Author's Note

A piece for my Sith Legacy series, exploring the next generation of my original stories. These stories explore what happens to my characters after their stories from Star Wars, The Old Republic and the tales of their children. Enjoy and feel free to review!


Asme surveyed the Tatooine dunes with disgust before turning to Angel.

"Why in blazes would they have a speeder race here?" he griped, "All this sand is murder on the engines, plus the paint jobs." The grey striped Cathar ran his clawed hand over his beloved speeder's flaming finish. "I'm sorry Svet, I promise I'll make it up to you with a long hot bath."

Angel's hearty laughter drew some hard stares from the other participants in the race. "You really need a live being to lavish that affection on, Asme," the Jedi Shadow looked over the arid landscape, squinting despite her tinted goggles and surveyed the undulating landscape, "They hold it here because the shifting dunes make it impossible for the contestants to memorize the route."

Asme rolled his eyes then glanced at the other racers before lowering his goggles. "So what do you think of our competition?" he leaned in and whispered, "Any other Force sensitives?"

Angel closed her silver eyes and let her mind drift, reaching out with her abilities for the ripples she felt when other Force users were around. When she opened them a few competitors were looking in her direction; her probe had not gone unnoticed. "Some," she informed Asme, "Not all are aware of it through." She giggled, "I swear, if the Order needs to recruit this should be the first place they check."

"Great," he muttered as he shook his head, "Maybe I should drop out, save myself the repairs."

Angel sighed, patting him on the arm. "No, stay," she encouraged, "I love knowing you're competing with me. And you were just saying Svet's been aching for a good run." Poking fun at Asme and the fact that he cared so much for his speeder that he even called it the Cathar word for 'love' was something she'd loved doing. But her teasing seemed to brighten his mood and he started stroking his precious speeder again.

"She's right, Svet," he purred, "We can beat them, freaky powers or not."

Angel started laughing so hard she almost fell off her speeder as they moved into position on the starting line. The underground race had intrigued her since she'd caught wind of it, set up on Tatooine to start just outside Anchorhead. They'd be racing across rocky flats and rolling dunes, through a narrow canyon to a broken down sandcrawler and back. She'd raced with her Sith mother through the back streets of Nar Shaddaa, but to speed across such a vast area opened up new opportunities to practice what her mother had taught her.

Her mother's powerful dark presence chilled her at times, but she'd learned to stifle her reaction and focus on their still-budding relationship. It helped that Angel saw so much of herself in the high-spirited and playful woman. They'd learned they had a mutual love of racing and her mother had shown her some unconventional tactics, much to her father's chagrin. Now she was about to put those skills to the test, racing against different species and beings of varying Force strength.

There was a surprising assortment of speeders lining up to race, ranging from long and sleek to big and bossy. There were as many varied species, all drawn by the thrill of speed and the large prize awaiting the winner. Surveying the competition again she noticed a Chiss woman staring boldly at her. Slim with refined features, her short black hair spiked around her head in a riotous halo. Her red eyes glowed with challenge and humor as her white teeth flashed in a broad smile. She nodded at Angel then went back to her animated conversation, gesturing wildly as she spoke to a tall dark-tanned man with slick blonde hair and dark goggles.

"Racers, line up!" the crisp order snapped Angel's attention back to why she was there and she focused on the dark-haired woman pacing the starting line.

"Alright folks," she barked, "We all know why we're here."

"To win!" someone shouted in Huttese, prompting laughs from several of the racers and the dark-haired woman.

"That's right," she said "But we've got some rules." Several racers groaned but the dark-haired woman kept talking. "No blasters or other weapons, let your skill speak for you. Hit up the sandcrawler and flash your badge to the droid then head back. Everyone has their badges, right?"

Hoots and shouts rang out as the racers raised the holo-badges that'd been issued to all participating. With the substantial pot for whoever won, the badges were supposed to insure that the competitors ran the full length of the race.

"There are also holo-recorders, just in case any of you degenerates think you can get away with some shady maneuvers," Angel's grin widened at the organizer's appraisal of the racers, but knew she was probably accurate.

"On my signal!" the dark-haired woman sang out, anticipation thick in the air. Engines revved, energy bonds sizzled, and Angel felt her heart beat faster at the unrepressed excitement surging from the racers.

"This is it!" she whispered to Asme as she leaned over and pressed her cheek to his. He rubbed his to her in return, his plush fur tickling her before they both pulled back.

"Find me at the finish line," he whispered back as he settled over the controls of his speeder. Angel hunkered down, adjusting a scarf over the lower half of her face and taking a deep breath to center herself. As she gripped the worn, familiar handlebars of her Nexu, her focus narrowed until all she saw was the sand before her.

"And go!" the order was the last command Angel heard just before a loud boom.

She kicked the accelerator, lunging forward in a burst of speed and was grateful for the fabric over her mouth as gravel and sand were kicked up by the racers speeding past her. Asme zoomed forward, along with a few scattered racers, including the Chiss Angel had noted, but she held herself back. Her instincts were telling her jumping ahead wouldn't bring her victory and in this case she believed them.

