Fly Me to the Stars

by Ausir

A StarWars and Eva Xover. The Alliance is planning to overthrow the Empire. Shinji is set to pilot the Empires newest weapon: Requiem. ShinjixRei, some OOC but nothing too serious.

10. Chapter 9

Long time no see (or read, perhaps?)! New chapter everyone, hope you're not to mad at me for making you wait all this time, and you're all free to flame me about that.Anyways, I'm back on the track again, so please enjoy!

Disclaimer: Alright, ya know the drill; I don't own either StarWars or Evangelion. Also, I don't own the character Leinad Ekkru introduced in this chapter on JediMasterDarjaak's request. Aditionally, JediMasterDarjaak is the writer of the entire second piece (the one introducing the aforementioned OC that is).

StarWars Jukebox (You know you want it!) plays: Enter Lord Vader

Fly Me to the Stars

A Star Wars/Evangelion x-over by Ausir

(Guest writer: JediMasterDarjaak)

Chapter 9

The battle for Nar Shaddaa was not going to be remembered in imperial history as one of the more successful campaigns. Admiral Fuyutsuki was perfectly clear on this as he stood bent over the strategic map, observing the continued fighting with growing tension. The good news was that the Huttese fleet was down on its luck, having lost its two Acclaimators and most of its Strike cruisers and Nebulon B frigates as well. Of its once staggering amount of assembled fighters, only a small portion remained, the decline hastened by the considerable amount of desertion which had occurred once it started to look bad.

However, the imperials did not fare much better. While the Ramiel was still in somewhat decent shape, an enemy Strike cruiser had crashed into the Nephilim mere moments ago, completely annihilating it. Grendel and Tyrant were still standing, though with little more than life-support still active on both ships. Furthermore, the fighter corps had through the intense battle been reduced to a mere shadow of its former glory, Tempest and Soul's Refrain squadrons had both been all but eradicated, while the remnants of Thanatos and Shadow squad had been joined together under the leadership of Lord Vader.

'This really can't get much worse…' he thought glumly and let out a tired sigh.

"Admiral, unidentified hyperspace signatures detected!" a techie alerted so suddenly the greying commander nearly jumped out of his uniform.

Fuyutsuki grimaced, there was obviously still some way left to go downhill.

"Estimate likely points of exit," he demanded, sending a number of technicians into frenzied work on their panels.

"Right above us, Sir!" a warrant officer reported.

"Sir, all batteries are armed and ready for engagement," another proclaimed.

The Alderaanean admiral nodded. "Good, open fire on my mark…"

"Sir!" another techie shouted, gaining everyone's attention. "We have received and confirmed incoming ships' code signal; it's the Gauntlet!"

Fuyutsuki broke into a grateful smile and fell back heavily in his chair. "Thank the Force! Get us linked up with our friends out there; we have a battle to win here!"

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Leinad Ekkru grimaced slightly as he turned his unshielded fighter towards the thick of the fighting. A nebula of debris showed where the Victory class Goliath had been just minutes before. A line of text showed up on the display board, outlining the primary targets. Leinad cleared his throat and spoke in his rough Chandrilan accent into his headpiece.

"Venom 5, split off with 6, 7 and 8. Venom 9, go with 10, 11 and 12. Both of you, cover the remaining Victory's. 2, 3 and 4, form up on my six. We're going after some of these Howlrunners and Headhunters."

The squadron split three ways, leaving Leinad with three wingmates. He was about to pick a target when an opportunity arose. Two Tie Interceptors were being harassed by a trio of Y-wings. He let a grin spread across his face; Y-wings were easy prey.

"Arm your lasers, lets shake these Y's off Lieutenant Ibuki's six."

Unknown to anyone else except him and Maya herself, Leinad had purposefully opened a private channel to the female pilot with the sole intention of flirting with her. Maya gritted her teeth as a stray ion bolt clipped her portside wing, sending her Tie into a slight spin. She righted her craft, just as a flurry of red blaster bolts shredded space just to her starboard side. Maya glanced back to see four Tie Fighters spraying the Y-wing with green laser fire. In a matter of seconds, the Y-wing's shields failed, and the fighter was blasted to shrapnel by the combined assault. Maya decreased her throttle and saw the single poisonous green stripe across the back of the cockpit. Her eyes widened in surprise.

'Venom Squadron are HERE? She thought to herself. I thought they were stationed on board the Invincible!' Just at that moment, her private channel gave a spark of static and a male voice came to her ears.

"Shadow Leader, respond please."

"Shadow Leader here."

"Shadow Leader? Is that Maya Ibuki?"

"Who is this?"

The green-striped Tie Fighter flew alongside her, the other three proceeding to waste the two remaining Y-wings with the help of Maya's remaining wingmate. Evidently, the new squadron leader was seeking to impress her.

"This is Leinad Ekkru, Venom Leader."

Maya gasped. Leinad Ekkru had been a decorated Imperial war veteran for four years now, and in reward for his services had been gifted with his own squadron of modified Tie Fighters. Slightly slower than the average Tie, they carried missiles and a more sophisticated communication system, outmatched only by Darth Vader's. Rumours suggested he'd lost a golden and copper sloopship in the last six or seven months, but his record as a pilot was unblemished. Never had he lost a single ship, and only two squad members of his had ever perished in action. A small visual screen appeared, and Leinad eyed Maya appreciatively.

"I'll watch your six, Shadow Leader."

Maya smiled. Leinad was well know to be somewhat flirtatious with the female pilots, and had even made a pass on Misato Katsuragi once.

"I'll bet you will. Listen, we'll continue this later. We need to take out that Nebulon B Frigate over there."

Even as Leinad looked, a spray of green laser fire shredded two Tie Fighters escorting Lord Vader. Leinad hit the recall button on his controls. As if magnetically attracted to him, the other eleven fighters returned to formation. Leinad outlined his plan as Maya reformed Shadow Squadron.

"This is our chance to turn the battle in our favour. When Shadow Leader's ready, we'll take out the communication array on the top and hit their flight deck. That'll cause all shields to temporarily redirect to the magnetic fields, and then drop two of your four missiles into the docking arm. With any luck, that'll blow the engine off and we can...WHAT THE HELL!?!"

Leinad glared in rage as a certain gold and copper sloop, undeniably his lost ship from Malastare, zoomed past, firing at an old ARC-170. In a second, his plan changed.

"Venom 2, you're in charge of leading the attack run on the frigate Harrier. I'm gonna find what Mandalorian ass-kisser has my ship!" Banking sharply and opening fire to boot, Leinad began to chase the sloop.

"Yeehah, told you that stun pulse was nothing Hikari!" Asuka gave her comrade a cocky grin as she fired at a pair of ARC-170's, not paying close attention to their scanner. Only when the missile alert began to sound did Hikari even glance at the scope, her eyes widening in shock.

"Ummm, Asuka?"

"What is it girl?" Asuka looked slightly irritated, as she nearly had one of the ARC-170's shields down. Hikari gulped as the missiles were fired.

"We've picked up an opponent. An angry one. An angry IMPERIAL one."

"What!?" screamed Asuka. Sure enough, Venom One was blasting on full power and slowly eroding the shields. Asuka quickly opened a channel to the Ramiel. Even with her and Hikari piloting, there was no way they could outlast Venom One's onslaught. As she argued furiously with Misato, a huge explosion ran through the transport. A channel opened to the ship from the enraged Tie Fighter.

"Whoever is on my ship better have a fucking good excuse for it, or I'm gonna shove baradium so far up your ass people'll thing you've got a nosebleed."

Asuka and Hikari paused for a split second, in the middle of re-distributing shield power.

"Oh shit..."

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In the cold and slimy catacombs below the late Gargonn the Hutt's residence, a cloaked figure moved through the knee-deep river of uncleanliness that oozed from the artificial orifices which it was connected to. Strange sounds echoed inside the tunnels, sounds which would have made most people unlucky enough to hear them run away in mindless fright. The man currently traversing the passages however did not. He was fully confident with his own abilities to take down whatever monster lurked down here if they proved stupid enough to attack him. Plus, he had a very important job to do.

"Now, which way was it again?" he muttered to himself, counselling the 3D-map of the palace he had recently 'acquired'. Taking a look at the map he nodded with satisfaction, "Not too far now…" Stowing away the map, he instead brought out an egg-shaped transmitter.

"It's me," said the mysterious man, making a pause to receive his response. "Well, Gargonn is dead, but don't worry, I've installed a…'failsafe' in case this would happen…" he cut himself off as he registered a splashing sound too close for his liking. Whatever it had been did not case any further noise however.

