Chapter Fifty Four

Two men stood in Hugo Demask's office on Coruscant. The head of the Banking Clan stood by the window his eyes staring out across the Senatorial district of the massive city that was the capital planet of the Republic. Next to him stood a sometime political enemy yet personal friend, Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo. The public reason everyone knew for his being here at the moment was to talk to the Banking Clan head to see if Naboo would be able to receive a loan to help it rebuild after the 'Trade Federation's patently illegal occupation was overturned'.

Though they were indeed talking about the Naboo issue, the rest of that reasoning could not be farther from the truth. "The child queen is due to arrive in moments. How long do you think it will take to maneuver her to ask for the vote of no confidence?" Darth Plagueis, wearing his Hugo Demask guise asked.

That was the way the Sith thought of things. The Sith title was their real names, their real selves. Their old lives and names became masks they could take on or off at need. Hugo Demask had truly died when Plagueis was borne, his death leading to someone greater stepping into his place, just as it had for Sidious.

"She will attempt to speak to the Senate at least once, the TF's representative will speak against her accusations then the girl will supply evidence, possibly including Jedi testimonial. However given the Jedi's stance about the TF being allowed to arm its ships, their neutrality will be in doubt, whereupon it will devolve into a shouting match. I imagine by sometime this evening she will be willing to make a more aggressive move." Sidious said, allowing a faint, sadistic smile onto Sheev Palpatine's face as he imagined the power that would soon be his.

"Good. I am unhappy about the fact that Jinn is not dead yet, but Maul will no doubt be eager to show that mere chance cannot save the man more than the one time it has already done so…" Plagueis trailed off, feeling something.

As the creator of the Veil, Plagueis was able to use it to an even higher degree and without the level of concentration Sidious needed to use to sense something from a distance. Interpretation at this point was hard, but would become easier now that the final wrinkles in the Veil's coverage had been worked out, all they needed to do was keep feeding the Dark Side with minor conflicts and tensions, and the Veil would do the rest.

But this was something close, and something Plagueis had feared he would never feel. "The Vergence!" He hissed, turning quickly to the window once more. Sidious did too, realizing what that hiss meant and the two of them sent their thoughts out into the Veil. "The vergence is here… with the Jedi Jinn and his apprentice…"

Sidious was silent for a few moments, his febrile brain calculating, considering plans, discarding them, analyzing the angles. "In the short term this changes nothing, and I need to get back to greet my gracious queen," he snarled the words shaking his head. That would be a brief trip, considering that he was already dressed in his formal senatorial robes. "Should I get a message to you about what I find?"

"No, let no one think anything about it, we cannot allow a slip up, now of all times. I will remain here and use my Force senses to feel out the vergence and see what I can discern of it, or rather him or her, if I can. Heh, at this close his presence practically washes out the other two Jedi with him, good, very good, the vergence is powerful as it should be…" With that Plagueis fell into a trance, not even noticing Sidious leaving, so intent on his old creation was he.

OOOOOOO

The very next day, Master Fay, Lily, Harry, Aayla, and Quinlan left to return, in some cases anyway, to the Temple on Coruscant. As Fay's yacht was registered to her, a known Jedi, it was admitted into the insanely busy lanes over Coruscant quickly after coming out of hyperspace. As they waited for admittance through the capital planet's planetary shield Harry gawked at the amount of traffic this system had, beyond even Serenno's, which had been the busiest system he had yet seen. Massive cargo carriers, both huge in-system tugs and hyper-capable merchant ships, thousands of small personal yachts, hundreds of civilian transport ships, the list went on and on.

Master Fay was at the controls with Harry, not willing to let him take the controls in such a busy space Lane, while Aayla was listening in on the local traffic. "That's surprising…" she said after a second, her head whipping up as she looked over at her Master then Master Fay. "But according to the news, the queen of Naboo has just pushed for a vote of no-confidence in the Chancellor."

Master Fay brows knit together, unable to bring to mind who that was. "What was the Chancellor's name again? So many have come and gone I forget."

Quinlan looked at her askance for a moment, trying to figure out if that was a joke or not but Master Fay was being serious. Very few chancellors ever did anything that mattered to the Outer Rim, and she had not returned beyond the Inner Rim let alone the Core Worlds up until the point where the Force had told her she needed to be on the Explorer. Moreover, she couldn't really care less about the Senate or its power structure. She dealt with the politicians on the planet she went to, not the sector representatives.

"Chancellor Finis Valorum, he's been in power for eight years. As to the vote of no confidence have no idea whether or not that's a good idea or not," Quinlan replied eventually decided to take Fay's question at face value. The Chancellor has been rocked lately by several scandals since well before the Trade Summit on Eriadu and of course you know about all of the recent conflicts that have been popping up here and there throughout the Republic. There has been talk of his weak leadership being at fault for that, and that more centralized power and control could help stop further outbreaks of violence."

"Ah of course if something doesn't work once, why not try it again and again until it does..." Master Fay said under her breath, a sign of disdain she would normally not have allowed anyone to see.

Beside her Lily shook her head from where she was 'standing', half her body visible through the wall of the cockpit. But it was the ghost who expanded upon their joint opinion. "Even with Hypercom and hyperspace travel the Republic is too large for that kind of centralized authority to work in actually keeping order unless you're going for a full totalitarian government. The Ord systems are a better idea, nodal military forces able to respond to anything in their sectors. But given the downsizing the Republic fleet has seen in the last six hundred plus years I can't say it surprises me that there's been more outbreaks of violence in recent decades."

"Agreed, and at the same time factionalism and guilds have grown in strength throughout the Republic, each of them spending more time arguing about their rights rather than obligations." Fay went on as they finally got clearance to descend through the planetary shield, which shut down in a set section to let them and a few other ships through. "The Senate, even the sector representatives from the Outer Rim or even Colonies Region, have been too busy with their own power base, looking inward rather than outward for as long as I can remember, and that is a very long time. And whenever trouble comes up it is always someone else's duty to do something about it, and someone else's problem that it came up at all."

"That was too obvious a setup for me to want to follow up on Fay." Lily replied dryly. "But she's right. You can't have it both ways, both wanting more centralized authority but not actual responsibility."

As Quinlan's shoulders moved in a half shrug to indicate his ambivalence towards politics of all kinds Lily looked at her son. "Your Force Stealth is covering you?"

