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T.O. Tomato Lah or something. I'm gonna summarize my mission to lead into this new thread in case you forgot or was confused on what has happened.

T.I.

WHAT HAS COME BEFORE

In Aaron's battle with the renegade Boba Fett, back during the days of the BTCS reign of terror over the Megaverse, his longtime mentor, Colonel Korn, who had originally served during the original Veggie invasion, died. However, in a conversation with Glenn Pear after the Veggies had retaken the galaxy, Aaron revealed that Korn had survived. He faked his death to investigate a strange signal he discovered, which Aaron assumed to be a Veggie signal. He left to go find Citrus Orange, the brave pilot who led the attack on the main Veggie space platform which was the turning point in the original war. He disappeared one year later.

Korn did leave Aaron with one parsel of information in case of emergency; a riddle leading to his location. It goes as follows;

When you return to the place it began,
You will find that matters are well at hand.
Seek help from those men who constantly weep,
Or suffer the fate of those who are deep.
With the assistance of generations past,
Go to where the little folk mass.

There you will find two paths to proceed;
One leads to danger; the other to me.
When you have chosen the right path to take,
You will come to another choice you must make.
One that will be difficult to make,
But yet it is obvious what choice you should take.

Then, only then, if you succeed,
In choosing what is the noblest deed,
Your fight will be over, and victory yours.
You will be mentioned in the greatest of lores.

But be warned; if you should stray,
To the earlier path where danger does lay,
As hard as you fight and as hard as you try,
You will never escape it alive.

***

With the help of his squadmate Dave Blair, he cracked the first line of the riddle, when you return to the place it began. The two discovered that if you rearrange the starting letters of the lines, you got Gowwsy Boytow Yity Baty, the planet (Gowwsy) and governer (Boytow Yity Baty) of the planet the Veggies first invaded. Unfortunately, Gowwsy was completely destroyed. However, Aaron still ordered a mission to the planet.

***

When there, the crew discovered that area where Gowwsy used to be was too clear of debris for a planet to have been destroyed there. On David Maylone's suggestion, the crew ran the reshuffling of the Megaverse caused by Qel's death through the computer. They discovered a startling discovery; the Gowwsy system never moved.

Dave drew the lines representing the paths the stars took on the map. He then reshuffled the map so Gowwsy was the center. The reshuffling showed a startling discovery; the lines formed by the moving stars' paths formed the face of Qel. To their surprise, it spoke.

Qel told them that he used a device to cloak the planet and Aaron was now allowed access. He also said that it was not by accident that Korn chose Aaron off the streets when he formed Egg Squadron. Qel told them that he was the chosen one; not to save the Megaverse, but to open the opportunity for the Megaverse to be saved. Then he left.

They entered the planet of Gowwsy.

***

The ship crashed, and when Aaron woke up, he realized that he and everything around him had aged twenty years, despite the fact that he had only been asleep five hours.

He eventually discovered that the team had been killed by "those who constantly weep" (another part of the riddle). Then, he heard footsteps in the cave they were killed in.

The footsteps turned out to be Yarche, a small guy who looked like Yoda. He told Aaron that the 'Weepers' were a barbaric race and Aaron would never be able to get help from them. Instead, he gave Aaron a vial of Weeper tears which stopped and reversed the aging. He also hinted that he had great powers; believing.

Yarche began training Aaron in the art of believing. Basically, anything you believe will happen will happen, if you have the right mindset. You can do anything, except kill instantly, change emotions, or go against the great forces. Here's a brief excerpt from that section:

***

Two weeks had passed. Yarche had been training him in the art of believing.

"All in one's mind, believing is. With the proper training, one can do anything."

"Anything?"

"Almost. One cannot kill instantly, one cannot change emotions, and one cannot go against the powerful forces."

"Such as the ones controlling aging."

"Yes. Stranger learns fast."

"Can you use these forces?"

Yarche frowned. "Yarche can, to an extent. But Yarche is not the master."

"Qel?"

