Anakin and Jacen advanced slowly, side by side, down the tunnel. It bored, smooth and cylindrical, deep into the massif and ended in a large, spherical launch bay. A small ship of a unfamiliar design was parked in the middle of the deck with the black cowled Darth Sinistra, throwing switches on a control panel nearby. She turned her invisible face to them as they entered and the sick dissonance of the Dark Side oozed from her, filling the dimly lit cavern with fear and menace.
Anakin swallowed. "Our only chance is to take her together - you go in slowly on the left side, I'll take the right."
"Right." Jacen murmured, shifting his grip on his lightsabre. "Clear your mind and feel the Force - and all that stuff."
"If you can through all this Dark Side interference." Anakin said with clenched teeth.
Jacen shot him a worried look. Anakin was more sensitive to the Force than most Jedi, did that mean the evil aura Sinistra put out was affecting him more? He looked awfully pale - but then Jacen was pretty sure he did too.
They ignited their lightsabres and advanced slowly on the Sith Witch, one from either side. Suddenly she moved; casting aside her hooded cloak she drew and ignited two red bladed lightsabres and fell into a crouching 'ready' stance.
The two young Jedi exchanged a final nervous but determined glance, then moved in for the attack, striking simultaneously from either direction. Sinistra blocked both blows, Jacen's back handed. Then she pushed Anakin away with her blade and flipped backward over Jacen's head putting them both in front of her. She lunged, striking out at both at once, and was parried. Jacen maneuvered behind forcing her to adopt a spinning defense.
She was good, terribly good, expertly trained in the art of sabre to sabre fighting. Anakin and Jacen wouldn't have stood a chance - even two against one - without Master Dooku's training in the ancient forms. But Anakin was definitely in trouble, the miasma of the Dark Side must be affecting him badly - or maybe he was just tired from the escape and the Arena battle. Or maybe it was a little of both.
Jacen ducked wildly to avoid a slash and went sprawling, his lightsabre flying from his hand. Anakin plunged in to cover him and Sinistra whirled and tried to engage him with both blades. Anakin gave ground in a controlled retreat, keeping her at a safe distance. Jacen called his sabre back to his hand and started for them.
"You are wise to keep your distance, young Jedi," the whispery voice said suddenly, "you remember what happened to your Master when he tried to fight Darth Maul."
"I remember that it was Maul who died." Anakin hissed back, and went on the offensive - which was exactly what Sinistra wanted. Recklessly pressing his attack he left himself open to her right hand sabre.
Jacen saw and dove in, knocking Anakin out of the way just in time, but taking the blow himself instead. Her sabre came down on his unguarded back, severing his spine and killing him instantly.
"Noooo!!!" Anakin howled.
The agonized cry echoed down the tunnel, freezing Amidala's blood and stopping her in her tracks, but sending Dooku hurtling forward, his dark robes flying. She recovered herself and ran after him arriving, breathless, just in time to see the Master's lightsabre flare to life blocking the downward slash of the Sith's red blade above a kneeling Anakin's bent head. Dooku flung Sly Moore back, then followed, forcing her away from Anakin.
Amidala ran to fling herself on her knees beside him. "Ani, are you all right?" then she saw Jacen. "Oh no."
Anakin didn't seem to hear her, or feel her grip on his arm. His attention was focused entirely on the old Master and the Sith.
Dooku circled his enemy warily, struggling with his grief, anger at the waste of Jacen's young life, fear for what his death would do to Obi-Wan and Anakin. The Sith sensed his turmoil and smiled: "Just a few seconds too late, Master Jedi. Do you want revenge for your dead pupil? Come, I can feel your rage, your hatred."
No doubt she could, Dooku struggled to master them. He must not give way to his darkness, not now. Not with the Chosen One's life and young Queen Amidala's hanging in the balance. "There is no remorse, there is no regret, there is only the Force." he told himself desperately. The Sith smiled.
The words of the litany brought Qui-Gon to mind and Dooku clutched the memory of his wise Padawan to him as a talisman. He knew exactly what Qui-Gon would say to him now; that it was presumption to claim control over events and the actions of others. That Jacen's life had not been wasted, he had given it for his friend, for the Chosen One, for their hope of defeating the Sith and righting the Balance of the Force. He had died as became a Jedi and was now one with the Force. There was nothing here to regret.
Dooku let his grief and anger leak away and a cool stillness welled into body and mind replacing them. In that stillness he felt Jacen's presence as strongly as if the boy were alive. But he was alive! he was one with all Life. Jacen had become the Force - and the Force was Jacen. "There is no death, there is no loss, there is only the Force." Dooku whispered in wonder. Then, more at one with It than he had ever been, he waited passive and at peace for the Witch's next move. She raised her hand.
