Author's Notes: If you read chapter 15 before the 4th August, then it's been edited slightly since because I fell down a plot hole. Everything's been amended now. You don't really have to go back and read it if you already have – you'll only have noticed the hole if you have a good memory for detail.
Now, onto the next part… Not long to go now!
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A Test of Faith
Chapter 16 - Saving Serenn
Serenn raised his head groggily as he heard Qui-Gon's call, his face - pale as it was - still able to brighten as the Padawan bounded over to him.
"Qui-Gon," he smiled, "It's about time."
" 'About time'," Jinn scoffed, moving quickly to the device that seemed to be extracting blood from his mentor's body, "Some grateful Jedi you are, Master…" His eyes glanced across the alien control panel, simply overwhelmed by the amount of buttons, switches and levers that were situated there.
"Just get me out of here, Qui," Dooku asked, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall.
Jinn licked his lip and hesitated - he didn't have a clue where to start; "Er… Master," he dithered, continuing to study the control panel, "Can't you just 'use the Force'?" He crouched down and found yet more switches there, as well as a line of blood that had made its way across the floor from a pile of Jedi bodies in the corner…
"Argh!" Qui-Gon yelled, leaping up and backing into the wall by his Master's side.
Dooku gave his Padawan a moment before he said softly, "No, Qui-Gon, I can't use the Force. Something's preventing me… And I fear that these bindings are too strong, even for that."
Jinn swallowed, "Master," he stuttered, hardly able to find his voice, "They're dead…" He rose his hand shakily and pointed to the corner where the stationary bodies lay, "The Jedi we came to save… they're dead!"
"I know, Qui-Gon," Dooku sighed, "And there's nothing we can do for them now."
"But Master -" he went on, becoming quite hysterical, his voice coming in jumps and starts.
"Qui, I will be dead too if you delay much longer!" Serenn interrupted.
Qui-Gon swallowed again, taken back by his mentor's indifference; "Yes, Master," he murmured, "I -"
"I'm sorry, Qui, but we are too late. Try and understand."
But Qui-Gon couldn't understand. He had never seen death before, and it scared him, haunted him… It wasn't something he could see as his Master did right now. But it scared him more to think that, had any more time been wasted, Dooku's body might have been laid on top of them, his mouth hanging open, his eyes wide and empty, gazing into the void of death…
His eyes hardened in resolve and he gave the device linked up to his mentor a look of reckoning; but it didn't help; "Oh, Master!" he whinged, "What do I do?"
"Yes, Qui, I took the liberty of reading the instruction manual before I came here, just in case we ended up in such a situation, so I naturally can answer your question."
Qui-Gon placed his hands on his hips and glared back at him; "This is no time to go sarcastic on me, Master Serenn Mirozan Carandini Dooku!"
Dooku gave him The Look in return, but knew when he was beaten, and gestured for Jinn to approach him with a nod of his head; "Come here, Qui," he muttered.
Jinn did as was told and paced to his Master's side. He also set his eyes on the needles inserted beneath the skin of Dooku's arms for the first time, and regarded them warily, paling slightly at the sight of the scarlet blood seeping through the transparent conduits attached to them.
Serenn followed Jinn's line of sight and said quietly to the boy, "Don't go queasy on me, Qui."
Jinn looked hard into his tutor's gaze and said, "I won't, Master. Tell me what to do."
Serenn took a deep breath and gestured toward the right hand corner, "See the rest of my robes, over there?"
Jinn turned and nodded his assent.
"Fetch them quickly," Dooku continued.
Qui sprinted across the room, dodging the various arms and implements in his path, gathered up the pile of beige robes, and returned to his mentor's side.
"Right, now listen carefully," Serenn said, pausing for a minute to gather his strengths, "I need you to break two strips away from them - tear them if you must - just make sure you have two long strips worth of material handy."
Jinn untangled the pile and took the two strips, that usually came over the shoulders and tucked below the belt, away from the rest. He clutched them in both hands and looked again to his Master.
"Okay, my boy… I want you to take each of these needles" - He nodded to either arm - "Out of my body, one at a time, and, as soon as you have, tie one of those strips tightly around the wound. Do you understand?"
