CH-11

Then she realized she wasn't with Skywalker anymore. Yet somehow she didn't get the impression that this Harry was somehow more reserved and calm than her old Master had been at any point.

Harry wasn't paying any attention to Ahsoka's evaluative looks as he entered the ramp to the Gryffindor, though Ahsoka regained her bearings enough to quickstep after him and follow him up the ramp into the hold of the boldly colored ship. As she stepped through the threshold of the ship, she felt a wash of the Force go over her and looked around trying to determine the source.

Harry unceremoniously plopped the weight of the still unconscious man onto the ground in front of him, before turning around and seeming to realize that Ahsoka had followed him up the ramp and into his ship, though she still seemed to be a state of shock. She was also reaching out with the Force trying to determine why she felt surrounded by it, though not in a bad way.

Harry winced a little bit as he looked at her. With her extending her senses out, she was practically shouting her thoughts and emotions to him, and her confused emotional state didn't help. "Please… try and stop broadcasting your presence so loudly if you can. We're a fair distance from those idiots, but lets take no chances of them hunting you down before we leave the system."

Ahsoka frowned and looked at him in confusion. "Broadcasting my presence?" She echoed with confusion, never having heard that term before.

Harry nodded a little bit but any reply he would have made was cut off by soft clinking steps and the humming of servo-motors as a droid walked into view. Ahsoka recognized the droid from the image on Harry's holocom and was happy to see that her initial perceptions were accurate.

It resembled a protocol droid with odd projections over the eyes, like it was wearing a welded on hat. It too was colored dark grey almost uniformly. She also noted that her observation about it seeming bulkier was accurate and that unlike normal protocol droids there was no exposed wires, every part of it was encased. She hadn't seen a model like it before though she was hardly an expert on all droids out there.

Harry had looked up and smiled slightly, "Hey Minnie, please tell me you at least caught that whole debacle with the Jedi on a holo."

"Of course," The matronly voice responded primly. "Caught and logged. You had your arm up holding your guest, and positioned perfectly to catch and record everything, both audio and visual... at least of them. A picture of you or your companion was not recorded." The droid sounded a little miffed at being doubted.

"Great, maybe we'll be nice and just send a copy of it over to the Jedi Temple, rather than any news media in the directory. I'm none too pleased with how they acted, but pouring fuel onto a media fire might not be the best idea ever. Knowing someone caught them on holo should at least cause them to think twice." Harry mused.

He turned back to Ahsoka who appeared still a bit dazed; and an amused smile crossed his face before it faded somewhat and turned into a self-conscious and abashed expression. As humorous as her reactions might have been, he hadn't really planned on this and felt a wave of sympathy for her. "Hey, you alright?"

The kind and concerned voice directed at Ahsoka seemed to gather her attention back to him. When she didn't respond he continued. "Sorry about… sorta… kinda… kidnapping you there. I can always take you back if you want." He offered, running a hand through his hair somewhat sheepishly.

That finally seemed to be the impetus required to snap Ahsoka out of her silence that the rapid shocks had uncharacteristically put into her, and immediately questions began to bubble out of her.

The words tumbled out of her in a combination of shock and genuine interest. "Who are you? WHAT are you? Where are we? What was THAT!? How... is this possible?!" She waved her arms slightly, indicating the feeling of the Force she was sensing around her.

Harry blinked a bit and then laughed, cut her off before more questions could come out as a fond smile crossed his face. "That's the second time you reminded me of one of the best friends I ever had..." he mused with a fond if somewhat wistful smile on his face. Before he focused on Ahsoka once more. "Well, my name is Harry, as for the rest…"

He furrowed his brow as he considered how to answer that. "The rest were just some basic skills I picked up a very long time ago." He stared off into space a second before the wistful smile was back on his face. "Well, long before you were born."

He gave her a lopsided grin, but she could tell there was some sadness behind the forced mirth, "Some would call it the final legacy of a misspent youth. Others would just call it part of who I am."

He shook off his sudden reflective mood and then gestured for her to follow him. "C'mon, let's make Mr. Religious Fornicator there more comfortable for the few moments he's still with us, then we can talk a little bit." He reached down and gripped the unconscious man and hefted him up by the back of his belt and half carried and half dragged him in towards the cargo hold of the ship.

Ahsoka followed him, and watched as he tossed the man in what was obviously a small cell… or a cupboard, she wasn't sure which. He pressed a button and the door slid shut with a soft hiss of pressure. The rest of the cargo hold was surprisingly empty, no sign of freight or anything. Instead she noted in one corner there was several tables together with several datapads, along with several open books all around an easy chair.

A chair which Harry sank into with a bit of a pleasant sigh before his pleased expression faded and his emerald eyes focused on Ahsoka with an intensity that made her shiver. After several seconds in which he stared at her, Ahsoka felt he was reading her very soul. In a way she felt that sometimes Master Yoda or Skywalker could, only… this was far more intense.

"Now, why don't you tell me just what kind of trouble you're really in?" Harry finally said bluntly.

"I'm… not in any trouble!" She protested, "They just caught me by surprise is all."

Ahsoka frowned a little bit as doubt crept in. She was here with a self-admitted bounty hunter, one who was a Force-user no less. And it had just been loudly announced that the bounty on her was worth several hundred thousand credits. That would be enough to tempt almost anyone. She should have been more than a little concerned with her self preservation instincts going wild, telling her to get as far away from any bounty hunters as she could.

She shook herself out of those thoughts. While he had brought her here without her permission, which was as he described, technically kidnapping. She was more concerned with figuring out how rather than the fact that he had done so. It also helped that he didn't seem to intend any nefarious purpose or seem to be acting overtly secretive at the moment. Besides, she had been the one to follow him out of the bar when he left, he hadn't dragged her out with him.

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