Amidala gasped as lightning streaked from Sinistra's outstretched hand towards the old Jedi. And again as the Master almost casually raised his lightsabre to block and absorbed the energy. The ceiling above his head cracked and great chunks of rock began to fall, only to be shunted aside without so much as an upward glance. Light fixtures and pieces of machinery detached themselves from the walls to hurl themselves towards the Master - only to fall short.
Dooku smiled a mild, chiding smile. "Enough of these parlor tricks, Madam Moore," he said, his dark velvet voice serene, without mockery or impatience, "show me your skill with the blade."
She snarled with rage and attacked, her dual red lightsabres flashing too quick for the eye to follow. But the Master blocked every blow, his single blade painting patterns of blue light in the gloom of the landing bay, his calm face contrasting strangely with Sinistra's increasingly convulsive grimace of hate and fear.
Then, suddenly it was over; one of the Sith's two blades went flying and a backhanded strike severed her neck. The head rolled away and the body crumpled stiffly to its knees then fell flat at the Master's feet. He extinguished his lightsabre and stared down at it as if dazed - just as half a dozen Jedi raced into the chamber, their sabres blazing in their hands.
They were led, rather astonishingly, by the ancient and diminutive Yoda, with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon right behind him. All came to a full stop at the sight of Master Dooku standing over the dead Sith and Anakin and Amidala huddled together next to Jacen's body. Then they simultaneously doused their blades.
Little Master Yoda limped to Dooku's side, reached up to touch his hand. "Well done, my old Padawan." he said quietly.
"Thank you, Master." Dooku managed, huskily.
Obi-Wan came to kneel beside Jacen's body opposite Anakin and Amidala, his face almost frightening in its expressionlessness.
"It's all my fault." Ani whispered painfully. "I lost my temper, lost focus. It should have been me who died."
Obi-Wan glanced up at him and Amidala had to look away from the pain in his eyes, but his voice held nothing but asperity. "Don't talk nonsense, Ani! Do you think I'd be feeling one bit better right now if it had been you? You think I don't know how hard it is to keep calm and focused against a Sith? It could have been either of you - or even both of you. It was the will of the Force it should be Jacen who died."
Qui-Gon put a gentle hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder and he bowed his head, visibly struggling to master his grief. "Jacen was a true Jedi," the Master told his former Apprentice softly, "he has become one with the Force."
Obi-Wan nodded convulsively but didn't look up. Anakin began to cry, almost silently, shoulders shaking and Amidala put her arms around him, fighting back her own tears.
"Jacen died guarding a comrade's back." said Dooku's rippling velvet voice. Looking up Amidala saw he and Yoda had come to join them beside the fallen Jedi's body. "Reproach yourself only if you would not have done the same for him." 1
"I would have." Anakin said brokenly. "I wish I had." Amidala hugged him harder.
"What about me?" she demanded in a near whisper. "Ani, please don't wish yourself dead. It would kill me to lose you so soon after finding you!" Anakin looked at her startled, then wiped his eyes on his sleeve and made an effort to control himself. The Jedi Masters around them either didn't hear or pretended not to.
"And you, young one," Yoda said gently to Obi-Wan, "how are you?"
He took a deep, steadying breath before raising a mask-like face to answer: "I'm all right, Master."
Yoda looked at him skeptically. "All right, are you? To lose a Padawan a heavy grief - heavy grief. Know this I do, only too well." he studied Obi-Wan a long moment, then nodded. "Talk later we will."
"Master Yoda," a non-human Jedi with a mane of greenish tentacles appeared at the ancient Master's shoulder, "we found this in the Sith's ship." It was a tiny holo projector, the Jedi touched the control and a schematic etched in red light appeared. It looked like some kind of ship or space station.
Anakin stared at it, transfixed.: He saw a massive metal behemoth orbiting like a sullen moon above a blue world and obliterating it; the girl he knew to be his daughter sleeping in a tiny black cell then wakened by a soldier who pulled off his helmet to show Anakin the face of his son; the two of them running, running, pursued by soldiers in white armor similar but not quite identical to that of the Clonetroopers; then his son's face, calm and intent, as he fired a missile and the battle station exploded; Anakin heard his own voice say, 'Well done, son' and saw his daughter running towards them, face alight with joy, to fling herself into her brother's arms.
- Then he was back in the landing bay kneeling beside Jacen's body with Padme's arms around him and his Masters all watching him.
"Seen something you have?" said Yoda.
"Yes, Master." Anakin managed to answer. "It's a weapon, a planet killer." And it was going to be built and used in spite of their victory here at Geonosis and in spite of the Sith Witch's death. His son and Padme's would destroy it, but their son and his sister wouldn't be born for years yet! How long was this war going to last?
Yoda nodded slowly, grimly, as if he'd heard the unspoken as well as the spoken words. Then he held out his small green hand for the holo-projector and tucked it somewhere inside his robes. "Done what we can, we have." he said heavily. "Now go home we may."
Note 1. This line is not original. I'm quite sure I've read it, or something like it, somewhere - but where?