Dark Angel

By Serena Kenobi

Author's note: I had one person saying that Elena was somewhat of a Mary Sue, and I like to take constructive criticism very seriously. They said she needed a weakness, and I agree. Hence the addition of this chapter.

Also, Super Tinfoil Man was asking how Elena and the others got to have their powers. I'll explain that in this chapter, plus, I decided to scratch my original plot and go with something else. It took a lot of thinking, but I'm happy with my choice. I hope you will be, too. Don't forget to leave comments and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: Once again, I own no one but Elena.


Chapter 13

The tall, handsome, and muscular Dark Prince entered into his private cruiser.

"We will dine at the Menari this evening," he told the droid chauffeur, and leaned back into his leather seat.

The Dark Underlord of Black Sun stared out into the rays of the artificial setting sun, the warm glow casting darkening shadows on the sides of the buildings. But the Dark Prince's mind was not on the beauty of the sunset, synthetic though it was. He was planning his next move against his archenemy, the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.

So far, he had not been able to attack Vader directly. No, the Dark Lord was much too powerful for that. Any frontal attempt would be useless. He would have to carefully strategize, plan his every move, always be one step ahead of Vader.

However, all of his previous attempts had proved fruitless. The Dark Lord had foiled each of his plans, and though he was still the second favorite of the Emperor himself, it was not enough. He needed to be at the top. But so far, Vader did not have any weaknesses to speak of. He was strong, he had that mysterious Force on his side, and he was just as wealthy and powerful as the leader of Black Sun. He neither needed nor wanted for nothing.

But that was before. Before she had entered the Dark Lord of the Sith's life.

Vader did have a weakness.

And that weakness was his young daughter.

Prince Xizor smiled darkly.


Elena swung hard at a nearby droid, slashing it dead in its center. It fell to the ground, split into two pieces. Before she had time to savor her victory, however, another droid came up behind her, brought its lightsaber down at an incredible speed –

Elena teleported out of its way, disappearing into thin air. The droid did not have time to plan its next move because she teleported back into the room a mere split second later, already in the air and lunging right behind the droid, and chopped its head off.

The droid died down immediately, its frayed wires sizzling.

Elena shut down her lightsaber, reached up, and grabbed the mass of electrically charged wires. She felt the currents of energy run through her, smiled, and ripped the wires out of the droid with ease.

She would have to ask her father to buy more new droids. This was the last one she had destroyed, and they were becoming increasingly easy to defeat.

Well, weren't they all?

No, she decided. Vader had warned her not to use her powers against the droids – he wanted her to experience the use of the Force without the mutant abilities. He had specifically told her to only use her senses and lightsabers.

Okay, so she had cheated slightly. It happened sometimes.

Elena telekinetically picked up both damaged droids and disintegrated them. Once they were a mass of liquid metal, she slowly reformed them into a new droid – a destroyer droid from the Clone War era. She let it rest on the ground before mentally ordering it to activate. It did, springing to life and uncurling from its ball.

"Stay here and deactivate," she told it, inwardly pleased that her metal controlling and telekinetic powers were starting to be controlled more easily.

The droid nodded with its head, said, "Roger," and rolled against the wall, deactivating.

Elena grinned once more, brushed a few strands of her lengthening blonde hair out of her face. Not only was it growing rapidly, it was also lightening into a lighter golden. She wasn't sure why, but she liked it.

Elena glanced behind her to make sure the droid was shut down, turned, and headed out of the training room, locking the door behind her.


On the planet that was farthest from the center of the universe, a young Jedi trainee tossed and turned in his bed, groaning. The sheets were a tangled mess, most of the blankets lay by the bed, and the young man was covered in damp sweat. He gripped the sheets and clenched his teeth as another painful shock ripped through his body, and he hissed in pain, eyes flashing from blue to yellow to red, and suddenly a beam of hot lasers erupted forth from his eyes and burned the beside lamp in two. The young man growled in frustration, slapping a hand over his eyes.

A knock on the door caused him clench his fists in utter exasperation, and he panted, laying with his arms dangling off the bed, after another shock hit his body.

"Luke? Are you all right?" an elder woman's voice called from behind the door.

The young man rubbed his temples, inhaling and exhaling deeply. "I'm fine, Aunt Beru!" he shouted back. "I'm just… cleaning up my room!" Yeah, right.

