"I beg of you… My slave who lives somewhere in the universe! Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit! I desire and here I plead from my heart! Answer to my guidance!"

For such powerful magic words they are quite vague are they not? The universe has long since been proven to be far more massive than can be measured and the reflections even more infinite. Beautiful and strong can be defined in numerous ways and differ by one's own views of strength and beauty. However, a plea that comes straight from the heart fueled by a desire created from years of emotional torment by one's peers? That is a voice heard by any who are willing to listen.

Familiars of Zero is a series of one-shots featuring a plethora of what-if's consisting of a large cast of characters ranging from the unique to the downright bizarre. However, while the cast of familiars will be diverse a few key little details will remain in effect. All familiars will be sentient and will, at the very least, be chaotic neutral. I may include an "evil" familiar or two but I'm not really into writing horror all that much…

All one-shots shall be followed by an explanatory note regarding the new familiar (the who's, the why's, and the what's), a brief summary of what could continue, and finally explanations towards an "OCness" on the pre-established characters. With that said, I hope you enjoy reading:

The Familiars of Zero

By Corvus no Genmu

"The Power Unleashed"

It often a misconception of visions that what was seen can be undone, that which is to be can be stopped or perhaps altered in some manner or another. Few ever reach the appropriate amount of wisdom to realize that the more one tries to fight the visions of the future, the more they fall into it kicking and screaming the entire way, and of those few only a scant number have that miraculous capability of accepting what is to come and, in that instant where prophecy becomes history, dare to step in of their own accord and change it to their whim.

The masters of the art of divining were said to be oracles of prophecy, that they could see as far back as the dawn of the galaxy or even up to the end but such rumors were all worthless, proof evident in history that said otherwise of such capability. Still, it did not give him reason enough to halt in his training of the art for though he was not yet wise to follow prophecy or skilled enough to shatter it, his visions of the approaching future had save him and his more often than he cared for to leave it up to mere chance. So here he was, trying once more for control rather than instinct… and he Saw…

"I beg of you…"

A massive moon-that-wasn't, taking place in the skies above a world and from there, cast forth a beam of pure power upon the helpless world, obliterating it from the universe…

"My servant who lives somewhere in the universe!"

A boy… taking up the almost forgotten legacy… and succeeding where others had failed, destroying the false moon and halting the expanse of the Empire for years to come…

"Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit!"

The Empire rising from the ashes of a bitter blow, and the Dark Lord striking back at the boy where it hurt most, with honest words that pierced the youngling's heart and nearly shattered his soul…

"I desire and here I plead from my heart!"

And one final vision… where two men together brought an end to the Emperor's reign through the mercy of the son and the redemption of the father….

And through them all there hadn't been a glance or even a shimmer of his presence, nothing more than his family's crest as a sign of rebellion, as a symbol of peace, a declaration for freedom. Yet there was no mistaking the presence of the Dark Lord in those visions of the future, but how could that happen? It was assured that escape was impossible for him and his last call-in with the old general assured him that no attempts had been made and the Dark Lord was still a prisoner. No… that wasn't what bothered him, not completely… It was that he had not been a part of the affairs that led to the downfall of the galaxy… and though he could put into words how he knew this, he knew that he was alive still in that future, so why…? What could possibly have kept him from his duty?

"Answer to my guidance!"

And he was gone…

His eyes snapped open and in that brief moment that he saw that he was no longer on his ship but on the ground of a planet, surrounded by a circle of staring younglings and a man balding despite his young years. No chance to speak or to act as the planet's very will came crashing upon him like a ton of bricks and it was all he could do to press one hand against his forehead as he fought back against a power greater than his own. Never before had he experienced anything like this, not even that backwater world where the Light and the Dark side had reigned and festered, controlling the world as a whole, did he ever feel such power as this!

This was nothing like that planet for that world had been influenced by those who were connected to the Force while this world… was connected to the Force!

And it did not like his presence upon it.

It felt the years spent in the darkness and he felt it start to pull when… it stopped, a faint whisper of something sliding past him, a strange feeling of a comforting hand upon his back. The pressure was still there but it was easing as the will of the planet saw the light that flickered despite the shadowed years and how that light blossomed still in a veil of darkness. He was no longer an assassin of the darkness but he was not truly a knight of the light either. He was too selfish to be wholly light but he was also too caring to stay shrouded in the darkness. If it involved him and his, he would strike hard and fast, with little mercy. He wasn't black or white.

He was gray.

