HP:Lost and longing

When the flames disappeared Harry let out another breath of air and his rigid pose relaxed as he took a deep breath of the naturally warm Kashyyyk air.

The three Jedi stared out at the vista, now without the flames everywhere. They could only gape at the sight that was left behind on the 'battlefield' such as it was.

The droid army wasn't just decimated, it was gone.

Not that there wasn't any trace they had been there. Various burnt out wreckages sat smoldering on the ground and along the beach in front of them, and there were a few pieces that were in the water that were still sinking. There was even one hulk of a ship that was partially submerged in water and slowly lowering. The traces of smoke that remained in the air a clear testament to little fires that were still burning in the different bits of wreckage. Though these were subdued and seemed to have sparked from different bits of machinery after the flames Harry summoned departed.

The entire army was nothing but burnt out hulks of slag.

"Harry." Ahsoka breathed carefully. Her voice held a great deal of awe more than a trace of uncertainty.

Harry finally turned to face her. His hair was a bit damp and he looked somewhat weary, at least physically. But the expression on his face was a wide smile, and his eyes were bright. As if he wasn't under some unknown pressure that he had been since he had met her. There was very little sign that he had just used more Force energy than any of them had ever seen. No sigh of exhaustion. Instead, if Ahsoka had to describe it, she would have said he looked invigorated instead.

"It's been awhile since I did something that big," Harry mused as he turned away. He took a step farther out to the beach, searching the sky for any ships that he might have missed.

"Harry, what was that?" Aayla asked with disbelief in her voice.

Harry grinned and winked at her, "Magic, Blue… simply magic."

His grin faltered a moment later as his head suddenly whipped up to look above them. "Oh shit. Dobby's out there by himself."

"I'm leaving Kashyyyk for Nar Shaddaa, you can stay here or go, but choose now," Harry snapped quickly, not even looking there, as he looked skyward once more.

Ahsoka didn't even need to hesitate stepping immediately up to him. She wasn't leaving him, it wasn't even an option in her mind. She saw the brief look of relief flash in his eyes, and she realized that he had been worried that he had scared her. That gave her a small jolt of pleasure. Not that he had been worried, but that he had been worried about scaring her specifically.

Aayla hesitated only a moment, before stepping up to in agreement, she was curious what it was that was drawing him back to Nar Shaddaa. She turned and looked at Shaak Ti who seemed the most uncertain. Aayla couldn't feel emotions from Harry but knew that he wasn't going to wait more than a few more moments to make up her decision.

She quickly mentioned to her, "Aside from whatever damage the advance scouts did, there's nothing more to do here… and we can always call and make our report from Harry's ship."

Shaak Ti regarded Aayla for a moment before her gaze shifted to Harry who was peering with narrowed eyes up at the sky. "Mister Potter, did that invitation extend to me?"

Harry's attention was drawn to Shaak Ti at the question, after a moment's hesitation, he shrugged, "Sure, it's not like what I just did was subtle or anything."

Shaak Ti winced slightly, understanding the implication of what he had just said. He was still suspecting her like he had been Aayla, thinking she was a spy, determined to evaluate him and his uses of the Force. Unfortunately, Shaak Ti reflected, she couldn't deny the description since that was part of what she was doing.

She stepped forward next to Aayla with a shudder, preparing herself for another portkey journey.

She was surprised when Harry slid an arm around Ahsoka's shoulders, pulling her against his side, to which Shaak Ti's enhanced hearing picked up a slight squeak of surprise, but she definitely didn't miss the blush on the girl's face or the smile that followed. Harry placed the hand on that arm on Aayla's shoulder and the other hand on her shoulder and then closed his eyes. They disappeared from the planet's surface with a pop.

The group of four appeared in what Ahsoka recognized as the hold of the Gryffindor. Once they landed Harry separated from the three of them, something which caused Ahsoka to be more than a little bit disappointed. Harry seemed to take no notice as he gave them each a onceover as if making sure they all made it in one piece.

Other than Shaak Ti's expression, which wasn't as bad as when they had portkeyed, but was still clearly queasy as she swayed slightly on her feet looking around. "Sorry, I had to Apparate. If you try and portkey onto something that's moving quickly… it can get a little bit messy," Harry shook his head slightly. "Anyway, now to see what damage Do-"

His statement was cut off as the entire ship jumped and rocked as if hit with something, hard.

Harry's head shot up, "What the hell?!" He didn't wait for an answer to his rhetorical question and sprinted out of the hold toward the cockpit, leaving behind three staggering Jedi, though Ahsoka was quickest to stumble after him.

"Kento! What the hell is going on?" Harry demanded as he burst into the cockpit, his eyes already taking in the view. They were in the middle of absolute chaos, that only took Harry a moment to identify as a middle of a large fleet of droid ships. Said ships were firing turbolaser blasts in all sorts of directions practically lighting up portions of space.

The Jedi at the piloting controls was a little distracted and jerked when Harry came in, "Trying to fly and this is worse than an asteroid belt!"

"I don't know, I think this is quite the ride! More fun than I've had in ages!" The Sorting hat's voice interjected, amusement in its gravelly tone.

Harry ignored the hat as he immediately moved into the co-pilot's seat as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing as he kept glancing between the chaos out the cockpit and the sensor readings that were lighting up his console, "You know when I said keep them in sensor range, I wasn't really meaning right in the fucking center of them."

"Funny," Kento replied dryly. He looked like he was going to say something else snarky but the entire ship jerked once more from the impact of something hitting it somewhere back near the back engines.

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