Disclaimer: I still don't speak Scots Gaelic nor Irish Gaeilge aside from a few words ( I do know slightly more Gaeilge though), so if my translations are wrong then blame Google Translate, not me. I also don't own any character that is not my own creation, obviously. Wish I did though. Could use the kind of money Star Wars rakes in. At this point I'm just too lazy to get rid of this disclaimer so it's staying despite getting my point across by now.

Caibideil 15

Barriss was able to leave the hospital bed now but was still confined to a wheelchair for the next week. It seemed a tad excessive in her opinion but hey, she wasn't going to complain about having her now fiancé push her around wherever she wanted to go for the next few days. They were going on just such a stroll around the hospital before they left for Riyo's apartment when she saw somebody, she thought she recognized down the hall in front if the ICU. It was Master Secura, intently staring down a Kaminoan and the sheep Angus standing next to her in a little vest that said: Registered Service Animal.

"I said, no," she stated, starting to get rather annoyed at the Kaminoan's insistence.

"Master Jedi," he replied, "You know as well as I do that the Republic has needed a new clone template for years ever since Jango's untimely passing."

"No," she replied adamantly.

"You Jedi and your morals get in the way of practicality constantly," the Kaminoan replied. Barriss wasn't sure how he thought insulting people would get him what he wants, especially when it comes to the second most obstinate Jedi in the entire order after Skywalker, but sure. "Think of how many new clones could be successfully produced with a new batch of genetic material! Half the clones we make now are failures, clones the Republic has to pay for. It's in everyone's best interest to at least gather as much of his DNA now while we still can."

"Is it in his best interest?" Secura countered, still irritated, as the harshness of her accent started to convey.

"Does it matter? He'll be dead soon, and corpses don't complain."

"Has anyone ever told you how disgusting your culture is?"

"Quite often, we're still better than everyone else."

"And you think repeatedly insulting me is going to convince me to let you pass how? Exactly?"

"Let me in."

"Kriff. Off. No consent, no poking."

Barriss wheeled up to the debate, "Master Secura? What's going on?"

"Mr. Lacking Any and All Basic Decency here wants to harvest a dying man to whore out his DNA for free."

"And Little Ms. Stuck in the Past refuses to allow progress and efficiency to reign supreme. It's only logical."

"What you want is heinous and the fact that we rely on you to make our clones disgusts me more and more every day."

"Exactly, you rely on us, so our needs and desires should supersede your pathetic morals."

"No, mean no," Aayla growled, "If you really want him, you'll have to wait until they find the donor heart."

"He'll be dead by then," the Kaminoan growled back, lowering his head to Aayla's level, "and his genetic material practically worthless."

"Who is it?" Barriss asked, suspecting a few people but not entirely sure.

Aayla stepped out of the way to allow Riyo to wheel Barriss into the room. When the Kaminoan tried to follow, she immediately stood back in his way, glaring at him. Barriss rolled into the ICU and in a bacta tank, hooked to all sorts of vital monitors, IVs, and some machines that even she had never even seen before, was Séamus. A gaping hole in his chest where he had been run through, surviving long enough to be put on life support but not much longer otherwise. He wasn't going to make it. No chance, unless… she paged her doctor. Within a few minutes he was in the room, ignoring the Twi'lek and Kaminoan arguing about utilitarian philosophy.

"Yes?"

"How long has he been here?"

"Are you familiar with one another?"

"We're friends."

"He arrived a few hours before you did."

Barriss nodded, "You don't have a donor heart, do you?"

The doctor shook his head, "No. The best we can do is make him comfortable when he finally passes."

"I'm a Jedi healer…" Barriss suggested, "Maybe I could do something?"

The doctor looked at her incredulously and would have cocked an eyebrow if the Nautolan had any. He had learned a little about Force healing but since he wasn't Force-sensitive there was no reason for him to go in depth with such a topic. Eventually he shrugged, "Well, I suppose it won't kill him any more than he's already going to die." Pushing a button, the bacta tank began to drain, allowing Séamus's unconscious body to slowly flop on the bottom of the tank. Opening the container, the doctor gestured to the man and told her, "Knock yourself out."

