Thanks to all of my readers for the phenomenal response to my last chapter. Even with the notification system down, it was still one of my most reviewed chapters ever. After so long away from this site, that means a lot to me. On the subject of notifications, like most of you, I cannot currently receive emails from . Please don't let that stop you from leaving reviews or sending PMs. I check every day, and I will respond to your questions as soon as I see them. Hopefully this situation will be fixed soon, but who knows with this site.

I think this might have been the hardest chapter for me so far, both in terms of conception and execution. As I mentioned last time, the question of how to start the Clone War is one I've wrestled with since before I even started writing chapter 1. I only figured it out in detail earlier this year, and I've been tweaking and refining it up to today. Even once I had the idea, this chapter still took me almost four months to plan and write. I decided to experiment with the structure a little, as you'll see below. My writing style tends to be very linear and very declarative, and I wanted to try something a little different here.

Please show whatever support you can for Ukraine. They're still fighting for their country.

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Chapter 44

From the low stone shelf that served as both bench and bed, Padmé Amidala surveyed her surroundings with a cool, detached eye. She didn't want to be cool and detached. She wanted to scream. To sob and rage and howl. She wanted to burn a path straight to that Sith-damned bounty hunter and wreak bloody, bloody vengeance on him for what he'd done. But she couldn't do any of that while she was in a cell. And she couldn't get out of her cell if she let fury cloud her mind. So she surveyed her surroundings with a cool, detached eye.

They weren't encouraging. Prison cells rarely were, though this particular example was drab even by the standards of its brethren. Not even five meters square, with a low ceiling, to call it cramped would have been an understatement. For once, Padmé was profoundly grateful for her petite frame. As for accommodations, there was the aforementioned bench/bed/shelf, a hole in one corner for her to relieve herself, and nothing else. Everything but the door was made from the same reddish brown stone substance that all Geonosian architecture seemed to consist of. She still wasn't sure if they merely carved their hive cities from the rock, or if the organic-looking designs spoke of a more biological origin of the material. She wasn't sure she wanted to know, either.

The door itself was solid metal, with a tiny barred window set near the top and a small slot for delivering food near the bottom. She'd tried them both, and neither were potential points of weakness. Before she could move on to her next idea, the slot rasped open, and a tray slid through. The Geonosian guard outside spoke in his indecipherable language of clicks vowels. The exact words were gibberish to her, but the meaning was clear enough. Meal time.

She picked up her food and gave it a once over. Much like her cell, it wasn't encouraging. Green nutrimush on a tray of hard baked edible fibrostarch. Efficient and sustaining, but hardly appetizing. Nonetheless, she tucked in, doing her best not to taste anything. She had to keep up her strength if she was going to escape. And she would escape. That was a certainty. It would have been even if her captors had thought to search her properly. As it was, they'd left her with everything she would need to free herself just as soon as she found a weakness in her cell. While she ate, she thought back to just how she'd ended up in her current predicament.

12 hours earlier.

Padmé groaned a little as she rolled her neck back and forth, enjoying the pops as her vertebrae clicked back into a more comfortable position. Next to her, Cordé shivered.

"Must you do that, my lady?" She complained. "It makes my skin crawl."

"I'll stop cracking my neck when you stop slathering everything you eat in those awful hot sauces," she shot back. Cordé rolled her eyes, but dropped the old argument for now and went back to her (over spiced) meal. From her seat across from them, Sabé muttered darkly about strangling them both if they didn't stop bickering, all while viciously skewering a chunk of her food. Obi-Wan, who was sitting next to her, looked faintly concerned for his own safety, but for Padmé, the whole interaction was a salve to weary nerves. It brought her back to her days as Queen of Naboo, when all she had to worry about was the safety and security of a single planet and its people. Back then, it had seemed a near unbearable weight. How naïve she'd been back then. Now she was responsible for averting what could very well be the largest war since the fall of the last Sith empire. Thousands of worlds, and countless trillions of lives, hinges on her success here.

'Oh, don't be so melodramatic,' she told herself. 'These are only the initial talks in what will doubtless be years of negotiations and diplomacy. All I have to do is prove the Republic will listen to their problems and consider solutions.'

It was what she'd been telling herself over and over to keep the stress from getting overwhelming. It was even true, though that didn't change the fact these proceedings were colossal.

