Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 53 – A Master-Full Trial
Harry and Hermione easily readjusted to Temple life; they had practiced their meditating, lightsaber combat (though limited due to power constraints) and Force techniques while on Knowhere. It was only the formalisation of it they had to readjust to, as well as sleeping inside a proper building; it was surprisingly difficult to readjust to not hearing the wind at night.
Asani had adjusted quite quickly to being around the Temple, the quartet made assumptions that she had some level of intelligence above that of standard animals as she seemed to observe their habits and mimic them; sleeping on the foot of Harry's bed rather than in the pile of linen they had made for her, only begging for food once it was served up not while it was raw or cooking and, strangest of all, using the fresher when she needed to go, none of them could quite work that one out. Thankfully the flush was automatic so no little presents were left for Harry and Aayla when they needed to use it themselves.
She was also popular amongst the younger members of the Order; the younglings enjoyed chasing her around and being chased when they were not studying or in lessons, though a couple of the wilier Masters had the idea that chasing her could be used in the fitness classes; setting her loose amongst the obstacle courses and letting the younglings chase her through and around whatever obstacles the creature decided to negotiate.
The Raven was fully repaired and an APU (Alternative Power Unit) was installed as was a more efficient system for charging (albeit slowly) the power cells from, solar energy, should they land (or crash) on a planet. The hull plates on the upper surface could now be automatically or manually opened to reveal solar panels. In the event of another incident like Knowhere they would at least be able to call for help and power the water recycler as long as there was sunlight. The only two drawbacks of the new systems were that they could not open the plates to expose the solar panels unless they were landed, as the ship was only structurally integral and airtight in space with them closed, and also that although the solar panels could operate the secondary systems they could not provide enough power for the engines, the repulsors, the shields or the weapons. Only the main systems and the APU could power those due to their larger power requirements. The duo also increased the size of the fresh water storage tank as well as working out a way to compress the water then shrunk it magically, meaning that a lot more could be stored on board.
As part of their readjustment, repairs and upgrades the pair began working on their animagus forms; Harry's mainly revolved around his control of the form, his manoeuvrability, both on the ground and using his repulsors. In the open spaces of the desert controlling a ten meter long body with eight sets of limbs was easy, but in the Temple around hundreds of others it could be quite challenging, even in the larger open halls as he kept bumping into things. It was also a challenge to correctly coordinate eight sets of limbs, at least six or seven of which he would usually use for walking. It was easy when working on instinct but if he tried to think about it, it became difficult. He also began utilising his Force techniques and lightsabers once in that form as his Force powers had translated into the form, though they did not come as easily to him and he found it quite challenging to learn to safely use his lightsabers in his new body and resolved that he would have to create at least two lightclubs (extra-large lightsabers) to use while in that form as even his long handled lightsaber was two small for his talon like hands. Once constructed from some of his remaining pontite crystal he stored the extremely large lightclubs (each hilt was at least a foot and a half in height and 4 inches in diameter) in his wrist in a shrunken form. He managed to work out a way to shrink them depending on the size of the container so when in human form they were highly compressed and about half the size of a normal lightsaber, though because of the compression they would not work as it threw off the calibration, and when he was in his star dragon form they were full size and worked perfectly. This also prompted him to make another modification to his arm; as he know stored two shotos, two lightclubs and sometimes his wand there. He added magnetic clamps to it so that four or five weapons would always be help in specific parts of the arm so that he never accidentally grabbed the wrong one. It also allowed him to improve the ejection system for when he needed to rapidly deploy one in combat.
Harry got a surprise one day; his Master asked if she could have some of the pontite crystals, he of course agreed though she kept it secret as to why. It was two months later that he was given two additional lightclubs, one by his Master and the other by Felanil Baaks the Jedi Artisan who he had given some of his pontite too years ago. The latter gave him an intricately designed lightclub made from transparisteel infused with finally ground sand that had been brought back from Knowhere in various nooks and crannies of the Raven, it was infused in such a way as to give the transparisteel a glittery look so that it twinkled in the light. Carved into the transparisteel was an image of his animagus form spiralling its way around to the emitter where it stopped with an open mouth so that it appeared to be breathing the blade. It was truly a work of art; Master Baaks said he was honoured to be able to create a lightclub for such a skilled user and (hopefully) future artisan. Aayla's lightclub by contrast was much simpler but also decorated. Unlike Master Baaks where the single carving covered almost the entire hilt Aayla's was made of more traditional materials and was similar in its design to his primary lightsaber but had smaller designs etched into the surface; surrounding the hilt were images of a stag and a doe, a dog, a werewolf, a pair of crossed canons, an oswaft, a pair of white lekku, a pair of blue lekku and a pair of floppy ears. The Master's might have been much more detailed and a wonder to behold but this one was so much more special to him.
