Chapter 2

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." – Ancient proverb.

Location: hyperspeed aboard the Dragon's Keep

Time: 7:42 AM (Coruscant time)

Emisa came out from the pleasantness of unconsciousness with a throbbing in her head. She grunted in pain as she grasped her temples in an attempt to ease the pain. After the pounding receded slightly she relished in the warmth that permeated her body. She opened her eyes and looked down to see herself clothed in some soft gray pajamas and matching slippers.

"What is this…?" she muttered aloud as she realized that she was fully dressed for the first time in years. She got up slowly and bumped her head on the bunk above her; letting out a small curse before standing up fully. The soreness in her muscles caused her to stretch automatically as she looked around the crew quarters she was in. 'I'm on a ship,' she thought to herself as she felt the thrum of a hyperdrive through her feet. 'Now to figure out where I'm going…'

She walked over to the door seal, her eyes widened in surprise when she found that the door was completely open. Peering cautiously around the seal, she moved quietly down the corridor into what she guessed was the main compartment of the ship. In the middle there was a holoprojector with curved seats arranged around it. "Must be for meetings," she mused. All other doors she could see were closed tight, so she creeped over to another corridor she spotted on the far side of the room. She carefully made her way down it and came across a side room that had its door open, as if it was inviting her in. She went inside and found a single bunk and a desk to the left of the door.

What caught her attention however was a dark helmet sitting on the desk that seemed to be looking at her. Its visage was familiar to her for some reason and she felt drawn to it. She walked to it and picked it up gingerly; examining it from all angles. An odor wafted out and she took a deeper breath to identify it; it smelled of a soft soap with a mixture of metal and fire. As she lowered it from her face, a shadow appeared on the wall in her peripheral vision and she snapped around to see an armored man leaning against the door seal. She guessed it was the owner of the helmet when she saw his dark armor with red lines almost glistening in the soft light.

"Hello there," he said with a warm smile on his face. "You like the helmet?" At his words she froze and didn't respond. He chuckled slightly and reached out to her and she flinched. He stopped moving when he saw her reaction. "Can I have it back please?" She quickly tossed it at him as if it burned her hands and he caught it deftly. "Thank you." She dropped to her knees and bowed down to the armored man while holding her hands clasped together.

"Please master! Forgive me! I had no idea that was your possession and I shouldn't have left my room! Please just-"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Calm down; I'm not your master Emisa," said the man as he put his hands up. She looked up with tears in her eyes and sniffed slightly.

"Then who is?"

"You are your own master now Emisa; you're free!" he said. Emisa burst into more sobbing and looked back down. "Fierfek… please don't cry Emisa," said the man as he knelt down in front of her. He wrapped his arms around her carefully and pulled her closer to himself. "Shhh…" she continued crying into his chest for a few more minutes before the tears slowly subsided. While still in his embrace she felt warmth coming off his armor in waves. She pushed off of him and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"Are you the one who burnt down the club?" she asked suddenly, making the man laugh.

"Oh, so you were conscious for that bit, eh? Yeah that was me; although I didn't mean to burn it down." A ghost of a smile played on her lips before it was forced off and she stood up. "My name is Zakry by the way," he said as he mirrored her movements.

She barely registered what he said when she turned back towards the desk that had just beeped. She squinted at it and saw that an alert had popped onto the display with her name highlighted in the subject bar. She looked over the screen, her eyes widening as she looked at almost a dozen files open with her name plastered everywhere.

"What is this?" she asked quietly.

"I had to dig up a bit of information on you before I could find you," he replied. "It took me about three standard weeks to compile all the relevant data and then another week to physically track you down." Emisa turned back to Zakry with a look of suspicion on her face.

"Why did you want to find me?" she asked with an edge in her voice. He didn't seem fazed by her tone and continued.

"To give you a chance to get back at your sister for selling you into slavery all those years ago," he said, his voice shifting into a darker tone. "To have your revenge." Emisa stood there with her mouth agape as Zakry's words processed in her mind. Not only had this stranger freed her, but gave her a chance to reap revenge against her sister.

