Chapter Text
"Uba gee dopa hihnezoba bai yoieu bu rulya geeb." Chuna the Hutt said.
"The great Chuna the Hutt says that you have two rotations to get the weapons delivered." his translator protocol droid, TC-99, said.
"Yeah, I know. I can understand him." Xavier Velgor said.
"You can understand him?" Breanna, Xavier's sister, asked.
"Yes, I can. Now shut the kark up so I can get this deal done." Xavier snarled.
"Uba cha paknee ata bantanlola doi kaee, woy uba?" Chuna asked. "Jee bacaka da."
"Nobata, Jee cha. An Jee hatkocanh woy gahke Jee yoieu heee rulya geeb." Xavier said. "Kuna kee yoieu mee moulee rah, an ta woha yoieu bu Pykes mo tee bata."
"X'hoo, Velgor." Chuna said, chuckling. "Jee ye wanya nudd bai babau see mee biplata."
Xavier bowed, and the Velgors left.
"Xavier, you kriffing idiot." Breanna scoffed. "You're going to end up getting yourself killed or put into a situation where I can't save you."
"Yeah, well, we got stuck with a massive debt." Xavier responded. "We gotta get money somehow."
"What, do you want me to pole-dance in a cantina wearing nothing but lingerie?" Breanna snapped, causing Xavier to whip around.
"That option is always available, you schutta!"
Breanna slapped him hard. "Shut the kark up!"
Xavier shook his head and sighed sharply, rubbing the hand mark on his cheek. "Let's just get this damn job done so we can leave behind this debt."
"Yeah." Breanna said. "And just so you know, the only reason I stick around with you is because I love you, bantha fodder."
"I figured you would say that."
The two of them boarded their YT-1300 freighter, the Star Sage, and they left Nal Hutta.
Once the ship jumped into hyperspace, Xavier turned in his chair to face Breanna.
"What's going on?"
Breanna glanced at Xavier. "What do you mean?"
"You've never questioned a deal I've made like this. Never. So, why are you all of a sudden questioning this one?"
Breanna turned away, lightly shaking her head.
Xavier grew worried. "Breanna... Talk to me..."
"I'm fine." she said, without turning back around. "I just...I have bad memories, with transporting weapons."
"...I understand." Xavier said. "Really, I do. I can turn the ship around, and you can stay on Nal Hutta until the job is done. Is that alright?"
"No! No, don't do that!" Breanna said. "You...you need my help. Really. I'm okay. Let's just get this done as quickly as possible."
She got up and headed to the main hold, where she sat down to clean and recalibrate her blaster rifle. The habitual rhythm helped to clear her mind and allow her to think. As usual, she started talking to herself while she was working.
"I can't let this happen. I can't lose Xavier to a weapons job..." she said. "Not after..."
She finished the maintenance on her blaster and returned to the cockpit. Xavier was sitting in the pilot's chair, looking out into hyperspace as he usually did during long flights. Suddenly, the alarm went off.
The Star Sage was forced out of hyperspace, and they found themselves facing a fleet of ships bearing the symbol of the Pyke Syndicate, including an Interdictor-class Star Destroyer.
"What's going on?" Breanna asked as she sat down in the copilot's seat.
"We got caught in an Interdictor's gravity well..." Xavier said as he turned the hyperdrive off and the sublight engines back on. "And we're most likely caught in a tractor beam as well."
He tried to turn the Star Sage away, to no avail.
"Yep. Tractor beam."
Breanna trembled slightly. "We need to get out of here. Now."
"I'm aware of that!"
When the Star Sage was pulled into the Interdictor Star Destroyer's hangar bay, the two of them lowered the boarding ramp and exited. They were met by Marg Krim, the leader of the Pykes.
"I was unaware that smugglers continued to traverse this area as if it was their own." Marg Krim said. "State your names, and your business."
"I am Xavier Velgor. This is my sister, Breanna." Xavier said. "The job we are doing is highly confidential. We cannot say what it is out of risk of compromising it."
Marg Krim put his hand to his chin. "If you cannot state your business, then you will be terminated, and your ship will be sent to the scrapyard."
"With all due respect, we were doing a job that requires secrecy." Xavier said. "We cannot go back on our contract."
"We're transporting weapons from the Hutts to help arm the New Republic." Breanna said, unable to let this go on further.