"Well," came the uncertain reply, "if you're sure you're okay. You've been in there for five hours now; your uncle is starting to wonder what you've been up to."

"I uh…" he fumbled for a valid excuse. " I'm just… taking a long time! This room got pretty messy." He hoped his aunt would buy it.

"Okay, Luke. Do you need anything?"

"Yes!" Luke exclaimed suddenly. "I need some calcium supplements. They should be in the kitchen."

"Calcium? Whatever for?"

"I just… haven't taken it in a long time and thought I'd start doing it again. Could you leave outside my door?" He winced as another wave of pain washed over him.

"Well… all right."

Luke Skywalker closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on a Jedi healing trance. This new stage in his mutation was beginning to kick in; the first time it had happened it was mild, but now, a year later, it was much more painful. He knew, somehow, what was happening to him. His mutations were constantly changing as new abilities were discovered, and to keep up with the stress, his body had apparently decided to go through a sort of regeneration every now and then. In other words, he had lost his powers for a short time and had become defenseless and vulnerable. He didn't know when it would happen next or how long it would last; he only knew that it hurt like heck.

Calcium was the healing supplement. It somehow helped to calm his body and relieve the pain for a short while. It wouldn't get rid of it permanently, but it did supply temporary relief.

Luke tried to concentrate harder as another painful shock ripped through his body, and he distantly wondered if his sisters were going through the same experience.


Elena sat, bored, listening to several officers drone on and on about the smuggling problem in the Baji sector. She wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying but stared at the dark wall in front of her.

The meeting room they were in was dark, and like most of the other rooms in the castle, was mostly bare except for the dark table, chairs, and holoproj. Elena had been given permission to do a little redecorating in some parts of the castle, but for the most part, Vader liked it plain and simple. He was not one to squander his extreme wealth, and she didn't either; but Elena liked to have some different items and color in the castle.

"Are you awake?" Jenson whispered to her.

Elena blinked, turned to him. "Not really," she confessed. "What's going on now?"

"Same issues they were talking about fifteen minutes ago," Jenson said, a small smile gracing his face.

Elena grinned and turned her attention back to the officers. Glancing down at her hands, she felt her fingernails with the tips of her fingers and was surprised to suddenly feel a wave of sickness hit her. She frowned, put a hand on her stomach. Thinking it might be just a passing cramp; she dismissed it as it went away.

But when it came back, this time coming upon her even harder, and this time, it brought on a sudden headache, she knew something was wrong. She felt dizzy, nauseous, and couldn't seem to concentrate.

"Lady Skywalker?"

She looked up to see an officer observing her quizzically.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," she apologized, "I'm afraid we'll have to pick up this discussion tomorrow; I'm not feeling very well." She stood up.

The officers did the same.

"Of course, my lady," the first officer said, "I hope you feel better by tomorrow." They bowed and left the room, leaving only Jenson and Elena.

"Are you going to be all right?" Jenson asked her.

She nodded. "I think so. I just need some rest. I'll be in my room if anything comes up." Elena turned and walked out of the room, putting a hand to her forehead. When she reached her bedroom, she entered and took off her boots and tunic. She glanced at a datapad she needed to review for school and reached for it to telekinetically pick it up.

The datapad started to levitate across the room, and it was halfway to her outstretched hand, when –

"Aah!" Elena groaned, dropping on her knees to the floor. She grabbed her forehead, the room spinning dizzily around her. A wave of intense pain washed over her entire body and mind, and she dropped to the floor, desperately trying to regain her senses –

She then started to shake. First, it was her hands, then her arms, and her thoracic area; down to her legs, then feet – in a matter of seconds her entire body was shuddering violently.

But in the midst of the ongoing quivers, she managed to notice something exceptionally disturbing. Her fingers were no longer silver. They were normal.

Elena felt her body being somehow drained of her powers… and she was losing them rapidly. Her body continued to tremble as she lay there on the floor.

F-Father! She frantically called for help. Father, can you hear me?

But Vader could not. He was too far from Coruscant to pick up her distress call.

Mara! Mara!

She felt the Emperor's Hand's emotions as she received the message – but then blocked it immediately. Elena knew Mara was in the Emperor's presence.

Elena desperately tried to think of anyone else that could help her, anyone else that she could trust implicitly.

JIX! Jix!


Sitting in a dimly lit bar on Imperial Center, Sergeant Wrenga Jixton froze.

