"You guys let her sleep in the closet?" Hera gave an annoyed look at Sabine and Ezra, just haven woken up. The only one on the ship not awake was Athena, everyone else was gathered for a light breakfast in the kitchen.

"She wanted to," Ezra shrugged. "I guess Sabine's colorful room made her feel nauseated."

That earned him another shoulder punch from the Mandalorian.

"The kid was obviously abused in that foster care system," Kanan commented. "It may make her feel safe if she sleeps in her own space. She just met us. It'll take a while for her to completely warm up to us."

"So...we haven't really talked about it," Sabine began. "But I guess you got a little sister, huh Kanan?"

The male Jedi sighed, "Yeah, I guess I do. First I heard of it. I believe it, though. I admit that she looks just like me."

"Not as ugly, though," Zeb joked.

"Hey, you don't have room, bud," Kanan laughed.

"How is she going to be trained? Is Ahsoka taking her under her teachings?" Ezra asked. "Will she train with us?'

"Ezra's just excited because there's finally a girl in this Rebellion he hasn't driven off with his desperate flirting," Sabine rolled her eyes.

"Look, guys, we have to do our best to welcome her into this crew and this Rebellion. She has no idea what the Empire really is or even what a droid is," Hera said, looking around, gesturing at her crew. "It'll be like teaching a toddler everything, but having the comprehension and abilities of a twelve-year-old."

"I thought she was fourteen?" Ezra said.

"I thought she was ten," Zeb admitted. "Kid is a smaller pipsqueak than Ezra."

"She told me that she was thirteen, almost fourteen," Kanan said.

"I was close," Ezra said with a shrug.

"Anyway, we have to do our best to slowly warm her up to everything," Hera said. "The kid obviously has been through a lot and now she's in a whole new galaxy."

"Why do you say she was abused? Did she tell you guys something?" Ezra questioned.

"We saw the bruises and scars on her body when we were stitching her wounds," Hera solemnly told. "Kid went through a lot."

"Maybe Ahsoka and I can show her some meditation techniques. She might need meditating as a way to calm down so those ice powers don't go crazy," Kanan offered. "I've never seen anything like it. It could be dangerous if these things go unchecked in her."

"Maybe someone should check up to see if she didn't freeze herself in her sleep," Sabine suggested. "I'll get the hairdryer if necessary."

The doors slid open a girl in a green tank top and black pants rubbing her eye, yawning.

"So...I guess this wasn't a really weird dream…" Athena yawned.

Kanan chuckled. "Who did that to your hair?"

She had to think for a minute, trying to process the words. Athena patted her head and felt the four braids on her head, held together by her one ponytail against the top of her skull. The remainder of the braids were left untied and slowly unraveled at the ends.

"Oh yeah, Sabine and Ezra braided my hair," she stretched as she let out a loud yawn. "How long was I asleep? I feel like I slept for an entire week!"

"About ten hours," Sabine assured. "Want some breakfast?"

"Nah, I don't eat breakfast- makes me nauseated," Athena rubbed her eye some more. "And last night I had a really weird dream about an owl woman. Freaking creepy."

"An owl?" Kanan had a surprised look. So did Sabine and Ezra. Athena raised her eyes as the three gave her the strange look.

"Oh yeah- I forgot that I'm not on Earth. An owl is a bird-"

"No no, we got those in our galaxy too," Kanan said. "What color was the owl in your dream?"

"Uh...white?" she nervously responded. "And green eyes. The lady who was also an owl had green eyes too."

"That owl that helped us out on Earth was white with green eyes!" Ezra was surprised.

"And..?" Athena scoffed. "It's just a dream- a bunch of neurons firing while I'm asleep."

"They can mean much more. The Force works in mysterious ways and can show us very important things in our dreams," Kanan said.

"Okay...that's weird," Athena raised her eyebrow.

"What about the woman? What was she like?" Ezra asked.

"Ah uh...brown hair, green eyes, slim," Athena tried to remember her dream. "She didn't say anything, kinda just smiled at me…" she looked at Kanan and gave an unsure frown. "You think it could mean anything?"

Kanan shrugged, "I don't know. It doesn't seem like you're telling us everything."

"She...I don't know-" Athena shrugged. "She was a white owl that turned into a woman and she smiled at me and I woke up. I don't know."

