Chapter Thirty-One: The Quick and the Dead

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

A/N: Chap 30 review responses are in my forums as normal. Thanks to everyone for reading.

Chapter Thirty-One: The Quick and the Dead

Leia dreamed in lucid colour.

In her dream, she heard the sounds of heavy boots on a hard, unrelenting floor and the swish of an armour-weave cloak hanging heavily against the air. Darth Vader moved through the halls of power on Imperial Centre like a great black destroyer amidst the many skiffs of inferiors and courtiers.

Eyes watched him—eyes at once fearful, envious and hostile. He was not well loved by the court, nor did he love being there. He was, first and foremost, a military man. His master's political games tested his patience beyond tolerance.

However, today was not a day for political games. He stopped before the Emperor's personal audience chamber, faced by two crimson guards that he himself helped train. It would be such an easy matter for him to kill them as they barred his passage, but he knew doing so would carry a terrible price. They, like Vader himself, lived solely to execute his master's will.

After waiting in unmoving silence for almost an hour, the Imperial Guards raised their Force pikes from his passage. He strolled forward and the door opened.

The Emperor sat in his throne, while behind him a vast transparisteel canopy revealed the many-splendored glory of Imperial Centre. The sun was just then setting, casting the throne room in brilliant hues of red and orange, while cloaking the emperor in silhouette and shadow. It was, Vader knew, the old man's intent and the reason why he was delayed outside, so that the colour and shadow was to the Emperor's liking. It was little things like that which made the Emperor both so powerful, and so profoundly petty.

He stopped at ten paces and knelt down on one knee. He barely felt the floor through his aging prosthetics.

"Lord Vader," the Emperor said. "I received reports that you were injured. Are you well, now?"

"I am recovered, My Master," Vader lied. The explosion of a proton torpedo inside the considerable armour of the Executor caused a devastating amount of damage, killing over two-thousand of Vader's crew and injuring the Dark Lord himself severely.

"Have you ascertained what happened?"

Vader lowered his helmet. "There was a spy aboard the ship—a Dr Divini, who previously served on the Death Star. I learned only after the fact that the ISB, Imperial Intelligence and the Inquisitorius were all investigating him for possible treason and ties to the Alliance, but none of the agencies communicated with each other or me about their suspicions. I have since discussed the matter with their various former commanders. Additionally, I believe one of the magician's kind transported onto the ship during our scheduled stop, and it was this same method by which they escaped. The graviton generator proposed by Grand Admiral Thrawn worked, but was not sufficient in and of itself to prevent treachery from within."

"In other words, you failed."

There was no arguing, nor blame to shift. "Yes, My Master."

"And yet I sense you are angry at me, Lord Vader."

Head still bowed, Vader said, "You told me she died. You told me I killed her."

The Emperor leaned forward, his yellow-orange eyes blazing like spotlights. "You think differently, Lord Vader?"

"The children of Anakin Skywalker live. Obi-Wan was training them both. The Force is strong with them."

"And so the final treachery of the Jedi is revealed," the Emperor said grimly. "I kept nothing from you, my old friend. Master Yoda must have clouded both our visions from the truth. Do you not think I would have told you, if it meant having the children of Anakin Skywalker join our Empire?"

Vader said nothing, head bowed.

"And now you wish to seek them out."

"Yes, My Master. They could be powerful allies if turned."

"Perhaps," the Emperor said. "Which of the two was stronger?"

"The boy, My Master. The girl had good form and a strong connection to the Force, but the boy blazed."

"Then he shall be the one you seek to turn," the Emperor said. "Kill the girl."

Vader went very still. "Master?"

"There can be only one master, and one apprentice. The most ancient Rule of the Sith will not be broken. I am old; I know I shan't live forever. It is the way of the Sith that only the strongest are chosen. So, take the boy, eliminate the girl, and we shall show the son of Skywalker the true power of the Force."

And you shall suffer your punishment for questioning me. It was not said aloud, but neither man needed to hear the words to know their truth. "It shall be done, My Master."

"Go, then. Attend to your duties and injuries."

"Yes, My Master."

Vader stood, ignoring the pain that thrummed through his spine at the effort to do so, and left the private audience chamber. He walked without stopping, ignoring the still fawning or hostile courtiers, until he reached the transport that would take him back to his ship.

Once there, he ignored his command staff and everyone else until he came to his quarters. He climbed into his meditation chamber and listened as the air hissed with oxygen. Only then did the helmet come off to reveal the scarred, pale face of what used to be.

Blue eyes ringed in orange glistened in the privacy of the chamber. He simply sat and stared into the distance, with unshed tears in his eyes.

