Mara Jade was trained since birth as an assassin. She was one of Emperor Palpatine's Force sensitive agents known as "The Emperor's Hands", elite fighting corps so secret that all but the most high ranking Imperials such as Darth Vader and the Grand Moffs knew her to be anything other than one of the Emperor's concubines. She was among the Imperial agents that were sent to stamp out the Jedi Order. There is a rumor that she even tracked down the Dark Woman on Cophrigin V, but the Emperor decided that Vader would be more suited to the job. After the destruction of the Death Star, Mara familiarized herself with every major Rebel soldier, especially the X-Wing pilot and Jedi in-training Luke Skywalker. After Vader failed to convert him on Bespin, the Emperor gave her orders to kill him. She infiltrated Jabba the Hutt's palace posing as a seductive dancer named Arica. But, her first attempt was foiled by one of Jabba's agents. She then was not allowed to go on Jabba's Sailbarge and she was disheartened to watch her target sailing off into the Dune Sea. On the way back to Coruscant, she felt her dark master die. Through the Force she saw Vader and Skywalker murder him. The Emperor gave her one last command: Kill Skywalker. However, no matter what her mission, she found herself helping him escape from Thrawn's fortress on Myrkr. Shortly afterwards, Thrawn revealed that she was but one of many Emperor's Hands in Palpatine's service. When he captured her employer, Talon Karrde, she was forced to team up with Luke and rescue him. The two were on a mission to destroy Thrawn's cloning facility on Wayland. There, Mara fought and killed two Jedi clones, one of whom was a clone of Luke Skywalker, whose death resulted in the lifting of the need to kill Luke. Luke gave her his old lightsaber, which his clone had wielded. She considered becoming a full Jedi Knight, but didn't wish to be trained by Luke's charity. She tracked down Kyle Katarn and they taught each other what they knew about the Force. Mara also built her own lightsaber.. She also began to fall in love with Luke Skywalker. When Emperor Palpatine returned as a clone, she wouldn't believe it was really him. As a result, he was angered and recruited Executor Sedriss and his Dark Side Adepts. She and Luke defeated them. After temporarily falling to the dark side of the Force, he admitted that he had a lot more to learn about the Force and enrolled in Luke's Jedi Academy. Mara visited occasionally, but most of her time was spent trying to keep Talon Karrde's Smuggler's Alliance together. She was also the business partner of Lando Calrissian in the Kessel mining operation. Upon recieving her own ship, she went into business herself. While visiting customers on Corellia, she ended up in the Corellia insurrection and rescued Leia Organa Solo, the New Republic's Chief of State from imprisonment. During the supposed return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade investigated the alien messages coming from the planet Nirauan on the fringes of the Unknown Regions. Together, she and Luke infiltrated the Chiss out post on Nirauan known as the Hand of Thrawn. In order to prevent the Chiss from getting to the outer galaxy, she had to remote steer her ship, the Jade's Fire, into the docking bay, destroying both in the process. On the way back, Luke proposed to Mara, who accepted immediately. Mara and Luke were wed twice: first in a solemn Jedi-only wedding by Kam Solusar, one of Luke's best students, and second in a huge public ceremony on Coruscant, the latter almost being ruined by Imperial upstarts. As a wedding present, Luke gave her a replacement vessel, the Jade Sabre. Over the next few years, Luke spent most of his time at the Jedi Academy, while Mara helped Luke's Jedi on off-world assignments. While escorting a diplomat to Monor II, Mara was infected with coomb virus spores by a Yuuzahn Vong agent, Nom Anor, part of an advance wave of Yuuzahn Vong invaders. She used the Force to subdue to disease but was still debilitated. Mara being as strong willed as she was, she insisted on doing her part in training Jedi and took Jaina Solo, her neice, as her padawan learner. Luke also bestowed upon her the rank of Jedi Master. During the actual invasion, Mara tried to recover on Dantooine. However, the Vong attacked the planet and destroyed the Jade Sabre. She still fought at the Battle of Ithor, during which she found a cure for the coomb virus. During the Duro incident, Mara felt a presence in her body and feared the virus had returned. She was shocked to discover that she was actually pregnant. Nine months later, she gave birth to a baby boy, whom she and Luke named Ben, after Luke's master, Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi. Mara flew in many more battles in her new ship, the Jade Shadow. In the final Galactic Alliance assault, she, Luke, Jaina, and her brother Jacen infiltrated the conquered Coruscant, now Zenoma Sekot, and killed Shimmra. The battle left Luke badly injured and went into a Force trance to heal himself, emerging stronger then ever.