Author's Note: Since villains are mostly portrayed in two dimensions, I thought it might be nice to have one fleshed out for your reading pleasure. This is a villain's story. It does not have a happy ending. The main character is not going to be a fluffy person, but I won't be overly gross or cruel with his/her portrayal. It's just meant to show how an average person can become evil with a little push in the wrong direction. Kudos to djkauf for betaing this for me. Pic Credit: Darth Hell. Star Wars and recognizable characters from that universe belong to George Lucas et al. This chapter is a tad bit lighter, well, not at the beginning, bit still.

Chapter Three

I held the lightsaber in my hands, staring down at it in the semi-darkness of my closet. There was no use. Blue was right. I was a freak and considering human nature, I was likely to run into a lot of people exactly like her. What was I going to do; choke and threaten everyone? That wasn’t an option. Sooner or later I was going to lose my cool and totally thrash somebody.

The dark side was insidious, creeping around in my head, waiting patiently for me to be put into a situation where I had to use its power.

It was like I was infected with some messed up virus and waiting for the final solution. Well, I had that in my hands.

Placing the weapon up under my chin, I closed my eyes and depressed the stud on the blade.

Dammit!

All I heard was a very faint click. I pressed it a couple more times just to be sure.

The battery was dead; of course.

I don’t know why I would think it would be charged. It had been over a hundred years since it had probably worked properly.

With a rush of frustration, I flung it aside and wiped at my nose. Something really gooey came away. Twi’lek mucus was kind of gross, much more than human mucus anyway.

I pushed up and exited the closet to find a decent tissue. Not crying anymore was at the top of my list of things to do. It was a neon pink color and sticky. I don’t remember it being this bad the previous night or any of the other times I cried. Just thought I’d share that.

After blowing my nose a few times, everything went back to normal, normal for me that is.

With the devastatingly epic failure of the lightsaber, I decided that I wouldn’t see anyone again until I could control myself with a hundred percent certainty that I wouldn’t snap. There was too much at stake.

You may think that I’m overreacting a bit, but I think you missed something unless you were looking very close.

After that display of purely Sith use of the Force, I wasn’t tired in the least. Granted, I just choked Blue for thirty seconds or so, but I still should have felt something. At the moment, all I felt was revulsion and the tiniest bit of excitement. The first one should be expected, the second should be terrifying.

~O~

Dad was home early under threat of Mom’s ire. We all sat in the living room where she gave a blow by blow from the interview, including the use of my powers.

It really didn’t seem like Dad was going to believe her until I reminded him of the lawsuit I told him he could bring against the fuzzy-faced man. That pretty much brought everything to bear.

“I can’t believe I’d forget something like that,” he said.

“It was me. I needed you two out of the house without any arguments. I needed to get myself under control.”

“So you sent me shopping and made me like it?”

Mom was reddening, but she had a slight smile on her face.

“Mom, did you have fun with Dad that night?”

She didn’t answer, but it was already out there. She had a blast shopping with her husband and not having to worry about him being dragged from store to store.

“I’m not saying it was right. I’m just saying it was safer. There wasn’t time to explain everything right then.”

Dad stewed for a few moments. “Come football season, you’re getting a shot of your own medicine.”

I smirked underneath my hand at his proclamation to Mom.

“That’s fair. Maybe we can trade off back and forth.”

That’s the point I closed my eyes. Picturing Mom and Dad asking me to purposely give them compulsions was a little bit on the too much information part of parent/child relations. They both had that look in their eyes.

“Dad, can you tell me about the wall in the basement?”

“Hmm?”

“The brick wall that I repaired in the basement; what’s the story behind it?”

He pursed his lips in a thoughtful manor. “Nothing to tell really. My father told me to make sure it was always sealed up. His father before him, too.”

It was just as Cade had said in his last journal entry. “I know why.”

A minute or two later, enough for me to retrieve the holo-recorder from my room, I had it sitting on the coffee table.

“What’s that?” asked Dad.

“It’s something I found behind the wall. It’ll explain a few things and it’s also part of the proof I have for your lawsuit. I’m going to my room. Just let me know when it’s over.”

“When what’s ov…”

I hit the playback on the last entry, and when a twelve inch Cade hovered over the table, Dad went white. One thing I couldn’t figure out: why was the battery charged for the holo-recorder and not for the light saber.

~O~

I spent the hour or so while the playback was running to start moving things down into the basement: all the Jedi and Sith artifacts, a few necessary items, and my clothes. The majority of my time would be spent there, where I couldn’t hear a phone or any noise. The ceiling of the basement was reinforced since it was the bolt hole come hurricane season.

It was an oddity in Houston to have a basement in your house. Most people just fled when the really big storms came. Flooding used to be a big problem and still is in some areas of town. So building something underground took major planning, and a lot of extra work so as not to fall victim to one of Houston’s oldest problems.

When I was creating an area for my living space, I guess the entry ran out on the Holo-recorder.

“Aayla,” Mom called out.

