Disclaimer: Disney owns it now, but I neither know nor care what they're vomiting out these days; I use only Legends in my fics, so the Imperial Palace is a separate building from the Jedi Temple; this fic also uses the 'soft retcon' of the 'Rise and Fall of Darth Vader' wherein Shira Brie's mission is re-dated to 1 ABY. Or, at least, that's my interpretation of why she was mentioned out of sequence.

"Always in motion, is the future, and many possible futures there are."

Jedi Master Yoda

Chapter 1:

Now…Jabba the Hutt's Palace, Tatooine

Han's eyes suddenly snapped open…and his world remained in total darkness. He blinked rapidly but couldn't tell the difference, and yet his head felt like it was spinning. His breathing came suddenly and heavily; Han had been frozen in a block of carbonite, which he remembered only as a timeless period—as if he had spent an eternity trying to breath, trying to move, trying to scream, but trapped in perpetual conscious, painful asphyxiation. And now that he could suddenly breath again, his senses assaulted him: the cold bit at his skin with icy teeth, his sight remained completely opaque, wind rushed around his ears; he couldn't tell up from down. Myriad smells filled his nose and made him nauseous, saliva filled his mouth, and every bone in his body ached. Then came the visions: his childhood on the Trader's Luck running scams for Garris Shrike, Ylesia, the Imperial Academy, saving Chewbacca's life, five years as a freelance smuggler, three years working for the Rebellion—all the images and memories of his life had been crammed into a balloon, which had then popped; the memories all burst out randomly in a single moment, nearly overwhelming him.

A lesser man would have gone utterly mad, but Solo managed to ride the surge of memories, images, and emotions until most of it settled down again; he recalled now the most recent memories: his crippled ship limping to Bespin on its backup hyperdrive, being betrayed by Lando Calrissian—whom he'd once called friend—his capture by Darth Vader and Boba Fett, and kissing Leia right before being frozen.

Strange hands touched him, accompanied by a strange voice—flat and metallic, "Just relax, for a moment," the voice, "You're free of the carbonite." Han managed to sit up and rubbed his eyes; still nothing. "Shh, you have hibernation sickness."

"I can't see," Han finally said.

"Your eyesight will return in time."

"Where am I?"

"Jabba's Palace."

Han grabbed at the source of the voice, feeling a hard mask with a rounded point, and drew back suddenly, "Who are you?"

A pause and then the voice changed into something softer and more feminine, "Someone who loves you."

"Leia," Han gasped and for one long, precious moment they kissed with the fervent urgency of lovers torn from each other and then reunited. "Come on," Leia finally said, helping Han to stand, "Let's get you out of here."

But then a booming laugh sounded. For a moment Han was confused, "What's that." The laugh boomed again and then Han recognized it, "I know that laugh." He turned towards it just in time to hear a curtain being slid aside, followed by an eruption of laughter from Jabba and the rest of his court. While Han strained to make out what Jabba was saying over the laughter of his court, a high pitched whine suddenly appeared and the booming laughter suddenly turned to cries of fear. Han felt Leia turning him and then was nearly knocked to the ground by a deafening explosion.

"What just happened?" Han asked,

"Thermal detonator," Leia said, "Wait, hold on for a moment." Leia let go of him and Han heard the hissing of a lightsaber activation, then heard it again and then a third time. Blaster fire echoed all around him, the lightsabers humming from the deflections and then several more sinister sounds—the lightsabers slicing through something…multiple somethings, or more likely someones. Then for a moment, all Han heard were the low thrumming of lightsabers, finally they shut off.

"What was that all about?"

"Just a few thugs who didn't get the message," said Luke.

"Who's here besides you and Leia, kid?"

"Chewie, Lando, the droids and Mara Jade."

"Who?" Han demanded

"That would be me," a new voice said, also feminine, "A while back I saved Farmboy here from a pair of assassins and decided to stick around."

"It's a bit more complicated than that," said Luke.

Lando finally spoke, "A lot has happened since you were frozen."

Han restrained the urge to try and hit Lando, mostly because he still couldn't see anything, and instead asked, "How long?"

"Six months, give or take."

'Six months.' A new chill crept up Han's spine; six months in carbonite. Six months trapped between life and death.

