Chapter 52

The assassin looked at the picture of her target and frowned.

It was a kid.

She never killed a kid before.

It was wrong, wasn't it?

She'd been a kid once.

Before the bad men came.

The bad men had hurt her, tortured her over and over.

They burned her.

They beat her.

She would beg them to stop but they never did.

She was kept alone in a cell for years.

And then they made her kill.

Killing made the bad men happy.

Killing made them stop hurting her.

Killing meant she would be rewarded.

The bed men told her to kill someone and she would kill them, and she got warm food and no pain.

Years had gone bye and the amount of death she had caused stained her soul.

She could have escaped, run away, hid. But she stayed. Stayed and killed the people the bad men told her to.

She was one of the bad men now. Wasn't she?

She was destroying families. Just like the bad men destroyed hers.

She had a brother, long ago. He had run when the bad men came and had been rescued by the bad men's enemies.

He was still alive but she couldn't see him. She was a monster now, one of the bad men.

Part of the group that killed their parents.

He would hate her. Wouldn't he?

She would just do the only thing she could do. Kill.

But now the bad men wanted her to kill a kid.

She didn't know if she could. If she did, she really would become a monster.

-

The assassin lay on the rooftop, her sniper rifle set up in front of her and watched the group walking down the deserted street.

"Hehe, here they come. This is going to be so much fun" the other said.

She didn't like the other. He was loud and crass. He seemed to like killing, relished it. Killing wasn't something you liked, killing was to make the pain stop.

"Oh come on, what are you still being all quiet for? You gotta admit this is fun. You must enjoy this, you've got one of the highest numbers of confirmed kills in the organisation." The other said trying to get her to talk.

She hated the other. Wished he'd stop talking. Wished he'd never come to 'help' her. With him here she would have to act, if she didn't the bad men would know and the pain would follow.

She stayed silent, ignoring the other, watching the target.

The target was with others, a small green person, a droid, and a boy. They seemed happy. Other people seemed happy quite a bit but she didn't remember what that was like.

She had vague memories of being happy, back with her brother and her parents, but she hadn't felt that felling since the day the bad men came.

The boy with the target, she couldn't think of the target as a kid it was too difficult, looked to be a similar age to her brother when she last saw him. She wondered how her brother was. She hoped he was happy. Hoped he had a new family. A big family, full of people who cared about him.

"Lucky us, we're gonna be able to kill two kids for the price of one. Haha." The other started laughing.

She hated the other. He made her feel sick.

"I'll take the shot; you watch for any surprises." The other said.

The other would kill the target. But that wouldn't save her soul. She would still be complicit in killing the target. Killing the kid.

She had to do something. Had to stop it. But what could she do? She didn't want the pain to start again. She couldn't go through that again, but she couldn't watch the kid die.

"Damn it." The other cursed. The boy seemed to have noticed something was wrong.

The other fired his blaster rifle and the assassin watched powerlessly as the high powered blaster bolt sored towards the target, the kid.

Relief filled her as the boy tackled the kid out of the way of the blaster bolt. The high intensity plasma passing harmlessly over their heads.

That relief quickly turned to fear as the droid began firing at them. Automatic blaster fire ripped trough the low wall circling the edge of the roof she was crouched on with the other.

"Lets go, we need to take that droid out." The other yelled.

They ignited their jetpacks and launched themselves into the air. She wanted to leave but couldn't yet. Hopefully the droid would kill the other and then she could escape and claim everything that went wrong was the others fault. Maybe the bed men wouldn't hurt her if that was the case.

But that wasn't going to happen. A blaster bolt hit her jetpack and she fell towards the ground. She felt herself change direction and go flying towards the group on the street.

She saw the other smack into a building and smiled despite her situation. At least the other was dead now, but she was probably going to be joining him soon.

She hit the street and rolled to a stop at the feet of the little green alien. Her whole body was bruised from the impact with the pavement and her head swam after she hit it against the ground, her helmet the only reason she was saved from more permanent, life ending, damage.

The assassin looked up and saw the little green alien pointing a lightsabre straight at her, a furious expression on her face. She sighed and closed her eyes and wondered if she might see her family again after died.

