SpeechBubbleme - I think Tiplee's point would be this: Nara and Sascha have been close for years now, and their friendship has always been very close. But Nara and Sascha have never shown the same sort of attachment that Tyra and Sascha had shown. They have both 'loved' each other for awhile now (Nara even admitted it in an earlier chapter. They've never really shown attachment though, and I think Tiplee is right to maybe allow them this (of course, it could all go horribly wrong :P)

A/N - Nothing from me!

As always, Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 32: Rescues, Part 1

Sascha Whitestar had the 'simple' part of this mission. That didn't mean it was easy. It also didn't mean that he liked it.

His assignment was theoretically simple, but practically very hard. He had to keep an eye on Dooku, preferably keeping him far away from his estate as possible. Then, the moment that Dooku left, he had to get from the Summit to the spaceport where the Emerald Dream was waiting. Simple enough.

Except...he couldn't make it too obvious that he was keeping tabs on Dooku. And if Dooku saw him acting suspicious, it wouldn't take too much brain power for him to figure out why he was acting that way.

So Sascha felt like he was walking a tightrope.

He wandered around the Glickly Convention Centre ostensibly to clear his head and to see if Dooku had made an early arrival. As he walked, he was stopped by Summit attendees, often in small groups, who wanted his opinion on various things. The Summit goers seemed to fall in two camps now. One that saw the Jedi as a force that could be courted and used for good (or their own purposes). The other group, which was thankfully smaller, had come away with the opinion that the Jedi were either outdated or in need of reforming. Both groups had no problem expressing their opinions to him...which was kind of nice, he supposed. But it did show that the stature of the Jedi Order was waning somewhat.

Sascha was deep in conversation with a pair of Mahran, when he heard a commotion from behind him. That could only mean one thing, the arrival of Count Dooku.

Sascha politely extracted himself from the conversation to confirm that it was indeed Dooku causing people to flow like a river in the direction of the door. Sometimes Sascha wondered if Dooku used magnets to draw people closer to him. But it was just power. He had seen it before, around celebrities and other people of power. There was a reason people were described as having a 'magnetic' personality. It wasn't because they were amazing conversationalists.

Still, he had a job to do, he surreptitiously pulled out his comlink and dialed his Master, "Dooku is here. You can go when you are ready."

"Understood," said the voice of his Master.

"May the Force be with you, Master," he said.

"Thank you, Padawan. Keep us informed." The comlink clicked off.

"I'll try," he muttered to himself, spotting Dooku heading further into the atrium of the building. Hopefully Dooku was going to be here for a while...

Aurine put her comlink back on her belt. Tiplee and Nara looked at her expectantly. "We are clear to go," she said.

"Let's go then," said Tiplee. "There is no time to waste."

The three Jedi emerged from their hiding spot where they had parked their speeder and started off towards Dooku's estate at a brisk job. Because Dooku's estate was, quite frankly, in the middle of nowhere, the closest hiding spot they had found for their speeder had been a good distance away from the front gates of Dooku's estate. Unfortunately that meant that the security detail that was guarding Dooku's estate would no doubt see them coming.

It wasn't as if the guards themselves were going to be a problem. It was mostly that they would slow down the rescue attempt and...worse, they could raise the alarm to Dooku himself. But Aurine knew that speed was going to be their ally. They would have taken their speeder right up to the front gates if they could have, but Aurine and Tiplee had suspected that driving a speeder up to the estate would draw a quicker reaction than three women who could easily be joggers that just got lost.

Aurine had worked up a good sweat in the midday sun when the first building from Dooku's estate came into view. It wasn't long after that she saw a speeder heading in their direction.

She quickly checked that the blaster that she had hidden under her clothing. It was still there, and it was still set to stun. All three Jedi were similarly equipped.

The armored speeder stopped up the road, and a tall, well-muscled human in dark, military style clothing stepped out, "Halt! You have entered a restricted area."

Aurine pulled out her blaster and shot him dead in the chest. The blue stun bolt hit the man, and pulsed all over his body. He dropped like a stone.

The rest of the guards in the speeder had two reactions. The driver decided that discretion was the better part of valour and hit the accelerator, sending the speeder careening off the path. Unfortunately for the driver, his other compatriots tried to exit the speeder and get at the 'attackers.' Given the movement of the speeder, the reinforcements spilled out of the speeder in an uncoordinated fashion.

The five guards of varying species were stunned by the Jedi before they even managed to fire a shot in return.

