Tatooine: Cheesecake.

The pair slowly walked through the residential district of the desert city. All these single-story buildings around, their colors blending seamlessly with the sand that would drift away with the wind, were almost indistinguishable from the planet's surroundings. Their cloaks, firmly fastened in place, with only the hem revealing their armor, seemed determined to flee along with the sand. One of them wore a cloak of sandy hue, while the other's cloak was dark with a hood.

The local residents paid them no attention, continuing with their daily activities. Some were washing rags that couldn't be called clothing, some were sweeping sand out of their dwellings, and others were hurrying to work. The person in the helmet with dark purple lenses was surveying the meager hovels. They had certainly landed in a poor neighborhood.

"Ol'g has gone broke?" a male voice rang out.

"Seems like it," the second voice, a female one, replied.

"Since the tablet stated that he's the owner of a refueling station, he definitely was, but apparently things didn't work out. So, he borrowed money from Hutt to cover expenses or pay off debts? But what's the point of extorting money from someone who can't pay anymore? Why didn't Hutt just kill him or take him into slavery?" the guy speculated.

"I don't know," his companion replied dryly.

Her partner glanced at her, internally understanding why she was behaving this way. They had only reestablished contact about an hour ago. He doesn't want to dwell on yesterday at all, and neither does the girl, who has not fully recovered from all that she went through. Feeling his gaze on her, the girl turned her head towards him briefly, then abruptly returned it to its original position. In doing so, her heart skipped a beat in fear. She shouldn't speak so curtly to her teacher. Count Dooku preferred concise responses from his subordinates, and the old man himself wasn't overly fond of unnecessary verbosity when speaking to his subordinates.

So, it feels somewhat unusual for her to hold such dry conversations. She had always completed her missions alone, and full-fledged dialogues with Dooku were only during her training. There was a time when she could have a normal conversation. She even had a boyfriend whom she hadn't seen in a long time. Fate, or rather her former teacher, had separated them. That's when she began to delve into the power of the Dark Side of the Force, while her ex-boyfriend took on the dirty work for Dooku and his allies as an elite mercenary. Their relationship became colder and colder over time, although the girl still remembered that mischievous blue-skinned rogue.

"I... I really don't know, teacher," she said, lowering her head, afraid to provoke the Sith.

"Oh, come on, don't worry, Sev'rance," he reassuringly patted her shoulder. "And one more thing, you'd better call me Rafael while we're on this mission, okay?"

"Of course," Tann tried not to flinch at the touch.

Most of the time, when Sith touched each other, it happened during a bloody training battle. Dooku touched her only when he forcefully infused her with knowledge or, conversely, when he punished her for weak results, thereby stoking the flames of the Dark Side within her even more. The current situation was fundamentally different, not least because he wasn't causing her pain. However, her instincts told her to distance herself from the guy, but her common sense was afraid of his anger, so she suppressed any rebellious thoughts.

"Ah, slums, no matter where they are, they all look the same," Rafael hid his hand back under the cloak.

"Do you see them often?" she asked.

"I 'see' them," he corrected her, "we're partners, after all," playfully nudging her in the back. Sev'rance let out a puzzled sigh, astonished by the Sith's unusual behavior. "Well, I grew up in the slums. Same bright sun," the guy looked at the sky, "and drought," then at the ground. "Oh, it brings back memories..."

"You... You..." it felt extremely awkward to address someone who had almost killed her multiple times and tortured her in the process. "Are you from Tatooine?"

"No, but these places really resemble it... Ahhh," he sighed.

The rest of the way, they walked in silence. Rafael seemed lost in his memories, while Sev'rance was simply afraid to touch an old wound. No matter how kind he seemed now, her female body and consciousness still vividly remembered all the agony she had been through. She definitely did not want to relive those torments.

The wind grew stronger. Not only did it try to rip their cloaks off with doubled force, but the sand on the ground also started swirling in the air. The locals immediately covered their faces with scraps of cloth or the sleeves of their clothing. For them, it was so routine that they completely ignored the antics of the unruly desert wind.

