Same Song Different Verse
Chapter Three
Into the Stew Pot?
Harry sprang awake, his monitoring charm had awoken him with the soft happy feeling of a well patient, cast a tempus and blinked "Six hours. Fast healer. I did use a lot of tears though so we will have to make sure everything stays healed." He had never had a reversal, but it allegedly could happen. Well, he could get that IV out of her and heal that. Check how much she took on board as well. Maybe empty her bladder for her. No way was he using a bed pan on her.
Jedi Master Aayla Secura awoke and lay still trying to figure out what was going on. She was in a bed. A very comfortable, warm bed. She was clean and someone had taken her clothes and put her in different ones. She remembered the pain and levered herself up. She tried to feel of her back through this strange shirt and saw the human sitting on a couch across from her bed. Before she could speak he brought her a glass of water and a book which he tapped with a stick. She felt the Force as the book leapt into the air and the pages started turning rapidly making a kind of two dimensional holo of a human and others, this human and others, fighting rancors and transdoshians, giant transdoshians, and other things, things bigger than the legendary Zillo beast, or not so legendary now that one had escaped and trashed a section of Coruscant before it was brought down. Then him fighting another human and jumping on a glowing ball after killing the other human as flames sprang from the ground and rushed at him then over him. Glowing square things exploded and he rode the ball down toward a huge Rancor, the biggest one yet, it ate the ball and the world smeared.
He flew out of the smear and saw her unit moving, along with the droid army they were engaging to their front as he apparently lifted toward orbit, then he floated down, landed and she watched as he saw her, watched her, and followed along parallel to them. She drank the water and he refilled the glass with his stick. She blinked at that and then looked back at the book as she charged him and he froze. Then her clones shot her. They shot her. She remembered. She felt the others die. Her eyes teared up and he tapped the book and it stopped. She looked at him and he smiled sadly. He waved at the water and she drank then he waved at the book and tapped it again.
The scene changed and she flinched as her clones heads snapped to the left, too far to the left. She watched as he somehow changed one to her, made his armor appear disappear, dressed him like her, and then the clone died. He cleaned up, closed a box, it shrank and he picked her up, force pulled her saber to him and then they vanished. The world blurred again and they were standing looking at a cave. She watched as he walked in the cave and things appeared as the cave changed. He lay her on a table, her clothes disappeared and he treated seven blaster wounds in her, any one of which should have been fatal.
She looked at herself, interested, as he treated her like a Jedi healer, very professionally, and then left her. The image shifted and she was looking at the Clone camp and LZ full of troops getting ready to leave. One more shift of the world and she, or her view of him, was back at the cave. He treated her again and then the book ended on a strange object and a time keeper readout running backwards. The last shift showed her Bariss Offee killed by her own clones and a saintly looking figure nodding but crying.
She looked up and blinked. He tapped the book with a finger and filled her glass with his stick. She watched again as everything she had seen happened in reverse and drank more water, and he looked at her at the end holding the real version of the odd device from the book. He turned it to the last image of the smoking hole where Bariss had been and wagged his finger at her while shaking his head.
She blinked "So you are a Force using, warrior, healer, who is a mute."
Aayla nearly fell over when he spoke in a pleasant voice but she didn't understand a word. He frowned pointed to the clock in the book and then the device. She frowned "So this can make time go backwards." She pointed at the clock and gave him a questioning face. He nodded and pointed to the last drawing again, the one of Bariss and shook his head. He looked at the device and frowned then said something but wrote twelve in aurebesh, more like drew it. Maybe he was illiterate?
Aayla sat for minutes. Obviously she couldn't save Bariss. Bariss wasn't the only death resonating in the force though. There were thousands. Those perhaps she could do something about. "Fine come on then. This is all a dream or a nightmare. It's the glitteryll giving me a flashback, or a hallucination. It happens sometimes. Usually they don't hurt though. You don't understand a word. This is going to take some time then."
She got up and looked around. He blushed, Force pulled her clothes to himself, and her sabers to her, somehow used the Force to clean and repair the clothes as she stared at the blood and blaster burns in her top then handed them to her and resolutely turned his back. She chuckled "A prude, illiterate, warrior, monk, Force user." She squeaked when he waved over his shoulder and she was nude. Aayla looked around and dressed then charged at where she could see daylight rather than the odd hovering flames lighting the cave.
She turned around and blinked. There was no cave.
