I was going to wait a little longer before I posted again but did you see that new Bad Batch episode yesterday!? I won't spoiler in case you haven't but it was really good. And it didn't step on my toes for this story yet!
So that means we can pass those savings on to you! For the low low price of... well, favorites, follows and reviews would be nice! Here is the first official chapter! Enjoy!

The moment that I step outside

So many reasons for me to run and hide

I can't do the little things I hold so dear

'Cause it's all those little things that I fear

Up before dawn, that was the best time to make the trip out to the orchard to check on the stock and the state of the harvest. Genna used to jog this route as part of her training before school. Back then, Daryc was the one actually seeing to the business end of things but he would sometimes jog with her with a chrono to test her progress or ask her about how her classes and practices were going.

Now she was the one in charge and she tried to remember how he had managed it all. He hadn't trained her to replace him. Her oldest brother had been trying to build a better life for her so she wouldn't have to do this.

She faced the mirror as she prepared herself for the day. No more the dark eyeliner and black lipstick that she had hidden behind after the news from Argonar, just a little something to make her look less tired and a generous amount of solar protection. Curse her porcelain Mandalorian skin!

She threw her hair up into a serviceable dalgotail and then hovered herself into the mudroom to attach the steering column and freight basket to the front of her mobility vehicle. It was really a pretty ingenious set up that made her hoverchair look more like a speeder bike than a handicap service aid. It hadn't been cheap but the credits were worth it for not having to deal with the pitying stares of strangers and neighbors alike.

The air smelled so sweet as Genna approached the open fields. It brought back some of her best memories of running up and down the rows of trees with Ret when they were little and Kebiin and Saviin, their middle, twin brothers, teaching them their first limmie plays and the rules of the beautiful game.

The realtor had been hesitant to sell to five, blond, fair-skinned refugee kids even when Daryc told her he was eighteen and that he was just supposed to get them all settled before their parents came to join them. Still they had gotten it for a bargain, the share of the orchard, the little house on the edge of town, and the storefront in Malgan Market. The previous owner had just died and his daughter had moved far away and just wanted to be rid of it or something like that.

There were other children's voices floating up to her from the copse on the breeze now. It made Genna smile sadly. But she couldn't allow herself to get used to them.

Mohan and his wife and their little ones would only be staying through the end of the jogan harvest and then she'd have to hire someone else to bring in the Shuuras and then the Meilooruns. The family were Tagruta, recent transplants from Kiros, and she was glad to be able to offer them gainful employment.

Far better than herding them into the jungle and using them as living shields!

Genna gritted her teeth. She knew that wasn't fair. Saw Gerrera surely hadn't intended it to happen but it still burned her up inside that his methods had gotten her last brother killed.

She schooled her expression before she went to confer with Mohan. That was a trick in itself since he didn't speak much Basic and she didn't know any Togruti. He loaded her freight basket with the morning's fresh produce and led her to understand that he would bring another load into the city at midday. She thanked him and turned away from the happy voices to make her way to the market.

As soon as she was out of sight of the idyllic, agrarian scene, she plugged her sonic beads into her ears and turned up the glimmick music to what was most likely an unhealthy volume. She used to go to the clubs and dance to this sort of thing every night but the thumping beat still filled the silence.

It was a great distraction, sometimes welcome, but other times like when she pulled into the Iziz city traffic it could be hazardous to her survival.

Genna slammed on the breaks and cursed at the speeder pilot who cut her off without so much as a backwards glance. And then a bystander who had witnessed the event was hurrying towards her. Her heart was pounding and adrenaline pumping through her veins. She pulled out the sonic beads that were still blaring a technoska rendition of an old standard so she could hear what he was trying to say.

He was asking if she was okay. He was quite tall. His brown hair looked in need of a trim or maybe it was just the Onderonian humidity that caused the wave of fringe to swoop over the edge of his round, yellow-tinted goggles. And perhaps it was just the magnification of the transparisteel lenses that made his pretty brown eyes appear so wide with concern for her well being.

"Are you hurt, Miss?" He asked for what must have been the second time.

"Y-yes. I'm fine." She took a breath. Was she blushing?

There was something so familiar about him but she couldn't lay her finger on it. Perhaps he had been at the university, one of the geeks that she and her friends in the athletic crowd would have never given the time of day. But she had to admit he was kind of cute. And he didn't seem convinced by her answer. Maybe it was the glazed manor in which she was staring at him.

She blinked and cleared her throat. "Really, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern."

He nodded and took a step back, allowing her to shift her vehicle back into gear and be on her way. He didn't say anything else but he gave her just a hint of a shy smile. Unless, she had imagined it.

