I am the Moon Knight. Avatar of the great Khufu. I punish the wicked in his sight. I was fighting a couple of carjackers, when I was attacked by a shadow. And now, I'm in a desert. I'm surrounded by sand. Nothing but sand. Feels like home. I walk over a hill and see a town. I head over there, determined to figure out what's going on. Then, when I near the town, and see all the aliens, do I figure out that something's wrong. The Profile won't work. I'm looking at the aliens, and even some humans in the mix, and none of them are profiled.
I look up in the sky. No moon. There isn't a moon. There are two suns, but no moon!
I scream.
My master is like a shadow. The stuff of a child's nightmares.
I am expecting retribution. I deserve to be punished. I let Luke Skywalker escape. The noy escaped with nothing more damaging than an easily replacable hand. I do not deserve life. When I called it in to my master, he said nothing. Just told me to come back to Coruscant. But today, thankfully, my Master is merciful. As I land my ship and walk into the building, he appears out of the darkness, and says simply "Come."
I walk with him to his trophy room. The dark side of the force flows through the cases and stands, emanating from every dark object. "Tell me Vader, do you know anything about the Whills?"
"I know nothing my lord."
"The Whills are probably the most powerful beings in the galaxy. They were discovered, by the Jedi knight Qui-Gon Jinn." He doesn't lay eyes on me but I can feel him waiting expectantly. I do not respond. That chapter of my life is over. It has been for a long, long, time.
"They are so technologically advanced that they have devoted themselves to merely staying on their planet, observing the lower races and chronicling their lives. In short, they are glorified librarians."
I waited. Was my new mission to attack these Whills? Steal some form of technology, or records of Sith past?
"They are also so potent in the force that they may literally become one with it and live after death as ethereal beings. The key to eternal life."
We stopped at a hologram of Darth Tyrranus.
"Naturally, the Jedi council decided to keep it a secret. But Qui-Gon could not help but tell his old master about it."
We continued on, towards a door that I had never seen opened.
"When the rebels were about to be destroyed I decided to consolidate my power. I had found on Korriban, a portal to another world. Constructed by Darth Rankor in the early days of the Mandalorian wars, he used it to summon being from another galaxy. These beings drew upon the force and if he slew them, he would in effect, be able to absorb their powers and become all powerful. He never succeeded in killing them. He was practiced in Sith sorcery not fighting. These beings overcame him and returned to their own world."
This was all very strange to me. But then, I had never been very interested in Sith lore. We stopped at a Holycron, one that I had never seen before. The plaque read; THE HOLYCRON OF DARTH RANKOR. My master opened it and a Wookie in Sith robes appeared before us.
"What do you want from my Holycron?" It asked in Wookie tongue. I am fluent, and my Master knows this as he does everything. "What do you seek of the dark side of the force?"
"An account of the closing." My master responded entering the Sith code.
"It was a sight to see them." Recounted Rankor. "I had twisted several to my side, so they would be all the more powerful when I drained them. But many of them fought against their own brethren, my legions, to their home. My new apprentice, the greatest of my new pupils Darth Night himself, raged against the one with the strength of fifty Wookies and an S on his chest. But in the end this 'Superman' won, and they all returned. My portal had broken. For a recount of the warriors that came through the portal…"
My master shut off the Holycron. "I recently uncovered this portal on an expedition. I reconstructed it, learned how to channel the force to open it. But something went wrong."
He opened the door and I beheld a pit, a hundred feet in diameter, with five pillars poking up at the edges like grasping fingers. The structure was magnificent and covered in Sith runes, but I all but forgot it when I saw what was inside the pit. A giant skeleton, well over fifty feet tall, adorned in a bizarre purple and blue armor.
"This is their portal." My master intoned. "This being opened the door on their side, while the door was open on my side. I do not pretend to know how this works; I only received scant information from Rankor, and the runes. It may be possible that I put it together wrong. But know this my young apprentice. Several beings came through this portal. Beings of great power. We must find them all as fast as we can. I have already sent out all of my assassins and bounty hunters, even the clone we have of Darth Maul. Seven of these warriors have fallen in corusant. Bring them to me. They will join me or they will fall."
