Protégé: Padawans - Chapter 2 (Star Wars AU, Anakin and Dooku, PG)
Title: Protégé: Padawans
Authors: Persephone_Kore and Dreagoddess
Timeframe: Post-TPM
Characters: Anakin, Dooku, others
Genre: General, AU
Keywords: Dooku, Anakin, training
Summary: Sequel to "Protégé: Chosen." Dooku and Anakin begin learning to deal with one another, and Anakin meets the unexpected while seeking his lightsaber crystal in the caves of Ilum.
Notes: Anakin's early issues with gymnastics were probably inspired by one of Fernwithy/JediGaladriel's stories.
Previously in series:
Protégé: Chosen
Previous chapters:
1|
Chapter 2
"Hey!" Obi-Wan called out as a body went streaking by him. "Calm yourself, youngling. Is there a fire?" Then he caught sight of the boy's face and smiled. "Ah, Anakin. It's good to see you. I didn't recognize you hurtling through the corridors like that."
"Hi, Obi-Wan." Anakin stopped. Obi-Wan still liked him. At least, he thought so. Or Obi-Wan had started liking him, one of those. "It's good to see you too."
Obi-Wan tilted his head a little and asked, "So where are you off to? Not late to class, are you?"
Anakin shook his head. "No, I... hadn't decided yet." Where had he been going? Most of the time, even with Master Dooku like he was now, his quarters seemed like the safest place to feel anything.
"You were certainly in a hurry for not knowing!" Obi-Wan smiled at him, then offered, "I was on my way to one of the gardens, actually. Have you had a chance to see much of them?"
"A little bit...." Anakin scuffed the floor with one foot. "I haven't really started catching up on... botany... yet." He hoped he'd gotten that word right. Tatooine did have plants, but people didn't talk much about studying them.
"Fortunately, plants are a subject you can enjoy without having to know much about them at all. Would you like to come with me for a little while?" Something about the boy seemed... troubled. Perhaps the peace of the gardens would help.
"Sure," Anakin said. "Thanks." Enjoying someething without having to have learned everything about it already seemed pretty good, really.
"No problem. Come along, then." Obi-Wan continued walking, this time with Anakin trailing in his wake. The boy seemed...subdued somehow. Obi-Wan wondered if he should call in Master Dooku. Well, perhaps a little quiet and friendly conversation was all he needed.
When they entered the gardens, Anakin's eyes lit up. "It's so green."
"Yes." Obi-Wan smiled. The Temple gardens were easy to enjoy, although he would admit that he wasn't quite as fond of some elements of the process (being elbow-deep in dirt and fertilizer, for instance) as Qui-Gon. "I don't know why, but it's about the most common color for foliage across the galaxy. And one of the most commonly viewed as restful." He laughed. "Maybe that's just because most people are inclined to like looking at plants."
"Makes sense," Anakin said, moving in. "Healthy plants means there's stuff to live on... oases...." He frowned. "Somebody told me once Tatooine used to be green, but something happened to it."
"That happens to many planets. Something strikes it, or the sun -- or suns -- grow hotter. Climates change. But life always finds a way to survive." Obi-Wan squeezed Anakin's shoulder and sank down easily to sit amid the greenery, beside an artificial river that curled through the plants and babbled peacefully. Anakin copied the movement, a little more awkwardly.
They sat quietly for a few minutes, and then Anakin said suddenly, "Coruscant's climate must've changed a lot."
"Over the years, yes. It's been a city-planet for centuries now. Everything's so regulated, I don't know how it remembers to be alive anymore. The Temple gardens are some of the only bits of natural life on Coruscant, other than the people."
"I wonder what it was like before it was a city," Anakin said. "Master Dooku says it was a lot smaller, because the buildings are all layered up, only then they dug down inside it too."
"Yes. As more and more people began to live here, they started building higher and higher. No one ever goes to the very lowest depths, not even the Jedi. I don't even know if people still live by the surface."
Anakin was brooding again now, though. He'd reminded himself about Master Dooku. Was he supposed to change as much as Coruscant? Could people even find the surface anymore?
After some moments of silence, Obi-Wan decided that this was not a peaceful silence, and said quietly, "Anakin?"
"I..." Anakin looked fixedly at his hands. "Can Masters...give up padawans after they've taken one?"
"Er... yes, technically, but only in extreme circumstances." Obi-Wan paused. He saw Qui-Gon less than he had when he was still a Padawan, of course, but he still saw him enough to be aware that Qui-Gon and Master Dooku had apparently rather enthusiastically renewed their previous acquaintance, to the point that Obi-Wan was rather at a loss as to why he'd seen so little of Dooku during his own apprenticeship. Both busy, apparently, and there were some strange leftover tensions, but.... At any rate, he certainly hadn't been under the impression that this question should be coming up. "Why?"
"I -- I think Master Dooku wishes he'd taken somebody else. Somebody who wasn't so stupid. I'm not," Anakin said fiercely, fists balling up again, "but he thinks I am! I don't know everything the other younglings do, but I can still learn! But he thinks I'm stupid, just like everyone else does."
Don't draw conclusions too soon, Obi-Wan heard in his head. It was mostly in Qui-Gon's voice, although there was a Yoda-ish tinge to it that garbled the grammatical structure. "That's not the impression I've gotten," Obi-Wan said carefully. "Certainly Qui-Gon and I don't think you're stupid, and I was under the impression Master Dooku was pleased with your progress."
"He -- I thought he was. At first. But...I can't do anything right anymore," Anakin said plaintively. "He used to say I was doing well. But now he just goes off on a lecture again, and he tells me things he's told me ten times! If he didn't think I was too stupid to remember, he wouldn't keep repeating it."
