Chapter 14 Lessons, Losses

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

Chapter 14 Lessons, Losses

763 BBY

2,890 ATC

Coruscant

"Ethics" said Harry " can provide you with a good framework on which to govern your actions and by extension your life. To a traditional point of view however, it is your morals that are all important as they test your limits and inform who you will become as time passes".

Harry looked around the small auditorium and the attentive faces of the young teenage padawans and grimaced slightly. Some of his students still had trouble grasping the concept that morals and ethics were not the same thing.

"Master" called a small female padawan " what about the Progressive view?" Harry's grimace increased as he reminded himself that this was part of the problem. The majority of the Padawans here were being taught by Progressives and were fed their particular answers.

"The Progressive view, in the main, is that morals are unimportant. They believe that the ethics of the revised code are the authority on every action that a Jedi might take. To them morals only apply when you are unable to interpret the revised code and only in sofar as they help you decipher and follow the code".

Harry's response may have been a little snide in tone but then he was still dealing with overwhelming hubris of the Progressives on an almost daily basis and that would make anyone short tempered.

"Is that not the case?" challenged Myec's new padawan who,like Harry, was human called Michael Sisko. Unlike Harry however he was a Progressive through and through so, although the question was asked with apparent innocence, Harry was not fooled.

"The Jedi Order has no official position on which code is preferred or even how effective they are in comparison to one another" Harry replied easily.

"And your thoughts?" pressed Sisko.

"My duty" harry reprimanded coldly "is to instruct you on morals and ethics and allow you to, as much as possible, make a fair and impartial decision on what system works best for you. My personal opinion is irrelevant". Harrys gaze softened as he moved from the impetuous youth to the others in the class. "I would be doing you a disservice sharing my personal beliefs too much as this is, perhaps, the most important decision you will ever make and it has to be yours. It cannot be mine, your masters or even the Councils...it must come from you".

After his impromptu rant he returned to the topic at hand "The morals and ethics that you adopt are so important because they, more than anything else, will not only shape who you become but will be with you until the day you die" Harry said gravely.

"But I still don't understand why we have to choose" asked the female padawan from earlier even as Harry began to resist the urge to start smacking particularly dense people. "Most sentients don't choose their ethics and, it seems their morals change on a daily if not hourly basis depending on their current situation?".

"We are Jedi" Harry said abruptly "we are raised in a life of service and, unlike most, we willingly go into dark and dangerous situations that could easily result in our deaths or the deaths of others. That is why both a Jedi's morals and ethics are so important as, unlike the majority of the Galaxy, if we make a wrong choice based on them it is not just us that would pay the price but those we protect as well".

Another hand shot up belonging to another student with a question and Harry suppressed the urge to sigh as, on days like today, teaching was very taxing.

"Master would it be immoral if we used the Force to change someone's mind?".

So began another full day of teaching and trying to open young minds. Most of their young minds had, of course, been wedged firmly shut by their Masters making his job that much harder.

It had been two months since his return and the start of Harry's teaching career.

At first Harry found teaching difficult and that fact had surprised him as the had enjoyed instructing the D.A. at Hogwarts. That was until he realised that in the D.A. everyone was there voluntarily and therefore wanted to learn.

There was also the fact that the D.A. was much more action orientated and, Harry conceded, therefore much more in his wheelhouse as opposed to the thought provoking, probing and almost philosophical Ethics and Morals class. It almost seemed to him that he had to change the gears in his brain with every single lesson but he wanted to be more than a Jedi that was good at war.

Is that my fate though? Harry thought with a mental shrug, to be a Jedi soldier in a time of peace? An anachronism to be pushed quietly aside when not needed?

After his initial set back however he did find teaching to be deeply rewarding and began to truly enjoy teaching again. He even began to view it as a holiday of sorts as, after all, he had been through one hazardous situation after another since arriving in the veil chamber (barring his initial Jedi training) and he found it oddly pleasant to exercise his brain rather than his sabre for once.

His progress in trying to teach was both alarmingly fast and far too slow.

Even though Harry had been assigned his classroom for two months he found that his students were not questioning as much as he hoped and that they were still focusing too much on the basic concepts and had yet, by and large, to apply those lessons to their own lives.

On the other hand, though the Traditional Jedi welcomed his views, the Progressives (at least the smarter ones) detested his course and Harry had the impression they would have banned their padawans from his lessons if it were not a required course.

