Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. George Lucas, LucasArts,
LucasFilm etc. own Star Wars and everything else. Raven made Jedi
Knight II.
Title: Keeping True To Ones Self
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Rating: PG-13.
Feedback: Yes please!
Recommended Listening: 'Down on the Upside', Soundgarden.
Continuity: Xander the Jedi, Sunnydale Jedi, any others that get bunged in the middle, 'To Learn of the Past' and any other side-pieces. And the 'Dark Forces' computer game.
Rating: PG right now. May go up. I'll see.
Needa exploded at him down the Comm. "I have no sympathy for traitors to the Empire!"
A war shriek sounded, and Needa's TIE suddenly accelerated forward. Xander raised an eyebrow, and began lacing the ship with laser blasts. Needa wasn't so much as trying to dodge, and the blasts caught the solar panels of the TIE, punching holes in them.
Xander released the trigger, and opened the Comm. again. "Needa, I'll give you one last chance to turn around and head back to the surface... if you don't, you'll be throwing your life away."
"I give my life for the Empire, Rebel Scum!" Needa's bellow was deafening in the Comm's earpiece, and Xander winced in pain at the volume of the sound.
Ears still ringing from the volume, Xander missed the missile lock tone until Kyle's voice brought him back to reality. "Two on your tail!" The twin launched concussion missiles had overshot – luckily – as they approached, Needa having fired too close for them to adjust, but they then curved round and started tracking.
Hauling back on the stick, Xander climbed and hopped the throttle, before cutting it out and inverting, using the gravity of the planet to pull him down slightly. Xander felt the TIE kick as it bounced on the edges of the atmosphere. Spinning the cockpit round, he found the twin trails left in space by the missiles, and fired one of his own at them.
"Come on..."
The missile connected with one of Needa's, both detonating and engulfing the second of Needa's missiles in flame.
Checking the radar display, Needa's TIE had vanished.
"Where'd you go?" Xander snapped, before routing more power to the system in case Needa had flown out of range. "...nothing!"
Jan's voice crackled over his rebel Comm. "We got him. He tried to buzz the Pride of Alderaan, and one of the turbolaser batteries clipped him. With his manuverability down from your winging him, he didn't stand a chance. I think he knew that."
"Dammit!" Xander cursed down the Comm. "He didn't have to throw his life away like that."
"You heard him," Kyle cut in, "He was a classic example of the Empires indoctrination training. He would have been executed for letting a rebel escape if he'd returned... so he had nothing to lose."
"Except his life..." Xander muttered bitterly.
Princess Organa cut over the Comm. "Why all this concern over an enemy, Agent Harris? You're not an Imperial sympathiser, are you?" Her tone was dangerous, low and threatening.
"Don't take that tone with me, Princess," Xander said sharply, "I've lost more to the Empire than you ever will."
Little did Xander know how those words were to come back to haunt him.
The TIE Fighter was tractored into the docking bay of the Corellian Corvette, and Xander twisted the release wheel on the TIE's ball canopy, before climbing out and sliding down the side of the ball to the pylon holding one of the hexagonal wings on. He watched as one of the blast doors opened and Kyle, Jan and Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, along with a security escort, stormed through.
The Princess looked far from pleased, arms swinging with purpose, and a look that plainly said you didn't want to be on the receiving end. So get out the way.
Hopping down off the pylon, Xander bent his legs as he landed, which made him look as if he was half way through doing a squat, and straightened up as Organa halted in front of him.
"Well?" Xander said.
"What in the name of the Force did you think you were doing? You endangered us unnecessarily!" Leia was close to a boiling rage. How dare this man endanger the Rebellion itself simply because he chose to show off? If she had her way, he would be severely reprimanded. "You can be assured that I will inform General Dodonna of this at once!"
Xander shrugged. "Whatever pushes your buttons, Princess." He brushed some lint off a spotless shoulder with one hand, and looked at Kyle, pointedly ignoring the livid Princess of Alderaan. "I see you made it OK... next time, though, make sure you avoid the shift change."
"How did you know about that?" Kyle asked, shocked.
Xander shrugged again. "I was watching on the cameras. You didn't think I'd spent the last three months there just watching reruns of bad Nerfherder films, did you?" Oh Kyle and Jan's horrified looks, he continued, "What? Everyone has to have a hobby..."
"And yours just happens to be slicing Imperial Networks, does it?" Jan asked sceptically.
