#docasta

@mostie01

“Again, I would very much like to apologize,” Obi-Wan’s was apologetic and he looked highly uncomfortable. Nobody could blame him, not even the highly irritated Council. Meanwhile, Anakin stood silent next to his former Master, knowing that it was better to remain silent in this matter. 

“Blame you, we do not,” Yoda said, though he looked tired and much older than usual. 

“Nobody could have known that Jocasta Nu would commit such a reckless and thoughtless act,” added Mace Windu, whose eyes were tightly shut and who was rubbing his temple. It was no wonder. It was not an everyday occasion that a well known and respected Jedi just hid herself on a transport - namely Obi-Wan’s and Anakin’s - to infiltrate the enemies’ ship.

Obi-Wan cleared his throat, looking at each of the other Council members. They all had a painful expression on their features. “Well, at least Anakin and I had been there to… we would have been there, had anything gone wrong.”

“You mean beside the obvious?” Anakin said aloud, before he could stop himself.

“Indeed,” Obi-Wan agreed and therefore covered the little slit up.

“Still,” Mace Windu groaned and he leaned back in his chair, “and to think that Chancellor Palpatine was the Sith Master all along.”

“The dark side blinded and deceived us all,” Plo Koon spoke wisely, it earned him approving nods and even some mumbling. 

“It was… scary,” Anakin stated, he was part of the Council too after all. “Personally, I am glad she came along, otherwise I am not sure if Obi-Wan and I would not have fallen under the Sith Lord’s curse… especially me, since he had been influencing me for a long time now. Since his death… I have been able to see clearer and at this point I would like to apologize to everyone, but especially Obi-Wan, for my often disobedient and disrespectful behavior.” He stood straight, head held high, though his eyes were not looking at anything or anyone in particular.

“All is forgiven my old Padawan,” he laid a comforting hand on the taller man’s shoulder, squeezing lightly.

“Actually,” there was an evil glint in Mace Windu’s brown eyes. “I just thought of the perfect punishment for Knight Skywalker.”

Obi-Wan interrupted the dark skinned Jedi. “You are NOT making him do the paperwork.” His usually blue-green eyes were lightly turning orange, a clear sign that his vampire nature was showing and that it was not pleased with the way Mace’s thoughts were going. 

“I agree, if anybody wants to know,” Anakin briefly cut in. It earned him a couple of amused looks.

“Now that we made it clear that Master Windu will NOT load his work on my former Padawan’s shoulders,” he leveled a warning glare to the Korun Master, “I would like to discuss what we do about Yan Dooku.”

He finally moved towards his seat, with Anakin quickly following his example. Now that they had given their report, they could sit.

“Secured, my former Padawan, is.”

“Indeed,” Shaak Ti spoke up, “I saw how Jocasta dragged a tied up and gagged Yan into her archives. I do not think she is going to release him anytime soon.”

“He IS her mate after all,” offered Obi-Wan.

“I do not think we have to do anything.” Ki-Adi-Mundi revealed his opinion. 

“So… are you suggesting that we simply wait and see what will happen? And hope that Dooku’s fear of his angered mate will keep him in check?” Anakin just wanted to be sure.

the Council members exchanged a few glances, before Obi-Wan answered for all of them. “Yes.”

“I am going to kill him,” Dooku’s eyes was twitching, Jocasta knew that it was a bad sign. “I swear Jo, I am going to kill him.”

A worried chuckle escaped the librarian and she instinctively grabbed her mate’s arm tightly. “Dear… he does not mean to.”

“No,” he agreed, “I am still going to murder him.”

“That’s not the Jedi way…” he gave her a look that asked her if she meant that serious. She sighed. In truth she was getting frustrated by the constant interruption. 

“Perhaps it would be better, if we were to move such activities to my quarters.”

“It won’t help,” stated Dooku, his stare was directed at the wall in front of him. Jocasta was sure that her lover was trying to bore a hole into it, by mere will. “He will find a way to interrupt and disturb us even then.”

The librarian did not know what to say to this. She had read that male beings had a tendency to get aggressive and tense when they could not find a way to relief that tension. 

