The Geonosian tunnels were a labyrinth of reddish stone and darkness, lit by flickering torches and the ominous glow of the Geonosian guards' staffs. Count Dooku followed from a safe distance, a smirk of superiority on his aristocratic face. He had his prey. The idealistic Senator, the troublesome "Chosen One," and the technological enigma. The spectacle in the arena would be magnificent.
Kaelen walked with an unnatural calm, his eyes scanning every shadow, every crack in the rock. He wasn't defeated. He was waiting. His surrender plan had a second phase.
They reached a large, cavernous fork leading to the arena's staging cells. A squad of battle droids waited, along with an imposing Geonosian guard.
"Separate them," the Geonosian commanded with a click. "The female to the south cell. The other two to the north."
"No!" Padmé cried, struggling against the droids that grabbed her. "I'm not going anywhere without them!"
Anakin tensed too, anger burning in his eyes. "You won't touch her!"
Chaos was the catalyst Kaelen needed. With Padmé now at a safe distance from him, separated by several guards, the playing field was set. He looked up at Dooku, who observed the scene with amused indifference from an upper balcony, and a thin, icy smile spread across Kaelen's lips.
Phase two.
The first move was almost imperceptible. An electromagnetic pulse, invisible and silent, flared from Kaelen's wrist implant. The energy binders holding his hands sputtered and died. He was free.
Before the nearest droid could process this change, Kaelen was already in motion. From his belt, he flung three small metallic discs that adhered to the cavern walls and ceiling. The discs activated with a low, deep hum, almost inaudible.
But the effect was devastating.
On his balcony, Count Dooku staggered as if struck. His connection to the Force, that vast, omnipresent energy that had been his ally his entire life, suddenly felt like trying to breathe through a wet cloth. It was there, but it was muddy, heavy, almost useless.
Anakin felt the same. It was like going deaf and blind in a sense he didn't even know he had. The Force had become a muffled whisper in a static storm.
These were Kaelen's "Force Field Dampeners." They didn't negate the Force, but they distorted it, muddied it, turning the ocean into a swamp. They made powerful Force-users clumsy, slow, and vulnerable.
With the Jedi and Sith neutralized, Kaelen unleashed his Rickest side.
The Predator Unleashed
The fear in Dooku's eyes is delicious. That space wizard arrogance, shattered. He thinks his power is absolute. But everything is energy. And all energy can be disrupted.
No more hiding. No more being the 'witty advisor.' They threatened Padmé. They threatened our future. Time to take off the gloves. Time to remind them why beings like Rick Sanchez are the apex predator in any ecosystem.
Kaelen moved with inhuman speed and efficiency. His hand darted to his back and drew the Molecular Destabilizer. He didn't aim at a single target. He adjusted the dial to "wide dispersion" and swept the cavern with a translucent green beam.
There was no bloody massacre. It was worse. It was a silent annihilation. A dozen battle droids and their Geonosian guards simply vanished. They became a cloud of reddish, metallic dust that hung in the air before settling on the floor. A line of existence had been erased.
Padmé gasped, while Anakin stared at him with absolute horror.
Dooku, from above, overcame his shock and ignited his elegant, curved-hilt lightsaber. Pure rage had replaced his composure.
Kaelen ignored Dooku for a moment. He sprinted towards the guard who had taken his portal gun. The terrified Geonosian raised his sonic staff, but Kaelen was faster. A small dart shot from his other wrist, striking the guard in the neck. The Geonosian collapsed, a victim of fast-acting neurotoxin.
With his portal gun back in hand, the game completely changed.
A squad of droidekas rolled towards him. Kaelen didn't bother shooting them. He opened a two-meter-wide portal right in front of them. The droidekas rolled directly through it. On the other side was no cave. There was a sea of molten lava from some forgotten volcanic moon. He closed the portal. Problem solved.
"Traitor!" Dooku roared, leaping from his balcony, his lightsaber ready to strike. Despite the Force dampening, he was still one of the galaxy's finest duelists.
But Kaelen had no interest in a duel. Dueling was a ritual. Survival was a science.
As Dooku lunged at him, Kaelen smirked. He aimed his portal gun not at the Count, but at the cavern ceiling, directly above him. He opened a portal. Nothing came out of the portal. It simply connected to a point three meters above its own entrance. Dooku, mid-leap, passed through the lower portal and exited the upper one, trapped in an infinite falling loop, screaming in rage and confusion.
Kaelen calmly walked over to a stunned Anakin. "There you go, Skywalker. A Dark Lord of the Sith, neutralized by basic gravity. See what you can do when you use your brain?"
He released Anakin and Padmé from their binders and then closed Dooku's portal, letting the Count fall heavily to the floor.
Before Dooku could recover, Kaelen had already opened another portal. This one showed the interior of their ship, still parked on the sands of Tatooine.
"Let's go!" he ordered.
He pushed a shocked Padmé and a speechless Anakin through the portal. Then he turned to face a furiously rising Dooku.
"Tell your master, Sidious, the game has changed," Kaelen said. "There's a new player on the board. And I don't play by the rules."
He leaped through the portal and closed it, an instant before Dooku's lightsaber could reach him.
They landed in a heap on their ship's cargo ramp. They were safe. They were free. But the cost was visible on the faces of Padmé and Anakin. They no longer looked at Kaelen Ror, the brilliant engineer, the loving husband. They looked at a being capable of cold, efficient violence on a scale they couldn't comprehend. They had seen his Rickest side. And they knew that nothing, absolutely nothing, would ever be the same.