Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away…

Sand. She hates sand. It's course, dry, and it gets everywhere. Bent on one knee she picks up a fistful and watches it pour to the ground. He's late. She thinks as she sits perched in an alley across from the Mos Eisley Cantina. She picks up another fistful of sand and rubs it around in her palm with a slight snarl. Her eyes remain fixed on the entrance to the Cantina as she feels the wind pick up slightly. Sandstorm. If he shows up soon she'll have enough time to tie him up and haul his ass to the Hutt's before the storm hits. She wipes a couple loose blonde strands from her eyes and squints- an ugly, fury creature with three eyes shuffles to the entrance of the Cantina. There he is. She picks herself up and strides to the Cantina.

The Cantina remains darkly lit, the smoky air creating an atmosphere of thick anonymity. She slips through the main door and surveys the room for her prey. The Cantina is full today, loads of humans, humanoids, and strange creatures packed into the tiny space seeking refuge in cheap booze and bad music. That band. That stupid band that is always playing that stupid song, she thinks as her eyes fall upon the large-eyed, large-headed "musicians." In a booth next to the stage she spots him, the scrawny little perp who thought he could steal from the Hutts and get away with it. Game time. She strolls over and sits opposite her prey. He's mousy, small, and smells of a blown negative power coupling. His three eyes bounce around the room in opposite directions, but they quickly focus on the beautiful blonde that suddenly drops in the seat in front of him.

"Tenal- Ka?" he says, eyes fixed on the woman across from him.

"Yup. That's me. You must be Grizex." The mousy creature shifts his eyes around the room, then leans forward.

"You asked for the thermal detonators?"

"How many you have?"

"'Bout 30 cases."

"We agreed to 70. What good will 30 do me?" says Emma fixing her penetrating green eyes on the mousy scum's center eye.

"Ran into some… complications. I'll give you 30 and lower the cost 10%."

"70%."

"25."

"60."

"50, final offer." A bead of sweat slides down his mangy brown hair and drips to the floor.

"Fine." Smirks Emma thinking about what a horrible haggler this guy is. He relaxes into the back of the booth feeling confident in his abilities, yet a little shaken with the abrasive vibe coming from the woman he's making a deal with. He's new to this, and hopes it doesn't show.

"You're obviously new to this," Emma deadpans, "so I'm going to ask you where you got these exactly." The creature flinches, each eyeball is now directed towards Emma, surveying her closely- but the blonde senses his panic.

"Th-there's no need to know." He says as tension rises up his feet, he places a hand over his holstered blaster.

"Tell me." Emma says dryly. She notices his arm tense and slightly bend at his side, he's unholstering his blaster. "Don't be a fool."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He says as calmly as he can as he quietly fingers his blaster, panic flooding into his brain.

"Look, Grizex. I can tell when people are lying, and you are off the charts. Now don't be bantha fodder, and come with me quietly."

"Come with you? W-where?" his panic levels surge through his brain. She knows.

"To the Hutts. I could make a pretty good plea for mercy on your behalf, though I can't promise you wont lose an eye." The mousy creature begins to shake with fear. "Did you really think you could steal from the Hutts and stick around Tatooine let alone Mos Eisley?"

"Who… who are you?" he stutters. The green eyes give a slight twinkle in the dark atmosphere.

"Just a person trying to make a living."

"A bounty hunter." He whispers. Emma simply shrugs her shoulders and smirks. The mousy creature leaps to his feet and fires a shot, but before he even left his seat Emma was right behind him. Kicking the backs of his knees, his body drops and she shoves him onto the table. She grabs his gun and puts on the restraints as she looks around, nobody even notices what's going on. The band continues to play, the villains continue to drink and conspire. She smirks and drags him from the Cantina, placing him across her speeder. He wiggles off and tries to squirm away with both his hands and feet tied. "Seriously?" she moans half annoyed, half amused. She takes his gun and hits him on the back of the head. With a loud clunk he passes out and she puts him back on the speeder and flies off towards the Hutts' palace.

