*Finishes securing the barricades around myself*

Alright. I'm ready.

Yeah, I know this is early. But I'm posting this earlier than I said I would mostly because I want to. And I owe you guys. A lot. I'm still rewriting stuff, but I'm trying to condense the chapters more into different sections. And now, I've changed my mind about scheduling. As soon as I'm done with a rewritten thingy, Imma post it!

So, here we go. The rewritten chapter 1!

Chapter 1: Escape to Unfamiliarity

The familiar metal prodding woke her up immediately. She didn't want to be electrocuted just yet.

Slivers of light pierced through the gaps between the girl's eyelids. She winced at the unwelcome light awakening what little rest she got. She cracked her eyes open more, ignoring the light burning the space behind her eyes. She chose not to lift her head at the being she already knew was there. The girl refused. She wasn't going to look up. She wasn't going to look up. She wasn't going to-

Long, cold fingers roughly grasped her chin and tilted her head up, forcing her to look into the red-ringed yellow irises of the Pau'an. She narrowed her own eyes at him, now deciding to be defiant instead of ignorant.

"Don't look so infuriated, Zodiac. Training is mandatory. You know this." The Pau'an reached up and unlatched the restraints holding her in place in the air. The younger immediately collapsed to the ground, her arms aching from being suspended in the air for hours. Her figure shuddered in exhaustion. She kept her mouth closed, working up saliva in her mouth. "Have you finally learned that resistance will get you nowhere?" The Pau'an seemed smug when he wasn't attacked immediately by the prisoner. The girl slowly stood up, stumbling slightly. She tilted her head up, and spat the saliva she had worked up at his face. The stuck-up look on his face was immediately replaced by one of disgust. In a single motion, the girl's frail body was thrown across the room, slamming her against a wall. She made contact with it, immediately tasting blood in her mouth. Despite that, she grinned, red smeared across her teeth.

It was short-lived.

She felt herself being lifted up by an invisible energy, closing in on her throat. She choked for air, the smile now off her face. The Pau'an, or as she thought of him, the Voice, just looked cold. Unforgiving.

"Fight back," he said, increasing the mental grasp he had on her throat, "I know you want to."

The girl stared down at him, defiant.

"I won't p-play your ga-ame," she croaked out, finally submitting to the using her voice. The Voice grinned, the sight frightening the girl.

"You won't last long with that resolve." Not an instant after he said those words, the hold on her throat was released, only to be replaced with burning, agonizing pain.

It felt like fire had replaced blood, and was racing under her skin at inhuman speeds. She wanted so badly to beg for mercy, to cry out for the pain to stop. But she didn't.

She already knew it wouldn't work.

She had implored for mercy many times before, and he just laughed. He laughed.

Zodiac wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

She cried out in pain instead, just to try to sedate the feeling of her nerves burning. Just to help herself feel like she was siphoning off some anger and suffering in the simple action.

Sometimes she could convince herself that it actually helped.

Eventually, it stopped. The young girl whimpered and sobbed in relief, not caring if she revealed her pain and weakness to her tormentor. She felt a sharp kick in the side, causing her to curl up in fetal position, crying out correspondingly.

"What a shame," the Voice said casually, "If you can't stand this, I can't wait to see what will happen when we move you." Another kick. Another scream. "It would be simpler if you just fought. Easier to train you, to make you comply." He turned, starting for the door, leaving behind Zodiac. "Unfortunately, that's why we are being forced to take more...drastic measures. Oh, but what am I saying?" He chuckled cruelly, ignoring the sobbing girl. "It's supposed to be a surprise."

The door shut close after the Pau'an exited. The project stood up, staggering and shaking. She dragged herself to the cold metal platform which served as her bed when she wasn't left hanging from the ceiling. Tears continued to flood down her face, her breath hiccuping in air and pushing it out of her throat in short gasps. The cold metal provided relief to her heated skin. Tears continued to stream down her face, uncontrolled. She struggled to keep the pain from pulling her into blackness, but failed, eventually giving into the dreamless oblivion.

She drifted in and out of unconsciousness, barely tuning into exasperated shouts and alarms from outside of her cell.

