It is a time of great suffering and change. The once lauded order of the Jedi now find themselves outcasts, forced into hiding by the Imperial strike squads and bounty hunters intent on their complete annihilation. Those Jedi who remain are traitors to the order, seeking to gain favor with the Sith lord, Palpatine.
Palpatines favor falls on the fallen Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, now known as Darth Vader. Vader seeks to please his master by carrying out the systematic destruction of the Jedi and its order and the only ones capable of opposing the empire.
Into this strange and chaotic period three friends find themselves flung from a far off place and time. This destinies will tie into the great conflicts that lie ahead, their actions, help determine the fate of the galaxy....
Pain, extreme, intense, overwhelming pain. That's the first thing Xander felt as consciousness swam back to him, resolving the world into being before his eyes. The second the light hit them the pain intensified and he had to choke back the wave of nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. He decided to keep his eyes closed, at least for now, and the pain lessened to more acceptable levels. He attempted to move his head and was met with a similar result. In fact, it hurt to move at all, so he settled for just sitting there, wherever there was, and trying to think back to what had happened.
He recalled being on patrol with Buffy and Willow. Some huge demon had come out of nowhere, Buffy went after it but the demon was just too strong. He had tried to help, thus the overwhelming pain he was now in. There was a big fight between Buffy and the demon, then some sort of bright flash, then here…
He decided to try to open his eyes again and the result this time was more tolerable. His eyes surveyed his surroundings in confusion. It certainly didn't look like any place her had ever seen. The walls were a metallic gray, with soft white lights built into them. The air around him smelled stale, as if it had been recycled again and again, and there was a strange humming sound, like that of machinery, coming from all around. Perhaps they were on a boat out at sea.
He looked to his sides and was relieved to find the forms of his two best friends, apparently unconscious as he had been. They didn't look any worse for the wear, he observed, certainly not as bad as he felt. He found himself feeling glad that they were taken from that fight, since he didn't think there was chance in the hell mouth they could have won. Still… It looked like they weren't out of the woods yet. In fact, they seemed to be in even deeper. "Buff… Wills" He called, shaking his friends lightly, but was rewarded with silence. Sighing, he took stock of their surroundings.
There was something about this room that puzzled him. The room they were in wasn't particularly large and it resembled a prison cell, except that there wasn't a cell door, just an open space at the front of the cell. He could see a faint glow coming from the walls at either side of the opening but wasn't really sure what that meant. Curious, he decided to check it out.
He managed to pull himself to his feet with no small amount of effort, and limped forward, toward the opening. As he neared it he began to hear strange hissing sound, coming from the opening. A thought occurred to him and he removed a quarter from his pocket, palming the coin he tossed it at the opening. As the coin hit the space between the walls, there were sparks and the coin ricocheted back toward him, landing at his feet.
Leaning down to retrieve the coin, he sighed as he saw the black singes on it. "Force field" He muttered dejectedly, recalling the star trek episodes he had watched with Willow and sometimes Buffy, where the dangerous criminals were locked up behind walls of energy.
"Now what?" He questioned, to himself as no one else who was around was conscious. He turned back to the others and started to limp back to the bench he had awoken on when he heard noise coming from outside the cell. He spun around quickly, finding that in his current state that wasn't the best idea, and saw a squad of it looked like men in white armor walking toward the cell. He couldn't be sure it was men though as every part of their bodies was covered by the strange white armor, and their heads were covered by white helmets that looked rather menacing to him. Their hands gripped guns that looked rather menacing too and at the center of the group walked a man in a brown uniform, complete with cap.
He began to back away from the cell opening, knowing that whatever was about to happen was not a good thing, and tripped on his own legs in his weakened state and tumbled to the ground. By this time the approaching group had reached the cell door. The man in brown, withdrew something from his jacket pocket and tapped something on the wall with it. The field sputtered and dissolved with a flash of blue and the men in white and the officer proceeded into the cell.
The officer took one look at Xander and said. "Take this one for now. The others are still out."
"Yes sir" The troopers responded , their voiced possessing no emotion, and two of them reached down and grabbed the injured Xander, yanking him to his feet painfully. "Ahh!" he cried out and struggled back, but his protests were ended when one of the troopers backhanded him with the butt of his weapon. His head rocked back from the blow, then slumped forward and he was silent.
Without a word the officer turned around and marched out of the cell, the troopers following with a dragging the boy's unconscious form behind them, the boys shoes clacking against the deck.
The field snapped back on and the group proceeded forward and out of the cell block, the cell door slamming shut behind them with a hiss.
Inside the cell, the figure with blonde hair moved, her head lifting slightly, her eyes struggling to focus. One word escaped her soft, red lips. "Xander?"
Then her head slumped back to the hard metal surface and all was silent in the cell once more.
In another part of the cell block, the Jedi Malkon Cross had his own problems to deal with…
The Jedi, Malkon Cross, was not having the best of days. It had started off well enough at first, well as good as could be expected for a wanted man on the run from extermination squads, but then that pesky Imperial Cruiser had to hyperspace in from seemingly nowhere and hit his ship with a powerful tractor beam. Before he knew it he found himself in the Cruisers hanger bay with a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers pointing decidedly nasty looking blasters at him.
That wouldn't have been so bad really, but now he found himself in an interrogation chamber where some burly oaf was in the process of pounding on him. Apparently the Imp's must have figured that an interrogation droid wouldn't be as effective as an old fashioned pounding.
Lucky him.
For the life of him he couldn't understand why they would possibly want to interrogate him, given that he really had no information of value. Then again they hadn't asked him any questions yet so this fit. <I bet they just want to watch me bleed a little> he though, <or a lot>.
Years ago, when he was still a pad wan learner, on a special assignment to a world on the outer rim of the galaxy, he and his master had been captured by a fanatical religious sect of a rather vicious race called the Forsythe. His master and he had been taken to the lowest reaches of a huge and rather ominous looking citadel, and tortured for long hours on end. The pain became so intense that it was only by placing himself into a trance state was he able to keep from going mad. Not one of the more pleasant experiences in his life to be sure. But, it had served a purpose.
The 'session' he was undergoing now seemed rather tame in comparison. <Incompetent fools> he thought wryly as the man doubling as a vibro- hammer reared back to deliver another hard blow. <Still… might as well give a good show of it>.
He waited for the blow and rocked his head back accordingly, adding a small moan for effect.
The small man standing behind the interrogator let out a cackling laugh that sounded something between a Ralgarian hyena and a Czthe lizard, and it looked to Cross like the mere expenditure of energy had winded the little toad.
He stepped past the towering giant and right up to Cross, no doubt feeling a sense of empowerment, what with Malkon being tied down and all. It was strange how people could delude themselves into thinking they possesses power. Strange indeed.
"Well Jedi," the man squealed in delight, "I see we aren't quite as braggart now, are we?" He leaned in close so he was right in Cross's face, giving him a good whiff off the weasels breath, and it smelled like whatever he had recently eaten may not have been quite dead at the time. "Where is your precious force now?" he whispered in a tone that was probably meant to be vicious, but that only succeeded in forcing Malkon to fight the sudden overwhelming urge to laugh his head off.
Instead he settled for fixing the twerp with a look that caused him to jump back quickly, despite the fact that Cross was rather securely tied to the slab he lay on.
"Do they teach lessons on how to be menacing at the Imperial Academy?" He questioned wryly, "Cause if so you either must have skipped that class or you might want to speak with them about hiring a new instructor."
The Imperial scowled at him from his position cowering behind the interrogator. "Brave words rogue." He spat, "But we shall see how your bravery holds out."
Malkon smirked at him. "Bring it on."
