the witches slaughtering each other, Mara followed the low whispering of the Force willingly.

It led her to a precipice, opening into the mesa and revealed to her a sight that let her freeze where she stood.

Some dozens of meters below her, a figure was laying, clad in all too familiar black robes, deathly still.
Although she knew it to be a vision, Mara was running at full throttle toward the figure, sank onto her knees beside it and got a look on its features when the moon came out of some clouds
Her heart began hammering when she recognised the face of her husband, only much younger, covered in bruises, blood trickling from his mouth, his ears and his nose.

The vision was so vivid that Mara felt herself trembling, and she almost cried out when his swollen eyes opened a slit wide and he turned his head.

First she thought he would want to look at her, but only a second later she recognised that this was nonsense. For him she was not there. That had to be the past. She was only a spectator and she would have to watch closely. It was obvious that something wanted to show her an important thing.
But when she saw towards what Luke had turned, she frowned. There was a little lizard, next to Luke's head, sitting there unmoving, head perched toward the deadly injured human.

Luke's lips moved, but he spoke far too low for Mara to catch it. She already wanted to shake herself awake, for not having to see the injured form of her love, when her jaw dropped.

Luke had seemingly slipped again into unconsciousness, but SOMETHING around him was very much active.

It took Mara some time to recognise that the shining, white mist that had appeared and wrapped itself around her future husband had its origin not in the air. It came out of the earth, the soil. When she took a closer look, she could see it even coming out of the lizard, the plants, the stones.
It lasted a small eternity, then the mist disappeared and Luke opened his eyes again. The bruises in his face had diminished a little and it seemed less swollen then before. His breath was much stronger and for a moment, his eyes seemed to look exactly at her.

Nature, his faint voice seemed to whisper, nature has healed me.

She could feel his surprise, his astonishment and wondered whether he really looked at her, whether it was her husband who sent her this vision over all these light-years separating them.

But when Han stamped into her view, she saw that Luke's eyes had been all along hefted on his old friend's figure.

Han talked with some men and they carried Luke away, who had long slipped into a deep sleep again.
She watched until the group disappeared into the night...

Panting, Mara sat straight up on her sleeping rug and stared dubiously around her. The mesa was quiet. When she extended her Force senses, she could find nothing at the least bit dangerous.
Trying to calm herself, she sunk back and stared at the dark night sky, sprinkled with millions of stars.
The message of this vision was clear. But still, Mara couldn't erase the doubt. The disease she had was not natural in her galaxy, but in the Yuuzhan Vong's. At the other side, was there a difference between the nature of her galaxy and this of the Yuuzhan Vong?

In its essence, nature meant nothing other than life. And the Yuuzhan Vong were very much alive. Everything in their culture was alive.

So, was that the solution? Nature? And how was she supposed to get her hands on the might of nature? Luke hadn't done it consciously, that had been clear. He had been almost dead, Force knew who had what done with him. She made a mental note to ask him about it.

Suddenly, it seemed not so improbable that she'd be soon able to return to him.
Still contemplating what had just happened, Mara eased into a deep trance and tried to establish a connection, of which sort ever, with the life around her.

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, Personal Landing Bay of the President

When the lift doors opened before him, Luke took a deep breath and stepped out of the escalator.
He felt tired and not prepared to meet up with the Yuuzhan Vong. Not at all. It surprised him, for that matter, very much that the alien leader had actually demanded him to be present.
Somehow, that seemed curious. After all, it had been Luke who had killed all these Yuuzhan Vong above Ithor. And there was no doubt that Tsavong Lah knew that. So why would he want a potentially dangerous enemy on his ship?

Of course one could never be certain about anything concerning the Yuuzhan Vong. Their culture was an almost complete secret to them and that would probably only change very slowly.
But if he were a Yuuzhan Vong, he'd want to get revenge on the man who had killed thousands of his kin. These thoughts didn't help at all to let him feel better.

He hadn't slept very well. In fact, since Mara had vanished, he had barely slept at all. The nightmares were too painful and a trance was not ordinary sleep. Unfortunately, it was also not as refreshing as ordinary sleep - no matter what he said to Han.

Although Han probably knew that Luke was only pretending - he pretended everything. To be happy, to be interested in what was going on, to be sleeping normally. But Luke was aware that he couldn't lie to Leia and Han. He had never been able to and he would never be. It didn't bother him the least, because they knew that they couldn't make him feel any better. They had helped him out of his depression - partly.

Luke sighed inwardly. He had not much memories of the days after the Battle of Ithor. This time was totally clouded in his head and he didn't feel all too keen to break through the mist and see how he had been directly after his breakdown.

It embarrassed him that all that had gone that much to his core, but then, it concerned Mara. And Mara was so much a part of himself that it was only natural that it hurt so much to loose her.
No matter how hard he tried, how far he reached, he couldn't find her presence. That was the only memory he had. Searching, crying, shouting for her and getting no answer. After some time - hours, minutes, days, Luke didn't know - he had stopped to try and had built up barriers which he had thought he would never have to rebuild again.

But he couldn't afford to be distracted by his wife's vanishing. He had to attend these negotiations. The galaxy depended on him - the fate of billions of beings.

All these thoughts passed through his head before he even made his first step into the hangar bay and came to a sudden halt when he felt a gentle probing at his soul - a probing that was not from Leia. His barriers slammed down immediately and, frowning slightly, Luke took in the sight before him for the first time.

Leia and Han stood at the side, waiting for their transport to arrive, talking lowly to each other.
It made feel Luke good to see the two of them together again. Leia had hurt very much because of the strange behaviour of her husband. Now she had her personal stability back - that would be valuable in the negotiations, no doubt.

Wedge, Kre'fey and Pellaeon also stood together, obviously vividly discussing some long ago battle. It was unnerving - as soon as those three were together, there was already a topic they had different opinions about. Really unnerving. Although Wedge was one of Luke's oldest and dearest friends, he would not go to him now.

This sort of discussion was nothing which he thought he could stand now. But who had probed him?
His question was answered when he saw Teneniel pacing straight toward him. She wore a close-cut, ochre jump-suit and a long, white robe around it. Her auburn hair flowed free and she smiled at him.
'Oh, well, so much for privacy', he thought. He didn't feel comfortable around Teneniel. Not that he didn't like her anymore. She was a friend and he would be there for her if she needed him. The problem was, he didn't feel comfortable around anyone.

Ok, Han and Leia were exceptions. But aside of the both of them, he didn't need any company right now. Didn't need it and certainly didn't want it.

He loved Mara more than anything - but what if she didn't come back? What if she decided that she was better off alone? That had always been one of his worst fears - that he wouldn't be enough to hold her. She was a loner, had been for the greatest part of her life and it had been difficult to her to adapt to his wide circle of friends, at first.

That had changed soon and everyone of his friends liked Mara very much. But still, sometimes, he had mused whether Mara would be lucky the way she lived now.

'And now I have my answer.' He thought sadly. She hadn't been lucky and she didn't want a family. It hurt and he longed for her. Sometimes, it seemed as if there was no cause to continue living. If Mara didn't come back, why should he stay??

Of course, there was his family. But he didn't want to drag them down with him. Leia would stand by his side, he doubted this not for a second.

But she didn't deserve to worry so much. She had a husband and children. Leia deserved to be happy with her family.

And she could not change the fact that he never would have a family, anyways.

While Luke had contemplated this - again - Teneniel had reached him and now smiled up at him.
"Good morning, Luke? Everything alright?"

He nodded absent-mindedly, his gaze drifting towards Leia and Han. He didn't want to talk to anyone now. He wanted to his family.

Teneniel perched an eyebrow, but seemed to decide that she would not accept this gesture: "I wondered if you'd sit beside me on the way up, later? Perhaps... I'd like to talk to you, you know."
The urgency in her voice finally caught Luke's attention.

"Sure. If you want to. But now I want to greet my sister and Han, yes?" he managed to say, then hurried on.

Teneniel wasn't able to keep the disappointment from her face, but fortunately Luke didn't see it.
~**

"You see? I said to you he didn't sleep at all - again." Han growled lowly to his wife when he saw his brother-in-law step out of the lift tube.

Luke was clad in his familiar, black Jedi robe, his lightsaber at his hip and the heavy fabric flowing around him.

Leia frowned. "He really doesn't look very relaxed." She admitted. The colour of the robe made him look even paler and his cheeks had gone awesomely hollow since she had last seen him.
"What did he eat?" she asked shocked, giving her husband a side-way glance.

"Not much - except ration bars, of course. I told you he is not fine. No matter what the Ithorians told you, Luke is far from healthy."

"Obviously." Leia murmured.

Some minutes later, when they saw how Luke practically ran away from Teneniel, Han gave another low grumble: "You see how he really is?"

Leia just nodded - Han could not know that, for her, Luke's condition had just become more clear than to him. He had only seen Luke's eyes moving somewhat helplessly in their direction, but SHE had heard his presence in the Force. To her, it had sounded like Go away. I don't want to talk to anyone. Go away. GO AWAY."

It shocked her, showing her all too clear that she had allowed herself illusions. When she had heard that Luke had engaged so much in the rebuilding operations, she had thought he had come partially on track again.

But this irrational fear from getting into contact with others was still there. Not quite as extreme as in the first days after Ithor, but still there.

She wished she had time to take him somewhere on vacation - Leia knew that was also what Han thought would do Luke good.

But it was out of question right now. The Yuuzhan Vong were the most important thing at the moment - although Leia hated it that, once again, such a great part of the galaxy's fate lay on Luke's shoulders.
In her more desperate moments, she wondered how much it still took to let his shoulders break under the weight - totally and unrepairable.

She prayed that he could stand whatever expected them today. If not, the galaxy would not only loose a future - she would loose her brother and this time perhaps forever.

Carefully shielding all this from him, she embraced him, not very surprised that he pressed her harder than usual at himself. And she wasn't surprised that he embraced also Han, smiling for the first time since he had exited the lift.

"What did Teneniel want?" Han asked, letting his gaze wander over his friend. "You know, you could, just for one time, wear another colour, couldn't you?"

Luke smiled thinly: "Teneniel wanted to talk to me later. She has some problems. And I think I should wear a Jedi robe when I represent the Jedi."

Han snorted: "I always thought your wardrobe could become a little bit more trendy." Luke snorted in return and even gave a small smile.

Han grinned, but became then serious again: "Luke, you're not going to take on Teneniel's problems, too, aren't you? You are not in any condition to bother about that."

Luke's smile vanished, replaced by the perfect Jedi mask. "I won't let her down, Han, if she needs me. She's my friend."

Leia lay her hand on his upper arm: "We know that, Luke. But you have to think at yourself first - please, one time in your life. First you, then others."

The blue eyes of her brother met hers and she almost twitched - he would bury himself head-first into Teneniel's problems if she asked him to and there was nothing she or Han could do against it.
"Luke...."

"Princess Leia, our patrol has contacted us! A Vong Ship has just jumped into the system!" a young officer came to a halt before them, panting.

When he straightened himself, he gaped, staring wide-eyed at Luke. "Oh my..." he began, but he was interrupted by Leia. She took the arm of her brother, who stared dumbfounded back, feeling the incredible awe and respect of the young man.

"Well, come on, then."

1 hour later

"You sure it was a good idea to agree to go to THEIR ship. And through THEIR airlock... or whatever this is." Han said, suspiciously eyeing the circle of teeth sticking into the hull of their ship's aft boarding hatch.

"Han, they consider our ships abominations. Negotiations only work if the partners are equals. We can't demand of them to violate their own culture." Leia replied, straightening her midnight-blue gown for the twentieth time.

"They have killed millions - don't expect me to greet them with arms wide open." Her husband hissed.
Leia smiled at him: "I don't expect you to. I just want you to accept that this is my territory, Han. Let me handle the politics. Do you just use your smuggler's instinct to smell traps if there are some."
He still looked dubious, but the smirk around his lips was all too familiar. Flattery, Leia thought, always did the trick.

~**

The hangar bay of the Yuuzhan Vong ship felt not only strange, it also smelled strange. Everything reminded one that this was a living creature.

And, very faint and strangely clouded, Leia could feel the life. As much as she'd love to look around and pay attention to her curiosity, that would have to wait.

Perhaps she could later even ask her negotiation partners to lead her and her delegation around. But that would probably depend on their progress.

The tall, strong-built and heavily distorted figure of Warmaster Tsavong Lah awaited them. Behind him, in a row, twelve Yuuzhan Vong warriors were arrayed, clad in their vonduun-crab armour and amphistaffs curled around their wrists.

But what really got Leia's attention was the figure next to Tsavong Lah. It was a female Yuuzhan Vong!! The first she had ever seen.

The woman was petite and very slim, with hollow cheeks and eyes more like slits. Or perhaps that was just her expression. Black hair was draped around her head, reaching just to her slender shoulders.
Before Leia could take another look at her, Tsavong Lah stepped in front of her, eyeing her and her accompanies up and down.

"Very well. As I see, you are as respectful that you don't bring any abominations with you. I appreciate that, President Organa-Solo."

Leia inclined her head dignifully: "A sign of our good will, Warmaster. I and the people of my galaxy are willing to talk about a truce which will meet the needs of both parties. We hope the Yuuzhan Vong will be also willing to consider this."

Tsavong Lah's eyes narrowed: "We see ourselves forced to do so. You have to understand, our people don't usually engage in such things as negotiations. But usually, we don't face any serious opposition, either. And, in regard to this special situation, Supreme Overlord Shimrra has agreed that I engage in the talks for him. He will join later, if the general concept is made clear."

Leia frowned: "Until now, we thought you were the leader of the Yuuzhan Vong."

Lah smiled - it looked not the least bit friendly: "That was an error, President. I'm merely the leader of our holy conquest in this galaxy. A conquest that has come to halt for now. We will see if this halt will be permanent."

Leia nodded again with all her dignity: "I shall hope that it will be permanent. This way, both our people will benefit."

The warmaster's eyes narrowed once more: "We shall hope so, indeed. Now may I introduce my...assistant. Priestess Elan." He motioned to the female beside him who moved gracefully next to him.
"Greetings." She replied coolly, measuring Leia with one glance and obviously deciding she wasn't worth another.

Another surprise for Leia - priestess. It became ever more interesting.
"A pleasure." She said, then motioned to her right. "This are Admirals Traest Kre'fey and Gilead Pellaeon, representing the New Republic and Imperial Remnant military."
"This," she pointed to her left, "are my personal advisors Wedge Antilles and Han Solo and the Queenmother of the Hapan Consortium, Teneniel Djo."

Lah's eyes sort of gleamed while he took their sight in, eyeing them like strange animals.
Leia breathed deeply and nodded to the figure behind her.

"And, as you demanded and we saw fit, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, representing the Order of the Jedi Knights."

Luke stepped beside her, with all the feline grace his training had brought him, his hands folded before him, far away from his lightsaber, which was clearly to be seen nonetheless.
The honor guards hissed and Lah grunted - then made a step towards Luke, towering over him.
Leia had shied away half a step, instinctively - and otherwise the massive alien would have just knocked her down.

But Luke stood still and met the feral stare of the warmaster with his clear, azure one. "Greetings." He simply said.

"THIS is the Jeedai Skywalker who destroyed our fleet above Ithor??" he growled, obviously taken aback.

"That's me indeed, Warmaster."

"Interesting." Tsavong Lah finally said, after staring for another few minutes at his human counterpart.
Luke smiled thinly, slightly bowing his head, seemingly ignoring the rumbles of the honor guard completely.

But Leia felt his surprise and his impulse to activate his lightsaber. The sounds the guards made seemed to be distinctively hostile.

"Warmaster, are your guards threatening my brother?" she asked, trying to lay all her aristocratic arrogance into her voice.

*Leia! I can take care of myself!!* She heard in her head, but decided to ignore Luke's voice. She would not accept threats against her brother - whether he liked it or not, she would make this abundantly clear to Lah, and she would do it now.

Lah grinned broader: "No, not really, President. They're expressing their respect and offer challenges. Although," at this, he turned and the guards fell instantly silent, "they know that this is not allowed during negotiations."

Turning again to Leia he added: "As I said, my people are not used to negotiations. They have no way to know exactly what they're supposed to do."

The alderaanian princess narrowed her eyes - for the first time: "Does that mean my brother is in danger on your ship?"

"No, Leia. It just means we must see the difference between his behaviour and this of his underlings." Luke said softly, meeting the gaze of every guard openly, telling them more than clearly that he was ready to take them on - if they made the first step.

"You seem to be able to understand us - more or less. I shall hope this understanding will improve."
"We all hope this." Han added, speaking for the first time and eyeing Lah every bit as suspicious as the Yuuzhan Vong had eyed him.

"Very well then. The negotiations shall begin soon. But first, the Yuuzhan Vong want to show their good will, too. By a little present we thought would be welcome - especially by Master Skywalker."
Luke raised his eyebrows and nodded again.

Lah turned and barked some orders in his own language.
~**

Elan admitted she was fascinated. Till now, she hadn't had the possibility to see Luke Skywalker. All she had known was that he had exceptional abilities and had to be either killed or turned if she wanted to succeed.

But looking at him now, she thought that it was as if his shaping had already begun. Of all the humans she had seen till now, he was the one closest resembling a Yuuzhan Vong - still he looked disgustingly human, but he had some signs.

His slender, strong figure, his thin face with the prominent cheekbones, his pale skin - and, the most intriguing, the scars in his face. They were faint and almost not to see, but her eyes were trained and she could very well make them out.

It would be a pleasure to see what Mezhan Kwaad could make out of this human. Really a pleasure.
He turned suddenly, meeting her stare with an inquisitive flash of alien, blue eyes, nodded curtly and turned again to the Warmaster.

Elan smiled to herself and looked forward to Skywalker's reaction on the 'present'.

~**

Leia was as if someone had backhanded her. The shock and rage she felt coming from Luke were an onslaught she hadn't been prepared for.

But then, how could she have known what the present would be - or, rather, WHO?
A thin form crouched before Luke, hands cuffed, eyes blazing up at the human who stared at him with clenched fists and lips tightly pressed together.

"This is our present. Condemned as perpetrator by his people, we have decided to hand him over to you, Jeedai Skywalker. Personally to you." Lah explained, not even glancing at the Vong on the floor.
Leia saw her brother's eyes narrow to thin slits, his features harden. To anyone who didn't know him, he looked absolutely deadly now.

"Nom Anor!" Luke hissed.

Jedi Dawn Part 10

Coruscant, 4 hours after the first talks, Skywalker Apartment

Luke rubbed his eyes tiredly, then tried to concentrate again onto the data files before him. Since they had returned from the Yuuzhan Vong ship, he had been busy writing down every single impression he had had and he could still think of. After he had finished this, he had begun to search again through all available files concerning the Yuuzhan Vong, wanting to find out whether anyone had heard till yet about the so-called shapers.

When the letters before his eyes began to blur, he sighed, let himself fall back into the couch and stared at the dark wall before him where the lights of the passing speeders and air taxis played.
His search had come up empty. Noone had heard about the Shapers, noone could offer him even the slightest guess as to what exactly they were.
But would it even matter for him? Was there really anything that could prevent him from doing everything to find a cure for Mara?

Luke sighed again, turned and stared out into the nightly city. Usually, he liked the view from up here and could sit hour after hour on this sofa.
But without Mara beside him it seemed empty. Empty and not a bit beautiful.

"Luke, are you alright?" a deeper voice asked and he recognised the light, sneaking footsteps of his brother in law.
He nodded, but when he felt Han's worry increase, he forced himself to abandon this monument of a gone past and turned towards his old friend.

And really, just like Luke had imagined, Han's face was contorted with a heavy frown and the two twinkling, dark spots which were the corellian's eyes stared firmly at his face.

Luke smiled tiredly: "Don't worry so much about me, Han. I'm fine."

The frown didn't ease and Han crossed his arms before his chest: "Am I really supposed to think you're fine if I find you in the middle of the night staring out onto the city with the lights shut down?"

Luke took his time to answer, trying somewhat desperately to find an persuading answer - but Han wouldn't be tricked. They knew each other forever, as it seemed, and Han was one of the very few persons Luke couldn't and mostly wouldn't act before.

"Probably not." He finally said lowly. A contempted snort came out of the dark across from him and a moment later, a form let itself fall beside him onto the couch.

"So tell me what's wrong." Han demanded, leaning back to look into Luke's moon-lit face.

The Jedi Master perched an eyebrow and Han grimaced: "I mean aside from Mara. Come on, you know exactly what I'm talking about". He gestured towards the data cards which glinted between them. "What have you been looking for?"

"How do you know that I was looking for something?" Luke asked back, refusing to look into the face of his friend, instead focusing on the sea of lights below them.

"I guessed. Luke, you know that I hate it if you play that way with me. Since we have come back you have been here and working. You didn't even tell me what this mysterious talk you had with this Yuuzhan Vong female was about. And if you don't decide to let me in on it now, I'm going to drag it out of you in a rather unpleasant way. Choose now."
Han had deliberately let his voice go deep and threatening and he was rewarded by a low chuckle from his counterpart.

"Now I'm frightened." Luke quipped, to dug in time to prevent himself from being hit by the pillow Han had thrown into his direction.

Han grinned, but soon became serious again: "Luke, what did this woman want from you?"

Luke was calm for some moments and Han wondered whether he probably had just fallen asleep in the comforting near-darkness around them, when his brother-in-low began to speak lowly again.

"She said she could arrange a meeting with someone who could find a cure for Mara's illness."

In the next second, Han was on his feet: "What?! Luke, you can't seriously..."

Luke joined him in the upright position and his voice took on a pleading, desperate tone: "Han, there is a special caste in the Vong hierarchy. They are specialists in bio-engineering and if anyone can counter the poison Mara has been infected with, then they can."

"If they're so great with bio-engineering, why can't they save their own world-ships? And tell me why exactly the Yuuzhan Vong should want to help YOU."

The hand that had rested lightly on Han's lower arm disappeared and his friend's voice became even more desperate. "They also gave Nom Anor to us."

Han snorted: "Oh please, Luke, you're not that na? anymore. According to all we know, every single Yuuzhan Vong would happily take the possibility to kill you. And now you're going off and want to trust people whose name you don't even know.

"Shapers." Luke's voice hissed. "They're called Shapers. And they are the only hope to get a cure for Mara's illness."

"Luke, Mara is gone! Even if you find a cure, what good does it? Mara is not here, she could even already be dead! And you're taking a senseless risk!" Han barked.

When no reply came from in front of him, only the sound of a slight movement Han couldn't right place, the corellian knew he had made a fault. That was not the right way to talk to Luke at the moment.

Silently cursing himself, Han searched the button for the light, switched it on and stared at Luke. The kid sat again on the couch, a datapad in his lap, reading through one of the classified data disks Han recognised from the meeting at the afternoon.

He cleared his throat: "Luke, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way." Luke lifted his head, showing Han a completely emotionless face.
"I know, Han. But I'm not giving up hope. I never will. If she ever comes back, I will have this cure for her. No matter what it costs me."

"And if she doesn't come back?" Han asked lowly, contemplating how much Luke had changed in the past weeks. He was nothing but shattered remains who could barely be held together - they should have foreseen that he would throw himself into even the slightest possibility for a solution of his newest crisis.

That brought Luke finally to look Han in the eyes, though the corellian would have wished to not have to see this tormented expression: "Then I know that she doesn't love me and probably never did."

Han tensed and stared at Luke shocked: "Luke, she loves you. You know that."
"You said yourself that she probably never comes back." Luke replied, still with an emotionless voice.

"I just wanted to remind you that she has been very ill. Without a cure... you know what the doctors said. Mara is..."

"Mara never thought she would die of this illness, Han. She didn't leave me to die. You know, it's not as if I weren't used to things like that. I should have known that she wouldn't be lucky with me."
Luke's voice had become soft and very low and the expression in his eyes scared Han. A defeated bitterness, mixed with despair and sadness.

He swallowed: "Luke, I don't like what you're saying there."

"I'm saying you the truth, nothing else."

"So, why do you still want to find this cure, if you're thinking this way?" Han asked, wanting nothing more than to be able to talk Luke out of these ideas but knowing full well that he had no arguments for it. Yet. He would have to talk with Leia about this. Luke was worse than even he had assumed and needed help.

The Jedi Master smiled: "Because I love her, Han. If there is a possibility to save her life, I will go for it."

Han sighed, massaging his temples. "Ok. Ok, I got it, kid. If you're determined to go through with this, I'm there to watch your back."

"Thanks, Han. You don't know how much this means to me." Luke said lowly, his smile broadening.

"Well, yeah. Don't get used to it." Han grumbled, scratching his head slightly embarrassed. He went towards the door, but turned again before he left: "And promise that you will go sleep soon. It's late. You need rest."

Luke still smiled: "I'll see what I can do. Now go home, Han. You're as tired as I am."

Han was almost in the lift tube outside in the corridor when he heard Luke shout: "And, just that you know, I'm going to change the code. Not that I strike you down when you sneak up on me like this the next time!"

Han smiled when he pushed the button to his floor. It wasn't too late. Not yet.

Two hours later

Teneniel was more than a little bit surprised when she exited the lift on the floor Luke's apartment was on and found his door wide open.
She peeked into his anteroom, suspiciously eyeing the surroundings, but neither her eyes nor her Force senses could pick up anything that wasn't normal.

Shrugging, she proceeded towards the warm light from the bordering room, guessing it to be Luke's living room.
She knew it was awfully late to disturb someone, but when she had sensed Luke still awake half an hour before, she had thought she could talk to him now, better than tomorrow.
She didn't need him to block her again the way he had this morning.

When she entered her destination, she couldn't quite surpress a little smile. Though his head snapped immediately high when she set her foot into the room, he had just been about to doze off, his chin sinking slowly onto his chest and his eyes falling equally slowly shut.

Now he needed a second to readjust his sight, then stared at her baffled.

"Teneniel! What... how did you get in here?"

She stopped, looking quite embarrassed and shrugged smiling: "Well, the door was open."

"Oh!" was all Luke managed to get out, inwardly snorting. Solo. Of course, who else. First slicing into his code, then letting the door open. Typical, just typical. And now he had this woman in his living room at... Luke's eyes widened when his gaze swept over the chrono at the wall. 4 o'clock in the morning!

"Why are you coming here in the middle of the night?" Luke finally sputtered, jumping to his feet and sprawling the data disks neatly over the floor in the procedure.

Teneniel shrugged again, then joined him with gathering the disks again. "I couldn't sleep and when I sensed you were still awake... well, I thought we could talk. We didn't manage it on the way up."

Luke, refusing to look at her at all after having seen that she was clad in a tight-sitting jump-suit, shook his head slightly. Why did he feel so nervous? He knew Teneniel for over a decade. She was a friend, nothing more. And she knew that of course.

"I'm sorry. It was all kind of busy today." He apologised, raising again and laying the disks onto the table.

"It's okay. There are more important things these days." She smiled and looked him straight into the eyes.

She did knew they were only friends, Luke thought again. Didn't she?

"So...um.. what did you want to talk about?" he asked, going around the table and sitting down on the sofa.

"Well, originally, I did want to tell you about the problems I have with Isolder, but looking at you now, I'd say it would be more important to talk about the problems YOU have." She came over to him, sitting down beside him and grasping his left hand into her own.

"Teneniel, I said to you that is too personal. Really, you shouldn't.." he tried to get his hand free, but Teneniel only tightened her hold.

"You don't have to tell me everything, Luke. I just wanted to offer you distraction." She smiled once more and Luke shivered, feeling his eyes grow wide.

"Uh... Teneniel... I'm... well... I'm married, you know and I love Mara and...." He stammered, practically jumping back from her and retaking possession of his strangely tingling hand.

For a moment, Teneniel looked bewildered, then she laughed. "Oh, Luke, you have a naughty mind, haven't you? What did you think I offer?"

Luke stared at her baffled, then blushed deeply red: "I.., well... I only thought you..... I'm sorry.."

Teneniel grinned broadly, glad that he was so busy trying to find his composure again. So he didn't catch on on her momentary anger.
Ok, now, perhaps it was too soon- he was as shy as he had been all these years before.
But then, doing it slowly didn't mean cancelling it entirely.
Still smiling, she softly cupped his cheek and hopped closer to him.

"It's ok, Luke. I just wanted to give you the possibility to talk about something else than Yuuzhan Vong or problematic relationships."

Luke was still for some moments, than dared again to look at her and laughed. She had to force herself not to look at him fascinated. She really had forgotten how much he had meant to her - and why.

"I'm sorry, Teneniel. It's not fair from me to think about you that way."

If you only knew, Teneniel thought.

"As I said, it is okay. But may I ask you something very personal? You mustn't answer me. Throw me out of your apartment, if you want."

Luke looked slightly suspicious, but then nodded. "Do you really still love Mara? After what she has done to you?"

The Jedi tensed immediately and was a step away from her a mere second later, his features hard, the smile gone.

"How do you want to know what she has done to me?" he almost barked. Teneniel cursed inwardly. Oh well, nothing about a daring approach with Luke Skywalker. He was far too decent. But then, she should have known - he had been that way even when he wasn't engaged, back on Dathomir.

"I don't know details, of course." She hastily explained, raising too and approaching him slowly. "But leaving you does the trick, doesn't it?" she poked gently, interested in his answer.

Luke frowned, then looked again at her. "Teneniel, what you do you really want from me?" he asked frankly.

Oh darn, she thought, he is as shy as back then but he has become more experienced.

"What do you mean?" she asked unsure of how much he guessed.

"Oh, come on, Teneniel. You're flirting with me since we've met yesterday. Don't think I haven't remarked that. I may not be a heartbreaker, but I know when a woman wants something from me."

Teneniel felt her cheeks heating up, but stared straight into his face. She took a deep breath: "Ok, Luke, I won't lie to you. Since I have seen you again yesterday, I have been feeling the same way I did all these years ago. I don't know why now, perhaps because of the problems I have with Isolder, perhaps because I really like you more than a friend does, but it is a fact."

Luke stared some time at her, obviously rather surprised, then smiled gently.
"And because Mara is gone, you think I'd fall into your arms immediately? I thought you'd know me better."

The dathomirian woman sighed. "I hoped, but I didn't really think you would."

