Teen Titans / Star Wars: Chapter 1: A Galaxy Far, Far Away.

...

A collaboration between myself and Edgar H. Sutter. We do not own either the Teen Titans nor any of the Star Wars franchise.

...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

STAR WARS

it is a period of civil war. rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil galactic empire.

Far away, in another time and place, there exist five young heroes, the teen titans, who, unbeknownst to them, will have a part in the coming civil war.

They will soon be called to this galaxy by a mysterious power, to help the Jedi Knights who once protected the Galaxy from evil, and restore it to peace and balance once again...

...

Chapter 1: A Galaxy Far, Far Away

The bluebird flew past the T-shaped building, angling around it as it shone in the sun. The bird's eyesight didn't allow it to see within, as the glare from the sun shining on the reflective glass windows was too great, and it probably wouldn't have been interested if it could have. Still, it might have taken notice of the odd orange-skinned humanoid even then cooing over what had to be the biggest grub in the world.

Unseeing, the bird flew around the building…and a shadow descended upon it. It had a brief view of the hawk overhead, and then it knew no more.

Within the Titans' headquarters, unaware of the drama played out outside, Raven was reading one of her ancient books. Beast Boy walked past, and crinkled up his nose. "Man, Rae, I don't see how you read those. They smell so…so…musty."

"That's because they are musty, and I thank Azar I don't have as sensitive a nose as yours. I don't see how you play video games constantly, but I respect that you do. I expect you to respect my interests, as well." Garfield just shook his head. Same old Raven. She'd never change. Not that he'd want her to.

"Hey, grass stain, are you in, or not?" Cyborg was already seated on the couch, holding out the controller, Mutant Ninja Monkey Racing already loading on the big screen TV / monitor. Beast Boy sighed, but very quietly. He was already tired of Mutant Ninja Monkey Racing but for some reason, it never got old for his biomechanical friend.

He barely had time to get seated when Robin appeared in the doorway. "Titans! Trouble!"

Surprised, Garfield threw the controller up into the air, juggled it between his hands, and finally caught again in a two handed grip. "Dude! Don't BELLOW like that! I nearly-*"

"No time! Mumbo Jumbo's at the Museum, and you know with Mumbo, he's not there for the tour! Go!" The others leaped to obey.

…..

"Aaaaand, now, the AMAZING Mumbo will saw this volunteer from the audience into three equal pieces! Watch and be amazed!" With all the flourish of a born showman, the evil magician proceeded to saw his box-up victim, a security guard who'd been in the wrong place at definitely the wrong time, into three pieces; his assistants (all of whom bore a striking resemblance to him; for some reason, nobody noticed this) immediately wheeled the pieces of the original box away, and moved them back and forth, in and out, transposing them. Several people, those not terrified into silence, groaned, and not in despair; this was the oldest trick in the book.

Mumbo's "audience" consisted of the Museum visitors and security guards, all of whom had been tightly secured with knotted-together handkerchiefs. "I love a captive audience," chortled Mumbo, even as he prepared for the second part of his "trick." More groaning; that had to be the oldest pun in the book. Mumbo opened each of the boxes individually. The frightened face of the security guard, mouth gagged with more knotted-together handkerchiefs, stared back from one, with his torso in another, and his legs in a third. "Now! The moment you've aaall been waiting for!" His assistants wheeled the boxes back together, and Mumbo tapped on the top one with his wand. "Aaaand! Now! Presto chango!" He opened the top box, revealing the man's terrified but still alive face. "And, as you see, my volunteer is unharmed!" He opened the middle box.

A set of legs, from the knee down, was revealed. "Er, no, that's not right." He closed the boxes again. "Alakazam!" Now the top box held the man's torso. "No, that can't be right. I'm almost positive I put his head in there."

"Heads or tails, we know where you're headed!" Robin's voice cut through the museum. "Titans! Go!"

