Author's Note: Since villains are mostly portrayed in two dimensions, I thought it might be nice to have one fleshed out for your reading pleasure. This is a villain's story. It does not have a happy ending. The main character is not going to be a fluffy person, but I won't be overly gross or cruel with his/her portrayal. It's just meant to show how an average person can become evil with a little push in the wrong direction. Kudos to djkauf for betaing this for me. Pic Credit: Darth Hell. Star Wars and recognizable characters from that universe belong to George Lucas et al. This chapter is a tad bit lighter, well, not at the beginning, bit still.

Chapter Four

Interlude:

“Observation: Perhaps using a Force Storm to shore up the wormhole was not the brightest idea you’ve ever had… Master. Oh how I hate that term.”

The HK-47 Hunter Killer Assassin Droid pushed a fallen cross-member off its chest and stood. Turning in place, it observed the pilot impaled on the ship’s controls, dead. Then its visual sensors scanned the terrain outside the ship. Rock and more rock. According to the ships scans, before the crash landing that killed its master, the backwater planet held some six point five billion life forms. A paltry amount compared to some Imperial held planets, but more than others.

It looked down at its former master.

“Statement: I do want to thank you for all you have done for me up to this point. As a parting gift, I will find the meatbag that you do not like and I will personally kill him. Farewell, Master.”

End Interlude

~O~

The only thing that was kind of bugging me was all the stares I was receiving from pretty much everyone. Houston has its share of superheroes, but pretty much all of them are normal looking. What I wouldn’t give to swap places with American Dream or Terra. If I had to be a girl, I mean. At least they could pass in public without creating a scene.

All it took to get by was just to ignore them. I heard hushed whispers and there was even a preteen boy that pointed at me like Christmas had come because he thought I was cosplaying or something.

Once we’d made it into the theater and I had my popcorn, Raisinettes and large Coke, I felt a lot better. The guys were nice enough to sit near the back. We normally sat near the front in the center, but this way, nobody could stare without being obvious. Not that it stopped them.

I’d see a few people pointing me out to their friends that missed the spectacle in the lobby. Matt was nice and flipped one of them off when they were overly loud about it.

When the lights went down, everything was back to normal. My life was returned to me and I was just another teenager at the movies. Matt and Eric both kept their hands to themselves and we’d joke at certain parts of the show just like old times. I was almost ecstatic at how ordinary it felt to be one of the crowd again.

The guys even went as far as to block anyone from getting near me on the way out when people bump into one another all the time.

When we reached the car and got inside, I turned around in my seat to face both of them.

“Guys… thanks.”

Matt looked kind of sheepish and Eric was busy turning on the air conditioner.

“I know I’ve been really weird the last couple of days, but…”

Matt nodded. “It’s cool.”

I ducked my head. “No, it’s not. I’m jumping to conclusions and it’s not fair to you guys. You’re just trying to be nice and I’m throwing it in your face like the stuck-up chicks at school.”

Matt shifted and I knew I’d hit the target with that one.

Yeah, I’d come to a decision.

“Matt, if the offer is still open, I’d like to go to Junior Prom with you.”

He shrugged. “Sure, it’s open.”

“Good. Eric, if you want to go out and do something, the same goes to you.”

His mouth opened a little in response, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’m having a hard time knowing what to do, guys. This is all so messed up it’s pathetic. I don’t want to be anyone’s girlfriend. I just want life to go back to normal, but I also know that’s impossible.”

Eric reached across the seat and paused for a moment before touching my hand. “I’ll call you tonight if you want to talk.”

I gave him a short nod. “Yeah, that’d be good. Not having to look at your reactions when I sound like a girl would be better.” A giggle escaped at the end of that.

“You’re a girl, Aayla,” said Matt. “We understand that. Just be yourself whoever that is now. We’re not going to judge.”

“Yeah… what he said.”

“And if you feel like going down on me afterward…”

I looked up at Matt and saw he was jerking my chain, so I threw my nearly empty box of Raisinettes at him. “In your dreams.”

~O~

Eric called me that night and we talked forever. I still hadn’t told him about the more freaky aspects like my power or about the reality of the films, but we broached almost every other subject. I don’t think we’d ever talked so much, but it felt good to have a sympathetic ear.

Around ten-thirty we made our excuses and eventually hung up, I took a long shower and went to bed.