As the words left his lips a piercing scream shattered the relative silence of the chamber, reaching down into Cross's very soul and stabbing deeply into it. The force around him shuddered in pain and he felt it keenly through his link. Someone was being put through hell.
The Imperial rat saw Malkon's discomfiture and smiled through a set of pointy teeth. "My pleasure" he squealed in delight.
The world resolved itself for Xander Harris in an explosion of pain, and it was as if pain was all he ever new. As if it were something that was so inexorably connected to him that it could have been another limb. As his consciousness swirled more into focus he became aware of a loud noise coming from…. Well… he wasn't quite sure where it was coming from, but it was extremely loud and very disturbing for some reason, though he couldn't pinpoint it. Then it hit him, someone was screaming, and from the sound of their cries they were being put through incredible agony.
It was about that time that he realized he couldn't feel anything, aside from the pain there was a complete numbness and this bothered him greatly. He would have tried to figure it out, except he couldn't concentrate with all that screaming. It was incredibly annoying. He tried to think, to concentrate on some thought other then how much pain he was feeling, anything to take his mind off it, but that damn noise was just too distracting. Well he had had enough of it already.
He tried to open his mouth to tell the poor soul to please shut the hell up, but nothing seemed to come out, and the screaming continued. That was when it struck him and it was like awaking from some horrible dream to find oneself in the midst of a nightmare.
He… Was the one screaming.
The thought was so destructive that it shattered the threads that so tenuously kept him conscious and his entire world dissolved once again, to the sound… of screaming.
It was right there, in front of her. If only she could reach it. Buffy Summers redoubled her efforts as the light began to float away from her, trying to evade her, but she would not let it. No one got away from her. She was Buffy the Vampire slayer and she didn't lose.
The light continued to speed up, trying to escape at all costs, but it wasn't fast enough, or perhaps it was that she was simply too fast for it. She reached her prize and leaped forward, into the light, right into…
She snapped back to consciousness so abruptly that her entire body rocked forward and fell from the bench, slamming her face first onto the cold, hard deck.
Woozily she pulled herself to her knees and then her feet, blinking her eyes and shaking her head to get rid of the remaining vestiges of sleep. She discovered this wasn't such a good idea however when she was hit with an intense wave of nausea and had to grip tightly to an overhanging bar to keep her knees from buckling.
She waited a moment for the dizziness to pass, and surveyed her surroundings. It looked to be a cell of some kind, with gray walls all around and an opening ahead of her. That seemed rather strange. Typically one did not place openings into prison cells. It sort of defeated the entire purpose of keeping people in them. Something about the opening struck her as wrong though.
Buffy glanced at the bench beside her and gasped, "Willow!"
The redhead softly stirred at her words, then a moment more of silence it was broken by a tiny "Bu…ff..yy?"
Buffy leaned down next to her friend, "Yeah Wills, it's me." The other girl rolled over slowly to face her and lifted a pale hand to her face, "What happened?"
Buffy sighed and shook her head softly "I don't know. One minute we were in that fight with that demon… and now…we're… here." she finished lamely, shrugging her shoulders.
Willow nodded and lifted herself to a sitting position before taking a look around them. "I don't like the looks of this place, "She remarked after a few moments, shaking her head slowly."
"Me neither." Buffy agreed, "And I'm really not liking that Xander isn't here."
"Yeah." Willow squeaked, looking at her friend in alarm. "He was in that fight with us, and that demon was really going at him! What if he-" "Will stop it!" Buffy commanded gently but firmly. "We'll find him, okay? I'm not losing anyone."
Willow looked scared still but nodded at her friend and gave her a small smile, to let her know she wouldn't flip out on her.
"Good." Buffy said, "Now let's see about getting out of here." She stood to her feet and slowly approached the strange opening.
"Buffy, I don't like the looks of that. "Willow spoke from just behind her, "It reminds me of one of those brigs on star trek, ya know the ones with fore fields."
"Will's this is reality not sci-fi" The Slayer scolded, "Still…". She reached into her pocked and rummaged around for something to use. Her hand brushed across the nub of a number 2 pencil she had had in her pocked for a few weeks, and she palmed it. "Can't be too careful now can we?" she said as she lifted her hand and tossed the pencil, "Not that anything could possibly-"
Her words were cut short as a previously invisible field sparked to life and the pencil bounced off it and smacked the deck before her with a sizzling sound.
Buffy heard soft sounds coming behind her and turned to find her friend with a self righteous smile plastered on her face.
Buffy scowled at her. "Not. One. Word." she warned.
The redhead remained silent.
"Now how are we supposed to get out of here?"
Malkon was growing tired of this. He had put on good show for long enough and he couldn't draw on the force indefinitely to blunt the blows.
The Imperial weasel, as Cross had come to know him, held up his hand to stop his 'associate' and stepped forward once more.
"Have you had enough Jedi?"
Cross plastered on a grin, "What, did you do something?"
The smile left the little mans face and he scowled at him. He stepped back and disappeared from Malkon's field of view, reappearing a minute later with a long silver tube gripped in his tiny hands.
Malkon's eyes locked onto the object immediately, <That's just what I need.>
"Y'know," The tiny man began, "I've always found these things to be the most fascinating of weapons. I mean, you don't even have to swing really, just touch your opponent and push a little, simple as that. I imagine they are rather painful though, slicing through skin." As he said this the man pointed the tube at Malkon and placed his hand on what looked like a switch on the cylinder, "Most unpleasant."
"Yeah," Malkon agreed, "And you're about to find that out first hand."
"Really!?!" The little rat looked incredulous. "Well Mr. Cross, do you mind telling me how you plan on overpowering my friend here, "He motioned at the gargantuan who had been working him over, "Those men back there, "He pointed behind him to the contingent of three Stormtroopers behind him, "The ones back there," A motion to the two troopers on either side of Malkon's slab, "And me?" The man leaned in close again, his rancid breath once again on Malkon's face. "I would be ever so interested as to hearing how you plan to do all that, especially being as that you are all tied up." he finished before stepping back, and eyeing Malkon mockingly. "Well?"
Malkon looked him right in the eyes… and smiled. "Easy…"
Moving almost faster then the eye could follow, Malkon gave a flick of his bound wrists and the restraints being manipulated by the force, retracted, freeing his hands. He leapt to his feet and reached out with the force, snatching the lightsaber from the startled Imperials hands. He grabbed the blade out of the air, and quickly spun, holding the blade at an angle in front of his body, and completed a 360, halving the two Stormtroopers behind him. As he came of the spin he switched the blade to his left hand and struck out at the gargantuan interrogator, catching him in the chest and felling him. Not even stopping as the beast of a man tumbled, he leapt forward and into the air, tucking into a flip and coming down in the middle of the three Stormtroopers.
He swept the blade to his side, separating the one troopers head from his shoulders, and immediately pulled back and plunged the blade into the man on his right, in between his shoulder blades. The third trooper, frightened by his rapidly dwindling forces, spun and made mad dash for a console a few meters away, where the alarm switch was. Malkon turned to him and without a word shot out with the hand that gripped his light saber. The saber launched from his fingertips and shot through the air like a javelin, skewering the remaining trooper through the back of his head. The mans momentum kept his legs moving even as his body toppled, sending him crashing into the duraplast monitoring screen, shattering it and sending shards scattering to the floor.
The trooper slumped over the shattered screen, even as the lightsaber, called using the force, spun around like a boomerang and shot back into Malkon's hand. Malkon pivoted on his left foot and closed the distance between he and the weasel in less then a second, struck out with the blade, his strike stopping just short of hitting the panicked man, who was wondering how six men had been taken out before he was even able to fully process that his prisoner had broken free of his bonds.
