After the horrific battle with Glory, all the Slayerette's needed some time off. Dawn was torn apart from the trauma of seeing her sister throw herself into the dimensional tear to save her, and as such was trying to master her Key powers to reopen the portal and save Buffy. They all refused to believe her dead, for, as Xander said, "I don't believe she is gone until I see her dead in my arms." Not the best of sentiments to express to Dawn, but instead of making her more depressed, it made her angry enough at herself to plough though any and all books Giles had in his extensive library to find a way to master her powers.
Xander sat thinking in the Summers front room. The group was, and is, decimated. Giles left for England, reasoning that there were too many bad memories in Sunnydale, and without Buffy, the ex-Watcher had no reason to stay. Anya left on her journey of self-discovery, reasoning that if I was going to constantly put myself in the way of danger, then my life expectancy was not one that would allow her to spend the rest of her life with me. I still don't know if I hate her or not, it wouldn't be an easy decision if I did, or even if I didn't. Tara recovered from the brain suck thing, but moved away with Willow to try helping her through the magic addiction she had spiralled into. They never told me where they went, but they did leave me a phone number if I ever needed them, on the express idea I would not try to get them to return to Sunnydale.
Xander had moved into the house on Revello Drive at Dawn's request, and, although unsure at first, after Giles had several screaming matches down the phone at him about how he should look after Dawn, he finally gave in. He was too emotionally distraught himself to say that Giles should have stayed for Dawn's sake if he was so worried. When he looked at the Deed and the Will that Buffy had left in case the Glory battle was her last, he saw that Buffy had ceded the entire house to him, for the care of Dawn. Because, although Spike 'loved' Dawn, in his own way, Xander was the only one who could really look after her properly. Sun-light allergies didn't allow for normal jobs.
Xander stood up and walked over to his kitchen to make himself a drink.
"Hey, Dawn! Do you want a drink?" Xander called up the stairs.
"Please, Xan." Came the response from up in her room.
She seems to be recovering, but I'm worried about the amount of dimension research she's doing. Thought Xander, it's just her and me now. Everyone else has gone. She's all I've got of her sister or my friends anymore.
"Dawn, I can't lose you as well. I'll look after you, I promise," whispered Xander.
"What was that you were whispering Xan?" said Dawn, who had sneaked downstairs to see what Xander was up to.
"Oh, nothing, Dawn," Xander brushed her concern off.
"Xander, I know it wasn't nothing because I heard my name, and that never means nothing. It either means I'm in trouble or you're having one of your mopey sessions again. Tell me, Xander."
"No, Dawn. It wasn't important."
"Xander, don't make me get out the puppy dog eyes. You and I both know that you can't resist them for long. So save us both the bother and tell me." Dawn cut the argument off with that line.
"OK, Dawn, I was being all mopey again. Happy now?" replied Xander.
"No."
"No?"
"No. You haven't given me my drink yet." Dawn succeeded in keeping a straight face.
Xander burst out laughing. "Damn me. If that isn't the first excuse to laugh I've had since." Xander trailed off.
"It's OK, Xander. You can say it. Since Buffy died."
"Yeah. Since Buffy died." Xander said with a sigh.
"Come on, Xan. I want to show you a new dimension I can get to." Dawn excitedly waved at him to come up the stairs and watch her latest discovery.
Xander decided that this was as good a time as any to broach the subject of dimensional magic. "Uh, Dawn, don't you think all this dimension stuff is a little bit dangerous?"
"No. It's fine Xan. I'm being careful. But I haven't found Buffy yet."
"I'm still unhappy about it, Dawn. I think it's dangerous." Xander's voice showed he had little patience for an argument.
Dawn sighed, and humoured him. "OK, Xan. It's dangerous. Now let me show you the new dimension that I've found. I promise I'll stop searching for Buffy after I show you this one." If Xander had been standing behind Dawn he would have seen her fingers crossed behind her back.
"Alright, Dawn. Show me this new dimension you've found."
Xander and Dawn headed upstairs toward the room that Dawn used for her temporal experiments. The only good thing about Dawn's dimension hunting is that it has really helped her physics grades. All this temporal mechanics stuff is Grade A material, mused Xander. Then a further thought struck him. Why is temporal mechanics helping high school physics? What do they teach now in good ol' Sunnyhell?
When they got inside the old room, Dawn sat in the middle of the floor and opened book that had lots of bookmarks in it, seemingly at random. Xander stood over by the window, ready to grab Dawn and jump if it looked bad. Xander amended that: worse than usual.
Dawn started chanting, mumbling in some language that was long dead, and should have never been available to mortals. Every time Xander watched Dawn chant in this language, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was trying to simultaneously wrap his head in cotton wool and scrape it's nails across a chalkboard, but inside his head.
As Xander watched, the air in the middle of the room, just in front of Dawn seemed to shimmer, spontaneously catch fire and then tear open, revealing the multi-coloured swirling vortex that Xander affectionately called 'rainbow hell' and Dawn called 'non-space' it was truly vomit inducing just to watch.
Blinking his eyes and swallowing to clear the sick feeling, Xander watched the middle of the vortex carefully to see the opening of the other side. He wasn't ready for the sucking sensation that pulled him toward it while he was standing there.
"Dawn, shut the portal!" Xander screamed as he was slowly starting to slide toward the vortex. "I'm getting sucked in!"
"I can't Xan!" screamed back Dawn, who had started to panic as she saw Xander being sucked toward the portal. "It has to finish opening first! I may be able to close it now but it is very dangerous! It may explode!"
Xander made a mad lunge at the nearest solid looking thing in the room, in an attempt to slow down his slide to god-knows-what. One hand gripped a towel rail, what's a towel rail doing in a box room? Thought Xander, while the other hand caught the windowsill, which should have been much firmer. By this time, the force sucking Xander in had increased to gale level, and Xander's feet were floating in mid air, making him look like a superman wannabe. Only the look of sheer terror on his face said it was none of his idea.
"Xander! It's finished opening! I can start to close it now!" shouted Dawn.
"Stop talking and get doing! I can't hold on much longer!" was Xander's only reply, terror evident in his panicked near scream.
Dawn started to chant the incantation backwards, the reversal ritual. As she reached the mid point of the chant, the towel rail broke off the wall.
Xander tried to renew his grip on the windowsill, but his fingers were starting to slip.
Then they did.
"Oh, shit!" was the only thing Xander could think of to say as he was sucked into the portal, his voice tailing off and becoming distorted as the portal continued to close.
The portal snapped shut with Xander the wrong side of it as Dawn completed the reverse incantation.
Xander continued his scream as he fell out the other side of the portal. It opened out into mid air, about 15 feet from the ground, in what appeared to be some sort of audience chamber. "Oh, shit! That's the last time I ever let you do any portal stuff, Dawn!" Xander muttered before he noticed the occupants of the room staring at him. Then they pulled funny rods out of their robes. Xander's eyes widened as the foot long rods suddenly had about a metre of solid light shoot out of one end of each and stop. Xander could only think of thing to say as he fainted "Oh, shit! This cannot be good." then he folded up and collapsed on the floor.
The twelve members of the Jedi council sat in the half circle of chairs. Obi-Wan stood in the middle, as befitted a Jedi who was not a member of the council. They were questioning him.
"What do you believe Anakin's marriage will do to the balance?" questioned Adi Gallia.
Obi-Wan bowed at the Jedi master. "I do not know. It may promote good, as Padme is the only person who can get to his emotions since his mothers death, however, his emotions could also be used for the dark side. That could be catastrophic."
"Done well, has Jedi Kenobi to see this as he has. Anakin's love must not be turned to the dark side." Yoda spoke up, nodding slowly to himself.
"But still," said Mace Windu, "he must be watched. If his love for Padme turns him against the Order, all you worked so hard for will be lost."
"The chosen one he is," agreed Yoda, "much power does he have, more than Dooku, and more, possibly, than Dooku's unknown master."
Obi-Wan dared to question Yoda. "Has the council made any progress about finding the Sith?"
"Found the Sith we have not, young Obi-Wan. Clouded the Force is. Much time we have spent trying to find them, but no use, is it. Hide far too well, the Sith do, they could be merely miles away, and fail to feel them in the Force, we would." Yoda sounded very old at that moment.
As Obi-Wan was about to reply, he felt a disturbance in the air above him, and stepped back. It was lucky that he did.
A shimmering portal opened in the air in front of him, approximately 15 feet of the ground, and a body fell through. He landed solidly, with a heavy thump, where Obi-Wan had been standing not moments before.
At the unexpected disturbance, the entire council pulled out their light-sabres and thumbed them on. Obi-Wan was standing not five feet from the stranger.
Only Yoda had not moved. He still sat, still as a statue, watching the intruder.
The intruder lifted his head and started to struggle to his feet, muttering something about 'this is the last time I let you do any portal stuff' only to be met by Obi-Wan's light-sabre blade inches from his face.
On seeing the beam of solid light, his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed forward, unconscious. Obi-Wan quickly thumbed off his light-sabre as the intruder collapsed, to stop him from decapitating himself as he fell. The final words Obi-Wan heard out of the strangers mouth were; "Oh, shit. this cannot be good."
The council had sat again in shock. The had checked that their guest was unhurt, and then secured him in Force restraints, until they discovered what to do with him. He had yet to wake up.
"Who is he?" asked a very confused Mace Windu.
"That question can only be answered if he wakes up." Answered Ki-Adi-Mundi.
"I think the more important question is: what is he here for?" interjected the eternally wary, almost to the point of paranoid, Depa Billaba.
"Know that, we will, when he wakes." Replied Yoda, the first words he had spoken since the unexpected arrival of their guest..
Xander groaned and shifted, only to discover that he couldn't even twitch. His eyes, heavy from unconsciousness opened slowly, to see a circular room with a half circle of chairs in front of him. Each chair was filled. Only two of the occupants could be described as human, a black man, who was sitting next to a very short green creature, who looked a bit like a gremlin. The other was a tall, willowy woman, sitting three from the left of him. Beautiful didn't begin to describe her, only Xander's restraint in the Force bonds stopped his natural reaction to seeing her.
A voice sounded from behind him, and he tried to turn to see who spoke to him. "Ah. I see you have woken up. Would you care to explain why you fell out of the air almost on top of me?" Obi-Wan strode forward into Xander's field of vision and raised an eyebrow at him, his voice contained a small hint of amusement.
The short gremlin spoke. "Now, Jedi Kenobi, first thing first." He looked firmly at Xander. "Explain why you are here, do you care to?"
Xander looked blankly at it. the. thing. until his mind reordered the words.
"Where is here?" he asked weakly.
Depa Billaba stood and walked over to him, practically snarling at him. "We are asking the questions, not you! Answer, or you will have a less friendly questioning!"
"Depa! Sit down!" Mace nearly shouted the command.
Yoda open his eyes, after seemingly staring at whatever was hidden within for a short time. "Rash you are. Better, it will be I think, if you all leave. Release him."
Xander collapsed onto the floor like a sack of bones as the council released their Force restraints. He slowly rolled over and was helped to his feet by Obi-Wan.
The other masters did not look happy. "But Master Yoda."
"No. Argue with me not. Confused, he is, perhaps more so than we are."
"But. he may have. ways." said Ki-Adi-Mundi, carefully.
"Nonsense." Yoda turned to Obi-Wan. "Stay you will, please, Jedi Kenobi."
Obi-Wan nodded, honoured. The other members of the Jedi council left grumbling, all except Mace and Adi Gallia, who cast final, questioning looks back at Xander, before turning and exiting through the door.
Xander was now standing fully and appeared stable on his feet, Yoda was watching him with an air of interest, and Obi-Wan watching with a fair degree of suspicion.
"Sit, you will, my young friend." Yoda gestured to a chair.
Xander didn't really want to, but something compelled him to sit. So he did.
"I am Yoda. And this young Jedi is named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now. Tells us, please, who you are and where you are from."
Xander looked apprehensive, but nodded. "My name is Alexander Harris. But everyone call me Xander. I live in Sunnydale California." Yoda nodded. Xander continued. "Where am I? I don't recognise anything here. The last thing was Dawn open." Xander stopped. The look of terror on his face made Obi-Wan feel for him. "I'm in another dimension, aren't I?"
Yoda shook his head. "Know that, I do not. Yet, a long way from home, you are. Tell me, which planet do you live on?"
Xander looked at him blankly. "Earth, of course."
Obi-Wan looked up. "I do not know of a planet with that name, Master."
Yoda sighed. "That name, heard I have not, either, Obi-Wan." He turned to Xander. "Permit me, would you?" he asked.
Xander shrugged, and nodded.
Yoda closed his eyes, and he saw inside Xander's mind, everything he has been through. And the power within him, locked away.
Yoda looked around the mental construction of Xander's mind. Bits were strewn everywhere. Other than that, it was like an art gallery.
Pictures hung on the walls, one for each of the people Xander knew and held dear. All named underneath the portrait.
