Summary:
Harry Potter / Star Wars-over. While leading the final charge against a retreating Dark Lord, Harry is thrown through a Demon Portal, landing on a strange world in a galaxy far away.
Disclaimer
I don't own Harry Potter in any way. JKR has those rights... Also, Star Wars is owned by Lucasfilm/George Lucas, etc etc.
*Author's Note *
Inspirations: Sword and Magic by bluminous8
Fluff and randomness. Some have complained the pace is too slow. I want to build a bit here on what they're experiencing, and not just have them bounce off the planet after only a chapter or two stranded there. Neither Harry nor Aayla has their head on straight at the moment, though they're both quite good at faking it. I at least wanted to attempt to explore that a bit, which will continue into the next chapter as well with something that always bothered me about Jedi.
Chapter First Published: 2013-04-29
Chapter Last Update:
Chapter 5 – What is a Jedi
For the second day in a row, Harry awoke with a groan. The new languages he received from Aayla were huge in terms of the sheer number of words. But the more he thought about it though, the more it kind of made sense to him. He wondered if it was related to the length of time the language had been in use. Modern English, as he knew it, probably only had true roots going back six or seven hundred years. Galactic Basic and his newest skill, Huttese, probably went back several millennia.
He felt a familiar weight upon his chest and looked down to see Aayla's golden eyes as she stared up at him. Then Harry's mind caught up with the present, and he frowned.
Very mischievous golden eyes.
"Well, now that Mr. Sleepy-Head is awake. We can begin our morning workout," she said in a loud cheerful voice.
"Alright, I guess I deserve it after the water incident. But you hurt me badly out there today and I'll never massage your Lekku again," said Harry with a half smile.
"Oh, now you're just being mean," said Aayla without any worry in her voice as she pushed him out of the bed and covered herself with the blankets. "Go get dressed and I'll meet you outside in ten minutes. Make sure it's something you can run and jump around in."
He obliged his task master and grabbed some workout clothes with a bit of protection on them. One could never be sure when they would be attacked after all. He left the tent to discover that it was just past dawn. 'At least the humidity and heat combination won't kick in too badly for a few hours,' thought Harry gratefully.
He did his normal set of stretches, though he doubted they would do him much good. His typical workouts were daily, but only allowed for maybe thirty to forty five minutes of running. How in Merlin's name was he going to keep up with Aayla if she was going to drag him along for a multi-hour workout? He hoped that maybe the injuries she had endured would slow her down just a bit, despite how well he knew he had healed them.
Aayla emerged from the tent while he was pondering this. As usual, she was a vision of beauty. Then again, Twi'leks didn't have to worry about trivial things such as bed-head for obvious reasons. She had a bright smile on her face as she looked around and then faced Harry.
"Ok, here's what we're going to do. We're going to run for about an hour, maybe longer. I want you to try to keep up with me. No teleporting. No portkeys. No turning into firebirds."
Harry simply stuck his tongue out at this, "Fine take all the fun out of it."
"Oh, I'll certainly show you some fun. Let's go," and suddenly she was off.
He sped after her and, very quickly, the only thought in his mind was to try to keep up with her. Ever since he first laid eyes upon her as she marched at the head of her column of troops, he knew Aayla was in good physical shape. This however, turned out to be a completely inaccurate description of her state of fitness. In fact, if someone referred to her as in 'good shape', it probably insulted and knocked down her true level of fitness by about four notches.
Right from the get-go, Harry had trouble with her pace. He couldn't figure out what was going on. She seemed to not only intuitively miss branches, roots, and other obstructions, which he almost always blundered into, but her speed completely outstripped him. He watched her slowly put greater and greater distance between the two while the knowledge set in that there wasn't a chance in hell that he would ever catch up to her.
Then she had to go and drive that assumption home with a hammer. He watched as she easily leapt ten meters in the air to the top of a tree flower. He stopped cold when he saw it. Aayla herself turned back to look at him, waved with a cheeky smile on her face, and vaulted from a dead start to the tree flower nearest her, which had to be at least fifteen meters away.
'How the heck is she jumping so high?' gaped Harry internally.
He continued to run while he simultaneously fell further and further behind her. Harry eventually was forced to resort to the use of magic to track her progress. He could feel her subtle changes in directions even while she was beyond his range of sight and adjusted accordingly. The necklace she wore thoroughly masked her presence, but there was enough stray magic given off by her that he could roughly estimate her direction. Eventually, he found himself content to let her lead him wherever it was they would ultimately end their run at and Harry simply let himself zone out while he did his best to not collapse from exhaustion.
Finally, after ninety minutes of vaults, trips, stumbles, and falls into the mud, Harry caught up to Aayla. He found her about ten minutes after he felt she had stopped next to a lake. When he found her, he was has dismayed that, other than very light sheen of sweat upon her skin, Aayla showed no sign whatsoever she had run the same distance which had half-exhausted Harry.
"Not too shabby," she said while she leaned against a large rock. "But you didn't even try jumping up onto a tree flower."
Harry tried to ignore the gathered perspiration that glistened prominently between her cleavage, which made her astonishing shade of blue even more attractive as the sheen of wetness reflected lightly in the unrelenting Felucian Sun.. He shook his head to distract him from the sight and responded her statement.
"And why would I need to do that? I've never had a reason to jump that high once in my life, or received training how to do so. If I need to do something like that then I'll apparate. It's quicker, and in the end I'm far less likely to be seen," said Harry in a polite rebuttal. All the while, he made quite sure to look her straight in the eye and not let his gaze wander.
"True, but it wouldn't hurt for you to learn how to Force Jump. I felt you let yourself go about halfway through the run. You released your instincts to the Living Force. I bet the number of trips and falls you had decreased after that."
"Truthfully, I have no idea," responded Harry, a bit boggled at the concepts she just mentioned. "I was mainly focused on tracking you by your magic so I knew I was going in the right direction."
"Well, just watch what I do," she said right before she jumped straight up and landed on top of the flower tree nearest to them.
"Can you do that again, and give me some proper warning next time rather than just leaping when I'm not even fully paying attention yet?" yelled Harry in a rather annoyed fashion after her.
"If I had ever not paid attention to one of my Master's, they would've had me running for the next hour straight, just so you know," Aayla growled at him after she landed on the ground next to him.
"Ah, that explains why you don't have a Padawan then," his statement made her eyebrows rise and fists clench. Then he gave her a lop-sided grin as he continued, "You're obviously not a masochist, and a far better natural teacher. I guess that means that normal Jedi Master's aren't really concerned with their students actually learning anything… unlike you, of course."
She snorted and rolled her eyes, before she simply said, "Just watch properly this time."
Harry switched to his Mage Sight, and watched how her magic reacted. He was pleasantly surprised to see spells shoot out of Aayla's feet at the same time magic in her thighs and calves pulsed as well. It almost appeared as if she had used a wandless banisher combined with some sort of temporary muscle enhancement that went from her legs a good ways up her spine. The only difference between it and a normal spell was, instead of her hands as the focal point, she used the soles of her feet.
