Midnight Rose

[Belle]

The line in front of the Rose had changed during Belle's time backstage; a new set of customers were chatting with each other outside its krogan-guarded doors. Belle handed a pass to each of them – part of the promotion included a free drink at the full bar, and she wasn't in a mood to screw them over.

Or maybe she was interested in screwing someone over, and it just so happened that that peron's name was Jack.

Putting on the brightest fake smile she could muster, Belle walked down the neon length of Diamond Avenue. Caught at the intersections of desire and vice, the street was awash with promises of pleasure both overt and subtle. When she'd first arrived, she'd been told there was nowhere else with as much diversity as Tier Four, and they had certainly been right – just not in the way Belle had been thinking.

On her block, gentleman's clubs waged a colorful war with small casinos for the attentions of passersby. On the next, an entrepreneurial 'seller of experiences' was hawking his latest alchemical cocktails to anyone who would listen, the alluring shine of glass phials just visible in the shadows of his coat. Across from him were the women, those not as fortunate as Lily. Some were normal, or at least appeared to be. Most had clearly been altered in some way, or else were alien. There was one woman who changed her appearance every week – Belle only recognized her because of her handbag. Today she was sporting bronzed skin and blonde hair – normal enough, except for the cat ears and tail. She waved to Belle as she passed, and Belle waved back.

She got rid of a few invites outside one of the myriad of bars. Cheering erupted inside, and Belle caught the brief flash of a car spiraling out of control and exploding on one of the inside monitors. The F-Zero races were about one step short of pure bloodsport, and quite popular across all the 'verses, so she was told.

As she walked, her mind drifted back. Her first day on Coruscant had been a confusing one. After being scanned by some very nervous Empire agents, she had been abruptly released from custody and shoved out onto the 'verse's Tier One. It was a paradise compared to Tier Four – gardens, high, elegant buildings, a sweet aroma that seemed to emit from everywhere. There were the flying cars, and the bright glittering lights that sparkled like diamonds – real diamonds – in the night. And best of all: an actual sky.

Belle felt her eyes drawn to the pitch blackness above. Even though the neon lights would've drowned out any stars anyway, it was still hard to forget, even at night, that the oppressive weight of Tier 3 sat only a couple thousand meters above. As if on cue, the enormous vents that carried air to the surface opened wider, the low, industrial groan of straining metal filling the Tier. Like the sirens, it had become background noise to her at this point.

She hadn't been on Tier One for very long before she'd been picked up for vagrancy. Those first hours had been the worst. What was the Empire? What was a Tier? Was everyone like her and had just shown up one day? Why did she only remember a few things about her previous life? Everyone had had different answers: a force for justice, a tool of oppression, primary, secondary, yes, no, maybe, and the most common: I don't know. And with none of the apparent omnilium that the people here found so valuable, she had been passed down, person to person, custody to custody, level by level, before finally being dumped onto the neon streets of Tier Four.

A few catcalls interrupted her stroll down memory lane. Doing a reasonable impersonation of the routine she was supposed to go through, she left the men with a couple invites and a staged conspiratorial wink before continuing on her way, holding her sigh until she was out of earshot.

Dumped was the right word. Of course there were the criminals, the addicts, the opportunists preying upon the weak – all the elements that made up the grimy underbelly that teemed in the darkness below the surface. But there were others, too. Everyone the Empire didn't seem to know what to do with, or didn't want to figure out what to do with, ended up on the lower levels.

Belle had to admit, all things considered, she was lucky. She had heard that there were at least three more tiers below her's, each worse than the last. Tier Four had its problems, but at least she didn't live with the danger of being murdered for the clothes on her back.

The avenue stretched on and on, the buildings growing taller and cleaner as she approached the beating heart of the tier: the cluster of towers that rose like fantasy castles in the night. She felt eyes on her as she stepped under the bright lights and pressed invitations into increasingly reluctant hands. As she passed by a group, she caught a faint giggle and a few whispered words. Despite her best efforts, she felt a blush of embarrassment creep its way onto her cheeks, ducked her head, and walked a little faster.

