Chapter 24: Ghostly Treasures
21 BBY, Tatooine
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 Sing wondered for what felt like the hundredth time if she was cursed for the hundredth time. Jobs had been going south rather frequently since the Clone Wars began, with the Jedi being their meddlesome selves recently, but this hadn’t even been a job.
She had been only looking for one from Jabba, a small one to teach Boba the trade of being a Bounty Hunter after they finished their little trip to find one of Jango’s caches, but now, Bossk was dead, the Hutt’s palace was in ruins, his ships destroyed, and now she, likely one of the few who managed to survive, was essentially taken hostage by what seemed to be a battle droid and a bird.
A part of her wanted to fight, but she saw through the corner of her eyes the muzzle of the blaster also aimed at the back of Boba’s head, before she quickly decided to drop her weapons. After all, if the droid had wanted them dead, they would have just done so earlier, meaning that they were to be taken as hostages. Aurra liked to think that she was resourceful enough to be able to escape most situations, at least without Boba being injured.
It was then that a familiar voice spoke up, interrupting her thoughts, “HK, what are you doing?”
“Statement: A few meatbags escaped.”
“How interesting,” the voice commented. It was only when its source walked up in her view that Aurra realised who that was. Harry Potter. The man who likely had the largest bounty without being tied to a very large organisation to protect him, the man who had walked into Jabba the Hutt’s palace, demanding questions, got them, and somehow left on his own terms, with the most powerful crime lord in the Outer Rim humbled, not the other way around.
Now that she knew for sure who it was, she wondered how she had missed it; the feeling of danger that he emanated was certainly not subtle, not at all.
It was certainly very different when it was directed at her personally, in a much more terrifying way. Aurra would have loved to say that she had been cool and firm in the face of Harry Potter’s presence, but the truth was that she was terrified of him, feeling as if she was completely naked, with her greatest secrets revealed to him.
Then the man tilted his head towards the droid and waved his hand casually, “There’s no need to be so cautious, HK. I’m sure that our… new acquaintances will not cause too much trouble, will they?”
Aurra immediately shook her head, feeling nervous as the man’s green eyes bored into hers, “No, we won’t.”
Then an invisible pressure that had been bearing down on her suddenly disappeared, taking her off guard, especially when the madman then clapped his hand in excitement, “Splendid. Oh, it’s always fascinating to meet new people. As you probably know, my name is Harry Potter. What about you?”
She looked towards Boba and gave him a small shake of the head to stop him from saying anything, before answering herself, “Aurra Sing. This one is Boba, Boba Fett. I would say that it’s nice to meet you, but your droid is still aiming his blaster at the back of our heads.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, HK gets a bit overzealous sometimes,” Potter answered with a sheepish look that should not have been on the face of the man who had done what he did in Jabba’s palace.
The mad man just gave a reproachful look behind them, likely to the droid, given that he answered, “Reluctant Statement: Very well. However, I trust that you will compensate this regrettable display of restraint with an appropriately gratuitous amount of violence later.”
Potter visibly rolled his eyes at that, “Are you telling me that you did not have your fill of violence today?”
As the mad man bickered with the droid, she felt the blasters at her back move as she heard the robot’s rotors hum. She looked back and saw a strange droid whose model she hadn’t seen before, though one of its arms was obviously fixed with familiar parts. What took most of her attention was the many weapons that the droid had on him, most importantly a blaster sniper rifle, a large Vibroblade, a few blaster rifles, and what seemed to be dozens of grenades and blaster pistols.
Thankfully, none of them was aimed at her, at least, not anymore, and she slumped down slightly in relief at that realisation. However, she could not relax; given Potter’s display earlier in Jabba’s palace, her eyes constantly followed around the man, who seemed quite undisturbed by what had just happened.
Still, he had thankfully spared them, and all that Aurra wanted to do now was to get as far away from the monster that was Harry Potter and go to a place where things still made a measure of sense.
