I sighed before hitting the armrest on my chair. “Damn it.”

There was silence for a few moments before Sarah spoke up. “I thought we weren’t going to risk ourselves anymore.”

Yet I didn’t have the chance to feel guilty, looking at the angry face of what would have been Bakuda. Because, to my surprise, Ahri spoke up in my plan’s defense while glaring at our probationary member. “We were never really in any serious danger during the blaster fight, exclusively fighting from hidden positions. You didn’t even have to leave this ship. Plus, we didn’t know Luna and Dinah could be wrong.”

Cutting in before it could devolve any further I spoke up. “Sarah has a point. Vader was not someone we wanted to cross and I should have called us away sooner, it has just been a long time since I had seen this movie. With all of that I completely forgot Vader would even be here. That and I didn’t realize that he could apparently either mess with our seer’s abilities or hide the changes to his future actions when he realized what we were doing.”

I glanced at Sarah. This was her first battle, but I was a little surprised that she had been so shaken up by it. Without the compulsion to fight from her power’s shard and her somewhat egotistical personality I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised she wasn’t eager to fight for anyone else.

There was an awkward silence as everyone considered this before Taylor spoke up. “I think it was a reasonable fight for us at first, but we really need our pocket dimension back as soon as possible. We aren’t looking to become cowards who run from anything and everything. We just don’t want to sacrifice ourselves either. I mean, if we had our pocket home as a backup option, then there would have been nearly no risk at all to this battle until Vader showed up and we could have popped away before he could do anything.”

I nodded slowly. “True…” Reaching out I tried again to open a bubble and start to expand it only to instantly wince. It was probably not a good idea to try so soon after my last attempt last night, especially while traveling in hyperspace.

In the end there was a few minutes of silent decompression before we all moved towards the dining room slash meeting room table. It was big enough that everyone could gather around, even if not everyone was sitting at the table directly.

Without even needing to ask, Amy walked away before coming back, levitating Jyn and Cassian behind her. Yet it was only after we had ensured our two unexpected guests were unarmed, that we revive the two of them.

Jyn and Cassian both nearly jumped out of their skin as they were revived, giving us the expected exclamations upon awakening of “Who?” and “What?” and “Where?” before we were able to calm them down.

It was Jyn who finally started speaking in complete sentences by asking a little angrily, “Who are you and where are we? We need to get back and get those blueprints!”

Sighing I slumped in my chair and gestured towards Aisha who handed Jyn over the data chip. “That is the blueprints to the Death Star we were able to steal by sneaking in while everyone was distracted.” I wasn’t about to mention that I had made a copy of the nearly petabyte of data before giving it to her. While it wouldn’t be anytime soon, having plans for a superweapon of that size might eventually be useful in some of the other realities we might end up in. Destroying the ring with The Flood on it in Halo for example. Yet if I couldn’t yet pull this shuttle into a pocket dimension, a copy of the Death Star was a distant pipe dream at best… for now.

There were several moments before Jyn finally managed to click her mouth shut as she held the data chip in her hand before swallowing. “I see… so… where are we and where are we going? And where is everyone else? Where is the Rebel fleet.”

I smiled now that the hostility was mostly gone before I grimaced at her second question and scowled at the third. “You are on our shuttle. And… well… after we pulled you onto our ship, the Death Star fired. Scarlif has been destroyed. I don’t think your fleet ever showed up.”

This time the silence was heavy as Jyn and Cassian obviously realized they were the last ones left from the entire Rogue One strike team. All of this was made worse by the fact that the resistance hadn’t sent their ships as support making this mission a complete waist of their sacrifice if we hadn’t been there to help.

After a moment I turned to look at Thea’s computer server rack. “Thea, I know I said to just get us out of there, but where are we going?”

Thea’s answer was given almost as an afterthought, maybe thinking about something else or maybe looking through the Death Star plans I had given her to store. “Luna suggested that we head to Tatooine.”

I blinked in surprise before I turned to look at Luna.

Yet Luna only shrugged. “I have only seen the original trilogy, as you put it, and we at least know what we are getting into there and we should be safe as long as we are quick. The problem is that I am having trouble seeing very far.”

Dinah started mumbling before she slowly nodded. “Safe enough for now.”

Taylor looked a little thoughtful. “Didn’t the Emperor have some ability to cloak the future in a dark side aura so the Jedi wouldn’t know what is happening? Do you think that is why Luna in particular is having trouble seeing the future?”

I paused and considered while everyone else looked a little surprised. After a moment I slowly agreed. “We have noticed that Luna’s seer ability is a lot wider in scope than Dinah’s, but it is clear that she has trouble with low magic worlds and we know now that she can have her sight obscured. Conversely Dinah doesn’t get to see as much, but she seems able to ask questions and get answers regardless of the world type.” I bit my lip for a second before I continued. “I wonder if Luna gets to see the potential patterns in the weave, as the wheel of time would put it, but Dinah can follow a specific thread regardless of how inconsequential. Perhaps that more specific ability is harder to block or less reliant on the world having some sort of guiding force.”