Obi-Wan laughed. "Stars, I hope that's not it. I lost count of how many times Qui-Gon repeated some things to me." He sobered again. "I don't know what kind of things he's repeating, but there are many points about Jedi philosophy that are learned -- even studied -- by repetition. In meditating, you might repeat a thought... say, the Code, or something shorter... again and again, as it sinks in to become a part of you, and you come to understand it better. I've found that very useful. It's not a matter of simply remembering it, but of making it a habit." Obi-Wan's mouth quirked up. "Of course, that means Master Dooku has had about seventy years to get into the habit of repeating himself."
Anakin smiled, just a little. "I -- I didn't used to mind when he repeated stuff, because I still knew I was doing things right. But...I can't even think when the last time he said I did something right was!"
"Well, I seriously doubt you've stopped," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. "Can you feel it in the Force when you've done something well?"
"I -- I don't know. I used to think so, but...it's hard to tell. I could tell I was right when Master Dooku was saying it!"
"Maybe... that would be something to ask him about." Obi-Wan smiled wryly. "I know, that's not exactly a comfortable idea."
Anakin huffed. "Anytime I ask him a question anymore, he just goes off for ten minutes. I know most of what he's saying, and he won't listen to me about what I'm asking!"
"...Oh dear." And how was he supposed to handle this, anyway? He seriously doubted that Dooku was really regretting the decision, and he imagined that Dooku's side of the story would be rather different, but he wasn't sure what to do about Anakin, here and now. "Well, perhaps you can take it as an opportunity to practice patience, and try again at the end. Feeling you can't talk to your Master... does tend to lead to problems."
"He was really nice at first," Anakin said in a small voice. "When everyone else was laughing at me for not knowing things. Makes it worse when he's the one who thinks..."
"I really doubt he thinks you're stupid, or a failure," Obi-Wan said firmly. "He knows very well that you're getting something of a late start... but I don't suppose he's taught anyone who hadn't already been a Jedi for several years before, either. There would be things he's still figuring out about that, too."
"...But Master Dooku knows everything."
"He knows a great deal about being a Jedi," Obi-Wan said, "but I'm fairly sure he doesn't know quite everything. For instance, he says he used to leave a lot of engine work to Master Qui-Gon." He reached out automatically toward the place in his mind with the old bond, casting out from there, and though it was fainter than before, into his mind trickled... a clash of lightsabers? His eyes widened slightly. "They're dueling."
"Master Dooku and Master Qui-Gon?" Anakin blinked. "But -- why? And how do you know that?"
"Ah... for practice, I assume. And...." Obi-Wan paused. "The mental bond between Master and Padawan is said to be 'severed' at Knighthood, but it's more... loosened, really, than broken. Like the relationship it's part of. I can still find Qui-Gon in the Force more readily than most other Jedi, out of long practice."
Anakin blinked. "You mean I could find Master Dooku like that?"
"Probably. I gather you haven't tried it before?"
Anakin shook his head wordlessly, his eyes wide. "That would be wizard, though."
"All right." Obi-Wan leaned forward slightly. "You know what he feels like in the Force when he's near you, don't you? Reach for the bond to him..." Perhaps Dooku hadn't gotten around to talking about the bond yet? "The part of your mind that feels the most that way," he continued smoothly. "And that should help you to find him."
Anakin bit his lip and thought real hard. He used the Force mostly around Dooku, when they were meditating or Dooku was trying to teach him to do something. There was always this sense of something...solid, like a wall he could shelter behind or lean against, whichever he needed at the time. He didn't remember really feeling that when he was using the Force anywhere else, and he knew he hadn't felt it back when he was just using the Force to podrace. Maybe that's what Obi-Wan was talking about?
He reached out tentatively with his mind, a little clumsily. He was used to touching the Force by now, but not feeling around inside his own head. For just a moment, he could hear the clash of lightsabers and smell the slight hint of ozone. Then there was a rush of surprise that threw him off balance. He lost the connection and found himself blinking at Obi-Wan from half on the ground. "...That was weird."
Obi-Wan was half up on his knees, looking mildly alarmed, but settled back down again. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah. I -- I could tell there were lightsabers. I couldn't tell anything else."
"It doesn't usually involve falling over," Obi-Wan said. "Was something wrong?"
"There was, um...It felt like being really surprised, and then I lost my balance." And now he was feeling worried for no reason, the oddest feeling just kind of sweeping over him and poking around. What was happening to him? Why would he be poking around his own -- Anakin stopped and blinked. "Obi-Wan, can -- Master Dooku can use the bond like that too, can't he? And...would you be able to feel someone on the other end?"
"Yes," Obi-Wan said. Apparently Dooku really had completely overlooked this topic. Granted, some master-padawan pairs barely used the bond at all, to the point of its being practically nonexistent, and it had taken some time for his bond to Qui-Gon to strengthen, but.... He bit down on a smile. "I suppose if you haven't done much with it before, perhaps having you pop up, mentally, during a lightsaber duel was something of a surprise for him...."
Anakin grinned. "I guess that would do it." He tried reaching out to the wall again, reassuringly. Fine, see? Sorry.
A hint of surprise again, then... words. I wasn't expecting to hear from you. There were feelings around the words, too. Not just the surprise. Some happiness, and... relief?
Anakin's eyes widened. He concentrated very hard on forming the words in his head, not sure exactly how to do this. Obi-Wan told me a little about it. I didn't know you could talk in people's heads. This is wizard! I didn't mean to interrupt you and Master Qui-Gon, though.
Quite all right. ...I probably should have thought to mention this before now. Dooku sounded vaguely apologetic. And also still surprised.
I think I sort of felt something before, but I never knew it was you.
Well... here I am. A pause. If I may ask, how did you and Obi-Wan arrive at the subject of psychic communication?