"Sir, the containment pod-"

"We don't have time! They're here for Zodiac! Just pick her up and get to the Star Destroyer!"

A moment of hesitation. Then, "Yes, sir."

The sound of doors sliding open met her ears. She was roughly picked up and lifted off the platform. Her eyes shot open, and she struggled, but her battered and bruised body screamed at her for even trying to do so. Blurring lights and rushing air was soon all she knew as she was being carried down a hall at a rapid rate.

She was about to drift off again. But something stopped her from doing so.

Ah. It was an emotion.

Pure, unbridled rage.

Where were they taking her? What were they going to do to her?

Why wouldn't they just stop?

Stop.

That one thought was all it took for the soldier carrying her to crumble, cushioning her fall slightly. She lifted her upper body up, struggling to even do this simple action. She lifted to her hand to her head, trying to massage away the ache already forming. After she blinked away the black spots invading her vision, she looked around confusedly.

Twenty suited men. All of them, lying on the ground. Unmoving.

She might've felt bad for them if they weren't working with the Voice.

Before stumbling up, Zodiac grabbed a gun, then nearly lost her balance. The wall of the hallway caught her.. She braced her form against the surface with her left hand, managing to keep upright as her right held the blaster limply at her side. She gritted her teeth as scabs stretched over not quite healed cuts. She shook her head, clearing away the oncoming wave of black. She couldn't lose consciousness. She had a chance to escape.

Escape.

That word sounded so foreign to her. It hadn't surfaced in her mind in months.

But it was real.

Suddenly fueled by her determination, she stood up, looking around. She ignored black dots clouding at the edges of her vision. She still stumbled, but her eyes maneuvered sharply, looking for any form of an exit. The amber orbs latched onto a vent cover.

That was it.

A simple piece of metal was an obstacle to her way out.

Her way to freedom.

Without realizing it, her emotion-clouded mind ripped the cover off its hinges. She stared up at the vent near the ceiling, before moving over to it, throwing up the blaster before jumping up and ignoring the pain that came with it. She pulled herself up, immediately beginning to crawl in the tiny passage, pushing along the weapon in the vent. She grunted as shifting her body brought on new onslaughts of pain, but managed to endure. She froze in surprise as a breeze of fresh air wafted toward her face. How long had it been since she had actually been out of this caged life?

She doubted that she would even remember if she tried.

She followed the wonderful feeling of the new, non-stale air, easily distinguishing it from the cramped air of her jailed life. When she saw light, she almost cried in relief. She pushed open the vent manually, not bothering to even attempt using her ability. She and the blaster fell out of the vent, landing on her face. She barely minded the dull smack and lifted her head up, standing up immediately after grabbing the gun. Her bones ached and her body felt like hell.

But she didn't care.

She was free.

She could breathe in fresh air and feel actual, natural light on her form. The experience was enthralling.

...before a shot whizzed past her.

Project Zodiac blinked out of her daze quickly, before clutching the blaster to her chest and running on rooftops, away from the herd of Stormtroopers after her. Alarms still blared from the building below her feet, but the vibrations stopped when she jumped to the next roof. Her tired body screamed at her for this activity, but she pushed on. She wasn't letting this taste of actual life go.

"After it!" came the call of the desperate Empire soldiers. Zodiac nearly stopped her running in surprise and rage. It?! She was a person! But, she kept on running, ignoring the words of the insensitive soldiers.

Then her body's exhaustion caught up with her.

She had put quite the distance between herself and the soldiers, and looked back to see where they were. Unfortunately, that meant she didn't see that where her foot was placed.

Her foot caught on a thin ledge, making her go down into an alleyway. The gun flew from her grasp, clattering to the floor. She winced as she landed, the side she crashed on flaming up in pain. She lifted up her head immediately when she heard the yells of Stormtroopers. She pulled the blaster towards her before dragging herself and the gun with her forearms into an empty storage container in the alleyway, shifting it so it hid her more from above and the side. She held her breath and wrapped her arms around the blaster as she heard heavy boots thud onto the ground right next to her box. There was a silence. Then-

"Let's go! The project couldn't have gotten far."

