Summary:
Harry Potter / Star Wars-over. While leading the final charge against a retreating Dark Lord, Harry is thrown through a destabilized Demon Portal, landing on a strange world in a galaxy far 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
*update* 2013-06-09 – minor grammar corrections that were brought to my attention by 'Captain Shoulah' and 'Oh I am Slain'. No change in content.
Chapter First Published: 2013-05-30
Chapter Last Update: 2013-06-09
Chapter 6 – Unexpected Arrivals
In each of the next two nights, Aayla was again woken up by nightmares. Each time ended with her crying to sleep in his arms. The following morning, nothing would be spoken of the previous night's events, but Harry had quickly concluded things could not continue as they were.
After that morning's run, Harry decided to confront Aayla about her dreams before she ran off and hid in the shower like she had the past few days.
"We need to talk," he said after he finally got her to sit at the tent's kitchen table.
Aayla didn't acknowledge his statement outwardly other than letting an emotionless façade drop over her face. She merely sat there and stared at the table.
Harry had a vague idea of what he wanted to ask, as well as some suspicions as to what was in Aayla's past, but he could not just blurt those out. Aayla reactions to certain things seemed too similar to things from his own past. He felt the need to lead her to the same conclusion he had reached, so he asked a question he knew she would not expect.
"You said earlier, when this Clone War started, that you were part of some battle that almost every Jedi involved died, right?"
She looked at him strangely, as if she couldn't believe he had remembered that particular bit of information and nodded. But then her eyes visibly dimmed and her gaze returned to the table as her memories surfaced of that particular day's battle.
"What happened to the survivors like you afterwards?" he asked tentatively.
"What do you mean by 'what happened to us'?" she asked as she looked up in total confusion as to the purpose of the question.
"What was the first thing your Council or the Republic ordered you all to do after you had just witnessed over almost all of your attack force wiped out and had come a hair's breath away from death yourselves?"
Just by one look at her, Harry could tell what the answer was, but he needed to for Aayla to get there herself. "They ordered us to prepare to be deployed to help fight in the Clone War. I was sent out about a week afterwards to Corellia to intercept a Techno Union designer who had some stolen droid circuitry and prototype designs. Right after that, I had background study for a deep covert op to have me inserted into a criminal space station in order to find any leads about Master Vos because he was missing at the time. That mission was around two or three months I believe."
Harry nodded, getting confirmation of his fears. "So in other words, they had you right back in the fire immediately after witnessing the death of friends and comrades, some of whom I bet you had known for years. Does that sum it up?"
She nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off, "…and I bet after the mission to locate the info on Master Vos, they just kept sending you on more missions without a break, right?"
He watched her nod slowly, and could tell she still could not see what the purpose of his line of questioning was.
"On my planet, it doesn't matter if it's in the military or with law enforcement agencies; if someone or a group of people witness something that's horrific or traumatizing, they're typically put on leave. It'll last a few weeks minimum to allow them to have counseling and for them to come to terms with what they've witnessed. I'm not sure what the Galactic term for it is, nor am I doctor, but you need time to cope with the losses and the events you experienced. The Council never saw fit to provide that for any of you who survived that battle?"
Aayla shook her head and looked quite tired, and it had nothing to do with the run they went on that morning. "No, there's a Jedi belief and mantra that is quite appropriate to what you're referring to. Death is a natural part of life. We should rejoice for those who have transformed into the Force. We shouldn't mourn or miss them. Doing so creates attachment, which can lead to jealousy, which is the shadow of greed. To counter this, we train ourselves to let go of everything we fear to lose."
Harry felt absolutely horrified at the short-sightedness of the Jedi, and he was sure his face showed it. "They instructed you all to feel nothing for anyone? To forget about them and act like they never existed? Aayla, I'll say it again: You aren't a machine. Everyone has emotions and forms attachments to others. You can't just squash the feelings down and pretend they aren't there if something bad happens."
"Aayla you have to talk about what you've gone through. About what happened in the war, about what happened a few days ago. It's the only way these nightmares will eventually go away."
He could tell Aayla was in no way convinced of the truth behind his words, so he decided it was time to tell the story of one of the worst sights he had ever witnessed. He took a deep breath, looked her in the eye, and began.
"I had to forcibly put my whole battalion, one of the best on my world, on leave once when an allied group of fighters were completely wiped out due to bad intelligence we had received. We sat there in a concealed position and were forced to watch as a numerically superior force completely obliterated our sister battalion. My people had to sit there in silence as the corpses of their friends and family were desecrated by the enemy right in front of them, knowing full well if they called attention to us, our entire battalion would be killed just the same. Some of my people were angry, some were depressed and despondent. One of my oldest and best friends was the leader of that group that was killed and I had to watch his corpse torn apart by three demons fighting over a meal. Everyone reacts differently to this sort of thing. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, but even a numbskull like me can tell that you're seriously hurting right now."
"Will you talk to me about it?" he pleaded.
Aayla sat there a long time, not saying anything. She even got up once and walked out of the room, only to come back ten minutes later, without a single word exchanged between the two the entire time. Harry knew that it had to be her choice to talk. He had been through enough therapy sessions that some people just could not be talked into helping themselves. Aayla had to make the first step on her own.
Eventually, the silence defeated her, and she slowly started to talk. Harry simply listened as she poured her heart out, and only offered the simplest questions to persuade her to continue. Ten minutes became thirty, which became an hour. Two hours later, she still had demons to purge as Harry kept the conversation afloat with his carefully worded comments. She discussed every loss she had experienced, every moment of fear, and every time she had seen a friend die. She relived the entire war, mission by mission, battle by battle, triumph by triumph, and loss by loss.
