The Emperor's Hand
Chapter 5: Final Confrontation
The early rays of sunlight filtered through the dirty transparisteel in Mara's window. She gazed out at all the traffic which was getting thicker by the minute.
Letting out a contented sigh, Mara stood from her window-seat. For the first time in quite a while everything seemed to be going fine. The negotiations with the gang would start soon and once again her master would be happy with her. In fifteen minutes Kenny Jag would be coming to her temporary apartment to walk her to work.
A small object caught Mara's eye. Her blaster lay on her bedside table where she'd left it the night before. She didn't really use it much, preferring her smaller blaster concealed in a sleeve holster. The last thing she wanted was for Kenny to walk in and see it. She had no desire for her cover as a barmaid to be blown.
She hadn't even taken a step towards the door when a subtle humming noise began. Frowning, Mara turned towards her door, focusing her rudimentary Jedi senses on it. With a start, she recognised the sound.
An electronic lock breaker.
Within seconds her tiny sleeve blaster was out of it's holster and in her hand, pointed at the door. Briefly, Mara wondered who would try and break into such a shabby apartment. Not that it really mattered. Whoever was behind the door was in for a big suprise.
As Mara expected, it didn't take long for the door to open -- the lock was bad quality like everything else in the building. But what Mara didn't expect was the person who stood in the doorway with his arms folded across his chest.
"What are you doing here, Lee?" she snarled, trying desperately to cover up the fact that she was shaking on the inside. "I thought that you had left Imperial Center."
Lee snorted. "Sure Mara. I believe you. You're not hanging around this dump for your health. You knew that I was in the area and you're trying to flush me out of hiding by displaying yourself as the new barmaid in a cantina where known Rebels have been seen," he accused.
"I'm here on a mission that has nothing to do with you," Mara said matter-of-factly, trying to match his strong tone of voice. "The Emperor told me that he was sending someone else out to take care of you," she paused, looking down the barrel of her blaster. "Of course, that's not going to stop me from killing you right now."
"Mara," Lee said softly, his hardened expression melting away into sadness. "How may times are you going to be fooled by your master's lies? The Emperor knows I'm here. He posted a bounty for me here."
"Liar," hissed Mara. "You're a kreffing liar. Why in the Empire would my master not tell me you were here?"
"You know what I think," Lee said, his usual bitter manner returning. "I think he's using you. I think that he put you on a mission here to draw me out of hiding. He probably has commandos following you around, day and night, waiting for me to show up."
"It doesn't matter what you think. You're going to die now," her finger hovered over the firing stud. She looked into Lee's icy blue eyes, willing herself to press it, but something was still nagging at her mind. One thing that she had learned about Lee was that he was very smart. He would never go to Mara unarmed and unprepared.
"Go ahead," he goading, seeing her hesitation. "Or is there something you want from me?"
"Sith, Lee!," she cursed. "Why did you come here? You knew that I'd kill you."
"No," Lee said with a confidence that unnerved Mara. "You're not going to kill me. Not now."
"Really?" Mara cocked an eyebrow. "And who's going to stop me?"
"I am."
"And how do you propose to do that?" Mara asked in an amused voice. Lee always had been cocky, but now he was being just plain stupid.
"With this." Slowly, he uncrossed his arms, revealing a small object that had been hidden in his right hand.
A miniature thermal detonator.
For once in her life, Mara couldn't think of anything to say. There was no witty comeback, no sharp retort -- only a stunned silence.
"It is small," Lee said in a conversational tone, "but it's still powerful enough to blow up this entire room. Why don't you be a good girl and do what you're told for once? Drop your weapon."
"You'll be sorry you did this," Mara said in a low and deadly voice as the sleeve blaster clattered to the floor.