The dream, however, did not end. In his throne room, alone, the Emperor sat upon his swivelling seat and stared seemingly right at her, orange eyes alit with an inner glow. "We both know the truth, child, do we not?" the Emperor said, somehow speaking to her through her dream. "Luke Skywalker may be the greater Jedi, but you, child, are no longer just a Jedi. Soon, child, you will belong to me. Lord Vader will fail in his task, as he always does. But you, child, you will be mine."

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

Leia woke suddenly with tears in her own eyes. For a moment, the sterile white of the meditation chamber overlaid the dark interior of Harry's bedroom, until it too faded away. Instead of her scarred, broken father, she saw Harry sleeping with a slight frown on his face.

"Would you ever turn to the Dark Side to try and protect those you love?" she whispered.

"No, he wouldn't."

Leia looked up and almost screamed when she saw another woman standing on the opposite side of the bed, near Harry. She was a taller woman, with red hair that hung down about her shoulders. Her face was long and oval and streaked with freckles. From the wrinkles at her eyes and neck, Leia guessed the woman was in her forties, and yet she was still very beautiful. However, she also appeared faded, somehow, as if she were only half there or like an older-style hologram.

"Are you…are you Ginny?"

The shade nodded. "You called me."

"Me, but I…"

"You're like he is, now," Ginny said softly. "I wanted to be like him too, so much. I wanted to live the rest of eternity by his side. He was the only man I ever truly loved or desired. He was my best friend, my greatest cheerleader and best partner. I'm glad I died; I couldn't stand to lose him first."

Leia looked back down at the sleeping, frowning Harry. "I don't know what to do," Leia admitted, for the first time both to herself and to the world at large. "Am I a Jedi? Am I a witch? With Obi-Wan gone, who will teach future Jedi? Luke is more powerful, but he does not know any more than I do. The Alliance needs me as well. And my biological father is…"

"The dead have no advice to give you," Ginny said. "We see only our past, not the future. It is because of the past that I know Harry will never become a monster, any more than he could ever love one. If you ever doubt yourself, my sister, then rest assured he will never doubt you."

"Thank you," Leia breathed. "I'll take good care of him. I promise."

"I know."

The ghost of Harry's dead wife faded, and only then did Harry stir. "What? What did you say?"

"Nothing, Harry," Leia whispered gently. "Go back to sleep."

"It's cold," he noted in that drowsy tone of a man not truly awake.

Smiling, she pulled his arms around her body as she curled into him, luxuriating in the male warmth of him. "I'll keep you warm, love," she said.

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

On a lonely mountain top near the equator of Avalon five hours later, Harry and Leia appeared in the air and floated gently down until they landed with barely a flex of the knees. She was clad in tan pants and a heavy sweater, over which she wore her old Hoth thermal jacket. Harry wore similar clothes, since despite being near the equator the mountain was tall enough to be capped in snow.

The air tasted thin and painfully brisk; both of them quickly pulled the breathers from around their necks to cover their mouths. Moments later, the clumping of three giant ward crystals appeared with a pop of displaced air over the mountain top.

Though Leia did not know the mechanics of it, through the Force she could feel when Harry harnessed the power of the crystals to strengthen his own spell casting. The feel of his magic in the Force went from a scalpel to a laser cannon. She managed not to squeak when he levitated her off the rounded stone of the peak. Nor did she make a sound when he literally shaved the peek itself flat, removing tons of stone to create a flat surface roughly the size of his own home.

Though she knew he was working through the crystals, it was still astounding to watch as he broke apart the mountain cap and through magical energies that defied explanation, shaped the now free-floating stone into pillars which he used to form a perfect circle on the now flat top of the mountain, a circle capped with large, shaped stones. He then formed a depression in the centre of the circle, vanishing the rock until it was two feet deep and twelve feet in diameter.

Using his bare hands as a guide, he brought the floating crystals into the depression, which did little more than frame the lower quarter of them. When he was done, he sank to one knee and took a deep breath. "Damn, that's tiring."

"You just made a temple in ten minutes," Leia pointed out. "I know that would tire me out."

Harry chuckled a little. "I'm not done. Down there, you think?"

He pointed to a lower point on the mountain that formed a secondary peak along a narrow ridge that climbed sharply to the temple proper. "Can I help this time?" Leia asked.

He nodded and held out a hand. "Sense what I do," he said. "This was a spell that helped the Dark Lord Voldemort terrify my country. It also revolutionized the Keeper position in Quidditch."

With their hands joined, she had a momentary sense of disorientation before she found herself in his mind, feeling the huge core of power within his chest as if it were her own. She saw how his mind pulled on that power and shaped it with words and intent in his mind, even if he did not speak them aloud.

Then the power filled them both. At their will, they lifted off the peak and flew through the biting air, hand-in-hand, toward the secondary peak. "Amazing!" she called, grinning despite herself.