"Among other things." Xander nodded. "Like not getting caught and murdered... or interrogating Stormtrooper's with vibroblades..." Xander's smile, hidden under his helmet, turned evil. But the vocal inflection still got through.
"You torture Stormtrooper's for a hobby?! With vibroblades?!" Xander's credibility had just taken a battering in Jan's eyes.
"No, of course not!" Xander said shocked that she would even think that.
Jan smiled weakly. "Oh. Right, you were joking..."
"Exactly," Xander agreed. "It's the Officers that I use vibroblades on: Stormies don't know anything worthwhile!"
Jan and Kyle remained silent, not sure whether Xander was continuing to tease them, or whether he was serious.
"Oh, come on!" Xander moaned, holding his helmeted head in his hands. "I'm kidding. Honest."
"Really?"
"Really and truly. If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'."
Kyle nudged Jan, and whispered to her, "He's crazy."
Princess Organa blinked, her ire cooled slightly by the banter she had just witnessed. "Would you at least take that confounded helmet off?" Her revulsion was plain. "I can't stand those things."
Reaching up to disconnect the life-support tubes running from a computer strapped to the chest of his stolen TIE uniform, Xander then popped the catches on the helmet before lifting it off slowly.
Leia gasped as his face came into view.
Xander gave her a pointed look. "Since I didn't get a satisfactory answer last time, again I ask, 'Well?'"
Leia struggled for words. "Mas..." Xander cut her off.
"No longer, Princess. Now I am simply Xander Harris. As I have always been."
"But..."
Xander shook his head. "No, Princess. That time is long past."
"You must surely...?" Leia began, before trailing off.
Xander shook his head. "No."
Leia nodded, but didn't look happy. "Your mission was a success, then?"
Xander nodded. "Yep. Get the bearded wonder into Imperial base: check." Kyle shot him a death glare at that nickname, but Xander ignored it. "Cover up traces of insertion: check. Get the hell out of dodge: check. Mission all accomplished, Your Gracelessness." His cheeky grin made Leia smile slightly.
"I wish you wouldn't call me that." Leia complained. But she didn't complain too much.
"Is it my fault you were clumsy?" Xander cocked his head to the side, and could see the younger Princess of Alderaan, along with her childhood companion, Winter, getting into all sorts of trouble. She had been in some very deep trouble with Bail Organa – her adoptive father, though she didn't know that – one evening, when she had meant to be attending a formal dinner for one of the Alderaanian Protectorates, and had instead got lost – and extremely muddy – in one of the quieter of Alderaan's forests. Xander had been the one to find her, and bring her and her companion home.
Leia left, and the security escort departed with her, to leave Kyle, Jan and Xander in the Corvette's docking bay. The tech crews were going around their normal tasks, every now and again throwing glances at the three pilots standing there.
Kyle started to speak at the same time as Jan. "How did you..."
Jan continued, Kyle having stopped. "When did you meet Princess Leia Organa?"
Xander's response was vague, at best. "Around."
"Around? You don't get that familiar with someone of the Princesses position, 'around'." Jan was sceptical. "Come on, you can't hold out on us!"
"I can and will." Xander apologised. "I'm sorry, but there isn't much I can say about it. We met. I looked after her as a favour to her mother for a few years."
Jan nodded, until Kyle slid in, "Her mother died over a decade ago."
"Exactly." Xander agreed.
"Princess Organa isn't more than 18..." Kyle prodded. "And you don't look much older than that! How could you look after her?"
Xander shook his head. "I told you, Kyle: I'm older than I look. Never take appearances at face value – one of my teachers taught me that – as an appearance can be deceiving."
"That much is obvious!" Kyle snorted, "What I want to know is; how can someone who doesn't look a day over 20 standards, get to baby-sit Princess Organa a decade ago?"
"I age well." Xander's flat response ended the inquisition.
Jan extended the olive branch again. "Want to see the Crow?"
Xander nodded. "Yeah. Please. It's been too long since I saw that bucket of bolts."
"You know the Moldy Crow?" Jan's eyes widened in surprise.
"Yep," Xander said, "owned her about seven years ago. I told Kyle when he mentioned the Crow... didn't he tell you?"
"No," Jan said, looking hard at the now innocently smiling Kyle. "He didn't. But I'll get him back for that, don't worry."
Xander looked apologetically at Kyle. "Sorry, man. Didn't mean to get you in trouble."
Kyle shrugged indifferently. "It's a game we like to play. Don't worry about it."
