Thank you to the 17 people who reviewed the last chapter and I hope that you like this chapter which will go through the duel with Count Dooku but will likely end at the end of that altered duel. And it is skipping a lot of passages that I feel don't help the plot. Also, sorry for not posting this yesterday, I got into the original story I was working on. Reviews, as always, are much appreciated.
Chapter 56
Obi-Wan's starfighter jolted sideways. Anakin whipped by him and used his forward attitude jets to kick himself into a skew-flip: facing backward to blast the last of the tri-fighters on his tail. Now there were only vulture droids left. A lot of vulture droids just like last time.
"Did you like that one, Master?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "Very pretty," he said. He couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice though but Anakin simply chuckled. His cannons stitched plasma across the hull of a swooping vulture fighter until the droid exploded. "We aren't through this yet."
Anakin nodded. "Watch this." He flipped his starfighter again and divided, spinning, directly through the flock of vulture droids. Their drives blazed as they came around. He led them streaking for the upper deck of a laser-scarred Separatist cruiser. "I'm going to lead them through the needle."
Obi-Wan sighed as he briefly glanced at the threat display to find that twelve vultures were on Anakin's tail. "Just be careful," he said.
"I will, Master." Anakin slipped his starfighter through the storm of cannonfire. "Come down and thin them out a little."
Obi-Wan slammed his control yoke forward as though jamming it against its impact-rest would push his battered fighter faster in pursuit. "Just hold me steady, Arfour," he said knowing full well that the damaged droid couldn't do anything fancy.
He reached into the Force and felt for his shot. "On my mar, break left—now!" the shutdown control surface of his left wing turned the left break into a tight overheard spiral that traversed Obi-Wan's guns across the paths of four vultures before destroying them.
He flew on through the clouds of glowing plasma not bothering on going around. He already knew that Anakin would take care of the eight vultures on his tail; he was just behind to make sure none escaped.
Anakin's starfighter skimmed only meters above the cruiser's dorsal hull. Cannon misses from the vulture fighters swooping toward him blasted chunks out of the cruiser's armor.
"Okay, Artoo. Where's that trench?"
His forward screen lit with a topograph of the cruiser's hull. Just ahead lay the trench that Obi-wan had led the tri-fighter into. Anakin flipped his starfighter through a razor-sharp wingover down past the rim. The walls of the service trench flashed past him as he streaked for the bridge tower at the far end. From here, he couldn't even see the minuscule slit between its support struts.
With eight vulture droids in pursuit, he'd never pull off a slant up the tower's leading edge as Obi-Wan had. But that was all right; he wasn't planning to.
His cockpit comm buzzed. "Careful, Anakin, since I already know I can't talk you about of doing this," Obi-Wan said.
Anakin smiled a little; his master knew him so well. "I'll be fine, Master, and I'll get through."
Artoo whistled nervously obviously not liking what Anakin was planning on doing.
"Easy, Artoo," Anakin said. "We've done this before."
"Don't forget to use the Force," Obi-Wan said.
Anakin stretched out with the Force as cannonfire blazed past, impacting on the support struts ahead. Too late to change his mind now: he was committed. He would bring his ship through so long as he used the Force and thought his way through.
Artoo's squeal was as close to terrified as a droid can sound. Glowing letters spidered across Anakin's readout: abort! Abort! Abort!
Anakin smiled. "Wrong thought."
Obi-Wan had to admit he was still amazed when Anakin's starfighter snapped onto its side and scraped through the slit with centimeters to spare. He shook his head; he had already known what was going to happen and yet he was still surprised by it.
The vulture droids tried to follow but they were just a hair too big.
When the first two impacted, Obi-Wan triggered his canons in a downward sweep. The evasion maneuvers preprogrammed in the vulture fighters' droid brains sent them diving away from Obi-Wan's lasers—straight into the fireball expanding from the front of the struts.
Obi-Wan looked up to find Anakin soaring straight out from the cruiser with a quick snap-roll of victory. Obi-Wan matched his course but without the flourish.
"I'll give you the first four," Anakin said over the comm, "but the other eight are mine."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "Anakin—" he said.
"All right, we'll split them."
As they left the cruiser behind, their sensors showed Squad Seven dead ahead. The clone pilots were fully engaged, looping through a dogfight so tight that their ion trails looked like a glowing ball of string.
"Oddball's in trouble. I'm going to help him out."
Obi-Wan shook his head though he knew Anakin couldn't see. "Anakin, sometimes it is not possible to save everyone no matter how much you want to," he said gently.
Anakin was silent for a long moment. "You're right, Master," he said. "They know their job. We must do ours."
Obi-Wan smiled. Anakin was definitely different from the first time around it was definitely for the better.
"Head for the command ship," he said before he targeted the command cruiser and shot away at maximum thrust.
Anakin and Obi-Wan flashed through the battle, dodging flak and turbolaser bolts, slipping around cruisers to eclipse themselves from the sensors of droid fighters. They were only a few dozen kilometers from the command cruiser when a pair of tri-fighters whipped across their path, firing on the deflection.
Anakin's sensor board lit up and Artoo shrilled a warning. "Missiles!"
He wasn't worried for himself: the two on his tail were coming at him in perfect tandem. Missiles lacked the sophisticated brains of droid fighters; to keep them from colliding on their inbound vectors, one would have to lock onto his fighter's left drive, the other onto his right. A quick snap-roll would make those vectors intersect.
And they did in a silent blossom of flame.
Obi-Wan wasn't so lucky. The pair of missiles locked onto his sublights weren't precisely side by side; a snap-roll would be worse than useless. Anakin felt Obi-Wan's irritation through their bond, their bond was strong enough that Anakin was able to feel that, as he fired retros and kicked his dorsal jets to halve his velocity and knock him a few meters planetward. The lead missile overshot and spiraled off into the orbital battle.
The trailing missile came close enough to trigger its proximity sensors and detonated in a spray of glowing shrapnel. Obi-Wan's starfighter flew through the debris—Anakin again felt his brother's irritation—and the shrapnel tracked him.
Little silver spheres flipped themselves into his path and latched onto the starfighter's skin, then split and sprouted spidery arrays of jointed arms that pried up hull plates, exposing the starfighter's internal works to multiple circular whirls of blade like ancient mechanical bone saws.
This was a problem.
"Blast it. I'm hit," Obi-Wan even sounded as irritated as he was feeling.
