Obi-Wan's POV
"…please, younglings follow Padawan Flayne to the catacombs. Quickly now!" I direct some of the nearest stairwell. Due to the lockdown, the turbolifts have yet to be powered on.
As much as I try not to panic, I look at the environment around me; jedi run frantically around the main hall, and clones march down to their positions in the catacombs. Younglings blink back their own tears, looking around in utter despair and confusion.
The council is making their way down to the main hall now. After the extensive conversations in the council room minutes earlier, we've come to an ultimatum for the situation outside;
All verbal communications with Dooku outside are to be made by Master Yoda and no one else, all other ranking jedi to gather around silently. We're desperately trying to keep communications with Dooku completely civil before they turn physical too soon. The word preparations is an understatement at the moment.
After helping a sobbing youngling to a bustling stairwell, a gloved hand taps my shoulder.
"Anakin, oh am I glad to see you." I sigh.
"We should talk later, Master. Judging by what has and will happen outside, I don't think now is the time." He sighs to himself as we approach the crowd of jedi around the main doors. Sweat beads down everyone's necks and cheeks, hands cautious to reach for the door handles.
"Ahsoka is downstairs I assume?" I push past some of the jedi to the front of the crowd. Muttering among them is very diverse. The media are going to have a field day with this; Where's the council?; Dooku isn't going to stay unarmed for long, I can guarantee it.
Anakin nods slowly. "With Shmi. I was hesitant to leave though. All the security they have is the clones and well, the ground around them. If even a small squad of droids gets past us, they're done—"
"You forgot your experienced and intelligent padawan. If anything goes awry without us knowing, she will act." I explain, although I can tell Anakin isn't really listening. "You know that."
"I just hope her training is enough, that's all." He breathes, looking back to the bustling stairwell. The usual blue twinkle in his eyes is missing, replaced by a sorrow, glossy glow from the shaded windows.
Shoulders budge away behind us, and the crinkled face of Master Yoda emerges from the cloaked crowd. Followed behind him are three temple guards, adorn in their pearl white robes and saber staffs at their hips. Master Windu and Master Mundi each grasp the door handles, looking for Master Yoda for the go ahead.
"Proceed, you shall."
Before I can even look back from Master Yoda's distressed complexion, light from the doors scrapes into the foyer like an unwanted sunrise. The ground outside looks almost bleached from the snow, and the grey sky cracks open to let the smallest columns of sun pass through.
The crowd marches slowly to the edge of the courtyard. I try my best to locate Anakin, but I find my heels being stepped on if I even try to slow my pace. And the prevailing snow storm doesn't provide the cleanest of views from left or right either. I pull over my hood and duck my head, staring at my budging feet. Budging. Why are my feet budging?
I should be leading the crowd, not earnestly trying not to be noticed within it. I've never wanted to be a miscellaneous crowd within the flock. Why am I trying to do just that now?
I'm thankful for the courtyard railing when I reach it, even if I can feel the frost biting down on my palms and fingertips. Master Yoda steps up to the small podium, removing his hooded cloak into the wind.
However, there seems to be noticeably one person absent; where's Dooku?
Hushed whispers swivel through the confused crowd like several serpents. Even Master Yoda consults with the temple guards and other jedi. I manage to push my way to the teeming podium and listen in.
"…where was he seen, Master?"
Master Yoda paws anxiously at his creased palms. "Unsure, I am. Whether or not Dooku has left, is unsure."
He shuffles over to speak to the three temple guards. "Search the lower grounds of the temple, you shall. Report back with any disturbances, you must."
The veiled guards nod in agreement and leave unannounced.
This leaves the crowd of jedi in a fit of disarray; some push past other in order to get in a word with Master Yoda, while others begin arguing with one another. The crowd looks something like a rumbling storm cloud amongst the fluffy snow filled ones from above I presume.
Screeching sirens erupt below on the temple grounds, and fussing seizes almost immediately.
I lurch my head over the railing as do many of the other jedi; several men of the Coruscant police force jump off of their blinking red and blue speeders and ready fire at the Valorum Tower – which resembles a sharp, animal claw in the distance - without a glance at us behind them.
One of the police generals marches forward and points his long, bejewelled cane at the tower's summit.