"And I won't. If that's the only reason for your being here, then please go now." Luke didn't sound angry, not even disappointed. It was a statement and Teneniel tried to surpress her disappointment.

Instead, she decided to play a little bit more. She wouldn't back off already. "But Luke, I really like you. It could become more - we have the same possibilities as we had 17 years ago." She said.

Luke shook his head: "No, Teneniel. You're married and I'm married, too. I don't know about you, but I love my wife."

Teneniel bit her lower lip: "I'd lie if I'd say now I'd fallen in love with you again, Luke. But,..." she lifted her head and looked into his azure eyes, "if I give it time, it could grow into love."

Luke looked sad for a moment, then shook his head again. "Teneniel, don't do that. Don't destroy our friendship like this. I can't give you what you want. Not even a part of it."

She smiled thinly: "I'll accept that. And I won't flirt with you anymore, if you don't want. But you have to answer me two questions now, and honestly."

Luke hesitated, then nodded.

"You like me and you find me attractive, correct?" she asked, carefully watching his every move.

Luke sighed lowly, but nodded: "You know that I do, Teneniel. You're as beautiful as ever and I never denied that."

She nodded contented: "Good. Now tell me, if Mara doesn't come back..., do you think you will permit yourself to love again? Will you be open for it or will you block it?"

Luke's eyes were shocked and wide when he stared at her, but she saw in them that he recognised that this question was something she had to know.

Unfortunately, he couldn't give her a clear answer. "I don't know." He croaked, his mind refusing to think at the possibility of Mara never coming back that vehemently, that he felt dizzy with the effort.

Teneniel nodded, rose on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek: "Thanks for being honest, Luke. You can expect that from me too. I won't play anything and I will accept that you still love her." She stressed the still and was convinced that Luke remarked it. And he should. Smiling a final time, she turned and left, carefully closing the door behind her.

Luke sank back onto the couch, suddenly feeling deathly tired. Sighing deeply, he called onto the Force and slipped into a trance.

Corellia System, The Same Time

"Sir, they're retreating!" the scan officer shouted, his severely burned hand momentarily forgotten.

His captain, a big calamarian, dubiously checked his own readings, but could only see the last coral skippers disappearing behind their flagship.

Panting and relieved, he sat back into his chair. The aliens had betrayed them - talking about cease and halt of their conquest and then attacking an unprepared system.

His calamarian heart contracted painfully when he looked through the bulkhead. He had faced the enemy with fifteen heavy cruisers and his flagship, a Mon Calamari production. Everything left to the system now were seven cruisers and his heavily damaged ship.

The sirens roared, letting no one forget that they had suffered several hull-breaches. Force knew how many of his crew had been sucked into vacuum and drifted between burned out starfighter wrecks.

They had driven the Yuuzhan Vong back, but they had terrible losses. It didn't gave much of soothing that they had managed to destroy two cruiser analogs of the enemy and uncountable coralskippers.

"Sir?" his communications officer lay her small, human hand onto his forearm and looked into his face.

He sighed: "Contact President Organa-Solo. Send her the satellite recordings, ask for immediate help and tell her that the Yuuzhan Vong have broken the truce."

The young corellian woman, her golden hair sweatily plastered at her head, nodded grimly.

Dathomir, The Holy River Clan Fortress

Mara leaned back onto the balcony of her chamber, enjoying the tender wind and the warm air, as well as the spectacular view of the star filled sky.
Behind her, in her room, a fire was burning and filling it with a warmth she would be grateful for as soon as the temperatures would fall. That wouldn't be long anymore, but she wanted to relish the last minutes of warmth.

Her illness was gone. It was really gone. She had searched and searched for it, in every little speck of her body, but she hadn't found anything.
It hadn't just hid, it had vanished. And the might of nature had helped her.

That gave new mysteries of course. Obviously, the Jedi were much more connected to nature as they thought. Or at least certain ones of them were. She and Luke, so much was sure.

Luke. Mara longed for him. Rell's premonitions had made her pretty insecure and she had almost wanted to feel for him in the Force, but then she had thought better. It would startle him, worry him, because she just didn't think she was able to explain everything to him over their Force connection.

But not long anymore. Tomorrow, they would begin the voyage back to the Singing Mountain clan and then it would take her only a couple of days to reach Ithor. And from there, she would be only another couple of days away from her love.

She couldn't wait to fall again into his arms, to hug him, to smell him - to apologise for everything she had said. And hadn't meant.

She imagined Luke's joy when she'd tell him that she was cured, his strong arms around her, his lips, his voice.... She imagined the shining of his eyes when she'd say him that she hadn't meant it as it had sounded. That she couldn't think of anything that would make her happier than give life to his child.

Sighing dreamily, she sipped at her hot broth and smiled. She had missed him terribly. Although she had slept alone for the most part of her life, the few years with Luke had made her miss another body beside her. His body.

Mara shivered. She had missed this, too, and she looked forward to proving him that she did want a child from him - that she did want HIM.

Only some more days. Grinning childishly, she once again turned her gaze skyward and remarked a star which shone brighter than its companions. Curious, she tried to find out which one it were, only to come up with the solution that at this point, there should be NO star.

Frowning now, she looked more attentively and sprang to her feet, almost dropping her cup over the railing, when she affirmed that the star moved!

A comet? An asteroid? Oh, that would be just typical. She had just been healed and now an asteroid dropped onto the planet she was on to finish her off.
That would be just the sort of irony she expected from the universe.

Holding her breath, she followed the path of the thing.

No... no, that was no asteroid. Its fall was controlled and now became slower. At one point, its path even became horizontal.

A spacecraft, she stated. But who had a reason to come here? The witches didn't do trade with any other planet and they hadn't taken on interstellar travel. She had been the first visitor from off-planet for almost five years.

So who came here? Smugglers? Pirates?

Mara hopped onto the railing in order to not to loose the speck and continued following its voyage with her eyes.

No. Dathomir was no place for people like that. The witches didn't like such people and kept them away effectively.

So, who would want to... with a sudden insight, Mara throw her Force senses out into the direction of the vessel and searched.

She felt - absolutely nothing. Grim faced, she hopped back onto the balcony, crossed her arms and tried to memorise the vector of the ship.

Times would become interesting, no doubt. Engagements with Yuuzhan Vong always proved interesting.

As I promised, Jedi Dawn 11 is ready to be read.
Hope you like what I wrote.
I'm as ever quite open for every sort of comment.

Rated PG-13

The SW Universe belongs to George Lucas and I gain no money with this.

Enjoy

SIENN

Jedi Dawn Part 11

Second day of the Peace Talks, Vong Ship Criarto, Early Morning

The atmosphere was icy cold while the recordings of Corellia were shown. The small holo player, the only technical device the Yuuzhan Vong had allowed to be brought onto the ship, stood in the middle of the great room they had already yesterday spoken in.

After the Mon Calamari Admiral in charge of the New Republic fleet dispatched to Corellia had finished his descriptions and the images had vanished, a long silence lay above the room.

Leia felt alert, awake and angry. She had trusted the Yuuzhan Vong, had been sure that Tsavong Lah was as eager as she was to establish peace between them. Now, she wondered whether it all had been a lie or whether the Warmaster was simply testing whether the New Republic really had the power at hand to punish his race for what they had once again done or not.

The problem, Leia darkly mused, was that the New Republic DIDN'T have the might to do that just now. And when she looked over at her brother, who was in face of this new atrocity visibly moved, she didn't think he could accomplish what he had done above Ithor - not so soon again, anyway.

Perhaps in some weeks he would be able to summon this amount of Force energy again - but not now.

Nonetheless, she had to at least do as if the New Republic could destroy the still existing Vong ships - with a little bit of luck, they would be intimidated enough by what happened to their fleet some weeks ago to cease further movements.
Not that Leia really believed they would - but she had to try it.

"Can you give me only ONE reason not to cancel the negotiations and wipe your race out, Warmaster Lah?" she asked, her voice not betraying anything of her anxiousness and worry.

She felt Luke's soul flinch and knew at once that he had overheard her thoughts - by incident, probably, but he had. He knew that the galaxy would rely on HIM to win the war, if it should break out again.
The barely covered panic she felt settle in her brother's heart let her almost tremble.

Luke knew, as well as she did, that, if the war should break out again, it would come to the moment she had to ask him to do again what he had above Ithor.
Not as his sister, but as President of the New Republic and for the sake of the whole galaxy.
No matter whether it destroyed her brother. Swallowing as inconspicuously as she could, Leia focused on the Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster, holding her breath and waiting for the seemingly inevitable.

To her surprise, Lah looked at her with narrowed eyes, but didn't seem to be the least bit offended, content or even surprised.
At the contrary - as unbelievable as it seemed, when Leia would have to guess, she'd say Lah seemed angry.

"I have a reason, indeed." He growled, catching her gaze and never letting it go.

"That would be?" she asked, letting all the cold she felt pouring into her voice and making it as sharp as a vibro-blade.

"These ships are not under my command." He softly hissed, folding his hands over his stomach and leaning back into his chair, his eyes resting again on the holo player in front of him.

Han beside her inhaled sharply and Luke studied the Yuuzhan Vong with cold eyes: "Not under your command?" he repeated, his voice booming although he did still seem to be perfectly serene.
"I think you should explain this."

Lah shifted in his chair to look Luke directly into the eyes and showed his teeth in a grimace that reminded Leia of the picture of a grinning devil she had once seen in a museum somewhere on Coruscant.

"These ships have been reported to be missing for some days now. The commander they have been dispatched to hasn't answered any of my calls. My spies are still trying to find some answers to this mystery." The Warmaster explained.

"How do you recognise the ships? They all look like big, coloured asteroids." Han asked, his face contorted in suspicion and his hand itching at the place where his blaster usually hung.

No wonder, Leia mused. It had been Han's homeworld that had been attacked. Even while she contemplated whether it would diminish her position concerning Lah if she'd lay her hand onto Han's to soothe him, she felt a flicker in the Force coming from Luke and brushing gently over Han's soul.

The tensed shoulders of her husband eased a little bit and he shot Luke a glance that was half reproachful, half grateful. A corner of Luke's mouth lifted into a gentle smile that was gone as soon as it had appeared.

Lah gave Han a cold stare, then gestured to the holo player: "Tell your abomination to play the records again."

With a dubiously perched eyebrow, Wedge bent forward and activated the device again.
After some seconds, Lah barked. "Hold it there!"

It sounded dangerous, aggressive and frightening and Wedge shied unconsciously away, but Luke had already reached out and stopped the player when Lah had opened his mouth.

The Warmaster pointed one of his sharp claws at a spot on the flagship, then at spots on the other ships.

"There." He said. "The markings of their domain."

Leia frowned, trying hard to see anything, but she didn't succeed. Luke, Han and Wedge leaned forward, their sharp pilot eyes narrowing and tracing every single detail of the ships.

Finally, Luke nodded: "I see it. It's the same symbol on every of the ships."

"Yeah." Han grumbled. Wedge just nodded, then shook his head in wonderment.

Obviously catching on her total bewilderment, Luke turned to his sister: "Look at the colour directly above the last vent for the plasma shooters. The green is different - and in the green there is black and dark blue. It's forming a symbol - a circle with some carvings and lines in it."

Leia concentrated on the place Luke had described and, really, now she could make it out, too.

When he had made sure that his sister had seen the evidence, too, Luke again addressed Lah: "What exactly is a domain, in your society?" he asked, now seeming calm - and not angry.

"I think you can compare it with what you call clan, or family. They are important parts of our caste system - there are mighty domains with a glorious line of warriors, domains who have raised extraordinary shapers and domains who are disgraced forever by the actions of some misfits of theirs. The domain can be traced by the name - only in some cases a domain has special physical marks. This is seldom."

Luke nodded: "I see. So your domain would be domain Lah?"

"Exactly." Lah murmured, clearly not all too comfortable with sharing such things with a human.

"So I think the question is obvious." Gilead Pellaeon spoke up. "To which domain belong the ships that attacked Corellia?"

"Domain Etis." The Warmaster answered, clicking his nails thoughtfully against the sides of his yorik-coral chair. "But, " he added, "that won't help you any, I'm afraid."

"Why not?" Kre'fey asked surprised, his fur in disorder about all the turns in the talks.

"Because domain Etis has been extinguished long ago - almost two decades, to speak exactly. No one of them survived."

Luke frowned: "How do you know that?"

Now Lah grinned in amusement at the Jedi Master: "I killed the last one of them with my own hands, Jeedai Skywalker. This domain doesn't exist anymore."

Again silence lay itself over the room.

Finally, Leia cleared her throat: "What exactly does this mean, Warmaster. Always assuming that I believe you."

"You will investigate this at Corellia, won't you?" Lah asked.

When all members of the delegation nodded, Lah rose, folded his arms before his chest and turned to Leia.
"Whoever attacked your planet did it against my clear orders. This alone is a cause for what I propose to you now. Besides, in using the symbol of domain Etis, whoever leads these ships is mocking me, making the thing personal."

When Leia didn't reply and looked at him unsure, Lah smiled predatorily and added with a low, but firm voice.

"The Yuuzhan Vong offer a temporary alliance with the New Republic and the Jedi to find the perpetrators. We will help you with all we can, but we demand that, once they are caught, the criminals will be placed in our hands. And that we have a say in every tactical decision."

Leia blinked: "You're proposing a... friendship?"

Lah nodded: "I am.

The alderaanian princess contemplated this for a moment, took a look at each of her companion's faces, then nodded.
"The New Republic accepts the temporary alliance and your help. Perhaps it is a way to a lasting co-operation between our people."

Lah looked again more than thoughtful and nodded: "Perhaps, Princess Leia, perhaps. We'll see how well we can adapt to each other."

~~*

Still contemplating the turn of events while he once again took the rear end of the delegation, Luke was really startled when a slender hand was laid onto its shoulder.

Surprised he turned around and had to rely on all his self-control to keep from activating his lightsaber.
Another petite Yuuzhan Vong female stood behind him but it wasn't Elan. Although he had problems to distinguish between the males, the female Yuuzhan Vong were quite easy to recognise.

"Master Skywalker?" the young female asked in a heavily accented Basic.

He frowned, but nodded: "Yes, I am Master Skywalker. Who are you?"

The woman bowed slightly: "My name's Lonan. I'm the youngest cr?e-sister of Priestess Elan."

"Cr?e-sister?" he repeated, the word tasting strange in his mouth.

"Yes... closest assistant." She explained after a short pause.

That got Luke curious and he felt his heartbeat fasten. News about the cure for Mara?

"Is the Priestess back?" he asked eagerly, not paying any attention anymore whether the others were waiting for him or not.

Lonan shook her head: "No, I'm afraid not. But she sent me to give you this."

She placed a small, rocky ball into his hands which moved slightly. Luke examined it curiously, but couldn't even guess what it was.
He shot the female a curious glance.

"It's a rapo villip - he can't take on the form of the faces, but he will alert you immediately when Priestess Elan comes back and activates her own rapo villip.
So you will know when she's here with the shaper."

Luke looked fascinated at the tiny animal in his hand that had changed colour and seemed to make itself comfortable between his fingers.

"How will it alert me?"

"If you have it with you always, it will alert you by vibrations. Soundless. Priestess Elan asks you to not show it to anyone of your kind."

Luke narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because these devices are very seldom and sort of illegal in our society. They have a certain amount of unnatural.. technical... materiel in them to get data even from very far away."

Luke looked some moments at her, trying to find out whether she lied or not, but shrugging his thoughts away with a soundless sigh. It was for Mara.

Stashing the animal in a pocket of his robe, he nodded: "Thank you." He just wanted to turn away, when he thought better and asked: "How do I care for it? What does it eat?"

Lonan grinned: "Don't worry, it will be fine. It eats everything that's floating in the air. Just keep it warm - body warmth is ideal."

Luke nodded again, then followed his friends.

Lonan grinned, turned and hurried to the private chambers of her master to contact the Priestess immediately.

Dathomir, Some Couples of Miles away from the Holy River Clan Fortress

If the situation weren't so serious, Mara Jade would be enjoying herself perfectly.
It seemed to have been an eternity ago that she was able to walk this distance without pain and tiredness.
Now she had over ten miles behind her and was still able to do at least 10 miles more.

Not that she would have to walk them. With a few easy equations and simple gut instinct, she had determined the course of the Yuuzhan Vong ship and was sure that she was on the right way.

It couldn't be far anymore, considering the relatively low pace the ship had been going on.
Probably trying to fake an asteroid - Mara grinned. Bad luck for them that Mara had never been fooled by such simple tricks.
No one, not even Luke immersed deeply in the Force, could fake the erratic descent of an asteroid plunging into a planet's atmosphere.

For quite some time now, Mara had been wandering over mesa, not worrying a bit about being spotted. Even if she were, they would take her for a witch and according to all the aliens know, the inhabitants of Dathomir hadn't even heard about them.

Now, though, she stood before a relatively modest hill and contemplated whether she should first rest and then advance or move on directly.
Judging that the Yuuzhan Vong were probably not going to waste any time with rest themselves, Mara proceeded toward the top of the hill.

At the final ten meters, she just crawled until she could peek over the edge.
She snorted low, but contempt. Just as she had imagined. These damn aliens felt that secure that they didn't even bother to camouflage themselves.

A single coralskipper was settled beside an elaborate building that looked like a giant nutshell.
Perhaps, Mara thought sarcastically, it was REALLY a nutshell. One never knew what the Yuuzhan Vong used for housing.

There were no guards as she noted. Suspiciously, Mara wondered if they could possibly know that she were here and just waited for her to go into a trap, but she dismissed that again.
They didn't need to lure her into a trap. They had a coralskipper, they could have long picked her up on the way.

Deciding that she could as well go forward if she was already here, Mara plotted a course behind some stones who could cover her and began her climb towards the small valley.

No one stopped her and Mara grinned at the lack of security. It was absolutely no problem to get behind the great building and find the air vent - after she had searched for a sort of window without success. The airvent was just fine, though, for she could see into the building and hear what was spoken there.

There were only two people in there - a Yuuzhan Vong female, petite, lanky, with black hair. And a tall Yuuzhan Vong warrior who looked all but happy.

No - don't tell me they are governed by women Mara thought astonished.

What astonished her even more was that the two Yuuzhan Vong below were speaking Basic.

Now the female began: "Your attack onto the infidel planet was the most stupid thing you could have done, Admiral Idao." She hissed.

"You said I should attack if I want, Priestess." Her counterpart growled, his hands twitching along with the amphistaff wound around his wrist.

"But no planets, you damutek-brain! And then with the signs of domain Etis! How dumb are you?" the female shouted, clearly loosing her patience.

"Now, " she continued when the Admiral didn't reply, "it is only a matter of time till Lah will have tracked this whole thing to you. And from you to me."

"Well, he shall come. I'm prepared to meet him." The Yuuzhan Vong named Idao barked, a murderous glint in his eyes.

"But I'm not. My plans aren't ready yet - my most important factor is still lacking. It would take time we now don't have anymore."

Idao snorted: "My job is the fighting, Priestess. Yours is the thinking. If you limp behind, then I'd suggest that you speed up your plans."

"I will have to do so, indeed. Now go! I can't bear to see you anymore!" The so called priestess hissed.
With a low cackle, the Admiral left the chamber. Mara pressed herself against the side of the building, watching as the Yuuzhan Vong climbed over another hill. His ship was probably behind this one.

She already wanted to follow him when she heard the female assume speaking again. Curious, Mara peeked again into the strange building. A villip sat before the woman, formed into the head of another, rather young-looking Yuuzhan Vong female.

"Lonan, report." The Priestess hissed, nervously tapping her right foot onto the floor.

The face on the villip, Lonan obviously, smiled. "Skywalker has received the rapo, Mistress."

The tensed face of the Priestess exploded into a ferocious smile. Mara gripped the edges of the airvent harder and leaned forward, totally unconsciously, her heart contracting painfully at the mention of her husband's name.
These bitches were plotting against Luke!

"Excellent. Has he already left the Criarto?"

"Yes, Mistress"

"Wonderful. Wait some hours till the rapo reports that he is alone. Then we make our move. Have you instructed the Peace Brigadiers which were given to us by Idao?"

"Yes. They weren't co-operative at first, but I found means to get them to do what we want. Two of Idao's men will accompany them to supervise the move. Though they will be surprised that it will happen so soon."

The Priestess frowned: "Believe me, I didn't want it that way. But I have no other choice. Idao's attack on the infidel planet makes it too dangerous for me to return to Lah's ship.
Send the signal to Mezhan Kwaad, then see to it that you accompany the Peace Brigadiers. And do every preparation Kwaad told you to. Once we have the Jeedai, we have to hurry.
It won't take Lah too long to figure out who is behind all this and when he has discovered my treachery, I want to have him at my disposal, is that clear?"

"Perfectly clear, Mistress." Lonan bowed and cut the connection.

"Good." Elan purred, then proceeded also towards the exit. "It proves to become interesting." She murmured.

And then it happened. Mara, finally becoming totally aware that they were talking about KIDNAPPING Luke, pressed her fingernails in an attack of anger into the building. With a deep howl, the thing began to move.

The Priestess spun around and, for some seconds, looked Mara straight in the eyes.
Enraged, she cried into a tiny villip into her hands.

Cursing, Mara had already begun to run back atop the hill she had come from, when the Yuuzhan Vong warrior appeared some ten meters to her right, grinning widely.

Noting how long his amphistaff was, Mara had no other choice as to fight him.
Replying his cruel smile, Mara activated her lightsaber, delighted by its deep humming. Her first fight in perfect condition for almost a year now. The Vong would soon wish to never have met her.

Idao's eyes widened in surprise. "Jeedai." He hissed, grinning more broadly, then he uncurled his amphistaff.

Coruscant, Skywalker Apartment, some hours after the return from the Criarto

Luke stretched his arms and finally shut the datapad down. The last few hours, he had sent various messages to his Jedi Knights, giving them new missions. Together with Wedge, he had gotten together Rogue Squadron and some veterans to accompany them to Corellia.

The delegation and its reinforcements, together with the Criarto, would leave tomorrow for Corellia to investigate the raid on the planet.
It seemed to get another few days without much sleep - not that he thought he could sleep anyways.

Glancing for at least the thousandst time at the strange, little villip in front of him, he sighed.
He hoped the Priestess would return with news before tomorrow morning. He wouldn't be able to bear another postponing of a possible cure for Mara.

Shaking his head, he took the little animal into his hand, watched its regular movements for some time, then stashed it back into his pocket. It would best stay there while he cleaned up the mess of data disks he had left behind in his living room.

~**

On the ship Criarto, Lonan had been carefully tracking every move of the Jeedai through the transmission of the rapo and when the tiny, sophisticated animal reported it had been once again stashed into the tunic pocket, she gave the signal for it to finally do what was its nature.
Grinning, she patted the second villip on the table to inform her personal coralskipper about the nearing take-off.

~**

Luke didn't even get the slightest warning from the Force. In the few seconds that were left to him, he didn't even come around to understand what had happened to him.

With a sharp hiss Luke didn't even hear, the rapo, not even slightly related to a villip, catapulted it's sharp spikes into the flesh of the humans left thigh and injected his poison.

With a low groan, the Jedi Master crumpled to the floor and didn't move anymore.

Thus, he wasn't even aware of the persons sneaking into his apartment and dragging his inert form with them.

~**

The docking and exchange of the precious good went on in total silence and astonishing speed at the night site of Coruscant's moon and none of the infidel's sensors was able to track it down.

Aboard her personal coralskipper, Lonan smiled and ordered the ship to go to what the infidels called hyperspace. In the small compartment in the back of the ship, where the lights were shut down, guarded by two warriors, lay a still figure.

Lonan hummed satisfied - she had fulfilled her mistress's orders. Priestess Elan would be extraordinarily pleased.
Folks!

It's Sunday and that means another chap of JD! Yep, yep, yep.
I love the chapter I've just written, although I'm not quite sure about one scene - it's the first fight scene I've ever written and I don't know whether I've gotten it right.

Otherwise, I think it's again PG-13, but I'm not sure because one scene is rather violent and could be described as ugly... well, see yourself.

As always, I'd simply LOVE tons of feedback.

The usual legal smegal:
Everything in the SW Universe belongs to George Lucas. I gain no money with this and I'm doing it just for fun.

Enjoy!

Jedi Dawn - Part 12
Coruscant, Imperial Palace, Personal Landing Bay of the President, 1 day later
The first tentative rays of Coruscant's sun creeped into the hangar, not really warming, but nonetheless fiercely trying to create a warm atmosphere and to give the cold metal walls a cosy gleam.
Han Solo blinked, then eyed worriedly towards the lift tubes. His brother-in-law was late - and not just a few minutes, but almost half an hour. The rest of the delegation was impatiently waiting in front of their transport, their reactions quite different. While Kre'fey and Pellaeon showed the clearest signs of annoyance, the faces of Teneniel and Wedge were wrinkled in a frown as uncomfortable as Han's was.

It was not like Luke to come to late if something was important. And it didn't need a Force sensitive to tell that the peace negotiations with the Yuuzhan Von WERE important.
Even more so now, that both parties wanted to formulate a plan for the investigation on Corellia.

A short meeting aboard the Criarto was planned, then, in three hours, a group of New Republic ships would leave for the corellian system, accompanied by five of the Hapan ships and the Criarto - plus its coralskippers.

It was an impressing strike force and Han wondered for quite a time now how the authorities on his homeplanet would react upon a full-grown Yuuzhan Vong warship jumping into their system.
But this thought had long vanished from his mind and had been replaced by a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Luke was too long overdue - Han shot his wife a glance. "Well?" he gruffed.
Leia's eyes were wide with anxiousness when she slowly shook her head: "I don't know, Han. Either he is blocking me, as he has all the time over the last days when he wanted to be for himself or... " she left the sentence unfinished, not sure herself what other answer there were.

"Ok, fine." Han mumbled, unconsciously fumbling his blaster, then gesturing over to Wedge. His fellow corellian was at his side some seconds later, his eyes transfixed on Han's right hand that was still at his blaster.

"Problems?" he asked, in a voice clearly showing that he long knew that there were indeed some problems.

"Perhaps." Han answered curtly, glancing at the lift tube for a final time. When the doors didn't open, he squared his shoulders.

"Ok, Leia. I take Wedge and we go check on Luke. You and Teneniel try to clam our two military men down."

Leia nodded, that frown still wrinkling her beautiful face. She brushed her lips over Han's cheeks and proceeded toward the rest of the delegation while her husband and Wedge went towards the lift tube.

"What do you think where he is?" Wedge asked lowly, pushing the button for Luke's floor and leaning against the tube's back-wall.
"I hope he is in his bed and sleeps." Han replied darkly.

**~

On the way down to Luke's apartment, all possible scenarios had gone through Han's head. He wondered whether he would find Luke simply asleep in his bed, his body finally catching up with all the rest it hadn't gotten in the last weeks, or whether he would find him apathetic, drunk, crying... in essence, he was prepared to find his friend in every emotional and physical state he could think of.

What he wasn't prepared to was to don't find him at all - instead, they encountered dozens of data disks sprawled over the living room floor, a good bunch of meters away from the only, small table in there.

Han stood there, his previous ideas blown to pieces, and stared at the datadisks. One of them, just one, had slid as far as under the table.
That was not good - Luke was not the type of man who left his apartment a mess in any way and Han doubted that he had suddenly got the idea to drop the data disks while on his way into his bedroom.

"He is not in his bed." Wedge reported, leaning at the railing of the stairs, still frowning. "Han?"

The former Rogue Squadron leader frowned even more when he got no answer from his friend and went over to him, following his stare.
There, on the floor, was a dark speck, dark red - it took both men only a few seconds to confirm that it was blood.

**~
"Do you think he has hurt himself?" Leia asked ten minutes later, her voice rough while she couldn't take her eyes from the blotch on the carpet.

Han's head spun around, then he pressed Leia shortly at his chest: "No. Honey, don't think something like this. Luke would not do something like this."

"But you know how he was all these weeks, Han. He is depressive, he..."

Her husband lay his hand over her mouth to silence her and gazed into her big, shimmering eyes intently: "Leia, think a bit, will you? Even if he would have tried it, he wouldn't have done it here. And he certainly wouldn't have had a bunch of data disks into his hands." Han stroke her back, then added: "And that's not enough blood for something like that - right?" he turned towards the medical droid which had been sent for along with the Palace Guard.

"Absolutely, sir."

"Your guess?" Leia asked, her voice slowly coming back to normal while she tried to push the image of her brother killing himself out of her head.

"The only conclusions to be drawn are that the wound was not lethal and that she has been sealed almost immediately. There is not a single trace of blood elsewhere in the apartment. It happened approximately seven hours ago."

Leia blanched: "Seven hours? No doubt?" she repeated lowly. That was too long - whoever had done whatever to Luke, they would most probably be gone by now

"No doubt, Your Excellency."

The alderaanian princess swallowed hard, then turned to her guards: "Close the spaceports immediately. Every ship on the planet and still in the system is to be searched. Now." She barked.

The guards bowed and hurried away. "What about the Criarto?" Wedge asked, his gaze intent.

Leia's eyes went from being worried to being hard: "I'm sure Tsavong Lah will be delighted to show us around." With this, she strode out of the apartment, Wedge and Han on her heels.

Vong Ship Criarto, 1 hour later

"Princess Leia, why are you this late?" Tsavong Lah barked when they stepped in front of him in their usual hangar bay.

Leia rewarded him with an icy stare: "Are you sure you can't answer this yourself."

The warmaster narrowed his glinting eyes, taking in the obviously barely constrained nervousness in her delegation and Teneniel's fingers gripping and releasing the handle of her lightsaber again and again.

"I don't understand your hints, Your Excellency. Do you care to enlighten me?"

"Warmaster, I swear to you, you'll regret it should you try to play me for a fool." She hissed, crossing her arms over her chest and stepping closer to him.
The warmaster's honor guards began to growl lowly and some even shook their amphistaffs awake and seemed eager to throw themselves onto Leia.

Only Lah's outstretched arm prevented them from it.

"I'm not trying anything like this, Princess Leia. If you continue insulting me without explaining why you do, you won't like the consequences." He hissed back.

