Disclaimer: The Force is NOT my ally.
A Star Wars-Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy/Ranma 1/2
Crossover
Warning: If you prefer to read about a canon-like
Akane, then I suggest, by all means, that you might
not want to read this chapter.
The Jedi of Chaos
Chapter 2
Luke Skywalker, son of Darth Vader, lone Jedi Master,
and head of the Jedi Academy was interrupted in the
middle of his meditation.
'Luke, we have an urgent situation.' It was a
telepathic summons from Kyle Katarn, a self-taught
Jedi who was now temporarily serving as an instructor
for the Academy.
Returning to the real world, Luke uncrossed his legs
and stood up. He took a couple of steps towards the
entrance of the meditation chamber but suddenly
halted. His eyes narrowed and he sent out his Force
senses to search the entire floor he was on.
'That's odd, I could have sworn I felt the barest
flicker of the Dark Side,' he thought, probing harder
and thoroughly around the general area where he'd
sensed it.
However, after nearly five minutes of concentrated
searching, Luke had found nothing. It still troubled
him but he soon reasoned it to be the remaining
presence of Gantoris, one of his students who had
fallen to the Dark Side.
Well, he'd look into it later; right now, the Force
impressions he was getting from Kyle took first
priority.
The door swished closed behind him as Luke walked out
into the hallway.
/**************/
Barely twenty feet from the meditation chamber, Allura
Takthan, senior disciple to Tavion, slowly let out a
sigh of relief as Skywalker's probing finally stopped.
It had been close; she had barely escaped Skywalker's
scrutiny by the tiniest of margins. Thanks to
Mistress Tavion's teaching, Allura had learned how to
dampen her Force aura, which had come in handy during
her infiltration of this Jedi Academy.
Thanks to Brakiss, an Imperial plant that had posed as
a potential student for Skywalker, the disciples of
Ragnos had valuable intel on the structure and layout
of the Academy. It was this information Allura had
used in the course of her mission, which was to
download a copy of Skywalker's diary.
If someone had taken the luxury of asking her, Allura
would have said this mission was a waste of her time.
She would've preferred to take out those new Jedi
students but Mistress Tavion had said that she was
more proficient at stealth techniques than her human
rival was. Though she was still irritated, Allura was
forced to admit that Tavion had raised a valid point.
Crimson, in the course of her training, had solely
focused on the combative aspect of the Dark Side.
Aside from mastering the basic instruction, her rival
had limited control over manipulating her Force aura.
Had she been chosen for this mission instead,
Crimson's blazing presence in the Force would've given
her presence away almost immediately.
Therefore, it had fallen to Allura to do the job. It
was of no consequence to Tavion that Allura had loudly
protested her given task; all that mattered was that
it had to be done. Allura had nearly taken off
Crimson's head when the human had openly ridiculed
her; a lightsaber duel had broken out right there in
the Disciple of Ragnos's main base. It would have
gone on for hours, the two females being about evenly
matched, except for their leader's interference.
Although she usually enjoyed (and even encouraged at
some points) such hostile displays of murderous
rivalry, at the time she had decided that there was no
more time to be wasted. With one powerful lightning
assault later, both of her disciples had been
instantly subdued.
She had no choice in the matter and finally accepted
that, barring her Mistress, she was the only one
suitable for the job.
Which was why she was here right now.
Suppression of her Force aura inevitably condemned her
mission to proceed at a very slow pace. Disliking
every second of it, Allura had to sneak into the Jedi
Academy the old-fashioned way; no mind-tricks, no
Force enhanced speed or jumps, nothing that would
require use of the Force. She had to rely on hiding,
crawling, and generally trying her best not to be seen
or heard.
One thing that made it a whole lot easier for her was
the fact that Skywalker was foolish enough not to post
sentries, or even not having more than the basic
security system, one that hadn't been upgraded ever
since Brakiss's stay a few years ago.