"Ok, I get how you did it," he called up to her as she looked down at him. "I'll admit, I've never even pondered sending wandless magic out of the bottom of my feet like you just did. I've just never had the use or need."
He pondered what he had just witnessed for a second, then asked, "Can I see you land? I didn't see what you did last time for that either. I'd personally rather not break my leg. I have a method for cushioning a fall, but I'd rather not use that particular one because it's quite clumsy to use."
With Mage Sight still on, he watched as she gracefully stepped off of the tree flower and fell nearly ten meters. She barely made a sound as she landed softly next to him and continued her gait. She did not even break her stride from where she stepped off the flower. With Mage Sight he could see a burst of magic the instant before impact. Another pulse of magic spread upwards from her leg as well, affecting her legs, spine, neck, skull, and soft tissue of her torso.
'Most likely fortifying them in some manner to prevent injury from the sudden impact and deceleration,' he mused as he analyzed what he had just witnessed.
"Ok, I see how you did that as well. I've never seen anyone do either of those things. You strengthened your legs back and neck to prevent injury from the sudden stop. And you also did something at the last moment with your feet to do a focused cushioning effect," he paused as he considered if he could even begin to understand what she just did before he shook his head. "This is going to take some time for me to figure out."
"How could you tell what I was doing exactly?" she asked.
Harry pointed at his eyes, "Mage Sight, I can see Magic when it's active. Spells, wards, plants, animals. If Magic is actively doing something, I can see it if I'm looking for it properly and know in advance to look for it. I don't leave it up all the time though," he said quietly.
"Is that something you can teach me? It sounds similar to Force Perception." she said, very excited at the opportunity to learn another new thing.
"Sure, if you have about the same amount of time to devote to it as you do the animagus transformation you wanted to try," said Harry with a rueful smile.
She pouted quite spectacularly at that, "Years?"
Harry nodded, "Years. And it all starts with that Occlumency training you began last night. Find your Magical Core first. After you do that, tons of other things will open up for you. But your Core is the first step. You can cast simple spells and enchantments like any student without actively feeling your core, but to get into the really advanced stuff you will have to be able to find it."
After a sigh of defeat, she nodded. "I couldn't find it last night. I searched and searched. It was just beyond my sight there in the darkness. I know it was there but I couldn't find it. And then when I finished, it was all I could do just to crawl to the bed. It was exhausting."
Harry had to smile at the memories of his own frustrations. "Just keep at it. What you just described lets me know you're well on your way there," he told her softly. He looked up at the tree and gave his own sigh, "Guess I should try jumping and killing myself, eh?"
Harry tested his assumptions as to how the banisher should work while he fired something similar out of his hands. He had to focus the target and size to a level far smaller than he ever used previously with that particular spell. Once he had it, he tried to imagine doing the same just from his feet. He had to laugh at the thought banishing his own shoes off, but just being conscious of the fact the shoes were there seemed to be enough so that it didn't happen.
A quick glance at Aayla revealed an amused smile on her face as she watched him try and figure it out. He raised an eyebrow towards her as if he had asked, "What?" but she merely shook her head and leaned back against the rock behind her.
Harry had gone over what he thought was needed at least a dozen times and figured now was as good a time any. He spoke out loud, "Ok, 3… 2... 1…" and with a mighty leap he channeled magic through the muscles of his legs and let loose two banishers from his feet.
-o0o0o-
Aayla couldn't believe it
'His first try… absolutely unbelievable,' she sighed. At least he did not do it perfectly. If that occurred she wouldn't have known how to respond. Still, a one hundred meter high Force Jump. It was easily double the distance she could do herself when she deliberately pushed her limits, and the accomplishment was genuinely something which to be proud.
Now all she had to do was teach him how to land. She still found herself the victim of periodic involuntary laughter. Harry's whoop of joy at the apex of his ascent, followed immediately by his complete and utter loss of concentration and a rather girlish shriek as he almost became a stain on the muddy ground.
Luckily, Aayla had paid attention and she slowed him down enough with the Force where Harry had used his own Force abilities in some utterly bizarre manner which turned the ground into a squishy cushion that made him bounce comically upon impact.
They continued to practice jumps for the next half hour, until slowly but surely Harry could control his vertical jumps to the point where they no longer resembled ballistic missile take offs. His landings took nearly as long, as he just couldn't quite stick a landing properly. But eventually, Harry learned in two hours what had taken her many long and painful weeks as a teenaged Padawan all those years ago.
'But then again, I wonder how long he took for some of his early abilities and how long I'll take to learn them now that I'm in my early thirties,' she pondered.
She ended her thoughts upon teacher and student differences and turned to her exhausted exercise partner, "Think you can handle running back now?"
He looked at her incredulously, but nodded slowly in acceptance of it after a long exhale. That definitely made her happy. Harry, despite being exhausted, would still try and push himself. She had already turned away when he heard him say, "Alright I'll give it a try."
"No," she turned to him, and suddenly her own lessons from her youth rang in her ears. "You either do it, or you don't. There is no in between with a 'try,'" she told him emphatically.
She saw him pull up short, startled at the heat in her voice, which even surprised herself if she was honest. The memories of Master Vos and how hard he pushed her through her doubts seemed to be at the forefront of her mind as she spoke. Her recollections were cut short when he spoiled the serious mood when he said, "Uh, sure. I'll do it. Tally-Ho! Hoo-Rah!" and ran in the direction of the cave.
'At least he knows or can sense what direction we came from…' Aayla thought with amusement. '…and doesn't take offense to the light scolding of Jedi beliefs from an instructor.' She did not believe she had earned the right yet to call herself a Master. That was something only the Council could bestow upon someone, even if she found her confidence in the Council shaken in recent years.
This time she saw him take the initiative and vault into the tree flowers first. His leaps still needed polish, as he over or under shot his target on occasion, but his ability to vault over obstacles had now greatly increased over this morning. His ability to use the Force to maintain his run speed also seemed to increase, as he no longer breathed as heavily as did on the initial run out.
They easily made it back to the cave in probably half the time it took for them to do their initial run. Aayla had overtaken him a few times on the run, and Harry had taken it as a challenge and taken the lead back. She ultimately easily beat him to the entrance, but she was no less happy with his display of abilities, both physical and with the Force.
"You did well Harry," she told him honestly with a smile.
"Thanks, I enjoyed that second run a lot more than the first," he said while he breathed heavily. He took his shirt off, which exposed his well-muscled chest to the unforgiving sun. She held in her gasp as she noticed far more scars on his body than should have been allowed on any sentient being. The dark light of the bedroom in the tent had blurred the scars from her vision, but they were on vivid display now in the bright sunlight. She almost missed him wave his hand over himself twice as he once again used the Force in some obscure manner.
"What did you just do to yourself?" asked Aayla curiously, trying desperately to avoid looking at the shirtless human's chest and visible abs now that she had put the scars out of her mind.
