LordDarthYoda - Yes, you think that everyone is going to be seduced by the dark side ;). Will it happen? Who knows! You are right that Palpatine would see right through the ruse, but Dooku...Dooku is arrogant, he might not see it coming...

SpeechBubbleme - Yeah, set-up chapters are a necessary evil, but I like putting in things that are fun in those chapters, but nothing really fun really came to mind. Oh well. We are on to the good stuff, starting...now

A/N - Huzzah, my writer's block is gone :). I enjoyed this chapter. Hopefully you will too! Really wish that Dooku had like...a last name. Would make writing easier :p.

As always, Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 24: Serenno

Sascha Whitestar and Nara Nalto had just landed on Serenno and things were already going poorly. Their little ship, which they had taken out from the Jedi Temple a few days ago, was currently on the ground in Serenno, in a spaceport near the capital city. Which was good. What was bad was that when he and Nara had announced that they had wanted to land on Serenno, the control tower had sent them to a spaceport outside the capital and told them to wait until their ship could be 'investigated' by customs.

The customs investigators had come and gone, and the two Jedi had been nothing but polite to the men and women that were simply doing their job, which was (apparently) searching the ship for contraband. They had none, of course. Their ship, the Noble Envoy was fresh from the Temple and it wasn't like they were smuggling in some exotic fruits.

The investigators had left the ship about an hour ago, but he and Nara had still not been allowed to disembark. The two Jedi were playing it calm for now, but Nara was starting to pace around the ship. The Togruta didn't like to feel 'trapped' and while they weren't trapped in a traditional sense (they could easily take off and leave), Sascha sympathized with her. Predators didn't like being trapped.

"Do you want to hear my theory about why we are being forced to wait?" he asked, as Nara paced towards the end of the ship. For his part, he remained in the captain's chair, waiting for a response from the authorities on Serenno.

"Is there any possible response I could make that would make you not tell me what your theory is?" asked Nara.

"No."

Nara sighed.

"My theory is that Dooku is coming here to see us."

Nara stopped in her tracks, "Seriously?"

Sascha shrugged, "It's a long shot, but it rings true for me. Why else would they be delaying us with this nonsense? Who or what are they waiting for? If they wanted us to leave, they wouldn't have let us land. So I think they are waiting for someone to show up. And who else would have a vested interest in meeting the two Jedi who have suddenly decided to show up. One former Jedi Master Dooku."

"If you are right, I'm never going to hear the end of it, am I?"

"I'm pretty magnanimous, I thought?"

"You thought wrong," laughed Nara. "But what happens if he does show up?"

"We fight him and defeat him in an epic lightsaber duel," he said sarcastically. That remark drew a smile from Nara, but he continued more seriously, "We have to play it straight with him. He'll be too good at determining if we are lying if we try to do that. White lies are probably the best we can manage."

Nara stopped pacing and settled into the co-pilot's chair, turning her big blue eyes towards him, "Would it really matter if he knew we were lying?"

Sascha shrugged, "It kind of defeats our purpose of being here. We are supposed to be the benign ones. If we give Dooku cause to believe that the Jedi might be monitoring him, then we imperil the others."

Nara's eyes showed comprehension, "Gotcha, on the rare, almost impossible possibility that Dooku is coming here to talk to us, we'll be honest. But not completely honest."

"You've got it."

Nara swung back around in her seat, "Got anything fun that we can do while we wait?"

"We could practice kissing?" he suggested with a droll smile.

"Close your eyes and pucker your lips and you can kiss my fist as I punch you in the mouth," Nara deadpanned.

Sascha laughed, which started Nara laughing as well. Sascha enjoyed flirting with Nara, because Nara knew exactly how to take it, not at all seriously.

The comm buzzed, indicating an incoming call, "Noble Envoy here."

"Noble Envoy you will lower your starboard ramp and receive passengers, copy?"

"Understood," he replied. He turned to Nara, "Now look into the Force and see if you can find Dooku. He should be close," he said sarcastically.

Sascha went and lowered the boarding ramp, wondering who else the authorities on Serenno were going to send to delay them. Maybe they'd be lucky and these would be from the organizers of the event.

"Uh, Sascha," said Nara, hustling to join him at the top of the ramp, "Maybe we should..."

He took one look towards Nara and then one look towards man that was striding towards them. It was hard to misidentify this person, since he had been researching him for days. Dooku.

