Chapter One
33 BBY
Life was beautiful.
Precious.
Worth living to its fullest extent.
Life only happened once, so you owed it to yourself to make it count.
In his first life, he could appreciate the value of those sorts of platitudes. He had never been forced to rely on them, but they had their uses. In sparking motivation in the aimless office drone, or placating former employees who had a hard time accepting that the company did not value their labor as much as they had hoped. He had memorized several psalms for those exact situations. Who knows, they may have even worked once or twice.
But early on in her second life, Tanya had grown to loathe them.
Simply because they were demonstrably untrue.
Life was not precious.
It was cheaply made, handled without care, and— as it turned out, insultingly easy to recycle.
She hadn't been as much of a cynic in the past.
Well, not quite as much.
Then she had experienced war firsthand, taken scores of lives, and seen many more snuffed out in accordance with her orders or the orders of her superiors. It was mostly new ground for her. Some might say she handled it far better than she should have, even ignoring the fact that she had been a child.
They would be correct, but it wasn't something one bragged about in polite company.
That second life ended in a predictably violent fashion. Another pitched battle, another daring maneuver, with the only difference being some sort of miscalculation made along the way. Fire. Smoke. Shrapnel. She wasn't sure which one did it. Usually, she was able to work through those sorts of frenzied scenarios and pull out a win. What changed? Had she been too reckless? Too bold? It was hard to tell at the time.
One interference too many from Being X.
Her straightforward path to the safe salaryman desk job, once again taken from her.
The entity had its fill of gloating in that frozen moment, of course. About how foolish she was, and how committing to a life of faith was the only way out. Offering her one last chance before getting sent to the underworld, as per its threats. She had refused. Again.
So when she found herself being born for the third time… Well, it proved her right about a couple of things.
That life was cheap.
And Being X was both a sore loser and a liar. No second reincarnation.
Powerful as the creature may be, it was too easily frustrated and arrogant to be anything more than that moniker in Tanya's eyes.
If it couldn't see that about her, then it wasn't all-knowing. If it couldn't change that about her, then it wasn't all-powerful. Ergo, still merely Being X. The self-described controller of reincarnation, who somehow had both the time and inclination to reincarnate Tanya again despite claiming to already be overworked. If it was truly overworked, then all of this was just wasting time and resources on a lost cause to satisfy its own ego.
Based on the facts, Tanya decided that Being X would make a terrible employee.
Thus, since it was apparently self-employed, it only followed that its business model was also a failure.
It didn't matter, ultimately.
Her faith would not be awakened according to the whims of Being X.
Or anyone else, for that matter.
That fact had not changed during her time spent in the Imperial military as a mage, and it would not change now. No matter how strange her new world was.
Although it was very strange.
The world and Fatherland of her past life, as well as the conflict it had become embroiled in, had been easy enough to recognize as a mere alternate history Earth with magical additions. Those changes? Small potatoes compared to what she now faced.
This time around, she had been born to a world almost entirely unfamiliar to her.
Small mercies; she was still human, and English was commonly spoken. Or something near enough to English that she could adapt, having a basic proficiency in the language stemming from her ladder-climbing origins in customer service internships. Mostly unused since then. Easy enough to refresh given her current environment.
She was also still a she, and therefore still definitively Tanya.
Not because her birth mother had given her the name— that woman had barely registered Tanya's existence at all, let alone remembered to name her anything. From what she could tell, this body was the same as the one that had been called Tanya before. So the name would remain. The birth mother would figure it out soon enough, assuming she ever realized she was a parent.
That was where the familiar ended.
Her new home was called Coruscant.
Not a mere 20th century Empire with overextended borders and lofty ambitions. A planet. An ecumenopolis with tens of trillions of inhabitants. The capital of a government spanning thousands of star systems, representing countless alien races in a massive representative democracy.
Being X had apparently been craving some variety.
Understandable.
Any lights in Tanya's early childhood were artificial.
Most of the air was, too.
For a while, Tanya theorized that they lived in an underground complex of some kind. A bunker, maybe. Because of this, it took a while before she was able to grasp the scale of her surroundings.
But even going outside wasn't very helpful.
Looking up, she couldn't even see the sky. The metallic buildings and lights just kept going. Ships at varying altitudes moved in predetermined lanes, like flying ants. When she finally found some answers, she discovered that the 'surface' was several thousand stories up. For average people, there was no reason to go there unless you worked there or were leaving the planet.
Most never left.
