Mara Jade Skywalker

"I'm a fighter. I've always been a fighter. The few times when I have been at leisure, I've been miserable. I want challenges, I crave them."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

Mara Jade Skywalker was, during different times in her life, an Emperor's Hand, a smuggler, and later a Jedi Master. As an Emperor's Hand, Mara carried out the Emperor's bidding, killing Rebels and corrupt Imperials alike with cold professionalism even as a young woman. After Palpatine's death, she received his last command (to kill Luke Skywalker), but the death of her Master caused her to go rogue. Eventually she joined Talon Karrde, becoming one of his best smugglers and his second-in-command. During the predations of Grand Admiral Thrawn, she was forced to work with Skywalker, and developed a grudging respect for him. Over the years, she would continue working for Karrde and interacting with Luke intermittently, until the two finally realized in 19 ABY that they were in love and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.

After marrying Luke, Mara devoted her life to the New Jedi Order, becoming a Master in her own right. Shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong War, she fell ill due to deadly coomb spores. Using the Force to slow its progress, the disease was only purged from her system after the birth of her son Ben in 26 ABY. After becoming a Master, Mara took her niece Jaina Solo as an apprentice until she reached Knighthood. During this time, Mara participated in Jedi offensives against the Yuuzhan Vong where she aided in the destruction of Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane. Mara was active during the Dark Nest Crisis and the subsequent Swarm War, where she helped to thwart the plans of Raynar Thul and the Killiks, and continued to serve by the side of her husband as a Jedi Master during the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War. During that war, Mara was killed by her nephew, Jacen Solo, whom she had learned was a Sith and therefore saw as a threat to her family personally, to the Jedi Order, and to the Galaxy at large.

Mara was skilled in a variety of fields, being a good pilot and mechanic and trained in the use of both a blaster and hand-to-hand combat even without relying on the Force. Her cool demeanor was matched by her quick wit and both helped her stay calm, survive, and emerge victorious even in dangerous situations. As Palpatine's assassin, she received top-notch training from experts in a variety of fields as well as training in the Force, which would later be continued by Luke Skywalker years later.

Early life (17 BBY–4 ABY)
"Yeah, it's true. Now tell me who blabbed so I can go cut his head off."

- Mara's response to a couple of Jedi trainees questioning her past as an Emperor's Hand

Mara Jade was born in 17 BBY on an unknown planet during a time of great instability as Emperor Palpatine and his apprentice, Darth Vader, were eliminating the remnants of the Jedi Order. Emperor Palpatine took the infant Mara from her parents and brought her to Coruscant, where he began to train her in the Force, although officially she was one of the Imperial Palace's dancers. She did not remember much about her early life besides her parents' reluctance to let her go and her own certainty that she was going to leave with the Emperor. Her master trained her in the ways of the Force and she was made into an agent of the Empire. Some of the Imperial court assumed her to simply be a dancer or one of Palpatine's concubines.

Emperor's Hand
"She is, shall we say, an experiment."

- Palpatine

Throughout Mara's youth, she was pushed through an intensive training regimen (this involved training alongside the Imperial Royal Guard and learning covert espionage and assassination skills, which she was adept at by the age of fourteen ) and became an "Emperor's Hand," one of Palpatine's personal assassins, after a final test in which she successfully broke into Wilhuff Tarkin's private quarters. In order to accomplish this mission, Mara, posing as a guest at a formal event at Tarkin's residence, feigned illness in order to get away from the other guests. She then retrieved a sack of equipment and descended down the side of the building to the room containing Tarkin's private safe. While she was breaking in, a group of guards came in (actually droids) and she engaged them with her blaster and lightsaber. However, upon sensing that one of the guards was living, she knocked him out rather than kill a soldier willing to give his life in a training exercise. Vader and Palpatine were pleased with her skills and she was pronounced the Emperor's Hand.

Despite there being several Emperor's Hands, she, like the others, was unaware of the existence of any other Hands. Due to her deep connection with the Force, she could hear Palpatine's voice anywhere in the galaxy via a telepathic link. Mara carried out Palpatine's will on numerous worlds, eliminating corrupt Imperial officials, traitors, and others who he deemed deserving of death or judgment. His esteem for her was such that he actually allowed her to get some time for relaxation, atypical of Palpatine's usual style. She also received a personal starship and a protocol droid named Kaythree to aid her in her duties as Hand.

Before the Battle of Yavin, she was tasked with gathering intelligence in order to help Darth Vader hunt down any Jedi she found that had survived Order 66&mdash;one such Jedi was An'ya Kuro. Mara soon became envious of Vader and sensed a division in him, specifically because she didn't understand the basis of his obsession concerning Luke Skywalker. Mara began to hope that Vader would betray the Emperor so that she could kill him and take his place as the Emperor's apprentice.

During the years following the Battle of Yavin and preceding the Battle of Hoth, Mara spied on Darth Vader and delivered reports on his actions, even going so far as watching, from afar, his assault on the Massassi Temples, some six months after Yavin, which resulted in the capture of Rebel Commander Jan Dodonna.

Despite these spy activities, she still performed tasks for Vader himself. Around 1.5 ABY, Jade was responsible for uncovering information about C-3PO and R2-D2 for Vader, though Vader was either unwilling or unable to collect the information from her himself. Instead, he sent a spacer who had been doing work for the Empire to pick up the information from Jade on Naboo before returning it to him for a reward of 2,100 credits. Around the time of the Battle of Hoth she visited Belsavis.

Mara had also investigated Moff Glovstoak, posing as "Countess Claria" and discovered that he had been skimming the top off tax returns to the Imperial Center. Faking intoxication, she retired to a private room during a formal party Glovstoak was throwing, only to leave an inflatable dummy behind and, having exchanged her formal wear for a combat suit, quickly infiltrated his office and found six stolen paintings worth millions of credits in his palace. Mara returned to Imperial Center and reported her findings to Palpatine, but also saved General Deerian, whom she believed to be honest, from the fallout of Glovstoak's destruction.

Upon Glovstoak's arrest, Mara also took the job of discovering who had delivered the paintings, as well as those who had aided the Moff. First, she went to the auction house where the paintings had been sold, but gleaned little information. Next, she investigated secure storage sites and found a good match in the Birtraub Brothers Storage and Reclamation Center, within which she sensed criminal connections. Observing the facility from a nearby tapcafe, the owners of the storage facility attempted to drug her, but her Force-senses alerted her to the attempt. She confronted the owner, Pirtonna Birtraub, who attempted to kill her. She easily subdued him and he admitted the involvement of a pirate group identified as the BloodScars, a ruthless gang that wanted to combine several gangs to dominate the Shelsha Sector.

Mara stowed away on one of the pirate ships that she had been pointed to, choosing a HT-2200 medium freighter that was being sent to attack a transport carrying Imperial military equipment. About the time the craft launched an attack on the Happer's Way, Mara was also discovered and attacked by a group of pirates. Undaunted, she quickly took over the ship, captured Tannis, and signaled the Reprisal via the Happer's Way's communications relay to assist her and the freighter.

Boarding the Reprisal, Mara was coldly greeted by Captain Kendal Ozzel, who believed she was onto him for five stormtroopers that had deserted earlier after killing Major Drelfin over Daric LaRone's refusal to kill civilians on Teardrop. Mara requested a pair of crewers for the ship, and Colonel Vak Somoril gave her a pair of ISB men to accompany her. Taking the two ISB men and Tannis with her on the Happer's Way, Mara went to infiltrate the pirate base at Gepparin, pretending to be an independent ship thief who wanted to join the BloodScars.

Mara arrived on Gepparin and was brought to meet the Commodore, who was suspicious of her. That evening, Mara was attacked by the two ISB men, who had been ordered to eliminate her, and their attack attracted the pirates' attention. She attempted to deal with the commodore, who ignored her and had his pirate accomplice Caaldra kill her. His attempt was unsuccessful, but Mara was interrupted before she could stop him and the commodore. Aboard the Reprisal, Ozzel and Somoril, wanting to be sure she was slain, arrived over Gepparin and launched TIE fighters and an orbital bombardment to kill Mara and the pirates. Mara quickly raced to the command center and found the commodore's body next to a HoloNet message he was about to send to Shelkonwa. Mara shot down the TIE fighters, and the Reprisal left in pursuit of the Millennium Falcon and their rogue stormtroopers who had appeared in-system, allowing Mara to escape in a Z-10 Seeker.

Journeying to Shelkonwa, she found Vader and the Executor already there in search of Leia Organa. Mara believed that Governor Barshnis Choard was a traitor, and informed Vader of her findings. The dark lord brooked no interference in his search, but he did allow Mara to investigate and deal with Choard. Upon landing, Caaldra attacked her with a purloined All Terrain Scout Transport, but she was aided by the group of rogue stormtroopers, dubbed the Hand of Judgment. Taking them under her command, she defeated the AT-ST, unknowingly with the help of Chewbacca in a freighter, but Caaldra had escaped. With her newly drafted stormtroopers, she advanced on the Governor's Palace, where once again Caaldra tried to kill her. This time, she put an end to him when he tried to shoot her and she redirected the bolt into him with her lightsaber. In the mean time, the Hand of Judgment had penetrated the governor's security. Linking back up with the Hand of Judgment, Mara arrested Governor Choard and vouched for the rogue stormtroopers, even in front of Vader. Later, she learned their true story. She let them go, but warned them to lie low and lose their Hand of Judgment name, saying she was the only Hand in the Empire. A few months prior to the Battle of Endor, Mara was in Palpatine's chamber when Darth Vader brought the Force-sensitive cyborg Lumiya to Palpatine to serve as another Emperor's Hand. Jade was dismissed from Palpatine's presence before he accepted Lumiya's service, maintaining her illusion that she was the only Hand, but Jade nevertheless sensed immediate hostility from Lumiya.

Hunting Skywalker
Following the Battle of Hoth, Mara became aware of Palpatine's worries about the Rebel Luke Skywalker; she was sent to infiltrate Jabba Desilijic Tiure's Palace on Tatooine, disguised as the dancing girl Arica, in order to await Skywalker. Melina Carniss, a member of Jabba's secret security detail, suspected her of being out to assassinate the Hutt, and attempted to arrest her; Jade turned the tables on Carniss, however, taking her into custody and then using the Force to cause Melina to shoot one of Jabba's Gamorrean guards. Jade fled down a tunnel and came to a ventilation shaft of the rancor pit. After fighting through three rows of guards, she was able to watch Luke kill the rancor. She then entered the ventilation shaft of the Rancor pit using a vibroax, and used the Force to open the trapdoor and follow the crowd out to the sail barge. Though she begged Jabba to let her join him and others at the Dune Sea, a suspicious Jabba instead provided her with a landspeeder and told her to leave and never come back after she tried to use the Force on him. Thus stymied in this attempt to fulfill her mission, she made her way back to Imperial Center&mdash;and a displeased Palpatine. Years later, a Force vision revealed to Luke that, had she been present at the Great Pit of Carkoon, Jade would have succeeded in preventing his escape.

The search for Black Nebula
"Victims run off and hide. Prey runs off and hides. But I'm not a victim. And I'm not prey. I'm the Emperor's Hand. I am the ultimate predator. And it's time for Dequc and Black Nebula to die."

- Mara during her hunt for Dequc

Following her mission on Tatooine, Mara was given another task by the Emperor&mdash;to kill Dequc, a Jeodu who sought to revive Black Sun by incorporating its remnants into his own empire, that of the Black Nebula.

Mara arrived on the planet Svivren where she began laying the ground work for her new mission. She reconnoitered the crime lord's base, but realized that she would need a distraction to allow her to sneak in unnoticed. She went to the local Imperial garrison commander, General Touno, and requested two squads of stormtroopers and an officer. The officer assigned to her was Captain Strok, and together, he and Mara planned a raid on the building next to Dequc's, but Strok was unaware that this was all a distraction planned by Mara. The following day, however, saw the raid utterly fail and the majority of the Imperials killed. Mara, though, was still able to use the distraction provided by the firefight to sneak in and assassinate a Jeodu she believed to be Dequc.

After the assassination, Mara reported to the Emperor that the mission had been successful. Palpatine, as a reward for her efficiency, provided Mara with a vacation. Mara did her best to enjoy the time that was provided to her, but she found herself mulling over the events which had transpired on Svivren. She came to the conclusion that the assassination was too easy and that any number of the guards present during her attack should have easily been able to stop her. Mara decided to test her theory by setting up a simulation of the assassination. Only two out of five times was she able to successfully kill "Dequc" and withdraw unharmed. She concluded that the person she killed was not the real Dequc, but a cleverly placed decoy. Mara resolved that it was still her duty to hunt down and assassinate the real leader of Black Nebula.

Mara used her Force link with the Emperor to advise him of her findings, but before she could, he allowed her to witness his destruction by both Vader and Luke Skywalker. His last command reverberated through the Force to her: YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER and she hated Skywalker for killing her master and destroying her life. Mara was overcome by his death agonies and rendered unconscious. She remained in a dream-like state for several days, until she was apprehended by two of Ysanne Isard's henchmen. They took Mara to Isard, who imprisoned her and used intelligence tactics to try and force Mara to aid her in her bid for power. Mara, though, was able to escape from captivity and find passage to the backwater world of Phorliss. Mara intended to lay low for the time being until she could raise enough funds to relocate. To better blend into her temporary surroundings, she found work as a waitress at a local cantina owned by Gorb Drig. For several weeks she worked for Drig under the alias Chiara Lorn, until members of Black Nebula arrived to collect a debt owed by Drig. Mara could not believe her luck in discovering that Black Nebula had a presence on Phorliss&mdash;not wanting Drig to be harmed, Mara did her best to fight the more numerous gang members. Mara managed to get a hold of her lightsaber and quickly kill the remaining Nebula members, though not before they killed Drig and Jorshmin, a patron whom Mara had befriended.

Mara set out to find the Black Nebula base on Phorliss, and discovered that the real Dequc was based on Qiaax. Mara infiltrated a casino owned by Dequc and administered by a lieutenant in Black Nebula. She disguised herself as Baroness Paltonae and claimed to represent a mysterious corporate interest that had developed reliable and undetectable ways to cheat at gambling and detect lock combinations&mdash;Mara, however, simply used the Force to create both illusions in an effort to be brought before Dequc. She managed to succeed and was taken to Black Nebula's hidden base in the Bubble Cliffs of Nezmi, where Dequc was waiting for her to discuss the corporate interest she "represented." However, once inside the Nebula's base, Mara unknowingly ran into Strok, the Imperial officer she had worked with on Svivren. She learned that he was actually a Black Nebula agent who had been inserted into the Imperial officer corps to feed Dequc information. Mara was furious about this discovery of an Imperial traitor, but decided to deal with him later. However, she again ran into him in the base's barracks, and when he realized who she was, Mara was forced to kill him to keep her secret safe. His death, though, was soon discovered by Black Nebula and Mara was forced onto the offensive. Mara eventually managed to make her way to Dequc's safe house, deep within the Bubble Cliffs. Once there, she used her lightsaber and a small explosive to kill Dequc and his guards; Mara then was able to escape through one of Dequc's secret passageways. Once she had successfully withdrawn, Mara stole a private yacht of Dequc's, one which was filled with all of his private information regarding the inner workings of Black Nebula, and left it at an Imperial spaceport where it could be discovered by the authorities.

On the run (4 ABY–6 ABY)
Her hatred of Skywalker for destroying her master burned deep within her, and she vowed to kill the Jedi Knight. She was unaware that the Emperor's telepathic command lay at the core of this rage, making it stronger than any normal wish for vengeance would be. Meanwhile, her life was in shambles: the resources she had once had access to were all dependent on the Emperor, and her life of luxury, privilege and purpose was over. Still hunted by Isard, she made her way through the galaxy, doing odd jobs and manual labor to make ends meet. Her Force abilities faded, returning in ill-timed bursts. All the while, she was still haunted by the Emperor's last command: "You will kill Luke Skywalker."

During her travels, she landed on Kintoni, where she spotted the Rebel general Crix Madine. Mara followed him and infiltrated the building to see Madine interrogating former Imperial Governor Barkale. Mara made her way towards the imprisoned governor and found a datapad showing the Executor along the way. However, she was stopped in Madine's quarters by the general, who pulled a blaster on her and called for reinforcements. Mara shot his gun and used the datapad to display the image of the Executor on the sensor screens, tricking the Rebels into thinking the ship was after them. Mara stunned the guards and made a deal with Madine to let her and Barkale escape.

Barkale took her back to his home, but Mara noticed a sculpture that he had reported stolen or destroyed years ago, along with many other pieces of artwork. When she accused him of treasonous embezzlement, Barkale threw a vase at her. Mara, undaunted, executed him, and then informed Madine of her discovery while she got off the planet, figuring that the Rebels would have found the artwork anyway and executing Barkale was worth it.

Smuggler (6 ABY–9 ABY)
"If only for that, you deserve to die."

- Mara to Luke

Mara was on Chibias to see the Coruscant Full Symphony when she encountered a young Zakarisz Ghent, who had just had a datacard planted on him without his knowledge. Mara took interest in the young slicer and, posing as a member of the concert hall staff, helped him escape from Raines, a member of Governor Egron's staff, who was trying to capture Ghent. Mara took the startled Ghent back to her hotel room, informing him that his trip to the hall had been a set-up. When Mara failed to slice into records to find out why Ghent was being pursued, Ghent took over and easily sliced through it, revealing the motive behind the attempted kidnapping.

Mara then went to the Governor's Palace, where she confronted Raines about the absence of any record of him in the Governor's personnel files. Raines told her that he was a special aide to the governor and his name was Markko. She also was able to reveal that he had been hired by the governor for computer work, rather than that the governor needed Ghent's services, which was what Markko had originally told her. Mara, acting as Ghent's broker, agreed to bring him to the palace to slice the computer, which Markko had informed her was captured from the Rebel Alliance, after charging him an exorbitant fee.

