InsaneJournal

Who: Lomea and Mara
When: 226410.08 shortly after Mara's arrival
Where: Around the ship
Summary: Lomea sensed a shift in the Force and investigated. An intriguing discussion then followed.
Warnings: None, really



This had been about the last place Mara had expected to end up on today. Things had been explained, and she hadn’t been happy about the medbay staff examining her, but she managed to not shoot or kill anyone in the process. Now that she was freed, Mara had taken her PADD and was looking through it, learning as much as possible about this place and the people around here.

Clearly she wasn’t the only person taken from where they’d been previously and thrown into this situation. Once she’d investigated the PADD a bit, Mara took to walking the halls, her emerald eyes sharp and always moving, taking note not only of people but also of potential escape routes. Typical assassin, but considering she was being hunted by the Empire, she couldn’t be too careful.

Mara’s flame red hair was loose, off-setting her black outfit. She wore black a lot, given her line of work. She had come here with her blaster and her lightsaber. The hilt of her lightsaber was partially visible. Not for the first time she was lamenting the loss of her connection to the Force. She couldn’t sense through it much, and she missed having that advantage in scouting a place out.

There was no Elsa today. Lomea was particularly attuned to that woman and would have known the instant she’d come on board. Yet still, Lomea had sensed a shift in the Force with today’s arrivals. Someone from her world, or one close enough. It differed from some others she’d sensed. There wasn’t the raw power and coldness of Vader, or the conflicted, pale shadow that was Kylo Ren, the dull light of the Solos or the shining beacon that was Leia.

It was something in between, a force of great potential stymied, as though cut off from the very fabric of the universe. The Sith Lord changed her path, allowing the Force to guide her to this new arrival. She was curious, of course, and wasn’t going to miss an opportunity. She’d missed too many in her time aboard this ship. Opportunities with Elsa, with Hawke, with Rey, the first time Rey had been on board. No more.

She was Sith, as the rounded the corner of the hallway, she let her presence in the Force be known like a wave of cold fury. Yet she gave Mara a kind smile. “Well hello.”

Mara had, mostly, learned how to function without her Force connection being what it once had. But she still missed it and felt wrong. She still had her fighting skills, of course, but she couldn’t quite utilize the Force to augment them. It was strange.

So much so that she’d nearly missed that sense in the Force. She couldn’t sense much through it, but she could sense that wave of cold fury come through. It made her stop, trying to focus on it, to draw that connection out and maybe allow her Force connection to be restored. As it was, she didn’t need to focus, she was instead greeted by another woman. Despite the smile she was given, Mara didn’t let her guard down. Her hand twitched towards where the hilt of her lightsaber typically was. Of course it wasn’t there, and without her Force abilities being reliable, she only had her physical body as her weapon. Which was almost a more lethal weapon than a lightsaber anyways.

“Who are you?” It wasn’t quite a demand, but she was ready for a fight. No one would catch her with her guard down.

Lomea loved that question, if only because it let her indulge in a certain, arrogant side of herself. She drew herself up to her full height and while she didn’t have more than an inch over Mara, she was a master at projecting. Sometimes attitude was all that was needed to seem larger than life, “I am Darth Imperius of the Dark Council of the Sith Empire. Force-walker and heir of Kallig. Chain-breaker. Slayer of Zash, successor of Tulak Hord. Conqueror of Corellia and destroyer of the Shadow of Revan. Delver of secrets and master of both Light and Dark.”

And just like that, she seemed reduced to normal again. “Call me Lomea. It is of little use to stand on such ceremony on this ship, but I do like to remind myself now and then where exactly it is I came from.”

It was a little impressive how the woman projected herself there, though Mara’s expression and demeanor did not change. What was surprising was that this woman was from the time of the Sith Empire, which had diminished before Mara’s birth, but Palpatine had attempted to revive it.

“You are Sith.” The multitude of titles was something Mara stored away for future reference, though she did not acknowledge them. “It has been a while since I last was around a Sith.” There was no hate, or really anything of note, in Mara’s response to Lomea.

“Yes, I am.” Lomea threaded her hands into the sleeves of her elaborate robes, glad she’d chosen that today instead of the fancy night gown type dresses she often wore when she was feeling casual. “The only one on board, though there is one other who would style himself a Sith. It is laughable, really. Like a faint shadow through an overcast sky.”

“It sounds as though he needs to learn what it truly is to be a Sith.” In Mara’s experience, Darth Vader hadn’t been worthy of the title, but she’d never liked the man, though he was probably more machine than man by the time he died. Palpatine had quite a command over the Dark Side of the Force. It was his hate that had held the Empire together.

