章 45: CH 44
Get the hell off my ship, Jedi." Harry didn't even glance behind him as he disappeared around a corner and toward the cockpit. Aayla was taken aback by the blunt and curt dismissal, so different from the demeanor Harry had just shown with the women who were all now asleep in the hold.
Ahsoka's eyes flicked back and forth, looking at her friend and then down the passage Harry had walked through towards the cockpit. Her eyes moved back as she looked at Aayla once more and gave a helpless shrug as if to say 'It's on you', before she turned and followed after Harry.
Aayla couldn't help the brief look of hurt and worry on her face. The Ahsoka Tano she knew would have never just abandoned her friend in a situation like this. The fact that she apparently just did so was more than a little jarring. Had the loyalties Ahsoka had to the Order fallen so far that she would abandon a Jedi brother or sister in a time of need?
Aayla winced even before that thought had finished. Yes, Ahsoka likely would abandon any Jedi now except Skywalker. Not that Aayla could really blame the girl. No one in the entirety of the Jedi Order, save for her former Master, had stood by Ahsoka as she was held up like a lamb for slaughter to the Supreme Chancellor's need to blame someone for the sabotage inflicted by Barriss Offee.
No, the only people Ahsoka Tano would show loyalty now were those who reciprocated first. Anakin Skywalker had never failed her, and this Harry Potter had apparently now saved Ahsoka's life once, and arguably twice as he was the reason she had tagged along to Nar Shaddaa in the first place. The Jedi felt the briefest pang of despair before she ruthlessly crushed the emotion. She knew that Ahsoka had defended Harry, and despite being an extremely crass individual in possession of numerous unknown and very dangerous abilities, the one thing Ahsoka Tano had stressed most vehemently was that he had a good heart.
She just needed to find a way to convince him to help her. Her very life likely depended upon it.
As Aayla entered the cockpit, she paused. Harry was slumped in the pilot's seat, hands moving over the flight controls slowly, and he had a white bird perched on his shoulder.
Ahsoka was sitting in the copilot's seat, helping to prep the ship for take-off but she was casting glances over at Harry regularly. The bird, who she had discovered was named Hedwig, was very protective of Harry. The avian had apparently watched Ahsoka suspiciously the first day or so on their trip from Coruscant to Nar Shaddaa. Several times Ahsoka had thought she was moments away from having to defend her life. Only now, that same bird was on Harry's shoulder nuzzling the side of his head.
The bird had been utterly standoffish any time she had seen it. To see it obviously trying to comfort Harry was indeed an odd sight.
After a few moments of silence, where Aayla had not said anything, but watched the bird and Harry in turn, the object of her observations finally spoke. "I thought I told you to get off my ship." Harry's voice was short and he didn't bother to turn around.
Hedwig did however, or rather her head turned, as it rotated on her neck a full 180 degrees and glared at the Twi'lek in the entryway.
Aayla found herself surprisingly intimidated by the glare from the white bird, even though she was several times its size and likely ten times its weight.
She took a breath and cursed herself for being so unsteady at the moment before she spoke. "I would like to request passage from here to Kashyyyk to contact the Jedi Order in order to procure transport from there to Coruscant. Despite my experience and familiarity with the area, a lone Jedi without supplies or transport upon Nar Shaddaa is not likely to survive until aid arrives."
"If the Order sent you out here, they should have backup or be willing to send someone to pick you up." Harry replied, his tone indifferent. "I don't believe any organization sends people on true 'solo-missions', unless it's something they could never publicly acknowledge, in which case they'd disavow any involvement if it went belly up."
Harry paused and looked thoughtful for a moment before adding, "Well, either that or they simply didn't care about the loss of the asset. From what I understand about the workings of your Order, that would certainly not surprise me at all." He shrugged apathetically, "If they didn't or can't give you an out, then you were likely given a mission that they'd disavow involvement of if your actions came to light… either way, I don't see how it's my problem."
Aayla scowled slightly at his continued disparaging of the Order. She glanced over to Ahsoka who was saying nothing, and busying herself with checks, and clearly not getting into this discussion.
After several long moments, with no help from Ahsoka, something which engendered a surprising feeling of betrayal inside her, she admitted, "It isn't, but after you helped the women you found I assumed that-"
"You assumed that I was a swell upstanding guy that you could just mooch a trip off of?" Harry interrupted. "And never mind the fact, Little Spy, that you're only here in the first place to either drag Ahsoka back to your Order for re-indoctrination, or you're here to observe my status as a threat to your Order, before getting permission to kill me."
"Blue, I may occasionally still do good things without pay, but helping someone who could be ordered to kill me, and that would probably attempt to do so if ordered... well… these days I tend to try and draw the line at that." Harry tilted his head slightly his eyes going far off as he pondered the irony of that statement. Not that it was illogical in the slightest, just at how much experience he'd had with drawing that line.
A nudge of Hedwig's head against the side of his brought him back. Harry glanced at the bird, who nudged him again and almost seemed to communicate something to him. His eyes narrowed briefly before he gave a quick shrug and returned to his workstation.
When Aayla still didn't move to leave or say anything in reply, he eventually asked, "So, despite you apparently being friends with Ahsoka, which I'll grant is at least a small point in your favor. I'll be blunt, the only reason I haven't already modified your memory and dumped you unconscious in the docking bay is because you appear to have good intentions towards Ahsoka."
Aayla was outraged at the idea, and let out a gasp, her hand on her lightsaber immediately, "Modify my memory?" Her mind instantly flashing to her actions when her mind and memory had been wiped.
.
.
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