Mara N. Jade

Mara settled herself into the room indicated by the Count, waiting for him to join her, hoping to get more information from him as to who his informant was and where Leo was. Now that they were back in space and she could access the force again she reached out to Leo again, trying to keep her presence at a minimum, not wanting to alarm him, but wanting to know that he was alright.

After a few minutes indecision, Mara set a course for Coruscant, figuring she could start her search there, hoping someone would be able to tell her where she could find Leo.

Mara jerked back to full awareness as her ship Eris re-entered normal space. Head pounding, and pain radiating from many various cuts and bruises, it took her a moment to remember where she was and what had happened. The last thing she remembered before falling into a much needed sleep was setting the Nav computer to take her into space as far away as she could get. She didn't want to land anywhere until she had a chance to dress some of her wounds and figure out exactly where she needed to go. It had been a long year and a half for her. She had been taken from Corellia, taken from Leo. She had spent the time in captivity by...who? Her captors never told her who they were, or why they wanted her. They had never tortured her, or asked her for anything. Based on their behavior, she assumed they wanted something from Leo, not from her. All of her injuries had been recieved in her desprate bid for freedom. Her captors had finally gotten cocky, and therefore sloppy. She reached around there back of her seat and grabbed the emergency kit she kept onboard. She covered the deeper cuts with Bacta patches, and splinted her left ankle. After tending to her wounds, she pulled out a bottle of water and a package of food. She had never been a fan of the flash freeze dried space food, but right now she was hungry enough to eat toothpaste. After she had satisfied her hunger, she set about figuring out where she needed to head next. She reached out with her mind to see if she could find Leo. If she had been looking for any other person, it would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack, but her and Leo had a connection that went deeper than that. She could find him no matter how far away he was. It took her longer to locate him than it should have, but she associated that with that with her lack of practice. When she brushed up against his presance, she didn't like what she felt. Darkness threatened to overwhelm her, and all of her woulds throbbed as though freshly gained. She pulled out quickly, re-orienting herself. She steeled herself, and reached out again. This time, instead of just trying to find Leo, she sent him a message. Just a picture of her and a feeling of the love she had for him. She had to pull out again before she could feel anything from him, the effort to find him over such a great expanse drained what little strength the food had provided her. She drifted back to sleep, her last thoughts those of Leo and the happiness she felt at finally being able to search for him again, the prospect of seeing him soon after so long apart.

Mara saw the girl look towards them, and felt her reach out to them. THen she heard the girls question. She turned to Leo to see if he would reply, or if she should.

"Of course you can train them along side me. It would be nice to get to know another force user besides the two of us." She smiled at him and streatched out her senses again. She tried to connect to the other person's presence, but without help, she was just not strong enough.

Mara felt their senses streatch out to the larger scale. She felt the presence of the other force user on the planet a few seconds after Leo did. She pulled her senses back from the unknown presence, and away from everything else as well. "Leo, who was that?"

Mara sat down facing her husband and closed her eyes as well. She streatched out her senses, and let the force flow through her. It connected her to the everything. She could feel the pulse of the universe. She focused on the smaller scale. She felt the heartbeat of the planet, and of all of the creatures on the planet. She focused on one creature in spacific. She wrapped her force presence around her husband with all of her love. She could feel his connection to the force as well as her own. She sent one message out over the connection they shared. "I will never be away from you again."

Mara rejoiced at the feeling of Leo's arms around her. It was only a simple gesture of his affection, but it felt like the safest place in the world. "I would love more than anything to complete my training, and I know you are the perfect one to do it." Mara raised up on her tip toes and kissed him deeply and passionatly. It was the greatest feeling in the galaxy to be back in his arms again.

Mara looked up as Leo walked back into the room. "You finished it then?"

Mara watched over Leo's shoulder as Orrick walked away. Tristan had all but disappeared, and she needed to continue her training. "What am I going to do about my training?"

Mara sat slowly up and looked around. She had so many questions for Leo, and they all came pouring out at once. "What is this place? What happened to you while I was gone? Where's Nathaniel? What are you doing here?"

Mara felt another very fimiliar life force add itself to Leo's efforts. The last time she had been connected with this one, she had been helping him regain his lost force abilities. Now he was returning the favor. She slowly climbed out of the blackness. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes were Leo's eyes stairing back into her own. "I love you."

Mara slowly regained contiousness, if only for a second. She was able to slowly open her eyes and look into the face of the man she loved. "I found you." That was all she had the energy to say. She could not even keep her eyes open any longer. She closed her eyes and felt herself falling towards the blackness again, only this time she felt safe. She knew that she would wake up, and that when she did Leo would be waiting by her side. there was one thought in her mind as it drifted out of contiousness. "Where are the boys?" She asked Leo, then her world was black.

A small rented ship came in for a preprogramed landing that was none to smooth. There was only one person in the ship. A young woman with red-gold hair and bright emerald eyes sat in the captian's chair, She was slumped over the control consol. She had not eaten in days, and her face was covered in bruses. She slowly slid down into blackness. As she did she sent out one message on the force. "...LEO..."

Mara cried out as she felt the slug connect with her stomach. She crumpled with the force of the blow. The force of the blow was enough to make her almost loose contiousness, almost. She drifted in and out of blackness as the battle raged around her. She heard Leo shout Time to die you pitiful souls and he landed beside her. She came to long enough to see him defending her with his lightsaber and hope he would not do anything stupid before she lost contiousness completly.

