Chapter 12: Chapter 12 – Mandalorian Disarmament
Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 12 – Mandalorian Disarmament
Both the Masters were impressed with their pupils work; both lightsabers were well balanced, functional and felt comfortable in the hand. They also approved of the crystals they had chosen, Hermione's yellow coloured blade were not that common in the Order at the moment and there were even less silver/white blades, especially pontite blades that were extremely rare. When the masters discovered that Harry had brought back the whole formation with him they suggested that when they got back to the temple that he give the rest to the Jedi Knight Felanil Baaks, the Jedi Artisan who was a master at constructing lightsabers and taught the skill to others, Harry though said that he would give one of the crystals to the Jedi Artisan but he planned to keep the rest as he already had plans for an improved lightsaber with additional functionality and he wanted to use the same crystals in each.
They got some practice in the remaining few hours of flight before they reached Mandalore with their new blades as well as practicing a few Force enhanced moves in case of the worst case scenario. Hermione did query why her Master had decided that they were the best people for this task and why another Jedi was not chosen for the task and why they did not just travel to Ilum separately, the answer was that the Council was only going to send one Jedi per senator, this way it gave the padawans a chance to finish building their lightsabers as well as giving the senators that little bit of extra protection.
They were informed on route that there had already been an attempt on all three senators lives, a bomb had been found in the apartments they were staying at and the Mandalorian Royal Guards and Secret Service were on high alert though neither particularly liked the idea that just because they were not Jedi, that they were not capable of defending their charges.
Mandalore was a strange world to look at, almost all the settlements were in large domes with only the landing platforms being outside the structures, this was apparently because of the ongoing civil war.
As Aayla piloted them into land they saw two ranks of Royal Guards on one of the landing platform with five people waiting to great them. As Aayla and Master Coleman descended the ramp the padawans fell into step behind and to the left of them.
"Master Trebor, Knight Secura," greeted Senator Antillies.
"Senators," Coleman returned.
"Allow me to introduce the ruler of the Mandalorian System, Duke Kryze. Duke, this is Master Trebor and Knight Secura from the Jedi Temple."
"Master Jedi," the elderly man bowed slightly, he had short cut hair, more wrinkles than could be counted and walked leaning heavily on his walking stick. "Allow me to introduce my daughter Satine."
"My Lady," bowed Coleman, followed by the others.
"Master Jedi," she replied. She was roughly Hermione's height, with blonde lightly curled hair that flowed a little way down her back and a quite attractive face. She appeared to be slightly younger than Harry and Hermione, about Obi-Wan's age if they were to guess.
"Allow me to introduce our apprentices; Padawans Potter and Granger."
"Padawans," nodded the Duke.
"You're Excellency," they said in stereo, having been instructed how to refer to those in such a position by their Masters before they arrived.
"Shall we," he gestured. Master Coleman fell into step beside the Duke, Knight Secura walked behind them with Senator Antillies, the other two senators walked behind them, which left the Duke's daughter walking with the padawans, who both gave her a bow before falling into step beside her while the adults talked about everything and nothing.
"If I may ask Padawans," asked the young lady. "What's it like being a Jedi?"
"It depends entirely on who you ask my Lady," replied Harry. "If you ask Hermione here she will most likely say that it's fascinating and that there is always something to learn, lots of things to study with the occasional sparing match, Force exercises or flight simulator instruction to interrupt our study."
"Where as my Lady," continued Hermione, preparing to return Harry's playful dig, "Harry would likely say that it's great fun with all the flight simulators, Force exercises and sparing matches which are only disturbed by things to learn and lots of things to study."
"Please call me Satine," she replied. "I always feel like there's someone behind me when people call me my lady."
"Only if you call us Harry and Hermione, Satine," replied Harry.
"I take you two know each other quite well?" she asked.
"We've been friends since our first year of school," Hermione replied.
"School? You weren't always at the Jedi Temple. I thought you were chosen young?"
"Most Jedi are," replied Hermione. "We were a rare exception."
They went on to give Satine a quick description of how they came to leave their planet, the magic of their planet and their admission to the Temple.
"To our knowledge we are the only ones to be allowed in like this for hundreds of years," finished Harry.
"You were very lucky then," replied Satine.
"Very," agreed Harry. "And I think other than the rigours exercise regime that we are quite enjoying it."
"I don't think I could have been a Jedi," replied Satine. "Other than the lack of any Force ability I don't think I could kill someone even if I had to."
"It's not something we have done yet either," explained Hermione, before Harry cleared his throat at her comment. "I wasn't counting Voldemort Harry, if anyone deserved what they got it was him."
