Chapter 10
"Arlie." She hears as she wakes up along with the sensation of someone shaking her shoulder, she reacts grabbing the offending hand and twisting it around their back pushing them into the table she has previously been asleep on. "Arl, calm down, it's just me." A man's voice says, she realises she's pinning Dooku against the table and hurting his arm, she releases him.
"Sorry Doo." She says cringing.
"Do not worry about it, I shall remember to never wake you by shaking you." Dooku tells her, she smiles.
"To be honest it had less to do with you shaking me and more to do with it being your voice doing the waking." Arlie says sheepishly, Dooku smiles sadly but understandingly. He knew she had no problem with him now, Sith or no Sith, but he had been evil in the other timeline and she still lived with the memories of that, even if he wasn't really him.
"Knight Vos is waiting with the ship. He has been briefed with all the necessary information, you weren't waiting when we got there and weren't in your quarters, I figured you must have been a hypocrite and come down here." He says with a smile, she laughs as they start walking out of the library.
"It was bugging me!" She complains. "I've left notes for Tahl that should help but I only managed three more words after hours. Translating that is going to take a while, I'm not even fully certain on those three words, well two of them I am, I am not sure if the word between them is had, have or has. Has makes grammatical sense in Basic but it reads as had. If it is had then we have the problem of basic grammatical rules or tenses being extremely different as well. Ancient Jedi follows the same rules Basic does but Old Sith makes its own and this seems different again." Arl tells him, he nods along.
"Perhaps if we find some text in both languages from different periods of time, we can find the progressive change in the grammar and work backwards?" Dooku suggests, Arl nods.
"It's in the notes along with some suggested texts to use, this is one of the ways your previous research is coming in handy."
"I spoke with Tahl on my way to the hanger bay, she said that she's going to be working on this while having her Padawan and Mace looking down other avenues of the afterlife and such."
"Bant's a good researcher, this will be good practice for her."
"Unfortunately, this is not a situation in which we can have stupid mistakes so I have asked Mace to monitor her closely to a degree while conducting his own research."
"Give her the chance to make a mistake on her own but have him close enough to fix it before it becomes a problem. Smart."
"Okay no, if we are doing this, you guys are gonna have to be less boring." Quinlan says as they enter the ship, Arl rolls her eyes.
"The oldest record we have found of our Ancestral Language is boring to you?" Arlie asks dryly, he nods.
"Yes."
"Let's just get going."
"Yes, Telos IV Part Two: Return Of the Jedi." Vos says earning incredulous looks from both other Jedi present. "What? All interesting missions need names." Arl and Dooku simultaneously roll their eyes, "You two spend way too much time together, anyway, next stop, Telos IV."
An hour into the flight Dooku's comm chimes.
"Master Tahl, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asks as he answers.
"I am afraid that even beginning this translation will take me months. I am not fluent in Old Sith so I cannot work backwards, I can have a partial back ground but for the most part I'm starting from scratch. I'll do so but I doubt there will be much progress." The Jedi master replies, Dooku nods though she can't see him.
"There are other people in the temple that speak Old Sith." Arlie points out, Dooku nods again.
"Yes, but they are probably too busy. Yoda does, Qui-Gon does, and Jocasta does. You can try your luck with asking those three but it may be better to simply wait for us." Dooku says though he knows she will not.
"I shall make some enquiries." Tahl says before ending the call.
"That didn't sound good." Vos says.
"That is because it wasn't." Arlie replies.
A few hours later they arrived on Telos IV and were greeted by happy but confused officials, Arlie had her Master persona firmly in place as they exited the ship.
"Padawan Aa, Master Dooku, a pleasure to see you again." The Secretary for Telos IV's current emperor says holding out his middle and index fingers on his left hand, Dooku does the same and touches his fingers to the secretaries, they both bow. The standard greeting is repeated by Arl.
