Sorry I haven't updated in a few weeks, that's bad for me :/ but in my defense, I have been working on a separate star wars fic (a Han X Leia Smit cus why the f not). I will publishing it all very soon, it's called 'Not for Prying Eyes' so please check it out if you are interested in that sort of thing, I would appreciate it, and thanks for putting up with me 🥺🙏

The second they were out of sight of the wrecked sail barge, Leia turned to Han and didn't even hesitate before throwing her arms around his neck and bringing him down slightly to hug him. He stumbled slightly due to the fact his vision was still recovering but from the height and the strength of the hugger he knew it was Leia, so he quickly recovered and went to hug back. When his hands came in contact with her bare skin he pulled back a little flustered, he couldn't see her properly but he could tell there was a lot of exposed skin.

"Hey, your worship," Han half chuckled in embarrassment and reassurance considering the fact she was hugging him tightly.

"Don't leave me ever again," she spoke quietly against his neck knowing full well what she was asking was crazy and a little bit paranoid but she didn't care.

"Where's this coming from all of a sudden? I think the suns have gotten to you-" Han started as a joke but Leia immediately cut him off.

"Just promise me you will never leave me again," Leia asked quietly.

"I don't think I had much of a choice-"

"Just say it... Please?" She added a little frantically.

Han may not be able to see her physically but he could tell something had happened to her in the last few days, maybe months from what Chewie had told him. Something managed to turn Leia, the fearsome Jedi that he fell in love with, into the person hugging him so tight he was beginning to think she would never let go.

"I'm not going anywhere," Han assured her quietly as he wrapped an arm around her, aware of the fact she seemed to barely be wearing anything but he didn't care, he just knew she probably needed him to hug back even if he was getting a little flustered, "Also, I didn't say this back on Bespin because I thought it would be less painful but I know now it might have been painful because I didn't say it but I love you-"

Leia cut off his cute rambling as she pressed her lips against his with a smile. He was safe, he was in her arms and he loved her. That was all that mattered in that moment.

The others on the barge had thankfully given them some privacy as they stood at the other end of the barge, but in the meantime, they were gripped with an awkward silence as they all seemed too scared to acknowledge the bantha in the room: Mara Jade.

The redhead had ber back turned to the group, looking out into the desert with her arms wrapped around her and her back slightly haunched. Luke could tell she was crying silently, even a mental shield as strong as hers couldn't hide that. But Luke knew that Mara wasn't the crying type and so probably wouldn't like it if he announced that fact to everyone - there could be no witnesses.

So Luke acted as though nothing needed bringing up, hoping his friends would get the message. He knew that she had just made a life altering decision and even if it was for the best, Luke didn't blame her for crying and knew that she probably needed her space to adjust.

Mara hated crying because she hated weaknesses which her Master had always trained her never to have, which made her cry even more because not only was Maul wrong in so many different ways, he was no longer her Master. In a split second, she had lost everything, for better or for worse she didn't know yet, all she knew was that the entire life she knew was gone and she had known no other life before it so she would be facing the future blind.

Maul was wrong, Luke was right. At Jabba's sail barge she had been given a decision, stay with Maul and slaughter mindlessly or go with Luke and learn truths that had been kept from her.

Though in the moment she had chosen the truth, the ramifications of her actions she didn't even consider until after the point of no return. It wasn't as simple as her taking the truth and having done with it, her entire life would change. As much as it now came to light just how much Maul had kept from her and how wrong he was, in the end, he was still the only thing she had, the only thing that had ever defined her, and now she could never go back to him, never run back to him.

Though she told herself this should be a good thing, she could finally live out of Maul's shadow and make her own decisions, mistakes included, she had lost that stability.

In retrospective, it was a rash decision to give up her entire life in a matter of seconds, but she had made her decision and despite her doubts, she would have to stick by it.

"So what happens now?" She finally spoke up after nearly an hour passing through the desert, her voice hoarse though she cleared it quickly, still refusing eye contact with anyone.

She knew that for the entire journey, everyone around her - except for maybe Luke - seemed almost too scared or confused to acknowledge her. As they should be, she was every bit their enemy as they were hers. They obviously knew her history and what she had done, she had a reputation within the Maulian ranks, it wasn't far fetched to presume she had also made a name for herself in the Republic, evidently not a good name by the looks of things.

"Now..." Luke answered slowly and quietly as he came up by her side so as to give her a little privacy from the group as he knew she likely wouldn't want them to see that she had been crying, "We're going back to the Millennium Falcon, Han's ship, and we're going back to Coressant."

"I meant what happens to me?" Mara almost spat as she turned to Luke who was layering niceties on her situation so thick she could almost taste sugar in her mouth, "I'm a big girl now, Jedi, don't patronise me. Tell me what happens to me now, I can't go back to Maul after what I just did, but I hardly doubt the Republic would welcome me with open arms."

Luke considered this momentarily, he had only wanted to be delicate with her considering she was close to crumbling and there was no nice way to tell someone they would likely face a death penality the second they stepped foot in Republic space. But he knew better than to try and fool the ex-sith, so he straighted up and decided that there was no point in trying to lie to her, she had turned to him for truth and he was hardly a hypocrite.

"You'll be handed over to the Republic military, your lightsaber will be confiscated and you'll be locked in a high security vault until an interrogation can be scheduled. Then, depending on the information you give us or not, you will have a formal trial in the Senate followed by your sentence... I don't speak for the Senate on this one, but it is a great possibility you could be receiving the final penalty..." Luke explained calmly as he watched Mara try and fail to hide her terror.

"Oh joy," she quipped sarcastically but weakly, only to feel the Jedi place his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, "So I'm walking myself into the slaughterhouse?"

"If it's any consolation, I will speak with the Jedi Council and the Senate on your behalf. Not to sound arrogant here but I do have my connections," Luke assured her, though she roughly shrugged away his hand and avoided eye contact yet again.

"He..." She started, not sure how to even phrase it, or if she wanted the Jedi to listen, "He was my master... I don't know what I'm going to do without him. He's all I've ever known, even if you do somehow manage to convince the entire Republic not to kill me, what am I going to do?"

"Let's focus on the not getting you executed part of the near future," Luke chuckled, trying his best to lighten the situation.

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