AN: I don't own Naruto or Star Wars.

The faint hum from the ceiling was her only solace as she tried to sleep. The day had been lazy, slow, and it allowed her to rest after her last battle in the arena. The remains of the hanadak were now strewn about as she rolled in her sleep, growling as she tried desperately to sleep.

"Save the pup."

Rearing back, she slammed into the wall and roared. Shaking her head, she slammed into the doors once again, trying to get them open. For a second, they began giving under her strength, but soon she needed to pause as she attempted to look over the door.

Even now, she could feel the danger the pup was in, and this unpassable barrier that once kept her caged was now bending. The strength came from somewhere she knew not, but she knew that regardless of where it came from, it was there, and it allowed her to push onwards.

Slamming into the door again, she could feel the wind of the outside brushing against her face. A crack in the barrier? Pushing her hands into the crack, she leaned into it and began pushing inwards. A high picked, grating screech echoed in her room, but she was stronger than that. No sound, no creature, no wall could stop her. She was the queen of the arena; she wouldn't allow even this to stop her.

There was yelling on the other side of the wall. Had someone seen her? No, that was bad. The hunter within her told her to shy away, hide in the back and wait until they passed her by. The warrior in her told her that it didn't matter, so long as she did what she needed to. There was no waiting, there was only acting.

"Protect the pup."

That voice, so old and so far away, yet filled the words guided her. Stepping back, she snorted as she rushed forwards and slammed her shoulder into the wall and forced it open a bit more. Repeating the process, she felt it give way, and one of the doors began to loosen around the stones that held them there.

Another voice began shouting. The one who cared for her, squawking and flailing as they always did, was trying to say something. Her words fell on ignorant ears as she struck it once again, pushing through the door into the arena that had become her home.

Bellowing in exertion, she raced forwards, remembering how the pup had gotten out. There was a way out, a way that she normally could not take, but for the sake of the pup, she had to try. Grabbing blindly at the wall, she gripped the handholds of something cold and firm. Pulling herself up, she began to ascend out of the pit, and pulled herself up out into freedom.

The establishment was blurred, shapes of creatures running around as they tried to get away. Some were pointing at her, red bolts flew but she ignored them. They created a heat that was noticeable, but not enough for her to take notice. Breathing deeply, she smelt the tainted air of the outside world and lumbered forwards, breaking through into the unaware streets.

Lifting her head, she let out a desperate shout. The trail, where was the trail that led to the pup? What clues could she find, what scent markers would allow her to follow it? Closing her eyes, she howled to the skies above, asking the ancient one to help her.

"Here."

Turning towards the feeling, she saw something moving not far from where she stood. There? But that reeked like the carcasses left to long without eating! Still, if that was where she needed to go in order to find the pup, she would go.

Lumbering over to the quickly lowered box, she leapt onto it and grabbed hold. The box was just a bit smaller than her and it took some time to balance herself. Behind her, she could still hear the squawking of the one who'd helped her, and so she turned to face them. The noise stopped, and she made a small noise that was quickly drowned out in the sound of gears grinding sharply beneath her. The box was moving again, but it was also moving much faster as well.

Gripping it tightly, she held on as she went down into the darkness. Soon, she would find the pup. Once more, she'd make the ancient one proud.

x-=-x

Floating in a void of darkness, all he could consciously feel was pain. Overwhelming, mind numbing pain. Every so often he felt his body twitch, silently reminding him of what he'd just done, and of the danger he'd put himself in.

His mind wandered, lost to the darkness with nothing but those moments to think on. To review, and remember everything he'd done. How he'd called on the dark side, and on how wrong he'd been.

When he'd called on that power, exploding with it in order to defeat his captor, he hadn't realized that he was doing it wrong. Everything felt right; exploding with power, pushing all of his dark feelings out in a burst of energy, and going in with the mindset that if he lost everything would end. Compared to Alaris Prime though, he'd been mistaken to even attempt such a thing.