However, she was followed on her way back to the hotel. Deciding to turn the tables, she lost her pursuit and followed them back to their hideout. Markko confronted her, and then led her at gunpoint to the rest of the group, revealing that they were actually part of the Rebel Alliance. Mara agreed to bring Ghent to the palace as planned, seeing an opportunity to sell out Markko and earn some credits. Upon arriving at the palace, Ghent learned that the captured computer was not a Rebel machine, but actually a Star Destroyer's control node&mdash;Mara quickly ascertained that Egron was planning on selling the information. Mara stalled for time while using her lightsaber to cut an exit out of the wall with a Paparak cross-cut that would only be revealed when she kicked the wall in. After creating a diversion, she kicked the wall in and escaped with Ghent. However, Egron and Markko managed to intercept her before she could escape the palace. While she executed Egron, Markko took Ghent hostage. However, the two agreed to part ways, despite their ideological differences, with Markko returning Ghent. Outside, Mara told Ghent to go back to his home of Sibisime, while she went to find work on a freighter. Little did she know that Ghent was hired by the smuggler Talon Karrde shortly after she and Ghent parted ways.

For the next few years, Mara drifted from one odd job to another under a variety of aliases. Under the alias Marellis, she was a come-up flector for a Caprioril swoop gang. It was during this occupation that she lost the violet-colored lightsaber she had been given by Palpatine in an encounter with Lumiya. Lumiya, sent by Ysanne Isard, found her and tried to bring her back to Isard, but Mara refused. The two dueled and Mara escaped, though she lost her lightsaber in the process. . After her run-in with Lumiya, she later worked as a hyperdrive mechanic on Varonat under the name Celina Marniss. She also encountered the severed head of droid 8t88 on Rathalay in the hideout of smuggler Kaerobani and noted that the droid was planning vengeance on whomever had decapitated it. Fortune finally struck when Mara managed to save the smuggler baron Talon Karrde from an ambush on Varonat that took the life of Karrde's second-in-command, Quelev Tapper, and almost killed Karrde as well. Mara had originally been working as a hyperdrive mechanic at the spaceport, and her efficiency and striking appearance impressed Karrde, who was operating under the alias of Hart while Tapper was known as Seoul. While out on a safari for Morodins, Karrde discovered both that the Morodins were sentient and that the safari leader, Gamgalon, was responsible for smuggling a catalyst for Tibanna gas grown in the jungle. Gamgalon found out what Karrde knew though and planned on executing him, having already killed Tapper when he tried to resist. Fortunately for them, Mara remembered hearing about a smuggler who enjoyed wordplay in his aliases and ships (Hart and Seoul), and decided to help them out in hopes of finding a position with them. She followed them out to the jungle, killed Gamgalon and his guard and rescued Karrde. Karrde was so impressed with Mara that he offered her a job on the spot.

The two of them are said to have been already working together as early as 6 ABY, when Mara sold a Rodian statuette to New Republic Senator Baron Jonas Stern on Sluis Van. She and Karrde were later on Nkllon, with Jade again operating under the psuedonym Celina Marniss.

Meeting Skywalker
Mara entered Karrde's organization in c. 8.5 ABY. During her first six months of working with Karrde, Mara swiftly rose through the ranks of his smuggling organization. Her Force-sensitivity, lying largely dormant since the death of Palpatine, reasserted itself when she brought Karrde's freighter, the Wild Karrde out of hyperspace for a routine check right where Luke Skywalker's damaged X-wing was floating in space. Grand Admiral Thrawn, the leader of the resurgent Empire, had posted a significant bounty on Skywalker and Karrde considered the possibility of selling him to Thrawn for the bounty or extorting money from the New Republic to ensure his return.

Karrde pulled the stranded Jedi aboard and took him back to his base on Myrkr, where the planet's ysalamiri creatures blocked Skywalker's Force abilities. Jade was at first intent on killing Skywalker, but Karrde would not have it. However, Karrde did keep Luke and R2-D2 locked up and hid them from view when Thrawn arrived to collect ysalamiri. Luke, though, managed to escape in a Skipray blastboat. Mara gave chase, but both vehicles ended up crashing in the vornskr-infested forest. To complicate matters, Thrawn himself arrived on Myrkr to harvest ysalamiri, preventing the two from making contact with Karrde, for Thrawn would know that Karrde had been with-holding Skywalker from him. Mara was forced to work with Luke to survive, and she clearly stated her intention to kill him. The two made their way to Hyllyard City after fending off several vornskr attacks, but were caught in a stormtrooper ambush. Thanks to the timely intervention of Lando Calrissian, Han Solo, and some of Karrde's men, they defeated the stormtroopers and Solo, Calrissian, and Skywalker left Myrkr. Karrde and his organization also fled Myrkr soon after due to a massive Imperial bounty placed upon them.

As the last members of the orgnaization fled Myrkr, Mara remained with Karrde, who decided to surreptitiously observe the Imperial arrival on Myrkr from the Wild Karrde. As expected, Grand Admiral Thrawn arrived in the Star Destroyer Chimaera and quickly took over the abandoned base. However, what Karrde did not anticipate was Thrawn deducing that the Wild Karrde had remained in the system and had called for an Interdictor cruiser, the Constrainer, to trap the smuggler's ship in place. However, Mara received a Force-related warning of the Imperial's arrival and activated the Wild Karrde ' s engines, preparing them for flight, much to the surprise of her fellow crewmembers and Karrde. However, as the Constrainer reverted into the system, Mara piloted the ship out of its range and made the jump into hyperspace, her seemingly premature activation of the ship's engines having saved them from an Imperial trap.

While setting up a new base for Karrde's group on Rishi, Mara was accosted by a bounty hunter. She killed him, but Karrde's organization was put to flight yet again. Sent to Abregado-rae to retrieve a ship of Karrde's, the Etherway, that had been impounded, her departure from the system was interrupted by the arrival of the Victory-class Star Destroyer Adamant. Mara realized that Thrawn would not stop hunting them, so she turned herself over to Thrawn, reclaiming her role as the Emperor's Hand and offering him the location of the Katana fleet in exchange for amnesty for Karrde and his men. Thrawn agreed, albeit not without suspicion, but double-crossed Mara by placing a tracking device on her ship. Once she arrived at Karrde's next hideout, Imperial stormtroopers followed shortly afterwards and captured Karrde.

Mara, disgusted by Thrawn's actions and now feeling more loyalty to Karrde than ever, decided to break Karrde out of the Imperial brig in which he now found himself, but knew she couldn't do it alone. Instead, she journeyed to Jomark with a ysalamiri, where Luke Skywalker was training under Joruus C'baoth. C'boath attempted to knock her out of the sky with a hail of rocks as she landed, but she was able to set her ship down and make her way towards his residence, where Skywalker was located. As she was climbing down a cliff, she was nearly blasted by R2-D2, controlling Luke's X-wing. She managed to convince the droid that C'baoth was working for the Empire and that Skywalker owed Karrde, and was ferried down to Luke's location hanging from the starfighter's landing skid. After a short confrontation with C'baoth had resulted in him stunned from a near-miss from a laser cannon fired by R2-D2, Mara had wanted to finish off the insane Jedi Master, but Luke persuaded her not to. Despite her misgivings, she convinced Luke to go with her to rescue Karrde from Thrawn's ship, the Chimaera, in the Skipray blastboat that she had used to reach Jomark. Using her passwords to slice into the computer, she and Luke reached the detention block and freed Karrde. Thrawn shut down the ship's computer, but the trio was able to make good their escape in the Millennium Falcon, which the Empire had retrieved from Endor after it had been deserted.

Mara and Karrde's group later returned to aid the New Republic in the Battle for the Katana fleet. Mara flew a Z-95 Headhunter in the battle, but an ion cannon blast left her drifting in space. Fortunately for her, Luke Skywalker was able to rescue her before she died of exposure.

Taken to Coruscant for a month of nerve-regeneration therapy, Mara found herself almost completely alone in the Imperial Palace. She wanted to leave the planet, but before she could, she detected an Imperial intrusion team headed for the Solo family's quarters. Mara, accompanied by Lando Calrissian and Garm Bel Iblis, chased down the intruders. They were pinned down, but Mara used her knowledge of the Palace's secret passages to get behind the Imperial commando team. Using the Force to relay a plan to Leia Organa Solo, she successfully gunned down the entire Imperial squad. However, Major Molo Himron, the team leader, survived and implicated her in the attack, which led to her imprisonment by the order of Colonel Jak Bremen.

Wayland
"For I have foreseen that Mara Jade will bow before me. One Mara Jade, or another."

- Joruus C'baoth to Mara Jade on Wayland

Mara later found out about Thrawn's use of clones while imprisoned, via Leia, and remembered the location of the Emperor's cloning center. Realizing that they might be compromised if they went through normal channels, Luke, Han, Lando, and Chewbacca broke Mara out of prison and took her with them on the Falcon. She gave them the location of Wayland and the cloning center, and the group successfully landed in the forest, along with R2-D2 and C-3PO. Mara was once again forced to work with Luke, who encouraged her to develop her Force skills. Skywalker gradually realized that Jade was acting not so much of her own volition as she was following Palpatine's telepathic command. Jade also came to gradually realize this, that she was being used to inflict a last bit of revenge upon the dead Darth Vader. Skywalker promised to help her remove the command, even though being near her obviously jeopardized his life. They both had premonitions of encountering the insane C'baoth on the planet, which, upon reaching the Mount Tantiss stronghold after an arduous journey through the forest, turned out to be true. Mara asked Luke to kill her rather than let C'baoth take over her mind, but Luke promised that whatever she would face in the stronghold, she wouldn't face it alone.

While looking for a remote destruct for the facility, Luke and Mara found the crazed Jedi Master, who hit Mara and Luke with Force lightning and pitted Luke against a clone of himself. Despite the aid of Han, Leia, and Karrde, they were unable to defeat the Jedi Master until Mara retrieved Leia Organa Solo's lightsaber and charged C'baoth. Luke injured his clone and strengthened Mara with the Force, and she fulfilled the Emperor's command, slaying the clone. Enraged, C'baoth attacked them with a Force Scream, Force lightning and rocks, but Mara, fulfilling C'baoth's visions of bowing before him, kneeling to avoid his attacks, stabbed him with the lightsaber. Luke's Force powers kept her from being injured by the dark side energy released upon C'baoth's death, and they escaped in the Wild Karrde as Lando and Chewbacca blew up the facility. As a token of friendship, Luke gave her his father's lightsaber, and she would continue to use it in the years ahead.

Mara was later sent out by Karrde to aid the New Republic after the loss of Coruscant to the Empire. The New Republic had sent couriers out to various parts of the fleet to inform them of their retreat, as their communications had been cut off. One part of the fleet had changed location, so the New Republic paid Mara to meet with the courier ship Messenger to update the crew. As it turned out, the same Colonel Bremen whom she had been detained by on Coruscant was on the ship and Mara enjoyed his discomfort. However, a homing beacon in the Messenger lured a Carrack-class cruiser and Mara shot off some of its TIEs to allow the courier to escape.

Apprenticeship
After fully renouncing the dark side of the Force, Jade sought out Kyle Katarn to train her in the ways of the Jedi. In 10 ABY, Mara was with Kyle Katarn on the battlefront of Altyr V to aid the New Republic base, which was being bombarded from two artificial asteroids and attacked by the Imperial Remnant. Kyle Katarn managed to repel the attack, and destroyed both asteroids. While there, he got a lead about the planet Dromund Kaas having some importance to the Empire and went to investigate.

Mara, however, was on her own&mdash;her first mission for the Republic was to negotiate with Ka'Pa the Hutt concerning the New Republic's supplies. In order for Ka'Pa to comply, Mara was forced to steal Takara's GCT device for him. While looking for Takara's lieutenant, Abron Mar, in the Katraasii Spaceport, Mara was trapped by Takara. She managed to escape the stronghold by killing a Rancor and stole the device. Ka'Pa was pleased and agreed to help the Republic.

Mara's second mission was on a Republic Corellian Corvette guarding a Jedi holocron, when they again came under attack from Kaerobani's pirates. Mara repelled the attackers, but the holocron was stolen. To retrieve the holocron, she decided to "board" a cargo crate that was headed for Rathalay, the pirates base. Using her deeply ingrained training, Mara reclaimed the holocron and escaped.

After that, Mara finally arrived on Dromund Kaas to see what had happened to Katarn. While traveling through the swamps, she encountered and defeated many native creatures, including her own doppelgänger. After crossing the swamp, she reached the Dark Force Temple. Finally she found Kyle totally immersed in the dark side. Master and apprentice fought, but Mara managed to fend him off each time, while Kyle retreated deeper and deeper into the catacombs. On the final encounter, Mara voluntarily turned off her lightsaber and surrendered. Kyle realized that he could not follow this path and was able to turn back to the light side. The two later participated in the ancient Jedi tradition of the Concordance of Fealty mutual apprenticeship.

When Palpatine returned in his new cloned body, Mara didn't believe it was really him, spurning any thought of returning to his service. Instead, she aided the New Republic in evacuating Coruscant and ferrying cargo for the government. For his part, Palpatine supplanted her and the other Hands with new Dark Side Adepts, including Sedriss QL.

However, Palpatine was also not content with merely replacing Mara; to punish her for her treachery, he sent several of his servants to intercept her en route to a Smugglers' Alliance meeting in the Senex Sector, including the mysterious Blackhole. She was captured, though Kyle Katarn and some of his associates later freed her.

Smuggler's Alliance
"When I entered the atmosphere I could feel you and Kun tangling. The Force was boiling."

- Mara Jade to Corran Horn

After Kyle forsook the Jedi and the Force and returned to his military career, Mara also participated in a mission from Karrde to track down Jorj Car'das, where she pretended to be involved with Lando Calrissian as a cover for the mission. This quest would at one point take them to the Kathol Rift, where she and Calrissian encountered Crev Bombaasa and helped him out of a tight spot. Karrde would later use this association and owed favor to his advantage.

In 11 ABY, Mara returned to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 to learn the ways of the Jedi, arriving during the tumultuous time right after Gantoris's death and Kyp Durron's first act of rebellion, both events caused by the spirit of the ancient Sith Exar Kun. At first Mara and Corran Horn, himself a student under the assumed name of Keiran Halcyon, got off to a bad start, but they soon settled their differences and got along quite well. She even allowed Corran to use her Headhunter, though Kyp later stole it in his bid to seize the Sun Crusher. Under Kam Solusar's tutelage, Horn and Mara Jade trained together, enjoying physical exercise such as running expeditions through the jungle, and learned to appreciate their differences&mdash;this proved to be a wise choice, as it was not long until the spirit of Exar Kun took control of Kyp and wreaked havoc on the Jedi. She left the academy not long after, but later returned after she heard Kun had put Luke in a coma. While there, she helped Corran defeat Kun's spirit, as the Corellian had attempted to distract Kun by invading his temple. She arrived just in time, as Kun was nearing success with turning Corran's fears against him, and had also severely injured him. She helped Corran trick Kun into returning to the Praxeum to use Streen against Luke, leading to the Sith Lord's destruction from the combined Force power of the students there. With Kun defeated, Mara helped the injured Horn back to the Great Temple. However, she again left the Praxeum after the incident.

During this time, she also became one of the leaders of the Smugglers' Alliance. Lando Calrissian, flush with cash from a recent string of successes, wanted to make a profit from mining glitterstim on Kessel. Mara led a group of Smuggler's Alliance vessels to Kessel to help him chase the present administrator, Moruth Doole, off the planet. However, Mara was not entirely thrilled with Lando, as she was not fond of his constant flirting with her, though she was impressed by him giving the Falcon to Han Solo as a gift even after winning it back in a game of sabacc. Not long after they took the planet, Mara, Han, and Lando were confronted with the prototype Death Star, which destroyed Kessel's moon. Mara and all her ships took off and attacked the prototype, but it fled. Mara and the Falcon pursued the craft into the heart of The Maw, unwilling to let the superweapon escape. In an effort to knock out its superlaser, she and Lando made their way to the core of the prototype in environment suits, planning to plant thermal detonators along the reactor core, but they were attacked by a group of spacetroopers. Mara and Lando escaped, but a spacetrooper was able to remove all but one of their charges, causing less damage than the duo had hoped. Fortunately, Kyp Durron, freed of Kun's influence, managed to lead the prototype into a gravitational well, crushing it and ridding the galaxy of its use forever.

While Han and Leia were on Belsavis, they contacted Mara Jade to see if she had information on the planet. Mara did know about the planet&mdash;she had broken into its secure file when she was working for the Empire. She told the Solos about a secret mission to attack one of the rifts and how Palpatine and Vader used a combination of drugs and the dark side to create crazed, mindless guards, such as the ones that the Solos had found in the smugglers' tunnels in the valley.

Later, she called the Solos after they learned of the presence of the Emperor's Hand on the planet and assumed it was her. All she had were some coordinates from a landing pad that Han had asked for, but she was quickly informed of Leia's disappearance and the presence of the Emperor's Hand on Belsavis years before, when she had never been on that mission. It was at that moment that Mara realized that the Emperor had lied to her&mdash;there were many Emperor's Hands, she had not been alone. Outraged, she grew angry when Han told her the name of the other Hand: Roganda Ismaren. Mara was outraged to learn that Palpatine had been lying to her when he said that she was his only Hand, and later deduced that Lumiya was also a member of the Emperor's Hands. Mara immediately headed for Belsavis and en route, encountered Luke and a group of brainwashed crewers from the recently destroyed Eye of Palpatine. She brought them with her to Belsavis for treatment, after noting the serious injury to Luke's leg. She also pulled in an escape pod from the Dreadnaught, opening it to reveal Callista Ming, a Jedi who had escaped the Eye of Palpatine after helping destroy it, and who had fallen in love with Luke. On Belsavis, Mara helped round up the last of the insane guards, many of whom she had once known, though Roganda Ismaren and her son Irek escaped.

