This story is now being Beta'd by PierceTheVeils.

Shadow's Odyssey: A Star Wars Story

Shadow was woken by the sound of an explosion.

"Everyone get down! Get down!"

Shadow was laying on a raised walkway in a dark room. Strange machinery hung from the ceiling. Sounds of combat came from outside the room. A quick look around told him this was not Eggman's laboratory.

"What is this place? How long have I been out?"

He tried standing. There was no residual electricity hampering his movements, suggesting he'd been out for at least several hours.

A door opened. A dozen figures in white armor backed into the room.

"Everyone fall back!"

It was the same voice that had been yelling earlier. They closed the door as soon as they were all in the room.

"Well that could have gone better."

"Is there any way we can get back to the ship from here?"

They all had the same voice, and they were all of the same height and build. The helmets they wore hid their faces, and Shadow wondered if they looked the same underneath.

"Uh, guys?" One of them pointed at Shadow. "What is that?"

"I'm Shadow. Where the hell am I?"

"You're in a place that's about to be overrun with battle droids, that's where you are."

"What's going on? And who are you guys?"

One of them gives Shadow an incredulous look. Or at least Shadow thinks he does. The helmet made it hard to tell. "You seriously don't know about the Clone Wars? We've been fighting over this planet for months!"

Shadow concluded that wherever he was, it was very far away from home.

"Look, we don't have time to explain this to you. Is there another way out of here or what?" The question was directed to one of the other soldiers.

A resigned shake of the head. "No, sir. We're trapped in here."

The door was forced open again, and a great many robots shoved their way into the room.

"Clones! Blast them!"

The white armored soldiers took cover behind the machinery. The robots paid no mind to Shadow, and focused their fire on the clones as they called them.

"Looks like this is our last stand boys! It's been a pleasure fighting with you!"

Shadow observed the shootout in front of him, wondering what he should do. Then one of the robots spotted Shadow.

"What is that thing?"

"It's not officially an enemy. Just ignore it."

"Roger Roger!"

Shadow looked back at the clones. They would die in a matter of minutes if he didn't do something. He looked at the robots again. In his experience, people who attacked others with robots were not good people. But what if that side was fighting with robots to avoid sacrificing actual lives in battle? Who were the good guys here? Were there any good guys?

The clones shouted jeers and challenges at the impassively approaching robots.

Machines could be replaced. Lives couldn't.

Shadow curled into a spiked ball and spun briefly in place before rocketing off at high speed. He smashed into the robots, slicing them to pieces. The clones stopped firing and watched in amazement as Shadow tore through the droids as if they were made of paper.

Shadow went out the door that the clones and droids had come through and continued his destructive rampage down the hallway. The robots were taken down before they could react. In less than a minute, the entire corridor was filled with broken droids.

The clones poked their heads out of the room.

"Did he just wipe out an entire battalion of droids by himself?"

A beeping sound was heard, and the soldier looked at his wrist.

He pressed a button and a voice came through. "What's the situation?"

"Uh… area is clear sir."

"Clear? I just sent you to do recon! How did you even manage to clear out an entire sector by yourselves?"

"Well, we didn't. We had help."

"Help from whom?"

"We aren't really sure sir."

"I can answer your questions about me as long as you answer my questions about you." Shadow interjected.

"Sir, we're bringing a civilian back to the ship."


Outside, the towers of a city could be seen poking above the clouds. Below them there were... more clouds. Clouds as far as the eye could see.

"How high above the ground are we?" Shadow asked.

His clone escort snorted. "Good one."

Shadow looked him strangely, but decided not to question the matter further.

Aboard an enormous ship that the clones called a Jedi Cruiser, Shadow was brought before a person that looked almost human, except for the horns on his forehead.

"Shadow, you said your name was? This is General Eeth Koth"

Shadow wasted no time in firing off questions. "What is going on? What are these 'Clone Wars'? And where am I?"

Eeth decided to start with the last question. "This is Cloud City."

"That doesn't mean anything to me. I've never heard of this city."

"This is the Bespin System."

Shadow just gave him a blank stare.

Eeth frowned. "How did you get here without knowing what this place is?"

"There was madman named Dr. Eggman. He built a machine. It exploded, and I woke up here."

"Interesting. And what was this machine supposed to do?"