In fact, the Jedi had been so quick that when he spoke next, the Imperial was able to latch onto his sentence and connect it to the last word he had spoken, almost as if there hadn't been a pause at all. "I'm that good."
The Imperial Lambda shuttle shuttered and dropped out of hyperspace. It spun on its axis and rotated toward Kelai IV.
Aboard the craft, Lord Drakiss S'vnth felt the disturbance in the flow of the force. It was relatively small as disturbances went, but yet it seemed to pulse with a kind of power that belied its true nature. He quickly looked over at his pupil, Karn Ovex, to see if he had felt it as well.
The apprentice Dark Jedi at the other side of the passenger area, his face betraying no indication that he had picked up on the pulse.
It didn't surprise him of course, Karn had not long been exposed to the power of the force so it was small wonder that he was not yet attuned to the various eddy's and currents. It would take the young man some time before he became aware.
Drakiss contemplated the curious occurrence. It had to have meant something. Force disturbances weren't exactly rare happenings but there was just something about this one… No matter. When he was done with his current assignments he would be his way back to the Imperial capital and he would meet with the Emperor and inform him of this, that is if the overlord had not yet felt the disturbance himself, which was of course rather preposterous a thought. The emperor was one of if not the most force attuned individuals alive, if he hadn't felt it then no one had.
Drakiss felt the telltale hum as the shuttle dropped through the upper atmosphere and the repulse jets kicked in. The shuttle would head down to the Imperial depot on the highest mountain range. There he would perform another monotonous inspection tour of the facility. One of many in the empires possession, and he had seen so many.
The Dark lord sighed, sometimes he longed for the days when there were still Jedi to hunt. The great purge had wiped out most of their number, and even though Jedi still managed to escape the extermination squads, there were so few and they were so well hidden that it was more a matter of chance then anything else to stumble upon them.
There were still battles to be fought of course. The rebellion had managed to gain some steam as of late, pulling new worlds into its push for galactic justice. It was occasionally entertaining to hunt some of them down and slaughter them, but it just didn't hold the same appeal as meeting a fellow Jedi on the field of battle, light sabers locked, sparking energy…. Ah, but such things were of the past now.
His deliberations were cut short as the ships intercom sparked to life, with the pilots voice.
"My lord, I'm sorry to disturb you but we are receiving a communiqué from The Imperial Palace on Coruscant."
Drakiss nodded to himself <So the Emperor has felt it…> "Put it through captain."
"Aye sir."
The dark Jedi turned to his side and flicked on the ships personal comm unit. A holographic image of the Emperor, clad in dark robes, his face hidden by a cloak, sparked to life. Drakiss lowered his head in respect "My lord."
"Drakiss." The old mans voice crackled through the comm. "I assume you have felt the disturbance in the force?"
"I have my lord."
"Good. It centers on three young people, particularly a boy."
Drakiss was immediately intrigued, "A boy?"
"Yes. He and the other two are currently being held on the Imperial Cruiser Revengeance . I am ordering the boy transferred to your next scheduled inspection point."
"How can I serve my Emperor?"
"I want you to pull any information you can find on how he and the others got here from his mind."
"My lord, I mean no disrespect but aren't the interrogator droids or mind probes capable of doing that?"
"Conventional methods have proven, ineffective. But nothing can resist the power of the dark side."
"Yes my lord." "You will be interested also to learn that there will be a Jedi sent along with the boy."
The dark lord was instantly excited at the prospect of meeting another of his kind. "A Jedi ?"
"Indeed. A man by the name of Malkon Cross."
The name sparked a surge of memories within Drakiss, of long ago rivalries and vows that had yet to be kept.
"I know of him my lord."
"I thought you might. Do with him what you will. Consider him a gift."
"Thank you my lord."
The Emperor then managed to some how fix Drakiss with a glare even though he could not see the other mans eyes. "Drakiss, I want that information. Do NOT fail me."
"No my lord."
Then the old man leaned forward in his seat just enough so that Drakiss could make out the hints of a smile on his mouth.
"Good."
And with that the transmission ended and the dark lord was once again left alone with his thoughts.
He could hear voices now, though he couldn't make out what they were saying. Everything kept swirling in and out of focus, as if he had ridden one too many roller coasters. He didn't know which way was up or down, and the sensation was making him decidedly quesy. Still.. The pain from before seemed to have dissipated quite a bit, which was naturally a very good thing.
He didn't know how long he'd been out. In fact, he couldn't really remember much of what had happened since he got here. Which reminded him, he still didn't have the faintest idea where exactly here was, and that was surprisingly one of the more irritating things on a list that went on and on.
He wondered how the girls were doing. ..The girls! <Yes!> he thought with suddenly growing optimism <That's it! Buffy will come and rescue me. As soon as she escapes herself that is.> Now that was a rather sobering thought. He didn't even know if Buffy and Willow could figure out how to break out of their cell. And even if they did, they still had to find him somewhere on this… well, he didn't know what it was, but from the way some of the troopers had been talking during his brief bouts of consciousness, it was quite big.
Xander was scared, no doubt about it. He had been here, strapped to this slab for god knows how long, while some strange floating metallic sphere had been pricking him with long needle's that burned like fire. And then they had attached some device to his forehead, and it felt like someone was trying to suck his brains out of his skull. It was most definitely torture they were doing, but he couldn't understand why they hadn't been questioning him. Surely they thought he had some useful information, though the only thing he could think that might be is the details of how he got here, and even that he wasn't too sure on. The strange thing was that they hadn't asked him one question yet, just kept poking and prodding and using longs prods to shock him. It seemed almost like they were torturing him for the simple thrill and pleasue of it, and that frightened him a great deal.
Presently he found that he could make out the words being spoken around him and decided to listen and see if he could pick up anything that might be useful later on, if, when he escaped.
"It's not working." The man dressed in dark gray said. "His will is too strong or he doesn't have the information."
"Unacceptable" the man in brown, whom Xander assumed was the superior officer, responded. "Have you tried running the device at full power."
"Sir, the device wasn't designed to be used on humans at full power. It could very well fry his synapses!"
"That's a risk I'm willing to take corporal."
"Lieutenant, if you fry the boys brain then we'll never retrieve the information we want."
"What about the other too? They'll do well enough."
"The captain has plans for them. We've detected some unusual readings in them and they are to be moved to a research facility."
"Blast! Then how are we supposed to recover this information they high command is after?'
The man in Gray's reply was cut off by the sound of something beeping. The man in brown cursed softly and turned around, disappearing from his line of sight. Xander heard the sounds of some movement and a few moments later the Lieutenant's voice resumed, though this time from somewhere else in the room.
"Captain Rslye, to what do I owe the honor."
A new voice started speaking. "I have some news. It appears that high command has decided to move the male prisoner."
"But sir I… It… We just need some more time, we WILL break him!"
"It's too late for that. Command has decided to send one of the Dark Knights to retrieve the information they are after."
"Sir I just need more-"
"Silence! This matter is closed."
"…Yes… Captain."
"Good, now, the prisoner will be placed on a shuttle and transported to the Energy transfer facility on R'mos. Lord S'vnth was scheduled to tour the facility and will 'interrogate' the boy when he arrives."
"Yes sir…"
"Good. Our part in this matter is ended understand?"
"Yes captain."
"Very well, Rslye out."
The Comm. Xander guessed it was cut off and there was some more movement before Xander found himself face to face with the Lieutenant. The man stared hatefully into the boys eyes, clearly upset that his prize was being robbed him. He looked as if he wanted to strangle Xander just so that no one else could get a crack at him.
"Well now sonny." The Imperial spoke in a condescending tone with just a hint of bitterness and hate. "You're going to take a little trip." He pulled back a bit and stared at Xander with false sympathy. "Y'know, I don't envy you lad. Lord S'vnth is not exactly known for his… tenderness." He smiled, or at least it seemed to be an approximation of one, though the wicked gleam in his eyes belied a cruelty that made the young mans stomach churn. "You're going to wish you had stayed with me, I assure you."
