A/N- Forgot to add it in the first chapter but I don't own Star Wars or anything to do with the wizarding world. They belong to Lucasfilm and Disney and Warner Bros and J.K Rowling respectively.
A/A/N- Because this got a lot of views in less than a month as well as a pretty good reception (certainly the best received in terms of favourites and follows) for any of my stories, I made this chapter a priority to write. I do worry that the first chapter was so successful that I won't be able to replicate it but that doesn't worry me in the slightest, ha-ha. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter Two – Flight From Naboo (AKA "Everyone" Says Hi)
Rey and Jaina
Rey and Jaina were currently trying to figure out what their next course of action when they heard the sound of metallic sounding footsteps approaching. "You didn't bring any droid friends with you when you got here, did you?" Rey asked Jaina as she sensed the danger they were in. The metallic sounding footsteps grew closer and were multiplying.
"No. You didn't have any with you, did you?" Jaina asked the older female Jedi, dreading the answer that she knew was coming.
"No." Rey replied firmly. They both dreaded the inevitable conclusion that they had both reached, "How well are you able to fight? Because we'll need to fight our way through this lot of battle droids."
"I've not long become a Padawan. I should be able to fight of some of these things though." Jaina replied.
"Good. Just send their blaster bolts back at them when I give the signal." Rey replied with confidence, both in her own abilities and that of the teen woman. Rey moved to engage the battle droids in combat which caused the younger Jedi to panic somewhat as she had no idea what Rey had in mind.
"We probably talk about having a plan first..." Jaina said to the older Jedi as multiple droids began firing at Rey almost simultaneously. Jaina was stunned however when she saw that Rey had slowed the droids and the blaster bolts they'd fired to the point they were barely moving at all. Realising that was her cue, Jaina activated her purple bladed lightsabre and began sending the blaster bolts back at the battle droids, still moving slowly because of Rey's force abilities. Eventually, Jaina deflected the blaster bolts back at the battle droids, with Rey accelerating the process by activating her yellow bladed lightsabre and helping deflect the blaster bolts away from them. "Well now we need to get moving before any more show up." Jaina said, stating the obvious.
"I suppose we should find the other force users on the planet." Rey said, like Jaina, stating the obvious. "I'm sensing multiple force presences a little way away from this spot."
"How can you tell where they are?" Jaina asked, a little bit doubtful as to how accurate Rey was and was also suspicious of this apparent force ability.
"I'm not sure exactly but I can sense three of them and they are converging on each other." Rey replied honestly.
"Well, seeing as you more or less saved our lives, I'm willing to follow you and your force instincts." Jaina said with a cheeky lilt in her voice.
Rey appreciated the humour the younger girl was displaying, "Well, it's nice to know that I'm trusted considering that we only just met." The two young women shared a giggle before they recomposed themselves. "We should go this way." Rey said, pointing in the direction that she sensed the other force users coming from.
"I'll trust you on that. I don't think I've learnt that ability yet." Jaina admitted as they began to make their way to the other force users. They moved cautiously through the city until the sound of metal rolling through the streets grabbed their attention. "Erm, Rey? We should probably get away from here very quickly."
Rey replied as they turned to face the new threat, "I think you're right Jaina." Rey and Jaina reignited their lightsabres as five Droidekas swiftly unfurled from their ball configurations and immediately activated their shields and began firing on the two young Jedi, who began deflecting the bolts back to the fast firing droids although their shields absorbed the bolts. "Do you know how to dash with the force?"
"Yeah. Is that what we need to do?" Jaina asked, wanting to confirm that was the plan. The pair were rapidly deflecting the blaster bolts although they were outnumbered and, as it stood, they had no chance of destroying the unrelenting death machines.
"I think that if we want to get out of here alive, then I'm not seeing any other choice." Rey replied as they continued to fend off the relentless Droidekas. Sensing a split second gap in between Droideka blasts, Rey spoke to Jaina, saying "Let's go!" and before the Droidekas could see what had happened, they gained an almost hundred metre head start. Seeing their targets run away, the Droidekas summoned some nearby reinforcements to follow them. This signal was picked up by a platoon of battle droids and an AAT crew. They followed the signal being broadcast by the Droidekas as fast as they could, especially given the almost lightning speed of the Droidekas.
Harry and Padmé
Harry currently found himself on a bridge over a courtyard along with 2 Jedi and a clumsy Gungan. They'd stealthily infiltrated the City of Theed after receiving a transport from the Gungan city. The journey to Theed had been stressful, marked by encounters with numerous underwater predators that all seemed to eat each other but they arrived safely and had stealthily made their way through the city until they arrived at the courtyard. On their way to the courtyard, Qui-Gon had told Harry that they were the only two Jedi currently on the planet.
A moment after they reached the courtyard, a group of people, all of whom were humans wearing a variety of clothing that Harry believed to be valuable, were being marched through there and were being escorted by a squad of battle droids. Harry saw that Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-wan Kenobi were preparing to spring into action and liberate the prisoners. Harry halted them before they attacked the droids, "So, while we're practicing stealth, just to repeat what we talked about in the Gungan city, these things are robots, right?" indicating to the walking metal people beside the humans.
"Not robots. They're called droids." Qui-Gon replied. The group of humans and droids drew closer as they marched towards a newly set up camp for prisoners.
"Before you go and free them, let me do one thing." Harry said to Qui-Gon and Obi-wan. Jar Jar Binks just looked at Harry in confusion as he saw Harry take a stick out of his pocket. Qui-Gon and Obi-wan looked at Harry with lots of curiosity. Harry pointed his wand at the battle droids and, from his vantage point, cast a silencing spell at each of the battle droids. "Right, so, I've silenced those droids so they shouldn't be able to call for help. So you can go up behind them and take them down silently." As soon as Harry told the two Jedi that they were free to take out the droids, Qui-Gon and Obi-wan dropped down into the courtyard and swiftly took the battle droids down in a matter of seconds with only a couple of shots being fired. Harry looked at the two Jedi, feeling both stunned and annoyed at the actions of the two Jedi. He turned to their Gungan companion and spoke to him, "Let's get down there Jar Jar." Harry and Jar Jar jumped down to the courtyard below and Harry took a few steps towards the older of the two Jedi before realising that Jar Jar was stuck on some of the bridge architecture dangling upside down and used a levitation charm to free Jar Jar from the bridge. Turning back to Qui-Gon, Obi-wan and the other humans, proceeding to question the two Jedi's actions, "I'm not quite sure if that could be classed as stealth there. I was not thinking 'Let's start a fight and hope no-one notices'; I was thinking more along the lines of 'Let's wait until they went past and then quietly and neatly take down those things.' That's what I thought you meant by being stealthy."
"Grab their guns!" Captain Panaka ordered his newly freed men as soon as it became clear that no battle droids were in the immediate vicinity. Almost instinctively, the royal guards took a cautious stance and kept watch in case of any more droid patrols.
"We need to leave here your majesty and return to Coruscant. We need to inform the chancellor and Jedi Council of the current situation." Qui-Gon said to the Queen as they walked into a garden next to the courtyard and then into a nearby walkway, accompanied by the Governor, Sio Bibble and her Handmaidens, including one who was looking briefly at Harry, who kept watch at the garden entrance in case any trouble did occur.
"The negotiations seem to have failed, Master Jedi." Sio Bibble said to Qui-Gon. As the Governor spoke to the Master Jedi, Captain Panaka and his men passed by Harry, appreciative that someone was willing to make sure that they all made it out safely.
"The negotiations never took place. It's important that the Queen leaves here. I fear that the Trade Federation may seek to harm her majesty."
Captain Panaka spoke up, protesting Qui-Gon's line of thinking, "They wouldn't dare; they need her to sign the treaty to make this invasion of theirs legal."
"I sense that there's something more to this invasion than meets the eye. They may want to destroy you." Qui-Gon replied.
Sio Bibble spoke to the Queen, "Our people's only hope lies in the senate. Senator Palpatine needs your help."
Harry noticed that the droids all seemed to have some sort of radio device attached to their backs. He waved to the man in charge of all the guards, who noticed that Harry wished to speak to him. "Are you alright kid?"
"Yeah... Sorry, what's your name?" Harry asked the older man politely.
"You can call me Captain Panaka for now; we can do proper introductions later. Anyway, you wanted to speak to me?" Captain Panaka replied.
"Yes, I did." Harry said before pointing at a couple of the more intact, cut down battle droids lying on the ground. "I've not long been on this planet but Qui-Gon and Obi-wan quickly told me about these robots, I mean, battle droids. While these things are new to me, I've noticed that they all have some sort of radio..."
"Communicator." Captain Panaka corrected, not realising that Harry knew next to nothing about this planet or this galaxy.
"Whatever, radio, communicator, it's the same difference as far as I can tell. My point is, I've noticed that these things all carry some sort of communications gear on their back. My thinking is that if we take one of those devices, we might be able to track their movements and avoid their patrols." Harry explained to the more experienced man.
Captain Panaka smiled. Qui-Gon overheard the conversation between Harry and Captain Panaka and frowned, "Why? It makes no sense to encumber ourselves unnecessarily."
"I've already explained my reasons why we should take it Qui-Gon. I'd rather be weighed down by a heavy radio or communicator than take a chance on a surprise encounter with those metal walking guys." Harry told the Jedi Master.
Captain Panaka looked at Harry proudly, "I like your thinking kid. It's good to know that the Jedi are turning out practical thinkers."