The monk stepped outside, really appeared from nowhere giving her a start. Her precognition didn't warn her though. In fact her Force connection was being strange and nearly cuddling his miniscule force presence. He handed her another book and tapped it and a plan unfolded. Her at a holocom, then them running around taking things and putting them in boxes and making a frigate disappear. Going in the armory and making weapons disappear, and then her doing something to weapons they left, followed by a scene of an Agricorp worker throwing his shoe in a grinder. He had the stick weeder and everything, This was followed by supplies disappearing into his odd box, food, water, medical supplies, feminine hygiene products, office supplies, uniforms, armor, paint, wait what, paint? Oh everything! OK she got it, prude, illiterate, warrior, monk, Force user, thief. "How long were you wandering around? Did you go in every building? How did no one stop you?"
He handed her a very detailed map of her base. She nodded. He had not just wandered every building. He had wandered over every inch of the base apparently. She got the gist. She watched the book as three Venators left the planet. She was nearly overwhelmed but she steeled herself and drug him toward the base.
He squawked and followed her then drug her to a halt. He looked at her with an arched brow and pointed at the time again as it hovered in the air and she nodded She looked at the time piece on her wrist comp and said "Seven hours." She paused a moment, she had been attacked and nearly killed seven hours ago. She would have been killed if it wasn't for this strange human. He had healed her from injuries that would have kept her in bacta for a week in seven hours. Aayla shook her head and reordered her thoughts. Time, seven hours would give her time to infiltrate and warn Bariss. She looked at him and he stared back and she got the feeling he knew what she was thinking. He shook his head, pointed at her, made a scattering motion with his hand and pointed at her then the clock. She shuddered "So if I change some things it would spread me across time?" He reiterated his signs and nodded. She sighed then nodded and held up ten fingers then two. Might as well give them as much time as she could. Maybe they would get caught and it would change Bariss fate, after they had warned the Order of course. Surely she could talk herself out of imprisoning herself. Wait, what? She sighed, she hated the glitter dreams.
He nodded and put the chain attached to his device over her head and around his neck before reconnecting it, and then he spun the face of it with a small knob on the side. He released the face, as it spun she watched in awe as the sun climbed in the sky the wrong way and headed to the other horizon. The world slowed and stopped and he took the chain off and pocketed the device. She turned to go and he stopped her by grabbing an arm and twisting. The world blurred. The Force grabbed her and squeezed, she gained her vision back outside the perimeter sensor range of her camp. It was one of the worst experiences she had ever had with the Force. Like being submerged in it then pulled through a fuel supply pipe. While she was recovering, he tapped her on the head, and she shuddered as the Force oozed down her body. He then waved at her and she squirmed and wriggled as the force adhered to her somehow. She blushed as it gripped her in very private places. She shot him a glare and he disappeared except for a feint outline. Smiling. She narrowed her eyes at him. Then shuddered as the Force stopped oozing around her.
Aayla blinked, got used to it for a moment, then she led off. She went straight to the command center. She led them to the door, looked in and then looked at him and made a shooing motion. He frowned for a moment then smiled and nodded. He waved at the door and the room and all the clones and support staff left. He looked at her and held up five fingers then waggled his hand.
Aayla nodded went to the holocom and fired it up, connecting to Master Shaak Ti. She was typing as fast as she could on the keyboard as she waited on a connection. By the time the connection was made she had typed three pages and pushed send.
Harry looked at the image and tapped Aayla on her head. Master Ti's eyes widened "This is a new skill."
Harry smiled at Aayla's grateful look and backed up. "Master Ti, We have a huge problem, you are going to find this hard to believe but please hold your questions." said Aayla quickly, not waiting for Master Ti's acknowledgment of the greeting. "I've travelled back in time twelve standard hours. In less than three hours, clone troopers will attempt to kill me on this world. They were ordered to do so, Master Ti. The Jedi are about to be betrayed by the Chancellor. We need to evacuate the Temple and get the younglings to safety while we still have a chance."
"Aayla. Time travel is not possible?"
"I can't tell you the details right now. I've… I personally can't change too much. I'm not allowed to change anything I know will happen, to avoid creating a paradox I believe. Since I have no idea the fate of those back on Coruscant and on other worlds, I simply felt many joining the force, I thought it would be possible to change some things and help Jedi… elsewhere," pleaded Aayla, her composure starting to slip. Harry saw Shaak Ti's eyes widen. He knew that in that instant the woman understood what Blue was telling her and believed her.
For the first time ever, Harry actually felt what he thought was the timeline splitting, or shifting, or something. The other line didn't end, it spun or wandered off in a new direction. Close at first then diverging wider and wider. He could also feel Luna smiling. She did that sometimes at home when major events occurred. She frowned too sometimes, and last time that frown had meant demons, which was not so good.
Shaak Ti asked "How do we know this is the Chancellor?"
