(Unfortunately for her, 'the galaxy' isn't where she wakes in her new body for the first time.)

(Or.)

(Well.)

(Not her galaxy.)

She finds herself among some half-finished buildings and piles of building materials. They appear to have been abandoned for a while; the metal beams on the ground are starting to rust. The sun has just set, and the stars are beginning to twinkle in the night sky.

The only other person around is a young woman. Startled by the spontaneously appearing person, she tries to hide behind a concrete pipe.

She steps back, dizzy suddenly with the shock of a new body - the whirlwind and distant emptiness and chaotic upheaval in the Force -

(That face - )

Her knees buckle, just a little. (They're new. Painfuly so.)

The spontaneously appearing person saw her, didn't she? The spontaneously appearing person definitely saw her, and even if she didn't, there's only one obvious move. She pokes her head out from behind the pipe.

"Hello?"

She forcibly steadies herself. 

"Who are you."

"My name is Anna. And yours?"

"Lyli."

(There's a lot of names she could give. That one's not linked to her anywhere her enemies could find - but her handmaidens, if any survived, will recognize it.)

"That's a nice name."

Alright, time to give the direct approach a try.

"If you don't mind my asking, how did you do that? The whole...appearing out of nowhere thing.

Or if you didn't do it on purpose, do you need help?"

"...Possibly."

"Appearing here - wasn't what I intended."

"What did you intend, then? To appear somewhere else?"

(She needs a lie... She's unsteady on her feet still, reeling still - but she's been in worse circumstances.)

"Not - like that - I thought I'd be - waking up at home." She lets herself sound unsure.

"Where's home, then? Do you need a ride, or a place to stay for the night?"

"...I don't think it's - anywhere nearby." 

"A place to - stay while I get my bearings would be. Good."

"You can stay at my place! I was on my way home; you can walk with me."

Alita is genuinely happy to help someone in need, even if she's doing it by offering someone else's couch and with the ulterior motive of investigating her Mysterious Appearance.

(That sounds like a bad idea."

"...Alright."

(But she shouldn't sound too enthusiastic, anyways.)

"How far is it?"

(And it's a chance to investigate that face.)

"About fifteen minutes' walk from here."

"Close, then."

"Yeah. I was," she gestures around at the construction site, "taking a shortcut."

She leads the way out of the construction site and towards her home.

"Where is this?"

"Washington, D.C."

She is not going to admit, even in her facial expression, to not recognizing the name. Nope.

"Alright..."

"...What time is it?"

"Almost 9 PM."

That doesn't tell her much - 

Except that they don't use Galactic Standard Time. (Plenty of places have their own time system - Coruscant is down to only about a dozen despite her best efforts to the contrary to standardize that chaotic cesspit - but just about everyone also uses Galactic Standard Time, especially with strangers.)

"Alright," is all she says. 

Alita continues leading the way towards her home.

(As she goes, she can't help but try to put together the pieces of the puzzle she's been given. Not aiming for DC, possibly not for the USA at all..."Lyli", no idea what country that indicates, if indeed she is human and not just choosing to look that way...)

(She's putting together her own pieces. The world feels strange, still in the Force but not suppressed. And there are minds here, plenty of them, but - not as she's known.)

She's fairly obviously examining the world as they pass by, though her exact emotional responses are suppressed into an inoffensive curiosity. 

(Her resurrection ritual is a work of art, but, necessarily, an untested one. There's very many ways it could have failed, and the ultimate backup was always going to be her own determination to win.)

Alita stops walking in front of a red brick building, three stories tall, with a nice little garden out front. She opens the door and motions for Lyli to follow her in.

She keeps track of where they are, of course, noting the writing system on the signs, the strange technologies, and building up the beginnings of a mental map. 

She follows Alita in. 

Alita leads her up the stairs.

"My place is up in the attic."

...Hum. "It's a nice neighborhood," she ventures.

"Yeah! You'll be safe here."

Specifically, she will be unlikely to come to the attention of any of Alita's colleagues in the Yeerk Empire, because they think Alita has the area covered.

"Is crime a problem in the rest of the city?" (She caught that there's something the strange girl didn't say, and notes it for poking, now and later.)

"Oh, same as any other big city, there's good parts and bad parts. But I'm glad my neighbors here are chill."

"That's always nice."

Alita reaches the top of the stairs, unlocks her door, and enters the apartment. She motions for Lyli to follow her in.

She steps in and looks around, noting with a feeling of continued unease the bright and eclectic decorations - the style is familiar, down to the half finished paintings leaning against one wall. 

Alita relaxes her hold on her host's muscles...continues not poking at any thoughts not directed at her...keeps her attention focused on her raw sensory input.

<I don't think we should tell her quite yet...it would be bad if we didn't warn her and she got caught by the Vissers, but it would also be bad if we told her and she decided the Vissers sound great actually and brought her unprecedented capabilities right to them. I know it's a rare sort of human who would do the latter, but it costs us little to wait and feel her out a bit longer.>

She takes over the body smoothly.

<And there's something - weird about her. She reacted oddly to seeing us, and...>

Anna's not sure, not yet. But her job in this team is reading people, and she's good at it. 

<She's hard to get a good read on. I don't like that.>

- The odd woman is now squinting very suspiciously at them. 

<I don't like it either. Hard to be worse than the Empire, though.>

Alita doesn't bother to self-censor that thought. She doesn't see a course of action that doesn't involve committing treason, at this point; either Unprecedented Capabilities Woman will be inclined to oppose the Empire (and help Alita break away and survive), or she'll be inclined to support it (and Alita will have to try to stop her, even at risk to herself).

<I think a lot of humans could manage, with the Empire's resources.>

She sends the mental impression of a sigh. <I know. I just see something unexpected and...hope things are going to be different. Let's find out what we can about her, anyway.>

<Yeah.>

"So, Lyli..." she says to the strange woman, feeling far more awkward than Alita had while fronting. 

"I'm guessing you have questions?"

Awkward nod.