After a few moments, the two girls took a moment to assess each other, wiping away tears until they both agreed they no longer looked as distressed as they felt. Making her way back into the lounge with Leia at her side, Mara looked up as Han came running in from the cockpit, looking them over.
"Come on, kids, we're not out of this yet."
Mara glanced across the lounge, to the radar panels. Three blips across the screen we're coming towards them. TIE-fighters.
Part of Mara was relieved. Losing her planet? Sith Lords? Death? She couldn't process those things right now. But a battle? That was something she understood better than anything.
Like second nature, she was belting out orders before anyone could say something more: "Luke and I've got gunner positions!"
"Hey, wait a minute, kid-" Han said, but Mara interrupted him as if he hadn't even spoke in the first place.
"Han, get back in the cockpit with Chewie. Leia, you're our navigator. Get those calculations made on the double. We shouldn't stick around here for long."
Han stared at Mara in disbelief as Leia ran to the cockpit. "Listen here, Mar'-"
Mara rounded on him. "You listen to me, Han. Right now, I'm the captain, and you're the smuggler." She stared at him coldly, no trace of friendship in her eyes; nothing but the lifeless flare of a Rebel who had seen too much for her age. "So get to your position."
Without another word, she whirled around, leaving Han dumbstruck behind her as she headed off to the gunner pits. Luke tailed behind her (subconsciously keeping a safe distance, as he had seen the look in her eyes when she'd spoken to Han). He slid down the ladder as Mara climbed up, both of them slipping into the gunner chairs.
"You in, Luke?" she asked after slipping on a white headset, powering on the target computer in front of her.
"Yeah, I'm in," came Luke's voice from the other end.
"Alright, get ready."
The computer blinked to life, lines appearing to form a grid with an oval in the center. The seat she was on swiveled to the left as she pointed the cannon in the same direction to test it.
"Here they come," said Leia, presumably from the cockpit.
"Four of 'em," Han added. "on all sides. Good luck."
No sooner after Han said this did the Falcon shake violently, a few lights flickering out briefly. A TIE-fighter passed right by Mara's gun, swooping around her shots with annoying ease.
"They're coming in too fast!" Luke exclaimed.
Mara grit her teeth in frustration. She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. TIEs were built to be quick and agile - it was like trying to hit a fly from the Falcon.
Another bombing run from the Imperial fighters caused another shudder, Leia informing them,
"We've lost the lateral controls!"
"Don't worry, she'll hold together," Han promised the others, but Mara could hear him mumble, "Hear me, baby? Hold together."
The howl of the TIE-fighters surrounded them from every direction, as they swarmed in and out of range like insects. Mara followed the path of one fighter, finally slamming down the trigger to fire. Red blasts shot out in front of her, finally colliding with the TIE in a short but massive explosion. She let out a triumphant shout, signaling to the others of her success.
"Way to go, Mara!" Leia added.
Not even a few minutes later she heard Luke let out a whoop of victory.
"Got him! I got him!" he yelled.
"Great work, Luke!" Mara shouted back. "Two down, two to go."
"Don't get cocky, kiddos," Han said to them.
Mara almost snapped back at him, but the words were left in her mouth as she focused on their last targets. Her seat swung back and forth wildly as she shot in a zig-zagging pattern at one of the remaining ships, before it flew above her head, out-of-view and out-of-range. Soon, though, Luke let her know that he had got it. Mara smiled to herself; he wasn't too bad at this.
"Alright, it's all you, Mar'," Han reassured her.
"You can do it, Mara," Luke added.
The last remaining TIE-fighter sped by overhead, before spinning around and returning straight-on. Before he was even in-range, Mara slammed the trigger, the TIE colliding with it head-on.
"That's it!" Mara cried out as the starfighter burst into the stars.
"That's it!" Luke echoed. "We did it!"
"We did it!" Leia exclaimed.
Mara unfastened herself from the chair and climbed out of the gunner pit, meeting Luke outside the ladder. She beamed at him, pulling him into a quick hug.
"Way to go, farm boy," she congratulated.
Luke grinned at her. "You weren't too bad yourself, Captain."
Mara smiled back, before turning and heading for the cockpit. She walked in to find Han and Chewbacca in their pilot and co-pilot's seats, Leia behind Han in the spot for the navigator.
"Alright, where to now?" Han asked, already prepping the computer for the jump into hyperspace.
Mara looked to Leia questioningly. The princess nodded at her, giving permission.
