Capítulo 16: Chapter 16 – Slave Ship
Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 16 – Slave Ship
"I just want to make it perfectly clear how much I hate this and if it were not for the fact that we were going to rescue slaves I might even be tempted to invoke the Right of Denial."
"I heard you the first half dozen times Secura," replied Windu, in an exasperated tone, not looking up from the pad he was looking at showing the latest information reports.
"It's easy for you Master, you get to wear your robes and cloak, all I've got is two handkerchiefs and a loin cloth...And if you two don't take those smirks of your faces right now, when we get back to the academy you will both be on cleaning duty in the main kitchens for a week."
"Sorry Master," replied Harry with a large grin on his face. Obi-Wan who was standing beside him had his eyes so tightly shut and his lips pressed together so hard in an attempt to stop laughing that he was practically vibrating.
It had been a source of much amusement on the trip, Master Windu had insisted that everyone stay in the outfits they had been given for the entire three week trip so that 'the clothes would look like they had either been worn whilst doing daily ship tasks' for the Jedi and ranger crew or 'so that it looks like you have been chained in a dirty cargo bay' for the volunteer slaves, most of them had thought this was a good idea either for Master Windu's reasoning or because some of the men particularly the male rangers who, although the Antarian Rangers did everything they could to help the Jedi Order were not bound by the same rules of chastity or matrimony and enjoyed the sight of so many beautiful Twi'leks women most dressed in, as the equally beautiful and very well toned Jedi Knight phrased it 'two handkerchiefs and a loin cloth'.
Although they were required to stay in their given attire during the trip they were not limited to doing the jobs assigned to them or else the volunteers and Harry's extremely annoyed Master would have been chained to the walls of the cargo bay for the entire trip, instead they were bedded down properly in the large cargo space and able to wander around helping to cook and operate the ship. Of the six actual cabins on the ship, Master Windu and Master Qui-Gon each took one of the larger Captain's and First Mates Cabins while Master Piell, Obi-Wan, Harry and the Ranger Captain took the other four.
The way that the rangers treated the Jedi was quite new for Padawan Harry; it was much more reminiscent of something that 'Boy-Who-Lived' Harry would be familiar with; some of them treated the Jedi as though they were their superiors, some just as colleagues and a couple of the younger ones treated them with such reverence it made Harry and Obi-Wan wonder if royalty were standing behind them whenever they kneeled and bowed low in their presence. The two padawans had gotten to know some of the rangers reasonably well during the trip and felt quite moved when some of them described how they had come to be rangers; some of them spoke of acts of courage and heroism by Jedi or other rangers inspiring them, more of being rescued by Jedi and a couple even of family members within the Jedi Order. It made both the padawans feel very inadequate as the rangers described how great noble, brave, fearless and selfless Jedi were or at least they tried to feel inadequate before Aayla, still in her annoyed and severely underdressed state marched over upon seeing their facial expressions and gave the rangers a firm and detailed description of both the padawans brave deeds both on Earth and in the Republic causing the rangers to very formerly salute the now highly embarrassed pair.
Also during the trip to entertain the team Harry was asked to do a demonstration on magic as it was unlike anything anyone on the ship other than the Jedi had ever seen before. His magic skills had improved quite well since joining the Temple, Hermione had been very strict on him not missing out on his magical education and although they had had to drop certain subjects, Potions for example was quite difficult when there was no boomslang skin or other known ingredients for thousands of light-years, Divination had also been firmly dumped and Hermione refused to even look to see if she had any books on the subject, History was a bit pointless except as a hobby, Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology were also a bit redundant, though the Temple did teach other similar subjects on more widely spread Galactic creatures and plants, Harry had found the oswaft and space mantas really interesting. As a result of this they only really had to study Charms, Transfiguration and DADA which were the subjects that Harry enjoyed the most and did the best in anyway.
After the demonstration that included transfiguration, flame charms, different types of jinxes and even a patronus, Harry was asked by Master Windu if he would join him in a sparring match. Harry had initially been surprised by this but went along with it, not one to miss out on the chance to spar with one of the top two swordmasters in the Order.
