Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction ❯ Soldier, Sailor, Jedi, Sith ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Jusenkyo
4 months before Ranma would normally arrive in Nerima

It's a familiar scene—overweight and bald sensei and his student trudging up the hill to the Valley of Sorrows. The guide begins his spiel as father and son begin sparring atop the bamboo poles. Ranma gets in his successful defensive kick, sending the overweight martial artist into the Shonmaoniichuan. A splash fills the Valley, followed by a growl as a giant panda jumps out and attacks his son. A successful hit sends the shocked pigtailed martial artist flying over the Nyanniichuan. He grabbed the pole that was in the Yi-yan-yi-jiao-fei-zi-ren-chi-yuan-nii-chuan (Spring of Drowned One Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater) and used his momentum to slingshot back towards his father.

With a solid hit in the gut, Genma flew back, landing near the Guide's hut. Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion enforce themselves on Ranma. The successful flying side kick that hit Genma in the stomach caused the pigtailed boy to go flying backwards.

Gravity began to reassert itself on Ranma as he flew over the Niuhoomanmaorenniichuan (Taro's first spring), landing in one of the more overgrown springs. "Mr. Customer fall into Spring of Drowned Warrior from the Stars. Very tragic tale of how warrior fall from the sky, landing in spring in early history of Training Grounds.

"Musk warrior accidentally mix spring with Chisuton, making curse permanent." The Guide was wrong, since it had been the nature of the Force in conflict with the chaotic nature of Jusenkyo's magic. Genma-panda and the Guide watched as the waters of the pool boiled and bubbled like the witches' cauldron in Shakespeare's Macbeth. The end result was a Ranma that looked a number of years older, and wiser.

"Wha—what happened?" Ranma asked, his voice a deep, rich baritone.

"Mr. Customer fall in Spring of Drowned Warrior from the Stars." The Guide ran back into his hut, and could be heard rummaging around.

Ranma looked at his father. "What happened to you, Oyaji?" There was calm about the pigtailed martial artist that started to frighten Genma.

[I fell into Spring of Drowned Panda.] Genma-panda replied, pulling a sign from...somewhere.

"This was found next to the spring by the very first Guide. All Jusenkyo guides told to hold on to this until the Warrior returned." The Guide handed Ranma an extremely worn leather looking pouch and silvery cylinder. Opening the pouch, Ranma pulled out a dark brown robe that surprisingly didn't look too moth eaten and a utility belt with a hook for the cylinder.

Setting the robes and belt down, he picked up the cylinder, accidentally activating it. As a solid shaft of pure energy formed, filling the hut with its humming blue light, Ranma's hands moved to seemingly familiar positions on the metallic hilt. He swung the energy blade around in a seemingly complex pattern, the pitch of the blade's hum changing as it sliced through the air. Ranma took on this dream-like look on his face, as he remembered his training under various Jedi Masters, battles fought during the Clone Wars, friends and lovers throughout the Republic, and the beginning of the dark times for the Republic, and the persecution of the Jedi, led by one fallen Knight.

"I seem to remember...I remember my arrival on this planet...Earth, correct?" Genma-panda nodded. Ranma looked at his father, and felt the emotions rolling off the cursed martial artist. Sloth, greed, envy, pride, gluttony all controlled him. And all were paths to the Dark Side. Squatting for a moment, Ranma thought about remaining with his father. The Force had given him quite an insight if he'd remained with his father. But he was also mindful of his first instructor had said—"Uncertain the future is. Always in motion, it is." Ranma looked at his father. Part of him was torn by family loyalty, but there was a tremor in the Force, a warning to the reborn Jedi. He was granted a momentary vision, of the future. And it was a dark future, with the Empire ruling this planet.

As he looked at his father, there was sadness on Ranma's face. To stay with his father would lead to the wanton death and destruction of all he loved, or be corrupted by the Dark Side. "Father, I must leave you. If you find my mother, tell her that I left for honor."
Genma was about to pull out another sign, to argue the fact, when his son donned the robes, and left the hut.


Tokyo
Some three months after Jusenkyo


Ranma Lim walked down the streets of downtown Juuban, unnoticed by the crowds of the ward. In the three months it took for him to get to the Embassy in Beijing, the former Saotome's appearance shifted between a composite of the man who drowned into the Spring three thousand years ago and the boy who fell in sparing with his father. When he arrived at the Japanese Embassy, he looked into his father's past, and noted the outstanding warrants for petty crimes committed by him, and in his, Ranma's, name. For that stain, when getting new papers, Ranma legally changed his name.