"Set course for Yavin system," Mara instructed the pilot. "Yavin 4, to be exact."
As Han did so, Mara found Leia rising from her seat, gesturing her out of the room. They spoke just outside the cockpit, voices serious and low.
"They let us go far too easy," Leia said, voicing exactly what Mara was thinking.
Mara nodded slowly. "I know," she murmured, thinking. She looked up at Leia in worry. "Do you think they're-?"
"Tracking us," Leia concluded. "It's the only explanation for the ease of our escape."
"Easy?" Han asked, apparently hearing them. "You call that easy?"
"They're tracking us," Leia insisted.
Han stared at her. "Not this ship, sister. Mar', back me up on this."
"She's right, Han," Mara decided. "They would have had plenty of time to attach a tracker while we were off gallivanting the garbage chutes. It could be anywhere on the ship."
"Hey, whose side are you on?"
Leia sighed, shaking her head at the two as she sat back down. "What do you propose, Captain? Heading back to the base means leading the Empire straight to it."
Mara shrugged helplessly. "What other choice to we have? We could transmit the plans, but I think we both know just how poorly that went last time." She lost track of her thoughts for a moment, finding herself staring into space and losing herself in the vivid memories of the Battle of Scarif. She quickly shook it off. "Plus, it'd be pointless. This ship isn't built for deep-space transmission. The only way to safely transmit the plans would be to orbit Yavin IV itself, and that would tip the Empire off either way."
Leia nodded thoughtfully. "You're right. We might as well just head down to the planet ourselves, tracker be damned. At the very least, we can help them prepare." She dropped her head into her hands, rubbing her temples, seeming years older suddenly. "At least the information in R2 is still intact."
"Yeah, seeing as every other part of this plan has gone to hell," Mara mused.
"Oh, aren't you a couple of optimists?" Han quipped, heavily sarcastic.
"I wonder who I get it from," Mara jabbed back in the same fashion. She dropped her head against the wall. "I'll be lucky to get back to the Rebellion alive with you lot," she muttered, not meaning to say it loud enough for Han to hear; but he did, of course.
"Oh, so that's what you've decided, huh?" he snapped at her. "You're just gonna run off, like the last time?"
Mara looked at him. "Run off?" she almost shouted, offended. "I didn't 'run off'!"
"Well what else do you call sneaking away in the middle of the night, without even so much as a goodbye?" Han asked, rising from his seat.
Mara stood up as well. "Well you didn't leave me much of a choice, Han!"
"Oh, is that what you think?"
"Yeah, that is what I think!"
"And you never thought of - oh, I don't know - sending a message every once-in-a-while? Like letting me know you were still alive?"
Mara stared at him, breathing heavily. She refused to let him get to her. Her voice was deadly quiet, as she hissed, "Well, I'm sorry that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on this ship."
Han's glare felt like hot ash on her skin, his voice just as low as he replied, "Well, then maybe I should have never taken you in, in the first place."
Mara stepped back, blindsided by the comment. She saw Han's face drop, probably regretting what he said. But before anything else could be done, Mara had already left the cockpit, heading for her quarters.
As she stomped inside, she raged around the room like a Tatooine sandstorm, muttering angry curses about Han and about just about everything else, not even realizing what she was doing until she had impulsively slammed her fist against the wall. Her mouth froze as her fist throbbed with pain, the only sounds coming out of her being ragged breaths that were practically steaming with frustration.
Her thoughts, on the other hand, did not silence.
That moon jockey! He knew what he saying – he knew what it meant to me when he took me in, yet he goes and says things like that!
Sinking onto her cot, she found herself so tired from the argument with Han that it was almost like she had just fought a battle in the field.
A shaky breath left her as she ran her fingers through her disheveled hair. She forced herself into the fresher for a quick shower, but even that did little to calm her. Everything that had happened came crashing down on her. Flashes of Ben's death, Vader's face, and Han's anger stormed through her brain.
Even as she laid down on her cot, trying to sleep for the few hours or so it would take to get to Yavin IV, her mind would not quiet. And when sleep did come, it was not peaceful.
A/N
So I wasn't going to update today but then The Last Jedi trailer came out and it got me SEVERELY SHOOK so here we are.
BUT SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS THAT TRAILER OH MY GOD DID IT HAVE ME FREAKING OUT.
I'd love to hear about what you think of both the chapter and the trailer, so go ahead and comment!
IMAGINARY_HUGS,
Lily_Jasmine