Chapter 1

It had been a long day of organizing my things as well as the things from my parents estate but I was finally finished after most of a days worth of work.

I was kind of surprised at what my parents had left me as I didn't think they were that well off, but I was obviously incorrect as my parents seemed to invest a lot of their spare income into precious metals, primarily gold and platinum in the late 90s up until 2008 or 2009 after that it simply got too expensive to continue buying so they seemed to simply sit on it as they watched the prices continue to rise year after year.

I kinda wish I was old enough to invest back then because they had managed to squirrel away dozens of pounds of gold as well as Platinum. Honestly I wasn't too sure of the value of such quantities as I was too afraid to actually look it up. I'm sure it was in the hundreds of thousands though, maybe in the millions of dollars range as gold and platinum both got up there in prices over the years.

Some of the other things found were both my moms and dads guns. While nothing spectacular there were a few of them. They were mostly a few variants of the glock as well as a few different ARs, they simply added to my own small collection as well as the Ammo for them.

I guess you could say my family were some what amateur preppers, though none of us got too heavily in to it, mostly just general things, food, water, guns and precious metals incase the economy completely crashed and paper became worthless.

After finishing cleaning up I decided I had enough and went to head to bed after I had took a shower but that's when the shaking started, like there was an earthquake even if there has probably never been an earthquake here before.

The rattling and shaking got so bad I simply crawled under my bed as I could hear creaking and shattering all through the house as I grit my teeth wondering if I was going to die. It was simply that bad. Thankfully eventually it seemed to die down and then after a few minutes stop completely.

It took me a few minutes to calm my nerves and work my way out from under the bed. I'm now thankful the house didn't use gas or propane and only used electricity or else there could have been an explosion if something went horribly wrong.

As I got up I could see fallen drywall everywhere and the windows were either cracked and broken letting in the hot air from outside…. Which is weird since it was practically winter and pretty cool outside when I was about to turn in for the night.

With that thought I moved the blinds and was surprised at the near blinding light so I went outside to get a better look and was further surprised and horrified to not just see the sun but two suns in the sky, not to mention the desert all around me.

This honestly reminded me too much of a bad fanfic or really a bunch of them that I have read over the years. It kind of made me cringe at the very thought. There was honestly only one world I was familiar with that had two suns and it was technically a part of a much larger universe or should I say galaxy, a galaxy far far away.

I'm not sure if I was horrified at the prospect or excited at the possibility of that being real. I didn't have anything in my old world so I wasn't leaving anything or anyone behind really. My parents had died a few years prior and I had no siblings or anyone else overly close so I chose to view this as an adventure of sorts, the only issue was figuring out where I was and if I was where I thought I was, then I needed to know when I was.

I took a few good hours to sit there and make a quick plan of immediate action, after I loaded a few guns and spare magazines just in case. I also loaded a few things in to a large pack such as a little food and some water, the rest was spare ammo and a spare pistol.

After that it was planning time. I basically decided I can't just choose a random direction and start walking. Thankfully I have a few remote controlled airplanes even if they only have a range of a few kilometers, hopefully they will give me a direction to travel. I also have a four wheeler if needs must but I would rather not travel blindly.

With that I set up the little airplane and sent it off. Thankfully it has a live camera feed so I can see what's in front of it. Though that seemed redundant as I watched some kind of space ship begin flying from orbit a dozen or so miles in the distance through the camera. Outside my range but it gives me a direction to travel at least.

Unfortunately I couldn't make out what kind of ship it was as the video quality wasn't that great as this model of RC plane wasn't the best of qualities in the world.

I had decided that if this is as it seems to be that I would take a few things with me, including a silenced pistol just in case as I don't want to draw too much attention to myself. I would also be bringing a few dozen gold and platinum bars with me to turn in to local currency if possible though there should be places to do so. The last would simply be a spare set of clothes.

I dressed in simple desert tan clothes with a light jacket that also had a hood, and to finish it off I of course had good 'ol Oakleys to protect my perrty blue eyes.

