Piqu lay in a small holding cell, curled up on the red sandy floor, back facing the door.
Her desperate sobs had long since died out, all her hope had diminished, and her biggest regret? That she would never get to see her finest creation in action.
She had been informed from the moment she had been thrown in here, that her execution was to be in the morning. She had been spared the humiliation of a public death thanks to the arrival of two Jedi and a senator.
'At least this way it will be quick' She thought as her mind mulled over other thoughts in anguish.
How had she been so stupid? All her work, all her loyalty for what?
She had even been denied the privilege of a last request.
Feeling silvery tears well up in her jet black eyes once again, she curled up more so, pushing her snout into her hands to stifle her sobs.
She would not give the guards outside her cell door the satisfaction of hearing her pain.
If it was one thing a Geonosian lower down the hive hierarchy loved, it was to see someone like herself fall. And oh how the mighty had fallen.
The guards outside her door had fallen silent now, she noted inwardly.
Normally they would have been chattering to one another, perhaps they had heard her after all?
The sound of the door opening made Piqu's stomach start to churn, was it dawn already?
She did not care for what her executioners would think of her, turning to face them with a tear streaked, bruised face.
Her expression of sadness soon turned to confusion, and perhaps fear, when she saw standing in the doorway, the very product of what had gotten her in this mess. General Grievous.
Piqu fluttered to her feet throwing up clouds of red dust , causing both herself and Grievous to cough uncontrollably until it settled.
The sound of Piqu's wings quivering in anticipation filled the room now. Grievous growled irritably as he took an imposing step towards the small Geonosian female, silencing the noise she made by backing her up against the wall so her wings would lay still against her back.
Her eyes wide, she went to ask why he was here, surely Dooku had not meant her to die at the hands of her own creation?
Her voice caught in her throat, and came out more as a strangled squeak with no meaning to it, than a sentence.
"You are Piqu?" It wasn't so much of a question as it was a statement from the cyborg.
And Piqu did not answer verbally, merely giving a nervous nod of her head.
" Good, listen closely, there is something I want you to do."
Piqu could tell by the tone of the Generals voice, that whatever it was he wished of her, the situation was not negotiable.
Lowering his head so that their gazes met, faces only inches apart, Grievous continued imposingly.
" It has become clear to me, that while you may have put thought into certain 'improvements' I now possess, your design was ultimately flawed."
The General blinked away the mucus that had been collecting in his eyes. When he reopened them he found himself looking back into a rather flabbergasted Geonosian face.
Piqu clenched both her bony fists, 'flawed? FLAWED!' she thought angrily, her design was perfect! What could she have possibly missed?
It was in knowing what the cyborg should be capable of , that stopped her from voicing her protests. If she was to survive this encounter at all, she would have to tread carefully.
" Flaws? May I a-ask wh-her I went wrong? What I-I missed?" She enquired,
Stammering more through outrage than nerves.
"Fool!" Grievous spat back, "Is it not obvious? Do your kind not do your research before you carry out such procedures!"
The General pushed away from the wall with one hand, and began pacing back and forth infuriated.
Piqu had drawn her hands up in front of her face protectively, in case he should strike out.
"THIS..." he waved a hand in front of his faceplate, "...Is a crude attempt at recreating a traditional Mumuu skull! My ancestors would turn in their graves if they could see what I have become!"
Piqu quirked an brow in curiosity, she had tried to do her best where image was concerned, but function had been paramount over aesthetics.
And here he was hiding all her fine work under that cape!
"Do you find something , amusing?" The General wheezed out upon seeing her gaze turn into more of a stare.
"N-no, that is to say...umm" Piqu could think of no excuse to fit, and it was just as well.
"Silence...enough of your mindless babble." The General cut in, " I will explain what you are going to do...Firstly, we take the teeth of the Karabback beast and attach them to the Mumuu skull, a very prominent feature, and one you so clearly missed."
Piqu scratched her head, teeth? That would be easy enough to recreate.
" Secondly, if you had researched anything at all, you would know, that my people adorn their Masks with the ceremonial marking of our ancestors, this is done with the blood of the Karabback, and tradition states that the masks must be painted on the eve of battle."
Grievous paused to contemplate this. He would be in many battles, almost consecutively. He would have need to make the markings more permanent. The absence of the markings would only anger the spirits of his ancestors more so.
He was now aware of the small Geonosian trying to say something, squeaking out barely audible responses.
"What is it!" Grievous rasped out demandingly ,
Whirling round to face her again, the flow of his cape accentuating his movements.
Piqu grimaced visibly,
" I would need to return to my workshop to get the tools and materials required...I am scheduled to..to be executed at dawn."
Her eyes were downcast, sadness evident in her voice.
She would find no sympathy here.
" I am well aware of your situation, and it concerns me little."
Piqu let out a small sigh, that would be the mind alterations speaking for him.
" Getting you to your workshop however, will not be a problem,"
And with that, Grievous turned to face the door.
"You will follow me out of here, and then direct me to your workshop, one attempt to escape and I shall crush you like the parasite you are...do you understand?"
Piqu nodded once.
Grievous thought now about how much the bug like geonosians reminded him of his home worlds enemy, the Huk. Though the Geonosians were much smaller in height, and would undoubtedly make less formidable opponents. This trail of thought brought him to wonder about the life he had led before this. Did he have family? He must have had parents, else how could he exist? Did he have wives? Or even Children? And did they know what he had become? Every memory he once had, was eclipsed by the terrible rage that flowed through him.
