-1Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords - Volume 2: Telos
Knights of the old Republic and Starwars are owned by George Lucas (I think he owns them both). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all characters belong to Joss Whedon. I own nothing here. As said by many wise men..and women…please don't sue me.
The timeline for Buffy takes place about three years after the end of Buffy. No exact date has been decided. KOTOR 2 timeline starts right from the beginning of the game. I apologize now for my lack of grammar etc, etc. I've never posted anything I've written until now. This bug has been floating in my skull since I first read Slayers of the old republic by Michael Weyer. It definitely fed my imagination. Thanks Michael. Anyways on with the show. Please comment. It won't get better in quality or quantity without constructive criticism.
Sorry for the delay. Work and Life issues popped up. Chapter 5 is on the way. Hopefully by the end of the month.
Chapter 4.…
Faith pushed the last Storage Cylinder into place against the wall, neatly lined up with the other fourteen the group had filled, stepping back she turned to Riley "Damn, you guys sure we're gonna need all of this?".
The former Initiative soldier nodded as he wiped sweat from his head "Better to be prepared, never know if we'll need replacement armour, extra weapons and such, besides, most of those are ration packs and those medpacks".
"Oh, okay then" she looked over towards the landing control room "Were is everyone?".
"Boa-Dur is going through everyone's gear, something about upgrading, O'Neill, Caridad and Shannon are watching the entrance, just in case we get company".
Faith nodded "Good idea" she glanced at her watch, a recent gift from Buffy "Wow, they've only been gone like twenty minutes".
"Time fly's when your having fun" Riley smiled "I'm going to grab a bite and then check on our guests".
Faith nodded "Say hi for me" she smiled, rather glad that no one saddled that job on her.
Riley nodded and headed towards the room across from the hangar control room, Faith watched him for a minute before heading to see how Bao-Dur was getting along with her old friends.
It took only a minute to make her way towards the workshop, the hallways were still cluttered with the remains of destroyed Military Droids, blaster marks burnt into the shiny floor and walls.
She really hoped Buffy and the others found the Ebon Hawk, or at least something they could use to leave this planet, not like she didn't like it down here, it was the thought of more Sith finding them that worried her.
"So high quality objects can take specific upgrades?" she heard Willow babbling.
"Yes, this standard blaster for example can take a variety of Scopes, the firing chamber is easily replaceable and the power cell, well that's the easy part" Bao-Dur responded.
Entering the room she spotted everyone resting on make shift beds, sure they were made from blankets but they looked rather comfortable, she realized it had now been nearly two days since she had gotten any sleep.
"Hey guys, what's up?" she asked quietly, as to not disturb anyone.
Though she had to admit, the old Brit Giles looked rather cute stretched out on the floor, especially wearing a Combat Suit, the brown and grey actually fit him.
Graham on the other hand looked like a professional even with his eyes closed, though it probably because he slept with his weapons arranged around him, in easy reach.
Willow smiled as she entered "Oh, hi Faith, things are going good, I managed to convince Bao-Dur to show me how some examples of Technology works here".
"Hope she isn't talking your ear off BD" she nodded to the Zabrak.
"BD?" he asked hesitantly.
Willow shook her head "Don't mind her, she's too lazy to actually call people by their full names".
The Zabrak Technician nodded "I understand" he said "And no, Willow here is delightful company, I forgot how it felt to work with someone again".
Faith smiled "Good to hear it" she turned to leave "Heading topside to check on O'Neill and the girls, you guys keep those headsets on all right".
Willow tapped her ear "Were ahead of you".
Faith nodded before heading for the next hallway, she figured it would take her maybe another two minutes to reach the surface, so she reached for the small pouch on her belt, and pulled out a pack of gum "Pretty much sums up your life Faith, want to quite smoking, get stuck in another Galaxy".
She tightened the grip on the Intar that O'Neill gave her as she neared the entrance, very few weapons they had were non-lethal, except for the MP-5 Submachine gun replica and the Zats, a rather nice surprise that was, finding out the Airforce had actually developed non-lethal weapons.
