He discovered that once again, he didn't know what he should do.
Just seeing her shadow on the curtains had loosened his grip on right and wrong.
Palpatine's words echoed inside his head: Depa Billaba was your Padawan. And she is still perhaps your closest friend, is she not?
Is she? Mace thought.,' wish I knew.
If she must be slain, are you so certain you can strike her down?
Right now, he wasn't entirely certain he could look at her.
He was that frightened of what he might see.
.' have become the darkness in the jungle.
A slim brown hand took one edge of the curtains. Long fingers, but strong: nails broken, and black with grime-the shape of the O. Ollttl ILI't'trUII palm, the faint rolling texture of vein and tendon and bone, that he knew as vividly as he did his own-and the curtain was streaked with mold and stained, and hand-patched with dark thread that showed like scars against the lace, and it draped around her hand as she drew it slowly aside, and Mace's heart hammered and he nearly turned away, because he should have known he wouldn't meet her in the dawn, at the beginning of a day, even among a firestorm raining from gunship cannons; he should have known that was only wishful thinking, a solace from the Force; he should have known that they would only meet again in the twilight shadow- But fear, too, leads into the dark.
He thought, I have met the darkness in this jungle already. I've felt it in my own heart. I have fought it hand to hand and mind to mind. Why should I fear to see it on her face?
The knot in his gut untied itself.
All his anxiety drained from him. All his darkness trickled away. He stood empty of everything save for fatigue and the pains of his battered flesh, and a calm Jedi expectation: ready to accept the turn of the Force, no matter what it may bring.
She drew the curtain aside.
She sat on the edge of a long, padded chaise. She wore the tatters of Jedi robes over the rough homespun of a jungle Korun. Her hair was as he had seen at the outpost: ragged, greasy, hacked short as though she'd used a knife to trim it without the benefit of a mirror. Her face was every bit as thin as he had seen it: her cheekbones sharp, and her jaw going prominent. The burn scar was there, from one corner of her hardship-thinned mouth to the point of her jaw- But instead of a blindfold, she wore the strip of dirty rag tied around her forehead, concealing the Greater Mark of Illumination.
Or the scar it had left behind.
The Lesser Mark still glinted gold on the bridge of her nose, and though her eyes were bloodshot and pain-haunted, her gaze was clear, and level, and, after all, she was Depa Billaba.
Whatever had happened to her; whatever she had seen, or done.
She was still Depa.
With an effort that nearly broke Mace's heart, she curved her mouth into a smile, and she extended a hand that trembled, just a little, as Mace reached to take it. It felt fragile in his, as though her bones were as hollow as a bird's, but her grip was strong and warm.
"Mace," she said slowly. A single jewel of a tear welled in one eye. "Mace. Master Windu." "Hello, Depa." He opened his vest and produced her lightsaber. "I have kept this safe for you." As she reached for it her hand trembled even more. "Thank you, Master," she said slowly, with exhausted formality. "I am honored to receive it from your hand." Her smile turned more genuine. She looked down at her light-saber, turning it over and over in her hand as though she didn't quite remember what it was for. She lowered her head until he could no longer see her eyes. "Oh, Mace. How could you?" "Depa?" "How could you be so arrogant? So stupid? So blind?" Though her words were angry, her voice was only tired. "I wish. You should have come to me, Mace. Straight to me. Those people-they're not worth this. Not worth you not knowing. You should have asked me-I could have told you-" "Why innocent children had to die?" Her head hung even lower. "We all have to die, Mace." "I'm not here to argue with you, Depa. I'm here to take you home." "Home." she echoed, and raised her head again. Her eyes were event horizons: infinitely deep, and infinitely dark. "You use that word as though it means something." "It does to me." "But it doesn't. Not anymore. Not even to you. You just haven't realized it yet." She sighed a bleak, bitter chuckle as dark as her eyes and swung her trembling hand at the jungle around them. "This is home. As much home as any place will ever be. For any of us. For all of us.