What was that?


Elena heard his confused answer and continued to call him using the Force – her other powers weren't working properly.

Jix! Jix, if you can hear me, say yes!

There was a slight pause and then: Elena?

He heard her! Elena closed her eyes as another particularly forceful shudder jolted through her body, and she gasped, her breathing short and erratic.

Jix seemed to feel her emotions and said, Elena, what the devil's going on? Are you all right?

Pl-please, Jix. Ju-ust c-come. I'll t-ell you when-n you get he-ere. The shaking even caused her mental thoughts to be unclear and slightly jumbled.

I'll be right there! Just hang on, Elena!

Elena sent a wave of emotions to him, mostly consisting of relief, and looked at her hands as they continued to shake. Wondering what in Yoda's name was going on, she tried to think of every possible sickness she could have acquired somehow. But how could she get sick if she healed almost instantaneously?

Her mind abruptly flashed back to a few months before her seventeenth birthday. She had felt suspiciously weak, her hands were slightly shaking, her powers were unstable, and for a few minutes, had lost them. Her hair and eye color had also strangely darkened somewhat. Because of her exhaustion and fragility, she had taken some calcium supplements to see if it would help. It had, and within a few days, she was back to normal. She had brushed it off as a freak occurrence and hadn't thought of it since.

But now…

Elena slowly put her hands on the floor and tried to lift herself up onto her knees. Slowly, she lifted her body up with her arms and began to bring her trembling knees up to rest on the floor –

Another sudden shudder rippled through her body, and she fell back to the ground.

She could do nothing but lie there and wait for Jix to come and help her.

Jix opened the throttle fully and rushed in his speeder towards Vader's castle. Once in the hangar bay, he sprinted to the other side of the castle where Elena's room was and banged on the door.

"Elena! Elena, are you in there?" he shouted.

"Y-yeah," he heard a weak voice on the other side of the door.

"Can you open the door?"

"Not re-really," the weak voice confessed, "I c-can't get u-up." He heard a breathy, painful intake of breath and somehow felt her extreme pain and distress.

"Hang on." He took a few steps back, pointed his blaster at the door's lock, and fired a few rounds. The lock sizzled and began to smoke, and he grabbed the hole in the door and pulled it open. He halted for a second, staring at the trembling figure on the floor, then quickly went over to her, gently taking her and rolling her over on her back, cradling her shivering body in his arms.

"Elena…" his dark eyes stared down into her unfamiliar matching dark ones. He reached out and touched her wet, dark chocolate-colored hair, and brushed a few wavy strands out of her sweat-soaked face. She tried to smile, but closed her eyes as another shudder ripped through her body. He frowned and held her tighter, as if hoping it would stop the quivering.

"Elena, what's happened to you? What's goin' on?"

Elena inhaled and exhaled before locking her eyes onto his. "S-something's happening to m-me," she started hesitantly, "it ha-as some-thing to d-do wi-ith m-my mu-mutant abil-abilites."

Jix couldn't have been more confused in his life. "Mutant abilities?" he echoed. "Elena, I don't understand."

Elena gazed at him. "I ne-eed some cal-calcium," she stammered. "It wi-will he-elp with the sha-aking."

"Calcium?"

"Yes. There's s-some in the 'f-fresher cabinet."

Jix hurried into the fresher and opened the cabinet. Sure enough, there was the bottle of calcium supplements. Taking the bottle out, he hastily brought it to Elena and watched in concern as she shakily grabbed a handful of pills and swallowed them in one gulp.

"All right, Skyler," he said in a low voice, "What's going on?"

Elena glanced to her beside table. "Go t-to the ni-ightstand and o-open the drawer. T-take out the co-comic books y-you find there."

"Comic books? Elena, this ain't the time for jokes!"

"Ju-just do it. Please."

Her pleading eyes finally caused him to sigh in defeat, and he picked her up and set her on the bed. He then went to the nightstand, took out a few of the comic books, and stared at them.

"Elena, I don't get it."

"It's k-kind of hard to explain."

The Imperial agent raised his eyebrows. "Try me."

"Well, let's ju-ust say, I'm genetically en-enhanced."

"Genetically enhanced?"

"Yeah. I'm a mu-mutant."

Jix stared at her. "A mutant? I don't get it."

"I can c-copy comic book mutant's p-powers," she slowly explained.

