AN: Does anyone know how to get different fonts to stay? I tried to use a cursive font later on for a letter and it doesn't seem to transfer over on to this website.

This is a preview for the Crossroads story. As such, when this story is officially released this chapter is subject to changes including rewrites, deletion of paragraphs, or even being left completely the same. All that to say if the official story is different from this, it's intended.

Please enjoy!

Also I'm posting this right after finishing it and haven't checked the document for grammar and spelling errors so please excuse any mistakes.

Crossroads: Rough Draft of Chapter 1

A blinding light awoke me to my surroundings. I immediately spun around, trying to gauge where I was. All I knew was that I wasn't at home anymore, because I definitely did not use to live in what appears to be a massive hangar bay.

I was at one end of the bay and across from me, at the opposite end of the bay, stood the exit to the hangar bay. Except instead of an open field, or runway, or just sunlight in general, the only view I was treated to as I looked over there was a vast array of black void, littered with white dots.

I looked towards the center of the room and noticed the massive hole stationed in the middle. That hole didn't stay long however, as a platform rose carrying a ship along with it. A ship that I recognized. It was a standard Imperial class fighter from the Old Republic games.

The ship launched off, out into the void, before the platform lowered itself back down, presumably to get another ship.

I turned myself back around and was now looking at myself in a mirror, except I didn't look quite as I remembered. Don't get me wrong, it was close to how I looked, but it looked like me if someone had tried to recreate me in SWTOR's engine. I should know, considering I had tried that before.

I was never able to get a perfect replica of myself, limitations with the engine and all that but I was able to make a character that vaguely reminded me of myself. Staring at the mirror I realized now that I was that character.

It was then that I noticed the sliders you would see during character creating off to the side of my vision. When I turned my head to look at them, they turned with my vision. I turned my head back to where I started and saw them follow. I next tried looking only with my eyes and was able to pull the sliders into view.

I increased the body size by one just to see what would happen and noticed I changed how I looked in the mirror. Immediately I looked down and felt at my body and noticed that no changes had been made. My vision was then drawn to a flashing button on the slider panel that said accept changes.

Ok I had to admit it by this point… but this was the weirdest dream I have ever had. Like I would have understood if I had been dreaming about actually being in the SWTOR game as like the Sith Warrior or Jedi Knight or something and being with the companions. But dreaming, and lucid dreaming for that matter, about the character creation part of the game? Sometimes I really debated if I needed help or not.

Alright well this was pretty cool but honestly, I was getting kind of bored so I figured I might as well wake myself up now and get back to my life at… my life at… at… I can't remember where I'm from. Ok no need to panic yet. I'm still in dream and my brain is probably still raddled from being asleep. I'll remember where I'm from when I wake up and go back to my job at… huh.

Do I have a job? Am in school? Wait how old am I? I looked down at my body thinking for some reason it would give me a clue as to how old I was or what I did every day. Spoiler alert, it didn't.

I reset the slider back to their default values and took a good look at myself in the mirror.

I had dark brown hair in a fairly common male cut. It was cut short, but not buzzed down, and the front was stuck up and curled back slightly.

I was decently tall, standing either at 5'10 or 5'11 I'd say just from pure guess work via observation. As for my body I want to say I should thank my dream world because I believe it had made me sturdier than I had been in real life.

I hadn't been like a twig before, or at least I don't think I was, but the body I was looking at felt like an improved one to me for some reason. I certainly didn't look like I was a professional body builder, but it seemed like I at least hit the gym once a week.

As for my face I was content to leave it as it defaulted to. Green eyes stared at each other. They looked bright, colorful, and full of life. Clearly that was the games doing as my eyes were not this kind of green before, that I know for certain.

Otherwise, everything seemed normal. Normal nose, normal lips, a straight jawline, although thanks to the SWTOR engine it did look a little more chiseled than before, but I wasn't going to complain.

I noticed I had no facial hair. Even in my dreamworld I felt like I was being mocked by myself for not being able to grow in a good beard. I had tried in the real world, and it only ever came in patchy. Could never get it to look good. I messed with the sliders and saw that I could apply facial hair, but I quickly backtracked on that idea.

One, because I was going to wake up soon and none of this mattered, and two, because after all this time of not having a beard, seeing a version of my self with one just felt strange.

After taking in all these details I concluded that this was really all a pointless endeavor. I had no clue how old I was. If you didn't purposefully go out of your way to make your character look really old, they always looked like they were in their late 20's or early 30's in my opinion.

I already feel old most days, so I'd rather not make myself any older than I need to. I feel like I could pass for a 27-year-old so let's just go with that.

