A/N: Okay! This is surprising. No really, it's very surprising. It's my first ever fanfiction, ever (discounting all the stuff just lying around in Google Docs that are all incomplete), and I've gotten like, 400+ views! I don't know if that's a little or a lot here but I'm calling that a success!
I'm gonna have to research on this as I go. The EU of Star Wars is massive.
God. Now I have to write this out. I'm just writing up the plot as it goes. I have an idea for the story for like, the next five chapters or so, but beyond that I actually have to think of an overarching plot. There's also school, too. I don't know how hectic it's going to get but it's probably going to get really hectic.
I'll still try to update this as much as I can, but this is a very daunting task.
Hope you enjoy!
Her suit was getting a bit too stuffy at the moment.
Anna felt her cheeks flushing, reddening out of embarrassment. She expected a great deal of other things to be the Bonfath's valued cargo, perhaps a cache of Empire military surplus, or even glitterstim packages. Heck, even Ilum crystals, and no one really even knew what they did, were more likely to be the thing that was valuable enough to get the gang to organize an outright auction.
This, however, went against all her expectations.
The girl wore a red bikini that had a gold metal frame and trimmings, with two long red fabrics extending from the lower piece down to just past her knee, where two decrepit-looking boots rested, secured to her feet. It left nothing to the imagination - every inch of smooth, flawless skin, from her long slender arms to her shapely legs, was left on display for any lecherous individual to feast their eyes upon.
Including Anna herself.
She simply stood still, stuck staring slack-jawed at the blonde. She couldn't help herself. Her eyes just wouldn't tear off of the figure in front of her. Her beauty radiated intensely, like the two suns of the very planet they stood on, and it caught the young bounty hunter off-guard.
The blonde girl just sat there on her side, long slender legs unobscured, staring at Anna with her head tilted, her eyes filled with wonder and curiosity, as if seeing something for the first time ever. Anna stared back with a drastically different sentiment, confusion, astonishment, and awkwardly enough, titillation.
The silence was deafening. Any more of this awkward silence and Anna was going to go mad.
"Uhh...well, umm," Anna stumbled with her words.
Dammit, Anna thought. Stop going stupid at the super sexy lady and do your job.
She managed to tear her gaze off of the woman, albeit with much difficulty, and directed it towards the rest of the interior, or more accurately, the lack of one. The entire ship looked gutted from the inside - its metal framework was exposed, and frayed wires hung from the non-existent ceiling. It looked like a firefight happened inside the ship, and judging from the scorch marks that decorated what little walling the ship had left, it wasn't such a far-fetched notion.
Anna took a tentative step forward. A shuffling sound drew her attention back to the scantily-clad woman who was now slowly shifting away from the armed and armored girl, or at least trying to. It was only now that Anna realized that the woman was chained to fixtures on the wall behind her. A long metal chain link was attached to the collar on her neck, with similar binds to her wrists and ankles. They were long enough to allow her full movement of her arms and legs, but too short for her to do anything else.
The bounty hunter immediately stopped, sheathing her vibroblade and lowering down in an attempt to look as nonthreatening as possible. "Whoa, whoa, hey. It's alright. I'm not here to hurt you."
"Are you my new master?"
The question threw her for a loop. "What?"
"Are you my new master?" She asked again, her tone of voice indeterminable.
"What do you, um..." Anna almost got distracted again. "What do you mean?
"My last master forbade me from making contact with anyone else other than him," she stated nonchalantly, as if it were a regular occurrence for her. "I would like to know if you are my new master, so that my standing orders may be nullified."
"Master, orders..." Anna said softly. "You're a slave?"
In retrospect, it was quite obvious. All the signs were there: the chains, the cuffs, and the outfit that generously showcased her... assets.
"What is a slave?" She asked before Anna could get sidetracked. "The others I have served with have kept on calling me that, but I do not know what it means."
For a brief moment, there was no sound, no words, no idle noises, nothing. The slow comprehension of the facts given gradually gave way to horror.
She doesn't know, Anna realized. She doesn't know she's a...
Anna did everything in her power to prevent herself from marching right down the ramp and shoot every Dar Bonfath member she could see. She was livid. This was an unforgivable transgression. The girl was treated as property, something lower than the insects under a man's boot, and she didn't know that such an inhumane act was being committed against her.
It all made sense: her calmness despite her restraints and attire, her apathy despite essentially being living cargo to be sold off at the highest bidder.
"So you don't know," Anna uttered faintly, slowly making her way in front of the shackled woman. "You don't know any life other than this?"
She was bewildered, and Anna's heart ached at the sight of her genuine bewilderment. "What else is there? I'm to serve, I'm to be sold, I'm to serve again."
At that moment, Anna made up her mind.
She would get her out of here.
"You passed the test," Anna declared suddenly, hoping to sound convincing enough to the slave girl.
She looked uncertain. "What test, and what for, if I may?"
"My...err, secret test. Yeah," Anna said, trying to sound convincing even to herself. "I'm actually your new owner," she added, withholding her guilt at her choice of words.