Willow now carried two Zats, while nearly everyone else carried one, Faith carried one as well, but something about the feel of the German weapon just called to her, she had always liked firearms and even toyed with the idea of carrying some kind of personal defence weapon while patrolling back on earth, she never did though, the Scoobies had this thing against firearms, understandable really, considering the few encounters they did have with guns involved someone close to the them dieing or nearly dieing.
She turned the last corner and spotted O'Neill leaning against the wall, using the hatch frame as slight cover "Hey Faith" he said quietly without looking.
She smiled "How'd you know it's me?".
"Your walk" he said finally looking "and the gum".
"Ah" she moved to the other side of the hallway, and mimicked his own stance, "How are the girls doing?".
"Good, they got talent, could use some work though" he said, still looking outside.
"You don't talk much" she commented.
"It's called keeping watch" he replied dryly.
"Am I bothering you?" she asked.
"Nope" he answered.
Faith couldn't help herself "How bout now?".
"Nope" he said again.
"Now?" she asked, her smile widening.
O'Neill swung his own Intar towards her "Wanna keep asking?" he smiled.
She held up her hands "Okay, whoa, I get the point" she said, even though she knew he was joking.
"Shh" he said, holding up a gloved hand.
Faith instantly stopped talking and moving, even breathing, she listened but heard nothing, O'Neill slipped through the hatch a few feet and stopped.
"Orbital Shuttle, sounds the same as the one our friends left in" he whispered.
Faith didn't move "They shouldn't be back yet, it's three hours to the Polar region".
"I'm guessing it's not our people" he said and tapped the transmitter attached to his ear "Cari, Shannon, report".
"Orbital shuttle circling the compound, looks like they're gonna land" replied one of the girls, she couldn't tell which one due to the whispering.
"Stay put, do not reveal yourselves" he ordered and pulled back to his previous position "Everyone else pull back to the Droid recharging station" he ordered.
Faith for once didn't mind the Airforce lieutenant was taking charge, mostly because she liked direct confrontation, which under the circumstance likely wasn't the best option.
Jonathan O'Neill winked at her "Let's pull back and see who our guests are".
"Sounds good to me" she said and waited for him to move, then fell in behind him, keeping her weapon at the ready.
Droid Recharging Room…
Bao-Dur lead the way through the hangar bay to the droid recharging station, Willow, Giles and Graham right behind him, he spotted Riley enter from the other side of the room, moving fast and quiet.
Graham slipped into the room and moved to cover the door, Giles did the same on the right, leaving Willow, Riley and himself to take positions elsewhere.
Riley pointed to the two open doors leading the now useless recharging stations themselves, he understood what the soldier was trying to say, he tapped Willow on the shoulder and motioned for her to move to the open door to the left, he moved to the one on the right, Riley however continued through, the way they had come into the hallway that led towards the hangar bay.
As he took position he looked over to the red headed human female, finding himself rather impressed with how composed she was, it was a totally different side of the woman, less than a minute ago she was talking and babbling like a Twi'lek child.
"This is Shannon, shuttle has landed in the base, we got six droids, two are heading for the facility entrance" he heard in his ear.
"Copy that, I repeat stay out of sight, we'll deal with those first two then we'll worry about the other four" he heard the human O'Neill reply.
He sat there for nearly four minutes, no one moved, no one spoke, then he heard several Zat blasts echo down the corridor.
Giles and Graham looked at each other hesitantly, Giles then looked back to both he and willow, Graham then touched his ear piece "O'Neill, sit-rep?".
For several seconds no reply echoed other the headsets.
"Two droids are down, moving to cover the main entrance" the young Air Force officer replied "Everyone move forward to the han..".
Graham tapped the headset "Say again O'Neill, your transmission broke up".
There was no response.
"I don't like this" Giles said "We should check on them".
Graham ignored him for a moment "Riley come in".
Nothing.
"Shannon?….Caridad?".
Still nothing.
Willow gripped her two Zats tightly "Giles is right, something's wrong".
Graham nodded "All right, Giles and I take point, leap frog forward, you two cover us" he said, more for Willows benefit than the Zabrak's.
Willow nodded and moved behind Giles as Bao-Dur moved up behind Graham, then as one the soldier and scholar entered the corridor.