"Yes Mum," Harry said, looking ahead of them out the viewport as they descended through the shield, taking in the expanse of the city that was this entire planet. "I, I really don't like it here," he said after a few seconds of shocked staring, shaking his head. "I had heard that the whole planet was a gigantic city but seeing it is something else. This planet has no balance, no growing things, no natural source of water, I mean, how can it even survive like this?!"

"Most of the cargo haulers you see are bringing in food or taking away waste because you are correct Harry. Coruscant could not survive without interstellar trade for more than two weeks from what I remember. And you are correct my padawan," Master Fay said formally shaking her head and sighing sadly. "Coruscant has been like this for tens of thousands of years. No one has seen the ground, the actual surface of this planet for millennia."

'I always feel sad when I come here, that there are so many billions of people here who will never see anything remotely like actual nature." she continued, shaking her head. "The Temple was built here to make us that much closer to the Senate, but I've always felt that was wrong. It centralized our Order and placed us near the halls of power, but also removed us from the common people too."

A second later Fay felt her lips quirk upwards as she felt a mind through the Force reaching out to her in greeting. "Master Yoda knows we are here," she said aloud, "or at least that I am. If Aayla is correct about how good your skills are now Harry, he should be unable to sense your Force presence just yet."

A moment later, Aayla and Quinlan felt Master Yoda's mind reaching out to them as well, and Quinlan smiled faintly at the gentle pressure through the Force. Master Yoda's presence sometimes filled the temple when he was doing something like this. The other Masters could do much the same at this distance, at least those who had studied mind techniques. But their touches were like a poke or a touch felt through the mind. Yoda's was like a wind, moving over and around you.

A second later Fay banked the ship around into a slow downward spiral. "We will be landing at the temples personal landing area, and Master Yoda now knows that Lily and Harry are with us. No Harry I didn't mention you, though I gave him the impression of your mother, and Yoda is smart enough to know that she would not be far from you. He also has felt Aayla's presence, and I would wager has already begun to put two and two together."

Behind the two pilots Quinlan decided to make this a teaching moment, looking over to where Aayla sat behind Harry. "Reach out with your own senses padawan, see if you can feel any minds you recognize there. And Harry, try not to help her. That would break your stealth."

Harry nodded, watching Master Fay instead of Aayla as she worked the controls of the ship, moving them delicately through the crowded airspace over the temple and the Senate district. It was the first time he'd seen such crowed air lanes and it was interesting to see how the ship responded to the delicate maneuvering.

For her part Aayla closed her eyes briefly, reaching out with her senses through the Force. She wasn't nearly as good at this as she was at her stealth abilities. After a few seconds she smiled widely. "Zule is back! And so is Master Ti."

"Master Ti?" Lily asked looking over at her. "I thought Shaak was a knight?"

"She is, but she was also one of our teachers. In the temple you have to call any teacher master," Aayla said with a shrug, still not opening her eyes. "I can't feel Alecto, but since he was chosen by a Master already that doesn't matter much. I can feel Wulo, and a few of the other clan members."

"Stretch out further padawan," Quinlan ordered. "Try to feel out the minds of the Jedi you don't know well. Describe them for me." Since no Jedi would bother with Force Cloak or Stealth in the temple their presence in the Force could be felt by one another at a distance. The only Jedi who routinely hid her Force presence even in the Temple was the Dark Lady. Even Master Tholme didn't bother hiding his presence in the Temple.

This went on for a few moments, but Aayla could only find a few separate minds from the multitude that stood out to her enough for her to describe verbally. Of those she was able to give names only to a few: Master Windu, and Master Ranicisis and Yaddle. One felt like a mind made of metal, a fortress that let nothing in or out. The other felt like a very patient predator almost, while the last felt almost like Yoda, only younger and more outgoing.

"We will have to work further on that," Quinlan said with a nod. "Still, you did very well for your first attempt at this range."

Nodding Aayla opened her eyes just as the yacht touched down, its landing ramp slowly opening a moment later. Master Fay led the way out as was proper, with Harry in the center, his hood up to help his Force Stealth and Cloak to hide his features. Lily had already phased through the wall of the yacht, heading directly into the Temple where she startled a few Jedi, who gaped at the Force Ghost, but she merely waved at them heading towards the doors which led into the temple.

There she found Zule waiting in an open hallway, looking towards the large doors leading into the Temple. Master Yoda was there as well, and Wulo but it was Zule who noticed or at least acknowledged her presence first, since Yoda had no doubt felt her approach. The half-Falleen, half-human girl's face lit up at the sight of the Force Ghost. "Mistress Lily!?"

Wulo turned as well, as did several other Jedi Knights Masters and padawans in the vicinity. This area appeared to be a thoroughfare leading to and from different areas on this level as well as up further into the Temple. "What's the matter with you all?" Lily quipped, suddenly grinning and waving her hands at the onlookers. "It's like you've seen a ghost."

As Zule, Wulo and more than a few other Jedi surprised themselves by groaning at the horrible joke, Master Yoda turned to her, smiling. "Welcome teacher Lily. Strange it is that you have come, a reason there is for your presence, as well as that of Master Fay?"

"You might say that," Lily said, her face falling into grim lines for a moment as she moved closer to the aged Grandmaster, ignoring the ongoing shock and awe at her presence, waving Zule and Wulo away for a moment. "I respect you Yoda," she said slowly leaning down to so they were face-to-face and could whisper. "So I'm only going to ask two questions of you: Are you going to make a fuss about Harry and Aayla's bond and did you know what kind of missions she was sent on?"

Yoda stared into Lily's emerald eyes, and slowly shook his head. "Know explicitly what sort of mission Aayla was assigned I did not. Heard about it after the fact I did, worried I was, yet a way to recall her there was not. Your son and her bond, a reality it is, a hrhrhrm, fuss, I will not make." He sighed long and loud for a moment but did not look away from Lily's gaze "The decision to separate them, plagues me often over the years it has," he said quietly, so the onlookers could not overhear.

"Ah you've started to realize the big secret haven't you" Lily asked, shaking her head and 'standing' back up. "I don't think even my son is figured it out, though Master Fay has."

Yoda's eyes closed in pain for a moment that he still nodded. "Serve the Force the Jedi do, but the balance most important, too often Jedi have believed. Force of order well and good, a force for the right thing, the moral thing, better it would be."

"I wouldn't have put it quite like that, but essentially yes." Lily said as Master Fay and the others finally entered the Temple's main hall. Behind her came the others, with Quinlan carrying some kind of bundle under one arm, a wide bowl of some kind covered by a cloth to Yoda's discerning eyes.

