Dawn of a New Prince (Star Wars/Avatar Crossover)

"Heh. You'd just clean your shirt with your tongue, anyway." Toph held out her bowl. "Can I have some more?"

"More what?"

Katara, yawning, walked over towards the pair.

"Breakfast," Sokka told his sister nonchalantly as he refilled both his and Toph's bowls before pouring some in a bowl for Katara and handing it to her.

"So, you and Aang, huh?" he teased after a few moments, "I was afraid you'd do worse."

Katara just glared at her brother before she attended to her bowl. Toph snickered, earning herself a glare as well.

"Hey, I just want to be clear. I called it back when we chased after Zuko to rescue him back in the South Pole," Sokka laughed as he ate his second helping of deer-pig broth.

((Things will get moving again once I return from vacation. And Aang has already met Iroh and Azula, a few pages back.))

(Ah, okay then. Just filler until then, I suppose.)

Mara

"Keep your guard up, Jedi." Mara advised after they exited the starship. She closed the loading ramp and carefully approached the wrecked remains of the Star Destroyer. One look at it told the Emperor's Hand that the ship would never be serviceable again. The hull had broken in two sometime during or after the crash, and as far as she could tell the command bridge no longer existed. Hundreds of people likely died in the intial crash, with many more following once they succumbed to fatal injuries they suffered from the crash. Most likely, only a small percentage of Vader's crew had survived.

And now, after Vader had basically abandoned the rest of his crew, there was no telling how many more were still alive...and what had become of them, since, after their leader tossed them away. If Mara could guess, a power struggle likely occurred between the officers that still lived. After that, there was no telling what could have become of the rest of the crew.

"We may have to head inside to find the survivors." Mara said, after seeing that no one came to investigate their arrival. "When we do go in, keep alert. There's no telling what these men have been reduced to, after being stranded on this Force forsaken planets for months without any help..."

Zareal

"Let's go then," Zareal said, taking his lightsaber in his hand. "May the Force be with us." He entered the wrecked ship, stretching out his senses to feel for lifeforms in the ship.

Azula

Azula stood by a wall of Airbending hieroglyphics, wind blowing the Fire Nation Princesses hair in front of her eyes as she tried to study the Avatar's weak culture. It was fascinating, admittedly, but not useful to Azula whatsoever. There were no hints on airbending's weaknesses (of which, Azula had no doubt, there were many,).

Azula brought her hand up as she thought, accidentally touching her scar as she had forgotten it was still around. Azula winced in mild pain as her fingers brushed against the charred flesh around her eyes. Her duty to capture the Avatar, and the planning it would take, could wait for now. Killing Zuko, destroying Vader, and making Ty lee and Mai sorry was far more important at this point in time, she decided.

With anger and bitterness towards her brother and former "friends" sitting inside of her, Azula quickly turned around and walked away from the hieroglyphics. They were making her sick, she rationalized her feelings. Or at least, tried to. If Azula hadn't been a proud Fire Nation Princess, she most likely would have cried at this point in time.

But Azula did not cry, her pride and strength getting in the way. As they always did.
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Mai

"Damn this place is depressing." Mai muttered contemptuously as she walked around the Dai Lee's tunnels and caverns. Rock upon rock upon stinking brown earth was all Mai could see, besides the torches that lit the halls. Only an earthbender would have been able to tell what were the doors, and where one was supposed to be going in this whole mess.

But Mai wasn't going to ask an earthbender for help, not now. After all, she wasn't really looking for anyone or anything in particular as much as she was avoiding Ty lee for a few hours, as she was rather clingy right now ... Ok, it wouldn't be entirely awful if she somehow found Zahanna or Zuko. But she wasn't looking for them specifically. That would be too much dull work.
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Lilith

Paint was splattered everywhere, and yet, it seemed to make some sort of sense to Lilith as she continued to drip her six colors of paper onto the few pieces of Canvas she had left.

Another battle was going to happen soon, Lilith knew. But instead of preparing, and being forced to think about it on end, the Stormtrooper was taking her time, using up all of her art supplies sketching and then painting. Over in the corner, a painting of a certain clone soldier was drying off, that having been the first thing Lilith had been inspired to paint.

As Lilith finished her current piece, she realized what it was that she had been making at this point. A map of this world, or at least, a map of everything of it Lilith had seen from above.

Lilith swallowed in mild frustraton as she sat back and stared at the Nations, and they symbols of Air, Water, Fire, and Earth that hanged above them all. This place wasn't that bad, in fact it was kind of nice. The Earth Kingdom, outside of Ba Sing Se, reminded Lilith about her home quite a bit. That would probably be ruined once the Empire, didn't matter if it was led my Vader or the Emperor, this place would be subjugated and/or destroyed.