Some time after taking a large role in the Smuggler's Alliance with Lando Calrissian, Mara's contacts passed on word of a Hutt plot related to Orko SkyMine. Mara journeyed to the Yavin 4 Jedi Praxeum to warn Luke. Taking him on a ride in her ship, she relayed the information to him and told him that she occasionally enjoyed seeing him. He asked her to stay for dinner, where she met Callista Ming and asked her if she was Luke's new lady. Callista affirmed her statement, and asked if Mara was once interested in Luke. Mara replied that she had once wanted nothing more than to kill him, though the incident apparently didn't seem to cause much consternation between the women.

Mara continued her on-and-off association with Lando during this period. She was recently away from him and aboard the Wild Karrde with Karrde after they had spent a week together on Mon Calamari when he called for information and she told him about the bombing of the Senate Hall. She would also help Karrde deliver a pair of ysalamiri to Han Solo over Almania when he went in search of Kueller, the mastermind behind the bombing who was attempting to kill Luke. She even accompanied him to the planet's surface, partially out of her concern for Luke and partially because she feared what Kueller could do to the galaxy. Helping the Falcon blast its way to the surface through Kueller's forces, Mara accompanied Solo and Chewbacca and they brought the Force-empty bubble of the ysalamir to where Luke and Leia were confronting Kueller just in time to save Luke from certain death.

On one occasion, while commanding on the Wild Karrde in Karrde's temporary absence, Mara and the rest of the crew were captured by Ja Bardrin, a wealthy industrialist whose daughter Sansia had been captured by the slaver Chay Praysh. At gunpoint, Bardrin forced Mara to go to Torpris to rescue Sansia, who had, like all female Human prisoners of Praysh's, been forced to work in the slime pits. Mara had no choice but to comply, as she had no way of contacting Karrde and Bardrin threatened to execute the rest of the crew if she didn't do as he wished.

Mara entered the palace under the pretext of bringing a gift to Praysh, supposedly unaware that she was the gift. However, her lightsaber was discovered at the entrance and was thrown to the nearby scavengers, where it was caught by a Togorian named H'sishi. Upon seeing Jade, Praysh had his guards lash her with neuronic whips and throw her into the slime pits, unaware of her identity or intent. Mara made contact with Sansia, though Sansia told her that her father only wanted an experimental, heavily upgraded SoroSuub 3000 luxury yacht that had also been stolen. Mara then inflicted an injury on herself and was taken to the slave infirmary, where she used the Force to muddy the camera and steal some of the drugs and chemicals stored there. Once she was returned to the slave barracks, Mara used her skills as a saboteur to mix the chemicals into weapons. One combination created a fire that allowed her and Sansia to escape in the confusion. Other guards were dispatched with the acid she had created, but they were overpowered and forced to surrender. Dragged before Praysh to be interrogated, Mara was at a loss for what to do. However, the scavenger H'sishi entered with Mara's lightsaber (which was actually Luke's), claiming that it bore the corporate signature of another weapons syndicate. H'sishi then stunned Praysh and threw the lightsaber to Mara, who easily handled the guards. Mara and H'sishi then fled to the yacht, which Sansia had recovered after she had made her own escape during the fight.

Returning to Bardrin's mansion, Mara was surprised to find that Karrde, with the aid of some Noghri, had already taken the place and was preparing a mission to rescue her. Mara also got Bardrin to reveal that the entire abduction was a set-up, designed to help him take out Praysh and capture some stolen prototypes. Sansia, outraged, gave Mara the upgraded SoroSuub yacht, which she re-named the Jade's Fire. About this time, Karrde started helping her set up her own small trading company.

First Corellian Insurrection
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd be just as happy if this stayed nice and simple."

- Mara Jade on Selonia

By 18 ABY Mara was temporarily out of Karrde's organization and running a legitimate trading company&mdash;which was meant to prepare her to take over Karrde's organization. While in the Talfaglio system, the Jade's Fire intercepted a drone with a message cube bearing an Imperial code and addressed to Leia Organa Solo. Curious, she departed for the Corellian system, discerning that the message was most likely urgent. Arriving over Corellia, she attended the trade summit being held in Coronet City, where she encountered Leia and Han. Mara informed them of the message cube, and Leia escorted Mara to her personal apartment, along with Han, to unlock the message cube, which was coded to Leia's fingerprints. The cube revealed the plans of the Sacorrian Triad and the Human League, headed by Han's cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo, to blackmail the New Republic by destroying a number of stars. Shortly afterwards, the Human League caused riots and began their insurrection, and Mara, having left the Solos' apartment, disappeared.

Mara Jade was eventually captured by the Human League and imprisoned with Leia on Corellia as the First Corellian Insurrection sparked across the Corellian system. That, and the fact that her crew was missing, was incentive for her to fight against the Human League. Though neither woman trusted the other, the two decided to work together and escaped out of their cells and rappelled down into Leia's former quarters, where they retrieved Leia's lightsaber and blaster. Mara and Leia then departed the planet on Jade's ship, the Jade's Fire, after Mara called it to her with a beckon call. Both injured, they were pleased with just escaping Human League captivity, and eventually decided to head to Selonia. Approaching the world, they detected the Bakuran fleet and a coneship that was carrying Han and a Selonian, both also escaped from the Human League on Corellia. Mara brought the Jade's Fire to dock with the coneship and Leia was reunited with her husband.

Both craft then continued towards Selonia, but were intercepted by hostile fighters before they could land and the Jade's Fire flew cover for the utterly defenseless coneship until Mara and Leia shot off the rest of the fighters. On Selonia, with Mara, Leia and Han attempted to convince the Selonians to change their mind about turning over a planetary repulsor and aiding them&mdash;and they too were imprisoned for a short time. Mara, Leia and Han were freed following Luke Skywalker's arrival, and Mara helped persuade the Selonians to at least sell the operating instructions for the planetary repulsor that was needed to stop the Starbuster plot from destroying an inhabited system. She took part in the final battle at Centerpoint Station in Jade's Fire, fighting with the Falcon and Lando's ship, the Lady Luck, against the Sacorrian Triad fleet, who had been behind the Starbuster plot the entire time. Leia's children, with the aid of the instructions Mara had helped acquire and Bakuran techs, also successfully averted Centerpoint from destroying its next target, diffusing its weapon with a burst from the planetary repulsor on Drall.

Caamas document crisis
"You didn't know, but after that pirate base thing, Faughn told me you and I made a good team. She was right. We really did."

- Mara Jade to Luke Skywalker

Shortly afterwards, Mara became absorbed into the events surrounding the Caamas Document crisis in 19 ABY when she and Karrde arrived on Wayland to hire some Noghri to work for his organization. Upon receiving a call from Cakhmaim, the Wild Karrde forced down the ship of Lak Jit, a Devaronian who had found information that the Bothans had helped Palpatine destroy Caamas.

Later, after sensing a disturbance in the Force, Mara rescued Luke from the Cavrilhu Pirates while on a mission from Talon Karrde to look up pirate groups who might have been using clones. Luke had been infiltrating the group when he was discovered, and Karrde had sent Mara in the Starry Ice to check on him and the pirates. Only Mara's timely arrival allowed him to survive the pirate base's self-destruct sequence by floating a short distance across vacuum to her ship in a Jedi hibernation trance. As they left the pirate base, a small Chiss ship flew by, investigating them before jumping to hyperspace. It would not be the last time Mara encountered these types of ships, however. After meeting Karrde on the Errant Venture, the Star Destroyer received a fly-by another one of the ships. After the fighter went to hyperspace, Karrde and Mara were able to plot the destination of the ships: the planet Nirauan. Mara decided to investigate the world in the Starry Ice.

Nirauan
"Stupid, stupid. A big fat diversion&mdash;the oldest trick on the list. And I fell for it like some dumb farm kid." "Watch your language."

- Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker

Mara journeyed to the Hand of Thrawn complex on Nirauan, losing contact with Karrde and his organization after setting down on the planet in a Defender starfighter. While exploring the area near the fortress, she fell and knocked herself out on a rock. Her absence and failure to report in caused the second-in-command, Faughn, to head out on the Starry Ice to seek help, leaving her stranded there. Faughn reported to Karrde, who was with Luke Skywalker at the time. Luke had been investigating a vision the Force had given him of Mara lying face-down in water when he met Karrde, and the vision had disturbed both of them. Luke agreed to go to Nirauan to rescue her, bringing her Jade's Fire and his X-wing to the remote planet.

Fifteen days after she had been stranded on Nirauan, Luke finally reached the cave she had been hiding in, surrounded by the local Qom Jha who had carried her there when she had fallen unconscious. The Qom Jha had taken her weapons and hadn't let her go too far, but other than that had left her unharmed. They also took her starfighter and placed it inside the cave, as she was being hunted by the Chiss who occupied the fortress. While Mara couldn't understand their Force-based communication, Luke was able to, and he showed her how to understand the aliens. Mara and Luke were able to convince the aliens to help them get into the fortress, via a series of underground passages. While they were traveling through the caves, Mara and Luke spent their time together settling some of their differences. Mara informed Luke that she had hoped for some attention while at the Jedi academy, but since it had never happened, she stopped attending. She also told him that he should stop trying to do everything himself, as he hadn't fully gotten over his experience serving the reborn Emperor. The layered cortosis in the walls near the tunnel entrance, along with semi-sentient predators and fire creepers, slowed them down, but they were able to penetrate the fortress.

Along with their native guides and Artoo, they explored the lower levels, but stopped after a pair of Chiss gunmen opened fire on them with charrics, injuring Mara in the shoulder. Luke helped her out back into the caves, where he put her into a Jedi healing trance. By this point, Luke had come to realize that he loved Mara, expressing his feeling by kissing her while she was asleep. However, when they awoke, Luke confronted her about her past and her refusal to give herself to service to others, but the conversation degenerated into an argument, with Luke inquiring about her relationship with Lando while she referred to his experiences with Gaeriel Captison and Callista. Mara calmed down some, and revealed to Luke that she and Lando were never really in a relationship; it had been a cover story for Karrde's mission. Their discussion led to a lowering of the barrier between them, to the point where they were in close mental contact. The two entered the fortress again, only this time they found the existence of the Empire of the Hand and their plans to turn it over to the Imperial Remnant.

Realizing that they needed more information, Mara went down to talk to the inhabitants of the fortress, where she encountered a group of ysalamiri and the leader of the fortress, Voss Parck and Soontir Fel. Parck gave her the true story of Thrawn's mission and history, while trying to recruit her into the Empire of the Hand. He also informed her of numerous threats in the Unknown Regions, which the Empire of the Hand was supposed to guard against. When she refused and they became aware of Skywalker's presence, they decided to keep the two Jedi prisoner by forcing them into hibernation trances, namely by inflicting non-lethal wounds on Mara. Needless to say, Mara attempted to avert being shot, but Parck was unconvinced. Fortunately, Luke intervened at that time, cutting through the wall. Parck ordered his troops to stand down to prevent unnecessary slaughter, and the two escaped, pursued by Chiss troops once they were clear of the officers. Arriving in the fortress hangar, they disabled the clawcraft there, taking one for their escape.

Outside the fortress, Mara and Luke realized that they needed to return, to obtain data on the threats Parck was referring to earlier. While Luke rested in a hibernation trance, Mara made her sacrifice. Using a beckon call for her ship, she crashed the Jade's Fire into the hangar, preventing Parck from making contact with and turning over his resources to the Remnant, which would use them against the New Republic. Sneaking in through a second passageway shown to them by their guides, Luke and Mara entered a different part of the fortress, this time encountering an unripened clone of Thrawn. However, two guard droids, layered with cortosis armor, attacked them on a floor laced with rope snares. Fighting back to back, the two joined minds to battle the droids in perfect coordination, though they had little chance of defeating the two droids. However, Artoo distracted one of the droids long enough for Mara and Luke to cut through the wall, letting water from a lake on the other side of the wall into the room, and in the confusion from the flood, Luke destroyed the two droids. Realizing that the water had trapped them inside, Luke told Mara of a vision he had of her lying face-down in water and also confessed his love to Mara, which she had completely realized when they had joined minds. As the water rose, Luke Skywalker asked her to marry him. She accepted.

Luke then realized that letting water into the fusion generator into the cloning chamber would create a blast big enough to blow through the wall. Mara, however, actually made the cut, as she had more experience with the type of technique needed, a Paparak cross-cut. As the water roared through the newly created outlet, Luke put her in a hibernation trance and they both flew through the water unconscious. Luke awoke first and pulled Mara from where she had been lying face-down in the water, waking her with the phrase "I love you, Mara." With the aid of the Qom Jha and Qom Qae natives one final time, Luke and Mara boarded their ships, with both of them in the Clawcraft they had taken, and left the planet for the New Republic. As an added bonus, Artoo had picked up Thrawn's copy of the Caamas Document while in the fortress, which they took back to resolve the conflict that had broken out over Bothawui.

Marriage to Luke Skywalker
"Mara&hellip;. will you marry me?"

- Luke Skywalker to Mara Jade

After the signing of the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty, Luke and Mara spent a couple weeks on Garqi in the Outer Rim relaxing. However, back on Coruscant, Leia announced Luke and Mara's wedding, which was taken by the press as symbol of Imperial and New Republic unity. To complicate matters further, Threepio became involved in the wedding planning, resulting in a grandiose ceremony, much to Mara's dismay.

Much to her chagrin, Mara had to deal with a number of dress designers who were competing for the design of her wedding dress, ranging from a masked dress to a black dress reminiscent of Imperial agents to a minimalist dress that Mara refused to step out of the dressing room in. Mara grew frustrated and left Leia's apartment, where the designers had been coming, to go on a walk. On the streets, she met a despondent Twi'lek female dress designer named Jari'kyn who had been seeking to bring her design before Mara, but had been fired by her employer instead. Mara revealed her identity to the designer and was quite impressed with her designs.

Shortly after she commissioned her dressmaker, Luke and Mara had a private, less formal Jedi wedding ceremony at the Jedi training area that had been established on Coruscant. Joining two halves of a crystal together in a symbol of their union, Luke and Mara were married by Kam Solusar. However, Mara was later displeased to find out that Luke got into a bar fight during his bachelor party. She was also disturbed by a nightmare of Palpatine having won, and she was marrying a Luke corrupted by the dark side.

While Luke and his male friends recuperated, Mara and her bridesmaids&mdash;Leia, Mirax Terrik Horn, Iella Wessiri Antilles, Winter Celchu, and Tionne Solusar&mdash;went to a spa to relax. Later, they were bored and worked off the stress on the slingball court, handily defeating a group of pilots from Champion Squadron. However, all the women made sure not to tell their husbands of this event, as they had already taken them to task for the bar fight.

Leaving the spa, Mara went to get her gown from Jari'kyn and was impressed by its appearance. However, they were attacked by a former Imperial Royal Guardsman seeking to derail the wedding. Still wearing her lightsaber, Mara handily defeated him. On the day of her formal wedding, despite an Imperial plot to ruin the wedding and a former Moff appearing at the climax of the ceremony threatening to shut down all communications, Luke and his friends were able to prevent any serious altercations, with Luke calming down the Moff while the Rogues, Chewie, and Kam dealt with the Imperials. The two exchanged vows and rings, and were introduced to the galaxy for the first time as the Skywalkers. After their reception, Han flew the couple to their honeymoon site.

A year after they married, Mara grew frustrated with Luke's time constantly being taken by other people as he arbitrated a number of disputes on a planet that revered Jedi wisdom. Luke, however, had made special arrangements for a special second honeymoon for her, which pleased her to no end, although she did playfully warn Luke not to imitate their native host by calling her a "blushing bride."

For the next few years, Luke spent most of his time at the Jedi Academy instructing his Jedi candidates in the ways of the Force. Mara, retaining some of her wanderlust, sojourned far afield with smuggler Mirax Terrik Horn and assisted the fledgling Jedi Knights in leaving Yavin IV. During this time, she and Mirax were brought up on charges, but were exonerated.

The rediscovery of Outbound Flight
"Doesn't look promising, does it?"

- Mara during the search for Outbound Flight

In 22 ABY, Mara ended her alliance with Karrde in order to commit herself to her marriage and Jedi knighthood, after one final mission to Jerf Huxley to inform him that Karrde's group was releasing him. The angered smuggler tried to intimidate her with a patched together droideka, but Luke and Mara easily cowed the smugglers and destroyed the droid. Immediately afterwards, they were invited by the Chiss, via a message from Karrde, to act as representatives of the Jedi in the return of the ruins of the Outbound Flight project, which had been revealed to have been destroyed by Thrawn and whose remains were located in a Chiss stronghold known as The Redoubt. However, Karrde also warned them that the original message had been stolen by a man formerly in his employ named Dean Jinzler Mara and Luke traveled as honorary guests aboard the Chaf Envoy. However, upon arrival to the Chaf Envoy, a cable detached from the ceiling and nearly hit Mara, who deftly avoided it. Though the incident remained suspicious, the two Jedi were unhurt, though Mara decided to investigate the fixture later. While she was examining the cable, she encountered Chak Fel, accompanied by four stormtroopers from the Empire of the Hand. Thankfully, the stormtroopers did not appear unfriendly, and neither did Fel, as they were also interested in the remains of Outbound Flight.

