A Whole New Life
Part 8: Future
By SJ 12-23-01/14-04-02 (skyjade@globetrotter.net)

________________
Disclaimers: Nothing in the Star Wars Universe belong to me; everything belongs
to George Lucas. I'm only writing stories for fun.
See my homepage for more details.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/3702

Special thanks to my shy, secret beta-reader and best friend, Adrianne, for her
help with the final editing of my new stories. Thanks for giving
me some of your precious time, my friend :)

WARNING: A young victim of the Emperor s camps die in this part; you are warned
about the emotional impact of this moment.

__________________

Two weeks and a half after the worrying reports about whether Luke was a new
Emperor or not, the young Jedi returned to Coruscant with mixed hopes. He had
met with the regrouping politicians, had told them what he was searching for and
how they could help him.

They had told him that he could trust them, something which he still wasn't
convinced of.

However, he reflected wearily while he removed his jacket and dropped it on the
couch of his quarters in his father's castle, he had no choice but to move on
now. When he had sought out the would-be senators, he had been acutely aware
that any step back would be interpreted as an attempt to hide something. Hence,
he had no choice but to move forward and do his best to prevent a complete
failure.

If only, he sighed, rubbing his temples, Leia were here to help him with this.
She had been a trained politician; she would know how to handle that kind of
pressure. Personally, he couldn't help but feel like they were already pulling
his strings even though he didn't want to give them that kind of power... yet.

He sat down in one of the comforting chairs, then laid his head backward on the
headrest and closed his eyes. Instead of trying to corrupt his sister, he
berated himself, he should have accepted her lessons about politics; that would
be most useful right about now. Oh, he conceded, he had tried to read books and
teach himself a little more than what he already knew, but when he had met with
the senators, everything he had read had been no more than theories, and, to top
it all, his senses had kept telling him that he would never be able to trust
those individuals alone with the whole future of the galaxy.

While they were interested in changing things, they were unfortunately
corruptible, well, he amended sternly, most of them. During his numerous
meetings and renewed interviews, he had felt the presence of a few future worthy
leaders amongst the throng of politicians. Still, he sighed, raising his head
to get up, he didn't have anything satisfying to start with, yet had no choice
but to get started---

His thoughts came to a sudden halt when he noticed the presence of someone in
front of him.

"Leia!!!!" he exclaimed, instantly jumping to his feet and almost hugging her
before he remembered that she wasn't real anymore. "Where have you been?" he
asked her, near-despair mingling with deep relief.

"It's good to see you too, Luke," she smiled softly at him, "or I should say
talk to you since I've been with you all that time," she amended warmly.

"You were?" he gaped at her in surprise, "Then why didn't you contact me
before?" he asked instantly, feeling a sad, unwilling remorse build up in his
heart.

Leia had been with him but had left him alone for all that time?... Why? Was
it some kind of test to prove himself?, he wondered in slight resent. Or was it
some form of revenge for what he had done to her before?..

"Neither of those, dear brother," she answered his unvoiced questions. "Had I
been able to help you earlier, nothing would have stopped me from coming back to
you," she reassured him warmly.

"Then what happened?" he asked out loud, regret giving way to worry.

"The fight against Palpatine took a lot of my powers. Up until now, I didn't
have enough energies to appear to you," she explained warmly, "or else I would
have done so but one last time... I didn't want to abandon you and Father this
fast," she finished gently.

Luke nodded in understanding even as he berated himself for a selfish kid.
He should have known that his sister's abandon meant something like this, he
scolded himself. She wasn't selfish like he himself was, and unlike Mara, she
didn't hold a grudge against him...

Mara..., his thoughts suddenly came to a halt.

He had tried hard to not think too much about her and add to his misery, but he
hoped that she was still all right; he hadn't felt any dark undercurrents for a
long while now, so he surmised that she had found a way to also return to the
Light... in a way, yet a doubt remained, he admitted to himself.

