Chapter 3

The next two weeks were incredibly busy for Xander. He spent long hours conducting business with his new lawyer. With Lilah's aid he had discretely filed a large number of patents and then promptly authorized several business deals. Lilah was given power to make more as needed. He felt she was reasonably trustworthy.

He was now the proud owner of the former Calax Research and Development facility. The newly renamed Xander Research and Development Labs had then managed to buy all of the property surrounding the former CRD building.

Mostly consisting of old warehouses and cheap housing, they were scheduled to be replaced. Already a construction company had started working on his new mansion. For now he was renting a very nice hotel suite. Eventually Xander planned on constructing a full industrial complex within the heart of his new compound.

Xander had another company working on creating another XRD facility and personal mansion in Los Angeles. It would primarily serve as a closer link to Wolfram and Hart and Lilah had been the one to lobby for it. After all the work she had done on his behalf, it was an easy enough concession. Besides, he was sure he'd find a use for it eventually.

Interestingly, it seems the Viper Droids patrols of the graveyards had several side effects. The sounds of their repulsorlifts now seemed to terrify the local vampire population. They also seemed to largely avoid the graveyards now. Since he had a few of them guarding his newly acquired property they had also taken to avoiding that entire neighborhood.

The probe droids had also quickly swept the entire town and had only located a single droid. Only upon picking it up had their mistake been revealed. It wasn't a droid. It was some kind of human replica and judging from it's components was from the 50s. The technology was both insanely advanced and incredibly primitive. He had immediately tasked Willow and Warren to study it and told Lilah to get them everything they needed.

For Lilah Morgan the past two weeks had been exhilarating. The heady euphoria of managing to sign on a client that had even the Senior Partners nervous had been amazing. Then had come the actual conducting of his business.

Darth Xander turned out to be a dream client so far. He had promptly filed over half a dozen patents. Patents which had every major corporation in the world interested. He had access to some pretty amazing technology if her engineering contacts were to be believed. He had then just given her a list of what he wanted.

Sure, he dressed as a reject from those popular movies a few months back, but that didn't matter as long as he wanted to remain out of the public eye. In fact, thanks to his avoidance of any attention she had ended up becoming the unofficial face of XRD Labs. He had refused any publicity or meetings with anyone other then her. It had quickly become known that she was the person to approach about any licensing deals.

Lilah's reputation had skyrocketed. She was definitely a rising star and on the fast track to becoming the new vice president of her division. The number of favors she was now owed were substantial.

The best part had been the level of trust he had shown her judgment. It was wonderful and she had been determined to not disappoint him. She had been in her element as she spun an entire web of trade agreements and back door deals to meet all of his demands and then some.

Oh, he still kept an eye on her. She had no doubt that her new bodyguard reported back to him. However, it was discrete and adaptable and didn't seem to care about how she conducted business on his behalf. It was also seemed to be filled with an endless array of concealed weapons along with the commlink to Xander.

The bodyguard was simply amazing. It was some kind of robot with an illusionary skin. It could change it's appearance at will and she had designed it's current one. Very few people viewed a small petite woman as a serious threat, much less an unarmed one. She had ended up using it as an aide in keeping up with all of her deals on Xander's behalf.

Lilah had ended up having to give him a fairly comprehensive list of potential services he might be interested in. He could definitely afford them and a number of other parties were still expressing interest in his technology. If he wanted to keep official financial transactions to a minimal, she would need to know what else he was interested in. High end industrial and scientific equipment was very tame compared to what else Wolfram and Hart could offer or subcontract.

For Warren, the past two weeks had been awesome. First he had gotten to meet Darth Vader. Sure, he called himself Darth Xander now, but it still counted. He had the voice and breathing. He even had the lightsaber. Which was honestly terrifying, but since he lived with all his limbs intact, turned out to be awesome.

Then he found he still had memories on how to use a lot of the Star Wars technology. He had been offered a position in the Empire as well. Xander called it the Sith Imperium, but Warren still thought of it as the Empire. Warren had jumped at the chance to become the first Military Director of Xander's empire.

If all of that hadn't been enough, he had kept some changes from Halloween. He was both taller and more fit. When he had gone back to Sunnydale High he almost hadn't minded given his new confidence and body. Even his former bullies left him alone now.

