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t h e  s t o r y  o f
Luke and Mara

(told  with excerpts from Star Wars novels)
 

JUST HOW DID MARA GO FROM WANTING TO KILL LUKE SKYWALKER TO LOVING HIM?
READ ON!

 "Don't like it, do you?" the woman mocked. "It's not easy to suddenly lose everything that once made you special , is it?" ...
Luke eased his legs over the side of the bed and sat up.... The woman watched him, her right hand dropping to her lap to rest on top of her blaster.
"If the purpose of all this activity is to impress me with your remarkable powers of recuperation," she offered, "you don't need to bother."
(Luke) looked her hard in the in the eye, wondering if she would flinch away from his gaze. She didn't even twitch.  "Don't tell me; let me guess. You're Mara Jade."   from HEIR TO THE EMPIRE by Timothy Zahn
 

    Luke stared at her an icy shiver running up his back. It couldn't be . . . but even as he gazed into that tortured face, he knew with sudden certainty that it was. "And your master," he said quietly, "was the Emperor."
"Yes," she said, her voice a snake's hiss. "And you destroyed him." .... Her eyes filled with distant pain. "I was his hand, Skywalker," ... "That's how I was known to his inner court: as the Emperor's Hand. I served him all over the galaxy, doing jobs the Imperial Fleet and stormtroopers couldn't handle. That was my one great talent, you see - I could hear his call from anywhere in the Empire. ... I exposed traitors for him, brought down his enemies, ... I had prestige, and power, and respect. .... And you took it all away from me. If only for that, you deserve to die."
.....   "So, why are you here?" he asked. "Why not with the Empire?"
"What Empire?" she countered. "It's dying - you know that as well as I do." ... "Who would I go to? .... They didn't know me, none of them did. Not as the Emperor's Hand, anyway. "      from HEIR TO THE EMPIRE by Timothy Zahn
 

    Two hours later she was strapped into the Skipray's cockpit, a strange and unpleasant sense of deja vu burning through her as she drove toward deep space. It had been in a ship just like this one that she had screamed off into the sky over the Myrkr forest a few weeks ago, in hot pursuit of an escaped prisoner. Now, like a twisted repeat of history, she once again found herself chasing after Luke Skywalker. Only this time, she wasn't trying to kill or capture him. This time, she was going to plead for his help.   from DARK FORCE RISING by Timothy Zahn
 

    "Who is this son of Vader you're expecting to show up and help us?"...
"The son of Vader is already with us," the Noghri said, sounding puzzled. "You serve him, as do we."
Mara stared at him through the darkness .... and suddenly her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. "You mean .... Skywalker?
"You did not know?"
Mara turned away from him staring down at the sleeping form .... a horrible numbness flooding through her. Suddenly... the last elusive piece had fallen into place. The Emperor didn't want her to kill Skywalker for his own sake. It was, instead, one final act of vengeance against his father.
YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER
And in the space of a few heartbeats everything Mara had believed about herself - her hatred, her mission, her entire life - had turned from certainty to confusion.
YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER ...
"No," ..."Not like that. My decisions, My reasons."
from THE LAST COMMAND by Timothy Zahn
 

    The clone (of Luke) shrieked ... He raised his lightsaber to attack -
YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER
She ducked beneath the slashing blade, gazing into his face. Skywalker's face. The face that  had haunted her nightmares for nearly six years. The face the Emperor had ordered her to destroy.
YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER
And for the first time since she had found Skywalker and his crippled x-wing floating deep in space, she let herself give in to the voice swirling through her mind. With all her strength she swung the lightsaber and cut him down.      The clone crumpled ... Mara gazed down at him . . . and as she took a ragged breath, the voice in the back of her mind fell silent.      It was done, she had fulfilled the Emperor's last command. And she was finally free.
from THE LAST COMMAND by Timothy Zahn
 

   Mara gazed out at the lights and vehicles...Buzzing with activity, there was still something strangely peaceful about it.      Or maybe the peace was in her. Either way, it made for a nice change.
"Quite a view isn't it?" Luke commented ... "Must bring back memories for you."
"Translation: How am I feeling about the homecoming this time. You know Skywalker, - just between us - you're pretty pathetic when you try to be devious. If I were you, I'd give it up and just stick to the straight out farm boy honesty."
"Sorry," he said. "Too much time spent around Han, I guess."
"And Karrde and me, I suppose?"
"You want a straight-out farm boy answer to that?"
She threw him a crooked smile. "I'm sorry I even brought it up."
Luke smiled back, then turned serious again. ...
"If you want a liaison between you and the smugglers, why don't you get Karrde to do it?"
"...You're someone both sides are willing to trust," Luke said "That's what's important here."...
She sighed. "I have to think about it."
"That's all right," he said. "Just come downstairs whenever you're ready."
"Sure." She threw a sideways look at him. "Was there something else?"
He smiled. "You're getting good at that."
"Your fault for teaching me too well. Come on, what is it?" (she asked) ... Reaching into his tunic he pulled out a lightsaber. "What's this?" Mara asked frowning.
"It's my old lightsaber," Luke told her quietly. "The one I lost at Cloud City, and nearly got killed with at Wayland." He held it out. "I'd like you to have it."
She looked up at him, startled. "Me? Why?"
..."Lots of reasons. Because you earned it. Because you're on your way to becoming a Jedi and you'll need it. Mostly, though, because I want you to have it." ...
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." He touched her hand again. ... "Come on down when you've decided." He turned and walked away. ... Mara turned to gaze out at the lights of the city again, the cool metal of the lightsaber pressed against her hand. Luke's lightsaber. Probably one of his last links to the past    . . . and he was giving it away.    Was there a message in that for her? Probably. ... Her last link with the past had been broken in the Mount Tantiss throne room. Her past was over. It was time to get on with the future. ... Behind her, she heard Luke open the roof door. "Hang on a minute," she called after him. "I'll come with you."
from THE LAST COMMAND by Timothy Zahn
 