"It was a cooling charm, and then I cast a spell to hopefully prevent me from getting a sunburn," as he conjured two glasses in mid air, filled them with water while they floated, and then grabbed one while the other drifted into her grip.
"Thanks," tipping her glass in acknowledgement. "When can you start teaching me some stuff like this?"
"I'd prefer you learn to find your Magical Core first. It just makes things that much quicker and easier. Once you've done that, we can decide which direction to take you in next. There's so many potential things to teach you, even I have things specific things I've put off learning that I can devote years to understanding. Though, how I'll learn some of them without my full library back home is a question I can't answer anymore…"
She watched as he fell into silence again at another reminder of just how much he had lost. It was times like this she felt quite helpless. Harry always bounced back quickly, but the constant reminders of a past he would never be able to recreate here took a quiet toll upon him which she could not provide protection from.
"I'll have to remember to start putting together a list of spells. See if I can't remember all the lessons from school," she heard Harry say more to him than to her. Then he looked up.
"Later on today, I want to start gathering wand materials. Maybe we can find something suitable to you that will help you learn a bit quicker. Using a focus for spell casting is much easier than doing it without one. If we run across some predators, we can take them down for food, materials for wands, and if there's any useable leather, make you a wand holster. All the wildlife here seems just drenched in magic. Any of it would likely be useful in wands."
She thought it all over. She was not sure what their daily routine would be for the next two to three days as they lay low before their transportation off world could be built, but his suggestions sounded like excellent ideas to distract themselves from the boredom they would likely encounter. "Great, now how about you cook me a late breakfast while I shower?"
She internally laughed at his look of annoyance at the assignment of cooking duties. "Great, thanks," she smiled widely and immediately ran inside before he could even utter a response.
"I hope we don't run out of warm water," she heard him yell as she entered the tent.
-o0o0o-
Lunch was a subdued affair, as Harry was still quite visibly tired and sore from their run, which caused him to make a meal that involved as little effort as possible. It was simple sandwiches and some odd-tasting juice from a vegetable he called a pumpkin. However bland it was to her, it was still better than field rations. Aayla thought it would be a long time before she willingly subjected herself to the tasteless food found in the endless pallets they had acquired for emergency sustenance. Apparently, Harry had eaten his own planet's version of field rations, and from the looks he gave when she suggested their consumption, she assumed they tasted as bad as Republic rations.
She had initially tried to meditate while he showered, but instead attempted to find her core again. The elusiveness of what she sought aggravated her to no end. Harry eventually returned and picked up on her state of agitation immediately.
"You have to relax," he said as he sat down next to her. "You can't push or brute force your way through. It has to just happen. There are very few rules around this sort of thing, but those are among them."
She gave him an annoyed look and jumped a little as he moved behind her and massaged her shoulders. "Try again. Don't anticipate finding anything. Just follow your magic, immerse yourself in it. Don't try guessing what you'll see or find next. Just travel the path however long it is. Be patient and don't give up."
His touch relaxed her frustrated mind and she sank back a bit into him while his hands switched to rubdown her Lekku. With his hands directly upon her skin, she felt his emotions, which were currently gratitude aimed towards her and the desire to help her. She allowed these positive emotions to flow over her and she dove into her meditations again as she followed the thin stream of Force that had raised the very small pebble in front of her.
The speed she traced the path of the Force inside her was far slower now than when she raced along it the previous night. The time and effort she applied was also more involved. Bit by bit, she traced it back, with no expectations of what she would find. She merely reveled in its feel and followed its course.
Time soon lost all connotations for her. She continued along the path the Force laid out in front of her, being concerned neither with what was behind her nor with any anticipation of what was to come. She simply followed…
…and suddenly, there it was.
She reared back at the suddenness of its appearance. Her mind was so startled in fact that she immediately fell out of her mediation and her body literally jumped.
For one brief instant though had basked in what she found inside her. It was warm, white, and pure. Its sudden appearance had overwhelmed her mind's senses after she had progressed for so long in virtual darkness, only the faint path of the Force for a guide.
"You found it, didn't you," said Harry from behind her.
Aayla was about to respond when a wave of nausea rolled over her. Her stomach contorted and she almost lost her lunch right then and there. A brief flash of the Force occurred which she was barely cognizant of. There was a clunk upon the ground in front of her and when she barely opened her eyes, she saw a bucket placed in front of her.
"Breath, just breath in and out," said his calm voice. "You were in there for nearly three hours."
She felt one of his hands rubbing her back while he sat alongside facing her. The twisting, uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, chest and throat would not leave her, and she gave an appreciative smile as she felt him lightly hold her lekku behind her in case she threw up.
"Normally the Human's friend pulls the other Human's hair back as they throw up. I figured you wouldn't want Tchin and Tchun here sullied by the remains of my bland Earth food," he told her with clear amusement in his voice as he joked about how she had earlier described his sandwiches.
A conjured glass of cool water was placed in her hand, and she slowly sipped at it. It definitely calmed her stomachs as they thrashed around. The exhaustion she felt initially overwhelmed her, but it slowly improved to an almost tolerable state as she calmed down.
"You're magically exhausted. It'll take a bit to build your reserves back up again. You definitely took your time reaching your core, but you got there in the end. Eventually, you'll be able to find and then call upon it near instantaneously. That will take some practice though."
She nodded and tried her hardest to pay attention to what he said despite the way her head wanted to spin. Hopefully what he said was true, because she couldn't imagine that nauseous state as a requirement every time she found the Force within herself it in the future.
She suddenly felt something lift up her hand and place an object within it. Her eyes opened once again and saw a glass vial of grayish, dirty water.
"Drink this," Harry said. "This will probably be the only time you ever get one of these. It's called Pepper-Up. You take it when you're exhausted to get a short term boost for your magic. However, in about six hours you're going to crash rather magnificently, which fortunately will place us right about at the time we'll be heading to bed anyways."
Taking the small vial in hand, she downed it without question. Only afterwards did she realize her action meant that she subconsciously trusted Harry implicitly. She was about to look up and smile at him when she suddenly felt a rush of energy and steam erupted from around her ears.
Her eyes widened in shock and asked, "Did that really just happen?"
After a bark of laughter Harry said, "You bet it did. Wizard stuff has all sorts of ridiculous side-effects like that. We even have a drink that makes you belch fire. So, yes, you really did just have steam coming out of your ears. You kind of just get used to the insanity of it to be honest."
She watched as Harry stood up, and offered her a hand to help her stand on her shaky legs. "We should get a snack if you can handle it, and then head out again. I want to get some materials for wands while we have some downtime. Then we can come back. We can have some dinner, I'll get your memories so I can learn Ryl tonight, and you'll go straight to bed. Sound good?"
She nodded, too frazzled to put up an argument against his plan. To be honest, she felt a bit jealous, but knew in the back of her mind she should not be. Harry had learned things on the fly faster than anyone she had ever seen earlier that day, and even was able to race her back and put up some serious competition. But the moment she attempted one of his lessons, she nearly exhausted herself.
