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: Found at Comicvine. I think Darth Hell created it. Star Wars and recognizable characters from that universe belong to George Lucas et al. The lessons quotes are also property of Lucas.

Chapter One

“Mom, where did you put my comics?”

Don’t you hate it when your mother goes into your closet in some vain attempt to bring order to your life?

“They’re in the basement along with your Star Wars toys.”

“Action figures, Mom. When they’re still in the original packaging, they’re called action figures.”

I turned around and headed to the basement door in the hallway.

“I threw the porn out.”

There was a brief stab at my heart and a region much lower. “Damn,” I whispered to myself. “Wasn’t mine. Kenny must of stashed it in there.”

Whenever you’re busted with anything sexual in nature it’s best to deny and then place the blame on someone else, preferably a younger sibling.

“Kenny’s eight, Josh.”

“It’s the internet, Mom. Kids these days, they’re curious. You can hardly blame them for looking when the internet is full of free porn… not that I would know. I mean…”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Quit digging yourself in deeper. You’re just making it worse. And don’t bring those toys up here. You know your father still holds a grudge.”

How could I forget? Back, a billion years ago, when disco was queen, my father was a screenwriter in L.A. He met a fuzzy-faced man and sold him the script for a science fiction film. Sci-fi wasn’t that big back then, at least not the space opera kind.

Sure you had Star Trek, but that was TV; it didn’t count.

The thing is, Dad had a dry spell running and they were apparently short on funds at the time. I blame it on pot. Anyway, he met the fuzzy-faced person and sold him the script for ten grand, which by the way was a fortune back then. The guy turned around and actually talked a studio into making it into a movie.

Are you seeing where this is going yet?

Yes, my father is the unluckiest guy on planet Earth.

In 1977 Star Wars made about a gazillion dollars. That film and its sequels are still some of the highest grossing movies of all time. Then you take into account all the merchandizing, cartoons, comics, books, etc., and you can see why my father has a sore spot for the fuzzy-faced man.

No, I’m not insane. We’re not allowed to say his name in the house. That’s why I keep my action figures in my closet and not lying around my room.

I flicked on the downstairs light and looked at the wooden stairs that entered the darkness below. If there was one thing that I was scared of in this world, it was the basement. It was a semi-irrational fear bordering on a phobia.

I got stuck in there once when I was Kenny’s age. The door jammed and Dad was in the backyard mowing the grass. He couldn’t hear my screams. I was eight; give me a break.

The only memories I had of the time was squirreling myself in the back corner trying to make myself as small as I could. To keep busy and try not to cry, I would replay the Star Wars movies in my head. Of course I couldn’t remember everything so there was a lot of skipping around. Ben Kenobi was the one that destroyed the Death Star and Han Solo was Luke’s brother.

That’s how messed up my head was at the time.

When I ran out of movies, I started making things up, like a hundred years in the future of the movies.

Luke’s great-great-grandkid was a part of the Jedi order and he’d fight the Sith. Except the Sith weren’t just a Master and Apprentice like in the movies, they were an Order all unto themselves. At the top of that order was a girl, a red-skinned Twi’lek by the name of Darth Talon.

I may have been eight, but I hung around the right type of people. It was cool to think of sexy Twi’leks, even though I wouldn’t have a clue about what to do with one if she was standing right in front of me. They danced in skimpy outfits; that’s all I was concerned about.

Talon was no ordinary dancing Twi’lek, she was a Sith Lady. They’re the bad guys, but at the time, I wanted to cheer her on. Nobody got in her way; if they did then she’d chop them down with her lightsaber or zap them with her Force Lightning, or crunch their throats with her Force Grip.

I cheered the bad guy or girl rather, because I was scared and when you’re scared you lash out. Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to Ben & Jerry’s. Eventually, Dad found me, took me there, and got me a big waffle cone, so I’d chill out.

Ever since, I would avoid going down into the basement by myself. This time, though, I had to retrieve my stuff.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I flicked the light on that illuminated the large basement, which made me feel loads better.

It was pretty standard as basements go: cement floor, canned goods and bottled water for when hurricanes came and knocked the power out. It was one big square, about the size of the house.

Looking around, I spotted familiar boxes in my corner; the same corner I spent the better part of one morning eight years ago.

Taking a deep breath, I let it out and then walked determinedly over to the corner and started to drag my comic box to the stairs. With that accomplished, I returned to open the other box that most likely held my action figures.

It did.

Standing there, sifting through what Mom packed away, I felt a little of the fear again. That same fear that held me in place, with my knees under my chin and my arms wrapped around my legs. Even at sixteen, I felt the fear and it made me angry.

I wasn’t some prepubescent child who was scared of the dark anymore. I was almost an adult and had more important things to worry about, like what to do after high school, and whether or not Blue would let me let me past third base any time soon.

It was then that I decided to conquer my fears. If I didn’t, then I’d always be scared of a stupid basement.

Moving the box out of the way, I sat down in the corner, like I had nine years previous and crossed my legs akimbo.

The slight smell of dust, old cardboard, and a tinge of mold filled the air, while I worked at purging myself of my fear.

I know, it sounds a little New Age’y and all, but I felt like I’d lived in fear for too long. Call it an epiphany if you want.

Little tendrils of fear kept creeping up and down my spine, which was frustrating after ten or fifteen minutes. It was ridiculous; the whole situation, I mean. There I was, on the precipice of adulthood and I was scared of a room. My stomach started feeling queasy and I couldn’t keep the thoughts of darkness out of my head.

Eventually it became too much for me and I lashed out in anger at the brick wall, slamming the heel of my hand against it.

One thing to think about when visiting my basement is the cinderblock walls. They’re those foot long, cement colored, blocks that make up seventy-five percent of the wall space. The other twenty-five percent, one wall, was made up of red brick, like the kind you’d see on the outside of any number of average houses in any residential neighborhood.

I was told that they were there to shore up one wall that was structurally unsound. Did I really care? No, not really.

The thing I’m getting at is that the mortar that held the bricks together at the point where I slammed my fist against the wall, crumbled a little bit. Three bricks caved in slightly around said mortar.

I wasn’t that strong, and I wasn’t one of those super-powered metahumans or anything like that. The mortar was just that weak.

That totally took my mind off of the fear I was feeling. My senses went to the other extreme, curiosity.

“What the heck?”

I examined the brick and mortar closely. With a single finger I dug at the seam, withdrawing more of the crumbling sand-like filling and after a short time I was able to remove a single brick.

“Ohh, this is cool. A secret hiding place!”

Growing up, I’d always wanted one. Somewhere to stash toys that my little brother couldn’t steal or an older sister couldn’t tease me with. It was a tad bit late in my adolescence for hiding things from my siblings, but it was still a cool find all the same.

Thoughts of making a time capsule and sealing it away for future generations entered my head. We’d done a project like that in school earlier in the year.

I dug out another brick before I noticed something in the darkness behind the wall; a red glow.

Looking through the hole, I couldn’t exactly see what was glowing because something was in the way. I grew frustrated, but I wasn’t stupid enough to stick my hand through the hole without knowing exactly what was in there. I’d seen way too many horror movies in my lifetime to know that was a really dumb move.

What I needed was a flashlight.

~O~

“Mom, there’s a hole in the wall in the basement.”

She looked at me oddly. “What?”

“It’s in the corner where the newer brick is that Dad told me was to reinforce the old stuff.”

“Oh.” She seemed to consider that for a moment. “Do me a favor and move your things back up to your room so your father doesn’t see them.”

That brought a frown from me. I wasn’t the one that moved them down there in the first place. Grabbing a broom, dust pan, and a flashlight, I said, “I’ll clean the broken pieces up and set them aside.”

“That’s thoughtful of you, Josh.”

See what I did there? The dutiful son helped out his family in their moment of poor construction crisis.

Back in the basement, I aimed the light into the recess behind the brick wall. There seemed to be a good five feet between the opposing walls and shelving erected as well. It was the items on the shelves that piqued my interest, mainly because I couldn’t see them.

What would you do in my place? Of course I tore at the bricks.

The mortar crumbled away with little resistance until I opened up a three foot space to the floor.

It was immediately apparent that whoever laid the brickwork wasn’t shoring up anything, they were hiding something. I was just hoping that it wasn’t a dead body. I’ve seen those types of movies as well, and considering how I was recently very frightened of that specific corner, it stood to reason that simple things like this would bring to mind visions of creepy horror movies.

Working my way inside, I tried to avoid touching any of the surrounding brickwork. There was no telling how stable it was. Being buried underneath all that wasn’t in my short term goals for the day.

Once I was through I stood up, brushing the dust from my jeans and finally got a look at the thing that was glowing red.

It was a four-sided pyramid made of metal and clear plastic or glass of some type. Beside it were three other pyramids that weren’t glowing, and a large multisided thing that seemed to be made of the same materials.

Briefly, I directed the light down the rest of the way and saw a number of different things on the one shelf that ran the length of the wall, but my attention was quickly brought back to the one item that originally got my attention in the first place.

I was so intensely curious about what I’d found; that’s why I touched it.

I know, I know: never mess with anything out of the ordinary when it’s obviously been sealed away for a reason.

The metal was cool to the touch. It sent a shiver up my arm that I discounted as nerves.

Grabbing the top of the pyramid, I lifted it with one hand while I sat the light on the shelf with the other. Then I sat it on my open palm.

Satisfaction ran through me at my newfound treasure. It was mine; I found it. My thoughts ran quickly to my parents and siblings. They’d definitely want it, or at the very least, not let me have it, along with all my other treasures. They’d want to me to share. There could be no sharing. Mercy, compassion, loyalty, familial obligations: all these things would prevent me from claiming what was rightfully mine.

Looking down at the hole in the wall, I formed a plan.

~O~

It took three trips, but I removed everything from the basement that was concealed behind the brick wall. I didn’t waste time figuring the purpose for any of the items, only that they were safely hidden from all others. Then I set about resealing the wall.

There was plenty of grout mix left over from building a grill on the back porch the previous summer. I mixed in some water and went about replacing all the bricks as best as I could. My father taught me how to do it properly back then.

All the while, the red pyramid was no more than a foot away, pulsing, soothing my nerves, as I worked.

The evening came and just as I was finishing up sweeping the last of the dust away, my father came downstairs.

He eyed me suspiciously, I could see clearly that he was searching for my treasure, but he couldn’t find it.

“Your mom said there was a hole in the wall?”

I nodded, holding myself back from accusing him of deceit. “I took out all the bad mortar and re-laid the bricks. I just finished.”

Backing away as he approached. I grabbed the pyramid and hid it casually behind my back. My father inspected the work and nodded with a smile on his face.

“Looks good. Good job, son.”

I smiled back, even though I knew everything he said was lies.

“Why don’t you go get cleaned up. Your mom has dinner almost ready.”

“Yes, sir.”

A quick sleight of hand and I had the pyramid in front of me, grasping it tightly. I set the broom aside and made my way upstairs to my room. After locking the door I grabbed a change of clothes and rinsed any dust and grime off in in the shower.

Setting the pyramid under my pillow, I looked at it one last time.

“I can’t take you with me. They’ll see you and take you from me. I’ll be back soon.”

It took almost all my will to set the pillow on top and exit the room, but I did.

~O~

“What was behind the brick, Josh?” asked Mom.

I nearly dropped my fork when I snapped my head up. “What?”

Dad was slicing off another piece of roast beef and Kenny was pushing his peas around the plate in a vain attempt to make it look like he had eaten some.

“Dad said that there was quite a hole down there,” she explained. “Was there anything behind it?”

“Oh… no… just the wall.”

Was she part of this too? Did she want my treasure? Maybe she saw me bringing some of the stuff to my room. It was just like her to take my stuff. After all she was the one that was always sneaking around in my room. She threw my porn away. Maybe it was her all along.

“Well, Dad said you did a good job replacing the grout. That calls for a reward this weekend. Do you want to go to the movies with Eric and Matt? Our treat.”

Why? So you can steal all my stuff while I’m out of the house? “Uh, no, that’s okay.”

That was stupid. Why would I turn down a day at the movies for free?

“I mean, it’s my house too. We should all pitch in and help out where we can.”

Mom’s eyebrows slowly rose in delighted unbelieving shock. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my son?”

My mouth opened slightly when I realized I way overdid it with that last statement. “Well, that’s what Dad always says.”

“Kath, let him alone,” said my father. “We want him to act like an adult and when he does we can’t make fun of him.”

She giggled. “I’m just teasing you, honey.”

Finishing off the last of the potatoes I looked over at her. “May I be excused?”

She nodded, still smiling at her joke.

When I got back to my room, I locked the door again and nearly tripped over my feet to toss aside the pillow and grab the pyramid once more. Sitting on the bed, I cradled it in my hands and sighed.

“I’ve got to think of a way to carry you around with me.”

It pulsed red in response. It probably wasn’t a response since it pulsed red all the time anyway, but still.

“What are you?”

~O~

"I am Darth Talon, Dark Lady of the Sith. Those who use the dark side are also bound to serve it. To understand this is to understand the underlying philosophy of the Sith. The dark side offers power for power's sake. You must crave it. Covet it. You must seek power above all else, with no reservation or hesitation. The Force will change you. It will transform you. Some fear this change. The teachings of the Jedi are focused on fighting and controlling this transformation. That is why those who serve the light are limited in what they accomplish.”

The sound of her voice was hypnotic, soothing, penetrating.

"True power can come only to those who embrace the transformation. There can be no compromise. Those who do–those who try to walk the path of moderation–will fail, dragged down by their own weakness. Those who accept the power of the dark side must also accept the challenge of holding on to it. By its very nature the dark side invites rivalry and strife. This is the greatest strength of the Sith: it culls the weak from our order.”

I could almost feel her breathe on my neck: first one side, then the other.

“Yet this rivalry can also be our greatest weakness. The strong must be careful lest they be overwhelmed by the ambitions of those working beneath them in concert. Any master who instructs more than one apprentice in the ways of the dark side is a fool. In time, the apprentices will unite their strengths and overthrow the master. It is inevitable; axiomatic. That is why each Master must have only one student. You will be mine. Will you embrace this change and become my one apprentice?”

~O~

My breath came in a quick pant as I woke a moment before my alarm activated. At first, everything was a jumble, like I woke in the middle of a dream, and the next moment I was calm, examining my room in the pre-dawn light.

My body ached a little, like I slept in the wrong position for too long.

Throwing off the sheets, I sat up and looked at the pyramid on my bedside table. I was comforted by its presence.

Donning jeans and a tee shirt, I slipped my feet in a pair of cross-trainers and slid the pyramid into my backpack. On the way out, I stopped in the kitchen for a couple of Tylenol and some orange juice before heading out, getting on my bike, and pedaling to school.

During all of my classes, I was distracted. Blank paper was before me and at the end of each hour it would be full of doodles, symbols that were familiar and yet not, something that looked like schematics of things I’d never seen before, and pictures of faces that I’d never encountered.

Even during lunch, Blue, my girlfriend, noticed my lack of attention.

“What’s up with you?”

“Hmm?”

She tossed her brown hair behind her shoulder. “You haven’t flirted with me once today or listened to anything I’ve said. It’s my new skin cleanser isn’t it? Do I have a pimple? Are you grossed out?”

I shook my head. “Blue, you’re fine. I’ve just been distracted. Dad’s got me doing a project at home and I’m trying to figure out a way to work on it.”

She looked at me blankly. Well, I didn’t date her for her amazing conversational skills. “Are you taller?”

I blinked at the abrupt topic change. “Uh…”

“Your nose looks smaller.”

Subconsciously I reached up and touched it. “I was achy this morning. Maybe I’m going through another growth spurt.”

“I think your lips are thicker too.”

With a sigh I stood. “I better get going. I was late to History on Friday. I don’t want Pierson to give me another tardy notice or I’ll be in detention.”

“M’kay. Call me tonight.”

“Uh-huh.”

~O~

By the end of fifth period, my hips and legs were killing me. In fact, my entire body was screaming at times. Since I hadn’t had a sick day all year, the school nurse gave me permission to go home after she called my mother.

When I got out to my bike, I noticed the legs of my jeans, which normally drag the ground, were above my ankle socks. Sure it was okay to walk around in, but riding a bike was a different matter. I’d be showing skin, and for guys, that wasn’t too cool. Guys just don’t wear Capri’s. They weren’t quite that high, but any hint of ankle skin was a no-no.

In response, I pulled my jeans down so they barely hung on my hip bones. My shirt was long enough to cover any embarrassing crack cleavage I might show when I bent over the handlebars.

I had to adjust my seat as well. When I sat down, it felt like I was riding a kiddie bike.

Who knows what was happening, but somewhere along the line, I seemed to have gained about four or five inches in my legs, virtually overnight.

Heck of a growth spurt.

All of that went to the wayside. I just wanted to go home, eat some soup or something, pop four Tylenol, and get some sleep.

~O~

"Form IV: Ataru. Though it is aggressive, it is focused, and its best use is in combat against a single opponent. Form VII: Juyo. It is a powerful form. Deadliest of all. But it is dangerous, for its master as well as its opponent. These two forms you will master."

As seductive as her voice was, it was just as powerful and just as dominant.

“Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, you gain strength. Through strength, you gain power. Through power, you gain victory. Through victory, your chains are broken. The Force shall free you.”

The scent of her was in my nose. The sleekness of her skin was enticing my body. The words she spoke found hidden places in my mind.

“Darkness is a friend, an ally. Darkness allows us to understand others, to see what they value when they believe no one else is looking. It allows us to be honest with ourselves, to express those values that we would disavow in the light. The light blinds us. It is only in the dark that we see clearly, and there is a great dark hidden among these worlds."

~O~

The pain was worse, if that was possible. My ribs felt compressed, my spine was screaming, and the top and back of my head pounded. The sound of my alarm going off sent a subconscious signal to my arm and hand to shut it off, but I couldn’t move them. I could only groan.

“Josh! Wake up!” Mom called from the hallway, but I didn’t have the energy to respond.

The sound of knocking interrupted my misery and then a gasp of Mom’s breath on the intake let me know she was in the room.

“Oh my God, Josh. Your hair!” The bedside light clicked on and I felt her hand on my cheek. “You’re burning up. We need to get you to the doctor… the hospital. Can you move?”

I squeezed my eyes shut and barely shook my head.

I faded out sometime after she picked up the phone on my nightstand.

Flashes of light brought me around: the inside of an ambulance, a woman in blue scrubs and a white coat, needles, and then a blissful floating.

~O~

“We’re running his DNA in the labs, Mrs. Walker. It takes time,” an unfamiliar female voice said.

“Do you think he’s a metahuman?” asked Mom.

There was a brief pause. “All the cases files that are available to us have shown that metahumans primarily change rapidly, sometimes instantaneously, unless there are outside factors involved. At the moment, it’s impossible to tell, but I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Mom didn’t say anything to that.

“What I can tell you is his skin isn’t burned. The redness that you see is his pigmentation. His hair follicles are nonexistent and he doesn’t have any more sebaceous glands to produce them. The changes in skeletal…”

“What about his head? Those bumps?”

The woman sighed. “They’re growing. His skull is thinning in that area and it appears as if his brain is actually increasing in size.”

“Is it some sort of cancer?”

“We don’t think so. Even the most aggressive forms of cancer don’t grow at this rate.”

“There is one important thing that you should be aware of Mrs. Walker.”

Mom’s hand slid over the top of mine. “What?”

“His blood tests show that Josh is producing large amounts of female hormones and virtually no male hormones. The levels are more along the lines of a girl beginning her adolescence.”

All of the shop-talk about what was happening to me, I sort of expected. It was the last part that made my eyes snap open.

“I’m a girl?” I said in a strained voice.

Mom squeezed my hand a little harder and the red-haired doctor leaned over the bed, smiling at me.

“Good morning, Josh. Tell me how you feel.”

Her eyes ticked to the monitors beside my bed.

“You said I was a girl?”

“Not quite. I said you were producing female hormones which can be found even in the most masculine of men, just not in such high quantities. We’re trying to find out why, and it would help if you could tell me how you feel.”

“Nauseous.” When the doctor nodded understandingly, I gave her the short list of pains, which basically included everything. My body didn’t hurt as much as it did when I first woke up though.

“That’s because we have you on a morphine drip at the moment. Actually I’m somewhat surprised that you’re this lucid.”

After giving me what I’m sure was a standard speech to calm my nerves, the doctor left. Mom was busy sitting beside me, stroking my hand.

“Where’s Dad?”

“Dropping your brother off with your aunt. She volunteered to watch him until we get you back home.”

Strangely enough, I was fairly calm about the whole thing. I’d spent the day at the hospital before, getting my appendix taken out when I was twelve, so it wasn’t like this was a new experience.

“How do you really feel, Josh?”

I raised my eyebrows up. “Um, my head’s kind of cold, sorta. Not cold really, more like there’s something missing. I’m bald, aren’t I?”

She nodded with sympathy.

I swallowed and looked at the ceiling. “Do I have any hair anywhere?”

Mom shook her head. “Eyelashes. That’s all they could find.”

Letting loose a shaky breath, I went ahead with my next question. “Blue said I looked different at lunch yesterday.”

I got a nod for that one.

Rolling my eyes around, I closed them briefly. “Is there a mirror?”

She winced slightly. “Do you think that’s a good idea right now, Josh?”

Mulling the thought over in my head briefly, I nodded. “I think the drugs are helping.”

Mom let go of my hand and rolled the bed table — those things that hang over the bed. If you’ve ever been in the hospital before then you know what I’m talking about — over and popped out one of the recessed trays. There was a cheap mirror, that didn’t look like it was made with real glass, which she adjusted for me.

I reached out to move it to where I could see myself properly. That’s when I noticed the color of my skin for the first time. It looked like I was severely sunburned, like third degree type red, only without the blisters that normally accompany that problem. I paused and turned my hand around.

The skin was a uniform color; it didn’t lighten on the palm side. My fingernails were all a flat black color and a little longer than I normally wear them. I couldn’t remember when I clipped them last, but it wasn’t more than a week ago. They couldn’t have naturally grown over a quarter of an inch in that amount of time.

It still felt the same. It was my hand; it looked different, thinner fingers and smaller palm, but it didn’t feel odd.

Brushing the thought of the change aside I reached out for the mirror and tilted it to show my face. I almost wished that I hadn’t. I didn’t look anything like before.

Even taking into account the total lack of hair and eyebrows, it appeared as if I was wearing a completely new face. The worst part was that no matter how much the doctor led me to think that my body was producing a little more girl hormones than normal, I was distinctly female.

My nose was shorter and much thinner. My lips were full. My face was thin and almost angular in places. Two things stood out more than anything else: my eyes were yellow with tinges of red along the outside of the cornea and the sides and back of my head were noticeable different, like something was growing out of both sides. It was almost as if…

“Mom, do you have your cell with you?”

Of all the things I could have said or did, I don’t think she was expecting me to say something along those lines.

She blinked a couple of times and then reached for her purse to pull out her Nokia. It had web access, which I did, and typed out a search inquiry.

When I found what I was looking for, I pulled up a decent picture of it and then reached for the nurse call button.

“Josh?” said Mom.

“Yes, can I help you,” the nurse interrupted.

“I need to talk to my doctor. I know what’s wrong with me.”

“I’ll page her, honey,” the nurse responded.

“Josh, what is it?”

Turning the phone around I showed Mom the picture I pulled up of a Lethan Twi'lek.

~O~

You’re probably confused at this point, especially with the words that don’t exist in the English language. Well, they exist; you just won’t find them in Webster’s Dictionary.

A Twi’lek is an omnivorous humanoid species originating from the planet Ryloth.

There, does that make things any more clear? I thought not.

It’s a race that a certain fuzzy-faced man made up for a certain multi-million dollar movie back in the days of disco. Getting the picture now?

I was a Star Wars alien.

The Lethan portion of the Lethan Twi’lek meant that I was red-skinned. They come in all sorts of odd skin colors like green, orange, brown (not African), yellow (not Asian), blue, gray, pink, black (again, not African), white (not Caucasian), red, and purple, all in varying shades and hues.

Their defining feature was the things growing out of my head. They’re called tchun-tchin or lekku. They grew out to at least their shoulder blades or even down to their hips and further.

One other thing about them that you might find interesting, or horrifying like I do. Twi’leks main type of commerce from their home planet was slavery.

You remember who they are in the Star Wars movies now? They were the dancing girls, and sex slaves that wore nothing but bras and loin cloths.

Out of all the aliens in that messed up galaxy, I had to be saddled with that one. I’d never be able to show my face in public again.

At least I wasn’t Greedo.

~O~

The doctor looked at the picture and then back at me a few times. It seemed like she wanted to say, “No, I think you’re wrong.” But I knew better. With as many freaky metahumans popping up left and right, me being a Twi’lek wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

I even pulled up the Wookieepedia page on the race so she could read about them. The more she read, I could see the realization on her face.

After she handed the phone back to my mom, she gave me her undivided attention.

“From what we know about the metagene, we know that sometimes outside influences can alter the change. I’m not saying you’re metahuman since we haven’t received the DNA workup yet, but the indicators are there. Were you watching Star Wars when this happened?”

I shook my head. “My dad is kind of hardcore anti-Star Wars; long story. So, we don’t have any of the movies, but I’ve seen them.”

“Your toys,” Mom chimed in.

“Action figures, Mom.” I shook my head again. “They were still in the box. I barely glanced at them the other day. That wasn’t it.”

The doctor crossed one arm under her breasts and stood the other on end to cup her chin in thought.

“I hate to ask this question, but seeing as how you brought the subject to my attention…”

I gave her a quick nod that it was alright.

“Do you have any… um… unusual thoughts, desires…?”

I almost laughed, but considering the situation I refrained. “You mean do I have the desire to get up and pole dance? No. I’m still me, or at least I think I am.”

She nodded and I watched as her cheeks pinked a little in embarrassment.

“I want to get another MRI of you. From casual observance, I can tell you’re still changing, and I need to see the progression.”

“I am?”

She nodded and pointed to her head. “Your… um…”

“Lekku.”

“Right, your lekku are protruding at least four or five more centimeters since your mother brought you in this morning.”

I gave her a slow blink. “I guess that explains the headache I have.”

~O~

By dinner time, they were a foot long and my skin had changed colors again. Instead of the dark burned red that I woke up to, it was more of a crimson color. It was either that or a shade called lust, and you’ll have to pardon me if I want to go with the former.

My fingernails had extended even more; three-quarters of an inch. It felt like I had talons on the end of my fingers. The doctor didn’t want me clipping them until the growth stopped, but allowed my mother to shape them so they’d quit snagging everything when I move my hand. The thing was, they were pretty tough, so she didn’t have much luck at that task.

Dad showed up with my laptop and my backpack so I could keep up with my schoolwork. It was at my request. Yes, I was that bored waiting for my body to finish whatever it was doing.

Every three hours I went in for another MRI.

Other things were changing as well.

My muscles, all of them, were shifting into a more feminine shape. My ribs had compacted into more of a Vee-shape and my chest was swelling.

My waist was becoming nonexistent and my hip bones were altering their shape as well.

Throughout all of this, I was on a constant morphine drip. It was enough to take the edge off the pain, but not enough to really knock me out or make me loopy, which still impressed the heck out of the nurses and doctors.

Oh, yeah. I have three doctors now. Someone was flown in from a place called STAR Labs in Chicago. Apparently, they still hadn’t had a chance to study someone in mid-transition. They were always consulted after the fact.

~O~

"Equality is a lie…A myth to appease the masses. Simply look around and you will see the lie for what it is. There are those with power, those with the strength and will to lead. And there are those meant to follow–those incapable of anything but servitude and a meager, worthless existence.

"Equality is a perversion of the natural order. It binds the strong to the weak. They become anchors that drag the exceptional down to mediocrity. Individuals destined and deserving of greatness have it denied them. They suffer for the sake of keeping them even with their inferiors.

"Equality is a chain, like obedience. Like fear or uncertainty or self-doubt."

She stood in front of me, but my eyes were closed. I felt her barely touching my skin. Her breath tasted of cinnamon and the tone of her voice was reminiscent of silk.

"Information is a commodity. It can be traded, sold, and purchased. And in the end, currency is only as useful as the secrets it can buy."

Her lips hovered above mine, her tongue teasing, before she kissed me.

"All that I know, I shall share freely with you. All I ask in return is that you keep an open mind, and use this knowledge for the benefit of only one being: yourself. It is not out of greed that I ask this of you, but out of respect. Of all those who might have stumbled upon this device, no one is more deserving of my knowledge than you."

My head felt woozy like I was coming out of a dream, but I know I was still there with her.

“Your change is complete, my apprentice, and my time with you is over. Take these lessons I have freely given and you have freely accepted and continue the life I started so long ago. I name you after myself so that my legend will live throughout, Darth Talon.”

~O~

I sucked in sharply all the air I could manage.

It was all there, everything she taught me, every word of twisted Sith wisdom that she could instill in me. I’d finally realized that I’d been living in a haze for the past few days and the ramifications of what was happening to me.

“Josh?”

I opened my eyes and looked into those of my primary doctor. “Discontinue the morphine, Doctor. I have no need for it now.”

My voice wasn’t my own. It was hers; the smooth, seductive though emotionless voice of hers.

“Discontinue the morphine, nurse, she has no need for it now,” the doctor said with a blank face.

I tugged briefly at the restraints holding me. Sometime in the night I had been belted down.

“Release me from the restraints,” I said as I looked deeper into her eyes.

“Josh?”

It was my mother. “I’m ready to go home now, Mom.”

“You’re ready to go home,” she said. “I’ll bring the car around.”

The nurse was looking at the doctor and my mother oddly until I turned to her. “Resume your duties. Nothing has happened here.”

It was all quite surreal. I was using the Jedi Mind Trick, or the Sith version I assume. I wasn’t going to harm anyone, but I needed to get out of the hospital and find some way to counteract what Talon had done to me, or the Earth was in for one hell of a time with a Dark Lady of the Sith running loose. Time was of the essence.