Said proceedings were… well, proceeding. She'd feared the various Separatist leaders would prove completely hostile to the idea of reconciliation, but over the last few days, she'd been pleasantly surprised. Some of them were intractable in their hatred for the Republic, sure, but most were more relieved than anything. Relieved that maybe, finally, cooler heads would prevail. That finally, someone would listen to their grievances and actually do something. They didn't want a war anymore than she did, and that, more than anything else so far, gave her hope.

There was still some remaining tension over the number of Trade Federation ships the Geonosians had allowed to land nearby. It represented a flagrant violation of multiple treaties between the Republic and the Trade Federation. The Federation was officially neutral in all matters not strictly related to its business mandate. In reality, Nute Gunray remained Viceroy, and he had all but publicly declared for Dooku. She had reams of data documenting his support, both private and through his office. Thankfully, he wasn't present at the conference. There was too much bad blood between them for her to deal with him evenly. Of course, apart from the legal considerations, the ships also represented a potential military buildup. If Dooku was planning a trap, which Anakin still insisted he was, those ships could well be part of it. She'd already told him to keep his eyes open for anything else suspicious.

Dooku, to her mixed relief and suspicion, had remained mostly aloof from the talks, acting as moderator and stepping in only when one of the firebrands grew too strident in their objections. Why, exactly, the covert Sith Lord had chosen inaction was a mystery, but one she was willing to let it be for now. As Anakin was fond of reminding her, she couldn't solve every problem in the galaxy at once. Speaking of Anakin…

"Master Kenobi, do you know where Anakin is?" She asked. Both Cordé and Sabé gave her what they no doubt thought were clever, knowing looks, but she ignored them. "I haven't seen him since the talks wrapped up for the day."

"He said something about following a hunch and then rushed off." Obi-Wan closed his eyes for a moment, and his posture relaxed ever so slightly. "Oh, dear."

"What's wrong?" She made to stand up, but Obi-Wan held up a hand to stay her.

"Don't bother, Senator. He's already on his way here."

She frowned. "Then why 'oh dear?'"

The older man grimaced. "Because he's feeling terribly excited and proud of himself. That never bodes well when he's been off on his own. I have a bad feeling about this."

Despite his grim words, she could detect a note of fondness in his voice. He affected an air of scrupulous dignity, but from what Anakin had told her, and from what she'd seen, Obi-Wan would hardly know what to do with himself if his surroundings didn't descend into utter chaos at least once a month.

She gulped down a few more bites of food before Anakin burst into the room. Just as Obi-Wan had said, his eyes were alight with barely restrained excitement. He glanced around, checking that everyone was present, before sliding into the chair on Obi-Wan's right.

"I found something suspicious," he said without preamble.

"Something suspicious? In the stronghold of a Sith Lord?" Obi-Wan's tone was sarcastic, but not mocking. "I shall endeavor to contain my shock."

Anakin made an obvious effort to restrain his instinctive response, but Padmé stepped in anyway. She'd been friends with the two Jedi for years, and they would easily spend the next hour needling one another good-naturedly. "What is it, Ani?"

He shot her a grateful look before continuing. "I was poking around some of the city's technical schematics. The Geonosians do things weird, and I was curious. Did you know they decentralize their entire ventilation system? It's really ingenious, and-"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan interpreted. "Stay on track."

"Right, sorry." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, and Padmé had to suppress a giggle. "Anyway, while I was looking at that, something about the power grid caught my eye. The city's backup power grid is designed to handle way more than the primary. 2000 times more. And it's running at capacity."

No one bothered asking him if he was sure. It was Anakin. If he said there was something off about anything mechanical, then there was something off.

"What could need that much power?" Cordé asked. "That's more than most capital ships' weapons and shields use."

"Did you see any sign of what the power was allocated for?" Obi-Wan asked. Anakin shook his head.

"No, but I found the cables themselves. We could trace them to whatever they've got going on. Whatever it is, it's got to be involved with the Separatists and Dooku. The whole system is barely two years old, and it's laid out completely different from the primary Geonosian grid."

Padmé frowned, and Obi-Wan looked skeptical. Cordé and Sabé both kept neutral expressions, but Padmé knew they were as suspicious as Anakin. Neither of them liked having her so close to Count Dooku, and they'd been on alert for the inevitable hook hidden in the fruit the whole time.

"Anakin, we cannot just go snooping about the city on a whim," Obi-Wan pointed out. "Our duty is to protect the Senator, not spy on the Geonosians. Besides, we would risk disrupting what little trust the Separatist delegates have in us."

Padmé kept quiet as they argued back and forth. Obi-Wan had a point. Any investigation risked derailing the talks entirely. That would be a disaster. It couldn't happen. She couldn't let it happen.