It didn't help that not only did a stout Traditionalist teach the classes but, to them, quite suddenly their handpicked and trusted padawans were now beginning to actively question their lessons and (more alarmingly) some were even debating the opposing view with their masters.

Harry took pleasure in that.

Before long both ideological camps had something more important to worry about and, as Harry was not a member of the High Council and saying they had warm feelings (save perhaps the Grandmaster and she, unlike some, took her oaths as sacrosanct) for him would be a stretch, the first that he knew of it was when a panicked student ran in full pelt and red faced over half an hour late.

Harry would have berated her but neither her panicked state or her lateness was common.

"Whatever is the matter Nyella?" said Harry his voice soft and melodious with just the right amount of caring to calm her without overwhelming the girl. At least that is what he was aiming for and so he was slightly perturbed at her almost hysterical response...at least until the words registered.

"It is Knight Lanham Master" she rambled even as Harry felt a chill shoot down his spine. He could be forgiven that, in his worry for his friend, that he almost snapped at her.

"Well? What about him?" he said sharply.

"He is dead" her reply silenced the class. As for Harry he felt a moment of indescribable loss and, for the first time in a long while, felt all of his years bear down upon him like Atlas being forced to hold up the world. "He was found in a disused room in the Temple. He was murdered".

Around him his students gasped in horror unaware that the true shock had yet to fall.

"He was killed" she repeated slowly as if she couldn't believe what she was about to say herself "with a lightsaber".

Pandemonium erupted throughout the hall.

To say that the reaction to the news of Knight Lanham's death was bad was an incredible understatement. Theories ranged from resurgent and deranged Sith to traitors within the Jedi itself.

Personally Harry knew that it could not have been the Sith. During the time that he spent as their weapon he grew to understand that Darth Bane's plan was a slow one and, at this time, it was not ready. It was also too brazen for the Sith to kill a Jedi within the Temple itself, let alone with a lightsaber.

Harry himself was subjected to a great amount of suspicion due to the Progressive view of him. That and he, amongst a handful of other Jedi, had recent combat experience and the common wisdom was that only a Sith or a Jedi deranged from the crucible of war could ever do such a thing.

Harry half suspected that the main reason the Council did not call him in for review as well as actively investigate everyone he knew was that it would have to include his 'family' and any intrusion into Cadi would lead to the violation of the trade agreement between the Republic and Potter Industries. More than that the penalties for breaking it for the offending party (in this case the Republic) were exceptionally harsh.

Harry should know as he wrote them.

What irritated Harry the most about the situation however more than anything else about the suspicion that he was under was that it was eerily similar to to the Chamber of Secrets fiasco when he was much younger.

In both cases people were certain that he had done something horrendous without a shred of actual evidence. The fact that Orion was his friend and that it could have been said he was a pseudo-uncle to William Potter was conveniently ignored.

That was also the crux of his annoyance. Before it may have been that he was a lonely boy who (not so secretly) desired acceptance after a lifetime of abuse. Now though that wasn't the case, after all, he had seen too much and done too much for that ever to be a factor again. It was more that after the amount of human cruelty, loss,pain and even hope that he had seen he valued nothing (save perhaps Luna) more than friendship and Force knew that it was rare enough for him. He probably, reflected Harry, valued it even more highly now than the once almost friendless adolescent that he once was.

Bottom line Orion was his friend and someone had killed him.

As much as Harry wanted to find out what happened to his friend the chances of him being asked to investigate were virtually nil not only due to him being under suspicion but also because, as always, he was not among the Council's favoured Jedi.

So instead of going with his first instincts and hunting immediately for his friend's killer he instead felt trapped in, what was fast becoming, the monotonous life of a Jedi. The days began to blur for Harry as he suffered through the accusing looks of the Progressives and their impressionable students, he taught as many as he could despite the whispers and almost blatant accusations. To try and take his mind off of it he also occasionally sparred with his friends when they were around.

Yoda had not asked for another round and neither had any of the Progressives as they seemed to not want to poke, what they thought of as, a deranged Jedi killer.

Instead they watched him like hawks and hoped that he would make a mistake even as Harry himself hoped that the killer would be found soon and no other Jedi would die, while finding it all the more frustrating that he could not use his magic to help.

Though, he reflected, that with his limited education, he would find it very difficult to help and even he was unsure how much he could actually help in that regard.

Harry would be disappointed but at least his vambrace did not warm and knowing that no Sith Master was nearby did comfort him somewhat.

