Zek frowned at his reflection, then sighed, reaching for his contacts. Ariel leaned over his shoulder,watching him silently.

"What *are* you doing?" she asked. Zek nearly smacked into her as he jumped in surprise. He sighed in relief.

"Don�t EVER do that to me," he growled. The Jedi just mock-pouted, a slight smirk tingeing her face as she studied him. One brown eye, one green eye, and a extension-enhanced ponytail.

"Playing at being Zekk? Or is this another bizarre Earthan ritual like your Sci-Fi convention?" she teased. Zek glared, turning away and back to the mirror.

"It�s called Halloween. Kids dress up in costumes and go from door-to-door saying �Trick or treat�, and we give them candy. There�s not too many kids around here, so we�re going to a Halloween party at a friend�s house. Everyone is supposed to come dressed as their favorite fictional character." He popped the other green contact lens in, then turned to face her.

"And your favorite is Zekk?" she asked,half-snickering.

Zek sighed, "No, not if you paid Darth Maul to run him through a leaf-shredder face-first,"he growled.

Ariel frowned. Zek reached for a hair-clip, hooking it around the ponytail�s band. He turned,giving her a �Who am I?� shrug. She shook her head, not getting it. Zek sighed, walking over to the closet. He slid open the door, gesturing with a bow at the costume hanging there. Ariel spat out a curse, narrowing her eyes viciously.

"You are not serious," she snarled. Zek grinned.

"Always been a fan of the bad guys. Besides, Exar Kun was one good-looking badass, like Antonio Banderas from Desperado with a lightsaber."

Ariel shuddered, walking toward the door. "You people are strange. The sooner we find a way home, the happier I�ll be." Zek chuckled, closing the closet door as Aliya appeared in the doorway.

"Lemme guess, you showed her the costume," she commented, leaning against the door frame. Zek laughed, nodding. Aliya sighed, rolling her eyes skyward. "Zek, Zek, Zek, what am I going to do with you?" she asked in mock dismay. He tilted his head at her, lifting his eyebrows playfully.

"Dress up like Nomi Sunrider and go with me?"

Aliya laughed, "No. I�m not going to another one of Mark�s Halloween parties in a dress-alike with you. Raggedy-Ann and Andy two years ago was bad enough."

"How about Qel-Droma in drag then?" he asked.

"How about I paint you green and say you�re Yoda and Darth Vader�s love-child," she retorted.

"Ouch," he muttered.

"Anyway, I already have a costume," she said in a mysterious tone, walking away down the hall.

Zek watched her disappear before he could ask what, then shrugged. With her warped sense of humor, whatever it was, it would be good. Hopefully not Boba Fett again, that one had been a bit much. It was funny when she ripped off the helmet after winning for best costume though, shaking out her ponytail and earning cheers around the room. He chuckled, returning to fighting with his contacts as the left one threatened to pop out.

This would be a year to remember.

-----------------------

Kiraan chuckled as Zek came down the stairs in full Exar Kun regalia.

"So? how�s it look?" Zek asked, turning and showing off the outfit. Kiraan applauded, and Zekk just glowered.

"Do you have any idea how far in bad taste that is?" he growled.

Zek just grinned, "Yeah, but Richie�s gonna go dressed as Luke, and Jimmy�s supposedly coming as Darth Maul." Kiraan growled softly, then snorted.

"Oh, yeah, forgot, don�t like Maul," Zek muttered.

"Anyway, his boyfriend is coming as Obi-wan, so they�re doing �Sith Academy� Maul and Obi this year. They�re both about as straight as a mountain road, but they�re fun," Zek rambled, grabbing his coat off the rack.

"ALI! come on! Party starts at seven!" he shouted up the stairs. A faint �Gimmie a sec,�filtered down the stairs.

"You three sure you don�t want to come? It�ll be fun, plus, you already got the best costumes there," Zek asked with a shrug.

"Maybe not," Aliya said, coming down the stairs. Zek turned toward her, and his jaw nearly hit the floor. Even Kiraan drew back in surprise with a mrowling noise.

Aliya smiled, dropping the hood of the robe and taking in their reactions.

"I got inspired this year," she said, straightening her collar. "I even got the ears right," she said, pushing her hair back to reveal pointed ears.

Kiraan�s jaw nearly hit the floor with the rest of the room as he studied her costume.

Yellow-gold contacts, pointed ears, face and neck covered in tan body-paint. Kiraan lifted a curious eyebrow upon recognizing the Jedi robes though.

"You make a nice Trelari," he commented absently, still stunned. She smiled, pulling the robe�s hood back up.

"How..." Zek said, still lost.

"Ariel let me borrow her robe, and the ears came from your Trekkie-buddies. The eyes came from Kyle and Jimmy, he keeps extra sets for role-playing. And yes, I made sure they were new, not used," she said, pushing her brother�s jaw shut by the chin. "Now let�s go, the party starts at seven," she said, straightening her hood and heading for the door.

"On second thought," Kiraan began, stopping them at the door. "Maybe it would do us all some good to get out into society a little." Both his apprentices and the two in costume looked at him in surprise.

-------------------------

"This is all you and your fake pointed ears� fault, you know," Ariel growled accusingly at Aliya. Kiraan lifted an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged, falling silent. The quartet of humans and one alien ascended the steps to the loft apartment where the party was being held. Zek as Kun, Aliya as a Trelari, Zekk in his Jedi robes, and Ariel sulking behind in something borrowed from Aliya�s closet. Kiraan rumbled amusement at her foul reaction to the concept of pretending to be someone else.

"Ariel, I have seen this Babylon 5, and you make a plausible Susan Ivanova," he rumbled. She narrowed her eyes and let her breath out in a hiss. He chuckled.

