Chapter Text
I felt like Anakin standing before the Council when he was denied his mastership as I stood in front of the group of Avengers who were sitting down on the couches in Tony Stark’s living room. I was facing directly Wanda and Natasha on one couch. Tony, Steve, Bruce, Vision and Bucky were on another couch looking at me.
I was calming my nerves and took a deep breath. “Trust in the Force and do not worry. Let your worries be absorbed into the Force and focus on the reality that is in front of you” I thought of these words that had been spoken to me by Obi Wan Kenobi during the height of the Clone Wars.
I found that these words helped me to calm me down and focus on opening my mind to Wanda. “You may begin Miss Maximoff. I am ready.” Was all I said to Wanda. I made contact with her lovely green eyes and opened my mind to the beautiful and powerful telepathic being known as Wanda or the Scarlet Witch.
I felt her presence probing into my mind and I let all of my memories be known to her. If I hid anything from her it would not be good for my cause.
I could feel her presence reviewing each and every one of my memories. She was gentle about her presence, but she did not rush through the memories. She took her time and watched them through and would occasionally rewind the memories to make sure she didn’t miss anything. It felt like an age and an eternity before she finished reviewing the memories and I heard her speak softly “Arjan, I am finished. You may sit down.”
I was so relieved to hear those words. It had felt like I had been standing for hours. My knees felt slightly weak. I sat down next to Wanda and Natasha. “If you’d rather have me out of the room while you discuss my story, I can go back out to the landing while you all deliberate.” I offered.
Tony nodded in assent. “We will not be long, I promise. We’ll call you in when we’re done” He spoke. I smiled and stepped out of the living room, back onto the landing pad. I put my hood up over my head. Not that there would be any Imperial probe droids running about New York City but I didn’t want to take the chance of having my identity being discovered.
I sat down outside the door in a meditative pose. I had not thought about those memories that Wanda had rummaged through for many years. The ones that brought the most emotional pain up were the ones to do with Order 66 and how I managed to survive and escape it. And the memory of when I found out my former master was now Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith stung particularly hard.
I wiped away a stray tear that made its way down my check and held back further tears. I had to remain strong and remain hopeful that the Avengers would assist me in the fight against the Empire. I also held hope that I could mend my friendship with Boba Fett. Though with his memory having been wiped, that would be a difficult road ahead.
I then thought of all the good times I had in the Jedi Order and even the harder times that I went through during the Clone Wars. I smiled at the memories of the inside jokes I shared with Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi. I had met Qui Gon Jinn a couple of times before his untimely death at the hands of Darth Maul. Personally I think he was one of the greatest Jedi that ever lived. I admired his Living Force philosophy and I incorporated his style of thinking into my own.
I admired how he defied the council to bring Anakin onboard. Now though I thought with a chagrin if that was a good idea, given what had happened with Anakin and his fall. I found myself slipping into a meditative trance. It was an old habit I got into whenever I found myself getting unusually nervous. I hoped that if the Avengers turned me down, that I could find another group to assist me. Otherwise, I supposed my best course of action would just be to find my way back to the galaxy where I came from and join the Rebel Alliance.
I meditated for a while but then my mind grew too restless and I snapped out of it. I stood up and admired the New York skyline from the perch of the Stark Tower landing pad. I took out my lightsaber and admired the craftsmanship.
I had to admit, I did a decent job of creating the handle. I had designed it to look a lot like Anakin’s lightsaber. And as it turned out the crystal that chose me was also blue. It had a great deft to it. The thought of Anakin and his betrayal however darkened my thoughts. I had barely survived my last encounter with him.
Though I was a fully trained Jedi Knight, I would never become as powerful as Anakin Skywalker or Obi Wan Kenobi. I could only do the best I could with the power and abilities that I had been trained to use. I would have to find Anakin’s weakness somehow if I were to duel him again. It would not be easy, of that I was sure. Unless I could find that weakness, a duel again with Vader could prove fatal for me. Then I would not be able to assist the Rebel Alliance with overthrowing the Galactic Empire.
I then could sense in the Force somebody coming to the door. And by the signature in the Force, it was Wanda. I could tell this without turning around. As she opened the door I spoke “Ah, Miss Maximoff, has the Avenger Council made their decision?”
I could sense Wanda’s surprise that I knew it was her but as I turned, she quickly schooled her features. “Yes, they have Arjan. We have decided to help you. Come in and give us a briefing of what you know the situation is.” I sighed an audible sigh of relief. That had been weighing on my mind for the past half hour.
Even though it was half an hour, it had felt more like 5 hours to me. I strode inside to the living room where the rest of the Avengers were gathered. “I appreciate you deciding to help me. I have to warn you, this will not be an easy fight. Vader as you know was my former master. His fall to the darkside sadly seems to have made him even more potent and powerful than when he was on the light. “ I paused and as Tony was about to speak up I raised a hand and said “I’ll get to your question in a moment Tony. Please let me finish.”
I continued, “I have determined we are going to have to figure out a way to neutralize him and take out Palpatine if we are to succeed in fighting the Empire. And we need to find out his weaknesses. You might ask me, if I am his former student why don’t I know his weaknesses? Well the easy answer is I have not spent a lot of time with him since he fell to the Dark Side, so I do not know how much I knew about him before his fall still stays true or has changed. And I’m afraid there is no easy way to do that unless I or somebody went undercover to his castle.”
