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Narglatch in Shaak's Clothing Chapter 9

65 BBY

"Master Dooku! Master Dooku!" The shout down the hall turns his head through the sheer alarm that he senses in it. Dooku spots a tall and muscular Arkanian youth almost running down the Temple hall, his milky white eyes blown wide with alarm. His heart sinks. Padawan Cheso Market, apprentice to the Weequay master Jax Tarem, and an all-around ingratiating, self-righteous boy.

Also one of Palpatine's worst enemies, which explains his own padawan trailing behind the Arkanian, eyes snapping with ice-blue irritation.

Reluctantly, Dooku stops in his tracks and turns to fully face the approaching padawans. Both are red-faced and breathing heavily, almost as if they have been sparring. Then he notices the torn sleeve on Cheso's right arm, and the long red welt over Palpatine's cheek and nose. Cheso grasps something in his hands, and Dooku catches the gleam of shiny metal.

"Compose yourself, Sheev," he tells Palpatine, who wears a hunted, angry expression, thin lips compressed to almost nothing. "Both of you, this is unacceptable behavior for students as old as you are."

Palpatine's expression does not change, but Cheso instantly becomes contrite. "My deepest apologies, Master Dooku, but something has come to my attention about Padawan Palpatine."

"I'm accustomed to dealing with my own padawan in my own way, Padawan Cheso," Dooku says, emphasizing the boy's unimpressive title. "Any concerns are my business."

Cheso either chooses to ignore him or is truly thick, because he beams like Dooku has awarded him a medal. "Then you will glad to hear this, Master." He lifts his hand, revealing a small hilt of a lightsaber. Dooku blinks, not understanding.

Cheso jerks his leonine head in Palpatine's direction. He towers over Dooku's padawan, but at this moment in time, Dooku only feels sorry for the Arkanian. Palpatine's eyes blaze with resentment and cold fury, and also a strange and alien apprehension. He won't fully look at Dooku, which surprises the Jedi Knight.

"I was working on repairs for Master Tarem's starship, out in Bay 13, when I discovered Padawan Palpatine in one of the back rooms. He was working on this," Cheso announces triumphantly and drops the handle into Dooku's outstretched hand. The hilt is small, tailored to slender, long-fingered hands. The craftsmanship is flawless and elegant, Dooku can see immediately. What… Is that the golden gleam of aurodium at the blade-base? And phrik alloy? The handgrip is curved to perfection, and the lightsaber reminds him not so much of a deadly weapon as it does an exquisite work of art.

Dooku looks up sharply at his padawan. Palpatine swallows and glances away. "I can explain, Master. If Padawan Market could mind his own business…"

Dooku frowns. In the Force across their bond, he can sense that Palpatine desperately does not want the blade ignited here in the hallway. He offers a curt nod. "I think that would be wise. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Padawan Cheso."

Cheso's face falls. "You don't understand, Master Dooku. If you would just - "

"That will be all, Padawan," Dooku repeats and turns away without waiting for a reply. Summarily dismissed, Cheso glares at Palpatine, then grins and strides away, his work done. Palpatine trails after his master and follows him into their quarters, where he hovers by the door as if he would like nothing more than to flee.

Dooku makes his way to the couch and sits, the small handle in his left hand. He jerks his chin toward the opposite chair. "Sit."

The teenager does very slowly, every muscle tense and eyes trained on the floor.

"Is this yours?"

He looks up. "Yes."

Dooku ignites the blade, and the crimson glow fills the small, dimly lit room. The Force inhales with him as he takes in the bright laser, the deep thrum of the energy. For a moment, Dooku can only stare at it, and then his eyes land on his padawan. "It is well for you that you did not lie, at least," he rumbles.

"Master - "

"What is the meaning of this?"

The thunder in his voice would put the weather regulators to shame. Palpatine appears to wilt under the onslaught, but his eyes are openly confused. "I – I needed another blade, Master. I've begun studying Jar'Kai…"

"I care nothing about a second lightsaber," Dooku growls. He stands from the couch and advances on his padawan. "I want to know the meaning of this." And he shakes the blade a half meter from Palpatine's face.

Palpatine's jaw works for a moment before he can reply. "I put a request into the supply depot, Master, but I was denied. Master Choniik said I wasn't ready for a second lightsaber, but I know I am."

"So what? You decide to make one on your own?" Dooku shakes his head. "With a red blade and exorbitant materials like these? What possessed you, Padawan?"

"I couldn't get a real crystal, Master. I had to locate a synthetic one." His face hardens. "And I didn't steal the parts, if that's what you're implying. Senator –"

Dooku shuts off the blade and tosses the handle at his padawan. Palpatine catches it with feline reflexes, and Dooku watches the way his fingers lovingly curl around the hilt. "You've brought the Senate into this?"

Palpatine dares to smile. "He owed me a large favor…"

Force preserve them all! Dooku raises his eyes to the ceiling as though the answer might be found there. No such luck… When his gaze descends, Palpatine has lost the smile and stares solemnly up at him. "Padawan Cheso is an idiot, but you are more so for letting him catch you with something like this," Dooku sighs. "This will be all over the Temple by the end of the day's rotation. The Council will call you to an account. You will most likely be censured."