Her long, lean speeder rolled over the dunes like a barge on the waves, small piles of rock zipping by her as she pressed harder on the accelerator. She managed to whiz past a few racers, while others struggled to catch up as they moved from sandy dunes to a flat alkaline plain. Columns of heat rose, almost solid in their force and caused sweat to pour from her despite the wind from her speed. She saw other competitors ahead and a large Tirsa speeder pulling to the side. Passing swiftly she shook her head at smoke pouring from the drive, and the Nautolan rider looking equally as heated.

Suddenly the terrain dipped down into the narrow canyon. There was an explosion behind her but she didn't risk a look back, focusing on the walls of the trench and their proximity to her. She tried increasing her speed but the confines of the canyon didn't allow enough room for the racers to pass one another and she was soon caught behind two burly Gamorreans.

Like they're intentionally trying to block the path, she thought and was instantly irritated, she'd expected moves like this but to experience them firsthand was something different. She had to take a calming breath, but as soon as they were free of the canyon she hit her accelerator again. Aggravated grunts and squeals sounded off as she sped between the pair then another racer passed the three of them, spraying them with a shower of sand as they passed.

Angel grinned as she took off after the racer's sleek black speeder, taking the spray as a challenge that couldn't be passed up. Hot on the rider's tail, together they passed several others and narrowly dodged a huge Scyk. The spinybacked reptile let out a dull roar then went back to feasting on the carcass of the womp rat in its claws, seeming unaffected by the vehicles passing by.

They both sailed over the rocky plain, speeding towards the sandcrawler looming in the distance as Angel started catching up to the rider in black. She managed to coax another burst from her already taxed Nexu and got alongside of the rider she'd been following. The rider looked towards her and Angel saw them visibly start as if in surprise. There was a quick nod, then a whirring buzz just before the rider sped forward again as if taunting Angel to keep up.

They'd almost reached the colossal sandcrawler when blaster beams flew over her head ricocheting against the oxidized metal. This time she did look back and saw the Gamorreans firing behind her. It didn't seem they were aiming for her or the other racer, rather the droid that was supposed to scan their badges. Ducking down, she frantically tried pulling her badge free in case they hit their target.

She forced herself to stay on the accelerator maintaining her breakneck pace but the rider in front of her dropped back. Angel looked back again just in time to see a flick of the other rider's hands and electricity course from them to the Gamorreans' speeders. Lavender lightning wove over the heavy rides before each shut down with a resounding bang and the rider surged forward again.

Only Sith use the Force like that, Angel thought as she waved her badge past the droid and saw its optical sensors turn green. She looped around the sandcrawler but redoubled her effort to speed forward. The other racer hadn't posed a threat but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Flying across the flat terrain she noticed something she hadn't seen before, smoke rising from the canyon. Stretching out with her abilities again, she caught vivid images of a wrecked speeder. Several others had crashed into it and multiple speeders were held up by the blockage, including Asme. Repair droids were moving quickly, desperately trying to clear the debris before the minor accident turned into major pile-up, but if she flew into the canyon she'd be held up with the others.

There may be another way, a voice that wasn't hers purred in her mind. It was lilting, feminine and familiar, she just couldn't put it in context. Another way? Angel thought and started looking for solutions. The rapidly approaching rocky walls were too high to for her to bypass the canyon, and looking for an alternate route would waste precious time. Then a shadow stood from the walls, the shadow of a narrow ledge. There's no way, I can't get up there, she started thinking when the feminine voice purred in her head again.

When have you defined your life with 'can't'? It asked and Angel smiled as she pushed back her doubts and focused on the ledge. It wasn't more than five meters up, she thought, and with any luck it would ran along the wall far enough to get her past the obstruction. Clutching her Nexu's handlebars she grasped onto the immaterial waves that she felt surrounding her. Calm strength suffused her and time seem to slow.

She closed her eyes, knowing they might fool her or cause her to hesitate and stretched out a hand. Just as she reached the canyon she sent the biggest push of Force energy she'd ever attempted into the ground beneath her. Gravity held her to her seat as she managed to launch her speeder upward, catching the ledge. She didn't have time to savor the victory, her perch was precarious to say the least and could crumble as any moment.

Kicking the accelerator hard, she zipped along the wall, paying no mind to scattered pebbles she was raining on her competition. Profanities in several languages echoed through the canyon as her progress and ingenious method of avoiding the obstructed path were noted, but she was grinning as she sailed past the repair droids who'd almost cleared the path. Using another small push of Force energy to slow her decent she landed with a solid thud and gave the accelerator one more kick for the last leg of the race.

She sensed more racers behind her but put them in the back of her mind. Right now it was only the wind whipping past her and her speeder while they moved as one body over the rolling dunes. The Nexu felt like an extension of herself as it swayed over the sand and she closed her eyes, at peace with her velocity until she realized she'd crossed the finish line.