Luna found Mara sitting along in the rec room. She was just staring into space, surroundedby her shelves and stacks of old paper books and datapads, lost in thought. She looked so lonely. So empty. Looking at her, Luna forgot for a moment what a lethal, amoral killer that she was and saw just a tired old woman. Then, hidden in one nook of the room, Forlorn whistled and tried to wander over to Luna, but was stopped short by its tied up leash. Luna made her way over to the old R4 droid and patted its angular head.
'What do you want?' Mara snarled behind her. Luna turned and was startled to see the old woman standing a couple of metres away. Without thinking, Luna's hand shot to her blaster in its holster. 'Don't bother,' Mara said tiredly, like she'd had this conversation a thousand times. 'I'd kill you before you could even take the safety off,' and with the Mara stalked out of the room and into the small galley next door.
'Cora has an idea,' Luna called after her, ig. She had no interest in following her so she stayed and hovered by the exit to the rec room, just close enough to see the door to the galley but not into it. She could hear clattering coming from inside and the refreshing smell of chai brewing. 'Instead of trying to rebuild the tracker, we could reprogram the navicomputer to receive the incoming signal.'
Mara reappeared at the entrance to the galley, sipping on her cup and sighing appreciatively. The sight of seeing a cold blooded murderer in a domestic setting dit not sit well with Luna and she shifted uncomfortably. 'It won't work,' Mara spoke over her cup. 'Best we can get is a general direction, nothing specific,' Mara looked over at her, and frowned.
Luna crossed her arms and looked away. 'It's better than nothing,' she muttered. 'We've lost too much time already.'
Mara sighed. 'True. I was thinking of looking for another tracker and programming it with the same signal frequency, but that would be a hunt in itself, and might take even longer.'
'It's a good idea,' Luna replied, somewhat hesitantly, not wanting to give her any credit, but not wanting to start anything. Cora had asked her to play nice, so she'd play nice. Unfortunately, her brain chose that moment to picture a Mara, lightsaber in hand, standing over a defenceless Luke Skywalker, ready to strike the lethal blow.
Mara looked at her sharply. 'It wasn't like that.'
Luna bristled. 'Don't do that,' she warned.
'Or what, you'll scowl at me to death?' Mara snorted derisively.
Luna's whole body shook, her anger threatening to get the better of her. She forced herself to breath deeply. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me, she repeated the mantra in her head, over and over. It didn't help. With a sigh, she decided that it was best to remove herself from the situation rather than risk doing something she regretted, but as she passed Mara, the older woman spoke up. 'It wasn't like that,' she said again, more softly. 'I didn't have a choice.'
Luna arched her eyebrows. 'I'm pretty sure everyone has a choice whether or not to kill someone.'
'I didn't,' Mara insisted, her voice quiet but intense. 'Cora told me about your mission - to save the captured children. Who do you think you're fighting? Who do you think you're shooting at? Who's shooting at you?'
Luna shifted uncomfortably. 'That's different. It's a fight - I'm not going to stop shooting at them to try to reason with them, try to see the light.'
'I see,' Mara said simply. 'So how many have you saved so far?'
'I-', Luna paused, 'I've been busy. Things have gotten in the way. We've just been so busy trying to survive, we haven't-'
'Excuses.'
