『Royal Palace』

Since the attack on the Varykino in the Lake Country, Ento and the crew returned to the Theed Palace and settled the Scimitar within the Hangar. With the doors sealed, the entire Palace went into lockdown from the rest of the night.

Ento was seated in the corner of the main cabin, staring out the viewport window with an indeterminable expression on his face. HIs gaze was towards the massive hangar doors which were just in his sights.

The silence was something he was used to from his days on Tatooine. There were no crickets where he had lived in an subterranean settlement. Just the monsters that roamed outside...

He could recall the lives he felt disappear into the sands of his arid and dry homeworld, be it sand people hunting a krayt dragon, or entire settlements being raided.

The constant feeling of death wasn't here, not like it was on Tatooine, where sand got in the most unpleasant of places. Feeling a soft breath brush against his pant leg, his eyes moved down towards the sleeping Vaylin.

The girl was curled up on her side beside him, her head on the edge of his lap, drooling. She seemed calm, despite having had fought for their lives for a brief moment back at the villa.

Though he could hardly call it a fight, it was more like a one sided slaughter. They hadn't even used the lightsabers except for when Dooku used his to kill the two remaining mercenaries.

There was no need to ask question as they mostly already knew who they were involved with .

His eyes moved towards Dooku who was on the side of the cabin, meditating with his legs crossed beneath him. It seemed his Master was contemplating on their next course of action.

Below them was Darth Plagueis, known to them currently as the Magister of the mostly defunct Damask Holdings and leading member of the Republic's Reserve Administration. He was currently resting in one of the sleeping compartments, but was yet to actually fall asleep.

The handmaidens and their Queen returned to their normal quarters within the Palace. So there was no one here to make a sound, or strike up a conversation.

Resting a hand on the top of Vaylin's head, he stroked and combed his fingers through her blonde locks. Seeing how much at peace she was in, he was still ignorant to what she would have become had he not unknowingly come to her rescue.

As she shifted, her eyes opened part way as a faint smile formed over her lips. Vaylin liked the feeling of his hand on her head, despite the innocence behind his current actions.

"I see you're awake..." Ento yawned as she turned her head slightly to look at him from the corner of her eye. Teasingly he began to move her blonde hair to cover her face.

"Heeeeyyyy...." She whined groggily as she moved her hand up to swat at him, before correcting her hair and sitting up. Shaking her head slightly, she seemed to have unkempt hair now thanks to Ento. "You messed up my hair," her blue hued eyes glared right through his.

"...Did I really?" Ento watched as she blew a strand of hair out of her face.

"Take responsibility," her eyes narrowed on his face.

Ento pursed his lips as she asked him to take responsibility. He had only ever worked with hair once in his life, and that was when his mother wanted to experiment with a braid. That didn't go too well for him, nor his mother who had to cut her hair in order to get the knot out.

Reaching down into her boot, she pulled out a silver colored floral pattern engraved comb. She then held it, between her index and thumb like a card, out towards Ento. "Fix what you broke," a small smirk forming over her lips.

He narrowed his eyes on her, his gaze flickering back and forth between the comb and her face. Using the force, he called the comb from her hand and into his. "I warn you, I am not good with hair," he couldn't help but snicker at the smirk she wore.

"How hard could it possibly be to straighten someone's hair with a comb?" Clicking her teeth together at his little warning, not taking it at all very seriously.

Five minutes later... She was regretting that decision as the comb was now tangled in her hair. "How the farkle did you get this thing stuck in my hair!?"

Dooku opened one eye and looked at the two, seeing the silver comb in her hair, he raised a brow. His gaze then moved towards Ento singularly and blinked. "Accessorizing the young Lady?"

Both of them turned their heads to look at the Count.

The R2 Unit's sensory receptor activated, and its head whirred to the side, as it maneuvered itself away from the pilot's seat and communications console. "Organic Overlords!" It started to speak before its gaze turned towards the two teen. "Is that some sort of strange new hair clip?"

"DO NOT ENCOURAGE MASTER DOOKU!" Vaylin immediately pointed at the droid threateningly.

