1 year later…
Nissassa paused, staring at her four adversaries.
Commando droids.
She reviewed what she had been taught; she was too small to take them out by brute force.
But they were slugs compared to her. She unclipped her light-whip from her belt; activating it and bringing it to bear. She snapped it once playfully. Then she began to dance.
It was a twirling art; she slipped past, and around and ducked through the first commando's legs, then she pulled her light-whip tight; the 'whip sliced through the machine like a knife through blue-butter.
Facing her second adversary; she opted for an easier approach. She brought her arm forward and flicked her wrist; causing her light-whip to shoot forward and wrap around the droids ankle. She then tugged, bringing the droid crashing to his back; and leapt on the tin figure. Nissassa looped her 'whip around the commando's neck and ripped its head off.
Spinning around to face her next opponent; the light-whip came effortlessly forward cut to through it's torso in one clean movement.
The last droid came at her from above; descending from an incredible leap, it attempted to bring its vibrostaff down upon her head; but she wasn't there anymore. Within the millisecond of time she had had; she had rolled out of the way. With a careless gesture; the droid was decapitated.
Nissassa stood; panting a bit. That last droid had gotten a little closer to killing her than she would have liked.
The ten year old exited the training room; and entered the back room where Bane was hashing out a deal with a smuggler. Her latest exercise had been a show; meant to demonstrate what she was capable of. She scanned the smuggler's face; he had clearly been impressed, enough so that he didn't try to hide it.
Jaybo Hood was the smuggler's name. He came from the moons of Iego, he was eighteen years old; a fair pilot, a great mechanic; and the head of small-time smuggling operation that had pissed of the wrong people.
Nissassa's mission would be to protect Jaybo's ship—it was her first mission; she would remain on the ship; the Angel; until the ship made it back to the smuggling operation; where Jaybo's own men could protect it.
Nissassa remained in the room while the two worked out the kinks in the deal; carefully watching each expression and detail. When at last the agreement had been finalized; Nissassa exited the room without a word; and went to her quarters for a quick clean up, and to collect her things.
Among those things was Todo. The droid that Nissassa had first encountered on Bane's ship; and her only friend. In six months she had heavily modified Todo.
It had started out as small things; the droid had had one single prong sticking out the back of it's head; which made it nearly impossible for the droid to remain balanced; so she had made that into two smaller prongs.
Then she had been frustrated with Todo's short; slow legs.
So she'd made him taller.
However, after several failed attempts at that, she'd found that his body was just too small, and the droid couldn't balance. So she'd made him a quadruped, and had found to her delight that he'd been faster.
Then the thought had stuck her that he looked a bit like a Vornskr*; which suited her quite well—she had fond memories of owning a Vornskr holo-pet when she lived with Teri.
So she'd made a few modifications.
When Nissassa entered her quarters, she found Todo curled up on her bed; head on paws; powered-down. But as she stepped past the threshold he—she couldn't think of her only fried as an "it"—lifted his head. "How did it go, Mistress?" the droid inquired.
"Just fine Todo." Nissassa answered. There was one thing that she had done to Todo that she would never tell Bane about; she had made herself Todo's administrator; her commands overrode any and all other orders.
"Mistress, I have already taken the liberty of packing for you." The droid gracefully descended from her bed.
"Thanks." Nissassa murmured, giving the droid an inquiring look. "May I ask why?"
"Why?" the droid paused a moment—were he alive, Nissassa would have called it "collecting his thoughts", "Well, I suppose I assumed that you would receive the job, you are an excellent fighter Mistress."
"Thank-you Todo." Nissassa smiled a bit; Todo was a droid, he probably hadn't meant it to be a compliment, but still… it was nice of him to say. A droid, she thought, but a friend.
Jaybo Hood could tell his crew was weary of the bounty hunter. It was a friction that wouldn't help when his people needed to be working at full efficiency. He understood their fear; he simply couldn't tell if it was Bane, or the girl they were frightened of.
Jaybo started to walk to the airlock; where the child would come aboard, but felt a hand grip his shoulder.
"Please, Captain Hood; bring some security with you." He looked to see his second-in-command, Echo Torrent, with a worried look in his eyes.
"'Cho, don't worry." Jaybo said. "We hired her, she's not gonna kill any of us."
Echo lowered his hand; "I'm not worried about the kid. It's that Bane character. I've run into him before."
Jaybo instantly took on a new appreciation for his second-in-command. "You have?"
Echo nodded, "Yes sir. Back when I was a merc. He almost killed Resolute."
Jaybo mentally slapped himself. This was Echo; his friend wasn't easily worried, and would never be worried about a little girl. It also answered the question of who his crew feared. Even Jaybo had to admit, it freaked him out to think that Bane had almost killed Resolute…
"He's really that dangerous?"