“What does that mean? To be a Sith? The problem with the Sith was an inability to adapt and an insistence on stabbing each other in the back at every opportunity. It is no wonder the Empire fell. Who needs enemies at the gates when you can’t even trust yourselves? But even so, that man wouldn’t last a week on Korriban or Dromund Kaas. Honestly, at times my peers were no better than the Jedi. Just as lost in dogma and tradition, and just as willing to reject half the Force, no matter the power that might be had.”

“Perhaps that was why the Rule of Two was instituted. And in my time, there were very few Jedi left.” Though there was a twinge of hatred that went through Mara as the first Jedi that came to her mind was Luke Skywalker. It was an intense, deep and consuming kind of hatred, one that was not entirely Mara’s. “Though it also takes a certain type of person to harness the power of the Force. Ambition is necessary, but so is skill.” The Force was not a blunt object to bludgeon people with. It was a fine tool, an extension of one’s self. Mara had harnessed it to be just another tool in her assassin’s armory.

“Complacency breeds extinction.” Mara was interesting, and Lomea tilted her head. “Ambition is but one part of the whole. Without skill, talent is useless.”

That hatred was interesting as well, and Lomea gestured. “Walk with me.”

“Precisely.” Mara replied. She eyed Lomea, trying to size her up. Regardless of what she said, Mara was still expecting a stab in the back. Letting her guard down for one moment would be all that it took for someone to kill her. She never gave that kind of opening if she could help it.

She nodded once, then began to walk with Lomea, keeping herself hyper-aware of her surroundings. “My name is Mara Jade.” She finally introduced. And it was her real name, not one of her aliases she used when undercover.

“Mara Jade.” Lomea glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. “Your hair is quite striking. Is it natural?”

It was small talk, and yet it was not. “You’re familiar with the Force, and with both Jedi and Sith. What are you?”

“Yes, it is.” Mara wondered why that question had sort of significance to be asked if it wasn’t small talk. At the question, she glanced at Lomea. “I am neither. I held the role of Emperor’s Hand. I had long wished to kill Darth Vader and become Emperor Palpatine’s apprentice, but that did not come to pass. Emperor Palpatine was my teacher in the ways of the Force.” Though he had been very careful not to teach her any of the powers of the Dark Side. However, that hadn’t meant that she hadn’t learned anything of the Sith or the power of the Dark Side. Considering she’d spent much of her life around two Sith Lords that liked to throw their weight around in the Force, some things had rubbed off.

That told Lomea what era Mara was from, if she was a contemporary of Vader’s. “I know some of Palpatine. What has been told to me by others who’ve come to this ship.” She studied Mara’s reaction as she added, “Vader was on board, briefly. The nebula reclaimed him, though we had a few rather interesting conversations. He was almost an equal. Certainly more interesting than his children or their children, at least.”

Except for Jacen. He’d been interesting. Desperate to understand the duality of the Force before he turned into whatever monster he feared becoming.

Mara’s sense grew sharper at the mention that Vader had been on this ship, though she was more than happy to not have him here. The man had betrayed the Empire, she’d take it upon herself to kill him for that offense again Palpatine and the Empire. Though the mention of his children made another surge of hate course through her. “Yes. Luke Skywalker. He is not on board, is he?” If he was, well, Mara would seek him out and carry out Palpatine’s final order to her.

“Not any longer.” Lomea let the hate wash over her. It was a curious thing, and she was intrigued to say the least. “He was an old man, a hermit, and kept much to himself. Useless.”

“An old man? Curious.” Mara wasn’t completely certain if she was relieved or disappointed that Luke wasn’t here. Probably more disappointed considering she was dedicated to carrying out Palpatine’s final order to her.

“Time no longer has meaning. My era is far before yours, and the pretending Sith is from decades after the fall of your Empire.” Lomea paused in front of a turbolift, turning towards Mara, “It seems that such Empires rarely last. It matters not if there are two Sith, or two thousand. It would seem to me there is a fatal flaw in our culture. What do you think?”

“I cannot comment too much on that. I was not taught in-depth about the Sith and their history. What I do know is that betrayal seems to be the name of the game. I always knew that Vader would eventually betray our master. Clearly there needs to be more than hatred of the Jedi and an adherence to the Dark Side in order to survive.” Not that there was a Jedi Order in Mara’s time, but Luke had fashioned himself into one during the Rebellion. Did that signal the potential rise of the Jedi once more, now that the Sith were broken? Or at least the Empire was broken. Mara didn’t know if there were any secret Sith out there or not.

