What If : The Story Retold

First Worthy Fight.

I am so utterly sorry for not publishing anything in months, I promise I'm usually not this careless with my fanfics. It's just been a hectic year so far for me, GCSEs, applying for college/sixth form, picking A-Levels, finishing secondary school, my sister's wedding, Prom and the pandemic obviously. Seeing as this fanfic had already been semi-planned and I wanted it to be good quality, I didn't want to let the quality slide by writing it in between everything so I've been waiting for the right chance to get writing again so here I am. And don't worry, I'm writing a few chapters ahead to try and make up for lost time. Thank you for sticking with me :)

"You're a Sith?" Luke gawked at the purple lightsaber the woman held.

"You're a Jedi." She spat through her teeth as she leapt forward, going on the offensive whilst Luke was momentarily distracted by his epiphany.

Recovering from shock quickly, Luke was pushed to stay on the defensive as he batted away all her swings. With no opportunity to attack, Luke held his ground and concentrated on his guard.

She was surprisingly strong and very skilled to the point he knew a single slip up could be his end. His arm was still a little sore from the burn he had received from Maul and though he knew how to take pain well, he must have accidentally let out a wince when she struck at him from an angle because she smirked through her teeth and focused her attacks towards his injured arm.

"You're definitely no amateur," Link admitted as he was forced to take a step back to evade her swing.

"I'll take that as a compliment, Jedi," Mara snarled with a malicious smile as they locked their sabers in a standoff, "You're definitely more of a challenge than the regular scum I deal with!"

"I'll take that as a compliment, Sith," Luke huffed in amusement before extending his hand and force pushing the redhead back a few steps in hope of off balancing her.

No such luck for the young Skywalker. Mara was able to keep her footing but she used her extra steps to semi sprint towards Luke to get better momentum on her strike. Seeing this, Luke braced his injured arm and tensed his knees so that when her purple saber beat down on his green saber with such energy, he didn't buckle under it.

Luke had gained no ground in the fight. Whilst she continued on the offensive, he had no choice but to defend himself and because she was surprisingly skilled, Luke couldn't see any opportunity to turn this around for him to start on the attack.

"Droid!" The sith appreciate yelled back down the docking corridor to the ship, "Hurry it up, I want to be leaving the second I'm done with this Jedi scum!"

"Yes Mistress," the droid replied.

With that, Mara refocused back on Luke just in time to bat away his sabre. Having taken advantage of her momentary distraction, Luke finally managed to turn the fight in his favour. Instead of just turning away her blows, he could finally advance his attack.

"Not bad for a Jedi." Mara snarled, having been pushed back a few steps, now having to admit that maybe they were an equal match.

Though she kept her purple lightsaber poised and ready, she took a few seconds to wipe the sweat from her brow and comb her mane of red hair away from her eyes.

"Likewise." Luke admitted.

Having found some sort of respect for her skill, he let her have those seconds of recovery as he swept his own blonde locks back and tried to catch his breath. She was definitely not some freelancer. He had heard of force sensitive children of the galaxy that had grown up in worlds out of the Republic and so tried to teach themselves the way of the force. But she was not one of them, she couldn't be; she was skilled and though her moves were filed by anger, she was obviously powerful and disciplined. She must have been tutored by someone powerful.

"Maul." Luke connected the dots, "You're his apprentice, aren't you?"

"And again, nothing escapes the Jedi," Mara heckled sarcastically as she twirled her purple sabre before swinging it at his throat.

Ever attentive, Luke ducked quickly, swinging his green lightsaber low, grazing her stomach which she had left exposed in her attack.

Hissing in pain, she retreated a few steps back so one of her hands could press against the burn she had left.

"Mistress Jade," the criminal droid spoke up in its augmented voice, "The docking corridor will be release momentarily."

"I guess that's my cue to leave," the redhead smiled maliciously at Luke as she force pushed him back a few steps back onto the docking platform, disengaged her lightsaber and made to board the ship.

"Oh you're not leaving," Luke chuckled mockingly, "Not when we're having so much fun!"

"You got lucky this time, Jedi," she called back from the door, "Should we ever meet again, I will make sure never to leave untill your shoulders part with your neck!"

With that, the corridor they had been fighting in, began to pull back from the ship door and folded away, leaving both Luke and Mara stood at the doors the planet now below.

With one last glare down at the Jedi Knight, Mara pressed the keypad beside her, closing the doors of the cruiser as the ship began to move away.

Luke watched in horror as the ship maneuvered round and jumped into hyperspace, leaving nothing behind. Now Maul had three fully stocked Jedi Cruisers to add to his ever growing criminal army.

"Luke!"

He turned to see his sister, Leia, sprinting down the corridor towards him, Commander Rex and his clone troopers in tow, all looking a little worse for wear.

"What happened, are you hurt? We just saw the last ship take off. Maul escaped us." She rattled in concern, scanning him over to see if he was injured; Luke doing the same to her.

"Maul isn't the one force welding maniac we may have to worry about now." Luke sighed, looking out the open door and into the sky where he had last seen the redhead sith, "Maul has himself an apprentice. She's skilled, deadly and doesn't exactly have a love of Jedi."

"Great..." Leia rolled her eyes, "The first time the Jedi Counsil gives us a proper mission by ourselves and we manage to lose half a garrison of troopers, give the enemy three fully armed and ready ships of war and now there's not one but two mentally unstable people welding deadly lightsabers, in charge of the biggest army of criminals since the fall of the old Republic..."

"You can stop anytime you like," Luke smiled weakly even though he knew it wouldn't do any good.

"Well, you can get right on the communicator and inform the Council of our status, I'm going to-" Leia started as she turned to Rex.

"Hey, why do I get to tell the bad news to the Jedi Counsil? Why can't you?" Luke retorted, crossing his arms like a stubborn child.

"Because I said so," Leia scoffed, "Besides, you're the one who encountered this Sith apprentice so you get the honour of playing messenger."

Sighing in defeat as Leia turned to Commander Rex and started relaying orders, Luke picked up his com and awaited the inevitable.

Again, I'm so sorry for my lack of updates. I hope you can forgive me 🙏🥺