On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter I

"Starstrider!!" a voice called. Luna sighed, putting down the tray.

"Yes, sir?" Luna asked, turning and walking towards her current boss, Patrick Winters, as she stuffed down a less than civil response.

"I need you to sing again," he told her, typing away on his datapad and appearing as though he could care less if she had actually done as he asked. "Ginger isn't here."

"You said that it was going to be a one time thing."

"You sing, or you're fired," he told her, looking up with his sharp, mean eyes. Luna held his gaze, hardly concerned with his threat. She had half a mind to deny him and just walk on out of the club, but she needed the money.

Besides, she did enjoy singing, given she wasn't a real fan of singing in this environment. Luna didn't blame the other girl for bailing, especially when she had gotten a better gig at a more gentlemanly club on another planet. Winters had either forgotten or had ignored the fact that Anna Ginger had quit.

"Fine. I'll get ready."

"On stage in ten." Luna turned and left, heading to the changing room. She had been attending the bar and a handful of tables before she had been called away, but that would take care of itself. One of the other waitresses would handle it, ready to squander away the very few tips or trick a drunk man out of his credits.

Club Nemesis, not that anyone used the actual name often, was one of the many on Nar Shaddaa, better known as "Smuggler's Moon." It was a temporary place of residence for Vader's ex-Shadow, just like the last planet she had visited for an extended period of time. All planets would be for now one.

After the Naboo fiasco, Luna had first gone to Lothal where she had surprisingly met up with some of the remnants of the Ghost Crew before deciding to head to Nar Shaddaa. It was where she had finally found out what had happened to most of the crew. She had been sad to hear of some of their fates, but it had been something she had been expecting, and turned out better in some cases. Luna had also been glad to find out that Ahsoka had indeed survived the entire ordeal. The Empire had been greatly distracted from Lothal due to the Death Star disaster, and its attention hadn't returned to the planet in years nor was there a reason for a return.

Lothal was also where Luna created her new persona. Celestia "Tia" Starstrider: an Imperial deserter. To be fair, it wasn't all that far from the truth. Luna had since left Lothal, being joined by Ahsoka. The once Jedi Padawan had never directly stated it, but Luna suspected that Ahsoka wanted to get back out in the galaxy and discover whether or not the rumors racing through the shadowfeeds were true. Whether or not Darth Vader had defected. Whether or not he was training Luke Skywalker.

Whether or not Luke Skywalker was the son of Anakin Skywalker.

Ahsoka trusted Luna to a degree. They were little more than acquaintances, but not quite what Luna would call friends—not that Luna had made any friends the past however many years. Ahsoka, being older, sometimes acted like an older sister or overprotective aunt, but she never told Luna what she did with the information they sometimes gathered from Imperials or spoke about her past. Luna was no better, drawing up durasteel walls before her companion could begin to try to chip them down. That said, they worked surprisingly well together despite the secrets.

She finished changing into the dress that Winters insisted she wore when she was on stage. It was a strapless blood red laced dress that hugged her curves. It was made in such a way that it showed off her bust and there was also a diamond shaped cut out that showed off her stomach.

It was beautiful, but at one point in time, Luna would have sworn she wouldn't ever get caught dead in something so revealing.

The truth was, by this point Luna had worn far more revealing outfits at far worse places of work—clubs were happy to higher her for whatever reason and she had learned that if she wanted the money, to just deal with it. She was glad that this one was better than the other outfits she had been forced to wear for the sake of the club's "mood."