Just over a week later Fay has finished her third cleansing ritual, and the water ran completely clear after just a couple of scoops.
Ruefully she looks down at Lily as she helps Harry into his new pressure suit, "You were right, I feel light in a way I haven't for decades or longer."
Lily nods as a droid helps her with her own suit, her fingers not yet nimble or strong enough to do it herself, "It took me four cleanses to be completely clean, the others were because we'd already gone past three, and we were using seven in the ritual. It's quite soothing when you don't have any gunk to get rid of. If you're going to keep using the force rather than magic, then we should make a routine of doing it once every seven or thirteen days."
Harry looks at Lily, "Mummy, what's 13?"
Lily smiles at Harry, "It's 10 plus 3 honey. It's the next magically important number after seven for our style of magic."
Fay frowns, "Why not 11, as that's the next prime number."
Lily shrugs, "European superstition mainly. Different cultures have different numbers after 3, 5, and 7. For example, in China you will never ever see the number 4 turn up in any spells that aren't supposed to kill someone. Some people like to say that magic is alive." Fay opens her mouth to speak and Lily continues, "It isn't, but magic users are alive, and all living creatures have at least some magic, and that has an effect on everything to do with magic. One wizard said that 'Magic is the process of imposing your will on reality'. It's not really true, as we can't just want big things to happen. You've already seen Harry's accidental magic. That's about the extent of what you can do without making tools and frameworks to do magic with. How have you been getting on with finding your own magic?"
Fay smiles with amusement, "I have found the living force inside me."
Lily huffs, "That's not the same thing at all. Your magic is deeper than that. Your magic is part of your very soul, and it's why every living creature has magic. Even plants can have magic, and when they do it does strange things to them. I have been practising your teachings too, though my body is too young to survive the rigours of a cleansing ritual just yet. Same as Harry's too young too, so no working with the unifying force until he reaches his first magical majority."
Now dressed, Harry runs to the door ramp, "Can we go and see the city now please?"
Fay and Lily share a glance, before Lily grabs a belt, "Almost little man. But first you need a special belt. Fay, I'm going to turn this belt into a portkey, that's a magical transportation spell that will teleport everyone that's touching the belt to the ritual circle on the ship. The trigger phrase will be 'Home sweet Home', but it will only work if the person that says it is in contact with the belt."
When Fay looks at her skeptically, Lily smirks, "Tell you what, we can use it to return to the ship once Harry gets tired."
Fay shakes her head as Lily concentrates on the belt and says, "Portus."
"Well, it doesn't feel any different. I don't think it worked."
Lily just rolls her eyes and buckles the belt around Harry.
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Fay groans on the floor of the cargo bay as numerous red icons blink on the HUD in her pressure suit. At the same time, Lily is helping Harry to remove his helmet as he wobbles around.
As Harry's helmet comes off he says, "Baby Mummy bad, time for time out."
Lily shakes her head, "No Harry, I was teaching you how portkeys work. Will you be able to do that again?"
Harry shakes his head, "No, never."
"Not even if an evil droid is pointing a blaster at you?"
Harry uncertainly looks back at Lily, "Um."
"That's why you have the belt, so that you can get home if something bad happens. It's not there to get out of boring stuff. Now go with Nanny and get cleaned up."
Harry nods and runs over to the nanny droid as Lily walks over to Fay.
As Harry leaves the room, Fay manages to push herself into a seated position and take her helmet off, "What the kriff was that?"
Lily kisses Fay on the cheek, "That my love, was a portkey. A magically enchanted item. One that is made with a spell that can only be created if you understand the underlying arithmancy, unlike apperation I hasten to add, which just about every witch or wizard can learn to do if they can focus."
Fay shakes her head, "It was like being spun around the planet on an ascender, and then dropped in the cargo bay."
Lily nods, "It's not a bad analogy that, as it's sort of what the magic is doing. Except it's also pulling you out of the normal three dimensions at the same time so that you don't bump into anything. I wish I had my school books, it would make this so much easier."
"What about all of the errors that appeared on my suit?"