She shook her head in scornful disbelief. As far as
the Twi'lek was concerned, this was part of the reason
why the Jedi were so easily deceived by Emperor
Palpatine during the death of the Old Republic. Their
teachings against guile, anger, hatred, everything of
the Dark Side was a very significant weak spot in
their training.
Clearing her head and once again focusing on her job,
Allura slowly made her way to Skywalker's personal
chamber. She had some data that needed to be copied.
/**************/
She, whose name was once Akane Tendo and was now
simply known as Crimson, reached out with the Force
and, with some minor difficulty, managed to locate the
nearest of her prey. There were two of them and were
relatively close; about a mile away to the south.
The Force aura of one of them was leaking
uncontrollably, which usually meant little to no
training; the other seemed to have infinitesimal
potential. It was so small that Crimson found herself
wondering why the fool even chose to train to be a
Jedi. Was Skywalker that desperate to rebuild the
Jedi Order?
And best of all, both of them were MEN. Now Crimson
could take some enjoyment in this task.
The young woman, still in her black cloak, was leading
two of her subordinates in a path that would lead them
onto an intercept point with the two men she'd just
found. While she'd informed Mistress Tavion that she
was more than capable of eliminating a bare handful of
untrained Jedi-wannabes, Tavion had only told her that
it was more for her subordinates Narissa and Talna's
benefit than for hers. Both of them were human also,
skilled and motivated, but their training was only
half complete and they needed more field experience.
They were both taller than her, and Talna was older by
almost a decade. But when they were first assigned to
her, Crimson had quickly established herself as the
Alpha Female through her superior mastery of the
Force.
Ever since she'd first joined Tavion's group, Crimson
had made it well known that she completely loathed and
distrusted men, not tolerating them in the slightest.
With an attitude like that, it wasn't long before she
was picking fights on a daily basis with any male
member who glanced at her, more often than not giving
them a savage beating. She soon established a
reputation for herself as a geniune man-hater, who
would go to any lengths to right the wrongs done to
her in the past by the opposite gender.
By teaching them such lessons, she would make them
think twice before attempting to abuse any women they
might encounter in the future. She would not let any
of her kind be subjected to the torture that she had
been. That was why she'd accepted Tavion's offer to
join the Disciples of Ragnos; so she could grow much
more stronger and not have to fear about being abused
by any man ever again.
Due to her stance, none of the male Disciples were
eager to sign up as her apprentice, having long
learned to give her a very wide berth. She became a
figure to be feared, someone you would not want to
cross paths with, even accidentally. Tavion allowed
her behavior because it helped instill order and
tighter control over the underlings. Although Crimson
was of the opinion that the Disciples of Ragnos should
be a sisterhood, she managed, however barely, to
restrain herself from constantly trying to convince
Tavion to accept her idea.
As powerful as Crimson become, she still respected
Tavion as her Mistress and superior as she was a woman
after all.
Thus the reason why Narissa and Talna had been
assigned to her. There were others who'd been with
the Disciples of Ragnos longer and were more
experienced, but they were unfortunately men. The
other women either were already assigned to their
masters/mistresses or had other duties to fulfill.
Since Crimson had threatened to kill any man who dared
come close to her, the only way to rectify this was to
give her underlings of similar gender.
Tavion, and only Tavion, was allowed to call her by
her forgotten name -- Akane. Crimson snorted
inwardly; she couldn't dream of how she could have
ever been pathetic, weak willed, and easily dominated
when she was still Akane Tendo. The only things she
and Akane had in common was the hatred of males,
though different in intensity and perspective.
Akane had hated teenaged boys but tolerated men.
Crimson hated any man, teenage to adult, of any
species with equal fervor. To her, it was as if she
lived two separate, different lives; Akane then,
Crimson now, with no period of transition in between.
All in all, having subordinates wasn't such a bad
arrangement. In fact, it could be downright
pleasurable. It took some time and effort, but
Narissa was beginning to see certain things the same
way Crimson did, which made for more than a few nights
of indulgence.