They moved around plenty, though. Public transit was cheap enough, as one would expect from a futuristic post-scarcity society. Bulky transit ships acted as buses for lowlifes in some areas. Elevators and sleek-looking trains moved at absurd speeds, and at all hours.
They had to, for how much ground there was to cover. People. Materials. Products. There was never not something— or someone, to move. She couldn't even begin to imagine the logistics of running this planet, or how it all functioned with so few hiccups. There was just too much.
When she fell asleep, it was to the hum of a city that never did.
Her time as a toddler was spent in two phases.
Phase one was spent looking and eventually crawling around the apartment. Some things were familiar and oddly low-tech. Other things she had no reference for. Eventually, she settled on watching the holonet her birth mother sat in front of whenever she was home. And when she wasn't home, Tanya often flipped through the channels to find something marginally educational.
A middling success.
Her birth mother's holonet feed was personalized to an annoying degree. Damn algorithms. Most of it was made up of garbage. Space pop culture. Her birth mother favored the ones following the glamorous lives of the wealthy living on the top levels of the city. It was a very generous depiction of Coruscant, especially going by what she then observed during phase two.
Phase two commenced once she learned to walk for the third time. Considering it was the third time, she was beyond frustrated that it took so long.
Almost a year.
Still. She got there eventually.
Then she explored as best she could, within reason. Around the halls, up or down an elevator, and occasionally outside. When she could get to a ledge or some sort of outdoor walkway, she saw only a portion of the disgusting underworld her birth mother called home. The cityscape at night was colorful, thanks to the neon lights and faded paint on the buildings. But it was less a cityscape and more a series of ship lanes, platforms, and alleys. If you squinted, you almost couldn't see the rust and grime.
Windows were sparse, on account of there being no view to speak of.
This left lots of room for ads. Storefronts, casinos, political candidates, celebrities, sports teams, sports drinks.
Ads, ads, ads.
As well as plenty of holographic kiosks with pictures of different sorts. Usually either wanted criminals or missing persons.
Plenty colorful, but not very inviting.
Yet for all that, she did see youths outside. Much older ones than her, certainly. Typically keeping to groups, many clearly belonging to gangs. As old as in their early twenties, and as young as six or seven.
The infrastructure was more of the same. Doors that stopped working were left open. Lights went out and stayed out. If an elevator broke down, that could last months. Tanya wasn't sure if their district had an administrator, let alone anyone still regularly working maintenance.
Space-age poverty. The future is now.
She occasionally spotted a utility droid hovering on the outside of a building, soldering something in an open panel, or checking the oxygen regulators.
That much was reassuring.
There were at least some good things.
Being poor in the capital of the galaxy had its upsides, thankfully.
For those qualified, food was free. Same with housing. Both were low-quality and mass-produced, but free. Healthcare was heavily subsidized, and the medical droids stationed every hundred or so floors were just about the only things not constantly breaking.
Basic schooling was freely available to impoverished children— which was most of them, grouped by floors and general proximity. For human children, actual schooling started at six. Tanya was three. She was also extremely bored, impatient, and not at all fond of her home life. Fortunately, Tanya's birth mother was a lazy deadbeat who hated having her around.
The solution was simple.
After a few hours of screaming and crying that Tanya felt zero guilt for, her mother stormed off and signed her up for classes early, just to make her daughter someone else's problem for a few hours a day.
Her finest hour of parenting.
And Tanya was only being slightly sarcastic.
"Student Tanya, welcome to the class. You have been admitted three years before human education standards dictate," the faded blue tutor droid droned on with a flat tone. "Do not let this disadvantage hold you back. You can do it."
Tanya nodded along as it spoke, her eyes scanning the heads of the students and taking them in.
Mostly humans, which was disappointing. There were a few near-human species she wasn't yet familiar with, and she noted that they seemed to congregate more, but nothing too outstanding. Some with rows of little horns, some with two big horns, and a couple with pale blue skin and pointed ears.
With any luck, more would join their class, as there were still several vacancies.
The droid stopped speaking, so she looked back at— well, her teacher.
Being taught by a computer should be novel.
She cleared her throat once she realized the droid was waiting for a reply. "Thank you."
"You are welcome, Student Tanya." Gesturing for Tanya to stand beside it, the droid turned back to the rest of the class. "Joining us today is Student Tanya. Student Tanya, these are the other students in your class."
The reactions varied.
Some broke into unsubtle whispers and giggles, likely about her age. Some stared. A few waved. Only a few ignored her, and she mentally moved them up in her ranking.
