SO for reference Cal was born sometime in 32 BBY, incidentally the same year that Darth Maul killed Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Current year being about 13 BBY. This will help establish some of the timeline and reference points.

So I've been thinking about Galen and realized that since he is far too powerful for this fic, I may tone him down some — he will not just rip a Star Destroyer out of the sky — and rely on more of the feats in the second installment of his series since that's drastically more reasonable for this fic. As for timeline, I am going to say about... maybe half a year over the course of the first game and maybe a year for the second? (He will be the genuine article, NOT a clone made by Vader)

Also! A new character was told to me by Bulletstormx and he helped solidify my choice in adding him! He arrived on Dantooine... roughly right after the reformatting of The Republic into The Empire. Kudos if you know of him!

Special thanks to Bulletstormx for conception and additions!

-YARN

While Cal had wanted to help Merrin become comfortable with using a lightsaber, but he had no prior experience to draw on when it came to teaching. He could recall how Jaro Tapal taught him and his younger years when he was in the temple and learning then, but he felt his application wouldn't be enough. He could talk and try to run his force in tandem with Merrin's magicks, and contribute in that way but he knew it could only take them so far. Cere, on the other hand, had taught Trilla when the jedi were being purged and even before then, she had the experience and the knowledge, now tempered by wisdom and grief to truly being an amazing teacher. Whenever Cal could, he sparred against Cere and Merrin, contributing what little he could since he never felt comfortable teaching (lingering memories of crying and whimpering padawans he couldn't save dancing through his mind).

"Get over it." He murmured to himself, making sure he was alone so he wouldn't have to explain himself, "The holocron is gone and that future will not come to pass. You made sure of it."

Maybe in time, when he had a bit more wisdom and skill under his command, when he was much stronger in the force (and he had an force barrier that wouldn't shatter in less than a second against someone like Vader) maybe then he would have the confidence to lead an enclave of younglings to become jedi. Maybe he would truly deserve the rank of Jedi Master and restore the order before reforming it into a order that would be able to adapt to the future no matter what it held. If that time came — when, if Cal had anything to say about it — then he would happily work towards that future that had him training the next generation in how to become jedi and work with the force (with the exception of the youngling dying and being captured by The Empire to be brutally tortured and eventually turned).

But for now?

It was best he grew stronger and learned how to master himself first and focus on the present.

There was no use musing on a future he wasn't ready to face quite yet.

Vader watched as the apprentice he was training fought and inwardly reflected on his process.

The boy blocked the strikes of the magna-guard the empire had salvaged for their inquisitors and lashed out with a wave of lightning that force the simulacrum to its knees before being bisected by a violent slash. His apprentice's personal proxy droid immediately leapt in, brandishing a lightsaber while cloaked in the form of jedi knight Siri Tachi. The boy dashed out of the way of a ataru strike that would have cleaved his head in two had he been hit. As it was the blow on skimmed his shoulder with a sizzling scorch mark to remember it by. Hissing in pain, the apprentice dodged and gave ground as he observed Tachi's acrobatic movements and determining her style while using Niman to probe at the facsimile's defenses. Seeing the imitation flip and leap away and over his attacks, the apprentice lashed out with a barrage of strikes at the jedi facsimile, sweeping at its legs to force it in the air. In Ataru fashion, the droid leapt only to be hit with a telekinetic wave that sent it flying into the ceiling before crashing down onto the floor. Vader nodded to himself at this.

The boy was progressing very well.

After the invasion of Kashyyyk and discovering the jedi who had been in hiding and then taking his son. He had pleased to see the fervor of his apprentice at mastering the power of the dark side and lightsaber. He had even personally programmed a sparring droid that was set to kill the boy whenever the droid thought it had the best chance. In order to make the programming as challenging as possible he had given the droid a veritable encyclopedia of different jedi and the various styles that they had employed in combat. Every single attempt at assassination on his apprentice that failed only served to further convince Vader that he had made the correct choice.

Initially, Vader had debated in whether or not to make him an inquisitor, but in the end had decided against it. The inquisitors were too... known for this boy he had picked up on a whim and their recent failures made him glad he had to raise this boy differently. He had talent in spades and if used correctly, would be a formidable instrument in the erasure of what remained of the jedi. The boy already showed a proclivity toward Juyo and Soresu both of which would serve him well in upcoming battles. Much like Kestis, he simply need to be refined so that he could truly attain his potential. If only he had managed to capture Kestis he may have been able to pit the two against each other in order to fuel their abilities!

Truly a shame, but there was still plenty of time to correct the latter issue. For now, Vader would focus on the apprentice in front of him.

Either way, Starkiller would be an excellent hidden tool for the Sith Lord in the future.

