InsaneJournal

Life on a ship didn’t require much adjustment, Mara had been used to traveling and living in ships. However, it was the never getting off the ship and not having anything productive to do that was getting to her. At least she had Lomea to train with, and Bobbi to spar with. They certainly provided some action for her, but even with that she was still restless.

Mara didn’t take well to staying in one spot for very long. She was on the observation deck, standing and looking out the window, arms crossed over her chest. She sighed, trying to still her mind as she gazed out at it.

“Even if you look hard enough, you may not always see what you wish to.” Diana had noticed the newcomer earlier, and the restlessness had gotten to her. It made her feet itch and gave her the need to get up and move around. She might have to go to the gym later. But for now, she walked up alongside Mara and smiled at her.

Mara came back to herself when she heard someone speaking to her and coming up beside her. She looked up at the woman, taking her in for a few moments. “I’m not looking for anything specific. I was trying to still my mind a little. A skill that I am lacking in at times.” If Mara was unnerved at all by the woman’s height, it didn’t show. She was used to most everyone being taller than her by a large margin.

“It seems like you’re not succeeding today,” Diana observed, clasping her hands behind her back and fixing Mara with another smile. “This ship can simultaneously be silent, and yet bustling with activity.” In some ways it reminded her of Themyscira. The bustling markets and the quiet places high up, or of Paris on a winter’s day.

“I do not do well when I am stuck in one place and do not have an enemy to fight or a target to locate.” The smile was not rubbing off on Mara. She didn’t smile much. In fact, she didn’t really show much emotion outwardly. She was probably was people thought of when they thought of an assassin, though she wasn’t exactly cold and detached. Mara’s emotions ran deep, but she kept them far below the surface. She’d learned long ago not to give away emotions that could be used against her by her enemies.

“You are a warrior? A hunter? Perhaps both?” Diana tilted her head, curiosity etched on her face. She’d learned long ago to control the outward display of her emotions, but she felt no need to here at this moment. Besides, maybe this woman might be willing to open up more.

“A bit of both, though neither are completely accurate. Assassin is another term that both fits yet doesn’t completely encompass what I did.” Mara may be extremely wary of this ship and most everyone on it, but she at least knew agents from the Empire weren’t going to try to kill her here. She didn’t have to constantly look over her shoulder, though she still did. It was a habit that she’d gotten used to.

Mara wasn’t the first person Diana had met who was grateful to not worry about assassins any longer, nor was she the first assassin she’d ever met. Just the first one on board the Enterprise.

“So you are a little of everything,” Diana replied. “I’m a warrior, a defender of the world and all who reside in it.”

“Yes,” Mara replied simply. Emperor’s Hand was a good all-encompassing title that she’d held which accurately described what she did. “Defender of just one planet?” That concept was a little strange to Mara, mostly in defending one planet. Though she also found such heroism a little strange.

“Yes, of Earth. At the time, while we are aware of other worlds, we do not yet have the capability to visit them. Though they’ve visited us, some good, some less so.” Diana folded her arms, looking out towards the stars. “Months before I arrived here, I fought a monster from another world. Not the first monster I’ve fought, but the harder even than the God of War I killed. This creature was mutated from the body of a man from another world. Nearly indestructible, as strong as anything you could imagine. No weapons existed that could stop him, not even a nuclear bomb. It took three of us to defeat him, and one of us, the strongest of us died. He was from the same world as the monster, but Earth was his home.”

Diana glanced at Mara. “I think I might have been able to kill the creature eventually, but the battle would have lasted days and destroyed many cities. Millions would have died. They named it Doomsday.”

There was no boasting in her words, simply facts and confidence.

Mara hadn’t asked for the whole story, and yet she’d gotten one. “I see. Only a few to stand against one great opponent. I can respect your strength and prowess, though such heroics are somewhat lost on me.” Though she had a high moral standard she held herself to. Mara respected the whole greater good thing, but she was definitely not a hero. She was simply a weapon.

