Chapter 4 : Controlled Law

Their heads all snapped towards the door, in a way that would have made Zarya laugh if it wasn't for the panic pumping adrenaline in her blood. Quicker then the kids accompanying her could act, she pushed them all to the floor, whispering a harsh 'Hide!'. They all crawled on the dusty floor as fast as they could without making any sound. The girl hid under a desk, not as close to the door as she would have liked but with no time to change her spot.

Heavy footsteps could be heard heading inside the room, quiet voices speaking hurriedly. Zarya didn't dare come closer to hear their conversation, though her curiosity was really piqued. The three keepers present seemed slightly frantic, as if something was bothering them.

Craning her neck slowly, she looked around from her restricted point of view, spotting Hostias hiding behind a large, worn down crate next to the door. He could easily turn around it, should it be necessary to keep out of view, which was a lot better than her chosen place. She couldn't see the other two, and she could only hope they wouldn't be found by the adults.

Catching Hostias' gaze, she pointed to the keepers and then tapped her ear, signalling him to listen to what they were saying since he was close enough to hear them. He made her an annoyed face, but slowly nodded before shifting a bit closer to the keepers, eavesdropping. Zarya tried to keep an eye on him to reassure herself of his safety, but she had no choice but to duck under her desk when the keepers turned her way unexpectedly. She held her breath when they walked past her hiding spot, exhaling only when their feet were out of her view.

Not wanting to risk being seen peeping, she didn't try to get a look around for anyone, waiting instead for their intruders to leave. Minutes seemed to stretch longer than they truly were, and when they finally left, more in a hurry than when they entered, she couldn't have come out from under the desk faster after hearing the door lock again. The three boys accompanying her hurriedly followed, Tarrik being the first to climb up the open vent when Hostias kneeled down and offered his cupped hand for him to step on. She and Novi followed right after, their smaller stature compared to the two others meaning that they needed Tarrik to pull them up despite the boost from Hostias. Exchanging fearful glances, they crawled back the way they came when everyone was up. This time, no one complained about the dust and the stray kicks they were accidentally receiving.

(( ))

"So, what do we do now?", asked Novi, a tremor in his voice. "We can't exactly go on with whatever plan Zarya had now, can we?"

After escaping the computer room, they practically ran, as silently as they could, towards the boys shared room. With only four colourless beds and a drawer containing sand coloured clothes, the room was simple and without any personality. It was the only place where they would be left alone until sunrise, when the keepers come to wake everyone up for the day. One of the beds was empty since their previous roommate was chosen by someone. If he was adopted or bought to be a slave, she had no idea. Nor did she want to think about it.

"Of course not, are you kidding? We don't know what would happen to us should they decide to…to…"

"Take away our choice.", finished Tarrik when Hostias was unable to continue.

While the boys continued debating their next course of action, Zarya stayed silent, sitting on one of the beds, eyes closed, trying to settle her upset stomach. With all the stress, fear and anxiousness churning around, she felt like she was going to throw up. Her own emotions of disbelief and disgust didn't help her current state.

Control chips. They put control chips in their brain. In children's brains.

Theories of how, when and why ran a mile a minute in her head, panic clouding her thoughts and making her dizzy. Never, in a million years, would she have thought the Keepers and slave owners would go to this extant to control their slaves. To her, it was unconceivable, inhuman-

'But there aren't only humans running around now, is there.', she thought with dry amusement.

And this wasn't the only time this kind of device was used in this universe either. Or isn't going to be the only time. Whatever. Point is, they used or were going to use this technology on the clone army, too. But the question was, why them? Who was doing this? Was it some type of test run, or were they sold to the keepers to use whenever they wanted?

If her memory was right, it was the siths who took the steps necessary to make the Kaminoans implant those things in the clone's embryos, but where they the ones who created them? If they did, did they choose this specific place to test it for future uses? Or was it now a known product in some shady black market? If it was the Siths' doing, were they watching her and this very planet at this moment? What about if one of the Skywalkers was there, they could discover the-

"Zarya? Are you alright? You look very pale."

"Is that normal for humans to become this pale in an instant?"

"No, it's not, idiot."

"Hey! Don't call me an idiot, you're the stupid one!"

"The stupid one? Why you-"

"Guys! Shut up for a minute, will you? Zarya, will you be okay? Because we really need to decide what we're going to do now."

Tarrik's voice cut through her thoughts, bringing her back to the present. It was softer than usual, as if he thought she was in the brink of a panic attack. It wasn't far from the truth, but it still annoyed her to have to be comforted by a child, of all people.

"Whatever she had planned probably wouldn't have worked anyway. I mean come on, she's what, five years old?", Hostias asked drily.

"Six and a half, thanks." As soon as the words left her mouth, Zarya felt like smacking herself. That was such a childish thing to answer, it was painful. Of course, in their minds, she was even younger than them. Why would they follow her anywhere? Much less trust her to free them from here. Hope and curiosity were probably the only things pushing them to participate in her little escapade.

But now, they had stumbled into something far bigger than they thought they would have to face. Even though she doesn't know them very well, she can still recognize their attempt to deny their situation by ignoring it, and throw their anger on others as a way to deal with it.

Putting her despairing thoughts and emotions aside for the time being, she faced the three distraught boys. Tarrik and Hostias had started to bicker again while Novi was trying to stop them unsuccessfully. She should have never brought them along. They were far too young, and it was unfair of her to have given them any hope at all, considering that she had no idea how to proceed from here. Words of apology were on the tip of her tongue, trying to find a way to let them down kindly.