"It is actually Knight Aa now, and this is Knight Quinlan Vos." Arlie introduces, he mimics the greeting the other two gave.
"A pleasure to meet you, we humbly welcome you to our planet. Congratulations Knight Aa, I understand most do not obtain such a rank until adulthood." Arl nods in thanks, "You are, of course, always welcome here, but I have to say I was rather surprised to hear you would be returning, I thought your investigation completed with the apprehension of Xanatos Du Crion."
"As did we. However, we have reason to believe that he may not have been working alone." Dooku tells him.
"Well, then on behalf of Telos IV, I thank you for returning and continuing to offer your aid." The conversation moves to the transport which takes them directly to the factory in which they found Xanatos just over a week ago, it was hard to believe it was so recently.
"We merely apologise for not having solved this the first time. How is rebuilding?" Arl asks politely.
"Slowly but surely the areas are being cleared of debris, then the buildings will be fixed. It is not yet decided if they will be built in the same fashion or if we use this as an opportunity to update our public spaces. Some feel taking advantage of the situation is disrespecting the dead, others feel it is honouring their sacrifice."
"How do you feel about it?" Vos asks, Arl arches an eyebrow at the question but nods to the official who seemed put off by the question.
"I feel that these people did not make a sacrifice to help us, their lives were ripped away and we should not dress that up to feel better about it. But as horrible as it is, it happened, we cannot change it, letting an opportunity to update old buildings go to waste because of a few deaths we cannot undo is ridiculous." Arl nods.
"Practical thinking, I respect that." Vos tells her with a smile, she seems rather relieved.
When they enter the factory Arlie almost requests to search the lower levels so as to avoid the catwalks above before deciding it ridiculous.
"All right, Vos, search the ground level, Dooku, the catwalks, I will go above." Arlie dictates, they nod and head in the correct directions. Arl searches for the position Xanatos jumped to attack Dooku from but found nothing there. Following a hunch, she heads to the places she thinks would be the best vantage point to watch both that position and the position the fight took place. There were three realistic places that fit the description and one slightly less realistic, she headed to the unrealistic one first.
This happened to be some rafters on the roof, she had to force jump up to a beam she could grab on the wall first before making the leap to the rafter, she searched around until she found a spot that would enable her to watch the fight and stay out of view. Looking around she sees a small scuff mark on the beam below her, she runs her fingers across it and sighs frustratedly.
(This could have come from anything. It could have been here since the place was built, or maybe I made it though I don't think I did. How do I tell?) she thinks, (And what would it even tell me if I could…) then it hits her, (Psychometry.) "Knight Vos." Arl calls loudly.
"Yes, Master Aa?" He calls back sassily, she rolls her eyes thankful he couldn't see her, she re-centres herself before leaning over the beam to see him.
"I need your specific talents up here." She replies, he smirks, she raises an eyebrow, he clears his throat and goes to head up.
"You know I had a great joke and if you were a few years older it would have been perfect." He says to her as he heads over to the scuff mark she points to.
"Charming." She replies dryly.
"A Zabrak, black and red, wearing all black." Quinlan says before wincing sharply and pulling his hand away as though burned.
"What is it?" She asks concerned, he looks at her with terror in his eyes.
"Death." He says before promptly passing out over the edge of the beam they were on, she bites back the panic before it even emerges and calmly catches him with the force, lowering him slowly onto the catwalk where Dooku is now waiting. She then jumps down to meet him.
"What happened?" He asks kneeling beside Quinlan.
"I've honestly no idea, but Darth Maul was here. Last time I mean, he was watching the whole thing from up there." Arlie tells him, "I should have known." She mutters bending down to heal any damage to her partner, unfortunately there is none, she frowns before pushing a small amount of energy into him, sure enough he wakes.
"Was gon on?" Vos slurs, Dooku and Arlie exchange worried glances.
