A Caged Songbird

Nobodys home

" Baptisté,are you seeing what I am?" Rémi asked, muffled by her helmet as they were enjoying a cool night stroll to celebrate their anniversary. Baptisté being the ever vigilant husband he was turned to see what his wife was speaking on when his eyes fell on a tiny girl barely 4 years old. She was standing on her little tippy toes reaching into a bin, tiny dirty hands digging for any scraps she could find to soothe the hunger she felt. The two adults looked at one another before walking over to the child, careful not to startle her. Rémi pulled a ration bar from her pouch and took a look around before making her next move. When she saw they were alone with the child she gently took her helmet off, she only did it in the presence of her husband alone in their room but at this moment she felt the child needed to see her face to see she wasn't a threat in anyway.

The moonlight gently illuminated the woman's soft and caring face, framed by wild strawberry blonde curls that had slid out of the ponytail she wore; caring brown eyes looked at the small child before her and held out the pack to her. " Here ad'ika, you don't need to dig in there.." she said her voice sweet and angelic to the small child. The little girl stopped what she was doing and looked at the woman, periwinkle eyes big like she had been caught doing something she shouldn't have. Rémi smiled gently and urged the child to take the bar, and watched as the little girl took it and immediately opened it and began to eat. Baptisté knelt down next to his wife keeping his helmet on as he spoke, " where's your family sweet girl?" He asked gently so he didn't scare her more than she already appeared to be. The little girl looked sad for a moment looking at her little bare feet before her big eyes met theirs, " momma and dada ... .gone¦" she said before starting to cry.

The two looked at one another before Rémi gently cradled the child in her arms as if she was her own, gently rubbing the little one's fragile back, moving dirty matted white hair off the little one's face. She held her and rocked her gently while Baptisté held one of the little girls hands, " it's alright ad'ika we'll keep you safe." He said before wiping tears off the child's face with the edge of his cloak. The two gladly took the little girl in as their foundling, they were thrilled as they couldn't have children of their own and found a little one who needed love and a family. Rémi put her helmet back on and stood up holding the little girl close to her as they began their journey back to where their clan lived. They knew the clan would be so happy to meet her, as they walked and soothed the little girl they hummed to her and gently told her of all the children she'd get to play with and all the toys she'd have. Once she was settled and they got her talking they were trying to learn any information about the little one, they learned her favorite colour was purple and that she loved tookas. They learned she had had 4 older brothers who had also passed away defending the clan shed come from, and that the little girl hadn't had a bath, milk, or a meal in days because it had been that long since her parents had passed away from Alum Mineral sickness while trying to keep their clan afloat.

When they finally reached where their clan was living, the two paused outside and looked at the little girl. " Ad'ika, we need to know your name.." Rémi said gently while keeping the child cradled against her. The little girl looked at them with her big sweet eyes, "Novari..my name is Novari. Unless i'm in trouble then its Novari Polina i'm going to beat your little behind if i find out you eated that cookie..:" she giggled a little bit at the silly nature of what her mother had said, since she had eaten the cookie after mom had said no and dad snuck it to her anyways. Rémi and Baptisté chuckled at the sight of the little girl laughing,
" Alright then, Novari. Rémi here is going to hold you while I introduce you to our clan alright? Then we'll see about getting you all cleaned up." Baptisté said gently while letting the child hold his hand. She nodded while moving slightly closer to the woman holding her, while Rémi smiled and held the little girl. The two adults stood tall as they walked in, their presences alone caused applause then silence the clan ready to hear what their fearless leaders had to say. Baptisté cleared his throat and greeted the crowd in mandoa as he usually did, but the tone of his voice suggested he was excited about something. Before ending he greatly announced that he and Rémi were now the proud parents to a foundling named..
"Novari? Hey kid, can you hear me..?" Sunny asked while checking in on the girl. She'd been in a medically induced slumber for days now after she'd been injured while escaping moff Gideon, but she'd been in such bad shape from gideons treatment that the medical droid recommended it so she didn't feel any pain. Novaris eyes fluttered open a bit at the sound of her name being called but the light in the room was bright which caused her to let out a weak groan. As the world came into a clearer view she saw a shadow over her and something cold being pressed against her face and neck, when she finally could see she was greeted with the same rookie who saved her and the strong smell of antiseptic. Her best guess was a new republic hospital somewhere, she was partly right about the new republic part but she was in the medical bay of the ship sunny and others had been on.
Before she could ask 'where in the dank ferrik she was' she felt her head be lifted and something pressed to her lips. "Drink up kid i dont want you to get dehydrated." She heard sunny say and that's when she realized how incredibly thirsty she actually was, so she gladly drank the oddly heavy liquid in the cup. The heaviness of the liquid threw her off but the pleasant and slightly salty flavor was good and within moments she had drunk the whole cup. She felt herself get laid back down which is the moment she looked over to see sunny running what looked like some kind of rag under cold water in the sink in the corner. " Where are we?" She asked when she felt she could speak.

