Chapter 1:
Dantooine's morning sun rose highly in the skies above, its sharp glare piercing down on the planet below, inciting various grumbles from the settlers and farmers across the regions. And Mason "Dipper" Pines was one of them. The sixteen-year-old grumbled under his breath, as he worked away on fixing Grunkle Stan's old-timey moisture vaporator, cursing under his breath when the blasted thing blew another motor, forcing him to work on that one instead of the other dozen that he was trying to fix. Sometimes he often wondered why they couldn't just buy a new one to help make the job easier, but the mental image of his grunkle popped into his head saying, "And waste good credits on those "fancy-schmancy" trash-heaps the local Imps try passing off as new brand? As if."
"Dang it, Grunkle Stan, why can't you just spend a few creds on something that'll actually work?" Dipper grunted, tightening a bolt on the blown motor. While he had no love for the Empire itself - far from it, in fact - he wouldn't be dumb enough to deny the technological improvements that the Empire has made to the galaxy since the days of the Old Republic and the Great Galactic War. . . still doesn't make up for the countless years of tyranny and enslavement of non-human races.
"Hey, bro-bro!" a voice shouted right next to him, causing Dipper to scream in terror as he whirled around with a look of fear that melted away to one of annoyance at the sight of his twin sister laughing at her idea of "a joke".
"Oh man," Mabel Pines - the older sibling of the two - laughed loudly, slapping Dipper's back with enough force to make him drop his wrench from the sudden pain. "That was priceless! I was like, "RARRGH!", and you were like, "Ah! Please don't eat me!"," She wiped a lone tear from her eye. "Ah, classic."
Dipper rolled his eyes, "Real funny, Mabel."
"I aim to please." Mabel replied with a bright grin.
"Let me guess, Grunkle Stan sent you out here to see if I hadn't blown myself up yet?" Dipper sighed, stretching his nimble limbs and holding in the pleasuring moan that threatened to escape his lips at that very moment. He may have not liked farming, but he did slightly enjoy feeling the multiple cracks and pops his body went through after a strenuous session in the fields.
"Nah, I just came to see how my favorite brother in the whole universe was doing." Mabel chirped, rocking herself back-and-forth on her heels.
Dipper spared his twin a skeptical look, picking up his fallen wrench. He wasn't no fool to the girl's innocent face that was capitalized by her sparkling eyes or her adorable grin. There was a time long ago that such a tactic worked on him, but that changed on their twelfth birthday when she managed to convince him in helping her "rescue" a puffer piglet from the local slaughterhouse. Said rescue resulted in the authorities placing the entire planet on lockdown for the two thieves responsible for ruining the governor's chance of tasting what Puffer pig meat was like.
When Grunkle Stan put two-and-two together, he immediately demanded that the two give the pig over to the authorities to avoid bringing the heat down on them any further than what his infamous reputation as a scoundrel across the Rim already did. But that all changed when the pig waddled off, returning hours later with a mouthful of rare Azurite crystals from a old mining cave several miles away from their make-shift home. Since that day, the pig had become a part of their crazy family, affectionately called "Waddles" for the way the pig moves.
However, that incident was a reminder to Dipper that his sister, while he loved her very much so, possessed ideas that threatened to bring the harsh vice of Imperial justice down on their necks, despite whatever intentions she had in mind. As such, he always responded to the girl's innocent demeanor with a simple word.
"No."
"Aw, c'mon Dipper," Mabel pouted, clasping her hands into a pleading motion. "It's not that bad, I promise."
Dipper rolled his eyes, "Right, and I suppose you forgot about that "easy job" when we stole those Ithorian music-boxes from those Black Sun goons for Grunkle Stan's life-day?"
"It wasn't my fault that they would have Gundarks as back-up." Mabel protested. "Besides, I thought they would just have that drunk Gamorrean watching the boxes as usual. Just goes to show that I need better sources for the job."
"Your only "sources" are you, and Waddles." Dipper smirked, secretly enjoying the way his sister got mad. He may love her, but even he enjoys a little teasing here and there.
"Nuh-uh, I have you as a source too," the girl protested. "And sometimes Grunkle Stan. . . when he's not busy with his own cons."
Dipper shook his head. "I'm flattered, but I'm not gonna be dragged into one of your crazy schemes again. I'd rather enjoy breathing normally than through a tube, so my answer's still the same; No."
He expected several reactions that Mabel could go through in the next ten seconds; She'll either yell at him, refuse to move until he does, or try bribing him into joining her. What he didn't expect was for the girl to hang her head, and spoke slowly in a somber tone, "Okay. . . bye."
Mabel turned to walk away with a dejected manner, causing a pool of guilt to form in the bottom of his stomach. He tried brushing it away, but it just seemed to doubled in intensity, causing Dipper to grit his teeth as it began consuming him. Don't give in to her, don't give in to her, don't give in to-. . .
. . .
Dang it.
With a reluctant sigh, Dipper blandly said, "Wait. I change my-OOF!"