I guess now is a good time to mention that I'm only 18 years old at around 6'. I would say I'm fairly decent looking with short dark brown hair and blue eyes though I wouldn't consider myself any kind of model or anything.

One of the things I was happy about was that my IPhone survived. It had thousands of songs, pictures and music videos saved, not to mention my laptop and external hard drives that also held movies and a few TV series. I would need entertainment if I ever went to space, which I fully intended to do so.

The only thing I could hope for was that my home or what's left of it is left alone until I can return, it should only be a 10-15 minute drive on my four wheeler but it would still be annoying and worrying.

Instead of grabbing my larger pack I filled a smaller backpack simply with a canteen of water, an extra pair of clothes, a spare pistol and magazines and a few pounds worth of gold and platinum.

I also of course had a rifle slung over my shoulder so I had easy access to it as well as a .40 caliber Glock on my hip.

With that I decided to head out to find the town nearby, I was hoping it was Mos Espa as that's where everything happened if this is in the prequel era. Hopefully it wasn't old republic as I have no clue what was going on 4000 years ago and I most certainly wouldn't enjoy the empire era or even after the second Death Star was destroyed. Those were the most dangerous times.

There wasn't any security for entering town or anything and this place almost reminded me of some town I would think to find somewhere in the Middle East though obviously different as well considering all the aliens I could see walking around.

I had prepared myself mentally for the possibility but to actually see such things for real is definitely an eye opener. Thankfully my glasses obscured my staring for the most part so nobody looked at me for such things though I may have gotten a few glances for my different attire or maybe it was my weapons? Who knows.

Either way I quickly found someone to peddle my gold and platinum to after checking around for prices so I didn't get ripped off too badly.

A gram of gold was currently going for 15 republic credits and a gram of platinum was currently going for 25 credits, though this world only dealt in peggats, which were basically gold coins each going for 40 republic credits.

I was uncomfortable carrying so much money on my person but this place didn't have banks so I would just have to be cautious as I was carrying around 1100 Peggats in my bag now.

The one thing that did confuse me though was that I saw a group of people I didn't truly expect to see already if at all. One was an older man almost in some kind of robe, the other was a floppy eared reptilian aliens type and the next was a pretty young girl with long brown hair followed by a small trashcan styled droid.

Holy shit I'm not ready for this! Not even close! I have no real clue how to approach this situation, I haven't even had time to think about it or what I even wanted to do long term!

Well there was a few things I could do I suppose but it would almost feel like butting in where I don't belong or almost forced or whatever. Oh well it's not like I have anything better to do.

With that since I knew where they were going I beat them to it so it didn't seem as awkward as Wattos wasn't that hard to find and I was actually looking for a possible ship anyways.

As I walked around I was glad to hear people speaking in English or what I assumed was Galactic Basic as I would have been up shits creep if I had to learn an entire new language on the fly. At least I knew I could communicate with people.

As I found Wattos I entered the store. "Hello?" I then heard the flapping of wings "ah, what can I do for you stranger?" I heard Wattos grating voice call out from a nearby doorway.

"I am curious, would you know where I can procure a ship, decent one preferably. I know the Boonta Eve Classic is coming up so I may be willing to make a bet or two as well." He was looking disinterested until I brought up gambling then his eyes lit up slightly.

"Yes, stranger, I am sure there will be many wagers placed for many different things, I am sure there will be ships as well. To either buy from desperate people who lost great amounts of money or those wishing to use their ships as collateral." I just smiled at that, almost in a feral way. I wouldn't mind taking peoples money or ships through a sure thing. There should also be good odds against Anakin as well, probably extremely good odds.

"I see, if you run in to or know anyone looking to make some fairly expensive wagers point them in my direction. I have quite a few thousand of Peggats to waste. For a small fee of course, should the wager be worth my time.

The old aliens just had a greedy glint in his eyes. "Of course stranger of course!" He laughed loudly in glee.