At last. No more espionage and politics, finally I have the chance to see some action. Warriors of great power! I compose myself. I would not fail my master again. "I will break them. I will make them kneel before my master."
He nodded. Then he said "My apprentice, do not fail me." The rebuke stun.
He summoned the force and plucked a gem off the armor, which landed in my waiting hands. "This will help you locate them."
I bow and take my leave. I would hunt them down.
"This is the Alderaan Flower calling in." Mon Mothma called to the scout party. "What have you found?"
"Alderaan Flower, this is Captain Kerrigan of the Space Fox and… well, you'll have to see this for yourself."
Mothma turned to Leah. "Do you think it's a trap?"
She shook her head. "These pirates are loyal to the Rebellion. Or, more loyal than most. I don't think they would try to kidnap you."
Mothma hesitated then nodded as if it were enough.
Soon later, she was in the doorway to the medical chambers. Captain Kerrigan stopped her. "Before you go in there your highness, I should explain."
"We were looking for a place to hide; the Imperial forces have discovered our… loyalties."
Mothma nodded, understandingly. And she did understand. "Does that mean you are willing to join the rebellion?"
Kerrigan Glanced back at his crew behind him. He was old and bald, with a pepper-gray beard. He was hefty, but his defining feature was his piercing eyes. When he looked at something, it was like a force of nature. Nothing could escape. His eyes were the window to his soul.
His crew consisted of his co-pilot, a loyal cyborg Duros named Ken, a slightly odd Lorrdian who seemed to do whatever came into his mind no matter whether it was a good or bad idea and had no real name, and a rare brown-skinned Yuzzem named Flak.
"I can't speak for all of our happiness about it your highness", he said eyeing Flak, "But we took a vote and the crew of the Space Fox is yours." The Lorrdian waved. Flak growled and left.
Kerrigan's eyes followed him. Then he continued his story. "We came out of hyperspace in the Maw, so we could lose them in the black holes, when we saw an imperial station."
Mothma started like she had been shot. A station in the Maw. That meant that the empire must be doing something of a high-priority secret.
"It was building a, oh I can't describe it… Some sort of gigantic metal moon and a whole pack of monstrosities that're bigger than AT-AT's."
He called up an image on his holoprojector.
"Oh my…" Mothma quickly composed herself. "Thank you Captain. I cannot tell you what this information will mean. What are we doing outside the med. chambers?"
Kerrigan hesitated. "Well, we picked up a passenger on the way out." He opened the door to the most breathtaking sight she'd ever seen.
There, inside the Bacta tank, was a man frozen completely in space ice. He wore a red white and blue uniform with a star shape in the center of the chest and a matching shield. There was an instant realization that this was more than a man. In fact, despite him being frozen in space, Mothma would at that moment swear that he would survive the thaw.
"Bring him aboard the Alderaan Flower." She whispered, all but speechless.
C-3PX walked around the corner. Several scanners immediately adjusted to the change in light and setting and continued to scan for Target's heat signature. It was made for one purpose that it carried out with a ruthless efficiency.
C-3PX's footsteps clanked loudly in the darkness. It brought its rifle up, his mechanical arm adjusting for weight of the object vs. gravity and internal gyroscopes whirred. It was the biggest gun in C-3PX's expansive arsenal.
It almost didn't seem fair.
Almost. But then, as a robot, it didn't feel emotions.
It went into the room. The far side door was locked. It had herded efficiently into the proper coordinate. And Target was joined by another? Yes! Termination required! If it were alive, it would have registered joy at the thought. As it was, C-3PX brought the sizable weapon to bear on the unknown factor and fired upon new subject, designation Target 2.
It was a direct hit on Target 2's cranial center. It recalibrated it's weapon and rechecked the target 1's picture against his mainfraim. Yes, the first Target was the one the Emperor wanted alive + with all systems functioning. That would be tricky, primary programming was termination.
An error registered in C-3PX's mind. Target 2 was still standing + there was no physical damage of note on Target 2. The errors were of such magnitude that it took time (2.0054 seconds) before the data that the target was moving toward IG-88 in a hostile manner registered. Onboard targeting systems were cocked again and IG-88's rifle was leveled.
She went through IG-88's metallic body.
Error!
Multiple extrac–
Error!