“Another failing,” Lomea mused. She stepped into the turbolift and waited. “If the Empire was to survive, we should have stood together against the Republic, and the other foes that were at our doorstep. Do you wish to know how I amassed a fleet, and how I came to sit upon the Dark Council? Oh, there was deceit, and murder and mayham. A little lightning goes a long way. But I spared more than I killed and they owed me oh so many favours. I amassed loyal followers because I fought alongside them rather than sent them to their deaths. I made them love me. I was so close to the throne, I could have tasted it.”

“The Emperor was a fool.” She pressed a console. “Arboretum.”

Mara listened, and she could see the wisdom Lomea’s approach. But Mara was not a leader like that, she was an assassin, a master of espionage. As such, she preferred to work from the inside out. Or the outside in, depending on what her mission called for. She could understand Palpatine’s rise to power, how he had to be subversive until he could make the final strike against the Republic and bring it crashing down. She stepped into the turbolift, taking in the console, learning what it was.

“Many who lead are fools. Though my master held the Empire together. Of course, it splintered after his death, as everything tends to do when the head is cut off and a power vacuum is left in its wake.” Even being a couple years removed from Palpatine’s death, Mara was still intensely loyal to him. That was largely because she was, at her core, an intensely loyal person. And that fact only made her even more effective as Emperor’s Hand.

Lomea was used to assassins. Her dearest ally had been one, a member of the Imperial Intelligence and eventually one of the highest ranking members. But they’d gotten too close, and the Chiss once known as Cipher Nine had been targeted in a bid to get to Lomea.

That particular Sith had not been among those on Lomea’s ‘to spare’ list.

“For decades, the Emperor left us on our own. The Dark Council ruled. We discovered that he had been enacting a plan to eradicate all life in the galaxy. He wanted to be immortal.”

Yet what was the point of immortality, if there was no one to rule. “I can still remember what it felt like, to set foot on the planet Ziost. It was like a void in the Force.”

It was certainly a part of history that Mara didn’t know much about. It was interesting, though, especially when the Empire as Mara had known it had eventually come out of the Empire that Lomea had known.

“Immortality in a galaxy with no population. What is the point of that?” Mara asked, as though she’d read Lomea’s mind. She hadn’t, but it just seemed like the common sense thing to ask about. Though she was a little troubled by how Lomea described that planet. “What had he done to Ziost to make it feel like that?” It had to be more than simply killing everyone that had lived on the planet.

Or so Mara would like to believe. For an assassin, she had a staunch belief in the greater good, even refused to kill some targets she’d been ordered to. She did not like senseless death.

“I never said he was sane.” The turbolift came to a stop, the doors swishing open. Lomea strode out. “It was his second successful attempt. All life on the planet was extinguished. Even from orbit, you could feel the Force dying. Power is one thing. This was madness.”

“That was definitely insane. That much death is horrendous and should not be allowed to go unpunished.” Mara said, her words carrying weight behind them. Weight that spoke to the fact she would avenge such a wrong if she had the chance. Perhaps it sounded odd coming from an assassin, but not even Palpatine could corrupt Mara in that way. She followed Lomea out of the turbolift. “Death on that scale is not right. Even when Alderaan was destroyed, I did not think that right. Even to make a point and attempt to cripple the Rebel Alliance, it was not worth billions of lives.”

“We defeated the Emperor, and others who stood in our way. With the Republic’s help.” Lomea sneered, but she’d accepted the idea that they wouldn’t have been able to stand on their own. “Even the Jedi set aside their arrogance in the face of this threat.”

“Jedi working with you? That seems quite unheard of. It does speak to their pragmatism, I suppose.” Not that Mara knew many Jedi in her time. Vader had been a former Jedi. Luke was one. Then there were a few that Mara had tracked down and killed. “There was a greater good that needed to be defended, and they recognized that.”

“Oh, they worked with objections.” Lomea laughed, the sound almost warm. “That doesn’t count one of my apprentices. A former Jedi who found freedom in the Force. I taught her that light cannot exist without the darkness. Just as the darkness cannot exist without the light. Have you heard heard of Revan?”

Lomea led Mara into a room filled with plants and trees from a variety of worlds. “Her” tree was a weeping willow, and she stopped near it. “I come here to meditate, sometimes. What is amusing, is I was never all that nature oriented to begin with. But I find it centering, when we are so far away from our galaxy that it’s light has not reached us yet.”

“Yes, I have heard of Revan. He began as a Jedi, then became a Sith and ultimately concluded that one needs both sides of the Force to achieve balance, correct? I could be a little rusty there. I know more about Darth Bane.” Which was no surprise considering Palpatine came from the Rule of Two era that Bane had instituted. She wasn’t certain if Lomea knew who Darth Bane was or not.