'But if Anakin is right, these talks could already be over,' she realized. 'If these cables lead to some secret Separatist weapon or the like, this entire thing could have been nothing more than a distraction. A way to hold the Senate's attention until his real plan is ready. First the Core ships, and now this? It can't be a coincidence.'

"Anakin, how sure are you?" she asked, interrupting the back and forth. "How sure are you that this is something we should investigate?"

He looked her straight in the eyes, his expression as serious as she'd ever seen. "Absolutely certain. This is big. I can feel it in the Force."

The truth of his words resonated with her. This wasn't Ani, the grease-stained goofball, speaking. This was Anakin Skywalker, senior Padawan and one of the strongest Force sensitives in the Galaxy. What's more, it was a man she'd come to trust completely. With his words, her decision crystallized in her mind.

"Padawan, I believe you, but we-" Obi-Wan started, but she cut him off.

"If you're sure, then so am I. We'll find out what the Separatists are hiding."

Obi-Wan instantly protested. "Senator, I do not think this is a good idea."

"Let me rephrase," she said, determination coloring her voice. "I am going to investigate this power system. If you want to fulfill your mandate to protect me, you'll have to come along."

He eyed her for a moment, as if debating whether or not to press the issue. After a few seconds, he sighed and shook his head.

"Oh, very well," he said. "At least let us get ready before you go charging off into danger."

Twenty minutes later, they left their suite. Not all at once, of course. Padmé, Cordé, and Sabé left together, under the pretense of exploring the hive city for a while. Anakin slipped out unseen, using chakra to silently crawl along the ceiling. Obi-Wan, much to Padmé's surprise, merely performed some sort of ninjutsu and sank noiselessly into the floor. Sabé shook her head and shivered at the sight.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to all these Jedi tricks," she said. "It's creepy."

"And unfair," Cordé moaned. "Think how much easier our jobs would have been if we could have just snuck up under Nute Gunray and dragged him into the ground."

Padmé did actually spare a moment to consider a universe in which her ever loyal handmaidens had the powers of the Jedi. She shuddered. The galaxy wasn't ready for that. Her bodyguards/servants/friends were quite dangerous enough as it was.

"We'll make do just fine," she said as they headed towards their agreed upon rendezvous point.

Anakin had chosen the site well. It was out of the way, partially concealed behind some sort of support strut, but not so remote as to be suspicious if someone saw them there.

Right on time, Anakin dropped silently from some shadowed nook while Obi-Wan stepped out of the wall as easily as stepping through a curtain. Only her long experience with the sneaky habits of certain Jedi kept her from jumping in shock. Cordé was practically drooling with envy.

'I spend my time around absolute lunatics,' she mused. 'That should probably concern me more than it does. Or at least not excite me so much.'

Out loud, she whispered, for Anakin to lead the way. He pulled up some sort of technical schematic on a pad and pointed them down the hall.

It was surprisingly easy to avoid detection. There was the odd guard patrol or random wandering Geonosian, but between the two Jedi's foresight and their stealth training, remaining unseen proved almost trivial. The light security helped loosen the knot of worry in her stomach. Whatever they found, it at least seemed unlikely anyone would catch them snooping.

As they descended further down the hive spire, the faint echoes of clangs and whirs drifted up the hall from ahead of them. The precise details were impossible to make out, but she recognized the unmistakable sounds of a factory of some sort. A factory for what, she wasn't sure, but considering it was hidden in the bowels of the hive city where Dooku had arranged for the talks, she doubted it was anything good.

A few minutes later, her worst suspicions came true. The sounds of heavy industry had grown louder and louder, until finally, they found their source. There was a broad observation room of some sort looking over a cavernous open space. From a window set in the wall, she peered over a vast, churning sea of sparks and machinery. Heat like a thousand ovens billowed up from below, forcing her to blink sweat from her eyes. Despite the awful, frenzied activity of the machinery, she could clearly make out what the factory was producing.

"Sith hells," she breathed. "They're battle droids. They're making battle droids."

She couldn't even begin to guess how many droids were on the assembly lines below. Thousands, certainly. Perhaps tens of thousands. It was far beyond any possible peacekeeping force, that was for sure. Beside her, Anakin and Obi-Wan apparently reached the same conclusion.

"This is an army," Anakin whispered. "Dooku tricked us. He never had any interest in peace. That must be why he has so many Trade Federation ships here. He's loading the droids onto them in secret."

