UFC: A New Alien; A New Hope

Summary: A strange new arrival saves Leia from being captured aboard the Tantive IV. How does that affect the future?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: The 9th story of my Unfinished Chronicles.

The Phantom Zone…

This was Clark's only chance. Thanks to Raya he had been given a chance to correct his mistake, escape this place, return to Earth and stop Zod. He places his bloody hand on the control panel and the escape portal activates.

He turns his head to check on Raya only, to his horror, see her being stabbed. He would make a move to save her but it is far too late as the portal opens, erupting outward and swallowing him whole…

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away…

Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan and member of the Imperial Senate, hides in an alcove aboard her ship the Tantive IV as Imperial Stormtroopers swarm all over it. No doubt looking for the Death Star plans.

Well with any luck those plans are safely down on the planet surface by now, hidden in the R2 unit she uploaded them into.

She would not let the sacrifice of those who stole them be in vain. She would not let the Rebellion die. Not now. Not now when they had just barely gotten an Alliance together that is in a position to challenge the Empire. That monstrous superweapon had to be destroyed.

She couldn't go because the Star Destroyer would have detected her life-signs in the escape pod and blasted it. If she was guessing right with the droids the Imperials would have considered it a short circuit and misfire and not wasted the effort.

She prays to the Force she was right.

Her attention is grabbed as a group of 4 Stormtroopers enter the corridor she is in. She readies her blaster. She had hoped to remain hidden but clearly that is not happening today.

She waits until the lead trooper spots her before she fires, striking him dead on and he falls to the floor. She then makes a dash for it.

Behind her the next in command order the weapons set to stun as the 3 remaining troopers take aim...only for a blinding flash to appear directly ahead of them. A large object flies out of the flash barrelling into the 3 troopers and knocking them out cold.

The noise and light make Leia stop and turn...probably unwisely in most circumstances. What she finds makes her blink in puzzlement. The 3 troopers have been knocked out flat by what appears to be strangely dressed man in a red jacket.

What? How? Where did he come from?

That's just a few of the questions running through Leia's mind. There is a groan from the man in question that snaps her out of it and against her better judgement she runs over and rolls him over, checking him over, completely not noticing he is a very handsome man...young man she thinks. His eyes flutter over and Leia finds herself caught in the stare of eyes of indescribably blueness.

As for the man in question Clark's last thought had been worry over the fact he was barrelling into 3 guys at a sci-fi convention...or so he thought.

Next thing he knows he is looking into the lovely face of a young woman with brown eyes and brown hair tied up in to two buns in a white dress. "Uh...hi?" he lamely comes up with.

Leia arches an eyebrow. Hi? Hi, he says?! She points her blaster into his face. "Where did you come from? Who are you?" she wants to know, her tone deadly serious.

Clark holds his hands up. "Clark. My name is Clark...and where I came from...that's...um...a really long story."

Leia frowns. She doesn't have time for long stories.

"Can I get up?" Clark asks.

Leia nods her approval of that. "Slowly," she adds as he starts to move.

Clark obeys...mostly because he is utterly lost as to what is going on. As he rises to his feet he looks around. "Where am I?" he asks. Beyond he's in a corridor he doesn't know.

"Aboard my ship," Leia answers.

"Ship?" Clark asks confused and by nature he tries to use his x-ray vision to look around and through the walls. Only one problem. No x-ray vision. Are his powers working at all? Because if they're not that weapon this woman is holding could prove to be deadly to him. "So can I ask your name?" he wonders trying to make nice.

"You can ask. I won't answer."

"Look...I really have no idea what is going on or where I am."

Leia stares into his face. One natural talent she has always had which has helped her a lot in her career in politics is the ability to read people. To know if they are lying or hiding something and this young man's expression is one of truly being lost. There is...fear in his eyes. If they only had the time…

What now is the question?

Leia looks at him and down at the fallen Stormtroopers...and she gets an idea. A really, really terrible idea that'll probably get her killed...or assuming she survives her father will probably kill her later. She lowers her blaster. "You really have no idea where you are do you?"

Clark shakes his head.

"Ok look and listen. I really need you to pay attention. We don't have much time," Leia says with urgency as she looks around. Another Stormtrooper patrol will have to be coming through here shortly. "I can help you," she says. "But I need your help in return. We need to get off this ship. Only then can we get to the bottom of...however you just arrived."

Don't ask Leia why she is making this offer. She couldn't give you rational reasons. It's just a feeling. A feeling that she and this...Clark can help each other. That she can trust him...which makes no sense whatsoever when he's a complete stranger.

Clark can honestly say he has no option does he? Well that and an odd strong feeling...an instinct really that he can trust this woman. "What do we do?" he asks her.

