The regular hum of lightsaber strikes sang across the otherwise quiet meadows of Lothal. The smuggling ship known as the Silver Owl sat peacefully in the swaying grass, and on top of it, Eda Clawthorne swung her lightsaber at Luz Noceda, who quickly backed away, blocking with her vibroblade.

"Stay in the moment… Don't think about what I'm going to do, feel for it through the Force…" Eda coached, as she struck. "Footing! Footing!"

Luz registered Eda's latest advice a second too late, as her ankle struck an uneven component of the ship's roof, and she fell backwards. Eda pointed the tip of her purple blade at Luz's nose, mockingly.

"Well, you just got your head cut off." She teased, before deactivating her weapon, and helping Luz to her feet.

"Well it's not like I was gonna win, anyway…" Luz joked, defensively. "I know I kept nagging you to teach me lightsaber forms, but I don't think I'll ever beat an actual Jedi with them…"

She blushed as she imagined how impressed Amity would be, if Luz was ever able to best her in swordplay, without resorting to glyph-based trickery.

Eda sat down on the edge of the ship and produced a bottle of wine from one of her jacket pockets. "Ahhh Jedi schmedi…" She scoffed. "You wouldn't be the first Force Adept I met, who could go toe to toe with one of those nerds."

Eda's choice of words reminded Luz of a similar reference Eda had made, after Luz rescued her from the Coruscant Jedi temple. Luz lay down on her front, next to Eda, and kicked her legs, playfully.

"Are you talking about the Bounty Hunter who stole your heart?" She asked, teasingly, but curious nonetheless. "The one you said you'd tell me about?" She hinted.

Eda glared at Luz. "Do you wanna learn how to use a lightsaber, or do you wanna learn personal stories about my love life?" She challenged.

"Both?" Luz pleaded, with a big grin.

Eda rolled her eyes. "Alright fine, come on, get up."

The two prepared their weapons again, and as they struck in unison, Eda recalled another duel, of equally low stakes, so many decades ago.

-x-x-x-

In the courtyards of the Coruscant Jedi temple, a teenage Lilith Clawthorne leapt high and struck downwards with her gleaming green lightsaber, only to find her blow blocked by her sister's purple blade. Eda span clear of Lillith's weapon and retaliated from her blind spot, only to be narrowly parried, herself. The two sisters struck, dodged and parried, seemingly evenly matched, as their duel continued.

Several minutes into the duel, the victor was still anyone's guess. Lilith struck at Eda's defence, hoping to overpower her, but before the blades met, a breeze lifted Eda's sleeve, revealing a glint of metal, which had the effect of draining all power from Lillith's strike. Surprised by the weakened attack, but not so much that she was going to pass on an opening, Eda struck at her sister, and Lillith's loosely-held lightsaber was struck out of her hand and sent spinning through the air, and onto the grass.

Eda's confident smirk only lasted a second, before it was replaced by a concerned frown. "You okay Lil?" She asked, before tracking Lillith's conflicted gaze to Eda's right arm. "Oh…" Eda pulled her sleeve up, revealing her robotic arm.

It had been a month, since Eda and Lillith's last duel, in which Eda had relentlessly teased and taunted her sister. In a textbook example of padawan naivety, Lilith had let the insults get the best of her, and had gotten increasingly frustrated, and fought with her full strength, resulting in Eda's accidental dismemberment. It was only after extensive counselling from the Jedi masters, that Lillith was prepared to pick up her weapon again.

"Lilly… you don't need to worry about this…" Eda insisted, earnestly. "I guess we both kinda screwed up in that fight… but we both learned from it, and now I can pick my nose, without getting gunk under my fingernails!"

She shoved a metallic digit up her nostril, forcefully demonstrating her point, and inciting a groan of disgust, and a reluctant smile, from her sister.

Lilith's levity didn't last long, her sombre frown soon returned. "Thanks Eda… But I don't know if I'll ever be able to use my full power again…"

Both Clawthorne sisters jumped, as an unannounced spectator intervened. "Great power, you both possess…"

They turned, to find Master Yoda, sitting on one of the courtyard's benches. Given his relaxed position- reclining slightly, with his walking cane resting at his side, the Clawthorne's assumed the diminutive master had been there for some time.

"Scared of this power, are you, young one?" Yoda added, facing Lilly. "Influenced by fear… a great Jedi is?" He smirked, as if to assure them, that his criticism was well-meaning.

