Reviews;

Owlfur: Thank you very much! I'm definately going to have to check that out, it sounds awesome! I'm hoping that this will be a pretty bombad chapter ;) not as much as the next one, of course, which will have our favorite Gungan General.

QueenNagaina: I couldn't resist throwing that in there.

ScarletFishcake: You are very welcome! I hope this one is just as good!

Tatsuki Vermillion: You're totally fine dude, it's not trouble. I hope things get better soon.

Nwood18: I'll do what I can! I'm really trying to make this story my own, which should be pretty easy given that I can count on one hand the number of Star Wars oc Stories I've read. Unfortunately.

"Perhaps we should take the other hallway?"

Aliette's protests caused pause in Obi Wan. And the Count, he noted idly. Anakin grumbled about it, but paused when he placed his hand on the young Knight's arm.

"Why do you say that?" Obi Wan asked. His eyes darted to Aliette, who was not looking so much at the door as she was looking past it. Her eyes were far away, her head was cocked. Obi Wan had the very distinct impression she was listening to the Force. It whispered to him through their bond.

Aliette's mouth was open to reply when she was cut off by the esteemed Count.

"This way will be fine," he snapped.

"Are you sure?" Anakin's doubt was well placed, as was Aliette's affronted frown. She didn't get offended easily. Put down and doubtful, but no offended. He'd only seen it before when Anikin pointed out her age. Anakin was good at irritating people.

"Would you rather listen to the Padawan?" the word was said with a sneer.

Anakin scowled darkly at him. His jaw set in a stubborn line that was all too familiar to Obi Wan. He'd seen it many times over the past ten years. It never meant good things were in store.

"Yeah, actually, I would!"

A flicker of surprise went through the bond. Part of Obi Wan wondered if it could slip to Anakin through him. He never had had the heart to sever their connection completely. A failing as a Master.

He wasn't the worst Master in existence, of course.

In fact, Obi Wan had distinct memories of Dooku ignoring the advice of his own Padawan, before Qui Gon's demise and his leaving the order. The girl he had taken on after him had been wild, and her thoughts either smoothly deflected or completely ignored, despite the . The beginning of Dooku's Fall were clear, looking back.

Obi Wan would address that when there was more time.

Aliette moved to object again but it was too later. Dooku had opened a door, and shown them a hallways that was not empty or safe as he had assured them, but full of pirates. Their eyes all locked onto the group.

Behind them a door slid open, revealing still more pirates. They were surrounded, and totally unarmed.

Obi Wan didn't think he'd heard his younger Padawan curse yet.

They were tied even tighter together now. Close enough that if they didn't take care they might accidently touch the Count. Hando was mournful of their attempt, but not enough to free them. The arguments started as soon as he was out of the room, a three way sass off between the three humans.

His Pantoran protégé was another story, her eyes taking in the world around them. Obi Wan stopped arguing with Dooku to turn his attention to her. She had known that they shouldn't go down that path way.

"How did you know that they were there?" he questioned. He had a feeling he knew.

The girl lifted her gold eyes to his blue.

"I could feel them," she explained, "Through the Force."

That had been what he'd thought. His former Padawan, while he could feel the Force just fine, it was not a very refined when it came to sensing. Or anything else, really. It was predominantly brute force with him.

Anakin shifted to his side, his attention leaving their adversary to focus on the Padawan beside him. They were very close in age, Obi Wan noted absently. Which again begged the question, why had she not had a Master yet?

"You don't seem very strong in it," the youngest human stated flatly. He wasn't wrong. Especially compared to him, she had relatively little Force signature. Certainly more than a regular person would. Definitely enough to be a Jedi, but smaller than all three of the humans.

The girl shifted uncomfortably. "I'm a Healer," she said, like that should explain everything. For Anakin, it didn't seem to help at all. For Obi Wan it made marginally more sense. His knowledge of Healing was rudimentary but he knew that it required great precision and a bone deep connection with the Living Force.

Before Anakin could say anything else Obi Wan cut him off. He had a habit of being mouthy and rude, something that would help no one now, no matter how much fun it was to prod the Count.

Dooku levelled him with an annoyed glower, as though he could read his thoughts.

"We could use that for our escape," he observed. Dooku snorted derisively, as if he were coming up with any better ideas.

"Yes, a marvelous idea," he drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm, "If it takes a thief to catch one, perhaps it takes one to escape them as well."

Anakin spoke sharply, as he was prone to. "A thief?" The accusation was not aimed at the Padawan, but the traitor. Obi Wan almost smiled at the defensiveness of his former student. Dooku did not appreciate the step he'd taken and curled his lip distastefully at the youngest man.