Lily grimaces, "Yeah, magic does that. Places with high levels of ambient magic, like my old school, stopped even simple calculators from working. I'm not sure if that would apply to prosthetics or not, but honestly I wouldn't want to chance it on anyone we care about. Remember, magic does what we want it to, it's not using the universe to accomplish something. Now, while Harry and I have our naps, your homework is to mix a gallon of purifying water."
Fay sighs dejectedly, "Yes Master."
Lily pokes Fay in the chest, "Less of the Master there. Professor Potter is acceptable. If we had wands, you wouldn't even be touching that, as it's fairly advanced potion making despite it's simplicity."
Fay shakes her head, "Why is it advanced?"
Lily looks through the door that Harry left through before taking two steps backwards and sitting on the floor cross legged, "Most potions use parts of at least one magical plant or animal in them. The simplest potions use exclusively magical ingredients. What this means is that the potioneer doesn't need to provide any of their own magic in order to transform the potion from something that is likely to be highly toxic into something beneficial. Many of the oldest herbal remedies are actually potions recipes without the stirring instructions. On top of that, silver is almost magically inert. It is very hard to enchant silver to do anything, but if you can, then you'll have produced one of the most potent magical items it's possible to make. That's why goblin artefacts are so sought after."
Fay looks confused, "Sorry, goblin?"
Lily chews on her lip as she reviews the last few seconds of conversation, "Oh, right, goblins. They're one of the species on Earth, and their known for their craftsmanship, war like nature, and most recently as bankers. They have made a magical alloy that we call goblin silver, and it's harder than the strongest steel without being brittle. It is also used almost exclusively in goblin enchanting, and their weapons are well known for taking on the traits of anything that doesn't destroy them out right. Acids, poisons, dragon breath, and more."
Fay shakes her head, "That sounds a lot like the rumours of Sith Alchemy."
Lily shrugs, "I don't know, this is the first time you ever mentioned Sith."
Fay sits thoughtfully for a moment, then dry heaves as she habitually reaches for the unifying force. "Sithspit that's bad. How did I never notice how much the darkside is covering the force?"
Lily sighs, "I'd imagine it's because there's not really that much there. If you allowed yourself to reach out the way you used to the feeling could go away. And it's better to get past that now than in an emergency."
Fay shudders, the memories of the cleansing ritual still fresh in her mind. None the less, she opens up her senses to the force and grits her teeth against the oily feeling. As Lily suggested, the feeling is just a thin layer over the force. Suddenly inspired she asks, "Lily, do you think you could design a circle that will keep only the dark side of the force outside the circle?"
Lily shakes her head, "I don't know. Maybe. It's far easier to keep everything out, and I don't have access to the books or notes I used to make my last ritual. Anyway, Sith."
Fay nods, "Yes, Sith. They are, or were, a loose collective of force users who believed in embracing your emotions and passions. By implication, that also meant that they willingly drew on the dark side of the force. I don't know of any who didn't end up drawing on it exclusively, however I was a padawan a few hundred years after the end of the last Sith war, so while it was still fairly common knowledge the details were scarce."
"Sith war?"
"Yes. Despite being a loose collective, they still ran an empire and they attacked the old republic. I have the records in my computers if you want to read about it."
Lily nods, "I might do that."
Slightly alarmed, Fay looks down at Lily, "Lily, we're going to have guests in a few days time. There's something important that needs to be done here."
Lily holds her forehead in both hands, "Of course there is. I'll have the astromech droid help me make us some bracelets that I'll turn into emergency portkeys. The activation phrase will be 'Beam me up Scotty'"
Fay looks at Lily curiously, "Does that have some cultural significance?"
Lily nods, "It does. I'm sure that it will be in the data the droids transmit back when the portal opens again."
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Fay stands on a cliff overlooking a lava flow that is currently host to a chemical. As she's joined by three other Jedi, a sense of dread falls over her. Turning around she looks at the three masters, "Knol 'The Fire Eater', Jon 'The Hunter', Nico 'The Freeman'. I see I'm not the only one that felt drawn here."
The bothan, Knol nods, "Fay. Indeed, though there should be a fifth."
Fay nods, "I have a bad feeling about this."
Knol tips her head to one side, "Odd, do you know why?"
Fay shakes her head, "It just feels off."