Before they had a chance to depart, the Chaf Envoy was approached by an outdated vessel bearing a people calling themselves the Geroons, who had allegedly been saved from slavery years ago by the Jedi aboard Outbound Flight. The Chiss let some of the Geroons board the Chaf Envoy as representatives, and the impoverished people were overawed by Luke and Mara. Eventually, Luke and Mara made their way towards the Redoubt on the Chaf Envoy, along with Geroon representatives, Dean Jinzler, who was posing as a New Republic representative, Chak Fel and four stormtroopers from the Empire of the Hand, with none of the disparate groups of guests trusting any of the others or their Chiss hosts. During the expedition, Luke and Mara grew increasingly suspicious after several attempts to sabotage the mission, including someone setting an area near the fuel tanks on fire and the discovery of a group of destructive line creepers running through the ship. In the former instance, Luke and Mara, along with the four stormtroopers, were on hand to provide assistance. Charging into the burning compartment where the stormtroopers were already battling the blaze, Luke levitated Mara up into a position where she could use her lightsaber to slice through a coolant line. The result of her actions quickly doused the fire, and Chiss begrudgingly thanked them for their assistance. In another incident, one of the Geroons was shot by a mysterious assailant, and Luke and Mara, though responding quickly with lightsabers ready, were unable to determine the attacker and were reprimanded by the ship's captain for waving weapons around unncessarily, to Mara's annoyance. As they continued to their destination, Mara began having doubts about her time as an Emperor's Hand though Luke managed to coax her out of it.

Once they arrived on Outbound Flight, the various parts of the diplomatic party were separated by the Survivors, the last remnant of the crew of Outbound Flight and their children, in repulsor cars. Luke and Mara ended up in a gimmicked repulsor car, but they managed to escape and make their way back up to the entry point. However, the Geroons revealed themselves to actually be the tyrannical Vagaari and to be in much greater numbers than first thought. The aliens had already seized control of the Chaf Envoy and were making their way around the derelict. As such, they were attacked by a party of Vagaari and their wolvkils while making their way back through the Dreadnoughts. Luke and Mara handily defeated them, as the Vagaari were ignorant as to the capabilites of Jedi and their lightsabers. Making contact with Fel and the stormtroopers, they headed back to rescue the Chiss diplomatic party, engaging numerous Vagaari. Eventually, they were able to rescue the Chiss and unite with the stormtroopers and Fel, who had also battled their way through Vagaari patrols. After brief negotiations with the Survivors, Luke and Mara were able to persuade them to aid them in fighting the Vagaari.

Soon, with the aid of the Imperials, the Chiss party, and the Survivors, Luke and Mara had the Vagaari in full retreat and forced them to activate their contingency plan. After the Vagaari re-activated, separated, and took one of the six Dreadnaughts that comprised Outbound Flight back to rendezvous with their main ship, Mara and Luke chased it down in a Delta-12 Skysprite and intercepted the ship. On board the ship, they fought their way through heavy defenses, including a fully programmed and activated droideka, and defeated the Vagaari leader. As it turned out, their entire visit had been orchestrated by the Chiss in order to lure the Vagaari into attacking them, thus allowing them to launch a full-fledged war against them. At the end of the mission, Mara told Luke that she felt that being at his side in the New Republic was where she felt she should be, despite its shortcomings and the attractiveness of the Empire of the Hand.

In this time period, Mara also took her niece Jaina Solo as an apprentice, bequeathing a modified Z-95 Headhunter to her. Mara told Jaina that her first lesson was a flying one, and that she was to fly the ship to meet her family on Mon Calamari. Mara was not feeling well, though, as a mysterious illness had begun affecting her.

Jedi Master
"As long as I'm fighting, I'm not dying. And I'm not done fighting just yet."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

During a diplomatic ceremony on Monor II, Mara acted as a bodyguard for one of the attending diplomats. Nom Anor, a Yuuzhan Vong agent masquerading as a head of state, was also in attendance, and secretly infected all those present with coomb spores, a deadly Yuuzhan Vong bio-agent which killed everyone infected, except for Mara. She was able to hold back the disease through use of the Force, although no permanent cure could be found.

Before the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Mara accompanied Ambassador Leia Organa Solo and Jaina Solo on their diplomatic mission to the planet of Rhommamool, which at the time was waging a civil war with its sister planet, Osarian. The meeting ended in a failure when Rhommamool's leader, Nom Anor (in disguise), lectured Leia and sent them off, as his sole purpose in requesting the meeting was gathering information, especially on Mara's condition. The three women returned to Coruscant, with Mara again experiencing an attack of the disease, this time in her womb. Luke, meanwhile, had just returned from a meeting with the New Republic Advisory Council, and Mara advised him about the rash actions of Wurth Skidder in destabilizing the situation over Rhommamool. Back on Rhommamool, Anor would later use a missile strike to hit the Mediator and destroy Osa-Prime, causing the political conflict to escalate into a full blown war.

Both frustrated by Coruscant's government, Mara and Luke, along with the Solos, went to Lando's outpost on Dubrillion to obtain information about Jedi activity in the Outer Rim. Mara also took this opportunity to test her apprentice Jaina's training by having Artoo drop her out of hyperspace in a different location from her calculated destination. As expected, Jaina was up to the challenge and plotted her course back to the rest of the family. When a distress call came from the ExGal-4 outpost on Belkadan, Luke and Mara decided to investigate together. On Belkadan the Skywalkers discovered that the planet suffered from an ecological disaster, a result of Yuuzhan Vong terraforming. Mara sensed that her disease was somehow related to the planet's devastation. She was the first Jedi to engage a Yuuzhan Vong when Yomin Carr, who had instigated the world's destruction, attacked her. She was barely able to defeat the infiltrator and was nearly killed.

Acting on information they had gleaned from ExGal-4's databanks, they went to the Helska system, where Luke was attacked by hostile coralskippers when he began to take his X-wing down to the surface of Helska IV. Mara came to his aid and they fled the system for Dubrillion. Luke realized that he had to return to investigate, and planned to use one of Lando's iceborers to sneak through the icy crust of the planet; Mara would pilot the carry-ship for the trip. However, Mara was weakened from her disease, and Jacen and Jaina took the craft instead. When a New Republic fleet (led by the Rejuvenator) arrived, Mara and Luke followed the fleet to the Helska system, where they flew cover for Jaina's iceborer while the New Republic fleet was badly mauled by the Yuuzhan Vong. After Jaina recovered Jacen, who had gone into the Yuuzhan Vong stronghold and rescued Danni Quee, Mara and Luke took the Sabre to a nearby system, where they transferred Danni from the extremely cramped iceborer into the Jade Sabre.

After discussing the invaders with the young scientist and Jacen, they prepared to return to Helska, accompanied by shieldships and starfighters from Dubrillion in a plan to use the shieldships to melt the planet. Mara flew in the Jade Sabre again, knowing that the planet had to be destroyed to kill the Vong inside, and that every craft was needed to cover the shieldships, despite her worsening condition. However, in the thick of battle, she collapsed, and Jaina's attempts to take over the controls were in vain; Mara's lapse had already allowed significant damage to the Sabre. Only a last-minute maneuver by Luke saved her life when he used his repulsor coils to push the Sabre away from the melting ice planet. Still, the shieldships were able to melt the planet and the Praetorite Vong were defeated. Following the battle, Mara experienced a gradual return to health as she battled the disease inside her.

Escalation
"The key thing is to find out for certain if my illness is connected to the Yuuzhan Vong. If it is, when I get healthy, the Yuuzhan Vong will pay."

- Mara Jade Skywalker

Following the battle of Helska, Mara returned to Yavin IV, where Luke had called a meeting of all the Jedi. The meeting resulted in Luke assigning different members of the Order to various missions, and Mara was sent with her nephew Anakin Solo to Dantooine, both as a chance for her to recover and fight her disease and as a small scouting probe to see if Dantooine was on the Yuuzhan Vong invasion corridor.

On Dantooine, Mara tried to recover and also taught her nephew Anakin Solo a lesson about not trivializing the Force on small things, such as in his bartering with the native Dantari. They had been on the planet for a few weeks when they discovered the Yuuzhan Vong had landed on the planet. Anakin had to fend off hunting parties of Yuuzhan Vong warriors until they were rescued by Luke and Jacen Solo, as the Jade Sabre had been destroyed by the Vong. They then participated in the Battle of Dantooine, though Luke requested that Mara stay with Leia and the noncombatants. For once, Mara agreed without argument, but even the middle of the refugee camp was not safe for her as Mara sensed and engaged three Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators in ooglith masquers with the aid of Leia and her Noghri bodyguard Bolpuhr. Killing the warriors quickly, Mara then sent Leia off to find Danni Quee, who was Force-sensitive and could detect Yuuzhan Vong, to hunt for more similarly clad infiltrators while Mara checked other parts of the camp, killing one more warrior. Once the battle was over and the refugees had been evacuated, the Solos and Skywalkers, including Mara, returned to Coruscant with their grave report of the battle, their retreat covered by Bothan Admiral Traest Kre'fey.

Mara then returned with her husband to Coruscant, where she, Corran Horn, Luke, and Kyp Durron (along with many other Jedi) had another meeting on the role of the Order in the war. Luke, Mara, and Corran sought to ease the aggressive nature of Kyp and his sizable faction and they were somewhat successful. Mara did not contribute much to the meeting, preferring to sit and observe, quietly supporting Luke from the sidelines. Later, though, she and Anakin Solo discovered that someone had been accessing files on old Imperial superweapons. Luke, Mara, and Anakin quickly determined that their suspect was Jedi Knight Daeshara'cor and Luke recruited a fringe information broker named Chalco to help them, as Han was still overcome with grief from Chewbacca's death. Luke realized that Daeshara'cor was going to Vortex to talk with former superweapon designer Qwi Xux and the trio journeyed to Vortex with Mirax Terrik Horn on the Pulsar Skate to intercept the rogue Jedi Knight.

On Vortex, Luke and Mara met up with Qwi, who told them that she had told Daeshara'cor nothing. In the course of the discussion, Mara said that under the right circumstances she would use a superweapon, but Qwi maintained her belief in pacifism. Luke and Mara left Qwi at the Cathedral of Winds, continuing their search on Garos IV, a world famed for its university and large database of old Imperial files. Mara and Luke were disturbed, though, when they learned that Daeshara'cor had kidnapped Anakin after the Twi'lek Jedi called them offering a trade: Anakin for information on Imperial superweapons. However, Anakin proved to be a hard catch and, with Chalco's help, subdued the renegade.

Luke and Mara then journeyed to Ithor, soon to be a key battleground in the war. She did not participate in the releasing ceremony to commune with the jungle that the other Jedi did, but did get a chance to spend some time with her husband. Mara told Luke that she was ready to face the uncertainty of the future and that she had long wanted to carry his child, though she wanted to beat her illness first. However, their pleasant time on Ithor was interrupted when Shedao Shai arrived with a large force of ships and warriors, launching a combined air and ground assault on the world. Mara fought against his command on Ithor's surface, acquitting herself well despite her relative weakness and saving Anakin from the Yuuzhan Vong, and the invaders were temporarily beaten off. The contest for Ithor ended when Corran Horn challenged and killed Shai in single combat, but his subordinate brutally destroyed Ithor anyway. Horn was left to shoulder the blame, and Mara supported him in his decision to abandon both the Jedi Order and the New Republic temporarily, over Luke's protestations.

A gathering darkness
"Your sister might be Han's soul mate, but Chewbacca was his first mate. It's going to take time."

- Mara commenting on Han's grief following Chewbacca's death

On Kashyyyk, during a brief respite from the war, a memorial service was held in remembrance of Chewbacca. In attendance were Luke Skywalker, Han and Leia Solo, and their three children&mdash;Mara was unable to attend Chewbacca's funeral due to the severity of her illness during this time. The memorial was a somber affair and during it Han was given one of Chewbacca's bowcasters. Much to Han's surprise two of Chewbacca's relatives chose to take over his life debt to the smuggler and his family, but Han declined saying he was not yet ready for something of that nature. Following the funeral Luke returned back to Coruscant to Mara who was beginning to feel the effects of the war. In Luke she confided that her spirits were dwindling as the war continued&mdash;Mara had hoped that things would have improved in the galaxy after the treaty with the Empire. While Luke had been on Kashyyyk, Mara had visited a resident doctor on Coruscant who had advised her of the same thing regarding her illness that she already knew: that it was a foreign and unknown composite; that there were no known cures and/or treatments; and that the Belkadan beetle, which Luke had recovered, was also of an unknown species. However, the discussion was quickly deflected by Mara onto the recent memorial for Chewbacca. Luke described to her the ceremony and his worries about Han and how he was dealing with Chewbacca's death. Mara, however, reminded Luke of the reasons Han was acting the way he was and that with space and time, Han's wounds would eventually heal.

Meanwhile, the priestess Elan, a Yuuzhan Vong spy, defected to the New Republic (along with her familiar Vergere) in the hopes of being able to get close to the gathered Jedi leadership where a deadly virus could then be unleashed, essentially wiping out the only real threat to the Yuuzhan Vong continued success. Once the spy and Vergere had defected, they provided valuable information on a number of things&mdash;most notably intelligence pertaining to an upcoming attack on Ord Mantell, and also information which revealed that that Yuuzhan Vong had released a deadly virus into the galaxy long before their invasion. For the Jedi, especially Luke, this was the only available piece of information found thus far which could help Mara fight her illness. However, Elan notified New Republic intelligence that all future information would only be provided on the condition that she was allowed to meet with the gathered leaders of the Jedi to personally provide more information on the mysterious virus they had introduced. Luke and the Jedi realized that the meeting may, indeed, be a trap&mdash;but they also recognized that this information may be the only way to cure Mara.

However, the tide of the war managed to overtake the plans for a meeting between the Jedi and Elan. The Queen of Empire, a luxury liner turned refugee transport, had come under attack by the Peace Brigade in an effort to capture Elan to return her to the Yuuzhan Vong&mdash;Elan's assassination mission was unknown to the Peace Brigade. In the ensuing fight Han Solo, who was aboard the Queen of Empire, went after Elan and was nearly killed when she tried to exhale some of a deadly virus on him. Elan was eventually killed by her own designs, and Vergere escaped via an escape pod&mdash;however, not before she provided Han with a vial of tears which she stated must "reach the Jedi." "Oh, Luke, I can't explain exactly how I feel, but it's like water after days of going without it. My fingers and my face are tingling."

- Mara after ingesting Vergere's tears

Though Han was worried that the tears may be a veiled weapon, he nonetheless provided them to the Jedi who proceeded to perform experiments on them&mdash;what they found initially shocked, and then gave hope to the Jedi. The tears encompassed all the properties one would expect to find, but what they found encouraging was the tremendous healing properties found within. Convinced that the tears were an antidote for her illness, Mara snatched the vial away from Luke and squeezed its contents into her mouth. Immediately Mara began to feel something different throughout her body&mdash;she could feel as the tears were counteracting the illness within her. Even though Mara's illness appeared to be in remission the Jedi were unsure if the tears were something which would prove permanent, or temporary, relief to Mara.

Expecting mother
"Of course I'm up to it. I haven't felt so obnoxiously healthy since&hellip;Well, in a while."

- Mara after taking on an assignment following the remission of her disease.

As the Yuuzhan Vong continued their conquest of the galaxy, the planet of Kalarba and its moon Hosk Station eventually came under attack. The Yuuzhan Vong planned to recreate the horror or Sernpidal by pulling the moon onto a collision course with its chief planet. In response, the New Republic dispatched Rogue Squadron to help stem the enemy attack. During the battle, however, Jaina's fighter was destroyed and she was forced to eject from the doomed fighter. Around the galaxy, many Jedi felt through the Force that something terrible had happened to Jaina. Jacen on Duro collapsed, due to his and Jaina's twin-bond; Leia, who was also on Duro felt the same pain which Jacen felt; and on Coruscant, both Luke and Mara were aware that something had gone wrong with Jaina, but knew that the situation would be taken care of.

Meanwhile, Luke and Mara had decided to call a meeting of several Jedi, which included Anakin Solo and Kenth Hamner, on Coruscant to discuss the current state of the war. Jedi Master Cilghal reported how the war was taking a tremendous toll on life, and that the days were continuously growing longer for the Jedi healers. As the meeting progressed, Mara began to reflect on the war thus far: how she was forced to abandon Jade's Fire; the fact that the mysterious disease was now in remission after the gift of Vergere's tears; and how Anakin had almost single-handedly saved her life during the Battle of Dantooine. As the meeting progressed, Luke and Mara listened as various reports from Jedi regarding missions were brought forth. During the meeting Tekli informed Luke and Mara that she had overheard some talk in a local tapcaf, the Leafy Green, which could have suggested the presence of Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators wearing ooglith masquers. Tekli believed that it should be investigated by a Jedi who had more experience with that type of thing. It was eventually decided that Anakin would investigate the claims while under the watchful eye of Mara.

Shortly thereafter Mara and Anakin departed for the Leafy Green, and along the way Mara continued her previous lessons on spying and infiltration with Anakin. The two arrived at the tapcaf and found a table which allowed them to survey the establishment while still allowing them a quick avenue of escape. It did not take long for Mara and Anakin to find a being whose presence and composure seemed out of place. Using the Force to probe their quarry, they quickly learned that the being gave off no signature in the Living Force. Not wanting to apprehend the Yuuzhan Vong spy in the midst of a large crowd, Mara and Anakin finished their meals and followed the spy as he left the tapcaf. Mara and Anakin tailed the spy and eventually cornered the Yuuzhan Vong in an alleyway. What ensued was a fierce, but brief, fight which saw the spy attack using a hidden amphistaff. Mara managed to knock the spy to the ground after discovering that she could kill the amphistaff with a blow to the center of its head, but after realizing that the Yuuzhan Vong were almost immune to the effects of a blaster set on stun, she decided to end the fight with a quick jab to the spy's temple. With the Yuuzhan Vong now unconscious, Mara and Anakin took the captured spy back for interrogation and study.