Harry nodded back, smiling himself with delight. "Okay, same thing."

This time, she sensed how he mentally reached back for the blazing power of the ward stones and funnelled some of that energy through his magical pathways. Because of her hand in his, and her mind linked with his, she did the same. However, she let his mind shape the power since she did not know the spells herself.

Instead of cutting the top of the secondary peak off, Harry shaped the stone using permanent transfiguration much like the colony did to make their emergency housing, only Harry did so on a grander scale. The rock shaped itself into a large square building, and at his guidance it rounded into a dome at the top, leaving several narrow windows to let in light.

He then cast more power at the ridge between the two magically created structures, and the magic shaped the stone there into stairs with stone rails. Inside the new domed structure, he once again banished a depression in the middle of the floor, but instead of crystals he conjured a massive blue flame.

Only then did he end their flying spells.

She was still holding his hand and so could feel through the touch his exhaustion—she was tired herself. However, she led him to a corner that was out of the way of the breeze. He conjured a loveseat to keep them off the warmth-stealing ground and both sat down.

Once they rested a moment, Harry dug the parchment out of his pocket. The parchment was filled with strange combinations of numbers and sigils she could not recognize. "Is this what they taught at that school of yours?"

"The basics, yeah, but only the smart ones learned it," Harry said. "I didn't start to learn anything until I was a grown man. But this—this is the work of a master arithmancer. Most of this is completely beyond me, but I do understand what it does. Arithmancy once was just another divination method, but over the centuries it became the mathematical expression of magic itself, or at least as much as we can understand magic. When we want magic to do a specific function, we have to develop a set of instructions not for our magic, but for our minds which will shape the magic. And that's what this does."

"Do you think I could learn it?"

Harry regarded her intently for a moment before grinning. "Yeah, probably a lot faster than I did."

The buzzing of a mirror interrupted their conversation. Harry pulled the mirror from his coat pocket and saw the face of General Vernan. "General Potter."

"General Vernan."

"Someone would like to have a word with you and Princess Leia," the General said.

A moment later, a new face occupied the mirror—a woman in her late forties with almond-brown hair and gentle features. "Mon Mothma!" Leia said.

"Hello, Leia," the head of the Rebel Alliance said in an archly cultured voice. "And General Potter. I wanted to talk to you both to see when I would get my best assistant back."

Leia chuckled under her breath—she always did like Mon. "It's been very hectic, lately. You know that Master Yoda passed away, leaving three Padawans in need of training. And…and some things have changed as well, personally."

The wise old woman merely nodded. "So I've guessed. I do hope to see you soon, Leia. If for no other reason than I miss having you to talk to. So, business, I suppose. General Potter, the Alliance High Command has reviewed the Avalon Government's offer and agrees to your terms. In anticipation of this decision, General Vernan has been mustering personnel and transports. It has always been an issue that we have far, far more volunteers than hardware. They should be just beyond the blockade within two hours."

"Good, because we're almost ready," Harry said. "Is Commander De La Rosa with them?"

"She is."

"Excellent."

"When you are done, General, we would like to ask you, Commander Skywalker and Princess Leia to return to the fleet. There are important matters we need to discuss."

"We'll do it," Harry promised.

"Thank you. We will talk soon."

When the connection ended, Harry took a deep breath and looked at Leia. "Are you ready?"

"Not even remotely," she said, smiling. Harry stood, took her hand, and with a mere thought the two were back at the bitterly cold, newly crafted ward temple. The war crystals continued to float there, indifferent to time or cold.

She felt it the moment he allowed his mental barriers to drop, because with the opening she could feel emotions flowing through their Force bond. Not being a Jedi, he never learned how to modulate emotional signals. He only had an 'On' and 'Off' setting. Now he was on, and the intensity of his feelings when he looked at her made her blush.

"I'll shape the ritual, but I'll need your power and ward keys joined with mine."

There was nothing to say. She smiled and took his hand in her own. They then both faced the crystal as Harry began to move and chant with Leia by his side. In many ways, it felt like a dance as he swirled her about. But it was a dance that had to be so carefully choreographed they practiced it for three straight days, until she could almost do it in her sleep.

As they moved, Harry's fingers traced patterns in the air that left blazing trails, circling them in a wall of written magic around the crystal wards. It was at once terrifying and magnificent, and left her in awe for what his people could do. Yoda and Obi-Wan were wrong to condemn any people capable of such feats of magic.

What she was witnessing was magical code—instructions for what they wanted the ward stones to do. It was as intricate and incredible as anything she had seen in droid brain structuring, and she began to understand why Lady Sofia insisted on simplicity. The walls of magic grew higher with code—she couldn't imagine what something complex would look like.