Varlya was of course taking it much harder than him as no matter how close he had been to Knight Lanham Varlya had arguably been closer as his former padawan.

In the months that followed there were no more deaths and even though suspicion began to dissipate (though the Progressives were still deeply wary of him) Harry found it a relief to have some good news for a change.

It was a good thing, Harry thought, not just for Varlya but also for Hakk in a way as he had spent a lot of time comforting their friend.

After all it wasn't everyday that someone got knighted.

The night before the actual ceremony Harry was happy to be asked by Hakk to sit with him as he underwent the final vigil along with his former master Varlya Tarvam. Hakk extended this honour over the not so subtle objections of the Progressives. Objections or not however custom and tradition dictated that it was the appointees choice and no one could gainsay that.

It was tradition among the Jedi that, after the tests had been passed and the Council approved the elevation of the chosen padawan to knighthood, that they spend a day and a night fasting and meditating.

This, in theory, allowed the Jedi time to truly meditate on their path and what Force may have in store for them in the future. It was meant to be a time of ultimate self reflection and introspection and though speaking was not often done during this most hallowed of occasions it was the main reason that both Harry and Varlya were with him.

The room that they were in was deep within the bowels of the Jedi Temple and, rather than the high spire which the Progressives preferred, instead it was in a room directly above the Sacred Spire itself. As such it was also one of the oldest rooms in the Temple.

Harry stood there in the empty room next to Varlya and watched his other friend kneel with his eyes closed, Harry felt a well of pride at watching and being part of this most intimate of times.

In fact they were so close to the Spire that harry could feel the power of the Force Nexus below his feet like a second heartbeat. It's lightside aura was so strong that it was almost like being surrounded by a warm bar of lightside energy. The gentle energy caressed his mind and eased tensions that had been quietly building up since the death of Knight Lanham, if not longer than that, and he truly felt relaxed for the first time in a very long while.

Thinking of Orion still brought a great swell of sadness to Harry's mind but that was understandable as it had only been recently that he had died.

Still he was reminded of his own vigil and how both Orion and Varlya had stood with him proudly (he had bucked tradition and not invited his own master) and he could still vividly recall how much solace he had gained from their simple presence.

Harry smiled at the bittersweet recollection and settled into a long night of watching his friend reach into the Force and try the almost herculean task of figuring out where his path was going to take him in the future.

After the ceremony (and the small party that ensued) Harry had come to a simple conclusion. He wasn't very good at waiting and he had waited enough.

With that in mind he did the very thing that his detractors would never expect or want him to do.

He requested a private meeting with Master Yoda though he did so very quietly and told no one.

"Why, asked for this meeting have you, hmmm?" said Yoda. His voice carrying not only his suspicion of Harry but also his deep dislike.

"You suspect me of murder" Harry said bluntly not having time for the use of verbal sparring or even social niceties. Before Yoda could open his mouth Harry gestured for his silence. " I didn't of course, but as I have been to war and you have not, you cannot be certain that I am not hiding anything unless you tried to read my mind and I of course i would know about that". Harry said responding with as much dislike and distrust as he was shown if not more so.

"What then propose do you have?" Yoda asked still not giving an inch to his fellow Jedi.

"Arrest me" he paused then added "the Progressives all think that I've done it and that you are just waiting for proof. After which I will 'escape' which will no doubt convince others of my guilt and hopefully lower the guard of the real killer". Yoda's face would have been exceptionally comical under any other circumstances such was his surprise.

"And?" Yoda prompted.

"And i will leave with a long range tracker embedded into my skin so you know exactly where I am at all times. This will allow us to hunt for the real killer and hopefully stop any future killings of Jedi".

"And if no one dies hmmm?" Pressed Yoda.

"Then you lose nothing and you will have the dubious benefit of knowing exactly where I was at all times" came Harry's quick response.

"Know about the plan then, who should?" asked Yoda intrigued despite his mistrust all the while peering at Harry as if to look into his very soul.

As always it was almost as if the young Potter was not there as, unknown to Yoda, Harry's mind was safe behind very well developed and remarkably strong mental shields.

"Just the Grandmaster and yourself I should say. I do not wish to distrust other Jedi but even I am unsure as to who has done this and they did, after all, use a lightsaber". Harry's brow furrowed " I'd tell her myself but as the Grandmaster's movements are well documented, especially in these times, and I fear it will arouse suspicion if I did. You on the other hand are not a friend to me and would be seen to be acting in my stead. There is also the fact that you are a High Council member and I am not which means you have plenty of reasons to speak to her irrespective of me".

