11--Perfect Memories
     Luke blinked. Okay, something was wrong. He was just sitting her, and he shouldn't be.
Staring at that block had done something to him, but for some reason, like a switch, it had been
turned off.
     He straightened. How long had he been sitting here? And where were Mara and Callista?
     Then he reached out with the Force and---------
     *LUKE!*
     It was so familiar, like a dream he had forgotten but treasured dearly. Someone was there
with him, someone he had met before in this same way. On a ship, a long time ago.
     She was everywhere, filling the cave, only this time not the ghost of a Jedi Knight who had
sacrificed her body and cast her spirit into a machine, refusing out of some sort of pride to go
into what lay Beyond. 
     This was Callista--as she truly was. She glittered like Ben, like Yoda, like his father, Anakin,
but she was different. She did not stand before him, he could only see her face amist the dark of
the room. She was the only light other than the stasis block. Even that seemed dim compared to
her.
     "Callista," he whispered.
     *Luke, you have to help Mara.* No tearful reunion, no mourning over her death. She was
simply there, with a purpose and a strength he had once known. Where had she been, if not
inside Cray's body? Taking flesh again had corrupted her. This was purity, this was the woman
he had once loved.
     That a part of him still loved. 
     *She's dying, Luke!* Callista admonished him. But it was only to get him moving. The panic
that rose in Luke's chest the longer the Force was normalized around him was held back only by
his wonder at the spirit before him.
     *And the baby?*
     *Vayia is well, but she won't last long without her mother.*
     *Help me find them,* Luke begged.
     *I don't have long. You'll have to hurry.* The face disappeared and he saw the currents of
light swirl down the tunnel. He followed at a dead run.

     With Callista gone, there was only her own pain to think about. Their Force connection had
made Mara only aware of the deathpain that Callista had been experiencing, therefore blocking
her own. Now it was just the two of them. 
     It was overwhelming.
     What had gone wrong? Had she ruptured something? Had a rock hit her in exactly the wrong
place? Or was it just the plain and simple fact that this was how her body worked? Childbirthing
would be impossible again, if that was the case. If she even lived.
     She lay down on the rock, feeling the hot sticky blood on her thighs. It pooled on the ground
beneath her, tricking down the jagged curves of the boulders around her. Luke would find
her--she had to stay alive long enough. Not for her sake, or even Luke's, but for Vaiya's.
     Vaiya. The stonelifter. Her Jedi Knight of a daughter who was not even born yet. Mara shut
her eyes, touching the mind that was not so small. Vaiya responded, her brain functioning on
levels that were impossible. But because of the Force, it was possible.
     Either that, or they were both dying.
     Mara felt her eyes sting with tears. That would NOT happen. Her daughter would not die. She
would live. She had a future to face. Mara had done her job. She had brought her into the world.
She would stay alive, Vaiya would be born, Skywalker would have a piece of immortality and a
piece of her. He would make a wonderful father.
     So Mara shut her eyes and concentrated. She didn't want to go into a trance, for fear that she
would lose touch with the baby. Who knew what a Jedi trance would do to a pregnant woman?
The entire body shut down--she had to keep her body alive. Maybe a healing technique...she
focused all her remaining energy on her womb. She wasn't far from giving birth. Her water was
about to break. Maybe it would wash away some of this blood.
     She felt so tired. She hurt so much, and it was so unfair. Why couldn't she be alive to see her
child? Why did destiny have to be so cruel? It brought Luke and her together only to separate
them again. It gave them a future only to take away the present. It was all so twisted and wrong!
     In those few moments, Mara felt her grim determination start to give way to self- pity, and
then despair. She slipped into a partial trance, simply because she lacked the energy to stay
awake. Only the child mattered. Only that thought would keep her alive.

     Luke knew he was out of breath, and if he didn't stop to catch it he was going to pass out.
There was a real light now, at the end of the tunnel. It was daylight. It was a back exit that those
low-life slave-trading smuggler, bless their paranoid hearts, had installed for quick getaways. 
     Callista was still with him, but she was getting faint. Luke panted and reached for her.