"Well, let's get out of here and you can catch me up on all the gossip."

As Leia and Lando guided Han's footsteps, he was able to make out Luke arguing with the still mysterious 'Mara Jade', whoever she was.

"You see, Farmboy, that's how to do an extraction—in and out with no fuss and one less Hutt crimelord in the galaxy."

"It still wasn't very Jedi," Luke said "We didn't even try to negotiate."

"You know that would have been pointless," said Mara.

"Probably." Luke sighed. "But Jedi are still supposed to use diplomacy before resorting to violence."

"Normally I would too, but your plan had too many holes in it," Mara said, "too much left to chance."

"There is no luck," said Luke, "there is only the Force. I know that it would have worked out."

"You just want to see me in a skimpy slave dancer costume."

"Well, maybe I do," Luke admitted, "Is that a problem?"

"If it's just you, no," Mara replied, "but no way was I going to put on a show for a slimy piece of worm-ridden filth like Jabba."

Han couldn't resist chuckling. So, the kid had a new girlfriend; although Han still didn't know anything about her, he was already starting to like her.

Han felt the transition to the outside when the biting chill suddenly became a blistering, dry heat. Soon thereafter Leia eased Han into the seat of a speeder and they were off. The trip seemed to take forever, but finally they stopped. Leia helped Han out and guided him up a ramp back, back into blessed air conditioning.

"We're on the Falcon," Leia said, helping Han sit down again. At last he felt at home.

"So," Han finally said after they had lifted off and jumped to hyperspace, "Last I remember, we were all prisoners of Darth Vader."

Lando was the first to speak, "After Vader gave you to Fett, he ordered me to take Leia to his ship—under Stormtrooper escort of course."

"Of course," said Han, "So what happened?"

"I covertly signaled my aide, Lobot, who arranged for the Bespin Wing Guard to ambush the Stormtroopers. We took their guns and then Leia, Chewie and I went after you and Fett; then we fled the city aboard the Falcon."

"We were almost gone," said Leia, "When I heard Luke speak to me through the Force and suddenly I knew his location; naturally, I had Chewie and Lando turn the ship around to pick him up."

"I was dangling for my life from a weather vane on the underside of the city," Luke said, "I had just lost my right hand fighting Darth Vader and that was the only way to escape."

Lando continued, "We picked Luke up and fled to the Rebel fleet. We dropped him off to get medical attention and then Chewie and I left again to go hunt for Fett."

Leia picked up the story, "Luke, the droids and myself went to Tatooine a few days later to wait to hear from them."

"Just like that?" Han said, "The Alliance just let you go?"

"Yes, they did," said Leia, "To quote Admiral Ackbar, 'sometimes we must win the battle within ourselves before we fight the battle without'."

"Hmm, I didn't figure him for the romantic type," Han replied. "So, what's your story, Mara Jade?"

Mara said. "Up until about six months ago I was an assassin known as the Emperors' Hand."

"An assassin?" Han said, "working for the Emperor?"

"I was raised in the Imperial Palace to obey the Emperor unquestioningly. But I was also made to believe that I was the only Hand, that I was someone…special; I was quite peeved when I found out that this wasn't actually true."

Then…Six Months Ago, A Library in the Imperial Palace, Coruscant.

Mara Jade sat in front of a computer console, pounding her fists into the table as she cursed up a storm:

"He told me I was the only one…the only Hand of the Emperor. His weapon of choice when he needed a scalpel rather than a sword…that lying, drooling, scum-swallowing, superannuated under-handed festering filth-sucking parasite!"

Mara had made this discovery just a few minutes ago and quite unexpectedly. It had all started when a few days ago when the Emperor had ordered her to kill Luke Skywalker. Following standard procedure, Mara had begun reading the rather extensive dossier that Imperial Intelligence had accumulated on the most notorious Rebel in the galaxy.

This had led to her shocking discovery when she'd read over a summary of a mission by an Imperial Intelligence agent named Shira Brie who had been sent by Darth Vader to infiltrate the Rebels and honeytrap Skywalker. Finding it odd that Vader would even think of such a tactic, suspicious of his motives for doing so, and interested in finding this agent to get an insiders perspective on Skywalker that would help her complete her mission, Mara had started digging for details about this mission and the agent's own dossier...and had learned even more than she could have possibly expected, for Major Shira Brie of Imperial Intelligence was also listed as an Emperor's Hand.

