Five star systems later, Cecilia had still not yet left the Crescent Hawk.

"You guys keep stopping at the most insignificant planets in the Outer Rim. Otherwise I'd have been out of your hair a while ago," Cecilia told Silver in the cockpit of the Crescent Hawk. Outside the viewport the stars blurred as the ship jumped into hyperspace.

"Yeah, that's pretty normal for an independent freight service like ours," said Silver. When Cecilia wasn't looking he winked to Visse and Misty. "Sure you have places in the Outer Rim Territories that are large enough to justify standard commercial shipping services. But there are many more that rely on people like us to do their shipping for them."

"So you travel all over the Outer Rim in the shipping business. That's pretty cool."

"Really? You don't find that boring at all?" Misty asked as the four of them walked back into the common area. Cecilia shook her head.

"No way. Back in the facility I never even had access to rooms with windows in 'em. But you guys travel to all kinds of planets, moons, and space stations while earning a living. An honest living," she added.

"It's not bad, but truthfully, independent shipping is really our side business. Our main line of work is as a mercenary team," Silver explained to Cecilia. "Not the kind associated with someone like, y'know, your father," he quickly added.

"Yeah, we'd never do anything we think is wrong. We're all about helping people," Visse said.

"When Silv and I were young we used to play a hologame back on our home world. It was about this merc team that assisted their local navy in stopping this overlord from taking over their system. It really had an effect on us, and within a few months of meeting Visse we decided to form our team."

"How has that been working out for you, then? Have you been in many campaigns?" Cecilia asked the team. All three blushed slightly and Misty shifted slightly.

"Well, just one," Silver smiled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head.

"Sounds to me more like merc work is your side gig and independent shipping is the main one."

"I mean, you're not wrong," Visse admitted to Cecilia. "Kinda the problem with peaceful times, even out here in the Outer Rim. Mind you, if the galactic civil war was still going on we'd probably have joined the Rebel Alliance outright, but, well, those two were still kids when the last battle went down. So were you, for that matter."

"I wasn't really aware of it when it was going on; I was pretty isolated back in the facility, and nobody talked to me anyways. I do remember when the second Death Star blew though. They had meetings for days after that."

"Huh, wonder why," Silver wondered out loud. Cecilia shrugged. Who cares, was her only thought as she started to head toward her bedroom hatch. "Hey, come on, you don't have to stay in there all the time," he called out to Cecilia.

"Why?" Cecilia paused and turned to them. "I'm just a stranger getting a lift. Don't you prefer that I stay out of the way?" she asked the team.

"No," all three answered in unison. Cecilia blinked in surprise.

"You don't at all prefer that a monster like me stay in my room as much as possible?"

"You're not a monster," Misty frowned. "You just look a bit different, that's all. Besides, you're way too sweet-faced to be a monster," she added cheerfully.

Cecilia pulled a face and stared at her. How the hell can I possibly be sweet-faced if I'm genetically identical to that armored monster? Never mind all my horrible dragon features. Misty shifted slightly under her gaze; it was a fairly intense look and she couldn't help but wonder if it was a bit of Cecilia's father shining through her.

"You're not really a stranger either," Silver quickly added. "Not anymore, anyway. You've joined us often enough at mealtimes and help out at spaceports to take care of that. So you're more than welcome to hang out with us."

"And do what, exactly?" Cecilia asked him.

"Well, sometimes we do training sims on our datapads so that we'll be prepared for our next campaigns," Silver said to her. "We also have practice blasters in our weapon locker, so we have physical blasters with blanks for target practice to keep our skills up as well. I don't know if you have much experience with blasters, or even one of your own-"

Cecilia pulled her blaster out of her pocket and showed it to them. Silver and Visse bent over slightly for a better look at it while Misty peered over the shoulders curiously.

"It's not a design I'm familiar with," Visse commented. "Does it shoot standard laser bolts?"

"Plasma bolts, actually. I have some spare ammo, but not a ton, so once they're used up it'll just be a useless hunk of metal."

"That's a very unusual choice of ammo," said Silver. "Plasma bolt blasters are complete overkill. Where did you get this from?"

"It was hidden on Dragon Wing, y'know, my old ship. I didn't know they were overkill though. They were standard issue in the facility, and were what I used whenever they had me practice on the firing range," Cecilia told them.

