AN: Quick shout out to all the reviewers for this story, their encouragement and excitement with this story has really made me want to continue posting and writing. Sorry for the reviewers who wanted a different spaceship, or are more detail oriented and smarter about the Star Wars world than I am, it's not my specialty by any means. It's a hard balance of trying not to get bogged down in researching details that will only ever get a single sentence mentioned. If I spent all my time correcting and making sure I didn't make any of these mistakes, you'd be looking at years to finish chapters instead of days ...so no more complaining about giving me more work to do, I've got enough on my plate, thanks! Again ...I own nothing!

The Force's Balance

By Kassien

Chapter 5: Sirius & the Jedi

I really enjoyed the stunned faces of the Wookies present when I had unshrunk both the Gozanti Class Cruiser and one of the Quasar Fire-Class Bulk Cruisers to show off what we brought back from our very successful trip. When I told them I had four more Quasars for them, they almost shit themselves.

It was really amusing.

It was even more satisfying, when I was told that several of the gathered Wookies were the elders of other clans that Ganroowarr had invited to their expanded spaceport in an effort to appeal for more workers and crew help. Me showing up with several bulk cruisers that required dozens of crew to operate each of them, was a great testament to their growing need for more help overall. It also helped to show the other elders that they would in fact be capable of fielding a solid defence force for their planet with the addition of several bulk cruisers along with the Gozanti Cruiser.

It led to a small discussion among the elders of the various clans, as they decided to add their own numbers to the growing industry at Thikkiiana. With the greater number of restored spacecraft and droids, the Thikkiiana spaceport was in desperate need of expansion which I had already offered to help with. It was decided that every major clan, of which there were five present, would be responsible for one of the Quasar Bulk Cruisers to help protect their planet, and each focus on their respective cities to ensure there were not too many weakly defended areas of Kashyyyk.

It was during this elder discussion, that one of the nearest clans asked more about me and my involvement, having nothing against humans but knowing very few who actually got involved and cared enough about their issues. I explained how I came to arrive on this planet, as well as all the help the Thikkiiana Clan had provided me in order to make a life for myself and the promise that I would continue to look out for Kashyyyk, as I now considered it my home base of sorts and absolutely abhored slavery of all kinds. It was then I was told something, translated through my helpful droid friend, TC-7H, that completely changed everything for me and my future goals in this new world I found myself in.

"Elder Yarrwoorr claims that they found an unresponsive human male almost seven years ago on the western edge of the dark forest, completely dehydrated and on the verge of death with no visible knowledge on their part of how he came to be there," came the mechanical voice of TC-7H. "They put him in a bacta tank that repaired his injuries, but he never regained consciousness and they contacted the Jedi Council on Coruscant, as he seemed to be force adept. He was picked up two weeks later by a Jedi Master and Padawan, and taken to Coruscant ...they never heard anything else about him."

"Older man, with shaggy black hair and beard, really skinny?" I asked almost frantically, as I instantly reached into my mokeskin pouch and removed a trunk that I was quickly digging through in order to find the picture I had of Sirius and I.

I finally found the picture of Sirius and I from that Christmas in my Fifth year and showed it to Elder Yarrwoorr, who was very surprised by my eagerness and the moving photograph, but looked at it intently for several seconds before agreeing that the man they found looked very much like the person in the picture.

I was floored, Sirius may still be alive!

This changed everything!

I needed to get to Coruscant and find out what happened to Sirius!

Several quick discussions with the Wookie Elders, and I was planning my next trip with the expectation to leave as soon as I possibly could. First, I needed to unload the other four Quasar Bulk Cruisers, but there wasn't enough room currently in the spaceport for them so I had to make the space as I wasn't in the mood to wait. Elder Ganroowarr seemed to realize how important it was for me to go looking for Sirius, and told me to do whatever I needed.

A quick expansion of two of the empty hangar bays and I enlarged the other four Quasar Bulk Cruisers which still barely fit, but would work for a temporary solution. The Wookies agreed to make sure they were all off the temporarily enlarged bays before the day was out since the magic wasn't permanent, and I asked them if I could bring a large assortment of droids that they could try and set up some sales agreements for. I wasn't sure if they agreed simply because they knew I would probably take a bunch anyway, or if they realized any trip could be profitable with how much I could store and transport on any given trip but it worked well.

"Rwaoorr rroawr wrooar," came the roaring voice of Kenroo, my best friend so far among the large hairy beings, who continued roaring while I looked at TC-7H for a translation, somehow knowing this was important.

"Kenroo has named you his friend, and claims to owe you his life for the help you provided in the Captain Addo skirmish," came the mechanical sounding voice of the droid. "In order to repay that debt, he would like to accompany you on all your travels."

I had learned from TC-7H a lot about Wookie culture during my travels, and knew they treated life debts very seriously and held to their honor in repaying them. This was a very important declaration from Kenroo, and I was honestly touched that he would admit such and had to treat it accordingly. I walked towards him and held out my arm, causing him to grab my forearm as I grabbed his, in the traditional handshake of their clans and several tribes and peoples of earth.

