Chapter Twenty Three: Ion Storm

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

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Chapter Twenty Three: Ion Storm

The interdictor cruisers were still there, spread in a torus-shaped pattern that followed roughly the orbital path of Avalon. It was a remarkable bit of intuition and created an effective blockade. Any hyperspace gravity wave approaching that blockade would be detected, yanked into normal space and captured by tractor beams in a trice.

Harry, having learned his lesson, brought the shuttle out of hyperspace well outside of the blockade, decanting from hyperspace almost three hundred million miles from Avalon's coordinates. However, even removed from hyperspace they were still travelling at a third of the speed of light, depending on the odd properties of the sublight drive to eliminate the time distortion that would otherwise have occurred.

Even though the shuttle was cloaked in a new Fidelius charm, he deactivated everything except life support. "Now, we wait. We should there in an hour or so."

"General Potter…"

"I'll make a deal with you. If you call me Harry, I'll call you Obi-Wan. The titles get old. I'm a general of about fifty people, after all."

Obi-Wan pulled his beard and nodded, though there was an amused twinkle in his eyes. "Very well, Harry. I was curious as to what your plans were after we achieve your goal of a lightsaber?"

Harry blinked at the Jedi, and then shrugged. "I thought that was obvious when I left my people with the Alliance. I mean to return and fight."

"Perhaps I misspoke. Let us suppose that the Alliance is successful, and eventually we throw the Empire down. What then? Will Avalon remain under this cloak of yours? Will you? I ask because the Jedi have first and foremost been servants of the Republic. If Leia is to be a Jedi, then she will be a public figure. This is not even taking into account her political leanings to begin with."

"In other words, she has no desire to be a housewife."

Leia snorted. "I honestly hope the thought never occurred to you."

Grinning, Harry ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "Not even once. Someone told me not too long ago that until I knew what to be for you, I would never have you. My first responsibility is to ensure my people are safe. Once I've accomplished that, then it will be to you, Leia, fighting the good fight. I'll never be a Jedi, but then again I've also never been a recluse."

Luke, who joined them in the cockpit after docking, looked from one to the other before turning red. He appeared to just then be figuring out what Obi-Wan knew the moment he saw the new couple. "Are you guys…together?"

Leia put on her most aloof royal countenance and said, "And what business would that be of yours?"

Luke stammered in response—he appeared to do that a great deal. Finally Leia took pity on him, leaned over and kissed his cheek. "It's okay, brother. We're happy."

"Okay," Luke managed to get out.

Harry was able to spot Avalon as a blue dot after ten minutes. It grew steadily as they approached through the blockade. "Okay, we're getting close," he said. "Listen and concentrate. The mage community is located on the world of Avalon."

The three Jedi had heard enough about the charm to understand the mechanics, but when all three blinked and found a planet right in front of them that wasn't there moments before, it still shocked them.

Despite the threat of the star destroyers in picket formation in the system, Harry had to bring the shuttle's drives back on to slow their re-entry. If he attempted to enter the atmosphere at a third the speed of light, the shuttle would simply vaporize.

The moment the shuttle engines flared, several of the nearby star destroyers began to move toward them, preceded by the heavy fields of artificial gravity. Harry felt the gravitons like a blanket, but the ship was not running in hyperspace, and more important, was not an interdictor, and so was not affected.

"The heat trail of the shuttle must extend beyond the cloaking field," Obi-Wan surmised. "That's how they are able to detect it. The Alliance could fit the shuttle with a heat-sink if necessary."

"Will that help us right now?"

"Not in the slightest."

Harry grunted. The star destroyers began pelting local space not with turbolasers, but with ion cannon blasts. The blasts were nowhere near the shuttle, but Harry felt a chill when he saw how the blast interacted with Avalon itself. Rather than disappearing and reappearing on the opposite side of the planet like the turbolasers, the ion blasts actually passed physically through the planet. They did not actually strike the planet surface, and eventually passed on the far side. But to the view of the imperials, the cannon blasts hit a defined point in space and disappeared, only to reappear one planetary diameter later.