"Well, don't worry about running out of ammo; we can provide you with a spare blaster that shoots standard bolts, so you'll still have a weapon even after you can't use your plasma blaster anymore," Silver said to Cecilia.

"How about some armor as well?" Misty suggested. "We can't let you go around without armor with a bounty on your head."

"Yeah, I could probably throw together some custom armor, same as I did ours," Visse said. "It wouldn't be beskar 'cause even a bit of scrap is way out of our price range, and Mandalorians are crazy protective of the stuff anyhow. But given the time I could whip something up using durasteel."

"You'd really do something like that for me? You barely know me," Cecilia couldn't even keep the shock out of her voice as she looked at each of them.

"Hey, it's like Misty said, it's pretty dangerous to go around without protection when you're wanted like this. So what d'you say?" Silver smiled.

"I…thank you. Thank you so much!" Cecilia practically grinned from ear to ear. The tip of her tail started wagging.

"What about the color, or any emblems? Unless you just want unpainted durasteel," asked Visse.

"How about the same crimson red as my scales," said Cecilia after thinking it over briefly. "And a couple of creshes, my initials, over my right chest. Or is that too difficult?"

"Nah, crimson shouldn't be hard to match. Alright, it might take a couple of weeks, but I'll get it done for you."

"That's alright, I don't have any place I need to be urgently; feel free to take as much time as you need," Cecilia insisted.

Cecilia took more to life on the Crescent Hawk after that. She spent time in the galley learning how to cook by helping Silver at mealtimes and cleaning dishes after. She assisted Visse as he crafted her armor, and spent time with Misty listening to music and reading. And when they weren't making a delivery or busy with other tasks they all gathered in the common area where they all watched holodramas, listened to music, or sometimes just sat around talking late into the night.

"Hey, Lia," Silver said to Cecilia one day after she'd been travelling with them for a couple months. "I hope you don't mind, but a couple friends of ours are going to be coming onboard for a visit later today. I understand if you'd prefer to hide, but one of them is a Jedi and the other is one of their allies, so I have no doubt they'll keep your identity safe if you stayed out here."

Cecilia's face lit up when she heard the word "Jedi". "I met a couple of Jedi once, when I first escaped. They arranged to have their allies in the Outer Rim supply me with ration bars and fuel so I could stay on the run. I'd have never stayed alive long enough to get a ride off of Pon without all the ration bars I had stockpiled."

"Well, you're more than welcome to stay out and meet them."

"Sure. Any Jedi is a friend of mine," Cecilia said with a small smile.

Presently Cecilia could feel the ship land and rather than hide in her room she stayed out in the common area, reading on her datapad. Before long she heard strange voices and looked up, only to see an unexpectedly familiar woman with a dark braid, and plain clothes.

"Hey, I know you," Cecilia stood up. "You're one of the Jedi on Lothal that helped me before."

"I knew it'd be you! I'm so glad you're in such safe hands," the Jedi had a bright smile as she spoke to Cecilia. "We've been terribly concerned about your welfare, especially after hearing about what happened on Tatooine, but haven't been able to clearly determine how you've been doing."

"I was going to introduce you to Sia, but it looks like you two have already met before," Silver commented with a smile. "This here is Will, an ally of the Jedi," her gestured to a woman with short red hair that looked to be about Cecilia's age

"Nice to meet you," Cecilia smiled cheerfully, though she noticed that Will looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I'm Cecilia Crimsondragon."

"Oh, so you have no family, then?" Sia asked her.

"Well-" Cecilia saw Silver standing behind both of them shaking his head. "No, I have no idea where I came from. But it's better that I keep moving anyways, stay a step ahead of bounty hunters."

"Hm," Sia eyed Cecilia thoughtfully, and Cecilia wondered nervously if Jedi could detect lies. "Well, after the incident on Tatooine I agree that the best thing for you is to keep moving. And what better way than with an independent shipping service?"

"Slash awesome merc team," Visse said. "Sure you two still don't want to accept a place on the team?"

"I'm not much of a fighter," Will said to them.

"And shipping work doesn't help people in the way that Jedi are sworn to do," Sia sat down at the table as she spoke, as was everyone else. "But I'm not opposed to flying out somewhere to help you if others are in need of help."