Dressed in a dark green robe with stylish accents that were of various different colours, Dooku certainly seemed to carry an aura of wealth and power. Dooku's hair was thinning, but the grey-white hair on the top of his head seemed to add an additional air of nobility to him. The last thing that Sascha noted was that Dooku was tall. Dooku was probably approaching 2 meters tall, which meant that he was substantially taller than both him and Nara.

Sascha stared, dumbstruck at the approaching figure. Nara tapped him on his right shoulder, snapping him out of his daze.

"Master Dooku," Sascha said, bowing politely. "It is an honor and a pleasure to meet you. Though I am unsure as to what we have done to earn it."

Dooku stopped at the bottom of the ramp and looked up at the two Jedi, as if they were completely unimportant, "I will have to apologize, but I do not know either of your names."

"I'm Sascha Whitestar, and this is Nara Nalto. We are here to participate in the Tykon Youth Leadership Summit. I understand it starts in a few hours," Sascha said pointedly. He would get nowhere in this conversation if he let Dooku run him over. He had to show a little spine in this conversation.

Dooku put a booted foot on the ramp, "May I join you aboard your ship?"

Nara glanced backwards into the ship, "It's barely got seating for three," she said dubiously.

Dooku smiled faintly, "I am aware of how rustic and austere most Jedi ships are, Padawans."

Sascha decided that there was nothing that they could exactly do to prevent Dooku from boarding their ship, so he shrugged and waved the former Jedi Master inside the ship. There wasn't much of a lounge inside the Noble Envoy, just some foldable trestle tables that one could raise or lower depending on the circumstances. Sascha used a switch to lower them to the floor of the ship. Dooku glanced at them dubiously and Sascha saw the problem, the tables were fine for he and Nara, but Dooku, being longer and lankier than the two Padawans, would not be as comfortable.

"Next time we can meet on your ship," joked Nara.

Dooku, to Sascha's surprise, laughed. Not an overpowering laugh, but a nice little chuckle at a good joke. The former Jedi Master did his best to take a seat, but still looked rather awkward sitting at a table that was too small for him.

"How can we help you, Master Dooku?" asked Sascha.

"You can help me by telling me why you are here." Dooku spoke placidly, but you would have to be an idiot not to notice the threat underneath the words. Dooku's speaking voice, while dulcet, carried with it an almost unspoken power.

"We are here to attend the Tykon Youth Leadership Summit," he said, repeating his answer from earlier.

"Are you really?" mused Dooku. "The organizers of the Summit have no record of extending an invitation to the Jedi Order."

And how would you know that, Dooku? Sascha almost asked. Instead, Nara responded, "We figured that we would be welcomed at an event that likes to be inclusive." The Togruta shrugged, trying to seem casual, "Besides, the Jedi used to send a delegation to the Tykon Youth Leadership Summit every year. We figured that we should probably resurrect the tradition."

"Indeed," said Dooku. "One might wonder if there is an ulterior method at work."

Nara blinked, her wide eyes feigning ignorance, "I can't imagine what that would be?"

Dooku smiled thinly, "It is just strange for the Jedi Order, which so loves its bureaucracy and doing things the 'right' way to just decide unilaterally to attend an event like this without informing the organizers. I wonder why that would be..."

"You think the Jedi Order is spying on you," Sascha said flatly. He made a tiny gesture with his hands, "Well, it is your right to think that of course, and I understand if you want to send us away. We'll return to the Jedi Temple."

"Hrm.. I do not think that Jedi gave up so easily," purred Dooku dangerously.

"Our orders were to explicitly avoid antagonizing you," said Nara, speaking the truth. It was specifically both of their orders to not have any contact with Dooku, besides what was necessary. "So if you wish us to leave, we'll be off as soon as our engines heat up again."

Dooku looked at both of them studying them both from behind his intense eyes. Sascha felt like he was naked under Dooku's gaze, it was, to say the least, a profoundly disturbing experience. "Why did you want to attend the Tykon Youth Leadership Summit?" Dooku said at last.

"We both, Nara and I, we both feel that the Jedi Order has stopped doing things that we used to do. These days we sit in our Temple too much, we don't get out there and be seen. We need to be seen helping people, that's the strength of the Jedi Order, empowering others to do good works and good deeds, that is how the Jedi Order is supposed to be...in our opinion at least."