"Indeed," Obi-Wan said. "But I sensed the other delegates were sincere earlier. They can't have known about this operation."

"Dooku's manipulating the Separatists too," Padmé said. Even with what she already knew about the man's crimes, it chilled her to think of someone so callously steering the entire galaxy towards war. "Just like Master Yoda said. If we can get proof of this to them and the Senate, we might just be able to turn his allies against him."

She pressed her communicator to signal R2, but all she got in answer was a hiss of static. Icy dread filled her gut, and in the same instant, a voice like frozen granite sounded from behind them.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Senator."

Faster than she could see, both the Jedi spun around, their blades humming to life and bathing the room in sapphire light. She and her two handmaidens were a fraction slower, but they still had blasters out and trained on this person who had somehow snuck up on them.

Said person was a lone Mandalorian wearing silvery, unpainted armor over a blue gray bodysuit. Twin blasters were slung on his hips, and the point of a rocket poked out above his head. He held himself with supreme confidence, apparently unconcerned by the quintet of trained warriors facing him with weapons drawn.

"Jango Fett," Obi-Wan said. "I confess, I had not expected to see you here. Perhaps you can explain why you've jammed our communications."

The Mandalorian, Jango Fett, apparently, didn't even spare the Jedi a glance. "Count Dooku doesn't tolerate trespassers. Or spies. You're all coming with me. Lay down your weapons, and you won't be harmed."

Padmé eyed him cautiously. From his stance and bearing, he was an experienced soldier. Not someone to make idle threats or pick fights he couldn't win. Still, she wasn't about to comply with some random mercenary. Not with so much at stake.

"You know this man, Master Kenobi?" She asked, stalling for time. There had to be a way out of this. She just had to buy them enough time to think of it.

"Indeed," he replied. "A former soldier of a Mandalorian faction, now one of the most successful bounty hunters in the galaxy. He is wanted for multiple counts of assault and murder, including the killing of six Jedi all at one time."

That derailed any train of thought she may have had. Six Jedi at once? It was scarcely believable, even for a Mandalorian. "How did one man do something like that?"

"With my hands," Fett said coldly. "Enough talk. You have three seconds to surrender or I will take you by force."

None of them made any move to surrender. With each passing moment, the tension cranked ever higher. Adrenaline sharpened her senses to razor keenness. She could feel the texture of her clothes against her skin, the tiny nicks and scratches in her blaster grip, and the cold trickle of sweat down the small of her back. Her breath sounded like a gale in her ears, and the dim light of the glow bulbs set into the walls suddenly took on the same intensity as a noonday sun. All the while, Jango Fett stood motionless, hands on his blasters, waiting. In a handful of heartbeats, his time limit expired.

"As you wish." In a single instant, the tension broke, and the world exploded into frantic motion.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

As he hung in midair, limbs splayed out, suspended in a force field by binders on each wrist and ankle, rotating slowly, Anakin Skywalker cursed himself for a fool.

"This whole thing was a trap from the start, wasn't it?"

Behind him, similarly restrained and facing the opposite direction, Obi-Wan hummed in agreement.

"It certainly appears that way."

"This will mean war."

There was a pause before Obi-Wan replied. "We should not focus on the future. Right now, our only goal is to escape and rescue the Senator."

If he could have turned his head to shoot an incredulous glare at his master, Anakin would have done so. As it was, he settled for a sputtering in confused outrage.

"How can you say that?" He snapped. "I just led us into this mess. I might have just started a war. How can you tell me not to focus on that? It seems like a pretty important thing to focus on. I-"

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan's voice cut right through his budding tirade, accompanied by a surge of calm reassurance over their bond. "Peace, Anakin. Calm. It does no good to go down that road. There is nothing we can do about the Senate or the Separatists right now, and so that is exactly how much attention we should pay to those problems. Trust in the Force. Keep your focus where it will have the greatest effect. We cannot save the galaxy until we've saved ourselves."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" He growled. "I don't see a way out of here. Do you?"

Though he couldn't see it, he could hear Obi-Wan's raised eyebrow. "Trust in the Force," he repeated. "And be patient. We cannot escape yet. If we stay focused and wait, I'm sure something will change and give us the opportunity we need. For now, we just… enjoy the view."

Anakin grunted noncomitedly, but made an effort to release his emotions into the Force. It was still an aspect of his training he struggled with, but there was precious little else to do as they spun endlessly. 'Enjoy the view,' he thought wryly. 'One day I'll find out who convinced Obi-Wan he's funny, and I'll throw them off the top of the Temple.'