Dawn, the girl he had mentioned as he arrived, even looking at the picture gave urgency to her. That she must be protected.
Buffy, Dawns sister, the blonde haired goddess that Xander worshipped from afar, afraid of rejection. The picture was marred and dirty, and Yoda somehow knew it was because she was dead.
Willow, the red headed witch. Tara, the two pictures linked together. Yoda didn't know what to make of that.
Anya. The picture was darker than Buffy's, and if looked at from an angle, she grew alien, almost demon like. The effect was frightening, even to the great Jedi Master.
Giles. The picture of him was on a high pedestal, like Xander looked up to him, as a father or mentor.
Riley. He had a funny moustache and glasses scribbled on his face in black marker pen. The picture had a background, dark and foreboding, with an evil creature lurking hidden in the dark colours.
Yoda looked around. There were other pictures, but all so dirty that it was hard to make them out. Friends, lost or missing, connections broken.
Yoda then looked at Xander's mental state itself. Overwhelmingly confused. But from examination, he could tell everything that Xander had told then was the truth. His mind seemed to be partitioned, separated. There was Xander the person in one cubicle, and three others, filled. Approaching one, he was amazed at the vicious attack that whatever was inside launched against the door when he neared. Primitive and violent; an animals instincts, but not truly evil, as animals could not be judged on human morals or ethics. They did what they needed to do to survive. It had no concept of good or evil, only the Hunt. The next seemed to only contain jungle. Looking at what could have been the deep forests of Yavin, Yoda jumped back in surprise as a hail of metal projectiles <pinged> on the door. Whatever was there was sentient, and worked for the 'greater good'. The final cubicle contained just a white light, tingled with blue and green, but also with very slight hints of darker colours: purples and greys.
Yoda knew from his own meditation and looks into his own mental landscape that this was Xander's impression of the Force. And yet, Xander did not seem willing to accept that it existed. It was locked away, tighter than anything Yoda had ever seen, but the power still leaked out. Even sealed, it was more power than yet Anakin had. Fully trained, it may even have rivalled Yoda himself in strength.
The final thing Yoda looked for before he left was the planet Xander had come from. It had only one Sun, one Moon, and a predominately nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere. If he were, indeed from inside Republic space, it would not be difficult to find his home. Those were rather rare traits to find in one place.
Yoda opened his eyes and sighed. Xander slumped temporarily unconscious to the floor, his mind having expended much energy to expel the intruder.
"Much power he has, Obi-Wan, and much pain."
Obi-Wan nodded. "What do you wish to do, master?" he asked.
"Trained, must young Xander be, even though he is years older than Anakin was when accepted. This person, the Sith must not get hold of."
"Who will train him, then? No Council member will wish to, that much is certain."
Yoda almost smiled. "So sure, are you, Obi-Wan?" Yoda sighed. "Right you are though. Training him, no one will wish. No. I must train him myself."
Obi-Wan couldn't stop his mouth from falling open and gaped. Yoda had not taken an individual student for nearly 200 years, so the old records showed.
"Have you forgotten Dooku and the Clone Wars?" asked Obi-Wan.
Yoda looked insulted, but quickly calmed. "Forgotten I have not, Obi-Wan. Think I am old and senile, eh?"
Obi-Wan looked contrite and ashamed. "No, master, of course not. but."
Yoda waved with his gimmer stick. "Argue we cannot, at this time, Obi-Wan. I leave the Clone wars in the Councils hands. Mace is able, as are the others." Yoda cut off as Xander moaned and started to wake.
"What did you do?" he asked groggily.
"Answers was I looking for, Xander." Replied Yoda. "And find them I did. Leaving shortly, we will be. Follow me."
Xander got to his feet and followed the short Jedi Master out of the Council chamber, leaving a very bemused Obi-Wan behind to explain it all to the rest of the council.
"This is going to make Depa Billaba and Ki-Adi-Mundi very unhappy." Obi-Wan' s powers of foresight were indeed remarkable. He only hoped that he did not get caught in the crossfire.
Yoda walked into the hallway with Xander in tow.
"Clothes we must get you, young Xander. Then we leave. I will train you if you wish, or aid you in returning home, whichever you choose."
"What's wrong with my clothes?" asked Xander.
Yoda spared a glance at his newest trainee. The bright shirt he was wearing did not look pretty. "Looks as if a Rancor vomited on you, it does."
Xander just looked puzzled, although utterly confused could have been vying for the honour as well. "What's a Rancor?"
Yoda entertained a small smile. "I will show you in time, Xander. Become you, that shirt does not."
Xander still looked blank, until his mind reordered the words again.
They reached a door. Yoda turned to him and waved him in first. Xander walked in, and saw an old man, possibly the most hunched man he had ever seen, standing in the middle of the room. He was dressed in robes similar to everyone that Xander had so far seen. Rack after rack of the robes, in every possible shape and size covered the walls.
"Fit the lad with a robe, would you, Jedi Teno?"
The old man nodded, and looked Xander over. After a critical evaluation for a few seconds, a robe floated out of nowhere, from so high up Xander couldn' t see where it had come from. It folded neatly over his arm when it reached him.
"Change, would you, please, behind the screen, Xander." Yoda indicated a corner that had a curtain draped so it gave some privacy.
Xander walked behind the curtain and inside two minutes was thoroughly knotted in the Jedi robe. Yoda walked round the corner, leaning on his gimmer stick as he heard a <crash> that was Xander falling over.
Yoda sighed. The young man was, while obviously powerful, a complete clown. How he survived what his memories said he had been through was a miracle. No: not a miracle, but the will of the Force. As was his appearance here. Yoda reminded himself. I must do as the Force wishes, and prepare him. Need it, he will. Greater challenges he will face than those he showed me. I am certain of it.
Xander succeeded in untwisting the robe and finally struggled into it, while Yoda looked on and rose what Xander assumed to be an eyebrow.
Standing up straight, Xander picked up his discarded clothes from Sunnydale, and walked out of the changing area, following Yoda again.
At Yoda's gesture, he handed his old clothes over to the Jedi Yoda had addressed as Teno. He nodded at Xander, and floated the clothes to where ever he stored old or unwanted things.
Not that Xander wanted to lose that shirt; he liked it. It was just no one else did. There was just no accounting for taste.
As Xander turned to see Yoda again, he was surprised that the small green creature leapt at him. Shielding his head, years on the Hellmouth making him expect some sort of attack; he was surprised when Yoda landed softly on his shoulder. Straightening, he turned his head, and heard Yoda talk in his head, telepathically.
Fear attack from me, you need not. He said. Consider you dangerous others in the council may, but I do not. Unless, that is, you are untrained. We will be leaving shortly for a planet far on the outer rim where undisturbed, we will be. I will tell you more when we get there, as you, untrained, could broadcast our destination to enemies.
Xander just nodded, unsure of what to say. Yoda, as a small green imp didn't look dangerous, but the whole 'council' as Yoda named them were almost scared of him, and after all, appearances could be deceptive. Who would have thought Ben was Glory? Or that Dawn was the Key?
All this was running through Xander's head, until Yoda gave him a quick rap on the side of his skull with his gimmer stick. "Find your view of me amusing, I do not, Xander. But correct you are. Appearances are often deceptive."
The flight out to Dagoba was mostly uninteresting for Yoda, or anyone who had seen space travel before. Xander sat in the front, watching with awe as ships of all shapes and sizes flew past them, large, small, boxy, and rounded, in all their variants. Yoda amused himself by bringing the transport near to a large Corellian corvette, one of the new and by far the largest ships to come out of the Corellian shipyards since they began construction at the planet.
As the jump to hyperspace was engaged, Xander looked sick as the star lines streaked and became a swirling blue tunnel.
Only then did he notice that no one was actually controlling the craft. All the controls were moving by themselves. Yoda sat with his eyes closed.
"Uh. Master Yoda?" asked Xander.
"Yes, Padawan?"
Xander did a double take. He had never heard that before, and didn't know what it meant. Yoda had always called him Xander before.
"Why are the controls moving themselves?"
Yoda gave a small chuckle. "The autopilot it is called. When in hyperspace, the autopilot safer is. But before then, I was steering the ship using the Force. It is much easier."
Xander nodded, but still looked puzzled. "What's hyperspace?" was the next question.
Yoda opened his eyes and sighed. The near constant barrage of questions about the most trivial and taken-for-granted things was beginning to wear, even with the patience gathered over nearly 800 years of life.
"Permit me, will you, to give you the memories you lack?" he asked carefully. This was dangerous ground. Implanting memories trod far too near the dark side. But then, so did the Jedi Mind Trick, which both Qui-Gon, may he rest in the Force, and Obi-Wan had shown great aptitude for.
Xander thought about it. He wasn't overly keen on the idea of someone poking around his brain giving him memories, but he had to start trusting someone, and Yoda seemed a good choice.
Yoda chuckled again as he caught the thought.
"Very well, Master Yoda. Thank you."
Yoda closed his eyes again and filtered his memories, stopping the transfer of those unnecessary or disturbing. His ears twitched as he heard Xander slump low in his seat, the only thing stopping him from slipping onto the floor being the safety harness and flight webbing.
Xander flinched at the memories pouring into his mind. Yoda was being very careful about exactly what he gave him. Information about everything, but no opinions, allowing him to form his own as he encountered the event or planet or person. An attempt at a neutral view of the galaxy, everything Xander had questions about was answered, except one, which had suddenly appeared.
The final thing Yoda gave him was an overwhelming fear of falling to the 'dark side' as he called it. The feeling was so strong that it forced Xander unconscious.
The council had met again. All were there except for Yoda.
"He did what?" screamed Ki-Adi-Mundi, beside himself.
Obi-Wan stood again in the middle of the council chamber, impassive. "He left, Master. To train the boy that appeared."
"Did he tell you where they were going?" asked Adi Gallia quietly.
"No, Master, but he did say that no one was to follow him." Replied Obi-Wan.
"This is foolishness, attempting to train a boy who is probably older than Anakin is now!" continued Ki-Adi-Mundi.
Mace Windu cut in. "We must trust Master Yoda. He surely wouldn't train the boy if he thought he was going to be dangerous."
Adi Gallia and Obi-Wan nodded agreement, but only to be turned upon by Depa Billaba and Ki-Adi-Mundi. The council meeting dissolved into arguments and petty bickering as factions developed, worse than any Senate meeting. Depa Billaba and Ki-Adi-Mundi with their followers and friends on one side, against Xander, and Obi-Wan, Adi Gallia, Mace Windu and obviously Yoda supporting the training of Xander.
As the council infighting escalated, Obi-Wan snorted and bowed to Mace Windu and Adi Gallia and, when receiving permission to depart, then turned and walked out of the council rooms, leaving the argument behind.
Shortly, Adi Gallia and Mace Windu called an end to the meeting, disgusted at the lack of sense the others had. Depa Billaba and Ki-Adi-Mundi slowed their diatribe and switched topics, starting to talk about the Clones and Anakin.
The coming war was going to decimate the Republic. The greatest force the Republic wielded was internally divided and semi-corrupt, having been infected by the factions in the Senate.
The small ship Yoda had taken touched down on Dagoba. Here was where Xander's training would begin.
"Concentrate!" admonished Yoda.
"I.can't." Xander's voice came strained and tired. He had been in a handstand for nearly an hour.
"You can!" Yoda pushed another rock at Xander. He flinched and collapsed as the stone hurtled toward his face at a speed fast enough to rival sound. Yoda stopped the rock inches from where is face would have been if he had not been lying on the floor panting.
Yoda sighed distractedly. Xander had been an incredible student after the initial touchdown at Dagoba. Progressing even faster than some of his greatest students ever had, Xander was a Force prodigy. Even more so perhaps, than Anakin.
Yoda had not yet begun to teach him to use the Force, as Yoda stressed that harmony of mind and body was vitally important before any Force use should be attempted. Xander had survived runs and exercises better than any student previously, reaching the point where Yoda felt the need to test his ability to separate himself from his body. These test came in the form of strenuous physical exercise while meditating, bringing the ability to detach his mind from his body, letting him escape physical discomfort. Another test was calm under pressure; standing on his head while Yoda aimed rocks at him and fired.
None ever hit. Well, except that one time when he had fainted from the blood to his head and had collapsed forward almost as a stone halted. An angry bruise had been there for a week, but Yoda refused to cut back on the training, saying it would help to distance himself from his body.
Snapping out of his reverie, Yoda looked hard again at Xander.
"Now, Padawan, do it again we shall, succeed this time, maybe, hmm?"
"I'll try, Master." replied Xander.
Yoda looked incensed. "No! Do, or do not! There is no try!" Yoda smiled despite himself. "Like that, I do. Use it again, I shall."
Xander sighed and got into a handstand again. As he finished balancing, he breathed in deeply, nearly taking him over again. He righted himself.
"Distance yourself, Padawan. For real, this time it is." Yoda leapt nimbly off the ground, aided by a Force jump, and landed on Xander's feet. Xander remained balanced.