Yarche snorted. "The Jedi Qel was great, yes, but weak in the forces of believing. Qel's power was the Force, and however powerful the Force is, it is limited. In its scope, and its practice. There are those who limit theirselves in the art of believing, as many of Qel's friends did, but they are still more than a match for Force-users.

"Believing takes a certain mindset, a certain awareness of the world around the believer. Only one in a trillion show the power to properly believe. Family lines have nothing to do with it. Stranger, you are one of those few who possess the power to believe."

***

Also given was the quote, "Impossible exists only in the mind." (which, in rereading, I think is a totally awesome quote I came up with). That basically sums up believing.

As Aaron's training with Yarche went on, he became a powerful believer. His mission became clear; to destroy the Weepers. He took out 300 of them in under one minute in one post. Alone.

***

Aaron, on Christmas Day, communicated with Acky and EC3. He told them about believing and gave them a present. However, uncertainty existed in their minds (excerpt coming).

***

EC3 nodded. "Yes, I..." He frowned for a second. "That's strange...I feel some unknown power racing toward us."

Acky closed his eyes. "I feel it too. It feels faintly like..." His eyes snapped open. "Aaron."

"Hey, Acky, EC3." The two spun, and to their surprise, saw Aaron standing behind them, smiling warmly. Behind him, Acky saw some of the crew pulling blasters, and staring at this man who had just materialized in front of them.

Acky waved his hand. "Go back to celebrating. Aaron, how the hell did you get here?"

Aaron smiled. "Long story. I'm not really here. I just look like I'm here. I'm projecting myself from Gowwsy."

"Try again, in Basic this time."

"By reaching across the Megaverse and temporal barrier between Gowwsy and you, I can plant my image and words in your mind. It's difficult, under such long distances, but possible."

"Uh, excuse me for my ignorance, but you don't have any skill at the Force."

"No, but I do at something that is so much more. Let's go to your office, and I'll explain." He winked out, and Acky suddenly saw the surroundings shift suddenly to his office, as if he was watching one of Boba Fett's holodramas. "How did you-"

Aaron smiled. "All will be explained."

***

An hour later, Acky shook his head. "Unbelievable. I can't believe this."

"I'm not sure when I should continue with my quest, but this seems to be something important."

Acky frowned. "Do you think it's wise to convert so far?"

"It's fine. I'll go look for those little folk or whatever later."

"Uh, what about the Weepers?"

"Yarche and I are going to wipe their scum off the planet."

EC3 gaped. "Are you insane? That's genocide! And aren't they supposed to help you?"

"They did, indirectly. By giving me those tears."

"Why aren't you crying?"

"I..." That stopped him. "Maybe because I believe..."

"Or maybe Yarche's taking you for a ride."

"He wouldn't do that."

"Wouldn't he? It sounds like he's using you to get rid of a minor nuisance. How do you know that he didn't kill your squad, and falsify the document?"

"You're speculating wildly."

"Maybe. But something about this doesn't feel right."

EC3 shook his head. "Strawberry fig chocolates! I don't like this situation."

Aaron shook his head. "Nothing's wrong."

"Famous last words."

Aaron growled. "I can't believe I'm listening to this! Merry Christmas, Acky. Here's your present." With that, he winked out, leaving a gift behind.

Acky walked toward it, cautiously. He opened it. Inside was a small computer. Acky brought up the monitor. His jaw dropped.

EC3 walked up. "What is it?"

"It's security footage of major Veggie outposts across the Megaverse! With this, we can more effectively assualt them! We'll know exactly where they all are, and what they're doing! And, we'll have specific details of the manpower and tech level of all our targets! And..." said Acky, as he read the last function, "We have audio. From the Grand Veggie Palace on Mulberry IV. We have their master strategies."

EC3's jaw worked up and down a few times. Finally, he stuttered, "Chocolate-coated raspberries..."

***

Time passed. The final attack on the Weepers was at hand. But Aaron had doubt. (excerpt)

***

Yarche looked at him sharply. "Not convinced, are you? Still you doubt the nessicity of this action. Do you not remember the fate of your crewmen? Of the rest of the innocents consumed by these Weepers?"