It took Harry about five months to get up to speed on using his new form as efficiently as his human one, his only two limitations (once he had mastered the form) were manoeuvrability in lightsaber combat, but he more than made up for that with technique, especially as he know had four lightsabers and a lot more limbs to draw from meaning he could attack from multiple directions at once. The second drawback was that although just as manoeuvrable in flight is star dragon form could not match the speed of a speeder without a very long time accelerating.
He also realised by accident one day that he had another advantage in his alternative form; he only realised one day when he was doing the obstacle course at the Temple in that form to see if he could beat his human form time and he ended up getting stuck under one of the bars that you jumped and ducked under alternately. It turned out his form was a little too thick in the middle and he wedged himself rather well under it. In frustration at the stupidity of the situation, which was causing much amusement for the other jedi of all ages watching, he had let out a huff of annoyance and suddenly realised that his breath was superheated and had melted the next three obstacles, much to the annoyance of the maintenance crew who had to repair and replace them and the worried looks of some of the watching padawans, they now knew that he could literally melt the flesh from their bones if they annoyed him.
They had experimented a bit with the power and although it never went as far as actually generating a flame it did turn out to be significantly hotter as he was able to melt high melting point materials with relative ease. They came to the conclusion that he must be generating some form of internal organic cold fusion to create the immense temperatures, it also explained why he very rarely needed to eat in that form as he was being 'powered' and sustained by the internal reaction. It did explain why star dragons could travel between planets at sublight speeds without food.
Harry could not help compare himself to Wormtail now, both animagi and both with artificial limbs that translated into their other forms, it had quite thrown Harry when his mechanical arm changed to look like the opposite of his other upper most limb when he transformed for the first time.
Hermione had a completely different set of challenges with her animagus form; it was decided that she needed to acclimatise to transforming so she and Coleman spent the majority of the next six months in various star systems which had (at first) large asteroids with breathable atmospheres and with low gravity, then up to small moons and planetoids. They slowly acclimatised her to transforming in stronger gravitational fields and less dense atmospheres allowing her to perfect her technique. By the time they returned to Coruscant after half a year she was able to cast a bubblehead charm on herself to extend her breathing time, apparate high into an atmosphere, transform quickly enough to prevent hitting the surface, but also transform her external shape before her internal organs and bones so that she could start flying before her oswaft interior got crushed by the gravity, giving her enough time to get high enough in the atmosphere before transforming the rest of the way and heading into space. It was agonizingly difficult but she eventually managed it on Earth gravity planets.
When the pair did return Hermione has flown in her oswaft form with Coleman's shuttle flying escort. Harry and Aayla had watched impressed as she transformed back as she entered the atmosphere before using the Force to slow her in a series of sharp breaking Force Pushes, keeping her descent slow until she landing beside her fellow jedi with a beaming smile on her face.
Their reunion however was short lived as Harry had been ordered to one of the larger training rooms within the Temple for some sort of test. Spectators had been allowed so Coleman and Hermione decided to observe.
It was less than half an hour later that Harry entered the room, Asani on his shoulder as usual, to be greeted by the sight of at least fifty jedi ranging from padawans to High Council members waiting for him.
"Greetings Padawan Potter," smiled Master Yoda. "A test we have for you today."
"Master Yoda and myself want to observe you fighting skills," continued Dooku. "After hearing so much complimentary information from various other members of the Order we decided it was time to observe you in action for ourselves. Prepare yourself…You will not have thought a battle like this before."
Harry shed his robe, letting Asani jump down as he did so, and intended to hand it to his Master, only to discover that she and the others he had walked in with were now standing on the end of the crowd on the other side of the room, Asani followed, jumping onto Hermione's shoulder. He turned back at the sound of multiple lightsabers activating and gulped when he saw who he was facing.
Masters Eeth Koth, Even Piell and Micah Giiett were standing ready for him.
Taking a deep breath he threw his robe away and drew his primary lightsaber as well as one of his shotos, he was definitely going to need two blades for this.
"Are you ready for this Padawan Potter?" asked Giiett.
"Definitely not Master," he replied but nonetheless ignited his blades.
"Good answer," smiled Koth before all three flew at him.
