Lost and Longing.

Harry glanced at her, and Aayla noticed his eyebrow rise, but he didn't comment further at Ahsoka's actions.

"We're being hailed." Ahsoka stated as a light began flashing on the console.

"Well? We wouldn't want to ignore them would we? That might be rude." Harry said and, to Ahsoka's relief and horror, for the first time since he'd left to begin stealing ships, his voice slipped into one of amusement. She felt relief that he was finally coming down from the anger at finding those abused women, and horror that he decided to do it when about to be shot by possibly two of the most dangerous bounty hunters alive in the galaxy.

Ahsoka hesitated only a moment more, as she realized exactly what he had said, as she had been listening more to the tone of it. She snorted at the idea of Harry caring about being rude, before she nodded and flicked the switch on the board. Immediately, a voice came over the comms. A deep and rumbling voice entered the cockpit, practically screaming at them, "-ll we want is the Jedi! Turn her over to us and we may let you live. Don't, and be destroyed."

"Well, that's certainly a tempting offer. But we're just gonna have to pass. She's very happy where she's at. She obviously gets to have much more intelligent conversations, excellent food, not to mention my large stock of high quality lubricant and wide assortment of sonic vibrating tools," Harry said brightly, responding to the hail.

"Harry!" Ahsoka hissed in indignation as she shot him a glare and absently swatted his shoulder.

Aayla just stared in shocked silence.

He just winked at her in response. Though as he flicked the switch he noticed the light had begun to flash again signaling another incoming message. He flicked the switch again to open the channel. A second voice filled the cockpit, in contrast to the first voice it wasn't screaming. It was accented and slightly raspy as it spoke calmly.

"Outbound freighter Gr-eye-findor,"

Harry winced slightly at the butchering of the pronunciation, but the voice continued. "You will come to a complete halt, power down all engines, shields and weapons, and prepare to turn over the former Jedi. Failure to do so will result in complete destruction of your ship after I have removed the bounty."

Ahsoka had gone rigid in the co-pilot's seat and hissed out, "That's him. That's Cad Bane."

"Oh, well then. We shouldn't leave him waiting," Harry chuckled and flicked a switch to open the channel. "It's pronounced Griff-in-dor!" There was hesitation on the channel then the eloquent reply came back from Cad Bane. "What?"

"My ship's name, it's Gryffindor. Pronounced 'if', not 'eye'." Harry replied sounding indignant. Then he smiled, as if remembering a half-forgotten memory, "Honestly, can't you read."

There was a brief hesitation, "I do not care how to say your ship's name." Cad Bane's voice came back. "All I care about is the bounty. So halt your ship before I-"

"I just think it's a rather important thing." Harry said, sounding indignant as he interrupted the spiel. "Look, if you're going to go around threatening to blow a ship up, especially one that looks as awesome as this one, you should at least have the courtesy to get the name right."

There was a full five seconds pause as the person seemed to process that. "This is Cad Bane. Halt now, or your refusal shall result in the complete destruction of your ship." The voice said harshly, more than a little bit of irritation to it.

Harry rolled his eyes. "You already used that threat, Mr. Bane. You should try and be more creative. 'result in complete destruction of your ship' I mean really? I'd ask who writes your material but it's painfully obvious you need some lessons. Though I can hardly say I'm surprised. Bounty hunters these days, what is the galaxy coming to? So droll and uninspired." "I mean you could have said things about spacing me, about a slow death, about hunting down anyone I cared about. But nooo. You went with 'result in complete destruction of your ship.' Makes you sound like a droid." Harry hadn't slowed the ship at all, nor had he stopped talking to the bounty hunter.

"Oooh. You could totally have a droid designation. How does I-2-DUM sound?" Harry asked sounding earnest.

There was no reply on the com, instead the sound of turbolasers hitting the shield from glancing shots across the bow was the only response.

"Well fine, see if I ever try and help again. Arse." Harry replied and cut off the channel with a flick of a switch and continued to make minute adjustments to his course, as if they hadn't just received death threats from the bounty hunters and been shot with a black market enhanced turbolaser.

Both Ahsoka and Aayla were watching him wide-eyed. Ahsoka quickly turned back to her controls though Aayla kept staring, wondering if he indeed was utterly insane. Taunting Cad Bane was never a recipe for success, and Harry seemed utterly uncaring.

The ship was rocked by more turbolaser blasts, but Harry just kept flying in the direction of the outbound beacon they were headed towards to line up with the appropriate hyperspace vector they needed. He didn't make any attempt to change course, and seemed to ignore the shots being fired. Instead he seemed to be humming a little tune to himself. Ahsoka spoke up after about twenty seconds, a little bit of panic in her voice "Harry? Shields are at less than fifty percent. Shouldn't you be making some evasive maneuvers?"

"Nah, It's a waste of time and fuel." Harry replied nonchalantly.

"Our shields are about to go down! They've lined up near perfect kill shots on our engine and reactor, and once the shields go down we'll be sitting ducks! You need to do something." Ahsoka insisted as another blast rocked the ship

"Shields down to fifteen percent. One more volley like that and they'll be gone. Your shields suck. Seriously… you have the worst shields ever." She said echoing his statements from the day they met about her lying skill.

Harry nodded in acknowledgement of the statement, but seemed unconcerned and didn't change what he was doing in the slightest.

"Harry, if you're not going to evade them, please let me take over flying from this station." Ahsoka was trying to keep her voice calm, but it came out in a plea. Ahsoka was an excellent pilot, and her instincts had only gotten better while travelling with Skywalker.

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