Disclaimer: All rights belong to Disney, George Lucas, and all the men and women that created the Star Wars movies, books, and comics. I take no credit, and I do not mean to break any copyright rules. This is simply a work of fiction made for enjoyment. No money is being made.
Rating: T for violence, disturbing imagery, and dark themes
Author's Note: My second Star Wars fic! If you haven't read my first one, check it out "Through Galaxies Far". If you're coming from that one, then thank you so much for sticking with me. This story is set about a year before Rogue One/A New Hope. The main character is an OC named Artemis Nyra (on suggestion from my most loyal reader, stormrunner74, to whom I give a lot of this story credit. Also happy late birthday!). Artemis is different from Minerva/Nyx is many ways, yet she is still strong and independent. So I hope you enjoy this new story!
Chapter 1
Core Worlds Region, Coruscant Subsector, Corusca Sector, Unknown System, 14 BBY
"No one will feel threatened by your presence, and once they discover the crime, they definitely won't suspect you," my father explains. Around us, the market is alive, dominated by middle-class consumers and a few upper-class spectators and tourists. The vendors are all hollering at the top of their lungs, shouting their product and their price. The air smells of a dozen different foods and spices. The smallest sliver of sky is visible through the maze of skyscrapers and walkways and air vehicles.
"What do I do?" I ask, my fingers curled tightly into fists at my sides. I want to please Dad, to make him proud. I want to see his face break into that amazing smile that rivals the sun. I want him to grab me around the waist and twirl me around through the air until I'm laughing so hard it hurts.
But for now, I have to focus on the job ahead. The reward will only come if I succeed.
"Everyone is packed tightly between the stalls and shops, so no one will take mind if you bump into them slightly. But you have to move quickly. Pick an easy target, then move forward, bump into them at the same time you grab it, and then slip it up your sleeve and move away."
"How do I know what an easy target is?" This is a lot to remember, but he's been working with me for the past week. I know I can do it.
"Look for wallets and purses and bags hanging in the open. If you can, judge based on how the people are dressed, but if you have limited options, just go for whatever you can." Father squeezes my shoulder. "You have good instincts. You'll do great."
I can't help chewing on my lip in my nervousness. My hands are shaking, and my palms are getting sweaty, but I need to prove to him that I can do this. "What if I get caught?"
He simply shakes his head. "You won't. Not if you're good. But if you do, run like hell and never look back. Coruscant is a whole planet. If you want to disappear, you can."
Nodding, I square my small shoulders and stare ahead at the market street. I glance back at my father one more time.
"They won't suspect a thing," he promises. "You don't look poor, and you're still very young. You're the perfect person for this job."
He wouldn't say that unless he truly meant it. Taking solace in this, I smile tightly and then start forward, leaving him behind. I don't have to look back to know he's heading back towards our rendezvous point.
Now I'm all on my own, and I'm eager to prove my worth. My eyes scan the crowds, skimming past the different species and different fashions.
My eyes fix upon a twi'lek woman with brightly colored clothes under a long leather coat. Her purse is hanging off her shoulder, and even as I watch she slips her hand inside, unzips a small wallet, and pays cash to a fruit vender for a bag of peaches.
I merge into the crowd, making my way slowly to the same vender. She's making small talk with the owner, and I pretend to examine the fruit as I step closer, my heart racing inside my chest. When I "accidently" bump into her, my hand flashes out and rifles through her purse, clenching the wallet tightly and slipping it up my sleeve. Less that a second later, I mumble an apology as I step away.
She barely spares me a glance, and I continue to skim the rest of what the vender has before merging with the crowd heading up the street.
When I duck into a side alley a quarter of a mile away, I finally release a breath of relief and pull out the wallet. My shaking hands struggle to unzip it, and I'm delighted to see a few hundred Imperial Credits. I didn't just do well: I did amazing.
I slip the money back in and hide the wallet again before racing to meet my father. There's a skip in my step and a lightness in the air - I succeeded. We have enough money to live for the next couple of weeks, and it's all because of me.
Nothing beats the pride I feel now.
Core Worlds Region, Coruscant Subsector, Corusca Sector, Unknown System, 4 BBY*
"Artemis!" The shrill voice of my Abednedo landlord calls. "Artemis! You are two months late on your payment!"
