Chapter One: A Buried Past.
Nightfall had made the busy town of Mos Eisley a ghost town, most likely due to the death rate that skyrocketed at such hours. Aside from a few drunken creatures stumbling out of the nearest cantina and other wary individuals making their way home, the streets were bare. Rain pelt down hard across their miserable backs. From around a darkened corner a hooded figure began to make their way towards where the last drunk had wobbled from. Chulman's Cantina. Hugging the walls of the street, and hood keeping away the rain, in front they could see the cascade of water passing in front of a street light. It flickered slightly as they passed. It was the only source of illumination for this part of town, thanks to an earlier failure in the town's energy supply. The blackouts had become more and more frequent in the last couple of weeks, thanks to the new outpost of The First Order. They drained the life right out of Mos Eisley. Finally the hooded figure stood at the door of Chulman's Cantina checking their surroundings before entering unchallenged.
The Cantina was bustling with life, something almost unbelievable considering the state of outside. They must have run the back-up generator. The figure pulled back the hood to reveal the face of one Setara Nu, whose face struggled to hold back a smirk.
"Setara my friend, over here!" Bellowed a voice from across the room. Seated in the furthest corner of Chulman's was a fattened Eliond Lokilo; a Rodian and long time friend of Setara. With a perturbed shake of her head, she headed in his direction and to the spare seat in across from him in his booth.
"Eliond, you would do well not to announce my presence every time you see me." Setara scolded. Eliond stood and hugged her tightly once she was at his table, his hand gripping slightly too low on her back.
"I have not seen much of you lately though. Forgive my excitement." Eliond released her and gestured for her to sit. She did not however.
"Let's not play games old friend. Why did you ask me here?" Setara said swiftly.
"Never one for pleasantries…" Eliond hummed.
"You know we haven't spoken since I stopped being a gun for hire."
"When you decided to sell the guns instead." Eliond responded with contempt.
"It's a modest living." Setara shrugged carelessly, "And I don't face death every day now. Wanting to live longer, surely can't be a crime."
"Panson doesn't happen to think the same…" Eliond folded his arms, "He said the armoury wasn't doing well. That you're in more debt than you can get yourself out of."
"Panson Greid doesn't know what he's talking about." Setara spat, suddenly angered, "You shouldn't ever hold Panson's words as the solid truth."
"You're right. I didn't, he's a slimy little Twi'lek who would do anything to see you miserable." Eliond nodded, "So I did some snooping on my own and it seems for once he might be telling the truth."
Setara didn't respond, however her frown said a million words. Eliond could see her embarrassment and equally her frustration that he had even spoken to Panson Greid. But past that her mind started to tick over how best to respond.
"I have one more run." Eliond spoke before she could. He face changed again; to confusion, "I have another interested buyer of your skills."
"I said I was done with all of that last time and I meant it." Setara shook her head, "Every time! You always try to rope me back into the mess of it all."
Setara turned on her heel and headed for the door. Eliond followed behind at the same fast pace. She burst from Chulman's, throwing her hood up to protect her from the rain once more. Eliond followed still.
"Setara!" Eliond raised his voice in anger as she tried to walk off, "Can you not see that as a friend I am only trying to have your back!"
"Then why are you asking me to go back to that life again, as my friend?" She stopped and shouted back at him.
"Fifty-thousand credits." Eliond came closer, dropping his voice, "And all they want is for some weapon plans stolen. No heads for bounty. It's enough to make sure you never need to worry again. You'd be able to leave Tatooine."
Once more Setara paused for thought. What Eliond offered was a price she'd never seen even in her glory days doing mercenary work.
"Go on…" She said as the rain continued to fall and soak the both of them.
"There's talk, the First Order came to Mos Eisley to get some expert to look at weapon plans for them. Big stuff, it's all hush hush."
"Let me guess, the Hutt's want in…" Setara rolled her eyes. Eliond nodded.
"Steal the plans from the First Order's outpost bring them back to the Hutt Palace and you'll have your credits." Eliond explained, the rain began to slow.
"What's the catch?" Setara raised a brow, "Why so much for a mission so simple?" Eliond was reluctant to answer. In his silence Setara went to turn away again. Eliond grabbed her arm and spun her back.
"The First Orders second in command will be arriving tomorrow." Eliond warned.
"I still don't understand. Everyone's afraid of some uptight general?" Setara frowned.
"He's a force user…"
"So what you're saying is that it's a suicide mission?"
"But how many of those have I sent you into in the past? How'd you always come out?" Eliond almost chuckled. Setara smiled ever so slightly.
"You remember your first run with me?" Eliond nudged her.
