Chapter 1: Sunshine and Laser Guns

Her awareness came back to her when she reached 5 years old, and to say she was shocked is an understatement. To be an (almost) full grown woman, die and be reborn for a second time is not what anyone could predict would happen to them, except maybe for those who believe in reincarnation. She was not one of them. While she did believe in some kind of higher power, every concept of gods and deities seemed too numerous and diverse for any of them to be true, all created from human's imagination and beliefs.

Although, as she looked down at her tiny, still chubby hands, she couldn't help but think that if there truly was divinity, whatever shape or form it had, it must be mocking her. Or maybe it was a form of punishment for whatever bad things she did, to make her re-live a life from childhood to adulthood again. But for the life of her she couldn't remember doing anything worth this cosmic joke. She couldn't even remember dying, but she did have a vague memory of pain and darkness.

However mad she was at said celestial, she was still thankful to have no memories of being a baby. Nursing, soiling herself, having no form of communication except crying and the mind-numbing boredom of doing nothing all day would certainly have killed her a second time, she was certain.

Still being a girl and human was another thing to be grateful for.

Because yes, being something else than human could have been a concern if she would have known beforehand in what universe she was going to be thrown into. At first, it was the languages being spoken that confused her. Having some fuzzy memories of her previous life, there isn't a single language around her that she could recognize from before, or even be familiar with how they sound.

The second unusual thing she observed were the definitely not human people walking around.

The very first time she saw an alien, she just kept looking at it, her brain not fully comprehending what her eyes were seeing. She was still looking at it after she was hit upside the head for being rude, gazing unwaveringly at the strange creature in front of her.

In her defense, her first alien encounter, that she can remember, was with a species that wasn't at all humanoid in appearance, (she later learned he was called an Ongree) and it took a moment for her to realize that it was indeed a person, and not some strange alien fauna.

After that awkward realization that no, humans weren't the only sentient species in the universe, she kept looking around to observe more aliens. While she knew, logically, that planet Earth couldn't possibly be the only planet containing life, she never dreamed of being able to meet and even live among other-worldly life forms in her lifetime, and she wasn't about to let the opportunity of learning about them slip through her fingers. But the more she kept looking, the more some of these aliens seemed familiar, like she had seen them somewhere before. Suspicion started to grow in her mind, until their undeniable confirmation came to her when she truly observed her surroundings. Sand. Everywhere.

And two suns.

The brawl happening right next to her because of an overpriced good that quickly escalated to shooting at each other with laser guns was another pretty big clue to her whereabouts.

Star Wars. Even worse, she was on Tatooine, home to innumerable criminals, slave owners and other scums. Even worse than worse, there was a higher power, and it definitely wanted something from her to bring her here, specifically. She was probably in a lot of trouble, wasn't she?

Who was she kidding? She was royally fucked.

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Her name here was Zarya, no family name. To her surprise, she looked quite different, yet similar then what she was used too, her previously pale skin even paler, her brown hair now more red and her blue eyes bordering on green, giving them a turquoise color. She could even already tell that her features will become sharper as she grows up, very different than her usually round face, like she had never lost all her baby fat.

From what little knowledge she had of the toddler that grew up on this world, she understood that she was in some sort of unofficial orphanage on Tatooine, and she had been raised here since she was an infant. Like most children here, her family probably died in some way, but even this she couldn't be certain. Abandonment was as likely as murder for all she knew.

While her first thought might have been that she was lucky compared to many, her life wasn't sunshine and rainbows. Scratch that, her life was way too much sunshine than she even knew was possible, and like anything in too much quantity, it was definitely bad, especially for someone who was used to four seasons with a huge diversity of temperature, those being comfortably warm summers and freezing winters with sometimes three foot high of snow. What she would give to see ice in any form again… or a rainbow. Or even rain. Anything other than scorching days, cold nights and sandstorms.

Apart from the environment of the planet she lived on, her life here could have been worse, but also better. The orphanage, if it could even be called that, was more some kind of refuge for orphans too young to be any kind of use to anyone. The keepers, as they had all taken to call them, were not unkind with the children, but they didn't particularly care either. For them, this was only another kind of business, a way to make money.

In an honestly brutal way, it was some kind of human (sentient being?) trafficking, were the owners of the place took the orphaned babies and toddlers and either raised them until they could be sold to a slave owner or adopted, though even the later required the new parents to pay, and then the refuge didn't care at all what happens to you after. Considering that the first and most common option is slavery, they wouldn't mind what becomes of you anyway.

The only upside Zarya could see was that they weren't really treated badly. The older ones did have to work around the establishment, mostly clean and run simple errands at the market, but it wasn't anything that they couldn't handle at the number they were. The worst punishment they received was to be locked in a small and dark room when they really misbehaved, and while that may be terrifying for most of the kids, she was only relieved it wasn't anything worse, like the true slaves most likely suffered.

Her currently tolerable living conditions didn't erase the fact that her future here was most likely bleak, and she had to find a way to get out of here, and fast. Five years old (or was it life days old?) was still pretty young, but she was at an age were some people could start seeing her usefulness in certain situations, and she dreaded to think what would happen to her if someone bought her because of her admittedly pretty appearance. Older mentally or not, a life like this one, or any sort of unwilling servitude was not a welcomed one. But there was still the problem of how she could escape this at all.

While the children here didn't have a bomb implanted in them to prevent them from escaping, they did possess a tracker somewhere under their skin, so they can be found wherever they are, and so the keepers can be aware of their comings and goings at all times. Not that a small child could go anywhere without any help, but for their owners, having their merchandize stolen wouldn't be very profitable. She guessed it was some kind of safety, preventing her from being kidnapped by worse people then her current owners; it still didn't help her to escape this wretched planet.

Another important detail would be to discover where she was in time. Truly anything was possible, being in the outer rims, not much knowledge was around about the state of the galaxy. It could be possible to find an outsider and get information from them, but she wasn't allowed many interactions with strangers. Her thoughts kept coming back to the same issue. Was the republic still here? The Empire? Or maybe the First Order? What if she was years, even decades or centuries before or after the movies she knew?

Zarya wasn't ashamed to say that she was a big fan of the Star Wars universe, even if some of the movies weren't as good as the others. She might have enjoyed them and even extended her knowledge when she had time to lose, but that didn't mean she wanted to be in that universe. So much pain and destruction on an enormous scale, she wasn't sure she could do anything to stop it, or even avoid it. But she would still prefer to be in a time where she could predict most of the events that would occur than being in an era she knew almost nothing about.

But for now, she would wait. There wasn't really any other option, with her age and situation, her actions were limited. If she was going to follow the stories, change them or run from them, she didn't know yet. Whatever her choice may be, her first course of action should be to learn to defend herself, because like hell she would be stay defenseless in a vast galaxy filled with dangers at every turn, ranging from dangerous creatures to Sith Lords. All she had to do was gather knowledge, and start from there.

On second thought, she would have preferred to be an Ewok. Apart from this one battle, at least they were left alone for the most part.

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Hi there! This is my first story, so every constructive criticism is appreciated, or a simple show of appreciation! If you see any error, keep in mind that English isn't my first language, but I will gladly correct it if you point it to me.

Also, any idea you are willing to share to improve this story or even guide it in a certain direction will be taken into consideration since I will probably need the inspiration occasionally, but I still have the last say on the result.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do! Until next time!

-Maginary

*Disclaimer: I don't own anything Star Wars related, only my OC's*

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