Cecilia made her way through the blazing hot streets of Mos Espa with a slight feeling of unease in her gut. There was a far greater criminal element here than on any other planet she had been to in the six standard months since escaping, and while she could appreciate why an ally of the Jedi might chose to be a representative there, Cecilia would have never came if she'd known how bad it'd actually be. So many people aren't just staring at me, they're actively watching me. It's a wonder that I'm not being outright followed. I ought to ask the contact for an escort back to my ship.
So much for the great daimyo keeping everything orderly in Mos Espa, Cecilia snorted as she thought back to the research she had done on HoloNet during her flight to Tatooine. I didn't even look into who this guy is. When I get back to Dragon Wing I'm going to look up just who this laser brain even is, and why he's not doing a better job keeping his stupid spaceport safer.
She finally found the address given on the map, only to discover a burned out husk of a building. You gotta be kidding me…! To say that Cecilia felt disappointment was an understatement as she gazed upon the charred husk. Briefly she considered searching the ruins in case the former occupant had escaped and left behind a clue for their new location, but just as quickly decided against it. Better to just leave quickly and not attract any more attention to myself.
She turned around and started back the way she came, noticing that three male trandoshans she had passed by on the way there were a short distance away, eyeing her distinct robe. Son of a bitch! I am being followed. Cecilia took a deep breath, her feeling of unease increasing considerably. Okay, just play it cool. Act like you didn't notice. If they still think I didn't notice then I have an advantage over them.
Cecilia quickened her pace slightly. She strained her ears and was able to just pick up on the footsteps of the three trandoshans a short distance behind her. Her heart started to pound harder, but she forced both her breath and her footsteps to stay steady; Cecilia knew panicking wouldn't do her any good.
"Hey, where do you think you're going? We want to see how ugly you are under there!" a drunken voice called after her.
"Bet it's an ugly woman, look how she walks!"
"If you show us your ugly face we won't do anything except laugh! Honest!" the voice snickered.
Cecilia didn't give them any sign she heard them, but her eyes darted left and right, keeping track of her surroundings. She saw the area was starting to clear out. Was it because of the drunk trandoshans? Cecilia's heart beat faster and she walked a hair faster.
"Uh oh, I think Ugly is feeling scared! She doesn't want us to know how ugly she really is!"
"Well ain't that too bad. We gotta get our kicks from somewhere, might as well be from Ugly. Am I right, or am I right?"
"Yeah Ugly, let's have some fun!"
Cecilia was almost back to Dragon Wing when the area cleared out entirely. At that moment the three trandoshans made their move. Two of them blocked Cecilia's path while the third grabbed her left arm from behind.
"Hey!" Cecilia didn't hesitate; she whipped around and decked the trandoshan in the temple, pulling her other arm back in the process. His eyes rolled back into his head and he fell backwards. His claws still had a grip on the sleeve of Cecilia's robe, however, and the whole thing tore away with a mighty rip, exposing her crimson scales and tan skin.
"What the-!"
"It's the dragon! Get her!"
With a snarl Cecilia unfurled her wings with a powerful snap, both destroying her robe and smacking one of the other trandoshans in the same movement. She whipped back around and kneed the other in the gut before he could react, then grabbed their shoulders and crashed their heads together with a crack. Together they fell to the ground unconscious.
Cecilia leapt over them and started running towards the docking bay Dragon Wing was in. She looked over her shoulder to see if the third one was pursuing her when she crashed into something solid coming around the corner. Cecilia turned back and found herself face-to-face with a distinctive green and red dented Mandalorian helmet. For several seconds everything seemed to move in slow motion as she gaped at the visor in horror, the hair on the back of her neck standing up.
Beneath the visor Boba Fett's eyes widened in shock at the face centimeters away from his own. The crimson scales, sharp teeth, and reptilian pupils only vaguely registered in the back of his mind as he stared at her large chocolate brown eyes, not just their color but also their shape. Time froze and Boba found himself strangely unable to react.
Cecilia was the first to come to her senses, and she threw the notorious former bounty hunter down as hard as she could before sprinting as fast as she could into her designated docking bay. Cecilia practically scrambled up the ramp on all fours and dove into the cockpit so fast she actually crashed into the ship's controls. Without bothering to sit down her trembling claws flew over the controls and the engine roared to life.
"Dragon Wing, you do not have permission to take off, repeat, you do not have permission to take off," space traffic control came on over the ship's comlink once Dragon Wing started to lift up into the air. Cecilia ignored him and as soon as she had enough clearance she pulled back on the controls and gunned the engines as hard as possible, knocking her back into the pilot's seat as she shot straight up.