"Now, now, I've all the volunteers I need for this trick," said Mumbo calmly. He rolled his top hat down his arm and released a cloud of attack pigeons into Robin and Starfire's faces, slowing them down. Beast Boy untied the "captive audience," and shooed them out of the building. Some of the younger ones seemed a little reluctant to go: leave a magic show and a superhero battle, all in one? Did it get any better than this?

While her teammates were pressing their attack, Raven glanced around. Mumbo might be a born showman, but he never put on a "show" for free. There had to be something here of value, or else he wouldn't have been here.

Her gaze was focused on a large red crystal, in a reinforced glass display. Mumbo's "magic show" had taken place here, in this room, where the crystal was. Something told her it was important.

Cyborg leveled his sonic cannon at Mumbo, only to have his sonic beam vanish into Mumbo's hat. "Alakazam!" Mumbo swiveled the hat around, pointing it like a weapon, and redirected Cyborg's sonic blast onto Robin and Starfire. Fortunately for Robin, Starfire took the brunt of the blast, being hurled back against the wall, slumping down to the floor, momentarily stunned.

An enraged Robin threw a cloud of stun disks Mumbo's way, forcing the villain back. Raven looked around for what she could levitate; after all, it *was* a museum. Almost everything in sight was too valuable to just throw.

There. The water fountain. Perfect.

Dark energy tore the fountain away from the wall, but deliberately did not disconnect it from the water pipes. She then directed a water stream at Mumbo. She smirked as she thought of the plan: one thing the dapper Mumbo couldn't deal with was getting his tuxedo wet.

He dodged the water stream, and Raven saw to it that it followed him. On the defensive, he rolled behind the display of the curious red crystal, and Raven obligingly directed the water stream at his new position, all the while readying some pieces of the drapes, preparing to tie him up with them.

The water stream hit the display case, which immediately shattered, setting off yet another alarm. Raven did a double take: she knew the simple stream of water wasn't powerful enough to break the glass case even if it had been ordinary glass.

Then her eyes widened. The case had been broken open from within.

Later, Raven could never say exactly what she heard / sensed coming from the strange, now-glowing crystal. It was like the ancient mystical artifacts of her home dimension, Azarath, only much more powerful. Those artifacts had had personalities, of sorts: they tended to reflect the minds and spirits of those who'd used them in the past.

Now, she was sensing a wordless feeling, a feeling of danger, of desperation, a sense of being overwhelmed, a feeling of imbalance, an imbalance that needed to be corrected or….or else everything was threatened. All worlds. Everywhere. And she could tell from looking at them, that none of her other friends felt or sensed anything unusual, though Robin was looking warily at the crystal, noticing its glow.

Was this crystal waiting for me all along? She wondered. If so, why?

Robin had finally managed to wrap his line around Mumbo, who seemed to've lost interest in the fight. Instead, he was staring intently at the red, glowing crystal….almost as if he sensed something strange from it, too.

Raven could sense something building up, some sort of charge, like a thunderstorm. "Everybody! Get back! That crystal's gonna blow!"

The Titans, pulling on a captive Mumbo, moved towards the exit…not fast enough.

The crystal began to glow ever more brightly, and Raven could swear she could hear actual voices emanating from the stone, staticky, like a bad telephone connection: "…Force…strong…imbalance…need help…Obi Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight of the Old Republic…anyone, if you fight for the Light….students of the Force… need your help..."

And with that, the crystal exploded into a universe of crimson light.

…

Far, far away from Jump City: a young woman finished recording an urgent message, encrypting it into the R2 droid in front of her. "Now go," she ordered. "Get to the escape pods. Find him. And above all, don't let yourself be captured." She checked her blaster and slipped away, into an access way between the ship's bulkheads, one that would lead her, hopefully, into a better position to engage the stormtroopers she could even then hear boarding the ship.