It was interesting to note that almost everyone had ignored his new look despite some people recognizing him. Sunnydale Syndrome strikes again. He snorted as he wondered if Xander and Willow could have still gone to school. The mental image of Darth Vader sitting behind a desk was hilarious.

His task of searching for potential recruits had been progressing slowly. He had only found a couple of candidates, but that may have been because half his mind was on his project.

Given what he already knew about droid technology, Moloch's body was fascinating. He had been studying it ever since Xander had purchased the CRD facility. Xander had physically destroyed the memory core, but he hadn't really been interested in that anyway.

Moloch's body was vastly more primitive then Star Wars technology, but it's abilities were on par with most known war droids. Remarkably, the body of the Ted robot was even more primitive. It's capabilities easily exceeded those of a human though. By replacing components with Star Wars level technology it outperformed the Moloch body in some ways.

He had been ordered to work with Willow in designing a new war droid and he had gotten a little obsessed. He was determined to make this version of the Dark Trooper project a success. He wondered how Willow was fairing with reverse-engineering the Ted robot's brain.

For Willow the past two weeks was almost perfect. The only thing that would have made it better was if Xander was healed and she could touch him, but he had recently promised that he was working on that.

It was confusing and a bit scary at first. She had woken up in a room that was strange and yet familiar at the same time. She had been panicking until she had managed to call Xander. He had helped her understand the situation. The weird new sort of memories had helped convince her.

When she had felt his emotions it had been incredible. She was slowly progressing in her Force training. It was all about concentration and emotional control. Meditation helped with both. She couldn't wait until she could feel Xander's emotions all the time.

The physical changes had bothered her at first. She didn't like being even skinnier, but at least Xander seemed to like her changes. And bonus, he seemed to notice she was a girl now. So it was overall a positive thing. Or it would have been if not for her hair.

She missed her hair. Her crest was pretty, but it didn't swish when she turned her head. And washing it was even harder now. The absolute worst part had been her parents. They had denounced her new look as the work of witchcraft.

They had first tried to get her exorcised. When it had failed, they had suggested surgery and taken to ignoring her when she refused. When she had brought up emancipation, they had signed the paperwork without a word of protest. That same day she had moved out and moved into Xander's hotel suite. It was a little crowded, but she liked being near him, even if his armor startled her sometimes.

Even worse then all of that was the death of her best friend. She was glad the costume shop guy had died since he took Buffy from her. She had thrown herself into her projects in an effort to avoid her grief. Xander had helped a lot with that.

Most of her time was spent at the XRD Labs. Xander had let her order any equipment she needed and she was currently working on reverse-engineering the brain of the robot Ted. It was amazingly advanced, far beyond what had been available to the Empire according to Qwi Xux's memories. She had only made as much progress as she had thanks to Ms. Calender.

Janna Kalderash or as she was currently known as, Jenny Calender was very happy. Sure she felt bad about the death of the current Slayer, but they always led short lives. More importantly though was that her life had massively improved since that Halloween.

With the death of Buffy, Angel had sunk into a depression. While she sympathized, since he was trying to be a hero, she was very relieved that she was off the hook from her family. The seers back home had confirmed that there was no longer any eminent danger of Angel losing his soul.

The seers had also noticed a rising power that could impact them and tasked her to investigate. The new task was easy enough. Within a few days she had been approached by Xander and Willow for help getting emancipated and home schooled. The presence of Wolfram & Hart had confirmed her suspicions.

Sadly, Buffy's death had also devastated Rupert and she liked him a little too much to allow him to wallow in his guilt. Sadly she didn't seem to be able to stop him. She tried to involve him, but his technophobia kept him from working with Willow like she was doing.

Ted was fascinating to work on. The original Ted had been a genius. The brain was apparently a fiendishly complex network of processor chips spread throughout it's body. It was all run by what resembled a digital imprint of a human consciousness.

For SGC the past two weeks had been hectic. They had repeatedly attempted radio contact unsuccessfully and were very nervous about their new neighbors. All the transfers to assemble the new team had been pushed through in record time. The team had then promptly spent days arguing and were only now finally presenting their results.