For some minutes, Leia just stared at him, contemplating which possibilities she had.
Her reason, her brain, told her that it could be no one else but Lah who had kidnapped Luke. That somewhere on this ship, her brother was being held and was probably wounded.
Unfortunately, her heart and her feelings told her, as absurd as it seemed to her brain, that she could trust Tsavong Lah in some close-cut borders. The Yuuzhan Vong leader hadn't shown any sign of betrayal yet and was surprisingly co-operative. And, most of all, he respected Luke. He wouldn't sneak into his apartment in the night and hijack him.
He would challenge him openly and demand an honorous fight.

Finally, Leia's feelings got the upper hand and she relaxed a little bit - just so much that it was clearly visible for Lah and his guards.
"My brother, Luke Skywalker, has been kidnapped." She stated, the words feeling terrible on her tongue.

This surprised the Yuuzhan Vong obviously. It took him a full minute to reply in a dangerous voice: "And now you dare to assume that "I" gave the order for his abduction?"

Leia perched an eyebrow: "If you were me, you'd come to the same conclusion, Warmaster."

"Probably." He murmured, then leaned back to listen to one of his guards who whispered something into his ear.
When he once again looked at Leia, his eyes gleamed even more wildly. "Your ships have a target lock on our dovin-basals."

"Again, think about what you'd do if you were me." Leia replied.

For what seemed like an eternity, Lah stared intently at her, his eyes spitting fire. Then, he grinned ferociously and said, with respect obvious in his voice: "Perhaps I've underestimated your race, Leia Organa-Solo. You don't take blows against your domain lightly. What now?"

The pain in Leia's tensed shoulders eased a little bit. "I would appreciate it if you would show us around... everywhere."

Lah grinned more broadly: "Of course."

Dathomir, Elan's and Idao's meeting place

Mara smirked at her counterpart, waiting almost eagerly for him to make the first blow. It had been too long since she had had a good, clean fight.
True, she had sparred with Luke, but since she had fallen ill, he hadn't fought her with all his abilities.

And, finally, with an growl of pure rage, the Vong warrior charged with a high blow to her head which she blocked easily. She led her blade slid down his amphistaff, feigning an attack at the most vulnerable spot of his armour.

As she had guessed, he immediately pushed her saber away, leaving his side wide open. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite as dumb as the other Yuuzhan Vong she had fought against till now.

When Mara brought her right knee up to kick him into his stomach, he caught her leg. With an evil grin that showed his sharp teeth, he twisted it viciously, causing Mara to cry out in pain and loose her balance.

In the next second she found herself face-down at the ground, barely avoiding her own blade, her leg hurting incredibly and felt the Vong's amphistaff at her throat, accompanied by a low cackle and some contempt sounding words in a strange tongue.

Mara didn't have the slightest idea what he was talking about. Not that she actually cared.
With a pain-filled yelp, she rolled to the side, pressing her body flat at the rocky ground. The amphistaff slid past her only centimetres over her throat, but did no damage.

His eyes widened surprised, the Yuuzhan Vong changed the course of his weapon in a mere second, obviously intending to finish her of, but Mara was as fast as he was.
Bringing her blade back up, she blocked the blow and kicked him with all power that she could summon into her injured leg between his legs.
She had no idea whether Yuuzhan Vong males were built basically like human males, but when her counterpart howled enraged and doubled over, she smirked.
Obviously they were. Ignoring the pain every movement caused, she jumped back on her feet and was about to sever the Vong's head when a movement some meters behind her caught her attention.

The female, which had watched gleefully until her specimen had been subdued, was heading at full throttle towards the coralskipper parked beside the building.
Mara swore - she couldn't let this bitch get away. This Vong woman was the only one who could tell her what they wanted from Luke.

Mara's eyes darted around and focused on a large rock some five meters beside the coralskipper - with delighting easiness, Mara lifted the stone with the Force and let it crush onto the strange ship's nose, then on his cockpit.

She caught a faint, dull howl of pain, affirming once again that this ship lived, and was relieved when the female cried something mean sounding into her direction and changed directions.

Well, should she. Mara would intercept her quite easily before she could reach the other ship behind the hill.
Or at least Mara thought so till a faint hissing warned her just in time to dodge another blow from the warrior, a blow that would have split her neatly in half otherwise.

Obviously, Yuuzhan Vong were able to recover much faster than human men, if it came to blows against these parts of her physique.
A human guy would have thrown up and been out of the game for at least ten minutes.

Everything that the kick had earned her with the Vong was that he was even more angry.

But anger, as Luke had taught her again and again and as she had come to see was quite true over the years, lead to mistakes - in this case, to deadly mistakes.

Shouting the now familiar battle cry of his race, he stormed forward, bringing his weapon up to crush down onto her already injured leg.
He didn't get the slightest possibility to bring her down.

Drawing on the Force, Mara jumped into the air and, in one fluent movement, somersaulted over him, spun around and buried her lightsaber deep in his neck.

He still managed to push her bodily away from him and she stumbled ungracefully some meters back, but when she had regained her stability and looked back, the Yuuzhan Vong was already lying dead at the ground.

Slightly panting and limping, Mara went over to him, made sure he really was dead, then deactivated her saber.

"Now.." she said satisfied, "that was fun."

The strangely familiar sound of the starting coralskipper pushed her out of her contentment and let her run as fast as she could towards the top of the hill, but she was too late.

The ship was already in the air and sped away at full speed, taking the female with it.

"Damn!" She cried. Now the Vong would get an awfully big lead over her.

Clipping her lightsaber back at her belt, Mara began to make her way back to the Holy River Clan Fortress, mercilessly using her injured leg, trying hard not to think at what she had heard about the female's plans.

**~

Elan sighed relieved when she finally got Idao's coralskipper to jump into the lightspeed-equivalent.
Unlike her private ship, this one was equipped and bred for military purposes and she was completely unfamiliar with it.

She would have loved to blast this damn human woman into oblivion but she had no idea how to command this vehicle to shoot.

Not that it was important - this woman had come by foot and that meant she would need at least a day to get to any sort of transport. Till then, Elan would be far, far away and this bitch would have no chance to find her.

Thus, it really didn't matter much that she had overheard Elan's plans to kidnap Skywalker.
And, besides, she should actually thank the bitch - she had killed Idao and saved Elan a lot of scheming and dirty work.

Content, the priestess activated the villip of the ship, so far the only thing that was similar to her own ship and some moments later, the smiling face of her trusted sister appeared.

"Judging by your face, I assume everything went well?" Elan asked.

"Absolutely, Mistress. We are done."

"Done?" Elan panted, leaning forward, barely able to conceal her eagerness.

"Yes. The Jeedai is in the aft compartment of my ship."

"Still unconscious?"

Lonan vanished for some seconds, then her face nodded affirmatively: "Still out cold."

"And the Shaper?"

"She is ready and waiting at our meeting point. She told me to inform you that everything is prepared and she can begin as soon as you arrive."

Elan grinned: "Perfect. How long will it take you to get there."

Her sister glanced somewhere below her: "Three days."

"I can be there in five. Take care that Kwaad doesn't get her hands on him till I'm there."

Lonan's eyebrows went higher: "You don't trust Mezhan Kwaad, Mistress?"

Elan snorted: "She is a SHAPER, Lonan. If they get curious, you can never trust them. See to it that the Jeedai is save. I don't want anything to happen to him."

"As you wish."

The villip collapsed and Elan leaned back in her chair, satisfied. Now she had even time to grant herself a little holiday before she would take care of the Jedi. It would surely be fun to make herself a new familiar and a new tool.

Deep Space, Five days later

By the time Elan boarded the ship of her cr?e-sister, she had began to get utterly bored in her little, own vessel. Aside from this, she just was too eager to begin her scheme.
Her sister bowed before her, but Elan gestured for her to relax and even embraced her shortly.

Then her eyes darted around in the cockpit of the ship. "Where is he?" Lonan gestured to the compartment in the back that was currently sealed by a part of the ship itself.

"I have of course held him in darkness. To enhance the effects of the rapo's poison."

Elan smiled: "Very good. I had no doubt that you'd do everything as I've told you."

The young female beamed, then patted a place at the "wall" of the ship and the opening to the storage compartment slid open.

Elan released the breath she had held till now. Amused, she became aware that she, up till now, had still thought it to be possible that someone had made a mistake and they had caught the wrong person.

But everything had worked out quite wonderful. The slender human was Skywalker, no doubt.

"Contact Kwaad's ship. We're coming aboard immediately." Elan commanded, kneeling down beside the man. At his left thigh, the rapo had formed a shining, black ball which Elan patted softly.
"You did your job well." She whispered, sliding her fingers under the ball and carefully releasing its spikes from the Jeedai's flesh.

In the past hours, the rapo had fed on the Jeedai's blood and had in return injected steadily more of his poison, keeping the human effectively under for the whole voyage.

Now, that she had severed the animal, Skywalker would come to in an hour or so, but that would be just fine.

**~

The first thing Luke became aware of when he regained consciousness was the cold. It was icy cold and he trembled.

Not aware of his surroundings or anything but the freezing temperature that bit at his skin, he tried to swing his arms around himself, but met resistance.

Trying his best to surpress the shivering, he slowly blinked his eyes open, trying to recognise anything, but his world was blurred.
And so cold.

The cold prevented him from thinking clearly and from remembering what had happened. The pain in his left leg didn't make anything better. It pulsed and the icy air cut into it like a vibro-blade.
Besides, he was tired. He felt like falling asleep immediately. His clouded mind clearly favoured this possibility over finding out where he was and he was already drifting of again when someone grabbed his chin and lifted his head.

Luke forced himself to blink again, but whoever it was, for his eyes he or she was not more than a dark spot before an light background.
He jerked his head back out of reflex, but the hand only gripped him harder and he felt a cup being hold at his lips.

Pressing his mouth firmly shut, Luke tried again to get his head free, but again the hand proved surprisingly strong.
At the next moment, someone pried his mouth open brutally and he had no choice but swallowing whatever was in this cup.

It tasted like water, alright, but that didn't mean anything, as Luke had come to know over the years.

To his utter wonderment, though, it seemed to have been nothing more than water and it helped almost immediately. His vision cleared and the throbbing pain in his leg subsided a little bit.

Blinking again, he finally recognised the person standing before him and felt his jaw drop.

"You!" he shouted, or at least tried to. What finally came out of his mouth was nothing but a hoarse croaking.

"Surprised?" Elan asked, grinning at him.

The first thought that struck Luke was that this meant there would never be a cure for Mara. Elan had lied to him to manipulate him. There was no cure for Mara.

Choking back the lump in his throat, Luke forced himself to look back up into the exotically beautiful face of the Yuuzhan Vong female, then to take in his surrounding. It looked like a Vong ship, alright. Just as the Criarto, though he didn't think he was on this particular ship.

His arms were held firmly at the wall by a thin line of a fairly hard material and the more he tried to get free, the harder it pressed his wrists against the wall. So no sense in trying this.

He also became aware that he didn't wear his own clothes anymore, but trousers and a shirt of a strange feeling fabric that seemed to move!

This way secured and still feeling numb because of the cold, he crouched before the Priestess and tried to get any feeling on the Force, but to no avail.

"That quiet, Jeedai?" Elan cackled amused.

"Perhaps I'm just frozen before your eyes." He murmured, shifting slightly to ease the pain in his leg.

The Priestess frowned, but still smirked: "You will be warmer soon. The cold is only to make the first lesson a little bit more effective."

"Lesson? What lesson? What do you want from me?" Luke asked, still trying to push his Force senses out of the dull bubble that was the alien ship.

Elan tipped her finger onto her chin while she stepped back, a mystifying smile on her face. A shimmering membrane built up between her and him, but he could still hear her answer clearly.

"Oh, she wants lots of things from you, human." Startled by the strange voice beside him, Luke turned his head around to stare gaping at another Vong female. But this one was not like Elan.

This one was taller, thinner, and she was tattooed and had scars all over her face, her throat and her arms, which were free by the way. The strangest, though, was what she wore on her head. It looked like a plant or something, with many small, thick tendrils which moved steadily.

"And you are?" he asked, wondering why he suddenly felt so afraid. He had a downright terrible feeling if he looked at this being.

"Mezhan Kwaad - I am a shaper. Your shaper." She grinned an predatory grin and knelt down before him, but not near enough to kick her, as Luke noted at the fringes of his perception.

"My shaper?" he repeated, eyeing her suspiciously.

She nodded, smiling, then cupped his cheek. Luke's eyes widened in horror when he saw that several vicious looking tools seemed to GROW out of her digits. Shapers were bioengineers, he remembered. That was what Elan had told him.

"Priestess Elan has hired me. She asked me to shape you."

Luke froze, barely able, for the first time in over a decade, to hide the terror and fear that built up within him.
"You mean.." he stammered, still glancing at the shimmering tool-fingers of the Vong named Mezhan Kwaad.

"Exactly. She wants me to shape you into her familiar." Elan, behind the membrane, nodded eagerly, her eyes never leaving him, as he had noted.

Luke swallowed, slightly irritated about the actual quite nice voice of the Shaper and her obvious attitude to explain what she did.

"What's a familiar?" he asked, trying to avoid the Vong female, but he had no possibilities to flee. Yet.

"You will learn soon enough. However, the shaping involves several phases, you know. You could call it lessons." Kwaad chattered, still cupping his cheek and intently eyeing his forehead.

She turned toward the Priestess. "You want it here?" she asked. Elan nodded: "Yes. And exactly the one I sent you."

"Yeah, yeah." Kwaad waved her comment away, then smiled at Luke. "These minor things are really unnerving, you know. But you are quite a challenge for me. I've never worked on a human yet. And never on a Jeedai. A human Jeedai is a special bonus, one could say." She giggled lowly.

Before Luke could ask another question, Elan furiously hissed: "Now begin, Mezhan. I didn't hire you for chatting with him."

"Alright, alright". The Yuuzhan Vong sighed lowly, then showed Luke one of her fingers which had a sharp pincer on it. It gleamed and he supposed it would make for a good knife, too.

"Look carefully at it, human. It's the first part of the first lesson you will undergo." She tipped at his nose with it, then grinned again.

"You know what the first lesson is?" she asked.

Luke shook his head, knowing nothing to reply and feeling totally paralysed.

"How should you, anyway." Mezhan Kwaad shrugged her shoulders, then lay her left hand into his neck and brought his face nearer to hers.

She took the pincer-finger away from his nose: "The first lesson, human, is obedience." She hissed and before Luke could say anything, she rammed, to his utter surprise and not lesser horror, the finger with the pincer into his forehead and his world exploded into the most intense pain he had ever felt.

**~
Leia Organa-Solo, who sat with her husband, Wedge and Teneniel into her living room, going over dozens of list of ships that had left the day Luke had vanished, cried out and slumped to the floor.

**~
Mara Jade-Skywalker, who had just sent her ship Jade Sabre into hyperspace collapsed onto the floor of her sleeping cabin, clutching her head frantically.

**~

Elan watched in absolute delight and was slightly aware that she actually grinned.
Mezhan Kwaad crouched into the space the membrane had sealed off. She had long released the Jeedai and was still working on his forehead, now and then glancing at a small villip that displayed the wishes of her "client".

She couldn't see Skywalker's face because it was hidden in Kwaad's lap, next to which a ever growing line of blood was trickling down in her own direction.

The only thing she could see of her future familiar were his twitching and convulsing arms and legs.
Folks!

I did it! Jedi Dawn 13 was in danger for some time (my brother turned unexpectedly up at home *argh*), but now it is finished.
I hope you like it, but I warn you, it's dark :D

As always, please give me as much feedback as you can. I appreciate it a GREAT deal.

As to the legal smegal:
The SW universe and everything in there belongs to George Lucas. I gain no money from this and this is just for fun.

Now enjoy!

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn - Part 13

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, Medic Bay, 1 day later

When Leia blinked into the pale, worried face of her husband, she didn't know where she were, nor why she was there.
Only slowly she became aware of the white, sterile room and the slow, mechanical sounds of the droid that stood beside Han and fuddled at some instruments.

Before she could utter a single question, Han had thrown her into his arms and hugged her so close that she though her ribs would break in the next moment.

"Han..." she croaked, trying carefully to push him away.
He held her on arm's length, stroke her face and whispered: "Leia.... I'm so glad you woke up. You scared the hell out of me, Princess." Again, her corellian pressed her against himself and rocked her from left to right.

Leia couldn't help but smile at him, then patted his shoulders softly: "It's ok, Han. I'm fine. I'm fine."
It didn't surprise her at all that her husband frowned at her doubtfully, but he released her at least and sank onto the edge of the medical bed she lay in.

"How long have I been here?" Leia asked while she pushed her hair out of her face and leaned back, feeling a little sick when the events of the past evening came back to her.

"Almost a day." Han told her lowly, worriedly eyeing her pale face and the thin lines around her mouth that had eaten their way into her skin since Luke had vanished without a trace.

"It was Luke." She murmured, clutching his hand into her cold ones, as if she'd heard his thoughts. Probably she had.

"WHAT was Luke? Leia, I though you'd die. You cried and cramped and..." Han's voice trembled and it was not to oversee that he had to fight hard to maintain his composure.

"It was Luke." She repeated, then, when she saw that Han did still not understand, she added: "They did that to Luke."

Han paled even more, then asked again, even more lowly this time: "WHAT did they do to Luke, Leia? And who's THEY?"

The big eyes of his wife were wide and stared at the wall behind him and she swallowed hard before she answered.
"I don't know exactly, Han. I just know that it hurt. It hurt ME." Now she looked directly at him: "What I felt, Han, was Luke's pain. A part of Luke's pain."

"A part? You mean... you mean, he hurt even more?" he repeated in a voice that could barely be heard.
Leia pressed her lips together and nodded: "Whatever I experienced, Han, Luke did experience it ten times worse. Or more."

Han's stare broke away from hers and his eyes rested on her mattress. She felt a shiver go through him and felt the deep concern and almost downright fear for Luke.

When he didn't say another thing, Leia cleared her throat, then asked, softly caressing his hand: "What happened to me, Han?"

He took his time till he answered, but when he did, his voice was firm once again: "We were just about to check the last couple of ships when you suddenly cried out and crumpled to the floor.
We instantly called the medic - you cried some time, then you had... had these cramps." He took a deep breath, then added: "They said a part of your brain convulsed. But they don't know why. Do YOU know why?"

Leia sighed: "No. I don't really know why. I just know that they hurt him. He hurt so much." She whispered, shivering slightly.
Han embraced her again.

"Have you any idea where he is?" he asked softly. Almost instantly, he felt Leia shaking her head at his shoulder.

"Again no. But I think with help, I can trace him."

"How?" Han asked befuddled.

"I can't feel his presence in the Force, Han, but.... They're hurting him STILL. He is in that great a pain, I can FEEL it. I think I can trace the pain to where he is. But not alone."

"We will get you help, I promise." He whispered, then assumed again rocking her back and forth.
After a long time of comforting silence, he murmured: "We will get him out. And these damn aliens will pay for whatever they did to him. "

"You think they are Yuuzhan Vong?" Leia murmured back, relishing, with eyes closed, the sorely missed feeling of being that close to her husband.

"I'm sure of it." Han growled, playing with her hair.

"He wasn't on the Criarto. We searched the whole ship."

"That they are Yuuzhan Vong doesn't necessarily mean that they have connections to Lah." Han pushed her softly back onto the mattress and lay himself down beside her, still stroking her long, brown hair softly.

Leia smiled thinly: "So you trust Tsavong Lah?"

Han grinned back: "Up to a certain level, I do. I'm sure he's serious about a peace treaty. I don't think he particularly likes Luke and he would certainly take the possibility to kill him in battle, if he should be able to, but he hasn't hijacked him."

"But who else?"

Han frowned: "I don't know. But if the Yuuzhan Vong government is anything like ours, than there will surely be opposition to Lah's plans. And this opposition would certainly blame Luke for everything - well, "he added, "they are right about that. He has blown their fleet into oblivion."

Leia grinned at the brotherly pride that crept into Han's voice. She extended her hand and caressed softly over Han's temples.
"You fear for him, don't you?"

Han's hazel eyes stared into hers and he smiled weakly: "I neglected him very much after Chewie's death - I forgot that I had other friends after Chewie died." He stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.

"In the last weeks I've spent more time with Luke than with anyone else and I've become aware of some things, Leia. Things I didn't know I felt and things I had just forgotten."

He was silent some time, then looked again at her, his eyes showing something she seldom saw in them - fear and remorse.
"I don't want to loose him, too. Not him, too." He whispered.

Leia felt tears brimming in her own eyes when she cuddled close to her husband: "I neither."
She felt like the tears would overcome her, but she was determined to prevent that.
As soon as the droid would give his ok, she would be out of here, contact Kyp or Corran, or both at best, and would begin to trace Luke. She would get him out - no matter how.

Pushing herself up on her elbows, she leaned over Han and kissed him softly on his forehead: "Thanks." She whispered.

Han frowned: "For what? For taking half of your space in bed?"
Leia laughed: "No, you nerf-herder." She poked him gently into the chest, then became serious.

"I wanted to thank you for how you've taken care of Luke after his breakdown."

Much to Leia's delight, a slight blush appeared on Han's cheek and just how she'd expected, he almost instantly waved her comment away.
"Ah, can it, Leia. It was the least I could do after how I behaved in the last months."

She shook her head firmly, the mass of her hair swirling around her: "No, Han. If not for you, he wouldn't have made it out of it the way he has."

Han perched an eyebrow: "He hasn't been exactly healthy before..." he trailed off, not wanting to talk it out loud.

Leia took again his hand: "I know he wasn't, Han. But without you, he'd still sit in the cabin on the Ralroost, not eating, not talking...
You took him out of this stupor - perhaps you even saved his life." She added lowly, recalling these shocking evenings when she'd found her brother staring at his picture in the mirror with his eyes full of hate.

She saw Han's eyes go hard: "He would never commit suicide, Leia."
"Han, he..."
"He would never do that!" Han cut her words off, pushing himself up, too, and crossing his arms before his chest.

Sighing, Leia now embraced him: "Han, he detests himself. You've seen it, too. We have talked about it. YOU have pointed out how he behaves when he meets other people."
It took Han a long time to reply to this, and when he finally did, his voice was strange - low and incredibly sad.
"You're right. I wanted to talk to him about it the day he vanished. On the voyage to Corellia - I wanted to talk to him. About that and about this Vong priestess."

"What? What had Luke to do with the Vong Priestess?" Leia almost cried out, causing Han to twitch in surprise.

"This Vong female who has offered him her help with finding a cure for Mara." He answered incredulously.

Leia just stared at him, unbelieving.

Han frowned: "He didn't tell you about it?" Leia shook her head, then frowned herself, obviously deeply in thought.
"He said he'd need to tell me something on the way down after the second talks. You think he wanted to tell me then?"

Han nodded: "Probably. He wouldn't have kept this from you for long, you know. He told me at the first evening."

Leia bit at her lower lip, her eyes still reflecting the speed with which her thoughts raced: "So Priestess Elan offered her help to Luke. Interesting. Is she a doctor?"

Han shook his head: "No. She wanted to contact someone of a group called Shapers. Luke didn't know more than that they take care of the living ships and all this stuff. As nerf-herders, I suppose."

Leia grimaced at him, then became serious again: "I will talk to Priestess Elan when we meet Tsavong Lah this afternoon. Perhaps she will further try to find a cure, even if Luke isn't here."

Han nodded: "Ok. But till then, you will rest. You're as pale as a ghost." Leia was about to refuse, but the stern look in her husband's eyes silenced her.

"Ok, ok, I'll take a nap. If I can." She added, though.

"You will be able to, I'm sure. And after this..." Han was interrupted by the whooshing sound of the door and a young officer who came to a halt before Leia's bed, blushing deeply red when he saw the rather intimate position his Chief-of-State and her husband were in. Totally befuddled, he stood there and stared.

"Yes?" Leia perched an eyebrow, eyeing him questioningly.
Gulping, the youth stared again at his datapad, as if he had suddenly forgotten why he had disturbed the President of the New Republic in the first place.

"Um... eh... I'm sorry to disturb you, Your Excellency, it's just that you ordered - I mean, you said under ANY circumstances and I thought I should act according to this, you know. I couldn't guess you'd be..."

"Listen, boy, either you tell us what's gotten you to race in here like a pod with a defect engine, or you reverse course and vanish, ok?" Han barked, entangling himself carefully from Leia's long hairs who had wrapped themselves around him in some places.

"The Jade Sabre has asked for landing permission and is scheduled for arrival in half an hour." He exploded, his eyes begging at them to tell him that he had been right to disturb them.

In the next second, Leia was out of bed and half-way through the door.
"Leia, wait! You should..."

She spun around on her heels, her eyes blazing and her voice daring him to challenge her. "I should what? Calm down? Be nice with her? Hear her out first? Should what, Han?" she almost shouted.

Han smirked: "You should dress first, dear."

Leia stared down at herself, noting for the first time the short, clinical dress she wore and which barely concealed her thighs. Blushing slightly, she darted for the chair she saw her clothes lying on, not giving Han a single glance.

"But the other things would be nice, too, you know." He added, grinning from ear to ear after having pushed out the young officer to give Leia some privacy.

Now she shot him a glance that would have killed him if it had been a laser bolt. "Spare me, Han. She has left him!"

"Yes, but she deserves to be given the possibility to explain herself." Leia opened her mouth, but Han lay his hand on her beautiful lips. "Besides, if anyone has a stronger connection to Luke than you, then it's her, Leia. She will be the best help you can get in tracing him."

Leia snorted, but didn't say anything else, which, as Han thought, was definitely a good sign.
More or less content with his achievement of cooling her down, he followed her out of the med-center.

Deep Space

"Why have you sealed off the membrane, Kwaad? I wanna see him!" Priestess Elan fumed while she restlessly paced before the black, shimmering barrier that separated her from her new pet.

Mezhan Kwaad didn't pay her that much attention, fully focused on cleaning her pincer with all due care.
Only when Elan placed herself before her, the Shaper gave her a short glance.

"I already explained to you, Priestess Elan, that he needs calm. Time to recover."

"Time to recover? You said you'd want to break him, to make him obedient. And now you want to let him gather new strength?" the Priestess hissed, her dark eyes glinting with rage.

The tendrils of Kwaad's head-dress cramped together in annoyance. "If I'd continue now, without giving his body time to regain a certain amount of new power, I'd most probably kill him. Do you want me to do THAT, Priestess Elan? Just say it."

Elan bit her lower lip, then huffed: "Okay. But I won't accept that for long, Kwaad. I have no time to be patient, you know."

Kwaad rose and towered overt he much smaller woman: "Don't tell me how I have to do my job, Priestess. Be grateful that I've agreed to help you in your disobedience. I'm risking my very life and the honor of my domain for your petty desires. Because I liked your idea. But if you continue to annoy me, I could change my mind."

For a moment, Elan seemed to want to explode in rage, but somehow she managed to restrain herself. Instead of shouting at Kwaad and beginning a new dispute, she simply stated: "I wanna see him. Now."

Mezhan Kwaad grimaced, shaking her head, but went over to the membrane nonetheless. "One could think you actually LIKE to look at this disgusting individual, Priestess."

Elan smiled: "Perhaps I do, Kwaad, perhaps I do. Can I see him now, yes or no?"

Kwaad snorted: "As it happens, I want to check on him anyway, to make sure everything is going as it should. But you'll do NOTHING without asking me, understood?"

Again, it seemed as if the priestess wanted to deny that, but finally she nodded.

Kwaad smiled thinly, then lay her hand on a certain patch of the membrane, which shivered and became clear at once. As soon as Kwaad had opened a part of it, Elan squeezed next to her into the cage-space and went over to the Jeedai.

Shaking her head, the Shaper wondered once again what Elan saw in this weak, little thing.
But the Priestess seemed fascinated when she kneeled down beside the human, who sat slumped in the corner of the small space, not reacting in any way. His arms lay weak and unmoving beside him and his eyes were half-closed and filled with pain.

"He's so exotic, don't you think? He looks a little bit Yuuzhan Vong." Elan said, not letting her eyes off of him.
"He has broken his nose some time in his life, yes. But that has been a long time ago and I doubt it was on purpose." Kwaad stated, kicking the Jeedai viciously into his left thigh, exactly at the place the rapo had been sitting for over six days.

The human moaned in pain and obviously tried to get his arms to clutch the hurting spot on his leg, but, as Kwaad stated contentedly, he wasn't able to move them in any controlled way.
They lifted a little bit from the floor, but then sagged back again. Though, it was more than she'd have expected him to be able to just yet.

"Interesting." She murmured, kneeling down too and pressing one of her sharp needle fingers into one of the naked feet of the Jeedai.
His back arched and his eyes turned inward, his moans increasing. Kwaad frowned, then withdraw the needle just in time to keep the human conscious - or at least in the state he was now in.

"What?" Elan asked. "Doesn't he heal?" her voice suspicious and worried. The Shaper shook her head. "On the contrary. He heals exceptionally soon. He shouldn't be able to control ANYTHING on his body just now."

Elan was obviously irritated and Kwaad tried to explain, though she couldn't help but sound unnerved: "It's nothing that will prevent your plans, Priestess. It just means we will have to be a little more thorough."

The Priestess nodded, then focussed on the dark quadratic blotch on Skywalker's forehead that constricted regularly, always resulting in a spasmodic twitch in the Jeedai's body and a slight, unarticulated moan of agony.
"Can I see it already?" she asked eagerly, her finger hovering over the dark blotch.
It was the same membrane as separated the cage-space from the rest of the ship, only that it was very small and young.

Kwaad frowned and focused again on the Jeedai's body, catching on every single movement, as few as there were, then nodded hesitantly.

After stroking softly over the membrane-baby, the Priestess lay back and watched as the black quadratic material convulsed and formed into a small ball.

"Explain it to me." Elan demanded, watching in delight as Skywalker's head twitched uncontrolled to the right, then to the left, as the membrane withdrew it's body from the pores of his skin to form the shining, glittering ball.

Finally the ball, the size of her fingernail, lay in the midst of the most wonderful artwork she had ever seen.
"It is wonderful. You are a very artist." She murmured, extending a finger to touch it. The Shaper clutched her wrist in an iron grip: "Don't touch it yet. Not you. And now be quiet and listen if you want to understand."