And like usual, he immediately seemed to pick up the problem behind her thoughts. "You're doing great. What you just did in two practice sessions usually takes weeks or months for some wizards. It took me about three weeks of pushing myself nearly to the point of going comatose to initially learn how to do that properly when I was eighteen. You've got a lot of power and natural aptitude for what I can teach you. All you need to do is be patient and take things one lesson at a time."
She nodded, and mumbled "Thanks" to him.
It was a lot to take in. She could barely imagine or believe that a whole branch of Force studies that had hitherto been undiscovered and untapped by the Jedi Order was being taught to her and her alone.
"Of course," drawled Harry loudly, and she could just feel him shift into his usual form of sarcastic banter. "I plan on finishing all you can teach me by the end of the week."
"Is that so?" she asked with a quick of an eye, while she simultaneously pulled out her lightsaber and ignited it. The usual low sub-audible thrum of its blade upon the air quickly filled the space of the tent to a volume that overwhelmed their ears. "You feel you'll best me in a lightsaber spar that quickly?"
Her reward was the speed his face paled and the concurrent manner that his eyes widened as his head shook like a small child's in denial of her words.
"Now, let's not be too hasty," he said while he slowly backed away. "I obviously wasn't referring to learning your style of sword fighting. I know that will take a few years."
"Are you sure?" she said while she got another idea. She summoned the second lightsaber strapped inside the hidden pocket of her right leg and ignited it as well. She crouched down low in one of the opening stances stance of the dual-lightsaber form of Jar'Kai.
She almost laughed and ruined the effect when she saw his eyes widen even further and a wand suddenly appear in his hand. With the knowledge she had thoroughly won this round, she shut down her lightsabers, walked over, and pat him on the shoulders. "Just for that comment, you're cooking every meal until we leave this miserable little planet," she said cheerfully.
The outward groan she heard was all the reward she could possibly want.
-o0o0o-
"So what exactly are we looking for?" he heard Aayla ask from a few feet behind him.
"Almost anything to be honest," Harry responded calmly while he looked over a particularly large flower tree.
"Wands are a magical focus made from wood from trees, with a core of something from a magical animal. Normally cores would be anything from tail hairs from mammals, feathers from birds like my animagus form, or the heart strings of massive powerful magical predators."
A particular group of trees caught his eye and he stopped in front of them.
"I'd like to cut one or two of these trees down, and store the wood in one of my trunks. We'll get some samples of other plant life here as well. Especially the seeds in case we decide to grow these plants ourselves wherever we end up."
He stopped as the words left his mouth. That particular thought had plagued him a bit at the back of his mind, and now seemed as good an opportunity as any. "When we do get off this planet, where will we go?"
Aayla looked him initially, then let her eyes wander past to the horizon. "I've been trying to think of possible places to go. The problem is… we don't have any information right now. And I really would like to avoid opening a Republic Military datapad right now on a planet that's supposed to be abandoned."
"My first inclination would be to head to Alderaan. Their Senator, Bail Organa, has always been a good ally of the Jedi. He's married to their planet's Queen, and is a very influential member of society, both within his sector and throughout the galaxy. He may be able to find a place to shelter us on his world, or know of a place where we could hide elsewhere. I've worked with him a few times. Even if Alderaan has publicly taken a stance to save itself politically, Bail will more than likely provide quiet help us if he can as long as we're discrete."
"Ok, that's Plan 1. What's Plan 2?" said Harry. She saw her look at him quizzically, so he elaborated. "What do we do if we show up at Alderaan and there's a bajillion clones already there? Where do we go instead? We need multiple things to fall back on, because like you said, we have no idea what's going on out there. Plus one of these Plan 2's may be better than Plan 1."
Nodding, he could tell she started to think out loud as she pulled feathers from the large avian they had just killed, "Well, we both know Huttese, and with that I think we could disappear into any of the criminal worlds or societies to hide quiet easily for a while. You might need to learn a few secondary skills like star drive operation or repair, but that's easily manageable. We could probably hire ourselves out as mercenaries or bounty hunters easily enough as well. Or… I could pose as your slave if we got really desperate. I'd would need to teach you all the normal protocols and behaviors regarding slave ownership before we attempt that."
"Those aren't a bad group of ideas," he said neutrally. He wanted to explore her first idea further and wanted nothing to do with the last. An education on slave ownership was not something he wanted to touch with a ten-foot pole. "Are there any other allies of the Jedi or enemies of the Chancellor from this Senate you mentioned that we could possibly go through?"
"The largest faction against the Chancellor within the Senate was led by a Chandrillan Senator named Mon Mothma. She had the distinction also of being the youngest Senator ever elected to the Galactic Senate, so she is rather well known. There are over two thousand sector representatives in the Senate, so to be well-known by itself means she wields a considerable amount of influence in the Galaxy."
"Anyone else we could approach?"
"Corellia is a core world system that has been openly opposed to the Clone War and the Chancellor since the War started. Their Senator, another human named Garm Bel Iblis, is a hero to their people, and has defied the Chancellor on numerous occasions. Corellians are famous for having some of the best technology and weapons development due to the number of spacers and smugglers that originate in the system. Smugglers often come up with just as many technological developments to star drives, ship hulls, and weapon systems as the massive intergalactic shipyards and development corporations do. And… almost all of the designers from both sides come from Corellia."
"So any of the places and people you've just mentioned would be good options for us," Harry said, a bit happier to have a bare bones idea of what to do once they were off-world.
"Great, that gives us three solid potential allies to approach as options. It gives us a few vague ideas of where we could hide and wait things out for a while as well. And don't forget the final option you have not mentioned, as distasteful as it may sound. We may ultimately need to just find somewhere remote and hide semi-permanently. Sounds cowardly, but we do no one any good if we get caught and killed. Regardless of what we do, we need to keep a low profile so this last option always remains viable. If someone discovers you're alive and goes public with it, it could lead us to a lot of problems."
He saw her screw her nose up; her dislike of that last suggestion immediately apparent. But she also didn't object out loud to it, which meant the wisdom of such a last ditch option was understood.
"Just remember they're all just options and ideas, Aayla. Nothing is decided now. It's good to just throw everything on the table now, even the stuff that we aren't likely to go with."
Harry returned to the tree flower now that the bird had been rendered and asked Aayla to cut it down with her lightsaber. She quickly and skillfully chopped the trunk into two foot sections. He began explaining the little bit of wand lore and craft knowledge he knew. They couldn't use direct Magic of any kind on any of the pieces they collected. All of these components could never have magic channeled through them until they were encased and sealed in the finished product. To do so beforehand would taint the components with their own magic and they would be less compatible to anyone else who wanted to use them.
They rigged a fairly complicated system that utilized two specific marked pieces of cut flower trunk to pick up and move all the other pieces into the trunk and stack them. They cut down four flower trees and processed the components in the same manner. Harry described how it was also important to try different aged components, so they cut down an older, taller flower tree to go along with the relatively short one they had cut down first.