I rolled my eyes. The name was supposed to be a backup, and it looked like Mom took my choice to heart. Maybe it was difficult for her to reconcile her son looking like a girl. It was probably easier for her to call me by a female name instead of being reminded that I was male only a couple of days ago.

“Coming, Mom.”

On the way up, I grabbed Darth Talon’s holocron and the GH. Dad still didn’t look too good. He looked even worse when I set the holocrons on the table beside the recorder.

“What are those?” he asked warily.

“Holocrons, they’re…”

“I know what they are.”

That took me by surprise. “How?”

Some of the color returned to his face, enough to make him look embarrassed. “I followed the stories in the expanded universe: books, comics, cartoons, everything.”

When he saw the disbelief on my face, he amended his statement. “For legal reasons, I’ve kept notes all these years in hopes that I might be able to make a case. Everything I told to that man, all my notes for future stories, he took everything and…”

I nodded. “It’s okay. You can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were the one that came up with and wrote the screenplay. Just because he bought that one story doesn’t mean that he was the one who wrote it like he claimed.”

It was an old argument. Dad only sold the original story to him, nothing else. Everything beyond the 1977 release was Dad’s. When word got out that my father tried to sue for copyright infringement and failed, his reputation and career as a writer was over. Nobody would come near him for fear of being sued themselves.

“What’s a holocron?” asked Mom, as the look on her face told me she didn’t want to dredge up the old arguments.

“It’s short for holographic chronology. Basically, it’s like watching a DVD only there’s someone there actually telling the stories. It’s interactive; you can talk back.”

I pointed at Darth Talon’s pyramid. “That one is different. It’s a Sith holocron.”

Dad’s brows shot up and Mom looked a little queasy.

“It was glowing when I pulled it out and it acted on its own when I slept. That’s what changed me.”

I recounted the first couple of day’s events, my odd behavior, possessiveness, dreams, paranoia, and minor changes. Then they started to believe.

“Is it still active?” asked Dad.

With a shake of my head I said, “It’s dormant again. My guess is when I die or whatever; it’ll activate itself again and try to recreate its old master.”

“That’s who you look like?”

I nodded soberly. “I’m her mirror image, and she stuck all her Sith training in my head as well. Everything that she knew how to do, I know.”

They didn’t say anything after I revealed that.

“If you’ve seen the movies, you haven’t seen a fraction of what an actual Sith Lord, or Lady in my case, is capable of. Now do you understand why I gave you that suggestion when we got home?”

Dad nodded, and this time I think he actually understood and forgave me for my trespass in his mind.

I was about to show them the GH and the Yoda-Gatekeeper to really blow their mind, but the doorbell rang.

My head swung around and I looked at the door with fear. My heart started pounding and if I was holding something it surely would have fallen.

After a few seconds of that, I stood and started making my way back to the hallway leading to my room. When I was clear of the living room, Mom answered the door.

“Matt… and Eric.” Mom said their names for my benefit, I’m sure, since I couldn’t see the door from my vantage point.

“Hey, Mrs. Walker. We heard Josh was out of the hospital and we wanted to stop by.”

“He’s resting.” I suppose that was a generic enough suggestion to go away without being rude.

“We won’t bother him. It’s just that weird rumors are going around and we wanted to put them to rest, you know? High school grapevine and all isn’t the best news source.”

“What rumors?” she asked and I could hear her voice shake as she said it.

Eric spoke up this time. “Someone we know has a cousin that is a nurse at the hospital and she said Josh was a meta, but that’s it. She wouldn’t say any more.”

“Yeah,” Matt confirmed. “I mean, we’ve all seen the way that can mess with someone. Mrs. Walker, Josh is my friend… our friend. We don’t care if he’s got horns and spurts water out of his big toe or anything. We just… yanno?”

Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Brown, master wordsmith.

I could hear Mom just standing there. It wasn’t hard to figure she was weighing her options.

“Boys, Blue was here earlier and it didn’t end very well. She left crying. I don’t think it’s such a good idea.”

“That was his girlfriend, Mrs. Walker, and no offence or anything, but we’re guys. It’s different since we haven’t been kissing him or anything.”

“Thanks for putting that picture in my head, Matt,” Eric said with a mild amount of disgust in his voice.

“I don’t know.”

God, Mom was such a pushover. She could be talked into almost anything.

“Is it because he’s a girl or something now?” asked Matt.

Normally, I would be suspicious at this point, but it was a pretty well-known fact that a gender change was a really high probability with metas.

I sighed and then concentrated on Mom. “Let them in. I’ll be in the basement,” I thought at her.

“Oh!” I heard her say in surprise.

Whoops. I guess I didn’t tell her about that aspect of my power.

“Mrs. Walker, you okay?”

“Um, yes, yes, come in, boys.”

Since I left the door open I could still hear what was going on upstairs as I made my way down. Even though I technically didn’t have ears anymore, the ear-cones were pretty sensitive and were multi-directional, meaning I didn’t have to cup my ear anymore to hear things better.

“Josh has gone through some big changes, boys. It’s more than just being a girl now.”

Eric hissed. I knew it was him because he always hisses at bad news.