It took a lot to convince her afterwards of the need to keep doing this in the future. One time wouldn't help her mind put all this behind her. Harry even promised to go over his life in detail later; to tear open healed wounds just so she wouldn't be the only one who felt exposed. But she would have to continue to sit down and just talk about things for an hour or so minimum every few days until the nightmares stopped.
"And face it Miss Secura, it's not like you can hide the nightmares from me. You usually smack me while in the middle of one."
Afterwards, Harry felt the mood lift considerably between the two. Unfortunately, his thoughts shifted towards a subject he knew likely would not be comfortable for him to discuss with Aayla. He had serious ideological misgivings with how the Jedi ran things. In his opinion, their whole Order was a mess of contradictions and borderline hypocrisies. He would have to wait until later before he tried to tear down the rose-colored glasses he felt Aayla viewed the organization.
It had, after all, been the Order which had saved her from a life of slavery. If there was anything else, he could definitely understand why Aayla personally thought so highly of it.
-o0o0o-
Daily training had continued for the pair, and more tentative plans and ideas were documented for when they managed to get off-world. They both agreed to start work tomorrow on the ships, where they would move all of the hidden assets they had procured to one location the following morning. Whenever she had a free moment, Aayla had made layout designs on a datapad of possible configurations for the new ship. Harry was incredibly impressed both with her imagination and her technical skills. She left purposeful gaps in the hull of the design, as those represented pieces where they couldn't make direct matches with existing parts and their shapes.
Once Harry introduced Aayla to the field of Transfiguration, she began to stress its use heavily in order to modify existing pieces of hull to fill hull design gaps in the ways she wanted. It would take extra time to complete these particular changes, since a Transfiguration was only permanent by applying runes to the finished shape, which would then drain the magic out of the object and set the metal in that shape permanently.
The internal wiring and various systems was something Harry struggled to understand. She also never failed to poke fun of him his near obsession with the Mass Driver they had stolen from the AT-TE. He would just smirk at her when she did so. It was all for an idea he wished to test out. If it failed, it failed. If it worked however, they would have a very good secret weapon that no one would ever see coming.
On that final afternoon before work was to begin, they had decided to work outside. The number of hours to a day was very different to the number upon Felucia. By staying in the tent all day, they lost almost all track of time since it could be day inside according the tents chronometers and night outside.
He had transfigured a large umbrella over them, along with a fan that had then been charmed to blow air without electricity. Then he conjured some ice underneath it to provide a nice cool breeze for the two of them. He could have accomplished all of this easily with some cooling charms, but he admittedly was bored, and just wanted to be different. Aayla was amused simply because it was another practical application of his skills to see.
They had sat there in the humid afternoon air for a while, when he noticed Aayla had periodically glanced at the sky more and more. Eventually the stares occurred often enough that he had to ask, "Is something wrong?"
"I don't know. Nothing," she stopped though at the glare he aimed at her. Sighing, she said, "Just a feeling."
Harry had been completely absorbed in his own rune work so he had not paid much attention to the area around them. He opened his mind and reached out, trying to get a sense if something approached or if this mystical Force would possibly drop him a message about what was going on.
He sucked in a breath however as his mind immediately encountered two other magical beings high above them. One was powerful, probably a bit more so than Aayla. The other Harry would've guessed to be the equivalent to the average teenager almost to the end of Hogwarts.
He stood up abruptly and vanished the umbrella, fan, and ice. He looked pointedly at the sky in the direction he felt the newcomers, but could not see anything yet.
"What?" asked Aayla at his sudden removal of limited creature comforts he had provided them, and looked wildly around herself.
"We have incoming. Two individuals, one a bit more powerful then you, other one feels… younger somehow," he told her quickly.
"I'm going to put everything inside the cave. The question is, do we stay outside? If we go under the Fidelius, no one should be able to sense us. If we stay out here, I bet they come straight for us. Do you want to risk it? More than likely, they've already felt me. I haven't been hiding myself for a few days now."
She didn't say anything for a few moments. Harry felt he had to throw in, "You're the expert around here Aayla. I'll back whatever decision you go with."
She nodded in relief and then without hesitation replied, "We wait for them here."
Harry gave her a tight smile and squeezed her shoulder. "I knew you were decisive under pressure. I'll get this stuff under cover. Be ready to retreat via portkey though just in case."
It took only a few minutes for him to dispose of any external presence they had built up outside the cave. A few waves of Harry's wand and all footprints and indentations they had made had smoothed out as well. It left the local area as if the ground had never been disturbed by their presence.
The duo stood there silently and waited to see whom it was. Harry had pulled his own aura back in, and had asked Aayla for the aura-repressing necklace she wore. If they were about to allow whoever was on approach to sense who was in the camp, he felt it was better to do it via Aayla's aura and have Harry sit there as an unknown.
He disillusioned himself and stood behind her, hands on her shoulders. He didn't know why, but he couldn't help but feel a bit of fear. Aayla had been the only person he had spoken to in the four days since he had arrived here on Felucia. Internally he pondered what they were about to face. They were either Jedi or they were the two Sith. Statistically, they were likely Jedi, as he could not imagine the Sith on Felucia without an entire fleet to bomb them from orbit, especially after Aayla had described the now dead Count Dooku's methods.
"Relax Harry, more than likely these are allies. Trust the Force to get us through this. I don't see the Force bringing you here and then saving me just to have us then die."
"Okay" was all he said.