The windows of the nearby buildings began to close with iron shutters to protect their interiors from the street dust and sand. The locals just needed to press a button, and advanced technology would shield their humble abodes from the elements. The mercenaries, on the other hand, were protected by helmets that served not only as armor against stray blaster shots but also against the weather.

However, one should not take the antics of the unruly wind too seriously. It was just warming up because in its prime, it could raise a full-blown sandstorm that would affect not only the poor and the rich but also ships. All it took was an inexperienced pilot ignoring the weather forecast, and they would become victims of their own carelessness along with their passengers and cargo... Which, of course, would find its use in other hands.

Gradually, the pair moved towards the edge of the street, inevitably approaching the house they needed, whose door barely clung to its frame. As they got closer, it swayed aside, emitting a high-pitched scream of pain. Naturally, this clever security system alerted the owners to uninvited guests.

In a modest two-room house, a green-skinned Rodian was just closing the steel shutters, but upon seeing the two visitors dressed as mercenaries, he immediately jumped out of an open window onto the street. Their swift reaction surprised the pair, so without wasting time, they rushed after him. However, the massive neighbor, a towering two meters tall from an unfamiliar race to Rafael, suddenly rose from behind the dining table, toppling it directly into their path.

The burly fugitive's neighbor was clearly planning to detain them, as he had already begun to flex fists the size of cannonballs, much like Napoleon liked to shoot in the native world of the time traveler. Sev'rance was not at all impressed by his dimensions. In addition to her knowledge of the Force and fencing, she also had military training, so the girl could easily take him down.

Indeed, the teacher had his own opinion. He grabbed the cloak by the collar and theatrically tossed it aside before taking a step towards the burly neighbor and adopting a combat stance, simply extending his arms in front of him. The opponent just grinned predatorily at the mercenary's actions.

"Go after Olga, Cheesecake. I'll handle this myself," the fighter said, stretching his neck.

Tann blinked beneath her helmet. Honestly, she had no idea why he suddenly called her by a different name, but if the teacher commanded it, she had to obey! The girl leaped into action, darting towards a rather narrow window from a running start. She did it so effortlessly and gracefully that Rafael was impressed by her agility. However, his contemplation of his own student was interrupted by the burly neighbor.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Sev'rance landed on the street without any issues and immediately began to look around. On the left was an ordinary quiet street, on the right was an intersection where an elderly man was trying to get up, groaning in pain. Tann quickly assessed the situation and rushed towards the old man, asking him a single question:

"Which way did he run?"

In response, the man pointed in the right direction, and the pursuer sprinted off. Thanks to her military service and apprenticeship with Dooku, she had excellent physical conditioning. Even without using the Force, Tann remained an incredibly formidable adversary, which couldn't be said for the terrified Rodian, who happened to be ahead.

He had only stopped to catch his breath when he was compelled to continue running down the street, completely forgetting about his shallow stamina. He ran half-heartedly, and Sev'rance started catching up with him swiftly. Her sprinting style, along with the wind-assisting cloak and the sand trailing behind the dark-haired girl, created the illusion that she was moving faster than the wind itself. And Olga certainly felt that way!

In his fear, he drew a blaster from his holster on his belt and fired at the pursuer while still running. A red laser dot zoomed past Tann, who didn't even attempt to dodge the shot. The Rodian's low stamina would hardly allow him to aim accurately while on the move. Her suspicions were confirmed by the ensuing absurd volley. The deadly laser bolts obediently missed her as she saw no reason to slow down.

Panicking, the Rodian realized he was firing at thin air and focused his remaining strength on a sprint towards a narrow alleyway, where he'd have a better chance at shooting. Once there, he aimed his blaster back in the direction Tann was supposed to appear. However, Sev'rance quickly figured out his plan.

Instead of mindlessly chasing him down, she nimbly leaped onto a small awning of a house near the alley and gracefully climbed up without making a single unnecessary movement. From there, she easily reached the roof, then jumped to the next one, continuing to chase her target.