Systems functions–
Error!
Error!
Err–
The robot collapsed on the ground.
"Thank you for your assistance." Natasha Romanov said as she pried the large gun from the robot's vise-like grip. "I do loathe robots."
"What can I say? I'm the best there is at what I do." Kitty Pride stepped around the machine and examined it. "Where are we and why was this thing after you?"
Natasha shrugged. "I have nothing to do with this. This is probably Arcade, or some other lame super villain trying to revenge himself on the X-men and Avengers and whatnot." She picked up a wicked looking ball. "Cool grenade. This thing's a walking–"
Reboot:
Program: C-3PX human/cyborg relations protocole droid fluent in 700000 forms of communication [[MaulPatch +800 forms of extermination]] primary programming [[MaulPatch 1obey the sith + 2terminate all non-sith forms of life except when 2 conflicts with 1]] secondary programming [[MaulPatch termnate all Gungans + extreme prejudice, disregarding primary programming 1]].
Analyze surroundings: 1 target + 1 hostile in immediate vicinity.
Rewrite; hostile on target list. Target 1 in possession of heavy ordnance. Proceed capture sequence + extreme prejudice.
Analysis complete. Results: Target 1 in possession of remote seeker drone.
Overload circuits?
Apply.
Natasha and Kitty screamed in unison as electricity from the ball coursed through their bodies and overloaded their nerve centers.
C-3PX stood, retrieved his weapons and his targets, and headed out the door.
Grand Admiral Thrawn had many things on his mind.
It was always thus. As a child, he had achieved a perfect record in all classes. Even the ones that bored him, he was able to motivate others who were far more interested to do his work, and no other student could compare when it came to subversive cheating on examinations. He graduated from military school at the age of seventeen (an unheard of event), with degrees in advanced military stratagem, psychological warfare, covert operations and (oddly his professors had said) art.
Especially art, though, none of his artwork could be found to this day.
Thrawn had always been of the opinion that art was the window to the soul. He was marveled by his peers for his seemingly impossible ability to know exactly what they were thinking. It was because he had procured as many of their various artworks as he could, from sculptures, to doodles, to holiday crafts. He wasn't about to let anybody but his mentor see his artwork.
Ah, his mentor, Phrell. The art teacher. Genius unappreciated. Thrawn had researched every lecture the man had given, and offered his respect to him in full. It was Phrell, who taught Thrawn not how to make art, but to see how art made. Everybody has a signature, even star-fighter craftsmen were artists.
Thanks to Phrell, the bridge of his command ship the Chimaera, currently holds holograms of approximately 5,873,092,611 pieces of art, from 285,300 cultures including his own. All supplied from his benefactor the emperor.
Darth Sidious knew of Thrawn's talents. they were the only reason he, an alien, was allowed such a high rank within the human-only Imperial army, was allowed to talk back to the emperor, was allowed access to the emperor's private collection of dark relics. Oh, Darth Sidious knew Thrawn's capabilities so well. But he couldn't guard himself against them, no matter how hard he tried.
He thought he had left no art of his own for Thrawn to study; he had created nothing to capture Thrawn's interest.
He was wrong.
He had created Darth Vader.
Thrawn had studied the emperor's fist long and hard, separating from what he was, what he had been transfigured into. There wasn't much left to separate. But with what was left…
Thrawn had always known what the emperor was, what he could do. He knew that the empire was a necessary evil, to protect the universe from the Yuuzohng Vong. But when the day comes that those invaders are defeated… Thrawn would look forward to walking face to face with the emperor and kill him. With a suicide bomb if need be. The emperor is a monster, and can only create monsters.
This is why Thrawn was more than apprehensive to be given a force sensitive stone and sent to capture those who it led to.
"Sir, we are landing on the planet Kessel now." The voice of the captain over the intercom piercing, but not interrupting, his train of thought. "There is a rebellion amongst the miners…"
"Prisoners, Captain. This is a prison planet, let's call its inhabitants what they are shall we?"
"Uh… The prisoners… um… they're revolting sir. Apparently they're being led by a monster that won't die."
Thrawn looked at the glowing stone in his hand. "Very good Captain. Let's get him."
Professor Xavier looked around.
