Auld Acquaintance ((RP for emperors_hand))

[the_starkiller]

OOC: Follows this thread.

Galen pulled at his collar, trying to get himself some breathing room. Ten seconds later, he did it again, to just as little effect. He understood that it was a losing battle, trying to get comfortable in this new skin, but it wasn't one he was willing to give up just yet. With more than a little chagrin, Galen realized just how well that idea summed up most of his life.

As he and Mara approached the hotel, Galen's eyes picked out at least two entry points they could have used without rousing the least bit of suspicion. A little push of the Force to influence a few lazy-looking security guards and they could have been inside the hotel and free to roam almost totally undetected. But no, for once, it was Mara whose plan involved a kind of frontal assault: walking in the front doors of the ballroom with forged invitations.

He felt like the country cousin, invited to the big city. If Galen had been from one of the backwater Rim planets like Tattooine , he couldn't have felt more out of place in his stiffly-ironed tunic and trousers, tall leather boots that were so new they almost creaked with every step, and a collar that felt as though it were digging into the skin under his chin. Mara, for her part, not only looked stunningly beautiful, but utterly at home. If he hadn't known better-- and, truth be told, have been having particularly enthusiastic sex with her on a regular basis since leaving the medical ship-- he would never have recognized her.

They were ushered into the main ballroom and Galen gratefully took an offered glass of some bubbling alcoholic drink. As he raised it to his lips, he thought he caught a familiar silhouette out of the corner of his eye. Shaking the phantom off to nerves, he glanced back at Mara. "I hear Rion VII isn't one hundred percent stable, tectonically. The whole hotel could be leveled in seconds and no one would suspect," he whispered, half-joking.

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[emperors-blade.insanejournal.com]

Galen ran a hand over his close-cropped hair and loosened his collar finally. He'd have gladly fought a few junk titans over doing anything like that again anytime soon. Unfortunately, his sense of relief was short-lived as soon as he got a good look at the expression Mara was blasting him with on the bridge of her ship. An explanation was to be expected, but Galen hadn't anticipated how upset she seemed to be.

"Her name is Maris Brood," he began, surprised at the weary tone in his voice. "About two years ago, she was the apprentice to one of the last Jedi to survive the Imperial Purge, Master Shaak Ti. Vader sent me to the planet Felucia where they were hiding to finish the job. Shaak Ti sent Maris into hiding. I didn't know Maris existed when I..."

Galen bit his lip. "... when I executed Master Shaak Ti." He took a deep breath before continuing. "A few months later, I went back to Felucia to rescue Senator Bail Organa. Maris had turned to the Dark Side and was holding him for ransom. She and I fought, and I beat her. When I decided that with the planet as strong in the Dark Side of the Force as it was, I let her go free."

He frowned deeply at the end of Mara's question. "And I don't know why she did that. She was unstable at best when we fought, maybe a little insane. I guess that never got better. Believe me, the only thing I ever wanted from Maris Brood was to learn how she turned invisible."

[emperors-hand.insanejournal.com]

"Invisible?" He couldn't mean literally, could he?

Again, Mara filed away the name for later research. Maris Brood. Someone who was an apprentice to a Jedi that Vader had wished dead. She shook her head. Sometimes Mara still wondered why Vader was so worried about his position -- she certainly didn't want it.

"You don't need to be shy about saying you killed a Jedi around me, you know," she pointed out, then wondered why he seemed so upset.

"Okay, I might be slightly upset about the insane half-naked woman kissing you. That aside, is there something else you're not telling me, Galen?"

[emperors-blade.insanejournal.com]

"Probably more like messing with my perception of her rather than actually bending light or anything..." Galen muttered then shook his head, getting himself back on the topic, which then swung away from him again when Mara brought up his hesitation.

"I'm not shy about it," he sighed. "I don't know how I feel about it. I don't think I'm proud of it, but I'm not ashamed, either. Those were days when I didn't know any different, and I was doing the exact job I had been trained to do-- raised to do. I don't know." He leaned back as far as his chair would let him, wondering if he'll ever stop seeing the faces of Kazdan Paratus and Shaak Ti in his nightmares. Of course, those weren't the worst.

His eyes opened when Mara's words sunk in. "You weren't... jealous, were you?"

Galen shook his head firmly then relented with another sigh. "I had a premonition that something was going to go wrong with this mission-- just a bad feeling, really. I suppose it could have been a lot worse."

[emperors-hand.insanejournal.com]

"I'm an assassin, Galen. These things don't bother me, unless they're being done for the wrong reasons. Is that it?" She wondered half to herself, half to him. "You think you killed people that you shouldn't have?"

Again, Mara was learning more and more about the man she had once looked up to with nothing but utter respect.

She looked up at Galen and shook her head. "No. No, I'm not jealous. Why would..." She sighed and looked away. "Fine, yes, there's a half-naked woman kissing you in front of me who you apparently know, right after what we... shared together, here. It bothered me. There, I said it, okay?"

Mara let out another sigh, too. "Great. Premonitions. Any other ones I should know about, or was that it?"

[emperors-blade.insanejournal.com]

Galen shrugged. "Part of me wants to say that yes, I was wrong. That these weren't my enemies but Vader's and ultimately, the Emperor's. He was using me as a weapon. But then I've done some research of my own. The old Jedi order wasn't corrupt, exactly, but it does seem like it wasn't the guardian of justice it was supposed to be. I just don't know."

Shaking his head, he loosened his collar some more. "No, nothing since then. Although I have to say my feeling was pretty bad, and all things considered, we got off pretty lightly."