The planet's will eased its pressure upon his mind and a faint whisper spoke to him though he knew not fully if the words were spoken by the planet itself… You're journey begins… His eyes still closed, his brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of the strange words and how utterly blinding the planet was when he felt it.

The soft feeling of lips to his own snapped him to his feet. He did not react this way to a kiss but when one was given and not welcomed, well could one really blame him for reacting as viciously as he did. With a gesture, he shoved the tiny, pink-haired girl back into the startled arms of her professor with a scowl on his face and a vicious retort ready on his lips when he felt it.

Something was wrong.

He had endured pain before, one of his old master's many lessons often involved the lesson of it on an hourly basis, and what the planet had tried to do was an outside attack him, like a wall of pressure crashing down upon him. What he was experiencing now was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was though all his power, all of his control, was being pushed… not out exactly but to a limit he had never thought to reach, never could have imagined that anyone could.

Lightning arced in wicked circles up and down the length of his arms as pebbles and loosened clods of dirt started to rise up into the air though he was pushing down as the growing crater beneath his feet attested. Realization came in a paired set; his control was there but the sheer amount of power was too much, he had to tire himself out just enough to stop himself from going the same way as Shaak Ti had done.

With an incoherent roar, he raised his hands high as lightning pierced the heavens asunder as the air was pushed upwards in a powerful gale that knocked everyone but him off their feet. Not enough, again! He concentrated, forcing the lightning into a ball and expelling it once more, increasing its size as it traveled beyond the range of his eyes and stopped only when he could no longer see it enough to control. He repeated this process five more times before he was tired enough to do perhaps two more such blasts before succumbing to exhaustion.

A faint hissing sound drew his eyes down to his left hand, the glove burned to ash and the skin at the back burned with alien markings that he had never seen before. He looked away into the stunned crowd and saw the one that had led to this… reaction and reveled a bit more than he would have liked in her fear.

"What. Did. You. Do?"

Seven times…

Seven times he tried to leave, to abandon this so-called 'master' of his and make for the nearest space-port off this messed up planet and he had failed every time. The first four, were done in secret and he had learned the length of his leash in those attempts. He had reached as far as the borders of the nearby town before the runes began to burn on his hand and he felt the compulsion to return. It was not like any mind trick he had ever heard about for subtlety was not a key factor as the words were blazoned across his mind to return to her side. The next two had been openly blatant on his part, thinking that her rage would be enough to trigger some form of change in the compulsion, that her own will would break the chain binding him to her.

The last attempt had been at her life.

The result had not been pleasant for either of them and they shoved it aside with the sad fact that however they might detest each other, they were, however temporarily, stuck to each other. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that his "master" wasn't a schoolgirl still in what the natives called "magic". Oh, there was no denying they possessed a unique ability that no other humans he knew of could attest to besides those who were as force-sensitive as he, and they thought him of similar ilk for his control over the element of lightning.

What fools these children were.

That one in particular, blonde haired boy that had more stupidity than he did common sense had actually tried to challenge him to a duel of honor for something that he hadn't even been involved in. Really, how was it his fault that the boy, Guiche, had been caught in his two-timing ways? He would have denied Guiche his request but the fool had actually dared to state that he would teach him a lesson in respecting the superiority of his betters.

Guiche had tried to set a time and place, he answered in kind that the place and time were then and there. The boy protested, making childish demands for honor and dignity and he lost both when he was brought to the air and hung upside-down nearly five stories above the ground. When Guiche screamed to be released and his demand was met without hesitation… What? He hadn't killed the boy. He had only dropped him to just an inch above the ground and then released him. He turned his back on the blonde haired fool and commented that was the first lesson he had ever learned from his teacher.

Now?

Now he was currently dealing with a red-haired teenage girl with little to no control over her hormones.

"You do not seek a relationship with me." He commanded, waving his hand over her face as her golden eyes glazed over.

"I don't seek a relationship with you." She repeated in monotone.

He thought for a moment on the words Louise had used to describe this girl, Kirche, however colorful they might be. Better to be safe than sorry. "You do not seek to have sex with me."

"I do not seek to have sex with you."

"You seek…" Hmm… Well Louise had been making complaints about that name for the longest time now… "You seek to bring an end to Louise's misery at the school."

"I seek to bring an end to Louise's misery at the school."

"You will do so with great relish and little preamble."

"I will do so with great relish and little preamble."

He nodded, satisfied that he had done enough to the girl and started out the room but paused. He looked to his right and pushed, "You will forget what you have heard." The salamander's eyes glazed and it nodded dumbly.

And that was that.