"I gladly accept your company my friend," I spoke honestly and with a smile on my face, accepting his declaration and honoring his traditions, truly grateful for his continued help and companionship.

With that decided, we quickly got our stuff loaded into the Marauder for another long two week trip. I decided to customize the guest suite and turn it into a set of rooms for Kenroo, as he would need his own quarters on the ship. I also segmented off another section in the cargo hold for a smaller guest suite just in case I had more passengers, and I didn't really need the cargo space with all my storage trunks anyway.

Ganroowarr came to us before we left, and let us know that he had called the Jedi temple and spoke with the Grand Master Yoda to let them know we were coming and asked about their guest from six years ago. He was told that the unidentified man was still a resident of the Jedi temple's long term medical bay, and very excited to learn that someone knew the comatose man and could hopefully help understand and shed light on his situation. They had apparently run continual tests to determine who he was, what he suffered from, and how to help him recover with absolutely no success to date and had pretty much exhausted all their options at this point.

I was very conflicted as we went through our pre-flight checklist, eager as all hell to get to Sirius and be reunited with my godfather, tempered by the news that he was in a coma and still hadn't actually recovered from whatever it was Bellatrix hit him with and then his travel through the veil. Knowing that we had a little more than 11 days to reach Coruscant, I spent a good deal of that time researching curse spells, after viewing my memory of that day in the Department of Mysteries and trying to match up Bellatrix' spell with anything that looked or sounded familiar. I had initially thought the red colored spell was a stunner, but then watching it again, I remembered Sirius' shocked expression after getting hit with it and the slow motion fall into the veil without the usual collapse of someone hit with a stunning spell.

I also spent a great deal of time with Kenroo and TC-7H trying to pick up a little of the Wookie language, so I could better communicate with my first mate and new friend without the need of a protocol droid for translating. Kenroo himself was very patient with me, and seemed to find great amusement in my struggles to understand his varied growls and roars of his speech, and I knew we would get along great in the years to come. He had a quiet strength that I respected, and wasn't easily ruffled or too shocked by my craziness even when I was doing things he had never seen before.

As we started getting closer to Coruscant, I started getting more and more nervous about everything, from meeting these vaunted Jedi to actually finding and hoping to fix and be with Sirius again. From the stolen memories of Salek, Milthanex, and Addo I knew at least some of the legends and skills known about the Jedi, and researching them turned up a lot more about their many talents in the fields of war and diplomacy. Everything pointed to a quasi-religious order of do-gooders who always seemed to be at the center of every dispute and action taken by the Galactic Senate and government, all because of this mysterious Force they wielded.

There were aspects of it that almost felt and sounded like magic, but very different at the same time and I wondered what they had discovered about Sirius and what they were in fact looking for or would want from me. I was under no illusions that I would simply walk in there, identify my godfather, and then leave with him minutes later with no questions asked, and I was nervous about what a group with such intergalactic power would want in return. I hypothesized that since they had one of the largest and oldest known libraries of data collected on thousands of planets that they were simply trying to understand more of the universe, but I was very wary of a group that held such power politically and yet claimed to only be on the side of good.

Their history was riddled with betrayals from within, those who left the strict rules of their Order to embrace the dark side aspect of the Force, known as Sith. And while history claimed the Sith extinct, I would never trust evil to simply stop, and was more likely just hiding and biding its time to attempt another takeover. The strictness of their rules, along with the "stealing" of force sensitive children for training (ie: brainwashing) and the lack of diversity and freedom of their ideologies made me very skeptical that I would be welcome or fit in with such a group, and they didn't seem to be as accepting of those that didn't fit their world view.

It made me realize why the Wookies questioned me so exclusively on the dark or evil side of my magic when they first found me, now understanding their intrinsic adherement of the Jedi worldview that if something wasn't light, then it was instantly dark. It was one of my problems with Dumbledore and light side magic as well, after growing up as I did, I realized that not everything was black and white, and most existed in varying shades of grey, but knew my opinion on this was in the minority after arriving at Hogwarts. The Light and Dark side camps were heavily entrenched in peoples' minds, and apparently that same distinction still held true in the galaxy due to the Jedi and Sith split, and I didn't really know how to feel about that.

I know Sirius, was a little hard core in his devotion to the Light, based mostly on his own horrible upbringing and befriending my father and being in Dumbledore's camp throughout both wars, but I didn't have the same strict adherence and hoped it wouldn't be something that got between us. I still definitely considered myself a good person, and would go out of my way to help most and stay in the light so to speak, but I was by no means blind to the Light's faults nor did I label everything I didn't understand as Dark. It seemed the Jedi had a long history of doing just that, if the stolen memories I had gained told me anything, the Jedi Order was very strictly in the Light and viewed anything not under their definition of it, as being dark and not belonging.

Fucking philosophical and religious ideologies are going to be the death of me ...again!

-break-

Kenroo was laughing at me as we received the landing clearance into the Jedi controlled port of Coruscant, and I could hardly contain my excitement and trepidation simultaneously. He thought my fear of the Jedi was misplaced, having grown up with complete faith in the quasi-religious Order and along with TC-7H had nothing but positive praise for the Jedi Order. I was a little more skeptical of any group that claimed to only be for the Light, and had only gotten through about half of the really dark books from the Black Family library in my research. I hadn't yet discovered the spell I thought Bellatrix used on Sirius, and also wondered what else the trip through the veil might have contributed to his coma.