"You'll be the sorry one. Not me. Now I want you to listen and listen good. You've been listening to the Emperor's lies for long enough. It's time you opened up your eyes and saw how he's been deceiving you. Don't you realise what's happened to you? You've lost your childhood. While other girls were playing with dolls, you were learning to use deadly weapons. While other teenagers were getting boyfriends and discovering the universe, you were murdering in cold blood. I want you to leave the Empire before you end up destroying yourself -- before your master ends up destroying you."
"Why," Mara snapped, "should you care? Why don't you just kill me here and now?"
"I don't want to kill you," Lee said -- but from the cold tone of his voice, that was hard to believe. "I'm through will killing to get what I want. You're still young, Mara. The Emperor has convinced you to believe all of his evil lies."
"The Emperor has never lied to me," Mara insisted. "He'll kill you when he finds out what you did to me! He'll--"
"Sith, Mara," Lee interrupted impatiently, "I don't have time for this. If you really believe that the Emperor cares all that much about what happens to you, you're a fool."
Mara's eyes lit up like two green flames. "Is that so?" she hissed. "Am I a fool?"
"I don't have time for this," Lee repeated. "Kent will be here any moment to take you to work. It's time he learnt the truth about you. You sure did a good job convincing the poor lad that you were nothing but a barmaid..." his voice trailed off as he noted the blank expression on Mara's face.
"Huh?" she asked. "Who on Imperial Center is Ken..." her face reddened in embarrassment as she realised. "Oh," she said quietly. "How do you know Kenny?"
"Kenny? Is that what he told you his name was?" laughed Lee. "I see you're not the only liar around here. This is amazing! Are you trying to tell me that you didn't know Kent was a rebel agent?"
She turned her head away, her knuckles white as she tensed them with frustration.
Smirking, Lee reached one hand into his coat, holding the detonator high with the other. He took out a stun gun and took careful aim, while he clipped the detonator to his belt where it would easily be in reach.
"Maybe we'll meet again."
Mara turned her head back, watching in horror the finger poised over the firing stud. She couldn't let him do it. She just couldn't! If she survived an encounter with him a second time, people would be sure to think that she wasn't really trying to kill him. They'd think she was in league with him.
They'd think she was a traitor.
Stretching out with the Force, she twisted with all her might at the weapon in his hand. It was yanked to the side, but didn't come free from his grasp. A blue stun bolt shot across the room, not even coming close to her.
Before Lee could recover his aim, Mara sprung across the room towards the blaster that lay on the bedside table. She didn't care about the thermal detonator anymore. If Lee wanted to blow them both up, so be it.
Instead of shooting her, the former Imperial also made a dive, but instead of going for the blaster, he aimed for Mara.
She didn't realise why he was discarding his weapon. Maybe it was because he hadn't had a chance to use his hand-to-hand skills for a while...or maybe it was because he thought she deserved a fighting chance.
Lee slammed into Mara, throwing her off balance. The two of them tumbled to the ground, their limbs entangled.
Mara reacted instantly, pulling one arm free to land a punch squarely on Lee's jaw. He grabbed at her fist, twisting it out of the way.
For the second time, Mara reached out with the Force, picturing the blaster in her mind. She allowed her body to go limp and pretended to give in.
W
ith a satisfied look on his cocky face, Lee pushed her away. He clambered to his feet, leaving Mara in a heap on the floor. She looked up helplessly at him.
"I'm sorry it had to be like this," Lee said emotionlessly, taking Mara's blaster from his belt and setting it to stun.
The blaster on the table shot through the air and landed squarely in her hand. Without hesitation, she fired it at her former trainer -- the man she had once looked up to above anyone else.
&
quot;I'm not," she muttered.
As Lee stumbled backwards, a slow smile spread on his face. "Congratulations," he whispered. "I'm going to die, but I've seen freedom. Until you can acknowledge the fact that the Emperor is evil, you'll always be a prisoner." His last words were slurred and his eyes began to cloud over.