Helping others…might there really be something I can do with these mutations that doesn't involve my father's legacy? Out of the corner of her eye she saw Will looking at her and flashed a grin. Will looked uncomfortable and shifted slightly. The smile quickly left her face and Cecilia felt disgust for her dragon features, as well as a deep sadness. Sia, who sensed rather than saw the interaction, turned to Cecilia.

"Please excuse Will's skittishness. She grew up deep in the underworld of Coruscant and still has general discomfort around strangers."

"That didn't stop her from stowing away on some stranger's ship in order to get offworld," Visse smirked.

"How d'you know?" asked Cecilia.

"Because it was our ship," Misty giggled. "Will was terrified when we found her down in the hold, so it took a bit to reassure her that we meant no harm. We offered her a spot in the crew, but she wasn't interested, so when we arrived on Lothal, our destination, we took her to Sia and Enzok to see if they had any ideas for what Will could do."

"And she took such an immediate liking to us that she became one of our allies and have been helping us since then," Sia smiled. "That was only a few months before you came to us asking for help," she said to Cecilia.

"Your help was a real lifesaver. If it wasn't for your contacts I would've starved to death after getting stranded on Pon."

"The Jedi always offer a helping hand to those that need it."

Cecilia smiled, but it didn't dispel the feelings of disgust or sadness. "What's Coruscant like? Is the entire planet really one massive city?"

"Sure is," Silver said. "It also used to be the galactic capital up until ten years ago, when the Empire collapsed. But it's still without a doubt the center of New Republic civilization. The population numbers several trillion, easily."

"There are some open areas on the surface, but mainly it's covered by skyscrapers stretching thousands of meters high into the sky. Some even stretch more than six thousand meters high! And there's rivers of airspeeder traffic everywhere, at different elevations." said Misty.

"Wow…!" Cecilia's eyes sparkled with wonder as she tried to picture such a sight.

"But there's a sinister side, too," Visse added. "The city stretches deep underground as well, and while the surface and the area near the surface aren't bad places, the deeper you get, the worse it is. It's a hive of the worst criminal activity in the galaxy, and it's completely out of control. Level 1313 is rumored to be the absolute worst of the worst."

Cecilia nodded. The underworld sounds like it'd make Mos Espa a walk in the park, especially Level 1313, she thought as she remembered her time in the seedy spaceport, and her encounter with the drunken trandoshans as well as her father. He's such a monster; I bet he's spent loads of time down in Level 1313. I wish he'd crawl down there for good.

"It is," Will said quietly. "I wouldn't wish that level on my worst enemy."

Cecilia thought about what she had just wished on her father and shifted slightly. She felt strange; she felt guilty about her prior thought seconds earlier. Stop that. Why do I feel guilty about that heartless monster, anyways?

"Where there is good, there also is evil. Such is the way of the Force," Sia commented solemnly.

"The Force? What's that?" asked Cecilia. "You mentioned that when we met before."

"The Force is what binds the universe together," Sia explained. "It's created by all living beings, and is all around us, but most beings aren't aware of its presence. The Force is what gives Jedi our power, but just like with everything in the universe, there's also a dark side to it as well. Warmth and cold, light and dark, good and evil, and especially life and death. The Force is the balance between all these things."

"That's really interesting. But are you allowed to tell non-Jedi these things?"

"Yes," Sia said without hesitation and smiled. "I believe it's important for everyone to know about the Force and how it works, regardless if they are sensitive to its presence or not. People tend to fear what they don't understand, after all."

Will, who had been looking at Cecilia again, quickly looked away once more, her cheeks pink. This time Cecilia didn't smile back; she felt unhappiness squeeze her heart tighter and felt greater disgust for herself.

The conversation continued, but Cecilia sat there quietly, and without really listening to what anyone was saying. She acted cheerful enough when it came time to say goodbye, but she didn't feel it, and after they had gone Cecilia retreated to her room to be alone for the evening.

Silver, on the other hand, stayed in the cockpit of the Hawk after they were on their way and as Sia had quietly requested when she left, called her. Sia's hologram appeared on the console, just as Silver's was back in her room on Lothal.

"Thank you for calling me. I wanted to know what was up with that lie I felt when I asked Cecilia about her family. Why is that something she had to lie about?"

"Oh, I told her to lie. I saw that Will was already uncomfortable and I didn't want things to get worse. Cecilia, you see, is Boba Fett's clone."