Zule had been standing by respectfully allowing Lily and Master Yoda to talk, but when she saw Harry pushed back his hood the moment the doors to the Temple closed behind him, she grinned, racing forward to throw her arms around her two friends in a very un-Jedi like manner. "Harry, Aayla! I'm so glad to see you and that you're all right!"

This act brought looks of censure from many of the onlookers and one of the master's, an elderly human woman who had taught in the temple for decades, made to move forward. Yoda's eyes however caught hers and she paused as he glanced around them. "Business you all have elsewhere, yes? If not, business find for you I will."

The Jedi all around them moved on including the teacher, and with a sigh Yoda turned to Master Fay. "Good you are here, it even if a confrontation I predict the reason behind your presence is."

"That would be correct, Master Yoda" Fay replied coolly, laying a gentle hand on Quinlan's shoulder. "Quinlan here and Aayla have a report to make, and I think we should all be there. Best to get this over with quickly."

They looked over to Aayla and Harry who were greeting Zule and Wulo, talking animatedly amongst themselves.

Yoda tapped his gimer stick on the ground, the sound cutting through the general hubbub getting all four youngster's attention. "Wulo, return to meditation you will. Zule, own duties you have hrhrhrm? Your Master, finished with his own reports to the Council of Reassignment will be soon. Unhappy he will be if waiting for him you are not."

"True Master Yoda," Zule said, though the bright smile was still on her face. But unlike Wulo who peeled off at once she walked with the others up the stairs for a time, continuing to catch up. "Anyway, I had been thinking about the two of you for a few days, and I thought maybe something was going wrong on Aayla's mission, but my master said that was too vague and too based on emotion for us to act on."

She might have let a scowl appear on her face then if not for Master Yoda's presence. "He didn't like the idea that I wanted to get in touch with you and Master Fay either. Master Glaive is a great teacher for me in many ways, but… he doesn't really have the best personality. I suppose I need a sterner teacher in many ways given my temper and impulsiveness, and I learned a lot about diplomacy from Master Saa and Master Ti before being assigned to Master Glaive. But I wish he would trust my judgement as much as he does his own."

"When was this?" Fay asked, looking around from where she was in front with Yoda and Lily, speaking quietly to the two of them about Harry's progress and the confrontation to come interrupting their discussion.

Zule flushed as all three masters and even Quinlan turned to her. "Um, about… five days or so ago I think. At least, that was when I realized the Force might be telling me something."

"That would place it before Aayla got into trouble, and even before Harry had his Force Vision on the matter though during the time he began to be concerned about her. But you say it was a vague feeling, one you couldn't localize?" Fay asked, as Yoda listened intently. Lily didn't understand why this was important, but Quinlan had an inkling his brow furrowed.

"Yes master, just, um, I would think about Harry or Aayla at odd times, nothing connected, just random moments I think. Why, is that important?"

"It might be." Fay said, looking down at Yoda. As she had said before with the Dark Side growing in strength most Jedi were running into trouble seeing their own course into the future, let alone being able receive warnings about someone not directly connected to them like this. The effort Fay had to put into trying to see the proper way forward in terms of Harry and Aayla's bond and the High Council was proof of that, and not only was she one of the best at such things but they were intimately connected to her.

While what Zule was describing was vague, and based on emotions too, which a lot of masters would use to discount it as Master Glaive had, it might well be a good sign. If, that is, they could figure out a way to do the same thing consciously. That was going to be a tall order given the emotional element and the fact it was based off personal connections, aka attachments, which the Order frowned upon and also very much a part of the live in the now sort of teaching that the few Living Force proponents followed rather than the logic, balance and long term visions of the Unifying Force followers.

With that the two of them turned and began a new discussion on this information, while Quinlan and Lily Listened in. The three teens turned back to their own discussion, talking mostly about the missions they had been on, and what Harry had been up to, since Zule and Aayla had seen one another every day for years before Aayla became Quinlan's padawan. This went on as they moved up the temple until Zule stopped three levels below the top of the temple.

"Well, this is where I have to leave you guys. It was good to see you again, and I hope it won't be as long before we see one another again Harry." With that Zule impulsively threw her arms around the two newcomers, hugging them tightly before turning away, never noticing that Harry and Aayla had frozen just for a moment.

They had bot noticed Zule's build just then as she hugged them so tightly, and now Harry was frantically apologizing mentally to Aayla. "I am so sorry, Aayla, I don't, that is, it doesn't mean anything it was just a, an automatic hormonal thing!"

To his surprise however, "Don't worry Harry, Zule is really good looking, even I know that. Hmm, I wonder what it would be like to kiss another girl? Hugging other girls is certainly nice, they are so soft and smell much better, even better than you Harry." Aayla mused.

"Erk…" Harry couldn't help it, he just couldn't stop his treacherous mind from going there just then, and the image of Aayla and Zule kissing and hugging one another appeared in his mind, swiftly being shunted aside into one of the pink crystals that marked his more embarrassing thoughts and feelings.

Aayla still spotted it however and broke out into a giggle that filled their connection. "Oh ho, so that's the way of it is it, hmmm, I didn't know you had such perverse ideas hidden in these crystals of yours Harry, anything else I should know about?" She teased.

Harry couldn't think up a reply but thankfully for him Quinlan's voice brought them both back to the physical universe. "Aayla, Harry, you're falling behind."

"I wonder what that's about," Lily mused, as the two teens hurriedly caught up with the adults. Harry was now flushing somewhat, while Aayla seemed to be womanfully keeping in a case of the giggles, her lekku twitching to denote her amusement. Fay shook her head, having no idea and Yoda didn't even notice, so consumed by thoughts about what even the tiny hints Zule had gotten meant in the long term. A few moments later all of the humor had vanished from the group, as they made their way up into the High Council's meeting room.

Master Windu cocked an eyebrow as Yoda entered, followed by Master Fay and by Lily first. "Master Fay, I do not know if I could even guess the last time you set foot on Coruscant. And a Force Ghost? Suddenly certain long-held mysterious become less so. Though the reasoning behind the, let us call it well intentional obfuscation of the truth, does not."

Lily simply smirked at him before floating forward, her eyes roving around the room as she took in the responses to her presence. Evidently word of her arrival had reached more ears than just Master Windu, who Fay had described to her. None of the gathered master looked surprised, but most were looking at her closely save for Master Giiett who was smiling slightly in welcome. Like Master Windu besides Micah they were all thinking that she was the real source of all of the new techniques that had been spreading throughout the Order for the last few years.