"I have visual." Anakin swung his starfighter into closer pursuit. "Buzz droids. I count five."
"If I told you to get out of here and get to the command ship, would you actual listen to me?" Obi-Wan asked.
"No," replied Anakin with a smirk. "I'm not going without you."
Obi-Wan's sigh crackled through the comm.
One of the buzz droids crouched beside the cockpit, silvery arms grappling with Arfour; another worked on the starfighter's nose, while a third skittered toward the ventral hydraulics. The last two of the aggressive little mechs had spidered to Obi-Wan's left wing, working on that damaged control surface.
"They're shutting down the controls," Obi-Wan said calm but irritated at the same time. Anakin wondered at that irritation since it didn't seem to be aimed at the buzz droids but he decided against asking about it.
"I can fix that…" Anakin brought his starfighter into line only a couple of meters off Obi-Wan's wing. "Steady…," he muttered, "steady…," and triggered a single burst of his right side cannon that blasted the two buzz droids into gouts of molten metal.
Along with most of Obi-Wan's left wing.
"Whoops," Anakin said.
Yes, whoops, Obi-Wan thought hearing those words over the comm as the starfighter bucked hard enough to knock Obi-Wan's skull against the transparisteel canopy. A gust of stinging smoke filled the cockpit. Obi-Wan fought the yoke to keep his starfighter out of an uncontrolled tumble. "Anakin, that's not helping," he called.
"You're right, bad idea. Here let's try this—move left and swung under—easy…"
"Anakin, wait—" Obi-Wan gritted his teeth as he watched Anakin's starfighter edge closer. With a dip of its wing, it physically slammed a buzz droid into a smear of metal. The impact jolted Obi-Wan again, pounded a deep streak of dent into his starfighter's hull and shattered the forward control surface of Anakin's wing.
He shook his head. Strangely, it worked the first time around so Obi-Wan figured it would work this time around.
His atmospheric scrubbers drained smoke from the cockpit, but now the droid on the forward control surface of Obi-Wan's starfighter's right wing had peeled away enough of the hull plates that its jointed saw arms could get deep inside. Sparks flared into space, along with an expanding fountain of gas that instantly crystallized in the hard vacuum. Velocity identical to Obi-Wan's, the shimmering gas hung on his starfighter's nose like a cloud of fog.
"Blast, not again," he muttered. "My controls are gone."
"You're doing fine. Stay on my wing."
"I have to accelerate out of this," Obi-Wan said.
"I'm with you. Go."
Obi-Wan eased power to his thrusters, and his starfighter parted the cloud, but new vapor boiled out to replace it as he went. He already knew that a buzz droid had gotten Arfour so there was no point in mention that but he was still unsure whether there was a buzz droid on his nose. "Is there one still on my nose?" he asked.
"Yeah, and another one jumped over when we hit and is not attacking Artoo," Anakin said.
Through a gap torn in the cloud by the curve of his cockpit, Obi-Wan could see Artoo grappling with a buzz droid saw-arm to saw-arm. Already knowing the variety of auxiliary tools and aftermarket behaviors Anakin had tinkered onto his starfighter's astromech that were beyond the sophisticated upgrades performed by the Royal Engineers of Naboo, he wasn't all surprised by the little droid as he attacked the buzz droid.
Briefly, he wondered when he started calling Artoo 'he' rather than 'it'.
Artoo's saw cut through one of the buzz droid's grapplers, sending the jointed arm flipping lazily off into space. Then he did the same to another. Then a panel opened in Artoo's side and his datajack arm stabbed out and smacked the crippled buzz droid right of f Anakin's hull. The buzz droid spun aft until it was caught in the blast wash of Anakin's sublights then blew away faster than Obi-Wan's eye could follow.
The datajack retracted and a different panel opened, this time in Artoo's dome. A claw-cable shot from it into the cloud of gas that still billowed from Obi-Wan's right forward wing, and pulled back out dragging a struggling buzz droid. The silver droid twisted and squirmed and its grapplers took hold of the cable, climbing back along it, saw arms waving, until Anakin popped the starfighter's underjets and Artoo cut the cable and the buzz droid dropped away, tumbling helplessly through the battle.
Obi-Wan smiled a little. "Artoo really does act like a living creature. Thank him for me, Anakin," he said.
"Thank him yourself," Anakin said with a grin and Obi-Wan, with a shake of his head, repeated his thanks to Artoo who whistled a you're welcome through the comm.
Then the last of the fog finally dispersed and the sky ahead was full of ship.
More than one kilometer from end to end, the vast command cruiser filled his visual field. At this range, all he could see were savannas of sand-colored hull studded with turbolaser mountains that lit up space with thunderbolts of disintegrating energy.
And the immense ship was getting bigger, faster.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "Anakin, this isn't going to work," he said already knowing the plan. "My controls are gone. I can't go anywhere."
"Oh. Well. All right, no problem."
Obi-Wan shook his head as his starfighter clanged as if he'd crashed into a ship—sized gong. He didn't bother glancing back because he already knew what Anakin was doing; it didn't really matter since it had worked the first time.
Anakin hit him again steering him toward the hangar bay. Once they were near the hangar bay, with the shield still up, Obi-Wan contacted Anakin. "Anakin, the shield's still up," he called. Thankfully, he had called when he was just far enough from the shield that he didn't have to worry about flying headlong into it.
"Oh, sorry, I've been busy," Anakin said before he swooped in front of him, crossing left to right at a steep deflection. Energy flared from his cannons and the shield emitters at the right side of the hangar door exploded into scrap. The blue shimmer of the bay shield flickered, faded, and vanished.
Obi-Wan came spinning across the threshold and slammed into the deck, trailing sparks and a scream of tortured metal.
His entire starfighter—what was left of it—vibrated with the roar of atmosphere howling out from the unshielded bay. Massive blast doors ground together like jaws. Obi-Wan reached out with the Force and his mind followed the starfighter's mangled circuitry to the manual test board. Once there, he cut the power to his engines but he couldn't trigger the explosive bolts on his cockpit canopy and he had a bad feeling those canopy bolts were the only thing on his craft that weren't about to explode.
Well, that went like last time, he thought as he ignited his lightsaber and one swipe and the canopy to burst away, ripped into space by the hurricane of escaping air. Obi-Wan flipped himself up into the stunningly cold gale and let it blow him tumbling away as the remnants of his battered craft finally exploded.