“Bring me some clothes and discharge me, now,” I said to the doctor.

“I’ll bring you some clothes and discharge you now,” she said before stepping out of the room.

When I was alone, I threw the sheet back and swiveled my legs over the edge of the bed. Looking down, it was worse than I thought.

Included with the crimson skin, I was decorated with dozens of tribal-like tattoos, all across my body, everywhere.

Cautiously, I slid down until my feet touched the floor. There was no trial and error as far as balancing went. It felt like my natural body, even with the new changes, including the addition of two fairly impressive breasts.

“Hold it together, Josh. You can have a breakdown some other time.”

I crossed the cold tile floor into the bathroom to see myself in the mirror. The change was complete, alright. I swallowed down a slightly panicked gasp when I saw the lekku had extended to my lower back. I barely concentrated on them and I could see them move.

That knowledge was in my newly expanded brain as well. The lekku were slightly prehensile, and if there were other Twi’lek to talk to, I could use them to speak without actually saying anything; like sign language.

The tattoos were on my face, head and lekku as well. One completely covered my left eye and the other looked almost like an arched eyebrow. There was no disguising this, not all of it anyway.

Using the Force — whatever it was in reality — I knew I could make people think I looked different: skin color, texture, slight anatomical changes, but hiding the lekku would be impossible except for a few people at a time.

I turned my head and winced at the place my ears should be. In their place were ridged cones instead, pointy end facing outward.

“I’m a freak.”

TBC...

Thank you for any input or comments that you have.

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: Found at Comicvine. I think Darth Hell created it. Star Wars and recognizable characters from that universe belong to George Lucas et al. The lessons quotes are also property of Lucas.

Chapter Two

As I said before, there was no hiding my changes, so I didn’t bother. Instead, I signed a few things the doctor brought back, dressed in the provided medical scrubs, and left the hospital with my head held relatively high.

No, I wasn’t trying to show off. In fact, I was embarrassed as hell, but with red skin came the fantastic inability to blush. Avoiding the looks I was getting was a little harder. Being trapped in an elevator with a seven or eight year old kid and his grandmother was worse.

“Are you going to a costume party?” he asked.

“No.”

“Twi’lek aren’t supposed to have those black marks.”

“The evil ones do.”

That pretty much shut him up for the remaining three floors. Sorry, I wasn’t really in the mood. Having acquired a doctorate in Evil over the course of a few days has an effect on a person, you know?

Good as her word, my mother was waiting for me at the front of the hospital. When I slid into the passenger side, I had a bitch of a time with my lekku, the seat, and the seatbelt. It hurts to sit down and lean back on those things; they’re sensitive.

By the time I’d arranged myself, my mother came out of the suggestion I put her under.

“Why are we out here?”

“We’re going shopping. I need new clothes, remember?”

“Oh.” She sounded lost.

I frowned at what I did to her in the hospital, but I needed her to not put up a fight. I’d swear not to do it again, but I seriously didn’t know if I could hold to that promise; not at the moment anyway.

My mother looked like she was trying to think of something, but couldn’t quite put her finger to the problem.

“Mom, is there somewhere we can shop that isn’t too busy?”

“It’s Wednesday, honey, the mall will be open soon and it’s never busy until lunchtime.”

I nodded. “That’ll do.”

While we drove about five miles to the mall, I thought about what I could wear that would give me the freedom of movement that I knew I needed and that would be somewhat normal. I wasn’t the best with color coordination, but I thought I knew what I wanted.

There was no way I was wearing just a bra and a loin cloth, no matter what the fuzzy-faced man thought looked good on Twi’lek. He was overweight and he was a geek, of course he was a perv where hot girls were concerned. They go hand in hand.

Yeah, I noticed I said I was hot in an offhanded kind of way, even though I called myself a freak not twenty minutes before. I’m confused.

Sure, I thought Twi’leks were eye candy and I admit having more than a couple of quick fantasies of bedding one. I was sixteen and male; perverted fantasies are almost a requirement.

Needless to say, I had a picture in my head of the ideal utilitarian clothing, for a Twi’lek to wear, but I had no idea what any of it was called in girl-speak.

When we got out of the car, she led me inside and I described what I needed in as few words as possible, then we went to the closest sports store. I received a few stares along the way, and one guy actually stopped dead in his tracks with an open mouth.

They’re called sports tights; at least that’s what the salesman said after I used my Sith Mind Trick on him so he wouldn’t gawk at me. After that he was very helpful. I got several pair in navy, gray, and black. I wasn’t so sure about the gray, but my mother said it went with red well enough.

The tops were a different matter. Most of the workout stuff was closed-necked, and I have a rather big head now. It really wasn’t worth the aggravation, so I chose a few tanks and a few jackets that closed with a zipper. A few sports bras, cross-trainers, and socks later and I was able to leave with enough clothes to get me by.

I could always send my mother out for more now that she knew my sizes. Women liked shopping anyway, right? Maybe it would get her mind off of things and I needed the privacy for what I had to do.

When we got home, my father was there, looking decidedly surprised at my new appearance.

“You’re a Twi’lek.”

I could see him fighting with himself over his hatred for anything Star Wars and his love for his son who was now his daughter.

“Dad, think about it this way. You can sue the fuzzy-faced guy and actually have proof that the whole idea was yours.”

All this was said in the course of about five seconds, or the time it takes to move from the front door to the hallway leading to my room. I really didn’t want to have my father stare at me while I tried to explain everything. I had more important things to take care of.

That didn’t stop my father from following me and placing his foot in the way of the door closing.

“What do you mean, proof?”

I hope God forgives me for all the bad things I’m doing until I can get my head sorted out.

Turning around I stared at him with as much intensity as I could. “Go shopping with Mom. I need new clothes and she’ll need help with everything. You’ll have a great time doing it, too.”

His mouth went slack and he blinked. “I’m going shopping with your mom. We’re going to have a great time.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

Was it evil to basically control your parent’s minds? Probably, but it was for the greater good. I mean which would you rather have: a little mind control which wasn’t harmful to them and would keep them safe for a few hours, or an evil dictator that wouldn’t think twice about sacrificing anyone at a whim and had the knowledge to destroy the Earth in her head?

I thought so. All you need is a good rationalization to keep you going throughout the day.

I dropped my backpack to the side and my bags beside the bed before going routing around in my closet for the items that I brought up from the basement.

See, the pyramids and that multi-sided thing are what are called holocrons. Jedi and Sith use them as training tools. It’s kind of like interactive Wikipedia, a drill instructor, and a teacher all in one. Every Master puts their cognitive essence in the thing and then apprentices or other masters can learn about them and the things they did.

Usually, it’s one holocron per customer. Not that it wouldn’t hold more information than one person could provide — the things could store terabytes… what’s bigger than a terabyte? — but it was tradition to do it this way.

Darth Talon’s holocron was different from the others.

One is supposed to use the Force to access the thing, like you would an encrypted computer. If you could use the Force properly then you could access it.

Her holocron accessed me. I could tell you why, but then I’d have to kill you. That particular bit of knowledge doesn’t leave my head under any circumstances. It’s that volatile. No Sith or Jedi Master had ever accomplished this feat, and the ramifications of the success were mind-blowing, literally. If any other Jedi knew what had happened to me then I’d be killed. If the Sith knew then I’d be tortured for the information and then killed.

Oh, here I am talking about Star Wars like it was real. Here’s the thing; it was, and I’m about to find out how and why the holocrons were down in my basement, walled up for nobody to find until it collapsed.

After finding the bag with the holocrons, I picked the multi-sided one and left the rest. I had no desire to learn any more about the Sith. I needed help from the Jedi.

It was a dodecahedral — that means twelve-sided — polygon. The metal appeared gold in color along with the clear plastic/glass material that I knew to be transparisteel — looks and feels like plastic, but is as hard as steel, in case you were wondering — but there was one thing that made this one different than the Sith holocrons, well, two things really. One, it was of Jedi origin and didn’t make me feel nauseous when I looked at it. Two, it wasn’t just any Jedi holocron; it was the Great Holocron.

No, it wasn’t all that great, like Super-Holocron with the flowing red cape and the big red S on its chest. It was a collective resource that had many thousands if not hundreds of thousands of entries from any number of Jedi. A fair comparison would be a central database where general information could be stored. What it was doing in my possession, I had no idea.

First things first, though. Deal with evil then explain everything later.

I locked my door and set the GH on the bed, kicked off my shoes and assumed the position.

My dresser mirror stood at the foot of my bed and I saw the reflection.

I had almost forgotten — no, that’s not true — I had repressed that I was now a female alien from a blockbuster movie.

Shoving that re-realization back in its hole, I held my right hand out with its flat black Talon like fingernails — apt, huh? — and concentrated on awakening the Gatekeeper of the holocron. He’s kind of like the teacher/drill instructor that gives you the information. He’s interactive, remember.

After a few moments a gold glow escaped from the transparisteel and a small hologram appeared above the holocron in the shape of…

“Yoda.”

His green muppet lips bunched up in annoyance or disappointment, I couldn’t tell which.

“Darth Talon, access this holocron before, you tried. Permit you, I did not.”

My mouth worked out the shock of seeing the little Jedi Master standing there. “I’m not Darth Talon. My name’s Josh Walker.”

His bushy eyebrows rose, but he didn’t say anything else.

“Look around. Does this look like the lair of a Sith Lord?”

“Sith Lady, the correct term is.”

I shook my head in exasperation. “Whatever. Four days ago I was a sixteen year old guy I found Darth Talon’s holocron in my basement and it possessed me or something. It changed me to look like this. It turned me into a Sith. I know everything. You gotta help me change back and get control of this thing.”

It looked like he was pondering the situation. “Provide the holocron of Darth Talon, you will.”

“Can you not talk like that? It’s really annoying and I’m having trouble enough keeping my anger at bay.”

I got up off the bed and retrieved my backpack. When I pulled out the holocron, I set it on the bed next to the GH.

“I’ve got three more in my closet and a bunch of other stuff too.”

“Retrieve them, you will.”

I nearly growled at him ignoring my request. You’d think that an eight-hundred year old being could speak in standard English or Basic or whatever they spoke.

Once I had the bags beside the bed I started pulling everything out. When I saw them for a second time, I knew what everything was and how to operate it all.

A lot of the equipment was standard issue for a Jedi: an A-109 Aquata Breather, a beacon, a grappling spike launcher, a headset comlink, a utility belt, and yes, a lightsaber. There were two sets of these.

The one thing that caught my attention was a Holo-recorder.

I picked it up and looked at the controls while the Yoda-Gatekeeper was examining the Sith holocrons.

There was a library of listings in the recorder’s memory. What I was interested in was the last few entries.

~O~

Very very very long story short. After the death of his longtime lover, a guy by the name of Cade left the galaxy of his birth and entered an unstable wormhole that was collapsing behind him as he raced through. It popped out not too far away from the Sol system and he found Earth somewhere back in the early 1900’s.

His ship crashed and he took what he could and moved to the Houston area back when it hadn’t been around for more than fifty or sixty years. He’d built the house my family lived in and sealed away any evidence of his not being from Earth.

He couldn’t just throw away the holocrons that he stole from the original Darth Talon before he killed her in a lightsaber duel. He hid them instead and trusted his son and his son’s son after him to guard them.

There it was. Someone dropped the ball along the way. Judging from how my dad acts, I’d say he was the most likely suspect.

“Cade.”

I turned to look at the Yoda-Gatekeeper. “You knew him?”

“Mmm. A troubled mind, Cade had. Cared not for the life of a Jedi, did he.”

“I guess I’m his great-grandson or something close to that.”

“Granddaughter, perhaps.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. So, look, can you help me? Since you knew my relatives, I mean?”

He placed his holo-hands inside his holo-robes. “Help you I will. Not for Cade. For his legacy. Powerful in the Force your family is. Great harm you can do if not taught as a Jedi.”

~O~

I spent the rest of the time my parents were gone trying to meditate the Jedi way. It differs from Sith. There’s a lot less anger involved, and way more navel staring. Considering I was sixteen, I wasn’t too successful.

“Practice you must.”

“I know. I’ll do that, but I’ve also got school and a life that my parents can’t ignore. I’ll do my best.”

I deactivated the GH and threw my blanket over everything a moment before my mother knocked on the door.

“We’re home.”

My eyes widened as I saw the massive amount of bags she was holding along with a confused but very happy father in tow.

We spent the better part of an hour sorting through everything while Dad fetched a few boxes and stored my male clothes. I told them not to throw them out because I had every intension of returning to my male body once I figured out how Talon changed me in the first place. Annoyingly enough, that wasn’t included in the training she forced into my head.

~O~

I wore a pair of sports tights and a funky black blouse that was very billowy and dropped down far enough to cover my butt. I wasn’t fond of the blouse, but I liked the Doc Martin’s knee boots. They were a pain to lace up utility boots that were just this side of looking combat style, but I figured I saved time washing and styling my hair in a tradeoff.

Now I just had to get over crying at the drop of a hat.

After everything was done, the night before, I lay in bed thinking about what had really happened to me. That brought on the water works.

As long as I could keep busy, I could compartmentalize the issue, but when I was just sitting there with nothing to do, it hit me, and hit me hard.

I still had to deal with the issue of school. There was no way in hell I was attending while looking like a Star Wars trailer. It would be chaos. I’d be the center of attention, and it wouldn’t be the good kind.

I could almost picture that scene. Being hit on by every sci-fi geek out there in one day isn’t exactly what I’d call fun. Then there would be the haters. You know who I’m talking about, don’t you?

You’ll have the homophobes that’ll think I did this on purpose. Then there will be the anti-meta crowd that think they are all that’s wrong with the world, if metas weren’t around then everything would be bubblegum and lollipops. Who else? Oh I know, how about the fan boys, not just the perverts. I’m talking about those that will inevitably ask me every Star Wars question under the sun.

You think I’m kidding. Well, then you have obviously never been to a sci-fi/comic convention where cosplay is involved. I’ve already seen a lot of the hate that would be directed my way. No thanks; not interested.

“Don’t you look nice this morning.”

Mom was seriously trying to act like this wasn’t freaking her out. It took a lot of effort to not remind her that I have tentacles popping out of my head and I was red to top the whole thing off. Nice wasn’t really a term I would use to describe me.

Instead of saying anything nasty, I gave her a subdued smile and sat down to pour myself a bowl of Honey Oats.

“Would you like me to go with you to school today to explain to your principal?”

My mouth dropped open. “You’re not serious.” I gave her a brief pause to see if she was going to laugh, but she didn’t. “You are. I’m not going to school looking like this.”

“Josh, you have to have an education. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I couldn’t allow you to miss so many days of school until you’re seventeen. It’s the law.”

Setting the box of cereal down, I looked at her. “I’ve only missed two days. And can’t you home school me or something?”

I was on the verge of whining, and with my new seductive honey-like voice it didn’t sound very good.

“When will it end, sweetie? How about after high school? Will you stay in this house forever?”

My shoulders dropped. “Maybe.”

“What about Blue? Don’t you think she’ll miss you? She called when you were in the hospital. She was very concerned.”

I’m sure the look on my face was a mixture of annoyance and depression. “I seriously doubt Blue will want to date me anymore. I don’t think she’s in to alien girls, being heterosexual and all.”

“Have you asked her?”

That brought me up short. Then she waved her hand which I knew to be a gesture of, “we’ll talk about it later.”

“When is the doctor from STAR Labs going to be by?” she asked.

“What?”

“The doctor that they brought in. While you were sleeping, she told me that they’re a go-between for the government. They help set up new identification… you have no idea what I’m talking about. They didn’t set up an appointment with you to talk about this? She said she would.”

My Sith Mind Trick escape thing was coming back to bite me on my crimson colored butt. “Uh…”

“I’ll call her this morning. She gave me her card.”

“Okay.”

I guess having real ID would be a good thing; legal and all. However, she was a doctor and doctors by nature like to poke people with sharp things.

Having finished my breakfast, I retired to my room and pulled out the GH.

I made a conscious effort to adjust the interface so that the Yoda-Gatekeeper would speak normally.

“Ready to begin today’s lesson you are?”

With a sigh I nodded. “Can I ask a question before we begin?”

His lips pursed with amusement. “A question you can ask. May you another matter is.”

Wonderful, my grammar is being corrected by someone that dangles his participles with every other sentence.

“How likely am I to go dark?”

“Mmm. A difficult question you ask.”

I nodded. “I know I have all the training of a Sith Lord in my head, and I’ve found myself using some of the mind tricks, but Jedi use those too. I mean it’s not like I’m zapping anyone with lightning or anything. I’m not robbing banks, or trying to dominate the world. I’m just a little more angrier than normal.”

“Hmpf, when the time comes to do battle, how will you proceed?”

“Battle?” I nearly chuckled, but I saw that it was a serious question. “I’ve never been in a fight my entire life. In fact I don’t even know anyone that has. What I want to know is does the Dark side make you evil or do you have to be evil to be on the Dark side?”

“Both. Let you speak to Master Qui-Gon Jinn on this subject will I.”

The holo-image wavered for a moment and then another took its place. He was much taller and didn’t look a thing like the actor that played him in the fourth movie. The only thing similar was the robes.

The thing with the other holograms in the GH, they weren’t interactive. They were only recordings, so I couldn’t ask questions. However, I did receive a really long-winded speech about the Living Force and the Unifying force. I was quite bored by the end.

When the Yoda-Gatekeeper returned I was almost falling asleep. Before he could mangle the English language I cut him off and set the GH aside.

I spent the next hour or so meditating on controlling my emotions, a high tenet of the Jedi. I felt if I could do that then I could control the tempest inside me.

~O~

A knock on my door alerted me that I’d fallen asleep somewhere along the line. Meditation and adolescence didn’t seem to flow hand in hand. Sitting still and thinking about peace tended to make me bored, tired, and sleepy, in that order.

“Yeah?”

“Josh, Doctor White is here to see you.”

I was confused for a moment until I got up and answered the door.

“Who?”

“Doctor White from STAR Labs.”

“Oh. Okay.”

She frowned at me. “Straighten out your blouse, honey.”

I looked down and saw it was all askew. “I need to use the bathroom. I’ll be out in a minute.”

Splashing some water on my face woke me up a little more. Looking in the mirror, I winced at the tattoos decorating almost every available patch of skin. I looked like a canvas that some deranged gang-banger wanted to mark up with a black Sharpie. It was really difficult to not look evil with all the graffiti everywhere. I probably should have worn something other than black, but seriously it was the best looking color with my skin tone.

I straighten the blouse and then I had to shift my left breast a little because the sports bra was pinching in an uncomfortable place. It felt so weird to have breasts. It was like adding another two body parts in a random place. In a way I suppose it was exactly like that.

It felt pretty nice when I was handling them. I think that was what disturbed me so much.

I’ve felt Blue’s breasts. They’re very soft and squishy. She has a pair of C-cups; I know because I read the tag after a make-out session.

Coincidently, I had the same size, but they were entirely different. They were the same color as my regular skin, but the things that surround the nipples, the areola were really big, like two inches across with a thimble looking nipple right in the middle. They weren’t as big as a thimble, about half the size actually. Anyway, my breasts were very firm. I had to actually apply pressure when I squeezed them for any effect. Whether that was a good thing or not, I had no idea.

As a guy, I wanted nothing more than to get my hands on a pair of breasts like mine along with other equipment that I currently possess, but since I had acquired said equipment, I didn’t know what to do with it. Everything seemed so wrong.

Doctor White was actually Hispanic. She had curly black hair that was up in a ponytail and dark brown eyes. I thought she looked quite cute even for being an older lady, somewhere in her early thirties if I had to take a guess.

“Josh,” she said as she stood and held out her hand. “I’m Doctor Amelia White. We didn’t get to really meet properly at the hospital.”

I shook her hand and sat down in Dad’s recliner, slouching like I always did. There was a slight adjustment though; my lekku. I let the left one hang and crossed the right one over the top of my breasts and let the tip hang on my left shoulder. It was a more comfortable position than leaning up against them.

Doctor White watched the whole display with interest.

“They’re prehensile… the tentacles?”

I frowned. “They’re called lekku or tchun-tchin. The tchun is the left one and the tchin the right one.”

She gave me a thin-lipped smile. “My apologies. So they’re prehensile?”

I shrugged. “A little. I can move them, but it’s not like I can pick anything up or whatever.”

Yes, I was being a little juvenile, but seriously, a doctor that makes house calls? I didn’t want to be there and I didn’t want her in my house. The only reason I was going along with it was for the ID and to make my mother feel better.

I watched as she withdrew an I-Pad looking thing and started tapping on the screen with her nails.

“With your permission, I’d like to record this interview for our records. We’ll use the images for your new ID as well.”

“Doctor,” Mom interrupted. “Do you normally do this?”

“Please, call me Amelia, and yes, for the most part. At our labs in Chicago, we already have cameras set up for our interviews.”

“No, I mean flying all the way down here. Do you do this for all metahumans?”

She smiled indulgently. “Frankly, no. Josh is a special case. We’ve never been able to observe a metahuman in transition with monitors and regular MRIs. It helps us understand the process much more. Truthfully, the whole process breaks several physical laws of nature, and we’d like to know how. And by the way, Josh isn’t a metahuman.”

That got my attention. “What?”

“Your test results came back before I left the hospital last night. You’re just as regular as the next person, or rather you were. What we’re interested in at the moment is how you managed to accomplish this.”

“Accomplish? What are you talking about?”

While I asked her that question she was adjusting a webcam-like device on the arm of the couch.

“Come on, Josh. Every teen wants to be a superhero; it’s the new rage. We know that. So, how’d you do it?”

Rage? I was about to show her what rage really meant as I leaned forward. “You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to turn into an alien girl, a freak. I can’t even go to school anymore…”

“Josh,” Mom warned me.

Instead of snapping off a few more things I ground my teeth together and leaned back.

“Doctor White, you can’t actually think that my son wanted this. Do you know the amount of morphine he was on just to control the pain he went through?”

She nodded. “I had to ask, Mrs. Walker. There are a growing number of kids out there that think this is another way to skirt the system. They put themselves in peril or take drugs that enhance their bodies. Perhaps you’ve heard of the drug Thrill? It’s put a number of Chicago’s innocent teens in the hospital and killed quite a few more. Keeping in mind that Josh isn’t a metahuman, this raises a significant number of questions.”

I crossed my arms underneath my breasts and scowled at her. Considering my new appearance I’m sure I was somewhat intimidating.

“Setting that aside, would you like to tell me about the circumstances that led to your transition?”

“No,” I said.

“No?”

She obviously heard me so I didn’t bother repeating myself.

“Okay. Let me put it to you this way. You can answer my questions here or there are certain government agencies that will insist you answer their questions in less comfortable surroundings.”

“Did you just threaten him?” asked Mom with a disbelieving voice.

“I’m just stating the facts, Mrs. Walker. How you choose to interpret them is up to you.”

Leaning forward I narrowed my concentration on her eyes. “You will turn off your recorder.”

Doctor White’s face went slack for a moment. “I’m going to turn off my recorder.”

“You’ll tell me what your true agenda is.”

“Josh?” Mom sounded worried.

“I’ll tell you what my true agenda is.”

Holding up a finger to my mother, I forestalled her questions for the moment.

“I needed you to tell me how you changed because I’m not a metahuman and I need to become…”

I concentrated harder. “Tell me.”

“I… I…”

Her will was too strong. She was fighting me. I stood and crossed the floor with my hand out and my fingers in a claw-like position.

“Give me your knowledge.”

“Josh… what are you doing?”

I held up my finger again.

There was a Sith technique that forcibly extracted whatever I needed to know. It wasn’t a light side technique and I knew that, but let’s face it, Doctor White wasn’t one of the good guys.

She groaned as I felt the tendrils of the Force push its way into her head. Then her life opened up to me in a great wave of information.

Doctor White was once Amelia Hernandez and she was a victim of a very abusive childhood. I felt bad for her, but I’m sorry, it wasn’t a good enough reason for what she wanted to do, it was simply an excuse.

People had taken from her all of her life and it seemed that she was going be the taker this time. She wanted power to abuse it and I couldn’t allow that.

With my other hand, I brought it around and extended the Force to alter her perceptions. This was a light side application. They’d performed it dozens of times to their own Jedi. In essence I wiped the abuse from her memory, so it would have no effect on her judgment anymore. I’d see if this had any effect. If it didn’t then I’d have to take stronger measures.

“Relax and reflect, Amelia.”

When I let her go, I stumbled back at the sudden release. Like I said before, using the Force drains you.

“What did you just do?” Mom sounded like she was over her fear and moving on to scolding me like a child.

“She wanted me to tell her how I changed so she could become a super-villain. I couldn’t let her do that.”

“What? How could you know?”

“I’ve… got certain powers, Mom. Let’s get this thing over with and then I’ll explain, okay.”

She didn’t look appeased. “Have you done this with me or your father?”

I winced. “Not exactly?”

She sighed and palmed her face. “If this wasn’t so serious I’d take you across my lap and spank your butt until it was red.”

I didn’t have the heart to point out that she was too late. It was already as red as the rest of me.

While the doctor was still out of it, I went back and erased the bit she already recorded, then I sat back down in the same position I was in when we started this mess.

“Amelia?” I said.

She blinked and widened her eyes. “I’m sorry.” When she brought her hand up and felt her head, I almost smiled. “Headache.”

“Would you like an aspirin?”

“No, thank you. I’m fine. Where was I?”

“You just asked if you could record the interview.”

She shook her head and tapped a couple of things on her I-Pad. “There, we’re ready.”

“Your name is Josh Walker, age sixteen. Presented with fever, hair loss, and debilitating pain two days ago at Christus St. Catherine hospital, Katy, Texas. Correct?”

I nodded. “Right.”

We went through a pretty generic play by play of the events occurring over the last two days. It was all very official. When she got to the part about me not being a metahuman we chatted back and forth about how I wound up changed like all the rest.

“Honestly, I don’t have a clue. One day I was fine and the next, things got weird.”

“Where do you purchase your groceries and do your shopping?”

That’s all we needed: Shop at Kroger and become a Twi’lek.

The questions became boring after that. It ended with her wanting to take air and soil samples from the house and yard. She said since I didn’t present any metahuman powers that the government wouldn’t really be interested in me at that time. Then came the question that I wasn’t expecting.

“What would you like your new name to be?”

Truthfully, I hadn’t even thought about changing my name. I told her as much.

“Well, that’s your choice, but there are not a lot of girls out there with the name Josh.”

“Do I look like a regular girl, Amelia?”

“Point.”

“You might consider it, honey,” said Mom.

Who does this? Who changes their name at the drop of a hat? It was ridiculous. There’s not a person out there that I could fool into thinking that I wasn’t a metahuman and that there was a really good chance that I had changed sex in the process. From what the doctor said, only fifteen percent of the existing metahumans that got real powers actually stayed the same.

“Do I have to?”

Mom sighed. She looked like she was already stressed enough. “Why don’t you pick something for the official records and we can still call you what you want. That way if you change your mind later, you’ll have something to fall back on.”

Okay, I could see that reasoning. It made a modicum of sense. I pondered the names of the Twi’lek that were in the movies and most of them screamed dancing girl/slave. How’s Oola for a name? I mean really: Oola? She was a green Twi’lek slave girl. No thanks.

“Aayla.”

“Spell that for me,” said Amelia.

“A-a-y-l-a.”

“Middle name?”

I shook my head. “Just Aayla Walker is fine.”

Aayla Secura was a Twi’lek Jedi in the fifth movie. She got killed by her own men, and she was a blue Twi’lek, but she was cool in the books I’d read with her in them. I had to face it; I had a crush on her even though she was an alien. Maybe it was because she was actually clothed, for the most part, and not on display like a stripper.

“Okay, Aayla, I’ve just sent over your information. It’ll take a day or so for them to verify that you’re you with the hospital and then they’ll send out your credentials. It shouldn’t be more than three days.”

~O~

When my mother shut the front door she spun around on me and pointed an accusing finger. “Now, you’ll explain yourself, young man… lady.”

I winced at the word change. I still thought of myself as a guy. Having it shoved in my face like that wasn’t pleasant.

“In my room.”

“Here is good enough.”

“No, I have the proof in my room, or else you’ll think I’m crazy.”

She followed me and when I opened my door and pointed at the GH Mom looked a little lost.

“What’s that?”

“You’ve seen Star Wars, Mom, right?”

She nodded.

~O~

That didn’t go over very well. After I explained everything, she was on the phone screaming at my dad. The words, “get your ass home right now!” may have been used at some point.

While I waited for him, I meditated. Using Sith powers had to put a black mark against me in the whole worldview thing. There I was trying not to use them, but when the first opportunity came to hold back, what did I do? The thing about the Sith is that it’s addictive and every time you use the power, it turns you more to the dark side, no matter the reason.

Think of it like sinning except it’s more evident. My yellow and red eyes? Yeah, they were Darth Talon’s, but they were that color because of using the dark side of the Force.

I told the Yoda-Gatekeeper what I did. No excuses were given; I just laid out the facts for him and let him tell me what I did wrong.

“Troubling this is.”

“You’re telling me.”

“In times of trouble the dark side exercises its hold the most.”

I nodded. “I know.”

“Refrain, you must.”

“I’ll try.”

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

I smiled slightly at the famous line.

“Then I will do.”

“Hmph.”

~O~

A knock sounded on my door after I heard the phone ring. I’d been dreading the moment that I’d receive a phone call. Mom opened the door.

“Aayla, that was Blue. She’s on her way over.”

“What?” I didn’t correct her on the whole name change thing because I was so stunned.

“I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted she see you.”

“Did you tell her…”

“I told her you were a metahuman and you’d gone through a few changes.”

“But I’m not,” I said.

She shrugged. “It’ll be easier to explain if you tell people that you are. Less questions will be asked that you can’t answer.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Straighten your blouse out, honey.”

