WHO:
emperorshand and
im_not_the_popeWHERE: idk wherever Uncle Palps is at
WHEN: LAAAATE in the night
WARNINGS: Mental maniplation, force style!
SUMMARY: After nearly a week on little sleep, Mara goes to confront the one thing she didn't think she'd have to.
FORMAT: Paragraph!
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He allowed his mind to be a beacon; calling to her, directing her on the right path to find him. After all, if she was going to pay him a visit, who was he to refuse? She would find him as anyone ever found him - seated in his chair, his arms resting on the arms of the chair, leaning comfortably back, the black robes he always wore wrapped around his figure, obscuring all but his mouth and chin.
A slight grin came to his face. "I have been expecting you, Mara Jade," he said to her as she approached him.
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Her mouth curled down into a frown, and she bored holes into his head. It wasn't hate. It was annoyance, defiance, resilience.
"I don't give a kriff who you were expecting. I came for one reason, sleemo, and that's to tell you to get out of my karking head."
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"You wanted me in your head before. You reveled in my presence, in my praise. Where did you go so wrong, Mara Jade?" He could sense her resistance to him, her defiance; he would soon break it down. "Perhaps... No, that would be foolish, even for you."
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"I never went 'wrong', I just got a little too smart for you to handle."
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"Thanks to you, I have also seen my own death foretold. At least...the first one." He smiled again. "Perhaps, in that instance, I was overconfident. But now I know to not waste my time with Skywalker's father as an influence on the boy. I have to go for something...more significant." He chuckled as he turned away from her.
"You never were too smart for me to handle, and you never will be. Remember this well, my Hand. My will is too strong for you; too strong for anyone. Should I wish it, you will serve me once more."
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The kriff was she even doing here?
That was the big question. What stupid part of her had thought this would ever be a good idea? She couldn't handle Palpatine. She wasn't even fully trained, skipping out and leaving the academy. She said it was because it wasn't for her, and that was true, to a point. It was also because Skywalker begged her to come, and then spent the entire time ignoring her. Here in the city, that definitely wasn't the case. She could feel him subconsciously reaching out for her at any time, just to feel her, as if he was confirming that she was even still there.
"Too bad, I don't think Skywalker got your datacard," she snorted.
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"More imporantly," he asked, "why did you come here tonight? Are you here to kill me?" His eyes flickered over to her various weapons, landing on her lightsaber for a few moments before moving back to her face. "I'm sure you could, after all. I am an old man...I stand here before you tired, using a cane to walk. I'm sure someone as young and powerful as yourself could have no difficulties in murdering an old man. Who knows? It might even bring you some satisfaction."
Another small smile. "Do it, then. Take your weapon. Kill me. I can feel the desire within you; the hatred you have directed at me. Use it. Kill me. That is, if you're strong enough."
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"I've murdered enough old men. You aren't going to be one of them," she stated simply, staring down at him. She wasn't tall, but his hunched over frame definitely gave her the edge on him for once. At least in that department.
"I'm not going to even bother trying killing you."
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"Perhaps you're not completely useless after all. Despite everything, you seem to have Skywalker wrapped around your little finger..." He looked back over his shoulder. "Perhaps then, you've developing feelings for this Jedi? I can see him everywhere in your mind."
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She was useless to him. She was light-years younger, and he was hurting from her death. How did she help him? She pushed him away, afraid to even say that it was possible at all.
"I don't care what you see in there. There's nothing between Skywalker and I. I spent ten years wanting to kill him because of you. Not exactly good for any type of relationship."
She didn't answer the armory question. She wrapped herself with her guns and weapons because she could. It was like her own armor, personal, and used to make sure that she had every contingency she could think of planned.
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He stepped closer to her again, almost too close, within a few feet. His eyes glinted in the faint light as they met her face. "You can already feel it. To protect you, Skywalker will come to me. Just like his father before him." A menacing grin filled Palpatine's face as he let the words sink in.
"I am proud of you, my Hand. You will have done what Lord Vader could not - you will deliver Luke Skywalker to me."
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Her fingers itched to wrench the saber from the clip on her belt, or to pull her blaster from the holster and level it between his eyes. She didn't have to use the force. She could just be what she had been for ages. Mara Jade, smuggler. Not Mara Skywalker, Jedi. Not Mara Jade, Emperors Hand.
No. She could just be Mara Jade. She could shoot the kriffing sleemo between the eyes and be done with it.
Except that wouldn't be the end. She knew it wouldn't. It would feel damn good, but it wouldn't do a world of help for her. She needed to be smart. She needed to be what he had trained her to be. This had been in contrast to the entire plan that she had made coming here. ( ... )
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That resolve, that was a dead end for him. Luke was still on the light side, and she had been killed by someone who was supposed to be a family member. She knew Jacen, the kid wasn't bad.
"Skywalker is better than that," she said simply in return. He was. She was dead already to him.
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"Of course, you may have died to him already, but...now he has you back. Do you think he will so readily let you go a second time? Perhaps a third?" He smiled at her. "I wonder how many times he can sit back and let you die before he just has to do something."
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She was proud of that. She could stand there and tell him the complete truth. She buffed the innards of her shields, blocking off what she could from his probes, from that corridor in the back of her mind. She couldn't block him out entirely, but she could keep him from her deepest, darkest desires.
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