He rode the shock wave while he let the Force right him in the air. He landed catfooted on the blackened streak—still hot enough to scorch his boots—that his landing had gouged into the deck.
The hangar was full of battle droids.
His shoulders dropped and his knees bent and his lightsaber came up to angle in front of his face. There were far too many for him to fight alone but he didn't mind.
Like last time he was thankful he was out of that blasted starfighter.
Anakin slipped is craft toward the hangar through a fountain of junk and flash-frozen gas. One last touch of the yoke twisted his starfighter through the closing teeth of the blast doors just as Obi-Wan's canopy went the other way.
Obi-Wan's ship was a hunk f glowing crap punctuating a long smoking skid mark. Obi-Wan himself, beard rimed with frost, lightsaber out and flaming, stood in a tightening ring of battle droids.
Anakin slewed his starfighter into a landing that scattered droids with the particle blast from his sublight thrusters and for one second h was nine years old again, behind the controls of a starfighter in the Theed royal hangar, his first touch of a real ship's cannons blasting battle droids.
However, with Palpatine somewhere on the ship and the fact that they might need one of the light shuttles in the hangar to get the Chancellor to the surface, a few dozen cannon blasters bouncing around in here could wreck them all.
So he would just have to do things by hand.
One touch blew his canopy and he sprang from the cockpit, flipping upward to stand on the wing. Battle droids opened fire instantly and Anakin's lightsaber flashed. "Artoo, locate a computer link.
The little droid whistled at him and Anakin smiled a little. Sometimes he thought he could almost understand the droid's electrosonic code. "Don't worry about us. Find Palpatine. Go on, I'll cover you."
Artoo popped out of his socket and bounced to the deck. Anakin jumped ahead of it into a cascade of blasterfire and let the Force direct his blade. Battle droids began to spark and collapse.
"Get to that link!" Anakin had to shout above the whine of blasters and the roar of exploding droids. "I'm going for Obi-Wan."
"No need."
Anakin whirled to find Obi-Wan right behind him in the act of slicing neatly through the braincase of a battle droid.
"I appreciate the thought, Anakin," the Jedi Master said with a gentle smile. "But I've already come for you."
Anakin back relieved that his brother was all right.
The storm of blasterfire ricocheting through the hangar bay suddenly ceased. Clusters of battle droids withdrew behind ships and slipped out hatchways.
Obi-Wan's familiar grimace showed past his blade as he let it shrink away. "I hate it when they do that."
Anakin's lightsaber was already back on his belt. "When they do what?"
"Disengage and fall back for no reason.
"There's always a reason, Master."
Obi-Wan nodded. "That's why I hate it."
Anakin looked at the litter of smoking droid parts scattered throughout the hangar bay, shrugged and snugged his black glove. "Artoo, where's the Chancellor?"
The little droid's datajack rotated in the wall socket. His holoprojector eye swiveled and the blue scanning laser built a ghostly image near Anakin's boot: Palpatine shackled into a large swivel chair. Even in the tiny translucent blur, he looked exhausted and in pain but alive.
He was grateful that his friend was alive even if it's been such a long time since he last saw him.
"Do you have a location?" Obi-Wan asked speaking over his shoulder.
The image rippled and twisted into a schematic map of the cruiser. Far up at the top of the conning spire, Artoo showed a pulsar of brighter blue.
"In the General's Quarters. Any sign of Grievous himself?"
The pulsar shifted to the cruiser's bridge.
"Hmm. And guards?"
The holoimage rippled again, and transformed into an image of the cruiser's General's Quarters once more. Palpatine appeared to be alone: the chair sat in the center of an arc of empty floor, facing a huge curved viewing wall.
Anakin muttered, "That doesn't make sense."
"Of course it does. It's a trap."
Anakin barely heard him. He stared down at his black-gloved hand and clenched it into a first before opening it again. The ache from his shoulder flowed down to the middle of his bicep—
And it didn't stop. His elbow sizzled, and hi forearm; his wrist had been packed with red-hot gravel and his hand—
His hand was on fire.
But it wasn't his hand. Or his wrist, or his forearm, or his elbow. It was a creation of jointed durasteel and electrodrivers.
"Anakin?" Ob-Wan sounded concerned.
"It hurts," Anakin said.
Obi-Wan placed a hand on his shoulder but said nothing.
Anakin turned to look at his brother. He was surprised; he was expecting Obi-Wan to say something and yet he was gazing at him with a knowing look in his eyes as if he already knew what was going on. He blinked and the look was gone to be replaced by concern.
It was then that he felt the presence and it was all he could to release his anger into the Force. "I can feel him," he said once he succeeded in releasing that anger.
Obi-Wan simply raised an eyebrow.
"Dooku. He's here. Here on this ship."
Obi-Wan nodded. "I'm sure he is."
Anakin stared. "You knew?"
"I guessed. Do you think Grievous couldn't have found Palpatine's beacon? I doubt it was an accident that through all the ECM, the Chancellor's homing signal was in the clear. This is a trap, a Jedi trap, possibly set for us personally."
Anakin noticed a grim look on Obi-Wan's face and he frowned. "You're thinking of how he tried to recruit you on Geonosis. Before he sent you down for execution."
Obi-Wan squeezed his shoulder before releasing it. "It's not impossible that we will again face that choice."
"It's not a choice. Let him ask. My answer is right here on my belt."
"Remember that the Chancellor's safety s our only priority."
Anakin nodded slowly. "I know, Master. "All right, it's a trap. Next move?"
Obi-Wan smiled as he headed for the nearest exit. "Same as always: we spring it."
"I can work with this plan." Anakin turned to his astromech. "You stay here, Artoo—"
The little droid interrupted him with a wheedling whirr.
"No arguments. Stay, I meant it."
Artoo's whistling reply had a distinctly sulky tone.
"Listen, Artoo, someone has to maintain computer contact; do you see a datajack anywhere on me?"
The droid seemed to acquiesce but not before wheeping what sounded like it might have been a suggestion where to look.
Waiting by the open hatchway, Obi-Wan simply shook his head but said nothing.
Anakin started toward him but suddenly stopped in his tracks, a curious look on his ace as if he was trying to frown or to smile at the same time.
"Anakin?"
He didn't answer. He couldn't answer. He was looking at an image inside his head. Not an image. A reality.
