Chapter Seven: Taking Care of Business

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

A/N: Chap six review responses are in my forums as usual. Thank you all for reading.

Chapter Seven: Taking Care of Business

Kyle Katarn's blood type is Bryar DL-44 Blaster Pistol

As much as Anakol Skywalker was considered royalty among the Jedi Order, the young Emperor Anakin Solo Fel had just as much claim to a Jedi heritage, totally aside from his actual royal status. In fact, the two cousins had the very same lineage, Harry discovered to his surprise, save they were removed by one generation.

Whereas Anakol was the son of Ben Skywalker and the grandson of Luke and Mara Skywalker, Anakin Solo Fel was the son of Allana Solo Fel, the biological daughter of Jacen Solo, granddaughter of Luke's twin sister Leia Organa Solo. Both descended from the infamous Anakin Skywalker, known throughout the galaxy as Darth Vader.

From what Harry had learned from Kol, Jacen Solo fell to the Dark Side of the Force and was killed at the end by his own twin sister, Jaina Solo. Jaina went on to marry Jagged Fel, first Emperor of the Reborn Empire, late in their lives. When they failed to produce an heir, and after Leia and Han Solo died, the royal couple adopted Jaina's niece Allana as their heir. Allana, having been raised not only in the ways of the Force, but also in the ways of politics, chose to marry Jagged's brother Fyric Fel, then 60 years old, to solidify her position within the Empire. What became a despotic organization shifted into true constitutional monarchy with the birth of Allana's son Anakin.

Unfortunately, assassination attempts were a constant threat, and when Anakin Solo Fel was only a baby, Jaina and Jagged Fel died at the hands of Sith assassins. Thus Allana stepped forward not as Empress, but as the Empress Regent for her son, a Fel prince born and bred. This act of seeming self-effacement ensured the full cooperation of the Moff College, which served as a merit-based legislative body to balance the throne's power, and guaranteed the adoration and love of the Empire's people not only for her son, but for her rule as well.

Nor did it hurt that Allana, now in her forties, was still a stunningly beautiful woman. The people of Bastion adored her, and her image was bandied about like currency in some places. Harry couldn't help but blush every single time she walked into the room to greet her son.

For all the history and politics, though, Anakin Fel, Nik to his friends, was surprisingly normal, including possessing the same vices as many of the boys at the Praxeum. He liked to watch holovids about the various wars his family had been involved in, but he somehow also had a secret file containing holovids that the Empress Regent most certainly would not have approved of. Harry wasn't even sure he approved of them.

Nik grinned at Kol and Harry after a quick glance around the room to ensure they were alone, and started a re-enactment of Luke Skywalker's final confrontation with the Sith Emperor Palpatine. At first Harry thought it was just another historical drama, until the actress playing Mara Jade took her clothes off and started doing very strange and interesting things with the Emperor's entourage in front Luke. She then moved to Luke himself, giving the Emperor, Darth Vader and the whole court a show that left Harry short of breath and with burning red ears.

"You know," Harry finally said, "from what I saw when Master Luke came to me during the trials, I don't think anything like that would actually ever happen."

"Who cares, she's naked?" Kol said, a typical boy having just turned fourteen.

"You realize that's your grandmother, right?" Harry asked to his friend.

"No, that's Stefanee Blaze," Nik said with an authority over the subject matter no nine-year-old should ever have. "I have two more of her vids too."

"If Mother caught us, we'd be dead," Kol said.

Harry, though, shook his head. "You think for a minute they don't know?" he said. "Nik, your Mum's virtually a Jedi master in her own right, and Kol your dad's the Jedi Grandmaster. They probably have a hundred monitors in this room, even if they didn't already know from the Force."

Kol grinned and picked at Harry's red ears. "What's the problem, Harry? It's just sex, it won't hurt you."

"And if you're interested, I have a few holovids about Kyle Katarn too," Nik said with bright eyes. He touched his control pad, and suddenly another naughty holovid appeared. Harry watched in fascination because he was a thirteen-year-old boy going on fourteen. But as he did so, he felt a curling in his stomach as he recognized who the naked woman writhing on Kyle was supposed to be.

"Nik," he said, "could you…could you turn that off?"

