Summary: The Sith is about to hit the fan. <grin> Everyone gets to take a crack at our
(second) favorite Sith lord when Maul commits the ultimate taboo--he messes with Mara.
 

MARAVSMAUL||||:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

     Mara exited the refresher, enjoying the feel of the carpet underneath her bare feet. Her
skin was still tingling from the good scrubbing she'd just given it, and the muscles in her
thighs were finally starting to unclench. They'd spent entirely too much time down in that
hellhole of a storehouse, and even though they'd only covered half the ground, Mara was
determined to take a break.
     As she gazed around her apartment, her eyes drifting out over the city that was bathed
with the heavy gold and scarlet shades of sunset, she realized she wanted to go home.
Home to Yavin IV. Home to Luke.
     She sighed. So far she'd kept her promise to stay away from Maul. Of course, they had
only arrived a few hours ago. That was when she had decided to abandon her work for the
day and call it an early night. Ben and Seth were still down there, though, and she knew
that afterwards they were going to go investigate some different methods of removing
tattoos. Seth was more determined than ever to get rid of it, to the point where Mara
could sense a steady stream of near-desperation linking into his constant frustration. The
issue of whether the tattoo had been forced upon him or if he'd chosen it had come up a
few times, but each time Seth had dismissed it, saying he was not going to dwell upon his
past. Mara had come to admire his pure determination to press onward and upwards,
always forward and never backward. But, she told herself, if Seth wanted to keep his
sanity, he had to devote himself to that attitude 1000%.
     Of course, she felt the same way about herself. But she wasn't quite ready to deal with
her emotions over her recently discovered parentage. Not yet...there was too much else
going on.
     She slid down onto the couch, dressed only in a flimsy white sleeveless top and a pair
of silver silk boxer shorts that Luke had given to her as an anniversary present as a joke.
She was actually very fond of the shorts--they were divinely comfortable. And they
showed off her legs damn well. She hoped that Ben and Seth would stay away for a good
while--she needed the quiet. And if they were going to come back sooner, finding her in
this state would be highly undignified for a great Jedi Master.
     She snorted. *Jedi Master....* It was only a matter of time before that new Jedi Council
got its act together enough to start causing some real trouble. Right now they were still
floundering, and with Leia joining in soon it would probably cause some dissention. After
all, she was a Skywalker, and sympathetic to her brother and his family.
     Especially his troublesome daughter.
     Mara smiled, but it wavered. There was a slight disturbance in the Force as she thought
of Vaiya, as if she were sensing her emotions. Perhaps all was not well on Durran...she
hadn't concerned herself with Vaiya much over the last month and it was starting to bother
her. But it was hard to call so far away, even with Coruscant's technology. Or rather, it was
just expensive....
     She stood up, heading for the control board. Maybe it was time to check in---
     And then, she stopped short.
     She wasn't alone.

     "They're called ysalamari," the head guard said to the crew as she shrugged the creature
onto her back. "We don't have too many of them, but Master Skywalker and Master Jade
both said that we should use them. They block the Force, somehow...they will keep our
friend in his cel."
     The other guards shifted their nutrient packs on their backs, all casting uneasy glances
at their prisoner. "Why didn't we get this sooner?" one of them muttered.
     "They're also in the walls," the woman continued, "on all sides. So we don't have to
have too many guards on duty."
     "Captain Grand," one of them called out, "why are we so short-handed today?"
     "Big political event," Captain Grand said dismissively. "But not to worry. The ysalamari
are guards, too." She glanced at the half-dozen men and women, and then sighed. "Okay, I
want three inside the hall, and three at the main entrance. We have to keep the circle wide,
so that the bubble will work even if he manages to get out of his cell."
     At least, she hoped so. She had seen some strange stuff during her career in Rogue
Squadron, but nothing like this. She had never encountered a sith lord, and her closest
contact with the Jedi was Jania Solo, who was more concerned with leading the squad than
playing with the Force.
     But Captain Grand was not afraid. In the end, she knew that right was right, and
believed that it would triumph. It had kept her from giving into despair over and over
again during her life when the odds stacked against her. Even her death would mean
nothing, right would still triumph, if not from her hands then from the next person's. As
she glanced at the sith lord again, she felt a wave of peace wash over her.
     Yes, even he didn't scare her, and the reports flying around the holonet said that he
thrived on fear. She snorted. Even during her days with the rebellion, Palpatine himself
hadn't scared her. Good always triumphed, over and over again, because evil would always
eat itself alive.
     There was nothing to fear, after all, but fear itself.

     From behind the forcefield, Maul just glared at them, silent. Inside, though, he was
panicking. He had never heard of this creature that could block the Force. He had not
counted on this. He felt like they had locked him in a vacuum, that he didn't even have
enough air to breathe--
     It was then that they attacked, four of them, with Iyala at the head. The ysalamari were
the first to go, their screams high-pitched and alien-sounding as they died. The guards tried
to react, but the attackers had been too quick. Maul vaguely recognized them as some of
those who had tried to help him before, the doctor's companions.
     So Iyala was inventive. And as the ysalamari died, he vaguely realized she was using
the dark side of the Force to control them, keeping a careful distance from the ysalamari to
prevent the bubble from breaking them loose. They were quick shots, and either by pure
blind luck or the favor of the dark side no alarms were set off as the guards went down,
except for Captain Grand, who lay unconscious on the ground, her face half-charred from
the blaster fire that had killed her ysalamari.
     Iyala surveyed her work for a moment, and then glanced at Maul. Carefully, she kept a
good distance from the cell, and aimed her blaster. She hesitated at first, the expression on
her face distinctly worried.
     "Do it, Iyala," Maul ordered calmly.
     "It will set off the alarm for sure," she said.
     He considered this. If she stepped into the bubble, she would lose her grip on her
"helpers" and they would surely turn against her. He glanced from her blaster to her
companions, weighing the options.
     It was then that they realized that Captain Grand was not dead. Iyala turned to her,
flipping her over and grabbing her by the collar, lowering her blaster muzzle to just graze
her charred cheek.
     "The code," Iyala said.
     Grand just glared at her. "I won't."
     Iyala pressed the muzzle into the burned flesh. "You'll die."
     "I'll die anyway," Grand moaned. Then, she sneered at Iyala. "Besides, you kill me and
you'll never get the code."
     "You think I won't kill you?" Iyala laughed, and then released Grand abruptly. She
stood up and turned her blaster onto her companions, opening fire and killing the four of
them quickly before they had a chance to react.
     "That's my girl," Maul chuckled as she turned back to Grand, who was watching in
horror.
     "Go to hell," Grand spat. Iyala sighed.
     "You first." And she stabbed into Grand's mind, raking over her brain, searching for the
code. Grand screamed under the mental onslaught, but Iyala shoved the hem of her robe
into the woman's mouth stifling the scream mere seconds after it had started.
     *Almost there...give them to me and this will end....* But Iyala knew she was bluffing.
This wasn't something she had ever tried before--seeing the woman's most intimate
memories was almost frightening, being immersed into the other's world completely and
totally, almost being them, knowing them, understanding them.....
     "Iyala!" Maul shouted, even as the light tried to close in. She pulled away, shaking, and
realized what had almost happened. In a rage, she slammed her fist into Grand's nose.
     "What did you try to do to me!" Iyala screamed, and then promptly shot her in the head.
She turned around, cursing the entire way, not even noticing as the Force bubble wrapped
around her. She punched in the code, knowing it without even looking, and then stepped
into the cell, igniting the cortis ore wand and slashing into the walls with deadly precision,
killing every ysalamari.
     When she was done, she was vaguely aware of Maul putting his arms around her,
whispering her name, and pulling her lips up to meet his. She looked at him as they pulled
away, feeling her emotions tangled up inside her stomach.
     "Well done," he said, and there was a flicker of concern on his face. "What happened?"
     She finally focused on him, touched by his concern. It was a thread she grasped onto
with both hands. Yes, Maul cared about her..."I took the codes from her mind."
     "You mind-melded with her. It was dangerous for you to do such a thing."
     "I had to get you out," she said in a small voice.
     "Yes. But next time, take caution. Joining with your enemy can destroy you."
     She shuddered. "Yes, Master," she whispered.
     "Now...do you have a transport?"
     "No," she sighed. "When I heard about the ysalamari, I had to act quickly. I knew you
would be in danger without the Force. I did not get time to secure a transport."
     He drew in his breath, straining his patience. "Then you must secure one quickly. I will
meet you in the bay where we landed at dawn. You have until then."
     She looked up at him, nearly panicked. "But where are you going?"
     "I must hide."
     "By dawn they will have secured Coruscant." She shook her head. "We have to move
sooner. Come to the bay in a half hour. I will have a transport by then."
     Maul's eyes widened in surprise. So now she was giving the orders? Perhaps he would
have to teach her a lesson in obedience later...instead, he grasped the wand from her hand
and removed it. "No," he said. "Dawn. By then, they will believe us long gone. Their guard
will be down."
     "But---"
     "Dawn," he growled, and she flinched as he reached through the dark side to silence
her.
     "Very well," she whispered. "Dawn."
     He nodded. "Now go."
     She turned and left, leaving him alone. He looked around him, reaching out with the
Force, trying to find the best way out. Above him there were ventilation shafts, but nothing
wide enough for him to slip through. Apparently, they had taken that into account when
they'd built this prison.
     He stepped back into his cell, toward the gaping hole in the wall where Iyala had carved
through, using the Force again to remove the dead bodies of the lizard-like creatures. The
wall had been hallowed out to make room for the ysalamari, but if he carved a little
deeper---
     Yes, there it was! A passageway gaped before him, a narrow space not more than 3 feet
wide but long enough to get him safely away. They would be able to follow him, but if he
moved quickly and headed up into the crowded city, he might have a chance. He could
hide in an apartment somewhere, perhaps take a hostage or two to insure his safety.
     Without his tattoo, he mused to himself as he made his way down the passage, he could
blend in much easier, but his horns were unmistakable marks of his Zabrak origin. They
still had him in these dull prison grays...he needed a cloak, and he needed one quickly.
     The passage came to a dead end, but Maul used the Force to guide him and managed to
cut his way into a ventilation system that was wide enough to accommodate him. More
passages, more twists and turns....
     And then he felt her.
     He reached out, searching but not wanting to alert her to his presence. Using the tricks
that Palpatine had taught him, he created a barrier in his mind, but her presence still
radiated through it, familiar and yet oddly alien.
     She had changed.
     Using the cortis ore wand, he cut through the heavy grate that blocked his way into the
apartment. He was in a bedroom---Luke and Mara Skywalker's bedroom. The colors were a
blend of blue and green, not quite one or the other. Their presence was strong here, and for
a moment Maul was nauseated by what he sensed. Two people so completely united and in
tune with the light--he would have to fix that.
     She was near...perhaps she was bathing. The door was closed...she was down the hall
somewhere, totally oblivious to him. He resisted the urge to break in upon her unannounced
and "make up" for their last, failed rendezvous...and her rejection of him. But as he passed
through the room, he saw a wide mirror fastened to one wall and caught his own
reflection.
     She might not even recognize him, he marveled. Indeed, he did not recognize himself.
In his own mind's eye, he could still see the fearsome image of himself, dressed in his sith
robes and his face ablaze with the cult tattoo. But this was...pathetic. He was pale, bald,
and poorly-dressed.
     No, this would not do at all.
     He rummaged through the drawers and found a heavy black robe--probably
Skywalker's, he mused. Amazingly like Vader's robe. Yes, the dark side was still here, the
imprints of its fingers not fading too quickly against their bright souls. He smiled and set it
aside, digging deeper into the drawer to find something to replace his current garments.
     This Skywalker chap must have been extremely skinny, because nothing would stretch
over Maul's wide, muscular form. He grunted in disgust, tossing the clothes about in an
almost childish way. He sighed, realizing there was nothing. He picked up the robe and
resigned himself to the indignity of it, but as his gaze rested on the closed bathroom door,
he detected two more faint presences, one unmistakably the fair-haired girl from Durran,
the one who had been with Iyala...and the other of his son.
     Yes...he had sensed it before. The boy was not here now, but he had been here. He
silently crossed the hallway into the next room, and realized it was coming from a
bedroom. Apparently, the boy had taken up living with the Skywalkers. That struck him as
curious. What exactly did they have to do with his son? What were they up to....although
the darkness he should have felt coming from the younger Khameir was distinctly
diminished...almost gone, completely.
     He grunted. He would have to fix *that,* too. But obviously the cult had failed again. If
it was even still alive. Maul found a small bad sitting on the floor, by the bed, and reached
into it. There was only one garment in it, entirely black.
     The cult robes. So he had abandoned the cult, but kept the robes...how odd. Maybe
there was hope.
     Maul smiled. At least this would fit him. Quickly, he stripped and put it on, and as he
finished he heard Mara emerge from the refresher and go into the main room.
     He peeked out the door. She was dressed only in a flimsy white top and a pair of shorts.
While he was sure that her lightsaber was within reach--he made it a habit never
underestimate his enemy--she was extremely vulnerable.
     And just as beautiful as she had been all those years ago.
     As he stared at her, he realized why. There was a distinct buzz about her, something
that had mildly distorted her Force pattern. He recognized it instantly...the cult's
regeneration process. She looked hardly more than thirty-five or so, even though he knew
that she should have been well into her sixties.
     So she had met up with the cult...this mystery was just getting more and more
intriguing.
     He smiled. Perhaps this pale face of his was an advantage in a crowd, but his reunion
with his Master's ex-Hand and unfaithful daughter just wouldn't have the same spark
without all the little details in place.
     He glanced around the room. It had obviously been a young girl's room. Maybe there
might be some paints around here somewhere---
     After a brief amount of rummaging, he found a set of old body paints in a bottom
drawer. The red and the black were almost intact...as if she had rejected them long ago.
The purples and the blues were all but gone, though, he noted with disgust. Yes, Mara had
been *so* unfaithful. Perhaps she just needed a lesson. He picked them up and went to the
mirror, and glaring at his reflection, he began his work.