Elan nodded, still staring fascinated on the Jeedai's forehead. The membrane-ball lay in the centre of a delicate carving in his skin - the personal symbol of herself - in almost a dozen of hours of careful work, Kwaad had carved it into his skin - it had healed well, though it hadn't yet any colour but the angry red of a still fresh wound.

"I'm glad you like my carving." Kwaad snorted, then pointed on the black ball. "Of course you are aware that's not the only thing I did to him. What do you know about the process of shaping a familiar?"

Elan's forehead furrowed in concentration, but she came not up with very much but a slight shrug.
Kwaad grimaced, then pinched one of her fingernails in the side of the membrane-ball, causing it to dodge to the other side.
The Jeedai convulsed violently and tried uncoordinated to avoid the pain - it only resulted in spasmodic movements without any use.

Elan bent forward and could see that a sort of tendril extended from the black ball into something that looked like a hole.

"I have carved a tunnel through his skull just up to his brain tissue - a way for the drev - membrane to settle into the small space between the skull bone and the actual brain."

"Why?" Elan asked, curiously eyeing. Kwaad rolled her eyes, then explained: "The drev - membrane is the way we will control him - his thoughts, his movements." She gestured towards the almost catatonic Jeedai: "He will only be this way until the membrane has connected with his organism and the brain cells I had to damage are repaired."

"Damaged?" Elan echoed.

"Yes. It is not to prevent, unfortunately. It's the reason why he has almost no control over his body at the moment. Every familiar I've shaped till yet was completely unable to and unaware of anything after the procedure. But he heals exceptionally good, as I already said. He will be a tough case."

"But you will succeed, won't you." Kwaad gave the Priestess a smile: "Of course I will. Not long and we will be able to continue."
Elan grinned, then followed the Shaper out of the cage-space after they had sealed the wound again.

~**

Luke didn't knew much at the moment, wasn't able to think at anything but that this was the worst pain he had ever felt.
He couldn't actually remember why, but for what seemed like an eternity, he had only felt pain - incredible intense and mind-shattering pain unlike anything he had experienced in his life.

He didn't know anymore that Kwaad had rammed the pincer-finger into his forehead, he didn't even know that his head-injury was the cause for what he felt.

At the moment, all he knew was that he lay and nothing more. His world was totally blurred, he couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything. The throbbing, cutting pain had extended into every single cell of his body and gave him no possibility to find the actual origin.

He didn't command the Force consciously to heal his head, it was an automatic reflex and he wasn't aware of it.
He felt when Kwaad kicked him, felt when she pushed her needle-finger into one of his feet, but that was everything. He didn't know it was Kwaad, he didn't know why it hurt, he just knew it hurt.

For a long, long time he was left at this state, oblivious to everything around him, only aware of the pulsating ache in his whole body.
When a part of his senses came back to him, it happened suddenly. As if he had just opened his eyes from a long sleep, his vision became clear and he was able to move - awkwardly and in pain, but he was able to.
However, the memories that Kwaad had tortured him this way and what exactly he torture had been - they were not accessible for him, far away, shielded by a black, living membrane he didn't even know was there.
His aches were so multiple, it was impossible for him to locate the one on his forehead separately.

Thus, he was not as suspicious, outraged or afraid as he should have been when Kwaad kneeled down beside him - and also the sight of Elan didn't more than trouble him a little bit, for he had no memories of her.

"You hurt." Stated the Yuuzhan Vong woman with the tendrils on her head. He knew that they were Yuuzhan Vong. Yes, he knew that.
Slowly, he nodded, trying to co-ordinate the movement and feeling a little bit proud that it actually turned out to be as it should.

"Do you want the pain to stop?" He nodded again, feeling his eyes widen in hope and his lips trying to form words - an inarticulate moan was everything that came out.

It seemed to be enough for the Yuuzhan Vong, for she nodded: "Fine. Everything you have to do is to say yes to what I tell you next. Understood."

He nodded again, wishing he could do more, but not understanding why he couldn't.
"Fine. Just repeat that: I'm a Yuuzhan Vong and my name is Liin Kwaad. I'm Priestess Elan's familiar."

He had already opened his mouth to comply to the order, when a small voice in his head startled him.
'Remember' it whispered. 'You can remember. Just use the Force. They don't know about it. They can't control it.'

He frowned, opened his mouth again, part of him determined to obey in order to make his pain stop, but the other part of him stubbornly refusing to bring anything out.

"Say it. I'm a Yuuzhan Vong and my name is Liin Kwaad. I'm Priestess Elan's familiar." Kwaad persisted, her strange eyes never leaving the blue orbs of the human.
Again, he opened his mouth, wanted to say what he had been told to say, but again this voice appeared. And this time, the rebellious part of him followed it, followed its instructions and with a jolt of pain and recognition, the Force and with it the memories flooded his mind.

That was Meezhan Kwaad! She had hurt him - horrifying images of her face, set in concentration, while she tortured him, the grinding sounds in his head whose source he still couldn't identify. His head! They had done something with him.

"I'm a Yuuzhan Vong and my name is Liin..." Kwaad began again, but this time, not a single cell in his body wanted to comply.

"No!" he cried, calling on his very reserves to push himself onto hands and knees.
With defiance and stubbornness burning in his eyes, he spat towards the Shaper: "I'm human and my name is Luke Skywalker. Whatever you tried to do to me, it went wrong."

Kwaad smiled: "No, Jeedai. It didn't go wrong. It just wasn't enough." And with this, she pushed him roughly onto his stomach, pressed his head onto the floor, and bent forward: "Don't have any fear. You'll soon know again who you are." She cackled, and Luke wanted to reply something, but then an incredible pain shot from the base of his skull into his entire body and everything he could do was cry.

**~
"What do you do?" Elan demanded to know, eyeing suspiciously and worriedly the contorted features of her familiar and the extraordinary amount of blood that spread over the floor with every helpless cough he made. His eyes showed the white and except of his gagging and coughing, he didn't resist Kwaad in any way.

Kwaad paused, one of her fingers still deeply immersed in the base of the Jeedai's skull: "As I said, he is a tough case."

Reaching into her pocket, she took out another blotch of shimmering, black drev-membrane.

"He needs a second one." She said, grinning ferociously and focussing her attention once again on Skywalker.

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, The President's Personal Landing Bay

Han couldn't quite decide what he felt towards the woman that descended the ramp of the Jade Sabre and walked determinedly over to them.

At the one hand, he was glad to see Mara alive and well, at least she seemed so from the outside.
At the other side, he couldn't forget what she had done to Luke. And even if he'd not go onto her throat immediately, he would certainly be reserved towards her.

He couldn't even guess how Leia would behave. Judging by her blazing eyes, she wouldn't be exceptionally nice to the Jedi Master.

To his utter surprise, though he supposed he shouldn't have expected anything else from Mara Jade, the fiery red-head didn't seem to be the least effected by Leia's angry greeting.

"Where is Luke?" she demanded to know, letting her eyes wander through the hangar bay, searching the familiar form of her husband.
Now that she was more close, Han could see how pale she was - she looked exactly as Leia. The corellian muttered whether she had also felt Luke's agony - he was almost sure she had.

"Oh, you actually care?" Leia spat, her right hand dangerously close to her lightsaber. Han shifted uncomfortably. Knowing Mara and Leia, it would certainly NOT surprise him if they began fighting each other here and now.

Mara's eyes narrowed: "Leia, I have felt his pain. Where is he? I have no time to waste - not with this bickering. We will talk later. First I want to see Luke."

"So, you want?!" Leia shouted. "Then lead me to him! Because I don't know where he is. The Yuuzhan Vong have him and it's only because of YOU!"

Mara paled even more, her eyes widening in horror: "The Yuuzhan Vong have him?" she repeated almost inaudible.

"And it's your fault! You have let him down!" Leia's voice trembled with rage.

"Leia, you don't understand, I had my reasons, I..." Mara began to defend herself, but that only made Leia more furious. And with a snap-hiss, just as Han had feared, Leia activated her lightsaber. Though she didn't charge yet. "Leia..." he began.

"Han, let me alone." She hissed and he backed away immediately, wondering whether she'd be able to block a mild stun bolt.

Mara had almost instantly activated her lightsaber, too, and just started to make a reply, when both women began to tremble and fainted with a cry of pure agony
And there's the next part of Jedi Dawn. I'm eagerly awaiting your comments and hope you enjoy it.

As always, I CRAVE feedback, so please don't hesitate.

The usual legal smegal:
SW and its characters don't belong to me, but to George Lucas, I gain no money from this and write just for fun.

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn - Part 14

Coruscant, Imperial Palace, The President's Personal Landing Bay

It seemed like an eternity, but finally, slowly, the pain in Leia's neck subsided and allowed her to see clearly again.
Slightly surprised, she found herself lying on the floor, gathered in the arms of her husband, his distraught voice calling her name again and again.

Swallowing to work moisture into her aching, dry throat, she patted his left biceps lightly.
"It's ok, Han. I'm back." She croaked, letting herself being helped into a sitting position.

Han's face was unnaturally grey when he eyed her, his voice almost as rough as hers: "Luke again?" he whispered, his eyes betraying the fear that had once again settled into his heart.

Leia just nodded, raising shakily and looking around, suddenly remembering what had happened before the intense wave of pain and panic had hit her.
She didn't even want to think at what the Yuuzhan Vong were doing just now to her brother, but again and again horrific visions of her own torturing by Darth Vader and Tarkin came back to her mind.

She long knew that the Empire had been almost kind in comparison to what the Yuuzhan Vong did to their prisoners.
Though why they tortured Luke instead of killing him immediately she couldn't imagine at all.

Some two meters beside her, Mara picked herself up, pushing her red-gold, heavy hairs out of her face and looking dazed into her direction.
Leia greeted her questioning, jade-green stare with a cold one, feeling the strong urge to strangle the other woman.

A warm hand lay itself onto her strained shoulders and squeezed slightly. She turned her head, catching Han's worried gaze.
Leia wondered how he managed to be so calm in face of the woman who had almost destroyed Luke.

Some weeks ago, she would have thought he just didn't care anymore for his brother-in-law. But all the times she had seen him talking quietly and softly to Luke, embracing him and giving him support - it had changed her picture of Han once again.

She had always known that he hid a soft, caring core in himself, but how soft exactly it was, that she had only seen after Luke's breakdown.
Even before their arguments and problems in the wake of Chewie's death, she would never have guessed that Han would be capable of caring for Luke this way.
That he was indeed able to show his emotions in this way. She had been positively surprised that he had and she had not exaggerated when she had said to Han that she thought he had saved Luke's life.
Her brother had been endangered - had Han not been there for him, who could know what Luke would have done to himself?

While these thoughts passed her head, she nodded slightly in Han's direction, assuring him that she would not strike at Mara again.
She didn't mention, though, that this was only due to her extreme fatigue.
The pain at the base of her skull had subsided into a strange tickling and she felt the strong need to just fall asleep.
Stubbornly, she pushed her tiredness away. There were things to be cleared and a brother to be saved. She had absolutely no time to relax.

While Leia straightened her gown, Mara had risen, too, and made her way over to her sister-in-law and her husband.
Leia smiled sarcastically when she caught Mara's attentiveness - the other woman seemed not too sure about the Princess's intentions. Good. Should she be unsure.

"Well, Mara, " she spat towards the red-head, "did it please you?"
Mara's eyes widened in shock and the knuckles of the hand she held her lightsaber with became white.

"How dare you say something like this?" Her voice trembled, her lips twitched and it was all too obvious that she slowly lost her countenance.

Han's discomfort came back at once. Now, that the shock of seeing Leia once again in this much a pain had almost vanished, the seriousness and danger of the situation returned once again to his awareness.

Both woman were dangerous and capable fighters, but unless Leia, Mara had been trained as a perfect killing machine.
And if Leia continued to prod her further this way, there was no way to tell what happened. Mara was already on the edge and Han could see that she was truly horrified by what she had felt and what Leia had said to her.

In this moment, Han recognised that Mara regretted that she had left Luke. She regretted it with all her heart and when her green eyes now sought his gaze, his last doubts disappeared.
Of course that didn't erase the guilt she had taken on by leaving him this way, but it hadn't been out of cruelty or because she didn't love Luke anymore.
It had been out of other reasons, and he knew that she had to get a possibility to explain these reasons.

The problem was that Leia wasn't in any emotional condition to think logical. Two times she had felt a fracture of the torment her brother was in, she had witnessed his breakdown, his depression, his self-torturing - it would be hard for her to rebuilt the trust she had once had in Mara Jade.

"You left him. You destroyed him. It is your fault that the Vong caught him." Leia barked, crossing her arms before her chest.

"I didn't even know he was taken captive, Leia. I came back to warn him." Mara hissed, forcing herself to clip her saber back onto her belt.

"I'm not interested..." Leia began furiously, but was interrupted by Han, who placed himself between the two women.

"Just hold on a moment there, Ladies. You came to WARN him?" Han concentrated befuddled on the ex-trader.

Mara nodded, her lips a thin line, her eyes showing distress, nervousness and, most of all, regret.
"I overheard a talk between two Yuuzhan Vong about kidnapping him." She explained, now also crossing her arms before her chest.

"That leads us to the question where you have been in all these weeks." Leia's voice was like acid and Han didn't doubt a second that she would have Mara arrested if the woman said a wrong word.
And Mara seemed to be aware of that.

"I was on Dathomir. Ask Augwynne." She stated, finally returning to her cool demeanour, more often focussing her eyes on Han.
Probably she could feel that he was willing to hear her out.

That left Leia dumbfounded: "On Dathomir? What, Minions of Xendor, did you do on Dathomir?! And what did you think in your stupid brain when you left Luke like this?"

Ok, Han thought for himself, Leia wasn't going to cool down anytime soon. The two women would have to make this clear here and now or they would kill each other as soon as they were alone.

"I think, " he said, cheerfully clapping his hands, "we're going to go to someplace more private and will discuss things right from the beginning, ok?"

Leia's eyes narrowed and for a moment she seemed to want to refuse that, but finally she nodded.
Mara sighed, then gestured to her ship: "I think my prep unit has still some caf in it. Interested?"
Han gave her a lop-sided grin: "Caf? Always." Dragging the more than fuming Leia along, he followed the red-headed woman up the ramp.

~**

Two hours later, Han decided that the only thing that could smooth out the relationship between Leia and Mara again was time - time, and, if it went perfectly, a healthy Luke Skywalker popping out of the floor right in front of them.

He sighed soundlessly. At least Leia had cooled down. Though the look of disgust, resentment and anger hadn't vanished from her beautiful face. She looked absolutely deadly, whereas Mara sat somewhat slumped in her seat, sipping occasionally on her steaming mug.

The only thing all three of them had agreed on was that they had no time to give each other a sum up of the last weeks.
So they would give each other a general overview and then try to find a way to get Luke back.

To come to this conclusion, though, two hours of hot discussion and insults had been necessary. Two hours in which not a single piece of information had passed between Leia and Mara.
Han swore that, if Leia ever dared to call HIM stubborn or temper-ruled again, he would just about kill her.

When another inefficient argument began between the two fiery women, Han lost his temper: "WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?! NOW!" he shouted, hammering his blaster onto the small table in the Jade Sabre's mess.

Two pairs of beautiful eyes, one green and one brown, turned to him, eyebrows perched, a look of total annoyance wrinkling two exceptionally beautiful faces.
Now that he had their attention, he suddenly wasn't so sure whether he did want it at all.

Clearing his throat, he began to speak in as much of a controlled voice as he could get out right now: "You're behaving like little children." When Leia opened her mouth again, Han cut her of cruelly.

"No. Now you are quiet and listen, Leia." Seeing Mara's sly smirk, he added: "And you, too, Jade. Am I the only one who's thinking about how we get Luke out of the mess he is in?"

The simple question let both women pale and lower their gaze in embarrassment.
Han snorted: "Just what I thought. To get him back, to save him, we have to work together. To forget the animosities - at least until he is safe again. Is that clear?"

It took Mara and Leia just a few seconds, then they nodded, their faces set, but their minds connected in the wish to get Luke back safely.
Han nodded contentedly: "Fine. That's what I want. And now each of you gives the other a summary of what has happened and then we're making rescue plans. Mara, it's your turn."

Mara nodded, then focussed her stare again on her mug before beginning to speak lowly: "I know that what I did was wrong, Leia. I'm sorry I hurt Luke that much and I want nothing more than to apologise to him and make up for it.
When I left, I was sure I did the right thing. My illness was taking its toll on him, too, and on our relationship. I felt... cornered. I didn't want him to worry so much and I felt as long as I'm with him, I wouldn't find any solution, any cure."

She took a deep breath, relieved at seeing the features of her sister-in-law softening - only a little bit, but still, it was a progress.

Fluently, she told Leia and Han what had happened in the weeks she had been on Dathomir, leaving out only the details about her healing. This was something she first wanted to discuss with Luke before sharing it with anyone else.

After Mara had explained herself, Leia gave her a general overview about the peace talks and a description of Luke's breakdown and behaviour after it. She didn't even try to hide the reproaches she had for Mara.

After both stories had been told, they were all quiet for a time, letting it all sink in. Han used the time to take a longer look at both of them.
Leia's features were pale and sad - the reliving of all her brother had been going through hadn't cheered her up, of course.
Though it seemed that Mara's explanations had soothed her anger - still, reproach and incomprehension were evident in her big, brown eyes when she looked at Mara, but she would be willing to work with her. If nothing else, than she would work with her to rescue Luke.

Mara, on the contrary, was as white as snow, her mug forgotten on the table, her eyes brimming with something Han had never seen on her - tears.
Her lips trembled when she sought her sister-in-law's eyes and whispered: "I'm sorry, Leia."

Leia nodded, her features not softening, though: "I can imagine." Then, lowly, she added: "He did it for you. If it hadn't be for you, he would never have accepted Elan's offer. He would never have taken the risk of getting engaged so closely with the Yuuzhan Vong."

Han expected Mara to deny that, but she just nodded. For all three of them, it was clear now that Priestess Elan somehow was behind Luke's abduction.
They didn't know why, nor how, nor what she wanted from him. But after Mara had described the female Vong she had seen on Dathomir, talking about the kidnapping, they had all agreed that it most probably had been Elan.

"Can you forgive me?" Mara asked finally, more touchy sounding than Han had ever heard her. He guessed that she just asked this to hide the fact that she was barely able to forgive herself.
Han was familiar with self-reproach, he had often enough seen it in Leia's eyes, and more often even in Luke's eyes. And it was what he saw now in Mara Jade's eyes.

Leia met Mara's gaze openly, but she was distanced: "That's not what's important, Mara. Luke has to forgive you."

Mara bit her lower lip, then repeated: "Can YOU forgive me?"

Leia took her time to reply, then she slowly shrugged her shoulders: "I don't know, Mara. Honestly, I don't know."

Mara nodded, accepting that their relationship had fallen back to the old days, in which Leia just knew that Mara had vowed to kill Luke.
No hate, but suspicions, a certain amount of trust, but no friendship. Sighing, she decided that she had to do everything to make up for all she had done.

Pushing everything back, Luke's nervous breakdown, his obvious mental problems, the fact that he had taken all these risks for her... everything that remained in her head was one thing: She had to rescue Luke. No matter how.

Han seemed to have the same thoughts: "At least we have something to start with now. We'll have to talk to Lah about Elan. Perhaps we get the permission to question her or something."

Drawing in a sharp breath, Leia squared her shoulders: "I will arrange a meeting with Tsavong Lah immediately." Without another word, she left the ship's mess. A few seconds later, they heard her steps on the ramp, then she was gone.

Mara focused her attention on Han: "You've been awfully quiet, Han." She stated, eyeing him attentively, unsure.

Han met her eyes and smiled thinly: "Whether you believe me or not, Mara, I can understand why you left." Mara's eyes lit up, but he raised a hand to prevent her from speaking: "That doesn't mean I forgive you. I have seen how he was - how it hurt him, how desperate he was. It has destroyed a part of him, Mara." He paused, then couldn't restrain himself.
"Why don't you want a child from him?" he blurted out.

Mara's eyes went wide: "He told you?" Han just nodded. His sister-in-law jumped to her feet and paced the mess nervously.
"He was about to persuade me to stay, Han. But I NEEDED this time for myself. I really NEEDED it." She sought his eyes, searching for understanding and was relieved to see a flicker of it.
"I just... freaked out. I had to find something that made him go away, quickly. It was the first thing that came to my mind. I didn't think when I said it. I'd do everything to take it back."

"I can imagine. Let's hope you get the possibility. Come one, you've got to eat something. You look starved." He dragged her along.

Deep Space

Stretching her tensed shoulders, Mezhan Kwaad rose from the back of the Jeedai, carefully manoeuvring her finger out of the base of his skull and watching as the second drev-membrane sealed the new wound.

The Jedi writhed on the floor, still coughing helplessly, blood fanning out over the floor.
Annoyed, the Shaper shook her head: "Messy job, these shapings." She murmured.

"Why does he bleed so much? The wound you made was very small." Priestess Elan queried, dancing disgustedly around the bloody blotches around her feet.

Kwaad snorted: "Think a bit. I cut the inside of his throat in the process - another thing that's not to prevent. And now I'm going to prepare the tizowyrm for his further lessons."

"What about me?" Elan asked eagerly, obviously keen to help. The Priestess didn't seem to be able to catch on to the Shaper's annoyance about that.
Knowing that the Priestess was an absolute nuisance if she had nothing to do, Kwaad thought of the next best thing.

"You can take care of him here. Stay with him as long as you like. You can begin the process of bonding already." As if it would be possible just now, she thought to herself. But Elan had absolutely NO knowledge about shaping, so it was quite easy to fool her this way.

And already the Priestess's eyes lit up with excitement and she let herself fall onto her knees beside the Jedi.

Shaking her head, muttering about the curious likings of Priestesses, Kwaad left the cage-space and went towards her laboratory.

**~

Carefully, Elan rolled Skywalker onto his back. Already now, he had begun to go absolutely limp. Mezhan Kwaad had explained to her that the second drev-membrane, in combination with the first one, would paralyse his body entirely, leaving only his mind active as soon as the brain damage had been taken care of sufficiently.

The clear mind was important, the shaper had explained, for now she wanted to begin with the psychological manipulation. His fading memories, even made more hazy by the second membrane, would only help them.

Settling his head into her lap, she began to clear the blood away from his chin and lips, smiling at him. His strangely blue eyes stared at her wide with panic, pain and disorientation.
Summoning an enormous strength, he croaked roughly, dark, glittering drops of blood appearing on his lips: "Who are you?"

Elan grinned broadly.

~**

The feeling of the Shaper's finger leaving his body was nauseating. Coughing up more and more blood, Luke tried to calm his breathing, to surpress the panic and the pain.
It seemed to take him an eternity, but finally he had succeeded. He could still taste the blood that filled his mouth and feel it trickle down into his stomach, but the need to cough wasn't as overwhelming as before.

Tired and drained, he tried to roll onto his back to make it easier to breathe and felt panic grip him anew when he recognised that he wasn't able to move his body.
And it was even worse than before. No matter how much of the Force he did summon, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move a single muscle on his body.

The sound of nearing foot-steps terrified him. She came back! She would hurt him even more! He wanted to scream, or at least to moan, but he couldn't, he just couldn't.

Bracing himself, trying to get a grip on his feelings, he felt how he was rolled onto his back.
Opening his eyes for the first time in what seemed like an eternity he gazed up in the face of... Who was that? He had the strange feeling to know the woman, but he couldn't find the name to the face, couldn't place her.

What he didn't know, would never know, was that the second drev-membrane just about had connected partly with the first one, effectively sealing off certain parts of his brain from his consciousness. To speak exactly, the parts which contained the memories of his family, of his life and everything in it before he had come into Elan's and Mezhan Kwaad's possession.

Croaking, he asked the strange woman who she was. Just when he had finished, he felt also his lips going limp and out of control. The only thing he could still control were his eyes.

If he had remembered what Elan had done to him, what Kwaad had done to him, he wouldn't have accepted that the woman cradled him in his arms, wouldn't have listened to the words in a strange language that were soothingly whispered into his ears.

But he didn't remember.

~**

Elan was more than delighted. She was absolutely, hilariously, happy. Rocking him back and forth, she talked to him, repeating again and again that he would soon have no pain anymore and would become her familiar.

Of course she was aware that he didn't understand anything she said, but her tone and her rocking did the trick.

The terror and panic in his eyes slowly declined and finally vanished totally, leaving only pain and the first traces of trust.
There was also fear - of course he was afraid, she mused, pushing a few strands of his amazingly coloured hair out of his forehead. He didn't knew anything - not his name, not where he was, nor why he was here.

Reaching into her pocket, she draw out her personal tizowyrm and let it slide into her ear.

"You don't have to be afraid." She said lowly, caressing his cheek and marvelling in the strange softness of his face.
Once he was fully shaped, he would be the most exotic familiar that had ever been made. Everyone would envy her for having such a strange servant - a human! A real human.

She smiled more brightly, noting with contentment that his eyes had lit up at the words spoken in his own language - though he was of course not aware what language it was. He just understood it.

He moaned again, trying to move his lips, his eyes searching hers helplessly. Elan guessed what he wanted to say and answered, still smiling and caressing.

"Don't worry. You will remember soon. I will take care of that." Seeing the relief in his eyes, she held him more closely and added: "I will take care of you."

Coruscant System, Vong Ship Criarto

Tsavong Lah seemed a little bit annoyed as they met up with him in the now so familiar landing bay.
It was already late in the evening and it was not so far-fetched that they had probably disturbed his sleep.

But Leia was not in the mood to pay any attention to this. Before she could begin her investigation, though, Lah's eyes widened and focused on Mara, open curiosity in them.

"Mara Jade-Skywalker, if I'm not mistaken." He stated.

Mara's green eyes came to rest on the Yuuzhan Vong, measuring him and coming to the conclusion that he was more of an adversary she'd like to fight with than the last one she had battled against.

"You're not mistaken, Tsavong Lah." She replied.

The Vong nodded thoughtfully, ignoring Leia and slowly circling Mara. "So you are alive and obviously well. How do you manage to keep Anor's poison at bay?"

"I don't." Mara simply answered, patting her right food impatiently.

Lah was obviously taken aback, his glittering eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

"I don't keep it at bay. I don't have to." The Jedi Master allowed herself a wide grin, beginning to enjoy the obvious surprise of the alien.

If the Vong had had eyebrows, they would have risen now, of that she was certain. But he had none. His bewilderment was obvious nonetheless.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Simple. I'm healed." Her voice non-chalantly, she relished in the frown that appeared on the Warmaster's head.

"So Nom Anor has been a failure - in any regard." He murmured, shaking his head. Only then, having taken care of this mystery, he turned to Leia.

"What can I do for you, President Organa-Solo?"

"We need to talk to Priestess Elan. Immediately." Leia blurted out. When Lah crossed his arm in defiance, she hurried to give an explanation, cursing her lack of patience and diplomacy.

"My sister-in-law, Mara Jade-Skywalker, has seen a Yuuzhan Vong female on Dathomir, meeting up with another Yuuzhan Vong male. They were talking about the attack on Corellia and the abduction of my brother, Jedi Master Skywalker. According to Mara's descriptions, the Priestess could have been this female."

Tsavong Lah had gone stiff and showed his teeth: "Priestess Elan has left the Criarto over a week ago. She said she had to attend a meeting of personal nature. I had no reason to deny her the permission to leave. Although I don't trust the Priestess, I need more evidence than the word of Mara Jade-Skywalker."

Now Mara narrowed her eyes: "I know the name of the Yuuzhan Vong she met up with - Denj Idao."

The low, predatory growl that came out of Lah's throat let Leia almost shrink away, but Mara didn't cringe. She was more than used to the inarticulate sounds of those aliens by now.

"You have SEEN them together? No doubt?" he persisted.

"Absolutely no doubt. She called him by this name."

Lah nodded grimly: "I suspected treachery from Idao's site already for a long time. We never got along good and domain Idao has long been an enemy of domain Lah.
And I never trusted Elan - though it surprises me that she has the courage to act the way she does.
What about Denj Idao? Where is he?"

Mara grinned wryly: "At least not in this universe anymore. I killed him in duel."

Lah perched an non-existent eyebrow: "YOU killed Denj Idao? He was a very skilled warrior - an Admiral."

Mara just shrugged. Lah grinned at her, then became serious again: "What else did you overhear?"
She frowned: "Elan talked about someone named Mezhan Kwaad. She is a shaper."

Again, Lah went rigid, then he looked at Leia: "I suggest we concentrate our forces on finding your brother as soon as possible."

Frightened by his tone, Leia queried: "What do you mean by that, Warmaster?

"That the Priestess made contact with a Master Shaper and kidnapped your brother doesn't tell us what her overall plan is, but it tells us what she wants from the Jeedai Skywalker."

"And that would be?" Han asked, regarding the Yuuzhan Vong attentively.

"She wants to shape him. " at the befuddled look of the humans, he explained: "She wants to alter him... you call it bio-engineering. She wants to alter him into a familiar. Every Priestess of Yun-Harla has a familiar. Elan lost hers to an illness, some time ago."

"What is a familiar?" Mara asked, feeling her voice go rough with fear.

Lah looked at her openly: "A pet. A companion. A distraction when she's unnerved. People of her class use their familiars for anything they want to. A human familiar would be something to show off with, I suppose."

"But Luke won't obey her." Han said, his voice trembling.

The Warmaster smiled grimly: "He will. The Shaper will erase his memories, torture him. Up till yet, no one has withstood the shaping."

"After 10 days of imprisonment.... How far is the progress of the shaping?" Leia asked, glancing at Mara who was again deathly pale.

"Assuming that they have begun immediately.... They will now begin to erase his memories." Lah explained.

"Can we track them? Find out where they are?" Mara finally brought out, forcing herself to get her thoughts under control again.

Lah nodded: "You're lucky that I have been given this assignment, Mara Jade-Skywalker. I have been distrusting Priestess Elan since the moment I have met her. We will be able to track her."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Han quipped.

Deep Space

Mezhan Kwaad smiled thinly when she saw Priestess Elan enter the laboratory. The petite Yuuzhan Vong female supported the shaky form of the Jeedai, who had just about fifteen minutes ago begun to feel his body again.