Harry enjoyed sparing a lot, it gave him a chance to use his Quidditch reflexes at full speed and with an opponent as skilled as Master Windu he could go all out with no risk of accidentally injuring his opponent as he knew he had no chance at all of actually landing a single hit. He knew of course that the Master was capable of much more skilled combat than he was currently using but Harry didn't care, he was not expected to win the duel, just to provide some entertainment for the crowd as there was not an awful lot to do for the slow ship ride to Tatooine. The duel went on for at least fifteen minutes before Master Piell ended the match, stating they would be coming out of hyperspace in a few hours and they should all get a few hours sleep.
Mace Windu had been a little surprised when Knight Secura had asked him to duel with her padawan, it was highly unusual not to mention a but full hardy, there was no way a padawan with only two years training could even come close to defeating a swordmaster like Windu with decade's worth of experience and a master of all seven of the Jedi Forms. Despite all this the boy had put up a good fight, he definitely had great potential with a blade, he could see why Cin was interested in him and thinking about what he had just learned and who was interested in him he got a clue as to why the duel had been asked for in the first place.
The pair were trying to get him to see Potter's skill so that he would come to the conclusion of teaching him Vaapad by himself before they suggested it. They were slightly naive if they thought that they could conceal that from him but the point had been made, he would consider teaching the boy in a few years but for now they had more pressing concerns.
Several hours out from Tatooine found Harry in his cabin, lying fully clothed on his bunk, attempting to get some sleep before they arrived. His mood had been slowly getting worse on the trip and despite the amusement of seeing his Master complain about her attire and the thrill of duelling Master Windu, his feelings were really starting to bother him. He had been tossing and turning on his bunk for the last thirty minutes and having no luck nodding off which was why he knew who was approaching a door before the chime went.
"Come in Master," he answered, swinging his legs off of the bed before shuffling back so that he was sitting against the wall that the side of his bunk was fixed to.
Coming into the dimly lit room and turning the light up slightly, she immediately came and sat down beside him, she had easily picked up his anxiety over the bond during the past few hours and it was now positively shouting at her to help her young apprentice.
"Want to talk about it?" she asked, smiling softly at him.
"Do I have a choice?" he asked.
"Well you do, but you know I can make it very awkward for you if you don't," she replied with a slight grin. "Is it about the mission?"
"Yes, but not in the way you think," he replied with his head bowed slightly. "I'm not scared of the Guild or of being injured or anything like that. It's..."
"Go on," she encouraged.
"It's fear for you," he replied, causing her eyebrows to raise slightly, she had not expected that response. "And fear over what we have to do on this mission."
"How so?" she asked.
"You know what my feelings are regarding slavery Master. I despise it in every way shape and form no matter whether the slave is thirteen or thirty, whether they are treated like a piece of dirt or are given the most expensive and luxurious clothes to wear and live in a vast series of apartments."
"What is it exactly you are fearing Harry?" Aayla asked.
"I know this time it is only pretend for yourself and the other volunteers, but I find even that adherent, and in order to make it look real we have to treat you like slaves and I find the idea of it sickening. Forcing you to wear these degrading clothes that others want you to wear for their pleasure, making you do the things they want, stripping you of all humanity and self determination, treating you as property with no free will of your own."
Aayla moved closer and put her arm around her padawan. She knew that bringing his feelings out was traumatic, it was her duty to help him through them, but she hated the fact that he was getting more upset as they talked about them.
"You said it yourself earlier Harry, this will not be real, the other volunteers and myself are doing this at our own free will, we know you will have to treat us badly, we know that others will treat us as slaves and will be able to do...whatever they want to us."
Harry could not help but notice the slightest pause as she spoke about her role in this, and one of the things that was scaring him the most was that 'whatever they want' that others that buy them will be able to do to them before they were rescued.
"But you are not doing this voluntarily Master," he replied moving closer to her and putting and arm around her as well. "The others are but the Council ordered you to be here, you had no say in the matter and we both know that you are really REALLY against this."
"That's not quite true Harry, as I said to Master Windu, I could have invoked the 'Right of Denial'," she pointed out.
"No you couldn't Master, that would have meant handing over your lightsabers and leaving the Order and I know that the Order is your life, you would rather do something you hate the idea of like this than leave the Order."
Aayla sighed, sometimes she hated how insightful her padawan was.
"Yes Harry, you are right, I would not invoke the 'Right of Denial' and you are also right that although I can accept slavery in others as long as they are adults, I find the idea of me being someone else's slave probably more disgusting and terrifying than you do. You've been a slave and were raised that way but compared to what some slaves go through you were very lucky, your slavery was entirely labour based...It's been one of my worst fears, especially as it's such a common fate for young female Twi'leks to be subjected to the more degrading and...invasive forms of slavery."
