Usual disclaimer:  I am just borrowing some characters
and concepts.

A Star Wars-Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy/Ranma 1/2
Crossover 
 
The Jedi of Chaos 

Chapter 1 

The heat of Zindarr's red sun bore down mercilessly on
Ranma Korr's body. 

Following Sensei Galdern's instructions, the young man
was currently balancing on his hands, feet high in the
air, on a twenty-foot high boulder.  And also thanks
to his teacher's firm insistence, he was doing it
while wearing an old, rough-spun homemade black pants
and a light brown short-sleeved tunic.  Galdern had
said that he himself had used similar clothing during
his own training as a Padawan decades ago.  

The pants and tunic constantly itched against Ranma's
skin, providing a constant source of irritation. 
Sensei Galdern had told him that once he finished this
minor footnote of his training, Ranma would be able to
focus on other more important matters while ignoring
these minor physical sensations. 

It had sounded good to the young student, in the
beginning at least.  Now, half an hour later, he was
regretting it.  The urge to throw off the damn clothes
and scratch all over his body was growing almost
beyond his control.  

Not only that, but the sun-baked rock was really
starting to hurt even his palms, although hardened and
callused from years of intense physical training.

What was worse, his sensei had instructed him to move
around on the boulder, and that turned out to be a
mixed blessing.  Ranma was glad for the chance to
relieve his suffering palms, even if temporarily. 
However, at the same time, the moving of his shoulders
caused the tunic to shift about uncomfortably around
his neck and chest, increasing the temptation to itch.


Finally, Ranma couldn't take it any more.  With a
grunt, he bent his arms, lowering himself to the point
where his nose almost touched the boulder and then
flexed his muscles.  After a moment of preparation, he
pushed off against the surface, propelling himself a
good four feet in the air.  A single acrobatic flip
was all it took to right himself in midair and land
noiselessly in a perfectly balanced defensive stance. 

Thus back on his feet, Ranma took the opportunity to
start blowing frantically on his nearly toasted palms.

>From below, an amused voice remarked, "Giving up so
quickly, my young Padawan?  The day is still young,
you know."

"Hey, you're fortunate that you don't have to deal
with this damn heat," Ranma replied, shooting his
sensei an irritated glance.

"One of the advantages of being a spectral presence in
the Force," Galdern said, a wry grin twisting the
corners of his mouth.  "By the way, do not think to
distract me from ordering you to complete the
exercise.  You still have a full hour left to go, my
young Padawan.  So get to---." 

/**************/

The loud sparking of damaged circuits abruptly woke
Ranma up, evaporating the dream memory of his training
on Zindarr.  

Instantly alert, Ranma looked around him, and upon
seeing the damaged and battered interior of the
shuttlecraft, he remembered everything that had
happened.
 
The first thing he did was to instinctively check the
status of his mental shields that kept his Force
energies contained.  A moment later, he was satisfied;
they were still in place and hadn't been disturbed in
the least.  Otherwise, the amount of damage and number
of casualties, if there were any, would've been
greatly increased. 

He owed Sensei Galdern for helping him create those
shields in order to regain some semblance of control
over his chaotic Force potential.  Hopefully, this
Skywalker person would be able to complete the job and
he would be able to continue on with tracking down his
bastard stepfather. 

Ranma took stock of his condition.  Due to being
strapped in, he'd received minor injuries only; a bump
at the back of his head, a small gash on his forehead,
a cut lip, and several bruises on his body.  
     
As he unstrapped himself from his seat, the first
thing he noticed was that everyone else was either
fastened securely in their seats or crumpled in
uncomfortable looking positions against the wall or on
the floor.  Although more than half of them seemed to
have acquired serious injuries and broken limbs, it
seemed to him that no one had died during the crash
landing.  

For a normal person, it would've sent him or her into
a stunned state while they struggled with shock.  For
the young Korr, though, he had dealt with much worse,
so accepted the situation for what it was.

The interior of the shuttlecraft looked to have fared
much worse than its passengers.  Torn and ripped wires
hung limply from the ceiling, a few sparking from
their exposed ends.  Several metal plates and
duraplastic covers had been ripped from the bolts
holding them in place and were scattered everywhere. 
Some were even deeply embedded in the cushioned areas
of the seats that were, luckily enough, unoccupied.  

