Loreina stared in horror as her mother and sister disappeared into the
pool of light. She tried to scream, but no sound came from her parted lips.
There was no time to go back for help, no time to call her
father. She'd have to follow them. Taking a deep breath, she stepped off
the edge of the platform.
 
 

 Mara shook her head hard. All she could see was an ominous
glow that seemed to shine with a dark, monotonous light.
 What in the name of the Sith is going on? Then there was a
shove and she was lying on the grass in a large field.
 "Nyisha!" she called, remembering that her daughter had
fallen too.
 "Right here, Mom," Nyisha said. She was lying on her back a
meter away. She sat up, working her jaw back and forth. "Nothing's
broken, I don't think. What happened?"
 Mara scrambled to her feet. Her head hurt a little, but not too
terribly. At least she could still walk.
 Nyisha was standing too and looking around curiously.
"Where are we? Are we . . . ?"
 "I think we're at the Great Temple," Mara said carefully. Sure
enough, the Temple loomed before them.
 "Mom!" a voice that was not quite Nyisha's came from behind
her.
 "Lora!" Mara and Nyisha hurried to help a shaky Loreina to
her feet. "You'll be alright, sweety, just take a few deep breaths . . . "
Slowly, Lora stopped shaking.
 "Mom, we should go talk to someone inside," Nyisha said.
 Mara nodded. "Since we're not sure what might have
happened, we'd better be careful," and here she gave both girls rather
severe looks.
 "You mean, we might not be in our time, or our universe
even?" Lora demanded, incredulously.
 "Right," Mara said. "So if anyone asks, you're two new
students I found on Coruscant in the underworld, which is more or less
true . . . from a certain point of view. Got it?"
 Both girls nodded with unusual obedience, and the three of
them headed towards the Temple.
 When they reached it, Mara began to feel uneasy. Something
wasn't right. She pressed her lips together, quickly reaching out to the
people inside. Luke was there, which meant one of two things. It could
have meant that they had somehow been blown into one of those
alternate universes she'd heard about from several holocrons, or they'd
somehow gone back in time.
 The problem, Mara decided, was finding out where she stood
with Luke.
 Both questions were answered as Mara and her daughters
entered. For there, just inside the door stood Callista, with an
intolerably sweet smile plastered on her face.
 
 

