Chapter 60 - Feedback and Failures

Leeta walked down the Hangar with purpose. On either side of her, crews prepared ships for their next voyages. Everyone had a task to perform, and Leeta was one of them.

"Troubled, your friends are. Help them Meditate, you should." Master Yaddle had instructed her.

Leeta felt proud that her Master trusted her with this task. She turned to face a ship. There it was. Exactly where Master Yaddle had said it would be. She hesitated outside, unsure if she should just walk in. Knocking on a ship's steel door is practically ineffective. She didn't want to startle anyone, if they were really as upset as her Master had implied.

Suddenly the door opened and a Dathomirian teenager stuck her head out. "Ugg, Master. It's another Jedi." She turned, leaving the ship's door opened for her to walk in too.

Leeta could sense this girl was Force Sensitive, and recognised her using the title 'Master.' Yet for some reason, she referred to Jedi as something else. Was she another foundling? Leeta was about to question who this Master was, since Yaddle was under the impression her friends were alone, but then a tall man with white hair walked within view of the entrance.

"Padawan, come inside. Where is your Master?" Dooku stuck his head out and looked both ways.

Leeta glared at him. "Where are my friends?" Yaddle had shown her an old image of the Traitor, and explained how he was suspected of associating with sith and training darksiders.

"Inside. Did your Master send you ahead?" Dooku eyed her and seemed to notice her expression for the first time. "Oh." He rolled his eyes. "The Padawans are all safe inside. I suggested they Meditate using a tool of mine. Come this way and see for yourself. Asajj…"

At Dooku's call the Dathomirian followed her Master further into the ship. Leeta hesitated a moment and then followed them as well.

Inside, sitting on the floor in a row were the clan-mates she expected to find. Each Padawan sat in meditation pose. Attached to their fingers were black clips and on their heads were stick-on metal patches. Wires connected them all to a separate metallic sphere, which was floating in front of each of them.

Suddenly Anakin opened his eyes and his sphere flew up. Dooku passively reached out and caught the ball, while Anakin pulled off the contraption. "Leeta, you're here!"

Beside him Freya, Kate, and Alex opened their eyes. Their spheres fell down gradually to the floor in front of them.

Kate smiled, "It's good to see you." Leeta noticed her friends seemed a lot more stable than she expected. Why, if she had lost her Master, she'd be a blubbering mess.

"What are you doing?" She leaned in closer. "Why are you trusting him?"

"We were meditating. The spheres kind-of react to your emotions and it helps you to control them," Kate answered.

"Yeah, Grandmaster Dooku invented them." Alex added.

"I merely put into practice an older theory on Biofeedback and applied it to Force use. Some alterations still need to be made to perfect it." Dooku placed Anakin's sphere back onto the table where the boy had placed his wires and clips.

Leeta found herself glaring at the man again.

"Grandmaster Dooku isn't so bad. He's been trying to help us since it all happened." Freya said.

"Yeah, where is your Master?" Anakin asked.

"She went to help your Masters," Leeta shared. The gasps that answered her were wholly unexpected.

"The Darkness," Freya whispered.

"I tried to warn Master Billaba," Anakin insisted.

"We know you did," Alex comforted.

"What exactly happened to your Masters?" Leeta asked. She wasn't sure now she wanted to know.

"They were attacked by something dark." Anakin answered.

"You said it wasn't a thing," Freya pointed out.

"Yeah, it felt like a person, only they didn't attack them physically. They attacked them mentally. Or with the Force. It's kinda difficult to describe, and I only had a brief glimpse," Anakin finished.

"And you think this person will attack Master Yaddle?" Leeta worried.

The others looked down. Their shame was her answer. Then Kate lifted a finger. "What if you let Anakin try to help her." She was met with faces of confusion, even from Anakin. "Open up your side of the bond, like you did at the Gathering to get your Kyber Crystal."