"Mara is fine," his sister reassured him.

"Where is she?" Luke asked reflexively, flinging his attempts to protect his
heart to the four winds as he sought to get more information out of his sister.
"Do you know what she's been doing? And Father?" he inquired in one, eager
breath.

"They're both fine and working out issues," she reassured him once again.
"However, I'm afraid I can't tell you more than that," she sadly shook her head.

Luke meant to ask her why but she answered before he had voiced his question.

"Just like you have faced your true self during the past months, so have they,"
she explained wistfully. "Eventually, you will see them again, but it has to be
on their own terms, not yours," she pointed out seriously.

"But I miss them," he whined earnestly.

"I know," his sister answered, stepping closer until her ethereal hand could
touch his cheek. "and so do they, you," she added gently, "but the time to see
them again is not at hand yet."

"Then what is coming closer?" he inquired, lifting an eyebrow in confusion.

"The Senate," was Leia's short answer.

A silence ensued this statement.

Again, Luke thought wearily. "It's not serious," he finally whined plaintively.
"I can't be responsible of its return, there must be a mistake in your plans."

"You are the Lightbringer, brother," she answered seriously, firmly, "You know
what the night was like, what brought it to be... Only you can ensure
everlasting daylight."

"But I'm not a politician," he complained again, this time at the one person he
felt would understand him. "I don't know who I can trust and who I have to bar
from the ruling system, I can't..."

He fell silent when Leia's penetrating gaze fastened itself on his own.

"You already know who you can trust and who you have to distrust, Luke," she
commented seriously. "However, you don't accept that responsibility as being
yours; you are still trying to think of a way to escape your destiny."

Luke was shocked by the truth of her words. Even more than Piett, she knew
exactly what was in his heart and mind. He didn't want to be involved with the
complicated galactic Senate, he admitted truthfully.

"There is no escape, Luke," Leia told him gently this time. "Whether you see it
now or not, it is your destiny, how you will continue what you and Father
began."

"How?" he asked her in defeat. "I am a mere man..."

"But you are an exceptional one, and," she added with compassion, "you will not
always be alone on the Jedi path... nor without descendants who will pick up in
your traces," she finished softly, wisely.

When Luke finally gathered enough wits to gaze up at her in surprise, she was
already gone, leaving him with more questions... and a total confusion about the
future.

More Jedi Knights? Children? What had she meant?

And how was he going to get started if he were meant to be in the Senate for a
while?.., he wondered in reluctant acceptance.

No more answer came forth that night.

******

The moment that Plee, the little Kubaz, blinded girl, began to worsen in health,
a team of specialist worked to stabilize her status, but it was already too
late.

By the time Mara arrived at the hospital that day, aides, medics and nurses of
different types were already busy all around the girl's bed, plugging her on IV
to feed her body while trying to contain the infection. Although she wasn't
supposed to interfere with true medical work, Mara couldn't stand outside this
time.

She stepped in the room and reached the girl's side. The moment she laid her
eyes on her, she saw what was wrong with her, but before she could try anything,
the chief medic noticed her presence and told her to leave.

"Not this time, Chief," she answered seriously, resting her hand on the girl's
hidden leg.

"Miss Jade, if you don't want a report on your refusal to cooperate, leave now,"
the medic repeated, totally abandoning his patient to rebuke her.

"I said no," she repeated in kind, locking her gaze on the tired features of her
almost adopted daughter.

*Mara?" the weakened child suddenly called, interrupting the medic's next
tirade.

*I'm here, Plee," she reassured her in basic Kubaz.

*What's going on? I'm... afraid...".

*Don't worry, we'll take good care of you," she promised the blinded child, then
switched her focus on her Force senses.

The moment that she projected herself in the young patient, she found herself
assailed by the horrifying vision of virulent cancer-like cells which were
taking over Plee's good cells. Mara unfortunately 'knew' now that the medics'
science couldn't do anything against it.

