Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. George Lucas, Lucasfilm, LucasArts and others own Star Wars. I do not.
Title: Xander the Jedi: Chapter 4
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Rating: Same as before.
Pairing: Err… Xander/Other characters (mine)
Feedback: Please, I beg. Nice feedback, mind. Flames not welcome.
Notes: Not right now.
Continuity: General season 5 (Dawn)
Crossover: Buffy/ Star Wars. Old Republic.
*
"Concentrate!" admonished Yoda.
"I…can't…" Xander's voice came strained and tired. He had been in a handstand for nearly an hour.
"You can!" Yoda pushed another rock at Xander. He flinched and collapsed as the stone hurtled toward his face at a speed fast enough to rival sound. Yoda stopped the rock inches from where is face would have been if he had not been lying on the floor panting.
Yoda sighed distractedly. Xander had been an incredible student after the initial touchdown at Dagoba. Progressing even faster than some of his greatest students ever had, Xander was a Force prodigy. Even more so perhaps, than Anakin.
Yoda had not yet begun to teach him to use the Force, as Yoda stressed that harmony of mind and body was vitally important before any Force use should be attempted. Xander had survived runs and exercises better than any student previously, reaching the point where Yoda felt the need to test his ability to separate himself from his body. These test came in the form of strenuous physical exercise while meditating, bringing the ability to detach his mind from his body, letting him escape physical discomfort. Another test was calm under pressure; standing on his head while Yoda aimed rocks at him and fired.
None ever hit. Well, except that one time when he had fainted from the blood to his head and had collapsed forward almost as a stone halted. An angry bruise had been there for a week, but Yoda refused to cut back on the training, saying it would help to distance himself from his body.
Snapping out of his reverie, Yoda looked hard again at Xander.
"Now, Padawan, do it again we shall, succeed this time, maybe, hmm?"
"I'll try, Master…" replied Xander.
Yoda looked incensed. "No! Do, or do not! There is no try!" Yoda smiled despite himself. "Like that, I do. Use it again, I shall…"
Xander sighed and got into a handstand again. As he finished balancing, he breathed in deeply, nearly taking him over again. He righted himself.
"Distance yourself, Padawan. For real, this time it is." Yoda leapt nimbly off the ground, aided by a Force jump, and landed on Xander's feet. Xander remained balanced.
"Good. Begins, the test does." Yoda picked up half a dozen small rocks, and a larger one. Deciding to up the ante, he also floated some of the rotting plant matter from the floor in several clumps, without telling Xander.
Aiming the small rocks at Xander, Yoda let them fly, but not fast enough to cause permanent damage. Xander didn't even flinch as the stones hit him.
"Excellent. Displaced your mind, you have." Yoda got no response.
Moving the large rock nearer, Yoda chose not to aim it at Xander and instead chose a nearby tree. The rock powered through the trunk, and the tree creaked, as what had been holding it up for years suddenly wasn't there any more.
The tree toppled slowly, as if trying to defy gravity, and crashed nearby Xander, making the ground tremble slightly. He did not even twitch.
Yoda smiled slightly, pleased that Xander had finally decided to cooperate, and let fly with the mulch. Three sodden lumps of Dagoba hit Xander, and he ignored them all. It was only when the final one hit him in the face that he noticed and snapped out of whatever trance he had been in. Still, he remained perfectly upright, not overbalancing.
"Good." Yoda sounded pleased. "Seemed you, finally, to get the concentration…"
Xander nodded and returned to his feet, but shot a look at the Jedi Master as he did so. He sat up, and started to pick bits of leaf and soil from his hair, mouth and eyes. "Did you have to hit me in the face?"
Yoda nodded. "Good for your concentration, it is, Padawan. What you least expect, your enemies will throw at you. Remember!"
Xander nodded again and stood. Bowing to the small Master, he went back to the camp they had made, and set about making dinner for himself and Yoda.
*
Again, Yoda stood balanced on Xander's feet, this time while he picked up items himself. Yoda looked inquisitively at the small cloud of objects orbiting the two. Xander was holding up and moving nearly 30 small rocks and clumps of moss or fungus.
"Stop!" Yoda commanded.
All the objects orbiting stopped instantly. Xander had listened. Good.
"Let them go, Padawan."
All the items dropped immediately to the floor.
"Well done, Xander! That is very good for just a few weeks practice of telekinesis. You show great promise."
