Chapter Thirty Four

Darth Sidious leaned back in his hidden throne room, his eyes closed as he subtly probed the Force, feeling out what was going on in the Temple and in the distant Yinchorri system. Thanks to Plagueis the Veil had been slowly taking shape for months now, aiding him in reaching out and feeling what was going on further away than he had previously been able to, while also blocking the Jedi from doing the same. The effect would grow in time, and Plagueis was elsewhere even now, continuing his work on it, leaving Sidious to watch over their work here in Coruscant.

This included their latest effort to both remove a variable and cut down on the Jedi's numbers. The first objective was going well, their Yinchorri tools had no more idea they were dancing to the Sith's tune than any other their other pawns. The second however had only marginal success thus far.

The order had lost the two Jedi they had sent to investigate the Yinchorri raid. Sidious had even felt at least two deaths since Windu, that unbending, inflexible, dangerous man had taken a team to see if they could find the Yinchorri ruling caste and force them to stop their assaults. But the two deaths had not been anyone of consequence, and Sidious had hoped for more from the Yinchorri.

Both in their home systems and here on Coruscant, the moronic lizards have not lived up to Plagueis' calculations. I suppose it serves me well as a abject lesson to not underestimate the Jedi, but I did not subtly convince that Devaronian that an assault on the Temple was a good idea to only kill a bare handful. While the fact they arrived on planet with none the wiser is something I can easily turn to my advantage in the Senate and in the local planetary control center, it does not make up for so few Jedi… wait… what is that?

Sidious subtly probed the feel of the Force around the temple, not allowing any of his own thoughts to be felt with a mastery of Force Cloak that no Jedi even knew existed, his thoughts hidden among the eddies of the Unifying Force. That was so automatic he didn't even think about it now, his whole intellect bearing down on the feel of the odd sensation he had just glimpsed.

It felt as if someone had somehow molded the Force into a physical presence, a shield of Force energy. Sidious could feel it was made up of several different Jedi in one of their irritating gestalts, but even so, it was a technique he had never heard of.

The feel of it sparked the memory of the rumors Sidious had heard a few years ago about some old Force techniques being rediscovered by Master Yoda. Perhaps there is more to those rumors than I thought. I must find out more. Hmm, if they are connected to that force of Light from several years ago which affected myself and my master so much, these new skills might offset The Plan.

With that concern paramount in his mind Sidious continued to probe gently around the Temple, but found nothing concrete. Something niggled at his senses, something that told him there was more here that he should be sensing, but that was all.

But after a moment, as the technique he had initially sensed faded away, his attention faded back to the physical world. No, there was nothing else there save the shield technique. With that Sidious turned his attention away, bringing up a series of computer systems as he began to scheme anew about how to go about getting that information. It never occurred to him that there might be things even he could not feel, could not see in the Force.

OOOOOOO

Master Yoda turned away from the young knight who thought he had needed protection from the Yinchorri who had been playing dead, surveying the hallway where the main battle against the invaders of the Temple had occurred. He was about to address Master Raniscis about what might really have been behind this attack when a feeling in the Force reached both him and the other Jedi around them. He smiled faintly turning in that direction as did the other Council members present.

From deeper in the Temple Knight Shaak Ti appeared, followed by a few others, mostly young Consulars a few padawans, and notably a few initiates. "Hrhrhrm, safe the younglings are Knight Ti?"

"Yes Grand Master." Shaak Ti bowed floridly as she addressed Yoda and the other Council members, knowing Yoda disliked such grandiose shows of respect.

Shaak Ti was often like that, a creature of serenity yet also subtle humor, as well as understanding and veiled power that had made her T'ra Saa's choice to accompany the clan from the Explorer as it transferred to the Temple, a choice that had proven inspired. She was also an excellent duelist, and Yoda had taken to training with her as often as he could. Their styles were not at all the same, but she was still learning from them quite well.

Yoda poked her in the leg with his gimmer stick, shaking his head at her attitude. That, and the fact that most of his fellows didn't even realize she was poking fun at them in being so respectful. "Report."

"The shield held easily against the Yinchorri that got past you here in the main hall, though we all took turns powering it to keep the shield in place. No injuries among the younglings or the others who took refuge with us, none were even exhausted by the ordeal." Shaak reported crisply, smiling slightly as the masters all around her looked torn between approval of the new technique and irritation that it had once again proven its worth.

The fact only a few of them had been able to use the new techniques was part of their irritation. Using the new Force powers required a certain mental flexibility that many Jedi had problems with. Shaak Ti felt that said much more about them then the techniques alas.

She went on more seriously. "The fact the Yinchorri tried so hard to get past the shield at all worries me, as does this attack in the first place. It serves no purpose from the Yinchorri perspective. Attacks like this are terror attacks, and they don't think in those terms, unless I am mistaken about their psychology?"

