COUNCIL OF CHANGE
by ardavenport
- - - Part 1
"Your final word, this is?" Yoda asked.
"It is, my Masters." Dooku answered, his voice firm. He stood in the exact center of the ornate floor pattern in the round Council chamber, at the peak of its tower high over the Jedi Temple. Full Coruscant daylight shone in through the wide windows from all sides, from the plane of the busy city below and the blue sky above, leaving no shadows in the room, only reflections.
Yoda sighed and lowered his head, his long ears drooping.
"Very well then." The small Master accepted this last statement and then looked up again. "A Jedi you are, no more...Count Dooku."
The members of Jedi Council all lowered their eyes, but Qui-Gon Jinn stole a look up at his former Master. At one time, this man had trained him in the ways of the Force. Qui-Gon had given him his complete, unquestioning loyalty, and Dooku had returned it, to him and to the Jedi Order. Qui-Gon had learned much from him. However, they had never been alike, never brothers, never truly close. So, they had gone in different directions after his apprenticeship ended, but Qui-Gon would never, ever have imagined that Dooku's path would lead to this.
Dooku stood straight and tall, slim in a black suit and dark red cape; he had already discarded the traditional tunic, obi and tabards, the garb of a Jedi Knight. His nearly white hair and beard accented his already aristocratic bearing. One might never suspect that this man had ever been a Jedi now.
Dooku's eye caught Qui-Gon's and held it.
Master Yoda held out his small, green, clawed hand. "Your lightsaber, Count Dooku."
Dooku sighed and unclipped the simple sliver lightsaber hilt from his belt. He held it up, but instead of giving it to Yoda, he walked over to Qui-Gon Jinn's chair and held it out. Again, their eyes locked. Qui-Gon did not extend his hand to accept it.
The Masters on either side of Qui-Gon, Eeth Koth and Adi Gallia looked up at Dooku with increasing hostility, but Qui-Gon remained expressionless, knowing that the longer the moment stretched out, the more it worked in his favor. The gesture had been a mistake and Dooku seemed to realize it, but he shrugged it off as apparently unimportant. He relented and laid the lightsaber down on the seat in front of Qui-Gon. He went back to the center of the room and bowed to them all. With one last, "May the Force be with you," he left.
Qui-Gon stared down at Dooku's discarded saber, but he noted new hostility in Even Piell, Mace Windu and Ki-Adi Mundi. They had been Dooku's strongest defenders. The 'Count' had lost them now.
"This Council is ended," Mace Windu announced, his deep voice unhappy. He rose, looking toward Qui-Gon with sympathy that had not been there when the Council session had started. Qui-Gon sighed, letting the emotion of the moment flow out of him as the others stood. He had known this moment would be difficult, but he felt also that he had gained from it. The suspicion had shifted to Dooku and by default Qui-Gon's positions had gained credibility.
Yaddle and Eeth Koth asked him if he needed anything. Even Oppo Rancisis shuffled over to offer him help. The unaccustomed kindness from that crusty old bastard threatened to renew Qui-Gon's emotions. He lowered his head and without touching it asked if the older Master could take care of Dooku's lightsaber for him. Oppo's tentacle-like fingers snagged the saber and it disappeared under his long, gray beard into his dark robes as he bowed to Qui-Gon and left with the others.
Qui-Gon sat back in his chair. It had a full back that he could recline in, a luxury that he was glad of at the moment. A motion by the door, Depa Billaba pointing toward him, caught his attention. Qui-Gon sat forward again.
His former Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, now a full Jedi Knight, strode up and bowed, his hands folded into the wide sleeves of his brown robe, a perfect Jedi greeting. Then he grinned, his bearded face beaming. Qui-Gon smiled back.
"You have something to report, Obi-Wan?"
"Yes, Master..."