Xander sighed. "Fine. Long as you're happy."
Title: Keeping True To Ones Self
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Rating: PG-13.
Feedback: Yes please!
Recommended Listening: 'Down on the Upside', Soundgarden.
Continuity: Xander the Jedi, Sunnydale Jedi, any others that get bunged in the middle, 'To Learn of the Past' and any other side-pieces. And the 'Dark Forces' computer game.
Rating: PG right now. May go up. I'll see.
Needa exploded at him down the Comm. "I have no sympathy for traitors to the Empire!"
A war shriek sounded, and Needa's TIE suddenly accelerated forward. Xander raised an eyebrow, and began lacing the ship with laser blasts. Needa wasn't so much as trying to dodge, and the blasts caught the solar panels of the TIE, punching holes in them.
Xander released the trigger, and opened the Comm. again. "Needa, I'll give you one last chance to turn around and head back to the surface... if you don't, you'll be throwing your life away."
"I give my life for the Empire, Rebel Scum!" Needa's bellow was deafening in the Comm's earpiece, and Xander winced in pain at the volume of the sound.
Ears still ringing from the volume, Xander missed the missile lock tone until Kyle's voice brought him back to reality. "Two on your tail!" The twin launched concussion missiles had overshot – luckily – as they approached, Needa having fired too close for them to adjust, but they then curved round and started tracking.
Hauling back on the stick, Xander climbed and hopped the throttle, before cutting it out and inverting, using the gravity of the planet to pull him down slightly. Xander felt the TIE kick as it bounced on the edges of the atmosphere. Spinning the cockpit round, he found the twin trails left in space by the missiles, and fired one of his own at them.
"Come on..."
The missile connected with one of Needa's, both detonating and engulfing the second of Needa's missiles in flame.
Checking the radar display, Needa's TIE had vanished.
"Where'd you go?" Xander snapped, before routing more power to the system in case Needa had flown out of range. "...nothing!"
Jan's voice crackled over his rebel Comm. "We got him. He tried to buzz the Pride of Alderaan, and one of the turbolaser batteries clipped him. With his manuverability down from your winging him, he didn't stand a chance. I think he knew that."
"Dammit!" Xander cursed down the Comm. "He didn't have to throw his life away like that."
"You heard him," Kyle cut in, "He was a classic example of the Empires indoctrination training. He would have been executed for letting a rebel escape if he'd returned... so he had nothing to lose."
"Except his life..." Xander muttered bitterly.
Princess Organa cut over the Comm. "Why all this concern over an enemy, Agent Harris? You're not an Imperial sympathiser, are you?" Her tone was dangerous, low and threatening.
"Don't take that tone with me, Princess," Xander said sharply, "I've lost more to the Empire than you ever will."
Little did Xander know how those words were to come back to haunt him.
The TIE Fighter was tractored into the docking bay of the Corellian Corvette, and Xander twisted the release wheel on the TIE's ball canopy, before climbing out and sliding down the side of the ball to the pylon holding one of the hexagonal wings on. He watched as one of the blast doors opened and Kyle, Jan and Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, along with a security escort, stormed through.
The Princess looked far from pleased, arms swinging with purpose, and a look that plainly said you didn't want to be on the receiving end. So get out the way.
Hopping down off the pylon, Xander bent his legs as he landed, which made him look as if he was half way through doing a squat, and straightened up as Organa halted in front of him.
"Well?" Xander said.
"What in the name of the Force did you think you were doing? You endangered us unnecessarily!" Leia was close to a boiling rage. How dare this man endanger the Rebellion itself simply because he chose to show off? If she had her way, he would be severely reprimanded. "You can be assured that I will inform General Dodonna of this at once!"
Xander shrugged. "Whatever pushes your buttons, Princess." He brushed some lint off a spotless shoulder with one hand, and looked at Kyle, pointedly ignoring the livid Princess of Alderaan. "I see you made it OK... next time, though, make sure you avoid the shift change."
"How did you know about that?" Kyle asked, shocked.
Xander shrugged again. "I was watching on the cameras. You didn't think I'd spent the last three months there just watching reruns of bad Nerfherder films, did you?" Oh Kyle and Jan's horrified looks, he continued, "What? Everyone has to have a hobby..."
"And yours just happens to be slicing Imperial Networks, does it?" Jan asked sceptically.