"They've found a way to break through the Fidelius charm," Harry whispered in horror.

"Not necessarily," Obi-Wan said. "At least, not in a manner that can help them. Ion weaponry is unique in that it does not interact with physical material. I could fire that planet-defender from Hoth at a brick, and it would perhaps scorch it from the initial heat of discharge, but nothing else. The destructive power of the weapon is in how it disrupts all power sources. It is possible that the frequency of the ionization in the weapons simply interacts in a different manner with your cloak. But as you can see, it does not actually strike anything."

"If they can figure out where the planet is, they might be able to do more," Harry pointed out.

"What does the Force tell you?"

"That I'm hungry for bangers and mash," Harry snorted. Luke covered a laugh with his hand; Leia shook her head.

"There is danger, yes, but it is not immediate," Obi-Wan said reasonably. "We shall simply have to be mindful of the Force and ourselves."

They hit the atmosphere and entered the planetary Fidelius. Harry moved the shuttle into landing configuration as they approached the colony. Just since he was last there, houses and gardens had sprung up in the northwest quadrant of the initial warding circle, and there were now actual roads in concentric rings around the crops in the center of the compound.

The ion blasts continued, and Harry was disconcerted to see pale streaks of blue light the size the Knight Bus passing through the planet around him without any seeming harm. After a few minutes, the barrage eased.

"This is not going to make people happy," Harry muttered.

When they were low enough to make out details, Harry saw with some satisfaction that the colony continued to improve in terms of facilities. There were now two concentric rings of roads, bisected by a third straight line running perfectly north to south, and another running east to west. Harry wasn't sure if it was Ley-line placement or Feng Shui, but he knew from experience that wizards loved cardinal points.

A another new feature was a second ward ring a hundred feet north of the larger one, connected by a dirt path. The new ring was only a hundred meters in diameter, but it contained a strangely familiar looking stone hut and what Harry had to guess was an intricate obstacle course. "Yoda's been busy," he thought aloud.

He brought the shuttle down between the two ward circles. "I'm fairly certain Yoda is there," Harry said to the others.

"Yes, he is," Obi-Wan said with certainty.

"Why don't you all go introduce yourselves? I need to go see the Wizenmeet and let them know what's happening. I imagine they're a bit panicked about now."

"Very well," the old Jedi said.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Leia asked in concern.

"Always," Harry said with a wistful smile. "But I think it might be better for me to go alone. I am an official in the government here, and I owe them a report of what happened. I'll be back soon, I promise."

With that, Harry disappeared with a pop and reappeared a second later in front of the Civic Center.

Or what used to be the Civic Center. What started as a barn now appeared to be a four-story brick building in the neoclassical style with fluted columns and slate tile on the roof. The door swung open and a wide-eyed Teddy Lupin rushed out.

"Oh thank Merlin!" Teddy said. "You'd better get inside. People are going nuts. Do you know what's happening?"

Harry sighed. I hate it when I'm right. "Yeah. Let's go."

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

"Are you nervous?" Luke asked, nervously.

Leia tried not to laugh at her brother. "A little, but not too badly so."

Obi-Wan said nothing as he walked ahead of them. He'd stripped his thermal uniform off on the shuttle and once more donned his Jedi robes as he led them toward the spacious training ground. The three could see people moving on the obstacles, and from the way they moved Leia could tell that they were Jedi.

"I thought we were the last," she said.

"Did Harry say anything about Yoda training anyone else?" Luke asked.

"I imagine Harry was otherwise occupied," Obi-Wan said with much-appreciated tact, though Leia blushed anyway at Luke's glance.

Crossing the ward line made their skin tingle as they felt the oddly arrayed Force energy that kept out any creatures that intended the occupants harm. The moment they entered, the three Padawans stumbled and went still.