They both turned their heads back toward the open door. Master Yoda, the last of the other Council members to leave cast them both one disapproving look. Leaning over his gimer stick, he slowly shook his head. Qui-Gon was absolutely certain that Yoda knew what he had sent Obi-Wan to do. Yoda often disapproved of any of the little missions or projects that Qui-Gon used his authority on the Council to initiate. But Yoda also never opposed them, either. Grumbling, he hobbled out, leaving them alone.
"I found Shmi Skywalker on Tatooine, Master."
"I presume from your expression, that she is well?"
"Very well, Master." Obi-Wan grinned again. "She was bought from Watto and freed by a moisture farmer...and...they're married, Sir."
Qui-Gon sat back with surprise.
"Really? And you're sure she's well?"
"Yes, Master. I...was at the wedding," he admitted. "He was gruff and coarse, but I sensed no darkness at all in the man. He seemed quite...smitten. And while I cannot be sure that she loved him, there was...affection," he added to Qui-Gon's skeptical look.
Qui-Gon's smile returned. "She did say that her place was on Tatooine," he said quietly. "Thank-you, Obi-Wan. I know Anakin will be relieved to hear this news about his mother." Obi-Wan's face changed, as if there were more and Qui-Gon prompted him.
"Um," he began hesitantly. He turned to the door, then back to Qui-Gon. "Master...I saw Master Dooku leaving..."
"Count Dooku, now," Qui-Gon informed him.
"I'm sorry...to hear that."
"I am not," Qui-Gon admitted. He waved his hand, using the Force to activate the float chair behind his seat. "It is best over and that our positions are clear now."
Obi-Wan stepped back as the chair rose level with the Council seat and Qui-Gon used the stumps of his legs to work his way forward to it.
"Master?"
Qui-Gon looked up.
"May I?" Obi-Wan offered.
For a time after he had lost his arm and both legs to the Sith that had almost killed both of them on Naboo, Qui-Gon would have automatically refused any assistance at all. But time and experience had taught him that rejecting help was just another way of isolating himself, and he'd had quite enough of that.
"Thank-you, Obi-Wan." Obi-Wan leaned forward and Qui-Gon put his left arm around Obi-Wan's shoulders while he pinned a fold of his robe to his chest with the stump of his right arm to keep it from pulling off of his own shoulder. Obi-Wan put his strong arms around his body and lifted him up into the float chair. Then Qui-Gon settled in with his leg stumps and pulled the wrinkles of his dark brown robe out from under him and arranged it. While his pants were short and folded over the ends of his legs, his robe was the same length it had been when he'd still had legs. Even though it was inconvenient to drag the extra length of it around, Qui-Gon thought it looked silly cut short to his body. So, he smoothed it out behind him and left it bunched up and spilling out from the chair on either side. The robe easily concealed his one, good limb as well as it hid his lack of the other three.
He directed the chair toward the exit and Obi-Wan walked with him.
"Do you still suspect Dooku of being in league with the Sith?" Obi-Wan asked as they stood by lift door.
"Yes," he answered grimly.
"Do you believe that he is a Sith?"
Qui-Gon remained silent. He had not sensed any darkness from Dooku when he had stood in the Council chamber.
"I don't know," he finally answered. "I don't feel it. But I don't see how he could cooperate with any Sith without being one. And there are...shadow of the Dark Side rising. The Council senses it." Obi-Wan's blue eyes looked back at him earnestly.
The lift doors opened and they entered the well-lit, windowless car. It descended down the tall tower.
"Do you really think that Dooku killed Sipho Dyas?"
Qui-Gon had never formally voiced his suspicions, but everyone else on the Council knew them. Most of them thought that this was just another of his far-fetched pursuits of the Sith. Only one had been destroyed on Naboo; they knew there was another, but the efforts of many Jedi Knights and years of looking had yielded little.
After today's session, Qui-Gon knew that the others would take his ideas more seriously and not simply tolerate his eccentricities. Qui-Gon wondered if a pair of legs really made the difference between a rogue and an eccentric.
"Yes, I am sure of it," he finally answered.
- - - End Part 1