“Please be discreet until Aay… Josh decides to make herself known.”

“You can trust us, Mrs. Walker. We won’t say a thing. We just wanted to stop the rumors with some fact. We’ll tell them what he… uh, she wants us to tell them.”

“Thank you, Matt. Mister Walker and I need to go pick up Kenny. He was staying with my husband’s sister. We’ll be back in an hour or so. If you would tell Josh for me. She’s in the basement.”

“We’ll do,” said Eric.

“There’s some canned soda in the fridge. Help yourself. I’m sure Josh could use one.”

“I got it, Matt. You go on down. I’ll be right there.”

I smirked. Eric wasn’t a big fan of basements either. His phobia wasn’t as profound as mine. He just had to psyche himself up, hence the volunteering to grab the sodas.

The hinge on the basement door squeaked slightly right before I heard the first footfall on the top step.

“Josh? It’s Matt. Incoming.”

I closed my eyes and tried to center myself; it was paramount that I didn’t get emotional this time. It was a test. No matter what they said, I wasn’t going to go all dark side on them.

By the time I opened them back up, Matt was one step away from being able to see me. Turning toward the stairs I dropped all emotion from my face.

“Josh?” His eyes widened and his mouth dropped wide open. “Duuude. Holy shit.”

Matt stumbled down the last two steps, but caught himself at the last second. “Maaaan, Star Wars wassup! Your dad must be pissed.”

“He’s cool with it.”

It seemed as if he’d gotten over his shock and was checking out all the changes. “You’re one of those… uh, what are they called…”

“Twi’lek. Yes, I’m a Twi’lek, and if I hear any slave-girl jokes, I’m kicking your ass.”

He snorted and jammed his hands in his pants pockets. “It’s cool; no jokes, for now.”

I would have raised an eyebrow at him, but it looks weird without an actual eyebrow.

“Shit dude, you’re seriously hot, especially with the tats.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please, don’t go into your fantasies about Star Wars chicks, Matt. I’m not going to blow you.”

The sound of a can of soda hitting the floor alerted me to Eric’s presence. When I opened my eyes, he quickly averted his to the fallen drink.

“Uh… that’s mine I guess.”

Matt ignored him. “So, what’s up; why you hiding?”

“Are you serious?” I grabbed one head tails and held it up. “Have you seen these?”

“So what?” He closed in on me to get a better look and I let him. “It’s not like everyone hasn’t seen Star Wars, man. Most everyone, anyway. Yeah, it’ll be a little weird at first, since they’re fantasy and all, but they’ll get over it. There’s metas everywhere now.”

He looked really interested in touching my lekku, so I held it out to him. That was my first mistake. He grabbed it like it was a hunk of sausage.

“Easy, they’re sensitive!”

“Sorry.”

Eric snuck up beside him, with a really curious look on his face.

“It feels like real skin except it’s softer,” said Matt.

That funny feeling came back, like when Blue was teasing me in my room, and since it was Matt eliciting the sensations I immediately pulled it away from him.

“Hey, I wasn’t done,” he protested.

“I was. You can’t stroke them like that, man. It’s like someone stroking your… um… nevermind.”

He took a step back. “Sorry, man.”

“Why do you keep calling her, man?” said Eric.

“’Cause she used to be a dude, dude. She might not like being referred to as a chick this quick. Buy some compassion somewhere and use it.”

I held up my hand. “It’s okay. Call me whatever. I don’t care.”

Eric looked at me, feeling me out. “You sure?”

I nodded. “Some doctor from STAR Labs in Chicago made me pick a girl name for my new ID and Mom has been calling me by it ever since.”

Matt seemed interested at that point. “What’d you pick?”

“Aayla.”

Matt raised his fist and grinned. “Aayla Secura Jedi Master, good pick.”

I smirked as I knew he’d get the reference. I bumped fists with him and started to feel my eyes burn. “It’s just Aayla Walker. I didn’t go the whole way.”

“Dude, you could be Aayla Skywalker or maybe Aayla Sky Walker. Can you call’em back?”

His playing on Luke Skywalker, the main character’s name, made me do something for the first time since I’d been changed. I giggled. Then everything started to go blurry.

I stepped back and looked down at my Coke, fidgeting a little. “Thanks guys. Really.”

After wiping at my eyes, I peeked up at them and both, Matt and Eric had averted their gaze, sheepishly.

Quickly running my hand under my nose, I sniffed and then popped the top of my Coke. “Blue called me a lesbian alien freak.”

Eric popped his opened and sucked in all the foam that was spewing.

“No offence, but Blue is a skank,” said Matt. “Girl ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.”

I shrugged.

“When are you coming back to school?” said Eric as he wiped off his lips on the back of his hand.

“I don’t know. I was thinking about bailing and having my mom home school me.”

Matt looked like he was going to protest, but held himself back. “Yeah, I guess I could see that. But, dude, if you want to come back, we’ll, yanno… be there.”

Eric was disappointed. “What do you want us to tell everyone?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. Just don’t tell them I’m a freak or anything.”

