CH-3

For just a moment she closed her eyes and felt despair well up inside of her. Barely away from the Order for less than a few hours and already she was being held captive. Only this time there would be no friends to look for her if she went missing. There would be no SkyGuy grumpily showing up to help his apprentice out of the latest mess she had blundered into. She didn't even have a lightsaber she could reclaim to get herself out of this mess.

Ahsoka realized she had to hope that her captors slipped up, since anyone taking bounties out on Jedi was not someone she particularly wanted to meet. Especially those brazen enough to try and collect such things on Coruscant itself where authorities took a rather dim view of anyone trying to hunt Jedi.

She reached for the cuffs on the bar, emphasized by the voice from behind her that said "Slowly. No quick moves or I add a hole to that pretty little head of yours."

Unfortunately as she reached for them, Harry chose that moment to set down his data pad with a sigh of resignation and a slight shake of his head. He reached out and plucked the binders up off the bar and almost idly moved them from hand to hand as he looked across the bar, staring at seemingly nothing with a contemplative expression on his face, apparently ignoring everyone behind him.

Ahsoka froze, wondering what the stranger from before was even thinking, getting involved and likely getting himself shot, especially as he didn't seem armed.

The guy holding the blaster on her seemed taken aback by the sudden move. "Hey buddy, give those to the girl."

Ahsoka hadn't moved but Harry turned around to face the person holding her under his blaster, while he clasped his hands together, holding the binders. Ahsoka turned slightly to watch the man who had seemingly taken leave of his senses, though her slight turn didn't generate a rebuke this time.

It also gave her a line of sight to the people holding her. She saw at least three people behind her holding blasters out and pointed her way, though one had turned to point the blaster at the man who had picked up the binder clips. Because of her montrails and the sort of echolocation they provided, she could also tell there were more people outside her line of vision but didn't want to draw attention to herself by turning that way.

She could tell that most of the attention was now on the man whom she mentally thanked for the distraction. She was just promising herself to try and get him out of this alive when she felt it again, the man moved his hands slightly and she felt a slight surge in the Force. Though she could tell none of the people with blasters had, because with their itchy trigger fingers they would have already shot.

The leader spoke up once more, taking control of the situation, his harsh voice practically snarling at the man, "Unless you want to eat a blaster bolt, give the girl the binders. Or better yet, Put them on her."

"What binders?" Harry asked as he opened his hands, cupped in a bowl position while simultaneously leaning forward toward the men.

Even Ahsoka's attention was drawn to his hands, despite realizing it would be the perfect distraction. Sure enough, instead of a set of binders all that was sitting in his hands was a small pile of black albeit glinting, powder.

"What? Where did you put the binders?" The man demanded, his weapon now also trained on Harry.

Harry looked supremely unconcerned by the weapons now pointed in his direction. He slowly brought his cupped hands upward, allowing all of the men to get a good look and see and in fact, look more closely at the oddly glinting powder that was certainly not reflecting light in a way Ahsoka seen anything else do previously.

In a surprise movement, Harry suddenly blew the black powder forward and Ahsoka once more felt a surge in the Force and suddenly the entire area was plunged into a wide cloud of pure darkness.

There were several gasps of shock from all around and one of the men behind her shouted "Who turned off the damn li-"

Ahsoka however wasn't stuck with just using her eyes. Her montrals had hollow spaces in them that gathered information ultrasonically.

The instant darkness had covered the area, Ahsoka read through her montrals that Harry hadn't wasted any time in stepping forward into the cloud of darkness. She could tell as he moved into the group of bounty hunters and she felt several more of those small unexplained surges in the Force.

Of course her amazement was cut short when she also heard two blaster shots that were followed afterward by screams from a small number of the gathered patrons, though many more seemed to crouch low and reach for weapons of their own.

Ahsoka herself rolled out of her chair, not wanting to be there if a blaster bolt whizzed her way. She hadn't seen where either of the bolts hit, nor who fired them but she also wasn't interested in standing still as she collected more information on the shooters since she was likely to be both a convenient and a priority target.

A moment later there was silence all around.

Ahsoka felt another small surge of Force once more and the darkness in the area seemed to fade quickly. The cloud of darkness collapsed upon itself, and gathered itself rapidly back into Harry's hand.

Ahsoka watched the dust gather in his hands and then she looked around completely stunned. When the darkness cleared it revealed six people on the ground unconscious right in front of her at the stool she had been sitting at. And among the other tables a decent distance from the bar, a single person toppled out of their chair unconscious and sprawled out on the ground as well. Though his chest moved so it was easy to tell he was still breathing.

She stood up and was about to say something when she caught movement behind the bar. Ahsoka had noticed the bartender slump against the wall, but instead of standing up now that danger was over she looked at Harry and Ahsoka in shock.

Harry's attention seem to be drawn by the same thing. Ahsoka saw the woman clutching a hand over her chest and smelt as much as saw the burnt fabric and flesh from where the blaster bolt set to kill, had hit her.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out and then she toppled to the side with a weak grunt as her body impacted the floor behind the bar.

"Oh, hell." Harry muttered already in motion as he took a step forward and vaulted the bar with an economy of movement that Ahsoka attributed to most Jedi. Especially as she was only a moment behind him, though she doubted there was anything she could do for the woman.

Harry was already crouched down beside her and gently but firmly pulled the bartenders arms away from her chest.

Ahsoka took one look and, and from her two years of near constant fighting in the war, could see that the wound was almost certainly a mortal one. Likely, the only thing that could save the woman would be dropping her in bacta right this second, and the nearest bacta tank wasn't within a click of the bar.