Disclaimer: I own nothing but OC(s). Star Wars and such belongs to George Lucas.

AN: This idea has been floating around my head for a while. OC's name is pronounced 'fall - ah' and I should hope you know how to say 'zhan'. Some stuff may not be accurate as I bent it to my own twisted fancies or it was just plain ignored/I didn't know better. Enjoy!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Star Wars:

Like the Moon

The Empire and the Rebels continue their fight for supremacy in the galaxy. However, on the planet of Bespin, Cloud City remains fairly unscathed to its people's relief. That is, until Darth Vader showed up. He, with his personal garrison of stormtroopers and famed bounty hunter Boba Fett, approach Lando Calrissian, Baron Administrator of the city to "help" them in capturing Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

Ignorant to the grander scheme of things, young Phalla Zhan wishes for action and adventure in her uneventful life. When the Imperials show up, it seems like a curse and a gift all wrapped up in one package. Gift because of the excitement and new conversation a friendly trooper offers. Curse because of her rather fearful and literal run-ins with Boba.

Little does she know that Fett is her ticket to the life she seeks and that she in turn will change the hunter's life forever. Will the stoic Mandalorian be willing to drag her along with him when he goes to deliver Jabba's new "wall ornament" or will she die before the Slave I even exits Bespin's atmosphere...

#1 - In the Clouds

Phalla sighed as she slathered bright green paint on her un-neatly bitten fingernails. Some of her annoyingly straight mousy brown hair fell in her face as she worked. Brushing the strands aside with the back of her had, which also happened to be the hand that held the nail polish brush, she smeared some of the paint on her forehead. She grated her slightly crooked teeth and tried vainly to wipe the polish from her skin with the sleeve of her white tunic. She only succeeded in staining her tunic.

Thoroughly irritated, the young woman roughly screwed the lid back on the small polish bottle and stormed through her bedroom to the balcony. Usually, she highly enjoyed painting her nails any variety of colors and patterns and comparing ideas with her few friends. However, it wasn't just her stained clothing that had gone wrong that day.

Phalla Zhan was an only child. She lived in Cloud City in the skies of Bespin. Life was quiet and quite boring. Predictable. Exactly how she had grown to hate it. She had always felt unsettled, always on the move, always looking for trouble.

She did not know what was wrong with her lately. She had begun tripping over her own two feet and knocking things over when she normally had the balance and grace of a Twi'lek dancer. The tiniest things would make her laugh in hysterics or cry uncontrollably or get extremely irritable when normally it took a lot to alter her mood. Her mother tried to reassure her that it was just hormonal imbalances and that she would be back to her normal self soon. Phalla was not convinced.

During her daily lessons, she could not keep her mind focused. She kept wondering what the worlds she learned about were really like. A preformatted lesson could only tell so much such as the names, brief descriptions of the landscape, people, culture, language, native vegetation and wildlife, historical relevance, and what have you. Her lessons couldn't give her the experiences of actually observing the people, hearing their language spoken fluently around her, smell the aromas or savor the tastes of their delicacies.

Phalla breathed in as the breeze hit her face, drying the forgotten green smudge on her forehead. Oh if she could go to those places for herself. To bad she, nor anyone else she knew, was not a pilot. She did not have many credits either so could not buy a place on the next ship out. Besides, she was only fifteen years old. She was too young to travel the galaxy alone.

The sun glinted in her wild green eyes, nearly the same hue as the green paint on her nails (and forehead). Her skin was pail, almost sickly, and she had no freckles or pink or red blemishes anywhere. She wore no jewelry other than a golden heart-shaped locket with her parents' pictures inside. She was so skinny that her father teased her about the wind blowing her away one of these days.

Finally, Phalla turned from the sky and headed back into the apartment. She knew that no mater how hard she wished or how much she dreamed, it would get her nowhere. She had to be realistic, as her mother often said. She had to live the life that was set before her and, even though she may not like it, she had no other choice but to accept it.

"Besides," she muttered quietly, going back to calmly painting her nails. "It's not like an adventure is just going to bump into me."

-x-

He could not recall having been to Bespin before, let alone Cloud City. Now that he was here, he planed never to come back again. Calrissian was not exactly his favorite person in the galaxy and there was hardly anything of interest here for him.

Boba Fett sat in the Slave 1's pilot seat as he again looked over the mission briefing Vader had sent him prior to arriving. It seemed simple enough; wait for Solo and the princess to arrive, catch them with their proverbial trousers down, and use them as bait to lure in Luke Skywalker. Once Vader had Luke, then Fett could do as he pleased with Han and the Wookiee. However, if there was one thing Fett had learned over the years, it was that circumstances (or people for that matter) were usually never as simple as they appeared at face-value.

Having reviewed the plan several times, the bounty hunter finally switched off his computer and, thinking of nothing better to do, settled in his seat to get some rest before the next morning. As he removed his helmet in preparation for sleep, something seemed to creep up the seat and seep into the back of his mind. He could not describe the feeling as he stared at the ceiling and he frowned.

Boba knew not to ignore senses such as these as they usually meant that something was trying to sneak up on him. Something was going to happen in the very near future and he needed to be on his guard. However, the rational voice in his mind berated him on that note.

Come on, Fett, he thought. It's not like this mission is going to change my life.

-x-

How wrong they both were.

AN: Sorry for the lame irony.