I shook my head. “Do you girls have any better theories?”

Dinah thought for a moment before shrugging while Luna just tilted her head with a dreamy smile.

Yet before we could talk about it any further, we were interrupted by Jyn. “That is nice and all, but we really need to get back to the resistance. We can take you there, your help will be invaluable regardless of the limits to your Jedi abilities.”

I blinked in surprise and I could see my girls around me doing the same. Shaking my head I answered slowly. “We are not Jedi. This is not our fight. We have friends on… another world that needs us to get back to them. We don’t have time to fight a war with you.”

I could see Jyn’s stubbornness start to take hold from her raised shoulders. The same stubbornness that had led her to take a doomed mission just to give the resistance a fighting chance against the Death Star. “It won’t matter what world you are from if the Empire wins.”

Sighing, I debated on how to answer when Amy cut in for me. “We saved you, got you the data you wanted.” there was a moment where the two grimaced before Amy continued, “and if I know my Max as well as I think I do, he is going to insist on either buying or stealing you a ship on Tatooine that can get you back to your resistance, but this is not the only fight there is that needs fighting and we protect our Family first.”

As they looked over at me I simply nodded, giving Amy a fond smile. Then after a moment to consider, I turned to ask Thea. “How long before we arrive on Tatooine?”

Thea’s response was nearly instant. “Two point five standard galactic days.” She paused, obviously answering my unasked question. “Almost three days on our home planet.”

Nodding I gestured towards the crew bunk beds. “Jyn and Cassian, you can take one of the crew double bunks.”

Jyn and Cassian were obviously annoyed with Jyn biting her lip in agitation, before Cassian spoke up, putting his hand across Jyn’s fist. “We are thankful for your rescue and future help.”

I smiled back, but turned away. I wasn’t going to be getting involved here. We didn’t have time for a multi-year long war to end the Empire. Not yet at least as I would want to be a lot stronger and have a working pocket home we could retreat to if we were ever caught like that again, before even trying.

The following three Earth days on the shuttle were a little tense, but I wasn’t about to back down on joining the resistance. Unless Dumbledore got off of his butt and actually started acting proactively, Holly would be entered into the tournament and Tom would be resurrected. Despite our instructions on stopping him, something told me it wouldn’t be enough unless we hit them hard.

However Jyn wasn’t about to back down from trying to recruit us so nearly every meal and discussion had an edge of tension to it. With tensions that high we weren’t able to wake up any of the ‘napping’ people nor allow them to see our magic items or portals. The last thing we needed was to make ourselves even more useful to the resistance.

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Yet that didn’t mean there weren't moments of surprise or humor. Like when I peaked my head inside Luna and Dinah’s room to find two of the little red panda bear looking animals. I was about to ask her if she was trying to make a Noah’s arc situation before I realized, yes, that was exactly what she was trying to do.

I was also surprised to find our Cat from Earth Bet still with us. I hadn’t really forgotten about her, but with everything going on it had slipped my mind. That meant we actually had three animals running around the ship. There was some discussion but in the end Luna and Dinah named the two panda bears Mr and Mrs Figgles while the cat was named by Taylor to be Mittens.

I knew Hermione still had her, half Kneazle, male cat Crookshanks and wondered if the two would get along. Hermione had left him with Holly since she didn’t think being stuck in the pocket home for the trip would be wise. That obviously turned out for the best with everything that had happened.

Shaking my head after seeing Luna and Dinah training their red pandas to beg for treats I walked into the actual cockpit to watch. I wanted to see us drop out of hyperspace on top of Tatooine. Since this was a shuttle, the cockpit was fairly large with seats for six behind the pilot and copilot. A few moments later behind me I noticed most of the others, including Jyn and Cassian, walking up behind me to watch our arrival as well.

The reveal of Tatooine was both incredibly underwhelming as well as more impressive than I could have imagined. It was a dustball with almost no interesting features. Even as we approached, the small cities that showed up were small and dirty, even the mountains were small and short, probably due to all the sandstorms wearing them down. Yet it drove home again that we were in SPACE! I mean Bloody Hell, this was an entirely different planet! It was incredible and a part of me was still enamored by the very idea.

Yet even that wonder started to fade as I started to feel uneasy seeing what were clearly armed and armored bounty hunter ships flying around us. Internally grimacing, I looked to Luna and Dinah as they discussed for a moment before pointing us at a city at the edge of a valley and Thea started our descent.