They also processed other components, that sometime in the far future, they could experiment with for their use in potions. For every plant they saw, Harry took samples and made sure everything was properly labeled. Aayla assured him that each species was well-documented on datapads back in the tent already, so there would be no need to take pictures for the documentation he wanted. When seeds were found, they were placed immediately under stasis, stored and labeled as well.
The most interesting experience was when Harry deliberately coaxed a few plants called Yerdura Poison-Spitters to safely unload a very large amount of poison into crystal tankards. All were later cut down and rendered into component parts and stored as well. The various things that Harry tended to want to grab from plants were far from what Aayla had expected him to grab, such as roots and magically created dew on the leaves of plants. Aayla did manage to convince him not to activate a massive Spore Plant after she reiterated she had seen them take down an entire clone company that had stupidly gotten too close to them.
Then they turned exclusively to the wildlife. He explained that, while he had heard of instances of non-animal components used in wand cores, it didn't seem to occur often. Magical animals almost always had very specific components that could be used to channel magic though. And besides, it would give them additional food supplies they could store back in the tent.
They eventually rendered down at least one of every animal they found. Avian species such as rippers and manta rays were easy to pull down out of the sky with summoning charms. He noticed Aayla was distinctly less pleased to see the half-slug and half-bug like gelagrubs serve as a target for his collection. She had said they served as transportation and were completely harmless creatures.
Harry sensed the collection of live animal components had begun to annoy Aayla, so he gave in to her not-too-subtle hints that they had collected enough for the day. They were packing up and making sure nothing would go to waste at the site of their last kill, when Harry and Aayla both stilled.
The Force suddenly screamed danger at both of them. They looked at each other and then began to search around frantically, through neither saw anything on approach. They quickly continued to pack their belongings into the trunk and neatness no longer slowed their efforts.
Then came the roar.
"What the hell was that?" asked Harry, eyes wide and as he searched the sky. The roar had been so similar to a dragon's that the direction he looked was purely instinctual. He thoroughly expected to see a a winged serpent swoop down upon them.
"Sounds like a rancor. Whatever moron imported Acklays to the planet is believed to have brought them as well," said Aayla, who hadn't looked up, but merely hurried her pace as she gathered the tools spread across the ground.
"I take it they're not friendly creatures?" asked Harry as the two grabbed the last two cutting tools upon the ground and sealed his trunk.
"No, very few can be domesticated. Normally they're mindless killing machines. They can grow up to ten meters tall and could swallow both of us in one bite," Aayla said as he summoned the now sealed trunk back into his wand holster.
"So I take it we should-" Harry's thoughts of an abrupt departure were interrupted as two flower trees were knocked over and a rancor appeared on the far edge of the clearing they stood in.
It was easily ten meters tall. Brown, ugly, and with arms that seemed twice as long as they should have been in comparison to the body they were attached. All of its fangs protruded outwards from its mouth, giving it the impression of being somehow related to a Venus Fly Trap from Earth crossed with a lumpy potato.
Harry doubted the thing had ever even pondered eating a plant in its life. It was pure predator, and right now, it stared at Aayla and Harry from fifty meters away as if they were its next meal. A quick glance at it with Mage-Sight revealed that while not overly powerful, there definitely was a fair amount of magic that flowed through the oversized creature.
"Shall we take it down, or do we retreat back to the tent?" asked Harry as he grabbed her hand in case they needed to quickly apparate away. He wasn't scared at all of the thing. After he once faced down a Demon Destroyer that was two hundred meters tall during the war with only a handful of folks as backup, it tended to make him unafraid of smaller animals such as this.
"I don't think we should take it on. They've killed Jedi in the past on other worlds when enraged. They can be very hard to kill. Their hides are resistant to most forms of blaster fire. I could use my lightsaber on it, but it would require getting very close, which I would rather avoid," said Aayla quickly. She didn't show outward signs of fear, but she clearly desired to be anywhere else but that clearing at the moment.
"Give me a minute with the thing. Use your portkey back to the tent if you need to. I won't put myself in too much danger," said Harry.
He didn't wait for an acknowledgment. Harry pulled out a wand and cast a Bombarda at the ground in front of him. The explosion of mud and debris that was thrown into the air instantly transfigured into a huge flock of crows which flew straight into the face of the rancor. The beast no longer even looked at Harry and Aayla and was completely focused and roared at the swarm of birds that pecked at its face. The creature's somewhat slow moving oversized arms served no help at all as it attempted to brush away the birds that simply flew around its hands.
Another Bombarda to another side produced more debris, which quickly became a pride of lions. The pack charged the rancor as well and leapt upon its legs; bites and claws close behind. The transfigured cats inflicted no real damage to the rancor, but merely caused it irritation like the birds. The mouth of the rancor was now constantly open in an almost non-stop roar of rage which had begun to hurt Harry's ears.
Which was the point of the entire exercise.
The whole process was a text-book execution of an attack chain that he had developed for taking down mid-sized to moderately large demons. It was patterned after the complete stroke of luck he had as a twelve year old in the Chamber of Secrets under Hogwarts.
Just like the basilisk, he couldn't really count on any magical attack that could penetrate through the hide of the rancor that wasn't a full-fledged siege spell. He could use the spell to end the fight quickly, but that wouldn't leave anything salvageable of the body when done. What he needed to do was attack the one true weak point of a heavily armored animal. It was the same weak point that also screamed in rage at the irritants that swarmed around it.
Two overpowered cutting curses brought down a nearby flower tree. Some decently powerful transfiguration had the trunk changed from the wood-like material it originally was into a metal spike that was three meters long. 'Hello first year transfiguration… Match stick into a needle.'
As the make-shift spear rose slowly into the air with a levitation charm, Harry let off one high-powered noise burst from his wand, very similar decibel-wise to a stick of dynamite going off. It got the rancor's attention and it responded just as Harry hoped it would with another roar that held both defiance and challenge.
The last sound it would ever make.
In under a second, the spear traversed the clearing and flew up at a forty-five degree angle into the rancor's mouth and abruptly came out the back of its head. The beast stood there, stunned at what had happened for one full second, before its legs gave way and it crashed into the ground. The transfigured lions and crows were gone with two more waves of his wand, which left the area eerily quiet as all the local wildlife had long since fled the noise of the enraged predator.
-o0o0o-
Aayla had stood through the entire 'battle' and watched with her mouth half-open. She was vaguely uncomfortable with attacking the beast, as it had not yet attacked them yet and they had the means to flee. However, she definitely understood the rancor would attack within moments unless they fled the area.
She had previously seen Harry do transfiguration as he demonstrated his skills in the tent. At that point, he had changed small inanimate objects into small cute and cuddly animals he called Chihuahuas. What he had just done against the rancor was nothing like those small-scale whims of fancy. It was dangerous, lethal, and planned. She could tell each spell and attack he made upon the rancor lead towards something.
When the spear pierced the soft palette of its mouth, Aayla could easily admit she was impressed with the execution of the attack. At no point was Harry or she in any danger. Her own abilities would have been hard pressed to take down the beast herself without risk to life and limb in the process.
