InsaneJournal

Mara was typically a woman with a singular focus, but today she had a laser focus. Ever since bringing up Luke with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mara’s anger was through the roof. But the anger wasn’t actually her own, it stemmed from Palpatine when he’d poured that hate into her with his final command before he died.

She went to meet Lomea at their usual place for training. No doubt Lomea would’ve been able to sense that anger from the other side of the Galaxy. Mara felt like she wanted to burn something or someone.

Though she actually wanted to just kill Luke Skywalker. Maybe that would fix it all and let her be rid of the excess anger. She didn’t like being that angry, it made her a little fidgety.

“Greetings, master,” she spoke and bowed her head in respect once she entered the training area.

The anger was palpable, but it was something they could use. Undirected anger was dangerous, but directed anger? That could be used. She waited in the training room, her hands clasped inside her robe and nodded her head at Mara. “Good morning. I trust you slept well?”

“I did, yes. And yourself?” Mara was ready for today’s training, even if she wasn’t certain what it would consist of. If she could distract herself from the anger that was burning inside of her, she’d consider it a win.

“As well as I always do,” Lomea said. “You’re angry. I want you to grasp hold of that anger, and I want you to use it. Now come at me, Mara.”

At the instruction, she took hold of her anger as much as possible, and attempted to channel it as she charged at Lomea. She clenched a fist and threw a punch when she got close enough.

It wasn’t enough. Lomea simply waved her hand to guide Mara’s punch to the side, then shoved her other hand towards Mara’s stomach, unleashing what was probably a half-assed Push. Toying with Mara, like she was nothing, hardly worthy of her attention or concentration. Lightning crackled around her fist, “You’re weak.”

This was exactly why Mara disliked not having her connection to the Force. She could use it to augment her attacks and put her on slightly more even ground with Lomea. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Lomea. The anger was burning hotter, and Mara could almost touch it. “I am not weak!” She charged again, getting closer to being able to tap into the Force, but still not there yet.

“The one thing that the Empire and the Republic have in common, is that the weak perish,” Lomea declared. She felt a tug in the Force, as though something were straining to be free.

“Interesting.”

Streams of purple-ish blue light streaked from her fingers, the lighting crossing the distance between them in an instant.

Mara was not weak, and she was going to prove it. Except as the lightning shot at her, she didn’t have time to dodge. Or really react except for the fact that she grabbed hold of that anger within her and lashed out with it. A Protection Bubble came up around her, absorbing the lightning that Lomea threw at her. However, Mara couldn’t control the bubble as well as she’d like. She was actually a bit surprised that she’d generated that.

“I am not weak!” She cried, lashing out with that anger again. The bubble disappeared and Mara threw her own blast of lightning at Lomea. The Force had suddenly been pulled hard in Mara’s direction.

The lightning crackled around a shield Lomea threw up, bolts shooting out in every direction. The installed force fields in the training room rippled as they absorbed the energy. She reached out with her hands, the air around Mara starting to grow thin as she used the Force to pull it away from her. “What use is power if you cannot control it, Apprentice?”

As the air around her grew thin, Mara started to cough, unable to take a deep breath. She would suffocate if she didn’t do something. Her grip on the Force was slipping, but she was trying to hold onto it. And she wasn’t going to die like this. She reached out with her hand, then used the Force to grab ahold of Lomea and she used a Force Pull to pull her across the room, intending to fling her into a wall.

It was so sudden that Lomea didn’t have a defense prepared. She skidded across the room, catching herself before she was slammed into the wall. But it broke her attack on Mara. Good. This was very good. “Perhaps, now we can proceed.”

The air in the room grew noticeably colder. Even with Marian she’d never drawn upon her full power. Only a few times in her life had she drawn that much. Against another Darth, against Revan, and to free the Sith Lords she’d bound to her soul. Luckily, she didn’t actually want to kill her apprentice.

Lightning crackled in the air, and darkness rolled around Lomea like a fog. She wasn’t Emperor Vitiate, no, nor Palpatine, and a considerable amount of her energy was focused on keeping their little Force battle from being too easily noticed by the other sensitives on board. But she was still Power Incarnate, at least in her own humble opinion.

Balancing on the edge between light and dark, she took a step into the latter, and raised her hands. “You may try to make me move again. But you cannot stand still for long.”

As if to emphasize her point, lightning struck the ground near Mara’s feet.