"Why me hmm?" asked Yoda. Harry knew what he meant as there were other Jedi Masters after all.

"Because if anyone gets suspicious or realises that we are talking you can say that we were organising a new sparring match and that I, foolish Traditionalist that I am, let something slip which was enough to lead to my arrest. If pressed you can say that it is for the Council's ears alone and most, if not all, should let the matter drop after that. It does have the virtue of being vaguely believable".

"The other Council members?" Yoda quired

"Say that you are discussing it with the Grandmaster and that, as soon as permissible, you will both discuss the 'proof' of my guilt with the rest of them".

They talked for another hour and a half finalising the details of their plans but, at the end of the night, the plan was settled.

The trap was set.

They came for him the next day. The first way Harry was aware of their approach was the Temple Guardian's boots, making a thundering echo in the early hours of the morning, on the pristine marble floor.

Yoda and Grandmaster Fae Coven (his two co-conspirators) led six Temple Guards towards his door. Harry, expecting them, was not only dressed but also had his sapphire blade unlit in his hand and was striding purposefully out to meet them.

They met each other by the room of a thousand fountains, Harry took a brief moment to enjoy the gentle patter that they caused and enable the soothing patter to soothe his troubled mind.

"Knight Potter" came the voice of the Grandmaster harsh and as cold as a tomb "you are to come with us immediately".

"Why?" his voice, though pitched to carry, was full of artful innocence. It did draw the attention of nearby Jedi though. "And why do you feel the need for Temple Guards if you wish to speak to me Grandmaster?".

One of the nameless Guards, his or her face obscured by the almost ritualistic mask that they all wore, took this moment to move forward aggressively.

"We are here to arrest you traitor" So that answers that, thought Harry, definitely a woman.

"Arrest me for what exactly?" His voice had moved from innocent and clear into mockery by this point.

"The murder of Knight Lanham" was the short reply.

"And why would I murder my friend?" Harry pressed. If it wasn't for the now impressive sneer on his face Harry could have been discussing the weather for all that it showed in his voice. That being said if someone knew him well they would be able to tell by his body language alone that the insinuation itself had sparked a deep and righteous anger in him.

"Who knows why a Dark Jedi does anything" responded the female Guard dismissively even as she reached into a pouch at her side and removed a bulky set of stun cuffs.

Temple Guardians were trained to help protect the Temple from threats but, in this day and age, though they were competent fighters the main prerequisite for them was an undying loyalty to the Order itself.

It was an error that Harry was going to exploit.

Although they were a match for the average Jedi in terms of combat skills there was a large gap between the average Jedi and those of higher skill levels such as Yoda or even Harry himself. Ironically most Temple Guardians were Traditionalists as the Progressives seemed either less adaptable or less powerful.

When harry had first found that fact out he had laughed loud and long. It still amused him to this day.

All of that being said there were six of them which would have taxed even Harry's skill (at least without using magic) if it came to a fight and that was not even taking into account Yoda and Fae. Given that the odds of him winning a direct confrontation were minimal at best, a direct confrontation was never the plan.

Unbeknownst to the six Temple Guards while Harry waited for them to arrive he had slowly and carefully connected to the Force gripping the nearest two light fixtures with the gentlest of touches while angling his body towards large ground floor bay window.

"It is nice to know that my presumption of innocence remains important for all the Jedi" Harry replied with false cheer and enthusiasm in his voice.

"Enough" said Grandmaster Coven with her face set in scowling disapproval. "You will be given a fair trial and judged buy a random lot of Jedi Masters".

"Joy. The idea of being judged by a room full of Progressives appeals so much to me".

"Nevertheless it is what's going to happen" replied Fae and at her nod the Temple Guard as one unit moved forward as they were trained, as one cohesive unit, to neutralise the threat.

"Pass" was Harry's succinct reply. As they moved within striking distance, Harry's hand twitched twice. The two light fixtures came flying out of the wall with pieces of plaster still attached to them hurtling towards the Temple Guardians and Yoda, while Fae took a step back. As that happened Harry dived towards the bay window and went through it with a crash.

Before anyone could react,even those on the street below, Harry quickly pressed a hidden button in his synthetic wrist and was running away from the now broken window.