During his journey back to civilization, Ranma also took the time to refine the two styles of combat he knew—Musabetsu Kakutou Saotome-Ryu and the Jedi arts. No longer did he fight like a Jedi or a Saotome, but as a conglomerate of the two. Nor did he act like the rude young boy he had been only three months ago, or as the sophisticated, urbane Jedi. He was polite, although brash at times, focused in his fights, but never insulting or taunting, and always with an eye on innocent bystanders. And he fought when fighting was the last resort when he couldn't talk his way out of it.

The Japanese Jedi looked around at the vibrant city. The Force, albeit unrecognized by any except Lim, was alive in this place. And it made it easier for him to hide, if the Empire was still looking for him. "The paper currency the Embassy made me sign for isn't enough. I'll have to find employment." He continued past the Crown Arcade, barely feeling a Force signature close to his own.

"Come on, Rei," Usagi bawled, "can I borrow some money? I'll pay you back."

"No, meatball head," the Senshi of Fire growled. "You still owe me from the last time, when we went to that American ice cream parlor. You just had to try all 31 flavors, didn't you?"

"Rei, you're so mean!"

Minako and Makoto looked at each other, and laughed at the antics of the two. Out of the corner of their eyes, they caught a glimpse of Ranma walking past the arcade. Both swooned over him, Makoto remarking just how much he looked like her old sempai. "Mako-chan," Ami said. Peering over the book she was reading, "you say that about every boy who walks by."

"But Ami," Makoto said with a bit of a whine in her voice, "this time I think I'm right. At least, though, he looks like my long lost brother." She resolved to ask her mother that night.


Ranma stood at his potential employer, classified section in hand. In front of the Jedi was Juuban High School, whose school board was looking for a physical education teacher. As deceitful as it was, hacking into the Ministry of Education's computers from an internet café, without any trace of intrusion, and creating his records was child's play for the Jedi. He'd done it countless times on special operations against the Separatists for the Republic, and against the Empire. To him, Earth's computer security was a joke. Just to see how far he could get, he found an interesting file buried deep within in the American Air Force's computer systems—something called the "Stargate Project". He left after a quick perusal.

With his skills in Anything Goes, and in the Force, he felt that he would get the position. And while talking to the administration, he discovered why he was the only applicant for the position. No one in Japan wanted to work in Juuban, because of its high number of unusual incidents. Of course, there was one school in Tokyo that was worse, if not for the occasional, yet unexplainable, bouts of food poisoning, but for the sheer madness of the student body, and that was Furinkan Koukou. Ranma walked in for his interview, and walked out fifteen minutes later, with the job, and an advance on his salary to find an apartment.


oooooooooooo


In a modest house, in a modest residential section of Juuban, Makoto Kino was busy helping her mother with dinner. "Mom, whatever happened to my brother?"

Nodoka Kino looked at her daughter, taking her eyes off dinner. "Why do you ask, Mako-chan?"

"Well, my friends and I were at the Crown Arcade, and I saw someone who looked like an older version of Ranma."

Nodoka say on a stool and thought for a moment. "I guess you were too young to remember your brother's leaving. Your father took him on a ten year training trip, promising me to turn Ranma into a 'Man amongst Men' or Genma'd commit seppuku for failure. I don't know why he had Ranma sign that damned contract.

"But, a few years after they left, a private investigator came by looking for Genma. She said she'd come here on behalf of a family know as the Daikoku, and wanted to know where he was, and where was Ranma. It seemed that my darling ex-husband sold our son to them for a bowl of rice, pickles and two fish. You were with your grandparents in Okayama, so you didn't know about it.

"The investigator had a file on Genma as thick as the Oxford English Dictionary, the unabridged version. She detailed to me just about every last thing that Genma had done to our son, all his engagements, barbarous training methods up to that point, and his pitiful education." Somewhen, the Senshi of Time sneezed and smiled. Her subterfuge had worked.

"So why'd you divorce Pop, Mom?"