Lilith quickly bowed, to greet the master. Eda didn't. "I know I shouldn't act on fear, master." Lilith replied. "But a Jedi shouldn't seek out power either…" She argued, half-heartedly, knowing what Yoda was going to say.

"Already yours, this power is. Wielding responsibly, utilising for the protection of others- the Jedi way, this is."

"Well, nothin' more responsible than sitting around the temple, letting my arm go rusty…" Eda scoffed, stretching her arms, in demonstration.

Yoda smirked again, this time seeming to challenge Eda's confidence. "Still believe you are ready for your first missions as padawans, do you?"

This was a topic Eda mentioned to her masters often. Her enthusiasm had slowed slightly, with the loss of her arm, but not stopped.

"Well yeah…" Eda said, her confidence wavering only slightly. "It's not like I'm gonna run into someone out there as tough as Lilly."

"Agree with you… the council does." Yoda said.

Lilith gasped quietly. "Master… does that mean…?"

"A mission for you, the council has."

The Clawthornes' sour mood quickly lifted and they both grinned excitedly, Lilith making a slight effort to compose herself.

"We won't let you down, master!" She insisted.

"Sure of that, I am." Yoda assured her, warmly. "Tomorrow morning, to Correlia, you must go. The target of multiple thefts, a shipping yard there is. Protect a shipment, for the Coruscant senate, you must."

"A shipment…?" Eda scoffed, with a critical eyebrow raised.

Even though she was excited for her first mission, Eda would never miss an opportunity to slip an underhanded criticism to the Jedi masters, and she knew there were only two things Correlia was known for exporting, and one of them was spaceships.

"Weapons and ammunition for the Coruscant guard." Yoda elaborated. "A problem, is this?"

"Of course not, master." Lilith hastily interjected. "We'll start preparing immediately!"

True to Lillith's word, both she and her normally more aloof sister wasted no time in studying the layout and vulnerabilities of the spaceport they'd be guarding, practising their duelling forms some more, and fine-tuning their lightsabers. They spent a restless night in their sparse chambers, and the following morning, rented a small shuttle, to fly to the distant, industrial world.

Consulting a data pad with the mission's full details on it, the Clawthornes landed their ship, a few landing bays away from the one they'd be protecting, checked in with the foreman of the bay in question, and then took their defensive position on the roof.

Like Coruscant, Correlia was a planet-wide city, with metal and smoke everywhere you looked, and nary a plant to be seen. The landing bay they were protecting was one of many dirt-floored, circular holes in a seemingly endless expanse of grey buildings. In the middle of the landing bay, was a large freighter ship, into which several bulky loader droids were pushing large crates, hovering just above the ground.

Eda sat on the edge of the upper level, watching the ship, dangling her legs beneath her, while Lillith stood sharply to attention, behind her, her eyes darting between what she deemed the most likely points of origin for thieves. The landing bay was surrounded by large, automated laser turrets, so an assault from above seemed unlikely.

"Can you believe this Lil?" Eda scoffed. "Our first mission is guarding a bunch of weapon boxes…"

Lillith rolled her eyes. "I know you'd prefer something more exciting, but…"

"I don't care if it's boring…" Eda interrupted, somewhat untruthfully. "I'm saying the masters are a bunch of hypocrites. How many times have they told us not to start fights, or that weapons don't solve problems?"

"These weapons aren't for the Jedi…" Lillith argued, dismissively.

"No, they're for the Republic, who gave the Jedi a huge palace and let them do whatever they want, and call on them for security guards." Eda retorted, sarcastically. "The difference between the Jedi and the Republic seems arbitrary at best…"

Lilith chose not to engage Eda any further, and focussed on her lookout, until a moment later, when she noticed the bushy, orange folds of her sister's hair, starting to stir, despite the still air. Fearing some nesting creature had taken refuge in her sister's locks (not for the first time), Lilith reached out through the Force, and pulled the thing free, revealing a small, bipedal droid, and prompting a frustrated cry from Eda, as several of her hairs snagged in its joints.

"Eda!" Lilith criticised. "You brought your toy droid with you!? Can you please take this mission more seriously?"

Eda disentangled BD11 from her hair, and held him on her lap. "He's a utility droid!" She argued, petting him affectionately. "You never know when you'll need one!"

Eda's fondness for her droid made it very doubtful that her reason for bringing him was purely practical, but again, Lilith didn't see the benefit in another argument.

The sisters sat in silence for several more minutes. Down below, the droids were carrying the final boxes into the ship. Without a word between them, or a sign of approaching thieves, Eda and Lillith stared at the ship, anxiously, knowing that if an attack came, it would almost certainly come once the ship was full.

