DISCLAIMER: Star Wars and all publicly recognisable characters, names and references, etc are the sole property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd, Lucasarts Inc, 20th Century Fox, Timothy Zahn, Barbara Hambly, YKW and the other writers of the expanded Star Wars Universe. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
Mara had been restless all night, since Vaiya had gone to bed. She tossed and turned next to Luke, who was dozing, happy and satisfied. She wished she could be like him sometimes, but when something was wrong with Vaiya, it was she who suffered the most out of the two.
Finally, she got out of bed. It was too early to sleep, anyway. And the night was so pretty outside. She managed to make it all the way to the patio when Vaiya began to scream bloody murder.
She turned and ran, nearly tripping over the lounge table and then expertly hurdling herself over the couch to land on her feet. She nearly knocked Vaiya's door off its hinges in her hurry to get inside. There was no one in the room with her--just Vaiya thrashing on her bed like a wild cat, fighting off some invisible terror.
Luke was behind her in a few seconds, and they grabbed her by the arms to hold her down. Her eyes were tightly screwed shut as she thrashed, but the second they had her and forced her still, they opened to reveal a glazed over look. She was still asleep, but for a moment the screams had stopped.
"Is she dreaming?" Luke asked, his voice shaking.
Mara, also trembling, shook her head. "She's having some terrible vision," she said, her voice hardly a whisper. "We have to get her out of it."
Luke started to shake Vaiya by the shoulders, and yelled at her to wake up. When that didn't work, Mara tried slapping her cheeks. But the blue-green eyes wouldn't focus, and Vaiya's body remained limp under their grasp.
"What should we do?" Mara asked.
Luke studied his daughter for a moment. "Let me try something." He put his hands on either side of Vaiya's face, and stared down into her. Mara could feel him pushing into Vaiya's mind, sinking into her vision, unable to see it but disruptive enough to stop it. A minute passed, and Mara was tempted to push Luke aside and try it herself, no matter how terrified she was of seeing what Vaiya was seeing. Just as she moved her hand to get Luke's attention, Vaiya's eyes cleared and she blinked.
Then she screamed again.
Luke jumped, jarred from his concentration and lost his grip on Vaiya. It didn't matter. Vaiya recoiled from him and flew into her mother's embrace, huddling against her like a frightened dog in a thunderstorm.
Mara held her and stroked her hair, waiting a few minutes to let the girl settle down. She sent soothing messages through the Force as Luke watched, astonished that his daughter should scream at seeing him.
Finally, Vaiya just sat there, curled in the fetal position, silent and wide-eyed. She was awake, but she was still terrified.
"Do you want to tell us what happened?" Luke tried gently.
Vaiya flinched. Mara shook her head slightly. "We won't be mad, sweetheart. You can tell us."
"I can't."
"Why not? Nothing could be that bad."
"This was." She drew a ragged breath.
"Why don't you let us decide on that?"
Vaiya lifted her head, her eyes grazing over her mother's face, and then turning--hesitantly--to her father. She shuddered and closed them.
"I had a vision," she began. "I saw you kill my mother."
"You," Luke echoed, frowning. "Who is you?"
"You, Father," Vaiya said, looking at him again with real pain on her face. "I saw you kill Mother."
Luke wanted to speak, but found that his throat had completely closed.
"The worst of it was," Vaiya said a little while later as she sat on her bed, a cup of hot chocolate in her hand, "the ending. I mean, seeing you two like that was bad enough. But after....it happened, someone else came into the room."
"Who was it?" Mara asked quietly.
"He looked like Jaid, but he was much older. And he had a lightsaber that was bright orange. He threw it at you, Father, and it went right through your heart. But I...I didn't care. I thought you deserved it."
Gently, Luke stroked her hair. She didn't flinch this time, but her eyes shut with pain. "And then he came over to me, and he said something that I can't remember now. But I remember how I felt. I was so angry, so filled with rage. I could almost see the dark side, like a giant black cloud, waiting to consume me."
Mara shook her head. "You're going to be feeling all sorts of things from that vision, Vai. Nightmares are bad enough in the emotions they create, but visions are worse." To herself, she wondered how badly the experience was going to scar her. She could see the tired lines around Vaiya's face deepening.