Crimson allowed a faint lecherous grin to cross her
face at what happened some nights ago, but managed to
keep her mind on the mission. Yavin's forest wasn't
exactly safe, having its fair share of predatory
beasts, but they weren't of any considerable threat if
the three of them kept on their guard.
The young Disciple of Ragnos was looking forward to
the three following things; the rush and thrill of
combat, the destruction of men, and also the whittling
down the numbers of her enemies.
She didn't personally know who her prey was but she
didn't care. They were men, and at some point, had
probably hurt a female in the past, like the way she'd
been hurt. Even if they hadn't hurt a woman yet, it
was inevitable that they would do so in the not too
distant future. It was their nature; they were men,
after all, and it was to be expected of them.
She was their punishment made flesh.
Of course, she'd let Talna and Narissa into some of
the fun as well, but there was always a possibility
that Crimson would lose herself in her lust for battle
and kill them all. Well, all of the males; if there
were any women, she'd let Talna and Narissa take care
of them. Crimson disliked taking the lives of any
female, however misguided though they be.
They were getting closer to the two victims. And as
the distance decreased, Crimson's eagerness grew.
'Soon, very soon,' she thought, unconsciously rubbing
her thumb against the hard, cool surface of her
lightsaber.
/**************/
With a swing of the lightsaber, the tree fell down
across the looming ravine, creating an instant bridge.
Deactivating the energy blade, Ranma nodded in
satisfaction. Waiting for the tree to stabilize, he
stepped up on the trunk and casually strolled over to
the other side, not even giving the raging torrent
below a second look. Once he reached the other side,
he motioned for Rosh to walk across.
Rosh shrugged in reluctanct compliance. Ever since
their little 'discussion' fifteen minutes ago, he had
treaded the waters with a mixture of fear, hatred and
respect. Though it had been difficult at first, he'd
kept silent and avoided any sort of conversation with
Korr. Seeing firsthand how deadly a shot Korr was
firmly convinced Rosh the wisdom of not trying his
luck and getting on his bad side AGAIN.
Besides, the young Penin was worried for Aserna's
patients and he knew that if he wasted more time by
stirring up Korr's nest of hornets, their chances of
living to see another day would be severely lessened.
In any case, he was still unarmed and, whether he
liked it or not, was forced to rely on Ranma for
protection, no matter how much it wounded his pride.
However, dwelling on his wounded pride was quickly
beginning to be replaced by jealousy.
To date, they'd already encountered three more of
those reptiles, and Ranma had easily nailed them all
with headshots each and every time. The ponytailed
man made it look so effortless that Rosh wasn't sure
if he was showing off or not. One of those shots had
been made while the reptile had leaped down towards
them from a branch thirty-odd feet above the ground.
Rosh had only caught the descending blur a second
before he was roughly shoved aside and, one quick
laser blast later, the beast's corpse had crashed in
the spot where he'd been.
Since then, Rosh was trying hard to ignore how much he
envied the skills Ranma had displayed. He found
himself failing as he continuously replayed what had
happened. And he also found himself wondering about
Korr's personality. This led to him wondering what
kind of life the other man had previously led, what
kind of training he'd undergone to become what he was
now.
As he considered Korr's seemingly impossible accuracy
with the blaster along with his attitude, a very
unpleasant possibility presented itself to him.
Was he trained as an.........assassin?
Rosh quickly grew very uncomfortable with the idea and
reflexively looked at Ranma at the other side of the
ravine. He considered it; so far, Korr had displayed
fewer emotions than a computer and maintained an
ice-cold personality.
On the other hand, assassins weren't known for being
humanitarian; Korr had already shown, however briefly,
that he'd been concerned about the injured people back
at the shuttlecraft. Then again, he could be faking
it as some sort of camouflage or something like that.
Damnit! Rosh didn't know what to think anymore. He
felt a sudden urge to scream out loud to the sky and
rip his hair out. Unfortunately, he soon discovered
that it was a very bad idea to ignore where one was
walking. His right foot, while stepping forward,
abruptly found itself bumping into the slightly
charred end of the fallen tree. And since the height
between the ground and the tree were different.....