I reluctantly open the door of my apartment to see him standing there, his arms crossed. The ringlets of brown skin hanging from his face jiggle slightly as he shakes his head in disappointment.
"I'm sorry, Novo. I promise I'll get all paid up by the end of the week. I promise." This isn't the first time I've been late with my payments, but it's by far the worst. Novo has been generous so far, but I fear I'm pushing the limits too much this time.
"Two days," he states. "You have two days."
"Two days?" My voice rises up an octave. "Novo, please! I promise I'm trying, but times are hard. If you kick me out, I'll have nothing."
His black eyes are unblinking. "Times are hard for me, too. And I need that money."
"If you give me until the end of the week, I promise I'll pay you back with interest. Just give me a few days extra." I do my best to make my eyes big and begging, but it has no effect. He's unmoving on his deal.
"Two days." He turns to leave, then turns back. "I like you, Artemis. I really do. But I need to pay up to my overseers, and they won't give me extra time."
It's fair, although not ideal. All I can do is nod. "Thank you, Novo. For everything."
He closes the door softly behind him, and it's all I can not to cry right then and there. This apartment has been my home since...since…
Nope. Not going there. The painful memories aren't going to get the best of me. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself and keep the tears away. I can do this. I've been on my own for three years now. This isn't the worst situation I've been in.
Jobs are hard to find in Coruscant, and traveling can be dangerous for young, single girls like myself, so it's been tight. But I know how to get money in a pinch, even if it's sketchy and I feel horrible afterwards.
But what's a few credits to someone else when I'm about to be thrown to the streets?
Okay. How do I get five hundred credits in two days? Obviously I know how, but I have to pick a good location. Money is tight for everyone nowadays, except for the richest, and I don't want to take from someone who is already tight. That leaves the rich elite.
But where can I, a sixteen-year-old girl with no money, inconspicuously run into rich people?
I stand at the grimy window, watching outside at all the people passing by. The pollution has increased exponentially in the past few years, the Emperor's orders for equipment for his army causing the factories to spit out thousands of weapons every week. The toxic air has drifted up from the underworld to infect even the highest levels. Nearly everyone wears masks now.
It's sad what the Empire is doing to this once-beautiful city planet, but I'm not giving up hope. Once the last remains of the Jedi and the rebels are crushed, the Galactic Empire's Army won't need so much equipment and they will be able to focus more inward.
The answer hits me suddenly, and I start to formulate a plan.
The Capital of the Galactic Empire sits on the foundations of what once was the biggest Jedi temple in the galaxy, and what before that was a Sith temple. It's ironic how things come full circle.
The senators still meet at the Capital, although everyone knows Sheev Palpatine - also known as Darth Sidious - is in control of the Council. He still invites the ambassadors and representatives to plead the cases of their planets.
He's really not as bad as everyone makes him out to be. Sure, I don't follow much politics, but he really stepped forward to unite the Republic after the Trade Federation hostilities and Clone Wars. The Jedi had been becoming corrupt and lazy in the last few years of their existence. It was time for a new government order, and Palpatine was the only one with the ambition and sacrifice to make it happen.
The reason I'm here has nothing to do with politics, though. I just happen to have the foresight to know that senators are the one people group not suffering from the war against the rebels currently, along with weapons manufacturers and bounty hunters, and today the Council is meeting. All I have to do is lie in wait for them to emerge from the Capital and then strike quickly and quietly. They won't even know what happened until later this evening, and by then I'll be long gone from the crime scene.
Not my greatest idea, as it turns out. The minutes drag on into hours, and I'm left waiting in a corner, trying not to look suspicious. Patience has never been a virtue of mine, and I'm left tapping my fingers erratically against my thigh, trying not to fidget too much.
It's long past dark when the doors finally open and the senators and their associates spill out of the former Jedi temple. They head towards their airspeeders, which are parked in neat lines along the opposite side of the building.
I have a narrow window to work with. Slipping out of my hiding spot and weaving in between the richly dressed delegates, I bump my way through, my fingers snapping out to grab wallets and slipping them into the satchel at my side.
Before I had started, I had decided to take five. That way, in case one or two of the ambassadors don't carry money on their person, I at least have a backup.