He didn't say anything about talking to you. He just said he could tell you and Master Qui-Gon were dueling, and I asked him how he knew. He said I could feel where you were through our bond. I know you'd talked about a bonding, but I didn't know you meant there was actually something there.
Ah. Yes, there is. A hint of a smile, maybe. Anakin didn't sense lightsabers anymore. Although even with a close connection, actually 'talking' can be something of a challenge.
...Does that mean I should stop?
Dooku's laugh felt even nicer than it sounded. No, Padawan, I just wanted to let you know you'd done well at something that is not always easy.
Bright joy burst through Anakin's mind. Thank you, Master!
Dooku blinked, slightly dazzled. More so given Anakin's earlier reaction to him. You're welcome!
...I'll try to do better, Master. I'm sorry I yelled at you.
I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be looking for me.
I'm sorry.
Thank you. A pause. Are you ready to tell me what prompted it? Because honestly, I'm still entirely at a loss.
...I thought I couldn't do anything right anymore and you didn't want to keep me as your padawan.
...You said as much, yes. Neither is true, and I still don't understand how you got the idea.
Because I haven't done anything right in days! Anakin thought back in despair. I thought I was learning how to do all this, but -- I'll think I've got it right and you just go back to repeating the same thing I've heard ten times! I can learn it, really.
This is hardly the first thing you've done right in days, Dooku said after a moment's shock. You are doing very well, Anakin, and improving rapidly in many areas. A slight pause. You will find that the more you accomplish, the more will be expected of you -- a given level of doing well will begin to be assumed, and corrections or suggestions offered that couldn't even have been addressed before. The thought took on a faintly sheepish air. But I should know better than to assume that's obvious. It wasn't to me, even when I was older than you are.
...You mean you're not saying I'm doing well anymore because...I'm doing so well? Anakin sounded very confused. I don't mind you expecting more, I just....
Not... exactly. I began by explaining a great deal more than I normally would, simply because you wouldn't have had the opportunity to hear most of it before. Ordinarily, I explain what's being done correctly at the start, and later begin to rely on the padawan's sense of the Force for how things feel when they are right, once there's been time to develop a sense of it. Apparently, Dooku added wryly, I've shifted to explaining less, but of the wrong things. ...Although you should know that a great deal of Jedi practice is studied through repetition, because the goal is not only to be aware of and remember it, but to make it a part of you-- Dooku broke off in confusion. Why is that funny?
Obi-Wan said the same thing, that's all. Anakin was grinning, partly out of humor but largely out of sheer relief. He also said you weren't any more used to having a padawan who wasn't trained by the Jedi already than I'm used to all the training.
That's also true, Dooku said. Aside from your specific situation being unusual, I haven't spent much time with the children who are just starting their training at the usual age since I ceased to be one of them.
...So I guess we're doing some learning together, huh?
Oh, yes. I have long believed that there are few experiences more educational than teaching.
It seems like you know everything. A quick grin. But I think I like it better this way. Can I come watch you and Master Qui-Gon duel?
Of course you may. Are you bringing Obi-Wan?
Um....good question. I'll ask him. Anakin blinked and finally focused on Obi-Wan again, noticing the Knight was looking at him a little oddly. "Sorry. Just talking to Master Dooku. I'm going to go watch them practice. Want to come?"
"Certainly." Obi-Wan rose smoothly. Very little dirt clung to him from the garden. This seemed to be a feature of Jedi clothing, and Anakin looked forward to finding out whether it worked on engine lubricants.
Qui-Gon and Dooku had resumed their practice by the time Anakin and Obi-Wan arrived. The fighters acknowledged their spectators -- Dooku with a brief nod, Qui-Gon with a wink and a grin -- but otherwise remained engrossed in swordplay. Their lightsabers crackled and threw off sparks and the odor of ozone as they crossed again and again. Dooku barely seemed to be moving, yet his lightsaber was always in exactly the right place to meet Qui-Gon's. Anakin could barely keep his eyes off them as he settled down by the wall. Lightsabers were one of the best parts of being a Jedi, he had already decided firmly. He couldn't wait to learn how to use one the way Dooku could.
Anakin yelped and then clapped when one of Qui-Gon's flips ended with a graceful landing and his lightsaber flying off to the side. Obi-Wan caught the extinguished hilt and tossed it back. "Wizard," Anakin breathed.
Obi-Wan glanced down at him. "You know," he said in amusement, "I always thought that was slang for self-trained Force-users the Jedi had never picked up."
Anakin blinked at him. "Well, I guess that means they'd be able to do really wizard things, wouldn't it?"
Obi-Wan looked as if this logic didn't entirely convince him, but said, "Perhaps so."
"When do you start learning how to use a lightsaber?" Anakin asked eagerly, watching the sparring match with shining eyes.
"Ah...fairly early. It may be a little longer for you, with the catching up you have to do. But it probably won't be much longer."
"It looks like fun."
Dooku laughed. "It is."
Anakin grinned over at him. "Thought so. You're not done already, are you?"
"I am, for the moment," Qui-Gon said, then glanced over with mischief in his eyes. "Although perhaps Obi-Wan could be persuaded to take a turn?"
Obi-Wan looked decidedly intimidated, but he bowed his head and stood. "If Master Dooku wants another partner, I'd be happy to oblige. I'm sure it will be very educational."
Dooku's eyes lit at the same time as his lightsaber blade, and he brought it up, around, and down again to the side in a flourishing salute. "I would be delighted."
Qui-Gon grinned and saluted them both with his water bottle, then walked over to fold down beside Anakin. "Obi-Wan's been sparring a lot since his Knighting," he told the boy as the duelists took their places. "And he was very good before that. This should be fun to watch."