"Good. Begins, the test does." Yoda picked up half a dozen small rocks, and a larger one. Deciding to up the ante, he also floated some of the rotting plant matter from the floor in several clumps, without telling Xander.
Aiming the small rocks at Xander, Yoda let them fly, but not fast enough to cause permanent damage. Xander didn't even flinch as the stones hit him.
"Excellent. Displaced your mind, you have." Yoda got no response.
Moving the large rock nearer, Yoda chose not to aim it at Xander and instead chose a nearby tree. The rock powered through the trunk, and the tree creaked, as what had been holding it up for years suddenly wasn't there any more.
The tree toppled slowly, as if trying to defy gravity, and crashed nearby Xander, making the ground tremble slightly. He did not even twitch.
Yoda smiled slightly, pleased that Xander had finally decided to cooperate, and let fly with the mulch. Three sodden lumps of Dagoba hit Xander, and he ignored them all. It was only when the final one hit him in the face that he noticed and snapped out of whatever trance he had been in. Still, he remained perfectly upright, not overbalancing.
"Good." Yoda sounded pleased. "Seemed you, finally, to get the concentration required."
Xander nodded and returned to his feet, but shot a look at the Jedi Master as he did so. He sat up, and started to pick bits of leaf and soil from his hair, mouth and eyes. "Did you have to hit me in the face?"
Yoda nodded. "Good for your concentration, it is, Padawan. What you least expect, your enemies will throw at you. Remember!"
Xander nodded again and stood. Bowing to the small Master, he went back to the camp they had made, and set about making dinner for himself and Yoda.
Again, Yoda stood balanced on Xander's feet, this time while he picked up items himself. Yoda looked inquisitively at the small cloud of objects orbiting the two. Xander was holding up and moving nearly 30 small rocks and clumps of moss or fungus.
"Stop!" Yoda commanded.
All the objects orbiting stopped instantly. Xander had listened. Good.
"Let them go, Padawan."
All the items dropped immediately to the floor.
"Well done, Xander! That is very good for just a few weeks practice of telekinesis. You show great promise."
"Thank you, Master." Panted Xander. He had kept those 30 objects floating for nearly four hours, varying speeds and orbital paths as a test of both endurance and ability. At one point, Yoda had wanted him to bounce the rocks off one another, and keep them orbiting, but he found that, while not impossible, it took a lot of energy to concentrate sufficiently.
All the non-Force training that Yoda had forced upon him succeeded. The Force was an ally to be called on in only the direst of need, and definitely not to be used indiscriminately. Xander had lost the little fat he had, to become a lean, muscular man, who was obviously trained for endurance rather than pure power contests of strength or speed.
Dooku bowed low to his master.
"Rise, my friend." Said Sidious.
"What is your will, my master?" asked Dooku.
"I have sensed a disturbance in the Force," said Sidious, "Yoda has left Coruscant."
Dooku looked incredulous. "Then there must be the direst of consequences for whatever he has gone to oversee."
"Yes." Replied Sidious, cutting off his Apprentices spoken thoughts. "But that is not all. I have felt a presence in the Force, a new one. Greater than Anakin. Greater even than the grand Jedi Master Yoda himself.
"Who is this person, master?" asked Dooku. "And can he be turned?"
"I know not who he is, Dooku. As to if he can be turned. well. the Force is clouded now, even for a dark Master like myself. The new presence will either save Anakin from his fate, or damn him for eternity. and take the galaxy with him."
Dooku smiled. What would happen would happen.
Xander had progressed well, in all areas except one. Telepathic control; mental influence: or more commonly, the Jedi Mind Trick. This did not overly bother Yoda, as the power skirted the dark side at the best of times, and anything that opened Xander to the dark side was potentially deadly for everyone. In every other area he excelled, approaching even Yoda's ability in some. He would far exceed Yoda in power if he lived long enough.
Telekinesis was easy and proved no difficulty for Xander after a further month of training. Force jump, and other levitating skills were done as easily as Yoda himself had four centuries ago. Minute control over implements was no problem, as Xander rewired a burnt out circuit board using the Force to both see what he was manipulating on the microscopic scale, and to move each molecule to where it should be. Large-scale work was no problem either; as Xander proved by ripping out a tree from the ground to swat a remote that had gone to far away to properly bounce bolts back to. As impressive as that display had been, Yoda still disciplined and explained to Xander why it was reckless and bad to do, like he was a child; yet, in comparison to Yoda, he was, so he felt no anger at the reprimand, only a wish to do better.
Energy absorption and expulsion Xander also proved good at. Training and experimentation showed that he could absorb just about any energy flung at him, up to the laser cannon on the ship they had come on. Xander did say, however that absorption of anything more than a small blaster-pistol shot stung like hell, so they stopped there. He could also suck the kinetic, heat or potential energy right out of the air, or matter itself, freezing the surrounding environment. He used it to put out several small fires that Yoda had started to experiment with that power, one that Yoda had never seen before. Still, Yoda reasoned that it was only a variation of absorbing blaster rounds, and so gave it no thought as to how dangerous it could be.
Yoda now felt it was time for Xander to learn how to wield a light-sabre. Initially Yoda set up several training drones to help him, but they quickly ended up as scrap when Xander became adept at aiming the blaster bolts back where they had come from.
As the further training and teaching that Yoda could give Xander started to shrink, Yoda decided that, unlike most Padawans currently, who used a light-sabre given them by the Jedi Temple that Xander would make his own.
It was the ultimate test of the Jedi's abilities in the Force. Showing a perfect balance of power and control. If the Jedi was not powerful enough, the light-sabre would not work, and if he did not have enough control, it would fail him at a critical time, often proving lethal.
Only a few of the greatest Masters currently living wielded a light-sabre made by their own hands. The list was short: Yoda himself, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, a Caamasi Jedi named Ylenic It'Kla, and a Corellian Jedi named Nejaa Halcyon, both of whom were currently on a mission to see if they could find and befriend a group of alleged Force users on a planet so far away few people believed it existed. Yoda took a moment to reflect on what was said to happen to all Corellian Jedi who left their home system. He hoped it would not happen to Nejaa, as he was a friend.
Yoda lectured Xander on making a light-sabre for many days, finally acknowledging the fact that he was indeed ready and had all the required knowledge.
Xander began his final test.
.To become a Jedi.
On consultation with Yoda, Xander decided that his light-sabre would not, in fact be just one. It would be two.
They would also not be just any old plain light-sabre blades, which only had one gem and frequency, and therefore one length.
No. These would be dual phase.
Xander began, finally to create the blades. He started by meditating for two days, non-stop. This atunement with his environment allowed him to find the two perfect primary gems for the blade, of the six he would need. Ransacking the ambassador's quarters on the transport Yoda had brought revealed the others. The alcohol decanters were encrusted with gems of many types; diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, corusca gems from the heart of the Yavin gas giant, and topaz.
Xander selected for the first blade two corusca gems and a diamond. For the second blade, the remaining corusca gem, a topaz and an emerald.
The circuitry and battery packs were taken from several sources, the mainstay coming from the blasters that were part of the ships standard inventory. A cut down blaster flashback suppressor formed the parabolic flux aperture on each blade, and the high-energy superconductors were appropriated from two R2 repair droids. Xander nearly had a heart attack when one objected strenuously to having part of its 'eye' removed. He had been leaning over the droid, working the focussing lens out when it had suddenly tooted at him and whistled indignantly. It even went so far as to extend its arc welder and try zapping him, but that failed because Xander merely absorbed the energy and sent it back to the R2, overloading its circuits and activating its emergency power kill switch.
All that was left were the handles themselves. Unwilling to use inferior equipment on what would have to last for practically ever, Xander refused to scrounge whatever he could.
He ended up asking Yoda to create a pocket of zero gravity in the air, while he used the Force to melt and manipulate the remains of the blasters he had torn apart to mould the handles and grips. Yoda watched with fascination at the approach Xander used, wholly within the Force himself, and bathing each component of the blades with the Force as he worked with them. Most Jedi used whatever material was available, but Xander refused to use anything that could possibly compromise the blade. Nejaa Halcyon in particular was notorious for having light-sabers that were made out of anything lying around. They never broke down, but he passed them onto students as he felt they deserved them. Yoda almost let the zero-grav bubble slip as he thought of one blade he had seen, you could have stuck it on a speeder bike and no one would be any the wiser, as it was made out of part of the handlebar. Or another where he had hollowed out a hydrospanner to form the hilt. A Jedi mechanic.
When Xander had finished forming the handles, he collected all the components together and arranged them on the floor in front of him. They were not quite touching the floor, hovering and rotating slightly as he soaked each in the Force, examining each for any possible flaw.
He found none.
Slowly lifting each piece with his mind, Xander started to assemble the blades. Circuits boards snapped together and pathways bonded as the Force flowed through the atoms. Circuits snapped into the housing of the handle and gems were mounted in the rotation grid for the dual phase nature. High-energy superconductor next and finally the parabolic flux aperture, where the blade would appear from. In the allotted space at the opposite end of the blade the battery packs were linked and charged, preparing for the first use of the blades. A last check of the blades with the Force assured Xander that everything was as it should be, and all the electrical pathways were secure.
Both the blades were as perfect as they could be.
Xander stood and thumbed the blades on. Both engaged with the characteristic <snap hiss> that all Jedi knew, and all outlaws feared. Yoda sighed at the beauty of a job well done, and a test passed with no errors.
Xander examined the blades.
The first, in his right hand, was just over a metre in length, not including the handle. Due to the corusca gems, the blade had a golden tint to it. Flicking the dial on the handle to its second phase, the blade slowly lengthened to three metres. Xander frowned as the golden blade popped and crackled. Looking up, he saw that Dagoba's weekly monsoon rainstorms were early, or he had been longer than he thought he had in creating the weapons. Satisfied with the first blade, he snapped it off and clipped it to his belt. Looking at the second blade, it, similar to the first was initially a metre in length, and extended to three when switched to the second phase. The diamond and emerald in the blade gave it a silvery green hue. Nodding at the second blade as well, Xander turned and headed for the shelter of the ship, which Yoda had already taken refuge in while he was examining his new light-sabres.
Xander bowed to Yoda. "Master, if I may, how long have I been making my light-sabres?"
Yoda nodded. "Nearly eight days have you been working now, Xander. Superb, those blades are, novel, your approach was. Padawan you are no longer. The rank of Jedi Knight, do I bestow on you. Always act wisely, and in the Force be true."
Xander smiled and bowed deeply. "Yes, thank you, Master. Do we return to Coruscant?"
Yoda nodded. "Your back, you must guard, from the council. Many will be jealous of your power, and seek to harm you."
"Even though they are Jedi? I thought that would be forbidden."
"Forbidden it is, Xander, but that does not stop it from occurring."
Xander nodded and exited the ship to begin packing all the equipment up of the trip back.
The equipment was all packed and the ship was ready for take off. Yoda stood at the boarding ramp watching the Dagoba swamp.
"Xander!"
Xander pulled himself out of the co-pilot's chair and went to see what Yoda wanted. "Yes, Master?"
Yoda looked at him straight in the eye. "Your very final test comes now. A place of the dark side exists in the swamps. Find it, and survive what you find there." Yoda glanced at Xander's two new weapons. "Need those, you do not."
Xander looked stunned. "You said the dark side was the ultimate danger. If the cave is strong in the dark side, how do I defend myself if I do not have my weapons?"
Yoda reiterated. "Need those, you do not." Then he continued quieter, "But if to take them, you wish, stop you I cannot."
Xander nodded and headed off into the swamp with his light-sabers clipped to his belt.
Finding the cave Yoda told him about proved to be more difficult than he thought it would be. The entire planet was one swirling mass of Force energy, and the dark side was always good at hiding.
Xander came after several minutes of walking to a small patch of flowers and beautiful vines in the midst of the gnarled trees of Dagoba.
When the <snap hiss> of a light-sabre activating reached his ears, Xander's surprised leap propelled him up nearly to the middle branches of the trees. Landing awkwardly about thirty feet from where he started, Xander gave a cry of surprise as the ground gave way beneath him.
He stood in the dark side.
Stepping forward, Xander took in his surroundings. Mist swirled round his feet and lapped at his waist. No sound could be heard except Xander's own breathing. Taking a further step forward, Xander realised that it wasn't only his breath that he could hear, but also that of someone breathing perfectly in time with him.
Suddenly paranoid, Xander ignited one of his light-sabres. As the hiss filled the cavern, black lightning flew out of the mist in front of him. Catching it clumsily on his blade, Xander ducked and rolled, only to be confronted with a robed figure.
Not a Jedi robe either. This person was dressed, if that was the right word, no. swathed. in a dark grey cloak. A cowl hid his face, making it impossible to tell who it was. The figure advanced, cackling maniacally. As a hand was freed from the robe, Xander backed away, igniting his second sabre.