 Nyisha looked up as they entered the Temple, blinking hard to
clear her vision, which was blurry from the abrupt change in light. The
nervous tingle in the back of her mind stuck with her, and as she
secured a mental block around her mind and her sister's (as she was
much stronger in this aspect of the Force), she felt that something was
definitely wrong with the woman who stood before her, he mother, and
Loreina.
 Nyisha had been around long enough to have heard of her
father's old flame, Callista, and had gotten two very unsettling opinions
of her: the first that she had hurt Luke and left him on her own volition
to search for her Force powers. That was her father's sad, but resolved
side of the story.
 Her mother's was considerably less pleasant, for Mara saw
Callista's leave as an act of betrayal that had very nearly led Luke to the
Dark Side. And any betrayal against Mara's family was grounds for
execution, Nyisha knew.
 Right now, she could see and feel the fire burning inside Mara,
despite her outwardly calm face and voice. She reached out with the
Force, under protection of her Force shield, and ordered her mother,
*Keep it cool, Mom. Callie is the fastest way to find out where we are.
And we have to be agreeable until we can talk to Daddy. *
 Mara nodded minutely to Nyisha, and sent silent thanks.
Callista hadn't noticed this exchange, and turned to greet them. "Mara,"
she said sweetly, "welcome to the Academy." She offered a hand,
which Mara took reluctantly, though taking care to keep her face and
manor polite and even friendly.
 Tactfully, she said, "Thank you. But I don't have time to chat.
Is Luke around? I've got two new trainees for him to take a look at,
then I've got to run."
 Callista nodded. "Sure. He's up in our rooms. " She put
particular emphasis on our and Nyisha had to hold back a disgusted
snort.
Just as saucy and fake as ever, was the thought (more or less)
that Neesha picked up. Once they were out of Callista's earshot, Nyisha
murmured, "So, we did go back in time. Dad and Callie are together."
 "But something's definitely wrong," Mara told them. "Did you
see the ring on her left-hand fourth finger? On her home planet Chad it
means that she's engaged."
 This sobered the girls considerably when they realized what
she meant. If their father had married Callista, it meant that they would
never exist, because Luke and Mara would likely never get together.
 On the other hand, Mara thought, if they were in an alternate
universe, Mara and Luke may not have been meant to get together in
the first place, and therefore, all that was really necessary was for them
to get back through the time portal (as they had come to refer to it as)
and back to their own time.
 But until they knew for sure what time and place they were at,
they couldn’t risk leaving things as they were.
 They reached Luke (and Callista’s) room and the door swung
open before they rang. Luke stood before them. Mara instantly knew it
was back around the same time as the destruction of the Eye of
Palpatine, for Luke looked considerably younger, no gray hair, only a
slight crease on his forehead, and a beaming smile upon his face. This
was one of the happiest times of his life, Mara knew.
 “Mara!” he greeted her, drawing her and the girls into the
room. “Welcome. What brings you here?”
 Mara felt a sudden sadness deep inside her, at watching her
future husband be with another woman, who wound up hurting him in
the end anyway. She felt Nyisha’s stunned surprise at her father’s
young face, and actions, for she and her brothers and sister were used to
seeing them kiss and embrace warmly in meeting. This friendly, but
seemingly wary, handshake was completely unexpected. Mara felt
suddenly grateful for her daughter’s strong abilities with the shield, for
her own barriers were weakened by pain and longing.
 “I brought you a couple of new trainees,” she said, careful to
hide any emotions from her friend. “Clarissa and Ryanne. Twin sisters
from Coruscant.”
 Nyisha smiled slightly at her sister. Clarissa and Ryanne were
their worst enemies in school, and the names would keep them sober if
needed.
 Luke offered them his hand in greeting, then said cheerfully,
“You are, of course, more than welcome here. I'll need to test your
skills first to show me just what level you're at. Kyp?”
 A tall shadow walked through the doorway, and Nyisha felt
another deep pang. In her time and galaxy, she was Kyp’s Pawadon, for
her father had restored the old ways of the Old Republic Jedi. He was
her friend and older brother in that time, whereas here, they would
barely know each other. Lora and Nathan, being older, were training
under Luke and Mara, but Nyisha and Kyp had bonded almost at first
sight and it was decided that Nyisha would train under him.
 Kyp started to smile at them, then, as his eyes met Nyisha's, he
said slowly, "Do I know you?"
 Nyisha glanced at her mother, who shook her head minutely,
then said slowly, "I don't know. Do you?"
 Kyp gave her another once-over, then smiled. "Sorry, I guess
not." He offered her his hand. "Kyp Durron."
 "Ne - er, uh Clarissa Chad. Nice to meet you." Nyisha had to
hide a wince at almost blowing their already unsteady cover.
 Kyp shook hands with Mara and Loreina, then said
respectfully, "Do you already have rooms ready? I think we have some
guest suites still available."
 "Hang on, Kyp. I called you here because I need you to test
Clarissa and Ryanne here, so I can tell which classes I should put them
in."
 Kyp nodded. "I'm sorry, Master. Come on, girls."
 Mara started just noticeably and said hastily, "I'll go along to,
see what's going on with them."
 A flash of surprise, then suspicion crossed Luke's face at
Mara's interest in these two new students, but he shrugged. "Sure. I
might as well tag along. I haven't talked to you in a while, Mara. Last I
heard you were on Coruscant, working on some trade deal with
Karrade."
 As they headed for the training room, Mara did the best to
make up a true (from a certain point of view) and accurate story, which
would lead up to their arrival, and leave little room for awkward
questions from Luke.
 She finally finished her story and for a minute, Luke just gave
her a sidelong glance. Finally he spoke.
"Sounds like you've been busy. You planning on coming back
to the Academy to finish your training?"
How could I stand watching you and Callie? "Not now,
Skywalker. I've got a business to run," and a family of children back
home for their own training, if I can find a way to get the hell out of
here.
 Luke nodded, then said, as they reached the training room,
"Well enjoy yourself while you're here. Let me know if you need
anything." He smiled mischievously then and added, "And try not to
bite Callista's head off." Mara was debating whether to laugh and
thrash him or run crying from the room and disgrace herself forever,
but decided to go for a simple cold nod.
 