"Oh, you mean to suggest that he uses one bond to communicate to a third Jedi through their own bond." Dooku filled in.

"But he did it before, sort of." Kate defended.

"Theoretically, it's possible, but my, that would be a feat!"

"I have no idea if it would work, but I'd be willing to give it a try… If you are?" Anakin turned to Leeta.

Leeta took a deep breath. She hadn't ever heard of something like that happening in any of her Padawan courses. But, if her Master could rely on her for anything, it was her determination. She would try anything to help. Even let the boy poke around in her head. "Okay." she answered with a nod.

Dooku let out a sigh, "Finding the exact location of the neurological nexus will be tricky."

The others were scratching their heads, trying to define neurological nexus, while Kate shot her hand up with an idea. "What about the Biofeedback? Can the devices be reprogrammed to…"

"...To direct him to the bond. Yes, I think so," Dooku reacted. He went back and picked up the meditation ball Anakin had used again. "But not with these sensors. And I'll need to write a program especially for it."

"Can I help?" Anakin eagerly asked.

"I could help too." Kate offered.

"Yes, yes." Dooku nodded. "I will need all of your help."

What followed was a very odd co-working session where Dooku would pace back and forth supervising three different projects at once. Alex and Freya were plugging in a new set of clip-on sensors to Anakin's Meditation ball. The older teen Dooku called Tol sat back but did occasionally help them. Anakin was writing a program that would have the ball give him feedback for going in a specific direction neurologicallly. Asajj probably didn't understand what he was doing, but she seemed to be trying to follow his explanations, as she sat behind him and watched.

Kate was using another set of sensors to discover the pathway in Leeta's brain that she used for the bond. Leeta was leaning back with the sensors attached to her head and trying to reach out to Master Yaddle.

"There it is. Master Dooku, I think I have it." Kate cheered.

"Yes, Padawan. I think you do." He praised. "Good. Give that to Anakin, and he'll finish his program." He turned then to monitor the others. "No Padawan. Don't cross the blue and yellow wires."

As Yoda approached Serenno, he pulled his ship out of the line of traffic flow. He was glad his Force Senses were still intact. He had felt the deaths of nearly every Jedi before, and yet it was nothing like what happened on his voyage.

With Master Plo Koon, Yoda had a basic bond from years of working together on the Council. Sometimes it was easier to communicate without words. With Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda still had a ghost of a similar connection from the old timeline. Though the grandmaster didn't touch it. He didn't want to startle the man, or need to explain it to him. Now though, both connections were raw like an infected wound.

Still, neither of those were like the wound his connection to Mace Windu caused. When the boy was small, his former Master, Cyslin Myr, had an unsuccessful mission with a cult. A group of non-jedi Force Sensitives had gathered under the teachings of long dead Sith Lords, and a Shadow team was sent in to infiltrate it. The experience had troubled her greatly, and by the end of the mission she felt she was too close to falling to continue to train a Padawan. Some on the Council thought she had already gone over the edge, actually, and though Yoda was able to argue them towards Mercy, the feeling persisted. Anyway, the majority of them felt it would be dangerous to take a Padawan who's Master had already fallen. They questioned the quality of his teaching, and worried he'd be a bad influence on other Padawans. While Yoda had tried to be an example to his fellow Masters, offering his own tutelage, he turned out to be the only one. So Mace Windu became his Padawan, and they formed a very deep bond that now felt like a stab wound to his very heart.

Yoda pulled out his comlink and a moment later it lit up with an incoming signal. "Yoda here," he greeted. "Happened, something has."

As Yoda could have predicted, it was his Grand-Padawan Depa who was trying to reach him. "Yes Grandmaster. The Younglings just commed the emergency line. We don't know what's happened, but I updated Master Yaddle already."

"Good. Good." Yoda thought about what this must feel like to a Padawan, who was much closer in proximity to their Master now too.

"The younglings were so upset. It is fortunate that she agreed to go to Murkhana after the meeting today."