"What th--!"
Splat.
"Owwwwww...."
All things considered, Rosh should've been grateful;
although he did almost knock himself senseless (and
rather painfully) on the rough, unyielding wood, it
was the tree that kept him from falling to certain
death into the ravine.
Of course as usual, Ranma was completely blunt in his
response. There was no 'Glare of Death' this time,
though there was the slightest traces of what could've
been exasparation in his eyes.
"Penin, you klutz. What's the matter with you? Quit
screwing around; we don't have time to waste. Get up
or I'll leave you behind."
Having said his piece, Ranma then proceeded to jump
onto the branch of a nearby tree and continued upwards
in the same manner. He wanted to check their progress
towards the Massassi temple and see if they were still
on track.
"Damnit! I'm in pain here, you idiot! You could at
least help me up, you know!?" Unfortunately, Ranma
was too high up already to hear what he had said.
Rosh was still lying facedown on the tree bridge, so
he missed seeing Ranma leaping up into the tree. As
he slowly got up, Rosh reached up to feel his face and
cursed loudly. A large bruise was already forming on
the right side and he knew that he would look like
half of something the cat dragged in.
Crap, this was Ran--, no wait, it was his own fault
for not paying attention where he was going. While
Rosh might be stubborn and hard-headed at times, he
was not in the habit of blaming his problems on other
people. At least, not all the time.
Carefully making his way over to the other side, he
looked around for Korr. When he couldn't find him,
Rosh was beginning to grow angry at being left behind.
Regardless of the abuse heaped upon him by Korr, he
didn't really believe the cold-blooded sociopath would
have done that to him.
"Emperor's damnation!" he cursed, then impulsively
dashed off into the jungle. "Korr, you bastard!
Where the hell are you!?"
Within seconds, he was lost from sight.
Eight minutes later, Ranma dropped down from the
branch into a crouched stance. He looked around, a
small frown tugging at the corners of his mouth when
he noticed his companion's disappearance.
"How.......inconvenient," he stated. "I should have
had the Rodian come with me instead of him."
/**************/
At his vigil near the shuttlecraft's open side hatch,
Dah'kk was fervently wishing that he'd switched places
with Penin. The Zabrak nurse was nice, but gods above
and below, her nonstop talking was really getting on
his nerves!
"Y' wanna know sumthin' funny? Ah wuz accident'ly
engaged ta two guys back in med school, and Ah didn't
even know it! They wuld buy me all sorts 'f gifts and
treat me ta all th' best rest'rants; dear o' dear, Ah
wuz in heav'n, don'cha know? Half th' time, I didn't
even hav' ta spend a dime on myself 'n food an'
entertainin' myself. Oh gosh, Ah wish I culd go back
ta thos' days. Hey huney, d'ya think Luke Skywalk'r
will treat us all ta a 'Welcom' New Students' party
bash or sumthin' like it. I sur' wish he does! He
sounds like a very nice man, don'cha think so? An'
anuther thin'......"
The Rodian wasn't the only one who was suffering. The
others who were awake, including the pilot, two of the
Twi-leks, and one of the Kel-dor males were all
unfortunately experiencing the same thing.
They really needed to be rescued, now more than ever.
Dah'kk's right round-shaped, black filled eye was
twitching. At the moment, he was seriously thinking
about shooting himself. At the rate Aserna was
carrying on, he didn't know if he could hold on to his
sanity for long.
"Hey y'all, Ah hav an idear! Since this 's sorta like
a campout, let's sing sum songs! Ah'll start! Ah luv
ya, ya luv me; we're a happy family..........." [1]
The indigenous wildlife near the shuttle were minding
their own business until they were startled by several
loud cries that shouted in agonized unison....
"NOOOOO!!! MAKE IT STOP, OH PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!"
/**************/
"We lost track of the shuttle soon after it entered
Yavin's atmosphere--Luke, what's wrong?"
