Author's Notes: Erm… I think I've got a writing bug, because these chapters are getting loooong. On a side note, the start of this chapter is kinda inspired by an episode in my old "Dark Lady…" fanfic; if I ever get round to rewriting that, then you'll recognise which chapter it's like immediately (in fact, all the uncivilised planet thing was a throw-back to my "Dark Lady…" story, too). And I'm not sure that some of this chapter is written that well. It'll do for now - I might just be in a self-criticising mood - but some bits just don't seem to read very well to me, at least not as well as I'd like.
Anyway, that aside, I must offer you all my sincerest apologies because I'm not going to get this story done before RotS, if you haven't already guessed - I'd be rushing it if I tried to finish it within the next twenty-four hours (eep!), and I'd rather not do that. I've just been at work too much, and can't write this story to the standard I want in such a short space of time. I just want you all to have fun at the cinema with "Revenge" - I'm sure I will, despite Dook's early departure - and I'll try my best to be finished within the next couple of weeks. :) MTFBWY, always!
Cael: Thanks for all your BIG reviews. I must confess, I'm no Padmé fan - I only originally used the poor girl because she was the only character I could use against Dooku in this story. I like her a bit better now, though, because I've kinda got to know her. :) Or at least my version of Padmé.
Padawanmage: Erm… what haven't I said in our emails? Oh, er…hmm… well, just thanks for the ever-helpful reviews!
Queeny: Can you imagine what the fan circuit would think, though, if Padmé and Dook' suddenly ended up together on-screen? Uh-oh… ;) Heh.
Cmdr. Gabe.E.: You give my story too much cred'. I'm glad you like it so much!
Kynstar: Wow, thanks. :) I can't tell you how much your review made me smile. And as to the Count's end in this story, you might need the tissues…
Silverwolf47: Sorry I'm not done in time for RotS. I tried. :) But I have updated.
REV042175: Again, my thanks. I'm glad you find my writing convincing and all.
HRHpadmeamidala: Where'd you find out about Dook's name? Not that I'm gonna change mine now… I like Serenn too much. :)
Tutleninja: I like twisted. Obviously.
Part 48 - The Omen
It was quiet in the room, quiet and dark. Something was wrong.
Serenn couldn't remember how he had gotten here, or even where here was, he only knew that he was here now. He was stood beneath a hazy shower of light, which came from some unidentifiable source above, and all around him was simply obscured by darkness.
He felt a terrible sensation of foreboding crawl down his spine and he looked about himself fretfully. "Padmé?" he called out. His voice only echoed back to him in slow, droning tenors. He was alone in the dark.
He began to panic and turned rapidly this way and that, his hand reaching for his lightsabre as he began to feel only more and more uncomfortable. "Padmé!" he called again, the red blade bursting to life before him. Where was he? What was going on? He was so afraid. He hadn't felt like this for a long time, but he knew that something bad was about to happen. Or, more likely, already had.
Suddenly, he heard a noise from the depths of the gloom behind him. He turned and peered into the thick blackness there, but could see nothing, so he just listened on carefully. After a long, agonising pause, where nothing happened and not the slightest particle moved, his ears finally picked up on the mystery sound again. He listened and then relaxed a little - he knew what that was. It was an infant crying. He had nothing to fear from a baby, surely? And yet he couldn't get rid of this feeling of unease.
Hooking his lightsabre back by his hip, the Count walked forward in the direction of the wailing, and he eventually came upon a cot, bathed in the same pale light as that which was following him. As he peered over the edge of the crib, he saw a child lay there, naked, a tiny, little baby boy.
The Count looked at the baby and could see that the child was in distress, and yet - and he didn't even feel guilty about this - he had absolutely no inclination of reaching down to pick him up.
Before Serenn could think any further on this, though, the cries of another child burst forth from behind him. Wheeling about, the Count saw yet another cot, placed not far off, and also bathed in a pale shimmer of light. He could swear that it hadn't been there before - he would have noticed it - but, in this ethereal place, he expected that anything could happen.
Serenn paced slowly across to look into this crib, feeling, for some reason, more nervous about seeing this child than he had the last. As he bent his head down to peer into the cradle, he saw yet another baby, but this time it was a little girl. This one, like the last, was crying wildly, and her tiny little hands reached out into the air above her, seeking for her absent mother.
The Count felt a great sensation of pity for this baby and had no qualms whatsoever about picking her up. He reached down and took the girl's tiny body up between his hands, then cradled her in the very crook of his arm. Once she settled there he rocked her gently and tried to soothe her, running his metal fingers over her brow and tickling her little belly. She seemed to calm almost instantly and her face broke into a glorious smile whilst she kicked her little legs about in glee.
He smiled back at the child. How he wished he could go back in time and experience all this normality, all this that had been taken from him… plain, simple fatherhood. It seemed unfair that he had been denied all this.
The little boy, meanwhile, was still crying, but Serenn hardly noticed as this dark-eyed beauty captivated him.
The atmosphere then suddenly made a great lurch and became conceivably different. Serenn looked up from the child as he felt a shiver traverse his spine and, for some reason unbeknownst to him, his eyes were drawn to the floor. He looked down and thus caught a
glimmer of something from out of the corner of his eye - it was a drop of blood.
The Count stared at this for a moment, his brow furrowing. This wasn't right at all…
He kept a firm hold of the bonny girl before, plucking up the courage, he tentatively walked over to inspect the red substance. As he got closer to it, however, the darkness lifted a little to show that there was not just a drop of blood on the floor, but a whole, sinister red trail.
His heart filled with coldness and the girl in his arms became instantly quiet and still, as though she could feel his fear and sense his unease.
Rubbing the child's body with his thumb, Serenn swallowed and followed the scarlet path, his heart beating ever the faster the further along the trail he went. As he got only the more tense, the baby girl seemed to get more tense as well, and Serenn could feel her tiny little hands clutch at his long hair and hold on to it tight, as if for comfort. He continued to only find pool after pool of blood, and each larger than the last one, serving to only make his apprehensions become more and more profound. What was this…?