The eldest appeared to be close to their age, but the other two were kids, perhaps ten and eleven each. All three were dressed in tunics and trousers with thin braids in their hair. Padawan braids, Leia realized.

"I see Master Yoda has chosen to continue all the traditions," Obi-Wan noted dryly.

"Time to do so with these I had, yes?"

The thin, high voice came from the domed hut at the back of the facility, but carried easily over the distance borne by the Force itself. The tiny Jedi Master emerged clutching his cane and moving slowly as they arrived. "Good to see you it is, Obi-Wan. Well you look."

"And you, Master. May I present my Padawans, Luke Skywalker and his sister, Leia Skywalker Organa?"

"Hmm."

Leia felt more than just the Jedi's eyes on her. She felt a powerful, coldly brilliant mind touch hers. Instinctively she shied away from the touch because it reminded her so much of Vader's mental assaults.

"Harm you I will not, Leia Skywalker Organa," Yoda said. "Hurt you, your father did. Unfortunate that he found you, it is."

Leia bit down a retort. The issue of how the twins were raised was still a sore point, and she and Luke had spent more than one evening speculating how things would have been different if their birth father realized that they lived, and that for a time their mother had as well. Would he still have continued to serve Palpatine? She also knew from Obi-Wan that Yoda did not change, ever. The fact that he was training new Padawans as if he were back in the Jedi Temple and not a refugee in an alien society was eloquent evidence of that.

"New Padawans I have found," Yoda said. "Born without magic, these three were. But the Force they have. All wizards born without magic, potential Jedi are."

"Tim Jacobs," the eldest introduced himself with a nod. "This is Pete Whitehall, and the squirt is Carrie Ross."

Leia smiled at the two children and noticed the unconscious way Carrie shied behind Peter. There was a haunted look in her eyes. "It's an honour to meet you," Leia said.

"Going to Adega you are?" Yoda asked.

"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan said. "Though I've not had them long, I feel they are ready to make their own sabers. They are knights."

"Hmmm, for me to say, that is, Obi-Wan. We shall see if knights they are."

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

The people of Avalon left the expanded Wizenmeet courtroom in a flurry of worried, excited whispers. Despite Harry's own very deep misgivings, he put on his most confident mask and assured everyone that the Imperials could not actually see or physically interact with the planet at all. Harry pointed this out by the fact that there were not hundreds of thousands of Stormtroopers sweeping through the colony, or mushroom clouds rising above the horizon.

The fact that the ion blasts had ceased helped allay their immediate fears as well, but Harry knew everyone was still nervous. Once everyone was out, he turned to face the six members of the Wizenmeet, and the Prime Minister of the colony. Rosmerta had her lips pursed tight, an expression he remembered during some of the more difficult times she faced.

One of the two newest members of the council smiled sadly at him. "You lied very well, 'Arry," Fleur Delacour said. "Perhaps now it is just us, you can tell us the truth?"

"I thought we were buggered," Harry admitted tiredly. "The Emperor has taken a special interest in us for the same reason Master Yoda has. The galaxy has never seen people able to use the Force like us—as magic. And the fact there was a whole race of us has just made his interest more intense. I don't think he wants to kill us, not outright, but he does want to crack the Fidelius. I'm sure he's going to keep trying."

"They've already done it once," Jorge pointed out. "I cannot express to you, General, the fear our people felt when your injured crew members returned without you. The idea that this Empire was able to find a ship within the Fidelius charm shook us all. It is only our faith in this charm which has allowed us to look forward as a people. That faith has been deeply shaken."

Dejectedly, Harry nodded. "I know, Jorge. Merlin, I know. It shook my faith too. The bastards shot thirty kids just to make a point, not to mention slaughtering the Wookiees on board."