"Nah, it was nothing. How's it with the prototypes?" The man frowned behind his canine mask as the accomplice gave his report.

"Hmm… nothing to do 'bout it I guess, try to ship out as many as you can then blow up the rest. We can't allow the imperials to get even a single one of those fighters back." There was another pause.

"Yeah, I got a copy of all the data after those imperial brats got loose and…" he fell silent as the other person spoke urgently.

"Heh, don't worry," he said reassuringly "they'll get buried with the rest of the evidence once this place goes boom. You just worry about getting those ships off to Dantooine, I've got everything covered at my end."

With that he closed the communiqué and pocketed the gadget, taking out a third device consisting of a faintly glowing disc shaped object which main feature were six numbers divided in pairs, repeatedly flashing the count of 01:00:00. The mysterious man grinned coldly behind his fearsome mask and pressed the button slowly. A soft click was heard as the countdown was activated and the numbers rapidly fell away.

"Yes, everything's covered, or will be pretty soon…"

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Captain Katsuragi Misato of the 501st legion looked over the flame-engulfed skyscrapers that had once been Nar Shaddaa. "Boy, I'd almost forgotten what these kind a things looked like…" she commented, and then wrinkled her nose at the acrid fumes that blew up from the city below. "Ugh, not too mention the smell." Pinching her nose, she continued to throw worried glances at the gigantic palace some miles away.

"Damn those two, what the hell could take them so long?" she thought aloud, not wanting to think of the half a dozen scenarios where the teenaged commandos would not return at all. She sighed wearily. "It doesn't get much worse than this…"

"Hey babe!"

'And it just did…' Misato thought dryly and took a deep breath before replying.

"What the fuck are you doing here?!" she yelled at the scruffy-looking inspector Kaji who was standing in the doorway, doing his best to look innocent, though this did not give much of a result.

"Easy now babe, I just came from the Gauntlet with the rest of the reinforcements. Words have it you were in quite a pinch here, so I came to check up on you."

"What are you, a stalker?" the captain said, gave off an annoyed snort and turned away. "Anyways, we're doing just fine here as you can see, so you can just…" Turning around again to face her ex, she found the scruffy agent had secretly sneaked up just behind her and now swept her off her feet into an amorous embrace.

"T-the HELL do you think you're doing!" Misato shrieked, more out of surprise than anything else. "What if anyone sees us, do you wanna get us both in trouble?!"

Kaji smiled, completely ignoring here words, and narrowed the space between their faces. "I've really missed this," he whispered. "And I bet you have too…"

"You assume way too much" the woman said in a steady voice, yet she could feel her own resolve slowly melting away.

"Am I?" said the agent, bringing his index to gently touch her lower lip. Feeling it tremble under his touch, he gave her another smile, bent down and started leaving passionate kisses on Misato's swan-like neck, making her entire body shiver. "Hmm… couldn't it be you who assume too much?"

Misato did not answer; all too caught up in his electrifying caress which brought back memories she had thought long forgotten. Kaji took the opportunity to move up across her jaw line, planting small kisses on the way, until he arrived at her lower lip, gently sucking on it, and finally locked their mouths together completely, his tongue shooting in between her tender lips. Misato's eyes shot wide open, the entirety of the situation finally making itself known, and in one fluid motion she broke free and delivered an open blow that sent the agent staggering backwards with his ears ringing.

"That was… totally worth it…" he said with a smirk and struggled to keep his balance. Misato gave the philanderer a murderous look as she rearranged her uniform.

"One more… one more time…" she growled, pointing a furiously shaking finger at him, "One more time and I'll have you stripped of your rank and sent to Orinackra!"

"Well, I don't much mind the stripping part but…"

"Get…OUT!" the seething purple-head roared, producing her hand weapon and pointing it directly at her former lover. Kaji, being persistent but by no means stupid, fled before she decided to use it. When the automatic doors shut behind his fleeing back, Misato exhaled tiredly and holstered the gun.

"Really, that guy pisses me off…" She took out a mirror to check the damage, running her fingers over her neck. Indeed, a series of rosy marks had already begun to appear there. She quickly tightened the collar around her bruised neck. Being one of the few women to have a career in the imperial navy, this incident could tear her entire life apart if it became known. Still, she absently moved her fingertips over the lips which only a moment ago had been interlocked with his, savouring the all too familiar taste…

'Stop that, dammit!' she yelled internally and yanked the wayward limb away from her face.

Suddenly, an explosion resounding like the roll of thunder brought the captain from her private thoughts. Though she openly welcomed the distraction from her personal problems, she sincerely hoped against hope there would not be any more casualties this day. Darting towards the window, she froze in terror as she beheld the Hutt's palace being consumed by flames and starting to collapse. She backed a way from the horrible scene, and a second later she was out the door running towards the main tactics-room.

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Shinji was running the fastest he could through the ablaze and rapidly disintegrating corridors which threatened to bury him and the girl he held in his arms alive. Up until just a moment ago he had been walking rather carefully, cautious of any remaining mercenaries or escaped pets. Then he had heard an ominous rumbling noise from below, shortly followed by a deafening roar as the ground was torn apart and spewed out fire and death. That was when he started his mad dash.

Following the invisible red string in his head presented by his innate path-finding sense, the young pilot had increased his pace as much as he could, and even after body had began to voice its protests he had used the Force to boost the speed even more, soaring through the flaming corridors with the speed of sound, explosions going off everywhere around him. Walls, roofs and ground all cracked and collapsed behind him, seeking to swallow him and Rei up.

Shinji gritted his teeth. 'I won't let that happen!' he thought 'I'm not gonna let either of us die here!'

Without warning a chasm opened up right in front of the boy who only stopped a second before they would have plunged to their deaths. Looking behind him the young Force adept saw the approaching inferno, a death as assured as the bottom of the pit he only narrowly had managed to avoid. Taking a chance, Shinji backed away from the edge, assembled what strength he had left and with a death-defying scream ran at full speed towards the edge and took a wide Force leap.

For a few seconds he and Rei floated in nothingness, until gravity took its toll and they began their ascent. Taking ground at the other edge, Shinji momentarily lost his footing but regained it in time to start running before the flames were able to catch up with them. Resuming his mad dash, Shinji was soon able to see the exit that would lead them to the platform, and by some whim of someone had forgot to close it which allowed for Shinji to continue his flight unhindered.

Behind him he could hear the erupting fires and explosions closing in, consuming everything in their path. Taking a final leap he jumped and rolled out through the door, which in the blink of an eye later spewed out flames like an enraged demon before melting away. Panting and with his abused legs screaming in agony, Shinji made his way inside the Requiem, now standing on very unstable ground as the platform had already started to crumble around them.

After putting Rei down as gently as he could, Shinji jumped into his own seat and though the Elixir had not filled up completely yet began focusing as hard as he could on making the Requiem take flight. Abruptly the last pieces supporting the platform disintegrated and the black fighter plunged downwards with Shinji desperately trying to calm himself enough to gain control of the ship. The ground was at least a kilometre below, but at the speed which the highly aerodynamic Requiem possessed even without motors it looked to be only seconds before they would meet a quick end.

"Come on you piece of junk, start already!" Shinji yelled desperately, pulling at the simulation handles for all he was worth. The ground was however still getting larger and larger by each passing second. "Start dammit, start! Otherwise we're both going to…!"

Finally the black craft came to life and Shinji pulled off a complete one eighty at the last possible instance, avoiding the ground with only a few metres to go and steering the starship upwards through Nar Shaddaa's airspace. The brown haired boy fell back in his seat and exhaled forcefully, his breathing shallow and his mind still a bit dazed from the massive inrush of adrenaline he had received.

"I… I did it…" he said breathlessly, taking down huge gulps of oxygen-supplying Elixir until his breathing and heart rate returned to normal.

"Requiem01, this is Imperial Ground Base, do you copy?" the communicator suddenly sounded.

Shinji did not hesitate to answer. "Yeah, I'm here."

"Glad to hear it Sir," the techie said with relief, surprising the young pilot with his use of formal register. "When the palace blew up we feared the worst, Captain Katsuragi raised quite a fuss over it."

"Um, sorry about that…" Shinji said a bit uncertainly, still trying to figure out if he had actually heard the comm. techie call him 'Sir'. "Er, you couldn't link me up with Misa- um, Captain Katsuragi? You know, just so I can tell her were safe so she won't have to worry anymore."

"That will not be necessary, Sir," came the response, "we're having the Gauntlet and the 402's take care of the aftermath, you are to return to the Ramiel immediately. Captain Katsuragi is already on her way so she will meet you there. Watch out for enemy raids on your way back though, it seems there are still some pockets of resistance left."

