AN :
if we hit 250 power stones in 24h, I will release an extra chapter :)
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He glanced down at his baby, Ideon, who smiled up at his father and reached up to grip the bottom of Dooku's beard with a happy gurgle.
Why work with the Sith at all, especially when the risks were so high?
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After putting Ideon down for his afternoon nap, Dooku turned and headed up the stairs to Tan'ya's room. He paused, knocking on the door and receiving no answer. When he stepped through inside, he found her room empty, but the Galactic Newsfeed playing over the stationary Holocom in the background and the compad Tan'ya had left open on her desk. From where he was standing in the doorway, Dooku could see a text file open on the screen.
Seeing that she wasn't around, Dooku felt curious about what his daughter was working on. It wasn't like the girl had a teacher at the moment, so any work she was doing was for her own benefit. He stepped into the room, and picked up the pad, finding what looked to be a large report Tan'ya was working on. She was still concerned about the Trade Federation by the looks of things.
Just then he heard the sound of a toilet flushing. A few moments later his daughter stepped out of her own suite bathroom, and froze at the sight of her father. She looked between him and the compad, before suddenly she lost her mental shield and her feelings shone through the force as embarrassed.
"It's not finished yet." She insisted.
"I see that." He replied, putting it back down.
His daughter gazed at him, self conscious. "I'm sure it must seem strange."
Internally, he was amused at that, but kept it off his face. A child giving herself homework definitely was strange, but not something she would be in trouble for.
She stilled herself after a moment, before realizing her mental walls were down and roughly jerking them back into place. Dooku watched as his daughter's posture straightened, and she stood with her back upright, and her hands behind her back like a soldier at ease.
It was amusing, but also odd. Who taught her to stand like that? "Is this all you've been doing to keep yourself busy?" Dooku asked.
"No, Father." She answered. "I've continued to train every morning, with Asajj when she's available, I've been working on researching and writing up that report to present to you, and I've continued to manage the recruitment and training of the Royal Guard."
The Royal Guard? Now that he thought about it, as Sifo's de facto padawan, she would have assumed command of them until another was found. Dooku had been so busy with his work he'd completely forgotten about finding someone else to replace Sifo's work on Serenno's defenses.
"How have you been managing the Royal Guard?" Dooku asked after a long pause.
"I will arrange an inspection right away."
Curious, but also aware that he was going off topic from his original purpose, Dooku held up a hand to forestall her. "We'll do it later. I came to speak with you about your continued instruction as a Jedi."
Tan'ya's mental shield stayed firm, but Dooku thought he saw a hint of disappointment in her features. "Who will be my new teacher?"
"I haven't decided yet, but you will return to the New Temple soon."
She nodded her head in acceptance, but Dooku could see that she wasn't happy with the idea.
"Will that be a problem?" Dooku asked her.
Tan'ya hesitated for just a moment, before answering. "I'm accomplishing a lot here. Spending so much time at the New Temple will make it harder for me to train the Royal Guard, and manage Serenno's Defense Force."
Those shouldn't be the duty of a seven year old child anyway, though Dooku knew his daughter was exceptional. Besides, she seemed to know what she was doing thanks to the Force guiding her and Sifo's tutelage. "You may have to appoint a subordinate to oversee things in your absence. Your Auntie Jenza is my regent here on Serenno, and your Mother oversees the Palace in my absence."
His daughter nodded at that. "Yes, Father." Her tone of voice made it clear she was reluctant to put away her toys.
She was being obedient, but Dooku remembered the advice he received from Narec back when he first met Tan'ya, about being a better father. After a moment, Dooku somewhat awkwardly sat down on the end of Tan'ya's bed, and gestured for her to sit in her chair.
"Tan'ya, you must complete your Jedi training, before anything else. It's more important to me that you have mastered the Force and can protect yourself, than that you've begun to dabble in Serenno's governance." He frowned slightly. "There are… extremely dangerous beings in this Galaxy, who would desire to use you. I won't always be here to protect you. Until you master the Force, and master yourself, you will always be vulnerable."
"Yes, Father."
Despite her audible agreement, Dooku still got the impression she didn't quite agree or understand. He wasn't sure how he could change her mind. At the very least, she would know why he did as he did one day.
That thought took him by surprise, but then he supposed it was true. One day Tan'ya was going to have to know about the Clone Army, and Sidious. She would learn that it was her Father who arranged for the death of her close mentor.
Somehow he was worried just thinking about it. Not even Athemeene knew the depths of his entanglement. And there was no way Palpatine could let Tan'ya live, not without using her.
If Dooku didn't destroy Sidious, one day Tan'ya would have to.
Dooku blinked, shocked by the certainty of that realization. He considered it for a few moments, before giving in to it. There was no way around that fact that serving Sidious would mean destroying his family. They would either serve him or be killed.
Sidious wasn't his friend. Or even an ally.
Even disregarding the fact that Dooku was a Jedi, or that he wasn't so sure anymore that Sidious also dreamed of a Galaxy at peace, or even that the man was a monster, the Sith was Dooku's enemy.