He carefully crept towards the sounds of muted voices and pulled out his old blaster, trying to quell the nervousness that twisted his stomach. When the rumors of jedi that had come to Dantooine had initially spread, he refused to believe it. There was no way that any jedi would come back to this planet after Falon Grey was murdered by his brother. Six years later and trying to forget all the guilt and pain only to hear of his past coming to haunt him. Traveling day and night to the spaceport he had seen that their ship seemed to be gone, so they weren't there. With that confirmed, he followed the trail of rumors and people to head towards where they were apparently camped and camouflaged their ship.

He saw two people standing and talking while pale-skinned woman in red with a red lightsaber was going through the motions of what seemed to be a series of stances and strikes. His breaths came in short supply of oxygen, desperately trying to convince himself that it couldn't be real. There could not be a group of inquisitors on Dantooine, there was no reason for them to be there. They couldn't have come for him after all this time, his brother had thought him dead and any jedi here were dead to the Empire! It didn't matter, he had a life he would kill for — has killed for — and he won't let them take it from him. The man with the droid on his shoulder and the dark-skinned woman seemed to be distracted, if he was quick enough, he might be able to take out one of them. After a quick deliberation he aimed at Merrin, seeing her totally focused on the strikes and stances rather than her surroundings.

Cal and Cere stiffened as the force whispered a warning, and spun, igniting their lightsabers as the force cried out. The figure rose and aimed his blaster, firing a shot at Merrin's head, intending to kill her. Cal saber slashed through the air and deflected the blaster bolt into the sky, away from Merrin as she whirled, caught off guard. The man cursed and immediately squeezed off a few more shots, hoping to kill the man wielding the lightsaber. Cal deflected them off to the sky or away from his friends before he raised a hand and made a yanking motion with a grasping hand. The man let out a cry of shock as he flew from his position only to hover helplessly in front of the furious knight. He fumbled for his blaster but before he could even attempt to aim it at Cal, the weapon flew from his grasp into Cere's outstretched hand.

Cal swung his hand down and slammed the man into the ground, "Who are you?"

"You won't get anything from me, Empire scum!" He snarled into the earth, furiously trying to squirm free and get to his feet, "You bastards won't get a damn thing out of me! You already killed the jedi and refugees here, what more could you possibly want?"

BD-1 leapt from Cal's shoulder to scan Merrin to she if she was in need of a health stim or was wounded in any way. Merrin gave the small droid a fond look and light pat on the head to indicate she was fine and she didn't need a stim. BD whirred in reluctant agreement and clambered back on Cal's shoulder while keeping track of the random attacker now pinned to the floor. Merrin's face was cold as she observed the man that had tried to kill her by discharging his weapon into her skull.

Cal stared at the futilely struggling man and rolled his eyes as he realized why the man had attacked Merrin, "We are not part of the Empire. We are jedi."

"Do you take me for an idiot?" He growled, "I saw your new inquisitor practicing with her lightsaber, everyone knows that you bastards killed off all that was left of the jedi."

The man knew that the Emperor had burned most of the lightsabers from the various jedi soon after the Republic was reformatted into the Empire, but there was simply no way he could take chances. Besides, he knew that only the Empire and their inquisitors used red lightsabers. He hadn't had much contact with the inquisitors himself since his self-imposed exile, but he had seen holo reports and Vader's blade and recalled that the only other person to use a red blade was Count Dooku and Ventress.

Cal wanted to let the man go, but wasn't exactly sure how to let the man go without him trying to restart his attack. He would've killed Merrin if he hadn't intervened and frankly they couldn't just let him free now. He was too scared, too convinced that he would become a rabid attack dog to the government he left behind. Cal looked to Cere who stepped forward and knelt so she could could speak to the restrained man.

"What is your name." She asked softly.

He scowled but spat out, "What does it matter? You plan to make me a grave plot with an inscription?"

Cere sighed, "I want to know who you are and why you hate the empire. Seeing as you don't believe that we aren't part of them, you may as well say. We have no desire to harm you and don't want to refer to you as 'some person who tried to kill Merrin.'"

He growled but eventually spat out, "My designation was X2, but I go by Xavier Grey now."

Cere raised an eyebrow at this, "So you are a stormtrooper."

He tried to turn his face away, but trapped as he was he could only look away in defiance, "Was a stormtrooper. I am a farmer now."

"What made you defect?" Cal asked, easing on the amount of weight he was using to restrain the clone.

The former stormtrooper glanced at Cal, feeling the pressure lessen slightly, "Let me up and I might tell you."

"And I need your word that you won't harm my friends." Cal replied calmly.

Xavier scowled, "Fine."