Of course, her hopes were dashed when Boba asked loudly, “How are we supposed to leave? You destroyed our ship. You destroyed all ships, for that matter.”
For some reason, the man seemed almost amused by this before answering, “Not all of them. HK’s Speeder is still functioning quite well, isn’t it?”
Aurra looked back and saw that there was, in fact, a Speeder behind the droid. She had been mostly focused on the many… many… weapons, that she hadn’t noticed it earlier. It was then that she registered the madman’s words and slowly asked, “You want us to come with you?”
“Meh, just until we get back to Mos Espa. We will probably have to take a little detour first, though.”
“Why?” Boba asked, ignoring the glare that she returned to him.
As if to answer him, the white bird then flew towards Potter, dropping what seemed to be some kind of black metallic object in his hands, before perching herself on his hand. Aurra did not know why she shivered the moment she looked at it, like the metal itself was filled with Darkness.
Potter scratched the bird’s feathers as he examined the object now in his hands, “Because of this.”
Now that she had a clearer look, she realised that this was a metallic object that was in fact a large, thick medallion, one that had the strange symbol that Potter had asked Jabba earlier. The words left her mouth without her meaning to, “You took that from Jabba?”
“Of course not,” Potter answered, making her relax, “Hedwig did when she robbed his vaults.”
Boba frowned and asked, “Who is Hedwig?”
The bird that had been perched on Potter’s should let out a hoot, and Potter gave them a smug smirk. Despite her best self-control, Aurra couldn’t help but speak up, “Your bird robbed Jabba the Hutt’s vaults.”
She must have heard him wrong. How could a bird even break into a vault? It didn’t even make a lick of sense; Force, it didn’t even have opposable thumbs.
Suddenly, the bird turned towards her, rotating only its neck, and then, Aurra felt a pressure look down at her, as the creature released an offended hoot, as if disbelieving that she would not be capable of doing this. Thankfully, Potter scratched her feathers, and the bird relaxed, making her realise that she had been practically holding her breath.
What the Kriff was that thing? It certainly wasn’t a normal bird.
The mad man gave them a wide smile, “Oh, Hedwig is far more capable than she looks. Though I have to say that robbing crime lords has become quite the habit of ours. There was a lot of interesting stuff in Jabba’s vaults, none as important as this little medallion, of course, but I think that Hedwig was being overachieving. Or maybe she just wanted me to buy her more food. She’s a very gluttonous bird, you know?”
He winked as he said that last thing, though it was mostly aimed at Boba. Of course, that was when the bird let out a squawk and started to peck the man in the head, with Potter running away from her while laughing loudly.
This was the man who had brought down Jabba the Hutt, who had a bounty that made every Bounty Hunter in the galaxy want to kill him. It simply didn’t make any sense, and Aurra wasn’t sure that she wanted it to.
She looked at Boba and saw him smiling, his shoulders shaking, and froze. Boba was a solemn, broody boy, almost entirely dedicated towards killing Mace Windu with an intensity that would put most Mandalorians to shame. She had rarely, if ever, seen him smile, let alone laugh, and yet, he was at this moment.
She didn’t know what Potter had done to so easily get Boba to relax near him, especially while he had a Lightsaber on him. There was a chance that Boba hadn’t noticed it, but it was a very slim one. The boy was very observant and driven enough that she thought that he had a chance at one day fulfilling his dreams of avenging his father and killing Mace Windu. Then again, maybe the boy was sharp enough to realise that Potter definitely did not act like a Jedi.
When they finally settled, Boba asked, “Why is the medallion important?”
Potter gave the boy a proud smile, “That’s a very good question, Boba. You see, this medallion is made of something very special, something very old, and very dark. I’ve only ever seen it in one place that was older than the Republic itself. And if someone knows what they’re doing, they’d know that it came from this very planet and would be able to track it down, hence our first stop.”
That certainly explained why the damn thing looked so dark, but she knew that there was much that he kept from them, not that she would blame him; they had barely met, after all.
