A Caged Songbird

Sweet Child of Mine

Darkness, that is what she could see. Thick black smoke, the smell of burning wood and flesh, and the screams of her people is what she awoke too. She was glad her helmet remained intact as she sat up. Pain shot through her little body but she ignored it while she staggered to her feet, her mind immediately looking for her parents. "Momma!? Poppa?!" Her little shaky voice rang out as she looked for them, she wasn't going to find them unfortunately they had passed unbenounced to the little girl. She ran all over the chaotic scene looking for anyone that was alive, she found none which caused her to cry. Admis the fire, desolation, blood in the breeze;  the event called 'The Night of a Thousand Tears' deemed a great purge by the empire left her alone..alone mandalorian the last of her clan. She saw fire and it sparked a new painful feeling in the little girl..loneliness.
Loneliness was a constant feeling then and now for Novari. She was waiting for the signal from sunny since she had the gun hidden under her flight suit. She was once again being dragged up to the so-called throne room to sing once again. She was shoved violently down on her knees in front of Moff, her head down in a feeble attempt to save some of her pride. Her matted and dirty white hair hung over her face like a veil as she waited for the demand to hear her voice. She heard the heavy footsteps of the king asshole himself, they clicked and thumped on the metal before his hand was forcing her to look at him. She felt his demeaning gaze as he forced her head up, looking into his cold eyes, "song 4 mandalorian.."he said with a sickly sweetness to his voice.
She glared at him with her tired periwinkle eyes," Edeemir me besom" (Bite me bastard) she spat angrily in Mando'a; the language she knew he hated. It earned her a smack to the face and a repeat of the demand for song 4 again. She glared at him, before standing up on her shaky legs to do as he demanded, but the ISB officer from the night before caught her eye from behind the chair moff Gideon sat in. Sunny was not much older than herself, 18 maybe 19, he had fluffy curly black hair tucked under the ISB hat he wore, and eyes so blue they mirrored the blue waters of the lakes on Naboo. " Great, I'm being saved by a kriffing rookie,' she thought since she got that good luck, but it was better than nothing at this point. She locked eyes with the rookie in a silent understanding while her attention was turned to Moff and started her performance. Song 4 or to her a song she'd been forced to learn by this man, he used the title at times to be demeaning to her. He would often say to her, " Oh Sweet Child of Mine. You deserve this and all of this pain. Mandalorians are worthless and one day I will wipe you out like I did your worthless family." Until today she felt she was stuck in that vicious cycle with no chance of escape, but today that was going to change.
Novari took a small deep breath before she felt the words slip from her mouth, "She's got a smile and that seems to me, reminds me of childhood memories, where everything was fresh as the bluest sky.." she could see how it made the others light up as she sounded beautiful when she sang it. As much as she hated when Moff Gideon referred to her as his sweet child , the song made her think of her mother and how much she missed her. "Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place, where as a child I'd hide and pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by.." that's the point she would tear up, she missed her mother, even though Rémi was not her real mother she loved her like she was. She had no mother or father now, only the memories, and it weighed on her heavily despite her rough yet delicate outer shell.    
As she was singing along for the people she locked eyes with sunny again, he had more people next to him that looked out of place in the room so she figured they worked with him too. Sunny looked at her and nodded then gestured to his hip blaster before him and all the people next to him grabbed theirs and began firing at the guards in the room. Novari was quick to pull hers out and help even when she was being shot at by moff Gideon. She started moving towards the exit door where sunny was as she fired, for a mandalorian she had very good aim it was difficult due to being handcuffed, and all her firearms training as a foundling had been to be a sniper since she had a knack for it.
She moved into the group Sunny was in while blasting and followed them outside the room. She did take one last look at the room she'd been forced to sing in one last time, one last look at her helmet she was having to leave behind; there on a shelf was a piece of her identity and she had to leave it behind hopefully to get it back one day.
"Well this is going smoothly!" She said with her back against sunny as they moved, he chuckled while blasting," hey i thought mandalorians liked chaos?!" He said as the group moved outside to the ship awaiting them. "We do but you couldn't have told me about this last night?!" She said it was a little snappy since a shootout with storm troopers was not the ideal place to be arguing. "Oh you know, I came up with it on the spot!" He said, chuckling as he kept firing and getting closer to the outside. She rolled her eyes and took out 2 troopers, "well rookie next time plan it better!" She said while they descended down the ramp to the outside.
Once outside before the troopers could shoot at them, Novari took one big deep breath of the cold night time air. Oh how she missed the outside world, she missed the sight and smell of mandalore and was glad to be out of the hell hole she came from. She was enjoying her few seconds of fresh air and freedom before she felt a burning pain shoot through her side, the world was moving slowly and she heard someone yelling her name before the soft ground was pressed against her face and the whole world faded to black.