Tanya suppressed a sigh.
Children.
Bowing in a stilted manner, all too aware of how odd it looked at her younger age, she addressed her lessers. "I hope we can get along. Please take care of me."
She would endeavor to be polite, if nothing else.
Her mental preparation ended up being mostly unnecessary.
Thank g— thankfully, space-age schooling didn't prioritize socializing children. Even her thinking of it as pre-schooling wasn't very accurate. It was three hours of hyper-concentrated info-dumping disguised as a lecture, with fifteen minutes of downtime in the middle. Then they were sent home. The tutor droid was not tasked with keeping them in line or disciplining them, meaning the value of the education depended on the child. Probably for the best. It did mean that Tanya had to fight to focus on the lessons, banal as they were, and ignore her peers as they acted their age.
The new material from this universe was interesting enough, but all of it was presented at very basic levels, and none of it was terribly in-depth. The basics of the unfamiliar were interesting, but being designed for near-infants meant Tanya still had trouble keeping her eyes open at times.
Her classmates also struggled to stay engaged.
Or rather, they didn't struggle at all. Because they were children, and they were allowed to remain unengaged because the schooling down here was clearly a half-measure.
Underfunded, like everything else.
After class, they were ushered into the hall and told to wait to be picked up by whoever. Tanya would wait around for a few minutes and then make her own way home while ignoring the questions of any nosy passersby. She wasn't sure what the crime rate or likelihood of child abduction was in this area, not having access to those statistics, so she stuck to crowds and well-lit areas. This meant a longer route home, but her birth mother never noticed and Tanya wouldn't care if she did.
That was the routine.
There was something surprisingly disappointing about all of this.
Perhaps her expectations had been skewed. Skewed by the realization that this was an entire galaxy of people, technology, and history. Science fiction and fantasy.
The holonet hadn't helped those expectations. She certainly knew how to take responsibility for how she engaged with mainstream media and propaganda, but it had been her first exposure to the wider world she now belonged to. Depicted as an endless series of gleaming high-rises, theatres, and spaceports.
Coruscant was her home planet now, which was a strange concept on its own.
But as it turned out, she didn't live on Coruscant.
She lived beneath it.
Sitting in class, half-listening to the material she had blown past weeks ago, Tanya plotted.
How did one stand out in an ocean of people?
In her past life as an orphan born to a militaristic Empire, that question was answered for her when her magical capacity was tested. From there, enlisting in the military in a bid for officers' training had been the most logical route towards a lucrative career and cushy retirement. Her method had been completely sound and, if not for Being X's constant interference, she would have achieved that end goal.
Now that ocean was infinitely bigger.
The deck had been stacked against her once again, but this time in different ways.
New problems in a new environment.
At first, she considered a similar career path. But it only took minutes of research to find that a military career would not be the right move. Far from it. For one, the Galactic Republic was without major foes at the moment. In fact, the galaxy seemed to be enjoying a time of peace that had lasted many generations.
Small conflicts popped up, and there was strife, but nothing major.
It only followed that they were also without any kind of standing military. Militias and garrisons were the prerogatives of individual planetary governments if they existed at all. Coruscant was no different, but she doubted she could get into their law enforcement until she was much older without a genetic advantage— like magic.
Besides, it wouldn't be nearly as efficient without a conflict to prove herself by thriving in.
She still needed something.
Given the state of peace, common sense would dictate that she pursue something more akin to her first life. Climb the corporate ladder. The economy of this galaxy was huge and complex, and she could find an opening to slip into eventually.
And that would seem to be her best option, were it not for Being X.
But she could not, and would not, sink into paranoia based on the possibility of having her best-laid plans interrupted by a petulant extra-dimensional entity.
She would just have to suck it up and continue with the most logical path forward. Pursue a post-secondary education, find a foothold in an existing corporation or find a niche that needed filling, and work her way forward with thoughtful tactics and hard work. Business as usual. That would have to do for—
Tanya jerked, stirring from her thoughts as someone poked her.
What a shame.
That was supposed to be one of the quiet kids.
She turned and narrowed her eyes at the near-infant she shared a class with.
"Yes?"
The Rodian child pointed down towards the front of the class excitedly, saying something in Rodese that she couldn't parse.
Looking down towards the front, she—
She blinked.
That was a grown alien person with a mask on his face, wearing brown and beige robes.
A distinctly monk-like appearance.
