The Weaving Force: Chapter 39 (Patreon)

Chapter 39:

Dooku:

“You.”

The word was a whisper, nearly swallowed whole by the familiar snap-hiss sound of his blue saber igniting as he held it in front of him.

Palpatine smiled back at him, his face revealed fully for a moment before he slipped on his own oxygen mask.

He wanted Dooku to see him.

“Yes. Me. Old friend,” his voice filtered out of that mask like a slithering snake, mechanical and electric.

Dooku stepped to the side, circling, getting away from the door behind him, just in case. Palpatine’s steps were slow, though they matched his careful stride with a careless ease that set Dooku’s teeth on edge.

“You are Darth Sidious?” he asks, just to know just to be certain.

The thought of this… It just wasn’t possible.

“Why so surprised, my friend?” He could hear the laughter in Palpatine’s voice. “Is it that you were right about the corruption of the Republic? Or that you were right about the weakness of the Jedi, who do not see it?”

“Be silent!” Dooku hissed, the gnawing doubts creeping up from the dregs of his own mind. “Draw your weapon and let us finish this.”

A leering smile was the answer he received. Sidious’ hands splayed out at his sides, showing him unarmed. “I thought the Jedi sought peace. Not conflict.” The laughter was a thick, wheezing thing in Dooku’s ears. “Or are you instead like the rest of your Order, wishing to silence and hide inconvenient truths.”

Dooku felt the muscle’s in his jaw tighten, teeth clenching as a hissing voice in the back of his mind whispered the Sith was right in that regard at least.

(X)(X)(X)

Adi Gallia

The blaster bolt that crashed into her saber carried with it the raw physical force to nearly knock her over, whatever modifications had been added to the weapon had increased its stopping power tenfold. Adi felt the impact snake up her arm and threw out her other hand, desperate to throw the distant marksman off balance before he could fire a follow up shot.

She succeeded, the Force impacting the man, sending him soaring up towards the ceiling in the low gravity and knocking his next shot wide, the bright yellow beam tearing a smoking gouge across the durasteel floors.

“HRAGH!”

She heard the cry from the otherside of the hangar, and turned her head in time to see a massive cargo crate sailing overhead like a literal flying brick, sending the assassins scrambling off the catwalks before the impromptu projectile ripped straight through them.

The men fell, few trying to take advantage of the lower than standard gravity by firing while they fell.

But Dallon was the one that had the advantage in the air.

Adi watched the girl rocket forward, blue blade like a blur as she deflected and batted aside the blaster bolts that came her way. An elbow cracked into someone’s rib cage; Adi winced, practically feeling the blow herself in the strangled gasp of air that was punched out of the man.

He went flying across the hangar bay, his momentum arrested by a quick Force pull that yanked him downwards to crash him onto the hard steel of the hangar floors.

Victoria whirled about in mid air, a swing of her blade sending a golden blaster bolt back to the attacker, the energy tearing a hole through the void suit. Adi saw the man’s entire body coil inwards, decompression taking place for a split second before the suit compensated, but no doubt internal hemorrhages and other injuries had incapacitated him for the rest of the fight, even with a glancing blow.

There were four remaining Bando Gora in the hangar and all eyes were on Victoria. Adi would have felt somewhat insulted if not for the advantage it gave her.

She rushed forward as Victoria dove. A hail of blaster fire was let loose and Adi distantly noted that Victoria barely even bothered to block, simply pushing straight through the hail.

They reached their first target at relatively the same time.

Adi’s own opponent was so off balance by her sudden arrival he only realized he was under attack when her lightsaber cleaved his blaster rifle in two. The assassin scrambled backwards as Adi advanced, rallying as he drew a vibroknife from the back of his waist.

She didn’t want to kill him, and anything that would rupture the suit would be just as good as killing him.

So, when he thrust that knife towards her stomach, Adi carefully kept her lightsaber away from him, merely using it to bat aside the vibroknife before redirecting her momentum, stepping into his guard and cracking the hilt of her lightsaber into his faceplate with a Force enhanced blow.

The glass cracked.

Air hissed out of the fissure; to the assassins credit he didn’t panic, but Adi could see the moment when his brain scrambled to decide on whether he should continue the fight or rush to go get it repaired.

Adi would take the choice from him.

With a flicker of thought a long, thin metal bar slipped between the assassin’s ankles, tripping him up. Unnerved and off balance when Adi’s free hand grabbed hold of the man’s head and slammed his temple down onto her rising knee, he was out before he hit the ground.