Sure enough, a warning sign promptly arrived, although it was the last thing either sister would have expected. From the landing bay speakers, the rapid chords of violin music began to play. The music was quick and tense, the likes of which one might hear in a movie, during a chase or fight scene. Eda and Lillith looked to the landing bay control room, through the window of which, they could see the foreman, frantically pressing buttons, before looking up at them, and shrugging.

The mystery of where the music was coming from, solved itself quickly. With the quiet hum of rocket boots, barely audible over the music, a human fell from the sky, flipping dramatically with a flourish of their tailcoat, and coming to a stop, hovering in the air, before the Jedi. They had dark skin and turquoise hair, the formal attire of a high-class musician, a red, winged mask obscuring the upper half of their face, and a violin resting on their shoulder, on which they swiped a bow with the confidence of a master Jedi with their sabre.

"G… Greetings Jedi!" They cried, their confident bellow foiled prematurely, by a nervous stammer. "It is… erm… with great humility that I greet you, and great remorse that I must confess... confess that I'll be taking these weapons!" Their music quietened as they spoke, but they continued to play.

With a serious frown, and a wave of her hand, Lilith telekinetically separated the thief's bow from the violin, and with a another firm gesture, dragged the thief out of their air, to the landing bay roof, where they fell to their knees.

"And how do you imagine you'll be doing that?" She asked, with a cruel smirk.

The musician grinned smugly, as though they'd hoped Lillith would ask something like that. "Well, we figured our first move should be a big distraction." They said, with a wink.

Lilith loosened her grip, and looked around in a panic, although not daring to take her eyes off the thief for long. The whistle of small rockets heralded the next stage of the thieves' plan, and with an ear-splitting boom, the landing bay's laser turrets were engulfed in flames, and blown to pieces. The Clawthornes quickly followed the thin vapour trails in the air, to a newcomer, who'd just come through the landing bay entrance. They were a short, thin individual, bearing a still smoking rocket launcher, which they dropped, now that it had served its purpose. The person's species, age and gender remained a mystery, because they were clad in a full suit of Mandalorian armour.

"Is that… a Mandalorian warrior!?" Eda cried in disbelief.

"Of course not…" Lilith scoffed. "There's no such thing as a Mandalorian warrior anymore. They must have stolen that suit from a museum…"

Just as Lillith had feared, taking her eyes off the musician for as long as she did proved unwise. From under their coat, they threw a handful of modified sonic grenades, at the Jedi's feet. Rather than exploding, the devices emitted a solid, pitch perfect cry, which served as backing chords, when they re-armed themself with their violin.

"No talking during the performance, please!" They smirked, their voice booming from the sonic devices.

Daring to take her hands off her ears, Eda struck with her lightsaber, aiming to cut the musician's cursed instrument in two, but to her astonishment, they retaliated with the violin's bow, the frequency of which repelled the Jedi weapon, just like a vibroblade. Eda struck a few times more, with equally poor results, before having to shield her ears again.

Eda turned to the shoulder BD-11 was perched on and, hoping he could hear her, or at least read her lips, yelled, "PROTECT THE SHIP!"

While the Jedi fought on the roof, the Mandalorian was sprinting into the ship, and BD-11 promptly leapt to the rescue. He fell down to the landing bay floor, where a loader droid had powered down, having completed its task. BD-11 landed on the loader's shoulder, and jammed one of his feet into the port at the back of its neck. At the utility droid's command, the loader droid rose to its feet, and charged into the ship.

As the bulky droid charged through the ship's corridors, the vessel began to tremble, as the engines were engaged, ready for take off. With renewed urgency, BD-11 had his steed race faster, eventually bursting into the small cockpit, where the Mandalorian was almost finished preparing the ship to depart. They rounded on the droid, as they entered.

"Huh… creative little guy, aren't you?" He noted.

The Mandalorian's voice was one of a human, teenage boy, not much older than Eda.

Incapable of returning the thief's pleasantries, BD-11 had the droid attack. It threw a punch, which the Mandalorian ducked clear of, before drawing a pistol from his belt, he tried to aim it at the droid, but it grabbed his wrist before he could, and punched his helmet with its other hand, to little effect. The Mandalorian retorted by kicking the loader droid's knee, causing it to stumble, and release his hand, freeing him to attack, before it recovered, riddling its torso with laser fire.