The driver, obviously panicking, tried to turn the speeder around to flee, but in his haste to escape, his speeder slipped off the narrow road and lost traction. Tiplee closed the gap to the speeder with freakish speed and by the time that the driver had managed to right the speeder, there was a large, angry looking Rishati on the windshield.

Moments later the driver had been hit by a stunbolt and all six guards had been subdued.

Aurine and Nara jogged up, firing another stunbolt into each guard so that they would be incapacitated for a longer period of time.

"Amateurs," Aurine observed.

"You'd think that Dooku could afford better," commented Tiplee.

"Lucky for us, he's cheap," she said. "Let's go. They'll be more guarding the front gate."

The Jedi jogged a bit quicker now, all three of them feeling that the invisible clock that they were up against had started ticking. The longer they took to rescue Tyra, the harder this was going to get. Speed was their ally.

Meanwhile back at the Glickly Convention Centre, Sascha Whitestar was doing his best not to seem like he was an awkward hanger on. Dooku had made it from the atrium to the main hall, where he would be the first guest speaker today at the Summit. Usually, Sascha would have been speculating on what Dooku's speech would be about, but right now, he didn't care. He just hoped the speech was unusually long winded.

Sascha looked over at the hall, which had been filled with seats for the speeches. He wanted to sit at the very end of the back row, but taking up a seat now would look suspicious. Well, more suspicious than he probably looked already. Fortunately the seats filled quickly as Dooku made his way to the front of the stage and Sascha was able to quickly snag a seat at the end of the row, which would allow him a quick exit, if he needed it.

After a quick introduction (why Dooku needed an introduction at all was beyond him), Dooku came to the front of the stage.

"Thank you for that very fine introduction," said Dooku gracefully. "I want to thank everyone that has came here today. I know that there are many distractions during as Summit such as this, and listening to someone give a speech may not sound like the most exciting moment, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I shall try to keep this short and sweet." Dooku looked down at his datapad, "I have not spoken much about my time as a Jedi Master, at least not publicly. But now, more than ever I feel like this is the time to open up and speak about my reasoning for leaving."

Sascha could feel many eyes from many different species suddenly shift in his direction. He wanted to shrink from the attention, but instead he met it stoically, refusing to change his expression at all.

Dooku continued, "My frustrations with the Jedi Order were many, and they were many within the Order that agreed with them...and many that wished that I would just shut up and go away. The Jedi Order, though it presents a united front to the world, is as rambunctious as any democracy in existence. I would have loved nothing more to spend my life within the Order, had I not come to the following conclusion."

Sascha continued to keep his stone-face visible to the world. But he was wondering why Dooku was telling this story now. Couldn't he have made it public at the beginning of the Summit?

"My conclusion was that the Jedi Order is flawed, but its flaws are not so severe that the Order itself is worth writing off. It's ways many may see as anachronistic, but they are often in place for the right reasons. The only problem with the Jedi is that they refuse to see what I believe is obvious. I believe the Republic no longer has the will of the Force behind it."

The audience audibly gasped and then murmured amongst itself for a few moments.

Dooku held his hands up and waited for the crowd to silence itself, which it eventually did. "The Republic and the Jedi Order once walked in lockstep, and both had the favour of the Force. Now, I believe that they are sliding from that."

"This is such bantha poodoo," Sascha muttered quietly under his breath. There was no such thing as an entire institution losing 'the favour of the Force'...whatever that was. It was something that sounded dire but had no actual meaning to any Jedi. However, Sascha could see that Dooku's arguments were affecting many of those around him. How could they know if the Republic had or had not lost the favour of the Force (if it even had it in the first place.).

But Dooku had the crowd in the palm of his hand, "So I wonder what I should do now. I've been inspired this week by the passion that you young people have for your planets and I believe that you can all contribute to a brighter future. But that future will be dimmed if the Republic continues to be the focus of your efforts, I fear they will go to waste."

Sascha kept up his impassive expression, but his mind was racing. Was Dooku going to advocate for the dissolution of the Republic? And what would he replace it with?

"I don't know if I can see the solution to the ills of the Republic quite yet, but I feel like I get closer to it every day," continued Dooku. "No matter what, I pledge to you today that I will never stop thinking about how to fix this malaise and what the solution might be, no matter how radical it may be. I will bring to you a better future."

Dooku brought his speech to an exclamation point, one of many that were to come hopefully. The crowd responded appreciatively, clapping and voicing approval in various different ways, according to their species.