Emisa's mind went back to the day her father had died almost ten years ago. All she could remember was that she was crying heavily and that some big men had been ordered by her sister to sell her to a passing slave merchant. She didn't know why she had done it, she suspected her sister had hated her since birth. She couldn't properly recall a lot of the abuse her sister had dished out on her because most of the time she was unconscious. Her thoughts came back to the present when Zakry waved his hand in front of her face.

"You ok?" he asked carefully. She shook her thoughts clear and nodded.

"Yeah I'm ok, I'm going to go back to bed for a while…" she said moving past him.

"Alright then," he said. He walked her back to the starboard crew quarters and stopped at the threshold. "This whole section is yours for as long as you want," he started. "And if you decide that you just want to disappear we can set you up with whatever you need. Just say the word and it's yours." All Emisa could do was stand there in stunned silence as more and more blessings were poured onto her.

"I'll think about it," she managed to finally say.

"That's all I ask," he said.

After teaching Emisa how to lock her door, Zakry walked back into the midsection of the ship and activated the intercom. "Ok everybody, she's awake. You can all come out now."

Several doors opened up at the same time revealing some more of the Keep's crew. Jadoran walked out of his room dressed in his dark gray undersuit and his green blade-launching armguards. Cristrik came out of the cockpit wearing loose short pants and a tank top; and Celeste, the only female on the crew at the moment, was wearing her full armor minus the helmet.

"Thank the maker… Cristrik kept trying to seduce me…" said Celeste casting an annoyed glance towards Cristrik.

"Hey I was just giving you a few compliments on your incredibly… fit, physique," he said waving his arms in a surrendering manner. "It's not my fault you can't take a compliment." Jadoran sighed explosively and facepalmed.

"Can I shoot him now?" he asked into his hand.

"No not yet, we still have to land, answered Zakry smiling.

"Please?"

"No."

"You're no fun…"

Zakry laughed and sat down on one of the curved seats by the holoprojector and began sifting through various files.

"Anything you guys wanna do on Mandalore before we head out again?" he asked.

"I need to see Rafel for my rifle," said Jadoran as he took another seat. "Damn thing misfires if I put the magazine in too hard."

"That's what she said," said Cristrik waggling his eyebrows.

"I swear on the emperor's black bones if you say anything sexual again in my presence I will cut off your precious manhood with a rusty garden knife," said Celeste as she went over to the port side crew quarters. "Zakry, you better get Emisa sorted soon because I cannot bunk in the same section as Cristrik for much longer."

"Just make him sleep in the cockpit, he does that naturally anyways," said Zakry. Cristrik frowned at him.

"You will never let that die will you?"

"Nope."

"You guys suck, I'm going back to my baby, who loves me for me," he said as he turned towards the cockpit.

"She only loves you 'cause you spend money on her!" called Jadoran. The bulkhead door slammed shut and he chuckled. "And I thought my obsession with my rifle was bad… he treats the ship like it's a living being." Zakry smiled and went back to perusing his files. After a bit of time had passed Jadoran looked over at Zakry. "What are you doing?"

"Looking through some… 'Easy' jobs to do so we can break in Emisa."

"You sure we should do that? I mean, she hasn't received any sort of training…"

"That's where we come in. We'll give her some basic courses on weapons handling and self-defense. Besides… she's already killed a few times…" said Zakry quietly.

"What…? When?" asked Jadoran as he leaned forward.

"A couple years back the drugs they were keeping her on wore off too quickly. She managed to break free and kill three slavers before they tranquilized her. She killed three Trandoshan slavers Jadoran, you and I both know that those guys can be a bitch to take down." Jadoran let out a low whistle.

"Well then… they were either incompetent, or she was an animal. I hope for her sake that she is the ladder," he said sitting back in his seat.

"You and I both vod…"

author's note: hello there, no amount of apologies can make up for how long I have taken in updating. its my fault, and i will try to do better. from now on assume its going to take a while, i have an full class schedule right now and my computer is broken so it will be some time before my next update. the story is not on hiatus, its just going to be long periods of time before new chapters. i hope you all enjoyed this.

Atiniir everybody.