His disgustingly light eyes slowly took in his surroundings, but instead of showing horror and fear, as one should expect after everything he had been through, she saw mild curiosity in them.

Upon seeing Mezhan Kwaad, he cringed back, shooting the Priestess an unsure glance. Elan patted his hand and motioned him forward, helping him to lay down onto the living table of which consisted almost the whole of her laboratory.

"You sure know that this is actually too early, Priestess? Instead of having erased his memory, as is done normally, I've just blocked them with membrane. What I will do now will have side-effects - and it is not irreversible. Are you aware of that?"

Elan nodded, smiling, still patting the Jeedai whose gaze was wandering between her and the Shaper.

"Well then, my dear Jeedai," Kwaad bent over the human and smiled, too, "let's see to it that you learn how to behave in the future and how you're called."
The blue eyes followed her finger as she extended it and patted the membrane on his forehead - his eyes rolling inward, the Jeedai fell into a state of deep unconsciousness, every automatic barrier falling down, as the membrane constricted around his brain.

"Sleep well, Liin." Elan whispered, withdrawing to make room for Kwaad. "What will you teach him in the first session?" she then asked the Master Shaper.
Kwaad smiled: "Language, customs - and the duties of a familiar." Elan's eyes brightened, and the Shaper cackled: "Just another few days."
YEAH, it's REALLY me! Sienn! With another part of Jedi Dawn!!! I needed just two days!!! *proudlysmile*

And part 16 is due at Sunday!

But now on to 15 - again, a warning - it's dark! You're warned!
I'm apologizing for the size, too - I hope it's not too big.

Please assault me with feedback.
As always - the SW universe belongs to George Lucas and no one else, I gain no money from this and it's just for fun.

ENJOY!

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn - Part 15

Coruscant System, Yuuzhan Vong Ship Criarto

Mara felt as if she'd explode in the next moment. The urge to DO something was overwhelming, and even the most cool reason didn't help to stifle it.

Nervously, she jumped to her feet and began, once again, to pace the mess-equivalent of Tsavong Lah's private quarters aboard his flagship.
It had surprised her very much that he had allowed them to wait here while he checked on the living sensor he had been having connected to Priestess's Elan's ship a long time ago.

Directly in the wake of her surprise, though, suspicion had gotten the better of her and her senses were on full alert - normal ones and Force ones alike.
It was hard for her to suddenly put that much trust into the Yuuzhan Vong, after all they had done - especially to her.
The temptation to blame everything that had gone wrong in the last weeks on the aliens was enormous, but, clenching her teeth together, Mara didn't allow herself this luxury.

When Leia had told her that Luke had had a nervous breakdown after she had left Ithor, Mara had thought for a moment that her heart would break because of the guilt she felt.
She hadn't meant to be so rude - everything she had wanted to do was to make it easier for him to let her go for a while.

But instead of creating understanding on his part, she had hurt him more than she had ever done before.
Silently cursing herself, she wondered once again what had gotten into her when she had told Luke that she didn't want a child from him.

It was not only a lie - she could not imagine anything more wonderful than to have a child with the man she loved, with Luke - it was the most cruel and mean lie she had ever uttered in her life.
And Mara Jade had lied often enough - she had become a master in it during her years of servitude to the Emperor.

And, as if it weren't enough already that she had caused him the most traumatic experience in his rather turbulent life, she was also the reason for him being in a danger that was worse than just deadly.

Involuntarily, Mara shivered and swung her arms around herself. Tsavong Lah hadn't been able to tell them much more about the Shapers or their procedures than what he had told them first - he just had never been interested in it and as Warmaster, their had never been a need to be.

But, as things lay, he had offered, in a kind voice Mara had never thought Yuuzhan Vong to be able to speak in, to get them more informations as soon as possible. Perhaps, she mused, it would be vital.

Taking another deep breath, she tried to calm herself. But, as she admitted frankly, she had never been a very patient woman, especially not if it came to situations like this.
Some alien bitch dared to hurt her husband and that Mara was boiling with rage and lust to kill was an understatement. Only Luke's patient training as a Jedi of the Light Side, that had gone on for years now, prevented her from paying attention to the ever-present luring of the Dark Side.

That deep in her own thoughts, Mara almost cried out loud when a cold, slender hand hesitantly touched her own.
Surprised, she found herself looking into Leia's dark brown eyes, noting the troubled expression in them.

"What?" she asked, trying to sound not as ill-tempered as she felt. Leia swallowed before she answered lowly.
"How can I make visions vanish?" she asked, her voice unusually tiny. Han, who had sat rather lost in thoughts at the side, suddenly rose and came over to his wife.

"Visions?" he queried. Leia turned to him, shocking him with the torment he saw in her eyes. Mara swallowed now, too. Almost not daring to ask, she murmured: "What sort of visions, Leia?"

The princess fell into one of the yorik-chairs heavily, pressing her lips together. "I see Luke. He's... he's fighting against something dark, black. He's suffering, hurting, but he keeps on fighting. But the... thing is more powerful and... and engulfs him totally. And then..."

Mara slid beside her, laying an arm around Leia's shoulders, their conflict momentarily forgotten. "And then?" she asked gently.

Leia bit her lower lip, staring at the strangely coloured floor: "He vanishes. Then Elan appears and Luke..." again she paused, shaking her head and grasping Han's hand. "What about Luke?" he persisted, worry lines deeply carved in to his face. "He's sitting at her feet - like a servant." She finally whispered, causing Mara to shy away and turn their back on them.

While Han swore under his breath and embraced his wife firmly, his sister-in-law did her best to surpress tears.

Leia's bond to Luke had always been exceptionally strong - it was amazing, considering that Leia was not a trained Knight. But as they were twins, and such special twins, they always knew how the other one was.
Now Luke had hammered into Mara's, and Leia's, head again and again that Force visions were nothing one should rely on.
They were most times totally wrong and more of a warning or an annoyance than anything else.

Unfortunately, this only went for Jedis who weren't named Skywalker or Organa-Solo.
Mara couldn't remember a single vision of Luke that had not come true or hadn't had some consequences on the present. Only a fool would think that Leia's were anything else.
So, this was a warning that couldn't be any clearer. If they didn't find Luke soon, they would loose him, in a way more terrible than death.

The imagination of Luke being nothing more than an obedient pet to a crazy alien was downright nauseating and if Elan had stood in front of her, nothing could have prevented Mara from striking her down.

"We will get him back. Luke's strong." The determined voice belonged to Han, whose features were set in the most stubborn expression Mara had ever seen.
She admired Han for being able to think in that positive a way. She didn't feel able to and she wasn't the only one.

"But, Han, my vision. It's probably already...." Leia's trembling voice got muffled, then fell silent when Han lay one of his big hands over her lips.
"Stop that, Leia. It's a vision, nothing more. We WILL get Luke out of there."

"The question is how he will be if we do." Mara added roughly. Han's eyes pierced her and for the first time this day they showed rage.
"You, of all people, should have trust in Luke, Mara. He is strong, stronger than anyone I know. The kid suffered so much in his life - as long as I know him there has always been SOMEONE who wanted to manipulate him, to abuse him for what he is. None of them succeeded in breaking his will. And I refuse to believe that those crazy freaks will manage what Vader and Palpatine couldn't."

"Han, this is different. You know that." Mara said lowly, searching his eyes. She didn't intend to let herself being swallowed by desperation. But she also refused to rely on Luke's amazing habit to come out of the deadliest situations without much more than physical, REPAIRABLE, damage.
"It could be already too late. More than ten days. And we don't know yet where he is."

Han opened his mouth, obviously wanting to reply something, but then shook his head, turned on his heels and stumped back into the corner of the room where he had been sitting for the past hours.

Mara already wanted to follow him, annoyed by this stubbornness, when Leia's hand grasped her upper arm: "Don't. He has to vent, Mara. It's hard for him."

The Jedi Master looked some time into the Princess's eyes, then nodded, perching an eyebrow: "You talk to me again?"

Leia smiled wryly: "It's just that it is too exhausting to worry about Luke, take care that Han doesn't do or say anything stupid and be angry at you at the same time. I can't by the life of me stop the first and don't DARE to stop the second."

Mara grinned: "I already wondered why you have taken him along on these talks. He is a ticket for political disasters with his big mouth."

Her sister-in-law grinned back, even if a little bit awkwardly: "His instincts are phenomenous - better than any Force senses if it comes to telling cowards and friends apart."

"Yeah - cowards sniff fellow cowards." Mara muttered.

"I HEARD that." Came Han's voice from the edge, causing both women to giggle lowly.
Together, they went over to him and the three of them settled down to wait again.

~**

Two more hours later, the bulky, impressive figure of Tsavong Lah appeared again into the room they had been waiting in.
Mara thought immediately that he looked rather glum - but then, she mused, she hadn't yet seen a Yuuzhan Vong that DIDN'T look glum. Or angry. Or both.

"Have you found out anything?" Leia immediately asked, approaching the Warmaster, for once not paying attention to any diplomatic chit-chatting. This was a crisis situation - and now she was a fighter and a sister and not the President of the New Republic.
She had asked Mon Mothma and Winter to keep things running smoothly on Coruscant and she didn't doubt for a second that those two were able to ensure just that.

Lah frowned: "Unfortunately not. As it seems, Priestess Elan is not quite as dumb and arrogant as I thought her to be."

"What does that mean?" Han demanded to know, a deep scowl marking his face - a clear sign that he was beginning to loose his patience.

The Warmaster focused on him: "That means that we have no way to tell where Priestess Elan is. She has obviously destroyed the tracking being we have attached to her personal vehicle and has vanished without a trace."

A low groan accompanied Mara's form falling back onto her yorik coral - chair. Shaking her head, her eyes were utmost terrified. They looked just like Han felt.

Leia was speechless, clenching her hands and focusing on the Force. 'Luke!!' she send out with all mental power she could summon, feeling Mara join in.
There was no answer, but neither of them wanted to give up so soon. Combining their powers, they extended their senses as far as they could. And, Leia was so relieved she almost yelped aloud, finally bumped into Luke's presence.

But after the first euphoric feelings, disappointment followed immediately. Every prodding or crying was in vain, no matter whether she tried it or Mara did. Luke's presence was closed and the few feelings they did get indicated that he was deeply unconscious.
Before any further contact could be established, a black wall pushed both women's' minds away from Luke, letting them stumble some steps back into reality.

Immediately, Leia felt Han's and Lah's eyes on her. Slightly panting, she shook her head: "He's unconscious - unconscious and somehow blocked. No way to trace him."

"Damn!" Han cried, kicking against one of the coral-chairs, then loosing his balance with a surprised cry when it engulfed and trapped his foot.
"Stop fooling around, Solo." Mara quipped, the momentary fun helping her to calm her breathing. So Luke was unconscious - fine. At least he wasn't tortured when he was inert.

"Funny, Jade. Very funny." Han growled, freeing his foot and taking some steps away from the chair, eyeing it suspiciously.
Lah and Leia, in the meantime, didn't seem to have noticed the little embarrassment of the man. Leia just about had explained the Warmaster what she and Mara had done.

"I'm sorry, President, but it seems we can do nothing for the Jeedai Skywalker." Lah said lowly, sounding genuinely compassionate.

Leia shook her head frantically: "But their must be...." She was interrupted when two Yuuzhan Vong warriors entered the room, dragging a very petite and frightened looking female with them.

"Two of the people I dispatched to search the Priestess's quarters." Lah explained mumbling, then turned to his underlings, exchanging some words with them in the Yuuzhan Vong's native tongue.

Leia wasn't particularly interested until she saw Lah's eyes lighten up. On a bark from him, the warriors pushed the woman on a yorik-coral chair and restrained her with their amphistaffs.

"Warmaster?" Leia queried curiously.

"As it seems, Princess, we have still a chance." On the inquisitive stares of the three humans, he answered: "This is Lonan... she is Priestess Elan's most trusted aid and assistant and was caught when she tried to flee the ship."

When eight eyes focused on her, the young Yuuzhan Vong shrank back in the chair.

Deep Space
And there we go again!, Mezhan Kwaad thought when she heard the light footsteps of Priestess Elan approach. She had hoped Elan had just fallen asleep and she would be alone while she performed the next lessons on the Jeedai. No such luck.
"Are you finished with the preparations?" the Priestess asked, stifling a yawn. So she had been sleeping indeed.

Kwaad nodded, stretching her arms and legs. Working bent over the Jeedai for over four hours had taken its toll on her back.
In her youth, that wouldn't have tired her at all, but now... well, to speak frankly, she was no kid anymore and the first signs of ageing began to show themselves.

Before she could muse further, the Priestess's annoying voice once again disturbed her.
"He doesn't look different." Elan stated, eyeing the unconscious man, laying on the living table, arms beside his body.

"Of course he doesn't. I didn't do anything that you could see on the outside." Mezhan once again overlooked the Jeedai, pushing some stray hears out of his forehead. They would only distract the drev-membrane - and that was unacceptable

"What did you do?" Elan asked, coming over and focusing her gaze on Skywalker's serene face. She wouldn't see it that relaxed in some time, Kwaad thought amused.

"I gave the table time to connect with his body so that he's immobilised almost completely - we don't want him to go loose in my laboratory, do we?" Elan just smiled at that and motioned for her to continue.
"Further, I've injected some poisons into him - affecting his senses and the speed of his thoughts. That will make him weaker and more prone to our manipulations. Ready?" when the Priestess nodded, Kwaad once again stroked the drev-membrane on the Jeedai's forehead.

After some moments, the lids of the human flickered open and he let his eyes wander around while he carefully tested his ability to move.
Almost immediately, he understood that movements would only cause him pain, so he lay absolutely still.

Elan looked into his eyes, expecting them to rest trustfully on her. They were indeed focussing on her, but not filled with trust, but resentment and anger.
"You betrayed me." He spat towards her. The Priestess shot the Shaper a shocked gaze, but Kwaad merely smiled.

"Don't worry, Elan. It's quite alright. For this phase of the shaping, we need him clear - I already told you that. Besides, the poisons will kick in any minute now."

And as if the substances had only waited for Kwaad's permission, Elan could see how the Jeedai's eyes dropped half-closed, cutting the insult he had been throwing at her off almost immediately. He struggled to keep his eyes open, widening them immensely and staring around.

"He can't see much but blurry shadows and he won't be able to comprehend more than the words of ONE voice if it speaks directly into his ear. Just stay back and watch."

Kwaad bent once again over the Jeedai, speaking clear, but low: "You certainly remember my offer, don't you? You just have to say the words and the pain will go away." She cooed, fully aware that the myriads of connections his pores had with the living table caused him steady torment.

Finally pressing his lids firmly together, he said through gritted teeth: "In your dreams."

Kwaad grinned. She'd lie if she'd say she'd not prefer it the cruel way. "As you wish, Liin."

This time, the sheer fury pried his eyes open: "My name is Lu... AHHH!"

His voice became a cry of pure agony when Kwaad let the drev-membranes in his brain do their work.

~**

Six hours later, the Master Shaper slowly began to get annoyed. Priestess Elan, for her part, had gone from being annoyed to being totally infuriated.

"Why is he still opposing you? I want my familiar, Kwaad, and I want him now!" she shouted, impatiently patting her foot onto the floor.
Kwaad ignored her, concentrating on Skywalker.

The human lay on the living table, twitching and sweating profusely. His breath came fast and haggard and his features were contorted in agony. Skywalker's feverish blue eyes had long stopped to give him any view of the reality around him. With obvious terror, he looked into a world of terrifying memories of the past days.

The Shaper had taken care of these memories being perfectly accessible for him, plunging him not only into physical, but also mental torment. He writhed on the table and in his restraints, dodging hands which weren't there.

Hot tears ran down his cheeks. It SEEMED as if he was broken, but he wasn't. Whatever he saw, felt and heard, he mumbled one and the same over and over again when he didn't cry from pain.

"I'm Luke... Luke Skywalker...." He whispered continuously, interrupted again and again by moans and sobs. But he didn't give in. He didn't obey and said the words he had been told to. As long as he didn't accept that, it was in vain to let the tizowyrm sleeping in his ear begin the teachings.

"Indeed a tough case." She murmured, contemplating several possibilities to shatter his mind completely. Unfortunately, most of them would be lethal for him at the moment.
He hadn't been given anything to eat and only the most necessary amounts of water when he had been unconscious or catatonic. His body was approaching its limits fast.

"Make him forget his name!" Elan shouted, pushing her rather rudely towards the table. The Shaper shot her a furious glance.

"Don't you dare to touch me again, you stupid, little thing. Have you never learned patience?" she hissed towards the young Yuuzhan Vong who shrank back surprised.

"Good. Now stay away. I will crack him soon, don't worry." Clicking with her finger-implants, Kwaad approached once again the table. Thinking for a moment, she backhanded the Jeedai viciously, causing him to stop his mumbling and giving him a few moments of clarity.

Using those, she held her pincer-finger before his eyes, just as she had done before she had given him his first implant.
He froze in shock, staring wide-eyed onto her finger. After some moments, he began to shake his head frantically: "No... please... no. Please, please not again." He whimpered.

Kwaad just grinned and touched, ever so lightly, the drev-membrane on his forehead with her pincer-finger.
His delirious brain immediately mixed up reality and past, letting him experience the torment of his first implantation once again.

He cried out, withering, convulsing and tossing on the table, his pain increasing with every movement.
After some minutes, she lightly stroked the membrane, causing it and its twin in the base of his skull to contract at full power.

Skywalker's cries changed their tone, becoming higher and more desperate with every moment.
Using every single experience she had with shaping familiars, she chose the exact right moment to end his pain - one second longer and he would have slipped into unconsciousness. But she wouldn't grant him this luxury.

His cries stopped, his body slumping powerless back on the table. Slight moans were everything that showed him to be still conscious.
Mezhan waited for some seconds, eagerly listening whether he would assume again the rebellious mumbling. When he didn't, she grinned victoriously.

"There." She said, turning to Elan. "You have your familiar."

The priestess was obviously suspicious, but approached the Jeedai nonetheless, bending over his body.

"What's your name?" The Master Shaper queried, patting the table, letting it release its tendrils from Skywalker's body.
He groaned in face of the new pain, his features once again wrinkling in torment.

Then, slowly, he relaxed, his eyes still closed - but only because of fatigue.

"I'm... I'm Liin Kwaad." He whispered finally.

The Master Shaper grinned, clapping her hands and giving Elan a triumphant look: "What do you say now?"

The Priestess didn't say anything, just grinned and nodded appreciatively. Then she gently took the Jeedai's left hand into her own: "Sit up." She ordered softly.

He complied, swaying a moment, then sitting upright, his shoulders and head slumped, though.
"Do you know who I am?" Elan lifted his chin, frowning when she saw his obvious problems to stay awake.

Skywalker nodded and answered in a faint, almost inaudible voice: "You're Priestess Elan. I'm your familiar."

"Exactly." She giggled, then turned to the Master Shaper again. "What now?"

Kwaad shrugged: "Now he'll have the lessons he should have had already for a few hours. The tizowyrm will begin to teach him our language, customs and his duties as soon as he's fallen asleep."

"He looks as if he'd fall asleep in the next second." Elan stated, caressing his damp cheeks softly.

"As soon as you tell him to do it, he will." Mezhan replied, suppressing a yawn. She could also use a good night's rest after this exhausting and annoyingly complicate shaping.

Elan nodded, taking the human's face into her hands, gazing into his incredibly blue eyes: "Now then, my dear Liin, rest. You've deserved it."

She had barely finished the sentence when he went limp into her arms, almost swallowing the correct reply. It was not more than a feeble breath, but she heard it nonetheless: "Yes, Mistress."

Then he plunged into deep sleep, his subconscious listening to the voice of the well trained tizowyrm.

Kwaad stepped beside the Priestess, still smiling satisfied. "If you allow it, he will sleep for several days. His body needs that rest."

Elan nodded: "I will grant them to him. What about his memories?" This got the Shaper frowning. " I hadn't enough time to erase them. But the membranes are blocking them effectively. Though, if anyone should remove the implants or hurt them, he will get his memories back." Kwaad eyed the drev-membrane on his forehead more attentively. It already now began to expand into the whole carving and would fill it soon.

"This Jeedai is an extremely strong willed individual, Priestess. You have to take good care of him - and you should take your time till you bring him together with anyone of his race. Let him never see anyone he held dear again.
The risk to loose him is too great."

"Believe me, I'm not planning on giving him up." Elan assured the Shaper, carefully laying the slender form of the human back onto the table.

Coruscant System, Yuuzhan Vong Ship Criarto

Patience, Mara thought, Just be patient. This girl is frightened half out of her mind. She'll talk soon.

This voice belonged to her experience in investigating people. Palpatine had trained her excellently in this field, as well as in many others. Usually, she had no problem to apply the techniques she had learned.

But this was all but an usual situation. Somewhere out there, this ominous Yuuzhan Vong Priestess tried to take her husband away from her. Bodily and mentally. She supposed that, under these circumstances, a little impatience was allowed, even for a Jedi Master.

"Listen, Lonan." Mara began anew, crossing her arms to prevent her hands from clenching into fists.
"I can understand that your loyal to your sisters." That statement earned her a suspicious glance from the girl. "But do you, honestly, think that she will come back for you? She is a traitor - and you know how traitor are condemned in your culture. Elan will never return deliberately to get executed."

Fear and uncertainty appeared in these childish eyes - this one, Mara thought, was not trained in the merciless fighting techniques of the warriors. This one was just about a child. And children were very prone to fear.

Mara was going to use that fact: "And, you know, if you'd answer us some questions and tell us where your sister is, your own punishment would be not quite as severe." At the fringes of her eyesight, she saw Lah wrinkle his forehead. Obviously, mercy was REALLY no option in the Yuuzhan Vong culture. But now it was necessary.
"Right, Warmaster?"

It took him some moments to answer, but finally, he did. "I could arrange that. Instead of being killed, " the girl yelped horrified ,"she could be merely made a Shamed One."

Mara had no idea what a Shamed One was, but it seemed to be better than death, for the girl began chattering eagerly in her native tongue.
With a low growl, Lah interrupted her, obviously giving her some orders. Lonan frowned, then began to speak anew, this time in a heavily accented, but understandable Basic.
"I will tell everything."

Mara grinned satisfied. Before she could ask something herself, Han approached the girl, not letting her eyes out of his sight for a moment: "Tell us how you've gotten Luke, what they do with him and where they are."

Lonan cleared her throat, then began: "The Jeedai Skywalker was very eager to meet with my Mistress again. My mistress wanted to use that and told me to give him a rapo, pretending it were some sort of villip with which she could contact him as soon as she had returned from meeting the Shaper."

"What's a rapo?" Leia asked. "It's a poisonous animal." The girl explained. "I could control it and it reported me about the Jeedai's movements. As soon as it told me he was alone, I ordered it to extend its spikes. They contain a very strong sedating poison. He was deeply unconscious only seconds later." Glancing unsurely at the angry faces around her, she continued: "I accompanied some Peace Brigadiers which had been given to me by Admiral Idao down onto the abomination planet. We brought the Jeedai onto my ship and I flew him to the rendezvous point to give him to Mezhan Kwaad and my mistress. When I left them to return inconspicuously, he was still unconscious. I don't know how he is now."

Silence followed this revelations. But when words were spoken again, they were much more determined than only minutes before.
"You'll give the coordinates to my personal assistant before you're brought to the detention level." Lah barked, then turned to Leia, Han and Mara, ignoring the now shivering girl completely.

"I assume you'll leave for the coordinates as soon as possible." When he received nods, he continued: "One of my ships will accompany you - it will have three dozens of warriors aboard - a Priestess and a Shaper will have not more than two, perhaps three warriors at their disposal. They will want to hide the sacrilege of abduction as long as they can."

"Thank you, Warmaster." Leia stammered, not caring that her eyes were wide with surprise. Some weeks ago, the Vong had been deadly enemies - and now they were mighty allies. The universe was amazing.

"If you wish, I will dispatch the shaper apprentice we have aboard the Criarto together with his underlings to the troop, also. Your medical equipment probably won't help the Jeedai Skywalker."

Leia hesitated a moment - it cost her much to give her brother into the care of Yuuzhan Vong - but when she considered the strict honour code of those aliens, she supposed that Luke would be very safe with them as long as he was in any form handicapped or incapacitated. Killing or injuring an ill or even unconscious man was nothing that was held in high regard in this culture.

"Again, I'm very grateful, Warmaster." He just nodded.

Half an hour later, they were sitting in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, sending the modified freighter into hyperspace.
The voyage would take three days - every one of them, in their very own way, prayed for Luke to hold on this long.

~**

Far away, in Mezhan Kwaad's ship, Luke Skywalker was, for the very first time in his life, giving up. He had centered all his mental on the task to remove whatever they had implanted into his head, to push it back when he had felt that it tried to engulf his thoughts, his being.

But the torture had been so extreme and this strange alien thing so powerful, he had felt his mind slip away from him. Horrified, his very core in the Force had listened to his own voice that complied to Priestess Elan and hadn't been able to do anything against it. And fighting this was in vain - the more he tried to get the control over his body back, the more of his mind the alien thing did engulf. There was only one change to survive this mentally. Praying to the Force and every god in this universe that Leia and Han knew where he was and were on their way to help him, Luke withdrew deep into himself, building thick walls of Force energy around his memories and his soul. He wanted to shout when he felt the alien thing engulf everything but this little, lit space, assuming control over him - or, rather, over a part of him.

Using all his might to keep the thing at bay that tried to break through these walls, too, he focussed inward, forgetting the real world and accepting sadly that he had no control over himself anymore.

He just hoped that help would come before his last walls fell.
I really managed to get 16 done sooner than Sunday!! You can actually expect chapter 17 at Sunday so hurry with reading and reviewing this one!

As usually, the SW Universe belongs to George Lucas, no one else, I gain no money from this and it's just for fun.

Please assault me with reviews.

Enjoy!

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn 16

Millenium Falcon, Hyperspace, three days later

Mara Jade sighed deeply, wondering why she had once again tried to contact her husband through the Force. During the last days in hyperspace, she had regularly entered a trance and done everything she could think of to establish a connection with Luke's mind.

But he was closed to her - she could, just barely, feel his presence. There were no feelings from which she could even guess how he was. The only thing that she could be sure about was that he hadn't been moved significantly and they were still on the correct course.
Though, as things lay, Mara would have preferred to make another bunch of calculations and be able to exchange some words, or even just a few feelings, with Luke over the situation she was now in.

Pressing her lips together, she slowly opened her eyes and blinked into the artificial lights of the Millenium Falcon's mess. The guilt she had been feeling since the very moment Leia had told her what had happened to Luke above Ithor did never leave her heart and she wondered whether he could ever forgive her.

Leia had been right - it was only because of her that he was in the hands of this priestess and had to undergo who knew what. If she hadn't decided to stay another few days on Dathomir, if she hadn't left him in the first place, if she just had been brave enough to stay and face her illness TOGETHER with Luke - he might be safe in her arms by now, not a lab animal for some curious researchers of another race.

Mara had witnessed the cruelty of the Yuuzhan Vong several times since they had shown up in the galaxy and the thought of Luke undergoing this or even worse things made her sick.
The worst part, though, was the awareness that Luke had done it for her - of course he hadn't intentionally placed himself into this misery, but Mara didn't doubt that he WOULD have done it if the need would have been there.

After all she had done to him, said to him, he had been willing to put everything else aside, his health included, to find a cure for her.
And now she hadn't even the possibility to tell him that she was healed - life could have been so wonderful. Mara had picture it in her mind, how she would soothe Luke, the words she wanted to say to him, the surprise that she was healed - the will to found a family of their own and the renewed possibility to grow old together.

As things lay, Luke wasn't even aware that she still cared for him. "Luke.." she whispered, resting her head tiredly at the edge of the bunk.

"Mara?" the low voice belonged to Han. She turned and saw him standing there, eyeing her attentively, with just a trace of worry in his eyes. But the little flicker of it was enough to give Mara a little bit of hope - they hadn't pushed her away from them entirely. Perhaps it would take her many years to regain the trust of Leia and Han, but she could regain it, of that she was sure.

What worried her far more was the question whether Luke would ever be able to trust her again. But first, she chided herself determinedly, she had to make sure that he would live to try at least.

"Mara, are you ok?" Han repeated, the worry in his voice increasing a bit. The ex-trader breathed deeply, then nodded: "I guess, considering the circumstances, I'm ok."

The corellian frowned: "It didn't sound that way. What were you thinking about?"

"I thought about Luke - that it's my fault that this Elan person has him in her clutches." even the moment these words came out of her mouth, Mara was utterly surprised that she had told them to Han Solo, of all persons. That was just not like her to be so open to anyone. Not even to her brother-in-law.

Han frowned even more: "You know, Mara, that's not true." Her head jerked upwards and she stared at him with eyes opened wide.
"What?" she gasped.

He sighed: "Mara, let's be realistic, ok? You mustn't listen too much to Leia at the moment. It is true that you've been the reason for Luke's nervous breakdown. You can't deny it and you don't." she nodded, the now well-known sadness settling into her heart.

"But it's not your fault that he has been hijacked and certainly not your fault that they torture him now. No one, and I really mean, no one, could have foreseen that and even if you had stayed at Ithor and would have been here when the negotiations began, Luke would have probably done just the same thing - taking on the offer of the Priestess to try and find you a cure."

Mara snorted, a gentle smile playing at her lips: "Yeah.... it's just Luke's nature..." she murmured.

"Exactly." Han affirmed, sounding genuinely contented. "You know, over the years," he let himself sink onto the bench beside her, " I have come to see that it is really IMPOSSIBLE to protect Luke from this sort of messes. It's his willingness to help, his ability to feel so strongly and his passion that gets him into these situations and to prevent him from doing that would mean to tear his heart out. And the thing I like most about him, Mara, is his big heart."

He paused for a moment, searching Mara's eyes. The sad expression in these jade-green emeralds almost let the last reproaches he had for her melt away.
This woman loved Luke - she really loved him. Han just hoped that Luke could open his heart to her again - he didn't dare to tell Mara about the talk he had had with Luke. The kid was absolutely sure that Mara Jade did not love him anymore, perhaps never had. It would be difficult for the still beautiful trader to change Luke's mind about that.