Shit happens.  Deal with it, learn from it, and then
move on with life.  That had been his motto ever since
..... the incident.  

At least he wasn't, as Sensei Galdern had put it, one
with the Force yet.  That was thanks to his instincts,
which he'd always trusted, even if the signals they
sent were initially confusing.  That was the reason
why he was still alive and relatively uninjured.  On
more than several occasions in the past, they hadn't
failed to save him from certain death and had done so
again today.  

An instant after the red-head had shouted her warning,
his gut had told him, warned him in no uncertain terms
that he would be making the last mistake of his life
if he were to ignore her words.  

So, against all reason and logic, he had followed his
gut, and once more, he had benefited from the
experience.  

Another thing to be grateful for, Ranma supposed.  

Enough of that, he chided himself.  He still had to
check on his fellow passengers, and after that, try to
contact the Jedi Temple for help.

Standing up, he went to the nearest person, who
incidentally was his neighbor, that loudmouthed guy.  

What was his name again?

Ranma shrugged.  He didn't know about the other boy,
but personally, before the crash, he didn't feel
inclined to exchange social pleasantries.  In fact, he
didn't feel anything, period.  It was a result of the
type of training sensei Galdern had given him, that
"Soul of Ice" technique.

Whenever it was "activated", like now, all of his
emotions were closed off, leaving him as cold as a
glacier. 

Stepping closer, Ranma gave him a once over.  Somehow,
his nameless neighbor had also managed to strap
himself into his seat, which was impressive enough,
given the fact that there had only been a second's
worth of warning.  

He had to give him credit, if only for that.  

Reaching out with his right hand, Ranma tried to shake
him awake.  

When that failed to rouse him, he unhesitantly reared
back and let fly an openhanded slap that echoed within
the small confines of the shuttlecraft.  

Rosh Penin woke up right away and couldn't help but
notice that right in front of him was the indisputable
cause of why he'd happened to come to in such an
abrupt and painful manner.  

"Hey wake up.  Nap time's over."  Ranma allowed
himself the slightest of smirks.

"What the hell!?" cursed Rosh.  The stinging in his
cheek spurring him on, the former Academy recruit
impulsively lunged forward, his hands eagerly reaching
for Ranma's neck. 
  
Ranma was completely caught off guard; fortunately for
him, Rosh was still strapped in and thus was prevented
from committing attempted homicide.   

/****************/

Only the fact that there were more important things to
deal first kept things nonviolent between the two
young men.

Barely.

That didn't stop Rosh from angrily glaring at Ranma,
nor did it stop him from throwing several universally
understood forms of obscene gestures. 

After Rosh had managed to calm down, the two of them
had grudgingly introduced themselves to each other and
then went about to the task at hand, namely checking
their fellow passengers.  

Rosh's condition was similar to Ranma's.  Other than a
few bumps and bruises, he was okay.  It turned out
that besides the two of them, only a third person, the
female Zabrak, had escaped virtually unscathed.  The
rest were seriously injured and five of them,
including the pilot, were in critical condition.  They
were in very real danger of dying if no proper medical
care was given A.S.A.P.

Such was present, in a limited fashion.  The female
Zabrak turned out to be Nurse Aserna Kowpath'k,
formerly of the Zabra Institute of Medicine.  

The Zabrak quickly took charge of the wounded, armed
with the shuttle's emergency medical pack at her
disposal.  She ordered Ranma and Rosh to carefully
relocate, under her discretion, those who could be
moved into one area.  Those in critical condition
remained where they were, albeit with a bit of minor
repositioning.  Aserna decided to work on them first. 

With limited supplies, she did her best and had
expertly patched up what she could, miraculously
stabilizing those who needed to be.  However, she told
the two boys that if her patients were to fully live
out their lives, medical treatment much better than
what she had to offer at the moment was needed ASAP.  
  

While the good nurse was busy doing her job, Ranma and
Rosh both found out that she had the incredible
ability to talk incessantly about any subject.  The
former surmised that it was probably a technique,
however odd, to keep her focus or to distract her from
the gore factor of her work, he had no idea.  Neither
did he care.  His subconsciousness tagged her voice as
"high pitched and sharp with a heavy unknown accent"
and filed it away for future reference.   

