Protégé: Padawans - Chapter 3 (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| 2|
Chapter 3
Neither master nor apprentice liked tearing their lessons away from lightsabers after that, even if both realized it was necessary. Dooku quickly realized that in Anakin he'd found a true student of the art of lightsabers. The boy was insatiable, learning everything he could with startling swiftness and always wanting to know more. He studied the forms tirelessly, and his young body bounced around the sparring rooms with endless energy and surprising patience. Dooku learned that for any other lesson he needed Anakin to focus on, he merely needed to find a way to relate it to lightsabers and the boy would memorize it almost instantly.
It was sooner than he'd planned, therefore, that he arranged for a ship to take his new padawan to Ilum so the boy could craft a lightsaber of his own. He didn't think Anakin managed to sleep or even breathe on the journey there, so occupied was he in reciting everything the older padawans had told him about the trip and wondering aloud what he would face there.
Finally Dooku, hiding his chuckles behind the Master's stern mask, made the boy sit in silent meditation for the remainder of the journey. He cast a look over his shoulder at his quiet but not peaceful apprentice as they touched down gently on the landing pad. "You may speak now, Padawan."
Anakin bounced to his feet first, coming eagerly up beside Dooku. "It's so pretty! Wow, it really is cold, isn't it?"
Dooku glanced at the external temperature readings. "You'll want to dress warmly when you go into the caves, yes."
Anakin shivered. "Yuck. Okay." He ducked to the back of the ship to change. When he emerged, wrapping his warmest cloak tightly around him, he announced, "I'm ready, Master!" He swallowed, looking excited and nervous at once. "Are you going to come any of the way with me?"
"I will take you to the mouth of the cave," Dooku said. "The inward journey is yours to make."
And he'd be "tested" inside, although no one had said very much about what the testing entailed. Anakin swallowed and tried not to look nervous. "I'm ready."
...He thought. His first real test as a Jedi.
"Yes, you are," Dooku said. He paused and deliberately reached over to squeeze Anakin's shoulder. He was, if anything, less physically demonstrative than even many Jedi, but Anakin was vastly more so.
Anakin smiled up at him. "Thanks." He bounced a little on his toes again. "Let's get going! The sooner I get out of that cold, the better!"
"You can draw on the Force to help warm you," Dooku advised him, "though I believe you're dressed warmly enough that you shouldn't be in any danger if you don't." He led Anakin out of the ship and up toward the mouth of the caves. "I will wait for you here."
Anakin nodded wordlessly and took a deep breath before walking away. He kept his eyes trained on the cave mouth as he stepped forward carefully, minding his footing on the icy ground. The stories of the older padawans raced through his head. He thought they'd mostly been trying to scare him with their stories of vicious beasts and hallucinations, but you could never be too careful.
He let out a little breath of wonder as he entered the cave itself. There was a long and winding pathway down, but he could see the brilliant blue and green sparkle of the crystals, glowing as if lit by the suns even though he couldn't see any hint of natural light reaching the cavern. But it wasn't the sight of the crystals that moved him. It was the feel, the rich symphony that flooded into his newly developed sensitivity to the Force. Each and every crystal here was a pure channel to the Force and resonated with it.
Anakin was grinning as he started down the winding path.
Then he was screaming as something pushed him off it and sent him tumbling to the cavern floor below.
He landed hard, but tucked up and went limp and rolled, and he felt, actually, a little as if the cave had caught him. But there was something else here that hated him, like he didn't think anybody before had hated him, even Sebulba who had maybe come close. It was beating at him, like a sandstorm, like the sun in the heat of the day, burning and scouring and he didn't know why.
The source of the hate loomed up at him, a tall slender shadow against the brilliance of the crystals. Anakin rolled over and scrabbled backward. A woman's voice said, "So you're the brat."
He had to fumble for the bond now, hard to reach in the panic and the hatred beating down on him. I don't think this is supposed to happen! "I wasn't doing anything," he protested. "I just came for a crystal. This is a Jedi-protected planet."
He saw the gleam of light on teeth, a knife of a smile. "I've been here before. I don't see any protection."
"I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm allowed to be here. Who are you?"
The voice started off syrupy sweet and then dipped into sharp gravel. "Didn't your Master tell you about me?"
Was this part of the challenge after all? Was this the test he was supposed to face? Maybe it was all a vision or -- or someone who attacked all the new padawans to see if they were worthy. Anakin swallowed and scrambled to his feet. "He told me about a lot of people."
"I am someone he might have preferred to leave out." There was a hiss, and first one bloody-red streak of light and then another grew up, crossing over her chest and illuminating her face unpleasantly from below.