The next day Matt came over and interrupted a lecture on Twi’lek mating habits, complete with visuals. Apparently Jedi take their research very seriously, the perverts. I stored the GH under the bed and regretted not dressing in my sports tights that morning. Workout shorts and a sports bra were the only thing I was wearing when I heard him coming down the steps.

Yes, girls wear that every day while working out or running, and it was more than what they wear to the beach, but still, I made a beeline to my tops and pulled on a tank before trying to look casual.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey yourself,” I said with a smile.

Matt shuffled around looking at pretty much anything except for me. It made me wonder what was going on.

“Were you serious about the prom thing?” he said, out of the blue.

“Uh, yeah. If you already asked someone else, that’s…”

“No,” he said. “That’s not what I mean. I just thought we’d, um, you know work out the particulars.”

I leaned back in the camping chair and propped my foot up. My arms went around my thigh and calf. “Sure, that’s cool.”

The tension in his shoulders relaxed and I could see he was relieved that I hadn’t changed my mind, again.

“I’m wearing a black suit with um, a red vest.”

I smiled at the image. “Well that’s convenient. You’ll match me.” Then my smiled kind of faded when I realized what was expected of me. “I need to get a dress.”

He shrugged. “You don’t have to. I mean it’s your prom too. You can do something else.”

I let go of my leg and sat up. “No, it’s… it’s okay. All the other girls will be wearing dresses. I should try to fit in as much as I can.”

“Whatever you want to do is fine with me, Aayla. Do what you’re comfortable with.”

“I appreciate it. I’ll talk to my mom. I’m sure she’ll know the things to do.”

“Cool.”

When he continued to shuffle around I knew there was other stuff to be said. “Matt, come sit down. I’m not going to bite your head off.”

He did so reluctantly. “I’ve got dinner reservations at Vargo’s. They were kind of hard to get.”

I even shocked myself a little when I said, “That’s fine. I hear their food is pretty good.”

He smiled in return. “Cool.”

“You can cancel the hotel room though.”

That brought a laugh from him. “I already did.”

“Sucks, huh?”

He nodded.

“Blue told me she was going to give it up on prom night. I never even had the chance to get laid before I turned into a girl.”

“She was probably saying that to get a rise out of you, Aayla. Ignore her.”

“Still. No sex.”

“Yeah. That’s got to suck.” Then he realized something. “Hold on, you were a virgin?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Not for lack of trying. You?”

Matt held up a hand with four fingers showing.

“Four times! Damn!”

He chuckled. “All four were with Carly last year. So it’s not like, you know, I’m a player or anything. I actually know what I’m doing now.”

My head started filling up with images of things I’d rather not relay at the moment. “Can we talk about something else?”

His body language shifted to nervousness again. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s cool. I mean I just… with the stupid movies I feel like I’m going to explode into some sort of porn star or something if I think about sex too much.”

He didn’t seem to get that, but it was the best excuse I could manage after seeing some of the holo-images on the subject. I was seriously hoping that the people they got to provide the visual aides were over acting, because they really looked like they were enjoying themselves way too much.

Jedi Porn; what can you do?

We sat there for a few moments before Matt came out with the next uncomfortable subject.

“What’s it like?”

“What’s what… oh. The girl thing or the alien thing?”

“Both I guess.”

I crossed my legs as my mom had reminded me to do a few times already.

“Being an alien…” I laughed at myself. “Uh, it’s something new every day, especially with the lekku. Sometimes I just want to tie them down. Or these nails,” I said as I flashed the black talons for him.

“The first time I tried to clip them off, I broke the clippers. I thought they were defective so I tried another pair; broke them too.”

Matt smiled at that. “I thought you liked them that long.”

“They’re almost an inch long. It’s a pain in the ass to do anything with them. I had to relearn how to button a shirt and pretty much everything. I’ve got to use the sides of my fingers instead of the pads,” I protested.

“I can’t imagine what my writing is going to look like at school. I need a belt sander or something to get them down.”

“They look good.”

I gave him a seriously doubtful glare. “They’re dragon lady nails. Let me go out and buy you a set. We’ll see how much you like them.”

He held up his hands. “I’m cool. Belt sander it is.”

Bouncing my foot a little let me get through the next bit. “The girl part is… I haven’t really dealt with that too much, just the bare minimum really.”

“Does it feel any different?”

“Are you serious?”