The tow-headed Jedi Master had suddenly looked up at
the ceiling, having barely registered Kyle's words.
He said in a distant tone of voice, "I just felt a
minor disturbance in the Force.....as if a handful of
voices suddenly cried out in agony and were being
subjected to some sort of horrible torture nearby. We
have to move quickly, or else we won't have any new
trainees left to teach. Kyle, please go gather the
senior students and get them ready. We leave in
fifteen minutes."
"You got it, Luke."
/**************/
Rosh Penin had lost track of how much time had elapsed
since Korr had disappeared and left him behind. For
that matter, he didn't really care. Less than a
minute after he began searching for him, Rosh arrived
at the conclusion that he didn't need to waste time
looking for Korr. He still had the beacon, and the
injured people at the shuttlecraft still needed help.
So he'd switched priorities, kicking 'Search for
Ponytailed Prick' down to the bottom of the list and
bringing up 'Locate Massassi Temple'.
He'd already climbed up a tree to check his position.
It was with relief he'd discovered that he was only
slightly off track. He'd long since corrected and
periodically rechecked his course.
After a while, he began to rant out loud; not the best
idea, as he would come to regret later.
"Stupid Ranma. It's all his fault I'm in this
godforsaken jungle. Dammit, why the hell did he have
to force me to go with him, that cold-blooded psycho.
I could've been safely back in the shuttle, awaiting
rescue....."
Rosh took a moment to reconsider his words.
"I take that back. There's no way in hell that I'd
place myself back in the shuttle just to be tortured
by that air-headed ditzy nurse! Man, now that I think
about it, I should've never applied to the Military
Academy." He took a moment to take a breather and
then continued on.
"And I could've been home at a barbecue![2] Stupid
Korr, this is all your fault!"
"Instead here I am, trudging through this humid,
vegetation-filled crap, sweating like a rancor in
heat, with hungry, man-eating predators hiding all
around me, just waiting to get a taste of the good old
#6 Penin meat special...." Rosh shook his head in
disgust and threw a fruitless glare at forest.
He really should have been more careful of what he was
saying.
Rosh didn't know what warned him; some instinct or
maybe the Force. All he knew was that he sensed
something moving towards him from the right. When he
turned and looked, he spat a short curse and started
running for his life, holding the beacon securely
tightly against his chest. He didn't get a clear look,
but what he'd seen was enough.
Anyone with sense would do their utmost best to get
away from a large, dark-red furry feline-like beast
running at them with sharp, gleaming teeth.
As he ran, Rosh mentally added yet another thing to
the list that was Korr's fault.
/**************/
Somewhere behind Rosh, Ranma was quickly tree-hopping
his way towards the Massassi temple, oblivious to the
other man's predicament.
/**************/
Somewhere ahead of Rosh, three cloaked and hooded
figures paused, sensed that their first victim was
rapidly coming their way and arranged for an
appropriate welcome.
/**************/
Lines of sweat cascaded down Rosh's face as he
frantically pumped his legs to go faster and faster.
He didn't dare to look behind him to see how close his
pursuer was; he knew how these things worked, he'd
seen it happen on those holovid movies after all. The
second he turned his head, he would trip over an
exposed root or vine and it would be all over for
Alina Penin's oldest boy.
Thus he forced out all thoughts on how much his legs
hurt, how hard it was getting to breathe, EVERYTHING,
and just plain focused on staying more than one step
ahead of it.
He also made a note to kill Korr for not giving him
that blaster next time he saw him.
Leaves and small branches slapped at his face and
body, the rapid rhythm puffs of air flew from his
mouth, the adrenaline sparking through his body, Rosh
had never felt so alive before. Then again, he had
good reason to.
For the most part, he ran on, partially blind. This
part of the forest was very dark, with only small
patches of light to help him negotiate his way. It
was enough so he was able to avoid being clotheslined
by any low hanging branch. Whenever he would think
that he couldn't go on any further, the image of being
painfully torn limb from limb spurred him on.
