Nights were cold, dark and long in Jabba's Palace, particularly for a sad, lonely Twi'lek slave girl, who was unable to find rest. Shivering atop the stone slab throne of the vile crime lord Jabba the Hutt, who was contentedly asleep no more than a meter behind her, Oola stretched and pulled at her flimsy netted dancing attire so that it would cover as much of her sleek green skin as possible, then drew both of her long, slender head-tails closer to her frame and did what she could to adjust the collar that had been placed around her neck to prevent her escape, so that the rough metal wouldn't press so uncomfortably against her throat. At least, not until the next time her callous master beckoned for her.

But in truth, none of these minor discomforts were the reason Oola couldn't sleep. In the dim light of the palace throne room, she peered around at the rabble that had partaken in the nightly debauchery. Most of them had simply passed out wherever they'd been standing when their drunken reveling had finally taken its toll. But could she trust that none among them would tempt the wrath of her master by rising from their stupor and accosting his favorite dancer while she slept? Could she be certain that Jabba himself wouldn't seize the opportunity to take ruthless advantage of her in such a vulnerable state? Oola didn't know, and she had no intention of finding out. Bracing herself against the hours of darkness that still lay ahead of her, Oola curled tightly into a ball on the edge of the throne, exhausted, without hope, and feeling very much alone.

"You can't see them from in here, can you? That's a shame," said a new voice, one Oola was sure she had never heard before. It was higher-pitched like a woman's, and sounded almost cheerful, in a way no other in the dingy palace ever would be.

"See what?" Oola asked hesitantly, though she knew how dangerous it could be to draw any kind of attention to herself inside Jabba's Palace. Somehow she hadn't sensed anything to fear in the words of the stranger. As she waited for a response, Oola scanned her surroundings, and spotted the shape of an unknown humanoid figure, cloaked in shadow, perched not far away from her on Jabba's throne, in a place it could not possibly have been even a minute prior. When no reply came, Oola provided one herself, which she suddenly seemed to intuit. "You mean... the stars?"

"Yes," the newcomer said, her tone as chipper as before. "Stars are indeed at the heart of the matter."

Even through the heavy shroud of darkness, Oola's inquisitive eyes were soon able to discern many of the stranger's most distinctive features. Her skin was a bright shade of purple, as vivid as Oola's green, from head to toe, or at least as much as was visible beneath the black jumpsuit she was wearing. She had short, neatly trimmed blonde hair and what appeared to be a thin, wiry tail extending from behind her that was waving back and forth beside her atop Jabba's throne. Most notably of all, when she turned towards Oola, her face was shaped by the widest, most amiable-looking smile Oola had seen in what felt like an eternity. Had she been anywhere but the dilapidated den of a disgusting and brutal crime lord, Oola would have even perceived it as downright friendly.

"You see, there are stars here, and stars where I'm from. It's something I ordinarily know quite a lot about, actually," the purple girl continued at a brisk pace. "But it seems there's a connection I wasn't previously aware of. It's my own fault, really. I was just, well... bored, so I went looking in places I hadn't before, and suddenly I found myself somewhere I probably shouldn't be."

Oola didn't understand what the visitor was rambling about, and didn't pretend to, but she agreed whole-heartedly with the one sentiment that she did comprehend. "I don't know where you have come from or how you got here, but you should know that you're in a terribly dangerous place. If you are able to leave then you should, as soon and as quickly as possible. Before he..." Oola trailed off, glancing nervously back at the form of her still-slumbering master.

"Hmm, yes. He does look rather ill-tempered, doesn't he?"

"He's monstrously cruel, and if he catches you, whoever you are..."

"Oh, my name is Trance," she offered happily, to fill the abrupt and awkward silence that followed.

"Oola," she said simply, as her lips very nearly formed a smile of her own in response to the amicable gesture. But they did not entirely succeed, and soon returned to their usual fretful, dismayed grimace. "If you are here when Jabba wakes, Trance... I fear you will share my fate."

"I'm not too worried about him, actually," Trance said, in a tone that suggested to Oola that her fearlessness came from genuine courage rather than ignorance of Jabba's true nefarious nature. "But there are other... forces here, who do want me gone. They have their own agendas, or so I have been led to believe, and I think they're concerned that I might try to impose my own. It's nothing personal, just something my kind is known for, I'm afraid."

As before, Oola only took away one thing from Trance's explanation, but it resonated strongly all the same. "You really didn't mean to come here, did you?"

Trance slid herself along the edge of the throne until she was sitting right beside Oola. "I can see that I am not alone in that," she said tenderly, reaching with her pointed, prehensile tail to gently stroke Oola's cheek, and catch the glistening tears that had started to fall from her eyes.

Oola turned away sharply. "It doesn't matter what becomes of me. I know that my fate has already been sealed. I will never leave this place."