Once he reached the end, though, he felt his stomach drop. His worst fears were all but confirmed and he could do nothing but halt abruptly and stare down in horror. There was a slender body of a woman on the floor, her face hidden beneath waves of long brown hair, and her body draped in a simple white gown. A great wash of thick, crimson blood was pooled beneath her.
Serenn walked over to the body and crouched by its side, balancing the baby in the crook of his arm so that he could reach out with his metal hand and roll the body over. When he then looked into the woman's face, it was with the deepest dismay; "Padmé…" he whispered.
Despite all appearances, she was yet alive. Her skin was pale and clammy and her life was ebbing away, yet she still had the strength enough to open her eyes and to see the child, her child, in the Count's arms. She subsequently gave him a final, sad smile and said, "Thank you, Serenn." And then, she was gone…
And thus, as if hit by lightning, Serenn shot up in bed and realised that it had been a dream. He felt disorientated at first, unable to work out where he was or what had recently transpired, until, as the sights, sounds and smells around him sunk in, reality filtered back and he remembered everything.
Wiping his forehead, he swung his legs over the bedside and bent down over his knees, running his fingers through his hair and trying to force down the sudden feeling of nausea in his stomach. He couldn't bear the thought of it, of Padmé dying amidst so much blood. He couldn't allow it to happen.
But what did it mean, to dream of her death? And those two children, what had they represented? "Two…" he pondered to himself, rubbing his beard. Had they both been Padmé's? He didn't understand. He had a terrible feeling about all this, though, and it left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. It all felt far too much like a premonition, and he just couldn't persuade himself that it had been nothing more than a nightmare, and thus had no consequence.
Slowly, the film of cold sweat evaporated from his body and cooled him until he began to shudder in the chill of the morn. With another sigh, he got up and walked to the window, and from there stared out over the panorama beyond, knocking his metallic knuckle against the windowsill as he thought on all this. The sky outside was grey and a violent wind sent the grasses in the fields hurling this way and that, tumbling into one another like figures trembling in panic. The waters of the lake were also restless, being chased all over the place to the haphazard pleasure of the wind. All this natural turmoil did nothing to calm the Count's recently unsettled stomach, so he turned away from the scene to look back across at Padmé as she lay in bed. She was still asleep and blissfully unaware of everything he had just seen in his dreams, for which he was thankful; in fact, he was in half a mind not to tell her about it at all.
And yet, he had just forged for good a bond of trust between them. Perhaps it was now his obligation to tell her…?
He sighed again and just watched her for some time, her face a glorious picture in the hazy light of the morning as she lay there, with one hand arched back over her head, and the other resting on the blankets, over her belly. He knew he shouldn't be here, and yet he knew as well as any that it took two.
He might happily have stood there all day, but he couldn't forget the reason why he was back here on Serenno; he had things to do, and people to see. Besides, he was sure that Mrs. Tarso would be in all a fluster looking for him, wondering which sofa he had slept on last night. He couldn't help but smirk to himself; that poor woman… She would be searching for a long time unless he made sure to find her first.
Taking one final look at Padmé, he paced into the en suite 'fresher room and quickly prepared himself for the day ahead; he had quite forgotten that he was in his own chambers, so he had everything at his disposal. By the time he was dressed and ready, he returned to find Padmé still asleep. He had the desire to just leave her there to rest, but he knew that many things were to be resolved today by the revolution's figureheads, and Padmé needed to be informed about it all. He therefore walked back to the bedside and leant over the young woman, kissing her forehead and whispering, "Rise and shine, my dear."
Padmé stirred at his touch and groaned, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. When she then opened them and saw him, she smiled and reached up to him, reminding Serenn uncannily of the baby girl of his dreams, seeking her mother. He consequently hesitated a moment before he bent down and let her embrace him. "Come on now," he then said, prying her away from him. "Time to get up."
She released him and sat up in bed, wiping her eyes a little more.
He watched her carefully and then suddenly felt concern niggle at his innards, a sensation of doubt toward her and her feelings following last night; "Are you all right?" he asked, sitting on the bed by her side.
She looked him up and down with another smile and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine."
He was quite relieved to hear this, but said, "I just feel a bit… guilty."
"Guilty?" she asked quietly. "Why?"
He stared at his hands between his knees. "Because of what I've done before… and because you're pregnant."
The Count then glanced over at Padmé and his stare penetrated her to her very soul. "And--" he stuttered.
She felt her brow furrow and she placed her hand on his arm. "What?"
Serenn looked down at her hand and rubbed it affectionately, but continued to remain silent. The aura felt a little uneasy, and it only got more so as the silence drew on.
"Padmé," Serenn then murmured at last, "I'm worried about you. I've just got a really bad feeling about this."
"A bad feeling? About what?" she asked.
When he turned to her, he kept his eyes locked on hers, but moved his hand to her belly, making her jump as she felt him press it firmly against her skin, where her baby would be growing. "About your child," he whispered.
She looked at him hard, studying his face intently. She was trying to get beneath the façade, beneath the barrier that his visage presented, but at this moment in time, she could not. "Why?" she thus asked.
"I…" He sighed and turned away again and mulled things over for a moment longer, before he confessed; "I had another nightmare last night. I'd hoped that I wouldn't, but I did… I saw you in pain, in great pain, and I--" He swallowed hard and just shook his head. "I can't shake this terrible feeling that something bad's going to happen to you…"
Padmé's fingers slid off his arm and she looked away into a corner of the room. "I'll be okay…" she murmured. "And, besides," she added, looking back at him with a smile, "you'll be here with me, won't you?"
His eyes rose to meet hers and he frowned. "'With you'?" he asked.
Padmé's smile dropped. She hadn't expected this kind of reaction at all, so it was no surprise that, just when she was beginning to feel safe, she now felt vulnerable again. "You will be here for me, won't you?" she pressed on, suddenly anxious, "You're not going anywhere…?"
Serenn cupped her cheek in his hand and looked at her sadly, smiling a little. "I don't know," he professed. "I still have debts to pay, Padmé; I owe a lot to the peoples of this galaxy."
The colour drained from her face a little when he said this. "But what more do you need to do?" she whispered, holding his hand to her face with her own.