A small nondescript speeder came screeching round the corner as Harry smoothly jumped in. All of this took no more than twenty seconds at most and, before most Jedi were even aware that something had happened, he was gone and lost to Coruscant's busy city.

Harry only hoped that the recording device implanted behind his right shoulder blade would keep working.

He also hoped that people would take his flight as it was meant to be taken. He hoped it would be seen as the persecution of a, depending on your perspective, innocent man or a trapped murderer. He had left as little to chance as possible, having even left behind the majority of his things in disarray so that it would appear unplanned and all too sudden.

It was amusing to him that one of Harry's most difficult assignments was hunting the now deceased Ter-ldi and that the Dark Jedi had spent his time haunting the many levels of the undercity as that was exactly where Harry now found himself running. At least to the casual observer anyway.

As he was hiding some four hundred floors below, the very Security Forces currently searching for him. He was actually in a cantina that was about as far from Nindo's Diner as possible, he was amused by the fact that the people hunting for him were searching places no self-respecting fugitive would go.

Then again, in their defence, they were hunting a Jedi who aside from his time at war would know nothing about hiding. The best of them might search floor 900 given his history there. They would also watch any all ships leaving, especially those of Potter Industries, and they would believe themselves diligent knowing that a Jedi, without any subterfuge missions in his file, would be ill equipped to run.

Impressions were really hard to break Harry mused.

He sat in his shadowy alcove watching the front door his senses alert for any sign of trouble. His ears were not soothed by the latest opera and he did not see the creme of society here. Instead it was the harsh, slightly off key, noise of cantina music that assaulted his senses and rather than noble politicians and Jedi here he had the dregs of the Galaxy for company.

As he sipped what passed for beer in this place (after all it was hardly the setting for the planet's best alcohol) he felt himself relax slightly enjoying the moment with beings that had no illusions about what they were.

He only wished that the small biological tracking device placed at the bottom of his spine didn't itch so much. Still it was part of the plan and so he drank his drink and waited.

For Yoda. For the Force to tell him something. For any kind of news.

He really didn't like the small tracking device because without it he could have gone to one of his many safe houses and relaxed in luxury and quiet contemplation rather than where he was now. Though admittedly this place did have its perks.

In her private rooms directly below the High Council meeting room Fae Coven was reached out into the force trying to discern the future but sadly she was having no luck.

At 277 years of age the ancient Jenet Jedi had learnt only one thing when it came to scrying the future with the Force and that was that it was incredibly hard. It was very difficult because the future was always in motion of course but, over her long life, she had also come to the conclusion that sometimes the mystical energy that surrounded them simply did not want to share the knowledge of future events.

Call it a test, she mused, call it the fallibility of sentients trying to understand the infinite or any other name for everything in creation but the will of the Force mystified her more often than not.

No, she admitted to herself, part of the problem maybe the fact that with the tension between the so-called Progressives and the Traditionalists she was having a hard time truly focusing her abilities to the task.

It wasn't that she hadn't seen this problem coming she was just unsure about what to do about it and a large part of that problem was her age.

Her species rarely lived more than 90 years but, due to an unstable Nexus of force energy interacting with her as a padawan, she had managed to slow the aging process enabling her to live all of this time and, though she was mentally sound, age did change your perspective.

She had lived long enough that she understood that the Jedi had to adapt to survive. She had lived through the Ruusan Reformation after all and had seen the Jedi change once before. As the Galaxy changed so must the Jedi Order and she hoped, with all her heart, that Yoda's way was the right way.

She well remembered fighting the Brotherhood of Darkness as a young padawan and still felt a shiver as she recalled the schism that the then Master Skere Kaan, a charismatic jewel among the Jedi, had caused in forming and then leading that Dark Order.

It was a wild time of combat and blood, of frustration and anger. It had tested even the best among the Jedi. After the end of the Sith (or so they thought) the peace and tranquility that had come from the restructuring was sorely needed.

Then, as she entered the twilight of her years, Yoda had led the charge for a further change. He had argued, in his own way, that things like The Brotherhood or Darth Revan's Sith Order were symptoms of a larger problem in how some Jedi viewed the Code.

He had advocated, and still did, for the formal and official adoption of Odan-Urr's refinements as the only viable teaching method for new Jedi.

As much as she personally did not like it she had wondered, like Yoda, how many more fallen Jedi turned Sith the order could stand. Such was the strength of not only the force around Yoda but also his convictions (as well as him being a gifted teacher) that many were swayed by the then young Knight's words.

