I woke up very abruptly and immediately knew that my life was quite different from when last I had awoken. It was not the unfamiliar room with dark metal walls and the Imperial seal emblazoned over the door that tipped me off to this fact. It was not the background hum of larger engines than I had ever seen. It was not even the thoroughly broken Mirialan slave standing timidly near me. No, instead it was the overwhelming power I could still feel surging through me. Whatever Tavrain had done had unleashed a deluge upon me that I couldn't quite get a handle on. Without even meaning to, I was drawing on years of fury and hate, funneling it into this new yet familiar power.

This energy demanded an outlet. The little Mirialan, seeing as she was not only the sole person around, but also had woken me, became the target. The power blasted outwards, smashing her against the wall. Instead of pulling herself up again, she stayed curled on the ground where she fell; I began to hear quiet cries of "Forgive me, forgive me."

"Why are you here?" I demanded, hating her weakness. A small voice in my mind reminded me that she was very like I had been some years ago, but it was easily drowned out by the rushing of power in my head.

Meekly, she said "Lord Tavrain has commanded your presence in his quarters, milady."

"Show me there, then."

She nodded and stood as quickly as possible in an effort to avoid my wrath. She needn't have bothered. I had lived with immeasurable amounts of anger bubbling inside me for years. Finally, though, it had a true use instead of just boiling within. That sensation was so incredibly freeing. As I followed her through the halls, I made some effort to force the power to behave the way I wanted it to; so far, I had only achieved strong but imprecise blasts. Clearly, however, the power came from emotion: anger, hate, fear, anxiety, even grief, so I did my best to imagine funneling them. When I did, I felt the power within me again. It was strong, amorphous and mine to command; Tavrain had called it the Force.

I molded this Force to the shape I desired: lightning. A short blast shot out of my fingertips into the floor and I grinned madly. In front of me, the Mirialan jumped but didn't dare turn around. The Imperials troopers, who had before been staring at the bounty hunter who had taken a shot at Tavrain and survived, quickly looked away and talked more loudly about inconsequential things. It may not have been common knowledge before that I could wield the Force, but it soon would be.

Finally, we reached a door labelled as our destination. The Mirialan, shaking, pressed the call button, quickly spoke to the harsh voice on the other end and then scurried off. The metal door slid open and behind it was a large office. It was decorated with little other than red banners baring the Imperial seal and a sturdy desk near the back, at which sat Lord Tavrain.

"Ah, my little hunter." He greeted. "How such a short time has changed you."

"I… I don't understand."

"Don't you?" Without warning, he blasted lightning at me. Instinctively, though, faster even than I could think, I found myself reaching up to catch it. The electricity hit my fingers and I shook painfully, but was able to redirect much of it harmlessly aside. Regardless, the reduced amount that blazed through me was stinging agony; the abrupt attack left me gasping for breath and glaring at Tavrain with hatred. He, however, grinned, though the expression was not pleasant. "My point exactly. It is clear to me that you have been using your passions to fuel you for some time, but now, having experienced the Force, you have unlocked it within yourself and begun the path to the only true freedom in this universe. I can feel all your anger and hate; continue to use them and you will go far.

"Now, for the true reason I called you here. We have a few things to discuss before I take you to Korriban for training. First, your ship; what is its name?"

"Lightstorm."

"Hmm," he nodded. "It will remain here with me. I may have some use for it, but I expect its full potential will be realized once you return from Korriban, assuming you survive. More importantly, I must know who hired you to kill me."

"I don't know his name and I couldn't describe him because he wore a cloak during our one meeting. But I do know that he is a Cathar with light brown fur, judging by his paws. He said he marked you because you felt the Force in his son, Husi, and forced the boy to submit to training, which he did not survive."

"I do not remember the feline's runt, but that means very little. It may be difficult to find him on that alone, but I can't let this stand."

I grinned. "I can find him."

"Really? How would you do that?"

"Simple; he hasn't paid me yet. I gave the Cathar coordinates for a dead drop for once the job was finished. You leak rumors to Nar Shaddaa that I killed you, the Cathar comes to the location with the credits and I will gladly kill him."

"And if he doesn't come?"

"I spent years honing my skills by tracking far more elusive targets. I have other ways of finding him." In truth, I had planted a tracer on the Cathar's speeder when we met. Bounty hunters never trust a client to actually pay up, no matter how foolish it would be for them to try to cheat us. I preferred to use this method second, however, because there was a distinct chance that he had noticed and removed it. Regardless, given enough time, I knew I could find him. It would not be the first time someone had tried to cheat me out of payment.