All he'd done was create a shadow of the event. On Alaris Prime, he'd becoming the raging avatar of destruction, the very Force seeming to hear each and every thought he had and turned to his power into a fuel to drive the droids and fire back. Here, he'd become a bolt of lightning that for a brief moment filled him with power, only to then rebound, and strike back at him. He held no thought that he'd made a mistake, or that he'd simply missed something.

No, he'd not done it wrong. Something was just missing that he didn't have the ability to add himself.

As he continued to allow his mind to wander, he began to feel something else. A memory, filled with pain, confusion, and fear. No, it wasn't fear. Aurra had said fear was that little voice that told him something was wrong. This wasn't something wrong; this was something that brought a feeling of terror through him.

Were he unable to move, he'd have been frozen by the feeling, his heart almost stopping as the feeling washed over him. Somewhere in the darkness he could hear a voice; soft like the breeze on Naboo, but quickly building in the raging flames from Alaris Prime.

"…No…back…to…No! No don't do it! Go to sleep! Go back to sleep!"

The mantra played over and over in his mind, slowly drawing him from his prone position into the darkness towards something else. Something deeper, hidden in the darkness. As he slowly turned, he found himself walking down a cobblestone path, with time-worn pillars all around him. Walking between them, he saw they lead to some sort of courtyard, where at the far end a row of iron pillars reached towards the sky into the eternal darkness.

Bringing his eyes from the sky back to the pillars, he saw that two of them in the center were actually not pillars in the circular way the others were, but was actually more of a bar. In the middle of the bar, was a piece of paper with words written on it that he couldn't quite make out, but were familiar. Then, sensing movement behind the bars, his eyes shifted to the darkness only to become locked with a piercing feral gaze with a row of razor sharp teeth that cut through the air as a voice echoed in the room.

"Foolish boy."

X-=-x

Naruto woke with a start, grunting in pain as his body tried to pin him down so that he wouldn't strain his muscles. Every part of his body hurt, thought there were several points that ached more than others. Forcing his eyes open, he tried to quickly adjust to the world around him, finding himself in a room he'd never seen before, but that felt familiar.

There were several parts that stood out to him; pieces of weaponry, holoimages that showed various worlds that the person who lived here had been to, and several pieces of machinery strewn about from some devices that he couldn't make sense of. In one of the images though, he saw an image of a familiar face that told him who's room he was in; Aurra. This was Aurra's room.

Shifting to the edge of the bed, he winced as his body tried to tell him to stop. His legs were in pain, but were surprisingly numb to it, which he was grateful for. Setting his legs on the edge of the bed, he pulled his pant leg up to check and see what had happened. Wrapped around each leg was a bacta patch, which likely was why he wasn't feeling the pain so bad. Checking the rest of his body, there wasn't any more bacta patches on him, which meant that whatever bacta had been here it had been used to help his legs.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and tried to push the pain away so he could get up and move. It took a moment, as shortly after he began trying to do this, he found that his mind was filled with feelings of loneliness, sorrow, and a lingering numbness that he couldn't place until he removed his hands from the sheets with a jolt.

Staring at his hand, he flinched as he realized what he'd been unconsciously doing. Without truly meaning to, he'd been using psychometry and the Force had been going back to show him Aurra's feelings and emotions from times that she'd been here. "Whoops."

Ignoring the pain entirely, surprisingly thanks to that moment, he shoved himself to his feet and grit his teeth. Shakily, he moved into the main room, looking around slowly. The place was eerily quiet, a very different, humbling feeling compared to what he felt when he'd had been there earlier.

"Aurra?"

There was no answer, no sound but his own voice in the room as he looked around slowly. The room was exactly the same, and yet…not. Looking around slowly, he paused when he noticed one thing out of place; a holorecorder that had been left on the table. Walking over to it, he activated it and frowned when he saw Aurra pop up.

"Naruto, if you're getting this, then I didn't come back before you woke up." The recording began slowly. Aurra's expression was distant, and he saw her doing her best to look straight ahead to wherever he might be standing. "It may also mean…that something happened. Either way, just don't worry about it, I'll be fine.

