I just wanna say thanks to my reviewers. Those things just keep me going.
Chapter Three
Beastboy floated, in and out, up and down. But he couldn't figure out where he was. It was all black and he couldn't see. His thoughts were about as mixed up as a soggy bowl of cereals. He couldn't think. He didn't know if he was alive. He was just there.
"Hello?" he thought to himself. "Is anyone there? HEY! If anyone can hear me, I wanna know, AM I DEAD!" Stupid question, but heck, might as well ask.
He waited for a response, he didn't know where it would come from or a reply would even turn up. He waited in nothingness. Feeling out for a voice…
Then he felt someone's hand tug on his shoulder. His mind snapped out of the black and he opened his eyes. The hand left him when he turned around to face its direction. His vision has hazy; he couldn't make out much of anything. All his mind could pick up was a dark form over him and a gleaming gold-ish background behind. Dark figures were beginning to swarm around him. Beastboy tried, in vain, to make sense of it all.
"God? Is that you?" Beastboy asked in a low voice. He still didn't know who he was talking to. But if it was the Big Guy, hey might as well score some points on first impressions. "Where am I? Am I dead?"
"Young man, you are in the halls of the Jedi Temple." said the figure stately. "Now, what are you doing here? "
"Jedi Temple? JEDI TEMPLE! Oh geez! What is happening?" Beastboy thought to himself. "This was Star Wars stuff. Was this another one of my crazy dreams? Whoa, cool dream."
"Young man," repeated the person in front of him. "What are you doing here?" Beastboy arched his head, mouth opening to respond. Then he felt a sharp pain in his neck. It was real pain; his nerves were sending their message. It was plain and simple. Something inside him hurt. The pain wore off moments after, but the fact remained. If this was a dream, he would have woken up by now.
Beastboy rubbed his eyes to clear up his vision. In front of him stood a brown skinned man. He wore simple yet somehow grand looking floor length robes. He was a tall person, with an intimidating frame. To top it all off, he was bald. A light bulb in Beastboy's mind just lit up. The man standing in front of him was the legendary Jedi Master, Mace Windu.
"M-m-m-m Master WINDU!" Beastboy shouted, mind on fire. "Jedi Master Mace WINDU! The best swordsmaster in the Jedi Council! The only person higher than you is… is… MASTER YODA!"
"Oh, flatter me boy," said Windu crossing his arms. "but what is your business here?"
Beastboy's mind raced. He was elated to find that this was real. But it wouldn't matter if he would be kicked out now. He racked his not-so-very-extensive library of not-so-very-convincing excuses. Someone dragged him here? Uh, someone clonked him at the back of the head and dragged him all the way here? Ah sweet, I know, I'm a Padawan.
"Um, I'm a Padawan umm, learner Master Windu." said Beastboy, nervously tapping his fingers. "Yes sir! I'm a Padawan."
"Really? Who is your Master then padawan." said Windu, raising an eyebrow at the last stressed word. "Who is your Jedi Master?"
"Uh oh" Beastboy thought. "Plan backfired, plan backfired… What do I say? What do I do? But more importantly, what'll they do to ME!" His mind was racing, searching once again for a suitable piece to fit his excuse of a puzzle… though him finding something within the next few seconds was just about as likely as Raven laughing at one of his jokes…
Master Windu opened his mouth to send Beastboy out of the temple when a hooded figure popped out from within the crowd. The guy wore a sweeping brown robe, just like most of the others. The hood on the new dude's head covered his face. Then the new appearance held out his hand to Beastboy. "Who is this guy?" he thought. But the least he could do was accept the gesture. The person pulled him up.
"Just play along…" whispered the person to his ear. Who was he to tell him what to do? Then again, who was he actually? In spite of what little information he had, he decided to do just as this new appearance said. Besides, he had nothing else in mind.
Once Beastboy got up, the person turned to Windu. "I apologize master," he started off in a docile tone "my Padawan in always out, escaping my sight. A habit I will make sure he forgets."
"Ah, and you are?" inquired Windu, his voice brimmed with foamy suspicion.
"Master Luke" replied the mysterious Jedi flatly.
"I do not recognize that name… Luke is it?" said Windu, skepticism coated his words.
"I suspected so Master Windu." said Luke "I believe that you were not with the rest of the council when I was granted the title of master. But if you have time to ask Master Yoda, I am sure that he will be able to ratify my claim."
"No, that will not be necessary." waved Windu. Then he turned to his attention to Beastboy. "You are lucky to have a master like your own." With that, Windu turned away and strode off.
