This is a story I've been wanting to do for a long time. Ever wanted to see the character from both timelines go head-to-head for supremacy. This is it, and I am really excited to start this one. Don't worry, I'll still be working on my Legends version of the Force Awakens along with this one. I hope you all enjoy this little preview.
Any night spent walking through the neon-filled streets of Coruscant never felt truly peaceful. The bright sky ways, filled with air speeders going from one place to another blocked out the stars, and the giant holo screens and holograms would spew out loud propaganda non-stop. Seemingly as if it didn't matter that the people living in the city actually needed some sleep.
Not that Dash really cared about any that. He always fared better on his own. The last time he threw his neck out for the Skywalkers, he was almost blown to oblivion. It was also partially his fault. He was so good at the smuggling business, that he had to fake his own death to get some peace and quiet.
In the underworld, he had plenty of flavors to drink, plenty of the attractions to keep himself entertained, and plenty of beautiful women to give him pleasure. And through all of this, the change of leadership caused crime to rise exponentially, giving him plenty of work to keep himself stocked with credits.
Lucky for him, just as he was about to enter his favorite cantina in one of the poorer districts, a new notice had cropped up. "Hello, what do we have here?" he said to himself. He leaned in to inspect what the deal was. It appears there yet another troublemaker around troublemaker around town. Apparently, he was accused of theft, and minor vandalism, and was also currently on the run. Sounded fun, while also easy enough. It was here on Coruscant so he didn't have about stealing another starfighter. Why did they have to take her? Dash thinking about the Outrider. For some reason, after that crippled old scum and his First Order buddies arrived, who he always viewed as nothing more than a retread of the Galactic Empire back in the day, they decided to take all the rare models and scrap them for study. Something about new designs in their fleets. All except for one. The Millennium Falcon.
The contract stated that they wanted the target dead or alive, but per usual, the bounty was double for alive. Why not? Dash always enjoyed taking a bounty alive for the extra challenge. But what exactly was he worth.
900,000.
Dash's jaw dropped and whispered, "Son of a hutt's mother." He would be rich enough to take a three-month holiday on one of those new beachside penthouses on Naboo. Hopefully, the First Order doesn't decide to blow it up too.
However, he was tired and thirsty. That is why he came to the cantina in the first place. Why not? If he's on the run, he ain't getting off the planet. He walked towards the entrance, and before he could walk in, he ended up getting shoulder barged from behind by a rather short hooded figure, who looked like he or she was in a hurry. Dash at first felt a sense of frustration from the disrespectful gesture, and then he started to feel suspension. Why wear a hood, unless you have something to hide? He still really wanted that drink, but Dash decided that he should at least keep an eye on that one.
Once he entered, he could spot a variety of faces in the joint, from humans, to inthorians and a few Aleenas. Most of them, like most places around these parts of town, looked ready for a fight. Considering that Dash, was possibly within reach of a payday, the last thing he wanted was to draw attention. Around the place, he could see scoundrels gambling, sitting by the holo screens watching the finals for the Podracing tournament, and some passing out from having one too much.
He processed to the bar, still eyeballing the hooded figure, while wondering if the bartender had been replaced again, since most end up shot on sight or lynched outside, usually because of easily-detected poison in the drinks. Indeed there was someone new, this time it was a harch, as ugly as usual. "I'll have a mug of Wookiee ale," he requested.
Speaking in the Harch's native tongue, the bartender said rather snarky, "Strong stuff, hope you prepared." Then slid a glass cup the size of Dash's entire hand, filled with the ale, which was both green and mildly bubbly. Most people would be a little intimidated of such a strong flavor, which is known to knock non-wookiees out cold. But Dash wasn't nervous about a drink. Without much concern flowing through his head, he began to pour the ale into his mouth. At first, everything was fine, but then it started to sting, forcing him to stop, leaving with the feeling of being poisoned. He was able to swallow it, but the taste made him feel like Rancor dunge. A feeling, Dash never thought he would ever feel. "Warned you," the bartender said.
"Shut up," Dash responded weakly. It didn't help him that it seemed that a few thugs behind him, were about to get into a violent scuffle. "You scum! You took my credit chet!" one of them yelled.
"What are you talking about? I don't need any of your junk!" the other responded before being shoved by the aggressor. Dash was more annoyed than concerned, unlike everyone else, who became completely focused on the argument between the two thugs. Nothing new, Dash thought.
"Give it back to me or I will blast you out of existence." At this point, Dash was starting to see why Wookiee ale is prohibited on some planets as he started to feel dizzy. He decided to leave the bar, and sit the restroom for a moment, especially if a fight breaks out that he isn't ready for. Even getting there prove a challenge as his leg felt rather weak now. What was he thinking? Without seeing what was happening between the arguing thugs, he could the aggressor yell, "did you not hear me? I will…" suddenly a blaster shot went off, before he could open the door. Dash was woken up into an alert status. He turned around to see that the thugs was down on his back dead, and the blaster that killed him was fired by a First Order stormtrooper.
Much like the original imperial stormtroopers, they wore shiny white armor, and carried short barrel blaster rifles. Unlike the imperials, the black on their helmets resemble a loop more than a pair of eyes and a mouth full of teeth. In addition, the armor looked as though they spent extra time polishing it. One of them who had entered the cantina, was noticeably taller than the others, and wore a much more metallic set of armor, as well as a majestic looking cape. Must be that Captain Phasma figure. Man, Dash was shocked when he found out that Phasma was a women.