Then Harry and Aayla entered with Quinlan, all three of them bowing formally to the Council before standing with Aayla in the center between the two very different looking young men. This close even the most blind to the eddies and currents of the Force could feel the bond between Harry and Aayla, a band of Light connecting the two of them. Master Windu's eyebrows rose, but that was the only sign that he allowed to show on his expression.

Leaning back Mace looked at the boy, not with his eyes but with his Force senses seeing beyond his connection to Padawan Secura, to the boy that he was. A shatterpoint, just like all those years ago this boy represents a shatterpoint for the Order. Yet I still cannot see if Master Yoda was correct all those years ago, that adding in impurity to the Order would mean we would be stronger in the end.

Aloud Mace said, "I see there is more going on here than even I suspected. Why do two padawans seem to have a Force bond? It seems to be based on emotion as well neither of which should be allowed. Even you, Master Fay for all the respect you have earned cannot get away with flouting the Order's rules on this matter so completely."

"Start from the beginning I will." Yoda replied, speaking up in a way that made many of the council members blink in surprise. It was not at all usual for Yoda to start any discussion, he normally let everyone else have their say first then speak, since his position gave his voice such weight. But after he began to speak about how he had been called by the Force to the Explorer all those years ago, and his introduction to Harry and Lily, they understood.

There were a few narrowed eyes at the idea that he and Lily had argued about the Order and Harry's continued involvement with it, but the two of them took it in stride as did Harry and the others. Master Saesee Tiin, who Aayla mentally pointed out to Harry, cut in at that point. "Yes, Yes, we've had these discussion before, and there have been slow but steady changes to the Order's stance on abstaining rather than controlling emotions, Mind Healers like Master Luminara Unduli and Master Ve'lone Grant have made their points plain. We also acknowledge that sometimes humans and other weaker races need physical release to retain their balance with the Force."

Harry and Aayla both flushed at that understanding what he was saying while the humans on the council, even Mace Windu rolled their eyes at the physical strength and pilot specialist's dig at them. "But this bond between two equals is beyond even that. It is based on Light Side emotions now, but that is not the problem. the problem is twofold: the split loyalties this bond imposes, and conflicts such a split will invariably lead to. And the fact Personal attachment leads to jealousy, then anger, the Dark side. There is a reason even with the changes you have championed in the last few years Master Yoda that the Ruusan Reformations' changes to the Order have not been overthrown."

"I agree, and further the argument about family, while I agree it was cogently made and with many good points, need not be made here. The attachment I am seeing before me worries me far more, as does the fact that you willingly hid where these new Force skills came from." Master Gallia said.

Across from her Master Pouf also spoke up. "I for one am less concerned about this Force bond we see, after all, such things can be severed." He did not notice or ignored how Aayla flinched at that, while Harry's fingers curled, his eyes beginning to smolder. "I must ask why you thought that second point necessary."

Like a few of the council, Pouf had tried to learn the new techniques, only to find himself unable to grasp them for some reason. Some could use the Force Shield, or the red knock out blast, but that was all. Only Giiett and Windu could do more, a wind assault which was basically a less condensed version of the Force Crush he already used with such proficiency. Pouf, Tiin, and Eeth Koth could not do even that much.

Yoda merely nodded, then began to discuss the number of techniques Harry and Lily had passed on already, as well as more than a few things they hadn't. Harry demonstrated his conjuration skills to the shock of the council, as did Aayla, then they showed a bit of their element manipulation as well. Fay stepped forward after that, describing the experiments she and Lily had conducted into runes. After all, talking and even showing things like this was one thing, teaching them another. She was very careful to mention the number of mishaps the two of them had run into during their tests. At no point did any of them mention the combat 'spells' Harry knew, and had begun to use in combat at times.

Here the conversation bogged down to an intense question and answer session. Many of the Council tried to catch Lily or Harry out about the nature of the techniques. Specifically, they tried to link transfiguration to something called Sith alchemy and their elemental control to Sith Lightning, trying to get one or the other to admit to using emotion to power them.

They continually tried to insinuate all of their spells were based on emotion, positive or negative, or that the techniques propagated a more emotional mental state. They sort of did in a way, imagination was integral to several of their techniques and emotions went with imagination. However there simply was no basis for their concerns: Lily had never taught Harry Dark spells, and he had never come up with any attacks that fed on Dark Side emotions. The one experiment he had tried back on Earth was still prevalent in his mind, and a few times during missions he'd had to deal with anger when dealing with slaves or cleaning up after pirate attacks, so he knew they had a corrosive element. Aayla too had to deal with anger, far more than Harry, but neither had ever reached out to the Force through those emotions.

There were some looks of consternation and chagrin at the explanation for why many of the most learned masters of the Order could not perform the techniques, while many a youngling could perform them with practice and patience. Yoda nodded at them all. "Concerned I was, lead to a schism within the Order the new techniques could. Introduce them slowly under my egis we would. Worked up to a point it has."

"And you kept Young Potter and Mrs. Lily a secret for that reason, the… odd… nature of their origins, and this vision of their being on Coruscant at the time leading to disaster. I wish I could take umbrage at you following such an vague Force vision, but given how clouded the future is becoming I can understand," Mace said, leaning back.

It was at that point that Harry suddenly realized something that Fay's unique abilities had hidden him from before: the Dark Side of the Veil was impacting the Order a lot more than he had thought, though it wasn't really his fault that he had missed that. Despite looking to the Force to guide her from mission to mission, Fay had never forced Harry to do the same, believing such skills would come with time if at all, and unable to really describe how she followed the Force's eddies to such a degree in any event.

But the rest of the Order did the same thing, if not to the level of detail she could. They looked to the Force to guide many of their decisions, large and small, on missions and not, just as much as they looked to the Order's organization for orders.

And now with the Veil of the Dark Side becoming more powerful with every passing year long term visions were becoming impossible to discern without difficulty. Even medium range visions as it were, such as where an individual Jedi should go from here within a few months, was becoming harder. This left the Jedi bereft with no long term direction, like a ship unable to navigate. And such people tended to become more reactionary than they otherwise would have.

In another timeline, one without the offsetting Light of Harry and Lily's presence, the Jedi would be unaware this was even occurring for some time to come, certain they were still seeing the future as well as they could, never realizing they were being led astray until the Clone Wars erupted around them. Here that was not the case, but they were still slowly becoming intolerant towards anything different than what they could personally discern.

