The Outcast

Dangerous Debt

All three of them were placed inside the same prison cell on Oba Diah.

Nyx stood by the door while Ahsoka and Therrick sat on opposite sides of the cell. "I never figured when I took my ship out for the first time, I'd wind up in a place like this." He then sat down next to Ahsoka.

"Hey," Therrick turned to him. "You dumped the spice. What do you think happens?"

Ahsoka scoffed at Therrick. "We wouldn't be here if you hadn't taken the job with the Pykes."

Therrick stood. "Fact, if he didn't dump the spice, we finish our job, and we're already gone."

Ahsoka stood and faced him. "Fact, the Pykes turn spice into something that ruins lives." She said. "So those lives would be on you!"

"Says who?"

"That's just the way it is," She argued. "You can't just make a profit from other people's suffering. Or at least, I won't let you."

Therrick snorted. "Will you listen to this, kid?" He said. "We got a regular Jedi here."

"What if I was?"

"Don't kid around," Nyx argued. "It's not funny."

Therrick sighed. "You never told her, did you?"

"Tell me what?" Ahsoka asked, curiously.

"About why Nyx and I keep our distance from the Jedi," Therrick snapped. "Or any topsiders for that matter."

"Therrick," Nyx said. "Can we please just not talk about that again?"

"Oh, I don't think so," Therrick insisted. "Not if Miss High Ideals here is gonna lecture me about morality." He took a deep breath before speaking again. "A couple of years ago, there was a prison break on the surface of Coruscant, where you live, some gangster Hutt named Ziro."

Ahsoka did remember that happening. Her master, Anakin Skywalker was held hostage in the Senate building with several senators by a group of bounty hunters.

"Then came the Jedi," Therrick continued. "We watched, like so many others, as they chased Ziro and his gang down the portal, leaping from speeder to speeder as they went. Then finally some red-eyed alien protecting Ziro blasted the engine of an ascending cargo transport. The ship went spiraling out of control. The Jedi went into action, of course, and tried to gain control of the ship. There just happened to be a populated landing platform right in the path of the ship, but no. The Jedi steered it clear of that and had it right into the portal wall. And on the other side of that wall, were all of our homes."

"My parents saw it coming," Nyx spoke up. "They got me out just in time, but they weren't so lucky."

"I was at the food court in the wharf," Therrick recalled. "Buying something for me and my wife to eat when it happened. She also didn't make it out." Then his tone changed into an angry one. "You know what's worse? Those Jedi didn't even capture Ziro. The distraction of the ship helped him get away." He sat down next to Nyx. "Afterward, the Jedi did come back. One of them came over to me. I'll never forget it, she was beautiful, dark robes contrasting against her light green skin and penetrating eyes. She looked at me, and do you know what she said?"

Ahsoka waited.

Therrick shrugged. "She said, I had to make a choice, but not to worry, the force will be with you. That's it, then she was off. We weren't even compensated for the loss of damages. I was widowed, Nyx became an orphan in an instant, and without homes, just left there and cast aside to find our way into their system. Nyx's parents were good people and thoughtful friends. So when they died, there's no way I'd leave their son to fend off for himself. I took Nyx in, and I've spent everyday since, building a new life for me and the boy, and it's about us not depending on Jedi or these criminals, or anyone else. We have made our own rules, and we survived just fine. That is until Nyx let you tag along." He jabbed a finger at her.