"I'm sorry I left you alone when you needed me. I didn't thing that, I mean, I didn't know that he…" Shaking her head, she pinched the bridge of her brow. "Wow this is harder than I thought it'd be. Look, what matters is, I'm sorry, and whatever the hell you did messed you both up. Thankfully he was much worse than you, so that's something. In the meantime though no running around trying to play hero, got it?"

"Um, what?" Naruto asked, getting no reply since the recording pressed on with the remainder of her message.

"I'm going after Xanatos. My boss wanted me to keep an eye on him, and if it became a worst case scenario, I was told to kill him. He…he hurt you. That's worst case enough for me." She stared at him, eyes filled with a wild darkness that she couldn't contain or control. "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to stop him from leaving the planet, or getting anywhere else that he might try to go to hurt people like you. He's run around for too long, and this will be his final stop.

"Please, don't follow me Naruto. After what happened to Torgo, you don't need to see any more death. This…you're too young. You're too innocent, and wonderful to have all this happening to you. I'm sorry I tried to keep you here. I still think the Jedi are evil, and that you need to get out but…not here. Not like this. This isn't a life I want you to follow. You're better than me Naruto. Find somewhere safe, somewhere nice and…live. Live like me, free from the things that tie you down, live how you want, and just…be you. You are something the galaxy needs more of, so…promise me…" She shook her head, laughing softly. "No, wait, don't do that. I'm being selfish. I…just promise me that you'll do what makes you happy. I don't care anymore what it is or where you are just…promise me you'll do what makes you happy, okay?"

There was a silence between the two as her words sank in. Naruto resisted the urge to shout at her, to tell her that she was being stupid and to stop talking like she was going to die. With what she was doing, there was a possibility that it could happen. Xanatos wouldn't be kind to her for trying to stop and kill him, and likely she would find herself on the receiving end of a killing blow. Biting his cheek, he sighed as he stared at the image. "I promise."

"…hopefully I'll see you later. Take care of yourself." Aurra smiled at him; a sad, soft smile that didn't belong on her face. Then, the message ended, and Naruto was left staring at the empty space where she'd been a second before.

Naruto struggled to not sit down and take in what she'd said, knowing that if he did he might not be able to get up again. Rubbing his forehead, he let himself take a moment to take in the promise. He committed it to memory, though he picked up the recording just to be sure he could hear it again later.

Do what made him happy? He knew that being a protector, a Jedi, made him happy, but with all that was going on with them right now he was wary. There was so much going on around him, and so much he didn't know what else he might come to love in the future. And there might even be things that were against the Jedi Code, so should he stick to the code, or follow his heart? He had no idea.

For now though, he had something else to focus on.

"…okay, now how do I follow her?" Naruto muttered, moving to search around the apartment for something to use to follow after her.

There was nothing that was going to stop him from doing just that. She said do what makes him happy, and helping his friends did just that. The only problem was, she likely took the only swoop he'd seen in her garage, which meant that he'd have to find another form of transportation. Looking around the house, he bit his lip as he tried to think of something that might help.

While he found several stockpiles of guns and ammo, different varieties of comlinks and other such equipment, there wasn't anything that gave him what he needed. Growling softly, he closed his eyes and called on the Force. Surely it had an idea as to where he needed to go. As he followed it though, he found that it kept leading him back to the garage. Each time though, he hesitated and looked around again. Finally giving into the urge to follow the Force, he sighed and opened the door.

Glancing into the garage, he frowned when he saw that she'd brought the other swoop with her. Did she not know that he'd follow her? Walking towards it, he winced as he was forcibly reminded that he wasn't in the best of shape to be riding a swoop. Not only that, but he'd never ridden one either.

Hopping onto it anyways, he looked over the controls with a critical eye, quickly figuring out how to start it. It was fairly simple, but knowing that he'd have to hold on tight, he gripped the handles and pushed them forwards slowly.