     This was not good.
     Mara turned around, searching with the Force, but coming up with nothing...a little too
much of nothing, she noted, and her mind suddenly slammed against a distinct barrier.
     No, she was not alone.
     She dove over the couch, not even bothering to find her intruder before she was armed,
and reached out with the Force, searching for her lightsaber. It was in her bedroom, hidden
underneath the clothes she had discarded before she'd gone for her bath. As her heels
pounded down the hallway floor, she glanced at the door to Vaiya's room.
     The barrier was coming from in there.
     She threw open her bedroom door and her eyes immediately landed on the gutted
ventilation shaft, even as her hands scooped up the clothes and tossed them to one side.
The saber was in her hand within half a second, either called their by the Force or picked
up with her own hands, she didn't remember.
     As she turned back toward the hallway, she felt the barrier lift, and a distinct presence
floated toward her.
     *Maul.*
     Immediately, she was afraid. She did not understand why. It was an irrational fear, for
she knew perfectly well that she could handle her own. After all, she was a Jedi Master,
and he was only a sith apprentice who had been out of commission for quite some time.
Still, all her years as an assassin had taught her to never underestimate her enemy, and she
listened to the fear even as she attempted to quell it.
     The door to Vaiya's room came open as she backed up against the bed, her heart trying
fit itself into her throat. She swallowed it down, rousing up her courage which had never
failed her before like this even as Maul's now black and red painted face came into view,
his muscular form clothed in Seth's old clothes, one of Luke's favorite cloaks around his
head and shoulders.
     Suddenly, she understood why they had called him the dark warrior. And while she had
seen him before, he had not scared her then as he scared her now.
     She glanced down at herself and remembered how she was dressed, and her cheeks
burned as brightly as her hair. She looked back up at him and he leered at her, grinning in
a terrifying way, his lust springing into his eyes most effectively. She glared back at him,
remembering her old outrage.
     "Well," she said, calling upon her old sarcastic bravado, "this is certainly undignified."
     He raised a black-gloved hand and a blade appeared from what bore a strong
resemblance to a golden lightsaber handle, much like Valeris' had been. The blade itself,
though, was not made of the lazer light, but of some kind of crystal-like substance. It
sparked with life, glowing brightly like a lightsaber but much more sharply and ornately,
as if there were veins of energy running through the blade.
     Mara scowled. Surely he didn't think a lightsaber wouldn't cut through that in a
heartbeat. As if to prove her point, Mara lunged forward and made a quick downward
strike right across the middle of the blade.
     It held fast, causing her own lightsaber to sputter with a mild disruption, and she pulled
back, her fear now in earnest.
     Cortis ore. Somehow melted and forged into a glass-like blade. So that was where the
Emperor had gotten the idea. Her scowl twisted into a frown of pure concentration as Maul
quickly struck back, catching her at the cross-section of her own blade, and for a moment
the blade seemed to be cut in half.
     She yanked back again, this time the backs of her knees hitting the bed, and she prompt
stepped up onto it, knowing that the soft surface would be unsteady but also knowing it
was her only chance at getting past him. With her other leg, she pushed herself back hard
and wound up jumping onto the middle of the bed. Then she used the Force and her
youth-infused powerful thigh muscles to press down and then propel forward, flying over
Maul's head in an impressive flip that Luke had taught her a long time ago, a flip that had
once saved him from Vader's blade.
     She landed a few feet from the door, and he turned, the fleeting expression of shock
satisfying her for a moment.
     "Catch me if you can," she said, turned and ran.

     He grinned as the tail of her hair disappeared around the door jamb, feeling the
excitement of the chase arouse him. It had been too long...even Iyala, with her strong
resemblence, was not this fiery. His Iyala had been this way once, full of fire and spirit. He
did not regret draining it from her, but he had missed it sorely. So he followed, knowing
that he was probably faster and had to use all he could to his advantage. He had to make
this fast, before any of her companions returned. She would be enough to handle on her
own. Two more Jedi, and this might prove to be his downfall.
     She was in the main room, her lightsaber deactivated and gripped hard in her hand. He
caught up with her, leaping over furniture that was annoyingly in the way, and brought the
cortis ore blade up to strike across her back, possibly cutting her in two. She raised her
hand and the lightsaber's blue-green fire shielded her back, catching the blade even as it
hissed and sputtered, threatening to go out.
     She was very fast, he had to admit--possibly faster than he. She turned on her heel like a
ballet dancer, her leg flying out around her like a useless tail, forgotten and good only for
show.
     But her blade she brought down from across her shoulder and struck at him, hitting the
wand closet to the hilt, nearly grazing the electronics systems that kept the blade in place.
He countered, and parried, and thrust, but she matched him move for move.
     His only advantage, he realized, was the fact that his weapon was designed to resist
lightsabers. Her lightsaber was not designed to resist his weapon. So he hit her fast and
hard, disabling the blade and forcing her backwards. She would hit furniture, swear
violently, and have to pull back, and it was wearing her down. But even as the sweat
streaked down her temples, matting her lovely hair against her forehead, she would not
yield.
     It only excited him the more.
     As she neared the couch, she abruptly deactivated her lightsaber and ducked a rather
un-finessed swing of his, then crouched and flipped, landing on the other side, putting the
heavy furniture between them.
     He did not move to pounce upon her, but stopped, watching. Her mind anticipating his
move, she stood and waited as well, glaring at him with emerald eyes. Just like his dear,
dead Iyala's eyes. She even seemed to hold him the same pity, almost mocking him with it.
     "It's so good to see a familiar face," he heard himself say, his voice like a hissing
serpent. She flinched.
     "I'll bet."
     Maul shook his head and clucked his tongue. "I see your manners haven't changed,
either."
     "Neither have yours. You still burst into my home without an invitation. If your career
as a sith lord doesn't work out, they could probably use you on the Galactic Police Squad.
Or maybe you could be a bouncer." Her mouthed turned up into a half-grin, mocking him.
"Maul the bouncer...I can see it now."
     He sneered back at her. "You've grown up since daddy went away," he whispered. "Or
was it you that sent him away? Oh, wait, I'm sorry...it was your husband, wasn't it? Is that
why you married him? As a way of saying thank you?"
     Her reply was a Force-propelled piece of furniture being swung toward his back, which
he easily sliced in half with a casual sweep of his wand. He regarded her, amused.
     "Dear Mara Jade...I'm going to assume that you're not happy to see me. A shame, really.
Because I'm the last thing you're ever going to see--I promise that."

     She stepped back, cursing the furniture for being in the way. It would have been good
for slinging around, but Maul was ready for all of that. If she had been deflecting an army
of blaster bolts, she could have used her living room as good cover, but for partaking in a
lightsaber duel--or whatever you called it, considering Maul's weapon--the furniture was a
plain pain in the ass.
     His comment about Palpatine stung--stung hard. She didn't know why she had lashed
out like she had, but it didn't help the sting. She had been loyal to Palpatine while he'd
lived, and spent a good amount of her time after his death blaming herself for not being
there for him when it had happened. While she had blessed the fact that she had been
removed from the situation many times since her marriage to Luke, just being around
Maul seemed to make all those bad feelings come back.
     Yes...he could sense it in her. His eyes narrowed slightly as her thoughts shifted and she
struggled against her emotions. He was feeding off of her fear, off of her anger. It was
making him stronger and pulling her energy from her.
     Her eyes widened and she felt her own rage come upon her, and knew that even as she
tried to push it back her own natural anger just got in the way and gave him more power.
She stumbled backwards, her lightsaber out before her, wishing that she could just fight
him but knowing that, too, would be useless because that cortis ore wand was seriously
messing with the effectiveness of her blade.
     There was only one way out of this. She needed back-up. Summoning everything she
could, she sent out a call to Ben and Seth to come and help her. Vaguely, she felt them
respond, but it was then that Maul launched at her with full-fury, ripping her attention
away from her task and forcing her to concentrate on preserving her own life.
     He was everywhere at once, in her mind, at her heels, bearing down upon her with his
greater physical strength. She countered evenly, keeping him at bay, but a few minutes into
the battle she felt her concentration begin to slip. She was tired...she needed sleep. As they
tore across the room, destroying the furniture and turning the luxurious Coruscant
apartment into a combat zone, her exhaustion turned in on her anger and magnified it with
irritation.
     Now she truly was slipping. The fact that this man was defeating her and laughing at
her was a little too much for her pride to bear. Her strokes became too short, her focus was
losing its sharpness. He came dangerously close to burning her upper arm, and as she
lashed back, she knew she was about to lose.
     The worst of it was, she felt there was nothing she could do to prevent it.
     He hit her across the blade hard, and the blue-green light flickered and then died. She
would have reactivated it, but he was faster, quickly turning the wand so that the hilt was
slammed across her temple. She floundered, the whole world sparkling around her as the
floor loomed dangerously close, but she did not fall. She grasped at a nearby endtable,
reaching underneath it for the weapon she had long ago stopped carrying on her person but
had never discarded completely.
     Her compact blaster came up and shot three clean shots, just grazing his right shoulder.
He growled in outrage that a crude weapon could have taken him so quickly, and within a
few seconds he was close enough to knock the blaster from her grip. It gave her just the
second she needed to bring a fallen book-end to her aid, but just as it hissed through the air
at the speed she had mustered, he glanced over his shoulder and ducked.
     The last thing Mara saw was the sharp tip of Luke's prized X-Wing model bookends as
it careened into her head. The humiliation of having taking herself out was overshadowed
only by the overwhelming darkness of unconsciousness.
     She wouldn't have wanted to be awake for the grilling she would have given herself,
anyway.

