ladyofleithian: (amy pond)
[personal profile] ladyofleithian
In which Luke and Mara meet Ben, Leia and company. The start of a beautiful fellowship is formed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Notes: This was one of my favorite chapters to write. I just love the character dynamics here.


Normally, Mara thought, if one was really talking about Tatooine, when they typically thought of Tatooine, they thought of a sort of planet that seemed to never change, day after day. If there was a bright center to the universe, as Luke had said once, they were on the planet that it was farthest from. The most boring planet in the universe – a sandy, dusty planet that never seemed to change no matter what. Where every routine, no matter what day it was, involved returning home and working on the ever-breaking vaporators, before going to bed and wondering, really, if there was really anything else for you out there besides this.

But out on the moisture farm, this was not one of those days.

It was while Mara was working along with one of the droids on the moisture farm to help repair the vaporators that she saw it. She squinted, raising the binoculars to her eyes, only to see an explosion of brightness in the sky. If she wasn’t mistaken, this looked, if nothing else, a lot like a space battle.

Perhaps it wasn’t. And yet there was something about it that didn’t seem like it could be anything else.

Mara could feel her heart all but pounding against her chest, and, even in spite of herself, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of excitement – and fear. What could all of this even mean? Something like this didn’t happen over Tatooine. It couldn’t be…

No, she thought. She had to continue her work. She had to keep working, no matter what.

So even as she continued working, repairing the vaporators, Mara could only wonder what this explosion, this fire in the sky, could mean – and what it would most likely bring for the future.

***

It was early in the morning that Luke, heading out if only to do the daily work, saw the burst of fire in the sky. He squinted, lifting up his binoculars. If he didn’t know better, he thought, there seemed to be some sort of space battle going on overhead. And more than that, something…falling. Falling from the sky.

Luke could have sworn that his heart skipped a beat. Something like that – these things couldn’t happen on Tatooine. They just didn’t. And yet here they were.

He had to tell someone. Anyone. And right now, he had a feeling that he knew exactly who to tell.

He ran towards Mara’s house in that moment, ignoring some of the comments from the others who had woken up if only to do their work on the moisture farms as well. Things like, “Oh, it’s just Wormie” and “What the stang has gotten into Wormie today?” amongst other things. He had to tell Mara. He had to.

It was then that he found her, working on the vaporators, working on the daily repair work. And it was then that she raised her head.

“Oh,” she said, “Hey, Luke.” A faint smile. “You saw it too?”

“Yeah.” Already, Luke thought, he was feeling elated and worried at the same time. What could this mean, for all of them? What could it possibly mean? “There’s something else too.”

“What do you mean?” Mara’s eyes seemed to come alive with curiosity in that moment. “What happened?”

“Something fell from the sky,” Luke said. “Some sort of…object. I’m starting to think that it was some sort of escape pod, at least from what I gathered.”

Mara’s brow seemed to furrow now. Then, “Well,” she said, “We might as well go and take a look. I mean…” She sighed. “I guess I shouldn’t be doing this. I mean, I’m already in enough trouble with Mom and Dad as it is. But…” A faint smile. “I could never resist a bit of a mystery.”

Luke grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

Mara looked at him, smiling as well, and for a moment, he couldn’t help but be utterly captivated by it. He loved it – the way that her face would light up, the way that her eyes would light up as well. If nothing else, with her green eyes and pale but freckled skin and her long red hair that cascaded down her back, she looked like the fire goddess of a distant religion. A sun goddess, perhaps. “Come on, Luke,” she said. “Let’s go.”

***
The thing about the Dune Sea, Mara thought, was that it seemed to stretch out for miles and miles, a sort of infinity, really. Even following Luke’s directions as to where he thought the escape pod crashed, she couldn’t help but wonder how they were going to find it when the sand seemed to stretch out like an ocean.

That was one of those things about Tatooine that was beautiful, and yet at the same time, seemed to represent everything that she hated about the damn planet. Nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Nothing changing in the slightest. The twin suns would come up every day and the sand would get in your eyes and on your clothes and you’d do the same work that you always did. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand why they had to do it, but at the same time, there was something in her that wondered if there was more to this, all of this, than what they had. Luke said that, at the very least, but at the same time, Mara thought, she didn’t know – she couldn’t know, really – if Luke was right about all this. If there was more to their lives than what they had.

Mara looked through the binoculars now. So far, no escape pod wreckage, not that she could see. For all intents and purposes, there was nothing.

It was then, however, that she found it. Smoking wreckage. She lowered her binoculars, turned to Luke. “Well,” she said if only softly, “I think we found it, Luke. Come on.”