"I can agree with and even respect that decision Master Yoda. It took great courage and moral fortitude to make such on your own. However I must still raise my objections to the bond we are seeing here between Padawan Potter and Padawan Secura. Regardless of his importance to the Order we cannot make allowances in this area less we open ourselves up to accusations of favoritism when others being to emulate them," said a male Zabrak sitting beside Master Windu.

"Our Oaths against attachment and exterior loyalties have made the Jedi Order the keepers of the Republic's peace for a thousand years. Attachment to another person that is as strong as what we are seeing here can lead to love, greed or jealousy and a lust for power, which inevitably leads to the Dark Side. Just look at the example of the misguided Gilthany from the New Sith Wars, or that horrible incident a few hundred years or so ago when three Jedi fell because of their lusts and jealousy towards one another." He summed up with a tone of condescension.

"That's Master Eeth Koth," Aayla supplied via their link. "He's, um, sort of an arrogant kriffer according to Master Vos. He's one of those that believe the Order can do no wrong, and that as long as we remain balanced in the Force that means whatever we do is the right thing to do."

Making no visible sign the two were in communication, Harry replied. "Don't worry Aayla, we've got this. They won't separate us, whatever happens."

"We allow attachments, and even now make allowances for physical attraction," Micah replied blandly. "And as has already been stated, we seem to be entering a time of great upheaval for the Republic as well. In such times we must change, to grow, to meet the dangers we face. Master Yoda's reforms are a step in that direction and they come originally from Harry. I think we're being rather ungrateful here."

Next to him his friend Master Plo Koon sat silently, unwilling to take part in this discussion one way or another, not certain in which direction justice lay at this point. The Kel Dor also felt that there was some reason the two padawans were being so silent, and he also wondered about why they were here at precisely this moment too. He feared it had something to do with young Aayla's last mission, and what that might entail.

"Further the reforms are about allowing more emotions under controlled setting and techniques, not an emotional attachment to the level we see here. Further there is a difference between a bond based on friendship or loyalty to one based on love. There are limits to how far most people will go for friendship. Not love, love is the most illogical and selfish of emotions," retorted Koth.

"Masters without that connection both myself and my padawan would be dead." Quinlan spoke up for the first time, arresting the ongoing debate. He explained their mission, how it had gone wrong first by Aurra Sing showing up then by Pol Secura recognizing Aayla when she was busy hiding her Force sense, trusting in her color change to hide her physical identity.

Sing's death at Quinlan's hands wound some grim nods of approval from the masters. She had proven a danger given her murder of several Jedi before this, and all of them knew she had Jedi training from her time as the Dark Lady's apprentice too. That it had been the new techniques which had let Quinlan cut her down also made Mace and Tiin nod toward Master Yoda. It was evident that none of these masters were willing to look askance at the techniques Clan Saa had already shared any longer.

However the council members stilled, their faces blank in shock as Aayla took up the tale from her perspective. Silent up to this point, she couldn't stop herself from glaring at the masters who had assigned her to this mission as she described how she had suddenly been gassed, and then what was going to happen. And none of the masters there could meet her eyes, never having realized what she could face. It had been ignorance and institutional arrogance not callousness that had sent Aayla on her last mission, not that it would have mattered.

"And then…" she said, smiling suddenly, a wide happy grin on her face as she took Harry's hand in hers. "And then Harry was there, in my mind, in my soul, using his mind to take control of my own Force powers and purging the drug in my system, bolstering my powers with his own. He saved me from a fate that many would call worse than death."

Her tone turned scathing as she went on. "And you sit here, safe in your high tower, removed from the normal people we Jedi are supposed to serve, and dare say our attachment is against the rules!" Aayla scoffed, turning away.

Harry spoke up then, the first time he had done so except for answering the questions about directed his way. And when he did, Fay and Lily both realized that Harry had figured out the same problem with the Order that they had. "The Order is supposed to be a force for good, for law, order and morality. Yet at the same time, the Order, as an intuition, follows the way of balance and at times seems to ignore the feelings of its members for an all too hard to grasp ideal, a Greater Good."

While Lily held in a laugh at Harry's word choice Harry went on calmly. "There are two sides to the Force, the Light and the Dark, but the Order seems to think that simply by abstaining from the Dark Side you are automatically of the Light. But good emotions, like love," and here he squeezed Aayla's hand sending a feeling of I love you through their link as she did the same. "Friendship, loyalty, a desire to defend, all these emotions can give you power just as much or more than keeping to a sense of serene balance, of calm or a sense of self-control."

After finishing his short passionate speech Harry looked around him then concentrated, his hand glowing white with the Light for a moment. "I am of the Light, I use my good emotions, while not letting anger, hate or arrogance into my heart. Can you say you serve the Light when all you do is try to not feel it because you are so afraid of the alternative?"

It wasn't a Light Construct, that kind of thing could not have been covered by any kind of Force Stealth, even standing here surrounded by the Force presences of all of the high Council. Besides, he wanted to keep that technique a secret until he had to use it. Not, mind you, that Aayla hadn't already seen it in his head, she'd even made suggestions.

Capitalizing on the council's somewhat stunned state Lily floated forward in the glow of her son's hand against the backdrop of Coruscant's setting sun, glaring around her at the stunned High Council, staring at the women on the Council in particular, though she hesitated in the place of Yaddle, considering her species didn't reproduce through sex. "You sit there and you question my son's bond to Aayla, when it is only that bond that saved a 15-year-old girl from rape and eventual murder."

More than one of the people in the Council flinched as she said the word 'rape', and she laughed harshly. "Oh I'm sorry, did you think something else would happen to a female slave who was drugged to the gills? Did you think Aayla's being a Jedi would've saved her from that fate?"

Her eyes narrowed, and a wind picked up all around them, as the Force reacted to her admittedly righteous anger. She shook her head, regaining control of herself with difficulty, but she wanted no ambiguity here, no one could later on say that she had giving into her anger like a Dark Side user would or whatever they might say.

When Lily spoke her voice was crystal clear and cold as the edge of space with about as much mercy. "I hold you all beneath contempt. You sent a young girl of 15 on a mission where could almost say just destined be raped if anything went bad. Only Harry's intervention saved Aayla from that."