With the speed of a rabid nexu, Mabel wrapped her arms around her twin brother in a crushing embrace, picking him up and swinging him around, all the while squealing out, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Despite the agony he was in, Dipper managed to put on a small, yet painful smile, while patting the crown of Mabel's head.
"Don't mention it, sis."
Although Dipper agreed to go along with Mabel's crazy idea, he gave the energetic girl simple instructions that he wouldn't go along with her plan until he was finished with his chores for his grunkle. Mabel agreed, staying out of the way and occasionally chatting with Dipper over mundane things while the boy was fixing either one of the vaporators or one of the old droids that "helped" out the Pines family around their home.
It took over three hours of hard work, but Dipper finally got his chores finished in time, much to his twin's delight. After taking a small shower and getting a quick change of clothes, he stepped outside to find Mabel sitting in the driver's seat of their grunkle's beat-up landspeeder ready to go. While he briefly considered asking her if he could drive, he put it aside when he realized that it'd be best for the girl to drive them rather than tell him which way to go.
Once making sure her brother was strapped in, Mabel hit the accelerator and the two were off!
"Ah!" Dipper cried, grasping the worn leather seat for some kind of protection. "Easy on the gas, Mabel!"
"Oh, ye of little faith," Mabel laughed, pressing her foot further down on the accelerator until it hit the floor. "You should know to trust your big sister, Dipping Sauce, and her excellent driving skills to get us to our point of destination much faster than your old-lady speed."
"Excuse me for following speeding regulations," Dipper scowled to himself.
Mabel merely laughed loudly, continuing to defy the laws as they sped off towards the horizon. She thought to herself with a toothy grin, Today's going to be a great day!
"Do you even know where you're going?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow at his sister, who was scanning through the various maps in the speeder a hundred miles per hour, while driving at that exact same speed. Oddly enough, Dipper accepted this, already resigning to the possible fate of dying by the hands of his twin's hectic driving. And they call Grunkle Stan the cynic, he thought.
Mabel answered him without turning to face him, swerving a hard right that made Dipper's insides spin. "Of course I do. It's just that, uh . . . I can't recall exactly what road to take to get there."
"Maybe you should let me drive?" Dipper offered, flinching at the hot glare he received from Mabel thanks to that stupid question.
Her voice lowered to the growl of a hungry Acklay. "I know where I'm going."
Dipper merely smiled, raising his hands in a surrender gesture before folding them behind his head and reclined backwards in his seat. He heard Mabel grumble something un-ladylike under her breath before turning her eyes back on the road. He closed his eyes to get a little shut-eye when he was jolted forward by Mabel slamming on the brakes with a loud cry.
Dipper cried, "Ow! Jeez Mabel, go easy on the brakes a little, will ya?"
His words died in his throat when he first caught sight of Mabel's pale, gaping mouth staring at something above them. Frowning, he looked up to the sky . . . and felt his own jaw drop in a similar manner to his twin.
There, burning brightly as the afternoon sun, was a star fighter in flames, spiraling out of control and descending towards the ground at rapid speeds.
"Is that . . . a ship?" Dipper managed to get out, receiving only a dumbfounded nod from his sister. The two followed the ship until it fell out of sight behind the tall mountains, though that didn't stop the loud 'boom' that followed up, making them both flinch at the echoing sound.
"Should . . . should we go check it out?" Mabel timidly asked, blanching at the rising column of smoke pollute the clear blue skies with its choking ash.
Dipper nodded slowly, reaching into the glove compartment and pulling out the spare blaster pistol that their grunkle kept in there for potential emergencies, and this seemed like the right time to use it. Swallowing at the sight of her brother holding a blaster in hand, Mabel turned back to the road and stepped on the accelerator gently, slowly moving along to the crash site with a feeling of dread coursing through her veins.
It didn't take long for the Pines siblings to arrive at the crash-site, and Dipper winced at the smouldering ship inside a newly formed crater. The two got out of the speeder, and slowly approached the wreckage with caution; Dipper brandishing the small laser pistol in his hands.
"What do you think is in there?" Mabel quietly said. "You think the pilot could still be alive or . . ."
She let her question trail off into an uneasy silence.
"Whatever's in there, we can't take any chances. Just stay close to me, and be ready for whatever's inside." Dipper said, taking the safety off the pistol.
Mabel merely nodded, pulling out one of Dipper's tools to use as a make-shift weapon.
Walking towards the damaged ship, Dipper narrowed his eyes as the smoke cleared and he got a better view of the vessel. It looked to be a fairly old fighter, dated back to the days of the Old Republic, based on its design. A small, nagging voice in the back of his head was trying to remind him of where exactly he'd seen this before, but he brushed it aside as he and Mabel stepped onto the ship's hull.
The cockpit came into view, and he could make out the faint image of a person inside, unable to tell whether they were alive or not. "Ready?" he asked Mabel, who nodded back firmly. Grasping one end of the viewscreen - Mabel taking hold of the other - the two pulled back with all their might, gritting their teeth and straining their muscles even as their faces turned red from exertion. After for what felt like an eternity, the cockpit then unlatched and they pulled it upwards, allowing the accumulated steam and smoke from inside the cockpit to blow out, clouding their vision and filling their lungs up with the strong smell of ash and . . . blood?
