Chapter 23: Covering Darkness
21 BBY, Tatooine
Aurra Sing should have known that their stay in Tatooine would not have stayed peaceful. She really shouldn’t have listened to Boba to find caches his old man had left around, even if they had barely planned on staying more than a handful of days at the most, maybe more, if only for her to train the kid a bit more. Besides, it was a nice place to lie low, and Jabba the Hutt gave good work, and despite his reputation, the Hutt was honourable when it came to keeping his words.
Who would have guessed that someone was insane enough to fly a Speeder into Jabba’s palace? For one, given that the palace was made of solid, thick Durasteel and stone, most Speeders should have crashed and exploded spectacularly, and yet, this one impossibly broke through the many layers of Durasteel, stopping exactly in Jabba’s throne room.
It was almost a comical sight, especially when Aurra looked up at the hole in the palace and could see one of Tatooine’s moons glowing in the sky, illuminating the face of the perpetrator who stepped out of the Speeder with a smile on his face, Harry Potter.
She should have known that it was him. From the moment she had heard his name, she had thought that his bounty was too good to be true. One was not prepared to pay so many credits to kill a nobody, not if they were not extremely dangerous. She had heard a rumour that supposedly Durge had died to him, but then again, Gen’Dai were pretty hardy, and it wouldn’t be the first time he was defeated, only to reappear a few years later.
She had heard that he’d arrived on Tatooine earlier that day, mostly from other Bounty Hunters in Jabba’s Palace. A few had practically run out of the palace at the news, excited to get their hands on what was likely the highest achievable Bounty in the galaxy.
Even for those who had stayed, a lot of them fought over who would get to kill him. Boba had even been very interested in giving it a try; apparently, he thought that the credits they could earn by killing him would be enough to help with his obsession to kill Mace Windu and avenge his father.
Aurra had thought that there was something… wrong with the bounty. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something felt off.
She was proven to be correct as her senses were overwhelmed with the sheer danger that the figure emanated, one that tellingly had a deactivated Lightsaber on his belt, as well as a simple blaster pistol.
One would have mistaken him for a Jedi, were it not for his bounty, of course. Alas, Aurra had hunted them before, and so, she was sure that the man before them was no Jedi. No Jedi felt like… that.
Then Harry Potter walked towards Jabba’s throne, uncaring of the many weapons aimed at him, and showed the Hutt a necklace in his hand, asking, “Have you seen this symbol before?”
And in this moment, for the first time, Aurra had seen the Hutt’s eyes widen in what seemed to be fear. She did not know what this symbol was, but if it was something that even one of the most powerful crime lords in the galaxy feared, then it must have some sort of meaning.
Unfortunately, it seemed that she would not know what it was anytime soon, as Jabba quickly regained his composure and spoke up loudly in Huttese, “An interesting trinket. Though I wonder why someone would risk their life bringing such a thing before me.”
The protocol droid moved to translate, but Potter immediately answered in Basic, having understood the Hutt perfectly, while waving in dismissal, the polite smile not even leaving his face, “Meh, I risk my life all the time. However, it’s not often that something gains my attention. It’s quite personal, you see, and you obviously recognised the symbol from somewhere.”
The Hutt stayed silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the symbol before speaking up, “You have come a long way to die a disappointed man. I have never seen this before.”
Aurra knew that it was a lie. Everyone knew that it was a lie. Every single person in this room, whether they were working for Jabba or just guests, was interested to see what had rattled the crime lord so much. But for all their opulence, Hutts tended to be secretive on a great many issues.
Potter likely did what they all wanted to do and scoffed, “Right… And I'm sure that the giant hole in your palace is also somebody else's fault.”
Jabba ignored his comment, “You have your answer.”
“No, I don’t. But I will,” he said while walking forward.
Most of the guards tightened their holds on their weapons, but the Hutt laughed loudly, the sound echoing across the ruined throne room, “Are you attempting one of the Jedi’s Mind Tricks? They will not work on me.”
“You have seen this symbol before,” the man repeated. The Hutt almost said some derisive comment, were it not for the fact that the human continued, “It was on something you wore, wasn’t it? A medallion, if I am not mistaken.”
That halted Jabba’s movement for a moment, letting the man finish, “Did you find it, perhaps? It doesn’t feel like the kind of thing that would interest you. You’re a man who likes to feel powerful, owning things that others would desire, and who would really desire a medallion… A gift, then. Oh, not just a gift, one that you wore. You wouldn’t wear any gift given to you, would you? You’re Jabba the Hutt; you’re more than that. You would only wear a gift if it was remarkable, which the medallion wasn’t, or if the person who gifted it to you was important… someone powerful enough that the mighty Jabba himself was afraid of… Who was it, I wonder?”