"Alright, let's land this ship and prepare for departure," I responded to my small crew of two, as I spread out my magical senses and felt a trio of very strong presences on the docking platform and resigned myself to finally meeting the Jedi. "I am going to put the ship on lockdown once we are out, so nobody will be able to enter without my permission."

Making sure my Occlumency shields were fully up, and my mind was as protected as it could be, I lowered the ramp and led my Wookie and droid companions down onto the docking platform where three beings were standing perfectly still waiting on us. Two of them looked like regular humans, both tall and fairly pale skinned, one being around middle aged with light graying of his close cropped hair at his temples while the younger one, probably close to my own age had a single long braid of brown hair down behind his ear. They were both in very good shape and holding themselves very rigidly, and while the older man looked like he was definitely of the strict type, the younger looked much more open and curious, though tried to replicate the stance of the older man anyway.

The final being couldn't have been more different, and almost looked like an ancient House Elf, as he stood at under four feet tall, with green wrinkled skin and long bat-like ears. His large tennis-ball sized eyes instantly had me thinking about Dobby and Kreacher and how much I missed them both. His aged and wrinkled appearance despite seeming somewhat bent over from age was opposite of how he held himself, and was very different from the subservient nature of my former House Elves. I instantly knew this being held great power and confidence and that I would need to be very careful around him.

Turning quickly back to my ship, I waived my wand and said the incantation to activate my permanent wards, causing the magic to pulse before the ship seemingly shimmered and became much less noticeable or interesting. The pulse of magic however, was instantly felt by my three Jedi guests, as they all stiffened visibly with the youngest of them reaching for the lightsaber at his waist instinctively, though luckily not activating it. I watched them for a moment to see if they would react any further, but they gave nothing else away and simply just focused even harder on me as I approached them with my two companions on either side of me.

"Greetings Jedi," I spoke as we neared them, keeping a close eye on all three of them to ensure they didn't make any hostile moves as I was ready to react at a moment's notice if things went south. "I was told by Clan Leader Ganroowarr of Kashyyyk that I was expected. My name is Captain Harry Potter, and I believe you have my godfather in your long term care ward?"

"Harry Potter, unusual name that is," came the reply from the little green House Elf looking being, "Jedi Grand Master Yoda, my name is. Jedi Knight Dooku and his Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn, accompany me ...they do."

"Hello Jedi, accompanying me are my friends Kenroo of the Thikkiiana Clan and TC-7H," I responded, while watching their facial expressions and trying to figure out why the three of them were here to greet me. "Is it possible for me to see my godfather now?"

"Hmm ...meet the Jedi High Council first, you must," replied Yoda, while Dooku frowned at my question for reasons I didn't understand, nor did I really care about his opinions only focusing on my first priority of getting Sirius back, and hoping to avoid dealing with the Jedi as much as I could get away with.

"Lead the way then good sir," I responded politely, knowing that getting upset would only make this harder, and that any information I could get on the Jedi and their temple would only help me if worse came to worse and I had to stage a prison break.

I kept my head on a swivel and my magic continuously reached out as I was then led out of the docking port and into the Jedi temple itself, following closely behind the slow moving Jedi Master Yoda, and the Jedi Knight and Padawan that accompanied us. I knew enough about Jedi now to understand the ranks, and the status defining Padawan braids, of which Qui-Gon Jinn's was very long indicating he had been a Padawan for a great deal of time already, and I wondered how close he was to being elevated to the next rank, but didn't want to ask. His master, Dooku, was obviously not one of my fans, as he spent the majority of the walk glaring at me as if I had personally offended him somehow and I desperately wanted to just knock the arrogant and stiff asshole out, reminding me much too much of my former Professor Snape.

"Jedi Knight Dooku and his padawan retrieved your 'godfather' from Kashyyyk over six years ago, they did," came the slow and deliberate voice of Jedi Grand Master Yoda as we ambled along the impossibly large hallways of the famed Jedi Temple. "Most curious a human, he is."

"Has he responded to any external stimuli since being 'retrieved'?" I asked, not bothering to give them any more information on Sirius without learning more myself, and instantly knowing that Dooku was very unpleased with my lack of answers and response.

"Um ...not really," came the answered reply from the Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn even under the harsh glare of his mentor which he seemingly ignored to answer me. "Though his body did respond well to physical treatment ...there has been no change in his brain activity."

"That is both a relief and somewhat worrisome," I responded kindly to the young Jedi, liking him more than either of his companions already for at least answering one of my most basic questions about Sirius' health and status. "Thank you."

The rest of the walk continued in silence, as Padawan Jinn lowered his head after a glare from both other Jedi, and remained quiet for the rest of the ten minute walk to a pair of the largest doors I had ever seen inside a building. My senses told me that there were a further eleven very strong signatures behind that door, and realized that I was most likely being led to a meeting in front of the entire Jedi High Council which was very rare for an outsider. It made me wonder what they were really after, or wanted from me to go through such a power play on what could or should have been a simple patient transfer and resigned myself to an annoying meeting that I was really in no mood for after getting so close to Sirius after all these years.