The lights to the workshop flickered on upon their entry, flooding various work stations and consoles with light.
Piqu buzzed into the room, whizzing over to the far corner to open several containers.
"Take a seat over there by the main work station." She offered as she continued to skitter about.
Grievous regarded her suspiciously at first. She was a traitor after all, not to be trusted, and she would get what was coming to her. He settled in the seat beside the work station anyway. Constantly keeping one eye on her.
After several moments, Piqu buzzed over to the Generals side, arms full of strange looking equipment. Setting down various bits of tools on the work bench, she turned to him now handing him a datapad.
" Are these the marking you speak of?"
Looking down to the small datapad screen, Grievous could clearly see an image of the mask he had once worn when he had been whole.
" To carve the markings on the cheekbones would weaken the structure of your faceplate...those above the eyes are not a problem at all." Piqu added.
Grievous gave a simple nod, this would have to suffice for now,
" So be it."
Piqu picked up a precision laser knife, and checked the frequency of the blade.
Grievous eyed her suspiciously once more, she could easily cause him harm here. And yet, he knew he could just as easily kill her.
" Hold still...I do not want to slip" Ever the perfectionist, Piqu placed one nobly hand on the side of his faceplate to steady herself, the other began carving a perfect straight line from the eye hole upwards. When she reached a far enough point, she added what looked like half an arrow head shape at the top of the line in some kind of embellishment.
Repeating the process on the other side of the faceplate shortly after.
Grievous was silent for the whole time. It was only when Piqu began attaching the dura steel karabback style teeth, to his faceplate, that she herself broke the silence.
"What will happen to me once I finish this work?"
Nervously trying to stop her wings from rustling so much.
" You are a traitor to the confederacy, you will die." He said plaintively without second thought.
Piqu hung her head in sadness, the whole colony must have heard of her supposed treachery. There would be little point in denying the lie, the damage was done. This was her one chance at freedom, she could learn to live u exile, in hiding.
"You won't remember our last meeting...but I imagine that now you remember little about the life you had before anyway?"
She mused while she worked on the lines he requested to be carved into his chest plate.
The pupils of the Generals eyes narrowed to jet black slits,
"What do you know of my life before now?"
He did not believe that she knew anything, Piqu could tell, but she would indulge him anyway, this would be her revenge on Dooku.
" The day before I oversaw the procedure that put you in this body, I went to speak with you. You were still relying on the bacta to prolong what little life you had left." She paused to finish the markings on one side of his chest plate, then continuing,
"General...you have family, and they are all too aware of what we proposed to do. Several of your wives and children came out to Geonosis to see you after the crash, they thought their prayers could somehow ...call you back to life, or ease your passing...one of the two"
Grievous was sure he felt his heart stop, a fit of coughing taking him by surprise and when he did catch his breath, all he could manage was a hoarse ,
" You lie!"
And it seemed to take several moments more before his body reacted. Grasping Piqu suddenly by the throat, he pushed her up against the wall behind painfully hard. The joints in various limbs of hers, making cracking sounds on impact.
Eyes wide with fear, she shook her head from side to side in silent protest. Eventually she managed to choke out a response,
"It's the truth! why would I lie!"
Grievous hand about her neck tightened for a moment, before he then released her, letting the now frail looking Geonosian fall to the floor.
Why would she lie? She was a traitor! And then ...she really stood to gain nothing from telling him this, did she?
Anger told him he should put her out of her misery right now, but the faint flicker of a memory, the last spark of the life he once had told him otherwise.
" You said my 'wives'...and offspring saw me after the crash? They were not...ashamed to see me in such a state?" He questioned,
Ignoring the fact, Piqu was still trying to regain her breath.
"Yes...wives...5..of them, and offspring...12..." she paused to take breath again, gasping for all the air she could take into her small lungs.
" I am...no...expert in Kaleesh emotion...but they seemed...more concerned about you...returning to good health...returning home."
She closed her eyes now taking another deep breath.
" Then why is it I do not remember them? Why is it I can remember great battles, many victories, but nothing of my life out of the field!"
He was still threateningly close to her, his rasping tone still showing much anger towards her, she wasn't out of the woods yet.
Piqu could hardly tell him that is was her own tampering that had caused him to forget deliberately. Nor could she say that this was done on Dooku's orders. To do so would only seal her doom. So she did what all good Geonosians were good at, she lied.
" The force of the crash must have caused memory loss as it did great concussion, this, along with the severity of your injuries, must have been highly traumatic."
She took another breath, somewhat worried he would not take her word for it.
"Severe trauma can cause loss of memory also."
Again Grievous seemed to mull this over, and it was a good few moments before he even so much as moved, let alone said anything.
Every so often the translucent membrane of his eyelids would close, only to open again and pupils would come to rest on Piqu.
" You speak the truth."
Although this was not a question from the General, Piqu felt the need to answer anyway.
"I speak the truth," she repeated.
Grievous turned his back to her suddenly as he stood again, Piqu found herself almost feeling sympathy for the cyborg, and yet she was so proud of her greatest creation, she almost forgot that a life had been decimated to create it.
He had given her his life for her ultimate creation, she owed him.