Hello, everyone! Forewarning, I've never written a fanfic before, but I can assure you that I am an avid reader, so I'd like to think I know what I'm doing.

This story came about on a whim and I thought I'd start it instead of studying for my Ecology test (procrastinators rule!).

Please review and let me know how it is!

Thea Wren can't remember who she was before the age of 10. For years, she's grown up under the tutelage of thieves and criminals, but when she is betrayed and taken into custody by one Lieutenant of the Interstellar Alliance, James Hawkins, the two are propelled into something that is much bigger than either of them could have ever anticipated.

When It's Dark, Look to the Stars

"Come on Spratt, you know I'm good for my word. I delivered last month didn't I? And for the love of the Galaxy, it was the whole shipment wasn't it? I bet it fetched you twice as much as what any of the others brought you."

Thea eyed the lanky man from across their dented wooden table. He had arranged for them to meet here. It was a public place where uncooperative outbursts were more likely to be noticed by loitering police officials, but just shady enough to where passersby were less inclined to ask questions, weary of what would happen if they did.

Thelonious Spratt, crime lord and black market dealer, sat across from her, his long spindly fingers tapping methodically on the surface of the table. Every time one of his claw-like nails struck the wood she suppressed a an almost habitual flinch, the gesture eating at her already fraying patience.

"It was not the target I told you to acquire."

She hated his monotone voice and how it seemed to be forever stuck at a level of zero inflection - not much to gauge anything off of. It portrayed disinterest with just a hint of chastisement. It made her feel like a child deserving of a slap to the hand.

"The target you so kindly told me to 'acquire'", she mocked, "was unobtainable and you know that. I wasn't about to risk my neck for something I knew I wasn't gonna be able to get. I promised I'd bring you something, and I did. What was so wrong with the goods I delivered?"

Thea crossed her arms as she looked at him, trying to be as menacing as possible, trying to convince him and herself she was not afraid of him.

Even as she was trying to convince Spratt that her last delivery hadn't been an utter disaster, she knew that's all it had been, but she wasn't about to admit that to him. It took real nerve to admit it to herself and she wasn't about to confess her stupidity to her evil and murderous employer no matter how much she depended on his approval.

She had been in his employ for over ten years now. She had started out as a stowaway on one of his trading vessels. The one she chose to board had been carrying a shipment of illegal silks and furs from the Morangian Sector.

How a starving ten-year-old had managed to get past 20 or so armed guards and into the heart of a ship that belonged to the most notorious of crime lords North of the Cignas Cross? She couldn't recall.

Even though she couldn't remember the circumstances of her arrival on the ship, she remembered feeling completely terrified when she had snuck into a room and closed the door behind her only to find herself interrupting a business transaction (of course of the illegal kind) Spratt was having with a very important client. The woman in negotiations with Spratt had almost instantly pulled out a blaster and aimed it at her without any hesitation as if she was more than used to pointing guns at scared children.

Thea remembered how her body had started to tremble with an upheaval of tears and utter fear for her life. She could recall the metal "ting" of the hammer clicking back into place before it was followed by a curt and commanding, 'Wait' from Spratt.

Spratt had spared her life all those years ago and here she was, his trained dog that had been from that moment, eternally at his beck and call. Others under his employ or within his ring referred to her as "the Heir", a title she both revered and despised. Spratt had taken her under his dark wings and taught her everything he knew about all things distasteful and devious. She knew how to swindle a con artist and steal from a thief. She knew how to destroy a man's life with one word and how to kill without so much as breaking a sweat. Whatever was necessary. That was her job.

Thea hated what he had shaped her into. Whoever she had been before she met him, that person was long gone, and even if she did know who she had been before then, there would be no way of going back to it now. Her aliases were wanted on three different planets in this Galaxy alone and it was getting harder and harder for her to show her face here on her home planet of Mosli. She had tried to convince herself that she didn't care, but whenever children saw her and ran in the opposite direction, she could feel the remains of her humanity slowly slipping away.