The pair were clinging to each other now, Aayla may have been Harry's Master, but she was only six years older than him and right now that small gap between sixteen and twenty two seemed like nothing. Slavery was one of the things that they both had problems with, albeit to different extents and right now they both needed each other's comfort before the coming mission.
"Master, I prom-"
"Don't Harry," she interrupted, putting her fingers to his lips. "I know you want to but you cannot promise that nothing will happen to me on this mission. It's one of the risk of being a Jedi, we have to put ourselves in danger in order to protect those we serve and protect, and if by putting myself at risk I can help potentially hundreds of other sentients it's a price I am willing to pay."
"I still don't like this Master," Harry replied "And even if you won't let me promise to let anything happen to you, I promise that I will do everything in my power to protect you."
"I would not expect anything less from you Harry," she smiled. "But let's try to avoid any stupid heroics and near death experiences on this mission, ok."
By the time they reached Tatooine orbit all the bedding, Jedi and ranger apparel and weapons as well as supplies for the trip had mean hidden away in various smuggling compartments throughout the ship as were Master Windu and Master Piell, while the volunteers were chained up in the hold ready to be transported to the auctions. The crews weapons had been replaced with more common blasters which Master Qui-Gon was also carrying while Obi-Wan and Harry were each armed with a vibroblade. All the Jedi's weapons were hidden away in the ship except for the two shotos in Harry's wrist, his wand in its wrist holster and Harry's long handled blade which Harry had transfigured a tall base and a handle for to make it look like a walking stick for Qui-Gon, who was walking with a pretend limp, they thought it better to have enough lightsabers for one each in case of an emergency and with a temporary notice-me-not charm over the walking stick, no one would notice the strange raised 'button' like shapes on its surface.
Obi-Wan was positioned in the rear gun turret as they approached the planet while Harry manned the forward guns and shields on the bridge with Qui-Gon and the Ranger Captain while the other ranger 'guarded' the slaves.
#Barloz freighter, this is Mos Eisley Spaceport Control, state your cargo and reason for landing.#
"Mos Eisley Control, this is Barloz freighter WanderingStar, our cargo is a contingent of slaves for the Guild of Zygerrian Slavers auction."
#Affirmative WanderingStar, land in Hanger 62, customs control will meet you in the hanger.#
"Affirmative Control," replied the Ranger Captain before cutting the comm and turning to the Jedi in the cockpit. "I imagine the 'customs control' will be a contingent of Guild mercenaries ready to search the ship Master Jedi. We have left a few slightly illegal items in several of the less well known smuggling compartments to make sure they find something, hopefully that way they will not go looking for more which should help hide the custom fitted compartments that the other Jedi are hiding in."
"Very good Captain, take us in, I will great our 'inspection' party at the port boarding ramp. Harry, you will accompany me."
"Yes Master," Harry acknowledged before following after him.
As they set down and the ramp began to descend Harry sent one last nervous look at his Master chained to the bulkhead who sent him a reassuring, though obviously forced smile. While Aayla might have complained loudly about how much she hated this idea, after his initial outburst to Master Windu at the briefing Harry had kept quiet about his feelings over this mission to everyone except his Master though he was sure that most of the others had detected his extreme sensitivity regarding the subject and he was pretty sure that if Master Windu had known just how strongly his feelings were on the subject he would not be on this mission for risk that he might compromise it. Aayla was still equally unhappy about the plan but she at least was used to the idea of slavery, her people were very familiar with it and she had been hidden amongst slaves at a young age to hide her from her families enemies and while she was a fiercely independent woman and detested and feared the idea serving anyone against her will, she thoroughly hated the fact that for the next few days at least she would have to act like a slave and obey any order given to her or risk punishment that they would be obliged to give her to maintain their cover.
Despite their talk earlier during the trip Harry was still extremely uncomfortable with the mission and his feeling for this mission went well beyond those of his Master, she could at least live with a slave trade existing in some places like her home planet of Ryloth, though she had freely admitted that she held double standards in that she could live with it inflicted upon adults as long as they knew it was a possibility as they grew up and as long as she was neither a slave or a slaves master herself. Harry found all slavery adherent and hated it in every way shape and form, he even had trouble with treating some of the more intelligent droids as property, as a result he had spent most of the journey after the conversation with his Master meditating in order to calm himself else he feared he would not be able to resist the urge to jump in whenever he saw a slave locked up or treated badly. Something that both he, his Master, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were all very well aware of and he had asked the latter two to make sure he did not do anything stupid to compromise the mission.