"Sir, this is Lt. Alaric Clemens. He has been fully debriefed and is now leading the new team of analysts." Carter introduced the new man to General Hammond. Alaric was tall and gangly, with bright blond hair and grey eyes hidden behind large glasses. He ignored the presence of the SG-1 team as he started though the window at the stargate.

O'Neill rolled his eyes. "Great. Just what we needed another geek."

Clemens seemed to catch himself and saluted before beginning his presentation. "Sorry." He cleared his throat nervously as he quickly handed out a folder to everyone.

"The ship is definitely a Super-class Star Destroyer. Based off the readings we believe that it has deployed a Shield Garrison Base to protect the ship. That likely means they aren't intending to move the ship anytime soon."

There was a pause as everyone read through the briefing packet. There was increasing disbelief at the findings. Clemens attempted to address each comment as they were made.

"Over 5000 weapons!"

"Yes, although those are actually turrets. They primarily consist of turbolaser and heavy turbolaser batteries, which consist of groupings of 2 to 6 individual guns." Several people paled at the news that the ship actually possessed at least twice as many weapons as previously thought.

"300+ small craft?!"

"That is the minimum number listed. However, it is generally agreed that over 2000 TIE fighters can be stored onboard."

"38,000 storm troopers with ground vehicles?"

"Yes, it's supposed to be an army capable of a full planetary invasion. The number of walkers and other craft was never listed. My team does believe it to be less than a thousand."

"Garrison Bases?"

"It is a fully deployable fortress capable of housing thousands of soldiers and dozens of vehicles. It will possess energy shielding and defensive laser cannons. Based on lore and the Mars footage we think they can be up and running within a day. The ship should only have at most two more in storage."

Eventually the questions tapered off as each answer seemed to make the situation grimmer. Finally Hammond addressed Clemens. "Is there any good news?"

"Yes sir, based upon the fact they haven't attacked yet, they are not following Imperial doctrine which was to contact the leaders and bomb the planet until they give up. The ship symbol is unknown and from what the images show we believe it's a standard model so its capability are at least known. "

"Lastly, given how they appeared and aren't responding, they may be having problems and that's why they retreated. If the ship was heavily damaged it would explain their use of a Shield Base."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing NASA is getting ready to take a closer look." Hammond answered the puzzled looks from the rest of the room. "The president wants us to make contact before anyone else finds out about it. Since they aren't responding to radio calls, NASA is preparing an additional Mars Rover."

Riley and Forrest cautiously made their way across the UC Sunnydale campus. Their instructions were to capture one of the flying droids, which a report had labeled Viper Probe Droids, for study. The drones were only seen to be targeting vampires and so should be possible to ambush.

Several other pairs had been sent out to cover all of the graveyards. It seemed like everyone at the base had been mobilized. The rest of the personnel had been organized into a large reserve force.

They quickly made their way over to their designated graveyard. The droids only seemed to sweep the graveyards a few times per night and they wanted to be setup well beforehand. They had both been briefed on what little information was known and had watched the movies. They hoped their taser blasters would disable it.

A few hours later a probe droid wandered into view. It didn't seem to be paying them any attention and they both carefully aimed their taser blasters at it. The arcs of electricity never reached it. They seemed to disperse against a shimmering energy field they hadn't noticed before. They barely saw it spin to face them before their vision flashed bright red.

Back at the XRD compound Xander received an alert as several of his droids came under attack. Watching the recording he watched as several droids were struck by ion bolts and then the droids and the backup droids killed the attackers.

He saw the droids move to collect the bodies and equipment to bring back as per their standing orders. Ion rifles had been unexpected. How much more technology did I miss?

He was about to turn away when he received another alert. He watch through the various viewpoints as a large group of people attacked the droids. Well organized and trained he noticed. They also seemed armed with an impressive array of conventional weapons.

Back within the Initiative Compound Dr. Walsh continued to monitored her soldiers. She had witnessed the deaths of over a dozen of her men without any reaction other then issuing new orders. "Reserve, move in. Use of heavy weapons has been authorized. Make sure you get me samples."