Anakin bounced a little. "You were fun to watch too."
"Thank you. Master Dooku taught me very well. I know he's looking forward to beginning that part of your training."
"Me too!" Anakin watched eagerly as the new duel began -- a rapid exchange of blows, but light. Obi-Wan was jumping around less than Qui-Gon had, though still more than Dooku's casually elegant stillness, and seemed unwilling to go on the attack.
"Obi-Wan's been experimenting," Qui-Gon murmured, "with Form Three -- it's a less acrobatic and more defensive approach to lightsaber work than either of us have been using previously. Actually it's almost entirely defensive; an expert in it is not at much risk of getting hurt, but it takes the principle that a Jedi uses the Force for defense rather than attack to an extreme. I think the ideal end would be, theoretically, for your opponent to collapse in exhaustion." His mouth quirked. "Very few people actually stick to it the entire time. Currently he's flipping back and forth between that and Form Four, which is the one with most of the jumping around."
"Ohhh," Anakin breathed, his eyes wide and watching every move eagerly. "What about the one Master Dooku's using? It's different than either of you used."
"Good eye. That's Form Two, called Makashi. Master Dooku is the unquestioned master of it in the Order. It's the one most suited to lightsaber dueling, which isn't actually something we have much call for outside of practice. Although with a Sith running around again, we may all be brushing up on those skills."
"Is that why he wanted to go to Naboo as soon as you said you might be running into a Sith?"
"Mm. Master Dooku made something of a study of the Sith. He'd been warning for years that they hadn't completely vanished as we all thought. No one believed him. I didn't really believe him until we encountered the one on Tatooine."
"Oh." Anakin watched quietly for a moment. "I guess it's the kind of thing it's not much fun to be right about."
"I think he was certainly hoping to be wrong."
"Is there a reason there has to be another one," Anakin asked, "or is everybody just figuring there is to be careful?"
"Sith tradition... we think. There must always be two -- a master and an apprentice. More than that, and they begin fighting amongst each other -- though this does not make them much less dangerous to the rest of us, when it happens. They nearly destroyed the Republic last time. We believed them to be gone, for about the past thousand years, but there were some hints to the contrary." He sighed. "It follows that if the Sith have actually survived all these years, there would have to be more than one. We might have been lucky and caught them in transition, with only the one, but I doubt it. At any rate, we can't afford to be complacent about it this time."
Anakin dropped his voice almost too quiet to be heard under the clashing blades. "You don't think it's--" He didn't quite want to distract Dooku by saying the name. "The drug queen?"
Qui-Gon let out a breath between his teeth. "It's...possible, I suppose, though even if she has fallen to the Dark, there hasn't been much time for her to have gone to the Sith. Don't mention that theory to Dooku, if you please. We're looking into her, and...well, it's very hard to have lost a padawan to the Dark." Qui-Gon's eyes went shadowed. "Very hard."
Anakin nodded, and huddled a little, and looked back up at the duel. "--Oh!" He let out a little squeak when Dooku, for the first time, left the ground and flipped over Obi-Wan, just brushing the ceiling, and dropped to block Obi-Wan's startled spin.
Qui-Gon chuckled. "He tends to mock the 'foolish jumping around' of Form Four so often that people tend to forget Makashi is hardly an earthbound form itself."
"Ataru is showy," Dooku said without looking over at them. "It's meant to be. It is, admittedly, also useful on very mobile terrain -- as long as you keep track of it -- and if you are, for instance, half the height of most of your opponents and very, very fast."
"That would be Master Yoda," Qui-Gon explained with a grin. "Don't let the cane fool you. He's faster than any of us when he has the mind to be."
"...That's hard to imagine. Why does he use the cane then?"
"That, young padawan," Qui-Gon intoned, though with a mischievious glint in his eyes, "is a mystery of the Force."
"Watch your left elbow," Dooku said, presumably to Obi-Wan. "Not literally, of course."
"In other words," Anakin interpreted with a grin, "you don't know and you don't want to admit it."
Qui-Gon grinned. "I don't mind admitting it. One theory is that he wants the stick at hand to poke people with, although I personally think that's more of a side effect."
"I wouldn't put it past him," Dooku chuckled, making another leap and then getting beneath Obi-Wan's guard to disarm him.
They both stopped and stood back after that. Obi-Wan blew out a breath and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "I thought I was in shape. I need to spar with you more while you're on planet."
"You need to let the Living Force support you," Dooku said, "but I certainly won't object to your suggestion."
"Can I watch if you do?" Anakin asked eagerly.
Dooku shut off his lightsaber and bowed to Obi-Wan, then cast his apprentice a lazy grin. "Perhaps we should start your own training, Padawan."
"Can we?"
"Of course we can." Dooku walked toward him. "I've been waiting until your background training was a little more caught up, but we can start with some of the basic forms."
Anakin bounced to his feet. "Wizard!"
"You'll need a training 'saber."
Anakin deflated a little at the delay, but then Dooku reached inside his robe and pulled out a small silver handle dwarfed by his hands. He held it out to Anakin with a smile. "I requisitioned one yesterday."
Anakin practically glowed. He turned the handle all around once and then pointed the emitter off to the side, bouncing a little on his toes at the brilliant white streak of light that extended from it.
"The first thing to remember, Padawan," Dooku said very seriously, "is that a lightsaber is not a toy. Nor is it merely a tool or a weapon. Your lightsaber is, quite simply, your life. It marks you as a Jedi to all who see it. If you dishonor it, you dishonor yourself as a Jedi, and all other Jedi. Do you understand?"
Anakin looked up, wide-eyed, and nodded.
"Good." Dooku stepped back. "We'll begin with the foundations of Form One."