Too bad he didn't know Kirche enough to realize just how far her "great relish and little preamble" could go… Nor did he realize that the contact of her wandering hands, imbued with familial magic to enhance the physical responses of her partners, had accidentally touched upon a small device sewn into his coat and with that brief contact, the device gaining a brief enough surge of power to send forth a signal at speeds beyond light… or that the signal in turn was received…

"Why couldn't you have least lifted the judges into the air!" demanded Louise. "That would have at least impressed them more than you standing there like an idiot!"

He scowled and didn't deign to answer her, knowing quite well that she was merely venting her frustrations though he could not blame her for them. He too had wanted to make a demonstration of his skills to the judges of the Exhibition of Familiars only after he realized how infuriating it was for his initial refusal to make a spectacle of himself only resulted in that same derisive laughter because they, the students, thought themselves free of his retribution. Still, he might not have made a visual reprimand; many of those same students would have frequent troubles in finding a dry place to sleep for some nights to come. He wondered if telling Louise of his admittedly childish revenge would appease her but was interrupted with a sudden tremble in the earth.

"W-What the heck?" exclaimed Louise. It was an earth golem made entirely of stone and earth with clumps of growing trees marking it sporadically and towering at a size larger than a rancor but by no means the largest animated thing he had ever seen. Atop its head was a cloaked figure with pale emerald hair and Louise gasped at the sight of her. She had heard the rumors but she never thought she'd lay eyes upon the thief known infamously as Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth.

"Looks like you're out of luck." Fouquet commented as her golem reached out towards them.

He frowned and lashed out with a hand, batting the massive limb aside. "Hardly." He pushed once more but missed when the arm crumbled like sand and his single attack caused the wall of the tower to crack just the slightest bit.

"I've seen for myself the skills you possess, Gandalfr!" Fouquet called down to him. "You can hit what isn't there!"

"Fireball!" A flash of magic whizzed through the upper portion of the golem's shoulder, completely obliterating a tree and utterly shattering the outer wall of the tower to which Fouquet stared at in open-mouthed astonishment.

'A simple fireball spell did that?' She thought, glancing down at the frustrated Louise. "Either way, it's lucky for me. Golem!" The massive earth arm reconstructed itself and reached into the open hole of the tower that Louise and her familiar had unwillingly created. Moving quickly, Fouquet was in and out of the vault room with her prize in hand and a delightful cackle. "Yes, the Shadow Sabers are mine!" The thief acknowledged her helpers with a cheery wave. "Thank you so much for the help!"

The Zero's familiar narrowed his eyes as he thought of what could possibly lay in that box. "I think not." The box was torn free from Fouquet's grip, nearly taking the woman with it and it was only the quick reaction of her golem that saved her from plummeting to her death. The box twirled through the air, blasting open with another invisible strike and sending its contents flying into waiting hands.

A snap and the hiss of an elder dragon in full rage, and Louise found her familiar armed with a pair of black blades which glowed white along their edge and extended nearly to his shoulders as he gripped the twin sabers in a foreign, backhanded style. He seemed pleasantly surprised by the coloration but otherwise wasn't at all shocked by the strangeness of his weapons. In fact, he did a few practiced motions with the blades before smiling with teeth barred.

"Come on!"

The ship arrived in relative calm and by calm he surmised that the student body and teachers of the academy weren't all running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Amazing capabilities as the local fowl had, it was nothing compared to the mimicked motions of the humans and fortunate for him, they had managed to keep some semblance of order as he stood and waited for the ship to land. He had sensed her approach weeks ago and the wait nearly drove him mad and those who knew him well enough noted the change in him.

Ever since he had been summoned, he had been cold, even cruel, to just about everyone, especially those who interacted with him on a daily basis. It was obvious from the beginning that he held little love or appreciation towards his "master" and what few times he didn't treat her with sharp disdain, it was with indifference that, were it to be measured in distance would stretch all the way to the sun. The maids and servants he treated kindly in so much that he raised no sharp word or deadly action upon them for he rarely spoke to any of them and what few he did were only requests given to him by Louise.

The teachers he listened to only when their words were worth listening and their lessons worth remembering and the royalty? Well, they were treated as such only so much that when Princess Henrietta arrived for the competition between familiars, he did not deign to humor her request to perform to the full of his ability. His defeat of Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt and his weapons earned him more prestige than he had wanted or believed to have deserved and the students had truly begun to believe the title that he used as a name upon his summoning.

Starkiller.