"Also could you point me in the direction of a half decent place to stay for a day or two for the coming sand storm?" Watto just agreed and pointed me to a place nearby that was kind of like a Motel of sorts. It was connected to a cantina that also served drinks, lunch and dinner.

I would try to make it back to my house as I wanted to put tarps over the windows a bit so sand didn't blow through a broken window or simply blow out a cracked window depending on how bad the winds are I suppose.

And with that a small group of people entered the junk shop. I was currently looking at droids that might be interesting that also wouldn't break down on me in just a few hours of work.

I was thinking of getting a general labor droid and small cargo skiff, I would also look for an astromech and pilot droid as I didn't know how to fly a ship at all.

Overall I spent about 200 Peggats as I only rented the skiff for a few days, though I would have to buy it if i broke it and the droids weren't that expensive considering how used most were. My little Astromech droid was probably in the best near new condition followed by the much larger labor droid.

I had also gotten a few cheap security droids as well as blasters for them so they could secure my house while the astromech flys the skiff and the labor droid packs everything in to crates I bought as well as moves all the furniture. There was also a cheap, relatively speaking anyways, butler droid that would pack the more fragile things as it was far smarter than a labor droid and it could help guide it while I wasn't there.

I had done that shopping and sent them away before I had ever noticed Padmes group.

As the Jedi walked off with Watto the girl walked over to me which surprised me greatly as I figured she would keep to herself as much as possible. "Hello." I just looked at her kind of surprised but also curious as to what she would want.

"Hello my lady, what can I do for you?" I say in a friendly voice, and I wasn't really sure how to address her. I was kind of amused when I saw a light dusting of pink on her cheeks, she actually blushed. Huh.

"I'm not sure, truly, I felt compelled to speak to you but I am now unsure why, but maybe you can help us? We are looking to either repair our ship or maybe for transport to Coruscant should that be impossible." I could see the hope in her eyes and I am going to feel bad for partly dashing them.

"Truly I would want to be of service but At the moment I simply don't have a ship, though I do plan to remedy that after the races in two days. Not the best situation admittedly but worst case scenario, I'm assuming you simply don't have the local currency, I can help you buy passage off world after the races.

And I understand your feelings as I also feel as though I should help you, your grace." I say the last part where only she can possibly hear it and she looked shocked for a moment, looking around. I also have to remember that she is technically 14 even if she looks closer to 16/17.

"How?" She whispers quickly to me, moving way into my personal space not that I'm currently complaining. "That is an interesting story honestly, one I'm not truly sure you would ever believe. Though I think it may either involve the force or a freak act of the universe." I muse almost to myself. She just looks confused and I can't really do more than shrug. "If time permits maybe I will be able to show you how I at least know of you, and your Jedi friend, not to mention the plight of your people." I try to be gentle with my words as I know this is touchy but it seems she is calm when I would almost expect her to be steaming upset.

"I definitely want to know or see how you know about me and my people…." Oops we never introduced ourselves technically. "Alexander, or Alex." I tell the pretty brunette. "Ok Alex, will you show me how you know?" Hmm I do have the first movie of the prequel on my phone but the question is should I show her now or later? Screw it I was always horrid at planning. And I only downloaded it to my phone in case I needed to view something during my time here.

With that thought I pulled out my mobile device that she looks at curiously as it's probably not like any pad she has seen before. I pulled up the movie and pressed play after skipping the credits.

As the time went on her eyes got bigger and bigger, she was obviously confused but could also tell this was some kind of holo video or entertainment instead of 'real life'. I had made sure anakin wasn't snooping though I did hear him talk to Padme during our conversation though he had to go to work. The Jedi had even returned at some point and was looking at the device in consternation as there was no way someone should have this much detailed information or video of what has happened recently, not to mention we just covered their time in Wattos junk yard.

That was where I pressed pause and put my phone back in my jacket pocket. "Do you understand now my lady?" She just looked slightly pale and maybe even a little afraid of what it meant. The Jedi also looked disturbed.

"I am hesitant to change anything or affect anything in the next few days than I already have. If it helps I can simply tell you how you managed to get off world to alleviate your fears.