No, she resolved with her resurfacing strength; she wouldn't lose another child
to the Emperor's malevolence! Without thinking, Mara threw her senses against
the invading cells and worked on crushing them or pushing them back---- but they
were too numerous to fight them all off.

*No!!!!!!!* she mentally cried in despair even as she redoubled her efforts to
save one more life which the Empire was so intent on destroying---

She failed...

Even as she witnessed the cold victory of the artificial sickness, she froze as
another mind contacted hers.

*You tried, Mara... Thank you, I forgive you.*

Her eyes snapped open at this and immediately sought the features of her first
charge.

"Plee!!!!!" she cried in defeat when she saw her take her last breath--- then
she was gone----- and dissolved as if she had never been.

Everybody who was standing near the bed took a step back in shock... except
Mara. Her grief was such that she never really noticed that anything abnormal
had just happened.

Plee was dead... She hadn't been able to save her, and unlike the first times
she had lost a 'child', she had really, really wanted to save that one.

Slowly, completely unaware of the chaos that now filled the small two-bed room,
she walked toward the open door, then down corridors until she found a private
corner and cried in true grief.

More than any other child in her care, Plee had become like her own child. The
little girl hadn't opened to anyone before her, always isolating herself from
the others... until she had met her and begun to work with her group. According
to the head nurse, she had literally saved her life that day... only to fail
today.

Life wasn't fair, she silently moaned, then continued to cry. For the first
time in her life, she considered it more than normal.

******

On Dagobah, Anakin totally focused on his exercises of self-forgiveness.

After seeing the results of his first attempts, he regularly checked himself for
more encouraging results, but curiously enough, they didn't seem to progress
much now that he knew what he was doing.

At first disappointed by this, he lapsed shortly into another self-deprecating
phase, but he didn't let it last for long. Instead, he spurred himself into
action once again and resumed his meditation.

The trick, he slowly understood, was to not worry about the results; he had to
focus only on his memories and how he had to forgive himself for those.

The more time passed, the less he ate or slept, using rejuvenation trances to
refresh himself and survive with only one meal a day.

Slowly, he even forgot that he had come here looking for someone.

He eventually reached his memories of his first months with his son; he exited
his trance, unable to face those memories like he had done with even the
betrayal of the Jedi order.

He had hurt his son, he scorned at himself, had crushed his defiant streak until
he had been a ghost of who he was meant to be...

Luke should, by any rights, despise him, he decided coldly, or at least not care
about him, but he knew that it wasn't the case. His son had long forgiven him
for everything, had even told him that it had been necessary at the time.

He himself wished that he could go back in time, as his true self, and save him
the torment that he had caused him. His son was a grown man now, and he was
sane and loving, but what would have happened if he hadn't hurt him when he had
been a child?

How better would Luke be today?, he wondered seriously. Without any bad
memories to hurt him even unconsciously? He closed his eyes in sorrow, then
allowed his senses to pull him in a vision.

'He had found his son and had put an end to his slavery the moment that he had
ascertained his identity. The child had reacted coldly to this discovery,
unsure as to how to treat him. He had chosen the distant study; he himself had
been careful to not scare him anymore than he already was.

They were now entering the throne room for Luke's introduction to the Emperor.
Vader was nervous; he knew that he had to consider his young son as a prisoner
since he couldn't really trust him, yet he himself couldn't punish him as he
would a true prisoner.

He was his son.

He finally knelt in front of his master; Luke remained beside him, letting go of
his hand the moment that he let him do so.

"Still distant I see," the ruler commented coldly.

"Yes, Master," Vader answered truthfully even as he stood up and took a step
closer to his son.

Why did he have a very bad feeling about this?, he wondered uneasily.

The Emperor addressed the child.

"Welcome all the same, young Vader. How do you like your new life so far?"

Even though he was young, the child was gifted, or cursed, with a quick spirit.
His blue eyes seemed to pierce the veil of shadows around the Emperor--- and he
suddenly took a step away, as if scared to death.