Any trace of originality or extraordinary would be plucked out and molded to the Empire's uses, and all that would be left would be a fractured world. That's how it always happened, and Lilith knew, that no matter what she did that wouldn't change. No matter how tempting... Lilith sighed and shook her head as she once again reminded herself that it didn't matter.

Lieutenant Erv Lekauf was bored and, like any other time he was bored, he strived to improve himself. This day, he was in a small room within the cave system, practicing his swordsmanship with a sword that he had requisitioned from one of the Dai Li's weapon caches. As a child, he had always been interested in swordsmanship, particularly its finesse and the graceful movements it required. He was nowhere near as skilled as Lord Vader or, possibly, Lord Helios, but it gave him some satisfaction and it was becoming increasingly likely he'd be forced to fight with one as they continued their stay on this planet.

Still, Erv couldn't help but think of his family. He loved them dearly and his daughter was due to give birth to his first grandchild any day now. He regretted that he couldn't be there to witness it, but he didn't regret his service to Lord Vader. The Galactic Republic preserved peace and stability that allowed his family to live in peace and Erv was proud to serve Lord Vader. The Dar Lord was the epitome of everything right about the Empire and he knew that Lord Vader would be able to subjugate this planet soon and destroy the Rebellion. Perhaps then, he could take some shore leave to visit his family.

((Now that Alec has posted, I see no need to prolong this any further. I would like to move onto the final battle now, so we can wrap up this RP and move onto the next one. Any objections?))

(None from me.)

(To put it as nerdily as I can manage, I'm ready to unleash the Dark Side)

(Ok... Shall we have the Gaang leave for Ba Sing Se, or will Vader go after them?)

((Vader will be going after them when the time-skip occurs.))

OOC: I'm ready too, whenever you guys are. ^_^

((If I remember correctly, the Eastern Air Temple was actually three temples connected together. But for the sake of making things easier, it'll only be one temple. The other two fell into massive disrepair and are uninhabitable.))

General Narrative

Four days had now passed since Iroh and Azula arrived at the Eastern Air Temple. In the meantime, Aang had trained more to help himself master the Avatar State, and had practiced what elements he knew in general. While no one would say it aloud, things had gotten tense there. It was only a matter of time until Vader found them again, after all. They did have the possible choice of running away to somewhere else, but it would only delay the inevitable. Aang was determined to end things there with Vader, so he could then move on to the Fire Lord as his next threat.

And so, everyone at the Eastern Air Temple prepared themselves for the inevitable battle. Aang himself was confident it would turn out in their favor, but things were still uncertain. Whatever the outcome at the Eastern Air Temple was, though, it would decide the fate of this world.

Darth Vader

"We attack at dawn. We will strike swiftly and catch them off guard. After our initial attack with the TIE fighters, we will all find safe places to land. From there, we will fan out and try to regroup. However, there is a great possibilty that we will not all be able to get back together before the Avatar and his companions find groups of us. If you are to engage any of the enemy before we regroup, attack and kill them. Do you all understand?" Vader inquired.

After several days of searching with the Force, the location of the Avatar had finally been revealed to him. Once he knew that information, Vader set himself to work. With the help of Zahanna, he had traveled back to his damaged Star Destroyer to find all the remaining crewmen dead. That didn't concern the Dark Lord much, however, and he went about doing what he was there for. Together, with Zahanna's help, they had salvaged what was left of the hundreds of TIE fighters within the Star Destroyer. Once the salvageable ones were repaired, Vader lifted the ships out of the Destroyer and onto the desert floor.

After this he and Zahanna spent the next several days giving Helios, Long Feng, Erv, and the stormtroopers crash-course lessons in flying. In the end Darth Vader wasn't satsified they would do good flying for very long, but for this mission their current skills were acceptable.

Now, after many test flights outside Ba Sing Se, they were ready to enact the Dark Lord's plan. Darth Vader, Darth Helios, Long Feng, the stormtroopers, and Erv would all pilot the salvaged TIE fighters. Zahanna would pilot her own ship, which would also house Mai, Ty Lee, and a five-man squad of the best Dai Li Long Feng had. They would fly to the Eastern Air Temple, which would only take a matter of maybe fifteen minutes with their ships, and they would fire all available weapons at the temple. In the chaos that ensued that, they would all land (most likely in separate locations) wherever they could find safe places to land.