"What?! Breanna!"
Marg Krim narrowed his eyes at the siblings. "The Hutts... With the death of Jabba five years ago, the Hutt clan has fallen into disarray. No doubt they are trying to take back the territory we have rightfully claimed as our own."
"Uh, if you don't mind, we should really be going right now..." Xavier said.
Marg Krim nodded. "Yes, you can go."
"Wait, just like that?" Xavier asked. "You're not gonna sabotage us or anything?"
"You provided the information we needed. You are no threat to us as of now." Marg Krim stated. "You are free to leave."
Xavier bowed. "Thank you."
The two of them boarded the Star Sage and left, jumping into hyperspace en route to Coruscant.
A few moments afterwards, Xavier turned towards Breanna.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"
"I was saving your life, Hutt-spawn." Breanna said.
"Well, thanks to you, everyone is gonna know that the New Republic makes deals with crime syndicates!" Xavier spat. "The entire galaxy is gonna be thrown into chaos once again!"
"And just how do you know that the Pykes are going to tell everyone?" Breanna demanded. "For all we know, they're just going to destroy the Hutt clan and take over the galactic underworld."
Xavier didn't respond.
"Thought so. You always think in the worst-case scenario." Breanna said. "Listen, Xavier, and listen good. You're my brother. The last family member I have left. If you die, I'm all alone. I won't have anyone else. Do you know how much that frightens me? Being alone in this ginormous galaxy?"
"What does that have to do with compromising our weapons job?!"
"BECAUSE A WEAPONS JOB KILLED MOM AND DAD!!!"
Xavier was shocked into silence.
Breanna slumped into her seat. "You were just an infant at the time, so you wouldn't remember. But I was there... I saw everything..."
Xavier sat down, facing his sister. "Breanna... What happened...?"
Breanna looked almost on the verge of tears. "We were transporting E-11 blasters from Lothal to Yavin IV for the Rebel Alliance. Along the way, we were intercepted by the Empire. You were fast asleep in our quarters. Mom told me to stay with you while she and Dad talked with the Imperials. They said what they were doing was confidential, and were asked to go with the Imperials. When I heard the docking ring door close, I crept out of our quarters, reached high enough to open it back up, and followed. I followed them all the way to a torture facility, but they never knew I was there. Mom and Dad were strapped up to some kind of table, and they were electrocuted each time they refused to tell what their deal was. They died to the torture..."
They got up, and Xavier hugged Breanna. After a few moments, she returned it.
"When they said Mom and Dad were dead, I ran into the room, sobbing. I wanted to prove to them that Mom and Dad were okay, that they were just asleep. The Imperials tried to calm me and tell me everything would be alright, but they quickly realized I had seen everything... One of the stormtroopers guided me back to the ship, closed the docking ring door, and before I knew it, the Imperials had detached their ship from the Star Sage and jumped to hyperspace."
"What did you do after then...?" Xavier asked as they let go.
"I fiddled around with the controls and managed to get the autopilot to take us back to Lothal, somehow. From there, I took you and headed into the town we'd landed outside of and found the orphanage that we lived in until you got your pilot's license. It was only once we left Lothal in the Star Sage that we discovered the debt we'd been left by Mom and Dad. You know the story at this point."
"Yeah..." Xavier said. "We've been taking job after job to work towards paying off that debt."
Breanna nodded. "I never complained about any deals we made, because I knew we needed the money. But when you took the weapons deal, it's as if reality had hit me with a block of carbonite to the nose. It was the same deal, more or less. I was scared it would end the same way, and that I would lose you... So I did what Mom and Dad didn't. I spilled the beans about the deal."
Xavier was silent for a few moments. "...So that's what you meant when you said you had bad memories with transporting weapons..."
"Yeah..." Breanna said. "Xavier, I had nightmares about the torture for years. I'll never get the memory of seeing Mom and Dad being electrocuted out of my head..."
"You never grieved for them, did you...?"
"I never had the time to. I had to get the Star Sage back to Lothal, then I had to find the orphanage, then I had to be a big girl and make sure the orphanage knew how to take care of you, and then we had to do these jobs..."
Xavier hugged her again, gently rubbing her back. "If you have to cry, Breanna, then cry... I'm here for you..."
Breanna tightly returned the hug, finally letting out into her brother's shoulder the tears that were twenty years overdue.