He nodded.

“Yes, it’s feels like something’s missing. I’ve got an empty feeling all the time that needs to be filled up and not in the way that you’re thinking. It just… I feel incomplete.”

Squeezing my breasts rudely I said, “These are great and not so great. They’re kind of heavy and it’s annoying to wear a bra or a sports bra, but they feel good and I know once I get over the whole being a guy that turned into a girl thing, I know I’ll appreciate them more.”

Matt’s mouth was kind of hanging open.

“Do you want to feel them?” I asked.

“Are you serious?”

At first I was joking, but what the hell, they’re just tits.

“They don’t feel like regular breasts. Here.”

I reached under my tank and lifted my sports bra to free them. One look at him and I decided to leave the tank on.

“You can touch, but no looking.”

I received a quick nod before I pulled the bottom of my tank out to make room for his hand.

“No groping either. They’re sensitive.”

“It’s cool,” he said.

I hadn’t leaned forward for a second before he had both hands underneath and cupping both breasts. He barely squeezed them.

“Oh yeah, you’re right. They’re a lot more firm, but the skin is really soft.”

His thumbs grazed the tops of my nipples sending waves of tingling feeling through them. I felt them respond to his touch as his thumb and forefinger pinched them really softly.

“Okay, that’s enough,” I said as I backed away and pulled my sports bra back down.

I breathed out nice and even. Woo boy. Yeah, he wasn’t kidding when he said he knew what to do.

Matt kind of ducked his head a little and sat back, crossing his legs. His hands went right in his lap, covering as much space as possible. I knew what he was hiding and if I thought about things for more than a split second before acting on them then I think I would realize that he was going to get an erection.

“Sorry,” I said, motioning to the affected area. “Do you want a pillow?”

Matt started laughing. It was small, but turned into a big belly laugh while I smirked.

“No telling anyone I let you feel me up.”

“Who would believe me?”

“Eric.”

That sobered him up. “What?”

“We talked last night. Remember? He said he was going to call me?”

Matt nodded.

“We covered a lot of this already. I mean, I’m not going to act all innocent and girly just because I’m a girl now. He’d believe that you got to touch them.”

That was making him uncomfortable.

“Matt, you guys are my best friends. I don’t want you getting jealous of each other.”

“I’m not jealous.”

“Uh-huh. You and I both know that bullshit, but whatever gets you through the day.”

That shut him up. Frankly I was getting tired of the little game we were playing. “I’d have given my right arm to hook up with someone like me. Star Wars geek with a Twi’lek, please. I get that. Just be cool. I’m not choosing one of you over the other. Hell, I don’t even know if I like guys. I may just be a strict lesbian. So, let it play out, okay?”

I knew it was all lies. Just sitting there I was almost squirming in my seat. The feeling of his touch hadn’t gone away. That didn’t mean I had to admit it, besides I still had higher priorities.

“Okay,” he said.

“Good. Thanks. I appreciated it.”

~O~

After Matt left, I immediately locked the door, turned the GH back on to where I’d left off and proceeded to bring myself a little bit of relief.

~O~

Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt afterward. I couldn’t get the deed done. I only made things a lot worse. Maybe it was familiarity or lack thereof that prevented me from finding just the right spot. I can tell you this: due to being able to find everything on the internet, I know the inner and outer workings of a human female. I know what makes her tick and I know all the right places to go to make her feel good.

Twi’leks don’t have those things. They’re different down there; less parts if you get my meaning.

So, anyway, I spent the rest of the day trying to exhaust myself with Jedi exercises and overuse of the Force.

By the time sleep came around I was still horny, but I was really tired so I didn’t care… not much anyway.

I had torrid dreams, an amalgamation of my real life and that of what I’d viewed with the GH and all my fears. It wasn’t pretty. I was a slut, and wound up doing every guy and girl in high school in some massive orgy on the floor of the gym. I woke up in a tangle with the sheets, my lekku, and pillows.

A nice cold shower put things in semi-order, at least enough to let me get ready for school.

I decided on some stretch jeans, one of the only pairs that fit, my knee boots, and a loose billowy olive-colored blouse. I was a little wary of the green against my skin, but it went fairly well.

After dumping the contents of my purse into the small pocket of my backpack, I kissed Mom on the cheek and hopped on my bike.

