The turbolift doors slid open and Mara stepped in, Hallin's hand reaching out to hold against the closing door for a moment, "And how am I supposed to do that!?"
"Hallin you're not a medic anymore- you're an Adjutant- a Primary Aide," Mara reminded of his new status, "You can order pretty much everyone now, believe me."
She pushed his hand free, snapping off one last order between the closing doors, "And don't let anyone try to lock that ship down or he'll cut it free and leave anyway!"
.
.
By the time she got there the bay was empty. Security was in the corridor outside, looking confused and jumpy, but Hallin had gotten everyone else well away.
Mara walked through the dark silence of the small bay inset into the West Tower, its exit open to the night. Several advanced scoutships were arranged across one wall, their noses pointing to the exit and she walked nervously to the second, easy to spot amongst the others because it was the only one with no landing clamps engaged. The door release wasn't locked, so she lifted her hand to it, pausing mid-action, realizing she hadn't the slightest idea what to say if Luke was actually inside. If he wouldn't come back - what then?
Squaring her jaw, she pressed the release and stepped in, turning to catwalk the short length to the cockpit, wondering why she was being quiet; he was a Sith- he probably knew Mara was on her way here about the same time she did.
"Will you come?" his voice, steady and even, made her jump as she opened the door to the shadowed cockpit.
"What?" she was completely thrown, once by his presence and again by the resolute tone of his voice.
Luke didn't turn, eyes and spirit never leaving the dark expanse of space visible beyond the inset bay doors, "I'm leaving." he said simply, "Are you coming - or am I going alone?"
Mara hesitated before the resolute determination of his voice; she'd come here to talk him down; now suddenly she was involved in a very different conversation. She paused at the open cockpit door, voice quiet. "Where are you going?"
He shrugged slightly, eyes still on that sliver of open space, "Away. Anywhere."
"To do what?"
"I don't know- does it matter?"
Mara took a few tentative steps forward; Luke was sat tensely, hand resting on the toggles which ignited the fire-up sequence. How long had he sat like this, she wondered? The landing clamps had been released over an hour ago, according to the bay logs. Interestingly, Luke had arranged permission direct with Palace Control a whole three days earlier.
"Why are you leaving?" a stupid question really, but it would get him talking.
She heard his foot tap quickly against the pitch pedals, like he was itching to go, yet he seemed strangely calm, that particular wired, kinetic stillness he had sometimes, like the silence in the eye of the storm. Without the Emperor or his father there to focus him, he seemed more and more to be splitting up- polarising into two separate people; one the confident, driving, self-possessed Sith that her master had created, the other the self-effacing, unassuming, idealistic pilot who had been brought here so unwillingly five years ago. But always with an edge; he never lost that now- Palpatine had ground that into him too deeply to ever step back from.
Luke remained still, eyes fixed on that sliver of freedom, his whole sense attuned to it, as if it were calling him. "Why should I stay?"
"It's what your father would have wanted." Mara said, and immediately regretted it. His foot stopped tapping and it seemed to Mara that the temperature dropped several degrees, though he didn't turn.
"I'm sorry- that was unfair." she backtracked, and his foot began tapping again, more restless than ever... and still he stared out into the open night.
"My father wanted power." he allowed at last, knowing it was true.
"For you. He wanted it for you. You've achieved everything he wanted- all you intended. Now's the time to reap the rewards."
Luke shook his head, voice cynical and very sure, "There are no rewards, Mara."
She was silent for long seconds, lost as to what he even meant by that... "...You're the Emperor!
Again he shook his head, dismissive.
"Yes, you are! Tomorrow is just a ceremony Luke- that's all. You're already Emperor- you were the moment Palpatine died."
He finally looked to her, that ground-in, perfectly-modulated intonation giving way to a loose Rim accent; "I'm not an Emperor Mara- I'm a nobody from Tatooine."
"Who changed the course of a galaxy!"
He looked away, unmoved. "I'm not an Emperor."
"You are now."
Luke only shook his head, unwilling to be dragged into a discussion, wrapping his arms about himself, eyes remaining on that this, dark sliver of freedom just beyond the bay doors, so close he could almost touch it.
Mara just stared, struggling to understand- why wouldn't he want this? "After... after all these years and all this struggle... you're just going to walk away?"
"Yeah." The reply was instant.
"But this is what you wanted - it's what you fought for."
Luke turned just briefly, surprised that she could be so close and understand him so little, even now. "I was fighting Palpatine, I wanted him, not his position. Vader wanted this, not me... and I don't owe him anything. I don't want this power- I don't want it."
She reached out to squeeze his arm, "Don't you see - that's why you should have it."
"No." Luke shrugged away, not wishing this closeness if he would have to leave it behind, "No-one should have this much power. No-one... Let the vultures fight amongst themselves. I've no reason to stay."
"What about me?"
He turned, mismatched eyes locking on her, drawing Mara in as completely as the night sky called him. "Come with me."
In that moment, she almost would have- would have followed him anywhere. But something held her back; loyalty to her old master, the desire to see Luke rule, to be with him - she didn't know. She blinked, looking down, caught between conflicting desires. To run - to tell him to fire up the ship and just run with him, wherever he wanted to go - or to stay, a lifetime's investment and familiarity here, her knowledge of what Luke was capable of, her image of him as that person.
She wanted to be with him here - as that person; as Emperor. "My life is here Luke- and so is yours. This is my home-"
"This is the place where I was imprisoned, beaten, spied on and manipulated for five years." Luke said tersely, the dry edge returning to his voice along with the formal accent, the change mercurial as ever. "It's the place where my father died."
The place where I died. He didn't say it out loud, knowing she wouldn't understand- how could she?
"But that's all done now- it's done, it's all in the past. This is your future, your life is here now."
"No. I've done all I intended."
"So you'll just leave?"
He remained silent, aware that they were talking in circles, so unfathomable was his decision to her.
Mara only stared, dumbfound. How could he not want this? How could he not see that it was right, that he was right- why he was right? Try another tack; "What about all your plans?"
His eyes dropped momentarily, jaw clenching, then he looked back up, eyes to the stars. "That was them; they're all done."
Mara frowned- because he had planned. In the last two weeks, Hallin had slowly let slip fragments and groundwork, objectives and intentions, and... realisation hit Mara then; that Luke hadn't expected to live, not really. He'd made plans, nudged events to what he believed would be beneficial, hinted at strategies and potential policies, but as an exercise, nothing more. Something to keep him moving, to give others faith. He never thought he'd be here; not now.
But he was, and she would hold him to them, to the possibilities he'd earned; drag him forward if necessary."I know everything you planned with Hallin and Reece. Are you just going to let all that go now? Those opportunities..."