If you want to read more chapters ahead from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://patreon.com/kelly_over
____________
"It'll be my turn next time," Aayla shot back. "After all, of the two of us who was it who was always getting into trouble, remember you've been telling me about some of your misadventures over the years.
"How dare you use logic against me?" Harry said dramatically, and they both laughed again, but still their arms did not move from their places around one another's waists, and eventually they fell silent, still staring until a cough from Dooku drew their attention away.
He was standing watching this, one sardonic eyebrow raised. While he had been told of the bond between Harry and Aayla he had not been prepared for the reality, imagining it as something like a padawan-master bond only between equals. It wasn't it really wasn't. He could sense the bond between them, the mental bond, not just the physical attraction, which was startling in the extreme. The Force was so startlingly bright around the two of them it was incredible.
Nor was Dooku the only one looking on this meeting in shock. Nearby a human with a Chandrillan accent watched on with rounded eyes. "Damn, I didn't think Jedi went into the romantic stuff, but that… it may get damn fine vid."
"Perhaps in your next lifetime at you'll be able to create said vid," Dooku said almost absentmindedly before turning to stare at the man. "We have no desire to take you all prisoner after all, how in the universe would we transport you. So long as you have no desire to recapture the slaves we'll probably be freeing some of you here. And Jabba's former slaves might need help getting off planet…"
More than one of the goons looked at one another, and slowly began to nod.
Then Dooku went on. "Of course, we will also be taking your facial features, and your retinal scans, which we will then send on to the planet that those slaves will be sent to. If you don't arrive, we will have everything we need to place a bounty on you. Jedi might be above such things, but I imagine the slave's families would not be. Nor would lying to us at the moment get past our senses. But of course none of you would be so foolish as to go back on your words to a Jedi, this was merely food for thought." Dooku finished, sneering down his patrician nose at the prisoners.
With that he began to gesture them on, and mistress Fay came back in just as Lily finished looking for any more slaves hidden away, not having found any. Lily put her ethereal arms around the two children, laughing lightly as she bussed Aayla's cheek with one of her equally ethereal kisses that always made Aayla beam, especially as she remembered the times Lily had used those as rewards for children who had performed exceptionally well in classes.
She turned, one arm still around Harry's waist as his other his own hand drop from her shoulders to a position on her hip, a small thrill going to the both of them at that gentle touch. Despite that Aayla turned and she moved out of Harry's arms, holding out her hands to Fay. "Master Fay. Thank you so much for your rescue!"
"Look at you my dear," the immortal Jedi master said, smiling and exchanging a brief but heartfelt hug with the young woman. After so many years with Harry and with Lily who was not backwards in coming towards with such things Fay had become more much more touchy-feely than most Jedi. "You look magnificent. You have any idea however how you and your Master were spotted?"
"No, thought I think had something to do with it. Bib Fortuna, he was Jabba's second-in-command, he said I had been 'made'. I think it might have had something to do with Aurra Sing, the bounty Hunter. I spotted her the evening before I was gassed." Aayla said with a shrug.
Then she looked around, guilt suddenly rising within her as she remembered her master, having not thought of him since seeing Harry. Harry immediately felt her guilt and grabber her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze and she turned a wan smile on him.
"Can you sense your master presence Padawan Secure?" Dooku said, quickly coming over at the mention of the infamous bounty hunter. She had killed two Jedi so far, and Dooku was interested in discussing that with her.
"I think so…" Aayla said thoughtfully. "I should be able to, unless…" she exchanged a glance with Harry. "Unless our bond this close and so powerful is drowning out my bond with Master Vos."
Harry stayed silent unable to say yes or no to that one, and also unwilling to say it was a bad thing either. Aayla felt that response and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, though she did tend to agree. After a moment's concentration however she was able to sense Quinlan. "He's here, but injured I think, and unconscious. Upstairs somewhere I think."
"I have found him." Master Fay said after a few moment's silent contemplation. "A Jedi has a distinct, call it a flavor to his mind, even unconscious. He is up that way she said gesturing back to the corridor the attackers had come down initially. "I had not registered it when we were forcing our way down, but I can sense him easily enough now. Aayla, come with me. He might need someone he recognizes immediately nearby, and your presence will help him adjust quickly."
"We will remain here," Harry said, looking over at Dooku, then at the slaves. None of whom had much in the way of clothing, and all of whom had various signs of their confinement or enslavement on their bodies.
Dooku cocked an eyebrow then nodded, his lips twitching again. The youth learns quickly. "Yes, Padawan Potter and I will deal with organizing the slaves. Though I feel you Master Fay might need to deal with any surgically emplaced explosives. I am afraid I have no such skill."
_____________
If you want to read more chapters ahead from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://patreon.com/kelly_over