Apparently red-skin aliens riding a bike on the streets causes people to lose control of their cars. When I heard the squeal of the first car, I hopped the curb onto the sidewalk and used a Force Haze to mask my presence.

It works just like it sounds. People don’t see you. It kind of works like the Mind Trick thing, erasing any memory of seeing you, even those that are just formed. It doesn’t work on large crowds; however I just wanted to avoid being seen by the occasional passerby. I could step things up a notch and use a Force Cloak which bends the light flowing around you to make you invisible, but that gets tiring.

The down side to either of these is you have to watch where you’re going or someone will run you over.

When I docked and locked my bike at the rack in front of the school I dropped the haze and headed to the office.

There were a few people milling about that reminded me of being at the theater on Saturday so I treated them the same way as the others; I ignored them.

“I need to speak to a counselor.”

The guy behind the counter stared for a moment longer before figuring out that I was talking to him.

“Uh, sorry, grade level?”

“Junior.”

He nodded and picked up a phone to announce my presence. “Go on back. You know where her office is?”

“Yeah.” At the second office on the left I saw the door was open, but knocked anyway.

“Oh, my…” She stopped herself from finishing that particular exclamation. “Let me guess: Josh Walker?”

“I’m going by Aayla now, but yes.”

She gestured me inside. “Come in, close the door behind you.”

After shutting the door I found a seat. “We heard that you went into the hospital and the rumor mill ran about your metahuman status. Did everything come out okay?”

I glared at her. “Does it look like everything came out okay?” I really hate stupid questions.

She cleared her throat. “Well, we’ll need verification of your identity for the state records.”

“It should be here today or tomorrow at the latest. I have my old ID.”

The counselor winced. “We’re really not supposed to allow anyone in school without proper ID.”

“I have proper ID,” I said.

“With your new information?”

I sighed and cut through BS by concentrating on her. “You don’t need my new ID.”

She blinked. “I don’t need your new ID.”

“I’ll bring it in when I receive it.”

“You’ll bring it in when you receive it.”

I thought about having her change all my B’s to A’s on my record, but that would probably be a little much.

“Do whatever you need to do in order to get me into class.”

She turned to her computer and started typing and moving her mouse around. I spelled my new name out for her when she asked for it and then waited.

“Look into the camera,” she said as she pointed to the webcam.

I heard a machine start running and figured she was making my new school ID.

“Do you have your doctor’s note for excused absences?”

“You don’t need a doctor’s note.”

“I don’t need a doctor’s note.”

No, I’m not breaking any Jedi rules here. They do this sort of thing all the time.

When the machine spit out my ID she handed it over with a blank stare. I looked at the picture, and frowned. I looked evil as shit. Maybe it was the staring.

“Thanks.”

I stood up and left the room.

The halls were already filling up and I was given a wide berth as I made my way to my locker and swapped out a few books. The whispering started to increase in volume. By the time I made it to English class I was getting a little tired of it.

Two people were in that specific class that I normally interacted with. One was Eric, who I always sat by; the other was Blue who had a seat next to me as well. Guess which one of them screamed when I walked through the door? I’m not giving you any hints.

The teacher looked up at my ex and then followed her line of sight to me, and then he jumped.

“Jesus!”

I shook my head. “No, Aayla, formerly Josh Walker.”

Eric smothered a snicker.

“You look just like a…”

“Yes, we all know what I look like. We have these things called eyes.”

I leaned over the desk and the teacher backed away a little. “I don’t have my homework, but you don’t really need that do you.”

“I don’t really need that,” he said.

“Go ahead and mark them received.”

“I’ll mark them received.”

I winked at him and turned to find my seat. “Hey Eric.”

“Aayla, looking good.”

“Thank you.”

When I sat down, I dropped my backpack beside my desk and turned to my ex. “Hello, Blue. Lovely day we’re having isn’t it?”

She put her hand to her throat and started looking around the room, probably for another place to sit. In a way I felt justified for what I did to her, but since I was trying to stay away from Dark side tendencies, I leaned over.

“Relax.”

She went almost boneless and I had to ease up on the suggestiveness I was sending out.

“Not that much. Be at ease.”

Everyone that came in gave me a good long look. I tried my best to ignore them, but there were only so many places I could center my attention on without encountering another pair of eyes.

Marie Flowers, who usually sat behind me entered the aisle and skirted around me before taking her seat. My lekku were brushing against her desk and I moved them out of the way, wrapping one around my shoulders and letting the other hang down my front.