"Complete with foul temperament," Kiraan added, then fell silent as the door opened. "Behave," he warned quietly, then turned to look at their greeter.

"Ali! Zek! oh, my two favorite freaks! Ooh, Exar Kun? now there�s a statement. Good thing there�s no Kyp this year. Ali?! oh my dear, what an amazing costume! What is it supposed to be?" the young man with spiked blond hair with dark roots rambled at the door. He was dressed in a moisture-farmer�s loose tunic and legging boots, and Kiraan guessed this was Richie. Kiraan rumbled a chuckle, drawing his attention.

"Ooh, and who are your friends?" the streak-haired Richie nearly purred to Zek.

Kiraan drew himself taller, narrowing his eyes dramatically.

"I am Kyrraan of Dranthaal, of the Trelari, and this is my apprentice, Zekk." He said, gesturing toward Zekk. "And his sister, Ariel, who reluctantly joined Earth Force a few moments before arriving." Ariel glared, and Richie chuckled.

"She refuses to believe that she makes an acceptable Susan Ivanova," Kiraan added, and Ariel scowled daggers at him.

"Babe, brand me Marcus Cole, because you So look fine in blue," Richie said, bowing and pulling her hand up to kiss the back of it gracefully. The Jedi royal fought off a blush unsuccessfully, pulling her hand away sheepishly.

"Um," she managed, looking away, "Thanks." Kiraan chuckled, looking toward Zekk with a smirk. Zek, Aliya and Zekk were already moving past Richie through the huge sliding door. Richie gracefully bowed and gestured gallantly for Ariel to enter, and she started blushing again.

Kiraan chuckled again as she hurried past him. Richie stood straight again, laughing lightly at her panic. He looked at Kiraan strangely for a moment, "Dude, amazing costume, but I thought Kiraan�s apprentice was that prince guy, Ethan," he said. Kiraan restrained a growl, only nodding.

"Zekk is Ethan�s descendant. I *am* over four-hundred years old," he said. Richie nodded, then smiled.

"About time someone picked some Fanfic characters to dress as, man. Always welcome, always welcome," he said,gesturing Kiraan inside. The ancient Jedi chuckled to himself, peering curiously at the group within the apartment.

-----

Loud music, dancing lights, dancing people, and familiar outfits on strange people. -This could be interesting,- he mused. He caught sight of two men necking in the corner, one dressed as a Jedi padawan, the other in black robes with smudged red and black makeup. He shook his head, generally ignoring them.

-This is worse than a Falleen orgy,- he briefly mused, losing count of the open alcohol, open groping, and open blouses here and there.

One man dressed as Han Solo was hitting on a girl wearing Boba Fett�s armor, and Kiraan paused,then snickered. After a while, he lost himself in the crowd, enjoying the strange sensation of being around so many people for the first time in a long, long time.

A midget dressed as Yoda danced past him, doing a few disco steps along the way. Kiraan lost it completely, laughing aloud. Someone dressed as Xanatos looked at him strangely, then moved away through the crowd. It took him a moment too long to realize it WAS Xanatos. He shoved past two Oolas and a Thrawn, trying to spot him again. He caught a fleeting glimpse of him vanishing into another room.

He moved through the crowd with his usual near-feline Jedi grace, desperately hoping he was just imagining things. He reached the doorway, and saw a long table of assorted food and drinks, and a figure in black shaking something into a bowl of punch. He moved up behind him silently.

"I believe the punch has already been spiked several times over," he rumbled behind the figure in black. The Jedi-quick spin and reflexive reaching for an absent weapon confirmed his worst suspicions. Xanatos froze, staring up at the ancient Jedi master in stark shock and blank surprise. He finally blinked blankly, the information before him sinking in.

"K...Kiraan?" he asked, stunned. Kiraan let a soft growl of confirmation escape, knowing it wouldn�t be heard over the music in the other room.

"What the Zrall are you doing here, and HOW in the Zrall did you get here?" Kiraan growled. Xanatos blinked again, then looked around uneasily.

"I, um, I�m not sure. All I remember is creeping around the temple at night, then I found this big, glowing hole in the wall. I, well, I was stupid enough to touch it, and it pulled me here."

Kiraan growled in disbelief.

"I�m serious! It�s the truth! I was creeping about the temple a few years after I escaped on Telos, and there was this glowing vortex-thing in the wall behind Obi-wan�s closet," Xanatos insisted. "I fell out into some sort of bar or club of some sort, but it was empty. I lit out a window, I.. I didn�t know where I was, and I had no idea how to get back, so I panicked."

Kiraan vaguely remembered the open window in the kitchen a few days prior, and asking Aliya about it. He nodded acceptance.

"That doesn�t excuse you spiking the drinks, especially when there�s already enough lose alcohol to inebriate all of Corellia flowing around here."

Xanatos snorted, "I wasn�t spiking with Booze," he said, grinning a malicious lop-sided smirk. Kiraan lifted an eyebrow questioningly. Xanatos held up the little white glass vial with a black etching of vines around it.

"Bloodthorn powder, a little something from the all-purpose Sith Cookbook," Xanatos gloated.

Kiraan snatched the vial from him, grabbing him by the shirt-front with his other hand and slamming him back against the edge of the table.

"You Svrikh-hearted, rotten little..." he trailed off, noticing the eyes that had turned toward them. He released Xanatos, growling menacingly.

"You are coming back to the club, and you�re going to show me exactly where you came out, or I�m going to stuff you back into whatever pit of hell you crawled out of," he said quietly, an edge of steel to his threat. Xanatos gulped visibly, nodding once. Kiraan growled with a smirk on his face, casually placing a hand on Xanatos� shoulder and guiding him out of the room like a friend, but with a vicious force-grip on his shoulder to prevent him becoming creative in their retreat.