"I remember you crapping your pants because Bala-Tik threatened to have the Guavian Death Gang dismember you. Was that before or after I saved your ass from-."
"Yeah yeah. Enough." Eliond cut her off, "The point is, this isn't like your first time. If anyone can take on this guy it's you and I'm not just saying that to butter you up."
"Alright…" Setara groaned, "This is the last one. You promise after this you won't ask me to do anymore?"
"I give you my word." Eliond put his hand over his heart.
"Five percent cut as always, for your discretion?" She held out her own hand.
"Ten?"
"Five or no deal." Setara's hand hung waiting.
"Fine… five." Eliond agreed and they shook hands. As they did he slipped a data chip into her palm. With a nod she pocketed it and they parted ways. Eliond went back into the Cantina and Setara hastily made her way back to her home. She had some preparation to do.
When she opened the door to her house, the familiar smell of mothballs and wood rushed to her nose. She tried to turn on a light nearest to the door, but like the street lights, it flickered and then slowly fizzled out. With an exasperated sigh she made her way through her home in the darkness in search of the candles she kept spare.
"Master Setara!" Hummed a LEP Unit from another room of the house and in a dash, the servant droid BR-77 dashed into the living room and almost tripped over in its haste. It's one working eye lit up, for Setara to see the room clearer, the droid beginning to fall to pieces after many years of use.
"Thanks BR…" Setara replied finding the cupboard in which she kept her candles. Placing them around the room, BR-77 would follow and light them with its finger until a warm glow filled the room. She took off her jacket and hung it on the back of a chair, she was soaked through from rain. It rained perhaps a total of 7 days every year on Tatooine, and when it did it was nothing compared to the rains of Setara's homeworld Takodana. She grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the kitchen tap before walking back over to BR-77.
"Can you open this for me?" She held out the data chip that Eliond had given her. BR-77 whirred a yes and the front of the droid popped open to reveal a slot to read the chip. On the right of BR-77's chest hid a rusted hilt of a weapon Setara had been storing for safe keeping. She had almost forgot she had put it there it had been so long. She pulled it out, careful not to damage BR's circuits and slipped the chip into an open port. Instantly BR-77 began to display the information about the mission mid air. The image of the First Orders second in command jumped up beside the text - a masked figure wielding a red crossguard lightsaber and a name; Kylo Ren. She suddenly felt the weight of her weapon hilt in her hand much stronger, her eyes drawn to it. She looked between her grip and the weapon Kylo Ren had in his own, a reminder of a past she cared never to relive. A past of abandonment and despair. Without really thinking she clicked the on button to the weapon and a green beam of light sprung forth from it, humming and sizzling as it met the crisp air. She shut it off as quickly as she had turned it on.
She did not know this Kylo Ren, but she had a feeling in her gut that being faced with another force user would drudge up more memories she had buried. Her plan began to form inside her head as the maps of the First Orders outpost appeared form BR-77, how best to get the plans from the command center undetected and what to do if she was met with Kylo Ren? She hadn't much an idea on his skills, however he seemed much more adept with the force than she cared to admit. She walked away from BR-77 and sat down on her lounge in the middle of the living space.
"There is still more documents Master Setara." BR-77 buzzed.
"That's alright BR. You are dismissed." She waved the droid away. The holograms stopped, the droid closed over its front and wandered out of the room once more, but not without almost falling once again. Setara sniggered slightly before the seriousness of her situation settled on her once more. Fifty thousand credits… Eliond had been right, it was enough to save her armoury from closure and even enough for her to move from this god-forsaken planet. But that wasn't necessarily why she accepted. There had been many opportunities for Setara to leave Tatooine and maybe ten years ago she would have jumped at the freedom but that was no longer the case. While some looked to the stars for comfort, it was a stark reminder of the people out in the galaxy who she had been left behind by. Admittedly, it wasn't entirely their fault, but she couldn't help but feel bitter about the whole thing. In fact she wasn't really sure why she even said yes to the mission, maybe it was Eliond's charm. But maybe, just maybe, she might have missed the adventure that selling weapons didn't provide. Although she would never admit it. Regardless, she needed to sleep on it and sleep she did. Sprawled out across the lounge, lightsaber closeby, she rested. While in consciousness she could suppress the memories that desperately tried to reach the surface, she could not now. They swirled back with ferocity, the memories of a Jedi Master and his many apprentices, the memory of a troubled best friend and the memory of a mission that went so horribly wrong.
Authors Note: Thanks for reading the first chapter of my new fic. I think this might be a bit of a fun one! If you like whats here so far why don't you give it a follow, a review and (if you like it THAT much) maybe a favourite?
The Next chapter will be titled... "Ten Years Prior".