As the loader droid fell, BD-11 jumped from it, to the Mandalorian's helmet, which he promptly electrocuted. The Mandalorian cried out in pain, but demonstrated the legendary fortitude associated with his armour, and stayed on his feet, grabbed the utility droid, and threw it at the wall, where its casing cracked, and it fell, motionless, to the floor.

Back on the roof, the musician was proving to be infuriatingly evasive. Any attack from the Jedi was either blocked with the violinist's bow, or dodged or weaved clear of. Lilith charged, dangerously close to losing her temper again, and struck with her lightsaber. The musician blocked with her bow, and Lillith pushed harder, hoping to overpower them in a sabre lock, little knowing it was exactly what her foe hoped she would do. With their free hand, the musician drew a small blaster and fired a stun shot at the Jedi's unprotected torso, knocking her out in a second.

With an irritated frown, Eda switched strategies, to a tactic which, in retrospect, she should have tried earlier. Calling through the Force, she lifted the still shrieking sonic devices into the air, and crushed them, silencing them with a burst of sparks. Then, she threw each one at the musician, like a series of cannonballs. The musician leapt clear of the first, and ducked the second. Eda aimed the third at their feet, forcing them to leap backwards and stumble slightly, compelling them to block the final device with their bow. As Eda predicted, the thin musical instrument snapped on contact with the missile, finally freeing Eda to lunge with her lightsaber, slicing their violin in two.

The musician cried out in alarm and stumbled backwards, coming to a halt and windmilling their arms, to avoid falling into the loading bay. They didn't dare step forwards, to safety, as Eda pointed her blade at them, threateningly.

Below them, the ship started to rise into the air. Eda looked at it in horror, realising that both their mission and BD-11 were in jeopardy. Seeing their opportunity, the musician leapt backwards towards the ship, engaging their rocket boots and launching a salvo of stun blasts at Eda, who was helpless to do anything but deflect the glowing, circular blasts, as the thief flew into the ship's open landing door, before it accelerated upwards, and vanished into the sky.

-x-x-x-

Hundreds of light years away, in a remote, isolated region of space, in the heart of an ominous, red nebula, the stolen ship was parked on an unnamed asteroid. Nearby, was a looming castle, made of dark, black stone. It would take a keene eye and an enthusiasm for history, to recognise the architecture of the Sith of the Old Republic. A team of bipedal droids carried to weapons into the castle, while the Mandalorian and the musician concluded their business.

"I had my doubts about hiring a bounty hunter…" The Mandalorian said. "But you proved yourself useful. You should expect to hear from us again, Whispers." He handed the musician a case, containing the sum of credits they'd agreed upon.

"Call me Raine." Raine Whispers said, accepting the case. "You weren't so bad yourself, for a history nerd in cosplay… What did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't." The Mandalorian said, bluntly. He gestured to Raine's ship, parked nearby. "I've erased the navigation history on your ship, and programmed in the coordinates of Nar Shaddaa. Do me a favour, and don't try to find out where we are."

With that, the Mandalorian followed the droids into the castle, leaving Raine to depart. His footsteps echoed eerily, as he crossed the threshold, and navigated cavernous hallways, lit by ghoulish stained glass windows, depicting ravenous beasts and sinister, masked figures. Eventually, he arrived in an enormous hall, in the heart of the castle. Towering pillars surrounded the chamber, many of them crumbling away, casting doubt on the integrity of the room's ceiling. Flames burnt on torches, around the wall, casting flickering light on a hundred inactive droids.

The droids vaguely resembled assassin droids, but weren't of any recognisable make or model. Near the entrance to the chamber, a tall adult, wearing Mandalorian armour, was modifying a droid's processor, with a soldering iron. Unlike the younger Mandalorian, this one's armour featured an ominous, black cape, and he wasn't wearing his helmet, revealing a wrinkled face, a scarred cheek, and a mane of long, grey hair.

"We acquired the weapons cache without incident, uncle Philip." The younger Mandalorian reported, stiffly.

He removed his helmet too, revealing wavy, blonde hair, and a scar on his cheek and ear, much fresher than his uncle's.

"Excellent work, Hunter…" Philip said, without looking up from the droid.

"So… are we almost ready to begin?" Hunter asked, with bated breath.

"In theory…" Philip replied. Closing the panel on the droid's head. "We still need to prepare for the later stages… Not to mention run some tests and tie up loose ends… But yes, I believe they're ready."

With no clear signal, the droid activated, and a sinister crimson light glowed from its eyes. Its neighbouring droids activated in a similar fashion, and then the ones next to them. A cascade of red spread across the chamber as a hundred droids came to life, and began to stir, as if in anticipation of the things to come.