The slave girl was in a daze for a moment, before she reacted. "Very well," she simply said, immediately standing up and giving Anna an even more complete look at her body.
The bounty hunter was very, very distracted. "Hoo-kay," she remarked, coughing.
She stood up at full height, and she looked to be a third of a head taller than Anna, with a slim figure and curves that only underscored her attire.
"What is your bidding, master," she said, with her hands clasped in front of her. Anna didn't miss the flinch of her fingers
Anna gave out an extended exhale. "Well, first of all, it's actually mistress, not master."
"Oh?"
Her brow furrowed. "I don't sound like a boy, do I?"
"Oh! No, no," Elsa hastily said. "it's just that your face is covered, and all my previous masters were male. You moved differently from all the other women I've seen, too, so I simply assumed you had a high pitched voice."
"Ah," Anna understood. "Well, Yes, I'm a girl." She began to pull down her hood and scarf.
When she finished, the slave girl finally got a good look at Anna's face. In all honesty, she didn't expect that. The bounty hunters she usually saw interacting with her past masters were either ugly, with burns and marks dotting their already unattractive face, or just simply indiscernible, covered with helmets or any other similar gear.
The latter was true for the one in front of her, but she usually never saw their face if that were the case - they valued their relative anonymity too much to do that. And then suddenly, here was one who did just that.
And she was surprised. She'd gathered from the voice that she was young, but not that young-looking. She had to be around her late teens at the least, early twenties at the most. Red hair braided into pigtails hung lazily down each side of her face, which was dotted with freckles on lightly tanned skin. Her green eyes stared at her with an unfamiliar look - it almost looked like...concern?
The bounty hunter cleared her throat. "Hi! I'm Anna."
She extended her gloved hand towards her, and the slave looked at it in confusion. "Umm, Elsa."
Elsa, Anna thought. What a pretty name.
She then realized that Elsa was clueless as to what to do with the hand she just offered. "Oh, uhh." Anna grabbed Elsa's right hand, bringing it into her own and clasping it. "You're supposed to shake my hand."
"I'm... afraid I don't follow."
"You two!"
Both of them jumped at the same time, and Anna dropped into a kneel, immediately training her blaster pistol on the entrance of the ship.
Moments passed, and no one entered the ship. Anna was ready to throw her last remaining thermal detonator at whoever was outside when another voice sounded out.
"Hey! It's time to sell the girl," the voice resounded. "You two better get off your asses and bring her over to the stage right now or I'll go over there and kill you two myself."
Anna breathed a sigh of relief, lowering her blaster. "Stay here," she said to Elsa. "I'll check outside."
"Yes, mistress." Anna exited the ship. The sound came from under the ramp, and she saw the comlinks of the two deceased guards still on. She had just grabbed one of them when a voice spoke again.
"I'm sending T'sak and his crew to pick the girl up - just get her ready. Don't damage the goods."
Uh oh, Anna realized. We're going to have company.
Elsa just stood, following her mistress's last orders. She was an odd one. Most of her masters just did away with the pleasantries, barking orders at her and basically just doing whatever they wanted with their property.
Her fingers twitched at a memory she couldn't quite recall.
Anna was different from the get-go. She showed concern at the very start, putting away her weapon and reassuring her. Most didn't even bother - they just did whatever they wished with whatever was in their hand at that time.
She looked at the hand the red-headed bounty hunter just held, remembering the warm sensation she felt as she gently held it.
Suddenly, a series of frantic footsteps snapped her out of her reverie. She looked up and saw Anna running towards her. The redhead stopped suddenly, remembering something she forgot.
"Oh, right. The chains."
With one swift motion, she drew the blade sheathed at the back of her belt and slashed at her restraints. The metal links fell, hitting the floor with a resounding clink.
"Elsa, listen to me." Anna said, her voice commanding. "I need you to stay close to me and keep your head down. There are people coming to hurt you and I, and I need you to keep up as best you can. Do you think you can do that?"
The blonde was puzzled. Why would it matter if she could keep up? The only thing that mattered was that she could comply with any and all orders given to her, so why would she ask something like that? "Yes, mistress."
"Good." She pulled up her hood and scarf, once again covering her entire face save for her green eyes. "Also, don't call me mistress. Call me Anna. As far as I'm concerned, we're equals."
"Oh. Alright then… Anna."
Elsa couldn't tell under the all coverings, but she must've seen her cheeks move upwards in a smile. "Great. Follow me and stay low." She began to hastily move towards the cockpit of the derelict ship, keeping a hand on Elsa's back and bringing the slave girl along with her.
Don't you dare think about it, don't you dare think about it, Anna repeated over and over like a mantra, trying to distract herself from the soft feeling of Elsa's skin on her finger tips.
They got to the cockpit, and she motioned for Elsa to keep her head below the windows. With her body hunched down, she looked at the screens, switches, and levers that dotted the console in front of her. She found what she was looking for: a ship-board transceiver.