Mara gave the Yuuzhan Vong over to Cilghal and the exobiologist Dr. Joi Eicroth who proceeded to tie the captured spy down to a table for further examination. During this time, the spy recovered from the blow Mara had given it, and managed to use a hidden claw in its hand to slice some of the table restraints. Though Anakin was prepared to defend those present by killing the spy with his lightsaber, Mara yelled at Anakin to stop&mdash;the Yuuzhan Vong chose to slit its own throat with its claw, rather than be a prisoner of the Jedi. Mara and Anakin were disappointed that their prisoner was now dead, and it was commented that the whole operation had been for nothing. Luke, however, reflected on the fact that they had managed to take a Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator out of the war, and they had also discovered a way to kill amphistaffs, by aiming directly into the snake head's crest.

Eventually, Mara and Luke were asked to meet with various leaders of the New Republic's military. At the meeting, the two Jedi were briefed by Ayddar Nylykerka, the chief of Fleet Intelligence, on the recent losses to the Yuuzhan Vong&mdash;most notably the planets Kalarba, Druckenwell, and Falleen. He continued by stating that even if the New Republic were able to defend and hold the planet Rodia, that the Corellian Run would still be cut off. The war, it seemed, was only going to get worse for the New Republic and the Jedi. During the meeting, Mara and Luke were informed that, after the debacle with Centerpoint Station during the Battle of Fondor, the immense weapon was now out of commission&mdash;and that was being kept a closely guarded secret. Following this, the meeting soon devolved into an anti-Jedi debate. Eventually, while under harsh scrutiny and with blame for the war being poured on the Jedi, Mara and Luke chose to leave the meeting rather than allow it to continue.

Following the disastrous meeting with the military leaders, Mara and Luke retired to their home where they were met by Jedi Master Tresina Lobi. Mara and Luke were soon told that Master Lobi feared that her apprentice, Thrynni Vae, was in trouble and that she had not been heard from for sometime following her insertion onto the planet Duro. Mara and Luke were also worried by this news and decided that they, along with Anakin, would travel to Duro to investigate the situation. After Master Lobi left their home, Mara began to suddenly feel an unsettling difference in her body chemistry&mdash;she feared that her illness was now making a concerted effort at resurgence. However, through probing with the Force, Mara was able to touch a small piece of life inside her, one which carried Luke's essence&mdash;Mara was shocked to discover that she was pregnant.

Mara, Luke, and Anakin used the Jade Shadow to travel to Duro, deciding to make port at one of Duro's many orbital cities. During this time, Mara and Luke heard a man who was speaking out against the Republic and the Jedi. Something, though, managed to catch their attention&mdash;the speaker used the same speeches and mannerisms of Nom Anor, who they believed had died on Rhommamool. They decided that the man could not have been Nom Anor, and decided to continue finish their journey to the planet's surface. Once there, Mara, Luke, and Anakin met up with Leia who was now responsible for the growing refugee problem on Duro. Leaving the others to go about her mission, Mara used a disguise to blend into the refugee surroundings of Duro, and was able to make her way to a computer terminal which was hardwired into the various control and information systems of the planet. Using her acquired talents, Mara was able to slice into the computer terminal to search for any information related to the disappearance of Thrynni Vae. However, Mara soon stumbled across a familiar, but old, military code; one which she had only seen used by one other person on one other planet&mdash;Nom Anor on Rhommamool.

This discovery caused Mara to worry even more, and she disconnected herself from the computer terminal, rushing to tell Leia and Jaina what she had found. Upon hearing Mara's theory that Nom Anor was actually alive, and also operating on Duro, Leia shared her own theories with her sister-in-law. Leia believed that a local Doctor by the name of Dassid Cree'Ar was actually in league with the Yuuzhan Vong, and that maybe he had ties with Anor as well. Mara decided to investigate this "doctor," and with Jaina, left for the Cree'Ar's laboratory. Mara, under the guise of Baroness Muehling, and Jaina, disguised as Muehling's servant, traveled to Cree'Ar's lab to talk to him about his work on Duro. During their "meeting" Mara kept Cree'Ar occupied with questions while Jaina felt the doctor through the Force&mdash;Jaina could not feel the doctor there. Convinced that he was a Yuuzhan Vong spy, Jaina used the Force to push on various points of the ooglith masquer. Eventually, she hit the right spot and unmasked Nom Anor, who had been using his disguise as Dassid Cree'Ar to secretly sabotage the New Republic efforts on Duro. Following his unmasking, Anor taunted Mara by telling her that it he was the one responsible for infecting her with the deadly coomb spore. Though Mara tried to provoke Anor into an open fight, the Yuuzhan Vong chose to flee from the two Jedi. Mara and Jaina hesitantly gave pursuit to Anor, but while they were chasing him, Anor set off various bombs in the underground tunnels, essentially trapping the Jedi. Mara and Jaina, however, used the Force to project a bubble around them which allowed them to escape the dangerous tunnels relatively unharmed.

Mara and Jaina made their way back to their family, and Mara informed Luke of her discoveries relating to Nom Anor, Duro, and the illness which had infected her. However, the planet of Duro was soon engulfed in conflict as it became the next target of the Yuuzhan Vong. During the ensuing fight, Tsavong Lah, Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong, warned the New Republic that any ships caught fleeing the system would not be tolerated. Mara and the others, however, advised the other refugee ships that it was now left to their own personal discretion whether they decided to stay and surrender, or fight and flee. The ensuing fight turned into a rout for the New Republic: Mara and Luke used the Jade Shadow to transport a number of refugees away from the planet, numerous ships unsuccessfully tried defending the retreating Duro orbital stations during their own withdrawal, and the planet of Duro eventually fell to the advancing Yuuzhan Vong.

During their final withdrawal from the Duro system, Mara received a vision through the Force telling her that her baby was a boy. Together, Mara and Luke traveled back to Coruscant to tell the New Republic leaders of the loss of Duro.



Hunted
"Darling, I love you, you are my life and my light. If you ever do this to me again, I will vape you where you stand."

- Mara jesting with Luke about pregnancy

When Leia returned from Duro to Coruscant for medical treatment for the injuries to her legs inflicted by Tsavong Lah, Mara, Luke, and the Solo children were there to meet her and keep an eye on her as she recovered. While there, Mara saw the anti-Jedi Appeasement Vote fail by a two-to-one margin, but was still concerned that a third of the Senate voted against the Jedi. She was also with Leia and Luke when Luke conceptualized the Great River, which the Solos would later help Luke and Mara create as a secret pipeline to safely transport the Jedi around.

After the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of Jacen Solo, Tsavong Lah put out a call for the heads of all the Jedi, and many were turned over to the Yuuzhan Vong by Peace Brigade collaborators. Mara was experiencing some of the more unpleasant side effects of pregnancy, including morning sickness and mood swings. After the Jedi Academy on Yavin came under attack, with Anakin Solo there trying to protect it, Luke, Mara, Jacen, and Jaina had an interview with Borsk Fey'lya to request New Republic assistance. They were flatly denied by the self-serving Bothan, who also declared Yavin off-limits to the Jedi. To help Karrde in his attempts to get all the Jedi off the planet, Luke and Mara sent Jacen and Jaina in the Jade Shadow to find Booster Terrik and the Errant Venture' and request their aid. Mara wanted to undertake this mission herself, but Luke decided against it, as Fey'lya was sure to be watching their movements and would know if they had defied his orders. Instead, Anakin Solo sneaked off the planet and Mara recruited Karrde's help to get the trainees away from the beleaguered academy.

During Mara's eighth month of pregnancy, while they were still on Coruscant, Luke took the opportunity to take Mara to an artificial beach that Lando Calrissian owned and had offered to them for use. They discussed what they were going to name their child, though Luke and Mara agreed to not discuss the war, the Jedi, politics, or the Yuuzhan Vong. However, their pleasant leisure time was interrupted by the visit of Kenth Hamner.

Hamner informed them that Fey'lya had just put out a warrant for their arrest. Hamner explained that Fey'lya had evidence of their involvement in the Yavin system after being forbidden to interfere there. However, he also noted that Fey'lya had no intention of actually placing them on trial, just sending them into exile where he would not be responsible for their unsanctioned actions. Needless to say, Mara was incensed. Further outrage from her was forestalled when she collapsed. According to the MD-10 droid that examined her, the artificial tears that she had been using after exhausting the supply Vergere had provided were causing placental toxic shock, endangering her unborn son. Mara refused to be admitted to a medical center, noting that this was their only chance to escape arrest.

Luke, Mara, and Kenth returned to their apartments, where they met with the healer Cilghal and noted physician Ism Oolos. They both determined that the synthesized tears were a danger to her child, but that for now, it was healthy. Mara decided not to induce labor at that time and she also determined to not take any more tears for the final month of her pregnancy. Cilghal asked to accompany them off Coruscant and Mara accepted the healer's request gratefully. With a few mind tricks and blanked memories, the Jedi boarded the Jade Shadow and lifted off, meeting with Jaina, who was flying her X-wing on a joyride, on their way to orbit. They quickly beat off a group of interceptors, and though Rogue Squadron offered to escort them, Luke and Mara declined, fearing that having the military aid them would result in a coup and total instability in the New Republic. Instead, they escaped to the Errant Venture, where Mara was basically bedridden. Her physical discomfort had returned, as had her illness.

Moreover, Cilghal learned that Mara's disease was spreading five times as fast as it had before. With Mara throwing all of her Force effort and energy to keeping the disease from her son, the rest of her body was deteriorating rapidly. As she lay dying on the Errant Venture, she, Luke, and their unborn son joined minds and purged the disease from her body together, once and for all. Shortly after that, their child was born, and Luke and Mara named him Ben. Also, Fey'lya called to let them know that the warrant for their arrest had been canceled, while Kam Solusar and Tionne told them they had found a safe world in the Deep Core to use as a Jedi refuge: Eclipse.

Dark times
"Luke, I don't want to discourage your curiosity, but I have to remind you, if something goes wrong, this is an exceptionally embarrassing way to die." "I'll trust you to improve the story. Luke Skywalker goes out in a blaze of glory in battle with a red devourer."

- Mara and Luke on occupied Coruscant

Throughout the war, two Twi'lek Jedi Knights had managed to lead a vicious resistance on the planet New Plympto. However, the sisters Alema and Numa Rar were forced to withdraw from the planet when the Yuuzhan Vong decided to deal with the resistance by simply destroying the entire planet. The two Twi'leks escaped on board the ship Nebula Chaser, but were eventually discovered by a Yuuzhan Vong search party using voxyn. Numa was killed by one of the beasts, while Alema managed to escape aboard an escape pod. Meanwhile, Mara and Jaina Solo, aboard the Jade Shadow, managed to rescue Alema and bring her back to Luke and the other Jedi for a full debrief about what had happened.

Eventually, following the rescue of Alema, the New Republic launched a rescue operation aimed at the planet of Talfaglio. There, the Yuuzhan Vong were holding prisoners captive and were threatening to execute them all if the Jedi did not divulge the location of Eclipse Station. The New Republic proceeded with planning the massive rescue, while Luke, Mara, and a number of other Jedi developed a secondary plan to capture a Yuuzhan Vong war coordinator. The Battle of Talfaglio was launched, and during the space battle, Mara devised a plan which called for the Republic forces to fire at the lead Yuuzhan Vong cruiser, while the Jedi starfighters shut off their sublight engines and fired shadow bombs at a skip carrier, which was continuously launching enemy fighters&mdash;the tactic worked, and the two Yuuzhan Vong ships were destroyed. During the battle, the Jedi instituted their secondary plan and were able to eventually capture the Yuuzhan Vong yammosk which was present during the battle.

Meanwhile, Anakin Solo led his Jedi strike team in their assault on Myrkr, and though they were ultimately successful in their mission, it came with a very high price&mdash;several Jedi Knights, including Anakin, were killed during the fierce fighting. Halfway across the galaxy, Anakin's death was felt by his mother, Leia, as well as Luke and Mara.

The Yuuzhan Vong eventually began their invasion of Coruscant, and despite joining forces with General Wedge Antilles's Fleet Group Three, the Jedi were still hopelessly outnumbered by Tsavong Lah's invasion fleet. While the Jedi destroyed several enemy yammosks and Lah's flagship, the Sunulok, the Jedi starfighter wing paid a heavy price with many casualties. During the titanic battle, Mara and Luke learn that Viqi Shesh had kidnapped their infant son. Mara and Luke immediately pulled away from the space battle and moved to rescue their kidnapped son. However, on her way to try and rescue her son, Mara was shot down and her fighter crashed into the cityscape of Coruscant, though Mara was not injured in the crash. Meanwhile, Lando Calrissian, YVH 1-1A, and C-3PO managed to recover Ben and take him off Coruscant, where he was eventually reunited with his parents. Once Luke and Mara received word that Ben was safe, they found Leia and Han and set about defending Coruscant with surface turbolaser battery. The Yuuzhan Vong invasion, however, soon became too intense and overwhelmed the Republic defenders. Along with Han and Leia, Mara and Luke boarded the Falcon, and escaped the planet as the Yuuzhan Vong fleet continued in their conquest.

In the wake of Coruscant's fall, Mara and Luke reunited with the rest of the family on Hapes as they gathered to pay their last respects to the late Anakin. Mara became estranged from Jaina as she succumbed to her grief at the loss of her brother, taking on the mantle of the Yuuzhan Vong trickster goddess. They ended their master/apprentice relationship on a good note and while Jaina apprenticed herself to Kyp, Mara took to her motherly duties.

Taking a stand
Shortly after the capture of Coruscant by the Yuuzhan Vong, Mara Jade made her way to Borleias along with her husband Luke and a handful of other Jedi in the hopes of securing a staging point for refugees, but she tried to minimize her role in the war to be with and protect her son. While on Borleias, General Wedge Antilles appointed Mara as Head of Intelligence for all in-system forces with command of the Borleias ground base personnel. Mara held this position until Iella Wessiri arrived planetside. Around this point, Mara reluctantly left her son Ben in order to scout the Vong terraforming activities on Coruscant with Luke, Tahiri, Danni and Wraith Squadron. The group explored the shattered capital, evading Yuuzhan Vong patrols and making contact with the survivors. After Luke got them past a red devourer tank into a secret chamber, Mara's knowledge of old Imperial codes allowed them access to a secret laboratory where Irek Ismaren had been turned into a mutant cyborg Dark Jedi. Haunted by the mental commands of Irek, now known as Lord Nyax, the three Jedi pursued the deranged Dark Jedi in the hope of stopping him. Mara nearly abandoned the pursuit upon seeing Viqi Shesh with a group of Yuuzhan Vong, but Luke convinced her to stick with him. Together, Mara, along with Luke and Tahiri snubbed out the rising menace of Lord Nyax before he could become a true threat to the Jedi Order and by extension the Republic.

Returning to Borleias, Mara became the second-in-command of Blackmoon Squadron under Luke. Together, the two flew cover for the Lusankya as it executed Operation Emperor's Spear in the final stages of the battle for Borleias.

Husband and wife then journeyed to the provisional capital of Mon Calamari, where Mara and Councilor Triebakk convinced Cal Omas to run for the position of Chief of State. Throughout his campaign, Mara assisted Omas as a private citizen, working to get the pro-Jedi candidate into office. Mara also helped Luke and Cal work out a new plan for the High Council, an advisory council for the Jedi comprised of six Jedi and six non-Jedi. Later, she was with Luke when Jacen arrived in-system with Vergere after escaping Yuuzhan Vong captivity. Her duties shifted though, when Lando and Karrde agreed to help out with Omas's campaign and she began using YVH-M droids to detect Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators who had bribed some people for information), finding pleasure in her work.

While following a pair of disguised Yuuzhan Vong, she noticed them taking a submersible. Renting another underwater craft, she followed them and stopped them from assassinating Omas and Triebakk with a pair of torpedoes by nearly ramming their craft and tricking their own torpedo to come back and hit the Yuuzhan Vong. Omas would later go on to win the election, becoming the new Chief of State.

With his election, the High Council was established, with Mara as one of the founding members. Shortly afterwards, she learned of the genocidal bioweapon Alpha Red. Mara and Luke both opposed using the weapon, as it would represent the slaughter of an entire culture and escalate the war into a further bloodbath. Vergere overheard them talking about it, though, and used her tears to neutralize the weapon, ending the specter of Alpha Red temporarily. In the three months delay of Alpha Red's development that Vergere had created, the New Republic decided to implement the aging and retired Ackbar's plan for a series of limited engagements followed by a trap at Ebaq 9. Working with New Republic Intelligence on Mon Calamari while Luke went to recruit the aid of Garm Bel Iblis, Mara helped carefully leak information to Yuuzhan Vong spies, giving them knowledge of the bait&mdash;Jedi Knights and government officials&mdash;that were alleged to be in the isolated Deep Core system. The result was the decisive Battle of Ebaq 9, which Mara, Winter, and Ackbar viewed from Fleet Command back on Mon Calamari.

Into the unknown
"So at last I meet the legendary Skywalkers. I've certainly heard a lot about you." "All untrue, I'm sure."

- Captain Yage and Mara Jade Skywalker in the Imperial Remnant

Following the victory at Ebaq Nine, Cal Omas called a meeting of several prominent Jedi and government officials, including Mara. Omas wanted to launch missions to reconnect the administration with parts of the galaxy that had been cut off, and Luke proposed diplomatic missions to the Chiss and the Imperial Remnant in an effort to bring them into the Galactic Alliance fold, though his real purpose in journeying so close to the Unknown Regions was to search for the living planet Zonama Sekot. Mara agreed to go with Luke in the Jade Shadow, along with Danni Quee, Saba Sebatyne, Tekli, Artoo, and Jacen Solo. Before they left, Mara and Luke checked up on Tahiri Veila, who had injured herself and was suffering from conflicting personalities. While the Skywalkers wanted to stay and aid Tahiri, their mission was due to depart the next day, and they had numerous preparations to make, including consulting Jagged Fel for advice on protocol with the Chiss.

