IX
Unfinished Business

After securing the speeder he had commandeered from a vehicle bay in the tower he had fought the bounty hunter, Dooku made his way to the Council's chamber to give his report to his superiors. It had been a long night and he was very tired. He had put the assassination attempts that had been made on his Padawan's life to an end for the time being, but he was not sure how long it would be before the powers behind the bounty hunters he had come into contact with earlier would resume their attacks against Padmé.

When he told the Council of the conversation that had transpired between the Changeling and her counterpart, the other Jedi were very surprised. They had no idea what to make of the news that Anakin Skywalker might not be the Chosen One as they believed.

There was much speculation as to what might have transpired to make the bounty hunters think that Padmé was the 'true' Chosen One. The actual proposition that the wool had been pulled over the eyes of the Jedi was rankling to the Masters of the Council, and they begged to disagree with Dooku's propositions.

Much debate entailing the implications of the reality of the possible fact that they had an impostor in their midst went on, leading the Jedi right back to where they started – with the knowledge that what had been said between the two bounty hunters had horrible implications if it were true.

If Skywalker was not the Chosen One, there was a great possibility that the Order had been infiltrated by the Sith a lot sooner than any of the Jedi had suspected. It was not as if the Jedi had welcomed the Anakin Skywalker into their midst when he was a child who had been brought from Tatooine to the Temple by Dooku's former apprentice, Qui-Gon Jinn, who had an unnerving propensity for taking to helpless beings and making it his objective to see to it that they were again put in the right and had solid ground beneath their feet. He was a philanthropist at heart, helping anyone in need, and he did not care what others thought of him when he was at work aiding one of his charges. Qui-Gon had sensed the great potential as a Jedi that Anakin had exhibited and had advocated on his behalf, insisting that the Jedi trained him, using his belief that Anakin was the Chosen on who had been prophesied to come and bring balance to the Force. The Council had sensed that just as Anakin had much potential for the work of good, he had equal potential for evil, and they had argued that it was unsafe to allow the boy to be trained. They had thought that if his powers had been allowed to be developed he might become more dangerous, and be used against the Jedi. Fervently, Jinn had insisted that if left untrained Anakin was still just as dangerous – if the Jedi did not keep their watchful eyes on the boy, he could fall to Darkness and become a servant of evil. In the end, no Master had been willing to take on the boy as an apprentice, so Qui-Gon cast off his previous apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, thrusting the mantle of Knighthood upon the boy, and taking on Anakin as new Padawan.

Now, however, it was becoming apparent to the Council, that despite Qui-Gon's tutelage of the boy, he was beginning the long, slow slide to Darkness. His demeanor was dark and stormy, and he rarely spoke, unless he was communicating with his Master. But then, when he did 'speak', he spoke using the Force, sending his thoughts to another Jedi instead of taking the time to tell them what was on his mind.

As a general rule, communicating through the Force was reserved only for times when secrecy was valued, such as when Dooku had been in Federation territory with his apprentice. During his time there, he had communicated a great deal by way of the Force, due to their position as spies. It would not have been safe for them to talk about

urgent matters in any other way – every place that they had been had been rigged with microphones to pick up their conversations.

In the Jedi Temple however, there was no need for such secrecy and stealth – the Jedi were one with each other, and there was no need for keeping information secret. All of the beings present in the Temple always had a pretty good idea of what was going on in everyone else's lives. The Code stressed the idea of openness and sharing, and of not holding back, and for the most part, that idea was achieved.

There was harmony in the Temple, but that harmony was beginning to be disrupted.

"Could the prophecy be incorrect?" Dooku asked when there was a lull in the heated debate. "Could the criteria for the Chosen One be something other than what we think it is?"

"Unlikely, that is," Yoda replied, his mouth set in a grim line.

Dooku realized that by asking the question that he had posed, questioned the very principals that the Jedi Order had been founded upon. In asking what he had, he was in essence implying that he doubted the honesty of the Jedi Council and everything that it stood for.

"Still," he said, pushing onward, "I would like to verify that what has been claimed to be true about Skywalker being the Chosen One is referred to in the Book of Prophecy."

"Very well," Windu said resignedly. "Do as you wish."

Knowing that the meeting was coming to a close, and nothing of greater import was going to be discussed, Dooku excused himself, and made his way back to his quarters where he intended to freshen up.

When he arrived at his abode, he found Padmé engrossed in her school studies, with what had once been a neat stack of datapads scattered across the table. It appeared that she had recovered somewhat from her scare with the centipede-bugs in the night.

He could hear the faint scratching noise her stylus made against the surface of the datapad's writing screen.

Hanging his cloak by the door, he crossed the room.

"Hey," she said, as he seated himself in the chair beside her.

"How are you?" he asked, folding his hands in front of him.

"Okay," was her simple response.

Dooku was willing to accept her answer, although he was sure that this would not be the last time that either of them had to deal with something like what had gone on in the night.

He got up, and went to cabinet where he removed from its recesses a small, finely polished wood box. Coming back, he set it on the table.

Padmé put down her stylus and turned to admire the small box. Taking of the lid, Dooku withdrew a lock of hair – the remains of what had once been his Padawan braid.

"We have some unfinished business to take care of," he said.

Working quickly and carefully, Dooku braided the lock of hair into a lock of Padmé's dark curls behind her ear.

When he was finished, he gave her a mirror to look at her new Padawan's braid.

Her eyes brimming, she hugged him.

"Thank you Master," she said, incredulous with joy.

Dooku realized how important this was to her. After spending the better part of her life as a social outcast among the other Padawans, that time had finally com to an end. With the making of her braid, she was no longer an outcast. He had made her an equal with the rest of her peers by officially accepting her as his Padawan.

Fighting sleep, Dooku told Padmé about what had gone on in the night, hoping to calm he her fears.

"…and having followed Col into the conference room…" he stopped to yawn.

"You can tell me later Master," Padmé interjected before he could continue. "Go get some rest."

Dooku found it odd that his apprentice was telling him what to do, but he didn't object to it either – he was too tired to care. He had been up for nearly three days, as he hadn't gotten much sleep the night of his return from the battle with the Sith, and then he hadn't slept at all the past night due his 'escapade' with Brennen Col.

"Will you be okay?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Are you sure?" he asked, stifling yet another yawn.

"Yes," Padmé replied, her voice taking on a little harder edge. "Now go to bed."

Done arguing, Dooku stumbled off to the bedroom.