Mara drew in a couple deep breaths once Lomea’s attack there was broken. She managed to get her breathing back under control before her master’s next attack. This was one that was unexpected. But when lightning struck near her feet, Mara leapt backwards. She needed to keep on the move, which she did.

However, she couldn’t keep her hold of the Force, and the door slammed shut, cutting her off from it again. But Mara didn’t need the Force to stay alive. She was agile, and she just needed to anticipate where the lightning would strike.

Whatever was blocking her use of the Force was incredibly stubborn and was clearly not going anywhere.

“Now that is interesting. Something is preventing you from accessing the Force. Where is your anger? It came with your anger. Perhaps other emotions? No… it’s the anger.” The storm of lightning continued to follow Mara, occasionally blasting the ground in front of her.

“You are not angry with me. You are angry at something else.”

Mara tumbled and flipped her way around the room to keep being struck by the lightning. Of course, she’d quickly change direction whenever the lightning struck in front of her. She heard Lomea wondering about what was causing her to be cut off from the Force.

“Luke Skywalker. He is what my anger is directed at.” Which was a problem when Luke wasn’t here so Mara couldn’t exactly do much about it. She quickly did a backflip to avoid another lightning strike and she paused momentarily. “My conversation with Obi-Wan brought it back to the forefront of my mind.” She then quickly went back to avoiding the lightning. But at least there was a reason why her anger was suddenly paramount when it had been dormant for much of the time she’d been on the Enterprise.

“What did Skywalker ever do to you?” Lomea asked. The lightning slowed, her curiosity about this more important than playing zap a mole with Mara. When Mara mentioned the name, there was a pulse in the Force. Lomea thought this might be a key.

When the lightning slowed, Mara slowed as well, but she kept moving. It was at least easier to talk now that the lightning slowed. “Nothing. I’ve never even formally met him. Seen him from a distance, yes, but nothing more than that. Palpatine communicated with me right before he died. He ordered me to kill Luke Skywalker, then I felt his death agony radiate through me. It rendered me unconscious as he screamed at me through our telepathic bond.”

That would explain it. Lomea dropped her hands as the lightning subsided. “That is why you’ve lost your connection to the Force. Your master died while speaking to you through it. Such a severing of the connection can have many consequences.”

She looked up, “Computer. Is the holodeck free?”

“Yes.”

“Reserve it for me, immediately.”

Lomea gestured for Mara to follow her. “Come. We’re going to kill Luke Skywalker.”

When the storm subsided, Mara stopped dodging the lightning. She had enough time to take a few deep breaths before Lomea told her to follow. “So my connection can be restored by killing Luke Skywalker?” Mara wasn’t certain if a hologram was enough, but it was all they had when Luke wasn’t actually here. Though there’d be one hell of a problem if he was here because Mara would be compelled to kill him. Which wasn’t something she could help, but she doubted the crew of the Enterprise would see it that way.

“An educated guess. If nothing else, it’s worth pursuing.” Lomea was always curious. She always wanted to learn something new, especially if she could become more powerful in the process. “I’ve seen similar. Echoes in the Force.”

“I hope it works. I would like control back.” Mara didn’t always use the Force, but she would like being able to have the ability to control it. She wanted it back, and she wanted to be able to learn more about the Force.

As promised, the holodeck was empty. Lomea started programming something, using the pattern from the Luke Skywalker who’d been on board before, and then reversing his age roughly thirty years.

“That should do it.”

She led Mara inside, walking into a temple on Yavin IV, one she’d spent some time in herself. “He should be around here somewhere.”

After all, why make it easy.

Mara waited for Lomea to finish programming, and then she glanced around when the program began. She was more than ready to try this. “Am I allowed to use my lightsaber against this program?” It was a question directly to her master, wondering if she’d allow her to use her lightsaber or if she’d have to get creative. She could do creative, she was an assassin, but if Luke was armed with both a lightsaber and the Force, she’d need every advantage she could get.

She headed into the temple, keeping her eyes and ears open. Mara even started walking ahead of Lomea as she started to try and track her mark. She suddenly stopped and glanced to her left. There was something here, she could almost feel it.

“I’ve programmed him with one of my own combat programs,” Lomea explained, before requesting a holo-saber for Mara. She’d never wanted to test how a real lightsaber would handle the holograms, mostly because she didn’t want to get on the Captain’s bad side.

“Good luck, apprentice.”

