Chapter I: An Unlikely Escape

Iyleesi stood at the edge of a table where two young human males were seated comfortably.

"We'll take two Bantha blasters if that's alright."

The man on the left eyed Iyleesi hungrily with his icy blue eyes and flashed her a suggestive smirk. Iyleesi smiled back at the man, nodded, and gently removed their menus from the table. With quickness she paced to the bar where Johjai, the Nautolan bartender, mixed drinks with incredible precision and haste.

"Johjai, two Bantha blasters. Table twelve." Johjai nodded and began crafting the fizzing pink liquid.

Iyleesi had worked at Hutt Chuba's throughout her late teens up until her current age of twenty-three years. It was not her choice to work as a waitress for so long. When she was of a young age, her father and mother pushed her into the employment. They, like many other residents of Mos Eisley, were devoured by a lust for gambling. After the loss of an impossibly large sum of wupiupi to a Hutt, her father had no choice but to put Iyleesi into employment to pay off his debt.

Iyleesi reflected on her situation as she stared out a window into the sandy streets of Mos Eisley. She had always dreamed of leaving Tatooine and moving to a more respectable planet like Coruscant or Naboo. However, at the current rate she was working, her parents debt would not be paid in full until she reached the middle of her human life cycle. Iyleesi sighed and leaned against the side of the bar.

"Order up!" Johjai cried, placing the two frothy alcoholic drinks near her elbow.

Noticing the glasses, she stood upright again and placed the fizzing mugs on a carrying tray. As she approached the table where the two human men sat, she noticed a man in a hooded black cloak standing at the entrance of the doorway. To this Iyleesi hardly paid any mind, there were always strange aliens frequenting Hutt Chuba's at all hours of the day and night. It was as it is in Mos Eisley. She was only glad she could not be commissioned to work at the Cantina, as she had heard from her young Twi'lek friend Lepa all the strange and terrible things that go on there. The two men inspected the drinks with great interest as she placed them onto the table. Bantha blasters were a specialty at Hutt Chuba's and unique to only areas around Mos Eisley. Many outsiders ventured to the restaurant merely to have a taste of the strange alcoholic beverage.

"Would you like anything else?" Iyleesi motioned politely to the bar.

The man with the bright blue eyes opened his mouth to speak and then closed it. Iyleesi watched as his smug expression sunk into what she could interpret only as horror. Glancing at his partner on the right, she found the same stark expression planted upon his face. That's when she heard it. An anguished scream. Then another. The two men jumped from their seats and ran past Iyleesi in panic toward the entrance. She quickly whipped herself around to bear witness to the terrible sight. Beings everywhere were evacuating their seats and running with frenzy and alarm. Several men and women lay dead on the sandstone tile floor. The moment the first man made contact with the exit door, it suddenly, and very violently, slammed shut. A cry of panicked despair reverberated throughout the restaurant as the iron clad shades on every window followed suit and crashed down. Iyleesi looked around herself in disbelief. Her heart beat rang loudly in her ears. There was no way out.

At the center of the fear, pain, and confusion stood the man in the hooded black cloak. She watched, frozen in terror, as he maimed countless beings with a crimson double-edged energy sword. Those who ran from him were suddenly lifted into the air and thrown across the room. Those who tried to fight him were quickly decapitated or cut in two.

Is this really how I will die? Iyleesi thought to herself. Here, in this restaurant, in this terrible city? I don't want to die, not yet.

Suppressing her urge to scream, Iyleesi slowly inched her way beneath a booth in the back of the restaurant. Curling into a ball, she plugged both ears with her fingers and shut her eyes tightly. Even then, she could still hear their screams. There must have been at least forty people in the restaurant that day and she was quite certain all forty were going to die. In her head the image of the man haunted her. Each scream was accompanied by her mind's own recreation of what took place. She imagined him in his black cape, features shrouded by the massive hood, ending the lives of every creature in sight.

The cries of terror seemed to reached a pinnacle and then slowly died down until only a few helpless cries for mercy could be faintly heard. Iyleesi unplugged her ears and opened her eyes. She was buried too far underneath the booth to see anything, but could hear the room just fine. There was no sound except a single pair of quiet footsteps. It was certainly him. She listened closely, trying to suppress her ragged breathing as not to alert him of her presence. The footsteps wandered closer to her, then farther away. They continued on in such a pattern for what felt like hours to Iyleesi, although she realized what he was doing almost immediately.

Searching for survivors, she thought, as a fearful shiver shook her to her core.