Wanting to move past this and see if there was more to this dream, I hit the confirm appearance button. A default warning popped up saying how this decision was final and blah blah blah. It's always the same old same old with these games. Next, I was presented with what weapon type I wanted to use.

This was strange because I don't remember this ever being a choice before. The options before me were very limited. I was to choose between blasters/tech or lightsabers/Force. Of course, there was only one real option to choose here… blasters obviously… Nah I'm just joking, of course I chose lightsabers. I'd have to be crazy not to.

The next screen that popped up asked me to choose what type of lightsabers I would like. I had the choice between a single blade, a dualsaber, or to duel wield single blades. Not seeing how you could ever go wrong with having more lightsabers I chose to dual wield.

The next screen asked me to choose an advanced class to start from. My options were limited to the four Sith advanced classes. I just realized now that it seemed like I was being forced onto the Imperial side without any choice, as I don't remember choosing the Empire over the Republic but oh well it'd be cool either way.

If I was going to do this for real, then I knew that I wanted to at least have some fun messing around with Force powers, so I chose to decide between the two inquisitor advanced classes. After a little deliberation I decided on the Sith Assassin. This way I could get to have some fun with Force Lighting but also get to mess around at being a rouge and sneak attacking or just stealthing my way past mobs I didn't feel like fighting.

Finally, what I assumed was the last pop up, appeared asking for my name. This was going to take some thought. I could use my real name but threw that idea out so quick. My name was Edward, Ed for short. What was I going to do? Have Imperials saluting me going "All hail Darth Ed"? Didn't think so.

My mind drifted to thinking about the names I gave some of the characters I had. I remembered my first ever character, the Jedi Knight. I had named him Kalrin. Battlemaster Kalrin of the Jedi Order, what a title that turned out to be. I thought about reusing the name, but it felt wrong to take the name I had given to a Jedi and use it for a Sith.

That brought me over to the name I had given my Sith Warrior. I named him Zelwin Torrid. Honestly, I was more concerned with the last name then the first at the time. Had to make it sound kind of cool. Darth Torrid sounded much better than Darth Edward, but I practiced saying it aloud a few times. Zelwin felt smooth running off my tongue and being called Darth Torrid would be kind of fun. Ahh screw it, why not.

I inputted the name and hit confirm. Immediately after I hit confirm the lights in the hangar bay started shutting off one by one, starting at the far end. Each time one went off it made that noise you always hear in movies or tv shows when the lights start shutting off in a warehouse. You know what I'm talking about? I'm sure you do, but anyways it's actually unsettling listening to that loud breaker noise as the darkness starts to encroach on you.

Finally, all the other lights had gone off and now I was stood underneath the last one, like it was a spotlight raining down on me. I kept waiting for the last one to go out and for me to finally wake up in what I hope was a nice warm bed in my own home, but I just kept waiting underneath that light.

Not gonna lie I was starting to get really scared. All around me was pitch black darkness that you couldn't even see three feet into and worse, I felt like I was being watched. A melodious voice rang out from the darkness. Instead of comforting me, it only sent chills down my spine.

"Good luck out there and don't forget that there are consequences to your actions. And do try to put on a good show. It would be quite boring if you died so quickly."

I tried to open my mouth to speak but as soon the voice finished the light went out and everything went dark.

God my head was hurting. I kept my eyes closed but there was a blinding light shining into them. Would someone please turn out that light? Who decided lights should be so bright? Suddenly the light darkened, and I began hearing whispers overlapping in my head. I couldn't make them all out. There were so many voices, and they were all talking over each other, but I did pick up a few phrases.

"Ain't he a cute one."

"Another slave to add to the collection."

"You will be ours forever."

My eyes shot open as I tired to gain my bearings. My eyes darted around the room as I took in the space. It was dark, but there was enough ambient light illuminating the room that I could make things out. It looked like I was in some kind of tomb or dig site of some kind.

I looked down and saw a sarcophagus laid out below me… a few feet below me. I hate to admit it, but it took me way to long to realize that I was floating above the sarcophagus. I started to panic as I thought I was about to freefall into a dead man tomb, but I realized that I wasn't moving. In fact, I couldn't move, even after I tried to.

None of my limbs responded to the commands I was sending out. Craning my neck around I saw that each of my limbs were being grabbed by what looked like an energy rope of some kind which was having me suspended in the air in a stasis or something.

I struggled against the energy beams but found myself helpless to get out of them. Was it okay if I panicked now because I'm starting to feel like it's okay to panic now. Okay me, we can wake up from the dream now. No need to keep this nightmare going on.