The surprising thing with Luke was, Han mused silently, that, although he was the mightiest Jedi in the universe and a hero that was celebrated all over the galaxy, his self-awareness, his self-certainty and his regard of himself were ridiculously low. His latest marriage crisis surely hadn't helped it to rise any.

"No matter what state we will find him in, Mara, it's not your fault."

Mara pressed her lips together: "It's not what Leia'll think."

Han smiled: "You have to understand her. Luke and her have a very special bond. He is her very precious - I think she loves him in a way much more intense than she loves me - of course on another level, but she would not be able to live without him."

"She wouldn't be able to live without you, either." Mara gently admonished, putting a hand on Han's shoulder.

He grinned: "Of course she wouldn't." Mara giggled, then Han cleared his throat: "What I wanted to say is, that whatever she says to you now and has said in the last days, is overshadowed by her fear to loose him and by her sadness to have seen him disappointed by a woman again. Once Luke is safe..." Han paused, needing a moment to continue in a firm, confident voice," she will be able to rebuilt her trust in you. Step by step, but she will be able to." he grasped the Jedi Master's delicate hands into his own ones and squeezed them gently.

"Such wounds need time to heal, that's all." he murmured. Mara stared for a time on his hands holding hers, then she smirked amused.

"What?" Han asked, befuddled.

"You know, it's just that I never expected to hear such a speech out of YOUR mouth, Solo."

Han gave her his famous, lop-sided grin: "You know, it's more to me than what meets the eye - although no one believes that because they think what they see is so perfect, it can't get better."

Mara grimaced: "And now my suddenly much higher respect for you has fallen to its previous level again."

"Now, now, Miss Jade-Skywalker. And that after I have taken you out of your depression so nicely." Han chuckled, releasing her hands and leaning back onto the bench.

Mara just smiled, then silence engulfed the small room. After some minutes, Mara turned again to Han, her eyes once again serious.
"Do you think Luke will be able to forgive me?" (When he survives, she added silently)

Han's content smile vanished immediately: "What do YOU think?"

The beautiful woman sighed and embraced her knees: "I don't know. After all I've heard from Leia, I don't think he will. I have hurt him so much..." her voice roughened and she hid her face between her arms.

"Mara...."

"He took it downright serious, that I don't want a child from him, didn't he?" she interrupted him.

Han nodded darkly: "It wasn't only a couple of days after his breakdown that he told me why he det...." his eyes widening, the corellian stopped himself from finishing the sentence, already trying to find a new subject, but Mara hadn't missed his slip and narrowed her eyes.

"Why he what, Han?" she demanded to know.

"It's nothing, really, it's..."

"Listen, Solo!" Mara grumbled. "This is about Luke, my husband. EVERYTHING that concerns him does concern me, too. EVERYTHING is important if it comes to him. So finish this sentence as you originally wanted to. Now."

Han sighed: "I'm sorry, Mara, but that's something between you and Luke. You will have to talk to HIM about it."

"But, Han, you can't just..."

"Han, Mara! Get up here immediately!" Leia's voice sounded through the internal communication system. "We are going to drop back to realspace in ten minutes."

Mara was already on her feet, nervously ensuring that her lightsaber was clipped to her belt. Her heart contracted painfully when she regarded it. Luke had given it to her all these years ago - on this day, she had first felt that something special was between them. She wondered what would have been if they had admitted their feelings back then and had tried to develop them.
Would it have worked out between them? Or would it have been too early?

(They will by now erase his memories...) Lah's voice reverberated in her head.

She hoped with all her heart that Luke still remembered this day - that he still remembered her.

Drawing a deep breath, she followed Han to the Falcon's bridge.

Deep Space, at the same time

A shrill, bird-voice let Priestess Elan sit straight up in her bed. Irritated, she looked around, seeing nothing but her well-ordered little cabin in Mezhan Kwaad's laboratory ship.

Gruffly murmuring, she pushed her covers away, stood up and searched in the dark for the annoying Nia-bird that Kwaad used as siren-equivalent.
The modest feathered, grey bird, not bigger than hear hand, sat in a small carving next to the cabin's opening. Wondering how a being this small could make such a loud noise, Elan pushed the animal rather rudely, causing it to shriek in protest and outrage. But at least it shut up, retreating deeper into its nesting spot, his dark eyes resting reproachfully on the Yuuzhan Vong woman.
The small tendril, its origin in the ship's wall, that was connected to the bird's body revealed to Elan that Kwaad had probably witnessed Elan's rude behaviour towards some of her goods.

Well, should she. The Shaper should better have a GOOD reason to take her out of bed.
Elan hadn't slept more than the Shaper in the last days, for she had been determined to be present during the whole shaping of her new familiar.

The thought of that brought a smile on her face. Some levels below her, in the laboratory, her new familiar lay, waiting for her command to awake again.
By then, he would be able to understand and speak her native tongue and Elan wouldn't be in need to talk in the strange, disgusting sounding Basic thing anymore.

Her fellow Priestesses in the guild would envy her, that she had such a familiar. And once he had been trained properly, he would not only make a good bodyguard, but also would ensure her more power in the hierarchy.
A thing that hadn't been take from him by Mezhan Kwaad was the knowledge how to use his Force abilities. He was a Jedi Master and, as she had learned, thus an incredibly powerful being.
And this power was in HER hands now. She would probe in how far he could be used directly against Yuuzhan Vong and then she would see which place other than her servant and bodyguard he would have in her plans.

She would finally have some company again - someone who would endure all her moods, who would serve her and would listen to her. Someone, shortly speaking, who BELONGED to her.

Her mood significantly better, she entered the bridge of the laboratory ship, focussing her attention on the form of the shaper standing in the middle of it, her head-dress a mass of swirling tendrils. Elan didn't know how to interpret it, but then she didn't really care about it.

"Why did you wake me, Kwaad?" she asked, crossing her arms before her chest, stifling a yawn.

"We have a problem." the Shaper simply growled, gesturing towards the transparent membrane serving as viewport. Elan turned nonchalantly, but when she saw what Kwaad had meant, her mouth fell open.
"What IS that?" she asked, horrified.

Mezhan already studied the files in the brain of the ship, searching for an explanation.

"The ship has no knowledge about this particular sort of vessels, but I think it's obvious that it belongs to the infidels. Skywalker's people." the Shaper said, sounding rather harsh and angry.

Elan's eyes narrowed: "There is no Luke Skywalker anymore. There is only Liin Kwaad. And those infidels have no rights to claim him. He belongs to me. That's the law."

"Oh, please." Mezhan hissed, causing Elan to retreat some steps. "Are you really this dumb or do you think you can amuse me with it?"

"I don't understand..." Elan began, only to be cut off by Kwaad rather shortly.

"That is rather obvious." The shaper laughed sharply, then turned around, stroking a part of her control board, revealing an abominated communication device. Fumbling a little bit, she finally established a connection to the ship outside, cleared her throat, softened her features and finally spoke.

"Unknown ship, the "Moota" and her captain greet you. Can we help you in any way?"

"Kwaad, what are you doing, we..."

"We must first be sure what they want. Skywalker's people...." "There is no..." "Yeah. Yeah." Kwaad waved her words away.

"The infidels can't know where we are. And if that's just a trader or something, then we don't want to betray ourselves. Now be quiet."

Elan nodded dumbfounded.

Mezhan smiled contentedly, then turned again as a head appeared on the little screen of the abominable device.

"Moota, this is the 'Hapes Jewel' - we demand that you give your captive, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, immediately over to us. If you comply, we won't destroy you."

The Shaper's eyes narrowed, then she looked at Elan: "Go take your pet - we have to go." Elan nodded, her eyes wide with fear.

When she had vanished from the Bridge, Kwaad shut down the abomination device and pushed on a few hard sections of the control board - just a few moments later, two warriors came onto the bridge, eyeing her darkly. "Yes, Master Shaper?"

"You-" she gestured to the left one, "will stay here and take care of the ship's weapons. You - " now she looked at the other one, "take your fellows and mount the coralskippers. The Priestess, her familiar and I are going to retreat with my personal escape craft and you will cover our exit vector."

They nodded, and she left the bridge, following the Priestess to the laboratory.

**~

When Elan entered her laboratory, Skywalker lay still inert and deep-sleeping onto the living table, not even twitching in any form.
The Priestess frowned - Kwaad had explained to her that he would need at least one week or even two to recover totally from the shaping - considering his age perhaps even more. It would be not good to wake him just yet, but she had no choice.
The infidels wouldn't take her new familiar from her - not after everything she had done to get him.

Shaking him slightly, she murmured: "Liin! Liin, wake up!"

It took him some moments, but finally he had pried his eyes open and stared up at her tiredly: "Mistress?" he asked.
Elan's heart jumped when she noted that he spoke Yuuzhan Vong, not his native tongue. The first lesson of the tizowyrm must have been language. That was perfect.

"Rise. We have to go." she helped him sit up, worriedly eyeing his tired face. Slowly, he stood on his feet, looking around drowsily.

"I'm tired, Mistress." Liin murmured, swaying slightly to the side.

Impatiently, Elan dragged him towards the door: "I know. You will be allowed to sleep later. Now follow me."

"As you wish, Mistress." he replied, though his voice sounded as if he'd just barely suppressed a yawn.

At the door, they met up with Mezhan Kwaad, who eyed the human up and down. "He's weak. We will be lucky if he's going to my escape craft on his own feet." she stated.

"Then let's go. I'm sure your people can't fend them off for long. The infidel ship is much bigger than ours." Elan hastily put in. The Shaper nodded and led the way.

"What's an infidel, Mistress?" a defiant voice sounded in her ear. While she was running to keep up with Kwaad, Elan shot a glance at her back - Liin was keeping up just fine, although his colour was becoming worse and worse. His eyes, though, were clear now, eyeing her attentively, listening for orders or wishes or whatever.

The subject of the question got her mind reeling. Was he ready to learn about them? Would it trigger his memory? Or was the membrane established deeply enough to control this part of his brain?

She already had decided to not take the risk and just order him to shut up when another idea came to her. Stopping, causing her familiar to almost bump into her, she turned, lay her hands onto his cheeks and gazed up into the unknowing blue orbs, windows to a soul and a mind that waited to be filled with new perspectives of life and the universe - HER perspectives.

"They want to take you away from me. They want to separate us." she said intently, confident that the basic bonds between familiar and Master/Mistress had already been established by the membrane and the teaching of the tizowyrm.

When his eyes widened in fear and his colour became just a shade paler, Elan smiled inwardly. Just what she had counted on.
The basic feeling of a familiar, on which built up everything else, was that he or she and her or his mistress belonged together. The membrane had established the firm conviction in his head that he never was to be separated from her because without her, he was not worth living.

"You won't let them, Mistress, will you?" he whispered frightened, shivering slightly when the cold air in the ship stung to his free arms and feet.

Elan smiled, now grasping his wrist firmly. "Of course not. Come on now, we have to hurry." Liin nodded, following her willingly and some moments later, they boarded Mezhan Kwaad's escape craft, speeding away from the small space battle going on between the two larger ships at full throttle.

*~~

Deep down in Liin's soul, Luke Skywalker cried out desperately as he had to retreat further to prevent the membrane from cracking his already weakened Force walls.

Millenium Falcon

When the Falcon fell out of hyperspace, Han Solo couldn't believe his eyes.

"What, Minions of Xendor....?" he swore, sending the ship into a downward corkscrew to avoid a collision with a larger ship - a ship that definitely WASN'T Yuuzhan Vong.

The villip set on his control board took on the form of Commander Buune Lah, a relative of the Warmaster. "What does this mean, President?" he barked aggressively.

"If I knew I'd tell you!" Han shouted back, trying to bring his ship back under control, momentarily ignoring that he hadn't been the one asked the question.

"Han! This is a Hapan Battle Dragon!" Leia cried out, stumbling beside him and staring at the beautiful, deadly ship in awe.

"Teneniel.... why doesn't this surprise me?" Han muttered, frantically pushing buttons and levers. Judging by the multiple sirens, the violent manoeuvring hadn't done the Falcon any good.

"Teneniel?" Mara asked from behind him, frowning. The name didn't trigger anything in her.

"The Queenmother of the Hapes Cluster. I asked her help with the negotiations." Leia explained, her widened eyes still displaying her surprise.

"Why is she here? And how did she know where HERE is?" Mara hissed, gripping the back of Han's seat more thoroughly as the freighter bucked a little bit.

"Must have tracked the Falcon." Leia said, working, after a gesture from Han, to get the shields up and running.

"But WHY?" Mara repeated, feeling absolutely useless at the moment.

"Well, because it's Luke, of course." Han giggled when the two women stared at him as if he'd gone insane.

"Aw, c'mon, Leia. You must have remarked it." the corellian shook his head unbelieving, still giggling.

"Must have remarked WHAT?" Mara shouted, preventing Leia from anything else and causing Han to twitch in surprise.
As if he'd suddenly realise to WHOM he was talking, Han blushed slightly: "Well... well... that she wants something from him again.."

Just a fraction of a second later, Mara's eyes bore into Han's, seemingly wanting to see straight into his brain. Her voice was deadly low when she asked: "Could you repeat that again?"

Han swallowed: "Well, she has been fussing around him alot and she has looked at him this way... you know... you know it's funny, just the way you're always looking at him when he..." Mara's eyes had gone cold as ice and Han grinned feebly: "Ok, ok, I'm gonna shut up now."

Before Mara could reply to that, the head of a beautiful woman in Leia's and Mara's age appeared onto the little screen, smiling grimly: "Hi, Leia. I wondered when you'd show up."

"Uh, hi, Teneniel,..."

"You! How dare you..." Mara began, only to be pushed rather rudely back by Han who sent her a pleading stare. Obviously fuming, the ex trader settled back, heaving.

"Teneniel..." Leia began again, hoping to distract the Queenmother from the furious and jealous red-head behind her, "what, by all dark moons, are you DOING here?"

"What do you think? I try to save your brother, of course." the Queenmother replied, shooting a glance somewhere behind her.

"And exactly how are you trying that?" Leia asked befuddled, seeing only the aft of the ship, nothing else.

"Well, by disabling the ship he is on, of course." Teneniel frowned, then, after one of her officers had mumbled something into her ear, smiled: "Just fly around us and you'll see. I'm confident to have him safe and sound on my ship soon."

"On HER ship? Luke is surely NOT going to...."

"Mara!" Leia hissed. Her sister-in-law stopped, then nodded, not looking very happy.

Another officer appeared at Teneniel's side and his words got her paling: "Leia, behind you - a...."

"Oh, darn, I forgot Commander Lah!" Leia swore, stroking the villip rather violently and sighing relieved when the commander's head appeared. "Now, President?" he asked.

"The ship is befriended with us. It's even now trying to disable the ship of the shaper."

Buune Lah smiled mockingly: "Now, that's surely saving us work, but I don't think it will achieve anything with that."

"What? Why?"

"Uh-oh." Han made. "Leia... Leia, look at that and tell me it's not what I think it is."

Leia turned her seat, staring at the small screen, showing a Yuuzhan Vong dot fleeing at full speed and gaining on the whole scene rather fast. Mara swore beside her ear: "Sith, they have an..."

"Escape craft." Buune Lah finished. "Of course they have. And your befriended.... ship..." he seemed to have problems to refer to it in this way, "is doing a good job in blocking the 'Ideen' from it."

"Perhaps the 'Ideen', but not the Falcon." Han hissed, dodging the Falcon around and leading it at its own full speed towards the fleeing Vong ship.

"Does this craft have any weapons?" he asked the Commander. Buune Lah shook his head: "No, but it's fast. And take breathing masks with you if you board it. One never knows what surprises a Shaper's ship has."

"Thanks. Keep us covered, will you?" Han nodded appreciatively towards the Command. The Yuuzhan Vong smiled grimly: "That's my job, isn't it?" with this, the villip sagged back onto the console.

"Han?" Mara's voice sounded raspy and suddenly Han noted that Leia had gone rigid beside him. "What?" he asked, apprehensively.

"Hurry." the ex-trader just whispered.

Dimmed and belated by the Yuuzhan Vong ship and the membrane, although Mara didn't know this of course, Luke's desperate cry had filled her soul.

**~

"Dodge it!" Elan cried, frightened staring at the bolts of hot, searing energy that chased their small escape craft and had their origin in one of the infidels' abominable, mechanic ships. A ship that had gained incredibly fast on them and was trying to hit their dovin-basals, to enable the ship.

"I'm trying." Kwaad spat out through gritted teeth. She was not a pilot, had never been. The pilot of the infidel ship, on the contrary, seemed to be an expert and outmanoeuvred her continuously.

Elan turned, just to make sure Liin was still there. Her familiar sat behind her in a seat, his fingers unconsciously twitching. His eyes wandered again and again towards the controls of the ship.
Yeah, Luke Skywalker had been a great pilot, the best, as Elan had heard, but Liin Kwaad had nothing more left than the desire to fly. How it actually worked was hidden deeply in the depths of the membrane.

Kwaad had thought that it would be far too dangerous for them to let him access those memories because too much joy and happiness was linked to them. It would only trigger emotions that should never surface in him again.

With a deep thud and a shivering of the whole ship, they became slower and finally lay dead in space.

"What?" Elan asked shocked.

"They have destroyed our dovin basals." Kwaad explained, trembling with rage. The Priestess's eyes were wide with panic, her hand grabbing the wrist of her familiar as if she was about to drown.

"I won't give him to them." She stated.

Kwaad snorted: "There is another craft, but it's slower. It will do if we act fast. We may only start if the humans are aboard. Otherwise they would catch up with us soon."

Elan nodded, already on her feet, dragging the human with her. "Come on, let's go, Liin."

"Yes, Mistress."

**~

"Who would have thought that this thing would come in handy?" Han grinned feebly, patting the strange Yuuzhan Vong animal that had cut, no, had EATEN, a hole into the other ship, giving them a vacuum-prove way to access it.

"I hope we don't have to search for him long. The air supplies of these things are not that great." Mara murmured, her hand already at her lightsaber, while she checked her breathing mask with the other one.

When they finally could see into one of the corridors of the other ship, Han's eyes narrowed: "We won't have to."

On the wall, they could see three shadows hurrying towards them. The persons belonging to them would be there in a few moments.

"It's ShowTime." Leia grinned humourlessly.

**~

And really, as Leia had said, in the next moment, three figures burst into the corridor, slithering to a halt and staring at them wide-eyed.

Han pushed another button inside the Falcon and one of the position lights popped on, lightening the corridor up.

The two Yuuzhan Vong woman, one petite and one tall, with a curious, withering head-dress on, retreated to the wall.

A low cry from behind the small one let Mara freeze - that was Luke's voice. The petite woman, obviously Elan, pushed the crouching form that still lay into the shadows behind her, pushing his head towards the floor.
Accidentally, he hit the wall with his forehead, and with an even higher-pitched cry of pain stumbled back into the light.

"Luke!" Mara said relieved, making a few steps in his direction while Leia and Han aimed their blasters on the two Yuuzhan Vong women.
Both were glaring at them, but they were obviously unarmed and they knew that they didn't stand a chance.

Joy poured through Mara - he could move on his own feet, so it couldn't be that bad. But every joy she would have felt became horror, when he finally pushed himself up on his knees, turning and staring at her, Leia and Han.

"What..?" Han gasped, while Leia just inhaled sharply.

Mara couldn't do anything. The sight before her was just about too much. Out of the gaunt, pale face, two big eyes stared at her, blankly. Her heart contracted painfully when she saw no recognition in them, just fear.
His hair was everything but clean and he was clad in shirt and trousers of a curious, light material, his arms and feet free and covered with several nasty looking puncture marks.

But what shocked her the most was something entirely else. In the middle of his forehead, seemingly staring at her, was what seemed to be a tattoo of some sort.
It was delicately carved and resembled flames which extended at either site from the dark centre. It glittered and gleamed like black satin.

Tattoos were of course nothing unusual in the galaxy, rather the opposite, but this one, on Luke, together with his whole appearance seemed horribly out of place and rather like a sign of suppression than anything else.

"Luke?" Mara repeated, her voice trembling when she kneeled down before him.

He didn't answer her, just stared at her and when she extended a hand to touch him, he shied away with a squeal.

"Luke, please answer me." She whispered, not daring to speak louder, fearing her voice would break then.

A mocking laugh escaped the lips of the Priestess and earned her the complete attention of the trio.
"He can't." she explained, grinning contentedly at Mara and her friends.
"What do you mean, he can't?" Han asked, his voice rough and his finger itching to press the trigger and blast this ugly grin out of the woman's face.

"He isn't Luke Skywalker anymore. Besides, he doesn't understand your language."

That left the three humans dumbfounded and horrified. Elan grinned more broadly. "Come here." She barked. Luke's stare broke hesitantly away from Mara, as if something in him wanted to look at her longer, then he crawled over to the Priestess.

Leia behind Mara gasped again, then mumbled: "The vision. Oh Mara, my vision."

Mara felt as if she'd faint the next moment. No! This couldn't be true.

"May I introduce." Elan purred, kneeling down herself, laying one arm around Luke's shoulders and cupping his face with her other hand.
"This is Liin Kwaad, my familiar." She suddenly said some words in her native tongue and understanding dawned in Luke's blank eyes. He nodded eagerly, turning his gaze to Mara.

"Liin Kwaad." He said, his hand patting his chest to underline the words.

tbc...

Here's Jedi Dawn 17, as promised.
Please assault me with reviews.
The legal smegal is clear - everything belongs to George in the SW universe, I gain no money from this and it's just for fun.

ENJOY!

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn 17

Deep Space, Mezhan Kwaad's Escape Craft

"Liin Kwaad."

Luke's words felt like blaster bolts to Mara. At the fringes of her eyesight, she could see Leia shaking her head frantically, unconsciously retreating towards her husband. At least the Princess's lightsaber was still armed towards the two Yuuzhan Vong women.

"What have you done to him?" Han's voice was rough and trembled slightly, whether from shock or from anger Mara couldn't tell. She, for her part, was not able to move, nor to get a word out of her mouth.

"You wouldn't understand anyway." the tall Vong woman spat, then smiled. "Now what, infidels? Do you want to stand their all day, arming your abominable weapons at us?"

"Not at all. We just take him with us and if you're nice, we'll not kill you and just give you to your fellows who, I bet, are just now approaching your little vessel." Han smiled friendly, though his eyes, Mara noted, were as cold as Hoth's winter.

His comment caused two totally different reaction on the part - while Mezhan Kwaad's eyes widened and she looked as if she'd be ready to run away, Elan's dark orb exploded in rage when she jumped to her feet, stepping before her hostage.
Luke, for his part, crouched behind the legs of her, staring at them with big, questioning eyes, his face witness to the fact that he obviously didn't understand a word that was spoken here.

"You won't take him from me. He is my familiar, he belongs to me. You have NO right to take him with you!" the Priestess spat.

"He is not your familiar!" finally, although it was incredibly difficult, Mara had found her voice again. "He is Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master and MY husband. I have EVERY right to take him with me!" taking her lightsaber and activating it, Mara stepped closer to Elan.
"If you don't step aside NOW, I will have to cut my way free." she said, her voice emotionless.

Han rose his blaster a little bit more, trying to keep an eye on both Yuuzhan Vong - though, if he'd to guess, he'd say that Kwaad was no danger at the moment. Her forehead furrowed, she seemed to be thinking thoroughly about something and not all too interested in what was going on.

Elan's handsome, if exotic, face was contorted in an ugly grimace of fear and rage while her eyes were fixed on the shimmering blue blade of energy that came dangerously close to her throat with every moment she hesitated.
But she couldn't, WOULDN'T loose her familiar - not already now. She hadn't even had the possibility to have some time off with him, to explore what he was capable of and how he would get along with fulfilling her wishes.
Just before the blade touched her skin, Elan decided to buy herself time and hastily made a step to the side. Liin gave a low squeal and tried to follow her, but the Jedi woman stepped between them, cutting him off from her.

"Nice girl." Jade-Skywalker murmured towards her before she concentrated on her familiar..

Elan slipped beside Kwaad, shaking her rather rudely. "Get us out of here."

The Shaper didn't reply, her eyes focused on the Jedi woman who now kneeled down before Skywalker. In Kwaad's head, the thoughts raced. Out there, on the way to them, was a Yuuzhan Vong ship with orders from Tsavong Lah in person. If they would be taken, they would be executed, there was no doubt of it.
Now the Priestess may probably be crazy enough about the shaped Jedi to risk that, but Kwaad knew no such emotions. The only question was how to get them out of this mess without the human man that aimed his weapon at her firing her out of the universe.
Now, more than ever, Kwaad would have to use her intelligence....

~**

Mara felt herself tremble when she kneeled down before Luke's crouching form. His small cry of terror and more than obvious try to follow the Yuuzhan Vong priestess had been like a sharp needle pushing straight into her heart.

Now he pressed himself against the wall, his eyes never leaving her, tracing every movement. His entire body showed his readiness to use the smallest room she'd give him to slip away and return to Elan.

"What have they done to you?" she whispered, shutting her lightsaber off. Trying to suppress the tears that threatened to come, she extended once again a hand, but avoided to touch him, recognising that it frightened him to no end.

"Luke... " she began, her voice failing her when her brain didn't come up with anything she could say. Her husband frowned, giving up his intention to flee and focussing instead of her.
"Liin." he repeated, his gaze searching this of Elan who stood some half a meter beside Mara, anxiously following the scene.

Mara was not able to do more than shaking her head - her eyes were unsteady, searching his well-known, loved features, his eyes, for any sign of HER Luke, but finding none.

"You see?" Elan purred, contentment sounding all too clearly through her voice. Mara's head snapped around, her tear-filled eyes piercing the alien's ones.
The Priestess didn't even bother to hide her big grin: "Liin doesn't want to come with you. I'm his mistress, thus he'll stay with me."
She added some words in her own tongue and Luke hesitantly pushed his way towards her, Mara giving him room unconsciously. At this very moment, all the hope she had had still left evaporated at once and desperation overcame her. Luke hadn't recognised her. Whatever they'd done with him, it had been successful. He was not Luke Skywalker anymore - he was Liin Kwaad and did WANT to stay with this alien witch.

"My brother is NO ONE'S slave!" Leia suddenly cried out, her voice as shrill as neither Han nor Mara had ever heard it. Han's finger twitched even more, meanwhile aimed straight at Elan's eyes instead of her stomach. He was not Force-sensitive, he couldn't tell whether there was still something left of his best friend in the being that stood now beside the petite Yuuzhan Vong priestess, unsurely following the exchanges, his forehead furrowed, the light of the Millenium Falcon's position light playing on the shimmering tattoo. But he would NEVER let him be with her.

"It is too late, Leia." Mara's voice let Han, as well as Leia, gape in surprise and horror. It was tired, defeated - lifeless.

"But..... but you felt it, TOO." Leia stammered, now a desperate edge into her voice. "You FELT his cry for help. I know you felt it. He is still there and he's waiting for our help. You have HEARD how he called for me!"

Mara's eyes rested dubiously on Leia's big, brown ones, she opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by the hissing voice of Elan. "Stop dreaming, Princess. He doesn't remember you." furious, she took Luke's chin, averting his stare, which had been resting on her since she had began speaking again, towards the three humans. "Look into his eyes. He doesn't recognise any of you. And how should he? Liin Kwaad has never seen you - he has never seen a human."

"If Leia says he is still in there," Han replied shakily, shivering when Luke's eyes met his but seemed to look straight through him, as if he weren't there, "then he IS still in there."

Again, the scene was immersed in silence, all frozen in shock, rage or their own musings. Mara, for example, hadn't paid that close an attention towards the latest exchange. Something Leia had said had taken root in her brain and her instinct kept telling her that it was the solution. Somewhere something that had been said by Leia was the key to getting Luke back.
Yes, she had felt him crying for help - she had felt his strong mind still being there and fighting against whatever tried to erase it. Luke's voice had been all too clear when he had called for Leia, though it had been filled with the most intense fear she had ever felt coming from her husband.
He HAD called for his sister and.... Mara froze. He had called for his SISTER, but had not called for her. Not for his wife. All the time, she had wondered which angle the Yuuzhan Vong brainwashing had had to overcome him - Luke had withstood many attempts to turn him, again and again. His will and mind were strong and the mightiest beings in the galaxy, Palpatine being only one of them, had come to see that it was almost impossible to break him.
And now, an alien researcher, that had never been in contact with humans, should have been able to do just that?

No. There must have been an angle point to overcome him and Mara had just found it. SHE was this weak spot. Only SHE. He hadn't called for her help, because he didn't even think she WOULD help. Because Luke Skywalker, in his stupid farmboy brain, had long decided that he had LOST her.
Perhaps he hadn't given in consciously, but his subconscious had and that was everything Kwaad or whatever means she had used to get him had needed to get him under their control.

"Liin." she said aloud, clear, her voice calm. His head turned, his eyes staring at her, slightly curious, but particularly attentive. They had him well trained, she though frightened. All the time ready to follow orders, to obey.
Drawing on the Force, she slowly entered his mind. Immediately, she was assaulted by this black entity again, wondering for the thousandth time WHAT this was, but then managed to get a weak, but steady contact with his mind. Concentrating, she accessed informations and memories that WEREN'T really those of her husband, but would now serve her the better.

Clearing her throat, she said: "Do you remember me? Do you know who I am?"
She heard the multiple gasps as these words left her mouth in Yuuzhan Vong, not in Basic, and Liin's eyes widened. Surprised that she spoke the tongue he had learned being the one and only, he made a step towards her, his mind automatically drawing the conclusion that he had to obey everyone able to speak the holy language.

Honestly answering the question, he shook his head, not remarking that, behind a shining, slowly weakening wall of Force energy deep down in his awareness, the interest of another presence was peeked - a presence that couldn't help but thinking that the voice speaking the words sounded familiar. All too familiar.

Mara had hoped to FEEL any reaction from him, but the only result she got was that the black entity that tried to push her out of Luke's mind became much more agitated, but turning its attention not towards her, but deeper into Luke, as it seemed.
Frowning, she decided to ignore this for now and concentrated on the reality.