I thought about making a harness for them, like in the movies. It was basically a crisscross of material that restricted the upper half and anchored to a headband. It was decorative as well. Maybe something stretchy and soft would work.

Almost everyone in the class was distracted throughout the lesson, even the teacher. I think I learned more reading directly from the book than from listening to the lecture.

After I finished the chapter, about halfway through the period, I pulled out a sheet of paper and started doodling while I half-heartedly listened to what was going on around me.

Since I was sitting there and I couldn’t meditate, I concentrated on other issues Jedi related. Half of the equipment that was left behind was non-functional due to a lack of power source; they were drained with no means of recharging.

Searching through the nocturnal training I received, I found that I knew how to build a charger, but it was using materials that weren’t readily available on Earth. Or the materials were there, but they were in a form that wasn’t suitable for use. I’d have to make everything from scratch. That’s a lot harder than it sounds.

Think about a regular household flashlight. There’s not a lot of parts and the general construction of it is pretty simple, but if you actually had to make every little piece, yourself, with only raw materials available, then you can understand the enormity of the situation.

I mean, I generally know how a light bulb works, but I didn’t have a clue as to how to make the glass or what metal they use for the filament or how to make the bulb vacuum sealed.

What I needed was someone that could build it for me.

~O~

The next class was much the same, and the one after, completely identical. It was twenty minutes of reading the text, becoming bored, and then working on my own. By lunchtime my hand was cramping. It wasn’t that I was constantly writing, but the way I was holding the pencil.

The long nails had come back to haunt me again. Once school was out I had to see if Mom would take me to the hardware store so I could find something to clip them with, maybe a set of wire cutters would work. I was actually considering the sander. It made no sense why my nails were so hard, but my skin never changed… the texture I mean.

My skin was a little more firm, but I could be cut just as easy as before.

For lunch we had pizza, so I was pretty happy. I bought a canned coke and took my regular seat.

The whispering had actually settled down, because most people had a chance already to see the red and black chick with tails popping out of her head.

Various geeky guys walked by several times. If it wasn’t me under their watchful eye, I’d think it was funny. They made excuses to either walk by or tie their shoes right beside me. One of them even spilled his tray beside my table and took a really long time to clean it up. I didn’t know if I should feel flattered that he would go hungry just for a chance to be near me or annoyed that I couldn’t eat lunch in peace.

“Are you a Sith?”

I was currently tonguing a piece of cheese and dough from the roof of my mouth — don’t you hate it when it gets stuck there right behind your front teeth and you can’t get it loose without sticking your finger in your mouth? God that’s annoying.

Anyway, the question came from my left. I swear I knew the guy’s name from somewhere, but I just couldn’t figure it out. Considering my increase in brain capacity, I found that troubling. He was in the mid-five foot range, a lot shorter than me when I’m out of my boots.

I was pushing five-eleven in bare feet, and that didn’t include the extra three or four inches where the tails pop out. Add an extra two inches for the boots and I was taller than most guys at school.

He wasn’t a totally spaz looking guy and he wasn’t sweating nervously. It just looked like he was curious.

“Why do you want to know?”

He cleared his throat and looked over my shoulder briefly, probably back at his friends or something.

“Well, there’s the red skin and tattooing like Darth Maul in Phantom Menace…”

I held up my hand. “I knew what I look like. What I want to know is why you are interested in whether or not I’m a Sith.”

He shuffled a little to the left, maybe a step away from me. “Uh… just because.”

He was lying. That’s easy enough to know through use of the Force. “Come back when you can tell the truth or send someone else.”

His face dropped like I’d beaten him. “I…”

I looked at him and narrowed my eyes. “I said come back when you can tell the truth, or send someone else. What is it about this statement that you don’t understand?”

He scuttled away. I may have been a little harsh, but frankly, I didn’t need every Star Wars geek in the school thinking that I was some massive authority on the subject… which I was, but they didn’t have to know that.

Once my two slices of pepperoni were gone I completed the schematics on a new charging device with the remaining time.

By the end of the day, I’d fielded three more attempts to discern my galactic allegiance, two of which slumped off when they saw my glare. They never even got a word out. Two people tried to grab my lekku, and someone almost got to squeeze my ass in the hallway. There’s something to be said for increased agility and mild prescience.

