WHILE OTHERS WERE LEFT BREATHLESS

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Explanation of the AU

This story is continuous in both the While Others and Eyes Open universes. If you have not read either one of these series, please refer to the entries below.

Eyes Open: Property of MusicKeeper, the Eyes Open saga follows the adventures of Kira Narro, the second padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Born a slave on the planet Zygerria, Kira was taken to the Jedi Temple at the age of eight and entered the Bergruufta clan. During her training, Kira befriended two fellow younglings named Cadena (property of katierosefun) and Caleb Dume.

Assigned to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kira had an eventful padawanship, during which she went undercover as Senator Breemu of Humbarine, participated in a battle at Kamino, and grew closer to Caleb than ever while stranded with him and his master. Her friendship with Cadena strengthened as well, even as it came to light that her friend had married against the Jedi Code and given birth to a son.

Happy times couldn't last forever, though: Kira barely survived Order 66 and went into hiding with Ahsoka Tano, Lux Bonteri, and Cadena's family on Onderon. Cadena became seriously ill, and in light of the Jedi Purge, had lost the will to live. Though Kira and the others made their best effort, Cadena died shortly after arriving on Onderon, leaving behind her husband and son, who she named Anakin. After her death, Obi-Wan Kenobi left for Tatooine, leaving Kira alone once again.

While Others: The story of what would have happened had several characters who appear to have died had been saved by a program called the Lazarus Project. Meant to be a PR device in the wake of Order 66, some of the project's victims included Lux Bonteri's parents and Steela Gerrera.

After Steela's rescue and the reunion of the Bonteri family, the project was disbanded but to little avail. Order 66 occurred and forced the rebels into hiding. With no legitimate source of income, the rebels were forced to become a team of con men: a mastermind (Lux Bonteri), grifter (Sierra Bonteri), thief (Steela Gerrera), protector (Saw Gerrera), hacker (Hutch St. James), and auxiliary members Mina Bonteri, General Tandin, Hutch's wife Hero St. James and adopted daughter Katooni, and Captain Rex. Shortly after, Ahsoka and Lux welcomed their son, Tavin Bonteri, to the galaxy.

After a routine con went horribly wrong, Sierra Bonteri's alias fell apart and she was captured by the Empire. She found herself in the hands of the rebels' archrival, sadistic prison warden Peter Torrance, better known as Tor. The other rebels scrambled to rescue her (thwarting a plot to force Katooni into the Inquisition in the process), but by the time they did Sierra had gone into shock and hung near death. The others managed to save her, and Tor was jailed for his many crimes.

This story takes place three years after MusicKeeper's "Safe and Sound," and one month after "While Others Fought for Justice"

Now without further ado, I present the story.

CHAPTER ONE – STEALING MALAGAN MARKET

"Bread, blue milk, and ration bars."

Saw runs his finger down the grocery list on the battered piece of flimsy. "Bread, blue milk, ration bars, eggs, jogans, shaak steaks – what is Hero cooking? A ten course meal?"

"Just get the food." Steela growls and stalks over to a merchant selling baked goods.

"Fine, sis." Saw grumbles. "Be like that. You go on ahead and be grumpy and go get the bakery bread. I guess I'll get the shaak steaks.

"I like shaak steaks better." He mutters to himself, trying to mollify his own annoyance by pretending to add to Steela's. Saw figured out a long time ago that this strategy works the best.

It's not like he can blame Steela for all of it, he reasons as he buys the steaks and places them in his shopping sack. She and Ahsoka haven't been getting a lot of sleep in the past few weeks, between a teething baby Tavin and a restless Sierra. Luckily, Tav's little tooth bud finally popped through his gum and Sierra's been able to sleep through the night.

Saw wanders over to another stall to buy the fruits and vegetables they need to make Tav's baby mash. "I'll take a bunch of carrots," he says. "A sack of apples, some jogans, and one of those squash thingies." He gestures to the dark green squash that he can't remember the name of.

"Acorn squash," the old woman running the stall informs him as she takes his credits. "It's called acorn squash."

"All I know is that my friend's kid eats it." Saw mutters. "Thanks. Have a nice day."

He looks around the market, trying to spot Steela or something else he needs. He catches the sight of his sister's hair bopping to another stall, but then he blinks and Steela's melted into the crowd again.

Thieves, he curses himself. They're always doing that disappearing act. He fails to recall that he, too, is a thief. Instead of chasing after Steela, he decides to stay put and keep up with the shopping; his sister will have to find him sometime.

