I've Been To A Wonderful Party: The Life and Times of Mara Jade

Part 2: The Death of Skywalker and the Reborn Force, by Chris Russell

Mara Jade, now the second in command of Talon Karrde's smuggler organization, begins to feel comfortable in life. She has power, direction, and even a comfortable living. Then, it all goes to hell.

Traveling through a restricted sector of space, she stumbles across an X-Wing sending a distress signal. After saving the damaged ship, Mara finds the pilot to be none other than Luke Skywalker, the man she had been ordered to kill by Palpatine. Her attachments to Karrde would not allow her to kill Luke then and there, but her pride and the memories of the Emperor's last order caused her great discomfort.

Worst of all, she had to ask for Luke's help when Karrde was taken captive by Grand Admiral Thrawn. As the two worked together to stay alive, they saved each other's lives over and over again, and Mara discovered the truth of the Emperor's death: that Vader had betrayed the Emperor only to save Luke, and that Luke had not incited Vader to betray her former master.

As she became a valuable resource to the Republic, she drew closer to fufilling her destiny. During a mission to a planet known as Wayland, Mara encountered a mad Jedi Master named Joruus C'baoth, who had been rejected as a teacher by Luke. He had used the Emperor's prized trophy, the dismembered hand Luke lost on Bespin, to clone Luke. He named his creation "Luuke Skywalker".

In the final battle on Wayland, Mara Jade fufilled the Emperor's final order, and slew Luuke, as well as C'Baoth. As a gesture of friendship, Luke gave Mara Anakin's lightsaber... the one he had lost on Bespin and the one used by his clone.

Mara, still unable to deal with Luke, went her own way. She went on to help form the Smuggler's Alliance, an organization which worked to prevent the kind of events which occured when Thrawn had taken advantage of numerous smugglers.

Eventually, Mara attended Luke's Jedi Academy for some time. Though she refused to stay on, she continued to train her now returning Jedi powers, working with a Jedi Master named Kyle Katarn.

After returning to the Smuggler's Alliance, Mara helped pilot the Millenium Falcon at the Battle of Kessel, and continued to work as a Republic Operative. When Mara accompanied Luke Skywalker on a mission to reveal the truth behind a secret Imperial Installation called the Hand of Thrawn, she was finally able to admit her love for Luke, and the two planned to wed.

With the treaty ending the final stages of the war between the Republic and the Empire, Luke and Mara's wedding marked a final joining between the two powers. Peace followed for a few years, until a diplomatic mission went wrong. Mara returned from a meeting with a political seperatist named Nom Anor. Soon afterward, she began to grow sickly. An unknown disease began eating away at her, and she grew closer and closer to death.

A new threat had emerged from outside the known universe, a foe which was not visible to the Force at all. The Yuzhaan Vong.

Soon, it was revealed that Mara's sickness was a spore introduced by the Yuzhaan Vong's pre-invasion agent, Nom Anor. When the Yuzhann Vong traitor was found, Mara was cured by drinking the tears of an alien Jedi, known as Vergere. The tears had an unexpected effect, causing her body not only to heal, but also to regress.

Mara would later find herself pregnant, and in the midst of the Yuzhann Vong invasion, she gave birth to her first child, who she and Luke named Ben Skywalker. Born of the two strongest Force users in the galaxy, Ben Skywalker's ability is as yet unrevealed, but it is believed that he will eventually become the most powerful Jedi in history.

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