The Apartment of Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke wakes up, hits the shower, and dresses. He grabs a quick breakfast and heads to his office.

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke slips into the apartment. He goes and checks on a sleeping Ben. He finds Mara fast asleep as well. He heads to the living room, and sits cross-legged on the couch. He begins to meditate on the problems facing the Order. He feels the Force fill him and flow through him. He spends hours searching for answers, but they always seem to be just out of his grasp.

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke gets up from the couch and heads to the kitchen. He grabs a quick bite to eat, then takes a shower. He dresses quickly and goes to his office.

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke gets home late, finds dinner on the table, still warm. He eats hungrily and cleans the plate. He checks in on Ben and finds him sleeping. He slips back out of the child's bedroom and goes down the hall. He gets ready for bed and slips between the covers. He lies for awhile staring at the ceiling. Eventually his eyes close and he falls asleep.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Mara had woken early today, but either of the boys had stirred. She used the time to finally go over the report from her niece's fight with Starkiller. After a time, Ben wanders sleepily into the living room, plops himself down on the couch, and turns on the HoloNet.

Having just finished reading, Mara turns to look over her son. His red hair is disheveled from sleep and he is short for his age, and very strong in the Force. I think he's old enough..., she think to herself.

Ben notices her looking at him and gives her a quizzical look in return. "I'm hungry."

"Of course you are. You are your father's son. What do you want for breakfast?"

Ben thinks for a second, then makes his decision. "Nerf sausages and toast!" He announces.

Mara makes the breakfast and they both eat. She leaves some on a plate for Luke. After cleaning their plates, she looks at Ben. "Come in here, Ben. I want to show you something." Mara guides him into the center of the living room.

"I think it's time you learned some basics in hand-to-hand combat. Just defensive moves, so you can defend yourself if you're ever in a bad situation without me, your dad, or Nanna."

"Astral!" Ben exclaims excitedly. "But I am already learning to use the Force for that. Why do I have to know this too?"

"Because while a Jedi's main weapon is the Force, you may not always be able to access it. And in those cases, you need to be prepared."

Mara instructs him through several different basic defensive stances, blocks, and even a few counter attacks. Ben learns them quickly and eagerly, and is anxious to know more, but Mara calls a rest after an hour.

"Now, Ben, remember these are only for defense, not for attacking or provoking, just like the Force or a lightsaber. I don't want to catch you using these for any other reason. Okay?"

Ben nods his head solemnly. "Where did you learn about this stuff, Mom?"

Flashing a small, humor-less grin, Mara contemplates how to answer this. She was instructed in more things than just hand-to-hand combat by the Imperial Royal Guardsman at a younger age than Ben. There were some things he was just too young to know about his mother. "I'll explain it all when you're older."

Ben sighs and runs off to his bedroom while Mara sits back down at the computer terminal to catch up on the rest of the galaxy's current events.

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke wakes up in the afternoon, after a fitful nights rest. He walks into the kitchen, picks over the nerf sausage and toast. He's not really hungry, but knows he needs to eat something. He goes into the living room and turns the Holonet on and watches Galactic Headline News.

[Luke Skywalker]

After a short while, Luke shuts it off and grabs a quick shower. He quickly dresses in his normal black outfit and attaches his lightsaber to his belt. He goes to his office.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Mara receives an emergency call on her comlink from the Temple Communications room. Leaving Ben with the nanny droid, she quickly leaves to find out what is going on.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Ben sat at the table, pushing his food around his plate, when Threepio entered the room.

"Master Ben, you have barely touched your dinner. Is everything all right?"

"I just miss my mom is all," Ben sighed. "They've been gone a really long time." He continued to play in his food, not looking up from his plate.

"I'm sure that they will be home in no time," the droid assured him. "Now finish up, it's nearly bed time."

"Not hungry," Ben hastily pushed his plate away and stood up, still not meeting Threepio's photoreceptors. "I heard her call out to Dad, up here," he finally looked up at Threepio and tapped his head with his finger, indicating he heard it via the Force. "And she felt funny, like she was hurt. Do you know what's going on, Threepio?"

"I'm afraid I can't say at the moment, Master Ben."

"Can't, or won't? I might just be a kid, but I know the difference," he said, growing frustrated with the protocol droid.

"Nanna has given me strict orders not to tell you. She also said that if I did tell you, she would remove me of my vocabulator! How tragic would that be for a protocol droid not to be able to speak, or translate! I say, that Nanna is very terrifying at times. Why..."