Blue had her own car, which was another reason I was dating her at the time. I’m superficial, or I was, rather. Having this thing forced on me kind of changed my perspective. What I’m getting at is that she arrived in only a few minutes since school was about mile and a half a way.

I waited in my room patiently, trying to think about what I was going to say and about what her reaction might be.

Blue was flighty to say the least. Unpredictable would be a better word, I guess. There was no telling what she would think about any given subject. It was best to just ask her and she’d tell you the unvarnished truth. That was about the only thing you could count on with her, well, that and her incessant teasing. She had a hot body and she knew it.

The doorbell rang and my nervousness increased geometrically.

Two or three minutes later there was a knock at my door. I had a sudden urge to hide in the closet and just talk to her through the little slits in the door, but that would only postpone the inevitable.

“Oh my God.” She stood in the doorway, not entering the room.

“Hey, Blue,” I muttered.

“Who am I going to go to Junior Prom with now?”

Like I said, she’s unpredictable.

“What’s that on your head? You’re bald and you have tentacles growing out of your head.”

I reached up. “Really I hadn’t noticed? Are you coming in?”

She looked at me warily. “I’m not going to catch it, am I?”

After a shake of my head she came in and tossed her purse on the bed. “I can’t believe this is happening. My reputation will be ruined. I’ll be the alien girl’s ex-girlfriend.”

Well, that pretty much answered any question of if we were going to break up or not. She dropped her butt down on the bed and scowled at me.

“Sorry for ruining your reputation. That was the first thing I thought about when I woke up looking like this.”

She pointed her finger at me. “Don’t you start on me, Josh! Look at you. What am I supposed to say?”

“I’m sorry that it happened, Josh?” I offered. “I won’t be a bitch about this, Josh? Either one of those would be fine to start with.”

“Bitch? Me?” She smiled sardonically. “It looks like you’re the bitch now.”

I took a deep breath so I wouldn’t feel the need to throw Sith Lightning at her ass. “Can we not do this, Blue? You’re the one that insisted on coming over.”

“Fuck, Josh.” She leaned over and cupped her face with her hands. “I was going to give my virginity to you at Junior Prom.”

Dammit! Three weeks and I would have gotten laid! Not even three weeks. It was more like two weeks and three days! I was this close!

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore, unless you have any lesbian tendencies that I should…” I couldn’t even get the whole sentence out before she snapped her head up and glared at me. “Fine.”

Her face relaxed and turned into a frown. “God… are you… I mean, red all over?”

I nodded. “The tattoos too; everywhere.”

“Look at your nails. They’re like talons. Why’d you paint them black?”

“I didn’t. That’s their natural color.”

A moment of peace passed between us. At least we weren’t yelling at each other anymore.

“I want to see,” she said.

“What?”

“Take your clothes off.”

I couldn’t believe she was saying this. “Uh, no.”

“Josh… I just need to see. We’re both girls here now.”

With a single sarcastic laugh I said, “And that’s supposed to make it all right for me to strip? I don’t think so. Not unless you do too.”

She snorted. “You wish. At least take your top off. You’ve already seen my tits. Fair is fair.”

Rolling my tongue around my mouth I could only come to one conclusion. “You really do have lesbian tendencies.”

“Bitch,” she snarled. “Just do it already.”

If there was a single chance in a thousand that Blue might stay with me I had to take it. If that meant showing her my crimson-colored breasts then so be it. A minute later I had the blouse unbuttoned. I blame the nails. I really had to cut those things to a more manageable length.

The rest came off pretty easily.

“They’re unreal,” she gasped while standing up to get a closer look.

Holding her hand out over one of the tattoos, she looked up at me. “Do they hurt?”

I shook my head. “No, it’s just part of my skin.”

With that, she tweaked my right nipple. “You’re firm.”

I nodded and felt something inside of me respond to her touch.

“Take the rest off.” She said it with a soft breathy voice, the one she used when she was flirting with me.

Without another thought I undid my boot laces, tossed them off and then stripped the bottoms off.

“No panties?” she said with a throaty voice.

“I haven’t really gotten that far.”

Blue twirled her finger. “Turn around I want to get the full show.”

I was really beginning to get horny and it was an entirely different feeling as a girl. Doing as she instructed, I slowly gave her something to see. When I completed the rotation I saw she had her cell phone held up and I heard a distinct sound of the camera feature being used.

“I can’t believe you fell for that,” she said with a laugh. “Oh my god, you are such an alien lesbian horny freak, and I’ve got the proof.”

Something broke inside me. All my fears had come true and there was my ex-girlfriend laughing at me and the oddity I had become. Raising my hand I forced my humiliation out to her and in the next second, she was rising up off the floor grabbing at her throat gasping for air.

“You think you can come in here and do this? Take my picture and plaster it on the internet or something without repercussions?”

Blue gasped and wheezed.

“Do you know what I am, Blue? I’m a Sith Lady. I could crush your throat with a thought. I could invade your mind and make you experience your worst fears for the rest of your life. I could drain your mind dry and leave you like an empty husk in the floor. I could break every bone in your body, heal them and break them all over again, and you think you can do this to me?”

Tears dropped from her eyes and I let her go, watching as she fell a foot from the floor. She gasped in a chest full of air and kicked herself away until she was trapped against the bed.

I levitated the cell phone in front of me and ripped off the back, the battery and the SIM card that was inside, letting the other pieces fall; I crushed the SIM card and let it go as well.

Slowly and methodically I dressed while she cried quiet sobs. My anger raged inside. I wanted to break her, but I knew if I did then I would have taken one step too far.

“What to do with you. What to do.”

“I won’t say anything. I p-promise.”

Squatting down in front of her, I smiled. “Oh, I know you won’t, because you know what will happen if you do?”

Another sob escaped from her throat.

“No, I won’t kill you. That would be too easy, Blue. That would be way too easy. I’ll let you use your imagination. Anything, Blue; if I even suspect that you are spreading rumors about me… well, you really don’t want to find out what would happen. Now get out, and don’t forget your phone.”

She didn’t need any encouragement.

When I heard the front door close and her tires squeal soon thereafter I opened my closet, stepped in and closed the door. I moved a few things around and made space in the corner, where I sat with my knees up under my chin and cried my tears of anger.

TBC...

Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts in a comment.

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 Three

I held the lightsaber in my hands, staring down at it in the semi-darkness of my closet. There was no use. Blue was right. I was a freak and considering human nature, I was likely to run into a lot of people exactly like her. What was I going to do; choke and threaten everyone? That wasn’t an option. Sooner or later I was going to lose my cool and totally thrash somebody.

The dark side was insidious, creeping around in my head, waiting patiently for me to be put into a situation where I had to use its power.

It was like I was infected with some messed up virus and waiting for the final solution. Well, I had that in my hands.

Placing the weapon up under my chin, I closed my eyes and depressed the stud on the blade.

Dammit!

All I heard was a very faint click. I pressed it a couple more times just to be sure.

The battery was dead; of course.

I don’t know why I would think it would be charged. It had been over a hundred years since it had probably worked properly.

With a rush of frustration, I flung it aside and wiped at my nose. Something really gooey came away. Twi’lek mucus was kind of gross, much more than human mucus anyway.

I pushed up and exited the closet to find a decent tissue. Not crying anymore was at the top of my list of things to do. It was a neon pink color and sticky. I don’t remember it being this bad the previous night or any of the other times I cried. Just thought I’d share that.

After blowing my nose a few times, everything went back to normal, normal for me that is.

With the devastatingly epic failure of the lightsaber, I decided that I wouldn’t see anyone again until I could control myself with a hundred percent certainty that I wouldn’t snap. There was too much at stake.

You may think that I’m overreacting a bit, but I think you missed something unless you were looking very close.

After that display of purely Sith use of the Force, I wasn’t tired in the least. Granted, I just choked Blue for thirty seconds or so, but I still should have felt something. At the moment, all I felt was revulsion and the tiniest bit of excitement. The first one should be expected, the second should be terrifying.

~O~

Dad was home early under threat of Mom’s ire. We all sat in the living room where she gave a blow by blow from the interview, including the use of my powers.

It really didn’t seem like Dad was going to believe her until I reminded him of the lawsuit I told him he could bring against the fuzzy-faced man. That pretty much brought everything to bear.

“I can’t believe I’d forget something like that,” he said.

“It was me. I needed you two out of the house without any arguments. I needed to get myself under control.”

“So you sent me shopping and made me like it?”

Mom was reddening, but she had a slight smile on her face.

“Mom, did you have fun with Dad that night?”

She didn’t answer, but it was already out there. She had a blast shopping with her husband and not having to worry about him being dragged from store to store.

“I’m not saying it was right. I’m just saying it was safer. There wasn’t time to explain everything right then.”

Dad stewed for a few moments. “Come football season, you’re getting a shot of your own medicine.”

I smirked underneath my hand at his proclamation to Mom.

“That’s fair. Maybe we can trade off back and forth.”

That’s the point I closed my eyes. Picturing Mom and Dad asking me to purposely give them compulsions was a little bit on the too much information part of parent/child relations. They both had that look in their eyes.

“Dad, can you tell me about the wall in the basement?”

“Hmm?”

“The brick wall that I repaired in the basement; what’s the story behind it?”

He pursed his lips in a thoughtful manor. “Nothing to tell really. My father told me to make sure it was always sealed up. His father before him, too.”

It was just as Cade had said in his last journal entry. “I know why.”

A minute or two later, enough for me to retrieve the holo-recorder from my room, I had it sitting on the coffee table.

“What’s that?” asked Dad.

“It’s something I found behind the wall. It’ll explain a few things and it’s also part of the proof I have for your lawsuit. I’m going to my room. Just let me know when it’s over.”

“When what’s ov…”

I hit the playback on the last entry, and when a twelve inch Cade hovered over the table, Dad went white. One thing I couldn’t figure out: why was the battery charged for the holo-recorder and not for the light saber.

~O~

I spent the hour or so while the playback was running to start moving things down into the basement: all the Jedi and Sith artifacts, a few necessary items, and my clothes. The majority of my time would be spent there, where I couldn’t hear a phone or any noise. The ceiling of the basement was reinforced since it was the bolt hole come hurricane season.

It was an oddity in Houston to have a basement in your house. Most people just fled when the really big storms came. Flooding used to be a big problem and still is in some areas of town. So building something underground took major planning, and a lot of extra work so as not to fall victim to one of Houston’s oldest problems.

When I was creating an area for my living space, I guess the entry ran out on the Holo-recorder.

“Aayla,” Mom called out.

I rolled my eyes. The name was supposed to be a backup, and it looked like Mom took my choice to heart. Maybe it was difficult for her to reconcile her son looking like a girl. It was probably easier for her to call me by a female name instead of being reminded that I was male only a couple of days ago.

“Coming, Mom.”

On the way up, I grabbed Darth Talon’s holocron and the GH. Dad still didn’t look too good. He looked even worse when I set the holocrons on the table beside the recorder.

“What are those?” he asked warily.

“Holocrons, they’re…”

“I know what they are.”

That took me by surprise. “How?”

Some of the color returned to his face, enough to make him look embarrassed. “I followed the stories in the expanded universe: books, comics, cartoons, everything.”

When he saw the disbelief on my face, he amended his statement. “For legal reasons, I’ve kept notes all these years in hopes that I might be able to make a case. Everything I told to that man, all my notes for future stories, he took everything and…”

I nodded. “It’s okay. You can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were the one that came up with and wrote the screenplay. Just because he bought that one story doesn’t mean that he was the one who wrote it like he claimed.”

It was an old argument. Dad only sold the original story to him, nothing else. Everything beyond the 1977 release was Dad’s. When word got out that my father tried to sue for copyright infringement and failed, his reputation and career as a writer was over. Nobody would come near him for fear of being sued themselves.

“What’s a holocron?” asked Mom, as the look on her face told me she didn’t want to dredge up the old arguments.

“It’s short for holographic chronology. Basically, it’s like watching a DVD only there’s someone there actually telling the stories. It’s interactive; you can talk back.”

I pointed at Darth Talon’s pyramid. “That one is different. It’s a Sith holocron.”

Dad’s brows shot up and Mom looked a little queasy.

“It was glowing when I pulled it out and it acted on its own when I slept. That’s what changed me.”

I recounted the first couple of day’s events, my odd behavior, possessiveness, dreams, paranoia, and minor changes. Then they started to believe.

“Is it still active?” asked Dad.

With a shake of my head I said, “It’s dormant again. My guess is when I die or whatever; it’ll activate itself again and try to recreate its old master.”

“That’s who you look like?”

I nodded soberly. “I’m her mirror image, and she stuck all her Sith training in my head as well. Everything that she knew how to do, I know.”

They didn’t say anything after I revealed that.

“If you’ve seen the movies, you haven’t seen a fraction of what an actual Sith Lord, or Lady in my case, is capable of. Now do you understand why I gave you that suggestion when we got home?”

Dad nodded, and this time I think he actually understood and forgave me for my trespass in his mind.

I was about to show them the GH and the Yoda-Gatekeeper to really blow their mind, but the doorbell rang.

My head swung around and I looked at the door with fear. My heart started pounding and if I was holding something it surely would have fallen.

After a few seconds of that, I stood and started making my way back to the hallway leading to my room. When I was clear of the living room, Mom answered the door.

“Matt… and Eric.” Mom said their names for my benefit, I’m sure, since I couldn’t see the door from my vantage point.

“Hey, Mrs. Walker. We heard Josh was out of the hospital and we wanted to stop by.”

“He’s resting.” I suppose that was a generic enough suggestion to go away without being rude.

“We won’t bother him. It’s just that weird rumors are going around and we wanted to put them to rest, you know? High school grapevine and all isn’t the best news source.”

“What rumors?” she asked and I could hear her voice shake as she said it.

Eric spoke up this time. “Someone we know has a cousin that is a nurse at the hospital and she said Josh was a meta, but that’s it. She wouldn’t say any more.”

“Yeah,” Matt confirmed. “I mean, we’ve all seen the way that can mess with someone. Mrs. Walker, Josh is my friend… our friend. We don’t care if he’s got horns and spurts water out of his big toe or anything. We just… yanno?”

Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Brown, master wordsmith.

I could hear Mom just standing there. It wasn’t hard to figure she was weighing her options.

“Boys, Blue was here earlier and it didn’t end very well. She left crying. I don’t think it’s such a good idea.”

“That was his girlfriend, Mrs. Walker, and no offence or anything, but we’re guys. It’s different since we haven’t been kissing him or anything.”

“Thanks for putting that picture in my head, Matt,” Eric said with a mild amount of disgust in his voice.

“I don’t know.”

God, Mom was such a pushover. She could be talked into almost anything.

“Is it because he’s a girl or something now?” asked Matt.

Normally, I would be suspicious at this point, but it was a pretty well-known fact that a gender change was a really high probability with metas.

I sighed and then concentrated on Mom. “Let them in. I’ll be in the basement,” I thought at her.

“Oh!” I heard her say in surprise.

Whoops. I guess I didn’t tell her about that aspect of my power.

“Mrs. Walker, you okay?”

“Um, yes, yes, come in, boys.”

Since I left the door open I could still hear what was going on upstairs as I made my way down. Even though I technically didn’t have ears anymore, the ear-cones were pretty sensitive and were multi-directional, meaning I didn’t have to cup my ear anymore to hear things better.

“Josh has gone through some big changes, boys. It’s more than just being a girl now.”

Eric hissed. I knew it was him because he always hisses at bad news.

“Please be discreet until Aay… Josh decides to make herself known.”

“You can trust us, Mrs. Walker. We won’t say a thing. We just wanted to stop the rumors with some fact. We’ll tell them what he… uh, she wants us to tell them.”

“Thank you, Matt. Mister Walker and I need to go pick up Kenny. He was staying with my husband’s sister. We’ll be back in an hour or so. If you would tell Josh for me. She’s in the basement.”

“We’ll do,” said Eric.

“There’s some canned soda in the fridge. Help yourself. I’m sure Josh could use one.”

“I got it, Matt. You go on down. I’ll be right there.”

I smirked. Eric wasn’t a big fan of basements either. His phobia wasn’t as profound as mine. He just had to psyche himself up, hence the volunteering to grab the sodas.

The hinge on the basement door squeaked slightly right before I heard the first footfall on the top step.

“Josh? It’s Matt. Incoming.”

I closed my eyes and tried to center myself; it was paramount that I didn’t get emotional this time. It was a test. No matter what they said, I wasn’t going to go all dark side on them.

By the time I opened them back up, Matt was one step away from being able to see me. Turning toward the stairs I dropped all emotion from my face.

“Josh?” His eyes widened and his mouth dropped wide open. “Duuude. Holy shit.”

Matt stumbled down the last two steps, but caught himself at the last second. “Maaaan, Star Wars wassup! Your dad must be pissed.”

“He’s cool with it.”

It seemed as if he’d gotten over his shock and was checking out all the changes. “You’re one of those… uh, what are they called…”

“Twi’lek. Yes, I’m a Twi’lek, and if I hear any slave-girl jokes, I’m kicking your ass.”

He snorted and jammed his hands in his pants pockets. “It’s cool; no jokes, for now.”

I would have raised an eyebrow at him, but it looks weird without an actual eyebrow.

“Shit dude, you’re seriously hot, especially with the tats.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please, don’t go into your fantasies about Star Wars chicks, Matt. I’m not going to blow you.”

The sound of a can of soda hitting the floor alerted me to Eric’s presence. When I opened my eyes, he quickly averted his to the fallen drink.

“Uh… that’s mine I guess.”

Matt ignored him. “So, what’s up; why you hiding?”

“Are you serious?” I grabbed one head tails and held it up. “Have you seen these?”

“So what?” He closed in on me to get a better look and I let him. “It’s not like everyone hasn’t seen Star Wars, man. Most everyone, anyway. Yeah, it’ll be a little weird at first, since they’re fantasy and all, but they’ll get over it. There’s metas everywhere now.”

He looked really interested in touching my lekku, so I held it out to him. That was my first mistake. He grabbed it like it was a hunk of sausage.

“Easy, they’re sensitive!”

“Sorry.”

Eric snuck up beside him, with a really curious look on his face.

“It feels like real skin except it’s softer,” said Matt.

That funny feeling came back, like when Blue was teasing me in my room, and since it was Matt eliciting the sensations I immediately pulled it away from him.

“Hey, I wasn’t done,” he protested.

“I was. You can’t stroke them like that, man. It’s like someone stroking your… um… nevermind.”

He took a step back. “Sorry, man.”

“Why do you keep calling her, man?” said Eric.

“’Cause she used to be a dude, dude. She might not like being referred to as a chick this quick. Buy some compassion somewhere and use it.”

I held up my hand. “It’s okay. Call me whatever. I don’t care.”

Eric looked at me, feeling me out. “You sure?”

I nodded. “Some doctor from STAR Labs in Chicago made me pick a girl name for my new ID and Mom has been calling me by it ever since.”

Matt seemed interested at that point. “What’d you pick?”

“Aayla.”

Matt raised his fist and grinned. “Aayla Secura Jedi Master, good pick.”

I smirked as I knew he’d get the reference. I bumped fists with him and started to feel my eyes burn. “It’s just Aayla Walker. I didn’t go the whole way.”

“Dude, you could be Aayla Skywalker or maybe Aayla Sky Walker. Can you call’em back?”

His playing on Luke Skywalker, the main character’s name, made me do something for the first time since I’d been changed. I giggled. Then everything started to go blurry.

I stepped back and looked down at my Coke, fidgeting a little. “Thanks guys. Really.”

After wiping at my eyes, I peeked up at them and both, Matt and Eric had averted their gaze, sheepishly.

Quickly running my hand under my nose, I sniffed and then popped the top of my Coke. “Blue called me a lesbian alien freak.”

Eric popped his opened and sucked in all the foam that was spewing.

“No offence, but Blue is a skank,” said Matt. “Girl ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.”

I shrugged.

“When are you coming back to school?” said Eric as he wiped off his lips on the back of his hand.

“I don’t know. I was thinking about bailing and having my mom home school me.”

Matt looked like he was going to protest, but held himself back. “Yeah, I guess I could see that. But, dude, if you want to come back, we’ll, yanno… be there.”

Eric was disappointed. “What do you want us to tell everyone?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. Just don’t tell them I’m a freak or anything.”

“Are you kidding me?” said Matt. “If you’re going to be a metahuman, then go for broke. I’d want to be someone kick-ass like you. Well, maybe not the whole girl thing, but still, if I had to be a girl and yanno, an alien or something, then that would be it.”

That made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. “What?”

He sighed. “If I had no choice in the matter, I’d rather be a smokin’ hot…”

Matt stopped when he realized what he was saying. “I mean, if I had to be a girl, I’d want to be good looking, like you. Would you rather be rollie-pollie with like big gigantic zits that blew out purple puss every five minutes?”

Eric and I stared at him. Honestly, I had no idea what to say.

“Matt, you have a very unique way of looking at life,” I said.

He rolled his eyes and I could see that his face was coloring. “All’s I’m sayin’ is that you shouldn’t hide out because Blue-the-skank thinks you look like a freak. You’re the exact opposite. Girl doesn’t have a clue.”

I wasn’t so sure about that.

“Just be proud of what you look like,” he said. “The girls at school are gonna be jealous because all the attention is gonna be on you, and the guys… uh, ignore the guys… unless you switched teams along the way?”

Why did I get the feeling he was fishing for something? “I haven’t really thought about it, Matt. I was attracted to Blue when she was here and not acting like a bitch.”

~O~

The guys left when Mom and Dad got back with Kenny. He took one look at me and ran for his room. Don’t worry, he’s eight, I didn’t take offense.

The rest of the evening I caught the Yoda-Gatekeeper up on current events. Needless to say he was very displeased about my snapping and threatening Blue, not to mention more use of the Dark side powers. He did give me Muppet props for not killing her though.

I got assigned more meditation exercises. At least I didn’t fall asleep this time, and I felt a lot calmer afterward. So I re-swore that if I could make it until Sunday night without going all Darth Vader on anyone then I’d give school a try. I swear a lot, in case you haven’t noticed. I don’t really follow through with many of them either. Such is the life of a teenager.

The basement was my place of peace still. I hadn’t gone back on that. I even brought my bed and dresser down, totally cleared out my room, cleaned the walls, and vacuumed the area carpet I dug out, all while using the Force.

This was done by Yoda’s suggestion. You’re wondering why? It was part of my meditation exercises. I had to do it all while simultaneously doing a handstand.

It was supposed to help clear my mind and focus on my surroundings. Supposedly, if I can do things like this, then I can concentrate better and not freak out as bad when things go sour. I’ll tell you want I was focused on: the way my boobs tugged weirdly as I hung upside-down. It was really distracting, not to mention my lekku kept dragging the floor as well.

The good thing about doing it that way was I got everything accomplished in record time. By nine o’clock I was exhausted from using so much of my power continuously, but Dad wanted to talk about the revelations some more.

I took a shower and changed into some pajama pants and a tank Mom bought on her shopping spree. I tried the panties out. They didn’t totally suck and I was tired of going commando.

I was getting sick of all the black clothes, too. I felt a little too evil wearing black all the time, but I was limited in choices.

Mom bought some other things, but I was wary of trying them on. Some of the stuff was just a little too feminine for my tastes.

I already started a pile of clothes that were the wrong size, even though the tag said that they were the same as the others. Almost all the jeans she got were too tight in the butt. I felt like I was going to rip a seam if I bent over. Plus there was the whole flexibility issue that I had trouble with as well.

The sports tights were the thing that I liked wearing the most so far.

“You decent?” Dad called out.

“Yeah, come on down.”

When he reached the bottom of the steps I was opening another shoe box. Mom made me promise to try everything on at least once so she could return it if needed. At that moment I was surprised to find a pair of high heels.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

When Dad saw what I was holding up he grinned. “She wanted to give you options. Girls wear heels sometimes.”

I frowned and slipped them on then stood. Strangely enough, they didn’t feel bad and I could walk around fairly well without falling on my butt. Three cheers for Twi’lek agility. There was a reason they were dancing girls, you know.

“Keep them; even if you never wear them, it’ll make your mom happy.”

I looked at him doubtfully.

“She’s really concerned about you, Josh. I am too.”

I shrugged and sat down to undo the strap. “I’m dealing with it. Having Eric and Matt in my corner helps.”

“I’m glad.”

When I dropped one shoe back in the box, I crossed my legs to undo the other. “What’s she worried about?”

Dad pulled up a camping chair and made himself comfortable. “Everything, really. If you had simply turned into a girl she could deal with that, but she doesn’t really know what to do with everything else.”

I shook my head and dropped the other shoe in the box. “That’s my problem; nobody can help with that. Just tell her to go with the girl thing and I’ll deal with the other stuff.”

Realizing what I just said, I amended that statement. “I mean tell her not to try making into a girly-girl. Makeup and hair-styling is out of the question obviously, and trips to the salon to get my legs waxed won’t happen.

“You really don’t have any hair anywhere?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing, just the eyelashes. I have tattoos instead.”

To express that fact I lifted up my tank to show him my abs. There were a lot of crisscrossed tribal tattoos under my breasts and surrounding my navel. There were even some that started on either side and dove down between my legs, highlighting my sex like a big star-shaped sign that reads, “insert penis here.” He didn’t get to see those though.

His expression was odd. It wasn’t like he was angry or disappointed, it was somewhere in the middle.

“I’m sorry, Josh.”

“What for? It’s not like you knew that holocron was behind the wall.”

I floated the box over onto a cleaned off shelf along with a few more as keepers. Then I floated over the next one.

“I just am. I feel useless here. I thought it was all bull. My father told me the stories, like his father did for him, but I…”

“If you told me those same stories, I’d think the same thing. Don’t worry about it. It’s done. I’m not saying I’m over it or anything, but I know it was out of your control. So don’t try to guilt trip yourself.”

He seemed relieved, and I was almost horrified at the heels that were in the next box. I just closed it up and floated them over to the return pile.

“Let me guess: the five inch heels?”

I pointed at them. “No way in hell.”

~O~

The next morning I woke up the GH and did my morning meditations, this time thoroughly cleaning the basement of any dust, down to minute particles. It’s really gross how much dust can accumulate in a single room. I had five hand-brushes and a deck brush with sudsy water scrubbing every conceivable inch of the basement.

I gave him the lowdown about my friends and my parents, which he was fairly pleased about. Though he went off on a tangent.

“Learn about Twi’lek culture and biology you must.”

“What? Why?”

“Are you not Twi’lek?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“No but, learn. The path to knowledge is the path to the light.”

“Okay.”

The next holo-image was that of a Twi’lek with purple skin. She was quite pretty. That’s what made the extraordinary dry history of her home planet almost bearable. The odd part, was once I heard all these rambling dates and events associated with them, I didn’t forget anything. I was quizzed at the end of each section by the Yoda-Gatekeeper.

There was something to be said for increased brain size. That’s one of the things about lekku. A part of their brain is inside the upper portions, not to mention the tops of their skulls are larger than a normal human’s. In comparison, my brain was two and a half times as big as it was before, if you take everything into account, and most of the new addition, the parts that ran into my lekku, dealt with memory storage, mostly.

What was really annoying was the date system they used. I had no frame of reference. According to Yoda, the last time the GH was accessed was 172 ABY. That means a hundred and seventy-two years After the Battle of Yavin. Year one is when the original Death Star went boom. However without a frame of reference, like a recognizable star chart, or an exact date of arrival, he couldn’t pinpoint the date.

Who would have thought that such an advanced AI didn’t have an internal clock of any kind?

The day went on and just when I was about to pull my lekku off she finished with the important dates in history and their relation to the galaxy at large.

“Oh, thank God.”

A look at the clock on my night stand told me that it was a little after three.

School would have let out for the weekend. I had two and a half more days of semi-sanity before the insanity began.

I went to shower. Somehow, even using the Force to clean the room, I’d managed to get dirty. Don’t ask me how.

When I got back to the basement I turned on my cell and reviewed two texts that Matt sent during the course of the day.

I snorted at that even though it was probably a bad thing to know she was wondering if I was going to do something. Pardon my schadenfreude.

Right when I was about to turn my cell back off, another text came in from Matt.

I dropped my phone and slowly backed away.

“Ooooh shit.”

“What?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Mom let herself be known on the stairs. Not only was I dealing with that, I was only wearing a pair of panties.

“Mom, I’m naked!”

She didn’t seem impressed. “You’re a girl now, honey. I’ve seen it all before, trust me. Breasts are the same the universe over, apparently. Though I haven’t had a chance to see all of your markings.”

Regardless of feminine solidarity, I quickly made my way to the dresser and pulled out a sports bra.

“What’s got you all worked up? Oh, you dropped your phone.”

Before I could even think about using the Force to pull it to me, Mom bent over and picked it up.

“Oh.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the inevitable squee of a mother having her daughter asked out for her first date. I could almost picture the shopping spree which included dresses and those five inch heels.

“That’s disturbing,” she said.

My eyes snapped open. “What?”

She set the cell on my nightstand. “Having one of your best friends ask you out like that so soon after you went through such a change.”

Oh, thank God. “Yeah, um, well, I could see he was… um…”

“Attracted to you yesterday?”

I nodded, reluctantly. “Yeah. I guess.”

She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, patting the mattress to her side. I went over and sat down. Her hand went under my lekku and around my shoulders.

“It’s going to happen, honey. Even with the differences between you and regular girls, you’re still very pretty.”

That was saying it mildly.

“It’s all a matter of how you want to handle it,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

She cleared her throat. “I came down here to talk about certain things, Aayla. Your father let me know that you wanted to be treated like a girl.”

Did I say that? When did I say that?

“I’d still have this same talk with you, regardless. But it makes it easier knowing that you want things to be as normal as possible under the circumstances.”

I definitely don’t remember saying anything about wanting her to treat me like a girl.