Aliya and Zekk noticed Kiraan arguing with someone, and came over to investigate.

"Hey, Kiraan,what�s up?" Aliya asked, then let her further questions fade out at noticing his scowl at the person he was escorting from the room. Zekk looked confused, but Aliya definitely recognized the dark hair, blue eyes and circular scar.

"Aliya, Zekk, this is Xanatos, the real Xanatos, not a drunken frat-boy in costume like the rest of this bunch," Kiraan said, keeping his hold on Xanatos� shoulder.

The fallen Jedi grumbled a comment, faking a smile and glaring at Kiraan sideways.

"How....?" Aliya began, but trailed off, at a loss for words. Xanatos snickered and shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Dove," he said. Aliya squeaked at the pet name.

"How did you.." she began. He chuckled.

"You�re human, you leak thoughts like a sieve. Besides," he smiled unpleasantly, "You look terrible as a Trelari, and you�re only doing it because you�re hot for a certain Jedi master who�s about as much a Jedi as I am a Wookiee."

Kiraan yanked him back by the shoulder with an angry growl, but Aliya stepped forward, smacking Xanatos across the face viciously. The SMACK somehow found its way over the ambient din of the music and talking, making several people look at the quartet oddly.

"Don�t you *ever* talk to me like that again," she hissed in the sudden quiet-spell following the crack of palm-on-cheek.

Kiraan lifted an eyebrow at her curiously, somewhere between being impressed and knowing he should reprimand her for striking him. Even if he did deserve it.

Aliya stormed off, yanking the hood of the robe up to hide her makeup and her furious flushing. The crowd returned to ignoring them, and Kiraan dragged Xanatos toward the door, with Zekk following uncertainly.

Kiraan casually slammed Xanatos off the hallway wall as they passed through the door. He flicked a cautious glance around, then flexed out his claws to their full length, holding them up only bare millimeters from Xanatos� face.

"You ever threaten, harm, or offend any of my apprentices or my friends again, and I�ll make sure you acquire more than just that one little scar to remember me by," he growled quietly in a threatening whisper, running the backs of his claws down Xanatos� scarred cheek. Xanatos� blue eyes went wider for a moment, then he breathed in sharply as Kiraan nicked his chin with a claw-point, drawing a tiny bead of blood.

Kiraan released him, gesturing toward the stairs. Xanatos grudgingly headed down the stairs,followed by Kiraan and Zekk. A growl from Kiraan once out on the street dispelled any thought of bolting from the two Jedi. Kiraan escorted Xanatos down the block to the club, and the trio disappeared into the growing void-space outside the club before reappearing at the door.

---------------------

Aliya sat sulking in the bedroom, seated on a pile of coats, picking at a fake nail she�d trimmed to blunt points to make pseudo-claws. Dressed like this, she almost felt the urge to mew like a dejected kitty. A hand brushed her shoulder, and she looked up into foreign green eyes in her brother�s face.

"Hey," he said simply, standing next to her.

She sighed, "Hey."

"Mind if I join you?" he asked, sitting down on the corner of the bed. She forced a smile.

"Sure, I kinda ruined my enjoyment of this party, why not everyone else�s�?"

Zek sighed, tugging on her ponytail. "Hey, come on, it�s not that bad," he said, trying to cheer her up. "At least Kiraan liked your costume." She sighed in exasperation and disgust, dropping her head to her knees.

"No, he didn�t. No one did. The only person who really noticed was Xanatos, and I nearly decked him for it."

"Xanatos?" Zek asked, confused.

"Homicidal guy from the Jedi Apprentice books. Apparently he found a way here like Kiraan and the looney-toon twins did," Aliya explained, then thought over the statement.

"Wait. If he got here, then the portal is still open. There might be some way to hold open the vortex on this end to send Kiraan and the others back!" Both twins were on their feet and heading for the door.

"Oh, wait, Ariel!" Aliya said, stopping to search the crowd for her.

"Ali, you�ll never find her in this mess," Zek said, nodding at the crowd. Aliya looked at the mass of people again, frowning.

Flashing lights, loud music, free-flowing alcohol. Ariel was long gone by now, either lost in a corner or inebriated beyond coherent thought. Either way, she had a feeling she�d be okay, as long as Richie wasn�t playing �booze-the-newbie� again. Oh well, she was a big girl, and a Jedi.

"Okay, we�re gone. We�ll come back later to find her I guess," Aliya said, sighing and heading for the door.

---------------------

Xanatos fumed, parking himself on a barstool and crossing his arms over his chest.

"No," he said flatly and defiantly.

Kiraan snarled, topaz-gold eyes starting to glow angrily. He slammed one hand onto the bar next to Xanatos, the claws of the other digging into the side of the stool next to the fallen Jedi�s thigh. He leaned to within barely a few inched of the human�s face, snarling.

"I am closer than you ever want to know to shredding your face from your skull and strangling you to death with it," Kiraan growled in the inhuman tone he only used when well and truly beyond furious.

"Not only because you tried to kill Qui-gon, but because you�re a sneaking, stinking little Przat." He snorted in Xan�s face, then backed away. "The only reason I didn�t kill you when you turned away was that I gave Qui-gon my word," he added quietly, menacingly.

"Qui-gon is still alive in my world, all that crap in that video-thing hasn�t happened," Xanatos said,a faint note of pleading to his tone. "If the portal is still open, then it�ll lead back to my time, my world, my reality, where he�s still alive." Kiraan looked at him strangely, trying to hide the stricken look that told he hadn�t realized that fact. He walked away a few paces, his demeanor passing from threatening to nervous.

