Disclaimer: We own not.
This is the combined genius of myself (Xaja Silversheen) and the amazing Jedi Master Luthien. The story behind this concerns a crossover role-play game we both play, in which we come up with crazily awesome crossover pairings- including the one that inspired this...
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He ducked as another blaster bolt thudded into the wall above his head. Flinching from the heat that the passing missile inflicted on his face, he whipped one lightsabre behind his head, deflecting two more bolts before his boot found a small dip in the terrain. He barely stopped a yelp as he tripped. Sith... I hope Mical didn't see that- the little goody-goody would never have let me forget it. He scooted along his belly until he made it to a small starfighter. Slipping behind the wing of the craft, he looked around.
He didn't see any of his traveling companions anywhere. He decided calling them was worth the risk. "Exile! Mira!"
Silence.
Atton Rand risked a peep around the wing of the starfighter that he was taking refuge behind. "Bao-Dur? Visas?" He suddenly yelped and jerked himself back as the ground around him exploded with blaster bolts. "Sith dammit!"
A cold laugh answered the young Jedi pilot. "Aww... Does Atton Rand miss his friends?" More blaster bolts hit the ground beside the starfighter, showering Atton with dirt.
Atton scowled. "Damn you, Darth Sion," he muttered under his breath, looking around for an escape route. Sion just wouldn't die. Not only had Atton erroneously assumed he himself killed the Sith Lord, the Exile had assured him she'd destroyed Sion's will and convinced him to let go of the Dark Side. Apparently the Sith Lord was very good at playing dead.
Atton could only hope that his companions were able to flee without him. Casting out with the Force, he could just sense Mira's presence, several hundred metres away, much closer to the Ebon Hawk than he was. He didn't think the bounty hunter was hurt, which brought him some measure of relief. But he knew he'd never be able to get to her or to the Hawk without being blown to bits by Darth Sion's assassin minions- if the Sith didn't come after him himself.
His companions would probably all be able to get to the Hawk- and the Exile would never leave without them. Atton had little worry about their survival. The faint whine of ship engines that came to his ears confirmed his theory that the others were fine. Now he had only to get off-planet himself.
He eyed the ship above him, which he assumed had belonged to Kreia. Could he...
Atton heard the infuriated roar from Darth Sion. "Curse you, Exile!" The Sith turned away from Atton's starfighter refuge for only a moment to yell at the Ebon Hawk.
It was enough. The besieged pilot hastily scrambled up into the cockpit and got the hatch down just as Darth Sion turned around. Enraged, the Sith Lord shook his fist at Atton before turning and running for his own starfighter.
I gotta get out of here, thought Atton. He quickly took off, all-too aware of Darth Sion closely pursuing him. As soon as he cleared the atmosphere, he looked around. The Ebon Hawk was nowhere in sight. That could be problematic. Throwing his shields up as tightly as he could, he took off for the fairly-close by Outer Core. His hope lay in getting to Nar Shaddaa- perhaps with so many people around, he could lose Darth Sion.
He vehemently cursed in Huttese when he saw the Sith Lord's ship catching up to him on the radar. Giving his starfighter all the speed he could muster, he started to pull away from the Sith's spacecraft, only to stall.
"What now?" Atton smacked the console of the starfighter in frustration. "Work, dammit!" He attempted to give the vessel more power, and felt a spark of relief when he heard the whine of engines- only to have that relief negated by the fact that he was moving... backwards?
The console started to beep a warning. "Yeah, I know Sion's- What?" Double-taking at the screen, Atton tapped the console before twisting in his seat to look behind him. All he saw was blackness. "That's odd..." He looked at the console again before eyeing the dark mass behind him. "I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered to himself. He knew there were no other planets or moons around to cast a shadow- and even if there had been, he should still be able to see the pinpricks of light that were other stars in the-
No. Atton felt the blood drain from his face as he realized what he was up against. "Not a black hole! Not now!" Desperately, he tried to maneuver away from the black hole, but to no avail. His one comfort, if one could call it that, was the sight of Darth Sion being pulled into the black hole as well. He could only hope that T3-M4 had managed to get the Hawk away from the black hole- he didn't want his friends (or Mical) to die with him.
The gravitational pull turned his starfighter around to face the black hole. Atton gulped when he saw the huge black mass in front of him. Oh, Sith... This is not how I thought I was gonna die... He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for death and immersing himself in the Force one final time.
He wasn't expecting the Force to whisper, Not yet, Atton. It is not your time.
But how- Atton didn't have time to think anymore. For he had been pulled into the black hole and had to strain his eyes to see anything. He could just make out the shape of Darth Sion's starfighter beside him before the blackness became complete. He could sense that he was falling... listening to cracks in his ship's hull and viewscreen... struggling to breathe against the immense gravitational pressure on his chest... falling... blackness...
Light. Spinning. His ears popped. A very-disoriented Atton desperately tried to right his starfighter as he came sailing through space. He managed to straighten it for a bit, long enough for him to make out the shape of a planet in front of him. What? But there was no planet behind us... except Malachor V, and that only had seconds left! What the Sith is going on? And ships tended to stay away from Malachor after the Mandalorian Wars. This planet, on the other hand...
Atton looked at his console. However, going through the black hole had evidently done something bad to his computer, and now the screen was blank. "Blast..."
He yelped and went into a spiral as his fighter was hit. Evidently Darth Sion's weapons were still online, and the Sith was putting them to good use. Atton aimed his fighter as best as he could for the planet in front of him, figuring that it would be a safe place for him to hide. Besides, his fighter sounded like it was about to fall apart on him and he would much rather have to eject in an atmosphere.
He groaned with the effort of keeping the fighter under control as he approached the planet, all too aware of Darth Sion behind him, still shooting at his damaged craft. As the starfighter went into a spin, he caught a glimpse of the glimmering buildings that rose high into the planet's atmosphere. What is this? It's too ritzy to be Nar Shaddaa... It looked almost like Coruscant, except for the minor detail that Coruscant was in the Core, and Malachor V was in the Outer Rim...
Atton shook his head. Today was turning out to be possibly one of the worst days he'd had in a while. And it only got worse when he felt the nasty hit to the back of his ship that sent him lurching forward. Sniffing, he paled when he caught a whiff of smoke. Smoke? This thing's gonna blow!
Grabbing an oxygen mask to sustain him in the thin upper atmosphere, he fumbled around in the near darkness for a moment before finding the eject button. He activated it, and closed his eyes as he felt himself fly up into the cold night air. He pulled his arms tightly across his chest, both to conserve heat and to shield himself as his starfighter exploded in a ball of fire. Then he was falling, faster and faster toward the ground of this strange planet until he disappeared into the shadows...
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Reviews make Luthien and I very, very happy people... *hint hint*
Thanks for reading! And if anyone knows where my plot bunnies for Castaway and Unwanted Heir went off too, could you send them up to Canada, please? I kinda miss them...
That is all.
Xaja and Luthien