"The Jedi High Council call you in soon, they will," came the stilted voice of Yoda as he motioned me and my companions to a nearby bench outside the chambers before he and his Jedi escort entered the impossibly large doors.

"Sanctimonious Assholes," I mumbled to myself in English watching them disappear behind the doors not really caring if they heard me, as TC-7H has assured me that my language was not among the over one million known languages he was programmed with as I resigned myself to complete boredom.

As I sat there, I could feel myself growing increasingly irritated after every minute passed and I was ignored and not getting any closer to seeing and rescuing Sirius. I thought about slipping under my Invisibility Cloak and simply busting him out, but didn't want an entire holier than thou organization after me just because I lacked the patience to wait, though the desire to tweak and upset the Jedi continued to grow. In an effort not to bring this whole fucking temple to the ground after waiting over a half an hour already, I decided I need to really calm down and entered a meditation than was fairly standard among Occlumency users that would hopefully recenter myself and pass the time until I was given an audience with the sanctamonius assholes that were the Jedi High Council.

I could hear Jedi Knight Dooku and his Padawan trying to get my attention while in my meditation, but decided to let them wait a bit and finished the current exercise I was doing to cleanse my recent memories of their emotional attachment to help me remain calm longer and also piss them off for making me wait. It took me several minutes to finish my exercise, during which TC-7H and Kenroo both tried to awaken me as the Jedi Knight was quickly losing his own patience and about to attack me. The moment he tried to step within my own personal space, my eyes flew open and fixed him with a flat stare that I hoped conveyed how little he meant to me, and that their stupid mind game at making me wait could be easily returned on them.

"The Jedi High Council will see you now," came his clipped response after trying and failing to hold my intense gaze for several moments, after which he spun back towards the room with his young Padawan trailing behind him obediently.

"Hn," I grunted in acknowledgement, as I got up and followed the pair through the impossibly large doors and into an auditorium / courtroom of sorts not unlike the Wisengamot, where they all sat on high benches in a semi-circle looking down on whoever they were questioning in a blatant and disrespectful show of power.

Deciding to tweak them all a bit, as I really didn't like the memory of being looked down upon, I casually motioned with my wand and conjured a soft and very comfortable sofa which I and my companions sat down upon before another flick of my wrist had it rising on a platform until we were all at the same height. Looking at them all at eye level was a much more comfortable position, and allowed me to better see them all and get a better feel for the type of person or being I was dealing with as only maybe three of the sitting High Council would be considered human. Yoda sat in the middle of the semicircle with a tall muscular black human with pure white hair; it almost looked silver on his right, and from my stolen memories a Cerean male to his left with a seemingly wrinkled looking cone head but otherwise human enough looking. The remainder of the seats were filled with a mixture of races and genders that even my stolen memories of three separate beings couldn't identify them all.

They all did have several things in common though, and that was an arrogance in their powers and their status as well as a distinct dislike of my rising to meet them and not staying subservient to them as well as fear of my unidentified powers. Many of them also cringed significantly when I used my magic, and I hoped it made them all a little uncomfortable and skeptical to cross me as I could use that to keep them on their back feet so to speak. I also could instantly feel the pressure mounting on my Occlumency shields as it fought off several attempts to enter my mind from many different beings, and luckily stood strong in the face of them all as nothing seemed to be getting in.

"Is it common practice for the Jedi to invade the minds of those they encounter and ask to meet with?" I asked with a bit of an edge to my voice, making them all realize I felt and noticed the intrusion and was not particularly pleased with it.

"What kind of Force powers are those?" came one of the many questions simultaneously from a elderly purple skinned Twi'lek female at the end of the row.

"He is using Sith mind blocking techniques," came an indignant shout from an ugly Red Nikto male near the middle.

"He tears the Force," came another cry from an Arcona member on the opposite side of Yoda.

"He is not to be trusted," came the cry from Jedi Knight Dooku from below.

"Quiet, we must be," came the admonishment by Yoda after several seconds of ridiculous shouting and accusations being thrown around and nothing being accomplished. "Apologize, we must to Captain Harry Potter. This meeting, we asked for. To learn about the Midi-Chlorian human, we want."

I was somewhat surprised that Yoda was admonishing the others, but pleased when the shouting died down, and several members looked apologetic and contrite towards me. Several were still very distrustful, and it was plain to see in their faces and eyes, even if those eyes were in locations never seen by a human on my former planet. But I gave the little green being a grateful nod of my head to acknowledge his apology and getting everyone under better control, while my mind tried to piece his strange way of speech together to understand what they wanted to learn from me about the "Midi-Chlorian" man I assumed was Sirius.

"I came here to seek my godfather, who the Wookie Clan Leaders of Kashyyyk say was brought here over six years ago after arriving on their planet from unknown places. It appears you have questions about him, and if it allows me to be reunited with him sooner, please ask away," came what I thought was my generous reply, wanting to get this meeting moving.

"The man's name, you know?" came the question from Yoda.

