Master Lan'al, a tall man with salt and pepper-colored hair and an eyepatch over his right eye from an old injury, was waiting for the two to appear in front of the doors to the Jedi Council chambers. His eyes sought his Padawan's and Kyran quickly explained the situation to him. He pursed his lips together as he thought, then nodded briefly to Dooku in greeting.
The doors to the Council chambers began to quietly swing outward, stalling any further conversation. A little apprehensively, Kyran followed the two Jedi Masters in to the Jedi Council room and discovered that only Master Yoda, small and green, sat there. The other chairs stood vacant.
"Masters Dooku and Lan'al, good to see you so promptly, it is. Welcome again, Padawan Josel," Yoda began in his way. "Not so pleased with seeing me will you be after the news you have heard."
Dooku glanced around. "Master Yoda, where is the rest of the Council?"
Yoda peered at Dooku a moment. Finally, he said, "Debating elsewhere they are on the news we have received. Agree with me to inform you all of them do not." He tapped a button on the side of his bubble-like chair and a holoimage of a very blonde man, tall and thin, appeared in front of Yoda. "Know this man, do you, Master Dooku?"
Dooku frowned slightly as he thought. Finally he shook his head. "Only a little, Master Yoda. I know that I've seen him somewhere recently but I cannot place exactly where."
Yoda nodded, as if he already knew what Dooku's answer was going to be. "Thought as much did I. Worried at first I was not when this message I received. Graver things are hidden, I fear. Watch and listen, all of you shall."
The blonde man smiled cruelly at them. In a smooth, unruffled voice, he began, "You, Master Dooku, have not taken my messages seriously about the Yanna Prime conflict. Your apprentice here decided to try to follow the source to discover who was the one sending them to you…"
Dooku, Lan'al and Kyran watched in horrified fascination as the man went on about Qui-Gon finding him. Then Baine moved, and Qui-Gon could be seen, staring defiantly at Baine, his jaw clenched and silent. Kyran's heart ached to see his friend strapped to a horizontal bed, defenseless save for the Force.
Next, Baine calmly sunk a hook into Qui-Gon's chest area. Qui-Gon's eyes widened with shock and pain, though he made no sound. Blood immediately began to soak into his Jedi tunic. Not satisfied, Baine removed Qui-Gon's tunic, still chatting away calmly.
He's crazy, Kyran thought, his eyes glued to the scene before him and wincing slightly at the sight of the ragged hole in Qui-Gon's bared chest.
. Evidently Qui-Gon thought so too. "You're insane! Master Dooku is a Jedi and will not give in to your demands, no matter what you do to me!"
Baine merely smiled at Qui-Gon. "We shall soon see, young Jinn," he replied.
Kyran had a sinking feeling in his gut at Baine's words, knowing that it did not bode well for Qui-Gon. He was beginning to suspect what he had felt earlier was only the tailend of what had been done to his friend.
Baine swung the hook again and again, shifting his aim to different parts of Qui-Gon's body: his arms, his legs, his chest again, back to his legs. Each time he made no sound, though the muffled sound of deep inhalations of breath could be heard from Qui-Gon. Bravely, he kept as quiet as he could, determined to show no pain or fear, though a corner of one eye glistened wetly.
Baine paused and frowned. "Why do you not cry out to ask your Master to do as I ask? Am I not causing you enough pain? Be honest now."
Qui-Gon gathered in shallow breaths before he panted out, "I am a Jedi apprentice. Not matter what you do to me, I will not allow you to do something that will endanger the lives of many. I'm glad of Master Dooku's decision on the Yanna Prime conflict—it was just and fair. You must have been a part of the local resistance group that wanted all the traders banned from the planet. How do you expect to live without exports and inports to your planet? You don't produce enough to feed your population without it!"
The thin man seemed actually perplexed by Qui-Gon's passionate plea for the people on Yanna Prime. "But it is not what I want. What do I care if a few million die? We will have less people to feed therefore freeing more food to those left that survived."
Kyran felt his lips turn into a thin line. Yes, this man was most definitely crazy.