Trance glanced downward and frowned, then spoke with a seriousness and determination that she hadn't before. "You should know that I have what you might call a talent, for seeing different... possibilities. It's something else my kind is known for, and it's a reputation well earned. It's how I know that there are always alternatives, no matter how desperate the situation, and that only the past is set in stone."

"No. Not only the past is set in stone," Oola said somberly, clutching the leash that was bound to the metal collar around her neck and drawing Trance's attention to the sadistic apparatus that ensured Oola would remain a prisoner. But then her voice began to brighten, ever so slightly, with newfound hope. "Unless there is something that you can do..."

For a moment, Trance seemed uncharacteristically lost in her thoughts. "Where I come from, there was a task entrusted to me. To find certain individuals, people who were to play crucial roles in the most perfect of all possible futures, and guide them toward their destinies. To interfere, as necessary, and change the outcome to a more desirable one."

"Are you saying that I am..."

Trance emphatically shook her head. "I am saying quite the opposite. I'm saying that, as near as I can tell, the conflict that is to unfold here will do so in exactly the same way whether you are a part of it or not. And it seems to me that the role you have been elected to play is a particularly unfair one. Which is why..." Trance briefly paused, as a mischievous twinkle appeared in her eye, "I think that I'm going to steal you now."

The excitable purple girl took Oola suddenly by the hand, letting their fingers gently entwine, and boldly guided her as far from Jabba's throne as her leash would permit, directly into the center of the throne room. Despite her reservations about being brought out into the open and exposed, fearing that at any moment her master, or any one of his equally dangerous cohorts, might awaken and retaliate, Oola allowed herself to be led by her new companion, who she was somehow seemingly beginning to trust, though one question remained firmly on her mind. "Steal me?" she asked, incredulously.

"In a manner of speaking. Unless you would prefer that I left you here."

"No, I definitely would not," Oola confirmed, with something akin to a smirk starting to show through her formerly dour exterior. She found herself relishing the warmth she could feel in Trance's affectionate grasp, as it was such an unfamiliar sensation amongst all her recent experiences, and an altogether pleasant one too. She readily offered to let Trance take her other hand as well, and broke into a full, unrestrained smile, much despite herself, when it was accepted. "Then what will you do with me? The sad truth is that I have nowhere else to go. But... if you were to take me with you," Oola asked somewhat sheepishly, with increasing, yet still subtle, hope in her voice, as she drew Trance closer to her with both hands. "Back to where you come from..."

"Hmmm," Trance mused, seemingly uncertain in a way she hadn't been before. "That's a little trickier, I think. I'm not sure what kind of effects that might have, either here or there." But when Oola's hopes visibly began to fall, Trance immediately walked back her tone of overt concern. "But there's a first time for everything, isn't there?" she asked, in a voice that was clearly reaching to sound optimistic, entirely for the sake of her companion. "And whatever happens... I'm sure it won't be boring." Oola's delighted smile sprang right back into place, in complete, silent acceptance of anything that was to come.

This time, much more than a twinkle appeared to shine from Trance's eye. As the two women stared into one another, their hands still joined and securely locked together, bright but tiny points of light began to emerge in the blackness of Trance's pupil; only a few at first, which were then followed by dozens, even hundreds of others. Soon Oola could see nothing else, with the nightmarish hellscape of Jabba's Palace fading all around her into a totally enveloping void and mesmerizingly beautiful starfield, which seemed to fly past and stretch in every direction straight on into infinity.

And then even the majesty of infinity started to recede, until all the stars that remained were safely contained and visible within the confines of an open viewing portal, which was embedded in the wall of the room Oola suddenly found herself standing in. In stark contrast to her decrepit former surroundings, her new environment was sleek, metallic and elegant in its design, with soft but welcoming levels of light and a pleasing temperature in the air. The omnipresent background hum, coupled with the distinctive starry view from the exterior, convinced Oola that she was presently aboard some variety of ship out in space. But though the stars looked the same to her at first glance as they always had in the skies above her home world, Oola knew that she had been brought somewhere entirely different, distant and new. And she was endlessly thankful for it.

"They're pretty, aren't they?" Trance asked, as she stepped to Oola's side and joined her in front of the starfield.

Oola nodded. "This is what you are, isn't it? Some kind of... star spirit?"

"The most appropriate term is 'avatar'. And normally I like to keep that close to the vest. But I don't see the harm in letting you know the truth."

"Because I'm unimportant?" Oola asked, almost playfully, recalling Trance's earlier justification for her intervention on Oola's behalf.

"Well," Trance briefly stammered, as if uncharacteristically caught off guard. "There are many ways to be important. Right now I'd say that you are, because I'm very glad that you're here." That, for the time being, was enough for Oola too. "Here, let's get this ugly thing off of you."

