Dawn on Coruscant…the planet awakes to the bells of the Temple…The underworlders haunt, the baker man bakes…to the bells of the Temple…To the big bells as loud as the thunder…to the little bells soft in their knell…And some say the soul of the planet's the toll of the bells…the bells of the Temple…
Children of various species gathered around a stand in the courtyard. This particular stand belonged to Hondo Ohnaka, a Weequay who was a popular gypsy figure. "Listen," he told the children as he put a hand on his ear. "They're beautiful, no? So many colors of sounds, so many changing moods. Because you know they do not ring all by themselves." One of his Kowakian monkeys climbed onto his shoulder and uttered a sound as if confused. Hondo wagged his finger as he replied, "No, you silly thing."
He pulled back the curtain on the side of his stand and gazed out towards the Jedi Temple. "Up there," Hondo said, "high, high in the dark bell towers, lives the mysterious bell ringer. Who is the creature?"
"Ooo?" the Kowakian monkey chirruped.
"What is he?"
"Wak?"
"How did he come to be there?"
"Ah?"
Hondo lightly tapped the monkey as he warned, "Hush!" After the children laughed, he turned to them and said, "Hondo will tell you. It is a tale, a tale of a man…and a monster…"
Dark was the night when our tale was begun on the streets near the Temple…
A small speeder bus silently flew over the dark streets of Coruscant. It was carrying precious cargo: its driver, three gypsies, and an alien baby. The baby was wailing amid the silence and it posed a risk of blowing the gypsies' cover.
"Shut it up, will you?" a male human gypsy hissed.
"We'll be spotted!" a Mahran male growled.
"Hush, little one," the female Terellian soothed the baby.
Four frightened gypsies slid silently under the bridge near the Temple…
The Sullustan driver spread his palm and said, "Four credits for safe passage into Coruscant." Just after he said that, a blaster shot hit the bus and took out its engines. Stormtroopers surrounded the gypsies and held up their blasters.
But a trap had been laid for the gypsies…and they gazed up in fear and alarm…at a figure whose clutches were iron as much as the bells…
The gypsies looked behind them and their hearts dropped in fear. The male human gasped, "Jedi Master Dooku!"
The bells of the Temple…
It was indeed the revered Jedi Master Dooku. Though most Jedi would be compassionate, Dooku instilled fear into the hearts of man and creature alike, both good and evil. Since the gypsies were viewed as a threat to the peace, the Jedi Council had placed Dooku in charge of tracking down this wayward group and bringing them to justice. Little did the Order know that the Jedi Master was abusing his power and persecuting even those who were innocent by falsely claiming they were of gypsy affiliation.
Master Dooku longed to purge the world of vice and sin…and he saw corruption everywhere except within…
As two of the gypsies and the driver were being led away, Dooku sneered, "Bring these Gypsy vermin to the Palace of Justice." The Terellian woman tried to get away, but a stormtrooper held her back and harshly asked, "You there! What are you hiding?" Dooku said, "Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her."
She ran.
The gypsy sprinted all across the streets while Dooku pursued her on his speeder. He gave chase for quite some time until he stopped when something blocked his path. The woman made her way to the Jedi Temple, ran to the doors and pounded on them while crying, "Sanctuary! Please, give us sanctuary!"
She then heard the vvvvrrrrmmm of the speeder and ran to her left. Dooku caught up to her and grabbed the bundle in her arms. When she tried to pull it away from him, the master Force-pushed her into a pillar. She instantly crumpled to the ground, face-down and lifeless.
Just then, Dooku heard wailing. He looked down at the bundle as he muttered, "A baby?" He pulled back the cloth and gasped, "A monster!" He soon knew what to do with the child. He levitated the baby in mid-air, activated his green lightsaber, and poised to strike the child…
"Stop!" cried Master Yoda.
Dooku stopped and turned to his former master. He said, "This is a filthy child! I'm sending it back to the pit where it belongs!" Yoda walked to the dead woman and sang, "See, there, the innocent blood you have spilt on the grounds of the Temple…"
Dooku remained stone-faced and bluntly said, "I am guiltless. She ran. I pursued.
"Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt on the grounds of the Temple…"
"My conscience is clear."
"You can lie to yourself and the others…You can claim that you haven't a qualm…But you never can run from nor hide what you've done from the eyes…the very eyes of the Temple…"
Dooku followed Yoda's gaze at the towering statues lining the path to the Temple.
And for one time in his life of power and control…Dooku felt a twinge of fear for his immortal soul…
"What must I do?" Dooku asked.
Yoda walked back into the Temple as he said, "Care for the child, you must. Raise it as your own."
Dooku was taken aback as he shot back, "What? I am to be saddled with this uncleanly…" He looked down at the child and then calmly continued, "Very well. But let him live with the Jedi in the Temple." Yoda asked, "Live here? Where?" Dooku looked up towards the towers and replied, "Anywhere."
He sang, "Just so he's kept locked away where no one else can see…The bell towers, perhaps. And who knows? The Force works in mysterious ways." He looked down at the baby again and sang, "Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be…of use to me…"
Hondo continued in an eerie tone, "And Dooku gave the child a cruel name, a name that his species has been called…Grievous."
Now here is a riddle to guess if you can…sing the bells of the Temple…who is the monster and who is the man? Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells of the Temple…