Disclaimer: I don't own the source material. Also, I didn't watch too much of the EU, and this predates the retcon of the lighsabers. Also, there may be violence.

:}

Jade was standing guard, watching the dilapidated yard of the old farmstead, covering for her father as he worked to get his ship ready to travel. She was left to think of her friends, her ex, and all the drama she wished she'd been buried in, instead of flying off across the galaxy to rescue them from who knows what. It should have been very distracting.

Jade was keenly aware of the three vehicles, two cars and one truck, that approached the yard from down the road. The lights illuminated the asphalt, allowing her to mark their progress as they closed distance. She guessed they were traveling at maybe twenty five to thirty miles per hour, even though it felt like they were crawling down the road towards their gate. The truck, which was in the lead, slowed to a stop. One of the people in the truck leaned out and pointing a weapon at the lock. A loud bang shredded the lock, followed by the truck accelerating straight through the old gate.

The truck, with the remains of the gate falling from it's front grill, slid to a halt in front of Jade, maybe thirty feet away, turned so the drivers side was away from her. The two cars flanked the truck, forming a V shape facing her, with the truck, front to back, separating where the V would reach a point, making a trapezoidal shape. The men in the cars scampered out the doors away from her, while the driver and passenger in the truck both piled out the drivers side door.

The men seemed confused as they took up positions facing her, using the cars and truck as cover against whatever she may have planned against them. She counted a dozen men, five from each car, and two from the truck. Most of the men were armed with long arms, three hunting rifles, five assault rifles, and two shotguns. The two men from the truck, however, were setting up an M-60. 'And the shotguns are still the biggest threat I'm facing.' Jade thought.

There was a moment, just a moment, when it felt like maybe someone would speak, yell a warning, maybe tell her to get out of the way, or surrender, or even just tell her to run away. But the moment passed as the tension grew more and more heavy, fear thick in the air. These men, farmers and hands, seemed almost out of their element, yet here they were, ready to kill without ever asking who it was in their gun sights.

The M-60 had finished being set up in the time it took for the others to decide what they were going to do, while Jade had yet to move. Her light saber was holstered, not needed quite yet. But already a plan had formed in her head, one that would probably enrage her father. 'No need to kill any of these jerks. Just put a fear of the gods in them, let them know when they've been outmatched.'

The night's quiet, a misnomer because of the many noises made by wildlife, was shattered when the guns started firing. The LMG tore through the evening air, and the others fallowed suit. Three AR-15's, two AK-47's, one 30-30 lever action rifle, one bolt action 308, and one 30-06 semiautomatic rifle immediately joined in, along with two 12 gauge pump action shotguns.

Jade had raised her hand as if trying to ward off the incoming rounds. Instead, she'd pulled up the debris from around her to form a shield of sorts, deflecting the barrage of ammo assaulting her position, while also protecting the barn from stray shots. Ammo chipped away at the floating scrap barrier. It wasn't going to last long, she knew that much, but it did give her both time and cover to prepare her next set of actions.

Jade took a moment, strengthening her debris shield before allowing her mind to relax, focusing her energy on creating the image she was going to offer to these men. 'I don't have to kill them. Just delay them until my dad is done getting the ship ready.' She reminded herself. In her mind, she planned her moves out. She knew that things wouldn't go as she planned, but for the next few moves, it was to her advantage to have her actions in her mind, clearly visualized, planned out step by step. 'Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face.' She quoted to herself, smiling at how something Mike Tyson said could be so appropriate.

The image she'd prepared flashed out, rolling to one side and out across the yard, towards the car on her right. Even as the men started to react, guns tracking the imaginary Jade, she was moving, leaping up and bouncing off the barn, using her legs to propel her over the battle towards the truck, covering not only the thirty feet of open distance, but the width of the car. As Jade was coming down, too fast for the men manning the M-60 to react, her blade buzzed to life, cutting a blood red swath downward, slicing through the gun, the truck, and puncturing the tire underneath.

Jade was already bounding away as the two men behind the truck reacted to the loud sound of the tire exploding. Men were trying to shift around in order to draw a bead on Jade, maybe take their shot. However, she already knew what she was doing, and landed near the second group of men with her blade still in hand, slicing several long arms (weapons) apart with her next swing. Thee guns out of five were destroyed on that swing, leaving just a hunting rifle and an AR-15 intact. But Jade wasn't done, gesturing to better focus her will. The car on the other side of the yard from her pushed back, knocking the men there off their feet. Jade dodged to the side as the two men with rifles tried to shoot her, but she just needed a second to finish distracting the armed men, and now was free to reach out with her mind and pull the two weapons on her side of the field, the ones still in hand, towards her, out of their grips, hurled to the far side of the yard, over a dozen feet away and hidden by the darkness.