I was brought out of my panic fueled rambling by the sound of voices coming from the tomb entrance.

"Look not to sound whiny but we've already got what Lord Ate Too Many Nerfburgers wanted. Why do you want to continue to check out the incredibly creepy and insanity inducing tombs?"

The voice was definitely female, but I could have sworn I recognized it.

"Something is here. Something that is calling out to me and I'm not leaving until I know why," came from a different female voice.

I saw the two walk into the tomb… my tomb? Oh, whatever it's not important. The two stopped once they saw me hanging there suspended.

"This "calling" of yours is just going to end up with us in another fight, isn't it?" moaned the blue Twi'lek girl as she reached for her blasters.

I probably should have opened up my mouth to say something or call for help, but I was stunned into silence as I realized I knew that blue Twi'lek. If I didn't know any better, I would say that was Vette, and then, assumingly, the lady standing next to her must be the Sith Warrior.

I saw the warrior hold her hand up to stop Vette from pulling out her blasters, to which Vette confusingly accepted. She and I locked eyes as we stared at one another, sizing each other up. Although I expect her motives were to see if I was a threat, whereas I was merely trying to take her in.

Luckily, she had her hood down and no mask on at the moment, so I was able to see what she looked like. She had long midnight black hair down her back that curled. She had waves of curly hair that framed both sides of her face, starting from behind her ears, with the ends of the hair resting on her chest.

She had a heavy amount of makeup applied to her eyes but almost no makeup anywhere else except for a slight coat of lipstick on her upper lip with a line running down the bottom one.

The makeup helped to accentuate her gorgeous eyes which glowed a brilliant orangish gold. They say the eyes are a window to the soul but in this case, I would have said that the eye color is the window to the soul… or at least a person's morality scale. I knew if her eyes we're glowing gold like that then she had a bit of dark side corruption in her which definitely meant I wasn't dealing with a pure light sided warrior. Now I just had to hope I wasn't dealing with a pure psychopathic dark sided one too.

After we locked eyes, I don't know how long we just stared at each other. It felt like an eternity that occurred in all of five seconds. I know, confusing. Believe me when I say that it was confusing for me, and I actually experienced it.

During that eye lock though I felt like I had this connection with her, like I somehow knew her, could trust her. I heard a light gasp escape her lips before she broke eye contact with me and either unknowingly or unwittingly broke the connection too.

I didn't have time to think about what just happened however as I suddenly felt the energy field keeping me trapped in stasis give way and gravity taking over.

I fell onto the sarcophagus below me, rolled off the top, and landed on the ground below. On one hand I should probably be thankful that the lid was closed, and I didn't land in pile of old, dusty, decrepit bones. But on the other hand, the lid of that sarcophagus was made of solid stone and now my ribs hurt.

I stood up and let out a quick gasp as a shot of pain flared through my ribs.

"Oh, let's never do that again," I bemoaned.

Wait, that hurt? Shouldn't I have woken up if I got hurt in a dream. Unless this wasn't a dream?

"Umm boss, your Sithiness, Lady of Darkness, did the creepy floating dude just come down and talk?" asked Vette in disbelief.

The Sith Warrior didn't answer her, but she also didn't immediately shock her for speaking out of turn, so I took that as a good sign she wasn't completely lost to the dark. For her part she just kept staring at me quizzically. Maybe she was still trying to figure out what that connection we felt was.

I took this moment to take in their gear. Vette was dressed in what looked light but heavily armored clothes. I assumed it was so that it wouldn't restrict her movements but still allow for some protection against attacks. Nice to know the Sith Warrior cared about Vette a bit already… although I guess she could have done it to make her a better meat shield…. Hmm. I'm just gonna assume the former for now.

I turned my gaze over to the warrior and had to admit I was impressed with her fashion sense. Whatever she was wearing wasn't a full set of a particular armor, or at least it wasn't one I recognized. The one piece I did recognize was her chest piece. It was the Ardent Orcale's body armor, although it had been dyed, I believe, as I don't think it naturally came in that dark gray/black color.

The metal parts of the armor were still colored silver but the surrounding leathers… cloth?... materials were a mixture of gray, black, and shades in between.

She had done a good job of mixing armor sets if she was the one responsible. I could see the armor provided good protection of vital areas while still instilling a foreboding sense of danger to any who looked at it. Useful tactic for a Sith I assumed.

I just wanted to rush over there and see if I could get a closer look at the gear to see if I could recognize any more parts of the armor when I felt this burst of wind around me and suddenly, I was staring at the Warrior face to face.