It took well over an hour for Anakin to realize his arms were getting tired.
*****
Chapter 3
Authors: Persephone_Kore and Dreagoddess
Timeframe: Post-TPM
Characters: Anakin, Dooku, others
Genre: General, AU
Keywords: Dooku, Anakin, training
Summary: Sequel to "Protégé: Chosen." Dooku and Anakin begin learning to deal with one another, and Anakin meets the unexpected while seeking his lightsaber crystal in the caves of Ilum.
Notes: Anakin's early issues with gymnastics were probably inspired by one of Fernwithy/JediGaladriel's stories.
Previously in series:
Protégé: Chosen
Previous chapters:
1|
Chapter 2
"Hey!" Obi-Wan called out as a body went streaking by him. "Calm yourself, youngling. Is there a fire?" Then he caught sight of the boy's face and smiled. "Ah, Anakin. It's good to see you. I didn't recognize you hurtling through the corridors like that."
"Hi, Obi-Wan." Anakin stopped. Obi-Wan still liked him. At least, he thought so. Or Obi-Wan had started liking him, one of those. "It's good to see you too."
Obi-Wan tilted his head a little and asked, "So where are you off to? Not late to class, are you?"
Anakin shook his head. "No, I... hadn't decided yet." Where had he been going? Most of the time, even with Master Dooku like he was now, his quarters seemed like the safest place to feel anything.
"You were certainly in a hurry for not knowing!" Obi-Wan smiled at him, then offered, "I was on my way to one of the gardens, actually. Have you had a chance to see much of them?"
"A little bit...." Anakin scuffed the floor with one foot. "I haven't really started catching up on... botany... yet." He hoped he'd gotten that word right. Tatooine did have plants, but people didn't talk much about studying them.
"Fortunately, plants are a subject you can enjoy without having to know much about them at all. Would you like to come with me for a little while?" Something about the boy seemed... troubled. Perhaps the peace of the gardens would help.
"Sure," Anakin said. "Thanks." Enjoying someething without having to have learned everything about it already seemed pretty good, really.
"No problem. Come along, then." Obi-Wan continued walking, this time with Anakin trailing in his wake. The boy seemed...subdued somehow. Obi-Wan wondered if he should call in Master Dooku. Well, perhaps a little quiet and friendly conversation was all he needed.
When they entered the gardens, Anakin's eyes lit up. "It's so green."
"Yes." Obi-Wan smiled. The Temple gardens were easy to enjoy, although he would admit that he wasn't quite as fond of some elements of the process (being elbow-deep in dirt and fertilizer, for instance) as Qui-Gon. "I don't know why, but it's about the most common color for foliage across the galaxy. And one of the most commonly viewed as restful." He laughed. "Maybe that's just because most people are inclined to like looking at plants."
"Makes sense," Anakin said, moving in. "Healthy plants means there's stuff to live on... oases...." He frowned. "Somebody told me once Tatooine used to be green, but something happened to it."
"That happens to many planets. Something strikes it, or the sun -- or suns -- grow hotter. Climates change. But life always finds a way to survive." Obi-Wan squeezed Anakin's shoulder and sank down easily to sit amid the greenery, beside an artificial river that curled through the plants and babbled peacefully. Anakin copied the movement, a little more awkwardly.
They sat quietly for a few minutes, and then Anakin said suddenly, "Coruscant's climate must've changed a lot."
"Over the years, yes. It's been a city-planet for centuries now. Everything's so regulated, I don't know how it remembers to be alive anymore. The Temple gardens are some of the only bits of natural life on Coruscant, other than the people."
"I wonder what it was like before it was a city," Anakin said. "Master Dooku says it was a lot smaller, because the buildings are all layered up, only then they dug down inside it too."
"Yes. As more and more people began to live here, they started building higher and higher. No one ever goes to the very lowest depths, not even the Jedi. I don't even know if people still live by the surface."
Anakin was brooding again now, though. He'd reminded himself about Master Dooku. Was he supposed to change as much as Coruscant? Could people even find the surface anymore?
After some moments of silence, Obi-Wan decided that this was not a peaceful silence, and said quietly, "Anakin?"
"I..." Anakin looked fixedly at his hands. "Can Masters...give up padawans after they've taken one?"
"Er... yes, technically, but only in extreme circumstances." Obi-Wan paused. He saw Qui-Gon less than he had when he was still a Padawan, of course, but he still saw him enough to be aware that Qui-Gon and Master Dooku had apparently rather enthusiastically renewed their previous acquaintance, to the point that Obi-Wan was rather at a loss as to why he'd seen so little of Dooku during his own apprenticeship. Both busy, apparently, and there were some strange leftover tensions, but.... At any rate, he certainly hadn't been under the impression that this question should be coming up. "Why?"
"I -- I think Master Dooku wishes he'd taken somebody else. Somebody who wasn't so stupid. I'm not," Anakin said fiercely, fists balling up again, "but he thinks I am! I don't know everything the other younglings do, but I can still learn! But he thinks I'm stupid, just like everyone else does."
Don't draw conclusions too soon, Obi-Wan heard in his head. It was mostly in Qui-Gon's voice, although there was a Yoda-ish tinge to it that garbled the grammatical structure. "That's not the impression I've gotten," Obi-Wan said carefully. "Certainly Qui-Gon and I don't think you're stupid, and I was under the impression Master Dooku was pleased with your progress."
"He -- I thought he was. At first. But...I can't do anything right anymore," Anakin said plaintively. "He used to say I was doing well. But now he just goes off on a lecture again, and he tells me things he's told me ten times! If he didn't think I was too stupid to remember, he wouldn't keep repeating it."
