“That may be easier said than done,” Luke said.
“Not at all-I know just where to start.” Jacen used the Force to lift R2-D2 over to them. “The first thing your fear showed you was your mother’s face. And before the battle, you refused to see what happened after your father Force-hurled her.”
“So I need to see that now?”
“Only if you want to kill Lomi Plo,” Jacen said.
Mara wanted to discourage Luke, to spare him the pain of seeing his mother die by his father’s hand. But he was determined to kill Lomi Plo and end this war on Jedi terms, and she knew that Jacen was right, that Luke could not succeed until he embraced his fears as Jacen had learned to embrace his pain.
“Jacen’s right. If you’re going after Lomi Plo, you need to do this.” Mara reached for his hand. “You can’t change what is in that holo. You can only accept it.”
“That’s a lot different from accepting you being hurt-or dying,” Luke pointed out. “I couldn’t do anything to stop what happened to my mother, but when you were hurt, I was there.”
“And you still couldn’t stop what happened to me,” Mara countered. “You were pretty busy with Lomi Plo, as I recall.”
“I was barely holding my own,” Luke acknowledged.
“Some things you can’t control,” Jacen said. “If you fear them, then those things control you.”
Luke shook his head. “I’m not sure we have time for this,” he said. “And what if you’re wrong? What if Lomi Plo’s wounds are enough to distract her?”
“I’m not wrong,” Jacen countered. “Look, you may think you push your fears aside when you go to battle-that you bury them. But you’ll never bury them deep enough to hide them from Lomi Plo, no matter what her condition is. So you’ll have to deal with this problem now. Because as you’ve pointed out, Lomi Plo is healing as we speak.”
Luke let out a long breath. “Okay.” He turned to R2-D2. “Show me the holo where my mother dies.”
R2-D2 issued a questioning trill.
“We’re going into battle either way,” Luke said. “If you don’t want to end up navigating slave ships for Lomi Plo, you’d better start where we left off last time.”
R2-D2 gave a plunging whistle, then rocked forward and activated his holoprojector. The image of Padme, Anakin, and Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared on the floor, Padme choking, Anakin extending an arm toward her, and Obi-Wan approaching Anakin.
“Let … her … go!” Obi-Wan was ordering.
Anakin whipped his arm to one side. Padme flew out of the holo, and Anakin started forward to meet Obi-Wan.
“You turned her against me!” Anakin accused.
Obi-Wan shook his head. “You did that yourself.”
The pair left the holo as R2-D2 retreated and turned away from them. For a moment, their voices could be heard arguing in the background, slowly fading as Obi-Wan accused Anakin of falling prey to his anger and his lust for power. Then their voices faded entirely as Padme’s crumpled form returned to the holo, lying on a metal deck.
A lump of sorrow formed in Mara’s stomach, and she felt Luke shaking with grief. R2-D2 extended a grasping appendage and started trying to drag Padme’s unconscious form to safety.
From somewhere out of the holo, C-3PO’s voice called, “What are you doing? You’re going to hurt her. Wait!”
The distant sounds of a lightsaber fight arose somewhere outside the holo, then C-3P0 appeared and carefully took Padme in his arms. He started toward the slick-looking skiff they had seen in the last holo, with R2-D2 following close behind, beeping.
“I am being careful!” C-3P0 said. “I have a good hold on her, but I’m worried about my back. I hope it’s able to hold up under this weight.”
C-3P0 entered the skiff and laid Padme on a bed in a stateroom. The holo blurred as R2-D2 advanced it quickly through several minutes of watching her lie there; then Obi-Wan arrived to check on her and brush her hair back.
The hobo flickered off for an instant, then restarted in
the observation room of an operating theater. Obi-Wan was there with C-3P0, Yoda, and a tall, swarthy human. Mara recognized the man as
Bail Organa-someone she would later spy upon when she became the Emperor’s Hand. A medical droid entered the observation room and began to speak to Obi-Wan and the others.
“Medically, she is completely healthy.” The droid’s voice was tinny, but surprisingly sympathetic for a machine. “For reasons we can’t explain, we are losing her”
“She’s dying?” Obi-Wan sounded as though he did not believe the droid.