Nodding, she slowly got up from the wheelchair and kneeled beside the fallen giant. Placing a hand on the wound, she began to concentrate. This would be the biggest healing she had ever done, a damaged heart and lung: two vital organs. Trying to ignore the pressure put on her, she concentrated only on the individual cells. Her hand began to glow blue.

"General!" Cody called, knocking on Obi-Wan's door, "We should be in Alderaan two days ahead of schedule."

Opening the door, Kenobi replied, "Excellent! Make sure that everything is prepared for our invasion by then."

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

He was a good man, and an even better soldier. Obi-Wan thought, "Could it really be possible that these men only exist because Palpatine wanted to use them to execute the Jedi?" Shaking his head to clear his mind of such thoughts he went back to his data pad, reviewing their intelligence on the state of Alderaan and the tactics they'd employ. Known separatist strongholds would have to be bombed from orbit, and over 70,000 clones would storm the planet. He shook his head, 70,000 clones to 3,000,000 droids. They'd be in this quagmire for months, with reinforcements coming from ever corner of the galaxy. He only could hope that the battle would be over sooner than he was dreading it would be.

Yawning, he rubbed his eyes; he hadn't been able to sleep in almost 40 hours straight between preparing for the Alderaan invasion, Council debates which have lately been devolving into screaming matches and lying awake wondering what the point of it all even was anymore. He stood, slowly; he had always been called "wise beyond his years," well it appeared that his age was finally catching up to him. Was it his age though? After all Dooku was well into his eighties and still seemed rather spry. No, he was just tired. Yes, that was it, exhaustion. He barely managed to stumble to his bunk before collapsing onto it, finally falling asleep.

Dooku had overestimated the size of his ship and underestimated the length of time to get there. It was definitely going to be a cramped ride. He was facing away from Gràinne but still felt the waves of pain, loss, guilt, and suffering pouring off of her. Seeing nothing better to do, he decided to try and continue seducing her. Ugh, he hated that that was the word for it; just thinking of that made him nauseous, he may have been a dark lord of the Sith but he was not a pedophile. Unlike that Senator Faa. He shuddered in revulsion. "Gràinne my child?"

"Aye?"

He paused for a moment, thinking of what exactly he could say to sway her more towards total loyalty to the Sith, hopefully without outright lying this time. He finally remembered something that Sidious had once taught him. Ah yes, that would do. "Did you ever hear, the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis, the Wise?"

"I don' nae t'ink so?"

"I thought not, it isn't something the Jedi would tell you." He spun his seat around to face her, curled up in a ball on the floor, having clearly been crying silently if her bloodshot eyes were any indication. Dooku actually felt sorry for the poor girl, for a moment anyway. "It's a Sith legend."

She nodded in understanding, silently asking him to continue.

"Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create, life. He had such a knowledge of the Dark Side, he could even keep the ones he cared about, from dying." He could almost see the gears turning in her little head, slowly but surely connecting her tragedy with that of Plagueis.

"He could… save people from death?"

Dooku nodded, "The Dark Side is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be… unnatural."

Gràinne shivered a little, space was always so cold, "What happened to him?"

"He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was, losing his power. Which eventually of course he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep." Dooku turned away slightly, a half-smile forming on his lips. "Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."

Gràinne pondered this information for a moment. Using space magic could keep people alive? She knew she could shoot lightning from her hands when she got mad at the droid for killing Séamus, but she wasn't sure if she could do it on command… or stop herself from doing it again. If anybody saw that then she'd be burned at the stake for sure. Could she have saved Séamus? Could she save her father or mother if they had gotten injured during another raid by the English or clan Frasier? Could she heal people if the Plague returned to their shores? She thought back to the vision in the Temple cellar: could she drive the English back to London? Could she keep the peace between the clans?

Looking up, she asked innocently, "Could ye learn this power?"

Dooku smiled sweetly at the young Togruta: jackpot. "Only from a Sith."

Barriss was focusing intently on the cells in Séamus's heart. Human heart cells don't regenerate naturally, so each phase of mitosis required intense effort and concentration to do. The lung cells are slow, but they do eventually self-repair, so all she had to do was speed up the process by a few years, or decades. The heart though, that was difficult. She could just barely feel herself sweating under the struggle of making just one cell split. Slowly but surely though, she was starting to make progress.