Even Fae herself agreed with a lot of what Yoda was saying and there seemed to be no strong answer to Yoda's progressive viewpoint.

Not until William Potter.

From the very first time that she had helped the young man and, along with other Masters, taught him the basics of the Jedi way he had shown a particularly high level of aptitude with the Force.

It was more than that however, she thought, as in him she saw the hope of her old Masters reborn. He had their fire and passion for life while still managing to balance his emotions with arguably more respect than other Jedi like Durvan.

Then, she charged herself for the unworthy thought, as he was a fine Jedi.

The fact that Durvan was a Progressive and A Jedi master and yet showed less restraint than William was not lost on her however.

In many ways, she mused, William had been born in the wrong time. If he had been born one hundred and fifty years earlier he might have been one of the greatest Jedi masters in the orders history eventually. Yoda's ideas to help the Jedi evolve were in full swing now however and, without the support of the rest of the Council, she wouldn't be able to stop it even if she was sure that she wanted to.

Maybe that was the will of the Force. She certainly hoped that it was. There was something endearing about William Potter and the Jedi would certainly be poorer if the bold and impetuous youth were to leave the Jedi (especially if he took students with him). Add to that the fact that she was generally fond of the young human, it was perfectly understandable why her mind kept turning to him of late.

Take this 'arrest' plan of his. it was bold, simple, unexpected and so audacious that no one would believe that anyone would ever try it and that was why she believed it could work. In short it was classic William Potter as very few people could predict how he might solve a problem.

And, she thought, he always made her laugh even if she in her vaunted position could not always show it.

Even this plan brought a smile to her face. Though it was a shame, she knew, that it took something so horrid as the murder of a Jedi to bring together two long time (at least ideologically) opponents who just happened to be her two favourite and most beloved Jedi.

She did not know if Yoda's way was the right way but she did know what a schism could do to the Jedi. Maybe in this instance, she thought, the fact that Yoda joined the Jedi first and managed to convince a large portion of the Jedi to follow him was indeed the will of the Force.

Meanwhile she spent much of her time behind the scenes trying to prevent another schism of her beloved Jedi order. The course of the Jedi Order was soon to be set and, it seemed, that the force in its Wisdom dictated that it was her role to keep the Order together until it's fate was decided.

Case in point, it was not the Grandmaster who came up with the plan to Knight lanham's kill but William Potter who was seen as the poster child (almost) of the Traditionalist movement and his political opposite Master Yoda.

That was not to say that there was any trust between the two Jedi. Since William's disappearance calls denouncing him had increased (aided by Jedi Masters under Yoda's banner such as Durvan) and Fae was certain that it was only partly due to the plan to catch the murderer of Orion.

As further evidence of his mistrust of Potter Yoda had demanded not only to follow his movements but a recording device to double check everything he said. That way, if there was another death, William could be ruled out.

William to his credit didn't bat an eye at the conditions, she fondly remembered, only stating that he was touched Yoda cared about him so much in his faintly mocking voice.

Now both she and Yoda waited. Given the Jedi orders rather Swift condemnation of one of their own both William and Yoda believed that the actual murderer (if not William) was trying to make it appear to be him in an attempt to discredit or harm him.

With William currently 'on the run' it was hoped that Orion's killer would take advantage of the fact that William Potter could easily be blamed for any further attacks. If it led to the murderer being apprehended or even killed in the act so much the better.

That was why William was on high alert being a likely target, as was Yoda, with Fae being the only other Jedi in on the plan. She was aware that this was as much as a contingency in case something happened to either of her fellow Jedi as much as it was due to their mutual distrust of each other. After all, it was reasonable to assume, that either William or Yoda would be the next target.

Suddenly the Force rippled in warning.

They were wrong.

It was ironic that the Grandmaster was having no luck sensing the future as, as soon as Harry had offered himself up to the Force, it had opened itself to him in return nudging him down the path of foresight.

Seemingly as he sat there his eyes were locked on nothing at all as the Force gently coaxed him away from the material world and into the nether regions of the Force.

He however was not a trained seer. As such the images were unclear and confusing at first and he had a hard time distinguishing anything of any substance in a place that looked like shadows made of smoke and vapour.

Eventually he was able to begin to see things regardless however. He first saw himself and a few others, most notably both Arsonia and Varlya, break away from the Jedi and they (with around fifty others) set up a home for themselves near Cadi.

