Whisper Your Weakness

And another update! I'm really feeling the creative juices flowing on this story now, so hopefully this will continue. Although, as fickle as my muse is, I can't make any promises...

Jake: Thanks! Glad you like...er, hate? Viktor. When I wrote him, I was trying to come up with someone with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The man's just 'pure dag-nasty evil!' And this is the chapter where the butt-kicking commences.

Mara Look-a-like: Oops, I didn't mean to confuse anyone. No, Luke's not dead. Everything will be explained in the next chapter or two, I promise!

simon22cat: Yeah, you missed some smut! My own personal fave of this story is the scene in the workout room...damn, I turn myself on with that one, how sick is that? LOL And Luke is about to get rescued!

Cherry: Wow, thanks for such a lovely enthusiastic reply! You really make me blush! Y'know, I didn't really have any plans to include Mondahl in this story anymore, and somehow he just snuck right back in there. In fact, he's going to play a rather significant part later on. This is the chapter in which Viktor gets what's coming to him. I hope y'all are not displeased with the way I decided it should happen.

angel_mine: Great, when I try to make y'all think that I killed Luke, no one believes me. NOW, you think I killed the poor boy off! LOL No, Luke isn't dead, he's just kind of gone into a sort of post-traumatic stress thing to avoid dealing with the pain that Viktor is dishing out. But not to worry, this is the chapter where everything comes to a head. And you might be closer than you think in wishing about who gets to take care of Viktor! *evil grin*

Now on to the story!

This chapter rated NC-17 for violence.


Chapter Twenty-Three


Mara fell easily - perhaps a little too easily - into the mode of Emperor’s Hand, stalking her target ruthlessly. Dr. Viktor Berdin never even realized she was there, shadowing him from the moment he’d stepped out of his office, gotten into a very fancy speeder, and slipped into one of the many lanes of traffic that flooded Coruscant. She wanted very badly to confront him, to force him to tell her where Luke was, so that she could rip the good doctor’s life from him as she’d done so many times for the Emperor.

She tried to control that line of thinking, as she knew that it skated dangerously close to the Dark side, and she was a Jedi Knight now. Or she was going to be, once they got Luke back safe and sound and he could complete her training. But surely this disgusting being was more deserving of death than any of her past victims. Mara had tried not to imagine what Berdin might be putting Luke through, but it was difficult not to. She prayed that they were not too late - she didn’t know what she’d do if the doctor had already...

Best not to think about that, Mara! Focus on the mark!

Her eyes narrowed as she slowed her own speeder, having observed Berdin pulling out of the lanes of traffic. Careful not to let him see her, she followed, speaking quietly into the comm attached to her ear.

“Target is exiting traffic lanes at Block 3700. I’m following.”

“Copy. We’re on our way to your location,” Wedge’s voice came back through the earpiece.

She was tracking Berdin by sight, and there was a homing beacon on her speeder, allowing the rest of Luke’s friends and family to track her. This way, they avoided Berdin becoming suspicious of a fleet of vehicles suddenly haunting his trail.

“Wait for my signal to move in. We don’t want to alert him too soon.”

“Hey, we know what we’re doing here, y’know,” Han’s insulted tone came through loud and clear.

“Just reminding you, Solo. It has been a while, hasn’t it?” Mara said with a smirk.

Han snorted as he said, “Oh, yeah, like it was just yesterday for you, Jade.”

“Can we cut the chatter, please? Honestly, how did you people get anything done during the Thrawn crisis?” Corran griped from his position.

“Shut up, CorSec,” Han and Mara said at the same time.

Leia couldn’t help the little smile that crossed her face at the air of anticipation that surrounded all of them. They knew that the mission could possibly be dangerous, but they were so ecstatic to finally be doing something, that they never even gave a thought to the idea that they would not be successful. Hence, the good mood.

She glanced at Han and her grin widened as he winked at her. He had tried half-heartedly to get her to stay at home with the kids, but she had vetoed that notion instantly. This was her twin they were going to rescue and Leia would not rest until she saw for herself that he was all right. Winter had agreed without hesitation to stay with Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin, knowing how important finding Luke was to her life-long friend.

“Target is exiting his vehicle,” Mara’s voice, immediately all business again, came over the comm. She recited an address and a rush of adrenaline went through Luke’s friends and family as they all began to move in to what they hoped was his location.

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Mara inhaled and exhaled in shallow breaths as she slunk from one shadow to another in the abandoned building in her pursuit of Viktor Berdin. Her commlink clicked in successive groups in her ear, the signal that the others had arrived. Mara quickly clicked back, never taking her eyes off her quarry.