Harry had never said a truer statement in his life as he was instantly on the defensive; the Masters were bringing their great knowledge and skill to bear upon him but thankfully were not going all out as he was not skilled enough to face three jedi masters all using different forms and techniques at the best of their abilities.
Koth and Giiett hit him at the same time, crossing his blades he was able to absorb the flying attack. He was just fast enough to then swing his shoto around to guard his back as Piell to a swing at his unguarded side.
Side stepping he put Koth temporarily between himself and Giiett, giving him enough time to parry Piell's stab and to duck Koth's swing. Harry did not know how long he could maintain against these numbers but he had to remove at least one of the three from the equation.
Swinging his shoto into a reverse grip he again blocked a double strike from Koth and Giiett but this time when Piell tried to strike for his back he blocked with his longer blade and instead of just blocking he parried and punched the master in the face with his metal arm, sending the smaller master sprawling back onto the floor from the unexpected attack.
Hermione actually squeaked when Harry punched the Master.
"Relax Padawan," Coleman comforted from her side. "With three masters against one albeit very skilled padawan they could hardly expect Harry not to use less traditional moves."
"But they are judging his lightsaber skills," she objected.
"Are they?" Aayla asked from her other side. "Master Dooku said his 'fighting skills' not 'lightsaber technique', there is nothing to stop Harry using any technique in his arsenal if he so wishes. If he did just want to test his lightsaber skill and the Master explained what he wanted badly Harry cannot be blamed."
"But he –"
"Relax Padawan," Yaddle said from her position a little along the line. "For that attack, no punishment will he suffer."
And as was quite often the way, Yaddle's wise words silenced Hermione.
"Good move," said one of the other observers, drawing her attention back to the fight.
Harry did not wait to press his advantage. Immediately bringing his primary lightsaber around he swung it at waist height at the other two masters who were still applying pressure to his shoto.
Both jumped back sharply as they saw the attack coming, not having expected Piell to be surprised the way he had. Giiett was not quite fast enough and Harry's blade cut into his robes and left a slight burn mark on his skin (which would have been a gash if it were not on training settings).
Harry immediately followed his swing up with a Force Push that sent both the pair tumbling backwards across the floor, giving Harry just enough time to spin and throw a wandless stunner at the recovered Piell at point-blank range. Harry still had to block his downward blade but by the time it hit the Master was unconscious.
Harry did not wait, catching the Master's falling lightsaber awkwardly with the Force he spun it towards the waists of the other two masters only to discover that Master Giiett had stepped out of the fight and was now having his torn robes and light burn seen to by Hermione.
Now that the odds were more even he leapt at Koth, landing less than a second after the Master had had to deflect Piell's blade. Harry was now on the offensive.
"Master, may I?" Hermione asked, sidling up to Master Giiett as he returned to the watching crowd and gesturing to his wound and torn robe. She still felt the need to try to minimise any damage that Harry was doing despite Yaddle's words and the odds against him.
"Proceed," the Master nodded as she drew her wand and began treating his wound first with a pain numbing charm and then repairing the tear in the robe. Healing the burn would take either potions or meditation.
"Thank you Padawan," he nodded when she had finished before both returned to watching the match.
Harry was in full attack, he had Master Koth on the back foot thanks to his knowledge of Form VII which only a handful of jedi knew. It was just enough to give him the edge on Koth.
A sound on the edge of his hearing alerted him to a new opponent, leaping skywards he somersaulted over Koth just as Master Billaba swung her blade where he had just been.
He was caught off guard when he landed as Master Koth kicked him in the stomach, sending him tumbling backwards. He managed the fall and landed on his knees leaving him ready to block both blades as they collided with his crossed blades.
The test of strength went on for a few seconds, giving Harry enough time to come up with another distraction. In that background he could just make out Master Piell, presumably having been revived by Hermione) extend his hand to summon his lightsaber. In a quick bit of concentration Harry applied a stronger gesture-less Force Pull to the weapon causing it to change direction mid-flight to the momentary confusion of the Master before he had realised who had done it.
The hilt, as the weapon was now off, flew towards the trio low to the floor before at the last second jerking skywards and colliding hard with the back of Koth's head. The Master had begun to turn to deflect the projectile but not expecting the sudden change in direction he was not successful in deflecting it.
The distraction was enough for the force Koth was applying to the stalemate to be weakened enough for Harry to throw the pair off before sending a Force Push at the pair.
Koth ended up on his back thanks to the distraction while Billaba bore the push with just a small backwards slide across the floor.