Shinji nodded and switched off the comm. link, then proceeded with nailing the imaginary throttle and gaining altitude until soon the insectoid fighter was flying high above the besieged planet. Looking down on the city or at least what was left of it, the sensitive boy felt his stomach turn. What had once been a place equally full of life as his native Coruscant had now been reduced into skeletal ruins, grey ashes and glowing embers. If anything it now looked like the school holograms of Mustafar or, even more, like Coruscant had just after the devastating rebel attack. Shinji couldn't help but wonder if there was really any difference at all…

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Only a few standard galactic minutes later the Requiem was whizzing through the emptiness of space like the little bird trying to find its way home. The fighting was all over as far as Shinji could tell, and incidentally, those who had lost fighting were all over as well, though in a different sense. The still somewhat squeamish teen tried not to look too much at the disturbingly organic shapes that floated among the other debris.

"Uhhhn… Ikari… kun?" Rei spoke softly with a hint of dizziness. Shinji nearly twisted his neck when he turned to face the rousing girl.

"Ayanami, are you okay?" he asked worriedly, almost forgetting to concentrate on piloting. Rei got into a sitting position and massaged her temple lightly, the simple action almost giving Shinji yet another nosebleed.

The blue-head looked around the Requiem's cockpit with a ponderous expression. "This is the Requiem…" she stated, Shinji barely able to detect the subtle question hidden within.

"Um… you kinda passed out back there… I, um, had to carry you and…" He trailed off once Rei's eyes became directed at him.

'T-those eyes…' the young boy thought, struggling not to get lost in the blood-red pools. It had not gotten any easier.

Rei continued her blank stare - no, full stare, there was not anything empty about it – until after a while she turned her eyes to look out the transparent metal of the insectoid fighter at the surrounding fleet. The cobalt eyed boy could not help but feel just slightly neglected.

'What was that anyway…' he thought dejectedly 'she could at least thank me right? I mean I pretty much did save her life… but maybe she got angry because I was staring… God, I hope she didn't think I was staring at her b-… ghaaah! Ikari, stop being such a pervert dammit! Right, just concentrate on the flying… just the flying…'

Soon enough they approached the battle-scarred Ramiel and after the quick identification process were led by the ship's tractor beam into its durasteel belly. The Requiem landed swiftly and quietly as always, though its appearance and the unsettling aura it generated turned quite a few heads. The first thing Shinji saw once he had landed inside the Stardestroyer's hangar and stepped out of the black fighter, was Misato Katsuragi running up to him and pulling him into a mighty bear hug.

"Shinji-kun, thank goodness you two are alright!"

"M-Misato-san… c-can't… breathe!" Shinji pleaded, his facial colour starting to match that of the captain's own hair.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that," she said and instantly released the boy who fell to his knees, wheezing out his praise to the wonderful, lifegiving air. Suddenly he hard the light tapping of bare feet on the Requiem's boarding ramp, and Shinji realised he had made a huge mistake.

'Oh, good heavens no…!' he groaned internally. Hesitantly he looked up at the captain, her initial expression of shock which was rapidly being replaced by a devious grin telling all he needed to know about his immediate future.

"Shinji-kun, you stud!" Misato exclaimed in a very unprofessional way, fruitlessly trying to keep a level of sternness in her voice. "We leave you alone with a cute girl for a few hours and you have her walking around in her undies…"

"It's not…!"

"I mean wow," continued the violet-haired woman scurrilously, "just how did you manage to do that? Did you Mind-trick her or something?"

"I didn't…!"

"And she's got that dreamy look on her face too, don't tell me you…"

The sudden angry buzzing of the Kyoko Zeppelin and a few TIE-fighters entering the hangar blurred out Misato's words completely, saving Shinji from knowing what kind of things the captain would accuse him of. As soon as the Zeppelin had taken ground and let out its boarding plank, a very pissed off Sohryu Asuka Langley stomped down it, followed by a n uncomfortable-looking Hikari. With everyone's eyes on her, the Mandalorian princess marched up to one of the fighters and gave it a furious kick.

"Get outa that flying eyeball of yours di'kutlachakaar, I've got a bone to pick with you!" she raged at the pilot inside and gave the craft another kick. The top hatch opened and a TIE-pilot wearing the skull-like mask and jet black uniform poked his head out.

"Who're you calling a grave robber you thieving bitch!" the pilot growled and removed his mask, revealing a man in about his twenties. "That's my ship you've been goofing around in with that run-off-the-mill piloting of yours! Where the hell did you learn how to fly, the Drunken Mynock School of Instruction?"

"What was that!?" Asuka roared "I'm gonna rip out your tongue and shove it down your throat!"

"Geesh, keep your hair on!" the pilot said with an evil smirk "but it looks like someone took it away already." If space could convey sound Asuka's murderous shriek would have been heard in the neighbouring galaxy.

"I'm gonna kill you for that!" she vowed and started to climb the fighter. Hikari reacted quickly and took a tight grip around her rampaging friend's waist and struggled to pull her down.

"Asuka, stop it!" the freckled girl pleaded.

"Let me go, this guy deserves it! I'll kick his teeth out!"

Shinji stared in fascination at the scene. "Um… Misato-san, do you have any idea what's going on here?"

"Hm? Oh, that's Leinad Ekkru, leader of Venom squadron," Misato explained, "He's something of a legend in the fighter corps - and a real ladies' man. He came here with the other reinforcements on the Gauntlet. From what I've heard those two started yelling at each other the moment he spotted the Zeppelin.

"Why's that?"

Misato shrugged. "He claims it's his ship and that Asuka commandeered it a while ago on Malastare."

"Well, given the way she acts most of the time I wouldn't be that much surprised…" Shinji said neutrally. Then a very Misato-like grin crept to his lips. "You know, Misato-san, you almost sound like you've had some history with that guy…"

"Eh!?" squeaked the purple-haired woman and gained a little blush. "W-what do you mean, Shinji-kun, I've never seen him before in my life! Aha ha ha!"

"Whatever you say, Misato-san, whatever you say…" Shinji said with faked submissiveness.

"Hey, it's the truth!"

The brown-haired pilot smirked a little wider. 'And the score is; Shinji: 1 and Misato: 0.' Shinji had turned back to the ongoing word-fight, savouring his victory over the captain when a soft moan by his side diverted his attention.

"Ayanami, are you okay?" he asked the girl who was looking paler than usual.

"I… I believe I may not have yet fully recovered from my spell earlier…" she said faintly and swooned a bit.

"Hold on," Shinji said and went to support her from falling over, "we'll go to the hospital wing and have Akagi-san take a look at you…" Rei just gave her signature nod in response.

"Sneaking off for some fun with your girlfriend, Shinji-kun?" Misato, recognising an opportunity for payback, hooted after them. The cobalt-eyed pilot gained a scarlet hue but refrained from answering, concentrating on getting the now slightly sweating girl to the infirmary instead.

'Dang, he's getting better…' Misato thought after the two had left and smiled broadly, 'guess I just have to improve myself a bit more.'

On the other side of the hangar, Hikari also watched the two pilot's leave, before Asuka's continued struggling forced her to turn her attention back to the task at hand.

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"An ysalamir, huh?" Ritsuko said thoughtfully and produced a packet of cigarettes from her lab coat. "Plus some strange guy in armour swinging a lightsabre… man, do you two run into some weird stuff." She took one of the miniature cylinders and put it in her mouth, then used an igniter to set the tip aflame. The faux blonde took a few generous drafts before continuing.

"Well, Rei should be fine anyways," she said facing the now decently dressed girl. Ritsuko had had a spare uniform lying around something Shinji had been greatly thankful for since the change allowed him to look at Rei without having to pinch his nose.

'Er… not that I'm actually looking at her all the time or anything…' he mentally defended himself against his own persecution.

"You still have to get plenty of rest though," Ritsuko continued, "the anti-Force bubble almost killed you Rei, so you need to recharge your batteries. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

Suddenly a nurse came running into the room. "Doctor Akagi!" she called out, "we have two cases that need immediate attention!"

Ritsuko nodded and got up. "Alright I'll be right there," she said and followed the nurse into another room. Shinji and Rei took this as their cue to leave as well. Outside the infirmary however, they were halted by a somewhat familiar voice.

"Ikari-kun?" Shinji turned around at the soft calling of his name and was met by a nervous looking Horaki Hikari.

"Um, Horaki-san, is something wrong?" he inquired, then remembered the 'scene' in the hangar. "Wait, don't tell me; Asuka beat that guy up like she did with Touji, right?"