All the while, she felt Harry pulling on her own power—her magic. She couldn't deny any more the feeling in the centre of her chest that did not exist before Adega. Now, it burned hot with the touch of his power, filling her almost as much as if they were making love. In fact, she couldn't deny the sensual arousal from the pulling of her magic by the man she loved.

And still they danced, until after almost an hour and a half, they finished it. Harry stopped, and Leia curled into his side, as the two observed the cylinder of magic code that now rose higher even than the ward crystals. Carefully, they each lowered themselves onto their stomachs against the freezing stone and scooted under the lowest edge of the floating magical construct to keep from touching it, and then backed out of the walls of magic.

He then pulled out not the mirror he used to talk to the Alliance, but a second hand-mirror. "Lady Sofia, are you there?"

The old witch's answer was immediate. "Show me," she said.

And so Harry showed her, moving the mirror carefully over every single inch of the twelve-foot high cylinder of magic, even levitating himself where he needed to. Several times he stopped and went back at Lady Sofia's insistence, only to continue forward again. Only when he was done showing her every single symbol did the witch said, "It is done. You did well."

"Thank you, your work was invaluable. How long will it take to enact?"

"Not long. Make sure you are at least one hundred feet below where you begin the procedure."

"Already done."

"Very well. Good luck, Mr. Potter. To all of us."

The mirror became just a mirror again and Harry placed it in his pocket. He then turned to Leia, and to her intense pleasure kissed her. But more than that, he kept his barriers down so she could feel the heat radiating from him—the intensity of need and desire and utter love that left her gasping. She did not even have to speak her agreement before they two popped back to their stone home, casting warming charms and conjuring a bed, and christened the new mountain top in the name of Potter.

While the two made love, the cylinder began to contract toward the crystals, each symbol blending into the other until the cylinder became a solid surface of flaming magic. The moment it touched the ward crystals, the three crystals themselves exploded outward in a ball of pure white magic that shot out from the top of the mountain in a perfect sphere moving faster than light itself.

The magic washed over Harry as he strained and moaned with completion, and filled Leia as much as Harry's seed did. The magic passed through the colony of Avalon not even one second later despite it being on the opposite side of the planet, and made every magical and Force-sensitive pause in wonder.

~~Revenge~~

~~Revenge~~

The first ship to be hit was the ISS Ostinger, an Interdictor-class star destroyer that had seen ten years of service with the Empire. Built on the hull of an Imperial-I destroyer, the ship was easily a thousand meters longer than the more well-known, task-specific Immobilizer-418 cruiser. Despite losing half of its turbolaser, ion cannon and tractor beam placements to make room for the gravity well projectors, the Ostinger remained a star destroyer, with all the lethality that implied.

Second shift duty officer Lieutenant Commander Holas Chitter stifled a yawn as he walked across the command deck, looking down at his crew as they continued the agonizingly boring task of watching a planet they could not see. Despite the boredom of the assignment, everyone knew it was dangerous. Admiral Thrawn himself assured them of it, and having lost ships trying to guard the invisible planet, they knew it was an active area.

"Commander, sir, look!"

Chitter turned to where the ensign pointed, and felt his stomach clench as he saw a ball of white light expanding quickly toward them. "What is it?"

"It's not showing up on sensors at all, sir!" another crewman reported in a panic. "It's like it's not there!"

Before he could speak, the white ball had expanded to their ship. Holas Chitter, aged thirty-nine from Corulag, son of Dant and Eleba Chitter, brother to Leban, husband to Aladele and father of Ditta, Chorl and Filit, felt something grab him from his navel and jerk him into motion.

A split second later, he was surrounded by a cold so profound it burned his skin and boiled his blood. His chest and limbs ballooned out from embolism as bubbles formed throughout his body. He had fourteen seconds of absolute horror and indescribable agony before he passed out, and seventy-five seconds later he died. His death occurred so fast, and in such a shocking fashion, that he never saw the thirty-two thousand other officers, enlisted personnel and specialists who manned his ship as they also died in the empty vacuum of space.

Nor did he see the hundreds of thousands of personnel who were likewise shunted out of their ships by the wave of magic, one after the other. The blockade fleet consisted at that time of ninety-two ships, primary interdictors and immobilizers, with several frigates, carriers and heavy cruisers acting as support and offensive ships. In all, they had fleet personnel of almost a million people.

Only fifteen thousand survived, mostly conscripts or a few rebel sympathizers, spread out amongst every ship and saved solely by their desire not to harm Avalon.

The magic finally reached its apex at the edge of the star system and faded, just as the rebel transports arrived to take possession of their new fleet.

sp

sp

Author's Note: Yes, the magic of the ritual actually made them randy. Think about it. Also, 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.