[Now Playing]

🔥Madness - Ruelle
🔥Haunted - Chris Grey

*****

Since I've been in Collossus itself for all my life, there were only a few instances that I've actually seen it from space. And everytime, I couldn't comprehend how massive it looked. Everytime, it looked intimidating. Terrifying, even.

But this time, as our ship approached the gigantic floating structure, it felt a lot more sinister that it kept on sending shivers all over my body. This definitely felt different, as if I was returning to a dreaded place I could barely call a home. Its looming figure seemed like a gigantic cross, as if marking itself as my graveyard.

You lived here, you'll die here.

It felt like that.

I didn't even realize that my whole body was tense and my breathing heavy until Qimir's voice crackled through the intercom, momentarily distracting me from my thoughts.

"Remember to stay calm."

I glanced at the other side of the ship and saw him already looking at me through the glass window. His face was full of concern. I managed a nod, though still failing to do as he advised.

As soon as we landed on the crowded docking bay, I let Qimir get off the ship and approach the dock guards first to present his papers. Meanwhile, I pretended to be busy checking the landing pads to avoid interacting with the guards first hand.

"State your business," the burly humanoid dock guard said, barely even reading the documents.

"I have some.... packages to deliver." Qimir said in his friendly shopkeeper voice, glancing at the backpack he was carrying. The guard just gave it a once over but did not bother opening it.

"Who's there with you?" I flinched as the attention was directed towards me. I just slightly turned around, afraid to risk showing my full face to the guard.

"My apprentice. She's new to this place, so don't scare her too much." Qimir whispered the last part although I could still hear it. The guard narrowed his eyes between me and Qimir for a moment, before proceeding to shove the papers back to Qimir and leaving to attend to another incoming starship.

I sighed in relief.

"Take your hood off." Qimir's voice changed back to normal as he approached me, his friendly facade from earlier gone.

"What? But I---"

"You look more recognizable with that hood on." He nodded towards a nearby bulletin full of wanted posters. Despite the dozens of posters littered all over it, I was quick to see my own wanted poster as it was one of the few that was in hologram. It had an image of my face mostly shadowed by my hood, along with my details at the bottom.

---------------------------------------------------
WANTED

Name: Eli "Rat"
Species: Human
Gender: Genetically female
Crime: Theft

Last Seen: Collossus Docking Bay

Bounty: 10,000 credits
Requirement: ALIVE
---------------------------------------------------

"Ten thousand credits?!" I whispered in disbelief. Bounty hunters would do anything for that kind of money. This only meant that I was the subject of a fucking manhunt.

Probably the only good thing about this newfound knowledge was that they needed me alive, but that's probably just to allow them to torture me for information on the whereabouts of the holocron.

Realizing that Qimir was right, I took down my hood, having no choice but to trust my new haircut to keep me unrecognizable. At first glance, at least.

"Just keep close to me and don't act suspicious." Qimir reminded, then handed me a small black dagger. "You may need this."

I weighed the metal in my hand. Although I appreciated it, I silently wished that I would not have to use it because I never had actually stabbed another person. As I've already admitted, I was always a runner; never a fighter.

I slipped the dagger into a strap on my right hip, muttering a small 'thanks'.

"We have to move," I declared as I started to lead the way though the crowded streets of Collossus. It was a good thing that the streets were dim despite the dozens of neon lights and signages. It was mostly because the high rise buildings were so compact that very little light could shine from above, plus the floating vehicles up in the air constantly casted shadows on the ground. It was literally a vertical mega-city, except that the dark and ominous environment allowed for shady people like me to freely roam the streets.

"I've been here a few times," Qimir casually said out of nowhere. "I used to be a gunrunner for the hutts."

He flashed me a small smile. I wondered why he was telling me this out of nowhere, but I figured he was probably just trying to ease my tension.

"Really? How did you quit?"

"Technically, I didn't work under their command. So I didn't need to quit. I just come and go; if they need something, they name the price and I provide it."

"Does that have something to do with your starship?"

He chuckled. "Yes. It was worth a few boxes of blasters and cannons."

I smiled, satisfied that the origin of his starship was finally solved in my mind. And the fact that he had fifty credits to spare just to buy me clothes. I didn't judge him at all because being a fugitive himself, he didn't really have any other choice but to turn to illegal trade.

It was probably also the reason why he didn't judge me for being a thief.

"The garbage chutes all over the city are connected to underground tubes that send the trash straight to the bottom of Collossus," I started to explain to Qimir, changing the topic back to the matter at hand. "I know an inconspicuous route that leads straight to the bottom tunnels, but we need to get to level zero first."

Since the docking bay was literally at the top of Collossus, we technically had to go through 100 levels downwards which was seriously a pain in the ass. So to get there the quickest, I had no choice but to lead us towards an elevator.

All the while, it took all of my concentration to pretend that I didn't notice the suspicious glances of some men that we passed by as we treaded through the streets. From their clothes alone, I could tell apart who were rogue pilots, mercenaries, and bounty hunters. Although there was a digging thought that those people were starting to recognize me, I tried my hardest to remain calm, as Qimir had advised.

I didn't want to assume the worst. Yet.

We finally reached the worn down metal elevator, and I was quick to press the lowest level possible, which was level fifty. The doors were about to close, but a hand stopped it halfway, causing it to reopen again. A group of four human men entered, busy laughing and conversing with each other.

Mercenaries.

