Chapter Forty-One: His True Colors
They reluctantly made their way back to the flagship, and all the while River was trying to come up with a good report if she was asked and knew it wouldn't do her any good because when she was put on the spot she always told every detail, and she didn't want to be present when Grievous reported to Dooku.
Once they landed in the hanger they made their way to a small room that was dark with nothing but a transmitter/reciever inside.
"Can I come back when your done reporting?" asked River as she pointed at the door.
He looked at her with annoyance, but the annoyance wasn't directed at her.
"No because Count Dooku might want you to report as well." he said as he pushed a few buttons, "Lets just hope he's not in."
But to both of their dismay he was and a blue image of Count Dooku appeard with the same smug air he always had that River wished she could pound out of him.
"Yes what is it?" said the not to happy Count.
"Count Dooku we are here to report the outcome of the battle on Geonosis," said Grievous as he bowed respectfully.
"Continue."
"The battle went not as we hoped the shields to the facility failed and they bombed it to nothing but ruble," said Grievous as he braced himself for the fool he was going to made in front of River by the Count.
But it didn't come instead Count Dooku looked at River expectantly with a displeased look on his face. "Tell me what happened Miss Shakar," Dooku said in a icy tone.
At the mention of their conection both Grievous and River winced because she was only addressed that way when Dooku was not pleased and wanted them to feel uncomfortable.
River side glanced at Grievous and dove into the events surrounding the time they left the flagship to the point that they had made their way to the secret landing pad leaving out the little conversation before they left. But known to River that this was not going to please Grievous because he never liked giving details especially when he had been given orders to not go out on the battle field with River. But of course he failed to tell River this so she told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
By the time River was done Grievous was so tense and Count Dooku had a displeased but still very smug look on his face.
"General you directly went back on orders. I told you specifically to not go out on the battle field with your apprentice, and you did it any way. I'm very displeased with the outcome of the battle and depressed you went back on direct orders. At least I have a officer that is unbiased when it comes to reporting the outcome of a battle and all that goes on behind my back. Thank you Miss River and good day," and he was gone leaving the room tension heavy and silent.
River felt her gut get really sick and she started to get clasterphobic being in such a small space with a seething General. Grievous had his back to her his hand clenched into a fist laying on the panel of buttons felling like a complete and total fool for listening to his emotions and going back on orders. But that wasn't what made him mad, it was River's over detailed description of what took place event for event, person for person. He heard River slide toward the door and that made his anger boil even more.
"I'm going to go attend to some things, send for me if you need me," she said as she walked slowly toward the door.
Before she was able to blink a very very peeved General was blocking her way and slowly advancing causing her to back onto the farthest corner away from the door. He was surrounding her in his anger and she could feel it pulse through her like it were her own and she fully grasped how angry he was with her. He had never been angry at her before...dissapointed...yes... angry...no.
Oh crum, oh crum, OH CRUM. Thought River as she was hoplesslly pinned into the corner and too scared to defeand herself which was exactly what he wanted. She gulped really big while he stood there towering above her seething anger so much she could see it waving away from him in a green sickly color (ha thats dramatic but it works in a time like this because he is MAD MAD MAD!!!!!).
"I know what I just did made you upset but I don't gaurd my tongue good under pressure and you of all people should know how I do under pressure," she said pleading for her life.
In a fell movement he whipped out a blue saber and held it an inch from her face with only a few inches in between the saber and his face.
"You just made me look like an idiot in front of Count Dooku! I can handle him making me look like a fool but when somebody makes me look like a idiot in front of him that makes me mad beyond your wildest imagination," he said in a whisper that was so low she wouldn't have heard it if he wasn't in her face with a lightsaber in hand.
What really scared her was that he was so mad he was talking in a whisper. She could handle him when he was slaming her against the wall and yelling to the top of his lungs. But when he was so mad he talked in a whisper and that scared her because he wasn't just mad he was beyond furious, then as he got even more furious he started to yell and she knew that she was in big bantha poo doo.
"IF I WANTED TO DEAL WITH A MAD COUNT OR SITH LORD I WOULD SLICE YOUR HEAD IN HALF," he said yelling and giving her a death ray glare with his reptilian eyes.
She was so scared she couldn't even swallow the lump in her throat let alone respond but she desided it was a good thing because she would be dead whether or not he wanted to deal with a mad Dooku or Sith Lord. All she could do to show that she was completly and totally scared was look at him with a look of utter fear with pesperation running down her face soaking into the neckline of her shirt.
He deactivated his saber put it away, and grabbed her by the back of the neck so that she wouldn't struggle and roughly carried her to her room and literally threw her inside.
"You can come out when you figure out how to get out but until then no food no nothing." he said as he smashed the key pad on the inside of the room and locked it from the outside along with the blaster doors and sealed it shut.
She sat there holding her head in her hands trying to recover from the impact of hitting it on the corner feeling blood trickle down her forehead, and thanking her ancestors for not letting him kill her in his rage.
She got up after the pain had gone away and she wasn't so dizzy and took a shower. She figured she would clean up then worry about solving her plight. At least she had plenty of water. After she washed and put a clean pant set on she examined the damge done to the key pad and came to the conclusion that she would not be able to fix it.
She tried to use the force. She force pushed, pulled, shoved. You name it she tried it and by the time she was done she was too exhausted from a day of battle, fright, and trying to excape from a prision she had no hope of escaping from, she cureld up and went to sleep to regan what energy she could.
But to her dismay it was futile and whished beyond her imprisionment that she wasn't conected to him at all and was far far away from were she was now.
...but little did master and apprentice know that they soon would be no more...