Ok, I know you guys might be wondering, thanks to me posting ATWOFT before any backstory, who a lot of my OC Bounty Hunters are, and possibly even how Cad Bane met Sihmi, his wife. Well, I'm going to write that today, starting with how I imagine the path to their eventual encounter started. Just so you all know, at this point, Cad is about 16 years old, and Sihmi is about 15. They're a year apart in age, and it's before the war really started. Also, because of that, it's about three years before Tanoka comes into the Republic, and about six years before the New Earth Bounty Hunter Colony is founded.

Yes, I had to do math for that.

I do not own Star Wars, only the plot and OCs.

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."

~ Chuck Palahniuk


"Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them."

~ Paulo Coelho

"Sihmi! Run, get out of here!"

The teenaged Duros girl was frozen in her fear, seeing her father grappling with the purple Nautolan man with blue-tipped lekku. Her mother and sister were badly injured, lying on the opposite side of the room.

"Run!" Her father's voice snapped her out of her fear-induced paralysis, and she stumbled backwards, out of the room! "Take the speeder, Si! Get as far away as you can!"

"Daddy, no!" She sobbed, not wanting to leave her family to die. But she had no choice.

Running to the garage where the family speeder was parked, she grabbed a blaster and a vibroblade off the wall, snatched up the keys… and drove away from the life that was lost to her… forever.

She didn't know how long she had driven, but by the time she stopped, it was daylight. She didn't know where she was, had only a few credits to her name, and was now the orphan of a dead family of Bounty Hunters.

Orphan.

A single sob escaped her, as the reality of her situation hit her full-force. She was alone. Her family was gone, and she had nobody to turn to.

'I have to get off-planet.'

The thought surprised her. It had come out of nowhere, but it made sense. It would be harder to find her out there than if she stayed. It was something her father had taught her.

'If there's someone who wants you dead, don't stay on the same planet. Go to another world, and keep moving until you get them off your trail.'

And that was what she would do.

Five Years Later…

Sihmi sat in the cantina at Mos Eisley, a hand on the blaster at her hip as she sipped her drink. She wore a dark silver, form-fitting jumpsuit, along with tall, black boots that came up to her mid-thigh and had thick, 2-inch-high heels. Matching black gloves adorned her hands and arms, stopping halfway between her shoulders and elbows, and lightweight gauntlets were fastened around her forearms. Two black belts were fitted loosely around her waist, her blaster hanging from one and a vibroblade from the other. A black hat, one side of the brim bent upwards, adorned her head, and her skin was a lovely cobalt blue.

She had managed to make her way in the galaxy, following the tradition of her family and becoming a Bounty Hunter. It was easy to get a job in the war, people wanting information, prisoners, people removed from the equation… A mercenary's paradise.

Suddenly, she was brought out of her musings by a pair of other people coming over to her booth. Studying them closely, she noticed that they both seemed to be Bounty Hunters as well: a tall Kyuzo man and a purple-haired Zabrak woman.

"What do you want?" She asked, fully aware of the fact that she wouldn't be able to beat the two of them. The Zabrak, maybe, but never a Kyuzo. The pair exchanged a glance, and then the woman looked back at Sihmi.

"You are Sihmi Kei, correct?" She asked, and the Duros narrowed her crimson eyes.

"Who's asking?"

"I am Sugi, and my partner here is Embo," the Zabrak introduced, motioning to herself and her companion. Then, she continued, "We've got a job lined up, but our usual third teammate is off on a solo job right now, and we need a third person."

"Let me guess," Sihmi said, now interested, but no less wary, "you want me for the job."

"If you're available," Sugi agreed, and the Duros considered the offer.

"What's the job, and how much payout are we talking?"

"Our employer wants some vital information on a Separatist operation, and is willing to pay us ten thousand credits each. They've already given us a rough blueprint of the building we'll be infiltrating, but it's going to be a three-person job." Sugi then smiled, sitting down across from Sihmi. Embo walked over to the bar, probably to get some drinks for himself and his partner. "We saw your record. You specialize in covert operations: assassinations, sabotage, acquiring hard-to-get information, capturing difficult targets, the list just keeps going. You seem perfect for the job."

Sihmi silently contemplated the offer, staring down at her drink. Ten thousand credits was a lot, and she would be a fool to turn it down. However, she had never met these two before, and didn't know if she could trust them.

Embo came back then, sliding in next to Sugi, and passing his partner a glass of… something. Sihmi didn't come here often, so she didn't know what all the drinks looked like yet. The Duros took the opportunity to study her two potential teammates.

The Zabrak looked pretty confident in herself, her brown eyes warm and her body language relaxed. She also had a blaster at her hip, and it looked well-used and taken care of. She had two knives as well.

The Kyuzo was harder to read. His body language seemed to shift slightly between tenseness and relaxation, his eyes looking around the cantina as if expecting someone to attack him at any moment. His eyes… at first, because of their compounded structure , Sihmi couldn't see any expression in them, but then she started seeing hints of emotion. Caution. Protectiveness. Long-suffered pain. In those glowing golden depths, there seemed to be flickers of shadows. Almost as if ghosts dwelled within them. However, he seemed to be experienced; the bowcaster on his back in similar condition to Sugi's blaster, and he had two knives mostly-hidden in the bandolier he wore. And, she knew, despite his lean, lanky appearance, he was probably exceedingly strong and fast.

Neither of them were showing any hostility towards the Duros, so, after a slight hesitation, Sihmi gave them her answer.

"When do we leave?"

And that's chapter 1!! Hope you guys enjoyed, because I've been itching to write this for a while! Next chapter, we'll get to see Sihmi in action, and see if they get their bounty! Also, this time skip was to get to a point just a year before Tanoka vanished, and so I will someday be writing about what all my characters are up to during that time!

TO BE CONTINUED...