Childhood's End By Shadow On the outskirts of a Correllian city, in a small fuelling station sheltered from the Rebellion and the Empire one of the greatest fighter pilots of the Alliance grew up. How did he come to fight for the Alliance anyway? And is he really the only survivor of his family's murder. Follow Wedge Antilles' early years to find out. Under Series I guess Disclaimer: Okay, here we go with the routine. All the characters from Star Wars contained in this story belong the George Lucas and LucasFilm. I'm not getting any money whatsoever off this story, just the joy of knowing that somewhere, another Star Wars fan is reliving the excitement of the Star Wars universe. Author's Note: Right, this is kind of necessary since I've made up some of my own characters, and changed the events of Wedge's life quite a bit. First of all, there's Isari Wedge's younger sister; she's nine years old in this story, about two years younger than I pictured Wedge to be. Also, I left Syal at home for this mostly because I had no idea she'd left when I wrote it. This is the first part in what I hope will be a three part series that explains how Wedge and his younger sister Isari meet up at Yavin. I hope that clears things up a bit, if you have any questions or comments email me, I'd be glad to here them. Enjoy! Childhood's End Under cover of night they came, eight sleek and deadly fighters. They flew so low to the ground that the thinning brown grass in the fields fluttered with their passing. In the distance the lead pilot spotted the faint lights that marked their destination. "Hawk Leader to Hawk Boys. Target in sight. Remember the plan, let's have some fun with this one." His cold voice was answers by a chorus of acknowledgements and laughter, as the other seven men with Hawk Leader acknowledged their orders. Ignoring their cheers Hawk Leader stoically pulled down the Headhunter's targeting computer. It was time to let these people know just how big a mistake they'd made when they'd defied the Emperor. He grinned under his flight mask, yes; this would be fun indeed. Less than fifty kilometres away from the approaching fighters, inside a small fuelling station and store, the lights glowed warmly as a Correllian family sat down for dinner, blissfully unaware of the danger that streaked towards them. "Wedge! Syal! Dinner's ready!!" Cyrilla Antilles called to her two oldest children as she placed a steaming pot of traditional Correllian stew on the table in front her youngest daughter, Isari. The petite woman's smile carried through to her brown eyes as she watched her daughter's eyes light up at the sight of her favourite meal. "Not yet, Hon." She admonished caringly, "we wait for everyone else. Do you know where you're brother is?" "Awww, Mom! Wedge isn't always with meàI always get in trouble for stuff he doesà" at a look from her mother the child cut her self off and sighed, "Alright, I'll go get himà" She slid off her chair and ran down the stairs in search of her brother and sister. At the bottom landing she heard a familiar voice say goodbye to someone and shut the door to the store. "Daddy!!!" The nine-year-old girl all but launched her self around the corner and into her father's arms. "You're home already? I thought you and Booster would be gone longer! Is Booster still here? Did Mirax come with him? Did you bring me anything? I can't wait to show you the trick Wedge taught me in the Skyhopper!!" her words came out in a torrent. "Hey now, easy there Squirt." Tynan Antilles said good naturedly, giving his daughter's tangled brown hair a rub with his right hand and pulling her to him with his left. "Booster's still around somewhere, Mirax couldn't come, sorry hon, but relax, we juts got in, I wouldn't leave you hanging. As for the gift, did you leave your manners outside? It's not polite to ask people for gifts, got that sweetie?" In spite of his last words Tynan reached behind him and pulled out a small package wrapped in an oily rag, "Sorry about the wrapping job, go ahead, open it." "Sari!! Did you find your brother yet?? This stew is going cold!" Tynan smiled, "On second thought maybe you should find Wedge first and then open it." Isari nodded, and ran towards the back yard in search of her brother. In the backyard, Wedge Antilles lay underneath his most prize possession, his late-model T-6 Skyhopper that he'd gotten from his parents for his tenth birthday. Lovingly he wiped and re-wiped the underside of the old fighter until it shone. He heard Sari open the backdoor and call his name, with a sigh he crawled out from under the fighter and wiped his hands on the rag. Syal, grinned at her younger brothers care for the ancient fighter, he didn't seem to realise the thing was a piece of junk. She hopped off the rock she'd been sitting on, and headed into the house, giving Isari a playful swipe on her way. Wedge caught up to Isari as she also went into the house. "What'd Mom make for dinner anyway?" "Tresk'in stew. But since you took so long I think she gave the rest to Booster." The boy's face fell then her realised she was only playing with him. "Wait a minute. Booster's here? Then that meansàDad!" he'd reached the top of the stairs