I saw her eyes widen in surprise at how I was able to appear right in front of her, and I'm sure my eyes were conveying my own amount of shock. She reacted in the only way she could in this situation and grabbed her lightsaber and tried to cut me with it.

Can't really blame her in this instance. Assuming I'm in the Dark Temple she's already had to kill a bunch of people attacking her. Then she finds me suspended in a tomb all by myself and the first thing I do as soon as I'm free is magically appear in front of her. Although they wouldn't call it magic here.

I raised my hands in some reactionary effort to try and block the strike. I mean the only good that would do would be to get my hands cut off before my death but can't help reactions. This feels really unfair though to be spawn killed when I don't even know what's going on still.

I couldn't believe it though when a Force shield erected around my hands and blocked the lightsaber strike. By the look of shock on the Warrior's face neither could she. She adjusted a lot faster than I did, however. Where I was staring at my hands in amazement of blocking that attack, she had gone on the offensive intending to kill what she perceived as a threat.

It was by sheer instinct, instinct that couldn't have come from me, that I was able to block all of her attacks.

Vette came back to reality as she saw her master fighting and pulled out her blasters and started firing. The Force Shield I had projected around my hands grew to encompass my entire front half to block the lightsaber strikes and blaster bolts.

"Hey, I apologize for getting up in your space, but don't you think this is taking things a little too far?" I asked the Warrior.

Whatever I had done though seemed to have locked her into a kill mode as she kept coming at me, ignoring my words. I didn't want to hurt Vette, and maybe the Sith… hadn't decided yet on them. I jumped back a few feet intending to get some distance and ended up jumping far further back then I intended.

"Damn that is awesome!" I mumbled aloud to myself.

Alright you've never practiced using the Force before but how hard can it be right? Let's just try and imagine pulling the lightsaber from her hand, that's probably a good step. I reached a hand out in the same way you see every Force user do in Star Wars media and tried to get the Warriors lightsaber to fly to my hand.

Surprisingly, it went very well. Her blade flew out of her hand and into my outreached one. Vette was still attacking, and I again instinctually blocked the bolts, but this time I accidentally used the lightsaber in my hand.

Everything seemed to slow down as I watched the blaster bolt deflect and start heading back towards the shooter.

Crap! I didn't want to shoot her!

I reached out once again as fast as I could and imagined throwing Vette to the side, and out of the way the bolt's path. She went flying through the air, rolled along the ground, and smashed into some old vases lying around the tomb.

I didn't mean to throw her that hard! This is gonna take some getting used to.

I ran over to her to check if she was alright. When I got there, I could see her rolling slightly and groaning in pain, so she wasn't dead at least.

"Vette are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to throw you that hard."

Vette looked up at me with fear in her eyes. I couldn't understand why until I traced her eyes back and saw she was staring at the ignited lightsaber in my hand which I was holding over her.

"Sorry!" I immediately exclaimed before deactivating it. "I'm not here to hurt you." I offered her a hand to help her up with.

"You have a funny way of showing it," she responded.

Before she could grab my hand, I felt a warning in the back of my head. I moved just as a punch came threw where my head just was.

Once again, on instinct, I grabbed the arm of the person, flipped them through the air, and slammed them down on the ground. Once they were lying there, I noticed it was the Warrior from before I had seemed to forget about once I went after Vette.

"Could you please get her to try and stop killing me?" I frantically asked Vette as I extended my hand out towards her again.

"I feel like I should be the one asking you to stop," Vette said as she grabbed my hand.

I pulled her up and threw her arm around my shoulder, letting her rest her weight on me.

"How are you doing?" I asked her.

"I think you broke a few ribs of mine, but other then that just peachy," she said sarcastically.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. I saw the Warrior flip herself back onto her feet, hands extended to fight.

"Stop! I'm not here to fight!" I motioned with my arm around Vette. "I'm trying to help, see?"

I saw her take in the scene before her and for the first time noticed that her eyes were glowing brighter then before. I saw her relax her stance and her eyes dimmed in color before returning to their original hue.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" were the first things she asked.

"Questions I myself would like to know the answers to. For now though, in relation to your first question, you can call me Zelwin. Zelwin Torrid. And who might you be?"

"Serenity Teluxbri. Apprentice to Darth Baras, my lord," she said with a bow.

Lord? She must think I'm some Lord of the Sith. Would make sense I guess considering she found me in this tomb, and I just managed to fight her off.

"And who might you be dear?" I asked Vette. Although I already knew her name, I didn't want to give a way any information about myself yet until I knew what was going on.

I noticed Serenity stared at me weirdly at that question but couldn't figure out why that had her perturbed.

