Moggallana (Star Wars/Semi-History AU- One Shot)

[Numen]

MOGGALLANA


Figure 1: The First Jedi, from The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi​

Synopsis: What if the Buddha was a Force-User? And our galaxy and a galaxy far far away existed in the same Universe?

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. There are no spoilers in this fic for the Last Jedi.

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Spoiler: RECOMMENDED SOUNDTRACK

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The monk in the "pure robes" walked down the road— his clothes were patched together from rags found in rubbish heaps, cremation grounds, and menstrual cloth. They were washed and dyed a saffron orange by boiling it in spices.

This man was Devadatta, the cousin of Shakyamuni Buddha and his brother-in-law from his days as a Prince. He was also the brother of Ananda, the Buddha's attendant who was gifted with eidetic memory.

This man was no friend of the Buddha— the Dark Side of the Force clings to him as surely as the thin glimmer of sweat on one's skin in the hot Indian summer.

Where he walked, animals darted away from him and birds took flight from the trees. The entire forest groaned in terror at his passage deeper into the woods.

Finally he emerged into a grove and stared straight ahead at his nemesis. His long-time rival sat beneath a Bodhi tree, legs crossed in a meditative position. Like Devadatta, this sitting monk also wore "pure robes".

"Siddhartha. I have come for your head." Devadatta announced. He reached into his robes and withdrew a Devic weapon, a Vajra gifted to him by King Mara— the Devil and sovereign of the Sixth Heaven of Desire. Devadatta gripped the short bronze hilt-like device in one hand, but kept it on his side.

The Buddha opened both of his blue eyes. "Your latest attempt at indirect assassination did not work. The five hundred disciples you had seduced away from the Noble Order has been brought back to the fold by Sāriputta and Moggallāna. Your ploy did not work."

Devadatta sneered. "Indeed it did not. I tire of the subtle route, truly."

The Fully Enlightened One shook his sadly. "So it has come to this, cousin. The darkness was always strong in you— I had thought I would be able to mitigate it; to show you the right path. I had failed."

"How could you have convinced me of anything?" Devadatta spat, his dark eyes narrowing. "You were always trying to one up me! The best at horsemanship, the best at archery, the best at swordplay, and religion and philosophy! The courts praise Prince Siddhartha, pride of the Republic— your hubris knows no bounds."

To that, the Buddha said nothing.

Devadatta snarled. "Say something!"

The Buddha said nothing.

Devadatta smiled. "I will destroy the Sixteen Republics and Kingdoms after I have killed you! I have already turned Prince Ajatashatru— after I had convinced him of the power of the Dark Side of the Force, he submitted to me as my apprentice. He had his father, King Bimbisara imprisoned on my orders. The Kingdom of Magadha is mine! And soon, all of Jambudvipa!"

The heretic extended both feet, pushing apart the soil of the earth. He held aloft the Vajra in both hands, pointed to one side and muttered the mantra of activation. "Oh great Mara! Lord of the Worlds, bless me the power to slay the Teacher of Gods and Men!"

A beam of red energy, burning of a malicious light bursted into existence, extending 3 feet in length from the hilt of the Vajra.

The Buddha still said nothing.

Devadatta gave a roar and dashed across the ground. If one had assumed that monks were poorly trained in arts of war, they would do well to remember that Prince Devadatta was a scion of the Koliyan and Shakyan clans, trained in the ways of battle.

Shakyamuni Buddha, the other scion of the Solar Dynasty remained perfectly still, his eyes not widening one bit from his imminent demise.

The red blade arched through the air, igniting the oxygen and creating a swath of fire as the sword of red descended upon the teacher of gods and men.

There was a swoosh and a blue blade intercepted the red— the two sabers interlocked in front of the Buddha face. Devadatta turned his eyes to the side to see Maha Moggallāna wielding a bronze hilt from whence the blue beam of light emitted.