"Harry, stop being a prude," Kol said. "I know you come from a backward planet, but come on, you're culture has to have sex too or you wouldn't be here.

Harry blushed furiously. "It's not that, it's…Kyle's…You guys don't understand how much it hurt him to lose her. It's not right to watch this. I'm sorry."

The two boys stared blinking in surprise a moment before Nik shrugged. "No, it's okay," the young emperor said, and the images went away. "Can you imagine what it must have been like when Jedi weren't supposed to have attachments?"

"Yeah," Kol said with a snort, "you'd have a lot of dirty socks."

"I don't get it," Harry admitted.

Nik snorted. "Yeah, why use socks? That's what HRDs are for."

The three boys all turned to look at one of the Human Replica Droids that walked into the young Emperor's room bearing a tray of snacks. It was not just feminine in configuration, but overwhelmingly so. "What do you mean?" Harry asked, confused but beginning to suspect what the other boys were talking about.

Kol, though, said, "No way."

"Absolutely," Nik said with swagger. "They're programmed to do anything I say."

"Like what, change your diaper?" Kol said with a snort. "You're nine!"

"So, it's not like you've ever done anything!" Nik said with wounded pride. "And they have to do anything I say! Anything," he added, stressing the word while waggling his eyebrows.

Harry looked back to the soul-less but seemingly alive construct, which astonishingly turned and looked at them. It seemed to him that the Human Replica Droid was actually smirking when it said, "With respect, Your Majesty, my primary programming was established by her highness the Empress Regent. Accordingly, my clothes will remain on. Your snacks are served."

After the droid left, Kol snorted, and then started laughing at Nik's expression of embarrassment. Finally the young Emperor laughed as well and the three boys had their snack and eventually switched back to historical holovids in which the actors kept their clothes on.

~~Katarn~~

~~Katarn~~

Sometimes it was easy to forget that Nik was only nine. He carried himself as if he were older, and spoke with a level of articulation and intelligence unusual for many adults, much less children. He projected a world-weary cynicism that Harry had never encountered, but he soon learned why.

With their masters' orders to stay by Nik's side every day, Harry and Kol each had a crash course in the life of an emperor-in-training. Nik's studies were even more demanding that Harry's and Kol's at the Academy. And since their Master's said nothing to the contrary, Kol and Harry began taking those same lessons.

Soon, Harry began learning why his Basic was so poor, while other teachers taught both he and Kol to walk with proper posture. They had to attend etiquette classes twice a week, as well as the most detailed, mind-numbing classes in politics Harry had ever imagined possible. The classes did not just dwell on the current state of the Empire, but on the Galactic Alliance, and the New and Old Republics before it, with concentration on the events in which the governments failed.

"We learn far more from a government's failings than from its successes," the instructor droned on. Harry suspected he too was an HRD, save for the Force-presence which clearly indicated organic life.

"How do you even stay awake?" Harry finally asked the Emperor.

"For the first year, the teacher gave me a shock if I started falling asleep," Nik admitted. "Hurt like the blazes, too. Whatever you do, don't fall asleep."

The best time of the day, though, was when Kol's mum, Vestara Khai, came to conduct their saber training, since Kol's father, his master Bandy Geffen, and Kyle were all off planet chasing down the threat to the royal family. Harry learned after the fact that Ansaki was with them.

The saber-training was a new experience because Vestara's technique was Sith-based. Though Harry did not sense much of the Dark Side within her, she definitely was not a Jedi in her outlook on the Force and combat in general.

"Jedi fight to defend, but the Sith fight to win. When you fight solely to defend, you place yourself at a disadvantage from the outset," she told the boys during their first lesson together. "You, Nik, will be Emperor. Though it is unlikely you will ever have to personally fight in war, the number of assassinations your family has faced makes it important for you to learn these skills. If an attacker strikes at you, do not fight to defend yourself against him. Instead, fight to kill him so that he cannot threaten you or yours again. That is the role of the Imperial Knights."

The Imperial Knights, of course, did not quite exist yet. Allana's brainchild was to have a dedicated body of gray Jedi as full-time defenders of the throne. It was a controversial idea, both among the Empire's allies and even within the Moff College. However, it was impossible to deny the powerful Jedi heritage within the royal family when Allana told the College that her son had to be trained in the Jedi arts for his own safety. From there, it was only a small step to collect a few other Force-strong youths within the Empire to train with him not just as comrades, but as future guards.