Qui-Gon vacillated, "But, Master… what if I mess up?"
" 'If'? What do you mean 'if'? We don't dwell on ifs, buts and maybes, Qui…" Serenn retorted, "Come on, you're a clever lad, and I would trust you with my life."
Jinn rose an eyebrow, "Erm… you are trusting me with your life, aren't you?"
Serenn managed a smile, "Why, yes, so I am…"
Jinn took a step forward but again seemed to fill with hesitation, "You'll bleed, Master," he said, shaking his head before making eye contact, "I mean, you've lost enough blood already."
"And I'll just lose more if you leave me here, Qui…"
"But -"
"Qui-Gon Jinn, do it now!" he ordered, giving his Padawan a stern glare.
Qui shuddered at his mentor's rebuke, but it was what he'd needed to finally force his apprehensions aside and dive head first into the task. He went to Serenn's left arm and slowly drew the needle from his vein, letting it drop and dangle from its tube whilst he quickly tied the first band of material round his mentor's arm.
"Good boy," Dooku whispered as he watched Qui-Gon waste no time in repeating the procedure on the other arm.
Once both needles were out and astray, the console began to bleep, realising, somewhere in its mechanical brain, that something was amiss.
Jinn finished the job by tearing the round pads from his Master's chest and head and tossing them aside, before he eyed each of the metal binds that still held Dooku to the wall; he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to just tear them off…
"Now, what?" he asked his mentor.
"Get Allyaah," Serenn replied.
"She's busy."
"Qui, unless you think your lightsabre skills are adept enough to cut me free from these binds, I suggest you find her…"
Jinn backed away, "Oh, I'm not risking taking your hands off as well…" he said wryly, "You'd be in trouble then!"
He swiftly turned about and rushed out of the hole in the door, hoping beyond hope that he could find his way out again and then find Allyaah. Serenn just grinned as he watched him go.
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Allyaah's 'sabre flashed and whirred around her as she kept threatening the Colicoids with it, managing to keep them at a distance. Despite this, they continued to surround her, and though they kept their distance, were still too close for her liking.
"C'mon Qui, c'mon Serenn…" she muttered beneath her breath, suddenly taking a leg off a Colicoid that came too close. At this, the others began to hiss at her, rising up on their legs and holding their giant, armoured arms at the ready.
Then, she began to hear a voice; "Allyaah! Allyaah!" She glanced back over her shoulder and saw Jinn running toward her. She was part filled with relief, but part anxious to see him alone. He didn't looked grief stricken or ought, however…
Taking another wild swing at the Colicoids about her, she managed to force them apart for long enough to allow her to leap out of their enclosure and rush toward Qui-Gon; "Qui!" she exclaimed, "It's about time!"
Jinn shook his head, "What's with the 'about times' today?" he rejoined.
Allyaah looked bemused, so Jinn went on, "Master Dooku needs you. He's strapped up against a wall and needs cutting loose."
Allyaah blinked, "Just the norm, then," she said.
"Don't you go sarcastic on me, too!" Jinn pleaded.
Allyaah shook her head and, seeing that the Simaran and Sohta Colicoids were far too wrapped up in themselves to notice them leaving, took hold of Jinn's arm and rushed off with him back the way he'd come.
Well, at least she thought they wouldn't notice. But some of them certainly did.
["Go report to the Queen,"] one Sohta Colicoid chattered its comrade, ["She will not like this…"]
The ally swiftly coiled up into its wheel-like form and rolled off into the nest.
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Allyaah felt dizzy after a while as she followed Jinn through hallway after hallway in the compound of the Sohta nest. He seemed to know where he was going, though it was beyond her as to how he knew - it just proved that he was indeed a gifted young Jedi.
"How much further?" she asked as Qui took another left corner, quickly followed by a right.
"Not far," he called back, pausing briefly at a junction, before seeming to remember to go straight ahead, "Not far, I promise you."
She believed him and just continued to follow, still clutching her lightsabre at the ready.
Finally, they read a door with a conspicuous hole in it.
Jinn stopped and nodded to it, "Through here," he said and dived in.