From there they would try to regroup and then they would search the temple for survivors (and knowing the Avatar, he and all of his friends would survive. This attack only served the purpose of spooking them, and throwing them off guard). Once all the survivors were captured or killed, their mission would be completed.

Helios

Four days, it was four days since his encounter with his sister, uncle, and the Jedi. He had been stupid to bring the lightsaber with him, even if he would have been easier to kill and less of a challenge. Fortunately Helios didn't have too much time to obssess over his mistake, he had been learning how to fly one of those machines, and was horrible. Thankfully he could use the force to help keep control, but without it he was definitely one of the worst fliers, more so than Long Feng, who had never seen the technology before either.

But he could keep from crashing and fire the weapons, that was the most important thing for the mission. He and Mai had also been catching up some whenever he had free time, which wasn't too often. He still remembered predictions of different people he'd met, that Mai would die in Ba-Sing-Se, or would live to betray him. Every moment they had together made him discount them more and more. Ba-Sing-Se was no longer a battle ground, and she always seemed more loyal as time went on, but he failed to think he might be blinded by his own emotions to see what hers really were.

Now the time was close, the Avatar's death was the only thing on his mind, he knew how to kill him, he had the power to do so, and with this plan of action, with more knowledge and allies, they would succeed. And of course, he would also find and kill Azula, after breaking her, after she admitted he was stronger, and maybe have her beg for mercy. There was also Iroh to think about, out of his past with the old man he didn't plan on going out of his way to hurt him, but would do so if he obstructed his path. It wasn't pleasant, but that wasn't going to stop Helios now. Perhaps he might keep the waterbending peasant as a pet, or slave to the Empire.

He nodded, he understood what they were supposed to do. It was so simple, but ingenious, in all the rush they wouldn't have time to think of any kind of plan on the fly, they would likely panic and easy to pick off once they landed.

Toph stood in one of the many abandoned balconies of the Eastern Air Temple. The cool air tugged at her ragged clothes and mussed hair. Taking in a deep breath, she tried to steel herself, calm her nerves.

She had been antsy for hours now. It felt tense, all around her, like a weight pressing in on all her senses. She kept thinking something was coming, something bad, and yet there was no sign of it yet.

She hated it.

She also hated the thought of another fight with Vader and his allies. Even with all the meditation and training she had been through the past few days, with the Guru's help, she could not help but wonder if she was really ready. Vader had manhandled her without a problem last time. She had lost most of her arm.

Was she really ready to face him again?

Her stomach turned, but she clenched her fists. It did not matter if she was ready or not. She would fight, and she would protect her friends. That was all there was to it.

Sokka sat in front of the group's campfire. He had to admit that the past four days had been relaxing. Iroh, thankfully, wasn't what he expected. He seemed like another old man that loved tea. Azula on the other hand was exactly what he expected, but being around Mara had gotten him used to her attitude somewhat. He finished his breakfast and looked around, frowning when he didn't see Toph anywhere.

He stood up and headed upstairs. If he knew Toph, she was either earthbending, goofing off with him, or standing on a balcony thinking. He nodded in satisfaction when he saw her from behind.

"So... Nothing like a little fresh air, huh?" he asked. He knew she was thinking about something important, but knew better than to ask. She'd tell him if she wanted to. So, he tried to lighten up things.

*

Erv stood at attention, listening to Lord Vader's orders. He inclined his head. Truthfully, he wasn't the best flier. The closest thing to a ship he ever flew was a speeder back home. Still, he was more familiar with the technology than their native allies and was able pilot competently. He was just relieved he wouldn't have to face opposing fighters.

Toph gave a brief nod. "Yeah. I guess." She was quiet for a few seconds. Then she said, "Something is gonna happen soon, Sokka. I can feel it."

Sokka frowned. He was going to deny it, but even he knew that their short rest was ending. He nodded, "Well, I've always said to rely on your instincts."

He punched the wall, "Damn the Fire Nation for starting the War and damn Ba Sing Se for kowtowing to talentless earthbenders that hide underground! I wish we weren't the only ones that were being big damn heroes!"

She sighed. "I don't think we are. We're just alone right now, is all. Well, not completely alone, I guess. We still have each other, right?" She offered him a small smile. "Whatever happens, I just wanted to tell you... I'm glad I got to know you, Sokka."

"Hey... Come on, you're making it sound like we're not going to make it," he told her, smiling back as he gripped her hand, "We're going to make it out of here alive. But, for the record, I'm glad I got to know you too."

Toph beamed. She squeezed his hand. "Don't get me wrong. I don't plan on giving up or dying. I just wanted you to know, is all."