He gave her a long, lingering look and slowly drew his hand away. "The Emperor has one final stage in his plan, after he has wiped out the Jedi. He plans to build a battle station, a giant one, that will have the power to crush cities, maybe even planets… It is this plan that I need to stop as soon as possible. If I can retrieve the plans, great. If not, then I need to try to stop them. I believe that this shall be my next task. My last task."
Padmé's gaze on him tightened. "But how do you know about these plans?" she asked.
He looked away. "Because I commissioned them."
Padmé closed her eyes in horror. "Oh, Serenn…" she sighed. "You have made such a mess of things."
"I know," he grimly concurred. "I'm just trying to fix some of my mistakes."
"You can't fix everything," she whispered.
He looked at her for another moment before he kissed her lovingly on her forehead and said, "I know, my dear." He then got to his feet and pulled his hair back behind his head, searching for something to tie it back with. "I believe Bail Organa is arriving soon, then we should be having a meeting to discuss all this." He fumbled about through some drawers, looking under and around everything. "At least it seems to have boosted the general moral, having you back - as far as I can tell, anyway."
Padmé smirked a little. "Well I should hope I boosted your moral."
He laughed pleasantly at that, a sound that Padmé liked very much, and he then finally found an elastic band, so quickly tied his hair back into a ponytail. He then turned to look at her again and they stared at one another for a moment; things were still a bit awkward and a bit unresolved between them, and they were both unsure of where to go from here. Padmé just determined, in the end, to slip out of bed and embrace him. And he held her close in return.
He thought on things for another moment before he murmured, "Padmé, does Palpatine know?"
Padmé swallowed and rubbed her fingers over the folds of his clothes, images flashing before her eyes of the Sith Master and the moment he placed his hand upon her womb and sought the life within. She closed her eyes with a shudder. "Yes. And Anakin knows," she whispered.
Serenn inhaled deeply. "I presume that they will want to find you again… Especially Lord Sidious. He's always on the look out for his next protégé," he said.
Padmé tensed again. "Well, you've hit the nail on the head," she whispered.
"Am I right?" he persisted.
"Yes," she sighed, burying her head into his chest. "I'm so afraid. I don't want him or Anakin to take my boy away."
"'Boy'?" he asked, "I can hardly see the curve of your belly - I can hardly sense that little life at all - yet you think it's a boy?"
"I don't know," Padmé confessed, turning away from him and standing alone. "It was the Emperor who said it. And he apparently knows everything." She bit her lip and leant her head into her hand, trying to dispel the memories.
Serenn picked up on this and he immediately stiffened. "Did he hurt you?" he asked, his mouth suddenly very dry. "Did Palpatine hurt you?"
She hesitated before she confessed quietly, "A little."
Serenn looked very serious and a little angry. This was his fault, it was all his fault…
Padmé turned back to him and stroked his arm with the back of her hand. "I wish you'd stop bringing up all these things I want to forget..."
He looked at her and offered her a small smile. "Forgive me, my lady. I just…" He shook his head, and left the sentence open, whereupon Padmé wrapped her arms round him again and he clasped her into him in return.
Bail Organa arrived on Serenno this same morning, his ship braving the high winds and gliding a little less than smoothly into the manor's hangar. Though he had been loath to admit it, this planet had proved to be the perfect place for the newborn rebellion to hide itself. There was nothing on Serenno to interest the Empire - it had bowed to its will as easily as it had so recently bowed to the Confederacy's - and, with the Count presumed dead, no one was about to rank his old family manor, in the middle of nowhere, as a place of any importance. The Empire had more pressing matters to deal with right now.
Bail was none too happy about being here, however. He hadn't exchanged a single word with Count Dooku since Master Yoda had rescued him, and he hadn't really planned on starting now; it was, in his opinion, both ironic and infuriating that one of the main coordinators of the whole intergalactic conflicts, a man who had served at Darth Sidious's side, no less, was now assisting them in their attempts to overthrow the Empire he had helped put into place. Bail had never been a fan of Dooku as it was - he believed that one could see trouble brewing constantly in his eyes - but he had Yoda's assurance that the Count was vital to their objectives, and he could do nothing but defer to Yoda's word.
Still, he couldn't help but feel uneasy - it might be true that Dooku would now be a source of inside information, and with him being such a powerful warrior, it was safer to have him on your side rather than on the opposing one, but who could seriously assure them that he wouldn't fail their cause if things ever got desperate, or if the Emperor rediscovered him and made him an irresistible offer? After the Count had made perhaps the biggest possible betrayal to the Republic, Bail didn't find the notion of him making another too farfetched.
All this negativity aside, at least Yoda's second mission to Coruscant had come off somewhat successfully. He had heard that the Emperor had taken a blow and Padmé was back with them, though he professed that he didn't know all the details; he was hoping to learn all about that today. Nevertheless, he only felt partially heartened by this news; he had a bad feeling that Yoda's mission, however necessary, might have only served to put them in more danger than they needed. The Emperor would now know, at least, that Padmé was out there, as well as that Master Yoda was alive and kicking, but what concerned Bail most was the fact that Palpatine might have realised that a revolution was already beginning to brew beneath the shroud of his mighty Empire. And the Emperor would like none of this.
Organa pondered over all this as he walked down the ramp from his ship into the hangar of Dooku's mansion to be met by Obi-Wan Kenobi, who next greeted him with his typical Jedi bow. "Nice to see you again, Bail," he said. "I trust your journey was smooth?"
Bail nodded. "Thankfully, yes." He looked round the small hangar with an approving nod, "And I presume your relocation here went well, too?"
"Yes," Obi replied as he and the senator turned toward the exit. "Everyone's housed and at ease. We have plenty of room for training out here, across the grounds, and there's a great communication suite underground. Dooku wasn't half set up here during his time as a separatist."
Bail pursed his lips. "Yes, I bet he was." He exchanged an uneasy glance with Kenobi then said, "I'm sorry to be pessimistic about things, Master Kenobi, but I've got a very bad feeling about this man."
Obi nodded as if he, too, shared that sentiment. "Things haven't been easy for me either," he confessed. Though Kenobi hadn't spent much time with Dooku since the latter's rescue, relations between them both were a bit taut, which was only to be expected after their confrontation during the early Clone Wars. Regardless of all this, Obi had helped Master Yoda to heal the Count, even if that had been more for Master Yoda's benefit than for Dooku's. The thing was that Obi-Wan, like Bail, just couldn't shake his own feelings of mistrust toward the man, even now; as far as he was concerned, Dooku had double-crossed them all, and he didn't feel inclined to forgive and forget that.