There was a pause, and then Sia cracked up. "Yeah, I agree that would not have helped matters at all," she said once she was able to talk again. "Interesting that Boba Fett would clone himself; he doesn't strike me as the parental type."

"He probably isn't, seeing as how he tried to capture her on Tatooine. But Lia doesn't talk about her past, and especially not about him, so we have no idea why he cloned himself."

"Especially interesting since Cecilia represents what he might have been like had he not became a legendary bounty hunter. With those large eyes and that sweet smile she's really quite charming," Sia's smile turned into a frown. "I am concerned about her still, though."

"How so?"

"She's very deeply unhappy. Such powerful sadness can eventually lead to hate and suffering if it's not properly addressed. But I think that if she continues to stay in a positive environment that can help her heal and grow."

"No worries Sia, I don't think she intends to leave the Hawk and go off on her own again. We'll do whatever we can to help Cecilia and keep her safe. But can you do me a favor and talk to Will about Lia? I know she spent the bulk of her life in the depths of Coruscant's underworld, but her rather obvious discomfort around Cecilia really hurt her feelings; soon as you guys left she went straight to her room, and I don't think she's going to come out again tonight."

"I assure you I intended to talk to her about that before you said anything," Sia sighed. "I thought we've made progress with her discomfort toward strangers, but clearly not as much as we thought. We're going to work harder on that with her."

"Thank you; we all really appreciate it. Especially Cecilia," Silver added.

"Safe travels old friend, and may the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you."

That night in bed Cecilia didn't feel particularly safe as she lay there twitching and whimpering. In her nightmare she was strapped down to the table as Cantorin furiously beat her after one of the countless times she refused to cooperate. He hit her again and again, but when he heard the door slide open behind him he paused, lowering his hand and turning to look at the newcomer.

"Doctor Hydra, what are you doing here? I said I would meet you in the conference room at nineteen hundred hours."

"I know, but when I found out you were with the brat I had to come. You know that I've been dying to meet your prototype for some time," the man walked into the room and entered Cecilia's line of sight. He looked down at her and snorted "You gotta be kidding me; this puny little girl is the highly promising specimen Doctor Chrysalis acquired that causes so much trouble?"

"Her paternal lineage is top notch; I know you've read Chrysalis' reports, and I assure you that the name of her father, her donor, is completely accurate."

"Forgive me sir if I don't find it impressive, considering he's been gone for a while now. There's certainly nothing impressive about this scrawny little mongrel either. What I do find impressive is pure-"

"We've been over this, Hydra, and I really don't want to hear it," Cantorin was visibly annoyed at the other man, Hydra. "If you don't mind, we can continue this discussion later in the conference room."

"I don't see why, it's not like she's going to talk to anybody about our plans," Hydra sneered down at Cecilia. Cecilia shivered; cruel as the others were to her, there was an absolute coldness in Hydra's eyes that the others didn't quite have.

"Hydra-"

"Fine, sir. I'm on my way out. But I will say this; you and Chrysalis are far too gentle with your specimen if you really want to break her. Let me punish her for a change; I guarantee she'll start taking orders real quick if she spends time with me," Hydra leered down at Cecilia and cracked his knuckles as he spoke, and she shivered again.

"This is Chrysalis' experiment, and my prototype soldier; any critique you have with it needs to be taken up with him, not just me."

"I have, sir, and he forbids me from doing so. Says he's concerned my techniques will cause irreparable harm to his stupid specimen," Hydra's lips pulled back into a snarl as he spoke.

"Then we're done here," Admiral Cantorin told Hydra. Hydra turned and walked back out of Cecilia's line of sight. She heard the door slide shut behind her. Cantorin raised a fist and brought it down forcefully on Cecilia's chest, causing her to cry out in pain. The fist came up again, this time coming down on her stomach.

At the moment of impact Cecilia woke up in bed with a slight gasp. Her cheeks were damp with fresh tears and she shamefully brushed them away, shivered, and sat up. I wish I could dream of that shadow place on Kamino, and that strange shadow man. The man who loved me instead of my father. She shivered again and sighed. I need a beer or two. Maybe I'll be able to sleep more after that.

She left her bedroom and made her way up to the galley. Cecilia pulled a beer out of the chill cabinet and went back down to the common area to drink it. She sat down and took a long drag from the bottle, draining about half of it in one go. Cecilia couldn't help but recall Will's visible discomfort around her earlier and sighed again, her wings drooping.