Hikari's abashed look was replaced with a slightly worried one. "Actually," she said "it was more mutual with this guy…"

Shinji scratched the back of his head. "Huh?"

"Well…" the freckled girl said a bit hesitantly, "Asuka kinda slipped my grip and got up on that TIE-fighter and was going to beat that guy up - Leinad was his name, right? Anyways, Leinad got out a blaster and looked like he was going to shoot her, so I screamed, and both lost their balance and fell down. Then things got a bit complicated…"

"Eh… complicated?" Shinji echoed.

Hikari nodded. "Yeah, somehow, that guy shot himself in the foot, while Asuka broke her leg in the fall, then they began fighting on the floor, and she ended up with a dislocated arm as well." By this point Shinji was staring at the girl in a bit of an incredulous daze, and was even more shocked as he realised there was still more to come.

"Then, Leinad tried to pull her off him by her hair, and Asuka went completely crazy and started breaking his fingers and…" The approaching sound of two people doing their best to kill each other with foul language made the girl stop her tale.

"This is your fucking fault you bucket-head!" the unmistakable voice of Asuka yelled.

"My fault!" Leinad Ekkru retorted, "how the hell could that broken leg of yours be my fault you clumsy bitch!"

"You're the one who shot yourself in the foot!"

"But you're the one who attacked me first!"

"What, you just came out of nowhere and tried to blown up my ship!"

"I wasn't going to destroy it you idiot! It's my ship!"

"Fuck off! If you hadn't made me break my leg I'd kick you in your nuts so hard you'd-…!" The last piece of that sentence was cut off as the two were brought inside the operation hall. Shinji, Rei and Hikari stood in awed silence, well, Shinji and Hikari did at least, Rei was just her normal quiet self.

"Um… that was…" Shinji ventured.

"Yeah… totally…" Hikari answered, and then gave the unaware boy a shy look. Shinji did not notice it, but Rei did, and she came to the conclusion she did not like it.

"Ikari-kun, we should hurry to report to Lord Vader," the ruby-eyed girl proclaimed.

"What? Er… okay, right!" Shinji answered meekly and started to walk after the blue haired girl when Hikari caught his arm from behind.

"Ho-ho-horaki-san!" he yelped and felt his face heat up.

"Ikari-kun, you don't have to be so formal…" the girl said entreatingly in a voice that held desperation under enough control to pass for forwardness. "I mean…" she elaborated, "you're free to call me by my first name." Shinji blinked and gained even more colour.

"Er, sure… Hi-hikari-san." The freckled Corellian beamed. Shinji suddenly had a mental image of himself landing on a giant Venus flytrap.

"I get to call you Shinji then, 'kay?" Hikari said enthusiastically, trying to ignore the cold stare from the unfortunate third party.

"K-kay…" the boy croaked. If his legs had not turned into instant Jell-O, he would have been running by now.

"Shinji-kun," Hikari said in as cute a voice she could muster. "I… I don't think I've thanked you properly for saving me on Corellia…"

"Ikari-kun, we need to be going," Rei hissed, taking a grip on Shinji's arm and pulled the boy away with her, giving Hikari such a look as would have turned stars into ice cubes.

"Er, sorry 'bout this, Hikari-san…" Shinji said apologetically, jogging lightly to keep up with Rei's speed.

"Shinji…kun…" Hikari whispered, an abandoned look on her face.

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"So, that sect is still operative?" Fuyutsuki asked the towering Supreme Commander. Vader nodded.

"The report left by my apprentices leave us no doubt," he said. "This is the work of the Jensaarai."

The aging admiral grabbed his chin in one hand and put on a ponderous face. "What I would like to know is this; how did they manage to keep themselves hidden all these years… even now it was only by sheer coincidence that we discovered their continued operation."

"Don't underestimate the power of the Force, Admiral," Vader chastised. "To conceal your presence to all but the most skilled Force-users is something even ordinary Jedi could do. And these fallen Jedi who play with the dark side are bound to be much more adept in this art."

"That brings us to another problem," continued Fuyutsuki, "if they are so good at hiding themselves, then how will we flush them out? I don't think we have the immediate resources to perform a Base Delta Zero operation…"

"My power will be enough to locate the vermin once we're in orbit," Vader rasped confidently. "Our troops will then be able to eradicate this nuisance plus secure any useful information from their archives."

"Yes my Lord," said the aging officer with a bow. "Now, concerning the assault itself…"

"Excuse me my Lord, Admiral," an unfamiliar voice spoke to the two imperials. It was a human male, like most others in the Imperial Navy, in around his twenties, with a rugged face covered by a day or so old bristle and a jovial expression that would bring most women to their knees. He sported a pony-tail that, together with the rest of the man, stood in such sharp contrast to the orange-brown uniform he wore that it almost hurt your eyes.

"And you are?" Vader asked the unshaven man.

"Inspector Kaji Ryoji of Imperial Intelligence," Kaji said neatly. "I was reassigned here along with other staff and material to compensate for the Ramiel's losses during the battle."

"Well then Inspector Kaji, was there something you wanted?" Fuyutsuki asked. The Intel-officer sent a swift glance in the direction of Darth Vader.

"I have these reports for all the data recovered from Gargonn the Hutt's palace, Sir," he said quickly and handed a pair of triangular discs to the admiral.

"Thank you, inspector," said Fuyutsuki politely. "Was there anything else?"

"No Sir, I will return to my other duties now." With that the pony-tailed man walked away to one of the terminals.

"There's something amiss with this inspector…" Vader pondered aloud, earning an inquisitively raised brow from the admiral.

"What do you mean?" he inquired, "the man seemed decent to me at least, except for that dreadful style of his, though if you are unsure I could always have him questioned…"

"No, that will not be necessary," the cyborg said after a moment's thought. "Carry on with the preparations for our next endeavour."

Fuyutsuki shrugged. "As you wish my Lord," he said and opened a comm. link.

"Captain Katsuragi."

"Yes Sir?" the younger woman answered from her quarters.

"We are leaving orbit in forty-eight hours, make sure the necessary preparations are made until then."

"Will do Sir" the violet-haired captain ascertained and closed the link, presumably to get to work right away.

As Fuyutsuki and Vader continued to plan the assault on the Jensaarai base, Kaji grinned smugly to himself by his terminal. 'Yeah,' he thought 'two days will be all I need for plan B…'

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Around fifty standard hours later, the Ramiel was traversing the greyness of hyperspace in order to get to its new target, Susevfi, the base of the elusive Jensaarai defenders. Repairs on the ship had been extensive, yet the tight schedule forced upon the techies and engineers at work with it had left the Stardestroyer at only about seventy percent capacity. But as Darth Vader put it, they only needed to get there in one piece; any fighting would be conducted on the planet surface.

Shinji was currently lying half awake in his bed and trying to pass time by levitating the large Krayt dragon pearl above his head. It was actually rather fun to have it move at his slightest whim, faster or slower, up, down and to the sides, all the time exploring its delicate features with his thoughts. Its surface was pure white and smooth like silk, yet to the touch it was cool and hard. After willing the pearl return to his open palm the young pilot heaved a sigh.

'Not unlike someone I know…' he mused to himself and ran his thumb over the gem's surface.

'It warms up if you keep working on it…' the boy observed after a while, I wonder if she will too?'

Shinji let out another huff of air and sat up in his bed. The room was dark with only a silvery light-sphere providing some scarce illumination, though it actually only succeeded in making the room look darker, and the shadows deeper and more alive. All of a sudden Shinji blinked. He could have sworn he had actually seen one of the shadows act more alive than a shadow should be allowed to. For example, he was most certain that the shadow had been looking at him.

With a sudden shrill cry a skeletal being suddenly jumped, or rather drifted out in front of the boy. Shinji stared into the small points of red light within the deep sockets, and then he started screaming himself, running straight for the door and out into the maze-like corridors, the spectral entity quick to follow after its intended victim.

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When Rei woke up, the first thing she saw was a gaunt and grinning figure that floated over her bed. It was impossibly tall and thin, almost skeletal in appearance with vicious black claws on its two hands and dressed in tattered rags that looked like they had been scavenged from an ancient tomb. Its hair was long and white and floated around its skull-like head in silvery waves that framed the red eyes and face Rei somehow found to be oddly alike her own.

"Who are you?" she inquired.

A dark light flared for an instance within the creature's eyes and suddenly Rei was hit with full power by a telepathic scream that defied any other definition than having her skull penetrated by billions of sharp needles. The alizarin-eyed girl howled out in pain, thrashing out of her bed to cower on the cold floor as the being's attack intensified and she was brought to the brink of loosing herself into the abyss of mindless terror.