“Are you kidding me?” said Matt. “If you’re going to be a metahuman, then go for broke. I’d want to be someone kick-ass like you. Well, maybe not the whole girl thing, but still, if I had to be a girl and yanno, an alien or something, then that would be it.”

That made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. “What?”

He sighed. “If I had no choice in the matter, I’d rather be a smokin’ hot…”

Matt stopped when he realized what he was saying. “I mean, if I had to be a girl, I’d want to be good looking, like you. Would you rather be rollie-pollie with like big gigantic zits that blew out purple puss every five minutes?”

Eric and I stared at him. Honestly, I had no idea what to say.

“Matt, you have a very unique way of looking at life,” I said.

He rolled his eyes and I could see that his face was coloring. “All’s I’m sayin’ is that you shouldn’t hide out because Blue-the-skank thinks you look like a freak. You’re the exact opposite. Girl doesn’t have a clue.”

I wasn’t so sure about that.

“Just be proud of what you look like,” he said. “The girls at school are gonna be jealous because all the attention is gonna be on you, and the guys… uh, ignore the guys… unless you switched teams along the way?”

Why did I get the feeling he was fishing for something? “I haven’t really thought about it, Matt. I was attracted to Blue when she was here and not acting like a bitch.”

~O~

The guys left when Mom and Dad got back with Kenny. He took one look at me and ran for his room. Don’t worry, he’s eight, I didn’t take offense.

The rest of the evening I caught the Yoda-Gatekeeper up on current events. Needless to say he was very displeased about my snapping and threatening Blue, not to mention more use of the Dark side powers. He did give me Muppet props for not killing her though.

I got assigned more meditation exercises. At least I didn’t fall asleep this time, and I felt a lot calmer afterward. So I re-swore that if I could make it until Sunday night without going all Darth Vader on anyone then I’d give school a try. I swear a lot, in case you haven’t noticed. I don’t really follow through with many of them either. Such is the life of a teenager.

The basement was my place of peace still. I hadn’t gone back on that. I even brought my bed and dresser down, totally cleared out my room, cleaned the walls, and vacuumed the area carpet I dug out, all while using the Force.

This was done by Yoda’s suggestion. You’re wondering why? It was part of my meditation exercises. I had to do it all while simultaneously doing a handstand.

It was supposed to help clear my mind and focus on my surroundings. Supposedly, if I can do things like this, then I can concentrate better and not freak out as bad when things go sour. I’ll tell you want I was focused on: the way my boobs tugged weirdly as I hung upside-down. It was really distracting, not to mention my lekku kept dragging the floor as well.

The good thing about doing it that way was I got everything accomplished in record time. By nine o’clock I was exhausted from using so much of my power continuously, but Dad wanted to talk about the revelations some more.

I took a shower and changed into some pajama pants and a tank Mom bought on her shopping spree. I tried the panties out. They didn’t totally suck and I was tired of going commando.

I was getting sick of all the black clothes, too. I felt a little too evil wearing black all the time, but I was limited in choices.

Mom bought some other things, but I was wary of trying them on. Some of the stuff was just a little too feminine for my tastes.

I already started a pile of clothes that were the wrong size, even though the tag said that they were the same as the others. Almost all the jeans she got were too tight in the butt. I felt like I was going to rip a seam if I bent over. Plus there was the whole flexibility issue that I had trouble with as well.

The sports tights were the thing that I liked wearing the most so far.

“You decent?” Dad called out.

“Yeah, come on down.”

When he reached the bottom of the steps I was opening another shoe box. Mom made me promise to try everything on at least once so she could return it if needed. At that moment I was surprised to find a pair of high heels.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

When Dad saw what I was holding up he grinned. “She wanted to give you options. Girls wear heels sometimes.”

I frowned and slipped them on then stood. Strangely enough, they didn’t feel bad and I could walk around fairly well without falling on my butt. Three cheers for Twi’lek agility. There was a reason they were dancing girls, you know.

“Keep them; even if you never wear them, it’ll make your mom happy.”

I looked at him doubtfully.

“She’s really concerned about you, Josh. I am too.”

I shrugged and sat down to undo the strap. “I’m dealing with it. Having Eric and Matt in my corner helps.”

“I’m glad.”

When I dropped one shoe back in the box, I crossed my legs to undo the other. “What’s she worried about?”

Dad pulled up a camping chair and made himself comfortable. “Everything, really. If you had simply turned into a girl she could deal with that, but she doesn’t really know what to do with everything else.”

I shook my head and dropped the other shoe in the box. “That’s my problem; nobody can help with that. Just tell her to go with the girl thing and I’ll deal with the other stuff.”

Realizing what I just said, I amended that statement. “I mean tell her not to try making into a girly-girl. Makeup and hair-styling is out of the question obviously, and trips to the salon to get my legs waxed won’t happen.

“You really don’t have any hair anywhere?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing, just the eyelashes. I have tattoos instead.”

To express that fact I lifted up my tank to show him my abs. There were a lot of crisscrossed tribal tattoos under my breasts and surrounding my navel. There were even some that started on either side and dove down between my legs, highlighting my sex like a big star-shaped sign that reads, “insert penis here.” He didn’t get to see those though.