A memory of something that hadn't happened yet.
He saw Count Dooku on his knees. He saw lightsabers crossed at the Count's throat.
Clouds lifted from his heart: clouds of Jabiim, of Aargonar, of Kamino. For the first time in too many years he felt young, as young as he really was. Young, and free, and full of light.
"Master…" His voice seemed to be coming from someone else. Someone who hadn't seen what he'd seen. "Master, right here—right now—you and I…"
"Yes?"
He blinked. "I think we're about to win the war."
Obi-Wan simply gazed at him. "Then let's go win us a war," he said.
Count Dooku watched with clinical distaste as the blue-scanned images of Kenobi and Skywalker engaged in a preposterous farce-chase, pursued by destroyer droids into and out of turbolift pods that shot upward and downward and even sideways.
"It will be," he said slowly, meditatively, as though he spoke only to himself, "an embarrassment to be captured by him."
The voice that answered him was so familiar that sometimes his voice thoughts spoke in it, instead of in his own. "An embarrassment you can survive, lord Tyranus. After all, he is the greatest Jedi alive, is he not? And have we not ensured that all the galaxy shares this opinion?"
"Quite so, my Master. Quit so." Again, Dooku sighed. Today he felt every hour of his eight-three years. "It is…fatiguing to play the villain for so long, Master. I find myself looking forward to an honorable captivity."
And he was since he wanted to sit out the rest of the war and think about everything that would occur with his master's plan even with the disruptions that were threatening to topple it. Sidious was determined and cocky enough to think his plan will succeed despite the disruptions.
"May I suggest, Master, that we give Kenobi one last chance?" Dooku suggested even though, as he spoke, he knew that it wouldn't work. Kenobi had said as much during his captivity on Geonosis. There was no way he would join the dark side.
"The support of a Jedi of his integrity would be invaluable in establishing the political legitimacy of our Empire."
"Ah, yes. Kenobi." His Master's voice went silken but there was another emotion that Dooku couldn't put a name buried deep in his voice. "You have long been interested in Kenobi, haven't you?"
"Of course. His Master was my Padawan; in a sense, he's practically my grandson—"
"He is too old. Too indoctrinated. Irretrievably poisoned by Jedi fables. We established that on Geonosis, did we not? In his mind, he serves the Force itself; reality is nothing in the face of such conviction."
Dooku sighed. He should, he supposed, have no difficulty with this, having ordered the Jedi Master's death once already. "True enough, I suppose; how fortunate we are that I never labored under any such illusions."
"Kenobi must die. Today. At your hand. His death will be the code key of a lock that will seal Skywalker to us forever."
Dooku immediately sensed that his master had another motive, a motive that had nothing to do with sealing Skywalker to the Sith. He could sense that it was personal, that his master wanted Kenobi to die for a reason he wasn't going to share with his apprentice. However, he was still going to go through with his master's order because he knew that Kenobi's death would help to see the birth of the Empire and he was looking forward to it.
"Tyranus? Are you well?
"Am I…?" Dooku realized that his eyes had misted. "Yes, my Master. I am beyond well. Today, the climax—the grand finale—the culmination of all your decades of work…I find myself somewhat overcome."
"Composed yourself, Tyranus. Kenobi and Skywalker are nearly at the door. Play your part, my apprentice, and the galaxy is ours."
Dooku straightened and for the first time look his Master in the eyes.
Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, sat in the General's Chair, shackled to it at the wrist and ankle.
Dooku bowed to him. "Thank you, Chancellor."
Palpatine of Naboo, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, replied, "Withdraw. They are here."
And so it begins, Obi-Wan thought as the turbolift's door whished open. He and Anakin were pressed against opposite walls, a litter of saber-sliced droid parts around their feet; beyond appeared to be a perfectly ordinary lift lobby: pale and bare and empty. "Anakin, rescue, not mayhem," he reminded his former apprentice.
Anakin kept his weapon in his hand. "And Dooku?"
"One the Chancellor is safe, we can blow the ship…or arrest Dooku, whichever," Obi-wan said with a ghost of a smile.
Anakin closed his eyes. "Then let's get going," he said closing down his lightsaber and opening his eyes and Obi-Wan felt pride go through him; Anakin was getting so good at releasing his anger into the Force. He was so determined to be the best Jedi in the Order that he had taken to heart every lesson he was ever taught and Obi-Wan could not be prouder. What he saw was not the same young man who wanted to defeat and, possibly, kill Dooku himself; he saw a mature, Jedi who had taken to heart that a Jedi did not kill unless it was absolutely necessary.
He only hoped he would remember that when the end of their duel with Dooku came around.
"Master, are you all right?" Anakin asked breaking Obi-Wan out of his thoughts, or rather the memory of what occurred the first time around, and he blinked.
"I'm fine."
Anakin didn't look convinced but he said nothing and walked into the turbolift lobby. Distance concussions boomed throughout the ship, and the floor rocked like a raft on a river in flood.
"I'm looking forward to ending it," he admitted. "No matter how we go about it."
"Anticipation—"
"Is a distraction. I know. And I know that hope is as hollow as fear." Anakin smiled. "And I know everything else you're dying to tell me right now."
Obi-Wan chuckled and rested his hand gently on his brother's shoulder. "I suppose someday I will eventually have to stop trying to train you," he said.
Anakin's smile broadened and he chuckled. "I think that's the first time you've ever admitted it."
They stopped at the door to the General's Quarters; a huge oval of opalescent iridiite chased with gold. Anakin gazed at it and Obi-Wan could feel him reach into the Force to calm himself, find his center and prepare for the battle to come. Another spark of pride went through him.
"I'm ready," he said.
"I know you are. Before we go in though, I want you to know that there is no other Jedi I would rather have at my side right now. No other man," Obi-Wan said honestly.
Anakin looked at him before nodding and their bond flared momentarily as the pure love Obi-Wan felt for his brother surged through it and he felt Anakin's own love mingle with his. He knew Anakin rarely glimpsed what he truly felt during the first ten years they were together but during the war, from the moment Obi-Wan returned to the past just after Ansion, Obi-Wan allowed Anakin to feel his true feelings and thus their bond was many times stronger than it had been the first time around.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Master."
Obi-Wan smiled a little. "I believe you should get used to calling me Obi-Wan," he said.
"Obi-Wan," Anakin said, "let's go get the Chancellor."
