Disclaimer - So I was walking down the street the other day and I saw a poster in the window about the new Star Wars DVD on blueray and it reminded me that I don't own Starwars. Oh, I don't own Harry Potter either. Rowling and Lucas, blah blah blah etc.
Chapter Six
Tuskans
Ginny woke up early the next morning and found Anakin meditating in the garden, "Something's wrong. I can sense it."
"I know." he answered, but remained in his trance, "A vision or nightmare, I can't determine which just yet. It's of my biological mother, Ginny. She's in pain and something's happened on Tatooine."
Ginny closed her eyes, sat next to Anakin and relaxed herself beside the troubled youth, "Nothing's more important than family, Anakin. That's what Harry and I taught our children, because it's what my parents taught me. Harry wasn't as lucky growing up."
"I know." He relaxed more into the mediation as Ginny continued to talk.
"Your mother's a very strong emotion for you. To ignore this would not be healthy. We should head to Tatooine."
"What about Padme?"
"I'll go with you." her voice surprised Anakin and he turned to face her.
"I'm sorry, Padme. This mission is your life and I'm endangering it."
"Not particularly. If somebody was hunting me, Naboo would be one of the locations to look for me, Tatooine is not." she smiled tenderly back at him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Ginny can update the Council on the way there."
"You are more than a Jedi, Anakin." Ginny stood, "We warned the council that you would require a different type of training than normal. A training that allows you to use your emotions and not bury them. You are an exceptionally passionate young man and you can't let the Council, or even Obi-wan tell you differently. Look at me and Harry. We're Jedi but not. Harry is even on the Council and when you're ready, you will be too."
"Thanks, Ginny." Anakin gave his adoptive mother a hug and then turned to Padme, comfortably embracing her as well, "Thank you, Padme."
x x x
The ride to Tatooine was relatively short and after a very quick stop at Watoo's, they learned the Shmii had been sold, freed and was married on the outskirts of Anchorhead.
A short flight brought the three to the moisture farm where they learned Shmii had been taken by the sand people. Tuskan Raiders who had kidnapped her and then slaughtered almost all of the rescue party.
Anakin was about to walk out to find Shmii when Ginny stopped him, "I'm going too. We both can do the location spell."
He nodded, grief visible to her but controlled beneath the surface, "Padme will be safe here."
"Yes, she is. Now we can use my firebolt and a tracking spell. We only need something of hers to get a good fix on her location."
Cligg Lars, Shmii's husband, handed Ginny something of the kidnapped woman, curious of the method the small redhead was planning to use to track his wife. Ginny took the brush and muttered, "Homeus tracker."
"She's still alive." Ginny said, "I'm getting a good reading but I feel that we should hurry."
They left the farm and Ginny hunched over on her Firebolt while beneath her, Anakin drove a swoop bike. In less than an hour, they found the Tusken camp, "Do you know, Tusken?"
Anakin shook his head, "3PO does. We should have brought him."
Ginny closed her eyes and stretched out her senses towards the camp, "She's in that hut at the edge. She's barely alive. Wait here, I know some healing spells to keep her alive."
"If she dies, they die." Anakin ground out, his hand conjuring a ball of fire.
"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it." Ginny said, "I'll be back."
She jumped down several cliff walls, allowing the Force to cushion each jump and crept quietly to the tent where she knew Anakin's mother was at. She erected notice-me-not and silencing charms and used her lightsaber to slice a hole large enough to creep through. Easily vanishing the cut piece, she entered and gasped. Shmii was tied to a wooden support beam, beaten and bruised so badly that Ginny knew the woman was nearing death and that she would have to work quickly if Shmii was to be saved. Thanking the Force for a prior career as a medi-witch after her quidditch career, she worked fast to heal the woman.
Shmii groaned and gasped, coming out of her unconscious repose, "Who are...you?"
"Ginny Potter. I'm here with Anakin, your son. Hold still and I'll have you out of here and back to your husband and your son."
"Anakin? He's...here?"
"He's waiting out back. I didn't want him to flip out if your condition was really bad."