It was inspecting the wreckage that she found them. Two droids. One a tall, gold sort of protocol droid, the other an astromech droid, blue and white. The protocol droid was already arguing with the astromech droid. “…and I swear, Ar-Too, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that we had been there before…”

Mara furrowed her brow. She supposed that now was the time to at least try and get some answers. “Um…hi,” she said. “My name’s Mara. Mara Lars. This is my friend, Luke Brackett. We saw the space battle above, and we thought…we thought you’d need some help.”
The protocol droid’s voice seemed to change instantly. “Oh thank goodness,” he said, “We never thought that we’d get any help. We…our spacecraft was attacked on the way to Alderaan. Ar-Too, my companion, said something about a mission, but I can’t say that she was very specific.”

Ar-Too let out a series of beeps now. IT’S A LONG STORY. I’LL TELL YOU WHEN WE GET OUT OF THE DUNE SEA. FOR NOW, THE AMBASSADORS ARE IN DANGER.

“Ambassadors?” This, Mara thought, was getting even more complicated than it already was.

It was then that she found them. A young woman, a very pretty woman at that, with her hair done up in a style that Mara could only say reminded her almost of cinnamon buns. She was dressed all in white, and she looked kind of scuffed up, to say the least. And the man beside her – he was kind of handsome, in a way, Mara thought, with his dark hair that fell around his face. He was also dressed in white, and also looked kind of…scuffed up.

She didn’t know what happened to them. She could probably find a way to sort of work this out once she took them back to the hut.

“It’s all right,” she said to the protocol droid. “We’re going to heal them up. I mean…” She sighed. “We’re not exactly the best at healing, but we can try. Trust me on this.”

“Thank you, Mistress Mara.”

There was something about it that almost made Mara smile. “Just call me Mara,” she said. “Trust me on this. Mistress Mara is kind of a bit too formal and everything.” A beat. “What’s your name, by the way? I don’t think I really caught it.”

“Oh, goodness gracious me! I don’t think we were properly introduced. I am See Threepio, human-cyborg relations. I am fluent in over six million forms of communication…”

“Do you speak Bocce by any means?” Mara said, even as they headed back towards the hut, carrying the two ambassadors. “I mean, I know that my dad – well, he’s not really my dad, he’s my uncle. My dad died in some sort of spice freighter accident, he said. But anyway, he’d definitely like a droid that speaks Bocce around here. I think he’d like that a lot.”

“It’s almost a second language to me, Miss.”

“What about Ar-Too?” Mara said. “I mean, how is he?”

“He’s a very rebellious astromech,” C-3PO said. “Quite insufferable, but very clever. Very smart. Very skilled. I think that he can help you out in many areas – ’’

Ar-Too beeped almost as if in amusement. ARE YOU COMPLIMENTING ME, C-3PO?

“Yes, I am,” C-3PO said, almost impatiently. “For the maker’s sake, don’t rub it in. Please.”

Mara, even in spite of herself, couldn’t help but laugh. Somehow, she thought, they and the droids were going to get on great.

***
There was something about watching the six of them walk away that, even in spite of herself, almost broke Sabe’s heart. She could still remember long ago, giving birth to them on Polis Massa. The birthing process itself – painful, almost excruciating, feeling almost like her entire body was on fire. And then, the aftermath of it all – Padme still said that it was a miracle that she survived, because it seemed almost like, for a moment, that she was going to die.

But she hadn’t died. Not really. She had managed to make it out all right. And even that was a miracle in and of itself.

Sabe took a deep breath, rubbing her temples. Mara would have to accept her destiny sometime, Padme had told her. She could never really understand, she thought, all that Jedi talk of destiny and the Force. She almost did, but even after years of being married to Obi-Wan, she could never quite understand it. Not completely.

Obi-Wan…

Even remembering was enough to send a sudden, painful pang through Sabe. Obi-Wan. She could still remember so much about him – sitting with him, discussing baby names, his warm, rich sort of laugh, the way his eyes seemed to all but come alive, the feel of his body against her own, the warmth of his embrace, the taste of his lips, his selflessness, his kindness, his strange sense of mischief…

She missed him. And even now, she doubted that she could ever truly understand what had driven him to do all these horrible things. She almost didn’t want to think about what could have driven him to do that.

Padme walked up towards her now, placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?” she said if only softly.

“I am,” Sabe said. “I mean…” She sighed. “It’s not easy. Even after everything that happened. I mean…”

“I know.” Padme’s voice was soft even as she said it. Somehow, Sabe thought, she almost didn’t have to say what she wanted to say to Padme – that she wanted more than anything to be able to raise her children, to make sure that they were safe, to protect them and nurture them. Padme already knew. They had been close for so many years that in a way, some things didn’t need saying. Because the other already knew. “Just…whatever happens, we’re going to protect them. Make sure that they’re all right. Trust me on this, Sabe.”

“I know.”

Because they would. No matter what happened, Terminus and the Emperor were not going to harm Mara and Ben. They could not, they would not.

And if Sabe had to die in the process, Mara and Ben would be protected no matter what.
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