Eighteen Years Later…

"Blast it! That dirty sleemo saw us!" Bezo hollered through the comlink on Anna's wrist. Anna looked and saw that Bezo was right. Dak Narvi, the weapon's dealer they were sent to eliminate, spotted Anna when he exited the cantina in Anchorhead. Despite painful memories of the place, Anna wished she was on Dantooine instead of Tattooine. It was hotter here. Sweat glistened all over her skin and she wondered for a second if the sweat was actually boiling over her skin under the blasted twin suns lingering in the cloudless sky. On top of that, besides the sky, there was nothing truly beautiful here. There was no green in the ground, and everything was sandy and rocky. There was no cool breeze that can remedy her parched lips here.

She couldn't think about any of that right now though. Her bounty was getting away, so was her money. Dak bolted between two buildings.

"Stang," she spat. She removed her blaster from her holster and ran after Dak.

"Blast it Bezo, where are you? You need to cut Dak off," she complained.

"I'm working on it," Bezo shot back. Anna rolled her eyes and pushed her legs to run harder. She wasn't that ten-year old girl anymore. Despite only being twenty-eight, she couldn't run as fast as she used to. Part of it was due to the always-persistent ache in her leg from the kinrath poison incident. She pushed past dozens of people. Mos Eisley was always packed with people walking to and from place to place. It was also a perfect place for scum like Dak to blend in and hide.

Anna continued to pursue Dak down the street and down alleys until Anna chased him into an alley with a dead end. The wall at the end had a poster advertising the Boonta Eve Podrace. Bezo was on top of the wall waiting for Dak with a blaster aimed at his head.

"Hey Dak," he remarked with a victorious grin spread across his face. His lips were dried raw, and his grin caused parts of his lip to split issuing forth blood. Anna didn't even want to see what her lips looked like. It was so kriffing dusty and dry here. She hated Tattooine more than any of the previous planets she had been to, though she knew there were probably worse out there.

"Look, I don't want any trouble," Dak said, raising his hands in surrender.

"Oh good, that makes three of us then. We'll make sure this is over quick," Bezo assured him. His voice sounded dry and bland.

"Sorry Dak, but we're just doing our job," Anna said with a shrug. She aimed her blaster pistol at Dak's head.

"Jabba is a piece of bantha dung! He doesn't know what he's talking about," Dak begged.

"He told us that you've been selling weapons to some of his own guards so that they can commit treason against him, we just go by what he says," Anna explained. She could care less for this man. She was in this for the money, like she normally was, and had been for almost eight years. She saw Dak's move coming before he even moved to do it. It was an advantage of having Force sensitivity. She knew Dak's intentions before he acted on them. His hand bolted for his blaster. Just as he gripped it, Anna shot him in the shoulder. Dak cried out in pain and fell over onto his wounded side, which only made his cries louder.

"Stang…" he moaned. He clutched his torn shoulder and wheezed. Bezo leaped down from the wall.

"Now, where are the weapons that you're giving away?" He asked.

"They're…they're not here," Dak insisted. Bezo shook his head and connected the tip of his boot to Dak's head right between the eyes. Dak screamed, but was stopped when Anna bent down and clamped her hand over his mouth.

"You're going to die whether we find the weapons or not, so I don't think it really matters don't you think?" Bezo growled.

When Dak didn't answer right away, Bezo kicked him in the same place. Spittle flew from Dak's mouth and splattered against Anna's hand, which was still held against his mouth. The air was too dry for Dak to shed tears, which sadistically satisfied Anna. She removed her hand from Dak's mouth to let him speak.

"My datapad…left pocket…" he groaned. Bezo immediately reached into Dak's left pocket and pulled out the datapad. He switched it on and took a moment to scroll through the information. Anna's favorite grin of Bezo's lit up his face.

"This thing has everything. The location of the weapons, his little kriffing base of operations, everything." He looked at Anna and motioned his head in the direction of Dak's body.

"You mind doing the honors?" He asked. Anna pulled out her blaster again and aimed at the spot between the eyes where Dak had been kicked.

"With pleasure." She then pulled the trigger.**

*"What troubles you my young padawan?" Master Tyson asked. Adam was standing in the dojo at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Evening sunlight streamed in through the windows, lightening up the room that had no artificial lights on. His training lightsaber was on and he and his Master Tyson had been sparring for ten minutes straight. The more Adam sparred however, the more he was plagued by visions. It was not the first time he had experienced these particular visions. His Master knew what they were, so there was no sense in hiding it. He was having visions of a little girl with ruby hair looking down at him with big violet eyes.

"It is those visions again, aren't they?" Tyson asked. Adam nodded without looking at him. He felt ashamed of it, but he also felt as though these visions were important, like they were sending him a message.

"These visions are old memories of your time as an infant. The girl you see is your sister," Tyson explained. Adam then looked at his Master.

"My sister?"

"Yes. Your parents gave you to me to be trained as a Jedi because I saw great promise in you. You were strong in the Force, and it was the right time for you to come here."

"What was my sister's name?" Adam asked.

"I do not know, your parents did not tell me. They only asked me if their daughter can come with me, but when they told me how old she was, I knew I couldn't do it because she was too old to be trained. Look deeper inside your visions. The Force can tell you the names of people you see without even them having to tell you themselves," Tyson guided. Adam shut his eyes and focused on that soft, glowing face. He thought deeply about the girl, searching like a Trandoshan hunting greedily for its prey. Finally, a name presented itself within the Force.

Anna.