"You are a bad man, even worse than Vader," he answered with the wisdom of a
seer.

While Vader meant to admonish him for talking this way to the Emperor, the ruler
didn't answer. Instead, he lashed out at the defenseless child-----'

Anakin pulled himself out of his vision and gasped in horror.

By the Force he had truly saved his son's life with his actions... He---

His thoughts came to a sudden halt when he became aware that he wasn't alone
anymore.

In front of him, on a boulder, was a small, pointy-eared, green skinned alien;
he was gazing at him with what looked like compassionate eyes.

"Master Yoda," he half-whispered in both shock and disbelief.

He had completely given up on his ever finding the last of the Jedi.

"Ready you are, Anakin Skywalker," he nodded slowly, then fell silent once
again.

Anakin also remained silent for a long, long while, pondering the master's
words.

******

As Luke looked around himself, he felt the desire to duck out and leave what
looked like an impossible task to him.

He had followed Piett and Leia's advice and used the help of the volunteers for
the Senate. He had also put out a call for each planet to choose one senator to
represent them, then had set the law that each planet would be responsible of
their senator's income so that they would make sure of his or her service to
them, not himself.

From this day on, it had been an unstoppable if sinuous path to today... the
opening session of the new Senate.

While he had personally met with each senator and run them through his senses,
and that he had barred a few of them from their seats until someone else could
replace them, he still felt more than uneasy. No less than eight thousands
beings were gathered in the huge audience room, and while they were all
relatively good people when alone, he had now read enough books about group
philosophy to fear what would happen if those senators were to follow a bad
leader.

Hence, here he was, standing near the raised dais but nowhere near the
spotlight, mentally crossing his fingers that the Force hadn't made a mistake
with him.

He himself still felt like a fish out of the water.

Around them, the senators and their aides finished to take their seats, then
waited for the temporary chairman to start the session. The first order of the
day would be to elect a chairman and a president, a true one.

Given the potential request of involving him with the President nomination, Luke
had agreed with the temporary chairman that he himself would not participate in
any way to those procedures.

He was like a guardian who kept eyes on things, nothing else; he had repeated
this to them so many times that it had been dubbed as his mantra in the early
jokes of the new senators..

A signal finally went off, indicating the beginning of the procedures. Thanks
to the throng of reporters and news droids, thousands of flashes went off all
around the dais; the news people though were gathered on the press level, high
above the rest of the assembly.

When such flashes went off around him, Luke forced himself to remain still, not
paying attention to them. He had a job to do, and the better he did it, the
less trouble he would have to fix, he reminded himself sternly.

He began his long hours of semi-meditation. Meanwhile, senators of experience
presented their candidature for the much sought-after positions in the galactic
government.

Throughout those long hours of negotiation and voting, thousands of feelings
constantly assailed Luke's senses, but thank the Force, they never raised his
trigger-set alarms.

For the moment...

******

Parsecs away, Mara spent her lunch time watching the holovid, as did everyone
else in the employee's cantina.

For the first time in nearly thirty years, the Senate was seating again.
Nobody wanted to miss this first session.

However, she admitted to herself while she listened to the results of the first
tour for the seat of the Chairman, she herself didn't care much about politics.
She was watching it because of the frequent glimpses of her lover. He was
standing outside the dais, far from where the report droids were gathered, but
they had still found him.

He looked tired, she thought sympathetically as she studied his serious, still
gorgeous features. He also looked more mature than when she had last seen him.
However, she covered her smile with her hand, she could still tell that he
wanted to be anywhere but where he was at the moment.

That had to be boring, she silently agreed with him.

However, she noticed when the shots returned to him, he did what he had to do;
she wondered exactly what he was focusing on for so long... His eyes were half-
closed. Anybody who didn't know him might think that he was falling asleep but
she knew better. She had instantly understood that he was scanning the room for
deceit, and given the status of his eyes, she knew that it wasn't a light scan
either.

