COUNT DOOKU
He became a sith because he wanted things to change. While some people turned to the dark side blinded by their wrath or lust for power, he did so because he was sickened by the corruption destroying the republic and jedi order from inside.
Greedy politicians, dogmatic jedi and suffering spreading through the galaxy- signs of the broken system, ready to fall under the slightest pressure.
Pressure he was responsible for.
He joined Darth Sidious, hoping he would be able to burn the rot consuming the galaxy, creating a better future in the process. He thought Palpatine would be able to achieve this, that's why he became his apprentice, to use that strength for the benefit of the galaxy.
Now he wasn't so sure if Palpatine was the right choice.
Everything began when Skywalker found that ancient sith. He didn't know much about Darth Imperius, but he knew that the man was dangerous. After his meeting with Palpatine, his former master and Mace Windu ended up in jail while his new master had to be hospitalized, now publicly known as a sith lord. It told him much about the sith, as he had to be extremely crafty and powerful to both survive the fight between strongest force users in the galaxy and out Palpatine as a sith.
He sent Ventress to trail him, trying to find out more about him. She lost him for a while, but was able to catch up to him on Nar Shaddaa, a huttese moon. She approached him, disguising herself as a buyer of jedi artifacts, trying to learn more about him. Dooku didn't know what she was able to sense, but whatever it was, it made her afraid of Darth Imperius. Ventress was an extremely confident woman, fighting even the strongest jedi without any fear. And yet, she was scared of the mysterious sith lord. It was highly alarming.
He would prefer to investigate the man further, but he lost his track after he left Nar Shaddaa. He doubted someone so powerful would stay hidden for long though, so he only had to wait.
For now he had more important matters to deal with. Palpatine.
Ever since his hospitalization, Palpatine's actions started to be extremely irrational. The man who hated the jedi order with burning passion started to get friendly with them. He even went as far as declaring Jedi and Sith official allies! He could have destroyed them with one action, with everything being completely legal, but he decided to suddenly support them! It didn't make any sense!
He joined Sidious because they were supposed to work towards destroying the lies and corruption of the order. He was supposed to destroy the Jedi, not join them!
Because of that, he was now standing in his room, looking at the hologram of Sidious. He was as always in his black robe, his face barely visible. He didn't have to hide being a sith anymore, but people still didn't know about his connection to Dooku, so he was probably still cautious.
"...master," he said with a frosty tone. He didn't care about what Palpatine would think about that attitude. He wanted to know what was going on!
"...apprentice," replied Palpatine after a slight pause. Dooku found it odd, but Palpatine continued speaking before he was able to think about it further " It would seem that you have quite an advantage over the republic" . Was he talking about him increasing the fighting force of the separatists by ordering his subordinates to use more droids? He decided to do that because after he heard about Palpatine being injured, he decided to use the opportunity. Palpatine wouldn't be able to stop him, unconscious on Coruscant, letting him further his plan of destroying the republic unopposed. It would appear that his master wasn't happy about his decision. He didn't care though, not after what Palpatine did.
"I did what I thought was right and I don't intend to change my decision. More importantly, why did you ally with jedi?" He couldn't understand that. It made absolutely no sense.
"Hmm? I saw an opportunity. I would strengthen my position while making Jedi my debtors. Why wouldn't I do that?" Palpatine as if it was obvious. Dooku couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"We were supposed to destroy the order!" He almost shouted. How dare he throw away all their plans like that?
"Did we? What I did was better though, no? Jedi are quite useful as subordinates. You only have to know how to control them" Jedi order was a poison! How could he act like sparing them was the right decision?
He couldn't believe it. He was just like the jedi and the republic, corrupted by greed and complacency.
He felt anger rising within was a sith, a leader of the confederacy and a count of Seerenno. He wouldn't let himself be played with!
"That's not a good reason! Don't you understand that what you are doing is against everything we've been trying to achieve?!"
Palpatine didn't respond for a while, just staring at Dooku quietly. Then he asked him a question.
