Darth Vader arrives on Coruscant.
Darth Vader arrives on Coruscant and enters the Emperor's chambers. Palpatine tells his apprentice that Mara Jade has found another Jedi. Mara explains that a man trying to escape Imperial custody on Kuat gave her information about a hidden Jedi known only as the Dark Woman, who has been hiding on the fifth planet in the Cophrigin system. Vader and Mara both demand to be the one to kill her. Palpatine declares that Vader shall carry out the mission.
Vader lands on Cophrigin's fifth planet in his Lambda-class shuttle and seeks out the Dark Woman. He engages her in a vicious lightsaber duel, lasting several minutes. In the end, Vader knocks a tree down with the Force, landing on top of the Dark Woman, incapacitating her. Vader goes over to her upper body, sticking out from beneath the tree, and stabs his lightsaber down, but the Dark Woman disappears, in much the same way Obi-Wan Kenobi will a year later. She appears as a Force ghost and tells Vader to let go of the dark side and return to being Anakin Skywalker. Vader refuses to do so, slashing his lightsaber through the Dark Woman's transparent form. She disappears, and Vader slowly walks back to his shuttle, successful in his mission.
The dialogue was altered between the two-part version found in Star Wars Tales 1 and Star Wars Tales 2 and the version in Star Wars Tales Volume 1, which combined the two parts. The changed dialogue is found when the Dark Woman's Force ghost appears before Vader.
In the original version, her dialogue reads:
In the altered version, her dialogue reads:
No one has officially explained why the dialogue was changed. However, it bears a strong resemblance to the prefaces in the Episode III novel.
- Star Wars Tales Volume 1
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Empire Vol. 7