"Yes, let's," Obi-Wan said.
Supreme Chancellor Palpatine watched as Anakin and the suspected meddlesome Kenobi made their way around the room toward where he was seated. Discreetly, he stretched out with the Force and had to force himself not to scowl when he noticed Skywalker wasn't as angry as he thought he would be. Skywalker seemed more in control of his emotions than Palpatine would have thought.
And his suspicions toward Kenobi came back full force.
With his customary grave courtesy, the said Jedi Master inclined his head. "Chancellor," he said; a calmly respectful greeting as though they had met by chance on the Grand Concourse of the Galactic Senate."
Palpatine only responded with a tight murmur. "Anakin, behind you—!" He made sure to infuse his Force presence with fear but Anakin didn't seem fazed by it as he turned to gaze at Dooku standing on the entrance balcony flanked by super battle droids. He stood as calm and as still as Kenobi though his lightsaber was resting in his hand at his side. Palpatine frowned; he could sense that Anakin was different, had been sensing that for the past three years, and he didn't like the new Anakin at all.
"General Kenobi. Anakin Skywalker. Gentlemen—a term I use in its loosest possible sense—you are my prisoners."
"Get help!" The edge of panic was something Palpatine had perfected for that moment. It was a hoarse whisper that he knew sounded real to everyone. "You must get help. Neither of you is any match for a Sith Lord!"
"Tell that to the one Obi-Wan left in pieces on Naboo," Anakin said lightly.
"And killed again on Florrum," Kenobi added just as lightly.
Palpatine resisted the urge to scowl; Kenobi just had to throw that back into his face.
"Anakin, let's take him together," Kenobi said calmly. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to mind Anakin's boasting; instead, he sounded rather amused before he effortlessly began focusing on the matter at hand. Anakin kept his gaze fixed on Dooku and Palpatine felt him also begin focusing though not quite as effortlessly as Kenobi. He still had some things to learn.
Anakin simply nodded once in response.
Dooku leaned forward and his cloak of armorweave spread like wings; he lifted gently into the air and descended to the main level in a slow, dignified Force glide. Touching down at the head of the situation table, he regarded the two Jedi from under a lifted brow.
"Your weapons, please, gentlemen. Let's not make a mess of this in front of the Chancellor."
Obi-Wan lifted his lightsaber and, seeming to think about it, slipped into the defensive Soresu form with his lightsaber held parallel with his outstretched hand. Palpatine remembered Dooku telling him about how he had used that form on Geonosis and would have won the duel with that form if he hadn't made a simple mistake that had nothing to do with his lightsaber form. His blade crackled into existence and the air smelled of lightning. "Whatever you have planned, it shall not work, Dooku," he said calmly.
Dooku's customary smile spread across his face. "We will see about that," he said.
Anakin brought his lightsaber to a Shien ready: hand of black-gloved durasteel cocked high at his shoulder, blade angling upward and away. "We will rescue the Chancellor, Dooku," he declared.
Dooku smirked and, with a flourish, he cast his cloak back from his right shoulder, clearing his sword arm—which he used to gesture idly at the pair of super battle droids still on the entrance balcony above. "It will be less a rescue and more an attempt. Now, please, gentlemen. Must I order the droids to open fire? That becomes so untidy, what with blaster bolts bouncing about at random. Little danger to the three of us, of course, but I should certainly hate for any harm to come to the Chancellor."
Kenobi moved forward eyes locked on Dooku as he said, "Oh I am sure you actually care about what happens to the Chancellor." There was sarcasm in his voice that caused Palpatine to narrow his eyes.
Anakin mirrored Kenobi, swinging wide toward Dooku's flank. "You weren't so particular about bloodshed on Geonosis," he said.
"Ah." Dooku's smile spread farther. "And how is Senator Amidala?"
Whatever reaction both Dooku and Palpatine were excepting, what happened next was not it.
Anakin shrugged smiling and the Force around him was not the thunderstorm Palpatine thought it was; it was a calm summer breeze. "Oh I'm sure she's fine," he said.
Palpatine narrowed his eyes; he had thought Anakin would snap at the mention of Senator Amidala and yet he didn't. He transferred his gaze to Kenobi and the look in his eyes transferred into a glare.
Oh I am going to enjoy watching Dooku kill you, Kenobi, he thought.
Kenobi didn't seem to notice the glare or, at least, Palpatine thought he didn't. There was no telling with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"I bear Chancellor Palpatine no ill will, boy. He is neither soldier nor spy, whereas you and your friend here are both. IT is only an unfortunate accident of history that he was chosen to defend a corrupt Republic against my endeavor to reform it."
"Don't you mean destroy it?"
"The Chancellor is a civilian. You and General Kenobi, on the other hand, are legitimate military targets. It is up to you whether you will accompany me as captives—" Dooku's lightsaber came into his hand with invisible speed and its brilliant scarlet blade angled downward at his side. "—or as corpses."
"It is coincidental that you face the identical choice," Kenobi said and Palpatine, who had turned to look at Dooku, transferred his gaze to Kenobi was nearing the super battle droids.
Dooku lifted his blade in the Makashi salute and swept it again to a low guard. "Just because there are two of you, do not presume you have the advantage."
"We know. There are two of you after all," Kenobi said calmly.
The jolt of surprise surged through the Force but Dooku betrayed no outward signs of ever feeling that jolt. Palpatine did however.
"Or should I say, were two of you," the young Jedi went on. "We're on to your partner Sidious; we tracked him all over the galaxy. He's probably in Jedi custody right now."
"Or possibly not," Kenobi said calmly. "But we are still on to him and we will find him."
"Will you?" Dooku asked. "If you do then how fortunate would that be for you."
That's it, Palpatine thought. Isolate Anakin, kill Kenobi. Once that happens, Anakin's power will be revealed and I will take it from there though this is probably the last time I will see you, my apprentice.
"Surrender." Kenobi's voice deepened into finality. "You will be given no further chance."
Dooku lifted an eyebrow. "Unless one of you happens to be carrying Yoda in his pocket, I hardly think I shall need one."
The Force crackled between them and the ship pitched and bucked under a new turbolaser barrage—
And all three of them moved at once.
