One night I was rewatching the Rebels episode Homecoming. Then the next morning I came up with the idea for this one-shot. Enjoy and leave any feedback you may have after reading this:)

Already posted this one-shot separately months ago, but since this is a collection of one-shots based around Rebels I thought I'd just add it to the collection.

His Name is Chopper

Star Wars: Rebels

War had engulfed the galaxy. No world was safe as armies of both the Republic and Separatists, clones and droid soldiers, fought against each other for control over the stars, not caring who was killed or what was destroyed in the crossfire. A young Twi'lek girl named Hera Syndulla had heard her father say that this was the result of the Republic's failure to maintain peace and order throughout the galaxy. The failure of corrupt senators like the one who represented Hera's homeworld of Ryloth, Orn Free Taa. The people voted them into power to make their lives better, and instead, they exploit them to increase their wealth.

With people like Taa in power, it was no wonder why the thousands of worlds that made up the Separatists Alliance had broken off from the Republic in the first place. Yet their reliance on corrupt, greedy corporations to supply their army made them no better than the Republic. It was why Hera's father urged his people to withdraw from the Republic, but not join the Separatists either. Instead, he believed that Ryloth should be independent of the rest of the galaxy. However, again with Taa holding the position he did within both Ryloth's government and in the Galactic Senate, that outcome was never going to happen. And as a result of their affiliation, Separatist leader Wat Tambor launched a full-scale invasion of Ryloth, using his vast droid army to slaughter and enslave the innocent Twi'leks.

At the time, Republic forces were losing the war against the Separatists and were unable to hold back the invasion for long. So the planet fell under Separatist control. However, brave Twi'leks, led by Hera's father, Cham Syndulla, formed a band of resistance to fight the droid army in a desperate attempt to liberate their home. Then, as all seemed lost, the Republic came back with a counter-invasion to liberate the innocence of Ryloth.

While her mother had hidden her underground during the fighting, Hera had taken several opportunities to seek up to the surface to watch clone pilots fly through the skies to fight Tambor's droid fighters. The sight, while violent and deadly amazed Hera and gave her the desire to be up in the clouds and fly too. But that wasn't the only gift the Republic inadvertently brought the young Syndulla girl.

During a battle that was happening right above Hera's home between Republic Y-Wings and Separatists droid bombers, one of the Y-Wings was shot down and crashed right in Hera's front yard, not too far from where's she'd been hiding. Despite it being heavily damaged, Hera was amazed to be seeing a spaceship this close. She wanted to walk away from her hiding spot and go examine the craft more thoroughly. However, her mother forbade her from going anywhere near the wreckage while the fighting was still going on. As much as it pained her, Hera kept her distance. Shortly afterwards, her father, along with the Jedi, clones, and other Twi'lek resistance fighters stormed the capital city of Lessu and captured Tambor, thus liberating Ryloth and ending the Separatist occupation.

With the conflict now over, Hera was finally allowed to inspect the crashed y-wing. While she'd hoped that maybe the bomber could be repaired, so that maybe she could learn to fly it, after carefully examining the ship Hera learned that it was scorched, inside and out, from its nose canons to the ends of its engines, and damaged beyond repair. Both its pilot and gunner were dead also, scorched to the point where they looked more like ash-covered rocks than organic beings.

But in the heart of all the wreckage, there was one thing that looked salvageable: a burnt, grey-plated astromech droid that rested in a socket behind the fighter's cockpit. While it looked to be in pretty bad condition, in comparison to the ship it was in, the droid wasn't as scorched, damaged, or in the worst shape.

Hera was fascinated by the little droid. True, while the Separatist army that had been wreaking havoc on both her homeworld and people was comprised of mostly droids, not all droids, in general, were evil. As her mother once told her, droids only did what certain people programmed them to do. So technically it wasn't their fault for Ryloth's suffering, but their creators who programmed them and their masters who ordered them to hurt the Twi'leks. Aside from that, she'd read how astromech droids were used as assistance navigators and mechanics for starships, as well as many other types of machinery. Hera thought maybe the droid could be useful to have around. Besides, this droid had served the Republic and helped fight to liberate her home. In Hera's opinion, this droid was a hero who deserved a second chance to live instead of being left to rust.