At that exact moment, a golden protocol droid designated C3PO came rushing up. "R2? Where have you been?" Bleep, blip beeeeep, boop, went the R2 unit. "What do you mean, secret mission? And what was that about escape pods?" More bleeping, booping, and squeaking. "Oh, no. Those things are far too unreliable-*" A blaster bolt narrowly missed him, coming from behind. He could hear the sounds of battle: blasters firing, cries of pain… "On second thought, yes, let's get to the escape pods, by all means." And the R2 droid led him away. As they got in the pod near the end of the Ship, 3PO muttered "I'm going to regret this..." The stormtroopers ignored them; they had been instructed to look for one very special individual. Everybody else was expendable.

Just as the pod ejected, a bright flash of red light flashed in the hallway, and the alien warrior princess Starfire came back to her senses, seeing all the chaos around her. She was standing in a small corridor, with the sounds of battle coming from a short distance away. As eager as she was to go into combat, she first tried to check her T-communicator to see if she could reach her friends, but found that its signal had gone dead. I would rather hope that I shall not soon join it. Then, rising up as far in the air as she could, there in the confines of what seemed to be a ship, she saw the firefight going on. A large group of white armored soldiers were blasting a smaller group of people in large helmets, and the helmeted guys were losing. Starfire had paused for a moment, unsure of where she was or what was going on, but, being a warrior, and seeing that the helmeted unarmed people were getting gunned down, the hot-blooded princess streaked into the fray.

As the white-armored troopers marched in, virtually unopposed, an unexpected bolt of energy took the first one completely by surprise, and he was knocked back into the others. The others behind him directed their attention to this newest threat: a strange-looking orange-skinned female, who began pelting them with more plasma bolts. She flew forward, green eyes glowing with fury against the troopers, who found themselves helpless against her starbolts. They tried to get her in their sights, but she dodged the shots easily, and didn't seem to be overly inconvenienced by what few did hit her.

"Who's she?" one of troopers demanded, over the comm link.

"No idea. She doesn't match any profile we've—oof!" A starbolt slammed him up against the bulkhead.

"Wait! I know who she is!"

"You do? Well, spit it out!" More starbolts were incoming, and the warrior girl uttered a fierce war cry, ripped a stanchion loose from its moorings, and threw it at them, as easily as a man might throw a stick.

"She's the enemy!" A starbolt exploded to his right, propelling him off his feet.

"Oh, brilliant!" The sergeant motioned for his troops to take cover, and return fire. But the strange girl wasn't about to let them regroup, and launched herself towards them….

…only to slam onto the floor, halfway to them. As they watched, she struggled, with all her formidable strength, to get up, but an invisible *something* pressed down on her again, literally smashing her down into unconsciousness.

The sergeant turned to the figure he knew would be there, the tall figure in dark robes, whose face was carefully and completely concealed by his breather-mask. "Lord Vader! I, I offer my humble gratitude to you for helping us!"

The dark figure turned to him, and the sergeant knew a moment of fear. Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, was not a very forgiving person. It would not be totally out of character for him to decide to make an example of an incompetent sergeant.

For a moment, Vader's gaze looked him over, and the sergeant felt as though that unreadable gaze could see far more than just the surface. It was rumored that Vader could determine a man's loyalty to the Empire—or lack of it. Those who showed a significant lack…. "Sergeant. See to it that your men scour these corridors. You know who you are looking for. Find her and bring her to me."

"What of this one, my lord?"

Vader paused, considering. Then, "Secure her in Force-shackles. I'll deal with her later."

At that moment, three stormtroopers rounded the corner, hustling a young, dark haired woman towards their master. As ordered, she was unharmed, but she'd obviously put up a fight. There had been five stormtroopers, and the armor of the ones that remained showed signs of blaster fire. Darth Vader inclined his head. "Senator Organa. A pleasure, as always."

…..

Raven gradually came to, opening her eyes first into slits, then fully open. There was something…odd about the place where she found herself. Even before opening her eyes, she could sense not only the presence of someone out of the ordinary, but also a *difference* in the context of where she was. Without knowing exactly how she knew, she sensed that she was no longer on Earth, and perhaps no longer in the universe of Earth.

So where was she?