After what seemed to be several minutes of being
chased (though in actuality was only twenty seconds),
Rosh broke clear of the forest out into a large
clearing with a wide river straight ahead. Beyond
that was more forest and beyond that to the right,
was.......
The Massassi temple! Apparently, by sheer luck, he'd
been able to stay on track. Rosh immediately made a
beeline towards it.
The rustling of bushes from behind told him that the
red feline carnivore was after him. Damnit! Why
won't it just give up!
His legs churning for all they were worth, Rosh eyed
the river with dismay. It was obvious that he
couldn't run across it, the drag of the downstream
current would slow him down enough for the feline to
catch him. No, the only way to get across was to jump
across. The river was pretty wide, but Rosh was
positive that he could make it. He had no other
choice, if he wanted to live.
That was always a good incentive.
The river was coming closer, but he knew without a
doubt that his pursuer was quickly gaining, being on
open ground meant that it didn't have to contend with
maneuvering around trees and other such obstacles.
With the strength of desperation, Rosh gathered up his
flagging energy and focused it into his legs for one
last burst of speed.
Five feet. Four feet. Three feet. Two feet. One
feet. He was now at the riverbank.
'Ohgoshohgoshohgoshohgoshohgoshthishadbetterfrigginwork!!!'
With that last thought, Rosh tensed his leg muscles
and jumped for all he was worth. For a single moment,
it was as if time slowed down and he was hanging over
the river, inching forward at a snail's pace. From
his position, he knew he would make it safely to the
other side with inches to spare. When his left foot
finally touched down on the ground, time resumed its
normal passage. However, before he could even start
to be happy about that, the forward momentum from his
leap transferred to his landing.
In other words, he was unable to keep his balance upon
landing and tripped, finding himself for the third
time in one day, face flat on the slightly moist
ground. For a second, Rosh lied still, confused as to
what had happened. His adrenaline, which had served
him so well in preventing him from becoming catfood,
quickly left his body, leaving him feeling weak as a
kitten.
He lifted his head and then suddenly, his eyes widened
as he abruptly remembered what was chasing him. He
quickly rolled over just in time to see the
feline-like predator launch itself over the river,
just like he'd done.
And unless he did something very soon, said
feline-like predator would be landing right on him.
Completely frozen by fear, Rosh did the only thing he
could. Reflexively throwing his arms over his face,
the young man screamed at the top of his lungs.
"MOOOOMMMMIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" [3]
/**************/
"Ah-choo!"
"Bless you, dear," Marbo Penin automatically said as
he read the news at the dining room table.
/**************/
Two heart-beats passed.
Nothing happened. There was no impact of an oversized
cat on top of him, there was no unbearable pain of his
skin being ripped open by razor edged canines, there
was no spurting of blood from ravaged blood vessels.
He was still alive! But how?
Rosh cautiously opened his eyes and lowered his arms.
He looked around uneasily and immediately shouted out
in surprise.
The red cat was still there over him, but something
had frozen it in mid-air. For a moment, Rosh thought
he was dreaming or hallucinating, but a female voice
soon dispelled that theory.
"I'm sorry to interfere with your business, my feline
sister, but I'll take over from here. Talna!"
/**************/
>From the treelines where they'd been watching the
amusing chase, Crimson had been tempted to let the
predator catch the prey. But at the last moment, her
desire to have a little fun changed her mind; with
that decided, she motioned to Talna, who understood
what to do.
The three Disciples casually walked out into the open,
Talna with her hand outstretched, using the Force to
hold the large feline in place.
They stopped at a certain point, Crimson a little
ahead of her two subordinates. In an overly dramatic
tone, she said "I'm sorry to interfere with your
business, my feline sister, but I'll have to take over
from here." She pointed at the forest on the other
side and ordered, "Talna!"