How strange it must be for the students to see a man whose very name seems to spell destruction and power unleashed, who has had a constant scowl on his face for all that they've known him, to suddenly appear like a child approaching winter's holiday. To be eager was one thing, to be happy was another, and there was not one student or teacher in the entire academy that could deny they had witnessed a smile on the face of Louise's familiar. Now imagine their expressions when the starship landed within the castle walls. It would be only a margin's difference.

He was already moving when the door of the ship opened and the ramp had just touched down to the earth. He spoke no words to express how he felt; letting his actions speak for him by embracing the blonde-haired pilot of the spacecraft and pressing his lips against hers. Time was meaningless to them for what was time between lovers as they kissed? What was as much a moment is just so in eternity. The length did not so much matter as the feelings did and together, they felt each other. He pulled away first, just one long enough to whisper her name before his lips were upon hers again.

"Juno…"

Louise nervously looked up at the ship and clutched her cloak tighter around her small frame. In the dead of the night, it was quite chilly but it wasn't the wind's soft biting that had shivers traveling up and down her spine. She had known that her familiar was different but she had not even begun to fathom just how much. He rarely spoke of his past to her, which is to say not at all, and as far as explaining how his abilities worked she could not deny that his half-hearted explanations flew right over her head.

Gathering her courage, she traversed up the ramp and into the ship one step at a time and met the golden eyes of her familiar's golem-no, that wasn't the word… Droid, yes that was it. She bit back a scream at the thing's presence and was relieved to see that it was recharging its energies through the night. The droid, PROXY if she recalled correctly, was built and designed specifically to train and kill her familiar, to which she had originally scoffed at the very idea that such a lightweight golem lookalike could do such harm to her familiar who had, on his own, brought down a mountain golem. PROXY admitted that it was no longer programmed to kill its master but that it was entirely capable of doing so. Her familiar had laughed and offered the droid another chance "for old time's sake".

And Louise had thought hearing her familiar laugh would be the biggest shock…

A door swished open and in stepped her familiar's lover. The woman's hands were dirtied with oil and sweat marked her brow. She raised an eyebrow at Louise's embarrassed blushing and saw for herself what she thought had embarrassed the young girl so. "PROXY won't hurt you, you know. From what Galen's told me of the binding your… magic… has done to him, he couldn't order PROXY to do anything to you even if he wanted to."

Louise nodded but didn't meet the Juno's eyes. That was the other thing. Since she had known him it was always "Familiar" or, if she was feeling particularly brave or angry enough, "Starkiller" neither of which was his true name. She had heard Juno call him by his name and saw the light that sparked within her familiar's eyes every time he heard it. Louise had never tried to call him by his real name before and she wondered if she could do it now.

"If you want to speak with him, he's in the meditation chamber back that way," said Juno, either ignorant or ignoring Louise's discomfort as she toweled her hands clean and gestured towards the back of the ship with a shrug of the shoulder. Louise nodded her thanks and started down that way when, "I don't blame you, you know. If anything, you probably did us a huge favor bringing him here. I don't think he could have handled the politics of the Alliance any better than Kota did… He smiles more easily here, that's for sure."

He does? Louise couldn't speak but nodded once more at Juno, giving the older woman a small smile of her own. She walked down the length of the ship until she came to the doors that led to what she assumed was the meditation chamber, for certainly they were large enough to imply such. They opened at her approach and she hesitantly approached.

"… Sta—… Galen…?" His back was to her as he sat with his blades floating on either side of him, twirling like cylindrical moons about his body.

"What do you want?" He asked her, his voice devoid of any emotion and with his back to her, she could not read his expressions any. She was fighting blind and she knew she had to tread carefully lest she truly break what little bond there was between herself and him, and for all her talk of wanting such, Louise had come to realize that she truly did care for him and that the idea of him leaving her hurt more than it should.

"I… wanted to say I'm sorry…" She waited to see if he had anything to say to her words and when he didn't she continued, "and… that I'm thankful, truly thankful, to have a familiar such as you… but I… I don't just want you to be my familiar…"

"Don't go turning into Kirche on me."

The youngest Valerie's face matched her hair in an instant and she couldn't stop the embarrassing stutter. "I-Idiot! That's not what I meant! I want you to be my teacher!" The lightsabers halted in their orbit and Louise's breath caught in her throat. Idiot! She berated herself. Idiot, idiot, idiot! She turned away from him, her eyes clenched shut. "I'm sorry, I'll just—"

"It won't be easy."

"Wh-What?" She turned and saw him standing but with his back to her still his lightsabers resting in their attachments to his belt.

"You will be pushed to the edge of your abilities, and when you've reached that edge, you will be pushed beyond them. What you will learn will not simply be handed to you, you will have to sweat, bleed, and cry to learn even a fraction of what I have to offer you. Do you really think you can do that?"