"Genma was a superb martial artist, having spent most of his life training with his friend Soun. But as a husband, he was atrocious. He wouldn't get a job, just trained our son at home. But when the bills started coming faster that I could pay them, something in me snapped, Mako-chan. Up to that point, I had been the dutiful housewife, but it was time to end the farce of a marriage I was in. I filed for divorce with Genma in absentia, claiming he was failing to fulfill his duties and responsibilities of the marriage. The divorce was granted and I had your name, Ranma's name and my name transferred back to the Kino registry."

The 14-year-old looked at her mother. "Wow, I didn't know that."

"Why do you think you have my maiden name, instead of that fat fool's last name. Besides, I did some digging on my own about Genma's clan, and realized that while they have a samurai background, they were little more than bandits raiding unprotected villages. Had I know what I know now, I'd have never married that fat bastard," Nodoka said, virtually spitting on the floor.

"Wow, I guess I never thought about it that way, Mom." She gave her mother a smile, then noticed that the soup was beginning to boil over. "Mom! The miso!"


In a small and somewhat sparsely furnished apartment near the high school, Ranma was getting settled in. He didn't need much, just a simple place to rest and meditate. He could practice his katas at school, both unarmed and armed with bokken or shimai, either before or after classes. He placed what few possessions he had accumulated in his brief travels on a shelf, a few scrolls he received as payment from various priests and senseis for hard work, and one surprising item from his past life: a hologram of a woman he'd know as an ambassador to the Republic from a small interstellar empire outside the known (Star Wars) galaxy. The hologram showed her wearing a short, if almost indecently short, black skirt which showed off a healthy amount of tanned flesh, while holding a key-shaped staff. The subject of the hologram had her long emerald hair pulled into a ponytail that came over the shoulder opposite the key. Ranma gazed longingly at the hologram. She was one of the few relationships that his past life had that stayed semi-permanent. And in a strange way the amalgam of Ranma and Tarquin felt the same feelings for the emerald haired woman in the hologram that Tarquin felt all those millennia ago.

The Jedi pulled his thoughts away from the past. He'd spent the past three months sorting out just whose memories he'd had. Ranma could easily remember things like attending balls on Coruscant, before the dark times, with his mystery girl as easily as being thrown into a pit of cats, repeatedly. More than once, he'd shuddered at those memories and spent hours in healing trances just trying to purge that psychological trauma from him. Fear was a link to the Dark Side, and if he couldn't control himself around cats, all his enemies would have to do is lock him in a room or a box with any kind of feline. His mental healings were working, after a fashion. He was no longer consciously afraid of cats, but would still feel nervous around them. By Ranma's count, he still had several more treatments before he could positively say he was healed of it.

Throwing the windows open, Ranma let the sounds and smells of the world of his birth, yet a planet alien to him, into his apartment before crawling on to his futon, and pulling the thin cover up under his chin.


oooooooooooo


Setsuna looked up from her reading. All of a sudden, Caesar's commentaries on his Gallic campaigns, in the original Latin, do longer seemed to be that interesting, even though she'd been a lover of his, and this was, for her, a way of keeping that contact. To the Senshi of Time, it felt as though a ghost from her past returned from the grave and was looking over her shoulder. Setsuna'd set into motion a number of things—such as Nodoka's divorce from her husband—that she wasn't monitoring. She even had to remind her other analogs to leave well enough alone, that Crystal Tokyo shouldn't be the perfect Utopia an idealist like Usagi wanted. She wanted to see if Chaos would prevent the future she'd observed.

Setting the ancient Latin text down reverently, she teleported to the Gates of Time, and quickly scanned the time stream for the past three months. What it showed her was true Chaos in action. Ranma was no longer with his father, unlike in all the other time streams she'd observed. For that, she breathed a sigh of relief, even if it meant that he didn't have those insanely powerful techniques. Ranma was calling himself "Ranma Lim" and had a job and apartment in Juuban. At a mental command, the donut-shaped monolith focused on his apartment, and the Senshi of Time sucked in a deep breath at what she saw. Sitting on the nightstand was a hologram...of herself in her senshi uniform. "Goddess, he didn't. He couldn't have. Tarquin would never have known where Earth was. His home galaxy was on the other side of the universe."

"And yet, Guardian Pluto, he found his way here," the monolith remarked. "It seems that this 'Force' of his allowed him to come here, although Fate played a dirty trick on him three millennia ago. Perhaps he came here looking for you."