Mara ran with the twins in the direction that Leo had indicated feeling torn. She knew that she had to get the boys to safety, but she also felt that she should be out there helping her husband. She was as much of a jedi as any of the rest of them. When she reached the tunnel end and entered the small bungalo, the first thing she noticed was the cleaning driod resting silently in the corner, having obviously been unused for quite some time. She laid the twins down on the one bed in the room and created a wall of pillows around them, just as a precaution, even though they could not roll over yet. She then walked over to the driod and switched it on. After a few minutes of it's assessment of all of its bolts and gears, it turned to her and asked "What can I do to help you madam?" She thought for a minute and replied "Do you have any training in childcare?" "Why yes madam," the droid replied, launching into an elaborate speech about his first job and how it had consisted of caring for the children of some rich person or another. She shut him up with a quick gesture and stated quickly, "I need you to watch the twins. They shouldn't need anything, but if they do their bag is by the door." Then she ran out of the room and back down the tunnle. She ran out of the tunnle and up to Leo's side. Leo shot her a questioning look. "What? You didn't expect me to sit still did you, I've been inactive for to long. there was a droid to watch the boys." She then pulled her lightsaber off of her belt and activated the aqua blade.

Mara smiled down at Alexander as the others walked into the room. It was a blessing of the force that he was even alive. Leo walked over to her and laid Nathaniel in her other arm. They were slightly on the small side, but were perfectly healthy. She considered Leo's question. All she knew of her parents was that they had been wealthy politicians, and that some how she had been seperated from them. She could not even remember what they looked like. "I see two options. We can either tell the boys the truth, or we can go and look for my parents, or at least some clue as to where they are."

Mara felt another contraction comming, and let her sences drift into the force. She had learned a few pain-lessening tricks, and she employed them now. She could feel the presence of many other jedi, and tht many of them were in great turmoil. She reached out and attatched herself to two of those minds in particular, the twins. She then reached out for Leo's mind and brought it into the group. Hopefully her thoughts, along with his, could help to calm them down somewhat.

Mara smiled at Leo as he carried her to the medical wing. As he laid her on the bed, she felt her muscles tightening again and squeezed his hand. The pain was bearable for now, but she knew that it would get a lot worse.

As Mara turned the corner and heard the clash of lightsabers, her stomach tightened with anticipation. How she longed to start her training agin. She had finally reached knighthood, and then she became pregnant and had to lay off most of her training. She could do some of the mental work, but not much of the physical. She turned the last corner and saw all of the jedi training. She looked around for Leo and spotted him and another man comming down a ladder from the roof. Both of them looked rather windswept and exhausted. She walked over to Leo, her stomach tightening with anticipation again. Who was the other man, and what had the two of them been doing? Then she noticed that they were each carrying their lightsaber. Had they been dualing? On the roof of all places? When she was about five feet from Leo and the other man, her stomach tightened with anticipation again... then a realization struck her, it was not her stomach tightening. She stopped midstride and her eyes went wide.

Mara followed the other Jedi to the room that had been selected for Leo and herself. What was she supposed to do here? Leo had his apprentice to train as well as a few of his friends here, but she had nothing to do. She would have liked to train, but she was so far pregnant that it could be dangerous to the twins if she were to get hurt. She was looking foreward to the twins being born not only because she could not wait to hold them and see them, but she could not wait to get beck to her training. She left the room and wandered back to the training room to see what Leo and his apprentice were doing.

Mara woke up on the Bronze Eagle and knew emediatly what had happened. Leo had felt that one of his friends was in danger, and rather than leave her to go and find him, he had simply taken her along. She did not mind this in the least. She did not think she could stand it if she had to be seperated from him for a long period of time again. She got out of bed and changed her clothes. She then reached out to find Leo's presence in the force. She followed his presence to a bar called the Bald Wookie. The place was a mess. Jedi were lying all over in varying states of injury. Mara spotted Leo right away and hurried up to him. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Mara looked deep into Leo's eyes, and at the same time looked deep into his mind. "Of course I'll help, I know Orrick better than you do. What do you need me to do? By the way, do you mind if we get a good nights sleep first. I couldn't sleep on the ship, and I' didn't sleep very well last night since I was watching over you."

Mara started to worry when Leo stayed under the water of the pool for so long after jumping off of the water fall. When he surfaced at last, she breathed a sigh of releif, laid her head back and closed her eyes. She let her sences drift as though on the wind. As her sences drifted further from herself, a vision comes to her. ================================================ Mara was in a strange room where everything around her was white. She realized that it was a hospital room. She saw herself lying in the bed. Next to her she saw Leo holding two small bundles of blankets in his arms. At least that was what she thought they were at first. She moved closer to get a better look. It was the twins. One of them looked quit a bit like Leo, only with slightly darker hair, the other had her fair complexion and hair that was a gold color that came from combining her and Leo's hair colors. She could not see what color their eyes were because they were sleeping, but she knew that the color was likely to change as they grew anyway. As she moved to get an even closer look at them, the vision faded, slowly turning back to the present. ================================================ When Leo asked her what she had seen, she smiled and answered, "The near future I think, I saw the twins."

Mara takes Leo's hand with complete trust. "Where are you taking me?" she asks him looking deep into his eyes.