"There is no damage to him, take him back to the ship. I will go to the hospital and see if any of the injured saw Maul around the place then meet you there. Make sure he gets some rest, we shall get out answers after." Arlie tells Dooku who nods, Quinlan looks between them confused like his brain can't quite keep up with what is happening.
"I am going to take you back to the ship all right?" Dooku explains to Quinlan slowly.
"Kay." Quin replies spacily, he was clearly struggling to process things around him, it was a very drugged outlook, much like if he were under the influence of very strong pain medication except it appeared to be stressing his mind a lot more than that would have.
An hour later Arlie finds herself standing before a small committee of government officials that have been given the task of overseeing the investigation.
"We believe we have identified the culprit to be a Zabrak by the name of Maul. He is already wanted by the Jedi. When I return, I will be informing the council of the need to devote more resources into finding him." Arlie tells them, a few seem appeased by her words but the others do not.
"And what are we to do in the mean time? What if he attacks again? No, you should send Jedi here to protect us, that is your job."
"With all due respect, it is not. Our job as peace keepers of the galaxy is to end conflict not protect those injured by it. Maul could attack any planet, we cannot send Jedi to guard all of them without stopping our search for him all together. If you wish to be safe then instead of dividing our resources to pointlessly watching you when he is very unlikely to attack here again, we can make finding him a priority so that he will not hurt anyone again." Arl replies coolly, she was the picture of serenity but she did not have time for their bullshit.
"To be perfectly candid, my priority is not the rest of the galaxy, it is my planet, and it is my planet that has been attacked already."
"Yes well, to be perfectly candid, this planet is not my priority, apprehending Maul is. While you waste my time with an argument you have already lost, Maul is out there, possibly harming innocent people, all because you seem to believe yourself more important than the rest of the galaxy. Now three of my own have been injured in this investigation that the Jedi only took as a favour to your people. It is not our usual forte. Be grateful we came at all, so if you do not mind, I am going to go and capture the man who did this, feel free to continue arguing after I am gone though, it will be just as productive." She says coldly before leaving the room, her aura of serenity never faltering even as she scolds them.
By the time she arrives at the ship, Quinlan is unsurprisingly asleep and Dooku is seated in the pilot's chair quietly contemplating something.
"Ah here she is." He says, Arl is confused until she notices the comm activated, he mouths 'council' to her.
"Masters." She says seating herself in the co-pilot's chair.
"Good timing, we were just looking for an update on the investigation, you believe Maul to be involved?" Master Gallia questions, Arlie thinks it is rather stupid, she obviously already knows Arl believes so or she would not have known to ask the question.
"Yes Master Gallia, in fact I am certain of it now. A few of the injured remember seeing a black and red Zabrak dressed all in black around the place, one of them reported him glancing about suspiciously. He met her eyes briefly, she said they were a frighteningly fluorescent yellow. Apparently, the glimpse of eye contact frightened her more than the whole experience with the bomb did. She was unconscious the last time we were around asking questions which is why we did not hear of this before." Arlie tells them, Dooku seems displeased, more so than usual.
"Good news this is not." Yoda says unhappily.
"Actually Master, I believe it is, not only does this clear Xanatos of bombing his home planet, it also gives us a starting point with which to track Maul's movements and hopefully lead us back to Darth Wrath." Dooku replies perking up a bit.
"Why do I feel like I have the worst hang over of my life?" Quinlan groans from the back of the small ship, he then rushes to the 'fresher before vomiting. Arl hopes he made it to the toilet before doing that, she doubts Dooku would clean it if he didn't and she is not leaving that there until it can be properly cleaned on Coruscant.
"Well he seems to be in a cheery mood." Micah says prompting an un-Jedi-like giggle that could only have been from Garen, Arlie smiles softly at the noise.
"Rock Paper Scissors on who goes to check on him?" Arlie offers to Dooku who looks confused.
"Rock Paper Scissors?" Dooku asks, Arlie gives him a calculating look, to him, it is the most heartbroken look of calculation he has ever witnessed though he is certain she is unaware of it.