"Who is this Voldemort?" asked Satine, slightly shocked by the otherwise very nice padawans violent words.
"He was a dark lord on our planet," explained Harry. "He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds including my parents, my godfather and our best friend."
"He tried to kill Harry when he was a child," continued Hermione, who to her and Harry's credit was able to speak and hear about the deaths of their best friend with their voice breaking or crying. "His magic backfired and he was defeated, but he and his followers kept trying to kill Harry and take over our world. Harry was his archenemy and used him as part of a plot to regain power, but Harry was able to stand up to him and with the assistance of myself, our best friend, Harry's godfather and three Jedi including Harry's Master we were able to defeat and kill him. It was Harry who struck the final blow."
"When you started speaking I thought I had misjudged you and that Jedi were not as good or as Just as I was told they were," admitted Satine. "But after hearing that I now understand why you feel the way you do."
"Thank you for saying so," replied Harry, sharing a smile with Satine.
"Come on you three," called Senator Merrik, who along with the rest of the adults had already climbed into the speeders that were awaiting them. The three climbed into the third speeder behind the adults in the first two and were treated to a guided tour of the capital with Satine operating as their speeders tour guide. As they continued through the city the trio discussed many things about the planet, their backgrounds and the galaxy as a whole, by the time they arrived at the palace they were firm friends and they agreed to stay in contact when the Jedi left.
Apparently Mandalore did not often get visits from anyone from other planets, mainly because of the civil war, and the Duke loved to entertain, they were treated to a banquet fit for an entire Hogwarts House, even one with Ron Weasley sitting at it. There were a few local dignitaries as well as the Jedi and the Senators, there was also plenty of security around the hall but the padawans could tell that all the security people were on edge. The meal itself was very pleasant with many Mandalorian delicacies being served. The table was arranged so that while the Duke headed the table in front of a large set of glass windows with the elder Jedi and Senators sat around him while his daughters sat at the other end near the door with the Padawans around her allowing them to talk as a group rather than being stuck between politicians and civil servants. Allowing for fun conversation before Harry began to notice something about the serving staff.
"Hermione," he whispered. "Have you noticed that some of the waiters seem to be a bit distracted?"
"I hadn't, but now you mention it, it did take them quite a while to realise that our glasses needed refilling earlier."
"It's probably just the security which is unnerving them," explained Satine as she continued eating her dessert.
"I don't think so," replied Harry slowly.
Master
What is it Harry?
Something is wrong, have you noticed something off about the serving staff?
Not really Harry, what have you noticed?
They seem to be very distracted, always checking the time and feeling for things that seemed to be hidden under their uniforms.
You thinking their up to something?
I would say it's a good possibility
Stay alert; I will consult with Master Coleman. Warn Hermione to be ready just in case.
"Hermione, my Master says to be on alert," he said quietly so that only she and Satine could hear him.
"You think something's about to happen?"
"I do now," replied Harry as he spotted the end of a blaster up one of the waiter's sleeves.
The waiter turned to Harry just at the wrong moment and spotted his attention, there was a brief moment when both froze before both went for their weapons at the same time.
There was a ripple effect as the movement spread out from the two, Hermione was right on Harry's heals from the second she saw his lightsaber jump from his belt; some of the other waiters were just behind her followed closely by the Masters.
Harry's silver blade whooshed into life just in time to deflect a blaster bolt fired in their direction. Jumping up onto the table he took a guard position as Hermione pulled Satine to her feet and positioned her between them.
The security guards in the hall were caught off guard, they had not expected the threat to come from inside the hall itself and several were instantly taken down with either blaster bolts or stun grenades.
After the initial outlay of movement the room split into sections. The security guards that had survived were trying to advance on the besieging enemies, the elder Jedi and a couple of guards were surrounding the three senators and the Duke, Hermione and Harry were protecting Satine and the rest of the waiters were spread around the room trying to advance on them.
"Hermione can you protect Satine, I'm going to try getting in amongst them?"
"Go," she called, deflecting more blaster bolts away from them.
Jumping off the table, Harry used his Quidditch reflexes to duck and dive around several waiters, using his blade on a low setting so as to only incapacitate them.
He did not get the chance to move beyond the third waiter when the large glass windows at one end of the room exploded inwards as several jetpack propelled armour clad troops flew through it.
"Death Watch," shouted the Duke as he, the senators and the Masters were knocked off their feet by the exploding glass and the Death Watch soldier who blasted into them.
