Chapter 9
One of the troopers behind the men suddenly had a racking cough that sounded suspiciously like a cackle of laughter. While the others were all still shaking in mirth. However their mirth did not seem to be shared by the two Jedi in front of them. Master Mundi was staring at Harry with a surprised expression that he tried to cover with a calm visage. The other Master was nearly apoplectic.
"You were given an instruction, civilian. You are carrying an individual who is unconscious or possibly worse who I can see possesses more firearms than he is legally allowed to carry… and er… you are carrying him." said Master Tre'jin trailing off at the end realizing he sounded somewhat silly. It didn't stop his hand as it started unobtrusively to lower towards the hilt of his lightsaber as his eyes narrowed at the weapons visible on Harry's unconscious burden.
"I don't know your rude friend, Miss Tano, but I'd hardly think you'd want to risk getting in trouble again, not after you just managed to be cleared of attacking the Jedi Temple." The same Jedi sneered at her.
Before Ahsoka could even formulate a response to the simultaneous insult and baiting of the Jedi Master, Harry had already beaten her to the punch. This time, there was no joking in his tone, and the seriousness which Harry had spoken earlier suddenly made a reappearance, which quickly grabbed everyone's attention and kept them spellbound.
"Ah, already quick to resort to insults and implied threats, and I have yet to hear an actual reason to go with you two gentlemen. I've certainly broken no laws, and to my knowledge, Ahsoka Tano was proven innocent after not only the incompetence but outright idiocy of your Order was widely broadcasted to the entire Galaxy."
His tone even held more than a little bit of irritation with it, and Ahsoka found herself blushing a little bit at the firm defense he had just waged on her behalf. It was rare that someone actually stood up for her in front of Jedi Masters, as in the past it had only really ever been done by SkyGuy and Obi-Wan.
However, the idea of their truthful failings being aired in public seemed to be more than enough for Master Tre'jin, who unclipped his lightsaber and held it in an unspoken threat.
"Put down the man you are carrying. You're all coming with us for further questioning while we get this sorted out." He demanded, his voice flat.
Harry's reply was conversational, and didn't betray anger, or fear. If anything Ahsoka would have guessed it contained amusement. "Under what authority? I have yet to hear you cite a single law that I've broken. I've made absolutely no aggressive moves towards you, and yet here you are threatening me with a deadly weapon."
Harry looked to the clones behind the two Jedi, and his casual tone of conversation never wavered. "I could be wrong, but I swore I read once that Clone Troopers of the Galactic Republic were charged with upholding the laws of the Republic in addition to their duties as soldiers."
"I do believe a Jedi drawing a lightsaber upon a visibly unarmed civilian," he gestured to Ahsoka, "and a bounty hunter moving to a claim station about a mile that way," and he waved nebulously in a direction Ahsoka knew they weren't heading in earlier, "to turn his catch in would be against a few laws."
"After all, The Republic does have a number of laws to prevent authority figures from preventing self-employed individuals such as myself from legally claiming our rewards." Harry replied with a serene smile.
At the term "bounty hunter" a sneer of condescension formed almost simultaneously on both of the Jedi's faces. Master Mundi addressed Ahsoka, "Out of the Jedi Order for a few hours and already hanging with this scum? It is sad to see a former padawan fall so far."
Harry made a deliberate act of sniffing the air, and then turned to Ahsoka, "Can you smell the self-righteousness? I know its hard to smell while in the Order, but now that you're out, you'll be able to smell twits like these two from miles away. Besides, neither of you have yet to respond to my accusation of harassment."
He then turned his gaze towards the troopers "Good soldiers of the Republic. I expect you to obey standing orders you have against officers and other ranked members of the military using intimidation against civilians if these two in front of you continue, regardless if they are your superior officers or not."
The Jedi seemed apoplectic at someone with the temerity to order their clones around.
A smirk crossed Master Tre'jin's face. "Unless of course it's a Jedi matter, and I'm designating this Jedi business."
Harry sighed a little bit and turned to face Ahsoka with a combination of humor and irritation in his eyes. There was no more playfulness in his voice though. He seemed tired, and she knew that whatever angle Harry had been going for, he had now given up on it.
"You want to stick around with me or not, kid? Looks like these tossers are going to try blackballing you for having the sheer audacity of not just rolling over and dying when they wanted you to in that trial, then not falling back into line and being a good little soldier when they were humiliated and forced to let you live."
Ahsoka scowled at that statement. She actually hadn't thought that far into leaving the Jedi Order, though truth be told she hadn't thought that they would be so condescending about the matter.
She also hadn't looked at things from the perspective of those in charge of the Order and how they would've viewed her actions, and Harry's interpretation of the events wasn't pleasant or easy to swallow. That also didn't make it any less possible in her mind.
"I'm afraid you're not going anywhere." Master Tre'jin said, and with a snap-hiss he activated his lightsaber. Even Ki-Adi-Mundi seemed shocked at this, as he obviously felt they could intimidate Harry into following their wishes, but actually drawing a weapon against someone who had done nothing was a bit much, even for these troubled times.
Ahsoka looked at the lightsaber in surprise, and then resignation, realizing she was going to be seeing the inside of a cell again. "Doesn't look like we're going anywhere…"
Harry paused for a moment then nodded and grinned at her apparently taking that for agreement. "Close enough for me."
He put his hand on Ahsoka's shoulder and looked at the Jedi defiantly. "I refuse to recognize your self-granted authority in this matter. I know the laws of this planet, and you have overstepped them so badly its not even funny.
"Though I'm actually quite pleased to see the Clone Troopers behind you having the sense to not draw their weapons on civilians causing no harm. In light of that, I most certainly will not be going with you."
"You act like you have a choice." Master Tre'jin shot back, ignoring most of what was said in irritation with the defiance and lack of deference shown by the man, it reminded him far too much of Anakin.
Master Ki-Adi-Mundi however responded to Harry's statement like a threat, his own lightsaber in his hand, though it wasn't lit yet, mainly because he had glanced behind him and noticed the Clone Troopers were no longer laughing but were instead standing at attention while shifts of their helmets made it clear they were looking at one another.
Harry grinned and actually winked at the Jedi Masters. "You'd be surprised what choices there are actually…"
Without another word he apparated, without making any attempt at all to hide the sound, infact overpowering it slightly to increase the sound. Feeling slightly theatrical he added a bright flash of light to go at the same time.
The resulting "crack" was quite loud and combined with the bright flash of light that left behind 6 shocked soldiers and two shocked Jedi Masters, as well as several bystanders with some temporary flash blindness.
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