A bullet to the head, the story of Xel-Naga

[Xel-Naga]

When Xel-Naga was a child he was just like most children, only he was born on Nar Shaddaa and his name was not yet Xel-Naga. His birth certificate was written to the name of Nathaniel Essex- Nate for short. As I said he was born on Nar Shaddaa: the Smuggler's moon, Tiny Coruscant, the Vertical City, and all those other names that have accumulated over the years. Xel-Naga, or rather Natel; was your typical child. He had two loving parents, he ran and played, he had a many wonderful pets that he loved, and he was quite normal. Somehow Nate managed to avoid becoming influenced by the planet's dark aura of crime. While other children fell to pickpocketing and purse snatching, Nate stay at home and played with his toys. He had a few friends, but they slowly drifted away as their lives became consumed by crime. Nate's parents disliked the poor boy having no friends so they got even more pets then he had before. His personal favorite pet was a Sand Panther Cub that he called "Cuddles". The Cub was quite tame and safe, having been declawed and properly trained before being sold to Nate and his family. He took Cuddles with him everywhere and would cry and throw a huge fit if his parents ever tried to separate them. They were best friends to the very end. An end that came far sooner then it should.

Nate had been running about the neighborhood with Cuddles when a hover truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and his vehicle slid off the road and right into Nate's path. Nate was completely oblivious to what was going on behind him, he was only concerned with playing with his pet. Cuddles, on the other hand, saw the truck coming and pounced on Nate, knocking the boy backwards, but not far enough to avoid the truck. The edge of the hover truck clipped Nate on the side of the head. The truck continued on and ran straight into a building. The driver died in the crash and Nate was rushed to the hospital.

The blow had scraped the skin from the side of Nate's head to reveal bone beneath. Luckily Nate's skull was not damaged, at least not in any way that the physicians could see. The injury was quickly cleaned up and bandaged. Eventually a skin transplant was used to regrow some of the flesh over the injury. A bit grew back and a large scar surfaced. The doctors applied a patch of synthflesh over the scar. Once the synthflesh took root the scar was gone. By all means the boy should have gotten better, but instead he remained in a state of vegetation until at last he slipped into a coma.

Several anxiety filled months went by before Nate's eyes finally opened again. But something was wrong. A person should be incredibly weak and tired after a coma, but instead Nate was wide awake and sitting up in bed the moment be woke up. His once bright blue eyes had turned a blue-gray color. At once Nate's parents realized something serious had happened to their son. He was not the bright, cheerful, fun loving child he had been before his accident. He was cold, quiet, and frightening to behold. The doctors could do nothing and decided to let the boy go home, hopping he would recover from this strange side-effect of his injury.

At home Nate no longer played with his toys or his pets. In fact he had fallen into the habit of kicking cuddles whenever the Cub was in reach. Years went by and Nate never returned to his original self. In fact, the second personality grew and evolved over time into something for darker then it had been originally. Nate entered his teenage years and started spending next to no time at home. Instead he spent his time running through the street with whatever group of thugs would let him come along. Crime became Nate's life as he stole from whoever he wanted and beat down whoever got in his way. Eventually his path would led him to joining a gang of criminal youths. Once there he found himself among like-minded individuals who supplied him with any weapon he black little heart desired. He cut a path through the Nar Shaddaa underground as he and his gang battled their way to victory over the other gangs, seizing territory, foodstuffs, and weapons in the process. Despite their many victories and accomplishments Nate never felt the lease bit happy. It was as if a empty void existed in his heart where happiness should take place. Nothing could fill the void, all he could do was numb the pain of it's absence by filling his life with violence, alcohol, and women.

Nate's fame and reputation grew with every victory as he led his gang members to victory every time. He was never a good tactician, but he had enough animal-like cunning and sheer strength to stomp anyone out. Clubs and Blasters were Nate's personal favorite weapons. A blaster was powerful and precise while a club allowed you to bludgeon a body for the goriest results. Eventually his fame bought him the position of second in command within his gang. Bu then he began to dislike his clan mates. They were all undisciplined and lacked the sheer power and animal-cunning required to win by themselves. Every battle that Nate did not personally lead was lost and many of his clan mates killed. Yet despite the losses he could not do anything but shake his head sadly. A year went by after that point before he finally realized that the petty gang wars were too small for him and his clan mates below him. He was meant for a larger, grander arena then this hell hole he lived in.

He disappeared in the middle of the night, but not before leaving his signature club impaled in the chest of the opposing gang leader's chest and a circle of bloody bodies around it. He left Nar Shaddaa and left his gang to die in the gang wars. Without Nate they fell quickly. Despite the atrocity that he had committed, Nate never felt guilt.

[Xel-Naga]

From Nar Shaddaa Nate wondered about the galaxy without any destination in mind. He kept moving and only stopped when he needed more credits for the many transports he rode. Every planet opened up new experiences and the chance of starting a new life. Nate met new people, formed relationships with the planet's inhabitants, only to destroy the relationships when his destructive nature took over and he was forced to flee in order to protect those that he had come to love, or risk killing them in his madness. Nate also learned many things during his travels. Many people became Nate's personal mentors. Fellow criminals, old spacers, and tradesmen would find the young Nathaniel wandering into their bar, cafe, or shop. Loads of questions would come their way and they all took a shining to Nate. They took him under their wings and taught him many things. Nate learned how to better use his blaster, how to forge metal, the best ways to smuggle spice, and many, many other things. But Nate had a bad habit of only sticking around until he had learned something valuable and then leaving, without waiting to learn what others had to teach him. His reason was the same as before. He didn't want to stay around long enough for his madness to surface. But he was not always that lucky. He went on insane bouts of madness and no one was safe from his wrath. People died, their blood on Nate's hands.