A young girl wearing an Imperial Academy uniform crosses on the other side of the market and rests her satchel on a stack of crates, absently wiping the sweat from her forehead with her cap. Saw grimaces. Unifar bless it, this girl can't be much older than Sierra and she's already sucked into the Imperial machine. In a way, he likes Stormtroopers more. He can fight them, but cadets? Cadets still have a little youth, a little innocence left in them that the Empire can't wait to squander but Saw can't bring himself to.

A speeder goes by, momentarily blocking his view of the cadet, and Saw blinks.

His eyes have got to be playing tricks on him; they just have to!

The cadet stands, shoulders pulled forward demurely, and walks off.

It is!

Saw shoves his way down the street, yelling "excuse me" every two seconds until he manages to cut the cadet off on a side street.

"Hi," he says, leaning against a corner both to look suave and to catch his breath.

"Hello," the cadet says crisply and tries to step around him, but Saw blocks her path.

The cadet stiffens and draws herself up to look taller. "I'm on Imperial business. Let me through."

"You were part of a very well-done drop there." Saw says. "You placed whatever was in that satchel on the stack of crates, a speeder goes by, and the satchel's gone. But even though you're wearing that cadet uniform -."

The cadet's gaze drops from his.

"Something tells me you weren't in on it by choice."

"I did it for my family." The girl defends herself.

"Your family?" Saw prompts. "They told you if you didn't do what they said, they were going to hurt your family?"

The girl shakes her head. "Not hurt. It's complicated; very complicated."

Saw reaches out a tentative hand to touch her shoulder, but the girl recoils as if his hand is red-hot.

"What's your name?"

"Eva," the girl clears her throat. "Eva Isis."

"Eva, listen to me," he says. "Whatever they swore they'd do, my friends are here to make sure it does not happen. But if we're going to help you, then I need to know what was in that satchel they stole from you."

Eva considers.

"All right, sit down. My friends and I are going to help you, but first I need to know what was in the satchel." Saw prompts.

"Intel," Eva admits. "Four data chips filled with Imperial intel."

STEELA

"Are you crazy? She's an Imperial cadet!"

I gesture to Eva, still sitting on her crate a dozen feet away.

"She's a turncoat." Saw explains under his breath. "She stole data chips from the Empire and was going to give them away, but they found her and made her give them back."

I decide not to mention that dead-drops aren't the Empire's style. They prefer the dead body method. "How do you know they made her give them back?"

"She said they'd hurt her family if she didn't comply and go back to the Academy like nothing is wrong. You know how the Empire operates, Stee. They can't have one cadet going rogue because it might give the others ideas."

"You're just distracted because she's pretty, aren't you?"

Saw stares at me. "No!"

"Uh-huh. Sure."

Now that I look again, the cadet is pretty but she isn't quite Saw's type. Good. "Look, if she had those chips, then force only knows what else she can get her hands on. Hutch does what he can, but he can't eavesdrop like a cadet. If we help her, it's only a matter of time before she comes to our side."

I gives Eva a good up-and-down with me eyes. The cadet's posture is proper, but not regulation straight, she sags a little. And to me, that's a good thing.

But you don't live for long as a thief by trusting easily, and I'm not about to start now. I raise my wrist comm to my lips and select Hutch's frequency.

"Hutch, I need an immediate background check on an Imperial cadet named Eva Isis."

Hutch gives the verdict ten minutes later, after hearing the story about the data cards.

"It's clean, but not too clean." He says. "She was homeschooled so I don't have any formal records, but she's always shown an aptitude for critical thinking and philosophy. That's a good sign for us."

"Should we bring her aboard?"

"We have two Jedi, a professional muscle head, a clone captain, a General in the militia, and a bunch of former rebels. Yeah, I think we can handle one lowly cadet."

I growl, but he's right. "Fine. We'll be at the ship in a few minutes."

Further down the alley, Saw waves Eva over. "Our friends are going to take a deeper look at your case. Come with us."

Eva readjusts her cap. "Thank you so much, Saw, but I should be getting-."

"They won't be the wiser." I tell her. It's the truth because with the HoloNet on his side, school attendance records are no match for the Cashier from Hell.

A solemn walk later, our sorry-looking freighter looms into sight. The boarding ramp descends and Sierra stands at the top like a cake topper. A dark-haired, slightly ragged-looking cake topper.

"What took you guys so long?" she shouts down. "Hero is going crazy. What Ahsoka said about pregnancy brain is real, I swear. It's like it'll be the end of the world if you bought pink jogans and not purple ones."

