There is one more chapter after this—an epilogue. Thanks for all who have given me feedback. It is much appreciated.
~JL~
CHAPTER 9
When Mara woke up she found herself in bed, but not on the Shadow. She appeared to be in her and Luke's apartment on Coruscant, although it was decorated a bit differently than what she remembered. She rolled over in bed and was relieved to see a blond head peaking out from under the covers. She cautiously pulled down the sheets to reveal the man's face. It was Luke from 40 ABY, but Mara did think he looked a little younger. His hair did not have as much streaks of grey and some of the worry lines that had sprung up on his forehead and at the side of his eyes in recent years were gone. She rolled closer to him and lightly kissed his cheek and neck. Luke remained asleep but she saw a slight smile grace his lips. She gave him another kiss, this one more demanding. Luke woke up and turned his head to lock his lips on her. When they parted Luke smiled warmly.
"That is my favorite way to wake up," he said with a grin.
Mara beamed. "Mine too." She kissed him again this time a little more persistent, wanting to continue on to more pleasurable activities. Luke laughed happily as he pulled away from her. "Mara, I don't think we have time for this, Owen and Aria will be here with the kids soon."
This caught Mara off guard. "Who?" She asked confused. Luke furrowed his brow. "Your son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, you do remember them?" He laughed.
Mara clamped down on her shields so Luke wouldn't sense her confusion. "Of course, I am just a little groggy in the morning." Immediately her thoughts went to Ben. Did she have her son Ben?
"Where's Ben," she asked nonchalantly.
Luke shrugged. "In bed I guess. He was up all night watching some holo-thriller. He'll probably sleep in until noon."
Mara was trying frantically to recall the memory thread that led her to this moment. She had so many diverse recollections that it was hard to separate them without concentrating.
"I think I'll make some caf," Mara said as she got out of bed and wrapped a robe around her. "Do you want some?"
Luke threw the covers off his body and sat up and rubbing his eyes. "Maybe later, I'm going to take a shower." He stood and kissed her and then padded over to the 'fresher.
Mara let out a sigh of relief as she made her way down to the kitchen. She needed some caf, but she also needed time to think. It would take a while to recall all the memories of this lifetime.
As she moved down the hall her attention was caught by a holophoto hanging on the wall. It was a family portrait and a recent one judging by the ages of the people in it. Luke and Mara were standing in the background. Next to them stood a blond man who had a strong resemblance to Luke. In his arms was a blond baby wearing traditional boy clothing. Next to the young man was a beautiful woman who cuddled an infant girl with strawberry blond hair. In the foreground was a couch where Ben was seated. The redheaded teenager had a wide lopsided grin and a mischievous look in his eyes—as if he was thinking of ways to disrupt the portrait sitting. Next to her son was a young woman with bright red hair and piercing green eyes. She was sitting next to a handsome man in a Galactic Alliance Naval Uniform. On his lap was a small boy, no older that two, with reddish brown hair. Everybody was smiling at the camera operator looking like the perfect family.
It took a moment before the reality of the situation hit her. She had three children and by the looks of it she had three grandchildren! She slowly turned toward the kitchen dazed. She definitely needed some caf. As she walked by the family room she saw Ben crashed out on the couch asleep. The holoprojector was still on but at this time of the morning it was showing an infomercial for a new revolutionary girdle guaranteed to take four inches off your waistline. She quietly walked into the room and turned off the device. Ben immediately stirred. Mara could never really understand how making a room quieter would wake up a person, but it did.
He opened a bloodshot eye. "Hi mom," he mumbled as he sat up and stretched.
Although he didn't know it, she had gone months without seeing him and at one point she didn't know if she would ever see her son again. Mara was overwhelmed by emotions. "I'm so happy to see you Ben," Mara almost gushed as she sat down next to the boy and gave him a motherly hug. "I love you so much."
The teenager gave her a strange look. "Mom, don't get all weird and mushy on me. It's not like you didn't see me last night."
Mara gave him one more squeeze and then stood up and went to make the caf, "I know, but you can never tell your son too many times how much you love him."
The boy rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he said sarcastically, but then gave her that patented Skywalker smile that melted her heart.
"So," Mara said as she turned on the caf machine and poured in some water and ground Guato beans, "your brother will be here soon." She tried to sound casual as she frantically tried to remember the details of this life.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Ben moaned. "I hate it when you have to babysit the twins."
'THINK!' Mara urged herself to remember.
Slowly her memories returned. Luke and her immediately started dating after Wayland and within a year they were married. In 14 ABY their son Owen was born. Two years later they had a daughter Jessa. For a while it looked like their family was complete, but a decade later they had a wonderful surprise they named Ben. Owen and Jessa doted on their baby brother although they often accused their parents of spoiling the youngest son.