Aaron nodded. "Of course. I'll perform my duty as called for."

He just didn't know what that duty was.

***

The date of the invasion was at hand. But Aaron was in for an unpleasant surprise...(I'm gonna redo my entire post here, cause it was important, and overshadowed a bit by the other half of it as well as the LB situation.

***

Aaron nodded to Yarche. "I'm ready."

Yarche stared at him intently. "Still not commited to the task, you are."

Aaron shook his head. "I'll perform my duty."

"Good. Remember your friends. They would want this."

Aaron frowned. Would they? They were all very aggresive; their hockey team led the Fleet's league in penalties during the brief period between conflicts, when such action was possible. But would they want an entire race to be exterminated to avenge them? The team had learned much since a couple of hard losses to teams that had gotten them off their game by drawing retaliations. One such game had them penalty killing for just about an entire period. Their revenge drive had been sapped after a few such games, which was good, because they played better without the chippiness.

He thought back to Maylone, to David, to Dustin, Josh, John, Brandon, Jordan, Evan, the rest of them. Great men, with no right to be dead. Every ounce of his body, his mind, his spirit, sang for revenge, but is that what they'd have wanted? Torn, he clenched his teeth.

Yarche stared at him intently. "Strong is their influence on you, isn't it? Such emotions are weakening. Let go of them."

Aaron's mind suddenly cleared. He glared at Yarche, with rage in his face. "Just a minute ago, you were preaching to defeat the Weepers because of those emotional ties. What happened to that Yarche?"

"I-"

"Funny. I've never heard you refer to yourself in the first person before. It was all an act, a charade, wasn't it, Yarche? You just wanted me to eliminate the Weepers for you, right?"

Yarche stared at him coldly. "You're wrong."

"No, I don't think I am."

"Alright, you're partially right. I have been using you. But it wasn't just to destroy the Weepers."

To Aaron's shock, Yarche began to grow before him. Within seconds, a strong, powerful Yuuzhan Veggie warrior stood before him. A strong Veggie warrior holding a tomato gun. He hit a switch in his other hand, and Aaron suddenly felt zapped of strength. To his shock, his aging commenced, at an even faster rate than before.

Even faster racing was his mind. How could there be a Veggie here? Gowwsy was supposedly a stronghold against the Veggies. Equally disturbing was the fact that the Veggie was trying, and succeeding, to end his mission. While that showed to him that the Veggies had a legitimate concern about it, it also showed that they knew about it. That wasn't good. And, of course, there was always the minor detail that he was about to die.

The Veggie smiled. "I enjoyed playing with you. I had hoped that you could be completely turned to a Veggie priest, but that obviously has not happened."

This was NOT good.

"However, you have been exposed enough to our religion to fully morph you physically into a Yuuzhan Veggie."

Not getting any better, either.

The Veggie smiled. "Korn was right to believe that you were your galaxy's savior."

Aaron frowned. "How did you-"

"I have my ways. One of your leaders is a Veggie spy."

Aaron jerked in surprise. He blinked a few times, and swallowed.

The Veggie only smiled harder. "Once you slipped through the Gowwsy, I followed, using those cloakers the traitor gave us, and set up camp here. When you came, I began teaching you the ways of the Veggies. Both through the technique shu'shari, and the actual beliefs of the Veggies. Of course, in order to complete the conversion, I had to convince you to attack a group of innocents out of rage."

Fury boiled up in Aaron's gut. "You mean they didn't kill my crew?"

The Veggie waved his hand. "I have no idea where your crew went. I attempted to kill them, but the Weepers interjected. I killed about thirty of them, but they escaped with your crew. Where they are is irrelevent, as you and they will be dying soon."

"What about the aging?"

"A natural feature of this area. Of course, the Veggies have seen such areas before, and have easy counters for it, that don't involve the simplistic ways of the Weepers. That tear juice was one such way."

Aaron's gut went cold. "And what else did you place in it?"