The only red lightsaber he'd seen before had been in the hands of the Sith on Tatooine and Naboo. Anakin swallowed uncomfortably, his heart racing. It was just a vision, he told himself. Just something drawn from his memories to test him. That was all. It wasn't real. "Then tell me who you are."
"The padawan he gave up on," she hissed.
"...Komari Vosa?" Anakin whispered. She surely wouldn't be here. Why would she be on Ilum when she was supposed to be in charge of a drug cult half a galaxy away? This had to be a test, that was it. He couldn't call out to Dooku, not if it meant failing his first test as a Jedi!
"So you do know of me," she whispered. "I'm surprised." That slow smile again. "This will be all the more fun."
"I know you were his padawan. I know you went Dark, and I know you run a drug cult now. He didn't tell me the last part. I told him. He thought you were dead. He was pretty upset about it."
"Hm. He might have come looking. But then I didn't matter by that point." Her head tilted a little. "I knew you came from an unusual background, little brat, but I didn't guess you'd know of me in my... newer role."
All right, if this was a vision, it was a really annoying one. "My name is Anakin, and I'm not a brat!"
"Anakin, then." She was laughing. "My little replacement."
She was making his skin crawl. "You can't be mad at me for being Master Dooku's padawan. You were already long gone by then. It's not like he gave you up for me."
"He seems to have been eager enough for a replacement," she spat. "How long do you think it will be before he gives up on you?"
"He won't!" Anakin said fiercely. If this was the test, he knew he'd pass it. "He said he won't, not ever, not as long as I keep wanting to learn and be a Jedi."
"Yes, well, he promised not to give up on me once, too. This is boring." The lightsabers switched off, and while Anakin was blinking in the changed lighting something screamed along his nerves saying needle. He reached back with the Force and squeezed. He didn't exactly feel anything, but there was a small, sharp shattering sound and a tiny splash.
And a growl. And then the lightsabers back and sweeping down toward him, and Anakin stumbled back, bringing his arms up, crossed like the blades, to shield his face and neck and chest. Away--! There was an instant of searing pain, and then he caught on the song of the crystals and the red blades and their shadow were flying back--
To be stared at in momentary astonishment by the newest occupant of the cave, who had practically hurtled himself at the cavern opening and bypassed the winding paths in favor of a much swifter route, though one likely to be fatal if someone tried it without the ability to use the Force to control his fall. The blue glow of his lightsaber lit Dooku's face as he landed a few feet away. Not taking his eyes off where Komari landed, he asked in a low, tightly controlled voice, "Are you all right, Padawan?"
"Oh, I'm just wonderful," Komari snarled, leaping back to her feet and lighting both lightsabers with a snap-hiss. "But you were probably talking to your new brat, weren't you, Master?"
Anakin stumbled and fell. So... maybe not the test after all? "I'm okay," he said. Although his arms hurt. But they were still attached, so that was good.
Dooku's cloak fluttered next to him. "I was speaking to my current Padawan," he said levelly. "Komari, what are you doing here?"
"I heard you'd replaced me," she spat. "Didn't take you very long, did it? I wanted to give him a proper welcome."
"Somehow I don't think you mean Qui-Gon's blasted 'care and feeding' talk," Dooku said drily.
"No, you obviously don't care how good of a padawan you have. You just adopt the first pathetic little starveling that comes your way."
"Hey!"
Dooku glanced briefly toward Anakin at the outburst. "Actually, I'm very pleased with him. And I do not appreciate your trying to kill him." He shook his head. "Komari, you made your choice."
"You didn't give me a choice!" she snarled. "You cast me aside and you abandoned me!"
"You chose," Dooku said, "to refuse to learn when I was still training you."
"You questioned the Council and the Code with every breath! Why shouldn't I have done the same? Did I deserve to be left to die for what you taught me? Tell me that, Master. And now you face me, so self-righteous, so sure the perfect Master Dooku could never fallen, that you would never have given in. Given in! Do you even know what they did to me, Master? Do you even care?"
Stalking around them slowly, her blades casting a bloody glow on the cavern, she told him. In exquisite, loving detail, she described her capture, her torment. Every wound, every drug, every needle, every agony. "And if you think you've chosen so much better this time," she finished in a hiss, "we'll just see how your precious new padawan deals with the same thing."