It was almost midnight by the time she was finished. Her feet tired, she punched the last three invitations onto a lamppost, using some of the overly-ornate metalwork as a hook. Screw the cost, she thought: this time she was going to take the bus.

The nearest stop was just a block down, in front of a casino with wide, long stairs leading up to its doors. Tall, Grecian pillars stood on blocks on either side of the steps, supporting an overhang lined with lights. Belle hopped up onto one of the smoothly polished cubes and leaned back, letting out another sigh and taking a deep breath. The air smelled better here, but not by much. Belle loosened her boots, working her feet around in small circles as she waited.

Meeting Lily had been one of the few happy accidents she'd had since she'd arrived - which was terrible when she thought about it, given the circumstances. She'd been wandering Tier Four for a week at that point, her belly empty, her mouth dry, trying to find the little scraps necessary to keep going, when she'd heard a scream from the next alley over.

Before she knew what she was doing, she was moving in that direction. It was like something had been flipped inside her. All the hunger and thirst, all the yearning and worrying and wondering what she was going to do – all of it melted away.

There had been three of them – one on the ground clutching his groin, the other two wrestling with Lily, trying to grab for her bag. Belle shouted at them to let her go.

She remembered them ignoring her. She remembered tackling one of them to the ground. Everything after that was a blur; kicking, punching, and scratching everything she could reach. The one clear memory she had of the encounter was being slammed hard into the alley floor, her head ringing as her face was pressed into a stagnant puddle by strong hands – hands that abruptly vanished with a gurgle before one of the men slumped down next to her, still twitching as the aftereffects of Lily's pocket stun blaster coursed through him.

That, apparently, had been enough. The remaining two took off, leaving their disabled partner to be taken in by the Empire's security force when they arrived several minutes later. Belle had been reluctant to stay that long – she really hadn't wanted to deal with the Empire anymore. If they had found out she was a vagrant, who knew what level she might have ended up on next? Lily promised her that she wouldn't let that happen, and for the first time since Belle arrived someone was true to their word.

Her injuries weren't too bad – nothing life threatening, anyway – but Lily still ended up taking her to the clinic for a bacta job. After that she'd taken her back to her place, cleaned her up, then presented her to Jack. He'd offered her a job on the spot – no flashing her privates, no interacting with customers inside the club; just advertising it. As one of the girls later remarked to her, it was about as fairy tale a story as she'd ever heard in Tier Four.

“So this is happily ever after?” Belle muttered. Someone passing by looked at her strangely, and she belatedly realized she'd said it out loud.

She bit her lip. Hell no, this wasn't the end of the story. There were seven other gates up there; one of them had to be better than this. She just needed to scrape up a little more Omnilium, enough to allow her access to the upper levels...

The steady, pulsing hum of an approaching levibus snapped her back to depressing reality. Tightening her boots, she slipped off her seat and walked to the stop just in time to see the bus fly past her. “Hey!” she called after it. “Wait!”

The driver either didn't listen or didn't hear, continuing on. Belle let out a loud expletive, threw her cap to the ground, and made a rude hand gesture in its direction. Her nostrils flared, her chest heaving as she glared in impotent fury as it rounded a corner and drifted out of sight.

With trembling fingers she reached out, kneeling down to pick up her hat. The flower sat a little more askew than before, but at least it was still attached. She put it back on with a rough tug.

Slowly – very slowly – she calmed down. Even more people were staring now, though some had started to drift back to wherever it is they were going. Belle decided, no, screw the buses, she'd walk. But she sure as shit wasn't going to go down Diamond Street again. She'd had enough sniggering for one day.

Starting to walk, she turned a corner, heading a few streets over before turning again, heading back in the direction of the Rose. At least part of the route would take her through some residential areas which, at this time of night, would be mercifully pedestrian free.

Boy, was she ever wrong.