Anabeth: New Beginnings

Chapter 13 - Message Decoded

"Alright, he knew we were going to have a run in with Mother Talzin again sooner or later. I guess it ties in with him saying one has to stay ahead of what is happening to play a part in it, but the question remains that I have not a single clue as to how he did it this far into the future". Ana was pacing up and down in her quaters while talking to herself. She had been over Windu's recording for what felt like a hundred times now, yet she still had no idea as to what Dooku had been trying to accomplish.

"Alright, maybe not focus on the how for now, and stick to the why. Why would he tell us we'd be talking to Mother Talzin in the future. It obviously wasn't so we'd seek her out, Dooku and her hate each other way too much for that to make sense.

Then again, she's a witch and he's a sith, there is undeniably some connection. Wait, that could solve the how. What if Dooku knew Mother Talzin was planning something, because she was tampering around with the dark side? Question is, how would that lead to us talking to her. So far, we left her be and she left us be, no reasons to change that, right. Ugh, this is frustrating".

Deep in thought, Ana quickened her pacing around the room in frustration. She was sure that at her current rate, there'd be holes in her boots by the end of the day. Deciding to save the Jedi some resources, she sat down at her desk to rewatch the recording instead.

After three more repeats of the video, which were more to pass the time than for some actual research, Ana buried her face in her hands with a sigh. She knew Windu had told her not to stress about it, and that he found it entirely possible that there was no deeper meaning behind what Dooku was saying, yet Ana felt like she was onto something.

However, her concentration had worn thin by this point, and her headache was only amplifying the problem. Deciding that a walk and fresh air would do her good, Ana headed for the gardens. The cool air made her feel awake again, and her headache disappeared in no time. Enjoying the sunshine Ana sat down in the grass to meditate.

Before she could get started though, her comlink began to beep. "Velar" she picked it up politely. To her pleasant surprise, it was Organa calling, and not some general trying to get through to Windu. Ever since the man had become the head of the Jedi he had been more than busy to the point he turned his comlink off to not be disturbed. This however lead to Ana getting called instead if there was something important, as people seemed to think she had access to her former master 24/7.

"Is Windu's comlink off again?". "Unfortunately so, sorry". "It's okay, I should be the one to apologize. He really ought to stop turning his comlink off. the Temple could be on fire, and he probably wouldn't know until he was burning alive. What's the matter?".

"I've got a delegation from the confederacy coming for a gala in three days, and all things considered, I'd feel safer if we there was a Jedi presence there. Do you have a few people to spare?". "I'm sure we can arrange something. Can you send some details like location, security measures and number of people in attendance so we can see how many people will be needed?" Ana asked.

"Sure. I'll tell my secretary to send you the details. You'll hear from him within the hour" Organa replied, not thinking anything of it. His phrasing however, basically slapped the solution to the Dooku recording in Ana's face though. "How did I not see that" Ana facepalmed.

"Pardon?" Bail seemed confused. "Oh, sorry, you just gave me the solution to a problem I've been trying to solve all morning. I'll look over the details and talk to Windu. Unless my discovery right now leads us to another crisis, you should have a list of the Jedi that will be attending on your desk before dinner". "Great, I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing then. best of luck". "Thanks" Ana thanked him, already getting back to her feet "See you soon".

The second she ended the call, she began her search for Windu, her steps faster than usual, both excited and panicked at her most recent revelation. As expected, Windu was in the strategy room working hard, the holoscreen displaying more documents than Ana could count by simply looking at them.

"Ana, what can I do for you" he asked, his head snapping up to look at her. "Several things probably, but the most pressing one would be to tell me if we still have means to contact Ventress and Quinlan". "Unfortunately not. They called about two hours ago, saying they would be going dark while on Dathomir" Windu replied.

"Did they give you a time frame?". "A day, maybe two depending on what they find". "Not good. Not good at all" Ana replied, her face displaying worry. "Why, what's wrong?". "I think I figured out what Dooku was trying to say with that recording. Listen to this:

Dooku obviously knew mother Taltin was up to something, even though those two hate each other. My explaination for this is that he was a sith, and she a witch, and while those are two different things, the dark side and her magic are connected in certain ways, which would enable Dooku to detect if she was planning something out of the ordinary. Perhaps even identify it, if he did a bit of digging. We can't deny he was a smart and educated man, so he probably found a way to.

Now that he knew what she was up to, he could predict her next step. As part of this prediction, he told us we'd be talking to her sooner or later. As we stated before, this raises the question why we should be talking to her, when peacefully coexisting and ignoring each other have always worked in the past.

Now, I know it may sound far fetched, but she is going to want something that we have. I really have no idea what yet, but if it is as valuable to her as that sith holocron core on Mandalore, she would at the very least come see us directly to bargain about it, and at the worst, stop at nothing until she has it.

And now, if Vos' skills are anything to judge by, we just sent two people her way which she can use as hostages" Ana explained. "We might get lucky and she isn't on Dathomir anymore, or Vos might do better than expected" Windu tried to be optimistic. "I guess we won't know until either mother Talzin makes contact, or the two day timeline they sent us is up" Ana sighed.

"I guess so. But we can take precautions. Prepare for possible rescue missions of the two, make sure all our valuable items are secured and make plans to ambush her if he is bold enough to come here". "I think it's more a question of when if I'm right, but I agree, it's best to use any advantage we can get" Ana agreed. "Great. I'll call a council meeting then, I'm sure they'd like to be caught up". "Get their brains fried with more problems is more accurate I think" Ana joked as they headed for the council chambers together.

A/n:
Hi everyone! I know updates have been very inconsisten during the last few months, and I'm terribly sorry for that. I was struggling a lot writers block for a long time, and life was keeping me busy too. An a brighter note though, I'm now planning to publish weekly until this book is done.
Plus, I have a note going up later today or tomorrow that could be of great interest to you. No spoilers about that though :)