Chapter Forty Six

Aayla groggily became aware of the world around her, her eyes fluttering in their sockets and she groaned, muttering in standard, "What the heck hit me?"

"Nothing yet, I wanted you awake for this," said a sinister voice, though at first Aayla could not place where she had heard it before. Then Bib Fortuna leered town at her, and Aayla suddenly realized that she was naked, and that she was tied down to a bed of some kind. He reached down, one nail running around her nipple, and Aayla tried to back away, tried to reach for the Force. But she couldn't, her mind was still too groggy, the drugs in her system inhibiting her badly, even her emotions were disjointed, cloudy.

A medical droid hovered behind Bib, and he laughed evilly. "You were made my dear. You and your Master are both dead now, it's just a matter of time. Of course, if you make it worth my while, I might be persuaded to let you live a little longer…" he said leering down at her.

But Aayla was so out of it she couldn't even process the words, and he sighed. "Pity, that gas seems to have a longer effect on Twi'leks than it would humans, but oh well, I'll still have my fun. First however we'll have to give you another injection just to make sure you stay… compliant. And another one to take that a little further. You'll enjoy yourself my dear, whether you want to or not…"

No, Aayla thought, staring at the droid as it came towards her, a needle pointing out from it and heading towards her arm. No! But she couldn't do anything, her mind was still too groggy still out of it and she felt fear and despair welling within her…

But then there was another mind there. Suddenly Harry was there, his arms around her mentally, their connection flaring in her head as he reached through it. Somehow he used that connection to take control of her own body, pushing her own Force through her body in the techniques needed s to purge her body of the drug. Within one moment and the next his voice was in her head, a clarion call. "Aayla! I'm here!"

Bib Fortuna watched in shock as Aayla's hazel eyes suddenly cleared of the gas in her system. A finger rose, and suddenly the droid was flying backwards shattered from a blast of compressed air, then another sent Bib flying backwards to land broken against the far wall.

Freeing herself from her restraints took Aayla a bit longer, because with Harry's senses still riding her own Aayla refused to look at her own body, something which won a relieved laugh from him. Conjuring up some fire to weaken the plastic restraints, blue fire something that Mistress Lily had taught her, unable to burn skin but quite able to burn anything else, Aayla pulled her hands out after a few moments. Working at her wrists and wincing Aayla looked around the small cubicle anxiously. Luckily Bib had wanted to be alone to have his fun, so only he and the droid had been in the room. But she was still unarmed for the moment, and still naked.

"Let me help with that," Harry said, once again reaching through her mind. Aayla was okay at Transfiguration of small things, and was extremely good at using projectiles. Several spars she had on Coruscant had ended when she suddenly conjured up a few needles from behind or around her opponent, hurling them each at a different target while also pressing her attack from the front. No other Padawan could handle that kind of thing, though her own master had done so easily.

But clothing was still somewhat beyond Aayla even now since she hadn't been able to experiment with it often while at the Temple. Now however she visualized her clothing in her mind, and Harry helped her, working with her, their mental hands clasped together fit to never let go again and… suddenly Aayla was holding up several bits of clothing.

Harry blinked, but resolutely also pulled slightly away from the link as Aayla ordered him to, and she pulled on her clothing quickly. When she was done, she looked down at herself and allowed Harry to do the same through her eyes. "This is very weird, and I'd really rather you not use my senses like this, but under the circumstances Harry, I can only say thank you."

"Thank you!" Aayla did not like how her voice trembled there when she spoke aloud, or the shivering feeling the felt even in her mental palace. She was not some kriffing damsel in distress! This was an aberration, it would not happen again!

Harry's joyful laugh banished her irritation, and again all she could do was send out a sort of mental hug. Not willing to send her astral projecting into her mental palace and meet him face to face just yet, it was more of a feeling that a fact. "I missed you!" They both shouted suddenly, both mentally and aloud, and then they laughed before Aayla resolutely returned her attention to her present straits. "I have to bet that someone's going to come and check up on Bib in a while. Where are you?"

"We're just coming into atmosphere: me, Master Fay and Master Dooku."

Aayla bobbed her head in surprise, setting her lekku to swaying as she blinked, astonished. "Master Dooku! He wasn't, that is he's not taking missions any longer! He retired to his home planet with his former padawan and Master Unduli right?" Master Dooku had regularly taught at the Temple, being a master lightsaber duelist, and she'd actually had a class or two with a hologram based on his teachings. "What have you been up to Harry?"

"Getting lightsaber instruction the past few weeks," Harry said laughing. "Master Fay doesn't use a lightsaber, remember?"

"Oh yes," Aayla muttered aloud and mentally, looking down at her side for a moment where her lightsabers should rest. She was a Jar'kai user, though like Zule though she knew that she had a lot to learn. Master Giiet had started them both down that road, and she'd learned quite a bit, but this was going to be the first time she'd had to use her lightsabers in real combat, and she didn't even have them. Lovely.

"Summon them to you," Harry said in her mind. "Shouldn't that work?"