With that, the Imp reared back and slammed his fist against Xander's face, and, for the third time that day, Xander found himself being slipping into unconsciousness.
<This is really getting old…>
Malkon Cross hid behind a set of containers in the main hallway of the cell block. He could hear voices coming from around the corner. Most likely a pair of Stormtroopers making their hourly rounds, but he couldn't be certain, and besides he didn't want to take the chance that one of the could activate his comm unit before he could be dealt with and then the entire ship would be alerted.
Malkon never shied away from a fight but he didn't fancy going up against an entire ship full of Imperials with blasters in their hands and murder in their eyes.
After a few minutes, he heard footsteps moving away from his position and the sound of voices faded against the backdrop of the ships engine.
He emerged from his hiding place and began to make his way out of the block, when he felt something. A slight shift in the force around him. The presence of someone, and there was something about it that made him think there was something special about them. He decided to do a quick check of the block, to see if he could locate them, and at the very least he could free some prisoners and help them escape.
Not a bad deal at all for a Jedi.
Buffy Summers was becoming very incensed. No matter what she or Willow tried, nothing worked to shut off that blasted field. Heck, she had even tried hitting the thing a few times and the only thing that succeeded in was singing her hands.
This was certainly not shaping up to be a good day.
She sighed and turned to her friend who was crouched by the wall, her hands fiddling with a set of wirse they had uncovered from a panel in the wall.
"Anything Will." The redhead turned to her slayer friend and offered her a small smile, but shook her head. "Nothing yet Buffy, but I'm working on it. Just be patient."
"Patient?" Buffy echoed incredulously, "I'm a slayer. We don't DO patience. We kill things, we kill more things, and when we get tied of that, we save the world a few times. There's no room in there anywhere for patience."
Willow shook her head reprovingly, "Well find some cause we might be here awhile. At least until I can figure out how to turn this stupid field off."
Buffy opened her mouth to argue, but thought better and shut it again. She settled for turning around and sulking back to the metal bench where she plopped down, with her arms crossed, and glared at the force field.
Willow saw this and had to hide the urge to chuckle. "Big baby."
"What was that?" The slayer demanded.
"Nothing, not a thing."
The slayer was all set to go off on her friend, when she heard a noise coming from outside the cell.
"Willow. Quick!" She whispered urgently, motioning to her friend to replace the circuit panel and move back to the bench. The young girl complied and then huddled next to her friend, their eyes both fixed intently on the faintly glowing opening….
A few seconds later, a figure appeared from outside the cell and peered in.
It was a man. He appeared to be in his late twenties to early thirties, rather handsome, with platinum blonde hair and a roguish look about him. He was dressed in dark gray, from his trousers to his shirt and leather jacket, with black ribbed padding on the shoulders, that hung to his waist. In his hands he gripped a long metal tube. His light gray eyes peered at them curiously.
"Who are you?" He queried.
This was just about the last straw for the slayer. "Who are we? Who the hell are you buddy and why dod you bring us here and lock us up!?!"
The man looked at her, confused, for a moment, then broke out into a little laugh. "I assure you young one that I had no part in your being brought here, though I take it from your words that you yourself do not know where you are or how you got here."
"That's right." The slayer confirmed. "So where are we and how did we get here?" She stared intently at the man, waiting for a response.
"Well I am afraid that I cannot tell you how you got here as I have no idea. However, I can tell you that you are on the Imperial Cruiser Revengeance, In detention block 11D."
The slayer and redhead stared at him uncomprehendingly. "Huh?" The blonde managed, after a moment.
The man looked at a loss as to what to say, but shook off the reply he had been about to make. "Listen, there will be plenty of time for this later. For now I suggest we make our escape."
Buffy glared at him. "And tell me just why should we trust you?" "Because," He replied as he reached over with something in his hand and shut off the field, "I'm all you've got."
The slayer seemed to think about this for a moment, then nodded and motioned to her friend. Together, they exited the cell and joined the man in the hallway.
"By the way, " He offered his hand to Buffy, "My name is Malkon Cross."
The slayer looked at the hand suspiciously for a moment before she sighed and reached out her own hand, "Buffy, Buffy Summers."
The redhead head followed her lead, "Willow Rosenberg."
The Jedi smiled at them both, "Pleased to meet you."
"Listen, "The Slayer began, "A friend of hours was brought here with us. A boy. We need to find him before we can leave."
"Hmmm" Cross thought, "Well if he was taken from the cell then they most likely took him for interrogation. Not a very pleasant experience I must say."
He noticed that both girls looked sick at his statement, and cursed himself for scaring them. "I'm sorry" He said, "That was rather callous of me." He motioned with his hand, "The interrogation facility is this way. We'll rescue your friend in short order and then be off this cursed spaceship."
Both girls turned to stare at him, their mouths hanging open, eyes wide.
"Uh… was it something I said?"
It loomed before him like a giant, the ominous tower, rising high into the sky, jagged looking protrusions jutting out every so often, giving it the appearance of a castle, a fortress. The regional headquarters for the Severed hand crime syndicate was indeed a fortress, build solid and sturdy, capable of withstanding planetary bombardment from an imperial bulk cruiser. Guarded by a contingent of loyal Gammorean, Rashiedn, Trandoshan and other assorted species, it was practically impenetrable.
Joven Stith loved a challenge.
His eyes surveyed the tower through his helmet visor, the image enhanced with the helmets sensors. He raised his right forearm and flicked his wrist. A small hissing sound and a dart launched out, propelled by an air cartridge, and shot through the air, attaching itself to a midlevel balcony on one of the protruding towers. The line attached to the miniature grapple went taught and Joven gripped it tightly. He ran at the wall and jumped, the suits micro-servos enhancing what would normally be an average jump into a powerful leap that brought him a good 5 meters up the wall. He reached out with his hands, tapping a small button on his wrist guard that activated a magnetic field on his gauntlets, and boots, securing him more firmly to the wall.
He began to climb at an impressive pace, his actions enhanced by the armor he worse. Quickly reaching the underside of the lip of the balcony, he paused to listen for the guards. His HUD in his helmet informed showed him that there were three beings above him, two Trandoshans and a Human.
He pulled himself to the edge of the lip. Braced and then kicked off with his feet, gripping onto the balcony with his hands and using his momentum to pull himself up and over onto the balcony itself. The guards were taken by complete surprise and moved to engage, but were quickly silenced by a flick of the wrist which fired darts containing neural toxins, delivering the kills almost instantaneously.
His sensors rated sporadic life signs throughout the tower, but there was only one he was looking for. Getting a read on his quarry, Joven took off for the turn lift at full speed. Withdrawing a pair of custom heavy blasters from their sheaths as he moved.
He shot out into the corridor. Immediately spotting another group of guard, and let loose a flurry of bolts. The confused beings didn't even have time to react as they were cut down under the onslaught.
An alarm klaxon blaring to life informed him that his presence had finally been registered, but that was unavoidable, and of little matter. He continued on to the lift and up to the top level, where his quarry waited.
As soon as the lift doors opened and Joven stepped out, a blade came out of nowhere and knocked both guns from his grip. Joven quickly ducked forward and rolled under the next strike, coming to his feet in a and spinning to face his attacker in a defensive posture. A Rashiedn stood before him, vicious looking, tall, lean and with nasty looking blades protruding from its wrists. A cruel smile shown through the jagged teeth, a feral grin, inviting doom.