"He's not..." Obi-wan began to correct the captain of the Queen's guards but was beaten to the punch by Harry.
"I'm definitely no Jedi, Captain Panaka. I only found out about them in the last few hours. I am a wizard, very different, I think." Harry told Captain Panaka. "I didn't even know about this planet or this Trade Federation or Gungans until I got here."
"How did you get here? I'm sure that the Trade Federation would've either shot you down or dragged you into one of their ships." Captain Panaka said to the young man. He was sure that anyone who made it to Naboo had to have arrived in a ship of some kind.
"I don't think that you'd believe me if I told you." Harry replied doubtfully.
"Before today kid, I wouldn't have thought that we would've been subjected to an illegal invasion. I think I can deal with the farfetched." Panaka retorted.
"Well, I'm sure that I'll be able to give a more detailed explanation later but I was running after my godfather on my planet and then the next moment, I found myself falling from the sky of this planet and landed in front of Qui-Gon, Obi-wan and Jar Jar." Harry summarised, finishing his abridged explanation by pointing at the Jedi Master and Padawan and the clumsy Gungan.
"Do you want to get a battle droid so we can use its communications gear?" Captain Panaka asked, switching subjects, not surprising Harry in the slightest.
Harry instead turned to the nearest, most intact battle droid, pointed his wand at it and muttered "Accio." The partly destroyed battle droid then flew towards the pair of them. Harry and Captain Panaka caught the thing mid-air although Harry was winded when the droid's limply hanging arm whacked him in the stomach.
Captain Panaka took a moment to make sure that Harry was alright, "You okay kid?" Harry nodded, although he was wincing and grimacing for a moment. Captain Panaka then tried to remove the communications gear from the back of the battle droid but it was attached very tightly to the droid. Panaka turned to Harry again, "Kid, do you think that you can help me remove this gear from this thing's back?".
"I think so." Harry said, still wincing from the strike from the deactivated battle droid arm. Harry crouched down and pointed his wand at where the communications gear was still attached to the battle droid and then muttered the severing charm, "Diffindo." The droid backpack then came away from the droid itself very easily and Captain Panaka found himself stumbling backwards.
"Cheers kid." Captain Panaka said gratefully. He then gestured to for two of his men to come over, which two of them did. "You two, get this device working. You've got five minutes to do that."
Harry kept an eye on the courtyard after Panaka and the men he tasked with getting the droid backpack up and running returned to the modest amount of shelter where they were discussing their next move. He noticed a figure move across the buildings on the and he was sure that this figure was a human or a humanoid as their movements were much more fluid than those of the droids he had seen. He observed their movements closely and saw that the person was a young woman that was dressed in a white dress or gown and appeared to be no more than two to four years older than himself. After a moment or two, the woman in white noticed that Harry had seen her. Harry saw that she was carrying one or two guns and kept one at the ready but she seemed to recognise that Harry was not a threat to her. Someone came up behind Harry and tapped him on the shoulder. Harry looked at the person interrupting his observation and saw that it was one of the girls accompanying the Queen. He noticed that the girl in front of him was about his age or possibly a year or so younger than him and had brown eyes and hair. "Um... Hi." Harry said to the girl nervously. He thought that she was very pretty and he wasn't sure what to do other than continue as though she didn't have an effect on him. "Can I help you?" he asked her.
The girl in front of him looked into his emerald green eyes, mesmerized by how striking they were. She thought that those eyes of his were very expressive and his hair, although messy, had a charm all its own. Eventually she realised that he had spoken to her and after taking a moment to register what he exactly said, she replied almost composedly, "Oh, sorry... Hi." She then kind of introduced herself to him, "I'm one of the Queen's Handmaidens and I was just wondering if you wanted to join us over here? We won't be seen by the battle droids if we're all in cover."
Harry smiled at the offer but shook his head, "I would but then someone needs to be here in case those battle... droids come up behind us while we're not moving." He then turned his head to glance at the woman in the white dress or gown, "In any case, there's someone on the other side of the courtyard here from where we are. I guess they were following your party." He then turned back towards the young Handmaiden.
"What!" the Naboo Queen's Handmaiden hissed in reply, not wanting to draw attention to their position unnecessarily.
"Calm down. I think that whoever it is that's following your party is friendly. If they weren't, I think that a shot would've been fired by now." Harry replied reassuringly. He looked back at the party of Jedi, Naboo government officials and royalty and the odd Gungan out and gestured for the young teen woman to re-join the others, "I think that you may need to re-join your Queen. I don't how your monarchy works here but I think that she might need you to act as a decoy... maybe."
"Okay." The young woman replied calmly and she turned to re-join the others, walking a few steps towards them and then said to Harry, "When we're in a safer place, I think we should probably tell each other our names."
"I'd like that." Harry replied with a smile on his face that bordered on being a full blown grin. He glanced at the young woman as she walked away from him, and then refocused on the courtyard where there were many avenues to approach their position.
Padmé walked away from the young man, looking very calm on the surface but, on the inside, she felt like a bundle of nerves. She was scared at the thought the handsome boy knew that she was the real Queen but quickly dismissed that thought. It was more likely that he was speaking like he was expecting her to be the bodyguard, not the one that antagonistic parties were looking for. Nevertheless, Padmé resolved to consult with her Handmaidens, including Sabé, and Captain Panaka when opportunities would allow. She was also worried by the possibility of a potential stalker although the handsome young man assured her that this other person was not a threat.
After the Handmaiden returned to her Queen, Harry began to notice something was wrong. He began hearing the sound of metal clanging along the ground and it grew louder as the noise drew closer. Harry wasn't sure but he thought that amongst the sound of metal clanging on the ground, he could also hear rapidly approaching footsteps. "I wonder if there are there are others trying to hide or run away?" he muttered to himself. After another moment or two of hearing metal clashing with stone and footsteps running, Harry saw the causes of the noise. Harry saw two young women run into the courtyard, one wearing a white wrap dress and the other wearing tunic trousers and a plain white vest, they were holding things in their hands, which Harry suspected he recognised. He could also just about hear what they were saying. Glancing briefly towards the top of the buildings on the opposite side of the courtyard, he saw the young woman in white take cover and move out of sight, as though she thought she was about to be discovered by an antagonistic party.
"Jaina, we should stop!" the woman in the white wrap dress said to the other girl.
"We should keep running Rey!" the younger girl replied.
"No. Stop running, we'll let them run past us and we'll cut them down as they run past us!" The woman in the white wrap dress explained.
"Why didn't you just say that in the first place." The girl in the vest replied, evidently sounding frustrated. Harry saw the reason why they were running as soon as they began to slow down. Five rolling objects, evidently another type of droid belonging to the invaders, rolled headlong into the courtyard at a very fast speed, clearly pursuing the two young women.
"Now!" the older of the two young women said. Harry's suspicions about what they were was confirmed as soon as the objects in their hands were ignited; They were Jedi. The two newcomer Jedi cut down four of the rolling death machines as they rolled past them. The remaining rolling death machine managed to get past the deadly blades and built up a slight distance between itself and the two fugitives before unfurling itself, activating its shield and then turned itself around. As soon as it was aiming in their direction, it began firing multiple blaster bolts in their direction.
Harry immediately walked through the garden and into the walkway where the Jedi, Gungan and members of Naboo's government and royalty were still gathered. Still keeping himself positioned so he could see the entrance to the courtyard. He then spoke to Qui-Gon, uncertainty clear in his voice, "Qui-Gon?"
"What is it Harry?" Qui-Gon asked as he picked up on Harry's uncertainty.
"You did say that it was just you and Obi-wan on this mission, right?" Harry questioned.
"That's right. We were sent from Coruscant by the Supreme Chancellor." Qui-Gon answered definitively and without any hesitation.
"And were there any other Jedi on the planet before this invasion took place?" Harry asked as he mentally tried to figure out what was going on.
"It's highly unlikely as our Order would've told us if there were any on this planet for any reason. It could be a follower of one of the Jedi Lords as they don't answer to the order but they're more likely to be in one of the more dangerous or remote sectors of the galaxy." Qui-Gon replied definitively again, wondering why Harry was asking questions that he knew he'd already told Harry the answers to earlier.
"It's just that I'm seeing a couple of Jedi being attacked in the courtyard by some killer death balls." Harry said, stunning and perplexing the two Jedi he'd arrived at Theed with. Harry did not wait for them to come up with an explanation for how this situation came about. Instead, Harry walked back to help the two newly arrived Jedi fighting in the courtyard. The Droideka fired relentlessly at the two female Jedi but it failed to hear Harry come up behind him. Likewise, the two female Jedi failed to notice Harry emerging from the garden entrance, slightly to the right and behind the Droideka. Taking advantage of the killing machine's distracted state, Harry lined up a shot with his wand and cast the Exploding charm, "Bombarda!" The Exploding charm passed straight through the shield of the wheel-like droid and made contact with it, blasting it into many, mostly broken, pieces. The two female Jedi were surprised when they saw the Droideka explode from within its own shield and then they saw Harry. The pair then deactivated their lightsabres, assuming the danger was over for the time being. Harry fast walked towards them, determined to figure out why and how they were on this planet. "I'd like to know how you two got here and, more importantly, why you two are here?" he asked, half curious and half cautious. The two female Jedi opened their mouths to say something when Harry raised one of his hands to pre-emptively silence them. They all turned in the direction of where the two young Jedi entered the courtyard from where they could hear the sounds of metal feet marching and the loud hum of an engine approaching. The two Jedi instinctively reignited their lightsabres while Harry readied his wand. About half a minute later, their readiness and hearing helped them out considerably as a few dozen battle droids entered the courtyard and immediately attacked the trio. Harry and the two female Jedi ferociously defended themselves as the droids attempted to swarm them. The trio parried the blaster bolts with Harry's shield causing blaster bolts fizzle out on contact with it and those blaster bolts that came into contact with the two female Jedi's lightsabres were deflected back at the droids that shot them.
