September 4th, 2469 - Planet Sanctuary, Sanctuary City - Razzeh District - an abandoned house

‘What are you doing here, now, at this late hour of my life?’ the woman asked, her voice coming out in a hoarse drawl. ‘How did you even find me?’

The bodyguard crossed the room, and stooped in front of her. His sharp, red eyes bored into her, and she had to look away.

‘I gave you a chance, and you wasted it’, he growled. ‘You had better opportunities than most kids in this damn galaxy, and look what you’ve done with them.’

She felt rage, swelling in her chest, and she turned back to him, gritting her teeth in anger.

‘Then what the hell are you doing here?!’ she snarled. ‘Come to rub it in?!’

He leaned back.

‘Your father taught me that if you want something done, you do it yourself’, he replied. ‘I made the mistake of not following his advice once, but I won’t make it again.’

It hit the woman all at once. She came to the most obvious conclusion; she was a lost cause, but her daughter…’

‘Take her’, the woman spat. ‘I don’t need her.’

She held the child out, her arms shaking, weak from lack of use.

‘You don’t’, the bodyguard confirmed. ‘You don’t need her now, anyway… but if you pull yourself out of this gutter, there might be a time when you will.’

He took the child in his arms, and stood up.

‘Does she have a name?’ he asked.

‘She doesn’t’, the woman replied.

‘I’ll name her after her mother, then.’

‘Just get lost’, the woman growled, turning her head away from him.

‘I will … but I won’t be too hard to find.’

The front door closed. He was gone. She wanted to feel relief … but instead, what she felt was emptiness. Pulling herself upright, she knew she had to fill that void.

September 23rd, 2469 - Planet Sanctuary, Sanctuary City - Razzeh District - Old Guard Diner

‘Where have you been, Boss? You’ve been gone for nearly a year; we thought … something might have happened.’

Cosmopoh asked the question, and it lingered in the air. The diner was quiet; occasionally, plates clinked in the kitchen and feet pitter-pattered on the chequered floor. Her face was reflected in the large, grimy window. There were bags under her eyes, her skin was pale, her hair somewhat dishevelled.

‘I’m guessing you can’t get work either, huh?’ Amarat asked. ‘Nothing substantial … or permanent.’

The Boss’s eyes were bright, narrowed and bloodshot. When she looked at them, chills ran down their spines, and they sank back into the red synthetic material of the diner seats.

‘I made a mistake …’ she told them, her voice low and filled with an indecipherable emotion. ‘I’ve told myself ever since I was a little girl that I had lost the right to deserve anything … but I can’t think that way anymore. Fear is a powerful thing … if you’ll join me, I’ll make you rich, and I’ll make people fear you.’

‘Anything you say Boss’, Cosmopoh said with a satisfied grunt. ‘Where do we start?’

‘We’re going home … we’re going to my home’, the Boss told him.

July 7th, 2486 - Planet Sanctuary, Sanctuary City - Koltura District - The Ruins of the Teqaku Family Mansion

The room was illuminated by a single beam of light, which pierced the tattered curtains and split the floor space. The air was heavy with dust. Abiona coughed in the gloom, tugging at the bindings which kept her secured to a creaking wooden chair.

‘Why are you telling me all of this?’ Abiona asked, her tone low and apprehensive.

The Boss stood beyond the beam of light. Her black, three-piece suit melted into the gloom, leaving only the brilliant emerald of her eyes, and the deep red of the flower on her lapel, fully visible.

‘I want you to understand, Abiona Var Oostabar Gan Kuji, what it means to feel fear, and to have all that you take for granted … ripped away’, the Boss told her. ‘I’m going to sell you to the highest bidder … and the galaxy can go to hell for all I care, so long as I get my money.’