“Keeping all that in mind, we’ll be talking frankly about girl things and I don’t want you to be embarrassed about this or about coming to me with any question you think I might be able to help you with. Remember, I’ve gone through a lot of what you will be going through, like dating boys for example.”

I closed my eyes again and groaned.

She sighed and got up to take a seat in the camping chair that my dad left out.

“Now we need a little information to start off with. Have you had a chance to think about your sexual orientation since this started? What I’m asking is do you still like girls?”

I nodded, still not looking at her.

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of, honey. Lots of girls like other girls. How about boys?”

There was a choice?

When I opened my eyes again, I looked at her. “I haven’t really thought about guys in that way.”

She didn’t tease me or act weird. If I didn’t know any better, it seemed like she was acting like a psychologist or someone impartial, making the whole thing sound a little scientific so I would open up more.

Apparently someone’s been cruising the parenting websites recently.

She nodded with understanding. “Try to think about them now. Try to think about Matt in that way.”

I gave her a look of uncooperativeness. “Moom.”

“Just do it, Aayla; for me.”

A dramatic sigh escaped my lips and I thought about Matt in a… ugh, boyfriend way. It just wasn’t doing anything for me.

I mean, he’s okay looking and all. He works out and keeps himself fit enough. I’ve seen him in the showers at gym class more than a few times. He’s got good muscle definition and a nice face. Matt’s always been one of those guys that buys whatever is new on the market to clean his face, or smell manly.

You should have seen him when all those Axe commercials started coming out. I had to roll down the windows in the car when Mom would drop us off at the movies. He really overdid it sometimes.

He was cute that way.

He always kept his hair cut short, and did the bald thing once. Black guys, what are you going to do?

Oh, I don’t think I mentioned he was African-American, well, on the light side. It was more of a mocha color than anything. His dad is white. All that might explain why he looked beyond my crimson skin color. Growing up in a multi-racial family would probably desensitize you to differences in skin color.

Anyway, he was cute enough, and he had nice full lips…

“Oh my God! I’m gay!”

My nipples were tightened behind my sports bra just thinking about Matt. Uggghhh! I think I’m going to be sick.

“I think it’s called bisexual, honey.”

I shook my head and covered my face with my hands. “Nonononono. This can’t be happening; not with everything else.”

Hands grabbed at my wrists and pulled them away from my face. Mom was bent over looking at me with her caring face.

“Honey, it’s okay. I’m not judging you.”

I stood up and pulled away. “I’m judging me. There’s enough judging for both of us. I can’t like guys like that. I was a guy for sixteen years, Mom. I was perfectly happy liking girls and now there’s this!”

“You’ve forgotten something, Aayla. You’ve changed, inside and out. You can’t discount the possibility of other changes either. I’m not forcing you to say yes or no to this date, honey. I’m just saying think about it. Give it the consideration it’s due and make your decision based on that consideration.”

She returned to her seat and crossed her legs. “Now, on to something else. I need to know about you.”

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

She smiled softly at me. “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about your new body. I don’t know anything about Twi’leks. Don’t you think your mother should know the basics?”

~O~

When Mom left, I immediately went over and picked up my cell. Pulling up Matt’s text, I hit reply and typed in:

“There. It’s not mean and it’s not nice. It just is.”

I sighed and sat there for a minute thinking about the talk I had with Mom. She had a right to know all about her… daughter. Maybe it was just too soon to think about it rationally. It’s all timing in my world and at the moment it was all apparently bad timing, much like the incoming call on my cell.

The Caller ID read Matt. I almost hit the cancel button which would throw the call to voice mail, but he’d know I was dodging him. It was much safer to talk to him through the cell than in person, so I accepted it on the third ring.

“Hello.”

“Why don’t you think it’s a good idea?”

“Matt. I just changed into a girl. I’m not ready to date guys yet.”

“Who’s talking about dating? We’re both going stag. I thought you might want to go together. You are going to the dance, right? I mean you already spent the money on the tickets.”

“I was thinking about skipping it. Actually, I wasn’t thinking about it at all, but now that I am, I think I’m going to skip it.”

“Aayla…”

I interrupted. “You’re calling me Aayla now?”

There was a moment of silence before he came back. “Josh doesn’t really fit the new you, but if you want me to call you that…”

I sighed. “Go ahead. I don’t care.”

“Look, uh, I’m sorry I brought the subject up. I just thought… nevermind. I’ll talk to you later.”

Before I could say anything more, he hung up.

“Dammit.” I tried calling him back but he’d already powered off his cell. “Why, why, why?”

Using the Force, I locked the basement door and dropped on my bed, wincing slightly when I landed on my lekku before they had a chance to fully move out of the way. It was my tchun, the left one that took the brunt of being squished. I pulled it around and lightly massaged it while thinking about my entire situation.

I wasn’t ready to make any kind of commitment to do anything as of yet. The weekend was barely started and while I’ve dealt with a few stressful situations without veins popping, I still had a long way to go. Planning anything, even something two weeks away, wasn’t smart, and I was trying my best to be smart. I wasn’t succeeding, but I was trying.

Matt may have let on that he just wanted to go to the Junior Prom as friends, but too many things didn’t add up to his sudden proposition.

I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship by accepting and then having to peel him off the ceiling for groping me inappropriately during the night. And I didn’t want to lose him because I didn’t accept and he copped a ‘tude. He showed his worth by being a true friend earlier and I didn’t want to lose that.

“Why can’t guys just be friends?”

~O~

After morning meditations, I got to listen to the purple Twi’lek drone on about female biology. At least I didn’t have to worry about male as well. She started from the moment of birth and led me through the years, explaining everything in annoying detail. It didn’t get anywhere near interesting until she reached adolescence. Then it just turned horrifying.

I found out why Twi’leks were looked upon as sexual creatures.

Before I go into how messed up my biology is, you need to know something. In their galaxy, they measure time very similarly to us: seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc. The difference is they have five day weeks, seven week months, and ten month years based on a 368 day calendar. Got all that?

Twi’leks, like a lot of beings in the animal kingdom — humans are considered animals, you know that, right? — have mating cycles. Their menstruation period is roughly the equivalent of three Earth months. That means I don’t have to worry about the more difficult side of being female. It only happens four times a year on our calendar, or every two point five months by their calendar.

The thing I do have to worry about is what happens in that last half month for them. The female Twi’lek goes into heat, for lack of a better term, for that time period. In human time that equates to almost four Earth weeks of being constantly lit up, so to speak.

What all that means is if I don’t have a mate or whatever, then I’ll pretty much have sex with anyone. That happens four times a year here.

The plus side to this is that the female is enhanced during this time period: increased strength, agility, flexibility, energy and so forth.

The down side is the drive to satisfy that craving. So it isn’t a matter of if I’m attracted to males or not, I’ll want them; it’s just a matter of time.

Oh, and by the way, humans and Twi’leks are genetically compatible, at least in their galaxy. Since my ancestor was able to have children here I’ll have to go under the assumption that his biology is very similar to ours, and thus to mine.

My current problem is how do I take care of my issues, and not lose my mind along the way? If I can do that, how do I not get pregnant in the process? Will birth control even work on me? And most importantly, how do I avoid being a slut for four months out of the year? Lastly, when does it start: from the day I changed, tomorrow; who knows?

I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “Just get a boyfriend; Matt’s offering.”

No, that’s not really an option. It’s just not.

~O~

After everything was finished and my lessons over, I checked my messages. There was nothing from Matt, not that I was expecting anything. Eric wanted me to call him.

“Maybe Matt told him I blew him off or something.”

I hit the return call button and only waiting through one ring. “Hey, I was wondering if you got my message.”

“I just turned my phone on. There are things I have to do during the mornings now,” I said. “So what’s up?”

“Oh, uh, nothing much. I didn’t have anything planned today and I wanted to see if you wanted to maybe catch a movie.”

Is it me? Am I reading too much into everything since I’ve become a girl?

“Uh…,” I responded.

He was quick to follow that up. “It’s not a date or anything. If you were still a guy, I’d still be calling.”

Call me paranoid. “That might not be such a good idea, Eric.”

“Why not?”

I sighed and rubbed the bare skin at the top of my head. “You promise to keep this between you and me?”

“Sure.”

“Matt asked me to Junior Prom last night. He says that we’d just go together and it wouldn’t be a date, but I’m not really sure…”

“Oh.”

“I turned him down. If he really did want to ask me out in that way and I went to the movies with you…”

“Oh yeah, I can see where that would be a problem. Well, why don’t we get him on conference and invite him along? That way we have our old threesome together.”

Threesome really wasn’t the best choice of word to use. It did nothing to make me feel better.

“Sure. You want to do it?”

“Yeah, hold on.”

I heard a couple of clicks and then waited. This was a bad idea, but if I could get them both to go then at least I wouldn’t have to worry about one of them making a move on me and creating a scene.

The line clicked back over and I heard ringing. “You there?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Matt picked up. “Hello?”

“Matt, it’s me, man. Josh is on too.”

“Uhh, hey.” He sounded a tad uncomfortable.

“I’m calling around for a movie. You game?”

“All three of us?” asked Matt.

“Yeah, that’s why Josh is on the line also. Wake up, dude.”

“Sure, I guess,” he said and I relaxed a little.

“Cool, it starts at one-oh-five. I’ll pick Josh up and then you on the way, alright?”

“Sure. See you guys then.”

“Bye, Matt,” I said.

“Uh… bye Aayla.”

He clicked off and I sighed.

“Sorry,” Eric said. “Did you want me to call you Aayla too?”

“If you want to. It’s no big deal either way. I have to get used to it sometime, I guess. Matt’s doing it because I don’t look like a Josh anymore.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess he’s right. Okay, Aayla, I’ll see you about a quarter after twelve?”

“Cool. Bye Eric.”

Then I clicked off.

“Mom!” I yelled.

A half minute later she came down the stairs with a curious look on her face to find me sifting through my clothes.

“What do I wear to the movies when it’s not a date?”

“You have a date?” she said with a mild amount of surprise.

“No. Eric and Matt are coming along. It’s definitely not a date.”

She smiled knowingly — knowing what, I have no idea.

“And you want to look nice?”

I almost groaned. “I want to look decent, but not flirty. I don’t want either of them to get the wrong idea.”

She looked at my stuff. “Just ask yourself what regular girls wear to the movies in the middle of the day?”

When she put it like that I felt stupid. “Probably shorts, a tank, and some sandals.”

Mom pursed her lips cutely at me and nodded before going to my dresser and pulling out some panties, shorts, an actual bra, and then looked at my hanging clothes for a tank.

“Put these on. What did you do with the mascara I bought you?”

“I don’t need any makeup, Mom. It’s just the guys.”

She chuckled. “Indulge me, honey. It’s the only thing you can wear that won’t clash against your skin.”

“It’s in that box over there.”

I turned around and lifted my top off, along with the sports bra. I’d taken enough bra’s off of Blue to know what I was doing in that regard, so I just did that in reverse.

It was a navy-colored one that matched the tank and the shorts. I was going to be very monochromatic in the future. After a couple of misses with the hook and eye thing I was connected and making adjustments to the straps until everything was comfortable.

“Doesn’t that feel better than squishing your breasts all the time?” she asked.

Actually, it did, but I wasn’t going to admit that. “It’s okay.”

I looked at the panties that she gave me and thought they were a little too silky.

“They’re called microfiber. Because of your shorts, you need something that won’t show or you’ll have panty lines. So, it’s either that, a thong, or a G-string.”

“I’ll take the microfiber,” I said with no hesitation.

“I didn’t think you’d go for the others, but keep them in mind, because eventually you’ll wear them. All girls do at one time or another.”

She turned around and was looking at shoes to give me a little privacy to change.

“Why?”

“Different fabrics, styles of clothes, mood,” she giggled. “Unlike guy’s underwear, girls have about twenty different styles of panties for every occasion.”

I slid my sports tights off and then pulled the panties up. It didn’t feel like I was wearing much of anything at all. That was fine with me. They covered what needed to be covered and weren’t uncomfortable. The shorts came next and I saw what she meant.

The fabric was very thin linen, and God they were short.

I was so used to wearing shorts that hung below my knees. When I pulled them up, I had to check to make sure nothing was hanging out in the back. They actually hung about an inch or two below that point. I just felt naked and it made the whole experience more than it was.

“Since you’re going for less,” said Mom. “We’ll go for the flat sandals. Sound good?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “No heels sounds just fine.”

She handed them over with a smile. “You’ll wear those too, someday. You just need an occasion.”

I slid my feet into those and pulled the strap up behind my heel. “How do I look?”

“Comfortable. How do you feel?”

Looking in the mirror I frowned. “Like I’m showing too much skin.”

Mom came up behind me. “Aayla, you’ll find that people are actually attracted to what they can’t see as opposed to what they can. When guys or girls look at you, they’ll see your long legs, but what they’ll wonder is what’s behind the shorts and the top.”

I didn’t know about that. When I was a guy I loved summer and seeing girls in short shorts and skimpy tops that showed off their midsection.

The one thing that showed off was the tattoos on my legs. There weren’t quite as many, but they were a lot larger, thicker, and artistic than those on my torso, face, and lekku.

“Now, let me show you how to apply your mascara.”

That took all of five minutes.

“There, they look much better. Here put it in your purse,” she said.

“I don’t need a purse.”

“You need something to carry your money, ID, the mascara, your phone…”

It was then that I realized I had no pockets. She took pity on me and at least made sure to buy me small purses.

“We need to buy you some jewelry.”

“I think the tattoos are decoration enough,” I said.

“What about a watch? Earrings?”

“No earrings and I use my cell for the time… which is late. Eric should be here any second.”

I stuffed everything inside and threw the strap over my shoulder.

“You look good.” When she saw the look on my face she added, “Not too sexy — comfortable.

I nodded. “Okay. I can do this.”

“Do you need any money?”

“No, I’m good.”

~O~

Twelve-fifteen on the dot, Eric pulled up and got out of his car. I was a bundle of nerves, going out in public, realistically, for the first time. Yeah, I’d gone for the clothes when I first got out of the hospital, but this was different. There would be a heck of a lot more people involved, and I was virtually naked.

“He’s here.”

“Have fun, honey and try to enjoy yourself. You seriously need to relax.”

I nodded and then opened the door a second before he reached the bell. Eric stood there, his eyes widening and sweeping from my eyes to my feet and everywhere in-between before getting control of himself.

“You’re ready?”

“Yeah.”

We got to his car, his parent’s car actually, a Toyota Avalon, which they let him borrow on the weekends. Thankfully, he didn’t open my door for me, but his eyes didn’t stray too far from my legs the entire trip over to Matt’s.

I thought it prudent to sit in the back seat once we picked our third up. I’d like to arrive at the theater accident free. Matt was waiting out front when we arrived and spoiled that idea quick enough.

“Hey,” he said when he got in.

“Hi, Matt,” I said, trying to act as normal as possible.

He gave me a half-smile that I recognized as something you’d give someone that you were conflicted about for whatever reason.

It was going to be a really long and stressful movie.

TBC...

Many sparkly-unicorn-thanks-with-extra-glitter to those that take a short moment to comment.

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.

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 Five

The difference in attitude was polar opposites. Where male Jesse was submissive and emo, female Jessie glowed with excitement and passion. It was annoying as hell.

“Quit dancing around without a shirt, dammit!”

She stopped her bouncing and grinned. “Yes, mistress.”

“And don’t call me mistress. I’m not wearing any leather and I’m not carrying a whip.”

There was a sparkle in her eyes that told me she wouldn’t mind so much if I were. “But you’re a Jedi Mistress aren’t you? A Sith wouldn’t care enough to heal me.”

I frowned, and tossed her a tank top. “Put that on. You’re creeping me out. And female Jedi are called Master as well, not mistress. All that aside, I’m not a Jedi.”

The tank barely fit. She was a lot more gifted in the breast region than I was. Maybe it was all the pills she was taking. Jesse exuded sex and femininity. I couldn’t believe her proportions.

“But… you used the Force. I felt it.”

I pointed at her. “You’ll keep that a secret. Do you hear me?”

She nodded quickly, with a smile.

“Only three people know about that and two of them are my parents. If it gets out…”

Jesse made a cross over where she thought her heart should be.

“It’s on the other side.”

“What?”

“Your heart, and two livers,” I said.

During the transition, I felt everything about her that changed. Her internal organs shifted and the picture I got in my head, during the process, wasn’t pretty.

Pointing at the chair I said, “Sit. We need to talk.”

She bounced over and dropped down, crossing her legs all ladylike. I rolled my eyes.

“You’re different now, Jesse.”

“Can I change my name?”

“What?”

“My name. Jesse can be a girl’s name too, but I want one more exotic.”

“I don’t care. It’s your name, do whatever you want,” I said. “Anyway, you’re a Zeltron. I know it’s not what you wanted, but…”

“Lyshaa.”

“What?”

“My name; I want it to be Lyshaa.”

I licked my lips and tried to keep my temper under control. “Fine, now quit talking and pay attention.”

“Yes, Master.”

After I sighed, I crossed my arms. “You have to be very careful with what you do. Zeltrons have control over their pheromones, the ones that are associated with sex, specifically. If you start seducing people left and right, they’re going to lock you up. Pick someone and don’t be fickle.”

I tried to recall everything I was taught about Zeltrons that differed a lot from normal people.

“Look, just try to act normal, please, and if anyone asks you how you changed, you were nowhere near me when it happened. Understand?”

She nodded with a grin. “Uh-huh.”

“In fact, you don’t know me.”

She pouted at that. “But…”

“After you get your visit from whoever is in authority, then you can know me; not before. I don’t want them to think I can just lay hands on someone and change them.”

“That’s what you did for me; isn’t it?”

I deflated. “I tried healing you Jess… Lyshaa. I have no idea how that happened. If people think I can do that, can you imagine what my life would be like?”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

As we were talking, Lyshaa was rubbing her hands over her body. It wasn’t really obvious, but I noticed all the same.

“Contact me after you get settled with the authorities, okay?”

I received another nod after that and she looked at the stairs. “Should I go now?”

Holding out a hand at the stairs, I nodded. “Don’t forget your tee shirt. I don’t need my mom thinking I’ve had boys down here undressed.”

She giggled and then giggled again after she heard herself giggle the first time. Bouncing up, she grabbed the tee shirt off the floor and bounced over to hug me.

Lyshaa hadn’t gained any height during her change, but she made that up and more in every other area. Her breasts squeezed against mine as she reached up and kissed my cheek.

“Anything you want. I’ll do it. Anything,” she said. “You made my dreams come true, Master.”

“Quit calling me master. I’m not a Jedi.”

~O~

It took me about thirty minutes to do my homework, and then I pulled out the GH and updated the Yoda-Gatekeeper on current events.

“Curious, the Healing Force is. Work that way it should not.”

“What I wouldn’t give for some Jedi equipment that is actually useful.”

The Muppet face looked up at me. “All current technology is stored in the Great Holocron.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “But where am I going to get the parts to actually build anything? They don’t have a Jedi-R-Us on every corner here on Earth.”

“Mmm, perhaps you should look somewhere other than Earth.”

Peering down at Yoda, I frowned. “You’re not the most helpful program in the universe, you know? I’d need a ship to travel to other planets to get supplies to build a ship, but I can’t do that because I don’t have ship. Savvy?”

“Trust in the Force you should.”

“Uh, yeah, thanks. I’ll do that.”

With that bit of lame advice I shut the GH down and began my meditation exercises.

Shortly after seven that night the doorbell rang. Mom looked at me.

“Are you expecting anyone tonight?”

I shook my head. She got up and peered through the peep hole then back at me. “Do you know someone with blue hair and pink skin?”

With closed eyes, I groaned. “I’ll get it.”

A few seconds later and I was staring at a weepy-eyed Lyshaa with a backpack in her hands and a lower lip that dealt an agonizing death by pouting.

“My dad kicked me out,” she said.

I sighed and felt a migraine coming on. If you think you’ve had a migraine before with your puny human-sized head, imagine how I felt.

“Come in.”

Dad was in his study doing dad-stuff. That left Mom and me to do the consoling job on the newest person in my life.

Once Mom got the low down on what happened earlier, an abridged version of me trying to heal Jesse, and Jesse turning into Lyshaa, it didn’t take her long to offer up our house as shelter. Believe me, I gave her all sorts of looks over Lyshaa’s shoulder, but my mother had a soft and caring heart… unlike mine.

Since she was my friend Lyshaa got to stay with me in the basement. I suggested my sister’s room since she was off at college, but Mom wouldn’t have it. I caused the mess, now I had to deal with the fallout. It didn’t matter that it was an accident and the whole thing was Jesse’s fault in the first place for stalking me.

When Mom finally laid down the law, I gave up and went downstairs.

Lyshaa was sitting on the edge of the bed looking sorry for herself.

“This is the best and worst day of my life,” she said.

I went over and sat down on the camp chair. “Do you have any money of your own or a job?”

She shrugged. “I’ve got about fifteen hundred in the bank, but I’m supposed to be saving for college.”

Chewing on the side of my cheek prevented me from saying something that would make things worse. Instead, I thought of a more diplomatic way of stating things. “Fifteen hundred really won’t go very far, maybe a semester at community college if you’re lucky.”

Lyshaa looked up at me. “Dad set up a trust fund from my mom’s insurance when she died. It was supposed to pay for that. The bank account money is for spending cash.”

“Ah.”

“Except he took that away, too.”

My eyes narrowed. “Hold on. He took your college money away?”

She nodded pathetically. “I’m a crime against nature or something. Ever since he found out about me carrying the metagene he’s been distant, treating me different. I thought it was because he thought I was gay, but when he showed up tonight and saw me…”

I rolled my tongue over my teeth. I really hated people that did shit like this. Holding my hand up, I called over a tablet and a pencil. Lyshaa looked at what I did and her mouth opened.

When I handed them over to her I said, “Not counting everything in your room, I want you to write down anything that was yours, like the trust fund.”

She started scribbling away while I changed clothes. I was going for an intimidating look here so everything was in black, from my sports tights to a tank top, to my knee boots. Lyshaa peeked out at me every once in a while, but she was more gifted than me in a lot of areas, so I let it slide.

Lyshaa was still in the same clothes she left in earlier, which reminded me of the last thing Jesse did before the change. Eww.

I let her borrow a pair of my tights which she stretched to the limits with her wide hips and generous butt. There wasn’t a bra in the house that would fit her so she’d be showing off a little there. Oddly enough, her shoes still fit.

After she finished changing and I looked over the very small list, I got up.

“Let’s go.”

She was right behind me, almost eager again. “Where are we going?”

“To see your father about some restitution.”

~O~

I felt ridiculous in the Ford Festiva. There wasn’t enough head space and every bump we hit squished my lekku.

“Who all is at your house?”

“Just Dad. My sisters have work until ten.”

I nodded to myself. “Good.”

It took us about five minutes to find the house and pull into the driveway.

I looked at the big two story house. “I guess being a geneticist pays well.”

“He owns a medium-sized company. You’ve heard of RNAtional?”

I nodded. “That’s him?”

“Yeah.”

Looking over at the front porch, I saw one of the curtains move and I knew we’d been spotted.

“Look, what I’m going to do might not be pleasant. You want to wait here?”

She shook her head. “I need to get some stuff from my room.”

“Okay. After we get inside then go straight there, hopefully I’ll be finished by the time you’re through.”

Lyshaa reached out and fell short of grabbing my arm. “You’re not going to hurt him are you?”

I pursed my lips. “Not permanently.” I’m trying not to be evil.

She looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded.

Twilight had come and most everyone was already off the streets, at least in the general area. I led the way to the front door. Lyshaa was close behind.

When I rang the bell, it didn’t take all of two seconds for the door to open and for me to stare down the twin barrels of a shotgun. Instinctively, I threw my hand out and Force Pushed Lyshaa’s dad across the room. He slammed into the wall and split the sheetrock where he hit.

“Go, Lyshaa.”

She swallowed, looked at her father, and the fallen shotgun before running off upstairs.

I crossed the floor and listened to the early forty-something man groan.

“Get up.”

Lifting the shotgun with the use of the Force, I split it at the break and threw the shells across the room before letting the weapon fall to the floor again.

He looked daggers at me. “You won’t get away with this,” he said as he rubbed at his head.

I concentrated my gaze at his. “You’ll sit in that chair there and open your laptop.”

He fought me for a few moments, but eventually his eyes glazed over and he did as I said.

“Access Jesse’s trust fund and transfer the entire contents to his savings account.”

His fingers trembled. At that moment it was a battle of wills. Only the strong-willed could fight Jedi Mind Tricks. Apparently Lyshaa’s dad was a stubborn bastard.

“Do it now.”

His fingers flew across the keyboard and mousepad. Then he stopped. I looked at the transaction and nodded. “Transfer a third of your company’s stocks that you own into Jesse’s name. Do it now.”

He really fought me for that one. Lyshaa didn’t list that as one of her three things that were hers, but frankly the guy pissed me off and I wanted her to get what was coming to her in the event of dear old dad’s death. Her sisters still had their shares available so I didn’t feel the least bit Sith’ish in doing so.

“Now, transfer one third of your personal savings into her account.”

That was for pointing a loaded weapon in my face. Believe me, he was getting off easy. Pointing a deadly weapon in a minor’s face is a felony in Texas. He was lucky I didn’t have him confess to the police and wind up in prison getting reamed by his cellmate on a nightly basis.

I had him head to his personal safe afterward and remove the personal items Lyshaa wanted. When I checked inside, I whistled. “Someone’s not reporting everything to the IRS. What do you have in here? Go sit at your desk.”

He did as he was told with minimal fighting. I guess he finally gave up. I rifled through the contents of the safe, without touching anything. The money went into a handbag sitting beside his desk. I emptied the contents first though. I wasn’t a petty thief after all.

“This should pay for Jesse’s new wardrobe nicely. We want her to have the best after all the crap you’ve put her through.”

“Aayla?” Lyshaa’s voce came from down the hall.

“In here, honey.”

Her head peeked around the corner and she saw the safe open. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously.

I smiled brightly at her. “Your dad here wanted you to have something to buy some new clothes. I thought it was really thoughtful.”

Floating the bag over to her, she looked inside and nearly choked then looked up at her dad.

“What’s wrong with him?”

I shut the safe and closed the picture it was behind. “He’s kind of in a daze at the moment, regretting everything that he’s done.”

When I got behind him, I held out my hand above his head. “Everything you’ve done tonight, you’ll remember doing of your own free will. You’ve never seen me before. Go to sleep.”

His head hit the desk with a thump.

“Let’s go.”

She looked at her dad and frowned, but followed me back through the house and to her car.

“Let’s go get you a few things to wear, Lyshaa. You can go shopping for everything else tomorrow.”

~O~

One thing about the basement: in the mornings it’s cold. I don’t know if it’s the whole underground thing or what, but when I go to sleep at night it’s cool, and when I wake up in the morning everything is brisk and chilly.

That morning everything was very warm and dare I say snuggly. With the addition of the lekku to my body, I rarely sleep on my back anymore, so it was no surprise to find myself on my right side with my arm wrapped around the thing that was giving off such warmth. Lyshaa.

We were spooned together, our legs intertwined, my left arm wrapped around her waist and bent upward, and my hand firmly grasping her generous breast. I would have immediately pulled away, but one of her hands was covering mine while the other held my arm in place.

The quick trip to the mall the previous night included a stop at Victoria’s Secret where Lyshaa bought her underwear and something to sleep in. Everything had to be the most ultra-feminine things she could find. There was no cotton harmed in the making of her underthings, but several silkworms apparently had been mugged.

That’s what made the thing so unbearable. Her whole torso was slippery and warm and that translated into thoughts of sex in my head. I still liked girls very much and having one in my bed, especially one as gifted as Lyshaa was beyond temptation.

The alarm took that moment to go off and she tensed, tightly. Since my hands were otherwise occupied, I used the Force to turn it off.

I heard her breath escape her mouth as she relaxed and push back a little into my embrace.

“Can we stay here like this?” she said with a much more subdued voice than she had the night previous.

“I have school and you have shopping, and you have to see official type people. Can I have my hand back?”

She gave me a minor groan and squeezed it which in turn made me squeeze her breast, before she let go. I quickly rolled out of bed and grabbed a change of clothes.

The shower was heavenly that morning. Maybe it was the good night’s sleep I received. I definitely wasn’t chalking it up to being with Lyshaa. I mean seriously, she was Jesse in a different body. The same person that stalked me was lying in my bed, probably doing things that will make me change the sheets when I got home after school.

I pulled on my jeans and frowned when I realized that I’d grabbed the Capri’s by mistake. They were denim blue and the blouse I put on was shiny blue. Sorry I’m not a color wheel. I have to look everything up on the internet in order to find out what weird names they give to colors.

All I know is that it was the brightest blue I had tried since the change. It definitely showed me off and contrasted with the red of my skin. I adjusted the new bra — I’m still doing that to all of them that I haven’t had a chance to wear — and made my way back downstairs.

Yep, I was right; I’d have to change the sheets. The room smelled of sex, and let me tell you it was powerful. I swayed about halfway down the stairs and got my bearings.

Zeltron pheromones could have an effect on me if I let them, but I had a stronger will than that, not to mention the training to counter their effects on my body chemistry.

Lyshaa was on the bed, with the covers only hiding the bottom half of the body. The look on her face was comical. Her eyes were wide and there was a goofy smile present.

“Can you not do that until we can get you a bed of your own?”

“Sorry.”

She wasn’t sorry in the least.

“I said you need to keep your pheromones under control too. It smells like a bordello and a chocolate factory exploded in here.”

“Sorry. I’ll try harder.”

There was nothing to be done at that point until the air conditioner filtered out the worst of the smell.

“You look nice. I like that color on you,” she said.

I started looking for a pair of cross trainers I knew Mom had bought me.

“Whatcha looking for,” Lyshaa said as she snuck up behind me.