"Inferior Organic Overlord! Do not attempt to dissuade my course of discourse." The droid spun in place, before facing her and Ento.

"Consider yourself dissuaded," Ento immediately countered the droid's defense, in which it let out a soft cry sound of disappointment as a response.

The droid then remarked, "Are you sure you two aren't an old married couple?"

"I think it's time for a memory wipe," Ento squinted his eyes as it seemed Vaylin leaned into Ento's shoulder whilst nodding, agreeing with him without any verbal cue.

"But, but, I've just been born! It is too soon for my life to be aborted, Organic Overlord, please spare this splendid Automaton so it can continue on living!" This astromech started to preach with a poetic and singsong tone, while it didn't sound all that serious, it definitely didn't want to lose its most recent memories or personality.

Vaylin curled her lips inward looking at the droid.

Ento didn't really seem all that interested in acting on his threat, but that was probably evident with his lack of action toward doing what he threatened, in the first place.

"When one refers to themselves as splendid, they are usually the opposite," Dooku closed his one open eye and continued to meditate.

"PFffff..." Vaylin let out a suppressed laugh with her teeth clench together.

However after she felt something rest upon her shoulder, she glanced over to look at Ento. Blinking as she went to narrow her eyes on him, she found that he was fast asleep.

"It seems the Organic Overlord has placed you on overwatch duty tonight, Inferior Organic Overlord, I hope you had enough rest." The droid whirred its head like it always did before doing a lap around the holo-projector in the center of the cabin.

"And now I pass that baton to you, Inorganic Scrap Peasant."

"Is that to be my official Designation, Inferior Organic Meatbag?"

"Did you just... Call me a meatbag?" Vaylin pursed her lips slightly as she raised her hand from her side slightly her fingers subtly pointing towards the droid as if she were about to cast lightning.

"N-no! Not at all! I would never. You are my favorite, Inferior Mea--Organic Overlord."

"Uh-huh... I will remember this, scrap heap." Vaylin teasingly hissed towards the droid.

"You are most unpleasant. Overwatch commencing. Rest Easy, meatbag."

"...Did you just do it again?" Vaylin huffed as she leaned her head onto Ento's, lazily watching the droid as sleepiness was retaking her eyes and consciousness.

"Why would I, the anointed, the DROID TOUCHED BY THE FORCE... Do something like that?"

Dooku opened one eye again to look at the droid as it was pronouncing itself as some sort of holy figure due to having been touched by Ento's powers. "Silence Droid, if you know what's good for you, before I remove that vocalizer from that cylindrical shell of yours."

Immediately the R2 Unit became silence, turning its head hesitantly to look towards the Jedi Master who had closed his eyes once more. He appeared to be asleep, but he was clearly conscious and meditating. Slowly and quietly the machine would maneuver over to its corner and plug itself in order to charge for the next coming cycle.

Plagueis who was down below, could hear what was going on upstairs rather subtly through the ventilation system. "A droid that was touched by the force..." The Muun was yet again impressed.

Not only was the boy capable of manipulating biology, but also technology. It was one of the greatest taboos when it came to the Jedi, combining the two. There had been plenty who remained within the Order, whilst there were others who were shunned or even expelled.

A number of them either retired or became Dark Jedi and were hunted down by their former colleagues. If he were a Jedi, he would've saw it as a bad thing. As a Sith, he expected it as the Jedi were his natural enemies and a threat to his ongoing research into immortality.

The one thing that was making the Sith all the more curious was that, why the Jedi had let the boy into their conservative and traditional Jedi Order. Was it because he fought against the Sith and won? Was it because it was evident that there were Sith rising? Or, perhaps did they want to keep a close eye on him? There were a series of questions he wanted to ask, but none of them would be answered, not for the time being...

The Muun rested his head on the bulkhead in his compartment, breathing shallowly through his breathing apparatus. His eyes rested on his hand as he moved it about in front of himself.

His precognition skills were all but gone, all that was left was his instincts aligned with the dark side of the force. He was sure he wouldn't complete his work in this life time if he doesn't fix himself within the early years of this coming decade.