Allyaah blinked, looking at the hole with a little apprehension.
"Come on! You can fit through there!" Qui called from the other side, as though he read her mind.
She shrugged and went for it, slipping through it quite easily, and landing rather elegantly on the floor the other side.
"I think that landing deserves a 9. Qui stumbled on his, but was still very quick, so I awarded him a 7."
Allyaah looked up at Serenn on the wall whilst she heard Qui-Gon snigger. She smiled a little dryly, and said, "Thank you, Master Dooku," as she rose to her feet and brushed herself off.
She walked over to him, glancing around at the room, and soon set her own eyes on the dead Jedi, piled in the corner like unimportant trash; she swallowed and put a hand to her mouth; "Oh, Force…" she whispered, her face paling in turn.
"We're too late," Serenn murmured to her, "Let's get out of here…"
She turned away and, surprising Serenn, wrapped her arms about his neck, "Thank the Force you're all right!"
"Do I look it?" he quipped, trying to lighten the moment a little.
She drew back and smiled at him; "No," she agreed, "But you're very much alive, and that's something."
She ignited her lightsabre and, with two movements so fast, Qui hadn't even noticed them, she released Serenn from his binds, and, quickly hooking her 'sabre hilt back on her belt, was just in time to help catch the weakened Jedi Master as he was freed from the wall. Qui-Gon raced to Dooku's other side and slung his arm about his neck.
"You're not going to be able to roll through my hole, are you?" Jinn asked him, as Allyaah forced Serenn's other arm round her neck. Both Dooku and Jiao gave him raised-eyebrows and Qui shrugged, "Just thought I'd mention it," he said.
It didn't seem to take Allyaah long to work out how to open the door (she was much more mechanically minded than Jinn, who was closer to the so-called 'living Force') and they were soon on their way out, dragging the ailing Dooku through the bland hallways on Qui-Gon's instructions.
It was a relief to exit the compound, even if it meant facing the dull, cavernous walls of the Sohta nest once more. Once they were out of it, they all sat down for a moment, gathering their strengths for the final leg of their journey which, they knew, would comprise of some sort of confrontation with the soldiers of the Sohta nest.
By now, the lengths of robe tied about Serenn's arms could be safely removed, and he seemed to be coming back to his stubborn self; "I can walk the rest of the way," was one of the first things he said.
Qui rolled his eyes, seeming to be well used to this sort of obstinacy - he possessed it himself, of course.
"I don't think you can, really," Allyaah told him with an equal persistence, "You've lost a lot of blood. You're weak."
He almost flinched at that; if there was one thing Dooku hated, it was being dependant on others. Getting help was an insult to him, and both Allyaah and Qui, who knew Dooku almost as well as they knew themselves, were all too aware of it. This only made situations like this more awkward.
"I'll be fine."
"Fat chance," Allyaah said rather snappily, but it seemed to get the message through. She got back to her feet, and hauled Serenn up with her, who seemed to give in; he was too exhausted to argue.
"Come on, Qui. Help your Master," she insisted and they continued on their way.
It came as a bit of a shock that, when they reached the scene of the recent diversion, no Sohta Colicoids were in sight. Female and what was left of her crew were stood around waiting for them. Allyaah frowned, lowered Serenn to the ground again and, leaving Jinn by his side, walked toward the group.
"What happened?" she asked Female, an uncomfortable aura filling her heart.
"They fled," Female replied, "We do not know why, but they did."
Allyaah looked around again - very few of the Sohta Colicoids seemed to have died. Not enough to force them to retreat, anyway. Something wasn't right.
"We need to get out of here," she said as she turned back to Female, "My friend isn't well. Can you show us the way out?"
Female rallied her troops and nodded her assent, "It would be our pleaschure. Follow ush."
Allyaah returned to Dooku and Jinn, and once again took up the Jedi Master, before following the Simaran entourage toward the exit of the nest.
TBC…
NB: - Mirozan is the name of Dooku used by Sinister Papaya Fondue in her fanfiction. I love it so much, that I've borrowed it to form the full of Dooku's name in my fics. It's already come up in my "Eclipse" fic once, as it is, but I need to give credit where it is due.