Trance extended her hands toward the collar around Oola's throat, which had been carefully, cruelly crafted and engineered to prevent any possibility of Oola's escape, and to make certain that she would always be within reach of her despicable slave master. Oola had little faith that Trance's abilities, well intentioned and substantial though they clearly were, would be sufficient to overcome the obstacle that had so effectively performed its duty and kept her a prisoner in Jabba's Palace, but she raised her chin toward the ceiling anyway to allow Trance to do her work, and mere seconds later the harness was already being pulled clear and away from her. Her new companion obviously had ways of seeing into things, she had rather cryptically called them "possibilities", that Oola could only scarcely imagine, and while for the most part she was duly impressed, she realized when she noticed the frayed end of her leash, which had evidently been severed and scorched by an intense source of heat, that she was bordering on intimidated as well.

"You glimpse things before they happen, don't you?" Oola asked Trance, direct and matter-of-factly. "That's how you always know so much."

"That doesn't mean I can predict the future, not for certain," Trance replied defensively. "I just see things sometimes. Things that might be. Good things, and bad things..."

"And what you saw for me, in Jabba's Palace...?"

Trance's face darkened and she looked awkwardly away. "I see better things for you here," she said, regaining eye contact but speaking little louder than a whisper, and with obviously forced optimism that didn't exactly set Oola's anxiety at ease.

It did, however, lift her spirits considerably to use the shower in Trance's washroom and finally cleanse herself of all the disgusting dirt and grime that had accumulated over her days and nights spent trapped in a squalid crime lord's den. The new clothes that Trance provided for her, a black shirt and soft pants that were evidently on loan from someone she described only as a 'friend', fit her perfectly, offering significantly more warmth and comfort than Jabba's shabby old dancing outfit ever had, and they looked much more attractive on her in the mirror too. Unexpectedly, Oola caught herself blushing a little when Trance gave her an unsolicited confirmation of this fact.

"There, don't you look so much prettier now?" Trance asked, as the last vestiges of Oola's slave attire were replaced with more distinguished and suitable garments. Slowly but surely, Oola was beginning to feel as good as she looked, and she silently appreciated all of Trance's ample encouragement. "My friends will have questions about you, I suppose," Trance said, planting her hands boldly on her hips and musing to herself. "They should be used to me not answering them by now. This... might be a bit more than they're accustomed to, though. But we'll find a way to get them onboard."

"I can't thank you enough, after all that you've done for me."

"That's alright, no thanks are necessary," Trance said with a satisfied smile. But Oola already had other ideas in mind.

"I never told you what my duties were in Jabba's Palace, did I?" Oola asked, wearing a subtle but noticeable smile of her own. Trance shook her head, and while Oola was more than convinced that she had few, if any, real secrets left, she was grateful that Trance was at least choosing to humor her in this instance. "Then let me show you. But first I'll need... some music."

"This is probably going to sound very different from what you're used to," Trance said as she walked over to the nearest computer station and made her selection from its database. "I don't have much of an ear for music myself, but some of my friends seem to like it."

The speakers, hidden from sight in each corner of the room, crackled to life and began to play a pleasant, upbeat melody. Just as Trance had predicted, the individual instruments sounded distinctly foreign to Oola's ears. But the rhythm felt totally natural, and almost familiar to her. Her body responded to its stimulation exactly as it always had before, and after a few slow steps and a gradual build up, she was soon energetically twisting and twirling her way about the room, kicking her legs high to the beat and swinging her head-tails in deeply sensual arcs, to the rapturous delight of her captivated audience of one. And as the music dipped into a sudden lull, Oola came to a momentary halt to catch her breath, then grinned excitedly and extended her arm and open hand toward Trance, as a wordless but enthusiastic invitation to join her.

Trance appeared flattered, but stuttered in hesitation as she answered. "I think I ought to tell you, I'm not very well coordinated. I actually have a bit of a reputation for falling all over myself and-"

Oola impatiently refused to wait for Trance to finish listing off her excuses, instead reaching to grab her tightly by the hand and forcefully drag her into the dance. Once she somewhat reluctantly gave in, Trance acquitted herself surprisingly well, dutifully following Oola's confident lead and steadily discovering her own method of matching her physical form to the intangible intensity of the music. Hand in hand, they swayed back and forth, both fast and slow; always together and richly savoring each gratifying motion. And then, at the height of their well-earned satisfaction and deeply emotional expression, Trance's most recent prophecy came suddenly, viscerally true, when her clumsy feet tripped over her own tail and sent her flying straight into Oola, knocking them both to the floor. Oola landed first with a painful thud on her back, just in time to catch her inelegant dance partner as she came crashing down on top of her.

"I did try to warn you," Trance said as she let out a defensive chuckle, looking Oola square in the eyes. She had come to a stop with her face mere inches from the other girl's, though neither seemed to mind in the least.

"Yes," Oola agreed rather hospitably, considering she'd been totally pinned to the deck. "That, you did."