With Windu gone, the rest of the crowd dispersed in a matter of moments. The interest Beastboy's appearance left along with him. Jedi were not too different from normal people. Soon enough, only Beastboy and Luke were left in the corridors.
"Dude, thanks for saving my butt." said Beastboy with a sheepish smile.
"Don't thank me yet." said Luke as he removed his hood. Beastboy was taken aback. Underneath the hood of the shadowy Master Luke was the very familiar masked face of Robin, the boy wonder.
"Robin, dude, what are you doing here!" said a stunned Beastboy, thing happened so fast that he couldn't make ends meet fast enough. "How'd you get in!"
"Before I get to that, you'd better get yourself into character." Robin said "The supply room isn't too far from here. Come on."
"Whatever you say dude." said Beastboy as he began following Robin.
"Try not to stare at anyone by the way." said Robin as he pulled his cloak back on and began to stride. "I'll explain later."
"Okey dokey." Beastboy shrugged with a confused tone.
Beastboy followed Robin along the halls of the temple. Robin told him not to stare at anyone but that didn't stop him from staring at pretty much everything else. Magnificent statues, levitating people, fighters sparring with what Beastboy recognized were lightsabers. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Living the life of a Teen Titan involved getting along with alien species. Being one strange dude himself made it easy for him. But he never felt as "at home" as he did now. He couldn't really explain right away why he was here in the first place. But no matter how much trouble he was in, no matter what the explanation was, he liked being here.
They got to the supply room soon enough. Beasboy's eyes lit with excitement. The room was well it and lined with racks filled with a wide variety of futuristic gadgets. Beastboy recognized lightsabers, Jedi robes, and utility suits of varying sizes among the things stacked on the numerous shelves. It was every geek boy's dream to be in this room.
"Well, come on," said Robin. "You know what to look for."
"Whoa DUDE!" screamed Beastboy as he zipped to each of the rack; grabbing things here and there, still not believing that any of this could be real. But heck, if it turned out that it wasn't; then at least he got to check out all the cool stuff. "I don't believe it. How did you get here?"
"Well, last thing I remember was blacking out." said Robin inquisitively rubbing his chin. "When I came to, I found myself here." Robin motioned to the walls of the room. "I decided to pick up some gear and head out to find you guys. I was on my way out when I found you so… here we are."
"Cool…" said Beastboy, his mind set on the gadgets in front of him. "Nice acting too. I can't believe you said "Luke". Dude, that was nice, "Luke Skywalker" isn't on for another few decades."
"Thanks." said Robin with a curt smile. "OK, now your turn. Do you have any idea where we are and how we got here?"
Beastboy was totally dumbfounded at the words. He had none of the answers that Robin demanded. The last thing remembered was that he was on the couch, right in front of the TV; moments away from watching Star Wars Episode Three. Then, Baddabing, baddabang, baddaboom… I'm in the temple.
Then something finally lit up in his totally blank mind. "Control Freak." he thought "Oh, geez… never trust labels, STUPID! I am so STUPID! How could I trust a dumb label that said… "For recreational purposes only"? Man, I fell for his stupid trap… From this point forward, I, Beastboy, will keep away from anything that even looks like a…"
"Beastboy, I asked you a question." Robin repeated.
"Oh, dude, it's Control Freak." said Beastboy, snapping out of confusion. "It was his remote."
"What are you talking about?" inquired Robin his smile faltering; he had to be filled in no matter what he'll do to me after.
"You remember yesterday?" Beastboy began "When Control Freak escaped? And I found his backpack?"
"Yeah…" said Robin, thoughts brewing in his mind "It was empty, nothing strange about the actual bag. Where are you going with this?"
'Well," Beastboy replied. "I found a remote inside and I…" He trailed off, not wanting to continue any further.
"What did you do?" Robin snapped angrily, the blank expression on his face barely concealed the rage inside.
"I used it on our TV…"squeaked Beastboy quickly, covering his hand with his hands. "PLEASE DON"T KILL ME!"
"YOU WHAT!" Robin shouted as he stretched out his hands and squeezed on Beastboy's shoulders. "Are you telling me that you used a remote," Robin's eyebrow twitched, his voice trailing with anger. "You found in a backpack… which HAPPENED TO BELONG TO CONTROL FREAK!" he squeezed tighter. "The one person who could actually destroy our lives with one stupid REMOTE!" Robin locked Beastboy in a gaze that could smolder metal.