Leia nods. First thing she does is step past him, pick up one of the troopers' weapons and fires at the 3 she didn't kill.

"Hey! What?!" Clark asks in a splutter.

"It's only the stun setting," she explains. "We can't have them waking up. Now help me move them out of sight," she orders.

With a sigh Clark does as she says as they move them out of direct sight but a search would find them quickly enough. "Now what?" he wonders.

"Now we find out how good you look in a uniform," Leia says with an almost flirtatious smirk.

'This is crazy,' is Clark's thought as he squeezes his rather large frame into one of the...Stormtrooper outfits as his partner in crime called them. A partner in crime whose name he still doesn't know. She was out of sight changing herself into one of them so Clark takes the opportunity to test something. He grips the side of the corridor and squeezes, trying to pry it away. The metal protests with a slight groan but nothing more. So he had some strength but nowhere his full normal superstrength. He guesses that means he's more likely than not vulnerable.

Great. Just great. He's lost who knows where. Tangled up in who knows what and his powers have deserted him. This is just not his day...and that's not even including he's trying not to think about what is happening to his friends and family right now at the hands of Zod. It isn't like he can do anything about that at the moment anyway so he better just shove his worry to the back of his mind.

Leia returns, changed sans the helmet. "Here," she says handing him one of the standard blasters a trooper carries.

Clark reluctantly takes it. Clearly uncomfortable holding the weapon.

Leia tries to keep her frustration in check. "No. Hold it like this," she instructs him as she forces his hands into the correct position.

"I'm not comfortable," Clark points out.

"Join the club. Look. Here's the situation. Stormtroopers patrol in pairs or in groups of 4. If I did this alone it would draw suspicion. That's why I need your help. We'll put the helmets on and march onto the Star Destroyer."

"Star what?"

"Star Destroyer," Leia repeats as if that explains anything. "Once there we'll have to get to the flight deck, steal a Tie and with any luck pass as if we're going out on a routine patrol."

"You're making this up as you're going along," Clark accuses.

Leia won't confirm that that is true. Instead she says, "Well it's this or an Imperial Prison. Or worse."

"Worse?"

"Just follow me and don't speak unless spoken to...and if we are spoken to I'll do the talking. Understand?"

"Getting into character, yes ma'am," Clark replies.

Leia nods and takes a few breaths to calm her nerves. This was a long shot that it would actually work but she has little to lose at this point. If Vader(and she knows it's his ship that was chasing her) gets his hands on her...better not to think about it. She grabs the helmet and puts it on. The biggest weakness of this plan is that she's really too short to be a Stormtrooper. In fact she is too short, period. It always irked her. It's the most obvious thing that might give them away. With luck people might just think it was a slow recruiting month and allowed her in to meet the mandatory quota.

She gestures at her new partner and he places the helmet over his head. Then with a gesture they start marching, taking a little time to get it into proper rhythm.

The two then make their way through the corridors, Clark following Leia just slightly.

As they walk Clark starts to get a very bad feeling. It's hard to describe. He just feels...cold…and it's getting closer.

As they approach a junction they pick up a conversation ahead.

"Lord Vader, the battle station plans are not aboard this ship! And no transmissions were made. An escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting, but no life forms were aboard."

The reply comes from a truly frightening voice. "They must have hidden the plans in the escape pod. Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally, Commander. There'll be no-one to stop us this time."

As Clark and Leia turn to the right to the left they catch a glimpse of a figure in black walking away...and as he does so the cold feeling starts to lessen.

Darth Vader. Leia hates him. To her he is the symbol of the oppression of the Empire. He is everything she despises about it. That and every time she is in his presence she gets this horrible cold feeling that seeps right through to her bones but she doesn't have time to dwell on that. From that conversation she now knows they're on to her ploy. She knew even they would figure it out eventually though much, much later. Hopefully she's given R2 enough of a head start. It also emphasises her need to get down to the planet as quickly as possible. She leads her new partner through the air-lock and on to the Star Destroyer.

Of course this means they are practically next to the flight deck so it shouldn't be too difficult to make the short trip without raising suspicion.

On the way they get a lucky break. Walking towards them two pilots in flight gear.

"Bump into them," Leia says in a loud whisper to her current partner-in-cime.

"What?"

"Bump into them. Blame them. Just do it," she orders.

Clark must be out of his mind but he does what she says and bumps hard into of hard.

"Hey! Watch it!" the irate pilot snaps.

Clark stops and turns to face him. "Me watch it? You bumped into me!" he retorts.

"What's your ID number?" the pilot demands to know. "I'll report you to your commanding officer," he threatens.