"Dragon Wing, what the hell are you doing?! Dragon Wing!" the space traffic controller screamed at her over the comlink. Cecilia, however, was too busy screaming herself as she narrowly avoided hitting two incoming ships; one was close enough that she could clearly see the other pilot screaming in her own cockpit. A third had just enough time to get out of the way, but still passed too close for Cecilia's comfort. Luckily she didn't see any more incoming ships and Cecilia was able to fly off without any further incident.
That was way too damn close, Cecilia breathed a sigh of relief as she worked to get coordinates from the navicomputer, though her heart still pounded furiously. I can't believe it; I actually got away from Boba karking-
Laser fire struck her engines, nearly knocking Cecilia right out of her seat. Cecilia let out a shriek of pure terror; after her near misses with the incoming ships she didn't even consider the possibility that he might pursue her into space!
"Your engines have been damaged. Continue to flee and risk your ship being destroyed," an accented man's voice came through the comlink. "Shut down your engines and prepare for boarding," he spoke as the final calculations for the hyperspace jump came up on the navicomputer.
"There's no way in hell I'm going back to those bastards…!" Cecilia growled to herself and without hesitation, jumped into hyperspace.
Inside Slave I's cockpit Boba Fett stared at the point in space where Dragon Wing had been seconds earlier with cold surprise. Few bounties dared to continue fleeing after he commanded them to surrender. Fewer still actually succeeded in evading pursuit. In the co-pilot's seat Fennec Shand turned to her boss.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault. If I had been with you-"
"You would've been going against my request to com the mayor's office to let him know I was running late from my meeting in Freetown, but on my way. Don't worry about it, Fennec; I don't know why I even decided to pursue her anyways."
"For old time's sake?" Fennec offered with a sly smile.
No, that's not it, and it's not the credits either, he thought as he waited for space traffic to give him permission to land. His mind managed to stray from the task at hand and back to that strange, teenage half dragon girl. He pictured her dark eyes clearly and felt uneasy. There was something about her that gave Boba the distinct impression that he'd just encountered a very strange ghost.
Dragon Wing finished translating back into normal space and Cecilia practically held her breath as she waited with her hands on the controls. Cecilia had gone in and out of hyperspace five times to change vectors, and every time she expected the notorious bounty hunter to appear behind her again. He hadn't, of course, but that still didn't stop her from expecting it each time.
Several uneventful minutes passed before Cecilia relaxed slightly; if he hadn't appeared by now, then he wasn't actively pursuing her. At least, not currently, she thought as she turned her attention to Pon, the planet that she had arrived at. HoloNet told her that Pon was home to Paneru Outpost, and little else. I'll hide out here for a few days while I sew another robe, and then, well, I have no idea what after that. Maybe heading back to Lothal and staying with those Jedi would be my safest bet for a while.
Cecilia flew Dragon Wing into the atmosphere and toward Paneru Outpost, but when she hit the lower atmosphere both engines sputtered and then the left failed outright. "No no no no no no!" Cecilia desperately tried to restart the engine as Dragon Wing rapidly lost altitude, descending towards a thick forest. The right engine faltered one last time, then gave out as well.
"OH SHIT!" Attempts to restart both engines failed as the surface rapidly approached. Cecilia, at a loss of anything else to do, pounded on the control panel, but nothing happened. She gripped the chair's armrests and waited for the fiery crash that would do her in, but then the right engine sputtered and roared back to life. Cecilia pulled up and attempted to brake just as Dragon Wing started smashing into the treetops. The ship slowed, but was still moving quite fast as the ship slammed into the ground engines first at the edge of the forest. Cecilia was thrown from her seat into the control panel, and onto the floor of the cockpit, as Dragon Wing skidded along the ground for a good hundred meters before finally stopping.
Cecilia lay on the ground while her heart gradually slowed down for the second time that day. Holy karking shit, I can't believe I'm actually alive! After several minutes she carefully got up. She was injured, but not severely so. Just some bangs and scrapes. I've been in far worse shape than this. She limped into the main cabin and hit the button to lower the ramp. As it lowered she noted the mess the crash had made; clothes thrown about, ration bars scattered all over the place, and the remaining cases of Corellian beer knocked over, some of which were leaking their contents. Wonderful, it's not like I had anything better to do anyways.
Even though she had crashed in the middle of nowhere, Cecilia still cautiously looked around as she made her way down the ramp. A light breeze brushed her cheeks and made her dark, curly hair flutter, and in spite of the seriousness of the situation she smiled. Just like with the rain, Cecilia somehow knew the sensation of a breeze on her face.
The smile vanished as quickly as it came as she walked around the side of her ship. Or what was left of it, anyways. Most of the durasteel plating was crumpled extensively, and had even torn loose in some places. At the back of the ship a few had been torn away completely. And both engines had been smashed to pieces.