"Yeah…" whispered Beastboy, just waiting for Robin's rage to unfold on him.
Robin removed his hands from Beastboy's shoulders. He just stared for a second. Beastboy's idiocy was just as hard to comprehend as Slade's unfathomable plans. Then he balled his fists. Anger mounted inside… He looked at Beastboy's cringing form. But he felt no pity. He sent his clenched fist on a collision course to Beastboy's head. It made perfect contact. He could feel his hand throbbing and he could hear Beastboy's whimpering from the blow. The veil of anger left Robin eventually… His reason returned and right now he felt sorry for the guy. But he had to admit, that was the sweetest feeling punch that he ever delivered…
"AH!" Beastboy shouted. His head was throbbing with the pain from Robin's punch. "Augh… OK, OK, I deserved that…" He finished while rubbing his aching dome.
"Man, that felt good." Robin admitted with a smirk. "Hurts don't it?"
"Hell yeah!" said a whimpering Beastboy.
"Good." Robin said. "Well, that's done… Now we gotta figure out how to get out of here. First step is to contact the others. Have you seen anyone?" Beastboy shook his head. The pain was leaving, a feeling he righteously had to feel. Robin pulled out his portable yellow communicator.
"Starfire, Cybor…" he cut off there. The com-screen was zapped with static. It took a couple of moments for an image to form. But it was not Starfire. It was not Cyborg. It was not Raven. The face on the screen belonged to someone else. It was the greasy, bloated face of Control Freak.
"HAH! Titanic fools!" Control Freak began, his face smirking like he was a madman, which he was. "YOU FELL FOR MY TRICK!" Robin shot a fleeting look at Beastboy. "As you probably have noticed, you are in my, oh so very perfect rendition of the blockbuster hit, Star Wars Episode Three. You can try to get out. Go ahead and try to look for a stage exit. YOU WON"T FIND ONE! BWAHAHAHAHA! You'd just better play along if you want to survive. You could be successful; I don't care, but read my lips, you-are-never-getting-back! BWAHAHAHAHA! Snort BWAHAHAHAHA!" Then the screen flickered for a moment and eventually died.
Beastboy's mind was totally discombobulated. He was unimaginably happy that he was actually inside the universe of Star Wars. It was always his dream to become part of a sci-fi world; to be able to do all the cool stuff that sci-fi dudes were able to do. But on the other hand, he was stuck here for… well… forever. He could not live without his friends. They were always his humor monkeys. They were always there to comfort him. They were always there to get him out of the stupid situations he got into. He didn't want to give all that away… not that he had a choice…
"This is great," sighed Robin, his head sank. "Well, looks like we're stuck here might as well adapt. We'll get to finding the others once we get the chance. Come on, suit up Beastboy."
When Robin looked up, Beastboy was already in full Jedi garb; loose brown robes on top of a beige colored uniform with matching knee high brown boots. Somehow he looked taller, or at least not as skinny.
"Dude, this just looks cooler on me." said Beastboy smugly; igniting the lightsaber he had in hand. The weapon released a brilliant blue blade of light. The radiating humming was somewhat reassuring. It sorta said, "This blade will not let you down."
Robin smirked. "Well, at least I'm not alone." He placed his friendly hand on his comrade's shoulder.
The two had barely left the supply room when someone spotted them. A red-skinned hand attached itself to Robin's shoulder. Robin instinctively turned around and faced the new appearance. He would have gasped hadn't his sense of reason caught him before he did. In front of him stood an alien. It had two giant horn-like things protruding from its head. It had weird looking blue tattoos on its skin. That seemed like a really small feature considering its skin was strange tone of red.
Beastboy stepped in front of Robin before he did something stupid. "Greetings Master Shaak Ti." he said with a polite tone. "How can we be of service?" Then he whispered to Robin's ear. "Female Jedi master, let me do the talking."
"The temple is… lacking of fully trained knights." she said. "Master?"
"Oh, no, he's my master Luke." Beastboy said as he pointed to Robin. "I'm just his padawan, um…, Solo. Yeah, Solo. But I can speak for my master."
"Yes, well," Shaak Ti said, waving off her suspicion "The temple is drafting you on a mission."
"Ah, well, my master would accept if you could enlighten us with regard to the details." said Beastboy confidently. He knew that the temple called for it. He had to accept. There was no way out, just other ways of saying yes. Besides, he didn't want to know what the Jedi would do to lazy Jedi bums… if there were any…
"Well, the least you need to know is that your destination is the planet of Kashyyyk." she said. "With Master Yoda."