The two were half way down the corridor, when Willow closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall "That's not right…someone…".
"Willow?" Bao-Dur said, paying attention to their two companions as he spoke.
Willow shook her head slightly "I'm fine..I..I just felt a presence, it wasn't a nice feeling".
Bao-Dur had spent enough time around JedI in his life to know she was sensing something "Was it a person?".
Willow nodded, but pointed down the corridor "Their at the corner, let's go".
Bao-Dur watched her move for a second, and the moved to catch up, they joined Graham and Giles a moment later, Bao-Dur quickly crossed the hallway to cover the next corridor, then the two men proceeded down towards the Hangar Bay, Willow kneeled at the corner, both weapons ready.
The two men reached the hangar bay a few seconds later, and to the horror of both Bao-Dur and Willow, were somehow picked up and tossed like a tornado had sucked them up.
"GILES!" Willow screamed and moved to run down the corridor.
The Zabrak knew things had gone from bad to worse, he had seen the same thing happen too many times back in the war to not know what was waiting for them.
"Willow no!" he hollered and ran after her.
The red headed woman reached the entrance to the hangar bay and disappeared, just like graham and Giles, he felt the anger building in his chest and instead of running through the doorway decided to dive through it, hell if he was going to go flying, he might as well get a head start.
As he dived into the room he could see both Giles and Graham, laying nearly forty feet away, right next to the storage cylinders they had stacked up, he then spotted the six individuals near the main entrance, two were familiar uniforms of dark jedI, the other four were clad in similar uniforms, just not as nice.
The funny thing was the look of shock on their faces, and that they weren't paying him any attention.
Then he saw Willow, suspended nearly twenty feet in the air, her red hair moving like she was at the center of a storm, and her eyes were glowing silver.
Bao-Dur hit the floor loudly, and took advantage of the situation, he opened fire, of course one of the Dark JedI reacted fast enough to deflect the blaster shots into the floor and ceiling.
Figures, he thought, as he rolled towards the nearest wall, not wanting to be caught in the open.
Willow however was saying something, then the four lesser dressed Dark JedI flew back into the corridor leading to the maintenance room, leaving only the two nicer dressed JedI in the room.
The one paying attention to him advanced quickly, his crimson light saber flashed to life as he moved.
Bao-Dur knew he didn't stand a chance if the man reached him, and fired wildly with one hand as he fumbled with his belt.
The Dark JedI defelcted every shot, one even came close to rebounding back but snapped into the wall a foot from his face, the warrior leaped, and he knew the man was aiming to kill him quickly.
So he kicked back as he dropped the object he was fumbling for, the Dark JedI landed a foot from where he was a moment before and smiled rather smugly.
"I'm going to kill you fast" he sneered.
Bao-Dur smiled "Your going to die messy" he then covered his head as the grenade exploded.
A short distance away…
Shannon glanced to Caridad as they moved into the facility, they had to do something, no one had responded to their warnings about the second ship that landed.
Which meant someone was likely disrupting communications, or the droids managed to defeat Faith, O'Neill and Riley.
Not likely.
Then they spotted six people, all human, dressed in dark clothes appear out of nowhere and literally tear apart the remaining four droids.
Without stopping they continued into the facility.
A few seconds later the two Slayers followed.
Less than fifty feet down the corridor they found Riley, slumped against a wall, Shannon quickly moved to his side and checked for a pulse, relieved to find it steady, checking the rest of his body she determined that he had simply been knocked out.
She poked him a few times, with no response, she shook her head and pointed down the corridor, the two continued on, finding O'Neill at the next intersection, he too was unconscious, but seemed to be coming around.
"Hey, you all right?" Cari asked as she moved to his side.
"No, but I'll deal with that later" he said as Cari pulled him to his feet.
"You guys see who hit us?" he asked.
Shannon nodded "Six guys with red light sabers".
O'Neill rolled his eyes "Of course" he checked his Intar and smiled "Time for payback" he added as he pulled off the modulator and slipped in a regular clip, the submachine gun clicked as he pulled back the bolt.