and started towards his father. He never got there. In the space of a heartbeat his quiet world on the outskirts of Corca was completely and utterly shattered as a proton torpedo from Hawk Leader detonated less than 100 metres from the house. Wedge felt unseen hands grab him by his shirt and fling him full force into the cabinets that lined one side of the kitchen. He hit hard and lay there stunned, his vision fading in and out as his brain tried to sort out which wire went where. He could hear his mother crying out near him but try as he might he couldn't see her through the haze of smoke around him. Suddenly the kitchen door was blown inward, making wedge flinch as splinters nicked his face and arms. Through the hole where the door had been, five men stepped through, then made way for a sixth. The sixth man was huge. He stood a head taller than Wedge's father, who was no small man himself, and his muscles could be seen rippling through the fabric of his flight suit. Wedge's father pulled himself to his feet and stood to confront the big man, his brown eyes harder than Wedge had ever seen them, blood running from a cut above his eye. "You Tynan Antilles?" the big man asked in a flat voice, completely void of emotion. Tynan straightened and glared at the man, "Who wants to know?" The man chuckled, "It seems you've made some very powerful, and not to mention rich, people very mad at you, Antilles. Don't suppose you'd know how you managed to do that would you?" Wedge saw his father pale slightly and he swallowed hard before answering. Wedge tore his eyes away from the two men at the centre of the room and took in the rest of the situation. His mother and Syal were huddled under the remains of the table, he could see his mother sobbing on Syal's shoulder, see the terror in Syal's blue eyes as she looked across the room at him. Aside from their terror they both appeared to be all right. As his gaze swept over the room, Wedge saw one of the other five men who'd entered with the big man looking at him, as if judging him. His blue eyed stare pinned Wedge in place and sent a chill to the bottom of his soul. Wedge shuddered and looked away wondering what exactly his father had done to make these men this mad at them. Then he saw the other person he was looking for, by the corner nearest to him Isari sat hugging the small package their father had given her tightly to her chest, watching the confrontation with dry eyes, though it was evident that she had been crying. Wedge fought back the urge to run to her and make sure she was alright, to tell her everything would be okay because that's what big brothers did. But he knew he really wouldn't be helping the situation if he made a sudden move and got himself shot. So Wedge Antilles did the only thing a sensible eleven-year-old could do, he sat, did nothing, and hoped to hell his father could get them out of this. He glanced back at his father in time to hear the other man's reaction to Tynan's explanation. "Yeah, I guess one could call it smuggling, it's a stretch, but it fits." He gave Tynan a humourless smile, "Now listen, I'm a reasonable man, I see no reason to terrorise your poor family here, they ain't done nothing wrong. So I'll tell you what. You just hand over those Jedi you're hiding around here and we'll leave you're lovely little family alone. How's that sound?" his smile disappeared, "I really don't want to have to do this the hard way, Antilles, but I will if I have to. The pays the same, and I'm sure these boys would love the chance to get their hands dirty, it's up to you." Tynan glared, "I can't tell you what I don't know, now leave my property NOW!" The man took a step towards Wedge's father pulling out his blaster with exaggerated deliberateness. "Was that a threat, Antilles?" he growled, taking yet another step closer, he charged up the power pack on his blaster and took another step, "Are you threatening me? Here? I don't think you're in much of a position to be making threats do you?" he took one final step and jammed his blaster under Tynan's jaw. The two men glared at each other, faces mere inches apart, Tynan never backing down despite the blaster to his jaw. Wedge watched the display riveted. Wanting to turn away, to scream, to run, anything to dispel the horror he was seeing before him. His heart thumped in his chest and he heard a strange whimpering sound, that he only realised later, was his own. Finally, after an eternity, the bid pilot brought his blaster up into Tynan's jaw, snapping his head back. When Tynan regained his balance he was met by a fist to the face. He collapsed to the ground groaning. The big man stood above him a smirk on his hateful face. "I tried to be nice about this, Antilles. Last chance, where are those Jedi?" Tynan glared up at him and spat. The man sighed, "If that's they way you want it we'll do this the hard way." he gestured to two of his men, "Hold him up." Wedge could no longer just sit and watch, these men were going to kill his father. With a shout of rage and pain he launched himself at the men holding his father. An arm snaked around his neck from behind, cutting off his air as it raised him into the air. Wedge choked, tried