"I have no clue what the core equivalent to that would be, or even if there is one. I will teach you how to play at some point when we have a free moment." Arlie tells him eventually.
"Because that happens so often." Dooku replies, Arl rolls her eyes.
"I could practically feel the eye roll form here." Mic says, Arl swallows the laughter as she looks at Dooku.
"You remind me of my older brother sometimes." She says thoughtfully before walking to check on Quinlan.
"We will be returning to Coruscant soon, you should expect us tomorrow morning, we will give you a full briefing then." Dooku tells them.
"A meeting for which I am most enthused." Master Mundi says obviously curious about the whole thing, both ends disconnect the comm, Dooku sets a course for Coruscant before walking to the 'fresher and standing just outside the doorway in order to not crowd Vos.
"How are you feeling?" He asks earning him a rather irritated look from the young Knight hunched over the toilet, an action said Knight regrets rather quickly as he vomits once again. Arlie kneels beside him holding his hair and rubbing circles into him back. She was rather glad to be so young and tiny in this moment, full grown she wasn't overly tall be she still doesn't think she'd have fit in the tiny 'fresher with him.
Eventually Quinlan's stomach settled enough for him to go back to the bunk he had been on before to lay down again. There was only one bunk on the ship but seeing as they would be back home in a few hours it hardly mattered. (I never considered Coruscant home before, my Master's living quarters sure, but never the planet itself.)
"What the Sith happened?" Vos asks, Arlie senses more than sees Dooku's flinch at his choice of swears.
"That's just racist." Arl says earning an incredulous look from both men, Dooku's also looks alarmed. "Well it's like saying 'What the Tatooinian just happened.' Or 'What the Jedi just happened.' It's rude."
"Somehow I doubt the Sith would care." Quin says straightening his head again and laying an arm over his eyes before apparently deciding that was worse and quickly removing it and opening his eyes once more.
"Sith are people to, plus they have strong emotions, so it is more than likely they would be offended."
"Sith have strong emotions?" Vos asks confused.
"That's how you use what we understand as the 'Dark Side of the Force' you access it through feelings. Not just negative ones either but any. Stronger emotions mean stronger power and since Anger is such a strong emotion, or true rage, hatred as well, they are common amongst power hungry Sith. True blissful happiness or unconditional love would likely have the same effect but to be perfectly honest, it is a lot easier to hate than it is to love." Arlie explains, Dooku looks oddly touched and excuses himself before moving to the cockpit and shutting the door.
"Tell me this again later, coz I am interested but I cannot keep up with what youse are saying right now." Quinlan says incorrectly, Arl smiles softly at him.
"Sure thing, now in answer to your earlier question, we do not know what happened, we were hoping you would. What is the last thing you remember?"
"We were walking into the factory, you told me to search the ground level and, that's it. Nothing until I woke up here with a splitting headache and the room spinning." Arl frowns but notices him blinking slowly.
"Get some sleep, we will talk more when you are feeling better." She tells him before heading into the cockpit and shutting the door behind her, she and Dooku sit in silence as she thinks about what Vos said and what happened, attempting to ascertain the cause as she waits for Dooku to break the silence.
"You did not have to do that you know, stand up for the Sith I mean." He says at last.
"Believing that a specific characteristic is shared by all beings of a race is the definition of racist. I suppose technically a religious sect is not necessarily a race of people but it still fits the description well enough. In any case, I dislike bigoted discrimination. Not all Sith are evil, the way you control your use of the force when so many others would be controlled by it, it is awe inspiring. You are a credit to your people and I shan't allow someone to dismiss such strength on account of the actions a few individuals made."
"What you said before, about channeling emotion, you were speaking from experience weren't you?" Dooku asks, Arl nods, "How?"