You may want to take a closer look at the boy Master Jinn, his force potential is extreme. It will also be through him and a pod race that you get off this world. You just have to lead it in that direction." He looked intrigued though Padme looked confused. So Qui-Gon explained to her what that was and she looked slightly horrified about a 9 year old competing. Though the fact he actually would end up winning probably helps.

"Ok how do you want to do this then?" She asked curiously, though I'm not sure who she was asking.

Hmm how to say this. "You should make an impression on the boy, he seems to like you especially with that angel comment." I grinned at her and she hit my shoulder as she blushed slightly again.

Me and Jinn both watched as Padme actually bedazzled the poor boy even if I'm not sure what she said or talked about but he was all smiles as Padme was walking back to us. "Are you going to travel with us when we leave to Coruscant Alex?" She asked seeming to hope that I would I think.

"Only if you will have me. I'm no real warrior, though I can use my weapons well enough I have never had to actually use them in anger before." I told the pretty girl with a sigh at the end. And it was true, I was a good shot but I had never actually shot at anyone before.

"That is fine and neither have I so who am I to judge such things? You have already helped and said you would help us off world to Coruscant should things not work out so it's fine. You have already done enough, far more than you ever had to for me and my people." She told me lightly so nobody else would hear as we were all walking through the market.

I just smiled at the young woman, she acted older than her age and looked older too so it was hard to remember that she was still only 14. "Once we are safe, you said you will explain how you obtained the information in the form that you have it, yes?" The older Qui-Gon asked me to which I agreed, though it would probably be after we left Tatooine.

And with that I kind of just let Canon flow around me as I didn't want to change anything at all. After Anakin was sent to bed I met back up with Padme and we continued to watch the Phantom Menace movie for about 20 minutes until they managed to get off planet. I could tell she was enthralled by the videos mere existence as well as slightly horrified. I would probably never show her the next two movies though, I may even delete them to stop them from being stolen.

Once it came time for the pod races I saw Qui-Gon talking to watto so I left Padme with Shmi and Anakin as I had my own bets to place, most likely with the people around Watto if I'm not mistaken.

"Ah my friends! Are we ready for a good race and even better betting?" I say grandly as Watto looks in my direction with the others.

"Ah, yes. Alex! Are you ready to hand over many Peggats today?" He laughed his scratchy laugh.

"Well of course, but only if you can earn them!" I give a laugh myself. This would be interesting I think. "So who is betting what, my friends?" There was a lot of different things being offered up on the figurative table. From different types of slaves to ships to simple currency. I'm pretty sure I had dollar signs in my eyes. I'm glad I had converted all my precious metals into Peggats earlier today once my skiff returned with all my belongings.

The most interesting thing to me though was the Luxury 3000 yacht on the table. It was modified with a class 1 hyperdrive, an expensive medical bay, far better than factory shields and twin mounted laser canons not to mention it was set up fairly lavishly. It was obviously used but the price tag on it was probably in the 250-280k range in value due to upgrades. It seemed to be meant for me in my opinion.

I had to put almost 7,000 Peggats down to match its worth. I was thankful that it came with a good pilot droid also. For Watto though, I put all my droids against Shmi as they were worth at least double. Surprisingly there were twin slave Rutian Twi'Leks being put up and I was pretty sure it was on behalf of the dug as I'm positive they are the same that were shown in the movie from the holo photo I am being shown and three outfits they are wearing. I would have to free them later.

The rest was done in other slaves or droids being put up for betts that I simply matched with Peggats in value, the most interesting of the other slaves was a cute white colored Togruta girl who was probably pretty young, maybe 7 or 8 as I couldn't tell ages at all for aliens. Those were just the private bets, the race took bets against odds of winning. Anakin had horrible odds at 300x payday. I didn't have much left but I did manage to scrounge up about 2,000 Peggats for that particular take.

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After the bets were all set and written under a basic contract under hutt 'protection' we all moved on to watch the races from our pods. Contracts like that were only really done with larger bets rather than petty ones, so rich clients couldn't swindle each other with simple word of mouth bets.