The blaster shot shocked everyone into standing, and it looked like they also wanted to storm out of the joint to escape whatever was about to go down, but the troopers blocked the main entrance and were carrying weapons. "Trust me when I say...that was a warning shot," Phasma claimed with authority. "No harm will come to any of you, if you cooperate. We have received reports that this district has been harboring a known fugitive. Does anyone here have any information they would like to share with us?" Dash knew that trouble was abound, so he burst into the restroom, and began looking for any possible exit.
His dizziness did make it difficult for him to see, but after a few seconds of frantic search, he spotted a small window near the top of the far wall. Wasting little time, he used any energy he had that hadn't yet been drained from the ale to climb up the wall. Fortunately, the window was barely large enough for him to fit through. It was so small, that he had pretty much no room to prepare for the fall to the outside, causing him to land on the hard concrete, shoulders first. Dash let out a deep moan of pain from the impact, before rising to his feet. While doing so, he could Phasma from inside yelling, "Fire!" followed from blaster shots and screams. Dash knew that the First Order was bad, but the thought of a slaughter happening the opposite side of the wall from him still sent a chill down his spine.
As he was about to put some distance between him and the cantina, maybe to chase that bounty, he noticed that the same hooded figure he saw enter the joint was also walking away, somewhat casually. Still carrying some suspensions, Dash decided to follow the person down the alley.
He did so until the figure reached the edge of the open skyways, where he proceeded to look back, probably to check if anyone was indeed following him. It caught Dash off guard, allowing the hooded figure to spot him, revealing that underneath the hood, was a young boy, which also caught Dash off guard.
Noticing his pursuer, the boy showed a face of shock, and began to run. He must be it, Dash thought deciding to give chase.
At first, it was a simple chase down the wide walkway, with the two of them shoving any bystanders out of the way. "COME HERE!" Dash yelled at his target. Then out of nowhere, the boy turned left and jumped into the skyway. WHAT! Dash couldn't believe the boy's nerve, knowing he could either fall to his death, or get swatted out of the air like a fly by one of the skycars. Knowing that he had to do the same in order to keep up, if the boy was still alive, Dash ran to the side. He then spotted his target, who had indeed landed atop of one of the cars.
Without letting any doubt cause hesitation, Dash leapt into the air hoping for similar luck.
He fell for an uncomfortable amount of time, yelling, "COME ON! COME ON! COME ON!" until he too landed on the roof of a skycar. He was alive. He almost had the wind knocked out of him, but he was alive. Remembering the chase that got him where he was, he lifted his head up to began his search, until spotting the boy on the skycar two columns above him, and a few rows ahead of him. Knowing he would never catch up like this, Dash climbed down to the door on the side of the car, where he founded the driver, who was female twi'lek. When she noticed Dash, she looked utterly confused. "Sorry, I got to borrow your ride," he then proceeded to enter the car, even though there was barely enough room to hold them both. "I promise to return it."
"What are you doing?!" she screamed in terror, completely unaware of what Dash was intending.
"Just trust me," Dash said struggling to move around the cockpit. "Hold on," he then pushed down the acceleration attempting to catch the boy. Using his skills as a pilot, Dash was able to quickly fly through the traffic while dodging anything in front of him with ease. He was able keep focused despite the former driver beside him screaming and flailing in fright.
Finally catching up with the boy's car, Dash raised his own car about six or seven feet above so he could drop down on top. Acting fast, he opened the door again, and leaned out ready to jump. Below him, the boy had just realized that his pursuer was right above him, once again making his surprise apparent. "Thanks," Dash told the driver, before performing his leap of faith. On the way down, he could hear the driver scream, "GET OUT!"
However, before he could land, the boy somehow jumped to the left onto the car on the side. Leaving Dash to land with a loud thud, followed by a deep moan of pain and frustration. Then he felt confusion. How did he leap so far? he wondered. He must be a force-sensitive. Gathering up whatever strength he had left, Dash slide over to the side of the new car much like before, this time not even bothering to squeeze inside. Instead, he pushed his arm through the window, and simply grabbed the control stick, pulling it back to the left. All the while, he ignored yet another confused driver, this time in the form of a male dug. Unfortunately, due to his poor position, Dash was unable keep the car stable, causing it to shift in a direction that definitely would cause it to collide with the boy's car. Moving quickly, Dash climbed back up to the roof, before he could become a lot thinner. Then in an instance, the cars crashed together and imploded, with the force of Dash's car pushing both to left walkway, resulting in a destructive crash. The impact caused Dash to fly a couple of feet past the carnage.
When his body finally came to a halt, Dash was definitely feeling some pain throughout his body. It caused him to be rather slow to rise back up to his feet, and once he did, he felt what sounded like a pop in a joint in his spine. The vision was also a little fuzzy as well, but the flames emanating from the crash still stuck out like a sore thumb.
Despite all the pain he was in, Dash limped towards the crash, hoping that the boy he was both still there, and worth all the trouble. When he got close, he saw that both of the driver were dead. He also saw a third body right next to the side of the building they hit. Except this one... was crawling, and wore a hood. Dash started limping faster, managing to pin him down with his front to the ground before he could get to his feet. Since they were both extremely hurt, their struggle to overpower each other afterwards was rather pathetic, like two drunks on a holiday.
"Let me go!" the boy said weakly. Based on the pitch of his voice, Dash could tell that he pre-teens in terms of age. "I don't think so," said Dash, "you're obviously worth a lot, based on the mess you put me through." He then pulled off the hood to reveal that the boy had blond hair. "Now let's look face-to-face shall we?" He grab the kid's shoulder to flip onto his back, and finally got a look at his face. A face that took Dash by surprise. The kid was definitely worth a lot.
He was Ben Skywalker.