Yoda shook his head, exchanging a glance with Yaddle and Ranicisis. "Mistaken you were not, a reason behind this attack on the temple we must search for." He sighed, shaking his head. "Dark, the future is becoming, but reason behind the change, hidden it is."

Nodding her head, Shaak frowned, wondering what was happening to the Force until she felt a gentle Force Push to her side. Turning her head she saw Aayla standing in place with the others of her clan Shaak had called on to help in the shielding. It wasn't all of them, many of them were not suited to that task, and frankly even of those who were it would have been overkill. This also gave others outside the clan a chance to try the technique under trying circumstances.

But that wasn't why Aayla was with her now and Shaak rolled her eyes at the younger girl before turning back to Master Yoda. "With your permission then, I will see the younglings and initiates back to their dormitories."

Having caught Shaak's glance, a few of the masters present narrowed their eyes slightly, knowing that the young Twi'lek initiate would once again be contacting Master Fay's mysterious padawan, who none of them had met yet though the rumor of him had begun to get around slowly. Jedi were not stupid, and more than a few had realized it hadn't been Yoda or Saa who had rediscovered the lost techniques which were now being taught to practically every initiate in the Order with varying levels of success. Most thought it had been Fay, but even so could not understand why Yoda allowed Aayla such personal time with Fay's padawan.

For his part Yoda merely chuckled. His Force senses could feel the thread connecting Harry and Aayla, a thing of thin Light against the backdrop of the darkening Force. Every time he felt it, he felt the guilt of separating the two of them for so long. Yet it also reinforced his belief that he had made the right decision, despite how many headaches aiding the inclusion of the new Force techniques and ways of thinking into the Order was giving him. "Go then, young Knight. Much work we still have to do here."

Shaak nodded her head to all of them, and moved off, with Aayla trotting at her heels, anxious to reassure Harry that she was alright.

OOOOOOO

The second moment of 'Potter luck' happened about four months after the Yinchorri situation was dealt with. While Master Fay and Lily were taking a break to really come to grips with a few of their runic experiments Master Fay felt the tug of the Force again, pulling them to a planet called Edusa. There conflict had begun between the human-centric government of the hegemony which ruled this sector of space, and the local species, the Edusans. These were short spiderlike aliens that looked all the world to Lily's eyes like a fantasy character from Forgotten Realms, driders. They had the bottom half of spiders, but the upper body of a human.

Some of them are quite cute, in a creepy sort of way, she thought, as she and Harry followed Master Fay down the ship's ramp.

These aliens had extremely dexterous hands, having two more finger joints than humans did, but little physical strength. Nonetheless, their grasp of technology was excellent, and the human colonists of this planet had first tried to enslave them to put to work on various projects until they had been overthrown centuries ago. The system was still part of the Cuitric Hegemony, which was very humanocentric and the locals had no space-based military whatsoever. On land they made a formidable guerrilla force however, and there were threats of violence breaking out between the human government for the world and the local populace.

Master Fay however calmed everyone down with her normal aura of control and serenity, literally sending thoughts of peace and destroying thoughts of violence in the minds of the people around her. Lily still wasn't really at home with that, such an advanced Legellimency ability could so easily be manipulated after all, but at least she knew Master Fay would never do such a thing.

The initial talks took some time, during which Harry was put into the position of a gofer, helping his Master find out any information she needed while she engaged with the talks themselves. He also helped with that a time or two, but he really wasn't as at home with talks about laws, economics or other such things.

The talks continued on until Master Fay was able to get the local governor and the local hegemony admiral into the same room to talk face to face.

"Unfortunately Harry, this leaves me telling you that you have the day once more to yourself." Fay said shaking her head with a sigh. "The admiral has requested that only the three of us be within the room, with no aides for either party, the better to cut through normal diplomatic folderol. That includes you I'm afraid."

"And I'd like you Lily to work your way onto the admirals ship if you can." she said looking out over at the Force Ghost. The ship in question was a small cruiser which had set down at the capital's main port several days ago. "The Force is warning me that this is going to go badly, and I'm not certain from which direction."

Lily nodded and both women turned to look at Harry who sheepishly looked away. "But Harry, this time you are going to stay within the palace understand? I don't want you out there will trouble can find you more easily," Fay said, smiling slightly.

"I'm glad you realize I don't go looking for it in turn Master," Harry said with a grin, then leaned up to kiss his mum on the cheek, his lips feeling her almost gaseous skin against his lips for a moment before turning fully incorporeal doing the same to Fay before returning to his studies.