As battle droids fell like flies thanks to their combined efforts, a hovering tank struggled to manoeuvre its way through a narrow street. The droid crew found that, even for a vehicle that didn't have the same problems as wheeled or tracked vehicles, the street they were advancing down simply did not have the room to efficiently move the vehicle in any direction other than forward or reverse. Eventually, the tank reached the courtyard as its crew saw their metal brethren taking on a trio of fugitives, two of whom wielded lightsabres while the other held a stick, which they were perplexed by. Nevertheless, the droid crew of the tank obediently followed their orders which was to subdue the population of the planet in any way necessary and, naturally, these orders allowed them to use lethal force. They couldn't have deviated from their orders anyway as they were programmed from the control ship up in space. The droid crew summoned additional reinforcements and a couple of squads of battle droids riding STAPs were dispatched.
Harry and the two female Jedi looked at the tank worriedly as it awkwardly entered the courtyard. The older of the two female Jedi acted quickly, "Jaina, go right, I'll go left!" The older of the two Jedi then dashed to the left of the tank before speaking loudly to Harry, "Get out of the way!"
Before Harry could get far enough away, the tank fired its main gun at Harry, with the blast just catching Harry as he dove out of the way. The blast from the tank resulted in a small crater in the elegant stone and brick paved courtyard and some of the resulting shrapnel became embedded in Harry's lower right leg. "Fucking Hell!" he cursed loudly as he clutched his now injured leg. Harry saw that the two female Jedi were struggling to fend off the tank and the still almost two dozen battle droids. Getting himself up, he aimed at a group of four battle droids and commented on their positioning to himself, "Huh... they're lined up in a perfect row. Pretty convenient." He then cast the severing charm, "Diffindo" and the spell left his wand. A light green light sailed through the air and connected with the first battle droid and then continued onwards for a few more seconds, tearing through the battle droids in its path before fizzling out in mid-air. Harry then decided to take charge of the situation and called out to the Jedi fighting in front of him, "Oi, you two!" The two female Jedi in front of him then divided their attention between fighting off the battle droids and listening to the raven haired boy behind them. They both looked like they wanted to say something but the fact that they were defending themselves took up most of their concentration. "I'll deal with the tank, you two concentrate on the walking metal skeletons." He then called out to the woman in white, having a gut feeling that she was still nearby, "I don't know if you can hear me but I really hope you have a gun or something with you. If I can open up the tank, can you shoot the crew?"
"Who are you talking to?" the younger Jedi that he could positively name as Jaina asked him, almost like she thought he had gone insane.
Harry ignored the question and instead focused on opening the tank up. "Alohomora." He muttered as he aimed his wand at the tank. "Damn!" There was no visible sign of the spell having done anything to the tank although Harry theorised that it may have made opening the tank up from the outside easier, not that it appeared that any of them would get the chance to. With their chances of winning getting slimmer by the second, Harry decided to become a little more destructive. He aimed at the tank once more and said loudly, "Reducto!" The light blue beam of light raced towards the tank and made contact with the front of it. While he was disappointed that it didn't destroy the entirety of the tank as he thought it would, there was gaping big hole in the front of the machine. "Where are you?" he quietly asked aloud, wondering where the woman in white was. His question was answered a moment later when blaster bolts fire came from behind and above him as she had moved around during the commotion. The blaster fire first took out the driver, then each of the two gunners. However, despite firing several shots into the hull of the tank which destroyed some of the equipment used to operate the vehicle, the woman in the white dress was unable to take out the tank commander. This left the droid tank commander with too much to do and too many targets to focus on. Harry saw that it opened the hatch on the top of the turret so it could survey the situation itself and as it began to emerge from the turret, the woman in the white gown shot its head off with one clean hit and, with the loss of the final crew member, the tank settled on to the ground. The Jedi in the white wrap dress and the Jedi known as Jaina were shocked that the boy they just met wasn't going insane but they had no time to dwell on it for the moment as there were still battle droids to deal with. Within a few minutes however the remaining battle droids were dealt with, having fallen victim to a combination of blaster and spell fire and lightsabre strikes. Harry saw the woman in the white gown continued to fire her blaster but it appeared that she was firing into the sky. Harry was confused until he saw why she was firing into the sky. Battle droids on flying one person vehicles flew through the sky to carry out the mission which their ground based brethren failed to achieve. The Jedi in the white wrap dress and the one known as Jaina kept their lightsabres ready, preparing to defend themselves while Harry aimed his wand at the swarm of battle droids on what he thought looked like bulky, flying pogo sticks. The woman in the white gown expertly shot several of the battle droid pilots in the head causing the aerial vehicles to begin diving dangerously fast to the ground. "Arresto Momentum!" Harry cast and the unmanned aerial vehicles falling from the sky fell a lot more slowly to the ground and Harry followed up by casting the seize and pull charm multiple times and very quickly. He then used the same charm on the aerial vehicles that were still manned by battle droids and he watched with some satisfaction as the battle droids riding those vehicles lost their grip and crashed to the ground in a rather comedic fashion.
"What are you? I've never heard of anyone doing what you do." The Jedi in the white wrap dress asked with confusion and amazement.
"I'm a wizard." Harry replied without hesitation. Before either of the young women could say anything else, Harry continued speaking and instantly put the two on edge, "And you two are Jedi that aren't supposed to be here." The two young women shared a nervous look with each other but Harry then put their minds at ease, "Then again, I'm fairly sure I'm not supposed to be here either."
"And who's your guardian angel?" the one known as Jaina asked him.
"I've got zero idea other than I know she's a woman..." he turned to the Jedi in the white wrap dress, "I reckon she's about your age, maybe a bit younger." He then explained a condensed version of his arrival on Naboo, "What I do know is that I landed in front of a couple of Jedi and a humanoid known as a Gungan. I ended up joining them as they went to the Gungan city" he then quickly and quietly said, mostly to himself, "The swim there was frankly embarrassing. Had to be sort of dragged through the water." He then spoke aloud again to the two female Jedi in front of him and noticed that they were frowning, "Something wrong?"
"Why can't I sense you in the force?" the Jedi in the white wrap dress asked him.
The one known as Jaina likewise felt confused by her seeming inability to sense him and was evidently frustrated, "How can you exist?"
Harry chuckled, "You're having the same difficulty sensing me that the other two Jedi here are having? I'm surprised you didn't say anything earlier even though we were fighting for our lives. I doubt that you'll be the last either."
"Can we meet this guardian angel of yours?" Jaina said.
"I don't think she wants to be seen but I think we should. After all I really only met her at a distance and we've not spoken yet. Just a view from a distance." Harry replied. Harry then turned to face the approximate direction of the woman in the white gown and spoke out loud apologetically, "Sorry but we're all better off sticking together. Plus I'd like to thank the person who saved our lives in person." He then aimed his wand in the direction of the woman in the white dress and, despite the fact he had no direct line of sight to her, cast the levitation charm at her, softly saying "Wingardium Leviosa!"
"What the-?!!" The woman in the white gown exclaimed out loud as she felt herself floating off the ground. The two female Jedi shared a glance as they both recognised the voice.
"WHAT!" Both Jaina and the Jedi in the white wrap dress exclaimed out loud as the woman in the white gown was effortlessly being floated to the ground.
"You both know this person?" Harry asked questioningly.
"Yeah, we do. We know her from..." Jaina said, trailing off with uncertainty.
The Jedi in the white wrap dress cut in, "We know her from reputation."
"Right..." Harry said doubtfully before focusing on the woman he was levitating to the ground. She was struggling in the air and Harry was forced to reassure her, "You need to calm down or your landing on the ground is going to look embarrassing for you." As he lowered the woman with the levitation charm, he returned to speaking with the two female Jedi, "While we should all introduce ourselves to each other, we should do so later. Right now, we need to get back to the Queen and the others." Harry gently lowered the woman in the white gown to the ground and then winced in pain before sitting on the ground.
"Are you okay?" The woman in the white wrap dress asked with concern.
Harry ignored her while he looked at his lower right leg and saw that part of his calf was bleeding profusely. Harry was surprised however when he saw his right foot was virtually fine, only being covered in the copious amount of blood emanating from the calf. On top of his injuries, the lack of sleep was beginning to take its toll on him. "How the hell am I still standing? Not even sure how long I've been awake for now. It feels longer than twenty four hours." He muttered to himself.
"Kriffing hell, have you got any Bacta patches on you?" The woman in the white wrap dress asked as she saw the wounds on the raven haired boy.
"Or Bacta spray?" Jaina added hoping to help.
Harry looked at them in utter confusion before replying, "I've got no idea what either of you are talking about." He then looked at the damaged and technically unmanned tank still sitting in the courtyard and got an idea. He staggered onto his feet and limped towards the tank, leaving a slight trail of blood in his wake. The two female Jedi as well as the woman in the white dress looked at him in confusion as they were unsure of what he was thinking. Harry quietly pointed his wand at the tank and cast a series of shrinking and feather lightening charms on it. The three women were surprised that the badly damaged tank was no longer larger than them and was the size of a tiny figurine and their jaws dropped when Harry picked the tank up in one hand. "Here catch!" Harry said almost tiredly as he threw the thing at the Jedi in the white wrap dress. He watched as the three young women passed the miniaturised and now feather light tank between them, amazed that this was the same tank they'd been fighting a few minutes earlier.