"Tell...him...Tell my little boy..."
Ginny was working quickly with the healing spells and was beginning to relax a little more with the broken bones other internal injuries on the mend, "You're almost as good as new, Shmii." Ginny wished for the thousandth time since coming to the galaxy that they had discovered a solution to replace healing potions, "You're exhausted right now, so go ahead and get some sleep."
"Thank you..." Shmii closed her eyes and Ginny could tell that she was still breathing, "That was close."
She conjured a stretcher and put Shmii on before levitating it through the hole. Quickly and quietly, she made it back to Anakin, who was crying in relief at the news she still lived.
"What about the Tuskans?" Anakin asked darkly, eyeing the camp below.
Ginny hesitated and then nodded, "There's a price this tribe must pay. Take your mother back, Anakin. She needs you more so than your desire for revenge. I'll deal with them."
He was about to protest until he looked up at her and saw the glint in her eye that he had long ago learned to avoid, "Of course. I'll meet you back there."
Ginny waited for them to leave on the Swoops before muttering a complex spell into the cliff. Nothing happened immediately, but from the amount of power she felt draining from her magic, she knew that she had been successful. She had decided only a few would die, but she would also give the Raiders a story to remember when she was done with them.
She leapt down to the sand and disillusioned herself, walking to the front of the camp she muttered a second charm, very similar to the one she had just used on the rocks. Taking several paces back from that spot, she charmed her hair to stand wildly on end, as if electrocuted and then altered her eye color to a red-yellow, demonesque hue. A quick transfiguration and illusion to her robes and her clothing appeared as sand covering her body, to give an illusion of a sand goddess. Once that was completed, she summoned the Force to herself and rose a whirlwind of sand around her and sent it into the middle of the camp where she allowed herself to appear in the center of before dissipating the wind.
Ginny had their attention and as they began to grunt threateningly at her, raising their blasters and gaffii sticks, she could sense the unease and fear within the tribe. Rather than speak, she sought out the chieftain and coyly walked towards him, emulating a vibe of unimaginable power. She paused and then glared at the Raider, giving the Tusken a sudden burst of her rage coupled with the image of Shmii being captured and tortured as well as the ambush of the rescue party.
The Chieftain understood immediately and barked back at her with a threat on his tongue, she saw as much from his mind. One of the Tuskens raised a rifle to fire, and Ginny smiled.
With a simple thought, the cliff she had spelled, came to life and stood on two legs, formed from the base of the rocks. By the time it was finished moving, the golem was twenty feet tall and moving towards the tribe very quickly. Several of the warriors turned to see what the rumbling was and raised their rifles, more opted to remain frozen with a superstitious fear. The one that had aimed at Ginny squeezed the first shot off.
A golden shield sprang to life around her and the shot was absorbed as the golem heaved a boulder at the offending Tusken. Ginny might have assisted the boulder a little as the throw crushed the Raider without touching any of others. Under Ginny's guidance, the Golem stomped towards the camp, escalating the fear radiating from the other Raiders.
Ginny continued to stare at the Chieftain, projecting images of the fighting and capture once again with a feeling of loathing towards the Raider camp. Several tuskens fired at the Golem as it stepped closer to the tent Shmii had been in, but the lasers merely shattered small portions of the rock, unable to injure the animated cliff. With their focus on what the stone Golem was doing, Ginny raised her other one, this one from the desert, pure sand. It moved towards her from behind, gliding more than walking causing a near panic to ensnare the raider camper.
A Tuskan charged Ginny, its Gaffi stick raised. Its charge was abruptly ended tend meters from where she stood as the Sand Golem engulfed the Tuskan, the body never surfacing or seen again. Ginny escalated her projections to a seething anger and conveyed an order to never harm a single settler again unless they were fired upon first. Once she knew the Tusken recognized her order, she flashed several images of the Chieftains camp assaulted by more Golems until there were no more Sandpeople.