"I don't know. All I know is that is used the power of seven magical stones called the Chaos Emeralds." Shadow thought about what he just said. "Actually, those Emeralds are probably the reason I'm out here."

The ship's captain addressed Eeth, "We have incoming droid bombers!"

"Get our starfighters in the sky now!"

"Sir! We're detected droid boarding craft!" Another clone shouted.

Small ships with a tooth like protrusion on the front closed in on the larger ship. They slammed into the hanger doors, driving their protrusions right through them.

"Sir! They're in the hanger!"

"I'm on my way." Eeth turned to Shadow. "So, you wiped out an entire battalion of droids, huh? Would you mind doing it again?"

"Before I do anymore fighting, I need to know what this war is about. Why should I fight for you?"

"Well to make a long story short, those are the Separatists and they threaten the peace of the Republic. I hope that's a satisfying enough answer for the moment because I really don't have time to explain more."

The general then hurried towards the hanger.

Shadow huffed at the vague answer. After some internal deliberation, he came to the conclusion the he should fight. Partly because if he didn't more clones would die, and partly because he was standing in the ship that was being attacked.

He made his way into the hanger to find it filled with attacking robots. These were different from the ones he had fought previously. Those had been thin and tan colored. These were stockier and gray colored. They were firing wrist mounted rockets at the small ships in the hanger. He spotted Eeth cutting the robots apart with some sort of laser sword.

Shadow activated his jet shoes and moved in a skating motion over to one of the robots and kicked it across the room, before moving on to other targets. Unknown to Shadow, his battle was being observed by a Separatist probe droid. It watched as Shadow charged at another target and smashed it with his gloved hands.

One of the droids fired its rocket at Shadow. He jumped over the rocket, and it blew up a bunch of crates that were behind him. Their contents were scattered all over the place. It mostly appeared to be parts and tools, but one item caught Shadow's eye.

Shadow couldn't believe it. What was a Chaos Emerald doing here? But now was not the time to think about that, as the blaster shots flying past his head reminded him. Shadow ran for the Emerald. He grabbed it and felt its energy course through his body. He turned his attention back to the droids that were shooting at him. He pointed his hand towards the droids. The droids were intelligent enough that they knew this gesture was a bad sign, but they could not move fast enough to avoid the yellow bolt of energy that leaped from Shadow's palm.

It struck one of the droids and punched a hole through its body. The droid collapsed and another one stepped forward to take its place. Shadow called out, "Chaos Spear!" and fired more bolts of energy into the surrounding droids.

The clones stopped fighting and watched as Shadow destroyed the droids just by pointing at them.

"How is he doing that?"

"Having him is like having another Jedi!"

"I've never seen a Jedi do that."

Then they heard Shadow shout, "Chaos Control!"

They watched Shadow destroy all the remaining droids before they could even blink.

"I'm really glad he decided to take our side."

Eeth approached Shadow. "Very impressive. But where did you get that jewel?"

"I should be asking you that. It was in one of those boxes."

"It wasn't supposed to be there. It wasn't there when we loaded those crates."

"This is a Chaos Emerald. It must have been transported here along with me. Meaning the other six are also out there somewhere."

"You say these Emeralds contain energy?"

"Yes. Lots of it."

One of the clones spoke up. "Is that what allowed you to do all the crazy stuff that you just did?"

"Yes and no. I can still do those things without an Emerald, but I reach my limits a lot quicker. If I had attempted that stunt without one, I probably would have burned myself out."

"So, these things are basically super powerful batteries?" The same clone asked.

"Not exactly how I would describe it, but yes."

It was then that Eeth Koth noticed the probe droid watching them.

"Probe droid!"

He reached out his hand and the droid came flying towards them. Once it was close enough, he ignited his laser sword and cut it in half.

"What was that?" Shadow asked, looking at the wreaked droid.

"That was a probe droid. The Separatists were watching us."

"So, they heard our entire conversation just now?"


On a ship on the other side of Cloud City, a super tactical droid was analyzing the data the probe droid had sent it. It closely observed the footage of Shadow as he tore through the super battle droids and shot bolts of energy from his hands.

The creature was unlike anything the droid had in its data banks. Never before had it seen such power, not even from a Jedi.

It turned to another droid. "Contact Count Dooku. I have something he'll be very interested in."