As soon as he did so, the swoop lurched forwards, getting Naruto to pull back on them. The swoop lurched to a stop, then began slowly moving backwards. Pushing forwards again, Naruto stared at the swoop as he chuckled nervously.

"Well then, um, this might be troublesome."

x-=-x

Aurra piloted her swoop with almost mechanical motions, doing all she could to keep from turning back to go watch over Naruto. He was hurt, but he'd live, and if she went back she'd have to take him along. She didn't have to, but she wouldn't be able to stop him from convincing her to take him along either. And right now, she needed to do this alone.

Remembering what had happened was a surprisingly somber action considering what he'd done. She'd never really cared for Torgo as he'd been to forward and it had disturbed her as his touch began to become something rather creepy. He'd been her mentor though, and the time they'd spent together had taught her a great many things; things that would benefit her in her career choice and later on in life. They were things that she'd never begin to thank him for.

And then, with one swipe of her lightsaber, she'd cut that tie. She'd severed the connection between him and her, and became instead his executioner. There was no way for him to fight back – whatever Naruto had done had made him completely incapable of fighting back – yet she'd struck him down without remorse.

Why? For Naruto? Had his actions towards her friend really warranted such an action?

He'd been planning on drinking his soup; his very life essence. From the way he'd spoken, it sounded like he'd even managed to get some before Naruto lashed back at him. Doing so could be torturous, painful, and if he was patient enough he could torture the victim by doing it again, and again. She'd witnessed several Anzati do just that, and it had been something she'd turned her back on as it had repulsed her. Thinking of him trying to do that to Naruto, her friend, made her blood boil.

It would haunt her. She already knew that it would, and she'd never be able to live it down if the Anzati found out about it. Granted, knowing that Xanatos was a former Jedi meant that if she presented his lightsaber, she could potentially get off the hook for it, but she would know. And she would gladly carry that burden. Because the more she thought about it, the more she realized that if the situation showed itself to her again, she'd do it in a heartbeat.

Turning another corner, she rechecked her map. The coordinates for the shipyard had been child's play to find once she'd gotten the information from the shipyard they'd originally gone to, which concerned her a bit more. It was quite difficult to imagine that she was that good at finding people, or that Xanatos was that bad at hiding his presence. More than likely a Hutt, Wallanooga included, wanted Xanatos out of the business as he was becoming a liability. The best way to help do that would be to have direct coordinates to where he was at, leading any and every bounty hunter that might come that way to where he was at. She was just lucky enough to have been hired first.

Piloting around another corner, she skid to a halt and stared towards the shipyard that was supposed to be where he was at. True to the coordinates, there was a ship with the broken circle mark on its hull; the mark of Offworld, Xanatos' mining company.

Aurra stared down at the facility with a critical eye, trying to figure out how to do this. It was surprisingly harder than she'd thought to figure out how she wanted to do this now that she was here. Part of her wanted to just shoot from a distance and be done with it, but that same part of her also cautioned that if she missed, there was no second shot.

However, if she got up close and personal, her options were more varied, though they were also far more dangerous. He could find her, she could be found by the Evocii wandering around with the parameter, or she could mess up. One wrong move could spoil everything she was currently doing. On the other hand though, she'd be given a front row seat to his reaction when she shot him in the face.

Having learned that risking nothing gained her nothing, she began making her way down closer. The other swoops were going to be a problem as their presence created a kind of impromptu guard that unless she were an Evocii, she would have no ability to get through. Still, there were some other ways she could get by.

Darting down behind a nearby building, she slowly moved over to the edge of the roof and hopped off her swoop. Judging the distance was simple enough, but she knew better than to get cocky. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she gathered the Forced and rushed towards the adjacent ledge. Landing deftly, she rolled into a crouch before running back to the edge to leap once more towards the next building.

Roof hopping was not a simple task, but it allowed for a more silent approach up until she got to the shipyard. With the particular roofs she was aiming for though, she would be able to land near the cargo docks which would give her cover. Her plan was that from there she would be able to hopefully slip in when there was a lull in the work, or when the Evocii left to go do their rounds again.