"Ship headed for a rendezvous." He said simply when he walked back over and set the rag on her head since she still had a pretty high fever that wasn't going down as fast as he'd like. " you need to be resting, not worrying about what's happening." He said gently sitting down next to her to scan her vitals, she made the attempt to sit up but she was still really weak, had a healing blaster shot in her side, and was handcuffed to the bed. She groaned when she felt the cuffs, " if you're gonna cuff me at least buy me dinner first." She said with major but weak sass. It caused Sunny to chuckle a bit as he stood up to get the medicine she needed, " not in this lifetime kid, but next time someone saves your skin maybe tell them you're wanted by the New Republic." He said while getting hypos out. She scoffed, " What I do isn't illegal, it's a way to survive." She said, rolling her eyes.
Sunny came back over to her and made sure she stayed still while he injected her with 3 different hyposynringes. " You're right it's not, but not stealing a ship when you were 11 and punching out a deputy marshal in a cantina on Endor last year are definitely illegal." He said while disposing of the syringes safely. Novaris face gave him a 'oh for force sake' look, " ok first off i didn't steal a ship another bounty hunter framed me after he took my bounty and locked me in the ship's refresher then stranded me on Tatooine for a month." She spat since she was still pissed about it." And tell your marshals to keep their hands to themselves when they've had too much and maybe I wouldn't have to punch them." She said."very handsy and thought i was the twi he came in with."she said rolling her eyes

sunny looked at her with an unimpressed look,"ok i believe you about the first one but i have video proof of the second one and you did stand up on your chair and loudly proclaim to the man, ' talk shit get hit mother fucker' then punched him in the face so your wanted for assault on an officer." He said as he sat down again." Now I'm willing to help you, as long as you admit you're the one who instigated that fight." He said." I can make your record disappear, and say we took care of you."he said gently. Novari looked at him like he was insane or had grown a second head," what like a fucking mob hit? What do you mean take care of me?" She said with confusion in her tone. Sunny chuckled, "no kid i can get fake documents saying we put you in a group home for orphans."he said picking up a data pad." In exchange for your freedom from your warrant and forged documents all you have to do is tell us what you know about that imperial faction we rescued from, deal?" He said

Novari stared at him blankly for a few minutes, probably longer than she should have before she spoke again. " Fine, I'll play along with your silly little game here with 2 conditions." She said, Sunny looked at her amused,"depending on what they are kid you're really not in a position to demand things, but i'll let you humor me." He said already typing in the documents he was going to fake. She sat up a bit causing the damp rag to slide a bit, but she was determined, she looked at him, " firstly uncuff me im not dangerous to you. No doubt you took the gun you gave me back, and the grand asshat has my rifle and knife." She said gesturing to the hand cuff on her left wrist. "And secondly you drop me off where the guild is.."she said watching him stop typing and look at her.
" And where would that be?" He asked while moving and uncuffing her. She was quick to rub her wrist and sit up better causing the rag to fall into her lap. She looked this rookie in the eye, with some fiery determination since she was going to get back to working and formulate her revenge against Gideon, and reclaim was was hers.. " drop me on Nevarro"