Aliette's shoulders rolled, like water over stone. She seemed to be trying to let the words slide off of her. Through their Bond Obi Wan sensed some apprehension, and he was quick to push assurance to her. She smiled at him gratefully.

"You were someone before you were a Jedi too, Master Skywalker. So was 'Soka. It holds little bearing on who I am now," she picked her words with care. The last sentence was aimed directly at the Count. It explained why she knew about attacking a large target, Obi Wan figured. A thief would know all about that.

They would also know about sneaking around in dangerous areas.

It did bring about more questions about his Padawan though. He could imagine a number of Jedi would be merciful to a child who had tried to steal from them, especially one who was strong in the Force. He did wonder who brought her back to the Temple.

Obi Wan decided he would ask later on.

Once they had escaped.

"Well, can you get us out of here?" Anakin asked impatiently. If his arms weren't bound Obi Wan knew he would be crossing them.

The Pantoran slipped into started, wide eyes.

"What?" her voice pitched. "I haven't done anything like this in fifteen years," she stressed. "Maybe if we were separated, or if it was just me but I don't know the lay out of this place."

"No, but you know where they pirates are," Obi Wan could feel a plan forming inside of his skull. The beginnings of one. They were going to have to work together now, if they were going to escape. None of them were armed, it would take a miracle to get through this unscathed.

The girl nodded slowly, her eyes flickering to the door.

Outside stood a pirate. The bar tender from the night before. What had he called himself?

"Varg," there was a surprising lack of venom in Aliette's voice. That's right. They had been flirting the night before. He would have expected her to take the betrayal more seriously.

"Hey there," he greeted, baring his teeth at the girl in a smile. There was a tray in his hands that he knelt to shove it into a gap bellow the bars to their cell. Upon it was slices of fruits and bits of dried meat.

The quartet looked to the food wearily. Varg didn't look sheepish, or apologetic.

"It's bad business to mishandle hostage's, Mama always said," he justified. Dooku turned up his nose to the offering.

" 'Mishandling' doesn't stop at poisoning," Anakin accused.

Obi Wan picked up with, "Or pointing blaster at."

Varg shrugged, apparently unabashed. "Nope. 'Fraid not," he said simply, before walking away as casual as could be, leaving behind only a single guard. Obi Wan looked to his Padawan, who was frowning at Varg's back. In all he judged her to be taking the situation well. She wasn't screaming or pitching a fit. Nor did she seem to be anywhere near tears. Aside from the harsh line her lips had drawn to it was hard to tell she was upset at all.

A small tug at their Bond and her emotions, a strange array of conflict, flooded into his chest.

They were not close enough yet for him to pick apart each individual strands that made up the rope that ran between them. In fact he only had a gist of hurt and frustration. It was so much more mild than anything Anakin ever produced that he was surprised that he was able to tell that much.

His Padawans were like fire and ice.

The desert and the tundra.

Aliette leaned against the wall as her Master coxed the pirate towards them, her gold eyes caught on the creature that had imprisoned them. One of them, at least.

Her ears were pricked, her senses cast out into the far away, trying to pick up the Life moving around them. For many it was difficult to discern the different between life forms they were unfamiliar with, for most young ones it was even harder to simple 'turn on' the Sensing, as Ahsoka put it.

She was not young. On top of that, she was a Healer. They lived and breathed the Force, even more so than the majority of Jedi. They had to learn to call it into their bones and cast it out into the blood of other, to touch each individual midiclorian in the life form in their hands.

It was curious to think that her Force Senses were stronger than the three Masters around her.

In fact it was, in a part of her heart that made her stomach turn in guilt, gratifying.

"Have a nice night," she murmured after the pirate as he left, off to get drunk while the four of them walked out of their newly opened cell.

"Not bad," Anakin allowed, moving to make room for Aliette in their little chain gang. She felt like she was in the middle of holonet vid. Kidnapped by pirates, tied with an enemy.

It was almost cliché.

"Yes," Dooku's answering drawl was pulled out low, until she couldn't be sure if it was mocking or not, "Most impressive, Master Kenobi. I trust you were paying attention, Padawan Ansa."

Aliette very pointedly did not make eye contact. "Only fools ignore a lesson given by their teachers," she replied neutrally.

"The Count must have been busy the day they were teaching about moral integrity." She barely hid the smile the tried to blossom at Skywalker's sharp tongue, picking up smoothly from an opening the Pantoran had unwittingly supplied. It may have been stupid, but it lifted her spirits and made her feel included. From the corner of her eye she caught her Master's beard twisting crescent-ways.