Running to the next roof, she leapt once more. Halfway across, a strong burst of wind nearly knocked her over, the slipstream from the other buildings catching up at that point. Having not taken that into consideration, she grit her teeth as she grabbed onto the ledge. She was so close to the docks that she could taste the stench in the air, but she would become nothing more than a smear on the ground if she fell now.

Before she could begin to pull herself up, another hand grabbed hers. Her eyes shot upwards, lips curled into a snarl before she saw who it was. Surprisingly, she found no emotions for the person, and the thought scared her.

"Didn't I tell you to look before you leapt?" An'ya Kuro, the Dark Woman, asked as she lifted Aurra from her place on the rooftop.

Aurra stared at the woman, unable to express anything as she stared at her. "I…why, why are you here?"

"I was looking for Xanatos," She admitted, kneeling next to the ledge as she pointed down to the central command station. "But then I found he has quite a bit more going on than we initially thought. I was following him for the last few hours until I got the impression that I needed to come here, and help someone."

"…you had no idea I'd be here?" She asked softly, staring at the woman who'd been the cause of so much change in her lifestyle. If she hadn't taken her to Ord Namurt, then there'd have been nothing to cause her to become the bounty hunter she was today. If she hadn't left the training facility and her alone, the pirates never would have gotten to her.

And yet any anger she had felt hollow now. Her heated words, well planned taunts, crumbled at the sight of her. Naruto's words echoed in her mind; his upset, pained expression as he'd told her that she'd promised to help him save her a reminder as to the purpose behind what she was currently doing.

"Following the will of the Force doesn't mean that I know all of its secrets. It just means it gives me more hints, as I'm more willing to listen." She replied cryptically, her eyes glinting with the edge of wisdom that she hid well in how she carried herself.

To Aurra, she looked like a specter, standing in that spot, yet wasn't really there. Her mind, her true presence was already following those clues towards her next destination; focused on the future, yet still weaving it into the moment. It was a trick that had frustrated Aurra to no end during training, and even now she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise in frustration at how she'd stated that as though she'd never stopped teaching her.

As she looked her over, An'ya seemed to sigh at what she saw. "Besides, it worked out in the end, so we're in no position to complain."

Aurra slowly nodded, silently understanding what she meant. The Force had told her to help, and even though Aurra could see the disappointment in her eyes, she felt that her choices were being put aside and instead she was focusing on what was before her now.

Kneeling next to her former master, she stared down towards the command center. "Fair enough. What have you gotten so far?"

"I know the bank accounts he uses, the false names he's put out to try and break down his competition by paying off people so that they wouldn't be able to stop his progress, the passwords to said bank accounts, that he doesn't like working for Walla the Hutt, and that he has a son named Granta Omega." Getting a startled look from Aurra, An'ya smirked. "What? You don't think I was just playing around waiting for you did you? I'm much better at my specialties than even the Jedi realize sometimes. Besides that, Xanatos had been very chatty today, which means he's likely going to begin moving soon."

Aurra nodded, glancing towards the empty docking area. "What happened to the Trade Federation ship?"

"He sent it to another port. Apparently they're having their identification wiped on all the droids, and the quickest way is some droid dealer on the other northern part of the Undercity." Kuro turned to Aurra, raising a brow curiously. "Know anything about that?"

"I know there are a few dozen droid dealers, so that's not really going to help much." She muttered, eyeing the area silently. "And he didn't specify which one he was sending them to?"

"No. He just entered the coordinates into the ship and let the pilot droid take them away." Kuro frowned, leaning back with a sigh. "It's too suspicious in my opinion. Why come to a landing area to get the tanks and main ship wiped, but leave the droids on board until the last moment? And why come to the spaceport in the first place?"

"He was set up." Aurra said, shrugging as she pulled out her holoprojector with the map popping up, showing their location. "The coordinates for his location were clear as day once I stared up another shipyard computer. They all log together, so his entries and information were there for anyone with a decent skill in reading could find."