"N-…no…" she gasped asudden, surprising her ghostly assailant into lightening its attack for an instance. That was all the time she needed. Presenting her open palm to the creature she unleashed a shockwave of Force energy which hit it head on, blasting the spectral being into the wall with a sickening sound of crushing bones. It sagged down to the floor without any sign of injury though it was quite obviously dead. Staring intently at the corpse, Rei beheld with scientific amazement how it began to fade, eventually disappearing entirely.

Without a word the girl then returned to the side of the bed and opened her drawer to collect her personal communicator. She found it lying on the neatly folded pieces of the 'slave-girl outfit' as Ritsuko had put it. For a moment she pondered on why she had kept the highly impractical garment, but reminding herself there were more important things at hand she tried to make contact with the bridge with her communicator. She only received a static buzz. The next logical thing to do was thus to make contact in some other way. Seconds later she was walking the dark corridors of the Ramiel towards the bridge.

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Not ten minutes later Rei entered bridge and found that the entire ship had been put on red alert status. Apparently, the aliens known to some as 'Starweirds' had appeared all over the Ramiel attacking people at their leasure. Lord Vader was now leading the defence operation, and as such had gone with one of the search parties that would root out the 'infestation'. Holding the reins in his absence was as always Fuyutsuki and Misato, in charge of the ship itself and the remaining troops respectively.

"Ah, Rei, good to see you're alive," Misato said with a nod in the girl's direction, "did you run into any of those things?"

"One attacked me in my room, I was not injured" Rei said so calmly as to make Misato shudder.

'She's so calm it's almost… unnatural!' she thought.

"Captain!" a warrant officer called out, "The Starweirds are moving! They… they're coming right at us!"

"Battlestations!" Misato barked and was instantly obeyed, what crewmembers could be spared taking up their arms and pointing them at the enforced blast-doors. No-one thought of sealing the doors, since at least three of the attacks had described the Starweirds as capable of moving through solid matter. That was one of the reasons everyone was surprised when the door suddenly opened and a very sweaty, very exhausted and very scared Ikari Shinji barged in.

"T-they're everywhere!" he yelled nearly hysterically, "I-I've been running from them for at least thirty minutes but they don't give up and…!"

"Shinji-kun, get down!" Misato shouted urgently.

The boy looked puzzled for a second. "Huh?" he said, and then foolishly looked behind him where ten or more Starweirds were approaching with leering faces and claws outstretched.

"Ghaaaah!" the boy yelled in fright and hit the floor faster than a clobbered rancor. Misato wasted no time to give the fire-at-will signal.

"Take those bastards down before they get too close!" she called out while firing her own gun like crazy.

Having recouped somewhat after the shock Shinji ventured to look up, and once again met the very unfriendly face of a Starweird who was just about to sink its claws into him. Even before he had time to scream however, Rei seemingly out of nowhere jumped into the mass of spectral bodies, hacking at the non-corporeal aliens with her blood-red blade. Shinji stood up and got his own sabre out.

"T-thanks!" he stammered, still in a bit of a fright but feeling quite reassured by Rei's serene presence. The girl in question did not answer, but Shinji had started to think about that silence as an answer in itself. Without further talk he thus helped the girl out with battling the Starweirds.

The young darksider wielded his blade in wide sweeps, partly trying to cause as much damage to the targets but also, though he did not really want to admit it, as a means of keeping them at least two arms length away from him. Rei did not display the same uncertainty or nervousness with the unorthodox enemy, her own acrobatic form still highly useful against these creatures as well.

Misato and her troopers were now merely just a support team for the Rei-Shinji combo, as while their guns would harm the Starweirds, the teens had far greater chances of actually hitting the targets. Thus vastly overpowered, the frightening aliens were easily fought down one by another. Yet, the way in which they died, soundlessly and without leaving as much as a pile of dust behind, was truly unnerving for the majority of the crew. Most of them would have recurring nightmares about this endeavour for years to come.

When the Starweirds finally all lay dead, or at least had vanished after receiving a fatal wound, which was the second best thing, Shinji noticed the man known as Kaji, who he had not seen in before due to the calamity, moving discretely towards the exit in the way a man moves when he does not want anyone to notice it. Just as he was about to walk up to the man and ask what the sneaking was all about, Misato caught him in a crushing embrace, squeezing out most coherent thoughts.

"Shinji-kun I was sooo worried about you!" the purple head said with motherly affection.

"Captain Katsuragi, release Ikari-kun," Rei proclaimed evenly. Misato smirked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot he's your territory Rei," she said jovially but did not let go of the struggling boy.

Rei gave the captain an odd look. "I was referring to that you are depriving him of air, Captain," she said in an explanatory tone.

"Huh?" Misato said and looked down at Shinji's face that was buried in her bosom. It was blue with a shade of purple and pink. "Ah! Sorry, Shinji-kun!" she exclaimed and promptly released him. While the young pilot was panting for air, no-one noticed that for a second Rei had a quite definite air of satisfaction around her.

Another thing which went largely unnoticed in the released tension all about the ship was one inspector Kaji who was proceeding through the long hallways, muttering below his breath and looking at a miniature disc. The label on the disc read; Ultrasonic Music For All Tastes.

"Darnit, are those kids invincible or what? Guess I have to come up with a plan C…" he growled and shambled away to his quarters.

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"This is a most disturbing turn of events," Fuyutsuki noted calmly as he surveyed the report in his hand. It was the day after the Starweird attack, and while everyone was still on edge for a second assault, things had to be run professionally.

"I say!" exclaimed Misato who was walking beside the elderly officer, "Did you see how those things moved? They just flew through the crinkin' air… and those claws!" the purple-head made a shudder "every time I close my eyes I see them coming through the wall. I won't be having a good night's sleep any time soon I tell you..."

"That was not exactly what I was thinking about, Captain," Fuyutsuki interrupted. Misato stared at him.

"Eh? You mean you know of something more disturbing than ghosts that live in space and attack Stardestroyers?" The greying admiral did not comment on the blatant sarcasm of the junior officer.

"Starweirds only rarely appear, Captain," he explained patiently. "Whenever they've done so, their target has always been small critically damaged ships in the middle of nowhere, never a fully operational vessel of war." Misato stared at him.

"So what, maybe they've just found out the joy of killing on a larger scale? I mean, it's not like you could somehow train those things into attacking people or something, right?"

Fuyutsuki looked thoughtful. "I suppose you are right Captain. Though this incident still bugs me…"

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Despite the general fears and superstition of the crew, the Ramiel did not suffer any more mishaps or strange attacks for the remainder of the time it took to reach Susevfi. Thus, two days after the mysterious Starweird attack, Shinji found himself in a Theta-class transport together with the silent Rei and the equally quiet Darth Vader. There were also a fair number of Kappa-classed shuttles carrying the 501sts down to the dry planet.

'Well, at least we don't have to worry about getting shot down before we land…' the boy thought, trying to keep his mood up in the oppressive silence. According to the scans made, the Jensaarai did not have any aerial defence, probably because they thought they did not need any. Aside from the safer trip, this also had the advantage of letting the young Force-adept take a good look at the planet they were going to invade.

Susevfi was one great savannah with only small lakes scattered about its surface to give its inhabitants their fresh water. The rest of the surface was covered in grass more or less, singular trees and even small groves generally cropping up around the waterholes and lakes. The imperial strike force was however headed for a less inviting part of the planet, with more mountains and some rather deep ravines and canyons. As they flew over the rocky areas, the transport shuttles began to fold up their wings and take ground just some hundred metres away from one of the larger canyons.

The three darksiders stood up and swiftly exited the craft with Darth Vader taking the lead. Shinji blinked a few times to make himself used to the bright light on this world, yet as soon as he had regained his sight, the young pilot was awed by the sight of the over a hundred stormtroopers who pooled out in the landing area and arranged themselves into perfect formations behind the menacing cyborg. Vader waited until his troops were all accounted for and gave the marching order. Three hundred footsteps sounded at once as the troopers obeyed their lord, their thundering steps doing a better job than any war-drums in the galaxy could.

The imperial force entered the ravine without encountering any resistance, causing Shinji to look about him in search for hidden ambushers. Hewn out of the canyon walls themselves, the buildings looked for most part to be little more than redecorated caverns. One part of the cliff wall harboured a set of steep stairs and many terraces that led up to what had to be the main temple entrance. Around forty stormtroopers accompanied Lord Vader and his apprentices as they climbed the temple staircase while the rest of the plastoid-armoured soldiers filed out and entered the surrounding caves and structures.