Cari smiled and moved to the next door, O'Neill moved to the other side and together proceeded down the hall, Shannon bringing up the rear.
"Remember what Dawn said, no energy weapons, they can deflect the shots" he whispered.
They all stopped upon hearing a grenade go off.
"Shit" Shannon hissed and raced past the two of them, nearly tripping over four barely conscious people in black clothes.
Cari entered the room and quickly pulled her Zat, stunning them all before they could reach for their light sabers.
Shannon however grabbed two of the noe discarded weapons and smiled "Now I'm happy".
Cari rolled her eyes as she grabbed one that looked like Faith's, she smiled "Mine's bigger".
O'Neill was already waiting at the next door "Ladies?".
"Sorry" they said in unison and moved past him into the corridor.
Hangar bay…
The grenade exploding gave the last remaining Dark JedI the edge he needed to surprise his more immediate threat.
Willow felt the energy tear into her shields, nearly flattening them from the shear force, the raw power was almost overwhelming, but she could tell the man was unfocused, and didn't understand the value of actual control.
She knew her own power was waning, it was almost like she could feel it draining from her body, and that was just from reinforcing the nearly depleted shields.
She closed her eyes to focus, and reached out with her senses, feeling her way across the hangar bay until she could feel her opponent, with a smile she imagined her own consciousness wrapping around the man's leg, with a few mystic words she felt the assault abruptly stop.
She knew the man had been tossed across the room, she slowly floated to the floor before stalking towards the barely conscious Dark JedI.
As she neared the man she felt something, deep within her, she closed her eyes as the pressure in her chest grew, it forced her to her knee's, the pain quickly became nearly unbearable.
"You have power child, a pity the Sith never found you years ago" said a deep voice.
Willow opened her eyes in time to see the Dark JedI, now standing, with his Crimson Blade in hand, just as he moved to attack.
She closed her eyes, not knowing what else to do, nearly unable to breathe from the pain.
Only to hear Faith laughing.
She opened her eyes to see the Dark JedI's own blade deflected by Faith's Double Blade, the man jumped back as she twisted his blade to the side and moved on the offensive, he moved fast however, and managed to avoid or deflect every thrust and strike she sent his way.
"Not bad" he hissed as he saw an opening and dashed forward, barely ducking a slash from Faith and drew his blade across her right thigh.
Faith however seemed almost oblivious to the wound as she continued her assault, spinning and twisting, still the man managed to avoid or deflect every strike.
Faith had saved her life only to face a much more experienced swordsman, the Dark JedI smiled as he now realized his opponents skill with the light saber was less than his, he stepped up his own offensive, easily pushing Faith back, the two were a blur as the Dark JedI attacked and Faith defended.
Less than five seconds after Faith first engaged the Dark JedI, the fight was over, with Faith on her back, weaponless and covered in small burns from her opponents weapon.
A Crimson blade hovered over her throat.
"Now, that was truly impressive for one untrained" he hissed.
Faith however smiled "Just buying my friends some time is all".
Willow heard a click from behind her, looking quickly, still nearly incapacitated from the pain, she spied Jonothan O'Neill standing a dozen feet from her, his MP-5 Submachine gun aimed at the man, Caridad and Shannon standing right next to him.
The Dark JedI caught sight of them and smiled "Fool, I deflected your weapon fire before" he sneered.
"Let's try that again shall we" Jon said coldly and pulled the trigger.
The Dark JedI attempted to deflect the weapon fire, and actually managed to intercept one round, it sparked as it connected with the blade.
The remaining four rounds of 9mm ammunition slammed into his chest, picking him up and tossing him back nearly five feet from the impact, he landed on his back hard, the crimson blade died as it fell from his lifeless fingers.
Jon dropped the weapon and moved to Willow quickly, she watched as Cari moved to Faith, and Shannon moved to check on the other Dark JedI, killed by Bao-Dur's Grenade.
"How you doing?" he asked her, the concern in his eyes was not what she expected.
Willow nodded slowly, she could feel the pain subsiding "I…need a …minute" she gasped.
Faith, using her sister Slayer's shoulders for support ambled over, she was a mess of light saber burns "Hey red, you sure your okay?".