Harry understood the concern, but also the advantages to Nik personally. He and Kol were there in almost the same capacity, especially since the future knights were right now little more than Initiates. Still, in some ways Harry thought having a body of Force-strong warriors who did not follow the Jedi Code, but instead were loyal solely to a single monarch, could be a recipe for disaster. What would happen if the Empire and the Jedi Order ever clashed?

He didn't say anything, of course. Instead, he threw himself into his lessons and had to admit that Kol's mother was very good. In a straight duel, she might have even been as good as Kyle was. On the other hand, Kyle was over a hundred years old. Harry thought that during his prime, his master would have been able to take her easily.

They spent several months there—long enough for Harry's fourteenth birthday to pass unremarked as Kyle, Ben and Bandy continued to scour the Empire and the galaxy at large for the assassins who had come so close to killing Nik on the last attempt.

When the strike came, it did so without warning.

Harry and Kol were sleeping in the anteroom they shared just off the Emperor's personal quarters when Harry sat up with a gasp. Across the spacious room, Kol sat up as well. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Harry said, "but it doesn't feel right."

Communicating with a single look, the two boys scrambled out of their beds, pulled on their day clothes and secured their lightsabers to their belts before rushing into Nik's quarters. The young Emperor was still soundly asleep, either due to his youth or the fact that Harry and Kol were just more sensitive to the Force.

Standing at the Emperor's bed, Harry saw a lone figure draped in black, holding a weapon pointed at the sleeping Emperor.

Harry did not think; he reacted. With his whole being thrumming with a need to be right there, he felt his insides squeezed and suddenly he was there, on the bed's platform across the twenty meter floor of the Emperor's personal quarters, somehow retaining the momentum of his previous steps. He spun, lit his lightsaber, and struck with all his might at the assassin.

His dark blue, almost black blade did not cut through his attacker, but rather struck a scintillating red lightsaber that lit a pair of yellow eyes set in a face mottled with black and white tattoos. Harry's eyes widened in fear as he realized he'd locked blades with a Sith. Sensing that fear, the Sith assassin smiled to reveal a mouthful of sharpened teeth.

"It is a virtual buffet of foolish young Jedi," the Sith said in a low growl.

Harry had no time for a witty response—the attacker pulled his knee up sharply. Harry twisted his hip to block it, but being shorter by a foot than the attacker, the knee bypassed his groin entirely and struck his stomach. He fought for breath even as the Sith Force-blasted him off the pedestal. However, while he was still falling, Anakol Skywalker flew over him to take his place with a fiery shout.

"Harry, get Nik out now!" Kol said as he engaged the Sith in a flurry of blows. His technique was not purely Jedi—Harry could see a lot of his mother's Sith-trained moves as well. Harry had a moment of indecision between defending his friend, and doing his duty.

Duty won the day. Harry scrambled to his feet and rushed toward the bed where Nik had woken, stood and was now wielding his own silver lightsaber. "Not the time, Nik!" Harry said.

"We've got to help Kol!"

"We've got to get you to safety! That's why Kol and I are here, remember?" Harry disagreed. "Come on!"

Nik took a long, agonizing look at where Kol was somehow holding the taller, stronger Sith at bay, and deactivated his blade. "The safe room is on the other side."

"Let's go."

The safe room had the same armor around it as the reactor of a star destroyer, and could withstand anything short of prolonged ship-based turbo-laser bombardment. If that was not enough, it also had ray and particle shields as powerful as most planetary-level shielding arrays.

And yet, as they grew close to it, Harry's gut twisted with unease. He slowed, forcing Nik to slow as well. "What?" the young Emperor demanded.

"Something is wrong," Harry said with a dread certainty.

A moment later, the door that led to the chamber blew open. Harry had presence of mind enough to deflect the door with the Force, though it was actually Nik who got them both on the ground as a huge tongue of flame billowed out over them. The heat of the blast was astonishing—Harry could feel the skin on his face and hands burn and his hair singe. When the boys looked back up, they could see the interior of the room burning with white flame.