"Yes. Fortunate that is. Ask what they experienced, did you?" Yoda was curious.

"No, like I said, they were pretty shaken up. The Younglings also had coordinates of where their Masters went after… you know. And I sent them to her as well," Depa shared.

"Disagree, I do. Tempted to check on the Masters first, Yaddle will be."

"But the younglings," Depa worried.

"Comm them back, you should," Yoda suggested. He could feel Depa's anxiety at the thought of doing that. "Comfort in talking to a Master, they will find. Ask them what they experienced, you should."

"I'm not very good with younglings. Maybe I should contact one of the Healers," Depa suggested.

"First reach out to you, they did." Yoda made a mental note to confront this. His GrandPadawan would need those skills eventually. Some Padawan-ships were fated in the stars, or so the old Grandmaster was starting to believe. Hers and Caleb's seemed to be.

"Oh, alright. I will try." Depa agreed.

"Teach you this, did Master Windu?"

Her face faltered. "Master, no. He had an unfortunate tendency to gain an excused absence from Creche Duties. I think there was an incident with the Council once. Something with the Senate, another time."

"Hmm." Yoda hummed. "Stay calm. Talk to the younglings with respect like they are your peers, you should. Listen to them like you would a friend, and help, it will." Yoda offered his advice. Too often, he found, adults treated younglings like, well like younglings, and that impeded their empathy and communication.

"Alright, I'll try that." Depa winced, "And what if they cry?"

Yoda sighed as he closed off the connection. She would handle it well, despite her anxieties, he trusted.

Leeta sat down in a meditative pose in front of Anakin. She tried to clear her head of any anxiety, but she was still worried for her Master. Dooku placed the shiny sensors on her head.

"Are you ready?" Anakin sat in front of her in a similar pose with more sensors on his own head.

Leeta let out a deep breath. "Yes. Let's do this." She closed her eyes again and dropped her shields. When she felt Anakin reach out over their bond she pulled back to let him in.

The ball in front of them spun and started to float. It was a strange feeling, having someone else inside your head. Anakin touched something, and the ball started to sink. Leeta winced as whatever he did made her head hurt. He pulled back and she could feel his apology in her head. She summoned an encouraging thought, which she didn't need to send him, because he read it there in her head. Anakin nodded, and continued to search her mind.

"There, I've found it. I'm in." Anakin said out loud.

Leeta could've predicted it, as the ball spun and floated higher the closer he got to his target. Now it was almost above her head and spinning rapidly.

"Okay, remember don't push too hard. Master Yaddle is used to it being Leeta on the other end. You don't want to scare her," Alex suggested.

Leeta hadn't thought of that. If her Master blocked off the connection, it wouldn't matter how much she wanted to help.

"I'll try just observing," Anakin said. "She's doing much the same thing. She's found them already. They're in some type of Sith Temple."

"Is the young Sith there?" Dooku asked.

"I don't think so. There's Master Windu, Plo, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. They don't look injured. And there are a couple of others too: A human, a Geonosian…"

"That might be Meck." Alex suggested. Dooku nodded.

"Neither of them look to be incharge, the way Mace is glaring at them as they work. They are clearing something in the Temple." Anakin went on. "Oh look! There is Jar Jar."

"The Sith. He called himself that." Dooku nearly stood up again to pace.

"Jar Jar Binks?" Anakin sounded astonished. "He's a Gungan from Naboo. He can't be a Sith."

"Hmm?" Dooku scratched his head.

"She's getting closer, I can almost hear them." Anakin said, and there was a hush as everyone settled to hear what he'd say next. "They're talking about a baby. Qui-Gon wants to take it with them, but Windu thinks it's not necessary. Only he keeps calling Qui-Gon a strange name. Plagueis, do you know that name?"

"I've never heard it before," Dooku answered.

"And Windu has a new name too. Lord Bane."