The hand contained a light-sabre. When the blade ignited, it cast an angry red colour onto the mists. Xander's skin crawled as a voice echoed through the cavern.
"Anger is a most sweet ambrosia. Despair will also serve. Feed me. free me."
The light-sabre wielding hand lunged. Xander stepped sideways and parried, trapping the blade for a short time. Xander brought his other blade across and through the cowl, removing the robed things head.
As the head bounced and rolled, the cowl came free. As it reached its final rest, Xander stared into his own features, twisted by hate and rage.
"No." Xander bolted for the exit and raced like a madman through the forest and swamp to the transport.
Reaching the comparative safety of Yoda and the transport, Xander slowed and stopped, halting to bow at Yoda, before picking up what was left of equipment to store and getting on the transport.
Yoda followed him. "Do not fear, Xander. That cave brings out your deepest fears for yourself. Face their fear, everyone must, lest it destroy them."
Xander said nothing.
"Help, it may do, to talk." started Yoda.
Xander stopped the vocalised though with a look, then calmed and nodded an apology for the action, and his acceptance that maybe he should.
"I. saw.me. But I was dressed in grey robes and cowl. I couldn't see my face! He. I mean me. attacked me. I took his head. my own head. my." Xander gulped deeply and tried to breath more evenly, stopping the tears that would come if he didn't. Xander began in his mind the mantra of all Jedi.
A Jedi shall not know fear. A Jedi shall not know anger. A Jedi shall not know love. There is no anger, no fear, no hatred, no lust, no love. There is only the Force.
Xander ran through this as if his life depended on it.
In a way, it did.
"Calm, now, my friend?" asked Yoda.
Xander just nodded as his breathing slowly returned to normal.
"Come. Let us return to Coruscant, come up with some evidence of Dooku's activity the Jedi Council must have."
Yoda flicked a switch with the Force, and the small transport ship gently rose off the ground, angled itself for a swift atmospheric exit and blasted out of the forests and swamps that had been its home for the past months.
Obi-Wan stood in front of Mace Windu and Adi Gallia. The two Jedi Masters had called him into a private council. Obi-Wan did not yet know what it pertained to.
"I came as ordered, Master." Obi-Wan bowed to Mace Windu.
"Thank you, Jedi Kenobi for your swift response. We cannot wait for Yoda to return with Xander, whether he is trained or not. You must go to Anakin. His Force shadow has become tinged with darkness. We cannot afford to lose Anakin even if Xander is stronger."
"Certainly. Anakin is my apprentice after all; we have been separated for far too long. It will be good to see him again."
Adi Gallia leaned forward. "We are sending you to Anakin not only for his own sake, but for yours, as well. If any of those opposed to Xander's training become militant, as it appears they might if Master Yoda does not return soon, we will need both of you protected. Despite the fact that Anakin often rails against your teaching, he respects and loves you, Obi-Wan. He will defend you, as you will defend him."
"Yes, Master."
Adi Gallia continued. "Take the new prototype Starfighter. It's an enhanced and greatly modified version of the one you flew to the cloner's and Geonosis recently. I just finished the combat trials. Should you encounter problems while travelling, it should aid you greatly."
"Yes, Master. Thank you."
"Obi-Wan!" called Mace Windu.
"Yes, Master?"
"May the Force be with you."
"Anakin!"
Anakin turned at the call, and saw his Master running at full tilt toward him.
"Master Kenobi!" Padme called, overjoyed to see the Jedi Knight again after so many months.
Obi-Wan halted in front of Anakin. He bowed to Padme, and smiled at her; happy to see her so contented with Anakin, despite the Jedi orders misgivings. Padme held out her hand, indicating that he should join them, and the three continued on the path.
"Why have you come, Master?" asked Anakin, a hint of. Obi-Wan couldn't quite decide what was hidden in his voice.
"The council sent me to continue your lessons, Padawan. Also, they had an alternate motive of removing me from any crossfire that may develop from the latest division in the council. Yoda has followed Qui-Gon's example and is training someone whom the council would rather was destroyed."
Anakin's face darkened. "The council wanted to destroy me?"
Obi-Wan quickly moved to allay that fear. "No. Not you, anyway. Xander, however." he faded off.
"Xander? That's an odd name. Is he human, or alien?"
"Human. At least, he looks it, and has human thought patterns."
"Will we meet him?" asked Padme.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "It's unlikely, your grace, as Yoda has taken him to train privately, away from the council, and has not told anyone where he is. Unless Xander finishes his training in record time, it is unlikely that we will even hear from either of them for several more years."
Padme looked despondent for a second at the prospect of not meeting the cause of a Jedi council division, it would be interesting, after all, while Anakin caught the look and his attitude toward Xander became hostile even though he had not met him. Diverting the conversation away from Xander, Anakin asked, "How long will you be here Master?"
Obi-Wan looked amused at the obvious change of topic, but answered nevertheless. "I am here, now, to complete your training, unless I get called away again by the council for more 'business' with the cloners'. I am the person they know, other than Master Yoda and it would probably be best if we do not give them any more than the bare minimum of people to become acquainted with."
Padme looked sour at all the talk of Jedi business. Turning to Anakin and Obi-Wan, both of which had fallen behind slightly as they talked, she made it obvious that the rest of the walk was not going to be disturbed. The two young lovers, and the Jedi Knight walked down the pathway, at peace with the galaxy.
Enjoyment was a priority, as this was one of the last peaceful times that any of them would experience.
Mace Windu stood on Coruscant landing pad 17742, one of the hundred or so assigned to the Jedi Temple by Chancellor Palpatine. His cloak whipped backwards, caused by the engine wash of the transport that was landing, exposing his bald head as the hood was blown off by a particularly strong blast. Squinting at the landing ramp as it lowered, and the last of the engine wash died, he took a step back in shock as Xander descended, a cocky smile on his face, and a peaceful, relaxed Yoda sitting on his shoulder.
The buildings around the pad funnelled the Coruscant wind, whipping the two new arrivals cloaks at the engine wash had Windu's. It took all of Mace Windu's not inconsiderable willpower to not have his mouth fall open at the two silver rods hanging from the belt over each of Xander's hips.
Light-sabers. Two light-sabers.
Xander smirked at the look on the Jedi Masters face, and bowed, the sign of respect to a superior Jedi. Yoda smiled slightly at Mace's almost awestruck face. The chuckle he allowed himself snapped his friend out of the trance he had been in.
"Welcome back, Master." Mace bowed to Yoda, and obliquely, to Xander, as Yoda was still seated on Xander's shoulder.
"Good to be back, it is, my friend. How is the council?"
"Divided." Stated Mace Windu. "And all because of Xander."
Xander looked semi-guilty, but Yoda caught the attitude shift and rapped him on the head with his stick. "Blame yourself, do not, Xander. Merely using you as an excuse, the council are."
"That is true." Said Windu. "I see now that you were correct to train Xander, Master. If he has completed his training so quickly, he must be truly powerful."
Xander beamed.
Mace continued with a query. "But is it advisable to advertise just how powerful he is to all Jedi? It will make him a lot of enemies."
Yoda nodded. "True, that is. However, if Xander advertises how powerful he is, lessen the number of enemies in the long run, it will. People will be less inclined to challenge him if he seems too powerful for them."
Mace nodded his agreement to this logic. Yoda jumped nimbly down from Xander's shoulder and them turned toward him, leaning on his gimmer stick. "Go with Master Windu, would you, Xander? I must take care of some things."
Xander nodded and bowed to the small Jedi.
Mace stepped next to Xander. "It seems you are in my tender mercies for a short time, Xander. I think it best if we avoid other Jedi for the time being. Follow me to my quarters. I have a few questions for you. Master Gallia may also be interested, after all she is your only other support in the council." Mace turned to his Comm-link. "Master Gallia, would you be so good as to join me in my quarters? I have someone you may like to meet now he is back."
Mace finished his comm.-transmission, and patted him roughly on the back and slung an arm over his shoulder. "First of all, tell me where you went to train."
As the two walked down the corridor, the voices faded, and then were abruptly cut off as the door to Windu's room slid shut.
Xander was naturally uncomfortable and a little wary at the invitation at the beginning. After all, it would be the first time that he had been away from Yoda since he arrived. Mace Windu sat Xander down on one of his chairs and walked to the small kitchen area.
"Caf or Tea?" he asked. "Or water, of course. Sorry about the small selection, but I don't drink alcohol, so most beverages are a no go area."
"Caf will be fine, thank you." said Xander, quickly running through the memories Yoda had given him, to discover that Caf was the Republics name for coffee. A chime at the door jerked his head up.
"Come in, Adi!" shouted Mace from the kitchen. The door opened to reveal the willowy lady that Xander had met only once, when he initially came through the portal. She, like Mace stared at the twin light-sabers hanging from his belt. Recovering just in time to see the smirk from Xander, she nodded to him and spoke.
"It is good to see you, Jedi." this was added because of the twin blades "Xander, at least under less harrowing conditions." She sat in one of the other chairs arranged in a circle round a table.
At that second, Mace walked out of the kitchen again, with three cups of Caf floating in front of him. As one cup settled in his hand, Xander smiled and nodded his thanks. Talk inevitably started on the meaningless topics, and worked toward the more vital ones.
"How are you, Xander? Getting adjusted?" asked Adi Gallia.
"Not too bad, thank you, Master. It's just a bit of a shock, that's all." Xander himself remained formal.
Mace headed toward the important topics. "Now you are back, you can tell us where Yoda took you. He would not have brought you back of you were not ready." He smiled slightly. "You obviously are, however. Your light-sabers proclaim that."
Xander considered his response. "We were at Dagoba, Master. Once we arrived, we did not leave, except to return here. Yoda told me I was a Jedi Knight."
"He would be correct, if he has completed your training. And he has." Both Jedi Masters seemed to be stuck on the fact that Xander had become a Jedi in just a few months, for most, even the most powerful it normally meant years, if not decades of training.
Adi Gallia mused to herself. "However, it seems foolish to advertise the fact that you are a Jedi. It will make you a target for those who resent you, and allow them to turn others against you as well."
Mace chipped in. "I asked Master Yoda about that. But I trust his judgement."
Adi Gallia seemed to be working up the courage to ask a question. "May I examine your light-sabers, please?"
"Certainly." Xander did not realise that this was a breach of etiquette, even if it was a small one. He unclipped the blades, and handed them to her. Adi herself marvelled at the light-sabers, and their near-perfect construction.
Mace took the opportunity to look as well. "How did you get the grips so perfect, and textured right into the metal?" He was amazed at the workmanship of them.
"I got Master Yoda to form a zero-gravity pocket, and melted some thoroughly stripped blasters to mould the handles and case myself. Master Yoda said it was the most original method he had seen in a long time." His voice carried a hint of pride in the compliment.
"These are excellent, Xander. May I activate one?" Adi Gallia pushed the boundaries of politeness with the question.
Xander inclined his head and seemed to think for a minute, then nodded. "Yes, of course, Master."
Adi Gallia thumbed on the first blade. The golden lights from the activated blade made the shadows in the chamber disappear, fleeing from the intensity of the blade. Xander still sat as quietly unmoving as before, until Adi twisted the switch to bring the third gem in line and activate the second phase. As the blade extended, Xander's eyes widened and he flicked off the saber using telekinesis as it neared the ceiling, not yet even half extended.
"What did you do?" asked Mace as a visibly shaken Gallia sat again, handing the light-sabers back to Xander.
Adi shook her head. "I do not know."
Xander stepped in. "You activated the second phase. Both of my light-sabers are dual phase. Either one metre, or three metres long. I also turned it off, if I had not, you would have speared someone upstairs." Mace sat back in his chair, contemplating. Adi Gallia looked at Xander with a new measure of respect.
"Dual phase." The words slipped out of her mouth even though she didn't mean them to.
"Yes." Xander mistook her appreciation for misunderstanding and reaffirmed the statement. "Dual phase blades. Both of them."
"Did Yoda teach you to spar?" asked Windu.
"No, as he was the only possible opponent, and he was about a third of my height, he didn't think it was a very good idea."
"We can change that. Adi, how do you feel about some sparring practice?" Mace shot her a mischievous look.
"Sounds fun." she replied. The three stared at one another.
Silence reigned in the room as Mace Windu and Adi Gallia, Jedi Masters both, looked at the Force prodigy that Yoda had trained.
Yoda shuffled down the corridor to the Jedi archives. Reaching the archaic doors of the archive, Yoda opened them with a gentle Force Push. As he entered the huge halls, the Chief Archivist, a small skeletal nearly arachnid Jedi hurried over to see what the Chief of Council wanted.
"What can the archives aid you in, Master?" Jedi Ood Bnar asked.
"Wish access to the Holocrons, I do. The room, seal off, would you, Jedi Bnar?" replied Yoda.
"Certainly, Master." Ood Bnar ran over to the main desk, and pressed a button. A dull chime sounded, followed by a brighter series of sounds that signified that all present had to vacate the archives. In the next few minutes, all people in the archives were leaving through the door. Jedi Bnar neared Yoda again.