"And you aren't here to spy on me?" asked Dooku as if he was asking what planets they were born on.

Sascha had to think of an answer on the fly, "Master Dooku, if the Jedi wanted to spy on you...do you really think they'd send us? Two Padawans that you've probably never heard of? Padawans that announced themselves upon landing?"

"It would be an interesting strategy," said Dooku, appearing to admit defeat.

"Is there anything else we can help you with, Master Dooku?" asked Nara.

"No, that is quite all right," said Dooku, standing from the trestle table. "I assume you have all your things? We'll be heading for the Summit right away."

"Pardon me?" asked Nara.

Dooku smiled at the Togruta, "Well, I can hardly have you come all this way and have you be turned away from the Summit by the organizers. I will come with you and make sure that everything goes smoothly."

Sascha froze. What the heck was going on here?

Fortunately Nara was more on the ball than he was. She elbowed him surreptitiously in the back and nodded to Dooku, "Of course, just let Sascha and I get our things. They are just in the back."

"I'll wait for you here," said Dooku, moving towards the ramp and withdrawing a datapad, pressing some buttons on it.

"We'll be back in a bit," said Nara, smiling genially.

Nara led Sascha back to the rear of the ship where their quarters were located. Sascha wasn't quite sure what to make of this latest turn of events. He also didn't want to talk it out with Nara for fear of Dooku overhearing something that he wasn't meant to overhear. Instead they tried to communicate via hand signals.

Sascha expressed his displeasure with the current turn of events, but admitted that they had to stay the course. Nara nodded, and punched him on the shoulder. He punched her back. That was the one thing that they could rely upon, each other. He had Nara's back and she had his.

The two Jedi returned with their packs slung over their shoulders. Dooku was still waiting at the top of the ramp. Sascha wished that their target would disappear into thin air. The longer they spent around Dooku, the greater the chances that Dooku would discover their real reason for being here. But it wasn't like they had any alternative.

This mission was going off the rails right from the start.

Gyal City, Serenno

Aurine Byrnar would never admit it to anyone other than herself and her old Master, but she really enjoyed being in seedy cantinas. Unlike most women, Aurine, of course, had no fear of actually being hurt or drugged by some sort of nefarious character. In fact, if someone pressed their luck too far with her, she would gladly sort them out with a good punch to the nose (or equivalent alien body part). So she was glad to be in the Green Brisk Hotel bar.

Whoever had opened this cantina had clearly had a fairly loose grasp of basic, as the Green Brisk Hotel bar was not part of hotel, nor was it green. The cantina was located in a rougher part of Gyal city, one of the places where the people that worked on the estates of the big families on Serenno would come to drink their sorrows away. The place was dusty, dirty and every piece of electronics in the place seemed to be anywhere from fifty to a hundred and fifty years old.

Aurine Byrnar loved it.

Her companion, Tiplee, did not.

The two Jedi Knights had arrived on Serenno two days prior on an unremarkable passenger liner without any problems. Since that time they had tried to judge the mood on the planet. Their investigation had brought them to Gyal City, one of the smaller cities on the planet, and one that proudly held a reputation of holding a slightly different opinions then the larger, more populous and richer cities. Not that Gyal City wasn't plenty rich. Serenno was one of the richest planets in the entire galaxy, Gyal City just happened to be lower on the scale.

Tiplee, for once dressed in civilian clothing, looked dubiously at the drink that was in front of her. She had ordered a Strewcaster Snobreeze, an exotic but relatively easy to make drink that was a favourite during hot days on Coruscant. Unfortunately, the barkeeping at the Green Brisk Hotel bar, was not exactly of the highest standards and the droid seemed to have made a hash of the drink.

Aurine's ale, in comparison, seemed to be just fine.

"When do you think the first bar fight will break out," asked Tiplee.

"Give it time, the participants need a few drinks in them before the entertainment can begin," Aurine replied.

Tiplee's mouth dropped open, and then she shook her head, "I thought that bars like this only existed in novels and holodramas."

Aurine waved a hand expansively, "You can find places like this on every planet in the galaxy. Where hope can always be found at the bottom of your drink."

"It seems like you are at home," Tiplee remarked.

Aurine grinned. She had a feeling that whoever her parents were, they may have met in a place like this. "We are just here because our journalist friend wanted to meet here," she reminded Tiplee.

"We should have met at his home," sighed Tiplee.

"I didn't get a choice of venue," Aurine replied.