Every word Potter said seemed carefully chosen to almost… cut through Jabba, as if he was peeling away the layers that made up the crime lord, seeing his reactions. She did not know if it was a Force Technique of some kind, but it was terrifying, especially when one could feel the truth in every word he said.
“Enough!”
Jabba’s voice boomed, silencing any other sound in the room. The Hutt's eyes burned with a cold fury, and yet before he said anything, the turrets on the walls began to hum, as if ready to fire. Looking at Jabba, Aurra immediately knew that he had not been the one to do it, given his surprise, but he would probably be fine with the human dying under his palace’s protection.
However, just before they began to fire, the sound of a single blaster firing echoed from the distance. She hadn’t seen the bolt, and Potter had not moved, but then the turrets powered down immediately afterwards.
Everyone looked around in confusion, not knowing what had just happened, at least that was, until someone fell to the ground, right next to Jabba, dead.
It took her a few moments before she realised who it was. Bib Fortuna, Jabba’s right-hand man.
Aurra did not know Bib Fortuna personally, but like everyone who had business with Jabba, they were bound to interact with one another as he was often an intermediary for certain contracts.
His death, sudden as it was, was something of a shock for everyone. And for a few seconds after, it felt like the entire world held its breath.
She saw Jabba’s eyes focus on the fallen form of his right-hand man, as the Hutt remained silent. Potter then opened his mouth, speaking jovially with that same polite smile on his face, “That was quite rude of him, trying to fire the turrets like that in the middle of a conversation. Oh, where were we again? Ah, yes, you were telling me who gave you the medallion with this symbol on it.”
The Hutt’s expression turned to rage, and he yelled in Huttese, “Kill him!”
And just like that, every Bounty Hunter and criminal on this planet immediately started to fire at the human. She was sure that most did it for Jabba’s favour or for the bounty on Potter’s head rather than any form of sympathy for Bib Fortuna. The Twi’lek certainly didn’t have any friends.
Still, the number of blaster bolts was so intense that a cloud of dust from the missed shots alone began to surround Potter’s form, almost hiding his position.
However, Aurra did not fire at Potter, not at all. She could almost feel the danger that he represented, one that none of her fellow Bounty Hunters knew of. Instead of joining in, she holstered her weapons and looked around, trying to find Boba as quickly as she could.
She quickly found him smiling widely, standing next to Bossk. Each of them had a blaster in their hands, firing at Potter like the rest. She quickly took the blaster from his hand, and the boy practically growled at her, but she hissed at him, “We need to get out of here, Boba. Now!”
Aurra could see him stiffening at the hint of panic in her voice, which cut through his confusion. This was especially true as Jabba raised his hand, and the blaster fire ended. It took a few long seconds for the smoke to clear up, and Potter remained there, completely unharmed.
The man did not say anything, the same smile remaining on his face as he slowly pretended to remove some invisible dust from his shoulder, before turning to Jabba’s surprised form with a raised eyebrow.
It was then that the crashed Speeder began to glow and released a pulse of ionised particles, which overloaded every single piece of technology around it.
The mad man had some kind of giant ion explosive in the Speeder that he was ready to activate after crashing through the palace.
Kriffing hell, he must have planned this from the beginning.
Given the intensity of the glow, the pulse was probably strong enough to short every system in the entire palace, including the elevators that would have been their way back to the surface, and out of Jabba’s palace, especially since the stairs had collapsed when Potter crashed his Speeder into this place.
The throne itself had gone completely dark. Things were silent for a time until blaster fire began to illuminate the room. Aurra did not know where it had come from and who was firing it, and she did not care. She simply grabbed Boba and hid behind a large pillar to take cover, as the blaster fire began to echo and she heard people dying around her.
She stiffened as she saw, for a moment, Bossk’s form being hit with a bolt and not getting up. Boba looked like he wanted to scream, but she quickly put her hand on his mouth to stop him and instead looked for a way out.
The elevator was destroyed, and the stairs collapsed, almost by design, trapping them in the Throne Room.
Well, not exactly; there was technically only a single way out, and that was the giant hole that Potter had made by coming there. It was not something that most would manage, but Aurra was not a normal Bounty Hunter, and so, without a word, she grabbed Boba and jumped.
She channelled the Force and jumped higher than she had before in her life, and the Force must have been with her, since she landed exactly on the floor above the Throne Room, and hid alongside Boba as best she could, hoping that by escaping the Throne Room, they would be safer from the madness around them. She released a deep sigh at that, especially as the blaster fire began to slow down.