"And what would you have done if that had happened?" Lily went on softly, shaking her head sadly. "Tried halfheartedly to bring her back from the darkness your own actions through her into? Would you even have apologized? Or would you turn your back on her, because she was no longer perfect in your eyes, because when she after such a traumatic experience could only feel hate for the people who did it? I know how many of you wanted Komari Vosa imprisoned for her nearly giving into the Dark Side while a prisoner of the Bando Gora. You, none of you have any moral high ground to stand on here, regardless of your so-called knowledge of the Force, history of your Order."

"Regardless of her abilities, Padawan Secura sent on that mission should never have been," Yoda said looking around at the other masters. "To discover the information we needed, other ways found they could have been."

"How will we make this right?" Mace asked, shaking his head, looking weary in a way that should have been foreign to the man. "We can apologize as often as we like, we can say it won't happen again, but…"

"There is one way," Fay said quietly, moving up around Harry on his other side to stand by Lily, looking all around them. "All of you, as members of this council need to realize what kind of threats your members face while on missions, especially missions like the one you sent Aayla on. There is a way you can in fact learn this as if you were there. I told you all about runes, and what Lily and I have been doing with them. She told me once about an artifact called a pensieve, which could be used to let people view an individual's memory as if they were watching them in real time."

Lily explained, her eyes still hard as they looked around them. "Essentially the original user will fill the pensieve up with his memory. On my old world they would actually remove the memory from their head in a sort of silvery substance and place it in a bowl. For some reason that doesn't work here." The three of them had practiced this before leaving Serenno, so they knew how it worked and how to modify the process from the original. "However if Aayla touches the bowl and concentrates on the memory, other people will be able to view the memory from her point of view."

At a gesture from Master Fay, Quinlan set the large stone bowl he'd been carrying down in the center of the room. More than a few of the Masters looked at it askance, wondering how this small stone bowl could do what Lily had said it could. A few others, like Yaddle and Ranicisis, were looking concerned about the idea of runes, which sounded a bit like some of the things the Sith had been able to do in the first few wars against them. Though of course given the disjointed nature of records from before the loss of Ossus, they couldn't be certain of even that, it was mainly rumors and a few precious holocrons which told the Jedi Order about anything from that time period.

Aayla moved forward as Harry moved back, standing now where he had been with the pensieve in front of her and Fay and Lily beside her supportively. With a single sigh Aayla concentrated, bringing up the memory of her ordeal from the moment the gas had begun to creep into the slave's quarters then up to the moment Harry's presence had flooded her mind. From her fingertips there emanated a yellow color which began to seep into the water of the bowl, causing it to glow. In Lily's home dimension it would have been silver and made of the actual substance of the memory, but here the water was merely the medium, though she had no idea about why the memory was colored yellow here.

Before anyone else could more Yoda hopped down from his chair, moving forward slowly as he looked at the silvery material in the bowl. "Stick a finger in the water, do I?"

"Master Yoda?" Aayla said, almost reaching forward with her other hand to push him away. "You weren't part of…"

Yoda just looked at her, and Aayla stilled, her arm falling back to her side. "Grandmaster I am. Made this decision I did not, but responsibility mine is still." Master Giiett too moved forward despite also not having been involved in that decision as did Plo Koon a second after his friend.

With that example to live up to the other masters all moved forward as well, sticking their fingers into the yellow water as one. Then they were somewhere else as:

Aayla/the various masters groggily became aware of the world around her/them, her/their eyes fluttering in their sockets and she/they groaned, muttering in standard, "What the heck hit me?" The Jedi Masters felt ill, sick to their stomachs, and weak, weaker than any of them could ever remember, their minds suddenly unable to focus.

"Nothing yet, I wanted you awake for this," said a sinister voice, though at first Aayla/the council master could not place where she/they had heard it before. Then Bib Fortuna leered town at her, and Aayla suddenly realized that she was naked, and that she was tied down to a bed of some kind.

Horrified shock resounded through the masters, especially the women, and more than one tried to reach out to the Force as Aayla did, But she/they couldn't, Aayla's mind, who they were now suck in too groggy. The drugs in her system inhibiting her ability to concentrate, and they couldn't even bring up the strength to purge them. But unlike Aayla's emotions at first, the masters had no buffer to the emotions now cascading through them at being so helpless. Even the aliens like Yaddle and Yoda knew something bad was going on here, and they were powerless to stop it.

A medical droid hovered behind Bib, and he laughed evilly. "You were made my dear. You and your Master are both dead now, it's just a matter of time. Of course, if you make it worth my while, I might be persuaded to let you live a little longer…" he said leering down at Aayla's form, sending another paroxysm through the masters who were now riding through the memory.

Above their/Aayla's body the one she had recognized as Bib Fortuna sighed. "Pity, that gas seems to have a longer effect on Twi'leks than it would humans, but oh well, I'll still have my fun. First however we'll have to give you another injection just to make sure you stay… compliant. And another one to take that a little further. You'll enjoy yourself my dear, whether you want to or not…"

As the droid came towards her/them, the needle like a spear jutting into their soul, the masters all felt the despair, the hopelessness, welling up within Aayla. Yet like her, they couldn't do anything, merely riding along, as the memory continued.

But then there was another mind there, in the original memory rather than joining the passengers and they felt, for just a brief moment, what Aayla felt. Harry was there, his arms around her mentally, their connection flaring in her/their head as he reached through it. Somehow the young man used that connection to take control of Aayla's body, pushing her own Force powers through her body in the techniques needed to purge her body of the drug. "Aayla! I'm here!"

More than one of the High Council members fell to their knees as they came out of the pensieve, shaking and shaken to their cores by the helplessness of it, the up-rushing fear and the sudden explosive joy and hope at the end. It made the Trial of Spirit seem like a children's first trip to a haunted house in comparison.

Mace did not. He wobbled, but he remained standing, turning like he was on a turn stile towards Aayla, before slowly sinking to his knees, bending his head to touch the ground. "I had no idea." He said honestly, his voice a hoarse caricature of its normal timbre. "I had no idea that it would feel like that, I, this is beyond…"

To his side Master Gallia also stepped forward as she pushed herself off her feet, while Master Billaba was so distraught she had rushed past the others, heading toward the open sides of the council chamber in order to throw up over the edge of it. Some of those who had not been directly involved in the decision making were somewhat better off, like Master Koon, Giiett, Piell and Ranicisis. Tiin, Pouf and Koth were all reeling, shocked to the point they couldn't get off their knees despite not having been involved in the original decision to send Aayla on that mission.