Obi-Wan laughed. "Stars, I hope that's not it. I lost count of how many times Qui-Gon repeated some things to me." He sobered again. "I don't know what kind of things he's repeating, but there are many points about Jedi philosophy that are learned -- even studied -- by repetition. In meditating, you might repeat a thought... say, the Code, or something shorter... again and again, as it sinks in to become a part of you, and you come to understand it better. I've found that very useful. It's not a matter of simply remembering it, but of making it a habit." Obi-Wan's mouth quirked up. "Of course, that means Master Dooku has had about seventy years to get into the habit of repeating himself."
Anakin smiled, just a little. "I -- I didn't used to mind when he repeated stuff, because I still knew I was doing things right. But...I can't even think when the last time he said I did something right was!"
"Well, I seriously doubt you've stopped," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. "Can you feel it in the Force when you've done something well?"
"I -- I don't know. I used to think so, but...it's hard to tell. I could tell I was right when Master Dooku was saying it!"
"Maybe... that would be something to ask him about." Obi-Wan smiled wryly. "I know, that's not exactly a comfortable idea."
Anakin huffed. "Anytime I ask him a question anymore, he just goes off for ten minutes. I know most of what he's saying, and he won't listen to me about what I'm asking!"
"...Oh dear." And how was he supposed to handle this, anyway? He seriously doubted that Dooku was really regretting the decision, and he imagined that Dooku's side of the story would be rather different, but he wasn't sure what to do about Anakin, here and now. "Well, perhaps you can take it as an opportunity to practice patience, and try again at the end. Feeling you can't talk to your Master... does tend to lead to problems."
"He was really nice at first," Anakin said in a small voice. "When everyone else was laughing at me for not knowing things. Makes it worse when he's the one who thinks..."
"I really doubt he thinks you're stupid, or a failure," Obi-Wan said firmly. "He knows very well that you're getting something of a late start... but I don't suppose he's taught anyone who hadn't already been a Jedi for several years before, either. There would be things he's still figuring out about that, too."
"...But Master Dooku knows everything."
"He knows a great deal about being a Jedi," Obi-Wan said, "but I'm fairly sure he doesn't know quite everything. For instance, he says he used to leave a lot of engine work to Master Qui-Gon." He reached out automatically toward the place in his mind with the old bond, casting out from there, and though it was fainter than before, into his mind trickled... a clash of lightsabers? His eyes widened slightly. "They're dueling."
"Master Dooku and Master Qui-Gon?" Anakin blinked. "But -- why? And how do you know that?"
"Ah... for practice, I assume. And...." Obi-Wan paused. "The mental bond between Master and Padawan is said to be 'severed' at Knighthood, but it's more... loosened, really, than broken. Like the relationship it's part of. I can still find Qui-Gon in the Force more readily than most other Jedi, out of long practice."
Anakin blinked. "You mean I could find Master Dooku like that?"
"Probably. I gather you haven't tried it before?"
Anakin shook his head wordlessly, his eyes wide. "That would be wizard, though."
"All right." Obi-Wan leaned forward slightly. "You know what he feels like in the Force when he's near you, don't you? Reach for the bond to him..." Perhaps Dooku hadn't gotten around to talking about the bond yet? "The part of your mind that feels the most that way," he continued smoothly. "And that should help you to find him."
Anakin bit his lip and thought real hard. He used the Force mostly around Dooku, when they were meditating or Dooku was trying to teach him to do something. There was always this sense of something...solid, like a wall he could shelter behind or lean against, whichever he needed at the time. He didn't remember really feeling that when he was using the Force anywhere else, and he knew he hadn't felt it back when he was just using the Force to podrace. Maybe that's what Obi-Wan was talking about?
He reached out tentatively with his mind, a little clumsily. He was used to touching the Force by now, but not feeling around inside his own head. For just a moment, he could hear the clash of lightsabers and smell the slight hint of ozone. Then there was a rush of surprise that threw him off balance. He lost the connection and found himself blinking at Obi-Wan from half on the ground. "...That was weird."
Obi-Wan was half up on his knees, looking mildly alarmed, but settled back down again. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah. I -- I could tell there were lightsabers. I couldn't tell anything else."
"It doesn't usually involve falling over," Obi-Wan said. "Was something wrong?"
"There was, um...It felt like being really surprised, and then I lost my balance." And now he was feeling worried for no reason, the oddest feeling just kind of sweeping over him and poking around. What was happening to him? Why would he be poking around his own -- Anakin stopped and blinked. "Obi-Wan, can -- Master Dooku can use the bond like that too, can't he? And...would you be able to feel someone on the other end?"
"Yes," Obi-Wan said. Apparently Dooku really had completely overlooked this topic. Granted, some master-padawan pairs barely used the bond at all, to the point of its being practically nonexistent, and it had taken some time for his bond to Qui-Gon to strengthen, but.... He bit down on a smile. "I suppose if you haven't done much with it before, perhaps having you pop up, mentally, during a lightsaber duel was something of a surprise for him...."
Anakin grinned. "I guess that would do it." He tried reaching out to the wall again, reassuringly. Fine, see? Sorry.
A hint of surprise again, then... words. I wasn't expecting to hear from you. There were feelings around the words, too. Not just the surprise. Some happiness, and... relief?
Anakin's eyes widened. He concentrated very hard on forming the words in his head, not sure exactly how to do this. Obi-Wan told me a little about it. I didn't know you could talk in people's heads. This is wizard! I didn't mean to interrupt you and Master Qui-Gon, though.
Quite all right. ...I probably should have thought to mention this before now. Dooku sounded vaguely apologetic. And also still surprised.
I think I sort of felt something before, but I never knew it was you.
Well... here I am. A pause. If I may ask, how did you and Obi-Wan arrive at the subject of psychic communication?