Setsuna sat down in the chair in front of the gate. "It is possible. I remember looking up in the night sky over Memphis, and seeing a fiery streak across the heavens the night Tutankhamen died." She looked at her old lover sleeping peacefully in the center of the monolith. Tears came unbidden to her eyes, as she let her emotions run wild—something she'd never do in front of the Senshi. "I've lived so many lives since the fall of the Silver Millennium, that even I don't remember how old I am," she said to the Gates. "And some of the best times I had since the fall were on Coruscant, with him." She gestured towards the sleeping Ranma. "And the irony of it all was that the Republic accepted my credentials as an ambassador of the Millennium, and who I was. That was the only time since our initial defeat by Beryl and Metallia that I didn't have to hide as 'Setsuna Meiou'."

"Then seek him out, Guardian Pluto," the Gate quipped. "He will be potent ally in the coming times." Without being commanded, the opening showed Setsuna the devastation wreaked on Tokyo as Imperial troopers, fighters, shuttles, and armored assault vehicles rained destruction on Japan's and Earth's militaries and superheroes. "Or he can be a formidable opponent, should he turn, or be turned, to the Dark Side."

"Ok, ok, I'll go," she muttered. Just not right away. Just my luck I got stuck with a pushy artifact.


oooooooooooo


Monday morning arrived at Juuban High like any other Monday. The students and faculty walking into the school, the usual morning gossiping among the girls in the various classes and grades, a blonde klutz still sleeping in her warm bed, while her cat tries to wake her up. And into this blend of overachievers and slackers, geeks and sports stars, nerds and divas walked Ranma Lim on his first day of school. The Jedi walked into the main office and began retrieving the papers he'd need to continue to draw a salary ((side comment: Abbot: "Did you ever draw a nice big salary before?" Costello: "No, but I once sketched a skinny tomato. Yoo hoo!")) along with the usual memos and in house fliers. As he turned to leave, he was intercepted by the superintendent. "Lim-san, good morning."

"Good morning, sir," he replied.

"Lim-san, I'm really surprised that you took this job. With your skills and record you could have gotten into one of the more prestigious private schools like St. Herbereke's."

"Be that as it may, sir, I like this particular atmosphere. It reminds me of when I was in school," Lim replied. "Now, if you will excuse me, I need to prepare for my first class."

"Of course, of course." The superintendent made room for his newest gym teacher to pass. Ranma was thinking about what his first class was going to be when, and therefore not paying attention, when his ability to sense the Force left him, and he collided with something...soft. Fate, at that moment, was laughing at the Jedi, and decided to add to her amusement. One of them dropped their bottle of San Pellegrino mineral water on the floor. The subsequent dampness on the floor made one person's heels go out from under her, causing the other to become off balance.

With two lifetimes of martial arts skills, Ranma quickly wrapped the other person in his arms, and rolled as they fell to the floor, so that he would bear the brunt of the impact. He winced slightly as his back came into contact with the shards of broken glass bottle on the floor. "Are you alright," he asked, as he accidentally looked down her blouse, at the nicely tanned cleavage. He screwed his eyes shut.

"I'm fine," she replied. The voice reminded part of him of someone he'd known millennia ago. She regarded the outfit that he was wearing. It was the last thing she remembered seeing her lover in.

He let go of her, and as she got up, he glimpsed at the woman he'd hit. The long emerald green hair and eyes red to the point of crimson reminded him of her. Her voice brought back a memory of long ago, when he advised her to flee Coruscant and the Republic, as the Dark Times befell the Jedi. "Forgive me," he said. "I was being clumsy, and not paying attention."

"No, it's entirely my fault." She noticed the drops of blood on the floor from the cuts on his back. "You're bleeding. Allow me to take you to the nurse's office."

"That's quite alright..."

"Meiou, Setsuna Meiou, guidance counselor."

"Lim, Ranma Lim, physical education," he replied, bowing. Setsuna returned the bow. "I've trained my body to heal faster than normal. All I need is some time, and I'll be right as rain."

"Well, then, Lim-san. I'm pleased to meet you," Setsuna said.

"As am I, Meiou-san. Please, feel free to stop by the gym if you'd ever like to talk," Ranma replied.

