Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. George Lucas, Lucasfilm, LucasArts and others own Star Wars. Michael A Stackpole owns the X-Wing and I, Jedi novels. I do not.
Title: Xander the Jedi: Chapter 9
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Rating: Same as before.
Pairing: Err… Xander/Other characters (mine)
Feedback: Please, I beg.
Thanks: All my reviewers. You know who you are. Everyone who made suggestions. They will probably appear somewhere along the line…
Continuity: General season 5 (Dawn)
Crossover: Buffy/ Star Wars. Old Republic.
*
"Mechanic Rik Valora reporting, sir!" The mechanic saluted his superior and waved his hydrospanner at one of his workmates in greeting.
"Very good, Valora. Get to work on the transport CRSC11." The overseer looked over at the new transport and pointed.
"That's the transport that new Jedi came in isn't it sir?"
The overseer nodded. "Yes, and the one he will leave on. Now get to work!"
Rik Valora wandered over to the transport, carefully checking the equipment he had been given, making sure all the ROM encoders were correctly set and targeted at Sullust. That was where the boss wanted the Jedi to go…
*
Xander stood on the balcony of his Naboo apartment and watched the courtyard below. Anakin was sparring with Obi-Wan. Neither was winning.
The door behind him slid open, and Xander spoke without turning. "You shouldn't be here."
Padme smiled at Xander's back. "I know… but I had to talk to you… and apologise."
"No apology necessary, Senator." Xander spoke formally.
"Not for me… for Anakin. He's been under so much stress lately…" she chuckled. "That's not much of an excuse, is it?"
"No, Senator."
Padme sighed. "Can you stop calling me that?"
Xander turned and leant back on the rail. "Certainly."
"I am sorry for what happened. Truly I am."
"Fine." Xander thought for a minute. "What would Anakin think if he caught you talking to me?"
"I don't know, probably that you were hitting on me or something… he's very jealous." Padme sounded almost amused.
"Quite. It would be dangerous not only for me, the object of dislike, but also for you. Anakin is very possessive. It's what comes from being a slave…"
Padme cut in, curious. "How did you know he was a slave?"
Xander looked puzzled. "I don't know. It just seemed… correct."
"It is. He was a slave on Tatooine up until he was about nine."
Something flashed in Xander's mind. "Tatooine… wasn't Obi-Wan born there?"
"I don't know. Ask him. Anyway, how would it be dangerous for me as well as you?"
"Anakin's love for you keeps him from the dark side… as he started to fall when he found his mother…" Xander's mind flashed again as information he should not have poured into it. "If angered sufficiently, his love for you will be that which makes him fall…" A scene played in Xander's mind, followed by others. Him, Obi-Wan and a dark, twisted Anakin fighting near a volcano, in the crater. Anakin crawling out, sustained only by hate… a mechanical and heavily robed Sith Lord, hunting for his children… Padme's children. Obi-Wan taking the son… Xander taking Padme and her daughter… a huge… moon… obliterating a planet… pain, so much pain, as millions of lives snuffed out…
Xander moaned in pain, leaning on the rail.
"Xander, are you alright?" Padme sounded urgent.
"Fi…ne…" Xander ground out that one word, before a quiet scream rent the air and he toppled over the railing to fall to the courtyard five floors below.
He never heard the running feet as Padme ran inside to head to where he had landed, or the gasp as Obi-Wan and Anakin saw the fall…
*
"Master Yoda, Xander has been in an accident." Obi-Wan stood at the comm.-terminal waiting for Yoda's response.
"Grave, is it?" he asked finally.
Obi-Wan bowed his head. "He fell off a fifth story balcony, Master. Landing on the permacrete courtyard. We have him in bacta, but it doesn't seem to be healing him. However, at least he isn't allergic to it."
"That much, we can be thankful for then, eh, Obi-Wan? Hmm?" Yoda did seem a bit disturbed by the news that Xander was injured, but hid it well.
"Yes, Master. Master? Should we remove him?"
Yoda nodded slowly. "If helping it is not. To remove him might be prudent."
"Yes, Master. I shall do so immediately." Obi-Wan bowed and cut the comm.-transmission.
*
Yoda stared at the screen. "Already played your hand, hm, Dooku? I think you will find Xander carries the 'Idiots array'." Yoda referred to the popular card game sabacc, a far more difficult and costly version of poker, which had swept the galaxy for the past few decades and was set to continue for decades more. The Idiots array was the most powerful set of cards you could hold in your hand.
*
Obi-Wan sat by Xander's bed. The boy had been in a fever for the past few hours, and no doctor could figure out why. He had no reaction to the bacta allergy test, but bacta was no help in healing him.
Xander's fist clenched in his fever dream, and a transparisteel sculpture on the table suddenly, with a squeal of tortured metal, looked like someone had squeezed a lump of putty and replaced it with that. Obi-Wan's eyes widened, then narrowed as he tried to mend it using the Force. It wouldn't even budge. Obi-Wan realised just how powerful Xander was, and a rush of fear ran though him.
Fear leads to the dark side…"Who said that?" Obi-Wan sat bolt upright.
I did…"Who's there?"
Don't you recognise me, Obi-Wan? Have I changed that much?"Master Qui-Gon?"
Yes, Obi-Wan. It is I.
"What do you want?"
Qui-Gon coalesced into a ghostly apparition the other side of Xander's bed.
This child is more important that Anakin could ever be… Anakin will fall to the dark side; I see that now… Yoda was right. This boy is the only hope for the two that will free the galaxy…
"Why? What will he do? What made him fall like that?"