The woman in the white gown looked at Harry in amazement and struggled to get out any sound whatsoever. After a moment or two, she finally managed to say something, "How the hell did you do that?"
"Magic!" Harry replied cheekily but with a hiss as his wound left him wincing in pain. He then spoke to the two female Jedi, "Can one of you grab those vehicles and the other one grab their guns?" The two female Jedi nodded and then holding up their arms, they proceeded to do as he asked, gathering the fallen aerial vehicles and dropped blasters and sorting them into somewhat neat piles. "Thank you." He said to both of the female Jedi. He then repeated what he did on the tank on the blasters and aerial vehicles and soon the blasters and aerial vehicles were so small that they could be held with only fingers and thumbs. "We should get back to the others." Harry said as he began walking back to the walkway where Qui-Gon, Obi-wan, Jar Jar and the various members of Naboo's government and royalty were just before the woman in the white dress began to protest.
"We shouldn't. We're probably better off remaining here." The other two young women shared a look between each other, vacillating between wanting to disagree with her and thinking that she had a point. Separately, the woman in the white wrap dress and the Jedi known as Jaina were, for their own reasons, thinking that they should not even be interacting with the woman in the white gown at all and, yet, they were here talking to her.
Harry looked at the woman in the white dress like she'd grown a second head or a second face. Flabbergasted, Harry called her out on her line of thinking, "Are you nuts? What makes you think you'll be able to survive here, huh? If you stay here, you might be able to hold out for a day or a few or maybe even a few weeks but they'll get you eventually and after the show we just did, I think that they'll bring reinforcements here. Come with me and the others and we should be able to survive for a lot longer and get the answers I imagine that we all need."
The woman in the white gown shook her head, "No. I think it's better for those two and myself to stay here."
"Don't make me tie you up to get you out of here." Harry replied warningly. His expression darkened every moment they were out in the open.
"After the last few days I've had, I don't think that will change my opinion much." The woman in the white gown shot back, almost daring him to carry out his threat.
"Look I'm sorry but I'm not in the mood to argue about this, especially as my leg is bleeding badly. Don't say I didn't warn you." Harry said to her half apologetically before aiming his wand at her. "Incarcerous!" He said aloud. He then quickly cast the silencing spell, "Silencio!" just so he couldn't here anymore of her protests.
The woman in the white gown found herself suddenly found herself tied up in rope and began protesting immediately before she realised that she couldn't hear herself shouting. The two female Jedi looked at the pair in surprise and were especially surprised when ropes suddenly appeared around the woman in the white gown. The Jedi known as Jaina walked up to the now bound woman and began touching the ropes that bound her. She looked at Harry inquisitively, "Are these real? They feel real but, like you, I cannot sense them."
Harry's face became slightly more neutral, which was a slight improvement from a few moments earlier. He responded to her, "They're as real as they feel until they're broken or someone dispels them." He then looked at both the Jedi in front of him, "Now, am I going to have to do the same thing to you?"
The two female Jedi looked at each other and concluded that they would in fact be better off sticking with the young man. The threat of the boy in front of them tying them up to drag them away anyway certainly made it less likely for them to stay on the planet. "You won't need to. I think that I speak for the pair of us when I say that we weighed up the options available to us and concluded that we're better off sticking with you. We'll be able to find the answers we seek that way."
"Good. Let's take these things and her with us and then we can try and escape this place." Harry replied, sounding happier already. He then took charge once more, "Let's levitate all this and her to the walkway and then I'll patch myself up there."
The Jedi known as Jaina had no objections to that, "It sounds good to me." The Jedi in the white wrap dress nodded her agreement. The group then walked away from the courtyard and back to where Harry's companions were. As he was about to enter the garden where the walkway entrance was, Harry turned and whispered the summoning charm a couple of times and a couple of broken battle droids soon flew towards him and landing just barely in front of him. He then used the levitation charm on the broken battle droids and he made sure they floated in front of him as he walked.
Qui-Gon saw Harry's wounded state as Harry limped into the walkway and expressed his concern, "Harry, are you alright?" He moved to help Harry as the Handmaiden that Harry had spoken to earlier covered her mouth as she saw the wound on Harry's leg. The Queen appeared to jab the Handmaiden in her side and the Handmaiden regained her composure. The broken battle droids that Harry had been levitating in front of him fell to the ground as he lost his concentration thanks to the pain he was experiencing.
"Yeah, I'm fine Qui-Gon. Just fine and dandy." Harry replied sarcastically with a wince. Harry then grimaced as pain shot through his leg and angrily spoke again to the Jedi master, "Does it look like I'm alright?! I've had a tank shoot at me and shrapnel is stuck in my leg." He then spoke apologetically to Qui-Gon whilst still sounding annoyed, "Sorry. I need to sort this out though before I can go anywhere else."
"What does dandy mean Master?" Obi-wan quietly asked his master in confusion.
"Ask him later Obi-wan. Now is not the time to ask that question." Qui-Gon firmly but kindly told his apprentice.
Padmé walked up to the wounded boy and knelt down on one leg as she inspected the injury despite the fact that she had very little medical knowledge. She looked up and stared into his emerald green eyes, shimmering with power and quietly spoke to him, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Harry probably would've blushed at the attention he was receiving from the very pretty girl but he was distracted by the pain in his leg as it was bleeding. Instead, he directed her as best he could, ignoring his thoughts regarding her, "Yeah, I need you to grab my leg really tight and try to stem the flow of blood whilst I work on the healing part." Harry rolled up his right trouser leg and nodded at the pretty Handmaiden who did as he asked. The Jedi known as Jaina knelt down alongside the Handmaiden and helped stem the flow of blood. Harry looked at Jaina quizzically.
"If it wasn't for you, we might have still been fighting that Droideka by the time those battle droids arrived at that courtyard. I'll do anything I can to help." Jaina replied before adding, "I owe you one."
"Thank you." Harry said gratefully but tiredly as the lack of sleep began to take its toll on him once more. He nevertheless pushed on, knowing that he could only truly rest once they were safe. He summoned the broken battle droids and began to slice them up. He then agonisingly removed several pieces of stone embedded in his leg and was about to turn the sliced up battle droids into various pieces of medical equipment until he suddenly slapped his head with realisation, "I'm an idiot." He traced the various wounds multiple times with his wand and the flow of blood stopped and then the wounds largely healed up. He then cast a scouring charm on his leg, removing the blood that covered his leg. Everyone was surprised when Harry stood up and was moving as though he'd never been injured in the first place.
"How?" Padmé asked the handsome young man, unable to think of anything else to say.
"Magic!" Harry replied happily, his pain fuelled annoyance all but gone.
"And you didn't need Bacta?" Padmé asked, wondering how it was entirely possible without the stuff.
"You're the third person who's mentioned Bacta to me and the only thing I've gathered is that it's used for medical purposes. Seriously never heard of it until a short while ago." He replied to the young Handmaiden, who blushed slightly as he spoke to her.
Captain Panaka finally noticed the bound woman in the white gown by the newly arrived Jedi and questioned Harry about it. "Kid, why is there some young woman tied up here?"
"Well, she had some insane idea that these two new Jedi and herself were better off staying on this planet and let's just things got slightly argumentative." Harry explained sheepishly. "My thinking was that it's better to run now and live to fight another day."
"Is this true?" Captain Panaka asked the trio of young women who'd accompanied Harry back to the walkway where they currently were.
"It might be a slight overstatement but it's essentially correct." The female Jedi in the white wrap dress replied hesitantly, glancing at the bound woman by her side.
Captain Panaka sighed and spoke to Harry once more, "While I don't agree with your actions in getting her here, the fact is that you are right."
"Hang on just a moment. Let me free her from those ropes." Harry said to him before turning to the woman in the white gown, aimed his wand at her and incanted aloud, "Finite." The woman in the white gown suddenly found her arms were free to move and she could hear herself again. She looked at Harry with a glare and he spoke to her, almost like he was shrugging her glare, "You're welcome. Your apparent need to self sacrifice yourself here will do no-one any favours and I'm fairly sure that they won't care if you're dead or not." His words struck her like a viper but he wasn't quite done, "If you really are that determined and want to help out, then you're better off sticking with us. Don't try and be a princess now, it's not worth it."
"You're not going to let me stay here, are you?" the woman in the white gown asked, realising that Harry would not let her have her way.
"If I really thought that your staying here would help this planet, I would but, as I said, the show we put on out there might have already made things worse. From what I've been told, these invaders were already on edge when it was just Qui-Gon and Obi-wan." Harry said, taking a mental note of how the young woman in the white dress' eyes lit up before he continued speaking, "If they have received word that there are more Jedi and more resistance than they estimated, I don't think they'll be hesitating to send reinforcements."
"So you're saying that the best way to help the population at this point is by not helping them?" the woman in the white dress asked quizzically.
"It makes me sound like a cold bastard when you say it like that but, for the moment, I am. If we try to help out anymore now, then the crackdown would just be worse." Harry reasoned.
"It sounds as though you speak from experience?" The Jedi known as Jaina suggested.