Dooku had circled carefully to face her, caught by the horror, but aware of every footfall and where she was in relation to the path, to the crystals, to the cliffs, and most particularly to Anakin. He wasn't letting Anakin out of reach. (Granted, Anakin had not been the one being thrown through the air when he arrived, but still.) "To question is important," Dooku said, "to defy, sometimes necessary. But it seems that I failed you very deeply indeed if I never taught you to distinguish the essence of being a Jedi from the... political trappings." His voice dropped, very soft, whispering along the facets. "I did not leave you to die, Komari. I ended your training. I failed, one more time, in not watching against the possibility that you would do something rash. The few who came back from that mission believed you were dead, and when I searched I could not find you anymore." A short pause, and a sharp movement of his blade. "But you will not be allowed to harm Anakin."
A predatory smile. "Do you really think you're going to stop me?"
And she leapt at him, both blades flashing.
Dooku's blade arced, he pivoted and pushed, and Komari gave a strangled scream as she skidded off the level ground and down a steep slope, crystals dislodging under her feet and tumbling --
--down off the overhang and into deep darkness with only a faint turquoise glimmer. Komari dug her elbows in and flipped, rolling upward with both blades still tightly gripped. A second shove forced her to lose both of them to grab for support before Dooku, towering over her and braced on the slope, pinned her hands and wrists with the Force against rocks that had been loose and sliding a moment before.
"Actually," he said, "yes."
She struggled to free her hands. "You won't even face me honestly? You're getting old. What are you planning to do now, take me back to the Temple and mouth platitudes at me until you bore me to death?"
"I'm afraid," Dooku said icily, "I don't have time for that."
"Then kill me." She smirked up at him. "Show your new brat what you really are."
"I don't think I need to. Get up. I do not," he added, his eyes flicking briefly past her at two small objects rising through the air, "advise jumping down to try to reach your lightsabers -- or to run away."
"I assure you, I have no desire to run away," she hissed. He felt a malevolent stirring in the air, and then Anakin made a strangled noise as she struck him with the fury of the Dark Side.
Dooku reached down and cracked her head hard against the stone, then hauled her up to drop her on the path on his way to Anakin.
He knelt at the boy's side. Anakin had fallen and half-curled, shaking. "M-Master...."
"She's unconscious." Dooku stripped off his cloak and wrapped it around Anakin, and then realized that he wasn't going to let go. His mind flickered out through the Force and along the bond, and he had to stop and calm himself and let go of the anxiety so his perceptions would be accurate. "I apologize. I wasn't careful enough."
Anakin huddled against his chest. "I thought she was the test."
Dooku sighed, his breath clouding out in the cold air. "Unfortunately, when I first sensed you were unsettled, so did I. Although you appear to have handled--" He broke off as he sensed the streaked burns on Anakin's hands and arms. They weren't serious, exactly; they were only light, and of course the chill of the caves meant that the heat hadn't stayed in them too long, but-- "Anakin," he said in a somewhat strangled tone, "exactly what happened right before I got here?"
"She -- she tripped me when I was coming down the path." Anakin rubbed gloved hands together, against the chill of the caves and the chill inside him. "She...talked for a while. Then I -- I sensed something, like a needle. I pushed back and something fell." He gestured vaguely without looking up. "Then she jumped at me with her 'sabers lit and...I pushed back too." A short, sharp shrug. "Then you got here."
Dooku let out a long breath. "You saved yourself twice, then." He looked down, tucking Anakin closer against him. "In case you weren't aware of this," he added, "deflecting lightsaber blades without a lightsaber of your own is decidedly impressive."
Anakin sniffed. He thought it was from the cold. Not crying. "I still need to find a crystal...."
Later. We can come back later. Don't make me let go yet. But Dooku managed to almost smile and ruffled Anakin's spiky hair, touching the padawan braid lightly. "I would say you have passed any test that would be required of you, Padawan." He forced himself to let go and set Anakin on his feet again. "Listen to the Force. You know which one is yours."
Anakin drew in a shaky breath and closed his eyes, looking around. "What do I do if it's one of the ones she knocked over the cliff?" he asked, trying to make a joke of it.
"Call it to you," Dooku said. "Or there's a path that leads there, if you prefer."
Call it to him. There was an idea. Anakin wasn't entirely sure if he trusted his legs right now. Just standing was hard enough. Walking...and what if he walked all over the cavern and still couldn't find it? At least this would be quick. He closed his eyes and reached out to the Force. He felt a bright spark that seemed to have been calling to him since he came into the caves, if he hadn't been too busy to hear it. It made him smile, and suddenly his arms didn't ache quite so much.
Anakin opened his eyes and looked down at the bright blue crystal in his hands, the exact shade of the sky the last time he'd seen it on Tatooine.
Dooku blinked and slowly smiled. "Well done, Padawan," he said softly. "Very well done. Let's go."
