Mara N. Jade

Mara thought back to her first training with Draken. "I remember the basics, but beyond that, not much. I don't think it could hurt anything to get a refresher even in the basics."

Mara took a moment to consider the appearance she wanted to present, and decided to keep it simple. She would begin by making only a few alterations to her appearance. Concertrating on her hair, Mara pictured herself with shorter, shoulder length hair, that was more brown than her normal red/gold. She turned her eyes brown from their regular green. Deciding to go for a casual look, Mara pictured herself in a pair of loose fitting black pants, and a forrest green t-shirt. Going for a bit of flair to top off the illusion, Mara added a brown page-boy hat. Reaching out with the force, she located Alora and Draken's presences, and projected her image to them.

Mara opened her mind, and allowed Alora to enter, showing her excatly what she meant by illusion. Focusing her mind on what she wished people saw when they looked at her, she let her sphere of influence widen, hoping that those around her were seeing what she was projecting.

Slightly uncomfortable with all of the eyes focused on the Sith, Mara pulled her robes tighter around her, unconciously doing the exact opposite of what Alora had just done. She listened to the exchange between her masters and Piccolo with a slight hint of amusement. She was able to pick up on the not so subtle undercurrents behind all of their words. None of them wanted to be here, and everyone knew it, but no one was willing to be the first to say it outright and leave.

Mara accepted the armor from Alora, glad that she was similar in size to the other woman. Seeing as she had not brought any of her own clothes with her, so it was very convenient that she had someone who could loan her some. Catching a glimse of herself in the mirror, Mara realized exactly how diffrent Alora's taste in clothing was from her own. Where Mara prefered clothing that was loose fitting, Alora liked to show off her body. Pulling on the robe over the armor, she moved to the front of the ship Joining Alora and Draken by the exit ramp, Mara realized that they were both carrying many weapons, but now that Draken had taken his lightsaber back, she had no weapons to her name. Self-consciously pulling the robe tighter around her, she turned to her masters, "Do either of you have a blaster or something of the sort that I could use?"

CHARACTER SHEET Real Name: Mara Jade Stovachi Nickname: Age: 23 Species: Human Height: 5'6'' Weight: 126 Hair: red Eyes: green Sex: human Homeworld: unknown Alignment: neutral Clothing: loosefitting black pants that tie at the ankle, red tank top and a black light weight jacket. Weapon: green bladed lightsaber created under the instruction of Tristan Steller. Force User Inventory: lightsaber Posessions: Ship: Jade's Fire Mara has had a checkered past which has included loosing her memory, being kidnapped several times, and loosing everyone that she has loved either through kidnapping or them up and leaving in the middle of the night. She is trying to start over, but for the time being refuses to get close to anyone.

Wow! Where to begin... YOur characters were great. It was so nice to read a fic that was able to capture the true characters so well. "Cause I couldn't have my brother?" Jimminy Crickets, what a line. That one had me laughing so hard I almost fell off my chair. It was great to see someone finally make a joke from that one!

Mara smiled up at Leo, wondering what was going through his head. "Where exactly are we going anyway?"

Mara gasped as he pulled her to him, letting herself sink into the kiss. The memories of the past few months faded from her mind, leaving only the love she had for him. As they parted, she smiled at him, "That was not what I was expecting. Not that I'm complaining mind you, but I was afraid it would be harder to get you to believe the truth."

As Leo walked closer, Mara caught the look in his eyes and shrank back against the wall. His words confused her. He forgave her? What had she done to him? She had been taken away from him against her will, she had come to find him as soon as she was allowed to. Then she remembered... Before her kidnappers had left their apartment with her, after whatever drugs they had used on her to make her weak and compliant, they had made her leave a message for him. A message telling him that she was leaving him for another man. She had hoped that he would be able to tell that something was wrong with it, that it was not really her, but apparently her hopes had been to high. As the memory came back to her, the tears started rolling down her face again. She reached up to touch his cheek, her hand trembling. "I'm so sorry that you though all of this time that I left you of my own will. I would never have left you for someone else, they made me say it."

Mara carefully considered the 'droid's offer. She figured it would be in her best intrest to get the feel for her surroundings, but first she needed to refresh herself and change. Taking advantage of the shower attatched to her room, Mara let the water wash over her, washing away her worries for just the briefest moment. As she shut off the water, all of her worries about Leo came flooding back, and she decided to get a tour of the ship in hopes of finding him along the way. Looking through the spacious closet, Mara chose a pair of loose fitting black pants that tied at the ankle, and a plain black form fitting t-shirt. Pulling her hair back into a quick braid, she found a pair of black athletic shoes, and headed out the door. The first place they stopped was the main spa, a place that Mara made a mental note to take advantage of later on. As they passed through the kitchen, the droid, ever mindful of a human's needs asked her if she would like anything to eat, but Mara, ancious to press on refused. Their last stop was the training room. As the door opened Mara caught sight of Leo. As he moved through his workout, all of her memories threatened to overwhelm her. She slipped in quietly, knowing full well that he would know she was there anyway, and stood by the door, waiting for his reaction.

