CH 47

Beside

him

stood

Ahsoka

Tano,

whose attention bounced back and forth between the oncoming ships and Harry, a worried expression riding freely on her face. "Are you sure about this?" His response was a confident grin.

She saw herself and Ahsoka on opposite sides dueling a hooded and cloaked figure wielding two red light sabers. They were on a platform of some sort as bitterly cold winds buffeted all three of them. This opponent had already showed themselves to be skilled, and Aayla was concerned the two of them might not be able to take the figure. Ahsoka had a burn mark on her leg already, though she was only moving a little bit gingerly.

She saw Harry and Anakin Skywalker standing toe to toe, Anakin's expression serious and confrontational, while Harry's was curious as he looked at Skywalker. Harry's expression changing as he seemed to suddenly understand something. Something that at first angered then confused Anakin.

She saw, nebulous visions of a simple conversation, where the unknown topic discussed shatters the events that she could feel were long since locked into occurring. "It's… not possible!" protested a multitude of voices.

She couldn't hear but whatever they talked about changed things. Aayla didn't know what they were talking about but it suddenly changed things for the entire galaxy. As if everything suddenly lurched a foot to the left and went spinning off a pre-ordained path.

She saw images of Harry, Ahsoka, and herself together as they traveled. She saw herself sitting in the very cockpit she now sat while she eagerly devoured a tome of knowledge, not some faux antique but an actual paper book. An academic text that would normally bore her to tears, but at the moment was the most enrapturing thing she'd ever read. She looked up from the book to see an outrageously amused and smug Harry smiling down at her, while holding a steaming cup of some liquid.

Finally, her current visioned changed, just as she realized what her path should be, that somehow her bonds to this man and Ahsoka could someday be elevated higher than her loyalty to the Jedi Order.

She stood nervously, the standard Jedi cloak that she wore infrequently pooled on the ground at her feet and her standard black leather outfit on her body, lightsaber hanging at her side. Despite this being a relatively normal state of affairs, she was very nervous. She bit her bottom lip, as she looked up into Harry's eyes and nodded a little bit. The expression on Harry's face, very familiar to the one she had witnessed in the hold before he leaned forward and, in slow motion, slid an ornate collar, the despised symbol of slavery and ownership around the galaxy, around her neck.

She felt it close over her throat and heard it click shut ominously, with a sense of permanence about it. Though the most disturbing part of all was a sense of relief she felt? She didn't have time to focus on that before the vision shifted again.

As she was reeling from the shock of a future where she ever felt relief at becoming a slave, a final image appeared. Herself and Harry, locked in an intimate embrace, emotions of lust, love, and longing blasting through her vision before her senses returned to normal just as the feelings reached their pinnacle.

She took a deep breath, shock and confusion over that last parting image momentarily taking all her attention as she tried to process it. She shook herself, literally shaking slightly in order to focus herself back in the physical here and now. It took her almost half a minute to regain her focus, and she realized just why it was always Yoda who was the one sinking into those trances and why the others did so much less frequently.

It took an incredibly high amount of focus and control. Even from that brief exposure, Aayla was breathing like she had just ran a marathon and her skin was covered in sweat, and it had nothing to do with the final image in her vision, not at all. Aayla assured herself.

Now wasn't the time to ponder any of what she had seen, especially that last image. She turned back to Harry, who was still purposefully ignoring her, and caught the look of concern from Ahsoka who had stopped whatever it was she was doing previously in the co-pilots seat to look at her.

She swallowed roughly, as her throat had gone dry somehow amidst the chaos of her Force vision, and began to speak. "I apologize for originally speaking to you under false pretenses when I first met you. I admit, my original orders from the Council were to observe you and former Padawan Tano to determine if you were a threat to the Order and the Republic. I wish to join you on your journey with Ahsoka, and not just until we arrive at Kashyyyk."

She winced internally wondering why now, when she needed them, her speaking skills which were always superlative, seemed to desert her. She reviewed what she had said and realized she sounded much like a robot.

Harry tilted his head, contemplative expression on his face as he looked out at the docking bay. When he spoke his voice was still cold, but more even and conversational, less biting. "You realize, I knew why you came before you even arrived, right? I had no doubt how the Jedi Order would act once Ahsoka decided to come with me."

"Believe me, I'm familiar with meddling old men who sit in ivory towers think they know best and that it gives them the right to try to run people's lives." His snort was derisive for a moment before he finally turned in the captain's chair to face her.

His emerald eyes were intense, practically glowing. Aayla had never seen something so captivating in her life. The effect had her instinctively checking herself to make sure that she wasn't having a mind trick performed on her.

"You were sent to check on former Padawan Ahsoka Tano. She's under my instruction now, for as long as she likes. As for me? You're supposed to determine if I present a threat to the Order?" Harry couldn't help but laugh, a laugh that was a combination of amusement and mocking. "Fine, here's my honest self-appraisal. Take it back to your Masters if you want." The way he sneered the words masters, made it clear he wasn't using it in a term of respect but one of derision, as if they owned her. "I could probably bring the entire Order down to its very foundations... if I chose to."

"But, I don't have to do anything. Your Order is doing a fine job of that themselves. I've stayed off their radar for years, simply because I didn't want the annoyance of dealing with them trying to bother me. But I can promise you, you could pit me against your greatest warrior or master, and I doubt I would break a sweat in killing them if that were my goal." Both Aayla and Ahsoka had quick intakes of breath at Harry's blunt assessment and the calm and uncaring way he made that statement. She had heard that sort of boasting before. From Sith she had fought spouting about their power. From bounty hunters who got too full of themselves… or drunk… or both. But it was all boasting or grandstanding. Harry wasn't saying this in a boastful tone. Actually the way he was saying was that he couldn't care less, and was entirely apathetic to the idea. He was speaking with a surety, as if stating a simple fact.

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