Echo nodded, "I don't think the girl is a double-crosser, but Bane? He'd do anything for money."
"I don't doubt what you say about Bane. But think about how that little girl would feel if I brought security with me." Jaybo's face took on a sympathetic expression, "She'd feel like a freak." Echo nodded reluctantly, and Jaybo went down to the airlock. He heard the clank! As the ships connected airlocks, and the airlock.
His first thought when he saw the giant metallic beast, was that Bane had decided to betray them. When the cat didn't lunge, his second thought was that the thing was mechanically stunning. Glancing at Nissassa, he gestured calmly to the droid. "You built him?" Jaybo never called droids "it"—unless they were battle-droids.
Nissassa looked at Jaybo suspiciously, "I modified him." She said simply.
"Oh?" It was an innocent question.
Nissassa chose to answer, "I got frustrated with how slow he walked." She mumbled. She was about to pick up her one piece of luggage, but found it wasn't where she had set it down. She looked at Jaybo who had lifted it up, and was beginning to walk down the corridor.
"So you made his legs longer?" the smuggler inquired.
"Yes, but he kept falling over." Nissassa and Todo were now walking side-by-side with Hood. "So I made him a quadruped."
The smuggler abruptly stopped, and gave her a surprised look; "Then you've modified him quite a bit." Jaybo sounded impressed.
Nissassa couldn't help but to brag a little bit; "His original designation was Todo 360."
"One of those?" the smuggler glanced at Todo, and she saw a look of wonder cross his face.
"Miss Nissassa; that is quite an impressive droid you have there."
Is he trying to buy Todo from me? "He's a good friend to." She added edgily.
The smuggler took no notice; "I know what you mean, a good droid is often the best friend you can have." The smuggler gave her a warm smile, it was clear to Nissassa then, that fiddling around with electronics was probably Jaybo's passion. "Have you looked into finding some good processing units?"
Is he trying to sell me something? "No, not really." She kept her eyes concentrated downward.
"Well, I'm impressed Nissassa. I'll tell you what, I'll give you some top-notch processors for free."
"Why?" Nissassa said before she could stop herself.
"He's a fine droid; I would find it a shame if he wasn't able to be the great friend he could, just because he doesn't have top-notch components." Through the Force, Nissassa could sense the smuggler's honesty. Which surprised her; in her year with Bane; she had concentrated so much on her fighting skills, that her ability to sense had all but disappeared.
Jaybo is an honest man. She thought, before smiling and nodding. "Thank-you."
It was in her quarters; as they pulled away from Bane's ship; that Nissassa felt the crew relax. They don't trust Bane. She mused. She turned to her side, and looked at Todo; "How're you're new processors working?" She asked her companion.
"Wonderful Mistress." The droid replied.
"Good to hear." Nissassa lay back on her bed, "You know what I want to do while we're here? I want to work on my Force-sense. In the year I've spent with Bane, well, my Force-sense has all but disappeared." Nissassa pulled her face into a grimace. Why do I get the feeling that that's not the only thing missing?
It's been a year. Gate thought, as he surveyed the cavern for one last time. A year since Teri went missing, and a year since she freed us.
"What'cha thinkin' about?" A voice to his left asked. He turned to find Numa standing there. In the year that they'd been freed, Numa scars had healed considerably. Though Gate doubted that she'd ever be able to fully leave behind this dark era of her life behind; he wasn't even sure how she'd gotten here—he'd been meaning to ask her about that—but she was moving on, just like the rest of them.
"Nothing much." Gate mumbled.
"And that means you're thinkin' about Teri." Numa gave a sigh, and looked at the cavern as well. "Well find her Gate. You know we will." The twi'lek smiled. "C'mon, we're all boarding the ship now." She gave his shoulder a squeeze.
That reminded Gate; the entirety of the former Hawk-Bats were leaving here; leaving to fight the Empire.
With a sigh of his own, Gate turned around and followed Numa out of the cavern.
The only thing the Hawk-Bats were leaving behind was a short message, it was on the data-pad Gate had given Teri; which had been placed in the center of the cavern's floor.
Teri Ecile,
If you've found this message, then you're alive. We're the on the ship the Hope. We thought it would be a good name; it's what you gave us. Please find us; we want you to come home.
Gate, Numa, Wester, Everyone Else
P.S. Sorry the message is so short, this data-pad has almost no memory left on it...
P.S.S We wasted the rest of the memory taking pictures! They're on here…
A huge thanks to My Lady Vader, hoysterrule123, darkangel1994, Queen, Moonstar 11, Pirate King Elizabeth Swann, and The Name Is Unimportant for your reviews! They mean so much!
*Vornskr: A canine beast that could hunt using the Force, and had a slightly venomous tail. More info here: .com/wiki/Vornskr
Note: This story will refer to another fic of mine; Ahsoka's Fate, in the coming chapters.