Anakin closed his fist around the crystal and looked over at where Komari sprawled on the ground. "A-are you going to kill her?"
"No. It is not the Jedi way to kill a helpless... or even simply unarmed... opponent -- and I would not have liked to kill her even if I had been unable to defeat her otherwise." Sometimes there was no better choice, if you were in a particularly bad situation. Strength permitted mercy. "I plan to keep her unconscious while we return to the Temple and arrange custody."
Anakin closed his eyes and lowered his head miserably. "...I'm sorry I made you come in after me."
Dooku looked down at him in astonishment. "Anakin, you were ambushed. And doing remarkably well when I arrived."
"...I hurt my arms. The other padawans are going to laugh at me when we get back to the Temple."
"Anakin," Dooku said, "your arms are burnt because she hit them with a lightsaber. Ordinarily this would have cut them off."
"...I guess." Anakin shrugged. "Should we go now? It's cold."
"Anakin...." Dooku collected the shattered injector and scooped Anakin up, lifting Komari into the air at a distance with a flick of his fingers. "No one has any reason to laugh at you. And your arms will probably be healed by the time we get back."
They hurt, but Anakin didn't want to say anything. And anyway, the crystal was still glowing in his heart and making everything better. "Thank you, Master." He frowned downward. "I can walk."
"I'm sure you can. Indulge me." Dooku drew on the Force, which was running very strong here, and jumped. Crystals sparked and clattered under his boots when he landed a considerable distance upward.
Anakin twisted a little so he could see Komari's limp form following them obediently. "What's going to hapen to her when we get back to the Temple?"
"That... will depend, to some degree, on her. She's undoubtedly wanted as a criminal, but the Temple may be the only place that can safely hold her."
"...She said you were going to get tired of me and give me up. I didn't believe her."
"Good."
Anakin shivered as they left the caves and hit the full force of the winds outside. "Can we go to a warm planet next?"
"We're going back to Coruscant first. I'll see what I can do about warm."
"Thanks." Anakin gave up talking and just huddled against his Master's chest the rest of the way back to the ship.
Dooku set Anakin down on a chair in the ship's lounge when they reached it, tucking the edges of the cloak in around him. "Wait here a moment." He took Komari to the small infirmary and laid her on the bed, carefully arranging the life support systems to deliver a constant sedative that would keep her out of trouble the trip back to Coruscant. Then he retrieved some bacta and bandages and went back to see to his padawan. "Let me see your arms."
Anakin held them out, biting his lip a little. Dooku eased the gloves off and the sleeves away carefully, reaching along the bond to soothe the pain as he cleaned the burns. He held the still-packaged bacta between his hands to take some of the chill off. There was a mumbling sensation as the heat began activating the organisms.
Anakin didn't let out a sound as Dooku began spreading bacta very gently over the burns, but his face was very white. Trying to sound cheerful, Dooku told him, "You'll have an easy time of it in the padawan lightsaber competitions now. Most of the younglings get distracted at the first burn, and that's only from training settings."
"Still not really looking forward to it," Anakin said, barely above a whisper.
"Padawan..." Dooku sighed. "Look at me, Padawan." When Anakin reluctantly dragged blue eyes up to meet dark ones, Dooku told him quietly but firmly, "I am proud of you, Anakin."
"But I--"
"I am proud of you," Dooku interrupted firmly. "You faced a trial harsher than you should have had to, and you acquitted yourself very well. Komari might not have been Knighted, but she was a fully trained Jedi otherwise, and I know from experience exactly how good a fighter she is." His voice went just a little rough as he laid a hand by the padawan braid. "You should be dead. I didn't get there in time to make a difference. That was you."
"...I was scared."
"Anakin... so was I."
Anakin's voice wobbled a little as he said, "Are you done with my arms?"
Dooku blinked, vaguely taken aback. "I need to put the bandages on so that the bacta stays in place." He suited action to words, smoothing the protective coverings into place. "...There."
Anakin lurched off the chair to throw his arms around Dooku's neck.
Dooku let out a surprised breath, but his arms came up to hold Anakin securely. Physical affection was not precisely common among the Jedi, even those not as reserved as he, but Anakin had been raised far from the Temple and by a loving mother. Depriving him of the touch he thought of as necessary and proper to a relationship would only make him doubt his Master or question his own worth.
...Or so Dooku told himself as he hugged the boy tightly. It had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his feeling better.
He wasn't sure how long he sat there, Anakin cuddled securely against him, before it finally occurred to him that they really ought to go ahead and get off the planet. Except that Anakin had, by that point, fallen asleep.
Dooku considered this for a moment and then took him along to the cockpit.