"How long do you wish, Master?"
"An hour would suffice, I think, Jedi Bnar. Thank you." Yoda turned and headed toward the room where Holocrons were stored. In the millennia that the Jedi order had existed, they had only five, and two were Sith artefacts.
Jedi Ood Bnar left by the grand doors, and closed them behind him. Yoda was all alone in the archives.
The Holocrons were amazing artefacts. While all the holocrons held by the Jedi were cubes, they could be almost any shape the creator wished, within reason. Small objects, little bigger than a clenched fist, and made from unknown materials, they contained the spirit of a dead Jedi master, and all the knowledge he gained throughout his life, distributed in a manner similar to the Jedi neural pathways. They had a gatekeeper system, which examined the user and restricted any information that he was not ready for. This allowed Padawan apprentices to use the Holocrons as safely as the greatest Jedi Masters. The only setback to the gate keeping system was that is was so perfect that Yoda did not know if there was any knowledge the Holocrons held back from him! Direct questioning of the search system, the Jedi enmeshed in the Holocron, yielded only a denial of information release outside of the users capabilities.
Picking up one of the Holocrons, one seemingly made out of deep green Jade, Yoda shuffled backwards as it activated and the gatekeeper was released.
Vodo-Siosk Baas looked down on the only seeker-of-knowledge he had received for the past 300 years. His voice boomed in the high ceiling of the room.
"Seeker, what do you require?"
Yoda looked at the hologram of the greatest, and worst of the old Jedi. "Require, do I, knowledge of Earth."
"Earth. Earth."
Yoda nodded.
"One of the old 'elements'. Believed to be one of the constituents of all matter by several religions, on several thousand planets until they became 'space capable'."
"No. It is a planet itself."
"No further information is forthcoming."
Yoda thought about this. It meant Xander did not come from their galaxy, possibly not even their reality. Dredging through the memories he examined from Xander, he found a possible question. "What is the Key?"
"Key. Key." Vodo-Siosk Baas eyes flickered as her examined the knowledge catalogued in the Holocron. "A source of energy which legendarily gave access to the Gods. It was thought lost aeons ago when the Sith destroyed its sanctuary on Yavin III, a semi inhabitable planet on the edges of known space.
Yoda's eyes narrowed and his breath hissed in the chamber. "Tell me, Holocron. Do alternate realities exist? Parallel dimensions?"
Vodo-Siosk Baas insectoid eyes became slits. "You are not prepared for that knowledge." Yoda's eyes widened in surprise. This was the first time a Holocron had given him an outright and emphatic 'no' to the release of knowledge and assured that there was knowledge that even Yoda himself was not yet ready for.
"Thank you, Master Baas." Yoda bowed slightly and walked out of the archives.
"Anything goes!"
That was the call of Adi Gallia after nearly an hour of sparring with Xander. He was perfectly in control with the two blades, wielding them in time and with precision, the blades working together instead of against each other. Xander was fully in the Force, prepared for anything. He proved this by reacting to one attack that left Adi lethally open, and he spun round to give her a reminder in the form of a new hairstyle. Xander had taken off her hair at the leather thong she used to hold it back in a ponytail as she fought. Some of the most sneaky and underhanded tactics Adi had ever used only succeeded in ending up with her landing unceremoniously on the floor, hard.
Mace laughed at her discomfort by quickly quieted as she shot him a look.
Xander looked at him, while holding Adi off with one blade at its greatest length. Three metres from Xander, Adi could do nothing but defend herself and try to find an opening. Suddenly she stopped, turned and smiled evilly at the laughing Mace Windu.
"Since you find it so funny, why don't you help me?" The look she gave Windu was part amusement and part anger. "A Jedi Master for four years, a council member for one, and I can't beat him! Come one, Master Windu, show us what you can do."
"That OK, Xander?" asked Mace.
"Fine."
"Here I come." Mace launched himself off the platform he had been sitting on, igniting his light-saber as he did, its amethyst blade giving a further colour to the gold/green from Xander and yellow from Adi playing round the sparring hall.
Xander, realising that against two Jedi Masters he could no longer think of this as a game, shortened his first light-saber back down to a metre, to make the blades the same length again, and spun away from the approaching Windu, light-saber blades putting golden rings around him.
Ceasing his spin, he saw Mace had neared Adi and both were approaching him from the same direction. Adi lunged forward, pulling back unexpectedly, staying low, to allow Mace in with a vicious slash that Xander blocked and countered, forcing Mace to retreat, but still making Xander back up.
Xander suddenly realised something. Their trying to back me into a wall, where my blades will just get in the way of each other. I don't think so! Thumbing off the blade in his left hand, Xander took two steps and launched himself, aided by the Force, to the middle of the room. Once he landed, he quickly thumbed the second blade back on again.
The surprised and slightly shocked faces of Gallia and Windu told him all he needed to know. The two Masters split up, and by having Xander divide his concentration, started to wear him down.
"Your command, my Master?" Dooku kneeled at the base of Sidious' throne.
"I have found the presence in the Force, my apprentice. He is at the Jedi Temple."
"What do you propose we do about him, then, my Master?" As Sidious had not told him to rise, he stayed on one knee.
"I have seen many futures, my friend. In one, he kills you. In another, we turn him, and he is the beginning of the end for the Jedi order, and the galaxy itself. In a further one, he returns to where he came from, only after aiding us in our original quest."
Dooku sighed, but gently enough not to alert his Master. Sidious made his grandest schemes whenever he never outright answered a question. "Yet, my Master, what are we to do?"
"You have spies in the Temple do you not?" Snapped Sidious.
"I do, my Master." replied Dooku.
"Then make the Jedi wary of him, eliminate his friends and aid his enemies by framing him. And if that does not work, I am sure we can arrange a meeting." Sidious tailed off.
Dooku nodded, but remained kneeling.
"Go, now!" Sidious sounded angry, but it was his way of telling his apprentices the importance of a mission.
Xander remained in the middle of the room, with Adi Gallia on one side, and Mace Windu on the other. Neither Master was letting up, both causing to split his attention evenly, never allowing him to attack, only defend.
Deciding a distraction was needed, Xander's eyes fixed on the edge of Adi Gallia's Jedi robe. Pulling sharply with the Force, he spun her around unexpectedly, and then gave her a shove with a Force Push. Her face as she was spun round and thrown unceremoniously into the wall was priceless. Her light-saber automatically cut out from the dead-man switch as she dropped it, and cradled her head, which had impacted sharply with the wall.
Mace's eyes widened at the move, which, while leaving Xander open to him for a short time, was so unexpected that it did not really give him a chance to use that opening. Adi staggered to her feet and, retrieving her light-saber, thumbed it on and attacked Xander again. The door to the training room hissed open and Yoda entered. The three combatants were too engrossed in the sparring match to spare any though to the new arrival.
Xander parried an attack from Mace, only to have to spin away from a lunge from Adi Gallia. A probing swipe and half-hearted thrust from Mace Windu was blocked and countered, causing Mace to somersault away from the attack.
Yoda continued to watch, but decided that Xander needed something to trip him up. He was far too cocky and assured for someone fighting two Jedi Masters. And unbelievably so for someone who had only ever fought remotes and practice droids before this day. Yoda focussed on the mat Xander was standing on, and gave it a solid tug out from under him.
As soon as Xander felt the slightest movement of the mat that he knew was not caused by him, he prepared himself for a roll. As the padded mat slipped out from underneath him, surprising Mace Windu and Adi Gallia more than him, Xander thumbed off the second blade, leaned and stepped forward and spun into a graceful roll. Instead of killing his momentum like after a normal roll, Xander continued it, not fighting the movement, allowing it to take him further away from the two Jedi Masters. Touching the Force to help him get to his feet without stopping, Xander ended his spin with his feet in an easy stance, shoulder width apart. His eyes scanned for the possible cause of the moving mat, and settled on Master Yoda, small smile on his green features and ears perked up. Yoda spoke.
"Training enough for one day, do you not think, eh, Mace, Adi? Tired, Xander must be now."
Xander wasn't really, but welcomed the excuse to end the sparring match before it got dangerous. While he was sure that the Jedi Master could stop perfectly and keep him safe, he was unsure that he could, despite his earlier successes. Bowing to the three Masters, he retired to the room Mace had assigned to him, and shown him on the way to his quarters.
"So your saying that the Holocron would not allow you access to information regarding dimensional travel?" asked Mace, trying hard to hide his surprise.
"Correct." Replied Yoda. "Allow me the knowledge, it would not. Things, there are it seems, that even I do not know yet."
"So Xander does not come from our dimension then?" asked Adi Gallia, who despite having an unwanted haircut had got to quite like the young man.
"No." replied Yoda.
"He is human though, isn't he?" asked Mace.
"Yes." Yoda nodded the affirmative.
"What shall we do?" asked Adi, concern showing in her perfect features.
Yoda sighed and closed his eyes. "There is very little we can do. Find his own way home, Xander must."
Mace closed his eyes and said quietly, "And in the mean time, we must keep Xander safe."
The three nodded and began talking about how that could be done. The only real decision made was to keep him out of way of the council, and make sure any missions he was sent on were 'blue milk runs'.
As soon as Xander felt the presence outside his door, he knew it was trouble. He quietly muttered 'lock' to the doors computer and headed for the balcony. At the heavy bang on his door he assumed, correctly, that whoever it was, they weren't there for a social call.
When the red light-saber blade pierced the plasteel of the door, he further decided that it was time for a very quick exit. Looking around at the surrounding balconies, Xander came to the decision that going down wouldn't be a good idea, and so drew on a small amount of the Force to aid him in the jump up to the balcony 30 feet up to the left.
The 'visitor' seemed to be slightly angry at Xander's refusal to meet him, and quickly destroyed the few items that Xander had in his room, before following him onto the balcony. Assassins don't like it when their targets run. It's not fair. They hate it even more if they hide.
Xander had disguised his Force presence well, making it impossible for anyone to find him by sensing his 'soul' in the Force. Unfortunately, even the smallest amount of Force use opens the gate, allowing someone who is searching for that presence to find the person. As Xander, for the third time jumped up to the next balcony, the assassin felt him. Eyes snapping upward to where the presence was felt, and using his dark side enhanced Force abilities, he followed Xander.
Voices were whispering in Xander's head. Come down, my friend, and I'll make sure this is swift! You are a coward! Do you fear me? And mockingly, May the Force be with you.
Panicked by the voice, and the subtle mental influence hidden inside it, Xander became sloppy and desperate. On the next jump, he overshot and only just managed to land on the pad. The one after that, the assassin seemed to have caught up with him and gave him a vicious push with the Force, sending him flying off the balcony and straight through the transparisteel window of the quarters it was attached to. Xander's vision swam as his head hit the opposite wall, but he managed to remain conscious and active.
The <thud> as the assassins boots landed on the balcony which Xander had just got flung off of snapped him back to reality. The further <snap hiss> of the man's light-saber reactivating gave urgency to his movements. Feeling the assassin use the Force to grip his hair from behind, Xander nearly resigned himself to the inevitable.
Only the assassins wish to toy with him saved him.
The light-saber remained on, but the assassin stood back, examining him. He slammed Xander repeatedly against the wall of the room, making him lose his grip on one of his light-sabers in the process. It clattered to the floor, only to be pulled over to the assassin by the Force and similarly examined. After the examination, it went flying out the window, to fall the miles down to the surface of Coruscant, presumably lost forever.
An anguished look formed in Xander's eyes as he watched the light-saber go flying over the balcony to disappear forever. It gave him enough to snap out of the haze he was in for a second, long enough to give the man a shove with the Force, causing him to stumble. As the man recovered, he reminded Xander that it was very stupid to anger someone who had your head in a Force grip. It tightened, causing Xander to scream in agony as his skull started to fracture. A further vicious slam into the door took him further toward unconsciousness until one particularly forceful one sent the door flying outward, Xander on for the ride.
He landed at the feet of Adi Gallia and her newest Padawan, a Corellian girl about Xander's age, who had been judged too powerful for a normal Jedi Knight as Master. To make matters worse, she had an attitude problem that meant one-on-one teaching was probably easiest for everyone. Except for the teacher.
Adi's eyes widened as she saw Xander on the floor, bruised and bleeding. Looking into the room he had come flying out of, she saw a young man dressed in grey standing watching with interest, a red light-saber gleaming in his hands. He looked familiar, a student who had nearly completed training, but had shown amazing callousness toward all he encountered, and had killed a barman in cold blood when he would not serve Jedi. Seeing that others had found his little plaything, he raised his blade and charged.
Adi's swiftly activated yellow blade clashed against his red blade as the Jedi Master defended herself and her charges against the intruder.
She called over her shoulder to her apprentice as she pushed the man back, "Check on Xander!"