His mind wandered despite the temporary morale boost from Aayla. He couldn't help but wonder what Aayla would now do if the two on the ship were allies? She was his only friend here. For all intents and purposes, Harry didn't exist in this universe. Aayla could wash her hands of Harry, leave with the two people on the ship, and he would never likely see her again. Harry had lived for almost a third of his life with no friends, and it was still very difficult for him to suppress the basic fear he always carried that a new friend might leave him.
"Harry, I can feel your fear and anxiety building. It'll be fine, please trust me"
The silence stretched. He could feel the ship draw nearer. Soon there was a rumbling in the clouds from far in the distance. The tension built again, and he responded the only way he knew how, with humor, "You know, this is really unfortunate. Now I have to share you with two other people."
She laughed a high music-like laugh. "I think you'll survive. Besides, I still need my pillow to squeeze at night if I have my nightmares."
"Oh, that's all I am to you, huh? Just a thing for you to abuse and give bruises to in your sleep?"
"No," her eyes shining as she looked over her shoulder at him, inches from his face, a bright smile still on her face. "You cook my dinner as well."
He rolled his eyes, but felt just a bit of the tension leave him as well just as a louder roar of engines passed overhead and got both of their attention.
The ship's appearance made it certainly one of the oddest craft he had seen thus far. It was disc-shaped in overall appearance, with what looked like a band of engines in the back. If the thing had lights all the way around it could've passed vaguely for one of the famed 'Roswell' alien spacecraft back on Earth. If he had to describe it in general terms, he would say it was a hamburger with an olive on the side with some goofy teeth poking straight out from the front.
"It's a YT-1300 freighter. The company that manufactures them has slowly refined its design for centuries. This one in particular is one of the most popular ship designs in recent memory. We're likely to see quite a few of them once we get out into the more commercial areas of the galaxy."
"How about the important question, can we trust who is onboard?" asked Harry
She smiled while she looked over her shoulder again at where she knew he stood invisibly. "Yes, it's Master Shaak Ti," and she began to move vaguely over to the now landed ship."
After he breathed a sigh of relief, Harry cancelled his disillusionment and followed. He began to study the surface of the ship more closely now that it was stationary and only a few dozen meters away. He attempted to identify individual parts of the ship, but with his limited knowledge, he could only indistinctly assign names like 'landing gear', 'cockpit', and 'sensor array' to things. He saw two individuals stand up in the windows of the cockpit and leave through a hatch in the rear of the compartment, so he assumed the two Jedi inside were about to disembark the ship.
He received his confirmation almost immediately when a ramp was lowered to the ground from just behind the cockpit. Steam was let off from everywhere under the ship, giving a vaguely mysterious effect which Harry had to laugh at. He looked over at Aayla, who had a half-smile on her face. He stood somewhat away from Aayla, since he figured he should not intrude upon the reunion of friends that was about to take place.
Two figures came down the ramp, and Aayla rushed over and hugged the woman Harry instantly recognized from their earlier holo-communication. "Master Ti!" she exclaimed as she ran, both women embraced each other tightly.
Aayla had explained earlier that Master Shaak Ti was a Togrutan. She had red skin with white patches around her dark ebony eyes. Her body was mostly humanoid, with the exception of large thick horns that grew upwards from both sides of her head, and two Lekku-like tentacles extending down from underneath them onto her chest with two more that extended down her back. Aayla had mentioned they were a warrior people who valued the art of the hunt very highly within their culture.
The second Jedi was obviously still a Padawan. She looked almost completely human, with jet black hair tied in thin braids that wound around her neck like a choker. If her hair had been unbraided, Harry knew the length would easily extend to her knees or lower. Her skin looked almost unnaturally pale, so much that Harry wondered if her people lived underground or were normally nocturnal. There were half a dozen very small red nub-like horns on the top of her head, but her most striking feature to Harry was her orange-red eyes.
Master Ti and Aayla embraced for a few moments before they released each other. "Aayla, thank the Force you were able to get the warning out. If you had not the consequences would have been utterly disastrous."
"So it worked?" Aayla asked excitedly. "You were able to spread the word to save some of the Jedi?"
Shaak Ti's face seemed pained for a second to Harry. He instantly gave a quick mental laugh at that assessment, as the identification of how another species emotions tied to their facial quirks was something he would not dare attempt to claim any advanced knowledge after he had only seen her in person for a minute.
"Not all were. We saved many, but still experienced many casualties." She gestured to the young woman next to her, "Such as Padawan Brood's former Master."
Aayla seemed to visibly deflate, and Harry could tell from the way her Lekku moved that she felt quite upset suddenly. His interpretation lessons about the subtle movements of her Lekku had lasted a few days now, and he had slowly started to intuitively recognize their meanings during normal conversation. He was surprised to learn how expressive they were, and how they could be used to unintentionally gauge a Twi'lek's mood, or for subtle communication while undercover.
"I am sorry for your loss, Padawan Brood."
The young woman nodded jerkily, "Thank you, Master Secura."
"And who is your friend you haven't introduced us to, Aayla?" Shaak Ti said as she became aware of Harry standing away from the Jedi.
He saw Aayla's face light up again, and he felt a sudden sense of dread at the introduction his mischievous Twi'lek friend was about to subject him to. But he was surprised when she was very serious with her words. "This man is the reason I was even able to get the message out, Master Ti. This is Harry Potter."
Harry stepped forward and extended a hand, "Pleasure to meet you, Master Ti."
She smiled as she took his hand in a very firm grip, "If you are indeed the reason for the warning, the Jedi Order owes you a great debt, Harry Potter."
"I didn't do all that much," said Harry.