"He's the only one with access to even the hidden instructions in the clones. He can use that to override the Jedi in the chain of command. General Kenobi is engaging General Grievous today. If he defeats him the Chancellor is supposed to stand down as Dooku has also been defeated. Mace Windu has already said in counsel the Chancellor is surrounded by the dark side. The Council has already decided to arrest the Chancellor if he does not stand down on Grievous defeat Shaak." said Aayla without any hesitation.
"Master Windu has gathered several Masters. He has had some discussion with Knight Skywalker about Palpatine. Palpatine got Skywalker on the council. Windu thinks Palpatine is the Sith Lord." Shaak Ti nodded thoughtfully.
Aayla nodded "If they fail he will give the order. Undoubtedly they failed before I came back in time. They either need more forces or to do something else, meanwhile we still need to warn the Jedi in the field, their Clones cannot be trusted until this is resolved. Where is Skywalker?"
"Leaving on a mission against the CIS leadership on Mustafar but his ships have not yet loaded the 501st and departed." Shaak Ti replied and the two looked at each other. Then nodded.
Shaak Ti finished "I have your plan. I will start the others in communications notifying the Jedi off world and talk to Masters Windu and Yoda."
Aayla nodded "May the force be with you."
Shaak Ti nodded again "And with you." The connection terminated and Aayla checked the time and smiled, she had been quick enough, barely, by a few seconds, no record of a call that short in the net. She erased the local record grabbed her human and left. She wriggled as she felt the force flow over her again after he tapped her on the head once more. She was going to have to talk to him about that. It wasn't bad just, well, different, and grippy. Supportive rather than directive? Something, nice though. Plus if she moved correctly she was invisible. This needed more investigation.
Aayla led him to the stores warehouse first and pointed out food. She watched, amazed, as the pallets of rations were moved, duplicated, shrunk and disappeared into an assault pack. Ration bars, fresh food, water, spices, sweeteners and cooking oils all disappeared while the human grinned and she marveled at the way the Force moved for him.
The next marvel was the tiny hinged box he had placed on the floor and somehow used the force to expand, then, grinning, opened the lid of and force levitated near a regiments worth of food for a campaign into. She considered the box and then eyed him as there was a mountain of what appeared to be junk in the box. He colored slightly, shrugged then closed the box and made it shrink again before putting it in a holster on his arm and looking at her with an arched brow. She rolled her eyes and led him on.
Next, they hit the medical stores. She pointed out the supplies she would need, he looked at her, shrugged shrunk them all, and put them in his box. Aayla snorted, there were going to be some extremely pissed off techs and officers. He also took most of a regiments medical supplies leaving his force fakes. Aayla fretted about that a bit, but the ships would have fully stocked med bays.
They hit the armory next, where she debated then did a little, or a lot of, sabotage. He winked and waved and the weapons showed clear and safe status indicators as they had when they walked in. Aayla returned his grin this time.
She led him off to her starfighter and pointed at it and Bariss Offees'. He waved and then waved again and she watched as the earth rose up and swallowed the Starfighters and changed to look like a low hill. It started with the Force moving and shaping the earth but settled into a mostly natural feeling. Aayla was fairly certain he had just buried both star fighters.
He led her to a frigate and pointed. She laughed and waved him toward it and he waved at it for several minutes. Then he got out four rectangles of rock and placed them around it. This time the Frigate just disappeared. Like the cave really.
He stopped by a combat walker with a mass driver and got a gleam in his eye, As she watched he made the mass driver separate and disappear. She blinked, and led him to power converters and ammunition for it. Those disappeared too.
She led them to her room in the barracks but sighed, her card key would show what time and who opened it if anyone happened to check, her being in two places at once was going to cause some problems. He looked at her and the card and waved. Every door on the floor popped open. She grinned. He handed her a dark green assault pack and mimed holding it open so she did. He waved and said 'pack'. She was surprised to understand the word and all of her things flew into the pack. She looked in it and he grabbed her as she got vertigo like she had with his impossible box. She was either learning or that had been a contextual intuitive translation. He was constantly talking in a low, pleasant voice, at least while they were alone. Aayla resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her Force being warm and happy about him.
She went to Bariss's room next and looked around sadly and he produced another pack. She held it as he waved and Bariss's things flew in the pack. They would get them to her family if she had one or the Jedi if they survived. If the Force willed it they would return them to her.
Aayla looked at him speculatively and led him back to the hangers and maintenance bay and pointed to a charging rack full of astro mech droids. He got a look and rubbed the back of his head then detached rack and all and made it disappear in a swirling blue light. Aayla led him around pointing at various maintenance supplies and cabinets and he vanished them all. She nodded and took him to the command center where she hunted down a droid with first contact capability and pointed to it and then tried to sign for the cave. Finally, he smiled and the droid disappeared to the cave, or she hoped that's where it went.