Her apprentice nodded and moved to kneel by the prone form of Xander. She backed off in surprise and a little fright as Xander struggled to his feet and began to approach the duelling pair. His eyes glowed a deep, angry red as he stepped forward.
Adi heard a gasp behind her as she pushed the intruder back. Then she heard a voice: "Get down!" She followed instructions and fell to the floor, rolling as she did so, in time to see the assassin's eyes go wide at something in the doorway. Her eyes flicked there, to see Xander, looking like the Sith Lord Exar Kun himself, standing where the door was previously. She flinched from his eyes.
Xander stood in the doorway, seeing the cause of his pain, all of it, and hating him for it. Only Xander's desperate grip on the Force allowed him to stay conscious. Clenching his fist tightly, he flung it forward toward the assassin, even though he was standing metres away.
An almost solid wall of air flowed out from his fist, rippling visibly as it moved.
It caught the assassin full in the chest, and sent him thought the wall he was standing against, having backed up at seeing Xander. Parts of the wall went with him. The body of the would be assassin continued on through the air, right through the back of a transport airship, before gravity inexorably won the battle and he fell toward the surface of Coruscant, so many miles below.
Back in the devastated room, Xander passed out from the pain of his fractured skull, his connection with the Force broken.
Adi Gallia thumbed off her light-saber and flicked on her commlink.
"Gallia to Medical. One of our Jedi was just attacked by a dark side apprentice, or what appeared to be one. Prepare a bacta tank. Tell Master Yoda that a Ysalamiri may also be necessary."
Her apprentice looked at her with wide eyes. "A Ysalamiri?" she asked. The small, slightly wormlike creatures had a natural defence against the predators of their planet. Since the predators hunted with the Force, the Ysalamiri created a Force negating bubble around themselves, confusing and disorienting the predators. If a Jedi was placed within a Ysalamiri bubble, all connection to the Force would be broken, and the Jedi would feel as if someone had removed a limb, or even worse, a necessary sense.
Adi nodded slowly and looked at the prone form of the greatest Jedi the Temple had ever found, unconscious on the floor.
Adi Gallia, Mace Windu and Yoda sat in the council chambers. Xander's response to the dark side attack had been worrying to say the least. His attack on his opponent certainly killed him, but it would be impossible to find the body. A fall from that height would leave only a greasy smear on the walkways.
"Found, a way must be, to alleviate Xander's anger and fear." Said Yoda.
"But what does he fear?" asked Windu.
Yoda shook his head. "From what I found in his mind, he fears for the girl he calls Dawn. Overwhelming, his sense of protection for her is."
"What? So we have to find Dawn? Or put up with Xander until he can return?" queried Gallia.
"Neither, can we do, really, Adi Gallia. Find his own way, Xander must." Yoda trailed off, a thought forming.
Mace looked at Yoda thoughtfully. "Could we send Xander to see Obi-Wan and Anakin? After Anakin's recent brush with the dark side, and his subsequent recovery when he married Padme Amidala, he could help Xander."
Adi looked sceptical. "And I suppose you also want us to find him someone to marry? Anakin broke one of the fundamental rules of the Jedi Council. We cannot allow someone as powerful as Xander to do the same."
Yoda looked one, but slowly shut his eyes as his two closest friends in the council began to argue over the merits of a decision that was taken by Jedi nearly 25 millennia ago.
"Be quiet, you both will be, hmm?"
Adi and Mace both quietened at the subtle reprimand. Yoda continued. "Send him to see Obi-Wan, we will, for a short time. Maybe he can help him. A test it can be for both of them."
Xander stepped off the transport that Yoda had told him would take him to Naboo and Obi-Wan. The lush verdant plants of Naboo surrounded the pad and its connected buildings.
Looking at the perfect greenery of the planet calmed Xander as he thought again of the series of events that lead to him being sent there. An assassin attacking him inside the Jedi Temple. It was unheard of, especially for the assassin to be trained in the dark side. Little did Xander know that despite the fact that the assassin had failed to kill him, he had succeeded spectacularly in eroding his friends trust in him.
Flickers of anger and resentment flared in Xander's mind as he thought of it. The council would want him removed doubly now.
Obi-Wan stood in the terminal building, watching for Xander to arrive. He had left Anakin and Padme in a café where they regularly drank. They were known, and liked, and therefore safe. When the pilots and other flight personnel exited the ship and Xander was nowhere to be seen, he walked onto the landing pad.
He jumped as a voice sounded. "Good morning, Jedi Kenobi." Obi-Wan turned to see Xander sitting on the edge of the pad with his legs dangling over the side, watching the sunrise. A peaceful expression graced his features.
"It is good to see you again, Xander. Yoda tells me you are a Jedi Knight now."
"That is true."
"Do we have to dance around the subject? We both know why you were sent here." Obi-Wan met the uncomfortable topic head on.
"That also is true. We both know." Xander trailed off, and sighed heavily.
"Master Yoda thought it might be in your interest to get away from the temple for a while. He sent you to me, not as punishment, but as help if you want it."
Xander nodded and went back to watching the sunrise, which was now almost over. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Obi-Wan walked over to the edge where Xander was sitting and sat next to him. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Xander sighed. "I killed him."
"You don't know that." replied Obi-Wan.
"Oh? So have you seen anyone recently who fell six miles after being thrown through a permacrete wall?" Xander didn't sound angry, just sarcastic and slightly curious.
"No." Obi-Wan snorted. "Come on, lets get out of here. I want to introduce you to my padawan. He's special too. He's married."
Xander just raised an eyebrow in question.
Obi-Wan laughed. "Don't ask."
Dooku was bowed again before his Master.
"Our assassin failed Master," he said "the boy still lives."
Sidious smiled beneath his cowl. "No, my friend, you are wrong. The assassin succeeded beyond my wildest hopes."
"Wha." Dooku couldn't catch the question in time. Sidious snapped round on his heel.
"He has destroyed the Jedi's trust in the boy. When he returns from Naboo, arrange a meeting with him. Use one of our spies to program his navigation computer to a rendezvous on Sullust."
Dooku nodded and rose to carry out the order.
Sidious smiled and patted a metal rod on his throne. "I wish to return something of his."
On the arm of the throne sat Xander's lost light-saber.
Obi-Wan and Xander entered the café where Anakin and Padme were drinking caf and staring at each other.
"At it again I see." said Obi-Wan, a smile on his lips.
Padme turned and smiled at the Jedi Knight, while Anakin just scowled at a point somewhere 6 inches to the left and a foot above the Jedi's head.
Padme noticed the similarly robed person standing in the entrance.
"Who is he?" she asked Obi-Wan, nodding in the boy's direction.
"Him?" said Obi-Wan. "A Jedi Yoda recently trained. Appeared out of nowhere right into a council meeting. Completed his training in less than six months, too. He had a recent run in with an assassin, and Master Yoda thought it prudent to send him out of harms reach for a short time. I told you about him if you remember."
"Oh." Mouthed Padme, surprise written plainly on her features. "Why does he stand over there? Aren't we here?"
Obi-Wan smiled, but it held a hint of sadness. "He doesn't want to intrude on yours and Anakin's time together."
Padme grinned. "It won't be a problem. What's his name?"
"Xander. Short for Alexander, I think."
Padme walked over to Xander, and Obi-Wan watched the reaction of Anakin. His face darkened and he shot a look at Xander, which, if looks were lasers, Xander would have been dead from a twin-linked double strike.
Obi-Wan turned again to see Padme laughing at some comment Xander had made, and a goofy grin plastered on his face. When his face changed and showed reluctance, Obi-Wan watched as Padme gripped his hands and drew him over to the table where Anakin was sitting.
It seemed as if Xander could sense the animosity coming from Anakin, as when Padme moved to sit next to him instead of Anakin, he deftly moved and manoeuvred her into the seat next to Anakin. He himself sat opposite Anakin, leaving the seat opposite Padme for Obi-Wan. Anakin's face showed a relaxing of hostilities at the move, while Padme seemed disappointed.
Padme ordered two more pots of caf, and tried to strike up a conversation. If she attempted to talk about Xander's training, he nipped it in the bud. If she talked about why he was there, Obi-Wan nipped it in the bud. If she talked about Xander himself, Anakin flattened it. Finally growing weary of the hostility coming from opposite him, Xander stood and said, "I didn't, and I don't want to intrude."
Anakin cut the sentence short, saying, "well, go away then."
Xander nodded and walked out the café, shoulders slumped. As Xander walked, Padme elbowed Anakin hard in the ribs.
Obi-Wan watched him go in shock. "What was that for?" he asked Anakin.
Rubbing his side, Anakin just looked daggers at Xander's retreating back.
Obi-Wan thought to himself: these two aren't going to like one another. Their animosity will cause great problems. And they won't ease up. Anakin will keep going until Xander breaks and leaves, or kills him. Xander's already tearing himself up about that assassin. I don't want him top have another life on his conscience.
Contrary to Obi-Wan's belief, Xander had no problems with having killed the assassin. His problem was how he had killed him in anger, and how he couldn' t bring himself to feel bad about doing it. He had used the dark side, that which Yoda stressed should never, EVER, be used, and it had felt good.
How he had alienated his few friends in the council.
And how Adi's padawan had had that look of total fear on her face as she stared at him when he was hurt and attacking the cause.
Her eyes.
Her face.
.And he didn't even know her name!
"Mechanic Rik Valora reporting, sir!" The mechanic saluted his superior and waved his hydrospanner at one of his workmates in greeting.
"Very good, Valora. Get to work on the transport CRSC11." The overseer looked over at the new transport and pointed.
"That's the transport that new Jedi came in isn't it sir?"
The overseer nodded. "Yes, and the one he will leave on. Now get to work!"
Rik Valora wandered over to the transport, carefully checking the equipment he had been given, making sure all the ROM encoders were correctly set and targeted at Sullust. That was where the boss wanted the Jedi to go.
Xander stood on the balcony of his Naboo apartment and watched the courtyard below. Anakin was sparring with Obi-Wan. Neither was winning.
The door behind him slid open, and Xander spoke without turning. "You shouldn't be here."
Padme smiled at Xander's back. "I know. but I had to talk to you. and apologise."
"No apology necessary, Senator." Xander spoke formally.
"Not for me. for Anakin. He's been under so much stress lately." she chuckled. "That's not much of an excuse, is it?"
"No, Senator."
Padme sighed. "Can you stop calling me that?"
Xander turned and leant back on the rail. "Certainly."
"I am sorry for what happened. Truly I am."
"Fine." Xander thought for a minute. "What would Anakin think if he caught you talking to me?"
"I don't know, probably that you were hitting on me or something. he's very jealous." Padme sounded almost amused.
"Quite. It would be dangerous not only for me, the object of dislike, but also for you. Anakin is very possessive. It's what comes from being a slave."
Padme cut in, curious. "How did you know he was a slave?"
Xander looked puzzled. "I don't know. It just seemed. correct."
"It is. He was a slave on Tatooine up until he was about nine."
Something flashed in Xander's mind. "Tatooine. wasn't Obi-Wan born there?"
"I don't know. Ask him. Anyway, how would it be dangerous for me as well as you?"
"Anakin's love for you keeps him from the dark side. as he started to fall when he found his mother." Xander's mind flashed again as information he should not have poured into it. "If angered sufficiently, his love for you will be that which makes him fall." A scene played in Xander's mind, followed by others. Him, Obi-Wan and a dark, twisted Anakin fighting near a volcano, in the crater. Anakin crawling out, sustained only by hate. a mechanical and heavily robed Sith Lord, hunting for his children. Padme's children. Obi-Wan taking the son. Xander taking Padme and her daughter. a huge. moon. obliterating a planet. pain, so much pain, as millions of lives snuffed out.
Xander moaned in pain, leaning on the rail.
"Xander, are you alright?" Padme sounded urgent.
"Fi.ne." Xander ground out that one word, before a quiet scream rent the air and he toppled over the railing to fall to the courtyard five floors below.
He never heard the running feet as Padme ran inside to head to where he had landed, or the gasp as Obi-Wan and Anakin saw the fall.
"Master Yoda, Xander has been in an accident." Obi-Wan stood at the comm.-terminal waiting for Yoda's response.
"Grave, is it?" he asked finally.
Obi-Wan bowed his head. "He fell off a fifth story balcony, Master. Landing on the permacrete courtyard. We have him in bacta, but it doesn't seem to be healing him. However, at least he isn't allergic to it."
"That much, we can be thankful for then, eh, Obi-Wan? Hmm?" Yoda did seem a bit disturbed by the news that Xander was injured, but hid it well.
"Yes, Master. Master? Should we remove him?"
Yoda nodded slowly. "If helping it is not. To remove him might be prudent."
"Yes, Master. I shall do so immediately." Obi-Wan bowed and cut the comm.-transmission.
Yoda stared at the screen. "Already played your hand, hm, Dooku? I think you will find Xander carries the 'Idiots array'." Yoda referred to the popular card game sabacc, a far more difficult and costly version of poker, which had swept the galaxy for the past few decades and was set to continue for decades more. The Idiots array was the most powerful set of cards you could hold in your hand.