"We can send others to take care of him. You should be on your way to Korriban."

"No, I want to do it. I'd like to test this on a living target." I blasted the wall with lightning and grinned.

Tavrain paused a moment, seeming to consider my request. "Hmm, very well. It seems a fitting end for your old life. I will inform my contacts on Nar Shaddaa to spread rumors of my death. You will travel to the Smuggler's Moon and kill the Cathar, then fly immediately to Korriban. I will send word ahead of you. A squad of Imperial soldiers will accompany you to ensure you follow these orders exactly and to observe your actions, which they will relay to me. Subpar performance will not be tolerated. Understood?"

"Yes." I growled back, my haughty pride irritated at being given orders.

I got more in response than I bargained for. With a flick of his hand, Tavrain blasted me with lightning again. It became clear that he had not put everything into the last shot because my newfound ability to deflect the attack saved me no pain. I clenched my teeth together, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream. When the deluge ended, Tavrain commanded. "My title is Lord and you will use it." He paused a moment, clearly waiting for me to comply.

"Yes, my lord." I acquiesced, feeling not humility but hatred.

"As for you, you will have no title upon arrival on Korriban, but, should you survive your training and sufficiently impress me, you will become an Apprentice in full. I do not care what name you went by before now; that life, that Twi'lek, is dead. You are now… Morven." I felt a strange sense of freedom at receiving a new name. So much of my life as Melmira had been filled with tragedy, pain, and a sense of incongruity. Now, I truly felt like another person. Morven knew the taste of true power and the path to find more.

Tavrain, after a few other lazily given orders, waved me from his office. With an eager stride, I moved back down the halls to the room in which I had awoken, changed swiftly from the stolen engineer's uniform I was still wearing back to my previous clothing, clipped my blaster to my belt and left again for the hanger, where presumably a squad of Imperials soldiers would be waiting.

It took several minutes to traverse the dreadnought, but once I arrived at the correct shuttle bay, it was not difficult to find the ship I was to take. There was nothing special about this particular Imperial frigate, but for the half dozen soldiers chortling merrily to each other just outside its entrance. The moment one of them spotted my approach, they all quickly went silent. Paying them no further mind, I strode into the ship and was followed swiftly by the six troopers.

Just inside, slightly off to my left, I saw another soldier clad in the standard red and black armor. This one, however, had more stripes than the others. I guessed, in my limited knowledge of Imperial rank structure, that he led the others. I decided he was the one to speak to. "Name and rank, soldier?"

"Lieutenant Deacol Lashkin, my lord."

I considered correcting him on the title, but decided against it. I imagined Imperial soldiers knew as much about Sith titles as I did about his rank. "And you lead this squad?"

"Yes, my lord. We have been instructed to take you to Nar Shaddaa and… protect you on your mission."

I chuckled once. "No need to be delicate, Lieutenant. I know you were ordered to watch me and report my actions."

"Yes, my lord." He seemed to grow a bit nervous. In fact, all of these soldiers appeared somewhat uncertain about interacting with me. So far, all they knew came from rumors. As such, I could sense a confused muddle of emotions coming from them.

"Who's piloting this ship?"

"Sergeant Alapre Hopcroft. She's in the cockpit preparing for departure."

"Tell her to take off once the ship is ready." I rattled off the coordinates for the private landing pad of a place I had, until recently, called home. The lieutenant scurried off to relay my orders to the pilot. As the quiet whine of the engines spun up and the metal floor underneath me began to rattle, I took a moment to look around the area. The entrance to the ship led directly into a large common room shaped like a rounded triangle. In the center was a circular long-range holoterminal and on the wall behind it, a smaller shipwide communicator. At each of the points of the triangle was a door leading to another part of the ship. Seeing as the lieutenant had gone through the left door, I surmised the cockpit lay behind it. I decided to explore through one of the exits on the right.

I chose the nearest door first and beyond found a short hallway. Two Imperial soldiers stood within. I pointed to one at random and demanded. "Name and rank."

"Corporal Lanek Sheran, my lord."

"Corporal Sheran, would you be so kind as to give me a tour of this ship?" I asked sarcastically, so as to be clear this was no request.

"Yes, my lord." As we began to walk, I waved off the other soldier and he scampered away. Corporal Sheran led me a few steps down the hall to a door on the right side. "The armory is through here, my lord." He pressed the button on the wall to open it, but I didn't bother going into the small room. I had all the weaponry I needed for this job.

With an urgency in his step that bespoke either a fear of me or an eagerness to impress, the corporal walked to the door at the end of the hall and opened it to reveal a large humming hyperdrive. "Here is the engine room." He stepped inside, gesturing to the Chiss soldier and T-class astromech droid nearby. "And this is Sergeant Zoluraz, our engineer, and T-37."