All her life Mara Jade had been told by the Emperor that the was the only Emperor's Hand and now she was staring at incontrovertible proof that that had been a lie.

'All a lie!' A lie told to her for the sole purpose of feeding her ego by making her feel special. 'How much else of my life has been a lie?' Mara wondered.

Mara felt a tingle start to creep up her spine and, through the Force, she felt and heard the Emperor—but his presence no longer felt warm and reassuring—now that her eyes were opened, she could see that in fact it felt quite…cold and dark, almost like a black hole.

'You lied to me! You told me that I was the only Hand!'

'I allowed you to believe something that made you more useful, but it doesn't matter. Your personal feelings are irrelevant as you exist only to serve me, and without me you are nothing.'

"No," Mara whispered.

'You will serve me, or you'll die.'

Pain suddenly erupted from the Force link, like she was being stabbed a thousand needles. Mara collapsed to the ground, clutching her head in agony; but she refused to succumb, refused to give in.

"GET…OUT…OF…MY….HEAD!" Mara pushed back at their link that the Emperor was using to torture her; used the very training the Emperor had given her to close off her mind and pushed, channeling all her righteous anger, all her strength, all her will, all her life energy, all her years of training; with every fiber of her being, she pushed.

Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the pain vanished, replaced by the weird sensation of something being snapped, like a cord after being stretched beyond its limits. And then Mara found herself all alone again, but it was different this time; she felt light-headed now, as if she'd carried a great burden for a so long and then had it suddenly removed.

Mara got to her feet and half-walked, half-staggered out the door, but hadn't gone far when her danger sense started going off. Imperial stormtroopers, which had moments ago walked past her uncaring, had now suddenly turned back towards her with their blasters raised.

Mara activated her lightsaber just in time to deflect the initial shots and ran.

Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace

"Whoa, whoa,' said Han, "Wait a minute, Shira was an Imperial spy?"

"Yes," said Mara.

"Which means," Luke said, "that I wasn't mistaken in shooting her down. But still—"

"Yeah, talk about mind-screw, I never saw that coming. You sure know how to pick 'em, kid," Han said. For two years Luke had been living with the guilt that he'd accidentally shot down his girlfriend; to find out one day that the whole thing had been a lie... "So, Mara, how'd you escape and meet up with Luke?"

"I know many secret passages in the Imperial Palace," said Mara, "And while it's the most heavily fortified building on Coruscant, it's defenses are mostly geared towards keeping people out, not in. I disguised myself as a refugee and fled the planet in sub-steerage class on a freighter. It took a few weeks, but I eventually reached the place where I'd hidden my backup ship, a Suwantek TL-1800 that was once owned by some…mutual acquaintances of ours."

"Suwantek?" Han frowned, "The Hand of Judgment. How do you know them?"

"That's another story entirely," said Mara, "but suffice it to say that my duties as Emperor's Hand got me mixed up in both the Shelsha and Candoras incidents. At the end of the second one they just…vanished; I have no idea what happened to them, but whatever happened they left their ship behind, so I'd stashed it in some out of the way system in case I ever needed it again."

"I see," said Han,

Then...Five Months Ago, the Melnor Spear

Mara paced deck of the Suwantek, clutching her head with her hands as she wrestled with her doubts—long simmering and deeply repressed, but now finally free to come forth. She remembered sensing through the Force the destructions of Despayre and Alderaan, remembered sensing all those millions of voices suddenly crying out in terror—and just as suddenly being silenced. At the time Mara had managed to rationalize it way, told herself that everyone on Despayre had been a criminal anyway and that Tarkin had exceeded his authority in destroying Alderaan. But now Mara had no choice but to accept the truths that had been staring at her in the face the whole time, truths that he hadn't seen because she hadn't wanted to see them, had refused to think about them, but now...

'The Emperor ordered the Death Star designed and built; he put Tarkin in command of it and removing him from command would have been as easy as saying two words to Vader, who was there the whole time.'