“But yet, I know and I believe what you know of Vader, is that he is a hard man to fool. Just like me, he can very easily tell when one is lying to him or is not the person that present themselves to be.” I sighed. “Then we have the matter of taking on the Imperial Fleet and Army itself. We will need a larger group than ourselves, if we are to take on the Empire. I would propose we form an alliance with the Justice League and out of galaxy the Rebel Alliance. I would also suggest that we contact my acquaintance from another universe Freya and her Valkyries, as well as Kratos and his son Atreus. I think with all of our unique strengths, we may be able to help the Rebel Alliance defeat the Empire. “
Tony spoke up “That sounds like an impressive plan and you addressed by concern about Vader. And I think we should have an individual investigate Vader, but how would they do that without getting caught?”
I replied “I was thinking. Perhaps Natasha could infiltrate Vader’s castle on Mustafar. She is used to sneaking around and I suspect that if she played her cards right, she could get us a lot of valuable information without getting caught. Maybe she could impersonate an Imperial Officer for a day, get a uniform from an officer, obtain the information and then put the outfit back on the officer so that Vader would think that the officer did the leak. I believe Vader might have a lot of data stored on his castle mainframe that could be useful to us. I could come along in disguise as well to wipe or modify the memory of the officer as needed.”
Natasha spoke up “We need to find a way to get you and I into Mustafar without suspicion. We need to spend more time hashing out this plan, then we need to figure out how we are going to contact all of the allies you spoke of.” I nodded “ You’re correct. This is just plans that came off the top of my head. We need to spend a lot more time researching the Empire and how to tackle it and how to assemble our allies.”
Bruce then volunteered to work with Thor (who was coming back later this week) to see if he could gather further allies and possibly more information on the Empire.
Steve then voluenteered to train me in hand to hand combat and shield combat, in case I lost my lightsaber in battle. Natasha then agreed to help me train in the ways of espionage. I requested Clint Barton’s help in learning the bow and arrow. It would help if I were to use a boltcaster, on how to aim one.
Wanda then agreed to help me train up my mindscape defenses, so Vader can’t penetrate my mind, if I were to encounter him in combat. I then offered to train everybody on combat against a lightsaber, so they know how Vader would most likely fight, as well as force lightning, which Palpatine would most likely use.
I then felt tired after the cross dimensional travel, being mentally interrogated and then starting to come up with plans to fight against the Empire. Wanda noticed this and said smiling “It appears our new Jedi guest is tired, let me show you to your room Arjan.” I gave her a grateful look and Tony said “Good night Obi Wan, are you sure you don’t want to stay up for move night? We have popcorn and snacks?”
I chuckled at the nickname (ironic, I haven’t told them that Obi Wan and I were good friends during the Clone Wars) and said “I am quite sure. Perhaps tomorrow night, but for now I need more rest. Good night all!” I waved and exchanged good nights with the rest of the Avengers before following Wanda.
As we took the elevator to the apartment floor of Stark Tower, Wanda spoke “I misjudged you when you first arrived. I hope you can forgive me. After reading your mind, your bravery and perserverence astounded me, especially after that Order 66.” I sighed. “You saw me at my best of times and worst of times. You saw my meltdowns Wanda. I am not a perfect Jedi. I tried to follow the Code the best I could, but yet in the end, the Order fell.”
“I saw those meltdowns, but what I saw was a warrior that refused to give into the temptations of the Dark Side of the Force. Most men here on this planet would give in, but you remained strong. You have much to be proud of Arjan.”
I smiled. “I am no superhero, like you are. I just did my best to help people across the galaxy.” I said. “The work you and the Avengers do far surpasses mine.” After a short pause she spoke, “I think you’re a superhero just as much as we are.” She countered. The elevator dinged and the door flew open.
She led me down a long corridor to the fourth door on the left. She punched in a code (The code is 26-10-84, she let me know) and the door opened to reveal a room that would put most five star hotels to shame. It had a king sized bed, a couch, a 50 inch TV on the wall and in the kitchen area, a stovetop, a sink, a microwave and a refrigerator. Another door opened to reveal a spacious bathroom with shower and the window had a great view of New York proper.
“This is amazing. This is way better than my room at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.” I gushed. Wanda chuckled. “I bet. There is some night clothes in the dresser, and Tony Stark will have some regular clothes in your size and appropriate footwear sent up tomorrow. The bathroom comes stocked with toiletries. Is there anything else you need?”
I smiled at the beautiful auburn haired superhero. “No there is not. Thank you so much Wanda for you kindness. I am looking forward to training with you tomorrow. Good night.”
Wanda smiled back. “I am looking forward to training with you as well. Good night Arjan.” And with that she turned and walked back down the hallway to her own room. I closed the door and immediately headed to my bed and turning down the air conditioning to a nice 61 degrees. I was so tired, I did not bother to undress. I just took off my boots and clambered into the comfortable bed and passed out, thinking how fortunate I was. I was greatly looking forward to the next day, to get to know the Avengers properly and to start working on our plans to fight the Empire.