At this, Quagga, the Wookiee Elder who sat on the Wizenmeet as an allied sentient, growled to express his deep rage and sadness at the loss. It made Harry feel even worse. "They shot Akallaah before my eyes," Harry told the Wookiee Councillor. "I killed the troopers who shot him, and the Imperial leader, Thrawn, said three of my people would die for every trooper I killed. Those conscripts were the ones he chose. I'm sorry I couldn't do more, my friend."

Before the leaders of the colony, some he'd known for years and others he respected, Harry did not try to hide his rage and frustration. "The truth is that this Empire is vastly powerful, and there just aren't enough of us to fight it. Moreover, though we have magic, the technology of the greater galaxy is so fantastic and so advanced that we can't trust in magic alone like we have in the past."

Quagga began a series of growls, grunts and howls that Harry understood perfectly, but the others would need to wait until the translation. Charlie, not being a politician, did not give a word-for-word translation. He captured the intent perfectly, though. "Quagga pointed out that throughout history there have been examples of technology enhanced by the Force. He said during the Clone Wars which led to the formation of the Empire, there was an Ion Cannon built that was augmented by Force Crystals, and that it was powerful enough that it could actually destroy physical matter, even whole planets."

Harry's stomach clenched. "What happened to it?"

Quagga's answer made him relax a little. Before Charlie could translate, Harry did so. "It was destroyed, along with its creator and all information related to it. Quagga just brought it up as an example. I think he's suggesting technomancy."

"We've never had much luck with that," Councillor Melo said, a professor herself. "Magic disrupts electricity so badly that the only thing we could do was to try and recreate the entire processing using magic as the power source. But the chaotic nature of magic made some things untenable. The American Department of Magic and IBM formed a joint think-tank that worked for forty years to build a magical computer, and were never able to do it. No matter what program they tried to run, the output was always 42."

Growls, grunts, snarls. "Quagga makes a good point," Harry said. "The Empire does not use simple electricity as we know it. . Think about it—I put the Fidelius charms on three space ships and a whole squadron of Y-wings so far. None of them showed any ill effects from a charm which, according to those who knew, forced my parents to do without any type of electronics during their seclusion."

"Something to think about, anyway," Bartleby said. "We have several things here that our Wookiee friends have tinkered with. Maybe we can put our heads together, now that we're not in danger of starving to death."

"I saw the fields," Harry said.

"Magic is a wonderful thing when it works," Jorge said. "Councillor Carvalho's efforts have been very successful, which is good because winter is fast approaching. As things stand, we believe we have sufficient food stores to get through winter. Now that housing demands have eased somewhat, we are going to be building greenhouses for magical crops and more secure food storage areas. We hope to begin harvesting potions ingredients soon. This is good, because we are expecting three hundred new births in the coming months."

The number staggered Harry. "So many?"

"People were very happy to get here," Rosmerta said with a smirk.

Harry sighed, thinking of his own kids. James had his eyes on one of Neville's daughters, he knew, back before they all died. Would Harry be a grandfather if the world had not ended? "The best hope we have is in helping the Rebellion," Harry finally said. "Just the fifty or so volunteers made a huge difference to them when they evacuated their base on Hoth. Their leadership knew there was no way they would win in a pitched battle, and so they bled the Empire dearly during the retreat. It was bloody well impressive, I'll tell you. I think in addition to whatever thoughts we could give to Quagga's idea of technomagery, we should also start training a militia. If I can get someone to help, I will. It might be a good outlet for some of the more hot-headed late teens we pulled from America and Australia."

"How many?" Rosmerta asked. Harry could see her thoughts churning over numbers. Considering how small their population was, he understood her concerns.

"No more than two hundred," Harry said. "I can write up some training guidelines and goals to help before I leave again."

"Where will you go this time?" Fleur asked.

"Well, you see, I arrived with three Jedi. Two of them need to make their laser swords, and it takes a special crystal. I'm going with them. Who knows, maybe I can find some of these Force crystals Quagga mentioned. One of the Jedi is also an Alliance General and a veteran of the Clone Wars. He can help me draft those training guidelines. When I return again, it'll be with weapons and trainers so that our people will be dangerous both with our weapons, and the weapons of our enemies."