But not only had Tarkin remained in command, but the Emperor had then given the command to build a stripped-down superlaser platform called 'the Tarkin'. A weapon mentioned in Skywalker's dossier because he had recently been involved in its destruction, which was how one Mara Jade had found out about it.

No matter what crimes the Organa family had committed, there was no possible justification for destroying the entire planet—including millions of innocent children. That was the whole reason the Emperor even had agents like her, to remove traitors and corrupt officials with the least amount of collateral damage. But apparently the Emperor saw no problem with destroying entire planets for the crimes of a handful of its people. And that was an evil that Mara could not ignore or condone.

She remembered other atrocities, like the Teardrop Massacre that had driven five good men into deserting the Empire and stealing this very ship.

No matter what Mara did now, she knew that she was going to be hunted by the Emperor; simply going on the run and wandering the galaxy alone would leave her exposed to being found and captured. The only way she would live now was for the Emperor to die, and if she had to do that she might as well join the Rebels. Although Mara still wasn't at all confident in just how effective a restored Republic would actually be, it would at least be better than any system which sanctioned terror and mundicide. The best part was that Mara already had the information needed to find the Rebels. Or, more specifically, one specific Rebel. Because although Mara did not know where Luke Skywalker was now, she did know where he would be. Eventually.

Then…Five Months Ago, Anchorhead, Tatooine

Mara had been in Anchorhead for several days before finally spotting Skywalker; she'd been trailing him, observing him in order to determine the best approach, when Skywalker suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and started looking around. Mara wondered if she'd been spotted but then noticed two beautiful women in dark clothing—unarmed but still looking deadly—approaching him.

Skywalker reached for the blaster at his side only for one of the woman to knock it out of his hands in the middle of his draw; and then they both attacked him with fists and feet. Skywalker was doing an impressive job of holding off their attacks, for someone with only marginal training in both the Force and martial arts, but he was still clearly getting the worst of it.

Mara drew her lightsaber and silently walked over toward the fight. One of the women managed to get Skywalker into a grapple while the other raised her fists for a killing blow. She never got to deliver it, for that was when Mara ignited her lightsaber; the blade emerged inside the second woman's chest, killing her instantly.

The first woman looked over at Mara, a momentary distraction that was all Skywalker needed to break free of the grapple. Mara followed through and sliced her in half before she could recover. Mara shut off her lightsaber and turned to Skywalker.

Luke eyed the red-haired woman who'd saved him curiously; there was something oddly familiar about her, almost as if he should recognize her but he couldn't quite place where. But more than that, not only did Luke find her physically attractive, there was something about her presence in the Force that seemed even more compelling. Her presence resonated and meshed with his own, with a kind of deep, slow thrum that hinted at the potential to become something more, something greater than the sum of their parts. He'd never experienced anything like it before and wondered if she could sense it too.

"Thanks for that," Luke said, "I'm Luke—,"

"—Skywalker, yes I know," the woman said, "I came here looking for you." She held out her hand. "My name is Mara Jade."

Luke took her hand and warmly shook it.

"A pleasure to meet you," he said. As they started toward Luke's speeder, he continued, "So, why were you looking for me?"

"This is going to take some time to explain," Mara said.

Now… The Millennium Falcon, Hyperspace

"So who were those women attacking you, anyway, Luke," Han finally asked.

"The Pike Sisters," Luke said, "twin martial artists skilled in Teras Kas, a martial art that was apparently created for the main purpose of fighting Jedi and other Force-users as it's disciplines make the user very difficult to read with the Force—a task made even harder where the Pike Sisters were concerned because of their Epicanthix heritage." Epicanthix were a near-Human species, almost indistinguishable from normal Humans, who possessed a rare genetic immunity to Force-assisted mental tricks, influence, domination and mind reading.

"At first," said Leia, "all of us didn't know what to think about Mara and we barely had time to even get acquainted before Lando contacted us with news about Fett."

Lando said, "Chewie and I had hired Dash Rendar to help us track down Boba Fett. Dash tracked down the assassin droid IG-88 and found out that it had attempted to ambush Fett near Tatooine but that Fett had crippled his ship and withdrawn to the Zhar system for repairs."

"Zhar," said Luke, "has an Imperial Enclave guarded by a pair of ImpStar Dueces, so we called in the Rogues for a little backup."