The padded sound of boots running away from her made her sigh in relief, then snort. "Idiots." She curled up more around the gun in the box, then closed her eyes.

Some rest couldn't hurt.

Project Zodiac awakened to the noise of a bustling market. She was confused as to where she was at first, but then remembered.

She had gotten free.

She had gotten free.

It suddenly felt like she could do anything, despite her exhausted body.

She took her arms away from around the gun and crawled out of the box, pulling the gun with her. She stood up, stretching her legs by standing up on the tips of her toes and reaching upward, still holding the gun. She ignored the tight feeling of new skin being pulling over wounds, and just relished in the luxury of actual space. The ratty garments she had on let a soft breeze pass over her skin, causing goosebumps to erupt. She scowled and looked down at herself.

Ragged clothes and scars everywhere.

Not the most conspicuous persona for wandering around.

"Hey, you're new around here."

The girl jumped at the sudden voice and brought the blaster to her chest again, swiveling her head toward the roof, where the dialogue came from. Her eyes narrowed at the boy there. She took a step back and held onto the blaster tighter when he dropped down from the roof, a lot more gracefully than she had previously done. Her body tensed, ready to run or fight...even if she had little to no idea how to do the latter.

"You know, that blaster model has a good price on the black market. Where'd you get it?"

The response was more glaring and the blaster being pointed toward the raven-haired boy.

"Whoa, there. I'm not going to hurt you." The boy's deep blue eyes widened slightly. "I'm Ezra. Ezra Bridger. What's your name?"

Still more quiet defiance. The girl managed to hide her surprise. She was only ever called Zodiac or Project Zodiac. What was she supposed to be called now? Still, she hid the fact she was caught off guard by wrapping her finger around the trigger of the blaster, positioning it against her shoulder for stability.

"Okay, how about how old you are?"

The answer to this question she actually knew. She counted the days and months passing by in her hell of a life and knew, by overhearing a conversation by when being experimented on, that she had been taken from her home when only three years old. She'd been in the Empire's grasp for five years. But she wasn't going to tell this stranger her age. She pulled on the trigger. However, she didn't expect the backlash, and was thrown back, leaving her to stumble as the beam hit the wall, nowhere near the boy. Ezra's expression turned amused.

"You're not good with that thing, are you?"

"Shut up," she finally muttered, lowering the gun.

"She speaks!" Ezra exclaimed, "Amazing!"

Zodiac rolled her eyes, already beginning to be annoyed by this boy. She cradled the blaster to her chest again and began to walk past the boy.

"Whoa, where are you going?"

She ignored his attempts at conversation and kept walking. She felt a hand close around her wrist. She whirled around immediately, ripping her wrist from his grasp.

"Don't touch me," she snarled, sounding much more violent than she felt.

"Would you relax?" the raven-haired boy said, sounding slightly irritated, "I just want to help you out. And me."

The girl raised a confused eyebrow.

"The blaster. I know a place where we can sell it, for a good amount of credits too."

"I don't trust you," the girl said bluntly.

"That's a good attitude to have here," Ezra admitted, "But I'm a nine-year-old. You'll probably manage to hunt me down easily in this city. There's not many nine-year-olds here."

Hesitation. Then, the blaster was thrown at him. The girl stomped off, "Keep your end of the deal." Then, Zodiac went off.

Beginning a new identity in unfamiliarity.

Eh? Eh?

Okay, I'll point out some things.

This Ciadoz(not yet Ciadoz) is way more closed off to people in general, as made obvious in the text above. This is how she actually should be, the way I see it now. I didn't really stick to that in the first version. The only contact she had with people was literally people who tortured her, making her incredibly paranoid and distrusting...at first. Also, she's gonna be more blunt in dialogue, due to her...past experiences.

I'm sure you have questions, possibly 'I hate you' comments. Keep in mind, flames will be used to roast marshmallows and make s'mores. But questions are welcome. I don't mind if you have a million of them. Though, if there are a million, I'm not gonna be able to get through all of them.

Next chapter will be the rest of the past, and will hopefully be up by next Sunday. But we all know this author is notoriously unreliable. :P

Anyway...

PEACE OUT PEOPLES!

Moonlightmistborn