When I looked at Vette, I saw the fear in her eyes after she heard from her master that I was presumably a Lord of the Sith.

"Vette, My Lord. My name is Vette," she quivered out.

"You don't need to call me that," I said with a genuine smile on my face, trying to ease her anxiety. "Feel free to call me Zelwin."

Vette just nodded and faced her head down. So much for easing her anxiety.

I noticed her try to nonchalantly place a hand over her ribs.

"Oh right! You're in pain! Here let me see if I can help."

I placed my hand over the area she had placed hers and tried to will it to heal. Come on Force heal… but nothing happened.

What was wrong? Could I not heal? But I remember the inquisitors had advanced classes that would let them heal. Oh, wait they called it Dark Heal, didn't they?

I held my hand over her wound and imagined a green glow coming off them. Let's try this again… Dark Heal!

I was pleasantly surprised when my hand did indeed begin glowing green. I saw the relief spread on Vette's face as the pain began to alleviate.

I also felt like I could feel my power being drained as I was healing her. My Force bar maybe?

I cut off the heal and felt the power slowly coming back to me. That's a yes on the Force bar then I guess. Going to have to be careful and manage my power usage, I guess.

When I took my hand away from her, Vette gently pushed of from me and attempted to stand on her own.

"Wow, I feel like brand new again!" she said amazed as she twisted her body around. She stopped twisting and looked at me. "Thank you."

"My pleasure."

I realized that I could heal my own wounds now. Could heal that bruised rib I probably got. But it was then that I realized that wasn't even feeling the bruised rib.

I put a finger down on where I had fallen and pushed, but there was no pain. Natural healing? Maybe it's like the game where once you're out of combat you recover? Either way saves me the trouble.

"So, ladies, what might you be doing in this kind of place?"

"Could ask you the same question," said Serenity warily. She didn't trust me, which was fair.

"Like I said before, I have no idea why I'm here. All I know is I woke up a few seconds before you two walked in and was stuck up there in stasis."

"And we should just take your word for it?"

"No, if you're smart you won't. And I can tell you're clever. But in this instance, I am telling the truth."

I walked over to her and presented her lightsaber.

"A gesture of trust."

She met my eyes and there was that weird feeling again. For a second, I almost thought I could see a string or smoke forming between us, but there was nothing there.

She broke eye contact and took back her lightsaber.

"We're here at behest of my master to retrieve an artifact he desired."

I saw the artifact secured tightly to her belt. It looked sort of like a crown.

"Oh yeah the Railer or the Ravager or something right?"

Her eyes widened in surprise at my knowing of the device. Probably shouldn't have said that aloud.

"Unimportant. We don't want to keep your master waiting now, do we? I doubt he's a very patient man."

I gestured towards the entry way they had come from.

"I'd appreciate if you could lead the way. I don't know the route and I seem to be rather defenseless." I gestured to my body and the fact that all I had on me were the clothes on my back.

"You want to come with us?" she asked skeptically.

"Oh yes, most definitely. I feel like this might be the beginning of something great, don't you? Now take me to your leader."

She didn't bother to respond. I was feeling a little hurt that they didn't find that last bit funny but then I realized that I'm probably the only one in this entire galaxy who would understand the joke. Woe is me; my humor was going to go so under appreciated.

She looked over to Vette and nodded to move out.

"Let's go Vette, we need to get back."

Vette was unusually quite as she nodded back. I expected to hear some quips out of her. Maybe I made more of an impression then I would have liked.

The trek back to Darth Baras' chambers was uneventfully quiet. Honestly, I was hoping we would have run into a few mob groups back in the Dark Temple just so I could try out Force lightning or a Force choke. That would have been awesome!

As boring as the trip was, so too was the conversation as equally boring. By which I mean there was none. I think Serenity had subtly told Vette not to speak to me and she wasn't interested herself in making conversation.

That was fine though. There would be plenty of time to get to know them once I was successfully onboard their ship. For now, I just enjoyed taking in the scenery or should I say the gloominess of Dromund Kass.

The game didn't do this place justice. It was rainy and dark and dreary every where you went. A horrible place to live… so perfect for the Sith.

We arrived at Baras' chambers. He turned to face us at our entrance sensing our presence.

"Ahh apprentice. When I sent you into the Dark Temple for the Ravager, I admit I thought it might be the last time I saw you. I will deal with this outsider in a minute. Give me the Ravager! The prisoner grows weaker by the minute, we have no time to spare."

Serenity obeyed her master and handed him the Ravager device. He quickly attached it to the spy he was interrogating. His tortured screams started ringing out immediately.