"Sirius Orion Black," I responded easily, "born in the Earth calendar year of 1960 on the planet Earth, a planet my droid friend here assures me has never been discovered by the Republic and has no known records anywhere in your system."

"Then how did this man come to be on Kashyyyk?" asked the very strong base voice of the black man next to Yoda.

"He was transported through an ancient magical arch, currently known to my people as the Veil of Death," I replied honestly with a nod to the respectful man who reminded me greatly of a mix between Kingsley Shaklebolt and Xenophilus Lovegood.

"Magical Arch?" came his return question, somewhat skeptical but not pejoratively, even as several other members of the council started muttering about the nonexistence of magic.

"My home planet has a small subset of a species known as magicals, making up less than 1% of our human population. We can trace our planetary written history back only about ten thousand years, and have just in the last twenty years managed to travel to our moon," I replied with a bit more information, trying to impart on them why we weren't a known planet to the larger galaxy and why we had developed they way we did, knowing the history of the Jedi enough to know what they considered of magic to be nothing more than unenlightened Force techniques of backwater planets.

"This 'magical' arch transported you too, it did?" came the question from Yoda even as more muttering began between the other members, who at least had given up at this point trying to enter my mind.

"I came through it willingly, to find Sirius," I replied, not wanting to get into the other reasons I left Earth behind.

"Godfather, meaning is?" he responded to my reply.

"When I was born, my birth parents named him my godfather ...an honorary title in the magical and mundane world that represents someone who would take over your care in the event your parents didn't survive," I responded, hoping my honesty and forthrightness would show them I was trying to help, and allow me quicker access to Sirius.

"Your parents, survive they did not?" he continued, to which I could only nod my head, not wanting to think or talk about that particular subject now.

"Your godfather in a coma, he arrived ...why not you?" came the next question from the small green leader of the Jedi, and made me pause to determine how much information to tell these Jedi and hoping that a little background into our conflict might ingratiate me to them.

"Sirius was hit with an unknown dark magic spell by a rather insane dark magic user who escaped prison, during an attempted rescue of myself and several fellow students, and fell through the veil in question. After several years, this conflict between the dark and light magic users is now over, and I gathered my resources before coming after my godfather in an attempt to rescue him," I spoke clearly, trying to generalize what happened and also show Sirius and myself among the Light side in the conflict to show parallels with the Jedi and maybe get some sympathy.

"Dark Magic?" came the smooth questioning voice of the black man to Yoda's right.

"Um ...I believe similar to your Force, our magic can be used for both good and evil," I started and found I had the undivided attention of pretty much the entire room at this point. "While most magic is inherently neutral, the caster's intentions play a big role as well, as there are both light and dark spells that can help or hurt others. But ...there are also a subset of both Dark and Light spells with only a singular intention, Dark spells that if cast can corrupt the user's soul and Light spells that can restore or at least safeguard it."

"A student when your godfather fell, you were?" came another question from Yoda after several long moments where my words seemed to echo throughout the chamber as everyone seemed to be at least listening and reflecting on what I was saying.

"Yes, magicals generally go to school to learn about their magic from the age of eleven to seventeen or eighteen, when they can enter the workforce or apprentice under another magical user in their field of study," I answered.

"Are there many Dark Magic users in your society?" came the question from the Cerean Jedi on Yoda's other side.

"Seemingly every century or so gives rise to another Dark Lord, or Dark magic user that attempts to take over the world," I continued, "The most recent one was finally defeated within the last few years, and all of his followers were rounded up since then."

"A role in this, you had?" came the very perceptive question from Yoda.

"Yes," I answered, not really wanting to go into my history in the conflict.

"Hmm," came the responding hum from the little green man after several long moments of silence where I didn't elaborate any further.

"What role did you have exactly?" came the question from the Cerean male on Yoda's left.

"I defeated the Dark Lord," came my reluctant response, "and his followers."

The silence was pretty definite at that point, as nobody said anything else as everyone was contemplating and thinking upon my story and words. Several of them seemed to have come around as it were to my side, and gave me small, almost encouraging smiles when I met their eyes, but there was still a small minority that looked at me with disgust and distrust and probably would no matter what I said. It was several minutes of quiet before Yoda made to speak, and everyone in the room seemed to be waiting for the little green guy to give the official Jedi position on the topic, including me.

"The Force radiates off you, like a beacon it does," came his stilted and measured response in that unusual grammatical order I was still trying to understand. "From within you, it comes. Seen it not, I have. Trust you, it demands."

"Grand Master," interrupted the angry Red Nikto male next to the Cerean, one of the few I knew had not been swayed by my tale, "surely you do not believe this Sith imposter? He uses Sith mind techniques ...he is obviously lying!"

"Protecting one's mind is a field of magical study known to my people as Occlumency, and was a necessity for me to learn to defend against our Dark Lord, who was a master in attacking the minds of others," I replied evenly, as the being continued to sputter indignantly and only turn an even brighter shade of red.

"Insistent we believe him, the Force is," replied the Grand Master, who turned to the large black man next to him and received a small nod in agreement. "Help him, we must."