Then it all soured. He watched with mounting horror as an almost overpowering evil (represented in the vision as a dark fetid and ichor like water) came down upon first the Jedi Order and then their new home. Both were utterly and completely destroyed. More than that, Harry sensed, that if this vision were to come to pass then the great evil would never stop. Instead it would keep consuming everything until even the stars themselves were burned out and it finally ended with no life left to use or corrupt anywhere in the Galaxy.

Then, blessedly, the vision reset and Harry saw himself leave the Jedi alone. In this vision he was still faintly glowing, with the Force he assumed, however when the tide of darkness came it did not immediately strike out at him. Instead it reached, far more slowly, to begin to choke the Jedi in their very Temple and left both him and Cadi untouched.

The vision rippled and changed again but, unlike the last time, nothing reset. Instead it felt more as if this vision was a continuation of the last and even as it began to unfold tears sprang from his eyes.

He saw war.

Not in the style of glossed remencient stories that poets write about or songs were sung about but rather its dark brutality.

He saw the death of millions, maybe even billions, and through the Force, he felt them. For a single eternal moment he felt each individual's fear and pain, one after the other countless times, each story unique and yet blending into an agonised whole.

Then the vision moved and he almost panted with the simple joy of not feeling such agony. The horror, for Harry, was sadly not done however.

He saw the Jedi at the head of an army fighting against both a shadow and one of their own and it felt like, if he were to just listen, he could hear their shouted orders, their pleas and their pain. The then saw those very same soldiers that had once helped the Jedi move towards the Temple with murder in their hearts. He also could feel the frighten children huddled and lost within.

Then the visions began to fade from his eyes but, as they did, he was given a gift for all that he had been forced to witness. He saw Cadi, much changed from the one that he knew (though he couldn't tell how much as it was just a glimpse), and felt a wellspring of light spring forth like a roaring lion to combat the dark.

Shaking from the emotional battering that he had just suffered through he almost jumped when the Force practically screamed at him. His mind was still foggy and feeling almost drunk from the visions he, almost too slowly, realised where the sense of danger was coming from.

The remnants of his old Padawan Bond.

Harry abruptly cursed himself for being so stupid in all of the sixteen languages that he knew. Tuspin Myec was in life threatening danger.

Myec was disappointed with the other Jedi. It wasn't that the majority of Jedi believed that William was dark that he had an actual problem with though, as he himself believed that his former student had fallen.

No the problem he knew, while he was walking the deserted halls heading towards the archives, was that some were actually blaming him for William's fall.

As if his perfectly acceptable training methods were to blame for such awful choices. Still, due to other people's judgements alone, he was heading to the Archives to review every piece of information on William Potter to hopefully find where he fell and prove that his teaching methods had nothing to do with it.

He had even watched as Master Durvan had, with the backing of the like minded Masters, set off to explore Cadi and hunt down and find information on any and all of Potters doings that he could find.

The fact that it technically violated an agreement between Potter Industries and the Republic was inconsequential when it came to hunting a Dark Jedi in their view.

The problem with this self-absorbed Jedi's 'secret' search late at night was that his version of secret was about as subtle as a rampaging elephant. This meant that almost anyone with half a brain could figure out that he was looking into William Potter.

It was unsurprising then that, although he had never been the strongest Jedi, as he turned to enter the Archives the Force whispered a small warning and he barely managed to get his arm raised up instinctively even as he half turned towards the feeling.

He promptly lost that arm at the elbow to a blood red blade.

He fell back with a screech of pain as the agony shot through his system and he looked up to see a robe enshrouded figure with a double bladed lightsaber.

"I don't know why you bother" Myec gasped "we all know who you are, my former padawan, so why do you hide?".

"You think" came the darkly amused response "that I am Potter?" The name Potter dripped with anger when spoken by the hooded figure.

Myec blanched at hearing the familiar voice and could only stutter out nonsense while his eyes focused trying to peer into the darkness. Finally he managed to speak.

"Hakk?" Myec whispered even as, with a flourish, the hungry red blade came quickly towards Myec's chest.

Just before the bloody red blade pushed into Myec's heart a deep sapphire blue Blade flew, as if from nowhere, deflecting the thrust away from the Jedi Masters shock riddled and prone form.

"Master Myec" snapped the running Harry Potter " it's nice to know that you never doubted me".

Turning to his friend Harry's brow furrowed in confusion "Why are you doing this?".

