SYZYGY

Prologue

Orona Erso trailed behind her older sister, sweat beading on her forehead from the sweltering heat, not a drop of moisture in the death-like air.

Scarves hid the fair faces of the two girls, not only from the scorching suns, but from spying eyes. Even in the Outer Rim of the galaxy, in Mos Espa on Tatooine, they'd managed to find trouble with none other than the crime lord himself, Jabba the Hutt.

Jyn, the older of the two sisters at just sixteen, was furious with Orona. Orona, however, refused to take the blame for the situation; it was not her fault that Jabba's thugs caught her act of thievery, resulting in her ending their lives quickly and quietly.

Now, the girls were on their way to stealing a ship, despite neither of them being the most skilled pilots.

"This is a bit hypocritical, you know," Orona whispered viciously to her sister. "You can't be mad at me for stealing and then solve that issue by stealing."

Jyn's eyes rolled. "Yes, well, I'm also not murdering anyone."

Wanting to avoid an argument, Orona shut her mouth and kept moving silently.

Jyn had a week-old bullet wound from a run-in with some stormtroopers on Jedha that was not healing well. Orona could not stand to see her sister in pain, so she stole what was necessary. What was the harm in that?

As they approached the outskirts of the city, an unattended ship came into view, and, though it appeared to have seen much better days, it would do.

"There." Orona pointed out her findings to Jyn, who nodded in response and picked up her pace.

The plan was in motion, and going quite well, until a large, grimy man who was missing an eyeball smacked into Orona's shoulder, successfully knocking her to the flaming hot ground and stirring up sand. Her scarf came undone and she immediately reached up to tuck it back in place, but not before menacingly curious eyes amongst the crowd caught her features.

"Sorry, sir," she mumbled, looking away as Jyn pulled her up quickly, the man glaring at the two before recognition flickered in his face.

"Thief!"

One word was all it took to send the place into a frenzy and the sisters sprinting towards the ship, shoving their way through the dense crowd. The man raced after them, calling out to warn more of Jabba's thugs of our presence. He was fast, but the sisters moved swiftly and efficiently with the advantage of their small frames. Their feet pounded against the ground as they navigated the city, not once risking a glance back, until more of Jabba's goons appeared in their path. Bullets and lasers shot through the air at lightening speed from all directions, surrounding them.

"This is bad. Really, really bad," Orona said frantically, grasping her older sister's arm.

Jyn's eyes tore through the area for an escape, but Orona, features lighting up with an idea, was dragging her along before she could find one. She did not protest, for there was no time to argue. Orona lead them down the twisting, narrow alleyway that they'd just come from.

"Orona! You're taking us in a circle!"

"I know!"

Their pursuers were still behind them somewhere, shouting orders at townspeople, barely audible from their distance. The sisters kept moving, until they'd circled all the way around to where the ship was, observing from behind a wall.

"You're the smartest idiot I've ever met," Jyn breathed, shaking her head.

"Thanks." Orona grinned wearily for a moment. "We should go now."

Casually, they moved from their hiding spot into the bustling market once more, scarves over their faces. They walked separately as to not raise suspicion, and maneuvered through the crowd to their destination. Jyn was closer, and Orona began to shuffle in her sister's direction.

"There!" A shout came from behind Orona, who glanced back at the thugs, then at Jyn. They would be caught.

She stopped for a fraction of a second. She was much further from the ship than Jyn, and it would take at least half a minute to push through the crowd to catch up. If Jyn waited, she would be caught. Both of them would not make it off of this planet—but one of them could.

Heart pounding in her ears, Orona shuffled backwards, in the direction of the criminals.

Jyn froze in fear across the square, seeming to know her sister's exact thoughts before she even voiced them.

"RUN!" Orona cried out.

A thug caught up to her.

Dizzy from the sudden lack of air in her lungs, Jyn watched, horrified, as the sister she had sworn to protect was thrown to the ground by a Trandoshan gang member.

"Jyn, go!" Orona's words were muffled by grubby hands that attempted to silence her. She struggled against her captors, throwing punches and kicks desperately, but only to stall long enough for Jyn's escape. She managed to wriggle free, drawing the criminals away from Jyn, whose eyes glistened with regret.

Jyn began to shuffle backwards.

"Come get me, you skrogging Hutt-spawns!" Orona held up two explicit fingers tauntingly.

The hilt of a blaster suddenly struck her head, the sound ringing in hers and Jyn's ears painfully.

The youngest sister—a mere fourteen years of age—collapsed, her vision clouded with colorful spots that appeared around her like a tunnel. Rust-colored sand coated her left cheek as she blinked, fighting her desires to fall into a endless sleep. Orona held onto consciousness as long as she could, barely making out the sight of Jyn turning and racing to the ship before she was being dragged away by her feet.

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