Shinji was a little out of breath when they reached the highest terrace and the huge portal which led into the Jensaarai temple, but his dark master showed no such fatigue and pressed on, forcing the boy to do the same. As for Rei, at first glance it would have seemed she was just as untouched by the brisk climb as the mighty cyborg walking beside her, however, after taking a brief peek at the girl, Shinji noticed how her breathing had increased somewhat.

'Guess she's just better at keeping appearance…' he thought as the troupe marched into the oppressive darkness of the temple.

The forty stormtroopers split up in smaller squads and spread out into the smaller corridors in search of the elusive enemy, while the three darksiders, now alone, continued towards the very centre of the sanctuary. They entered a spacious and circular room which was only illuminated by tiny red lightpanels that cast a strange light on the heavily decorated pillars that stood along the walls.

"Master," Shinji said with apprehension "I have a bad feeling about this…"

Suddenly a loud rumbling sound was heard behind them and turning around they were just in time to see their only way out being blocked by a massive stone door. Several cruel laughs echoed inside the circular room, as no less than twelve fully armoured Jensaarai warriors stepped out from behind the columns, the light from their lit lightsabres of various designs providing them all with ghostlike auras.

"You should trust your feelings more boy!" jeered one of the cultists, a female judging from her voice.

"It was a trap!" Shinji exclaimed as he wearily eyed the approaching enemies.

"One they will regret having set," Vader answered calmly.

"We'll see about that!" said one Jensaarai and removed his helmet, revealing the donkey like head of a Svivreni. The stout warrior took only a second of preparation before throwing himself at Darth Vader at an impressive speed, spinning his purple blade like a shield in front of him.

"Don't!" one of his comrades warned, but his words fell on deaf ears, the Svivreni continuing his run without any signs of slowing down.

When the muscular Jensaarai was only a few feet away from his goal however, Vader lift his palm and in one swift motion Force Pushed the unfortunate warrior into one of the nearest pillars The Svivreni bleated in surprise as he soared through the air, his scream reaching an abrupt end as he hit the hard rock with a disgusting crushing sound. The lifeless body sagged slowly to the ground with an empty gaze and limbs that stood out in weird angles.

"All too easy…" the dark lord commented disdainfully.

"You bastard!" shouted one of the warrior-cultists.

"We're gonna kill you for that!" another cried.

"You are welcome to try," Vader sneered.

A huge Jensaarai in a heavy black armour and a bestial mask somewhat like a rancor roared and stomped towards the Sith like a frenzied reek with twin yellow blades held to the sides. Two more Jensaarai followed their comrade to give support, one a reptavian Xamster in a really weird dianoga inspired armour armed with a long lightsaber-cane, as well as a woman in a tasteful yet deadly interpretation of a pylat bird's form wielding a single silvery blade.

While the rancor-masked Jensaarai did not sway from his path to literally pummel Darth Vader, Shinji saw the Xamster and bird-mimicking woman taking to the left and right, intent on rushing the Sith from two separate directions, though this all happened too fast for Shinji or even Rei to react to any of it. Only a nanosecond later, the rancor armoured man was using his two sabres as a makeshift pair of scissors, aiming to cut Vader in two.

"We have you now!" he roared and threw himself at Vader, blades between them, with a force that would have knocked just about anyone over. That is, with the exception of Darth Vader.

The bestial warrior as well as his reptavian and female companions, both stunned from shock, stared in disbelief as they the powerful attack being easily blocked by the Sith's own blade which had finally been activated. For one second his opponent hesitated, and that was all he time Vader needed.

"Correction," he spoke, "we are the ones who have you now."

Even before the words had left his artificial voice cords, the mighty darksider pushed the Black-beast Jensaarai back using his immense strength, and soon started raining blows on the increasingly desperate warrior. The Xamster and the bird-armoured Jensaarai both regained their selves and ran to assist their friend, but were both blocked by the other two darksiders; Shinji and Rei. None of the two factions wasted any time with useless talk, getting straight to the aggressive negotiations.

The reptavian Rei ended up fighting proved to be about as lithe and acrobatic as the alizarin eyed darksider herself, the only real difference being the Jensaarai possessing the ranged advantage with his cane. After the first locked state that had lasted less than five seconds, they were now leaping and doing other near-impossible physical feats as the danced a mutual dance of hatred and death. They would fly at each other at high speed, clash like two bolts of thunder, and then jump away again, all the time keeping a weary eye on the opponent in an attempt to predict his/her next move.

With a one-on-one sabre combat on his hands, Shinji should have been in a similar position as Rei in a fight on equal grounds. However, the fight was in fact quite uneven, with Shinji receiving the short end of the stick. His adversary proved to be just as fast in her blade movements as Rei was at her best, and at times the young darksider could not even make out the pylat-armoured woman's arms in her lightning fast attacks and feints. Needless to say, Shinji played a hard game just to keep himself alive.

However, after a few minutes of hard fighting, Shinji learned to recognise a few of the woman's most used attack patterns, and using this as a foundation, managed to not exactly gain the upper hand, but making the duel a bit easier on himself. A bonus was that his opponent seemed to never have expected this sudden change in the boy, which gave him an element of surprise and threw the bird-warrior into confusion.

Meanwhile, the remaining eight Jensaarai stood agape at the scene before them; just staring at the fierceness of the three simultaneous battles witch forced both sides to their limits, with a possible exception for the black demon Darth Vader.

"What are you doing?" one of them suddenly called out to her brethren. "Forget about the kids, but we need to bring down the Sith, our vengeance calls for it!" The other cultists let out a joint battle-cry in response and as one charged at the cyborg. Vader looked up from his current prey, the black Jensaarai who was leaning on a pillar and clutching the wounds the dark Lord had given him.

"Hm?" Vader grunted in mild surprise at the angry mob approaching him, and with one swift motion beheaded the black armoured Jensaarai. He then turned to the oncoming warriors, now even more enraged at the death of another friend, and raised his gloved hand up towards them. With a deafening BOOM he released a Force Wave that sent super-sound ripples through the air and swept the Jensaarai away like straws in the wind.

"This is barely worth the effort," he said with a discordant sigh, but then an ominous cracking sound filled the dimly lit room, bringing everyone's attention to it.

Shinji turned towards the sound and beheld with mounting horror that his master's Force power had not just neutralized the enemy, but taken with it a good part of at least three pillars which now creaked and groaned in agony as they slowly but surely began to collapse. The huge columns of rock suddenly came down like enormous wroshyr trees upon darksiders and Jensaarai alike. With a mighty crash the pillars shattered the temple ground, opening up a huge crack to the levels below. The gap grew fast and started to devour the entire room.

Rei just barely managed to jump onto a safe edge, while the Xamster she had fought was among the four Jensaarai that fell down the hole. She looked around the wrecked room, and saw Shinji hanging on for dear life on a piece of rock that wiggled dangerously. As the boy struggled to pull his own weight onto safer ground, the stone he had held onto gave way completely, causing the darksider to fall haplessly into the great darkness below.

The alizarin-eyed girl experienced a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She took swift glance towards Vader and the remaining Jensaarai, then one down the dark abyss whence Shinji had disappeared. It only took her a few moments thought before she took a nimble jump down the hole after her lost comrade.

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To his own great surprise Shinji realised he was not dead. Even more surprising, he had managed to land perfectly in a crouching position, bringing whatever injuries he might have sustained to a minimum. His amazement over having survived a thirty feet fall or more with little other than some cuts and bruises was soon replaced however by the unwelcome revelation that he had not been alone in his fall.

Arranged in a half circle and pointing their sabres at the imperial were four of the Jensaarai, who had had more time than Shinji to recuperate after the fall. The young darksider quickly got into full battle stance and activated his sabre, already feeling the beads of sweat materialising on his forehead and the adrenaline pumping in his veins. From what he could tell he was the only one out of the three imperials to fall into the crack formed by the collapsing pillar, and now he would have to face up against four skilled, not to say well-armoured, opponents.

'Man, this sucks…' he commented glumly. The closest Jensaarai stepped forward. This one was clad in purple-green, Hssiss-inspired armour with a singular horn upon the helmet and wielded an emerald green sabre.

"You really think you can beat us?" he asked, taking a few additional steps and swinging his yellow sabre in an idle way. "One as obviously unskilled as you probably wouldn't stand a chance even against an apprentice, why do you even bother?"