Chapter 4
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| 2|
Chapter 3
Neither master nor apprentice liked tearing their lessons away from lightsabers after that, even if both realized it was necessary. Dooku quickly realized that in Anakin he'd found a true student of the art of lightsabers. The boy was insatiable, learning everything he could with startling swiftness and always wanting to know more. He studied the forms tirelessly, and his young body bounced around the sparring rooms with endless energy and surprising patience. Dooku learned that for any other lesson he needed Anakin to focus on, he merely needed to find a way to relate it to lightsabers and the boy would memorize it almost instantly.
It was sooner than he'd planned, therefore, that he arranged for a ship to take his new padawan to Ilum so the boy could craft a lightsaber of his own. He didn't think Anakin managed to sleep or even breathe on the journey there, so occupied was he in reciting everything the older padawans had told him about the trip and wondering aloud what he would face there.
Finally Dooku, hiding his chuckles behind the Master's stern mask, made the boy sit in silent meditation for the remainder of the journey. He cast a look over his shoulder at his quiet but not peaceful apprentice as they touched down gently on the landing pad. "You may speak now, Padawan."
Anakin bounced to his feet first, coming eagerly up beside Dooku. "It's so pretty! Wow, it really is cold, isn't it?"
Dooku glanced at the external temperature readings. "You'll want to dress warmly when you go into the caves, yes."
Anakin shivered. "Yuck. Okay." He ducked to the back of the ship to change. When he emerged, wrapping his warmest cloak tightly around him, he announced, "I'm ready, Master!" He swallowed, looking excited and nervous at once. "Are you going to come any of the way with me?"
"I will take you to the mouth of the cave," Dooku said. "The inward journey is yours to make."
And he'd be "tested" inside, although no one had said very much about what the testing entailed. Anakin swallowed and tried not to look nervous. "I'm ready."
...He thought. His first real test as a Jedi.
"Yes, you are," Dooku said. He paused and deliberately reached over to squeeze Anakin's shoulder. He was, if anything, less physically demonstrative than even many Jedi, but Anakin was vastly more so.
Anakin smiled up at him. "Thanks." He bounced a little on his toes again. "Let's get going! The sooner I get out of that cold, the better!"
"You can draw on the Force to help warm you," Dooku advised him, "though I believe you're dressed warmly enough that you shouldn't be in any danger if you don't." He led Anakin out of the ship and up toward the mouth of the caves. "I will wait for you here."
Anakin nodded wordlessly and took a deep breath before walking away. He kept his eyes trained on the cave mouth as he stepped forward carefully, minding his footing on the icy ground. The stories of the older padawans raced through his head. He thought they'd mostly been trying to scare him with their stories of vicious beasts and hallucinations, but you could never be too careful.
He let out a little breath of wonder as he entered the cave itself. There was a long and winding pathway down, but he could see the brilliant blue and green sparkle of the crystals, glowing as if lit by the suns even though he couldn't see any hint of natural light reaching the cavern. But it wasn't the sight of the crystals that moved him. It was the feel, the rich symphony that flooded into his newly developed sensitivity to the Force. Each and every crystal here was a pure channel to the Force and resonated with it.
Anakin was grinning as he started down the winding path.
Then he was screaming as something pushed him off it and sent him tumbling to the cavern floor below.
He landed hard, but tucked up and went limp and rolled, and he felt, actually, a little as if the cave had caught him. But there was something else here that hated him, like he didn't think anybody before had hated him, even Sebulba who had maybe come close. It was beating at him, like a sandstorm, like the sun in the heat of the day, burning and scouring and he didn't know why.
The source of the hate loomed up at him, a tall slender shadow against the brilliance of the crystals. Anakin rolled over and scrabbled backward. A woman's voice said, "So you're the brat."
He had to fumble for the bond now, hard to reach in the panic and the hatred beating down on him. I don't think this is supposed to happen! "I wasn't doing anything," he protested. "I just came for a crystal. This is a Jedi-protected planet."
He saw the gleam of light on teeth, a knife of a smile. "I've been here before. I don't see any protection."
"I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm allowed to be here. Who are you?"
The voice started off syrupy sweet and then dipped into sharp gravel. "Didn't your Master tell you about me?"
Was this part of the challenge after all? Was this the test he was supposed to face? Maybe it was all a vision or -- or someone who attacked all the new padawans to see if they were worthy. Anakin swallowed and scrambled to his feet. "He told me about a lot of people."
"I am someone he might have preferred to leave out." There was a hiss, and first one bloody-red streak of light and then another grew up, crossing over her chest and illuminating her face unpleasantly from below.
