This is a Collaboration Story co-written with WarmNyota_SweetAyesha from the Jedi Council Forums.

Thank you for reading! :D

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Heart's Destiny

Chapter 1

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This whole deal had definitely gone wrong.

This was supposed to be a simple pick up mission, but what he'd come for was gone. The cargo had gone missing and no one seemed to know where or even care about it, some of the many downfalls of acquiring goods in the black market.

The Rebel Alliance was in desperate need for these supplies. Hoping around planets, flying hit and run missions, stealing intel, making new allies, being betrayed by others, had turned into his new way of life... It'd been two years of this, and counting. The whole operation of their next assault mission relied on the successful retrieval of these repair parts for the fleet's ships! He could not just turn around and go back! Mon Mothma had entrusted this to him, Leia had trusted him… He could not fail them! Hence his insistence in remaining on Nar Shaadda, the Smuggler's Moon; his appointed mission could just not end like this, there always was something that could be done and his plan was to do whatever it took to make it successful, or the whole deal could turn into something that could cost the Rebel fight dearly.

A little bit of snooping around, a little bribing "a la Solo" here and there, had sprung enough information to get him close to the whereabouts of the precious lost cargo. The directions he'd been given had brought him to a poorly lit, grungy place, not different from those many other low-end cantinas he was now used to visiting while going undercover.

Luke Skywalker, Jedi-to-be and shining hero of the Battle of Yavin, mused on his bad luck, while pretending to be immersed in a drink he wasn't even enjoying. His contact should show up any time, he just had to remain alert, and be patient. Although, truth to be told, he wasn't even sure if this contact of his would even show up.

A faint flicker, more of a gut feeling really, made him turn around and look towards the entrance… It was true that the Force had been whispering to him more and more intently by the day since his face down with the Death Star, but without the proper guidance of a teacher, Luke most times felt pretty lost at recognizing the evasive, subtle energy; so he did what he could: teach himself by trial and error. The brightness of daylight that crawled inside the darkened interior of the cantina while the entrance door remained open did not help at giving a clear sight of whomever had just entered, just a dark silhouette against the bright background at the door gave away the slender frame of a woman.

Something irresistible kept Luke from looking away and turning back to his drink… Even with his rudimentary Force sense, the young pilot could distinguish a distinct presence in the Force radiating from this new visitor. After making her entrance, the female silhouette moved with the gracile gait of a feline towards the central bar of the establishment, right towards where he was seated. The new visitor did not resemble the description he'd been given of his contact, so she couldn't be it; nevertheless Luke found himself unable to take his eyes off the mysterious woman.

The young woman wore dark, well-fitted, all-purpose clothing, accompanied by a well-supplied utility belt and a blaster at her thigh, her fit body denoted someone absolutely ready for action. Her long hair was back, made up in a thick braid, revealing exquisite, sharp features… She had large, pretty eyes of a shade Luke could not distinguish in the dim lighting, framed by perfectly lined eyebrows. There was a faint furrow on her brow, that brought some severity to her expression, and there was a certain tightness on her well-defined lips that made him think that surely she did not smile much. The young woman looked around his own age, surely in her early twenties, and was stunningly beautiful. But despite all that beautiful exterior, she definitely looked like someone one should not mess around with.

Luke heard her order a drink to the bartender, her husky voice sounding exactly as he would have expected, as he tried to remain inconspicuous of her presence and go back to the lookout for his contact… But how to ignore such a woman? She was like no one he'd ever seen before! Now that she was close, he felt hypnotized by the redness of her mane.

"Can you just stop with the gawking? It makes you look like a farm boy," Mara Jade said, exasperatedly. Being on Nar Shadda put her understandably on edge, and she didn't want to attract more attention than was warranted.

The husky voice was addressing him and it took Luke a moment to recover. Had he been that obvious? There was a certain threat in her tone, but he could not just sit there and say nothing! "Well, it is mid-afternoon and I'm just shocked at the type of drink that you just ordered… Are you having a rough day?"