Dr. Walsh regretted the loss Riley and the other soldiers she had been experimenting on. The various drug therapies had been too early to show any conclusive results. She would have to start all over.

Once she received confirmation that the reserve unit had made it's way successfully back she went down to meet them. She took the few samples they had grabbed and went to her lab.

A few hours later Dr Walsh was furious. The pieces her men had salvaged from the droids were useless. She had reviewed the videos and knew her men hadn't done that much damage. Just like in the movies, they must possess a self-destruct mechanism and a powerful one at that.

It wouldn't be worth it to attempt to acquire another droid. Fortunately she knew where they came from. XRD Labs had appeared at the same time as the droids. She had had a few men stake it out and they had reported hearing the distinctive sound of the droids coming from behind the compound walls.

An open assault would be foolhardy given the losses she had already taken. No, she needed a specialist at bypassing high tech security. She needed a professional thief. She picked up the phone. "Col Kennedy, I have located something of great interest. Acquiring it though may prove somewhat problematic. I believe the services of Ms Raiden will be required again."

Xander growled as several droids were destroyed under sustained fire. He watched as the people rapidly retreated with several pieces of scrap from his droids. I don't know who they are, but they are going to regret this.

He rapidly began typing orders as he strode to his shuttle. He had a lot of preparations to make if he was going to destroy his newest revealed enemy. He left a note for Willow and placed the compound on alert, ordering all the droids to guard the compound before he left. He also placed a call to Lilah. "About that list of services you sent me..."

Over the next two days Xander's forces prepared to wage war. All of their tasks had been completed. The engineers had stripped out the cloaking field generator and installed it inside an Imperial Landing Craft. The pilots had removed the ion cannon in order to install a few additional anti-personnel turrets. The stormtroopers had mounted several E-Web repeating blasters and a concussion shield generator on repulsorlift sleds.

In the meantime Xander had driven into Los Angeles. He had arranged for an entire slew of mystical procedures for himself. Between the procedures and the recovery time, he would be ready when his forces were.

That evening Darth Xander laughed freely for the first time. He was whole once again! The procedure was worth every cent he had spent on it. He turned and looked in distaste at his former cage. He used Force lighting to melt the armor into slag. After a brief hesitating, he grabbed the right glove, all that remained, before laying back down.

The various skill implants had taken the bulk of the time. He had passed on the physical augmentations, just wanting to enjoy being whole for now. It was almost midnight before he made the drive back to Sunnydale.

He made it in time to see the Landing Craft landing. It had ended up making a second trip in order to ferry a full hundred probe droids. As soon as it landed he activated all of the droids and ordered them to provide air support. The troops quickly boarded the Landing Craft. They began warming up the heavy equipment during the short flight.

From on board the craft, the facility was easily located. The unique energy signatures of their ion weapons giving them away. The powerful sensors mapping out the entire facility within seconds.

Xander looked over the data before snapping out orders. He sent out the bulk of his droids to guard the various entrances to the facility. They were scattered throughout a large area, one of them was even within a fraternity house, which thankfully seemed to be currently empty. He assigned himself and the stormtroopers to assault a large entryway, large enough for vehicles.

The actual assault proved to be anticlimactic. The concussion shield generator stopped all of the projectile weapons perfectly. With his lightsaber, he enjoyed batting away the few ion bolts they shot at the group.

From behind him the stormtroopers easily gunned down all resistance and the E-Webs took care of any attempt at using cover. The lights turned off and all the doors locked as the infiltrator droids took control over the system.

Once he had broken the resistance he began hunting down any remaining personnel. He had the stormtroopers stun anyone who surrendered and had the probe droids backing them up. The Landing Craft's sensors made sure they didn't run into any ambushes.

It was over within an hour. The sweep was clean and the Landing Craft hadn't had to use any of it's weapons. He ordered them to strip everything and bring it back, no matter how many trips it took. He had prisoner's to interrogate.

Xander was still angry and didn't bother waking any of them up. He violently mind probed the first prisoner he reached, mercilessly digging through his thoughts for the information he wanted. He repeated the process with each of the other prisoners, leaving the now identified Dr Walsh for last. He took the longest with her, seeing as she was the project leader.