Mara took the holo-saber, but she didn’t activate it yet. She glanced at Lomea and gave a nod. Mara then began moving down the way she’d been looking, moving silently and carefully. She was not going to lose. She kept her eyes and ears open, though moreso her ears. Not everything seen with the eyes could be trusted to be true. She was trying to reach out and utilize the Force, but she couldn’t. Mara paused again, this time activating the holo-saber. She didn’t glance at the blade, but assumed that it at least was not blue.

Even though it was a hologram, it still displaced air, and it still made sound when it moved. Lomea had discovered that while it exhibited no Force, she could still feel it by using the Force to enhance her other senses.

And it was sneaking up behind Mara, the hum of a lightsaber igniting as it struck.

The hair on the back of Mara’s neck stood up, indicating someone was there before she even heard the hum of a lightsaber. Spinning, Mara raised her own weapon and caught the attack. And she came face-to-face with Luke. Her eyes narrowed and that anger started to return.

There was a tense moment before the fight began. It was a lightsaber duel that could be one for the ages. Mara met him stroke for stroke, the hum and hiss of the holo-sabers filling the area. Mara wasn’t going to be defeated by a hologram.

Lomea’s voice echoed through the temple. “Peace, is a lie. There is only passion.”

Her voice seemed timed to each blow, as she continued, “Through passion, you gain strength. Through strength, power.”

Luke flipped out of the way of one of Mara’s strikes, thrusting his hand out. The holodeck did a fair imitation of a Force Push, before Luke ran forward again and closed the gap.

“Through power,” Lomea continued, her voice bouncing among the stone, “you gain victory.”

She settled into a throne overlooking the chamber where Luke and Mara fought, leaning back and crossing her legs. “These are but means to an end.”

Clenching her hand into a fist, Lomea’s voice rang out across the chamber. “Through victory, your chains are broken! The Force shall set you free! That is the goal! Freedom! Freedom to pursue your dreams and your desires. Freedom from control, freedom to control!”

“Passion!” The lightsabers briefly locked.

“Strength!” The hiss and hum of another strike.

“Power!” Sparks bounced on the temple floor.

“Victory!” The entire chamber rumbled as Lomea stood, her voice booming.

“Freedom! Free yourself from your old master, from this false emperor. Free yourself to join me, to learn the true nature of the Force. Darkness and light are but two sides of the same coin! Strike down Skywalker and choose your own destiny!”

It was intense, and Mara listened to Lomea while she clashed with Luke. The imitation of a Force Push was enough to put her a little off-balance, but she recovered quick enough to stop Luke’s attack. Each word Lomea said drove Mara that much harder. The anger was boiling, and she could almost hear Palpatine’s voice echoing in her head to kill Luke Skywalker.

Mara ducked a lunge from Luke, and she tumbled to the side. She came up swinging, taking off Luke’s right hand and causing his lightsaber to fall harmlessly to the floor. Mara then wasted no time in thrusting her lightsaber through his chest, piercing his heart.

Time seemed to stop in that moment as Mara gazed into Luke’s eyes. As she stepped back and pulled the lightsaber out of him, she watched as he fell lifeless to the ground. The anger melted away, disappearing completely, and for the first time in years, Mara felt like she could breathe again.

Deactivating her lightsaber, Mara strode over to where Lomea sat upon her throne, and she knelt down before her. “I pledge myself to you, my master,” she vowed.

And a door was opened, one that would allow the Force to once more flow through Mara.

A shiver ran through Lomea at the killing blow. For all that she professed to prefer to spare those that might be useful, sometimes, someone needed to die. And she was Sith. She enjoyed it.

Lomea also enjoyed talking, and these lessons were ones she’d once tried to instill in one Marian Hawke.

She touched her forefinger and thumb to Mara’s chin and tipped her head up. “There are tenants the Sith do not teach. Ones the Jedi fear. These battles force change. They force you to grow and to adapt, to evolve, or to die. Yet some battles do not need to be fought at all. Close your eyes. Breath deep of the Force. Let it come to you, and when it is yours, seize. And like any tool, it is yours to shape.”

Mara looked up at Lomea when she tipped her head up. She listened, feeling invigorated at what her master was saying. “I am ready to learn what you have to teach me.” And now, Mara could properly learn and utilize the Force. Before, she couldn’t do anything that required the Force to accomplish. But now? Anything seemed possible.

In time, perhaps, Mara might earn herself a title. Lomea thought she might be worth a Lord Jade after enough training. But a Darth? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Anything was possible.