She was amazed at the amount of stuff they had stolen. He had of course been creating duplicates of the things. In her examinations of them they felt like the Force or like they had the Force in them, and it was receding, lessening perhaps. Through his pantomime, she got the impression they would fade away. Still though, a first contact protocol droid and a Frigate disappearing would cause problems. Hopefully it was dismissed as a mix up. A quick recall, as she had witnessed before, sometimes produced errors like that, that then took weeks to sort out. Plus if her sabotage worked as she hoped the traitorous bastards would have other things to be worried about. Like survival.
She was now exhausted, and they had used nearly all of their time. He looked at her, put his arm around her and they disappeared. They reappeared in the cave and he smiled. He dug a rucksack from one of the trunks full of stuff, extracted and put up a tent, of all things, and disappeared inside.
Aayla frowned and followed him then stood stunned at the large room with carpets, leather covered chairs and couches and a fire place. He led her around and she smiled at the bedroom and the big bed. She frowned at the smaller bedrooms. She smiled again at the kitchen and its food preparation and storage, and then squealed at the bath. With a shower and bathtub! She stripped immediately and laughed as he fled. Prude. It was cute.
She lounged in the tub after a shower, sniffing the various bottles of manly smelling things, until she found one she liked and poured it in her bath. So there was a woman in his life somewhere. Well if she used her male friends as guides. They picked one thing and stuck with it for years. Sometimes if it wasn't available anymore they got upset. She chuckled remembering a few conversations over the lack of a particular soap after the company making it went bankrupt.
He came in in a robe and she grinned at him as he glared and got in the shower. She thought about standing up as his view wasn't blocked due to how tall he was then wondered where that thought had come from. She had never teased anyone in that way before, not purposefully. She had of course posed as a dancer on a few missions, but really that was just a cover, not her. She must be getting tired.
She left the bath, found an adequate but bland dinner he had prepared, and then went in the bedroom and dug in his drawers until she found a pair of shorts and another of those funny shirts. She dropped her clothes and put the shorts on and was trying to figure out how to get her head in the shirt when it appeared on her and she looked at her blushing human. She laughed and pushed him in the bed crawled in behind him and snuggled in as he lay stiffly. She was asleep nearly immediately.
Harry lay awake for a while contemplating how the women in his life just took over. This one wasn't even in his life. And she was blue!
He woke to her crying later and felt some pain and betrayal but nothing like it had been before. Just barely an echo. He sighed and pulled her to him.
SSDV
Shaak Ti had sat in the briefing in the High Council chamber with a padd preparing plans after getting a warning sent out and transmitting Aayla's rough plan. She was waiting and as soon as Master Kenobi confirmed he was going to engage Grievous she knew it was all true. She sent her plans to the knights she had working and they started sending them out. Really all they had to do was hit send and continue to add Jedi to the address list. They, herself and her group hadn't had long but she had managed to cobble together a plan based on the data Aayla sent. She thought that if it worked as Aayla intended it would cripple Palpatines forces. She only holed it wouldn't lead to the CIS taking over.
The other part of her plan was the evacuation of the temple. That was critical. She would work on that as soon as this council broke up.
She didn't try to hide her activity and Yoda looked at his padd in his holo and then up at her. He was attending via Holo from Kashyyyk.
Mace Windu looked at his padd and nodded. He would need to take more Jedi to the Senate Building.
The Antarian Ranger General in his holo looked at his padd, scowled and then started issuing orders with quick taps. Apparently the Rangers already had a contingency plan.
Obi wan simply looked down nodded and continued. He already had a mission.
They all felt a wrench in the Force, like everything slid to the right a meter or so. None of them would ever know a fork occurred in the multiverse right there and two planes separated and began drifting apart.
Contingency plans over the galaxy were sent out and began execution. Jedi separated themselves and their padawans from their troops and began missions to sabotage this latest effort of the Sith, while shaking their heads not believing it was possible. They drove on though. They had orders, and the way they planned the sabotage if the clones did not act the way it was predicted they would nothing would happen. Well besides the Jedi getting some time away from their troops and the Rangers activating their defenses. It would look like a test of readiness for the Rangers and another mystical Jedi thing for them.
SSDV
Luna smiled and knew things would get better. Then she frowned and took the book from Hermione and took her to bed. It was going to take a little time but that meant they had time to beat this plane into shape. Also she could plant some seeds. Oh seeds! They could have four, no five children apiece for their friends who had died! They had healers, they were all healthy, they could carry five to term reasonably safely. She paused and looked at the lines cleaning themselves up. Hmmm yes this could work out fine. She would have to go back and make the changes in the line s she had written down.