The place didn't feel like Azarath, the pocket universe where she'd grown up, nor did it feel like any of the other dimensions she'd traveled to. Most of those had had a strong magical content. What she was sensing here was a power, yes, but not magic as she understood it. But whether magical or not, it was still a power, a force to be reckoned with. And she was not at full strength.

"Ah. Good. You're awake," said a voice over to her right. With an almost audible creaking of her neck muscles (how long had she been out, anyway?), she managed to turn her head towards the source of the voice.

She seemed to be in a small mud or stucco'd hut, decorated in what she could tell was "early bachelor" style: two comfortable but worn looking chairs over by what resembled a small fireplace, bookshelves cluttered with books and small artifacts that had obviously caught the attention of whoever lived here, a table over by a window, still with dishes on it from the last meal, an area clearly devoted to cooking, or in some way preparing food, and…

…a man, standing by a low chest, just then straightening up, turning to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Where am I? Who are you?" Raven said as she raised herself off the couch, only to feel a bit dizzy when she did so. "Easy there, young lady." the old man soothed "I don't know what happened to you out there, or where you might've come from, but you're lucky I found you before the desert got to you. I was just having a walk outside, and I found you passed out."

"Desert?" She put her hand to her head, not only to steady herself, but also in an attempt to summon her powers, to determine where she was. The vaguest whisper told her only "not Earth." Yes, she thought to herself, 'a nasty tumble' is a good way of putting it.

A nasty tumble completely off the planet.

She sat up further, with his assistance, and she focused what she had of her preternatural senses on him. Yes, definitely more than he appeared to be.

But also, in a strange way, his was a somehow soothing presence. It reminded Raven of Azar, the high priestess of Azarath, who'd taken her in, against the wishes of the populace, who feared the darkness in her soul.

Quite rightly feared it, as it turned out.

This man also radiated a sense of inner calm, of peace and serenity. But she could also sense that he was no stranger to violence. Like many truly kind men, although he sought out peaceful solutions, he was nonetheless more than prepared to unleash hell on Earth, or wherever they were, especially in the defense of the defenseless.

"Where you are is Tatooine, a planet in the Arkanis sector, near Rodia. Far from the main territory of the Empire that rules it controls." Raven gave a confused look.

"Um, what?" She asked as she thought Great. He'd mentioned a planet, and my knowledge of astronomy is limited. Yet another time I wish Starfire was here...

He looked at her, puzzled, "Are you unaware of any of that? None of that seemed familiar to you. You must be from very far away, then, Miss, uhm…" he paused while his eyes narrowed, "Raven, is it?"

Raven's eyes widened "Wait, how did you know my name?" said Raven suspiciously, feeling a bit stronger now. Stronger, yes, but not in quite the same way as she was accustomed to. Surreptitiously summoning up her powers, she raised herself up and said, "Look. You seem to have me at a bit of a disadvantage. Evidently, you know more about me than I know about you. Who are you, and how is it that you know my name? There were some friends with me; where are they? And my communicator? I'd really appreciate some straight answers, if you please." She tried to keep herself from getting too aggressive; he evidently had rescued her from something, and she sensed no deceit or evil within him.

But something about this place seemed to bring out the worst in her. What could that be?

He held out his hands in a defensive fashion. "I assure you, I meant you no harm, I merely needed to know a bit more about you a little faster. I didn't mean to pry. Believe me, when you've lived as long as I have, well, let's just say it pays to be cautious. I'm sure you can understand. And I found you alone in the desert; there was nobody with you. And, somehow, the name Raven just seems to suit you. As for who I am, my name is Ben. Ben Kenobi."

Kenobi, she thought. Kenobi? That sounds…familiar...

….

Cyborg came back to full consciousness in a sand dune, next to a rocky outcropping. His self-repair circuits buzzed; he'd taken some damage. But it didn't seem to be anything he couldn't handle.

Now where was he? And where were the others? He tried his internal communicator, only to receive a "no service" message. Well, okay. He'd obviously been transported somewhere far away; this didn't look to be anywhere around Jump City. It was possible he was out of his coverage area.