Everything went about as expected and I was expecting to see some pretty irate gamblers soon. Padme had a look of fear about the race and all the pilots that simply died in a conflagration of death and fire and probably praying our pilot didn't suffer the same fate but eventually calmed down when the race ended with Anakin winning and from there I kind of just followed Padme around. Nobody knew that I even made wagers even if Qui-Gon probably suspected that I did something.

Eventually I followed the Jedi to Watto and Padme followed me closely already knowing about what was going to happen after watching part of the movie with me up until they left Tatooine.

The annoying flying alien accused us both of cheating but eventually relented, giving the Jedi the boys controller and me the mothers which I simply passed off to Padme as I didn't want to press the wrong buttons. "Uhhh take this please?? I don't want to hit the wrong button or something." I mumbled out. She just actually laughed at me but took it anyways, happy that the kindly woman would be free also.

Then I had a thought. "Can she move to Naboo? The boy is too old to not have attachments, he would be heartbroken if she was left on this world." I ask them both kinda but more Padme since it's her world. She obviously agreed being the kind hearted girl she is, the fact the boy got them the money to get off world didn't hurt even if I could have also done it and had also offered to do so as a fall back plan.

That's when other people I had gambled with started showing up one by one, some handing me keycards, in the case of the starship and data pads with their properties proof of ownership for the droids and the controller remotes for the slave girls, there were 7 of them in total. The real treasure though was the bags upon bags of Peggats I also won that came from the race administration itself. Anakin had horrible odds of winning so I cleaned house.

600,000 Peggats is a fortune at 24 million credits in value. I basically cleaned some people out wholesale and was kind of worried I would be killed for it but thankfully I stayed close to the Jedi even if people didn't know what he was, and I also had the security droids close by also. Everyone and everything was loaded on my still borrowed skiff to be taken to my new ship, droids slaves and even supplies for my ship to last a few weeks.

Though I obviously got curious looks from Padme about all these winnings or maybe it was the at least two fairly sexy slave girls, a few simply pretty ones and the two children. The one being the White colored Togruta girl and the other kid being a Mirialan female with green skin, purple eyes and long black hair, maybe around the age of 12?

Padme was obviously not judging me too much at the moment as I had given her the controller to Shmi to free her and assumed I would free the other slaves as well because she likes to think the best about the people and universe around her and of course I would set them free but I would make offers as well.

In the end everything worked out, Padme and Shmi and the slave girls joined me on my space yacht at the spaceport after a quick ride on the Skiff and we watched as the droids loaded all my belongings into the cargo hold of my beautiful new starship. I was extremely happy right now if I was to be honest but I would still miss my old home world and the house I would be leaving behind.

After getting everyone settled and loaded up I had the pilot droid take off and make a quick hop at my old home for one final look and Padme joined me. "What is this place Alex?" She was curious and could probably feel my sadness a bit.

"This was my family home… I was on my home world when the entire house started to shake and when I looked outside, instead of a city, I was in a desert. Instead of one sun, there were two. It's how I knew I was not on my home world anymore.

She was obviously startled by that. "This may not even be my universe considering the fact I know the history and possible future of this galaxy. It's why I didn't want to get involved and accidentally change something to stop the boy from winning the race. It made getting resources easier and I knew he would come out of it just fine just as he did, not to mention he also enjoys being a part of the races anyways.

She had an understanding look but also looked sad. I had just basically told her my whole world may not exist anymore, at least not in a way I can ever see it or go home to anymore.

"Have you already taken everything you wanted from here Alex?" I just nodded and we both turned away from this place, it was now the past, the future laid among the stars!

With that we both headed back to my ship to make the short hop to where hers was parked. We knew what was coming, the little sithling, Maul, would be coming soon if things played the same as before.