Ahsoka was resting in her quarters or trying to at least. She couldn't stop thinking: Barriss had had cancer long enough to develop into Stage II and was probably only going to survive it because Grievous stabbed her. Never thought she'd ever have to thank him in the middle of a duel but here she was. She was happy that Barriss was happy with her new fiancé though. Still couldn't get over the fact that Riyo Chuchi and Barriss Offee, her two closest friends, were a couple and had never even told her until she found Barriss's smut book. Her face screwed up; she really, really didn't want to imagine them doing it right now. She turned to her other side and tried to think of something else. Lux was starting his physical therapy today. She smiled at the thought of her boyfriend relearning how to walk. That was weird, thinking of him like that. Yeah, she had been attracted to him for a while, and they had even kissed a few times but the idea of having a boyfriend was still odd. Granted, Anakin and apparently Plo both threatening to murder him more than reminded her of this fact. That one was surprising to learn about. Maybe one day she would be just as happy as Barriss. She wondered if they would get married too, or maybe even have kids one day. She smiled at the thought, closing her eyes. She always loved caring for the younglings, and even enjoyed her first mission rescuing Rotta, even if he was a stinky little Hutt. Her breathing slowed and she drifted to sleep and dreamed of Lux and her future together.

Luminara had finally figured out all the questions she wanted to know, everything that needed to be asked. She trusted Barriss's instincts to keep her out of trouble but as far as she knew they had only been a couple for two weeks! That was nowhere near enough time to think about marriage! She called Barriss back from one of the missed calls. The commlink buzzed for a moment when Senator Chuchi answered it.

"Master Unduli! Hi!" she said.

"uhm, where is Barriss?"

"I think trying to rebuild somebody's chest cavity?"

"Of course she is," Luminara replied. She was proud that Barriss was always so selfless but at the same time did she seriously go looking for something to practice her Force Healing with? "When will she be back to the Temple?"

"We were supposed to leave the hospital about… uh, what time is it?"

"2200 hours."

"Yeah about twelve hours ago."

"Then she got distracted trying to heal somebody?"

"Yep."

She couldn't help but smile, "That's my girl. Is she still doing that?"

Chuchi nodded.

"Well tell her I wanted to congratulate her on your engagement."

"Thank you! Have you seen the ring?"

"No, I how the hell did she afford that?!" she shouted as Riyo showed it off.

"Clearance."

"Huh…" she shook her head to get her focus back, "Anyway, how long have you two been together?"

"Almost a year and a half," the Senator replied smiling.

Clearly Barriss was better at lying and keeping secrets than she thought, "Oh, I didn't realize it had been that long."

"Well we were kind of keeping it secret."

"Fair enough. Any plans on a wedding date?"

"We were talking about that when she got distracted. I wanted a summer wedding on a tropical planet and she wanted a winter wedding on a frozen planet."

"Oh the summer wedding would be nice!" Luminara said with smile. She hoped she would be able to make it.

"Thank you! I have to deal with snow and slush every day that I'm back home, I at least want my wedding to be somewhere nice. Like Spira!"

Barriss was almost finished. She could see the wounds slowly closing, just a few more cells to replicate. Just four more. Three. Two. One. There! Now she could page the doctor to get him out of the medically induced coma and… oh, it was almost midnight. Yeah, he probably wasn't here anymore. She could just leave a note or page a nurse. Yeah, she'd page a nurse that was probably smarter. Standing up, she heard her wife-to-be talking to somebody, saying "Thank you! I have to deal with snow and slush every day that I'm back home, I at least want my wedding to be somewhere nice. Like Spira!"

"Babe, you know I don't like sand," Barriss interjected, noticing that Riyo was talking to her former master, "It's course, rough, irritating and it gets everywhere." That, and almost being killed in sand, thrice, tends to turn one off of the substance.

"And snow is wet."

"And do you think beaches are? They're right next to an ocean."

"That's different!"

"Why do you even want a beach wedding? You can't swim?"

"Shut up!" Riyo protested, "It isn't snow! That's why!"