And he liked it.

Then the authorities found the young Nathaniel in Taka Square on Naboo and attempted to bring him in on accounts of man slaughter and murder. Nate resisted and slew the watchmen single handed in a savage battle that still plays through his mind to this day. It is known as 'The Battle of Taka Square' and it is favorite story among criminals of all kinds. Nate fled the planet and remained in hiding for several months until the authorities gave up their search and assumed that Nathaniel Essex was dead.

That was their first mistake.

Nate realized that he was no longer safe on his own. So he banded together with a group of bounty hunters and together they became quite a team. Anyone with a bounty on their head found Nate and his team coming down on their heads. Speed was their weapon and thick armor was their defense. The team wore a special suit of power armor designed in such a fashion that it did not hamper the user's movements and yet was still incredibly durable. With that armor Nate was able to take a blaster bolt to the chest or a club to the head and come out of the melee unscathed. Nate's violent nature turned him into a wild animal on the battle field. He rushed, tore, and cut his way through anything that stood in his way. Most would call his tactics suicidal, yet he won every engagement and came out with minimal injuries.

Eventually Nate decided that he needed a bounty hunter alias. All the other great hunters and mercenaries in the galaxy had some kind of nickname or codename that they used while on the job. Nate came up with the name Xel-Naga. Everyone thought it was a silly name, but it stuck and Nate has been called Xel-Naga ever since then.

[Xel-Naga]

Many wonderful years of bounty hunting and mercenary work went by and Xel became quite a wealthy man. But in the end his dark and criminal nature took over again and he found himself on a destructive path of random murders, petty robberies, and pointless street fights. All it accomplished was turning the eye of authority in his direction again. Now instead of enjoying his life of bounty hunting, he was running for his life and doing his best to avoid capture.

But eventually he was hounded down and cornered on the planet Ord Mantell. Cornered and alone, with a depleted energy pack in his blaster and holes riddling his armor, Xel was forced to surrender, but not before attempting to rip the first copper's eyes out. He failed in his eye plucking and was pinned to the ground and stun cuffed. His armor was stripped from his and his useless weapon was cast aside. Additional stun cuffs were employed to unsure his captivity and then he was carted off to Coruscant for his trail.

He pleaded guilty to all charges against him and was given the death sentence. But, at the last minute, Xel's lawyer suggested that Xel be put to better uses then a simple execution that would serve nothing but to make the grieving mothers happy. A medical company had been researching and developing a form of suspended animation that, once the subject was properly frozen and with the aid of certain drugs, would allow the subject to enter a 'calm zone' of internal being that would weed out the subject's aggression, make them more thoughtful and kind, and possibly even cure madness.

Xel was frozen in suspended animation and carefully monitored by medical technicians. A year went by and the technicians found no change in Xel's brainwaves. More years went by, Xel was even thawed and refrozen a few times as the technicians made changes to their system and technology. It was while Xel was frozen that the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine took over the government of the Republic and turned it into the Empire. The budget for the suspended animation cure project was closed and the research building was shut down and boarded up. But in their hurry to leave, the researchers left Xel and other test subjects behind. Many of the suspended animation tanks wore down and their life support functions with them. Most of the subjects died, but miraculously Xel was one of the three subjects who's tanks power cells lasted long enough for help to come.

Help came nearly fifty years later when a homeless man found an empty boarded up building and decided to move in. He found the suspended animation tanks and fiddled around with the controls until he finally managed to release all three of the subjects. All three of the subjects had reacted differently to their treatment. The first subject was indeed calm and docile, but was little more then a drooling vegetable because of it, The second subject remained unchanged, and Xel, well, let's just say Xel took a turn for the worst. Instead of becoming calm Xel instead became violent, incredibly mad, and all the power insane. Taking up a piece of steel piping, Xel attacked and killed the homeless man and the other two test subjects. He took the homeless man's clothing and fled into the outside world.

He had only been out for a few minutes before he was forced to return to the former laboratory. The years of suspended animation had turned his muscles to jello and made him weak. A week would go by before Xel even had the strength to get up from the makeshift bed he make himself. He had only the strength to wander out to the street and beg for food and then he would go back to sleep again.

Months went by before he was finally strong enough to go outside and get his own food. Strings of random murders hit the holonet news systems. Some monster was loose again and they had no idea who. The mind of authority had long ago forgotten about the infamous Xel-Naga, and now they were going to pay for it. Xel left Coruscant, which just so happened to be the planet on which the laboratory was based, and returned to his mindless wandering. He killed when he wanted, stole when he felt like it, and did all other unspeakable things for kicks. He was truly a killing machine now. He felt no guilt for his actions and no remorse for the innocents he killed. He was a cold blooded killer, and as if to prove it the suspended animation had turned his eye color from bright blue to a dull blue-gray color known to color naming fanatics as "Iron blood".

Where Xel-Naga's story goes from here is up to you.