     Maul looked down at her, and for a moment he wondered what in the sith he was going
to do with her. Perhaps he should just leave her there--maybe even kill her, just to scare
the rest of them as they still attempted to capture him. But no...he would not just slay
Sidious' daughter. That would be too merciful. He had to make her pay. Sidious would
want her to pay, and pay dear. And there was no law that said he couldn't have some fun in
the process.
     He glanced around him and paused, weighing his options. This was not like him---this
cat-and-mouse gameplaying had never been his style. He had always been the kind who
liked to fight with his body, not his mind. He had taken pleasure in being sadistic and cruel
many times over, but what he was contemplating now, this multi-leveled, mindgame-based
plan of revenge upon the Skywalker clan, it was simply out of his nature to accomplish
such a task.
     For the first time, Maul considered what, exactly, his nature was. But there wasn't much
time. The help she had sent for would soon be arriving, and he wasn't ready yet to take
them on all together. He had to play this out carefully---as Sidious would have played it.
Perhaps that was it. Perhaps it was the old guidance of his Master that was leading him
down this path. This was his Master's vengeance, not his own, not yet. His own would come
in time. And when it did, these games would be ended and he would wipe them out. All of
them.
     He rummaged through a few drawers and managed to find some thick tape that was
probably used to repair the exterior of small ships. Yes, it would do. He bound Mara's
wrists and ankles together, attached her lightsaber to his belt, and hoisted her over his
shoulder, escaping with her into the dark ventilation shafts of Coruscant's Imperial Palace
before her would-be rescuers arrived.

LUKE\IS\TICKED!!!!!!!!::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

     "I TOLD HER!" Luke Skywalker raged as he slammed his fingers onto the console. The
hologram of his son winced before him, even flickered a bit with the blow.
     Vaiya's head popped into the room. Her brow was furrowed, the vibrations through the
Force having been nipping at her for hours already. "Problem, Dad?" she asked softly.
     Luke hardly spared her a glance before replying. "I'll explain on the way. Get a ship
ready. We're going to Coruscant."
     "Father," Ben said, his voice taking on his peacemaker's tone, "anger is not going to
help find Mother. Seth and I are already starting to search...we think that he went down
into the main structure of the palace, where the storage bays are. People are less likely to
look down there because it's really not a pleasant place to hide."
     Luke nodded as Vaiya obeyed him without question. "How long ago did this happen?"
     Ben turned his head and shouted something at Seth, who replied in a tone so low Luke
barely heard it. "We just got here about twenty minutes ago. We altered security and then
we called you...she called for help and we responded immediately, but it was a good five,
maybe ten minutes before we could get here, and she was already gone."
     Luke nodded. "A half hour then.....okay, search the cargo bays. Maul was trained by the
Emperor, so I'm sure he knows the same barrier tricks as Mara does. Is her lightsaber
there?"
     Ben shook his head. "The furniture was slashed up pretty good. Apparently, he had a
weapon that was like a lightsaber, but the marks aren't the same. They're tears, not burns."
     "He has a lightsaber now," Luke grunted. "Does Seth have one?"
     Ben glanced over his shoulder and repeated the question to Seth, who merely grunted.
Luke's scowl deepened--if that was possible--as Ben turned back to him, his own
expression contorted.
     "We're both armed," he answered.
     Luke nodded, and shook off the feeling. He couldn't worry about whatever was wrong
with Seth right now--Mara was in serious danger. "Be careful, and be prepared. This man
is to be considered extremely dangerous...we don't know what kind of lightsaber
training---"
     "I do," Seth said, his voice uncharacteristically loud. Ben glanced at him, and then
turned back to his father.
     "We'll be careful."
     "I'll be there as soon as we can. But it will be at least a day or two." Luke sighed.
"Okay...Skywalker out."
     The holo disappeared and Luke slung his cloak over his shoulders. There wasn't even
any time to pack. They had to leave NOW....he gripped his lightsaber tightly as it hung at
his waist.
     This would be the last time any dark Jedi thought he was going to cart Mara off like she
was some sort of conquest. He swore it.

     Vaiya and Larin had been enjoying a pleasant vacation when Vaiya had suddenly gotten
the "bad feeling" and decided to check on his father. Larin watched with limited
amusement as she rushed from the room and hastily told him she was going to have to get
a ship ready, Father will explain later.
     He wished she would obey him as unquestioningly, he mused. Then as he saw Master
Luke emerge from the room, he could understand why Vaiya had chosen the high road.
     The expression on the older man's face was one Larin had seen before in his own
mirror, right after his parents had died. But on Luke, it seemed less forlorn and frightening
as it did completely determined and almost ruthless.
     "A problem, sir?" Larin offered, and Luke merely gestured for him to follow.
     They went right to the bay where Vaiya had caught up with Derrin Nighttreader, one of
Luke's assistants and an old friend of the family. As they approached, Larin realized that
Vaiya was trying to get him to loan them his ship.
     "It's brand new," Derrin was saying. "I'm not sure about all the systems yet---"
     "But it's fast," Vaiya said. "We've got an emergency on Coruscant and we have to get
there fast. Please, Derrin," and then she added, a slight edge in her voice, "it's for my
mother."
     Immediately, Derrin's face softened. Larin grinned quietly. Derrin had always had an
unabashedly soft spot for Mara Skywalker, even though he was happily married to his wife
Drianna, and had been so for five years.
     "All--right," Derrin sighed, and gestured for them to follow. Vaiya clapped her hands
together once in prayerful thanks and then perched on her tip-toes to peck Derrin's cheek.
He just grinned a silly grin, but Larin was quickly to quip:
     "Hey there, Nighttreader. You had your chance...she's mine now." He detected just a
hint of pleasure from Vaiya as he slipped his arm protectively around her waist.
     Impatiently, Luke cleared his throat. "There is no time for displays of affection," he said
gruffly. "We have to get moving."
     Derrin shot him a look as they reached the ship. "I don't think there's anything I need to
tell you about this ship, Master Skywalker," he said, a slight grin on his face. "After all,
you helped me buy it."
     Luke nodded his head. "Yes, I'll be sure she gets back to you in one piece, or else I'll
build you a new one myself."
     "Let me know when you get there how long you think you'll be!" Derrin called as they
boarded the ship. Vaiya waved at him.
     "Don't worry, hon. Just tell Drianna that an old girlfriend needed it!" And she blew him
a kiss before she disappeared up the hatch.
     "You are terrible," Larin said as they followed Luke to the cockpit.
     "Of course," Vaiya said, looking for all the world like her old self.
     Larin smiled. "Never gonna forgive him, huh?"
     "Nope." Then her face softened. "I'm just kidding."
     Larin kissed her cheek. "Easy, Vai. I was, too. Although I still believe he's the world's
biggest fool. He could have had you...but I'm glad you wound up with me."
     She smiled up at him and gently pulled away, sliding into the co-pilot's seat, but Larin
felt her through the Force.
     She was finally starting to heal.
     Luke switched on the comm system. "This is Master Skywalker, requesting immediate
takeoff."
     "Request acknowledged, Master Skywalker," came a female voice. "What is the nature
of this immediate departure?"
     "An emergency on Coruscant. A Jedi emergency. A dark Jedi has escaped from
quarantine and I'm needed to contain the situation," Luke replied, struggling with his
patience.
     "Request approved, Master Skywalker. But the Jedi Council on Coruscant---"
     Luke shut off the link in disgust and activated the controls. Immediately, the ship left
the ground, jerking wildly with the sudden movement.
     Vaiya looked at her father, grimacing in concern. "Father?"
     Luke ignored her and piloted the ship toward the open exit, but there was too much
traffic in the way and the ship had to come to a sudden and screeching halt. Vaiya reached
out and clasped his arm.
     "Father! Maybe you shouldn't be driving. I think you're too angry--"
     "Don't patronize me, Vaiya. I'm your father."
     Vaiya's fingers tightened on his arm. "Did you listen to your father when he was
listening to the dark side?" she said sharply, and Luke looked at her abruptly. Then, as if a
sudden cloud had been lifted from him, his face untwisted and he relaxed.
     Larin was behind him. "I can take over, Master Luke," he said. "Perhaps you need to
meditate."
     Luke sighed and nodded. "Yes...you take over. I need to calm down."
     Larin and Vaiya exchanged worried glances as Larin slipped into the pilot's seat. Larin
reactivated the commlink and reconfirmed his emergency clearance while Vaiya made
sure the way was clear. As they finally hit open sky and headed out into the atmosphere,
Vaiya turned to her father.
     "So what happened to Mother?" she asked plainly.
     Luke opened his eyes from where he was sitting in one of the passenger chairs,
struggling for calm. "She was captured," he said slowly, "by Darth Maul."