"Ugly aren't you." Joven remarked in a semi casual tone. The creature snarled and lunged. Bringing its wicked blades slashing in at him. Joven parried to the side and raised his gauntlets, deflecting the attacks with a series of sparks from each strike. He spun around and, backhanded the creature, stunning it, but it quickly recovered. It came at him again in rage, launching both bladed appendages out, hoping to impale him, but Joven was too fast for that. He performed a forward flip, launching him clear over his attacker, and landed behind it. The startled creature spun to attack again. But Joven ducked under the slash, and coming up in a vicious uppercut that sent the creature flying. It landed and sprung to its feet, dripping greenish blood from his shattered mouth. "Yousss wiiill dieeiii!" it hissed at him with difficulty. "Bring it." was his sole reply. The creature let out a sole shattering cry and lunged, moving incredibly fast it surely would have skewered any ordinary being.
But Joven Stith was by no means ordinary.
With a speed that put his attacker to shame, Joven moved to the side and under the blow, shooting his arm out as the creature roared past and gripping it. He yanked hard, snapping the appendage with a liquidly crunch, freeing it and thrusting it up and back at its owner.
The blade sliced through the still startled creature, removing its head from its shoulders in one clean move.
Joven released his grip and stepped back, moving away even as the decapitated body joined its missing part on the floor of the room.
Joven spun and reached out his hands towards his discarded pistols, which amazingly were yanked into his grip.
"Time to collect my pay." he muttered and stalked forward toward the double blast doors that concealed his target. The doors were not surprisingly, locked. Reaching into his utility pack, Joven retrieved a small round object and attached it to the door. He moved back and to the side, and when he was a safe distance away, he keyed the signal in through his wrist panel, detonating the charge.
The door was blown inward and Joven moved swiftly yet cautiously forward into the next room.
A pair of Rashiedn stood by his target, a corpulent Hutt. Seeing the intruder, they moved to intercept. But Joven was in no mood to deal with them and so he merely raised his blasters and disintegrated them.
The Surprised and frightened Hutt looked at him, its large eyes going impossibly wider as Joven stalked towards him.
It began to babble a stream of words in Huttese, but Joven knew this language well and so understood perfectly.
"I- I know what You're looking for." It said, "But I can assure you, I don't have it! You must believe me!"
Joven responded in basic. "My employer doesn't believe you. He sent me here to make sure that you don't cause any more trouble." Saying this, he raised his blaster and pointed it at the giant wormlike creature.
The Hutt began to tremble viciously, "Please. In the name of the gods have mercy!"
Joven stood regarding him for a moment, then he lowered his weapons and turned back the way he came. As he reached the door he paused and said "Mercy is for the weak." and tossed a strange looking sphere back at the Hutt. It landed several feet in front of the creature and the Hutt looked at it curiously.
"What is it?" It queried the bounty hunter fearfully.
"A present from your admirer." he the armored man answered simply before walking away.
"How strange." The Hutt remarked as he gazed at it, "I wonder…"
His eyes widened again as alight on the sphere blinked, once, twice, then a glow began to emit from it, moving in an ever expanding sphere.
The Hutt knew very well what that glow was and wished with all his life that he had his hover sled with him. As it was we was forced to watch as the sphere inched toward him, moving impossibly slow and yet seemingly much to fast.
As the ominous light reached him his skin began to sizzle and the creature let out a wail of intense agony, for the light hit him his skin and insides were being boiled under incredible heat, cooked for the inside out. The process too quite some time and so the agonized Hutt was able to think deeply on the mistake he had made, and how if he ever got the chance he would make it right.
But of course, there were no second chances here. A good twenty minutes later, the light had encased the entire room and the Hutt listened with literally burning ears as a strange sound emanated from the device. It clicked open, revealing a vial of bluish liquid.
Then Garada the Hutt's world was quite mercifully brought to an end.
As Joven moved away from the towering structure an odd light emanated from the top level, followed by an ear shattering explosion, lifting the top level clear off the rest of the tower and sending it plummeting into the near bottomless canyons of the under city.
Joven didn't stop to spare one last glance at the tower as he moved forward, his left hand keying in a sequence on his right wrist pad. Mere moments later, his ship, a wicked looking modified Scaraxean fighter named the Predator, swung into view. Joven started toward it with purpose, his mission here was complete. But there would be other missions. There always had been.
Such was the life of a hunter.
The Imperial Commander stood before them, cowering in terror, his eyes sweeping across the room, taking in the sight of the fallen storm troopers, cut down before they even knew what hit them. And now he had no one to protect him against the Jedi and his companions.
Malkon Cross shut off the glowing blue blade of his saber and stepped forward casually, his gaze fixed on the cowering Imperial.
It had been easy enough getting this far. A quick scan of the area using the force had located the life sign of the boy his new friends were looking for. They made it to the interrogation room in short order, but when they arrived they found no sign of the lad, save the Imperial officer who had interrogated him and his contingent of guards. They had been dealt with easy enough.
Buffy growled low in her throat and lunged at the frightened officer, gripping his collar and lifting him into the air a good 5 feet.
"Where is he!?!" she demanded of the man, who looked as if he might faint.
Despite his dire situation, the Imp officer had apparently been trained well and kept his mouth shut. He knew quite well the consequences of giving information away to the enemy, and they were anything but pleasant. "I'm not saying anything." he maintained, though his voice was trembling.
Buffy looked as if she might break the man in half if this continued much longer, and Malkon knew they wouldn't get anything from this man through brute force and threatening, so he decided to intervene. He moved forward and laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Easy now." he said in a calming voice. "There is no need for violence. He will tell us everything we need to know."
Buffy looked over her shoulder at him quizzically but Malkon simply shrugged. He moved in front of the scared man and waved his hand in his face. "You will tell us everything we want to know." he demanded, firmly yet gently.
To Buffy and Willows amazement, the man nodded and repeated, "I will tell you everything you want to know."
The girls exchanged confused looks, then turned a curious eye on the Jedi in front of them, but he ignored them, concentrating on his interrogation.
"Good." he said. "Now where is the boy?"
The Imperial seemed to consider this for a moment, then responded, "He is being taken to the energy transfer facility on R'mos."
Malkon raised an eyebrow at him. "Why would they want to take him there?"
"The Dark Lord Drakiss is scheduled to make an inspection tour of the facility."
"Drakiss." Malkon echoed, the name striking a familiar and quite unpleasant cord in his memory. "So it is believed that he can extract the information you apparently are looking for then?"
"Yes."
"Well" The Jedi began, "Just exactly what IS it that you are looking for, and why was the lad chosen?"
This seemed to go over less easily with the Commander and Buffy and Willow could see him start to visibly shake. "He's just fighting against the force." Malkon explained. "They really did train this one well. He turned back to the struggling man and waved his hand once more, drawing in even more energy from the force to aide him.
The Imp slowly stopped struggling and was still once more.
"What are you looking for?" Malkon repeated his previous question.
"I can only tell you what I know." the other man began. "We found these three on some ancient and abandoned alien space station, of a design we've never seen. They were discovered by one of our search teams in the inner core of the station. Readings taken of the station and of the children indicate that they come from a dimension not our own."
Cross turned back and glanced at the two girls behind him curiously, and a bit warily. They simply looked back and shrugged in response.
"So let me guess" he began again after turning back to the man, "Your emperor found out about this somehow and decided he wanted to locate this other dimension."
The Imperial gave a nod.
"Why not simply study the station more closely?"
"It disappeared, taking most of our research team with it."
"Why did he choose the boy and not one of these lovely ladies?"