He was totally immersed in his task, but for what?, she wondered seriously. She
had heard about his meeting each senator personally, had heard about his refusal
of some elements. What was the problem then?, she wanted to ask him. The image
changed back to the rest of the crowd, then returned to a far view of the Jedi
guardian.

While the reporter whispered to explain to the watchers what they were seeing,
Mara took advantage of the image to admire her lover's still strong body. He
was still dressed in navy blue and white, effectively dispelling any reminder of
who he used to be; he was still as well-built as ever, and she couldn't detect
any signs of weaknesses in him.

Just like when he had been a Dark Lord. He was sturdy, ready for action, and...
boyish looking, she finished with a soft smile.

The image changed again; she checked her chrono. Time to go back; her
substitute probably wanted to eat a little.

When she entered the children's play room, she reflexively searched for Plee, as
she had done ever since her death, then her brain caught with her and reminded
her that she wasn't with them anymore.

Still feeling a slight pang of guilt, she forced herself to work in spite of it.
Other children needed her help and appreciated her company.

"Mara!" a little twi-lek girl smiled toothily at her, then slowly stood to her
feet. "Can you tell us a story?"

"Please?" another little girl begged, looking up from her new game.

*Oh yes, with battles and heroes," one of the Wookiee twins added, pulling on
her hand to make her sit down for a long storytelling.

Mara couldn't help but smile at their enthusiasm.

"And princesses?" a new voice asked her in mangled basic, then the sluissi girl
plopped down in the gathering group.

As the young woman finally relented and sat down with the children, she noticed
that almost everyone had already installed themselves for a story.

"Okay, so action, a princess, and a hero? On one condition," she smiled at them
even as the story began to take shape in her mind.

"What?" several voices asked eagerly.

"I will begin it," she told them gently, "but you will have to decide the end."

"Yeah!!!!" the children cheered, then quieted down and waited for her to begin.

"Once upon a time, on a planet far from the center of the universe," she began
slowly, gently, "was a beautiful princess. Her name was Maya and her hair was
the color of the sun. Her beauty was such that no man could not fall in love
with her. Her father, an evil king, knew this and secretly used her to conquer
enemies only to destroy them afterward."

The children were hooked, drinking in every one of her words.

"Princess Maya didn't know what kind of man her father truly was. Being her
sole parent, he had always loved her for two and always gave her everything her
heart desired, but in a way, he was blinding her with his kindness," she
commented sadly while trying hard to not get too emotional with the twist she
had chosen.

It was very close to home, she admitted to herself, but shrugged her doubt away
and went on.

"Bad man," a little girl pouted against her hands.

"Yes," Mara agreed with her, "but Maya was not alone in the castle," she
reassured them, smiling slightly as she continued to adapt hers and Luke's story
to the fairy-tale format. "A boy of her age also lived there with his father,
who was serving the evil king. The two children were almost inseparable, except
when Maya's father would take her away. Strangely, Lik, her friend, was the
only boy, then young man who wasn't spellbound by Maya's beauty; it puzzled and
worried her wary father."

"Lik didn't like her? But she must have been so beautiful," a young teenager
commented from Mara's left.

"Oh, he thought that she was beautiful," she reassured the children, "but he
wasn't in love with her at first sight. Instead, he had the chance to know her
for who she was, and she knew him the same way."

In the group, the little girls nodded their heads in understanding.

"When they had been younger, Maya's father hadn't minded much. His daughter had
always liked to play with his servant's son; since he didn't want to upset her,
he had never kept her away from the boy. However, the more she grew in age and
beauty," she began more seriously, "and the more he wanted to keep her away from
Lik."

"Oh no," several young voices whispered in worry.

"Why?" a younger boy inquired with a frown.