"Damn," Harry whispered. "Nik, are you okay?"

"My hair!" Nik said, moaning over the many burned ends of the young Emperor's reddish-brown hair. Harry figured if all he complained about was his hair, the he was probably okay otherwise.

Behind them, Kol backed away from the Sith's onslaught. With the safe room destroyed, probably by a bomb the assassin himself planted, Harry wondered what options they had. Running wildly through an obviously compromised palace did not seem to be a very good idea, most especially considering that the loyal forces would want them to stay put.

"No help for it," Harry decided out loud. "Nik, I know you want to help, but you don't have the reach or experience yet. If you get in the way, you'll just make it easier for the Sith to kill you. Stay here by the wall. If any more Sith come, you run, okay?"

Wide eyed, at that moment Anakin looked exactly like a frightened nine-year-old boy. Harry grabbed his shoulder in a brief attempt at comfort before he reactivated his lightsaber and ran toward the duel. Kol's face appeared flushed with exertion, and he already had a score on his leg that must have hurt horribly.

The Sith sensed Harry's re-entry into the fray, and with an astonishing blast of Force lighting, blew Kol out of the fight long enough to meet Harry's attack head-on. As the first moments of the fight passed, Harry moved beyond his fear and fell into the Force, just as he had during his trials. His body reacted as the Force directed, but at the same time the Force itself responded to his desire.

The problem was that the Force was also with the Sith, who was obviously older, stronger and just as fast as Harry. The sense of mounting peril grew as the fight continued, until Harry knew for a certainty that he could not win by himself.

Finally, though, Kol recovered enough from the Force-lightening attack to jump into the fight again. With that brief respite, Harry eased his attack to give his friend access, but also to catch his breath and center his thoughts. Where were the others? Where was Vestara or Allana? For that matter, where were the Imperial guards?

Determining they could not wait for help to come, Harry racked his brain for a solution when he looked down at his lightsaber. Of course. He willed himself to be invisible, and the Force flowed through the Stygium crystals of his saber to do just that. Harry disappeared entirely.

He struck first over Kol's shoulder without warning. It was a testament to the Sith's own skills and connection to the Force that he was able to deflect a blow from literally out of nowhere, but Harry could see doubt on the man's tattoo-covered face for the first time. Harry backed away, crossed around Kol and attacked the Sith next from the rear.

Again, the Sith was able to detect the strike, but in the process opened himself to Kol's continuing attack. The man gasped as Kol's saber burned his left arm; he back-flipped away from the potentially disarming blow, and once on his feet, raised his hands to unleash another explosion of Force-lightening right at Kol.

Harry saw his friend's expression of fear and knew Kol could not withstand another such blast. Desperate, Harry jumped between his friend and the danger and put forth every iota of energy he had to block the lightning. The air in front of him shimmered as he conjured a shield which intercepted the lightning entirely. The effort left him exhausted, but it obviously shocked the Sith. Kol was fairly surprised as well, though the young Jedi said nothing as he attacked again.

Too tired to risk any acrobatics, Harry adjusted the length of his saber to its maximum length, sank back into invisibility, and then darted in again opposite Kol.

The Sith slashed at him blindly, but rather than stabbing, Harry put everything he had left into a push with the Force. The Sith stumbled toward Kol still in the act of trying to cut Harry; in a quarter of a second, Kol took the man's head with a single swipe of his blade. The headless Sith toppled to the floor as his now deactivated red lightsaber clattered against the expensive tiles.

Gasping with exhaustion, Harry let go of his weakened grip on the Force, deactivated his blade, and sank to the floor.

"That was incredible!" Nik crowed from the far wall. "Harry, how did you do that?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Kol said, eyes wide. "How'd you stop that Force lightening?"

"Something native to my planet, I think," Harry told his friend.

Just then Allana Fel raced through the door flanked by a squad of ten black-armored Storm Troopers and Vestara Khai. The Regent's stunning red hair was wild and unkempt and her face was darkened by soot. Her light evening robes were burned and cut, revealing a stretch of leg that made Harry's cheeks burn. Vestara also showed signs of fighting.

"What happened?" the Regent said.

"Sith," Harry said, too tired to talk.

"We handled it," Kol added.

