In honor of the long awaited release of Star Wars on DVD, this is my new tribute--Extended Universe style. Keep in mind this is VERY AU. It does not happen in the real storyline. This is a simple story about Luke and Mara, about choices, and about the bond they've always had. So here I ask you this one question; if you could go back and reshape the outcome of your life, never knowing how exactly it would turn out…would you?

Please leave your feedback as I do read and use it in my works. It's very much appreciated and quite helpful. Borrowed heavily and directly from Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire for storyline purposes, but I think for the most part you'll find this to be a work of original fan fiction.

The Ties that Bond

She was in bed, losing her battle to an unseen enemy even he couldn't fight for her. All of his strength in the Force, all of his luck and experience was of no use here, when it mattered the most. When they'd finally come together, when at last they'd both admitted what they'd hidden for so long…

Mara Jade was dying.

It didn't seem possible. Of anyone he'd ever come across, she was the most vibrant. She was the one who really lived each moment, never dragged down by duties or held up by social practice. Not Mara. She was brash and bold and daring, she had a mind of her own and talent enough in the Force to match him in every way. Even back in the old days, during the Rebellion, Leia had never matched the energy that radiated from Mara. And now it was slipping away, dragging her away from him.

And Luke Skywalker didn't want to go on without her. Even before--even when Callista left--something had propelled him onward. His family, Mara, his responsibilities. And when he'd given up on love and decided to devote himself entirely to the Jedi, that kept him trudging through life. And then…then somehow, Mara had broken through his every last defense--again--and forced him to open his eyes. He couldn't give up on love. He was already in love. With her.

He slid his fingers through hers and closed his eyes, lines of weariness and worry etched in his face. He looked far older than he was, but his life had never been easy, and each new experience had left its own mark.

How was it that he had managed to save his father, and not Mara? He didn't love her any less. How had he managed to destroy a Death Star, and he couldn't fight her internal enemy?

Everyone around him was dying--his students, his friends. He hadn't even been able to properly keep track of his niece and nephews. Where were they now? Fighting? Dead?

"Mara," he whispered brokenly. "I'm so sorry." Vaguely, he was aware that his voice was cracking and he was choking on his words in sorrow and regret. Death had followed at the heels of love again, and hadn't he predicted that.

"I would never have allowed myself to love you if I knew…that…it would cause this," he managed, squeezing her hand. "You're everything to me, Mara."

Had he brought the Vong? They'd just appeared one day out of the mists of the Unknown Region. Rationally he knew he hadn't done anything of the sort, but bad things happened when he fell in love. And for this love, this all-consuming passion and devotion he had for his beautiful, headstrong wife, the entire galaxy was paying.

His head was still bent when Mara's breathing began to slow, and her pulse began to weaken. Were he not always so in tune with her, he might not have noticed the gradual decline. It was the end. Gasping on a dry sob, Luke lifted his gaze to his wife's pale face and wanted nothing more than to die with her. Here, in this moment of peace in the midst of all the fighting, he wanted to sink into oblivion with his beloved and take part in no more battles. He'd waited ten long years to have peace with Mara…suddenly an eternity of peace didn't seen so bad.

As her last labored breaths filled the room with eerie sound, Luke contemplated simply using his saber to do it. Perhaps not the cleanest way, but certainly the quickest. In a detached sort of state he realized how dark and morbid these thoughts were, and then even that detachment disappeared.

His finger slid toward the switch, brushed it--and was stopped. He blinked, tried to move his hand again, and found it firmly held in place. He dragged his eyes up, looking for the source of his paralysis, and found strikingly familiar gray eyes staring at him. Callista.

Dead, he realized belatedly as he took note of the strange, Force-enduced glow around her.

-Yes, dead,- she confirmed through the Force. So it was her that had stopped him. Her face was grim, eyes sad, and she shook her head at the man she'd thought she could love once. -But it's not your turn yet.-

Luke felt a wave of despair hit him again, making him nauseous. -Let me go, Callista. I let you go. I just want to be with Mara now.- And then he had to ask, since he had this one chance. -Did you find what you were looking for?-

Her smile was bittersweet. -In the end.-

Then a slight pause, and she added, -I wasn't supposed to come back, Luke. You know that as well as I do. I should have died years and years ago.-

-Maybe.- Luke didn't want to admit his blame for their mistake.