Dooku looked like he was about to continue his speech when he looked down at what was fairly obviously an incoming call on his comlink. The Count front, glanced once at his comlink and then stepped away from the podium for a moment.

Sascha knew exactly what kind of message that Dooku must be receiving. His mind raced. Did he want to try to keep Dooku where he was, or did he want to race over to the landing bay where the Emerald Dream was stored. He decided that he would try the former.

Dooku stepped back up to the podium, "It seems that I have a personal emergency that I must..."

"Count Dooku!" he shouted, using the Force to project his voice. "How can you be so reckless?"

Dooku paused and the returned to his podium, "I see you there, Padawan Whitestar. Speak your piece."

Sascha compiled his thoughts quickly, "I think that everyone needs to see the hypocrisy of your speech, Count. You say the Republic is losing the 'Will of the Force' but you aren't a Jedi anymore, Count. Perhaps it is you who have lost the will of the Force."

"And how would an apprentice as yourself feel comfortable to make such a claim?" Dooku responded hotly.

"I don't speak for the Force. And neither do you, Count."

Dooku looked a bit furious. To Sascha like he looked like he was torn between two competing impulses, one to go back back to his estate and one to give a verbal beat down to the impetuous apprentice. He wondered which one was stronger.

It turned out that Dooku's ego was stronger.

"This was perhaps a conversation we should have had in public, Padawan Whitestar."

"Master Whitestar," Sascha interjected. "Members of the public usually call Jedi of any stripe Master. I am at least owed that courtesy."

The crowd quieted even further as Sascha directly challenged Dooku.

"Master Whitestar," Dooku gritted out. "This is something that an apprentice like you would not understand."

"Ah, only Dooku knows when the Republic has lost the favour of the Force, is it?" he countered. "Not Master Yoda, not any of the other Jedi Masters on the Jedi Council, a honour which you never received may I point out."

"The Jedi Council is blind to the truth!" shouted Dooku, losing his customary calm and control for a moment, "They cannot see what I do."

"Or maybe you are the only one that sees it, Count," Sascha said with a quick shrug of his shoulders. "Why should we trust you instead of the thousands of Jedi within the Order themselves?"

It was a good question for Dooku. Either he had to claim he was wiser and more powerful than all the Jedi put together or he had to find some sort of reasoning to justify his specious claim. It had taken Sascha quite a while, but he was finally going to get one over on Dooku it seemed.

"They should trust in my long decades of service to the people," Dooku said.

"But not Master Yoda's centuries of service," he countered quickly.

Dooku seemed to snarl slightly, but then his features softened and he turned he attention back to the crowd, "It is my opinion," Dooku glanced in his direction, "That the will of the Force has abandoned the Republic."

"If this is true, why don't you work with the Jedi to return the Republic to it's former status," countered Sascha doggedly. Sascha normally would have given up the arguement, but the longer he could keep Dooku here, the better chance that Tyra was going to be rescued. He would do pretty much anything for Tyra, including make himself a public spectacle.

"This really is a conversation for another time and venue," Dooku said, trying to take the high road.

There wasn't much more he could say to that without totally acting out of character, so he bowed slightly, "I look forward to it."

Dooku returned to his speech, but he seemed to be rushing through it. Sascha quietly got up and snuck out of the room. He had delayed as much as possible, it was time to get his ship ready to go.

Nara Nalto followed her Master and Aurine to the front gate of Dooku's estate. The walls of Dooku's estate prevented them from just racing in and getting to the buildings right away. It also gave Dooku's security forces a good point to defend from.

And defend they did, opening up on the approaching Jedi with blasters set on stun. The Jedi barely paused as they withdrew their lightsabers and deflected the incoming fire. The defenders paused for a moment as they realized that these were no ordinary attackers. To their credit the defenders resumed their fire quickly, but they were not numerous enough to really threaten the Jedi in any significant way.

Nara withdrew the blaster that she had taken from the stunned soldiers and began the process of gunning down the defending troops while Aurine and Tiplee gave her cover. Nara was not a particularly good shot amongst the Jedi that she knew, but Dooku's security forces were not particularly good soldiers, nor did they have amazing cover to hide from. With two Jedi Knights guarding her, Nara could pick her shots calmly.

After a minute or two it was over.

"Quickly," said Tiplee. "That won't keep them down for long."

The three Jedi quickly picked their way through the now unguarded gate and then paused.

"Nara," said Aurine. "See if you can find where Tyra is."

