CHAPTER 12
Darth Tyranus broke out of hyperspace well clear of Coruscant. Once free from hyperspace the droid piloting his personal ship deployed the ship's large stellar sail, which was unique to Geonosian space vessels. This sail when deployed reflects unidentified forms of energy to pull the ship through space at rather leisurely sublight speeds. Barely after entering Coruscant's atmosphere the droid retracted the sail and cut the vessel's airspeed. The droid pilot then navigated through the busy atmospheric traffic of Coruscant until bringing the craft to a soft touchdown on a private landing pad in the city world's higher rent district the Sith's master Darth Sidious.
Darth Sidious, a mysterious appearing figure in his loose fitting robe and hood, approached the ship and met his student as he exited the ship.
"The Force is with us Master Sidious." Tyranus greeted his master.
"Welcome home Lord Tyranus," Sidious answered, "You have done well."
The two Sith turned and walked across the landing pad continuing their conversation.
"I have good news for you my lord. The war has begun." Tyranus continued.
"Excellent. Everything is going as planned. Tell me, how has playing the role of the good Jedi Master worked out?"
"Very well my lord." Dooku answered.
"Word of your Lord Baseious's death reached me before it reached you. Tell me, how are your other pupils coming along?"
"Young Skywalker is coming along just fine. I wish I knew what happened on Tatooine because he came back strong in the darkside. I expect him to give himself fully over to it at anytime, especially with the friction and bitterness that exists between him and Obi-Wan." Dooku responded.
"Yes, Kenobi. And what about him?"
"He worries me my lord. He has used the dark side powers many times but a very large part of him is still at an unease with it. I have doubts on his ability to give himself over to it entirely. I may have to eliminate him."
"Then do it soon my friend. If he is allowed to be with us for long without becoming one of us, he may become a great danger to us. However, since your little experiment has worked so well I want you to enlist more disgruntled Jedi to our cause."
On the same planet as Tyranus and Sidious, Yoda and the rest of the Jedi Council sit in their chambers.
"Joined the darkside Dooku and the others have. Lies, deceit, creating mistrust are their ways now." Yoda said.
"Never the less, I feel we should keep a closer eye on the Senate." Mace Windu added.
"I agree." Yoda said.
"I have to admit, that without the clones we couldn't have carried the day on Geonosis." Saesee Tiin offered.
"Victory? Victory you say Master Tiin?" Yoda asked, then he shook his head slowly in the negative and continued, "Not victory. The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun the clone war has."
At the same time these meetings where occurring, the deeply troubled and conflicted Obi-Wan Kenobi sat in his Techno Union prototype fighter which could rely on either human or droid control. The ship itself was a droid, even though a human is able to pilot it. It also boasted a very small but useable sleeping quarters right behind the sentient being pilot's station so that it's living pilot could sleep laying down during long trips.
The ship was currently on human control, but this far deep into space the only real control necessary was the keep an eye on your coordinates to make sure you stayed on course. This suited Obi-Wan just fine because he needed the time to ponder his thoughts prior to seeing anyone from the Confederacy again.
His thoughts ranged from how much one could use the darkside of the Force without becoming one of those that the Jedi fought against all those thousands of years ago in the Sith War. He had killed a Jedi, could it have been avoided with negotiation and discussion and resulted with both of them being able to remain alive? If it could have and he failed to pursue those avenues, what did it make him? The Jedi, whom he had never met, knew who he was, was he now considered infamous in the Republic? If he were to land on a Republic world, would be met as a liberator or with fright from the population? For the last ten years he had pushed for systems to leave the corrupt Republic even if it meant war. Now that the war is here, was it such a good idea after all or could working the election process and getting new and honest representation into the key seats remove the corruption of the Republic? Would making examples of the most powerful senators by causing them to loose to long shot opponents have worked instead of bring on a war? Qui-Gon believed so heavily in Count Dooku and his vision. Was Qui-Gon right or had he been deceived in his frustration into following a madman? Is the Count who he says he is?
These were the questions that continued to run through the mind of Obi-Wan not allowing him any satisfaction in the fact that his hard work over the last several years was finally bearing Barba fruit.
Anakin Skywalker stood in the balcony, along with Padme and a Naboo Royal Judge with the beautiful scenery of the Naboo hill country all around them. Anakin was dressed in his finest Confederacy Jedi uniform, Padme wore the traditional Naboo wedding gown and the judge in his formal wedding outfit pronounced them man and wife, although he had been sworn to tell no one of the wedding, not even his own wife.
TO BE CONTINUEDAUTHORS NOTE: I probably should have said this at the beginning of this story but I didn't so here I go now. This is the first chapter of a planned alternate universe trilogy. In this story I covered Episodes one and two. In the next chapter, which I am currently working on a rough outline of, but have other fanfiction projects I want to write before I begin, I will cover an alternate reality of the Dark Horse Clone Wars comic books continuing on this storyline. The third will cover an alternate possibility of Episode Three based upon this story and the second installment. All three of these stories will be written with the end result of bringing the Star Wars Universe full circle so that Episodes Four, Five, and Six can occur almost exactly as the original George Lucas vision. I hope you will continue to read my stories as I write them. Thank you for reading this one. ----Bullfrog.