The game did them no justice. His painful screams were much worse than any you heard in the game. I saw that Vette looked sick but didn't want to say or do anything in front of Baras that might earn his wrath.

"Hey, it's okay. Don't look, and cover your ears," I whispered to her.

She looked wide eyed at me, as if asking if it was really okay to do so. I nodded at her, and she decided to trust me. I watched her turn away and bring her hands up to try and block the screams.

I subtly shifted myself to where I was in front of Vette and could block out the sight of her from Baras just in case he got any ideas.

The next few minutes followed exactly how they did in the game with Baras learning of Jaesa and Noman Karr. After he had finished telling Serenity he was giving her a starship he turned to me.

"Now you! Who are you?" he struck out with lighting at me immediately after asking. Apparently, he was still riled up about this whole ordeal with Noman Karr.

Luckily whatever Force shielding I had popped up and absorbed the blast. I thought about reaching out and trying to see if I could Force choke him, but I stopped when I thought about what that would do.

Everything I had seen to this point pointed to the fact that this was emphatically not a dream. Which meant that I was somehow in the Star Wars universe. Worse or maybe for the better, it was during the time of the Old Republic.

All this culminated to me knowing exactly how things were going to go for the most part. Knowledge of mine that would be useless if things didn't play out how they were supposed. If I kill Baras the entire storyline for the Sith Warrior essentially gets thrown out.

That would ruin my entire plan of joining along for the ride and having a good time on the way, so I held off on the Force choke.

Baras stopped firing the lightning when he saw it wasn't reaching me.

"Impossible," he muttered.

"Hi," I said with a wave. "I think we've gotten off to a wrong start here. I understand you're angry. Jedi, annoying right? Anyways I'm Zelwin Torrid and I'd appreciate if you didn't try that again."

"I found him within the Dark Temple Master. We fought and he defeated me. He insisted on coming with to meet you," said Serenity.

"Torrid is an ancient and powerful name. You dare to use it?" he asked me.

"I do. I think you'll find in due time I have the right to the name."

"What do you want from me?" he asked trying to retake control of the conversation.

"From you? Nothing really. From your apprentice, still to be determined."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" he asked threateningly.

"Don't get your shiny head in a twist. I'd like to join your apprentice. Help her out in her duties across the galaxy as you track down Noman Karr and his Padawan."

He didn't respond. Merely stood there silently as he took me in through the one eye hole in his mask. I wanted to look over and see what Serenity had thought of my proposal but didn't want to show weakness to him by looking away.

Eventually he spoke.

"Why? What do you hope to gain from this?"

"My motives should not concern you, for you will never discover them. I'm offering up my help; you'd be wise to accept it."

"And if I wanted your help elsewhere?"

I waved a finger at him.

"Uh uh uh. I offered my help to your apprentice, not to you. So, Serenity," I stopped and looked at her. "Would you like my help?"

"Why insist I bring you here if you were just going to ask to join me?" she asked.

"Insist is a strong word. I merely asked if you'd take me to your master. And I wanted to at least do Baras here the courtesy of letting him know that I'd be joining you in person, that is if you accept?"

"Your power is… overwhelming. I'd be remiss if I declined the chance to have it in my fold. But let me be clear that I don't trust you at all. You mess up, do something I don't like, even if only once, and I will find a way to kill you. I give you my word, and my word is my bond," she said determinedly.

I put my hand over my heart in a mocking manner.

"A woman after my own heart. But like I said in the temple, I hope in due time you'll learn to trust me. Until that day though we have a game of cat and mouse to play with spies and Jedi. Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" I said excitingly.

I turned and put a hand lightly on Vette's back, motioning for her to get moving.

"Come on Vette, I think you'll really like the ship!"

Vette turned toward Serenity, and when she saw her nod in approval she started moving.

"I'll contact you when you're in the skies above Dromund Kass. Good luck apprentice, I get the feeling you'll need it," I heard Baras say as I led Vette and myself out of his chambers.

Outside I did my best to keep my face neutral but inside I was giggling like a schoolgirl. I'd cemented myself into the Warrior's – er Serenity's crew. Now the real fun can begin.

When we got to the spaceport I remembered how we were going to be attacked by one of Lord Grathan's assassins.

Seeing as I didn't have any weapons of my own I wouldn't really be much help but maybe I could speed things up.

I mustered as charming of a smile as I could.

"Vette, if it wouldn't trouble you, could I kindly borrow one of your blasters? You'll have it returned to you soon, I promise."

Vette looked at me and raised an eyebrow quizzically. After we left Baras's chambers and were far away from the city she seemed to have regained a bit of her rebellious nature. Baras must have done something to her when they were here earlier that really scared her.