The only red lightsaber he'd seen before had been in the hands of the Sith on Tatooine and Naboo. Anakin swallowed uncomfortably, his heart racing. It was just a vision, he told himself. Just something drawn from his memories to test him. That was all. It wasn't real. "Then tell me who you are."
"The padawan he gave up on," she hissed.
"...Komari Vosa?" Anakin whispered. She surely wouldn't be here. Why would she be on Ilum when she was supposed to be in charge of a drug cult half a galaxy away? This had to be a test, that was it. He couldn't call out to Dooku, not if it meant failing his first test as a Jedi!
"So you do know of me," she whispered. "I'm surprised." That slow smile again. "This will be all the more fun."
"I know you were his padawan. I know you went Dark, and I know you run a drug cult now. He didn't tell me the last part. I told him. He thought you were dead. He was pretty upset about it."
"Hm. He might have come looking. But then I didn't matter by that point." Her head tilted a little. "I knew you came from an unusual background, little brat, but I didn't guess you'd know of me in my... newer role."
All right, if this was a vision, it was a really annoying one. "My name is Anakin, and I'm not a brat!"
"Anakin, then." She was laughing. "My little replacement."
She was making his skin crawl. "You can't be mad at me for being Master Dooku's padawan. You were already long gone by then. It's not like he gave you up for me."
"He seems to have been eager enough for a replacement," she spat. "How long do you think it will be before he gives up on you?"
"He won't!" Anakin said fiercely. If this was the test, he knew he'd pass it. "He said he won't, not ever, not as long as I keep wanting to learn and be a Jedi."
"Yes, well, he promised not to give up on me once, too. This is boring." The lightsabers switched off, and while Anakin was blinking in the changed lighting something screamed along his nerves saying needle. He reached back with the Force and squeezed. He didn't exactly feel anything, but there was a small, sharp shattering sound and a tiny splash.
And a growl. And then the lightsabers back and sweeping down toward him, and Anakin stumbled back, bringing his arms up, crossed like the blades, to shield his face and neck and chest. Away--! There was an instant of searing pain, and then he caught on the song of the crystals and the red blades and their shadow were flying back--
To be stared at in momentary astonishment by the newest occupant of the cave, who had practically hurtled himself at the cavern opening and bypassed the winding paths in favor of a much swifter route, though one likely to be fatal if someone tried it without the ability to use the Force to control his fall. The blue glow of his lightsaber lit Dooku's face as he landed a few feet away. Not taking his eyes off where Komari landed, he asked in a low, tightly controlled voice, "Are you all right, Padawan?"
"Oh, I'm just wonderful," Komari snarled, leaping back to her feet and lighting both lightsabers with a snap-hiss. "But you were probably talking to your new brat, weren't you, Master?"
Anakin stumbled and fell. So... maybe not the test after all? "I'm okay," he said. Although his arms hurt. But they were still attached, so that was good.
Dooku's cloak fluttered next to him. "I was speaking to my current Padawan," he said levelly. "Komari, what are you doing here?"
"I heard you'd replaced me," she spat. "Didn't take you very long, did it? I wanted to give him a proper welcome."
"Somehow I don't think you mean Qui-Gon's blasted 'care and feeding' talk," Dooku said drily.
"No, you obviously don't care how good of a padawan you have. You just adopt the first pathetic little starveling that comes your way."
"Hey!"
Dooku glanced briefly toward Anakin at the outburst. "Actually, I'm very pleased with him. And I do not appreciate your trying to kill him." He shook his head. "Komari, you made your choice."
"You didn't give me a choice!" she snarled. "You cast me aside and you abandoned me!"
"You chose," Dooku said, "to refuse to learn when I was still training you."
"You questioned the Council and the Code with every breath! Why shouldn't I have done the same? Did I deserve to be left to die for what you taught me? Tell me that, Master. And now you face me, so self-righteous, so sure the perfect Master Dooku could never fallen, that you would never have given in. Given in! Do you even know what they did to me, Master? Do you even care?"
Stalking around them slowly, her blades casting a bloody glow on the cavern, she told him. In exquisite, loving detail, she described her capture, her torment. Every wound, every drug, every needle, every agony. "And if you think you've chosen so much better this time," she finished in a hiss, "we'll just see how your precious new padawan deals with the same thing."