The journalist they were speaking of, Delx Greevenson, was a name that had come to Aurine's attention early on. An outspoken critic of Dooku, it seemed to Aurine that Delx Greevenson knew more about Dooku than just about anyone on the planet. It had taken some cajoling, but Aurine had gotten Delx to meet. The human's only condition? He got to pick where they met.

"How did you get Delx to even meet with you, anyway?" asked Tiplee.

"I told him I had information on Dooku," she replied.

"So he has no idea he's meeting with Jedi."

"He hasn't the faintest idea," she said.

"Ah. Well this shall be fun," said Tiplee, lifting her drink and deciding to take a sip. Her eyes closed and her cheeks puckered. The Rishati clearly was not a fan of her drink. "Next time I'm ordering water."

"No alcohol in water."

"That would be the point," smiled Tiplee.

"Boring," said Aurine.

"That would also be the point," said Tiplee, wagging a finger at her.

Aurine's comlink buzzed. She had told Delx to buzz her when he arrived at the bar. She glanced up and saw someone of Delx's approximate height and weight dressed in a concealing cloak near the front of the bar. "Excuse me, I have to go grab us a journalist."

Aurine slipped away from her table and picked her way carefully to the front of the bar. Fortunately for her, Delx was looking for someone that had her (fairly unique) physical appearance, so Delx was able to spot her and meet her halfway. She declined to offer her name and simply pointed to her table at the back of the room.

Delx was a human in his mid-thirties that possessed a certain rakish air. His cloak was pulled around him pretty tightly but Aurine could still see his nicely trimmed beard and facial hair, along with his intelligent, deep set eyes.

"You must be Aurine," said Delx. "Drinks are on you, right?"

"I'm Aurine and this is Tiplee. And yes, drinks are on us." She hoped that Delx would tell them what she wanted to know before he got drunk.

"So," said Delx, gesturing to the barkeeping droid for a drink, "What information did you want to share about everyone's favourite ex-Jedi, Dooku?"

"We have information," Aurine said coyly, "But we have some questions for you first."

Delx rolled his eyes, "Give me information or I'm gone."

Aurine nudged Tiplee, and the Rishati picked up her lightsaber and dropped it authoritatively on the table.

Delx stared at the device for a long few moments, his eyes wide.

"And before you ask, it's real," stated Tiplee.

Delx made a move to touch it, but Tiplee grabbed it back before he could.

Aurine leaned forward, "Now. We have some questions, and if you answer them, I guarantee you'll learn some things about Dooku that you did not know before."

Delx took a deep breath, "Let me get my drink first. A man needs to think about what he's going to say when confronted by a pair of...Jedi." Delx said the last word with a sort of low reverence.

Delx's drink, an exotic, imported ale, raised Aurine's eyebrows, "I can't believe I'm paying for that."

"Cost of doing business." Delx looked around and decided that there was no one close enough to overhear. "Okay, lets start at the beginning. You know how things work on Serenno, correct?"

Aurine recited from memory, "The planet's wealth is controlled by many competing families, the same as planets like Kuat. There's generally speaking a few very strong families and many smaller families that are always looking to supplant the main families. There are some unspoken rules that cannot be broken, but basically all competition is done through business and not through things like murder etc. These rules are generally enforced, but there is always the odd incident that occurs."

Delx nodded, "You've got the gist. One thing that you've missed was that the media is supposed to be left alone to do it's own business. No family is supposed to own the media. They can all influence it, of course, but journalists are not targets in their little wealth wars."

"Understood," said Tiplee.

"Now how does Dooku fit into all this? What is he doing?"

Delx leaned back in his chair, "So Dooku's family gave him up to the Jedi when he was like ...four years old or something. It shouldn't have been a problem. Dooku had two older brothers that were rumored to be quite talented. The family's line of succession was secure. His family figured that having a Jedi Knight in the family could be quite handy down the line. I don't think they ever really understood that when they gave him over to the Jedi that they were not going to get to contact him until the Jedi training took hold."

"What happened to Dooku's brothers?" asked Tiplee.

Delx took a drink, "See the funny thing about brothers, is they tend to do things together. And that involves traveling together. Twenty years ago, they were off planet with their wives. They went out for drinks and had a few too many. Then they decided that they would drive home. Both families. One speeder." Delx winced, "You see where this one is going."

"Yes," said Aurine quietly.