Shinji did not answer the taunts, ignoring them as well as he could. He could not afford to loose his focus in this situation. 'Keep calm Ikari, he's just trying to mess with your head, just like lord Vader does during training…'

"Not the talking kind, eh?" another Jensaarai taunted, this one sported a white, slightly cetacean armour without any visible eyes but with a pair of grotesquely big and red lips. He possessed a strange type of forked lightsabre, with one main blade and a shorter protruding at an angle from the base of the main beam.

"Well, that suits us just fine," the dragon-jensaarai told his friend and crouched down a bit to prepare for a high speed attack. Shinji could practically see the smug grin on his face, even though it was covered by the purple mask. "'Cause we've been waiting quite a while for a moment like this. Now, prepare to die!"

In the blink of an eye the warrior closed the space between himself and Shinji who managed to catch the attack only by a hair. At the same moment the other Jensaarai made their moves, forcing Shinji to break out of his lock with the purple dragon as fast as he could. He spun his own sabre into a reverse hold and barely blocked the Xamster's attack coming from his left, then grabbed the hilt two-handily and did likewise with the white Jensaarai who came from the right. Shinji took a leap backwards to get some breathing space, but a nanosecond later was forced back even more in order to avoid an overhead attack from the woman in pylat armour.

'Man, this is looking bad…' he thought dryly, diving to the side when the dragon and white Jensaarai launched two assaults at once, though their weapons only struck the innocent rock. Shinji had to continue rolling however since the reptavian and the bird-woman also launched their attacks one after another. Though none of their strikes hurt the imperial badly, when he came back to his feet he was covered in narrow burn marks.

"Stop running away, coward!" the female Jensaarai yelled and made several wide sweeps at the imperial.

"No way!" Shinji retorted and jumped onto a boulder to gain higher ground.

Instead he was nearly impaled by the unicorn dragon's sabre, only by chance did he turn around just in time to avoid it. Crossing blades with the other force-user, Shinji was getting quite peeved by the fast deteriorating situation and his anger gave him a slightly extra edge in his first offensive attacks. For a moment it seemed like his purple-green adversary was faltering, but at a moments notice he spun around and kicked the darksider in the chest with an enforced boot. Shinji yelped and staggered backwards, gasping to regain the air that forcefully had been beaten out of him. This gave his opponent an opportunity to slash the boy over his right shoulder, creating a rather deep and painful gash.

"Yaargh!" Shinji called out and clutched the singeing wound. He gave the Jensaarai a murderous look, feeling how his anger was reaching boiling point and made a strike himself, aiming at his opponents abdomen. The purple fighter however made a one-eighty and easily blocked the attack, laughing mockingly at the ill-coordinated offence. Shinji growled in response and felt a familiar tingling in his fingertips.

"Like we said," the purple-green Jensaarai hooted, "you're a total looser!"

Shinji gritted his teeth and let go of his sabre with his left hand. "Shut… your fucking mouth…UP!" he screamed, releasing a shock of blue lightning at the dragon-warrior. This tried desperately to block the bolts with his sabre, but was still subjugated to a fair number of them, forcing him to his knees.

The enraged imperial stepped forward and raised his hand for another attack, when he a sharp blow to the back off his head made him fall off the boulder and onto the sharp rubble below, just beside the other three cultists. Looking up he saw the white Jensaarai with the sickening grin flash his ivory teeth.

"Come on, get up!" he called out, lifting the stunned teen several feet off the ground with the Force, then when he thought Shinji was up high enough let go off him completely, letting the boy fall sqarely on his face. Shinji groaned as his abused ribs cracked dangerously.

"Hey, I said get up, didn'tcha hear?" White said cheerfully, jumping down from the rock and landed a flying kick to the boy's face. Shinji tried to get up slowly, coughing and spitting blood while trying to breathe with his compressed lungs.

"Wow, you're a though one!" White said with mock admiration. "Let's see if you can still stand after this!" He swiftly made a cut across the chocolate-haired darksider's both legs, cutting through soft tissue but without severing any bones. Shinji dropped to the ground once more, but could with the pain in his chest only manage to voice a whining sound as tears of misery and humiliation welled up in his eyes.

"Alright, enough," said the female suddenly, grabbing White's shoulder.

"What, you're taking this bastard's side?! He fucking zapped me!" the unicorn dragon growled angrily and jumped down to join the rest. The bird-armoured amazon shook her head.

"I'm not taking his side, but this is not the way we should do things," she explained calmly, not once looking in the manhandled darksider's direction. She followed up with an impatient snort. "Just kill him already and let us return to the others, they might need our help with the Sith."

"Hmph, well you're no fun," said the Hssiss-armoured man and positioned his blade just over Shinji's heart. "We'll see ya in Hell dude!"

The young pilot stared in fear at the glowing blade ready to end his life. He tried to squirm away but the agony he was in effectively hindered any ambitious moves. Besides, with trashed ribs and wounded legs, how could he possibly fight back even if he did avoid the coup de grace? Coming to reluctant terms with what seemed to be his fate, he shut his eyes tightly closed and sincerely hoped that the guy was good enough not to make a mess of his execution…

"Ikari-kun!" To Shinji, the voice sounded like lunar light reflecting through the darkness.

His eyes shot open, growing to the size of saucers. "Ayanami?" he gasped. The girl jumped down lightly on the boulder where Shinji had just had his short and unfortunate. She stayed for a moment to take in her surroundings, and then she took the final jump to ground level, landing right in front the four Jensaarai. The warriors stared at her in bewilderment.

"What the Hell's this? His girlfriend or something?" said White and pointed with his forked sabre at the girl. The avian amazon shrugged indifferently.

"Who cares? Let's just kill her, okay?" she said indifferently, reactivating her own silvery sabre.

"Understood" said the reptavian, closing his eyes for a moment. Both imperials blinked when thousands of pin-head sized rocks shot up from the ground and stopped in mid air. The dianoga-armoured Xamster grinned as he moved the stones around freely with the Force.

"This… is called Force Ballistics, Dark One," he told the imperial girl. "You are quite lucky that you get to see this secret technique before you die…" With a sudden movement of one claw, the Jensaarai literally shot the pebbles at Rei, who screamed as the tiny rocks pierced through her uniform and flesh in over a dozen places all over her body.

"Ayanami!" Shinji called out, coughing up more blood. This earned him a heavy purple-green boot being brought down over his throat.

"Oh, just shut up will ya?" the dragon-man said in a bored voice. "This won't take too long…"

Shinji was forced to look as the reptavian launched salve after salve of the near microscopic missiles at Rei, who had sustained an alarming amount of deep cuts after just two or three attacks. The girl had brought out her sabre, but it gave her only a slight protection even when she spun it around at maximum velocity. Since the rocks were too small and way too fast they easily penetrated even this defence. Shinji struggled against the weight on his neck and the pain in his chest to get up and somehow help the girl, but the dragon-jensaarai only pressed him down harder.

"Why can't you just give up already?" he asked, putting more effort into making the persistent kid to stay down.

"A-… aya-… nami…" Shinji croaked, and felt his world growing dim as the pressure increase even more. He heard his captor say something more, but his light-headedness caused everything to come to him as blurred shades or faint echoes. In his prolonged shortage of oxygen, he even thought he imagined Rei's eyes starting to glow just before he passed out.

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Rei saw Shinji fight beneath the Hssiss-armoured Jensaarai, writhing and squirming for all he was worth despite his injuries. It was a foolhardy, even downright imbecilic effort, as the only thing it would accomplish was making him suffer more and perhaps die the faster.

'Perhaps that is his intention?' she asked herself, juts as another dose of pebbles came zooming at her. They hit her like a swarm of piranha-beetles, tearing at her pal skin and boring into her flesh, slowly but surely ripping her into shreds. When the pain momentarily passed before the next assault, she managed to hear what Shinji was saying, or trying to say at least.

"A-… aya-… nami…"

Rei's eyes widened only slightly, the Ayanami version of a shocked gasp, and suddenly she felt a fire build up inside her. This was not her normal battle spirit however, but one that burnt and chilled at the same time, just as it brought both dull pain and subtle pleasure… it was the seething flames of fear, it was the burning fire of hate, it was the all consuming inferno known as the very essence of darkness.

Without warning Rei let out a maddened shriek of uncontrollable rage, a cry which would have terrified even the legions of Chaos, as her eyes flared bright crimson with a fire that burned away her pupils and replaced them with a deep void that seemed to promise unimaginable suffering to any who looked upon them. The Xamster abruptly halted his assault and swiftly cowered away towards his companions. All four of them looked at the girl in mortal terror.