"Her name was Anna," Adam spoke, opening his eyes.

"Good, I'm glad you learned to do this, but there is a problem," Tyson warned. Adam raised a questioning eyebrow. Confusion snaked through him.

"Problem?" He asked.

"You remember what I taught you about attachment. A Jedi must not commit to emotional attachment. I sense your desire to go and find your sister and see her, but if you want to remain a Jedi, you cannot go," Tyson scolded, but his voice was soft and kind like it always was.

"I feel like I need to. I want to see her. If I was taken away from her, she probably misses me," Adam pointed out. Tyson's eyes looked into Adam's, displaying a warmth that comforted Adam's heart, but there was also a hint of wariness.

"Remember your place, young one. Do not allow attachment to get in the way of your training. If you truly want to be a Jedi, then you need to let go."

Adam wanted to leave. If casting aside his rank as a Jedi Padawan was what he needed to do in order to go and find his sister and see her even if it was just one day, he would do it. He admired his ambition as much as he questioned it. But for years, he had a longing deep inside him to see his sister even if he pretended that he didn't. No matter how much he tried to expel this longing, he can never fully get rid of it.

Instead of rebelling against Master Tyson however, he instead bowed and replied with "yes Master", and allowed the subject to drop for now. He knew that he would never get his Master's blessing if he walked out of the Temple, leaving what could've been his future behind.**

*Anna carried her case of credits into her hotel room on Bespin at Cloud City and set it down beside her bed. She loved the sound of the credits shifting inside the case. Money from any employers willing to pay her was what got her by. Just two years after Adam was taken, her papa had died from being bitten deep to the bone by a Kath hound and her momma died from being poisoned by a kinrath several weeks after. Anna could still remember when she used the Force to tear her momma's killer in half.

With no parents, Anna was taken and raised by Bezo's family on Dantooine. Bezo cared about Anna, but his parents continuously neglected her. They were kind enough to take her in, but they expected her to work all day, and she was forbidden to venture to the Jedi enclave. When Anna turned twenty, they sent her and Bezo out of the house with little money. That's why bounty hunting was, to Anna, a necessity. They needed money, and being a bounty hunter sounded like a good career choice to her to get money fast.

Anna sat down on her bed and listened to it creak so loud underneath her that she winced at the noise. Dantooine was such a quiet planet that when she moved on and traveled to other planets, loud noises felt as painful to her as a slap on the wrist. As if it would deaden the noise, Anna reached for an Ambrian cheroot sitting on the table next to her bed and lit it to smoke.

No matter how much had changed for her in the past eighteen years, one thing remained the same. She painfully missed Adam.

Funny thing that her dreams to grow up and become a Jedi were shattered by the Jedi themselves. Dirty scum those Jedi.

For years she longed to see her brother, but she was afraid to go to Coruscant and approach the Jedi Temple itself to meet him. She was afraid that old wounds would split open again, and all of the blood will be spilled onto any Jedi that she would encounter along the way. She didn't exactly hate the Jedi, she just didn't understand their motives or choices and it frustrated her.

Anna's thoughts were interrupted by a soft knocking on her door. They were four slow knocks, which was the signal Bezo used to indicate it was him. The corner of Anna's lips curved upward as they always did when she heard Bezo knock.

"It's unlocked," she called. Bezo opened the door and stepped in, surveying his surroundings with an amused smile.

"Pretty place you've got here," he remarked. The walls were stained and dirty, and the desk was littered with "souvenirs" and datapads even though Anna hardly ever sat there. Her bed was unmade, with the comforter thrust over the end as if Anna had kicked it off when she got up. Anna stood up and seductively approached Bezo with a mischievous grin.

"Well, I think I know how to make it prettier," she suggested. She reached up and kissed Bezo briefly on the lips. Anna felt a fire raging inside her entire body, sucking out all of the cool breeze she had felt before. Touching Bezo tended to do that. She then felt a distant pain throbbing inside her temples.

"What's wrong?" Bezo asked, concern passing through his expression. Anna touched the back of her hand to her head.

"Nothing, just a headache," she replied. Bezo led Anna to her bed and helped her lie down. She regretfully set aside her cheroot.

"I'll fetch you a wet rag to put on that thing," he assured her. Bezo returned seconds later from the refresher with a cold, wet rag and gently placed it against her head.

"This has been happening more often Anna, are you sure you don't want to see a medic?" He asked.

"I'm sure."

"You have a lot of guts and midi-chlorians if you can handle this without passing out," Bezo joked. Anna wanted to laugh, but another needle of pain pierced into her brain, preventing her from doing so. She heavily sighed.

"The headache isn't your only problem is it?" Bezo asked. Anna just shook her head.

"You're thinking about your brother again." Bezo wasn't saying it as a question. He knew as well as Anna did that she thought about Adam often and the thought of going to see him someday.

"We've talked about this before, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go to the Jedi Temple," Bezo warned.

"But what am I supposed to do? The Jedi Temple is his home, so that's the only way I can see him," she insisted. Worry dotted Bezo's eyes, but he said nothing.

"Vape how I feel about the Jedi. I'm going to go see my brother," Anna decided aloud. As if on cue, the pain in her head subsided and eventually drifted away, leaving her with a rag on her head that suddenly felt colder now than before. She took it off and stared up at Bezo.

"I'm going tomorrow. Wish me luck," she said. Bezo let loose a small smile.

"How about I just give it to you right now?" He suggested. He leaned down and their lips locked together longer than last time.**