Shadow's Odyssey: A Star Wars Story

Anakin grabbed Obi-wan's arm and began dragging him out of the room.

"What are you doing, Anakin?"

"We have to get out of here!"

"Why?"

Meanwhile, Yoda was checking on Shadow.

"You're not going to want to be that close to him, trust me!"

Anakin finally succeeded in getting everybody out of the room.

"Okay, Anakin, we're out. Now what's going on?"

"Let's just say every time this happens it ends with the whole room being destroyed."

And then Shadow started screaming.

Shadow once again found himself in an empty void. Sidious was there, but he didn't look sadistically happy like before. Now he was clearly annoyed.

"You know. How do you know?"

Shadow put on a false air of bravado even though there was no point to it. "You mean your plan to take over the galaxy? Or your mind trick?"

"Both."

Sidious then proceeded to search through Shadow's recent memories, sending waves of pain and fear throughout Shadow's head.

"No!"

Shadow tried desperately to move, to do something, anything! But he was frozen, and the pain only increased.

"You're only hurting yourself, you know, struggling like that. Ah, here we go! It looks like you found my runaway apprentice. But he's not the one who told you about what I'm doing here. Let's see…"

Shadow stopped hearing Sidious's voice.

A blurry image of Dooku's face appeared before Shadow. Instinctively, he lashed out and struck at the face in front of him. Voices called to him and hands grabbed at him, trying to hold him back. He struggled, pulled himself free from one set of hands.

Then he noticed something odd about Dooku's face. There was a bruise there, one he hadn't inflicted. Then he remembered. Anakin did that. The voices began to make sense.

"You're okay! Stop! Everything's all right!"

Shadow stopped fighting. He went limp, trembling in Anakin and Obi-wan's hands.

Yoda picked himself up from where he'd been flung against the wall. Dooku dabbed at a split lip.

"What just happened?" Obi-wan asked.

"Sidious. He's been attacking Shadow's mind." Anakin explained.

"And when were you going to tell us?"

"I didn't think he wanted anyone else to know. He had a hard enough time telling me."

The other Force users became aware of the humiliation emanating from Shadow, who was hastily wiping the tears from his eyes.

"If that is the case, then he is coming." Dooku announced.

"What do you mean he's coming?" Obi-wan demanded.

"He knows I'm here. He saw it in Shadow's memories."

"He can see his memories?"

"He can see everything. Sidious has access to all of the information in Shadow's brain. He's on his way here right now."

Petro ran in. "I sensed that Shadow was in p- Dooku!"

"Calm yourself." Yoda assured him. "Not a threat, he is."

"But we can't be too sure." Anakin countered.

"So… why is he here?"

"He claims his master betrayed him." Obi-wan explained.

"But we're not entirely convinced."

"But some of the information he's given us does seem to check out."

"But not all of it."

"Dooku, that thing you did, pushing Sidious out of my head, does that mean you can keep him out permanently?" Shadow asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

"I'm afraid not. His power far exceeds my own."

"Then how were you able to push him out just now?" Anakin asked suspiciously.

"I was able to push him out temporarily. He could easily go back inside if he wanted to. If you want to truly be rid of Sidious, you must sever the connection he made with your mind."

"Connection?"

"When he captured you, he made a connection with your mind through the Force. If you want me to sever said connection, I'm going to need help from someone else."

"Well surely one of these Jedi-"

"I'm afraid the Jedi will be of no help to you. Only someone trained in the Dark Side will know how to sever the connection and these Jedi prefer to believe the Dark Side doesn't exist. But perhaps if someone here were willing to study the Dark Side, then maybe we could help you."

"Use the Dark Side, we will not!" Yoda burst out in a rare display of anger.

Petro raised his hand. "I know a little about the Dark Side."

Dooku's brows rose. "Do you now?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Obi-wan declared.

"But he said it's the only thing that could help Shadow!"

"He is a lying Sith Lord!" Anakin shouted.

The alarms began to ring.

"The invasion fleet is here." Dooku pronounced grimly. "And Sidious can't be too far behind."