Adi made a note to come back and seal the breach in his suit when she was done with the other attacker. Out of the corner of her eye she saw how Victoria lifted a fully grown man one handed before slamming him down into the steel, hard enough to collapse the steel sheets that made up the floor in on itself, three durasteel plates buckling like cheap tin to reveal the asteroid rock beneath.

Safe to say that man wasn’t rejoining the fight anytime soon.

The last two rushed to escape, quite literally turning and sprinting towards the door.

Adi reached out with a thought, activating the hangar bay doors and slamming them shut as Victoria hurled herself forward like a charging bull.

The first to reach the door scrambled to try and open it, the other turning around and pulling back on the trigger to release a barrage of blaster bolts towards the charging Padawan.

Again, Victoria simply smashed through them, barely bothering to deflect just a few of the stream of red bolts that broke over her skin like raindrops on a rock.

She shoulder checked the shooter, his whole body rocketing back to smash into the doors they were so desperately trying to open. The second grabbed at his gun, rounding on Victoria before her hand grabbed hold of the rifle, ripping it out of his grip like one would tear away a dangerous object from a child. Then, with her saber deactivated, she snapped the weapon in two and smashed the butt of the broken weapon into the assassin’s faceplate.

The man tumbled back, landing flat on his ass. “What in the Corellian Hell-” he groaned. “You’re a Sith spawned freak.”

“Right back at ya.” Victoria’s grin was a savage thing and her eyes gleamed with a malevolent glint as she grabbed her lightsaber hilt again. “Now how about you answer some questions and I won’t have to drag you towards the nearest airlock.”

Adi was momentarily worried, convinced that the girl would indeed carry out the threat before a brush of her thoughts across Victoria’s shields revealed the surface falsehood.

The girl was bluffing… mostly.

“You’re a Jedi. You won’t.” The assassin answered back.

Victoria gestured towards the heap of limbs and broken bones slumped by the door. “Failing the non-violence part of the Jedi thing, honestly.”

As she drew closer, she could feel the sliver of uncertainty snaking its way through the assassins thoughts, and when the man turned his head towards Adi, as if looking to her for help, the Jedi diplomat made certain to school her features, keeping them cold and impassive, betraying nothing.

Victoria cracked her knuckles, stepping forward. “Alright. Airlock it is-”

“Stop!”

Victoria obliged, raising an eyebrow that was somehow challenging, imperious and smug all at once.

The assassin shook his head. “Not dying for some old guy in a black getup. Whadaya wanna know?”

(X)(X)(X)

Plo Koon

From the moment they entered the system, Plo-Koon, knew something was deeply wrong here.

At first he thought that perhaps, Taylor and Vicky had somehow drawn ahead of them.

But they hadn’t. Searching for the bond that stretched out in the Force between the two girls he found them as he always did, approaching the station. Not on it.

The feeling of cold was coming from someone else entirely.

Other people like them. Other Parahumans.

But what was troubling about that was what he sensed from Master Billaba and Master Piel before they’d slammed down their mental shields as hard as he’d ever felt them.

Alarm…

But not surprise.

Not in the way that he’d felt it.

They knew something. Or had realized something

And they were keeping it from him.

Such a thing was bad enough on its own but worse still was the feeling that had enshrouded them all as they approached the station.

The Force normally a blanket of calm amidst the oceans and tides of the stars hung over this place like a dreaded pall. It felt distant here; as thought the greatest ally of the Jedi didn’t wish to draw close to this place at all

And even as he tried to focus and pierce the shroud that clouded his vision he simply couldn’t spare the needed focus, from the moment he Bilaba and Piel touched down in the primary hangar as planned they’d been surrounded on all sides, literally carving their way through the small army of men that had been sent to intercept them.

It was suicide. Even if they were not against some of the greatest Masters of the order the very architecture of this place in and of itself worked against them, funneling their greater numbers into narrow halls and ancient abandoned arcades where he, Bilaba and Piel could hide and slip away in ambush.

With Force power, saber skills, subterfuge and raw experience they’d killed many and still they came on.

It wasn’t until power surged through the gloom shrouded halls; humming through antiquated power lines and tech that he realized what had been happening

He tossed a look to Master Piel, and the smaller Master seemed to share his conclusion as his features were set in a grim scowl.

They were being delayed.

The security doors, meant to withstand sudden breaches or other hazards of mining operations slammed shut, ray shields blooming in adjacent hallways to cut them off.