Dropping out of hyperspace near the Imperial capital of Bastion, Mara and the others arrived in the middle of the Battle of Bastion. After performing a microjump towards the retreating Imperial fleet, Mara informed Gilad Pellaeon of the location of a yammosk carrier, and then, per Pellaeon's request, withdrew the Jade Shadow back to Yaga Minor with most of the Imperial fleet. Despite a sticky and officious greeting from Commander Keten and Moff Kurlen Flennic, they managed to meet with Pellaeon's protégé, Captain Arien Yage, who was more welcoming than the Moff and Keten had been. Pellaeon had arrived back to Yaga Minor, but barely alive, and his absence from command meant that the Remnant was less welcoming than they had been previously, so Mara withdrew Jade Shadow while Jacen attempted to negotiate with the hard-liners. Thankfully, Pellaeon recovered enough to resume command and with the aid of the Jedi, planned the Battle of Borosk. Mara flew in the battle in her beloved Jade Shadow, accompanied by Danni Quee, and became part of Saba Sebatyne's plan to free Imperial prisoners from a slave-carrier vessel in the back of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet that attacked Borosk. She docked the Jade Shadow in the docking bay of an old Imperial Dreadnaught that was heavily automated and modified to be sacrificial while flown near the slave-carrier. Once Danni and Saba disabled the ship and released the prisoners, Mara brought them into the Dreadnaught's hangar bay with the Shadow's tractor beam and retrieved the two females. Their damaged Dreadnaught then jumped to hyperspace, its mission successful, until the conclusion of the battle and the withdrawal of Yuuzhan Vong forces. Before they left the Remnant, Mara and some of the other Jedi attended a meeting with Pellaeon and the Moff Council, and she saved Pellaeon's life from Flennic's assassination attempt. They then left Imperial space for Chiss territory, accompanied by an Imperial frigate, the Widowmaker, under the command of Captain Yage, to support and escort them.

As the expedition moved towards Chiss space, they were eventually contacted by a group of the enigmatic blue aliens over Munlali Mafir. The Chiss party requested that they visit Csilla for authorization to travel through Chiss space and Mara agreed that it was the most prudent course of action. Arriving at icy Csilla, the Jade Shadow landed on the planet and Mara, along with the other crew of the Shadow (Luke, Jacen, Danni, Artoo, and Saba), met with Commander Irolia and Chief Navigator Aabe, as well as members of the Chiss ruling families. The Chiss leadership denied them access to Chiss space, but did allow them to peruse the Expansionary Fleet library on Csilla for information. The Skywalkers were escorted to the library by Soontir Fel and they began their research through the large repository of knowledge.

After hours of searching, Mara, Luke, Saba, and Danni decided to return to the Jade Shadow with the Fels on an ice-barge for a rest. En route back to the spaceport, they were attacked by rivals of the Fels in airspeeders. They pretended to surrender; the airspeeders landed, and their assailants announced their intentions of killing them. At that point, the group broke into action, and Mara helped take down two of the Chiss before commandeering an airspeeder to fly cover for the ice barge. Continuing to the spaceport, Mara then brought the Jade Shadow closer to the library. Not long afterwards, Danni and Jacen had a flash of insight and refined their search to include captured moons instead of just planets and found mention of the living planet.

Jacen surmised that Zonama Sekot was hiding in the Klasse Ephemora system and Mara led the Jade Shadow and the Widowmaker to the system, but hyperspace disturbances prevented them from jumping into the system, frustrating Mara, who wanted to find Zonama Sekot and return home to Ben. Shortly after Jacen found that their communications to Mon Calamari had been cut off, the crew of the Jade Shadow sensed a disturbance in the Force from Zonama Sekot. Danni, Jacen, Luke, Saba, Tekli, and Mara joined their minds in a Force Meld to help Mara trace the disturbance as she flew the Shadow towards its source, the Widowmaker following behind. On their third jump towards the system, Mara was able to reach a clear path through hyperspace and they arrived to find Zonama Sekot orbiting a gas giant and in the final stages of repelling a small Yuuzhan Vong war fleet.

Just as they arrived, a wave of psychic energy hit the craft, knocking the crew unconscious. After Mara awoke, she flew the ship to the landing coordinates that the planet had provided to Jacen. Luke and Mara disembarked on the planet and met with Jabitha, the planet's Magister. The native Ferroans let them know that they were not welcome, but Jabitha bade them to come and explain their journey at the village. However, Mara was displeased when Sekot's native plants rapidly grew over the Shadow, trapping it beneath coils of foliage. After a long march to the Ferroan village, Jacen, Mara, Luke, Saba, and Danni were offered a dwelling and an opportunity to address Jabitha and the Ferroan elders.

During their address, Mara warned the planet that the Yuuzhan Vong had found it and would descend on it en masse, overwhelming its admittedly powerful defenses with sheer numbers. After hearing her, Luke, and Jacen, Jabitha agreed to discuss their request for Zonama Sekot's aid in the war with the Ferroan elders, reconvening the next day. However, their party was attacked during the night by Ferroans, who collapsed their dwelling and kidnapped Danni. Mara was more than mildly displeased, but Jacen and Saba pursued the kidnappers, leaving Mara and Luke to deal with the other Ferroan villagers. Mara informed the Ferroans that they should explain the dissidents who had launched the attack and was met with denials and excuses. Moreover, Jabitha had also been taken by the assailants, so they could not even talk with her. Mara also was disturbed by reports of gravitic waves coming from a nearby moon, possibly indicating a Yuuzhan Vong starship. However, the whole kidnapping and Yuuzhan Vong coralskipper that launched from the moon turned out to be a test from Zonama Sekot to see what type of people the visitors were. The Jedi passed the test by refusing to condone aggressive action, as Luke did not allow Widowmaker to destroy the ship they had detected and thought was a coralskipper, nor did Jacen kill the kidnappers when given a chance to. Sekot then agreed to help them in the war, preparing itself for a return to known space. The planet also revealed that a Yuuzhan Vong ship had survived the attack they had witnessed upon arriving in-system, escaping the defenses.

War's End
"You promised me on Zonama Sekot that both of us have a lot more living to do." "You think I'd drop you into the midst of all this to make you a widow&mdash;or me a widower?" "That's not your style."

- Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker on Coruscant

While the Skywalkers' party was on Zonama Sekot, the Yuuzhan Vong priest Harrar, Nom Anor (disguised as the Shamed One leader Yu'shaa), Tahiri Veila, shaper Nen Yim, and Corran Horn landed on a different part of the planet. After Nom Anor betrayed his erstwhile companions by killing Nen Yim, wounding Harrar, and sabotaging the planetary hyperdrives of Sekot, he called in a landing craft of Yuuzhan Vong warriors to pick him up and flee the planet. However, Mara, Luke, and Jacen arrived in the Jade Shadow, fending off the warriors and nearly killing Anor, though the treacherous intendant escaped. After they picked up Tahiri and Corran, they fled the area. Sekot then activated its hyperdrives while trying to contain and repair the damage wrought by Nom Anor.

Mara remained on Sekot as it plunged through hyperspace, attempting to re-assert control over its hyperdrive mechanisms. The planet sustained moderate surface damage and the Jedi mostly remained in the shelters rather than experience the traumatic atmospheric and seismic disturbances the planet experienced. Mara and Luke also learned from Danni Quee that the priest Harrar, believed slain by Nom Anor, was still alive.

Mara and the other Jedi went to visit the priest, who was being healed by Tahiri and Tekli from the injuries he had received. Harrar revealed to them that Zonama Sekot had many similarities to the Yuuzhan'tar, the ancestral home of the Yuuzhan Vong and that Shimrra feared the planet. Harrar also told them that he wanted to try and reconcile the Yuuzhan Vong and the rest of the galaxy, working to end the war, though he confessed that Shimrra would not listen to reason. The group then traveled to a Force nexus in a lava tube, where Sekot deduced that the Yuuzhan Vong of antiquity had been stripped of the Force. Meanwhile, the other Jedi on Mon Calamari were growing concerned for their out-of-contact members on Zonama Sekot.

As they remained on Sekot, unaware of their location or their estimated time of arrival, Mara began worrying about Ben, wishing to be with him. Moreover, Luke's visions of the future didn't necessarily show her in the future. In response, she had him promise to take care of Ben if anything should happen to her.

Soon enough, Zonama Sekot dropped out of hyperspace in orbit near Coruscant. Mara experienced a happy reunion with family and loved ones when Han and Leia, along with a full crew of Jedi, arrived aboard the Falcon, along with Mirax from the Errant Venture. Luke and Mara then returned to Contruum in the Jade Shadow, accompanied by the Errant Venture, to meet with Galactic Alliance officials. The various brass and politicians informed them that they were planning a decisive strike at Coruscant and Luke promised the aid of the Jedi, though many of them had remained on Zonama Sekot to bond with the new Sekotan craft that were being grown for them.

As the battle of Coruscant raged overhead, with some Yuuzhan Vong forces engaging the Galactic Alliance fleets and others striking for Zonama Sekot, Mara accompanied a strike team on the Millennium Falcon down to Coruscant's surface. The group, comprising the Solos, Skywalkers, Tahiri Veila, and Kenth Hamner, planned on stopping the World Brain from devastating the planet and neutralizing Shimrra. The group slowly advanced on his citadel, though Kenth and Tahiri detached from the group to assist the Shamed Ones, who believed redemption had arrived for them and were revolting in a desperate struggle against the warriors.

However, before they breached the citadel, Luke asked Mara to go with Tahiri and Kenth to aid the Shamed Ones. She reluctantly agreed to do it, saying that she trusted his judgment. Fighting their way through swarms of warriors, the three Jedi and Galactic troops reached a group of embattled Shamed Ones, including Nom Anor. In the heat of combat, Mara and Tahiri found themselves near Nom Anor and Tahiri seized him. Mara had not forgotten who had first infected her with coomb spores and neither had Anor. In a desperate attempt, he slashed at Tahiri with his coufee and escaped temporarily. Mara pursued the former executor through the ruins of Imperial City relentlessly. Once she cornered him, she deactivated her weapon and beat him down with punishing unarmed combat. As she stood over him with her lightsaber ready to deliver the death-blow, Anor begged for mercy. Mara allowed him to live, but she forced him to show her an entrance to Shimrra's citadel.

Leading a small group of Shamed Ones, Anor escorted her, Tahiri and Kenth inside the fortress, where they battled against numerous Yuuzhan Vong warriors and saved Han, Leia, Artoo, Threepio, and the Noghri from Yuuzhan Vong capture. Mara's group penetrated into the sanctum of the World Brain and prepared to use explosives to destroy it if necessary. However, Jacen communicated with the brain via his Vongsense, convincing it to ignore Shimrra's commands. As the Shamed Ones and Galactic Alliance forces secured the lower levels of the citadel, Mara had Nom Anor conduct them to the coffer at the top, where Luke, Jacen, and Jaina had been battling the Supreme Overlord and his slayer bodyguards.

Arriving near the top, Mara found Luke envenomed by Shimrra's amphistaff's venom after he had beheaded Shimrra in the same manner as his father had killed Dooku years earlier. Mara immediately attended to her weakening husband. While Han, Leia, and Nom Anor went in search of Jacen and Jaina, who had themselves gone after Shimrra's familiar Onimi, Mara and Tahiri brought Luke back down to the lower levels. From there, they took the injured Jedi Master out. On the way, a Shamed One who had once been a shaper offered to help prolong Skywalker's rapidly diminishing life and Mara allowed the Yuuzhan Vong to do what he could. At that point, Shimrra's escape vessel, with Onimi, Jacen, Jaina, Han, and Leia still aboard, detached and launched. Mara loaded Luke onto the Falcon and took off in pursuit, with Harrar, Tahiri, and Kenth accompanying her on the ship and Jag Fel flying escort. After Jacen defeated Onimi, the Solos fled the now-dying escape vessel in a Yuuzhan Vong landing craft. Mara picked them up and Jacen used his tears to heal Luke, much as Vergere had done for Mara earlier.

Mara then returned with Luke to Zonama Sekot as the battle ended in Galactic Alliance victory and a Yuuzhan Vong withdrawal. While he recovered, she recovered her precious Jade Shadow and spent the next few weeks on the planet, repairing her ship and just resting. Nas Choka's surrender had ended the war, so the fighting had virtually ended. Luke called a meeting of the Jedi on Zonama Sekot and announced the construction of a new academy on Ossus, where the Skywalkers planned to move. However, first, they went on a vacation with Han and Leia, finally free from the specter of galactic war.

Dark Nest Crisis (35 ABY–36 ABY)
In the post-war years, Mara committed herself strongly to the Jedi Order, dividing her time between the Jedi Academy on Ossus and the new Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She became a prominent voice in support of the idea that the Jedi were not automatically bound to the Galactic Alliance. Ironically, she now found herself siding with Kyp Durron, and in disagreement with others, including Kenth Hamner and her old friend Corran Horn. This disagreement with Corran may account for the fact that her former friendship with Mirax Horn had cooled: by 35 ABY, she considered her sister-in-law Leia and Barabel Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne as her closest female friends, and she conceded that even they were not especially close to her.

The main focus in Mara's life at this time was her family: her husband, and perhaps even more importantly, her infant son Ben. She was determined to be a loving mother, and to protect her son's childhood innocence. Her sense of protectiveness was heightened by the fact that Ben had cut himself from the Force, apparently in response to trauma during his infancy, when he had been unable to shield himself from the pain and suffering of the war-torn galaxy. However, Ben's continuing withdrawal also caused Mara some pain, as she felt that his failure to develop Jedi talents made him a disappointment to her husband.

A cry for help
In 35 ABY, the Order learned from Chiss envoys that a group of rogue Jedi, including Mara's former apprentice Jaina Solo, had allied themselves with the hive-minded Killiks in a border dispute with the Chiss. Along with Luke and Ben, Mara set out for the Unknown Regions to investigate. They discovered that the rogue Jedi had been responding to the former Jedi Raynar Thul, who had been assimilated by the Killiks, and was now UnuThul, the all-powerful "king bee" of their hegemony, the Colony. The mission was a partial success: although the rogue Jedi had all been partially assimilated by the Taat nest, most of them were persuaded to return to Alliance space. However, on Yoggoy, the Skywalkers were attacked by mysterious blue-black Killiks, which UnuThul seemed to know nothing about. These were in fact Gorog Killiks, part of the so-called Dark Nest, a shadowy influence which was able to hide its presence and its malign influence from the rest of the Colony.

Moreover, as the Jedi returned to Alliance space, a Gorog assassin stowed away aboard the Jade Shadow. The creature befriended Ben, who came to think of it as his pet. Secretly, Gorog began to brainwash the child, with the aim of turning him against Mara and making him a joiner, a Human drone of the Dark Nest. Back on Ossus, the plot was uncovered by Mara, but Gorog was able to escape, along with the Twi'lek Jedi Alema Rar, who had been thoroughly assimilated by the Gorog hive.

Challenged by Gorog over her own past as an Imperial assassin, Mara also found herself caught between her desire to preserve her son's innocence, and her determination to protect him from harm; however, it was the latter option that coincided with her duty as a Jedi to protect the galaxy. Returning to the Unknown Regions as part of a Jedi strike team, she fought in the Battle of Kr, where she found herself in single combat with the Gorog assassin. Knowing that the creature was threatening to share its experience of the battle with Ben, she decided that he would simply have to learn to deal with the realities of conflict, and quickly killed the creature. In the closing stages of the battle, however, she was gored in the guts by a Gorog larva, and she received treatment from Killik healers before being put in bacta aboard one of the Hapan warships that had intervened in hopes of creating a peaceful settlement.

Mara also allowed her nephew Jacen Solo to become Ben's mentor, recognizing that her husband's nephew was able to encourage Ben into a closer relationship with the Force. Although just seven or eight years old, her son left home. Mara kept her feelings guarded. With the Dark Nest apparently destroyed, Mara and her family once again knew peace.

The Unseen Queen
Eventually, however, the Skywalkers were called back to Killik space by UnuThul, who offered an explanation for why the Skywalkers and Solos were attacked during their first trip to the colony. According to UnuThul, Gorog had been specifically targeting Mara since the first attack on Yoggoy, because it had been founded by the wife and daughter of a man named Daxar Ies. Picking up his cue, Mara explained that Daxar Ies had been one of her early targets as Emperor's Hand: when his wife and daughter disturbed her at the murder scene, she had told them to flee. UnuThul claimed that they then became Gorog Joiners, shaping the Dark Nest around their determination to hide from Mara, and perhaps a desire for revenge against her.

It was clear that UnuThul had acquired knowledge of the Ies family from somewhere, and Alema Rar, now the Gorog Night Herald, would later claim that the memories of Daxar Ies's daughter Eremay were the source for Gorog's overrides for R2-series astromech droids, which enabled her to taunt Luke with more of Artoo's recordings of his parents. Playing off the suggestion that the Dark Nest was ultimately a legacy of Mara's own past actions, Alema took the opportunity to further divide the Skywalkers, by suggesting that Mara, in her role as Palpatine's assassin, might also have been responsible for killing Luke's mother.

However, later events showed the Jedi's earlier suspicions were largely correct: the Dark Nest had been created in its present form by Lomi Plo, a former Nightsister and a Dark Jedi of the Second Imperium. The accuracy of any of the claims concerning the Ies family are unknown, and Gorog's exact motives for its repeated attacks on Mara were never fully explained. There may have been no deeper motive than a desire to cause friction and distrust between the Skywalkers.

While Luke and Han Solo were held captive by the Killiks on Woteba, Mara returned to Ossus with Leia and the rest of the group. Subsequently, she adopted a militant stance, urging without hesitation UnuThul's assassination, and leading a StealthX flight into the Utegetu Nebula, in an attempt to sneak through the blockade imposed by the Galactic Alliance. Although Luke was subsequently rescued, the Colony broke the blockade and went on the offensive against both the Alliance and the Chiss. The Swarm War had begun.