"Think of it, Kiraan. A world where you�ll have a good twenty years before Naboo, before the Empire, before that Skywalker/Vader person was even born!" Xanatos said, pouring his best selling-voice into it. Kiraan flinched, growling.

"How do you know of all this? It�s not part of your world," he asked suspiciously.

Xanatos gulped visibly, then resumed.

"I�ve been here for almost a week, I�ve seen things, heard things. When I figured out a few fragments of what had happened, I started researching everything I could. Books, movies, tele-vid things, graphic novels, comics. I�m probably the only person from our universe to know more about the past and future than even the ancient Jedi seers."

Kiraan watched him warily, thinking. He�d been doing the same thing, researching their universe through this world�s fictionalized eyes. He growled softly, considering. This wasn�t the Xanatos he�d known, he was too young. His timeline�s Xanatos was a good thirty-five-plus years older, and a grandfather to an immensely powerful Dark-Force adept named Zhane. This Xanatos was a mischievous little monster, still full of dark potential of his own, not an old man standing behind a child�s shoulder, watching a Jedi Knight die.

Kiraan rumbled softly to himself, turning away from Xanatos. "This is not our world, but my oath still holds. I can�t kill you," he rumbled. He turned slowly, facing Xanatos. "I know you do not wish to return to your own world. I�m not sure it would be safe to return you, knowing as much as you do."

Kiraan sighed wearily, weighing his decision against the good of the universe in general. "Help me, and I�ll leave you alone here," he finally said, and Zekk�s jaw dropped.

"Master Kiraan, you can�t..." he began.

Kiraan silenced him with a gesture, then turned back to Xanatos.

"You�ve offered me a world of the past, but it isn�t my past. I can no more enter your world than I can survive here without the parallel universe formed within this area. Yes, I know you�ve noticed it too, and you seem to be able to live outside the boundary, but I cannot. I am alien here, and an Alien. I cannot survive on this planet long without returning to this place. My powers do not work beyond these few city blocks, and the air grows thin for me the further I go from this place.

"I am tethered, and neither I nor any Trelari in history has ever been able to stand the feeling of being trapped, of being caged in by the air itself." Kiraan paused, looking back to the wall of the alcove Xanatos had indicated. He moved closer to the wall with slow, wary steps. He reached out cautiously, then touched the wall.

As always, it was solid. No vortex, no portal, no glowing whirlpool of blue like the archway on Yavin 4, just stucco and brick. He sighed, pulling his hand away.

"Open it. Touch the wall," Kiraan said.

Xanatos opened his mouth to protest, stammering. "I can�t, I don�t know how! You saw it, it�s solid brick! You just touched it!" he said. Kiraan just turned to him with a sigh.

"It won�t open for me. I�ve a feeling it will open for you, though," he said.

The younger human balked, shaking his head in negative.

"No, even if it does, I�m not going back. They almost had me before, what if I fall out of the vortex and right into Yoda�s lap?" Kiraan suddenly growled, his eyes going viciously luminous. He snagged Xanatos by the front of the shirt, dragging him toward the wall with an angry growl.

"AAaaaaaaaaaah!!" Xanatos cried, then was snapped toward the wall as Kiraan switched his grip to the fallen Jedi�s wrist. He continued his momentum, slamming Xanatos into, or rather THROUGH the wall, keeping his grip on the boy�s wrist. The screaming abruptly fell silent as he passed through the wall in a aura of blue lightning and swirls of luminous color.

"WOAH!" Aliya exclaimed, frozen in the entry-way, staring at Kiraan�s act. Kiraan�s arm was now embedded in the wall up to his elbow, with an aura of colored light-streamers and crackling blue energy around his arm where it met the wall.

"That is way cool!" Aliya managed, stunned and amazed.

"Very Speilberg-ian," Zek mused, awestruck. "And Lucas thinks he�s hot with ILM? Man, he should be here now," Zek added, amazed and intrigued, stepping closer.

Kiraan looked at him over his shoulder with a smirk, then abruptly snarled with effort, yanking his arm back through the wall, still holding a very stunned-looking Xanatos by the arm.

Kiraan released Xanatos, half-tossing him into the middle of the room. Xanatos staggered, obviously in shock.

"Well?" Kiraan asked, "Did you find Yoda�s lap?" he added with a sarcastic smirk. Xanatos blinked uneasily, slowly recovering.

"You..." he finally managed, breathing erratically. "You scared the sh.." he paused, wheezing. "What in the... No, WHY in the... did you do that for?" he gasped, still stunned.

Kiraan smirked, "Testing the portal. I knew it would let you back through somehow, I just wanted to test my instinct," he said. Xanatos looked at him in disbelief, then slipped into a snarl.

"You..." he started with an angry snarl. Kiraan smirked.

"Besides, I promised Qui-gon I wouldn�t kill you. I said absolutely nothing about torturing, injuring, physically or psychologically maiming you. Though I don�t believe this particular form of torture came up during that discussion," he added, nodding toward the still-glowing wall.

Xanatos looked ready to tear Kiraan�s throat out, if he even briefly believed for a second he could take the ancient Jedi master. His shoulders heaved with the obvious restraint of his homicidal intent, glaring at Kiraan with enough searing hate that even Aliya across the room took a step back.

"Put it away boy, I�ve faced down worse than you before breakfast on a fair day," Kiraan growled, arms crossed over his chest, seemingly invulnerable to the Dark-infused glare.