He saw a vision of what was to be, through the Force. Do not ask him what he saw, as he will not tell you. Know only this… you and he are inexorably linked. It cannot be broken.
"How?"
I do not know. It is the will of the Force…
"What do I do?" Fear again tinged Obi-Wan's voice, but not for himself, for Xander.
Guard him… and guard Anakin… keep his children safe… they will redress the balance in the Force…
The air wavered around Qui-Gon's ghost for a second.
I must go… the dark side searches for you…if they find me; they find you… Goodbye, my favourite Padawan.
Obi-Wan was near crying as his Master, the only real father he knew, disappeared for the second time.
*
Days later, Xander awoke. Obi-Wan was sitting by him, dozing in the only chair in the room.
"Obi-Wan?" Xander was still groggy.
Obi-Wan's eyes sprung open. "Xander? You awake?"
"Yeah."
"What happened?" Obi-Wan was desperate to know what could have warranted a massage from the dead.
"I… don't know… I was talking to Padme… and… I… had… a…vision… oh, shit."
"Err… yes. Quite." Obi-Wan didn't want to push.
"I need to return to Coruscant, to see Master Yoda."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Xander got up from the bed. "It doesn't matter if it's a good idea or a bad idea. It needs to be done." With that, Xander walked out, leaving an emotionally fragile and unsure Obi-Wan behind him.
*
Xander pulled back the hyperspace lever on the transport and watched as the stars…
…Did precisely nothing.
The ship beeped and swung round, pointing in almost a ninety-degree angle from Coruscant. Then suddenly, the star-lines formed and the transport leapt into hyperspace.
*
Xander debarked the transport as it touched down on the scorched earth of a small island somewhere on Sullust I. As a voice sounded, he spun round.
"Welcome, my young friend…" A robed figure shambled forward. A stately looking man, who had aged well, followed him. Dressed immaculately, he had the air of a fencer about him, always evaluating, always looking for an opening.
"Who are you?" Xander backed away as they advanced, sure that their intentions were not benign.
The robed figure stopped its advance. "We wish you no harm. We wish you to join us…"
"What?" Xander was stunned.
"We want you to join us…"
Xander felt the air of evil around the first, robed figure, but the second eluded him. It was only when he searched Yoda's 'quick 'n easy' memory lesson that he found the name. "Dooku…" he whispered.
The man looked surprised, but then elated. "Well done, young man… you show great promise."
"You're both Sith… I will never join you!" Xander spoke with certainty.
"You speak with certainty," said the cowl, "where there are many unknowns…"
"It matters not! I will never fall to the dark side! I will not join you!"
"Pity…" The robed figure took something out from beneath his robe. "Not even for this?" He held Xander's lost light-saber in his hand.
Xander's eyes widened as he saw the light-saber. His remaining blade ignited and flashed up into a high vertical guard, level with his face. A good attacking stance, but a poor defensive one.
Dooku smiled humourlessly and stepped forward, igniting his own blade as he approached. Xander matched the smile and went on the offensive.
As swordsmen went, Xander wasn't bad, but he still only had a few months of training with a light-saber. Dooku, on the other hand, had years, possibly decades of training in the art of sword fighting and fencing, and quickly turned the tide of the fight. Dooku dodged, parried, blocked or countered every attack Xander flung at him, so effortlessly that it made Xander feel sick. He moved with an economy of movement that comes from knowing exactly what your opponent was going to try next, and how to counter it with minimum effort. Xander's rushing offensive was quickly turned to a dangerously weak defence.
Faking a slash, Xander used the moment Dooku took to parry the attack to somersault over him, landing steps away from the robed figure, and yards away from Dooku. His transport was near. As was his second light-saber. Xander breathed deeply, took a moment to centre himself again in the Force, and attack once more, this time, far more carefully.
The attack succeeded, after a fashion. Dooku hissed as the light-saber blade kissed his flesh, and his counterattack left a cut in the fabric of Xander's robe and a burn scar down his thigh. As Xander spun away, off balance, Dooku gave him a push with the Force, sending him sprawling at Sidious' feet.
Dooku stood over Xander with his light-saber blade levelled at his neck. Sidious cackled. "Young fool… even now… at your end… will you fail to learn…"
Xander spoke. "No…" his eyes fell to the light-saber Sidious was holding. His light-saber. Using the Force, he twisted the phase switch to its second position, and nudged the saber in line with Dooku's chest.
As Dooku raised his light-saber to cleave him in two, Xander punched the activation stud with the Force.
The golden/green blade sprang to life, three metres long, and pierced Dooku in the heart. The sickly sweet smell of burnt flesh assailed Xander's nose as blood, muscle and bone were vaporised by the solid blade of light.
Dooku's eyes widened as he realised what had happened, and he dropped his light-saber, only to have it cut out from the dead man switch inches from Xander's face. Sidious looked stunned at the sudden and unexpected death of his apprentice, and by his own hand no less.
Xander took his opportunity. He gripped his lost light-saber with the Force and at the same time pushed Sidious with all the power he could muster in the Force, without resorting to the dark side. The surprised and slightly sorry look on Sidious' face turned to one of terror as he realised that he was sailing through the air.
Xander turned away to the transport.
As the expected thud became a scream of anguish and hatred, Xander turned around again to see Sidious disappearing over the side of a cliff.
"Oops…"
Sighing, knowing he was in for another chewing out from Yoda, Xander checked his light-sabers and headed into the transport, preparing it for his return to Corsucant.
*