It was that last moment of the sun’s light for the day now, where it no longer filled you with warmth even though the warm colors it bled across the sky around you made it feel like it should be.  Instead, the cool air of the night started to sneak it’s way in, pushing the day’s heat aside.  Kiiara felt like she could identify with it more than any other time of day or year.
    She had been hiding inside of the small alcove for several hours know, her joints beyond the point of simple anger with her now and the unpleasant stench of dried blood and sweat creeping up her nostrils.  The blood wasn’t hers, which seemed to amplify the discomfort ten fold.  No, she had escaped relatively unharmed, just like she always did…a few scrapes, a good bruise on her right cheek, and her lekku–if one could call them that–a little tender.
    Being a half-breed between a human and a Twi’lek had some advantages, at least.  Punching, or even just grabbing and squeezing, a regular Twi’lek’s lekku would be enough to knock them out cold if not give them permanent damage.  Growing up as she had around female Twi’lek slaves, she had seen plenty of times how their keepers would exploit that particular vulnerability.  She had seen a lot of things.
    Being a half-breed had several disadvantages as well, though.  For one, she didn’t quite look like a Twi’lek nor a human which meant she didn’t blend with either.  Humans and Twi’leks were quick enough to realize what she was, though, which brought either looks of pity or disgust to their faces no matter how hard they tried to hide it.  Her lekku were shorter, lighter and thinner at the base than a Twi’lek’s lekku, protruding out from the back of her skull and going just barely past her shoulders.  They flung around almost like some kind of dreadlocks or tendrils. 
    She would never know what it was like to give birth to a child, either.  As it was with nearly all inter-species offspring, in the rare case offspring was actually conceived from two different species they were always born sterile.  The DNA may be able to mix, but it couldn’t create a new form of reproduction. 
    Kiiara scratched her brow, then resting against the palm of her hand while she continued watching the sun and it’s descent.  It wasn’t like it mattered though, enough people had forced themselves upon her growing up a slave that she probably would have been made sterile anyhow.  She shuddered to think of going back to that place, her fingers unconsciously tapping the emitter of one of her sabers.
    The sun disappeared on the horizon now, and as ordered she flipped on the broadcast of her personal locater beacon and made herself become more alert.  While the signal was on a coded channel, it wouldn’t take long for the Citadel’s communication center to pick up a foreign signal being sent out from their city.  Especially with a dozen dead agents through the southern section of the city.
    Minutes dragged on for weeks it seemed now.  The hair under her leather headpiece–another surprise of being a half-breed, which she actually liked though she chose to keep it hidden most of the time–itched something fierce, and her own smell was started to make her feel nauseated.  As if an answer to her unspoken plea, her comlink chirped.
    Kiiara closed her eyes for a moment, willing the Force to enter her body and fill her with it’s embrace.  It felt like a guilty indulgence to her sometimes, after having so little growing up, and she let herself enjoy it as much as she had the first time.  The pains went away in her joints, blood flowed to her muscles and got her ready to move.  Like a flash, she jumped out of her hiding place, bounding across two rooftops and let the Force carry her up high atop the tower she had put the locator’s beacon on top of. 
    Equally as fast, a Corellian VCX-820 swooped down from the sky and pulled up alongside her with alarming proximity.  Had the pilot pulled in any closer it would have knocked her from the tower, though she knew as well as the pilot did that wouldn’t have happened.  She waited a long moment for the ramp to lower and she jumped across the open sky between them, finding the warm hand of Jeir Katarn waiting for her inside the ship.
    “Thanks, Dad,” she said. 

“:)
–Jinx