"My name is Mara Jade." she said lowly. "I'm Mara. Mara"

It was only a slight flicker of an emotion she couldn't place, but for a second it was visible in these crystal blue eyes that faced her and Mara almost jumped with joy.
She, though, wasn't the only one who had seen it.

"Don't listen to her, Liin." Elan cried, her voice suddenly a little bit more worried, as Mara noted contentedly. So the honored Vong-Priestess wasn't so sure about the obedience of her new pet. Fine.

Luke turned his head, staring at Elan and beginning slowly to go back to her. "Yes, Mistress." he murmured, though it sounded irritated enough.

"Liin, I...." the Priestess fell silent when Leia shot her a warning glance and Han tightened the hold on the trigger. Swallowing, her eyes widened with helplessness, Elan once again addressed Kwaad.
"Help me."
But the Shaper just shook her head and went on watching, while she still tried to find any possibility to get out of the danger she was in.
"Kwaad!" Elan hissed.
She didn't answer.

"Liin, you know me. I'm Mara. Don't you remember my name? Doesn't it sound familiar to you?" Mara tried to give her voice a soothing sound, slowly approaching him and demonstratively clipping her lightsaber back onto her belt again.

"I.... I'm not sure..." he answered, his eyes darting between her and his suddenly silent Mistress. Deep down, a presence had began pushing against the membrane, with new found energy. Liin felt dizzy and distant, not even guessing that this was due to the membrane being more and more focussed on keeping the Force presence at bay - keeping Luke Skywalker at bay.

"Think about it - you KNOW me, don't you? You DO know me."

His mouth opened and closed, he tried to say something, but no words came to him. His eyes had stopped darting and were now nailed on the face of the human woman that approached him.
Her features seemed vaguely know to him, indeed - and they were beautiful, oh so beautiful....

Mara, seeing that she had gotten through to him more than she had ever hoped for, decided to go for it now, not knowing why she felt she had to hurry, but acting due to this premonition.

"I'm your wife, LUKE." she stressed the last word, deliberately using his real name and speaking in Basic again.

"You're my...wife....?" he repeated, irritation abundantly clear in his voice.

"By the Force, Mara, you..." Han began cheering, but Mara shook her head furiously towards him, though she felt as happy as he. Luke had repeated what she had said - and he had repeated it in BASIC.

"Yes, Luke, I'm your wife. I'm sorry for what I did. I promise I'll never leave you again." she extended once again her hand, holding it out for him to grasp.

His bewildered gaze halted at her ring - the ring he had given her for their wedding. Reflexively, he lifted his right hand, gazing at his fingers.
When he found nothing, his forehead wrinkled in another frown, he bit his lower lip. Mara could almost feel the memories fighting for coming back to him. "....wife..." he mumbled, tasting the word on his tongue, still staring at his hand where there was no ring. It felt wrong that there was no ring.

Mara could barely hold herself together. He was so close. Elan, behind him, trembled, fury in her eyes, and obviously wanted nothing more than to say something, to cast him again under her control, but she obviously didn't want to die for it. Han's stare was not to misunderstand. A tone and she would be history.
Clenching her hands into fists, the Priestess followed every move of Mara and Luke.

Mara smiled. The Vong had lost. Luke belonged to her and he would recognise that soon.
As if a curtain had lifted suddenly, Luke's features relaxed in total surprise. Lifting his head and staring Mara straight into the eyes, he began his way towards her. "Where have you been?" he whispered, stumbling a little bit.
No wonder, Mara mused. He looked deathly pale and so weak, it was a miracle that he'd been able to be so long on his feet.

"Later." she said back, swallowing to once again suppress her tears. Luke nodded, bewilderment and surprise still reigning his features, then hastened his steps.

"Mar....AHHH!" it was an understatement to say Mara was shocked when Luke cried out in unbelievable pain, crumpled to the floor and grasped his head with his hands, writhing on the cold yorik-coral.

"Luke!" Mara, Leia and Han cried out at the same time, but only the Jedi Master jumped forward and kneeled down beside him. "Luke? Luke, what's wrong."

"Don't let him escape." Elan suddenly hissed, startling Han that much that he didn't trigger his blaster. "To whom are you talking, crazy-one?" he asked flabbergasted, but Elan ignored him.
"Take him back!" she instead insisted, seemingly talking to Luke, but it made just no sense.

"Luke, please, hold still!" Mara demanded, trying to get a grip of him. But he trembled uncontrolled, twitching now and then, moaning and yelling shrill in pain. He didn't answer her and didn't comply.
Groaning and huffing, Mara finally managed to pry his hands away from his forehead and couldn't help but shriek in absolute horror. What she had thought to be a tattoo had suddenly begun to have a life of its own. It moved like a wave, then constricted, moved again wave-like and so on and so on.

The eyes of her husband were filled with tears and his cries became shriller and shriller. Fear gripped Mara, fear that this was no simple torment, of which sort ever, but something else. Something that could very well be deadly. When Luke's hands once flew towards his forehead and his fingers buried themselves into the strange tattoo, she became aware that this thing was indeed the reason for his pain.
Afraid to hurt him even, she didn't dare to touch the thing - besides, Luke's fingers didn't have the slightest success in preventing it from doing what it did, so she mused it was useless anyway.

She already wanted to yell to Elan that she should make the thing stop, convinced that it had something to do with her, when Luke fell silent and his body sagged onto the floor, slight shivers running through it now and then.
Mara lost her grip on him because he suddenly went from being stiff and rigid to almost jelly like. This second was everything Elan needed to act.

With a cry of rage, she jumped forward. Han, his instincts not diminished even by age, shot immediately, but Luke's torment had shaken him visibly. He missed, the shot went into the wall and a huge part of it was converted into stinking, dense steam. Coughing, he tried to get a view of everything, to find something to shoot on, vaguely realising Leia doing the same and Mara trying to pick herself up from the floor.

When the steam vanished, the first thing Han could see was Mezhan Kwaad standing before an opening in the wall that hadn't been there before, ready to jump into it.
"Hold it!" he shouted, his blaster once again finding a secure aim on her gut. The shaper froze, slowly lowering her arms and turning back to him. When she had done so, she suddenly smiled.

"What the hell..?"

"Lower this abomination, human. At once!" Han spun around, his blaster never leaving the Shaper, though, and almost cried out loud in frustration.

Elan grinned at him, holding a vicious and really sharp looking coral blade at Luke's throat who didn't fight her in any way. He seemed totally dazed, blood trickling out of his mouth down his chin. He moaned lowly, his eyes blinking slowly open and closed.

"You would hurt your familiar?" Mara asked with a sharp voice, having picked up herself and crouching battle-ready before the Priestess. One of her hands, though, rested on her stomach. Elan had probably kicked her, Han mused. Leia stood there, her blaster aiming at Elan, but her lips pressed into a thin line. Even Han had to admit that he probably wasn't fast enough to prevent Elan to cut Luke's throat before she died from his shot.

The petite Yuuzhan Vong grinned even more broadly: "Rather that than give him back to you. Now retreat!" she barked, and cackled when Mara slowly made a few steps back, her eyes on the blade that dug into Luke's skin.

"I'm impressed." Mezhan Kwaad said, smiling over to the Priestess.

"Many thanks. We will have a talk later." Elan hissed back, backhanding Luke a few times roughly, then raising and dragging him to his feet. He swayed, and the Priestess supported him.

"Say goodbye to your precious Jedi Master." she laughed towards the group of humans that stood back in helpless fury.

"Luke!" Mara said intently - he had to free himself. He had to.

"I'm.... I'm Liin Kwaad." he stammered weakly, his eyes still on the verge of falling closed. And everything fell together in Mara's head. Whatever it was that was in Luke's head, Kwaad and Elan had used it and the pain it caused to suppress his will.

"Fight the pain, Luke!" she advanced a step, keeping her eyes still on the blade, ready to back off as soon as Elan buried it deeper into his vein.

"I'm Liin.... Skywalker... I'm.." he mumbled, twitching - immediately, the strange tattoo constricted softly, causing him to moan in agony.

"You see, Jedi? Your husband is history. I will take Liin with me and... uff." her voice went over to a pain-filled, muffled sound, when Luke buried his elbow in her stomach and stumbled away from her.
"Jedi...husband...." he panted.

"No! Come back, you..." Elan cried, her voice still strained with pain. Before she could pursue him, though, an arm shot out of the opening beside her.

"Damn, this bitch is fast!" Han hissed, immediately giving a shot, but the Shaper had already dragged the Priestess into the escape craft and sealed the opening.
Swearing, Han ran over to it and began pounding on it, trying to find the hidden button, or lever, or anything.

Only when he heard a "whoosh" from the other side, he decided it would be more intelligent to not open it. Vacuum death was nothing cosy.

**~

"Why did you do that!? He is MINE - I can't leave him behind!" hysterically, Elan pounded against the hatch of the escape craft, totally oblivious to the fact that they long were in vacuum - looming behind the Moota and the abomination ship, a large Yuuzhan Vong vessel began pursuing them, but it had been too slow to react. It would be narrow, but they'd get away.

"He was lost to you. Skywalker has recognised his wife - better we are alive and without him than dead and still without him." Kwaad just growled, dodging a weak plasma shot coming from the ship that chased them.

"But he was my familiar!" Elan whined, giving up pounding and sinking into her chair, tears of fury and regret stinging in her eyes.

"You will find yourself another one." the Shaper simply stated, waiting for the small singing sound that would announce that they were ready to jump into the hyperspace-equivalent.

"I wanted HIM." Elan pouted, then added. "I wanted him to be my familiar or to die."

That got Kwaad to smile evilly: "With a little bit of luck, Priestess, he WILL die."

The petite woman's eyes widened: "What?" she asked dumbfounded.

"I have made sure that, without my tending, the drev-membranes in his body will die soon."

"What? You damn..." Elan began, but was cut off AGAIN.

"I needed a guarantee that you'd keep me alive once you had what you wanted. Anyways, if we are lucky, the membranes will take him with them if they die."

Elan didn't knew what to reply to this, just sat back and was silent for awhile. They had gained on the approaching bigger ship and the shots that reached them were harmless.
When the singing sound appeared, Elan stated gruffly: "Take me to the meeting point with the late Admiral's fleet. We have to go on with my plans."

"Of course." Kwaad said, sending their ship into "hyperspace".

**~

After a few steps on jelly-like legs, Luke had collapsed into Mara's arms. Burying his head at her shoulder and in her spicy hair, he trembled again uncontrollable.

"It hurts.. it hurts so much..." he whimpered, gripping Mara's tunic in agony. "We will make it stop... somehow we will make it stop." Mara whispered, rocking him back and forth, feeling the constrictions of the strange tattoo at her skin.
She'd love to tear it out, but only the Force knew what she'd do to Luke then.

Luke didn't seem to have heard her, for he continued whimpering: "Please make it stop, Mara.... please... it hurts so much..." she lay him back, staring at his eyes which were widened in terror and stared at her for help she couldn't give.
Sobbing lowly, she caressed his cheek, her gaze nailed on the shimmering, black mass that caused her love so much pain. "If I only knew how." she murmured.

"I'm going to say Commander Lah that we need this shaper assistant as soon as possible." Leia murmured, squeezing Mara's shoulder and vanishing.
Han stood still there, blaster ready, not having forgotten Buune Lah's warnings about surprises in this ship.

"You hear, Luke. Help is on its way. Luke? Luke! - Oh Force!"

The constricting tattoo had stopped moving, but what had happened now was NOT better. The shimmering black it had been before had begun to become a pale grey - it cost Mara a few seconds till she undderstood that it DIED.
Luke had gone absolutely rigid, his body caught in a terrible cramp that made him as flexile as durasteel. His eyes, suddenly as clear as she had remembered them, stared at her - filled with the most terrified expression she had ever seen.

"M-m-m-mara....help-p-p" he stammered between stiff lips, then without a warning, his eyes rolled inward and he went once again limp.

"Luke!!!" Mara cried, hugging his thin form close - now, strangely, she remarked for the first time how thin he was. His head lolled backwards and his arms hung lifelessly onto the floor. Frantically, she lay him onto the floor and searched for a pulse. Relieved, she found a slow, more or less steady one at his left wrist, though she also noted that he began to get hot... already now, his pale cheeks showed red, flushed points.

Han, who had gone exploring around the edge of the corridor, came racing back, slithering to a halt and falling onto hands and knees before his inert friend.

"What happened?" he asked, already pushing his arms under Luke's shoulders and knees and lifting him gently from the floor. "He's so light..." he murmured.

"I don't know. But we have to hurry." Mara was pale like a ghost, her stare nailed on Luke's serene, but more and more flushed face.

Together they ran back into the Falcon and only a minute later, they disengaged from the escape craft.

**~

By the time they had docked at the Ideen and gotten into its hangar bay, Luke was caught in a high fever, mumbling strange things that got horrifying visions into Mara's head.

"Pincer..." he whispered. "Pincer finger.... no...please... not head...."

At one point, he even cried for Elan, what left Mara shaken by tears: "I'm Liin... Liin Kwaad....Mistress! Mistress!"

A tall Yuuzhan Vong Shaper, a male this time, took Luke's form into its arms, holding the much smaller human for a moment, than giving him to two of his helpers who held Luke upright while the Shaper Assistant took a look at him.

"Drev-membrane." he murmured, lifting Luke's chin and eyeing what Mara still took as tattoo attentively.

"What?" Leia demanded, laying Mara a thing rug around the shoulders. Han was there, too supporting her as well as Leia herself.

The Shaper Assistant turned to them: "They used a drev-membrane. It's an animal. They have planted it into his head and it has connected with his brain, sealing off parts and acting as replacement. That.." he gestured at the meanwhile almost white "tattoo", "is drev-membrane."

All three humans gaped and the Shaper Assistant continued. "They must have carved a tunnel for it just up to his brain tissue.... though I don't know how ONE drev-membrane should have sufficed if you say he is so strong...." he examined Luke a bit more, then gave a satisfied: "Aha." Turning Luke's limp head slightly, he showed them a dark, round blotch at the base of his skull that had the same colour as the thing on his forehead.
Mara had no difficulties imagining it being black and constricting only half an hour before.

"Can you help him?" she asked, feeling Luke's force-presence slipping away from her, once again blocked, but this time from a fever that raged on in his weakened body.

"We will try to take the membranes out of him - if it succeeds, he will probably survive. You will have to tend him yourself, though. We have no means for humans."

They all nodded, then Han cleared his throat: "It is not sure that you can take these... these things out of him?"

"Drev-membranes." the Shaper Assistant corrected him annoyed, then shook his head: "If they have connected too close with his brain, we can't. Otherwise we would destroy his brain enough to give him a life blissfully unaware of everything."

Three pale humans shook their head at that. "Fine. Then wait here and we'll see what we can do." with this, he and his underlings vanished, carrying Luke with them.

**~

Four hours later, the wait had an end finally. When they saw the Shaper Assistant come into the bay again, Mara, Han and Leia, who had crouched onto the lowered ramp of the Falcon, waiting, went over to him. On a strange creature with multiple legs and a back that looked very table-like, Luke was laying, sprawled there like a broken doll and still unconscious. His face was still flushed, but not as much as when he had been brought here.

They immediately went over to him, only to shy away terrified. "Oh gods.." Han mumbled, embracing Leia who buried her head at his chest. Mara just shook her head, her hand hovering over the forehead of her husband which she had wanted
Where the curious membrane had been, a deep carving was left that looked still delicate, but the more horrifying when they became aware that it had been IN his skin and not just ON his skin. In the centre of the carving was a small, round hole, not bleeding, but showing all too clearly what had happened to him.

Mara didn't even want to see the base of his skull.

"Come on... " Han finally murmured, once again lifting his brother-in-law in the air, strangely aware that he was not much heavier than
Leia.

Luke gave a low sigh, his face curiously relaxed. For the first time, Han became aware that Luke must have been constantly in pain since the moment he had been kidnapped.
"She will pay for it." he lowly mumbled into Luke's ears, pressing him gently at his chest. Luke didn't react on this one, just remained in his state of merciful unconsciousness.

On the Falcon, they stripped him into the medical bunk and made their way back towards Coruscant.

1 day later, Light-years away

"I hope you have understood your orders?" Priestess Elan asked, standing in the gathering room on the Yuuzhan Vong warship Ookin, facing six Yuuzhan Vong Commanders, all loyal to her cause.

Multiple nods.

"Perfect. This attack must be fast and deadly. We are outnumbered, so we have to use the surprise they will be in. We must overcome than as soon as possible or we will loose."

Again she received nods. Content, she dismissed the warriors.

Going over to Mezhan Kwaad, who sat in one corner of the room, eating her dinner, she grinned.

"Soon, we will wipe Tsavong Lah and his fleet out of space. And as soon as he's taken care of, I'll cancel the negotiations with the infidels."

"And?" Kwaad queried.

"And then the sect of Yun-Harla will have a new High-Priestess and a lot more influence."

tbc...

Here it is finally. Jedi Dawn 18!!!
As always, I'm expecting all the feedback you can give me :D

SW belongs to George Lucas, I gain no money with this and it's just for fun.

I hope you enjoy it!

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn - Part 18

Hyperspace, Millenium Falcon, a few hours after Luke's rescue

"Luke? Luke, can you hear me?" Mara felt barely able to surpress the slight trembling in her voice when she took Luke's hand into her own, staring anxiously at his pale features.
He gave no sign of coming around, so she sighed and took the small, but well filled med-kit out of the compartment it was stored in.

Softly cupping his cheek and turning his head, so that she could tend to his forehead wound, she once again wondered darkly what they had done to him.
Sure, the Yuuzhan Vong Shaper Assistant had told them the name of the animal that had been in Luke's head and that it had controlled him by connecting with his brain, neutralising certain areas and taking their place.
But he hadn't said anything as to how it had been inserted into Luke's head and how it worked exactly.
She could only suppose that the small hole in his forehead had been the way for the animal to get into the inside of his head, but that were only suspicions.

Banning all these thoughts from her mind, knowing that they would only result in her getting more and more angry about what Elan had done to him and how she had manipulated him, Mara carefully cleaned the wound and bandaged it.
The one on the base of his skull had already been taken care of by the Yuuzhan Vong. Obviously it had been bleeding during whatever they had done to remove the curious membrane and they had had to seal it off.

Mara got that lost in her own thoughts and worries while she fastened the bandage, that she was totally startled when she lowered her gaze and was greeted by two blue eyes that stared at her, foggy, but obviously awake.

"Luke!" tossing the rest of the bandage-roll away, Mara sank onto her knees beside the bunk, grasping his hand, at this moment not noting that he didn't reply to her soft squeeze.

What she did note and what let her swallow hard, was the way his eyes widened in fear when she said his name.
Lifting his hand and kissing its palm, Mara tried to give her voice a soothing sound. "You don't have to be afraid of anything. No one can hurt you here."

She smiled at him, bending down and giving him a soft kiss on the lips. He smiled unsurely, his eyes darting around. Frowning, Mara noted that his irritation and fear didn't diminish while he took in his surroundings.

"What's wrong, Luke?" she asked worriedly, her apprehension rising.

When she said his name for the second time, Luke sat up straight in his bed, his hand clasping over her mouth. "Don't say it again, please."

Startled, Mara freed herself and stared at him: "What?" she asked stupefied.

"The name - don't say it again." He whispered, anxiously letting his gaze sweep around. But still, it looked curious to Mara - rather curious.

"But it's your name! You are not Liin Kwaad, you are Lu..."

"I know." He hissed, a desperate edge in his voice. "But she will come back if you say it again. She will know if you say it and come back."

Still trying to understand what Luke was talking about, Mara hopped to the side to make place for him when he cuddled deeper into the bunk, his eyes never standing still.

"WHO will come back?" she demanded to know, determined to figure out what was going on in her husband's head.

"Mezhan Kwaad." His voice was barely audible and he crawled deeper into the bunk, cowering opposite of her and shivering slightly. His ever-moving eyes filled with fear and panic as intense as she had never seen it on her husband before.

Inhaling deeply, she took his hand, feeling him twitch in surprise. "Luke, you are safe now. No one can hurt you here. I won't let anyone come near you, I promise."

Luke turned to her, disbelief on his face, and shook his head: "You can't. I ---- I can't flee. There is no way, I...." Breaking off, he suddenly frowned: "How did you get in here?"

"What?!"

"How did you find me - how did you get IN here? They...they didn't get you, too, did they?" his voice going raspy, he jerked his head suddenly around, as if he had heard something.

"Luke, you are on the Millenium Falcon. You're far away from Mezhan Kwaad."

The expression of total irritation cut deep into her heart and before he could shy away from her again, she grasped his shoulders and hugged him close to her.
"You are not in Kwaad's ship anymore. Look around. You're on the Falcon. The Millenium Falcon."

"But... but... that's yorik coral...." He murmured, letting his fingers wander over the edge of the bunk.

Mara felt close to tears when she grasped his hand and led it to the mattress. He startled, staring down at it and shaking his head ---- kept shaking it on and on, while he leaned close to her again and whispered: "I'm cold, so cold. They don't give me a rug - and there is none here." His hands clasped her arms and his eyes stared off into nothingness.

"Don't worry, my love." She said lowly, kissing his temple. "You will be warm soon again." Carefully, she pushed him away from her, slipped out of the bunk and took a rug out of her own cabin.

When she returned only seconds later, Luke had curled up into a ball, shivering and staring at the wall of the medical bunk.
She could only guess what he did see and decided to ignore it for now. Laying the rug around his shoulders, she murmured into his ear: "You will be warm soon. " She sat down again and began stroking his hair - Mara didn't care that it was far from being clean, she just wanted to calm him and make him understand that he wasn't a prisoner anymore.

Once again, Luke shook his head, this time mumbling to himself over and over again: "It's just a hallucination... it wants me to drop my guard.... Just a hallucination...."

Mara bent down more, embracing him and laying her head onto his shoulder. His eyes widened and the most tormented expression she had ever seen in her life settled onto his delicate features.

"It can't be." His voice was so desperate that Mara felt her control break and tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Why not, Luke? Why not?" she sobbed, pressing his back more intense at her, trying to warm and soothe him at the same time.

"You can't be here." He repeated, trying weakly to get away from her. In his condition, he was not able to break her grip, so he just continued shaking his head.

"But you're feeling me. You feel my arms and you hear my voice. I'm real." Mara persisted, swallowing back another wave of sobs.

"Then you are not Mara. Because Mara is gone." He stated, his voice trembling shortly.

"Damn, Luke, I'm REAL and I'm here!" she cried out, jerking him onto his back and staring into his now terrified eyes. With an amount of power she wouldn't have thought him to be capable of, he pushed her away and retreated towards the other end of the bunk.

With a voice far more firm than before, he hissed: "It only wants to make me believe that! And as soon as I really think you are Mara it will get me. It just wants to lure me out!"

"It? What's it?" Mara asked, the suspicion with which he stared at her and the certainty that she was gone frightening her to no end.

"I don't know!" Luke whined, embracing his knees and slowly rocking back and forth. Obviously he felt more at ease when she didn't try to make him believe her. And when she didn't call him by his name.
"She...she... put it in my head." He seemed to want to hammer his fists against his forehead, but caught himself in the last moment, shaking his head again.
"It's so strong." He whispered, his big eyes staring at her, filled with fear. Mara couldn't reply anything to that.

The amount of physical and mental pain Luke had been through was shocking her deeply. Obviously, the torment and the shaping had left him totally suspicious of his own senses, not trusting them in any way.

When she didn't say anything, he continued: "I... I fought it, but I... I lost..." his voice broke, his hand hovering above his forehead, trembling and not daring to touch it - his own body!

"And then?" Mara finally asked, surprised that she was able to get a word out of her mouth.
"I hid. And still do." Luke simply stated, his arms sinking defeated onto the mattress, his eyes losing the fear. It was replaced by a tiredness and hopelessness that was totally against Luke's nature.

Taking once again his hand into hers, Mara squeezed it tightly: "You can come out now, Luke."

Immediately, his eyes darkened with rage: "I knew it. As soon as I come out, it will get me and I can't hide again. I can't fight it. It will get me and I will not be able to do anything against it. It's just waiting that I do that." With this, he shook her hand off and pressed himself against the wall, cuddling into the rug.

For a few minutes, Mara didn't know what to do. She just sat there, staring at Luke who had resumed rocking back and forth and tried to find a way to deal with this.
She had never encountered a totally traumatised person - never. She didn't know how to treat such a person and that Luke was this totally traumatised being cut that deep into her heart that she felt that she couldn't do anything but cry.

Rolling the problem around and around in her head, she finally decided to do the only thing that came to her mind right now. Vanishing for another time into her own cabin, she returned with a small mirror in her hand.
Without bothering to try to talk to Luke, for she knew that he was not able to really comprehend anything, Mara grasped his chin and forced him to look into the mirror.

He frowned when he saw the bandage, but he still mumbled something that sounded like "trick, that's a trick" - with a huff, Mara tore the bandage away, revealing the hole that lay amidst the carving on his forehead.

In the next moment, Luke grasped the mirror in his hands, staring with wide eyes on it. His hand trembled when he extended it and carefully touched the still angry red scar that had been the membrane's bed in his skin.

"It is gone!" he whispered, his eyes shining. A genuine laugh sounded to Mara's delight in the room and in the next moment, as if he had suddenly realised what that meant, he spun around, jumping to his feet.

The big, blue eyes brimming with tears, he stepped closer to her: "You're... you're real?"

Mara just nodded, knowing that she'd have to cry out for joy when she'd open her lips now.

She hadn't even finished the movement when he embraced her. She embraced him back and tentatively reached out to him with the Force, desperate to re-establish the sorely missed mind link with her husband.

She could only sob harder when she felt his indescribable joy of being free again, of having control of his own body and thoughts - of having her back.
And while she still felt this, the last of the barriers he had built to keep the membrane away shattered and the Force flooded him once again - him, and the whole universe, as it seemed. For Mara, it was as if the sun had suddenly returned to the galaxy.

He just sobbed quietly at her shoulders and after some minutes, his legs gave way and they slowly sank to the floor.
Mara felt his ribs against her arms, making her painfully aware that he was incredible thin.

All the questions she wanted to ask him were suddenly wiped from her mind. It was such a wonderful feeling to see the fear vanish from Luke's face and mind - she couldn't bring herself to ask him about everything he had been through right now.

In the next moment, Han and Leia stormed into the cabin - as soon as Luke had opened himself to the Force again, his sister had of course noticed that he was awake.
When the both of them saw that Luke indeed recognised them, they joined husband and wife on the floor, hugging each other and giving each other silent support.

After an indefinite time, when their own sobs had died down, Han remarked that Luke was in the process of drifting off quietly in his sister's arms.

"Come on, little one. I'm helping you back to bed." Luke just nodded, leaning heavily into Han's arms and the Jedi Master was deeply asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

*~~

Luke, for himself, had felt like he were in heaven - the membrane was gone and Mara was back! She had talked to him all the time she had hugged him and Han and Leia also had talked, but he hadn't been able to follow their words.
He felt tired and irritated and just noticed at the fringes of his perception that Han dragged him to his feet and helped him lay down. When he closed his eyes, the headache that throbbed behind his forehead subsided a little bit and although it still hurt incredible, sleep took the better of him and he plunged once again into oblivion.

*~~

"Sleep well, my love." Mara said lowly, though she was aware that Luke didn't hear her anymore and that this was not a sleep that would really give him relaxation.
Judging by the readings on the controls of the medical bunk, Luke had just blacked out from exhaustion and he would need a bacta-treatment as soon as they reached Coruscant.

When the ex trader's gaze found the carving scar, she added darkly in her thoughts that she would give orders to the doctors to peel it off - she didn't know whether Luke would agree to it, but it didn't matter to her at the moment.

She didn't want to get remembered at what had been done to her husband whenever she looked at him.

"He will be fine again." Leia's voice whispered beside her. Mara turned her head and nodded, feeling a huge smile blossoming on her face.

"What happened here?" Han asked, covering Luke with the rug.

"When he woke up, he thought he was still on Kwaad's ship and under the control of this... this drev-thing." She murmured.
Her sister-in-law and the Corellian were still and waited for her to continue.

"This membrane must have been partly sentient. From what I have understood, he has built Force barriers around himself to hold it off, but it tried to lure him out. It already controlled parts of his brain and therefore, he didn't trust his own senses and emotions.
It took me all I could think of to get him to believe that I'm real and no scheme of this Vong membrane."

"But it's gone now." Leia said aloud.

Mara nodded: "Yeah - but the memories not. You should have seen him, Leia. He was so... so irritated and frightened..."

"And you think I don't know him this way? How do you think he was in all these weeks you have been gone?" Leia asked, her voice low, but not reproachful.

All the trials of the past days had left her emotionally trained - she had just no energy to be angry anymore.

Mara's eyes widened: "He was... he was this way?"

"For the first two weeks, yes. Then it became better, but only at the outside. I don't think his soul has even begun to heal when he got hurt again." Han explained, laying an arm around Leia's shoulders.

Hyperspace, Millenium Falcon, 2 days later

They had been taking turns to stay at Luke's bedside, just in case he woke up and didn't remember immediately where he was.
But Luke was deeply unconscious for the most part of the voyage.

Only three hours before they'd drop out of hyperspace, Luke opened his eyes.
Han stopped polishing a hydro-spanner and smiled down at him. "See who's awake." He lay the spanner away and bent over his brother-in-law.

"How you doing, kid?"

Luke smiled weakly, not succeeding in fully opening his eyes. "I don't know... Where... where am I?"

"Still aboard the Falcon - uh... you DO remember the time you first woke up?" Han asked unsurely, grasping Luke's hand and eyeing him suspiciously.

The Jedi Master nodded, but was obviously drifting off again.

"Mara?" he mumbled lowly, his head already lolling back to the side. "She's in the cockpit - keeping watch at the instruments." Han explained. After a moment of thinking, he added: "She hasn't been a dream, you know."

Luke gave a small smile and an even smaller squeeze at that, then his hand in Han's went again limp and he was out cold.

**~

Four hours later, Luke was floating in a bacta-tank, sedated and on the way towards a complete healing - in body, at least.

The doctors had discovered some things that had gotten Mara's imagination once again reeling.
All over his back, lower back and legs, puncture marks were visible and in one of his feet, a nasty wound went deep down. At his left thigh, another wound was visible - visible and lightly infected.