The droid beeped rapidly and the sergeant translated. "T-37 says 'It is an honor to meet you, my lord,' a sentiment I echo." I only nodded in response, but the droid chirped again, causing the sergeant's face to slowly acquire a purplish tint.

"I don't speak binary, sergeant. What did it say?"

"It… it asked for your name."

"Morven." I expected to feel a bit strange giving my new name, but it actually came quite naturally.

The sergeant gave a small bow as Corporal Sheran led me onward. We moved next to the other hallway attached to the common area. "This area," the corporal explained, "houses the living quarters. The two rooms on either side can sleep four each. The door at the end leads to a private suite, which has, of course, been reserved for you, my lord."

Corporal Sheran opened the nearest door to a shared room to show me. Inside, a bunk bed each touched the two side walls and a small table was jammed between them. The room was undecorated and entirely uninteresting but for the soldier lounging on the bottom right mattress. Whereas his companions had displayed towards me some level of fear, respect, admiration or a combination thereof, this soldier hadn't even bothered to stand. Instead, he let his eyes lazily fall from their upward stare to catch me directly in the eyes.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" He drooled.

In a hasty attempt to rectify the situation, Corporal Sheran answered for me. "Sergeant Norley, this is Lord Morven. We're transporting her to Nar Shaddaa."

"I heard the briefing, corporal. But you're kidding yourself if you think this is a Sith. This is nothing but a filthy alien bounty hunter."

"Watch your tongue, sergeant." I snapped. "This is your only warning."

Norley stood then and stalked closer to me, eyeing me up and down in a way that reminded me of the men from the cantina. I felt sick to my stomach and the rage bubbled in me again. "You watch your tongue, little Twi'lek, or I'll show you exactly what you can do w…"

I didn't let him finish that sentence. Drawing on years of wrath, I arced a blast of lightning at the foolish sergeant and caught him on the right shoulder. He fell to his knees with a scream that tickled my skin. Sitting awkwardly on his heels, Sergeant Norley grasped his shoulder and glared up at me with hatred. I dropped to a crouch and gave him a sideways grin as I blasted him with another painful jolt. He screamed again. Somewhere behind me, I heard commotion as the lieutenant came rushing into the hall and the corporal explained the situation. I ignored them both and neither dared to interrupt me.

"Now, sergeant, what say we rethink that attitude?" As an experiment, I placed my hand on the floor and concentrated on passing electricity through the metal and into him. It was an unqualified success. The improved conductor allowed a varied current to reach the sergeant; he began silently convulsing.

When I released him, Norley sat back up. Spitting blood from his bitten tongue, he croaked breathily. "You are a disgusting, alien whore…" Testing again the limits of this lightning, I strove to create a discrete point of current without having it originate from me; I tried shocking his heart directly. When the sergeant shrieked and clutched at his breast, I knew I had succeeded.

I smiled. This venture, though unplanned, served two distinct purposes: experimentation with the capabilities of force lightning and revenge against everything I had suffered at the hands of men in cantinas. My first kill had been the man who so foolishly fondled me that fateful night, but it had been too quick to be truly satisfying. This was proper vengeance.

I cut off the lightning and Sergeant Norley gasped deeply. "Would you like to try again?" I asked in a voice so polite that it came off as eerie under the circumstances.

For a moment, he lay on the floor, silent but for his deep, wheezing breaths. Finally, he spat a globule of blood and struggled to stand. I pushed myself up, but offered him no help. After some shaky near-falls, he managed to come to attention. "I beg your forgiveness, my lord."

I grinned in victory. "But of course." I replied. I took a small step forward and had the pleasure of seeing him flinch slightly. Taking his left hand in mine, I bounced a concentrated current back and forth between my palms. Sergeant Norley, after a mere second of struggling not to react, screamed again. Comparatively, however, I released him quite quickly. "So you never forget me." I smiled as he looked down to his trembling hand where was seared a jagged, but perfectly recognizable M.

I spun around and left for my quarters at the end of the hall, where I found a nice bed to lounge on until we arrived. I spent most of the few hours it took to get to Nar Shadaa contemplating my new life and playing with this newfound power. On some level, it was amazing to me that I had never noticed it inside me before. Now, it roiled like a lightning storm, feeding off the pit of anger in my heart. The rage, however, never lessened for this. It's infinite depth easily fueled the Force inside me and, if anything, only grew larger for it. My passion, it seemed, was strength.