One minute, he'd been with Tony Stark, then, things began to blur. There was some sort of black lightning, and dark humming. Then, he wasn't pulled exactly, but everything else was pushed. The world sort of… faded away.
And now, he was surrounded by armed men pointing guns at him.
He must have slipped into a parallel dimension.
"Who are you and how did you get here?" One of them shouted.
The professor pushed his mind out, letting it crash into the soldiers like a wave, instantly breaking down their defenses. They all stood at attention and holstered their weapons. Professor X scanned their minds for anything useful he could use in this world. Then, he sent his mind lashing out through the corridors, and gathered information from several others. He reeled at the onslaught of this new world, all the information. So many planets, all connected. One of these people, Lando Calrissian, had in his head, several things about Jedi knights. The protectors of the galaxy.
He reached out with his mind. What a surprise! A few of his X-men were on the same planet. As was Ms. Pym and Deadpool. He stretched his mind further, and was surprised when he found it could encompass the entire planet. He investigated, and found the planet surrounded by some form of energy, that it, and all living things together. It helped him, gave him more power.
He stretched his mind across the universe. He hoped Magneto had his helmet off. His mind went across the stars, seeking out other minds from his own world. He found several, and opened up his thoughts.
Listen carefully.
He told all of the minds about this new world, and the war being waged. He told them of the force, and of Jedi knights. And how they ought to group together to find a way home.
Find a way to the planet of Utapau. I will attempt to open up a communication with the rebel leader and open up a dialogue. When we get together, we can work on a way of getting home.
Suddenly, lightning arced across the universe, through the paths created by his mind. They flew straight into his head and he doubled over in his wheelchair.
The soldiers snapped to, and brought their guns to bear. "Get him in cufflinks." One of them said. "Take him to the holding cells immediately."
He screamed, as the evil cackling force took hold of him completely.
On the other side of the galaxy, Luke Skywalker was listening. This man, Xavier, was obviously strong in the force, but inexperienced. He heard the ending, where the emperor overtook his mind. He shielded himself so the emperor wouldn't find him out. Then he got up. There was some people close by who had heard the message too. They didn't hear the ending.
He was on the planet Dantooine. He jumped in his speeder and called Leah as he zoomed through the city.
"Leah, the empire knows about Utapau. You have to get everybody off there now."
Leah's surprise was apparent. "How did they find out?"
"There was a ripple in the force just a moment ago." Luke said. "After that, several force-sensitive beings have suddenly appeared. One of them just sent out a force-message to the others. They were on different planets at the time."
"Well… that's powerful."
"Very. I can send messages across planets too, but they're mostly feelings, maybe a word or two. This being sent out a full concise worded message, to several beings on several planets. This message was full of details about how the galaxy works, details on the empire, the rebellion, credits…"
"Credits?"
Luke paused. "This may sound crazy, but I got the strong impression that they aren't from this galaxy. That they've come from another one… between galaxies."
"Luke, what does this have to do with the rebellion?"
"The emperor, he's a Sith."
Leah paused. "What?"
"A Sith. The sworn enemy of the Jedi. They use the dark side of the force. Vader's one. The emperor is one too. And the emperor sensed the message just like me, and listened to it before almost killing the being that sent it. The message included where the other force-sensitive beings could find the one who sent the message. He was at Utapau, in the rebel base."
She drew a sharp breath. "I'll start the evacuation immediately." "
Luke shook his head. "Not enough. We'll also need to find some way to get to the other beings that are bound to turn up. I'm almost sure the emperor wants them for something."
"I'll send somebody to stay behind, to find these other force sensetives."
"How will you recognize them before the empire?"
She smiled. "Mothma and I just found one of them. I think. He's not like anything in this galaxy. He'll be able to recognize his friends."
Luke looked at her questioningly. She just smiled. "Thanks' for the warning Luke, I'll get right on it." The holograph of her disappeared, and Luke focused again on finding the force-beings. He rounded a corner and found a surprise.
There were three of them. One was wearing a full suit of armor and green robes. He couldn't tell his species. The other two were human, a girl with a white streak down her hair, and a man in a red suit with small horns on it. There was a large blue furred beast with them, and it was only when he got closer he realized that the beast was one of them. He leapt out of the speeder to greet them.