"Even though Maya and Lik didn't know it yet," she answered him, leaning closer
to him as if she were revealing a secret, "the king knew that the two teenagers
were falling in love; he didn't like it at all. If Maya were in love, then he
knew that he would lose the weapon that was her beauty. He didn't want to lose
this, and especially not to a boy who didn't want to serve him like his father
did," she finished even more seriously.

"Lik knew how bad the king was?" a child queried seriously.

"Yes, he did," Mara nodded. "But unfortunately, he was the only one who knew it
in the kingdom. When the king ordered Lik's father to keep him away from Maya,
his father obeyed the king."

"Oh no," the children cringed again in delightful, entertaining worry.

"Unfortunately," Mara nodded in answer. "Lik was kept away from Maya, given
duties to perform at home instead, but one night, around his eighteenth
anniversary and after Maya had returned from a travel with her father, Lik left
his bed and tried to contact her without their fathers knowing it. He met her
on her balcony."

She then proceeded to spin them a tale of Lik admitting his love for her, but
being secretly banned from the kingdom when the king learnt about this thanks to
his evil magical powers. She then told them how Lik's love for May was stronger
than even Krayt dragons, gangsters and volcanoes and that he eventually
returned, but not before discovering that he too was a mage, the opposite kind
of the king's.

"By that time," she continued, two hours after the beginning of the story,
"Lik's father had begun to doubt the king's word about his son running away, so
when he saw his grown son, who had become a true Knight during his missing three
years, he decided to help him kill the evil king."

"Yeah, go Lik!" the little boys cheered from their laying positions on the
floor.

"How did they do that?" a little girl asked. "I thought the king was an evil
magician."

"Yes," Mara nodded, "but remember that Lik is also a mage now. To surprise the
king, they pretended that Lik had been captured by his father upon his return
and that given the secrecy of his disappearance, he had taken him directly to
the king. Naturally, the king was very angry to see him still alive. He had
magically transferred him to the end of the world in hopes that he would die
there, but instead, the young, inexperienced adult was back and a trained
Knight. He was very angry," she told them in as angry a voice as she could
mimick without sounding truly angry.

She smiled slightly as she felt the shivers of apprehension that came from the
children. She hurried to finish the hero's tale.

"The king stepped down from his throne, confident that the youth was a true
prisoner, and meant to hurt him but before he had finished to raise his hand,
Lik's father drew his sword and gravelly injured his king."

"Whew!" several young voices whispered while they continued to hug their pillows
in worry.

"Lik used that time to free his hands from the false ropes, then took his magic
sword from his father's belt to defend himself from the guards nearby, but what
neither of them had thought was that the king survived his injury."

"Oh no..." a young girl moaned, burying her face in Mara's shoulder.

"The evil king was even more angry; he called on his secret powers and pushed
Lik's father against a wall, then meant to do the same thing with the boy--- but
he was blocked. Lik was fighting him with his own powers!"

"Go Lik!!!" earnest giggles encouraged the hero.

"Absolutely surprised by this," Mara continued in a voice that supported 'her'
hero, "the king tried again, with another power, but with the same result. Lik
was the first being to ever resist him this way. He changed tactics and ordered
his guards to kill him. Lik crossed swords with the five other men, then when
one died, used a second sword to keep the four other at bay."

"Wow!"

"Wish I could see that," an older boy commented earnestly.

"Lik fought like a lion, thrusting, parrying and slashing with as much speed as
he could while not hurting himself. Behind them, the king was furious,
gathering his powers to attack him again--- but he had forgotten about Lik's
father. Even as Lik killed two more guards, the king's life came to an end, for
real this time," she finished with a pride she had never expressed before now.

"Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!" the children cheered in unison.

"However, it wasn't completely over," Mara told them seriously, reaching the
crux of her true story. "Lik and his father weren't alone in the room. Someone
else had seen the death of the king... Someone who loved her father."

"Oh no, Princess Maya!!" an older girl understood instantly.