You may think that Jedi and Sith are super-fast and all. They’re not really. They can just see things a second before they happen. It hadn’t been of much use for me, since it wasn’t like I was getting in lightsaber fights all the time.

That’s what alerted me to the guy that was about to step out of the stairwell and grab at my arm on the way out of my last class.

Instead of letting him, I spun around and snatched his wrist a second before he made contact. My thumbnail dug into the base of his palm and he went down to one knee, gasping.

“Getting grabby now are we?”

“I’m sorry; I wasn’t going to hurt you,” he whined.

It was then that I recognized him from lunch. I also remembered his name this time. “Jesse, do you think you could hurt me?”

He shook his head. “No… please… it hurts.”

I eased up my thumbnail and saw a red welt rising in its place.

“What do you want, Jesse?”

Someone running down the stairs gave us a wide eye, but continued on without pausing. When I returned my attention to the boy at my feet he was looking up at me with glassy eyes.

“I want… I want…”

With a sigh, I released him. “Maybe another time.” I turned and made for the exit door, but when I had my hand on the bar, I guess Jesse found some courage.

“I want to be like you!”

My hand froze right before the door opened.

The truth of his words was reverberating through the stairwell. The question I had was what exactly like me he wanted to be. Turning in place, I looked back at Jesse. He was still on his knees and two tear trails were running down his face.

What in the world is this boy’s problem? I thought to myself.

My eyes narrowed. “What do you know about me?”

Jesse sniffed and looked up at the stairwell.

“There’s nobody there,” I said. “Now tell me.”

“You… you were Josh Walker. You were a guy and now…”

Hiking my backpack a little higher I stared back at him. “And now?”

“Don’t make me say it… please.”

“Say what? I have no idea what it is you’re talking about, Jesse,” I said. “Is it the red skin you want? The Twi’lek thing? The Jedi or Sith thing? The girl…”

He flinched.

Ah.

I shook my head. “You don’t want this. Trust me. Besides, you’re not even a metahuman.”

Jesse shuffled a step or two closer, which looked really pathetic while he was on his knees.

“I am. My dad is a doctor… a geneticist. He tested the whole family when he found out how. I just haven’t been able to activate it. I’ve tried.”

He lifted his shirt and I saw something that almost made me sick to my stomach. There were brands on his skin a bunch of little ones that looked small and circular. They could have been cigarette burns. Then there was one big one in the shape of a rounded off star.

“It’s supposed to activate with stress or pain, but…”

Jesus, this kid was seriously disturbed. “You’re doing this to yourself?”

He nodded. “I’ll do anything you want. Just change me, please.”

I sighed. “Get up.”

His foot slipped out from under him as he tried to scramble to his feet, but he caught himself at the last second and didn’t faceplant on the tile. A few swipes across the face with the backs of his hands and he was looking at me like a lost puppy.

“Come here.”

When he got less than a foot away, I held my hand up and reached out with the Force to examine him. There was definitely something different about him that I couldn’t put my finger on.

“Jesse, I have no idea how to help you. It’s not something I’ve ever done. Do you understand?”

He looked up at me, still pitiful, but nodded slightly.

“Why is it you want to be a girl? The truth only.”

I received a confused look in return. “Didn’t you want to be one?”

I shook my head. “No.”

He seemed crestfallen. “Dad was sure there was some underlying reason for the sex change.”

“Is that what you want, just that specific change?”

Jesse swallowed. “If that’s all I could get, yeah. But…”

“But?” I waited for an explanation, however he wasn’t forthcoming. “You’re a Star Wars geek and you wanted to be an alien?”

It was like pulling teeth.

“Look, when you figure out what it is you want, write it down and give it to me. No bullshit, Jesse. If you lie to me you might as well not bother.”

With that, I was out the door before he could say anything else.

I used another haze to get home, but even with the semi-cloaking effect it produced, there was a Ford Festiva on my tail. Well, not on my tail exactly. Since I cut through a few lots and behind a convenience store on the way home, that would be somewhat difficult. The little car just seemed to pop up in my vision every now and again before disappearing near the end.

When I got home, I saw why.

It was Jesse again, parked by the curb looking at my house.

Can we say stalker? I thought so.

Leaving the haze on until I got to the back of the house and parked my bike, I dropped off the pack near the back door and worked my way around the side and hopped the fence. All his attention was down the street in the direction I’d most likely be arriving.