Four are safely stored in my bag without a hitch, and I continue on to the fifth.
My last target is a middle-aged human senator with graying hair and stiff shoulders. When I bump into him and slip my fingers into his pocket to snatch his wallet, he looks down suspiciously.
"Sorry, sir," I mumble, keeping my eyes down and drawing my hand back to my side.
Instead of dismissing me like the rest of them, he reach out and grabs my arm. In spite of myself, I'm forced to look up at him.
He examines me quickly. "You're not a senator," he observes, suspicion coloring his tone. "What are you doing here?"
"Just passing by the Capital, sir," I reply, trying to look as innocent as I can. "I mean no harm."
"Your timing is just suspect, else I would believe you." He stares straight into my eyes, and I fight the temptation to squirm out of his touch and away from his sight. Instead I play the part of the innocent bystander.
"I have a habit of being in the right place at the wrong time," I squeak out. Over the frantic beating of my heart, I can hardly hear my own words.
"What is a young girl doing out past dark?" he continues, his eyes narrowing. "Only the devil's business, I can assume. Do you think you can lure distinguished men into your trap of lust?"
Honestly, yes. Rich men are the lifeblood of that sinful business. But I am not a prostitute, and I'd rather be known as a petty thief than one.
"Sir, I'm not - "
"I'm going to call in the Coruscant authorities on you." He lets go of my arm to reach into his pocket - the same pocket I had swiped his wallet from. If I wasn't scared before, I definitely am now.
The moment he realizes that his wallet is missing is obvious. The moment he connects the theft with me -
I'm already running. Pushing through the crowd of senators and heading straight towards the lines of airspeeders. I can hear shouting behind me, and all I have time to think of is how to escape.
I scan my surroundings. The city is easy to get lost in, but all these people are just a few meters away. I can't outrun everyone. The Capital guards will come soon, and I definitely can't avoid them.
There are no shady alleys to disappear in, not this close to the lifecenter of the planet. The only option I can think of it straight in front of me.
I jump into the cockpit of one of the airspeeders, powering it on quickly. I've never flown an air vehicle before, but it can't be that hard, right?
Wrong. The thrusters lift, all too slowly, and the aircraft hovers for a few precious seconds. I look out over the side to see the Capital guards running my way, the senator pointing towards me.
Right before they reach me, the speeder takes off, heading alongside the basic flight pathway. I take this moment peaceful time to scan the buttons and levers and shifts on the control panel in front of me. I don't understand any of it.
Then I see the green button that says "Autopilot engaged", and I click it off. The guards are going to follow me up here, so I have to get off this path.
Unfortunately, I don't even consider what turning off the autopilot will do.
The speeder plunges downward, dropping towards the city skyscrapers quickly. I slam my foot into a pedal on the right side, and the speeder shoots forward, still angling downwards.
I place my hands on the steering mechanism and pull upwards. The vehicle lurches upwards to a vertical point, and my body, not strapped into the seat, flies out.
Hanging by only my arms from the vehicle, I get a new sense of the feeling of fear. I risk taking one hand off the steering bar to reach for the autopilot button, but it's just a sliver too far.
I get a new sense of the word "panic". My remaining arm is weakening quickly, so I make one last, all-out-energy attempt to pull myself forward and slam my fingertips into the autopilot button. The airspeeder levels itself out, and I hit the side of it hard with my dangling body. My fingers are starting to slip, so I pull myself in, making sure to buckle myself this time.
This time I also prepare myself so that when I hit the autopilot button off, the speeder doesn't go out of control. Minimal movements, I realize, are the key.
I slip the speeder under the flow of traffic and weave through a few buildings. Although it would make perfect sense for me to be terrified after my ordeal with flying, I find a peacefulness in it instead. The city is gorgeous at night from above, and there's something calming about the darkness contrasted with the flickering lights.
Then I hear the sirens in the distance, and I snap out of my trance. I'm not out of this frying pan yet.
I urge the speeder faster, angling down low. I don't know the city as well as I'd like - not that anyone can ever know the city well; it covers a whole planet - but maybe I can find some familiar signs closer to the ground.
A vehicle from above suddenly drops down and levels out next to mine. I look over in alarm, fearing the worst, but a boy about my age looks back at me instead of the guards I am expecting.