The inspection party was mostly made up of Zygerrians (which looked just like humans but with bony spurs on and around their faces, pointed ears and red hair). As the leader and a pair of guards came up the ramp they looked around the hold at the cowering slaves before turning to Qui-Gon who was leaning heavily on Harry's old broom.
"Here the for auction then?" the leader asked with a grunt.
"Correct," replied Qui-Gon.
"You know there is a tax for those slaves collected by others," he continued with an evil grin. "As we cannot vouch for the quality of the merchandise we need to be able to compensate our clients if they turn out not to be as good as expected."
"That's a lie," replied Qui-Gon. "But it's a good one. It matters not either way. Boy pay the man."
"Yes Master," replied Harry, handing over a heavy bag of coins that he had been given earlier. The Zygerrian snatched the bag and opened it to examine the contents before weighing it with his hand, mentally adding up how much was in it.
"This should do nicely," replied the 'tax' collector. "All that remains is for us to check your ship for contraband and then you can escort your merchandise to the holding pens."
"Of course, but I can assure you now, we have nothing else onboard except the slaves."
"Maybe not," replied the collector with another grin. "But I am not going to take your word for it. Look around."
With that two of the group split off and headed for the other areas of the ship. Qui-Gon summoned Obi-Wan and sent him and the ranger stationed to guard the prisoners to follow the pair to make sure they did not 'collect' any more than they were supposed to. As the four left leaving Harry, Qui-Gon, the chief tax collector and another Zygerrian with a data pad they began walking around the cargo hold, taking stock of the slaves, their gender, approximate ages, skin colour and body shape.
Despite the simplicity of it and the knowledge that it was all an act, Harry found it very hard to walk ahead of Qui-Gon and to sharply lift up the heads of any of the slaves who 'refused' to raise them as they were directed to do while Qui-Gon and the collector bartered a starting price for each slave.
Harry Aayla spoke into his mind.
Yes Master he replied.
When you raise my head I am going to snap at your fingers, after I do that you need to slap me across the face.
What!
I know you don't want to Harry but you need to trust me. Master Windu and Master Piell have been concentrating on the emotions coming off of the slaver keeping notes, he is suspicious of you and of Qui-Gon, he is not sure he or the rest of you are slavers. We did not expect this when we planned for this mission so we need you to do something only a slaver would do and strike a misbehaving slave.
I...I can't Master.
You can Harry. Qui-Gon would not be the one doing it as it would the rest of the crews responsibility to control the slaves not the captains. I have spoken to Qui-Gon and Master Windu and they both agree that this is a good idea. You can do this, I need you to do this...Do it for me.
Harry internally flinched at what he was about to have to do.
"This one's the best of the lot," explained Qui-Gon gesturing to Aayla as she knelt alongside the wall. "A rare turquoise Rutian Twi'lek, so she is already exclusive and more expensive before we get onto her very good body as well as her high level physically fitness, just take a look at how toned her stomach is. I...sampled her earlier and was most satisfied, it almost tempted me to want to keep her for myself if I did not know how much I could get for her. Raise your head slave."
As expected she did not, which meant Harry was forced to raise her head. As she did so she snapped at his fingers causing him to flinch backwards to avoid getting them cut off, he knew he could not pause, he had to do it now.
Drawing back his hand he backhanded her across the face with a resounding crack. Either the force was stronger than he had aimed for or she deliberately overplayed the hit, he hoped the latter as several of the other slaves in the hold looked shocked but rapidly concealed their looks to avoid giving anything away.
"She's spirited to say the least," chuckled the collector.
Harry felt a sharp pain in his back as what he guessed was his lightsaber/walking stick struck him, knocking him to the ground beside his Master.
"Foolish boy, if that leaves a mark you will be working in the kitchen for the next month. You use the collars to punish them, not the back of your hand. No physical injuries, clear!"
"Yes Master, sorry Master," he apologised getting back to his feet and keeping a bit of distance between himself and Qui-Gon like a scared boy would when struck by his Master as they completed the last few Twi'leks. All the while Aayla was sending calming thoughts to him as his brain was trying to rebel at being forced to do something he hated doing. When they finished the inspectors came back bringing with them a small quantity of contraband that Qui-Gon was charged for before they prepared to start taking the slaves to the holding pens.