Without saying another word, Potter jumped onto his Speeder, his droid menacingly doing the same behind him, and he asked them, “So, are you coming?”
She didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, did she? Either she somehow managed to return to any form of civilisation on foot, hoped that somehow a ship survived the hangar blowing up, or she could go with them.
Aurra nodded and grabbed Boba, putting him on Potter’s Speeder, which immediately accelerated.
The bounty hunter wouldn’t say that she was an expert when it came to Tatooine, but she knew enough of its geography to know the location of major spaceports and settlements, and where Potter was taking them was none of these.
She didn’t even know how he used the medallion to navigate, but attributed it to Force fuckery. Given the fact that the man had a Lightsaber on his belt, she was sure that he must have had some form of Force Training, or else he would have had far fewer limbs remaining.
She couldn’t help but wonder who exactly Potter was. It was unusual to see someone become so infamous so quickly, and Force Training was not something that one picked up on a whim.
It was not long until they arrived before what seemed to be a very large cavern, one whose presence somehow made the desert world of Tatooine feel as cold as Hoth, despite the twin suns boring down at them.
She knew immediately that Potter had, in fact, found his destination. And she looked to the man, who had a strangely serious expression on his face as he looked at it, one that disappeared seconds later in one of his smiling ones. He jumped out of the Speeder and clapped, “Well, it seemed that we’re in the right place.”
Strangely, it was the droid that spoke up next, “Observation: I remember this place. It has changed remarkably little since my previous visit.”
Aurra wanted to ask what the Kriff a droid was doing in this place in the middle of the desert, but she just wanted things to end and get to a spaceport. Even if she might be very slightly curious about what Potter was looking for.
Speaking of the mad man, he turned to the droid, having raised an eyebrow, likely just as surprised as her by that statement, “Well, that’s certainly very convenient. Say, HK, care to tell me a bit about what’s inside?”
“Statement: This cavern contains ancient ruins. At the time of my previous visit, they were guarded by a Krayt Dragon, which had taken it as its nesting ground. The creature did not remain in residence for long after our departure.”
It wasn’t hard to realise that the droid said that the dragon had perished. If she had to guess, he had been owned by the fools who wanted to hunt Krayt Dragons, hoping to gain riches by selling their pearls. Most ended up dead within a month.
Still, if this had been a Krayt Dragon nest, then it didn’t bode well. She wasn’t an expert in the creatures, but she knew enough to know that they tended to prefer similar locations, often fighting amongst themselves to claim it as their own.
There was a very real possibility that there might be another Krayt Dragon nearby, and just as the thoughts occurred to her, a loud roar shook the sands around them, as the largest Krayt Dragon she had ever seen (not that she had seen many of them) left the cave, and looked at them.
She quickly took out her blaster rifle, readying herself, and turned to Potter, yelling, “We need to leave, now.”
The man waved his hand dismissively, “We’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
Aurra practically snarled at him, her thoughts running through her mind, where her best chances at survival probably lay in stealing Potter’s Speeder and leaving him for dead, but as if he had been reading her thoughts, she saw Potter give her a knowing look that stopped her in her tracks.
No, that was not viable, so the second greatest chance was to fight and hope that Potter knew how to use that Lightsaber. She turned to Boba and gave him a blaster in his hands, “Take this. Aim at the eyes. It’s where it’s at their weakest.”
Potter snickered and shook his head, “There’s no need for that, my dear.”
She turned to yell at him, only to freeze as she saw the bird, Hedwig, fly up in the air towards the dragon in question. The Krayt Dragon paused at the sight of the creature, likely out of confusion, at least that was until the bird let out a loud hoot.
Potter’s madness must have infected her, as she swore that she saw the Krayt Dragon flinch at the bird, before Hedwig violently fluttered her wings, making the giant creature run away in fear, leaving its nest behind, something that she knew that Krayt Dragons simply did not do.
Hedwig then flew back to Potter and perched herself proudly on Potter’s shoulder, ignoring the baffled look that she and Boba were giving her. Her master then spoke up for her, “I did tell you that Hedwig was very capable.”