The Swarm War
"The Masters are pulling the order in ten different directions. You have to do this, or they'll tear it apart."

- Mara to Luke Skywalker

Mara immediately returned to the Jedi Academy on Ossus with her husband, where he sent a powerful Force-call to the entire Jedi Order. Though she was concerned for her husband's health after his intense meditation, she gave her full support to his decision to grant himself the title of Jedi Grand Master and assume full control of the Jedi Order. Indeed, she alone was privy to his plans going into the meeting.

Soon after this announcement, the Skywalkers were the guest of UnuThul's mother Aryn Thul, head of the powerful Bornaryn Trading empire, who attempted to negotiate for the safety of her son. She also gifted Mara and Luke with the droid R2-0, the prototype for the R2 series astromech droid, which would later allow slicer Zakarisz Ghent to access the hidden files in R2-D2's memory, including a recording of the young Darth Vader's strangulation of his wife. When Luke, Mara, and Jacen viewed the holograms, conflicts became apparent in the way each interpreted the scenes. Mara was disturbed by Anakin Skywalker's anger and threatening behavior, while Jacen saw no problem with it. Furthermore, Luke was forced to confront his doubts that his father Anakin might have been involved in the death of his mother Padmé. Adding to the tensions brewing between the trio, Mara would also confront Jacen about performing a memory wipe on her son Ben, but ultimately accepted his false explanation that he did it for Ben's own protection: in reality, he had done so to conceal the fact that he had fathered a daughter with Tenel Ka Djo.

During the Battle of Sarm, Mara was a member of the Jedi force leading an attack on a Killik nest ship. She was the first to reach an injured Jacen Solo and made a heroic effort to rescue him from the tangled wreckage of his StealthX. When Jacen came to, he joined Mara in protecting Luke's flanks as he battled the deformed Dark Jedi Lomi Plo. Mara sustained a horrific injury when a shatter gun pellet ripped through her vac suit and destroyed one of her kidneys. The month-long recuperation period for her wounds meant that she would not see any more action during the Swarm War. When Mara learned that her husband planned to face Lomi Plo and Raynar Thul alone, she became fearful for his fate. In a disturbing episode, Jacen used the Force to fake Mara's death, in order to demonstrate to Luke his own vulnerability to fear. Soon thereafter, the three viewed the hologram of Padmé's final moments, which steeled Luke for battle and influenced him to reject Vergere's teachings. Luke's confidence and trust in Mara was also confirmed by the revelation that she had no role in Padmé's death.

Luke killed Lomi Plo and brought Raynar back to the Galactic Alliance, albeit under heavy sedation. Mara was still in rehabilitation at the conclusion of the Swarm War.

Rising tensions
"There is a lot of unrest in life. The Force is created by life, so it has unrest in it. If you open yourself to the Force, how can you not open yourself to a certain amount of unrest?"

- Mara at the beginning of the Second Galactic Civil War

In 40 ABY, a civil war broke out between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia. Her son and nephew were sent to Adumar, where they discovered a secret missile factory. Missions such as this, undertaken as the crisis continued to escalate, only heightened Mara's fears for the safety of her family, especially for Ben, her only son. When the Galactic Alliance decided to have peace talks with Corellia in the Kuat system, Mara accompanied her family to Toryaz Station. Shortly afterwards, the group were attacked by drugged Corellian commandos. Though the attack was stopped, Corellian Prime Minister Aidel Saxan was assassinated. This act angered Corellia and all attempts at peace talks were ceased.

Eventually Mara went on a mission with Luke to kidnap Thrackan Sal-Solo, Head of State of Corellia. After making it through the planet's security, Mara ventured off to Thrackan's mansion where she rescued Tiu Zax and did more recon work with her inside the mansion. Meanwhile, Luke went to see Corran Horn and the newly built Jedi facility that housed new Jedi initiates. They were able to save Jaina's and Tahiri's team and escort them to safety; after the mission, they arrived on Coruscant. While on Coruscant, Mara battled a twisted Force ghost of her son, Ben. Not realizing that it was in fact a physically-real Force projection of Ben, Mara caught him off guard with a kick to his midsection.

As the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War swelled, Mara was asked by Cal Omas to head up a new paramilitary organization designed to crack down on Corellian insurgents and terrorists operating on Coruscant. When she declined, the command was given to Jacen Solo instead. She and Luke, along with the other Jedi Masters, were shocked to see Ben and Jacen participate in GAG raids and didn't approve of it.

Despite Luke's deep misgivings concerning Jacen Solo and his relationship with their son Ben, Mara was the only family member&mdash;besides Ben&mdash;that trusted Jacen, correctly ascertaining that her nephew was secretly torn over someone that he loved. However, despite this insight being correct, she wrongly attributed it as the cause of Jacen's questionable behavior when in truth he was turning to the dark side. Her self-denial of Jacen's true motivations brought her, for a time, to the belief that Jacen was the best caregiver for Ben. However, she later came to believe Luke and considered that her nephew was falling to the dark side.

Hunting Lumiya
"I get the proverbial bad feeling about this."

- Mara to Luke

After deducing that Lumiya was alive, Mara constructed a shoto to combat Lumiya's lightwhip and accompanied her husband on his search to locate her and hopefully put an end to this situation. Mara would also supervise a sparring session between Luke and Ben.

On their search, they were summoned by detectives to examine Tresina Lobi's corpse in Fellowship Plaza, where she learned that Luke had told Lobi to watch over Ben and Jacen without her knowledge. At the crime scene they found a holocube that brought them to Lumiya's apartment. In the apartment, Mara and Luke found evidence that linked Lumiya to the killing of Bothans. Distraught at their findings, Mara decided that Ben had to be taken away from Jacen.

After landing at the rendezvous point where Jacen had said Ben would meet them, Mara and Luke were attacked by Lumiya and Alema Rar. While Luke dealt with Lumiya, Mara dueled Alema Rar when she nearly killed Mara with a dart. In the duel, Luke was severely injured while fighting Lumiya, but Mara defeated Alema, knocking her unconscious, where she discovered the bomb attached to Alema. Returning to see Luke shoot Lumiya three times, Mara informed him of the bomb and pulled him to safety. Meeting up with the family on Hapes except Han and Leia, Jacen allowed Luke to take Ben away as a precaution. The three then returned to Coruscant.

Upon returning to the Jedi Temple, Mara and Luke were informed by Kyp Durron of Cal Omas' and Cha Niathal's request that Jacen be made into a Jedi Master. After Ben disappeared, Luke and Mara accurately guessed Jacen was involved and contacted him, though they learned little from the encounter. Following their conversation with Jacen, Mara and Luke held a meeting with Jagged Fel at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, who warned them of the survival of Alema Rar, who had helped kill Tresina Lobi. Shortly before the meeting ended, Fel entrusted Luke with a special device to aid in capture of Alema Rar&mdash;Mara and Luke then gave it to Master Cilghal to analyze. The two then received an encrypted message from Han and Leia requesting to meet them on the Errant Venture.

While traveling aboard the Errant Venture, Mara and Luke reunited with Leia and Han as well as their old friends Wedge, Mirax, Iella, and Corran. However, they also took that opportunity to confront Jacen about his activities with Ben, but a battle alarm allowed him to slip away. After the reunion, Mara accompanied Luke, Han, and Leia to Gilatter VIII to rescue Jacen, who was unaware that the station was a trap for him and the Galactic Alliance. The rescue mission ended in disaster as the three encountered both Lumiya and Alema, in addition to the station's security, while Jacen fled to the Anakin Solo.

Death
"You're&hellip; as vile as he was." "Who?" "Palpatine."

- Mara Jade Skywalker and Jacen Solo

The fiasco on Gilatter VIII left Mara and the others wary of not only Jacen, but Alema and Lumiya as well. Concerned for the safety of her son, Mara decided to hunt down Lumiya and kill her, thinking that Lumiya was after Ben. To help in tracking her son, Mara also gave Ben a vibroblade she had used while she had worked for the Empire, which also contained a virtually undetectable transponder. Refusing aid from Luke or other Jedi, Mara then set out on her hunt for Lumiya, looking for an opportunity to end what she viewed as the Sith menace to her son. Mara obtained such a chance at Hesperidium and ended with herself gaining a bruised eye, split lip, burned neck, and bleeding forehead while Lumiya suffered severe lightsaber wounds. When her son, Ben, discovered that Jacen and Lumiya were connected by affiliation, he told his mother. Mara, feeling both betrayed and upset at the dark revelation, cornered Jacen and attempted to sway him back to the light side. After Jacen brushed her warnings off, Mara felt Jacen had become too evil and dangerous to leave alive.

Mara tracked Jacen to Hapes, where he was visiting with Tenel Ka and Allana. When he left Hapes, Mara ambushed him in her StealthX, and after a dogfight in Hapan space, they ended up on the planet Kavan. In the tunnels of Kavan, a fight between the two ensued that degraded into a very physical brawl. Initially, Mara trapped Jacen beneath rubble by collapsing the ceiling and attempted to shoot him with a blaster. The ambush backfired when Jacen used a Force Wave so strong it blew the blaster bolt and the cave stones off himself which also knocked Mara backwards. She kept fighting Jacen with her shoto and vibroblade even after sustaining a scalp injury and being painfully thrown into a brick wall several times, using her assassin's training and physical skills to good effect. As she prepared to finish off her opponent, Jacen stared into her eyes and instantly created the illusion of Ben's face beneath her by using the Force, causing Mara to hesitate for a split second. Jacen used the time to stab a poisoned dart into Mara's thigh, causing a slow, paralyzing, and painless death. Her final words expressed her belief that Jacen had become worse, more vile and cruel than Palpatine, and that Luke would defeat and strike him down. Mara left her body behind instead of allowing it to become one with the Force to leave evidence of the identity of her killer as well as to give her family something to say goodbye to. Her last uses of the Force were to whisper in Ben's mind and to ruffle Luke's hair. Other Jedi, including Leia, also felt Mara's passing through the Force.

Mara's corporeal body remained long enough for Cilghal to perform an autopsy and have her funeral arranged on Coruscant. Numerous Jedi, including the entire Masters' Council, as well as government officials including Cha Niathal, military supreme commander and co-chief of state attended. Although her sister-in-law Leia Organa Solo was supposed to deliver her eulogy, Leia and Han were prevented from arriving by a Galactic Alliance Guard squad seeking to detain them. Instead, Saba Sebatyne eulogized the fallen Master, though she was interrupted by the late and discourteous arrival of Jacen Solo, whose role in Mara's death remained unknown. As Jacen Solo, or Darth Caedus, arrived, Mara's body began to fade and dissipate, finally becoming one with the Force. Her son Ben took this to mean that they should not trust Jacen. Saba continued with her eulogy, recounting Mara's history and using her change from a life of serving the dark side and rationalizing sacrifices to make a point to Jacen Solo, who had done the exact opposite.

Mara's legacy
"You're an idiot. You can't stop from touching the Force any more than you can stop breathing. You're a Skywalker. The Force runs strong in your family."

- Cade's hallucination of Mara speaks to him

Mara's death led Ben to actively plot to kill her murderer, Darth Caedus. Luke, believing Lumiya had killed Mara, pursued the Sith Lady and slew her, only to learn later from Ben that it might not have been Lumiya. This led Luke's grief and loss to intensify, while Ben's rage and hatred of Jacen grew and intensified; he became willing to sacrifice innocents in order to end Jacen's life.

As the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War continued to escalate, Mara's son Ben decided to find proof of Jacen's involvement of Mara's death, as he still retained nagging suspicions that Jacen was the culprit. Recruiting a sympathetic Galactic Alliance Guard agent named Lon Shevu, Ben returned to Kavan, hoping to unearth clues on Mara's attack. At Kavan, Mara appeared as a Force ghost to Ben showing hair was involved and mouthing the words "I love you". With this revelation, Ben and Shevu decided to find a way to check Jacen's StealthX for traces of Mara's hair.

Using a Coruscant Security Force forensics droid, Shevu and Ben were able to investigate Caedus' StealthX and discovered one twenty-nine centimeter long hair of Mara's, with a tag and blood on it, confirmed by comparison with one of Mara's hairs that Luke Skywalker still had in his possession. Later, this evidence was corroborated by Caedus' confession to Shevu that he had brawled with and eventually killed Mara Jade Skywalker. Ben's recordings of the scene of the murder, the physical evidence, and a recording of Caedus's confession were all presented by Ben on Endor to his father, Han and Leia Solo, and Jaina. Not long after the Second Battle of Fondor, Mara would visit Luke, comforting him in the midst of his grief and wartime duties.

Mara's descendants would all be raised on the Skywalker family histories in which Mara featured prominently. Family holos described the important events of her life to those who came after her.

One such descendant was Cade Skywalker, a drug-addicted former Jedi haunted by the ghosts of his past. Hiding from his enemies on Ossus, Cade experienced drug-induced hallucinations after ingesting several death sticks; visions of Mara Jade and Anakin Skywalker, who then morphed into Darth Vader and warned him of the perils of falling to the dark side.

Personality and traits
"Sometimes I think you can be spooky just singing nursery songs"

- Elassar Targon to Mara

Mara was an extremely proud woman, who always gave her best at everything that she did&mdash;this can be seen in her time as an Emperor's Hand. A notable example of this is during her investigation of Moff Glovstoak and the efficiency with which she brought down the corrupt Imperial. However, Mara did not let Glovstoak's fall, or the Emperor's approval, end her mission&mdash;Mara continued by delving deeper into the conspiracy, eventually following the clues directly to their source. She refused to serve the warlords who seized power after the Emperor died, feeling that they were beneath her.

Additionally, Mara was also extremely devoted, serving what she viewed as Palpatine's will even after his death. She would later display loyalty to Talon Karrde and his organization even at the cost of total alienation from the Empire, and was furious that Thrawn forced her to betray Karrde. Mara later displayed the same commitment to her husband, Luke Skywalker, and her son, Ben Skywalker, even at one point refusing to participate in the defense of Borleias in order to protect Ben.

Due to her upbringing under Palpatine, and also to the training she received from the Sith Lord, Mara learned how to maintain a calm and collected composure in almost every situation. During the First Corellian Insurrection, and though she harbored a vendetta against Luke Skywalker, Mara went was able to prioritize the severity of the situation and place her differences with Skywalker aside&mdash;she proceeded to warn Leia and the Senate about the recently uncovered plot to destroy the New Republic. During her brief tutelage under Kyle Katarn, Mara was forced to face Kyle in an ancient Temple when he fell to the dark side. While he was fully engaged in the dark powers of the temple, Mara was forced to defend against Katarn's attacks, with Mara managing to fend him off each time. Eventually, Kyle and Mara found themselves deep inside the catacombs of the temple, and Mara voluntarily turned off her lightsaber and surrendered, maintaining her calm composure as she realized she could not longer fight her one-time friend. Due to Mara's self-control, Kyle was eventually redeemed and brought back to the light.

Even though Mara exuded a toughened exterior, she was a warm and compassionate individual. Through her love and marriage to Luke Skywalker, Mara was able to realize that her life of constant conflict had not provided her with everything she needed. However, through her experiences and relationship with Luke, she came to acknowledge her love for him and understand what his companionship offered her life &mdash;she realized that it was acceptable to let him past her defenses. A small way in which she showed Luke her love for him was through the playful nickname which she constantly called him&mdash;Farmboy. Mara's love and compassion also managed to manifest itself when she gave birth to her son, Ben, during the Yuuzhan Vong War. The war caused Mara to develop a strong, and somewhat overprotective, demeanor towards Ben, constantly fearing that the war would find him and take him away from her and Luke. After watching the devastation that Anakin's death caused Leia, Mara had no wish to experience that type of emotional pain. Later, during the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War, Mara's love and protectiveness of her son was still evident. She was constantly worrying over Ben and his actions within the GAG, and even up until her death, her love for Luke and Ben was present in her mind.

Talents
"We don't have a lock for the window but there's an alarm on it. You try going out, and it'll be a toss-up as to whether the vornskrs get to you before I do. But don't take my word for it. Try it and find out."

- Mara Jade

Just as her personality was diverse, so were the talents that Mara utilized throughout her colored career. Mara was known to be a skilled slicer, breaking into secure files with relative ease, though she was not on the same level as Zakarisz Ghent. During Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign against the New Republic, Talon Karrde was captured by Imperial forces, and Mara took it upon herself to rescue the smuggler leader. Mara was able to sneak aboard Thrawn's ship, Chimaera, and used her slicing abilities to hack the Star Destroyer's computer, eventually reaching the detention block and freeing Karrde.

During her life, Mara became an experienced pilot who flew a variety of ships in a number of situations. During the Thrawn Campaign, Mara flew a Z-95 Headhunter and flew against the enemy at the Battle for the Katana fleet, though she was disabled by an ion cannon. During the First Corellian Insurrection, Mara piloted her ship, the Jade's Fire, and used it in several different instances. After she and Leia escaped from the Human League, Mara flew her ship through the enemy forces, and eventually managed to rendezvous with Han Solo on Selonia. Later, Mara flew the Jade's Fire in the final battle at Centerpoint Station, and contributed to the defeat of the Corellian forces. After the First Corellian Insurrection, Mara piloted the Starry Ice in her rescue of Luke, who had ran into trouble with the Cavrilhu Pirates. Luke had unfortunately been discovered during his infiltration of the pirate group, and Mara's skilled hand as a pilot helped Luke survive the encounter. During the Yuuzhan Vong war, Mara distinguished herself during the Second Battle of Borleias when she was made second in command of Blackmoon Squadron. In that position, she provided cover for the Lusankya during Operation Emperor's Spear, which saw the command ship successfully ram a Yuuzhan Vong worldship.

