Title: Loyalty Is Her Second Name
Author: Loteva
Main character: Lucia from Darth Bane Trilogy
Time: Spans through all her life, so before and during the Bane Trilogy
Warnings: Violence, language, sexual innuendo
Additional information: no pairings, general fic, spoilers start in chapter 3
Standard disclaimer applies.
Loyalty Is Her Second Name
Chapter 1
The Early Years
Her first memories are blurred, more feelings and impressions than concrete images, as if seen through a heavy rain. Or tears.
She remembers the warm, thin arms enveloping her in a comforting hug, a gentle hand covering her mouth to muffle tiny cries of fear and sorrow she couldn't stop at the time – after all she was still a small child, unlearned of control. She also remembers the screams – angry, loud and drunk – and how scared she was of what would have happened, had she been found by the people who screamed.
The one who held her was terrified as well. Her older sister lived with them much longer and knew what exactly was to be feared. Yet, despite the trembling, she protected Lucia, instead of escaping on her own and leaving the younger sister at the mercy of two beings who called themselves their parents. Now, after all these years, Lucia can feel only awe and admiration for her sister's courage.
The fear was too strong for them to stand for long, so at the ripe age of six she found herself a runaway from home, living on the streets. The girls joined a gang – the safety in numbers, or so they thought. They quickly learned the skills necessary to survive in the inhospitable environment of the slums – begging, pick-pocketing and most importantly getting away. It wasn't a matter of choice. Everyone who didn't contribute was left to fend for himself and soon became another corpse littering the neighbourhood, a victim to the rule of the strong.
Through all the hardships of the rough life they led her sister was always there – never wavering, the pillar of strength she could lean on safely. She was the source of morality, the base on which was built the conscience in the mind of the young child, even if the said child was asked what the morality is, would have guessed it to be a type of food. Young Lucia couldn't imagine the world without her sister – and she didn't have to, because all too soon it became a nightmarish reality.
She doesn't remember what they did and it probably doesn't matter. Enough to say, the sisters along with a few members of their gang enraged a man with a blaster and no qualms about exacting revenge on a bunch of defenseless children.
Lucia remembers how she ran with the others through the bottle-neck back alleys. The Man was the scariest thing she had ever seen in her short life, a living, breathing monster who could and would kill her just on a whim. She could almost feel his disgusting, smelly breathes on the back of her neck thus she quickened her pace. The waft of air caused by the speed cleansed her flesh from the phantom filth.
She didn't think much; there was only the speed, the unshakeable urge to flee and the thump of the blood in her eardrums, the fast pulse setting the rhythm to her sprint. Everything was so clear but she didn't have time for that. She ran.
Suddenly, just in front of her appeared the loose and cracked cobblestone. Lucia jumped over it, not even breaking her stride. Then she heard the gunshot followed by a yell of pain and she glanced back.
It was her sister. Lucia saw her on the knees, after she'd obviously tripped on the treacherous cobblestone.
'Get up!' Lucia shouted at her sister. The Man was gaining on them, they needed to hurry!
Her sister was lifting herself up when another gunshot rang and the red blaster bolt of death pierced her back. The Man had a maniacal grin on his face as he advanced on them, celebrating his first kill of the night. Lucia watched her sister hit the pavement – a glassy, a little confused look on her face and a red stain rapidly blossoming on her chest – barely aware she was screaming.
'Leave her! She's dead!' a boy from their group gripped Lucia's arm painfully, snapping her back to reality. She numbly followed after the rest, not able to cope with the anguish at the moment.
Her world was coming undone as its pillar shattered and laid in a pool of drying blood.
She was alone.
Lucia huddled against the wall in the gang's hideout, staring blankly at her dirty hands. They were shaking badly and she realized she was cold. She was wrapped in one thin blanket. Usually when she was cold, her sister would share her blanket to warm them both up. But now she was a cold corpse and Lucia was just cold.
The girl glanced at their spot, or rather their previous spot. It was occupied by someone else – a bigger, older girl who also took the blanket, which belonged to Lucia's sister. No one said a thing about it. It wasn't a theft – Lucia was just too weak to stop the other.
Weak.
Too weak to save her sister, too weak to protect their spot or even a stupid blanket.
She was cold and alone as she drifted off to dream about blaster bolts and a maniacal grin on the Man's face.
Lucia remembers that the next day she went to look for her sister's body. She found the right alley, the loose cobblestone was still there as if laying in wait to trip another victim – but the body vanished. There was only a reddish-brown blotch on the pavement, the only evidence of a crime. The first rain would sluice it down.
Numbly she stared at the stain, the last memento of her sister's existence, which would soon be dead and forgotten – like she hadn't been there at all. Only the sound of someone's boots hitting the pavement brought Lucia back to reality. She fled.
It rained that night.