Nara concentrated, trying to search for her friend in the Force. It took a bit of searching, but she found Tyra's presence in the Force and made contact with her. Immediately, Tyra seemed to brighten up. Nara broke contact as soon as she got a good sense of where Tyra was. She opened her eyes and looked up at her Master and Aurine, "She's not far. She's in that building over there," she said, pointing her finger at a smaller building.

"Lets go," said Aurine. "Tiplee, you lead."

Her Master nodded, and the three Jedi sprinted in the direction which she had indicated Tyra was in.

The Jedi made their way to the building without incident. Nara took stock of their location. While the building they were about to enter was on the smaller side for Dooku's estate, it was still fairly large. Painted in reds and grays, it looked somewhat foreboding with its lack of windows. Aurine walked up to the door and tried to open it. Unsurprisingly it was locked.

The two Jedi Knights ignited their lightsabers and began cutting through the doorway while Nara kept a watch out for anyone silly enough to interfere with three Jedi. No one was.

After the door was dispatched, the Jedi clambered inside quickly. "Where is she?" asked Tiplee.

"Uh..." Nara concentrated. "Left. She's not that far."

Lightsabers lit, the three Jedi moved cautiously through the building, which seemed to be used for storage. However, once they were inside, it became harder for Nara to figure out exactly which hallway would lead to wherever Tyra was being held. The Jedi walked down one hallway, only to find that it was a dead end. They doubled back to the main hallway, when they saw that they were not alone in this building.

Standing in the hallways was the 'Ventress' that Sascha had clearly been describing. Of average height with a slim build, Ventress really just looked...dangerous. Dressed in a long, flowing skirt, the Dathomirian was a stark contrast to the person standing next to her...Teff Nal'ma.

"Greetings, Masters," said Teff. "I suspected that you would try to rescue my apprentice. However this is something that I cannot allow."

Nara's mouth fell open a little. Was Teff just playing a role? Or had he gone over to Dooku's side? And in the end...did it really matter?

"Master Nal'ma," said Tiplee. "I'm going to give you one chance. You will allow us to remove Tyra Harker from this premises, or we will remove her by force."

"My apprentice will be staying here," said Teff. "And if you want to remove her...I'm sorry, but my associate Asajj Ventress and I will be forced to stop you. I ask you to remove yourselves from Count Dooku's property, which you have entered illegally, and go back to Republic space."

"You know we cannot," said Tiplee.

"Good," purred Ventress. "This should be fun."

Ventress ignited a lightsaber, which Nara identified as Tyra's. While Teff ignited his own.

The three Jedi brought their own blades to bear.

Tiplee turned to her, "Nara, go and get Tyra. We'll hold them off."

Nara nodded. She really wanted to be involved in the fight, but she knew that she was not as good in combat as the two Jedi Knights. Plus, her connection with Tyra made her the best choice to find her.

Nara watched as the two Jedi Knights charged into combat. Ventress gave ground and then smartly parried Tiplee's attack. Aurine hacked at Teff, showing absolutely no remorse. The lightsabers bound together and Aurine used her strength to press the blades towards Teff. Nara would have loved to stay, but she had been given an assignment, so she darted past the dueling Tiplee and Ventress. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ventress look to try to slip in her direction, but her Master smoothly cut her off, letting Nara get by.

Nara hustled and made a left turn at the first opportunity. She took a few steps down the new hallway, turned and saw a pair of ray-shielded doors. The first one she looked at was empty. The second one contained Tyra Harker.

Tyra smiled when she saw her, and indicated with her hands to cut through the wall beside the door instead of looking to see if she could get the ray-shield down. Tyra was hopping on one leg, it looked like she had damaged her leg during her capture. She plunged her lightsaber through the metal and cut herself an opening. After a minute of exertions (cutting through metal was hard work, even with a lightsaber), she cut her way through. She pushed the door that she had cut in and then walked into Tyra's temporary prison.

"Hey Tyra," she said.

Tyra surprised her by launching into a hug. "I'm so happy to see you, Nara."

Nara returned the hug, "How's your leg? Can you walk?"

Tyra looked down at her leg, "I think I tore a ligament in my knee. I can't really walk."

Nara evaluated the situation, "Yeah, we gotta be quick. Tiplee and Aurine are fighting Ventress and Teff. Dooku's gotta know that we busted into his place by now, so we gotta make sure that we get out before he comes back."

Tyra hobbled towards the exit, "So you are saying a lot can still go wrong."

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Nara replied. It was going a bit too well so far...