-

Yaddle glared at the women in Mandalorian armour lying before her.

She was angry but was trying to remain calm. Yaddle was known for her kindness but she was struggling to feel anything other than rage right now.

Lilk Dredd, Renn's grandmother, had been one of her closest friends and now Yaddle was watching over Lilk's grandson. She was enjoying spending time with Renn and was coming to care for him and his friends almost as much as she cared for Lilk.

So, when the two Mandalorians had attacked them and nearly killed Renn and Shae, Yaddle had been furious. Alpha had delt with the attackers quickly with his signature brand of violence but Yaddle had decided to use the force to pull the falling enemy towards her, to deal with one of them personally.

The jedi council was strongly against killing but Yaddle was no longer a part of the council, and was seriously considering leaving the order all together, so didn't have those same views as she held her lightsabre inches from the wounded woman's throat.

But something felt wrong. She could sense the woman's emotions and they were a complete mess. She didn't seem completely sane. Her emotions were spiralling madly out of control before settling on acceptance when she saw Yaddle's lightsabre.

She seemed to be accepting her death and Yaddle became confused when a new emotion filled the Mandalorian woman's head, happiness. Why was that?

"Want me to finish her off?" Alpha's cold voice came from behind Yaddle as he levelled his blaster at the assassin's head.

"Wait, she's different. I don't think we should kill her." Yaddle said lowering her lightsabre slightly.

"We could always take her with us and interrogate her. She might know some valuable information, and we can ask her why they attacked us. But whatever we do we need to leave quick before the police show up." Renn said as he joined Yaddle and Alpha, Shae close behind him.

"I think that would be wise" Yaddle said and looked at Alpha who silently considered what to do.

"Fine," Alpha said and sent a strong punch into the Mandalorian woman's head knocking her out cold. "But she's bunking with Clank."

-

They had left the scene of the ambush quickly after Alpha had knocked the woman out and returned to their ship.

Once they were back onboard the Speedy Vagabond Alpha had dumped the unconscious woman in the cargo bay with Clank and went to find the other assassin droids to get them set up in defensive positions in case there were other assassins out to get them.

Yaddle had also gone to the cargo bay to watch the unconscious woman and to try and figure out more about her.

Shae had been quiet after the ambush and so Renn had dragged her straight to the ships lounge and sat her down on the couch to try and talk to her. But before he could say anything Shae spoke up.

"Before you ask. I'm okay, and I know who those people where." She took a deep breath before continuing.

"Well not personally but the organisation they belong to. They are part of Death Watch. They must have been there to kill me on the orders of there leader." Shae said matter-of-factly and Renn just looked at her in concern.

"I know I joked about it earlier but you are important to me and I am prepared to go to war with death watch if that means keeping you safe." He said and Shae just shook her head, a small smile on her face.

Shae felt a warm feeling growing inside her at the concern that Renn was showing her. She hadn't felt like this since her parents died, the feeling that someone wanted to protect her.

"No." Shae said.

"No?" Renn asked confused.

"Yeah, no. I really appreciate you wanting to help me and can't tell you how thankful I am you saved my life, but Death Watch is my problem. They were formed by my clan, by my grandfather, and they killed my mother, were responsible for the death of my farther, are a stain on my clans history and reputation and when they are wiped out the last face they see will be mine." Shae said a resolve building inside her as she spoke.

"But I know I'm not strong enough yet, so for now I'm wiling to let them live. For a little while." Shae said and looked down at her lap before continuing.

"I know it's a lot to ask. Death watch will keep hunting me and you'll all be caught in the crossfire. So, think I should lea---oww!" She stopped talking and held a hand to her forehead and glared at Renn after he flicked her.

"What you do that for!" she yelled at him.

"To stop you being such an idiot." Renn said and reached out to hold her hand.

"We aren't going to just abandon you and when you feel that it's the right time to deal with death watch well be right there with you. So don't worry about anything." Renn said smiling at her and Shae looked gratefully at him.

Shae opened her mouth to speak but before she could the door opened, and two figures charged in.

"" Shae! Renn!"" Opal and Seela yelled at the same time and tackled both Renn and Shae to the ground, "" Are you okay?!""