The Veggie smiled. "Mental enhancements, to open you to the art of shu'shari. As well as a poison that will work through your system as soon as I command it. Of course, now that you've rebelled against me, I've drained the mental enhancers from you."

Aaron clenched his fists. It seemed hopeless. It suddenly became obvious what Korn had wanted, as it should have been obvious before. He should have seeked help from the Weepers themselves with the aging, instead of indirectly, through Yarche. Of course, when Korn wrote the poem, he didn't know about Yarche.

Try as he might, Aaron could not figure a way out of this situation. Even as he watched, the physical changes taking place within him had almost completed the transformation. As he watched in horror, they continued toward his head. Looking into a mirror, Aaron watched in horror as he became a full Yuuzhan Veggie.

***

What will happen to our hero next? Will he survive his encounter with the Vong warrior? Will he complete his quest? Is his crew alive? Will he escape Gowwsy alive? Will the Megaverse be saved? Find out next time, on...*gunshot* Shut up.

Aaron swallowed hard. He was in a pickle, alright. His mind raced. If he was a Veggie now, he'd never be recognized when he returned to the Produce. Also, if this Believing, or shu'shari, as the Yarche called it, was a Veggie power, that suggested that there were other Veggies out there with this power. And if that was true, the Rebellion was in serious trouble.

He shook his head. He had a more immeadiate problem.
Glancing around, however, he saw no way to solve it.

Yarche smiled. "I feel the hopelessness rise in you. You know you can't stand up to me." He pulled an organic control out of the sack hanging at his side. "When I press stroke this thing right, it will send a signal to the node in your head. The poison will leak through your brain, killing brain cells. You'll be dead before you can say...choclate-covered strawberries!"

Aaron glanced behind him. To his shock, a large Weeper army was approaching. What seemed like thousands of them swarmed the two. Aaron didn't hesitate. He launched himself at Yarche, trying to get his hand on the control for the posion. He knew that if Yarche managed to get his hand on the button, he was done for. With his other hand, he grabbed a loose shard of metal and stabbed it into Yarche's unprotected side. He screamed and lost his grip on the controller. It landed on the ground. To Aaron's surprise, it began crawling around, apparently in terror. Yarche shook off the pain and threw Aaron off. He reached for the controller.

Aaron tried to stand up, but his leg gave out from under him. Grimacing he began crawling toward the controller, which was scuttling around at random now. Yarche didn't seem to be up to much more than crawling himself.

Aaron glanced backward. For some reason, the Weepers appeared to have stopped. Then it hit him; the walls of the hut still existed, but he didn't see them because, in his own mind, they didn't exist. The Weepers were pounding hard on the walls, but Aaron estimated it would be another five minutes before they broke through. He had that long to keep the poison away from Yarche.

He glanced over. Seeing Yarche gaining, he grabbed a nearby kitchen knife and hurled it at the table near Yarche. It sliced neatly through it's leg, and the entire table crashed down on him, one edge digging hard into Yarche's injured side. He stopped, though he was only momentarily delayed.

It was enough. Aaron had almost reached the controller. Pinning it in one place with one hand and raising his other, he prepared to smash it into pieces.

It flew out from under him. Aaron turned. It was on a straight beeline for Yarche's outstretched hand. As Aaron looked on with shock, he realized that he had forgot that Yarche could still practice shu'shari. It was all over.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light. A red bolt struck the controller as it headed for Yarche. It faltered and crashed to the ground. Aaron blinked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Weepers advancing, and Josh John holding a smoking gun. Aaron had no idea how he made such an accurate shot on such a small and fast moving target, but he didn't have time to wonder. The Weepers mobbed Yarche.

Aaron shook his head at the futility of it. He knew already that Yarche would be long gone before the Weepers got there. And he was right; Yarche, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, teleported out before they got within three feet of him. It was over.

But as he stood up and leaned on a table, the Weepers turned their attention toward him. He realized that he looked just as much like a Veggie to them as Yarche did.

Dustin stepped forward, his voice cold and hard. "Shut up, you Veggie POS. I'm giving you two options; tell us where Aaron is, or have whatever you use for brains splattered all over the floor."