The other armoured warriors wasted no time in causing havoc, several directly challenging the skilled palace guards, allowing the waiters to grab Senators Palpatine and Antillies.
Another member of the group who appeared to be in change as he was wearing darker armour and a red cape around his shoulders drew what at first looked to be a lightsaber until it was turned on.
"Darksaber," gasped Hermione as she turned to face the new enemy.
"Intelligent girl," laughed the soldier. "Now step out of my way youngling and I won't have to kill you."
"I don't think so," Hermione growled before a blaster bolt to her arm caught her off guard allowing the soldier to move forward and knock her out with a punch to the face before grabbing Satine and retreating to where the others were holding the two senators and were holding off the other Jedi.
"Let's go," shouted the leader, as the group all fired their jetpacks and took off.
"Quickly, after them!" shouted Coleman as the two senior Jedi jumped out of the window after them, immediately followed by a pair of palace guards. Harry ran to check on Hermione and found that she was still breathing.
"I'll take care of her," called Senator Merrik. "You get after them."
Nodding to him he ran to the window and jumped through the glass, not having the Force ability to jump up and through the already broken gap. He dropped down further than he though as the window was one story above the ledge he landed on, but thankfully his instincts kicked in and he used the Force to land safely.
Steadying himself he looked over to where he could see their Masters and the guards jumping into one of the speeders and taking off. Quickly he jumped down from the ledge onto the platform that they had landed alongside and jumped into the next speeder and followed after them.
Now one thing that Harry's Master had learned over the last few months was that Harry was a very good pilot, at least in the same way that a getaway driver that actually gets away is, in that he can fly extremely fast with great skill but he is likely to break every rule in the book in the process and cause other people to have accidents while they try to avoid him. Thankfully all speeders followed a similar layout and he was able to just jump in and know what all the controls did.
He rapidly got up to speed and began weaving his way in and out of traffic in order to catch up with the other speeder and the kidnappers who seemed to have landed in a speeder of their own and were high tailing it towards the landing platforms.
It took less than a minute for Harry's speeder to catch up with and overtake the other pursuing speeder, much to the surprise of all those flying in it.
He was briefly aware of his Master mentally shouting something about him not understanding the meaning of the words careful and driving before he lost them as they had to break to a stop as a large cargo hauler blocked their path, leaving Harry alone in pursuit of the criminals.
The Death Watch in the other speeder seemed to spot his pursuit and drew their blasters to fire on him, his flying skills were too good for them to be able to land a good hit. Finally one got rather annoyed, leaned forward and a rocket launched from the top of his jet pack.
His eyes widening in surprise, Harry rapidly did a barrel role to his left as the projectile flew past him into the side of a building. Getting to within twenty feet of the other speeder the Death Watch once again levelled their blasters at him; he could not manoeuvre fast enough at that range. Thinking on his feet he sent a Force push at the back port side of the first speeder making their craft list dangerously, unbalancing everyone on board. One of the Death Watch stumbled backwards into Senator Antillies and knocked him over the side of the speeder.
Quickly reacting, Harry dove down after him so that he landed in the back of his speeder.
"Are you alright Senator?" he asked pulling them up sharply so that they were flying along in the lane of traffic several dozen feet below the first speeder.
"Physically fine," he replied slightly shaken before awkwardly climbing with bound hands into the front beside him, where Harry drew his lightsaber and cut his bonds. "Nice catch."
"Thank you," he smiled coming up with an idea. "Tell me Senator, how well can you fly?"
"Quite well," he replied before he realised. "Please don't tell me your about to try what I think you're going to try?"
"I don't know Senator," he replied. "I don't know what you think I'm thinking about trying, let's see though shall we."
Pulling above the lane, Harry reached up and sent more Force pushes at the speeder above them, nothing happened the first time, but after the second a kidnapper fell out and dropped passed them, before he could activate his jet pack he had been flown into by another speeder, taking him out of the fight.
"Looks like that's not going to work, alright, plan B," shrugged Harry.
"What's plan B?" asked the Senator, certain that he was not going to like the answer.
"That's the plan were you take the controls, fly quickly up above them, let me jump off, fly back under them and prepare to catch anyone else who falls out."
"I was right, I hate this plan," remarked Antillies as he took Harry's place behind the wheel, whilst pulling a sporting blaster out from his cloak..
"Now."
Rapidly pulling the wheel back the Senator pulled them up alongside the surprised speeders occupants.