"I thank you for your offer. Good day, Lim-san," she replied quickly, before leaving, as the late bell rang. To the other faculty in the office, it was almost too quickly for the normally stoic guidance counselor. As she entered her office, she sat down heavily in her chair, her breathing rapid and ragged. Goddess, she thought, it is him. I haven't felt this way about anyone since I first met him when the Jedi Council assigned him to me as my bodyguard. Not that I needed one, but those were Council policies, and you didn't go against Yoda or Mace Windu.


Ranma really didn't have the luxury of dwelling on his thoughts. As soon as he walked into his office, and placed his mail on his desk, his first class, comprised of freshmen, were already entering the locker rooms. He didn't bother changing out of his robes, and walked into the gym, his soft boots barely making a sound on the wooden floor. The class, as they filtered back in, were in groups, chatting away like most high school students. Their attention was drawn to Ranma as he began his class in a most unusual way: by beginning a lightsaber drill with a bokken. The students stopped what they were doing, and began watching the Jedi go through his routine.

When he felt that he'd gotten most of the class's attention, he stepped it up a notch, by incorporating an advanced Anything Goes kata with advanced lightsaber drills. With the appropriate amount of "Oohs" and "Aahs" reached, Ranma stopped, and bowed to the class. "Good morning. I will be your instructor for this semester. My name is Ranma Lim, and I expect you to call me 'Sensei'.

"A little background about myself; I am the only practitioner and master of Musabetsu Kakutou Lim-ryu. The school is, as you have just seen, is a combination of armed and unarmed fighting techniques. As the school has a martial arts club, without a sensei, I will be taking that position over, and anyone interested meet at my office, just outside the gym, after classes." He looked at his watch. "I expect everyone to complete a 5 kilometer run within the next forty five minutes. You have two minutes to warm up. Begin!"


oooooooooooo


Chuckling, Ranma sat in his office, working on his lesson plans. He'd done the same thing for all his classes that day, and overheard all his students calling him evil, and all other sorts of names. It was his first day at the Jedi Academy, and Ranma recalled calling his own master the same thing. As much as he wanted to work on a pure martial arts/Force-related plan, he simply had to incorporate as many traditional physical education courses. He looked up when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he called.

"Good afternoon, Lim-san," Setsuna said. "May I sit down?"

"Of course," Ranma said, motioning for her to take the chair in front of his desk. He closed his lesson plan book, and looked at the emerald haired guidance counselor. She looked as she did when she arrived on Coruscant. "What can I do for you, Meiou-san?"

"You made an offer to chat; I'm taking you up on that offer." Setsuna leaned closer to him. "'Ranma Lim' is not exactly a common Japanese name, Ranma."

Ranma smiled. "My parents were not the typical Japanese parents, Setsuna. They had a more modern outlook on life and parenting. Thus, I was spared the trouble of an arranged marriage, which allowed me to focus on my abilities as a teacher and martial artist, without being tied to hearth and home until I find the right woman for me." It was a plausible explanation, without truly deceiving her. Although, throughout Japan, girls began sneezing for no plausible reason.

"You remind me of someone I knew long ago. He had the same beliefs as you, especially when it came to marriage and relationships," she quipped.

"I have nothing against the practice of pledging oneself to another in matrimony, as it tends to bring harmony to the universe. However, I would choose to wed when I am ready to, to the one person, for example, someone like you, Setsuna, that I am comfortable with. But not before that time, and certainly not to someone chosen by my parents."

"That's pretty much what Tarquin..." Her voice trailed off, when she saw the look on Ranma's face. "You are Tarquin Lim, yes?"

"I am. Or rather I was. Setsuna, I last saw you ten years ago, after Palpatine was rescued from Grievous' flagship during the siege of Coruscant. Before the Dark Times befell the Republic."

"Tarquin...or do you prefer Ranma?"

"Ranma will do."

"Ranma, that was over thirty thousand years ago," Setsuna said.

"Surely, you're not serious!"

"I am serious, Ranma. You know I am the Senshi of Time and eternal. What happened after I left Coruscant?" Setsuna smiled, as she added at the end "And don't call me 'Shirley'."