The girl cleared her throat. "The most congestion is in the right passage ahead, but the left isn't empty."

"Can you tell how many there are?" Skywalker asked. She couldn't be sure if it was simply for the sake of not being caught or if he was gauging her skill.

Aliette shook her head. "I'm not quite that good, sorry. Master Che would be able to tell you how many hairs were on their head."

"Master Che is unavailable," Master Kenobi intoned, turning them down the path she indicated. "We have you."

She was sure it was meant to be at least a little bit of a compliment, but it only made her drop her chin, ashamed she wasn't up to the snuff of a Jedi she had spent so many years at the elbow of.

They managed to avoid being seen for longer than the last time, the quips between the humans never ending. The longer they went on, the more at ease Aliette felt. It got to the point where it was only by biting her tongue that she kept her own jabs glued to her teeth.

She didn't want to interrupt the rapport between Skywalker and Master Kenobi.

Aliette was forcefully broken out of her musings when an alarm started shrieking above their heads.

"We're tanned," she hissed under her breath as they started running, Dooku pulling down a set of crates behind them to cut off their pursuers.

Skywalker made a funny sound in the back of his mouth. "We had the same saying on Tatooine."

Aliette's brows pinched and the pair of Kenobi Padawan's exchanged bewildered looks. Some slang was universal, literally, but that was something she'd only ever heard on her native world.

A door was kicked open and they burst out, into blessed sunlight. Hope sang in her frigid veins.

Skywalker snatched up a long metal pole and they raced forwards, the 'Elderly Gentleman' having no trouble keeping up with the younger generations. Aliette braced herself for it but the yank of movement on her cuffs, ripping at her wrists, arms, shoulders, was enough to force a startled rush of air throught her teeth as her feet lifted off the ground.

They had miscalculated, she could tell as soon as they lifted into the air. The Force swirled around her, and her realization jolted through the Bond, only to be met by the same one coming from her Master. Her feet moved, as if to land on a platform that was not there. Energy rolled beneath the soft soles of her boots, pushing her higher*, as well as her Master and Dooku, who had reacted the same. Faster. Skywalker shoved off his own, but his was stronger than any of theirs, sending him up, the only one of them that gravity permitted to latch onto the top of the wall.

With four people attached to him he didn't have a chance.

They fell, in a string of flailing limbs and raised voices.

With a shoulder shrieking and lungs burning for air Aliette looked up the blaster aimed at her nose, into the eyes of a vegan pirate. The world was trying to spin around her but she pulled the Force into her body, holding it there to steady herself. It flowed through her much easier than air did.

Once again, they were marched back to their cell. The Hope had drained out of her limbs.

When they unchained the four of them upon arrival she knew that something had changed this time. That things were going to get worse. Things were always worse when you were separated from your friends. Or allies.

As soon as the door closed two Jedi and a Padawan sunk to the ground, the eldest with his legs crossed and the other two on their knees. Dooku chose to lean on the wall.

The girl had already reset her shoulder by then, and so held her hands palm up to Skywalker. Blue eyes met gold, narrowed in suspicion.

"What are you doing?" he asked wearily. Aliette couldn't help thinking that a stupid question.

"You grabbed the ledge with well over 200 kilos hanging off of you. Your shoulders might be fine but prosthetics aren't made for that kind of strain. It could have ripped apart your muscles or pulled loose capillary beds, or veins," she explained, to which he laid his arm into her hands, "I would like for you to not be hurt, Master Skywalker."

"Er, thanks," he mumbled, watched her hands begin to illuminate with the power of the Force. She let it flow through her, and sink into his skin, lower, deeper, into each layer of muscle, each twist of blood, until it was sparking cheerfully against the electronics attached to his nerves.

Skywalker's face scrunched up.

"Normally when I get hurt the Healers just toss me into Bacta," he observed. Alietted inclined her shoulders to the man.

"Bacta is easier, especially with the kind of whole body injuries it takes to get you to take a visit to the Hall of Healings," there was an undercurrent of scolding that slipped through her teeth, in time with the low pulses that she pushed in to fix the strain inside the man.

Anakin very pointedly did not look at her.

Master Kenobi smiled at his former students expense. "Would you mind looking at my back when you're finished with him? Something jolted when we landed, I would rather it not do any further damage."

Aliette nodded quickly, smiling at her Master. She adored being useful, especially when it was something she knew how to do. Healing.

"Of course. If your pride wasn't bruised to heavily I can even look you over, Count," she offered politely. It took her a moment to realize exactly what she had said. Not the offer. That was perfectly intended.

The jibe.

