『Thoughts, Deviations, Intrigue』
With a Padawan's braid, Ento stood before the Jedi Council and solemnly bowed.
Padmé beamed under her orange hood, her hands hanging at her sides as she watched the pleasantries unfold. And soon it was time for them to leave the presence of the council.
"Thank you," The older Jedi Master looked to his former master, Yoda, and bowed his own head.
Grand Master Yoda found himself smiling seeing his former pupil once again taking on another apprentice. However, his mind went back to his previous Padawan, how after she had been barred from becoming a Knight due to her hidden infatuation with him.
Dooku too thought of his former Padawan, but mostly due to Ento himself speaking of how Love itself was Redeemable. However with that mindset, it might have ended up joining the Altisian Jedi who were much more Liberal than the council.
He could recall how the older iteration of the Jedi Order allowed marriages, attachments. Yes one could fall to the darkside, but so could a lonely life without such attachments.
What is it that will hold one to ideals but love itself?
Dooku, Ento, the droid and the girl began to file out of the High Council Chamber just as the members of the Council of First Knowledge entered with the corpse of Darth Maul on a stretcher.
Ento and Padmé gazed over the corpse for a moment, before turning their eyes forward. They left the same way they came in, even took the same lift down.
As they emerged in the central corridor, making their way back towards the Hangar, Dooku in front of them came to a halt. "I assume you wish to meet your friends?" The Jedi Master turned his eyes to Padmé, as Ento wasn't a readable subject, but the Queen's feelings were out in the open.
"Yes," Her eyes almost seemed pleading as the seriousness of her people's situation resurfaced. "I must return to the Queen's side where I am needed."
Dooku turned his eyes to Ento for a moment, his cold dark orbs traced over the boy's face. Though he couldn't sense his emotions through the force, Ento still had expressions, even if they were just microscopic ones for the time being.
"Then we will join them," his eyes turned towards the girl. "Perhaps we will act as an extension of her Majesty's guard?" Dooku asked though he was expecting a positive answer on this question. After seeing the corpse, he was sure that the Sith would strike again, finish the job they hadn't before. They all assumed the Sith had planned on assassinating her, in which they just might after reaching Coruscant.
He wanted to face the Sith, thanks to Ento's presence, he was sure joining an entity such as a Dark Lord would most definitely be a fatal mistake. Dooku was strong enough to defeat just about any Jedi in the Order, next to Yoda, what was a Dark Lord to him?
"Shall we take your ship... My Apprentice?" Dooku looked to Ento, raising a brow.
The man was curious about the ship and after Ento had seemingly used his powers upon it, he was wondering what the ship could do.
"Am I being ignored?" A voice broke between the three, the droid was speaking.
Padmé looked down at the Silver and Gold R2 unit and blinked a few times. "No, I'm sorry." The girl seemed to smile faintly, dropping her serious expression for a second.
"Mmm. I see," The R2 unit sounded rather sarcastic as it continued to scroll on down the hall towards the Hangar ahead of them. It seemed the Droid was a bit more aware than a normal one.
"Did that... Droid just give us Sarcasm?" Dooku asked as he narrowed his eyes on the back of it's shiny outer plating.
"That personality already existed," Ento replied with a light sigh, a faint chuckle emanating from his throat. "The binary really hides it."
Dooku and Padmé looked towards the boy with several blinks in their arsenal.
It wasn't long before they were entering the Hangar with the droid leading the way. Its lens eye rested on the vessel, one that it had never seen before. "What class ship is this?"
"According to the mainframe, the ship's class is called a Star Courier, it's name is the Scimitar. The vessel itself was commissioned by Sheev Palpatine." Upon hearing those words, Dooku froze, knowing very well this ship belonged to the enemy. His eyes rested on the back of Ento's head, his enemy was his friend?
Padmé and Ento glanced back towards Dooku.
"Master?" Ento waved his hand slightly, feeling the emotions from Dooku, the feelings of betrayal. However they weren't taking him over, as a Jedi Master, he was able to resist and conquer his feelings.
Nodding, "Palpatine is the Senator to Naboo."
"We know," Padmé said with a frown, it was one of the reasons why she wanted to join with her friends and those she saw as her family.
"Why didn't you inform the council?" Dooku asked as he looked towards Ento, raising a brow.
"After looking over the body, the saber, they will learn themselves who the Dark Lord of the Sith truly is. Especially if they can use Psychometry," Ento responded clearly as they were beginning to walk up the boarding ramp of the Scimitar.
"Oh?" Dooku seemed rather interested in this. "So if they discover it themselves, they cannot dismiss it as hearsay."
"Now all we have to do is get him expelled from the Senate," Ento looked towards Padmé who pitched her head in a nod.
"The Sith religion, their language, their culture... It is illegal. The Droids cannot even translate the runic language without having their memories wiped." Padmé was well aware of this due to her political studies back at home prior to becoming Queen of Naboo. "They're an ancient enemy of both the Republic and the Jedi Order."
Dooku couldn't agree more, but he was curious about how his new apprentice was going to go about turning the Senate against a popular figure. This popular figure may already have agents placed in the Senate that support his ideology, and if that's the case... There were so many possibilities of what may happen.