Eventually Rosmerta adjourned the meeting. The one thing he appreciated about the new prime minister was her utter hatred for meetings. This didn't mean that she avoided them; rather she ran them quickly, efficiently, and with a minimum of fuss so they could all get out as soon as possible.

Fleur and Rosmerta then joined Harry in Apparating to Yoda's fledgling Jedi training area to meet the new arrivals officially. When they arrived, Harry was able to get his first look at a Jedi in action.

Leia was sparring with Tim Jacobs. Her saber was a lighter blue than the one Tim used, but it was obvious the blades were of similar make and nature. What was amazing to Harry, though, was how they moved. Leia flowed like water, bending in ways he just couldn't wrap his mind around. She was so fast that at times she literally blurred with speed. Tim, Harry had seen, could also move fast. But as well as Yoda had done with Tim in the past few months, it was obvious that Obi-Wan had done more with Leia.

Tim knew it, too. Eventually, Yoda had to acknowledge the fact as well. "Enough," the Jedi master called. "Well you did, Padawan."

Tim deactivated his blade, and then lifted both hands over his head to suck in more air. "Master Yoda says you've only been training a little longer than I have. How'd you get so good?"

"A Skywalker she is," Yoda said before Leia could come up with a suitably polite response. "Powerful in the Force is the Skywalker line. Potter, a partner Luke needs. Let us see if deserving a lightsaber you are."

Leia tossed her saber up and Harry summoned it to his hand as he walked onto the grounds. "You okay?"

"Fine," she said. "Be good, he's grading us."

Luke, meanwhile, took back the saber from Tim, since evidently there were only two working lightsabers on the planet. "Okay, this is my first real laser sword fight," Harry said to the younger man. "Try not to cut my arm off or anything."

"I'll try not to…"

"Because believe me, it hurts like hell getting it magicked back on. You won't believe the crap I went through with Maria when I accidently sucked her arm out into space. We could have had it reattached and fully functioning in an hour. And…"

Mid-word, Harry threw Luke off his feet with a banisher. He told himself he wasn't going to use any magic that could not be countered or simulated by the Force. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to fight like Alastor taught him all those years ago.

Luke somersaulted mid-air and landed on his feet, his normally happy expression stricken with consternation at Harry's unexpected attack. He responded with a powerful blast of kinetic Force energy that would have knocked Harry clear of the circle entirely if he hadn't shielded.

Okay, no low blows with a Skywalker. Luke blurred forward, sword spinning so fast Harry had no choice but to drop his Occlumency shields and let the Force pour in and take over. The problem as always was that Harry had difficulty surrendering entirely to the Force like Luke or Leia could. He knew it was a weakness of his being a wizard first and a Jedi second. Even so, he had to know if he could go toe-to-toe with a Force-strong duellist.

The answer was yes, for about three minutes. And even during those three minutes, Harry knew of at least twelve occasions when Luke could have easily killed him but chose not to. Finally Yoda called, "Enough."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath. "Skywalkers, indeed. You good, Luke?"

Luke, no longer flustered over Harry's dirty start, grinned and shrugged. According to Leia, the boy absolutely adored dueling.

"Now, Potter, do not hold back," Yoda said.

Harry and Luke both blinked. "What?" Harry asked.

"Asked, you did, if you could fight Sith. The Skywalkers are powerful, more than most Sith. If a challenge you seek, one you have. Fight Leia you cannot, such is obvious. So the brother you will duel. Hold no power back, save to permanently harm."

Harry looked at his lover's brother. "Are you okay with that?"

Rather than appear apprehensive, Luke looked curious and excited. "Just don't do anything you can't fix later."

"No promises," Harry said, also grinning.

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Author's Note: Once again I just wish to stress just how much I appreciate Teufel1987, JR and Miles for beta reading yet another of my stories. As always, they make everything better.