His hand rose up activating his communicator.

“Taylor- can you hear me?”

(X)(X)(X)

Taylor

‘Taylor can you hear me’

The vibro-blade carved a jagged line into the durasteel  as I stepped out of the way, the golden blade slicing through the assassins arm, thick globules of blood bursting through the cauterized stump where it was literally sucked out of the body through the pressure of the vacuum. The victim exanguinated in an instant.

The man had a few seconds of life, clawing at his arm, then his chest before he went still, his body thumping onto the floor.

“I hear you Master plo” I answered, my blade rising to deflect the blaster bolt, the familiarity of Shien allowing me to send it right back to the shooter with a casual ease as it struck him in the leg, the heat of the blaster causing him to meet a similar fate to his friend.

‘The Assassins reactivated the stations power. They’re using it to keep us cut off. How close are you to the engineering deck.

I heard more than saw the two shooters that tried to ambush me, the two of them leaping out of cover, letting out bursts of fire.

My saber moved like lightning, deflecting the first two shots before I let my senses in the force guide me- ducking under the next and stepping between the final two shots already mid lunge before they realized they missed.

The first one tried to adjust, to gain some distance, my hand reached out, pulling with the force to yank him off his feet, saber plunging into his chest before I stretched out my grip towards the crate the other had been using as cover, jerking it forward to slam into the second gunman’s side, knocking him on his ass as his gun went clattering to the floor.

I overshot; the low gravity carrying me farther than I intended and my enemy tried to use my scrambling to stop to reach for his lost gun.

His own gun flew up, off the ground and landed in my hand.

I caught a moment of surprise in his eyes, a dawning realization as he looked towards me, staring down the barrel of his own blaster.

“Wai-”

I fired.

He stopped moving.

“Getting there.” I breathed looking around -physically- looking around for threats before I started to move. Gun and Saber still in hand.

R-5 followed dutifully after me.

‘Be careful, but hurry- I sense something deeply wrong. We must reach Master Dooku soon’

I sensed it too.

I’d never understood the Jedi’s over-caution and overemphasis on ‘The Dark Side’ but I sensed something… deeply wrong here. Unlike anything I’d felt beforehand.

It was… irritating.

Yaddle and I had split up. My job was the engineering deck. Yaddle had to meet up with the others.

Still even though I knew they were facing the bulk of the enemies- Fighting here was… taxing.

Stepping onto this station was like stepping into a coffin. No light, no sound. The world around me was limited to what was just around me. What I could see, hear, and touch.

I felt blind and dumb, and it was only my connection to the Force that let me hold onto some semblance of the extrasensory perception I’d grown so accustomed to.

The mask over my face was suffocating, and it was only the knowledge that there was no air outside of it and the oxygen pack on my back that let me resist the urge to rip it off and suck down an unobstructed breath and see beyond more than five feet in front of my face.

Gravity was another thing I had to quickly adjust to. I was used to my weight, my balance being a certain way under a certain gravity, but here that was way off. My movements had an almost ‘floaty’ quality to them, not quite zero gravity, but certainly less than I was used to.

I focused on my breathing, centering myself as I walked through the cluttered halls of the derelict station.

If hell was a physical place, I’m pretty sure this was it for me.

I hadn’t realized just how accustomed I’d become to my powers- or perhaps a more fitting word would be -dependent on them until suddenly I was in an environment completely devoid of nearly all applications of it; only the insects on the ship I’d brought with me were helping stave off the worst of my anxiety, but without air to move through flying wasn’t an option to actually get them anywhere in combat, nevermind how quickly they’d die from the cold and lack of breathable atmosphere.

Even as I shut my eyes, I spread my senses outwards. The Bando Gora assassins that had rushed to intercept me were retreating, rushing to regroup and set up one last ambush. Even without my bugs I knew that much. Whether they were fanatics, professionals, or drugged out of their minds didn’t really matter. If they fought I’d defend myself and in these suits non-lethal wasn’t really an option.

Behind me, the R5 droid was quietly following. I needed to get two levels lower to get to the astromech port there

“Obi-Wan.” I called, the com crackling to life in my ear. “Where are you and Anakin.”

“I’m over on Deck C, one level above you, but Anakin and R2 are near you according to our transponder signals.”

He’d split up from Anakin? That seemed… reckless. Leaving a kid alone around here to fight and kill.

Still an argument for later.

“Where?” I asked.