desperately to draw in a breath, bite, kick, scream. Nothing worked. Finally the arm lowered him down enough so he could breath. He gasped far air, hearing the horrible sound of the big man's evil laughter echoing in his ear. The look on his father's face was that of a man being hit by multiple two by fours simultaneously. "Wedgeà" he whispered, so much fear and pain in that one word that it almost broke Wedge's heart. He struggled anew against the restraining arm, and was raised into the air because of it. When he was set back down again his vision faded for a moment. He felt hot breath against his neck and fought down the terror that threatened to rise within him. "So, Antilles, we ready to talk business yet? Or does this little hero have to sacrifice his life for your Jedi?" "NOOO!" The cry was wracked with despair. Wedge glanced at his father, held down by two men almost as big as the one holding him, and was surprised to see tears on his face. "Please, do anything you want to me, but leave my family alone. I honestly don't know where they went, they left about a month ago." "See? Was that so hard?" The big man shoved Wedge towards the floor no longer caring about him. Wedge scuttled towards his younger sister and held her protectively in his arms, "I'm sorry I have to do this, friend. I've gotten to rather like you, but since I don't have the Jedi, I do need you." He nodded slightly and one of the two men holding Tynan pressed a blaster up against his side and fired. Wedge bit back a scream and looked away from his father's corpse. Isari shrieked and tried to run to him, but wedge held her back until she finally dissolved in his arms. Then his own tears came, unbidden, and washed down his face. Her could hear his mother crying his father's name over and over, hear Syal try and comfort her through her own grief. Then he felt his arms being pulled from around Isari and behind his back, he kicked out and caught someone's shin, he heard a muffled curse and got backhanded across the face hard enough to make him see stars. He felt a rough rope being wrapped tightly around his wrists and he cried out from the pain. The stunbolt came out of nowhere. Wedge felt a brief flash of pain, then the world went dark. Isari saw the man next to her father pull out his blaster and screamed. Then her whole world fell apart around her. The comfortable kitchen she'd spent the past nine years in suddenly became cold and ugly; her brother's strong, comforting arms became horrible snakes trying to grab her. She shrieked and fought against them wanting only to get to her father's side. But those snakes refused to let her go, and eventually she came out of her blind panic and sagged in Wedge's arms sobbing helplessly. Worst of all was that she didn't understand why these people had done this. Her family didn't any Jedi, according to all the books she'd read the Jedi were extinct, only a fairy tale now. Why would her father hide one? It made no sense. The people that had been staying with them, the ones she assumed her father had been talking about had been passing travellers, nothing more. Quite suddenly she was ripped from Wedge's embrace. She saw him fighting out of the corner of her eye, then he went still. The horror of losing another loved one set her off again. Screaming Wedge's name she grabbed the nearest objet to her hands, a frying pan conveniently enough, and swung with all her might towards her tormentor. She hit and felt the satisfying thud, heard the yelp of pain. The arms let her go and she squirmed out from under the man, grabbed her father's last gift to her and fled to the living room. She could hear the men pursuing her and knew she didn't have much time. Her father had said Booster Terrik was around somewhere but she didn't have time to find him right now. So she did the next best thing she could think of, she hid. Cramming herself inside the tiny closet that she used as a hiding place when she and Wedge played hide and seek, she closed the door tightly, held her breath, and prayed. Hawk Four cursed silently to himself as he walked back into the kitchen from the tiny living room; the little girl had escaped. The boss was not going to like that one bit. At least they'd gotten the other one as instructed, and she was even better than her sister. Older, more developed. He grinned and hurried to help Hawks Five and Six spread fuel around the house. Finally they closed the door to the store and tossed a match through the window. Laughing as the fuel soaked wood caught fire and sent the house up in flames, along with it the bodies of the mother, son, and perhaps, the young daughter. With a grunt hawk Six picked up Tynan Antilles' body and trudged towards the transport the hawks had stolen for this job. Ignoring the sobs of the oldest daughter he threw the body of her father unceremoniously at her feet and climbed into the back of the transport, relishing her look of fearful defiance and thinking up creative ways to wipe it off that beautiful face of hers. Then the doors slammed and the transport took off into the night, leaving behind it a charred reminder of what happened to those who crossed the Empire. Wedge came to in a fiery inferno and