Oh.
Oh.
Now, what possible reason could there be for a Jedi to visit their class?
"Student Tanya. Gather your things and bring yourself to the front," the droid said, gesturing at the person in robes. "You are being removed from class. Be quick."
Very slowly, Tanya rose from her seat with her few school things in hand. A cheap datapad, its case, and her little jacket. As she tentatively walked down the steps towards the alien, her mind raced.
She hadn't done more than cursory research on the Jedi Order. What she did know made her extremely leary of it. A quasi-religious institution that enjoyed a prestigious position in the galaxy. Monk types, drawing on something called 'the force.' Magic. Explicitly spiritual magic, this time. Propaganda and pop culture news depicted them as diplomats, peacekeepers, and heroes who fought crime. They employed a range of psionic abilities, fought with blades made of lasers, and were mainly based in a massive temple on the surface.
None of that gave her an idea of what this might be about. But she had suspicions.
Horrible, awful suspicions.
As she reached the bottom, she looked up at the alien's face. Or lack thereof, given the breath mask covering his mouth and eyes. A quirk of his species? The fact that it was intimidating probably didn't hurt. The alien looked down at her.
She was pretty sure he was looking at her, anyway.
"This interruption has accounted for three minutes of lost schooling, Master Jedi. This is unfortunate."
Master Jedi.
This just kept getting better.
He inclined his head slightly. "My apologies, I won't take up any more time."
"Noted in my report. Please remove yourself, along with Student Tanya." The droid turned back to the class. "Class, the remaining section will be taught at a quickened pace to catch up with the scheduled curriculum. Follow closely."
Before she could mouth a question or complaint, the Jedi ushered her out of the room and into the hall. A few lowlifes quickly made themselves scarce when they caught sight of him.
Right. Peacekeeper with a laser sword.
Tanya looked up at him again, trying to emulate innocence. "Who're you, mister?"
He kneeled to her level, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm a Jedi, young one. Do you know what that means?"
"Yeah," she said, pointing at him with a grin. "You live in that big temple and fight crime!"
He tilted his head. "That's right. My name is Plo Koon. What is yours?"
"Tanya!"
"You have a lovely name, Tanya," he repeated with a serious nod. "Now, do you think you could take me to your home? I must speak with your parent or guardian."
She nodded, turning away and leading him down the corridor while her childish smile faded.
It seems her worst fears had been realized. Recruitment. Laws favoring the Jedi Order allowed them to conscript force sensitives as young as possible given the right circumstances. She should have expected this. Planned for it. To be honest, based on her previous life, being told she was force sensitive would be among the least surprising things to happen to her.
No, that wouldn't do at all.
Teenage birth mother with no interest in parenting aside, this setup was preferable to life as a monk.
It gave her someplace tangible to build from. Working her way from a civilian, low-class upbringing wouldn't be easy or fun. But it beat being a monk. Power was tempting, but not when it came bundled with a life dictated by meditation and religious doctrine. She could put on a convincing air of piety when needed. But dedicating her life to it?
She refused. Being X could choke on the power it was dangling in front of her.
She had to salvage this.
But how?
Children were taken from everywhere. Rich families and loving ones alike, let alone ones like hers. The Jedi had a frankly disgusting amount of authority when it came to force-sensitive children.
There weren't many options.
Her most viable path might be to appeal to the recruiter's empathy. Make her conscription seem unnecessary or cruel. Appear happy with her life. Cry at the prospect of being taken away. Give the impression of being unruly and unfit for the Jedi. Try and portray her birth mother as a loving parent, convince her birth mother not to give her away to this cult, and do all of it well enough to convince a Jedi not to separate them anyway.
A tall order.
But she had to at least try and escape this fate.
Biting down the bile she felt stirring, Tanya looked back at the Jedi Master with a grin and started babbling about how much she loved her birth mother, temporary designation 'mom', and how wonderful and swell her life was. Child babble. Hopefully endearing babble. She wasn't sure if Plo Koon was just humoring her or if he had bought it, but it didn't matter.
If Jedi actually read minds, then she hoped he could pick up on this.
But she really didn't want to be a monk.
Tanya sat with her arms crossed, glaring out the window of the shuttle taking them the rest of the way to the surface.
"I understand your frustration, young one."
If only he did.
She didn't respond, as she had nothing to say that wouldn't make things worse at the moment.