Xanatos slowly collected himself, the faint flicker of angry blue energy around his fingers fading. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and straightening his shoulders with obvious effort. He reopened his icy-blue eyes, still angry, but controlled enough to think better about fighting Kiraan Force-to-Force. Kiraan only gave him a small tilt of the head as acceptance of his restraint.

"Now," Kiraan said, taking a deep breath, narrowing his topaz eyes at Xanatos. "What was over there?" he asked, nodding toward the wall. Xanatos took a few more controlled breaths before speaking.

"Obi-wan�s closet, in the Jedi temple, on the other side of where I left. I�d recognize those drab browns and taupes anywhere. Plus, he opened the closet door just before you pulled be back through," he said slowly, thoughtfully, still fighting his temper and indignation. He smiled oddly, then snorted a laugh.

"I have to wonder what�s happening over there right now. I probably gave him one hell of a scare," he chuckled.

Kiraan just nodded, allowing him the malicious chuckle and smirk without reproach. He�d earned a few moments of dark-wallowing for being Kiraan�s guinea-pig on his portal theory. Kiraan was just glad that he�d been right, otherwise, he�d have had one Zrall of a Force-healing to perform on someone without a Light-side molecule in his body. He�d probably have ended up killing him eventually anyway, oath or no oath. At least now the boy knew even Kiraan had limits to his tolerance for fools.

"But what about us? How do we get back if it�s Xanatos� timeline? The Jedi Temple�s been rubble for the past fifty years in out world, and our portal was on Yavin 4, not Coruscant," Zekk said. "I mean, I used to live on Coruscant, I saw what was left of the temple."

Xanatos looked bewildered, then a flicker of something passed through his eyes. "Wait a minute, you�re THAT Zekk? The Shadow Academy Zekk? The gorgeous bastard I was wishing I�d gotten to meet before the Jedi ruined you?" Xanatos asked. Zekk shrugged with a bewildered and half-hearted sheepish smirk.

"DAMMIT!" Xanatos suddenly shouted, stomping and kicking over a chair. He continued ranting for a minute, cursing and kicking another chair, then collected himself. He raked a gloved hand trough his long hair, pushing it out of his face and looking at Zekk in disbelief. "I don�t believe this. I actually LIKED you, I liked a damn, sorry Jedi convert!" Xanatos said, then shook his head.

"So, you go from a gorgeously honed weapon of the dark side to being..." he looked up at Kiraan, then snorted in a snicker "A Rogue�s Apprentice?"

Zekk looked defensive, preparing a retort, but Xanatos couldn�t hold out for an answer. He burst out laughing, nearly doubling over as he looked up at Kiraan, then to Zekk, then started laughing even harder.

"Rogue�s Apprentice!" he gasped between laughs like a private joke, then nearly fell over, holding himself semi-upright with his hands on his knees, fighting to catch his breath. "Oh, oh this is too good. This is better than scaring the crap out of Obi-wanker. This is hilarious," he said from beneath a curtain of dark hair, catching his breath from his laughing fit.

"Oh, oh no, oh dear universe! Dare I say it? Dare I make this day complete?" he suddenly said, standing up straight. "Dear, dear Zekk, there�s something I must tell you about your former master. Something very, very important," Xanatos said, forcing himself to calm slightly. Kiraan bristled uneasily, and Zekk narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"You must know, first, when he was a young man, he had another name, an embarrassing name, and many people who thought he was a gangly, whiny little freak with the social graces of a drunken Gungan. That name," he started chuckling again. "That name, that hated name, was," he paused, snickering again.

"WORMIE!!" he finally spat out, then promptly rolled to the floor laughing histerically.

Zekk wrinkled his face in confusion, then looked to Kiraan and shrugged. Aliya was already laughing to tears. Zekk and Zek looked at them both strangely.

"It was, Zekk, it�s in the books," Aliya said, fanning her face in an attempt to catch her breath. "His friends on Tattooine used to call him... that," she said, then burst out laughing again, covering her mouth with her hands in an attempt to stop laughing.

Kiraan just rumbled a sigh, watching them both.

"Xanatos," he rumbled thoughtfully, "I believe it�s time you went home, before you do any more damage." Xanatos was so lost in fighting to control his laughing fit to realize what he�d said until Kiraan helped him up from the floor. His face suddenly fell as Kiraan tightened his grip on his shoulder, the other hand grabbing the seat of Xanatos� pants. Xanatos barely had time to utter a "Woah! wait!" as Kiraan heaved him through the faintly-glowing wall with a growling grunt of effort and a nudge with the force.

Xanatos� icy blue eyes went wide in panic, then he instinctively flinched as he pseudo-collided with the wall, disappearing in a crackle of blue lightning and colored light-streamers. The wall pseudo-moved in a ripple as the space-time next to it closed behind Xanatos. The faint opalescent glow of the wall faded to common tan stucco. Kiraan experimentally placed a hand on the wall, and found it solid. He sighed deeply, realizing that he might have just thrown away their only chance of going home.

Zekk stepped over curiously, looking bewildered.

"Are we stuck here now?" he asked. Kiraan sighed again, pulling his hand away from the wall, flexing his claws with a rumble of uncertainty.

"I don�t know," he said honestly, sounding slightly frightened beneath the years of voice-training. Zek rested a hand on Zekk�s shoulder reassuringly, and Aliya sighed from next to them, still in costume and still confused. Kiraan shoved a lock of hair out of Zekk�s face, trying to smile. His attempt was ignored, and he sighed deeply.

Kiraan suddenly felt two arms wrap around his left arm, a face pressing to his shoulder in a comforting hug. He looked down, lifting an eyebrow curiously at Aliya, who suddenly backed away, seeming to realize how silly comforting a Jedi master looked. She also realized from his smirk and the bronze smudge on his shoulder that she was still in costume. Her hand went guiltily to her cheek, where she was already blushing through the makeup.