The man was so focused, or either so arrogant, that he never even looked behind him once. A whisper of doubt threaded its way into Mara’s mind. What if they were wrong? All they had was Leia’s Force-intuition, which Mara certainly trusted but it wasn’t foolproof, and the fact that Viktor had ordered a prosthetic hand similar to Luke’s. Of course, it was also questionable why a well-to-do doctor was on one of the seediest levels of Coruscant.

If he was the one responsible for taking Luke away from her, Mara wanted nothing more than to put a well-placed blaster bolt between his eyes, but just in case she was wrong, she forcibly restrained herself from doing so. And even if she was right, she needed to make certain Luke was here before she killed that piece of Hutt slime.

The hallways of the building were filled with crates of various sizes, providing plenty of cover for her as Mara held up behind one to observe the doctor. She peered around one of them, watching as he paused in front of a door that had a utility droid sitting to the side. Silently, she drew her blaster from its holder, everything within her telling Mara that this was the moment they’d been waiting for for thirty-five days.

Berdin paused beside the droid, glanced down at it and said, “DX-14, give me an update on Skywalker’s condition.”

That was all Mara needed to hear. As she was moving forward, she was speaking rapidly into the commlink. “Confirmed! Everyone move in!”

Just as Luke had taught her, Mara let the Force flow through her as she rushed the doctor. He didn’t even have the chance to turn around before she was tackling him to the ground. His face hit the floor and he grunted in surprise, his head half-turning to see his assailant, before Mara’s blaster prevented him from doing so as she shoved it into the back of his neck.

“Don’t move, don’t breathe, or I will kill you,” she warned in a low growl. “Target is down and secured,” she said into the commlink.

Within seconds, the hallway was flooded with Luke’s rescuers. Han, Leia, Wedge, Corran, Lando, and Talon each stood, weapons drawn, glaring down at Viktor. He stared back at them defiantly, no fear in his eyes at having been caught in his scheme.

Mara looked up at them and said, “Hold him. I think Luke is in that room.” She nodded towards the door behind her.

Wedge and Corran stepped forward, each of them taking hold of one of Viktor’s arms and jerking him to his feet as Mara stepped away. The Corellian Jedi pulled out a pair of binders, yanked Viktor’s arms together in front of his body and strapped them on the doctor’s wrists.

Berdin was forgotten for the moment as everyone turned their attention to the closed door in front of them. Mara glanced at Leia, each of them taking strength from the other, before Luke’s fiancé and his sister each took a deep breath and stepped up to the door. Mara palmed the activator and the door slid open. Immediately, her nose wrinkled at the stench of blood and sweat that permeated the air inside.

All thoughts of her own discomfort instantly vanished as Mara’s gaze zeroed in on the single cot that was on the opposite side of the room, and the curled up form lying very still on top of it. A half-sob rose in her throat as she flew to him, Leia right beside her.

His hair was matted and filthy, his clothes torn and unwashed, his poor body grimy and covered in welts and massive bruises, but he was breathing. He was alive!

Their joy at finding Luke was tempered by apprehension a few moments later when they attempted to rouse him with no response. Leia shouted for Han, who was only a few steps behind them, as Mara called Luke’s name, her hands cupping his face. Luke’s eyes were half-open, but they were blank, no life in them whatsoever.

“Call a med-unit, Han,” Leia was saying.

“Hell, Leia, I can get him to Manarai faster than they could get here,” Han said matter-of-factly as he stepped around his wife to get a closer look at Luke. His expression was grim as he leaned down and put his hand on Luke’s chest, as if to check for himself that Luke was indeed alive. “Damn, Kid,” he muttered as his gaze took in the damage done to his friend’s body.

“Lando! Give me a hand with him!” Han yelled and a second later, Calrissian was there, helping him lift Luke’s unresisting form into a sitting position. He wasn’t quite unconscious, as he was able to sit up on his own, but Luke was completely unaware of what was going on around him, his head drooping to one side. Mara and Leia hovered on either side of them, worrying without saying anything.

“There’s no Force in this room,” Corran blurted out suddenly from the doorway. Anxious to check on Luke’s condition, he and Wedge had stepped into the room, still firmly holding their prisoner between them.

Mara started in shock as she realized Horn was right. Caught up in the emotion of having found her lover, she’d not noticed it at first. She looked over at her boss.

“Ysalamiri?” she asked him.

Talon shook his head. “I was never able to find any evidence of anyone bringing them here to Coruscant recently.”

A snort from Berdin drew all their eyes to him. He stared back at them contemptuously. “You people have no imagination. A true genius doesn’t need outside help and shortcuts to create his traps. He designs them himself.”

Mara drew her blaster again and aimed it directly at his forehead, her eyes cold and unforgiving as she glared at him. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t end your miserable life right now,” she snarled.

