OOO
Chapter Fifteen.
OOO
Barriss half-carried, half-dragged Aurra through the crumbling hallway, squinting against the violet mist that hung in the air and seemed to weigh her down as the ghost in her arms grew more limp by the second, strained breaths becoming desperate gasps. There had to be a usable room somewhere in this labyrinth.
Aurra didn't have any more time left.
She rounded a corner, and at the end of the hall, a rodian leaned against the wall under the flicker of a luminator, lighting a cigarette. Black, speckled eyes looked up from the flame in his hand, and locked with hers.
A sour twinge sprouted in her belly as he looked between them, but her step never faltered. Too much had happened to flinch away now.
Through an open door to her right, a stained bed lie empty. It would have to be enough.
She pulled Aurra toward the room, the man's eyes following her the whole way, and she slapped the inside door panel, sealing them inside. Aurra's breath choked and strained as she lay her down on wrinkled sheets.
"You..." A cough spattered crimson droplets down a deathly-white cheek. "Don't..." Unfocused eyes fluttered, arms groping blindly as if searching for something.
Barriss' heart beat faster, and she raced to understand the full extent of the damage, placing her hand on the scorched edges of the wound. Focus. Calm yourself and focus. The smoldering remains of blood vessels embered with blackened gold. Sparks of life in the brain darkened, slowly fading with ever-dimming flashes.
She was almost gone.
A clanging against the door. "That room doesn't belong to you, little girl."
She pinched her eyes shut, focusing totally on her work. Smoldering embers extinguished, fresh fibers knitting together in their place. Still the sparks of life continued to fade.
The clanging pounded harder. More voices joined outside. "This is Black Sun turf, girl. Get outta here before we come in and make you."
Her lips pressed together. A trickle of fresh blood. Charred flesh retreating, allowing it to pass. Just a little more...
Aurra's breath quieted, faded.
A blaster shot. The door whooshing open.
Sparks of life not responding to the influx of blood, still dimming. Time between flashes growing longer, weaker.
Her stomach tightened. Not enough. Not enough...
Hands on her. Grabbing. Pulling.
Her eyes flew open, and she gasped. Arms clamped around her, dragging her backward. A twi'lek waved a vibroknife in her face, their words a rushing jumble swirling in her mind.
Aurra lie motionless on the bed, chest no longer rising.
"No!" Her throat burned, and she kicked out, smacking the toe of her boot into the knife-wielding hand.
The knife clattered across the room, and she slammed her head back, smashing her skull into the nose behind her.
A sharp cry. Wetness sprinkling the back of her head. The arms let go.
A tingle raced up her spine, within a micro-second growing from slight tickle to blazing fire screaming at her to drop.
She let her legs collapse under her, smacking her palms into the floor, and a blaster shot scorched the air above her. She rolled and swiped her hand at the dark blur pointing a smoking blaster at her.
The figure flew sideways and cracked against the durasteel wall, falling limp to the floor.
Her roll carried her back to her feet, and a vibroknife clenched in a green fist cut through the air straight at her face. She caught his wrist in one hand, stopping the blade an inch from her neck, and she ripped her saber hilt from her belt and shoved it into his gut.
A snap hiss. A burst of azure.
The knife clattered to the ground. A moment later, a dull thump.
She stood frozen, saber humming in her hand as she stared, and then her eyes flicked to the ashen form on the bed.
Aurra was gone.
She slowly clenched her saber more tightly, and a knotting ball grew inside her chest. Aurra was gone. Aiden was gone.
Her only path to him was gone.
She closed her eyes, and a breath escaped her as she retracted her saber, the blue glow retreating as she let her hands fall limply to her sides, and the room darkened.
Smoke wafted up from the twi'lek at her feet, and she lifted a hand and rubbed her dampened brow. I don't want to smell that smell anymore.
But she would. Somehow, she knew she would.
Her saber chilled oddly in her hand like a cold breath, and she turned against the knot in her chest and moved for the door. Aiden still needed her. The Republic still needed her. Even if she had no idea how she was going to find him.
A beep shattered the silence.
On Aurra's belt, a comm unit winked a brief flash of light, and then another beep reverberated in the dark stillness. The same beep that sounded in the Lounge hall.