Willow nodded, but remained silent as she turned her focus on recovering from what ever the Dark JedI did to her.
"Hey guys!. Bao-Dur's alive, just unconscious, no burns, no serious bruising" Shannon called out from the Hangar control room door.
Jon turned "Stay with him till he wakes up" he called out, then turned back to Willow "I'm going to check on Giles and Miller, your sure your okay?".
Willow nodded again and pushed his shoulder, it was easier than using the little breath she had to speak.
Caridad helped Faith sit next to Willow, then ran back towards the corridor.
"That Sith guy do this?" Faith asked.
Willow only nodded.
"Damn red" she said quietly.
Caridad came back into the room, helping a limping Riley "Glad to see everyone's okay…whoa..Faith..".
"Can it Riley" Faith shot back, not sure if was about to make a bad joke about her condition, or the fact that she obviously got her butt kicked.
Riley smirked and nodded "All right" he let go of Caridad and hobbled over "But I reserve the right to belittle you later".
Faith couldn't help but smile, "Fine, but I get to belittle you whenever I want".
"How is this different than before?" he smiled.
Willow listened to the friendly interaction between the two, she was glad they could actually associate with each other, considering the only time they had met before was when Faith had occupied Buffy's body, and, well…
Shannon and Bao-Dur moved from the hangar control room "Hey, look who's awake" Shannon called out.
Everyone looked to see how the Zabrak Technician had fared during the fight, rather surprised to see he was fine.
"I'm okay, the grenade only concussed me" he waved as if it was no big deal and sat on the edge of a storage cylinder near to where the grenade detonated.
"Miller and Giles are coming around" Jon called from nearly the opposite side of the hangar.
They all watched as the former librarian and the Army Officer slowly pulled themselves to their feet, then slowly make their way towards them.
Jon was lost in thought as they approached.
Willow felt a lot better, her breathing had eased quite a bit in the last few minutes "What's wrong O'Neill?".
"Just thinking about the future" he said, making solid eye contact.
Faith caught the look and shook her head "Are you accusing Willow of something?".
"Accusing?. No." he sighed "Everyone has at one point or another mentioned how you are a very powerful witch, do you think they felt you here and followed that feeling?".
Faith was standing a second later, her wounds momentarily forgotten "Listen here Flyboy…" she began but stopped upon feeling a hand on her arm "Faith, no, he's got a point".
"What?" she asked.
"He has a point" she said again "They should have tracked Shayla and the others, but they came here, the only explanation is that they followed the stronger feeling to me".
Giles stepped forward "That is a very astute deduction, however terrifying it is".
Riley nodded "This is bad" he looked to Willow "Can you..conceal your power?".
Willow nodded "Maybe" she sighed "It's not like I can turn it on or off, but I might be able to create some kind of barrier, it'll take a lot of my power to keep them up though".
O'Neill smiled "That's good, being able to conceal it...not the..." he stopped and looked around for a second, feeling the metaphoracle foot cramming down his throat "Okay, now we need to worry about how to deal with the next group that comes looking" he said, changing the subject.
Almost everyone looked at him rather confused, only Graham voiced the obvious question "The next group?".
Jon nodded "C'mon guys, theirs always another group".
"He's got a point" Faith shrugged "And your right, we got our butt's handed back to us with nice red bows, we need to figure out how to deal with these guys better, before we end up dead".
Shannon motioned to the Dark JedI Jon shot "Bullets work all right".
"Several problems with that, first, limited ammunition, second, they like to surprise attack apparently" Jon shook his head "Good try though".
"I suggest we wait for the others to return, then work on this, we have quite a bit to deal with as it is" Giles said, adjusting his glasses.
"G's right, let's lick our wounds" Faith said, the tone in her voice made it clear that she was done.
Everyone moved off towards Boa-Dur, except Willow, she stared at the Dead Dark JedI for a few seconds before moving to join them, she couldn't help but wonder if she would end up bringing more trouble for the group.
Next Chapter: the gang reunites, The Handmaiden meets the Gang. The Dark Jedi Attack gets more thought. And Shayla makes a decision that might split the group.