He activated his radar, looking for signs of life. His own inbuilt sensor arrays sought radio and microwave transmissions. He found surprisingly few.

But there were some. He picked himself up and started off towards the nearest source of such signals at a fast jog.

It looked to be a huge, worn-looking vehicle equipped with treads to move over the ever-present sand. It was gigantic, reminding him of cruise ships back home, but he doubted any sort of vehicle wishing to attract tourists would be allowed to look so run-down. No, definitely a vehicle designed and used for pure practicality. All around it, he could see small, hooded figures doing some sort of mechanical work. Mechanical work. Well. That was right up his alley. Maybe, in exchange for his help, they'd help him find his friends.

He stood up, just coming over the sand dune, waving his arms and shouting. The small, hooded figures looked up…

….

Beast Boy woke up and was immediately sorry he'd done so. "Okay," he mumbled to himself, "I can't be dead; I hurt too much." Whatever had happened had served to make him quite sick, and he spent an altogether unnecessary and totally unpleasant few minutes barfing up the remains of last night's tofu pizza. He hated to see it go. It had been such a good pizza.

Once his stomach felt reasonably stable, he sat up and took stock of his surroundings, automatically looking around for the others.

They weren't there, but close by was a small round hut, apparently made of something like concrete or a similar substance. He could se partially around front, and gasped as he caught sight of what had to be the coolest vehicle he'd ever seen: some sort of ground-effect open-air car that was just *itching to have a green-skinned person in the driver's seat. But it's not mine, he thought, even as he went over in his mind as to just who would have such a futuristic vehicle in such a rustic seeming settlement.

Hm. Nobody, that's who.

A suspicion began to form in the back of his mind…but no, that just couldn't be.

Well, I may as well go introduce myself to the people here, he thought. Don't want them to think I'm sneaking around, maybe trying to boost their…their…whatever it is.

Much as I'd kinda like to.

….

Robin awoke in an alleyway, completely disoriented from whatever that light had been. It hardly surprised him to learn he wasn't in the museum anymore. In fact, from the temperature and lack of humidity, it felt more like a desert of some sort. He got up, and took stock of where he was. It looked rather nondescript, reminding him of some places in the Middle East, except some things looked a bit different from anything he was used to. The trash cans, despite looking dirty and banged up, as trash cans the world over would normally be, looked to be rather high-tech devices…and the doors along the alley had strange blinking panels on the side.

Where were his friends? He had to see if they were alright. Checking his T-communicator, he was annoyed when he saw it wasn't working. Great, he thought. I have no idea where I am, my friends are lost, and this damn thing isn't working. Guess I'll have to do this the hard way.

Stepping to the mouth of the alley, he was shocked by what he saw: What appeared to be a small town of strange beings, casually traversing the streets. There were what had to be alien creatures of a type he'd never seen before, in spite of all his trips into space with the Titans, and a small abundance of robotic beings, too. Some were riding in carts that were drawn by strange beasts, and some were driving by in floating car-like constructs.

Despite being the student of the Dark Knight, and a Teen Titan, Robin was temporarily stunned by all this, and ducked back into the alley without being seen. After catching his breath, he thought more clearly: Obviously, I'm not in Kansas anymore. So now what? Where could the other Titans be? If Star were here, she might know, and…frankly, it'd be good to see her again anyway... gotta focus, can't get too distracted this, it'll just make things more difficult if I do.

Right at that same moment, a drunk Ishi Tib, who wasn't looking where it was going, bumped into a stormtrooper captain just outside the alley. The other two stormtroopers who'd been with the captain quickly surrounded the green alien. "What's the big idea, greenie? You think you can just trample all over an Imperial officer?" The Tib tried to explain itself, but, not speaking Basic, what it said was lost on the troopers. If they cared in the first place.