"Moggallāna!" Devadatta snarled, eyes turning yellow from fury.

"Devadatta! You go too far! You shall not slay the Buddha this day!" One of the Buddha's chief disciple roared before pushing the red blade away from the Buddha, forcing Devadatta backwards with a tremendous burst of strength.

The Dark Lord widened his feet and bent low, forcing himself to dig into the soil. He slid to a halt several feet away, a red blade held behind his back, in one hand in a reverse grip.

"Moggallāna— you are the foremost in psychic powers! Your gifts are boundless! You have already surpassed the Buddha, come join me, abandon the heresies of the Buddha-Dharma, and together we shall be supreme over everything!"

Moggallāna stood up, blue blade held in front of him in both hands. "Never!"

He disappeared in a blur of golden light and shimmered into existence next to Devadatta. A Red blade was raised to meet the blue blade aimed for his head— the two spun around and started a furious exchange of martial prowess. There was a kick that sent Moggallāna stumbling back with a grunt, then he threw himself to the side to avoid a red blade from bisecting him.

The Dark Lord roared and tried to stab the monk on the ground, who scrambled backwards to avoid the deadly strike. Moggallāna flipped up into the air in a somersault that brought him down behind Devadatta.

Devadatta had already turned around, his energy sword following moments after.

Blue and red clashed again in a prismatic burst of light.

Moggallāna's father was a Kshatriya, but having developed a spiritual interest from a young age, the great Moggallāna had never developed an overt interest in the particulars of battle. He was relying heavily on his precognition to keep up with Devadatta.

Devadatta on the other hand, true to his name as the "god-given", was a skilled warrior. Perhaps only the Buddha himself was a greater warrior, but Moggallāna knew that the teacher would not consigned himself to something as crass as battle.

Moggallāna also had the disadvantage in that he was unable to kill or seriously harm another sentient being. Devadatta was under no such restriction, having fully succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force. Murder and deceit would be normal for him now, as would the five hundred disciples he had corrupted from the Sangha.

So Moggallāna played to his strengths. He tore open a portal to Uttarakuru from right behind Devadatta, knocked the other monk's hands up, sword and all— and kicked the dark force user into the portal. He ran after the other monk, blue blade swinging in his hand.

Both monks emerged from a rift in space on top of a waterfall. Devadatta falling backwards from being kicked and Moggallāna charging after him. The Dark Lord landed on top of the water, floating above the waves. Moggallāna dropped opposite him, blue blade held aloft in one hand. The two circled each other on the water.

"Do you think I wouldn't be able to open a portal back to Jambudvipa? I may not be as gifted in Iddhi as you, but it would only be a matter of time."

"That's why I followed you." Moggallāna said, spreading his feet apart and moving the blue sword to his front, blade arched towards Devadatta.

"To what? Kill me? We both know you can't kill, Moggallāna." The Dark Lord taunted.

"True. But I can teleport."

"What."

Moggallāna threw his blue blade at the other monk and watched as Devadatta raised his red blade to block the deadly attack.

Then with a burst of golden light, Moggallāna tackled Devadatta off the waterfall, knocking his vajra out of his hands, the red blade fluttered and dispersed as the hilt hit the waters with a splash.

"Are you crazy!" The heretic screamed as he struggled in Moggallāna's grasp.

With a thought, the foremost disciple in the psychic arts teleported Devadatta and himself into the outer reaches of the world system, stumbling across the domain of Indra, who scrambled away from the brawling monks on his banquet table.

"Moggallāna!? What are you doing here?" The King of Devas screeched surprise, his consorts and attendants gasping in shock. A few goddess swooned at the scandal— brawling monks! By the gods.

"Just taking care of a problem." Moggallāna replied, as he shoved Devadatta's face into a nearby cake.

"My birthday cake." Indra muttered sadly as the thousand tiered cake was utterly destroyed.