As soon as the inspectors were off the ship and the ranger who had been stationed at the foot of the ramp gave the ok that no one was near the ship Harry bolted for the bathroom and emptied his stomach. When he emerged a few minutes later looking a bit paler he went straight to his chained Master who enveloped him in a bone crushing hug.
"I'm so sorry Master," he wept.
"It's alright Harry," she replied soothingly. "You did well. You did what you had to do. What I told you to do for the success of the mission."
"That doesn't mean I have to like it Master," he breathed heavily, trying to recover from the rush of emotion that had just flooded out of him, completely unaware of the almost twenty other people in the rooms who were staring at the pair in different frames of mind. Some were a little embarrassed to be watching such a private moment between a master and an apprentice, others were realising that this heroic young padawan was both so much better and more chivalrous then they had thought but also much more vulnerable than they realised and much more human.
When they separated Qui-Gon came up behind them.
"I'm very sorry for hitting you Harry," he replied humbly. "I did not think my actions through fully, I only saw how it would help to reinforce the appearance of our cover story, I failed to see how it would affect someone without unfortunate history."
"Do not apologise Master Qui-Gon," he replied, cleaning his face. "None of my reaction was because of your actions but due to my own. I used to be quite used to being struck so it is not something that really affects me anymore."
Neither of the adult Jedi really wanted to hear that response from Harry, but they accepted it as another unfortunate scar of his past.
Several minutes later the slavers returned with a set of chains and some control collars which were used for teaching slaves a lesson when they misbehaved, thankfully the Jedi had already thought of that and had brought their own which although they still were control collars, they put out a much less substantial electric shock when activated, even at maximum power.
Harry, Qui-Gon and the others led the slaves out of the ship, through a series of corridors to a hover transport. Once on board they, the slaves, some Zygerrians and a few more slaves and slavers were shipped across the dessert for as good twenty minutes before they were let out into a hanger of a compound of some sort and led underground into low ceilinged warehouse space which was more like a cavern it was so long. It was full to the brim with cages, the majority of which held slaves in various levels of misery, pain or defiance, there must have been hundreds, maybe even thousands of slaves here depending on how full the more distant parts of the 'warehouse' were, they might have to rethink their strategy for rescuing the slaves it could take years to retrieve this many.
Their slaves were led to a row of empty cages about six square feet and forced in six per cell except for a select few like Aayla who were considered better quality slaves and were led away to smaller individual cages that were only about four feet square and not even big enough for the shortest slave to stand up.
Harry was finding it incredibly difficult being there, sometimes when he passed a cage whilst following Qui-Gon, the occupants locked eyes with him briefly, each time this happened he wanted to die inside. He briefly tried just walking between them and not looking at them, but he felt even worse doing this, like he was trying to ignore their suffering, as if he were trying to block out the angry and fearful looks, the sound of crying and pleas for help from some and the barely suppressed rage and fear of others. Even closing his eyes was not helping as he could feel their pain, fear, anxiety and misery through the Force, these would definitely be memories that he would condemn to the canyon in his mind along with those of dementors and Voldemort, he never wanted to feel this feelings again once this mission was over.
He had dropped about ten meters back from Qui-Gon and the Zygerrian that was leading them around when there were the sounds of a scuffle behind them and shouting from one of the guards. Turning Harry could see someone running through the bars on the others rows of cages as slaves turned to watch one of their own flee their captives, some brave ones cheering them on.
As the escapee rounded the corner onto the row that Harry was standing in the middle of and that Qui-Gon and the Zygerrian guard were at the end of, he was able to see that it was a young female Twi'lek running towards him as if her life depended on it, that it may well have done as a couple of guards were in hot pursuit.
The girl was looking backwards towards the pursuers and only turned forward and saw him just before she hit him. Instinctively he grabbed her and held her arms. They were both so stunned by the collision that neither moved for a few moments giving Harry a chance to really see her.