He didn't say anything about talking to you. He just said he could tell you and Master Qui-Gon were dueling, and I asked him how he knew. He said I could feel where you were through our bond. I know you'd talked about a bonding, but I didn't know you meant there was actually something there.
Ah. Yes, there is. A hint of a smile, maybe. Anakin didn't sense lightsabers anymore. Although even with a close connection, actually 'talking' can be something of a challenge.
...Does that mean I should stop?
Dooku's laugh felt even nicer than it sounded. No, Padawan, I just wanted to let you know you'd done well at something that is not always easy.
Bright joy burst through Anakin's mind. Thank you, Master!
Dooku blinked, slightly dazzled. More so given Anakin's earlier reaction to him. You're welcome!
...I'll try to do better, Master. I'm sorry I yelled at you.
I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be looking for me.
I'm sorry.
Thank you. A pause. Are you ready to tell me what prompted it? Because honestly, I'm still entirely at a loss.
...I thought I couldn't do anything right anymore and you didn't want to keep me as your padawan.
...You said as much, yes. Neither is true, and I still don't understand how you got the idea.
Because I haven't done anything right in days! Anakin thought back in despair. I thought I was learning how to do all this, but -- I'll think I've got it right and you just go back to repeating the same thing I've heard ten times! I can learn it, really.
This is hardly the first thing you've done right in days, Dooku said after a moment's shock. You are doing very well, Anakin, and improving rapidly in many areas. A slight pause. You will find that the more you accomplish, the more will be expected of you -- a given level of doing well will begin to be assumed, and corrections or suggestions offered that couldn't even have been addressed before. The thought took on a faintly sheepish air. But I should know better than to assume that's obvious. It wasn't to me, even when I was older than you are.
...You mean you're not saying I'm doing well anymore because...I'm doing so well? Anakin sounded very confused. I don't mind you expecting more, I just....
Not... exactly. I began by explaining a great deal more than I normally would, simply because you wouldn't have had the opportunity to hear most of it before. Ordinarily, I explain what's being done correctly at the start, and later begin to rely on the padawan's sense of the Force for how things feel when they are right, once there's been time to develop a sense of it. Apparently, Dooku added wryly, I've shifted to explaining less, but of the wrong things. ...Although you should know that a great deal of Jedi practice is studied through repetition, because the goal is not only to be aware of and remember it, but to make it a part of you-- Dooku broke off in confusion. Why is that funny?
Obi-Wan said the same thing, that's all. Anakin was grinning, partly out of humor but largely out of sheer relief. He also said you weren't any more used to having a padawan who wasn't trained by the Jedi already than I'm used to all the training.
That's also true, Dooku said. Aside from your specific situation being unusual, I haven't spent much time with the children who are just starting their training at the usual age since I ceased to be one of them.
...So I guess we're doing some learning together, huh?
Oh, yes. I have long believed that there are few experiences more educational than teaching.
It seems like you know everything. A quick grin. But I think I like it better this way. Can I come watch you and Master Qui-Gon duel?
Of course you may. Are you bringing Obi-Wan?
Um....good question. I'll ask him. Anakin blinked and finally focused on Obi-Wan again, noticing the Knight was looking at him a little oddly. "Sorry. Just talking to Master Dooku. I'm going to go watch them practice. Want to come?"
"Certainly." Obi-Wan rose smoothly. Very little dirt clung to him from the garden. This seemed to be a feature of Jedi clothing, and Anakin looked forward to finding out whether it worked on engine lubricants.
Qui-Gon and Dooku had resumed their practice by the time Anakin and Obi-Wan arrived. The fighters acknowledged their spectators -- Dooku with a brief nod, Qui-Gon with a wink and a grin -- but otherwise remained engrossed in swordplay. Their lightsabers crackled and threw off sparks and the odor of ozone as they crossed again and again. Dooku barely seemed to be moving, yet his lightsaber was always in exactly the right place to meet Qui-Gon's. Anakin could barely keep his eyes off them as he settled down by the wall. Lightsabers were one of the best parts of being a Jedi, he had already decided firmly. He couldn't wait to learn how to use one the way Dooku could.
Anakin yelped and then clapped when one of Qui-Gon's flips ended with a graceful landing and his lightsaber flying off to the side. Obi-Wan caught the extinguished hilt and tossed it back. "Wizard," Anakin breathed.
Obi-Wan glanced down at him. "You know," he said in amusement, "I always thought that was slang for self-trained Force-users the Jedi had never picked up."
Anakin blinked at him. "Well, I guess that means they'd be able to do really wizard things, wouldn't it?"
Obi-Wan looked as if this logic didn't entirely convince him, but said, "Perhaps so."
"When do you start learning how to use a lightsaber?" Anakin asked eagerly, watching the sparring match with shining eyes.
"Ah...fairly early. It may be a little longer for you, with the catching up you have to do. But it probably won't be much longer."
"It looks like fun."
Dooku laughed. "It is."
Anakin grinned over at him. "Thought so. You're not done already, are you?"
"I am, for the moment," Qui-Gon said, then glanced over with mischief in his eyes. "Although perhaps Obi-Wan could be persuaded to take a turn?"
Obi-Wan looked decidedly intimidated, but he bowed his head and stood. "If Master Dooku wants another partner, I'd be happy to oblige. I'm sure it will be very educational."
Dooku's eyes lit at the same time as his lightsaber blade, and he brought it up, around, and down again to the side in a flourishing salute. "I would be delighted."
Qui-Gon grinned and saluted them both with his water bottle, then walked over to fold down beside Anakin. "Obi-Wan's been sparring a lot since his Knighting," he told the boy as the duelists took their places. "And he was very good before that. This should be fun to watch."
Anakin bounced a little. "You were fun to watch too."