Ranma smiled, but, as he began recounting the fall of the Knights and the Republic, his countenance grew grim. He related how Anakin Skywalker had been seduced by the Dark Side, how the Jedi were slaughtered by their own clone troopers if they weren't quick enough. Tears came to his eyes when he talked about the death of the Younglings, and the desecration of the Jedi Temple. Setsuna walked around the desk, and hugged her former lover.

Ranma, finding his center restored by the simple act of Setsuna's hug, moved her chair around to his side of the desk with a simple application of the Force. He took a deep, cleansing breath before continuing. He began telling her of how the surviving Jedi were scattered, hunted down by the Emperor's Jedi hunters to extinction. He told her of his own experiences, fleeing from an Imperial fleet in a Corellian light freighter. As he explained it, his hyperdrive had torn a hole in the space-time continuum, throwing him into this star system, his ship damaged beyond repair by traveling through the wormhole, and hurtling towards the third planet of the system.

"It was a night, three thousand years ago, that I remember being in ancient Egypt, the night one of the youngest Pharaohs in history died. I looked up, and saw a flaming meteor hurtling through the skies."

"That would have been my ship, as I tried to control my entry and slow down so that I wouldn't burn up in the atmosphere. I will say this for Corellian Engineering, their light freighters are rugged little ships. As I was speeding through the atmosphere without any engines, I managed to abandon ship and eject near what is now Jusenkyo." Setsuna shuddered at the mention of the valley. Magic from the Silver Millennium, corrupted by Beryl and Metallia long after the fall of the Moon Kingdom, created the springs as a source of youma.
"Exhausted by my ordeals, and dehydrated by the extreme heat I felt in the ship, I set my things on the side of one of the pools, and leaned forward to take a drink. Next thing I know, the bank crumbles, and I'm in the pool. My last conscious thought, before waking in the body of Ranma Saotome, was the feeling of hands clawing at me, holding me down, and forcing my mouth open."

"Enemies of the Moon Kingdom, recently defeated, were the cause for the valley's curse," Setsuna explained. "What brought you to Japan after your awakening?"

"A tremor in the Force. As I was trekking across China, it was as though my absence in Juuban would bring a great catastrophe to this, the world of my rebirth."

"I see. As you may have guessed, Queen Serenity is dead, her daughter and her guardians sent forward in time."

"Then I should call upon Her Majesty, as an ambassador of the Old Republic."

"I wouldn't do that right now. The Senshi are, at best, an urban legend right now, dedicated protectors of," she chuckled at she continued, "love and justice. And it wouldn't do for an outsider to know their civilian identities."

"I see," Ranma said. "And yet, I know yours, Setsuna."

The Senshi of Time pursed her lips. "That's true. However, you knew me thirty millennia ago, and would have noticed my Force signature. After this morning's little accident, I decided that it would be better to tell you who I am." Setsuna smiled at the reborn Jedi. "And besides, I'd like to get reacquainted with my reborn Jedi bodyguard."

"As would I. And if the Senshi need my assistance against any enemy, my lightsaber is still as bright here, as it was on Coruscant."

"I shall let the Senshi know. Dinner tonight?"

"I would like that. Instant ramen gets boring after awhile."

"I have a meeting that shouldn't take long. I'll meet you here, say seven?"

"It's a date then," Ranma replied.


oooooooooooo


On the outer edge of the Sol System, a wormhole opened. As it was, the Hubble Space Telescope was pointed in the wrong direction to observe this historical moment. After close to a generation, the Empire's scientists and researchers in the Maw were able to duplicate the event that led to Tarquin's escape, and create a stable wormhole. A needle-nosed spacecraft slipped through the event horizon, and sped through the unassuming planetary system towards the third planet.

Passing through US Space Command's KH-11 satellite network, the Russian Cosmos satellites, and the various other planetary intelligence agencies' reconnaissance satellites, the small spaceship retraced Tarquin's entry to Earth as best as possible. The ship slipped through China's sophisticated air defense network undetected, and touched down outside of Jusenkyo.
With a hissing of pressurized gas being released, the rear hatch lowered, and the lone occupant exited the craft. Swathed in the dark robes of her position, the pilot looked around. "So, my old friend," she purred, "you were here." She smelled the air, and grinned ferally, her tail swishing in anticipation behind her. Before the Guide could even approach the visitor, she turned and returned to her ship. Lifting off, she headed east into the gathering darkness, towards Japan, guided by the Force.