"I was told that the Emperor sensed something in the boy, something he believes can be used, though our interrogation methods have proven less then… effective, in locating this thing. And it was feared any further trauma might prove fatal." The mans face shifted into a smile. "The Emperor did not want to risk losing his new prize,"
At these words Buffy exploded. Lifting the suddenly terrified Imperial and slamming him against a nearby consol. "You bastard!" she screamed at him, "What the hell did you do to him!?!" she emphasized this question by slamming him against the consol again, hard.
"Buffy." Malkon warned. "He's already given us all the information we need. Now if we hurry we just might be able to get to your friend before his transport takes off."
The slayer calmed under these words, and released the Imperial rat. The man collapsed against the console and glared at them in rage. "You won't get away with this you hear me! I swear in the name of the gods I will-" Cross glanced at him and waved his hand dismissively sending out a wave of force energy that hurled the man across the room to slam against the far wall where he crumpled, unconscious.
"We must make hast." he told them. Leaning down he retrived a pair of blaster rifles from the fallen storm troopers and offered them to the girls.
"I don't like guns." the slayer maintained, holding her hand out, palms up, in refusal of the weapon.
"You don't have much of a choice here." The Jedi informed her. "Because there is a whole ship full of storm troopers out there who don't have the same handicap." he offered her the blaster again. Buffy stared at him defiantly for a few moments, but then, realizing this was wasting time and that the man probably was right, she sighed and took the weapon from him.
He turned to Willow and any argument she might have been about to make was sent silent by his firm look. Wordlessly, she accepted the blaster, gripping the unfamiliar metal awkwardly.
"Alright" Cross announced, gripping his lightsaber firmly, "Let's go rescue your friend."
The three moved quickly out of the room, leaving behind them a roomful of dead storm troopers and one very unconscious Imperial commander, who would remember this encounter for the rest of his life.
Voices in his head, that's what he was hearing. They sounded so strange, calling to him, beckoning him, though to what he did not know. He felt this great pull on his soul, as if something was trying to tear it from his body. It was such a powerful feeling that it threatened to overwhelm him. It was always followed by the same voice, dark and evil, yet very enticing, promising great things if he would obey.
Xander didn't know where the voices were coming from, but they terrified him deeply. He knew that something or someone was after him. Somehow, someway, he knew, knew it with the very fiber of his being. They wanted him for something, something not good. In fact he was sure it was something rather evil.
He tried fighting back against the influence, concentrating, using all his energy to help push the dark presence from his mind. It fought violently against him, holding on for all it was worth, but with great effort, he was successful in expelling the darkness from his mind. For now…
He snapped back to reality, finding himself in a dark place, dark like the presence that had been in his mind. No…. not that dark, but dark enough. He tried looking around to see where he was. But it was just too black. All around him he could hear that same hum he had first heard when he woke up in the cell those many hours ago, though this seemed different somehow, less powerful.
He curled into a ball and tried to remain brave, knowing that his friends would come to rescue him. He believed in them. They hadn't let him down yet had they?
The darkness seemed to close about him like a hand squeezing the light from his soul
Xander Harris had never felt so alone.
"There." Malkon pointed out over the hanger from their hiding spot near the entrance, "That's my ship."
It still amazed Buffy and Willow that they were actually in space, and on a gigantic spaceship no less. Suddenly finding themselves in a hanger that could easily have fit Buffy's entire neighborhood inside it was a disorienting experience to say the least.
She looked out over the hanger in the direction that Malkon was pointing and spotted something. She couldn't get that great a view of the craft because of the angle, but it appeared to be oval shaped, though with a long nose. It was sectioned into three parts, with what looked like circuitry and wiring filling the spaces in between each section. The middle part had protrusions that jutted out and towards the back of the craft. The aft section she guessed was the engine, solid looking and rounded. She wasn't sure what spaceships were supposed to look like on average but she got the feeling that this one was pretty high up there in the coolness factor.
"That's her." The Jedi beside them repeated, "The Outcast. Fastest ship in the entire galaxy. This arm of it anyway."
"That's nice" Willow said, not sounding very interested, "But where is the ship Xander is on?"
Malkon's eyes scanned the hanger bay intently, finally settling on an Imperial Lambda class shuttle preparing to take off. "That's it." he proclaimed.
Buffy spotted the craft. "How can you be so sure?"
"This far out there aren't many Imperial outposts. The closest one happens to be the facility on R'mos. If there's a shuttle lifting off, your friends on it, trust me."
"Well what do we do? It's about to take off."
"Simple" the Jedi responded, an intent look on his face., gripping his saber tightly "We stop it."
He stepped from his hiding spot his eyes surveying the massive bay. "You two keep low and try to get to my ship." He gestured with his free left hand and Buffy could see some kind of ramp extend from the Outcast toward the ground. "I'll handle this."
"Oh no." Buffy protested, moving from the shadows to join him, finding it rather odd that no one had spotted them yet. "I'm not going to go hide while Xander's in danger!"
"Suit yourself, but at least get your friend to the safety of my ship." he called back as he started away from her, moving with a swiftness and stealth that put Buffy's to shame, toward the shuttle on the far side of the bay.
They looked after him for a few moments. "I don't get this Buffy, spaceships, laser guns, lasers words, a guy who seems like the male version of a slayer, with the added enhancement of some kind of magic or telekinesis. It's all too weird." Buffy gave her friend a look, "Even for us!" The red head added.
"I know." She echoed her friends concern. "This is all very, very whacked out. But we can deal with that once we have Xander back, safe and sound."
Buffy nodded to Willow who moved beside her. "Stay close and follow me. Keep low." she instructed the redhead as she crouched down and crept towards a stack of crates a few meters in front of them. Willow copied her actions as best she could and followed closely behind.
They reached the first set of crates and Buffy moved to the edge, peering out… and then ducking back quickly as she saw a man in white armor, a storm trooper, Malkon had called them, look over in her direction. She flattened against the crate, her enhanced hearing picking up the sounds of the troopers footsteps beginning to move in the direction of the crates. She stilled all movements and held her breath, silently instructing Willow to do the same. They both waited, not moving a muscle, as the man moved ever closer.
Just when Buffy thought they were as good as caught, the storm trooper made a shrugging sound and turned back away, moving towards the other side of the hanger.
Buffy sighed in relief, her action repeated by her friend as they both waited till it was safe before resuming their course to the waiting spaceship.
Across the Hanger, Malkon Cross was approaching the Imperial shuttle silently, using the force to shield himself from the storm troopers' vision. He drew ever closer to his goal, preparing himself for the task ahead, reaching into the force and using it to give him focus. He could see a pair of troopers guarding the landing ramp, glancing intently around them.
He had almost reached the shuttle when he heard a shout come from the other side of the hanger.
"Over there!"
He quickly activated his saber, the blade hissing to life, and rushed out from his hiding spot toward a group of troopers who had begun to move over to the source of the disturbance. He had to take the focus of his companions, give them time to reach his ship.
"Hey guys!" he announced jovially as he stepped before them, a smile on his face "Wanna fight?"
The troopers looked at each other confused, then turned and charged toward the Jedi, their blasters spewing red bolts of heat. Malkon fell into the force, using it to guide his motions, his blade moving incredibly fast, deflecting some bolts into the deck or hanger ceiling and sending others back at his foes.
He moved into them, spinning and slashing in a graceful and deadly dance, sparks flying as his blade sheared through the Imperial armor, burning through the flesh beneath it. Malkon had never cared for violence and did not at all enjoy killing but in situations like this there was little choice.
In moments it was over and he moved on from the scene of carnage towards another contingent of troopers who were firing at him, their shots turned harmlessly aside by his skilled hand. And then he was in between them as well, moving amazingly fast, striking his foes down with near impunity. A trooper came right at him and he reached out with his left hand, gripping the man through the force and throwing him backward a good five meters to slam into a pile of cargo containers. Another came at him from behind, hoping to catch the Jedi by surprise, but Malkon felt his presence and reversed his blade in mid swing, stabbing back behind him. He was rewarded with a pained gasp and the sound of a body hitting the floor.