     "So what do we do?" Ben asked, feeling absolutely helpless. He clutched his lightsaber
in his hand, but felt paralyzed. When his father showed up, the possibility that Luke might
kill him did occur to him, but Ben dismissed it. No, his father's anger was not directed at
him. He wouldn't want to be in the way, though.
     Seth did not reply from Vaiya's room. Ben finally got up from where he'd been
crouching by the wall, trying unsuccessfully to gain his focus. He went to the doorway and
would have snapped something uncharacteristically mean, but instead he found Seth
hunched over his pack, his black-and-red, horned head slowly moving back and forth,
shaking a negative over and over.
     "What?" Ben asked sharply.
     Seth jumped and looked over his shoulder. The expression of utter confusion was
almost comical. "He took everything else...but this." And he held up in his hand his
double-bladed lightsaber.
     Ben swallowed. "So he missed it. What's the big deal?"
     Slowly, Seth rose, and the tunic's wide shoulders slipped a bit, revealing where the
heavy black and red marks ended as they dipped into his chest. "He didn't see it--it's the
only explanation."
     Ben sighed. "I got that, Seth. But why are you so freaked out about it? So he missed it,
so what? I already knew that, Seth....you told me before you had a lightsaber, I just
assumed--"
     "No," Seth interrupted him. "You don't understand. He had another weapon. He didn't
need to search for a lightsaber, or else he wouldn't have missed it."
     "I knew that, too."
     "And with the weapon he had, he obviously defeated Mara."
     Ben was feeling more uncharacteristic anger flood through him, and resisted the urge to
raise his voice. "I'm afraid I'm not seeing your point."
     "What kind of weapon could he have that would defeat a lightsaber?"
     The statement caught Ben off-guard. In all the panic, he had never even considered...
what kind of weapon, indeed? Mara was a master swordswoman. She had trained him
herself, since the first days he had come to live with the Skywalkers. She had trained
Vaiya as well, although Vaiya had learned more from the Elder from the First Temple,
Syrian, about battle techniques.
     "Maul was trained," Seth said, as if reading Ben's thoughts, "in the ways of the cult. Part
of that training was lightsaber dueling. I was trained in the same way, and Vaiya learned it
from an Elder of the First Temple. But Vaiya told me that she had passed on her training to
her mother not too long ago, and Mara was very good at it."
     "Vaiya told you?" Ben asked, frowning slightly. "When?"'
     Seth ignored him, looking down at the saber. "Mara should have been able to hold her
own against him, physically. The only thing that could have tipped the odds against her
was his weapon. So I ask you again, Ben," he said, looking up at him, "what weapon do
you know of that could defeat a lightsaber?"
     Ben paled. "There is nothing."
     Seth shook his head. "Has Mara ever told you about cortis ore?"
     Ben scowled. "She told me the story about how Father proposed to her. She said they
were in a fortress that had cortis ore in the walls...it makes lightsabers short out and
deactivate. But it isn't strong stuff," Ben pointed out. "It crumbles easily."
     "Unless it's hardened into a crystal form and made into a blade."
     The younger man's eyes widened. "A blade of cortis ore?" He let out his breath between
his teeth. "Wow, that's something I've never heard of."
     "My mother had one. She called it a wand. It wasn't a sword, but she used it like one.
She wasn't a Jedi, only a tweak in the Force, but she was able to use the weapon. When
Maul killed her...."
     "He must have taken it."
     Seth shook his head. "He didn't."
     "Obviously he did, if he used it here. How else could he have had it?"
     "Why would he keep this blade and not his own lightsaber?"
     "You said so yourself, it's a superior weapon."
     Seth shook his head. "Maul was very vain about his lightsaber. He prized it over
everything else. He would never have considered another weapon, not for a second, unless
his lightsaber was nowhere to be found. Or destroyed."
     Ben scowled again. "How do you know all this?"
     "I knew Maul, for a short time," Seth said. "I feel like I'm getting to know him better the
whole time."
     There was a long, heavy pause. "Can you sense him?" Ben whispered.
     Seth shut his eyes and Ben could feel him reaching out. "Vaguely. I can't pinpoint his
location, but---"
     "But you must be getting something in order to be able to figure all of this out," Ben
interrupted. "Your mind and his...could they be somehow linked?"
     "It's possible. We are Zabrak. The last two, as far as we know."
     "So getting back to what you were saying before....he has this cortis ore wand. How did
he get it, if it wasn't in the chamber?"
     "Even if it was in the chamber, how could he have gotten it? Maul escaped while you
and I were in the chamber, there is no way he could have gotten a hold of it before then, or
even after, because we would have seen him. So someone must have brought it to him.
Someone must be helping him."
     Ben paled. "Helping him? Who? Who does he know that would help him?"
     "Who came back with him from Durran?"
     "Just Iyala....oh, stars...." He smacked a hand against his forehead. "Iyala, who looks
exactly like your mother...." Ben felt his knees threaten to give out from under him. "Iyala
was related to your mother. She could have had the wand. She must have given it to him."
     Seth nodded. "Why she would do this is a mystery, but we must find her at once."
     Ben nodded. "Should we split up or---"
     "No, we should stay together." Seth's green eyes flashed, a dangerous sign of his
internal anger. "I don't want either one of us to have to face Maul alone...not even me." His
eyes met Ben's. "There's no telling what might happen."

     The first thing Mara knew was pain. It was a deep, throbbing pain, shooting from her
toes to the very ends of her hair. Her face felt like it was on fire, her lip torn open, her nose
bleeding, her temple throbbing as if her brain were spilling forth from her skull. She
turned her head only the slightest bit and was quickly chastised for her efforts. Then, after
a few deep, ragged breaths, she began to push some of the pain down. Pain was a good
thing, she had always believed. It kept her on her toes, kept her sharp, alert. But too much
dragged down her senses and hampered her. It would have been so easy to rely on Jedi
techniques and grow soft, and for the first time she was glad she had not been so strong in
the Force for her entire life. But now it was a blessing, to be able to draw on it. Soon, most
of the pain cleared, except for a dull ache in her wrists and ankles, which she quickly
realized were bound together.
     The next thing she knew was blood. It was sticky and itchy against her cheek, down her
nostrils, on her lips. She even blinked some of it out of her eye. Too much movement of
her facial muscles caused high pitched ripping sensations to tingle down her spine, so she
stopped, but as she lifted her head she realized she had obviously been lying in this
position for some time. There was a dried pool of blood against her cheek, and the smell
was not appetizing. She turned slightly, rolling herself over to her other side carefully, and
cleared her vision enough to see around the room.
     Okay, she wasn't in the Palace anymore. Apparently, Maul had taken her prisoner.
Exactly why he would do such a thing escaped her at the moment...maybe to punish her?
He'd been making some nasty remarks about her loyalty to Palpatine---as much as she
hated her dead master now, she had served him flawlessly while he had lived (okay,
almost flawlessly, she admitted), and for a long time after he'd died. So surely this couldn't
be about avenging his death. It wasn't her fault---okay, it was her fault, to a certain extent.
But she had long since come to grips with that. Surely this was not some overdue
punishment? Hadn't she been through all this before? Maybe someone needed to explain a
few things to Darth Maul...after all, he'd been out of circulation for a while. She was long
since done with this chapter in her life. She was out of this one--over, finished, done.
     Now she just had to make him see that.
     It took a few moments for her eyes to focus on a black figure, hunched over across from
her, his face covered in shadows. Okay, so he wasn't too far away--that mystery was
solved. As she stared at him, she willed him to show some sign of life--she couldn't even
see the rising and falling of his chest underneath all that black.
     Finally, red and yellow eyes opened to gaze down at her. The hood fell back and Mara
could see how he had painted his face with the red and black patterns of his old tattoo. She
scowled slightly.
     "You've smeared it," she said flatly.
     He raised a hand and wiped away an errant streak that had stretched too far down his
chin. "No matter," he said. "After we're away from here, I'll have the real mask done
again."
     "We?" Mara echoed. She twitched her nose as it began to bleed again. "Okay, so you
have help. You dark jedi are always able to manipulate someone."
     He stood up and approached her, grabbing a small pack on his way. He pulled from it a
damp med pad, and the faint stench of antiseptic stung Mara's eyes. Almost tenderly, he
began to dab at her cheek.
     "It's your own fault," he murmured as he cleared the blood away. Mara shut her eyes,
focusing on the sting and trying to avoid his gaze. "But I should have expected Sidious'
blood to still have its spark."
     "For the wrong side," Mara said, her eyes flying open. "You know who's on what side,
right? Your precious Sidious is dead, I'm working for the Jedi now. And you've just
brought a whole nest of them down on your head."
     He made a slight disdainful grunt in the back of his throat. "I'll survive. Making war
with the Jedi is what I was made to do."
     She scowled at him. "Look, Maul," she said, taking on a reasonable tone of voice, "all
of that is long over. The Empire is dead, Palpatine, Sidious, whatever you called him...he's
dead. It's all gone. There's nothing left for you to rebuild on if you want the sith to reign
again, or some rot like that. If you had just wanted to hide away somewhere and live out
the rest of your existence in peace, we could have respected that. But now you've gone and
started a fight, and there's more of us than there are of you." She sighed. "I know you've
probably got a big 'never surrender' creed tattooed on your brain, but if you want to go on
living in this brave new world, and have a chance to make that life for yourself, you're
going to have to accept that---"
     He silenced her by kissing her. His tongue dove deep into her mouth, almost reaching
down her throat. Mara was stunned by the suddenness of the act, and only made a slightly
muffled protest before he withdrew.
     She gasped and coughed for a second as he let go of  her, his work on her face
completed. She shook some errant locks of her hair away from her face and discovered
that he'd actually done a good job--except for the huge, swelling bruise just above her eye,
she looked none the worse for wear.
     "You were saying," he purred, pulling away to watch her from his former position.
     She grimaced. "Face paint was not meant to be swallowed," she said. "Besides, your
beauty mark just went from bad to worse."
     He shrugged and used another med pad to wipe away the paint. When he was done,
Mara could only stare, baffled. Underneath it all, he looked so incredibly....human. Except
for the horns, of course.
     "You know, Maul, if this sith lord thing hadn't worked out, you'd have made a great
male model,"  Mara said, keeping her voice casual.
     "Such is this new life you speak of," he muttered disdainfully.
     She shrugged--a remarkable effort in her bound state. "Hey, it's going to beat the
whooping you'll get when my rescue party gets here."
     He smiled at her--it sent a shudder through her stomach. "Ah, yes, your little band of
friends. It seems you've made a remarkable amount of allies, Mara...I am especially
amazed at the addition of my son."
     She paled. "You know about him."
     He nodded and sighed. "A bit more than I'd like...I can sense him as keenly as he can
sense me. It may work to my advantage, eventually. But in the meanwhile we're just going
to have to hide here, in silence, until our transport is ready."
     "Who is the 'our' you keep mentioning?" Mara asked.
     "You, me...and a friend."
     Mara raised her eyebrows. "Listen, horny boy," she said, beginning to lose her temper,
"I don't know what you think you're going to accomplish by taking me hostage, but it's sure
not going to make your life easier, I promise you that. My husband happens to be Luke
Skywalker--"
     Maul snorted. "Vader's son. I assure you, I fear him less than his father. Vader could not
serve the dark side properly...Sidious brought me back because he was starved for a truly
worthy apprentice."
     Mara sneered at him. "Vader," she said, her voice a deadly whisper, "put you away
before. How wonderfully fitting for his son to finish the job, don't you---ah!"
     Maul viciously slapped her across the face, causing her to roll to her other side again.
She lay still for a good minute, fighting off the waves of pain as they washed over her
brain, and she struggled to steady her breathing, not wanting Maul to know she'd be
silenced so easily.
     "Dammit," she said, her voice dry and sarcastic, "you made my nose bleed again."

{||||||%||||||}:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

     Vaiya had nightmares. They were harsh and cold, filled with bright colors and loud
noises. They were vivid like visions, but cut together and disordered like fever dreams. She
tossed and turned and when she awoke only fragments would stay with her, like pictures
burned into her mind.
     Her stomach ached. She almost cried with the pain, bringing Larin to her bedside. They
had been taking turns staying with Luke, who was so distressed he could not sleep, only
meditate .
     "What is it?" he said, holding her close. She buried herself into his side, clinging to
him as she fought back the tears.
     "I don't know," she replied shakily. "I keep seeing...I see us, fighting. But we're fighting
each other. You're chasing me, with another man...I don't know who he is. And we're using
blasters, not our lightsabers."
     "You're with another man, and I'm chasing you?" Larin repeated, a note of tension in his
voice.
     Vaiya shook her head. "No, you and the other man are chasing me. You're both
shooting at me, and I'm shooting back. It only lasts a few seconds before another picture
appears...and in the end, I see you, holding me. I'm lying in your arms, and you're crying.
You're holding me up because I look like I've been shot, because I'm all bloody...and
behind us, the walls are made of glass, and we're rising, like in a lift, and all of Coruscant
is burning." She shuddered. "Burning...and then I woke up."
     Larin frowned, trying to picture the image she had just given him. "Are you sure these
aren't visions?" he asked.
     "They could be." Vaiya sighed, calming. She pulled back a bit, groaning. "My stomach
hurts....could you bring me something to drink?"
     He nodded and rose. In a moment, he returned with a glass of thick pink liquid. She
sipped it, sitting up in the bed.
     "Your stomach hurts..." he reached out and touched her abdomen, and she groaned
slightly for the second time. "How does it hurt?"
     "It feels like I'm sick, but I don't feel like throwing up," she whispered, setting the glass
down on the bedtable. "Oh, God, it hurts...."
     Larin's frown deepened. "Here...lay back a second."
     "Why?" she looked at him, suspicious.
     He laughed at her and tousled her hair. "Afraid I'll take advantage of you in your
fragile state? Come on, Vai...trust me."
     She sighed and lay flat on the bed. Larin pressed his head to her stomach, and she
winced slightly at the pressure. Seconds passed, and then Larin lifted his head to smiled up
at her.
     "Vaiya," he whispered, "I think you're pregnant."
     Vaiya's eyes flew open wide. She would have jerked into an upright position, but the
pain kept her flat. "How do you know?"
     "Follow me." He reached out and touched his mind to hers, and she followed where he
lead. Deep into her flesh, she felt the tiny spark...a spark of life...a mind...no, two minds!
     "Twins!" she gasped.
     He laughed, a great, hearty laugh. "You learn fast," he said, and she threw herself into
his arms, the pain almost nonexistent now.
     "Larin...we're going to be parents!" she cried, hugging him.
     "Yes," he sighed, "we are..." And she felt the slight pang of doubt in his heart.
     *They're yours,* she assured him. *I promise you.*
     She felt his trust, felt him believe her, even before he spoke. "I love you, Vaiya," he
said, and she wanted to cry as she felt the force of that love embrace her.
     "I love you, too...Daddy."