Kiraan just rumbled a soft chuckle, running the back of a finger down her now normal-colored cheek.

"I don�t give a Drzat what Xanatos says, you did make a fair Trelari," he said softly, almost sounding fatherly again. She suddenly blushed even more furiously beneath the makeup, starting to look orange. She fled for the stairs, pulling off one of the fake pointed ears as she turned the corner.

Kiraan chuckled again, and Zek looked at the stairs with a strange frown. Zekk just shook his head, then looked around the room curiously.

"Um, by the way, where�s Ariel?"

Zek, Zekk and Kiraan looked at each other strangely, then a look of panic hit. The trio headed for the door, rushing back to the party.

----------------------

Ariel was well past wasted, her head lying in Richie�s lap while he tickled her nose with a daisy from the bouquet in the corner. She giggled in a very un-imperial manner, sighing and batting at the flower absently. The Maul/Obi couple had disappeared, and from the near-empty room, most of the party had cleared out in the short time they�d been gone.

The trio stopped dead in the doorway, surveying the vastly different scene with surprise. Kiraan glanced around, then looked toward the second room where the buffet table was, remembering. He crossed the distance quickly as Zek and Zekk made their way toward the inebriated royal Lady. As he�d feared, the punch bowl was drained dry. Even in a parallel universe, Bloodthorn powder was just as effective. He sighed heavily in a silent �Oh, no,� hoping desperately that Ariel hadn�t drank any.

Zekk had Ariel on her feet, well, mostly. It took both of them to hoist her to a standing position. Zek glowered at Zekk.

"She�s your sister, just use the damn force or something to carry her," he grumbled near a whisper as Ariel nearly dragged him to the floor trying to say hi to Kiraan.

"It doesn�t work this far from the club. Kiraan�s does, mine doesn�t. Long story. Just heave your side a little and.." Zekk began quietly, then Ariel passed out completely.

"Awww sh...," they both grumbled, knowing full well a passed-out drunk is twice as heavy as a sleeping person, and three times as heavy as a half-awake person who can walk on their own with help.

Kiraan rumbled a chuckle, watching them struggle for a moment before approaching Richie.

"So, how did the party go after we left?" he asked. Richie looked up, then sighed in disgust.

"Downhill, man, seriously downhill. Somebody spiked the punch with something, and then all hell broke loose. We had hallucinations, drunks, sex-fiends, oh, and one boy I KNOW is straight as an arrow sucked into playing the triple tango with the Sith Academy lovebirds. I mean, those two got worse than usual with their horny little selves. Kyle and Jimmy have NEVER gone triple before."

Richie shook his head, "Whatever they dumped in that punch, they could make a fortune off on the streets, man. It�s gotta be experimental or something to set people off like that," he said.

Kiraan fought off a chuckle, reminding himself that Jedi didn�t chuckle at other�s misfortune.... but it was funny.

"It wasn�t experimental, it�s just very old," he mused quietly, then realized he shouldn�t be mentioning it. Richie looked up curiously, and Kiraan knew he had to finish it.

"It�s called Bloodthorn. It�s an herbal hallucinogen and aphrodisiac, basically, it�s like your marijuana and Viagra combined. It doesn�t grow anywhere around here, it�s limited to a small patch of land deep in the jungle." -Of Yavin 4, transplanted there by one of Kun�s followers from a snippet taken from the Republic Arboretum,- he continued mentally.

Dren stuff was a weed on Yavin 4, no one realized what it was. It ran wild like the Earthan Kudzu, overrunning temples and swallowing monuments whole in the space of decades. Luckily, it was still far enough away from the Jedi Academy that no one would pay much attention to it yet.

The question of where Xanatos got it suddenly came to mind, knowing it only grows in a total of five places in the known galaxy. The arboretum, Yavin 4, Ossus, Kyronis, and.... Flaming hell, Telos. Kiraan almost laughed. Telos, the boy grew up with the Sith-spawned weeds. No wonder, it somehow seemed fitting. He shook off the thoughts, realizing the mirror-image Zek and Zekk were still trying to figure out how to get the Lady out the door while keeping a shred of decorum and not carry her like a sack of potatoes.

He snickered, patting Richie on the shoulder and moving over to help them.

"Allow me," he said, bending over and picking Ariel up from where they�d sat her down on the floor. He hefted her over his shoulder with only normal Trelari strength, he didn�t need the force to lift one tiny human female, no matter how heavy with alcohol she was.

He did concede that even with a Jedi metabolism, she was going to have one massive hangover in the morning. Of course, as part of her training, he�d have to let her find her own way to alleviate it. A just punishment for himself, putting up with a hung-over royal Lady. He should never have left her alone, even assuming that Zek and Aliya would be there to watch her.

He sighed, carefully walking down the stairs and heading for the door. They both needed to sleep this day off. He crossed into the void-space, followed by the doubles, and they reappeared next to the door. Kiraan looked back at the void-space from the inside uneasily. It seemed further when they�d crossed it this time, as if the void had grown again. He shook it off, hoping it would shrink in a few days like the last time. It was probably just a side-effect of his little play-time with Xanatos, stressing-out the portal as Aliya put it once.

He set Ariel down on her bed gently after reaching her room. With a whispered goodnight, he turned out the lights and left her sleep it off. The nagging worry of what Xanatos might do with his knowledge of this world still bothered him. He knew deep in his essence, even without the Force, that this wasn�t going to be the end of this adventure. Xanatos would be back, and he�d bring trouble.