"I do." Harry confirmed with a slight growl, unconsciously rubbing his right hand with his left, "I would say recent experience." The words 'I must not tell lies' embedded into the back of his hand. "As far as my own world is concerned, and I don't mean any disrespect to any authority figures here... which I guess is mostly everyone here... but I learnt one lesson that I probably should've always had and that is that the people who are meant to look after those under their protection will always end up a disappointment, even when you know they're going to be a disappointment."
"Sounds like you had a rough time kid." Captain Panaka said sympathetically. He turned to his men working on the droid backpack, who looked at him and nodded. He then turned back to the others and addressed everyone, "We're good to go everyone. Let's go to the hanger!"
"Once we get out of here, why don't we all introduce ourselves to each other?" Padmé suggested to the handsome young man and the young women who'd joined him as the group began to move out, away from the walkway where they currently were.
"I think that's a great idea. I hardly know anyone's names here. I just know Qui-Gon, Obi-wan, Jar Jar and Captain Panaka." Harry replied happily, before pointing at Jaina and adding, "Although I did catch your name as you and your master entered the courtyard."
Jaina immediately corrected him, "She's not my master. We only just met today."
"Ah, okay. So you're friends of convenience for the time being? Fair enough. I'm sure that we'll have plenty of time to acquaint ourselves with each other in any case." Harry replied apologetically. The large, assorted group of people moved through the many buildings to the hanger, making sure that they moved stealthily and that they left no trace of their movements.
After a short time of somehow stealthily moving through the palace and the buildings adjoining it, they reached the entrance to the hanger. Most of them had expected there to be a light to modest battle droid presence in the hanger but, true to Harry's prediction, it appeared as though the hanger had just been reinforced with additional battle droids. He turned to the woman in the white gown and pointed out the reinforced battle droid presence, "This is why we need to leave! They probably got word of what we did and they've made moves to block off any escape attempt from anyone on this planet!"
The woman in the white gown looked annoyed at him, "Look you made your point, let's make sure we get out of here."
Harry then turned to the Queen, "You have got to change." As far as he was concerned, she stood out like a sore thumb. Her extravagant black dress and feathered headdress as well as the white face paint made her a prime target.
Captain Panaka immediately spoke up firmly, "Her majesty will be perfectly safe." He seemed perfectly fine with the Queen's choice of clothing and unconcerned regarding her safety. It reminded Harry in some ways of Dumbledore defending Snape whenever any aspect of Snape's personality or abilities came into question but he suspected something was amiss with what he was seeing and being told.
However, he was tired and was willing to let the matter slide for now. "Fine. However, I would like to make one request." Harry dug into his pockets and rummaged through them until he found what he was looking for, "Would you please put this on? It'll help you blend in massively." It was his invisibility cloak and he held it for the Queen to take. She looked at him sceptically.
"I don't see how that will help me blend in." The Queen stated unamused.
"I'm guessing that a practical demonstration is in order." Harry remarked to himself aloud as he glared at her. He swung the cloak over himself and he disappeared from everyone's sight.
Guns were pointed in the direction of where he had been standing. Even the Jedi were taken by surprise. "Master!" Obi-wan said in surprise, hoping that Qui-Gon knew what was going on.
"Calm yourself Obi-wan. Harry, you're still here, are you not?" Qui-Gon, despite being just as surprised as everyone else, remained calm and motioned for his apprentice to remain calm before sensing that Harry was trying to prove a point. Harry's voice came from behind them all.
"I might be behind you." Harry said, as the group turned to face the general direction of his voice. "Or I might be in front of you." The group turned to the hanger entrance where Harry's voice was coming from. "You'd never know though unless I gave myself away." The group then looked into the middle and Harry unveiled himself after a brief moment, removing the invisibility cloak and he smirked at the Queen. "Blend in or disappear; either way, you can't stay in the open."
Harry turned to the Handmaiden who he'd already spoken to as she spoke to the Queen, "It is a good plan, your majesty. I suggest we use it." Harry realised that the Handmaidens all wore identical red and orange robes and it caused Harry to question how many Handmaidens there were as they easily blended with each other. He wondered if the purpose was to confuse would be attackers or if it was just an aesthetic choice.
The Queen looked at the Invisibility cloak and frowned. She was deep in thought for a moment and then she turned to Harry, "How many will this... robe cover?"
"It will comfortably cover two people, your majesty. It could cover three at a stretch although I wouldn't recommend it right now." Harry answered without stuttering considering he was speaking to a queen.
"I will use this robe and Padmé will escort me to the ship." The Queen said to Captain Panaka after pondering the choices that were available to them. Panaka looked at the Queen cautiously and was about to say something but Padmé beat him to the punch.
"I live to serve, your majesty." Padmé said to the Queen as she stepped forward in her red robes. Captain Panaka could only sigh and nod as whatever he was about to say was pre-empted.
Harry held his Invisibility cloak in his hand and held it out so either Padmé or the Queen could take it. "Just so you know, firstly, this is cloak and not a robe. Secondly, this is the only thing left of my family so please be careful with it."
"We will make sure that it is returned to you in the same condition you gave it to us kind sir." The Queen said as Padmé took the Invisibility cloak from Harry.
"The name's Harry. Harry Potter." Harry said as he introduced himself. As Padmé and the Queen were about to put the cloak over themselves, he stopped them for a couple of moments, "If you two stand together for a moment, I can cast a charm to make sure you are both rendered completely silent. No-one else will be able to hear you, not even me. No-one will be able to hear your footsteps. Not until I remove the charm."
"Charm?" Captain Panaka asked with a quizzical frown.
"If used under the right circumstances, you could hide for years without anyone noticing or make something bigger or smaller than it originally was. Charms can do a lot." Harry summarised.
"I guess that he is just summarising for now but if it's anything like what I've seen him do so far, then it would be better than hiding with the Force." Obi-wan said, clearly not wanting to admit that Harry's magic in any way could be superior to the Force.
"I think that we need to hurry up." Qui-Gon interrupted. "Harry has shown that he is very capable and his magic has proven to be an invaluable asset." He then turned to Harry, "Are you capable of combat, Harry?"
"I've been in a few fights so I can fight. I don't know if I'll be able to win though." Harry admitted. His thoughts turned to his recent fight in the Ministry of Magic, deep in the Department of Mysteries. It had been that fight that lead to his ending up on this planet in the first place.
"I think that Harry should use that special cloak of his to scout the hanger out first." Qui-Gon suggested to the approval of virtually everyone there. Even Padmé and the Queen were in agreement as they had been about to place the Invisibility cloak on themselves and were now preparing to hand it back to Harry. Harry raised his hand to stop them handing it back immediately.
"There's no need to do hand it back just yet. I have one more thing that will serve the same purpose." Harry said.
"You have another cloak that makes you invisible?" Qui-Gon asked inquisitively.
"No." Harry replied immediately. "I have a way of making myself blend into my surroundings. Like a chameleon."
"You have chameleons on your planet? How did they get there?" One of the other Handmaidens asked in shock.
"They evolved on my planet over tens of millions years. How did chameleons from my world end up in these parts?" Harry asked questioningly.
Jaina noticed that everyone was got confused as to how both Harry and the people more familiar with this galaxy knew about chameleons. She had a number of theories but as they were very much pressed for time, she decided to rush through her most likely theory, "I'd say that, without more information, it's more likely to be a case of parallel evolution. Anyway, don't we have to get away from here?"
"Right." Harry replied in agreement before he twirled his wand around himself. He appeared to somewhat invisible to them but they could still tell he was there. "Shall I cast the silencing charm on you two?" He asked the Queen and Padmé.
"You may Mr Potter." The Queen said as she and Padmé stood closer together.
"How will we make sure that we're not accidentally caught in any crossfire?" Padmé asked, concern etched on her face but she had faith in the young man's abilities.
Harry thought hard for a few minutes but had no ideas. The female Jedi in the white wrap dress did have an idea though. "Hear me out on this." She said, anticipating resistance to her plan. "How about the Queen and her Handmaiden join Harry on his scouting run. He can escort her majesty to the ship and then he can return to us and fill us in on the droid defences around the ship. We can then tackle the droids with the Queen safely out of the action."
"It's too risky. There's a chance they could harm the Queen and we'd be too far away to protect her." Captain Panaka said forcefully, inevitably being the first voice to object to the female Jedi's risky plan.
Both the Queen and Padmé looked like they were going to say something but Harry beat them to it. "Maybe you should let the Queen and her Handmaiden decide whether it's too risky? If they choose to follow this Jedi's plan, then I swear I will protect them with every fibre of my being. If they agree with you and decide it's too risky, then I will not force them to change their minds."
Harry looked at the Queen and Padmé and they were looking at him appreciatively. He saw them briefly look at each other and they whispered intensely although no-one else could hear them and then the Queen turned back to face everyone. "I have concluded that following the plan of the Master Jedi is most suitable. Padmé and myself will accompany Harry Potter on his scouting mission during which he will escort us to the ship. We will be able to provide support from the ship if the situation requires us to do that."
Harry nodded, "If we're ready, shall I apply the silencing charm?" The Queen and Padmé nodded and they got themselves ready. Harry applied the silencing charm and before they wore the Invisibility cloak, Harry gave them a word of warning, "Just remember, once you've put the cloak on, the only way I'll the able to know where you are is if one of you is touching me." The Queen and Padmé nodded, acknowledging his warning. They then threw the Invisibility cloak around themselves and Harry felt either the Queen or the pretty Handmaiden place a hand on his camouflaged shoulder. "Wish us luck." Harry said hopefully.