"I've won. You're going to die," was all that Mara could manage to say. She watched silently as he fell on his back, smoke wisping up from the hole in his chest. His words rang painfully in her ears. The sentence she had spoken was incorrect and she knew it. Lee had won.
For the first time ever, Mara felt real regret over killing someone. Lee had been the closest she'd ever had to a real friend. And now he was dead.
She'd wanted him dead since he defected. She'd dreamed of all the ways that she could end his miserable life, yet now it all seemed hollow and meaningless. Lee had changed from being a living breathing human with feeling to a statistic -- just another casualty on the endless lists of those who had died during the war. It was all so pointless in hindsight.
"I'm getting soft," she admonished herself.
Something triggered in her memory. Suddenly forgetting Lee, she gasped in horror and hurried over to lock the door again.
But it was too late.
The door slid open, revealing a grinning young man.
"Teenie," he called out, entering the room. Kent paused in mid-step, suddenly noticing the body on the ground. His eyes widened. With an effort he dragged his eyes away from his friend's corpse. "What in the Empire--"
Her hands trembling, Mara pressed the firing stud on her blaster. She turned away, feeling like was going to throw up. Kent was a rebel, but he was just a kid. There would have been plenty of time for him to turn to the Empire.
The night before Kent had expressed to Mara about how he felt about his friends being killed by an Imperial. They were men with families and friends. There were many who would have mourned their deaths. Just like Kent.
She wondered if she'd ever be able to kill anyone ever again without wondering about who they were and who would miss them. She probably would. After all, she was an assassin. She knew that she'd get over it soon.
As she stared at the two bodies by the door, she promised never to let anyone come close to her heart again. Never ever.
* * *
"Good," rasped the Emperor. "Good." It had given him great pleasure to watch the entire scene through Mara's eyes. His Hand had finally learnt the most important lesson ever: caring for people only causes problems.
He thanked the Force that she was over that brief sentimentality towards Lee Ghan. He was finally no longer an influence on her mind.
Closing his eyes, Palpitine thought of what he would tell her. A week ago he?d been very disappointed when she hadn't been able to kill Ghan. Now that she had finally overcome him, everything had changed. In that one action Mara had transformed from being a failure to a true warrior in Palpitine's mind.
It was times like this that Palpitine was grateful that he had listened to Nathaniel Jade and spared Mara's life. He chuckled at the thought of how the former Imperial Agent would feel if he could see his precious daughter now.
"She's no longer your daughter, Nathaniel," he said softly, as if the deceased man could hear him. "She's mine."
The day when Palpitine had brought Mara to the Imperial Palace came to his mind. That had been when her trainer, Tsan Ranger had still been an Royal Imperial Guardsman. Palpitine could still remember the last command he had given Ranger before the guardsman had retired: "kill her."
It was vitally important that Ranger never tell that to Mara. If she ever found out there was no telling what she'd do. Luckily, Ranger was extremely loyal and would never reveal the past.
But just in case he did tell, it was time to send him to a distant outpost on a far-off planet. Palpitine would complete her combat training. He'd taught her the ways of the Force since she had been a little girl and left the rest of her training to various tutors. It was time for her to learn only from the Emperor.
Palatine looked to the side where a hologram hovered beside his extravagant throne.
It was holograph of a young farm boy -- a restless youth from a backwater planet.
Darth Vader's son.
Slowly, a sneer spread across Palpitine's face. The vision he had been having repeatedly for the last few nights was indeed disturbing. His Hand and young Skywalker together?
It could never happen. Palpitine could not allow it. Mara may have promised herself never to let anyone come closer to her heart, but her master knew it was a lie. Her destiny lay with Skywalker. He had foreseen it.
There was only one thing that could stop that destiny: Palpitine had to do everything in his power to prevent them from ever meeting. And if they ever did meet, he'd have to make sure that Skywalker didn't survive the encounter.
Putting aside his evil plans for the boy, Palpitine opened up his mind, focusing on Mara.
*Well done, my Hand.*
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