“Yan,” her thumb stroked his knuckles, before she grabbed his fist from his thigh and pulled it into her lap. “Qui-Gon is gone now, you sent him to his friends to spar. You know how much he loves sparing, we won’t see him until dinner.”

The effect was immediate. “You are right of course.” He smiled and the tension in his shoulders visible vanished. “Completely right.”

A cheeky grin appeared on his features and he leaned closer to the female, pushing her back until she was lying on the couch, with Yan resting on top of her. She returned his eager smile, looking into each other’s eyes, before their lips connected in wild passion. Tongues connected and battled for dominance. Dooku’s hand, which had previously held the female vampire’s arms down, ran over her body and stopped at her robe, about to push it aside to caress pale skin, when a loud noise startled them. 

Only a moment later, Qui-Gon came sprinting into the apartment, panting and his face was red. “Forgot my lightsaber,” he said, oblivious to the disheveled state the two adults were in, before running outside again.

“And this is the reason, why I am going to Serenno,” there had been defiance in the head librarian’s voice. Defiance, a good portion of something that was way too close to anger and also a hint of something that told the whole Council that the matter was actually decided.

It was Obi-Wan, who decided to speak up, “Very well Master Nu. You have our blessing, may the Force be with you.”

The female Jedi regarded the ginger haired man for a moment, before a small smile appeared on her wrinkled features. “I knew that you would listen to reason, young Kenobi.” She bowed in his general direction, before turning and promptly storming out of the Council chamber. 

The remaining Council members exchanged glances. “What have we done?” asked Mace Windu aloud.

“We would not have been able to stop her anyway,” Shaak Ti spoke her opinion.

“I almost feel bad for my Grandmaster,” Obi-Wan hummed, his eyes turned to the closed door, through which Jocasta Nu had just vanished. Agreeing mumbling went through the crowd.

Mace cleared his throat. “Well, let us attend to other matters.” His fellow Councilors nodded.

“Jocasta, I had not thought you actually meant what you wrote me in your message,” Count Dooku was both surprised, but also very pleased to see his lover again. In his eyes, she was just as beautiful as she had been, when they were both young Knights, perhaps even more so.

“Yan,” her smile easily fooled the Sith and while she stepped down the ramp of her transport, Dooku stepped forward and held his arms open in an inviting manner.

For a moment, it looked like the head librarian of the Jedi Order, would step into his embrace, but faster than the white haired man could react, she had taken a swing and her fist made contact with the side of his chin. A pained hiss escaped the female Jedi, who rubbed her hurting knuckles, but she also looked down at the stunned Sith Lord in satisfaction. She still had it in her apparently and she knew that the first strike had to hit home, so she had not hold back. 

Dooku was holding his face, where he had been hit and where he would most likely wear a bruise soon enough. He just hoped that his beard would cover it up mostly. The Sith was brought out of his musings, when the female before him took a threatening step forward. Out of instinct, he scrambled away, still on the ground, ruining his expensive and fancy clothing. The expression on Jocasta’s face promised pain and suffering and he silently regretted not having brought a couple of droids with him. Scratch that, he regretted not having brought an ARMY of battle droids with him.

“Yan Dooku,” in her eyes was a fire and her tone was just a bit too calm and collected. “What in the name of the Force, do you think, you are doing?”

“Love,” he tried, but he was immediately interrupted.

“Don’t you ‘love’ me, Mister,” her voice had risen in volume. Immediately Dooku flinched away from the angry female. 

“But-”

“Let. Me. Speak!” Jocasta raised her fists again, as if she wanted to strike again and Dooku held up his arms to protect his face. “I swear to the Force and the Jedi Order, if you continue with this thoughtless, mindless and completely mad plot, I am going to beat you into a bloody pulp. I’ve had enough with your stupidity, Yan Dooku and I am not the only one.” He actually whimpered at the threat.

“Jocasta,” his tone was pleading and afraid in equal measure, “hear me out.”

“No,” she hissed and her face was dangerously close to his, “you hear ME out. You either come with me back to the temple or you can run like you always do. Just rest assured, Yan, that I will look for you and I will find you wherever you may go. And I will make you suffer.”