She gets home late, the smell of Rancor shit fresh on her clothes. Jabba's palace always smells like Rancor shit- especially after a feeding. She winces a little bit as she recalls the mousy creature's eyes as he dropped through the trap door straight into the mouth of Jabba's favorite pet. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the day's blood-soaked cash and plops it on the table. Pulling out a small cake she tosses it on the table and takes off her jacket. I'm 28 years old today, she thinks with a sigh as she looks down at her dry, crumbling cake. She's always spent her birthdays alone, except for that one time she was trapped in a Zarnak pit on Pythos on a bounty-gone-bad. Her eyebrow twitches at the memory as she slumps into her seat looking at her cracked cake. No family, no friends, just a lonely bounty hunter making her way through the universe. Just how I like it she tries to convince herself, but her thoughts betray her as she starts to pick at the cake- recalling each year she's eaten one, always on the same day, always alone, always…

Her thoughts are interrupted by a brisk knock on the door. Who the hell is that? The storm's almost here. Pulling out her blaster she walks warily to the door. She pushes the button quickly and thrusts her arm out expecting her blaster to be pointed right in someone or something's face, but there's nobody there.

"Excuse me." Comes a small voice. She looks down and sees a little boy in a navy blue tunic with a large backpack strapped behind him, his green eyes look up into hers. "Are you Emma Swan?" The blonde's eyes widen at the mention of her real name. Hardly anyone knows it. The boy picks up on her expression and smiles. "I'm Henry. I'm your son." He pauses waiting for a response, but there is none. The wind picks up and the rough sand starts slicing through the air. "Storm's here, I better come in." And with that he slides past the blonde as she remains firmly planted in the doorway, mouth dropped. The sand starts pricking and biting across her skin, snapping her out of her daze. She quickly closes the door and turns around to confront the kid who is now happily sitting in a chair helping himself to her cake.

"Hey, whoa, um… kid. Who are you?"

"I'm your son, Henry."

"I don't have a son."

"Ten years ago, did you give up a boy for adoption?" he sees the blonde's eyes narrow with memories. "Yup, that's me."

"Okay," says the blonde sitting down trying to settle herself, "if that's true… where are your parents?"

"At home."

"Where's home?"

"Coruscant."

"Coruscant?! How the hell did you get way out here?"

"Snuck onto a delivery freighter."

"Seriously?" she looks at the kid in front of her with awe. "I have to get you home."

"Can't. There's a storm." He smiles as he munches on the cake.

Emma groans as she hears the storm whistling outside of her hut. "When the storm passes, I'm putting you on the next shuttle out of here."

"Then I'll just come right back."

"No you wont."

"Yes I will." She looks into his eyes, he's telling the truth. "You'll have to take me back yourself." She lets out a big sigh and realizes he's right. There's no way around this situation, the kid's too damn stubborn. Like me. She briefly thinks before pushing the thought clear from her mind.

"Fine, but don't get comfortable, kid. The minute the storm's done… we're outta here." The small boy smiles victoriously as the blonde stands up and goes to her room to pack a small bag for the long journey. She steals casual glances to the boy who has now pulled out a small data disc and flicks through it like he's studying every detail of data. "What's that?" she calls from the other room, but Henry quickly shuts it off and puts it in a small pouch on his utility belt.

"I'm not sure you're ready." He says plainly. Emma raises an eyebrow, who the hell is this kid?

The winds die down and an eerie silence passes over a city as residents await confirmation that the storm is finished. After five minutes, Emma shoulders her bag, holsters her blaster, and motions for Henry to follow her. They walk down to the docking bay and come upon a small, battered A-wing fighter with a single, yellow stripe sloppily painted down the center. Emma slides the hatch open and lifts the kid into the passenger side, then jumps in after him, closes the hatch and starts pushing buttons and flipping switches. Lights come on with faint flickers as the engine powers up, it dies, she kicks the inside of the cockpit and it suddenly starts up with a roar and they're flying into the air and on their way to Coruscant.

The journey to Coruscant is long and light speed is quiet. The light of suns, moons, and planets whiz by the small A-wing fighter at a nauseatingly fast pace as the two travelers sit quietly. Henry fidgets in his seat and pulls out his data disc player once more and looks through it.

"Do you know about Jedi?" he says, glancing over at the pensive blonde seated next to him. She looks at him and raises an eyebrow.

"Jedi? Yeah, they're extinct."

"Not completely."

"Oh come on, they're long gone, kid. Everyone knows the Empress destroyed them all when she founded the Galactic Empire."