Obi-wan took charge. "Master Yoda, take Dooku down to the prison."

Yoda returned Anakin's lightsaber and escorted Dooku away while Anakin ran off to go fight droids.

"Anything important we should know about these droids?" Obi-wan asked.

"I can you that their aim is a lot better than the droids you're used to fighting. Eggman's been trying to hit high-speed targets for years, so he's been improving their accuracy as much as possible."

"Well this should be interesting then."

Yoda lead Dooku down the hallway towards the prison.

"I won't be much help to you behind bars."

"An enemy of Sidious, you may be. But here only for your self-interest, you are."

"Do you still remember why I left the Jedi Order? All the corruption in the senate? The Jedi Council's poor decisions?"

Yoda was silent.

"At the time, you regarded my decision as a mistake."

Yoda still did not respond.

"So, what do you think of my decision now? Now that you've discovered the truth."

Yoda stopped walking.

"Perhaps if you had listened to me, none of this would have happened."

"Wrong the Jedi might have been, but make you right, it does not. In the same position, we both are."

Dooku quickly spun around and shot lightning from his fingertips. Pain shot through Yoda's body as he fell.

"Well, unlike you I have a plan to change that."

Yoda struggled to get back up as Dooku took off running.

When they arrived outside, their eyes were met with the sight of a massacre. Egg Pawns were everywhere, and clones were dropping like flies.

"Okay everyone, split up!" Obi-wan ordered. "Protect the entrances! Don't let them get inside!"

Obi-wan guarded the north entrance. Anakin guarded the south entrance. Shadow guarded the southwest entrance. Petro was watching the east entrance until Yoda could get there. The robots seemed to figure out that he was the weak link. More and more of them came in his direction.

Petro tried his best to defend but missed a shot that hit his left shoulder. He tried to keep going, but another shot hit his right hand and caused him to drop his lightsaber. He desperately shot Force Lightning at the encroaching robots and took out three of them, but dozens more kept coming.

A third shot hit Petro's stomach and he went down. He lay on the ground, thinking that he was about to die. One of the robots walked up to him and pointed its gun at his head.

But then a powerful lighting blast hit the droid and several others. Petro looked behind him to see Count Dooku, blasting lighting all around him. He was amazed at this display of power. The robots began to fall back, returning to their transport ships. The attack was over, and the droids were leaving, just like before. But this time the fleet remained in orbit.

"Your powers are strong child, but not quite strong enough. I can teach you the true power of the Force. But first, we must leave this place before my master finds me."

Shadow watched the droid ships fly back into the sky. But then he heard a voice in his head.

"Shadow…"

"Get out of my head!" Shadow hissed.

"Well, how about we make a deal then? I'll leave your mind alone if you bring me Count Dooku."

"How do I know that you'll hold up your end of the bargain?"

"Once I have Dooku, I will have little reason for going into your mind."

"You were in my mind well before you lost him."

"I was torturing you for ruining my master plan. Now, I could continue to torture you for resisting me, or you could help me. Collect all your little emeralds and go home. Now, whether or not you accept my offer means very little to me. I could easily come down there and get Dooku myself, but I sense potential in you. So, the choice is yours, you can help me and go home, or suffer forever."

"So, what you're saying is that you want me to be another one of your disposable pawns? Like Maul? And Grievous? And Dooku? And the clones? And probably countless other people? Hell! No!"

"That's very disappointing. Then I'll be seeing you shortly."

Shadow was about to go warn the others when he saw Dooku carrying Petro towards his ship. He quickly teleported over there.

"Aren't you supposed to be locked up? And what happened to Petro?"

"If I stay here, I'll die. And Petro needs to learn more about the Dark Side if we're going to get Sidious out of your head."

"That doesn't tell me why Petro's unconscious."

Dooku looked at the sky and saw an approaching landing shuttle.

"I'm afraid I don't have time for this conversation."

He quickly zapped Shadow with a powerful blast of Force Lightning. Remembering how Shadow had shrugged it off before he made sure to keep it up until the hedgehog passed out, then picked him up.