Yan’s eyes were wide and unblinking as he looked at the completely serious female in front of him. He had always known that Jocasta could be scary, this was one of the reasons why he had liked her, she was able to keep up with him, but that she was THIS bad.

“Well?” she raised an eyebrow.

Dooku blinked until he realized that she was still expecting an answer. He may be just a little bit afraid of Sidious, but he was definitely terrified of Jocasta.

“The temple?” it was more of a question than an actual answer, but it seemed to be enough.

“Good answer,” the head librarian replied coldly and she reached out to take a hold of the male’s ears, pulling him roughly to his feet and after her onto the transport. A pained yelp escaped the (former?) Sith upon being handled this way. He did not dare to voice protests, let alone take his lightsaber. Who knew what that woman would do to him then.

“You will sit and wait here, an I understood?” her whole demeanor screamed authority and respect.

“Yes,” he replied silently.

“Yes what?” she demanded and he flinched.

“Yes dear,” his voice was shaken. Finally satisfied, the fiery female nodded and turned to start the engine. It was about time she returned to the temple, she had important work to do.

They had lost yet another pair of Jedi and yet another planet, actually a system, to the separatists. It was the third in this week alone. The clones were standing no chance against the armies and battle plans and even the Jedi Generals had no chance against a whole army of different battle droids focusing on them. I

They were losing, they were losing important systems, important support and important resources. They were losing the war and the Council had no idea what they could do against it. They should never have allowed Jocasta Nu to roam without supervision, they should have known that she would join Dooku sooner or later. There had always been a strong bond between the two Jedi, but they had never thought that the former Jedi and head librarian would be corrupted and turned to the dark side. 

The Council had no doubt that it was Jocasta, who held everything together. Without her, Dooku would never be able to plan such detailed and well thought of strategies. Without her, his anger and arrogance would cloud her judgement, but since the female Force user was with the Sith, she could easily balance him. It has always been this way, Yoda knew that. Whenever his former Padawan was around Jocasta Nu, he had become a complete different person, more reined in, more under control. 

Mace Windu gritted his teeth. The report they had just gotten from Obi-Wan and Anakin… well, they had not lost, it was one battle in what felt like an eternity, that they had not lost. But it couldn’t take long for the former Jedi archivist to come up with a new strategy. But the Korun Master put his whole trust in Obi-Wan Kenobi. The ginger haired man was the brightest and some would even say the wisest fighter among them. He himself knew with one hundred percent of surety that the man was definitely their best strategist. And finally Jocasta and Dooku had found their equal He could just hope and pray to the Force that Obi-Wan would not fail or even worse, fall…

“Lock the doors, raise the guards. I want that EVERYTHING is secured, have you heard me? And ready my ship, I want to leave as soon as possible?”

Confused and scared servants looked at the panicked man. They could all agree on one thing, something was going on and it had to be bad for the usual cold and regal man to get so emotional and ‘uncivilized’ as he called it. Count Dooku was not one to fall into a panicked state, usually he was the only one who kept a calm mind even during the most dangerous situations.

Yan Dooku was everything but calm right now. The Force had revealed to him that his mate was coming to Serenno and the grey haired man wanted to be anywhere but here, when Jocasta arrived. The woman could be truly scary if she wanted to be, but combined with her vampire powers… he did not want to take any unnecessary risks. The best he could do, was flee and hope that his mate either left as soon as she had decided to pay him a visit or that her ire - which he could feel even over their tightly shielded pair-bond - had lessened. Both seemed unlikely to happen in the near future though and the former Jedi was fully prepared to hop for a couple of weeks from one planet to the next. As long as Jocasta would not get her hands on him, everything would be fine. 

“Sir?” the questioning voice was full of struggle and fear.

“What is it?” the count snapped. He did not like to be interrupted, especially not for pointless little things.

“A ship has landed near your estate,” he was rudely interrupted.

“What?” for a moment, panicked clouded his judgement. “Who is the pilot? Check, who the passengers were too.”