Jumping and drawing his lightsaber he swung it at the chest of the first soldier and was quite surprised when it did not penetrate the surface, though the force of the blow knocked the soldier to the floor where Satine who was sitting in the back of the speeder, thought it might be a good idea to ram her shoe between his legs, he might have been wearing lightsaber proof armour but a boot to the genitals was still quite affective at distracting the man. That left two plus Palpatine who was being forced to drive at blade point.
The next guard tried to shoot him with his blaster, Harry dodged left then right as the blaster bolts sailed passed him, one catching the engine of a passing speeder and sending it tumbling towards the ground. Harry brought his weapon up and cut the front off of the blaster of and Force pushing him over the other side of the speeder leaving only Harry, Palpatine, Satine, the injured soldier and the soldier with the 'Darksaber' who turned away from Palpatine and rounded on Harry.
"I have to give it to you boy, you are a most determined Jedi, especially for one so young, but you won't be a match for me, I have been using this sword for the last twenty years."
"Well don't expect me to just surrender without trying to beat you," Harry replied, moving into a ready stance.
"I would not expect any Jedi to do so," his opponent replied, saluting his with his blade before swinging it Harry's way. They exchanged blows for a few seconds before the swordsman caught Harry with a light graze to the arm, not enough to stop him fighting but enough to cause Harry to pause the conflict. Harry knew immediately that he was well out of his depth, the swordsman was right, he was a much better swordsman. Harry moved to stand on the floor in front of Satine and the masked swordsman readjusted himself so that he is standing on the seat beside Palpatine. "Really young Jedi, I knew you would not be a match but even I was expecting more than this. They sent you to guard the senators, it doesn't seem like you are even capable of guarding yourself."
"That's why I'm a padawan only," Harry replied, trying a bit of subtle Force manipulation without letting the stain show. "I'm only here to help my Master, it's her mission to protect the senator."
"Well she failed at that didn't she if only you were able to catch up with me," he taunted.
"I'm just a better flier, besides there is something you have not noticed."
"And what pray is that?" asked the swordsman, getting slightly bored of the conversation.
"The fact that I have been slowing us down using the Force for the last few seconds and that we are now travelling at less than half the speed we were before."
"What!" roared the swordsman, turning to the Senator which was the distraction that Harry needed. Releasing his draining Force hold on the speeder, the craft lurched forward as it returned to the speed it should have been travelling at. For the seated pair this just forced them back into their seats but Harry and the soldier both were unbalanced with both lifting off from the speeder. The soldier slammed into Harry who flung them both sideways over the side of the speeder.
There was a brief moment of weightlessness as they fell for about thirty feet before Antillies's speeder caught them both while they struggled with each other, their swords both being held out of the way by the opponent's blade.
"Get us on the ground!" shouted Harry from underneath as he struggled to hold onto the swordsman who was trying to force them apart, before the speeder started diving towards the ground. It took less than thirty seconds for the Senator to get them to the ground which they landed on with a hard thump and a slight skid.
Once they landed Harry Force pushed the soldier off him and out of the speeder before climbing back to his feet and jumping out after him.
"Go," shouted Harry to Antillies as he once again brandished his lightsaber at his more skilled opponent who had landed with a roll and was getting back to his feet.
"What about you!" called the Senator.
"I'll be better without having to worry about your safety now GO!"
Unhappily the Senator launched the speeder back into the air.
"Oh no you don't," countered the swordsman, he leaned his head forward before a rocket launched out of the top of his jetpack and targeted the speeder. Focusing with the Force Harry waved his hand so that the rocket veered off to one side and smashed into the side of a building. The soldier roared before attempting to launch himself back into the air after the speeder, but Harry was not going to let him get away with that either and dropping his lightsaber he extended his hands towards the flying swordsman before focusing on the Force to stop his forward movement.
Harry struggled to maintain his hold over the would be assassin as he flailed about in the air, it was less draining than holding the speeder back as the jetpack had less power but the exertions on the speeder had already drained him of much of his strength and he only had to slow the speeder not stop it altogether.
Roaring again the swordsman redirected his flight back to the ground where Harry released his hold on him.
"You will pay for that boy," he growled drawing his Darksaber and approaching Harry.
Retrieving his lightsaber Harry ignited it and stood ready as his enemy approached, the senators and Satine were all safe he now had to just keep the swordsman here until backup arrived.
The swordsman swung at him with fury, his moves rapid and intending to kill him, Harry's limited skill soon showed as the move experienced swordsman forced him backwards towards the flat side of the building they had landed upon, Harry received many cuts, nicks and other minor wounds in the fight but knew that he dare not pay attention to them because as soon as he did he would likely be dead. It was not long before Harry's back hit the wall of the building and the swordsman's attacks got closer and closer until.