"Dustin, it's me. Aaron. That YV freak put something in my head."

"Right. Like we're gonna believe that," put in Ben.

"Look, Ben-"

"I'm Brandon," said the man Aaron thought was Ben.

Dustin smiled. "Ok, it's Aaron." THe squad and Weepers relaxed.

Aaron smiled. "You have no faith in me at all."

"Would you rather we still think you're a Veggie, and it was an accident you called Brandon 'Ben?'"

"Ok, you're right. What's our situation?"

"Well, OUR situation is this; we were rescued by the Weepers from that Veggie. They gave us their tears, which unfortunately, gives us this crying problem."

"Oh, and I thought you all were just glad to see me."

"Why would we be that?"

Aaron sighed. "Continue."

"Anyway, we found out that that Veggie had gotten into your mind."

"Yeah, speaking of in my mind..."

"Later. We organized a rescue attempt. We're taking you back to the Weeper village. Now, it looks like you've got an interesting story to tell yourself."

Aaron nodded. "Alright. Well, when I woke up..."

***

They were back at the village, when Aaron felt something probing. Using what little shu'shari he had managed to retain, Aaron closed his eyes and reached for the probe. His eyes snapped open.

Acky stood in front of them.

"Aaron! What the hell happened to you?" he shouted.

"Later. I need to talk with you. The Veggies have a powerful weapon that could end the Rebellion..."

***

Acky looked at Aaron solemnly. "We have no way to contend with that."

"I know. But, a couple of things. #1, they haven't used it yet, so it may not be available. #2, if the other Veggies think the way Yarche did, it might be a show of weakness for them."

"Huh?"

"Well, Yarche didn't use shu'shari until not using it guarenteed my escape. That suggested that the Veggies would rather not have to resort to it unless they have to. You know, they'd rather beat their prey on an even playing field."

"Makes sense."

"Another thing we have going for us is there aren't too many of them out there. Yarche said something like one in a trillion."

"Right. So, tops, we have to deal with a score of them."

"Pretty much. So, what does that suggest for your continued strategy?"

"Find out if the Veggies have the shu'shari priests here already, and, if so, how many. If they don't, find out when they're coming and see if we can ambush them and end them there. For that, we can use that thing you sent us for Christmas. The intercept of visual/audio from all Veggie outposts."

"Correct. And?"

"Don't pull any major victories off until we find a way to neutralize the shu'shari. Otherwise, the Veggies might decide to utilize them. But we've got to be sure that the Veggies don't realize what we're doing. Also, continue to look for ways to defeat them."

"Right. Though I've been thinking about what Qel, your dad, said. My role is not to save the galaxy, rather to open the opportunity for the galaxy to be saved. I think this is what he's talking about. I've got to find out how to defeat the shu'shari. One more thing; Yarche talked about great powers that the shu'shari couldn't affect. We need to find out what those are."

Acky nodded. "Understood. I'll be in contact. May the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you too."

Acky cut off. Aaron sighed. He hadn't told Acky about the other part of the riddle he was thinking about, but it had suddenly occupied a large portion of his mind.

EC3 look thunderstruck. "That did not go well."

Pear looked at him, wondering whether it was worth the effort it would take to reply to him. He shook his head. "One thing's for sure; we need to establish a chain of command here. This is out of control."

Glenn nodded. He closed his eyes. "John, I want you to take over from Acky as commander of the military."

Pear's eyes widened. "Uh, are you sure that's-"

"I don't have a choice. Acky's obviously lost control. I don't want to do this, but we can't have him go off on some fit of rage in a combat situation."

EC3 cleared his throat. "Glenn, if you relieve Acky of command, he might go off on you. We don't need a mutiny right now."

"You think I don't know that?" snapped Glenn. "I'm sorry. But Acky is not qualified to lead a fleet in his current state. I'm putting him on a mandatory leave of absense and having him undergo a psychological review, as well as my own private investigations."

Pear stared at him. "This is not going to go over well..."