“There was only one lifeform on the ship, it is an elderly female woman. The guards say, that she has a lightsaber, though she does not look to be a Jedi…” he let the sentence trail off and decided it would be best to back up now, if the look in his master’s eyes was anything to go by.

Yan Dooku stood frozen in the middle of the hallway. His body was paralyzed in terror. He knew that every attempt to run now, would be fruitless, so it might be best, to simply face his fate and let the Force take him. 

A loud cracking sound could be heard throughout the whole building and a moment later, the walls shook. The Sith Lord flinched, when screams followed the sounds of destruction. It would be not much longer now until his mate had caught up to him and then… then.. well what then? He did not know what would happen then. Under normal circumstances Jocasta’s Jedi training would kick in, but he could feel that her vampire blood was running amok. There was no holding her back now and in such a condition, she was an unpredictable force of nature. Beautiful, but also deadly.

“Yan Dooku!” the furious yell would undoubtedly be heard far further than his estate. For a moment the Sith Lord thought about taking his own lightsaber and killing himself with it, it would surely be less painful. But it would also be the coward’s way out and he may be much, but NOT a coward, never a coward. With a shaky breath, he eventually accepted his fate and turned to where the quickly approaching footsteps came from and then, he held his breath.

Jocasta Nu looked even worse than Dooku had imagined. Of course he had imagined her to have blood red eyes and that her fangs would be showing, but he had certainly not expected the shadows that were dancing around her body. He knew - of course he did - that this was one of her vampire powers. The shadows were bowing to her will and could form almost anything she could think of and right now, they were forming two giant claws, but enough to hold a gundark at bay with ease.

“Jocasta, my beautiful mate. Time has truly been kind to you, you do look just as magnificent as the last time I saw you,” he tried to awake old feeling she MIGHT still be holding for him. The bond between two mated vampires could only be broken by death, but the love they once held, can vanish.

She hissed loud and dangerously low, before dashing forward. Dooku did not even try to dodge the attack, knowing that he would just anger her more and therefore make it even worse. 

The next thing he registered, was pain, followed by the awareness that he was pushed hard against a wall. His mate’s shadows were holding him in place and even if he had wanted to, he would not have been able to get a hold of his lightsaber this way.

“Pretty words won’t help you now, mate,” the last word was spat out in something akin to disgust.

Yan inwardly flinched. “Jocasta, I…

“Silence! I am talking now,” she growled and immediately, the Sith shut up. “have you ANY idea, what you did to me? Have you any idea how much it hurt after you just left, without a goodbye and without giving a reason? Do you even realize what it DID to me, when you were just gone?”

He was expected to answer, but only a small, “No,” escaped his mouth.

“Of course you didn’t!” she screamed, causing the walls to shake. “Because you always cared just for yourself. that’s the reason, why you fell to the dark side, isn’t it? Because of your stupid arrogance.” Her grip on him tightened.

“No,” he wheezed out, “I joined the dark side… because… the Senate is corrupt and… and the Order bow to them.”

“We do NO such thing.”

“But-”

“Don’t interrupt me!” she hissed. “And even if that were the case, have you even CONSIDERED talking to the Council or more specific to your old Master? You know as well as I do, that he would have listened. And do you truly think that you would have been alone? Have you forgotten your family? Have you forgotten me?” There was sadness and grief in her last question.

“Of course I haven’t,” he whispered.

“Then why did you leave?” she yelled.

“I… don’t know,” he said and surprised not only the female Jedi in front of him.

Slowly, very slowly, he was released again and lowered onto the ground. The female vampire before him was still beyond furious, but there was also something else in her eyes, something Yan had not expected to see there, not after all this time, not after all he had done.

“Jocasta…” he hesitantly stepped forward, reaching out with a shaky arm. 

She did not pull back, not even when he made contact with her arm and not even, when her mate pulled her close against him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair.

“Are you?” she did not return the embrace, she did not offer comfort, but neither did she pull back and Yan counted that as a small victory.

“Yes. I regret having left you and Qui-Gon… even Obi-Wan,” admitted the Sith Lord.

“Then why did you do it?” the head librarian would not stop with her questions. 

“I wanted to change the galaxy… change the Jedi.”