"That's where Dooku was seen, men! We only have one chance to get this right so make it count!"
I feel my throat shrivel like it had been in the sun all day and my cheeks fluster. If the police even take one missed shot at the building, a battle could arise as quickly as it takes for a spark to catch on a log of dry wood.
"Ready men!"
"Aim!" Click. Click. Click.
"Fire!"
"NO!" Anakin yelps from the crowd. He pushes himself over the railing before I have a chance to reach for him, just as a muffled gunshot goes off.
"Anakin!" My voice cracks as I see him plummet atop the general in an instant. The police glare up to railing edge, wearing blushed expressions across there visible cheeks.
"This is a jedi matter! You men have no business or excuse for being on temple premises!" Master Windu bellows over the rail, so sufficiently loud he need not the podium's microphone.
"A Seperatist war criminal has arrived on the Republic capital of the galaxy!" The general retorts, pushing a startled and dazed Anakin off of him and getting to his feet with the help of his cane. "As far as I am concerned, this is police's matter, Master Jedi."
A slimy laugh cracks throughout the atmosphere, like stirring bolts of lightning.
"Ha, it is quite amusing to see two allies turn on each other out of someone else's doing. It's quite ironic, actually." Dooku enters onto Valorum Tower's balcony, grasping a similar microphone to Master Yoda's in his boney fingers.
His figure is only visible by the outline of his triangular jaw, and his billowing brown cloak. "The confrontations and difficulties you say you fight to stop are right here, present in front of you, and how do you chose to act? By arguing over who has the higher seniority. It's quite… how I expected."
My fingers grasp onto Master Windu's cloak as he eagerly steps forward; Master Yoda is the only one who can speak now. "Dooku, state your case or, arrest you and all who are involved, we will." Master Windu orders.
"Look around." Dooku motions around the empty balcony. "I'm afraid the only ones involved are the wind, snowflakes and I… at this time that is."
"Phase the jedi, your empty threats do not."
"Oh I can assure you my threats are very real and plausible. You mustn't get very confident in yourselves, jedi. I could have this whole planet a mere dust pile, floating in the dark depths of space if I wanted to." The thin man brushes off at the snowflakes gathering on the balcony's ledge for an added effect.
Master Yoda giggles to himself. "Blame us, you can't possibly. Take seriously you're past… primitive actions, we cannot."
Dooku rolls his eyes. "I don't enjoy being a bother to you, jedi. I have much better things to do than be a nuisance. Just give me what I have came to this planet for and I will leave, vexing you no more."
"What is that?"
"The child."
"Be given up to you or your forces willingly, Shmi will not, Dooku." Master Yoda ensures. "If you believe otherwise, afraid you have the wrong impression of the jedi, I am."
"Oh no, I have obtained a very complex, diverse view of the jedi over the past few years thank you, Master Yoda. But however, giving up the child now will prevent a very unpleasant future for you jedi. Last chance offer."
Master Yoda shakes his head. "Sorry, I am."
Dooku sighs, a cold grin on his face. "One day then, jedi. One day."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm no unjust man, jedi. So take this as a fair choice over I just setting fire to the temple now;" Dooku begins.
"I – sorry – I and a good lot of the Seperatist arms forces will return here to your temple will forcibly take the child, sparing no expenses. No casualties, ten, twenty, a thousand, heck – the whole jedi population destroyed over one of the simplest matters ever conjured up. Gone like a melted snowflake."
"In no other position but to sit and wait your arrival tomorrow, I guess we are." Master Yoda shrugs.
"…If you jedi are uncooperative as I presume, then I will not hesitate to murder each and every one of you at my own blade. Masters, knights, padawans, guardians, healers, younglings alike will all feel the true wrath of my power."
"Interminably prepared to stand together and protect what we hold sacred, we jedi are."
"I don't doubt that you will fight, Master Yoda. However, I can assure – no – guarantee that a little cut to the arm will be the least of your troubles." Dooku laughs. His beady brown eyes travel to the still blinking police speeders below me.
"Take Master Skywalker's current predicament as an example –"
Anakin clutches his left forearm, plugging the bloody gouge in his armour with a fidgeting finger.
"Tomorrow's events will be an excruciatingly amplified version of it."