To this day, the acceptance of a freely given compliment was still something he had trouble with. It was an unfortunate left-over from his years of abuse at the hands of his loving relatives. For years, he had tried to forcibly learn to graciously accept complements when they were made, but he was always nervous around new people.
"Didn't do that much?" Aayla had nearly in incredulity. "You saved my life after I got shot in the back seven times by my own troops. You somehow healed those injuries in under seven hours. You brought me back in time nine hours so we could warn the Jedi Order, and then you helped me steal parts, ships, and supplies so we could attempt to start our getaway over the next few days."
Harry couldn't help but give a sheepish grin, "Well it sounds much more impressive when you list it all out like that."
"Whatever, you goof," said Aayla with an annoyed eye-roll. "Harry, this is Padawan Maris Brood."
Harry extended a hand again, "Pleasure to meet you, Maris. My condolences on your loss."
The teenage girl took the hand, though her grip was nowhere near as firm and decisive as Shaak Ti. "Thank you, Harry Potter"
"Just Harry is fine."
"I agree with Aayla, your achievements sound very impressive Harry. Will you be able to share with us how it was accomplished?"
Harry was about to say something when Aayla interrupted with a large shit-eating grin on her face, "Harry's a Wizard."
'She didn't just say it out loud like that, did she?' Harry groaned internally.
The raised eyebrow and small smirk from Maris was all he needed for confirmation that his ears functioned properly, and Aayla had indeed just blurted out with no preamble that he was a Wizard. He waited for one of the two Jedi to make some 'primitive civilizations think the Force is magic' argument like Aayla initially did when he decided to head off the whole thing before it could start.
"He believes the Force is Mag-" began Shaak Ti, but her question stopped mid-word as Harry conjured two comfortable chairs for him and Maris to sit in.
"Maris, let's sit down while our elders discuss how Magic doesn't exist," he said, mirth in his eyes at how wide Shaak Ti and Maris' eyes were at the moment.
"That's impossible," whispered Shaak Ti, stunned almost to the point of inaction. Harry was even happier to see Aayla's mock-glare for his reference to her as an elder.
"Have a seat Maris," Harry motioned to the chair beside him with a cheeky grin as he leaned back in his own and conjured an ottoman to place his feet upon. "Care for something to drink?" he asked Maris as she moved to sit down.
After she declined, he turned back to Aayla. "Anything else you wish to point out, Aayla?" said Harry as a challenge to the blue Twi'lek as he sipped a newly conjured fruity flavored drink with an umbrella in it. He had enjoyed finding those small exceptions to Gamp's law that concerned food conjuration. He may not be able to eat off magic, but he could sure get drunk from it.
"No, that's all for now. I'm sure we can talk about the time-travel and self-teleportation stuff later," she said with a cheeky grin that betrayed her obvious enjoyment with the conversation.
"Well, in the meantime, how about we all go inside the tent we have and cool off. I'm not particularly keen on standing around in the open humidity out here anymore than I have to," said Harry.
After he helped Maris up from her temporary seat, he waved a hand and vanished the chairs. He slipped an around up and around Aayla's shoulder and whispered, "I'm so going to get you for this. Just you wait. The moment you turn your back, you'll be white with pink polka dots before the end of the day instead of blue."
Eyes wide, Aayla couldn't stutter out a reply before he began walked away, but he did hear Maris whisper loudly to Shaak Ti, "Did you feel the Force when he did that?"
They followed Harry to the mouth of the cave, which only he and Aayla could see. He conjured a small piece of paper and a pen, and then wrote out the secret. "Oh, I get to see the joke played on someone else this time, don't I?" said Aayla with excitement.
Harry handed the paper to Shaak Ti and said, "Memorize what this says, then hand it to Maris for her to do the same."
Aayla bounced upon her heels at this point. He didn't think he had ever seen the Twi'lek excited like this before. Shaak Ti saw Aayla's excitement after she handed the note to Maris, quirked an eyebrow and said, "Control yourself Knight Secura. You have better command of your emotions than this."
"Oh, you wouldn't control yourself either if you knew what was about to happen," said Aayla with a grin as she watched Maris finish with the note. Harry took the paper from the teenager, and to the newcomer's shock, it burst into flames in his hands.
"Now, I want you both to stare at that mountain right in front of us, and think about the meaning behind what you just memorized," Harry said as he watched the two carefully.
There was a moment's silence, and then an almost simultaneous gasp of surprise erupted from both women. They looked wildly back and forth between each other and the cave, at a complete loss for words.
"How?" was the single word Shaak Ti finally managed to ask.
"'Let's go inside and talk, there's a lot to cover and I don't feel like standing out here in the heat. And I don't think I can handle much more of hyper-Aayla without sitting down first," said Harry tiredly.
Shaak Ti and Maris both gave dubious looks to the tent as Harry entered, which left Aayla outside to literally cackle in glee before she followed him inside. Their reactions as they walked inside the tent were mirror copies of Aayla's first entrance, which Harry reminded Aayla of after her laughter filled the tent's great room. He finally managed to get all three women to sit down when Aayla started in with the questions while Harry went to get the three women water to drink.
"Ok, I know Harry and I owe you some explanations, but we've been purposefully out of the loop now for a little over four days. What's going on out there?"
Shaak Ti composed herself quickly and began, "First off, we managed to get the younglings all onto a transport and evacuated from the temple within fifteen minutes of your warning. They were out of the Coruscant system within thirty. All 450 of them. They were sent to the… location with twelve Masters, four Knights, and three dozen Padawans. They also left with the most recent archived backup core of the Jedi Library along with numerous other hastily collected artifacts from our history."