I was also incredibly glad Thea was there as I didn’t know the protocol for flying, let alone docking at a commercial spaceport. We had two astromech droids, but I didn’t really want to trust them to fly us without even being able to test their loyalties. Instead we ordered them to their charging stations.

It was then, while we were looking around that Lisa pushed through the group to stand at the front and studied the craft we were flying past. After a moment she frowned. “I can probably find us a ship that the owner needs to sell to cover gambling debts or something.”

Since no one had a better idea we soon landed in one of the open bays before paying the fee with the imperial credit chips. It was clear we were being ripped off which made sense since this planet wasn’t actually under the Empire’s control, but it was simpler than trying to haggle with our cargo.

Finding someone to sell our remaining cargo to turned out to be somewhat easier than I expected. Between Luna, Dinah, and Lisa we found a humanoid looking parts seller that bought our entire stock. Again, I suspected we were being ripped off, but we really didn’t want to be making enemies right now. Not with Jyn and Cassian chomping at the bit to get back to the resistance with their blueprints. That was to say nothing about the fact the Empire would more than certainly be looking to track us down as soon as they could, maybe even putting out a bounty hunter contract on our shuttle while they were at it.

The problems started as we started to look for a ship to buy. With an entire sack filled with the local currency, Peggat, I knew we were a bit of a tempting target. Even if no one knew what we had in the bag, my girls were very attractive and were drawing way too much attention.

It was to the point that I actually sent most of the girls back leaving me with only Ahri, Taylor, Luna, her father, and Lisa. That didn’t stop me from keeping a portal open in my hood so they could watch and potentially support us if needed.

Walking up to a ship that seemed to have some people inspecting it which Lisa said were potential buyers was easy enough before Luna winced and called out. “He is going to try to rob us!”

We were close enough for Luna’s words to carry over to him across the crowded bay, but it didn’t seem to matter as I saw several crew members poke their heads up and level blasters at our position.

The smile the alien gave was somehow cruel despite not knowing his body language. Said difference was probably why Lisa’s powers only now gave her the information. “Shit! He is a pirate. The ship has already been stolen and he was trying to pawn it off.”

The alien chuckled as he walked forward. Apparently he had heard that one. “Yes, yes, you were the ones stupid enough to be walking around with a sack of money and beautiful slaves with only three guards. Now hand them over along with the codes to your ship and we might let you live.”

Internally I cursed to myself while realizing he thought only Mr Lovegood, Jyn, and Cassian were guards and could fight. Still, as cliche as this was, we kinda had to fight here. I wasn’t about to let them take my girls or our ship.

Focusing I tried to look like I was thinking about it while I counted quietly. On three I dropped and rolled seeing a blaster bolt sailing through the general area where my head had been.

My team all did the same and even Jyn and Cassian seemed to realize what we were going for here.

Yet I shouldn’t have worried after that initial attack. Taylor was a terrifying shot. Even without her biotinkered bugs, a simple firefight with blasters when she had probably put the alien equivalent of gnats on everyone was easy mode for her. Lining up the bugs on her blaster with the bugs on her enemies meant she never missed. She even put down two more crew that had run around the corner, pistols raised before they even got a shot off. In turn Ahri had probably raised some illusions as their shots seemed too high and to the left to actually hit us and the Lovegoods shielded what might get through.

Yet, that might have been a mistake as I heard the tell tale whispers starting up of “Jedi… Jedi… Jedi!” All in different tones from further down the bay. Some fearful, some in awe, some in anger.

Turning to Jyn and Cassian I yelled. “Get going! We got you this far, the ship is yours, but we are getting out of here now!”

I saw the two of them glance at each other before their faces hardened and called out a “Thank you for everything” and sprinting towards their new freighter.

However I was no longer paying attention to them as they climbed up the ramp and headed inside. Instead I was now focusing on the people I could see in the corners of the docking bay. Several of which seemed to be calling in what they had seen through their communicators.

Turning to my girls as we made a dash for the hallway we had come from. “Damn it! What do you want to bet that the Empire has a standing bounty hunter contract for any ‘Jedi’ they can find?” I could open a portal, but I didn’t want to do it here in front of everyone. Better to get out of sight first. Last thing I needed was even more proof we were somehow special to the scum on Tatooine. Everything we had done so far wasn’t too far outside ordinary and until the empire figured out what ship we had arrived on, we might be fine.

Behind me I heard the wine of the engines revving up before Jyn and Cassian’s ship nearly jumped off of the docking bay before turning and swooping away.

As we started running down the halls I knew that Ahri would be making illusionary copies that would scatter as best she could to distract and confuse so I focused on making a quick but careful path back the way we had come. But it was around our second bend, right when I was considering where to open a portal so we could hop directly back into our ship, when I heard the telltale crack and hiss of a lightsaber.

Instantly, my head swiveled towards the noise. My girls also started to form up into defensive positions while I started opening the portal. Yet I was too busy wondering how in the hell Vader had managed to track us down this quickly to panic quite yet.