The signal from whoever took Aiden.
Her body pulsed, and she stepped quickly to the pale body and unhooked the communicator from her belt. A Jedi's duty is to uncover the truth... She pressed the button.
A figure materialized, casting eerie blue tendrils through the room, and cold eyes shone in a weathered face. "Miss Sing, why have you not—" The eyes locked with hers, and then widened.
The eyes of Count Dooku.
Her lips parted. "What..." The tendrils shifted and writhed. "What have you done?" This made no sense.
None of this made any sense.
Dooku flicked his gaze to the pale body lying unnaturally still on the bed, and then back to her, his expression never changing, yet somehow hardening.
His image disappeared in a flash, and her heart beat against her chest. Count Dooku had taken Aiden. No good could come of this. For anyone.
She consciously closed her lips and touched her bond with Aiden, and hesitated for only a moment before flinging it open wide. Damn the implications, and damn her fears.
'Aiden...' She spoke slowly, deliberately. 'If you can hear me, answer me. Right. Now.'
OOO
Aiden stood in the pitch darkness of the room, broken only by the piercing indigo of holographic displays. Some showed the charred remains of two patrol troopers. Others showed Dooku stretching a welcoming hand toward him as they ascended the ramp of a shuttle together.
But the largest, and the one that currently burned his eyes, showed Palpatine standing before the people of Coruscant, camera droids buzzing around him as he addressed the crowds. "Please." He showed his palms as he spoke. "We must not jump to conclusions. These reports have not yet been verified to be true."
A voice shouted from the assembled crowds. "Not been verified? There is video proof of Count Dooku here on Coruscant!"
The murmur of the crowd rose.
Palpatine clasped his hands together, and spoke patiently. "Recordings can be fabricated. This could be nothing more than a Separatist ploy to sow discord in the Republic. Please, allow time for the recordings to be analyzed before taking any rash action. There is no conspiracy here."
"Fabricated? The footage came from the helmet-cam of the very trooper Dooku himself killed. How could that be fabricated?"
A smile so small, it was almost invisible danced behind Palpatine's eyes, and Aiden shook his head. Unbelievable.
The open feeling inside him flickered harder than it ever had before, and a tingle raced up his back. Barriss' voice filled his mind: 'Aiden... If you can hear me, answer me. Right. Now.'
His heart fluttered, and he stiffened. There it was again. He had heard her on the shuttle, and before that in the Lounge hall. And this time he knew it wasn't just a figment of his imagination. But what could he have said that wasn't a lie? Silence seemed like the best option.
But this... Something in her voice grabbed him and wouldn't let go. If she had gotten hurt or something... He couldn't just stay quiet and pretend. He ran his hand through his hair and blew out a breath. Let the chips fall where they fall...
He braced himself, and touched the open feeling. '...Barriss?'
Relief poured through the opening. 'Aiden, tell me where you are right now.'
He glanced around the pitch room. 'Honestly... I have no idea. It's dark, wherever it is. ...And how are you talking to me like this?'
'Where is Dooku?'
He froze. 'How... How do you know Dooku has me?'
Regret tinged his belly through the open feeling. 'Aurra Sing is dead. Dooku tried to contact her. He got me instead. He didn't look happy...'
The door of the room scraped open with a metallic whine, and Dooku swept into the room, his cape billowing behind him like the howl of a Krayt Dragon.
Not good. Aiden stumbled back, bumping into the cold metal of a chair.
'Aiden, what's happening? Your fear just sky-rocketed.'
Dooku clamped steely fingers around Aiden's neck and hoisted him up until his feet kicked helplessly against Dooku's shins, pressure collapsing in his throat until he couldn't breathe. "Do you know what your padawan friend has done?"
He clawed at Dooku's wrist and gasped desperately against the pressure, his voice coming out garbled. "Judging from our current position, I'm guessing it wasn't something good?"
'Aiden? Aiden, answer me.'
Dooku narrowed his eyes. He drew his arm back until their faces were an inch apart, and then launched him into the computer console beneath the largest display.
Knobs and switches smashed into his back like tiny knives, and all the muscles in his body contracted as pain burst. His eyes flew open wide and his lungs burned with the need for oxygen, but his chest would not un-tense to draw a breath in, leaving him crumpled against the console, mouth gaping silently.