     Seth began to wonder. He had sensed something earlier, something very distinct.
Perhaps if he tried to focus, he could--
     A sharp, burning pain made him retreat. Okay, apparently Maul had a say in their little
link, and he did not want his son prying into his current affairs. But Seth had caught a
glimpse of something. Start white walls, metallic boxes, and a flash of Mara's red hair
spilled on the floor.
     "Nothing?" Ben asked from behind him as they traced the rim of the detention cell
where Maul had last been seen before breaking into the Skywalker apartments.
     From inside the cell, where the ysalamari had been cleared away but their pale blood
still stained the walls, Seth did not reply. Instead, he stared hard at the cuts that had been
made. More of the same, from the cortis ore wand. But they were not high enough to have
come from Maul. Maul was about his height, and these came from someone a good foot
shorter. He extended his hand and traced his fingers over the gauges, double-checking his
measurements.
     "Maybe it would have been better if we'd followed through the ventilation system--"
Ben began to say, but was interrupted by the introduction of two presences, both
delightfully familiar. He turned and smiled almost before they appeared.
     "Uncle Han! Anakin!" Seth turned around, his attention completely shattered. Han and
Anakin Solo, looking remarkably alike except for the fact that the elder, Han, had a
considerable amount of age on him. However, to his memory, Vaiya had said he was in his
seventies now, how late was rather a mystery, and yet the man had a spark in his step that
showed it would take more than years to slow him down. Anakin was the very image of his
father in his younger years--Seth had seen a very large holo of a grand ceremony where
Master Skywalker and Solo had been granted some sort of an award by then-Princess Leia.
The picture seemed to have come to life.
     He felt the terrible urge to disappear into the wall as the two men approached and
greeted Ben in a familiar manner.
     "What are you doing down here?" Han asked, slapping his nephew on the shoulder. "I
thought you'd have followed the trail from upstairs."
     Ben shrugged. "Seth said we should follow it from down here. I was just about to ask
him why."
     Anakin glanced into the cell where Seth stood. "I don't think I've met your friend," he
said, a slight strain in his voice.
     Taking a breath, Seth stepped forward. "My name is Seth," he said, his voice low and
respectful. "You are Anakin Solo?"
     Anakin nodded, shaking the man's hand. "Yes."
     "Seth, have you met my uncle, Han Solo?"
     Han gave Seth an awkward smile. "We haven't been properly introduced. Although I
don't know if I've ever been properly introduced to anyone in my life," he remarked,
reaching out to shake Seth's hand as Anakin released it. "Perhaps you could explain why
you're down here and not upstairs where the trail is."
     "Darth Maul would know that we would have to follow his trail from the apartments.
Therefore, he would have done whatever he could to cover it up. However, this is where he
first escaped from. It's his only remaining point of reference. Therefore, it's more likely
that we could locate him from here than from upstairs."
     Ben cleared his throat. "Maybe you're stretching a bit, Seth."
     Humbly, Seth shrugged. "Perhaps. But I am inclined to believe that Mara would agree
with me, as would Master Skywalker."
     Anakin started to smile. "I think he would, too. If he was being rational. But with Aunt
Mara's life in danger, I somehow doubt he'll be ready to agree or disagree with anything."
     "Have you come to help?" Ben asked, and Seth was shocked to detect just the slightest
bit of apprehension from him at the thought.
     "Sort of. We've got the entire place on the alert, and you know that there are guards
combing every possible hideout," Han said, waving his hand dismissively. "But somehow I
don't think that any of that is going to help."
     "Father is trying to offer his services," Anakin said, "but he's trying to get you to ask
him. I think I'll just save some time."
     Han gave his son a mild glare before continuing. "I know this place pretty well," he
continued, undaunted. "Luke and I both do, actually. We spent some time crawling through
these little hidey-holes during our spare time, trying to sniff up any possible traps the
Emperor might have left for us. And since Luke isn't here yet, I thought I would show you
around."
     Seth's face practically lit up--it was quite a sight, considering his colorful mask. "Then
by all means, sir," he said, gesturing, "if you think you know where they've gone, show
us."
     Han gave Seth a light tap on the shoulder as he passed by him. "It's okay, kid, you can
call me Han. Or Solo. Whichever. But drop the sir stuff. It makes me sound old."

     It turned out that even for his age, which *had* limited his physical prowess although
he would never admit to it, Han could negotiate the narrow passages with relative ease.
While Seth insisted on leading them in after a few moments of careful thought, he
followed Han's instructions to the letter and with their combined efforts they managed to
discover that the space between the walls led to some hidden entrances in the backs of
particular cargo bays.
     Cargo bays with white walls and metallic boxes.
     "I think you made the right choice," Han said as they paused by a large ventilation
grate. "Maul would have had to double back if he wanted to shake us from the trail from
the apartments. But these would have been ideal places for him to hide. The only question
is, which one?"
     "How many are there?" Seth asked.
     "I don't know, a hundred, maybe two." He looked back over his shoulder at Ben and
Anakin, squinting slightly. "Maybe I am getting a little too old for this," he muttered. "I
forgot to bring *my* lightsaber."
     "Dad," Anakin said, a warning in his voice.
     "Oh, I'm just kidding, Annie, you know I'm not senile. Not yet. I may be after this is
over. Leia was telling me about what we knew about this Maul." He gave Seth a pointed
look. "Father and son, eh?"
     Seth flinched. "Yes."
     Han shook his head and gave him his characteristic, dismissive grin. "Hey, kid, it don't
bother me. Luke was Vader's son, and he turned out okay. It seems to be a tradition in our
little club. It makes Vaiya look so normal it's almost a miracle."
     Seth had to smile at the fondness he sensed from Han's mention of Vaiya. Anakin
cleared his throat as he squeezed his way to the front line.
     "Once again, I'm force to apologize for my father," he snorted. "Referring to Vaiya as
normal...she's kind of a pet of his, and for some reason that means he wishes she wasn't the
accomplished Jedi Master that she is--"
     Han snorted, cutting his son off. "She's been a lot happier living a nice, normal life on
Durran with that Larin kid than romping around the galaxy like her parents trying to save
everyone." He gave Seth a lopsided grin. "All she needs now to complete the picture is to
give me a couple of grand-nieces and nephews."
     "Yes, and add a few more Jedi Knights to the galaxy."
     "Oh, bantha dung!" Solo swore, grasping the heavy metal mesh of the grate. "Come on,
Seth, we gotta start somewhere. Maybe we should split up---"
     "NO!" Seth said, grabbing Han's wrist before he could dislodge the grate. "No, we
cannot separate."
     "But we'd cover more ground," Han pointed out.
     Seth shook his head adamantly. "We cannot separate. We cannot risk finding Maul
without our forces whole."
     "Is this a Jedi hunch?" Han asked, cocking an eyebrow.
     "I am not a Jedi," Seth said, almost off-handedly, "but I am Maul's son and I know that
we cannot risk it. I want to find Mara as well, Han," he continued, his use of the name
hesitant, "but the best chance we have of saving her is staying together."
     "What about when Luke and Vaiya and Larin arrive?" Anakin pointed out.
     "They are a sufficient enough of a force to search on their own." Seth's eyes held Han's.
"Perhaps you should return to the prison and wait for them. Then you can show them as
you showed me where Maul might be hiding."
     Han's dark eyes narrowed. "I certainly hope, for your sake, son, that you aren't sending
me back to protect me. Because if you were, I think I'd have to get angry with you, and I
really don't want to do that."
     "You showed me the way. You can show them," Seth stressed.
     The glare lasted a few seconds longer, and then he tore his eyes away to look at his son.
"Well?" he demanded.
     Anakin looked startled. "What?"
     "Aren't you going to say anything?"
     "What can I say, Dad? I know better than to argue with you. Thankfully, Seth doesn't. I
think you should listen to him, but are you going to? No."
     "Why don't you step back and let me and Seth open the grate," Ben suggested.
     "Don't you start, too," Han grumbled.
     Seth cleared his throat. "Han, Mara told me of how you were once captured by Darth
Vader, you and the Princess Leia. Do you remember being able to fight back?"
     Han did not reply.
     "And Jorrus Cy'Both...were you able to hold your own against him as well?"
     Another pause.
     "Please, do not believe that we are refusing your help. But Maul would not hesitate to
kill you. Not for a second. So if you desire to save Mara, the best way you can do that is to
help her husband find her when he arrives, and not meet your death here today, with us."
     Han's expression changed from defensive to alarmed. "That dangerous?"
     Seth met his eyes evenly. "If I had my say, I would send all of you back to wait and face
him alone. I would not wish to bring this evil down upon anyone. But Master Skywalker
gave me orders not to go alone, and I must obey them. I am afraid that blasters and wits
are no match for the evil of this sith lord."
     Han backed away from the grate, letting Ben come through. Beside him, Anakin placed
a hand on his shoulder but did not dare to give him a sympathetic look. "Go ahead, open
it," Han ordered, "but I'm waiting here."
     Seth sighed. "As you wish." And they opened the grate.

