Chapter Twenty Three

Quinlan began to falter within a few moments of the battle. There were simply too many blaster bolts coming towards him, too many to deflect, too many to get away from. The younglings behind him were on their sixth and seventh shields, half of them having exhausted themselves and having been pulled back into safety by the youngest children. Knowing they had to step up their game to survive this Lily left the other younglings there joining her son quickly.

He, Alecto, and one of the other older students, a human boy named Benjamin were still at the front or near the front of the fight, taking potshots downrange, though the fourth youngling with them, T'narn, a young Ikotchi, had died from a blaster bolt to the throat.

Harry had stopped using Stupefy spells quickly. Instead he had begun to transfigure small bits of debris hurling them down the hallway in the shape of knives. His face was pale, his hands trembling, as he did so, trying hard not to look at the body of the boy who had, up until moments ago been alive and well, trying not to look at the bodies of the cultists which had begun to litter the corridor almost as much as the debris of his defenses.

Lily knew that look, and knew her son knew he had killed people today, but there was no time for him to collapse, no time for anything but to try and survive this. This is as bad as any of the fights I saw against the Dark Wanker and his followers, only worse in a way, he never had numbers like this!

"Harry," she said, moving forward, using what limited magic she had to send her own spell down range. This one wasn't a stunner but a very small, low level Bombarda, which went off like a grenade in amongst several of the attackers. They blew backwards, their bodies shredded by the explosion, and for a moment the attackers fell back.

"Harry," she said urgently. "We, you need to start using more offensive magic."

"I don't know any," Harry grunted, sending another fusillade of conjured up knives down range. "I haven't come up with any but the push spells, and you haven't taught me any."

"I know, and believe me I'm kicking myself for that I never thought you'd face a fight like this, not when you're so young." And even when they invaded, I didn't really think the fight would be so damn tough, or there would be so many of them! Damn it Lily, Harry's counting on you, you can't make mistakes like that! If we get out of here, I am going to describe as many defensive and offensive spells as I can think of to Harry, and see what he can do with them. "But I think it's time to try and imagine some of your own!"

On the other side of the corridor Alecto gasped, falling backwards into the doorway he'd been using as cover, his shoulder seared black from a blaster bolt. Benjamin grunted angrily, jumping to his feet and blasting away with his blaster rifle on full auto, each shot unerringly finding its mark before his form was riddled by several return shots.

"Watch out!" said Wulo, clattering forward from his position with the other students. He barreled into Harry, taking them both through the doorway Harry had been using as cover as a grenade was hurled over Quinlan's head towards them. Quinlan didn't sense it through the rest of the battle but somehow Wulo had. The grenade went off as it hit the floor and Wulo grunted in pain as a few shrapnel pieces hit his back legs and rump. He fell to the side twitching and biting his lower lip to keep from screaming in pain.

Looking down at his friend, Harry's face firmed, and he looked up to Lily, who was still in the corridor, ignoring the blaster bolts that zoomed through her ghostly body. Magic, or the Force depending who was doing the telling, began to swirl around Harry, so much that Quinlan looked towards them in shock. Then Aayla ducked underneath his legs, racing towards Harry and the injured Wulo.

Sliding into cover she grabbed up the blaster Alecto had dropped, and began to fire downrange methodically. She wasn't as good a shot as the Duros youth, but she didn't really have to be in this kind of environment.

Beside her Harry gestured forward with both hands, and all of the bits and pieces he had transfigured suddenly lifted themselves up off of the floor. They flew forward, smashing with bone shattering force into the cultists at the far end of the corridor.

He couldn't keep it up for long, not since he was already tired from having conjured them into being already. But the Force was still swirling around Harry as he let go of that spell. Even as the survivors of his attack pulled themselves out of the rubble and began to fire again, he concentrated hard on his happy memories, the memories he had made with Aayla, with his mother, shaped and guided by the memory of Lily explaining a spell from their world once on the trip to the Explorer.

But Harry was tired, his mind and body unable to go on even if the Force within him was willing. He began to falter, the Force around him shivering as it threatened to dissipate in his grip. Then Aayla's free hand suddenly found Harry's. He turned slightly to look at her for a moment and she nodded fiercely at him, not understanding what he was trying to do, but giving of her own energy somehow in a way that neither could have explained at the time. Later there would be consequences of that brief moment of total Force power cohesion, but right now they had no time or concentration to notice it.

Regathering his control and concentration Harry reached for the magic or the Force or whatever it was and shouted two words, the words of the spell that Lily had been teaching him for several weeks now coming to his mind, guiding further by the thought, Defend us! "Expecto Patronum!"

The Force sharpened, singing out in a single peeling note like a bell felt by every Jedi or youngling in the star system. And suddenly between Harry, Aayla and the attackers there stood a massive silver clad knight in shining armor, in one hand he held a lightsaber, in the other a massive tower shield. It stood so tall its head nearly scarped the ceiling, and its bulk nearly pushed Quinlan into the side of the corridor.