That's what I brought you here to learn, Mace. But now you've messed everything up. It's falling apart and flying off in all direc tions. It's all wrong, and it's all too late, and I should have known it would happen like this, I should have known because you're just too blasted arrogant to mind your own business!" Her voice had risen to a screech, and a drop of blood seeped from a crack in her lower lip.
"You are my business here." "Exactly. Exactly!" She snatched his wrist and yanked him down toward her with astonishing strength.",' was your business here. Those people had nothing to do with you. Nor you with them. But you can't stop being a Jedi," she said bitterly. "No matter what. With the existence of the whole Jedi Order at stake, you had to play HoloNet hero. Now your business here is ruined. Destroyed. Everything is wasted. It's too late. Too late for all of us. You have to leave here, Mace. You have to leave right now, or Kar will kill you." "I'm planning on it," Mace agreed. "And you're coming with me." "Oh," she said. The fire inside her dwindled, and her strength with it. Her hand went slack on Mace's arm. "Oh. you think-you think I can just leave." "You must leave, Depa. I don't know what you think is holding you here-" "You don't understand. How could you? You haven't seen-I haven't shown you-You can't possibly understand." Mace thought of his hallucination at the outpost. "I understand," he said slowly, "all there is to understand. And now I believe it." "Do you understand that,' am not in command here?" Mace shrugged. "Is anyone?" "Exactly," she said. "Exactly. Master Yoda-Master Yoda would say, You see, but you do not see." "Depa-" "You are alive right now because Kar doesn't want to upset me. That's the only reason.
Not because I can order him. To do anything. Because I ashed him. I asked to give you a chance to run away. Because Kar-because Kar likes me-" Mace turned and looked down at the people and akks in the jungle. Twilight was deepening, and glowvines were beginning to pulse to life. The akks stirred uneasily, muttering deep half growls down in their enormous chests. Nick sat on the ground, knees drawn up and wrapped by his arms. He kept his head down, studiously avoiding looking at Vaster. The lor pelek paced back and forth in front of the ankkox's head, stalking like a hungry vine cat, flicking glances up at Mace and Depa and away again, as though he did not want to be caught looking.
"Vaster commands the ULF-?" "There is no ULF!" Depa hissed. "The ULF is a name, that's all. I made it up! The Upland Liberation Front is a make-believe bogey on which to blame every raid and ambush and theft and petty sabotage and I don't know what all. The militia's going crazy looking for a pattern to our strikes. Trying to figure out our strategy. Because there is no pattern. No strategy. There is no ULF. There is just this clan, and that family, and one gang here and another there. That's all.
Ragged Korun bandits and murderers." "Your reports-" "Reports." She looked like she wanted to grab him and shake him, but was just too tired.
"What should I have told you? You've seen a little of Haruun Kal. What could I have said to make you understand?" "You don't have to make me understand. All you have to do is come with me." "Mace, listen to me: I can't." She sagged, and lowered her face into her hands. "Kar is willing to let you go only because I am staying. To keep you away from me. If I leave with you. Going through the jungle, Mace: think of it. On foot, on grassers. Even in a steam- crawler. All the way back to Pelek Baw? Haven't you seen enough of him today to know that nowhere in the jungle could you ever be safe?" The weight in Mace's chest lightened, just a bit. He swallowed, and found that his breath came more easily.
She was afraid for him. She had not fallen so far that she no longer cared.
That was his victory right there.