One thing that did surprise Obi-Wan, therefore, was the clemency that Padmé showed toward Dooku - in fact, he was more than surprised; he was frankly astounded. She had been betrayed far more than anyone else under this roof, and yet she had been, and continued to be, so merciful. It was little wonder that the Naboo had loved her so much if her disposition had been one of such lenience and kindness, though whether she was actually wise was another thing altogether.
"And how is Padmé doing?" Bail asked as if he sensed Kenobi's very thoughts. "I look forward to seeing her again."
Obi-Wan smiled weakly. "She seems quite well," he said, "though she's undoubtedly got a lot on her mind." He paused for a moment. "She's a strong young lady," he remarked, "there's no doubt about that."
Bail agreed with a nod. "Oh, yes, indeed."
Kenobi ground his teeth together and looked hard at Organa. "I am concerned for her, though, Bail" he said. "She seems to have grown… well, quite 'attached' to Count Dooku, and it's just beyond me as to why." He shook his head. "It can't be good for her."
Bail looked rather vexed by this, and his brow furrowed as he thought on it. "I'm not aware of everything that happened to her, but I was led to believe that Dooku was behind it all - the manipulation and the blackmail, and so on and so forth - so it all seems quite unlikely that she would then become 'friends' with him. Not on those terms." He considered this for another moment, then just said plainly. "If truth be told, Obi-Wan, to me, that just doesn't make sense. He made her join the separatists, he made her sign over her planet… It's a ridiculous notion."
"Well, I guess it's not really my business," Kenobi sighed at length before he looked at Bail and offered him one of his characteristic smiles. "Come, we'll take some breakfast, then we'll meet with Master Yoda below ground."
The two thus entered the manor and paced together down its halls.
"I'm surprised you don't snore."
"What do you mean by 'surprised'?"
Padmé shrugged and smiled at Serenn as they walked down the quiet corridors this morning. "I don't know," she said, glancing out of the windows that they passed, "I just am."
His brow arched and he looked down at her until she turned back to look at him. "So you believe you can judge a snoring man by his looks, yes?" he asked her. "Have I got that right?"
She just gave him another sweet smile. "I suppose," she said.
He thought on this for a while, then asked, "Is it my beard?"
"It might be."
"My age?"
"Definitely that."
The Count shook his head but he couldn't help but smirk at her. "You are rather curious sometimes, Padmé."
"I'm glad you don't snore, though."
Serenn actually chuckled. "This is perhaps the most absurd conversation I've ever had with anyone, my dear. In fact, I find the inanity of it quite refreshing."
"I just thought I'd make conversation."
"Yes…" he murmured. "I'm wondering whether you hit your head last night."
"I'm sure I'd remember."
"Not if you hit your head, you wouldn't. That's half the point."
She laughed and gave his arm an affectionate push before they turned a corner and descended the mansion's main, large staircase. As they set foot in the hall below, they passed a few pilots all going out onto the grounds for a spot of target practise; they were all human except one trandoshan, and they each nodded their greetings to the Count and Padmé in turn. Serenn then guided Padmé down several more corridors before they slipped through an inconspicuous side door, which led to the underground vaults. She followed him through the doorway and then down some narrow, spiralling stone steps, until they reached the long, cold passageway of the manor's subterranean levels.
Padmé looked around at the bare, stone walls and felt herself shudder. She remembered walking down here before, when things had been at close to their most bitter between her and the Count... It seemed so strange now, to think of how everything had worked out.
As these thoughts came back to haunt her, she hardly realised that she had frozen to the spot, and it took the touch of Dooku's hand on her arm to awaken her from her unpleasant reverie; "Are you okay?" he asked her.
She looked at him and nodded. "Yes… It's just… memories."
Serenn's arm came round her shoulder and he gave it a rub before he urged her to walk along with him.
"So, who's going to be at this meeting?" Padmé asked as she felt the warmth of his body against hers and tried to focus on the here and now.
"Master Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi…" Serenn replied, his boots echoing against the floor. "And if Organa's arrived, then him, too. If anyone else turns up, I shall be surprised."
Padmé sighed, suddenly feeling a little dizzy and she put her hand to her forehead, closing her eyes. It was ironic that it was here, at virtually this exact spot, that she had once had to fight the urge to throw up, a long time ago...
"Padmé, if you're unwell?" she heard Serenn's soft voice come to her through the strange bubble of giddiness that had inflated in her consciousness. She swallowed and shook her head, opening her eyes again. "I'm fine," she assured him.
He gave her an unconvinced look, but slowly continued again, keeping a firm hold of her.
After a while, they reached the door at the end of the passage and Serenn took her across the threshold and into the military-base-esque communication's room, filled with that large, circular table, around which the Confederacy had once converged. But no more… Only the ghost of their memories remained, and only the Count of them all still lived.
As the door closed behind them, Padmé looked around and saw that they were not alone, but, though all the faces were familiar to her, the atmosphere wasn't as welcoming as she had expected it to be, and she could practically smell the sudden tautening of Dooku's body as he locked gazes with Senator Bail Organa, who was stood rigidly by the back wall. Serenn bowed to the Alderaanian, albeit rather stiffly, and said, "Senator Organa. I see you have arrived."
He got a rather stilted nod in return. "Well observed, Count Dooku" Bail replied.
Padmé took this brief opportunity to look over at both Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was sat by the table, toward the left side of the room, and Master Yoda, who was sat on top of the table altogether, because the chairs were too low for his little body, and she smiled a little at them both, before she then turned her sights back onto Senator Organa.
"I was hoping to see you earlier, seeing as this is your house…" Bail continued, taking it upon himself to pace round the table toward the Count, "but then, what do I know about the rules of playing host on Serenno?" He gave Dooku a brief, stinging smile, before he then just glowered at him again.
Padmé, somewhat intuitively, suddenly placed her hand against Serenn's arm, trying to pacify his temper, but he shrugged her off and scowled at Bail as the senator dared to close the gap between them to so little that he was now standing right under the Count's nose.