“Shoes.”

She pointed. “Those sandals go with that outfit.”

I saw the things that she pointed out. They were flat sandals with three thin straps, one going down the middle and two others crossing it, with an ankle strap and a tiny bit of leather at the heel.

“My feet will freeze at school.”

“That’s the shoes that will go with that outfit.” She said it like I was slow or something.

I grumbled and grabbed them. After I put them on I looked down. Yeah, they looked good, but I was questioning my ability to ride my bike with so much skin available. I had a tendency to crash my bike a lot. I didn’t really want to lose a toe.

“You’ll need to drive me to school. Get dressed.”

She smiled and eagerly ran to the drawers I set aside for her use while she was here.

I had no idea what I was going to do with her. My basement had to be a port in the storm. Maybe I could help her find an apartment or something that she could rent.

Before I knew it, Lyshaa was dressed in a skimpy neon green and blue pair of stretchy shorts and crop top that showed massive amounts of cleavage. She was brushing out her hair when I saw her eyes in the mirror.

“Do I have time to put on some makeup?”

“No. You just have to drop me off, Lyshaa. You can come back and pretty yourself up to your heart’s content after.”

She beamed a smile at me. “You think I’m pretty?”

I rolled my eyes. “Can we go now?”

Lyshaa grabbed her purse which she had happily filled the night before with just about everything known to man inside. I shook my head at how fast she had taken to being a girl. It was like she was one all along and only blossomed when given the body to be herself.

Not that I had anything against the trans-people or anything. I just really didn’t give a crap about anyone outside my sphere of sociality. Let them do what they want to do, and let me do what I want to do. However, fate had introduced one of them into my sphere and I felt I had to understand them for some unknown reason.

The entire way to the school, Lyshaa was sorting through her CD collection and tossing the emo stuff into the back seat until she found her Katy Perry CD. Apparently, having her wish come true meant a positive bubbly change in attitude. Thankfully, she kept the volume down below ear-bleeding levels, but she smiled and danced in her seat for the remained of the ride.

When she stopped the car in front of the school, she turned the volume all the way down.

“You want me to pick you up after?”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

She reached out and set her hand on my forearm. “Like I said before; anything you want, anything.”

With a sigh I said, “Lyshaa, you aren’t my slave or anything. I’m glad I could help and all. You don’t have to pay me back like this.”

“I want to. You made my dreams come true, Aayla.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked all this touchy-feely stuff of hers. “I’ll see you after school. Make sure you get your name changed otherwise you can’t access your money.”

She nodded and I alit from the car.

~O~

After stopping by the office to leave a suggestion in the counselor’s head not to give Jesse/Lyshaa a hard time, I went to class and my monotony began all over again.

Matt and I didn’t have any classes together. The only time I saw him was in the halls, much like after lunch when he stopped me.

“Have you got a dress yet?”

The Junior Prom! “I had my hands full yesterday.” Grabbing his arm, I pulled him over to a less traveled portion of the hall so we could have a quick conversation. “You know Jesse Walls?”

He searched his memory. “Short dude? Long hair?”

I nodded. “He followed me home yesterday and uh…” When I realized what I was about to say, I stopped. That wasn’t my secret to tell and some of it was just secret. “Long story short, he turned into a Zeltron in my basement.”

Matt’s face shifted to astonishment. “He what?”

“A female Zeltron; you know the blue hair and pink skin.”

He nodded. “Holy shit. Maybe we shouldn’t hang out at your place anymore.”

I frowned at him. “It’s not because of my place. He’s a metahuman. It’s coincidence.”

“Uh, Aayla, I think you’re hot and all and if Jesse is a Zeltron then she’s definitely hot. I like being a dude.”

“Are you a metahuman?”

“How am I supposed to know? Besides, what are the odds that you both wind up looking like Star Wars chicks?”

Considering what’s been going on, they were pretty good actually.

“Anyway, her dad kicked her out. She’s staying with me for now. I just wanted to give you a heads up.” Then something clicked in my head. “Hold on. You think I’m hot?”

His eyes widened and the warning bell rang. I narrowed my eyes at him before he pointed up. “Gotta go.”

I simmered for a small span of time before heading to Physics. Matt had been bullshitting me all this time. He did have the hots for me and the whole let’s go to the prom as friends thing was a load of crap. The teasing he gave me after the movie wasn’t actual teasing either. It made me wonder if he actually cancelled the hotel reservations like he said he did.

Going over the exact turn of events that led up to this moment was distracting. It had occupied so much of my thought processes that I didn’t really pay much attention to the teacher when it was my turn to go up to the dry erase board and write down the formulas on the theories we were supposed to be studying.

By the time I’d returned to my chair so I could decide on a course of action to deal with Matt, I got called down.

“Aayla,” the teacher said. “What’s that?”

I looked up at what I wrote. The odd part was, I had distracted myself so much that I didn’t notice I’d filled up half the board with my specific formula about space and gravity’s effects on planetary bodies.

What I actually wrote down was the theoretical basis for a class 1.0 Hyperdrive Motivator.

“Oops.” I got back up. “Uh, just something that I was working on, sorry. I’ll correct it.”

He led up his hands. “Nonono, stop.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and then peeked out after a few seconds. He was standing there staring at it for the longest time.

“This… what is this? It looks like… no, that can’t be right. What if… no, that’s right there. But what about…”

“I think you broke him,” said the guy I was standing next to. “What is that stuff.”

My eyes fluttered for a second and then I had an epiphany. In a slightly louder voice than I would normally use I said, “I’ve been working on a way to subvert relativity.”

The teacher’s head spun around. “Is that… how did you… where did you… This can’t be right.”

I went to the front of the class and started explaining the process of a hypothetical drive for a spacecraft that would conceivably travel a hundred million times the speed of light without falling prey to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Supposedly, if you traveled the speed of light, there was some time dilation involved. The Galaxy where that formula came from fixed that. Now you could travel from one end of the galaxy to the other in a matter of days.

And there was the formula that made it all happen. It’s for a hyperdrive motivator. That’s the thing that made the Millennium Falcon get up and go.

I don’t understand it all, I just learned what I needed to know to make things work properly.

Heading back to my workbook that I’d been drawing all my schematics in, I tore out a few sheets of paper and gave them to the teacher.

“This is what I’ve got so far.”

The bell rang when I handed it to him, but he made me stay. “This is more important than…”

“Trigonometry.”

“Right. If this is even close to workable then MIT would give you an honorary doctorate. Don’t worry about it.”

~O~

I didn’t wind up staying long. The teacher sent my formula to a friend of his that knew more than he did on the subject. He’d pass it on the powers that be when the time came.

Glory and a doctorate wasn’t my goal, although that would be pretty nice to have. What I ultimately wanted was access to materials and money where I could build my own equipment or have it built for me by people that actually knew what they were doing and had the wherewithal to get the job accomplished.

This wasn’t a job for a mechanic or a hack inventor to dally with in their shop. I needed precision materials and tools in order to get this done. Government funding would be sweet.

I’d release a few iniquitous things for them that would take large steps forward in technology and I would leave the serious stuff for myself.

The latter half of Trig swept by and Economics was boring as hell. Then I got to get out of there.

Lyshaa was waiting for me in the parking lot. The person I’d left in the morning and the one that was leaning against the car were two totally different people. She’d had her hair cut and styled and her make up accentuated her face and colors perfectly. Her clothes were still in blinding neon colors, but what could you do?

She held the door open for me with a bright smile.

“Hi, Aalya.”

“Hey, you look good.”

“Thanks!” She bounced and then shut the door after I got in.

A lot of the boys that didn’t have to ride the bus were staring at her as she swayed her hips and waved at them playfully. I could see the whole monogamous thing was going to be a problem in the future. Zeltrons thought the whole idea of a couple only having one partner was quaint. I’d be lucky if Lyshaa kept it under a dozen.

When she hopped in and started the car, I could smell her pheromones on the rise.

“Tone it down, Lyshaa.”

I watched as her thighs rubbed together under the short skirt. “I can’t help it,” she said with some zeal. “I’m really… um…”

“Randy?”

She shrugged and took a deep breath.

“Maybe you better find yourself a boyfriend and get some oats sowed. You like guys, right?”

She nodded empathetically. “I was mostly gay before. Dad was right about that.”

“Just make sure they use condoms. We don’t need you pregnant on top of everything else.”

I couldn’t believe I was giving sexual advice to someone else when I still had yet to even see another sex organ in real life. Well, I didn’t count showers at school in gym class, and I was still kind of confused about which side I fell on when choosing a partner.

Lyshaa was out of the question. I’d feel like I was taking advantage of whatever hero-worship she was holding for me, plus she was just too damn perky. It was like dating a hyper cheerleader or something. Then there was Eric and Matt.

The thought of either of them filling that role kind of made me uncomfortable. It was just a weird situation to be in, but I needed to make a decision soon, because I still didn’t want to be stuck, going into Twi’lek heat sometime between that moment and another three months, without a partner.

I stopped and blinked, refocusing. Having Lyshaa and her ever present pheromones around was making me think of sex too much, and I had more important issues to deal with.

“I need a dress for the Junior Prom,” I said.

That was the magic word in Lyshaa’s lexicon apparently. She hit the brakes and spun a left out of the subdivision.

~O~

One thing led to another and not only did I purchase a slinky evening gown, Lyshaa talked me into the three inch high heels to go with it. That would put me firmly into Matt’s height, eye to eye.

She was looking at the dress forlornly until I asked her if she was going.

“No. I never had the nerve to ask another guy. I was in the closet.”

If anyone deserved a dance and a chance to be in her element, it was Lyshaa. Knowing Eric wasn’t going, I called him up.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself. You’re still not going to the prom, right.”

“Why?” he asked warily.

“I just sent you a pic. Take a look and call me back.”

With that, I shut my phone.

“Are you setting me up?” she asked. “Who is he?”

“Eric Fontaine.”

I could see her rolling the name around in her head until she could connect it with a face. “He’s big.”

If Eric ever decided to work out, he’d be a powerhouse. As it was, he was just normal, tall and put together pretty well.

My phone rang before we could talk about him any further.

“Holy shit, Aayla.”

“Her name is Lyshaa and she needs a date for Junior Prom. You game.”

“Totally.”

“Awesome. I’ll give her your number.”

When I closed the phone this time, Lyshaa bounced high and pumped her hand. “Yes!”

It may have been a mistake though. It took me all of thirty minutes to hunt down a dress and shoes for me, and the better part of two hours to narrow the field for her.

“Just get both. I’m sure you’ll wear the extra at some point.”

“You’re brilliant, Aayla. That’s what I’ll do.”

It wasn’t brilliance that prompted me to suggest both dresses. It was fatigue.

“Did you get everything done today?”

She nodded. “The Department of Metahuman Services was annoying, but since I had all my documents they processed me.”

That was a Texas idea. It wasn’t a complete department since it wasn’t like metas were popping up every day. They had allocated a single room in the Department of Human Service in each metropolitan city in the state, and manned it with a bureaucrat and a nurse. The latter one was to do a blood draw and send it to the proper authorities, and the other was for the paperwork involved.

“How about the shopping?”

“I picked up a few things. I thought maybe you’d want to go to the outlet mall this weekend?”

She said it with such hope in her voice. It was then I realized I had another mission. I had to find Lyshaa a girlfriend as well. It would be for companionship. I just wasn’t up to the painting each other’s nails and talking about boys aspect of a girl/girl friendship.

“Maybe you could get Eric to go with you. You’d be able to spend all day with him.”

Her eyes widened. “Take a straight-boy shopping?”

Dammit, good point. Eric would be heading for the hills at the first sign of a sale.

Backed into a corner, I nodded. “It depends on what the rest of the week brings. If it’s open, I’ll go with you.”

Lyshaa smiled as she pulled up by the curb.

Once we got down to the basement, I went ahead and showed her the GH. She just about had a spontaneous orgasm when the Yoda-Gatekeeper popped up.

“I knew you were a Jedi!” she almost screamed.

“I’m not a Jedi. This is something one of my ancestors was trying to hide.”

“But…” she pointed at the hologram. “That’s Yoda, and you’re using the Force. Do you have a lightsaber?”

My mouth dropped open a little. “Uh…”

“I knew it!” She stopped and her face changed to that begging one I was really becoming familiar with. “I want to train. Can I train… pleeeeease?”

“Too old you are for Jedi training,” said Yoda. “Set in your ways you are.”

Lyshaa squeaked. “He even talks like Yoda!”

That migraine was coming back and I really needed to start my meditation exercises. I’d skipped the day before since I was so busy.

“But I’m only sixteen and Luke Skywalker was older when he started.”

Yoda looked at me and I just raised my hands letting him know this was all on him.

His lips bunched a little and I could see he was annoyed at having the whole Luke Skywalker thing thrown in his face. It was hard to argue with that little fact. He was in his late teens when he even heard of the Force, and he turned out to be one of the most famous Jedi’s ever. Who was to say that lightning couldn’t strike twice? Maybe a former trans-person who was a metahuman and got changed into an alien could become the next Jedi Master.

God I hoped not. Can you imagine the whining when she has to wear the drab robes?

Yoda grumbled for a few moments. “Tested you must be.”

“Battery’s dead.” I reminded him about the equipment that I possessed.

“Then improvise you must.”

He went over various tests that were performed, half of which I couldn’t do because I didn’t have the proper equipment. In the end we settled on a deck of cards.

I held one up. “Concentrate and tell me what it is.”

She almost burned a hole with her stare. “Three of clubs.”

I turned it around. “Jack of Diamonds.”

Again. “Picture what I’m looking at.”

Her lips went white. “King of hearts.”

“Ace of spades.”

We went through half the deck and she hadn’t called even one of them. By the end of the test, her eyes were glassy and I could see the sorrow on her face.

“A Jedi not everyone can be, Lyshaa Walls,” said Yoda.

Without a word, she got up and retreated to the dresser drawer and then went upstairs with something silky in her hand, I guessed to take a shower.

I frowned at her pink legs as they disappeared. Putting the cards away, I shut off the GH and settled into a meditative trance, banishing my ill feelings of the day, along with all the chaos that surrounded my life.

Afterward, Lyshaa and I shared a small pizza and turned in early. It had been a long day, and she was troubled. In the darkness, I could feel the pain radiating from her along with something else.

“Aayla, you awake?” she whispered.

“Uh-huh.”

“Can we cuddle? Just for a little while?”

I thought about it for a few seconds. It’s not like we wouldn’t end up like we were that morning or some variation thereof.

“Come here.”

I turned on my side and Lyshaa spooned up against me. Not knowing what to do with my free arm, I hooked it around her and she took my hand in both of hers resuming the exact same position we were in much earlier in the day. I had a handful of breast.

If only I was a guy.

She sighed in contentment while I tried to relax.

“I know you don’t like me,” she said.

I closed my eye. Did we have to do this right away?

“It’s not that, Lyshaa. I’m just going through a hard week right and anything else that takes up more of my time is preventing me from taking care of what I have to take care of.”

Her hands squeezed mine which in turn… well, I can paint you a picture.

“I could help you relax if you want. I like girls too.”

My hand stiffened. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

Yes, I’d fallen back to that tired excuse.

“I’m not pretty enough?”

I sighed. “You’re very pretty, Lyshaa. I just don’t think it’s good to take advantage of you like that. It wouldn’t feel right.”

She started sniffing, but I wasn’t going to give in that easily. “If I was still a guy I’d be all over you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I can pretty much guarantee that. Look, you just found out that you and the Force don’t get along very well. I don’t want to be the one to turn you down again, but I’m doing it not because you aren’t attractive. I’m doing it because if we started something here, right now, my heart wouldn’t be into it and it would just be sex. You deserve better than that.”

She pulled my hand tighter against her and then relaxed.

“Get some sleep, Lyshaa.”

~O~

The next morning, my lekku were spread out and I was on my back. Lyshaa was nearly on top of me and this time it was me being groped. Fair’s fair I guess.

The alarm went off and I snapped a hand out while I felt my bedmate wake up. Her hand squeezed me and I had to admit, it felt a lot better when someone else was doing it.

“Time to get up,” I said in a half-whisper.

Lyshaa’s hand slid away and followed the contours of my body to my hip. “You really should rethink what we talked about last night,” she mumbled.

I chuckled as she slid away. This time she got ready right beside me. As scary as it may seem, they make schoolgirl outfits in neon colors. Lyshaa just had to buy one for herself. It wasn’t one of those naughty types, but with her figure she made it look like one.

When she sat down to put her makeup on I checked to see what time it was. Someone changed the alarm to add an additional thirty minutes to the morning routine.

“Some of us need to wear makeup,” she said as I glared her way.

I took that as a challenge went to my backpack to retrieve the mascara. A few strokes later and Lyshaa was grinning at me.

“See, I can do that too,” I said. That was the full extent of my makeup expertise.

My own choice in clothing wound back up to my first outfit, the sports tights and that billowy black blouse. I really had to get out and purchase a few more things. I was tired of the dull colors and even as a guy I had more clothes than this.

Maybe a weekend shopping with Lyshaa wouldn’t be that bad. I still had to return all the things that didn’t fit which would expand my wardrobe considerably. Mostly it was the jeans and a few shoes where the heel was too high. That should keep me busy enough to where she could shop and I’d be finished by the time she was.

“What are you thinking about?” Lyshaa asked.

“Hmm, oh…” I wasn’t going to let her know about clothes and shopping. She’d have thought that I’d finally given in. “Just trying to organize things in my head for this week.”

~O~

Eric was waiting for us when we got to school. This time, Lyshaa was coming with me. I could tell from her body language that she was a tad shy, probably a holdover from her days as an emo boy. It was warring with her newer outgoing side.

They introduced themselves and Eric couldn’t keep the smile off his face. Truthfully, I was feeling a little sick from Lyshaa playing coy and her new interest trying to hold himself back from jumping her in a testosterone fueled caveman flashback.

He didn’t have my ability to keep my head clear when Lyshaa’s pheromones started seeping into the air.

I hooked my hand at her elbow and pulled. “We have to get you to the office.

She protested then waved at her future date. “Bye Eric. I’ll call you after school, ‘kay?”

I rolled my eyes.

“He’s cute… and big.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said.

“I would. I had gym with him last year.”

Squeezing my eyes shut at that visual, I opened them again. “You’re really taking to this girl thing with a vengeance.”

She giggled. “Are you kidding? Being a girl is the best. You should enjoy it.”

With a shrug I opened the door and steered her inside with my hand at her lower back. “I much prefer being a guy, thanks.”

“Why? I can’t imagine anyone wanting that.”

Holding my hand out, I nodded once. “There you go. Neither of us can imagine why someone would want the other.”

We’d gotten two steps inside when I spotted a few suits standing by the main office. Their eyes were on us. Two of them were pretty big and bulky and the third look to be rather nerdy looking.

“Something’s up,” I said.

Lyshaa came to a stop in her shiny Mary Jane heels. “They don’t look nice.”

Stepping in front of her I held my hand low. “Stay behind me, but not too close.”

When we approached, the nerdy guy reached into his jacket and withdrew a small wallet. I didn’t bother acting like I didn’t know they were here for me, Lyshaa, or both of us.

When he held the ID up, I stopped, which brought us about four feet away from each other.

“Miss Walker. I’m Doctor Victor Doomah, with the Department of Defense.”

He was Caucasian, but his features spoke of a recent European lineage.
Taking a moment, with that information in mind, I noted the bulges at the larger guys’ hips. When my attention was brought back to the doctor, I narrowed my eyes, but didn’t say anything.

“Perhaps we could go somewhere we won’t be disturbed,” he said.

“Aayla?”

I pursed my lips and looked back at Lyshaa. “It’s okay. I’ve kinda been expecting them, just not so soon. Go on to the counselor. I’ll see you later, okay?”

“You sure?”

I nodded.

The doctor stepped aside as Lyshaa passed and then brought his full attention back to me.

“Are we going on a trip?”

He smiled gracefully. “You could say that.”

~O~

My backpack was liberated from me and searched until my notebook was found that had the schematics of various things I thought would be useful. Without knowing a lot of the details that went into making these items, it was so much… what do they call it, techno art I think. That was handed to the doctor.

The trip took about forty-five minutes. When we rolled up to Ellington Air Force base I knew where we were.

It had been closed since the late seventies when the government was shutting down as many military bases as humanly possible and still have a functioning defense. I knew it was still active in certain areas, but over all, it was deserted.

It was rumored that the local superhero crowd had their headquarters there, but since the airspace was restricted it was hard to prove.

I kept my mouth shut until we pulled up to a building that could have had anything inside. Overall it looked very secure.

My escorts pinned official looking badges on their suit pockets and I was checked in with a visitor’s pass, which got hung on my blouse.

“I’m curious,” said the doctor. “You haven’t asked what this is all about.”

The hallways were Spartan and clean. Obviously the building was in good use. That meant they’d been there a while.

“I figured you tell me when you got around to it.”

He eyed me as we walked. “You’re surprisingly mature for your age.”

I almost snorted. “Being turned into an alien and a girl has an effect on a guy.”

“I’m sure it does.”

An elevator took us down three levels below ground. That’s when I started to get a little antsy. Getting out might prove a little harder than I thought, if it came to that I mean. My breathing was kept even and I concentrated on what meditations I could, given the circumstance.

We wound up in what looked to be a military style boardroom. It wasn’t very fancy with its long table and utilitarian chairs, but in front of each chair was a monitor and spaced throughout were carafes of water and several glasses.

“Have a seat, Miss Walker. I need to let the others know we’re here so we may begin.”

TBC...

Thanks ahead of time for any thoughts you might want to share in a comment.

Author's Note: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.

I normally don't post on Mondays, because Mondays suck for comments. However, I inadvertently cliffed the last chapter and I didn't want you to suffer until tomorrow, because I hate cliffhangers as much as most of you do. The reason I didn't consider it a cliff was because I knew what was going to happen and it isn't cliff-worthy. Enjoy.

Chapter Six

There was a large wall clock hanging at the far end that let me know twenty minutes had passed since I’d arrived. After my brief meditation, I poured myself a glass of water and took a single sip before setting it aside.

Another five went by before the door opened and vomited forth several suits, much like the doctor and a few guys in lab coats. They took their seats, randomly, I guessed. The last person through the door was a girl that couldn’t have been any older than me with really long blonde hair.

She was dressed in a woman’s version of a plain business suit. She seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place the face. Her seat was directly across from me.

The monitor in front of me lit up like it was coming out of sleep mode and I saw a program being initiated.

While someone readied their presentation, I looked from face to face. Some of their eyes were on me, looking at my lekku or my face. I’m sure the tattoos were interesting to them or something.

“Miss Walker,” said Doctor Doomah. “Do you know why you’re here?”

I took another sip of water and set it aside. “Visiting with the Department of Defense? I have a few ideas. Care to enlighten me?”

The blonde girl scribbled something on the notepad in front of her and slid it to the side. An older woman in her mid-thirties looked at it briefly and then her eyes ticked up to me.

Giving them a very slow blink, I reached out to picture what was on the pad.

Why isn’t she intimidated?

The screen flashed and up popped my formula from the previous day. I smirked and leaned back.

“Wow; that was quick.”

Doctor Doomah tapped his pen on the table absentmindedly. “You mentioned to your friend that you were expecting us.”

I shrugged. “Or someone like you. I figured it might be NASA or the Department of Energy, but Defense makes sense.”

“Curious,” he said. “Why the Department of Energy?”

Leaning forward I laced my fingers together. “Because in order to make that formula work, you’ll need, at the bare minimum, a fusion drive. It’s something that we haven’t quite gotten the hang of yet, have we.”

“Are you implying you know how to make one, a fusion drive, I mean.”

I shook my head. “No. I don’t.” Well, not off the top of my head. I could always access the GH. It might know.

The blonde was scribbling again.

She’s playing around. Cut through the BS.

“That’s too bad. Miss Wal…”

The blonde’s friend held up her hand, forestalling the doctor’s next question.

“Miss Walker, what exactly do you need in order to make this work?”

I smiled. “Depends on what you need it to do.”

That brought up several voices that I hadn’t heard from. The general consensus was I was full of crap and stole the formula from someone.

The blonde stood up and banged on the table. I was impressed with the way it moved when she hit it. The girl couldn’t weigh more than a hundred ten pounds, wet, and the table shuddered under her assault.

“Everyone out,” she said.

I raised my hand. “Can Doctor Doom stay?”

The blonde’s lips quirked. “Why?”

“He’s been polite to me, and he has a cool name.”

The person in question ducked his head and coughed into his fist. I think I embarrassed him.

“Doctor Doomah?” The blonde held her hand out to the chair beside her while the rest of the people filed out. Some were still grumbling the entire way.

Once the doctor was seated, the blonde sat back down. “This is Doctor Sharon Rosenthal, you’ve met Doctor Doomah, and I’m Courtney Carter.”

I reared back with a closed-lipped smile. “That’s where I’ve seen you. You’re American Dream.”

She gave me a quick nod. “We need to know where you got the formula. Did you do it yourself or did it come from an outside entity?”

That was a tricky question. “It came from my own brain.” That was true enough.

“And you acquired this ability to do… this stuff after your transition?”

“That’s right. I’m not some physics or engineering brain if that’s your next question. I just know what needs to be done in order to make certain things work.”

“You mean you can’t explain the science behind the theory?” asked Doctor Doom. He sounded heartbroken.

“No, I can’t.”

The lady doc was next. “What did you mean when you said; it depends on what you need it to do.”

Leaning back in my chair, I shrugged. “I meant do you want to explore space, mine Jupiter, start an intergalactic war, or something simple like invading other countries from space.”

“Exploration, surely,” Doomah said, truly believing what he said. I liked him. He was a little naíve, but still.

Courtney held a finger up and punched a few things into the keyboard in front of her. My screen changed and a profile came up of me. Before and after pictures, all my medical records, even the report by the lady from STAR Labs was present.

“Oh, this is yours, by the way.”

Courtney slid a manila envelope across the table and I opened it up. Inside was my new ID. “Ah, I was wondering what was holding this up.”

“I check out all the local talent,” Courtney said. “You told the SL doc that you didn’t have any powers.”

“You call thinking outside of the box, powers?”

She leaned into the table. “I call any ability you didn’t have before you changed, powers.”

After I closed the envelope back up, I looked at her. “I’m just a citizen of these United States. I’m not a meta. Instead, I’m a victim of circumstance. I’m sure that’s in your report also. So technically I’m not under your purview, and I don’t think I’ve broken any laws, so what’s your point?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Oh, you’re doing the intimidation thing. Is this where I grovel and offer up everything I know for good ol’ US of A, apple pie, and an autograph from everyone’s favorite superheroine? I’m sixteen and haven’t broken any laws. This is considered kidnapping whether I agreed to come with you or not.”

Doctor Doomah’s eyes widened. “No, we’re not threatening you.” He grabbed Courtney’s arm. “We’re not threatening her, right? Tell her. She could…”

Courtney turned her head and glared at him, held up a single finger to her lips and said, “Shh.”

Doctor Rosenthal gave me a conciliatory smile. “We’re not threatening you, Aayla. What is it you want for your information?”

I looked up and thought about it for a moment. “A place to call my own, private and secure, so I can make things. No accountability as long as I produce.”

“No accountability?” Courtney said.

I ran my tongue over my teeth and then smiled brightly. “Miss Carter, I have knowledge enough to make this country impenetrable from any weapon known to mankind. I can provide plans to build a generator that could power Texas, by itself, and it wouldn’t leave any waste material. In fact the material it uses for operation would be common household trash. That one alone would make me an instant billionaire.”

She was looking at me coldly.

“Want to drop oil prices down to pennies a barrel and make the Middle East insignificant? Want me to build you a…”

“Enough,” she said as she stood. “Take her home.”

“What?” Doctor Doomah nearly crapped himself. “But…”

Courtney walked around the table and stopped at the door with Doctor Rosenthal on her heels. “Aayla, I’ll be watching you.”

I sighed. She would have never given me what I wanted.

~O~

Doctor Doomah wound up driving me back home alone. Apparently I wasn’t a possible threat anymore.

He kept muttering to himself, in a foul mood.

When we reached the house, I invited him inside.

“I have to get back to base,” he said without looking over at me. Instead he was picking at his nails.

“Want something for free?” I said with a little teasing.

His head snapped around with renewed interest.

“Come inside.”

We went down into the basement. When he took the last step off the stairs I turned around and concentrated on him.

“Can I trust you not to reveal this to anyone else?”

He blinked and nodded. “As long as it’s not against the law.”

I shrugged my head. “It depends on who you’re talking to. Knowledge itself is useless without application.”

“True,” he said like he was trying to justify not saying anything to see what I had. “We know how to clone someone, but as long as it’s theory and not…”

I smiled at him. He was a man after my own heart, pliable.

“Close your eyes.”

It took a second to talk him into doing so, but close them he did.

Using the Force I called the lightsaber to me and extracted the battery before sending it back to its hiding place.

“Okay, open.”

He saw what I was holding. “What’s that?”

“It’s a powercell… a battery.”

He took it in his hand. “The design is odd, but what makes this any better than what you can buy at a retail store.”

“Lasts longer and it’s rechargeable.”

His face fell. “Miss Walker, if this is some attempt at humor…”

“One charge lasts about a decade of high energy output.”

“What’s the core?”

“Xenon gas.” Actually it’s called Diatium gas in the galaxy where it was made, but I doubted the good doctor had ever heard of it.

He examined it further, poking at the top of the cell. “What’s the crystal for?”

“Focusing discharge.”

“Hmm, interesting to be sure, but not really the kind of thing I’m looking for.”

I shook my head. “No, this is for me. This is the kind of thing that I want to build. I don’t give a crap about the money or the prestige, Doctor. I just want to make things that interest me.”

“My sympathies, Miss Walker; truly.”

The bait was thrown into the water; it was time to see if I could reel in the fish.