"This was, of course, a disaster for Dooku's family. Their only biological son was now a Jedi and out of contact."

"They tried to make contact with Dooku, I assume," said Aurine.

"I can only guess that they did," said Delx. "It didn't matter in the end. Dooku's parents put everything into a trust and left it for their Jedi son. It was a gamble. Dooku could have easily have taken it and given it to charity, or thrown it all into the sea. He was supposed to be a respected Jedi Master at this point. Of course, you know as well as I do, that he was deeply unhappy in the Jedi Order."

"Right," said Aurine. She had known most of this from preliminary research, but a few drips and tidbits were interesting. "When did Dooku return home?"

Delx shook his head, "I don't know. I'd call myself Serenno's foremost authority on Dooku, but I have limits. If Dooku wants to travel in secret, he travels in secret."

"Perhaps a better question is when people became aware that he was 'home'," said Tiplee.

"Before he left the Jedi Order for good. It was probably several months before the fracas on Naboo. By that time it was clear that Dooku had taken over his family's wealth. His parents passed away soon after that."

Aurine frowned, "So before he left the Jedi, he had publicly been named as head of his house?"

Delx clucked his tongue, "Not publically, no. But it was known to all the important players in the game."

"One might think that having a Jedi Master being at the head of one of Serenno's most powerful families might have raised a few concerns," said Tiplee.

"Concerns, yes. But what could they do? He was a Jedi Master," said Delx.

"They should have banded together and ousted him," said Tiplee.

Delx smiled at the two Jedi, "The families of Serenno couldn't come together to do anything. Some must have seen it as the chance to ally with a powerful house. Some may have thought that they could manipulate him." Delx smiled sadly, "They never saw it coming."

"Saw what coming?"

Delx waited for an inebriated Rodian to stagger past their table before speaking again, "Dooku changed the game."

"How?" asked Aurine.

"Dooku either doesn't know or doesn't care about the rules, as they have existed informally for years," Delx said. "Dooku is already the most powerful man on Serenno. No one else seems ready to believe it."

"You've been reporting on it," she pointed out.

"When, I can get published, yes," said Delx bitterly. "But no one wants to hear the truth. The truth doesn't sell magazines/"

"Give me an example," said Aurine. "From our perspective it just appears that Dooku is conducting business as normal."

"Well, he's being smart about it. But one overt thing he's done is he's taken over one of the news networks on Serenno."

"Like...literally?" asked Tiplee.

"No. But they've basically dedicated themselves to running pro-Dooku stories at least once a day. And, to put the icing on the cake, Dooku has lavishly rewarded the head of the network, Besit Rallio, with an unofficial position within his estate. A conflict of interest, one would think."

"And the other families?" she asked. "Are they doing nothing?"

"Oh, I'm sure there is discussion. They just can't agree to do anything."

Aurine and Tiplee shared a look, "Anything else?"

Delx looked around, again making sure that no one could overhear him. Delx seemed to be afraid to speak, but he did anyway, "There are coincidences that, in my opinion appear to be linked. The only thing that they do is seem to give Dooku more power."

"Examples?"

"I'll give you one, and I'll send the others to you later. You can investigate them on your own, if you'd like." Delx took another drink from his beer, and Aurine realized that she was clenching her fists by her sides. She forced herself to came down and unclench her fists.

"There's a minor house, whose ancestral home is near Dooku's. Their families have been rivals for thousands of years. Until a few months ago, when they suddenly became allies. What happened, I hear you ask?"

"Yup."

"This family has the misfortune of only having one heir. That makes him extraordinarily valuable, for obvious reasons. He was sent to Chandrilla for his studies, when he disappeared. Everyone assumed that he was being held for ransom. Then, miraculously, he appears back on Serenno, completely unharmed. The next day, Dooku and this rival house signs a treaty of cooperation, that essentially made it that so that Dooku has access to both these houses." Delx took a breath, "There are similar stories across the planet, where the end result is Dooku gains power."

"What is your conclusion?" asked Tiplee.

Delx nodded, looking stricken, "My conclusion is this. Dooku is, for all intents and purposes, the Prime Minister of Serenno, with all the resources that implies. And my feeling is that he's not going to stop at Serenno. Why would he? He's interested in Empire."

Aurine Brynar had a deep unsettling feeling settle into the pit of her stomach. Dooku was not sitting idly by. Dooku was a threat.