Padmé looked to Obi-Wan and to Yoda, but neither looked likely to intervene.
"And how is Padmé Amidala this morning?" Bail went on, staring into Dooku's eyes until he'd finished the sentence, after which he turned them onto her. His voice softened as he then added "Are you well?"
Padmé opened her mouth to reply, but suddenly closed it again as she felt bile flood at the foot of her gullet and threaten to just leap forth from her mouth. She took a breath and swallowed hard, trying to dissolve the sickness; she was quite unable to understand from whence the sensation had suddenly come, and she was more than a little putout by it. She could have done without this show of affliction right now.
"It would appear not," Bail thus deduced, looking at her with his usual kindness, before his demeanour again froze over into distrust as he once more pinned Dooku with his gaze.
The Count just glared back for a moment until he forced his line of sight down in an attempt to shut out the view and calm himself. He couldn't afford to lose his temper now...
Bail finally stepped away and placed his hand on Padmé's shoulder, taking her a short distance away for a brief talk, but as Serenn set his eyes on them and stared at Organa's hand, a terrible sensation of resentment burst to life in his heart.
He watched Bail's mouth move as the senator said to Padmé, "Are you all right?", before she nodded to him in return and answered in a voice too soft and indistinct for him to hear. He felt suddenly agitated and he could not pull his eyes away from Organa's hand. His heart pounded in his chest and he could do nothing to prevent his anger from proliferating like a deadly poison through his veins, taking him over and drawing him back toward that dark place in his heart that he had attempted to mark off bounds. All he could suddenly think of was 'get your hands off her, leave her alone', and he felt his fists clench and his muscles contract. He wanted to pounce on Organa, he wanted to tear off his limbs and have him gone from his house, he wanted--
He blinked and gasped, his senses thus flooding back to him as he suddenly realised what was happening; there was the dark side again, caged deep within him, just waiting to be unleashed. It had whispered slander in his ears - 'look, he wants her now, he's going to take her from you, don't let him' - and he had almost given into it. He heaved a great sigh and wiped his eyes, mortified by that small, insignificant moment which could have become something much worse. As he then looked up again, he realised that Master Yoda was staring fixedly at him, and he knew that his old mentor would have felt it all. The diminutive Jedi gave him a slow, approving nod, and Serenn smiled weakly in return; the dark side had tried to usurp his sanity again, but in this instance, it had failed.
He looked back up to Bail and Padmé and saw that they were looking at him. "I'm sorry?" he said.
"I said I'd trust you with my life," Padmé repeated. "And that you really have changed."
He swallowed again and nodded a little. "Yes… thank you."
As Padmé turned back to Bail and said a little more, Serenn just wiped his eyes and filled with shame at what he had just allowed to happen within his soul. Never again, he kept telling himself, and yet it was there, haunting him, like he had told Padmé it would.
'I have gone so deep that it has consumed me. I cannot get away from it. It shall haunt my dreams and feed off my weaknesses until I die.'
After another moment, Bail and Padmé parted and she came back to his side. "You look a bit pale, now," she whispered, "Are you all right?"
"Do not concern yourself with me, for the Force's sake," he replied, offering her a seat before he then sat next to her. "How are you now?"
She glanced to him and said, "I'm okay… I'm just hoping it doesn't get worse."
Bail walked over to a seat near Obi-Wan and sat down before he related to all present, "Senator Mothma regrets that she cannot attend. If she left her post on Chandrilla right now, she would be jeopardising both the safety of herself and of her people."
Yoda nodded as he heard this and sighed in thought. "Understandable. Safe no one is. Difficult our task shall be."
Bail's eyes then turned back onto the Count, and despite whatever Padmé had said to him, Serenn knew that the man would never trust him again. "Would the venerable Count now like to enlighten us to the current state of events?" he said.
Serenn looked straight into Bail's eyes and his gaze tightened; he could hear the sarcasm and see the mistrust, and yet, what could he do? Organa had every right to hate him; he frankly hated himself. He therefore took a deep breath and clasped his hands on the table before him, searching for the right place to start. "First of all, I welcome you to my home. I'm glad that it can finally have some use after all these years. And secondly, though it is of little consolation, please accept my deepest apologies for all that I have done. I sincerely wish that I could rectify all my mistakes, but," - and here he exchanged a glance with Padmé, - "I fear that the person who told me I cannot fix everything is unfortunately too right."
He stopped for a moment and felt Bail's sceptical gaze on his face again, which still only served to enrage him. He had to keep reminding himself that that beast must remain caged within and that, no matter what he said, he couldn't change that man's views on him.
"Firstly, for Senator Organa's benefit," he finally went on, "let me recount the mission Master Yoda and I undertook to Coruscant…"
He paused and thought back on this. "We used a stolen shuttle to journey back to the capital and, fortunately for us, sneaking down onto the planet didn't prove too much of a problem. The Empire's new security measures are still being put into place, so things were far too chaotic for them to be able to pick up on the likes of us. We therefore didn't waste any time in entering the old senate and going about our business. Whilst Master Yoda made it his duty to engage the Sith Master, I confronted a royal guard and then disguised myself with his uniform so that I could travel through the senate undetected." He paused, licking his lip. "I clearly found Padmé," - he gestured toward her - "but Master Yoda was less fortunate in his assault on the Sith Master."
Bail and Obi-Wan looked to Yoda on cue as the diminutive Jedi nodded. "Hmm… too powerful was he. Too powerful."
"But Master Yoda did inflict quite a blow on him," Serenn went on.
"Yes," Yoda concurred. "Force lightning did the Sith Master use. And back at him did I send it. Unprepared was he for this. A malformed figure he is now."
"Though no less powerful," Dooku commented.
Yoda gave Serenn a sharp look. "Not everything can I do, old Padawan! What expect you of Yoda? A Sith Master on a platter, hmm?"
Padmé chuckled a little, though tried not to laugh out loud, and covered her mouth with the back of her hand, whilst Serenn also covered his mouth in an attempt to conceal his mirth. Once he composed himself again, he then cleared his throat and continued once more; "Well, in conclusion, we were relatively successful."
There was a pause.