"Thank you. Master Dooku taught me very well. I know he's looking forward to beginning that part of your training."
"Me too!" Anakin watched eagerly as the new duel began -- a rapid exchange of blows, but light. Obi-Wan was jumping around less than Qui-Gon had, though still more than Dooku's casually elegant stillness, and seemed unwilling to go on the attack.
"Obi-Wan's been experimenting," Qui-Gon murmured, "with Form Three -- it's a less acrobatic and more defensive approach to lightsaber work than either of us have been using previously. Actually it's almost entirely defensive; an expert in it is not at much risk of getting hurt, but it takes the principle that a Jedi uses the Force for defense rather than attack to an extreme. I think the ideal end would be, theoretically, for your opponent to collapse in exhaustion." His mouth quirked. "Very few people actually stick to it the entire time. Currently he's flipping back and forth between that and Form Four, which is the one with most of the jumping around."
"Ohhh," Anakin breathed, his eyes wide and watching every move eagerly. "What about the one Master Dooku's using? It's different than either of you used."
"Good eye. That's Form Two, called Makashi. Master Dooku is the unquestioned master of it in the Order. It's the one most suited to lightsaber dueling, which isn't actually something we have much call for outside of practice. Although with a Sith running around again, we may all be brushing up on those skills."
"Is that why he wanted to go to Naboo as soon as you said you might be running into a Sith?"
"Mm. Master Dooku made something of a study of the Sith. He'd been warning for years that they hadn't completely vanished as we all thought. No one believed him. I didn't really believe him until we encountered the one on Tatooine."
"Oh." Anakin watched quietly for a moment. "I guess it's the kind of thing it's not much fun to be right about."
"I think he was certainly hoping to be wrong."
"Is there a reason there has to be another one," Anakin asked, "or is everybody just figuring there is to be careful?"
"Sith tradition... we think. There must always be two -- a master and an apprentice. More than that, and they begin fighting amongst each other -- though this does not make them much less dangerous to the rest of us, when it happens. They nearly destroyed the Republic last time. We believed them to be gone, for about the past thousand years, but there were some hints to the contrary." He sighed. "It follows that if the Sith have actually survived all these years, there would have to be more than one. We might have been lucky and caught them in transition, with only the one, but I doubt it. At any rate, we can't afford to be complacent about it this time."
Anakin dropped his voice almost too quiet to be heard under the clashing blades. "You don't think it's--" He didn't quite want to distract Dooku by saying the name. "The drug queen?"
Qui-Gon let out a breath between his teeth. "It's...possible, I suppose, though even if she has fallen to the Dark, there hasn't been much time for her to have gone to the Sith. Don't mention that theory to Dooku, if you please. We're looking into her, and...well, it's very hard to have lost a padawan to the Dark." Qui-Gon's eyes went shadowed. "Very hard."
Anakin nodded, and huddled a little, and looked back up at the duel. "--Oh!" He let out a little squeak when Dooku, for the first time, left the ground and flipped over Obi-Wan, just brushing the ceiling, and dropped to block Obi-Wan's startled spin.
Qui-Gon chuckled. "He tends to mock the 'foolish jumping around' of Form Four so often that people tend to forget Makashi is hardly an earthbound form itself."
"Ataru is showy," Dooku said without looking over at them. "It's meant to be. It is, admittedly, also useful on very mobile terrain -- as long as you keep track of it -- and if you are, for instance, half the height of most of your opponents and very, very fast."
"That would be Master Yoda," Qui-Gon explained with a grin. "Don't let the cane fool you. He's faster than any of us when he has the mind to be."
"...That's hard to imagine. Why does he use the cane then?"
"That, young padawan," Qui-Gon intoned, though with a mischievious glint in his eyes, "is a mystery of the Force."
"Watch your left elbow," Dooku said, presumably to Obi-Wan. "Not literally, of course."
"In other words," Anakin interpreted with a grin, "you don't know and you don't want to admit it."
Qui-Gon grinned. "I don't mind admitting it. One theory is that he wants the stick at hand to poke people with, although I personally think that's more of a side effect."
"I wouldn't put it past him," Dooku chuckled, making another leap and then getting beneath Obi-Wan's guard to disarm him.
They both stopped and stood back after that. Obi-Wan blew out a breath and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "I thought I was in shape. I need to spar with you more while you're on planet."
"You need to let the Living Force support you," Dooku said, "but I certainly won't object to your suggestion."
"Can I watch if you do?" Anakin asked eagerly.
Dooku shut off his lightsaber and bowed to Obi-Wan, then cast his apprentice a lazy grin. "Perhaps we should start your own training, Padawan."
"Can we?"
"Of course we can." Dooku walked toward him. "I've been waiting until your background training was a little more caught up, but we can start with some of the basic forms."
Anakin bounced to his feet. "Wizard!"
"You'll need a training 'saber."
Anakin deflated a little at the delay, but then Dooku reached inside his robe and pulled out a small silver handle dwarfed by his hands. He held it out to Anakin with a smile. "I requisitioned one yesterday."
Anakin practically glowed. He turned the handle all around once and then pointed the emitter off to the side, bouncing a little on his toes at the brilliant white streak of light that extended from it.
"The first thing to remember, Padawan," Dooku said very seriously, "is that a lightsaber is not a toy. Nor is it merely a tool or a weapon. Your lightsaber is, quite simply, your life. It marks you as a Jedi to all who see it. If you dishonor it, you dishonor yourself as a Jedi, and all other Jedi. Do you understand?"
Anakin looked up, wide-eyed, and nodded.
"Good." Dooku stepped back. "We'll begin with the foundations of Form One."
It took well over an hour for Anakin to realize his arms were getting tired.
*****
Chapter 3