As she's speaking, a famous human Jedi staggers up to the clifftop and Master Nico turns to face him, "Ah, Master Kenobi. Our little squad seems to be complete."
Knol turns to face Kenobi while Fay is trying to remember who Kenobi is, "Finally, you Coruscant Jedi take your time, don't you?"
With a sigh, Fay admonishes Knol, "Sheath your fangs master Ven'nari. Obi-wan has faced many trials recently… Indeed, I sense that you are still ill."
Kenobi shakes his head, "Just the lingering effects of the confederacy's new weapon. I feel fine. But this is quite a strike team Master Fay, I'm not even sure I'm needed here…"
Fay places a hand on Kenobi's head, "You're the only one who has first hand experience with this new weapon. Your insight will be…"
Fay trails off as Lily walks out from behind a rock wearing her pressure suit and says, "Unneeded."
As the other four Jedi all turn to face Lily and draw their lightsabres, Fay sighs, "Why are you here?"
Lily crosses her arms, "Fay, did you really think you were the only one who could read the force? You've been teaching me for years."
"Lily I…"
"Left without word on a doomed mission."
Rather tartly, Knol asks, "And who are you to say the mission is doomed?"
"Because you're all going to die without help, and your deaths will ultimately cost more lives than this mission will save. More importantly Fay, it will mean that Harry and I die. While my student looks to the future, Jedi Kenobi, will you tell me why you're here?"
Kenobi looks surprised as Fay does sink to the floor in meditation. Quickly rallying, he says, "The confederacy has a new weapon they call Swamp Gas, an illness that indiscriminately strikes down anyone it comes in contact with. This lab has the antidote."
Lily nods, "And are they expecting you?"
Kenobi shakes his head, "No, this is a confederacy lab."
Lily nods seemingly thoughtfully, before shaking her head, "No it isn't. It's just in the outer rim. Fay has already been here for over a week without hiding who she is, so just given them a call and ask them to deliver a sample to her ship."
Nico looks at the island, "The dark Jedi are already here, I can feel them skulking in the shadows."
Lily rolls her eyes, "Fine, tell them that you would like them to place the sample outside the sealed areas."
As Kenobi turns away to talk into his communicator, Fay's eyes flick open, and she looks at Lily, "You're right. Even if we succeed here, it would be a Corellian victory."
Knol shakes her head, "What is the life of one person when weighed against the lives of millions?"
Lily looks at Knol skeptically, "Really? How many people are alive and, more importantly, free today because of your actions? If you die here trying to get a cure that the Republic will be able to produce itself in several months, how many lives will be lost because you're not there to save them, or to save the people who would then save them? I fought in a war before Fay found me, and every loss hurt because we all had irreplaceable skills. There's more that I'm concerned about, but this isn't the place to discuss that yet."
Kenobi turns back with a grim face, "Nico was right, the Sith are already here and they were pretending to be Jedi. I've told them to start evacuating, but we have to stop them from getting the antidote, otherwise the war will become worse than it already is."
Lily looks at the lab with a sinking feeling, "I'll go ahead and try to get the antidote first. You lot do what you've been trained to do."
As Lily disappears with a loud crack of noise, Fay finds herself the centre of attention, and Kenobi demands, "How did she do that?"
Fay grimaces as she shakes her head, "Would you believe, magic?"
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As red alert symbols flash on the inside of her pressure suit, Lily nervously brings up her occlumency and sinks into it as she makes her way into the lab from the balcony she apparearated to. Already, she can see air speeders taking off from the sides of the lab, as the skakoan workers abandon the floating death trap.
Shaking her head to bring her focus back on her own task, Lily has to agree with the workers that, based on what she's seen and read since coming to this planet, getting between the two types of force user is a quick way to an ingnomous death. However, her own force vision was clear about the fact the only way she and Harry would survive is if she joined in.
As she passes a vacated desk, she picks up a stylus and places it on her open palm before whispering, "Point Me" while concentrating on the antidote. As the stylus spins above her palm, she takes a couple of deep breaths to recover from the wandless magic, before following the corridor that the stylus is pointing at.