     *Which way?*
     *Around that boulder. You'll see a path to the front. It's a bit of a climb, and I can't stay with
you. Mara is slipping away.*
     *You're leaving me? Now?*
     *I have to, Luke.* He could see her again, this time more definite in shape. She looked like
she had in his vision, the one time he had been with her as she truly was, before she had taken
Cray's body. She smiled at him.
     *You do remember.*
     *Of course I remember.* In that moment, it all came back to him. That one perfect memory,
that one tragic lost love that was never meant to be, that feeling of sorrow and joy mingled
together. 
     It was the only thing Callista had truly wanted from him. Just to be remembered as she really
was. 
     *I love you, Luke,* she told him.
     He wanted to reply in kind, not wanting to spoil the beauty of the moment. He had loved what
they had shared, had loved what they had, but he did not love her. Not like he loved Mara. Mara
was everything, Mara and his daughter. But Callista did not seem at all expectant. Her presence
was oddly warm.
     *Don't worry. I understand. In a way you don't yet understand, I love Mara, too. Goodbye,
Luke.*
     She vanished, leaving only her memory.

     Luke reached the mouth of the cave, a heap of cuts, scrapes, and thick drops of sweat. His
clothes were ragged and tearing, and his hair was mangled with dirt and grime. It had been a
little over a half-hour since he had started over that mountain, but he had made it, not losing his
focus once.
     Now that he stood before the mouth of the cave and was totally exhausted, he had to face the
biggest trial yet. He had to get Mara out of there.
     He stumbled to the shuttle and called for help. He wasn't sure who he got. For a minute, the
guy had sounded like Han, but Luke wasn't paying attention. Just bring help, he told them. Just
bring help because Mara's trapped and she's go ing into labor, but she's hurt....
     No, Callista said she was dying.
     Luke ran back to the cave and began digging. Then he stopped because he could hear the
vibrating of the beams. If they gave out completely, they would completely crush Mara and their
child.
     He reached for her. Maybe if he could rouse her, she could help him. It was a vain hope--he
only touched her comatosed mind, just a shadow of the woman he knew. He pushed, but there
was nothing. She had shut him out.
     Shut him out!
     Luke backed away a bit, Mara's feelings of despair and self-pit lashing out at him like the
leftovers of a stingtail's attack. What was going on inside her head?
     But there was little time for that. He had to concentrate on the task at hand. Yoday had told
him that size mattered not. He had to believe that now. He had to, if he wanted to get Mara out.
Because he had to hold up the entire roof of that abandoned mine if he wanted a snowball's
chance on Tatooine of getting her out of there alive.
     He shut his eyes and concentrated. He had to do this. He *would* do it, and while everyone
had tried to tell him that the dark side was filled with the love of power, no one had given much
thought to the fact that the light side was filled with the power of love. His love for Mara would
move that entire mine if it had to.
     It had to.

     Mara didn't know where she was. It wasn't dark or cold here, but there was a discomfort here
that made her ache. She could see pictures, but they were distorted and choppy, like pieces of a
holovid strung together but in no order that made any sense. The strange part about them, they
were of herself, and she felt none of that queasiness that most people experience when having to
view themselves. It seemed perfectly natural to sit here and watch her play out her life as if she
wasn't even a part of it, as if she were someone else and herself at the same time.
     Luke was there, too. In some he was courting her in the days long before the Caamas
Document Incident, as it had come to be known historically. In fact, it was in many. It should
have seemed odd to her, or at the very least, touching. These were romances in the truest sense
of the word--his heartbreak over Callista and then his discovery of feelings for Mara that he
didn't know were there.
     *Can we say, rebound?* she thought to no one in particular.
     They weren't all bad. In a few, there was real love there. She could see how their relationship
could have been so normal, so average. Their sparks and passion similar to any other two young
heroes in love. They dated in some, in others Luke simply confessed that he loved her and
declared that he wanted to marry her. In some she tried to run, in others she embraced it
whole-heartedly. In nearly every one, she was with him. It seemed inevitable. For Mara, it only
confirmed the obvious.
