~Arvanna's POV~
Arvanna's fallen into a deep meditation, which there she finds her father as well.
"Father…" Arvanna quietly said.
"My daughter," The phantom spirit spoke back. "How are you my daughter? Well I hope?"
"How is this conversation possible? I thought you were-"
"I may be dead, but my spirit lives on in my tomb. I will never fully die," Her father, Ragnos, replied.
"Father… I wanted to speak with you."
"I am here now, my daughter. What is it you wish to talk about?" Ragnos's phantom spirit floated about around her.
"I was on a mission recently…" she started.
"I saw, I am very proud of you," Ragnos replied.
Arvanna's heart skipped a beat to hear her father say that. To hear he was proud of her. For some reason his opinion of her mattered so much.
"Then you also know I have Sith Holocron in my possession. Why is it that only I can open it?"
"It's linked to your spirit. That's how I made some of my Holocron's. I linked them to my children's energy so only they could open them. You most likely have one of my Holocron's. Which I am not sure," Ragnos told his daughter.
"So the Holocron I have, it's yours?"
"Yes, do wise to learn as much as you can from them. I put my life lessons into them for which of my children ever found them. I'm sure the Jedi Temple has a few locked away, but most of them are here in the Valley of the Dark Lords."
"Thank you for your guidance father," Arvanna bowed.
"Do you know what you are?" He randomly asked her.
"Of what you were, that you passed down to me? Yes, I do father."
"You are the last of the Sanguine Arvanna. You and Exar Kun are. He is long since my successor, and I gave him a taste of my power. He is out there someplace, probably hiding since he should be dead by now."
"I'm so confused father…." Arvanna admitted.
"What troubles you?"
"I'm the last of the Sanguine, but I'm also a Luminaire, like mother was as well as my other siblings are. That's where all of Kikyo's once calm was. What is going on with her? How do I know what to choose father?"
"Your sister Kikyo, she is a Luminaire, but she looks up to you so much, she wants to be where you are."
"She must not!" Arvanna yelled. "She needs to stay with the Jedi!"
"And why do you say that?" her father questioned.
"Because I…." Arvanna trailed off, "I do not want to hurt people anymore because of what I am, because I am a blood drinker. I hurt so many in my past before, and Trinity knows it, that's why I'm staying where I am. These clunkers make it so I have no lust for blood."
"You haven't been feeding for a long time… I know…." Her father sounded concerned.
"Why do you sound so concerned?" she questioned.
"Have you hit the vampiric heat yet?" He asked her.
She bowed her head. "Yes I have. It is most painful, but I deal with it and seclude myself so that no one is harmed."
Vampiric heat for the Sanguine means the body has been deprived from feeding for a long time, therefore the body goes into a type of shock where the core temperature rises drastically back to a human level. The body becomes very sensitive to touch, proximity to life, and the scent of blood.
"Know that if your vampiric heat goes much further, you will die my daughter. You must feed," he coaxed her.
"I cannot. I refuse to," Arvanna said, looking down, ashamed of what she is.
"Does anyone besides your sister know what you are?"
"No, and no one will ever know."
"Not even your beloved Master?" her father smirked.
Arvanna's face flushed red at the way he said beloved. "What do you mean by that?"
"It's obvious my daughter. I know you have feelings for him."
"I admire my Master, he saved me."
"It's more than admiration. It's love."
"No it's not, it's-"Arvanna cut herself off and contemplated what she really felt.
She felt dizzy again, and like something was flitting around in her stomach. Her heart beat faster as her breath quickened. She thought about the first night she spent sleeping in the bed beside him, and her face flushed more. These feelings are things she never felt before. She knew they must be what her father said, love. But she could never let Dooku find out. She didn't want anything to ruin the relationship they already had, even if it meant staying friends.
"Why not make him your mate?" Her father asked, pulling her out of her trance of thought.
"Mate? What do you mean?" Arvanna's face was still red.
"Sanguin's choose mates for life, and once the two of you share blood, you are forever bound. Whoever's blood you drink which you mix yours with them, they are forever bound to you no matter what. You share each other's feelings, as well as power."
"I understand…" Arvanna's voice trailed off again.
