Luke’s jaw dropped, then he frowned in confusion. “Padme?”
“Padme?” Mara repeated. “Luke, what are you talking-“
“Mara?” Luke sounded disappointed. He shook his head as though to clear it. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” Mara said.
“Mara?” Now Luke’s voice was frightened. “What’s wrong?”
“Good question,” Mara said.
She turned to Jacen, but he only held a finger to his lips and moved his hoverchair closer to Luke. R2-D2 emitted a confused whistle and raised a hydraulic extension with a medical sensor at the end.
“Mara!” Luke turned and hit the emergency summons button next to Mara’s bed, but Jacen made a motion with his hands and the button did not depress. Luke did not seem to realize this. He turned back to Mara and placed his fingers to her throat, checking her pulse. “I can’t feel a pulse. Artoo, call an EmDee droid. Tell her to hurry!”
R2-D2 spun toward the data jack to obey, but Jacen used the Force to disable the power to the droid’s treads.
Mara caught Jacen’s gaze. “All right, Jacen. This has gone far enough.”
Not yet. The message reverberated without words inside Mara’s head. He must learn.
Mara felt another wave of Force energy pass over her, and Luke cried out in horror and looked toward R2-D2. “Artoo, what’s taking you so long?”
R2-D2 issued a frustrated whistle and spun an accusing photoreceptor toward Jacen. Luke could take it no longer. He raised a hand and began to fill it with life-giving Force energy.
“Jacen, we can’t wait. We have to revive her ourselves.” He pointed at the emergency respirator hanging on the wall. “Get the respirator.”
Luke leaned over Mara and started to place his hand on her chest-until Jacen raised an arm and pushed him away.
“Jacen!” Luke screamed. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” Jacen said calmly. “And there’s nothing wrong with Aunt Mara.”
Luke’s gaze swung back to Mara, and she could not decide whether he looked more stunned or relieved. “You’re … you’re alive again!”
“I was never dead,” Mara said. “I think Jacen is trying to make a point.”
Luke turned back to Jacen, still too confused to be angry. “I don’t understand, Jacen. What’s she-“
“You’re not ready to face Lomi Plo again,” Jacen interrupted. “And you just proved it.”
Luke’s confusion started to fade, and his anger quickly began to build. “You did that to me?”
Jacen shook his head. “You did it to yourself,” he said. “Your fear betrays you.”
Mara suddenly understood what Jacen had done-or rather, what he had not done. “Luke, I think you’d better listen to him.” She reached out to her husband through their Force-bond, adding a private plea that she knew he would not refuse. “For me.”
Luke snorted, but turned to Jacen. “Okay, I’m listening,” he said. “And it had better be good. Saving Mara’s life does not give you the right to manipulate me.”
“I didn’t do that,” Jacen said. “All I did was bring your fear to the surface. You created the illusion yourself.”
“Remember what happened in the nest ship?” Mara asked. “After I got hit, you couldn’t move. Luke, you froze.”
“And then I couldn’t see Lomi Plo anymore,” Luke said, growing calmer. He turned to Jacen. “You did the same thing to me?”
“I doubt it.” Jacen grew uncomfortable, and his gaze slid away. “That was just a mirror illusion I learned from the Fallanassi.”
“But it does prove you’re still vulnerable to Lomi Plo,” Mara said.
“You don’t fear for yourself,” Jacen said. “You fear for others-and now Lomi Plo knows that. She’ll use it against you.”
Luke nodded, and a glimmer of recognition came to his eyes. “Fears aren’t so different from doubts. I have to face mine-“
“No,” Jacen said. “You have to eliminate them.”
“Eliminate them?” Mara asked. “That’s a lot to ask-especially before we reach Tenupe.”
“But I can do it,” Luke said. “I have to.”
“How?” Mara demanded. “You can’t give up caring about your family.”
“He doesn’t have to,” Jacen replied. “He just has to surrender.”
“Surrender?” Mara asked.
“Vergere taught me to embrace my pain by surrendering to it.” Jacen turned to Luke. “I made that pain a part of me-something I would never fight or deny. You have to do the same thing with your fear, Uncle Luke. Then it will have no power over you.”