Nar Shaddaa

Smugglers moon was a modest nickname for Nar Shaddaa. There were slave auctions, homeless children, and even a few dead bodies all within the main star port. The worst part was that the empire even had a presence there, but did nothing about the crime, the homeless, or even the slavery which was technically illegal.

The main port was littered with mercenaries, thieves, smugglers, slavers, and the occasional imperial patrol. All of them moving along the dimly lit platforms of the dark moon city as if what surrounded them was normal. Then again, very few of them were stand up citizens and none of them noticed their newest addition.

A hooded human in a dark brown leather jacket with an armored chest plate underneath, shoulder guards, and vambraces on his arms disembarked his freighter. His face concealed by the shadow of the hood and a plain black metal mask with a simple T-visor. With his hand gently resting on his A180 Blaster in its pistol configuration, he looked like any other mercenary stopping in Nar Shaddaa looking for work.

Nobody noticed him except for one child who bumped into him and began to run away. Before she could, his hand reached out with lightning speed catching her by the wrist. The girl turned back to him, eyes wide with fear, as he looked down into the hand of the wrist he had caught. In her small palm was a credit chip with a hundred credits on it, taken from his pocket as she bumped into him.

Tears welled up in the girl's eyes, fearing what her fate would be at the hands of the mercenary as he reached into his pocket with his free hand. Her jaw dropped as he pulled his hand out of his pocket and dropped another credit chip worth a hundred into her hand.

"Don't spend it all in one place." The merc said, his voice sounding almost gentle despite the metallic noise it made through his mask's audio filters. The wide eyed girl nodded emphatically, her skin still pale from fear as he let her go. As soon as she was free she instantly scurried away disappearing into the crowd.

The mercenary checked his surroundings silently and moved on. He knew where he was going, his target was practically advertising where he was. The crowd thinned and the noise of ship engines faded as he made it further into the city. The streets were narrow and surrounded by tall windowless buildings as far as the eye could see.

After turning a few corners the merc made it to an open junction, at its center was a group of people all watching something. Moving closer he recognized most of the people as Mercenaries or gang members, some of them were even Mandalorian freelancers. As he closed in on the crowd he finally saw what had all of their attention. It was a hologram bounty board. It most likely had every bounty by both the empire and the hutts in the entire sector. The merc scoffed in disbelief at the bounty that was currently being displayed.

It was a bounty of one million credits, below the bounty price was a picture and description. The picture was of a human male with short black hair that almost looked blue. He had light olive skin and a sharp jawline with two small scars on his cheek and another scar down his opposite eyebrow and eye. The description read.

Bounty: 1,000,000 galactic credits

Conditions: Wanted Alive, if dead, reward of only 250,000

Name: Ezra Bridger

Species: Human

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Wanted for:

Petty Theft x72

Grand Theft x9

Acts of Terrorism x4

Unsanctioned trade with known enemies of the Empire x6

Acts of Arson x22

Assassination of an Imperial Official x10

Key suspect in the catastrophe of Lothal. Extremely dangerous and well armed, approach with caution. Any person with information leading to the capture of suspect will be rewarded with 100,000 credits.

The crowd murmured amongst themselves, all hastily downloading the information on the bounty. The merc backed away from the crowd, deciding it was best to move on. His target was going to move soon. He made his way further down and into the city until he came to a dead end alley in an abandoned part of the city. half of the buildings within eyesight had already collapsed and a dark moss grew on the platforms No doubt due to the crumbling infrastructure and lack of any care. At the end of the alley was a single wide door. His target's operation center on Nar Shaddaa. He shuddered to think of what he would find inside if they were hiding their work even on this hellhole of a moon. It didn't matter though, it would only make his work easier.

With indescribable confidence, the merc walked down the alley, not bothering to check his surroundings as he moved as if he was entirely clairvoyant. He stepped over an invisible trip laser and ducked under another without breaking his stride.