"Thank you Grand Master Yoda," I replied quickly and earnestly.

"Stay in the Temple, he will," continued the green Jedi leader after another long pause of thought, "Learn from him, we will. Most insistent, the Force is."

I was a little unsure about staying in the Jedi Temple itself with the rest of them, but if it gave me access to Sirius, and the time to research and heal him completely, then it would all be for the better. I gave another grateful nod to the Jedi, before I and my companions stood up as the platform receded back into the ground and I vanished the sofa with a negligent wave of my wand. Waiting for the Jedi Masters to get over their flinching at my use of magic, I was thankful that I was getting closer to my ultimate goal of rescuing Sirius.

"Padawan Jinn to show you quarters, he will," replied Yoda after a moment, "right next to his own, they are."

"And will I be able to see Sirius then?" I asked, not wanting to press my luck, but also not wanting to waste time settling into a room I had no intention of really living in.

"Jedi Master Ardu'kinvra," came Yoda's introduction as he motioned to the elderly purple skinned Twi'lek at the one end of the row of masters, who gave a small nod in greeting. "Our Head of the Medical Corps find you shortly to take to your godfather, she will."

"Thank you Jedi Masters," I answered with a respectful bow, before turning and following Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn's long strides out of the council chamber and into the heart of the temple itself, my mind running a million miles per hour.

We were led to a pair of very spartan style rooms that required a hand print for entry that was quickly set up for both myself and Kenroo, with TC-7H remaining with my Wookie friend to help translate for him. I told Qui-Gon that our things were currently inside my ship, and would bring them here after seeing Sirius and the medical facilities and talking with the almost twenty year old about his time as a Jedi. He was raised in the temple and was almost finished with his time as a Padawan and was preparing for his Knight Trials, he would be leaving on those any day now and was a relatively lively and good spirited person I actually enjoyed talking with.

Eventually, we were approached by the elderly purple skinned Twi'lek Jedi I was introduced to as Ardu'kinvra, the Head of the Jedi Medical Corps and my escort to Sirius. She seemed very pleasant and peaceful, with a bit of mother hen personality that had served her very well in the medical field, and despite her age carried herself very well and showed signs of great beauty. She was kind and open about the bacta-tank regimen that was currently keeping Sirius' vitals and muscles strong despite the mental coma he was still in, while monitoring all of his physical responses as well as the past injuries that had been corrected over the last few years of his treatment.

Apparently, Azkaban had done a real number on not just his external body, but also internally as she ran through the list of organs that were repaired, bones that hadn't healed right, scar tissue that was removed from both shoulders, hips, and knees. It was a pretty extensive list of injuries that needed to be corrected or healed, and I was grateful that the technology of the time allowed for everything physically at least to be restored to near perfect condition and wondered about the necessity to have one of those bacta-tanks with us going forward. I knew that I would always be in the middle of things I shouldn't, and almost always getting hurt or injured to some degree, it would be a great boon to have the local equivalent to a competent healer only a medical bay away at all times and made a note to look into getting one for myself.

When I finally arrived at the state of the art medical facility run by the Jedi, I was very impressed with the equipment, top of the line medical droids, and the several freestanding bacta-tanks complete with monitors. But all of those things were secondary as I was finally able to see the reason for my journey to another galaxy floating naked in front of me. Sirius looked younger and far more healthy than I had ever seen him after Azkaban, seemingly looking just a few years removed from Hogwarts he was young and strong looking despite the haze through the bacta-tank that distorted things a bit, it was plain to see and filled me with emotion.

"Sirius," I choked out in half elation, half cry as I was finally able to see what had become of him, and am not afraid or too proud to admit that it brought me to tears for several long moments before I could gather myself.

"As is standard practice for long term bacta-tank care," began Jedi Master Ardu'kinvra once I had gotten myself back together and was paying her attention, "we bring him out of the tank on average every three months for one full day of monitoring his physical systems and to run echo grams and scans on his brain activity before returning him to the tank. His next scheduled treatment is three weeks from now, but he can be removed from the tank whenever and be assigned a hospital bed in the interim. The only real downside of that is the lack of muscle stimulation while on bed rest versus the bacta-tank."

"Hm," I replied non-committedly still unsure of what I would need to heal him, but also knowing that any spells I cast with him in the tank could affect the electronic monitoring of him and thought about the best way forward. "How about we pull him out of the bacta-tank and put him in a bed ...many of the things I will need to try and use to heal him would negatively impact the computers and monitors that are currently being used. If I can't find an answer within a few days, then we can always put him back in the tank for a bit, right?"

"Yes, going back and forth from the bed to bacta-tank is perfectly harmless," answered Ardu'kinvra easily, "but why would your healing techniques impact the electronic monitoring equipment?"

"Ah, magic and computers don't really work together very well, unless the computers are heavily protected from electro-magnetic pulses," I answered, knowing it would be something that would come up and need to be worked around.

"Interesting," she murmured almost to herself, "that would explain why we need to replace the computer monitors so frequently around him. We just thought we had a faulty batch of equipment, as none of them lasted more than a few cycles of his treatments."

