prologue

'the beginning of the end'

*Note that this information is probably going to be repeated throughout the story*

NOVA has had a less-than-favorable life. Sold into slavery as a child, she's had to work for everything she has. Her determination is her strength, her skill and mind allowing her to come out of the toughest fights on top.

She'd been lucky to escape the clutches of her master as a teenager, for he could've done much worse things to her once she was older. She'd even been able to steal his ship as a little token of her victory, although it didn't go very far. She found people who took her in, trained her in both combat and with her powers. They brought her up as their own, a little community on a seemingly desolate planet. When she was able and ready, she went out on her own and made a name for herself as a bounty hunter. One of the best and youngest in the galaxy, trusted with the most difficult and dangerous of jobs. She used her skills to her advantage, thinking she was doing good, eliminating criminals and the like. That is, until her final job with the Guild.

They'd sent her after an asset, one said to be quite old and very dangerous. Unlike the others, she wasn't given an option to bring it in alive. The asset was to be terminated, and the client offered a very expensive reward.

Instead of finding a man wreaking havoc and causing utmost chaos, she found a calm village, teeming with life. As she entered they stopped to stare, grabbed their children tightly in protective embraces and looked at her with fear and weariness clear in their eyes. She ignored them, like always, following her fob. She found not a man, not a dangerous species of killer alien, but a baby, in an oversized furry robe, waddling around inside of a little home and playing with two children. That was the day she realized the Guild wasn't what she thought. They wanted her to kill an innocent child, and for what? No, she wouldn't.

The mother of the twins allowed her to stay when she explained her situation. She said it would be safer for everyone. The village would have a protector and she would have a hidden home. She had told her the village was in dire need of a protector after what had happened to the father of the twins. Nova didn't pry after that.

The mother explained how she had come across the small green child, how she planned to raise it along with her twins as her own, because a child should never be left without somebody to care for it.

So Nova stayed in the village, hidden away from her old life, safe and happy for once.

She'd had no idea she was being hunted. She hadn't known that the Guild had sent hunter after hunter to find and capture the traitor. She hadn't the faintest idea that fellow bounty hunter Greef Karga, Isaak Tallav (the leader of the Guild at the time), and Moff Gideon himself were coming to take her away from her harmless, peaceful little life.

She should've known, and every day she curses herself for it. The day before was peaceful. Too peaceful. The children of the village had even made her a little gift to thank her for her protection (although she hadn't really done anything yet; there had been no attacks during her stay), a necklace to carry with her always.

And then they arrived, in a huge threatening ship that dwarfed her own. She'd rushed the children of the village to a barn in the back of the little area, as far away from the commotion as possible. They were here for her, she thought. The children would be safe.

Turns out, they were also there for her bounty, the green little troublemaker she'd grown to love with all her broken, traumatized heart. She'd fought her hardest, even killed the old Guild leader, but it was no use. They found the children, found the rest of the village trying to escape, and killed them all with a huge, extremely unnecessary gun. She knew the job didn't require that much ammunition; she'd plowed through buildings full of enemies with only her dual blaster pistols and a rifle.

Having been knocked unconscious during the fight, she'd awoken to smoke and screams, to rivers of blood and wailing of those still alive. She could hear pleas from a voice she recognized. The mother she lived with, the one who took her in so generously and cared for her in her time with the people of the small village, was pleading desperately for her children's lives. If not me, she cried, let my children live. You can't be so heartless as to murder innocent children in cold blood.

It was useless. They killed the family that Nova had come to love over the past months, and then they took her and the Child. The guards did unspeakable things to her on that ship, took so violently and cruelly from her the one thing she'd hoped she would never lose unwillingly, touched her without permission in places she'd hoped would never be violated. It had been close to being taken before, but never had it actually been ripped away from her as she screamed for help. They beat her and tortured her in more ways than she could count, left marks of their fun, even went to far as to brand her with the sign of the old Empire.

One night, she escaped her cell. She knew she didn't have much time, knew she would have to find a way out or be mercilessly slaughtered. So she found the Child, and did the one thing she could think of: she caused a fuel leak. When they landed to get it repaired, she escaped. She ran and never looked back, ran as far as she could from that gods-damned ship and everybody on it and everything it represented. She ran from the memories it held. She ran and ran and ran until she finally realized what planet she was on. It was the planet that held the first people to truly care for her, the planet she'd been trained on after she escaped her master's clutches. And after escaping yet another horrible place full of gruesome memories, she was back.

She entrusted the Child to their care, knowing they would protect it and train it once it came of age. And then she left, trying desperately to forget her failures. Nonetheless, the screams of the dying villagers and the cries of children don't cease to haunt her every moment.