She was probably no more than a couple of years older than him at the most, and was correspondingly only an inches or so taller than he was, she might just have been an adult. She was one of the white skinned Tyrian Twi'leks and was exactly the sort of Twi'lek that were wanted in the slave trade. Automatically he compared her to his Master; she was much curvier than Aayla, who was far from flat chested herself, and reminded Harry of some of the witches that the other boys in Gryffindor Tower used to gawp at in smuggled in copies of Playwizard (albeit this witch would have had white skin and a pair of lekku). She was dressed just as sexually as his Master with just a little more material than Aayla up top and a curtain of fabric falling down forward and aft from her revealing lower garment, and although she was wearing more on her frame than Aayla was she looked much better like it. But the thing that Harry noticed the most was that she possessed a naturally sultry look even when looking at him through her large, deep set and very seductive looking eyes in blind panic and terror as she was at the moment.
Harry had only a split second to think, he had to remember the operation, he could not help her escape as he wanted to, but if she were caught she would be punished for escaping and that would be worse. He would hate himself later for what he did next but he had no other choice.
He clamped both his metal and his natural arm down on the young woman, who was a split second behind him in reaction speed so when she tried to pull back she had the force of a reinforced Mandalorian iron arm holding her in place.
"Please!" she begged as she attempted to pull away from him. "Let me go!"
It broke Harry's heart to hear her say that but he could not, clamping down harder with his other hand he used the strength he had gained while at the Temple to lift her feet off the ground, leaving her struggling in mid air.
"Good work boy," he heard Qui-Gon call, it was not noticeable to anyone that did not know him, but he too desperately wanted to help her, his affinity with the Living Force was probably screaming at him right now to help her.
"Thank you Master," he replied as the struggling girl looked upon him in fear as she realised she had failed and that she would now be punished for it. "Where is her cell?" he demanded of the pursuing guards who had come to a stop behind her.
Gesturing with their heads they then went to take her off him, but Harry was not going to let them and turned her to the side as he passed them in the direction they had gestured.
He carried her all the way to the seemingly endless struggling of the young woman who almost managed to kick him several times in nasty places. He had to use the Force to deflect her legs to the sides when she tried this. Around him he could hear the disappointed sounds from the other cells as well as some slaves shouting at him in defiance for catching her.
As he reached her currently empty four foot square cell he threw her in so that she stumbled backwards before rapidly taking a spare control collar from his belt and strapping it around her neck as he blocked the cell door with his body. Stepping back out of the cage and slamming it shut he prevented the guards who had been attempting to get to her from putting their own collar on her to punish her.
Catching the control device thrown by the following Qui-Gon he set it to what looked on the control like to be the highest setting before showing it to her and activating it. He watched, inwardly distraught as the woman collapsed to the floor in pain.
He had to resist the urge to heave as he was doing this, but he knew it was far better than the alternative, if the guards had used one of their collars it would have been a lot more painful for her if it did not outright kill her, which was not unheard of for misbehaving slaves. This was the lesser of two evils for her, but by far the greater for him, instead of just watching the inflicting of pain and being unable to help, he was actually causing it.
He shut the device off as quickly as he could once the guards had put their collar away and reached through the bars of the cage to take theirs off her frantically breathing form as she lay their recovering. Her punishment done, Harry did not move from in front of the cage and instead crouched down before the bars watching her as a way of making sure the guards could still not get to her.
"Most slaves would not be able to do that too another," commented the Zygerrian that had been guiding them, curiously.
"He has not been my slave for years," replied Qui-Gon.
"How does even a former slave rate being given a Mandalorian iron arm?" asked the guard suspiciously. If Harry had been focusing on him he would probably have been impressed that the guard was able to see past the notice-me-not charm on his limb, but right now he was not aware of anything but the slave.
"When he was my slave, not long after I bought him, I got into a bit of trouble with some pirates. They tried to have me crushed in an ore processing unit, the boy jammed the mechanism but in the process got his arm crushed and all that after I had only owned him a couple of months."
"Surprisingly loyal," commented the guard.
"Indeed, in return I turned him from being a slave into being a member of my crew and got him an artificial arm made out of iron from his home world, though he still calls me Master."
Harry was barely hearing the story that Qui-Gon had just concocted and did not even hear when Qui-Gon and all three guards moved off. It was only a minute later when the occupants of one of the neighbouring cells spoke that he realised that he was alone.
"You traitor," he hissed. "She could have been free if not for you, all you had to do was dive out of the way or let her knock you down and let her passed. I hope you pa-"
"Shut up!" Harry said firmly, channelling the Force slightly making his voice sound all the more powerful, turning the glares from the inhabitants of the cells around into looks of fear and making the woman he had re-captured look up for the first time since he had put the collar on her. "I'm so sorry about that."
