Lost and Longing.

The normally talkative and verbose Ahsoka didn't seem to pay her any mind, though at the moment that suited Aayla just fine. She needed time to sort out the past few days in her own head.

She had been more than a little bit irritated, not by the assignment itself but by the events leading up to it that necessitated the assignment. Aayla had always liked Ahsoka Tano. She thought the girl had a ton of potential. The only worrying concern about Ahsoka was that the padawan had a tendency to form attachments … much like the concerns occasionally expressed by other Masters in whispers about Skywalker. While that tendency had benefited Ahsoka and others several times, and even Aayla once when the padawan refused to leave her behind, it was still against the code.

Still the fact of the matter was that she really did like Ahsoka. The young Togrutan reminded Aayla of herself in her desire to prove herself. That made what happened even more of a travesty. The padawan had been abandoned by the Council, albeit at the urging of the military establishment so that they could parade her through a big public trial, that was more about show than it was about justice.

Ahsoka had been systematically set up at every turn by a fellow Jedi to take the fall for the bombing, and it could have resulted in her death.

Aayla had reached out to the other Masters, speaking with her closest ally on the council, Master Kit Fisto. He had assured her that the Council was completely behind Ahsoka. They may have grown apart, as he deliberately distanced himself from her so that they didn't violate the Jedi code, but she should have known when the normally good natured Master was so grim and serious that there was something wrong. It was only the Council's reassurance that they were doing everything in their power to help Ahsoka, and that they would get to the bottom of it, that had stopped Aayla from abandoning her post and setting a course for Coruscant.

She had been irate to discover that Skywalker was the only one who had actually done anything and he had only managed that when they were on the verge of announcing their verdict. Aayla had intended to contact Ahsoka shortly afterward to check on the padawan and make sure she was doing all right. However less than twenty-four hours after the revelation of Barriss Offee's betrayal, a council meeting had been convened and reached out to a great many Jedi who were off on missions, including herself. The topic being the padawan who refused re-entry to the Order, and this mysterious Force using bounty hunter who could somehow befuddle the senses of experienced Masters.

She had plenty of time to continue to ponder the man during her trip to Nar Shaddaa and as she waited outside of his ship's docking bay. He had been the sole focus of her meditations aboard her starfighter as she travelled to Nar Shaddaa. The holo projection of him verbally and legally tearing down Master Ki-Adi-Mundi and Master Tre'jin had honestly been extremely amusing to her.

He

had

been

insulting

and

mocking throughout the entire exchange. Whoever this bounty hunter was he was confident and amused by the Jedi more than anything. It was almost a combination of him feeling they were no threat, and that he had originally no intention whatsoever of causing problems for them. He also gave the impression that if they had actually tried to impose their will, he had complete and utter confidence that the two Masters and their Clonetrooper support were no threat to him at all.

Of course the way he mind tricked the two masters was the piece the Council was most concerned about. Someone able to mind trick two masters and several clone troops all at once was definitely someone to be reckoned with. That more than anything had intrigued her.

Then she had met him, and it had been one set of shocks to her system after another. Putting aside his rude reception to her, she hadn't taken long to realize that he hadn't used a mind trick on the two Jedi masters. He had actually… teleported. She would have sworn by everything she knew, that it was impossible.

Of course impossible was a word that she seemed to use a lot over the next few hours.

Not only had he done it right in front of her eyes to himself, but he had done it to others as a whole group of slaves appeared in the docking bay.

Of course, not only did he seem capable of it, but so did his mechanic. Dobby was a species she had never encountered before, though she wondered if his species shared a common ancestor or genetic link to Yoda. Though she noted the little creature definitely seemed subservient to Harry, and happy to be so.

So Ahsoka had fallen in with a Force using bounty hunter who referred to the Force as magic, who had a mechanic who used the Force as well. This mechanic saw nothing wrong with stripping people completely naked as punishment. It was something he had obviously done before as Harry clearly had talked to him about it before.

That Harry, had given Dobby orders that included the caveat that there was to be no killing was both heartening and scary. It was heartening that the man had a moral code, and scary that he seemed to need to give that directive to the little creature. Especially when the tiny being admitted to looking for loopholes in the orders to still cause chaos amongst their enemies.

That didn't even begin to touch the ability to shrink entire spaceships. She had no idea how to characterize that and if she hadn't seen the display where he had expanded the hold of his ship she would have wondered if a prank was being played on her.

On the flip side, he had clearly been angry when he showed up on the ship with the rescued slaves. That sort of anger she could see in his every movement. That sort of anger should radiate from a Force user, but… she couldn't feel anything from him, at all. It was like he didn't exist in the Force.

Then … despite him bluntly and correctly identifying her as a spy, and that there existed the very real possibility that she would turn on him… he allowed her to come on the ship with them.

Now she was left with several conundrums.

Harry hardly seemed the most … stable of people. He all but admitted that he was reckless and emotional. He had no problem getting revenge as shown by going after the bounty hunter's ships. And no… she didn't even want to try and wrap her mind around the idea of shrinking them.

He was crass, and blunt in a way that was unsurprising from a bounty hunter or smuggler, but that crassness didn't stop him from helping a group of slaves.

.

.

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