Devadatta spat out a mouthful of cake, and summoned a burst of lightning that broke the table in two with a crack. The blast of energy also sent Moggallāna tumbling through the air to blast through the palace walls.

Devadatta flew up into the sky following Moggallāna out of the hole. Outside, it was clear that Indra's palace was the size of a mountain, the uppermost levels were surrounded by clouds.

He saw Moggallāna scrambling up a Vimana starfighter that floated by. He threw himself on top of another Vimana and scrambled over to the cockpit. Tearing open the outer case of the fuselage, he roared at the frightened god inside.

"After him!"

"Who?"

He grabbed the useless god and threw him away— the god screamed as he fell away towards the ground, plummeting pass the clouds. Climbing into the cockpit, Devadatta puzzled over the complicated control schemes.

Trusting in the Force however, Devadatta grabbed the joystick and allowed his instincts to guide him. The Vimana flew after Moggallāna, who was still hitchhiking on the surface of the other Vimana.

Devadatta telekinetically grabbed a nearby spire of rock and sent it flying through the air towards Moggallāna's ride. The other monk raised both hands and deflected the spire, shattering it into a thousand pieces.

"I am Moggallāna the dragon tamer! I defeated the Naga King Nandopananda in psychic combat— you think your tricks can topple me?"

Devadatta didn't answer that. He raised his hands, chanted a mantra and gestured back at Indra's palace in the distance. The King of Devas was watching the spectacle from a balcony next to his Asura wife. He yelped in shock as his Vajra flew out of his belt and across the air to land in Devadatta's grip.

With a swoosh, a green energy blade bursted into existence. With a triumphant roar, Devadatta jumped out of his cockpit and leapt across the distance between the two Vimanas. His feet hit the other Vimana and he rolled, tumbling across the edge before standing up. Immediately Devadatta deflected several of the telekinetically flung rocks from Moggallana with his green energy sword.

Then the cockpit ejected its pilot unexpectedly— the emergency ejection was activated by Moggallana using the Force. The goddess inside screamed as she was flung into the sky along with her seat.

"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"

"Sorry!" Moggallana said even as he used the Force to activate the hyperdrive.

Devadatta's yellow eye widened in horror as the Vimana tunneled through hyperspace, flinging both monks off of the spaceship. They both telekinetically tethered themselves to the hull of the Vimana even as the velocity of the thrust prevented them from trying to attack each other further.

The short trip suddenly ended, the Vimana emerging into deep space.

"We're the very edge of the Local World System, bordering the Sixth Heaven of Desire." Moggallana declared. "The technology of Indra won't be able to fly further than this— but did you forget that I made that trip a couple years back, across the entire multiverse and got lost?"

"Moggallana, don't!" Devadatta said. The other monk ignored the Dark force user and clasped both hands together. A shield of energy immediately extended from the monk to cover both him, Devadatta and the surrounding space.

Devadatta roared and charged at Moggallana with his green energy sword. He was too late.

With a blink he found himself tumbling across a snow covered landscape on a world far far away.

"Where am I?"

"The locals call it Hoth." Moggallana said from behind him. "I understand you're several thousand Trichiliocosm away from Earth."

"No! Nooooo!" Devadatta screamed as he swung his green energy sword at the hated Psychic, but Moggallana was already gone, teleporting back to Earth in the blink of an eye.

Devadatta sank to his knees in shock. He was so far away from his native World System, that even King Mara would be unable to help him. Mara, for all of his power, was still local to Devadatta's Trichilocosm.

Ahead in the distance, he heard loud explosive noises. Then out of the fog, a giant mechanical leg stomped down into the snow in front of him.

Devadatta gasped when he saw what looked like giant cows were stomping across the snow, flinging red bursts of energy at the distance behind him.

"Where am I?"

Then a Vimana of an unknown make swooped down from the sky, black as the night. Devadatta gaped, for the tortured soul within the Vimana was like a black hole in the Force, a massive shadow of darkness crushing everything around him, dwarfing the very universe with his self-hatred.

