Broken Cadence

7.

Dooku's boots gently slapped against the shallow steps. He reached the end of the sloped passage and turned left. The droids on duty saluted him with their staves. Now for the moment of truth.

His hand strayed to the control panel, and the energy field dissipated. Air rushed past him, and a cold draft whipped at the hem of his cloak. He peered round the threshold. There were the Twi'Lek younglings, huddled together. Asleep. Not dead, not dying. Just…asleep. As though they were comfortably ensconced before a hearth fire. He could almost feel the ethereal warmth caressing their tiny bodies.

With a snarl, he turned to his prisoner. There had been no greeting this time, no impudent challenge flung in his face. Kenobi's eyes flickered open, dully registering his presence. A moment passed in silence. Then the Jedi tilted his chin up, the subtlest of motions, and the shadow of a smile crossed his features. It was the most understated, ephemeral gesture imaginable – and yet it somehow conveyed immense, unquelled defiance.

Dooku felt a quiver of rage. Such insolence. Such brazen disobedience. His eyes strayed to the Twi"lek children, so tenderly preserved from harm, despite his clear warning of the consequence. He hit the containment field release trigger.

"I see that you failed to learn acceptance," he said, as Kenobi fell listlessly to the hard stone floor. Dooku shoved a foot under the Jedi's shoulders and rolled him over onto his back. The Twi"leks began to stir and cry, their sheltering light at last fading to admit cold and fear.

The prisoner held Dooku's sardonic gaze with unflinching calm. His lips formed a soundless word. Traitor.

The Count shook his head ruefully. "I warned you, did I not, that such actions would still lead to failure." He withdrew the Jedi's lightsaber from his sash and flicked its blade into life. It hummed loudly, casting vibrant blue shadows across the ceiling. He spun it about in a traditional flourish and then brought the tip close to Kenobi's throat. The Jedi watched him contemptuously, even nudging his head to the side to bare the flesh further. Fearless.

Then Dooku felt it, that signature presence, like a thunderstorm gathering on the horizon. Skywalker. Time to finish his business here, quickly. "You tried to save these younglings," he said. "But you have only chosen the means of their demise." He raised the saber's thrumming blue blade again, meaningfully, and advanced upon the Twi"leks crouching against the wall in abject terror.

He raised the blade over the nearest – a cringing toddler girl, headtails filthy and feet bare and muddy – and swung. Kenobi shouted out as though the blow had carved through his own chest. Malice singing an anthem inside him, Dooku took a stride back to the Jedi and looked down on him from above. Oh yes…this was sweet. In opening a Force connection with the sniveling little curs, the Jedi had laid himself open to the most devastating empathetic possibilities. Dooku held the blue blade at his side, enjoying the sight of his enemy finally…breaking.

First the walls of stubborn reserve broke. No more cool detachment, no more ironic jibes. The Force was bleeding with anguish. It showed in every line of the Jedi's face, it echoed in every line of his rigid sprawl . Then the voice broke. "Traitor!" Kenobi screamed, raw emotion giving the single word a vast, damning eloquence. Then the self-control, the famous Jedi self-control, broke. Dooku felt himself thrown, with a breathtaking power, into the opposite wall. He slammed into the frozen stone, winded and shocked. For the wave of power had been one stained with rage and pain and grief.

The fallen lightsaber skidded across the cold floor into Kenobi's outstretched hand. Trembling violently, borrowed fire running hot in his veins, the broken Jedi staggered to his feet and advanced upon his captor.

The Dark rose up between them, a ready tool. And Dooku knew in that moment that it was a wild, untamed thing, and had no special loyalty to him.

Anakin felt it.

He felt it, and it chilled his bones. It drove every other thought out of his mind, every other memory. He no longer doubted whether this squat fortress built into the cliffside were the place. He no longer wondered whether Dooku had sensed his arrival. He no longer was aware of Mina and Aidos and the others trailing behind him, eager to act on his orders. He was no longer aware of anything but that heart-stopping howl of pain and the explosion of darkness that followed. He had never, never, felt such a thing from Obi Wan before….

He pelted down a flight of steps, and landed face to face with two magna-guards. They sprang at him without hesitation, and he fell upon them like a lightning storm. Blue fire danced around him in a sphere, a blazing wrath, Metallic arms, legs, heads, weapons – all spun out and scattered in wild abandon, a fireworks display of droid parts flinging into walls and floors, bouncing off the doorframe and rolling across the threshold.

"Master!" he cried out, launching forward.

Two more magna-guards appeared from a side corridor, rushing him with electrosatves whirling and sizzling. He blocked, parried, ducked, evaded, shouted in frustration.

Between the furious blows of his own battle, caught in fleeting glances, he could see the battle raging in the room beyond. He saw his master summon a saber hilt off the floor, saw the blue blade snap back to life. Saw Dooku's answering red blade flash and strike, a serpent ready to kill. The Force thundered, dark, ominous – oppressive with hatred, with two hatreds clashing together.