My body tensed up and I unconsciously stepped closer to Qimir to create some distance between myself and the nearest man. My jaw clenched as I kept my gaze straight, not even daring to glance at them once.

In the middle of the ride, I saw through my peripheral that the man beside me was looking down at me intently. Qimir must have noticed this so he draped his arm over my shoulder and pulled me closer to his body to hide my face from the man.

Qimir gave the man a dark stare, as if silently telling him to fuck off. Meanwhile, my heart was racing in my chest at the looming possibility that I have been recognized.

'You have reached level fifty.'

A female mechanical voice broke the silence, and the elevator doors screeched open. We let the group of mercenaries exit first, and thankfully they went in the opposite direction we were going. However, the suspicious man glanced at us one last time, and my mistake was I accidentally made eye contact with him.

At that moment, I literally saw the recognition flash in his eyes.

Big mistake.

"Qimir, I think they recognized me." My voice shook as I whispered. He didn't even have time to answer as a voice boomed across the street.

"You're the rat girl, aren't you?"

Qimir breathed in harshly as he turned around on my behalf. "Sorry man, I think you have the wrong person."

"Yeah?" the man answered, not sounding convinced at all. "Well I'm good at recognizing faces. And I recognize that one as worth ten thousand credits."

Qimir took his arm off my shoulder, allowing me to partially hide myself behind him.

"I think you're making a mistake." His tone was light, yet it felt like a final warning.

However, the cocky mercenary just laughed and withdrew his blaster gun, aiming it directly at Qimir. His colleagues followed suit, withdrawing their weapons as well.

"I don't make mistakes. Now hand over the girl if you want to live."

When Qimir just responded with silence, the mercenary took a warning shot right at Qimir's foot, leaving a burnt hole on the metal floor.

Qimir's head slightly tilted, and I could literally feel his energy shift. The air around him ominously thickened. I slowly backed away, knowing what was about to come next.

Another shot rang from the blaster, this time aimed at his head. But much to my shock--and the mercenaries too--he easily deflected the bullet with just a wave of his finger, causing it to hit the elevator door instead. This caught them off guard.

Even from fifteen feet away Qimir was able to snatch the blaster from his hand using the force, making it fly in the air straight into his own hand. Without missing a beat, Qimir shot each of them in the head.

Then he coldly discarded the blaster on the floor just as their bodies fell to the floor with a loud thud.

"More people will recognize you now. We need to move quickly." Qimir said coldly as he urged me to continue walking, not giving me a chance to process my shock.

He felt like an entirely different person. Cold. Emotionless. It really felt like he could massacre everyone in Collossus without even doing so much as blink.

I shook my head back to reality and started running, not even caring anymore if it grabbed more attention. Qimir followed just close behind me, and we weaved through the crowded streets towards the second elevator I knew.

As we ran, I didn't fail to notice some more men started running after us upon recognizing me. And of course, others more followed suit as they were quick to realize that I was a fugitive running. Eventually, it was an entire fucking mob of assorted species running after us, hoping to have their share of ten thousand credits.

"It's over there!" I pointed at the elevator at a distance. Qimir stretched his hand to control the elevator from afar, making the doors open in advance. As we entered, the door closed just in time before the mob reached us. Qimir stretched his hand towards the mob, and a loud creaking noise echoed throughout the place as the support beams under the platform they were standing on forcefully detached.

Due to this, the platform collapsed, causing most of them to drop straight down fifty floors, and I doubted they could even survive that.

"This is fucking crazy," I muttered under my breath as I watched the others that managed to survive start to jump or climb down platforms and fences like animals, looking for their own paths to catch up to the elevator fifty levels down.

Qimir suddenly grabbed my hands to make me look at him, tearing my attention away from the chaos outside.

He didn't say anything; we just stood there looking into each other's eyes, both catching our breaths from the chase. But oddly enough, that alone helped my nerves calm down a bit. The way he gently squeezed my hands helped ground my thoughts and assure that I was fine as long as I was with him.

'You have reached level zero.'

The mechanical voice announced. We broke away from each other and started running again as soon as the doors opened.

"The stairway is not far from here. It will lead us straight to the tunnels of the dumpster."

Several maniac laughters and hooting echoed all around the place as some that remained from the mob started to catch up to us. If I were to count, there were about twenty or more of them. Just as we reached the top of the staircase, Qimir suddenly stopped and faced the incoming mob, as if ready to fight them.

"Qimir! What are you doing---"

I stopped mid sentence as a red lightsaber slowly extended from his hand. A shiver flowed throughout my body at the sight of it, and the realization of what it meant.

Qimir glanced back at me, his expression a bit regretful as if he didn't want me to find out like this. "Eli, you go ahead. I'll hold them back."

"But--"

"Go!" He growled, not giving me a chance to argue. Upon seeing my fear-stricken face, his expression momentarily softened.

"Don't worry, I'll find you."

With this reassurance, I nodded and started descending down the metal stairs and into the tunnel. As I ran, the image of Qimir wielding a red lightsaber burned into my mind. Everything started to make sense. Why he was so against the teachings of the Jedi, how he was able to feel that I was attuned to the dark side, and taught me how to wield it.

The realization made my blood run cold that Qimir, was perhaps, a Sith.

****
[A/N]:

Eli, honey, it's more complicated than that. Don't you dare reject him now that he's shown his true self :(

(btw, having Qimir as your literal bodyguard is so ughh ❤️)