     Luke watched the starlines, his mind lost beyond the endless depths that surrounded
him. He had been here once, worried to sickness over Mara, but that time he had been able
to do nothing more than wait. When Mara had forgotten him, when she had returned to her
old self and knew only hatred for him and for the entire Republic, when she had refused to
try and remember her true self because of her fear of losing the only identity she
knew...no, this time he had an enemy with a face, something he could fight. This time, he
could rescue her, and rescue her he would.
     Perhaps this was why she hadn't wanted him to go with her...maybe she had known he
needed to stay behind to ride to the rescue. But that simply wasn't the truth. If he had been
with her, she never would have been captured to begin with. And at the very least, if she
had, he would have been right there on hand to find her, and not have to spend three days
in hyperspace first. Yejion only knew where she would be in three days, if she was on
Coruscant at all.
     He had tried to reach out to her with the Force, but instead she had blocked him. At
first, he hadn't known why, but then he realized that she was afraid of what Maul might do
if he overheard her. She didn't know the full extent of his powers, and had to be sure that
their conversation wouldn't be overheard. It would do her little good to tell Luke their
every move if Maul knew she was doing it. And to be quite honest, she was afraid that he
would kill her with little hesitation.
     So instead, he merely tapped her Force sense, making sure she was alive and unhurt
before pulling away. She would reach out to him every once in a while as if testing the
waters, and every time she did he sent her his love and concern. But they weren't even into
half of their first day in hyperspace, and already he felt his nerves begin to fray.
     A long time ago--thirty years, in fact--when she had become his wife, she had vowed
not to run off and get herself killed. But now, thirty years later, she was breaking her vow.
Perhaps it came from spending all of those years with him, or maybe it came from the fact
that before, she had not been so selfless, that the role of a Jedi had not sunk so deeply into
her soul that it had affected her being and made her desire to sacrifice herself for others
rather than do it only in reluctance and in the most severe of need. Maybe he had only his
own good influence to blame. But then again, dark jedi seemed to be attracted to Mara. It
was an odd thing...maybe it came form her parentage.
     He flinched. Yes, this was, once again, Palpatine's fault. Always his fault, always some
snare of his, some catch, some well-laid seeds that were sprouting to rise and choke off his
beloved's life. If Maul had some insane plan about turning Mara to the dark side, he was
going to be sore disappointed, and that would put Mara's life in even more danger. He
almost wished she were more angry like she had been in her youth. Of course, she was
already, in many ways. Sure, she had a much better grip on her rage than she used to, but it
was still there, like a coiled snake, only needing the right agitation to bring it into striking
position.
     The fact that that taint might keep her alive was a thought to make Luke shudder.
     "Dad?"
     He looked over his shoulder to see Vaiya enter the cockpit, her red-violet tunic hastily
thrown on over her black leggings. Her hair was pulled back into a tail, its hastily combed
curls looking slightly frayed as if she'd just risen from sleep.
     "Vaiya...shouldn't you be in bed?"
     "Larin's taking his watch. I wanted to come up and talk to you."
     He sighed. "I'm afraid I'm not good company."
     "No, but I am, so don't sweat it." She curled into the co-pilot's seat, her eyes drifting
out over the star lines for just a moment before returning to her father. "You look bad," she
said, the concern in her voice heavy.
     He grunted. "Thanks."
     "You're welcome." He took in her appearance and realized that her face held no trace of
sleep. She and Larin had been alone in the bedroom for a little while...and there was
something about her that seemed a little...off...
     "Are you okay?" he asked, immediately the concerned father.
     "I'm fine," she said, perhaps a bit too carefully. Then her expression turned penetrating.
"How's Mom? Can you sense her?"
     "She's okay," Luke said, turning back to the controls. Couldn't they make this thing go
any faster? "Maul banged her up a bit, but you know your mother."
     Vaiya grunted. "Yeah...sometimes I wish I was more like her."
     "No you don't," Luke said in a low voice, almost to himself.
     She snorted. "Well....I guess I'm enough like her. But everyone else says I'm too much
like you."
     Luke felt the corner of his mouth rise in a grin. "Who's everyone?"
     "Uncle Han, Aunt Leia, Ben, Larin, Derrin and Drianna," she rattled on, and Luke
shook his head, laughing in spite of himself.
     "Well," he sighed, "I guess it just depends on your definition of me. Your mother and I
are more alike than we care to admit. We're both incredibly stubborn for one, and she
seems to have picked up my knack for getting in trouble."
     Vaiya shook her head. "No, Dad, trust me, she hasn't. Mom has always been careful.
Whatever happened to her, it wasn't her fault."
     He sighed. "I wish that made me feel better."
     "Mom's not the sentimental type, is she?" Vaiya mused. "I mean, it's those kind that
wind up getting into their own trouble. Always trying to be the hero, to save
everyone...that's more like you. I don't know where I fall into that category---"
     "Definitely more like me," Luke said, flinching at the painful memory of hugging his
wife and only known child before Vaiya marched off to possibly get herself killed at the
hands of an entire sith cult, headed by the other dark jedi who had tried to take Mara from
him. "Mara's softened up in her old age."
     "I don't think she took in Seth because she was soft," Vaiya said, her voice holding a
curious tone that baffled even Luke for a moment. "She took him in because---"
     "She made a deathbed promise to Valeris," Luke offered.
     Vaiya shrugged. "That's part of it, maybe." Her blue-green eyes wandered over the
starlines again. "Maybe she did it for me."
     After a pause, Luke reached out and touched Vaiya's shoulder. She covered his hand
with her own. "Are you okay?" Luke whispered.
     She nodded, her eyes filling with tears that didn't fall. She blinked rapidly, and then
gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "I mean, you know that Mom and I have always had
this connection," she said.
     Luke nodded. "Since you were born. It's saved you both a couple of times."
     The look Vaiya gave her father was almost painful. "Dad...can you tell me about
Callista?"
     Luke almost jumped. Why in the world would she want to talk about Callista at a time
like this? "You know about Callista," Luke said. "She was once a Jedi Knight---"
     "No, not that stuff," Vaiya said, almost impatiently. "I mean, the things you haven't told
me. I know that you have no reason to share stuff like that with me, but....Dad, I have to
know. Did you love Callista?"
     Luke sighed, amazed that the memories were so clear even after all these years. "I did
when we first met," he said. "I mean, I'd already known your mother for some time, but it
didn't look like we were going to have any romantic future, so when Callista came along--"
     "No," Vaiya said, smacking her hand against the arm of the chair. "Look, I understand
that maybe you don't want to tell me, but I have to ask, I have to know the truth. I know
that you love my mother---I know that!" The impatience was rising in her voice. "But that
doesn't mean that you didn't love Callista, than in some way you don't love her still. And
you don't have to be ashamed of that! The human heart is too big to be hemmed in by
loving just one person, it's capacity for loving can't be destroyed or built up just by one
romance!"
     Luke smiled. He'd heard those words once before, when Callista had left him on Nam
Chorios, brokenhearted but hopeful for the future--a paradox he had never understood until
he'd realized his love for Mara. Then, he sobered. There was really something wrong with
Vaiya. He could sense a distinct conflict with her, something she had thought she'd
resolved but was now coming back upon her. Something that was being aggravated by the
fact that they were on their way to Coruscant, to face this conflict that lay before them.
     "Vai," he said softly, lovingly, "if you want me to share, I will, but you're going to have
to share, too."
     Vaiya nodded, her eyes tearing up slightly. "It will be worth it. Please, Dad...tell me."
     "I loved Callista," he confessed. "Mara knows it, perhaps better than I do. When I was
with her, I didn't want to be with anyone else."
     "Not even Mom?" Vaiya whispered.
     Luke seemed to consider. "There was one time," he said, an amused tone in his voice.
"Callista and I had just settled on Yavin IV, but she was having a hard time with the
students because she felt so alienated from them, not having her Force powers. Mara came
to visit to pass on a bit of news that I knew she didn't really need to pass on to me, but she
had decided to anyway." He shrugged. "I knew why she had come years later, but by then it
didn't really matter. She wanted to see if I was happy with Callista. But that didn't stop her
from feeling the way she did." He sighed. "Sometimes I wonder what it might have been
like if Callista hadn't left me. I wonder what life would have been like without Mara. But
that doesn't mean I would trade my life now for that. It had its place, but it wasn't meant to
be. Callista and I were happy for a time, but that time ended."
     "What if," Vaiya whispered, "what if Callista hadn't left, and you had fallen in love with
Mother anyway? And she had fallen in love with you?"
     Luke pulled back a bit. "Well...that situation kind of did happen, Vaiya. I mean, we had
feelings for each other that were never realized, but they were still there---"
     "But if they *had* been realized," Vaiya pressed. "But you still loved Callista, were
even married to her."
     Luke considered. "When Callista came back to ask for Mara's help to find Ben," he
mused, "that situation sort of did happen...in reverse. I was married already to Mara, but
Mara let me go to Callista, anyway, just to see what would have happened."
     Vaiya's eyes widened. She had not heard that part of the story. "What did happen?" she
whispered.
     Luke shrugged. "I cared about Callista, and after she died, I realized that I still loved
her, even though we could never share it and I was happy with Mara." He shook his head.
"It was a strange feeling, being in love with two people. But I gave my life to Mara. I
hadn't given it to Callista."
     "And you never wished for it to be different. Then how can you say you were in love
with her? If you were in love with her, wouldn't you have wanted to be with her?"
     Luke shrugged again. "I can't explain it any better than that, Vaiya," he said, a bit
testily. "I didn't love them the same, not the same amount, not even in the same way. But
they were both romantic kinds of love, yes." He sighed. "What do you want me to say,
Vaiya?"
     "Did you want to be with Callista the way you wanted to be with my mother?"
     "Once I did--"
     "But not after you married Mother. You didn't want to be with Callista after you
married my mother."
     "No. Callista and I were over."
     Vaiya nodded. "Then you really didn't love her anymore."
     "I did!" Luke protested, and then was amazed that he would have to prove such a
ridiculous point. "Great Force, Vaiya, what--"
     "If you could have been with Callista when she came back, then, would you have?"
     "I don't know---"
     "If you hadn't been married to Mother?" Vaiya pressed.
     "If I hadn't been married to your mother, who knows?" He threw up his hands. "Maybe
it would have still been over. Maybe I would have been desperately lonely enough to give
it a try, or maybe I would have gone stark raving mad. I don't know, you can't ask me to
say what might have happened! You'll only get into trouble if you think so hard about
those kinds of things. You'll even wind up doing things that you regret---"
     Vaiya's face turned white. "I know."
     There was a heavy silence. Luke wanted to know what was going through his daughter's
mind, but he didn't dare press into her private thoughts. Instead, he gently touched her
mind from the outside, his concern and fatherly love making it more like a caress than a
probe. And slow, she showed him bits and pieces, afraid to show him the whole picture but
wanting him to understand what it was that was tearing her apart.
     "This has to do with Seth, doesn't it?" he whispered.
     She nodded.
     "You care about him a lot, don't you?"
     She nodded again.
     "Vaiya...are you in love with him?"
     She started to cry. After a second's hesitation, Luke leaned forward and put his arms
around his daughter, and she let him, even though she seemed to flinch in shame. But she
let him hold her, her face against his shoulder as she stroked her long, honey-colored hair,
waiting for her to calm down.
     "What if," she said, after the heaviest of sobs had passed, "you had found that you were
still in love with Callista, and yet you were just as happy with my mother as you said you
were."
     "Is that what happened to you?" Luke whispered.
     Against his shoulder, Vaiya nodded.
     "What happened, Vaiya?"
     She told him. No, she didn't share the gritty details, but she conveyed the message of
what had happened that night---Larin's confession about Iyala, Vaiya's leaving to visit
Valeris, finding Seth alone and realizing that she did care for him, more than she had ever
imagined. She didn't tell him how she and Seth had began to talk, but instead it came out
more like, "It just happened."
     "Nothing just happens," Luke chastised, but he was gentle as he pulled Vaiya away,
looking down at her in gentle reproach. "Does Larin know?"
     Vaiya nodded. "We worked it out some time ago."
     "But then you didn't know that you'd be seeing Seth again."
     She shook her head. "I don't know what do to, Dad," she sighed.
     "You're married, Vaiya. You know exactly what to do."
     After a pause, she nodded. Then she looked up at her father, hesitantly. "Please...don't
tell anyone."
     "I won't. To be quite honest, I don't know why you told me."
     "Because it's because of me that Mom is in this mess," Vaiya said quietly. "I think she
took Seth in because she felt sorry for him. Because she sensed what had happened, sensed
his feelings and mine."
     "That and the fact that she and Seth share a similar history," Luke said, pushing several
thick locks away from Vaiya's face.
     "What do you mean?" Vaiya sniffed.
     "Well...maybe I'm not the one to tell you this, but you know that Mara just found out
that Palpatine was her father, the one who took her from her family only to turn out to be
her family."
     Vaiya nodded, frowning.
     "It turns out that Seth is Darth Maul's son."
     If she had been white before, Vaiya's face was practically translucent now. "His...son?"
     Luke nodded. "If there is anyone in this universe that Mara can relate to, it's Seth. And I
know that Seth has taken to Mara like a son to a mother. Maybe neither one would admit
it--Mara may be a lot more emotionally relaxed than she used to be but she would never
say such a thing out loud, and I don't think that Seth is too emotionally literate, either."
     Vaiya sighed. "Oh, stars...as twisted as it sounds, the two of them are practically made
for each other."
     "Exactly. I know that Seth is doing everything in his power to find Mara. That's the only
reason I haven't gone crazy already. If we're lucky, he'll have found them by the time we
get there."
     Vaiya met her father's eyes. "Maybe I shouldn't have come," she whispered. "I'll only be
a distraction."
     Luke shook his head. "No...for whatever reason, you have to be here, Vaiya. I can feel
it. And Larin, too. But you have to be clear in your heart--you are married to Larin."
     "I know. And I love him. I don't want to be with anyone else."
     Luke nodded, and sighed, running a hand through Vaiya's hair. "For what it's worth,
kid," he said, sounding like Han, "I know how you feel."
     Vaiya shook her head. "You would never have done what I did. That's why I wish I was
more like Mother. When she loves, it's once and it's for keeps. She never had flings, never
cared about anybody like she cared about you."
     Her father grinned. "The advantage to being emotionally closed, I guess."
     "I just care so much about Seth," Vaiya whispered.
     "It's okay to care. It's what you do about it that makes the difference between wrong and
right." He sighed again, and said, "just remember that that man in there would forgive you
anything, Vaiya. If you truly wanted to be with Seth, he wouldn't keep you. He would let
you go. He would never trap you into anything, even if it would be wrong for you to leave.
Maybe that doesn't make him a saint, but it makes him someone who loves you
unconditionally. That's the most precious thing any of us could ever have."
     "I know that," she said, her voice full of feeling. "But the thing is, Dad...Seth loves me
that way, too."
     Luke leaned back in his chair. "So you should consider yourself even luckier that you
are free to make your choice."
     "I already made it," Vaiya said, glancing back at the bedroom where Larin was
sleeping.
     Luke smiled. "Then don't worry about it," he said. "Vaiya, you've made it through trials
that people twice your age couldn't handle because you had faith. Have faith now."
     Vaiya wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. Sometimes, she thought, it was hard to
feel so faithful. But faith was not just a feeling, but a choice. And she had made hers.
     She wouldn't trade it. Not for anything.