Harry sent a wandless stunner at Koth but Billaba deflected it back at him as she approached again, only for him to deflect it back and for this time it to slip passed her lightsaber.
The stunner hit but only hit Koth's leg, he was groggy but not out though he seemed to take that as his cue to withdraw.
That meant Harry was now dealing with Billaba but that was almost more worrying; she had helped train him, she knew his abilities and, what was worse, she also knew Form VIII and was a master of it.
The one on one duel went on for many minutes, Form VIII was offensive not defensive so to match her he had to continually try to attack as she did the same. They both landed hits but nothing more than scrapes, grazes, glancing blows. Harry was well aware that he was taking more, his only advantage in these close quarters was his second blade to try and out manoeuvre her.
It was many minutes in that Harry realised he was being slowly beaten back towards the wall but he decided not to try to change that, hopefully he could make her make a mistake is she thought he was about to lose.
Less than twenty seconds later Harry's back hit the wall, as expected the Master took advantage and slammed him into it so that he lost his footing and dropped to the floor, his lightsabers rolling away in the process.
The Master spun her blade once before bringing it down to gently 'stab' touch him. At the last second Harry raised his metal arm and grabbed the blade at the same second as he threw his other hand passed her defences and cast and a Confundus Charm into her stomach.
Instantly she stumbled as her visual world went upside down, inside out and back to front all at the same time.
Harry fired a stunner at her knocking her down, carefully making sure that her lightsaber missed them both as she fell.
Breathing heavily he slumped only to hear more lightsabers ignite.
Looking up in dread he saw Master Koon, Tiin, Rancisis and Aayla all step forward.
"Four!" he gasped, more to himself than the others. Not actually complaining about it as he climbed to his feet but more in disbelief that they were testing him this hard.
He now needed an advantage; thankfully the room was large enough for him to use one.
Quickly beginning the change he, thanks to the training, rapidly became the ten meter duinuogwuin and drew his four lightclubs.
He heard many gasps from the other end of the hall; not all had seen his new form.
"He did that so fast!" exclaimed Hermione. "And he has four more lightsabers."
"Lightclubs to be strictly accurate," remarked Sifo-Dyas from just behind her.
"He is doing surprisingly well," remarked Dooku. "Regardless of how unorthodox his technique."
"That does rather describe Harry," replied Coleman.
The quartet moved towards him. This would be the hardest test yet; Plo had helped trained him and knew his abilities, Tiin and Rancisis were both very skilled and the latter was a master strategists, and also being a non-humanoid was a rather unknown factor. Aayla was the biggest threat; no one knew how he fought better and what his weaknesses were.
Oppo, Tiin and Aayla moved forwards which immediately made Harry suspicious of Plo and correctly so.
A bolt of Electric Judgement flew at him but he raised one of his lightsabers in time to catch it.
The other three hit, thankfully his star dragon brain was designed to control so many limbs at once so he was just able to defend with three independent moves at the same time as they attacked him along his length.
Plo continued his electrical attack but had forgotten that Harry could often surprise people with his abilities.
Whilst blocking the attack with his blade he caught the Master off guard by launching an Electric Judgement from one of his other unoccupied limbs. It was enough to distract him long enough for Harry to swing his tail around knock Plo back towards the crowd. Only some rapid Force work by those at the front prevented him taking out half a dozen of them.
Turning his full attention back to the other three he did something none of them expected and activated his repulsors sending him flying skywards until he was hovering just below the ceiling.
It did not take more than a second for the trio to Force Jump up towards him. He now had to take them out. He focused on the biggest threat; Aayla.
He decided to use a rather dirty trick, it wasn't strictly fighting but this was hardly a fair fight anyway. Their bond was his weapon, when they were duelling the bond was silent, not closed off, but their thoughts were not broadcast along it.
Reaching into his memories he pulled out a memory that he hoped would distract her; the memory of their very first morning together as padawan and master; the morning she has walked through their quarters naked because she had forgotten he was now living there.
Opening the 'door' to the bond be broadcast his memory of the event towards her forcefully.
He could see the reaction; her fighting pose and concentration immediately failed her as she was surprised by the vision causing her to effectively 'stumble' in mid-air. Taking advantage he Force Pushed her towards ground, aiming for the crowd again to force them to catch her.
That was two down, the other two Masters reached him easily. Tiin jumped on his back and ran towards his head but he blocked and parried him with two of his lightclubs. Rancisis reached him and curled his tail around one of his armed limbs before knocking the weapon out of his hands.
He brought one of his other blades around to attack whilst simultaneously sending a wave of movement down his body.