From the look on Luke's face, he was thinking the same thing. "How do you feel now, Vai?" he asked.
Vaiya turned to her father. "I love you, Daddy," she said in a small voice. "But that vision was so real. I wish I could understand it. Maybe I wouldn't be so afraid of it."
Luke and Mara exchanged looks. They were mingled with shame and guilt, but determined. "We can explain the vision--at least, the biggest part of it."
Vaiya looked at them, no eagerness on her face to hear it like usual, but an openness that merely asked that they do what they said. Mara looked at Luke. "I'll let you begin."
They told her everything.
Luke told her about Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, and how he himself had fallen to the lure of the dark side in an attempt to learn its secrets, and how that had corrupted him for a long time, until he finally returned to who he had been when he and Mara had found each other.
Mara told her about the Emperor taking her from her parents, about never knowing her homeworld or her family. She told her how she had served the Emperor and trained in the dark side, believeing herself to be free and powerful, and then being commanded to kill Luke when the Emperor was destroyed by Vader. She told her how she had wanted to kill Luke, how she had slain a clone of him instead to abate the rage.
When Luke spoke, Vaiya listened with a silent, stunned awe. It was clear that she never would have imagined that her father, whose simple, honest and peaceful ways had always inspired her although she would never admit it, was just as human and flawed as the rest of the galaxy.
But when Mara spoke, a line appeared on Vaiya's forehead. She was not just listening to Mara's story. She was remembering it with her. It disturbed her greatly, until Mara and Luke began to tell her of Callista, and of the child Callista had born in captivity, the child was that was missing and the reason that her mother had been gone for so long once when Vaiya was still a baby. Mara told Vaiya of Callista's death, and how Vaiya, when she was still in the womb, had moved a boulder at her mother's direction--and desperation.
Vaiya looked over at the lightsaber. She knew of Callista-- but not this version that she was hearing now. She had been told that Callista was a dear friend of her parents, and that she had died before Vaiya was born. According to them, Callista had given it to Luke and Mara on her deathbed, entrusting them to give it a proper owner. Vaiya had always felt pride, but the thought that she had been given the saber by default made her stomach sour.
"You lied to me," Vaiya whispered.
"That isn't true," Luke said strongly. "We told you the truth as you had a right to know it."
*Are you going to give her your 'certain point of view' speech?* Mara asked through the Force, and Luke's eyes went to hers suddenly, surprised by her interjection.
*It's true,* he said, scowling.
Mara shook her head. *Let me.* "Vaiya," she said soothingly, "we should have told you sooner. I know that. But we were afraid of what knowledge like this would do to you, so early in your Jedi training."
Vaiya scowled at her. She looked so much like Mara had used to look that it frightened her parents. "And what would the truth have done, Mother?" she spat. "Perhaps if I'd known the truth then I wouldn't have.....do you have any idea what that vision has done to me? Knowing so much rage and not understanding it. Perhaps if I had known the truth behind it, the vision wouldn't have been so warped, or the emotions so terrifyingly vivid. If you had told me, Mother, about what you had done to me, that these memories were not mine, maybe I could have kept them from hurting me. I can almost feel it scaring me now."
Then Luke said the worst thing he could have. "Vaiya...don't you think you're being a little...overdramatic?"
Her eyes locked onto his for a long moment, and then narrowed. Luke felt a sudden chill. It reminded him too much of the way Mara looked at him all those years ago--pure hatred, pure contempt. And Vaiya was his daughter!
"Get out," she whispered.
Mara reeled as if Vaiya had just slapped her, and Vaiya hadn't even been looking at her. She stood up and motioned to Luke. *Give her a little time,* she said.
Luke swallowed and nodded. Every Jedi had to face their great trial of overcoming themselves. Perhaps this was Vaiya's trial.
She just seemed too young to be this strong.
Out in the hallway, Mara let Luke have it.
"That was a great show of compassion you had for the child of your loins, Skywalker," she snarled at him.
Luke threw his arms wide. "What did you expect from me, Mara? I mean, she's getting all carried away about this. We couldn't sit there and humor her all night!"