Anakin beheaded one of the droids. He pivoted to face the last, putting his back to the battle behind him. He felt the increasing desperation of the duel, felt the struggle of wills. He could smell ozone, burnt cloth, molten rock. The acrid scent when the blades locked for more than a half-second. There was a terrible surge of anger, and the thunder rolling in the Force seemed to swell into physical sound. Anakin clove his foe in two, slicing through the top of its head down to its torso, and tossed the pieces to each side.

He sprang into the doorframe and halted in shock.

Dooku gasped, unable to move, held pinned against the wall of the freezing-cold cell by his foe's invisible and merciless Force grip. His seared fingers dropped the hilt of his weapon. His eyes widened, feeling the stunning jolt of the last blow, the arrow of shattered light slamming into his own center, tearing his thundercloud into wispy fragments. Such power… He knew he had made a mistake. His master had told him to break the Jedi. Had not another master, Thame Cerulean, warned him of this a lifetime ago?

There are many things which one should not break, Padawan. A lightsaber crystal is among them. One crack and you will unleash destruction upon yourself.

He had done as Sidious wished – but this was a lightsaber crystal he had cracked. Had Sidious known? Had he intended Dooku's demise? Was it all to end here? Kenobi's blade was hovering a mere centimeter from his breast. One thrust and he would feel that blue line pierce through his heart. In the Jedi's eyes there was nothing but cold fire.

And then, from the doorway, a cry of utter shock. "Master!"

Skywalker's voice. Dooku knew it all too well. And by some twisted fate, some awful mocking mercy, the Force spared Dooku. Kenobi's eyes changed. There was a moment's awful realization dawning behind them….and then release. Kenobi released the Dark, released anger, released Dooku, released his hold on the saber hilt. The weapon clattered to the floor, Dooku slumped against the wall, gasping in a painful breath. Kenobi's face went white as he released his last impossible strength, his last anchor to consciousness.

"Go…" he whispered. "….Traitor." And then his knees buckled and he was sliding to the floor, too.

But there was still Skywalker to deal with. And beyond him, Dooku sensed six other Force presences approaching. Six. They had sent sevenJedi to rescue Kenobi? Stars… The boy was already leaping over his master's body toward Dooku. Skywalker he would like to kill, but seven was too many for him, at this moment. The Count seized the fragile stone of the ceiling, reaching into the Dark, where stone was nought but dust, and dragged them down in a ear-splitting cascade, collapsing the roof upon Skywalker, Kenobi, and the pitiful Twi"lek children balled and shuddering in the corner.

And he leapt through the gap overhead, as destruction rained down below.

Anakin held the stones aloft, and his mind and body screamed. The Force surged through him, too powerful to contain, like a river over-flowing its banks and violently flooding over the countryside. He caught the entire roof, every slab, every pebble, every grian of dust, and held it aloft, his hatred for Dooku roaring loud in his ears, drumming a frantic war cry.

I will kill you, Dooku. I swear it. I swear it. He threw the stones to one side, yelling with the effort. Sickly light streamed form above. The Twi'Lek children broke into hysterical sobs, shrieking bits of their native language. Anakin didn't know any Twi'Lek. He scrambled forward to Obi Wan, gripped his shoulders, turned him over.

"Master!" No answer. "Master!"

Mina and her friends came running, skidding to a halt inside the cell's doorway.

"Children!" one of them said.

"It's freezing. We need to get them away."

"What if there are more droids?"

"Master Skywalker. Is your friend…?"

Anakin watched his own breath cloud in the too-cold air. His master looked awful. I will kill you, Dooku. I will do it myself. I swear it. I swear it by the Force.

"Master Skywalker," Mina warned. "Aidos, you others. Get the children." She leaned down to scoop up the small body of the one Dooku had slain, wrapping it sadly in her own arms. Her assistants each took hold of a remaining child, murmuring comfort.

Anakin had no words of comfort to murmur. I will KILL you, Dooku. His arms shook with rage as he lifted Obi Wan over his shoulders and stood, groaning under the added weight. He looked at Mina and the Ag-Corps staff. Each one of them carried a burden now – a child, or a child's body…or a broken Jedi. There were more droids. There was security. The trek back to the ship was dangerous. His heart sank.

We're not getting away this time.

"We can help," Mina said, reading his thought. Or his emotion. "We are not fighters, but we have other skills."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

Aidos grinned. Pheru grinned. "We can make ourselves invisible," the older man said.

Anakin paused. Force shielding? On such a…massive scale?

Mina stepped forward, into the antechamber. "Come. I will lead the way."

It was a weird procession. Anakin could feel the net of subtle light cast over himself and his companions, an invisible cloak woven by their linked minds. A subtle, elusive fabric which seemed to blur them into their surroundings, erase their signatures, make them walk unnoticed like ghosts through the corridors. In absolute silence they marched, each member of the solemn parade carrying his or her burden, Mina in the lead, Anakin drawing up the rear. Droid sentries did not see them. Sensors did not stir. Guards did not challenge them. The freighter sat upon its moorings, and they entered in silent, near disbelieving relief.

When they had reached the interior, Anakin bowed deeply to both of them. "I …am humbled, my masters," he said.

Mina only smiled. "Come, let us see to your friend. Aidos can pilot us out."