Chapter Text
Jalon V was an impoverished world on the edge of Wildspace, while it once held a large number of profitable mines, they had run dry long ago and the only defense the planet had was a small militia the population had created to fight criminals.
All of these circumstances made it quite an easy target for Pirates and Slavers.
They came when Vex was six, he and his Grandfather had lived on the outskirts of the planets Capital city of Spicetown, considering the many drug addicts that populated the city nowadays he thought that the name was fitting. Vex had lived with his grandfather since he was two, after his parents had died from a plague that had ravaged the planet at the time. His Grandfather, Valsin was weak and sickly more times than not but still did his best to take care of him.
They had just eaten dinner and where preparing for bed when the slavers attacked.
With his last breath his Grandfather had told him to run, but he was paralyzed with fear and could‘nt move. He could do nothing as he watched his Grandfathers body get riddled with blasterbolts, he could do nothing as the Zygerians put a collar around his neck, he could do nothing as he and a few dozen others where herded on to a slave ship and he could do nothing as the ship took of and left the planets atmosphere.
He hated his weakness.
The first two years of slavery where by far the worst, they where made to work in a factory, Vex didn’t even know on wich planet he was. The slave collar around his neck was tight and uncomfortable and the shocks they gave of when the slavers thought they deserved it didn’t make it any better either, the only food they where given was one bowl of tasteless soup and one bottle of disgusting tasting (and looking) water per day. He and another human, a girl a year younger then him called Lyra, where the only children there. They were made to work regardless however. They’re small bodies and hands let them get into places where the adult slaves could’nt.
Vex was eight when he learned how to stop the pain. The first two years had been hell, everytime he did something wrong, disobeyed a command or cried for his Grandfather or even his parents to save him he was either shocked or whipped, the first times he could only think about the terrible pain and the numbness that followed afterwards but eventually he realized that when he concentrated on the hate and anger he felt for his tormentors the pain became almost bearable.
Vex was nine when he killed his first man. He was a muscly Zabrak who worked as an Overseer for the Slaves, but he was cruel even for a slaver he would take any oportunity to inflict harm. He would starve them and then eat luxurious meals while they watched, he would whip, shock or beat anyone not fast enough at work or at all too sick or old. He would also take some oft the young women working in the factory into his private rooms. At the time Vex did`nt know what he was doing to them, but he did know that the girls would cry themselves to sleep for days afterwards.
But the thing that angered him the most was how he looked at Lyra, overtime the two had become friends sharing food and looking out for eachother and even the nine year old knew that the leering looks the Zabrak shot at her from time to time where far from innocent. So one night after another long torture session attempting to sooth the pain by concentrating on his emotions he could only think about how much he wanted the man to die.
The next morning he was found in his bed having died of unknown causes.
When Vex was eleven, Lyra somehow managed to escape. He did’nt know how she did it or why she did’nt take him with her, he only knew that one evening she was crying herself to sleep after being punished for stealing food and that the next morning her bed was empty and the Overseers where running around like headless chickens trying to find her. He was struggeling to understand why she would just leave him there.
When Vex was thirteen Superflux Ltd. The company that owned they’re factory went bankrupt and they were forced to sell they’re slaves on the Nar Shadaa Slave markets.
And he was still thirteen when his chains where broken…