And it was all because of this man who sat across from her, tapping his manicured claws incessantly on the table top. She stared into his eyes, daring to hold his gaze until he responded to her. But he didn't, instead his tiger-eyes flickered around the room, a gesture she was very familiar with, a gesture that signaled something was about to happen. Something that wouldn't be good. Even though she lacked his heightened senses, she felt it too. The atmosphere of the dive began to become thick with silence. Clinking glasses froze in midair and raucous laughter dwindled to an uneasy quietness.

The two burly men to Spratt's left and right went rigid and their grips found their hidden blasters within their jackets.

"Thea."

Spratt saying her real name pulled her attention away from the silence of the room.

"What?" She hissed between her teeth.

He stood up and adjusted his velvet suit, flicking away an infinitesimal fleck of debris. "I had great hopes for you and I have to say I am sorely disappointed with how you've repaid my years tutelage and hospitality with utter disregard to how my world works."

Thea eyed him, momentarily confused by his confession and reprimand, but then suddenly it all clicked. She sprung up from her seat and pointed a finger in his face. "Why you black-hearted, manipulative –"

Before she could finish, the closed door to the bar was kicked inward and men in white and blue uniforms flooded in. Those who had proper sense rushed to get out of their way, some pulling their jackets closer to themselves to hid away their knives and other illegal weapons before they were seen.

Thea just stood there in the middle of the room, as her whole world, her cruel and wicked world, crumbled to pieces around her. She was in a daze. The man who had saved her life and who had practically raised her; the man whom she hated and yet was the closest thing she had to family, had betrayed her and turned her into the Interstellar Federation. In a matter of seconds, officers had flanked her and grabbed her arms, pinning them behind her back.

She looked back towards Spratt but he was no longer there. She looked around, desperately searching for his gaudy velvet coattails but they were nowhere to be seen.

"That was a little, um, anticlimactic?" One of the officers muttered.

Thea was too shocked to put up a fight, and at this point, with officers blocking her every exit, there was no logic in trying to put up a fight to escape. She was too shaken to even try.

An officer scoffed as he readjusted his grip on her upper arm, "You're telling me. Whose idea was it to bring 15 officers?"

"The Lieutenant's going to be bummed. I overheard him talking to the Captain. He said he was looking forward to a little tussle between the himself and this one."

"A tussle?" One jeered. "Who the hell says tussle anymore?"

"I do. It's a valid word in this situation."

"You're such a cretin."

"Cretin? Who says cretin?"

"Shut up." Thea ground out between her teeth.

"Keep your mouth shut." One of them barked. "You're under arrest."

"Obviously." She said, condescendingly.

The other tightened his grip on her shoulder making her clench her teeth even more.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that if you want to get a rise out of me." She bit back.

Before the officer could take her up on her offer, a clear voice rang through the room, a voice that demanded attention and was given it.

"Men, at attention!"

The resounding echo of boots stomping together reverberated through the room. Thea's green eyes snapped up to see a man standing in the doorway. His features were drowned by the light of day flooding into the bar, but his posture branded him as a commanding officer; assertive and oh-so deserving of respect.

As he walked further into the room his features became more clear. Thea thought he couldn't be much older than her. She didn't know if it was the way he walked with a slight bounce in his step or the way the angles of his face hadn't become completely defined, but he was young, she could tell. And she could use that to her advantage if she wanted to get out of this.

He stopped right in front of her, his green-blue eyes searching her face, almost as if he were studying her.

"Thea Wren?"

He addressed her by her real name. No one knew her real name. Spratt. You bastard. She thought.

"Yeah?" She looked straight at him, unyielding.

"I'm Lieutenant Hawkins." He said matter-of-factly. "And I don't take kindly to people who steal from me."

Hope you liked this first chapter! I will be posting the next chapter within the next few days!

Happy reading,

Legless Legolass