“I always wanted to save the world. I grew up with that ideal, taught that the role of my people was to protect mankind.” Diana threaded her fingers in front of her. “Two wars and a century of violence pushed me away. But when it mattered most, I was drawn back in. I like to think, that no matter who we are, there exists the capacity to do good. To do the right thing.”

“That is not always true. There are some who will never do good.” Mara was thinking of Palpatine. Darth Vader would have crossed her mind, but he had redeemed himself. “Though even I have my morals. I was supposed to find and kill a traitor to the Empire once. However, upon confronting him, he explained that his family had been kidnapped and he was forced into betraying the Empire. I let him live. I am not without compassion.” Perhaps it seemed odd, and sometimes even Mara wasn’t certain what to make of it.

“Perhaps. But at least on my world most men have some good, just as most have some bad. Very few are those who are irredeemable, and fewer still are those without sin.” For every Hitler or Stalin, there were a thousand men worth saving. She nodded at Mara. “It always is worth listening, before acting. No matter how small an act of kindness or generosity or positivity you put into the world, it will make a difference.”

“It seems that most people are simply various shades of grey, some darker or lighter than others.” The Galaxy was an immense place and Mara hadn’t been to every corner of every planet there, but she was aware that there were good people and bad people and everything in between. Mara shrugged one shoulder slightly. “Perhaps, perhaps not. I don’t know what difference, if any, that I have made. All I know is that after the Emperor was killed, agents made several attempts to kill me or capture me. My evil deeds clearly were coming back to claim me there.”

“Do you regret any of them?” Diana asked. She wasn’t sure that she expected an answer, but if she got one she was certain it would be enlightening. As she’d said, few people were truly evil and there was nothing about Mara that immediately set off Diana’s alarms.

Mara looked at Diana. “No. Why should I? It was what I was raised to do, what I was trained to do. Why should I regret that?” Perhaps if she swung more towards the Light, she may end up regretting that life. But even then, it was still part of who she was. It was the single most integral part of her, at that.

“Some of your victims may have been innocents,” Diana answered simply. “In war, there are bound to be casualties, and collateral damage.” Both things she detested and refused to ever fully accept, but they were a reality and realism had been hammered into her over the course of the 20th century. That a spark of idealism still remained was a small miracle. Or just who she was. “But it is different when you take that life yourself.”

“As I stated before, I did not always kill my targets. There may be extenuating circumstances, but there are no innocents among traitors or Jedi. Both walked into their paths of life with open eyes.” Mara countered, eyeing Diana carefully. “I fought my part in a war. The side I fought for lost. I suppose in the end all empires fall eventually.”

“They do,” Diana agreed, something flashing in her eyes. In decades past, she might have pushed the issue, continued to argue it. And there was some merit in that, but there was also merit in understanding when someone was dug in. And Mara was dug in.

But given time… “Perhaps someday men will understand they do not need such empires to thrive.”

“Given the way the Galaxy is and the history that came before me? That will never happen.” Not while there were Sith greedy for power. Not while there was a galactic war raging. Not when there were so many planets with so many different people. There would always be reason for some sort of empire to rise and fall with the ebb and flow of time.

“Never say never.” Diana turned her head to Diana, then swiveled in place to go. “As long as people are willing to fight for what they believe in, as long as there is love, anything is possible.”

Mara eyed her. “People fighting for what they believe in is part of the problem. Especially when there are those who believe in love and justice fighting on one side, and the other contains those fighting for domination and power. Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Side. It is a call that does not give up.”

“Believe me, that is a power I would never underestimate.” It was a power that flowed through mankind. “But do not underestimate the power of all that is good.”

She nodded her head at Mara, and then made her way to the door.

Mara watched her leave before turning her gaze back out the window. She didn’t know much about the side of good. She didn’t know much about the Jedi Order that had been decimated. Mara wasn’t one who had time or an interest for things like love. She had simply been trying to find her way through the Galaxy after the Emperor’s death. But her current goal was to reawaken the Force within her, and that is what she’d choose to focus on.