Afterwards Xander stood still, pondering the new information. It seems that he was now up against a branch of the government. His plans were still salvageable, but would have to be accelerated.

As if Janus was mocking his plans, the next day was an unending string of bad news. First the police had dropped by. Apparently Giles had both been killed and Jenny had gone missing. The police had found several papers from XRD in Jenny's possessions, hence the questioning. Apparently they were wondering if she had drugged Giles, given he had been covered in blue goo, before fleeing.

Willow had apparently woken up in time to overhear the last part. She had been distraught and while he had enjoyed holding her, crying was not what he was wanting her to be doing in his arms. She had been devastated and while hopeful, neither of them expected to hear from Ms Calender again.

The loss of Jenny combined with Willow's grief would slow his plans at the worst possible moment. Her grief had overshadowed her joy at his restoration. Even worse, Warren had become friends with them and had become distracted by their plight as well.

That afternoon, he had been invited down to city hall to meet with the mayor. The meeting was aggravating. Mayor Wilkins was excessively and relentlessly cheerful. He was also incredibly well informed.

If he had still been Xander instead of Darth Xander, he most likely would never have picked up on the all of the undercurrents in the meeting. Several times throughout the meeting the mayor subtly threatened him with bureaucratic harassment and assassination.

After a long and frustrating meeting Xander was finally able to reassure Wilkins that he had no plans on making any large scale changes to the town. Fortunately he didn't have to lie, Operation Slayer had died with Giles and Jenny. His vendetta against vampires seemed petty in the face of his plans.

Besides, his plans had always been to establish a base off of Earth. He had no wish to be confined to a tiny corner of the galaxy for longer than necessary. For now though he needed the resources of Earth.

He did end up getting zoning permits to build his compound as well as a promise from Wilkins to help steer the government's attention away. Although the last part was as much for the mayor as himself.

As if to cap the day off that night the base was assaulted. The alarm woken him up just as he had fallen asleep. Comming the trooper in charge of the guard, he had demanded a report.

"Sir, it's a woman. She broke into the facility, bypassing every alarm. The sensors picked her up and a droid went out capture her. She used some kind of ion weapon on it that didn't register on the sensors. We are sending a squad to intercept her now. She's making her way to the main labs."

Xander eagerly jumped out of bed, not caring he was only half dressed. He summoned his lightsaber as he ran out of his room. "I'll be right there, do not engage her unless she tries to escape."

Soon enough he felt the presence of the intruder even as he felt some of his men get killed. Their comm when dead even as he cut his way through the walls towards her. He burst through the wall to see the whole squad laying smoking on the floor and a woman standing next to a computer. She had her hand on the screen, which was flashing through windows.

The woman was fairly young with long dark hair and wearing a tight black outfit. She raised an eyebrow at his lightsaber, but didn't stop what she was doing. He recognized a power similar to Mechu-deru. "You should not have come here."

She looked up, "I'm almost finished. You know how it is. Girl's gotta eat."

"I'm afraid I can't let you have that information." Xander watched for a moment longer. "How are you doing that?"

"I can do a lot more than that." She suddenly darted forward and swung a hand at him. When he blocked he felt himself absorb a jolt of electricity coming from her fist. He blocked several more blows trying to understand how she was shocking him. Maybe some kind of taser wired into her gloves?

She seemed to be getting frustrated as the fight progressed. "Why aren't you toast?"

"Because your taser isn't enough to actually burn." Xander stood back. He could feel she had something else hidden and he was curious.

"We'll see about that." She then pulled her gloves off and punched out with both fists. He grabbed her arms and felt electricity pouring into him. He activated Force drain and felt the energy being absorbed. So she's a living generator.

"Like I said, your little taser trick isn't enough." Suddenly he felt the electricity reduce to a trickle. Her arms wrenched to out of his grasp with incredible strength and her following kick sent him flying.

"I wonder," Xander mused out loud before sending a stream of Force-lightning at her. She absorbed it and just stood there staring at him in shock.

"You're like me!" She exclaimed excitedly. She stayed where she was, smiling at him.

