She almost couldn't help herself, turning her head to quickly glance to make sure they were okay, and was horrified by what she saw.
Ideon sat there frozen wide eyed in a spreading pool of hot crimson that was leaking from Madalee's head. She lay face down on the metal deck, unmoving, as the Tirra'taka pawed at her, crooning miserably.
...
Tan'ya was not unused to the horrors of war. Long ago she had come to terms with the fact that civilian children were often casualties, no matter how much she wanted to avoid that. She had done her best to never commit any such atrocities, but she had always rationalised away the simple truth that it was war, and she couldn't control every outcome. If a city chose to fight to the last as its streets were taken one by one, of course the innocent would die.
Whatever logical explanations she could have given for what happened disappeared from her mind. Seeing Madalee, the silly, annoying child who had insisted on the absurd name of Eggy for an ancient and majestic beast, dead on the floor seemed to Tan'ya like the most abominable thing she had ever seen. It wasn't anger that she felt, or even fear. Hatred flooded her veins, burning through her blood like rancid acid. This murderer, this filth, this hideous dog, here to kill children for revenge! Revenge!
The pettiness of it. The work that had clearly been put into getting this far. Luring her father away to Phindar, somehow getting rid of Sturn, attacking in the middle of the night, all to satisfy his own pathetic grudge against her Father?!
It wasn't enough that he died. He had to suffer. He had to burn and writhe in agony! Her head spun, she felt sick to her stomach, but her gaze locked onto the diseased filth just as he broke into a dash towards her.
The surge of the Force she sent into him felt nothing like the calm, bottomless pool of the Force as she'd known it before, but like the raging wind of a storm at sea. Waves of power crashed through her and were poured out over him, the abomination's pathetic barrier was cast aside like tissue paper. He was thrown backwards, back slamming into the wall with such force that a crater formed around.
Even as she held him pinned there, she used her fine control to pull Durasteel rebars from the wall and bend them around his remaining limbs, squeezing tight. The abomination howled in pain as his bones snapped, the lightsaber in his hand dropping from nerveless fingers. He writhed and he pulled, but a length of rebar forced its way around his waist, constricting his breath and crushing ribs. On the verge of killing him, she hesitated. Unsatisfied. A voice in the back of her mind told her it wasn't enough, she could do more.
And it was right.
With a thought she ripped a plasma canister from the garage's refueling station, and threw it at him. It smacked into the wall below him, crumpled and leaking volatile gases into the air. Finally, with him pinned in place helpless, Tan'ya let go of the pressure she'd been exerting. The roof stopped shaking, and dust stopped falling from the ceiling, as one final, delicate work of telekinesis activated the lightsaber the abomination had dropped.
The plasma gases ignited, burning a furious green as they consumed the Sith. Howling in pain, the worthless thing writhed and thrashed, smearing the wall behind him with blood as his feet burned away, even his clothes lighting on fire. Caught in the moment, Tan'ya laughed as she watched him burn. His voice cracked, and his deep voice declined to a hopeless shriek. Tan'ya was so focussed on enjoying his suffering that she only dimly noticed the sound of Ideon crying again.
Then she remembered what had driven her to such lengths. She turned and ran over to her sister, falling to her knees beside Madalee and turning her sister's head over to see that her left cheek was shredded by the pellet and several of her teeth were missing, but her skull was intact. Even so, she'd lost a lot of blood, and Tan'ya cast about desperately, until she spotted the bacta spray on the belt of a dead House Guard. She snatched it up with the Force, and ripped the cap off with her teeth, before spraying the foam over her sister's face. Very quickly the bleeding stopped, and Tan'ya prayed it would be enough to save her.
After doing so, Tan'ya grabbed Ideon, quickly checking the panicking, wailing toddler for injury. He was fine, the only blood on him was Madalee's. Leaving him where she found him, though he tried to cling to her leg, Tan'ya scrambled up the ledge to peek out through the garage door to see the forest below. Through the dense canopy she couldn't see her mother's speeder wreck, but after a moment she felt the mind of someone reaching out to her.
At first Tan'ya was disappointed to realise it was Vai, but in her fellow youngling's mind she found an image of her mother. Legs broken, a deep cut in her arm, but still alive and breathing. The Youngling had managed to pull the two of them free just before the crash, causing them to land badly on the forest floor, but to not get pulped in the crumpled remains of the vehicle.