Dooku's eyes grew wide, and his face became almost as white as his hair. He stuttered for a minute, before shouting, "S-T-That's a Sith name! Whatelse are they saying?"

"Qui-Gon's saying that there are more of them. Windu says that they'll find more hosts in the Jedi Temple. Qui-Gon says he put too much work into making the kid." Anakin's face twisted a bit with discomfort saying that. "He says it would be a waste to leave it here. I see the baby now. It's in a weird chamber. I see it through the glass… Master Yaddle is confronting them now. I think she recognized the name Bane too. Uh-Oh..." Anakin's descriptions stopped. Then he started to Shake.

"What's wrong?" Alex, and Freya jumped. "Anakin!" Even Tol and Asajj called his name, but he wouldn't respond. His eyes were unfocused and blinking rapidly. His pupils were dilated.

"Lord Bane, he called him. The last Sith was named Bane." Dooku started to work out. "Tol, you said their reaction reminded you of what happened to your Master. He came across a Sith artifact and it changed him?"

"Yes. He was behaving strangely. Still wasn't an excuse for the grandmaster to kill him." Tol filled in.

Leeta listened to this in silence. She tried to stay calm and keep her mind open for Anakin.

"Master!" Asajj yelped. Anakin's body started to convulse. His arms and legs began to kick back and forth, and a groan escaped his mouth.

"He's fighting it. You have to cut him off. Put your shields up." Dooku ordered.

Tears came to Leeta's eyes. That was the last thing she wanted to do. If she blocked him, Master Yaddle would be left alone.

"He can't win. He's literally fighting a creature already dead. His own master cut him off. Your master doesn't know he's even there. It's up to you." Dooku tried again.

"He's right. If that thing gets through him, it'll come here next." Alex concurred.

"There's a reason your master sent you here instead. She was protecting you. If you do this, you'll be sabotaging her last act." Tol surprised everybody by sharing.

Leeta cried as she put up her shields to block out Anakin. The boy stopped moving, and looked around in confusion.

Dooku moved Anakin so that he was lying on his side.

Then Leeta squealed, as she realized she'd left the other side of her bond unblocked. She felt her Master's soul vanish under the cloud of darkness and the cells in her brain seemed to argue like a room full of drunk politicians. Their only verdict of agreement was that she had to throw up.

Kate grabbed her, and whispered, "It'll be alright. It will get easier in a bit. Come here." And she led her away from the noise and lights to a dark and quiet corner of the ship.

Hello,

I added a bit of specifics to Mace Windu's backstory. These are not Canon. I think the Wiki's are a bit confused in that they list Yoda as training a lot of the council members when he didn't actually "train them," but more "Observed their training," or "Mentored them" in less direct ways. Anyways, I liked my story of Mace Windu as Yoda's Padawan too much to change anything, so I decided to modify the story. Cyslin Myr was Mace's Canon Master. In legends he had a completely different Master. Anyways, this doesn't interfere with the timeline at all, because by the time Yoda took him, Dooku was an adult with an older teen Padawan Qui-Gon. So that might have played a part in their relationships. Poor Young Mace just wanted to hang out with his Padawan Brother and Nephew, but neither saw him as more than another annoying kid.

I also had Dooku using Bio Feedback because I thought, well he's going to need a method to control emotions in an already fallen Apprentice. BioFeedback is a real method used in Psychology, though I doubt they include technology to do an FMRI which is basically what Dooku uses here.

And to describe Anakin's reaction to Yaddle fighting the Darksider I found video online of someone having a Tonic-Clonic Seizure. So the symptoms are meant to resemble that. And I had Dooku place Anakin in a Recovery Position when he was finished. Though I didn't specify it in the story, this is so his airway remains open.

In the Next chapter, Our Sith Hosts will be moving on, and as a result our characters will likely be moving as well. Won't tell you where they'll be moving, but I did kind of imply it in the story, so…