"So… you're going to take care of this guy by yourself, right?" she said after a few moments silence. Her voice deliberately contained the barely hidden message that she did not desire in any way shape or form to participate in the rendering of a beast of this size.
Harry chuckled at her antics, "No, you don't have to help with this one if you don't want to. I'm mainly concerned with getting its blood, its heart and liver, a few of its bones and teeth, and maybe a sample of its hide if it's as resistant to blaster fire as you say it is. I know of some spells to make dragon's hide somewhat flexible for armor, and I'm curious if I can apply it here as well. Maybe I can make us some full suits of armor to wear."
"Thanks, I'm really not at all interested in cutting that thing open or being around its corpse for any length of time," she responded.
"Could I borrow your spare lightsaber then? You can portkey back to the cave, shower and rest. I think I can speed this along fairly well since I'm not interested in the whole beast. Is the meat edible at all from it?"
"No its not," she said while she tossed him the spare weapon. "It's mildly poisonous in fact. I'm not aware of it having any real uses."
"Alright then, I'll save a bit just to have it on hand in case we can use it for potions. Poisonous things can be useful for a lot of curative draughts. Go ahead and portkey back. I'll follow in a little while. I'll apparate back the moment I think I'm in any danger out here."
"You better. I've put too much work already into teaching you to be civilized to lose you now," Aayla smirked while she reached for the second necklace she now wore that was her portkey back to the tent. She saw Harry about to say something in response so she said, "Activate" and found herself spinning and suddenly in front of the tent.
'He's too easy to wind up,' thought Aayla.
She walked inside and immediately went to the bedroom. She casually flung her filthy clothes into a pile in the corner with the rest of the laundry. Aayla pondered the pile for a few moments, 'I guess I could take care of those later since he's been doing all the cooking.' She walked into the bathroom, and decided it was time for her to test out the bath.
After she filled and slipped inside the tub, she thought it was truly a gift from the Force. The very hot water was just what she needed after the past few stressful weeks. The poisoning of this planet represented such a huge political nightmare that resources had been scrambled almost overnight to attempt to stop it. She felt like she had been running non-stop since her orders went out to come to this world. Then the galaxy found itself turned on its head and her destiny intersected with a wizard who used magic to save her life.
She reviewed the past few days with Harry and his outlook on things for what must have been the tenth time. He never stopped at the obvious. He always pushed just a few more times and made their ideas a bit more solid. Whether it was acquisition of a bit more food and supplies that they probably didn't need when they raided the clone base, the impromptu way they planned their alternative travel options once off the planet, or the slow methodical way he shot down every argument she had against the need to use blasters because they would give away her status of being a Jedi. All of these details, which he quickly thought of right away, were things she likely would've thought of long after the fact.
She allowed her body to fall a little deeper into the water of the bath and tipped her head back so just her face was above the surface of the water. The rancor fight weighed heavily upon her mind. She remembered the complete lack of fear she felt from Harry as he held her hand while he took down a full grown bull rancor from a distance of fifty meters with one hand. The power she felt from him was unreal, but he didn't truly use any of it. The only time she felt him use any significant amount of what she felt he was truly capable of is when he exploded the dirt on the ground and transfigured the tree trunk, neither of which were direct attacks on the rancor itself.
An hour later, she was completely unaware to the passage of time as she soaked in the tub. She was so focused upon coming to grips with the idea that so many of her fellows could be dead, when a noise from the other room could be heard as it echoed under the water. She lifted her head slightly up to see the door partially open, "Aayla, are you in here?"
"I'm in the bath, Harry. Do you need me for something?"
"Nope, was just checking to see where you were and that I didn't blunder in if you were already here. I'll take my shower when you're done."
"Oh no, there won't be any of that nonsense. Get your butt in here right now," she said without any hesitation. The idea that she would be worried about him seeing her nude seemed a bit laughable after she knew that he had healed her entire back from such devastating injuries.
Harry appeared at the door to the bathroom, took one look and instantly turned away as he blushed furiously.
"You go take your shower, it's not like I can see you around the corner anyways when you're in there. Then hop on in here and enjoy the bath with me while it's still warm," she told him in her best impression of how Master Tholme would scold and order her around as a Padawan. The fact that she enjoyed making such a seriously powerful individual blush like a hormonal teenager was definitely fun as well.
She closed her eyes and relaxed again. Five minutes later, she felt a disturbance in the air, opened her eyes, and caught just a glimpse of all Harry's well-toned naked body as he slipped into the bath across from her. She felt a flash of the Force and the water temperature instantly returned to the very warm temperature it had been at the start of her bath.
"That's a handy trick. I can't wait to learn how you do some of these things," Aayla commented to him as she saw him relax under the water in an imitation of her.
"It's mainly about intent and the visualization of the end result you want," he said. "Well… that's oversimplifying it greatly, but those two things are the most important concepts for any Mage to know."
Her butt had begun to fall asleep at the odd angle she relaxed in the water at, so she shifted a bit. She felt her thigh brush against his under the water, which instantly opened up his emotions to her. He was definitely tired and worn out. The distant ache of sadness she felt him occasionally fall into was there, but now it was overshadowed by confusion over something. She wondered what bothered her wizard savior.
"Can you tell me what your training was like," Harry suddenly asked. "I understand the endurance running where you use Magic to enhance your abilities, but what else is there? I've seen you do some levitation stuff, and I'm sure your lightsaber fighting is influenced by this precognitive seer thing that we all seem to have, but what else?"
She had to think about it for a bit. Of course there was more to the life Jedi than interaction with the Force. "There's a lot we do and are required to learn. Quite a bit is mental discipline. Outside of that, there are two branches of Jedi. Guardians and Consulars. I'm a Guardian. We're the warriors, weapon masters, and tacticians. Consulars are often diplomats, healers, philosophers, and researchers. But that's not to say they aren't excellent warriors as well. They just focus their efforts and free time upon the fields of their choice. There's also a lot of education about the politics of certain key cultures around the galaxy. Treaty negotiation and understanding how various economic blocks and associations interact is also a large part."
"What about your interactions with Mag-, err 'the Force'?" asked Harry. She had to smile at his attempt to use her terminology.
"Why are you asking?" she was curious about his line of thought, and figured she would be able to help if she knew why his thought process had led to the confusion that he felt.
"I'm curious about what things you can do that I've never put thought towards. Then I thought I would try and identify all the subjects from my planet Wizards learn about and take for granted, which the Jedi never seem to have delved into or researched."
"Like… I've seen you summon things, banish things, levitate things. The ability to see the future and past is called Divination in my world. It's actually quite rare. It's the same sort of thing that relates to prophecies and stuff like that. I've never had any dispensation towards it whatsoever. Which is why I've been so uncomfortable with this whole 'trust the Force' thing. I'm not used to having something influence my mind at all. And to be truthful, prophecies have brought nothing but pain to my life."