“What do you want, Doctor, if you could invent something, I mean?”

A melancholy look came over his face. “My wife… last year she was involved in an auto accident; drunk driver. She lost both her legs and one arm.”

“I’m sorry,” I said with as much empathy as I could pour into the two words.

“When she was well enough to return home, they’d fitted her with prosthetic limbs. She was… inconsolable. A month later when I was at the grocery, she killed herself.”

He handed me the powercell. “What would I invent? Realistic artificial limbs that look, act, and feel like the real thing, Miss Walker. Valeria thought she was a freak with the things they prescribe to patients these days. Good day.”

He turned and as his foot hit the step I said, “I can do that.”

Doctor Doomah turned around and blinked at me in surprise.

“You’d never be able to tell the difference between it and the real thing.”

His face hardened and then eased back.

“I didn’t know about it until after I changed, Doctor. I couldn’t have helped her, but I can give you the ability to help others in her name.”

He chuckled. “I have no soul to sell, Miss Walker.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want your soul, Doctor. I want a battery charger. I don’t have the materials or facilities to make one for myself.”

The look I received was measuring. “I wouldn’t consider that a fair trade, and then there’s the government to keep track of. They wouldn’t allow me to use their materials.”

I sighed internally. “Come see me this weekend. I’ll have the information you’ll need by then.”

“I couldn’t…”

“I’m not asking you to commit. Just come by and take a look at what I have. Saturday morning.”

~O~

No matter how good my memory was, Talon didn’t teach me about cybernetics, so I had to go to the GH. I spent the better part of the day transcribing so much incomprehensible gobbledygook. Mostly it was just generation of artificial skin. And it couldn’t be direct transcribing, oh no, nothing could be that easy. I had to stop and figure out certain chemical compositions. Almost everything that could be found out there in space could be found on Earth, it was just a matter if figuring out what it was called here. It seemed like everything had a different name.

The special super-duper crystals that made a lightsaber work and gave the blade its color? Out there they’re called lightsaber crystal — original, huh? On Earth they are called precious stones: Rubies, Sapphires, Jade, and the like; maybe you’ve heard of them.

By the time I started the mechanical portion of the diagram, Lyshaa opened the door to the basement.

“Aayla? You down there?”

“Yeah.”

Her heels clicked quickly on the steps. She’d only been wearing them as of this morning and she was a pro in high heels. It made me wonder how long Jesse had been wearing them before the change.

“What happened? Did they arrest you? I was freaking out all day.”

I folded up my work. It was obvious I wasn’t going to be able to continue. “They just asked some questions and I met some scientists. He might be able to help me with something. It wasn’t anything bad.”

“Are you sure?” She seemed really worried.

I didn’t get it. We barely knew each other.

“Uh-huh.”

Lyshaa held her hand over where her heart used to be. I guess it was habit. I told you that her heart is on the other side of her chest now, right?

“Whew. Good.” She bounced in place and her grin brightened. “Eric held my hand!”

I received the blow by blow account of how one of my best friends helped her up from her chair in one of her classes and never let go while he escorted her to her next class. It wasn’t world-stopping news or anything, but it seemed to make Lyshaa’s week. I just hoped that she didn’t feel the need to go into such detail on their first date or their first romp between the sheets.

She was rambling on like an eight year old on a sugar high; believe me when I say I can tell you exactly what that’s like. Two weeks previous Kenny found my mother’s chocolate stash and ate half of it.

“… have to find you a nice outfit for Saturday night.”

My eyes refocused on her at that statement. “What?”

Her eyebrows bunched together. “Have you been listening to me?”

While I hate being thought of as rude, sometimes it’s true. “Sorry, I’m being distracted about that thing today. What did you say about Saturday night?”

She patted my hand and looked very concerned. “You need to relax more, Aayla. You’ve had a rough week. I was telling Eric about it and he thought we could double date on Saturday with you and Matt.”

I blinked. “Me and Matt?”

“He’s taking you to the Junior Prom, right? He’s your boyfriend?”

“Uh… where did you get that idea?”

Lyshaa knew she was missing something; I could see it on her face. “The way he was talking about you today. The boy is smitten. He’s not your boyfriend?”

I shook my head.

“Oh. Sorry. My bad.” Then she made a really weird face, like she’d done something I wouldn’t approve of. “I kind of committed you. You know, like you did for me. You were really nice and set me up with Eric and I kind of did the same for you with Matt.”

See what helping people does for you? It complicates things. If I had just let Lyshaa deal with her own personal issues then I wouldn’t be in this mess.

“What did you do?” I said rather seriously.

She swallowed when she saw the look on my face. “They’re taking us to dinner and then dancing at The Money Shot. Matt was really looking forward to it. Did I do something bad?”

She was trying to help. I couldn’t be mad at her for that. “Lyshaa, would you sit down please.”

Her body was always moving a mile a minute, but she took a seat and contented herself with bouncing her foot.

“Do you remember how I told you that I didn’t want to change into this?” I panned my hand down my body, and she nodded. “You like guys, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I liked girls and I’m still trying to figure out the whole sexual orientation problem I have going on right now. Setting me up on a date with one of my best friends is a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Oh.”

“What if I decide that I have no attraction to him? Blow him off? Then I’ve just lost one of the only people that accepted me for who I was and who I am.”

“I thought he was your boyfriend, Aayla.”

I sighed. “It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I just don’t know what to do now.”

She looked like she was thinking really hard for a solution. “Go out on the date, but talk to him first.”

My fingers found their way to my temples and I absentmindedly rubbed at them. “Talk about what?”

“Just be straight. Tell him you’re trying to figure things out and if it doesn’t work out then you don’t want to lose him as a friend. He should understand that.”

I made a scoffing noise. “He’s a guy and he has his sights set on a girl he thinks is hot. He’s not going to settle.”

Lyshaa shrugged. “Maybe he won’t, but he’ll understand if you don’t find him sexually attractive. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t though. He’s definitely nice looking, and he’s smart, and he comes from a good family.”

“You know his family?”

She nodded. “His mom’s my dentist. She’s really sweet.”

I stewed about the situation for a few more minutes while Lyshaa waited for me to say something.

“I don’t know how to dance… I mean I do, but just as a guy.”

A second later she was bouncing in front of me and pulling me up. “I’ll teach you. First we need some club music.”

~O~

If I hear one more Britney Spears song I’m going to shoot someone. Talk about a good reason to go evil. Lyshaa worked with me for three hours. In that time I learned that I possessed a pair of hips and the problem was that I had to empty my mind and just use them. That’s more difficult than it seems.

The last thirty minutes I seemed to get the hang of it. Kinda.

“Stop, stop!” Lyshaa said as she turned the volume down. “What was that?”

“I thought…”

“Stop thinking; just do.” She came over to me. “Okay, pretend I’m your dance partner. Dancing is just another word for sex, standing up, with your clothes on. Okay?”

I nodded and she walked back over to turn the volume back up. “And remember, you’re on the receiving end of that sex. You’re the pumpee not the pumper.”

After licking my lips I nodded again. The volume went up and she returned, placing her hands on my hips. By the end of the song I was so incredibly horny that I couldn’t stand it. Lyshaa was behind me, pressing her hips into my butt and her hands were caressing me in all sorts of places.

“Much better!” She bounced and clapped her hands. “What were you thinking about?”

The stereo was shut off and she turned around.

“Sex.”

“That’s it. You’ve got it. Just think of that all night while Matt’s dancing with… Aayla?”

I didn’t feel so good. My nipples were rock hard and there was something that felt like a knot in my lower abdomen.

“Wow, your eyes are really dilated.”

My lekku tingled and I felt lightheaded. “Bed…”

Lyshaa took my hand and led me over. I dropped down on my butt and reached for my shoes, but I couldn’t concentrate very well.

“I’ll get them.”

Before I knew it, I was lying back, staring at the ceiling.

“Did you get overheated? You’re not sweating. Do Twi’leks sweat?” She worked at my shorts, pulling them down. “Let’s get you into bed. It’s late anyway.”

I nodded and Lyshaa helped me out of my clothes and up into bed.

~O~

The alarm woke me up for the first time since I’d changed into a Twi’lek. Somehow we’d wound up much like the day before, with me on my back and Lyshaa half on top of me, and we were both somewhat lacking clothes of any type.

I killed the alarm and felt my bed partner squirm against me. “Morning,” she mumbled.

I lifted the covers to make sure I wasn’t wearing anything. “Did we…?”

Lyshaa lifted her head up. “What?”

“Did we have sex?”

She brushed her hair out of her face and smiled. “You don’t remember?”

I shook my head.

“No, we didn’t. Though you were a little more affectionate than normal. Got me kind of worked up. I hope Eric is taking his vitamins, because I’m going to drain that boy dry come Saturday.”

After palming my face, I tried to get that visual out of my head.

While we started our morning routine, Lyshaa kept looking at me with a guilty face. Once I was dressed properly, I stopped and faced her.

“What?”

She sighed. “I think it was my pheromones… last night I mean.”

It finally clicked to what she was saying. “That’s why I got lightheaded.”

“I’m getting better, Aayla. Sometimes I just get really… worked up, like when we were dancing.

Since she was into boys, I didn’t really think I turned her on that much. “Maybe you should spend some time on Saturday taking care of a few things, if you get my drift, so you don’t start some massive orgy at the club.”

She cringed. “Okay.”

~O~

By the time the weekend came, I still hadn’t seen Matt, but Lyshaa and Eric were busy telling me how stoked they were for our double date. My roomie had bought me a dress, or at least I think it was a dress. There wasn’t all that much material involved, and it was black. The heeled strappy sandals matched.

I’d been practicing pretty much every free chance I had dancing in them so I wouldn’t look like a complete freak on the dance floor. This is why I was wearing them when Doctor Doomah arrived at nine in the morning.

Lyshaa had a salon day planned for herself. They couldn’t really do anything for me at that establishment so she had to go alone.

Dad was out back mowing the lawn and Mom gave me a wondering eye as I escorted the good doctor downstairs.

It took me the better part of a new notebook to write everything out, but I did. When I handed it to him he got a look on his face.

“I can’t make any promises, you understand.”

I nodded. “Call this an offering. If you decide you want to work together we’ll make it semi-formal. If not, then you still get to keep the notes. It doesn’t have everything in there. I’ve withheld a few key pieces that will make most of what I’m giving you here useless, but it should be enough to show you that I’m very serious about my intentions.”

He frowned a little at that, but nodded, taking the notebook.

Doctor Doomah flipped to the first page and started reading the notes about artificial skin, while I went and stared at the dress I was going to wear that night. It was a leather push up bra dress, with crisscross straps on the back that left it open all the way to the lower curve of my back. The rest of the material barely covered my butt and hung down two inches past, if I was lucky.

Needless to say it exposed a lot of skin. I think Lyshaa was trying to get me laid or something.

“I’ll get you your charger,” the doctor said as he made his way back up the stairs without looking back.

I hurried to follow and see him out.

He was kind of standoffish, but I was encouraged. Seeing him at my home at all let me know that he could be swayed, him taking the notebook let me know that he really wanted what I could give him, and with the mention of the charger I was fairly confident that he wouldn’t flake and back out somewhere along the line.

“Who was that, honey?” asked Mom as she was drying her hands near the kitchen.

“Doctor Doomah, he’s helping me with some ideas that I have.”

She looked at me warily. “What kind of ideas?”

“Something to charge up the stuff I have.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

I nodded. “It’s useless otherwise and I really want to get some of this tech out there. I just gave him some info on artificial limbs to see if he can make it work for people that need them.”

Mom blinked and a smile came over her face. “Aayla, that’s great!”

While I didn’t live for the sole purpose of positive reinforcement, my mom’s words warmed a place in my chest. It made me a little ashamed of the real reason I gave the information to the doctor; bribery. There I was, lying to my mother about my true motivations. Well, it wasn’t a lie; I’d classify it more as obfuscation, which Jedi were masters of, so it was okay.

“I’m going to go work on my meditations, Mom.”

When I walked by, she beamed at me and kissed my cheek. “I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed, sweetie.”

“Thanks.”

~O~

I was relying less and less on the GH for guidance, only bringing it out for things I didn’t understand and for information, like the cybernetics info for the doc. Truthfully, I was already tired of being preached to by a Muppet. There’s only so much repetitive diatribe a person can take on the need to meditate. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it at this point and you’re not even there for the actual process itself. Imagine what it’s like for me.

Darth Talon infected my brain with the dark side. I get that, more than most people would. I know how easy it would be to just reach out and take whatever I want. Nobody would ever know. Anyone with enough knowledge could throw on a Force Cloak, walk into a bank, fill up a really large bag, and walk out without anyone the wiser.

My family’s money problems would be over. Don’t think I don’t know how much my new wardrobe cost my parents. Girl’s clothes are expensive.

I could even do it legally, by selling what I know to the government or to some corporation.

I was telling the truth when I told Courtney Carter that I could be a billionaire, but money doesn’t really get my motor running anymore. I had bigger things to think about, like Junior Prom.

That was a nightmare just waiting to happen. I had visions of Carrie, buckets of pig’s blood, and everyone laughing at me in the dress Lyshaa and I bought. The outcome would probably be much the same: lots of telekinesis thrown around, screaming, Force Lightning, people choking to death, you know, the usual nightmare scenario.

Date night was going to be a decent measure of the big event. I think that’s one of the reasons I chose to accept Matt’s offer.

Guh. That’s another issue.

Judging by the nagging tightness in my lower abdomen, I was expecting this Twi’lek heat thing sooner rather than later. I think being surrounded by Lyshaa’s constant pheromone assault was bringing the issue to a head, kick starting the whole mating thing before I was anywhere ready for the implications that it brought.

The ringing of my cell phone brought me out of my inner musings. Picking it up, I looked at the caller ID.

Speak of the devil.

“Hello, Matt.”

“Hey Aayla. Busy?”

I took a seat on the bed. “Just looking at the dress Lyshaa wants me to wear tonight.”

His smile was apparent even over the phone. “So we’re still on?”

I didn’t answer, and instead, I swiveled the subject a little. “Can you come over?”

“Uh… right now?”

“Yeah,” I said, somewhat subdued.

“You okay?”

That was an easy answer. “Not really, no.”

“Give me twenty minutes. I need to take a shower.”

“See ya,” I said.

I changed my clothes. Don’t judge; it gave me something to do. I didn’t pretty myself up. Instead, I just switched to workout shorts and a sports bra. There was an aching need to work out starting to seep its way into my bones.

The rest of the time waiting was spent pacing, trying to work out my problems. I didn’t really come to any solutions, other than the obvious ones. Reaching under the bed, I pulled out the GH to ask Yoda if there was any way to postpone the inevitable. That was when I heard the doorbell ring.

I dropped the GH and it rolled back underneath the bed.

My hands started shaking as I looked over toward the stairs. Instead of just kneeling there by the bed, I scrambled up and took a seat on one of the camp chairs. As the door opened, I crossed my legs and realized what I was wearing. There was so much skin showing that I might as well have been naked.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Matt was at the bottom of the stairs before I knew it. “Hey.”

His eyes flicked to my legs and my breasts, but I could see he was at least putting forth effort to look me in the eyes.

“Hey.”

Looking to the bed and then to the other chair, Matt wisely chose the chair to make himself comfortable on.

“If this is about the date tonight, we can cancel. I mean if it’s bothering you,” he said.

I shook my head. “No, but thanks for offering.” My eyes couldn’t meet his. “This is about something else.”

“What’s up?” He leaned forward, his hands on his knees. “Whatever I can do to help.”

A quick, abrupt laugh shot out of my mouth. “Straight to it then.”

Not being able to look at him was starting to grate on my nerves, so I stood and walked over to mess with some of my books that I set up on a shelf along the wall.

“I need to ask a big favor…”

Matt interrupted me. “Sure, what do you need?”

Turning to my side I held up a hand. “Just listen first before you commit, okay?”

He nodded and I turned back to the books. “I found out some information about Twi’leks that… um…. Their biology is different from humans.”

The sound of a low chuckle made me look at him. “I kind of figured. I mean… alien, you know?”

I nodded. “Anyway. This one’s a little more radical than lekku, Matt.”

His eyebrows, neatly plucked by the way, bunched. “You need a blood transfusion or something?”

With a dramatic sigh, I glared at him. “I need sex.”

I’m so glad that he wasn’t drinking anything. “Whu?”

“Twi’leks go into heat every fourth month, for almost an entire month. If I don’t pick someone to have sex with, then I’ll pretty much hump whoever is closest when it happens.” My eyes found every single thing in the basement fascinating as long as it wasn’t Matt. “I’d prefer it if it was someone that I knew and not someone I bumped into at Gamestop or something.”

“Okay.”

That response was a little quicker than I imagined it would be which brought my attention around to him sitting there with his knee bouncing like he’d had too many energy drinks.

I frowned. “I’m talking an entire month of sex here, Matt. Every single day at least.”

“I said okay.”

What I couldn’t understand was why he agreed so readily agreed. It was a big task. I could probably talk Eric into helping out, with Lyshaa’s permission that is. Hell, she’d probably want to join in.

“You don’t even know what’s involved,” I said.

Matt smirked. “I’m thinking there’s going to be sex involved somewhere along the line.”

Oh, that’s why.

I was obviously thinking way too hard about the subject. Teenage boy equals massive sex drive. That was reason enough for him to say yes. What took me off guard was that he stood and started taking off his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

Matt stopped with his head half in-half out of his shirt. “Uh… you said…”

“Not now!” I nearly screamed. “When it starts! And you need condoms, lots of condoms. I don’t even know if human birth control will work on me, and I’m damn sure not going to be pregnant any time soon.”

His body seemed to deflate at the mention of no immediate sex. “Oh.”

My eyes were drawn lower to the tenting he was doing to his shorts. “Jesus Christ,” I whispered as I faced away.

“Sorry.”

It was times like these that I missed my hair. My hands itched to do something along the lines of pulling it out.

“Um…” he started. “Don’t you think… I mean…”

Testing the road, I looked back at him and at least his shirt was back on. “What?”

He cleared his throat. “Maybe we should see if we’re… you know… compatible.”

“I’m not stripping, Matt. Everything down there is female enough to get the job done.”

His eyes widened. “No, I don’t mean that. I figured everything… nevermind. Um, I meant maybe we should test the way first. We might not even like each other that way, or maybe it’ll be too weird and you’ll need to find someone else.”

My shoulders dropped. “Are you saying you want to make out?”

Matt shrugged.

The first words out of my mouth were derailed by my brain. Remember what I said about a good rationalization being needed to do unpleasant things? I stood a really good chance of being on all fours in the near future with Matt holding onto my lekku like he was riding a horse. Sluttish behavior was going to be had whether I liked it or not.

“Fuck.”

“Look,” he said. “If you want to wait, I guess…”

I shut him up by crossing the floor and grabbing his head, pulling it down the couple of inches needed to make his lips contact mine. All I heard was a muffled note of surprise and then his hands were on me, deepening the kiss I’d started.

It was a lot different than kissing Blue, let me tell you. For one, my lips were a lot bigger and his were pretty big, so there was a lot more surface space for contact. Then there was his hand on my butt, lifting me up, supporting me, and pressing me into his hips to feel what waited for me when I was ready.

Thankfully he left my breasts alone for the time being, but that didn’t stop his free hand from caressing the length of my tchin, my right lekku. Shivers rolled down my skin at the feeling that induced and I knew I was thoroughly screwed if I thought I wouldn’t enjoy having sex with my best friend.

At that, I pushed away roughly and put a lot of distance between us.

Matt was nearly flung across the room, and probably would have been if not for the bed which he landed on.

My breathing had changed, deepening.

Dammit. It was happening. The heat was building, but not quite there yet. My strength had increased. I wouldn’t have been able to toss him like that without assistance from the Force, which was one of the warning signs that my mating time was imminent.

“Whoa,” gasped Matt.

“Matt, you need to leave,” I breathed.

“What? But we just started, and you taste like cinnamon. I love cinnamon.”

I shook my head. “You need condoms, and I have to get ready for our date, and Lyshaa will be home any minute.”

I was reaching for anything to get him out before he pushed me any further down the road of somewhere I really didn’t want to go.

Backing away, I put the cool surface of the cinderblock wall against my back as I watched Matt get up off the bed. He moved closer to me and I grit my teeth.

“Matt… please. Not right now.”

He lightly shook his head. “I just want to give you this.”

Holding out his closed hand he said. “I’m a monogamous type person.”

With that, he turned his hand around and opened it. His class ring was sitting in the palm being offered up to me. I knew exactly what that meant. He was asking me to be his girlfriend.

I couldn’t fault him for his values, and I’d expect the same thing if I was in his shoes, so I took it without saying anything else.

Matt ducked his head down and brushed his lips across mine in a parting farewell before he turned and made his way out.

“Frotz.” Twi’leks can cuss in their own language too. God knows I’d probably be cussing a lot more in the near future.

~O~

“What’s wrong?” Lyshaa said when she stepped off the stairs and saw me staring at a blank wall in thought.

She came over and kneeled beside me. I opened my hand and she saw the ring then sucked in a mouthful of air.

“Is that Matt’s?”

I nodded, dumbly.

“Oh my God, Aayla,” she nearly squealed. “I’m so happy for you.”

In a second she was up again hugging my neck. “This is perfect! We’ve both got steady boyfriends.”

Then she started her bouncing. I swear the girl must be part rabbit or something.

“Stop it,” I said.

Her abrupt halt did weird things to her breasts which didn’t help my situation at all. Lyshaa looked at me and her whole body dipped forward like a marionette with its strings cut.

“You’re not going to be all emo are you? This is great news, Aayla.” Before I could stop her she grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. “Come here.”

A quick shuffle later and we were standing in front of the mirror to my dresser.

“Now look at that.”

I glanced at us. It was our reflection. “So?”

“There are two seriously hot girls in that mirror, and they both deserve the best that life can give them. That means money, a mission, and a couple of really cute boys to share it with.”

I glanced at her in through the reflection and it was annoying how upbeat she was.

“I’ve got Eric and now you’ve got Matt. Both of them are very cute. Thanks to you, I’m loaded, so we’ve got money. And you’ve got your Jedi training, so you’ve got a mission.”

Trying to find a flaw in her plan, I pointed out that she didn’t have a mission.

“I’m your assistant, of course. Your mission is my mission. I’ll be like your squire or something. You need someone to make sure you’re in the latest fashions, someone to give you a rubdown after a particularly hard day, and someone to make sure you’re properly equipped for any situation.”

The rubdown seemed like a pretty good idea, the rest was questionable.

“You’re not my squire, Lyshaa. I keep telling you that you don’t owe me anything.”

She just smiled at me like I was retarded. “Aayla, you saved my life.”

I watched as her arms encircled me from the back and felt her face lay between my shoulder blades. “I would have tried anything there at the end, even jumping off the roof of my house, trying to get that metagene to jumpstart. So, you’re stuck with me. You saved my life, so you’re responsible for it.”

That had to be the biggest load of crap I’d ever heard. “I’m not responsible for you.”

She pulled away and started bouncing again. “Are too, are too, are too, are too!”

With a scowl directed in her direction I tried to bring to mind the most evil thing that I could in order to get Lyshaa to stop being annoying.

“Is that a pimple?”

She jerked to a stop and gasped, quickly looking in the mirror. “Where? Oh my God, not today!”

Yes, it’s true; the dark side of the Force is with me.

TBC...

You know you want to comment. Lyshaa will really get a pimple before her first date if you don't. :)

Author's Note: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.

Okay, this one is a cliffhanger. Be forewarned. Since it's the last one before the big finish, I think it's somewhat justified.

Chapter Seven

Dinner was, in a word, uncomfortable. It wasn’t anywhere fancy, just Friday’s. What made it bearable was the presence of Matt and Eric. They stared down anyone who looked like they were going to say one negative word to us. We couldn’t really stop people from staring and truthfully, I thought Matt was pushing his chest out a little more than he normally does, simply because he was walking beside me.

Lyshaa annoyed me beyond belief until I put Matt’s ring on a necklace and wore it like I’d been claimed. That and some type of fancy jacket I was supposed to wear to dinner so I didn’t look like a complete ho. The dresses we wore for dancing weren’t really meant for casual dining.

The nightclub we went to afterward was a local teen hangout. The only drinks they served were overpriced sodas and energy drinks. The music was turned up to ear-bleeding levels which meant that my ear cones were throbbing for most of the night. The Twi’leks in the movies wore these cone protector things that were a part of their headbands. I seriously had to look into a pair of those if I ever went out clubbing again.

For the most part, the teens that were at the club had already seen the freaky alien show from Lyshaa and me, so there were only a few that gawked when I was dragged out to the dance floor.

It took me most of the first song to remember what Lyshaa taught me and after that, I think I actually had a modicum of fun. There was one thing I was definitely sure of; Matt did.

He spent most of his time watching me move and I was positive the boy knew how to dance. I’ve triple dated with him and Eric since we got in high school. Matt’s got moves.

What he looked like on the floor that night was a white guy doing the overbite thing.

Since Eric drove, I was in the back seat with Matt on the way home.

The one thing I liked about Twi’leks is that it took a lot to make them sweat. I was still fresh as a daisy by the end of the night, and I was seriously horny.

It was all Lyshaa’s fault. We had to ride with the windows down so her pheromones wouldn’t flood the car and put Eric into a coma, but there was more than enough to light everyone’s fire.

Matt took advantage of the situation and well, I allowed him.

Why was I not surprised when we just so happened to pass by the library park over on West Little York, where high school teens went to make out? Frankly, Matt and I were a little too busy to notice the car had stopped. When I heard Lyshaa moan, I pulled away from Matt’s overly eager hands pawing at my breasts.

Pheromones were saturating the still air inside the car. It was so thick I could barely think straight, so I bailed.

Outside of the car, I tugged my dress down and adjusted my breasts back in their respective cups as I took in several breaths of clean air to clear my head.

Matt crawled out the side I spilled out of and shook his head.

“Aayla, come back inside, baby.”

I chuckled in a not on your life kind of way. “I’m not fucking you in the back of Eric’s mom’s car.”

He blinked hard and shook his head again. “What the hell? It feels like I’m taking X or something.”

Leaning against the trunk of the car I nodded. “It’s Lyshaa. She gives off serious sex pheromones; Zeltrons, remember?”

He adjusted himself with a pained look. “It feels like solid steel. I got major blue balls.”

I knew the feeling. “Sorry, man. I’m not taking care of that for you, not here anyway.”

Yeah, you heard right. I was through fighting the inevitable. I was wearing Matt’s ring for God’s sake. We were going to have sex. It was only a matter of when. I’d like for it to be strictly for biological necessity, but I knew better. Twi’leks were sexual creatures by nature. That didn’t mean we were as bad as Zeltrons, but it wasn’t too far off.

“Does that mean if I rent a room tonight…?”

My body was saying yes, but my head still wasn’t that far into the game. “Let’s take it one step at a time, Matt.”

How often did I hear that phrase coming from Blue’s lips? I thoroughly understood it, though. I felt like crap leaving him hanging like that, but there was no way I was blowing my best friend there in the parking lot of a library, much less anywhere else.

The strained look on his face let me know he was really aching down there.

“Can you at least give me a hand?”

He meant that literally, by the way.

“Frotz,” I whispered.

Looking around, I saw that we were pretty secluded, on the side of the building itself, meaning the other cars that were there were mostly blocked from view. Maybe if I just got it over with quickly I wouldn’t feel so bad.

“Take it out.”

Lyshaa’s moans were becoming louder. We didn’t have too much time to work with here.

Matt nearly ripped opened the tops of his slacks before I changed my mind.

Jesus! I’d never really seen him in that specific stage of… um… screw it. Matt had a raging hardon, okay? Before I lost my nerve, we took up where we left off in the back of the car, except I had something else to direct my attention to while we kissed.

The car was moving and it wasn’t because of Matt and me. Apparently Lyshaa was giving it up on the first date, the slut.

I got down to business and even used the Force to tweak certain areas to speed the process. Before long, I had to jump aside so Matt wouldn’t ruin my dress as he groaned into my mouth. When we broke apart, Matt was whispering to me.

“Thank you… oh man, thank you.”

I cleared my throat and released my grip on him. “No problem.”

The sound of a police siren being flicked on and off followed by flashing red and blue lights got our attention.

Asshole cops always did this, rousting the parkers so they wouldn’t spend the entire night venting their hormones.

“Aayla!” Lyshaa called out.

I double checked my dress to make sure Matt didn’t get anything on me then made my way around the side of the car. Lyshaa had a worried look on her face and Eric had the silliest grin plastered on his lips while his head was hanging loosely, flopping to the side.

“I think I overdid it,” she said.

The smell coming from inside the Avalon was overwhelming. “Turn the air conditioner on full. Matt, give me a hand, please.”

Lyshaa started the car and hit the AC while Matt and I dragged Eric to the back seat, pretty much couples switching places. Then Matt drove us home.

~O~

Eric was grounded and had to have the car detailed to get the pheromone smell out. Lyshaa was sulking because she couldn’t see her boyfriend. Matt was on cloud nine and kept randomly sending me text messages all day Sunday, and I was popping Midol in hopes of quelling the growing knot in my lower abdomen.

It wouldn’t be too much longer.

I used almost all of Sunday in meditation for two reasons: one, I was getting overly emotional again and letting that rule my decision making skills. Once I had slept and was out of Matt’s company, I kicked myself for falling prey to my new hormones. He is a guy! I had better sense than that. Sure, I eventually needed to have sex with him to quell a biological need my body had, but that didn’t mean I had to act like some horny chick in the backseat of a car, did it?

Two: I needed to postpone that particular biological need. If I could control my body enough to ignore Lyshaa’s pheromones then I should be strong enough to make the sex thing a non-issue. Jedi’s and Sith both, had the power to do these things. Sith just didn’t care. They could rape and plunder to their heart’s content because they fed off the fear of others. If I was Darth Talon in truth, I’d just take Matt, use him to sate my desires, and then lock him up in a cage until I needed him again. I wouldn’t need to expend valuable energy countering the effects of being a Twi’lek.

