Vision of the future

'Something wrong?' Luke asked.

Mara glared at him. 'You know, Skywalker, it's really hard to keep any thoughts to yourself when you're around.'

He gave her an innocent look that had far too much amusement in it for her taste. 'Odd. I seem to remember a situation not too long ago when you couldn't wait to unload some of those choicer thoughts on me.'

Mara grimaced. 'Feeling a little more cheerful about our past mistakes this morning, are we?' He sobered. 'Not cheerful, no,' he said. 'Just learning how to acknowledge them, learn from them, and then pick up and move on. I've had a lot of time for thinking during these past five days, you know.'

'You reach any particular conclusions?'

He looked straight at her. 'I know why you didn't turn to the dark side,' he said. 'And why you keep coming up against limits on what you can do through the Force.' With a casualness she didn't especially feel, Mara took another bite and settled her back against the stone wall behind her. 'I'm listening.'

'The essence of the dark side is selfishness,' Luke said. 'The elevation of yourself and your own desires above everything else.'

Mara nodded. 'Fairly obvious so far.'

'The point is that all the time you were serving the Emperor, you were never doing so out of selfish motives,' Luke said. 'You were serving, even if it was Palpatine and his own selfish ends. And service to others is the essence of being a Jedi.'

Mara thought about that. 'No,' she said, shaking her head. 'No, I don't like it. Service to evil is still evil. What you're saying is that doing something wrong isn't really wrong if your motives are good. That's nonsense.'

'I agree,' Luke said. 'But that's not what I'm saying. Some of the things you did were certainly wrong; but because you weren't doing them for your own purposes, the acts themselves didn't open you to the dark side.'

Mara glowered at her food. 'I see the difference,' she said. 'But I still don't like it.'

'Actually, it's not that much different from the situation with the Jensaarai that Corran and I ran into on Susevfi,' Luke said. 'They didn't know how to be Jedi, but were still serving the best they knew how.'

'And in the process had gotten themselves so bent around that you were years untwisting them,' Mara reminded him tartly. 'Anyway, they at least had the memory of a role model to follow, didn't they? That what's-his-name Jedi?'

'Nikkos Tyris,' Luke said, nodding. 'Which brings up an even more interesting thought. Maybe you had a role model, too.'

Mara shook her head. 'Not a chance. There wasn't a single person in the inner court with a scrap of what I'd consider virtue or morality.'

'Then maybe it was someone in your life before you were taken to Coruscant,' Luke suggested.

'Your parents, or some close friend.'

Mara bit off the last bite of her meal and tossed the carcass back into a corner. 'This is a dead-end conversation,' she declared firmly, wiping her hands on her jumpsuit legs where the oils and grime would eventually flake off. 'Let's get back to the job at hand. Where did you stash my blaster?' Luke didn't move. 'I know you don't remember much about your past,' he said quietly. 'For whatever it's worth, I understand how you feel.'

'Thanks,' Mara growled. 'That certainly helps.'

'Would you like to have that past back again?'

She frowned at him, conflicting emotions surging suddenly against each other. 'What do you mean?' she asked cautiously.

'There are techniques Jedi can use to pull out buried memories,' he said. 'And you could be a Jedi, Mara. You could be a powerful Jedi.'

'Right,' Mara bit out. 'All I have to do is declare I'm ready to serve the galaxy, right?' Luke's forehead creased, and she caught the flicker of puzzlement from him. 'What is it about that that scares you?' he asked. 'You've served and worked with people all your life—Palpatine, Karrde, Leia and Han and me. And once you've offered your loyalty, it's for keeps. You can do this—I know you can.'

Mara squeezed her hand into a fist, half minded to close the subject again and this time make sure she sat on the