After less than half a minute of hearing her chatter,
Ranma easily tuned her out as he went about attempting
to raise the Jedi Academy via the subspace radio.

Unfortunately for Rosh Penin, his mental discipline
wasn't as developed.  

And what made it worse, Rosh had the questionable
honor of being chosen to help Aserna as her aide in
her ministrations.  That meant he had to stick by her
side and follow her instructions. 

It also meant that he would be forced to endure the
full brunt of her chatter.     
  
If Ranma had been capable of feeling anything at that
moment, he would've pitied him. 

/****************/

Despite only knowing her for a short period of time,
Rosh believed that Nurse Kowpath'k was a good-hearted
person, a generous, kind soul that offered her help to
those who needed it.  

But how in the Force could he known that the she would
turn out to be such a damned tireless chatterbox! 
Only after a few minutes of listening to her, Rosh
felt the beginnings of a migraine from just trying to
find some connection between Aserna's random topic
changes.

"Rosh huney, Ah tell yah that Ah've never seen a more
han'some, distingish'd, an' chah'min man than that
Tarkin fellow.  Oooh that man was sooo fine-lookin'
that Ah daresay that ev'ry time Ah saw him on th'
holovid Ah turned red as a tomayto!"

However, it was apparent that her quirks took some
.... make that a LOT of time getting used to.  Rosh
tried, he really did, but for all his efforts, his
patience was losing the struggle.  

Not only that, but his eardrums were rapidly growing
sore.  When would that blasted woman just give it a
moment's rest!?  

"Well, Ah b'lieve that we've hit ah'selves a lucky
streak; we all managed ta live thru' th' crash
lan'ning.  That remin's me, do th' two of ya got a
clue as ta what in blazes hit us back there?  I dunno
'bout you boys, it shore felt like sum' gud fer
nuthin' lowdown rat waylaid us!"

Damn it, why couldn't she have chosen that jerk Korr
to be her assistant!  A cold-hearted person  like that
deserved the worst!  

"Mah momma and poppa wuz downright th' most randiest
couple ya could evah meet.  Ah've got ten siblin's,
mahself included, five boys an' six gurls!  Since both
Momma and Poppa were th' only kids in their 'spective
fam'lies, it's my guess that they agreed ta have many
kids ta make up fer that."  

If Rosh knew just how effective the Soul of Ice was
against Kowpath'k's drivel, despite his feelings
toward Ranma, he would've instantly and shamelessly
prostrated himself before the pony-tailed man and beg
to be taught it.  

"Ah remember th' day when Ah b'lieve mah connection ta
th' Force first man'fested itself.  Boy, Ah sure made
Tommy Syrelyn soil his pants when he found himself
bein' pushed 'round by a ghost!  Bwah hah hah hah!"

Since Rosh had no such training, he suffered in
silence, all the while sending hateful glares at a
nonchalant and indifferent Ranma, who was in the
cockpit.  

As Kowpath'k droned on, the former military recruit
envied the other passengers.  In his opinion, they had
it lucky.  Being unconscious, the nurse's prattle had
no effect on them.   

Rosh found himself wanting to trade places with one of
them.  

Then in the middle of his misery, something occurred
to him.  Just how, he wondered, did her patients
manage to put up with her back on Zabra?   

He eventually guessed that it was maybe an immunity
built from an extended length of exposure.  For the
sake of his ears and nerves, Rosh hoped that one day,
he too, would be able to effect a similar reaction,
seeing as which he would be seeing a whole lot of her
in the near future.  

"Y'know, Ah couldn't b'lieve that li'l ol' me was so
lucky tah be ad-mitted into this here Acad'my.  Ah
mean, Ah've susp'cted fer a long time that Ah've had a
talunt for th' Force; Ah've always seemed tah know
what ailed mah patients wit' a simple touch and a bit
o' concentrayshun.  Unlike mah other fellaw nurses,
Ah've almost never needed those danged maydical
diyagnoostic contraptions assigned tah me. 
No-sirreee!  All Ah ever needed was mah instinct and
list'nin' ta th' Force."