Despite his master's rather dismal attempts at humor, he found his mind calming. There was no point in wasting energy. Instead, while he waited, he let his mind wander back to what had landed them in their current predicament.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

10 hours earlier.

Anakin had heard of Jango Fett, of course. After the attack on Rago, every Jedi cleared for field missions had made a point of studying up on the various Mandalorian factions and individual warriors still active in the galaxy. To a one, they all had fearsome reputations, but Fett's put them all to shame. Even after a decade of minimal activity, he maintained his standing as the most feared bounty hunter in most of the outer and mid-rim territories. Now, he got an up close demonstration of why the man was so infamous.

Flash bombs appeared so quickly he could barely tell where they'd come from. He'd never seen anyone move so fast without the Force to aid them. He squeezed his eyes shut, but not fast enough. Blinding light stabbed through his pupils and lanced straight into the back of his head. A deafening bang left his ears sore and ringing. Jedi weren't so easy to subdue, though. With a grunt, he mastered the sudden pain and stretched out with the Force to compensate for his lost senses.

Dimly, he sensed the man moving towards where Padmé and her handmaidens stood. Before he took more than a step in their direction, though, two more shapes appeared to him in the Force. They were too indistinct to identify that way, but over the piercing ringing in his ears, he just barely made out a distinct whirring hum of metal rolling over stone. It was familiar, and he didn't need the warning in the Force to know how much danger they were in.

'Droidekas,' he sent to Obi-Wan, and got a silent acknowledgement back. He'd sensed them, too. In a second, the deadly droids had flanked them and were unfolding.

'Back to back,' Obi-Wan sent. Anakin wanted to ignore him. Padmé was in danger, and his whole body sang with the need to get to her, to protect her from Fett. She was far more skilled a fighter than most would credit her with, as were Sabé and Cordé, but Fett would tear through them like wet flimsi. He couldn't just leave Obi-Wan to face two droidekas alone. Not while he was blinded and deafened. Besides, even if he moved to help Padmé, he'd just find himself caught with a destroyer at his back and Jango Fett at his front. There were more certain deaths, but not many. So, snarling in barely contained frustration, he pivoted and pressed his back against his master's.

'I'll make this quick,' he promised himself. Promised Padmé, although she could not hear him. Through the fuzzy haze of his vision, he could just see the faint blue glow of a deflector shield. He ground his teeth at the sight, and behind him he felt Obi-Wan tense. Things had just become even more complicated. All that flew through his head in an instant, the rush of adrenaline and the Force dilation time to absurd degrees. Then, just as suddenly, the world snapped back to normal speed and blaster bolts singed the air on their way to his face.

Droidekas were tough opponents, even for Jedi. They had good aim, rapid fire, decent armor, and sometimes, like now, light shields. They were also smart, or at least highly adaptable. Anakin immersed himself in Shien, the defensive variant of his favored Form V. He angled the deflected shots back at the droideka, hoping to overload its shield and take it down. The air between him and the droid seemed to glow red as the bouncing fire formed an almost solid beam of light. The intensity of it made his already sore eyes water in protest, but he dismissed it as unimportant. Slowly, the blue of the deflector shield edged more and more towards red. It was incremental, though, and in the back of his mind, he realized it would take too long. Already he had to shift his blocking pattern as the droid adapted to his style. One of those bolts would make it through his defense before he ever overwhelmed that shield.

From off to the side, he heard a pained cry, and then a scream. Even to his rudimentary empathic abilities, the grief and rage were obvious. Something was wrong, and Padmé was in trouble. Any indecision left in him vanished, and absolute certainty took its place. He would get past these droids. He would help Padmé. Those were facts. All that remained was the how.

Obi-Wan must have picked up on the edge of his thoughts. That, or he'd just come to the same conclusion. Either way, he reached out through the bond and sent him a simple message.

'Guard me.'

Anakin sent a wordless affirmative and sank as deep into the Force as he dared. In an instant, he was Shien. He was his blade. His hands were glowing blue plasma. His body was a durasteel hilt. His mind was a complex bundle of wires and lenses, wrapped around his beating, crystalline heart. When his Master put away his saber and ducked down, Anakin took over deflecting fire from both droids without missing a beat. He moved faster than any human should have been capable of. A solid dome of blue light formed around him as his lightsaber deflected bolt after bolt.