The doctors had done a complete brain-scan on him, stating that there was no damage that couldn't be taken care of and making sure that no trace of the alien tissue was present in it anymore.

They had also insured Mara that the holes on his forehead and on the base of his skull, as well as the scar from the carving, would be gone when he came out of the tank.

Though Mara was sure that she never would forget the moment Luke had first looked at her on the Vong ship.
The delicate carving on his forehead - the instrument of complete suppression and brainwashing. Any man less than Luke would have never been able to return to them.
And Luke hadn't been able too, either - almost.

Leia had immediately vanished to meet up with Tsavong Lah and had sent a young officer to inform Mara that Lah demanded to see Luke as soon as the Jedi Master was able to move again.
Han, for his part, lay in the waiting room, in the bed that was reserved for Luke, and caught up on the sleep he had missed in the last time.
The Corellian had refused to leave the clinic before Luke was out of the tank and awake.

**~

10 hours later, this moment had arrived. Blinking his eyes slowly open, Luke turned his head, and tried to get a clear view of the person that was bending over him.

He felt tired and dizzy, but there was no pain. That startled him that much that the first real thought was that this had to be a hallucination.
But he could have sworn that he hadn't only dreamt about Mara, Han and Leia being there.

"It's real." The person bending over him said lowly and he recognised with a jolt of adrenaline that it was Mara's voice!

"Mara?!" he croaked, trying to sit up by himself, but finally accepting Mara's help. When he sat upright, leaning against the soft pillows in his back, his vision had cleared and he could see the familiar, beautiful face of his wife.

"Yeah, I think that's my name, Skywalker." She quipped, grinning at him.

He smiled shyly, but didn't make any moves to embrace her or even kiss her. Mara was irritated by that, but didn't pay that much attention to it.

"I'm sorry that I fussed so much around you before you... before you left." Luke said lowly, folding his hands in his lap.

"You don't have to apologise, Luke. It's ME that has to apologise." She cupped his cheek, surprise creeping in her joy when she felt him flinch violently when she did.

"You don't have to, Mara, really. I won't be as overprotective of you anymore, I promise. You have to know how to deal with your illness."

"I won't have to anymore." She smiled when Luke's eyes widened, and his mouth fell open.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Simple. I'm healthy again." She whispered.

"What?! How?" Luke's voice was almost inaudible, and dripped of surprise.

"That's a long story. And we haven't time for it, unfortunately. Lah is expecting you tomorrow morning."

Luke nodded, his face still shining with joy. Mara smiled at him, then embraced him and hugged him close. Once again he flinched violently and she felt like his embrace was somewhat hesitantly and unsure.

"We'll talk about everything later. I will explain it to you - and I will make up for everything." She whispered into his ear. Luke nodded silently.

For a long time, they just sat there like that. But an hour later or so, Mara just couldn't hold back anymore: "Luke, do you want to talk about what they have done to you?"

He tensed immediately, and she felt him shaking his head against her shoulder.

"Not now. Perhaps after some time. Please understand." He said lowly.

"Of course. I just thought... you will have to tell Lah about it. I thought perhaps it will be easier if you first talk to me." She stroke his hair, once again not caring a bit that it was REALLY filthy - the bacta hadn't exactly cleaned it.

She felt his fear immediately, but he controlled it instantly and nodded: "They want to have means to go against Kwaad and Elan, right?" he asked.

"Exactly."

Again they fell silent - only after another thirty minutes, Luke retreated from their embrace and smiled, once again rather shyly, at her: "I think I'll fall asleep in the next second, Mar." he stated, sinking back onto the mattress and closing his eyes.

"And you think I don't know how you react on bacta?" she laughed, then grinned when she noted that he had once again fallen asleep.

She stroked his forehead, that now didn't bore any signs of his torture anymore and thought about how he had reacted. He had been somehow strange - but probably he had just been tired.

Yeah, that was it. Luke had just been tired. Though Mara couldn't help but think that there was more to it.
His physical wounds had been healed - his soul not. Perhaps Mara had never really been aware how deep these wounds went.

Sighing, she grasped his hand and watched him sleep.

I'm terribly sorry for the delay but my Sunday went all but as I have planned it and I only today came to finishing chapter 19.

I hope you will like it and I'm already eagerly awaiting feedback.

Legal Smegal:
SW belongs to George Lucas, I gain no money from this and it's just for fun.

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn - Part 19

Coruscant, Medical Centre 6 hours later

Mara Jade-Skywalker sighed tiredly and leaned against the wall next to the small cot a few nurses had brought in for her.
Immediately after Luke had fallen asleep, one of the medics had come in and asked Mara to help him with some bureaucratic stuff concerning Luke. It had been the first time that she had seen her husband's complete medic file and it had astounded her a little bit. If anyone would get the silly idea to actually print it out, it would fill a whole room.

Shaking her head, she had skimmed through the thing and tried to help the medic assigned to her husband as much as she could. The Chandrilan had never treated Luke before and was quite unfamiliar with the Jedi Master.
Judging by the look on the face of the man when he had first seen WHO he would have to take care of, he would probably have fainted if Luke had been awake.
Really, she thought annoyed, now sitting in the dark private room Luke lay in, if she wouldn't have known that he lay sound and alive in here, she would have thought to read the report from a murder victim or something.
The next one who told her the job of assassin and space trader was dangerous would get a short, but intense debriefing on how the GOOD guys were paid for their braveness.

This stupid medic had taken the greatest part of five hours and after that, Mara had been asked to sign some papers to allow a scientific team from the NRI to take the strange Yuuzhan Vong clothes Luke had worn to a laboratory.
Guessing that Luke would be all too happy to have them far away from himself, she had signed the necessary permissions and told the next nurse heading her way for this and this confirmation of that and that in his medic file ("Excuse me, Mistress Jade-Skywalker, but this must be wrong. Here is listed your husband was attacked by a Wampa and....") to jump into a sarlacc pit.

Then she had shut down the lights in Luke's room, sat down on the cot and watched him, finally taking time to cool down and think through all what had happened in the last days.

While the light from Coruscant's sun faded more and more, she had stared at her husband's unmoving form, trying to get a grip of how he REALLY felt.
True, he had been awake for almost two hours, he had talked with her, he had sat up. But he was LUKE - he'd even tell you he was ok when he was covered from head to toe in blood.
Though Mara had a definite advantage - she KNEW him. When he was around people he trusted, around her and his family, then one could read everything one had to know about Luke in his gestures, the way he moved, the way his eyes changed. Or at least one could if one knew every single inch of his body as well as she did.
And now he was definitely not ok. It was no relaxed sleep and Mara wasn't even sure whether he really did sleep or was only unconscious once again. For he lay on his back, totally unmoving, arms beside his body - that was not the position he usually slept in.
In fact, every morning she woke up finding him in another position that seemed for her anything else than comfortable. Now he looked like a corpse on its dead-bed and this comparison didn't make his wife all too happy.

Gently extending her Force senses, she touched his soul, relieved when she found his presence quiet and unresponsive, but yet stronger than when he had woken up in the Millenium Falcon.
Careful not to wake him up or stir any other reaction, she probed deeper and immediately felt the fear in him. Far back in his mind, but it was there, like a dark, big knot that didn't go away. Mara didn't know what he feared - something in the past, the present, the future? It was shielded from her, his guard was up tight and when she'd try to break it, she would not only hurt his trust in her, but also wake him up and startle him immediately.

She could only guess that the memories of his ordeal in Elan's and Kwaad's hands were isolated there and perhaps some of the past weeks - the weeks she had left him alone for himself during a time which had been one of the worst in his entire life.

Her throat tightened when she once again remembered the moment she had seen him in the escape craft of the Yuuzhan Vong shaper.
His eyes had been so blank, so terribly blank- he had been Liin Kwaad - perhaps only for a few minutes or hours, but he had been Liin Kwaad.
She shuddered indeliberately, imagining what could have happened when they hadn't shown up in time.
Only two minutes later and Kwaad and Elan would have been in hyperspace, taking him away to who knows what place - she wouldn't have been there to trigger his memory. No one would have been there to remind him of anything. Only Yuuzhan Vong, only Elan, telling him that he belonged to her, that he had to serve, that he was a minor being named Liin Kwaad.

In all the years she knew and loved him, Mara had always been painfully aware that she could loose Luke everyday - she had always been sort of prepared that he'd die in a battle or in an assassination attempt. That he was taken from her from one moment to the other.
But never, ever had she feared that someone would take his soul away from her. That his body would be there, but his soul not.

More than anything else it had been that what had almost taken all her hopes from her on the escape craft. When she had sent her Force senses out and called for him and only had received irritation.
Irritation, the conviction of being nothing but a servant, of being the property of someone else, of having no free will and no rights.

She revelled in the feeling she got now - he was back again and all this were memories he had to forget, to erase. Mara wanted him to push them from his mind, to be able to do the same herself.
She didn't want to be reminded again of how she had almost lost him. Mara was determined to make up for everything and she would begin with it as soon as possible - that Tsavong Lah wanted to see Luke tomorrow was nothing she particularly looked forward to, but she had no other choice.

The ex-trader snorted. She had never liked politics and her disgust only increased with every year she saw how Luke and his family were entangled in these things in the New Republic.
And, to her utter dismay, she got entangled in it more and more, too, being the Jedi Master's wife and all.
But at least this way, the former Emperor's Hand was able to take care of her husband - in her opinion, Luke had a totally wrong attitude when he talked to other beings. While Mara always assumed them to be as bad and cunning as thinkable, Luke always began with the thoughts that they had to be good guys.
It was difficult for him to see anyone in a bad light unless he proved to be indeed a bad guy. It had nothing to do with naivete, it was just his confidence in the universe - that brought him again and again into messes such as this one.

Raising lowly, she went over to him, only being able to see his dark silhouette. The sun had vanished long ago. Taking his hand, she kissed him softly on the lips: "You're really stupid, farmboy. Trusting this Priestess as if she were your best friend." Mara murmured. He frowned a little bit in his sleep, but became still again as soon as she stopped talking.
For quite a time, Mara only held his hand and listened to his deep breathing.

She had no clue as to how long she had actually been crouching there when loud voices before the door of the room dragged her out of her light day-dream.
Luke moaned lowly when the discussion got louder and Mara unwillingly gazed over at the small, lightened slit under the door. Unfortunately, she couldn't understand who was talking about what, but she swore that if those two wouldn't stop yelling in the next minute, she would MAKE them stop.

As if to mock her, the voices became even louder and Luke beside her sat up with a low cry, staring around wide-eyed. "Mara?" he whispered, his hand feeling for hers.

With a slight push of the Force, Mara made the lights pop on and embraced her husband. Luke pressed her at himself and she felt him shivering slightly.

"Hey, what's wrong? Have they woken you up?" she queried lowly, rubbing his back.

"No." He replied in a small voice, laying his cheek at her shoulder. He still breathed rather fast. Worried, Mara lay him back onto the mattress and touched his forehead.

"Luke, you're sweating!" frowning and wiping his face with one edge of the bed-covers, she eyed him suspiciously.

"It's... it's only too warm in here." He murmured, softly taking her hand and taking it away from his face.
Mara snorted lowly: "Luke, save you the trouble and tell me the truth immediately, ok? You know my methods." Smiling at him teasingly, she was rewarded by a shy, but rather honest smile.

"So, what woke you up?"

He sighed, his voice momentarily trembling, shook his head, but finally managed to get a few words out: "I... I dreamed about Kwaad."

Mara frowned - it was strange that he was far more frightened to talk about Kwaad than about Elan. The Master Shape was almost completely unknown to Mara and she didn't have the slightest idea which role the woman had played in this whole matter.
She only knew that Elan was the one who had plotted against Luke, the one who had manipulated him by using his feelings for her, the one who had wanted to convert him into a mindless slave. Her anger was boiling whenever she imagined the arrogant grin on the exotic face.
Thinking about that, she wouldn't even be able to describe Mezhan Kwaad's face if someone would ask her.

Taking Luke's left hand, rubbing it when she felt how cold it was, Mara gently asked: "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

As if she had burnt him, he jerked his hand away and cowered in the corner of his bed in the next moment, shaking his head fervently. His lips pressed together, he said aloud and with as strong a voice as he could summon: "Not yet. I can't talk about it just yet."

"So you won't tell Lah anything tomorrow?" she probed hesitantly, quite shocked by his behaviour.

Luke only shook his head again in answer, then lay his forehead onto his knees and was quite for a time, his shoulders heaving.
Only after minutes, his breathing had come back to normal and he dared to look up at her again.
"You are not angry with me because of this, are you?" Luke's big eyes searched her face worriedly, his whole body expressing anxiousness and uncertainty.

Mara gave him a loving smile and gently pushed him back onto the mattress. Giving his chin a small kiss, she whispered: "Of course not. Take all the time you need, Luke." Laying her cheek onto his forehead, she let him grasp her hand.

She felt him nodding his head against hers and stayed in the position until she was sure he was fast asleep again.
Then she rose, eyeing him worriedly. In the past few minutes, his thoughts had swirled. She had been able to catch it quite clearly and was deeply shocked by the extent and intensity of all the things he felt. Mara had felt incredible fear, linked to the mere name of the Master Shaper already, humiliation for what he had almost become and there was something else still, deep down in his soul. That deep that she didn't think it had anything to do with what he had been through in the last days.

It went more far into the past and she it was something that Mara just couldn't forget. A strong feeling of disgust and detesting, but towards what or whom she couldn't even guess.
Perhaps towards her? But that didn't fit with his behaviour. Around her, he was shy and hesitant - even more than he had been in their first days together.

Settling into a bodyform-chair, she nailed her gaze on her husband's features and wished he would talk to her.
At the same time, she was aware that she probably had lost his trust by just vanishing when he had needed her the most.

But she would think of something. When the whole Yuuzhan Vong matter was taken care of, she would make them the time to relax. She would take care of him having as much time as he needed free and alone, without anyone wanting something from him, without anyone telling him what he had to do.

Thinking about how to manage this the best, she almost overheard the slight knock at the door and almost jumped to her feet when it whooshed open.
Turning her head, Mara froze when she recognised the face of the woman that stood in door, peeking into the bed that lay half in the shadows of the only lamp in the room.

"May I come in?" a soft voice asked and when Mara nodded automatically, light, fluent footsteps could be heard and a moment later, Teneniel Djo, Queenmother of the Hapes Cluster, let herself sink onto the foot-end of Luke's bed.

"Who gave you the permission to get into this area?" Mara asked casually, once again having turned her gaze onto her husband.

"Leia. She said I could come whenever I wanted to." The Queen answered. Only now, Mara bothered to take a closer look at her. She was indeed of her and Leia's age, slender, not too tall and certainly well-trained. Her face was beautiful and in the brown of her eyes bristled a bunch of orange sparkles. Her heavy auburn hair was braided delicately and pinned onto her head.
She had a stunning resemblance with Leia, only that she looked somehow harder.

"Really?" Mara just replied. Teneniel sought her gaze, nodded, then turner her head and gave Luke's left hand a slight squeeze - not nearly strong enough to actually disturb him. But it disturbed Mara and that very much.

"I've been told that you made certain... advances towards Luke." Mara was surprised at herself for succeeding in getting this out in a strong, normal sounding voice that betrayed nothing of the jealousy that burned in her, now even more heated by Teneniel touching Luke.

The Queenmother perched an eyebrow and smiled at her, didn't even try to conceal anything. "The one who told you this didn't lie. I guess it was Han. He has a good eye for this sort of things."

Her openness took Mara slightly off-guard and she regarded the other woman with a new suspicion.
"You're right, Han told me." As casually as she could, Mara swung her legs over each other and measured Teneniel out of two cold, green eyes. "I've also been told that you're already married to a certain Isolder."

Her counterpart nodded, her smile now becoming sort of glum: "That's true, too. But we've got certain... problems."

"And because of this you're starting off towards another man? If the Prince of Hapes is not the right, then we try the mightiest Jedi Master in the galaxy?" Without actually wanting it, Mara's voice had gotten a cutting edge and she openly glared at the other woman.

Though Teneniel didn't lack anything of Mara's fire. Replying her glare with an equally fiery one, she spat: "It would be nice to let someone guess what's worse. What I do or what you did - speeding off like bitten by a runyip only because you're ill. It seems to me that you don't care more for your husband than I do for mine."

Mara had felt the blood draining from her face and she had to fight hard to keep her voice under control. "Watch out, Your Highness. I may be said to have softened over the years, but I'm not known for being kind to people who insulted me and mocked my feelings for my husband."

"Indeed?" Teneniel hissed, giving her a mocking glance, then focussing on Luke. "Which feelings would that be, exactly?" she then asked.

"Although you deserve to be beaten to crap for this question, I will be so kind to answer you." Mara now whispered, after a glance on a slightly frowning, but still deeply sleeping Luke, but her voice had lost nothing from its dangerous tone.

"I can barely wait." Teneniel whispered back.

Mara's eyes narrowed when she met the Queenmother's gaze, but her voice was once again even and she managed to give a small smile: "I love Luke, Teneniel, and I apologised to him for what I did."

"So, you apologised. How noble of you." The dathomirian witch snorted lowly.

"I can't make it undone, Your Highness, so all I can do is tell him how sorry I am. And he can feel that I speak the truth." Mara wondered why she even cared to explain that much to this woman, instead of just throwing her out of the room.

She was rather surprised when Teneniel smiled at her much more friendly than before: "I know he can. And if he doesn't doubt your apology, then it will be sincere."

Although she meant it obviously as a compliment, the audacity of telling her that was almost too much for Mara's composure.
"How dare you talking to me like this?!" she spat towards the slight figure.

"I am worried about a friend." Teneniel replied softly, not even glancing at Mara but once again carefully stroking Luke's left hand.

"Excuse my boldness, Teneniel, but I want to know NOW what you feel for my husband." Mara growled, swearing silently that she'd cut off this royal hand if she only dared to touch anything else than Luke's hand.

The Queenmother took her time to reply to that, but finally she turned and looked Mara straight in the eyes.

"That's only fair. Let me tell you what I experienced, will you?" Mara frowned, but nodded and gestured for her to continue.

Teneniel sighed and leaned back against the wall, letting go of Luke's hand.
"When he broke down, I was on Hapes. And I felt it still."

At this, Mara twitched. If she hadn't cut the Force link with him, she would have felt it, too. She would have know how bad he was and she would have returned. He would probably not have been tortured by the Yuuzhan Vong - and she wouldn't have been healed by now. Sighing silently to herself, Mara decided to let these musings aside. It was in vain. What had happened was not to change anyways. Nodding again, she settled back in her chair to listen to the dathomirian beauty.

"I was not aware what had happened, I just knew that what I felt had come from Luke." For a moment, her eyes drifted again towards his face, then she continued: "When Leia called and asked me to come to Coruscant with my fleet, I agreed immediately. I was eager to see Luke again, after all these years, but I never assumed that THIS would happen."

At this, Mara gaped: "You knew him?"

Teneniel nodded: "Of course. I know him for seventeen years. We met for the first time on Dathomir, the planet I was born on. Back then, I thought I'd love him. No." she shook her head, correcting herself: "I DID love him, but in another way I thought. He recognised it before me and I finally fell in love with my husband, Isolder. Fell really in love, you know."

Mara just nodded, strangely intrigued by this story. It was another part of Luke's past she wasn't familiar with.

"When I saw him again, after all these years, I though I'd begin to fall in love with him again."

"You thought?" Mara replied slowly, eyeing her dubiously.

Teneniel nodded, smiling: "Yes, I thought. I was really sure that it could become love. He always meant much to me and I've always admired him for what he is - person and Jedi. I would have taken him over Isolder in this moment if he had wanted to."

Mara's eyes darkened immediately: "You OFFERED him to...?"

Teneniel grinned. "Of course I did. You have to understand, being raised on Dathomir, I have never been a woman that takes slow approaches to men. I wanted him and I told him - or rather, he made me tell him, because he was not in for the subtle game, you know." She chuckled lowly, then sought Mara's gaze, noting the uncertainty and fear in the jade-green orbs.

"Don't worry - he blocked me quite effectively. He loves YOU, not me. He would never be able to love me, though I thought otherwise for quite a time. What I want to assure you, Mara, is, that I won't bother him... or you, for that part.
The thought that I love him again only sprang out of my frustration about my own marriage. Beside of this, I really didn't consider him to be forbidden territory anymore."

Mara felt her eyes go wide with that and once again, Teneniel grinned: "If a woman on Dathomir would have left the way you did, it would have been a clear sign that whoever was her sl... husband is free for anyone to chase. I didn't really think you'd come back again and as I said...." She sighed. "It's was sort of a hallucination, if you want so."

For quite a time, both women were silent, then Mara nodded and offered Teneniel her hand: "Alright. Apology accepted."

The Queenmother smiled and shook the hand of the female Jedi Master: "I'm glad you did. Otherwise you would have had the right to challenge me because I tried to steal your property. By dathomirian laws, you would have had the right to demand a fight for life and dead of me. It would be sort of embarrassing when the Queenmother of the Hapes Consortium would fight for another man than her Prince-husband, wouldn't it?"

Mara smirked: "It would certainly be too much for the mother-in-law of yours." At that, Teneniel couldn't help but laugh out loud, causing Luke to open his eyes and stare astounded in her face.

"Teneniel!" he croaked, his voice still a little bit rough. The Queenmother smiled, the bent forward and kissed him on the nose: "Consider me already gone, Luke Skywalker. We will see each other before I return to Hapes." With this she left the room.

Luke's big, azure eyes wandered uncertainly towards his wife, his pale cheeks blushed slightly at the show of affection from Teneniel.

"Mara, I... uh... she... we..." Mara lay a finger on his lips and grinned: "It's ok, farmboy. She did explain everything to me. You were faithful - that's good." She patted him jokingly on the head and he grinned bashfully.

"Teneniel is rather... uh... straightforward in such things. I haven't encouraged her." He hurried to assure, gazing up at her intently.

Mara laughed: "Of course you didn't."

That got a frown onto Luke's boyish features: "You're that sure of it?" His wife nodded, bent forward and kissed him, this time on the lips, revelling in his taste and the fact that he replied the kiss, even if hesitantly and way too soft.

"Of course I am. Because you know that I'd have to kill you if you'd cheat on me."

Luke chortled lowly, then once again closed his eyes: "I'm sorry, Mar, but I'm so tired..." he whispered, already drifting off again. Mara only send him a soft nudge in the Force to reassure him she didn't mind and watched him drift off.

Yuuzhan Vong Ship Criarto, Coruscant System, The Next Day

For the second time in her life, Mara had set her feet in a Yuuzhan Vong ship, only that she now took herself some time to look around and note the beautiful colours the yorik coral had. It was a living artwork and if she only could forget the death inflicted by those ships for a moment, she could appreciate them as the biological wonders that they were.

Warmaster Tsavong Lah was awaiting them, as he had the last time, only that he did look more curious than even during her first visit. Beside him, looking rather tired, but content, stood Leia who had spent the last 48 hours on the Criarto, finishing the basic treaty that would bind the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong together.

Seeing her brother in the midst of his wife and his brother-in-law, Leia made a few quick steps and embraced him strongly.

'Are you okay?' she send through the Force, eyeing him carefully, noting that his face looked even more haggard and his eyes more strange than ever. But when he smiled in reply, there was her brother beaming into those eyes, taking Mara's hand and giving her back the hope that he could heal totally.

'I'm fine, Leia. Don't worry. Everything is alright.' She couldn't quite believe him, because he looked like a ghost, but then, he wore again his black celebration robe and in this one, it was no wonder that he looked pale.
Mara, as Leia noted contentedly, was as worried as she was, though she didn't show it that much.
Once again, though, her eyes darted towards Luke, who didn't seem to notice it. For a Force sensitive person, it was all too obvious that he was chilled and scared of being on a Vong ship again, but he maintained control admirably.

"Jeedai Skywalker." Lah bowed respectfully, surprising Luke for a moment before he gathered enough of his manners to bow equally.

"I'm honored to have you on my ship again. I hope you are aware that I was in no way involved in the treacherous actions of Priestess Elan and the Master Shaper Mezhan Kwaad. They're already now being chased and are sentenced to death."

Mara hadn't thought it to be possible, but Luke became even paler. Nodding, he acknowledged Lah's compliments.

"I'm glad to hear that, Warmaster. I never thought you'd be in league with her, to speak frankly.".

"Very good, Master Skywalker. I'm afraid I must ask you to tell me what happened, so that I can report to Supreme Overlord Shimrra about the incidents."

Luke went rigid at once and clenched Mara's hand painfully. Sending him soothing thoughts, Mara stepped closer to him and squeezed his suddenly cold hand.

Leia eyed him anxiously and Han's forehead was wrinkled in open worry and dismay.

"Is it sufficient if I tell you that she wanted to shape me to her familiar against my will and that she applied all procedures necessary to reach the goal?" Luke's voice was emotionless, but his Force presence was boiling.

Lah frowned, but then decided to let it be that way: "That will be enough, if you wish so. I don't think anyone would question your honour anymore."

"What? Suddenly?" Han quipped, clearly surprised by these words. Lah perched his non-existing eyebrow and glance at Leia.
With a beaming smile, the Princess stepped to her brother and lay a hand on his shoulder.

"You are the first being in their history to withstand a shaping. With your own willpower and your own abilities. You're sort of an example for them and they consider you a great warrior."

Luke swallowed visibly, but then nodded appreciatively towards Lah: "I thank you, Warmaster."

Lah bowed once again: "It's my pleasure, Jeedai Skywalker. Now, if you'd all follow me to..." his words were interrupted by shudder of the whole ship that left Mara and Leia fighting for their balance. Before they could fall though, Luke's arms kept them both and held them upright without much effort.

His breathing became more rapid, but aside from that, he seemed to be every bit the invincible Jedi Master as ever.
"What was that?" Leia panted, straightening her gown and staring wide-eyed at Tsavong Lah.

The Warmaster frowned and shrugged, then bent to the site, listening to one of his aides.

When he turned his attention once again towards them, his eyes were glittering as dark as obsidian.

"What?" Han almost bellowed, hating it when he was not on his own ship.

"It seems as if we're being attacked. The ships bear the signs of Admiral Idao's fleet."

"The traitor, right?" Mara asked, her arm still resting around Luke's slim waist. Her husband looked at her strangely for a moment, then focused on Lah: "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with him." He choked on the word familiar, but caught himself soon.

"He had teamed up with Elan - your mate killed him on Dathomir." His eyes full of questions that replaced the starteltness, Luke once again stared at Mara, but then his eyes went wide as the full impact of the words.

Spinning around, he panted: "Elan is out there? And Mezhan Kwaad?"

"I'm pretty sure of it. And we have only this ship available." Lah growled, angrily clenching his hands into fists.

"Really? And what would you call those?" Teneniel spoke up, for the very first time in the whole talks, and gestured towards the exit to open space, where two of her Hapan Battle Dragons floated serenely in space.

"We are not allied with the Hapan Consortium." Lah murmured.

"If you are allied with the New Republic, then you are allied with the Hapan Consortium. You just have to take the chance." Teneniel smiled, extending her hand.

Lah stared at it for a moment, then stared out towards the exit into open space, just in time to see one of his coralskippers explode. Once again, the Criarto shook violently.

Extending a hand and grasping Teneniel's small one into it, he nodded. Leia added her hand to the grasp: "The New Republic is always ready to stand at the site of its allies."

After a moment of hesitating, in which Mara could feel his repulsion towards touching a Yuuzhan Vong, Luke joined, too: "And the Jedi Knights will fight side by side with the brave Yuuzhan Vong warriors, if the need should arise and pledge themselves to ensure the peace between both our races."

Lah nodded and after another moment of silence, gestured them to follow him: "I'll lead you to the bridge."
Accompanied by another shuddering of the ship, the group headed out of the hangar bay and deeper into the ship.

It's really the LAST chap of Jedi Dawn - I don't know whether I should be happy or sad, but I hope you'll enjoy it :D

Please give me feedback.

As always, SW belongs to George Lucas and not to me, I get no money for this and it's just for fun.

~**SIENN**~

Jedi Dawn - Part 20

Coruscant System, Yuuzhan Vong Ship Criarto, Bridge

The bridge of the Yuuzhan Vong warship was even a more strange experience than its hangar bay or the room they had had their conferences in. Although it was fairly obvious that all the Yuuzhan Vong where 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 loud 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 to 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 not an 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, shortly closing his eyes, then opening them again: "She is a highly intelligent being."

"Well, when she has something in mind, then why does she retreat?" Han crossed the 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 who 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 your 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 disgust 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 till she realised 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 lowly, 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 for a female Yuuzhan Vong.

The black glittering eyes narrowed, hardened, and Luke involuntarily made a step backwards.
"You have to address me with 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 indeed throw himself onto the thing out of sheer desperation, Mara tugged with all her power at his arm, causing him to shot 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 to.' 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 one or two memories of them."

"What are you talking about?" Lah bellowed, giving Leia only a sideway 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 good 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, disgusting... " 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 lay 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 be dead. 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 to 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 onslaughted 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 began 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 lowly 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 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 from him 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 eyes 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 low 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 at at least seven places. Fire fountains erupted into open spaced and lots of smaller, black dots which she knew to be Yuuzhan Vong crewmen were sucked out into vacuum.

"Liin." She whispered.

"If he would have been the right familiar for you, he would have come back." Mezhan Kwaad's voice said coldly. Her anger about Skywalker being still alive was not to oversee.

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 air 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 gape 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 at 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 careful and kind, 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 any longer." Han said.

Lah nodded and lead 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 replied the expression contentedly: "Very good. The information of this Vong was indeed correct. Destroy the ship!"

On her command, seven Hapan Battle Dragons joined Force and opened fire on Priestess's 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 one 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 Ship 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 Millenium Falcon, Luke Skywalker watched the expanding fireball of Elan's ship, motionless and seemingly emotionless, but everyone around him knew that this was only fa?e.

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 might ally and Elan being dead, things had cooled down.

Luke had spent the last tow days partly in a bacta tank and in bed again, trying to get stronger again 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 had finally to acknowledge that his body didn't allow that anymore. He needed rest and he needed it know.

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 lowly, 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 has done 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 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 back 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**~~