Obi-Wan
"Our top priority should be finding the Sith Lord," Mace Windu said. "Anything we should do should be with that end in mind…"
The few members of the Council who were onplanet sat in the soaring tower that looked over the rest of Coruscant. Obi-Wan clenched and unclenched his right fist. They'd been going at this for hours, debating how to handle Dooku, how to handle whoever had disabled him, how to handle the unknown Sith Lord. And, like most Council meetings, they'd gotten nowhere. Anakin looked half asleep.
There was a cautious knock on the outer door. Mace looked annoyed at being interrupted as a nervous young Knight peeked in.
"Forgive me, Masters, but...well...Master Kenobi, Senator Organa is here. He says it's an emergency."
Obi-Wan's brow furrowed. He and Bail were in regular contact, but for him to come to the Temple was highly irregular. He glanced at the other Masters.
Mace was nodding vigorously. "He's been meeting with the Hapan princess, correct? Yes-yes, go see what news he has. We'll keep strategizing here..."
Anakin gave Obi-Wan a despairing look. Save me, he mouthed.
Bail was staring out the window in Obi-Wan's chambers.
"We can't be heard here, right?" he asked, whirling around, then, without waiting for an answer, "I need to see Dooku. I-I need to ask him something. It's important. It could be nothing. But it could...it could mean everything. Obi-Wan. It could mean everything."
"Slow down." Obi-Wan lifted his hand. "What are you talking about?"
Bail put his head in his hands, nervous energy radiating off him. "Hapes supposedly has intelligence. She wants us to trust her. She-if she's right-but she can't be right-but Dooku could confirm-Obi-Wan, this is-"
Obi-Wan grabbed Bail by the shoulders. "Calm down. I've never seen you like this. What did this princess say?"
"I need to see Dooku," Bail repeated. He looked up at Obi-Wan, wild-eyed.
Obi-Wan stepped back. "All right," he said slowly.
According to the guards, Dooku had been facing the same wall in his cell since he'd been brought in. Without the Force, he seemed disinclined to even try to escape. Obi-Wan led Bail down the back way. The Council didn't seem to know what to do with Bail's involvement in the first place, so Obi-Wan figured it was best to keep them in the dark about...whatever this was.
Al-Kai and Samara, two young Knights, stood guard outside the room, implacable, taking their job very seriously. They bowed when they saw Obi-Wan approaching, looking ever-so-wary at Bail's presence.
"It's all right," Obi-Wan said. "He was the one who brought him in. We have a few follow-up questions." Samara moved to the right to let him pass, but Al-Kai shook his head.
"Do you have authorization from the Council?" he asked sternly. Obi-Wan sighed and just stared at him. After a few seconds of shifting back and forth, Al-Kai bowed his head and stepped aside.
Dooku sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at the gray concrete in front of him. He briefly glanced back as Obi-Wan and Bail entered, then looked back at the wall. Bail remained silent until the door hissed shut behind them.
"The Sith Lord," Bail said. "Palpatine."
Obi-Wan felt the sudden chill of shock at the name. Dooku slowly stood and turned to look at them.
What was Bail saying? That Palpatine was working with the Sith Lord? That didn't make any sense-Palpatine was against the Separatists, against the Sith…
"Who told you that?" Dooku said hollowly.
"An intelligence source," Bail said crisply, though there was still a tremor in his voice. "Tell me, Dooku. Is Palpatine the Sith Lord?"
Obi-Wan felt his legs go weak and leaned back against the wall. This was the Hapan princess's intelligence? But-what insanity would lead Hapes to claim such a thing? Such an unbelievable, horrific thing?
Dooku took a deep breath and looked up. His jaw was clenched. "The voice. The voice knew. The one who did this to me knew. Did they find you? Can you make them fix this?"
Obi-Wan shook his head, blinked, tried to think straight.
"Are you saying it's true?" he demanded. "Dooku, what purpose-why-how does that make any logical sense at all?"
Bail's trembling had stilled. "He orchestrated the Separatist resistance," he said, mechanically. "He commissioned the clones. He's playing all of us." He shook his head. "She wasn't lying. I don't understand. Why would she tell us this?"
Dooku reached out, pleadingly. "Please. Please-send her here. Tell her to return the Force to me. I will do whatever she asks."
Bail laughed curtly. "Our source is not the one you seek. Believe me."
Obi-Wan remained silent. A Hapan princess suddenly onplanet, just as a strange new Force user emerged?
"Tell no one else," he heard himself say. The Council would not believe this information, not from a Hapan. Obi-Wan wasn't even sure he did. What if Dooku was just playing along, forcing them to distrust one another?
But what if he wasn't?
They left Dooku, and Obi-Wan walked Bail toward the exit.
"I need to tell the Council something about the princess," he said, because he could think of nothing else to say.
"You won't tell them this?" Bail stopped and stared at him.
Obi-Wan put a hand to his forehead. "Bail...I don't know who to trust right now. I...I don't have faith they'd make the right decision. Gods, I don't faith we'll make the right decision of what to do with this...but…"
Bail shook his head. "Tell them she is holding her cards close to the chest. She is not telling me much about her motives for being here, only claiming her grief as the reason. And that she came without telling the Queen Mother, that the Queen Mother is scrambling to know what to do with her now that she's here."
Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows. "Is that true?"
Bail shrugged. "It's what she said. I...I am inclined to believe her, after this." He pressed two fingers to his forehead, squinting his eyes closed. "I must go see her again. I must talk to her about this."
"What did you say when she told you?" Obi-Wan found himself dwelling for the first time on what she might be like, this Hapan princess no one had known existed, and yet who had stepped into the most dangerous and crucial moment in the Republic's long history.
"I don't think I said anything comprehensible," Bail said, bringing him back. "I just...left. I couldn't think straight."
It took a lot to rattle a stalwart politician like Bail Organa. But Obi-Wan supposed something like this would do it. Even now, he found himself feeling like the last ten minutes had happened to someone else, as though he were watching from a distance and wondering what these two men were going to do with a revelation that could shake their entire galaxy.
Tell her to return the Force to me.
So far, the only two people who apparently knew about this...supposed connection between Palpatine and the Sith Lord, were a Hapan princess and that mysterious Force user who had attacked Dooku. Of course it was most likely that both knew separately, through separate means, and yet…
The girl's face seemed to hover somewhere in his vision. He replayed the interaction over for what felt like the thousandth time.
She'd been calling home. My husband's family, she said. Mine is hard to reach.
It was impossible, of course. His mind was just trying to make connections between all these bewildering events.
"Obi-Wan?" Bail was staring at him. Obi-Wan closed his eyes briefly.
"I need to meet her," he said. "Now. I have a bad feeling about this."