Harry spent most of his time that day exploring. The castle used as the governmental building for his planet was a fascinating ancient building, half human construction, half local, turning the whole into something unique. Hallways could come at you from any direction save directly above you, there were few staircases inside, the walls were covered here and there with excellent human made paintings, and here and there were shapes work into the wall of pastoral scenes and other things of that nature. It was an odd design but it really interesting all the same.

Harry particularly enjoyed some of the scenes from space. He was still training on Master Fay's ship, but she said he had all the reflexes of a born pilot, and he was looking forward to trying out a starfighter someday.

He stopped walking however when he saw a few of the locals with two humans arguing about something pointing into a room ahead of him. "And I tell you, I heard a noise!" said one the locals as he came within hearing of the group. "It came from in there."

"There's nothing in here Dumtrai," said one of the humans, speaking calmly, but looking a little confused.

He exchanged a glance with the other human who shrugged his shoulders. "You know they've got better hearing than we do, longer range or something."

"The term is higher range actually," Harry said, moving towards them with a smile. They all smiled back somewhat nervously having spotted his padawan braid. "Calm down, we Jedi really aren't all that fierce or arrogant, or whatever rumors you've heard about us make us out as." They all nodded, and he went on. "Now what was this about you hearing something?"

"It's like a low hum Master Jedi."

"It's Harry please, or if you need to be formal, Padawan Potter."

"We could shorten that to Peepee?" One of the humans said, smirking.

Harry rolled his eyes, pointing a finger to smack him upside the head with Force, causing the man to jerk sideways for a moment. "I've heard that one far too often thank you."

The man laughed sheepishly, but they all turned back to the local Esulan as Harry asked, "Is it something electrical you think?"

"I don't even know if it's in there, it's really faint, but it wasn't here this morning, that's what grabbed my attention in the first place." Said the nonhuman, shrugging his shoulders and jittering slightly in place, his spider legs tick-tacking on the ground of the hallway.

Harry frowned, looking into the room. "Lights?"

The small room was obviously intended as some kind of viewing platform, with the outer wall opening out into a balcony where people could stare out over the small city beyond. Harry moved in that direction, gesturing the two aliens who had heard the noise towards. "Could it be coming from outside?"

Eventually they discovered that it wasn't coming from that door, but from the window directly below them which led into a storage area. One of the windows had cracked slightly letting the noise out, which was now audible even to human ears when they entered. Harry frowned, gesturing his helpers around. "That hum isn't normal right?"

One of the humans shook his head grimly, already moving to lift a few cargo containers out of the way. "No, it isn't."

"You two find that noise," Harry said crisply to the Edusans, worry solidifying within him as he did. "And whatever you do don't touch whatever is making it!"

With the locals helping, and more help arriving quickly they found what was making that loud throbbing noise quickly, and it was just as Harry had feared, a bomb, slowly cycling up to explosion. Sighing, Harry reached for his communicator. "Master, I hate to tell you this, but trouble seems to have found me anyway."

"It looks like a large scale thermal charge." Master Fay heard from the communicator set on the table in front of her, staring across at the local governor. He actually wasn't titled governor, his title translated to something like 'speaker for the web' or 'singer of the web's consensus' but they had no time to worry about that.

"Now we know why the Admiral was unavoidably detained," she said, subtly looking over at Lily, who had arrived moments ago with the news that the Admiral was in his quarters aboard his ship quickly becoming as sick as a dog. "We will have to question him closely on whether or not this was all contrived, but we will see about that in the future."

"Harry do you think you can diffuse it?" she asked into the communicator as Lily zoomed through the doorway and towards Harry, where she could feel him distantly.

"Yes Master, I think I can. After all," he said his next voice in his own English, a language Lily and Harry had taught Master Fay to serve as a secret language while in public. "I doubt its insides will be able to stand being turned into so much playdough. I'll have to be careful which bit I do that too, but it should be possible."

"Be careful Harry," Fay replied sighing and shaking her head. I'm afraid that is going to turn into a mantra in the coming years. Having a padawan is proving as worrisome as I feared it might.

Shrugging her shoulders slightly, Master Fay turned her attention back to the local governor. "So, with the belief that the Admiral might be involved in this attack on you and myself, I believe we are well within our rights make an agreement between the two of us without his involvement…"

Thanks to no one actually dying, and Harry successfully stopping the bomb from going off, and her own powers of deduction and ability to ferret out secrets, Fay was able to bring the talks to a peaceful conclusion. The admiral had in fact not been involved, but his second-in-command, apparently on orders from someone in the Cuitric hegemony, had acted to remove the local's leadership. He was remanded into the locals custody, and the admiral, angry at the betrayal, agreed to nearly all of the treaty Fay had worked out with his opposite number.