“Just three hallways down. If we continue as we are we’ll probably meet up by the next junction.” It was Anakin himself who answered me this time. “R2 is reading at least six life signs in there. They’re setting up an ambush.”

“I’ll handle it.” I answered. “Once I’m done we’ll continue together.”

“I can help-”

“Anakin.” I breathed; and later, I’d reflect on the fact that my ‘sensory depravation’ perhaps affected my mood much more than I thought. “I know its a teenager thing to mistake yes for no but right now just stay put. I have neither the energy nor the patience to deal with any stupid shit right now.”

The line crackled, static answering me. The boy was no doubt sulking. But I’d take sulking over dead.

I closed my eyes, spreading out my senses into the next juncture.

It was a large room. Six attackers. I could feel them. Nervousness, anxiety.

Fear.

But not fear of me no.

Curious.

The doors were sealed tight, reaching into the Force I pried the locks open ancient cold cooked and rusted gears and wheels turned, slamming them open.

They fired into the chokepoint on full auto.

I reached, a slab of durasteel plate torn off the floor to tank the blaster bolts for me as I held it infront of me like a shield, stepping forward and into the room.

I heard a howling screech behind me and a flash of light.

I turned, somewhat incredulously to see the R-5 unit that was supposed to hack everything once we reached the engineering deck with a hole the size of a watermelon in its torso.

Very- Very ‘dead’

I tried to do the mental math on how exactly that worked, the droid was a proverbial mile behind me and I was behind a shield damn near swallowing up the whole hallway.

Just… How!?

I grit my teeth, growling in irritation before I pulled back my arm and launched said slab of durasteel across the junction hall.

The fire petered out on the right side, the assassins diving for cover, the left moved to reposition.

With a thought; the lightsaber blade lit up.

Clear across the hall.

All eyes were drawn to the golden blade like moths to a flame, six guns rising up and shooting at a floating sword as I closed the distance on the still recovering assassins on the ‘right’ side of the hall.

The first man to realize I was there barely had time to scream before the blaster gun I’d stolen from his dead friend punched two holes into him as well. His friend turned, leveling his gun at me before I reached with the force, pressing the trigger on the thermal detonator hanging from the bandoleer at his chest.

He only just realized the danger a split second before it exploded.

It killed him, obviously, and had the added bonus of likely killing the third man that had been near him as I ducked into cover, avoiding the fire and shrapnel.

The three remaining assassins, realizing their mistake, turned, now looking near the dust of the blast zone.

That didn’t mean my sword wasn’t dangerous though.

Witrh a thoughthe blade moved suddenly, swinging like there was a real person behind it as it flew towards the nearest assassin, killing him before he even realized there was an issue as my appropriated blaster fired twice

Two dead bodies hit the floor.

I tossed the gun. The weapon clattering to the floor as I brought my lightsaber back into my hand…

A clean-

I tossed an irritated look at the still very very dead R-5

A mostly clean sweep.

I activated my comms. “Anakin”

A moment of silence and I prayed he wasn’t about to do something stupid like give me the silent treatment in an active combat zone.

Then- “The Coast clear?”

I breathed in not insignificant relief. “Yes. Come in.”

A door on the other side of the juncture slammed open and I snapped my eyes towards it.

A very blue, very not dead R-2 unit rolled around the corner.

Anakin followed behind it. Blue blade held up and ready, just incase.

“Come on.” I nodded. “Let's get to the engineering deck.

Anakin nodded, offering me a smile. “Su- Where’s your R-5?”

I felt my eyebrow twitch.

(X)(X)(X)

Dooku:

“You know in your heart that killing me will solve nothing.”

Palpatine’s voice was soft, a whisper in his ear, pleading for understanding.

“The Jedi have become so weak so corrupted that they could not sense me; right infront of them. Even your vaunted Master Yoda.”

Dooku grit his teeth, his grip over the saber becoming white knuckled, his fingers physically hurting from the tension.

“I did not do this to your order. Nor to the senate. These problems were there long before I arrived.”

“And yet you make it worse.” He pushed back, eager for the chance to do so. “You exploit and aggravate the problem. Make use of the corruption.”

“Do I?” Sheev asked, with the utmost sincerity it genuinely took Dooku aback. “What have I done since ascending to the Chancellorship my friend? Repaired crumbling infrastructure? Reigned in the excesses of the Trade federation and other entities of their ilk? I have brought peace… security. Prosperity. In my three years as Chancellor I have done more for the Republic and the people of this Galaxy as a whole than your entire Jedi order.