-I was. But I managed to find my way again. And now I'm here to help you find your way--to give you the chance that is denied us all. I couldn't do it alone, but…I found help in Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda. I'm here to send you back to fix the mistake that was made long ago, before even I came into your life. I wasn't supposed to be in your life.-

-What mistake?- Luke asked. There had been so many…

This time, Callista's smile was wry, eyes crinkled in silent mirth. -The stubbornness of a young farmboy-turned-Jedi, and the headstrong denial of his beautiful assassin.- Her smile faded, serious once more. -You should have fallen in love long before you did. Many things are to blame for that. Her outright denial of your bond, your failure to chase her across the galaxy the first time you wanted to, to make her face it. I came between you, and then her fictional romance with Lando. Child-emperors, weapons of unbelievable power, and now the Vong. They're not supposed to be here, either. In a different future that threat was erased. And that's the future I'm giving you a chance to make.-

Luke stared at her, his old lover, and realized that though she made perfect sense, he didn't understand a single word.

-What are you talking about?-

-Your last chance. Mara's last chance. I'm talking about starting over, doing it all again, giving you another shot. I'm talking about setting things right, making you notice the little things you missed the first time around, making choices you disregarded in the beginning. I'm talking about a chance that is rarely given. A chance that is so precious and dangerous, it's been attempted only this once. Because so many things went wrong, Luke. Don't you see? So many things in your life went wrong.-

Tears prickled in his eyes. Oh yes, things had gone wrong. So many things. His head dropped again as a tear trickled down his cheek--weeping for lost time, lost friends, lost chances.

-It's not possible.-

-It is,- she replied firmly. -I am granted the power by your father and your old masters. By all the old masters. Luke, I'm offering you the chance to start at the beginning of your relationship with Mara, to fix the things that never should have happened. If you decide to do this, you'll be at an important crossroads--aboard Talon Karrde's ship, where you first come into contact with Mara. You have to recognize your bond to her, acknowledge it. You have to fight for her from the beginning, and never stop fighting. Trust me, Luke, it will be a fight. She'll resist you strongly, especially at the beginning. There were times when you let her go, but don't let her go this time.-

-I'll never let her go.- His grip on Mara's hand tightened.

-If I send you back, I can't tell you what the outcome of your new life will be. It may turn out worse than when you started. Multiple paths lie before you, not all good.-

Luke's eyes turned to Mara's face. -I have to try.- Then, firmer, -I have to do.-

-Then I have one question.- Callista's face was serious and thoughtful. -Are you willing to do it all again, Luke? Are you ready to go back and reshape the future?-

There was no hesitation in those brilliant blue eyes.

-Yes.-

ten years previous

-unknown space-

Luke Skywalker opened his eyes at the sound of Artoo-Detoo's rapid twittering, feeling oddly off-kilter. His dream had been so real, so sad. He'd been losing someone very important to him…very important. There had been this underlying sense of urgency, an terribly important message…was it Leia? Had Luke been in danger of losing his sister?

"Okay, Artoo, I'm awake," he managed groggily. Jedi trances didn't normally result in dreams…unless it was a vision? As his knuckles came into sharp contact with the visor of his flight helmet, he tried to remember why he'd gone into hibernation in the first place. Artoo seemed to have dragged him from his slumber too soon…

"Is anything wrong?" he asked, trying to refocus on reality. The dream had a strong pull on him, but its effect was fading as consciousness returned. That's right--he'd had an entanglement with some Imperials on his way to Jomark to find--he hoped--a Jedi, and was forced to pull a particularly nasty maneuver to escape a fiery end. A particularly nasty maneuver that left him helpless and floating aimlessly in space, with damage far beyond his skill to repair with his limited tools.

Right, and he'd shut down all the X-Wing's systems except what he needed to survive and keep Artoo running, and Artoo was winding a new subspace radio antenna. So why had the droid--

He jerked in surprise at the sight of another ship approaching, fast. Immediately he began powering back up, but it was too little, too late, particularly if the ship was hostile.