Luke could tell she was not expecting such an answer, perhaps she had been expecting him to recoil or even apologize, but he'd given her something different and she was surprised… After a few seconds he noticed a faint smile appear on her lips, and this pleased him. Soon an open smile formed on his own, "Are you?" he pressed with natural warmness, inviting her to talk to him.

Well, this undeniably handsome guy with the sky-blue eyes and warm smile could snark back better than Mara had expected.

"My navcomputer is acting up, so I had to recalibrate and wound up here. Until it's fixed, I'm left cooling my heels." Mara answered, surprised at giving so much information to a total stranger. "And you?" She found herself asking. No one came here unless they had to.

"I'm just doing some business and should be off planet soon," he ambiguously answered her question. He knew he needed to learn to be a better liar. When he was about to pop his next question to her, the feel of someone taking a seat on the other end next to him made him drop the attempt and turn his attention to this recent arrival. A big, sturdy looking man had taken the empty seat next to him. Wearing a dark blue jacket with a small badge of a golden and blue symbol of an Edan Tiger… This was his contact.

"I was told that nerf-steaks in this place are the best in town," the stranger told him.

Luke recognized the cue; this was definitely his contact. "I prefer Bantha steak soup, Gubba's Place specialty," Luke spoke his own part of the code.

Having checked each other's identities, the other felt confident enough to continue the conversation. "What you're looking for is at the east docks," he quietly revealed, still looking up front, "That's the territory of a Rodian gang, they answer to Greeato. They're a nasty bunch, robbers, traffickers… I wouldn't dare to mess with them if I were you…. The place is very well guarded, you'd need an army to breach their first line of sentinels," the man warned.

"Well, I think that's something I'll be able to figure out if you give me the blueprints that I was promised," Luke pressed, his voice low too, his eyesight also up front as he casually took a sip of his drink, then put his glass back on the slab of the bar.

The man slid a small datacard underneath his arms towards the younger man, pushing it underneath the napkin placed next to Luke's drink, "Everything you'll need is in there… Payment upon delivery," he added.

Very discreetly, Luke pushed a small, metallic card towards the man, "All the credits are here… Non traceable transaction code as you requested."

The man seemed to check the card for a brief moment, when feeling satisfied he spoke again, "It's been a pleasure doing business with you," then left without any more preamble.

So this was it! He now knew where the stuff he'd come for was, and he was planning on getting all of it back. How he was going to achieve that? Well… he'd think of something.

"Guess your business deal went allright?" Mara said, her vibrant green eyes not missing any of the surreptitious activity on the other end of the bar. "Probably you'll be out of here before I am, Mr. ...?"

Her question snapped Luke out of his musings. He would have expected her to be already gone, but she was still there… sitting in the exact same spot. He felt glad for it, but conflicted all the same… The beautiful young woman had remained there for the whole time… How much of everything had she witnessed or heard? Well, it wasn't like he and his contact had been openly discussing the issue, so probably she had not picked up anything at all.

"Whitesun…" he answered, "I'm Bren Whitesun."

"Celina Marniss," Mara supplied, mystified at herself for providing a name, even an alias.

Somehow he knew this was not her real name, and knew she knew the same thing about him too… but it was all right. There was a spark there, something that he could not quite identify, and it somehow felt like if names were not important. Luke had the feeling that this would not be the last time he'd encounter this enigmatic woman. "See you around… Celina Marniss."

Mara watched him leave and on an impulse, threw down a credchit and followed him out. She had heard snatches of their low conversation, seemingly casual but with the exchange of datachips of some kind meant a transaction of some sort. She had a strong intuition that Bren Whitesun would not be involved in something illegal for the sake of profit only... Something undefined urged her to keep an eye on him in this unsavoury place.

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oOo

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After a pit stop to his ship when he'd quickly studied the information in the datacard his contact had provided, Luke decided he was ready to act. The sooner, the better; he did not want to risk his contact's change of heart who might then decide to rat him out to the other party for money. It was true that the warehouse he was headed to was tightly guarded, but he'd find a way in, of that he was sure. He'd learnt a few tricks from Han and Chewie, and he had the Force on his side. Although limited, his rough-around-the-edges abilities had proved to be extremely useful and had always given him an edge. He sure lacked finesse when using his powers, but he'd make it work.