Obi-Wan sat by Xander's bed. The boy had been in a fever for the past few hours, and no doctor could figure out why. He had no reaction to the bacta allergy test, but bacta was no help in healing him.
Xander's fist clenched in his fever dream, and a transparisteel sculpture on the table suddenly, with a squeal of tortured metal, looked like someone had squeezed a lump of putty and replaced it with that. Obi-Wan's eyes widened, then narrowed as he tried to mend it using the Force. It wouldn't even budge. Obi-Wan realised just how powerful Xander was, and a rush of fear ran though him.
Fear leads to the dark side. "Who said that?" Obi-Wan sat bolt upright.
I did. "Who's there?"
Don't you recognise me, Obi-Wan? Have I changed that much? "Master Qui-Gon?"
Yes, Obi-Wan. It is I.
"What do you want?"
Qui-Gon coalesced into a ghostly apparition the other side of Xander's bed.
This child is more important that Anakin could ever be. Anakin will fall to the dark side; I see that now. Yoda was right. This boy is the only hope for the two that will free the galaxy.
"Why? What will he do? What made him fall like that?"
He saw a vision of what was to be, through the Force. Do not ask him what he saw, as he will not tell you. Know only this. you and he are inexorably linked. It cannot be broken.
"How?"
I do not know. It is the will of the Force.
"What do I do?" Fear again tinged Obi-Wan's voice, but not for himself, for Xander.
Guard him. and guard Anakin. keep his children safe. they will redress the balance in the Force.
The air wavered around Qui-Gon's ghost for a second.
I must go. the dark side searches for you.if they find me; they find you. Goodbye, my favourite Padawan.
Obi-Wan was near crying as his Master, the only real father he knew, disappeared for the second time.
Days later, Xander awoke. Obi-Wan was sitting by him, dozing in the only chair in the room.
"Obi-Wan?" Xander was still groggy.
Obi-Wan's eyes sprung open. "Xander? You awake?"
"Yeah."
"What happened?" Obi-Wan was desperate to know what could have warranted a massage from the dead.
"I. don't know. I was talking to Padme. and. I. had. a.vision. oh, shit."
"Err. yes. Quite." Obi-Wan didn't want to push.
"I need to return to Coruscant, to see Master Yoda."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Xander got up from the bed. "It doesn't matter if it's a good idea or a bad idea. It needs to be done." With that, Xander walked out, leaving an emotionally fragile and unsure Obi-Wan behind him.
Xander pulled back the hyperspace lever on the transport and watched as the stars.
.Did precisely nothing.
The ship beeped and swung round, pointing in almost a ninety-degree angle from Coruscant. Then suddenly, the star-lines formed and the transport leapt into hyperspace.
Xander debarked the transport as it touched down on the scorched earth of a small island somewhere on Sullust I. As a voice sounded, he spun round.
"Welcome, my young friend." A robed figure shambled forward. A stately looking man, who had aged well, followed him. Dressed immaculately, he had the air of a fencer about him, always evaluating, always looking for an opening.
"Who are you?" Xander backed away as they advanced, sure that their intentions were not benign.
The robed figure stopped its advance. "We wish you no harm. We wish you to join us."
"What?" Xander was stunned.
"We want you to join us."
Xander felt the air of evil around the first, robed figure, but the second eluded him. It was only when he searched Yoda's 'quick 'n easy' memory lesson that he found the name. "Dooku." he whispered.
The man looked surprised, but then elated. "Well done, young man. you show great promise."
"You're both Sith. I will never join you!" Xander spoke with certainty.
"You speak with certainty," said the cowl, "where there are many unknowns."
"It matters not! I will never fall to the dark side! I will not join you!"
"Pity." The robed figure took something out from beneath his robe. "Not even for this?" He held Xander's lost light-saber in his hand.
Xander's eyes widened as he saw the light-saber. His remaining blade ignited and flashed up into a high vertical guard, level with his face. A good attacking stance, but a poor defensive one.
Dooku smiled humourlessly and stepped forward, igniting his own blade as he approached. Xander matched the smile and went on the offensive.
As swordsmen went, Xander wasn't bad, but he still only had a few months of training with a light-saber. Dooku, on the other hand, had years, possibly decades of training in the art of sword fighting and fencing, and quickly turned the tide of the fight. Dooku dodged, parried, blocked or countered every attack Xander flung at him, so effortlessly that it made Xander feel sick. He moved with an economy of movement that comes from knowing exactly what your opponent was going to try next, and how to counter it with minimum effort. Xander's rushing offensive was quickly turned to a dangerously weak defence.
Faking a slash, Xander used the moment Dooku took to parry the attack to somersault over him, landing steps away from the robed figure, and yards away from Dooku. His transport was near. As was his second light-saber. Xander breathed deeply, took a moment to centre himself again in the Force, and attack once more, this time, far more carefully.
The attack succeeded, after a fashion. Dooku hissed as the light-saber blade kissed his flesh, and his counterattack left a cut in the fabric of Xander's robe and a burn scar down his thigh. As Xander spun away, off balance, Dooku gave him a push with the Force, sending him sprawling at Sidious' feet.
Dooku stood over Xander with his light-saber blade levelled at his neck. Sidious cackled. "Young fool. even now. at your end. will you fail to learn."
Xander spoke. "No." his eyes fell to the light-saber Sidious was holding. His light-saber. Using the Force, he twisted the phase switch to its second position, and nudged the saber in line with Dooku's chest.
As Dooku raised his light-saber to cleave him in two, Xander punched the activation stud with the Force.
The golden/green blade sprang to life, three metres long, and pierced Dooku in the heart. The sickly sweet smell of burnt flesh assailed Xander's nose as blood, muscle and bone were vaporised by the solid blade of light.
Dooku's eyes widened as he realised what had happened, and he dropped his light-saber, only to have it cut out from the dead man switch inches from Xander's face. Sidious looked stunned at the sudden and unexpected death of his apprentice, and by his own hand no less.
Xander took his opportunity. He gripped his lost light-saber with the Force and at the same time pushed Sidious with all the power he could muster in the Force, without resorting to the dark side. The surprised and slightly sorry look on Sidious' face turned to one of terror as he realised that he was sailing through the air.
Xander turned away to the transport.
As the expected <thud> became a scream of anguish and hatred, Xander turned around again to see Sidious disappearing over the side of a cliff.
"Oops."
Sighing, knowing he was in for another chewing out from Yoda, Xander checked his light-sabers and headed into the transport, preparing it for his return to Coruscant.
Xander stepped off the transport and onto Coruscant's landing pads. Yoda alone was there to greet his student.
"Recovered from your vision, have you?" he asked, voice concerned.
Xander bowed. "Yes, Master. I have more disturbing news, however."
Yoda looked intrigued. "Sense your emotional turbulence, I can, a little. What was it that happened?"
"I think that might be better discussed in private, Master." Xander bowed again, and stilled while Yoda leapt onto his shoulder. He set off for the Jedi Archives with Yoda on for the ride.
When Xander reached the Jedi Archives, the chief Archivist, Ood Bnar, took one look at his expression and ushered the few people in the archives out of the door. Xander let Yoda jump off his shoulder onto the main floor of the archive.
"What is it you wished to discuss, Xander?" Yoda was unnerved by the seriousness the normally easy going Jedi was currently swathed in.
"The transport that was supposed to take me back here, took me to Sullust."
Yoda's eyes bugged.
"And. Dooku was there, with his master."
Yoda would have fallen in shock if he had not had his gimmer stick to lean on. "You are sure?"
Xander nodded. "Yes. I 'remembered' Dooku from your memories."
Yoda sighed. Memories he hadn't wanted Xander to get had slipped through after all.
Finally, he asked. "What was this unknown master? Was he human?"
Xander nodded. "He was. But I couldn't see much more than that. He was heavily robed, after all."
Yoda accepted this.
"He asked me to join them. When I said no, Dooku attacked."
"How did you win? Dooku is the best fencer the Order has ever trained."
Xander shook his head. "I didn't. He had me beaten, at his master's feet. His master asked a final time, and while he did that, I aimed the light-saber he was holding at Dooku's chest. My light-saber."
"The one that was lost?" Yoda queried.
"Yes. The one I lost. How could he have gotten it? It fell miles into Coruscant's lower levels. Anyway. The only way I escaped was by luck, mainly. I punched the activation stud with the Force. Dooku was dead before the blade finished extending. went straight through the heart. I pushed his master away. but too strongly. he went over a cliff."
"It matters not, Xander. Sith, they were. Signed their death warrant, they did, by submitting to the dark side. Nevertheless, I feel that the Sith have not been finished." Yoda tailed off.
"What do you mean?"
"Dead, Dooku's master is not. Lives yet, he does. Now he will be looking for a new apprentice. Gained some time, we have, but not much."
Xander nodded.
Yoda continued. "To keep you and Anakin safe, our priority must be. Send you on another mission; I must, to keep the council away from you. Take one of the prototype star-fighters. Join one of my friends; you shall, on a contact mission. Past the outer rim, it is. Safe, you should be."
"Yes, Master. I shall leave as soon as the ship is ready."
"Xander!" Yoda called over the archive floor.
Xander turned back.
"Here are the coordinates." a small computer disk floated across the gap. Xander nodded, grabbed the disk and grinned sheepishly.
"Yes, Master." He bowed and left. Yoda was left standing, wandering at the boy's ability to attract trouble. The 'simple' contact mission was about to get very complicated.
Hitting the hyperspace engine release switch, Xander watched as the circular hyperspace engines detached with their housing. Pointing the nose of the ship to pass between the engines and the support strut which held them a safe distance from the fighter, Xander eased forward the thrust until he could feel the acceleration pushing him gently back in his seat.
He had never flown a fighter before, only piloted a larger, semi automated transport. He knew that inertial compensators stopped him from feeling the g-forces exerted on the ship as he pulled the slightest manoeuvre. Ordering his astromech to dial the compensator down to point 95 allowed him to feel exactly what was happening enough to predict how the ship would react. The Force gave all other forms of early warning.
His astromech, one of the new R3 models whistled indignantly at him as he pulled the ship around violently. Yumfla, that was the name of the almost unpopulated world on which a rogue group of Force users had been discovered. Three Jedi had been dispatched as a contact force. When they encountered resistance, they radioed for backup from the Jedi Temple at Coruscant, but the message never got through. As far as the temple was concerned, everything was fine.
The reality was about to be displayed by Xander.
As he set down the fighter in the camp that had been set up by the three Jedi, Xander noticed one thing. The camp was deserted. He could feel a few humans about ten miles away, and an alien essence that he couldn't decide on.
There were carvings on the pillars surrounding the camp. They seemed to writhe as Xander looked at them, whispering in his mind things forbidden and unclean. Sith teachings engraved onto solid rock. Xander shuddered at the evil he felt from the pieces of stone and gazed round the camp. A large tent, big enough for far more than three people, sat to the left, facing the centre of the camp: a massive fire, still smouldering. Water and waste reclamation equipment sat near the tent. A few crates, one cracked open sat the other side, opposite the tent.
Sliding off the fighter, Xander stepped into the tent. Nothing. The beds were all unmade and dishevelled, as if they exited the camp in a hurry.
"Well," said Xander to himself, "what can I do but wait?" he sat on the floor in the main area of the tent, away from the partitions of the sleeping area. Taking a breath, Xander let it out slowly, and freed his mind of the constraints of his body. In the freedom of the Force, Xander revelled, amazed at the sheer power at his fingertips, and the care that must be taken lest he Fall.
After having seen Dooku and his Master, it deserved the capital letter.
Time passed.
A small transport touched down just outside the camp. In the transport were the Jedi Xander had been waiting for. Nejaa Halcyon, Ylenic It'Kla and their Jedi General, Owain Vurne: two humans, and one Camaasi.
Xander stood, and moved out of the tent as the three approached. They reacted with surprise as an unknown person stepped out of their tent, but not with drawn light-sabers, which Xander had almost expected.
"Who are you?" asked Owain.
"My name is Xander. Master Yoda sent me."
He seemed sceptical, but asked, "So our reinforcements have arrived then? Where are the rest?"
"What reinforcements? Master Yoda sent me because he considered this a 'blue milk run' I'm not very popular with the council, and he wants me out of harms way." Xander was very surprised.
Owain looked shocked. "Our message never got through then?"
Now Xander was genuinely confused. "What message?"
Nejaa took over. "We have encountered several dark Jedi here. They do not follow the Sith teachings exactly, and they do not fully understand what they are doing, so the dark side has not corrupted them completely. Nevertheless, they do not wish to go back to Coruscant, and we cannot allow them to continue using Sith teachings, so we sent a message to the Temple requesting assistance. Evidently the message never got through."
Xander sighed. "So much for the blue milk run."
Nejaa nodded. "Indeed. We must make the best of a bad situation. Can you give us some more information about you and your training?"