"Wow, that must've been a big ship. See," Harry said with a smile while giving Aayla a nudge with his elbow. "Still think that you didn't make a difference?"
Aayla favored him with an even brighter smile before turning back to Shaak Ti, who looked at them strangely before she continued, "They've been ordered to remain under a communications black-out for twenty years unless notified to the contrary by a member of the Council with a specific pass-phrase."
"What about all the Jedi deployed with the Clone troopers?" asked Aayla.
"We had four dozen ranked Jedi in the Temple communications center contacting as many Jedi out in the field as they could for almost an hour. Each Jedi we contacted was given two more specific Jedi to contact. I have no idea how much of the deployment list we got through, or how many the Jedi in the field actually communicated with their assignments, but the results certainly speak for themselves."
A small smirk that looked decidedly deadly graced Shaak Ti's face. "You two did a bit of sabotage to your battle group before they departed, didn't you?"
Aayla and Harry nodded, both a bit wary of the look Shaak Ti was giving them. Maris listened as well, but was either uninterested because she had heard it before, or the death of her Master had really hit the girl hard.
"Your entire battle group was destroyed while travelling in hyperspace. Completely fragged everything. The Chancellor even had to close down that specific hyperspace lane until the debris can be cleared since its spread over such a wide distance. It's now well over two and a half light-years of junk. It'll take years… if not decades for that particular lane to be cleared."
"You weren't the only two who decided to sabotage things before going into hiding. Forty Percent of the Republic Navy is currently destroyed or disabled. Less than half of what remains have made it to dry dock for repairs thus far. We have no idea about troop losses they incurred. There were many battles that day, some planned weeks in advance, all to occur at the same time. When the orders were backtracked, it was found that the Chancellor himself, or members of his personal staff, often were subtly influencing the time of day we were to engage the enemy four days ago. I think he was hoping to make a large number of the executions look like accidents that occurred in battle that could be easily covered up."
An even broader smile now graced Shaak Ti's face, "But of course that failed. Many of the Jedi who were in the middle of active conflicts against the droid armies found ways for their forces to be completely annihilated by the Separatist forces. The Republic has never suffered so many simultaneous mission failures during the same day. The droid armies simply rolled over the Clones in some cases. The escaping Jedi Generals ordered massive holes in defenses to be opened so that the droids just crashed through."
"We were lucky, our people trusted us when they were informed. Almost all of them believed us, despite how unbelievable it sounded at first. We think it has something to do with the Veil of the Dark Side evaporating. I've personally never felt such a reaction or connection to the Force in decades. Its guidance is so clear now, where before it was as if we were flying blind so often when we sought direction in the Force."
"That definitely sounds like good news," said Harry. "At least you all won't be facing the massive armada you could have been had none of this happened."
"A blessing from the Force," said Aayla quietly, looking down at the floor.
"Yes, truly. And we owe all of that to you. To you both," said Shaak Ti. "We have many ancient communication arrays at the Temple. The Chancellor, in his short-sightedness, never actually sought to block all of them when he closed down the primary Holonet at the start of the Clone War. We contacted numerous Core World governments, and asked them all to spread the word. We told them the truth; that the Jedi intended to request the Chancellor stand down from his post, as he agreed to years ago when the crisis ended and General Grievous was killed. If he refused, he would be arrested. We also forwarded our evidence that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, one likely behind all events of note in the Galaxy since the Blockade of Naboo. More importantly, he was actually running both the Separatists and the Republic at the same time, playing both against each other."
"We told them of our suspicions, that if we failed to arrest the Chancellor, he would likely declare the Order, as a group, traitors and order our immediate executions. We informed them of the Clone's programming, how they would automatically obey, without question an order received from the highest authority. The Chancellor could order the clones to attack, kill, or execute any sentient being in the galaxy without anyone else's input or oversight. That was how much power the Senate had ceded to him."
"That wasn't the bit of news that helped the Order the most though. I ordered the Temple's defenses activated for the first time in almost 1,100 years, and began broadcasting the security camera's footage of the outside to news agencies on Correllia and Alderaan. Almost an hour and a half after you warned us. Master Skywalker stormed the Temple at the head of the entire 501st Legion. It was quite easy to interpret his intent."
"Skywalker?" blurted out Aayla, suddenly awake after she had initially just let the information overload she was had received integrate. "He led an attack on the Temple?"
"The Dark Side of the Force was so palpably emanating from him it was almost sickening. There's no doubt that he was leading them there in order to wipe us all out, including the younglings. Most of the clones were decimated by the Temple's defenses. We're lucky that even though the Chancellor had him appointed to the Council, we never truly let him into the major secrets of the Order."
She paused, and looked a bit disgusted with what she was about to say. "I've already heard rumors. He no longer goes by the name Anakin Skywalker. He is now known as Darth Vader.".
"No!" shouted Aayla as she stood, the full disbelief and denial of what she heard evident upon her face. Harry didn't know what to do. Maris just looked even sadder at the news, while Shaak Ti looked on sympathetically.
"Who's Skywalker?" asked Harry.
"You haven't heard of Anakin Skywalker? 'The Hero without Fear'?" asked Maris suddenly.
"Nope," said Harry. "I'm not exactly from these parts. In general, pretty much treat me like I don't know anything about pretty much everything."
Aayla, already somewhat recovered from her outburst, smacked him lightly on the head, "You know plenty, Harry. Don't belittle yourself. You've been picking up a lot of things already since you got here a few days ago."
"If you say so. I still think I'll be a liability with everything except fighting," said Harry.