It was already dark by the time he parked his rented landspeeder behind a large pile of rubble ditched on the side of the path he was following, this was as far as he could go on his ride, the rest of the trail he must take on foot. Luke checked his weapons; the power pack of his blaster was fully charged and his lightsaber hung securely from his utility belt and against his hip. Carefully, silently, he made his way to a closer spot to the large set of structures. There were several large warehouses, all lined up one next to the other, surely containing stolen cargo just like the one he was here to retrieve. He'd have to find a way to get all the crates with the Alliance's supplies, hopefully these had not yet been unloaded… or he'd have another problem to worry about.

With a few distracting tricks aided by the Force, a small click here and another hiss there, Luke managed to get past the first group of sentries, and slowly made his way closer to the warehouse marked in the map. The large main door was kept in custody by mean looking thugs carrying hi-powered guns… So this should be it, the place he came here to visit. There were at least fifty of them going around… and these were the ones he could see, there' would certainly be a lot more inside.

Hidden in the shadows, Luke observed what went around… If one of those thugs spotted him, the whole house would come falling on him. These types were hired guns not because of their brains, but because of their toughness and brutality, and he had to avoid any type of confrontation if he wanted to make it out of there alive and with his cargo, there was no way he could take those many out on his own, so this gave him enough reason to rethink his strategy… It all had looked so simple when he'd first considered the options back on his ship, now he was not that sure. Leia would definitely accuse him of brashness, and probably she'd be right. He knew he'd been brash, too desperate to retrieve what had been stolen and with this prove himself to the Alliance… Why did he always do that? All right, no time to panic… He'd think of something just as he always did.

Maybe if he used the Force…

Luke closed his eyes and blocked every distraction out, calling in the subtle energy he then set his intention on reading his surroundings, to try to catch on the life signatures around him… There they were, the fifty or so thugs outside the warehouse… He reached farther, inside the premises… To his surprise the place felt pretty empty, maybe two or three life forms inside… So perhaps this was not so bad after all. All he had to do was to find a way to get inside without being spotted and then secure a vehicle with his cargo on it and break away as fast as he got his hands on the controls. It all looked pretty simple in his mind, pulling the trick out was a whole different matter.

He made his way to one of the long sides of the warehouse's walls. The place was very well guarded at ground level and there was no way he would go through, this meant he had to go up. Looking up, he looked for a good landing spot on the roof. Once he located what seemed a good place with safe footing, he summoned the Force and then jumped.

The jump took him a good meter past the roof, landing on it with a painful thud, he definitely needed to work on that; at least he hadn't been short in altitude or it would be a whole different story. He was on top of the roof now and it was time to find his way in. Keeping his body low, Luke walked on the roof along a line of ventilation racks… There it was! One large enough to fit him though. Taking a hold of his lightsaber, he pressed the switch on the handle and the white-blue blade came into existence. With great care, he cut through the slick piece of metal, just enough to make the grille come lose. Switching off his weapon, he then proceeded to retrieve the piece with his hands. He poked his head through the newly opened hole first, it was a long way down, but it was something he could manage.

Soon he was inside the warehouse, moving about at ground level amongst stacks of crates and large cargo containers, and he had not been spotted, Good!

Luke reached into his utility belt and retrieved a small electronic gadget, and pressed a button. Soon a signal came back, that was it! He'd found his cargo.

Carefully and being absolutely silent, he approached a large cargo container… The readings on his gadget had led him to it. The cargo container had not yet been unloaded, just as he'd hoped for, maybe the Force was on his side on this one. The locks on the container's doors were secured and didn't look tampered with, so all the spare parts and technical supplies must be still inside. Now it was a matter of hooking the container to a speeder truck and getting the hell out of there.