Devadatta dropped to his knees before the sheer presence.

And then he was blown to pieces by the passing TIE Fighter.

+++​

Darth Vader paused as he considered the strange dark presence in the Force.

"Some Dark Jedi." He thought to himself, not a proper Sith. Darth Vader considered whether he should spare the pitiful and shivering Dark Jedi. Nah. It wouldn't do to leave a potential rival alive— the Emperor was always on the lookout for a new apprentice to replace Vader. It wouldn't do at all.

He pulled the trigger and several bolts of lasers blew apart the pathetic excuse for a Force-User.

The Dark Lord of the Sith continued his assault on the Rebel Base.

+++​

It was some years later.

In a Hut in Black Rock on Mount Isigili on the outskirts of Rajagaha, Moggallana sat meditating, but he felt them coming. The assassins hired by the ascetics who felt threatened by Moggallana's preaching in the city were coming to kill him!

"So my end draws near." Moggallana muttered.

He did not wish these men to commit such a grievous sin as drawing blood from an Enlightened Being. Drawing upon the Force, he made himself invisible and watched as the bandits entered his hut and looked around.

"Where's the damned Monk?" One of the thugs muttered.

"Maybe he's out?" Another one suggested.

"They won't pay us unless we kill him dead. We'll come back tomorrow and catch him unawares!"

The men walked out and all was quiet again.

Moggallana dropped the Force Veil around himself and frowned. "This is not good."

The next day, the men came around again. Again, Moggallana veiled himself and avoided the assassins.

On the third day, Moggallana tried to once again become invisible— but his psychic powers, all of it, abandoned him at the critical moment.

"Ah, this is the Will of the Force." He said. Then he was smacked over the head with a cub. As he collapsed to the ground with a broken skull, the other assassins brought their blunt weapons down on the defenceless monk again and again.

The battered and broken body stopped breathing.

"Now we can collect our payment." The lead assassin said. The men left the hut, eager to collect their pay from the hypocritical Ascetics who had hired them, they were unwilling to commit murder because it was a "sin", instead they had hired assassins to do the job.

Moggallana's eyes opened and he cast out his mind as an Astral Projection.

He appeared before the Buddha and the disciples presently with their teacher. They gasped as they saw Moggallana appear before them.

"Moggallana." The Buddha said, gazing at him sadly.

"Teacher, I am afraid to report that my time on this world is quite over. My final karmic energy has matured, there's no escape from my fate— this is the Will of the Force. My only regret is that the those men committed such a grievous crime, may the Force be with them."

"Then, teach your peers one last time, Moggallāna." The Buddha said.

"I shall."

Moggallana dispensed one last lesson, teaching the Dharma to many disciples who doubted, and drawing upon the Force to perform many psychic feats to bolster their confidence.

Thereafter, he finally died and accordingly his Astral Projection dissipated and ceased to exist.

Moggallana became One with the Force, two weeks after his best friend Sariputra had passed away.

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Historicity
Assuming one accepts Buddhist history and theology as true, this fic assumes that the First Jedi (Prime Jedi) of Star Wars film lore is a Buddha and taught a religion similar to that of Buddhism a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

In ancient India, a Mahajanapada was one of the Sixteen Great Realms. They were either Kingdoms or Oligarchic Republics. The Buddha's own clan, the Shakya was a Republic, and the Buddha's father, Śuddhodana, was an elected "King". A Republic had a Senate of five hundred men known as a Sangha (Assembly of Equals— the same name for Buddhist Monastic Orders). By the Buddha's time however, the Shakya Republic was a vassal state of the Kosala Empire (who was also ultimately the destroyer of the Shakya, for karmic reasons).

In history, Devadatta and Buddha were both warrior princes— their martial training is very complete. Moggallana had a warrior father, so it was presumed he was trained, although he was a scholar from an early age. This explains why Devadatta and Moggallana are so skilled with the "lightsaber".