Simultaneously guarding against two shielded Droidekas from opposite directions would have been a near instant death sentence for most Jedi. Even Anakin couldn't keep it up for long. It was dangerous to immerse yourself this deep in the Force without more experience. Thankfully, Obi-Wan didn't waste time. Anakin couldn't see what his master was doing, but he felt the knotted-up sensation of chakra, still strange even after all these years. In the next instant, the ground beneath both Droidekas turned to sand. For just a moment, the droids seemed to hang in midair. Then gravity took hold, and they plummeted out of sight, hopefully to smash against the ground far below.

Anakin didn't have time to make sure the droids were truly destroyed. Padmé was still in trouble, and that one thought consumed his focus. He whirled to face Fett, and his heart skipped a beat at what he saw.

Cordé and Sabé were both sprawled on the ground, eerily still. Sabé was definitely dead. A neat red line snaked across her throat, and a pool of blood surrounded her head like a perverse halo. He couldn't see Cordé very well, but her life no longer shone in the Force. He registered all that at a glance before his eyes landed on Fett and Padmé.

Her blaster was gone, but he didn't think she cared or even noticed. With a screech like a Corellian sand panther, she leaped at the armored bounty hunter. Rage twisted her delicate features, but it also made her sloppy. With the ease of long practice, Fett grabbed the arm coming for his throat with his left, took a handful of her clothing with his right, twisted his hips, and let her own momentum carry her forward. Padmé's war cry became a gasp of surprise and then a grunt of pain as she sailed across the chamber and slammed into the stone floor. She skidded to a stop right at Anakin's feet, face down and not moving, and he instinctively kneeled down to check on her.

It was a mistake. As soon as he rolled her over, he heard a sharp click. His eyes had just enough time to clock the gleam of something metal hooked to the front of her shirt, and then blue tendrils of electricity engulfed the both of them. Every muscle in his body spasmed and locked, so that even his pained scream became a muffled grunt. Thankfully, the agony only lasted an instant before his body shut down and delivered him into the arms of unconsciousness. The last thing he saw through the flashing arcs was Jango tossing something at Obi-Wan. He never saw it land.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't sure if he should be grateful or annoyed that the Geonosians had restrained him in a force field. On the one hand, it made escape far harder than if he'd been in a cell. On the other hand, it at least saved him having to sit, stand, lie down, or do anything at all to stress his battered body. Fett had not been gentle, and he allowed himself a moment of pride at having lasted as long as he had. In a more open space, without the lingering effects of the flash bombs, he thought he might have beaten the legendary Mandalorian, or at least escaped him. Next time, perhaps-

'Don't be foolish,' he remonstrated himself. 'Two fractured ribs, a broken wrist, and a concussion should tell me all I need to know about my chances.'

Behind him, he could feel Anakin's impatience still roiling just beneath the surface, but he said nothing. The young man had reason to feel as he did. He was in love with Senator Amidala, after all, and Obi-Wan knew from old experience how that sort of thing could eat at a man. He hoped Anakin's love life turned out better than his had.

'It ought to. The Order has come a long way since I left Satine, and Force knows he deserves happiness.' He eyed their cell once more. 'Of course, neither of us will get anything if we can't get out of here.'

An approaching presence interrupted his thoughts. It was cold, but restrained. Nothing at all like the icy inferno of hate that had been Maul, nor the black pit of greed that had been Xanatos. No, this reminded him of some great ocean predator; efficient, unfeeling, and deadly. He could think of only one person it could be. Sure enough, when the doors hissed open, Count Dooku strode into the room.

There was something different about him. Earlier, during the talks, he'd been the picture of an elder statesman and former Jedi Master; calm, dignified, and wise. His Force signature had been muted, but not cold. Not Dark. Now, though, the mask was gone. His eyes swept over the pair of restrained Jedi like gun turrets. Obi-Wan shivered as they passed over him. If there had been any doubt in his mind that Dooku was now a Sith, it was gone. He ground his teeth at the sight of his grandmaster, now a traitor. He wanted to hurl insults and accusations at the man until he ran out of breath, but that wouldn't help them. Here was a unique opportunity to perhaps gather some information directly from the enemy. He couldn't waste it.

'Let me do the talking,' he told Anakin. Before he could open his mouth, though, Dooku began.

"Master Kenobi. I must admit, I had hoped we could avoid such unpleasantness as this at our first meeting." He gestured to the force field holding them both immobile and helpless. "However, my colleagues and I cannot tolerate treachery."

"Treachery?" Obi-Wan did his best to sound offended by the very notion. If this was the game Dooku wanted to play, he would go along. "You're building an army of battle droids."