At Shaak Ti's inquisitive look Aayla quickly said, "I'll explain later. What else happened then?"
"Well, Skywalker eventually found a way in, and the remaining Master's and I waited till the last possible moment to evacuate and scatter into the Coruscant underworld. I managed to take a skylift and public transport to the other side of the planet, where I was able to… liberate a smuggler's ship. He was a slaver, so I had no qualms about stealing his so-called cargo from him as well. The cargo bay was filled with a dozen chained female Twi'leks, Togrutans, Bothans, and Humans. I dropped them off on Alderaan at our consulate there, and then left immediately for here. I figured I would check and ensure you were safe since you got the word out to us in the first place."
"On the way, I decided to drop out of Hyperspace. It was a feeling, that I now think originated with the Force. I was near a star system, so I altered course to the inhabited planet there. I arrived in orbit just as I felt Maris' Master's death echo in the Force. I could still sense Maris on the planet though, so I landed and picked her up before she could be hunted down. From there, I continued out to the outer rim and doubled back just to try and lose anyone possibly following, and, here we are."
"In the meantime, much of the Galaxy is now in open revolt. The broadcast of clones attacking the Temple is what sealed the deal, especially, when the full context of what exactly happened was explained to viewers. Roughly half of the sectors are squarely against the former Republic as it stands. Fully a third are behind the Chancellor, though no one has been able to determine the political reasons behind that faction's choices yet. The remainders are neutral or are the remnants of the old Trade Federation and Separatist block and want nothing to do with anyone after the betrayal. But many of the Separatists themselves have since rejoined the anti-Republic block after finding out just how badly they had been deceived."
Aayla and Harry sat there stunned by the news. Harry turned to Aayla, and placed his hand over hers, "Looks like there's some hope after all."
Shaak Ti continued, "What really hurt the Chancellor's case was when he attempted to declare himself 'Emperor of a new Galactic Empire' within hours of Order 66.' Quite a few Senators just started laughing and the rest started an open revolt right in the Senate Chambers. It didn't help that much of this was caught on Planetary News broadcasts that were live in the Senate chambers at the time. After our broadcast at the Temple, many of the planets realized that Palpatine wasn't blocking the older means of communication other than the holonet, so they provided the first live broadcast of the Senate since the general Holonet was shut down at the start of the war. When the Senate's reaction of laughter turned to anger, Palpatine sent in Royal Guards to quell the uprising, and many planets got to witness their Senators murdered live on their Holo screens."
Aayla nodded, and turned to Shaak Ti, "We hadn't heard any of this. We've been purposefully laying low the past few days, and then tomorrow we were going to attempt to build a ship out of parts of four ships we hid before the clones abandoned the planet."
"I think you're skipping ahead in the story a bit, might as well get my crazy part of things out of the way," said Harry.
And so they explained together, what had happened. Harry described the Demon War back on Earth, his travel through the portal, and his appearance here on Felucia. He showed them the attack on Aayla in the Pensieve. Aayla had seen it twice before, but it was still very painful to watch her troops turn on her. Shaak Ti and Maris were appalled at the turn of events, as well as amazed by Harry's abilities. He described healing her injuries, though he didn't delve deeply into his methods. Then, he told how he had gone back in time with Aayla, though he lied and said the device was now useless and no longer functioned. He saw no reason to pass on that there was still one grain of sand left in the time-turner.
Aayla described her version of the events with a sense of wonder. How Harry had cleared the telecommunications room out, how he had shrunk down pallet after pallet of medicine and foodstuffs, and how he had hidden two Larty's and both Barriss' and her star fighters. Then she described how they had been depending upon each other emotionally for the past few days after Harry had been permanently ripped away from his world and Aayla survived an attempted murder.
Then Harry explained what they had been doing the past few days. He discussed the magical training he started to impart to Aayla in the hope she could learn to suppress her aura, as well as eventually teach her Occlumency. Both Shaak Ti and Maris agreed to learn the skills as well once they were described. Aayla handed over the datapad that listed their current inventory of supplies, both the stolen ones and Harry's. Shaak Ti shook her head in wonder at the descriptions of Harry's items from Earth, and could not wait to see some of them in action or browse through some of the books on Magical theory once she learned his language.
All of them in fact were very interested to learn Harry's language just as he had learned Galactic Basic, Huttese, and Ryl. He only asked that they not spread news of his abilities any further than this group of four. Aayla trusted Shaak Ti, so Harry would trust her judgment, but Harry didn't trust the rest of the Jedi Order yet.
Aayla went on to then discuss the Jedi abilities she had tried to teach Harry thus far. She didn't attempt to describe Harry's first Force Jump; she merely asked him with a twinkle in her golden eyes to show them in the Pensieve. An extremely reluctant Harry only did so after he was thoroughly badgered by Aayla. He watched in embarrassed silence as the three women emerged from the Pensieve and laughed merrily at his inopportune loss of concentration.
They had talked through the afternoon and it slowly grew dark outside. Maris' stomach grumbled loudly and she embarrassedly admitted to not having eaten yet that day. Shaak Ti informed them the stolen freighter did not have much in terms of food onboard, which spoke highly to the former owner's treatment of his slaves.
"Chop chop, Harry. Get to work on dinner. You have four people to feed tonight," Aayla said cheerily.
"You know, I have yet to see you cook anything after four days here. Do you actually have any useful talents that can help us out around here?" asked Harry with an eyebrow quirked.
"I did the laundry yesterday if you recall," responded Aayla with her hands on her hips.
"After I begged you for a day to do it, and then you turned some of my white clothes pink," Harry half-shouted in exasperation.
