Prologue: Solaris
“Run! Hurry up! I’ll hold them off!”
There were four of them when the attack started. Four young boys, each with a headful of sliver-white hair and a pair of bright-green eyes. Their dark-tanned skin was common for the people in their remote village on the tropical temperature, over-vegetated moon. They had been lucky for a long time, being a middle of the road trade route for both the Republic and the Empire, but they had finally butted heads one too many times. The Empire was finally invading, taking prisoners who gave up and shooting down those who didn’t.
“But you can’t hold them all off!”
The eldest grinned, throwing a wink before calling over to the Imperial soldiers.
“HEY YOU! Get away from our house!”
A swirl of red circled the young body, giving him enough force to toss a rather large piece of wrecked ceiling towards the group. Snickering, he ran off to draw their attention. Naturally, he was chased and only stopped every so often to pick up another piece of debris with his will to toss it towards the group. Admittedly, it felt good to hit one and have another trip over the body. Finally, he was cornered. Surrounded by blaster rifles, he stared daggers at his attackers. Fearless.
“Stand down. I’ll be taking this one.”
Moving aside, the soldiers made room for the heavily-armored, female Lord. There was a sense of elegance to the older woman, despite her menacing aura.
“What’s your name, boy?”
The glare continued, the red swirls continuously surrounding the youth. A sly smirk came across the mouth of the women as she mocked the weak force energy with the crushing power of her own. The boy’s strength suddenly wavered noticeable. The body trembled, but he continued to stand. Finally, he fell to already dirty knees, a cough of blood coming out to splatter on the scorched earth. The ominous swirling red cloud around the boy dissipated, as the unnatural strength finally retreated.
“Your name, boy.”
“….Solaris.”
What choice was there but to answer? Everything hurt, vision was blurry, blood dripped from the dry lips.
“Age?”
“Four…Fourteen.”
“And no formal training on this waste of a moon. Impressive. Yes, you will go far.”
She turned, speaking to one of the soldiers.
“Ready my ship and take this boy to the space dock. He’s force sensitive and coming with me.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
Being pulled up, Solaris looked toward his new master. Still, the green eyes moved to the spot where he had left the others. If nothing else, there was the relief that they had escaped.
Prologue: Seren
“But you can’t hold them all off!”
Seren had to protest at Solaris’s logic. What good would it do them if they all split up?! But Solaris, who was always stubborn, ran off with a smile. That left Seren in charge of the other two. Sighing, he pushed them along to try to hide in the remains of a small hut that had been recently destroyed. It made sense that the troops wouldn’t have any interest in a house that they had already sacked and ravaged.
Hunkered down, the three remained as quiet as possible, watching the marches of the Empire as if it were a sea of black.
“Some might still be hiding. Search the remains!” There was a large man in rich robes, giving orders to a handful of soldiers. Once someone was found, they were inspected.
“Slave traders…”
One of the other boys spoke quietly, peeking through the overgrown bangs of his hair.
“Quiet, Tsuki…”
With another explosion nearby, the already unstable roof started to collapse. Looking up, Seren had a choice to make. Get crushed or push the younger two to safety. That would leave him exposed and out in the open, however. Sighing, he opted for the second choice. The last thing he saw was Tsuki’s wide eyed look before the roof came down just inches in front of his nose.
“Sir, we have another one.”
Not even fighting it, Seren was pulled to his feet though his sharp green eyes were most defiant. His face jerked away as he was inspected by the foul-smelling, fat noble.
“Get your hands off me, you piece of lard. Just stick my shock collar on already.”
The force of the impact of being backhanded by a swollen hand covered in gemmed rings busted lips and nose.
“Shock collar? HA! You….You get the brand.”
Tensing up, the boy felt the heat of the device coming towards his face and released a blood piercing scream when it made contact. Across the nose, directly under the eyes, a brand was burned into the brown flesh along with a circular symbol on the forehead. He could feel the indentations just from the burning pain alone.
Prologue: Tsuki
“Seren…SEREN!”
