From the author: This is my first non Soul Calibur fanfiction. I am SUCH a nerd…

This is based on Clones Wars—you know those five to seven minute shorts they showed on Cartoon Network? Yeah… This story is a 50 yr prequel to New Jedi Order- awesome series if you haven't read it. It's the first in a line of SW fictions that I plan.

I don't own Star Wars, but I would LOVE to make Hayden Christenson my bitch… yummy.

xxx thought.

xxx Force sense

ON WITH THE STORY!

Chapter 1

Illusions

"This isn't right, Master; there should be someone here…" The young human Padawan stretched out through the Force, sensing minimal life forms—the combatants on the stage.

"They are here, Padawan; you must trust your senses." The middle-aged female Gotal followed up the retort with a shushing motion. If there is someone here, they must be reigning in their presence.

The human stretched her sense out further. There—over in the booths. A sentient being. A male, bordering between middle-age and elderly. He was incredibly strong in the Force, but the human started when she realized what side of the force it was. Her eyes widened and she glanced to her Master. The Gotal nodded. I sense it, too. Reign yourself in—wait, there's another!

Both Jedi looked towards the viewing booths. A figure cloaked in black, shrouded in anger, leapt from the balustrade to the floor of the arena, directly in the middle of the combatants. She threw off her cloak in a gesture that was more prideful that useful. The cloak had not fluttered to the floor when she was attacked.

"Laurelei, don't." The Gotal put a hand on the human's shoulder; she had been about to leap down to assist the female in the arena. "I sense the dark side in her…"

Laurelei realized that she had been holding in her Force sense more than she should have. She let go in a rush and the result was as if someone were to open the door to a ground transport in a windstorm. She collapsed to her knees.

I know you're here.

Both Jedi started and the Gotal stretched out. Who are you?

You don't remember me, Erlizah? Such a shame.

What are you doing here, Dooku! Erlizah nearly dropped her Padawan; she had helped to her feet. Laurelei staggered, but remained upright.

Just watch; you'll find this most entertaining.

None of these words were actually exchanged through the Force. More like, they were felt in impressions. The 'impressionations' lasted less than two seconds.

Laurelei saw her master's hand go to her lightsaber and uncertainly, hers followed the same path.

And who is this with you? Ah… an apprentice! So you actually managed to find one! The impression through Dooku was one of contempt. Maybe this one won't end up dead like the last one…

Erlizah cringed with anger; Laurelei had to put her hand on the Gotal's wrist to halt her quickdraw. "Master… let's go!"

"We have to stay—we have to see what he's up to!" Erlizah whispered fiercely.

The man named Dooku did not interrupt. Laurelei felt a surge through the Force and saw Dooku float down to the center of the arena. In that Force conversation, the female had killed every combatant in the arena. The two beings stood in the center of the stage, bodies acttered in a macabre pattern. The two Jedi could not hear any of the conversation, but could pick up Force signatures from both beings. From the man, Laurelei could pick up a calm regalness, undertoned with contempt; from the female, there was anger, and, more importantly, fear.

The female suddenly attacked the male human, who turned and did something Laurelei had only heard about in myths. He shot lightning from his hands into the female.

The Padawan heard a thump next to her and turned to see her master Erlizah fall to her knees. She knew what it was. Gotals had horns growing out of their heads that sensed currents of anything: electricity, Force, anything and everything. Those things singly registered as a buzz in the Gotal's horns, giving her a constant headache. Together, the female could not take the pain and she collapsed.

We are so vaped if we can't get out of here!

Two hours later found the two Jedi on a transport off the nameless rock. By the grace of the Force, they had not been noticed by anyone and Dooku had not attempted to contact them through the Force.

Laurelei steered the tiny little craft in silence, stretching out only when needing to sense what was behind one asteroid or another.

The quiet hum of the instruments and controls allowed Laurelei to drift – and think. She put the ship into hyperdrive and leaned back in her seat.

Erlizah was not her master's real name. The Gotal was an orphan, found wandering the street of Coruscant by the great Yoda. The Gotal had been incredibly young, not even out of diapers. It was later found out that her parents had been murdered for a few credits.

Yoda named the Gotal child after a character from a child's story; the female character had long golden hair and waited for her prince to come and rescue her from the tower she was imprisoned in. In a sense, Yoda was her knight in shining armor and Erlizah was exceedingly grateful to the diminutive Jedi Master.

Erlizah had discovered Laurelei when she was still in her mother's womb. The Gotal was loathe to separate them, but Laurelei's mother was in no position to raise a child. She had been raped and the father refused to acknowledge her or the child. On the promise that she would be able to visit the child, Erlizah took Laurelei to the Jedi temple, only to find that, not three hours after the child had been born, her mother had been murdered.

Laurelei was raised as a ward of the Temple. She was almost nearly as talented as Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom she idolized, but not enough to attract the attention of Qui-Gon Jinn, the Master everyone clamored to be selected by. Hurt and angry, Laurelei isolated herself from everyone, teaching herself the ways of the Force through books.

Erlizah had returned and noticed her potential, while walking in on the 11 year old and seeing her make her bed, dust her dresser and clean the windows while never lifting a finger, nose in a book. She was claimed as an apprentice hours later.

A jolt through the craft woke Laurelei up. The craft reverted from hyperspace to real space just near Coruscant.

"Unidentified craft, this is Sergeant Kris Yardon from the Jedi Tower. Identify yourself."

Laurelei gave the sergeant her FF- friend or foe code and the sergeant cleared her for landing.

Hesitating, she stretched out through the Force and suggested her master to wake up. Erlizah did so. "… where are we, Padawn?"

"Coruscant, Master; I escaped without recognition."

Erlizah pursed her lips in a very human gesture. "We must tell the Council of what we saw…"