Luke got busy quietly looking for viable transportation. No one seemed to be around, so this would work on his favour. He found the vehicle. It would be kind of noisy once he started the engine. The moment he turned on the engine, Luke wasn't sure if what he heard was the engine itself or the thudding of his own heart. Although the sound of the ventilation systems in the warehouse would help muffle some of the noise he was making, still he'd have to be quick. He led the speeder truck to the cargo container and aligned it to the grapple at one end. The automatic systems were not responding so he'd have to do the coupling manually. Quickly he got off the vehicle and reached the controls at the back. Then, something that he'd come to recognize as some sort of "danger sense" prickled on the back of his mind. When he turned, a mean blaster was being pointed right at his face.

A small group of thugs stood right in front of him. He counted four of them, and four were enough.

"Well, well…. Aren't you a nosy one?" The one who looked like the leader spoke. A large, muscly Trandoshan with a thick accent.

A second thug, a masked Gand, quickly went around Luke and took the blaster he carried out of its holster, disarming him. For some reason the alien didn't take notice of the lightsaber. Well, the weapon was so rare that many couldn't have recognized one when seeing it.

"I say we warm him up a little," another of the thugs proposed, too eager at the prospect. This was a lean, jittery Rodian.

The young Jedi apprentice knew perfectly what "warming someone up" meant, it was something that involved broken bones and bruises. "I'm just here to retrieve what is mine," Luke challenged, his voice even despite the precariousness of his situation.

"What is yours?" The chief thug sneered, "Everything in here belongs to Greeato. What makes you think that claiming any property on anything in here will do you any good? Greeato does no good to anyone."

Luke frowned at those last words, something in his sense had picked up an emotion coming from the lead thug… Was that resentment? Yes, it was resentment towards this Greeato character. Perhaps… "Maybe we can make a deal," Luke pressed.

"What kind of deal a little skunk like you could offer?" the leader of the group mocked the young human.

"I don't have to report this… I'll stick to the story that all of it was robbed and the company I work for will get the insurance money and leave this alone," Luke stated matter-of-factly, managing to sound convincing. "I was planning on selling this on my own anyways. I can offer you one third of whatever comes of it." He was lying and he was not sure if Jedi were supposed to be lying like this, even if these lies were told to criminals, but right now it looked like it was his only way out of this mess. Perhaps too much of Solo had already rubbed on him.

The offer seemed to catch the thugs' interest; credits always did.

"Come on, you know it's a good deal…" Luke insisted "I don't think Greeato will ever give you that many credits…" The leader seemed to consider it, and this gave Luke some hope.

"Make it half," the Trandoshan demanded, "And Chigo here will come with you… As a security measure," he added nodding towards the Rodian.

"All right, half," Luke agreed, sounding resigned. It would be a lot easier to get rid of just one guard.

The thugs let out grunts of satisfaction; this just was too much of a sweet deal. They let the human finish levelling the cargo container to the speeder truck, a task that took only a few minutes.

"I'm ready to go," Luke announced when he was finished, "Who's going to take care of the men outside?" he was all business.

"You know what human… We here have made a general consensus," the lead thug said, using words he didn't quite understand but that in his own opinion made him sound important. "We want all of the money after all, and your dead body will be proof that we caught you and killed you after you made the sale."

Luke let out a small sigh. Of course they would turn on him, these were ruthless criminals after all. They had been toying with him all along, and he'd given them the wrap-up element. They would fake the robbery from the warehouse, and then use his corpse as the perfect alibi.

"On your knees!" The fourth thug ordered, "Hands on top of your head!" He sneered.

Luke did as he was told, his mind racing. He wondered if he could summon enough Force power to push the four aliens away from him and buy himself some time to escape… Or maybe he could use the Force to jam the trigger of his assailants weapons, but that would need an accuracy in the Force he did not possess… Whatever he decided to do he needed to do it now!