On the screen above, Palpatine continued. "But rest assured. We will find the truth. And our enemies will fall."
Dooku glided toward him, and yanked him up by the collar.
The knives left his back, and a deep, ragged breath filled his lungs.
"Miss Sing is no more." Dooku stared down at him, still holding him upright by his shirt. "And thus my plans are changed." He wrenched Aiden around until the image of Palpatine filled his vision, and he pointed a finger over Aiden's shoulder at the screen. "From this point forward, I will know the Chancellor's location at all times. You will make certain of that. After all, you have already proven yourself capable of accessing any camera system you wish..."
'Aiden, answer me right now!'
He spun Aiden back around, and cold, grey eyes stared down at him. "In fact, I believe it's that very skill that landed you in all this trouble, is it not?"
Aiden tensed his jaw as he stared up at him, but held his tongue. Nothing good could come from talking right now.
"Now, it will also be the skill that saves you out of it." He released his hold on Aiden's collar, and Aiden smacked his palms against the console before he hit the ground.
"You will use these systems and monitors to observe and report to me all that transpires." Dooku waved a hand toward the displays piercing the darkness, and grey eyes speckled with gold for a brief moment. "And if you do not, I will personally visit your padawan friend. Do you understand all that I have said?"
Aiden licked his lips and ran the back of his hand across his chin, but finally nodded. What was he gonna say? 'No?'
"Good." Dooku's voice held no hint of being pleased as he shifted his gaze to the image of them leaving the Chance Lounge together. "Because I believe after today, you will find it quite impossible to convince anyone you are not an agent of mine. The time has come, slicer. Whether we were ready for it or not.
His cape swirled as he turned and marched toward the door. "I have a report of my own to deliver. It will not be what I'd hoped."
The metal barrier grinded back into place, and Aiden sunk back against the console, lowering his head into a hand as his breath drained. What the blazes had he gotten himself into?
'Aiden...' Barriss' voice had become dangerously calm. 'What. Is happening?'
'Barriss...' He dropped his hand from his face, and craned his neck, staring up into the holographic eyes of Palpatine.
Dooku was right. No clever half-truths would get him out of this now. Barriss was gonna know. One way or another.
He closed his eyes and shook his head, and a hollow breath huffed out as he finally allowed a single thought to echo in his mind, thinking as much to himself as Barriss.
'I think I've just become Dooku's most important agent.'
OOO
Palpatine stepped into his office, the outraged roars of the crowds still playing in his mind as he typed a note into his data pad to requisition all footage that existed of Aiden Stari and the young Barriss Offee.
Surely, something usable would be found with a thorough enough search.
His communicator beeped, and he took the device in his hand, Dooku bowing before him a moment later.
"I have succeeded in my task, my master." His eyes never rose to meet Palpatine's. "The slicer is secured, and the Republic has witnessed me take him. He is ours."
You mean he is mine. Palpatine gazed down at him. "Well done, lord Tyran—"
Dooku continued as if he had not begun to speak. "Unfortunately, the police are too close for me to take him from Coruscant, and I have been forced to seek shelter until the search passes us by."
Palpatine's lips parted in a frown. "You will never interrupt me agai—"
"I have recorded this message and sent it in a burst transmission to minimize the chances of being traced. I will contact you when it is safe for me to do so. This message repeats."
His image flickered, and reappeared bowed once more. "I have succeeded in my task, my master..."
Palpatine narrowed faintly glowing eyes, and slowly rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. Very well, my apprentice. Has the game begun?
He pressed a few buttons, and Dooku's image flickered away, replaced by the lanky form of Cad Bane.
He wasted no time. "You have tracked Dooku? Has he stopped moving?"
Bane nodded. "Hunkered down in some unmarked building twenty minutes ago."
So that much is true. "And are the police closing in?"
A huff, blue lips curling. "Nah. Police ain't nowhere near here. Not even a siren for kilometers. They got no idea where His Royal Highness went."
Palpatine disconnected the call, and turned his face toward the window, cracked lips pulling back even as his jaw creaked. Very well, my apprentice.
Then let us play.
END CHAPTER