Dooku had circled carefully to face her, caught by the horror, but aware of every footfall and where she was in relation to the path, to the crystals, to the cliffs, and most particularly to Anakin. He wasn't letting Anakin out of reach. (Granted, Anakin had not been the one being thrown through the air when he arrived, but still.) "To question is important," Dooku said, "to defy, sometimes necessary. But it seems that I failed you very deeply indeed if I never taught you to distinguish the essence of being a Jedi from the... political trappings." His voice dropped, very soft, whispering along the facets. "I did not leave you to die, Komari. I ended your training. I failed, one more time, in not watching against the possibility that you would do something rash. The few who came back from that mission believed you were dead, and when I searched I could not find you anymore." A short pause, and a sharp movement of his blade. "But you will not be allowed to harm Anakin."
A predatory smile. "Do you really think you're going to stop me?"
And she leapt at him, both blades flashing.
Dooku's blade arced, he pivoted and pushed, and Komari gave a strangled scream as she skidded off the level ground and down a steep slope, crystals dislodging under her feet and tumbling --
--down off the overhang and into deep darkness with only a faint turquoise glimmer. Komari dug her elbows in and flipped, rolling upward with both blades still tightly gripped. A second shove forced her to lose both of them to grab for support before Dooku, towering over her and braced on the slope, pinned her hands and wrists with the Force against rocks that had been loose and sliding a moment before.
"Actually," he said, "yes."
She struggled to free her hands. "You won't even face me honestly? You're getting old. What are you planning to do now, take me back to the Temple and mouth platitudes at me until you bore me to death?"
"I'm afraid," Dooku said icily, "I don't have time for that."
"Then kill me." She smirked up at him. "Show your new brat what you really are."
"I don't think I need to. Get up. I do not," he added, his eyes flicking briefly past her at two small objects rising through the air, "advise jumping down to try to reach your lightsabers -- or to run away."
"I assure you, I have no desire to run away," she hissed. He felt a malevolent stirring in the air, and then Anakin made a strangled noise as she struck him with the fury of the Dark Side.
Dooku reached down and cracked her head hard against the stone, then hauled her up to drop her on the path on his way to Anakin.
He knelt at the boy's side. Anakin had fallen and half-curled, shaking. "M-Master...."
"She's unconscious." Dooku stripped off his cloak and wrapped it around Anakin, and then realized that he wasn't going to let go. His mind flickered out through the Force and along the bond, and he had to stop and calm himself and let go of the anxiety so his perceptions would be accurate. "I apologize. I wasn't careful enough."
Anakin huddled against his chest. "I thought she was the test."
Dooku sighed, his breath clouding out in the cold air. "Unfortunately, when I first sensed you were unsettled, so did I. Although you appear to have handled--" He broke off as he sensed the streaked burns on Anakin's hands and arms. They weren't serious, exactly; they were only light, and of course the chill of the caves meant that the heat hadn't stayed in them too long, but-- "Anakin," he said in a somewhat strangled tone, "exactly what happened right before I got here?"
"She -- she tripped me when I was coming down the path." Anakin rubbed gloved hands together, against the chill of the caves and the chill inside him. "She...talked for a while. Then I -- I sensed something, like a needle. I pushed back and something fell." He gestured vaguely without looking up. "Then she jumped at me with her 'sabers lit and...I pushed back too." A short, sharp shrug. "Then you got here."
Dooku let out a long breath. "You saved yourself twice, then." He looked down, tucking Anakin closer against him. "In case you weren't aware of this," he added, "deflecting lightsaber blades without a lightsaber of your own is decidedly impressive."
Anakin sniffed. He thought it was from the cold. Not crying. "I still need to find a crystal...."
Later. We can come back later. Don't make me let go yet. But Dooku managed to almost smile and ruffled Anakin's spiky hair, touching the padawan braid lightly. "I would say you have passed any test that would be required of you, Padawan." He forced himself to let go and set Anakin on his feet again. "Listen to the Force. You know which one is yours."
Anakin drew in a shaky breath and closed his eyes, looking around. "What do I do if it's one of the ones she knocked over the cliff?" he asked, trying to make a joke of it.
"Call it to you," Dooku said. "Or there's a path that leads there, if you prefer."
Call it to him. There was an idea. Anakin wasn't entirely sure if he trusted his legs right now. Just standing was hard enough. Walking...and what if he walked all over the cavern and still couldn't find it? At least this would be quick. He closed his eyes and reached out to the Force. He felt a bright spark that seemed to have been calling to him since he came into the caves, if he hadn't been too busy to hear it. It made him smile, and suddenly his arms didn't ache quite so much.
Anakin opened his eyes and looked down at the bright blue crystal in his hands, the exact shade of the sky the last time he'd seen it on Tatooine.
Dooku blinked and slowly smiled. "Well done, Padawan," he said softly. "Very well done. Let's go."