Aurra knew that they were not out of the woods yet, but despite the dangers, she felt like she needed to look down at the Throne Room, hoping to see what had actually happened earlier.
Potter was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by corpses, his frame still illuminated by the moonlight from the hole that he had made with his initial crash. As for the corpses, she immediately recognised that some of the most notable criminals, Bounty Hunters, and pirates in the Outer Rim.
She was sure that some had survived whatever the Kriff had just happened, but not a single person dared to say anything out of sheer fear, a fear that Aurra shared.
He looked towards Jabba, and he said in a cold voice, “Would you like me to repeat my question?”
He did not raise his voice. That was probably the worst part. He did not move since he first spoke to Jabba, and the polite smile had not left his face, not even after a small army of criminals had just tried to kill him. He did not activate his Lightsaber, nor take out his blaster, and Aurra felt herself dreading what would happen if he did.
The Hutt looked justifiably terrified and answered, “Let us not be hasty…”
Potter shook his head in disappointment, “You’re going to make me ask again, aren’t you?”
“No! No!” Jabba exclaimed in a hurry, “You were right. I was gifted a medallion with this symbol on it.”
“And who gave it to you?” Potter pressed.
The Hutt hesitated for a moment before answering in a low voice, as if wishing not to utter that name, “Plagueis.”
He was right to, for Aurra felt a chill run down her spine from the moment that she heard the name. She could feel the world almost darkening, the shadows becoming thicker, with its mere utterance, with a cold wind spreading all around the Palace. She knew that the name was important and could sense the danger that would follow her should she investigate things further.
Potter closed his eyes for a moment before tilting his head to the side and smiling faintly, “That wasn’t so hard, was it? Thank you, Jabba, for your cooperation. Oh, and do enjoy the rest of your party.”
Suddenly, a series of explosions rang out in the distance, some even shaking the destroyed Palace itself. She grabbed a wall to make sure that they wouldn’t collapse and looked at the explosions’ origin for just a moment, though she could hardly make out anything in the dark.
When she looked back into the room, she realised that Potter was nowhere to be found. She heard Boba ask quietly next to her with clear awe in his voice, “How did he do that?”
Aurra shook her head, “I don’t know. But we need to get out of here first.”
Thankfully, there were no surprises as Aurra climbed out of the Palace, with Boba grabbing onto her back, with only the darkness being most important. It was only when they got out that she finally relaxed and muttered to herself, “This is the first time I’ve been so glad to see sand in my life.”
She heard Boba snort next to her and suppressed a small smile, though it was probably the stress.
With that done, she looked around for Jabba’s hangar, so that she could find their ship and fly it the Kriff away from this place, maybe even this sector. It was only when she peered at the large crater littered with the remains of destroyed Starships and Speeders that she realised where the explosion from earlier had come from.
It was then that the picture had come together. Jabba was now stuck in his throne room, where he could not get out as the stairs and the elevators were inaccessible. His droids did not work because of the ion blast, and even if he did manage to get out somehow, he would be stuck near his palace, with very little nearby, and no ships to get there.
The entire situation would have been amusing were it not for the fact that she was now in the same position, with no ship in sight, and no way to any sign of civilisation without walking through an endless desert and likely to end up as a Krayt Dragon’s meal.
Suddenly, she felt a faint sense of warning, and prepared to turn, unholster her gun and aim it at its source. To her surprise, it was a strange white bird that looked slightly like a Convor, perched on a boulder.
The bird hooted dismissively at her, and Aurra wondered for a moment why she felt so wary of it, only to stop as she felt a blaster near the back of her head, and heard the voice of a droid speak out, “Statement: Drop your weapons, meatbags.”
Aurra really wanted to release a deep sigh. Won’t this Kriffing day ever end?
AN: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. As I said before, I’m still getting the hang of writing a Star Wars story, so bear with me if anything feels off.
As for this chapter, I debated a bit on whose POV to choose. Jabba's didn't work since it wouldn't have worked with the Plagueis's reveal in the end. I thought about Bib Fortuna, but I sort of wanted to kill him, since I kinda don't like him. I decided on Aurra Sing's mostly to introduce them to the story, and she and Boba will be pretty important in a couple of future arcs.
Anyway, I didn't say it overtly, but HK and Hedwig were pretty active in this chapter, though not overly much. I sort of liked the idea of Harry just standing there, essentially just aura farming while scaring the crap out of everyone. And since it's Aurra's POV, I thought that a lot of the plan isn't explained in detail. Does that make sense? I wasn't sure about going with this approach, so let me know if it worked.
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.