An'ya took the map, shifting it over to the other information she'd downloaded. It had a manifest of the droids and ships on board, a listing of other cargo going out, and a few tidbits about the maintenance being done. Looking it over again, she frowned as she found a discrepancy between what she saw and what she'd seen. "Where's the updated inventory?"

"What?"

"He's been loading parts and pieces of something onto the ship since he got here." Pointing to the swoop gangs, she continued. "Most of it's just parts and pieces, but there've been a few who've brought in larger equipment such as a hyperdrive, a communications array, and a few other things here and there. None of that is being logged onto the manifest?"

Aurra hurriedly scrolled through it as well, scowling when she saw that they weren't on there. "No, and this is the updated list."

"So someone is protecting their investment, even while selling Xanatos out." An'ya said with a frown, turning back to the port.

"That mean the ship's departure was likely set up too." Aurra rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "Is Xanatos really that thick skulled that he hasn't pieced all of this together already? The warning signs should be all over this oporation, and yet…"

"He acts like he's fine with it." An'ya concluded. There was that faint smile to her lips as she continued. "He knows that someone is coming for him, but he doesn't know Walla has betrayed him. He believes that the Jedi, most likely Qui-gon, will be coming soon to find him. He found the tracer shortly after he landed at his corporation, but kept it onboard so that he could be found. Obviously he would be found faster by the Jedi than a bounty hunter, but the results remain the same."

"Hm," Aurra eyes searched the place slowly, feeling there was more to it than that. "Alright then. So, what is your plan then?"

"Well, I have what I need." She said, closing her eyes and letting her senses extend in the Force. "However…what to do about him, is difficult to say."

"How can you say that?" Aurra felt the old flame of anger rise quickly within her. "He's done so much wrong in the galaxy, how can you sit by and let him continue –"

"There is no law to Nar Shaddaa." Kuro cut her off, eyes opening as she sighed softly. "Obviously turning him in for trial isn't the best option, but we abide by the law of the Republic. Through those laws that we ourselves help keep, we are able to protect the galaxy. To go against these laws, to break them intentionally, would make us no better than those we seek to defend people from."

Aurra remained silent, staring at her former master with a hint of loathing. Then, she turned back to the facility. "Well, you aren't in your safe Republic anymore, so what are you going to do?"

An'ya didn't smile. She felt no joy in what she said, knowing that what she was thinking was a dark thought. However, if she didn't do it now, Xanatos would continue to harm others, and she would remember this moment forever. Feeling nothing from the Force except its guidance in whatever her choice may be, she slowly stood up and made her way back towards the central station.

"We're going to finish what should have ended seven years ago."

AN: Alrighty then, another little twist of events. Let's see how long this one goes before blowing up. And in the meantime, Naruto learns to ride a swoop. Ten bucks says he crashes (not really but hey I can dream). And two of our "friend's" are coming into play once more. Ah, I'm looking forward to what'll happen soon.

Now for some hopefully non-spoiler Q&A!

Noradin: That my friend is a good question. Technically it could have, and it might have, but it didn't. So the logical answer is; no, it shouldn't have. The better question should be; what was different between Alaris Prime and here?

Also, his teleportation isn't instantaneous yet. He's still learning, and it requires line of sight to make sure he doesn't kill himself by teleporting into a wall. He'll figure that part out later, but obviously he needs more practice.

Arkiseen: No, it's not wrong for you to want that. The question though, isn't should she. The real question is; when?

Juoppo: You aren't the first person to ask this, and unfortunately, you'll have to wait and see. I will do what I can to keep it realistic, but obviously you are right, and the Shinobi are going to look like they can do just about anything they want compared to a Jedi. Like I said though, hopefully it'll be handled in a way that'll be interesting and give a good explanation to my thoughts.

In the meantime though, I wish you all a good day, and I'll see you all on the next chapter of From Darkness.