She tried to focus on the road ahead of her, only glancing back once to see he had rejoined a group of other young men. It struck her, in that briefest of impressions, that they all had that familiar look, even though they didn't really resemble each other at all. Maybe they were siblings?

…

She had thought that would be the end of it, as she arranged the fresh produce and put out the sign to say that she was open for business. She greeted her regular customers and endured their familiar compliments and complaints. The Malgan Market gossip was all the same with no mention of attractive young men with yellow-tinted goggles and swoopy brown hair. She would likely never see him again. Iziz was a big place and there were beings passing through all the time on their way to somewhere else.

But then the flash of a reflection off some sort of datapad across the marketplace caught her attention even in the bright morning sunlight. The device was in the hand of the mysterious stranger and her heart skipped a beat.

Genna watched as he typed something into the device. Then he seemed to squint in the direction it was pointing before he held up a wrist communicator and said something into it.

That's right there were companions, brothers who he was with earlier. Where were they now, she wondered? She scanned the rest of the square to see if they were anywhere to be found. She hadn't gotten as good a look at the others but she was sure she could pick them out by their similarity to the cute one in the goggles.

She thought she might have caught sight of the one with the longish hair and the red bandana before a woman stepped up to the stall and demanded to know why she couldn't find any muja berries. Genna patiently explained that they hadn't been in season for a month now but that she did have a contact off world who could ship them in. It would take a couple of days if the customer was willing to wait. And then Genna had to wait while her horrendously slow datapad booted up to take the order information.

After that she was so busy she didn't have time to seek out individual faces in the crowd. It was a relief when Mohan came at midday to replenish her stock. She pointed out a stall to him across the way whose owner had always been friendly to her and told him to get something for himself and his family as a treat and have them charge it to her account. At least she hoped she got that message across to him.

Was that one of Goggles's brothers, she wondered, as she watched Mohan go to follow her instructions? It was the bulkier, bald one with the scar on the side of his face but there was a little girl riding on his shoulders. The gentle giant, or so he seemed to be, handed the child a sweet from the vendor and then grinned as he dove into one of his own.

Genna felt a pang remembering a similar instance with her own big brother. But then she sighed. Break time was over and it was time to get back to work.

There were no customers looking at her produce at the moment and she could see in an instant why. They couldn't even get close to her counter. There was a gentleman standing there with his back to her, blocking the way of anyone who might want to shop. What was he doing? Sightseeing? Taking holos?

She was going to have to ask him to kindly move on or make a purchase. She only got as far as, "Excuse me, Mister…"

He turned his head and she saw the round, yellow-tinted goggles.

"It's you!"

The same shy smile that she thought she had caught a glimpse of that morning reemerged and he nodded, almost a courtly bow. Before he addressed her, he spoke into his wrist commlink, "I think I've found the right place."

A voice from the other end of the connection ranted, "Good. Maybe we can get this over with and get out of…"

Goggles keyed off the speaker with an apologetic shrug. He paused for a moment to take in her surroundings, the fruit, her position seated behind the counter, and the datapad in her hand filled with calculations of her most recent transactions. Then he took a step closer. "It's good to see that your near mishap this morning didn't prohibit you from your work."

"No, it was nothing." Her voice came out sounding breathier than she had intended. "Just the regular Iziz morning rush. I should have been paying more attention."

He gave his head a slight shake, "I would have thought more beings would have been paying attention to you."

Her breath caught. Was he flirting with her intentionally or just speaking honestly? Either way it had the same effect.

While they were staring at each other, the others who she had correctly tagged as being his comrades also gathered around her stall.

"This is it?" Red Bandana didn't even look at her; he seemed to be too busy surveying the vantage point that her location offered.

The Gentle Giant and his small blonde passenger both grinned, the little girl's gaze traveling back and forth between Genna and Goggles as if she expected them to put on a show for her.

And there was a fifth member of their crew. He stood a little back from the others in a hood and long sleeves, despite the heat, but Genna could see from the glimpse of his face that he possessed that same something that marked the rest of them as family.

She tried to think of something to say. A sales pitch? They were standing in front of her place of business and she couldn't do business with anyone else until they moved on. She didn't really want them to move on yet. Not Goggles at least, not until she'd gotten to meet him properly.

She looked each member of the group over once more and then hit on something familiar, "Ord Mantell?"

Suddenly they were all staring at her with a mixture of shock and betrayal and… anger? Red Bandana's hand went reflexively to his hip as if he were going to draw a weapon that wasn't there.

Genna shrunk back a little and hurried to explain, "Your jerseys." She gestured toward the shirts that the Gentle Giant and the little girl were wearing. "You must be supporters of their team?"

As one, all of their faces registered identical expressions of relief.

Genna froze. She knew in an instant why they looked so familiar, although they were each impossibly unique, even the girl… they were clones!