His expression was odd. It wasn’t like he was angry or disappointed, it was somewhere in the middle.

“I’m sorry, Josh.”

“What for? It’s not like you knew that holocron was behind the wall.”

I floated the box over onto a cleaned off shelf along with a few more as keepers. Then I floated over the next one.

“I just am. I feel useless here. I thought it was all bull. My father told me the stories, like his father did for him, but I…”

“If you told me those same stories, I’d think the same thing. Don’t worry about it. It’s done. I’m not saying I’m over it or anything, but I know it was out of your control. So don’t try to guilt trip yourself.”

He seemed relieved, and I was almost horrified at the heels that were in the next box. I just closed it up and floated them over to the return pile.

“Let me guess: the five inch heels?”

I pointed at them. “No way in hell.”

~O~

The next morning I woke up the GH and did my morning meditations, this time thoroughly cleaning the basement of any dust, down to minute particles. It’s really gross how much dust can accumulate in a single room. I had five hand-brushes and a deck brush with sudsy water scrubbing every conceivable inch of the basement.

I gave him the lowdown about my friends and my parents, which he was fairly pleased about. Though he went off on a tangent.

“Learn about Twi’lek culture and biology you must.”

“What? Why?”

“Are you not Twi’lek?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“No but, learn. The path to knowledge is the path to the light.”

“Okay.”

The next holo-image was that of a Twi’lek with purple skin. She was quite pretty. That’s what made the extraordinary dry history of her home planet almost bearable. The odd part, was once I heard all these rambling dates and events associated with them, I didn’t forget anything. I was quizzed at the end of each section by the Yoda-Gatekeeper.

There was something to be said for increased brain size. That’s one of the things about lekku. A part of their brain is inside the upper portions, not to mention the tops of their skulls are larger than a normal human’s. In comparison, my brain was two and a half times as big as it was before, if you take everything into account, and most of the new addition, the parts that ran into my lekku, dealt with memory storage, mostly.

What was really annoying was the date system they used. I had no frame of reference. According to Yoda, the last time the GH was accessed was 172 ABY. That means a hundred and seventy-two years After the Battle of Yavin. Year one is when the original Death Star went boom. However without a frame of reference, like a recognizable star chart, or an exact date of arrival, he couldn’t pinpoint the date.

Who would have thought that such an advanced AI didn’t have an internal clock of any kind?

The day went on and just when I was about to pull my lekku off she finished with the important dates in history and their relation to the galaxy at large.

“Oh, thank God.”

A look at the clock on my night stand told me that it was a little after three.

School would have let out for the weekend. I had two and a half more days of semi-sanity before the insanity began.

I went to shower. Somehow, even using the Force to clean the room, I’d managed to get dirty. Don’t ask me how.

When I got back to the basement I turned on my cell and reviewed two texts that Matt sent during the course of the day.

I snorted at that even though it was probably a bad thing to know she was wondering if I was going to do something. Pardon my schadenfreude.

Right when I was about to turn my cell back off, another text came in from Matt.

I dropped my phone and slowly backed away.

“Ooooh shit.”

“What?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Mom let herself be known on the stairs. Not only was I dealing with that, I was only wearing a pair of panties.

“Mom, I’m naked!”

She didn’t seem impressed. “You’re a girl now, honey. I’ve seen it all before, trust me. Breasts are the same the universe over, apparently. Though I haven’t had a chance to see all of your markings.”

Regardless of feminine solidarity, I quickly made my way to the dresser and pulled out a sports bra.

“What’s got you all worked up? Oh, you dropped your phone.”

Before I could even think about using the Force to pull it to me, Mom bent over and picked it up.

“Oh.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the inevitable squee of a mother having her daughter asked out for her first date. I could almost picture the shopping spree which included dresses and those five inch heels.

“That’s disturbing,” she said.

My eyes snapped open. “What?”

She set the cell on my nightstand. “Having one of your best friends ask you out like that so soon after you went through such a change.”

Oh, thank God. “Yeah, um, well, I could see he was… um…”

“Attracted to you yesterday?”

I nodded, reluctantly. “Yeah. I guess.”

She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, patting the mattress to her side. I went over and sat down. Her hand went under my lekku and around my shoulders.

“It’s going to happen, honey. Even with the differences between you and regular girls, you’re still very pretty.”

That was saying it mildly.

“It’s all a matter of how you want to handle it,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

She cleared her throat. “I came down here to talk about certain things, Aayla. Your father let me know that you wanted to be treated like a girl.”

Did I say that? When did I say that?

“I’d still have this same talk with you, regardless. But it makes it easier knowing that you want things to be as normal as possible under the circumstances.”

I definitely don’t remember saying anything about wanting her to treat me like a girl.

“Keeping all that in mind, we’ll be talking frankly about girl things and I don’t want you to be embarrassed about this or about coming to me with any question you think I might be able to help you with. Remember, I’ve gone through a lot of what you will be going through, like dating boys for example.”