Her subordinate nodded, her brow wrinking with the
effort, and slowly dropped her live cargo at the
designated area. The red feline landed on her feet,
snarled angrily at the three women and for one second
was about to attack them. However, her animal
instincts, which had kept her alive all these years on
Yavin, warned her against that move. These three were
definitely more dangerous than she ever could be.
Hissing in displeasure, she wheeled around and
vanished within the forest.
Rosh let out a breath of pure relief and he remained
where he was for a few seconds, letting himself
recover from the exhausting run. If he hadn't
prepared himself physically for the New Republic
Military -- he shook his head; he did not want to go
there. It was a good thing that his rescuers had
arrived when they did.
When he felt his legs were sturdy enough to support
him again, Rosh stood up with some difficulty and
faced them. He assumed that they were from the Jedi
Academy; Skywalker must've found out about their
predicament, somehow. After all, he was a Jedi Master
and probably had his ways.
His initial greeting died quickly when he got a good
look at them. There were three of them, undisputedly
female, and what really took Rosh aback was their body
language and their choice of clothing. His intuition
told him in no uncertain terms that the shortest one
in the middle was the leader, and she was tense and
angry at something, or someone.
Check that, not angry, more like ... hostile .... very
hostile. The other two weren't as intense, but their
body language could hardly be called friendly, or even
neutral.
Also, their clothing was giving him any assurance at
all either. In his opinion, wearing black hooded
robes that covered the entire body, except for the
mouth and chin, was not the best thing to use in order
to generate a positive public image. That said, Rosh
didn't think that Luke Skywalker would approve of such
attire. He found himself idly wondering how they
could stand being almost completely covered like that
during such a hot day like now.
Rosh was beginning to have a bad feeling about all
this. His throat became suddenly dry, and the relief
he'd felt at being rescued winked out and was being
replaced with apprehension.
Although he knew better, he tried anyway. "Thanks
ladies," he began cautiously. "I would've been
catfood if you three hadn't shown up when you did.
Say, how did you manage to find me all the way from
the Academy?"
His question went unanswered. The one in the middle
who seemed to be in charge stepped forward, her mouth
turning up into an eager and hungry grin. She
unhooked her black and red lightsaber and ignited it.
The resulting snap-hiss made Rosh flinch, which she
enjoyed seeing. The bruised half of his face made her
snicker derisively, lowering her opinion of him by
several depths.
It was at this time that inch of Rosh's body screamed
at him that he was in a lot of trouble. Rosh was no
idiot; from the stories he'd heard of the fall of the
Empire, these were probably Sith, like what Darth
Vader and the Emperor had been.
Taking some steps backward, Rosh pasted a nervous
smile on his face and tried to negotiate. "Okay,
let's have everyone calm down and I'm sure we can make
a deal. C'mon, whadaya say? I'm not even a trained
Jedi yet, meaning I'm no threat to you at all. So how
about letting me go, c'mon, please?"
Unfortunately, his pleading failed to result in the
desired conclusion. Crimson began advancing on him,
matching him step for step, and brought her lightsaber
to ready.
"Typical of a man; not having the courage to die with
dignity. I'll be doing Skywalker a favor by helping
him weed out pathetic worms just like you! Die, you
weak excuse for a male!!"
Rosh had a response ready for that.
"Uh oh."
Crimson's form blurred forward and she lifted her
lightsaber for a slashing maneuver.....
...when all of a sudden the Force alerted her to an
incoming threat, stopped, yelled "Ambush!" while
bringing her blade up defensively in an appropriate
block....
...less than half a heart-beat later, a burst of laser
bolts were fired at them from the trees on the other
side of the river.
Reacting quickly himself, Rosh took this opportunity
to dash into the woods, heading straight for the
Massassi temple. He had to activate the beacon before
they caught up to him.
At their superior's cry, Narissa and Talna activated
their lightsabers and prepared to defend themselves.
All three ignored Rosh's escape; they could easily
catch up to him after they disposed of this nuisance.
Unfortunately, things weren't as easy as they'd
assumed.
Crimson easily picked off the laser bolt that blazed
towards her face; Narissa did so likewise.....