Entering the codes and frequency of the homing beacon, she received Nassad's location: a large stage in the middle of the literal black market. It was in full view - thanks to the inclined slope of the entire landscape, she had full range of vision on almost all the footpaths that were perpendicular to the ship, and not to mention the entirety of the stage.
It was crowded. A large gathering had come together surrounding the stage, no doubt in anticipation of the auction about to happen. She spotted a familiar scarred Chistori pacing around on the floorboards of the rickety stadium.
The view was perfect, no obstacles, and a straight sight picture. It was an opportunity she couldn't waste.
Anna pulled out the hunting rifle, loading it with a magazine and pulling back the bolt, chambering a bullet. Hefting the stock to rest against her shoulder, she took aim, looking through the scope she'd slapped on it as a modification.
The scope was supposed to be digital, designed to interface with a longbarrel blaster and provide the user with accurate distance readouts and targeting systems. It wasn't, however, designed for 'primitive' slugthrowers like the Tof Soren, and therefore she was forced to rely on the old-fashioned analog function of a simple crosshair. Not that Anna minded, of course. She'd hit her target more than she'd miss one, even with the slug's travel time and drop.
Her crosshair was focused on her target: just a bit above Nassed's head. With her mark already acquired, Anna pulled out a detonator from one of the pouches of her outfit.
On the way here as she walked through the area open to the public, pushing through all sorts of people from all walks of life looking for something illegal to buy, she managed to place two of her thermal detonators on two different supply areas of two different vendors. They both sold unlicensed munitions, which would make a huge mess when she'd blow them up. Hopefully everyone would attribute it to the faulty quality of their wares, and cause enough confusion for her to take out as much gang members as she could at a distance before having to get up close and personal.
With her gun and detonator at the ready, Anna exhaled, calming her breath and steadying her sway, waiting for the perfect moment.
Nassad was getting very irritated.
The crowd was getting impatient, and he didn't have time for this. Those bumbling idiots there at the ship guarding their precious cargo haven't even responded to his orders. He was standing there on the stage, with his (figurative) tail between his legs and still no slave girl in sight.
Dammit, he thought to himself. Those incompetent asswipes. I'm going to have their asses after this.
He pulled out his comlink. "T'sak, are you there yet? They're not responding."
"Just got into the private area. We're gonna get the girl soon. Calm yourself, you horndog."
"Kiss my ass," Nassed spat back. "I just want to get the money and get this over with."
"Soon, boss. Soon."
The chistori growled, switching off his comlink.
It was a stroke of luck. They were simply on a regular raiding run, and they came across a lone YT-1200 light freighter headed towards Tatooine. It had no escort, no weapons, nothing. It was virtually a sitting duck, ripe for the picking.
And pick they did.
After disabling the ship with an ion cannon, they boarded it. The raid was simple enough. They shot up everyone in the ship. Most died instantly, and the ones who didn't were promptly sent over to the superfreighter as fresh meat for the members who got 'antsy' while out on their runs.
To their surprise, the ship carried nothing of value - not initially, anyways. It held no spices, no illicit arms, nothing for them to use nor sell.
Then they saw a box in the corner. When they pried it open, their feelings on the entire raid being a waste immediately turned around.
The girl was a work of art in and of itself, with a beauty like a goddess and an outfit like a brothel worker. They'd have taken her for their own personal use when they noticed what she wore.
Once they got past the salaciousness of the outfit, they realized just who exactly they discovered. That red and gold harness was iconic and unique among the criminal underbelly of the galaxy - the only one who wore it was the slave owned by…
Suddenly, their minds were off of possible physical relations, and on possible monetary profits. They'd make a lot of credits if they sold her to the right people.
And so the Dar Bonfath organized the entire bazaar. Criminal figures from various territories flocked together for this one event. It was fascinating, seeing all these people gather together for this one girl, but then again he had to admit, she was very pleasing to the eye.
Suddenly, his comlink began to sound off.
"What now, T'sak," he said into the comlink.
"Boss, we just found one of our patrols unconscious!"
Before Nassed could even utter a response, a large explosion from a nearby stand threw him off his feet.
He landed on his back, disoriented and ears ringing - a fact that wasn't helped by the sudden frenzy of everyone surrounding him.
Another explosion shook the earth, vibrating against the wooden planks that made the stage floor. Crowds dissolved, everyone ran for their lives, and the shouts echoed across the entire place, turning the entire market into one big amalgamation of sound.
He rolled over, pushing himself up in an attempt to get back on his feet. He heard the recognizable sound of a weapon discharging.
Nassad looked up, and he was no more.
Through her scope, she saw scarred Chistori fall down dead with a hole in his head.
Anna knelt there, trigger and detonator untouched with a shocked expression on her face.
Elsa looked at her from below the console, clueless as to what was going on and what the loud noises were.
She looked back at her, surprised and more than a bit worried. "That was not me."
The surprise only increased as more explosions rocked the ground, and blaster bolts began to rain down from the cliffs above.