“The Sith do not heal. They do not act for the benefit of others.” He accused, pointing with his blade. “You say you drew back the excesses of the trade federation. But it was your apprentice that was present on Naboo. It was you who benefited from those excesses to rise as high as you have. Do not pretend as though you are some benevolent savior Sidious. What you do, you’ve done for yourself no one else!”

Sidious looked sad at the accusation, his expression so familiar as the friend who oversaw the Senate and listened to the troubles of those who met with him. “You know that is not true… how many Jedi have been assigned to suicidal or misrepresented tasks since I’ve been chancellor my friend? How many systems and planets have seen their economies revitalized? I have only ever sought power to fix this… bloated, corrupt monstrosity passing itself off as a government. To shape it into a system worthy of those it was meant to serve.”

His words rang with truth, even in the Force.

Dooku lowered his blade.

“You killed Qui-Gon.” It was the last thing; the last shred of something he had to hold onto with true certainty.

Palpatine looked stricken. “What happened to your apprentice was regrettable and was never supposed to happen.” He implored. “I have revealed myself to you… to make amends-”

(X)(X)(X)

Anakin

Descending down into the engineering deck, Anakin had been hoping for something perhaps to be waiting for them. Obi-Wan had charged out to fight with R-7 as soon as they touched down and demanded Anakin stay on the ship til he gave the all clear. And had even roped R-2 into keeping him on the ship.

Then, in fear that R-2 would get caught in the crossfire like Taylor’s R-5 had been he’d played it safe; and hid and skulked through the halls even as many of the Bando’Gora rushed through the derelict station to go and fight other people.

When he reached Taylor and she basically demanded he stay put and let her handle things; he did. Mainly because he could feel that the older girl was… off balance. On edge. And in spite of Anakin’s mischievous streak he did care about his friends and the people around him. So he decided to not add to whatever was troubling her and stayed still.

But he’d hoped there would be some resistance down here, some last line of defense.

But there wasn’t.

When the door opened they found just three engineers, already with their hands up and desperately hoping to surrender.

“Get up.” Taylor demanded. “You don’t sound or feel like the others.”

“Because we’re not!” The lead engineer, a Whiphid of all things, cried. “These guys kidnapped us stuffed us on a ship and told us we’d be running the station until they were done using it!”

Anakin could sense the truth in their words, he turned to Taylor. “I believe them.” He offered;

The dark haired girl tossed him a look, indiscernible through the obfuscating helmet.

“Fine.” She said after a moment. “What were their last orders?”

“Just- power things up. Activate blast doors and ray shields to seal off the upper levels, wait for further instructions.”

She nodded. “New instructions then-”

Before Taylor could continue, Anakin felt something, a sudden danger, screaming across his senses in the Force.

His body moved on instinct, shoving R-2 out of the way with a full on tackle that tipped the squealing droid off the edge of the walkway to crash somewhere below them.

The Saber swing meant for R-2 nearly cleaved him open.

He remembered in that moment- all of his lessons about the danger of void combat. One cut, from a saber that breached his suit and skin enough would kill him, regardless of where it was and felt his life flash before his very eyes before reflexes and muscle memory took over, his own saber lighting up with a snap-hiss of blue and crashing onto the follow-up swing in a desperate block;

A fist smashed into the side of his helmet, sending his eyes swimming as he lost his footing, the kick that smashed into his back making him cry out in pain, his grip on his saber falling away, body tumbling into the low gravity as the engineers screamed and Anakin tried to make sense of the world.

He saw Taylor’s single golden blade crackling against twin red ones.

—-------------

Dooku:

The scream in the Force banished the creeping shadows of doubt across his mind, a cry for help and panic in the force shuddering through the station.

He felt it.

They both felt it.

But Dooku knew what it was. Who it was.

Anakin, his student, was in danger.

He could not waste time here.

Dooku relit his blade, and he saw in that moment; that Palpatine knew he would not be swayed. Whatever hold the man had over him was cut aside. Whatever uncertainty he had was burned away.

His Padawan needed him.

And the Sith was now in his way.

“Draw your blade… or do not.” Dooku challenged with a flourish of his saber. “I no longer care-”

Blue flashed, arcing in a perfect swing

It met raging, boiling red.

And the Darkside, hiding behind the veneer of civility and benevolence was set… free.

Sidious laughed.

(X)(X)(X)

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