Jade saw the men she'd disarmed pulling at backup weapons. The two men from the truck were pulling their shotguns from the rack inside the vehicle, while the five she'd disarmed in front of her drew pistols or knives. She didn't much care. Instead, she lept over that car, moving towards the other car, and as she approached, used the force to pop it up into the air, dropping the vehicle towards the five armed men behind it. Driven by fear, they reacted, dodging away from the falling vehicle. Even as they dodged Jade shifted her attention, activating her energy sword to deflect bullets while she pulled their weapons out of their hands and tossed them across the yard. Again the guns disappeared into the darkness landing someplace near the old house, away from the men and their intent.

Now it was time to reevaluate the situation. Jade had reduced ten of the men to small arms, even as the last two had recovered their shotguns. But the odds were now in her favor. Once again pulling debris to her in order to block the expected shotgun blasts, she thought about her next move.

'Bet their reconsidering this attack now.' Jade thought as she focused on the men behind the truck. 'Time to trim the odds more.'

No one was shooting at her. They knew they weren't gonna blast their way through the floating debris. "Girl, repent, so you can go to Jesus after we kill you for being a witch." The leader screamed.

"You realize, there comes a point when it's not cowardliness to run." Jade called back.

"God is on our side, and he'll drop that evil field of junk and expose you to our righteous wrath." The man replied, even as his fear emanated I desperate waves across the yard.

"Why, when you've obviously turned your back on him and his works?" Jade asked, even as she reached out and snagged the shotguns. But instead of yanking them away, she shoved them back, into the bodies of the men holding them. Hard. The thumping sound of the two men falling let her know it was time to move again, so she focused on a burst of speed, covering the distance to the truck at over sixty miles per hours. It took her less then a second to get to the men, her focus never wavering on what she intended to do. Jade swept the shotguns up, but tossed the men across the yard towards the chain link fence. A satisfying clang, accompanied by the collapse of the fence, let her know that those two were out of the fight. Her blade, a sparkling crimson, danced around her, deflecting and destroying the incoming bullets as she walked, calmly and in control, towards the five men on her right.

"RUN!" One of those men screamed, and they all took off.

Jade looked around, making sure the men were leaving. "Um, guys, take your cars." She called out, even as she flipped the one car back onto it's wheels. The top had caved in from the pop up, so she pulled the roof up enough to allow people to drive away. "Man, the things I gotta do for you."

Jade lifted the three vehicles, telekinetically carrying them over the fence and onto the road. She placed them there, but took the time to gather every weapon damaged by her blade. 'Gotta hide this chiz.' She thought, lifting the remains of the tractor, and dumping the damaged guns under it.

"Okay dad, how much longer?" She asked, focusing on her father. She knew, even across the yard and in the ship, he could hear her. 'I probably didn't even need to speak.'

"We need another couple of minutes." Malcolm said.

"The leaders, they're still here." Jade informed him. "The others ran off. I hope you don't mind me not killing them."

"Go to the house. You'll find a case of cheap whiskys. Dump as much as you can over the cars and the two men still here. Let the police think they were drinking. Also, make it look like the fence was knocked in from the outside."

Jade spent the next fifteen minutes preparing the scene. 'I think one of these guys is working with the guys who took the Vega girls.' She thought.

But as she reached for one of them, her fathers voice rang out. "Don't!" He was standing outside, just feet away from her. Jade realized he'd used his own abilities to hide, including from her massively enhanced scenes.

"One of these guys might be working for the guys who took the Vega girls." Jade said.

"I already knew that." Malcolm replied. "But the machine gun, it was old tech, even for humans. No, they were paid, but just locals. Better to have them failed then dead. I think, this way, they'll lose whatever support they had from the others, and will look like drunks out on a bender, making up stories. I'll have control call in a complaint from the house, so the police will come and round those two up."

"And if they want revenge?" Jade asked. "The guys I fought, their not gonna forget this for a long, long time."

"They may be emboldened, but I doubt they'll wanna face someone like you again. No, we won, and this way, we can leverage Gary and Davids relationship with the police to keep these guys away." Malcolm informed her. "And yes, I'm fully aware that one or more of the group could well have been police. Check that out for me, will you?"