Taking a look though the back of the car, I couldn’t see any weapons, tape, conveniently labeled bottles of chloroform, duct tape… you know, a kidnapper’s tools of the trade. He wasn’t doing anything but wringing his hands and sweating. Then I saw him pick at his shoulder.

I recognized the move because I do it all the time when I adjust my bra strap.

Gone was the cover-up shirt he was using before and all he was wearing was a plain yellow t-shirt. It was way too hot to wear both while baking under a sun in a little car that hadn’t even had time to cool down on the way over. He must have been sweltering.

I approached the driver’s side door since his window was open and snaked my hand through to grip his throat, digging my thumbnail into the skin.

It was becoming useful to have long nails for once. Maybe I’d just shorten them a little bit.

He tried to suck in a breath, but I had slowed that process down considerably. All that came out was a muffled squeal.

“Bad move doing the stalker routine, Jesse.”

I looked at his eyes and didn’t see any malice. Something deep inside me was disappointed in that. Easing up on my grip prompted a round of coughing and a little bit of wheezing. Jesse reached to the seat beside him as I released my grip. A second later he was sucking in on one of those inhaler things.

“You’re asthmatic?”

He nodded as he tried to suck in more air than his lungs would allow at the moment. I frowned at him then opened the door.

“Get out.”

Jesse fumbled with his seatbelt and grabbed his cover shirt, bringing it to his chest.

“Leave the shirt. I’ve already seen you’re wearing a bra.”

His face was red, but I couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or because he just had an asthma attack.

My hand found the back of his neck and I directed him to the back of the house.

“Pick up my backpack.”

I didn’t let him out of my grasp as we went through the house to the basement and down the stairs. Mom wasn’t home. Mondays were her workdays, so we had the house to ourselves for another two hours.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs I faced him away from my bed setup and said, “Don’t move from this position. Don’t look around. I’m going to change. If I see you looking around, I’ll just bury the body in the back yard.”

He nodded. “I’ll be good.”

With a roll of my eyes I went and changed into a set of shorts and a tank. I wanted to be comfortable for the coming interrogation. No, I wasn’t being evil. When someone invades your privacy, what do you do, given the power I possess? Call the police and let them know you’re being stalked by a classmate? One look at me and they’d understand his interest. I had to settle this on my own and that meant getting to the bottom of this boy’s proclivity of wearing women’s bras and claiming a need to be one — a woman, not a bra. That would be much stranger.

I raised my hand and remotely locked the door to the basement. Sometimes I needed to be more dramatic with my hand movements. You really don’t need them when using a lot of the Force techniques, but sometimes it felt better to do so.

“You can turn around now.”

When he did so, my eyes focused on his chest and the faint outline of a very body hugging bra under his shirt. Whatever kind he was using, it was very thin. With the cover up shirt nobody would ever notice.

I’d like to be clear here that the next part of this interrogation was play acting. It seemed that Jesse had a certain idea as to what my demeanor should be. I thought it best to play it up since it seemed to bring the truth out of him that much quicker. Sure I could have used the Knowledge trick that I used with the doctor from STAR Labs, but I was trying not to rely on Sith techniques if at all possible.

I sat down in one of the two camp chairs at the end of my bed and I pointed to the floor in front of me.

“Come, kneel.”

Making myself comfortable, I crossed my legs while he shuffled across the floor and went down on two knees, not too far away. His eyes wouldn’t meet mine and I could see that he was still red-faced.

“I want to be perfectly clear here, Jess. I’m going to ask you questions. If at any point during this, you stall, lie, or tell half-truths I will make you regret it in ways that you won’t find pleasurable. Do we have an understanding?”

He quickly nodded his head.

“No, I need a verbal answer, always. Now, do we have an understanding?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Tell me why you are wearing a bra.”

He swallowed. “I’ve been taking hormones that I ordered off the internet. They’ve… I’m starting to… breasts.”

I blinked. “Speak up; I can’t hear you.”

“I’m starting to grow breasts.”

His ears were flaming red at this point, rivaling my own skin color.

“Take off your shirt and let me see.”

I was boggled at the prospect of someone purposefully taking drugs to do such a thing to their body. His words spoke truth, but I just couldn’t accept it.