"There's a prophecy. One that says a person born of true love will have the power of the Jedi and will take down the Empire."

"That's a nice story."

"It's not a story. It's real. The Empress destroyed the Jedi, erased everyone's memories, and froze time to prevent the prophecy from coming true. Nobody in Coruscant remembers who they are."

"Whatever you say, kid." She turns her attention back to the whizzing lights flashing past the cockpit. Henry looks down at his data disc, and then back to the blonde.

"It's you."

"Hmmm?"

"The prophecy. It's you. You're the one who is meant to destroy the Empress and bring down the Empire."

"Me?" she snorts, "No way, kid… I'm just an orphan and a bounty hunter."

"But it's real. You're the product of true love!"

"True love? Let me tell you about true love, kid. That's an even older and more mythical power than the Jedi. I was born to a couple of suckers that didn't want me, so they dumped me in that sand-ridden hellhole to rot. That is the truth. I'm not a part of any prophecy and I'm sure as hell not any kind of Empire-ass-kicking Jedi." Henry sighs and pockets his disc. An alarm flashes overhead, Emma flips a switch and they ease out of light speed. Laid out before them is the vast, capitol of Coruscant. Trillions of lights flicker from the endless rolls of towers and factories. With a slight jolt and a couple more kicks at the inside of the cockpit, Emma immerses the A-wing in the bustling traffic of the Empire's capitol city. "Okay, kid, where to?" Henry bites his lip and remains silent. "Hey, where am I going?" No response. Irritated, she pulls into the first landing bay she sees. She turns to him sharply, "Look, kid I don't have time to play these games. Where am I taking you?"

Just then there's a tapping on her fighter, she slides the hatch open and looks down. Looking up at her is a tall, bearded man with blue eyes. A blaster grasped in his hand, his other placed on his hip. "Hey, you weren't cleared to land." Emma looks him up and down, he's wearing a black tunic with a black leather vest, a gold pendent pinned on the left side of his chest. "Can you step out here, please?" She's taken aback by his polite request, and decides it's best to follow his instructions. Sliding down her fighter she stands opposite him. "Name?"

"Tenal…. Uh, Emma. Emma Swan." She wonders why she decided to give him her real name.

"Okay look, Emma… you weren't cleared to land. There may be a lot of traffic in this city, but we know when people enter- and you did not have permission."

"And who are you?" She asks, eyeing the gold pendant.

"Graham. Head of the Coruscant Police Force, Sheriff of the Empress." She looks him up and down once more. A bit young for such a big title, she thinks.

"Sorry, I don't want any trouble, I was just in a hurry to deliver something and be on my way."

"There's no leaving."

"What?"

"Don't you know? There's a force shield surrounding the city preventing anyone from leaving without the Empress' direct permission." Emma raises and eyebrow and turns toward her fighter. Henry's head pops out just over the rim of the cockpit.

"Henry?" Graham says, eyes growing wide. "What are you doing here?" He looks at Henry who stays silent and then back to Emma. "What are you doing with the Empress' son?" Emma's heart stops. She looks up at Henry.

"You're the Empress' kid? Seriously?" He sinks low into the cockpit, out of sight. Her jaw tightens, she's heard stories about the Empress, and just based off what she's heard- she finds herself wishing she'd rather be covered in Rancor shit or back in that pit on Pythos.

"I think you'd both better come with me." Graham says as he motions towards his fighter. Henry crawls out of the cockpit with his head lowered, Emma follows him and the Sheriff trying to think of the best way to explain what's happened. The speed through the city, dodging other fighters and moving at an incredible speed until they approach a massive, dark tower in the center of the city. After landing in the docking bay, Graham escorts them through a series of long, sleek, shiny halls until they enter a large black chamber lined with guards in long, charcoal robes. At the end of the chamber, seated atop a large throne she sees her. The Empress. Dressed in a long leather cape, a tightly synched leather corset, and dark leather pants; her eyes dark and swirling with tints of purple. Her hair sits atop her head, black as night, silky, and sharp. She eyes her visitors with furious curiosity, until she sees her son stumbling behind the blonde and the Sheriff. Her eyes rise in flames as she jumps from her throne and glides towards them.