During her time as an Emperor's Hand, Mara became skilled in the arts of disguise and infiltration. In 0.5 ABY, Mara used her skills of disguise to infiltrate the court of Moff Glovstoak, posing as Countess Claria. During this mission Mara discovered that Glovstoak had been skimming the top off tax returns to the Imperial Center. Mara managed to sneak through Glovstoak's palace and found that he was in possession of six stolen paintings which were worth millions of credits and the Emperor was provided with the proof he required of the Moff's treason, summarily disposing of Glovstoak. After the destruction of the first Death Star, Mara employed her spy abilities against Darth Vader, recording his actions and delivering reports to the Emperor. In the months prior to the Emperor's Palpatine's death, Mara was sent to Tatooine in an effort to infiltrate Jabba's Palace. Mara disguised herself as the dancing girl Arica, and set her plans in motion while she awaited the arrival of Skywalker. Following the death of the Emperor, Mara found herself on the run from Director Ysanne Isard, however, she managed to escape, disguising herself as a refugee. During her days as a smuggler, Mara often employed her spy abilities for Talon Karrde&mdash;she participated in a mission for Karrde to track down Jorj Car'das, where maximized her infiltration skills to complement her spy abilities. Mara's colored life reinforced the skills she needed to be a successful spy. During the outbreak of the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War, Mara's son Ben would brag about her abilities as a spy to Jedi Knight Nelani Dinn. During the Confederation-Galactic Alliance war of 40 ABY, Mara used her talents as a spy to track and watch Jacen, eventually following him to Hapes, where he was visiting his lover Tenel Ka and his daughter Allana.

Beginning with her training under Emperor Palpatine, and culminating with her ascension to Jedi Master, Mara continually proved her reputation as an accomplished lightsaber duelist. During the Thrawn campaign, Mara and Luke encountered the crazed Jedi-clone Joruus C'baoth and the dark clone of Luke. While being strengthened by Luke through the Force, Mara was able to defeat the clone, Luuke, and then confronted C'baoth. Mara dodged a bolt of Force lightning that C'baoth threw at her, and managed to stab the insane clone through his chest with her lightsaber. During the Yuuzhan Vong war, Mara and Luke traveled to the ExGal-4 outpost on Belkadan and began an investigation into what had occurred there. During their search, Mara was confronted by the Yuuzhan Vong spy Yomin Carr, and the two proceeded to engage in a violent duel. Mara was evenly matched in skill by the Yuuzhan Vong warrior, who fought with a viciousness Mara had rarely encountered&mdash;Mara was startled by her opponent's lack of presence in the Force, his seemingly impenetrable armor, and his strange weapon which could resist a lightsaber's blade. However, Mara was able to defeat Carr by slicing both of his legs off at the knee and stabbing him through the chest. The Yuuzhan Vong war also saw Mara, Luke, and Tahiri encounter the deranged Dark Jedi Lord Nyax, formerly Irek Ismaren. Nyax had been held in an Imperial laboratory on Coruscant, where he had lightsabers surgically implanted in his elbows, knees, and forearms&mdash;thus providing him with six lightsaber blades with which to fight. The ensuing lightsaber battle saw the superior strength of Nyax almost completely overwhelm the three Jedi. However, Tahiri was able to make herself invisible in the Force and proceeded to severely wound the Dark Jedi. The fact that Mara, Luke, and Tahiri were able to defeat Nyax with relatively little damage to themselves is significant, since Nyax easily slaughtered the Jedi-killing voxyn that the Yuuzhan Vong sent after him. Mara continued to demonstrate her skills with a lightsaber during the Dark Nest Crisis and had also learned the skill of Force lightning, employing it against Alema Rar during the Battle of Kr.

During the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War, Mara and Luke found themselves confronted by an old enemy&mdash;Lumiya. Mara and Luke eventually tracked the Dark Lady and the Dark Jedi Alema Rar to Hapan space where a violent duel took place aboard the space station known as Roqoo Depot. While Luke and Lumiya dueled each other, Mara and Alema entered into a deadly fight&mdash;Alema shot at Mara with a poison dart, but Mara was able to defeat the Twi'lek, knocking her unconscious. The Twi'lek only survived because Mara noticed the bomb on her chest that would go off if she was killed. As the war progressed, Mara began to worry about the safety of her son, and decided to hunt down Lumiya and finish her off for good. Mara eventually caught up with Lumiya on Hesperidium and another lightsaber duel took place involving the two women. Mara fought Lumiya to a standstill, and the two women were both left severely wounded. Mara also learned how to hide in the Force from her son in 40 ABY, a skill that would help her in her final pursuit of Jacen Solo&mdash; who would be later known as "Darth Caedus".

After years of training and battle, Mara's skills with manipulating the Force were well-developed. Even Luke relied on Mara's danger sense more than his own, since Mara had required it to survive as an Imperial agent. Mara's keen danger sense provided her warning of imminent danger and saved her life on numerous occasions. As the Emperor's Hand, she was able to hear Palpatine's voice through the Force &mdash;and just prior to her marriage with Luke, she discovered that they had gained a similar telepathic ability. By the time of her ascension to Jedi Master, Mara had became a powerful member of the New Jedi Order. This was evident during the Yuuzhan Vong War when she successfully used the Force to keep her disease from attacking Ben inside her womb. By the time of the Confederation-Galactic Alliance War, Mara's talents as a Jedi Master had progressed enough that she was able to levitate herself across an open area on a bubble of Force energy while keeping the air around her stilled and her heat emissions minimal to avoid setting off any sensors.

Mara was adept in immediately reading and assessing any situation or individual, and the Emperor gave her memory retention techniques to enhance her abilities. She was also talented enough to secure a number of odd jobs while on the run, including as a hyperdrive mechanic.

Mara's ships
"This ship fights my way, or not at all."

- Mara Jade

During Mara's life she was an accomplished pilot who flew a number of personal and unique ships&mdash;from unnamed Imperial cargo ships during her time as an Emperor's Hand, to the Star Yacht Jade Shadow.

While working as an Emperor's Hand, Mara was provided with an enormous cargo ship which she used as her mobile base of operations. This ship was essentially her home, and in it Mara kept a large number of books, personal items, and also an extensive choice of weapons for any number of missions. While Mara was away on missions for the Emperor, the ship was administered by the protocol droid Kaythree, and crewed by a small group of trusted Imperials. The ship was large enough that it had its own hangar bay which Mara used to store a number of craft, including ground craft such as landspeeders, and personal starfighters like Z-95 Headhunters.

During her time as an Emperor's Hand, and later during her career as a smuggler and Jedi student, Mara often chose to fly the trustworthy Z-95 Headhunter starfighter. The Z-95 was an extremely dependable and reliable fighter which was able to pack both speed and firepower into its small package. During her hunt for Black Nebula, Mara used a Headhunter to insert herself onto the planet Svivren, and was able to go unnoticed in the initial part of the mission. Much later, during the Grand Admiral Thrawn campaign, Mara chose to use a Z-95 Headhunter, most notably at the Battle for the Katana fleet. During that battle Mara flew alongside the New Republic space forces against the fleet of Thrawn, but was hit by an Imperial ion blast&mdash;she proceeded to manually steer her damaged Headhunter into the hangar of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, managing to eject at the last moment before her craft exploded. In the years following the Thrawn campaign, Mara decided to attend Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum, arriving in a Z-95 which she intended to use as a personal escape if her time with the Jedi did not go as planned. During her time on Yavin 4 Mara lent her Headhunter to fellow Jedi student Corran Horn, and he used it to destroy four Sithspawn monsters.

After her adventure on Wayland, Mara would fly a Skipray Blastboat on a mission to aid a New Republic courier.

Mara eventually apprenticed herself, though only for a short time, to the Jedi Kyle Katarn. However, her apprenticeship was unfortunately cut short when Katarn left to search the mysterious world of Dromund Kaas. Deciding to follow him, Mara utilized the ship Shrike to follow and eventually help Katarn. Shrike was a prototype starfighter produced by Incom Corporation, and was privately owned by the smuggler Talon Karrde. During Operation Shadow Hand Karrde permanently loaned it to Mara for her personal use. For a very short while Mara operated a ship by the name of Hunter's Luck, which had originally been a rich kid's private yacht, but was then captured by pirates.

By this time, Mara had been the captain of numerous ships, but had never owned a ship which was registered in her name. Her first ship which she privately owned was the Jade's Fire, a Personal Luxury Yacht 3000 which had been previously named the Winning Gamble and which had been given to her by Sansia Bardrin. During the First Corellian Insurrection Mara piloted the Jade's Fire alongside the Lady Luck and Millennium Falcon at Battle of Centerpoint Station. When Mara and Luke departed for their mission to Nirauan, Jade's Fire was destroyed over during an attempt to infiltrate the Chiss fortress. The Jade's Fire was unique when compared to other ships that Mara had piloted in that it possessed a special "shoot back" system that automatically fired on any vessel that attacked it.

After the Jade's Fire was destroyed, Luke Skywalker presented her with the Jade Sabre as a wedding gift. Jade Sabre required a single pilot to operate, but the ship was designed to carry up to fifteen passengers and up to 100 metric tons of cargo. For defense, Luke armed the ship with four concealed quad laser cannons and a tractor beam projector. In 22 ABY, Mara and Luke used Jade Sabre to travel to Crustai on the edge of the Chiss Ascendancy, where they rendezvoused with the Chiss who had offered to lead them to the remains of Outbound Flight. Three years later, in early 25 ABY, Mara flew the Jade Sabre with Jaina Solo and Leia Organa Solo to the planet of Rhommamool, where Leia was asked to act as a New Republic envoy to deal with upstart Nom Anor. The galaxy soon erupted into a full scale war with the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and Mara and her nephew Anakin Solo piloted Jade Sabre to the world of Dantooine, where it was hoped that Mara could enjoy a vacation. The Yuuzhan Vong, however, soon invaded the planet, and the two Jedi were forced to abandon Jade Sabre when they found themselves cut off from their landing site by warrior patrols.

Several months following the loss of Jade Sabre, Lando Calrissian gave Mara the gift of a space yacht that he had recently purchased from spice merchants. Lando's wife, Tendra, named the ship Jade Shadow due to its non-reflective gray hull. Over time, and with the help of her husband Luke, Mara was able to install a tractor beam projector and was also able to reconfigure the aft docking bay to contain her modified Z-95 Headhunter or even carry an entire X-wing. Mara used her new ship throughout the remainder of the Yuuzhan Vong war, utilizing it as a base of operations when she and Luke decided to search out the living planet Zonama Sekot. Following the defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong, Mara continued to use the Jade Shadow and operated it during the Second Galactic Civil War.

However, Mara was also a capable starfighter pilot, flying X-wings and E-wing escort starfighters during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Later, she would also fly the StealthX variant of the X-wing fighter in the Dark Nest Crisis as well as the Second Galactic Civil War.

Lando Calrissian
Though Lando was rather enamored with her following the Thrawn crisis, Mara never returned any of his frequent, and sometimes blatant, flirtations with her. However, to impress her, when he won the Millennium Falcon from Han in a sabacc game, he returned it to Han in an act of selflessness, thus garnering some respect from her. Though he was insistent in his infatuation with her, Mara did not reciprocate his feelings. After Calrissian replaced her wardrobe with clothes that he would have preferred her to wear around him, she retaliated by raiding his own supply of clothes. However, while their partnership lasted for some time, Mara later told Luke that much of it had been an unpleasant assignment that had originally been handed down by Talon Karrde.

Luke Skywalker
When Mara first met Luke, their relationship was more than prickly at first, as she wanted to kill him, although they were forced to cooperate on numerous occasions to survive. As Mara worked with Luke, she developed at first a grudging respect for him, then later a growing admiration, tempered by her pragmatism and coolness as usual. While fighting on Nirauan, in order to coordinate their efforts perfectly, Luke and Mara performed a Force Meld, linking their minds. It was after understanding each other on so deep a level that they realized the depth of their attraction for each other. The two fell in love and were happily married. Luke and Mara had a son that they named Ben, in honor of the memory of Luke's first master, Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi. Mara would be at Luke's side throughout the Yuuzhan Vong War as his supportive wife, even while being deathly ill for much of the initial stages. While they often disagreed, Mara and Luke trusted each other explicitly and supported the other half of their union. Upon Mara's death, Luke was devastated by the loss of his wife, and, clouded by grief, struck down Lumiya after believing her to be Mara's killer. Even though he felt that his world had ended, Luke was eventually able to recover enough to again fully take the helm of the Jedi Order, knowing that Mara would not have wanted him to let his grief control him.

Behind the scenes
The character of Mara Jade was developed by author Timothy Zahn, and debuted in the novel Heir to the Empire. She quickly became one of the most famous characters of the Expanded Universe, judging by the number and volume of appearances the character has had.

Zahn picked the name "Mara" very deliberately, with the Hebrew word "Mara" meaning bitterness. Also, one of Zahn's dictionaries had "discarded woman" as a meaning for Jade. Thus, the name Mara Jade was born.

In a 1997 poll by Star Wars Insider magazine about the fans' favorite Star Wars characters, Mara Jade placed 20th, the highest-ranked character who did not appear in a Star Wars movie. Jade was also the winner of a Wizards of the Coast trading card game "You Make The Card Contest", where users voted over which Expanded Universe Character to make into a trading card for the Star Wars Miniatures game. In a Wizards.com poll in 2003, Mara Jade was overwhelmingly chosen by users to have a card created for an expansion set, edging out her nearest competitor by over six to one in votes.

Portrayal
Mara Jade has been portrayed by several women. The most well-known is model Shannon McRandle (formerly Shannon Baksa), in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. McRandle was chosen to serve as the likeness of Mara when Decipher, Inc., after getting the idea approved by Lucasfilm, put out a casting call for the part. McRandle knew a photographer at Decipher who suggested her for the part and that led to her getting the role. McRandle did not have knowledge of the Expanded Universe prior to trying out for the shots of Mara but read some of the comic books and part of Heir to the Empire before she was depicted. McRandle's first portrayal of Mara Jade was for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Since then McRandle's likeness has been on several products that depict Mara, including book covers, action figures, and trading cards. She has also been to numerous conventions in both the United States and in other countries such as Japan and Mexico.

In the Return of the Jedi radio drama, C-3PO speaks with Arica, voiced by Samantha Bennett. In Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Mara Jade was voiced by Heidi Shannon; by Edie Mirman in Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi, and by Kath Soucie in Star Wars: Empire at War.

Easter eggs
During the Darth Vader campaign in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, you can discover Mara Jade through cheats in many of the missions. She lurks on the edge of the map, and when discovered, is only there for a moment before walking offscreen. She is also available as a unit if you create a map using the scenario editor. Mara Jade is also the narrator of that campaign.

In another non-canon appearance, Mara Jade is set to appear in the The Force Unleashed as a playable character in the duel mode for the Nintendo Wii.

Author and actor comments
"She fit the story, she fit the Star Wars universe, and she was fun to write."

- Timothy Zahn on Mara Jade

Timothy Zahn, the original creator of Mara Jade, has said that Mara "has a certain kind of attitude, an alertness, an awareness of what's going on." Zahn went on to say that the only physical characteristics he had in mind for Mara were a dancer's figure, red hair, and green eyes. He also said that he wrote the character as a foil for Luke and the pairing of Mara and Luke being a reversal of Han's and Leia's role. He described Mara as a well-rounded character with both an emotional and intellectual component to her personality. According to the author, Mara's personality makes her a heroic character, as she doesn't always like what she's doing but does it anyway because it's right. Zahn stated that Mara was a complex character, but not difficult to write. In an interview, Zahn said that Mara's emotional baggage from her past played a large role in the character's personality. She also has a desire for people she can trust, even though she has a hard time connecting with others. When he wrote Mara, Zahn stated that he kept the romance between her and Luke from developing until later works because he wanted to give Mara time to work through her anger with Luke. Prior to the New Jedi Order book series, he said that Mara would settle down with Luke, rest from fighting and possibly raise a family.

Michael Stackpole, who wrote the Union comics which feature the wedding of Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker, said the biggest problem was trying to have a series that incorporated action, humor, romance, beauty, and adventure. He also said that he saw Union as "a kind of Star Wars family album, and a cap to the Bantam novel continuity. This is a postscript to the last of Timothy Zahn's novels." These novels, of course, featured Mara Jade extensively.

During a Hyperspace celebrity chat, Mark Hamill voiced his support of the Mara Jade character and the general direction post-Return of the Jedi fiction has taken Luke Skywalker's story. Hamill did not meet McRandle until a fan convention in 2004.

The decision to kill off Mara Jade Skywalker was made by Lucasfilm for the plot of the novel Sacrifice. The author of Sacrifice, Karen Traviss, stated that it was her idea to have Mara die and that she felt obligated to write the scene herself. Traviss further stated that she was a fan of the character and wanted the death of Mara Jade Skywalker to fulfill a larger purpose, and that writing the death scene was difficult for her. As she was writing Mara, Traviss said that she wanted to emphasize the importance of Ben to the character, as well as her warrior spirit. In response to Mara's death, Shannon McRandle, the model who has portrayed Mara on numerous occasions, has stated her displeasure with the events and particularly the cover of Sacrifice. Also, when asked about the issue of Mara's death in a writing workshop, Timothy Zahn expressed his displeasure with the decision to kill Mara in Sacrifice. In his comments, he stated that Del Rey not only failed to inform him of the death and he had not heard from them since, but he would still be willing to write another novel about Luke, Mara, and Ben.

Merchandise
Mara Jade was one of the first Expanded Universe characters to receive a Hasbro action figure and a Gentle Giant bust. The first Hasbro figure did not use Shannon McRandle's likeness, but the Gentle Giant product did. Additionally, a Mara Jade's lightsaber replica was produced in a limited edition run by Master Replicas and the item rapidly sold out. . In August 2007, a second Mara Jade action figure was released by Hasbro as part of their Comic Packs line, consisting of two figures and a comic book reprint. Mara was packed with a Luke Skywalker figure, and issue #5 of Heir to the Empire by Dark Horse Comics.