"Thank you, Master." Panted Xander. He had kept those 30 objects floating for nearly four hours, varying speeds and orbital paths as a test of both endurance and ability. At one point, Yoda had wanted him to bounce the rocks off one another, and keep them orbiting, but he found that, while not impossible, it took a lot of energy to concentrate sufficiently.
All the non-Force training that Yoda had forced upon him succeeded. The Force was an ally to be called on in only the direst of need, and definitely not to be used indiscriminately. Xander had lost the little fat he had, to become a lean, muscular man, who was obviously trained for endurance rather than pure power contests of strength or speed.
*
Dooku bowed low to his master.
"Rise, my friend." Said Sidious.
"What is your will, my master?" asked Dooku.
"I have sensed a disturbance in the Force," said Sidious, "Yoda has left Coruscant."
Dooku looked incredulous. "Then there must be the direst of consequences for whatever he has gone to oversee…"
"Yes." Replied Sidious, cutting off his Apprentices spoken thoughts. "But that is not all. I have felt a presence in the Force, a new one. Greater than Anakin. Greater even than the grand Jedi Master Yoda himself.
"Who is this person, master?" asked Dooku. "And can he be turned?"
"I know not who he is, Dooku. As to if he can be turned… well… the Force is clouded now, even for a dark Master like myself. The new presence will either save Anakin from his fate, or damn him for eternity… and take the galaxy with him."
Dooku smiled. What would happen would happen.
*
Xander had progressed well, in all areas except one. Telepathic control; mental influence: or more commonly, the Jedi Mind Trick. This did not overly bother Yoda, as the power skirted the dark side at the best of times, and anything that opened Xander to the dark side was potentially deadly for everyone. In every other area he excelled, approaching even Yoda's ability in some. He would far exceed Yoda in power if he lived long enough.
Telekinesis was easy and proved no difficulty for Xander after a further month of training. Force jump, and other levitating skills were done as easily as Yoda himself had four centuries ago. Minute control over implements was no problem, as Xander rewired a burnt out circuit board using the Force to both see what he was manipulating on the microscopic scale, and to move each molecule to where it should be. Large-scale work was no problem either; as Xander proved by ripping out a tree from the ground to swat a remote that had gone to far away to properly bounce bolts back to. As impressive as that display had been, Yoda still disciplined and explained to Xander why it was reckless and bad to do, like he was a child; yet, in comparison to Yoda, he was, so he felt no anger at the reprimand, only a wish to do better.
Energy absorption and expulsion Xander also proved good at. Training and experimentation showed that he could absorb just about any energy flung at him, up to the laser cannon on the ship they had come on. Xander did say, however that absorption of anything more than a small blaster-pistol shot stung like hell, so they stopped there. He could also suck the kinetic, heat or potential energy right out of the air, or matter itself, freezing the surrounding environment. He used it to put out several small fires that Yoda had started to experiment with that power, one that Yoda had never seen before. Still, Yoda reasoned that it was only a variation of absorbing blaster rounds, and so gave it no thought as to how dangerous it could be.
Yoda now felt it was time for Xander to learn how to wield a light-sabre. Initially Yoda set up several training drones to help him, but they quickly ended up as scrap when Xander became adept at aiming the blaster bolts back where they had come from.
As the further training and teaching that Yoda could give Xander started to shrink, Yoda decided that, unlike most Padawans currently, who used a light-sabre given them by the Jedi Temple that Xander would make his own.
It was the ultimate test of the Jedi's abilities in the Force. Showing a perfect balance of power and control. If the Jedi was not powerful enough, the light-sabre would not work, and if he did not have enough control, it would fail him at a critical time, often proving lethal.
Only a few of the greatest Masters currently living wielded a light-sabre made by their own hands. The list was short: Yoda himself, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, a Caamasi Jedi named Ylenic It'Kla, and a Corellian Jedi named Nejaa Halcyon, both of whom were currently on a mission to see if they could find and befriend a group of alleged Force users on a planet so far away few people believed it existed. Yoda took a moment to reflect on what was said to happen to all Corellian Jedi who left their home system. He hoped it would not happen to Nejaa, as he was a friend.
Yoda lectured Xander on making a light-sabre for many days, finally acknowledging the fact that he was indeed ready and had all the required knowledge.
Xander began his final test…
…To become a Jedi…
*