While Billaba was busy throwing up Adi looked around at her fellows, her face at least four shades paler than it normally was. "I, I am stepping down from this august body. I cannot in good conscience remain a part of it after being involved in such a, such a horrible mistake. Indeed, it calls into question several other missions we have assigned to various knights and masters in the past. If they could go wrong so badly..."

To everyone's surprise Aayla shook her head sternly. "That doesn't make me feel any better Master. The apology does, as does knowing that you know what I went through. But now that you do, stay on the council and make sure the same thing doesn't happen again to some other padawan who doesn't have a Force bonded boyfriend who can ride to the rescue."

"Agreed," said the other really short Master, the one who looked sort of like Yoda with at least an extra foot of height and a far powerful looking body. Harry hadn't seen that species before, but this guy looked like a warrior, and he threw off his the feeling evoked from the memory quickly while everyone else joined into a sort of relieved chuckle at Aayla's quip.

"Undercover work is always dangerous, but we need to realize what kind of opposition any Jedi knight could run into at any given moment. This time, we were very, very lucky. We cannot expect to be lucky again, but we need again to realize what can happen, and take part in it." He sighed shaking his head. "We Jedi often forget that male and female do indeed matter beyond these walls, but we cannot afford to do so."

For a moment, the Council room was silent beyond the nodding of heads as everyone tried to figure out where to go from here, slowly returning to their chairs, shattered internally by two experiences none of them had ever considered, both the horrible molestation and that blazing, transcendent moment when Harry's mental presence arrived. Needless to say after that experience no one was willing to question Harry and Aayla's bond further. Harry's recreation of Force Light, something Master Yaddle had been working towards for months, and his saving Aayla from that fate put paid to that.

"You will not stay here on in the temple will you?" Mace asked at last, looking at Master Fay and Harry and the Force Ghost.

"We cannot. Our presence still causes a disaster if we stay here too long, even with Harry hidden under the best Force cloak imaginable. I believe the Senate somehow finds out about his abilities and fear and concern and grasping avarice do the rest." Fay shrugged unwilling even now to say that the response to his abilities even from within the Order was still a concern. She could see it still in the faces of Master Pouf and Master Koth, despite their being shaken from the memories Aayla had shared. "Master Dooku has taken him on as a lightsaber student, and we will stay on Serenno for a time."

"Since we arrived there, beyond the…" Fay paused… "Incident I suppose you could call it, With Aayla I have not felt the pull of the Force taking me away. I think I'm doing precisely what the Force wants me to, preparing Harry further for his own future."

"If that is the case, do you believe him to be the Chosen One?" asked Master Pouf, somewhat sarcastically if still shakily.

"No, I do not believe in that prophecy," Fay replied with a shake of her head. "In fact I'm rather worried about Masters who do. We Jedi are all too concerned with the idea of balance instead of thinking about the right thing to do. And as Harry said earlier, we have shut ourselves out from emotions for fear of the Dark that we have shut out the Light as well."

"While I will no longer question your bond padawans I still do not know if I can agree with that," Mace said shaking his head. "Balance is what we should always seek, in ourselves and the Force at large. Balance has served the Order for over a thousand years, most of them peaceful. I realize we are entering a time of turmoil, but that is no reason to throw off all of our traditions. I will allow that in some cases like yours looking to the Light alone is the way forward, but it cannot be that was for the Order as a whole."

"These runes," said another Master, looking down at the bowl. "How difficult would it be to start students training on them?"

"Somewhat hard," Lily said shrugging her shoulders. "Since I refuse to stay here either. However anyone can use this pensieve, and I imagine it would be more useful here among you all than with us. I will warn you though I don't think that non-Force users could use it, if you were thinking of trying to use it in criminal cases or something."

"Useful it will be yes. Yet surely, written notes about specific runes or something you have?" Master Yaddle asked plaintively, her long ears quivering eagerly. "Use them to begin our own training we could."

"Sorry, no," Fay said sympathetically, watching as Yaddle's ears drooped almost down to her skull. "I would also be very leery of experimenting with them at all. Some of the mistakes Lily and I ran into could have been life threatening, explosive, or both had we not taken as many precautions as we have."

Seeing the crestfallen expressions on the little green alien and others Lily decided to bend somewhat. They had after all won literally every point they had come here intending to fight for either. "I would be willing to train Knight Ti and the others who were on the Explorer or someone they chose, so long as they earned my trust first. The same concern with the Force techniques we've shared, that of feeding arrogance and a need to use them for personal gain, applies to runes too after all."

That seemed to cheer the masters up, and more than one of them fired questions about the techniques at Harry and the others. Lily and Fay answered many of them, but subtly began to push Harry and Aayla to answer them after a time. During this it was decided that while Harry and Aayla would remain together and on Serenno, Quinlan might well be called away at times to take missions with his former master. His abilities at Force Cloak made him one of the best in the Order for undercover missions.

The conversation continued for another hour or so, until the masters started to run out of questions. Then Harry asked a question of his own. "By the way, what's going to happen to Anakin Skywalker? He seemed an ok kid when we were on Tatooine."

Yoda sighed, his ears twitching as more than one master there blinked in surprise at the idea of the most powerful Force user found by the Order in centuries being described in such lukewarm terms. Of course none of them knew that Harry was just as powerful, perhaps even more so when he was first found.

"Trained he will be, Master Jinn already intending to take him as padawan. But reservations I have. There is anger in him, arrogance too. Younger than either of you to he was when found, but anger in you, not so much there was."

Hate or arrogance, have them you do not either, he thought, staring at Harry. Oh, Harry had the ability to hate within him, Yoda had seen that brief flash in his eyes as Aayla must have pointed out the Masters who had given Aayla her mission when they entered the room. But despite having more reason to be arrogant than most, Harry wasn't, and it would take something special for him to make the jump from righteous anger to flat-out anger.

And given the fact Harry didn't hate the Dursleys, for what they had done to him when he lived with them Yoda doubted Harry could actually hate anyone. The two of them had talked about the Dursleys and other things during Yoda's time spent on the Explorer. Harry was not the first abused child to be allowed into the Order, nor the first Yoda had dealt with. He knew what questions to ask, what to look out for to make certain the youth was no more likely to fall to the Dark Side than anyone else.

Yes, Harry had anger within him and some buttons that no one in their right mind would push. But that was normal for a child of his background, and Harry's sheer joy at having his mother with him washed out much of the anger Yoda had been worried about. And while Harry loathed the Dursleys and anyone who would abuse a child, he did not hate them, or wish to see them treated as he had been.