"Yeah...tragic," Ben cut into Threepio's ramblings, but the droid continued on. "Good night, Threepio."

Finally Threepio noticed no one was listening to him and stopped. "Sleep well, Master Ben, and before you know it, they'll be back."

Ben went on to bed as Threepio contemplated the horrors of a protocol droid without the ability to speak.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Mara enters her apartment after being gone for far too long. Tiredly, she leans up against the door after it closed, relaxing in the comfort of home after the long and painful mission.

Her peace is soon interrupted when Ben runs in from his bedroom and jumps into her arms, knocking the wind out of her. "Well hello there, Ben. Didn't miss me at all I see." She ruffles his hair and kisses his forehead then puts him down on his own two feet.

"I did too miss you!" Ben exclaims, before looking at her outfit oddly. "Why are you wearing such weird clothes, Mom? They're too big for you."

"Mmm, that's a long story, but I basically lost my own clothes after my ship crashed and Master Cousland had an extra set."

"The Shadow crashed?!"

"No, not the Shadow, Ben. I was in a StealthX this time. I am going to go get cleaned up, so why don't you see what's on the Holonet, and then you can go with me to give Master Windancer's ship access remote back?"

Ben agreed and Mara went into the 'fresher to clean up and put on a fresh set of her own Jedi robes. She emerged from her bedroom feeling much better and motioned for Ben. "Ready to go?"

He nodded and switched off the Holonet, then the two left the apartment for the Infirmary.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Mara stops by her apartment before heading out into the Yavin IV jungle. She changes into one of the jumpsuits she used to wear when employed by Karrde; the kind that flakes off dirt and grime easily, which would be beneficial while traveling through the jungle. Mara leaves soon after changing.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

After stopping off at Luke's office, Mara enters the apartment and heads for the comm unit. She sinks into the chair and enters Karrde's comm frequency into the unit.

A few moments pass before Karrde's face materializes in front of her face. He smiles. "Ah, greetings to you, Mara. I see you made it home safely after being locked up on Mustafar." He looks at her knowingly.

"How did you...? Never mind, you won't tell me anyway; 'your sources' and all that." Mara rolls her eyes. "Can you see if you recognize something for me? Master Cousland and his wife Kaden have had a stalker of sorts and he nearly made a successful elimination of Nick a few days ago. I recovered a hull fragment from Cousland's crashed ship, and found part of an explosive device on it. The device has an insignia that I thought you might be able to shed some light on." Mara removes the datacard from her datapad and slips it into the slot on the comm unit. "I'm sending you a few images of it."

"I got 'em." Karrde rubs his beard thoughtfully. "You know, I don't actually recognize it, but as you know, I have many people in the organization and surely one of them might. I won't go into specifics, and certainly won't mention yours or Cousland's names. If anything turns up, I'll contact you."

"Thank you, Talon. You might try my personal comm frequency, I'm not sure how much I'll be here at the apartment to answer the comm unit."

"Yes, I noticed it was awfully quiet. Ben not there with you?"

"No, he is keeping Nick and Kaden's children company while they're occupied with other business. Anyway, thanks again and take care, Talon."

"Right. You, too."

Mara ends the transmission. After retrieving her datacard from the slot, she shuts down the unit, and then busies herself with things around the apartment.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

When she was just about to walk out the door of the apartment, Mara's comlink went off. She took it off her belt and thumbed it on.

"This is Mara," she said into the speaker.

"Hey, Jade, I have that information you'd requested from Karrde," Dankin's voice came back.

"Jade, Dankin?" Mara raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Sorry, old habits die hard, I guess. Anyway, the information... It took a while for someone to recognize that particular insignia--it's quite rare, actually--but someone from one of our Outer Rim outposts identified it. I'm sending you all we have on it."

"Excellent, I will put it on a datacard to give to the Couslands. Thank you, Dankin."

"Not a problem, Mara. Take care." Dankin signed off and the transmission ended.

Mara walked to the computer terminal and plugged her comlink into it. She saved the information she'd received from Dankin to a datacard, then removed the datacard and her comlink from the terminal.

Replacing the comlink on her belt, Mara left the apartment.

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke enters the apartment and looks for Mara and Ben.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

The door opens and Ben and Mara step through it after running some errands around the Temple.

"Luke? You here?"