BOOM!
A sonic grenade exploded above her head through the open roof.
"Jace! Benon!'
The voice of the General carried over the noise of blaster fire.
When she met him he had looked so young, but now…
It seemed as though he had aged ten years in the three months they had been on Dxun.
He motioned to her Captains using signals to convey what he wanted. Without a word they erupted from the burnt out building, lightsabers blazing. Blue, yellow, green, all flashing in the late afternoon alongside his vibrant orange. Force powers flew all around her, lightning flashing past her.
The thrill of battle bubbled in her chest as she cut down the Mandalorians, dancing gracefully between each enemy. In the end bodies littered the forest floor around them, even fifty Mandalorians were no match for ten Jedi.
But was she really?
Even then she had felt it pulling her, the call of the Dark Side.
She was only young then, a rebellious teenager, she felt invincible.
She felt…
…Wide Awake.
It took her a minute to realise she was staring at the ceiling of the dingy hotel apartment she was renting. The girl sighed and stood, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror above the broken bathroom sink. No wonder Gideon didn't recognise her.
It had been seven years.
Maya Pierce, sixteen years old, short blond hair, grey eyes and the over confident attitude of a cocky teenager.
But now…
She had let her hair grow out past her shoulders, it had matted to her head with sweat and grown dull from neglect. Her eyes were rimmed with dark circles and she had a slight grey tinge to her skin.
She looked like death, she felt like death, but at least people would be more inclined to stay away from her if they thought she had some sort of disease. She sighed again and got dressed running her fingers through her hair and trying to get some semblance of cleanliness. She would need credits if she was ever going to buy passage off this hole of a planet. After Peragus Telos would die, and she did not want to be there when it happened.
ooOOooOOoo
Maya scooped the credits toward herself whilst grinning at her opponent,
"I thank you for your patronage good sir," she said as he stood, knocking over his chair.
"Cleaned me out, stoopa schutta!" he grumbled, walking away.
She let the insult slide, reading the surface thoughts of fat slobs like him was too easy, and she would win hands down every time. She might have gone easy on him, except for the fact that he had spiked her drink (which she hadn't touched) and the thoughts of the things he was going to do to her when she couldn't resist.
She looked up from her counting as the chair scrapped the floor and a man sat heavily, putting his boots on the table.
It was Atton.
"You look like shit."
"What do you want," she grumbled looking away.
"Now, now Princess, no need to get mopey."
He had taken to calling her that on the journey to Telos, and once he knew how much it irritated her continued to do so.
"Shouldn't you be off trying to save a dying planet?" She asked tiredly.
Once they had been freed from house arrest Gideon had jaunted off to help some Ithorians, always the bleeding heart.
"Been there, done that. Gideon and the old witch are off doing some Jedi voodoo or something and I got bored."
"So you thought you'd come bug me?"
"Hey I just happened to be going for a drink and you just happened to be here."
She glared,
"Whatever."
"You're cute when you're angry."
She chose to ignore him and continue counting.
"Quite a haul you've got there," he mused, removing his feet from the table and leaning toward her.
"Hows out you and I make a little wager? If you win, you can have all the credits I own."
He opened his pockets and emptied three hundred credits onto the table.
She was tempted.
That amount added to what she already had could easily buy her a ticket and a place to stay for a week…
But she didn't like the glint in his eye.
"And if I lose?"
He smirked and leaned closer.
"You have to kiss me, and no lame little peck either full smackaroo o the lips."
As he let that sentence sink in he added, "Oh and you have to come with us when we leave Telos."
She looked at him like he had grown a second head.
"And why the hell would you want that? I seem to recall you weren't so keen on me when you found out what I was back on Peragus."
"Because between Gideon and the Hag I'd have no one to entertain me on the long trips to god knows where, I'd die of boredom and they'd probably crash into an asteroid or something."
"You can't be serious…"
"Deadly."
She looked at the credits on the table then back to his smirking face, oh how she wished to slap that silly grin right off it.
"Fine!" She growled with more confidence then she felt, "Bring it on Fly Boy."
ooOOooOO
"+3, +3 please be a +3!"
Reading Atton's thoughts was hard, it was as though he had built up a resistance to the force tricks so she had to rely on skill alone. It had been a close game so far but all she needed was a +3 to win with two cards left. She turned her card over and-
+2.
"Damn it!"
Atton just smiled lazily as he thumbed his cards, she could still win if he didn't have a five.
"Let me ask you a question…"
"Really? Right now?"
He ignored her protests, "Why are you so eager to get away from Gideon? I mean, I would have thought you'd be thrilled to find another Jedi alive."
"Would you keep your voice down?" she growled, "If you haven't heard, there is still a bounty out on certain people and I'd rather not be one of them!"
She waited for him to continue, but clearly he was not going to play on until she answered. She sighed in frustration.
"I don't want to be near him because I don't want to be reminded of that life, the time of the Jedi is over, I'm just trying to survive."
"Reminded? So you fought with him on Dxun?"
"Atton…If you don't play on I am going to hold you down in that chair and snap each and every one of your fingers as slowly and as painfully as possible…"
"Alright babe, you win."
He flipped his card and turned it to face her.
+5.
"And so do I."
"Damn it!"