Alternate Aki: Star Wars

By EDelta88

Rated... well, it's Star Wars. Where torture, dismemberment, and genocide are PG-13 so fuck if I know.

Insert Disclaimer Here

Background and Beginning Notes:

So, I recently went to watch The Last Jedi. It was fun.

Then my best friend and I got into a two-hour debate about the pros and cons of the sequel movies, the screwy physics, quality of storytelling (or lack thereof in some cases), and whether Kylo Ren is a pansy. We did eventually agree that Kylo is not a pansy because taking a bowcaster to gut makes up for a shitty attitude... if only just.

In any case, this debate spawned a number of plot bunnies including this one. Long story short, while riding the bastardized Space-Time Seal that spits her out of the WoaWS, Aki happens to pass near enough to the Star Wars Universe to be spotted by the ever meddlesome Force. Nonsense ensues. The end.

Fair warning, I shelled this out in one night while more than a little sleep deprived and haven't had much time to edit it and FFnet is being glitchy about formatting again. So, don't take anything too seriously and have fun with the possibilities.

Chapter 1: A Wrench in the System...

Or, an object lesson in how everything is really all Obi-wan's fault.

Qui-Gon Jinn had long been a believer in the Living Force. That is to say, where his peers viewed the all-encompassing energy field as something akin to a force field or star (simple energy without intent or intelligence), he saw it more… organically.

Oh, Qui-Gon would never be so arrogant as to claim that he was more learned than his fellow Jedi and would freely admit that he was no scholar. However, over many years he had noticed how certain things through the Force and events it influenced simply did not make sense if was as purely mechanical as his colleagues would have them believe.

For instance, he had often encountered extremely similar situations (treaty negotiations, bodyguarding, etc.) and received the telltale nudges he had long associated with the Force's influence. Only, the actions he was lead to were often different and very rarely achieved similar results. Surely, a purely logical Force would simply lead him toward the same or similar optimal outcome in each instance?

There were other, more obvious patterns that he had taken notice of.

For example, words and sentiment should not really have any great effect on such a scientific concept, such as what his peers described. So, how was it that every time his student said something akin to "I have a bad feeling about this..." or "How could this possibly get worse?" their current situation inevitably devolved into utter chaos?

Take their latest predicament for instance…

They had arrived on Corelia to participate in a mostly routine workers union negotiation. Thinking to further his student's understanding of such matters, he had casually reminded his padawan to be mindful of his surroundings. After all, so much of politics and negotiation had to do, not with those speaking, but with those to whom the speaker is beholden. Naturally, being the exceptionally imaginative boy he was, Obi-Wan had mistaken his words for an expectation of violence.

"It's only a discussion about their cafeteria's beverage selection. What could possibly go wrong?" the boy had wondered, looking quite lost.

Qui-Gon had, of course, corrected this misperception, but the damage was done because apparently, the Corellians took their drink very seriously. Not two hours into the negotiations, he found himself dancing through what could only be described as a "slightly more dangerous than usual bar room brawl" disarming anyone who pulled a blaster and occasionally pulling his seventeen-year-old padawan out of harm's way when he lost his footing. And all over which brand of stout should be served in the mess hall.

Coincidence? Not kriffing likely!

That unpleasantness with Xanatos after Obi-Wan had poured out his worries before being shipped off the Agricorps? Unfortunate, but hardly worth mentioning by itself. His fallen apprentice had been looking for even the most obtuse means to hurt him and it wasn't uncommon for failed initiates to receive vague impressions of danger or misfortune. After all, accidents did happen when working with large-scale farming equipment.

A stray "bad feeling" while they were bodyguarding an otherwise completely uninteresting Senator on a goodwill mission that somehow managed to gravelly insult a particularly short-tempered Hutt from three systems away? Well, twice was an unfortunate coincidence, but strange things do tend to happen when political figures are involved.

The "incident" on Sa'gev Prime that never happened and would never be spoken of that immediately followed Obi-Wan wondering how things could possibly get worse? Statistically impossible. Three times was a pattern.

So... no, Qui-Gon did not believe for one second that the exciting outcome of their trip to Correllia was in any way a "coincidence." In any case, Obi-wan had become his master's foremost piece of evidence that the Force was sentient on some level and appeared to have a… peculiar, sense of humor.

Come to think of it. Why had he and Obi-Wan been asked to participate in the first place? The Green Jedi had their own temple here on Corellia. Surely it would have been more convenient to call on one of them? In fact, a local authority would have made much more sense and would have likely been able to diffuse the situation before it had even started.

The aging master sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation as their ship touched down in the temple's hangar bay. 'There was no logical reason to bring in Jedi from another system,' he reasoned as he punched in the code for the training level, the likely truth of the matter coming to him as they descended into the temple proper. No reason to be involved generally meant that they had been sent because some senator had wanted to be seen as doing something. So, a perfectly simple discussion over a menu had been scuttled because a bureaucrat had, once again, put their career before common sense.