"Is it possible to get EMP protected medical equipment? Or a bacta-tank setup like this that I could outfit my ship with in the future?" I asked as we were talking about it, and it was something on my mind at the moment.

"Definitely," replied Ardu'kinvra, "though it is very expensive ...probably about the cost of your ship itself."

"Okay, good," I answered with a grin. "And who sells the very top of the line medical equipment I would need to replicate your incredible medical bay and get it all EMP protected?"

"Zaltin Corp is the top bacta-tank manufacturer," came the immediate reply which I would remember and send out an order for shortly, "and Xucphra Corp is the leader in medical monitoring equipment, and makes bacta-tanks as well, but theirs are not as good as Zaltin's."

"Thank you Master Jedi, you have been most helpful," I replied gratefully and with a small bow of my head towards the elderly Twi'lek Jedi. "So ...transferring out of the bacta-tank ...how long does that usually take?"

It turns out, not long at all as within fifteen minutes, Sirius was being loaded onto the hospital bed and before they could start hooking him back up to the medical monitors, I ran the basic diagnosis spell I had to learn on the way to Coruscant to try and get a reading on what spell damage Sirius was suffering from. Unfortunately, it was only a general spell and told me his conscious brain activity was less than optimal, but did say he had elevated levels of subconscious brain activity which at least gave me a place to start. Trying ennervate or even finite incantatum did nothing to improve his status or condition, and had me resigned to continue going through the Black Family spell books to try and find what Bellatrix hit him with.

I gave Ardu'kinvra the go ahead to hook him back up to all the necessary monitoring devices and to keep me informed of any changes in his status before excusing myself with promises of returning daily to try new things and just check on my godfather. Kenroo and I then returned to my ship and he packed up his few things while I packed and shrunk my tent, before making our way back to our newly assigned rooms in the Jedi Temple. A quick expansion charm later, and my tent was back up and functioning inside the spartan room, and I continued the task of going through my library searching for spells and counters.

It was a few hours later, when the chime for my door alerted me to a visitor and I went out to greet them. Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn was there with an invitation for dinner in the cafeteria for myself and Kenroo, which we both happily accepted as it had been some time since either of us had eaten anything. The Jedi cafeteria was surprisingly full of many different Jedi of all ages from the eldest of them all the way down to the young pre-teens, and represented dozens of races and species that my stolen memories knew only about half of. The noise level instantly decreased when Kenroo and I arrived, as we were the only pair not in their traditional brown robes and he was an almost eight foot tall Wookie.

Qui-Gon led us over to the right side and a long buffet line filled with various dishes and a few others collecting their meals, where we grabbed trays and followed suit behind the friendly Padawan who kept a constant chatter of the food types offered. Once we had each loaded our trays, we found a small empty round table amongst the fifty other tables spread out throughout the room and sat down to eat. The noise level had picked up some as we went about the routine of collecting food and then sitting down, but rather quickly the place quieted as a young Wookie that I only knew as young because of his size (shorter than me) and having been around them for several months.

He seemed a Jedi youngling, and made a beeline for Kenroo and therefore our table where they held a rapid conversation in their native tongue for several minutes as the general noise in the room returned to normal, and everything seemed to go back to how it was previously. My beginning ability to understand the roars and growls of Wookie's speech was quickly put to the test, and I failed resoundedly after only seconds. I could no longer keep up with their conversation and left them to it. Instead, I engaged Qui-Gon about what else everyone did around the temple as I didn't think they would let me access the Jedi Archives and didn't want to spend every waking moment buried in my trunk library researching old and obscure dark spells.

Qui-Gon offered to show me the gym and training rooms after our meal, and even challenged me to a light spar to see how I fared against a Jedi Padawan which was very tempting. My stolen memories told me they were insanely fast and athletic beyond even the greatest athletes in my home world, and I wondered if I augment my own speed and muscles with my magic if I could even keep up with them, let alone how they would fare against direct and indirect magic. I asked if his lightsaber had a non-lethal setting as I had no desire to lose limbs in a friendly spar, and I had several memories of what those things were truly capable of cutting through to know I wouldn't stand too much of a chance against one.

Kenroo was able to communicate to me that he and his new young Wookie friend, Chabesdee, were going to hang out in the docking and maintenance area tinkering on small spaceships and would see me later. So, I followed my new friend and Jedi Padawan Jinn to the gym and training rooms, pointing out the entrance to the Jedi Archive wing as we passed nearby it. He then brought me to several large open rooms of various style terrains set up that they all used for training, and even pointed out the entrance to their little hot springs area they used for relaxing.

Soon, the pair of us were standing across from each other in a big relatively empty room, as we prepared to face off in a friendly spar and I was slowly amping up and getting ready to pump some serious magic through my body to try and keep up with the Jedi Padawan. When he brought out his lightsaber and ignited it with a snap-hiss sound, he then turned the setting all the way down and gave me a nod and then a somewhat predatory smile before leaping an impossible distance right at me. Luckily, when he activated his lightsaber, I flooded my body with magic and conjured a small circular duelist shield on my off arm and was ready the moment he began, even if I was legitimately startled by how far and easily he closed the distance between us.