"I fell. I did not realise what I was doing at the time, I did not care for the power, so long as I could destroy Vader I cared for none of it. Nothing mattered except killing him. Then I was brought back here and that hatred and rage had nowhere to go. Eventually it began spilling over until my family helped me, it was not until my first conversation with Wrath that I truly…unfell? There has to be a better word for that."
"Raised?"
"Yeah that works, until I raised myself back up to the Jedi way."
"Who is Vader?" He asks after a beat of silence, Arl sighs dejectedly.
"One of my brothers."
"I am assuming he is the one you mentioned that you watched become a Sith?"
"A Dark Sith yes, I've started differentiating between the two so that people will learn there is a difference. It's my new cause, I needed a project to work on that was a little less death and destruction and more hope and compassion." Dooku scares the crap out of Arlie and, honest to force, leans over to hug her. She smiles and laughs happily as she hugs him in return.
"I do have to ask, why was he called Darth Vader? Generally, there are reasons behind the name pertaining to the individual, but 'Dark Father' seems a little generic to me."
"He and his Master believed he had murdered his two unborn children along with his wife." Dooku's eyes widen slightly.
"What is it with them and mistreating their children?"
"I've no idea, I could never harm my children. I mean I have none and probably never will but that is hardly the point."
"I know what you mean, my father was not the nicest man and although I was raised in the Jedi temple, my brother was not. Watching it all unfold from a distance was maddening." Arl looks thoughtful as she realises this must be the reason he tried to kill Sidious when he 'grievously mistreated' his son. She still isn't sure what Anarch meant by 'grievously mistreated', then Arl realises something else.
"Your father, he was your sacrifice, wasn't he?" She asks knowing Sidious would have demanded he make one.
"Yes, he was." Dooku pulls away and watches her warily, she smiles reassuringly.
"I knew you had to have made one Doo, if it were going to drive me to rat you out I'd have done it already." He smiles sheepishly. "Darth Anarch told me that Maul saved Sidious after Plagueis tried to kill him. Adding on you and your apprentice that makes five Sith, what happened to the rule of two?"
"None of us fancied dying and we're all too good at avoiding it. I never impressed the need of it onto my Apprentice, he did not seem overly interested in gaining an Apprentice of his own, and even if he does one day, it just means a dying race survives. There used to be as many Sith as Jedi, I do not know when this changed but the rule of two was killing us. I disregarded it as I did with quite a bit of my former Master's teachings, the others were just vain and stubborn and far too good at surviving assassination attempts." Arl snickers slightly at the last part, he chuckles too before the pair fall silent for a while.
"Why did Maul bomb Telos IV?" Vos asks a few hours later as he sits in the cockpit with them after being caught up on what he has forgotten.
"You look like death warmed up." Arl tells him, he looks confused.
"Her home planet has weird sayings, guess from context as best you can and move on." Dooku says as checks how far out from Coruscant they are. "Two hours." He tells Arl at her questioning look.
"One would assume it was to attract our attention in order to get Xanatos to engage us, perhaps his Jedi Master was to be his sacrifice to become a Sith. A way of truly denouncing the Jedi order." Arl suggests while thinking it was also a way for Wrath to get rid of his old apprentice.
"I did not take you as one to work on assumptions Master Aa." Dooku tells her, she glares at him.
"I am not, however given the information at hand it makes sense, excessive but effective."
"It just does not sit right with me." Vos tells her sounding unsettled, she nods.
"All right, then that is not what happened, or at least, not all that happened. So, what else may have been behind it?" Arl asks, Vos is shocked that she automatically trusts his gut so completely but Dooku seems prepared to run with it so Quinlan decides to as well.
"Every time we leave there is some new piece of the puzzle that seems to draw us back." Dooku complains, Arl ponders this intently for a moment, the two men exchange a glance before deciding to leave her be for a moment to think.
"It seems odd that both times we have gotten to that factory, we've been drawn away again. I do not think whoever has done whatever it is they did is trying to bring us there, I think they are trying to get us away." She suggests forcing impassivity.