As much as Jade wanted to go through their belongings, find out what they had, what identification, maybe a badge, she understood to let herself open to the ways of the force. It wasn't an exact answer, but she could follow one or more of the two laying before her back, through the timelines, until she had a rough idea of what they did for a living. In about ten minutes, she had her answer. "Not police. None of that group is police. We're near palm Springs, and this whole area is full of casino's and resorts. No, they're just farmers and wage slaves, trying to make a difference with a little harassment. Probably, no scratch that, I can tell they told the others to shoot first, and that anything they faced here was alien scum planning on raping their women."

"They won't be back." Malcolm said. "Now, the ships ready. I'll leave number two here, to fix things up, but number one will be needed to help maintain the ship." He made a clicking sound in his mouth. "Get on the beetle. No one is gonna try to stop us."

Jade raced back to the ship. Her father, once inside the barn, stopped to pull the chains and open the roof, even as a smallish android, with eight spider like appendages that worked both as legs and manipulating limbs, moved to help him. Without thinking, Jade made her way up the boarding ramp, then the narrow stairway up to the second floor, and from there into the cockpit. Taking the pilots seat, she found she not only could read the instruments, but knew what everything was. With an expertise she swore she couldn't have had, she closed the boarding ramp and lifted the ship off into the air. She knew her father was already on board the Beetle, so it was just about getting into orbit.

It only took a couple of minutes to break atmosphere and head into deeper space, and in that time her father had instructed the other droids on their tasks, then joined Gary and her in the cockpit. "I've programmed the jump already, thanks to number three, so we just need to point in the right direction and hit go." Malcolm informed Jade. "That is, once we're far enough away from the gravity well that is this planet." He pointed in what could have been a random direction, and Jade spun the ship to face that way. It took only a few more minutes to get outside the gravity well and hit the jump into hyper.

"Okay, care to explain why I could pilot this thing?" The pale girl asked.

"I've been training you and your brother since you were five." Her father explained. "The skills that a Jedi, or a Sith, need are legion, so I had to start early, and with the help of the spirit, I could install in you just about any skill I felt you could possibly need. While I can pilot, and there are things I know that you won't, I feel I've done an excellent job of preparing you for this day. Slowly the rest of your skills will emerge. I'm just tickled that I was able to unbind your force powers and training's. Now, I need to give you your second blade." He offered her a second sword, the handle looking almost identical to the one she already had. "It's a bit odd, because while I wanted you to have two red blades, the spirit felt it would be better if at least one of your weapons reflected the ways of the Jedi."

Jade took the second handle, and for a moment, it felt almost exactly like the first. However, as soon as she got a real feel for it, she knew this was different. "The crystal in the other blade, it's artificial, right?"

"Now that is impressive." Malcolm said. "The Sith have a way or artificially making the very rare focusing crystals used in lightsabers. Kyber Crystals shouldn't ever just be found, yet when you were eight, while on a hike, you found this one. The blade is black, a very unusual color, but it's also powerful. I allowed you to make a saber with that crystal, but only because I knew one day you would need it. Now, I can wait no longer. You must rise and fall simultaneously, becoming the next of the great Gray Knights. This blade, it will protect you from the dark, but you must embrace it, the dark, even as you reject it. The gray lives between the light and the dark, as you must to bring the most good to this world."

Jade held the second lightsaber in her hand, feeling the power emanating from it. Not only was it a stronger blade then the other one she'd made, but having it on her enhanced the other blade, like the two sides enhanced her. "So, we've jumped into hyper. Now what?" She asked.

"Your father takes as long as we have to educate me, and you, about what we're likely facing, so neither of us arrives unprepared. How long will this journey take, anyways?" Gary asked.

"Other side of the galaxy." Malcolm said. "At our speeds, and this ship is fast, maybe a week. Just, we'll drop out of hyper a couple of times to make adjustments. And once we get there, we need to be ready to stage a rescue operation. I'll work with you both to prepare. There is a lot of work to do."

"The real work is gonna be preparing Jade here mentally." Gary said.

"I agree with the idea. Jade, we will be using the training modes on the lightsabers to duel, getting you ready in case we face a fallen Jedi along the way." Mister West said. "And until we're done, I am Lord Grey. I will allow Gary, officer Malone, to call me Grey, but you, Jade, will refer to me as master. This is the relationship between an apprentice and their teacher, so don't argue."

"And how much more do I have to learn?" Jade asked, now feeling irritated.