In history, Devadatta (Latin: Deodatus, the "god-given") got very sick after multiple attempts on the Buddha's life. He died and was sucked into a Hell World. He really did encourage Prince Ajatashatru to overthrow his father, after awing the Prince with displays of psychic powers (he transformed into a young boy clad in snakes and sat in the Prince's lap). He may or may not have felt remorse at his evil deeds prior to his death. According to the Buddha, Devadatta was his teacher in a past life and was the one who set the Buddha on the path to enlightenment. Devadatta and the Buddha had many lifetimes together as both friends and rivals, as gods and men and animals. Devadatta is destined to become a Buddha in the far future (as we all are). In this fic, we assumed he had an epic lightsaber duel with Moggallana before Darth Vader did him in.

In history, Moggallana really did died after being murdered by assassins hired by religious teachers who felt threatened by Moggallana— his psychic powers and enlightened knowledge made him a formidable academic opponent for everyone and was too popular to the people. He was unable to save himself because his psychic powers abandoned him at the critical moment. Just like his vast god-like psychic powers was unable to save the Buddha's clan (The Shakya) from a massacre by the Kingdom of Kosala. Because Karma once matured cannot be negated by any other power. Moggallana really did once got lost while teleporting around the Multiverse to test the "range of the Buddha's voice." He eventually found his way home with the help of an Alien Buddha in a different Trichiliocosm. He would also be very familiar with all of the devas and non-human beings in the Universe.

Religion wise, people like the Shakya were by tradition Sun-worshippers. They were possibly of Scythian descent and was descended from the Ikshvaku Dynasty (the Solar Dynasty, as opposed to the Lunar dynasty), from Hindu mythology. Brahmanism was known, but the Solar race were never really "Vedic".

Johannes Bronkhorst argues, "I do not deny that many vedic texts existed already, in oral form, at the time when Buddha was born. However, the bearers of this tradition, the Brahmins, did not occupy a dominant position in the area in which the Buddha preached his message, and this message was not, therefore, a reaction against brahmanical thought and culture."

Thus, Buddhism, contrary to popular belief, is not strictly a reaction to Brahmanism. At this time, Hinduism as we know it did not even exist yet, neither does India as a unified country. The Buddha was after all, born in modern-day Nepal.

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References
Trichiliocosm: A Triple-Tiered World System; or a system of one billion worlds. There are infinite such worlds.
Uttarakuru: A local human world, not Earth however. A "continent" on the local cosmic ocean.
Jambudvīpa: Our world. A "continent" on the local cosmic ocean.
Vajra: Thunderbolt. Symbolic ritual tool and weapon of deities.
Iddhi: Psychic powers.
Vimana: Flying vehicle.
Indra: Also known as Sakra. King of the Local Devas (his authority extends only to the First and Second local Heavens of the local small World System).
Mara: The Devil. Local deity.
Moggallana: One of the Buddha's chief disciple. Foremost in psychic powers (According to scripture, he had: telepathy, global scale mass transformation, multiverse range teleportation, etc).
Sariputra: Another of the Buddha's chief disciple. Moggallana's best friend.
Ananda: The Buddha's cousin, Devadatta's brother. Last to gain enlightenment before the Buddha died. Second Buddhist Patriarch, after Mahākāśyapa.
Devadatta: Buddha's disciple and cousin. Also psychic. Heretic.
Republic: There were sixteen ancient Indian kingdoms, most of which were oligarchic republics of some sort.
Prince Ajatashatru: Prince of Magadha. Imprisoned his father with encouragement from Devadatta.
King Bimbisara: King of Magadha.
Nandopananda: Dragon King coiled around Mount Meru. Felt himself superior to the monks flying overhead everyday. Tried to attack them and got defeated by Moggallana in one on one combat. Moggallana won using precognition and shape-shifting.