However, Talna had been a split-second too slow to
react. She ALMOST made it as she swung her lightsaber
up in a half-circle to deflect the incoming bolt.
Despite her attempt, the laser bolt shot past the
energy blade, missing by a fourth of an inch, and
burnt itself right between her eyes. [4]
She fell on her back, convulsed for a bit then became
still as she entered death's final embrace.
Crimson's eyes narrowed. Whoever ambushed them, and
she was certain it was only one person, was one hell
of a shot. All of those laser bolts had been aimed at
the exact same spot for all three of them. And what
was more to consider was the speed of which the laser
bolts had been fired.....no hesitation between each
shot. Just zap-zap-zap and that was it.
Knowing instantly that their comrade was dead, Crimson
and Narissa didn't even bother to tend to her. They
absently realized that Rosh had disappeared, but they
didn't worry about that now. The two of them wisely
kept their guard up, not eager to dash into such an
obvious trap, preferring to wait for their hidden
attacker to show themselves.
Which they soon did.
Out of the woods, as if he didn't have a care in the
world, calmly strolled Ranma Korr, weaponless except
for his lightsaber, held in hand. Stopping a few feet
from the riverbank, he regarded the remaining two
Disciples with a measured look, mentally calculating
their threat potential.
"Narissa, go catch that coward who ran away,"
commanded her leader. "I'll deal with this one."
Barely acknowledging her remaining subordinate's nod,
Crimson brought up her lightsaber and began walking
towards the river, never taking her eyes off him and
an eager gleam of anticipation appearing in her eyes.
The short mystery had been solved already; with the
lightsaber as proof, obviously the foolish man was a
Jedi. How else could the accuracy of his blaster
shots could be explained? [5]
Talna had been a decent subordinate and would be hard
to replace; her death would help Crimson by focusing
her feelings of anger and revenge. She flipped off
the hood, letting her face catch the afternoon
sunlight. Black hair with blue highlights that
reached the middle of her back was securely tied back
in a tight, double knot. Wrathful brown pupils
regarded her enemy with scorn. A furious scowl marred
what was otherwise an attractive face.
"Whoever you are, you wouldn't believe how big a
mistake you've just made. Your life, as of now, is
forfeit, you stupid, suicidal MAN!! Please, do me a
favor and try to put up at least a little bit of
resistance. That way, I'll enjoy slowly killing you a
whole lot more..." Her face emphasized her promise by
twisting into a decidedly evil and menacing expression
which had put fear into the hearts of many men.
It was completely wasted on Ranma, who didn't
acknowledge it one bit. He shrugged, his posture
giving off vibes of indifference, and ignited his
lightsaber. The chips of ice that vaguely resembled
his eyes met her burning eyes, both of them rising to
the challenge fearlessly.
Holding the humming light-green energy blade a few
inches away from his face, Ranma gave Crimson her
answer.
"We'll see."
End Chapter 2
Began May 26, 2006
Finished June 16, 2006
Author's Notes:
I don't like or dislike Akane; I just chose to write
her this way. Why? Because it was convenient. In
one of my upcoming fics, she'll be treated much better
and closer to the canon.
At least this chapter was much faster than the
previous one, neh? ;D Next chapter, this galaxy's
version of Ranma VS this galaxy's version of Akane!
[1] = Yes, I'm evil. (chuckles)
[2] = Borrowed this line from ID4
[3] = If you haven't noticed already, Rosh is the
designated comic-relief...well, until Ranma thaws out
later in the story, though.
[4] = I figured if Jango Fett could catch a fully
trained Jedi Knight by surprise and eventually get
through his defenses (Attack of the Clones).....
[5] = Crimson hasn't met Dash Rendar (Shadows of the
Empire) or Wes Janson of Rogue/Wraith Squadron, two of
the best gun-men in the Star Wars universe
Dave Wong
a.k.a. DarkWing
"Let's get dangerous"
Website: www.geocities.com/darksoar/start.html
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