To Rosh's relief, a welcome moment of silence
presented itself as Aserna paused to inject a booster
syringe into one of the Twilek female's arm.  He sent
up a quick prayer of thanks for this respite, and
hoped that it would be quite long.  His ears
gratefully soaked up the serenity of absolute quiet
and his tense nerves took the opportunity to relax.  

However, his luck soon proved otherwise.  

"Now huney, lemme tell ya 'bout th' first time Ah
kissed a man.  Hooo boy, Ah still get sh'vers frum
thinkin' 'bout it.  He wuz no Tarkin, Ah admit, but he
shore made me see stars!"

Rosh felt an almost uncontrollable urge to start
moaning in despair.   

/*******************/

In the cockpit, from what Ranma could ascertain from
the checking he'd done so far, main power was down,
leaving only backup running at thirty-five percent. 
It was much better than he'd expected after the
extensive damage sustained by the shuttle.  

At the moment, he was simutaneously ignoring Rosh's
predicament and tinkering with the shuttle's
communication console, trying to get a signal in order
to raise the Jedi Temple on a general frequency.  

Although he absolutely loathed his step-father, Ranma
did acknowledge that the training he recieved from his
various instructors, courtesy of Genma's proclaimed
'old acquaintances', had been extremely thorough and
comprehensive.  Along with the martial arts, mobile
target shooting, combat piloting and the rest, there'd
been a good amount of technical training involved,
part of which was basic electronics troubleshooting
and repair. 

As he worked, Ranma went over the events that had
happened just before the crash...

<The pilot announced that they were just about to
enter Yavin's atmosphere.  He was about to continue
and say something else when he was interrupted by a
yell from the back of the shuttlecraft.  As small as
the shuttlecraft was, the volume of the cry was
sufficient to get everyone's undivided attention.

"EVERYBODY, HOLD ON!! WE'RE GOING TO BE ATTACKED!!">

If he remembered correctly, it was the redheaded young
woman, currently unconscious with a broken left arm,
who had screamed that warning, moments before it had
actually happened. 

It also didn't surprise Ranma, or mystify him either;
having flashes or visions of the future was just one
of the many different ways of how the Force might
express itself within an individual.  Sensei Galdern
had taught him much of the pre-Empire Jedi Order and
of the Force.

But that was just a minor footnote; the most important
thing was that something had happened to cause the
engine to explode like that.   

Ranma's eyes narrowed in thought while his mouth
curled into a frown.  He considered what facts  he
knew.  A New Republic shuttlecraft, unarmed and
practically defenseless, minding its own business and
carrying only passengers, attacked within New Republic
space.  

The Soul of Ice technique worked by locking away a
person's emotions.  With Ranma, it enabled him to
think more clearly, more logically.  In this case, it
aided the young Korr in trying to find out what had
been responsible for the attack by creating a list of
possible causes for an engine explosion, and then let
elimination do its work.

Whatever had caused it sure wasn't a coolant leak,
although such a thing would lead to the engine heating
up and eventually exploding.  Nor was it the extremely
remote possibility of a collision with meteor debris;
the shuttle's sensors would've alerted the pilot way
ahead of time.  

No, just like what the redhead had warned them about,
it had been an attack.  No question about it. 

There was a possibility of the source being a fighter
craft or a pirate ship, but Ranma didn't give that
theory much credit; the shuttlecraft's radar would
have detected them instantly.

Thus the only thing that seemed to fit picture was
either some sort of highly focused energy beam, maybe
a type of a ground laser cannon emplacement, or from a
RGT (Remote Guided Torpedo).  It was the most
plausible answer he could come up at the moment.

Unfortunately, as he would find out much later, both
guesses were wrong. 

/*******************/

"The shuttle's communication equipment is damaged
beyond my ability to repair it," Ranma began.  He then
held up a small, square box with an attenna attached
in the middle.  "We will have to use this emergency
beacon locator to get the attention of the Jedi
Temple, if we hope for any sort of rescue."

Ranma's announcement from up in the cockpit saved
Rosh's sanity, though it hadn't been his intention to
do so.  It sufficiently distracted Nurse Kowpath'k
enough that she shut her trap to listen, thereby
earning a loud groan of relief from Rosh and the four
other passengers who had regained consciousness.  In
Rosh's opinion, this was fortunate, because his
tolerance was already way too close at the edges of
its limits. 