 

 They were there for a week, playing right along with the
whole game, until their first trouble came. Mara was sitting in her
room, trying to gently inform Loreina that she needed to ask more like
a beginner and less like the half-trained daughter of the future Luke and
Mara Skywalker.
 "I'm trying, Mamma," she said plaintively as she sat doing the
daily Jedi mind control exercises that she practiced every night at
home, just to keep herself up-to-date. "But I see all the older students
showing off, mostly the guys, and I get mad."
 Her mother smiled warmly. "Anger will haunt all four of my
precious children all the days of their lives," she sighed, as if talking to
herself.
 Nyisha smiled at her. "I'm getting good at controlling it,
Mom," she stated, proudly. "See, every time I feel it coming, I pretend
that there's a flash of light in my mind that drives back the anger."
 "That's my dear baby sister," Loreina laughed without
bitterness, for her sister had far more self-control than she herself.
 "And I hope you two will learn from each other so that you
conquer the emotion that you've both inherited so badly," Mara began,
when a knock come from the door.
 "Come in!" Lora called, forgetting that they were in their
mother's chambers. Upon Luke's entrance, however, she cued her sister
through the Force, and Nyisha quickly through up the strong thought
shield around the little truth they were all hiding.
 "Mara, can I see you for a minute?" he asked quietly, and at
the worry and suspicion in his eyes, Nyisha began to wonder rather
nervously whether he'd found them out.
Mara shrugged, and at the sight of her mother's ease, Nyisha
relaxed herself. Mom'll handle things, she assured herself silently.
"Of course," Mara said now, standing. "Where to?"
 
 

Luke took her to the roof, where they could be away from the
other Jedi, and Mara followed, trying to ask calm and unconcerned.
They reached the roof without speaking a word and there were several
minutes of silence, leaving Mara more time for her anxiety that
something awful had happened to build. Finally she turned sideways to
face the man who, in her universe had never been engaged to Callista,
and asked with what she hoped wasn't too much compassion, "What's
wrong, Luke?"
He answered slowly with a question of his own. "Didn't you
say you were on Coruscant before you brought Clarissa and Ryan? And
that you crashed in the jungle because of a strange turbulent storm in
the atmosphere?"
"Yes."
"Then why, when I called to talk to Leia, did she say the Fire
was still on Coruscant?"
"I didn't come in the Fire, Skywalker," Mara said simply,
relieved. If that was the only evidence they had of her not being the real
Mara, then she could certainly handle it.
But Luke had different plans. "So you are Mara?"
"Of course."
"Then how could you have just called me from Coruscant to
ask if it was a good time to come?"
         Mara froze, keeping her expression astonished without
showing her sudden fear. She had thought for sure that the real Mara
would have avoided Yavin 4 at all cost while Callista was still there.
 She sighed, deciding to have out with it then and there. "Fine,
you want to know the truth, though I doubt you'll believe it, farmer."
She hesitated. "I'm Mara, really and truly, but not your Mara. That is I
am, but only in the future," and seeing his utterly confused look, she
explained about her and his daughters, the time porthole, and their
reason for lying to him and why they thought something was wrong
because he was going to marry Callista.
 Luke stood in quiet amazement for a minute, then said slowly,
"I'd like to believe you, but may I check, please?"
 Mara knew what he meant, and gently called to her daughter
to lower the Force shield around them, then she let Luke in far enough
to know that she was telling the whole truth.
 Slowly he pulled back, still in astonishment, and said
something completely unexpected to Mara. "What are they like? Our
children."
 Mara smiled, seating herself on the low railing that ran around
the roof. "They're truly amazing. Nyisha and Loreina love to sing,
which is probably their greatest skill so far. Nathaniel and Justin are
both very headstrong, but in contrast, selfless and loving to everyone.
They all have a lot of anger, which is of great concern to Lu - er, the
you I live with. But Nyisha has hers mostly under control. She does
fight with Nathan a lot, too." And Mara stared out into space, smiling
as she thought of her beautiful children. Suddenly she felt a lump in her
throat as she thought of Luke and Nathan, Han and all the rest back
home, searching frantically for them.
 Luke picked up on her thought, and reached out to squeeze her
hand. "Don't worry. We'll get you three home." He stood. "Meanwhile,
the other Mara is coming, so we'd better prepare."
 And hand in hand, they headed down to tell the children.
 
 

 In the deepest part of Yavin 4's largest rain forest, Vader
worked with his men to figure out what had happened to cause the
energy surge in the time portal. And finally, Ensign Terry Bros found
it.
 "Sir, it appears that several people have gone through it," he
informed his superior. "We think it might have been Skywalker and her
daughters."
 Vader would have smiled if he'd been able to. "Where was the
machine last set for?"
 "We set it for here, sir, when we came and hadn't changed it or
reset in when they fell through. So they must be at Skywalker's
temple."
 "Good," Vader said, speaking quietly, ominously. "Better than
I could have foreseen. Ensign, how many troupes could we pull through
at one time?"
 "About three squads, sir."
 "Then bring them from the Emperors' special armada, debrief
them on our mission, and get them ready to attack."
 Yes, sir. May I have permission to tell them where we're
attacking?"
 "The Jedi Temple."
 