Obi-Wan had wanted to try to confuse Dooku as he had last time by using Ataru while Anakin used Shien because it would give them an advantage. However, at the last moment, he remembered that Dooku might figure out it was a feint because he's seen Obi-Wan fight in Soresu before. And he was smart enough to see that if Obi-Wan's form was a feint then it was likely Anakin's form was also a feint and that wouldn't do at all. Besides, he never showed Dooku that he was the master of Soresu.
They fought onward throughout the room though Obi-Wan immediately noticed Dooku was more focused on him rather than Anakin. Anakin looked frustrated but he calmed down and went back to attacking Dooku's flank still using Shien's form.
I thought the plan was for you to use a form different from the one you mastered, Anakin said through the Force.
Remember Geonosis, Anakin. Dooku's seen me use Soresu before; if I went along with the plan then he will realize it's a feint and he is smart enough to figure out that your form is a feint as well. Besides, I only fought in Soresu against Dooku on Geonosis and he managed to defeat me. He doesn't know I'm a Soresu master though.
Are you sure about that, Master? Anakin sounded worried.
Just stick with this altered plan, Obi-Wan sent back. He knew they wouldn't have had this problem had he remembered during the duel with Dooku to not use Soresu. As he had said at the time of the duel, it had been an automatic reaction as it was the first form to come back to Obi-Wan when he was faced with a lightsaber duelist.
Let's just hope my altered plan will work better than the first version of the plan the first time around, he thought
Dooku and Obi-Wan's blades clashed together. "Using Soresu? Are you asking to be defeated as easily as you were on Geonosis, Kenobi?" he demanded and Obi-Wan inwardly grinned; so Dooku didn't know he was a master of Soresu and he found himself thankful he hadn't showed Dooku he was a Soresu master on Geonosis.
Anakin, who had been sent tumbling to the ground, launched himself at Dooku's back only to be knocked to the ground by the chains, chairs and situation table. Dooku barely spared him a glance as he went back to keeping Obi-Wan at bay.
Dooku continued to effortlessly block Obi-Wan's attacks as the situation table suddenly flew at him. The Sith Lord barely managed to lift himself enough that he could backroll over it.
"My, my," he said chuckling. "The boy has some power after all."
His backroll brought him in front of Anakin as he called his lightsaber to his hand. He said nothing as he dashed forward his blade whistled through the air to meet his hand in perfect synchrony with a sweeping slash.
Dooku neatly sidestepped it before cutting at Anakin's leg. Anakin blocked the attack before whirling around and catching the slash Dooku aimed at his side.
While Anakin was distracting Dooku, Obi-Wan stretched out with the Force and sent his lightsaber spinning toward the two battle droids. It sliced through them before they had a chance to react before returning to Obi-Wan's hand. Obi-Wan smirked before turning his gaze to Dooku and Anakin as he dashed forward to rejoin in the fight.
At some point during the duel, Dooku finally managed to separate Skywalker and Kenobi. It wasn't all that hard even with having to deal with Kenobi's clumsy attempts at Soresu; the same clumsy attempt that had led to him defeating Kenobi on Geonosis. He was able to avoid them, commanding the Force and, in turn, forcing the two Jedi to get in each other's way. It was laughably easy.
They didn't comprehend how utterly Dooku was dominating the duel. They fought as they had been trained, by releasing all desire and allowing the Force to flow through them, they had no hope of countering Dooku's mastery of Sith techniques.
He drew their strikes to his parries, and drove his own ripostes with thrusts of dark power that subtly altered the Jedi's balance and disrupted their timing He could have slaughtered both of them but only one death was in his plan and this dumb show was becoming tiresome. Not to mention tiring. The dark power that served him went only so far and he was, after all, not a young man.
He leaned into a thrust at Kenobi's gut that the Jedi Master deflected and they were brought chest-to-chest, blades flaring, locked together a handbreadth from each other's throats. "Your moves are too slow, Kenobi, too clumsy, you shouldn't have tried the same thing you did on Geonosis. It made you too predictable. You'll have to do better."
Kenobi's response to this friendly word was to regard him with a twinkle of gentle amusement in his eyes.
"Very well, then," the Jedi said, and shot straight upward over Dooku's head so fast it seemed he'd vanished.
And in the space where Kenobi's chest had been was now only the blue lightning of Skywalker's blaze driving straight for Dooku's heart.
Only a desperate whirl to one side made what would have been a smoking hole in his chest into a line of scorch through his armorweave cloak.
What? Was all Dooku could think before the battle began again. In order to regain his composure, Dooku leapt onto the situation table but, by the time his boots touched down, Kenobi was there to meet him, blade weaving through a defensive velocity so bewilderingly fast that Dooku dared not even try a strike; he threw a feint toward Kenobi's face, then dropped and spun in a reverse ankle-sweep—
But not only did Kenobi easily overleap this attack, Dooku nearly lost his own foot to a slash from Skywalker who had again come out of nowhere and now carved through the table so that it collapsed under Dooku's weight and dumped the Sith Lord unceremoniously to the floor.
This was not part of the plan, he thought.
Skywalker slammed his following strike down so hard that the shock of deflecting it buckled Dooku's elbows. Dooku threw himself into a backroll that brought him to his feet—and Kenobi's blade was there to meet his neck. Only a desperate whirling slash-block, coupled with a wheel kick that caught Kenobi on the thigh, ought him enough time to leap away again, and when he touched down—
Skywalker was already there.
The first overhand chop of Skywalker's blade slid off Dooku's instinctive guard. The second bent Dooku's wrist. The third flash of blue forced Dooku's scarlet blade so far to the inside that his own lightsaber scorched his shoulder and Dooku was forced to give ground.
Dooku felt himself blanch. Where had this come from?
Skywalker came on, mechanically inexorable, impossibly powerful, a destroyer droid with a lightsaber: each step a blow and each blow a step. Dooku backed away as fast as he dared; Skywalker stayed right on top of him. Dooku's breath went short and hard. He no longer tried to block Skywalker's strikes only to guide them slanting away; he could not meet Skywalker strength-to-strength—not only did the boy wield tremendous reserves of Force energy, but his sheer physical power was astonishing—
And only then did Dooku understand that he'd been suckered.
Skywalker's Shien ready-stance had been a ruse, as had his Ataru gymnastics; the boy was a Djem So stylist, and as fine a one that Dooku had ever seen .His own elegant Makashi simply did not generate the kinetic power to meet Djem So head-to-head. Especially not while also defending against a second attacker.
It was time to alter his own tactics.