"You will see." Her father said. "I know, my most immoral preparation for you is yet to be reveled. I need you ready for that, when it happens."

"Should she be scared?" Gary asked. "Is this like some kind of plan to sacrifice her for Holly?"

"If it becomes necessary for the completion of my mission, no life, outside the one's I'm trying to save, is sacred." Malcolm said. "However, the lives of the various friends the Vega sisters have with them I value less then Jade's, simply because she is my continuation, thus the continuation of my duty guarding the Princess. Jade is more then my weapon, she is the insurance I have in my desire to continue protecting Holly's progeny. While hardly irreplaceable, I would be loathed to sacrifice her without major gain."

"Huh?" Jade seemed confused, not about her fathers admitted value of her life, but the fact that it seemed he'd already made plans for her. "Wait, so you never intended for me to be an actress, or a writer, or a filmmaker?"

"Of course not, you're a warrior." Malcolm insisted. "I only let you indulge in that little fantasy because that was where the princess sent her first child to school. No, the real trick was getting the other one into that school, so you could help keep an eye on them both."

"I didn't do such a grand job of that." Jade admitted. "More then once, I let Tori walk into danger. Then again, if you'd have included me in your plans..."

"You always were included." Mister West was calm, controlled. "I would have made sure you'd have acted if she were in real danger. Honestly, the only place I slipped up was Yerba, and that's after making sure Becket's family wasn't gonna let you go with them to Cabo. I underestimated the threat that petty dictator represented. Later, after it was too late to do otherwise, I found out about what happened. But the solution was simple enough, laying an idea into the head of that hippy teacher of yours to provide a way out. Victoria was the one who came up with how you'd be getting out, but I had my own plan in motion, just in case. Of course, while I can manipulate objects and peoples perceptions, even across great distances, I need some form of contact to do so if they're out of my sight, or far enough away."

"You wanted us to escape?" Jade asked.

"I was watching over you, from the moment Holly asked me to." He affirmed. Gary sat back, listening in and watching, learning about a moment he'd heard so little about. "I saw you taunting the huge woman, telling her not to mess with you, and then witnessed her pushing you down, ready to use that board to crush in your skull. I was disappointed."

"You wanted to see me hurt?" Jade asked.

"Again, while I may not have shown you much love, I never wanted you seriously damaged. You are my weapon." Malcolm insisted. "No, I was disappointed that Victoria was able to talk her down, because I wanted to see the looks on your friends faces when your training kicked in. That was my plan to get you all out. You would have killed a swath through the guards, tearing down several fences and opening the way for a mass escape. Then, in the confusion, you and your friends would have slipped away. In the end, miss Tori's plan was so much better. I just wonder why no one ever asked how that back door was left open."

"You did it!" Jade stared at her father, a new sense of wonder on her face.

"I told you, I could never have affected it if I didn't have a direct way of perceiving the lock." Mister West replied. "So I tapped into your abilities, let you weave illusions to protect your group from the guards, used your abilities with telekinesis to open the doors, and even had you set to defend them if anyone came close to grabbing you. It was even your illusions that let you slip past both the soldiers and rebels on the road and make it safely to the boarder."

"I-I did that?" Jade stammered. But she could feel it now, how her powers were used, remotely guided by her father, to help her friends escape. "You can access my powers?"

"Not normally." The Gray Knight assured her. "But while bound, I had the ability, trained it into you, to use some of your powers, when I needed a remote at a distant location."

"So you can use my powers?" Jade repeated. "Just send me in and use whatever you like"

"Now that you've been unbound, no." Mister West said. "Jade, I needed a weapon. Your full power, instead of that spark I could use remotely, is of far greater value to me. Besides, when your mind started realizing what you were and are capable of doing, that means of control ended. Now, I'm sure you have other questions, but it's late, and we need rest. I've set number three the task of guiding the ship while we're in hyper. I suggest we get some sleep. Gary, I'll show you to your room."

"And where will I be sleeping?" Jade asked.

"Your quarters are located right next to mine, which is conveniently next to Gary's. The ship has three cramped double cabins, each of us getting one to ourselves. Jade, your bag is in the entry way. Please take it to the room not occupied. We'll be getting some sleep now."

:}

And they're off. We got to see a bit more of Jade, how she plots and uses her abilities. All information I have came from the Star Wars RPG, D20 edition. Basically, really out of date.

Thoughts on jade, her father, or the yokals she had to dissuade? Betting I have a button for that. Now why didn't they paint it red?