Qui-Gon, on the recording, silently regarded the man for a moment. Kyran had the feeling his friend was about to do something very rash. He was right.
In a low voice, Qui-Gon stated, "You are every inch the insanest person I believe I know or ever care to know."
For the first time, Baine seemed shocked. He and Qui-Gon stared at each other, one with blood running down his chest, arms, and legs to pool down into the drainage area, unheeded by either, and the other spotless except for his hands and the hook that he held. Suddenly, Baine seemed to lose his temper. He did not scream at Qui-Gon or lash out at the Jedi Padawan with obscenities—instead his eyes flattened, his nostrils flared, and he replaced the hook in his hand with a short, sharp knife.
Spinning around to directly face the recorder again, Baine, in a tightly controlled voice, whispered, "Now watch your Padawan suffer the consequences of your actions, Dooku. I will expect an answer from you within two Coruscant days."
Qui-Gon visibly braced himself, his eyes shining with pain, as Baine approached him again with the knife. With a short cut, Baine sliced horizontally into the left side of Qui-Gon's chest but no longer than an inch or so. Moving over only about a finger length, he made an identical cut, then joined the cuts at their tops with a vertical cut. Baine jabbed the knife into the uncompleted rectangle at the top, right underneath the top layers of the skin. Without a word or a sign of what he was doing, he grabbed the now loosened skin in both of his hands and pulled.
Qui-Gon screamed in anguish as the still-connected flesh resisted, though it was no match for Baine's anger. A long strip of his flesh now hung from his chest, blood pouring in a stream to color his pants a crimson-dark brown mix. Because of the amount of blood, the depth of the cut could not be determined by those watching in horror.
As Baine began to copy his sadistic torture on the right side of Qui-Gon's chest, Qui-Gon opened eyes which he had squeezed shut from the pain and looked deep into Kyran's eyes. "Don't give in," he whispered, though Kyran could not tell if he was telling himself not to give in, or if he was afraid Dooku might actually give in to Baine's demands with what he was doing to Qui-Gon.
Baine, once again, jabbed his knife into the indention he had made to get a good place to hold and pulled. Qui-Gon screamed as if his soul were being torn from his body, a chilling sound that went on for a long time and raised goosebumps on Kyran's arms. Then Qui-Gon slumped, unconscious, and Kyran knew without a doubt that this was the pain he had felt from his friend almost an hour earlier.
Baine, now bloody himself from Qui-Gon's spilling blood, faced Master Dooku once again. "You have two days." The holoimages faded.
Master Yoda let the silence linger for a moment before he said, "Grave the situation is. React we cannot. No replies to this madman Baine can we give, or will we."
Kyran brought himself into focus, banishing the image of his friend's ripped open chest from his eyes as he forgot himself and demanded, "So you're going to leave him there?" Belatedly, he added, "Master Yoda?"
Yoda's large eyes turned to him and Kyran could have swore that the little alien seemed emotionally distraught. "Nothing can the Council do. No reply can Master Dooku send." He stared at Kyran another moment.
Kyran, a reply hot on his lips, suddenly paused. He felt as if Master Yoda were sending him a different reply than what he had verbally said…and then he understood it. A slight smile touched the corner of his lips and he bowed. Yes, the Jedi Council could do nothing or it would encourage other madmen to take apprentices hostage and torture them. Master Dooku was not allowed to send a reply either, but that did not mean that Yoda did not tell him he could not go after Qui-Gon. The little green being had most definitely not told Kyran he couldn't go.
That suited him just fine.
He glanced at Master Dooku and saw recognition in the Jedi Master's eyes as well of Yoda's hidden message. He bowed as well and began to leave, Kyran in his wake, forgetting about his own Master in his haste to start searching for Qui-Gon.
"A clue have you," Yoda called out, stopping the three near the still closed door. "Remember the white of the background you see. Take care to mind what you have learned."
The doors opened, releasing Kyran from the grasp of the little Jedi Master. Determined to find his friend, he lowered his defenses against Qui-Gon to check on his friend's condition. He was surprised to find that his friend was once again awake.
Hold on, Qui-Gon, Kyran thought to his friend. Help is on the way.