Mara looked at the willow, then glanced at the other plants and trees in the area. “I can understand that appeal. I am not nature-oriented either. I preferred staying on my ship if I wasn’t on a mission.”

“You are basically correct.” Lomea took a seat beneath her tree. “He went seeking the darkness that had first corrupted him. He found our emperor, and for three centuries he was used as a … force battery. But he also found out the Emperor’s plan, but the process damaged him. Split him between light and dark. His dark side attempted to once again conquer the galaxy, though his motive was to stop the Emperor.”

Lomea saw no reason to keep any of this to herself. Mara seemed interested, and if she drew her in, well that was exactly what she wanted. “I defeated his shadow, and Revan was released into the Force at last.”

Mara crossed her arms as she listened. “It is possible for someone to be split between both sides like that?” Mara hadn’t known of any instance like that, aside from what tales of Revan she had heard of. It certainly didn’t sound like a pleasant experience, at the very least.

“At least you put Revan to rest. No doubt he must have been in agony being in such a state as that.” Mara could sympathize only in the fact her own connection to the Force was nearly severed.

“So it would seem. In my own explorations of the Force, I’ve discovered that leaning too far either way is not the solution. The Jedi are wrong to repress their emotions, but the Sith insistence on giving into passion without question is just as wrong.” Yes, the Dark Side was seductive. It drew and it preyed and it lured with whispers of power unending. But it was a tool, like a lightsaber, something to be used.

“So would you say that you are both Light and Dark? Or do you prefer simply being in the middle utilizing both sides of the Force?” It was never something Mara had thought about. Mostly because she’d basically been raised by Palpatine, and there was no Jedi Order any longer. Mara was curious, but she wasn’t certain she could practice anything regarding the Force. It would possibly be a waste of time to try and learn anything other than trying to hone her fighting skills without the use of the Force.

“Is that not the same thing?” Lomea tilted her head, her expression neutral. “One cannot touch the Dark Side without it becoming a part of you, just as one cannot allow the Light in without it also becoming a part of you. If I am wrong, then one day one or the other will consume me. Knowledge is power. To deny oneself the knowledge of half the Force is to make oneself weak. I shed my weakness long ago.”

“Perhaps, but there is a difference between simply being neutral in the middle, utilizing both sides, and being both.” Perhaps it was apples to oranges, but Mara had never been trained in the ways of either side of the Force. Perhaps she had heard the call of the Dark Side in how she’d once wanted to kill Vader and take his place as Palpatine’s Sith apprentice. But now, she was neither Dark nor Light, and she didn’t feel a call to either side.

Though that probably had to do with her Force connection, or lack thereof, more than anything else.

“Perhaps being neutral is another word for lacking conviction. You know much of the Force, for one who seems to be lacking in it.”

“I had a very strong connection to the Force. But ever since my master’s death, my connection has nearly been severed.” If Lomea knew of Force Bonds, that might be a clue to the connection Mara had had to Palpatine. “For the past two years or so, it has been like this, and sometimes comes back in ill-timed bursts.”

“I see.” Lomea lifted her head, gesturing for Mara to sit as well. That was a downside to that kind of bond. Lomea would refuse to bind herself to anyone like that. But bind someone to her? It was a consideration.

Finally, Mara moved to sit down. “I would like my connection to the Force back, but I do not know how to regain it. Having lacked a master, I had no one to teach me how to regain it. Also I was too busy running from Imperial agents who wished me either dead or to drag me back to the remnants of the Empire.”



“You are in luck,” Lomea replied. “This accursed nebula has taken both of my students. A rather talented mage named Hawke, and an ice witch.”

Though both had been more than apprentices. Friends, perhaps more in Elsa’s case. Enough that she’d always be plagued with questions. And Elsa had been effectively most of her impulse control.

“If you wish, we could attempt to reawaken the Force within you.”

“I do wish that. I want my connection back.” Mara felt wrong without it, but she hadn’t been able to do anything about it until now. Perhaps Lomea would be able to reawaken it, and even teach her things that Palpatine had never taught her. Maybe Mara could become more than she’d ever anticipated being.

“Well then,” Lomea replied. “I’ve been told, that sometimes the only thing to do is try. And if we try, then we will succeed. That can simply be no other outcome.”

“No, I refuse to suffer any other outcome. I want my Force abilities back in a way that I am able to control and use them.” Mara was tired of the random bursts of Force abilities. She wanted her connection back so that she could use it whenever she wished to. And she also wished to become stronger with the use of the Force than Palpatine had ever let her be.

“Meet me here tomorrow. I shall show you the room we use for training. It has reinforced shielding, it should suffice.”And maybe, Lomea could work out her own issues at the same time. It would be productive for both of them.