Cecilia wilted, her wings drooping slightly. Dragon Wing, I'll never get you to fly again. I'm stranded here, she sighed softly. All thanks to that stupid, awful, horrible…! Cecilia let out an angry, slightly inhuman yell, picked up a rock, and hurled it at one of the smashed engines. It struck the crumpled metal with a satisfying bang. Cecilia threw another rock, and then yet another. She kept throwing rocks at her wrecked ship until her moment of rage passed and Cecilia was left with the sadness and worries of being stranded as the most wanted single person in the entire galaxy.
"Half Dragon Girl Spotted on Tatooine, Evades Capture.
"Multiple sources confirm that the half dragon girl, whose full identity is unknown at this time, was spotted earlier today in the spaceport of Mos Espa on Tatooine. Our holojournalist was able to conduct an interview with one of the three witnesses in a local cantina in Mos Espa.
"'That woman is violent and completely out of control. We were just taking a walk when all of a sudden she leapt out of a dark alley and viciously bit and slashed us for no reason at all. That woman would've killed us if Lord Boba Fett hadn't showed up when he did,' Jeel told our holojournalist after being treated and released from the local medcenter for minor injuries.
"After being spotted in Mos Espa the half dragon fled on a modified shuttle we were informed is called Dragon Wing, nearly causing two crashes in the process. Dragon Wing was then confirmed to engage in a brief dogfight with none other than Slave I before fleeing into hyperspace. Our holojournalist attempted to interview Daimyo Boba Fett as to how the half dragon escaped and why he broke off pursuit, but he refused to comment on the matter.
"This is a developing situation and we are dedicated to bringing you updates when and as they occur."
Damn those trandoshans, making me sound like a monster, Cecilia angrily swigged down some beer as she tapped away from the news on her datapad. Cecilia burped softly and set the now empty bottle next to her bunk, her sixth that night. She leaned back and started browsing through a random message board to post on. At least that bastard Fett should be humiliated by this, now that the entire galaxy knows I evaded his ass. He better be anyways.
Cecilia paused at a post someone made bragging about having been able to create a family tree going back thirty generations. She started to type a response about how nobody cared, before glancing back at the image included in the post. Wait a sec, I've seen one of those before. There was a small one in with all the information about me I stole from back at the lab! Cecilia's heart skipped a beat. If it's really in there, if it's accurate, then I do have a home! I will be able to see Mum and Dad again!
Her anger was forgotten about as Cecilia abandoned the message board and pulled up the stolen information. The image she was looking for was at the very bottom, and it wasn't a tree so much as a twig. At the top was a box containing a question mark with a line leading down to a box labeled "Boba Fett". From there another line led down to a box labeled "HD0001 ('Cecilia Fett')".
What the hell? Cecilia blinked several times as she took in the image. Does this mean they actually paid him to kidnap me?! But, then why is my name recorded as Cecilia Fett? She then noticed for the first time that there was a data entry written by Doctor Chrysalis that accompanied the image. Cecilia opened the entry and started to read.
"Admiral Cantorin has finally given approval for me to create a prototype half dragon soldier that we hope will one day become the backbone of our forces. We decided that for our prototype we want a young child not much older than five, but also one with the highest potential as a soldier without our genetic modifications. For this reason we journeyed to Kamino, a planet where clones are created. As these clones are frequently created for private military and mercenary purposes we feel this gives us our best chance at acquiring the ideal subject for our prototype.
"Upon arriving Admiral Cantorin and I posed as potential customers while we scouted out the young clones living at the facility. By chance we came across a promising young clone and sliced into the Kaminoan database for more information about her. She turned out to be none other than clone of legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett. Although information on his past was extremely limited, an identical copy of a man with his reputation will make an excellent prototype, both in physical abilities as well as a willingness to take orders from others. The information we acquired indicates he's already begun to train her in the art of bounty hunting, which will make our task a little easier.
"Admiral Cantorin agreed with my assessment and we decided to move forward with clone girl Cecilia Fett, hereafter referred to as HD0001, as our prototype specimen. I have already modified a DNA sample with the necessary gene splicing, and as soon as we return to the Genetic Infusion Lab we will create our prototype half dragon soldier."
Cecilia stared at the words on her datapad, feeling cold and slightly sick. This can't possibly be true. I'm an identical clone of that horrible, heartless, armored monster? Who looked right at me just hours ago and attempted to recapture me? Surely Chrysalis lied in his own data entry. But in her heart she knew that he hadn't. Cecilia felt a pit of despair engulf her heart with a tight squeeze.
A clone…I'm only a clone of that awful bounty hunter. Who created me for the sole purpose of killing others. Who tried to recapture me. Who doesn't…he doesn't love…. Cecilia couldn't finish the thought. Her wings limply drooped all the way down to the bunk. Cecilia hugged her knees and squeezed her eyes shut. But this time, the tears leaked out anyway, and the soft sound of her cries echoed quietly around the main cabin.