Somehow he got the X-Wing to face the ship and began skimming the scopes, though he'd already deduced much of the information they provided with his own eyes. A mid-sized Corellian bulk freighter…no Imperial markings, but that didn't mean anything…

"Yes, I noticed that too," Luke murmured in response to Artoo's question, stretching out with the Force to try and identify the ship's crew--or at least its general alignment. "But a normal bulk freighter might be able to pull that kind of deceleration if it was empty. Why don't you do a quick analysis of the sensor readings, see if you can spot any weapons emplacements."

Luke then glanced over the other instruments--he was about halfway through the startup for the sublight drive and preflight sequence, same for the laser cannon capacitors…and that didn't leave him with a whole lot of options. And then his radio signal lit up, indicating a hailing from the unidentified ship. Bracing himself, he flipped the switch.

"--need assistance? Repeating, unidentified starfighter, this is the freighter Wild Karrde. Do you need assistance?"

Ten minutes later, Luke found himself having a rather interesting conversation with a slender, important looking man with short dark hair and pale blue eyes. He'd identified himself as Talon Karrde, but Luke wouldn't have been surprised to learn that wasn't his given name. The conversation was causing his senses to tingle in warning, but all he could do was stay alert for deception.

"You're not really what I expected, somehow," Karrde was commenting. "Though I suppose that's not all that surprising--the vast majority of Jedi lore has been so twisted by myth and ignorance that to get a clear picture is almost impossible."

Luke's senses screamed a warning at him…something was going on, something that had a lot to do with the fact that he couldn't sense the aft sections of the ship.

"You almost sound as if you were expecting to find me here," he said, reaching out with the Force as he assumed a battle stance. Only Karrde was close enough to pose much of a threat, but something was wrong here…

"As a matter of fact," Karrde said, unsurprised at Luke's assessment, "we were. Though I can't actually take any of the credit for that. It was one of my associates, Mara Jade, who led us here." He dipped his head slightly to the right. "She's on the bridge at the moment."

Mara Jade…the name was so familiar, but why? He was certain they'd never met before. His dream, maybe? But how could he dream of a stranger?

Karrde had paused, waiting for Luke to glance over at the bridge. Keeping his senses alert, Luke turned to look at this person whose name was so familiar, at this person who'd been able to sense him from lightyears away when previously only Vader, the Emperor, and Leia had done that. His eyes trailed over the bridge's occupants, then--

A jolt slammed through him at that precise moment, of pure, black hatred. It was as intense as her fiery red hair, as chilling as the cool emerald of her eyes. Ice slid down his spine, rendering him temporarily paralyzed. The sheer power of her hatred for him…

But there was something else…he tried to focus on it, and unbidden, a voice came to him as though from across a great distance.

-You must recognize your bond to her, acknowledge it.-

He stretched out, searching, trying to push past the hatred, and discovered that the voice was right. There was a bond there, forming itself as they held each other's gaze, weaving itself like a strand of rope. Silken rope--the more she pulled away, the stronger it got.

"Yes," Karrde said, breaking Luke's concentration on the beautiful woman with eyes like emerald ice, "that's her." His voice was offhanded. "She hides it quite well, actually--though not, I suppose, from a Jedi. It took me several months of careful observation to establish that it was you, and you personally, for whom she had these feelings."

Somehow, Luke found his voice. Her hatred, their bond, had shaken him more than he cared to admit. How was this bond forming? He hadn't initiated it, and she certainly wasn't. What was it? Why did he feel as if he knew her? And why did she hate him so intensely?

"I've never met her before," he managed, feeling as if that was a lie, but unable to find the truth.

"No? A pity." He shrugged. "I was rather hoping you'd be able to tell me why she feels this way. Ah, well." He stood with easy grace. "I suppose then, there's nothing more for us to talk about for the moment…and let me say in advance that I'm very sorry it has to be this way."

Already, Luke's hand was darting for his lightsaber, but he'd barely begun the motion when the stunbolt hit him squarely in the back.

He should have been prepared for it, he'd all but known it was coming, but Mara…Mara…so familiar. How do I know you? What do I feel for you? Mara…

He faded into unconsciousness, still holding onto that strange knowledge that she was the key to all of this, whatever 'this' was.