"I know how to escape them," he shouts across the wind. "Just get in my speeder."
"Are you crazy?" I reply, shaking my head. There is no way that I am unbuckling again. Last time I almost ended up as a human pancake on the streets of the Underworld.
He looks exasperated, and I turn back to the path in front of me. A second later I glance back his direction, and I'm startled - and horrified - to see he's perched on the edge of his speeder, completely unbuckled.
"What are you doing?" I scream, almost running straight into a stream of traffic.
"What does it look like?" he replies. "I'm jumping into your speeder!"
"No, you're not!" I pull the steering bar down, and my speeder slips underneath his. No sane person would ever make that jump.
A few seconds later there's a noise and the entire speeders shudders and sips downward, the engine sputtering. I frantically pull up on the steering bar, trying to level it out again.
"That wasn't very nice of you," a voice says.
I whip my head around to see the boy, now sitting in the passenger seat. He barely looks winded.
"What the hell?!" I cry, tearing my eyes away from where I'm going.
"Listen, I want to escape just as badly as you do." I look over, and he seems genuine enough. Well, he's already in my speeder now, so might as well make use of him. I'm not just going to toss him over.
"Do you know how to navigate through the city?" I ask, the sirens still just noticeable in the distance.
"No, but I know how to fly, unlike you."
"What do you mean? I'm flying it right now." I try to hold my voice steady, but I've never been a great face-to-face liar.
"Barely. Let me have the controls." He reaches over, and I slap his hand.
"No! I don't trust you."
"That hurts." He pouts a little, but I ignore it. I'm completely justified in my response, and I owe him absolutely nothing.
"Do you blame me?" I angle the steering bar to dive under a walkway. Despite being a safe distance from civilians, the ones on the walkway still jump to the sides.
Every moment I make is lurching, and the boy next to me turns a little green. "Not yet, but if you crash us I'll blame you."
"Do you think it's safe to land?" The sound of the sirens has completely faded out by now, and the city seems no more busy and crazy than normal.
He twists in the seat and scans the night skies. "I think we're clear." After a few more minutes, he notices my hesitation. "Why aren't you landing?"
It's a good question. There is no reason I shouldn't be angling back down to a walkway or the top of a building. But there is just something about seeing the sky up close, the stars washed out by the lights but still closer than ever before. There's a freedom in the feeling of the cool night air whipping through my hair and whispering across my skin. There's a calmness is the way that there's so much space here.
All my life I've lived in the suffocating lower levels of Coruscant, just high enough that I'm not in the Underworld, but still pretty low. This is real freedom here, in the sky, where the wind caresses me and sets me loose. No one can touch me here.
As long as I'm in the sky, I'm untouchable. Uncontrollable.
He wouldn't understand the sentiment, though, so I don't even try to explain. "I don't know how to land," I say instead.
"It's a good thing I jumped on ship," he mutters, then proceeds to walk me through the landing process. As the thrusters slowly lessen and gently drop off on top of a walkway, I finally turn to ask him his story.
"What are you running from?"
"My father. He's really controlling." The boy rolls his eyes. "He wants me to be just like him, but I have different dreams."
Life is ironic. He's running from his father while I would do anything to get my own father back. He has everything I want and yet he doesn't care for it.
"Well, good luck with that," I say, climbing out of the airspeeder. "But just a warning - don't take your father for granted. You will miss him one day."
He looks at me curiously. "What's your story?"
I simply shrug, slinging my satchel over my shoulder. "Not interesting."
He rolls his eyes. "I'm sure it is."
I ignore his comment and check to make sure my treasure is still secure in my bag. When I confirm it is, I start heading off on the walkway.
"Where are you going?" he asks, jogging to catch up.
"Home." He keeps walking alongside me, and I turn, more than exasperated. "You can't come with me, you know."
"Right." He turns, then changes his mind. "I'll just walk with you for a bit."
"I'd prefer if you didn't." He's starting to get on my nerves. What does he even want? We escaped the guards. He can go run off and chase his own dreams now. I have nothing to do with them.
"You're hiding something," he accuses lightly. "Otherwise you wouldn't be so eager to be rid of me."
At this, I stop. "I wouldn't?" I ask, my voice satirical. "Surely, I wouldn't want to go home after a long and tiring day. I definitely wouldn't want to leave behind a random guy who forced me to help him achieve his goals, and is now bugging me continually for absolutely no reason."