Master Fay and the two Potters left the planet a week later with peace between the locals and the henchmen once more restored.

These misadventures continued off and on over the next year and a half as Harry grew in both knowledge and power, both formal Force powers, and his own people's Force abilities. But the outcome of these misadventures were such that Fay couldn't really bring herself to say she was sorry to have taken Harry on even if you removed the fact he and Lily were excellent company and her own familial feelings for the pair. She began to call Harry 'the Force's lancer'. He had a way of bringing local problems to the surface like a boil so they could lance them.

His magical aptitude grew by leaps and bounds, and Fay more than once shook her head at how strong he was. He was also more direct combat oriented than Fay herself. But she was able to teach him over the years how not to fight and that empathy and understanding could be a Jedi's greatest weapons.

But eventually Harry did reach the age where a normal initiate would begin to build his own lightsaber. His physical training had continued of course, and they had taken a low powered training saber from the Explorer when they left to train him in the forms. His Force Precognition had grown by leaps and bounds, and his reflexes, physical training and sheer speed were impressive for a youngling his age.

But that wasn't enough, and Fay knew it. Harry needed more formal training especially since after building his lightsaber a regular initiate would begin to learn the specific Forms, building his own style from their teachings.

"The problem," she confided to Lily one night in her room aboard her ship, "Is that I simply am not good enough with a lightsaber to teach Harry, even if I had one myself, which I don't. I haven't practiced with a lightsaber since I became a knight, and that was more than four hundred years ago."

"I wouldn't have thought you a day older than a hundred," Lily teased the other woman from where she was hovering over the tiny cabinet in the room, which contained all the clothing Fay allowed herself, all of them the robes and underclothes of a Jedi, looking exactly the same. Harry's clothing was like that too, though his was grey and white rather than tan and white.

"Still I understand your point, and Yoda and the others impressed me with the combat effectiveness of lightsabers. So, should we let Harry build his lightsaber and then try to find a teacher for him out here, or do it the other way around? Is the Force still telling you that the rest of the Order isn't ready to be shown his abilities?" Lily asked moving over to hover over the bed next to her friend.

"Yes, both the Force and the communications Harry and Aayla have been exchanging over the years. Many of the techniques the clan has shared, changing their hair or skin color, the limited shield spells and the Stupefy technique have gone over well. But there has been some backlash from how interconnected they are, as well as how emotional we allowed them to become before Master Saa dropped them off on Coruscant. Many teachers have tried to change that, and only a few of them have been chosen as padawans by this point."

Aayla was one of those few, Quinlan having been as good as his word and taking her as his padawan a bare week after becoming a knight himself. Despite many masters wanting her to stay to continue teaching the shield technique to others the two of them had left Coruscant quickly on an assignment with Master Tholme.

She and Harry had continued to talk as often as they could over the years, but now that she was no longer on Coruscant with the Temple's Hypercom array the times they could were becoming fewer and farther between. That had Harry somewhat depressed as was the fact he seemed to have reached a wall in his training how to Reach out to the Force to send more information along their link. Fay would be lying if she said that the idea of cheering him up wasn't affecting her decision making when it came to getting Harry further lightsaber training.

"I just don't think the rest of the Order is ready to see what Harry is capable of these days." Fay said with a sigh. "The Order has continued to lose members in trickles here and there, so the utility of the skills the clan is sharing has forced a rethink on many portions of the initiate training. But there is still too much reactionism in the Council of Reassignment, First Knowledge and even the High Council. Yoda has done good work readying the Order for the changes, but even he can only do so much to change centuries of tradition and personal opinion without causing more resentment even among Jedi. The fact that most of them have already said they will take the Old Oath rather than the New is making it worse."

Lily shrugged her shoulders, uncaring of the trials the Order was facing where they didn't impact her son. The Order had a shakeup coming anyway in her opinion. "So if we can't go to Coruscant, what does that leave us?"

Fay fell silent for a time staring unseeing into a hologram of Republic space for a moment. "Serenno," she decided after a moment, the Force helping her to make the decision. "Master Dooku returned to his home system after the Bando Gora had been dealt with and they rescued his former padawan from their foul tortures. He and a Master Unduli who I have never met are both there helping her recover from that ordeal on his family's estates because there are some in the Order who feel that the poor girl went too far into the Dark to be saved."

Looking up at Lily she gave a brief overview of what she knew of both masters. "From what I know either would be a decent teacher for Harry if we can convince them to become so. After they have tested him for a time, he can start making his lightsaber," Fay smiled wryly, shaking her head. "Though somehow I doubt that will be as simple as going to the Crystal Cave and picking out a crystal. Nothing is ever simple with Harry."

"All too true," Lily laughed, before the two of them exited the room to tell Harry the good news.