The younger of the remaining two started to scream.
Tsuki’s hand covered the yelling mouth as they both watched the roof collapse in front of them. There was nothing that could be done for him. The hand that covered the lips could feel the tears of the youngest started to drip down on the dirty fingers.
“Stop it. We need to get out of here. Look for a way. “
With heavy sniffling, there was a nod as the pair crawled in the darkness on their hands and knees.
“Found a grate. This should lead to the sewers, right?”
Smiling, Tsuki gave a nod.
“Good job, Celi. “
Pulling the grate open, Tsuki let the younger go first, dropping down afterwards with a splash in the dirty water. The smell was incredibly foul with fat rats running through the tunnels.
“Ugh.”
Holding his nose with one hand and Celi’s hand with the other, Tsuki lead them through the dimly lit passageways, finally coming out on the other side. There was no telling how long they were in there, and how far away from the village they were. In the horizon, the black smoke from the attack was still visible.
“We need to get out of here.”
Glaring through the light of the setting suns, they noticed a line of ships that had landed on the outskirts. They were different looking from the Imperial ships, with a much more battle-worn and armored appearance. Putting a finger to his lips, Tsuki silently hushed Celi as the pair kept low, sneaking between the spacecrafts. Avoiding the armored Mandalorians was the tricky part, but every step they got closer to the craft, the easier it seemed to get. At the end of the line was a black Imperial ship, sleek looking as if brand-new. The hatch was open.
Perfect.
Motioning over, Tsuki made Celi go first after whispering something in his ear. Whatever it was seemed to startle the younger boy.
“But…But Tsuki, I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Wait for my signal. You’ll be fine. Go. Araceli! Go!”
Finally mustering up the courage, Celi ran towards the hatch, disappearing inside. With a sigh of relief, Tsuki turned back toward the patrolling guards. Sneaking up behind one, he swiped the pair of blaster pistols on each side of their armored covered hips. The temptation was too much. Celi could easily hide, but Tsuki’s lust for revenge had to be satisfied. Shooting down the man who just lost their guns, there was a menacing smile that crept onto the boy’s lips. The second guard reached for her own pistols, but was shot down before getting the chance.
“Two.”
The blaster noise had alerted the other patrollers. As each ran up, they were shot down with a deadly accuracy.
“Three. Four.”
“Hold it.”
Tsuki was surrounded with arms spread to opposite directions; a gun in each hand. A more rugged, older man with a gruff voice came out from behind his fellows. The face initially covered by a helmet.
“You’re surrounded, boy.”
Tsuki only smirked, his messy white hair covering one of the narrowed green eyes.
“I evened the score from what you took from me. As long as I take down two more before you gun me down, I would still one up you. That’s all I care about.”
There was silence at first, but the older man started to laugh. It wasn’t a mocking laugh. The sound was throaty, full of actual amusement. It bellowed, echoing from inside the helmet.
“You’ve got gall, kid. I give you that.”
The helmet came off, showing a shaved head with a thick jawed face. With scars on each side of the crusted, thick lips that smiled, the man cradled the helmet.
“You want something, right? Name it.”
“My brother has disabled your ships and their shields remotely. He’s just a kid and he’s really smart. Not a waste of space like me. We got nothing to do with your war on the Republic, but you sacked us anyway. Get him out of here safely.”
“What about you? Don’t you want out of here too?”
Tsuki just shook his head.
“Don’t care about me. I got what I wanted.”
Grinning, it was obvious Tsuki was speaking on his freshly killed body count; One for each of his siblings and his mother.
“Deal.”
The second voice came from behind. A sharply dressed Imperial agent came out of stealth, a knife at Tsuki’s throat that had not been noticed before.
“Damnit…”
Taking his fingers off the triggers, Tsuki put his hands up. The agent smirked, removing the blade.
“You say he disabled the shields? Indeed…We could use that sort of intelligence. Such a young age too. Prove your loyalty to the Empire and I’ll take him to be trained. He will be taken care of, you have my word.”