Saw looks into the bag where he just bought pink jogans.

I jerk my thumb toward Eva. "Sorry, Sierra. We got a little sidetracked."

Eva waves. "Eva Isis. Nice to meet you."

Sierra walks down the ramp and extends her hand to shake with a single, firm pump.

"I'm Sierra." She says with a miniscule toss of her head. "And the pleasure is all mine."

I share a look with Saw, who sends the same one back. Something just isn't gelling in this conversation.

"Why don't you come in and sit down?" Sierra asks.

That's when it snaps into place in my head. At home, especially when Mina isn't around, Sierra is informal as all-get-out. She slouches. She complains. She steals my clothes. She eats and drinks in bed.

Sierra may not talk like this, but her aliases do.

I understand that Sierra's been a little discombobulated as of late, but this is extreme. Why is she grifting at home, with Saw and I right here?

Answer: She feels threatened. Alas, this isn't an unusual occurrence.

"Right," I agree and place a hand on Eva's back to give her a gentle push. Her muscles tense just the tiniest bit, but it's enough.

What really sells it is the way Eva drifts at exactly the right distance behind Sierra as she leads her into the ship.

…..

"They're both grifting!"

Hutch stares at me. "Who's both grifting?"

"Sierra and Eva. Both of them are grifters!" I hiss. "They both act like Sierra on the job. Who is this girl?"

"Steela, I checked the records. Birth certificate checks out, homeschooling checks out, medical records check out, it all checks out. She's Eva Isis!"

"I know you checked that, but did you check to make sure that Eva Isis isn't also somebody else?"

Hutch stares at his screen for a second, and then starts typing.

"I'm checking all births for female human-Togruta hybrids within a month of Eva's birth date." He says. "She can't be much older of younger than what she says she is. Do you know which parent is the Togruta and which is the human?" I shake my head. "All right, then I'll narrow the parameters to babies with blue eyes." That's still a lot of babies. Hybrids may be rare, but blue eyes are a very popular Togruta trait.

"This is going to take a while," I notice. One of Hutch's alert lights goes off and he selects it.

His eyes widen. "What the heck?"

"What do you mean, what the heck?"

He points to the screen. "You said Eva stole a bunch of data chips? The Alliance just picked up a package with four data chips from the market where you met Eva. Does that sound like a coincidence?"

"What do you think, that she's a double agent?"

"She might," Hutch worries.

"Whatever she is, you need to find out fast. She and Sierra are going to tear each other to bits if you don't."

Ahsoka pops her head around the corner, Tav on her hip. "Who's Sierra going to tear to bits?"

I roll my eyes. "Some chick named Eva Isis who may or may not be a double agent, and Saw was dumb enough to let on board the ship!"

Ahsoka's eyes widen. "Eva Isis? Hold the phones."

…..

"How do you know this person?" I demand as Ahsoka and Lux rush down the hall.

"It's a long story," Lux says and opens the common room door. In the room, Eva sits on the couch, Katooni on the other end, with Sierra placed between them like a blocking figure.

"Kira?" Ahsoka asks.

Eva's head snaps up, and she freezes.

The room fills with silence, until it's broken by one phrase.

"Excuse me?"

Mina Bonteri and Hero St. James fill the doorway, literally. When she's angry, Hero puffs up to positively planet-sized.

Hero points at Eva with a venomous gaze. "Who are you and what are you doing near my daughter?"

"Okay!" Ahsoka squeaks, sensing just how far downhill this can go. "Everyone needs to calm down right now. Including you, Kira."

"Kira?" Saw echoes.

"Yes," Ahsoka says. "Everyone, I want you to meet Kira Narro, former Jedi Padawan. Kira, meet my family."

"Padawan?" Sierra repeats.

One of Kira's eyebrows goes up. "Family?"

Ahsoka and Lux nod.

"It's a long story, guys." Lux says. "You'd all better sit down."

A/N: Hello, everyone. I am back, and this time with an Eyes Open/While Others collaboration with author MusicKeeper. As I stated in the blurb, Kira Narro is her property and I'd like to thank her for both allowing me to bring Kira into the story and for the massive amount of help she gave in writing her.

Thanks to MusicKeeper's continuity checks for Kira, I can declare that this story is canon for both While Others and Eyes Open. If you have read one, you don't necessarily have to read the other to understand the story, though I highly recommend her work and found Kira's story to be very enjoyable.

So, what were your thoughts on this chapter? Please leave them in the review box on your way out!

Until next time,

Lux's Sister