Kiraan let out a rumbling sigh, wearied by the day. He�d have to worry about all that later. Right now, well, right now, he was going to sleep, and not even Exar Kun, Naga Sadow or the entire Sith Order of the past five-thousand years could stop him.

-I�m a cranky old man, and four-hundred year old Jedi or not, even I need my sleep,- he grumbled, waving a vague answer to Zekk�s goodnight as he passed.

He peered into Aliya�s room as he passed, and saw her rubbing furiously at her makeup still. With the makeup off, the ears gone, and the lenses replaced by her own enchanting brown, she looked miserable. She liked pretending to be someone else, he realized, she wasn�t sure being herself was ever good enough.

His normally impassive face grew sad, he knew that feeling all too well. Force-illusions and arrogance kept him from admitting he was really just what he was, a terrified old man trapped in a world he didn�t know or understand.

He wanted to go home, to go back thirty years to his real home, Kyronis. He wanted to see Naia, and Myaana, and Claire, and Kyran. To go back and see Qui-gon one last time, instead of walking at his funeral site on Naboo, wishing he could at least have said goodbye the last they�d met. He wanted to walk in the door to visit Obi-wan and see the amazing little boy who�d accidentally called him "Kaian" or "Kirian" more times than he could count. The little boy that had grown up to destroy the lives of so many.

Including his own wife.

Kiraan sighed, he�d have loved to have been anyone else this night. Don a costume and play a role, if even for the night. He suspected this was the real reason for the popularity of the holiday. At the moment, he�d have even been willing to trade places with Xanatos for the night, anything to forget four-hundred years of sorrows.

He sniffled, blinking the memories away with the tears that threatened. He started for his own room again, not wanting Aliya to notice him lurking in the hall. He wasn�t sure he could talk to her after everything tonight.

Something about the flicker of an image, Aliya dressed as a Trelari. No, dressed as him, that was what he�d been thinking of. She�d been dressed as himself in his Jedi days, but in what Zek called drag.

Something about seeing pointed ears and gold eyes on a living being, if only prosthetic, it made him want to see his homeworld again.

Now he knew how Anakin had felt, all those arguments about his mother in the early times. Poor Obi-wan, saddled with a miniature Kiraan in human form, with just as dark a childhood, and twice as cruel a fate. Kiraan had taken over a hundred and fifty years to straighten himself out, Anakin only another fifty at the most in his human life. He suddenly found himself pitying the man he�d hated fathomlessly for the past thirty years.

He shook his head wearily, it was definitely time for bed when one began to sympathize with the enemy.

-----------------------------------

Xanatos clamped his hand over Obi-wan�s mouth again as someone passed the door outside.

"Keep quiet, you fool. Do you honestly want the entire temple knowing about this?" he hissed in the Jedi�s ear. Obi-wan shoved him away, glaring viciously.

"I can keep my voice down, it�s just the fact that you�re here, alive, telling me that you�ve found a parallel universe in my skivvies drawer that upsets me."

Xanatos sighed, "I already told you everything, right down to me planning to poison the temple water supply with Bloodthorn powder. What more do you want?"

"Proof!" Obi-wan snarled, then forced his voice quieter.

"Fine, I have proof, and the portal is not in your skivvies drawer!" Xanatos snapped, rolling up his sleeve. "See? there�s Kiraan�s claw-marks where he held me through the portal the first time, when you opened the door and I disappeared. I was hoping I�d terrified you into insanity, or at least made you think I was an evil spirit out for revenge or some such nonsense," Xanatos rambled, picking idly at a scabbed-over claw puncture.

"Evil, yes, spirit, no," Obi-wan half-joked. Xanatos gave him a sarcastic smile and a fake laugh, then let his face drop dramatically to sour seriousness.

"Look, the point is, there�s a doorway to a parallel universe in your closet, and I want to use it again. I have some unfinished business back there, and I plan on going back." -And *getting* back, specifically at Kiraan, and nonspecifically at two Jedi and their force-blind doubles,- he growled mentally, biting back the snarling rage at being given the heave-ho into the portal by the seat of his pants.

"No," Obi-wan said firmly, rubbing the back of his hand thoughtfully against about a day of stubble.

"You do realize how damn-fool that scraggly snag-grass looks, don�t you? Grow a goatee or shave the damn mass off, it looks like hell. Worse than hell, like a Toydarian�s arse," Xanatos grumbled. "And what in the flaming hell do you mean �No�? I need that fool portal to get back," he snapped, shifting gears to hostile again.

Obi-wan sighed, already used to his mood-swings after the past half-hour with him. "I mean no, I cannot allow you to go rampaging around in another universe, even if it does mean getting you out of this one. You don�t belong there, it�s not your world," he said.

Xanatos stood, angry. "I don�t belong here either," he spat.

"Look at me, I�m not who you knew, I�m probably fifty shades worse, and I like it! I like rampaging, I like invading, I like conquering. And if I don�t get someplace full of easily-manipulated non-Jedi, non-force-sensitives to boss around, I�m gonna have to start working on this world," he said,pacing.

He paused, looking down at Obi-wan with icy eyes, his voice turning cold. "Obi-wan, you know what I�m capable of, do you want that loose on your world?" he asked, sounding more like a threat than a question.

Obi-wan�s jaw tightened uneasily. He stood, looking Xanatos directly in the eyes. He knew, he knew full well, and guessed what he�d seen years ago was only the tip of the iceberg. More of that iceberg hefted itself out of the water every time Obi-wan looked, REALLY looked, not just looked at Xanatos. He shook his head slowly.

"No," he said softly. "No, I can�t have you running loose here either. There, Here, perhaps Force-knows -where next."