"Yes," she nodded sadly. "She was there, behind curtains. At first, she had
been elated to see Lik again, but when his father had attacked her father, she
had begun to hate him. As she had watched the confrontation, she had decided
that something had happened to her friend during his missing years and he had
become evil. Then, she had witnessed her father's powers and had become even
more confused. Hence, once quiet had returned to the throne room, she crept out
of the curtains, unsure whether she wanted to avenge her father or return to the
only man she had ever loved. Her friend saw her," she finished, pausing to add
dramatic effect to the story.

The children were literally holding their breaths. She decided to not make them
languish too much.

"For a long moment," she continued softly, "Lik and Maya gazed at each other,
unable to say a word yet felt like they could talk for days on end to catch up
with the past three years--- then, on instinct, Maya turned her back to him and
disappeared down a secret corridor."

"No, Maya, don't do this!"

"Go back," someone else agreed with her friend.

Mara continued sadly, aware that she had made a mistake back then, when similar
events had played out in front of her true eyes. "Princess Maya remained away
from Lik for a long while," she continued sadly, "refusing to see him or talk to
him, staying on her own in her rooms. Then, one day, she secretly left the
palace and went in the village. Things were different," she commented, trying
to convey her character's shock through her voice. "People were happy now, and
no more king had risen to power. At that moment, she understood why Lik and his
father had killed her father, which now left only one question: should she go
back to him?.. or not?" she finished hesitantly.

"Go back, go back!" a little girl answered instantly.

"They love each other, they should be together," an elder boy added more
seriously.

"Lik must miss her after all those years,"

"Nothing stands between them now," another girl added with a wide smile.

"But what about her father?" Mara asked them seriously. "She loved him and he
had lied to her. Can she love Lik without being hurt?"

"The king didn't love her, he was using her," Chandor replied sincerely.

"I bet her beauty was magical," another child nodded in agreement.

"So he hurt her too," someone else added seriously.

"But Lik would never hurt her," an older teenager commented seriously, almost
knowingly.

While the children exchanged more opinions, Mara reflected that she was getting
more than she had bargained for with this. She had meant to tell them a story
and get a few, uncertain answers, but instead, they were all adamant that the
two lovers belonged together.

That she should return to Luke. What surprised her the most was the children's
insight in the characters. True, Luke would never hurt her, and yes, the
Emperor had never even cared for her; devotion to him couldn't be compared to
her love for Luke. And, she admitted sadly as an image of Luke in the senate
came back to her, her lover was unhappy nowadays.

He hadn't been only tired, she understood; he had been lonelier than lonely.
For someone who had always had a least her or his father nearby, this has got to
be extremely difficult, she thought glumly.

"So, what is the end?" she asked the children although she knew what their
answer would be.

"Princess Maya returned to the castle," a first one began.

"There, she met with Lik and forgave him for killing her father."

"He was a very bad man," a third, younger child added seriously.

"Then they married, had several children and lived happily ever after," a
normally not romantic teenager finished solemnly.

"Yes!!" the younger ones agreed excitedly.

"Okay," Mara forced herself to not betray the truth of her story. "Now how
about we draw images from this story?"

Before she had finished her suggestions, the better adapted children were
already on their feet and taking out the coloring screens. The more impaired
children followed them if a little more slowly.

While she watched them at work, Mara tried to debate with herself instead of
trusting the children's judgment, but a sentence continuously nagged at her:
truth came from children's mouths. She could now understand what the wise man
had mean by this, and as she began to see the results of the drawing activities,
she reflected that it wasn't restricted to their mouths, but their spirits.

Most of the girls had chosen to draw the end of the story, with her returning to
Luke. She dimly wondered if they would have chosen the same ending if she had
told them that it would mean that she would have to leave them to return to her
hero...

******

TBC in part 9: Healings

SJ: Skyjade@globetrotter.net (any positive stuff is welcome, but negative or
mean comments will be thrown down the Sarlacc s throat without being read.)

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Epilogue

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