By the time the sun dropped in the west, I came out of my meditative trance and felt at ease. The knot in my abdomen was gone and I felt calmer than I had since the whole mess started with the Sith holocron.

“You’ve got about fifty texts from Matt,” Lyshaa said from the bed, where she was paging through her chemistry text for school.

I glanced at the phone and frowned.

“You can’t avoid him forever, and don’t tell me you didn’t like what you two were doing in the back seat.”

With all the reinforced calm I had built up, Lyshaa’s remark didn’t bother me. “My libido can be controlled. It’s just a matter of concentration; something you could use more of as well.”

She made a hurt noise with her throat. “We were about to have sex! I was supposed to be that way.”

It took me by surprise that they hadn’t had sex, what with all the moaning and stuff I heard coming from the front seat.

“Yeah, and drowning your boyfriend in pheromones to the point where he’s comatose helps you how?

Lyshaa’s bottom lip pouted out. “He was still ready… I could have, you know, but it was no fun with him just lying there.”

“You’re not human anymore, Lyshaa. You have to remember that.”

Her expression at that reminder was like I kicked a puppy.

“Don’t get all mopey,” I said. “You wanted this.”

“I wanted to be a Twi’lek like you.”

I grabbed a towel from the stack by the stairs. “You have hair. Consider yourself lucky. And your problem can be solved with a little bit of control. You actually have to want to do it. Look at me.” Pausing at the foot of the stairs, I opened my arms. “With meditation, I have no desire to run out and jump Matt. I pushed it down and I’ll keep pushing it down until I’m ready.”

“I’m not a Jedi,” she said in her defense.

“Neither am I. I’m Sith, Lyshaa, or at least I was trained to be one. The thing is, I have a choice and I’m choosing not to let some psycho from another galaxy dictate who I am. I’m not letting my body do that either.”

With that said I went up and took a nice long shower. When I got out, and dried off, I realized I’d left my clothes downstairs. Wrapping the fluffy towel around me, I opened the door and caught sight of Kenny poking his head out of his room to see who was in the hall. He caught one sight of me and ducked back inside.

“You’ve finally come out of your hole, I see,” Mom said at the head of the hall. “Where are your clothes?”

“I forgot to bring them up.”

She nodded as I started making my way downstairs to grab them. Before I reached the door she took my arm.

“I thought you should know that your father isn’t going to bring a suit against You-Know-Who.”

I blinked for a moment. “Voldemort?”

She looked at me like I was crazy. “The fuzzy-faced man.”

That surprised me. “What? Why?”

After looking back toward the living room she turned to me. “He doesn’t want any more attention brought on you because of it. He thinks you’ve suffered enough with the change and everything; a law suit that big would guarantee television cameras in the front yard day and night.”

Dad had a point. “But what about what’s due to him? I can deal with the cameras, Mom.”

She shook her head and looked down. “He says it’s not worth it. Your father loves you, Aayla. He loves you so much that he’s dropping his obsession with that man.”

My teeth pressed against each other for a moment in mild frustration. “It’s not right, and we can’t afford this. I know you went into debt to buy my clothes.”

“That’s nothing new, honey. It’s why we have credit cards.”

This time, it was me staring toward the living room, wondering if my dad was out there trying to figure out a way to make some extra money.

“I can make them pay,” I said. Mom looked at me like I just said something nefarious. “I don’t mean it like that. I mean I could visit the fuzzy-faced man’s lawyers and make them give us a deal under the table or take their chance in court. That’s what everyone does anyway.”

“Oh.” She looked like she was considering it. “It still sounds wrong honey. I raised you better than that.”

Even though she was right, I knew I could get them to pay. Jedi made people do the right thing all the time. It wasn’t evil. “Can I go get dressed now?”

Mom gave me a slight smile. “Go on.”

Lyshaa was already in bed by the time I made it down. It was a little early for sleeping, but I’d had a long weekend already. Fishing through my dresser I only found some of the silkier things Mom bought me to sleep in. I really needed to do some laundry. The thought of wearing something like that to bed was not attractive, but considering my other option was to wear nothing at all led me to don the least revealing thing in the drawer.

It didn’t quite make it past my butt. While I thought it would be great on someone like Lyshaa, I wasn’t so sure about its appearance on my body. There was a matching pair of panties that went with it that made me feel a tad less naked and sex-kittenish.

With that done, I crawled into bed and turned out the light. Before I knew it, Lyshaa snuggled up against me and sighed.

“Will you teach me?” she said.

“I’ll get Yoda to do it. He’s more patient than I am.”

Reaching back, she grabbed my hand and placed it in what was becoming its traditional position for sleeping.

~O~

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday went off without a hitch. I’d wake up, go to school, and meet up with Matt and Eric briefly so Lyshaa could try her best to suck off his face. Matt and I would talk about mundane things while this was going on. Bless the boy; he was trying his best to rein in his hormones. It gave me respect for him that I didn’t know he possessed.

Then we’d go home, and do our schoolwork. Lyshaa and I meditated afterward. Life was almost good for a short while.

When we got home Thursday the local FedEx guy was standing at the door, ringing the bell. One look at me and he stopped, taking a step back in the process.

“Who’s the package for?” I asked.

He looked down for a moment. “Aayla Walker.”

I smiled at him. “That’s me.”

After I signed for it and he made a dash to his truck, I checked out the return address. It was a PO Box, which didn’t tell me squat.

“What’s that?” said Lyshaa.

I shrugged and dug one of my talons into the tape. No, I haven’t made a trip to the hardware store yet. What can I say? I’ve grown used to having ten little hardened knives at my fingertips. They weren’t quite that sharp, but they got the job done.

Inside was a letter and something rolled up in bubble wrap. My inner geek wanted to just pop all the bubbles, one at a time, but I held myself back until I could solve my little mystery.

With a little Eeep! escaping my lips I realized it was from Doctor Doomah.

“Boo-yah!” I yelled.

Three seconds later the bubble wrap was on the floor and I was looking at something akin to an AC cord attached to a black box with multiple prongs sticking out of the top

Lyshaa picked up the plug from the floor and looked at it. “Two-twenty.”

“The washer,” I said to myself.

Downstairs we went and I moved the washer and dryer apart with the Force. After I unplugged the washer from the two-twenty outlet, I plugged in the charger. A little green light lit up indicating that it was ready. I called the lightsaber to me and set it in the provided slot. The green light switched to orange which I knew meant that it was charging.

I had no idea how long it was going to take to recharge the battery, but frankly I didn’t give a crap. I was going to have a real lightsaber when it was finished.

The geek inside me cheered and I had the sudden desire to hop around like Lyshaa. Don’t worry, I restrained myself.

“What about the rest of the stuff?”

I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face when I turned to her. “This is going to draw more power than the rest. I want to make sure it’s charged first.”

She looked at me curiously. “Anticipating an upcoming lightsaber battle soon?”

I shrugged and went to sit down and take my boots off. “You never know.”

Digging my thumb under the arch of my foot, I rubbed away.

“Do you want me to massage them?”

My eyes ticked up to see Lyshaa watching. “Uh, no… thanks.”

I was seriously thinking my roomie was codependent. She tried so hard to please me and almost always went out of her way trying to be my little woman or something. All she asked was for me to accept it. The problem was that I still couldn’t erase the image I had of her as an emo boy that was so hell-bent on becoming a Twi’lek that he branded himself. Sorry, but that’s somewhat difficult to forget. Otherwise I probably would take her and do all the things to her that I wanted to do to Blue.

Lyshaa was seriously cute and almost annoyingly perky. She would have made the perfect cheerleader.

It almost made me annoyed that she was a boy at all. Frankly I couldn’t see how Matt could see me as I currently am as opposed to Josh. Maybe I was the problem. Maybe I was pushing my own issues off on Lyshaa so I wouldn’t take advantage of her submissive nature.

My attention was drawn to her as she changed out of her school clothes into a pair of shorts and a halter top, neon blue and green respectively.

She was so lucky that I wasn’t a real Sith, and the bad part is that she never realized it.

Darth Talon would have had Lyshaa on her knees every chance she got, doing all sorts of things to satisfy her dark desires.

I shivered at the thought. Part of me found it nauseating and another part was imagining her down there taking care of business, if you know what I mean. That particular part was exhilarated at the thought of making an innocent girl like Lyshaa serve me in that way, totally worshipping every inch of my body. I deserved it after everything that I’d been through and everything that I’d done for her.

A tight knot clenched in my abdomen and I had to grit my teeth to push it away.

“Dammit.”

Lyshaa turned to me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “I need to meditate.”

She saw my hand pressing right underneath my navel. “Why don’t I just call Matt and have him come over. I’ll take your mom shopping when she gets home.”

Shaking my head, I slipped off my jeans and sat down on the mat I used for this specific purpose. “No, I can beat this.”

Lyshaa sighed. “You’re going to push it away and push it away until it builds up and…”

“Be quite, sit down, and let me meditate!” I snapped.

She jumped and immediately ducked her head, making her way around the bed to sit down and watch me.

I breathed in and closed my eyes.

~O~

When I opened my eyes again I could smell a hint of Lyshaa’s pheromones in the air. Looking over at her, I noticed she was in the exact same position she was in when I started my meditation. A glance at the clock and I saw that it was three hours later. Lyshaa was quivering with a strained look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

She quickly licked her lips. “May I go to the bathroom?”

“Uh… you don’t need my permission to go.”

Her bottom lip curled between her teeth. “You told me to sit and be quiet.”

“Lyshaa, go to the bathroom.”

She got up with her thighs pressed so hard together that I was wondering how she was going to make it up the stairs, but make it she did.

I closed my eyes and rubbed at them over her behavior. “God, I don’t need this.”

More strange behavior from my roomie; one minute she’s a normal girl and the next she’s taking what I say as gospel.

Fifteen minutes later she came back, her cheeks pinker than normal, holding a wet pair of panties. I didn’t have the heart to ask if she wet herself, but I knew she had.

We had a line hung on the laundry side of the basement for hand-washed items, where she draped her panties on to dry and took down my underwear that I didn’t remember washing.

I watched as she folded everything properly and then returned to store it away in my dresser.

“You did my laundry?” I said with a tone of disbelief in my voice.

Lyshaa gave me a weak smile. “I was doing mine and I thought I’d save you the trouble of doing yours, so I did them together.”

There was a part of me that was grateful and another part of me that was creeped out. With everything else in my life going sideways, I really didn’t want to have a down to earth conversation with her about why she was acting this way. Frankly, I had enough problems of my own. If she wanted to wash my panties and bras, then I’d let her.

“May I put on a new pair of panties?” she meekly asked.

“Oh, for crying out loud!” My peace of mind just wasn’t meant to be. “Why are you acting this way?”

Her knees went weak and I saw that she was having trouble deciding if she should stand where she was and shake or kneel in front of me. Don’t ask me how I knew that; it was all in her eyes and body language.

Tears dropped from her eyes and trailed down her face. “I don’t know. When you say things a certain way… I just… I have to do them.”

I tried blinking away my astonishment, but you try making sense of that statement.

“Are you telling me you can’t do anything unless I tell you to do it?”

She shrugged. “Sort of.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true,” she pleaded.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “So, if I told you to wear bland clothes and cut off all your hair, you’d do it?”

Her face lost a lot of its color and more tears fell, but she nodded.

“Why?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

I closed my eyes and rubbed at my temples. “Come here.”

After I sat on the bed, I pointed down on the floor in front of me and Lyshaa kneeled between my open legs.

“Closer,” I said.

She shimmied up until her front was pressed against me. My hands moved to cradle her face as I wiped away her tears. Then I looked deep into her eyes, concentrating.

“Lyshaa, you are your own person. You make your own decisions. If you want to go to the bathroom, then go. You don’t have to ask for permission to do anything that any other person would take for granted. You don’t have to do anything for me unless you want to, okay?”

“Okay,” she said meekly.

“The only thing I want you to do is keep my secrets, other than that, you make your own decisions, alright?”

“Alright… anything I want?”

I nodded with a soft smile.

Before I knew it, she sat up straight and kissed me right on the lips. It wasn’t full-blown like Matt and I did on Saturday, because I was taken by surprise, but it was the best she could do.

When she pulled back, it was with a bright smile again.

“Well,” I said with a dry tone. “I guess I asked for that, didn’t I?”

“You said anything, and I’ve wanted to do that for a while.”

I sighed. “Well, let’s try to keep those types of things to a minimum.”

~O~

There was a little bit of a change in her actions after that incident. Lyshaa wasn’t quite as submissive as before, but I could still see that she wanted my approval for things, even if she didn’t say so. One of the first things she did was to tell me she was going to get her nails done. She didn’t ask; she just told me and left.

Good… I think. One more problem hopefully solved.

The next morning, the first thing I did when I got out of bed was to check if the lightsaber had finished charging. The indicator light was still orange. I sighed. Patience wasn’t one of my virtues, but it was one of the highest tenets of the Jedi. It showed me how far I had to go in order to achieve that lofty position.

School, boredom, Eric and Matt, Lyshaa sucking Eric’s face, home again home again jiggity-jig.

My life had become routine once more.

It only took a short time for people to stop staring everywhere I went. Sure, I still got poked from time to time for inside information on Star Wars trivia, but for the most part, most of my peers were leaving me alone. Blue still turns around and finds alternate routes whenever she sees me. That’s always a plus.

Friday was an in service day, hence the Junior Prom being scheduled on that particular evening. Lyshaa was bouncing around in nervous anticipation, checking and double checking her dress and shoes, then after the fifth time, she’d check my dress and shoes.

Anticipating a long day, I settled in and tried to move on to the next meditation lesson.

That’s when I heard a beep over by the washer and dryer.

Lyshaa looked up from her minute examination of the hem of her dress and stared at me.

I turned my head and looked at the silver and black colored cylinder and the green light below that. It was done.

“Are you going to…”

I nodded. “Not here though.”

She bunched her eyebrows up. “Why not?”

“That particular weapon is basically a plasma generator contained in a force field, all well over a hundred years old. I’d rather not be in my parent’s house when I ignite it.”

“Oh.”

I wasn’t worried, just cautious. With the Yoda-Gatekeeper hologram, I’d gone over the lightsaber millimeter by millimeter. Everything seemed to be in fine working order, but I just didn’t want to take the chance.

“Want to go for a ride?”

Lyshaa’s face lit up. “Where to?”

~O~

After connecting the charger up to some of the other stuff left behind by my ancestor, the saber got put in my backpack and we lit off to a nearby bayou that I knew had some seriously large storm drains.

It would be underground and contained if anything went wrong, plus it had the added advantage of being dark, so the blade would look that much cooler when lit. I do have priorities, you know.

“Are there snakes around here?” Lyshaa asked nervously as she was following me into the tall grass.

“Uh, yeah. Water moccasins are the most common in places like this. Sometimes you’ll see a copperhead or even a rattlesnake.”

I smiled when she froze in place. “Don’t worry. As long as you don’t step directly on them, they’ll scurry away. It’s not like in the movies where they hunt you down. Just watch where you step.”

There was virtually no water in the bayou and very little trickling out of the storm drain, which was probably runoff from someone over-watering their lawn. I could almost stand up all the way inside the drain, that’s how big it was. I only crouched so I wouldn’t accidently scrape my lekku on the rough cement.

“You think it’ll blow up?” Lyshaa asked nervously.

“If you want to wait by the entrance I won’t take offence.”

She shook her head, still scanning the ground for creatures that might slither or creep. Personally, I wasn’t worried. Through the Force, I could feel what was living in the area and the closest snake was about fifty yards down the bayou. The only thing that was in abundance in our general vicinity was spiders.

“I’m good,” she said.

Unzipping the backpack, I withdrew the lightsaber and pointed it away and down the drain. Checking the settings I saw that it was at full length and maximum power output, which was basically what you saw in the movies. Pretty much any lightsaber had adjustable length. I could shorten the blade down to needle fine size if I wanted to, but that is just too anticlimactic for my taste.

“Here we go.”

I took an even breath and reached out with my limited farseeing abilities. When I didn’t see it exploding in my hand and burning my face off, I pressed the stud.

A low hiss sounded and green plasma ignited, extending the blade out a good three feet.

Even knowing I could control the Force to some extent, and the transformation into a Twi’lek, nothing cemented my belief in what was real and unreal more than holding that weapon in my hand.

I waved it and was a little disappointed that it didn’t make the cool woom-woom sounds that they did in the movies. But seriously… who cares. I have a functioning lightsaber. Screw the guys at MIT that said it was a physical impossibility.

“I think I just came,” said Lyshaa, breathlessly.

Depressing the stud once more, I deactivated the blade and handed it to her. She gave me a little look of awe.

“Really?”

I nodded. “Just don’t cut your leg off.”

She took it and looked the controls over. “Which button?”

“That one. Hold on and let me get out of your way.”

The look on her face was more than enough to know that I’d made her millennium.

Lyshaa waved it around a little, much like I did and then her voice dropped as low as she could make it while she did a really bad Darth Vader impersonation.

“The Force is strong with you, young Skywalker. Join me and together we will crush the Emperor then rule the galaxy together, side by side, as father and son.”

I snorted.

“Can I hit something with it?”

I shook my head. “Not here. We’ll test it out on things later. I just wanted to make sure it worked right.”

The plasma collapsed in on itself until the lightsaber was just a simple metal tube once more. Lyshaa looked at it wistfully and then handed it back to me.

~O~

When we got back to the house, most of the other stuff was charged. Taking a look at the other lightsaber, I frowned. It was made out of a different material, Yorik coral. I recognized it from my dreams. It was Darth Talon’s person weapon. Cade must have taken it as a trophy or something. Even though it fit in my hand like it was personally made for me, it had three red focusing crystals inside, the mark of a Sith blade.

The practical side of me won over and I undid the housing to remove the power cell, snapping it onto the battery charger.

Having a second weapon would be wise, even if it was Sith in origin. There was no telling when something would break on my main one and with no way to readily replace the parts, I would be defenseless.

It wasn’t that I was being attacked on a daily basis or anything, but still. I felt much more secure just having something there, just in case.

Lyshaa squeaked behind me. “We’ve only got four hours to get ready! Oh my God… where’s my lingerie!”

I stood there for what had to be two full minutes watching Lyshaa panic as she went through her drawers and then back through them again until she found some really risqué stuff. Then she dashed upstairs.

“I call the bath first!”

Obviously, it wasn’t the estrogen that made her crazy. I had that in abundant amounts in my bloodstream and I was perfectly sane. After thinking about the total amount of time it would take me to get ready, I came up with twenty three minutes. Don’t worry; I’ll break it down for you.

Thirty seconds to disrobe, ten minutes for a shower, two minutes to dry off, two minutes to brush my teeth, four minutes to dress, another two minutes for the annoying heels, and one minute to switch items from my backpack to a clutch purse, one minute to walk back and forth to the bathroom, and one minute to check over everything.

Okay, it was twenty-three minutes and thirty seconds; call it twenty four. I really didn’t see what the big deal was all about.

To waste time, I cleaned up the area a little, packing away the items I charged, straightening the bed, and setting out my dress, heels, and underwear.

“Looking forward to the big night?”

I glanced up at my mom standing at the foot of the stairs and shrugged.

“It’s just another dance, Mom; it’s no big deal.”

That earned me a raised eyebrow. “Is everything okay, honey?”

I nodded. “I just have a lot on my mind.”

Her movements told me that it was time again to have a mother-son… mother-daughter chat. She sat on the edge of the bed while I was cross-legged on the floor with my back up against the end.

“Anything I can help with?”

It was obvious that she didn’t really like the silence that followed.

“Is it about tonight?” she asked. “Is Matt pressuring you to do something you don’t want?”

That brought a mild snort from me. “No, Mom. Matt’s fine. I just wish things were easier.”

I leaned into her palm when she set her hand on my head and softly cradled me. “And I wish I could tell you it’s going to get easier as you grow older, but the truth is, it only gets harder. You just learn to deal with things differently. Everything isn’t so universe altering.”

Snaking a hand around her calf, I set my chin right behind her knee and tried to relax. “I love you, Mom.”

~O~

The boys arrived in separate cars this time. We spent far too much time having corsages pinned, pictures taken, and fawns being overed. Dad was even acting a bit possessive.

He pulled Matt into the kitchen when he arrived and had a chat with him. I suspected Mom might have been involved with that one. When Matt came back out, he was looking a little sheepish and wouldn’t tell me what they talked about. I just glared at my dad before he came in and gave me a hug.

“You have a good time tonight, Aayla,” he said. “I know you’ll be responsible, so I’m not going to tell you to be responsible.”

It’s funny how parents do that; laying on of the guilt trip, I mean.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too, Dad.”

~O~

Interlude Two:

“Observation: The presence of Darth Talon is curious.”

HK-47 stayed to the shadows of the dwelling across the street from its final mission for its former master.

The presence of a Sith Lady didn’t make a difference to the Assassin Droid. The mission must be carried out.

Switching to infrared scanners, it could tell there were only three humans inside the dwelling. Its former master’s holocron beacon was underground. That meant the life forms currently occupying space between the droid and the holocron must be interrogated for its prey’s location and then disposed of.

“Statement: The evening is looking up.”

As the droid stood to make its way across the street, unseen in the night, a two-wheeled conveyance stopped in front of the house, pausing until two four-wheeled conveyances stopped and several humans alit and made their way to the entrance of the dwelling. The rider of the first conveyance seemed to be the commander even though she appeared much younger and scantily dressed in a form-fitting red white and blue uniform.

“Query: Will these meat bags ever let me perform my duty uninterrupted?”

End Interlude

~O~

Lyshaa and Eric had already gone ahead, while I was alone with Matt in the front of his father’s new Mustang. Since I wasn’t choking on fumes that I normally associate with Matt’s body spray, soap, after-shave, cologne and sundry other manly products, I assumed his mother had a talk with him about the proper application amounts.

That put me in a positive mood for the evening. All I wanted to do was go eat, go dance a little, and then go back home and sleep in my bed, all by myself for once.

Lyshaa had plans of her own that involved the use of a hotel room and some nose plugs. I try not to involve myself in her sexual oddities whenever possible.

When we arrived at Vargo’s, the valet that opened my door gave me a wide berth with a mix of surprise with a tinge of fear in his eyes, so did the doorman. By the time we made it to the woman with the reservation book, I was the center of attention. She just stared at me until Matt broke her attention by stepping between us.

“Reservation for two, under Brown.”

She made a show of looking and running her finger down the page. “I’m sorry sir. I don’t have you in the book.”

Matt blinked and looked confused. “What? I made the reservation almost two months ago. Check again: Brown, eight o’clock.”

This time she didn’t check, so I did, remotely. Clear as day, in my head, two-thirds of the way down, was Matt’s name.

“Is there a problem?” A male voice said from behind me.

He was edging on forty and everything about him was crisp and snooty looking.

“Yeah,” said Matt. “I made a reservation two months ago. I even double checked last week. Now she’s saying I’m not in the book.”

“Hmm, that is curious,” said the man. His eyes trailed down the front of my body and then back up again. “Perhaps you’d like to try another establishment.”

Even my constant meditation over the course of the last week wasn’t doing me much good. I was getting pissed because I knew why Matt’s name had mysteriously disappeared.

I tugged on his arm. “Let’s go, Matt.”

Let it never be said that I couldn’t reign in my temper if circumstances warranted.

“What? That’s bullshit. You don’t serve black people here?”

I would have snorted a laugh out, but frankly I was too annoyed. “They don’t serve red people. Let it go.”

His arm was tense, so I had to add a little oomph to my tug. He scowled at the owner or manager, whoever he was, but didn’t cause any more of a scene. His car was even waiting for us when we stepped back outside with the motor running. The valet hadn’t even bothered to move it, knowing we’d never get inside.

It sounded like Matt left an inch of tire rubber at the entrance when we pulled away. I set my hand on his leg and said, “Relax.”

He must have really been keyed up over that, because even with a touch of the Force added, he’d only calmed enough to not make the car swerve into traffic.

“That’s such horseshit, Aayla. That was racism.”

I looked over at him. “And who would you like to call? I don’t think metas have their own political action committee, or whatever just yet.”

Matt shot me an angry look. I knew where it was really pointed, but still.

“Just let it be. We’ll go to the prom, dance some, and have a good time there, okay?”

He sighed and headed in the direction of the school.

~O~

Interlude Three

As HK-47 watched the conveyances leave the dwelling it accessed its sensors once again.

“Declaration: Sith-spit. I hate it when the item I am tracking keeps moving. Query: Should I follow my former master’s holocron or should I interrogate and kill those that once held it. Query: Is there any reason I can’t do both?”

End Interlude

TBC...

Thank you for your thoughts in a comment.

Author's Note: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.

There will be an Epilogue following, to wrap things up.

Warning: This one's violent kiddies. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Chapter Eight

Matt was sulking and I was tired of attempting to cheer him up, so I just went about my evening like nothing was wrong even though that guy at the restaurant seriously pissed me off. Perhaps when we got to the prom, Eric and Lyshaa could cheer us up.

When we neared the school, where the dance was being held, something felt off to me. In order to get to the school we needed to pass by the street in front of my house. It was much farther down the road, but it was a long street.

I naturally noted where we were in my head, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness.

“Matt…”

Dread dropped over me like a smothering cloak. A feeling of impending doom gnawed at something inside me.

“Stop!”

He slammed on the brakes making the car behind us laid on their horn.

“What?” he said, somewhat panicked. “What happened?”

I grabbed at the oh shit! handle above the window and squeezed, gasping for air.

“Aayla? What’s the matter?” Matt was entering into full panic mode at that point.

“Home… I need to get home. Now!”

“What do you mean?”

Snapping my head around to him, I gave Matt the full brunt of my stare. “Get me home as fast as you can.”

His face went slack for a moment and then he slammed the accelerator while spinning the steering wheel as far as it would go. Tires squealed, we hopped the opposite curb and came down hard against the pavement, but we were moving. As we hit the intersection, an SUV looked like it was going to T-bone us. I threw out my hand and caused both front tires to blow out.

Sparks flew and slowed it enough to make the SUV clip our rear bumper instead of hitting us dead on.

Matt had firm control though and straightened the car out as he raced nearly a mile down the road to my house.

The seatbelt tightened against me as we came to a screeching stop, half in and half out of the drive way, but I popped it off and opened the car door.

Looking at the house, I could tell something was wrong. Nothing looked out of place, but a sense of foreboding let me know that it wasn’t safe.

“What happened?” Matt was dazed, coming out of the suggestion that I gave him. “Oh shit; the car. My dad’s gonna kill me.”

I ignored him, instead focusing all my attention on my home, and as soon as I did, it was gone. All the feelings that were screaming at me, telling me that danger was near, disappeared as quickly as they’d come to me.

“Stay here,” I said.

My feet led me to the front door. I reached out with the Force and unlocked it, throwing it open.

The smell of blood hit before my eyes registered the scene in front of me. I looked down at the arm on the floor that wasn’t attached to anything else. My mom’s wedding ring was on its finger, but it still hadn’t connected in my mind as of yet.

“Mom?”

“Jesus, Aayla,” Matt said from behind me.

“Mom? Dad?”

Something was tugging on my arm. “We have to get out. Call the cops. Aayla.”

I tried to shrug the tugging off, but it was insistent.

“Aayla… Josh!”

I swallowed and then blinked, turning my head to Matt. “I have to find my mom and dad.”

My voice was calm, cool, and collected. I wasn’t going to lose control. Bad things would happen if I lost control.

Matt glanced across the room with concern. “Aayla, come on, baby. Let’s go wait in the car for the cops. They’ll find your mom and dad for you.”

My lips felt sluggish. “M…maybe Kenny’ll know where they are.”

He nodded. “That’s a good idea. Let me take you to the car and I’ll come back to look for Kenny, okay?”

I nodded and took his lead.

Everything blurred for the longest time until the world started lighting up with blue and red. Someone took my wrist and was saying something to me while I stared at the dash of the car.

“She’s in shock,” a girl said.

“How can you tell?” some guy replied. “Is she even human?”

“Don’t be a dick, Billings.”

It was then that I realized they were all talking about me. Something clicked in my head and I looked up at them: an EMT, and two guys in regular suits with badges hanging on their belts.

I blinked away the confusion and looked at a dozen or more people busily moving about in front of my house. Then I remembered the arm; my mom’s arm.

My stomach heaved and the EMT jumped out of the way as I tried to empty whatever was left in my stomach after lunch earlier that day, which wasn’t much. The muscles in my abdomen clenched over and over, sending blood pumping through my veins, waking me up from whatever comatose state I was in.

When it looked like I was through, the EMT tried to hold a mask over my nose and mouth.

“It’s oxygen. Just breathe in. It’ll help clear your head.”

Instead of listening to her, I batted the mask out of the way and stepped out of the car.

“You’re Josh Walker?” one of the cops said, but I ignored him as well, as I tried to make my way to the front door of my house.

The other one made a grab for my arm, but I caught his wrist in my grasp. “Don’t touch me.”

The first guy came back with, “Miss Walker, we’re going to need you to sit back down.”

I looked hard at him. “You’re going to escort me inside.”

He blinked. “I’m going to escort you inside.”

The one whose wrist I held started to put up a struggle, so I centered on him as well. “You’re going to go sit down.”

He blinked as well. “I’m going to go sit down.”

The EMT was staring at me open-mouthed, so I had to deal with her as well. “You didn’t see anything. Go about your business.”

As soon as they were dealt with, I turned back to my escort and we made our way to the front door.

“You need for me to identify something,” I said.

I was somewhat surprised when he pulled out a sheet of paper that was in a ziplock bag marked, evidence. I only mentioned that as an excuse to get me inside the house. “I need for you to identify this.”