"Perhaps," Bail then said. "But you have undoubtedly made Palpatine very suspicious of what is really going on in his Empire."
"The Emperor is a very suspicious man as it is," Serenn countered, staring hard at the Alderaanian, "We revealed nothing to him that he doesn't know already."
Bail's brow rose. "So he knows that you're alive, does he, Count?"
Serenn folded his arms. "I wouldn't be surprised. In fact, I'm fairly certain that he's never thought me dead."
Bail shook his head and sighed. "As you say. But now what? Where do we need to go from here?"
Dooku stared on at Organa for another long moment before he uttered, "Project Death Star."
Obi-Wan finally seemed to come to life and he leant forward in his seat, clasping his hands over the tabletop whilst Bail just folded his arms and gave the Count a quizzical look.
"Lord Sidious' plans are multi-layered nightmares of acumen," Dooku explained. "He has been plotting his rise to power for many years and he has only achieved this with great care, patience and precise timing. Though he has an Empire and unrestricted powers over the galaxy, do not be led to believe that he has realised his every goal. He has not. There is at least one final stage in his plan that I know he needs to accomplish, and that is Death Star."
Bail now gave the Count a most fearful look, the very name of this thing somehow serving to send a chill down his spine. "And what is this 'Death Star'?" he asked in a quiet, hoarse voice.
Serenn paused for another moment and glanced again at Padmé who simply urged him to carry on with a slight nod. He stared across the round table between both Obi and Bail, and said, "Death Star is, or at least shall be, a giant battle station. Through me, Lord Sidious commissioned the Geonosians to help design and build this thing and, as I'm sure you are aware, the Geonosians thrive at this sort of task. They soon had a blueprint fabricated and it has long been ready to build. The beginning of the Clone Wars interrupted their progress, however, so I was forced to take these plans from Geonosis and hand them over to Lord Sidious himself for safekeeping," - Bail scoffed upon hearing this, but Serenn just continued - "He has yet to build this thing, this Death Star, but I am confident that this shall be the next and final step in his plan. This is something we have to stop."
"So what does this thing do?" Obi-Wan asked, leaning toward Dooku over the table.
Serenn gave the Jedi a long, reluctant look and Padmé could now feel again that almost corporeal tension in the room where one could tell that everyone would much rather be somewhere else…
Exhaling slowly and placing his metal hand on the table once more, Serenn gave the surface a few, quick taps with his heavy fingers before he murmured, "Death Star shall be the home of at least a million people, but it shall be the bane of more…"
"So what is it?" Bail asked. "A giant concentration camp? A prison?"
Dooku glared at him. "It is a space station."
Bail frowned, then exchanged an uneasy glance with both Yoda and Obi-Wan. "A space station?" he asked, waiting for the coming blow; there was nothing new or dangerous about the concept of a space station, yet he could tell that he had not yet been given the most horrendous of its details.
"This space station shall be the size of a small moon," Serenn continued.
"That large?" Bail gasped.
Dooku nodded, then looked down again at his hand as he rapped the metal digits against the tabletop. "And it will carry a super-laser with the power to destroy cities, continents, and perhaps even planets."
There was a dreadful silence. When Serenn finally rose his gaze another time, he could see that Organa's face had just frozen in horror, whilst both Obi-Wan and Master Yoda were looking away, lost in their own thoughts and misgivings.
"Planets?" Organa gasped at length, barking out a short, sharp laugh. "But that's impossible. There's not the technology, not the power available to make such a thing. It's sheer nonsense, it's--"
Serenn shot to his feet. "This thing is the first of its kind, I grant you, but let me tell you now, it will happen. The Emperor will see to that. It is only a matter of time; he has the wealth and the authority to make sure that it comes to life, and if we don't currently have the technology, then we soon shall. And I'm warning you all now," - and he pointed to them each in turn, even Padmé - "if we don't stop its production before it's too late, then it won't take the Emperor even half as long to make a second, perhaps even a third. Once the first is done, the questions shall be answered, all the kinks shall be worked out, and the possibilities shall be endless."
Bail shook his head, unable to believe all this possible. "This is absurd, Count Dooku, absolutely absurd."
Serenn just glared back at him, planting his hands down upon the smooth surface of the table and giving the senator his gravest of looks. "Don't come crying to me when your planet is blown sky-high then, friend."
Bail swallowed hard, still unable to quite get his mind around it all; the very thought of such a gigantic killing machine made the marrow of his bones go cold, and he could feel his body tremble as he was simply overcome by terror at something he may not have the power to stop. "What were you thinking, when you were going along with all this?" he asked the Count. "What possibly made you put your name down to create this monster?" He wiped his forehead and smiled bitterly. "Well, you've made a fine mess of things, Count. A damn well fine mess..."
Serenn felt his blood boil and his lip trembled as he prepared to volley a response back at him, but again, he was grounded by Padmé as her hand came to rest flat against his arm. He shuddered as she touched him and he looked into her eyes and read the signs. 'Calm down' she was saying, and he obeyed, slowly slumping back down into his seat and trying not to think about the evils he had set into motion.
Yoda shook his head, the state of the galaxy at the worst that he had ever seen it. He got onto his little feet and, supporting himself on his cane, hobbled right to the centre of the table, saying to them all, "Our objectives, we now have. Prioritise our mission to counteract the Death Star, we must. But much more is needed before effective our cause shall be. Short on money, on supplies, on ships, on bases, and on friends, are we." He sighed and rested his little body on his cane, before he then looked up to Serenn. "Much help do we need."
Dooku stared back at his mentor for a while before it then dawned on him that he had a choice to make. This rebellion was not about fighting the mere principles of the Empire, it was about fighting for one's freedom and for the very right to live, and the Count knew that he had the means to help this cause as much as Yoda knew that he did. "Then I have an offer to make," he said at last.
Yoda nodded gently, a smile glittering in his eyes if not on his face. "Then speak, old friend."
Serenn swallowed again before he said, looking across to Kenobi and Organa, "I am a wealthy man, far too wealthy, and I have inherited a fortune large beyond my needs. I therefore have no qualms in laying it all down for you and this cause." He looked particularly at Obi-Wan as he added. "I shall pass my fortune down to you."