     There were others that were not so easily stitched together. In one, it came too soon and she
utterly rejected him, never to speak with him again even after she realized how wrong she had
been. In ano ther, something terrible happened to Luke, and Mara had rescued him from a life of
doomed emptiness only to find herself at the center of his heart. Still in another, it took a whole
lifetime for her to come around, and even then she had been forced into it by the rescue of a
child that would never be. Mara didn't know if there was more sorrow over the wasted time or
the child that didn't exist. He seemed like such a handsome lad, a rebel who couldn't overcome
his boyish orgins. He was no hero, or any Jedi Knight, but he had such potential. 
     Some were downright amusing, pictures of a future that didn't seem so alien, or paths that
completely sidestepped history to find that the last ten years had all been one big dream. Others
were mockeries, but all with happy endings. Some didn't touch her and Luke at all, merely kept
them separated, sometimes hostile, sometimes with potential for more, but the line never
stretched that far, and it would leave Mara wondering--how now?
     Then there was one where Luke betrayed her. Mara wanted to scream as she felt the pain tear
through her doppleganger. Couldn't the dumb farmboy control himself? She had been so
understanding, and this was how he treated her?
     And then there were those where she didn't exist, they had never met, and Luke lived happily
ever after with someone else.
     What was wrong with him anyway?
     She tore herself away from the kalidescope of visions. She had seen enough. 
     "Don't you know what they are?"
     Mara didn't turn to face the voice. She wasn't sure she had a head to turn at that point. But the
owner wasn't trying to hide herself.
     So this was the real Callista. 
     "I give up," Mara said, her harsh sarcasm kicking in.
     "Alternate paths. Futures that could have happened but never did. In nearly all of them, Mara,
Luke is with you."
     "Not all of them."
     "More than not. Even those futures where you didn't see yourself present, you were still there
in some of them." She grew distant, sad. "I cannot claim more than a few myself."
     "Yes, but you got what you wanted, didn't you?" She felt the anger make her surroundings
darken a bit. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew that something had happened. "Your
one perfect memory, something I can never touch."
     "This is tiresome," Callista said, obviously irritated. "Mara, Luke is killing himself over trying
to get you out of this cave. How can you be so insecure? Don't you believe that he loves you?"
     Mara wanted to shake her head. The darkness was so close, it felt so much easier to give in
than to fight it. All the old rage, all the old hatred for Skywalker and his arrogant
Jedi-Masterisms...
     "You're despairing, Mara," Callista warned. "Your injuries are not that bad. You can survive
them. You don't have to die if you don't want to. You can fight...I've always been told that you're
a fighter."
     Mara wanted to shut her eyes, but wasn't sure she had eyes to shut. "Go away, Callista. They'll
save Vaiya, that's all that matters. I'm just so tired...I want to rest so much." She felt so weary
that her being seemed to stoop.
     *Mother.* That woke her up a bit. That hadn't been Callista.
     Then she saw her again. All strawberry blond hair and eyes the color of Mara's new
lightsaber--that pale teal blue-green. She was full grown, but her features were vague, as if she
were a pencil drawing that hadn't been given defined features yet. But she was alive...so much
alive, and so very filled with emotion.
     Vaiya had called her Mother.
     Mara wanted to embrace her, and found that she had arms to do so. Vaiya was so close...why
was she here with her? *The doctors will come soon and take you with them,* Mara assured her,
although she wasn't sure if Vaiya understood. She would certainly never remember this, unless
something triggered her. This would probably be the only memory of her mother she would ever
get. Mara was so weary, the urge to give up was closer now. She hugged her daughter tighter and
reached out with her mind. There had to be some place in her daughter's soul for her to carry
something with her, and someday remember her mother as she truly was.
     In that moment, everything Mara knew of herself was poured into Vaiya, and locked away
deep in the back of Vaiya's mind. Perhaps the trauma of being born would wash it out, but at
least Mara had tried.
     She had given Luke his daughter, who would have a glorious future. She was done playing
this game. She could offically retire, like she would have eventually done from the trading game
if Luke hadn't come along like that....
     Then Vaiya was gone. Mara could hear a cry--rich and deep, beautiful and moving in nature.
Vaiya had been born.