Several minutes later, she walks into the synthesis lab and quickly ducks down beside a table as a woman with white skin and an armoured humanoid male stand beside a row of test tubes.
Gripping the stylus like a wand she braces herself against the table as she silently casts a switching spell on a nearby test tube and the one that the woman is reaching for.
As the light headed feeling passes, Lily quickly grabs the correct vial and secretes it in one of the pockets on her suit. With the vaccine secure, she touches the control for the built in comm device, only to swear under her breath as it fails to activate.
As she's slipping out of the room she winces as she hears the sound of an explosion on the other side of the lab.
Again using the stylus as a wand, she carefully runs through the full wand motions of the messenger variant of the patronus charm that Dumbledore developed in the war. As her patronus appears she starts to slide down the wall in exhaustion, "Find Fay. Tell her that I've got the real cure and I switched it for a decoy."
As the fox disappears through the wall, a series of explosions rocks the lab and a large crack appears in the floor at the end of the corridor. Reaching for her bracelet, the words to trigger the portkey die on her lips as a sense of danger floods through her at the idea of just leaving. Groggily, she pushes herself to her feet and forces herself to head for the stairs.
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With her head still ringing from the explosion, Fay watches dumbly as a glowing white fox appears and says something about the cure. A couple of minutes later the wild fire that's boxing them into the lab starts to recede and Kenobi asks, "It's stopped? Are you holding the fire back?"
As Fay shakes her head once more to try and clear it, Nico shouts, "No! Master Ven'nari is pulling it in!"
A moment later, Knol crawls out of the smouldering wreckage of the synthesis lab, only to disappear as a bracelet hits her in the forehead, leaving only her lightsaber on the floor.
A surprised Kenobi loudly asks, "Is she gone?"
Shaking her head to try and clear it faster, Fay opens her mouth to reply when Nico instead answers, "Yes, I can't feel her in the force anymore. Now we need to pursue that witch."
Numbly Fay points at a couple of patches of lava that are rising through the cracks in the floor, "And devise an escape plan. The facility has been compromised, we're sinking."
Pointing with his lightsaber, Nico shouts, "She went this way! Let's move!"
As the others run off after the Sith, Fay pushes herself into a staggering walk, only to stop as Lily staggers out of the smoke and picks up the fallen lightsaber. Pausing in confusion, Fay waits for Lily to catch up.
With a childish giggle, Lily leans heavily against Fay, "I guess you didn't get my message then?"
Fay shakes her head to try and get rid of the ringing in her ears, before pointing at them with her finger. "I've still not recovered from the explosion!"
Lily shouts back, "You need to open yourself up to the force! I've got the cure, we just need to let the others know."
Stupidly, Fay stares at Lily as she tentatively opens herself to the force for only the second time since she finished her cleansing rituals. Once more the oily feeling of the darkside makes her shiver, but with it comes a clarity of thought as her centuries of experience uses the unifying force with her living force to heal her wounds while she forces herself not to recoil from the feeling. "Thank you, how did you know?"
Lily looks up at her, "Because I can't stop my own Merlin damned connection to the force. It keeps pushing me with nudges and warnings. Can you carry me? As I'm feeling exhausted, and I keep thinking that we need to catch up with the others before they do something stupid and get themselves killed."
As Fay picks Lily up on her back, and starts to jog after the others, Lily waves Knol's lightsaber around in one hand. "You shouldn't wave that around like that, you could kill someone."
Lily nods sleepily on her shoulder, "I know, it just feels a bit like a wand, like the core is in there but the rest of the device is getting in the way."
Gently, Fay takes the lightsaber from Lily's hand, "Try to get some sleep while we catch up. I'll keep you safe."
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In the end it takes Fay nearly two hours to catch up with Kenobi on the surface after needing to double back at the site of a cave in, or because lava has flooded the route that they took. Not that the combatants seem to have fared much better, as the Sith and the armoured man seem to have been forced to backtrack almost as much by the three Jedi flanking and out manoeuvring them.
Now however, Fay gently lays a sleeping Lily down behind some rocks with Knol's lightsaber, before walking serenely out of the smoke as the Sith corners Kenobi.
As the Sith raises her twin lightsabers to strike Kenobi down, she calls out, "See, where you are now false Jedi?"