She just looked at him in shock, not understanding what was going on or why he was speaking to her.
"I didn't want to have to do that but I had to maintain my cover."
"Your...Your cover?" she asked slowly. Her voice almost didn't seem to belong in such a well developed body; it reminded him of how he had been immediately after he had killed Voldemort, it sounded like it belonged to someone several years younger.
"I'm on an undercover mission to free all of you," he explained to the excited looks and immediate whispering of those in the cages around them.
"Why did you put her me back in there and torture her!" demanded the male Twi'lek who had spoke before angrily.
"That collar is specially rigged to be less powerful than the ones the guards use, it I had not used mine, they would have used theirs and it would have hurt her a lot more." He leaned in as close to the cage as he could. "I didn't want to do that, I really didn't, but I knew it was the best I could do to protect you at that moment. I have been a slave myself and I know what it is like."
"Why not just free us now?" demanded the Twi'lek.
"Because that's not the plan," replied another voice from one of the other cages. Harry and the rest of the slaves all turned to the new speaker only for Harry to recognise one of the Twi'lek volunteers. "I came with him as a volunteer so that we could infiltrate the auction. If he freed us now we would not be able to get us all of this dust ball before we were all recaptured, we need to stick to the plan. Trust him he knows what he is doing."
"Trust him," replied the male slave incredulously. "He's a boy, why should we trust him?"
"He's a Jedi."
It was the slave girl he had recaptured that spoke, all the while the others had been speaking her eyes had been firmly locked on Harry's and had not moved. Everyone turned to look at her in surprise.
"You're Force sensitive?" Harry asked.
"I don't know Master," she replied bowing her head to him. "I can just...Just feel something powerful about you so I thought you must be a Jedi."
"I'm no one's master," he replied defensively. "What is your name?"
"If I were on our home world it would be Alemaani, but for me it's always been Alema Ani Master."
"I promise you Alema Ani," he said wrapping his hand around hers as it wrapped around one of the bars of the cage, ignoring her calling him 'master' again. "I willget you out of here."
"I believe you Master," she replied quietly, staring straight into his eyes.
"Boy!" Harry heard Qui-Gon's voice call.
"I must go, I will free you."
By the time the hover transport had returned Harry to the now almost deserted ship he was feeling terrible, although he had heard as he left the Twi'lek volunteer explaining that it must be kept a secret and not to tell anyone as he passed out the small beacons, it had not made him feel any better about what he had had to do.
When he got back to the ship he was sick again, all the way back he had been thinking about what he had had to do and he hated himself for it. He felt Qui-Gon in the ships Common Room as he passed and headed straight for his cabin, not wanting to talk to anyone tonight.
Voldemort finally managed to claw his way out of the pit in Harry's mind, it had taken him over two years to be able to overcome the horrendous pain and dreadful dementor effect enough for him to find his way out of the smooth sided room with the one entrance in the ceiling that he had been dropped into and that had resisted his every attempt to escape prior to this.
As he finally pulled himself up into the canyon that led to the pit, he laid on his back for several hours just letting his mental body recover, his mind was well and truly twisted and warped from spending so much time subjected to such torment and he was intent on surging through Potter's mind, destroying everything in sight. Or at least he was until he looked up and saw the memories that floated about in the canyon, he had forgotten in his torment. Memories of him, of dementors, of dark thoughts, they positively leaked darkness.
Slowly a smile replaced the raging expression that had crossed his features, he now knew why Potter had never discovered him in the pit, it was behind Potters worst and darkest memories. He could grow strong here, he could absorb the darkness from this part of Potter's mind and eventually even absorb the power used to create the feelings in the pit he had just escaped from, this was just what he needed to grow strong again.
"Beware Harry Potter; you now have me right where I want to be."
AUTHOR'S ESSAY: I have to say I am really quite annoyed right now for two different reasons. The first is that I spent quite a while looking up slavery, slave guilds, slave species and various other things for this story arc, trying to make sure I was not doing something that had been done before and that I could expand on without getting things too off canon and then low and behold just as I go to publish this chapter I see that the Clone Wars series is also , and at the same time as I am doing my story arc, doing a story arc of their own on, yes you guessed it 'Zygerrian Slavers'. Thanks, whichever one of the writers came up with that idea. So I apologise to readers, I have not seen any of the episodes in this Clone Wars arc and therefore no little about it and any differences between the slavers now and during the Clone Wars let's put down to either being a rogue faction, a change in politics or something similar.