wondered briefly if this was what death felt like. He wanted nothing more than to succumb to the agonising pain in his side and arm, but thoughts of his mother and sisters drove him to his feet. He cried out as he jostled his right arm and got a stab of red-hot pain in return. Broken. He tested his other limbs and was relieved to find they were all intact. "MOM? SYAL? SARI?!?" When he got no answer to his cries, he choked back a sob; they might only be unconscious. He clung to that thought as he sought out scissors to cut the ropes on his wrists, and searched for his family through the smoke and flame. The roof above his head groaned and cracked as a support beam burning on both ends fell towards Wedge. He dodged sideways and screamed as his shoulder hit burning wood, he bounced of the wood and hit something solid but soft. Another person. At first his heart soared, one of them had survived! Then he realised it was a man, it couldn't have been his family and that hope shattered and crashed within him. Screaming he attacked the figure, flailing his one good arm like a windmill, hoping to do something the men who had murdered his family. When the shadowy figure didn't respond to his attack, Wedge paused, a little miffed. Then the figure spoke, a deep voice that Wedge would know anywhere. "Wedge? That you son? Oh sweet Jedi Ghosts, you're alive!! Thank the heavens!" he pulled Wedge to him in a fierce embrace, "Come on, we've got to get out of here before the whole place comes down around us." "Booster? What-?" Wedge was cut off as another beam landed nearby. As more and more debris began to rain down on the, the two of them dashed for the window. For a minute Wedge resisted going with Booster, he still needed to find his family, but the bigger man finally hauled him bodily out of the house and a safe distance away. Only then did he set Wedge down on the brown grass and call his ship the Pulsar Skate from the Antilles' garage. Wedge knelt on the ground his fingers clenched in the grass, tears streaming endlessly down his cheeks, watching his home burn, knowing that the life he had known was burning with it. He flinched away from Booster's hand, refused to listen to his words of comfort because he refused to believe his family was truly dead. He lay there like that with Booster standing protectively over him for a long time. When he was ready Booster helped him aboard the Skate and into a new life. Isari smelled the smoke first, then she felt the heat coming through the wall between the kitchen and the living room. With a gasp she lunged for the handle of the small closet, but it came off in her hand. How could she have been so stupid? The knob had broken the last time she and Wedge had played hide and seek; she'd been stuck in here for an hour while her dad took off the screws. The memory brought back the sting of tears to eyes and she blinked them away. No time for tears now, she needed to get out. Grimly Isari set to work, pounding at the door with her leg muscles, slowly it gave way. Too slowly for Isari's taste but at least she was getting somewhere/ Eventually, when she thought she wouldn't be able to stand the heat any more, her foot smashed through the wooden door. It took another five minutes to make a hole big enough for her to crawl through. When she was finally out of the hole she looked around her, and felt her heart being squeezed by an invisible hand as she watched her life and memories go up in smoke. Coughing and hacking she made her way to the second storey window next to the tree and jumped from the window to the branch, wincing as the flames licked her hand. She shimmied quickly down the tree and ran to the garage, hoping to there before it, too, went up in flames. She hesitated slightly when she entered the garage. This place should have been a happy place, with her mother and father and maybe even Syal working on ship. While she and Wedge were off in the field, Wedge teaching her how to fly his old Skyhopper, laughing when she couldn't manoeuvre because she was too short to reach the rudder pedals. Instead, it had also been changed by her ordeal. It now seemed intimidating and foreign to her. Isari shook herself out of her reverie; she had to get away before the men in black came back to look for her. She hurried over to Wedge's Skyhopper, pausing for a moment to run her fingers along it's hull. Wedge had unofficially dubbed her Sari's Dream because she'd always dreamed of becoming a pilot. She couldn't help it anymore, she couldn't fight it. Isari slumped in the cockpit of her brother's fighter and cried uncontrollably until she felt slightly better. Then she made sure she still had her father's package, keyed the start up checklist and prepped the fighter for take-off. When the Skyhopper was in the air, Isari piloted it over her ruined home, sniffing back more tears, amazed that there were still more left inside of her. Hovering over the carcass of her home she tossed a sad salute at the smouldering ashes, then took off towards the spaceport in Corca. Leaving behind her the ruins of her home, her family, and her childhood. Well hope you liked it, any comment or suggestions can be sent to shadows_myst14@hotmail.com