The two women eyed the headless Sith, then looked to the two exhausted padawans. Then, with a soft cry Allana rushed to engulf her son in a hug. "Moooooom!" Nik moaned as she buried his face to her bosom.

Harry's blush faded to a sharp, intense pain as he looked at a mother holding her son, followed a moment later by gratitude that he was able to keep mother and son together. Kol walked over and sank to the floor beside him.

"You know, we make a pretty good team," he said.

"Yeah, I guess we do."

"Like Skywalker and Kenobi."

"Just don't call me Obi-Wan. That's a really stupid-sounding name."

Kol laughed tiredly. Both boys looked up as Vestara knelt down in front of them. "Are either of you hurt?"

"Kol took a burn to the leg and Force-lightening," Harry said.

"And you?"

"I'm just tired."

Vestara nodded. "You both did very well. Come, I imagine the Regent will keep her son with her for the remainder of the night. The attack has been put down; it is safe for now."

~~Katarn~~

~~Katarn~~

Harry was given his own suite after the Empress Regent had her son moved into her personal suites to keep a better eye on him. Harry at once pitied Nik, and envied him as well. Despite being an astutely political person, Allana was also a dedicated, loving mother. Nik was lucky, as far as Harry was concerned.

He didn't see much of Kol either after the attack, but for a more serious reasons. Force-lightning attacks had a disastrous effect on bones if left untreated, and for an adolescent whose bones were still growing, this was especially serious. So, where Harry and Kol were both sure he'd be out of the infirmary in a few hours, he ended up spending a full day in Bacta with another three days in observation and on a special calcium supplement. His mother was by his side every minute of the day, leaving Harry alone to his thoughts in his spacious, fully stocked quarters.

On the second day, fighting boredom unlike any he had ever experienced, Harry watched one of the feminine HRD's bring in his lunch. "Ummm, hello," he said.

"Hello, young Master Jedi," the droid said. She sounded perfectly human, and looked perfectly human.

"Are you allowed to talk?" Harry asked.

She smirked, and Harry felt a sense of shock that this was the same droid that used to serve Nik. "As long as my clothes remain on, yes."

Harry's cheeks burned. "That's not…I mean…well, you see it's…"

"I was joking, young Master Jedi," she assured him.

Harry grinned briefly and then blinked. "Are you really a droid?"

"I am."

"Could I…I mean, could I touch your hand?"

"Of course."

Harry walked forward and took her hand in his. The skin felt soft and warm to him, but when he pressed a finger gently across her wrist, he felt no pulse. And the warm was only skin deep—he could feel the workings of something hard and inorganic under the skin. "Is your skin organic?"

"It is a new form of Synthflesh, the same as is used for cybernetic limbs on amputees," she said, not at all bothered by his touch.

"Are you based on a living model?"

"My appearance, and the appearance of most of the droids in the palace, were drawn up based on computer models of what humans consider to be attractive. There are HRDs for five other species drawn up according to the same specifications."

"Oh, does that mean you really can be…well…"

"Engaged sexually? Yes, both feminine and masculine HRDs are capable of interacting sexually with biologicals. It is one aspect of our core programming, as originally we were designed as both sexual partners and assassins."

Harry's ears were burning. "Do you…do you feel?"

"Of course, I can feel your touch now, as well as your accelerated heartbeat."

"I mean emotions."

"I can simulate emotions," the HRD said, "but I do not experience them as you do. However, my simulation subroutines are convincing enough that most humans obtain the fulfillment they seek from those reactions."

Harry blinked and looked up at her. "What about you? Do you get any fulfillment?"

"Not as you do, young Master Jedi, but I do experience fulfillment in the accomplishment of my duties. Whether I am serving you your lunch, or should the Empress Regent require me to, giving the Emperor his first sexual experiences, I will have fulfilled my programing, and in so doing accomplished my purpose."

"So you live to serve?"

"I exist to serve, young Master Jedi. I know it is easy to assign human emotion to me because of my appearance. That was in fact why I appear as I do. However, I am not human. Any feelings you have regarding me are your own, I assure you."

There was no life within her.

"Thank you for speaking to me."

"It is my pleasure," she said, smiling. And they both knew she was lying because that is what she was programmed to do.