"We don't believe in luck." Qui-Gon commented offhandedly.
"We're going to die." Harry retorted sarcastically before he walked into the hanger with the Queen and her Handmaiden. Harry lead the way to the ship, a large silvery chrome plated vessel that he thought was the size of a jumbo jet on his planet, if not larger. All around the hanger, several dozen battle droids were standing guard not actively patrolling the hanger but were watchful all the same. Almost a dozen of the droids keeping watch were guarding a group of prisoners. In addition, there were several small squads of battle droids conducting more active sweeps, patrolling around every nook and cranny that they could feasibly think of. Harry worried that the droids would be able to detect him or that the Invisibility cloak would slip off and expose them to an overwhelming swarm of the walking metal skeletons. Much to Harry's relief, he was able to get the Queen and the pretty Handmaiden on to the ship despite there being a tense moment when a single battle droid blocked the ramp of the ship until it moved out of the way. Once they were safely out of view and definitively out of hearing range, Padmé and the Queen removed the Invisibility cloak and Harry dispelled the various charms he'd placed on himself and the two young women in front of him. If he didn't know any better, he could've sworn that the Queen and the pretty Handmaiden were almost identical sisters but he was too tired and stressed to care too much at that time. "Will you two be safe in here now?" he asked them, focusing on their safety and wellbeing, although he did have to add about continuing to be very quiet whilst everyone else still needed to reach the ship, "Just to add that you'll need to continue to whisper and be careful with your movements."
"Of course we will Mr Potter." The Queen said respectfully, admiring his excellent control of the situation.
Padmé moved to return Harry's Invisibility cloak to him, "Would you like your cloak back?" He held her hand and made sure that she was gripping the shimmering material as though she was holding on for dear life.
"I don't need it back just yet. Keep it until everyone's gotten on board or has managed to go into hiding. You might need it yet." Harry replied softly, almost tenderly. Before Padmé could reply, Harry reapplied the disillusionment charm on himself and left the ship again.
Padmé stared at the spot where Harry had been standing and couldn't help but cling to the Invisibility cloak tightly. She couldn't help but think that Harry was like a hero out of the fairy tales she'd been told when she was a young kid. The Queen couldn't help but notice Padmé's daydreaming, "You've only known him for a few hours at most and it seems like he's already spun your world around. I can't say I blame you."
"Am I that transparent?" Padmé asked nervously.
"When it comes to your love life, kind of." The Queen said teasingly. She was well aware of Padmé's love interests including a budding artist and the son of the previous king's prime counsellor and yet Padmé's interest in the wizard seemed to rattle Padmé although in what ways, she wasn't sure.
Meanwhile, back in the hanger, Harry looked around the ship and saw that there were additional battle droids that were actively preparing for a fight by setting up improvised ambush positions. Harry also took notice of a tank barely visible through a slight gap in a doorway but he concluded that it was too dangerous to remove the armoured vehicle in any way, lest it make the situation even worse than it already was. Harry decided to make his way back to the main group, knowing time was of the essence. He regrouped with the main group who were eager to know what the situation was.
"What's the situation Harry?" Qui-Gon asked as Harry once more undid his Disillusionment charm.
"Well there's good news and bad news. Good news is that the Queen and her Handmaiden are on the ship safe and sound. Bad news is that I think they're waiting for us. I'm counting just over a hundred of those robots either standing around or actively preparing to defend the hanger. There also appears to be a tank on standby ready to shoot down anything that tries to escape."
"We'll never make it through all those droids. We could possibly make it past the tank if we fly fast enough but our problem will be getting to the ship in the first place." Captain Panaka said, his expression downcast.
Harry smiled as a thought came to the forefront of his mind, "I've just had a couple of ideas come into my head." He turned to Jaina and spoke to her, "Jaina, right?" Jaina nodded. "How would you like to engage in some creative sabotage?"
Jaina could barely contain herself, "I think I like the sound of that."
"Let's grab some sliced up bits of droid and let's see what distractions we can come up with." Harry said cheerily. Harry cast the Disillusionment charm on Jaina and then on himself once more before they entered the hanger. They whispered to each other, figuring out their plan. "We should probably focus on taking out the droids nearest the entrance first." Jaina suggested with a whisper.
"I agree." Harry replied quietly as they moved towards the nearest group of battle droids, which were located a short distance to the right of the hanger entrance. Harry aimed his wand, and cast a number of charms on the group of droids. He explained to a confused Jaina what he just did to them, "I've just made these things blind and deaf. At least, I hope I have. I've never had the opportunity to do this before."
"I have every confidence in your abilities. Just know that if it does go wrong, I'm going to feed you to a Wampa." Jaina replied almost too cheerily.
"What's a Wampa?" Harry asked in confusion.
"Never mind, you sweet kid." Jaina said a little too sweetly as she gave him a pat on the head.
"Kid? You can't be much older than me." Harry commented indignantly. Jaina and Harry then moved in the opposite direction and towards a large group of battle droids, most of whom were idly keeping watch over the entire hanger with some patrolling a small section of the hanger. Jaina used her force abilities to generate a number of noises that lead the droids out of the hanger and just shrugged when he gave her a quizzical look. They moved all over the hanger, eliminating or otherwise neutralising droids with a number of creative methods including using stunning spells to short them out, force pushing them out of the hanger bay doors to their destruction many hundreds of feet below, covering the visual receptors with magically generated paint and placing permanent sticking charms on their arms and forcing them to hold onto each other which rendered them unable to grip their blasters effectively.
"Do you think we've done enough or do you think we should do more?" Jaina asked Harry with a half satisfied tone.
"We could do more..." Harry admitted before giving a slight smirk, "... but why should we have all the fun?" Jaina barely contain her laughter, an almost rictus grin plastered on her face. The pair returned to the group and they reported on the situation as Harry removed the Disillusionment charms from them. "I'm fairly sure that we softened them up. There's a lot less of them now." Harry said optimistically
"Yeah, I'd say that we could now take on the remainder of the droids and they'd be very hard pressed to stop us." Jaina added in agreement. She did add a word of warning though, "We probably have only a few minutes before some of the droids return from the wild Bantha chase I sent them on."
The Governor Sio Bibble spoke up quickly, "I'll remain on the planet. I'll do what I can to reduce the suffering of our people."
"Won't they try and harm you?" Harry asked the much older man questioningly.
"Maybe. I don't think they would however. They're going to need me; for what I do not know." The governor replied.
Harry nodded grimly, "It's your choice. Just don't try to be a hero; Heroes are no good to anyone."
Sio Bibble nodded as he replied, "That was not my intention. Nevertheless, I understand the meaning of what you're saying." Some of the guards quickly spoke of their determination to remain on the planet in order to build up some sort of resistance movement. Sio Bibble and Captain Panaka exchanged their respects before the Governor and the guards who chose to remain behind scattered in various directions.
Without any further delay, Qui-Gon lead the group to the ship, with Harry, Jaina and the two young women in the white dresses following at the back of the group. "He's clearly going to free those prisoners. I'm surprised you two didn't do that when you were doing your 'creative sabotage' despite you both clearly taking down a good number of those droids." The female Jedi in the white wrap dress commented to Harry and Jaina quietly as they approached the remaining battle droids.
"Well Rey, we really wanted to let everyone else have a piece of the fun before we got away. It wouldn't have seemed fair if we'd done all the work." Jaina replied with a blatantly sarcastic smirk. The Jedi that Harry now knew was called Rey showed no emotions for a moment before grinning and having a quiet laugh. Harry and the two female Jedi saw that Qui-Gon was speaking to the battle droid commander, evidently unable to bluff his way past the machine that had almost zero thoughts. As soon as the battle droid commander questioned Qui-Gon's words, Qui-Gon pulled out his lightsabre and ignited it, immediately cutting down the battle droids near him. At the same time, Obi-wan made his move and began cutting down the droids guarding the prisoners and Harry, Rey, Jaina and the woman in the white dress got ready to fight incase any reinforcements or otherwise returning droids entered the hanger during the escape attempt. Qui-Gon and Obi-wan managed to dispatch the droids guarding the hanger in less than two or three minutes but successfully being able to get away without casualties proved to be an elusive goal for the time being. "Oh great! The walking metal idiots we sent away are back." Jaina said to Harry, Rey and the woman in the white dress. Rey and Jaina ignited their lightsabres whilst Harry aimed his wand and the woman in the white gown aimed one of her blasters at the incoming droids.
"Open fire!" the leader of the battle droids ordered and after it began firing, all the others opened fire too.
"I didn't know when I was better off." The woman in the white gown commented derisively as the battle droids' shots went wildly all over the place.
"Don't speak too soon; I don't want to regret hearing those words. Although I'd be very interested in hearing the context behind them at some point." Harry commented in turn, now getting the immediate feeling that something was going to go wrong. A few moments later, his gut instincts proved correct.
The swarm of battle droids never seemed to end and Rey, Jaina and Harry began to tire. The woman in the white gown was not exhausted but even she was struggling to keep up with the onslaught. Harry's spell work, including his shield, gradually got weaker and the blaster fire became more intense as the droids drew closer. "Aagh!" Harry heard a voice cry out in pain and he looked to his right hand side to see Jaina almost kneeling down as her left leg had been shot. Harry unable to do anything as Jaina was hit once in the abdomen and she almost collapsed to the ground. Jaina turned as she instinctively clutched her abdominal wound and as she began to collapse, she was struck yet again by battle droid blaster fire, this time in the back. She collapsed, lying prone on her stomach.