Xander nodded. "Certainly. I'm a Jedi Knight, have been for about, oh. two months including a week unconscious from visions. and falling off a balcony. I'm a bit of a black sheep because I killed a Sith assassin, and I recently faced down Dooku and his Sith Master. Dooku's now dead, and his Master went over a cliff. Anything else?"
The three Jedi stared, until the Camaasi recovered his poise and asked, "Who trained you, and how long have you been in training? I don't remember seeing you at the Temple."
Xander slapped his forehead. "How could I forget? Yoda trained me. Solo. On Dagoba. One on one tuition. I was a Jedi Knight inside six months. Yoda even made me make my own light-sabers."
Owain cut in. "Light-sabers? Plural?"
"Yes. Sabers. Plural. Two of them. Dual phase as well."
The three continued to stare, open-mouthed.
Xander waved a hand in front of their faces, then turned and walked inside the tent. His voice floated out. "Hey! Can I make another cot up or are one of you sleeping on the floor?"
In the two days since Xander arrived, the three Jedi Masters found continuing the assignment at last possible. While Owain had remained distant, Xander had made friends with Nejaa and Ylenic. Both had an open and easygoing attitude that was easy to like. Xander found himself spilling his life story over the campfire that night, after the General had retired for the night, and neither Ylenic or Nejaa argued or made light of his predicament. He needed to return to Dawn.
In a token of friendship and trust, Nejaa gave Xander a medallion. He explained that it was a Corellian Jedi custom. When a Jedi became a Master, he would have a dozen or so minted and give them to close friends and family. His son, Valin, whom Xander had been shown a picture of, had one, as well as his wife, and other friends on Corellia. The Jedi to own one were Yoda himself and Ylenic. And now Xander. After Xander asked about how he could have a wife, he smiled enigmatically. "The medallions are no the only difference between Corellian and Temple Jedi, my friend."
Ylenic gave Xander a far more special present, in his way. The Camaasi were a very long-lived race, and he had been the final student to be trained solo by Yoda, at least before Xander came falling out of a dimensional portal. Ylenic explained that Camaasi stored memories differently to humans, and their memories were far more vivid, almost real, in living breathing colour, with touch and sound built in as well. After Xander confided in him his failure at the dark side cave on Dagoba, he showed Xander his own memory of his time at that place. He had 'failed' as well.
The next morning, Owain announced that they were going to eradicate the dark Force users. The news did not sit well with either Nejaa or Xander, both of whom felt that if they did not wish to come, that was their concern, and that they should only be removed if they became a danger to others. The general was not pleased.
"If we remove them now, we can eradicate them before they harm anyone. This far out in the rim, do you really think anyone is going to give two credits about the people that get killed before we find out? The Temple probably wouldn't even allow us to come back here ourselves." He was adamant.
While Nejaa could see the logic, he wasn't happy with the decision, and remained vocal throughout the flight to the Jensaarai homestead. Xander backed up his friend. While on the flight, Ylenic took the time to inform Xander of a few useful pieces of information.
"The Jensaarai are basically Jedi, but they have no understanding of dark or light. The name itself, comes from the Sith language, meaning 'hidden followers of truth' their leader, a Saarai-kaar means 'keeper of truth'"
Owain's voice cut in. "Hang on! We're going in!" the transport glided smoothly to a halt on the ground. Through the side view port, Xander could see several people running from the transport, and several running toward it. As he watched, light-sabers flashed in their hands.
Owain, Nejaa and Ylenic stood at the ramp control.
"Come on!" called Owain. "Stop day dreaming and help us!" He punched the ramp release and stepped back as the light streamed in, temporarily blinding him. The four descended the ramp slowly.
The Jensaarai kept a respectful distance, staying between the Jedi and their homes. One of them stepped forward. He was not human. You could tell that by the two proboscises that curled out of each cheek.
"Come again to terrorise us, Jedi?" he asked. "We do not wish your 'help'. Return to your ship and fly away! Or we will despatch your souls to the Force!"
Owain stepped forward. "We do not wish harm upon you, but we cannot let you fall to the dark side! A final request, join us! Come back with us! Please."
The Ansati. the name popped freely into Xander's mind. curled his lips back in a sneer. "No!" His brought his saber up in an odd guard Xander had never seen before. He held his saber at chin height, left hand gripping close to the blade emitter, and his right hand resting on the pommel. It would allow for whip attacks to the head, with swift swipes at the legs.
As soon as an attacking stance appeared, the three Master were prepared. Owain held his blade at a high guard; level with his face, vertically. Ylenic held his blade loosely, with just enough grip to stop from losing the blade, but gently enough to allow the blade to go where it wished. That made it deadly. It was a style that made the user dodge and parry a lot, for a direct block would tear the blade out of his hand. Nejaa held his blade in a traditional guard, diagonally from hip to shoulder.
Xander was only a fraction of a second behind the three Jedi Masters. Both his blades were free and the <snap hiss> of his blades joined his compatriots.
At a stamp feint from the Ansati, the Jensaarai started forward. Six in all, against four Jedi. Owain paired against a brown haired youth, Ylenic against a red headed woman and Nejaa took the Ansati. That left three for Xander.
Spinning away from his allies, Xander used the distance to create enough space to use both his blades without fear of friendly 'fire'. As the three Jensaarai closed and attacked he blocked one, spun away from a second and stopped the third before it came by splitting the person in half across the waist.
The body exploded in a shower as the dark side took its toll. Switching the first saber to its second phase, Xander smiled grimly as surprise showed plainly on the Jensaarai's faces. He used the opportunity for a quick attack, whipping across to quickly to aim, and mostly by luck taking off one of the Jensaarai's arms at the elbow. Dodging away from the wounded enemy, he focused on the final Jensaarai. He was a far better sword fighter than the previous two, as he managed to block, parry or duck several attacks until he stared to tire. Xander was relentless, and two blades with a three metre reach is a significant advantage when your opponent has one barely one metre long blade.
Xander despatched his final opponent in time to see Ylenic and Owain finishing theirs, and the bodies exploding in a catastrophic release of dark side Force energy.
Nejaa had not fared so well, however. The Ansati he faced was standing over him, gloating. Nejaa's light-saber was metres away, unreachable. The other Jedi; Xander, Ylenic and Owain were all too far away to be of any help either. Xander was too far away to hear what they were saying properly, and enhanced his hearing using the Force.
".so it is true what they say about the Halcyon line. you are all wing clipped mynocks!" the Ansati was contemptuous.
Nejaa was just as cool in the face of death as he had been in any other situation. "We have our strengths." He smiled.
"Really? Better summon one quickly then!" The Ansati stabbed down with his blade as Nejaa made a dive for his light-saber. The red beam of light burned through Nejaa's chest, vaporising the heart and the bone protecting it. As the sickly sweet smell rose, Nejaa smiled again, and the saber embedded in his chest flickered once. twice. and went out.
The Ansati backed off in fear as he looked at Nejaa. Suddenly, he was plucked from the air, as if by a massive fist, and convulsed spastically as his body imploded under an incredible Force grip. He flew off into the Sith ruins, the echoes of his Force scream reverberating in the Jedi's minds. The structure collapsed as the dark side energies exploded from his dead body.
Xander, Ylenic and Owain were gathered round Nejaa as soon as he flung the dark Jedi away.
Ylenic looked up to Xander and Owain. "We must take his body back to Corellia for burial."
Xander nodded, Owain tried to look impassive. "To have survived so much, only to die here. It's such a waste."
Ylenic inclined his head. "But to die for good, and what you believe in, is to be celebrated and remembered, surely?"
Xander looked about to cry. "It will be a sadder day still when such sacrifice is forgotten."
"Or feared."
"Worse yet. Yes."
"Nejaa's family will know he died a hero!" said Owain.
Ylenic picked up Nejaa's body, showing surprising strength for such a slight creature, and the three living Jedi returned to their transport.
"Could you drop me off at the camp?" asked Xander, "I don't want to let the Jensaarai get that star-fighter. I will follow you to Corellia, then return to the Temple. Master Yoda will want to know what happened." Ylenic nodded, downy fur rippling gently in sorrow for his lost friend.
Sidious sat on his throne hidden deep within the bowels of Coruscant. He was still seething at the death of Dooku, but all Sith were but pawns for the dark side. One death mattered little. Only the total eradication of the Jedi mattered at all.
A new apprentice kneeled before him. One few people would ever suspect of being a Sith.
"So, you wish to become a Sith?" Sidious asked.
"Yes, my Master." Came the response.
Sidious leaned back. "You think you have the ability, do you?" he asked.
"Yes, my Master."
"Good. Your training will begin now. Rise."
"Yes, my Master." The apprentice stood.
"Second lesson, Palpatine. How to call your anger."
Xander sat in the cockpit of the Jedi star-fighter prototype; flicking the Medallion that Nejaa had given him wondering what would happen next. The vision he had had felt very important. He could not leave without completing it, or something major would happen. Then again, if Xander weren't there, would Anakin Fall?
It was a question that was impossible to answer, even with the Force.
Xander sighed, pocketed the medallion, and set the nav computer for Corellia. The persona that Yoda had worked so hard to overcome, the 'failure ' part of his mind, sprung again to the fore, berating him for being unable to stop the death of another friend.
Jesse.
Jenny Calendar.
Faith's coma.
Buffy.
And now Nejaa.
He needed to make sure no one else died for his mistakes and stupidity. He needed to return to Dawn. Make sure she was OK. He had been gone for nearly a year.
Dawn.
Xander vowed that as soon as he returned to the Jedi Temple, he would ask Yoda for access to the Holocrons. Oh yes, he knew of the Holocrons. Even Xander and his strange arrival, which meant he had few friends among the Jedi, had heard the reason for the Archives being closed.
The Holocrons held the answers.
Looking at the nav computer screens, Xander realised that the flight to Corellia would be the better part of 22 hours, even at point 7 past light-speed, which the fighter was capable of doing.
Xander settled into a meditating mindset, preparing for the long flight.
<Wheeee.>
Xander was snapped out of his Force meditation by the fighter's emergency alarms. The R3 unit on the side of the fighter was going mental. In the hyperspace flight, something had gone wrong and the safety interlocks had cut off the hyper-drive engines. It had pulled him out right in the middle of a nebula. Screens flashed red with warnings and information.
<Wheeee. WHEEEEEEEE.>
Xander winced as the warning alarm stepped up a notch. "R3, could you cut the warning alarm? I am aware we're in trouble."
As the horrific screech of the alarm cut out Xander sighed. "Thanks."
He examined the warning lights, and took a look out of the cockpit. Nebula gas swirled around him. "I think we took a wrong turn somewhere."
At this sleight of its navigational ability, the R3 tooted indignantly.
"No, R3 I didn't mean that." Xander read the readouts. "Hyperdrives shot, energy from a nearby neutron star will fry all the electronics in about an hour, not to mention kill me in about ten minutes. wait. there seems to be some sort of disturbance in the fabric of space here."
The ship shuddered as a wave of nebula gas rolled over it, followed by a concussion blast.
"Where did that come from?" asked Xander turning to look about. Another light lit on the fighters damage screens. "Great. Structural integrity failing. looks like were both goners R3."
As the ship began to disintegrate, Xander fell unconscious from the lack of air and the sheer volume of radiation that was getting pumped into him.
Dawn stood in the same place she had when the portal snapped shut. Debating what to do, she decided to stand and stare at the air for a bit longer. Angel would arrive just as fast as he could when she called him, so it could wait for a while.
Standing, almost catatonic with shock from what she had done, Dawn stared at the spot where Xander had disappeared.
As she stood, the portal opened again, and the body of the person who had just gone through came falling back out. Dawn snapped to action as Xander landed with a <thud> on the floor. Xander looked as if he were years older, mostly because his hair and beard were long and unkempt, as if only a bare minimum of time had been spent looking after himself. He was dressed strangely, in a short flowing tan robe, with black calf-length boots and two strange metallic cylinders, one on each hip attached to his belt. The fabric had a cut in it on his thigh. What shocked Dawn the most were the many small cuts on his face and arms, as if something had exploded around him. The radiation burns present on all exposed skin came a close second.
How did he get radiation burns? Dawn wondered.
As Dawn watched, his burns and cuts healed themselves slowly, although still far quicker than normal.
What happened to him?
Xander moaned and started to talk. "I'm glad that someone found me. I didn't think I could keep a healing trance going for that long at that level of power." He opened his eyes slowly, afraid of the light.
"Dawn?" he asked, before shutting his eyes again and mouthing, "I must be dead. I can't be back here. I haven't found a way yet."
"No! Xand. It's me. you fell back through the portal almost as soon as it closed! You're back home!"
Xander opened his eyes again. "Dawn. how long have I been gone?"
Dawn looked confused. "I don't know. one, maybe two minutes? Why?"
Xander swallowed hard. "Dawn. as far as I was concerned. it was nearly a year."
The two looked at each other.
Nearly a year.