[|||||||||||||||||8||]::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

     Mara drifted in between the realm of healing trances and consciousness. She knew she
needed strength that she could only draw from the Force, but she also knew that she could
not let her guard down. But her captor seemed content to keep his hands to himself, and
hadn't even stirred much from his position amidst the many boxes and supplies that
surrounded them. Internally, she was trying to keep track of time. It had to be getting well
past the midnight hour, perhaps they were already into the earliest hours of dawn.
Whatever the case, her Jedi skills told her that something would be happening soon.
     Luke was still far away...she wanted to reach out to him, but was afraid. She could feel
Maul around her like a vise, ready to crush her if she should attempt to escape. He knew
he was not dealing with a petty apprentice, but a full-blown master. And he was ready. He
seemed to have a strange confidence about him which at first Mara had thought she could
use to her advantage, but after a few quick mind probes she tossed that idea out the hatch.
No, she was not dealing with some petty apprentice either, but a sith lord. And all they
could do was watch each other, waiting.
     What had he really sought to accomplish by taking her? She couldn't figure it out.
Unless it was some compulsion he was under, as she had once been, subjected by
Palpatine to some mental command. He seemed to be bent on making her pay for her
*disloyalties,* but so far he hadn't come much closer to her than their earlier contact.
Although a Jedi hunch told her that if she closed her eyes for too long she was going to
open them again to a very unpleasant experience, so she was extremely careful to keep her
senses alert, even as her body struggled to heal.
     Of course, the fact that she wasn't facing him wasn't helping her case.
     Curled into a near-fetal position, with her hands bound behind her back and her ankles
tied together by some heavy space tape, she was physically helpless. She had thought of
rolling over several times and working at her bonds, putting her hands out of his site as she
did so, but every time she tried to roll over her head started to throb uncontrollably, and
she had to give up the struggle. Maybe Maul was doing that. She wouldn't put it past him.
He wasn't stupid enough to let her have that kind of privacy, either. And plus there weren't
too many ways to undo space tape unless you had a very sharp object, of which there were
none nearby, except for her lightsaber, which hung from his belt.
     She swore in the back of her mind, an old reflex. This Jedi patience thing was turning
out to be quite a handy thing. Maybe even as little as twenty years ago, she would have
gone stark raving mad, being caught in this situation. She had been specially trained in
ways to escape all kinds of bondage, but here they were all useless. She could only sit
around and wait for the rescue.
     So much for being a great Jedi Master, she thought to herself. She was no different now
than she had been thirty years ago, sitting around those dumb caverns, waiting for a rescue
that had also come from Luke Skywalker. Although this time, she thought with a wicked
grin, Luke was not going to be so placid with her captor. In fact, Maul would be lucky to
live through the beating he was going to get, anger and the dark side be damned.
     A slight tapping noise broke through her reverie, and she slowly, carefully, shifted her
senses to seek out the source. Was Maul finally "feeling the mood?" She gently pulled her
legs up closer to her body, bending her knees more to give them more force when she
finally released them. But no, it wasn't Maul...it was coming from the wall.
     Whoever it was, they had their Force-presence cloaked. Maul, thank God, hadn't heard
it. The tapping noise disappeared quickly, but she knew what it had been. She hadn't spent
so many years crawling around ventilation shafts herself and not know what could pass for
simple vermin or what would sound like alarmingly unusual activity. She was impressed
that her rescuers were so clever. And the only ones who could have been powerful enough
to keep their presences from Maul were Ben and Seth. That she knew, anyway. She
doubted that anyone from the Jedi council would be sending anyone to her rescue, even
with Leia holding a chair. Mara had seen the famed Princess Leia when she didn't get what
she wanted. Mara almost felt sorry for those Jedi.
     Okay, they were getting closer. Mara felt a brief flare in the Force, but it disappeared as
they struggled to cloak themselves again. She let down her barriers a bit, letting some of
her thoughts slide out toward Maul, and when he did stir, as she knew he would, and
hoped he assumed that it had been she who'd made the ripple in the Force. He eyed her
with mild contempt.
     "Perhaps Sidious was wasting his time with you," he mocked. "All these years and you
cannot even control your thoughts for more than a few hours."
     Mara rolled onto her back, and for the first time she didn't feel the pain. Okay, so Maul
had decided to play. That was fine, at least she would be expecting it. "Think what you
want, horny boy. What does the opinion of a sith matter to me?"
     He chuckled, but it sounded more like a grunt. Then, suddenly, he rose to his feet,
glancing over his shoulder. "It seems our hiding place here has been discovered," he
whispered, bending over her and grabbing her upper arms.
     Okay, he was good. But she was better. As his fingers closed around her, she brought
her feet up as hard as she could in an arch, the tips of her toes digging into his ribcage and
pressing the air from his lungs. He didn't even let out a sound, except for the hissing gasp
of his air supply disappearing on him, as he sailed back a few feet, aided by a Force-shove
she sent at him for good measure. But he twisted and flipped, his feet going out from under
him to arch over his head and then land on solid ground again, steady. He wobbled for only
a moment, his arms spread out like a circus performer, and then his eyes met hers and
smoldered with rage.
     "Nice, Master Jade, but perhaps you will find your smugness is not enough against the
power of the dark side."
     Mara heaved herself up into a sitting position as he regained his balance, but with her
hands and ankles bound she knew her only defense would be her mastery of the Force.
And while she had warned Luke time and again about drawing on it for power, she now
understood how a Jedi had to be familiar with those skills in order to call them to her
defense. As she felt her windpipe close underneath his invisible grip, Mara struck out,
using all of her stored strength, and was satisfied to see his own face contort as hers was,
the surprise in his eyes as he realized she was not so weak as to go down without more of a
fight.
     For a second, time froze. They both held their own, digging into the others throat with
all the power they could call to their command. Maul had the dark side, but Mara had
something else, something stronger than him. As her defenses switched and she channeled
all her energy into the force grip around Maul's windpipe, she let down her Force barrier
and no longer shut Luke out.
     Across light years, she felt the change. His sudden alarm as he realized she was in
almost mortal danger, and then his love for her, rushing at her with the force of a tidal
wave. She pulled it toward her, wrapping it around herself like a shield even as the world
began to change colors as her precious oxygen supply depleted. With this new strength,
with Luke fighting at her back as surely as if he'd been physically present and swinging his
lightsaber full throttle, she began to unpeel Maul's grip from her throat. Precious air
snaked its way into her lungs, and she found more strength in that, and watched as Maul
began to sink to his knees, his face starting to turn a pale shade of blue. He reached out
with his hand, his fingers curling downward hard as he tightened his grip, the hard arch of
his bones turning his joints pure white. She felt like she was staring at the giant claw of a
demon.

     "Father?" Vaiya cried as Luke suddenly gasped and lurched forward, his eyes a
thousand miles away from the cockpit of their ship. "What is it?"
     "It's Mara," he gasped, the anger filling his face as he saw the scene spread out before
his eyes through the Force. "Maul is trying to strangle her, and she's fighting back."
     Vaiya paled. "Can you help her?"
     "Yes."
     Vaiya watched as her father seemed to change. He settled back into his seat, and a wave
of calm washed over him. Then, he shut his eyes, and Vaiya could sense that he was
joining in the battle.
     The first thing that struck her was the tidal wave of love that radiated from him. Her
father's love for her mother...so deep and unconditional and limitless...almost like a living,
breathing thing, but existing only because they existed, only for them, only between them.
It was beyond anything human. It was almost divine.
     She felt the urge to cry. It was almost a sin for her to sit there and even touch the
fringes of something so private, so beautiful that was between her parents. Behind her, she
felt Larin stir, sensing the battle in his sleep. Within a few minutes, he was behind her, still
in his night clothes, his cloak wrapped around him for a robe.
     "What's happening?" he whispered.
     "Mother's in trouble. Father is helping her out."
     Gently, Larin put his hand on her shoulder, and Vaiya almost gasped as she felt Larin's
touch in her mind, at first like an echo of what she had felt from her father, and then
changing, differing as his soul and her soul differed from theirs.
     Vaiya glanced up at him, but he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were on Luke with
heavy concern, and she realized he wasn't even aware of what was passing between them.
     "Larin?" she whispered.
     He jumped and looked down at her, and then his multi-colored eyes widened as he felt
it.
     "Wow," he whispered.
     "Wow indeed," she almost laughed, lacing her fingers through the ones that rested on
her shoulder.
     "Can we help them?" Larin asked.
     Vaiya shook her head. "I don't know....for some reason, I don't think we should try. It
would be like....like...."
     "Like walking in on them," Larin muttered.
     "Huh?"
     "When I was ten, I walked in on my parents making love," he chuckled. "It was
something I wouldn't ever wish on anyone."
     Vaiya blushed. "I don't think I ever walked in on them," she whispered.
     "Then we'd better wait it out...I think Luke and Mara are stronger as they are than they
would be with us interfering."
     Vaiya nodded. Wait they would.
     It was at that moment that Luke suddenly lurched to the side as if he'd suddenly been
struck, hard. He didn't make a sound, just the brief gust of air that left his lungs with the
force of the blow.
     "What?" Larin cried, reaching out to steady him.
     Luke cradled his cheek, which looked like it was going to start bruising at any second.
"He hit her," he snarled. "That slime-sucking son-of-a-hutt hit her!"