"That is not a comforting thought."
"We need to go back." Vos says, "This time, without alerting anyone."
"I do not believe we would be officially welcome again anyway." Arl adds earning two confused looks, "I do not appreciate arrogance that knows no bounds, not even the thought that an entire galaxy could be more important than one measly little planet." Arl mutters in her defence, Vos lets out a breath.
"Okay then, Telos IV Part 3: Incognito." Vos says, Arl and Dooku both smile at that before Arl laughs, Vos does too and Dooku chuckles all three smiling widely.
"I am afraid I cannot help but ask, what was part one called?" Dooku says still chuckling. Vos thinks for a moment before grinning.
"Telos IV Part 1: Crumbling Hope."
"That's terrible." Arlie declares, Vos nods grinning wildly.
"That's what makes it perfect."
"Certainly accurate." Dooku says, "Because it went terribly."
"Way to kill a conversation Doo."
"Yeah Doo." Vos says like a child making Arlie begin uncontrollably laughing as Dooku turns the ship back to Telos IV.
A few hours later they arrive and land right behind the factory, glad, for the first time, it was quite a distance from everything else. The three disembark and begin looking around, none sure what they are looking for.
"You three just cannot leave well enough alone, can you?" A sarcastic voice drawls, his words dripping with menace and promises of suffering. The three look to see Maul standing before them, Arl feels an old grief hit her as she thinks of this man cutting down Qui-Gon, she fights back the anger, never wavering in her calm projected aura.
"Darth Maul." Arlie says, Vos looks at him strangely, he knows he has seen him before, Arlie told him. He can also feel a memory there but cannot see it, it was a very disconcerting sensation.
Arlie coughs as her lungs fill with smoke, her eyes stinging from it and the pain, oh gods the pain. Her arms hurt so much from the fire but she had to keep going, keep pulling, she had to get Dooku out of here. She blinks and looks around, (What is happening?) she thinks, she turns and sees Vos lowering the ramp of the ship and running to get the engines started, she pulls harder, faster, knowing she had to get there. After a few minutes Vos comes out and helps her pull him into the ship before he immediately goes to take off. Arl lays Dooku flat on the ground and takes stock of damages, he was missing his left leg from the knee down but it looked like the fire had cauterized the wound, (No not fire, that's a lightsaber burn.) she realises having seen many during the war. There are extensive burns on his torso as well, Arlie takes his shirt off relieved to see that while they cover a large area, none are particularly deep. What worries her more is the cuts, stabs wounds, electrical burns, bruises, and broken ribs. Dooku had been tortured, she of all people could recognise that on sight.
Vos walks out and sits against the wall next to her obviously out of breath. All three of them were filthy, dirt, blood, and soot covered every inch of them.
"What the hell happened?" Arlie asks, Vos tries to shrug but winces.
"I think I've, *cough* dislocated *cough* my shoulder." He whispers, Arlie can see the bruises around his neck.
"Someone tried very hard to choke you, that along with the smoke inhalation is why you are struggling to speak." She tells him before coughing herself, he reached up to his neck looking confused.
"What happened after we saw *cough* Maul." He wheezes, she looks at him with wide eyes, tears filling them and this time not form smoke.
"I don't know, was that whole factory on fire?" Vos nods, "Check over yourself, Dooku was tortured." They both begin to, it is only then Arlie sees why her arms hurt so fucking badly, from about mid upper arm all the way down her fingers were terrible burns, she thinks the adrenaline is the only reason she is not in absolute agony though she can already feel that crashing. There are cuts all over her torso and she thinks she may have broken a few ribs as well.
"Three broken ribs, lots of bruising." Vos says before coughing again, "God knows what to my *Cough* throat. Dislocated shoulder and I think there are burns down my back and on my face." Arl looks at his face trying to see past the dirt.
"I think so, dirt, soot, old blood, new blood, it's all so mixed I cannot really tell."
