.
Lightyears away, the Rebel Flagship Home-One maintained a synchronous orbit around Yaga Minor, just clearing the dark side of the planet's shadow, the sharp light of a new dawn creeping in through the viewport and dusting the surfaces with soft shadows.
Leia abruptly sat bolt-upright in bed, eyes wide; "No!!" she shouted into the night, arms out before her to... what? Protect... something- someone. Pull them back from...
Han turned, his voice muffled by the pillow he still clung to. "Hmmm?"
"What?" she asked in reply, blinking awake, the chilling nightmare already fading from reach.
"What d'you say sweetheart?" he murmured; it took a herd of Bantha stampeding through the room to wake Han.
Leia froze in the cold starlight, a sheen of sweat on her body, making her shiver in the chill room; dreams... broken fragments of intense memories burst into waking thoughts, more emotions than images, but terrifyingly real; danger and violence and reckless, abandoned fury. Like a stormfront, wild and tempestuous, unstoppable, relentless...
And somehow... inevitable. The storm had been so long coming, she realised; a dark, roiling shadow on the horizon. Gathering momentum, drawing ever closer, like a change in air pressure, like ions charging. Ever more volatile, immense and momentous...
She frowned, heart still beating staccato against her ribs, arms wrapped about the burning prickle in her stomach, mind racing, chasing down that nebulous feeling; knowing only one thing but knowing it absolutely...
"Something's happened." she murmured; she'd never been more sure of anything in her entire life.
.
.
.
Mara stepped out onto the wide balcony, taking in huge gulps of fresh air, sharp with the first frost of the turning season. The sun rose slowly over the city, freezing mist caught in the avenues between the tall buildings, not yet burned off by the wan warmth of daylight - a new day dawning.
A new day dawning on a new Empire- though nobody knew it yet. The first shards of light stretched to touch the highest towers of the Palace, their edges given clarity by the mist.
A new Empire... one without the Emperor. Only there was an Emperor.
And he was struggling for his life in the medi-centre behind Mara.
She should have known... she had known. She'd just never been able to admit it even to herself. She'd known that first time, when he'd destroyed the transparisteel-reinforced windows in the opulent prison that had been designed by the Emperor specifically to hold his new Jedi. Because that prison had been built to hold someone whose powers were equal to Palpatine's...
And he'd still destroyed it- shattered it to dust and rubble.
Not only that, but he'd done so for his own reasons. Reasons that he'd hidden completely - not just from Mara and Vader but most importantly, from Palpatine. She should have known then; he'd never hold his precious Wolf. At the very best, he'd keep it at bay for a while.
His Wolf...
Abruptly, like a veil falling away, recognition of why Palpatine had given Luke that name burst into Mara's memory- the vision! The vision from the night Luke had shattered the reinforced window flooded back into her mind - the first night she'd seen him use the Force.
The vision of the twin suns, of the blood-red moon... of the black wolf running through the shadows, claws to stone, breath misting in the moonlight, hunting...
Her master had asked her what it hunted and in that instant the vision had left her, not a single impression remaining, melting to nothing like the wolf in the shadows... But Palpatine had seen it too, the vision of the wolf; she knew from the look in his eyes when she said it, from the tone in his voice- he'd seen the vision many times.
But he couldn't see the wolf for what it was - or wilfully refused to. He saw only power and potential and thought he could hold it; thought he could bind it and dictate and possess. So he'd hunted down the wolf. He'd claimed it and named it... but the truth was he'd never tamed it - it remained always the same feral creature, wild and ungovernable, and the more he pulled at the leash the more it bared its teeth...
.
It was fitting really, Mara reflected numbly; that Palpatine had lost his Empire in very much the same way that he had created it- by force, in a blaze of passionate fury, all twisted through with Vader and Skywalker's line and her master's precious prophesies, Sith and Jedi both.
And now the sun was dawning on a new Empire... and a new Emperor...
And as much as she liked to think that she knew him, Mara realised now that she had absolutely no idea - none whatsoever - what this new Empire would be.
.
As she considered this, she heard quiet footsteps close behind her and turned to see Hallin approaching.
"I... apologise for our behaviour earlier, Commander Jade- we're all a little... stressed right now. You're not really seeing us at our best."
"On the contrary," Mara observed, "I think I'm finally seeing just that. And a lot more besides."
She glance sideways at the slender medic as he stepped forward to lean on the heavy stone balustrade beside her, rubbing at eyes made tired by hours of close surgery. "So how long has all this been on the cards?" she asked, never one to prevaricate.
Hallin hesitated, glancing down to pick at the stone, so it was left to Mara to fill the uneasy silence, "I'm not blind, Hallin; everything was already in place- there were codes, lines of contact, pre-ordained procedures. Reece already has something to put out over the HoloNet for crying out loud." Despite her words, her voice was subdued and calm- surprisingly so, even to herself.
"You have to understand, Mara, he would have never acted unless he felt that it was in the greater good."
Mara remained silent, and eventually Hallin sighed, squinting into the dawn sun, the autumnal air still cold enough to mist his breath.
"It was to have been a staged take-over," the medic allowed at last, "The military first, though he'd begun making headways into Court and the Royal Houses. He has the tacit support of over half of the Moffs and Fleet Admirals, plus Destroyer and Frigate Captains- another year and he would have held the military; they would have followed him, even over Palpatine's direct order."
Mara shook her head, "No- the Emp..." she floundered, suddenly unsure of what to say, "Palpatine deliberately split up the fleet. Neither Commander in Chief had access to the other fleet- it gave Palpatine the edge if even a large percentage of either fleet became... mutinous."
"But he made the mistake of interchanging high-ranking officers among the two fleets in order to place those he trusted in key positions..."
"Those he trusted." Mara underlined, but Hallin was shaking his head gently.
"They may well have been loyal, but their old station had to be filled and with so many of the rank-and-file officers loyal to Luke, never having even met the Emperor, in actuality all it did was to spread the dissent. Remember, Luke has traveled with the Fleet almost constantly; he's conceived very much as a military leader. Most of the recruiting which Luke did was among mid-class officers which he would then quietly contrive to maneuver into higher ranks. By the time they came to command, they were already loyal to him."
Mara nodded, realizing, remembering the number of younger officers in the Core Fleet, remembering noting the gradual change in attitude it had seemed to usher in - she'd been looking right at it! "And they came to power quite quickly, didn't they?"
"He never removed an officer simply because they weren't loyal to him, if that's what you're saying, though he moved them around to ensure an even spread of loyal officers" Even at her accusation, the ever-loyal Hallin was muted in his tone, quietly insistent rather than his usual argumentative self, clearly feeling the need to explain but not wishing to argue. "Those whom he eliminated were spies. Palpatine knew when he placed them within The Heir's staff that they would be found and removed."