Rancisis was anchored to him so was not overly effected by the move but Tiin was forced to jump clear as Harry had strategically been moving higher until he was just below the ceiling so if he had not jumped he would have likely knocked himself out against it.
As Tiin dropped safely to the ground many dozen feet away he turned his full attention to Rancisis.
The Master un-entangled himself from Harry's limb and effectively slithered around his larger form as Harry tried to grab him with his many limbs which resulted in minor lightsaber burn marks on several of them.
Harry decided to do something that under almost any other circumstance would be considered stupid. He aimed an Electric Judgement from two of his limbs at himself and fired.
The electricity coursed through him for no more than a second but also through Rancisis as he was in full contact with him. The shock destabilised them both and they dropped, falling away from each other.
Harry rapidly reactivated his repulsors to slow his descent at Rancisis followed the path of the others and was caught by the crowd, completely unharmed other than a little shocked.
Dropping again he transformed back as he landed, only to realise that Tiin had left the match…But his new opponent was much worse.
Master Dooku stood before, him lightsaber raised in front of him in salute.
"Oh dear," he muttered.
"A good assessment Padawan," he agreed. "Shall we begin?"
Harry rapidly switched back to his primary and a shoto, no matter how hard the others had been, this would be the hardest; Master Dooku was a master swordsman and fencer, utilising the minimum possible energy while his opponents tired themselves out and Harry was already tired.
Dooku approached him slowly, so slowly that Harry barely expected the first strike, barely raising his shoto in time to block.
Harry was usually an efficient but energetic fighter, swinging his blade only when necessary but pushing hard to gain the upper hand. Being as tired as he was, that would not work long against Dooku. Harry deliberately stayed on the defensive, only striking when he could see openings that he could utilise will still being defensive with his other blade; he was not going to let the Master lure him to do something that would cost him the match.
"That's it Harry," muttered Aayla under her breath from amongst the crowd. "Don't fall for it."
"Fall for what?" asked Hermione.
"Come on Hermione; look at Master Dooku's form," prompted Coleman. "See what Harry sees."
Focusing intently on the pair it took Hermione several seconds to realise.
"He's leaving gaps in his defences."
"Precisely," her Master replied. "And isn't that a bit unusual for one of the best swordmasters in the Order? Why isn't Harry exploiting them?"
"…They're a trap?" she replied, more as a question than an answer.
"Exactly, he's trying to get Harry to strike at him so that he can disarm him. Harry is only striking when he can strike and block at the same-"
"Oh no!"
Harry had just made a very bad mistake, he had gone to strike but this time Dooku had been ready for his simultaneous strike and block. He had Force Pushed him at point blank range sending him sprawling to the floor and before he was able to regain his feet Dooku had been on him. His shoto had rolled away during the fall so he was using one hand to aid his feet in scrambling backwards and the other to block as best he could with his blade.
It took no less than five seconds for his blade to be knocked from his hand, his artificial arm to be pinned and for the point of the master's sword to be at his throat.
"Good…but still room for improvement," he remarked before standing upright and disengaging his lightsaber.
Harry slowly stood and retrieved his own weapons before realising that the room was still silent. Looking up he discovered that most of his audience were staring at Master Yoda who had replaced Master Dooku on the mats and held his unlit lightsaber in his hand.
The whole room seemed to be holding its breath; rarely if ever did the Grand Master draw his blade and never with padawans.
The silence seemed to extend on for minutes before Yoda seemed to come to a decision and returned his shoto to his hip.
The room released the breath it had been holding, some in relief at the return to normality and others in disappointment about what they might just have seen.
"Why Master?" Harry asked.
"Why you fight or why I not fight?" the Master returned.
"Both," he answered after a seconds through.
"Both, the same answer they are. Not necessary for you to fight me it is," the small master replied. "Proved your skill you have. Ready you are?"
"Ready for what?" Harry asked slowly.
"Learned you have, grown you have, pushed you have, understood you have. Overcome your late start, passed many trials. Great amongst your peers you have become. Ready for the next phase you are."
"What phase Master?" he asked, but a gasp from Hermione indicated that she already knew the answer.
"Ready you are. Undertake the Trials of Knighthood you shall."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Really sorry for the long wait guys, hectic couple of months.
Before anyone says it, NONE of the masters were fighting to the peak of their skills; if they had Harry would have gone down faster than it's taken you to read this sentence. They were testing him only, their intention was not to take him out quickly but to see what he was capable of..
Hope you enjoyed it.