"We won't be going through the
jungle," he said. "I have a ship on-station with a battalion of troopers. My comm's damaged, or we'd be on our way right now. Nick says you have subspace at the Lorshan Pass caverns. We can be out of the system less than a day after we get there." She lifted her head again, and there was still no hope in her eyes. "It'll take two days to get there. If you're still here in two hours, Kar will kill you. Two minutes." "Leave Vaster to me." Mace leaned forward, resting his forearms on the howdah's polished rail. "I am not leaving without you." "You have to." "Let me put it another way." Mace took a deep breath. "Master Depa Billaba: by my authority as a Senior Member of the Jedi Council, and general of the Grand Army of the Republic, you are hereby relieved of command of Republic forces on Haruun Kal, uniformed and irregular. You are relieved of all duties and responsibilities in the action on this planet. You are suspended from the Jedi Council, pending investigation of your actions on Haruun Kal, and you are ordered to proceed with all due speed to Coruscant, where you will present yourself to the Council for judgment." Depa shook her head. "You can't-you can't-" "Depa," Mace said sadly, "you are under arrest." "This is ridiculous-" "Yes. And absolutely serious. You know me, Depa. How many arrests did we make, all those years? You know I will deliver my prisoner, or die in the attempt." She nodded slowly, and she found a smile once more: a sad, quiet smile, edged with bitter knowledge. "Will you accept my parole? If I give my word not to. attempt escape?" "I will always trust you, Depa." Sudden tears sparkled again in her eyes, and she turned her face away. "How many times are you going to make me save your life?" "Just this once more," he said. "You can come with me, or you can watch me die. Your choice." Her shoulders twitched, and shook, and Mace for a moment thought she might be sobbing, but then her soft dry chuckle reached his ears.
"I have missed you, Mace." Her eyes sparkled with tears. "I can't tell you how I've missed you. Of course you knew exactly the spot where my defenses would crumble. But I'm not your real problem," she said tiredly. "What are you going to do about Kar?" "You're my only problem," Mace told her. "I found your shatter-point; do you think I'd miss his?" "I think he doesn't have one." "That," said Mace Windu, "remains to be seen." "You and your shatterpoints." Her sad smile was dazzling on her tear-stained face. "Who but Mace Windu would think to take him-^hostage?" Mace's head twitched to the right in a Korun shrug. "I was the only one available." Mace leapt lightly down from the ankkox. "Kar Vaster. We need to talk." We do not. Vaster did not meet his eyes. As you said: the next time we meet, there may be a fight.
"What I said was," Mace replied lazily, "the next time we're alone together, there may be a fight. But I gave you too much credit. I mean, that is why you brought all your puppies along, isn't it? You certainly didn't seem interested in standing up to me without them." Vastor's head turned like a steamcrawler's gun turret. What?
"You have a problem with me?" Mace spread his hands. "I'm right here." Tendons in Vastor's neck cranked his head down a centimeter at a time. She doesn't want you hurt.
"Depa? Do you plan to hide behind her forever?" Mace folded his arms. "Always find a reason to back down, don't you? I admire your. creativity." The Akk Guards stared.
All twelve akk dogs hunched and coiled their haunches, tails whipping forward past their shoulder spines: ready to pounce. Vaster snarled and lunged convulsively past Mace. He snatched Nick's arm and hauled the young Korun to his feet, holding him out toward Mace.
"Hey, y'know, ow, huh?" I have grassers saddled and supplied. Take them and the boy and go.
His filed-sharp teeth seemed to glow in the vine-lit gloom. Take them and live.
"You know," Mace said, "I don't much care for your tone." Vastor's eyes widened. His mouth worked silently.
"And take your hand off my aide. Now." Vaster found his voice: a roar of black rage. A violent shove sent Nick stumbling forward.
Only a grab at Mace's shoulders kept him on his feet. He looked up into the Jedi Master's eyes and gave him a sickly grin. "Remember that question I wasn't gonna ask anymore?" GO. Vastor's roar carried tectonic power. Go before I forget my promise to spare you.
Mace turned to one of the Akk Guards. "Does he always yammer like this? He'd quiet down if you got him fixed." The guard went pale. He shook his head urgently. "Really, really don't want to talk to Kar like this, you. Really really really." "Oh, right. Sure. He's not so good with Basic." Mace hooked his thumbs inside his vest.
Tendons stood out like cables in the lor peleKs neck. His shimmering rage went scarlet, glowing in the twilit gloom, as though his skin were lava pouring from a volcano's mouth.
Slowly, deliberately, his left hand tucked behind the shield on his right arm. He pulled it down into fighting position, carefully avoiding its razor edges. Just as slowly and deliberately, he did the same with the other.