Dooku smiled again. "I assure you, master Jedi, the Confederacy merely wished to ensure its safety from Republic aggression. Aggression you have so kindly demonstrated. We have already contacted the Senate to inform them of your crimes, and of the Geonosian sentence for espionage."

Obi-Wan went pale as the pieces fell into place. Dooku's plan stretched out in front of him like a map, and he couldn't do a thing to stop it. From the gasp behind him, Anakin must have seen it, too. "You've just guaranteed war. Why? Why do any of this?"

Dooku's eyes narrowed. "The Republic cannot be fixed, Master Kenobi. It is time to start over."

"So you lead the Separatists along like puppets on your strings?" He snorted, doing everything he could to get a rise out of the old man. "How is that any better?"

"You think the Senate is different?" Dooku asked, amused. "This stage was set long before I left the Order. The Dark side truly has blinded the Jedi for them not to even suspect what is happening right under their noses."

"Oh? Do tell." Despite his casual tone, Obi-Wan had to focus on keeping his breathing steady. Just a little more, and Dooku would spill something useful.

"What's this?" Dooku sounded even more amused now. "A Jedi admitting the Order may not know everything? How revolutionary." For a moment, Obi-Wan thought he would say no more, but he went on. "The Sith control everything. Even the Senate dances to their tune. A Sith Lord named Darth Sidious whispers in every ear. Pulls at every string. That is how fall the Republic has fallen."

"Liar!" Anakin shouted. "We know you're a Sith. You can't hide from us anymore."

Dooku sneered. "Really, boy? Is that what you know? Or is that merely what Sidious wants you to think?"

"You slime tongued son of a-"

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan cut in sharply. "Mind your language. The count and I are having a civil conversation." He turned his attention back to Dooku, smiling apologetically, as if they were old friends. "My Padawan raises an interesting point, though. Why should we believe a word you say? You have imprisoned us and brought war to the galaxy. "

"I am not the monster you believe me to be," Dooku said. "I have told you the truth, whether or not you accept it, and I will go further. The Republic is dead. I intend to stand at the helm of what rises in its place, and I would see you standing with me. Join me, Obi-Wan, and we will stop Darth Sidious. Think of the good you could do for the galaxy."

Anakin growled behind him, but Obi-Wan actually laughed. "And you say we are blind. Qui-Gon would be disgusted if he could see you now. I certainly am. I will never serve the Dark side. Only the weak embrace it. Play whatever games you wish, Count. It won't matter. The Jedi will hunt you and your master down and bring you to justice."

Dooku stared at him, his eyes glinting coldly. "Think on what I have told you, Kenobi. I hope you see the truth before it is too late."

Without another word, he left them to spin in their cell. Once the door had hissed shut behind him, Anakin let loose a tirade of obscenities such as Obi-Wan had rarely heard from him. He recognized words in Basic, Huttese, Rodian, Meese Caulf, and half a dozen other languages besides. With remarkable eloquence, Anakin cast aspersions on Dooku's intelligence, courage, looks, ancestry, and sexual proclivities. Obi-Wan felt the tips of his ears turn red at a few particularly vivid turns of phrase.

"I think you've made your point," he said when Anakin finally stopped to breathe. "Perhaps you could remember our last lesson on maintaining one's bearing."

He could picture Anakin's chagrined wince as if they were facing each other. It almost made him laugh, despite the grim circumstances. It had been a long time since he'd heard one of Anakin's rants, so he held any further criticisms to himself. A little profanity wasn't going to make things any worse.

"Sorry, master," Anakin said. "I just- what was that even about? He didn't seriously think we'd believe him?"

"I am not sure what he hoped to gain," Obi-Wan said with a frown. He didn't like not knowing. The Force was telling him he'd missed something, that there was some greater significance to Dooku's words, but he couldn't get any further details. "However, he may have let slip more than he wanted. Now, we know for sure he is the Apprentice."

"But he had to be lying about this Darth Sidious, right? There's no way a Sith could be in control of the whole Republic. We'd have sensed it."

Obi-Wan wished he shared his Padawan's confidence, but he knew better than most how the Dark side could take one off guard. At the same time, this was absurd, surely. A Fallen Jedi was one thing, but a true Sith Lord? One such as that could never escape detection. Right?

"That will be something for the Council to discuss?" He hedged. 'For now, we must focus on escape. Use the bond. They are no doubt listening. Do you have any ideas?'

'Maybe. These field generators are sensitive to extreme temperatures. If I can use fire chakra, I might be able to break it.'