"No, I'm better." He suddenly used Force grip and Force drain while she was held. As she collapsed he caught memory fragments from her. The only one that stood out was that she had been sent by Dr Walsh. He ordered her taken to the infirmary and kept sedated.

When he went back to his rooms, Willow was panicking. He quickly cut off her flood of questions. "It was an intruder. She killed a few men, but I took care of it. There is nothing to worry about."

She remained terrified so he carried her to the Landing Craft. "We're going to the Mars base. No one can reach you there." He held her as they flew. She didn't fall asleep until just before they landed. He left her a note after he tucked her in. He had a lot of work ahead of him.

It took him several days to finish the design for the next stage of his plans. It would have taken longer, but Willow had finally felt well enough to concentrate. She finished in a few hours what most likely would have taken him another week at least to design.

The design was for a modular mobile miniature factory. The molecular furnace was at the heart of his plans. He remembered their potential from the comics. While he wasn't planning on full scale World Devastators, he did plan on imitating their production facilities on a smaller scale. He named them Artisans as they would create small personal scale items.

The design resembled an enlarged TIE fighter cockpit with four spindly legs coming off it's sides. Solar panels were formed in a crest-like shell on it's back. The window had been replaced by a lamprey like mouth. Small tractor beams mounted on twin whip-like antennae allowed it to gather materials easier.

The best part was that multiple Artisans could combine into a centipede-like creature. He called them Architects because they were capable of creating entire structures. They could also manufacture more complex machinery through an internal assembly line. The networked minds were also capable of much more intricate planning.

The best part was that the Architects were modular. The more Artisans connected the more capable the resulting Architect. More complicated parts required longer Architects. The tractor beams could also be daisy chained together. The resulting beam from the emitter on the 'head' scaled in power with the size of the Architect.

As soon as he was done he checked to make sure the shaping ritual could handle it. The shaping ritual was a very complex piece of magic that he had commissioned. It allowed for moderately large transfigurations of incredible complexity provided a number of circumstances were met. Satisfied with the results, he began his preparations.

Content with the situation Xander oversaw the loading of all his ordered supplies onto the Landing Craft. He missed Willow, she was his anchor in all of this chaos. Looking forward to seeing her again, he hummed a cheerful tune as he took off.

Willow had spent the first two days on the base in a daze. She couldn't concentrate through her worries and fears. Her isolation seemed to magnify everything. In an effort to relief the mental stress she began meditating as much as possible. The third day she made a breakthrough.

Willow knelt on the floor and slowed her breathing. Slowly she entered a meditative trance, using the concentration of ignoring the ache of her position to drive herself. She felt herself sinking into her mind. As normal for the past few days she felt like she was drowning in unnamed fears. Suddenly it was too much and she twisted violently away. She tore her way out of her own mind and into another.

She felt herself relaxing as her fears didn't follow her. She smiled as she swam through new memories. She remembered bits and pieces of projects she had worked on before. She remembered the joy of learning and the enthusiasm of solving a problem. She remembered the satisfaction of being part of the Empire. She felt her worries and other emotions fade, washed out in the face of the brilliant focus she used to have.

With a gasp, she woke up again. Her mind felt horribly adrift and she had to forcibly remind herself that she was Willow. She was panting from the focus required to reaffirm her identity settled and remembered with envy the focus that Qwi Xux had possessed. She was busy the rest of the morning working and trying to forget how much she missed the serenity of being Qwi Xux.

Over the rest of the week whenever she began to feel overwhelmed she ended up meditating again. It was disorienting, but each time she could feel her worries and fears weakening. She could feel the jagged edges of her grief hurt that slightest bit less. Combined with the rapidly increasing understanding of the Star Wars technology and it was well worth it.

Her only other anchor was her conversations with Xander. However, they consisted primarily of plans and his latest designs, which she could barely understand at first. After a few days of feeling fairly useless, it suddenly all just clicked. She saw exactly what he was trying to do and how to accomplish it. With her epiphany, it only took a few hours to help him finish the project.

The last day she was busy the rest of the morning looking over various designs with all of the focus that once only Qwi Xux had possessed. She hummed an Omwati lullaby as she finished up some notes to present to Xander.

(A/N): Hadn't realized it stripped out additional spacing. Fixed.