"That was totally not my fault. How was I supposed to know that would happen?"
Harry threw his hands up in frustration and left the room to prepare dinner.
-o0o0o-
Aayla watched Harry leave the room to prepare dinner. She knew he wasn't really all that mad about the clothes or constant food prep duties, but she realized she really should not constantly push him like she had. Maybe she could enlist Maris or Shaak Ti into helping her think of something to cheer him up.
"So," said Shaak Ti, who had watched the whole exchange between her long-time Rutian Twi'lek friend and the strange Wizard with half a smile on her face. "How long has this attraction to him been growing?"
"What?" exclaimed Aayla as her arm slipped from the arm of the sofa as she heard the question. "What are you talking about?"
"Aayla, you've never been one for subtlety. You have always worn your heart on your sleeve. Right now, you're completely dependent upon him emotionally."
After she sat down, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, Aayla said with resignation, "Is this where you scold me and begin my lecture about forming attachments and where it will lead?"
Shaak Ti leaned back on the couch and studied Aayla's face for a moment, but slowly shook her head. "Aayla, I watched you and Master Fisto every time you entered the Council chambers. I watched as a little piece of you died each time I saw you act together because of how you both had to deny what should have been yours. Quite a few members of the order disagree about the ban on celibacy, especially considering how Master Ki-Adi-Mundi was able to get the rules bent for him to have a family. Many even actively flout it and have secret families. It may be Taboo, but many members have long since turned the other cheek over it."
Aayla had lifted her head up at this, but then slowly shook her head. "I cannot control where the Force leads me, nor can I predict if something will happen."
Shaak Ti sighed and shook her head in exasperation, "Nor should you. In the end you are responsible for you, your choices, and the consequences."
In an effort to lighten the mood, Shaak Ti turned to Maris, "Any opinions, Padawan Brood for Knight Secura on the path she should pursue?"
Maris, who to this point had quietly observed the two very well-known and experienced Jedi, looked momentarily stunned at having her opinion consulted. "I'm not sure Master. I don't believe I'm qualified to make such a judgment."
As she opened her mouth to respond, Shaak Ti was beaten to the punch by Aayla, "Maris, the four of us will be around each other a lot I think. We have no orders or missions at the moment, and the Jedi Order itself is fractured and scattered throughout the galaxy. I think you'll find the three of us will value your opinion precisely because of your age and point of view."
With a nod of agreement, Shaak Ti added, "We have a Master, a Knight who for all intents and purposes should be a Master given her experience, a mid-level Padawan with a good head on her shoulders, and a Wizard who I believe will shake everything we believe to be true about the Force to its core. I have a feeling the next few weeks will be very exciting for us as we encounter and learn new things. You have a voice during all of this, we expect you to use it."
Maris sat in quiet contemplation for a moment before her shoulders slumped and she nodded. She eventually lifted her head, and a slow smirk etched its way across her face. "He is quite attractive, and those green eyes," she finished with a theatrical over-the-top flutter of her voice that had Shaak Ti almost fall over in laughter and caused Aayla to throw a pillow at her in mock-outrage.
-o0o0o-
The sounds of laughter from the other room were enough to strike fear in the heart of the most stalwart of men. Harry Potter was explicitly aware of what was happening just a few meters away. It was an occurrence of something that could drive men to insanity at the best of times and leave them cowering, shivering wrecks of their former selves.
Women gossiping.
'Well, at least I won't be the only one for Aayla to lean on in case the nightmares continue,' he thought sadly. He liked being there for Aayla, and would have easily pondered dating the woman had she been on Earth. But it was quite obvious he had no shot at all with a romantic relationship with the woman since she had revealed the particulars of her Order's views on relationships..
'The "Rutian" woman,' Harry laughed to himself internally. He had inquired what the word meant after Shaak Ti had mentioned it in passing. He had been unaware that Rutian referred to the color of Aayla's skin, and apparently it was quite rare amongst her people. Normally, Twi'leks were a light green, but there were numerous other colors, such as white and brown, with the rarest of all being a blood red.
He just needed to find out from Shaak Ti or Maris which colors didn't exist naturally… such as pink. Then all he would have to accomplish is figure out how to cast a glamour on her that would not be permanent on accident.
'Turn my clothes pink, I'll show her,' thought Harry as he did his best to channel whatever God of Mischief that George prayed to in order to be so successful.
The dinner prep-work was finished. He levitated all the plates out of the kitchen and set the table. "Food's ready," he shouted vaguely to the room, where laughter was still present in sufficient enough quantities to still send a shiver down his spine.
He received excellent compliments on his cooking abilities from Shaak Ti and Maris, but only the usual comments that it could be a bit spicier from Aayla.
Conversation was light, and for a large part, he was a silent observer. It split between Maris' discussions of her training's progress and Shaak Ti's and Aayla's insights on what her next logical step would be. Shaak Ti had already stated for now that Maris would learn from all three of them unless extraordinary circumstances presented themselves.
The mention of Harry as an instructor for Maris caused him to ask why to Shaak Ti.
"I sit here, Harry, eating food from a world that has never known spaceflight beyond its own system. Speaking to someone who uses the Force in ways I could've never dreamed possible. I mean, seriously, we're sitting in an apartment inside a tent, that's in a cave that's hidden, with windows that look outside," she said the last part amidst her own laughter, which earned smiles from the other three in the room.
"I'm well aware that what you know and could teach us could take you decades to pass on to us, not only just because of how much there is for you to teach, but for the rigid opposition against change that exists within the Order," she continued, before she paused to stare vacantly at a wall in thought..