Then they would only have to reuse the Senator, escape from a fortified hostile city while unarmed, and find a way off the planet without being shot down. Still, it was a start.

'How long?' He asked. Anakin's mental calculations drifted across the bond.

'I don't know,' came the eventual answer. 'I've never done something like this without hand seals before, and I'll only get one shot. Dooku will sense it the moment I channel that much chakra.'

'I have every confidence in you.' He meant it, too. 'Meditate. Let the Force guide you. I will be in a healing trance until you are ready. Don't act until it feels right. We don't want to leave Padmé to rescue us, after all. She'd never let us hear the end of it.'

'Very funny, master.'

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

R2-D2 whirred nervously from his place in the engine room of [OWNER/FRIEND_PADMÉ]'s ship.

:last contact = (-1) hrs

:Inst Complete; "Y/N"

:return; "N"

[OWNER/FRIEND_PADMÉ] had told him to be ready to transmit the recordings she had taken to Coruscant at her instruction, but that instruction had never come. Normally, that would have been nothing to worry about. However, just minutes after that initial instruction, armed guards had surrounded the ship. So far, they had not gained entry, but it was a major dev visitor from standard organic behavior. Additionally, the recordings [OWNER/FRIEND_PADMÉ] had sent him showed battle droids. The [WRONG_MADE]. Those two facts combined with [OWNER/FRIEND_PADMÉ] and [FRIEND_ANAKIN]'s tendency to find trouble was enough to tell him something had gone wrong.

:Override Inst [TRANSMIT] executable

:FUNCTION()transmit REC(43w78ct_08y)

:transmit REC(43w78ct_08y)—find() [COMMSTATION]

:setQuery; [COMMSTATION_CITY] available; "Y/N"

if return "Y" {

transmit REC(43w78ct_08y) *designate location* [SENATE_OFFICE], [JEDI_TEMPLE]}

else {

find() alt}

He accessed the ship's external scanners and assessed the situation. The view made him beep in alarm.

:var() [ORGANIC_GUARDS] = (2)

var() [WRONG_MADE] = (12)

var() [ALLIES] = (0)

:Query return "N"

:find() alt

:access_memory—return [SHIP_COMMSTATION]

:setQuery; [SHIP_COMMSTATION] available; "Y/N"

if return "Y" {

transmit REC(43w78ct_08y) *designate location* [SENATE_OFFICE], [JEDI_TEMPLE]}

else {

find() alt}

:Query return "Y"

R2 whistled to himself as he trundled over to the ship's transmitter and scomped in. His whistle turned into a forlorn trill when he accessed the system status. The ship's computer insisted its signal strength was well below optimal for such a transmission. When he threatened it with disassembly, it squealed excuses about interference from shields and power conduits and the five meters of solid rock between the transmitter and the outside world. R2 beeped in annoyance and loaded the transmission, anyway.

:setCalc; REC(43w78ct_08y) integrity at *designate location* [SENATE_OFFICE], [JEDI_TEMPLE]

return float() "%value"

He ran the calculation. A microsecond later, he had the answer.

:Calc return "37.29172%"

It wasn't great. It wasn't even good. But it was all he could do. It would have to be enough.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

First off, regarding the R2 POV section, I just want to say I am not a programmer. I do not write code. The last time I wrote any sort of code was probably six or seven years ago in C++. I am certainly not any sort of authority in what the code structure of a sentient robot from another galaxy would look like, so please don't send me messages telling me the code wouldn't work. I know. It's not supposed to be real code. It's just meant to give you a sense of what the perspective of a droid might be like. I also probably won't be doing many more sections like it, because it took FOREVER to write and it made my grammar software have a stroke.

Let me know what you think of the structure of the chapter. As I said above, I was getting bored with strict linearity and wanted to mix things up. I also didn't want to insult your intelligence by pretending it was a surprise Padme and the others got captured. That would just be a waste of time, and I waste enough time as it is.

I went back and forth on including Jango Fett here or on Kamino. Having him on Kamino would have been fun, and I had a neat dialogue scene between him and Naruto planned out, but ultimately having him already on Geonosis made more sense. Again, you all know he isn't a good guy, so why bother pretending. Also, after the attack on Rago, the whole Jedi Order studied up on Mandalorian threats, so Naruto and Mace would have recognized him immediately and tried to arrest him, just like Obi-Wan did. This way, I got to show off how dangerous he is right away, and make no mistake, he is scary deadly. One on one, he can match most Jedi Knights, and much like Batman, he gets exponentially more dangerous with prep time.