"Hmm...well, I guess that's for you to mull over. Maybe you know something more that you aren't realizing," Kanan said.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay then." Athena looked to Ezra and gestured to him. "Hey, you still wanna fight and redeem yourself?"

"Yeah!" Ezra got excited and stood up.

"Don't hurt each other or my ship," Hera sighed. "Go fight in the cargo bay so you won't wreck anything."

"I wanna watch Ezra get in the nuts again!" Sabine got excited and stood, following Ezra as they walked to the cargo bay.

Zeb stood up too, a smile on his face, "I wanna see that too!"

Chopper followed, ready to laugh at children beating each other up.

So that left Hera and Kanan in the kitchen, a dash of disappointment on their faces. The first thing in the morning and they're trying to beat each other up. They shared a half-hearted smile as if saying "This new girl is gonna add more hectics to our little family, huh?".

The two stood, walking to the cargo bay together. They stood beside Chopper, Sabine, and Zeb on the little platform above the cargo bay; Athena and Ezra readying themselves for a friendly battle.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen of the Ghost!" Sabine dramatically acted out the part of an announcer. "In this corner we have the mean, the lean, fighting machine…Ezraaa Bridgerrr! In the other, we got the tiny terror, the blonde mugger, the ferocious Earthling…Athenaaa!"

Both of them rolled their eyes. This was gonna be fun.

"Alright you two, not full-force hits. Keep it clean. No hits below the belt, Ezra is sensitive there," Sabine announced. "Fight!"

Ezra slyly smirked, "Alright, I'll go easy on you. You're new and you don't-"

"You gonna swing or what?" Athena chuckled. "Come on, little boy. You got any fight in ya?"

Ezra swung high, she dodged low. For the first few swings, it was just Ezra throwing punches, the girl moving like the air. She was flexible. Smooth.

After one closer punch then all of them, Athena found her opportunity. Her back arched behind her as she threw herself backwards, her hands landing on the floor to spring her further, the punch flying just over her face. Her feet clamped on each side of Ezra's neck, keeping him tight in between them like a soccer ball. As she went through her back hand-spring, Ezra flew through the air, held by her feet and thrown by the momentum. He soon landed on his back, most of his air forced out of him- stunning him into an almost frozen state. Athena sat on his chest now. She grabbed his one arm, bending it above his head in a painful pin, having a cocky smirk on her lips.

He tapped out.

The crew blinked a few times as they all looked at each other in disbelief.

She didn't take a single hit. She didn't throw a single hit. She threw her opponent. Smart.

Athena stood and gave a hand to Ezra to stand with her. He took it and let out a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

"I was part of an underground illegal fighting ring," Athena said. "I'm sorry about throwing you, but it was one of the safer methods in comparison to punching."

Zeb looked down to Chopper, "Chop, pleaseee tell me you recorded that."

The droid whirred in agreement. He then displayed it on his hologram projector. Athena saw this and was wide-eyed with wonder.

"Woah, is that a hologram?" she was bewildered.

"You guys don't have holograms on Earth?" Hera chuckled in amusement. The girl had such big eyes as she watched the hologram from below. It was like a little kid.

She shook her head 'no'. "That's so cool!"

"Has she even seen the stars?" Sabine asked. "Now, THAT is something for an Earthling to see."

"Oh yeah! We're in space, aren't we?" Athena was still wide-eyed with excitement. "Do you guys have a window or something?"

Hera chuckled and waved for the girl to follow, "Come on, I'll show you."

The girl quickly followed, leaving Ezra alone with a questioning look on his face. As Hera and Athena left, he held up his arms in a dumbfounded manner.

"So, no rematch?"

"Later!" Athena said as she followed Hera up the ladder.

Zeb howled with laughter, "Sorry to tell you, Ezra, but you got no chance anyhow! She threw you like a rag-doll!"

"I was caught off-guard!" Ezra crossed his arms. "And I was going easy on her."

"A Jedi should always be on-guard," Kanan reminded. "By the way, your punches were too loose, you kept opening yourself up. She could have hit you with a good jab in the ribs a few times."

"That was a good move, though," Sabine chuckled. "I've never seen that before. Threw him with her feet, using her body weight as her power."

"She's so tiny, I'm amazed she had enough weight to throw him," Zeb commented.