It shone silver from head to toe, and gave off a feeling of fierce protectiveness and determination, bolstering the feelings of all the younglings behind it. Some of them even cheered as they saw it, not understanding what it was, only that the vision was on their side.

The phantasm stalked forward, the blaster bolts coming towards it impacting his armor with no apparent damage. Its lightsaber flashed, hitting more like a heavy thick blade than a lightsaber, but it still did a lot of damage, bisecting four attackers before it was in among the others, hurling them back, slicing and attacking with feet and shield.

Lily stared at it, then down at her son, shaking her head in amazement at what Harry could do once again. Then she gasped, moving forward to lay hands on both him and Aayla. "Harry!" Blood had begun to drip out of Harry's mouth, his nose, and even from his eyes as he poured all of the magic he could sustain into the spell. Next to him Aayla went to one knee, her head throbbing, a small trickle of blood appearing from her own nose as she forced her eyes closed, trying to concentrate and retain the flow of power she was pushing into Harry but which she still barely understood.

The attackers were still drugged up to their gills however. The drugs in their bloodstream killed all thoughts of self-preservation, turning pain into pleasure. They still charged forward, unmindful of the seventy-odd of their fellows that had already died in this one corner of the larger battle. As Harry and Aayla began to succumb to their exhaustion the apparition began to lose its form and they began to push past the silver sentinel, heading towards Quinlan.

But then Master Yoda and Master Fay were there. The two Masters struck with a fury that few who knew of her would have countenanced from Master Fay at the very least. Her force power lashed out, smashing man and debris aside with the hand of a giant, flattening them in place. But for the most part she simply brushed them aside to race towards Harry, Aayla and the other younglings.

Master Yoda was everywhere, slashing cutting flashing through the battle a tiny but unstoppable whirlwind of destruction. Bodies and bits of bodies seemed to explode away from him, as he bounced around the corridor, cutting the last of the attackers into pieces.

As the last attacker fell to his blade, Yoda turned to face the swiftly dissipating silver apparition, staring at it as he deactivated his lightsaber, using it for a moment as if it was a glimmer stick. "Fascinating this is," he murmured taking in what his Force senses could tell him of the construct, which radiated to him like something out of the old tales of Force Light and other physical manifestations of the Light side of the Force. And it was built of the Light side, the feelings radiating off it told him that.

Fay however had something else on her mind, catching the two youngsters as they fell, gathering both into her arms. Yoda joined them, projecting before him a feeling of wellness and protection much like the apparition had, only somewhat more diluted, calming the younglings still watching from the doors further down the hallway.

Both Jedi looked up as Lily reached down frantically trying to touch her son's face, shouting his name. "Harry, Harry, can you hear me!?"

The desperation in her tone almost brought a reflexive frown to Yoda's face, the amount of attachment and familial connection between the two startling him for a moment. But then his good sense reared its head, squashing that moment of reflexive concern over such things in a Force user. The woman was not a Jedi, he would've recognized her if she was, and so he had no right to tell her how to live her life.

Fay looked up the ghost smiling reassuringly, absently noting how solid the Force Ghost looked, far more so than the history texts which mentioned such things had hinted at. It was obvious she was still incorporeal, but you could only barely see the other side of the hallway through her. Fay also idly noted that the clothing the Force Ghost wore was mildly scandalous in her mind, and determined to ask her about that later.

"Young...Harry is it, will be fine," she said. "It's just a case of Force exhaustion, a bad case admittedly, but I've seen such like before."

She didn't mention the very odd and strangely deep Force connection between the young Twi'lek girl and Harry, she would have to examine that closer before figuring out what it was and sharing it with anyone else. The fact the Force is singing in joy at me right now isn't actually helping either, Fay thought rather sardonically. Fay had never felt the like, the Light Side of the Force almost literally singing in joy.

Even if she didn't actually breath Lily still let out a sigh of relief before thanking the woman, who, now that the battle was over, Lily couldn't help but notice looked like an elf out to Tolkien. If she's called Galadriel or Arwen I am so out of here! Lily thought somewhat hysterically.

Getting control of herself with difficulty Lily turned her mind on other matters as the small, ancient seeming alien which reminded her of a house elf moved past her toward the other younglings, gesturing Quinlan to join him. "In that case, I think you need to get someone else in here. Many of the students have injuries, and…" Lily sighed again, sadly shaking her head as she looked over at Alecto, who had pushed himself to his feet. The green skinned youth was now shaking, staring at the debris of the battle going to his knees and shivering. "I think you also need to get a counselor in here to talk to the kids."

Fay looked at the children, nodding her head sadly. That those so young should have to take so many lives to survive themselves, what is this universe coming to?She then looked around at the debris cluttering the hallway, felt the Force singing at her then at the boy who she knew was the source of much of that debris and the singing in the Force. Strange days to be certain, but hopefully good ones as well…