Bail sat back and thought on this, though was too perturbed to accept this proposal with open arms, whilst Obi held Dooku's gaze for some time before he simply looked down at his hands and resolved to say nothing.
The Count deflated a little at this anticlimax, until Yoda said, "Hmm, yes, a wise thing this is. A good decision you have made, old friend. A good decision."
Serenn gave him a nod, glad that at least someone was going to be even a little thankful for it, though he had to accept that, after everything he had done, it was unlikely he'd be able to do anything right from now on; everything he touched was tainted by his betrayals and his crimes.
He sighed over this miserable notion then turned to Padmé, only to find that she looked a bit tense herself, maybe even a bit ill... His brow knotted and he lightly placed his fingers over her hand. "Are you all right?" he asked her quietly.
She nodded before she then angled her head up to look at him. "Yes, I'm just --" Then she shook her head and decided not to play him false. "No I'm not…" she owned up. "I feel really dizzy and sick."
Dooku swallowed and then looked to Bail and Obi-Wan, who seemed to realise something was amiss, and they both rose their eyebrows in turn. He looked back to Padmé and helped her to her feet, holding her steady with his hands. "Can you excuse us for a moment?" he asked.
Obi-Wan sat back and looked at Bail, whilst Organa just shook his head and chewed on his tongue. Yoda, meanwhile, settled back down onto the shiny surface of the table and, despite everything, permitted himself a crooked, little smile.
Serenn got Padmé's head over a toilet just in time. She just threw up vigorously, clutching at the edge of the bowl, whilst Serenn held her hair behind her head and stroked her back.
"This would have made interesting conversation," he said quietly, "You vomiting all over the table."
She smiled faintly as she finally gained respite from her unruly stomach and sat back from the basin, looking at him shyly. "Sorry," she said, mortified.
"Whatever for?"
"Being sick."
He just chuckled and shook his head. "It's all right. I'm not blaming you. It's to be expected, isn't it?"
"I suppose… not that they'll understand that."
He smiled softly at her again and thought on this for a moment. "Do you want to stay here and let me tell them?"
"You?" she asked, looking slightly dismayed by the prospect. "After the way you reacted last night?"
He looked away, having his own moment of chagrin. "I am sorry about that… I'm just not the man I once was."
She wiped her forehead and looked down, trying to concentrate on settling her stomach. "Don't worry about it," she sighed before she then sat back against the 'fresher room wall and tried to gain some relief from the cool tiles. "I'd rather tell them, Serenn, but…"
"You don't trust your stomach?"
She smiled a little, running her hand through her hair. "No…" She paused for a moment then rose her eyes to his. "What do you think they'll do about it?"
"'Do'? I doubt they'll do anything except talk." He looked on her another moment before he shifted to her side and stroked her arm down from her shoulder to her hand. "Things will be all right," he said. "I promise."
She gave him another smile and nodded a little, hoping he was right.
All heads turned toward the door when Dooku finally returned to the underground communications centre. "Forgive me, gentlemen," he said, "I'm afraid Padmé just isn't too well."
Bail was on his feet by now with that tense expression on his face; his body oozed of discomfort, and he looked like he wanted to get out of here and have some fresh air, whilst Obi-Wan was in one of his meditative moods, mulling over everything in silence. Project Death Star hovered around them like a thick sinister fog, one that had little prospect of lifting.
Yoda looked hard at Serenn and rose an eyebrow. "Something to tell us, you have," he said, pointing one small, clawed finger at his old Padawan.
Serenn was beginning to wonder if Yoda was actually orchestrating this meeting, but he cast that aside and simply took a breath and nodded, thinking about how it would be best to go about all this. "Padmé would like to tell you this herself," he said quietly, "but she has been… inconvenienced."
"Then speak, Count Dooku," Bail insisted. "What worse do you have to tell us?"
Serenn looked the senator up-and-down then put his hand to his beard and rubbed it. "There's no easy way about this," he murmured, repressing his feelings of displacement and rancour. "Padmé is now with child."
Obi-Wan felt his brow furrow whilst Bail looked more than a little disconcerted. "Pregnant?" he asked.
Before anyone could start jumping to conclusions, Serenn took it upon himself to get back in there as quickly as he could. "Yes," he nodded, unable to keep the contempt out of his voice, "by Lord Vader… or rather Anakin Skywalker." He paused for a moment, grinding his teeth together. "I'm sure you'll all understand the danger of this situation. The Emperor is already aware of her condition, as is Darth Vader, so it will not be long before they start scouring the galaxy for her. We need to be extra careful in our concealment of her, and of ourselves."
Organa bit down on his lip. "Scouring the galaxy for her? Are you saying that the Emperor feels threatened by this baby?"
Dooku allowed himself a grim smile. "Think about it, Organa: the son or daughter of the Chosen One, inheriting all his or her father's powers and abilities." He shook his head. "Think of what this child might grow into. Think of it." He looked at Obi-Wan then at Master Yoda. "The child is a threat."
Bail shook his head and ran his hand back over it as this sank in. "By the stars, can things really get any worse?" He collapsed into a chair and stared numbly into space. "Not only do we have a deadly battle station to contend with, but we also have a woman carrying the child of a Sith Lord, a child which could one day destroy us all."
"Yes, but it could destroy the Sith Master, that's the point," Serenn growled, "Don't you understand? The child is more a threat to him than to us."
"Then you want us to conceal it?"
"For Padmé's sake and the child's, yes. They must never be found."
"That's very noble of you, all things considered."
"It has to be done."
"Well, I'd like to hear how you plan to go about achieving this. You're not going to be here forever, Count Dooku, and neither are we."
Yoda thumped the table with his cane. "Enough," he said. "Heard enough, we have!"
Bail and Dooku relented and fell into silence.
"Right my old Padawan is," Yoda said as the storm calmed. "A new hope have we here."
"It's a bit early to make judgements like that, Master Yoda," Bail said candidly. "Look what became of the heralded Chosen One."
Obi-Wan threw Bail a sharp glance for a brief moment before he looked back to the Count and asked plainly, "You are sure?"
Serenn's brow knitted slightly as he tried to determine exactly what it was that Kenobi was talking about, though he just presumed, at length, that it was about Padmé's pregnancy, so he simply nodded. "Yes, I'm sure."