Mara wondered if that was something instinctive in older parents. They know their time with their child may be limited and if the youngest child waits until he was in his thirty or forties to get married…well you may never live to see your grandchildren…so you spoil your child instead. Of course, Mara had no excuse, she now had three grandchildren she could spoil and often did.
"Have you heard from your sister?" Mara asked casually.
"She called last night to see how you and dad were doing. Her and Captain Davin Tarrk, Academy Grad 36 ABY," he said sarcastically doing his best impersonation of his brother-in-law, "were going to take Darix to an amusement park and wanted to know if I wanted to go."
Mara frowned. "Don't make fun of Davin. The Naval Academy is a difficult school to get into, let alone graduate from."
"I know mom, but he doesn't have to say it after every introduction. That would be like me saying 'Hi I'm Ben Skywalker, Jedi Academy Grad 40 ABY, and Crypt Master Level 28 on Hologame—Sith Warrior III."
Mara had to chuckle. If her memories were correct her son-in-law did have the irritating habit of name-dropping when it came to his academy affiliation. "So are you going?"
"What?" Ben asked. "To the amusement park? Mom, she must think I'm still two. They are going to Leego Land that's for little kids."
Mara smiled, "Well at least she thought of you." She poured herself a cup of caf. "Have you heard from your cousins?"
"Yeah," he laughed. "Jacen was complaining about having to neuter the Nexus at the Hapes zoo."
Mara was glad she didn't have any caf in her mouth because she was sure it would be sprayed across the kitchen counter. "What?" she laughed.
"You can't be a veterinarian without having to do some dirty work. I asked him if he uses his lightsaber to lob off their…"
"Ben!" Mara warned her son not to continue.
He just laughed.
Mara thought back to her nephew. He went to the Jedi Academy, but the Vong War never happened so he continued his love for animals by becoming a veterinarian.
'At least he's not an evil veterinarian,' Mara thought jokingly.
Tenal Ka Djo the Queen of Hapes had asked Jacen to come to the royal zoo to work. Eventually they married and had two children: a daughter Allana and a son Jase.
"How about Anakin?" Mara inquired.
Ben shrugged. "I haven't heard much from him since he and Tahiri had kid number six. He's going to have to buy a new airspeeder because his old one only holds seven people."
Mara let out a cleansing breath. This timeline was completely different.
"How about Jaina?"
"What's with the interrogation, Mom?" Ben asked.
"Nothing, I just want to make small talk with my baby boy. So how is Jaina?"
Ben made a face at the baby boy comment, but continued the conversation. "She and Jag never stop kissing. It's gross. I thought the Chiss taught him to not express a lot of emotions! And they are even worse with their kids. I am never going to get married and have kids!"
"Oh please," Mara interjected, "in a year or two I will have to use my lightsaber to keep the girls away from the front door." Mara smiled when Ben blushed. Despite his mother's red hair he looked so much like his father, especially when he was embarrassed.
"We should plan a day when we can all get together as a family," Mara said.
"That sounds good," Luke said as he entered the room. Mara was impressed to see he was wearing dark blue pants and a casual grey tunic instead of all black. That was one victory she never expected to achieve through her flow-walking. Luke's hair was still wet from the shower and he had the smell of the fragrant body rinse he favored. Mara found him irresistible; she walked over and kissed him passionately.
"Uhh, please don't do that!" Ben complained.
Luke teased out the kiss a little longer just to irritate his teenage son. When they broke apart he turned to grin at Ben. "I can't help it, your mother is the love of my life."
Ben rolled his eyes.
Mara brought her hand up to her lips, which still tingled from the kiss. She marveled how Luke at any age could make her feel so good.
"I guess I better get dressed if Owen's going to be here soon," Mara said as she excused herself from the room.
She went back to the Master bedroom and prepared for her shower. As she slipped under the spray of warm water she took the time to contemplate what she had done. It appeared that the current timeline was entirely altered. Apparently she prevented the Vong war, the Callista fiasco, she assumes whatever problems Luke was going to have with Abeloth was now adverted. Jacen was not a Sith, his sister doesn't kill him, Anakin was very much alive. Everything is perfect, which actually surprised her because when she went back to 9 ABY and started changing things she assumed the flow-walking she did in later years might be nullified, but that didn't seem to be the case.
She poured a berry-scented shampoo in her hand and started working it into her scalp and hair.
She was perplexed at how the Force and the timeline worked. She thought back to the day she left Luke at the academy and flow-walked to this future. She expected her previous self to be totally flummoxed by the chain of events of the two previous months, but her memory didn't show any confusion. No confusion at all, which was very strange.