He dropped low and spun into another reverse ankle-sweep—the weakness of Djem So was its lack of mobility—that slapped Skywalker's boot sharply enough to throw the young Jedi off balance, giving Dooku the opportunity to leap away—
Only to find himself again facing the wheel of blue lightning that was Kenobi's blade.
Dooku decided that the comedy had ended.
Ow it was time to kill.
Kenobi's Master had been Qui-Gon Jinn, Dooku's own Padawan; Dooku had fenced Qui-Gon thousands of times, and he knew every weakness of the Ataru form, with is ridiculous acrobatics. However, since Kenobi was, whether consciously or not, mingling Ataru with Soresu, it made it difficult. However, Dooku did know that Kenobi's Soresu was clumsy at best; he should have stuck with Ataru because his Soresu was laughably pathetic.
He drove a series of flashing thrusts toward Kenobi's legs to draw the Jedi Master into a flipping overhead leap so that Dooku could burn through his spine from kidneys to shoulder blades—and this image, this plan, was so clear in Dooku's mind that he almost failed to notice that Kenobi met every one of his thrusts without so much as moving his feet, staying perfectly centered, perfectly balanced, blade never moving a millimeter more than necessary, deflecting without effort, riposting with flickering strikes, and stabs swifter than the tongue of a Garollian ghost viper, and when Dooku felt Skywalker regain his feet and stride once more toward his back, he finally registered the source of that blinding defensive velocity Kenobi had used a moment ago.
Kenobi's clumsy attempts at Soresu mingled with Ataru had hidden the truth. He wasn't clumsy at Soresu at all, he never was; it was all a ploy.
Kenobi had become a master of Soresu.
His farce had suddenly, inexplicably, spun from humorous to deadly serious and was tumbling rapidly toward terrifying. Realization burst through Dooku's consciousness like the blossoming fireballs of dying ships outside: this pair of Jedi fools had somehow managed to become entirely dangerous.
These clowns might—just possibly—actually be able to beat him.
No sense taking chances; even his Master would agree with that. Lord Sidious could come up with a new plan more easily than a new apprentice.
He gathered the Force once more in a single indrawn breath that summoned power from throughout the universe; the slightest whipcrack of that power, negligent as a flick of his wrist, sent Kenobi flying backward. However, he did not crash into the wall as Dooku had thought he would for he used the Force to prevent stop him before he even reached the wall.
Skywalker was suddenly all over him.
The shining blue lightsaber whirled and spat and every overhand chop crashed against Dooku's defense with the unstoppable power of a meteor strike; the Sith lord spent lavishly of his reserve of the Force merely to meet these attacks without being cut in half, and Skywalker—
Skywalker was getting stronger and he wasn't even calling upon his anger.
Dooku no longer even tried to strike back. Force exhaustion began to close down his perceptions, drawing his consciousness back down to his physical form, trapping him within his own skull until he could barely even feel the contours of the room around him; he dimly sensed stairs at his back, stairs that led up to the entrance balcony. He retreated up them, using the higher ground for leverage, but Skywalker just kept on coming tirelessly.
That blue blade was everywhere, flashing and whirling faster and faster until Dooku saw the room through an electric haze, and now Kenobi was back in the picture: with a shout of the Force, he shot like a torpedo up the stairs behind Skywalker. Dooku decided that, under extreme circumstances, it was at least arguably permissible for a gentleman to cheat.
If only he had something to cheat what.
Dooku stared in utter shock before glaring at Kenobi who stood at the top of the steps lightsaber held in his hand. "What's the matter, Count?" he asked amusement in his voice. "Lost your bodyguards?"
"Kenobi!" Dooku lashed out with the Force but Kenobi, eyes growing serious, immediately stretched out his hands. The Force push Dooku had aimed at him was caught and the Sith Lord and Jedi Master were sent flying in opposite directions. Dooku used the Force to land on his feet while lashing out with the Force to push Kenobi while he was still in the air.
The sudden push while Obi-Wan was still in the air sent him flying into the wall and Anakin winced when his brother slammed hard into the wall before collapsing onto the ground. The fact that he was moving relieved him immensely and he returned his attention to Dooku who had landed on his feet on the right hand side of the entrance balcony.
He flipped over a distracted Dooku before lashing out with the Force. The Force push slammed into Dooku and the kick Anakin landed on his face sent him tumbling over the railing. He used the Force to land on his feet while Anakin leapt onto the railing and gazed down at Dooku looking briefly at Obi-Wan who was obviously still dazed.
Dooku lifted his lightsaber and beckoned.
Anakin took a deep breath and released his fury into the Force. He knew he would always get angry but he also knew that he had finally perfected controlling his anger. He could now release it into the Force not effortlessly no but it was a lot easier than it had been before the war began.
Igniting his lightsaber, Anakin leapt down. During the entire duel, Anakin had fought it without once tapping into his fury though it had simmered beneath the surface at many points during the duel. He felt that he could defeat Dooku by himself and he did not need his fury to do so, which was why he released it into the Force.
Dooku slipped aside from an overhand chop and sprang backward. "Well, boy, you certainly are full of surprises," he said.
Anakin leapt at him and Dooku met his charge easily. "I guess I am, Dooku," he said. They stood nearly toe-to-toe, blades flashing faster than the eye could see, and Anakin simply continued to attack, and block as he and Dooku spun around each other in their lethal dance.
"Don't release what you're feeling, Anakin, use it," Palpatine suddenly called from his chair. "Call upon your fury, don't release it. Focus it and he cannot stand against you. Your rage is your weapon. Strike now! Strike! Kill him!"
Anakin started eyes wide with surprise at the words that came out of Palpatine's mouth and he could see his own shock mirrored in Dooku's eyes. The duel had paused almost as soon as Palpatine spoke and Anakin could see that Dooku was attempting to wrap his mind around Palpatine's order. His face betrayed the bewildered astonishment he was feeling.
However, he quickly wiped the astonishment he was feeling and the duel began again. Anakin, pushing Palpatine's stunning words to the back of his mind, quickly focused on blocking the attacks Dooku launched at him. They fought onward, spinning, whirling, crashing together, slashing and chopping, parrying, binding, slipping and whipping and ripping the air around them with snarls of power.