Created by one person to murder for his purposes. Taken and altered by another to kill for his desires. Do I have any purpose in the universe besides killing? And why did it have to be me? I wish I could be seen by others as something other than a hideous monster. Cecilia laid her head down on the table, hating herself for being half-dragon as well as being a Fett.

The Drunken Zealot cantina in Rushalda grew eerily quiet as Boba Fett and Fennec Shand walked in. Most of the patrons turned to look at them, eyes wide and frozen in fear, but the notorious bounty hunter turned crime lord only had eyes for one of the few who didn't. Boba and Fennec walked over to a man on the far side of the bar who was ignoring them in favor of the glass of spotchka he held in one of his hands.

"I was told you could identify an emblem for me," Boba said to the man.

"Maybe. Depends on what it is," the man replied without looking up. Boba produced a piece of frayed and slightly bloodstained black cloth and set it on the tabletop. On the fabric was the white star with six sharp points. The man glanced down at the fabric. "Yeah, I recognize it."

Wordlessly Boba set some credits down on the table and slid them across to the man. The man briefly glanced down at the credits to count them before speaking again. "I don't know their organization name, but they've been coming in every now and then for the past ten, fifteen years. Maybe a few times a year. Buncha weirdos, most of 'em have some sorta weird skin condition, but they act better'n everyone else."

"What sort of skin condition?"

"I dunno, scaly looking patches in bizarre colors or something. Weird shit."

"Have you heard them ever mention any names among themselves?"

"A couple. Usually they talk about someone they only refer to as The Admiral, their boss I guess. I've also heard them make reference to a Vice Admiral Hydra and a Rear Admiral Chrysalis, but I don't think they've ever come in here. Lately they talk about some defector called HD-One, or something. They're pretty obsessed about this defector for some reason. I think they just ought to forget about her and move on instead of wasting time freaking out about it."

"When was the last time they were in here?"

"Couple months ago. Maybe longer."

Boba picked the cloth back up, replacing it with a small handful of credits. "The next time they come in, I want to hear about it."

"Yeah, sure," the man quickly slid the credits into his pocket before draining his glass. Boba turned and left the cantina with Fennec by his side. The bar almost collectively sighed as they left, but Boba didn't notice; his mind was only on the information the man had given them.

"He didn't have a lot to tell us," Fennec said as they walked back to Slave I. "No organization name, no name for their leader, and he didn't even know when the last time they'd been in Rushalda."

"I disagree. He had seen the emblem before, and had some names to give me. More importantly, he said they've been coming here to Rushalda for years. I'll get some people stationed here, and the next time they show up they'll capture one of them. And then I'll finally get the information that I've been looking for."

People gave the legendary crime lord a wide berth as he walked with Fennec. Soon enough they had made their way back to Slave I. After they had boarded his ship Boba paused and turned to Fennec.

"I have personal business I need to attend to. I'll call you if I need you."

"Yes, boss," Fennec understood what he meant. She was one of the very few people that he had confided to about this particular part of his past, and the sole member of the Fett Gotra that knew the real reason why they had come to Asahii. Not even 8D8 would know about the brief meeting they had in the Drunken Zealot when they returned.

Boba made his way up to the cockpit alone. Once they'd left Asahii and were on their way back to Tatooine he removed his helmet and pulled out his datapad. He opened a list of people that had been on Kamino that fateful day nearly twelve years prior. He looked through the list and sure enough, a Doctor Chrysalis was on there, one of several people who had come on a yacht called Dragon's Roost.

I knew that name was familiar. He must've been one of the people involved in the incident, Boba thought to himself as he set down the datapad. He opened a secret compartment and pulled out one of his most private possessions; a holocube. Boba activated the holocube and gazed at the hologram of two people it projected. One of them was himself, but twelve years younger. And the other was of a girl of five, a brunette with short curly hair, and chocolate brown eyes. In the hologram he was struggling to hold the girl, an amused smile on his face while the girl was laughing, her arms wrapped tight around him.

Cecilia, I almost have those bastards that took you from me tracked down. I promise that after all these years the vengeance you so richly deserve is finally coming soon. The memory of that day twelve years ago flashed in Boba's head and his dark eyes burned with a powerful fury.