Before they discovered the chips, the task was almost impossible, but now? There was not a single way for them to have a single chance at freedom. All the stars would have to align, giving them a way to get rid of the implant in their head, a way to escape the orphanage as well as the planet, without anyone questioning their young age. That's without mentioning that she had no idea what to do or where to go once they are free, and they don't know when they will decide to start using those freaking chips-

"They don't use it."

At her whisper, the boys stopped talking, turning towards her, confusion written on their face.

"They don't use the chips. I think we would notice if a kid started acting like a mindless robot, doing what's asked of them without any fuss. I'm willing to bet they won't be using them on any of us, either."

"Why? Why put it in our head for no reason at all?", asked Hostias.

"They could have some other uses then controlling us, like maybe, tracking us? Also, it kind of explains why we don't have a bomb in us like all the other slaves."

Zaria nodded thoughtfully at Novi. It was a good guess, it would be less complicated then planting another device in them, and there would be no use for a bomb when cooperation was completely guaranteed.

"But we're not all to become slaves, though.", Argued Tarrik. "Some of us did get adopted, right? I doubt parents would like it if their new child had that thing in their brain."

"This means that there must be something to trigger the chip, like a word, or even some kind of control device. If we discover what it is, we might just be able to avoid being brainwashed.", Zaria added.

"Or, do you think it's possible that when we are not chosen to be slaves, they take it off completely? It would be safer for the slavers to avoid their means to be discovered by the right person."

"Novi, you might just be right. That's genius!"

His green skin darkened under Zaria's praise, blushing with pride and shyness. Zaria was amazed by the ingenuity of those children. While it was mostly speculating for now, she was already mentally making plans to discover if any of it could be true.

Their dark emotions, which were previously making her sick, were already lighter, a tiny feeling slowly flooding the air around them. Hope. There might still be a way to leave this place, and Zarya won't stop until she finds it.

Looking at the three children plotting excitedly with each other, she let a tiny smile grow on her lips. She was still anxious, a lot could still go wrong, but they have hope now. And for the first time, she begins to truly understand how this feeling alone is able to build entire rebellions

(( ))

The next morning, Zarya was searching the place for Hostias. Last night, she had told the boys to go to sleep, and that they would meet up again the next evening to plan their next move. There was a lot of information to swallow yesterday, and she didn't want to overwhelm their already tired minds by discussing more than they already had. She also wanted to avoid souring the fragile mood by speculating more on the chips' uses. There was no need to make them panic more than they already did.

She had the children's short attention span to thank for, because an adult would have definitely been overthinking this all night, and probably ask more questions.

Speaking of short attention span, it seems she wasn't exempted from it, because she had completely forgotten about the keepers' hushed discussion in the computer room, which Hostias should have heard the beginning of.

In her defense, she wasn't in the best state of mind that night, and a lot was going on.

This brings her to search the wayward human boy for the entire morning, and her frustration was rapidly escalating. There were quite a lot of human kids around, and even more emotions distorting the air all over the place, making her dizzy, but she should still have been able to find him ages ago.

After another hour, a headache had firmly planted its roots in her skull, and Zarya was seriously questioning that boy's continuing existence when she finally finds him. For his sake, the information he got better be worth it or she might just do something drastic because of her annoyance.

She ends up finding him outside the orphanage, in the same market where she was pursued by Jabba's guards only two days ago. She stomped towards him, looking discreetly around for the giant green pigs in armour. Only when she was certain there weren't any did she relax enough to try and hide her displeasure from the people around. Yelling at Hostias and making a scene of herself wasn't the smartest decision right now.

"Hostias! Wait for a minute, will you?"

The dark haired boy stopped walking and turned towards her, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"What do you want?"

She almost scowled at his rudeness, but made sure her expression stayed smooth. Right now, she only wanted to get this over with and go back to the orphanage, find someplace alone and away from all the emotions running all over the place.

"I wanted to ask you about what you overheard yesterday, we didn't talk about it yet. Did you find out anything interesting?"

"Ha, that. No, nothing of importance, at least I don't think so. Something about a client, it could be a slave owner or something like that."

With a noncommittal shrug, he started to walk again and Zarya followed, keeping his pace.

"A client, huh? They seemed pretty troubled for it to be about a simple client. Did you catch a name or anything?"

"I think I might have heard a name, something like Darsidis, or Darksius. They were walking away, so I didn't hear very well."

Zarya stopped walking abruptly, surprising Hostias enough for him to stop too. He looked at her in confusion, a worried glint in his brown eyes when he saw the fear in her turquoise ones.

"Darth Sidious? W-was it Darth Sidious?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Do you know him? How do you know him?"

Zaria ignored his questions, frozen on the spot. Of course, of course things were about to get even more complicated. What else did she expect? A peaceful second life, free of charge or care?

"Is that what they called Murphy's Law?", she wondered aloud.

"What? Murphy- What?"

The look he gave her definitely told her she was crazy.

(

Another chapter, finally! Things are beginning to spice up, and it's only the beginning!

What do you think? How much is Darth Sidious involved in this mess? What will happen with the chips? Are they going to be able to escape their situation? Leave a review for your thoughts and theories!

Again, thank you to Mads-Chikistorm, Fantasy.92 and thatfanboi for the reviews! Also a big thank you to all the followers, it truly keeps me writing!

Also, I want to emphasize on something I said first chapter: your theories and hopes in the reviews could potentially influence this story! Not all of it is set in stone, and if you want to participate in its creation, it is possible!

Or just correct facts I get wrong, fixing it is a good contribution too : )

Until next time!

-Maginary

*Disclaimer: I don't own anything Star Wars related, only my OCs*

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