Harry was enraged. He aimed at the largest concentration of battle droids and called out, "BOMBARDA MAXIMA!" The vast majority of the battle droids were wiped out in one go, their metal bodies destroyed and made into hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces. As the droids suddenly became outnumbered, the battle droids lost their focus on the prisoners that were now escaping. The few remaining scattered battle droids were swiftly dispatched by Rey and the woman in the white dress before they returned to where Harry was kneeling beside Jaina. "Come on Jaina, don't be dead. We only just met."
"I ain't dead yet handsome." Jaina said, letting out a laugh with a sputter. Harry let out a laugh of shocked happiness upon hearing Jaina speak. "Do ya mind turning me over though? It's uncomfortable to lie down on my frontal wound."
"I would've thought that any wound would've been uncomfortable, regardless of how you were lying?" Harry jokingly replied before starting to ramble on "Or sitting... or..."
"Shut up." Jaina said mockingly. She then groaned in pain. "Rey, do you think that there'll be any painkillers on the ship?"
"I'm not sure. I'd be surprised if there weren't any." Rey admitted as she wondered about the availability of medicines or drugs of any kind, let alone painkillers.
"I'm sure we'll find out one way or another." Jaina groaned optimistically. She then held her deactivated lightsabre for someone to take, "Who wants to hold onto my lightsabre for a while?"
The woman in the white dress stepped forward, "I'll keep hold of it for you." She held her hand out and Jaina tiredly handed her the lightsabre. Jaina then began to fall asleep and then began speaking, almost like she was hallucinating, "Mother?... I'm here... Why do you focus so much on everyone else?... I, we need you too..." She then fell asleep completely.
"We should get on the ship before they get impatient and leave us and before any more of the walking scrap guys arrive." Rey suggested insistently.
"Agreed." Harry replied in agreement as he looked at Jaina's wounds and they were more serious than they first appeared as the growing red patches on her vest and trouser leg seemed to suggest. "Rey, is it? Can you keep an eye on her and make sure that she's still alive by the time I've healed her?"
"Yeah, I can." Rey replied calmly as Harry picked Jaina up, carrying her bridal style and began to go to the Queen's ship.
The woman in the white gown spoke to Harry, wondering what she should do, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Harry glanced towards the woman in the white gown as she walked alongside him, "If you don't mind just holding onto things when I need you to, that would be grand." The woman in the white gown nodded in acceptance as the four of them boarded the ship.
The four made their way to the main hold of the ship, walking and Harry made his way to the closest thing that looked like a table that he could see and placed Jaina onto it. He and Rey checked over Jaina but it was impossible to tell how bad the wounds were or where they were on her body. "We need to check her properly so we're going to need to remove her vest and try pull that trouser leg up." Rey said before adding, "I could heal her with the force but it would consume some of my life force."
"Yeah, let's not do that unless we really need to. Also I'm not removing anything from Jaina unless I have her permission." Harry replied firmly.
"Well it's not like we can ask her, can we?" The woman in the white gown asked.
Harry just raised an eyebrow, as though he knew something that she didn't. He took his wand out and aimed it at the head of the unconscious Jaina and said aloud, "Rennervate." Jaina began waking up and Harry turned to see Rey and the woman in the white gown look at him in surprise. "Nice to see the look of surprise. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure that was going to work. My people use it as counter curse to the stunning spell."
"Why was I woken up? I was having a dream there." Jaina asked with a groan.
"We need to remove your vest and lift your trouser leg up. We can't tell where I need to patch you up unless I can see the wounds clearly." Harry explained to Jaina.
Jaina laughed splutteringly and replied, "If any other boy had asked to see me topless, I probably would deck them. However, since I am injured and there are two other women here, I trust you to take a look despite having known you for what I think is no more than a few hours." Jaina moved to try and remove her vest but she hissed in pain. "Hell, that hurts!"
"Take it easy Jaina. Let us help you with that." Rey said as she went to help Jaina with removing her vest. She wordlessly directed Harry to also assist in the removal of Jaina's vest. The woman in the white gown, without any prompt or instruction, went to Jaina and held her arms up in order to assist.
The woman in the white dress spoke to Jaina as Harry and Rey struggled to remove her vest, "Do you want to know something? When I was a kid growing up, I always had someone to look after me. I was always running off to get away from my responsibilities. I'd go to the forests near where I lived and I'd sometimes end up with a few grazes. Obviously, I wasn't shot like you've been but my parents and my minders would've had to help get me into and out of any outfits that I was supposed to wear. I remember one time, I went into the forest to take a look at all the starships coming and going and then my mother had to come and get me and she had to dress me up on the way to a reception. It was an annoying experience." Everyone laughed at hearing the story although Jaina winced as she continued to experience pain. "Those were the days where I loved to spend time with them." She finished wistfully.
"What happened with your family?" Harry asked. Jaina and Rey shared a look of concern as they knew something that he didn't although neither Harry nor the woman in the white dress saw their actions.
"They died. Not too long ago." The woman in the white gown replied sadly.
"I'm sorry." Harry said regretfully. "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories for you."
"Don't worry about it; you weren't to know." The woman in the white gown replied, her sadness showing despite her best attempt to hide it.
"When can I put my arms down ?" Jaina asked impatiently as she felt her arms begin to ache. She was wincing with pain as her wounds began to irritate her.
"You could've put them down about thirty seconds ago. I think you became too engrossed in the story." Rey admitted with a non committal shrug.
"What!" Jaina exclaimed in shock. She looked down at her chest and saw that she was indeed topless. Harry then cast a scouring charm over Jaina, removing all the blood that covered her torso and leg. It also enabled him to see the wounds much more clearly despite the fact that they continued to bleed.
"Do you remember what I did to heal myself earlier?" Harry asked Jaina, receiving a nod in response. "I'm going to perform the same spell on you." Harry explained before pausing for a moment, looking as though he was hearing something. "We're getting shot at, aren't we?"
"I'd say so." Rey said, confirming what he was thinking.
"Fine. Just as long as I'm not imagining things." Harry replied as he refocused on Jaina's wounds. He traced each of the wounds with his wand, using the same spell as he used on himself and continued to trace the wounds until they were non existent. "I'm no medical expert but that should do it. For now, at least."
"Thank you, I'm feeling better already. Still could do with some painkillers though." Jaina commented happily, hissing as she felt aches where her wounds had been. She then realised that she was still topless and was wondering where her vest was. "Is my vest okay to wear?"
Harry blushed as he realised the Dark brown haired girl he just healed was still topless after he healed her. At the same time, Rey and the woman in the white gown examined the vest and their expressions were somewhat grim. The vest was near unwearable with the amount of blood that was soaked into it and that wasn't mentioning the damage the blasters had done to it. Harry noticed the state it was in and aimed his wand at it, muttering in quick succession "Scourgify. Reparo." The blood stains were removed instantly and any damage the battle droid blasters had done was instantly repaired. "It should be wearable now." Harry told Jaina with some satisfaction.
"Thanks. That's twice you've saved me now." Jaina replied in gratitude as she gingerly put the vest back over herself.
"My saving people thing strikes again." Harry muttered to himself as he thought back to the many times he saved his friends, their relatives or his own.
"Something wrong?" the woman in the white gown asked Harry as she just barely managed to hear him speak to himself.
"I'll explain later." Harry replied as he just wished to rest after spending god knows how many hours awake without any sleep. Indeed, his tiredness became evident almost as soon as he began walking towards the other side of the room and almost collapsed after a few steps, stumbling into a nearby chair. "I really should get some sleep." He commented aloud to himself.
"How long have you been awake?" the woman in the white gown asked in concern.
"I dunno. Must be the best part of two days I reckon. It's very hard to tell when it's evening, if not night, on your world and you land in the early morning on another." Harry said, exhaustion becoming increasingly evident in every move he made. "Hang on a sec." He said before pointing his wand at himself and casting a stamina spell. He suddenly seemed a little more awake than he'd been a few seconds earlier.
"Is what you just did to yourself healthy for you?" Rey asked in concern as she moved to hold his shoulder, anticipating that he could stumble or outright collapse at any moment.
"Probably won't do too much either way. Especially coming off the back of fighting several battles in a short space of time." Harry admitted, his tone torn between energetic and tiredness. "My most important question right now is, where the hell are we all going to sleep?"
Just then the familiar pretty Handmaiden who Harry had spoken to and had stealthily taken aboard the ship with the Queen earlier entered the room with a blue, white and silver robot that was familiar to Rey, Jaina and the woman in the white dress. The trio of young women who Harry first encountered in the courtyard earlier struggled to bite back their reactions on seeing an old friend before he knew them. The Handmaiden spoke to them, "Are you four alright?" She saw that they were in various states from sad and concerned to tired and unable to really care.
"Apart from tiredness that will overcome me in a few minutes and a slight bit of surgery, I think we're fine." Harry said in an exaggeratedly happy tone that bordered on sarcastic and Harry was aware of that. "I apologize if I sound sarcastic but I've been awake for the best part of two days and I think that my body clock is catching up with me."
"I was injured in the hanger and our mutual saviour here healed me up fairly well." Jaina said, looking at Harry with lots of gratitude. When she looked at him, she wasn't sure what she was feeling but it felt like butterflies or something similar. Still, she was too tired to think about those feelings any more for the time being.