“…Fine. Celi! Celi, you can come out now!”
Timidly, a little tuff of white hair peaked from the open hatch.
“Really…really? Okay…”
Coming over, there seemed to be some confusion. Despite Tsuki’s claim that Celi was younger, they looked identical.
“Hm. Twins?”
The older Mandalorian scratched at his scruff. Tsuki glared, refusing to answer the question before turning to his brother.
“You’re going to go with this guy, okay? You’ll be alright, I promise.”
“You…You mean ‘we’, right?”
Smiling, Tsuki just shook his head.
“Nah, I’ll come find you later. I got business with this old guy back here.”
“…Old?”, scoffed the Mando leader.
He wasn’t old…yet.
“But…but…” Celi started to tear up again, his nerves getting the best of him.
“Hey, it’s alright. You’ll go to a real school and everything like you wanted.”
Tsuki fluffed up the short white hair before pushing him over to the agent.
“You hurt him, I will hunt you down.”
With an arm around Celi, the agent turned to head back to his ship, despite the nagging feeling that the older of the two boys was actually serious.
“We take care of our own.”
Ciel eventually disappeared into the ship, the hatch closing behind. That just left Tsuki with the rather pissed off bunch of Mandos.
Great.
Turning, he looked into the eyes of the older one.
“So, you gonna kill me now or what?”
Again, the large Mando laughed before belting a large, armored fist into Tsuki’s face. The impact nearly broke the young boy’s jaw and sent him stammering back. Much to the Mando’s amusement, Tsuki shook it off with a grin.
“That all you got, old man?”
The other Mandalorians stood back, watching the back and forth scrap. Tsuki gave pretty well for the beating he was taking, but it was finally ending with a hard knee jab to the stomach. He passed out, collapsing in the dirt. Thoroughly unconscious, he was picked up and flung over the large man’s shoulder.
“Ready the ship.”
The other Mandos nodded, moving out of the way as they shuffled into the ships.
Prologue: Araceli “But...but…”
Araceli’s mind was racing. He had already lost so much already. Despite technically being the same age as Tsuki, he had less than half the nerves. He was also wondering why Tsuki didn’t answer the question when asked if they were twins. No, they weren’t twins. There were four of them, after all. Or…there was.
Solaris, Seren, Tsuki, and Araceli.
Sun, Star, Moon, and Sky.
They were brothers, all born one after the other. All the same age and relatively the same size, with the same face, hair and eyes. There were subtle differences, to be sure. Solaris kept his hair slightly longer, while Seren liked to spike his bang up to keep them out of his eyes while he read. Tsuki grew his bangs out, brushing them to one side of his face, saying he only needed one eye to see, really. Araceli was less creative, keeping a typical short boy cut that his mother insisted on. She would have at least one normal child, so help her.
Solaris had a strong personality, being first born. He was overprotective and tried to do everything on his own. Seren was quieter, keeping to himself and lost any sort of studies that he could manage over the net. Tsuki had a mean streak, but was closest to Araceli. He tried constantly to make the youngest of them braver, reminding him that life was cruel. He never thought he’d see the day where Tsuki would be proven right.
“So you managed to hack into my system?”
The agent had taken Celi to the ship and went to check the console to see exactly how that was even possible. The boy just nodded as the green eyes scanned the ship. He didn’t have much time to look around before. It was all so…shiny.
“I see. You’ll be just what we’re looking for. Such a young age as well. Do you have any implants?”
Turning, Celi found himself being scanned over with a probe. This time, the head shook with a no.
“Well, you come out clean. “
There was a sharp pain as he was stuck was a needle in the upper arm.
“Just an immunity booster. You’re a bit under-fed, scrawny.”
“I’ve always been a bit smaller…”
Rubbing the arm, Celi felt a bit embarrassed.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
“You’ll be sent for training. Formally. That’s all I can tell you right now.”
“….Okay.”
There was a sigh as the ship started to rattle before taking off.