So, with a bit of effort, Hera yanked the astromech droid out of the wrecked y-wing and dragged it inside. Of course, because of the damage it received when it crashed, several of the droid's parts fell off while being moved, and Hera had to make several runs back to retrieve them. She took the droid to her room. Then, using a tools box from her family's garage and some spare parts she found lying around, Hera began working on fixing the damaged droid. It helped that her late grandmother had been a mechanic and taught Hera a few things about fixing machines before her death.

It took a while, and a whole of work, but eventually, Hera was able to put the astromech droid back together and powered it up. Upon activating, the droid's two mechanical eyes lit up and out came two small mechanical arms from its head which started spinning in circles as it took a good look around at its new surroundings. When it saw Hera for the first time its arms went into a defensive position and another appendage came out, this time from the droid's chest, with a blue electrical spark coming from its end.

While the droid's reaction startled Hera at first, she quickly realized that it made sense why it was acting the way it was. After all, the droid had belonged to the Republic Navy before crashing, a navy that a great majority of which was said to be comprised of mostly human male clones with the few exceptions being Jedi and limited military officers; the latter of whom was said to be only made up of humans for some weird reason. Not to mention the little guy's last memories were of facing off in a dogfight against droid fighters when the ship he was in went down. Now, all of a sudden he was standing in a small, stone-made room, instead of a large metal hanger; in front of a young girl who didn't resemble a mechanic, clone or any other sort of military-affiliated personnel, not even a Jedi learner.

"Easy now. easy," Hera shushed the astromech droid, attempting to calm it down. "Your y-wing crashed, but I pulled you out and repaired you. You're safe now, I promise."

The droid withdrew its appendages as it continued to examine its rescuer carefully.

"My name is Hera Syndulla," she introduced. "What's your name?"

The droid responded in a series of beeps, warbles and whistles, which were a standard way that astromechs communicated. Luckily Hera's grandmother was familiar with astromech language and, along with mechanics, had taught Hera enough words for her to make out what her new friend was saying.

"C1-10P? That's not a name. It's a number," Hera remarked, which her new droid took offence to and warbled in a negative-sounding tone of voice in protest.

"Hey take it easy, it's okay. We'll give you a name. A proper name. How does that sound?"

The droid asked why.

"Because everyone deserves to have a name, even droids," Hera responded. "Now let's think for a moment… how about Scrappy?"

The droid again took offence to what its new owner said and protested.

"No? Well… let's try… Dommy?"

The droid didn't like that idea either.

"Maybe... what about... Bucket?"

This made the droid even madder, causing its two upper arms to reappear while its head started spinning around again. Hera backed away a few inches. Seeing the way the droid's arms spin around in circles at such a fast speed, it appeared as if it would chop her up if she got too close… that's when it hit her.

"How about Chopper? You like that?"

The droid stopped spinning, retracting its arms as it considered Hera's latest suggestion. Then after a moment, for the first time since its reactivation, the little astromech chirped and whistled in a happy-sounding tone, which made Hera smile.

"Very well, Chopper it is," she stated while patting the droid's head. "Welcome to the Syndulla family Chopper."

Just then Hera's bedroom door opened up and in came a much taller, orange-skinned, gruff-looking twi'lek male with a blaster rifle hanging from his upper leg.

"Hera, it's time for dinner," the male Twi'lek said, not acknowledging the newly named Chopper, who spun his domed head again while making noise, drawing attention.

"I see you finally got that broken astromech droid working," the male Twi'lek remarked.

In response, Hera turned around and stood up to face the man who was her father before replying, "His name is Chopper."

Well, this was fun to write. Hope you all enjoyed reading this little one-shot. Again please feel free to leave any reviews you have on this fanfic.

FYI, I knew Bucket was the name of an astromech droid from the series Resistance when I made it a suggestion for Chopper's name. I did this as a joke, but not an offensive one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show and the actual droid by that name.