Boba smiled at the bird before turning to Potter in confusion, “Could Hedwig have beaten the Krayt Dragon?”
She swore that the man’s eyes twinkled as he smiled at him, without actually answering Boba’s question. Her student then nodded to them and stated, “She should have fought it. She should have killed it.”
Potter gave Boba a gentle smile, “Maybe she should have. The Krayt Dragon was a dangerous creature, one that would have killed us without a moment’s notice. Then, by that logic, maybe I should kill you as well, as you fired your blaster at me back at the palace.” She saw her student stiffen, and she tensed as well, waiting for his answer.
The mad man rolled his eyes and said, “Tell you what, I’ll give you a better answer, but first, I’ll need you to give me one of your own. What do you think happened to the slaves back in Jabba’s Palace?”
Aurra wondered what the man was talking about until her eyes widened in realisation. She had not seen a single corpse of a slave when she left Jabba’s palace. Sure, the lights were damaged, and it had been hard to see, but she hadn’t seen a single one, not even the corpse of the Twi’lek that Jabba had dancing in the middle of his throne room. In fact, there hadn’t been a trace of any of them at all, dead or alive.
How the Kriff was that possible?
Potter caught the insight as it dawned on their faces and simply raised a finger, tapping the side of his nose with a mischievous smile, before saying, “Now, let’s see this cavern, shall we?”
He walked forward, and despite her best judgment, Aurra found herself following him, as well as a pensive Boba.
The moment that they crossed the threshold, the coldness that had been there earlier intensified, and she tensed as she looked at the ruins. There were corpses all around them, likely victims of the Krayt Dragon over the years.
However, when they marched deeper, Aurra frowned as she realised that the cavern had changed. The sandstone walls slowly morphed into smooth black stone that just radiated darkness, the same darkness as the medallion that Potter had used to track this place down.
The corpses did not disappear. In fact, there seemed to be many of them, some relatively fresh, others being nothing more than skin and bone, but the more noticeable things had to be the rows of large glass tanks lining the walls, most of them filled with humanoid creatures, each one malformed in a different way than the other.
Aurra quickly turned to Boba, finding him staring at one of the corpses, specifically that of a Mandalorian, given the very notable Beskar armour that he wore.
She heard Potter speak up, “HK... was all of this here the last time you came?”
“Statement: No. These additions were not present during my previous visit.”
Aurra turned to look at what the man was doing and saw him staring at a large carving of the same symbol that she had seen in the medallion that he took from Jabba, the same one that he had asked the Hutt about.
She heard him mutter, “Curious… Very Curious…” he turned to the bird and asked, “What do you think?”
Hedwig released a hoot, and he nodded, “You’re right. We should probably ask him directly.”
“Ask who?” she said, curious.
“The person who is looking at us, right now. Not greeting guests is quite discourteous, don’t you know?”
He said this and waited for a few seconds, making her think that Potter had gone mad or something, at least that was until a Hologram appeared in front of them.
It was that of a tall and thin hooded figure, definitely not human, given its height, maybe a Cerean or a Muun, but she wasn’t sure. What she was sure about was the sheer darkness that the Hologram alone radiated, making her shiver in fear, and clenching Boba’s hands almost by instinct.
Potter turned to the figure and asked, “Plagueis, I presume.”
“Harry Potter,” the hooded figure answered, a male voice, smooth and cultured, though that did not change how cold it made her feel, “It seems the Force has seen fit to bring you before me.”
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.
This chapter really got away from me. I meant for it to be much shorter and a bit of a slow one. The idea was to have him transition to the Rakatan ruins in Tatooine, while also having Aurra be done with Harry's bullshit, but still being stuck with it regardless, since Harry took a shine to Boba. There will be more details on that front later, which I'm looking forward to writing. Honestly, I really am not sure about the direction I took with Plagueis, at least for this chapter, so let me know if something feels off. The Plagueis stuff should be explained in the next chapter.
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.