"Xanatos, you said yourself, from what you saw inside the portal when Kiraan was holding you, it�s unstable. All those little off-shoots and mini-portals might go other places. If you go back in there, you may not end up in that other world, you may end up in a completely different world all together. You may even end up in a different *time* altogether. It�s too dangerous."

Xanatos just smirked and shook his head. The �I�ll do it if I want to, and you can�t stop me� look was back in his eyes, and Obi-wan knew he�d lost the argument.

"Obi-wan, I�ve had a taste of the most amazing power. I�ve been to another universe, one where we�re all fictional characters. Where people dress up in costumes and pretend to be us, because they can never have the real thing. It�s amazing, and frightening.

"The cruelest thing is, I saw a few dozen Obi-wans at the dress-up party I attended, and even a few Qui-gons and one very intoxicated Yoda, but no Xanatos, no decent Dark-siders, all Jedi or just plain Sith Lords. And it made me realize something: No one gives a damn. A dark-force adept of impossible power could be in your very midst here, there or anywhere, and no one would care, because they don�t want to see it. We�ve all become glorified symbols of crap and circumstance." Xanatos was pacing again, starting to rant.

"Fallen Jedi, Dark Jedi, that�s it. No one calls them Dark-Adept, or Dark-Force wielder, no, it�s �Dark Jedi.� I am not and never will be, nor wish to be called, even with the word �Dark� in front of it, a Jedi. I am Xanatos, not some damn fool wanna-be Sith, not some misguided Jedi led astray, and sure as I spit in their faces, not some damn fool force-choking, damsel-in-distress saving JEDI!" he fumed, jamming his fist into his other palm angrily in punctuation at the end of his tirade.

A little flicker of dark energy pulsed in the room, and Obi-wan took a step back in surprise. He was startled by the amount of power contained in that one little flicker of a view behind Xanatos� shields.

He really had become fifty shades worse than in his youth. Obi-wan�s eyes strayed to his lightsaber, still sitting on the nightstand next to the bed. Xanatos caught the flicker of intent, his features losing their previous animation and falling to a vicious, cold mask.

The two just watched each other, obvious tension in the room.

Obi-wan could do it, he could call his lightsaber to his hand and strike down the unarmed Xanatos. Something told him he could, nudged him on, told him it would be so easy, that it was doing the universe a favor, stopping Xanatos before he could become too powerful to stop. His hand twitched unconsciously, considering it.

"Obi-wan," Xanatos said quietly, "Stop listening."

Obi-wan blinked, confused by the words.

"Stop listening to it. You�re not like me, you won�t survive what it would do to you. You couldn�t kill an unarmed man in cold blood, not even if it were worth a trillion lives. It�s not in you, don�t let it in. Stop listening," Xanatos said, not quite pleading, more like instructing, in the same, harsh, even tone.

Obi-wan blinked again, the words starting to sink in. He realized what he meant slowly, blinking and shaking his head, trying to shake off the feelings.

"N..no," Obi-wan said quietly, fighting off the impulses. He realized what had been happening. -The dark side?- he asked himself, rubbing his forehead uneasily.

"Yes," Xanatos said quietly, answering his unspoken question.

"Why?" Obi-wan asked, "Why stop me?"

Xanatos smiled oddly, "Other than the fact I happen to enjoy my life quite well, and have no wish for you to end it? Well, if I�d wanted to turn you to the dark side, I wouldn�t have done it by making you hate me personally enough to kill me. Besides, I have it on very good authority that you�ve got a long,boring, *Jedi* life ahead of you, and I have no intention of getting in destiny�s way," he said, then smiled again. "At least not yet."

He chuckled, heading for the closet door. "I�m going now, the same way I came in. I don�t belong here anymore, Obi-wan. I�m not sure where I belong, but I�m going to find it, even if I have to search every side-tunnel and vortex inside that condammdable portal. Goodbye, and I�m hoping we never meet again," he said, finishing with a bow.

Obi-wan just looked on in a half-daze, watching Xanatos turn and walk straight into what should have been solid wall, disappearing in a flash of blue lightning and colored blobs of light. The same ripple-effect from the club wall replayed on the closet wall in a wave of pseudo-movement, then the wall returned to normal.

Obi-wan just kept staring at the closet wall, ignoring the knocking at his door. The light touch of a hand on his shoulder startled him, and he turned to find Qui-gon looking at him with concern. With only a confused half-thought, Obi-wan practically dove into Qui-gon�s arms and started crying, startling the older man. Qui-gon loosely held him, unsure of all this. Obi-wan suddenly recovered himself, backing away hastily and apologizing profusely. Qui-gon looked even more concerned. After a brief discussion, Obi-wan agreed to explain what had just happened to him later.

All Obi-wan could think of was desperately hoping that no one had noticed the two spikes of dark energy in his room, and he could convince them it had only been the one caused by Xanatos� presence. He suddenly felt the urge to slap the segment of his mind that had decided to pick now to become devious. He tried to tuck away the entire incident, but the higher he put his shields, the more worried Qui-gon looked.

This was going to be a long day.

--------------------

Xanatos hit the stone floor hard, rolling across it to a stop. Movement caught the corner of his vision, the flutter of a cape, a flickering shadow. Before he could right himself to his surroundings, a boot landed squarely on his chest, holding him to the floor while a strange looking spear was leveled between his eyes.

The negative field tangible even through the boot now making his ribs creak and his breathing difficult told him he�d landed exactly where he�d hoped he would.

"Exar Kun?" he managed to grate out through his failing respiration. The pressure lessened slightly.

"Speak," a voice said from above.

"My name is Xanatos, and I have a proposition for you..."

-------The End---------or is it just the beginning?---------

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