He paused, thinking over things, and walked past the
two of them and their patients, disappearing in the
shadows at the rear of the shuttlecraft.    

"Mr. Korr?  What are you doing?" Aserna asked, though
no answer followed.  

It was dark, but the scant illumination enamating from
several still active circuit lights helped Ranma
navigate his way through the mess of fallen metal
plates and dangling wires.  He arrived at his
destination, the storage section, and using his foot,
he counted off, left to right, the number of
compartment pods.  When he reached the seventh one, he
crouched and shoved off the junk that had fallen on
top of it in the crash.  

When that was done, he opened it with the security
code he had entered when he first boarded the shuttle.
 

Back at where Rosh and Aserna were, the Zabrak nurse
was asking Rosh if he was Ranma's friend.  Of course,
Rosh's answer was simple and clear.

"What?  That, that cold-hearted son of a motherless
Hutt MY friend?  Hah!  I'd rather space myself or fly
right into the heart of a supernova than be friends
with that damned prick," Rosh muttered, his voice
rising.  "Look Aserna, that guy is probably one of the
rudest, most antagonistic person I'd ever had the
displeasure of meeting!"  

Aserna threw him a confused look, then shrugged her
shoulders, clearly confused at what Rosh's meaning.  

"Nevermind," Rosh said, smirking wryly.  "Hang around
him for only a few minutes than you'll know what I'm
talking about."

"Oh okay, if you say so," she allowed dubiously.  They
fell silent, (a fact that Rosh mentally gave much
thanks for) awaiting Korr to finish whatever he was
doing.    

Her response was interrupted at Ranma's return;
everyone awake stared at the young human, noting a few
changes in his dress apparel.  

The boots were the same but he had taken off his
leather jacket, and his gray tunic had been replaced
with a light green shirt and he now wore dark brown
pants.  A heavily modified military model blaster was
holstered on his right hip while his lightsaber lay
against his other, clipped to his belt.  He also had
strapped on a black traveling pack. 

"Hey boy, what's with the change of clothes?  Goin'
huntin'?" one of the passengers cracked in amusement,
his head heavily bandaged.

Ranma ignored him and asked if anyone else had
blasters, or any kind of weapon.  

The pilot, who was barely conscious, said, "Yeah, I
got one. It's beneath the seat in the cockpit."  

Ranma went and retrieved it, then asked, "Does anyone
know how to handle a blaster?"

Rosh nodded his head; the Rodian lifted his hand and
the pilot croaked an affirmative.  Narrowing his eyes,
Ranma seemed to come to a decision and gestured in the
Rodian's direction.

"You."

"The name's Dah'kk," said the skinny,light-blue
Rodian, his high-pitched voice sounding through an
electronic translator that somehow made it through the
crash in one piece. 

Ranma fixed him with a cool, firm gaze.  "With the
exception of me, Kowpath'k and Penin, you're the least
wounded, with only a dislocated shoulder that's
already been treated.  Was it your dominant arm?"

Dah'kk shook his head.

"Good, the blaster's yours," Ranma declared, moving
closer to him and handing the pilot's blaster over,
along with a spare power pack.  "It's your
responsibility to defend Aserna and the others with
your life from the native wildlife, should they start
sniffing around here and prove to be a threat."   

Not giving Dah'kk a chance to refuse, Ranma's gaze
switched over to Rosh, who instantly glared back at
him and said testily,"What's your problem?  Who died
and made you boss?"

Ranma regarded him with an expressionless gaze.  "You
are coming with me." 

Rosh's lips curled down in a challenging sneer.  "Go
kiss a Hutt!"

/*******************/

With an angry snarl on his lips, Rosh impatiently
waited for the other man to climb back down the
hundred odd foot tree.

"Damned stuck-up freakish son of a....." muttered the
youth under his breath, having continually 
cursing Ranma with all sorts of wonderfully
descriptive sobriquets during their trek through
Yavin's forest.  