"… What makes you think I haven't already? I'm tired of being called 'the Zero'. Even if it's not magic, at least it is something. Something that I can use to prove that I have actual worth."

He bowed his head just the slightest bit. "And who would you prove that worth to?"

"… myself…"

"… Tomorrow afternoon, when your usual classes have finished, meet with me in the Vestri Court. We will see if your conviction matches your worth, Louise."

On the next Calling...

"Hail to the King"

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

The Secret Apprentice… Subject 1138… Starkiller… Galen Marek… All names of the same person though some will argue otherwise. Galen's history is long and extensive to explain especially to those who, like me, are merely a fan of the movies and not much else with the Star Wars franchise but I shall try and do a basic rundown.

As the games have implied, Galen is, quite literally, "The Force Unleashed" and has the potential of becoming one of the most powerful Force-users of all time. Hell, the Emperor himself believed that Galen had the potential to equal him and considering that guy's ego makes Voldemort look like a toddler with a tantrum… Though it does take some effort for him to do so, Galen can drag a Star Destroyer out of the sky and force it to the ground. As for lightning, he can launch enough energy to kill in a single blast and could hit an entire crowd of stormtroopers if he was so inclined. Last, but not least, the "mind trick"… Galen has enough profiency in it to control three people at a time to either fight for him or to kill themselves and save him the trouble.

Imagine someone like that in Halkenginia… the classic Force-choke is the least of anyone's worries!

However, that wasn't the reason why I chose Galen in the first place, though I admit it was a heavy factor. First, Galen's fate, at the time of this writing, is thus far unknown. We are unsure whether he is a clone of the original Starkiller or if he is truly the real deal and considering that canon in Star Wars is like a river… I mean seriously, the guy had three possible fates in the first game alone! Old general (from which I got his black lightsabers from), Darth Vader's replacement (and looking far more hardcore by the way), or dead. Really, I felt quite assured that he wouldn't be missed all that much by most. Second, I wanted to experiment with a character that has two distinct forms of personality, the cold and angry Starkiller and the warm-hearted knight Galen Marek. I wanted to try my hand at writing a character who has dealt very little with people in general and, for the most part, only shows himself to those he trusts and cares about.

As for being Gandalfr… I admit, I originally wanted to make him more proficient with a lightsaber but then I realized… how? Then I thought more on what a Gandalfr was and I settled with that. Sorry but no Derflinger for Galen folks because, as much as I love the sword, how can a Force-user use a regular sword when they have lightsabers to do the job? That, and I never bought into that argument they made up in Soul Calibur IV that some blades have enough "power of soul" to withstand a lightsaber. That is what we like to call a cheap cop-out, kids.

Writing Galen's character was about the same as Zero and yet more so too. Galen's character grew and changed throughout both games and it was hard to pin down how he would turn out in the foreseeable future and how he would react to being on what was a "backwater world" that was practically sentient in its own way. (Think that of Mogo there folks, just more… laid back I guess. The planet is magical after all, in mores than you know.) I'd like to think I did rather well considering that Galen went from futuristic to dark ages in the blink of an eye, never mind the whole familiar thing with Louise.

The two despised each other and did not keep such a thing secret though neither would outright hurt the other. In Galen's case, he couldn't because of the runes, and Louise's case… because Galen could easily snatch her wand from her. However, with Juno and PROXY now at his side and his family whole for the most part, Galen has mellowed out enough that Louise felt at ease enough to ask him to teach her the ways of the Force. With Galen teaching her, perhaps something more can grow between them in the sense of family but as far as romance goes, it just isn't there, and who knows? Maybe he can help her unleash the Void?

Sad as I am to admit it, I would put this story at the bottom tier of the "possibly-to-be-written". I would do so if I were as knowledgeable as others are about the Star Wars franchise but… well, quite frankly I loved the movies and that was it. Over and done with. I can't stand the animation in the Clone Wars (everybody's hair is like rocks darn it! No movement at all!), I can't name half the starships or machines properly, I can't understand how the Clonetroopers can be so awesome while the Stormtroopers are so lame, and… well, truth be told, when I found out that Chewbacca died, that ruined the whole thing for me. However, if someone else is willing and able to pick up where I left off, or to even do their own take on such a familiar, well I say go for it!

And may the Force be with you.

PS

I've not forgotten "The Lost Wanderer", I've merely been struck again by inspiration. Rest assured, he shall come wandering in after the next story. Cross my heart.