12--Light
     Luke didn't remember much after he started lift ing stones. It was twisted and broken in his
memory. Mara lying in a pool of blood, Callista nearby. Mara in the back of the shuttle as Luke
drove at an impossible speed to the nearest medcenter, which thankfully was half the distance to
the resort--only in the opposite direction. Telling Han and Leia what had happened. Mara's face,
as white as the sheets she lay on, as the doctors told him she had lost so much blood. Luke
searching for her mind to realize she was too far away, then reaching into her body to help it heal
while she was gone. Hearing the cry of his daughter had woken him. What had Callista called
her? Vaiya? Was that a name? Surely Mara would never agree to a name Callista had picked.
     The doctors asked him what the name was, and Luke firmly said, "I'll discuss it with my wife
when she awakes."
     "But Master Skywalker," the doctor protested gently, "your wife is in a very serious state---"
     The look Luke gave him shut him up instantly. "How do we help her?" Luke said.
     The doctor sighed. "We've given her blood, but it will take a while for her body to recover. I
cannot lie to you, Jedi Master, but the longer she is unconscious, the worse her chances get. If
you can reach her through the Force, please do so. Only her will will keep her alive."
     Luke carefully pushed the hair out of Mara's face. If there was one thing Mara Jade
Skywalker had, it was will. So what was wrong?
     He kissed her. "Don't leave me, Mara," he whispered. He had lost so much in his life. Even
his own family. They had all died or left him for their own families, even Han and Leia, those
closest to him in the world. All his loves had either died, left him, or both. In fact, with Callista
dead, that only left Mara. 
     And there was *only* Mara. From that, he knew he would never recover. It didn't matter
where or when anyone else had come and gone. Mara was different. If she died, the baby would
bear her name. 
     Luke had to let that thought go. He couldn't bear to think of raising his daughter without
Mara--if he was even able. If Mara died, he might just die with her. 

     "See how ridiculous you're being?" Callista stormed back and forth. Okay, so she had a body
here, her old body, the one with the right features, but the same malt-brown hair and grey eyes.
"God have mercy, Mara, but you are pathetic!"
     "Trying to goad me, eh, Callie?" Mara challenged, liking the feel of it. Yes, it was about time
she got down and dirty with this woman who would have liked nothing better than to steal Luke
away. She'd show her exactly what Palpatine had taught to his Hands. 
     *Mara!* It was Luke. It was the sweetest mind she had ever touched, and it stopped her cold.
But it was only a flicker, and it faded quickly. Mara realized what was happening...the dark side
was having its last hurrah with her soul, trying to drag her down into the madness at the last
minute by making her despair over Luke. 
     And why should she despair over Luke?
     "EXACTLY what I was trying to say!" Callista shouted. "Come on, Mara! Where's that spirit
I've heard so much about!"
     Mara smiled, but froze again. Okay, she wanted to live now...but how did that put her in any
better situation than she had been in fifteen seconds ago?
     No sooner had the thought come forth when Callista began to glow brightly. "That's more like
it, Mara," she said, before disappearing in a brilliance of light and color. "We'll meet again, my
friend...but not for a long, long time." Then the light was overwhelming...and it became
Something Else.
     Mara reached for the It, reached for Callista within It, a thought coming to her mind of panic,
but the cry of "Don't leave me yet!" dying in her throat. There was no chance to say it. In one of
the briefest spans of time, Mara became Aware. It was not just knowledge and power and
wisdom in that light that was folding back toward her, spreading over her outstretched fingers. It
was the very Fabric of Existence, the Essence of the Force, its Master and Guide. 
     Mara was entranced. This was beyond anything she ever knew, anything she could even
fathom. She was staring into the Face of eternity itself, where Callista had gone, but not before
saying that the Force was only the beginning.
     Then It pushed. Color exploded around her, and before Mara could more than revel in the
beauty of the moment, it was over.
     She was back.
     She opened her eyes, feeling strange. She was lying on something that was mildly
comfortable, but that didn't explain the warmth coming from beside her. Turning her head just a
little, she reached out with the Force. The presense was so familiar....
     Luke lay beside her, his eyes closed in sleep. But he was troubled. He'd been there for several
hours, but the dark circles and deep lines in his youthful face spoke of more time spent at her
bedside, worrying. 