The next two minutes were spent frantically trying to keep up with his fast pace, as he continuously battered my shield with his lightsaber, and I only just managed to get into a proper blocking position at the very last moment, unable to truly match or beat his speed. Luckily, the shield held very well from the plasma sword of light, at least on the lowest setting, and he was quite surprised by that and determined to see it beaten as he continually set and pushed the pace. Knowing that I needed to get a little room to hopefully send out any spells, after the most recent block I twisted away and with a pop apparated to the other side of the gym before he could send a follow up swing.

The widening of his eyes at my relocation was very satisfying, and I didn't waste it, as I quickly began sending quick spells one after the other towards him, not really trying to hurt him, but see how quickly he could handle the direct spells. The lightsaber was truly amazing, and literally batted everything I threw at him aside like it was nothing, the only things he had to avoid were those few spells that were more area affect one's like the aguamenti spell. I followed that up with glacius to get the now wet floor completely frozen to hopefully cut down on his speed before changing to transfiguration, making a pack of wolves out of ice chunks that were quick to harass him and take some of his attention away from me.

It only took one actual bite to his leg from a wolf, for him to widen his eyes again and realize they weren't the illusions he thought they were, before he was quickly dispatching them as fast as I could make their replacements. I added birds and snakes into the mix as they were harder and less straightforward to take down, and slowed him a little more allowing me to try and slip in ropes, chains, and stunning spells trying to catch him off guard. His awareness though was absolutely incredible, and even when I knew he couldn't have seen a spell coming, he always seemed to know when one was about to hit him and react in lightning quick ways to counter it.

His speed, athleticism, and acrobatics were the stuff of legends ...I had never seen someone move so quickly and easily in such impossible ways, and really made me appreciate how skilled these Jedi were in combat. After the ten minute mark though, I could definitely tell he was slowly starting to tire as his speed suffered a bit, as the debris and ice that was scattered all over the floor started to be an even greater factor. I too was winded, having rarely had to fight so fast, but was also rather well prepared with a strong magical endurance that had been trained and honed over the last several years and was able to continue harassing him with easy spells mixed in with the transfiguring and animating of my attack animals to keep him busy and on the defensive.

Finally, as we neared fifteen minutes, one of my snakes managed to bite his wrist before he was destroyed by the lightsaber, and immediately after a conjured chain wrapped around an ankle and threw him off balance, and allowed my tripping jinx to land, throwing him to the ground. I followed up with a disarming spell that pulled the lightsaber from his hand before he was then tied up tightly in a series of conjured ropes. I took several quick breaths to ensure he wasn't going to pull off any other crazy moves, but then started waving my wand and removing everything that was now littering the training room.

"I can't ...believe ...I lost," he muttered while trying to catch his breath after the very tiring spar he just finished, though he didn't seem overly upset which was a plus in my book.

"You almost had me a bunch of separate times in the first few minutes," I answered back honestly, and hoped to take the sting out of his defeat, as I didn't want him to be angry at me as I really enjoyed myself in his company so far.

"Yeah ...until you teleported!" he exclaimed in somewhat disbelief as he remembered what had turned the tide of the battle so quickly against him, and seemed to be struggling with the reality of it. "I didn't think that was humanly possible?"

"It's actually one of the more normal methods of magical travel," I answered back good naturedly, "and I had to do something to get distance from you ...magic is not really meant to fight up close like that."

"And those animals ...they were real?" he was still in shock a bit, and unsure how to verbalise everything he had seen in the friendly spar.

"They weren't actually real ...I mean, they didn't have souls or anything ...but they were physical constructs I animated to act as real animals. It's one of the more advanced applications of both Transfiguration, changing one thing into another, and Charms, charming or in this case animating something, that we study in our final year of school," I replied happily, glad he didn't seem to be angry, just a bit stunned at what I was capable of.

"Your shield at the beginning actually worked against my lightsaber," he continued, still in somewhat of disbelief. "Even on the lowest setting, no transparent energy shield should be able to stand up against the lightsaber for more than one hit."

"Actually, I would love to run some experiments with your lightsaber and my magic sometime ...you know, see how well various magical shields hold up to it, if the lightsaber can block or swat away any localized spells," I continued to his still somewhat stunned face as he thought through the practice spar we just had for anything else out of the ordinary he wanted to bring up, "that sort of thing."

"Yeah, actually ...I think it would probably be a really good idea to experiment and record how our Force powers and lightsabers react with and against your magical ones," came his measured response, after thinking about it for a moment and seemingly liking the idea as a good natured smile stretched across his face. "It could be important for our Archives in the future ...and I too would like to see how they measure up against one another."

"Sounds like a plan," I replied easily. "Maybe we can do this again tomorrow ...it was fun."

"Says the winner," grumbled Qui-Gon good naturedly with a bit of a laugh at the end, as I reached out a hand and pulled him back to his feet, a matching smile on my own face as we shared a laugh and the beginnings of a great friendship.

AN: I want to send out my love and absolute respect for Simone Biles, and all the athletes who dedicate their lives to something that I can only ever look at in complete awe. She is even more the GOAT today after walking away whole, and protecting her sanity and mental health. Thanks Simone!