"Well your face is quite colourful too, I think you may have broken a cheekbone."
"Yes I do believe so, I can't tell because of the excessive pain on my arms anyway but I think I may have dislocated my wrist. Also broken ribs, many shallow cuts and general bruising. I think there are cuts on my face too but I can't really bend my arms anymore." Vos moves to the fresher and grabs the first aid kit, burn kit, the few towels that were on board, and uses the empty container of the first aid kit to get warm water, he tipped the original contents out in front of her. They do their best to clean each other off with the towel while avoiding the burns and do the same to Dooku.
"Aren't you supposed to be an amazing healer or something?" Vos wheezes.
"My use of the force relies heavily on hand movement Quin." Arl replies shortly, he holds his hands up in surrender before wincing.
"I think I may have more than dislocated my shoulder." He says through the pain. He has now discovered if he speaks softly enough and slowly enough, he doesn't cough mid-sentence. Vos looks through the burn kit and does what he can to help Arlie's arms and neck. He cannot reach his back and she can't help him do it so he just has to hope he doesn't get an infection. He does what he can for Dooku's but his are minor burns so he uses most of the kit on Arlie. He does what he can to prevent infection of Dooku's half leg and cleans the deep cuts he finds on Dooku's right leg. Finally, after well over two hours of attending to their wounds he just slumps against the wall across from Arlie, Dooku laying in between them, and so they sit, in silence.
Some indeterminant amount of time later, the comm begins to beep from the cockpit. They have no idea how long they were on Telos IV and so do not know how long they have been missing, especially given the council did not even know they were returning to the planet. Still neither move to answer it, too drained to care.
A while later, Arlie guesses a few hours, Dooku begins to wake.
"Arghh." He groans as he wakes immediately feeling the pain.
"Morning." Arlie says in a whisper, she was barely conscious at this point and in incredible amounts of agony, she'd have had a constant stream of tears down her face had her skin not still been overly hot from the light burns she could barely feel.
"What, is going on?" Dooku asks voice full of pain.
"Captured, tortured, possibly escaped? We don't really know in all honesty." Quin says.
"What we do know is that…" Arlie says before trailing off and having to focus to realign her sentence in her mind, she licked her cracked and peeling lips before attempting to speak again, "Whatever may have been there, is gone now. All of it, and we have forgotten whatever happened."
"So, any return trip would be meaningless." Dooku says, Arl attempts to nods before freezing as tears do spill out of her eyes.
"Thank the force." Quinlan whispers, the other two cannot help but agree. If there was one thing they were certain of, it was that none of them would ever look at Telos IV the same way again, they may not remember what happened, but they can remember the terror they felt, none of them used to that feeling.
Arlie slowly wakes up to the healer's ward on Coruscant, she blearily looks around feeling a pleasant floating sensation that let her know she was on pain medication.
"Morning Arl." Her master whispers next to her, she turns and sees both of them there making her question which one of them spoke.
"Quinlan, Dooku." She says immediately as she tries to sit up only to be in pain again, she looks to her arms and sees white bandages covering all of it, and a cast on one, feeling her neck, she knows the bandages are there too.
"Your ribs have been healed though you will have some spectacular bruising. There wasn't much they could do for your broken wrist with your burns so extensive, which they also could not heal fully. Your ankle was sprained so that had been strapped and your three broken toes set. For whatever reason, your entire force presence was fighting very hard against all of their attempts to heal so not much has been done." Mace tells her, she nods her understanding.
"I suppose they will want to try again while I am conscious then." Mace nods.