Then Tan'ya was confused to feel Vai was concerned for her, and fearful. At first she didn't understand why, but then she noticed the horrible pain in her leg and wrist. Though the sacanium had blocked the lightsaber blows, the heat had melted the plastoids, and it was now clinging to Tan'ya's skin. With an agonised yell, Tan'ya fell to the ground, clumsily fumbling at the armour she was wearing.
...
Hours too late to do anything of use, Dooku arrived home. A pall hung over the Palace, excessive use of the Dark Side having upset the local currents and eddies of the Force all over the world. He didn't even go inside it, knowing what he would find from the report the first responders had given. Instead he went straight to the hospital where his wife and children were.
His son Ideon was the only one to escape uninjured. The child desperately clung to his side, babbling energetically at his father for a short while before finally falling asleep in his arms. Not willing to put him down, Dooku carried him to Athemeene's room.
His wife was conscious, floating in a bacta tank, her face covered by a breathing mask. Her injured arm and legs were splinted together, and covered in stitches from the surgeries. He pressed his hand against the glass, saying nothing, and rather than reciprocate the gesture, she simply gazed out at Dooku through the fluid with eyes full of judgement.
Dooku supposed that he couldn't blame her. Sighing and turning away, Dooku walked to the next room over in the private ward.
Madalee was still unconscious, her face stitched back together, a bacta facemask disguising the extent of her injuries. Dooku's stomach roiled at the sight, and refused to imagine the extent of the damage. She was only four, maybe the scars and even the memories would fade in time. Dooku could only hope, and beg the Force for guidance, grateful that she was still alive at all.
Vai escaped with only a broken arm. Her dark eyes followed him as he passed her room, and he knew that she'd saved Athemeene's life. For that she would have his eternal gratitude, but he didn't stop to say anything. He would repay her later, right now he had to see his daughter.
Tan'ya was wide awake as he came inside. Her only injuries had been to her right forearm and left calf, where melting plastoids had stripped away layers of skin. The bacta patches would be enough to heal it, but he could see his daughter's obvious discomfort as she lay on her back, trying not to aggravate her throbbing wounds.
"You're not taking your painkillers." Dooku began, but his daughter cut across him immediately.
"Because I need to speak with you." She said through grit teeth. "I need to know the truth, father."
The truth. Of course.
"You spoke with Maul."
"Is that his name? Were you friends?" She demanded.
Dooku would have scoffed, but he could only hang his head. "I had the displeasure of meeting him only once before. If things had gone better today, I would have been the one to kill him at Phindar."
She stared at him, before finally breaking his gaze and looking away from him. "So it's true then. We're working for the Sith."
"Not anymore, daughter. And never again."
It took a while before she met his gaze again, disappointment in her eyes and desperation in her voice. "Father, what is this? What are we in the middle of? I need to know."
Dooku sighed, pulling a seat closer with a thought, before sitting beside her bed. He wondered where to even begin. He'd had this conversation once with Athemeene, and even that was under better circumstances than this. Turning his head, he gazed down at Ideon, sleeping with his head on his father's shoulder, and Dooku had to shut his eyes to keep the tears from forming.
He would not lose control in front of his daughter. Not when she needed strength. Coughing once, he cleared his throat, spoke to her again.
"Before we begin, you should know that this family is the most important thing to me. I would do anything I could for you, Kenth, Ideon, Madalee and Athemeene. If I could return to my younger self, and change my course of action, the only thing that would stay my hand is the knowledge that none of you would ever be. Tan'ya, I love you, and I couldn't be more proud."
She considered him for a moment, swallowing once, before nodding. "But."
"Yes. But." He sighed, leaning back into his chair. "Fifteen years ago, I had never even met your Mother. I couldn't even have dreamed of this family, or known how important it would be. I was still a Jedi Master, and after a series of disastrous missions and betrayals, my faith in the Order was waning. I joined the Council, hoping to steer the Jedi in what I thought was a better direction, and found resistance to it from even the people I trusted most. I eventually left embittered and despondent.
At the lowest moment in my life I was contacted by a man. I didn't know who he was at the time, but years later, when I was firmly in his grip and thoroughly controlled by him, I would learn his true identity. He was Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith." He met his daughter's gaze.
"You would know him better now as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic."
...
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