There was a thrum of approval that sparked across Skywalkers skin, and low hum of amusements that came through her Bond with her Master.

They were contagious!

Dooku turned up his nose to her and looked to the window. He reminded her of a caged cat. Noble and proud, tail lashing with fury at his confinement.

While Aliette moved to lay her palms across her Masters back, the humans started to speak again.

"We have to get out of here before Senator Kharrus and Jar Jar arrive, or we'll look like fools," her Master proclaimed. Aliette was bewildered. That was the part he worried most about? How they looked? She wasn't sure of that counted as Foolishness of Vanity.

She shook her head quickly. No, it was not her place to judge her Master. He knew what was important.

Probably.

Skywalker rose, every inch of him pushing out a Center of Aggression that made the girls skin crawl. Jedi were meant to be Peaceful. Not that

"I think it's time we lose the dead weight," he declared, the daggers in his eyes pinning around Dooku.

Not a one made a hit for just as quickly the Count countered with a low sneer. Her Master pulled away to put himself between the pair, ever the Negotiator, his former students name falling from his mouth with a low warning.

Before a fight could break out the door slid open, allowing a few pirates in that she didn't recognize by name, or face. All wielding blasters, of course.

"You two," the lead declared, pointing to Skywalker and Master Kenobi, "Come with us."

Aliette drew up. Fear wrapped around her heart. What was going on now?

They grabbed the bindings of the two humans and started pulling them to the door, heedless of her Masters objections and inquiries. 'What about my Padawan? Where are we going now?' and so one.

She stared as the door shut behind the pair, cutting off the view of the men looking back at her.

Her hands folded in her lap. Still, they did not shake.

"You certainly found yourself an interesting Master. A bit late for you to be a Padawan though, isn't it?" Dooku's words had always been aristocratic, even when she had barely understood them, her ears half frozen and filled with the ringing of a concussion, so many years ago.

She didn't rise to the challenge. Didn't take the bait.

Instead she said, "You gave away Komari's blades." She felt rather than saw him stiffen against the wall, a tension pulling his shoulders together. She went on, "If it had been Qui Gon Jinn's, would you have tossed them to the first assassin you found with the Force in their eyes?"

"Qui Gon was not a failure as apprentice," his normally measured words had taken on an undercurrent like a blade pushing through silk.

Aliette closed her eyes and tried to release the sudden wave of Defensive and Anger that rushed through her veins.

"You respected Komari more than anyone else in our Order," she replied. She would have said more if her Bond with Master Kenobi hadn't been locked short, out of nowhere, proceeded by Aggravation and Worry.

Something was very, very wrong.

"Did they tell you why she denied Knighthood?" Dooku queried, stepping around in front of the girl. He towered over her, whether she was sitting or standing. A King, Noble and Proud.

She took a breath. "She loved you." She had known before the Council had, she was fairly certain. Komari had spent what little personal time she had with the Then-Initiate. She was the closest thing Aliette had to a sister.

"Yes, and for that crime she was cast aside, thrown to a suicide mission that toned her Fall to Darkness." It wasn't until then that Aliette had ever considered that, even if he did not love the girl the way she did him, he had cared for apprentice. For both of them. She knew, logically, but after he was Lost she had been lost herself, in the coattails and the shadow of the fallen pair.

Something else he said closed her throat. Froze the already frigid blood in her veins.

A cruel smile carved into the Count's regal features.

"That's right, the Jedi Order never went after their corpses, did they? No one there knew what happened. None of your precious Council knew that she was captures, not killed. Tortured, taken apart and shattered until the Dark Side swallowed her up."

Images flashed in her mind. Imagines or picture planted there. She didn't know. Komari. Screaming. Begging. Bleeding, everywhere. Strapped down. Shoved in water. Poked, prodded, flayed.

"Liar," she accused. The word was chipped with the ice in her blood.

Dooku took a step so close it was almost on her skirt. "Komari had Fallen before I did, and the Jedi did nothing to stop it."

Her eyes stayed locked on his knees. How many years had it been since she had cried?

"Neither did you."

She would not start again today.

"Passed tense," the girl continued. Very slowly she rose, her eyes lifting to meet the counts. Brown that she had once found so much comfort within. Brown that had saved her from a sea of frosted gold.

"When did she die, Count?"

He held her gaze without flinching. "I snapped her neck ten years ago, on the Moon of the Dead."

The name was unfamiliar.

The lights went out. Aliette looked past the Count when he turn to the door.

"Good bye, Padawan Ansa," he offered a narrowed, triumphant smile, already moving to Force slide their way out to a very confused pirate.

Aliette could find nothing to say.

*Think video game double jump.