He leaned forward, fixing Mara with his gaze. Galen couldn't help but start to smirk a little bit. She was showing him gaps in her armor, like when she'd spoken to him after the medical ship, and he wasn't about to ignore it.

"Well, well, well... Mara Jade jealous." Galen raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't do a damn thing with Maris Brood, I'll have you know. I prefer my women with a lot less insanity." He smirked some more. "Although the lack of clothing does make things convenient..."

[emperors-hand.insanejournal.com]

She didn't know, either. "Okay, we'll just have to do some meditation on it. Maybe something will come to us, maybe we'll have to do more research through the Emperor's personal libraries... we'll figure it out somehow."

Mara was glad to know that there was nothing else they'd have to worry about and so she relaxed slightly before tensing up again at Galen's next words. She leaned back automatically as he leaned forward.

"Shut up," she nearly snarled, angry at herself for telling him that much of her feelings. Mara stood and was ready to walk past him when she stopped and looked down. "For your information, I'd bet I would be much better than anyone you could ever possibly hope to have. Frankly, I think you're just becoming addicted to the sex."

[emperors-blade.insanejournal.com]

Galen grumbled and reached a hand out to stop Mara as she passed him. He looked up at her from his chair, trying to radiate calm as best he could. Maybe he was no Jedi, but he might at least be able to help her listen.

"I was thinking about you," he insisted, then shook his head. "And that's the last time I ever try to make a joke."

He thought hard about what she'd said though, about becoming addicted. It wasn't as though Mara didn't have a point. It had been on Galen's mind a lot, and he had suspected from the start that it wasn't just because he'd never had another lover.

"Maybe you're right," Galen finally said. "But what about you? Are you telling me you want to stop? Because you know there's a lot more than sex going on when we go at it."

[emperors-hand.insanejournal.com]

"Oh."

She'd known it was a joke, but Mara tried to play it off so as not to hurt his feelings. Why she cared about them when it came to matters of sex was beyond her, but it did. She just hadn't wanted him to know how right he'd been in calling her out on it all.

"Jokes are fine." They were. Typically. When she wasn't in this strange, jealous mood.

"I..." Mara looked away, even as Galen held her in place. She felt a strange sensation of calm wash over her and nodded her head, not realizing that it was his doing. "I know. I don't know how or why, but it's unlike anything I've ever experienced and no, I don't want it to stop." Honesty. Mara looked back at him, feeling very vulnerable.

"So... now what?"

[emperors-blade.insanejournal.com]

He sensed it, that feeling that Mara had let down her defenses for a moment. Galen could also feel how much she hated doing it, so he tried to react as little as he could. No sense in drawing attention to something she resented, he figured. Simply nodding at her admission and acknowledging it, he hoped she didn't think he'd stepped over the line.

Galen shook his head, not sure at all how to respond. "Things we need to do are look through the data we collected, transmit a report to the Emperor and set a course for somewhere to wait for instructions." All that were the practical considerations, and he was sure that Mara had already gave them thought, but he wanted to help.

"As for what we should be doing," he said, standing, "that I'm not sure. " He reached out a hand and laid it against Mara's cheek. "I don't want to... ruin... anything."

[emperors-hand.insanejournal.com]

"That's not a problem. Like I said, I can communicate with th Emperor anytime, anywhere in the galaxy. If we need more time, I could always lie to him, say I'll contact him in a few more days." She shivered a little. Lying to Emperor Palpatine. It wasn't a thought she'd ever given much consideration to before, but she knew it had to be done now. Her whole world was different.

"As for our own side-mission, if you've got ideas for where we should go, be my guest. Plug the coordinates into the navacomputer and we'll just wait it out." She was still doing her best to remain equal to him, so she offered him that much, hoping it would smooth things out a bit.

Mara stared into his eyes as he touched her, gently. Gently. She leaned into his hand automatically, as if she'd never had a kind touch, ever. Maybe she hadn't; she really couldn't remember. "You're not ruining anything," Mara told Galen quietly as she placed her own hand on the side of his face, mirroring his touch.

"You never have."

[emperors-blade.insanejournal.com]

"Thank you," Galen said quietly before making the decision to step just a little bit forward and close most of the gap between him and Mara. He leaned down, hand still at her cheek, and kissed her softly. It was something he had never done, and had never considered. Kisses he'd had until then had all been desperate in one way or another, and never soft. But it seemed right for that moment. The Force only knew where that instinct had come from.

"I think after all of this," said Galen, gesturing at the navigation controls, "that maybe we should lay low for a little. To be honest I don't think I've relaxed a day in my life."

He closed his eyes, trying to remember the snippets of other peoples' conversations he had heard over the years, the few that had not been about his training or his missions. "I hear the sweet water springs on R'alla can be very relaxing," he offered.

[emperors-hand.insanejournal.com]

Mara nodded her head and then shut her eyes as Galen kissed her -- again, softly, gently -- and so she responded in kind until he pulled away from her. She wasn't sure which was more confusing, having any sort of feelings for the man or touching him, kissing him, in this way. Surely he heard how loud her heart was pounding in her chest?

She nodded her head again, not trusting her own voice just yet, then watched as he shut his eyes. She reached her hand to his eyelids, carefully skimming them, then pulled away as he spoke.

"Sounds good." She coughed, trying to regain her voice and strength. "R'alla it is, then." But he'd broken something inside of her with that kiss and touch, giving her something she'd never had, and she wanted more of it. Mara stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips back and forth, slowly, across his.

[emperors-blade.insanejournal.com]

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