"We should thank you many times over." Padmé said with a bright smile. She picked up a clean rag and moved to the dome headed robot. "I hope you don't mind but I need to clean Artoo here. Also, we've managed to get past the blockade if you weren't aware." She said as she knelt so she could scrub the droid clean. She frowned as the dirt and grime on R2-D2 wouldn't come off and began crawling around to find some cleaning supplies. Harry smiled and aimed his wand at the little, dirty droid and mouthed the scouring charm. The little machine was completely clean and free from any dirt or grime and he chirped happily. Padmé turned around and saw that R2 was completely clean, much to her astonishment. She looked at Harry with an open mouth before asking him, "Is there anything you can't do?"
"Well I can't keep myself awake indefinitely. That's definitely something." Harry replied.
"You woke me up while I was asleep." Jaina interjected indignantly, although she was managing to conceal a smirk.
"We needed to get a closer look at your wounds. Don't blame us if he was too noble to peek without your permission." Rey said, laughing at Jaina's antics.
Jaina turned to Harry and looked at him with a cheeky smile on her face, "I hope you enjoyed the view?"
"You're impossible." Harry replied, trying to look and sound annoyed but failing miserably. He then yawned very loudly. He urgently needed to catch some sleep or he was going to be no good to anyone. "Perhaps we should introduce ourselves to each other before some of us fall asleep?" he then suggested to the girls around him. Indeed, the strain of the day began to increasingly affect all the chats participants.
"Well I'm Padmé Naberrie." The young Handmaiden introduced herself.
Harry was struggling to stay awake and keep focused on the discussion he started, "Sorry, I'm struggling to keep focused here. What was it? Pad- erm... Padma? No that wasn't it..."
"Padmé. Yeah, I can tell you need some sleep." Padmé commented sympathetically.
"Yeah. Might also be the fact that I know... knew someone who was called Padma." Harry said as he felt his stamina spell already begin to wear off.
"I'm Jaina Solo." Jaina introduced herself properly. She closed her eyes for a moment as the aches she felt from her now non existent wounds continued to affect her. She then opened them again.
"I'm Leia." The woman in the white gown introduced herself, sounding formal.
"Have you got a surname Leia ?" Harry asked questioningly. He was curious as to why Leia didn't say her surname, which he assumed that she had.
"I'm not comfortable sharing my surname yet." Leia said evasively. Harry didn't believe her reasoning but he decided not to call her out on it for the time being.
Rey then introduced herself, "I'm Rey."
"Rey who?" Harry asked
"That is... a very good question. I renounced my blood line and anything to do with my grandfather and was hoping to get a new family name." Rey explained as to why she didn't have a surname.
"Wow, your grandad must've been worse than Hitler." Harry commented, sounding sympathetic.
"He did also have my parents killed while trying to get his hands on me." Rey added.
"He definitely sounds worse than Hitler." Harry confirmed to himself.
"Who's Hitler?" Jaina asked, her head tilted slightly to the right.
"He was a dictator on my world over fifty years ago. He was responsible for killing almost fifty million deaths during the course of one war. It was also rumoured that his niece was murdered, either by him or by someone acting in his interests. I think he also had a nephew who joined one of the armies fighting his and I think the nephew changed his name after the war so he'd have nothing to do with him. I'll tell you more about him later."
"Okay. And I guess that leads to the question of what your name is." Padmé said, getting the conversation back on track.
"Well, if you haven't heard it by now, most people call me Harry but my full name is Harry James Potter." Harry said to everyone before looking at Rey, "My parents were also killed trying to protect me. Only difference is, as far as I can tell, is that the familial connection of my attempted murderer is hundreds, if not thousands of times more distant so that any blood relation was pretty pointless in the first place. Anyway, he tried to murder me when I just a baby and that's how I got the scar on my head here." He pointed at the Lightning bolt scar on his forehead momentarily. "He was physically destroyed but he's tried killing me again ever since I started going to a school for magic a few years ago. He was truly resurrected about a year ago."
"Sounds like your world has some truly awful people on it." Leia commented with a grimace. "I think they'd fit in well with some of the people I've met."
"I'm sure they would have." Harry said in agreement.
"Padmé? Are there any beds on this ship?" Jaina asked with a yawn.
Padmé looked apologetic and shook her head. "Sorry, only the Queen has a bed on the ship. There's normally a lot less people on the ship than there are at the moment."
"Well, if that's the case, I'm sure I can sort that out." Harry said confidently but tiredly. He then got his wand and aimed it near the edge of the hold. He muttered quietly to himself and, before the eyes of the young women, a mattress large enough for four or five people appeared, along with several pillows and blankets. Harry smiled and spoke aloud, not really speaking to anyone in particular, "I'm quite chuffed about that. Not sure how long they'll last though." Harry then spoke to the young women directly, "Don't be surprised if you're sleeping on this and you suddenly find yourself on the floor when you wake up. I've only done this twice before and you've been around for them."
"Thank you for the warning Harry." Leia said appreciatively. She then laid on the mattress and released a moan of satisfaction as she felt comfort from the soft mattress. "Okay, this is better than where I was before." Leia sighed in contentment.
Rey and Jaina both followed Leia on to the mattress and both let out equally contented sighs as they felt the comfort of the mattress. Simultaneously, almost as if they were thinking in sync, they spoke simultaneously saying the same things with different reasons, "This is the best thing I've ever slept on." Once Rey and Jaina realised that they had said the same thing in complete synchronization, they couldn't help but laugh out loud, disturbing the nearby crew.
"Sorry guys, didn't mean to disturb you." Harry said to the crew members apologetically. He then turned to Rey and Jaina with an amused look on his face, "You two remind me of a couple of my friends."
"How so?" Rey asked out of curiosity with a smile.
"Two of my friends are twins and they speak like that pretty much constantly." Harry explained before adding, "I'll tell you more about them someday." Harry then collapsed on to the mattress and sighed in relief and satisfaction. He noticed that Padmé was making no move to join them, "Don't you want to join us on this Padmé? There's room for one more."
Padmé looked apologetic. She gave a weak smile and spoke softly to Harry, "Sorry but I think that the Queen will need me still for the time being. Thank you for the offer, Harry."
"It's okay. Just know that there's space here if you want." Harry said, smiling at Padmé.
Padmé walked up to Harry and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You're a kind and brave boy Harry. Thank you for making sure that we got on here safely." She then touched his cheek and then walked out of the hold.
Harry touched his cheek where Padmé had kissed it and began blushing as red as a tomato. He turned to see the reaction of the other young women who were on the mattress next to him but he saw that they were asleep. "Night." Harry said tiredly as he laid down on the conjured mattress.
He went to sleep, hoping that his dreams would be better than the many nightmares he'd had over the last year.
Unknown Location
In a building in the middle of a settlement, a man kept watch over a young woman with vibrant red-gold coloured hair. He himself looked like a young man in his early twenties and he possessed ash-white hair. He wore a long red jacket with green piping with black trousers and loose white t-shirt.
The woman with the red-gold coloured hair was in an induced coma, having been acting like she was a patient in a mental asylum. In an open chest, her blaster and her lightsabre were placed there. Despite being in an induced coma, her mouth was moving but no sound came out.
The man spoke about her, almost like he knew what was going to be in her future and knew what had happened in her past. "You are and have been an assassin for a man who isn't an emperor yet. You'll be a smuggler and a Jedi. An agent of chaos and an agent of mercy." He took a drink of fluid and looked unsure of what it was. "What the hell is that? Should I be familiar with this drink? I used to live in a universe similar to this one so... Maybe it's just this body that isn't used to these drinks yet?" He then refocused his attention on the young woman in front of him, "As much as I desire you, your destiny here lies with someone else. Besides, I could always go down the route of cloning if I ever did want a night with you." He chuckled. "I think that your destiny will be arriving here within the next few days."
A voice came from another room. It was rich, deep and calm. "There are more disturbances to the timelines in this universe."
"What is your suggestion for what to do next?" The white haired man asked calmly.
"For now, we carry continue to monitor changes and influence events to draw out our enemies. If we're able to keep the timelines stable in this universe, then hopefully assistance from our home reality will arrive to assist in our efforts." The rich, deep and calm voice replied. It then spoke further, "The timelines are in flux. Paradoxes will become more frequent in this universe the longer the timelines in this universe remain damaged."
"Can the damage be reversed?" the ash-white haired man asked. He looked at the woman with vibrant red-gold coloured hair in sympathy as he listened carefully.
"Without knowing where our enemy is in this universe, it seems doubtful that the damage can be reversed." The voice replied.
"I appreciate the honesty. Continue to monitor events in this universe. I will await the arrival of our guests." The ash-white haired man ordered. He didn't receive a response but he assumed that his subordinate had immediately gone to carry out his task.
"I've lived too long. I've always fought, always lead but I've never been allowed to fade away. I've never been allowed to rest, never been allowed to retire, never been allowed to die." He smiled sadly to himself and spoke to the comatose young woman. "I'm not sure if you can hear me but let me give you some advice. Allow yourself to be happy. Don't allow yourself to constrained by your past. If you find yourself in love with someone, and if they reciprocate it, don't throw it away but grab hold of it tightly and never loosen your grip on it." The white haired man stood up and walked towards the entrance of another room. He then turned his head back to the young woman and softly spoke to her, "Goodnight Mara."
A/N- Because I made this chapter priority, the next chapter will be written and released after I've worked on the latest chapter of Warhammer/Harry Potter: Dark Knights. The next chapter of this story will be written alongside the next chapter of Harry Potter: Portable Ops.
A/A/N- I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and please review.