It had been nearly twenty minutes since they left the
shuttle, and by Rosh's estimation, they'd walked at
least half a mile.  Rosh had been coerced into obeying
Korr's command after experiencing, courtesy of Ranma,
the 'Glare of Death', as he later nicknamed it.  This,
of course, had made Rosh feel completely humiliated,
which in turn led to him being pissed off to no end. 
Also, the fact that Korr was obviously indifferent of
Rosh's opinion of him and simply ordered him around
like some sort of servant just increased his anger.   
 

Despite his fear of Korr, Rosh was near his breaking
point.  So far, he hadn't responded physically to his
nemesis's blunt, cold-shouldered attitude because he
had a definite feeling that Korr was definitely
someone NOT to be messed around with.  

Heck, even just being on the recieving end of the
'Glare of Death' was enough to greatly intimidate him,
and he harbored notions of wringing the jerk's neck. 
Seeds of revenge were buries  And the humiliation of
having to back down made him angry, thus planting
seeds of vengeful thoughts. 

And even worse, the bastard had kept both blaster and
lightsaber for himself, and had given Rosh only the
beacon to hold.  Well, he'd have to do something about
that!

As soon as Korr was down from the tree, he was
immediately barraged by a swarm of questions, courtesy
of Rosh. 

"What the hell were you doing up there?  Where do you
get off by hogging all the damn weapons?    And will
you look at me when I'm talking to you!?" 

Korr glanced calmly at him, then bent down and picked
up his pack.  As he wrapped the pack securely around
his back, he said, "There's a nearby Massassi temple,
a few miles to the southeast.  It will be a good place
to send up the distress signal with the beacon."

"Well, why couldn't you have sent it while you were up
there?  Or haven't you noticed how tall these trees
are?"

"It still doesn't work."

"Why not?" Rosh bit off.  

"All of these trees aren't exactly the same height,
meaning some are a little bit taller.  I did try, and
yes, there was signal, but it was unstable, erratic. 
All the vegetation and wood must be interfering with
the ability of the beacon to maintain the
transmission."

Rosh shrugged, not the least bit mollified.  "Okay
then, how about you giving me that blaster.  I DO need
something to protect myself, you know."

"No."

"No?" Rosh repeated, then said with more force, "What
do you mean NO?"

Ranma's steel gaze skewered him as the ponytailed man
regarded him icily.  "No, I won't allow you to have
it."  

By now, Rosh was struggling trying to keep his rage in
check.  "And, why...the...hell..not?" he grinded out,
clenching his fists tightly. 

This time, it was Ranma who shrugged as he answered,
"I don't know you and I don't trust you.  I don't
usually make it a habit of allowing armed people I
don't trust at my back.  Considering your attitude
towards me, you'll probably be tempted to shoot me
when I'm not looking."

Rosh absorbed that, processed it, and then decided
that there was a hidden insult within Korr's words. 
Completely forgetting that he was easily intimidated
by him, Rosh's eyes narrowed as he asked, "Are you
saying that I'm not a threat at all, unarmed, and at
your back?"

Korr took all of one second to think up an appropriate
response.  "Exactly."  And then, "Let's go.  We're
wasting time here."  With that, he turned away and
started walking again.

His face screwing up in growing anger, Rosh made an
extremely rash decision right there and then, one that
he would very quickly come to regret.  His body
trembled, his fists rose up, and he growled like some
rabid beast. 

"What the hell is your damned problem, ya prick? 
What, you have a proton torpedo up your ass or
something?  Gimme that blaster, NOW!"

No response had been forthcoming; not even the
slightest pause in Ranma's footsteps as he continued
as if Rosh hadn't spoken at all.

That was final straw.  Simply put, Rosh snapped.  

"DIE KORR!"  Not very imaginative, but that was what
he was thinking of at the moment.  

He broke out into a run, charging directly at Ranma's
back and threw himself into the air, intending to
knock down his opponent and gladly beat him into
submission. 

Well, that was the plan anyway.  

He wasn't exactly sure what happened, but in mid-leap,
Ranma just seemed to ..... disappear, leaving Rosh to
crash facefirst onto the ground.  Before he even think
to get up, his left arm was twisted behind his back
and he felt Korr's knee in the middle of his spine.  

"Hey, hey, what the---!?  Let me go, ya jerk!  Let me
go or I'll kick your ass!"  

