"We'll be back Tanzi, we promise. You'll be safer here and once this is over we'll be together again."

Salty tears stung the young Togrutan boy's eyes. "No papa, don't go, please! I'll be good, I promise! I'm sorry I made you mad! Tell me what I did and I'll never do it again!"

The air went out of the man's chest like he'd been punched. He'd tried to keep his composure, to present a strong facade but it crumbled in the face of his confused son. He swept the boy into his arms and hugged him tight, their foreheads mashed together.

"You didn't do anything wrong Tanzi," he choked out. "Your mother and I love you very much and we always will. You're a good boy. What's a parent's number one job?"

"To keep me safe," the boy replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes! To keep you safe. That's why we have to leave you here. It's safe here. They won't look for you here. We will be back for you, I swear it."

The man held his son so tight Tanzi thought he might have the air squeezed right out of him.

"Come on! We have to go!" a human shouted from across the alley. Tanzi's father's chest hitched as he put the six-year-old back down on the ground. "The force will be with you, always." Tanzi collapsed to the ground in great heaving sobs as his father darted off into the night with the human.

"Let's go boy, the other children are waiting," said a lanky Falleen woman, holding her hand out to the blue skinned child. He bit his bottom lip and stood, taking her hand and following her but looking back over his shoulder for his father's inevitable return.

13 years later

The code had to work. It had to. Tanzi had ironed it all out well in advance and loaded it onto a dataspike for easy delivery, but now it looked like he'd underestimated how much the businesses in Worlport had stepped up their security protocols in the wake of a rash of robberies.

Robberies perpetrated by Tanzi.

He hadn't wanted to steal, not really, but after Yelshia passed away suddenly, it fell to Tanzi to make sure the Forgotten Ones were taken care of. He'd been able to make some money legitimately by modding and upgrading people's various tech and weaponry, but it wasn't enough to feed 13 hungry mouths. So he did what Yelshia did, whatever had to be done to look after his younger brothers and sisters.

Not one of them was related to him by blood, but they were his family and he was going to provide one way or another. But now he was locked out and bare assed in the wind as his dataspike did nothing to coax the exchange's doors to open. He pulled his datapad from a wide thigh pocket and plugged it into the spike.

"Dammit!" he spat. The spike was unresponsive. It had been countersliced which meant someone knew he was there and it was time to go.

He tucked his pad back away but left the spike. It was useless now and, worst case, could be used to track him if he took it with. Tazni pulled the hood of his black cloak over his cobalt blue and white montrals and ran. He skidded around a corner just as he saw a security speeder heading for the currency exchange. Tanzi's heart was beating so hard it threatened to rip itself from his chest. He closed his eyes and heard a voice in his head, faintly telling him to calm his emotions. Almost immediately he felt his pulse normalize and he spotted a secluded balcony on which he could hide.

The apartment was quite obviously vacant, but rather than risk breaking into another place tonight he sat on the balcony, knees pulled to his chest. He felt alone and scared. He'd failed his family. A memory hit him like the meaty fist of a savrip: a tall man with coloring like his own, telling him he was a good boy.

But he wasn't. He was a thief and a failure. All the time he'd spent learning to be a technician was for naught, despite how inexplicably easy it had come. He felt tears welling up and he slammed his eyes shut rocking back and forth in the dark.

At some point he must have fallen asleep and he dreamt the blue Togruta with kind eyes and a sad face came to him, telling him it was time to find out. Before Tanzi could ask what the man was talking about, he was woken up by a crashing sound coming from below. Even from his vantage point he couldn't tell what had made the noise, but that wasn't top of mind for him.

Instead, he couldn't shake the yearning to respond to the person from his dream. To follow it...somewhere. He couldn't take care of the Forgotten Ones like this. He was a street rat, no question, but he wasn't an outlaw. Tanzi didn't want to leave his family, but there was something pulling him elsewhere. He'd repressed everything with regards to his birth parents, but now that wall was down and he had to see what was on the other side.

As he walked back to the two-story dwelling with a crumbling duracrete facade he came up with a plan. He'd spend the next two months working his fingers raw to give Janna enough gadgets, droids, and modified arms to sell. It would keep them fed and Garibunda, the grizzled Devaronian next door, would keep an eye on them.

It was decided, Tanzi would follow this bizarre dream wherever it led him, but he would be back for the Forgotten Ones.

"I'll be back for you, I swear it," he said and headed out the door.

Family: He has an obligation to his adopted family on Ord Mantell, the 12 other Forgotten Ones, but he also has to find out what happened to his birth parents and why they never came back for him.

Appearance:
Tanzi Ra is a blue-skinned Togruta with prominent white facial markings and cobalt and white striped montrals. He is slightly built, but sneaky and brilliant with computers and machinery. He stands about 1.87 meters tall, with his upper montrals adding another .3 meters to his overall height. He has a moral code he keeps to, but will do whatever he must to keep his adopted family safe and fed.