As they entered the ship and arrived in the central domed cabin, Ento walked over to the Pilot's seat and sat down. The R2 unit on the other hand moved over towards where it could access the ship's navigation computer.
Dooku and Padme walked over to either side of him, peering out the slotted viewport window ahead of them. "Activating Stygium Cloaking Device..." With the loading ramp closed, the ship turned completely invisible to the naked eye.
Ento with the help of the R2 unit, was able to maneuver the ship with ease out of the hangar and into the air. However, the droid took over from there.
"Take us to the Executive Building," Dooku ordered the unit, sensing that the Chancellor had yet to leave the facility. At the same time, he could sense Palpatine waiting for the Naboo Starship to arrive. "And stay with the ship once we arrive. It cannot be seen."
"Yeah yeah, whatever Organic Overlord." The Droid sassed in return, though it intended to follow the orders given to it.
Dooku glared at the machine for a few seconds before walking over towards the Projector.
Ento, standing up from the seat, joined Dooku with Padmé at his side.
"Call your ship, girl." Dooku gestured towards the mounted communications device and she quickly followed the request. After a few seconds, Qui Gon Jin appeared on the transmitter.
"Ah, this is a surprise, Dooku, my friend." Qui Gon Jin bowed his head slightly towards the fellow Jedi Master, his former Master. "Oh?" His eyes shifted to that of Ento, "He was made your Padawan?" He seemed to smirk, scratching his chin.
"Yes..." Dooku stared at the younger venerable man, before smiling faintly. "It is good to see you again, old friend. It felt like yesterday since I've last seen you," the old man became slightly playful at the sight of his former apprentice.
"And you seem to have improved..." Jin leaned his head to the side slightly while looking at his former Master. He was aware of Dooku being disillusioned with the Jedi Order and its cause, but it seems his modd overall has become a bit more positive.
"I saw that you've defeated a trained Sith..."
"... Than I was right in my assumption? This will not be good news for the Jedi, or the Republic."
"Dark Times are ahead of us, my former Padawan. Dark times indeed." Dooku took in a long and steady inhale, before sharply exhaling. "We are on our way to meet with the Supreme Chancellor, we'll meet you at the landing platform."
Jin fixed his posture, looking over his former Master and those present. "Have you learned more about the Sith that we are facing?" His eyes darted between the two of them, before solely resting on Ento. "The vision?"
"Sheev Palpatine, Senator of Naboo, is a Dark Lord of the Sith. However we cannot make moves on him, not yet... Not until he is exposed." Padmé sighed aloud, blurting out the information to the Jedi Master, believing he needed to know if Palpatine was really waiting for them.
"Hm..." Jin frowned and nodded slowly, pondering to himself. "If that is the case, I will not tell the other members of the crew." His eyes turned to Padmé, then to Ento. "Shield her mind, my young friend, otherwise the Dark Lord you have found will see through your plot to destroy his plans... To plant himself in the Republic and avoid detection by the Jedi Order, he must have had a lot of patience. Do not engage him alone, by any means."
Ento and Padmé acknowledged his words with the bob of their heads.
Dooku let his eyes stare forward, solemnly, upon Jin. "We will be arriving shortly, my friend."
That was when the transmission ended and within the next few minutes, the small ship landed in front of the executive building, and uncloak, just as the Supreme Chancellor was coming out the front doors.
Senate Guards immediately drew their weapons and encroached around the unidentified ship. "Halt!" They bellowed as they closed in the opening hatch.
That's when the two Jedi and the singular female stepped out of the ship, almost immediately after seeing Dooku and the boy with the briad in his hair, they lowered their weapons. "Our apologizes Master Jedi!" They quickly backed off.
"Master Jedi!" Finis Valorum, a scrawny man with white hair and lightly tanned features waved his hand towards them. With his group of robed Senate Guards, he approached the trio. His eyes narrowed on the handmaiden for a few seconds, with a mental inquiry, before resting on the two men. "What can I do you for?"
"We would like to accompany you in greeting the Naboo Starship. We have one of their Handmaidens with us," Dooku gestured towards the girl in orange and yellow, The Queen herself in disguise.
"Ah..." Finis looked over the young girl. She had to be around fourteen years old, yet she had this fierce desperation in her eyes. Familiar to him, she definitely was. "Then join me." He gestured for the three to follow him.
The starship then cloaked once more, and the sound of it lifting off the ground could be heard before it was completely gone. However Ento could feel exactly where it was and continue to know where it would be should it move.
The three then followed the Supreme Chancellor over to the blue executive shuttle, allowing them to take their seats. Once they were situated, the droid driver activated the craft's engines and they were off.
Several minutes had gone by as the ship weaved through traffic in order to reach its destination.
"So... Master Jedi... Why is it that you're traveling in a cloaked vessel?" He was curious as to why this was going on and why there was a Handmaiden of the Naboo here ahead of the rest.
"My young apprentice will fill you in, in due time, Supreme Chancellor. The plot against the Naboo is more than it appears to be." The Jedi Master informed the Chancellor, causing the man to look towards the Jedi Padawan who was seated with the Handmaiden.
He raised a brow watching as the boy was doing card tricks for Padmé, with hand drawn cards that depicted diamonds, spades, clubs and hearts. He recognized them as cards typically used to play solitaire.