Obi-Wan sat back, rubbing his chin whilst he contemplated this.
"And she told you, before anyone else?" Bail now asked the Count, as though the thought had only just occurred to him.
Dooku glared back. "Why shouldn't she have?"
"I know Padmé told me some rather complimentary things about you earlier," Organa went on, "But I am still under the impression that she has suffered quite badly at your hands, which makes me wonder what makes her trust you so much now."
There was a flicker in Serenn's eyes just then, a sign of panic, and the Count glanced at Yoda, wondering if Bail knew more than what he ever wanted him to know. Yoda discreetly shook his head in return, helping to put Dooku's mind a little more at rest, but he still felt uneasy, and Bail didn't need the powers of the Force to read the signs of guilt in the Count's eyes; "So she did suffer?" he asked, "Then why does she trust you now? What have you done to deserve this?"
The Count looked down and swallowed. "I can't explain it," he murmured. "Things have… 'changed'."
"Have they really?" Organa asked, his tone infused with mistrust.
Obi-Wan was now on his feet, though he still said nothing. His eyes hadn't left the Count, as though he, too, couldn't shake a feeling of scepticism toward him; he just knew that Dooku wasn't telling them something, but he wasn't sure that he'd ever find out what it was.
"Well I do hope you have changed, Count Dooku," Bail resolved eventually, "but don't you forget that we wouldn't even be in this mess if it wasn't for you."
Serenn turned on Bail and glared at him with such ferocity that it did make the latter feel a little nervous. He pointed at Organa and growled, in his deepest and most threatening voice, "I have made mistakes, senator, and I am more sorry for them than you can possibly imagine, but do not push me over the boundary, because I can not promise to come back again."
There was the dark side once more, brewing beneath his skin, just waiting for the invitation to be unleashed… But Serenn would not allow it. Instead, he now just backed away from Bail, turned and left.
The Alderaanian exhaled in relief as soon as the door closed behind the man, realising suddenly that he hadn't breathed once throughout the time that the Count had just spoken. "That man is dangerous," he whispered.
Yoda gave him a wise look. "So are we all, senator," he murmured, "when to our limits we are pushed."
Obi-Wan, meanwhile, just slipped out of the room in pursuit of the Count. He paced the halls as quickly as he could, going faster and faster, running up the spiral stairway to the ground floor, then rushing down the corridors, until he was close enough to Serenn to grab his arm from behind and stop him.
The Count turned and looked at Obi-Wan as he was drawn to this abrupt halt., wrenching his arm from out of his grasp and snarling, a little inappropriately, "Can I help you, boy?"
Obi-Wan took a small step back and looked hard into Serenn's eyes, studying the man's dark brown orbs with patience and care. "I can see it," he determined. "I can see it in your eyes."
The Count calmed a little as he studied Obi-Wan's visage in return; the Jedi had such an essence of Qui-Gon about him now that he couldn't help but soften to him. "What can you see?" he thus asked.
Kenobi's eyes focused in on Dooku's sharply and he stated, "I see love. You love her, don't you?"
Serenn slowly blinked once, and felt himself draw away from the younger Jedi as if in fear. "Yes, I do," he confessed. He couldn't deny it; there was no need.
Obi shook his head. "What's happened?" he asked, cringing in disbelief. "Does she love you, too? After what you did?"
The colour drained from Dooku's face when Obi-Wan said this and he felt himself lean back against the cold, stone wall behind him. "How do you know?" he asked quietly, his voice tethered down by his own degradation.
Kenobi remained calm and continued to stare into Serenn's eyes. "Anakin told me you hurt her," he said.
"Just hurt…?"
"No," Obi rejoined, stepping right up to the Count. "He told me that you did something terrible to her. I didn't know whether or not to believe him at the time, but now… I'm not so sure. Did you hurt her? Did you do something so terrible that you can't bare to admit it to my face now?"
Serenn found swallowing hard, his throat was so tight, but he eventually found the courage to nod to Obi-Wan. "Yes," he confessed. "I did something abominable…"
Obi-Wan responded with nothing but a cool nod, as if he had known all along, and he then began to turn away. The way he did all this was terrible, though, for his poise was so filled with distrust and repulsion that it made Dooku feel about as low and degraded a creature as he could get. He accordingly looked down, heaving a great sigh and feeling self-disgust pull on his throat and draw water from his eyes.
"And the child… it is Anakin's?" Obi-Wan then called back from down the hall.
Serenn felt his brow furrow before his chest began to burn with rage at this accusation. "Of course it is," he snarled, raising his inflamed eyes to Kenobi's distant figure. "Don't be so absurd…"
"But is it so absurd?" Obi-Wan called, his face enfolded in the shadows and concealed from Serenn's line of sight.
The Count's gaze tightened on Kenobi once more and he tried to restrain that mixed bag of emotions that was still churning about his chest, doing his utmost to ensure that it didn't explode into an unwanted paroxysm of rage.
'Not impossible… just improbable'
"No, it's not so absurd," he replied at last, looking Obi-Wan's outline slowly up and down. "But Anakin is the father."
'No need is there for you to make that mistake again.'
Obi-Wan continued to just stare back at him, his face as grave as ever; he had grown into a rather cold man, moulded into shape by a youth of grief and fighting, and by years of training an un-trainable protégé. Dooku actually pitied him; he had long wanted to give Obi-Wan advice throughout the years, especially to tell him not to take on that young Skywalker, but he hadn't been allowed to. It had been part of the bargain.
After a while, Kenobi finally nodded and looked away. "She cares for you, too," he said. "I know it's foolish of her, but I cannot change that. You must have charmed her like you've charmed so many others…"
"What do you mean by that?" Serenn asked.
Kenobi didn't look back at him, nor did he answer.
Serenn shook his head - he had had enough of this, and he wanted to see if Padmé was all right before he then had some time to himself. "Think what you will of me, then, my boy. I can't change that."
"No, you can't," Obi-Wan said as the Count began to walk off. "Just don't hurt her again."
Serenn kept walking. "Don't worry. I won't," he growled, though not loud enough for Kenobi to hear him.
TBC…