"Ezra isn't much bigger than her; that's what she was depending on," Kanan said, hand on his goatee as he pondered. "It was smart. She evaluated her opponent and used his own weight against him."

With Hera and Athena, the twi'lek captain couldn't help but to smile as the young human girl laid eyes on the stars in front of them. Hera let her sit in the co-pilot seat as she sat in her own pilot seat. The kid couldn't take her eyes off the stars. There were so many. No Earthling had ever seen so many stars at once.

That made Athena chuckle. She was the first Earthling to leave Earth before adulthood. She was the first Earthling to see this galaxy, these stars. She was the first Earthling to see another species. As far as she knew, she was the first everything.

"I- I never seen this many stars…" she barely blinked, trying to look at the stars for as long as possible. The blonde girl had never had such amazement in her eyes. "Never."

In another part of that same galaxy sat a blond man with mean eyes fixated on the mass of stars a head of him. He glared at them. Too much. Too much light clashing with too much dark. Too much chaos.

Too many kills, too little pay.

Too many losses.

Too much work.

Yes, this was his job. Yes, this is what he did. It's been his job for over a decade now. Find the target, capture or kill, collect the reward.

This was different. This job stuck out.

Another Dume - two more Dumes to be exact.

Two more Dumes to hunt down.

He remembered the first Dume he was ever tasked to hunt down, wanted by the Empire for crimes not exactly specified. It didn't matter. She was dead now. Too bad no one could never find her kids - until now.

Jalo Hikra was no novice. He was a pro at what he did, doing what was needed with little failure or delay all while avoiding the Empire.

They didn't like him any more. Not after going rogue - leaving the Brothers and Sisters of the Inqusitorious to find his own sense of freedom in this universe.

At first he traveled to Earth, where he knew Cyla Dume gave birth to Syla. He had tracked the girl down to Cleveland, Ohio. No luck at first. But - he did see her brother in a fast-food restaurant. You couldn't miss him. He looked just like his mother...and his father. Unfortunate.

So, he let Caleb lead him to her. He learned the girl was blonde and called herself 'Athena' and Caleb called himself 'Kanan'. As he watched from a distance, he saw Caleb and two other teens run off with an injured 'Athena'. They didn't even notice the tracker he put on the ship they called the Phantom.

Now, all he had to do was wait. At least two weeks, he figured; that way they wouldn't even consider the possibility of him having a tracker on them. There was no rush, anyhow. He had the exact position of their ship at any moment.

In no way did he want to harm these two - just as he didn't want to hurt their mother. That was back when he was just an Inquisitor. Their mother, Cyla, was an amazing woman. Kind, intelligent, merciful. He was punished by Vader for his failure when he refused to kill her.

He...couldn't kill his own. He couldn't kill his own family.

Darth Vader did it for him, on Earth. The same planet Jalo pleaded to Cyla to find refuge on, knowing the Empire wasn't allowed to travel there - they couldn't find her and her baby Syla. He was half-right… they didn't find Syla. Vader only found Cyla.

Apparently Vader was the only exception to the rules, Jalo figured.

It crushed him. He sent Cyla to her death.

Later, he learned he had sent Syla to an even worse path. A path she couldn't escape no matter her decisions. A path that would suck her in like a black hole. A path with no light in the end.

He didn't know Abeloth's gate was on Earth. He didn't know her presence was the reason the Force did not work there. He didn't know that she latched onto any Force-sensitive that stayed there for too long. He didn't know that Abeloth would begin to plot her escape - the girl to become her puppet.

Some strange group from Earth contacted him about it. The word 'strange' putting it in the simplest of terms. Somehow they were connected to the government of the country Syla had lived in, yet they weren't REALLY connected to them. They technically existed, but only to a select few. Jalo didn't care. They gave him the information and an upfront payment.

The payment didn't matter, however. This mission was about setting things right. Not only would it save the universe from Abeloth's destruction, but it would save the last living Dumes.

Apparently there was a way for the girl to be saved from her doom - a cleansing of Abeloth. Caleb - though not Abeloth's primary target - would be her second choice for a host. He was the closest relative alive to the girl.

As he shrugged, Jalo chuckled to himself, wondering if that meant he'd be a target of Abeloth as well. Besides, he was the only Force-sensitive relative of theirs still alive.

Hope you guys are enjoying the story!

Thanks for reading!