Hakk smiled and harry could not help but notice that the smile was without feeling and his eyes, once so warm, were dismissive and full of hatred.

"Why turn against the Jedi?" Hakk asked incredulously even has Harry called his lightsaber back to his hand and his former friends attention turned fully to him with the Jedi Master instantly forgotten. "Surely even you can tell they are hypocritical and self-absorbed" Hakk's eyebrow quirked upwards " but you did not mean that did you?" His face twisted into something almost unrecognisable and inhuman. " you meant why did I betray you but here's the funny thing...you betrayed me and... You! Don't! Even! Know!".

Hakk punctuated each shouted word with a wild swing at Harry and although he was clearly learning Juyo he was not yet a master of the form and Harry managed to deflect both of his double blades.

"Oh?" said Harry " I suppose I might have missed something but then so did you" he smiled at the mixture of confusion and rage on his former friends face even as it twisted even further. "Whoever trained you missed a few steps" Harry mocked gently seeking to put his opponent on edge and soon he found that he had achieved his goal.

"This is not about Set Harth. This is about Astonia" Hakk snarled and he was so annoyed by William's almost blank face, almost as if Harry didn't care at all, that he continued to snarl and rant culminating in "She is mine. Mine!".

Unbeknownst to Hakk Harry's almost blank expression was due to Occlumency but, behind his shields, he was raging. Harry also effortlessly deflected Hakk's wild attacks and couldn't help but dryly respond to the hateful words pouring from Hakk.

"Arstonia is her own person" to which Hakk screamed and seemed to almost physically give himself more fully over to the Dark Side. The Shadows seem to lengthen and Hakk's eyes were now an ugly burnt orange.

Harry's eyes widened as he felt the build up in the Force and he braced himself for something bad.

Myec did not and as Hakk screamed his rage the Darkside empowered it so that the very ground near him cracked and the air reverberated with his rage.

At this point Myec was closer to Harry's former friend than Harry himself was. The effects of Force Scream were sometimes devastating to the unprepared and, when it was done, Myec was bleeding from his ears, nose and mouth and slumped to the ground actually dead.

Harry had, had enough by this point and so he went on the attack. Hakk soon realised that the only reason he had not lost in the first few exchanges was Williams lack of familiarity fighting against the double bladed saber.

Neither man noticed but they're fighting had become loud enough to draw a crowd as they began to move towards the Temple's main exit.

Hakk kept snarling and even spitting while screaming about Astonia as they began to move down the steps and onto the main entrance and the Processional Way.

"Well I'm not fighting for her!" Screamed Harry almost face to face with his former friend whose only reply was to continue try and kill him.

Eventually Harry managed to knock his friends saber out of position and brought up his mechanical hand, his spare lightsaber slapping into his palm, then he speared his former friend swiftly through the chest.

Hakk's saber fell from his nerveless fingers even as his knees buckled.

"You'll never get her now you know?" Hakk whispered.

Harry moved and cradled his former friends head. Hakk was still broadcasting his feelings of love, loss, pain and hatred.

"I'm sorry this twisted you up so much. I never wanted this…" Harry responded.

As a last gift to his friend, however much of his friend was left in that twisted shell, Harry opened up his mind fully for him so that, in his final moments, Hakk could understand truly that there was never any competition.

In a blink of an eye Harry shared his unique beginnings and his life up until this point. He shared his shock that his friend had not come to him or Astonia and his horror at how easily he had been recruited as well as his genuine sympathy for all of that.

Above all else though he shared Luna as she, or the idea of her and all she represented at least, had become a central fact of his existence. He simply would not have looked at Astonia in that way...not ever.

To Harry Hakk, in his final moments, managed to find himself beneath all of the pain and anger that had been twisted in him and his eyes softened.

"Oh I have been such a fool" Hakk whispered even as death began to claim him.

In that moment Hakk managed to pass away a Jedi as he, with the last of his strength, managed to mesh their minds and communicate as much information to Harry as he could before swiftly slipping into the void.

Harry managed to get a lot of details about Set Harth and, once he had swiftly organised it for later review, he gently closed his dead friend's eyes.

Then he looked up, tears in his own eyes, to be met by the wary and distrustful eyes of the now surrounding Jedi.

A/N fixed on or two minor errors inclusing, notably, using Varlya's name when I meant Arstonia's. It's near xmas and so I have little time which means, gasp of horror, I am back to speech to text for the next few chapters. If anyone notices errors I would welcome the input so I can fix them...

GC