"You're serious."

One look from her and he knew she was. "I still don't get this whole thing. I mean, I know you have the whole Force thing, but this is just… odd. These comic book people aren't real, Elena. Their powers aren't real, either."

"I know."

He sat back, digesting the news. "If you can do this, what made you be able to do it in the first place? What makes you so special?"

"My f-father. Because he was cre-created completely from the F-Force, it enhanced his g-genes b-but nev-ver activ-vated them. In the c-comics, the mutant gene i-is carried on b-by the father; in my c-case, my father. To make a l-long story s-short, Dad has the m-mutant gene, and when I w-was born, the genes activated, and m-my genetic structure made me a mu-utant," she said.

Jix nodded slowly. "I don't think I'll ever understand it, but I can kinda see the big idea. Speaking of his Lorship, I'd better contact him to tell him what you're goin' through." He paused. "By the way, what's goin' on now?"

"My b-body needs time to regenerate in dif-ferent periods to keep up with all of m-my powers. It's h-happened before, but no-ot this bad. I'll pr-probably be getting this mo-ore often n-now that I'm older. But the cal-calcium helps to stop the sh-shakings."

Jix nodded again, touched the comlink on his wristband. In a few minutes, the familiar sound of breathing was heard over the link.

"Jixton, you had better have a good explanation for this interruption," Vader said, "I am considering firing you. Tell me why you called before I end the link."

Jix looked at Elena and said, "Uh, we're having a serious mutant problem down here…"

The breathing on the other end stopped for a moment, then began once again. "What did you say?"

"Listen," Jix said, "I know everything. The whole mutant deal, her powers, everything. No need to hide it from me anymore. And if you think I found this out on my own, Elena's the one who told me."

"Where is she?" Vader asked.

"She's right here, and she's shaking pretty bad. Her hair and eye color are different, too."

"Shaking? What is going on, Jixton?" Vader thundered. "I want a full explanation!"

"She's going through some kinda hormonal change," Jix said, "it's kinda hard to explain. Just get back here ASAP."

"I am on a mission from the Emperor," Vader said, "and I do not think I can return home immediately. You must take care of her while I am gone. I should be back at Imperial Center within the week."

"Will do. I'll look after her."

Elena smiled weakly at the Imperial sergeant.

"Very well," Vader said, "I would like to speak with her."

Jix held out his wrist, and Elena spoke into the integrated comlink. "H-hey, Dad," she said.

"Elena, are you going to be all right?"

"Yeah, I think so. Jix'll l-look out for me. Don't w-worry about me."

Vader was silent for a moment before saying, "I always worry about you."

Elena didn't know what to say in reply.

"Make sure Jixton gets you everything you need," Vader continued, "I shall return as soon as I can." The link was disconnected.

After a few seconds of silence, Elena reached in the bottle of calcium pills to grab another handful; but her hand slipped as it trembled, and half of the pills spilled out of the bottle onto the bed.

Jix didn't say anything but gathered the pills together in his hands and picked them up off the bed. Taking one hand, he reached out and gently forced Elena's mouth to open. With the other, he dropped the pills into her mouth and waiting until she had swallowed them before slowly taking his hands away. Elena stared back at him and unexpectedly snatched his hand, squeezing it tightly in her much smaller one.

Taking this as a good sign, Jix slid up next to Elena on her bed, resting his back against the padded headboard. He put his free arm around Elena and began to stroke her hair, still silent.

Elena smiled slightly as he did so and curled up into his warm body. She glanced at their hands still connected, and closed her eyes as the effects of the pills began to lessen her shuddering somewhat. It did not completely disappear, but the violent spurts were no longer there.

She and Jix sat there on her bed silently, both wrapped up in their own thoughts. The Jedi-in-training was wondering if her brother and sister were going through the same ordeal. The Imperial agent was simply enjoying the quiet, tranquil moment with Vader's daughter as they rested there, watching dark clouds cover the sunset and the planet of Coruscant, eventually blanketing the whole planet in the darkness of nightfall.

The clouds would soon grow close together and begin to release their rain as a thunderstorm quickly approached the castle of Darth Vader.


So, there ya have it. Hope you enjoyed it, and I enjoyed writing it!! Lots of fun. Definite new plot twist in there. I keep changing my mind... sheesh.

Don't mind me!!!

MtFbwy,

-Serena Kenobi