He pulled his t-shirt over his head and I got a better look at his bra. It wasn’t really like mine. It didn’t have cups, only smooth looking material that covered triangular portions of his chest. Jesse swallowed again and lifted up the front of the bra.

His nipples were at least twice the size as my own when I was a guy and they were puffy. Huh.

“They get really irritated if I don’t wear this.”

“Put your shirt back on.”

I rubbed at my temples wondering what to do next. He was obviously very serious about this sex change thing, but the kid needed some serious counseling and not much else I could provide. It was depressing to see how desperate someone could go to do something like this.

Seeing his thought process, I could understand how he would want to activate his metagene. Odds are he would turn into a girl. The cure for some of his ills was just a hairsbreadth away and he couldn’t make it happen. It made me wonder what other — what do you call the guys that wanted to turn themselves into girls? Tran-something? — guys in this situation would do knowing that it was possible.

“Sit in the chair, Jess.” My voice was softer, a little more compassionate.

I thought he was just a little pervert looking for something I couldn’t provide him. I may have wrong.

Once his shirt was on, he got up and moved onto the chair. There were more tear trails moving down his face.

“What makes you think I can help you?”

Jesse licked his lips and very briefly looked at me before staring at the floor again. “I thought, since you look a lot like I want to look then you could tell me and show me how you did it.”

There was no way in hell that was going to happen.

“You want to be a Twi’lek.” It wasn’t a question.

He nodded. “A blue one or maybe a pink one.”

“Why a Twi’lek? Why not something that could pass easier, a Devaronian, or a Zeltron.”

They were the only two halfway human-shaped aliens that I could think of off the top of my head without concentrating too much. Given enough makeup then they could pass at least.

“I like Twi’leks.”

“Look at me, Jesse.”

He raised his eyes, but kept his face lowered as much as he could.

“I can’t help you. What happened to me was an accident. I had no desire to look like this; it just happened.”

Tears dropped off his cheeks.

“What I can do is get rid of those nasty scars of yours.”

His head dropped and he nodded in compliance.

“Stand up and come here. Raise your shirt.”

I followed his movements as he revealed his upper torso for me again. Motioning him closer, I raised my hand.

“If you were meant to change, Jesse, you’ll change. From what I know about metahumans, it takes quite a lot to actually make it happen. A few burns aren’t going to do it and you’ll just wind up mutilating yourself. So no more of this, okay?”

He nodded as I spread my legs and pulled him in even closer as I set my palm over the worst of the burn scars.

Using the Force to heal was a really rare power. Fortunately, Talon learned how to do it properly. I breathed in and concentrated, focusing the Force through my hand and into his body, willing it to repair the damage he created.

Little tendrils of blue-white light danced on his skin and penetrated his body. Jesse gasped and I saw a little bulge appear in the front of his jeans.

Whoops, didn’t mean to do that.

It was too late to counter that particular side-effect, so I pushed harder to finish the process before he did something that would embarrass both of us and make quite a mess.

The feedback I was getting from the process was different than I remember from my training.

He gasped again and groaned. A wet spot appeared at the front of his jeans and I watched as something was happening to the skin on his abdomen where the smaller scars were. They smoothed out, disappearing like they should, but the skin was turning pink, and not the pink you’d associate with any human.

“Aww shit,” I said. “Hold on, Jesse. You may be getting your wish after all.”

The look on his face was a mixture of fear and ecstasy. I could guess where the second one came from.

It didn’t take any more concentration from me. Power moved through the air and then through me into Jesse. It was like a vacuum cleaner in reverse. The pink spread out all over his body then things started reshaping themselves. I stood, pushing the chair back with my legs and turned Jesse until the bed made him fall backward on top of it.

My hands were frozen in place while I watched the whole process.

His hips widened significantly making the button on his jeans pop and fly across the room. His abdomen thinned and sunk in on the sides. Full breasts pushed the bra he was wearing to its limits, making the band dig into his skin. By the time I looked up at his face, I noticed his hair was lengthening before my eyes and turning blue.

Well, so much for being a Twi’lek.

I recognized the race easily enough. He, or rather she, was a Zeltron, another Star Wars alien. At this rate, we could have the whole sexy female alien thing down pat in a couple of months.

TBC...

I just had a chat with Sparkles, my pet My Little Pony. She says thanks for leaving your thoughts on this chapter in a comment below. I think it was pretty sincere, because her eyes got really big.