"Among other things." Xander nodded. "Like not getting caught and murdered... or interrogating Stormtrooper's with vibroblades..." Xander's smile, hidden under his helmet, turned evil. But the vocal inflection still got through.
"You torture Stormtrooper's for a hobby?! With vibroblades?!" Xander's credibility had just taken a battering in Jan's eyes.
"No, of course not!" Xander said shocked that she would even think that.
Jan smiled weakly. "Oh. Right, you were joking..."
"Exactly," Xander agreed. "It's the Officers that I use vibroblades on: Stormies don't know anything worthwhile!"
Jan and Kyle remained silent, not sure whether Xander was continuing to tease them, or whether he was serious.
"Oh, come on!" Xander moaned, holding his helmeted head in his hands. "I'm kidding. Honest."
"Really?"
"Really and truly. If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'."
Kyle nudged Jan, and whispered to her, "He's crazy."
Princess Organa blinked, her ire cooled slightly by the banter she had just witnessed. "Would you at least take that confounded helmet off?" Her revulsion was plain. "I can't stand those things."
Reaching up to disconnect the life-support tubes running from a computer strapped to the chest of his stolen TIE uniform, Xander then popped the catches on the helmet before lifting it off slowly.
Leia gasped as his face came into view.
Xander gave her a pointed look. "Since I didn't get a satisfactory answer last time, again I ask, 'Well?'"
Leia struggled for words. "Mas..." Xander cut her off.
"No longer, Princess. Now I am simply Xander Harris. As I have always been."
"But..."
Xander shook his head. "No, Princess. That time is long past."
"You must surely...?" Leia began, before trailing off.
Xander shook his head. "No."
Leia nodded, but didn't look happy. "Your mission was a success, then?"
Xander nodded. "Yep. Get the bearded wonder into Imperial base: check." Kyle shot him a death glare at that nickname, but Xander ignored it. "Cover up traces of insertion: check. Get the hell out of dodge: check. Mission all accomplished, Your Gracelessness." His cheeky grin made Leia smile slightly.
"I wish you wouldn't call me that." Leia complained. But she didn't complain too much.
"Is it my fault you were clumsy?" Xander cocked his head to the side, and could see the younger Princess of Alderaan, along with her childhood companion, Winter, getting into all sorts of trouble. She had been in some very deep trouble with Bail Organa – her adoptive father, though she didn't know that – one evening, when she had meant to be attending a formal dinner for one of the Alderaanian Protectorates, and had instead got lost – and extremely muddy – in one of the quieter of Alderaan's forests. Xander had been the one to find her, and bring her and her companion home.
Leia left, and the security escort departed with her, to leave Kyle, Jan and Xander in the Corvette's docking bay. The tech crews were going around their normal tasks, every now and again throwing glances at the three pilots standing there.
Kyle started to speak at the same time as Jan. "How did you..."
Jan continued, Kyle having stopped. "When did you meet Princess Leia Organa?"
Xander's response was vague, at best. "Around."
"Around? You don't get that familiar with someone of the Princesses position, 'around'." Jan was sceptical. "Come on, you can't hold out on us!"
"I can and will." Xander apologised. "I'm sorry, but there isn't much I can say about it. We met. I looked after her as a favour to her mother for a few years."
Jan nodded, until Kyle slid in, "Her mother died over a decade ago."
"Exactly." Xander agreed.
"Princess Organa isn't more than 18..." Kyle prodded. "And you don't look much older than that! How could you look after her?"
Xander shook his head. "I told you, Kyle: I'm older than I look. Never take appearances at face value – one of my teachers taught me that – as an appearance can be deceiving."
"That much is obvious!" Kyle snorted, "What I want to know is; how can someone who doesn't look a day over 20 standards, get to baby-sit Princess Organa a decade ago?"
"I age well." Xander's flat response ended the inquisition.
Jan extended the olive branch again. "Want to see the Crow?"
Xander nodded. "Yeah. Please. It's been too long since I saw that bucket of bolts."
"You know the Moldy Crow?" Jan's eyes widened in surprise.
"Yep," Xander said, "owned her about seven years ago. I told Kyle when he mentioned the Crow... didn't he tell you?"
"No," Jan said, looking hard at the now innocently smiling Kyle. "He didn't. But I'll get him back for that, don't worry."
Xander looked apologetically at Kyle. "Sorry, man. Didn't mean to get you in trouble."
Kyle shrugged indifferently. "It's a game we like to play. Don't worry about it."
Xander sighed. "Fine. Long as you're happy."