Meanwhile Leia has sneaking round behind the 2nd pilot and with a swift movement smashed him across the back of the neck with her blaster.

Just as the other pilot is about to react Clark punches the guy out.

"Not bad," Leia remarks in semi-praise. She grabs one by the legs. "Grab the other. Quickly," she orders. They were alone right now but that wouldn't last.

Clark grabs the other pilot and they drag them into a supply closet.

Leia removes her helmet. "Right. We need to undress them."

"May I remind you I have no clue what we're doing," Clark says.

Leia sighs. "They're pilots. We'll dress up as them and grab a fighter."

"I don't know how to fly," Clark points out.

"Luckily I do," Leia responds. Lets just say her training growing up in the Alderaan Court was very thorough.

So the next few minutes are them in a cramped space trying to swap one bulky uniform for another when Clark is trying to be the gentleman and not see what little his bossy partner is wearing out of these uniforms.

The two walk out and head to the hangar trying to simply appear to be two pilots heading for their fighter.

Clark is trying to get his head around where the hell he is. This cavernous space with the numerous craft. Two large hexagonal panels with a ball in-between.

"Just make it look like we're chatting before our patrol," Leia says in a low voice.

"That's kinda hard to do when one has no idea where he is or what is going on," Clark responds in kind. He doesn't mean to go on repeating that but he really doesn't know what is going on nor why he keeps going along with this but for some reason he does.

"If we get out of this I promise I'll explain what I can," Leia says as they reach a TIE at the end of the line. She opens the hatch on the bottom of the cockpit and peers around. No-one is paying them much attention. "Get in quick," she hisses and the two clamber aboard.

"There's only one seat," Clark observes.

"Good eyes," Leia says with a sarcastic air. "It's a single seater fighter. Now hush. I need to do the pre-launch," she tells him off as she flicks the switches and presses the buttons to get the fighter to power up. "Hang on. Here we go," Leia says as she levitates the fighter off and heads for the bay doors.

Once through, flying past her own crippled ship, they enter the emptiness of space.

Clark's eyes go wide. "We're in space," he says in a hushed whisper.

"You sound like you've never been in space before," Leia remarks.

"No, well, I have," he bumbles on, not mentioning how he got there. Once as 'Kal-El', flyng under his own power and the 2nd time when he was trying to stop that nuclear missile. "I just didn't have the time to appreciate the view," he says, lamely.

"Hmm," Leia says, unable to think of a response. She heads down towards the dusty planet below.

"What planet is that?" Clark asks, knowing it's not Earth and trying not to freak out at the fact he seems to be lost somewhere in the universe. The only explanation he's got at the moment for what the hell is going on.

"Tatooine," Leia answers.

"Where are we going?"

Ideally Leia would like to go after R2 but she has no idea where the escape pod landed and the Empire will be sending down its forces soon if they haven't already. They no doubt tracked its trajectory. The only thing she can think of to do is find General Kenobi. R2 is programmed to head there. As long as the Empire doesn't catch him first they can meet up there. In answer to her partner's question she says, "An old friend of my father lives here. On the edge of the Dune Sea. He can help us. I just need to get us down before the Empire notices our handiwork and sends its forces after us."

"I literally have no clue what you just said...and I know, I know. I'm saying that a lot. I've just...had a very weird day."

Leia can only go with her gut feeling. The same one that had her ask for his help in the first place. That this stranger is someone she can trust...someone she needs to help. It makes no rational sense but she can't ignore it either. "I'll have to land us quite far away though," she cautions. "I can't risk leading the Empire to this man."

"Whatever you think is best," Clark says because it is the only thing he can think of to say.

Down on the planet below, within in a simple dwelling, is one of the few Jedi left in the galaxy. Dressed in simple beige robes he was on his knees meditating. Eyes closed. His hair and beard long turned white from living in this harsh environment, burdened by the guilt and remorse of his failures. It had made him look older than he actually was.

Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It had been his name once. Jedi Knight. Jedi Master. Before it was all destroyed. Now he simply went by Ben, having had no choice but to leave his old name behind when he undertook his duty. To watch over young Luke.

He was meditating, connecting to the Force.

That's when he felt it. A tiny ripple, a small disturbance. As if something had subtly changed. He couldn't determine its source but he had a feeling that whatever it was would find him soon enough. The long term effect of this shift he could not say but Obi-Wan recalled something he had tried to teach to Anakin once.

That even the smallest ripple disrupts the surface of the largest ocean.

Author's Note: So here's the 2nd Star Wars/Superman story I started and stopped and yes, like the last one I have at least partially depowered Clark. Mostly because I just didn't think I could make it work if he kept his full God-Like powers. Thanks to everyone who has previously written reviews.