There was a uniformed officer at the front door looking like he was controlling who was coming and going. Before he had a chance to say anything I told him to ignore us as I grabbed the detective’s upper arm and erected a Force Cloak on us both.

I almost lost it when I saw the mess that was the living room once more. There was someone moving around taking pictures of everything, all the pieces of my family that were scattered across the floor, the couch, the windowsill, everywhere.

“Go to the basement,” I whispered.

Our movement was slow while we avoided the blood and one other person that was inside setting little plastic number tents and rulers next to the bits and pieces of my family for the photographer.

I locked the basement door behind me and followed the detective down the stairs. They hadn’t quite gotten to my portion of the house just yet.

The place was trashed. My clothes were half out of the drawers which were all open. My mattress was askew, pillows out of their cases and my comic box was turned over with my collection scattered nearby.

More and more, I was becoming infuriated.

After taking a deep breath I opened the ziplock bag and pulled the paper out.

It was a receipt for items taken into custody by the Office of Homeland Security. My eyes widened when I saw exactly what it was.

Holding up my hand I tried to summon the GH to me. Nothing. The other holocrons, my lightsaber, anything from my hideaway. Nothing.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to keep the rage down, but it was leaking out.

“Who did this?” I said through clenched teeth at the detective.

He looked at me and then took the paper to scan it. “Lead investigator who signed for the items is Courtney Carter.”

Carter! American Dream killed my family so she could take my stuff?

“I’m gonna kill her,” I hissed. “Stay right there. Don’t move.”

A swipe of my hand and the floor was clear to the dresser. I pulled my dress down and tore off my heels before grabbing a pair of black workout shorts, a sports bra, and a tank. I needed maximum flexibility and that meant not wearing anything that I didn’t absolutely need. The knee boots went on next. As I was putting them on, I looked over at the washer and dryer. They hadn’t been disturbed.

Just a touch of concentration and they separated. On the floor, still in the charger, was the power cell and Darth Talon’s light saber right next to it.

“Missed one, bitch.”

In a second it was flying across the room into my hand. I inserted the power cell. The moment it hit, I thumbed the activation stub and the sword ignited with a snap and a low hum. I stared at the red shaft of plasma and my breath started speeding up. It felt so right in my hand. A few waves later and I quieted the blade as I looked up at the detective.

He was staring at me with anxiety on his face. His forehead was beaded with sweat and I could smell the fear almost radiating off of him. That’s when I stood and strode over to him.

“I’m not going to hurt you unless you give me a reason to. Are we clear?”

His head barely nodded.

“I don’t give a crap about you or the rest of the people here. I just want the person who is responsible for what happened to my family, and we both know who that is, right?”

He nodded again.

Lifting my hand up, I let my nails trail lightly down his face until my hand was at his throat. “Just so you don’t get any ideas about being a hero here, I can crush your heart in your chest with a single thought, but you’re one of the good guys. I’d rather not do that.”

His lips curled in a little, trembling.

“You have family?”

He nodded once more and my eyes narrowed.

“Imagine the scene upstairs happening to them. Would you let the person responsible get away with it?”

“No.” It was a whisper, barely audible, but I heard it just the same.

“Good. So, you’re going to help me, aren’t you?”

I could see the answer was going to be in the negative and I couldn’t have that at the moment. Reaching up, I let my hand move into a claw-like position. Blue lightning crackled between my fingers.

“There’s only one acceptable answer, detective.”

He nodded quickly.

“Good. Now, go upstairs and make up a believable excuse to leave. You’re following a lead or something. I’ll meet you in your car. If you tip them off, I’ll kill everyone here before I leave.”

He raced up the stairs as soon as I let him go. I grabbed my backpack and dumped the contents before putting the charger inside along with a change of clothes. After I was finished with what I had to do, I wouldn’t be able to come back.

Leaning against the basement wall, I tried to cool down, but it was next to impossible. I couldn’t hold back the rage and the pain over losing my family for something as insignificant as what I had hidden. They could have just had a search warrant and taken what they wanted, but Carter had to one up me. Being put in her place by a teenager obviously didn’t sit well with the All-American Hero.

Then she had to shove it down my throat by leaving the receipt.

Well, I had something to shove down her throat.

No, I still hadn’t gone dark. I was in complete control, just angry. I’d have it quelled down by the time I got to their base. Jedi did this all the time. They killed the bad guy, sliced them to ribbons with their lightsabers. It just wasn’t obvious to the layman as to who the bad guy was in this case, but I knew, and she was going to pay, her and everyone at that base.

~O~

Matt was standing by his car looking around, for me I assumed. Once I cleared the house I went over and stood in front of him. With the Force Cloak on, I was invisible, but I couldn’t drop it; not yet.

“Bye, Matt,” I whispered.

His eyes widened. “Aayla?”

“Shh. Don’t say anything.”

He covered his mouth with his hand. “Where are you?”

“I’m right in front of you. I’m invisible. I have to go, but I wanted you… I didn’t want you to think I bailed. If I get a chance, I’ll try to see you again.”

He started talking as I walked away, but I tuned him out. It was better to cut all my ties.

After I got in the car, I let the cloak go and felt the energy that had been sapped from me for holding it for so long.

“Go; Ellington Air Force Base. Turn your lights on. We need to get there as fast as we can before they figure out that I’m coming.”

The detective nodded and waited until he cleared the area before hitting the blue and red lights on the bumper of his car. When we got on the freeway I aided his progress by nudging the cars that were in front of us, out of the way. I’d only caused two wrecks by the time we were on the east side of town, but it was for a good cause. Jedi did this from time to time, so I didn’t feel too bad. Besides, insurance would pay for the damage.

“She didn’t kill them,” said the detective.

I turned my head slowly to look at him. “You really don’t need to talk.”

“She wouldn’t do that. American Dream is a hero.”

My left hand clenched the receipt the so-called hero left behind. “Then what’s this? Matt and I were only gone from the house for forty or forty-five minutes tops. Are you saying someone else that had the power to do what she can come in right after she left and tore my family apart for no apparent reason?”

He looked like he was about to say something, but couldn’t really get the right words out.

“Yeah,” I said. “You know that idea is bullshit too. I don’t have any enemies that have power, Detective. None. And the last time I met your little blonde hero, she had me kidnapped, taken to her base, and personally threatened me.”

I watched as he swallowed hard. “Then let me arrest her. You haven’t done anything bad yet. I’ll tell my boss what you told me. Metahumans aren’t above the law… um, no offense.”

I made a scoffing noise. “None taken. I’m not a metahuman.”

“But…”

Cutting him off I said, “And exactly how are you going to arrest her? I’ve seen her punch through brick walls on TV. No, the only way to bring her down is my way.”

We travelled another half mile before the detective responded. “If you kill her then it will be murder.”

I shook my head. “It’ll be justice. Jedi are big on justice. I’ll be fine.”

“Jedi?” He glanced at the lightsaber gripped in my right hand.

I nodded. “It’s real, Detective, and I’m a master, well, sort of.”

“I thought Jedi didn’t seek revenge.”

Throwing him a look out of the corner of my eye, I frowned. “Everyone’s an expert on Star Wars.”

He swallowed again. “I’m just a fan. I was there at the premiere of Return of the Jedi in ’83. They had an actor dressed up as Vader and when I went to take a leak, he was standing at one of the urinals making the woom woom sounds like a lightsaber, except it was with his… um.”

Swiveling my head around to him, I saw his smile. “Do me a favor and shut up. I’m not your friend and you’re not going to get me to back down by being my buddy. So just shut up and drive.”

~O~

For a supposedly decommissioned Air Force base, Ellington was a busy little place and to make the whole situation even more annoying, it was starting to rain.

We sat across the street in an abandoned convenience store parking lot, listening to the rain hit the roof of the car.

“It’s not too late to turn back,” the detective said in a calm voice. “I can have an arrest warrant for her in a few hours at the most.”

Without turning to look at him, I just sat there seething. The ride over did nothing to calm my disposition. “How many pieces?”

“I’m sorry?”

“How many pieces was my family in at the end, Detective? Were they able to find them all? I had a little brother. He was eight. He was annoying and got me in trouble every chance her got, but that was his job. How many pieces was he in?”

My stomach clenched again. I thought I was going to lose my lunch right there in the car, but there was nothing left in my stomach except for the knot that was getting progressively larger with each passing minute.

“You think I want to do this?” I said. “Odds are if I go in there this angry then I’ll go dark, but what about my family. Who’ll give them justice? If they manage to even bring Carter to trial, it won’t be enough.”

I heard him sigh in resignation. “It won’t bring them back. You’ll be turning into the very thing that killed them in the first place.”

He meant it metaphorically. There was no way for him to know that I really could be turning into a monster.

“You don’t think I know that?”

Slamming my hand onto the dash, I screamed, loud and hard. The plastic split so I hit it again until I could finally feel something instead of the ache that was gnawing away from inside me.

Pain, pain was good. It gave me focus and that focus directed me across the street. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Go get your warrant, detective. You have two hours. After that, I won’t care.”

He blinked at me.

“What are you going to do?”

My eyes never left the front gate and the MP that was inside the little shack at the gate.

“I’m going to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere.” When I opened the door and dropped one leg out, I turned back. “If I see a dozen cars coming down the road toward me then all bets are off.”

I didn’t wait for a reply. Instead, I stepped out into the rain and closed the door behind me.

Did I actually believe that the detective listed American Dream as a possible suspect? Hardly. I wasn’t that naíve. He was sincere enough in getting the warrant, but I doubted that he’d bring her in for anything more than questioning for the sole purpose of avoiding a bloodbath.

That left everything up to me. I had questions of my own that needed answering.

How did she know to look for the Jedi artifacts and who set her on my family? She had connections to the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. She knew I wouldn’t be at the house to stop her. Who had all this knowledge? Who betrayed me?

I thought it might be Doomah at first, but he didn’t know about the prom and he was more than paid off with the cybernetics information.

She threatened that she’d be watching me. Maybe she was doing it all along and I was sloppy in not paying attention to everything around me.

The rain was cold and considering my mode of dress, I needed to find cover. Considering I needed to track down the superhero and recover my stolen artifacts, I chose the base. The building I was interviewed in wasn’t too far from the front gate, maybe five hundred yards at the most. I chose that as my starting point.

Throwing on a Force Cloak, I sprinted across the street and leaped over the fence surrounding the area. When I was a guy, a jump of that height was an impossibility, but with assistance from the Force, it was like hopping across a puddle so I wouldn’t get my shoes wet.

The ground wasn’t too soft yet from the rain, but the most direct route would be the street, so I poured on the speed and crossed the distance in minimal time.

Making note of the security cameras I dropped the Cloak and focused on the holocrons. Being in their presence for so long I’d grown accustomed to how they felt. The Sith holocrons were saturated in the dark side of the Force so hunting them down was easy enough.

Dialing down the length of the lightsaber, I ignited the blade and cut into the side of the wall to make a hole big enough for me to slip through. Gone was my amazement of how easy it was to cut through the side of a building. My training, that Talon gave me, kept me focused on the mission.

Once that was complete, I pushed on the wall and it collapsed inward with little noise as I stopped the worst of it with the Force.

The office was dark. No noise was coming from the hallway on the other side of the single closed door.

I dialed the blade back to full length and opened the door a crack, while I reached out with the Force. There were a couple of people in the office two doors down and the rest were beneath the floor, underground.

Spotting a security camera at the end of the hall, I grit my teeth. Using a Force Cloak all the time was draining me, but I couldn’t get caught that quickly, not until I’d recovered my stuff and hunted down Courtney Carter. Then all bets were off.

The closest stairwell was also monitored.

Down I went, two flights, until my senses told me what I was looking for was somewhere on that level.

From the looks of things, it was set up like a laboratory.

Of course, they would want to have the items classified in some way. That meant scientists and lab techs were putting their grubby fingers on my things without my permission.

I had a hard enough time letting people borrow my comics much less physically handle items that were so old and precious to me. The idea that some random college graduate was taking them apart and possibly destroying them by mistake made me even angrier.

The wall directly in front of the lab was entirely glass, enough to clearly see who and what was going on the inside.

Color me surprised to find Doctor Doomah dressed in his lab coat, watching the Holorecorder. Pieces of a single comlink were scattered in front of him, and on the table was the remaining items stolen from my house.

I was wrong. Doomah had given me up. He’d betrayed me. He was the one that set Carter on my parents so that he could have all of my knowledge. The thing was, it was all in vain. Only a Force Sensitive could activate the holocrons, so he wouldn’t have been able to garner any information without my help.

The time for hiding was over.

Dropping the Cloak, I ignited my lightsaber and cut through the electronic door lock. Sparks flew before I pushed the door open and looked at a now terrified Doctor Doomah.

“Miss Walker… it’s not what it looks like. They intercepted the notes you sent me… they threatened me with incarceration…”

“And you gave me up,” I finished for him.

I watched as his hand landed on the hilt of my other lightsaber, then I smiled.

“Go ahead. Pick it up. It’s charged now thanks to you.”

His hand snapped back as if it was burned. “Take it. Take it all. I won’t try to stop you.”

I scanned the table and saw most of the items present but not all.

“Where are the Sith holocrons?”

“The what?” he said, trying to be as helpful as possible.

“The red pyramid things.

His eyes ticked to the wall to his left and a security safe embedded within.

“Open it.”

He scurried over and punched in a code while I stopped the playback on the holorecorder and stuffed everything on the table in my pack. When I looked back up the doctor was holding a pistol up and pointing it at me.

“P-put your h-hands up.”

I froze where I was at, not moving a muscle and I concentrated on him. “Put the gun in your mouth.”

His face went slack. My attention was drawn to the safe and a red glow emanating from within. I reached up and called the holocrons to me. One of them was pulsing and it wasn’t Darth Talon’s.

“Military Police; nobody move!”

We had company.

I tilted my head toward the voice. There were four of them, more than I could trick at once with my powers.

“I’m just taking back what is mine,” I said. “This is your only warning.”

“Lady, I don’t give a crap what’s yours. Drop the thing you have in your hand and get on the ground or I will…”

With a thought and a gesture of my hand three of them flew back against the wall with enough force to elicit grunts. The third one pulled his trigger.

My lightsaber snapped on and intercepted two of the three bullets that were fired. The last one zipped by my lekku and hit the wall. Another Force Push and the last MP was unconscious on the floor. Of course I’d forgotten about Doctor Doomah.

The confrontation with the MPs was enough to break him from the suggestion I’d originally put him under.

He’d betrayed me to Carter, had my parents killed, my stuff stolen, pulled a gun on me, and at that point he was about three pounds of pressure away from putting a large hole in my head. I’d had enough.

Blue lightning blasted from my fingertips. The gun went off, missing me by a good foot or two, and Doomah slammed against the wall, screaming.

I looked down at him writhing on the floor, screaming his throat raw.

Energy and pleasure coursed through my veins while I watched in awe, the display of my true power.

“Hurts, doesn’t it.”

I cut off the Force Lightning and brought my blade around. He wasn’t done with his emotional outburst. Standing there, I watched as he cried.

“Were you there when Carter killed my family? Did you have a hand in it?”

A twitch of my blade and he screamed as I took off his right forearm. The scream was almost satisfying in a way. He grabbed at the stump, pulling it to his chest.

“That was for my mother.”

Another blast of Force Lightning and I could smell his skin burning. Blisters rose up from his face. I brought my blade down across his thighs.

“That was for my father.”

“Walker!”

Spinning around, I raised my blade just in time to intercept a bullet fired at me from Courtney Carter dressed up in all her American Dream finery. She fired five more times and I blocked all the shots effortlessly.

“You’re going to have to do better than that, Carter.”

Lightning lanced out a third time, grazing her as she dove to the side, out of my sight. While I had a chance I grabbed my pack and directed the rest of the gear inside.

“Did you have fun this evening at my home, Carter?” I said.

“Is that what this is about?” she replied. “I did what I had to do, Walker.”

After shouldering the pack, I secured it tight against my back.

“All part of the job, I guess.”

“It was all perfectly legal, Walker. Now why don’t you put your… lightsaber away and you can get a nice attorney to sue the government like every other normal person.”

I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see me from around the corner. “I think I’d rather just kill you instead.”

Since nobody was looking, I put on a Force Cloak and stepped out to the hall.

The right side, where I came from was filled with MP’s armed to the gills in their body armor and automatic weapons. The other side had American Dream with her back against the wall holding a pistol in one hand and a little camera doohickey in the other, trying to look around the corner.

“Where’d she go? Dammit! Move in! Base, she’s on the move.”

I pressed myself as tight against the wall as I could as half of the soldiers entered the room.

“Clear. She’s not here, Boss.”

“Christ! We need medical in here, right now.”

I guessed that someone found the good doctor. Making my way past Carter, I was tempted to cut her down right there, but the bottleneck was too much. Instead I chose to go the opposite way I came and enter the elevator that was waiting all nice and convenient.

I hit the ground floor button, but the doors never closed.

“Cute.”

The guy that was guarding the elevator stuck his head around the corner with a curious look on his face. I dropped the Cloak and grabbed the front of his body armor.

“Be quiet.” I pushed as much Force as I could spare at the moment to silence him. “Close the door.”

He inserted a keycard in the proper place at the top of the controls and shut the door.

“Top floor.”

There were only five levels so it would be too much of a Force assisted jump from the top if I needed to take a flying leap at any point in the near future.

After the elevator started moving, I pushed him up against the wall.

“Were you one of the people that went to my house?”

He swallowed and shook his head. “I’m just a guard.”

It was the truth.

Moving in close to his face, I could smell his fear. “I suggest you find another posting.”

Being that close to him, I leaned in and took in his scent at the neck.

“Mmm, you smell delicious. All that fear and a light sheen of sweat.”

Reaching down, I felt between his legs as I trailed my tongue along his jawline. He was hardening and from the look on his face it was involuntarily. That turned me on even more than his taste.

Before I had a chance to get down to business, the elevator dinged and I had a flash of prescience. Grabbing his body armor I pulled him in front of me. The doors opened and there were another five guards pointing their guns at me.

“You know, for a decommissioned Air Force base, this place has a hell of a lot of soldiers hanging around.”

“Release him and lie down on the floor,” the lead guy said.

“You lie down,” I replied.

He blinked at me and then shook it off, so I threw my hand out along with a fist full of Force Lightning taking all five of them down screaming to unconsciousness.

“Time to go, honey. Take me to the roof.”

I didn’t stop frying them on the way past, mainly because it felt so good. Why I had been fighting it for so long was a mystery. It may sound cliché, but the power I controlled…. Anything could be mine, anyone could be mine.

“You know, I’d like nothing better than to make a pit stop.” Throwing him up against one of the doors I said, “In here. Strip. And hurry, I’m really horny.”

A glance out of the office window told me they’d brought in a helicopter. When I looked back, the guard had his weapon pointed at me and he didn’t hesitate to fire.

I jerked away, but was still clipped on the shoulder. It burned, searing hot, and I responded in kind, Force Pushing him against the wall. He landed and wasn’t quite unconscious.

“Son of a bitch; that burns!”

He lay, face up, groaning from the impact. I straddled his hips and dropped down on him.

“Now you’ve gone and ruined the mood. And look, you’re not even hard anymore. Men!”

Slipping my hand around his throat, I leaned in. “For that stupid move, I have a special prize for you.”

There’s a neat little trick that was now open in my head, like it was hidden before and only revealed upon graduating to my true nature.

Blue trickles of light alit from my fingertips and coursed over his body. “How about something exotic, hmm?”

The Force blew through me and I delighted in its presence. The guard’s erection returned and then slipped away just as quickly as I watched his skin turn a dim gray color and his face thin. His body armor lifted off his chest.

“Whoops, somebody’s stacked.”

I couldn’t really see much of her skin, but her face was quite pretty.

“There, much better. If you can’t be of any use to me in one way, at least you’ll be a reminder to the others in the futility of dealing with me.”

~O~

The hallway was clear, but I heard groans coming from the direction of the elevators. The other guards were waking up.

“Come on, Carter,” I whispered. “For a superhero it takes her long enough to figure things out.”

The roof access was at the end of the hall, and I didn’t receive a kind welcoming upon reaching the top. Some A-Hole was sitting nice and safe in his helicopter peppering the roof with high-caliber bullets while I was making tracks for cover.

“That should bring her up here quick enough.”

The helicopter swung around and was starting to become quite annoying. Taking a bead on the pilot I concentrated and forced him to face his worst fear at that particular moment. The helicopter swerved. I could almost hear the screams. The pleasure I received from that almost made me miss the access door to the roof opening.

I spun around and ignited my lightsaber, batting away three more bullets from my enemy.

“Took you long enough,” I said with amusement.

“Someone locked the elevator.”

Bringing my hand up to my mouth I said, “Oops.”

“So what’s your plan, Walker? World domination?”

I scoffed. “Please. That’s so passé. Plus, I don’t do monologues. I just want you -- dead, sliced and diced like you left my family.”

Automatic gunfire erupted on the street below followed by what sounded like blaster fire from the movies.

She became distracted, but kept her eye on me. “Friends of yours?”

“You better hope not. You can’t even handle one girl by yourself,” I said.

Carter grimaced. “Put down that blade and we’ll see who can handle whom.”

I grinned. “What a fabulous idea, but I’ve got one better. How about I give you one of mine and may the best swordswoman win?”

She paused for a moment and looked like she was considering my proposal. Then she shot at me again. I let my blade intercept it.

“This is getting boring,” I said.

My prescience screamed out at me and I ducked, throwing myself to the side as a large red fist just barely missed taking my head off from behind. The roll I went through tore into my wounded shoulder souring my mood. When I came back up Carter shot three more times.

I scarcely had the chance to intercept those rounds when something stopped my blade.

“You’re starting to piss me off,” the girl said. At least I think it was a girl. It looked more like the devil in female form doing something that I didn’t think was possible, holding the bare blade of a lightsaber.

Without wasting any more time in shock, I called the second blade from my pack, ignited it and swiped it at her midsection. It caught the front part of the camel colored trench coat she was wearing as she let go of my red blade and stumbled back.

“Hey!” Someone else yelled.

This time I didn’t have a chance to duck and frankly it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference as a ten foot wide piece of concrete slammed into me. I pushed off of it with the Force and tried jumping backward, but it still hurt. I was on my back when I saw the thing coming back for a second hit.

Terra was standing on a large rock floating well above the fight, looking down at me.

“Alright, now you all are cheating.”

I shot a fistful of Force Lightning at her, connecting and knocking her off of the rock. Carter was racing her way and that left me with the Satan girl. Needless to say, I didn’t waste any time.

Lightning impacted her in the next second, and again I was stunned to see it being totally absorbed by that damn hand of hers.

“What the hell is that thing made of?” I was outnumbered and frankly I wasn’t expecting Terra this soon. “Screw this.”

Turning away I raced for the edge of the roof and took a Force enhanced leap to the next building over. I caught a glimpse of the battle going on below before I landed and kept running.

“There she is,” someone yelled. They didn’t even bother with a warning this time and just simply opened fire on full automatic.

With two lightsabers going at once, I didn’t have any problem shielding myself until I had a spare half second to throw more lightning their way. This time it didn’t connect, but it did make them take cover long enough for me to make it to the other side of the building and drop to the ground as I erected a Force Cloak.

There wasn’t anyone around the second building, at least not quite yet.

Making my way across the street I got a good look at the building I was fighting atop. That devil girl and Carter were pacing the roof, looking around. Carter had Terra in her hands and that gave me an idea.

I’d be done for the rest of the night, only having enough energy to escape, but what the hell.

Staying in the shadows, I dropped my Cloak and packed away the second lightsaber. Holding my hand out I concentrated on my anger, pulling in everything I could from the dark side of the Force. In my hands a red globe started forming, larger and larger.

I recalled the scene at my home and what Courtney Carter did to my parents and my little brother. Tears escaped from my eyes, trailing down my face. My mother would never hold me again. My father would never get the chance to say he loved me again. My brother wouldn’t ever annoy me again; the little shit.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRGGHHHHH!”

With everything I had I threw the ball of red light at the building. Soldiers were vaporized in its wake, until it connected with the face of the building disappearing into its center, leaving behind only a three or four foot sphere of emptiness.

All sound came to a stop at low-pitched WHOOMP! then the night lit up in brilliant red.

The resulting backlash slammed me against the wall I was near and I dropped to my knees, utterly exhausted.

The sound of concrete crumbling was delightful. The sound of metal screaming as it was twisted in ways that it was never meant to be was elegant. The aftermath was everything I could hope for.

I may not have been able to return Carter’s deadly gift to my family in kind, but I was able to deliver her a fatal blow nonetheless.

Pushing myself up, I took a step forward and swayed.

“Okay, gloat later; escape now.”

“Observation: Darth Talon, it is a pleasure to see you in action once again. Though your technique seems to have differed since last we met.”

I must have been too far gone not to have noticed the robot behind me. Only it wasn’t a robot. I had to shake off the exhaustion, but it was difficult. It was holding some ancient looking blaster rifle, loose in its right hand. If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn it was a droid.

“Do I know you?”

“Introduction: HK-47 at your service. We have never met before, but I have seen holorecordings of your massacre at Lequan. It truly was artistic and inspiring. Query: Do you require the services of an Assassin Droid. I find myself between masters at the moment.”

End.

Epilogue to follow.

Author's Note:Kudos to djkauf for betaing this for me. Pic Credit: Spirit Lover. Star Wars and recognizable characters from that universe belong to George Lucas et al.

Epilogue:

From the Diary of Lyshaa Walls:

It’s been two weeks since that night.

I’ve finally finished putting the third coat of paint on the living room walls and tried to match up the furniture as best as I could from what I remembered. I wanted everything to be just like it was whenever Aayla came back.

Her sister didn’t even want to come near the house after the funeral. She just went back to college in a teary-eyed daze.

The news has finally stopped replaying the explosion at Ellington Field, but the search is still on for her.

American Dream dropped by yesterday. She was out of uniform and somber looking.

It was all one big misunderstanding, which she couldn’t entirely explain to me for security reasons, but the gist of it was that Aayla thought that her parents were killed by a superhero, so she went on a rampage for revenge. Thirty-seven people were killed.

I don’t exactly know how to take that.

I mean here was Aayla, the one person who actually cared about me. She gave me my fondest desire and didn’t ask for anything in return except for keeping her secrets. She wasn’t capable of doing what they said she did. I don’t believe it for a second.

American Dream asked me all sorts of questions, personal questions. I answered some, but I kept to my promise and didn’t reveal any of Aayla’s.

She looked tired.

At the end she asked if I thought she’d be back.

What was I supposed to say to that?

While I wait for her, I keep the house in order and go to school. Eric and I broke up and Matt has disappeared. They think he ran away two days after the incident, because he couldn’t deal with what Aayla turned into. I think they’re full of it.

Matt loved her and I was pretty sure she was starting to love him. They were meant to be together.

How did everything go so wrong?

Am I stupid for thinking Aayla couldn’t go all evil and Grr!

If she has, then I know for a fact that there’s still good in her and all it’ll take is some love and she’ll be back to normal. I mean it happened for Darth Vader and all, right? Everyone forgave him in the end, sorta.

I just wish I knew where she was and if she was okay.

~O~

From the Personal Journal of Corporal Steven Yee:

The nightmares woke me up again last night. The smell of her cinnamon breath at my neck and her hands on my body still sent chills down my back.

The doctors don’t know what to make of what she did to me. I wasn’t a metahuman and according to their tests, I’m still not. What I want to know is how in the hell did I change into this body without that mysterious mutation.

It was something that I’d dreamed of for my entire life, but was too ashamed to proceed in what was required in order to achieve that fantasy.

I keep replaying what happened after she did it.

I was in a daze for a minute or two. Time was kind of weird for me then. Someone passed the doorway checking the offices, found me and dragged me out. That was Sparks, one of the special ops guys that backed up Agent Carter. He and Kinsey picked me up and took me down in the elevator.

Things started focusing for me by the time we’d made it downstairs. That’s when I realized something was wrong with me. My chest really hurt. When I looked down to see what was wrong, I might have panicked. I did panic. I screamed and thrashed for a second before something inside me shot out, electrocuting Sparks and Kinsey. I think it was electricity anyway. Judging by what happened with them, the doctors think it’s something else.

Fear brings it on. Whenever I’m afraid, I zap whatever is the cause. It’s not on purpose, but it’s becoming a problem.

Sparks and Kinsey are like me now — sorta -- female, I mean, alien too it seems.

Whatever that girl did to me, I’m doing to others. So, I’m in isolation and all I have to keep myself busy is this stupid journal.

What’s the joy in achieving your fondest wish if you can’t share it with anyone that cares?

~O~

From the personal log of Terra Cross:

If it wasn’t for Jade, I’d be dead. The medical bay in the Starcruiser removed all the shrapnel from the building exploding and repaired my heart.

It’s kind of scary to know I was that close to actually dying.

Mom wants me to quit. She’s scared; I get that.

The thing is I just can’t stop being me. I just have to be more careful. Gemma says that I’m supposed to duck when the villain throws lightning at me, because she might not be around the next time to distract her.

A lot of my friends died.

I hate funerals.

~O~

From the medical log of Melina Mendoza:

The new artificial skin grafts are not being rejected, except for those on Doctor Doomah’s face. They tell me they should have some operable prototypes from the cybernetic research he was working on. It’s very basic at this point.

Subject is not in good spirits. Even if we are able to fully replace his lost limbs, I don’t know if it will be enough.

His mental diagnosis isn’t favorable. Time will tell, I suppose.

End

Author's Note: There will be a follow up story to this to expand on what I've left you with, told by Corporal Yee's point of view. There's a big mess to clean up and a some explanations are in order for some of the actions that have... um... concerned a few people. ;)

Thanks again to everyone that took the time to leave a review over the course of this story and to those that have chosen to comment to me privately. It means a lot.