Prologue

Omega opened her eyes to a sharp blinding light. Resisting the urge to slam them closed again, she tried to make out her surroundings. The stabbing pain in her side was all-consuming, but she forced herself to stand. She could hear voices closing in on her. Carefully cupping her wounded side, Omega pushed forward, trying not to leave a trail of blood. Wincing, she could tell they were gaining on her. More than anything she wanted Hunter to appear from around the bend, come to her, and tell her everything was going to be alright. Tears sprung to Omega's eyes. She couldn't think about that. Right now she needed to focus on surviving. Omega heard the babbling of a river and a glimmer of hope emerged. Fighting the pain she half ran, half limped until the rushing water came into view. Without a second thought, Omega jumped into the water.

The water stung as it ripped at her open wound. She swam hard, trying to put as much distance between herself and those troopers as possible. After what felt like hours, Omega weakly pulled herself onto the shore.

Jacen

The controls were blinking out of control and the ship was losing altitude, fast. Omega tried to reset the controls but was met only with a burst of smoke. Trying to steer the ship away from the rocks she braced herself for impact. She saw the ship hit the ground and felt the seatbelt dig into her skin before everything went black.

The world was muffled as Omega strained to regain consciousness. Slowly, she realized she was on a table, lights shining on her face, and people all around her. Omega's mind spiraled and she could feel her heart rate escalate to dangerously high levels.

"-in shock" "heart rate" "Need to calm down" Omega couldn't make out any of the voices until a face came into view. It was a boy, no more than 16 or 17 years old. He had messy wavy brown hair, calm eyes, and a slight smile.

"Hey," he said softly "you're ok. You're safe" She relaxed just a bit. This boy was clearly not an imperial, but who was he?

"W-where am I?" Omega asked, her voice coming out weaker than she wanted.

"You're on Onderon" he replied, holding my gaze "Your ship crashed pretty badly, you were lucky to make it out of there in one piece" Omega squinched her eyes closed and the memories came flooding back. She opened her eyes and focused on the present. The boy was looking at her with what looked like genuine concern in his eyes.

"Who are you?" Omega asked, some small semblance of strength returning to her voice.

"I'm Jacen" he replied. When she continued to look at him suspiciously he added, "I'm a friend". Friend. That was rare in this galaxy. Omega thought to herself. Her friends were gone. She'd thought she was too. Omega almost didn't hear him when he asked "the question is, who are you?" Her heart felt like it was ripping apart. Who she was was her family.

"I don't even know anymore," she said, barely audible. As she started to lose consciousness, a single tear slid down her cheek.

When Omega awoke again, she was in a small room on what appeared to be a makeshift hospital bed. She could still feel the blaster wound in her side, but it had been stitched up and dressed. She rubbed her eyes trying to remember how she got here. Where were her brothers?

After creeping around the corner, Omega ran into the central data room. The entire prison was looking for her, so the room was empty when she got there. She searched the database. She needed to find her brothers, break them out, and then they could get off this blasted rock. Her heart lurched. Next to her brothers' names in the field was only one word: terminated. No. No no no no no. Omega felt like the room was spinning. She ran out of the room and out towards the woods. Blaster bolts whizzed past her and one struck her side, knocking the breath out of her. But before she could do anything, a blast hit a fuel canister and the explosion knocked her out.

A figure entering the room startled her out of the memory. The boy looked familiar…it took her a few moments to realize it was Jacen, the boy who helped her after her ship crashed.

"It's good to see you awake," he said, "how are you feeling?"

"Better," Omega answered, "thank you," she said looking deep into his warm brown eyes.

"I'm glad," he responded, "If you need anything, let me know." Omega nodded.

In the weeks following while she recovered, Omega slowly learned to trust Jacen. She was amazed by his kindness and the way he helped people without a second thought. But the stronger she grew, the more Omega was consumed by the grief of losing her brothers. More than that, she sought revenge.

Something about this girl kept bringing Jacen's thoughts back to her. He had learned, through snippets of things she said, that the Empire had killed her family, and almost her too. But he could see the trauma eating her up inside, as each day she became a little more withdrawn, and a little angrier. There were moments where he saw peaks of her real personality, but they were becoming fewer and farther between. He barely knew her, but Jacen felt a need to protect her, and couldn't stand to see her in pain. Yet when she healed, he couldn't find a reason to ask her to stay.