Aayla had to think. Everything he had listed were basic Force powers that all Padawan's were taught and honed. What else was there?
"Well, you've learned how to Force Jump pretty easily. We have something called Force Sight. It's very advanced and allows you to see through walls and such. I cannot do it, and most Jedi who learn it do so out of necessity as many of them have been blinded. There's Force Cloak, which doesn't make you invisible, but it makes people not see you in public places. Master Vos taught me how to use it."
"It sounds like a Notice-Me-Not charm. There are two versions of it, one for non-magicals and one for wizards. Can you do both? Or are they one and the same for you?" asked Harry. He seemed genuinely excited about her answer. She could tell he hoped there was an overlap to their abilities. Something to make sure he wasn't entirely unique in the universe.
Aayla had to think about the ability and all the times she had ever used it. She could not ever remember another Jedi fooled by its use, even her Master when he instructed her. In fact, she specifically remembered that she once stood and conversed with Master Vos against shadowy walls in the slums of Nar Shadda while its denizens passed by completely unaware of their presence.
"I don't think it works on other Jedi. I've had whole conversations with my Master when both of us were under the Cloak. We could always see each other."
"You can sense when I cast spells right?" Harry asked her, and she nodded. "Does your cloak feel like this?"
With that statement, a wash of Force emanated from Harry and affected the bathtub. It felt exactly like Force Cloaking, but much more powerful. "Yes, that's exactly how it feels," nodded Aayla in excitement. "What about the other-"
But before she could finish asking her question, another slightly different wash of Force permeated the room, and she lost all sight of Harry. "Oh that one has potential," Aayla said aloud. "This could really help us against the Sith if you could teach it to others."
"Why would I want to do that?" said a voice suddenly in her left ear as she felt nimble fingers lightly dig into her lower left side ribs. She shrieked with uncontrolled laughter as he invisibly tickled her. Finally she felt a burst of Force that felt like it cleansed the area, and Harry suddenly appeared next to her as he chuckled merrily.
"That wasn't funny," she said after she splashed him.
"Oh and that's why the smile is still on your face?" replied the very self-satisfied wizard.
"I'll get you," she said in defeat, "Just you wait and see."
"Did I win this exchange?" Harry said with a bright smile on his face as he settled in next to her and lowered himself down into the water once again. "I believe I did in fact just triumph over evil."
"Evil?" she asked with a mischievous smirk while she allowed herself to sink down a bit as well, but rested her head on his shoulder. She felt the familiar flood of emotions as their shoulders touched. He was happy, happier than she had felt him before.
"Nothing," Harry said quickly as he backtracked from his words.
"Oh no, you're going to dig yourself out of the hole you just dug, Potter."
"Oi! So I'm Potter now, Secura?" he asked, but there was definitely no heat in his voice.
She could sense amusement with the situation rising, but there was something else there too. It was directed towards her, but it was definitely buried deep. What could it be?
"You alright?" he asked. She glanced at him, the smile on his face had nearly faded and he had an eyebrow quirked in concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired," she responded evasively as she tried to deflect his interest away from her thoughts on his emotions.
"Well, it's starting to get a bit late. We should probably get your healing session done for the night before you crash from the Pepper-Up. If I could get your language memories of Ryl before you go to sleep that would be awesome too." Harry sat up and moved away from her, which once again cut off the contact she had with him that relayed his emotions to her.
"Ok," she wanted to get up, but found she had not moved. It really disturbed her how much she missed the ability to sense other's emotions. Harry didn't lust after her like all the beings she often encountered while on undercover missions, or her own clone troopers did when they thought they were discrete as they covertly undressed her with their eyes while under their fully body armor. Harry didn't overtly do any of those things and she really liked that, but she missed that sense of companionship she would lose whenever their skin contact ended.
'Was that what he was feeling towards me as well?' thought Aayla. Suddenly she felt the need the leave. Emotions like this were frowned upon by the Jedi because of where they could lead. She stood up suddenly and got out of the tub, completely oblivious to her nudity and got a towel from the linen closet next to the tub. She turned back to Harry to speak to him, only to see he had averted his eyes away from her.
"Oops," said Aayla in embarrassment.
"You really know how to pull out the big guns whenever you want to win a verbal exchange don't you?" She saw him pale suddenly and go completely red with a blush, "Er, no pun intended."
She had to laugh at his terror at the misinterpretation of his words. "My apologies, I suddenly had a lot on my mind and I forgot my lack of apparel. But… it's nice to know you appreciate my guns." She immediately vacated the room to avoid him seeing her own blush. Her reward however was at least the now familiar groan of frustration from behind her as Harry again was left unable to respond to her as she retreated away.
She dried herself off in the bedroom and lay down upon the bed, fully aware Harry would be out soon to do the nightly healing session on her back. She was greatly looking forward to it. The sense of calm that would wash over her while he channeled subtle tendrils of the Force into her back provided a relaxing experiences unlike any she had ever had.
But when Harry did finally arrive from the bathroom, it was strange. He deliberately avoided all contact with her, and she wondered why he did so. The previous night there were plenty of glances of his hands upon her back as he waved his wand over her back and performed some kind of motion with his other hand.
After forty-five minutes the session was over, and Harry quietly asked for her memories of Ryl. She put on her night robe and quickly stepped to the desk in the corner, where she again followed his instructions and produced the shimmering thread of 'memory' for him after roughly fifteen minutes of effort.
He wished her a good night, disrobed, and lay down in their bed. Aayla watched as he began the now familiar process to absorb her memories of her native language. All the while, his face grimaced in what she now knew as an expression of pain as the strand slowly disappeared into his forehead. As the second strand vanished, Harry's hands again went limp from his abrupt switch to unconsciousness.
She walked over and picked up his wand and the vial he had dropped on the ground, which she placed upon the nearby nightstand. Then, in what would cause her old Master's heads to shake due to her impulsiveness, she picked up the wand. She tried to remember what this particular wand was made of. He had described the wood, core, and history of each of his wands to her, but at this point it all seemed a blur to her.
When she looked at the wand in more detail, she felt a very subtle inner warmth that emanated from the stick. Then, she suddenly realized that this was the equivalent of her lightsaber, and she could do some unintentional harm while she played with it, so she quickly placed it back upon the nightstand.
It had been a long day, and she thought she could begin to feel the beginnings of the 'crash' Harry had warned her about. As she slipped out of her robe and got into bed, she realized Harry was on the near side this time, with the largest gap now on the far side against the wall. As she crawled over him to reach the other side, she felt the full skin to skin contact of her chest against his, and knew that her own feelings had begun to approach dangerous waters in regards to her new friend.
The Jedi rejected all attachment, and did not allow for romantic relationships. But it had been that way for only the last thousand years, and she had began to wonder again just why that was so. The old doubts that had plagued her just a few short years ago with Master Fisto had returned.