     She hesitated to move, remembering how strongly her body had objected to being immobile
for so long all that time ago on....what was the name of that planet again? She could only
remember it as the place where she and Luke had discovered that they were in love. 
     A slight turn of her neck revealed that she was remarkably better off than was reasonable.
Obviously some Jedi Master had been working his healing magic on her again. She vaguely
remembered the lingering presence of pain and sorrow concerning him, as if for some reason she
had doubted him. She made a note to never be so foolish again.
     There had been something else, though...something beautiful and warm, something so full of
love she could have stayed there forever. But she hadn't. Why hadn't she? It was hard to
remember. Her dreams were all getting faint. Could that have been Luke....? No, it was different.
It was beyond even Luke.
     She smiled. Now she remembered why she had left. Aside from the obvious in the form of
the man beside her. Her stomach was much flatter than before...apparently, their much expected
guest had arrived.
     "Luke," she whispered. His eyes snapped open, their crystal blue quickly losing the foggy film
of sleep. He raised his head, the pure joy taking years off his lined face. 
     "Mara," he whispered. "You scared me."
     "Sorry. For what it's worth, I scared me, too."
     "How do you feel?" 
     "Like a wampa's unfaithful girlfriend." She grinned...or rather, she tried to. "How 'bout you?"
     "Like a new father."
     Her emerald eyes glittered. "Take me to her."
     He frowned. "Mara, you need to rest---"
     "I've been resting. I want to see her. Please, Luke!" she begged.
"Mara, you know that she came early. The doctors have her under observation. They can't bring
her here."
     "Then take me to her."
     "How? You shouldn't move at all."
     "I don't care...carry me if you have to!"
     He sat up and sighed. "Okay, but only because you're her mother." He gently lifted her into
his arms and she put her own arms around his neck, even though she lacked the strength to
support herself. 
     The doctors and nurses stopped them at the door. "Where are you going?" the head doctor
practically shrieked.
     "To see the baby," Luke said calmly.
     "It was unwise to move Mrs. Skywalker so quickly after she regained consciousness---"
     "Listen, boys," Mara said, a hint of her old fire in her voice, "there are two ways to do this.
You can either get out of our way, or we can get you out of our way. Trust me, I may have been
on my back for the last---how long has it been, Luke?"
     "About two and a half days."
     "But I've got enough in me to make you all feel pretty unpleasant if you don't let me see my
child." Mara gave them a good glare. "Anyone care to see if I'm bluffing?"
     
     For all the machinery around her, the newest Skywalker looked healthy and happy. Even
though Mara couldn't touch her with her hand, she reached out with the Force and felt the peace
in her daughter's mind.
     *Mommy's here,* Mara sent.
     The recognition flared back, and Luke started in surprise.
     "She knows you already," he said.
     "Of course she does. Vaiya is a smart little girl."
     "Vaiya...." Luke muttered. "That's what Callista called her."
     "Because that's her name."
     "Is that what you chose? Don't I get a say?"
     Mara looked at him. "Okay, Daddy, what do you have to say?"
     "I think....Vaiya is a beautiful name. Vaiya Jade Skywalker. It's perfect."
     Mara smiled. "I thought you'd gotten wise in your old age."
     Luke turned his eyes toward her. "Who are you calling old?" But he was so happy it was
radiating from him. 
     They watched Vaiya for several minutes. Finally, Mara said, "You know about Callista."
     "Yes. I arranged for her to be taken back to Chad and buried. She always loved her
homeworld." He paused, and she could tell he was thinking about something troubling.
     "What?" she asked softly.
     "I kept her lightsaber."
     Mara shifted slightly in his arms. "Any particular reason?"
     "I felt...our son should have it. When we find him."
     Of course. She nodded. "I think that's a wonderful idea."
     He looked at her again, and she could have lost herself in that look. "I love you, Mother
Skywalker."
     She could only look back at him, speechless with her emotions. He felt them and pulled her
in closer to kiss her.
     "I should warn you," she said, "I have terrible morning breath."
     He grinned that grin that had always made her insides melt. "Ask me if I care." 
     He didn't.