Anakin hated slavers of all sorts, and was very much in favor of an eye for an eye philosophy of dealing with them. He also had an arrogance in him because of how well he could already use the Force without formal training, which had not been helped by Qui-Gon already starting his instruction.

After that the meeting broke up, and Harry and Aayla went in search of Zule and the rest of their friends. Most of them had already turned in for the night however, leaving Zule, Wulo and two others Kass Todd and Mak Lotor were awake. Zule was still awake because she and Master Glaive were due to leave on another mission in an hour, while Wulo was still awake because he was to report to Master Yoda, who had formally taken him on as padawan, on the results of his meditation. The other two were simply night owls, not needing nearly as much sleep as most needed.

When told about what had almost happened to Aayla, the others were sad while Zule was angry that her friend had nearly gone through such a horrifying experience. Aayla talked her down, though Zule then asked Harry if he would come and saver her if she was ever in trouble like that, to which Harry replied in the affirmative as if the answer was obvious, something that brought a flush to the half-Falleen's face and won a laugh from Aayla. They spent about an hour talking to them before Fay decided they needed to leave, something telling her they had to leave soon or else Harry's presence would no longer be hidden.

At the same time, they nearly ran into Anakin, Master Windu, Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi, who the two youngsters hadn't met before. They were waiting in the main hall, talking quietly while a Consular class diplomatic frigate was being prepared for their journey to Naboo by a few knights and the queen of Naboo's guards.

With them also stood several maids dressed in Naboo's version of a maid uniform along with several dozen maids and the queen of Naboo, dressed in formal attire.

Zule was still exchanging stories with Harry and she and Aayla traded snickers at the sight of the Nabooan queen's attire. "Oh, my word, who in the universe came up with that getup?"

The queen heard them, and moved over in their direction, a smirk on her face which upset her pasty white makeup. Behind her Anakin made to follow only to stop at a question from Master Windu about his Force abilities and how they related to his apparent history of pod racing a subject that was near and dear to his hear.

"I think it was the same person who thought up the idea of the ruling monarch requiring musical accompaniment to enter a room. Luckily I've at least done away with that. How are you two? Did you convince the Order?" A familiar voice asked from underneath the makeup.

"We did quite well Padme," Aayla said, still snickering at the other girl's getup becoming serious. "We just arrived this afternoon, and we've been in… discussions with the High Council since, so we haven't heard anything since the report that you had pushed for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum."

"Did you figure out my identity yourself, or did one of the Jedi masters tell you?" Padme asked, almost pouting which segued into a wan smile when Harry indicated that Fay had told them. She, Lily and Quinlan stood elsewhere in the hall, letting the children, and now the queen, speak alone for a time. "Well at least my disguise fooled everyone but the Jedi. Ah well."

She went on more seriously. "As for my asking for a vote of no confidence, as the reigning monarch of a member planet it was within my right in times of crisis to do so and it was pointed out to me that Valorum has become rather a lame kaddu of late, with no real power base in the Senate any longer beyond a few friends who are willing to listen to him."

"Actually everyone is willing to listen to him talk, but no one is willing to actually follow him anymore." Zule said, shaking her head. "I never liked Valorum, he has a weak chin."

"Not the most in depth political analysis there but I suppose his chin could be a sign of his lack of political power," Padme said tartly, looking over at the slightly older girl. Aayla introduced the two and Padme nodded to Zule before gesturing over to Obi-Wan and the others. "I am afraid however that the Senate's debate on who to replace Valorum is not moving quickly enough to save my people. We received several messages from my chief advisor about thousands of my people being rounded up and taken off world, or killed for minor infractions. So the Jedi Order has been forced to step in."

Harry nodded slowly, frowning. "Not to disparage what is happening to your people Padme, but why did you think that the Senate would suddenly be willing to move faster if you removed Valorum? Surely the chaos of that move will only slow any response." Fay had given Harry a very good grounding in politics and law, so such things seemed obvious to him.

"I realized that. But any response, no matter how slow is preferable to none at all and Senator Palpatine is certain the next chancellor will be someone we can work with. At present I must admit to be grasping at straws." Padme sighed, weighed down by more than just the physical encumbrance of her formal attire. "We have a plan, one I hope will succeed, but it is a bit of a gamble too I must admit to being thankful that the Order decided to send Master Windu along with Master Jinn and padawan Kenobi."

Master Windu had decided to come along this mission for two reasons: One, he had felt the need to do so, to get out of the temple and away from his role as Master of the Order after the debacle with Aayla's mission. And two, he really wanted to just hit something right now, and none of the other masters could argue with him.

Shaking her head Padme changed the subject. While she might have been willing to ask for Harry and Aayla help, after hearing about how they, Dooku and Fay had stormed Jabba's castle she knew they were more dangerous than their ages suggested, with Master Windu coming along she felt they had the martial side of things covered. And master Fay's famous abilities would be unnecessary until after she freed her planet. "Where will you go from here?"

"Back to Serenno to keep training under Master Dooku," Aayla replied, while Zule pouted, shaking her head. She wasn't jealous of the opportunity Harry and Aayla were being given, such a thing would be very much against the Jedi Code. But she could admit to some irritation that they were leaving so soon and that it might well be a while before she saw them again.

"Padme, our ship is ready," Obi-Wan said from behind the queen, nodding a greeting to the three younger padawans. He had seen Aayla and Zule around, and had even taken a few lessons on Force Shielding from Aayla, so knew them both. The green-eyed boy however was new, though he wore the robe and had the padawan's braid.

Padme nodded, looking at her friends, remembering the pleasant evening and morning they had spent together on Tatooine, a moment of happiness on a bleak world at a bleak time. "Well, this is where we part ways then. Farewell you two, or as you Jedi put it, may the Force be with you."

Aayla and Harry both moved forward, taking turns to hug the slightly younger (if currently far bulkier) girl, who flushed under her pasty white makeup, unused to such physical displays between acquaintances. "May the Force be with You Padme, and stay in touch yeah," Harry asked, leaning back to wink at the girl before turning away to join his own party. He never noticed Anakin staring at him, or Padme flushing as her eyes followed him and Aayla as they walked away.

After a final farewell to Zule, the two youngsters left the Temple with their masters and Padme's party, separating to enter their respective ships as Lily slipped out through the wall after saying farewell to Zule. The two ships lifted off one after another, exiting through the planetary shield and moving through the space lanes and out to the hyperspace jump coordinates together. There they went their separate ways, jumping to hyperspace in different directions.