The sudden creaking of a metal door alerted Iyleesi that his search was over. Having opened and closed Hutt Chuba's for nearly eight years, she was familiar with sound of the entrance door opening. The metal blockades on the windows also began to creak open shortly afterward.

After listening for the echo of footsteps for a moment longer, she slid out from under her hiding place. Iyleesi tried her best not to look at the bodies that littered the restaurant's floor, but her curious brown eyes could not help but search the faces of the dead. It was terrible. She held one hand to her mouth to keep from vomiting. Living in Mos Eisley, she had seen a great number of terrible things, but nothing like this. Never so much death in one place.

Hovering at the entrance, Iyleesi wondered absently what she must do next. Run? Go home? Alert the authorities? Surely the latter would be the best option. She swiftly left the restaurant and began to wander down the desolate sandy streets of the city. Her cheeks were wet with tears she had not realized she'd been crying.

As she turned down a side street, a short cut to a spaceport which often had stationed guards, unease crept down her spine. The feeling of being watched devoured her. She felt like a prey animal being hunted. Biting her lip and clenching her fists, she stopped in her tracks. Slowly, she turned her head. She wondered if it was him and prayed to every god in every galaxy she could think of that it was not. To Iyleesi's horror, her prayers went unanswered.

Behind her, only a few yards away, stood the man in the black hooded cloak. Two blades emerged with hiss from the hilt of his energy sword the moment her eyes touched his visage. She knew he meant to execute her. He would cut her down as he did every sentient being in Hutt Chuba's only moments ago. Even with this knowledge, Iyleesi could not find the will to move. Trembling, she watched as the man advanced toward her at a steadfast pace. As he approached closer, she was finally able to make out the features previously obscured by the black hood.

His skin was bright red. Three horns visibly protruded from the front of his head. She reflected that he must have been a Zabrak, she had seen their species before on Tatooine. Still, the most frightening aspect of his appearance made her doubt whether or not that was true. Bold black tattoos tinged the features of his face in a strange symmetrical pattern. They traveled from his chin, to his frightening yellow eyes, all the way up into the base of his forehead. His hood, cloak, and gloved hands obscured her from seeing the rest of him. Where else these strange tattoos marked him, she thought she did not care to ever know.

"I sensed your fear in that room." His smooth voice echoed as he came upon her.

She watched, still quivering, as he grinned to reveal a set of off white teeth. His yellow eyes burned her own and his towering form prickled her skin.

"I chose instead to chase you down and slaughter you. Now, run."

His command seemed to break the invisible bonds that held her body immobile. Without a second to spare she began to sprint down the desolate side street. Iyleesi was a considerably fast runner, but once the adrenaline hit her blood stream she took off faster than she ever had before. The Zabrak was, however, just as fast if not faster than her. He was upon her within seconds despite her head start. She realized her only advantage over him was her knowledge of Mos Eisley. Keeping this in mind, she swiftly turned a corner and sprinted up a steep set of stairs until she was upon the roof a building.

For a moment she stood guard on the rooftop, but after the passage of a several minutes she grew more confident she had lost him. Turning to face the stairwell, she realized she relaxed far too soon.

The Zabrak stood at the top of the staircase with his arms crossed against his chest. The amused look from earlier was still set against his severe features. Iyleesi felt the gravity of her situation immediately. If she didn't get away from him right this moment she was doomed to die. Desperately, she began searching for a means of escape. All the rooftops surrounding her were very widely spaced. If she attempted a jump from one roof to another she knew she would likely fail and end up falling to her death. The only other option was the staircase on which her pursuer had mounted himself.

Suddenly, the cloaked man raised the glowing red blades above his head and pointed them gravely at her in a fighting stance.

"I will take great pleasure in ending you." He uttered in a low, menacing tone.

I cannot die, she thought in horror, there is too much I haven't seen. Too much I haven't done! Not here, not on Tatooine.

With a burst of desperation and despair, she ran to the Zabrak and threw herself at his feet.

"Please, please allow me to live! Please!" Trembling, she laid her head and fingertips at the base of his feet. "You may have my life. It is yours! Just please do not take it in death! Keep me alive and I shall do as you please! I pledge myself to you, I give my service to you. Whatever you want, just..." Her words trailed off as she began to weep in panic.

A swift and violent kick to base of the ribs was Iyleesi's answer. The force of the kick caused her to roll several inches away from the Zabrak and hold her tiny frame in pain. She cried out as the throbbing pang seemed to only intensify, not relent.

"Your deplorable groveling is amusing, so I accept. You now belong to me."

With that he deactivated his blade and typed a code into the com-link around his wrist.