And now that thought was really making me wish I had killed or at least hurt him. I just have to remember that I'm doing this to let canon play out as best as I can.

"You'll see what I want it for in a minute."

Not hearing a no from Serenity, who was leading our way through the spaceport, she unholstered her offhand pistol and handed it to me.

Thanking her, I grabbed it and attempted to see if I could cloak myself.

Ok I know there is a stealth ability so let's see if I can recreate that. I pictured myself turning invisible, but then realized I would probably want someway for my allies to see me if need be. Wouldn't want any accidents in the middle of combat.

I changed my image of myself to be invisible, but to have contour lines to those I designated when invisible.

"Okay hold on," I said to both of them. They both stopped in their tracks and looked at me. "Tell me if you can see me in a second."

I took a breath and imagined me activating invisibility the way I had previously thought about it as if it was an ability on a hotbar I just needed to press. When I heard Vette's gasp, I figured I had probably succeeded.

There was no confirmation gasp from Serenity, but I figured she was probably better at hiding her emotions then Vette, considering she was Sith. Then again, her face was awfully expressive in the Dark Temple. Something to think about, I guess.

"I'm guessing it worked?"

"I mean this is amazing!" said Vette astounded. "But we can still see you sort of, and the blaster isn't hidden at all."

"You can see me because I'm letting you so you can have at least a general sense of where I am. To everyone else I should be fully invisible. As for the blaster…"

I tried to imagine my invisibility field including the blaster but when I opened my eyes, I saw the gun still clear as day in my hand.

"Is the blaster still there?" I asked.

"Yup," Vette said, popping the p.

"Hmm," I mused aloud. "I wonder if…"

I next tried the blaster in the top of my pants with my shirt covering it.

"How about now?"

Vette walked around me looking at my contoured form and then gave me an approving nod.

"Nope! Can't see it anymore."

"Great! Run along to the hangar. I'll be close by, promise."

Vette seemed content with that and turned to keep walking to the hangar. Serenity on the other hand was still staring at me with a death stare. I think she was trying to find my eyes but couldn't quite figure out where they should be.

"If you are using this to try and trick us somehow…" she began threating.

I tried to put a calming expression on my face but stopped when I realized it wouldn't matter seeing as she can't even see my face right now.

"I told you, I just want to help you," I said placatingly. "Everything I do, well most things I do, I am doing to benefit you in a way. You'll see that firsthand in about maybe 4 minutes? I gave you a gesture of good faith, now I need you to give me one. Run along, I'll be sticking nearby."

I didn't give her time to respond as I dashed off ahead of them to hide myself in the shadows of the overlooking control room for the hangar bay.

The two walked in and Vette immediately ran over to the overlooking window to look at the ship.

"Wow!" she said amazed. "We're going to be traveling in style now."

Serenity also took in the ship before looking amazed.

"My own starship… I never thought I'd see the day," she said. "Come on, I'd like to see the interior."

"You and me both," responded Vette.

Before they could take the rampway down to the hangar Lord Gratham's assassin showed up behind them.

At least he's punctual.

"Nice ship. A reward from your cowardly master for killing Lord Grathan's son?" he asked Serenity.

Serenity rolled her eyes at the assassin knowing this was going to end in a fight.

"Yes, I did. Do we have a problem?" she asked, subtly inching her hand closer to her lightsaber.

"That's refreshing. I won't have to beat a confession out of you before I take your life."

And that was enough for me. I walked up quietly behind the assassin and pulled the blaster out from behind me. I saw Vette's eyes widen in shock at seeing me but luckily the assassin was too focused on Serenity to notice her gaze.

Serenity for her part I saw didn't react at all to me coming up behind him, keeping her face at an impasse.

Huh guess she can hide her emotions when need be. I put the blaster up to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. I was very surprised when he dropped after the first shot.

He collapsed to the floor, a smoking hole in his head. Vette was staring at me with an open mouth as I decloaked because of the attack. Serenity showed no signs of caring.

I nudged him with my foot just to see if he was faking it, but he was dead.

"Guess cutscenes rules are applying for fights. Cool, that'll save a lot of time in fights."

"What?" asked Vette confused.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." I waved her off after realizing I had said that last part aloud.

"Did this supposed to make me trust you?"

"Not completely," I said honestly, "but I hoped it would be a start."

"How did you know he would be here?"

"Ahh that would be a spoiler, and that wouldn't be any fun now."

She tried not to let it show but I could tell my refusal to give her a straight answer was annoying her, but oh well. Not like I can just say that this is all a game I've played before and I know what is coming, now can I?