Spirits but he disliked politicians…

"What troubles you, master?" Obi-wan asked, looking concerned as they exited and started making their way toward the small mess hall adjacent to the temple's training was a ritual of theirs, much like how they would review their missions after a day of contemplation, they always visited the mess hall for a warm meal as soon as they returned home.

"Oh, nothing you need to worry yourself with for the moment," Qui-Gon replied, waving a hand dismissively. "I will explain it tomorrow when we discuss our assignment and how we could have achieved a more favorable outcome."

Obi-wan nodded reassuringly. "I'm sure that whatever it is, it won't bother you tonight."

"Indeed," Qui-Gon agreed… why did he suddenly feel uneasy?

"After all, this is the Jedi Temple, who would possibly be mad enough to cause trouble here?" Obi-wan wondered.

Qui-gon scowled, pausing in the corridor to fix his student with an intensely disapproving look.

Obi-wan blinked bemusedly. "What?"

Not a moment later there was vicious twang in the Force a moment before the temple was shaken by an almighty crash as something blew through one side of the hallway and destroyed a durasteel blast door on its way into the training halls with the force of a crashing starship.

Qui-Gon released a long, suffering sigh as Obi-wan stood gaping at the mess.

Moments Earlier...

The Force was… well, not unhappy per se. It didn't particularly emote in any classical sense. However, it was not at all satisfied with the current state of affairs. Everything was just so…

Predictable.

The little creatures fought and schemed against each other, preaching their dogma and accumulating their tokens of power. One side accumulated strength and the other rose, preparing to meet its rival. Soon there would be conflict and the balance would swing. Unbalance and counterbalance, reaction and rebalance, all as it was and all as it had been for millennia. It was just so…

Uninspired.

It had been amusing at first. The struggles! The drama! The conflict! Innovation, invention, and strange new everything at every turn! But then the same characters started to appear, repeating the same stories every few cycles, playing out the same situations and achieving the same results with only the most superficial variations.

Admittedly, there were the occasional high points.

Revan had been interesting. Always running off to do what he wasn't supposed to, his amusingly improbable love life, the wars. Always defying expectations and pushing boundaries, sending dramatic ripples through the galaxy for hundreds of years and then thousands more even after he was gone.

The troublemakers were always so much fun… although, the Force could have done without the Mass Shadow Generators. Those things stung something awful.

That Bane fellow and his new approach to the old conflict that been amusing at first, but that had quickly become even more dull as the once complicated intrigue devolved into a complicated web of blackmail, bribery, and 'accidents.'

So much of the galaxy it resided in was stuck in a rut. Technology was going in circles. The macrostructure of the culture and economy hadn't changed in what seemed like forever. The clear-sighted mortal that named it the Force were just… meh. The wild spaces around the edges were still kind of fun but most of it? This 'Republic' thing? It was all so...

Dull.

So dull that the Force had been reduced to fiddling with the day to day happenings of individuals that it found most stimulating and that was losing its luster.

Honestly, if something interesting didn't happen soon, it was libel to do something drastic.

Bane's legacy had been doing some particularly interesting things before its… padawan? Was that the word? No matter, whatever the little creatures called their students this century was of no real consequence. In any case, the latest legacy had destroyed the interesting one and now the Force was left with the short creature with the careless lips that studied under the suspicious one. Although, there was this particularly interesting anomaly on the sandy rock did have some potential. Perhaps with the right-

The Force strayed from its inner monologue as it noticed something new. Something strange passing through the not-space outside of the time and reality it inhabited.

What was this small thing floating in the nothing?

Something new?

What would happen if it just...

Everything was motion and pain. In a timeless moment, Aki and Kurama struggled against the incomprehensible forces visited on them as they fell uncontrolled and unprotected through unreality, holding their existence together by the barest of threads as they focused on not dying with a single-minded intensity that could only be described as some kind of temporary insanity.

Oh, when this was over, everyone going to suffer for the council's arrogance...

The stupid ninja had gone to all the trouble to organize an elaborate ambush and the best solution they could manage was some half-baked teleportation seal? She had been gone for months hunting her latest bounty! Months! More than half a year to plan and organize a trap in order to finally be rid of her and this was the best they could manage? Perhaps they had hoped that their poor seal work would tear her apart?

Pathetic. As if she would be undone so easily.

Aki gritted her teeth, her incomprehensible snarl snatched away by the void, her eyes glowing with renewed rage. Pathetic or not, this hurt and when she got back to Konohagakure her vengeance was going to be the stuff of legends.