"We seem to be having a bit of a problem with communication," said the captain. "But it's our duty as representatives of the Empire to teach this greenie some respect. Men? Perhaps a little of that communication that requires no translation?" And the two stormtroopers proceeded to kick the Tib, hitting it with the back ends of their blasters, kicking it while it was down.

Upon seeing this (even though he couldn't hear the inter-helmet communications), Robin debated with himself whether to help or not. Don't get involved, don't get involved, don't get involved…if I do, it'll cause trouble I don't need. Things are clearly different here, I don't need to get involved, because if I do, I may not find the others. Just don't get involved... But then, a particularly vicious kick brought a squawk of pain from the Tib. "Screw this 'not getting involved' stuff.

He flew out of the alley, hitting the troopers with his Bo-Staff, knocking two of them back against the wall of the building. "You know," said the strange looking human in red and green, "your mothers really should have taught you better manners."

"Just who the Kriff are you, kid?" snarled the captain.

"I'm the kid who just beat your guys. And I don't like it when people gang up on people who're down." Robin turned to the alien—for so it must be, he reasoned. "G'wan. Get outta here." He doubted the creature could understand him, but everything understands opportunity. The short alien scuttled away as fast as it could, mumbling what could have been either words of gratitude or curses under its breath. Or possibly both.

Then one of the troopers scrambled to his feet, his hands going for his blaster. "Have a taste of this, twerp!" But as fast as he was, Robin was faster, knocking the blaster out of his hands, and throwing him back up against the wall with bone-jarring force.

The captain shouted, "I'll teach you some respect, you little punk!" he said, as he grabbed his own weapon, turning it on Robin.

But fast as he was, Robin's bo-staff was faster. The concussion from the impact knocked the captain out, and he fell over by his men. Robin dragged them into the alley and removed their helmets, seeking the communications devices he knew had to be in there. There were some rather sophisticated radio tech, as well as a heads-up display inside, and he took the bulky helmets, removed the radios, and broke them. Then he noticed a small, circular device that the captain had on his belt. Popping the back open, Robin found it, too, was a Comm device of some sort, but far more advanced-looking than the radios. More advanced, even, than his own T-Cell. He decided to hold onto it. Hm. Might come in handy, he thought. From what he had seen since materializing in the alley of this strange place, he could tell two things: one, he was clearly not on Earth—the obvious aliens and the strange animals pulling carts were indicators of that-, and two: evidently, this was a world where martial law had been declared. Robin had an innate disliking for martial law. People shouldn't have to be afraid of the authorities.

But clearly that was the case here. And of course, these three would no doubt report him when they regained consciousness. He'd relieved them of their communications devices, but unless he relieved them of their lives, he couldn't keep them from making a full report. Even a verbal report would compromise him. A masked teenager wearing red and green wouldn't be hard to find. So. Disguise time.

There; a clothes line, strung between the buildings, with a hooded robe over it. Robin hated stealing, especially from those whom it looked like could ill afford it, but necessity is what it is. He resolved to return the cloak as soon as he realistically could.

But he knew there was more to a disguise than just putting on a different set of clothes. So, ever prepared, he returned to the alley where he'd first materialized, and took some items from his utility belt, and, with them, using a small foldable mirror, altered the shape and contours of his face, using some dry blonde dye on his normally black hair, and a set of contact lenses that not only changed his eye color, but also masked his retina patterns. Now. With the addition of the robe, he was as prepared as he could be.

Now to find his friends.

He stopped and considered. Okay, this wasn't Earth. Which meant they had been teleported across at least interplanetary distances, and maybe farther.

With that came the question of how to find his teammates. They could be anywhere. His phone wasn't working; either it was broken, or something here was preventing it from functioning. He couldn't use it to track the others. He had seen some computer terminals and tablets being used by the inhabitants here, so clearly world wasn't without its technology, and the soldiers had proven that too. But could he manage somehow to hack into and use such technology without being traced? Perhaps it would be better not to risk it. At least not until he knew more.

So. Where would a good source of non-internet related news be?

Then his ears caught the sound of revelry from a seedy establishment down the street.

Of course.

…