"Oh Force," Mara whispered with a sudden realization. When she left her body in 9 ABY the Mara of that timeline remembered not just what she had done and said for the last two months, but she retained everything the Mara of 40 ABY remembered of the future!
Mara didn't know why this flow was different from all the other flow-walking occurrences, but she suspected the long duration she inhabited the body might have something to do with it. Over time her thoughts and memories seeped into the brain of the younger Mara!
This younger Mara knew what steps to take to destroy Abeloth, Nom Anor and prevent the war and she made sure those same exact steps took place years later.
Mara tried to remember other events that might have changed. She laughed putting her hand over her mouth to muffle her amusement. If her memory is correct her younger self convinced the New Republic to use bunker buster bombs on Byss to take out an Imperial threat. The Emperor Reborn was destroyed without even having to land on the planet.
When she returned to the Jedi Academy she used a small thermal detonator to collapse the tunnels where Exar Kun's spirit was trapped. As far as she knew he was still sulking down in the rubble of the temple, cut off from all contact of the Jedi students.
The treaty between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant was hastened by the New Republic's uncanny ability to predict their every move. It was like somebody could tell the future in the NR intelligence office. In fact, the personnel in the Intel office didn't have a clue as to who their informant was, but the information always checked out. The code name of the spy was 'Red Hand'. Mara had to chuckled at the moniker she gave herself. She figured using an obvious code name would throw the NR intelligence off her track. After all, if a redheaded former Emperor's Hand was the spy, and she wanted to maintain her anonymity, she would have picked an entirely different code designation. Obviously, it had to be somebody wanting to cast suspicions on Mara Jade Skywalker.
She really didn't care if they figured it out or not. The 'Red Hand' was instrumental in preventing the Corellian Insurrection, the Diversity Alliance problems, the Yuuzhan Vong war, the Swarm Wars and the Second Galactic Civil War. And Mara was delighted that the Red Hand made sure she 'accidentally-on purpose' was off her contraception meds the exact time that Ben was conceived in the original timeline.
Mara rinsed out her hair and turned off the water. She wrapped a large towel around her body and a smaller towel around her hair as she stepped out of the 'fresher and into the room she and Luke shared.
Things were very different in this timeline, but far better than the original fate her family faced. If what she did was wrong, then she didn't want to be right.
She dried her hair and quickly got dressed. As she moved to the living area she heard the door buzzer go off. Luke answered the door before she got there.
"Owen, Aria," Luke said brightly as he reached out and gently took his granddaughter out of his son's arms. "How is Kyra today," Luke said in a baby voice universal to new parents and grandparents. He hugged his granddaughter and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. The little girl made a cooing sound and reached up and grabbed Luke's nose in her soft little hand. Luke laughed and actually said "Owwey, ew gop my nose." Which made the little girl break out in a fit of giggles but made Ben moan in embarrassment.
"Come on in," Luke said as he ushered his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren into the apartment.
Owen smiled upon seeing his mother; he walked up and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hey Mom," he said and then gave her a gentle hug. Normally Mara would be offended that somebody would treat her like Tatooine Glass, but Owen had grown into a Rancor of a man, standing at least five inches taller than his father and with a very muscular build. It appeared that he had inherited his grandfather's height, but his face was the spitting image of Luke with a mop of blond hair and a smile that could melt the heart of any woman. He wore casual trousers and a light color tunic. A lightsaber hanging from his leather utility belt was the only indicator that he was a Jedi.
Owen had dutifully attended the Jedi Academy along with his sister Jessa, but after his trials he opted for a more mundane life of an Information Security Engineer for the Galactic Alliance.
While Owen was still a Jedi Apprentice he met his future wife Aria. She was the daughter of a diplomat who was a great supporter of the Jedi Academy. Aria was a petite brunette with an athletic build and a bubbly personality. They would often run into each other on Coruscant and eventually started dating. Mara was fairly sure Owen's love for Aria was the deciding factor when it came to going to an engineering college and finding a job with regular hours. He was still a Jedi, but more in a reserve status. That was fine with Mara, it meant she got to see her son and grandchildren on a regular basis.
Mara went up to Owen's wife. "Aria, it's wonderful seeing you again. Can I hold my grandson?"
The woman gave Mara a genuine smile. "Thanks, he's getting heavy."
Mara hefted her grandson into her arms. He was getting big. "Hello Raze," Mara cooed at the baby. The love she felt for these babies and her children was overwhelming and genuine. She hadn't felt this good since she first held Ben in her arms years ago in another time and another place.
She looked over to Luke who was now on the couch bouncing Kyra on his knee and looking happier than Mara had seen him in a very, very long time.
Yes, things were different, extremely different, but they were so much better.
'I'm finally home,' she thought.
Everything was perfect now.