 

    "How about a swap?" She (Mara)  hitched for a second, then glanced down at the floor. "Watch out for Luke for me, will you?"
"Sure, gladly." I frowned. "Anything specific? I know he won't like you're leaving . . ."
"That certainly." Her voice shrank a bit. "His involvement with the dark side. I know it functions as a spur to drive him on to teach his students, but I don't think he knows how much he was hurt by it. The experience must have been unbelievably traumatic and he's still healing. ..."
"He might try too much, too fast?"
"That would be like him."         from I, JEDI by Michael Stackpole
 
 

    "Yes," he  (Luke) said "I'll set up the phrase 'welcome aboard' to snap me out of the trance."    ..."Okay, here we go. Don't miss me."      Mara smiled tightly. Don't miss me. Once those words would have had a totally different connotation for her. Luke Skywalker in her blaster sights, the Emperor's dying command ... echoing through her mind.    But she'd gone through that crisis ten years  ago ... and the Emperor's voice was now only a distant and powerless memory. ...   Taking a deep breath, Mara braced herself against the airlock bulkhead and stretched out to the Force. ...   He slammed into her full tilt, the impact driving them both back and down. "Welcome aboard," Mara gasped. ...
"Thank You," Luke murmured into her ear. ...
"You're welcome," ... "Nice disguise." ... "How come you didn't use a force illusion, like you have before.?"
"I've been trying to cut back on my use of the Force except when absolutely necessary..."
"Ah," Mara said. That was very interesting. Very interesting indeed. ......
....... "Jade?" Faugn asked. "What now?"...
"We shoot a report off to Karrde," she said....
"Right," Faughn said. "Incidentally, Jade, in case no one's ever mentioned it before, you and Skywalker make a pretty good team."
from SPECTER OF THE PAST by Timothy Zahn
 

    He gazed down at her again, a quiet ache in his heart. Perhaps that was her destiny, an end to her life that he could do nothing to prevent. But until that was proved, he was tear his own life apart if necessary to prevent it from happening. .... But for now what she needed most was to be healed. ... "Good night," he said again, knowing she couldn't hear him. On impulse, he leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips.   from VISIONS OF THE FUTURE by Timothy Zahn
 

    "What was between Lando and me was . . . absolutely nothing." ... "Karrde  had an important mission for me to carry out, and because Lando had supplied the starting point he invited himself along. The - well, personal aspects were nothing but window dressing to keep people from figuring out what we were doing.  .... I had to become a giddy, vacant - brained, bit of decorative fluff, because Skukarian automatically put that class of woman beneath his contempt and the role gave me the freedom of movement I needed." ...  I usually wore one of Lando's shirts during Skuarian's late - night visits and comm calls, and I made sure to leave one of them hanging on the open door of his private office safe. After I'd gutted it.
Luke smiled . A tentative smile, still somewhat shamefaced smile, but a genuine smile nevertheless. At this point it was enough.
from VISIONS OF THE FUTURE by Timothy Zahn
 

    So focused was her mind, so locked into the terrible struggle for survival that there was nothing else in the universe that seemed to penetrate her consciousness. ... Nothing but the blasters and her lightsaber. And Luke. It was a strange sensation ... Standing back to back, stretched out so deeply together in the Force, it was if their minds had literally melded together to become a single entity. ... In one way it was almost like a logical extension of the brief emotional contacts they had had throughout this trip. But in another way it was something completely new, ... Because within the depth of that mental rapport, she suddenly and totally knew Luke Skywalker. Knew everything about him: his hopes and fears; his successes and failures; his strengths and weaknesses; his highest joys and his deepest most private sorrows. She saw into his innermost spirit, to the depths of his heart, to the very core of his being.  And she knew even as he lay open before her eyes, so also her heart and spirit were open before his.   Yet it wasn't frightening or humiliating ... Never had she known such a relationship could even exist.   And never before had she realized how badly she wanted such a relationship. from VISIONS OF THE FUTURE by Timothy Zahn
 

    "You didn't know, but after that pirate base thing, Faughn told me you and I make a good team. She was right. We really did."
"We really do," Luke corrected, looking almost nervously into her eyes. "You know when we were fighting those sentinels down there, something happened to me. To us. We were so close in the Force that it was like we had become a single person. It was . . . it was something very special."
She lifted and eyebrow, a flicker of amusement worming its way through even the deadly seriousness of the situation. There was such an oddly awkward earnestness to his expression. "Really?" she said. "How special."
He grimaced "You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?" ...
"Oh come now," she said mock accusingly. "When have I ever  made anything easy for you?"
"Not very often," he conceded. Visibly bracing himself, he reached over and took her hands again. "Mara
. . . . will you marry me?" ...
Under other circumstances, she, knew, she would have probably considered herself honor - bound to make him sweat, just a little. But with the water still rising below them, such games seemed rather pointless. Besides, there was no reason for old defensive patterns to come into play. Not now. Not with him. "Yes," She said. "I will."      from VISIONS OF THE FUTURE by Timothy Zahn