She directed the Rock Golem to walk over to the unoccupied tent that Shmii had been a prisoner in and had the rocks enclose the tent completely, sealing it like a tomb. Sending a final message that Shmii had died and that the desert was burying her itself. All heads were watching the Sand Golem now, unsure if it would kill any more of them. Ginny stirred the wind again around her, hiding herself from view and teleporting herself to another cliff wall she waited to see what the Tusken Raiders would do.
They did not disappoint her as they immediately began packing their belongings to get away from the cursed place, the Sand Golem watching the Chieftain with an eyeless face. Fear was a very powerful weapon, Ginny had experienced that first hand with Voldemort, but her method was necessary, a way to stop the hostilities against the outlying settlers of the region. Finally bored, and satisfied they had learned her lesson, she directed the Golem to turn away, freezing the entire camp while it lumbered slowly into the desert, sinking into the sand as if nothing had been there.
x x x
Harry and Obi-Wan stood quietly next to their ships, the Separatists were all here on Geonosis, meeting with the head of it, Count Dooku. They both knew Dooku would have sensed them and figured their time was short, "We need to contact the council," Obi-wan said, "They need to know what deal Dooku is making."
"The timing of this," Harry shook his head, "This has been well thought out. Us finding the Clones? This Military Creation Bill that Amidala animately opposes will give Palpatine an even bigger hold on the Republic."
Obi-wan nodded and then frowned, "They're coming."
"I sense them too." Harry drew out his lightsaber as well as his mirror, "Ginny Potter!"
"Harry?"
"Quick message, Gin. Not a lot of time. The Separatists are on Geonosis and are under the leadership of Count Dooku. We've been discovered but you have to relay this to the Council. We'll probably be captured and taken to Dooku, you know how these Dark Lords are, they love to gloat their superiority."
Ginny chuckled despite the danger her husband was in, "All right, Harry. We'll be there soon."
Harry closed the connection and looked at Obi-Wan, "What?"
"You told her to rescue us?"
"With you having been around that woman for ten years, do you honestly think I could have convinced her to stay there?"
Obi-wan laughed as he turned to the dozen droids approaching them, "Besides Anakin and Padme are with her and there'd be no chance of them staying away either."
"Droids!" Harry called out unnecessarily and replaced his mirror with his wand, he decided not to make it easy for them.
They opened fire but the bolts were easily deflected before Harry apparated behind two of the droids and levitated one into the other. Both crumpled with the impact while more droids began to approach them, lasers blasting dangerously close to the two Jedi as Harry returned to Obi-wan's side. They continued parrying the blaster bolts back at the droids before several more destroyers entered the battle.
As one, they both dashed into the middle of the formation and started to systematically wipe out the droids. Harry laughed next to Obi-wan, clearly enjoying himself in the heat of battle, mixing his attacks with his lightsaber and his wand until minutes later, fifty droids were scrapped and the two Jedi standing in the center, barely winded.
"Very powerful, young Jedi." Dooku said from overhead and they noticed that Jango was next to him. Harry sensed it was from obligation more than loyalty, "You both would be more than welcome to join my new order for the galaxy."
"We'll choose the Republic, thank you." Obi-wan answered.
"Your partner doesn't share your enthusiasm, Master Kenobi." Dooku sent a probe to Harry but was easily brought up short, "So powerful! Master Potter, isn't it? I never had the pleasure of meeting you while I was in the Order."
"I'm loyal to the Jedi, Dooku." Harry glanced around at the new set of droids beginning to surround them, "But I agree with you about Palpatine. He is a threat to everything the Republic stands for."
"An interesting choice of words, for one so young." Dooku said, a little more respect in his voice than before, though Harry still chuckled at the 'young' part, "We could overthrow him together, Potter. We don't need this to escalate into a war."
"I wasn't sent here to prevent war." Harry said, "My instructions were slightly different, and I plan on following them."
"I was once a Jedi too." Dooku said, "Now surrender your weapons and we will set you up in our guest quarters."
"I'm sure they're really nice this time of year." Harry relaxed his stance. He thought about apparating away for a split second but forced such a thought away because he would never abandon Obi-Wan. Nudging Obi-wan as they were escorted away, Harry whispered, "When we get off this rock, I'm teaching you to apparate."