Luminara rolled her eyes and tried to keep from chuckling. They already bickered like they had been married for twenty years. "I'll leave you to it, I just wanted to check on you. Congratulations you two."

"Thank you Master."

Dooku had been explaining any questions that Gràinne had about the Sith and the Jedi, sometimes even honestly. Everything from, "Ye said something 'bout midi-chlorians, what're they?" to "So if a Sith finds a vagabond is it better to give them food or a place to spend the evening?" If he was being honest with himself, he had never even thought of half of these questions himself. There were a few times when he even had to stop for a minute and think about her inquiries. She was eager to learn, whether she would admit it or not. He might not even need to spark any further tragedy to convince her to become a Dark Lady of the Sith.

Finally he had run out of answers to her increasingly impossible questions, "Enough about the Force and the Sith, tell me about yourself. You seem quite fond of your home world, tell me about it."

She went quiet for a moment, shrinking back into her little ball on the floor, "I may be fond o' Talamh, but they are nae fond o' me." She slowly but surely told him everything she knew, about being found as a toddler, being raised as a "changeling," with her twelve brothers and sisters being buried behind their house. She mentioned how she was almost being burned at the stake twice when she was five and seven and her subsequent, near-debilitating phobia of fire; her dog Aodh, her job herding the sheep while Da worked on his weapons and armor and her Mam grew herbs and vegetables for them to eat and use in medicine. How they had taught her how to read and write but weren't good at it themselves, so she wasn't great at reading either, but unlike most women in town she knew most of the letters used in the Gaelic tongue and could even sign her own name. All in all, they were typical, poor semi-literate peasants. Then her damned sister and her damned friend found her and brought her to this hell that was the rest of the damned galaxy, quietly apologizing for any offense Dooku may have taken when she realized she was insulting his home.

He understood and agreed that most of the galaxy was untamed wilds that needed to be whacked into submission by a powerful hand. Dooku almost felt sorry for the girl, especially about the burning at the stake thing. What kind of backwards savages was he bringing her to? Granted this was all just a stunt to further her trust in him to fully convince her to become his apprentice but still, this was horrifying. Looking at the chrono, he found a reason to get her to stop talking, not to mention he was tired as well. "You should rest Gràinne, we wouldn't want to be exhausted when we bring you back to your family. Herding animals can be hard work and I'm sure they'll need you to get back to it as soon as you can."

Gràinne yawned. "Aye. G'night me lordship," she said, curling up to go to sleep. Dooku removed his cloak and covered her with it, an impromptu blanket for the sleepy Togruta. He looked at her, already passed out. He made a face, then decided to pick her up and carry her to the only bed on board. He could sleep in the cockpit for a night or two, it wouldn't kill him. She had clearly been through enough. She barely even stirred. She must have been tired. Sitting back in his pilot's seat, he stared at the blue lines of hyperspace. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. What would Sidious have done? He couldn't help but laugh at himself a little, Sidious wouldn't have carried the child to his own bed and then resigned himself to sleeping in a pilot's chair that much was certain. Leaning back with a small smile on his lips from his bit of amusement, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Yoda hobbled through the abandoned streets around the Federal Penitentiary. The area for twelve or thirteen blocks around had been evacuated due to all the explosives set to go off if Palpatine so much as sneezed suspiciously. Almost literally, some of the more paranoid members of the council, who may or may not have been limited to Mace Windu, did actually want to try and set up a sneeze bomb which, thankfully, was shot down in a nine-to-one vote. The entire facility was absolutely crawling with police droids, commandos, clones, sentry gun arrays, and even a few tanks with the occasional land mine. Personally Yoda wasn't a fan of using land mines on Coruscant where the ground was probably right above somebody's roof but he had been outvoted for that detail, six-to-four.

Recognizing the old Jedi Grand Master immediately, the clones and commandos let him pass with a salute and the occasional by-the-book guard checked to make sure he wasn't an imposter. Yoda got their names as he'd have to recommend them for promotions later. He was certain that "Grand Master Yoda," would be a pretty good reference to have on any resumé for any job in the Republic. Going through each and every security checkpoint, going further and further into the prison. He finally reached his destination, the man who seemingly everyone had interrogated but him.

"Good evening Chancellor, or should I say, Darth Sidious?"