"Arrgghh!" shouted Harry as his left arm was cut straight through just below his elbow, severing his hand. He collapsed to the ground cradling his stump, dropping his lightsaber which clattered to the floor.
"I told you that you would be no match for me," gloated his opponent, using his boot to kick Harry's lightsaber up into the air so he could catch it. Wielding one sword in each hand he lowered them towards Harry who was still kneeling before him. "This blade has killed many Jedi, but you shall be killed by your own sword."
Harry was no stranger to pain and having his arm cut off despite how extremely painful it was, was nothing compared to the torture curse and he used the appearance of his pain as a distraction to allow him to reach into his Jedi robes and take a hold of his wand.
"You may have disrupted our plans youngling but you will not stop us. The Duke and those senators are making a mockery of what it means to be a Mandalorian, these New Mandalorians are even worse than Jango Fett's True Mandalorians, at least they agree that should be fighters not...'pacifists'," he almost spat out the word. "We will stop both the New and True Mandalorians in time but you will not be around to see it, but before you do, know the name of your executioner for crimes against Mandalore, for I am Tor Vizsla and you are about to die."
Drawing his wand he thrust it towards Vizsla.
"Reducto!"
The sudden blast immediately between them threw Harry back hard into the wall behind him and threw the Death Watch soldier twenty feet away from him.
"Still have some fight in you have you," growled Vizsla getting back to his feet. "You're no normal Jedi are you?"
He waited for Harry's response but he did not answer as Harry struggled to get back to his feet, a blood smear spread over the wall where he had collided with it.
"Incendio," he gasped out, sending a blast of flame at the approaching enemy.
"You think that will stop me boy," he heard shouted behind the plume of fire before the inferno in front of him seemed to get closer and wider as a second jet of flame joined if from the other side.
The flames struggled against each other for a few seconds, but Harry was rapidly fading, his vision was blurring and he was exhausted and could not maintain his spell much longer.
Just before Harry's flame gave out he heard the reassuring sound of three lightsabers being lit as he collapsed to the ground before the sounds of lightsabers colliding reached his ears.
He breathed a sigh of relief as his strength gave out and he was left lying against the wall. Though his strength was gone he was still conscious enough to see the blurred shapes of his Masters two blades and Master Coleman's lightsaber impacting against the Darksaber and his own stolen silver blade.
"Harry!..Harry!" he heard a familiar voice calling before someone skidded to a stop beside him.
"My Lady please get back in the speeder," Palpatine called as he followed after Satine "We must get back to the palace."
"Not until we get Harry to safety Senator," she replied hotly, all the while the sound of lightsabers clashing continued. "Need I remind you that he rescued us."
"Guards, come and help them me with him!" Antillies called from some distance away.
"Yes sir," two replied before Harry felt himself being picked up and carried and placed in what he guessed was a speeder judging from the hum of engines and the movement he felt after he was placed down on something. He lost track of what happened after that, he was vaguely aware of first Satine's voice before his world turned black.
AUTHORS NOTE: Just to pre-empt a possible question, the reason that the other Jedi did not turn up earlier will be explained next chapter.
I also would like to add that I was trying to make this fight just a matter of luck that Harry managed to even survive it and that it was only due to his incredible natural flying and piloting abilities that he managed to catch up with the kidnappers in the first place.
Additionally I have drawn on some of the Clone Wars Series info here to help me set up the back story for Mandalore and to the best of my knowledge it is accurate to canon with the exception of the Duke character as I have no idea who Satine's parents were so I have gone for the obvious guess.
I love the way you guys come up with the same ideas as me, people keep mentions things in reviews that I have already written in a couple of chapters down the line, one of the best ones yet was someone asking for Harry to make a female friend just to make Hermione jealous, and then hey presto the next chapter is where I introduced Satine. And a couple of you asking about explaining what happened when Harry shook Palpatine's hand is already written in for a couple of chapters after this one, it's quite uncanny.
Someone asked about Harry's abilities pulling away from Hermione's, don't worry this will happen in the coming chapters because of his higher midi-chlorian count, I did not want to do it too quickly after they had started learning, you don't go from being a novice to a grade A student overnight.
A 'chair', how can he be a chair animagus?
Also I would guess that the person who left an anonymous review of chapter one last week of 'Far too naive for my taste. It doesn't feel real.' is no longer reading but if he is can he explain what he means by its too naive and give an example otherwise I cannot really take the comment on board.
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