"You know I could have handled him?"

"Of course, I didn't do it because of any doubts of your martial prowess. Believe me you are a very capable fighter. I just wanted to save us some time, which we are burning talking away so should we keep moving?"

Serenity looked down to the corpse once more and then to me.

"It's a start," she said with a smirk before turning to walk down the ramp.

"Was that a thank you?" I asked Vette flabbergasted.

Vette just shrugged in as much shock as I was.

I ran after Serenity.

"Did the big old bad Lady of Darkness just thank little old me?" I asked as I caught up with her.

She gave me an amused smile before quickly lifting her hand and flinging me with the Force off the ramp. I could have stopped her as I felt her Force push against my defenses, but I knew she wasn't doing it maliciously, so I allowed myself to be flung.

I landed on top of some big rectangular metal box, doing only God knows what. I leaped off from that to land at the bottom rampway into the ship. Thank you Force reflexes and agility.

"Since I got here first does that mean I get to keep the ship?" I yelled out to the two of them still making their way into the hangar.

Vette was giddy as she ran her way through the ship. Serenity was greatly pleased too but did a much better job of hiding it.

"I guess this is the master bedroom," Vette said as she finished poking her head into Serenity's room.

"Don't suppose I could convince you to hand that bedroom to me?" I asked Serenity who was standing next to me.

"Not happening. You asked to join my crew remember? Which means you get to sleep in the crew quarters," she said with a smirk.

"How about sharing it then?"

She merely rolled her eyes at me before she stepped through her doorway and shut the door.

"Well, that wasn't a no," I said to Vette who was standing next to me.

"Also wasn't a yes," she responded.

"You're quite right."

The two of us walked together into the crew quarters.

"Dibs on the first shower!" Vette shouted out before running and locking herself in the bathroom.

I just shook my head good naturedly and went to lay on one of the bunk beds. I noticed a box on top of the bottom bunk nearest to me. Walking over to it I found a note on top of it addressed to me.

Zelwin Torrid

I flipped open the note and began reading it.

We hope you're enjoying your time so far. As for us you are certainly making things interesting. We leave you a gift for entertaining us during the tutorial.

Tutorial? That doesn't bode well.

Opening up the box there were a set of two identical lightsabers. They rested on top of a full body suit of armor. I took out the armor and put it on. It was the Sith Recluse set. It was one of my favorite armor sets in the game. I guess whoever sent me here knew that and deemed it appropriate as a gift.

It had to have been custom fitted to suit me as it fit perfectly. I tapped along the armor plates, listening to the reverberation it made. I don't know why but it comforted me.

As I went to close the box, I noticed another note at the bottom of it.

These gifts are moddable so you can keep them up to date as you level.

Wait did that just say as I level?

With the acceptance of these gifts, and your completion of the tutorial, your level has been reset from a max of 75 back down to 1. Additionally, your invulnerability has been turned off. Do try not to die so quickly, it would bore us so.

There was really only one thing I could say after reading something like that.

"What the fuck."

AN:

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT SERENITY LOOKS LIKE AND IS WEARING!

Serenity's face is based on Retale's Onixa. If you search up SWTOR Retale Onixa you can find images of her on The Old Repbulic Fashion Website.

Similarly, if you want to know what armor I describe her as wearing at this point in the story search up SWTOR Adra Ravas on TOR Fashion. I think she has multiple characters/outfits uploaded so it's the one using the Ardent Oracle's Body Armor for the chest piece that has been dyed Uniform Deep Blue.

Believe me when I say I am excited to get to this story at some point. I wrote this entire chapter within a day. Started at around midnight yesterday and am finishing at midnight today. I didn't write for 24 hours straight though or anything. I think I spent around maybe 7 or 8 hours. I usually can write about a thousand words an hour.

When I write my stories I start off with an idea, a foundation for what the story can be about. Before I ever start writing though I figure out exactly how I want it to end. After that it's just about getting from point A to B. I don't know how I'm going to get there, I figure that out as I write but that's what's fun about it.

I have so many fun ideas for this story and the way I intend to end it leaves the door open for any number of potential crossovers/sequels. Keep in mind I'm not saying I will do one but there will always be the possibility.

I guess that's a minor spoiler, but I don't think knowing that's a big deal. I won't post every time I finish a potential chapter for this.

When I get in the mood to write this story, I'll probably just keep the chapters saved on my computer until I finish RotEA and can focus all my efforts on this. After looking through them and doing any potential rewrites I'll probably post any chapters I have saved in bulk.

Hope you enjoyed this preview and I'll see you in the next one,

Magician