This time, there was a response from Ranma. 
Unfortunately for Rosh, it involved his arm being
pushed higher up.  This wouldn't had been a problem if
it weren't for the sudden pain and obvious threat of a
broken arm.  

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Okay, okay okay man, chill man, chill! 
Take it easy, c'mon, take it easy!  Ouch, damnit!"

"Listen to me, Penin, I'm just going to say this once.
 Shut up."  

Ranma's tone was completely emotionless, and all
business.  For Rosh, he was certain that the 'Glare of
Death' mask was in place.  Remembering Ranma's cold,
killer-like eyes, his fear suddenly came flooding
back, stealing his rage, and left him feeling cold all
over.  Though he didn't like it, Rosh forced himself
to be silent, difficult as it was. 

"We have a job to do;  I don't have to remind you that
Aserna and everyone else is counting on us to get help
from the Temple.  Also, if it hasn't crossed your
mind, we ARE in a crisis.  Don't you remember how we
landed on Yavin?  It was no sudden engine malfunction,
no abrupt coolant leak, not any kind of electronical
failure.  It was just like that red-headed woman said,
we WERE ATTACKED.  Shot down.  Now, that signifies
people behind the act, maybe pirates, maybe enemies of
Skywalker, or paid assassins, I have no idea.  But I
do know that there is a very high probability that
they are still out there and will want to finish what
they started, or at the very least, check on their
work." 

"Now, here's what's going to happen.  I am going to
release you, and you are going to get up slowly, and
we are going to continue on our journey.  But, I
swear, if you ever, EVER, try to attack me, physically
or verbally otherwise, I will NOT hesitate to shoot
you where you stand.  DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND. ME?" 

Finding that he had no other choice, Rosh had to say
the inevitable.  

"Yeah, yeah I do."

"Good."  With that, Ranma let go of his arm and stood
up, retreating a few steps back.  

Muttering under his breath, Rosh slowly pushed himself
to his knees, wincing at the lingering pain in his
left arm.  Sullenly, he rose to his feet, quickly
throwing a glare Ranma's way, who ignored it.  

'Heh, I'll catch him off guard when he DOESN't have
any weapons, the idiot!' Rosh thought in anticipation.
 

Right at that moment, ahead of them, several bushes
rustled and a dark shape walked out, heading straight
for them. 

Rosh blinked in surprise; the shadows were too dark to
see anything clearly but the vague form wasn't
humanoid.  It was probably some dumb, hungry,
carnivorous beast attracted by the sound of their
(extremely) short-lived struggle.  

Wait a second.  Rewind. Hungry...carnivorous....beast?
 

As the beast advanced, patches of light revealed it to
be some sort of reptile, around the size of a big dog.
 Its mouth opened, revealing an impressive array of
razor sharp teeth, and a loud hiss filled the sudden
silence.  

The young Penin's face turned pale and his throat
suddenly dried up as he suddenly realized two
important things.

One, he was completely unarmed, and Two, he was closer
to the predator than Korr.  

Before he could start panicking, before he could even
THINK, the sound of a blaster being fired echoed from
behind him and he saw a single laser bolt flash past
him and, somehow, incredibly, strike the reptile
directly in the middle of its head.  The hiss
immediately died out and it slumped gracelessly to the
forest floor.    

Rosh almost gave himself a whiplash as his head
whipped quickly around to look at his tormentor. 
Ranma gazed back at him coolly, the blaster already
holstered, and began walking forward as if nothing had
happened.  The ponytailed man casually stepped over
the corpse and waved for his stupefied companion to
follow. 

Rosh gaped as he noted the seemingly inhuman pinpoint
accuracy of the shot; over a good distance of twenty
feet!  A renewed chill ran up his spine as the young
Penin finally realized the truth........

All this time, he'd been playing with fire.  

End Chapter 1

Began March 08 2006
Finished May 26, 2006 

Author's Notes:

Well, with the speed of a crippled turtle, Chapter 1
is finally done.  Apologies for the long wait, but RL
kinda interfered.

C&C will be greatly appreciated...thanks!  Oh yeah,
and if you have a suggestion for the title of this
chapter, by all means, send it my way.    


 


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