The second thing I am annoyed with is that for chapters and chapters and chapters I have been getting reviews and the majority of them that mention relationships have been asking for Harry/Aayla. Now I had planned from the very beginning to make this story a Harry/Hermione (only a minority of you like me have liked this pairing) but now so many of you have asked for Harry/Aayla that I am actually considering it which is really very annoying as I planned the potentially plot for the next forty years of the story (assuming I write that far and don't conclude it sooner) around the story being Harry/Hermione and changing it is going to be really VERY awkward, I mean can a human and a Twi'lek even have children together? If anyone actually knows the answer to that please let me know?
I know one reason lots of you were asking for Harry/Aayla was because you said there were too many Harry/Hermione fics out there, please tell me where all these are as every time I pick up a new fic it seems to always be Harry/Ginny which is the pairing that gets on my nerves more than anything else, I can never seem to find decent Harry/Hermione's.
Some of you have been suggesting Harry/Padmé or Harry/Leia. I must say that these pairings don't really appeal to me at all, possibly because I don't really find Carrie Fisher or Natalie Portman that attractive compared to some of the other women in Star Wars, I always thought Dormé, one of Amidala's handmaidens when she was a Senator, or Sabé, Amidala's decoy in PM played by Keira Knightley were always much more attractive and that the latter should have been given the lead part in PM and Portman the handmaiden role, though I never could see why George Lucas thought they looked alike (which is why Knightley was hired for the role in the first place). Also a Harry/Leia pairing is not really realistic because given the fact that Harry is the same age as Obi-Wan and by the Battle of Yavin in Episode VI Leia is only 19, that would make Harry 57 and that is too big an age gap even for me to overlook, they are effectively one and a half generations apart.
Sorry, I went off topic there. Yes, so you may well end up getting your way there, this may well end up as a Harry/Aayla fic.
Also if anyone has any ideas for a plot arc or even a one off chapter idea where Harry and Hermione can end up going back to Earth please let me know. Or for that matter if anyone can think of a separate plot arc for Hermione, I have already got an idea how to include her more once they are both Knights, but anyone with ideas for now please let me know?
Angeldoctor, I can't answer questions like that, that gives away huge areas of the plot if I do that. Though another thing to consider when you think about who Anakin's Master, if he is even in the story, is that Harry is also, midi-chlorian wise at least, much more powerful than Obi-Wan and is therefore much closer to Anakin's level.
Thank you arturus, that's what I was going for, I started watching the Clone Wars series a while ago and became hooked, the smaller story arcs appealed to me and I thought were a good way to cover the padawan years for Harry and Hermione as you can make one idea span several chapters. Three 10K chapters a day! you much be joking, it takes me several days to write one 5K chapter, in fact for the last week all I have done is add to the next three chapters, did not write anything new after that which is probably why I did not post anything new this week(though this might be because I had a VERY bad week work wise), in fact you lot are much closer to where I have written up to now than you were ten chapters ago, I was about seven chapters ahead at one point, now it's just two or three, I'm going to have to slow down my posting. At some point I will have to get around to having a look at your story, though I dare not do it now as if I do it will distract me from writing this story and it was reading someone else's fic that made me want to write this fic and not my original work that I have been trying to write.
A couple of you have also requested more Master-Padawan relationship chapters between Harry/Aayla and Hermione/Coleman, I am all for this but fire some suggestions at me, suggest some ways of me doing this. I tried to include more of this with the Harry/Aayla talk earlier in this chapter which I added in a rewrite but thinking about it, it was definitely needed. So more ideas, especially for more missions and Hermione/Coleman interaction and possible missions would be very much appreciated.
VeryStickyGlue, no one's opinion is worthless, it's through others opinions that I learn what it working and what is not.
PrettyPlease, although you are probably overjoyed by what I wrote earlier in this essay of an Author's Notes, I am not quite sure I could make this story a Harry/Hermione/Aayla relationship, though I do like the idea a lot I'm just not sure I could get it to work.
Also less than 5% of the people who have marked this story or me as a result of this story as a favourite are reviewing, in an average week I get around half a dozen reviews and half a dozen new author/story favourite emails which is how I know this stories reader list is increasing each week, come on the rest of you give something back to the author please, imagine how much better the story will be if you lot give suggestions as well.
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