Unsurprisingly, none of the crew bothered me until we reached Nar Shaddaa. I felt the quick jerk in my stomach when the ship dropped out of hyperspace and I leapt to my feet. With confidence, I strode to cockpit to watch the landing. Several soldiers were around, but none dared speak to me and few dared look. They were afraid of me. I enjoyed the sensation. As a young woman, I had been ogled when I danced, hated for my species, ignored as furniture, sometimes even pitied for being a slave. As a bounty hunter, when I killed, it was nearly always from a distance or, in dire circumstances, in a fight, so they rarely had a chance to experience real fear. When they did, it was still a one-on-one sort of thing. Never had I been in a room where every other occupant regarded me with terror. It was a nice change.

We landed at Lurek's mansion without so much as a bounce on the landing gear. Sergeant Hopcroft, it seemed, was quite a pilot. "Well done, sergeant," I complemented and turned about to leave. Most of the others hesitated for a moment, but followed me. Lieutenant Lashkin ordered Sergeant Norley to stay and guard the ship with Sergeant Hopcroft, but I was fairly certain the real reason he stayed behind was to keep him safe from me. Lieutenant Lashkin, Corporal Sherman, and Sergeant Zoluraz accompanied me. I led the group through the mansion and to the front door before I paused. Turning around, I swept a questioning eye over them. Each wore the black and red body armor of Imperial soldiers, the crest emblazoned on their helm. They were quite conspicuous. "I don't suppose," I asked, "that you have anything less… attention-catching to wear."

The lieutenant shifted uncomfortably. "Apologies, my lord. Regulations require that we wear our armor on duty."

I sighed. "Very well. Keep up and follow my lead." After a moment of hesitation, I took a hooded black cloak from a hook on the wall and donned it. If the soldiers wouldn't remove their armor, my options were limited. A squad of Imperials marching through Nar Shadaa was not all that unusual; after all, some sections of the moon were controlled by the Empire. However, if I were spotted walking with them, and worse leading them, people would talk. Despite the high population of the Smuggler's Moon, the rumor mill here was quite active and I had enough of a reputation that the wrong person would recognize me. I didn't want Melmira, the bounty hunter, to be associated with the Empire. Call it a certain prescience on my part. Instead, I decided to fully play the role of a Sith; I would wear the cloak hood up and walk with purpose. Though Sith were a less common sight on Nar Shadaa and would still cause the rumor mill to turn, at least no one would recognize me. No one would dare look my way long enough to pick me out from under the cloak.

I spun around and led the squad out the side door to an alleyway. Few knew where Melmira lived, but keeping that house from being associated with the Empire was better. I walked with purpose through the streets from the ritzy district of the mansion through ever poorer areas. At first, the path was mostly straight, consisting only of the occasional turn just to ensure we weren't being followed. As we marched through the lower and lower class districts, however, the route had to become more twisted to avoid the territory of particular gangs: xenophobic ones, anti-Imperial ones, and mindlessly violent ones. Fortunately, this drop location was in an upper-middle class area on the other side of the less pleasant ones, so we didn't have to stay in the more dangerous streets for long. In crowded places, most leapt out of our way quickly and the rest moved when the Imperials trained their blasters on the offender and demanded compliance. I tried to avoid using my power; for the rumor mill of Nar Shadaa, there was an enormous difference between someone in a cloak walking with a group of Imperial soldiers and someone who actually used the Force.

We reached the dead drop after having to lose two tails and kill one vagrant who was foolish enough to try to start something with the Empire over the war. The dead drop was located in an alley adjacent to a square which was reasonably well populated in daylight, but tended to be only sparsely so at night. This was the location I used for first-time clients who seemed nervous. It was a perfectly pleasant area for Nar Shaddaa, one of its "parks" populated with hologram trees, so clients were comforted by that, but the reduced number of potential onlookers at night meant less risk of the client being seen making the drop. Just in case, I checked the drop spot, a loose panel on the base of the holo tree just inside the alley. Nothing. This was not surprising as word of Tavrain's "death" hadn't had time to spread.

"Here's the spot," I said to my Imperial entourage. "He could arrive here any time in the next few days. I suggest setting up a watch. Don't be obvious about it. He'll get spooked if he sees any Imperials. When you find him, arrest him and bring him to me."

"It will be done, my lord. Corporal Sherman, accompany Lord Morven back to the estate," Lashkin said. The way he phrased it left little room for argument. I wasn't too bothered; the soldiers were under Tavrain's orders to watch me and it was his blessing I needed to get to Korriban to learn everything I could about this power of mine. That was worth being followed around for a bit.