She thought about feeding from Dooku, and her stomach felt like it lit a fire inside. She winced in pain from the hunger, needing to feed but resisting her urges. She then changed her thought to mixing her blood with Dooku, and what that meant. Her face flushed once more at the thought of what would happen.
"I know you as well as your sister are both pure, awaiting the moment."
Arvanna remained silent.
"When your human body dies, what will you choose? My form, our your mothers?"
"I am not sure still… I'm still confused."
Suddenly Arvanna breaks her trance and is brought back to her room. She looks down and the Sith Holocron in her hands, and sighs. She focuses on it and uses the force to open it. It shifts around in her hands and when it stops, it glows red. Suddenly it activates and an image starts playing.
"Hopefully one of my children have found this, no one else really should be able to open it. This is my training for using the light saber and the force."
Arvanna stared at it entranced as all the images played inside her mind as well as from the Holocron. She took them all in, and learned much from it. Finally the Holocron ended and shifted back into a cube shape.
"My father's training, I must practice it," Arvanna said to herself aloud.
She got up and went to the communications array in her room. Somehow, she knew how to contact Sidious and put in to speak with him. Suddenly his image appeared.
"What do you have to report from the Holocron, my child?" Sidious asked.
"The Holocron was… It had Dark Lord Ragnos on it, and his way of training to use the Dark Side and the Dark Side of the force."
"Excellent," Sidious replied. "Give the Holocron to Dooku and he will deliver it to me."
"Yes, my Lord," Arvanna bowed as the array went dead again.
Arvanna left her room and headed down to the training pad. She needed to practice what she learned. She asked Grievous for some of his best fighting droids, which Grievous happily gave him. Grievous went to stay to watch when Arvanna asked him to leave.
"Why?" Grievous was confused for once.
"I want to train alone, it's… a personal matter. Please, just understand and leave."
Grievous nodded and left Arvanna with the droids to train.
Hours later, Grievous returned to find droid bits everywhere around, as well as what looked like burns on the walls and the floors.
"Have someone clean this up will you? Thank you again for letting me use your droids to train!" Arvanna smiled and quickly ran back to her room.
Grievous stood looking at the mess in wonder of what exactly Arvanna did.
She quickly closed the door and giggled. She felt the dark side inside of her, but it felt more relaxing that evil like it was supposedly. She pulled out her end of the communication device (which Trinity was slipped the other piece without knowing) and activated it. No one replied. Arvanna clicked it a few times, and then she heard someone pick it up.
"What's this?" She heard her sister's voice in it.
"What does it look like?" Arvanna chuckled and mocked her slightly.
"Sister!" Kikyo was happy to hear her voice. "I knew you would be in contact again."
"I slipped this while we were fighting, hoping no one would notice it. Seems even you didn't. So, how goes things there?"
"I'm upset with how things are here."
Kikyo tells Arvanna of what happened.
"Please fix things with your Master," Arvanna stated.
"What?" Kikyo asked confused.
"You cannot fight with them; you cannot show them your anger. I want you to stay on the path of light. You know my reasons for not being there. You must stay happy sister, I need you to be. You are happy there I know it, and eventually I may join you."
"Why are you not here with me? Why not leave the Count and come back to us?"
"I cannot until… until I learn to control what I am. When I can, I will see you at the Temple. Until that day one day comes, I cannot be where you are. There are too many people, they would only get hurt."
"I… understand sister. I know you only want what's best for me. I just wanted to be with you."
"I know my dear sister, but you must stay there. Stay on the path Windu and Obi-Wan have set you on. That is where you need to be. Obi-Wan seems to be someone you can trust. Talk with him if you have no one else besides me. He understands you so well," Arvanna smiled at the device, happy her sister had someone like Obi-Wan as an influence.
Arvanna could hear the flush in Kikyo's voice as she said, "O-of course. Thank you, sister."
"I have a question for you now," Arvanna smirked.
"Yes?"
"Would you want to meet someplace and go out and have some fun? Just as sisters? Not as Jedi and Sith? On mutual terms if that's what the Republic or Separatists would call it?" Arvanna invited.
"Of course I would love to!" Kikyo grew very excited. "Where will we meet?"
"Hmm, on Florum. I know there are pirates there, but it's a nice place. Hondo isn't such a bad guy when you get to know him. I've personally talked with him before. He's a good friend of mine. And he's good at keeping secrets incase our meeting were to somehow get back to our superior's if we were to go someplace else."