The crazed girl let out another Force Rage battle cry, and attacked the nearest enemy without restraint. The reptavian warrior made a desperate attempt to fend off the darksider, throwing everything he had at her with his telekinetic abilities, but Rei mercilessly battered down his defence within seconds, swiftly cutting off both his arms. Ignoring his shrill cries of torment she proceeded to his legs, chopping them off one at a time, and finally his body, slicing off huge chunks until but a bloody mass remained. The dead Jensaarai's brethren stared in terror at the horrible scene and backed a way from the azure-haired demon.

Rei redirected her glowing orbs to the white armoured one, the fire of her eyes glowing with bloodlust. The white Jensaarai fumbled backwards then made turned around abruptly and screamed as he tried to make a run for it. This time around however, the navy locked darksider did not even bother to use her blade, instead using the small of her left hand to make slicing motions in the air, which appeared as deep wounds on the shocked warrior's back. The Jensaarai howled out in pain and fell face first to the ground, spasming in agony and screaming as Rei's continued the shower of Force Wound attacks. After a few intense moments of slice 'n' dicing, the warrior finally stopped convulsing and lay dead in a pool of his own bodily fluids.

"Y-you bitch!" the purple-green Jensaarai shouted, fear being turned to courage as he charged the girl head on.

Rei, who appeared strangely calm even in while in the middle of her berserker fury, almost apathetically threw her lightsabre at a low angle towards the onrushing warrior. In one clean swipe it chopped off his legs, just as had been done to his comrade a few moments ago. The green and purple Jensaarai fell on his back, groaning and gritting his teeth in pain. Rei silently walked up to him and first seemed like she was going to pass him by, but as she did landed a swift cut that separated the man's head from the rest of his dismembered body. She turned to look at the last opponent.

The pylat armoured woman had assumed a thoughtful pose. "Hmmm, so this is the power of Force Rage is it?" she wondered aloud in a satin-like voice, "Kinda impressive, but I think you're about to reach your limit now aren't you?" The red eyed girl blinked. It was true; the great blaze in her chest was waning even now, draining her of energy. The Jensaarai took off her beaked helmet and smiled.

"Thought so," she said triumphantly, taking a left handed hold of her sabre and brought out what looked like another sabre from her belt. "Still, I don't think you're the type to go down easily, unlike these boys right? So I guess I have to use my special toy on you." She activated the hilt, and forth sprang a long, snakelike silvery coil that extended well over seven feet.

Rei could not help but stare at the lightwhip that moved snakelike in its wielder's grip. She had only ever heard of it in her master's lectures as a weapon nearly impossible to master, but by the way her enemy handled it, it was in the possession of one of the very best. Plus, the added strength of an extra lightsabre would make this Jensaarai several times more dangerous than any of her brethren that Rei had fought. This woman would probably even have given lord Vader a fight to remember.

'This will be most… difficult…' the young girl thought. 'Yes… there is not even a sixty percents chance of victory…' at this point every single part of Rei's training commanded her to fall back before this enemy, but in that case… '… Ikari-kun will most likely not be spared…'

"What's the matter girlie, mynock got your tongue?" the Jensaarai asked and tapped her foot impatiently. "I was going to give you a fighting chance, because that's how I am, but if you're just going to stand there then I'll just have to come for you!" With a crackling sound the woman swung her whip at Rei, who neatly caught the attacks with her own ruby-red sabre.

The Jensaarai smiled again. "Now you're talking girle!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, cracking her whip a few times in the air before aiming at the imperial once more. Rei quickly jumped out of the way from the lethal strap of energy. The woman looked slightly disappointed.

"Oh come on, is that all you can do? Don't tell me I overestimated you…" Laughing in high spirits, she now threw her conventional sabre in Rei's direction, the pole of silvery light making a whum-whum-ing sound as it spun just over the girl's head. Seconds later, the blade came back at Rei in a boomerang-like fashion, chasing after her legs. She swiftly took a leap in the air as the blade passed by, but was forced to duck just as quickly when another attack of the whip came.

'Using her whip as a distraction while making use of a sabre throw attack…' Rei analyzed as she rolled away from said whip and landing behind a sizeable rock, witching off her lightsabre.

"Oh, are you afraid of my whip girlie?" the woman jeered and let the glowing strap lick at the edges of the imperial girl's very temporary shield. Behind it, Rei frowned.

'This is a version of Dun Möch…' she observed, 'however…she has still to use any telekinetic projectiles…' In that precise moment, Rei realised that the whipping of the rock had stopped, and her instincts told her that this place was not any good for hiding any more…

The stone erupted into billions of small shards that scattered over the entire cavern with the speed of greased lightning. Rei peaked out from her new hiding place, another rock and saw what had caused the rock to shatter so completely. The Jensaarai was using the same technique as the Xamster had, levitating small pebbles and throwing them away at n extremely high velocity. Apparently, it was strong enough to shatter boulders.

'A perfect defence and a perfect offence… this person is really…' the red-eyed girl mused grimly. 'All of her attacks are lethal… one hit means instant death… however, there must be a weak point.' She gazed intently at the woman, now blowing up rocks left and right with the Force Ballistics in order to find her prey, and suddenly, Rei felt certain that she had found the weak point, though there was of course the problem of getting close enough.

Rei began to concentrate on cloaking her presence as much as possible. Even though she could not become invisible as such, she was still quite able to go undetected… provided her target was not extremely skilled in finding entities hidden in the force. Still, there was no choice if she hoped to defeat the Jensaarai at this stage. Finishing her cloaking, Rei stealthily crept out from her hiding place and sneaked up to the unaware enemy.

'A few more steps…' she thought, carefully taking out the hilt of her blade and pressing the activation button ever so lightly. 'Just… one… more… step.'

"And what do you think you are doing?" the woman asked calmly. Rei instantly stopped in mid-step. "Yes, I know you're there… now come out like a good little girl…'

In an instant Rei ignited her weapon and fiercely thrust it at her opponent's back. However, in the same amount of time the Jensaarai spun around and made a cut that would cleave Rei in half over her stomach. Time froze, and the two females stared at each other with hate burning in their eyes, fuelled by the great burning of the other's blade in their bodies. Rei's eyes once more began to glow bright red, and she gritted her teeth and hissed as she stubbornly pressed her blade inch by inch further into her enemy's chest.

The Jensaarai raised her right hand jerkily, and Rei felt the growing Force that was trying to bush her away. She growled and felt an unfamiliar tingling in her fingertips, blue sparks dancing over her nails. Without any hesitation, she grabbed with one free hand the woman's right hand. The bird-warrior stared at the blue sparks that grew in the contact, feeling as if her skin was about to burn up. She gave Rei a frightened look.

"No, no you can't!" she pleaded, but Rei only met her plea with an entirely blank look. The power of the sudden bolt of blue lightning hit the woman with such force that she would have been knocked back several feet and slammed into the rocky wall if she was not skewered on the merciless darksider's sabre. Small coils of lightning travelled all over her body, discharging into the air with low cracking sounds. The woman began to cry.

"P-please d-don't k-kill me!" she begged. Rei just gave her another indifferent look, and launched another bolt of lightning, completely roasting the howling Jensaarai within her avian armour.

Letting the corpse gently slide off her blood-red lightsabre, Rei nearly collapsed herself from the sudden fatigue. It did not help much that she had one huge gash in her side and at least a hundred puncture wounds all over her body. Also, even if she survived the wounds, the overtaxing of her body was going to cost her some serious physical agony in a nearby future. She tiredly glanced at Shinji's direction, and after a second or two of collecting strength, all but dragged herself to his side.

The boy was still unconscious, breathing heavily in a way that made him sound very much like Darth Vader himself. Of course, she was in no better condition. Her first instinct was nevertheless to attempt a traversing back to the higher levels, she would probably still be able to force her body into climbing her way back up and even carry Shinji with her, it was after all just a matter of mind over mater. However...

'He has only sustained moderate damage,' she thought, a light frown growing on her forehead,' but it may still endanger his life to move him on my own…' She looked down at the youth, and felt strangely compelled to brush some of the hair from his face.

'In this situation, the logical thing to do is waiting for the recovery team to arrive…' she reasoned. Thus, she pulled her legs up into a foetal position and settled for watching Shinji breathe in his sleep. It was oddly comforting, a feeling she did not get very often, but increasingly more often around this specific boy. The simple up and down movement of the heaving chest was also very soothing in itself, and within minutes Rei slowly drifted off to sleep.

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To be continued…

AN: Hidy ho! Nothing big here this time, 'cause it's been such a long time since my last update that you've probably forgot any questions you asked. However, don't hesitate to review and give me all your thoughts, good and bad, especially since it's been a while and I'm most likely a bit rusty...

See ya'll soon (probably…)!

And may the Force be with- Zzzzz…