Mos Eisley Spaceport was the raunchiest, seediest, shadiest hellhole Mara had ever had the displeasure to spend even a moment in. Her rooftop perch gave her a perfect view of every john and junkie on the dusky streets below her. The only place worse was Jabba's palace itself. Or Nar Shadaa. Or even Nal Hutta itself, when she'd been forced to negotiate with Durga, as opposed to any number of agents who could do the job better than she. But at least those missions had been successful.

All she had gotten from today had been a sunburned, sandblasted face and a cold seed of failure between her shoulders. She'd been made to suffer the indignities of being a dancer for Jabba the Hutt, and then barred from doing what she had come there to do. Being forced to wait and listen for news of her targets just made her day worse.

And the way the slaves reacted to Jabba's death. Overthrowing the overseers was one thing, but singing and dancing in the face of their own loss of liveliehood was disturbingly funny. If her master ever died, she wouldn't dare defile his name by acting so horribly irreverent.

But then, her master was nothing like Jabba. She was not a slave. Jabba had his slaves carry out his every whim, he whored them out to gain political or and used them to punish those who'd displeased him. Her master would never do such a thing. She was not a slave.

The wind around her started to pick up, and Mara surpressed a shiver. The sky began to darken, but first dusk wasn't for another few hours. She tasted the air and ended up with a mouthful of dust for her troubles. And on the city street below her marched a few of the brave travelers -- those were her targets! She still had time to salvage this mission.

Skywalker was too well defended. He had friends, droids, even a Wookiee bodyguard. If only her master had let her pack a good sniper rifle. But no, she would have to tail and do this the old-fashioned way.

She'd only gotten a few blocks when Skywalker turned to a companion and pointed up to her. It was satisfying to see the companion was dressed even less practically than she was. Her outfit made even a black dancer's jumpsuit seem reasonable or modest. The other girl took a blaster from a friend and separated from the group. A direct confrontation it would be, then.

The girl came into an allyway below Mara and looked up expectantly. Well, she would have to oblige her, then. Mara leapt off the building and used a touch of Force to soften her landing, pulling a blaster on the poor slave girl. But it wasn't a slave girl.

It was Leia.

She wouldn't have expected a pacifist senator to be so confident holding a blaster, but she should have. A pacifist rebellion would have been even more pointless than the terroristic one currently starting fires in the Mid-Rim.

Leia smirked. "Let me guess. You're mad because I killed your employer, and you're here to get revenge."

Mara pulled the goggles and beige hood back from her face. "If you think anyone in your little rebellion is even capable of killing my employer, you're sorely mistaken. Her blaster never wavered from Leia's chest.

Leia certainly wasn't smirking now. In fact, she looked positively shocked. "Mara. It's good to see you're doing well. I was worried after the dissolution of the senate, but it looks like you've found a living. So who is it? Black Sun? Crimson Dawn?"

"My employer doesn't need to be discussed. I'm far more interested in why you would degrade yourself like this for a petty thief and scoundrel."

"Are you mad that I didn't do it for you? If I'd known where you were, I would have done it in a heartbeat!"

Mara laughed. "And yet, here we both are. Before it was him, it was your ideals. Even when you served in the Imperial Senate, you never cared about the Empire. Certainly you never cared about me."

"That's not true!" Leia looked as though her heart had been replaced with ice. "I've always cared about you. Come with us. There will always be room for you with the --"

"Don't." Mara cut her off. "I'm certain you would love to have me join your little band of terrorists, but I know your boyfriend would never stand for it."

Leia took a step forward. Mara held her blaster more tightly in her hand. "I will not hesitate! Make one more move. I won't hesitate."

Leia closed her eyes. "It doesn't have to be like this," she sighed. "But you need to decide what you're going to do. Inaction doesn't suit you, but neither does taking orders from anyone else." Leia turned her back on Mara and started walking back to the main street.

Mara couldn't bring herself to shoot her. But she couldn't give up Leia, either. "Wait! You can come back! If you keep going, things will never go back to how they were!"

Leia stopped and looked back through the swirling sands.

"I know."