Mara had to hold back the tears at Leo's reaction. She couldn't bring herself to think of him as Roiju. He would always be Leo to her. Following Alora, she tried not to think about the fact that she might have lost him forever. She had gotten him back before, but this time he seemed to be blaming her for what had happened to him. Mara sat down in the middle of the bed to relax and try to work out some of the soreness in her muscels from the training with Draken. As she closed her eyes and sank into the force, she felt the ship take off, heading for a destination yet unknown to her.

Mara walked warily out of the ship after Draken. She watched his interactions with the Sith Mistress with disgust. She could also see Leo beyond the woman, who she assumed must be his new master. She focused on him, watching his reactions to the events unfolding before them. Reaching out slightly with the force she ever so gently brushed his aura with her own, filling hers with her love for him and her joy at finally finding him again.

Mara moved to the cockpit when Draken told her that they were over the planet. Looking out, she felt butterflies in her stomach. She wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but one thing was for sure, it was not going to be easy for her. She closed her eyes and sank into the force, reaching out to brush Leo's presence. He was somewhere down there. There was no trace of light in the presence that she felt, and that scared her more than anything.

Mara shivered as she felt the wave of dark energy that Draken used to activate the holocron. She was beginning to have doubts about this. Maybe it was not such a good idea after all. All the same she payed attention to what Dooku was saying, at the same time keeping the thought in the back of her mind that she should take anything that he said about the force with a grain of salt. After a bit, the thought occured to her that she had no idea when they were going to arrive at Foy. She was beginning to wonder of Draken was just delaying their arival in order to teach her about the dark side.

Mara considered his offer. She was torn. She knew that Dooku was a Sith and didn't want to consider going down that path, but at the same time she couldn't see any harm in learning a fighting style, no matter who the teacher. "Ok"

Hissing at the sting from the slight touch of the sabre on her left arm Mara pulled back quickly, bringing her blade in high to Draken's right. As he moved forward to parry the attack, she shut down her blade, ducked and rolled under his, coming to her feet behind him and re-activating her blade. Spinning she brought her blade up to parry his counter attack.

Mara returned the salute Draken offered and fell into an attack stance. Using what he had taught her, she attacked, keeping her blade low and to the left for the first few strikes, aiming for the legs, then suddenly changing and aiming high and to the right, hoping to create an opening by catching him slightly off guard by the sudden change.

Paying close attention to what Draken showed her, Mara took in every detail of what she heard and saw. She wanted to learn everything that she could, and Draken was teaching her more about a sabre than Tristan and Leo combined. This time when he helped her shift her body into a fencing stance, and covered her hands with his own in order to guide her, she relaxed into it, trusting him to help her parry the oncoming attacks from the droid.

Mara closed her eyes for a moment to regain focus and relax herself, then opened them, a new look of determination on her face. "No, I really want to learn how to defend myself. Let's try again."

Still slightly wary of contact from her long imprisonment, Mara tensed slightly when Draken put his hands on hers to guide her movements. Relaxing into the force Mara let him guide her hands, parrying the attacks from the droid. It felt good to be training again, learning to defend herself. Mara could tell that when the exercise was over she would be a bit stiff and sore, but luckily healing was one of the first things she had learned, and it seemed to be something she had a talent for.

Mara took the offered sabre. Activating the blade, the crimson color bathed her hands in a blood red light. Trying to remember what Leo and Tristan had taught her about holding a blade, Mara assumed a fighting stance. Sweeping the blade down to her right, towards Draken's left leg. Stepping forward and to her right she snapped the blade back up towards his oncoming right arm.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know much, and I am not sure what form I was being taught, or if I was even being taught a form. I had just recieved my first light sabre when we were attacked, so I just learned enough to keep myself alive long enough for others to fight for me, after that I didn't get to learn much more before I was captured." Mara looked at the Count and shrugged her shoulders. "That's about the extent of my experiance with a sabre."

Mara shielded her eyes as the lights snapped on without warning. She tried to think back to what exactly she had told him about her light sabre experiance. "I had a minimal amount of training in the use of a light sabre. Between Tristan and Leo they were able to teach me the basics, but that was about it. I lost my sabre when I was taken captive."

After a while Mara got tired of sitting and waiting and decided to go and look for the Count. After a bit of wandering, Mara heard the distinct humming buzz of a light sabre coming from a room just down the hall. Opening the door a little Mara poked her head in. What she saw amazed her. The Count was dualing with a droid, using two spectacular curved light sabres. She looked in just in time to see him slash the droid, leaving a long black mark along the chasiss.