I closed my eyes again and groaned.

She sighed and got up to take a seat in the camping chair that my dad left out.

“Now we need a little information to start off with. Have you had a chance to think about your sexual orientation since this started? What I’m asking is do you still like girls?”

I nodded, still not looking at her.

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of, honey. Lots of girls like other girls. How about boys?”

There was a choice?

When I opened my eyes again, I looked at her. “I haven’t really thought about guys in that way.”

She didn’t tease me or act weird. If I didn’t know any better, it seemed like she was acting like a psychologist or someone impartial, making the whole thing sound a little scientific so I would open up more.

Apparently someone’s been cruising the parenting websites recently.

She nodded with understanding. “Try to think about them now. Try to think about Matt in that way.”

I gave her a look of uncooperativeness. “Moom.”

“Just do it, Aayla; for me.”

A dramatic sigh escaped my lips and I thought about Matt in a… ugh, boyfriend way. It just wasn’t doing anything for me.

I mean, he’s okay looking and all. He works out and keeps himself fit enough. I’ve seen him in the showers at gym class more than a few times. He’s got good muscle definition and a nice face. Matt’s always been one of those guys that buys whatever is new on the market to clean his face, or smell manly.

You should have seen him when all those Axe commercials started coming out. I had to roll down the windows in the car when Mom would drop us off at the movies. He really overdid it sometimes.

He was cute that way.

He always kept his hair cut short, and did the bald thing once. Black guys, what are you going to do?

Oh, I don’t think I mentioned he was African-American, well, on the light side. It was more of a mocha color than anything. His dad is white. All that might explain why he looked beyond my crimson skin color. Growing up in a multi-racial family would probably desensitize you to differences in skin color.

Anyway, he was cute enough, and he had nice full lips…

“Oh my God! I’m gay!”

My nipples were tightened behind my sports bra just thinking about Matt. Uggghhh! I think I’m going to be sick.

“I think it’s called bisexual, honey.”

I shook my head and covered my face with my hands. “Nonononono. This can’t be happening; not with everything else.”

Hands grabbed at my wrists and pulled them away from my face. Mom was bent over looking at me with her caring face.

“Honey, it’s okay. I’m not judging you.”

I stood up and pulled away. “I’m judging me. There’s enough judging for both of us. I can’t like guys like that. I was a guy for sixteen years, Mom. I was perfectly happy liking girls and now there’s this!”

“You’ve forgotten something, Aayla. You’ve changed, inside and out. You can’t discount the possibility of other changes either. I’m not forcing you to say yes or no to this date, honey. I’m just saying think about it. Give it the consideration it’s due and make your decision based on that consideration.”

She returned to her seat and crossed her legs. “Now, on to something else. I need to know about you.”

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

She smiled softly at me. “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about your new body. I don’t know anything about Twi’leks. Don’t you think your mother should know the basics?”

~O~

When Mom left, I immediately went over and picked up my cell. Pulling up Matt’s text, I hit reply and typed in:

“There. It’s not mean and it’s not nice. It just is.”

I sighed and sat there for a minute thinking about the talk I had with Mom. She had a right to know all about her… daughter. Maybe it was just too soon to think about it rationally. It’s all timing in my world and at the moment it was all apparently bad timing, much like the incoming call on my cell.

The Caller ID read Matt. I almost hit the cancel button which would throw the call to voice mail, but he’d know I was dodging him. It was much safer to talk to him through the cell than in person, so I accepted it on the third ring.

“Hello.”

“Why don’t you think it’s a good idea?”

“Matt. I just changed into a girl. I’m not ready to date guys yet.”

“Who’s talking about dating? We’re both going stag. I thought you might want to go together. You are going to the dance, right? I mean you already spent the money on the tickets.”

“I was thinking about skipping it. Actually, I wasn’t thinking about it at all, but now that I am, I think I’m going to skip it.”

“Aayla…”

I interrupted. “You’re calling me Aayla now?”

There was a moment of silence before he came back. “Josh doesn’t really fit the new you, but if you want me to call you that…”

I sighed. “Go ahead. I don’t care.”

“Look, uh, I’m sorry I brought the subject up. I just thought… nevermind. I’ll talk to you later.”

Before I could say anything more, he hung up.

“Dammit.” I tried calling him back but he’d already powered off his cell. “Why, why, why?”

Using the Force, I locked the basement door and dropped on my bed, wincing slightly when I landed on my lekku before they had a chance to fully move out of the way. It was my tchun, the left one that took the brunt of being squished. I pulled it around and lightly massaged it while thinking about my entire situation.

I wasn’t ready to make any kind of commitment to do anything as of yet. The weekend was barely started and while I’ve dealt with a few stressful situations without veins popping, I still had a long way to go. Planning anything, even something two weeks away, wasn’t smart, and I was trying my best to be smart. I wasn’t succeeding, but I was trying.

Matt may have let on that he just wanted to go to the Junior Prom as friends, but too many things didn’t add up to his sudden proposition.

I didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship by accepting and then having to peel him off the ceiling for groping me inappropriately during the night. And I didn’t want to lose him because I didn’t accept and he copped a ‘tude. He showed his worth by being a true friend earlier and I didn’t want to lose that.

“Why can’t guys just be friends?”

~O~

After morning meditations, I got to listen to the purple Twi’lek drone on about female biology. At least I didn’t have to worry about male as well. She started from the moment of birth and led me through the years, explaining everything in annoying detail. It didn’t get anywhere near interesting until she reached adolescence. Then it just turned horrifying.

I found out why Twi’leks were looked upon as sexual creatures.

Before I go into how messed up my biology is, you need to know something. In their galaxy, they measure time very similarly to us: seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc. The difference is they have five day weeks, seven week months, and ten month years based on a 368 day calendar. Got all that?

Twi’leks, like a lot of beings in the animal kingdom — humans are considered animals, you know that, right? — have mating cycles. Their menstruation period is roughly the equivalent of three Earth months. That means I don’t have to worry about the more difficult side of being female. It only happens four times a year on our calendar, or every two point five months by their calendar.

The thing I do have to worry about is what happens in that last half month for them. The female Twi’lek goes into heat, for lack of a better term, for that time period. In human time that equates to almost four Earth weeks of being constantly lit up, so to speak.

What all that means is if I don’t have a mate or whatever, then I’ll pretty much have sex with anyone. That happens four times a year here.

The plus side to this is that the female is enhanced during this time period: increased strength, agility, flexibility, energy and so forth.

The down side is the drive to satisfy that craving. So it isn’t a matter of if I’m attracted to males or not, I’ll want them; it’s just a matter of time.

Oh, and by the way, humans and Twi’leks are genetically compatible, at least in their galaxy. Since my ancestor was able to have children here I’ll have to go under the assumption that his biology is very similar to ours, and thus to mine.

My current problem is how do I take care of my issues, and not lose my mind along the way? If I can do that, how do I not get pregnant in the process? Will birth control even work on me? And most importantly, how do I avoid being a slut for four months out of the year? Lastly, when does it start: from the day I changed, tomorrow; who knows?

I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “Just get a boyfriend; Matt’s offering.”

No, that’s not really an option. It’s just not.

~O~

After everything was finished and my lessons over, I checked my messages. There was nothing from Matt, not that I was expecting anything. Eric wanted me to call him.

“Maybe Matt told him I blew him off or something.”

I hit the return call button and only waiting through one ring. “Hey, I was wondering if you got my message.”

“I just turned my phone on. There are things I have to do during the mornings now,” I said. “So what’s up?”

“Oh, uh, nothing much. I didn’t have anything planned today and I wanted to see if you wanted to maybe catch a movie.”

Is it me? Am I reading too much into everything since I’ve become a girl?

“Uh…,” I responded.

He was quick to follow that up. “It’s not a date or anything. If you were still a guy, I’d still be calling.”

Call me paranoid. “That might not be such a good idea, Eric.”

“Why not?”

I sighed and rubbed the bare skin at the top of my head. “You promise to keep this between you and me?”

“Sure.”

“Matt asked me to Junior Prom last night. He says that we’d just go together and it wouldn’t be a date, but I’m not really sure…”

“Oh.”

“I turned him down. If he really did want to ask me out in that way and I went to the movies with you…”

“Oh yeah, I can see where that would be a problem. Well, why don’t we get him on conference and invite him along? That way we have our old threesome together.”

Threesome really wasn’t the best choice of word to use. It did nothing to make me feel better.

“Sure. You want to do it?”

“Yeah, hold on.”

I heard a couple of clicks and then waited. This was a bad idea, but if I could get them both to go then at least I wouldn’t have to worry about one of them making a move on me and creating a scene.

The line clicked back over and I heard ringing. “You there?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Matt picked up. “Hello?”

“Matt, it’s me, man. Josh is on too.”

“Uhh, hey.” He sounded a tad uncomfortable.

“I’m calling around for a movie. You game?”

“All three of us?” asked Matt.

“Yeah, that’s why Josh is on the line also. Wake up, dude.”

“Sure, I guess,” he said and I relaxed a little.

“Cool, it starts at one-oh-five. I’ll pick Josh up and then you on the way, alright?”

“Sure. See you guys then.”

“Bye, Matt,” I said.

“Uh… bye Aayla.”

He clicked off and I sighed.

“Sorry,” Eric said. “Did you want me to call you Aayla too?”

“If you want to. It’s no big deal either way. I have to get used to it sometime, I guess. Matt’s doing it because I don’t look like a Josh anymore.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess he’s right. Okay, Aayla, I’ll see you about a quarter after twelve?”

“Cool. Bye Eric.”

Then I clicked off.

“Mom!” I yelled.

A half minute later she came down the stairs with a curious look on her face to find me sifting through my clothes.

“What do I wear to the movies when it’s not a date?”

“You have a date?” she said with a mild amount of surprise.

“No. Eric and Matt are coming along. It’s definitely not a date.”

She smiled knowingly — knowing what, I have no idea.

“And you want to look nice?”