"Quinlan is in the next room waiting for Dooku to wake up. He was conscious when he arrived but had to be put under to get the leg prosthetic put on. He should be waking up any time now. He had a concussion, Quin said he had been unconscious, they believe the concussion to have been the cause. He has been healed as best they can, though he was very reluctant to let them near him and as resistant to their healing as you. Quinlan was worse than the both of you, his burns have been lightly healed enough to prevent infection, his throat only enough so that he can breathe unimpaired. Apparently, he broke off a piece of the joint in his shoulder that lodged itself in where the ball of the shoulder should have been which prevented them from putting it back. He had to have surgery, Dooku waited on his prosthesis to ensure Quinlan woke up okay after that. He got his shoulder fixed up but would not allow them to heal it properly even while unconscious and so they've had to put a cast on it." He adds.
"Yes, if Shmi had not mentioned teaching non-force related first aid you may all be dead or dying, especially you and Dooku, Quinlan would have been permanently disabled. Plus, none of the packs you used would have been on the ship." Micah tells her, she nods fuzzily.
"Got it, appreciate the mother." She says, the door opens revealing Dooku in a wheelchair being pushed by Quinlan who appeared to be regretting the decision, probably because of his shoulder. Following those two was Yoda and Healer Terza.
"Brilliant, you are all awake, would one of you like to tell us what the Sith happened to you?" Terza asks.
"That's just racist." Quin mutters making Arlie giggle. "Well I thought on it Arl and you were right, I was being a bigoted imbisule." Dooku looks oddly proud.
"As we have said, none of us remember what happened. I know nothing before waking up on the ship to these two staring depressingly at each other." Dooku tells the healer looking annoyed, no doubt this was not the first or even second time someone had asked them what happened.
"I just remember frantically trying to turn the ship on and helping get him on board, flying off and then realising I had no idea what was going on." Quinlan tells them, all look to Arlie.
"I was pulling Dooku out of the fire, it was important, it hurt but I had to keep pulling, I couldn't let him go back in. I suddenly realised I had no idea what was going on, but I saw Quin running onto the ship and the engines starting so I pulled harder knowing I had to get on board, Quin came out and helped before heading back to the cockpit. I checked Dooku over wondering why he was unconscious and found evidence of…an aggressive ordeal. So, when Quin got back I told him to check himself over and then a little while later Dooku woke up, not long after I passed out." Arl tells them.
"You remember the fire?" Dooku asks surprised, she looks to Quin.
"You don't?" She asks confused, he shakes his hand gesturing that he kinda did kinda didn't.
"I remember you asking if that had been the whole factory on fire and I said yes because it was, but I don't remember actually seeing it."
"Well I remember the factory up in flames and dragging Dooku out, that's it." Everyone seems rather perturbed.
"Are you sure it was the same factory?" Micah asks, the three look confused.
"Why?" They all ask.
"Well, you were missing for three days, take out travel time and that's a day and a half unaccounted for, plus none of you seem to have seen the actual building. I am just wondering if you were moved because it seems odd to hold you in the place everyone would think to look." Micah explains.
"Did anyone?" Quinlan asks, all present shook their heads beside the injured trio.
"Contacted Telos IV we did, left the planet they said you had. Told us that welcome on the planet we were not." Yoda says looking pointedly at Arlie who looked completely unbothered.
"That government official was a turd." She states before giggling, Micah hides a laugh behind his hand "Wait, Quin, you looked like rat shit, you aren't pushing up daisies so you're feeling better?"
"I looked like shit, I'm not…gardening? So, I am feeling better?" Quin asks trying to work from context.
"You looked like shit and you aren't disrupting the plant life, pushing up daisies like digging or burying so, you aren't dead." Dooku discerns, Arl nods.
"Yes, that." She says still nodding, Micah leans forwards and grabs her head to stop her, she giggles.
"I believe now that she knows we are okay, she is not fighting so much and the drugs are overriding her self-control." Mace says, the others nod.
"Maul got away." Arlie says suddenly, the other two nod.
"Or he burned in the fire?" Quinlan offers but something just does not seem right about the statement, no Maul was out there alive and free and they all knew it.
"We'll get him Arl." Micah tells her, she nods looking serious again.
"Yes, we will."