“I don’t give a damn if you do, my dear. I was planning on killing Skywalker, but my revenge is complete anyway. He’s so damaged that he’ll never be normal again,” Viktor sneered. His smile was chillingly evil. “In a way, that’s almost better than him being dead.”

“You don’t know my brother very well, then, Doctor,” Leia said, stressing his title scathingly. “He’s survived far worse than you.”

“If that hope makes you feel better, Princess,” Viktor replied, his own disdain matching hers. “But I doubt it will give you any comfort when you have to put your dear brother in an institution that cares for beings who are merely empty shells, nothing left of their former selves but their pitiful names.”

Mara’s anger flared and she wanted to shoot him so badly that she could taste it, but she was a Jedi now. She had to think like a Jedi, and not an assassin. Instead, she stepped forward and punched him as hard as she could in the face. Berdin’s head snapped backwards and he grunted with pain, before bringing his head back up to glare at her again.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t very Jedi-like either, but it was certainly satisfying, Mara thought to herself.

“You got to it before I could, Jade,” Han said wryly.

“Hey, take your turn, Solo. I’m sure the doctor deserves it,” Mara said with disgust.

As she turned around to face Luke again, a blinking light high on the wall caught her eye. Narrowing her gaze, she glanced around the room, noting one on each wall, blinking in a steady rhythm. Going with her gut feeling, she raised her blaster and fired one bolt at each of the lights, destroying them one by one.

Mara, Leia, and Corran each inhaled sharply as the Force flooded back over them. Instinctively, Mara reached out towards Luke over their bond, and she could feel Leia doing the same. To their surprise and dismay, Luke’s body stiffened and a low, eerie moan was torn from him as he jerked backwards on the bed away from Han and Lando’s grasp, his hands coming up to grip the sides of his head, his face twisted in a pained grimace. His presence in the Force was near frantic with hurt, fear, and shock, and he was desperately pulling away from both of them.

It was too much for him, Mara realized. After being without the Force for so long, and with his body and mind in such a weakened state, his senses were overwhelmed at all the sensation suddenly being thrown on him at once. Before Mara could back off and advise Leia to do the same, Luke pushed with the Force and shoved everyone away from him.

Bodies went flying haphazardly across the room. Unfortunately, the first one to gain his footing was Viktor Berdin…and he’d managed to grab someone’s blaster in the process. There was a look of malicious glee on his face as he pointed the weapon at his former captive, intending to finish the job he’d begun.

“NO!” Leia and Mara screamed at the same time as they both tried to get to their feet.

The blaster was abruptly ripped from Viktor’s hand before he could fire. It went flying across the room and landed squarely in Luke’s grasp. Mara gasped to see him standing on his feet, and the expression on his face as he stared down his tormentor was filled with murderous hate, causing a cold chill to run down her spine.

“Viktor…” Luke said in a menacing growl.

For the first time, a glimmer of fear appeared in Berdin’s eyes. Luke crushed the blaster in his bionic hand, dropping it to the floor with a clatter. He raised his hand again and pointed it at the doctor. Mara gasped as she felt a tremendous surge in the Force coming from Luke, directed straight at Viktor.

Berdin gasped and his bound hands raised up to clutch at his chest. His mouth opened wide and his eyes bulged out as he seemed to struggle for breath. A hoarse scream echoed around the room as his body began to tremble uncontrollably. The scream dwindled to a sickening gurgle as Viktor fell to his knees. A trickle of blood leaked out of his nose as his eyes began to roll backwards in his head. Finally, with a last agonized groan, his corpse fell to the floor.

Everyone in the room was frozen in disbelief at what they had seen, unable to even move for the shock of it. Luke didn’t seem to notice them even now as he looked down at the dead man lying at his feet.

“Rot in hell, you bastard,” he muttered to himself.

Luke closed his eyes as a violent shudder passed through his body, and when he opened them again, they were wild and confused. His gaze darted around the room, and yet he still didn’t seem to recognize the fact that his family and friends were there, his glance passing over them as though he didn’t even see them. Looking down at his hands, Luke’s face went even paler than it already was and he began to tremble with fatigue and fear.

“What have I done?” he whispered, his voice thick with anguish. With shocking suddenness, Luke’s knees folded and he crumpled silently to the floor.

That finally galvanized everyone in the room to action. Mara, Leia, and Han went instantly to Luke’s side, while the others went to check on Berdin’s body. Luke was truly unconscious this time and Mara worriedly checked his breathing and his pulse, both of which were steady, but weak.

“We need to get him to a doctor now,” Leia said.