Anakin closed his fist around the crystal and looked over at where Komari sprawled on the ground. "A-are you going to kill her?"
"No. It is not the Jedi way to kill a helpless... or even simply unarmed... opponent -- and I would not have liked to kill her even if I had been unable to defeat her otherwise." Sometimes there was no better choice, if you were in a particularly bad situation. Strength permitted mercy. "I plan to keep her unconscious while we return to the Temple and arrange custody."
Anakin closed his eyes and lowered his head miserably. "...I'm sorry I made you come in after me."
Dooku looked down at him in astonishment. "Anakin, you were ambushed. And doing remarkably well when I arrived."
"...I hurt my arms. The other padawans are going to laugh at me when we get back to the Temple."
"Anakin," Dooku said, "your arms are burnt because she hit them with a lightsaber. Ordinarily this would have cut them off."
"...I guess." Anakin shrugged. "Should we go now? It's cold."
"Anakin...." Dooku collected the shattered injector and scooped Anakin up, lifting Komari into the air at a distance with a flick of his fingers. "No one has any reason to laugh at you. And your arms will probably be healed by the time we get back."
They hurt, but Anakin didn't want to say anything. And anyway, the crystal was still glowing in his heart and making everything better. "Thank you, Master." He frowned downward. "I can walk."
"I'm sure you can. Indulge me." Dooku drew on the Force, which was running very strong here, and jumped. Crystals sparked and clattered under his boots when he landed a considerable distance upward.
Anakin twisted a little so he could see Komari's limp form following them obediently. "What's going to hapen to her when we get back to the Temple?"
"That... will depend, to some degree, on her. She's undoubtedly wanted as a criminal, but the Temple may be the only place that can safely hold her."
"...She said you were going to get tired of me and give me up. I didn't believe her."
"Good."
Anakin shivered as they left the caves and hit the full force of the winds outside. "Can we go to a warm planet next?"
"We're going back to Coruscant first. I'll see what I can do about warm."
"Thanks." Anakin gave up talking and just huddled against his Master's chest the rest of the way back to the ship.
Dooku set Anakin down on a chair in the ship's lounge when they reached it, tucking the edges of the cloak in around him. "Wait here a moment." He took Komari to the small infirmary and laid her on the bed, carefully arranging the life support systems to deliver a constant sedative that would keep her out of trouble the trip back to Coruscant. Then he retrieved some bacta and bandages and went back to see to his padawan. "Let me see your arms."
Anakin held them out, biting his lip a little. Dooku eased the gloves off and the sleeves away carefully, reaching along the bond to soothe the pain as he cleaned the burns. He held the still-packaged bacta between his hands to take some of the chill off. There was a mumbling sensation as the heat began activating the organisms.
Anakin didn't let out a sound as Dooku began spreading bacta very gently over the burns, but his face was very white. Trying to sound cheerful, Dooku told him, "You'll have an easy time of it in the padawan lightsaber competitions now. Most of the younglings get distracted at the first burn, and that's only from training settings."
"Still not really looking forward to it," Anakin said, barely above a whisper.
"Padawan..." Dooku sighed. "Look at me, Padawan." When Anakin reluctantly dragged blue eyes up to meet dark ones, Dooku told him quietly but firmly, "I am proud of you, Anakin."
"But I--"
"I am proud of you," Dooku interrupted firmly. "You faced a trial harsher than you should have had to, and you acquitted yourself very well. Komari might not have been Knighted, but she was a fully trained Jedi otherwise, and I know from experience exactly how good a fighter she is." His voice went just a little rough as he laid a hand by the padawan braid. "You should be dead. I didn't get there in time to make a difference. That was you."
"...I was scared."
"Anakin... so was I."
Anakin's voice wobbled a little as he said, "Are you done with my arms?"
Dooku blinked, vaguely taken aback. "I need to put the bandages on so that the bacta stays in place." He suited action to words, smoothing the protective coverings into place. "...There."
Anakin lurched off the chair to throw his arms around Dooku's neck.
Dooku let out a surprised breath, but his arms came up to hold Anakin securely. Physical affection was not precisely common among the Jedi, even those not as reserved as he, but Anakin had been raised far from the Temple and by a loving mother. Depriving him of the touch he thought of as necessary and proper to a relationship would only make him doubt his Master or question his own worth.
...Or so Dooku told himself as he hugged the boy tightly. It had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his feeling better.
He wasn't sure how long he sat there, Anakin cuddled securely against him, before it finally occurred to him that they really ought to go ahead and get off the planet. Except that Anakin had, by that point, fallen asleep.
Dooku considered this for a moment and then took him along to the cockpit.
Chapter 4