 

 It took some doing to hide Mara and the girls from the other
Mara, since the former was quite curious to see herself in this time,
facing Callista.
 The three were hidden in the ysalamiri training room that was
rarely used by any of the students now. But it served well, for it kept
them hidden, but upon any discovery, they could easily sneak out the
back entrance and into the jungle.
 One other thing bothered Mara. If this weren't an alternate
universe, but Luke were engaged to Callista, would Luke and Mara
ever end up together? Would Nyisha, Nathan, Lora and Justin ever be
born?
 As they headed down to the room the next morning, Mara
voiced her concerns to Luke. He sighed and said softly, "Mara, I can't
just break things off with Callie until I have some kind of idea what's
going on. If you're from an alternate universe, than none of your
concerns would have relevance here. If, however, what you went
through was a time machine that someone built, then things might be
different. We just don't know enough yet."
 Mara knew better than to argue, but said slowly, "I'm not sure
if this means anything, but the vortex thing we fell through felt terribly
dark and cold . . . "
 Luke knew what she meant. "Sith?"
 "Maybe. If so, this might be a plot to mess with history and
put something in the way of our eventually getting married and having
the kids."
 "I know. After the other Mara leaves, we'll start a search."
 
 

 The attack happened shortly before other Mara's arrival on
Yavin 4. That Mara felt the danger sense in the back of her mind begin
to build, then explode as the already aware Jedi at the Temple's ground
level met the masses of stormtroopers head-on. The other Mara could
here the shouts above, but being unable to use the Force due to the
ysalamiri, left her daughters in the semi-protection of the ysalamiri
room, with strict orders to "stay put" and rushed up to help, lightsaber
in hand.
 But the girls would never do as their mother told them and
decided to take a less direct approach. As soon as their mother was out
of sight out the door, Loreina turned to her sister. "We have to do
something, Neesh."
 Nyisha nodded and they both sat in silence for a moment.
Then Neesha's eyes brightened. "Hey, we're in a room full of ysalamiri,
right?" Lora nodded, not quite following her sister's train of thought.
"Well, if we leave, Mom'll never know 'cause she won't think to sense
us, 'cause we're in a room full of ysalamiri! Or so she thinks. We'll
sneak upstairs, find some protective weapons and some detonators, and
while everyone outside is fighting, we'll try to find the source of the
troupes and destroy it!"
 Loreina began to smile. "Even better: we'll take a couple of
ysalamiri with us."
 Nyisha frowned. "Why?"
 "Because the portal we fell through felt dark, right? Well,
doesn't that suggest Dark Jedi?"
 "Right, good thinking. Let's go!"
 The girls found a couple of framed ysalamiri, shouldered
them, and headed out into the underground passage. They made it up to
the main floor easily, for no one was inside the Temple. They hurried to
one of the very secret weapon's lockers that their father had always kept
in mess hall for emergencies and pulled out two stun blasters and a bag
of detonators.
They would have gotten away unnoticed if they'd felt the
presence of another Jedi behind them. Being completely blind to the
Force, however, they turned around and almost ran over Kyp, who had
come in to get weapons from the same locker, being one of the few Jedi
aware of it. He looked surprised and disturbed to find the two new
trainees digging into a supposedly hidden locker.
"Clarissa! Ryanne. What are you doing out here, it's
dangerous. How did you know about this place?" His voice held
suspicion and Nyisha's heart ached at the accusing tones in his voice.
Suddenly, she was seized with an idea. Ripping off her ysalamiri and
throwing in several meters away, she reached for his mind, revealing
the entire truth to him.
Kyp gasped. "What . . . how - "
"There. You'd know if I were lying. I will explain everything
when we get back. But please trust us, we have a job to do. Please,
Master?"
Kyp stared down at Mara's daughter, who would one day be
his Pawaden learner, and felt an overwhelming sense of protection.
"All right. But only if I can come with you."
Nyisha smiled and didn't even hesitate. "Of course, Master.
Just stay inside my ysalamiri bubble and I'll explain everything to you
on the way."