Summoning the Force once more, Luke opted for trying a Force push to disband the group of thugs surrounding him. The Force came and he pushed with his mind… The four thugs lost their balance and fell on the ground. 'Shav it!' This time the amount of Force power he'd summoned had not been enough, but it gave him the distraction he needed. In a quick roll he took cover behind the large vehicle he'd just attached to the container, if he could only locate his blaster… Instead he located a large pile of boxes that seemed to contain some sort of tools. Using the Force once more, the novice Jedi threw a number of boxes at his attackers, the makeshift projectiles keeping them at bay.

Then, out of nowhere, blaster fire came from behind him. Reinforcements had arrived! All was lost now.

While trying to locate the source of the new incoming fire, Luke realized that the shots were not aimed at him, instead the first shot took out the Rodian, then the Gand fell, immediately followed by the second Rodian and finally the Trandoshan. Soon, four steaming corpses lay before his eyes. And then the presence…

A young, female human, of red mane and dark, well-fitted clothes made her appearance from behind a set of crates. "What are you doing here?" Luke asked as he approached his unexpected ally, his blue eyes wide, not being able to hide his surprise. It was obvious that she had followed him and he felt glad, but…

Mara had sneaked in a side entrance that was currently unguarded, using infiltration keys she had in her waist pouch.

She had arrived to see her recent acquaintance from the cantina 'negotiating' with four thugs who obviously had no intention of playing fair.

She took advantage of the distraction he provided to take down the goons in quick succession, since they didn't know she was there, and she was quicker than they would ever be.

"Saving your hide, it looks like," Mara retorted.

"You'll get no arguing from me!" Luke agreed, getting busy. Moments later both were on board the speeder truck, ready to make a run for it.

Luke set the vehicle on full speed and let it run.

When the vehicle broke spectacularly through the main door, all the guards outside were absolutely taken aback; they would have expected trouble to come from the outside, never from the inside. Once recovered, they reacted quickly. Blaster fire rained on Luke and Mara as they made their escape, he only hoped these didn't hit any vital parts of their vehicle or the ride would be short. Then, the sound of an explosion… and then another, and another… As the vehicle run past different groups of guards, it left explosive mayhem behind. In no time the place looked like a war zone.

"Now, let's not stick around," Mara said, looking with satisfaction at the general disarray of the warehouse. Those small, inconspicuous, low-grade, portable explosives she always carried proved to be very efficient if one knew how to handle them, and she was an expert at handling dangerous materials.

"That should keep them busy," Luke declared as he watched the fire left by the explosions in the rear-view mirror of the vehicle, "I don't think they'll be coming after me for a while," and when they did, he'd be off planet by then. "Thank you."

"Think nothing of it," Mara answered casually. "But I hate to think where you'd be if I hadn't shown up! Did your bosses hire you for your recklessness?"

Luke couldn't take the look of disapproval on that pretty face of hers, and knew he deserved the scolding, even if it came from a stranger. "Lesson learned," he uttered in a mix of sheepishness and hurt pride.

By the time they had reached the hangar and landing platform where Luke's ship awaited and the cargo had been transferred to the cargo hold of the ship, a good two hours had passed. This had given Luke some time to sit with Mara and have a small conversation.

"Thank you for all your help," Luke sincerely said, "If you hadn't been there probably I'd be dead," he admitted, giving her a sheepish smile.

"You're welcome," Mara said, a rare smile coming to her lips.

"I have to go, can't stay here for much longer…" He said, with certain disappointment in his voice. "Will I see you again?" These last words coming out of his mouth too eager, quite uncensored.

"I doubt we run in the same circles," Mara answered with a wry humour, "But you never know." It surprised her that she wouldn't mind running into him again, and not too far off in the future.

That small, almost impossible to detect smile of hers made Luke's heart skip a beat. He did want to see her again. "How can I find you?" he asked.

Mara gave him her public comm-contact code, tied to her alias Celina Marniss and the transport she most often used.

As she did, Luke looked at her, locking eyes, mesmerized at the beauty of those green eyes.

"Call me the next time you're in a jam," Mara said, half-teasingly.

He gave her one last nod, then turned around and headed toward the landing platform where his ship awaited for him. Luke could feel his heart thudding in his chest, but this time for an all too different reason.

This woman definitely affected him.

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To be continued…