It wasn't lost on Oola that the two of them were presently the closest they had ever been. She could even feel the gentle warmth of Trance's breath brushing against her cheek when she laughed and spoke. The golden curls of Trance's hair, so near to the touch and so unlike Oola's features, seemed to especially entice her, and she couldn't help herself but reach out and run her fingers delicately through her soft, luxurious locks. Oola had met species with hair before, on various parts of their anatomy, but had never gotten so close, and she had to admit that none of them had fascinated her quite like Trance's did. She relished the sensation of the individual strands grazing the skin of her hands, and even briefly stopped to rub a few of them together between her fingertips. But when Oola started to trace and caress the edges of Trance's pointed, elf-like ears, and Trance released an impish, girlish giggle in response, it suddenly dawned on Oola what she was doing, and how intimate her contact had inadvertently become. She withdrew both hands in a hasty flash.

"You don't have to stop," Trance said, in a voice that sounded tinged with disappointment. "It felt nice. You just tickled me, that's all."

Red embarrassment showed clearly in Oola's face, and was all the more obvious against her normal green. If she hadn't been held down and unable to move, she would have bolted for the nearest cover in shame. But in her present, restrained state, all she could do was face up to the truth. "I suppose it would be pointless for me to lie about my intentions to you," she said, as if confessing to a crime.

"I understand even better than you think," Trance said, with considerable empathy.

"Do you?" Oola asked skeptically, though she had no genuine doubt about it.

Another distant twinkle glimmered in Trance's eye. But Oola wasn't sure if she was just imagining it this time, or seeing the same cosmic magic that she had before. "You've been cold in darkness for too long, Oola, through no fault of your own. It's only natural to desire light, and warmth. It's not wrong to want these things. It's not wrong to need them. And I can give them to you, I just want to be absolutely sure that my light and warmth is truly what you want and need."

"You know how I feel. I'm sure that you knew even before I did. But what have I to offer you in return?" Oola asked, her voice weak and dreary. "You are a star, shining brightly in the heavens. I am nothing more than... an unimportant Twi'lek slave, who escaped her rightful fate by chance and dumb luck."

"You sell yourself too short," Trance playfully scolded, pressing her finger lightly against the bridge of Oola's nose. "You know very well what you have to offer me. Your grace, your beauty, and most of all your love. The same things you show to the universe itself, every time you step forward into your dance. And I would very much appreciate it if you would show me even more." Tenderly stroking Oola's right head-tail to comfort her, Trance slowly lowered her lips to meet Oola's and let them join lovingly together in their first sumptuous kiss.

As they settled in for the night, Trance and Oola climbed under the covers together, more for the comfort than out of any danger of growing too cold. Oola secured her arms so tightly around Trance that warmth was a given, and she looked forward to the day when she'd even be able to take it for granted. She continued to deliver affectionate kisses along the nape of the purple girl's neck until her lips grew too dry and chapped to go on, and she reluctantly decided that, perhaps, more could wait for the morning after all. Just as she started to shut her weary eyes, she noticed a distinctive tattoo on Trance's left shoulder that, in her excitement, she had overlooked before. It was a red circle with a smiling face in the center, surrounded by a spiky yellow aura; a sun, or so it appeared to Oola. Only then did she remember the true, celestial nature of the woman she presently held in her arms; the power that she had, and how grand a perception of existence. Unlike before, Oola didn't find the thought of it intimidating in the least. With all the grandeur of the cosmos within her grasp, Trance had only ever shown Oola kindness, empathy and intimacy, seemingly humane qualities that had consistently eluded significantly more limited and simple beings.

"Jabba... was going to kill me, wasn't he?" Oola asked apprehensively, though she suspected that Trance might already be asleep and unable to answer. "That's what you meant when you said you saw better things for me here. That's what you saved me from. Isn't it?"

"Well, he would have tried," Trance replied groggily, stirring back awake and momentarily breaking free from Oola's ironclad embrace in order to turn and face her. "But in every possible future that I saw, you found some way to survive. It just wasn't always easy for you. Or pleasant. And if I was able to spare you any one of those hardships, then I am thankful for that. Besides, I think the way we spent tonight was a worthwhile improvement over all of them."

"You won't get an argument from me," Oola said contentedly, cuddling close and locking her arms around Trance again. Trance tenderly did the same. "It is a sobering thought though, isn't it? Knowing that someone would have tried to kill you."

"It's even less fun when they succeed, trust me," Trance said, in her usual cryptic manner. Oola stared at her silently with a stunned and puzzled expression. But even then Trance only elaborated with, "I got better." Oola could, at least, relate to that much.

That night, Oola had no trouble at all falling asleep in Trance's bed and in her arms, where the cold that she had been so long accustomed to was replaced by warmth, the darkness by light, and the fear by love.