Obi-Wan called his lightsaber to his hand once the dazed sensation disappeared. Lifting his head, he spotted Anakin and Dooku locked in a lethal dance. He had heard Palpatine's words and both Dooku and Anakin's utter shock and he smiled to himself; Palpatine had made a mistake in saying that at least Obi-Wan thought he did.
Did he think Anakin would listen to him? He thought. Watching the duel with his eyes as well as the Force, Obi-Wan realized with some pride that Anakin wasn't listening to Palpatine's words.
Anakin's blade broke free from the bladelock he and Dooku had gotten caught in and Obi-Wan watched as his blade slashed toward Dooku's lightsaber hand, cutting through it easily and sending Dooku's curved hilted lightsaber flying through the air. However, unlike last time, Anakin didn't take Dooku's second hand as he caught Dooku's lightsaber and crossed the blades at Dooku's throat.
And the duel was over.
"Good, Anakin, good!" Palpatine called as Obi-Wan pushed himself to his feet and moved forward. Palpatine didn't notice; his gaze was fixed on Anakin and the defenseless Dooku. "You defeated him."
Probably not in the way you thought he would though, Obi-Wan thought with a satisfied smile that he knew Palpatine didn't see.
"Kill him," Palpatine said, "Kill him now."
Dooku looked shocked. "Chancellor, please," he gasped sounding desperate and helpless. "Please, you promised me immunity! We had a deal! Help me!"
"A deal only if you released me," Palpatine replied cold as intergalactic space. "Not if you used me as bait to kill my friends."
Obi-Wan quickly thought about how he could stop this from happening, he had to stop this from happening because he knew this was what Palpatine wanted. He needed Dooku out of the way and Obi-Wan didn't want Anakin to kill anyone in cold-blood, it reminded him too much of the massacre Anakin committed at the Jedi Temple.
Now's not the time to go down memory lane, Kenobi, Obi-Wan told himself firmly.
"Anakin, finish him," Palpatine said.
"Anakin, you know you can't do this," Obi-Wan called reminding all three of them that he was there. "You know this isn't right."
"He's too dangerous to be kept alive," Palpatine said. "You must kill him. You must."
"I shouldn't—" Anakin said gazing at Dooku's helpless form.
"You must. Finish him now!"
Obi-Wan quickly thought about what to say to stop his brother and, in an instant, he knew. "Anakin," he shouted just as Anakin was about to separate the blades like a pair of scissors. "Anakin, remember your promise!"
Anakin, remember your promise! Obi-Wan's words echoed through Anakin's mind as he gazed at Dooku's helpless form and he knew in an instant of what his master was referring to. The promise he made to both Obi-Wan and his mother.
He had told Obi-Wan that he would become the best Jedi Knight the Jedi Order has ever seen and, though he hadn't said the words 'I promise' they were implied. And, on Tatooine, he had promised his mother that he would be the best Jedi Knight he can be.
And killing a defenseless opponent was not the Jedi way.
If Anakin was to keep the promise he made to both his former master and his mother then he couldn't kill Dooku.
Lowering his lightsabers, he deactivated them. "I am sorry, Chancellor," he said, "but killing is not the Jedi way. I am not the one who decides what should happen to Count Dooku. That is up to the Senate and to the Jedi Council. Count Dooku, in the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic, you are under arrest."
Dooku looked shell-shocked. "I never would have thought you would show me mercy, young Skywalker, it would appear I have underestimated you," he said.
"Kill you is not the Jedi way," Anakin said clipping the two lightsabers to his belt before he grabbed Dooku's remaining arm and jerking him to his feet.
Dooku seemed drained; he still had a hand and he could have attacked but he didn't seem to want to. In fact, he looked too exhausted to stay on his own two feet.
Obi-Wan placed a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "I'm very proud of you, Anakin," he said and Anakin felt a warm flutter go through him as it did whenever Obi-Wan told him of how proud of him he was. He removed his hand from Anakin's shoulder before taking Dooku's arm. "Go and release Palpatine. We need to get out of here before the entire ship is destroyed.
"Yes Master." Anakin walked over to the chair Palpatine was shackled to before using the Force to release Palpatine from the shackles.
Palpatine stood up rubbing his wrists eyes narrowed. "You could have saved countless lives by killing him," he said.
"It doesn't matter now," Obi-Wan said before Anakin could reply. "We must get out of here, Chancellor. The ship is breaking up and I don't think we want to be onboard when it does."
Palpatine nodded and began making his way toward the stairs.
The view wall flared white with the missiles' impacts and one of them must have damaged the gravity generators: the ship seemed to heel over, forcing Palpatine to clutch desperately at the banister and sending Anakin, Obi-Wan and an injured Dooku skidding down a floor that had suddenly become a forty-five-degree ramp.
Pushing himself to his feet, Anakin let the Force help him run lightly up the steeply canted floor to Palpatine's side and Obi-Wan, with Dooku in hand, followed him.
"Impressive," Palpatine said, but then he cast a significant gaze up the staircase, which the vector of the artificial gravity had made into a vertical cliff. "But what now?"
Before anyone could answer, the erratic gravity swung like a pendulum; while they all clung to the railing, the room seemed to roll around them. All the broken chairs and table fragments and hunks of rubble slid toward the opposite side and now instead of a cliff the staircase had become merely a corrugated stretch of floor.
"People say"—Anakin nodded toward the door to the turbolift lobby—"when the Force closes a hatch, it opens a viewport. After you?"
A/n what do you think?
Blaze: and that was the…wow! 18 page chapter 56. I think this is the longest chapter in the entire story so far
Darth: it is long and almost 10 thousand words
Blaze: probably would have been over ten thousand if I had kept every single word of the duel from the book but I like how it turned out
Darth: I did too
Anakin: yeah! I beat Dooku
Obi-Wan: and didn't kill him
Palpypie: boo!
Dooku: what are you talking about, boo? I actually rather like living longer
Palpypie: (blasts Dooku with turbolaser)
Anakin: hey, I didn't go through all that trouble of sparing Dooku's life just to have you kill him (blasts Palpypie with bazooka)
Obi-Wan: (pushes surprisingly still alive Palpypie into rancor pit)
Rancor: ugh, why didn't you give him to the Sarlacc?
Obi-Wan: it put a restraining order on Palpypie
Rancor: damn, why didn't I think of that?
Blaze: (laughs) please review and I will post chapter 57 hopefully by Sunday but it might be sooner. It just depends on how long it takes to finish and whether I get sidetracked by my original stories or not.