Trigger Warning: More intense headaches/pain from the device seen in the first chapter.
Chapter III
Count Dooku of Serreno strode into his prison hold, cape flapping behind him. His droid guards scurrying behind him, making sure to stay out of his way.
Dooku stopped utterly short at the sight before him though.
His quick eyes scanned the room, understanding coming to him in seconds.
Whirling on his guards, he snapped, "Find her! She mustn't escape so early in the game."
The droids left immediately.
"Find her!"
The echo rattled the vent surrounding Ahsoka, and she started shuffling faster. That wasn't nearly enough time! She thought to herself.
She'd managed to find a control terminal fairly quickly, and while it hadn't given her access to the layout, it had told her what type of ship she was in. One which she'd long ago memorized the layout in preparation for having to make a quick getaway with her Master. Apparently Anakin wasn't going to be in the equation like she'd thought.
Her destination was the escape pods. While she didn't have much confidence that the pods would have their own hyperdrives - pods rarely did - she knew that making an actual escape attempt would be nearly impossible, as Dooku would just tractor her back in. But she was confident in her abilities to send a signal to any Republic ship that might be nearby and to mask the signal so it was undetectable by Dooku's cronies.
She just had to get there.
Since she didn't have free range of her hands, and her feet couldn't go further than a foot apart due to the hobbling technique used on them, she'd opted to continue on her chosen path in the air ducts. If she couldn't get there fast, she might as well stay concealed. Plus, it was easier to get the drop on any potential problems from above, should the need arise.
Her rasping breath sounded too loud in the confines of the small space. She didn't know what kind of gag device this was, but she had not been able to get it off. Her elbows and knees hurt from the continual crawl that the clones had taught her, but as she knew there were far worse things to happen under Dooku's hand, she didn't complain too much. She just kept moving.
It wasn't long before droid patrols started passing underneath her, and she had to take more and more pauses. She'd lay there, making every effort to silence her breathing, trying, again and again, to find calm and peace within the Force. To quiet the panic that was slowly building within her. Ahsoka was brave and courageous. Some clones had even called her fearless like her Master, but she was always quick to correct that viewpoint. But in this situation, alone, without her Master or any potential allies, facing certain torture at the hands of a master of the craft… she was definitely starting to panic.
Every time she attempted to center herself, it only worked the barest amount. Not enough for her purposes. That damn crystal was still trying to block her, she could feel it! And it continued to add to her headache and nauseous feeling.
Ahsoka sighed inwardly as yet another patrol went by beneath her, no signs that they even suspected where she was. Pushing herself back to hands and knees, she continued her slow journey.
Yes! Ahsoka thought, barely able to contain her glee that she was at her destination, a patrol having just confirmed it underneath her.
She waited till she couldn't hear the clanker's feet anymore, then counted a slow twenty. Just to be sure.
Still nothing.
Very careful to make as little sound as possible, she opened the vent and lowered herself down, landing in the hallway on light feet. Ahead of her was a dead end a few feet away. Clearly, that's not the direction I need to go. She turned around to start backtracking.
Immediately, she hit something solid that sent her sprawling to the floor.
Gasping around the gag at the pain of her already bruised body hitting the durasteel floor, she felt her heart jump into her throat when she saw what she had run into.
Count Dooku stood towering over her, a whole two or three patrols of B1 and B2 battle droids at his back.
And her lightsaber on his belt.
"Now, now, little one," The Count intoned. "Where would you be going in such a hurry?"
A furious rasp made it out around her gag, as she attempted to tell him, you know perfectly well I can't answer you!
He smiled at her obvious emotions. "You are angry with me. Good. I did not think it would be so easy to make you lose your way."
Dismay filled her as she realized he was close to the truth. She had been letting the situation overwhelm her, had let her emotions begin to crowd her thoughts. She couldn't believe she'd been so careless.
But right that second, she had bigger problems.
The black-red crystal's presence in the Count's cloak was beginning to undo her. He must've been able to adjust the power output because it still wasn't as bad as in the storage room. But the longer she was near it, the less the power output even mattered. Or so she thought.
She got extremely unsteadily to her feet, attempting to properly position herself for hand-to-hand combat. She wasn't going down without a fight.
The Count clearly saw her too pale skin, harsh can't-get-enough-air breathing, unsteady eye contact, and swaying body getting ready to fight, and thought this a laughable idea. Because he did just that.
"Ha! Look at you now, the Padawan of the great General Skywalker." He shook his head sadly. "If only he could see what a poor pupil you turned out to be."
Not true, not true, not true, not true, Ahsoka chanted to herself, drowning out the Count's obvious lies. Anakin was always proud of her. He always - well, she'd never heard him say it. But she could sense it. That's why he'd never spoken the words out loud yet.
Fear shot through her at Dooku's next words though, the shot of adrenaline jolting her nearly awake.
"So pitiful… and we've barely even started our lessons." He pulled the crystal from his cloak, cupping it almost tenderly in his palm.
Ahsoka's head started to pound anew.
Pain in her head, like someone was trying to jackhammer it open from the inside. Black spots formed in front of her eyes as her vision almost left her completely - enough that she dropped heavily to the floor, no longer knowing which way was up or down.
And with every pulse, it felt like the pressure of the glowing Force was pushed farther and farther away.
A tortured moan left her throat.
"My, my. I had anticipated more from you, Padawan Tano."
Like I give a flying rathtar! Her mind shouted into the void, desperately trying to overcome the crystal's power.
"I must be very sure, though, that you have learned your lesson. Escape is not permitted or tolerated. I hope you will remember that in the future." His grip on the crystal tightened, and Ahsoka swallowed roughly. "I am sorry."
Before she could even begin to form a response to that perfectly fake sympathy, her mind exploded in a thousand shards of agony. The Force, her only true, ever-present, comforting ally, was well and truly packed off, which only made the physical sensations twice as hard to bear.
A scream of agony was ripped from her throat, a scream that shocked even her. The tiny part of her that still cared about such things in the face of this soul-destroying torment.
She curled up into a ball on the floor, her vision clearing just enough for the Count's stoic face to be the last thing she saw.
Once again, her mind gave out, and everything went black.