"Aayla's always been a maverick, pushing the envelope just to the edge. I've always been rather solitary as a Knight. I've rarely taken Padawans, and then usually only as a temporary measure. Maris," she gestured and allowed her eyes to settle upon the young woman she had rescued. "Maris is still an blank slate. Her whole life still awaits her. I would like her to be one of the first to know the things you can teach."
Harry nodded. "I'll teach you whatever I can. There are a few things I may document but keep to myself. I know quite a few rather violent spells. No need to pass those on at the moment when there are so many other useful things you could learn. In fact some of those I would be happier if they never saw the light of day again."
"What can you teach us?" asked Maris, clearly interested in learning new things at the same time as two people she clearly respected.
"Well, Aayla and I started assembling a list of what's different about our powers a few days ago. There are about six or seven specific areas we can focus on, mainly Charms, Transfiguration, Curses, Warding, Enchantments, and magical forms of travel. There are many others as well, but those are the big ones."
"But those are long-term goals for the moment. Tomorrow, the two of us were going to start building a ship in earnest. We could really use the extra help. Aayla will likely be doing a lot of the wiring and systems work on her own, because you know I don't know anything about these things."
"Definitely, we can't leave you and Aayla here all by yourselves to work on it," Maris said with a innocent look on her face that seemed to get a rise out of Aayla and suppressed mirth from Shaak Ti.
"Uh, right. Well, it's getting a bit late, I take it you have quarters aboard your ship, do either of you need to use our shower or anything like that? Clean water is not an issue."
"I think we'll both manage tonight with the ship's sonic shower. But your runes as you call them, really have me excited. Imagine, having a real working shower aboard a ship and not having to worry about water storage and waste reclamation," said Shaak Ti fondly.
Maris agreed, and casually picked up a datapad she that was configured to pick up galactic news. She gave a small gasp after she glanced at the screen. "The battles have begun," said Maris quietly.
"What?" "What do you mean?" said Aayla and Shaak Ti together as they walked over to read over the Padawan's shoulder.
"It's from the Corellian News agency," said Maris as she summarized the article. "Fleet blockades were established along trade routes leading to some of the major inner and near Core Worlds, such as Corellia, Rendilli, and Kuat. All it says is that the Corellian Navy has already engaged the so-called Empire."
"That's rather ominous," said Harry. "I guess that means we'll have to move Corellia as an option to behind Chandrilla. Alderaan will still be our primary place to attempt contact with the rest of your people. Hopefully it will still be as safe as it was when you stopped over there a few days ago, Shaak Ti."
Silence reigned as the full implications of yet another galactic war settled down upon the three Jedi.
"Well, we'll head back to the ship to sleep tonight. We'll come by tomorrow morning and we'll start figuring out what to do next," said Shaak Ti.
"We try getting up at sunrise to run. Harry, I'd like to continue, if you don't mind?" asked Aayla.
"Sure." Turning back to Shaak Ti he asked, "Do you have everything you need on the ship? I can transfigure you extra beds, blankets and pillows if you like. No effort at all involved really."
Shaak Ti accepted the offer, and Harry was back in the tent fifteen minutes later after he saw the inside of his first starship. It was not that impressive, likely because he was distracted after he clearly saw where the previous owner tied up his slaves. His imagination placed green girls who looked like Aayla tied up in the corner to be sold. He had refused to leave the ship until he had removed all remnants of the ships former usage. It did not take long to transfigure the chains and cell bars into stacked ingots of durasteel. Shaak Ti had inquired why he was so adamant to do it immediately, so he shared what he knew about Aayla's greatest fear with her since he knew they were friends and close confidants.
He joined Aayla in the bedroom after his shower and their nightly healing session progressed as normal. After four days, there was some definite visible difference to the scars, though Aayla said the ones she could reach didn't feel different yet.
They were both finally in bed, with Aayla draped over him like normal. He had really begun to like his time alone in bed with her. Realization slowly dawned upon him that the friendship shared with Aayla had quickly approached the level of best friend, and he had achieved a comfort level with his conversations with her that he had not reached in many years, if ever.
"So what do you think of us having visitors now?" he asked as they both lay quiet in the darkness. They talked for hours in bed the past few nights, since he no longer passed out early due to language absorption.
"It's good to see Master Ti again. She's always been a great friend, and always provides good advice."
"You mean gossiping like teenagers whenever I'm not in the room?" said Harry with a chuckle.
"Well, that too. Are you jealous? Do you need some male companionship to offset our femininity?"
When he only snorted and didn't respond, Aayla decided to dig a bit deeper, "Or do you need that kind of male companionship, Harry? I thought you liked girls?"
He graced her barb only with a quirked eyebrow, "I assure you, I'm very interested in only women, Knight Secura."
"Well, you had two additional highly attractive females in our sitting room tonight, and you hardly glanced at them."
"You mean I didn't mentally undress the three beautiful Jedi who aren't allowed relationships with my eyes tonight? And you're somehow disappointed by this? I didn't know instead of no-relationships there were secretive Jedi harems instead."
She suddenly coughed in shock at his remark, and Harry couldn't help but laugh. "Oh my gosh, did I win for once?"
She responded merely with a lift of her head and mock glare at him in the darkness. Harry could easily make out the reflected light of her golden eyes. She reached up, placing her hand against Harry's cheek, and then casually flicked his ear.
"Ow, what was that for?"
"Winning," Aayla said after put her head back down on Harry's shoulder.
"So what do I win?"
He felt her squeeze his body in a quick burst and relax her arms. "I'll think of something."
With one last deep breath and sigh, she said finally, "Good night, Harry."