"Of course sister! When?"
"When night falls and the stars are out. Maybe next time we can be on Corusant," Arvanna giggled.
"Very well sister! I shall await you!"
The transmission ended and Arvanna listened to the quiet of her room. She was so excited to finally get to spend some time with her sister someplace and just relax. She looked out her window and saw it was still in the afternoon. Arvanna had already trained as much as she could before she got bored, and she didn't know what else to do.
She laid down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Everything was too quiet, and too boring. She considered calling Dooku, but didn't want to possibly disturb him with the communication device he gave her. She considered just dropping by his quarters, but thought that might be pushing it.
"But I don't want to sit here bored and waste time doing nothing. I've slept enough, all I have are dreams of my father. And after our last conversation, I don't think we should be speaking right away again."
Her face flushed red at the thought of the conversation about her feelings for her master. She realized she grew to only want her Master's company and only want to be around him.
She debated training some more, but didn't want to cause more suspicion from the General as to how she was training. She felt different in the training. She felt the Dark Force flow through her, and it was a part of her.
She sighed and rolled onto her stomach, putting her face in her pillow.
"Damn it I'm bored!" She grumbled.
She kept thinking of either possibly training or maybe seeing what the General was doing. She picked her head up and again her eyes fell on the communication device Dooku gave her.
'Damn it I don't want to bother him,' she thought. 'He's probably doing something important….'
Against her better judgment, she reached down and picked up the device. She activated it and very softly called into it, "Count Dooku?"
After a moment, her masters voice was on the other end.
"Arvanna? What seems to be the problem?" Dooku generally asked, surprised by the communication.
"Well – I – uh…" she stammered, trying to find the right words.
"Well? Tell me," Dooku tried to get her to say.
"I don't mean to bother you Count, and if you are busy you can just tell me so, and I'm very sorry if I-" she started mumbling on.
"Arvanna," he spoke her name to calm her down.
Her face flushed red again at the ability of him to calm her, and her stomach had that same feeling of something flying around in it. She recalled the wording of 'butterflies in your stomach'. Yeah, that's what she was feeling.
"Now that you have calmed down, what's bothering you? You are not bothering me in the least bit," Dooku told her.
"I… I'm bored. I opened the Holocron and inside was Dark Lord Ragnos and his training ways. Sidious told me to give you the Holocron then to send to him. I also trained some as well for a few hours before I grew bored with that as well. I am not sure what to do, and I didn't want to bother you but, I was hoping you would… you would keep me company?"
Arvanna felt like a fool for asking him. He probably had much better things to do than to entertain his Apprentice.
"How about a tour of Serenno? " the Count proposed.
"Of course!" Arvanna felt she agreed all too fast.
"Alright, I'll be there shortly."
The transmission ended as Arvanna jumped off her bed, completely excited to spend some quality time with Dooku. She awaited his arrival all to happily. Finally a knock sounded on her door as she practically pounced to open it.
"Shall we?" he smirked and used his hand to gesture outwardly that they move.
Arvanna giddily smiled back at him and nodded, then followed alongside of him. They traveled out of the building and to the rest of the planet.
"Serenno is my home world," Dooku explained to Arvanna. "So there's no better guide than myself to show you it."
"It's a beautiful planet," Arvanna said, in awe and the pretty forest area.
"The Counts of this planet are the ones who control it. I was born a Count, therefore I rule my home. The Counts of Serenno do not complain and cry. We are born to take care of others. We don't expect others to take care of us." Dooku slightly quoted the last piece.
Arvanna looked at her master in admiration, and smiled.
"You are so wise Master," she complimented.
"And you are quick to learn, my young one," Dooku complimented right back.
Arvanna giggled and looked back to the planet.
"When you were training, were you training… well… from-" Dooku tried to ask.
"Yes, I was training from what the Holocron showed me," Arvanna admitted. "I wanted to see how and if I could do it. I wanted to see how strong I was."
"Then perhaps sometime soon you will have to show me what it taught you."
"Of course master," Arvanna smiled brightly.
The Count continued on with Arvanna by his side as he told her about Serenno. She stared at him, admiring all that he was, everything he has taught her, and everything he has done for her. She realized her feelings now were more than admiration. They truly were love.