Lost and Longing.

Aayla herself was good as well, and had logged some of the highest total hours amongst all Jedi in her starfighter during the war, she was also now certain that she was traveling with someone who was completely insane. She looked at her navigation console hoping they were close to jumping to hyperspace. Her heart fell when she saw the computer was still finishing up hyperspace calculations and still a good two minutes from being outside the moon's gravity well.

Harry finally relented with a sigh as he transferred control to Ahsoka, "Don't know what you're so worried about." He leaned back in his chair, reaching out to stroke Hedwig's feathers.

Ahsoka began evasive maneuvers without missing a beat. She spun the craft and began to spiral it in the same direction they had been traveling while no longer on the straight line course. Her maneuvers paid off as the next volley passed by the cockpit window harmlessly. Twenty seconds later, as Aayla announced the navicomputer had a course plotted, another massive broadside was delivered when Ahsoka swerved the ship a bit late. "Shields down below five percent. One more hit and we're done for!" Ahsoka's voice held a slight tinge of panic in it.

"If you say so," Harry said nonchalantly. He saw Ahsoka shoot a glare at him, so he grinned at her, "Hey Blue, how long until we're at the proper point for transition to hyperspace?"

"Another minute more, we're barely out of Nal Hutta's gravity field," Aayla ground out ignoring the nickname that he had apparently stuck to her. She decided that on the off chance that they survived she would take it up with him then. Ahsoka gasped out trying to jerk the ship up to avoid a strike, but knowing it was going to be too late and the shields weren't going to hold, "Brace yourself!" The ship rocked again as it took another hit. But … otherwise nothing happened.

Ahsoka frowned, and glanced at the shields to see if they had held, but the shields read as completely down. Her shock caused her to completely miss the next wave as the ship once more rocked from the impact of turbolasers.

"Why aren't we dead?" sputtered Ahsoka.

"Oh, you say something?" Harry asked, a flip of the switch transferring control of flight back to his side as he took control of his ship once more. "We're good for the conversion to Hyperspace now, Harry," shouted Aayla, sounding like she expected to be finished off any second.

Harry unhurriedly pulled back on levers in the center of the console and the ship shot forward, the stars turning to streaks as they jumped to hyperspace.

Harry sat back in his seat and shook his head, before either of companions could say anything he called out. "Dobby."

"Yes, Master Harry Potter sir?" The house elf asked, suddenly appearing in the seat between Harry and Ahsoka.

"Was anything knocked around during that?" Harry asked. "No, no damage, Master replied.

Harry."

Dobby

"Good, I forgot to ask, but we'll need to check the hull, and make sure that nothing was attached while those hunters were mucking around earlier when we were on the ground. I don't want to be tracked." Harry said as a thought occurred to him.

"Dobby already be doing that before we took off Master Harry Potter. Removed three things bad men attached." Dobby replied proudly.

"Good job." Harry said, and the house elf seemed to quiver with pride and swelled up before disappearing with a pop.

Ahsoka had turned to him and the instant Dobby disappeared she got the first word in. "Okay, tell me what I missed. I didn't even feel you do anything that time."

Harry grinned at her, clearly pleased that she worked out he had done something with Magic even if she didn't know what.

Aayla spoke up, her voice more of a demand. "That was incredibly reckless … we could have died! What was with your complete lack of caring that we were being fired upon?"

Harry grinned at her impishly. "Magic Blue, simply magic."

"Harry!" Ahsoka said with an exasperated sigh, her curiosity shining clearly on her face. Harry's expression turned more serious and he stared at them both contemplatively. Ahsoka had learned to recognize that this was his way of deciding whether to show something or more often it was generally trying to determine how to go about doing so. Though his eyes flicked to Aayla more than once, and Ahsoka realized that he might be more hesitant to show her with Aayla in the room.

He eventually nodded, and held up a finger to tell them to wait, before he turned back to his console, set the autopilot, and keyed the last systems in that would warn of any disturbances detected in hyperspace.

"Come with me," he finally said, his voice once more cheerful as he stood up. He walked past them and out of the cockpit, humming a tune, and seemingly uncaring of the fact that Hedwig had remained perched on his shoulder. The bird for her part seemed completely at ease with her now mobile perch.

Aayla glanced at Ahsoka, at the sudden whiplash of his emotions and couldn't stop herself from asking, "Is he always like this?"

Ahsoka grimaced as her eyes followed Harry's retreating form, "Usually he's worse, at least he's not skipping this time."

A voice suddenly shouted after them from the cargo hold, "I told you I was not skipping! I frolicked!"

They caught up to him as he was re-entering the cargo hold. Aayla looked around as they entered, once more reminded of Harry's display of Force use earlier. The inside of this cargo hold was now bigger than the ship itself and her mind still struggled to wrap around it. Her senses felt the slight hum of the Force around them, but couldn't pinpoint any area of specific origin.

As she pondered this, Harry absently summoned a piece of debris that was a long pipe nearly as tall as he was from the corner of the hold. The white bird took that as her signal to fly from Harry's shoulder and head back toward the cockpit.

He moved a fair distance away from all of the sleeping former slaves in the hold. He turned to look at both of them. "Blue, could I use you for a demonstration? You have your light sword, right?"

Aayla looked puzzled and nodded hesitantly. She unclipped one from her belt and held it in her hand, she didn't really want to turn over her lightsaber to the man. She had a second one on her leg for use, but wasn't keen on giving up her weapon, even if she wasn't getting dangerous vibes from Harry. "Yes, I have my lightsaber..." she said emphasizing the name.

"Sword, saber, whatever." Harry said with a smirk on his face. He was enjoying winding her up and irritating the Jedi Master. "Do me a favor, cut through this pipe would you?"

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