She immediately slammed back the thoughts with the one Truth that had ruled her life for almost thirty years: the Jedi Code forbid it. That simple fact had been drilled into each and every Padawan. But were there any Jedi anymore to even follow the Code? She hoped there were, but she could take nothing for granted after the events of three days previous. She saw great wisdom in Harry's inclination to prepare for all situations, and a life where she was one of the last of an Order that numbered almost ten thousand strong just three years ago created a dull ache in her heart.
While she still straddled her companion, she reached behind Harry's neck, she hugged the unconscious male to herself as tightly as she could. After a few moments, she released him and raised herself up. Her Lekku fell forward from behind her shoulders and dangled below her, where the tips just barely skimmed the surface of his chest. She reached forward and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead, then turned over and attempted to rest while at his side.
Sleep would take a long time to arrive with her conflicted thoughts, and the only thing that finally plunged her mind into embrace of Morpheus was the final cessation of the effects of the potion she took that afternoon.
-o0o0o-
Their faces were gaunt. Their glares filled with unspoken accusations.
"Why didn't you save me?" the bloodied green tattooed face of Barriss Offee said as it stared at her through lifeless eyes. "You didn't even attempt to convince him to try. You could have come back a second time to get me."
"You were always a failure. Reckless and emotional. I should have left you on that planet to become a plaything to the Hutts," spoke the half-charred face of Master Vos. His dreadlocks were aflame on one side, and the stink of burned flesh made her stomach roll.
The faces and shouts rose in cadence, and she hardly knew where to look next. Every new direction she looked caused her to face the dead eyes of another friend and comrade as they stared back at her.
"Why did we trust you?" a naked woman in the darkness moaned. Upon closer inspection by Aayla it was revealed to be Master Shaak Ti. "You led us to ruin with your warning. All in the Temple were raped and left for dead because of you."
Aayla stumbled away from the pointed and gnarled red finger of her close friend, but her retreat halted when she bumped up against someone behind her. The pale green skin of her friend and one-time almost romantic interest Master Kit Fisto stood there. His formerly smooth skin was now cracked with dryness, as if he had been exposed to the elements and was began to dry into a mummified husk.
"You tried to save them, but you couldn't save me? You didn't even try. You managed to replace me already with someone else, haven't you? Betrayer."
She couldn't understand why they did this. She backed away, no clue where to turn or run to next, afraid of who else would possibly show up. She wanted to help all of them, she felt her throat tighten and then constrict fully as a small creature clawed its way forward from the distant darkness through the mud that was suddenly around her ankles.
"Never a Jedi, should you have been," the hoarse voice of Grand Master Yoda spoke to her. "Too old you were to have begun. Weakness killed that which twenty-five thousand years has stood for." She saw Master Yoda's hand constrict and twist, and she knew for certain her neck was about to be snapped for her failure to save the Order.
But she suddenly fell to the ground and stood up. She was within one of the flower tree forests of Felucia. There was something in the distance she had to find. It called and beckoned to her. When she arrived though, there was nothing there. Confusion set in, and she began to look around, only to find all 144 clone troopers of the 327th behind her. They pointed their guns silently, their rifles ready to fire.
She saw her friend Bly place his helmet on, and never before in her life did she feel such fear as she did now as she looked at his yellow Commander's armor. The full realization of what the Grand Clone Army of the Republic truly was. They were faceless killing machines meant to inspire terror. Shock Troops. Stormtroopers. The Jedi were simply there for propaganda to help ingratiate them to the populace. She watched, frozen in place as he lowered his arm and signaled permission to the Clones to open fire. Her entire world was enveloped in bright bluish-white light.
"No!" Aayla screamed as she woke from the nightmare, the thin sheet upon her soaked through with sweat. She sat up in the bed and pulled her knees close to her chest. Her hands trembled from the nightmare she had just experienced.
She looked at her bedmate, afraid she might've woke him up with her scream. He no longer seemed to be in the throes of memory absorption and seemed to sleep for once. She pondered waking him and telling him of her nightmare, but decided against it. He was just as tired as her, and he didn't need the added burden of what she supposed was her guilty conscious at her failure to save more of her brethren.
She leaned back, turned on her side, and resumed usual position snuggled into Harry's neck. She breathed in his unique scent, which had grown stronger in the past few hours as it overpowered the soft smell of the soap he had used in the shower. Her own sweat soaked back shivered while exposed to the air, so she reached down and pulled the blankets up, which enveloped both in the warmth of their shared body heat.
Her efforts to avoid thoughts about the nightmare were futile, and she soon felt the moisture run down her cheeks and nose, which quickly became quiet sobs. Could she have done more? Was there any other way more could have been saved? Had they truly exhausted all of their options? How could she have forgotten Barriss after everything else they had done?
Doubt crept into her soul. She knew her lessons back and forth; knew she should not give into it. However, knowing and doing seemed places so far removed from each other at that moment that she could not comprehend how to reconcile them. Slowly, she felt herself give into her despair.
Her sobs must have woken Harry up, as she soon felt strong arms envelop her. A huge burst of protective emotion surged from his body as she felt him realize what happened, and she knew that at least this man didn't blame her for any of the events that had transpired.
"It's ok," she heard him whisper into the conical ear that was an inch from his mouth. "No one is going to hurt you."
"It's all my fault," she inadvertently blurted out. She knew it made no sense whatsoever, but she couldn't help speak what her subconscious mind had betrayed her into admitting out loud in her exhaustion and anguish. "They're all dead because of me."
"Aayla," she felt his sigh as he stopped the way he had slowly rubbed her back and instead squeezed her into a tight hug. "None of this is your fault. You were able to get a warning out, which is more than anyone else was able to. You've done more than any of your comrades to help."
"But-" she began
"But nothing," he quickly interrupted her. "Do you trust me?"
She barely whispered a reply that was more air than sound, "With my life."
She felt his momentarily burst of shock at her admission, which instantly was squashed down in the same way he always seemed to control his emotions. He moved his arm around, and maneuvered it so he could slowly lift her face up with both hands. She watched as he stared into her eyes with those startlingly green orbs. Neither said anything for a few moments.
Finally he spoke, "Then trust me with this. You are one of the strongest people I've ever met. I would be honored to fight alongside you. I am grateful for the selfless help you've given me when I would otherwise be completely alone in this universe." A slow smirk graced one side of his face as a lip curled upwards, "I am infinitely amused by your ability to get under my skin, irritate me to no end, and then con me into cooking you meals afterwards."
Aayla couldn't help but snort at the statement, and felt a small smile begin to tug at the corners of her mouth. He wiped her tears away from her eyes and cheeks with his thumbs and then leaned in close.
"And I hope to be able to gain the privilege of calling you a life-long friend, Aaylas'ecura," he spoke the last in her native language of Ryl. She felt her forehead rise briefly in shock before she allowed a full blown smile to erupt on her face.
She felt fresh tears fall, and slowly nodded. He pulled her into another embrace that pulled her almost completely on top of his body. She did not care what others would say at the act. All she did was bask in the protective emotions of that poured from him, and knew she would indeed cherish this friendship to the end of her days.