The pressure holding him down lightened significantly — enough for him to lift his body — and he pushed himself to his knees as Cere stepped away from him. Xavier accepted his defeat knowing that they could kill him without much difficulty considering he had been disarmed and there were three people who could kill him if he tried anything. He may have been force sensitive, but he had tried to leave everything behind after the death of Falon Grey, he hadn't exactly been interested in practicing with the force. Even if it technically was in his blood, the only thing that Falon's death convinced him of was that if he tried to become a jedi, he would only bring the Empire back to Dantooine.

Either way, he told them of how he had come to Dantooine soon after the reformation of the Republic into the Empire to hunt down a fugitive jedi. However, he couldn't stomach his batch-brother's idea to kill the innocent people who had been letting the jedi live there and deciding to leave. His batch-brother — believing his desertion was an act of treason — had tried to have him imprisoned; Xavier managed to fight of his squad-mates and managed to meet with the jedi who turned out to be Falon Grey. Despite Falon and Xavier being able to repel the attack after organizing a local militia, Falon's mercy enabled X1 to kill him and mortally would Xavier with Falon's lightsaber, leaving them both for dead. Falon used the last of his strength to heal Xavier before succumbing to his wounds and dying.

While Cere listened to his story, she passed Cal Xavier's DC-15 side-arm blaster for him to use his psychometry on, which proved Xavier's story to be true.

"You were cloned from Falon Grey." Cal said, a note of disbelief in his voice, "You're capable of using the force... You inherited his sensitivity to the force!"

Xavier flinched, not exactly thrilled at someone else knowing what he was capable of due to the circumstances of his creation, "I suppose I can..."

"But you don't want to do you?" Cere finished for him, eyes filled with understanding, "You're afraid of using it and what that could bring about if people find out. You wanted to forget everything that came with the force because you failed to save someone you cared about, even with the force at your side."

Xavier head snapped up at Cere in surprise, "How...?"

Cere gestured to herself and Cal, "We both hid away from the galaxy after the purge. We tried to hide what we were, what we are now. We tried to forget what we would always be. But sooner or later, the galaxy pushed us on the path we abandoned and we realized that we couldn't run forever. One way or another, destiny will find it's way to you and put you on the path you were meant to be on, even if it's a path you didn't expect."

Xavier scoffed audibly, "That's a load of poodoo."

"Yet here you are." Cere replied in matter-of-fact tone, "You didn't have to come here, you could of hid away, but you came with the intent of killing us only to suddenly have a conversation. We had no intention of trying to find someone to join us or trying to recruit force-sensitives, your own actions revealed yourself. We now had the opportunity to have conversation, regardless of your intentions."

Xavier blinked, realizing that exactly that had happened.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Merrin says quietly, deactivated lightsaber in her hand.

Xavier head snaps up and he stares incredulously at the night-sister. She was sorry? She knew how to be sorry?

"Don't be fooled by the red lightsaber." Cal advises, "She's a wonderful person and one our best friends."

Merrin smiles at Cal who rubs the back of his head in embarrassment, he hadn't exactly meant to let slip that that first part of his description out (even if was totally true to him).

Xavier slides off his knees to sit down more comfortably, "You really are jedi?"

"Not formally knighted," Cal admits with a shrug, "But then again not exactly a lot of Jedi left. Cere informally knighted me before we invaded Nur."

"Nur!" Xavier sputtered in shock, he may not be in contact with The Empire but he was there when Nur was established to train the future inquisitors and purge troopers, "You invaded Nur? How in the hell are you alive?"

Cal chuckled at the former trooper's expression, "A long story, care to hear it?"

Any doubts that these people were jedi faded as the young man talked about his experiences while on Nur.

No normal (sane) person could even think that invading the very grounds the purge troopers and inquisitors were training to kill jedi to retrieve a holocron was a possible goal. The fact that they did it and even more so that they managed to do it — escaping Darth Vader, right hand of The Emperor himself — and come out with only a few injuries spoke volumes of their capabilities. Granted, a lot of it was luck as Cere managed to use the force to tear free a cable to grab onto before she fell and follow the Sith Lord to Cal without him noticing. Another factor was the bravery of the little droid that had clambered onto Cal's shoulder to actually climb onto Vader's shoulder and jam a scamp link into the Sith's suit. The fact that Merrin was there to get them out of the water— making Xavier feel like a complete and utter bastard for attacking her — and avoid drowning by teleporting them to the ship was also important. It had nearly cost them their lives and they did it because they had to, because they refused to let the children be subjugated by The Empire in order to become monsters.

Xavier had almost lost hope of meeting a jedi ever again, but seeing these jedi and hearing what they had accomplished gave him hope.

And that was something he had desperately missed, even if he didn't know it.