He sensed the shot even as the gunman pulled the trigger, his mind focusing on the figure standing on the walkway above him. Seeing through the force. Malkon spun, bringing his blade twirling about, slamming the beam into the deck beside him. His lightsaber worked to deflect blast after blast as his left reached out toward the trooper, palm out. A powerful shockwave emitted from his palm and slammed into the gunman, sending him over the edge and crashing to the floor.
Malkon turned to search for the girls, and spotted them, doing a fair job of fending off their attackers. "Get to the ship!" he called out to them., snapping his blade out to the side and decapitating a storm trooper who got to close. He saw them turn to look at him and nod quickly before moving off. <I hope they can make it> he thought, before his thoughts focused back on the battle.
"Buffy lets move it!" Willow shouted impatiently at her friend, who seemed eager to join in the battle.
"I'm coming Wills!" Buffy answered back, ducking down so an attacking trooper went rolling over her back. She grabbed the man by his shoulder and sent out a flurry of punches, finishing with a vicious uppercut that launched the poor man a good five feet in the air. Buffy came out of the strike and quickly blasted another trooper who went sprawling. "Not as bad as I thought." she remarked, looking at the smoking barrel.
She turned to her friend and motioned her on.
As they neared the vessel Willow called out and raised her hand, her fingers pointing at something, "Buffy look!" Buffy spun to see what her friend was pointing at and gasped. The shuttle with their friend in it was lifting up and moving toward the opening at the end of the bay.
Both friends watched helplessly as the craft picked up speed, shot down and away from the hanger and into the darkness of space.
Buffy felt a pit in her stomach, a sinking feeling that threatened to overwhelm her. He was gone, Xander was gone. The sadness rocked her to the core, touching something deep inside, and Buffy felt despair creep up on her. But she wouldn't let it. Her friend needed her, and she wasn't about to let him down.
She faced Willow with a look of hard determination, "We'll get him back Will. I swear it." Her friend stared at her, tears in her eyes, and nodded. Buffy could see that same thing that she felt reflected back in her friends eyes. Well, not exactly the same, but close. Both of them knew what they had to do. They wouldn't let their friend down.
Wordlessly, both girls moved to the waiting ship and up the landing ramp.
Malkon spun, swiping his blade diagonally down and halving an attacking foe, then his eyes fixed back on the shuttle which was beginning to take off. He moved toward it, using the force to enhance his speed, reaching the vessel and attempting to board it. But he was being pushed back by his attackers, the bolts too numerous to deflect them all.
And then the shuttle was lifting off, and he couldn't reach it in time, watching sadly as it rocketed down below the landing bay field and away from the ship.
A group of ST's came at him from all sides and he did a 180, Holding his blade out in front of him at an angle. He stepped away form the pile of smoking armor and moved toward the bay control room. If they were to have any chance of rescuing the girls friend, they would first have to make good their own escape, and the hanger doors were already sliding closed again.
Picking up speed he performed an incredible leap. Flipping in the air just before he landed on the upper walkway. Several troopers charged at him but he dispatched them all in short order. Cross hurried into the bay control room, force pushing the control officer hard against the wall, rendering him unconscious. He moved over to the control panel and activated the bay doors, then he programmed the doors to close again in 3 minutes and slashed through the controls with his lightsaber so no one could reverse it without some time and effort, giving them a chance to get away, hopefully.
He rushed back out of the room and dropped back to the main deck, then moved swiftly towards his ship, deflecting the occasional bolt and dispatching any storm trooper foolish enough to attack him.
He reached the ship quickly and practically shot up the landing ramp, slamming his hand down on the button to seal the hatch as he reached the top and hurried to the cockpit, his new friends close behind.
"Strap yourselves in." he ordered as he sank into the pilots chair and secured himself, "And hold on tight." The girls quickly did what he told them, curious and apprehensive as to what was about to happen.
His hands moved skillfully over the console, bringing the ships systems online. Fortunately the launch prep sequence had been activated when he first lowered the landing ramp, because they certainly didn't have enough time to prepare for takeoff otherwise.
He activated the repulsor jets and the ship lifted smoothly off the hanger deck and into the air. A quick flip of a switch and the shields were activated, causing the energy bolts coming at them to be harmlessly absorbed.
"The doors are closing!" Willow cried out behind him. "I see it." he responded calmly.
Angling the ship towards the hanger opening he triggered the thrusters and the ship shot forward and down at the massive closing doors. He brought the ship up on its side and barely made it through the narrow opening, quickly passing through the electromagnetic field protecting the hanger from the ravages of space.
Once he cleared the hanger, Cross activated the main sub light drive and the ship rocketed away from the wedge shaped Imperial cruiser at amazing speed. A sensor blip appeared on his scanner and he glanced at it quickly, the readings telling him what he wanted to know. "They got a few ships out, from the auxiliary hanger I think."
Buffy looked at him confused, "Ships? What kind of ships?"
Her answer came in the form of a strange and wicked sounding roar overhead. She looked up in time to see two gray objects shoot past them.
"Those kind." Malkon informed her, reaching down and flicking on the ships weapons system. "Imperial TIE fighters." His sensors informed him that an additional 6 fighters had been launched and were closing on them.
"What are they?"
Cross reached over and switched his targeting scanners to ID mode. An image of a ship shaped like almost like a bow tie appeared on the screen. "Is that why they call it a Tie?" Willow asked, "cause it looks like a giant bow tie?"
The Jedi knight looked at her strangely. "I really have no idea what a bow tie is, but the name TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine. Notoriously maneuverable and wickedly fast little devils."
He reached for the throttle and pushed it all thee way forward, then flicked a few switched, shunting power from nonessential systems into the engines and shields.
"Then what do we do?"
"Easy." he replied, a grim look on his face. "We run."
Light flooded the darkened compartment, rousing Xander from his uneasy slumber. Residual pain from his torture made it painful to move, or even to blink his eyes, though he did so to stave off the stabbing pain of light. He shivered against the sudden coldness that hit him and pulled himself so he was sitting up. Confused, he tried to gain his bearings but was cut off as a voice rang out.
"On you feet!"
He looked up hesitantly and found himself looking at another of those men in white armor, this one with a large gun pointed right at him. "Move it!" the voice repeated and Xander quickly complied, afraid for his life.
The guard, seemingly impatient, reached out and grabbed him by the collar, bodily dragging him forward out of the compartment and to the edge of a ramp where he yanked him forward and released him, sending the young man tumbling down the ramp and crashing to the cold deck at the bottom.
As he lay there on the deck, his eyes swept the space around him, marveling at the sight. He looked to be in some sort of hanger, though it was much larger and decidedly more futuristic looking then anything he had ever seen. All around him men in white armor moved back and forth across the expanse, several vehicles that looked like spacecraft were visible, and in the air dozens of strange looking… they must have been robots, scurried around the cavernous interior. At the other side of the hanger Xander could see a large opening with a view of snow covered mountains, the edges of the opening tinted with a blue glow.
Xander spared a glance behind him and saw that he himself had just been on one of those spacecraft. If he hadn't been so frightened for his life, he would have thought this was very cool.
He struggled to his feet, his ears picking up the unmistakable sound of laughter coming from his attacker. "I don't see what's so special about you young one."
A sudden urge filled Xander's mind and he turned to make a biting remark, but someone beat him to it. "That is why you are a mere storm trooper and I am a Dark Jedi my idiotic friend."