A moment of silence passed, then the female vampire stated in a calm voice, “You realize that this is not the right way?” 

“… I do… now,” he had seen it when Sidious has revealed his true plans. At first, Yan had truly been on the dark man’s side, but at some point, the man had revealed what kind of monster he really way and Dooku had started to doubt his way. The reunion with his mate and the reopening of there bonds were only increasing those doubts.

It was a strange situation for everybody, though probably nobody felt as uncomfortable as Yan Dooku himself did. Then again, it did not happen often that your angry mate comes to get you and beats some sense into your skull. Still, he was not at all comfortable with returning to the Jedi temple, not with so many Jedi who would love to get their hands on him. It was one of the main reasons, why he always stayed at Jocasta’s side. Alone, he might have lost against a too great number, but with his mate at his side, nobody would dare to come too close to him. It was as simply as that. There was just one little problem, she would only stay with him, if he was behaving and by behaving, she meant as long as he was not stepping into the dark again. 

It was hard for the vampire. Years immersed in the dark side made some of his actions natural, they were born out of pure instinct and it was hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Though he was determined to do learn and not only because he wanted his mate’s protection, but because of the private promise she had made.

Jocasta had told him that she would give him another chance, if he truly worked to come back to the light. She had made it very clear that she could and would not follow him into the light. She now had a family to take care of and though Yan was not sure if they would be as accepting as his mate, he would like to meet them at some point. Of course he was aware that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would not stay the only vampires and he highly suspected that Anakin was one too, but the way the female archivist had said it, hinted that there were more. He could not wait to find out, but until then, he still had a long way to go.

Beside that, there was also the promise of trying again. Jocasta had sworn that she would ignore - ignore, not forget - his mistakes and that they would stay in the past. They could start anew and with the view of her and him retiring at some point in the future, left him with a lot of hope. But to achieve that, there needed to be peace in the galaxy first, Yan knew that. And for peace, the Sith Master needed to be caught or killed. Yet Yan was was no fool. He knew that Jedi had no chance against him, not right now. The time was not right and he feared about his legacy’s future, were he to reveal the Sith Master’s identity too soon. He had told Jocasta about it and to his surprise, the female vampire had easily accepted his reason. And when he had asked her why, she had only told him, that she only believed him, because he had told her the truth.

“The archives are closed,” her smokey voice stated calmly. 

“But Master Nu, I-”

She did not let the poor Padawan finish. “I said, the archives are closed.” This time there was a certain ring to her tone. It was clear from the blazing in her eyes that she was not amused and she was certainly not going to repeat herself another time.

The poor Padawan, a female human girl, paled visible and knew better than to test her luck. She simply bowed to the leader of the archives and turned tail, deciding to ask her Master for help for her essay.

Meanwhile Jocasta Nu rubbed a hand over her face and turned around to step back into her sacred rooms. She let the door slide close behind her and locked them, making sure the light outside the door was on. It signaled that nobody was too enter the library, not even Council members. At least not without her permission and she would not grant them anybody, not today. 

The female Master strode towards the reception and let herself fall on one of the chairs behind it. She buried her wrinkled face in her hands, but did not cry, she was still stronger than that. But was she really? Of course there was sadness, a lot of it, but there was also anger. She was angry, an emotion that no Jedi should feel and experience. It led to the dark side.

A huff escaped her. Wasn’t this just ironic? Had she not lost enough to the dark side already? Now a single tear DID escape her blue eyes and slid unbidden down her cheek. How could he have done it? Why did he leave her alone? Was it truly because of the dark side or had his words been true, that he simply could not serve a corrupt system? She did not know and she guessed she would never know.

She only knew that Yan had left, without saying goodbye, without telling her anything about his plans. He had simply left and he had NOT taken her with him. It left her wondering. Had everything been a huge lie?

“Oh Yan…” she took a shaky breath and released it again, fighting the moisture that was struggling to escape. “What has happened to you… to us?”

Somehow Yocasta Nu knew that her questions would never be answered. Something told her that she would never see her lover again, yet she still hoped that she was wrong. She could not to believe that Yan had betrayed both the Jedi and her.