A nervous pit opened in his stomach as he realized the enormity of what he was facing.
"Father, what did you think?"
Dooku stopped, looking up at his daughter. "Think?"
"Of the report I was working on." She hesitated. "It didn't seem too… paranoid to you, did it?"
"I didn't get the chance to read it, daughter." He smiled at her softly. "You may be able to read several thousand words in the time it takes you to use the private, but your father is slower than that."
She stared at him for a moment, like she didn't understand he was making a small jest.
"I'm sure the report will be fine." He assured her. "What's it about?"
Tan'ya looked like she wasn't prepared for his genuine interest. "It's nothing."
Nothing, and yet she'd written dozens of pages about it. "Tan'ya, tell me." He said, more firmly.
She looked at him for a long moment, before finally admitting, almost as if she was ashamed, "The Trade Federation and the Hutts aren't competing with each other. In fact, I think they're working together, along with a powerful faction within the senate."
"...Go on."
"Imagine a being that's able to reach across vast distances without being traced, and coordinate events between sentients and organizations that would otherwise be incentivised against working together." Tan'ya hesitated, glancing at Dooku's face before continuing.
"The Trade Federation is behaving… incredibly strangely, and to a lesser degree, so are the Hutts. The two of them are carving apart the Outer Rim, while never stepping on each other's toes, and the Senate, acting in the name of fighting them, only ever seems to be helping them. To explain their behavior, I've supposed the existence of a sentience that I call Being X. Once I did that, all kinds of things began to fit together."
"...Like what?"
"Like the Trade Federation's invasion of Naboo." Tan'ya reached over and picked up her remote. With it she turned up the volume on her Holocom, displaying footage of a droid army surrounding an unfamiliar Palace. "The Republic doesn't currently have a standing fleet, but they're fully capable of requisitioning the Defense fleet's ships from Kuati or Corellia. Yet for some reason they've done nothing, and the Trade Federation was stupid enough to try this, like they knew the Republic would do nothing.
At the same time the Federation's Viceroy is being held hostage, and their Board of Directors has been in an emergency meeting as they struggle to agree on an interim leader, the Hutts have done absolutely nothing to capitalize on the chaos. It's like there's a larger force behind the Republic, and the Federation that they're even more afraid of."
"How long has this been happening?"
"This is the fifteenth day of the Siege."
"No, how long do you think these groups have been coordinating together?"
Tan'ya turned back towards him, looking surprised. "You believe me? About Being X?"
One name was as fine as any other for a creature of the shadows like Palpatine. "I do."
A brilliant smile split Tan'ya's face, and waves of relief rolled off her in the force as her mental control failed. For a moment, Dooku thought he saw tears of happiness in the corner of her eyes. "I'm sorry, Father." She blinked a few times, before reasserting control of herself and the mental shields came back up. "I never thought anyone would believe me about Being X."
Guided by his own instincts, Dooku reached out and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. She stiffened at the contact until he let go, looking up at him with shocked, round eyes. "I believe you, Tan'ya. But you must not tell anyone else."
"Yes, Father."
"In fact, you must not keep a record of this that can be accessed through the Holonet. Take your holopad and destroy it, burn the pieces in a furnace so no data can be recovered. Continue your research, but it must be kept on flimsi, which I will store in my vault. We'll get an old typing printer in the city for you to continue your work."
Tan'ya grinned eagerly. "Yes, Father. Absolute secrecy."
"No one can know about this. Not your Mother, not your brothers." Dooku thought for a moment. "You'll have to keep attending the academy at the New Temple, pretend nothing is wrong, but use the holocoms there for your research, and then write up your reports here." Another idea hit Dooku. "If any of the other Jedi ask about your research, we can say you're writing the next volume in Sifo's history series.
"Yes!" An excited gleam was in her eyes.
Tear the Veil, indeed, Dooku thought staring down at his child. Equal parts pride and fear warred within him. Incredible, the brilliant mind his daughter had and the gifts the force had given her, to already have determined Sidious existence even if she hadn't identified who he was yet.
It was also dangerous, incredibly dangerous. If Dooku hadn't glanced at her report by coincidence… If she'd completed it, then shown it to someone other than him? The results could have been too terrible to consider.
A cold shiver ran down Dooku's spine as he considered those sick, yellow eyes gleaming at him. That they would ever be directed at his daughter, at his children, made his stomach turn with worry.
What had he been thinking, allying with that creature? Sidious was not, and had never been his friend. The moment Sifo made his prophecy about Tan'ya, Dooku had become destined to be the Sith's enemy.
Now the only question was whether Dooku should aim to kill the Sith right away, or play along with him for a time and wait for a better opportunity?
"Oh, look at that." Tan'ya said, watching the holoterminal. "The siege is breaking."
Dooku glanced over to see the droid army begin to advance on the Palace. Large hover tanks opened fire with massive blasters, sending pieces of stone and dust scattering in all directions, as gaping holes were blown in the Palace walls. It seemed whoever was commanding that army couldn't care less if the Viceroy survived or not.
"I guess the scalpel has failed." Tan'ya murmured.
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