     Mara's world reeled as the handle of her own lightsaber met with the bone of her jaw
and teeth, and blood poured from her mouth as the inside of her cheek was practically
shredded. Her grip on Maul's throat and her contact with Luke were shattered, and she
rolled almost a full 180 degrees with the strength of the blow.
     Within a second, Maul was yanking her up by her hair, pulling her head back into
a rather painful position, straining the muscles in her neck as his hand closed around her
spine.
     "Do that again," he rasped in her ear, clearly out of breath, "and I'll snap your neck with
my own two hands."
     She would have replied, but the blood prevented any dignified speech, so instead she
maintained an almost chastised silence as he yanked her to an upright position so that he c
could once again sling her over his shoulder.
      Mara's world blurred again as she was settled into a position over his shoulder, but she
managed to clear her vision fast enough to look up and see that they were about to have
company. She heard shouts and saw the brief flash of Seth's bright red and black tattoo as
her rescuers gave chase, but Maul was not about to give her up.
     She spit several times, watching in satisfaction as the thick masses of blood and saliva
gathered on the backs of his legs, even as it threatened to fly up at her again. But soon she
wasn't able to see at all as Maul used the Force to propel them both upwards and into the
dark tunnels of the ventilation system. How he was running so fast in such a narrow space
and not hitting anything was beyond her---she credited it to the dark side, which snapped
and whirled around him like an invisible tornado. Amid the chaos, she sensed something
familiar...darkly familiar.
     Palpatine.
     She gritted her teeth, calling all her remaining strength into her muscles as she tensed
against him, trying to get him to drop her. It was an impossible effort, but one she had to
make. The memory of Palpatine trying to give her to this madman once was sharp and
clear in her mind, almost as if someone else had put it there. This was just the same
thing...something he was trying to prove, even though he was long dead. And what exactly
was he trying to prove? she wondered. That he could still control her.
     *You lost that ability a long time ago, old man,* she thought viciously.
     *Mara,* she heard Luke call to her, their bond returning, *stay calm. Don't let your
anger control you.*
     The urge to snap at Luke and shut him out was almost uncontrollable. For two seconds,
she could remember explicitly what it felt like to hate him, to want only his death, to have
the stripes of her humiliation, inflicted by him, to be shining bright across her pride once
again.
     *I know,* she sent back, praying for calm. And almost as if it had just been waiting for
her to ask, it came. It doused her flaming rage like liquid ice, and she shut her eyes, found
her lungs, and screamed--
     "We're down here!"
     Maul's warning growl was intended to frighten her. For a second, it almost did, but the
calm was stronger than that. It rippled, but solidified again, and she dared to stretch out her
mind farther, to reach for her companions...her sons....adopted in later parts of life but men
she loved as sons nonetheless. She could sense their panic as they realized that Maul was
faster than they were, somehow. How could he be faster than them, burdened as he was?
They chased, but Maul led them through the system, taking every twist and turn, doubling
back and then pressing forward, briefly bursting out into a room much like the first only to
disappear back into the system again, and then into another room, running running and still
running until Seth and Ben and <Anakin? Mara wondered> were panting for breath,
confused and lost, feeling ashamed of themselves and feeling very hopeless in Maul's
wake.
     Then suddenly, Maul stopped. They were in the shafts, all darkness around them, but he
wasn't even panting. Seconds ticked by, and Mara considered her options. Then, daringly,
she
reached out with her mind---
     And Maul knocked her unconscious by swinging the side of her head into a metal wall.

     In the darkness around them, Seth growled. Ben had seen the man show many emotions
in the short time he'd known them, but rage was not one of them. Funny, he thought, for
Seth had been a part of the dark side for so long, and yet he controlled his anger so well. It
was one of the many paradoxes that made sense, if you knew the former sith lord.
     Right now, however, it was the last thing Ben wanted to see. Or rather, *hear.* He
couldn't see anything, not even his own hand in front of his face.
     "What do we do?" Anakin Solo panted from beside them, his breaths coming long and
heavy, much like Ben's. Seth, however, was not panting. At least, not as hard as they were.
     "He's cloaked himself...and knocked Mara unconscious," Seth said, his voice very low.
"It will be a while before they settle down again. He's probably going to make the rounds a
few more times just to make sure he's shaken us."
     "Back to the drawing board?" Ben suggested.
     He sensed a flicker of confusion from Seth. "What?"
     "Nothing, just an expression from when I was growing up on Durran." He waved his
hand dismissively, even though he knew no one could see the gesture. "Nevermind."
     "Well?" Anakin pressed.
     "Iyala," Seth said. "We have to find her. She won't be able to evade us like Seth did."
     "Why didn't you just do that before?" Anakin asked, a slight edge to his voice that
reminded them he was more like his father than his mother or his uncle.
     "Because we don't know for sure if she's working with him," Seth said. "And Mara was
in danger. I didn't want to play some stupid game and risk her getting hurt before we could
get to her."
     Ben laid a hand on Seth's arm. "Easy," he said, "I want to save Mom too, but we have to
be wise about it. Let's go find Iyala."
     Seth nodded. "If they are working together, more than likely she's trying to get a ship
for them to escape in."
     "To the landing bay it is," Anakin said, turning on his heel.
     Seth moved to follow, but was caught by a flicker in Ben's mind. "What?" he asked.
     Ben shrugged, still aware that no one could see him in the dark. "Just worried about
Mom."
     Seth nodded. "Me too. But to be honest, I'm more worried about us."
     "Why?"
     "Because when Master Skywalker gets here, I have a feeling that he'll be
none-to-pleased to know what we lost them. Considering."
     "Considering?"
     "Considering he knows that Maul is my father, and he knows the link that a father and
son have. There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to follow him. But somehow, he's able
to shut me out." He grunted. "It's almost like I'm a nuisance to him, some insect he's able to
shoo away."
     Ben followed Anakin, Seth falling into step behind him. "Maybe it's because he knows
your motives."
     "That's not enough. My journey into the light has not been so long. He has not even
attempted to bring me back to the dark, nor do I sense him having any desire to do so."
     "That is odd. But maybe he doesn't think he needs you because he has Mara."
     Seth shook his head. "He does not want Mara in that sense. He desires only to punish
her."
     "For what?"
     "For betraying Sidious."
     "And how do you know that?" Ben asked.
     "I saw it in his mind, briefly. We have to get to her quickly, Ben. I don't know what he's
going to do to her, but we're talking about a man who murdered a woman he loved in cold
blood. He loved her--even when he killed her he loved her. The kind of man that could do
that is capable of anything."
     Ben shivered in the dark. Then, he said, "Maybe we need to bait him."
     "How? He desires nothing from us."
     "Maybe not now...but you are his son, Seth. He came for you once, to bring you to the
dark side. If you pretended to show interest, perhaps he would too---"
     "No," Seth whispered as they exited the tunnel into a brightly lit cargo hold.
     "Why?" Ben asked. "You'd only be pretending."
     "There is no pretending in the dark side," Seth said. "You cannot fake the desire to fall.
It is too dangerous--it will take hold. If I pretended to desire to return to the dark side,
there is no telling that I would be able to resist actually falling again."
     Ben looked at him. "That close?"
     "Every second. Like breathing. And he knows that, too. But he does not care." There
was almost hurt in his voice.
     "You know, he was found in a cloning chamber. He could be a fake--we don't know."
     "No, but I....I won't know for absolute certain until I face him."
     "Then let's get busy."
 

|%)))))))))))):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

     Iyala had waited patiently. She had been very sneaky about this, and very clever. Her
pride in that was almost like a physical sensation, thick and fluttering around her throat.
She had effectively hidden herself in this little shuttle, killing off the crew one by one. No
one suspected because they were not a part of the station, but outsiders only passing
through, getting ready to go on to the next system. She suspected that they were a small
independent smuggling crew, judging by the hatches in the floor of the main hallway, the
largest of which was big enough for three of her plus Maul. The other hatch was good for
hiding the bodies, which she made a note to dump the second they cleared Coruscant.
     Maul had said he would come at dawn. She kept her mind ready for him, heavily
shielding it from the Jedi but making light, quick sweeps to make sure he wasn't nearby.
This planet wasn't exactly thick with Jedi, but they had been a-crawlin' all night. Probably
looking for Maul. Oh well, soon they wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
     What was taking him so long?
     The main problem was, she wasn't sure how to handle this. Surely Maul had to make
sure he wasn't detected either by the Jedi, so he had to stay cloaked. She had felt him
briefly before, but it had passed quickly, the shields slamming back into place. She had
tired to let him know where she was but he shut her out soundly, and she withdrew before
the Jedi who chased him had detected her.
     Ben was one of them.
     She sighed. Her affection for the younger man was harmless enough. It wasn't anything
serious, she told herself. He was nothing like Maul.
     Come to think of it, nothing was like Maul.
     And speaking off...there was a tingling in the back of her mind, and Iyala crept from her
hiding place to peek out the transparisteel window of the cockpit.
     No one.
     Iyala dared to follow the tingling sensation, and began a hesitant reach, only to feel
herself chastised and sent back. Okay, so there were others around. They had to be careful.
     *Where are you?* she dared.
     There was a heavy pause, and Iyala began to wonder if he had cut her off completely.
Then, with the abruptness of a smack across the face, there was a brief picture in her mind,
the quick and terrible flash of darkness.
     He was in a tunnel somewhere, having just evaded some pursuers. And for some
reason, he didn't seem to be alone. But whoever was with him was unconscious, because
the only thing that Iyala picked up from him or her was a buzzing, pain-filled sensation.
     Apparently, Maul had had to take a hostage. Oh well, it made no never mind to her,
Iyala mused. They would just add that body to the others.
     There was a flash of dark pleasure from Maul. Yes, he liked it when she thought things
like that. But just as Iyala was reveling in the sensation, she realized that someone had
entered the bay. Someone Force-sensitive.
     A Jedi.
     Abruptly, she cut Maul off, pulling heavily back into herself. She patiently waited,
waited...and the Jedi sent out a tentative probe.
     Ben.
     If Iyala had been confident enough in the security of her hiding place to groan, she
would have. But unfortunately, she knew that Ben had sensed her, and she dared not move.
Not even a sound, no matter how many feet away he was from the ship, or how many
inches of the heavy ship walls were between them.
     There was another with him. This one was familiar, too--Seth? And a third! How many
Jedi were there on this planet anyway? Did they have nothing better to do? Yes, sure, Maul
was such a threat--she had the sense of mind to know that. But all of this fuss seemed
ridiculous to her. After all, all they wanted was to get away. It wasn't like they were trying
to blow up Coruscant or anything.
     Iyala wondered if she should try and move. It wasn't like they could have seen her, not
if she kept low, against the floor of the cockpit. Maybe she could make it to the gun turret
and blow a few of them away. There was no way she could go up against them hand-
to-hand, she didn'