well, damn, I think it's done

[jaded_of_mara]

Fandom: Star Wars Legends
Category: F/F
Rating: Teen
Wordcount: ~1,000

Chapter 1: I know that if I fall

The first time they meet up, after, it's in some shitty dive bar on some shitty backwater planet. Mara's drinking the shitty house ale when she feels someone hop up onto the stool next to her. Of all the people who'd both recognize her and want to drink with her, she wasn't expecting Cr-- Caliista.

Mara took a sip of her beer and looked her unexpected companion over. She looked better than when she'd last seen her. Her hair had grown out past its awkwardly shorn state, and her face had finally settled into something unique. Wholly Callista. Not anything to remind Mara of a dead acquaintance.

She waited til Callista had finished ordering before trying to start any semblance of conversation. Or, well, she would have, if Callista had been any less chatty.

"Nice to find someone with taste out in this part of the galaxy," she greeted.

Mara snorted into her drink. "Once you get your drink you'll wish you weren't, trust me."

The server handed Callista the same local swill that Mara had, and Callista took a quick swig and wrinkled her nose.

"I warned you," Mara joked. Callista rolled her eyes. "But, not that you're not a great drinking partner, there's gotta be a reason you sought me out."

Callista grimaced. "You're right. I need your help with something."

---

The something that she needed help with turned out to be an expedition into an old, abandoned Jedi temple. It was designed so that only those with the Force could open it up. And, despite all her tries, Callista was no longer someone with the Force.

The temple exuded a weird, almost nauseating aura out into the Force. It didn't feel like the blindinly consecrated sections of Luke's temple on Yavin IV, or the revolting remains of the Temple on Coruscant. It felt wholly its own, unidentifiable, and Mara didn't like feelings she couldn't identify.

She and Callista shined their torches down the dusty corridors they found, but couldn't identify any artifacts that necessitated removal. They dusted off the first frescoes and mosaics they found, but stopped once it revealed some pretty explicit scenes. Mara cringed to think about a Jedi temple reserved just for eroticism, but judging never served anybody well, either.

Finally, after hours of exploring, they found the central room of the temple. There were corroded faucets on the walls over empty channels that led to the center of the round room. Mara didn't even need her torch in this room, because a skylight in the center of the domed room illuminated the whole room. The beam of light coming through it, however, shone right on a short altar, with a small bottle of a mysterious substance on it.

"This is it," Callista breathed. "This is what I've been looking for."

She walked over and cradled the bottle in her hands like it was more precious than anything. It even might have been, if it was the Force-granting substance she'd been looking for all this time.

Callista poured some water from her flask into the bottle, to make whatever was in there actually drinkable. She swirled the bottle around to mix it, and it shone pink and purple and orange in the light. The power radiating from it was lovely to feel, but it carried a sense of danger with it, too.

All Mara could do was watch as Callista took a drink from the ancient bottle filled with an ancient substance. The light in the room seemed to change, and Mara found herself stepping forward as Callista held the bottle out to her.

Against her better judgment, she took a drink.

Chapter 2: I can always have them crawling back again

Mara and Callista had parted ways after the temple, but Mara couldn't keep her mind off the encounter. In the weeks that had passed since Mara dropped Callista on some Mid-Rim dustball, she'd been distracted. Something had changed in her - she'd found herself constantly thirsty since drinking centuries-old cave water. She would tap out little rhythms on her console for hours, not noticing until Talon Karrde cleared his throat behind her.

Her fragmented thoughts always returned to Callista. When Karrde needed a gentler touch at the helm and had her fly through a nebula the same grey as Callista's eyes. When a contact had her land in the scrub, gently brushing back tangled grasses in shades of blonde and brown. When a shipment of new and exotic fruits came in, their juices dripping down her chin.

Mara'd made a business out of knowing what others wanted. It was disturbing to have to turn that skill on herself.

It was her mandated day off on the ship's roster, so she'd spent most of it holed up in her quarters doing paperwork. The only problem with being part of a functional organization was that even busywork got done on time.

Mara moved to sit on the floor, cradling a cup of grenade-fruit tea in her hands. She could always use her time to meditate.

Breathe in, breathe out. Feel the energy of the hot tea flow into your hands. Feel the energy from your hands move to your lungs. Feel the air from your lungs move into the room. Feel the air in the room curl steam around the cup.

Steam. Breath. Hot breath. The scent of fruity musk. Deep mauve. Callista.

A Jedi lets their thoughts pass through peacefully, mindful only of the present. A Jedi is of the mortal world, but not part of it. A Jedi is with the Force and the Force is one with the Jedi. Mara is no Jedi, but she is with the Force. The Force is with all but one Jedi. Callista.

Meditation only rewarded those open to it.

Mara stood and worked her shoulders. Her tea had gone cold in the time she had tried

She pulled up her console to send a text-only message to Callista's last contact node.

THINKING OF YOU. No. She deleted that. DO YOU WANT TO MEET UP AGAIN? That disappeared off her screen too.

The situation didn't call for undue sentimentality. They were colleagues, who had overlapped at Luke's Praxeum for a matter of weeks. Mara sighed and thumbed out something terse and impersonal.

DID IT WORK?

She shut off her messenger before she could give in to the urge to refresh its feed. It was getting time to pull out of hyperspace, and Mara needed all of her attention at the helm. Karrde could have any of his crew do the job, but something so close to the Imperial Remnant required a pilot with a little more gravitas.

While her eyes were elsewhere, a response came in.

ALMOST. I THINK WE ALMOST HAD IT, TOGETHER.