Once the air cleared away, Dipper looked inside the cockpit and gasped at what, or rather, who he saw; a man with a long, bushy black beard with two thin grey hairs around his lips hunched over in pain, despite being unconscious, with blood coming out of nearly everywhere in his body. His mouth, his nose, and especially the hole around his stomach.
"Is . . . is he de-dead?" Mabel stammered, holding back her bile at the sight of so much blood. She wished Waddles was there to comfort her fall, as the stench of blood filled up her nostrils with its awful, awful smell.
"I don't know." Dipper answered back hesitantly, crouching down to get a better look at the man. He was old, that was for sure, but he was nowhere near the age that their grunkle was in, maybe a few years younger than him. He then noticed something peculiar out of the corner of his eye. Lying on the floor of the carpet, near the man's blood-soaked feet, was a strange cylindrical device that seemed to beckon him to take it. While a part of his head was chastising him for scavenging the ship for parts while the pilot's corpse laid in front of him, he couldn't help but indulge in its silent request, picking it up and storing it into one of his pockets for studying later. Suddenly, he heard the one thing that a man of his condition wouldn't be doing; breathing.
Dipper gasped, "He's alive! Quick, help me get into the speeder."
Despite her revulsion at her hands touching so much blood, Mabel complied willingly - though gagged from the smell that the guy was producing - and the two slowly lumbered towards the old speeder, grunting and panting as they dumped the unconscious man into the backseat, wincing at the painful moan he made as his body flopped onto the seat. The two wasted no time in getting into the speeder, and quickly fled the scene as fast as a rabid nexu. As Mabel continued to drive, Dipper felt his hand drift towards the pocket that housed the strange device that he picked up, and frowned to himself at the weight it had on him. He turned his head around to stare at the unconscious man, both wary and concerned at the same time. Just who exactly are you?
A few hours had passed since Dipper and Mabel brought the injured man back to their home, and saw to his wounds be treated by them and Stan. When the old man first saw the bloodied corpse in the back of his seat, he got scared that the kids had finally snapped, and had now come to take their vengeance out on him for their many years of a boring mundane life on Dantooine. When they clarified that wasn't the case, the old man then helped them bring the man into their make-shift medbay, which was nothing more but a spare inventory room with a lone bed and a few medical supplies in the event of an emergency. It took some time, but they finally managed to clean the blood off and heal with wounds with the help of a few stitches and batca-bandages around the hole in his abdomen.
Afterwards, Stan proceeded to yell at the two about bringing some potential nutcase to their home and how he'll be gone the moment he woke up. Dipper tried to protest, but Stan's decision was final, along with Mabel reluctantly backing him up due to the old man having an actual point for once. Angered by their careless natures, Dipper had stormed off to his room silently seething, and had not come out ever since, despite Mabel's pleas.
It was now night, and Dipper could faintly hear the sound of Stan's heavy snoring through the heavy-steel corridors of their ship. He rolled his eyes at the sound, He can scream like a Wookiee and have the snore to back it up as well.
He rolled over onto his side, closing his eyes to get some sleep, when he suddenly paused at the sudden weight pressing up against his leg. It took only a few seconds for him to remember the device he had took from the bearded man's ship was still in his pocket.
With a small grunt, he hoisted himself up and dug his hand into his pocket for a moment before pulling out the device. He frowned as he looked it over, getting a further look at the strange device that he'd taken from the crash-site. It was cylindrical in design with vertical rows of gold-and-black stripes decorating its unique design.
"Weird," he murmured to himself, stroking the sides of the enticing device. However, he was so enticed in the device's unique model that he didn't notice his thumb accidentally stroke a singular button in the device's center, and the moment his thumb touched that button, a bright ray of light suddenly emerged from the device, illuminating the room in a bright blue hue.
Dipper shrieked in surprise, dropping the device as fast as lightning, while the energy receded back into the device upon Dipper removing his thumb from the button, and dropped onto the floor with a heavy 'clunk'.
Dipper panted heavily, "What the hell?" He stared down at the strange device with a look of fear in his eyes. However, as much as he tried to deny it, he felt as if the device was . . . calling to him, like a soft wind blowing through his ears. His hands shaking slightly, he reached back down to pick up the device - almost afraid that it'll lash out at him - and held it in his hands.
Odd, he thought to himself. It feels much heavier than it did.
Closing his eyes, he thumbed the button again, and heard a loud ignition coming from the device along with the room being much brighter than it was before, even with his eyes closed.
When he opened his eyes, his jaw dropped at what he saw; almost a meter-length of pure blue energy was coming out of the device's hilt, entrancing Dipper with its beauty. In the back of his head, he heard a voice whisper the word he'd been searching for; Lightsaber.
It didn't take long for Dipper to piece the puzzles together, and he realized numbly who, or rather what, exactly the man he and Mabel found was.
The man was a Jedi Knight.