Aayla bit her lip in thought for a moment, thinking of where her lightsabers would be. She and Quinlan had stowed them in a small cleaning droid, one of dozens that cleaned the Jabba's palace just in case the first night she had been here. But it had been assumed that one or the other would be in the same room with the droid, able to command it to release them, and get at them physically. Still it wasn't like it would cost her anything to attempt it. "I suppose I could try…"

Harry wordlessly held out a mental hand, giving of his own Force powers not even directing them now, letting Aayla take what power she needed for this. This was like the gestalt any group of Jedi could create, something that no Sith or wizard would have been able to. Yet their version was deeper, and Harry was powerful, which made a difference.

Holding up her hands Aayla closed her eyes for a moment in order to help her visualize the little droid, sending out her Force senses. It looked like a sort of bug creature but with wheels instead of feet, a black scarab back, with some kind of sucker on the bottom to soak up liquids, dust and other things. The one they used had a small white dot on one of its legs, and she found it quickly despite the fact it wasn't truly alive.

It was on the far side of this very floor, closer than Aayla had thought, but still quite a ways away given the size of this palace. Even so, she found it and then found her lightsabers within the droid, her Force senses skittering around them, the two crystals she'd used in their creation positively singing with her powers. That had been an idea from Master Lily from years ago which Aayla had followed up on: that awhile Jedi might not need focuses, they could still imbue their power into artifacts, and Aayla had done so with those crystals.

Gathering herself and taking liberally from Harry's Force powers, she directed her Force 'hands' to grab at her lightsabers, and pulled them towards her, 'yanking' hard.

The Force pull was so powerful it ripped the droid apart to the astonishment of several guards nearby, who had gathered to hopefully take their turns with Aayla after Bib was finished with her. They stared in shock at the spiraling silver hilts before they slammed end on into the wall shattering it with how fast they were going as a 'Boom!' echoed around the room, shattering eardrums and throwing people aside. Several booms later, the lightsabers had shattered several more walls in their way as the guards, holding their hands up to bleeding ears stared after them. "What the kriff was that?!"

In the small cubicle Aayla leaped up into the air, her hands flashing out to grab her lightsabers out of the air, activating them with a flourish before she came down, grinning now. "Interesting," Harry said thoughtfully, his clinical tone taking her somewhat aback for a moment before she too stared down at her lightsabers. "The Force grab also protected them, funny that. Or was that somehow carried over into the technique by your unconscious mind?"

"Analyze later," Aayla ordered, cutting the door to ribbons and marching out, her eyes alight with battle light, eager to cut down anyone who got her way. Harry's soothing presence calmed her down somewhat, but Aayla felt that she had a right to be a little irritated right now given what it almost just happened to her.

"Will be there soon Aayla, and you won't have to do it all alone," Harry said, and Aayla got the impression that he was standing up from a chair, already moving towards the hatchway.

"I know Harry, I'll meet you someplace inside I supposEE!" Her mental words cutting off as she concentrated on her physical environment, her lightsabers flashing up to block incoming blaster bolts.

Several more of the guards had responded to the emergency klaxon from the first few, rushing down into the prison cells. At the sight of a Jedi Knight, after all, if you someone had a lightsaber in your hand their hand you didn't take the time to notice the individual's age, they began to fire immediately shouting, "Jedi! She's free, call for backup!"

Aayla crouched, her lightsabers flashing in front of her in an intricate defense, and then Harry said a few words, while still giving of his own power. Aayla had known for years that Harry was far and away more powerful than she was in the Force, it was only now that she was realizing just how much so.

She wasn't jealous about it, the very idea was unthinkable. How could she be, when Harry was so selfless with what he did with it and how much he gave of himself? But at the moment the words in Aayla's mind mattered almost as much as the power thrumming through her. "Mum says that we can start showing off now."

"Yes!" Aayla caroled aloud, and more than one guard exchanged a glance hearing it over the sound of blaster bolts and sizzling hum of her lightsabers. They didn't have long to wonder what it meant though, as Aayla reached forward with the Force. A Force Shield appeared defending half of her body and she gestured with her other hand. Suddenly blasts of air flew from her outstretched hand, impacting with bone shattering force, followed by tiny fireballs hurling several of the guards backward with screams of shock.

Aayla advanced down the corridor, her lightsabers still flashing occasionally to batter back blaster bolts, but using your Force powers now just as much. She couldn't concentrate on more than a few attacks at the same time, but her lightsabers and her Force Shield kept her safe, with Harry's power to tap into the shield didn't even take any power at all. This allowed Aayla to concentrate on her offense, much to the detriment of the guards facing her.

That was until someone had the bright idea of activating the prison cells cellblocks robotic defenses. Aayla turned quickly, her lightsabers flaring out either side of her as a quad laser on top of a small pintle mount in the ceiling opened up on her. She summoned up another shield then hurled that shield forward, slamming into the people of the far end before redirecting the blaster bolts with her lightsaber back to the laser in the ceiling. It flashed, flared then died, and she quickly turned racing a way as two more popped up from high up on the walls.

A second later she was in among the guards, her lightsabers cutting them into pieces while she used their bodies to protect herself from the quad lasers and summoned up several small rock shards sending them back towards the lasers. A moment later, Aayla was clear for now, but she could already hear the trump of many feet towards her. "This is going to be a long day," Aayla muttered, before centering herself in the Force once more, moving forward resolutely.