Once he was at the door, he simply waved his hand across it and it opened. Behind the door was his target, a Chiss male garbed in all black and two lightsabers at his belt, Alongside him were four First Sun Mercenaries. They all stopped loading up the speeders and immediately drew their weapons on the merc not bothering to question how he got past the locked door or their security measures. Neither the Chiss nor the Merc made any movement, simply staring at each other until the latter finally broke the silence.

"Where is he." The gentle voice he had used with the girl earlier was long gone, now it had been replaced by a cold emotionless growl.

"Where is who?" The Chiss replied with a grin.

"Maul, he killed some people very close to me." The merc stated, unphased by his opponents goading as he reached behind his back and pulled a lightsaber from underneath his jacket.

"I'm afraid I don't know who you are talking about." The Chiss lied plainly as he looked to his Mandalorian companions.

"Then you'll die." The merc responded as the Chiss gave the order to the soldiers to open fire. As soon as they did, the merc drew his pistol with his left hand and activated his saber with his right hand. The green saber extended just in time to block the first three bolts deflecting two of them directly back to their senders killing the first and wounding the second. Without hesitation he fired his blaster from the hip and killed the wounded soldier with a shot to the neck.

The remaining two soldiers opened fire forcing the merc back as he deflected each shot with grace. Accompanying his companions, the Chiss activated both of his sabers, the crimson glow illuminated the blood red in his eyes as he shot forward lashing out at the mercenary.

The merc deflected each attack, backing up towards the alley junction as he did. The First Sun Mercenaries stopped firing, not able to get a clean shot at the merc due to the Chiss being in the way. The merc holstered his pistol, leaving his left hand free at his side only angering his opponent more that he could hold him off with just one hand.

After a few more steps back, the mercenary finally executed his plan. He jumped back into the four way junction of the alley. The poorly trained and highly agitated Chiss lunged forward with his sabers held high. In one smooth motion the merc stepped to his right, grabbed the hilt of his saber with both hands and brought his saber across in a sweeping motion.

The green saber easily cut through the hilts of both of the red sabers as soon as the Chiss landed. Before he could react, the merc grabbed the Chiss by the neck with unprecedented strength and swung him into the alley wall just a few feet away from the junction.

The merc took his hand off of his enemy's neck and replaced it with his green saber, holding it lengthwise just beneath his chin. The Chiss let out a raspy laugh despite his quick defeat.

"What's so funny?" The merc asked, stepping close so that the Chiss could almost see through the visor on his mask.

"You're forgetting something." The Chiss whispered. Two sets of boots on moss came around the corner into the junction. Without hesitation, the merc grabbed his pistol with his free hand aimed to the noise and fired twice. Two bodies fell instantly.

"No, I'm not." The merc answered without taking his gaze off of the Chiss. The only noise now was the hum of the mercs green saber, just millimeters away from the Chiss' neck.

"Now. Let's try this again." The merc said, pulling his hood back and lifting his mask. He had short black hair that almost looked blue and light olive skin. There were two scars on his left cheek and another one down his right brow and starting again under his right eye. His eyes weren't blue though, not entirely. Along with the bright blue were streaks of yellow that almost seemed to be taking over.

Ezra Bridger leaned in closer, his corrupted eyes narrowing as he stared down one of Maul's many apprentices.

"Tell me where Maul is."

AN: Hey everybody! I hope you enjoyed the prologue and will continue to read! As you can tell, this is going to be very very different from what season 3 of Rebels ended up being. A quick reassurance for those who will likely be skeptical of what occurs in Chapter 1. I am not writing any characters off and while there is some angst in Chapter 1, I like to think that it is reasonable and not out of place. Some chapters will be more oriented towards romance or angst or character development while some will be nearly pure action. As this is a Star Wars fanfiction I will do my best to keep a healthy balance of suspense, mystery, adventure, humor, and romance.

Please please review, comment or PM me with thoughts, reactions etc. I love to talk about this stuff and the reviews are what keep me going and motivate me!