Palpatine shows no surprise or contrition. "There is a precedent for this, Master. I made sure to do my homework before starting the project, and I was planning to introduce it to the Council soon. If the Council –"

Dooku cuts him off. "Don't presume to second-guess the Council. The Council will do what the Council does, and you will be fortunate to escape with your hide intact. I will hear no more."

True to form, Cheso's tongue wags across the Temple, and Palpatine's hearing is set three days hence. In the meantime, Dooku struggles to come to terms with his padawan's brazen actions. He confiscates the lightsaber and takes it to the Council, where the strongest Force users pour over it, searching for any hint of darkness in the blade's construction.

Even Nee Lista, a Nautolan master renowned for her skill in psychometry, hands the blade back to Dooku with a perplexed shrug and furrowed brow, her purple eyes liquid pools of confusion. "I feel no darkness, Knight Dooku, but neither do I feel anything else about your padawan. Most strange." Tell me about it, Dooku thinks, indulging in a rare moment of self-sarcasm.

They ultimately find nothing, but the color of the laser and his padawan's deception remain issues for most of the members. Dooku is more exasperated than worried, and eventually he lets Palpatine know that he is forgiven through the thawing of his icy glare and the surreptitious return of the blade. "Don't wield it until the matter is settled," he grumbles.

On the day of the hearing, Palpatine walks the council through a convoluted history of lightsaber crystals and construction, until their eyes begin to glaze with the sheer boredom of it. Only Yoda appears to fully listen, his ears bobbing along with each new point Palpatine makes. Dooku grins at his padawan's blatant attempt to sidetrack. Each question a Jedi master offers, he deflects with masterful humility. Yoda keeps his own council for the majority of the hearing.

When the questions begin to die away, and the masters' frustrations can be felt in the Force, Yoda steps in. "The color of passion, of blood, red is. The Jedi do not engage in our passions, Padawan. Seek peace and harmony in the Force, we do. We are not slaves to our emotions, as others in the galaxy are. Serve the Force instead, we do."

"And as Jedi, we control our passions in much the same way we control our lightsaber blades, Master Yoda. The color of a lightsaber blade means nothing, ultimately," Palpatine meets the Jedi Master's gaze head-on. "In fact, in my studies of the Archives, three other Jedi have been recorded to carry red or violet crystals in the last two hundred years alone."

"Agree with you I do, that color matters not," Yoda intones. "But intent, everything that is. Seek to understand why you have chosen this blade, we do."

Palpatine stares at the diminutive master. "Do you ask other padawans why they choose a green blade? Or a blue? Why the crystals call to them?"

Dooku winces and wants to bury his head in his hands from where he stands in the shadows of the Council room. Now is not the time to be stubborn, Sheev. The Council is not always open to logical thinking.

Yoda's ears flatten along the tips, and his large green eyes narrow. "Ask them, we do not, because green and blue blades are not often associated with the forces of darkness, Padawan Palpatine."

Palpatine refuses to look away, and Dooku can tell the entire Council is taken aback by his boldness. He keeps his voice neutrally polite and respectful as he addresses the Jedi Master. "You were alive when those Jedi lived, Master Yoda. Can you tell me that they turned to the Dark Side due to the color of their blades?"

Yoda's lips tighten in what may be a faint smile. "Turned to the Dark Side, they did not, Padawan. A fact you know already."

For the first time, Palpatine colors slightly in his cheeks. His dips his head submissively. "I was seeking only to make my point, Master."

"And perhaps you have."

The Council collectively perks up its ears at that, several of the masters glancing incredulously between the young human and Yoda. "He's shameless," Dooku hears one of them whisper to another. The green master sits perched on his seat, inscrutable and unknown. He looks just as he did when Dooku studied with him and pushed his own boundaries. For some reason, that makes the Jedi Knight very, very nervous.

Palpatine begins to take a deep breath, thinking that his ordeal is over and he has once again survived the odds. Yoda clears his throat, and the room freezes. "However, know you may not, that took a personal interest in those Jedi padawans, I did. Do the same with you, I think I shall."

Dooku feels his eyes bugging out of his head, and he strokes furiously at his trim beard to keep from saying anything. Palpatine glances wildly to him, expression open and pleading, and Dooku shrugs. You've gotten yourself into this one, Padawan. Don't look to me to pull you out. He realizes after a moment, he is amused. Deeply amused. Perhaps now Palpatine will be more careful in whom he tries to manipulate.

This will be a lesson well-learned.

I will never doubt you again, my old friend, he thinks at Yoda, and imagines that the Jedi Master's conspiratorial smile is meant for him.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Dooku, you're worse than an indulgent grandparent! This kid needs boundaries! So, evidently in the EU, a few rare Jedi were known to wield red lightsabers, Adi Gallia being among them for a time. I thought it seemed appropriate for a rule-bender like Palpatine. He squeaks by on so many technicalities, but Yoda might be on to him. Thanks for reading.