Muscle rippled in his arms as he squeezed the handgrips, and the shields whined to life. He brought them together back to back, generating an earsplitting squeal that made even the akk dogs flinch.
From behind Mace's shoulder, Nick whispered, "Are you sure I'm not allowed to wet myself?" Mace walked calmly out of the center of the ring, straight toward Vaster, thumbs still hooked inside his vest. "You do that a lot. No doubt your puppies find it pretty scary." Looking straight up into Vastor's eyes, Mace swung his vest open to display the handgrip of his lightsaber.
Then he shrugged out of the vest, folded it once, and tossed it over his shoulder with effortless accuracy, right into the hands of an astonished Nick Rostu. With his lightsaber still inside it.
"That's how much you scare me." Vastor's shields parted, and the jungle went silent.
"Everybody here knows this has nothing to do with Depa," Mace said. "This has to do with those Balawai you were too stupid and weak to hold." Vastor's legs coiled like the aides' haunches. They were mine! MINE! Mine to kill. Mine to spare. They were MINE to give to the justice of the jungle- "Until you met me. Then they were mine," Mace said. "Mine to let go.",'','/ show you stupid and weak- "You already have." Vaster shifted his weight to throw himself into a leap, but then froze as though an invisible leash had snapped tight around his neck. He glanced back at the shadow behind the curtains of the howdah for a moment. When he turned toward Mace once more, his lips were drawn back in a predator's grin, and his eyes burned like twin calderae.
Depa prefers that you live. But she doesn't mind if you get hurt.
Mace shrugged. "As long as she won't mind when you get hurt." Vaster began to unbuckle his shields. Mace turned his back on the lorpelek contemptuously and strolled toward the center of the ring of akks and people.
There was nothing either slow or deliberate about the way Vastor shook the shields off his arms: a whipping snap of the wrist that flung them down to clatter against the rim of the ankkox's shell.
Nick held the bundle of Mace's vest and weapon uncertainly. "Um, guess I should have told you: that big-dog stuff doesn't work on Kar." "On the contrary," the Jedi Master replied softly. "It's working perfectly." Nick blinked.
Mace said, "As for you, though-" "Don't worry about me. I know exactly what to do." He tucked Mace's vest under one arm and trotted toward the nearest Akk Guard. "A hundred credits says the Jedi makes Kar cry like a baby! Who's in?" The lor pelek crouched and lowered one hand to the ground, digging in the leaf mold, his sweat-glistening chest heaving, breath pumping darkness into him and out again. Gathering rage.
Gathering power.
The shimmer around him had gone from red to black.
Mace shook his arms loose. "Rules?" Vastor's reply was the snort of a hunting akk. Jungle rules. A burst of power launched the lor pelek as a human missile, clawing his way through the twilight toward the Jedi Master.
Jungle rules it is, then, Mace thought, and leapt to meet him in midair.
JUNGLE RULES T, hey collided with a crash that shook the jungle around them. The collision was not just of two human bodies, but of two node-channels of the Force: invisible energy crackled, and vivid blue gap-sparks arced from leaf to leaf in the canop
y above. For a moment, they hung in the air, supported by power, grappling, tearing at each other's flesh. The akk dogs lunged and whirled and slashed the air with their tails. The guards clashed together their shields, roaring with ferocious animal exuberance.
Vastor seemed to be all teeth and claws and fierce snarling assault. Arms like girders of durasteel caught Mace in an unbreakable hug, pinning the Jedi's elbows to his creaking ribs.
Mace answered swifter than thought with an instinctive head-butt that split the skin on one of Vastor's cheekbones. The lor pelek lowered his head to Mace's shoulder as though to snuggle in like a lover-then sank his needle teeth deep into Mace's neck, chewing for his carotid artery.
Mace jerked a knee up to slam the inside of Vastor's thigh; Vastor only grunted and bit down harder, twisting his head from side to side like an akk worrying off a tusker's leg. His jaw pressure on the artery was restricting its blood flow; billowing clouds of darkness gathered in Mace's brain-but when Mace fired the knee again, Vaster jerked his legs out of the way.
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