A Poem Based On *Visions Of The Future* By Timothy Zahn
  Disclaimer: All copywrights belong to Timothy Zahn and George Lucas (and whoever else owns this stuff).
  Spoilers: Everything Zahn, Barbara Hambly and Kathy
  Tyers.

Timeline: Takes place during various scenes (times) of the novel.

Summary: Was anyone else just slightly disappointed at how little emotion there was
between
Luke and Mara, even though they did fall in love? This is my humble attempt to fill in the
gaps--
or rather, the hearts. :-)

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(This takes place after Mara gets blaster burned and Luke puts her into a healing trance)

5 Days

Sure, there had been others in his life,
Gray eyes, one blue, one green.
His life was a burden
That none could share.
They all left him in the end
To protect him,
To protect themselves.
They meant no cruelty,
None more than he had
So many years past.
But the urge remained
That desire for love
Real love
The fire that binds.
As firey as her hair.
So many years past
Between that night on Wayland
And today
Her spread out before him
Entirely in his care.
So far she had come,
So much she had won,
But her face was so dearly familiar
And beautiful beyond her features
Of sharp lines and angles,
Shadows and light.
But her mouth was soft,
Yeilding in her sleep
As he touched it with his own
Beyond reason, beyond resolution.
How soft the mouth
That had sworn to kill him,
That had sneered at him,
That had pitied him and his blindness,
That had set its lines against him,
That had spoken truths he needed to hear,
That had smiled and twitched in amusement,
That had finally relented to him
As they did now, against his own.
Even in sleep, he felt her strength.
He felt her mind, her heart, her soul.
It all came to him at once.
His ignorance of her,
His failure to see
She was the only one
Who would stay!
She would protect him,
>From himself, if she had to.
She would comfort him,
Be a steady rock in the waves of pain.
She would stand beside him until death,
But would be smart enough not to get herself killed.
It overwhelmed him, what she offered
To one who dared try and claim the prize.
How perfectly she was made, perfect for him,
The only woman who would fight to stay,
Who would never dare run from him,
The only one who remained from his long, ragged past
Was the one he had turned his back on
And shied away from, afraid.
Afraid.
Not of being desolate and alone,
But of what they could have.
He lay down beside her,
Holding her body against his.
He wished he could see her eyes,
See the emerald gems glitter.
See if she felt the same.
For he would not dare take her,
Would not dare crush the spirit
That he so loved--yes, loved!
That she could love him back
Sent new strength into him.
And he set about his healing task
Of her body,
And praying that this fair spirit
Would give herself back.

But as he watched her,
For five long days,
Asleep on the rock,
His silent, "beloved" companion,
He realized
He loved her too much to risk it.

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(This takes place when Mara goes off to sacrifice the Jades Fire and Luke is in a healing
trance)

5 Hours

Committment and Responsibility
Had always been her creed.
Give her loyalty,
But never her heart.
So it kept her from being a Jedi.
All of that was about to change.
But strangely, she didn't care.
It wasn't about that.
It wasn't about herself.
Everything was at stake.
The balance between Dark and Light,
War and Peace,
Good and Evil.
While pain had made her dark,
Hating the choice
Knowing it was her own creed
That demanded she make it,
And by making it
She would lose all she lived by.
Except for him.
He would stop her, if he could.
He would find another way
Just to spare her.
Couldn't he see that she couldn't be spared?
This was her time, her chance.
He had saved her,
Now she must save everyone else.
What was with him, anyway?
Where had he gotten this openness?
Was it some Farmboy thing?
To give away yourself
And then blame yourself for the pain?
She gently brushed away
The hairs that strayed over his face.
Her fingers following lines
That gave her a new ache.
She loved him.
Inexplicably, irrevokably loved him.
He was so beautiful,
With his eyes reflecting his soul,
So full of compassion for her,
Understanding her even when she didn't,
Even when she was filled with an ugly rage,
And spat on his kindness,
And swore to kill him.
Still he had been patient.
Still he had wanted her to grow
As she would,
And not as he would want her to.
That touched her.
She wished she could see how he saw her.
A friend, a rescuer from danger,
A wayward student, a potential Jedi.
More than that, she dared not ask.
Not for many years had she dared ask.
Now she wanted to ask, wanted desperately to know.
He had returned to her, the man that he was.
The man she had loved
In spite of the fact that she had denied it.
Denied him.
Too late now.
It was too much to hope for,
That he might feel the same.
After all that had come between them.
If she loved him,
She had to let him go.
To protect him, to protect herself.
She did not want to be a burden to anyone.
She had spent her life taking care of herself,
And would spend the rest of it doing the same.
She would protect him, die for him,
But she would not hurt him
With this love inside of her.
She knew the price people paid for caring about her.
She had never dared bring anyone close,
Out of pure fear.
So no one ever tried--except for him.
How could anyone know her,
When she did not even know herself?
So she turned to leave,
To do what was right,
And soothed the worried droid
And deserted the Master in his sleep
And steeled herself against the pain.
Then she realized something, and it gave her hope.
After all that had come between them,
They were here now. Now.
He had come here, just for her.
The thought stayed with her throughout her trek,
Gnawing at her heart
Like a rabid cupid.
If he wanted her, he would have to show her.
She could not dare tell him.
She might destroy what they had,
A friendship more precious to her
Than all the Fires in the galaxy,
Than all the stars in the sky.

Five hours later, he held her in his arms,
And she cried as she had never done,
And she let him hold her close, and see her pain.
She let him surround her with his compassion.
And she prayed for the strength
To keep her resolution.

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(This takes place during the big moment in the cloning chamber when Luke and Mara are
fighting for their lives)

5 Minutes

Back to back, shoulder to shoulder,
They stood battling death as Jedi.
They were tired, and frightened,
And desperate.
In that moment, he reached for her.
She felt it, like his strength had been added to hers,
And hers to his.
She returned it to him, mere seconds apart.
And as she reached, she saw him.
She saw him as she had always loved him to be.
As she returned his love,
He knew he had been wrong,
That he had loved her too much to NOT risk it!
In the moment
Their souls touched
And not even death scared them.
As she saw their way out,
She did not give a thought to her own life,
But only to his.
He saw it and stopped her.
She'd sacrificed too much for him already,
When she hadn't even known if it would matter to him.
She would not sacrifice herself.
She would not leave him.
He would make her stay,
Force her to be strong enough to be where she wanted.
As she wanted him and he wanted her,
There was no direction, no difference.
So as she found another way,
And as they fought the heavy waves,
And they faced each other with no more pretense,
He reached for her hands,
"Will you marry me?"
No courtship, no games, no need for sweet words.
"Yes," she replied, her heart full ofjoy.
But she wanted to hear him say it.
So he stood with her in his arms
As they fought for the new life they had just begun,
And she let him hold her close,
Let him protect her,
As she would protect him
In spite of himself.
A sharp word when he began
To sink into his old self-doubt and blame.
Never again would she let him push her away,
And never again would she do it herself.
As they stood together, at the end,
And he held her in his arms,
As if she were the only thing in the world,
They both knew they had never been free
Until this moment,
And they had never lived
Until this moment
And they had almost missed it
Completely.
 
 

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