Luke Skywalker ventures deeper through the ornate palace halls that are all three stories, gold plated walls, and supported by huge beams of finely polished wood from the forests of Kashyyyk. The crimson carpet hums beneath his boots, which may be all that remains of the power that used to walk these halls.
Skywalker hears the click of a Stormtrooper's speaker and around the corner one shouts at the other.
TROOPER: Look out!
Out of sight, he can hear the two troopers cut down amidst their screams. Luke rushes ahead and rounds the corner with his unengaged saber in hand. His arms slip back into the folds of his robes as he looks down on the still burning slashes in the troopers' armor. He looks ahead and there is a small open doorway to a dark chamber. The shadows are a palpable barrier to the light.
He lifts the unlit lightsaber to his face and contemplates what it could do against such a force. Yet, he presses on and enters into the void. Aside from attempting to map the shadows that surround him with his senses he also can feel the energy beneath his feet grow stronger. The former master spent a great deal of time in this place.
Luke stops where he thinks the center of the room must be. He probes the shadows, which oscillate like water beneath his vision of the Force. There is one place that his mind rests on the edge of knowing the source of the shadows, but still cannot see. Then a voice echoes out to him.
WOMAN: Have you come in search
of the wicked to vanquish?
LUKE: No. I first saw the light
and was drawn to it. I wanted
to know where such a thing
could come from in this place.
WOMAN: There is no light
to be found here... JEDI!
The shadows fall away beneath a purple blaze and all that appears of his opponent are the cruel feminine features of her face bent on his destruction further shrouded in her cascading red hair. The remainder of her body remains concealed in shadow by virtue of her black attire, which is specially made to not even be revealed by the light of a saber.
In this manner it almost appears as if the lightsaber has taken flight all on its own, but Luke sense his foes's accompaniment and ignites his viridescent blade for the oncoming onslaught.
She slams down with a crashing strike, which causes such a clash that for an instant the chamber is illuminated with white light and he can see her whole.
Her figure is slight, but every ounce of it to the utter most density is muscle. Her strikes are reminiscent of Vader's own mechanical might, but not quite. She cannot quite match the dark lord. And so to her utter infuriation Luke Skywalker stands his ground against Mara Jade's blows and he refrains from striking back at her, which only makes his cool defense even more aggravating.
So then in mid stroke she pivots to switch probing Skywalker with the tip of her blade and this technique stymies him. He is less shore of his defense. Vader only once worked under such finesse with him and that was at Cloud City.
Luke could not afford a repeat of that experience; in part because Mara had little reason to allow him to survive. So now she had miscalculated.
Suddenly, Luke is on the offensive. He slams away her probing strikes and maintains a tight guard on himself while doing so, but now continues to beat down on her blade at every opportunity.
For Mara's part it was akin to how she thought it would be to fight Vader. Each blow that she blocked shook her arms to the bone and she could feel a strain in her legs with which she now need to brace. As she tried to evade she found Luke up to the task to stay right with her.
Their strikes were so frequent that the lights might as well have been lit. There was no hiding in the shadows for either of them, but least of all Mara who is now on the back foot.
She risks a few jabs; risk because it was a break in her defense, but Luke leans to the side of them and then takes a swing, but their blades do not meet. She disengages her saber and disappears.
Luke is plunged back into the darkness, but knows that she has not departed. There is more than duty to this fight. There is loyalty, vengeance... love.
LUKE: How did you know him?
MARA: Who do you speak of?
LUKE: How close were you to the Emperor?
She shrieks with a flash of lightning, which Luke is barely capable of catching with his lightsaber. Now it his muscles to be shaken to the core while he attempts to not lose his grip on the saber.
Another Force-filled shriek and Luke can sense a small pool flowing from his ears. Still, the lightening is constant and Luke cannot afford to remove one hand from the hilt.
He leans out to see around the blinding light meeting his green sword, and vaguely makes out Mara's face illuminated by the glow of her hands. He contemplates where her body must be, but only probes gently with the Force lest she notice him searching for her weakness. His mind grazes her lightsaber and it taps against her leg and in her surprise at this minor thing she stops the lightening and grabs for the hilt.
MARA: Did you think that you could
take it so easily?
She holds the saber aloft in triumph, but looks across the way to notice that she can no longer see Skywalker. She can no longer see his green lightsaber.
LUKE: I didn't need to.
Came the answer from behind.
The black walls turns green behind her and she turns to meet his, but after blocking the first strike she is gripped by his mechanical hand and her legs kicked out from under her.
She hears her deactivated saber clang and roll with an echo across the chamber floor. Lying on the ground, she regains enough of her senses to see Skywalker departing.
MARA: That's it?
LUKE: You said it yourself. I am a Jedi.
For both our sakes, I hope that you
develop a better taste in men.
He leaves with the lightening storm only making it as far as the doorframe.
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