Xander turned to find the source of the voice, and gasped. There, approaching him was a man dressed in black, finely made robes, a black cape with purple lining billowed behind him as if from some wind, though there didn't seem to be any inside the hanger.. He looked to be in his mid 30's to early 40's, with dark hair cut short and green eyes that seemed to burn an emerald fire. There shouldn't have been anything about the man particularly impressive, but just the same Xander found himself mesmerized. Behind him walked a younger man who appeared to be around Xander's age, perhaps a bit older, also dressed in dark robes, though not as finely made and without a cape, his startlingly gray hair seemed quite out of place on someone so young and his hair bobbed around, secured in the back in a ponytail style.
The two reached where he lay and the older man turned a dark look upon the, Storm Trooper, the man had called him.
"Do not ever do such a thing again, or you will know pain." The man in the cape promised, and his words seemed to have made an impact as the Trooper fumbled with a salute in reply "Y-yes sir, I'm sorry my lord. It won't happen again!"
"See that it doesn't." Then, the man turned to regard Xander himself. "As for our guest here, me and my apprentice have business to see to but it shouldn't take long. See that he is made comfortable and escort him to our chambers."
"Yes my lord."
With that, the man spared him one last curious glance, then turned and moved off across the hanger, his apprentice in tow. Xander watched them go, a strange feeling beginning to grow in the pit of his stomach.
"Alright. On your feet." the Storm Trooper grabbed him once again, though less roughly this time Xander noticed. "Careful now, don't want to make the old man angry do we?" he taunted the trooper, seeing with some satisfaction that it made the other man shiver a bit.
Seeing the situation he was in, Xander had little recourse but to follow the Storm Trooper across the hanger and into the darkened hallway, his mind settling on two questions: one, where was Buffy and Willow, and two, how the hell was he going to get out of this mess?
When Buffy thought of all the things she could have been doing, the thought of being chased through space on a starship by a bunch of other starships, was not foremost on he mind. Nevertheless, that was indeed the situation she found herself in.
She heard the tell tale roar of the incoming ships again and soon after their craft was rocked by a series of explosions.
"Do something!" she shouted at the man in the pilots chair, a 'Jedi' he had called himself, named Malkon Cross.
"I'm trying!" he replied as he yanked hard on the controls, sending the ship they were on into a hard dive. "ED" he turned to his droid co pilot designated ED-14, "We need that hyperspace equation NOW!"
"Working on it boss" the strange looking droid responded in a remarkably calm voice as its metallic fingers flew over the console, inputting the information necessary to create a hyperspace route.
"Why don't we just hit it?" Buff questioned incredulously, "Y'know, warp speed or something?"
"Warp what?" the Jedi looked at her confused.. "Look I don't know what you're talking about., but a ship can't just jump to hyperspace without the proper route planned out. Otherwise we'd run the risk of shooting right into a star or a planet or some other gravity mass! Not a good thing, trust me on that!"
"Well then tell your bucket of bolts over there to hurry the hell up or something!"
"I'm working on it." Malkon grabbed onto what looked like a joy stick, and thumbed a switch above him, bringing to life a screen in front of him. "C'mon, c'mon." he chanted as he moved the stick back and forth, trying to get the ship in his sights. "Aha!" he cried in triumph, the crosshairs lighting up as he gained a target lock. He squeezed the trigger on the joy stick and Buffy heard what sounded like a loud discharge of some kind, followed by a loud boom.
"WHOOOHOOOO!" Malkon cried in triumph. "GOT HIM!"
Through the large viewpoint in front of them Buffy could see small, twisted shards of burning metal shooting past them. Their joy was short lived however, as the ship was rocked by another series of small explosions.
"Damn!" Malkon cursed as he struggles to evade the ship that was firing on them. "They've got a lock on us.", he turned to Buffy. "You've gotta take over." he instructed, motioning to the joystick..
Buffy looked incredulously at him. "Me? Uh-uh. I'm more of a hands on girl."
Malkon rose his eyebrow at her "Look, I'm not asking you to save the day or anything alright. I just need you to buy us some time so ED can get those coordinates while I work on dodging their fire."
Buffy was still hesitant. "But-", "Look," Cross interrupted her, "We don't have tome for this okay, so just take the damn stick."
Buffy scowled in response but did as she was told. He quickly gave her a basic rundown "This is your targeting screen, that's the target reticule and that's the firing stud. Just point, and shoot. Just like playing a Holo-shooter."
"A what?"
"Forget it, just start blasting!"
The slayer bit back her reply and focused on the small screen, trying her best to line up the crosshairs with the image of the ship. She grinned when the reticule flashed, indicating a target lock, and squeezed the firing stud. A muffled cracking sound was heard and Buffy momentarily recalled from school that there was no sound in space. "Yes!" she shouted in triumph, glancing back at the screen. She blanched when the readout showed that the fighter had dodged the blast. Scowling at the screen, Buffy tightened her grip on the stick and tried again.
"Don't worry about getting a hit, just try and keep them off our tail." The Jedi told her as he pulled back on the control stick then twisted it, sending them into a corkscrew maneuver. "ED, those equations would REALLY be nice right about now."
"calculations are nearly complete." the droid intoned, its metallic digits flying across the navigation consoles control panel.
More explosions rocked the ship, sending alarms all around them screaming to life.
"Shields are failing." Malkon grimaced. "ED!"
"Got it." the droid informed, feeding the hyperspace equation into the computer.
Buffy cursed as the target she was shooting at dodged another blast. "It's about damn time!"
"Punch it!" Willow shouted, slamming her fist onto her armrest. Everyone turned and stared at her. "Uh, I mean, lets get outta here?"
"Right," Malkon turned back to his consol. "Hold on, this is gonna get bumpy!" He yanked back on the hyperspace activation throttle. Time seemed to freeze for a moment around them, the explosions outside the hull falling eerily silent. Then the world shattered around them as the stars in the view port leapt at toward them at blinding speed.
The small craft shuttered and vanished into the void of hyperspace, leaving its pursuers in the proverbial dust. With little fuel and a failed mission, the pilots of the TIE fighters had little recourse but to simply drift through space and hope that the end came quickly. After all, TIE's were cheap to manufacture and pilots even cheaper to train.
Such was the way of the empire.
Buffy clutched the armrests of her chair so tightly she was tearing the padding, her eyes screwed shut, trying to ignore the churning in her stomach. Beside her, Willow was doing much the same.
Malkon on the other hand was completely calm and at ease. "Well, that was fun."
Buffy opened one eye long enough to glare at him, quickly shutting it as caught sight of the vortex out the view port. "Fun? You call that fun? We nearly got killed!"
"The point is we didn't."
"Arghh," the slayer yelled at him. "Men!" she shared a look with Willow. "I mean I'm all for action and adventure but THAT," she gestured wildly to illustrate what had just transpired, "was plain madness."
"You don't get out much do you?" the older man questioned her, grinning slightly. Seeing that the young woman was fast losing patience, he added. "Relax. We're out of danger for now. Those ships following us aren't hyperspace capable, and the star destroyer wasn't close enough to track our exit route."
Buffy calmed down a bit at this, slowing her breathing and going pensive. The silence was broken a few minutes later by Willows soft voice "What about Xander?"
The slayers eyes snapped open and she turned to regard The Jedi. "Any ideas?"
The seasoned pilot thought for several moments, scratching his goatee. "ED, can you get me the list of freighters scheduled to land at the R'mos base in the next 36 hrs?" The droid beeped and nodded, its metal fingers tapping at the console in front of it. "Bringing up the list now."
Malkon scanned the list quickly, his eyes fixing on one particular section. He looked over at both her and Willow, his eyes lighting with a devious smile. "I have a plan."
Buffy felt a knot forming in the pit of her stomach, and she had a feeling she wasn't going to like this. Not one bit.
<Oh boy.>