Her last-minute attempts to sabotage her recruitment had gone poorly. Her birth mother was to blame, naturally. A weak link from the start. Tanya had expected some difficulty, seeing as they had never gotten along, but the woman had gone above and beyond at the prospect of being child-free once more. Whereas Tanya had turned on the waterworks to convince the Jedi to let her stay, her birth mother had done the opposite.
The woman had sobbed tears of bittersweet joy, thanking the Jedi profusely for giving her 'precious little girl' the opportunity for a better life than she could ever give her.
She possessed more cunning than Tanya had given her credit for.
In any case, things clearly had not gone as planned.
This could be considered an upgrade. By most people in her position, it would be. A much higher quality of living, education, and training. And of course, she wouldn't hesitate to use and abuse all of those advantages. That much was self-evident. The problem was everything else. Being locked into a very specific lifestyle and being discouraged from pursuing anything that strayed from it. Unless she did something drastic and maybe illegal, she would be living as a Jedi for years to come.
She wasn't sure what job prospects existed for Jedi dropouts, but she doubted it was anything good.
All was not lost.
It couldn't be, because she refused to admit defeat so easily.
She was sulking, yes. But only because it was consistent with the tears of frustration she had put on earlier. Switching tracks so soon after being taken from her 'loving' family wouldn't paint her as the well-adjusted person she had been presenting herself as. The Jedi Master had a first impression of her now. Best to stick with it.
This wasn't the end of the road for her dreams of a cushy desk job in the corner office.
She'd find a way to make this work. Whether that meant breaking the law or getting thrown out of the order. Neither was preferable. But they weren't off the table, either. Nothing was. Whichever way forward best served her ambitions, she would pursue it without hesitation.
Tanya nodded, set on her path.
Then the shuttle finally broke past the endless jungle of buildings, and she finally saw the surface.
The ships and buildings were all still there. Newer, and much more expensive looking, but just as densely packed. Except now the grandest of them stood above the rest, silhouetted by the sky and massive orange sunset in the distance. So many lights from the city that she had no illusions about being able to see the stars at night. Windows looked out on a cityscape with an actual view. Less cluttered with neon. Space was at a premium on the surface, and she assumed the zoning regulations were much stricter.
Much like it was depicted on the holonet, there was no end to the city of Coruscant.
It was breathtaking.
It was also nostalgic, in a way she hadn't expected.
Easy enough to see why. The resemblance was surface-level, and only there if you squinted, but Tanya hadn't seen such a sprawling and modern city in person since before her first death.
What felt like a lifetime ago.
Technically two.
Plo Koon cleared his throat from his seat. She glanced at him.
"I realize you are still upset, Tanya. I hope seeing the Jedi Temple, and all the friendly new faces, will make you feel better." He paused, before continuing a little more quietly. "You may one day look upon it as a new home, as it has become for me."
No, thank you. She would not be succumbing to the Jedi's brand of indoctrination, no matter how tranquil it was.
"And a new family?" she said, performing interest in her abductor.
He nodded. "One day."
She hummed without agreeing, leaning her head against the window.
"There is one other thing," he said, sounding a little awkward. She didn't care enough to look back at him. "You need not decide such things now, at your age and in your current state. But as it turns out, your mother did not possess a legal surname."
She knew that already. Hence the moniker of 'birth mother.'
He went on. "And so, neither do you."
Ah, so that's what it was.
Understandable.
But he was wrong. She did have a surname. A perfectly good one, that had been attached to a perfectly good little girl living a perfectly good life. She'd had a carefully thought-out career path, a spotless service record, and everything going her way except the whims of an arrogant being with more power than it knew how to use efficiently.
A fine name.
"Degurechaff," she said, again without looking over.
"I see… As I said, you are free to wait as long as you like with this. I know you must be feeling conflicted abo—"
"Degurechaff," she repeated, glaring over at him. "My name is Tanya Degurechaff."
Things would turn out differently this time, Being X.
She would make sure of it.
"If you're certain." Plo Koon went silent for a few moments, before continuing with some hesitance. "And how would you like to spell that?"
Tanya sighed loudly, looking back out at the city as the Jedi Temple finally came into view.
This was going to take a while.
AN: Been tinkering with this for a while, tryna break out of my writing funk and conjure up some writer juice for this and my other fics.
Also, I'm aware that there's an existing and complete SW Tanya insert fic where she's a Jedi. Not super surprising, since it's the obvious choice for this crossover. But yeah, didn't know about it when I started. Only skimmed it to make sure I wasn't ripping it off or anything since that'd be rude.