“Right, no more wasted time,” Han murmured, and he leaned down to sweep Luke up into his arms, not willing to wait for anyone’s assistance. His brother-in-law had never been a big man to begin with, but now his weight felt far too light in Han’s arms. He glanced over to Lando, Corran, Wedge and Talon. “We’re taking him to Manarai Medical Center. You guys deal with that,” he said as he nodded towards what was left of Viktor, “and meet us there as soon as you can.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Wedge said, his eyes still on his friend’s limp form. Wedge didn’t want to think about what Luke might have endured in this room, and it was all his fault…

Han, Leia, and Mara took off from the room at a swift pace, and Wedge could see Mara talking into her commlink again, no doubt calling Manarai and warning them that they were on their way with a critical patient. With a sigh, Wedge pulled out his own commlink and made a call to New Republic Security.

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Dr. Darek Mondahl apologized to Leia Organa-Solo for what had to be the twentieth time. And like the nineteen times before, the Princess-turned-leader of the New Republic brushed aside his words and insisted on thanking him instead.

“If you hadn’t found that small discrepancy in your records, Darek, we never would have found him. Berdin would have eventually killed him and we would never have known the truth of what happened.”

“But if I hadn’t been so blind to what Viktor was, then Luke would never have been in this situation to begin with,” Darek protested as he gestured to the bacta tank that held Luke’s still unconscious form. “I’m surprised that you even bothered to call me,” he said morosely, obviously feeling heavy with guilt.

Leia sighed. “Of course we called you. You’re Luke’s doctor. Darek, listen to me,” she said, dragging her eyes away from her brother and looking at the man she considered a dear friend. Reluctantly, he met her gaze.

“Viktor Berdin hated Luke Skywalker. Why, we have no idea, but his hatred must have been powerful for him to have done something so vile and evil. If it hadn’t been through your office, he would have found another way to hurt my brother. You must stop blaming yourself. If it weren’t for you, Luke would be dead now, because we were getting nowhere in our search for him. If you hadn’t called when you did, we probably never would have found him at all, much less before Viktor killed him. I fully believe that.”

Leia repressed the shudder of fear that went through her at the thought of how close they had come to losing Luke for real. She recalled the paralyzing grief that had swept over her before and knew she never wanted to experience that again.

Reaching out, she took Darek’s hand, giving him an intense stare and imploring him silently to accept her words. Finally, he nodded slowly and Leia could see a little of the guilt roll off him. She smiled at him, grateful that she could ease his burden a bit, before turning her attention back to the bacta tank.

The thick goop that her twin so hated was helping to heal his body - although some of the scars were too deep to ever be erased - but Leia feared that it might take something like a miracle to help heal his mind. Luke had been unconscious ever since the moment he’d collapsed in his former cell, and neither Leia nor Mara had been able to contact him via the Force. They were hesitant to push too hard, fearful of causing him to withdraw even deeper into himself.

Her gaze shifted over to Mara Jade, sitting in a chair right beside the bacta tank. One hand was on the thick transparisteel separating her from her lover, and the other was absently fiddling with the ring she wore on a chain around her neck, her eyes never leaving Luke’s face. She hadn’t moved from that spot in hours, and Leia had long since given up on trying to get her to take a break. Not that she’d had much of one herself.

“Any change, sweetheart?” Han asked quietly as he came up and wrapped his arm around her waist.

Leia turned her head to meet his soft kiss. “No, but the doctors say they’ll be able to remove him from the bacta in another couple of hours. What’s it like outside?” she asked.

“Insane, what else did you expect? I knew we wouldn’t be able to keep this quiet, but I’d hoped we’d have a little while longer before the media explosion hit,” Han replied with a sour expression. “The NRS is doing a pretty good job of running interference though. They caught one holoshill halfway up to this floor in the stairwell. He was wearing a doctor’s coat,” he snorted.

Leia shook her head in disbelief at the lengths some people would go to just to get a glimpse of the Jedi Master. What frightened her was the thought that there were more people like Viktor Berdin out there, who wanted to do more than just get a glimpse of Luke. How could anyone ever want to hurt such a gentle soul as Luke Skywalker? Leia wondered.

And yet, even as the thought formed in her mind, she remembered the frightening look on his face as he’d killed his captor, and how his presence in the Force at that moment had been undeniably Dark…

No, I won’t let him fall to the Dark, Leia vowed quietly to herself. I brought him back once before. If necessary, I will bring him back again! And this time, he had Mara…surely, her presence would be enough to keep Luke on the Light side, and perhaps help him to recover from this devastation.

Even though she knew he wouldn’t respond, Leia sent a wave of love and reassurance to Luke over their Force bond.

*Whatever it takes, little brother. We’ll do whatever it takes to help you heal, I promise you!*

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