He opens his mouth, but I suddenly notice that something's off. I shove my hand across his mouth and scan the surroundings.
He pries my hand away. "What is is?" he whispers.
"Where are all the people?" I ask. He looks around and sees the same thing I do - this walkway is completely empty for hundreds of yards on either side. The areas below and above are at normal activity, but this one is oddly dead.
"What do you think it is?"
I don't have the chance to answer before Imperial Guards emerge from dark corners, weapons trained on us. I raise my hands slightly, palms facing outward. The guy next to me panics.
"I'm not guilty! I haven't done anything, I swear!" he exclaims. I roll my eyes; what a sell-out.
"Zarek!" A man's voice chimes out from behind the wall of guards, and the senator I had robbed pushes through the line. The voice is sharp and commanding and it rings out again. "Zarek Hal Ulev."
The boy, Zarek, hangs his head. "I'm sorry, Father." He doesn't look at me, and I'm glad for it; I probably wouldn't have been able to hold back my anger if he had.
This kid tries to run away, gets me involved, and gets both of us caught. And while he'll just have to go to reform school for a few months or something like that, my consequences will much more severe. What a selfish person.
"I cannot even imagine what you hoped to accomplish if you had escaped." The senator shakes his head. "Go get in the speeder. Now."
Zarek pauses, and now he glances back at me. His father follows his gaze, and when he sees me, he narrows his eyes.
"Allying with a common petty thief, I see," he says, spitting out the words as if they are acid. "It's absolutely refreshing to see what scum the pits of Coruscant can cough up into our laps."
What an arrogant prick. I almost feel bad for Zarek. Almost.
"And it's equally refreshing to see how luxuriously some people are riding out this economic depression, especially at the expense of the middle class." I beam him my biggest smile. He spits to the side.
"You'll be living it out in a prison cell, I presume." He stalks forward, unzips my satchel, and fishes out all the wallets I had stolen. "Actually, you may be riding out the rest of your life in one."
"At least I won't have to see the faces of those who claim to be advocating and working for the common people." The smile never leaves my face, and I can tell it annoys him to no end.
He turns without a word, dragging Zarek behind him. "Come now, son. We have face to repair."
"She isn't going to prison, is she? I forced her into this. It was all my idea!" I don't appreciate Zarek lying on my behalf. I can handle myself. Besides, it seems he's in enough trouble of his own.
"Don't lie. Scum like her deserve their lot in life." The duo disappears from sight, arguing the whole way.
I cross my arms, gazing at the Imperial Guards surrounding me silently. "So what now?" I demand. "Where's my one-way ticket to prison?"
They don't answer me. A few minutes later, an airspeeder lands where the senator's had once been. This is an Imperial speeder, and when the top slides open, a general in all white strides out. The guards part for him, and he approaches me.
"Artemis Nyra," he says, scanning me over. "I've heard much about you in the past few years."
"All bad?" I ask. "Because that's what I was going for."
He shakes his head. "You have spirit. That's the first thing we'll break out of you."
Break out of me? "Excuse me?"
"You are an extremely intelligent girl with much potential. No one, least of all the Empire, wants to see that wasted in a dank prison cell."
"I'm not going to prison?" My brain is slow to connect the dots. He patiently lays it out for me.
"The way I see it, you have two options: you can go to prison for the rest of your life, or you can join the Imperial Army."
The army? "What would I do in the army?"
He smiles tightly. "We're always in need of pilots. You showed good potential on your attempted escape today."
A pilot...All I can think about is how amazing that time in the air felt. Away from the muck, the poverty, the degradation of the bottom where I come from. The sky's the limit, they say, and that's perfectly fine, because the sky is endless.
I can go to prison or I can fly again. There isn't really a choice, is there?
"Where do I sign up?"
*BBY is the measure of time in Star Wars. It stands for Before the Battle of Yavin (the battle where the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star in A New Hope). It counts downwards to zero, which is when the battle took place, and starts going back up as ABY (After the Battle of Yavin). In this story, Artemis is born in 20 BBY, so you can calculate her age in the flashbacks by subtracting 20 from whatever year the flashbacks occur during