Chapter One

Ezra was pissed. When the Alliance approached her with this job offer they made it sound like a cushy protection gig with a steady paycheck (something she'd never had before). Seeing as business had been slow lately and they had promised to wipe her record should she agree to the mission, she signed on. She did not sign up, however, for a full-blown attack by Jedi in the middle of the damn night. She let out a frustrated growl as she dug her curved daggers into the back of the last Sith soldier between herself and the escape pods.

"Please tell me that's the last of these bastards," she begged into her personal communicator.

The voice that had been her constant companion during the attack responded immediately, "It should be. Let me unlock the door and then we can get off this ship before they blow it to bits." The door in front of her slid open with a groan and she finally got a look at the man who guided her through the ship. She had to admit, he was pretty cute for an officer. Unfortunately, their current situation didn't leave her much chance to comment. The man stepped away from the console and moved to the escape pod. "Well? Let's go already!"

They were coming for her, she could feel it. Just a few more minutes and she could finally face the fools who had come to kill her. She would make them regret every step they took on her ship, the arrogant bastards. Suddenly, the ship lurched to the side. Were they hit? The Jedi wouldn't have brought a fleet, this was meant to be a stealth attack… Could it be? Had the lovesick puppy finally gained the ambition to take her out? Hell of a way to do it. Coward. Her thoughts were cut short as she heard the door to her command room unlatch and she opened her eyes to stare down the intruders. They wasted no time and she was immediately thrown backwards into one of the consoles.

With a jolt, Ezra sat up in her bed. Wildly she lunged for her daggers at the end of her bed and prepared for an attack.

"Woah there, you're safe, calm down," a vaguely familiar voice called out from some distance. As the blackness faded from her vision she assessed her surroundings. She appeared to be in a one room apartment with no windows as clues to her location. Her searching eyes landed on a man standing on the other side of the room attempting to hide the fact that his hand was hovering over his gun.

"Safe, huh? And why would I trust you?" She couldn't help her suspicion. He was unfamiliar, alone in a room with her, and armed. She didn't lower her daggers or sit down despite the fog and dizziness threatening to obscure her thoughts and vision.

"I'm Carth, Carth Onasi," when the suspicious expression failed to leave her face he lifted his hands in front of him to show he wasn't a threat and tried again. "I was on the Endar Spire, I guided you through the ship. Do you remember?"

The fog was fading from her mind but it was being replaced with a pounding headache. Fortunately, she did remember him now. "Yeah… I remember now. I'm Ezra, by the way." Ezra lowered her daggers and set them on the table, opting to sink down onto the bed and hold her head in her hands. "My head is killing me… what happened?"

"We had a bit of a rocky landing. I was mostly unharmed but you were knocked unconscious. I managed to get us to this apartment before the Sith showed up. Lucky too, you've been out for a few days now. I did my best to dress your wounds but it might be a good idea to find a real doctor."

Carth adverted his eyes from her when he mentioned dressing her wounds and Ezra wondered why until she looked down at herself. She was stripped down to her underwear with the only thing protecting her modesty at all being an oversized t-shirt. To Carth's credit, she was heavily bandaged and the skin that was showing was badly bruised. He must have done what he thought was best.

"Well, I should get going then. I guess I owe you my life, thanks," Ezra stood slowly, fighting the nausea, and made her way towards her clothing neatly folded on a table.

"Even if you were healthy enough to go off on your own, you can't believe I would just leave you to fend for yourself," Carth said moving to support Ezra as she swayed. She flinched away from his extended hand but he continued, "the Sith are scouring the planet looking for any Republic survivors. The smart thing to do would be to stay together."

"Look, I get that you're a Republic lapdog but I didn't sign up for this. I'm getting the first transport off this planet and going back to my crew."

"Your crew? What exactly did you do before joining?"

"Like I said, I didn't 'join'. I'm a smuggler, if you must know, and the Republic offered me a clean slate if I helped them out on this protection job. But my contract did not cover getting shot down by damn Jedi and being stranded with the Republic poster boy. Thanks, but no thanks."

Ezra put as much disgust into her words as possible. There was no way she was risking her neck any further for a few thousand credits and a (probably) false promise of freedom. She pulled on her pants as quickly as she could and decided to finish getting dressed in the closest cantina restroom. Turning around to leave she found her path blocked by the lapdog.

"Alright I tried to be nice about this but you're being a real pain in the ass. I need your help and I'm not taking no for an answer. We need to find Bastila and get her off this planet and you will help!" Carth snapped, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.

"And the truth comes out! I knew you had an ulterior motive for wanting me to stick around. You Republic types always have your own selfish agenda hiding behind your pretty words. Just let me… let me…" The last thing Ezra heard was Carth's yell of surprise as she hit the ground.

When she woke up in the crappy apartment for the second time she felt much better but her mood had not improved in the slightest. She sat up and celebrated to herself when she didn't immediately feel like retching. Though if she did have to retch she definitely would have aimed for Mr. Republic's fancy boots. Speaking of, Carth didn't seem to be anywhere in the room. Taking her chance, she slipped out of bed, quickly pulled on her clothes, strapped her daggers to her hips and was just finishing tying her left boot when the door slid open.

"Druk…" Ezra muttered under her breath. "Oh hey Onasi! I was just about to come looking for you!"

"You're not fooling anyone. I'm glad you're feeling better. I picked up some information you might find interesting by the way."

"Oh?"

"There's a travel ban. No ships can leave Taris by order of the Sith. Guess you're stuck with the "poster boy", huh?" To his credit, Carth managed a slight smile (though it looked more like a grimace) to accompany his reference.

"Unless you have a ship hidden somewhere under that uniform," Ezra let her eyes drift over Carth's body, "…unlikely, then I think my chances are just as good, if not better, without you."

Carth rolled his eyes, refusing to rise to her bait, and responded, "Bastila's a Jedi. If anyone can find a way of this planet it would be her."

"A Jedi huh..?" Ezra's thoughts went back to the dream she had immediately after the crash. It was so vivid and she distinctly remembered there being Jedi involved. Maybe this Bastila lady would know something about it all. It was worth a shot, Ezra thought to herself. "Fine. I'll help you. But in exchange, we have to do this my way."

Carth looked incredulous that the Jedi comment was what convinced her but he must have realized he wasn't in a position to be picky. "Fine. We'll try it your way first but if you're not serious about this I will take over."

Ezra's face lit up at the prospect of forcing this Republic lapdog to follow her around in all her questionably legal antics. In a good mood for the first time since being rudely awoken on the Endar Spire, Ezra finished putting on her boots and tied her hair back into a convenient ponytail. "Let's go then, Poster Boy!"