Lucia remembers the days that turned into years, which were always marked in her mind as the time after her sister's death. It consisted mostly of the constant, harsh battle for survival. At some point she was taken to the orphanage, where she got her basic education. Then, at fourteen, she ran away and joined another gang. She was stronger and smarter, but in no way could it temper her impetuosity and brash attitude, instead bolstering it. She was good at survival but did it matter when she couldn't even tell what she was living for?
The answer didn't come fast, but when it did – it changed everything.
Seventeen-year-old, pretending to be older wasn't a strange sight at the wretched cantina. Lucia sat at the counter, enjoying her drink while keeping an eye out for trouble that would eventually come. And it did – just not in the form she expected.
Through the thick, smelly vapour that was the main component of the cantina's atmosphere threaded the silhouette of a man wearing a characteristic hat with a wide brim. Upon reaching the bar the stranger sank onto the stool next to Lucia and ordered a drink with a weary wave of hand. At first, the girl didn't pay him any mind... until he took off his hat and laid it on the counter. The movement she caught out the corner of her eye caused her to turn to have a better look.
It felt like being punched in the gut. Horrified, she stared at the familiar, but more haggard features of the man. Although the mad grin was missing, she would recognize him anywhere as his face had been haunting her dreams for years. It was the face of her sister's killer.
The Man noticed her staring. 'Like what you see, baby?'
The revulsion swept through her at the implication, but she didn't let it show. Instead, she took a sip of her beverage and replied in a flirty tone, 'Yeah, but I wouldn't mind to see more.'
The excitement of the easy conquest lighted his eyes. He finished the drink in one big gulp and gestured to the door. 'How about we go outside, baby?'
Lucia nodded and followed him out of the cantina, fingering the blaster safely hidden under her coat. She had a mind to shoot his head off his shoulders right then and there but something stopped her and it certainly wasn't the kindness of her heart.
'I have a place nearby. This way,' she said, leading him into the maze of deserted and dirty back alleys. She didn't have any plan yet her every step was confident with the unexpected clarity that came upon her out of nowhere.
After a few minutes of walking the Man was getting impatient.
'When will we get there? You said it was near!'
'Almost there,' she muttered in response.
As they reached the halfway point of the nondescript alley, she suddenly stopped. Taking a deep, calming breathe, Lucia turned back and pointed the blaster at the startled man, effectively silencing his questions.
'Do you remember this place?' she asked.
The Man looked confused. 'No and what do you want? I've got money, baby, we can talk about it, just drop the blaster,' he tried to steer her attention away from the hand moving surreptitiously towards his own weapon but she wasn't fooled for a second.
'Shut up! Don't move or I blow your head off!' she barked.
Lucia ordered him to drop his blaster on the ground and kick it away, all the time keeping him at the gunpoint. She didn't want to leave anything to chance.
'Okay, I'm now harmless. Listen, ask whatever you want, I have connections with the mayor, we can work something out, there's no need to shoot,' the Man was talking fast in an attempt to appease her.
'There will be if you don't shut up!' she hissed.
He's fallen silent.
'You killed someone here. A girl. Do you remember now?' Lucia asked.
She looked him in the eyes but there was no spark of recognition, just dull incomprehension.
'It was nine years ago,' she added desperately, but the Man shook his head.
'I must've been ass-drunk,' he offered.
The dam broke and the icy tide of fury took control of Lucia.
'Come here,' she commanded and when he walked over the loose cobblestone she stopped him. 'On your knees. Turn around.' She was behind him, in the dim light she could see the nervous shaking of his shoulders. It made her feel so powerful, so right. She pressed the muzzle of the blaster against the back of his head. The cowardly whimpers and the smell of urine coming from him filled her with disgust.
'Please, no, don't ki...' The sound of released blaster bolt cut off the pathetic pleadings.
Lucia put the blaster away and watched the blood quickly brim the small hollows in the pavement. She would have walked away but something was keeping her in the spot. It took a while for her numb and shocked mind to realize what it was.
The killer of her sister was dead but her vengeance wasn't completed.
That night a team of firemen was dispatched eight times. The fires were usually started as a result of the carelessness like a still burning death stick thrown into the trash but one time there wasn't found any plausible cause. The only clue could be a faint odour of fuel and a pile of ashes, already being scattered on the wind. However, the firemen decided not to worry about that incident as no one was hurt and no property was damaged, not counting a blackened patch of pavement.
Lucia was standing on the bank of the polluted river which was rolling lazily through the city of her birth and life. She watched the red, breath-taking sunrise and inhaled the surprisingly fresh, morning air, feeling the serenity and completeness wash over her for the first time ever.
The view of the familiar buildings bathed in the red sunlight has been etched in her memory as the sign of the closed chapter in her life. There was nothing left for her in that city.
Finally she was free.
to be continued...
AN: Thanks for reading and please review! I'm open to all opinions, critiques, suggestions and advice. English isn't my first language so please feel free to point out the mistakes.