I had the pilot droid land a few dozen meters from Padmes ship after having her communicate with them that we were coming. I also took the time to make sure the ship actually had consumables aside from what i bought and thankfully it was still stocked for about a months worth for 10 people not that it mattered as my entire pantry and supply should be in the cargo hold anyways.

The fact that they didn't have to run the entire way and took my skiff means they actually missed Maul completely as we were already gone as the dark bastard was driving his speeder bike at our ships with wild abandon trying to get to the Jedi and queen and me by association.

The unintended part was that Padme didn't have time to get back to her ship when the bastard was spotted and she just yelled at my pilot bot, almost chanting at it to 'take off, take off!' As she wanted nothing to do with that kind of monster, I almost screeched myself for the fucker to take off also but thankfully he obeyed Padme before I could get there.

We were still on coms with Captain Panaka when we were forced to take off and to say he was less than pleased with the situation would be an understatement, but it didn't matter as we were not staying landed with that dude coming at us… I'm not too proud to admit he scared the shit out of me.

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Once everything settled down we had simply agreed to meet at coruscant with the others. Padme was only a handmaiden anyways after all, though only a few actually knew that at the moment.

Anyways with that decided, me padme and all the soon to be ex slave girls met in the lounge area. They all still looked nervous and or afraid as I haven't been able to talk to any of them about their soon to be freedom though several eyes were glued to the devices sitting on the table, their slave controllers.

"Alright ladies, find a seat and get comfy, we have things to discuss." They shuffled about a moment before finding seats as close as they could so they could hear.

Then Padme had to steal my thunder at the last second. "Your all being freed!" She nearly squealed out in a rush. I just looked at her and raised an imperious eyebrow or at least I tried and probably failed going by her amused look and giggling.

"Yes, as the lady said, you are all free. My people don't believe in slavery and I was fairly certain on the outcome so I took the extremely minor risk of putting wagers for your ownership on the Boonta eve race." I could see most of them looked almost more nervous now instead of afraid and I could guess why.

"First I would like to start by introducing myself, my name is Alexander or Alex if you will. Now before you simply think I'm going to throw you out of the ship at the first world we make port at, I can see by your looks that you may simply end up back where you were one way or the other." Padme just looked confused and concerned at that, not yet thinking past freeing them. Some of them nodded though.

"I will make you a simple deal, my people aren't well traversed through the galaxy at all, thus i could use some guides while I make my way, this little ship could also use a crew for a good while as well. I don't really expect you to have any real experience as I have none myself in anything ship related nor on galactic technology as my people were fairy primitive, therefore you probably know more than I do even if you don't realize it. Staying on in one form or another would see you with free rooms, decent food and a small stipend that you could use to buy whatever you want, the necessities will be provided though."

After my long winded speech I just looked at them curious what they would decide. I knew they had nowhere to go unless Padme offered something so this is what I decided to go with.

It seemed that the youngest girl wasn't yet too jaded by the universe yet as she slowly walked up to me and hugged my leg. "Thank you." She nearly whispered. She was so adorable that I almost wanted to cry that the little Togruta was made a slave in the first place. I'm glad she still has her 8 year old innocence, at least that's what her documents said she is.

I just gave her a light hug back and could see Padme looking away and wiping a stray tear away, probably hoping to not be noticed.

Then she spoke again. "I'm told there are chips used when collars aren't, I checked the ship medbay already and the droid doctor can safely remove them immediately!" She said quickly regaining her excitement. The others just looked shocked and so far, much more happy than when they boarded the ship, you could almost see the hope reignited in their eyes.

That's when something strange happened, the little girl looked as if she was reaching for something, when I looked at what it was it was one of the cans of Soda that I stocked in the lounge. I was about to offer to grab it for her as it was too high for her but then it started to warble and slowly slid off the counter into her waiting hands.

I suppose it wasn't impossible for another force sensitive to go unnoticed but what the actual hell? She just giggled at both mine and Padmes looks of shock, as she also noticed what the little girl did. I had no clue what to do with this, she was too old to be taken by the Jedi as Anakin was simply a special case being the 'chosen one' so I doubt she would be so lucky.