I almost groaned. “I want to look decent, but not flirty. I don’t want either of them to get the wrong idea.”

She looked at my stuff. “Just ask yourself what regular girls wear to the movies in the middle of the day?”

When she put it like that I felt stupid. “Probably shorts, a tank, and some sandals.”

Mom pursed her lips cutely at me and nodded before going to my dresser and pulling out some panties, shorts, an actual bra, and then looked at my hanging clothes for a tank.

“Put these on. What did you do with the mascara I bought you?”

“I don’t need any makeup, Mom. It’s just the guys.”

She chuckled. “Indulge me, honey. It’s the only thing you can wear that won’t clash against your skin.”

“It’s in that box over there.”

I turned around and lifted my top off, along with the sports bra. I’d taken enough bra’s off of Blue to know what I was doing in that regard, so I just did that in reverse.

It was a navy-colored one that matched the tank and the shorts. I was going to be very monochromatic in the future. After a couple of misses with the hook and eye thing I was connected and making adjustments to the straps until everything was comfortable.

“Doesn’t that feel better than squishing your breasts all the time?” she asked.

Actually, it did, but I wasn’t going to admit that. “It’s okay.”

I looked at the panties that she gave me and thought they were a little too silky.

“They’re called microfiber. Because of your shorts, you need something that won’t show or you’ll have panty lines. So, it’s either that, a thong, or a G-string.”

“I’ll take the microfiber,” I said with no hesitation.

“I didn’t think you’d go for the others, but keep them in mind, because eventually you’ll wear them. All girls do at one time or another.”

She turned around and was looking at shoes to give me a little privacy to change.

“Why?”

“Different fabrics, styles of clothes, mood,” she giggled. “Unlike guy’s underwear, girls have about twenty different styles of panties for every occasion.”

I slid my sports tights off and then pulled the panties up. It didn’t feel like I was wearing much of anything at all. That was fine with me. They covered what needed to be covered and weren’t uncomfortable. The shorts came next and I saw what she meant.

The fabric was very thin linen, and God they were short.

I was so used to wearing shorts that hung below my knees. When I pulled them up, I had to check to make sure nothing was hanging out in the back. They actually hung about an inch or two below that point. I just felt naked and it made the whole experience more than it was.

“Since you’re going for less,” said Mom. “We’ll go for the flat sandals. Sound good?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “No heels sounds just fine.”

She handed them over with a smile. “You’ll wear those too, someday. You just need an occasion.”

I slid my feet into those and pulled the strap up behind my heel. “How do I look?”

“Comfortable. How do you feel?”

Looking in the mirror I frowned. “Like I’m showing too much skin.”

Mom came up behind me. “Aayla, you’ll find that people are actually attracted to what they can’t see as opposed to what they can. When guys or girls look at you, they’ll see your long legs, but what they’ll wonder is what’s behind the shorts and the top.”

I didn’t know about that. When I was a guy I loved summer and seeing girls in short shorts and skimpy tops that showed off their midsection.

The one thing that showed off was the tattoos on my legs. There weren’t quite as many, but they were a lot larger, thicker, and artistic than those on my torso, face, and lekku.

“Now, let me show you how to apply your mascara.”

That took all of five minutes.

“There, they look much better. Here put it in your purse,” she said.

“I don’t need a purse.”

“You need something to carry your money, ID, the mascara, your phone…”

It was then that I realized I had no pockets. She took pity on me and at least made sure to buy me small purses.

“We need to buy you some jewelry.”

“I think the tattoos are decoration enough,” I said.

“What about a watch? Earrings?”

“No earrings and I use my cell for the time… which is late. Eric should be here any second.”

I stuffed everything inside and threw the strap over my shoulder.

“You look good.” When she saw the look on my face she added, “Not too sexy — comfortable.

I nodded. “Okay. I can do this.”

“Do you need any money?”

“No, I’m good.”

~O~

Twelve-fifteen on the dot, Eric pulled up and got out of his car. I was a bundle of nerves, going out in public, realistically, for the first time. Yeah, I’d gone for the clothes when I first got out of the hospital, but this was different. There would be a heck of a lot more people involved, and I was virtually naked.

“He’s here.”

“Have fun, honey and try to enjoy yourself. You seriously need to relax.”

I nodded and then opened the door a second before he reached the bell. Eric stood there, his eyes widening and sweeping from my eyes to my feet and everywhere in-between before getting control of himself.

“You’re ready?”

“Yeah.”

We got to his car, his parent’s car actually, a Toyota Avalon, which they let him borrow on the weekends. Thankfully, he didn’t open my door for me, but his eyes didn’t stray too far from my legs the entire trip over to Matt’s.

I thought it prudent to sit in the back seat once we picked our third up. I’d like to arrive at the theater accident free. Matt was waiting out front when we arrived and spoiled that idea quick enough.

“Hey,” he said when he got in.

“Hi, Matt,” I said, trying to act as normal as possible.

He gave me a half-smile that I recognized as something you’d give someone that you were conflicted about for whatever reason.

It was going to be a really long and stressful movie.

TBC...

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