"Humor her?" The look on Mara's face was nearly crestfallen. "Is that what you were doing?"
"Well...no...but---"
"Luke," Mara began, "we should have told her sooner."
Luke sighed. "I know. But whatever happened to learn and move on when it came to mistakes?"
Mara wrapped her arms around herself. "You and I can do that. We've lived full lives already, seen our share of the good and bad in the galaxy. Vaiya is...so innocent. Sometimes she's so much like you I'm glad she's got my memories lurking in her head to remind her to be tough."
"Tough?" Luke arched his eyebrow. "I'm not tough?"
"Not like me. Come on, you and I both know why we were destined to be together."
"Oh?" The other eyebrow went up. "Enlighten me."
"Someone had to save you from yourself," Mara explained. "I mean, you walk around with your big blue eyes open wide, and you're so damn trusting I could just throttle you sometimes. You believed we lived in a world capable of being perfect, that everyone could be saved, even Cy'Both! And as for me---! Skywalker, you couldn't conceive that I was going to kill you. Honestly, could you imagine it? Did you really believe that your life was in danger from me?"
Luke folded his arms. He looked like a child who had just been scolded by his favorite grandmother. "No."
"Well, you were," Mara continued. "I nearly killed you three times on Myrkyr. You know what stopped me in the end? Loyalty to Karrde. He wanted you kept alive. I was so tempted to let that Vonskyr have his way, you wouldn't believe it. The last time I had the urge was when you were training me on Wayland. But you were teaching me things I wanted to learn. And when I killed that clone, I let myself believe that it was really you until he was dead."
He just stared at her in silence. "You think I don't know this?" he whispered.
"Sure you know it," Mara said, a bit louder. "But do you acknowledge it? Understand it? Process it in that happy little place you go to when you're meditating? Life isn't all stars and flowers, Skywalker. And Vaiya has just gotten one of the ugliest doses around from the two people she trusted the most to protect her! How do you think that's making her feel right now?"
Luke stared at Vaiya's closed door. "What should we do?" he asked.
Mara followed his gaze, and Luke could sense her conflicting emotions. "Right now, she's just plain mad. She won't listen to either of us. I say we give her time to cool down. Maybe in the morning she'll be calmer."
"You sure?" Luke asked, looking at Mara carefully.
Mara sighed. "No. But I know we'll do more harm than good if we bother her any more. We need to watch her, though. Make sure that she doesn't cop a bad attitude about all this and start using it as an excuse for some good old fashioned teenaged angst."
"You mean the kind that makes kids light Ewoks on fire?" Luke said, attempting some humor.
Mara smiled a cat-like grin of pure evil. "Maybe we should have some Ewoks around...for entertainment."
"You wicked Jedi." He was grinning at her. "Oh, and just for the record," he added, "I do not trust everyone. I certainly didn't trust Cal Saphringer, and I still don't know if I trust that Jaid."
Something happened to Mara at that moment. She looked like someone had just pulled a bag off of her head after months of being covered. Her eyes widened and her muscles tensed. A few seconds passed, and then she said quietly, "Why didn't I think of it?"
"Of what?"
"Jaid. Vaiya said she'd seen Cal in the vision. She said he looked just like Jaid, but older. And Jaid has been very close to her since he arrived."
"So what are you saying?" Luke asked. "That Cal set up his son to come here and play some mindgames with us?"
"Is it so far-fetched, even for you to conceive?" Mara asked dryly.
"No, but if Jaid was tryly dishonest, we would have sensed it. I mean, all of these Force sensitives in one place often make emotions hard to keep private. Someone would have been able to see through him--at least you or me."
"Unless...Cal's gotten farther in the dark side since we last saw him." She rubbed her chin. "Hmmm...all right. Don't wait up for me, Luke," she said, giving him a quick kiss.
"Excuse me?" he said, catching her arm. "Where are you going?"
"To his ship. If there's anything around here that's incriminating, it will be on his ship."
"And how do you plan to get in without him knowing."
Mara gave him a look. "I was the Emperor's Hand, Skywalker," she said. "I used to do this for a living."