The houses of the poor were built nearly wall-to-wall, which allowed her to effectively pursue Olga, who paid no attention to what was above him. Instead, he split his attention between running forward and aiming backward. Once, he stumbled on his own feet, nearly faceplanting into the ground.

Finally, he burst out of the alley onto an open street in another part of the neighborhood. He collapsed on his knees, gasping for breath. Just then, the girl descended upon him from above. She forcefully knocked him to the ground, causing his blaster to fly out of his hand, and immobilized his upper limbs with her left hand and right leg. She held her own blaster in her right hand, pressing the barrel against his temple.

"Dare to move, and you'll be a corpse," a stern female voice warned.

"I-I-I understand," the Rodian continued to gasp for breath.

"Right now, you will stand up and walk back slowly, understood?"

"Understood-understood," he replied resignedly.

Passersby nervously glanced at them but had no intention of intervening. Tatooine, situated in the Outer Rim, was fully controlled by the Hutts, notorious gangsters, so such incidents were a common occurrence on the planet, in the city, and in the district.

Sev'rance stepped back from him but kept her blaster aimed at him. The fugitive kept his eyes fixed on the blaster, capable of ending his life at any moment. Slowly, he got to his feet, massaging both arms she had exerted pressure on during the capture. He turned around and began to shuffle toward his home. Tann pushed him in the back to make him move faster, but her motive was not to increase his pace but rather her strong desire to cause him pain. She could barely contain her sadistic tendencies, fueled during the short pursuit.

If it weren't for her fear of her teacher, she would have already beaten him for prevention and her own pleasure. Wasn't it delightful to inflict suffering on those who couldn't fight back because of their weakness? It was an intoxicating feeling of superiority, evolving into true addiction. If it weren't for her teacher, she would have surely broken a couple of bones unnecessary for walking.

None of the locals rushed to defend the captured Olga, so they reached his dwelling without any adventures. It was there that, before their eyes, a hired gun burst out, smashing the already fragile door with his back. Female eyes widened in surprise and disbelief at what they saw. How could a powerful Sith be groaning in pain right now, struggling to get up from the dusty ground?

Her brain simply refused to believe it. She remembered a similar feeling of cognitive dissonance, which had led her to attack the master yesterday, ultimately subjecting her to monstrous and agonizing suffering that still echoed ominously in her consciousness. Thanks to that experience, she understood that he was simply pretending to be weak. But why?

Suddenly, the same beefy guy who had apparently sent Rafael flying emerged from the house.

"Ouch," groaning and swaying from side to side, the guy finally straightened up and once again raised his hands in a fighting stance. "Alright, alright, I get it. I get that you're a tough cookie, but I didn't sign up for this."

"Run! Save me!" the Rodian hysterically shouted.

"Rawr!" the bald gray-skinned Aqualish roared loudly, then charged straight at Sev'rance.

"Oh, crap!" Rafael tried to intercept him but didn't manage to get in the way due to his battered state.

Olga clumsily dodged to the side to avoid getting caught in the path of his muscular friend, while the girl continued to stand and watch the mountain of muscles charging towards her. Just as the strongman swung his bulging arm for a devastating blow, and with only a meter left between them, Tann swiftly raised her leg and landed a precise hit right on the guy's crotch.

Feeling the full force of critical damage from the hit, Run squealed like a little girl and dropped to his knees in front of her. Sev'rance immediately shoved her blaster into his screaming mouth. Her index finger was trembling on the trigger, and it was about to create a hole in him. She would have fired if it weren't for her teacher's shout.

"Stop! Cheesecake, that's enough!" he said, limping over to her and lowering her weapon. "We came here to collect a debt, not to kill."

"I understand..." she bit her lip, struggling with her bloodlust. She had grown accustomed to taking the lives of those who got in her way, but the beating she had endured the day before still terrified her far more than her own homicidal tendencies.

"Well, gentlemen," Raf turned to Olga and Run, "now we can finally talk?" He dusted himself off to look more presentable.