Yet instead of a tall man cloaked in black with a robotic hiss of his ventilator, I was surprised to see a mid-sized alien female, half covered by a white cloak, carrying two white sabers. Surprised enough, in fact, not to notice several aliens running around the corner.

Instantly the woman stepped forward, lightsabers twirling around to cut off the blaster fire from not only hitting her, but keeping it away from the rest of us as well. Said blaster bolts sped back the other way before striking two lizard looking aliens, killing them.

There was a tense moment where no one moved. Yet, while we were staring at each other we all heard yelling coming from behind the new alien woman which was then followed by even more yelling from around the corner we had just come from.

I was surprised to realize that both were actually yelling something about Jedi.

Glancing at Luna and Dinah I asked. “Is she safe?”

There was only a few seconds of hesitation before Luna nodded. “Yes, as long as we are clear we are not, in any way, connected to the empire.”

The tension from the alien woman in the white cloak visibly dropped before, with my portal open and now being surrounded by all sides I gestured. “Come on then.”

It seems that the woman hadn’t quite realized what I was doing behind me, maybe thinking it was some sort of illusion, but her mouth visibly dropped when we ducked through the now five-foot-wide portal, directly into the bay of our shuttle. Five feet being the largest I could make without straining myself and while an improvement, less than two meters was still much less than I would need to bring in our shuttle or a new house into a pocket dimension.

Yet she only hesitated a few more moments before, as the voices got louder, she suddenly deactivated her lightsabers and lunged forward through the portal and into our ship and I let said portal snap shut.

Now seeing the rest of the girls looking a little worried I called out to Thea. “Thea, get us out of here as quickly and discreetly as you can. Maybe take us into another city or something. We just don’t want to be searched when the authorities or bounty hunters start looking for the missing ‘Jedi’. Let's leave orbit under the cover of darkness.”

Underneath us we all felt the ship hum and shutter as we lifted off.

Yet none of us had missed the slight flinch and scowl that the alien woman in white had made at the word Jedi.

Now turning to the new alien I tried to keep my voice even and friendly as I asked. “So… my name is Max, and I suppose I am the captain here, these are my Family and friends,” not bothering to clarify any more than that, “may we get your name?”

Reaching up the woman finally pulled back her hood and I was immediately struck with how orange her skin was with white and blue head tendrils that I was pretty sure were called lekku with white patterns across her face.

Swallowing I only managed to stop myself from blurting her name out before she did.

“Thank you for the rescue. I have had a bounty hunter on my ass for nearly two days now. My name is Ahsoka Tano.”

Interlude Aisha (So… ADHD and Language Warning):

Aisha had to say this was the best thing that had happened to her in… like, fucking… ever!

She had been soooo right to pester her brother into coming with Lisa.

Shit, how many girls could say they got to explore a space base on another planet.

Yeah, Max was right and she had to spend time making sure she didn’t get left behind, but she got to see so much shit and even be the hero that saved the day. Who else could have gotten the blueprints of the fucking Death Star out from under the noses of an entire battalion or whatever.

Then maybe even better, she got to hear so much juicy gossip and nearly saw a threesome with three of the hottest people she had ever met.

Oh, it wasn’t all awesomeness and rainbows everywhere because even if most of the girls were happy with Max, Amy and Taylor were worried about how to deal with their families.

Dinah felt smothered by hers, but was still happy to see her parents even if she was just as unsure how to talk with them as Amy and Taylor were with hers.

Hermione was a little overwhelmed, but actually had been enjoying her time with the much more mellow Sabah.

Sarah felt like no one was giving her enough attention. That girl’s ego really was huge.

Luna and Dinah seemed to be making some sort of devious plan. Maybe on how they could get into Max’s bed, since they were both kinda thirsty… or at least frustrated on being left out.

Lisa was weirded out and overwhelmed by this entire thing despite her best efforts to keep herself appearing smug and unaffected. She was also worried about not being useful enough and had been pushing to be more involved.

Max had been hurt in some way that she still didn’t fully understand, but he was clearly on the mend now even if he seemed conflicted somehow.

Hell, it was only Sabah and Ahri that didn’t seem to have any major issues.

Then again, if what she had glimpsed of him was true of Max’s body then they were probably thoroughly satisfied. She knew she would be. I mean what else would a biokinetic do but sculpt her boyfriend to be the very image of a 20 something Greek god. It was more of a swimmers build than a typical bodybuilder, but…damn Amy, you go girl!

Even Thea seemed a little unsure about her role, but she was a chibi version of Dragon or whatever so that made sense.

So fuck, yeah! This was awesome and she was kicking so much ass.

Forget Brian and his nagging, he could nap for another couple weeks.

Coming along was the best decision of her life.