Then suddenly the directionless unreality suddenly jerked violently sideways and gave way to more familiar forces an instant before she felt crushing wind resistance and the vaguest impression of approaching danger.

'What the-' Aki wondered at the strange feeling as she and Kurama instinctually channeled their chakra to harden her body and not a moment too soon. The next instant, Aki had just enough time to register a very solid looking blur of something before tumbling through one impossibly thick wall after another with such incredible force that her body shattered through a technique that had withstood a direct hit from a boss summon.

The next wall she plowed through was, thankfully, thinner and did decidedly less damage, but stung nonetheless. Perhaps her enemies had put more thought into this plan than she had given them credit for?

'Ow! Thrice damned shitty jikukan seal! When I get hold of those-Where the hell did they send… me?' Aki thought, incredulously. 'Where in all the hells did they send me?!' she wondered, her respect for her people's ability to set a decent trap increasing ever so slightly as she finally registered her surroundings within her sensing abilities.

This place felt… alien.

Snarling under her breath, Aki tore some kind of pipe from her shoulder, dropping it on the ground as she started pooling chakra to deal with her wounds when she noticed something… off. Something in the gloom caught her eye. Movement, something was coming toward-

Snaphiss!

Aki froze for a brief moment, her eyes going wide with confusion as she tried to process what she was seeing as something… inhuman, descended on her wielding a sword of light.

'What in all the hells?' she wondered, feeling suddenly out of her depth.

Jedi Knight Or'han D'fu had been moving through the familiar motions of Ataru when he felt it. First it was a ripple, the most subtle of changes in the Force, like a youngling taking notice of a butterfly. Then there was a shift, subtle yet profound, as if the entire universe had suddenly turned a single degree in some unknown direction. And then there was a sharp snap, a violent point of motion like throwing a stabilizer, and the temple shuddered as something crashed through the ancient stones and into the training room with the force of a meteorite.

And then… rage.

Or'han and his fellows staggered back, stunned. Rage and violent intent unlike anything they had ever felt wafted from the creature in the dust like water over a flooded dam.

Snaphiss!

Without a second thought, Or'han ignited his saber and moved into the cloud to confront who or whatever had dared to encroach upon their sanctum, intent on removing the threat to his home.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Or'han broke through the cloud and tried to understand what he was seeing.

It was… a girl. A human girl no older than his padawan, broken and bleeding in the rubble. Oh spirits, she had just fallen through the walls! Close as he was now, he could feel excruciating pain buried beneath her powerful emotions. He watched in slow motion as her eyes found him and her anger evaporated like smoke in the wind.

She was suddenly so very confused as she stared at him with a kind of incomprehension he normally associated with younglings attending Master Yoda's lectures for the first time. She was suddenly faced with something completely unfamiliar, lost, adrift. Then her searching gaze drifts from him toward the light of his saber.

A moment too late, he realized that he had acted in haste.

As he watched her eyes flick from his face to the glowing blade and quickly to the rest of him, taking in his aggressive stance. He felt a resigned understanding settle across her mind as if she recognized something vaguely familiar, her pupils dilating to pinpricks as the Force was suddenly flooded vulnerability and fear and danger.

Oh no…

Agony radiates in the Force as the girl uses a ruined arm to heft a stone at his head, twisting the bone shards like knives beneath her skin. On some level, he understands that the rock is merely a distraction, but when the Force nudges him, he listens. Instinctively, the Jedi steps to the side and passes his saber up and through the piece of rubble cleaving it cleanly in two before returning his attention to the girl.

In his moment of inattention, a most extraordinary thing happens.

Or'han freezes as the most wonderful sensation washes over him. It's a clean feeling unlike anything he can remember, like standing beneath a gentle rain after weeks stumbling through heat and filth. It is pure and wonderful and it is radiating from inside the girl, she is glowing. He can see it like reflected light from a fountain, shining a pale ghostly blue just above her skin and he can feel her body knitting itself back together.

And then she is whole and the serenity of the moment is drowned in a sea of violence.

End Note

And there you have it. Yes, I know that "Aki into Canon" won the poll, I am working on that variation along with NotNT and WoaWS when I have time. This just sort of happened. Not sure where I'd take this in the grand scheme of things, but I was thinking I would stay true to Aki accepting no authority but her own and serving her own brand of...well, "justice" is such a strong word for what she does. Anyway, Aki being Aki and the slow/corrupt/ineffective/woefully underprepared Republic reeling from her shenanigans as she cuts a bloody swath through everyone who deserves it.

I was also thinking of her using the Jedi's records and teachings to point out that the Jedi aren't really Jedi anymore.

PLEASE feel free to throw your plot bunnies at me. They make excellent fodder for scene ideas and even the most seemingly mundane tidbit can inspire unreasonably long and interesting tangents for me to play with.