With ease borne from centuries of practice against hostile opponents, Fay slips into the Sith's mind and first extracts her name, "Asajj Ventress, you are no Jedi. You are simply hatred and bile given form."
As Asajj spins to face Fay, Kenobi uses the distraction to leap out of the way of the armoured fighter's attack. As Asajj lunges to attack her, Fay levitates some rubble to catch her in the face, only for the test tube she's holding to go flying over the edge into the lava.
As she finally makes her way into the deepest part of Asajj's mind, Fay gives her a sad smile, "Goodbye Asajj Ventress."
Panting, Asajj fights against Fay's mental intrusion, "I feel you in my head, stealing my memories and my name." Dropping to her knees she pants out, "But I am in your heart, you fear me. You know your time is almost ov…"
With a groan, Asajj's eyes roll up in the back of her head and she collapses to the floor.
Grimacing, Fay walks over to help Kenobi against the armoured foe, the Gen Dai, bounty hunter Durge, only to be caught by an explosion as one of Durge's missiles lands not feet away from her at the same time a red light hits her from behind as she tries to dodge.
Some time later she comes around at the same time as Kenobi, only to see that they appear to be the only people left on the small, sinking, spur of rock in the lava pool. As he searches Asajj's corpse, he collapses to his knees and starts to sob, "We failed. After all that we failed."
Lily's voice comes from a nearby rock, "I wouldn't say that."
Kenobi looks up sharply, "You!"
Lily nods, "Yes me, I managed to switch the cure with a random test tube before they blew everything up. Fay and I were trying to catch up and tell you that."
Fay narrows her eyes at Lily, "Lily, did you shoot us?"
Lily nods and lifts the lightsaber, "Stunning spell. Knocked you unconscious, and made it look like the rocket blast did it. Having a focus, no matter how bad, makes all the difference. I put this one under a medical stasis too."
Fay looks down at Asajj's body with wide eyes as her force sense tells her what she's just realised, "She's not dead?"
Lily shakes her head, "No, but I'm running dangerously close to lethal magical exhaustion, otherwise we'd all be back at the ship." At Fay's blank look, she adds, "Your bracelet."
Kenobi finally catches up with the first thing Lily said, and his eyes light up, "You have the cure? I need to get it back to Coruscant."
Lily holds up the vial and shakes her head as she takes off her helmet, "I have conditions, otherwise I will just destroy it."
Kenobi glances between Lily and Fay in disbelief, "What?"
Lily smiles tiredly, "I'm glad you asked. As you can see, I'm a clone. I'm more than that, but the important thing is that this body is a clone. You're using clones as slaves in your army, so my first demand is that you remove the chip that Fay said they're all fitted with. The second demand is that they become conscripts, and get paid accordingly. The final demand is that you do not communicate the fact that anyone but you and the armoured person survived this mission."
Kenobi shakes his head, "I can't do that."
Lily smiles, "Sure you can, you're a high up general and your army has medical droids. You can just tell them to remove the chips during routine medical exams. If you don't, then I'm not going to give you the cure, as I refuse to stand by and watch a new slave class being brought into existence. I couldn't do anything about House Elves because they were already an established part of my society, but I can do something about the clones."
Kenobi shakes his head, "They're not slaves."
Lily cocks her head to one side, "So they're droids then?"
Kenobi shakes his head vehemently, "No!"
"What happens if they disobey an order?"
Softly Fay says, "They can't, the chips won't let them. I agree with Lily, though I think Lily should amend her demand to every clone you are in command of, and that you will do your best to persuade the council to make it an unofficial order. Without the darkside tainting my vision, the clone army seems to be…"
Lily adds, "A monkey's paw? It was a mythical magical item from my home that would grant you your wish, but in such a way that you regret making the wish. Pass it off as Fay's dying force vision if you want."
Fay shakes her head and points to the shrinking edge of their spur, "We should have this discussion when we're not in danger of dying."
Kenobi looks at the distant shore with a grimace, "I don't think we can jump that."
Lily just lifts Asajj's limp hand up, "Fay, hook the bracelet around her finger, and Kenobi, make sure you're touching the bracelet."