"Henry!" she says in a fierce tone coated with concern. Her voice is low and smooth, if Emma hadn't been so terrified in that moment she would almost call it soothing. She looked at the figure that plagued the nightmares of children and adults alike, the woman whose countless cruelties marred the walls of every home in the galaxy. She should have been petrified, but as she saw the brunette cling to her son she felt a wave of affection that she couldn't even begin to describe. She's a human, the blonde thinks briefly before her thoughts are snatched away as those swirling eyes turn on her. "And who are you?" she hisses. Emma gulps, her breath seeps from her throat as she views this terrifying, yet incredibly seductive, force towering before her.

"Hi." She squeezes from her throat. Stupid, stupid! The Empress cocks an eyebrow and looks her up and down. Emma tries to find words, but realizes that the sheer magnanimity of the Empress prevents her from even thinking clearly. Luckily Graham steps in.

"This is Emma Swan. She arrived about an hour ago with Henry."

"You found him, then?" She states as she pierces her eyes into the blonde- searching for the story.

"I found her." Says Henry as he pushes away from his mother. The Empress turns her attention to her son who stands defiantly against her. "She's my real mom." The brunette snaps her head back to Emma, purple swirling in her eyes. Emma chokes on her breath as she sees rage and a twinge of worry behind the other woman's fuming eyes.

"You're Henry's birth mother?" Says the brunette, cocking her chin upwards as she surveys the blonde once more.

"Yeah." Emma manages to breathe out. What semblance of maternal affection that rested in the brunette's eyes now vanished, replaced with fury and protection. "I don't want any trouble. I just wanted to bring him back and be on my way."

"You have my permission. Leave." Says the Empress as she turns and clutches her son's shoulder. Emma sees him wince and is suddenly filled with concern. The Empress turns to her son, "To your room. Now." Henry shakes her hand away and runs from the chamber. Emma watches him go and feels a foreign sense of sympathy for the boy, for reasons she can't yet explain- she finds that she desires to hold him and comfort him. "Well, Miss Swan. You have my permission, now leave." Emma remains in her position, her gaze resting on the hallway Henry ran to.

The brunette shifts her eyes up and down the blonde standing before her. Blonde hair cascades down her shoulders in soft curls, her jaw set firmly and strong, she wears a dirty white shirt covered by a red jacket, her black pants and black boots beaten and faded from sand. Her appearance is ratty and unkempt, but there's something about her strong jaw and confident green eyes that makes the Empress catch her breath for a moment. She finds herself thinking about the slender yet muscular form of the woman standing before her, but she quickly pushes these thoughts aside as she realizes this same woman is actively defying her.

"Guards!" she hollers, "Escort Miss Swan from the palace." Emma jerks from her thoughts as two tall guards surround her and begin shoving her towards the door. As she walks towards the door, she glances back at the Empress who seems to be standing a little less tall as she watches her go. As they walk onto the docking bay, she senses tension in the guards behind her. She turns around just in time to catch one of their spears as they try to jab her in the back. Holding the guard's spear she knees one in the gut, the other lunges at her and she hits him over the head with the spear. Four more guards come rushing from the doors and she reaches for her blaster and starts running. As she rounds a corner, a hooded figure snatches her and pulls her into a niche.

"I'm here to help you, keep quiet." A soft feminine voice whispers as she holds a hand over Emma's mouth. The guards rush past them and the two women go unnoticed. The hooded figure removes her hand from Emma's mouth. "My name is Mary Margaret, if you value your life you'll come with me." Emma looks down into the soft eyes of the woman in front of her, she sees a glint of friendliness and has a sense that she's here to help. Emma nods her head and she's quickly whisked away over a balcony into a hidden fighter. They speed off into oncoming traffic and sink lower and lower to the bottom levels of the city.

"You're lucky you have fast reflexes," says MM glancing over at her, "the last dozen to have the Empress' permission weren't as fortunate as you."

"Why would she try to kill me?"

"Nobody leaves." MM says through gritted teeth as they sink deeper and deeper into the city.

Emma takes a deep inhale and tries to process what had just happened. It seemed like centuries ago that her long lost son showed up at her door, flipping her world upside down. And now she's whizzing into the slums of the Empire's capitol city nearly escaping death with the aid of a complete stranger. She's now trapped in a city run by a terrifying, yet alluring, Empress- and she can't help but feel some sort of bizarre twinge of exhilaration