"Do you intend to go against me then?" Dooku felt a weight on his shoulders. He didn't know if it was Palpatine using his power or his own mind imagined it, afraid of the sith lord. He was doing his best to look confident, so that Palpatine wouldn't see his unease, but he was starting to sweat. He knew how big the difference between them was.
"No, I won't," he said. He was too weak to fight against his master. Yet.
But he would train and gather power. Then, when he would be strong enough, he would kill Palpatine. Now he knew he was the same as the jedi, complacent and ignorant. He would never work for someone like that.
"Then, for now, our business is concluded" said Palpatine and disconnected himself. Leaving Dooku alone with his thoughts.
He knew what he had to do. There was no hope for the republic. Even a sith lord was corrupted by its influence. He had to raze it to the ground and create a new order using the confederacy.
It was not ready though. Seeing how corrupting the republic was, he needed something better to take its place and confederacy had many flaws. Its leadership was made of greedy businessmen, trying to enrich themselves through the war. Planets owned by the confederacy were not united, each standing alone in the crowd. It was not a true society yet.
Before he would be able to crush the republic, he had to change confederacy, so that it would be suited to replace the republic. Laws, culture and unity were needed to make it a real society. It would be a hard task.
But he was ready to try.
SHEEV PALPATINE
After another tiring day as a chancellor, Palpatine returned to his suite. He decided to look through his stuff, trying to remember something about his past. It was very hard to sound convincing when he wasn't able to remember names of most of the people he was seeing!
He must have touched some hidden panel during his search as suddenly a hidden door opened itself before him, revealing a secret room.
Inside Palpatine found a lot of weird things, mostly writings and relics, likely of Sith origin. He couldn't understand most of what he found though, as it was full of some esoteric terms and techniques, regarding some incomprehensible subjects like some sort of cosmic veil, the nature of the dark side and tips for some weird, violent rituals. It all sounded really dangerous, so he decided to ignore them for now.
He found a cool, black robe though! He distantly remembered wearing it often, so he decided to wear it, hoping it would spark some memory.
Sadly It didn't, but the robe was extremely comfortable, made out of some pleasant to the touch material, so he decided to keep it. He would wear it during his free time, as a form of relaxation.
Investigating the room further, he saw some sort of communication device. There was a message about the incoming transmission on its screen, which made Palpatine quite curious. Whoever called him wouldn't be ordinary, not when the device was located in the hidden room. Palpatine decided to answer.
Apparently it was a leader of separatists, Count Dooku himself! What was going on? Why would someone like that call him?!
He decided to act as if he knew what was going on for a time being. Maybe he would understand more during the conversation.
Thanks to that, he learned that his past self was the master of the confederacy's leader, working to destroy the jedi. It sounded extremely dangerous. What was he involved in? Was his past self insane?!
It didn't make any sense. What was the point of killing a group of wizards, who swore to serve you, bound by their oaths and traditions? It was better to indebt them to you and use them as you see fit than to kill them, losing your stronger forces for nothing.
He was somehow able to keep the conversation with Dooku civil, ending it with a promise of future cooperation. It was all extremely complicated, but after thinking about it for a while, he could actually use it. If he were to make peace with separatists, he would become even more popular, gaining more supporters and he would use it to win the election held after the war!
This conversation showed him that he really needed to regain his memories though. It was not normal for a Chancellor of the republic to be a master of the rebellion's leader, plotting to destroy a religious group. There must have been a reason for that. He needed to find out what it was.
He tried to concentrate, focusing on finding any memory of his past self. His thoughts were flowing, searching for anything useful. He could feel he was close to finding something, every second bringing him closer to his target. Then he had a revelation. He remembered something very important...
ANAKIN SKYWALKER
He was angry.
If he were to be honest, it was his default state for the last months. It all started with this insufferable sith lord, arriving out of nowhere and humiliating the entire order with his actions.
Because of him Ahsoka became more distant, constantly looking for something in Jedi archives, only telling him that she was trying to find her own path, whatever that meant. He still enjoyed her company of course, but there was always some shadow looming over her, not letting her be truly happy, which saddened him greatly. Anakin didn't know what to do about that, leaving him constantly irritated.
But it still wasn't as bad as the fact that Chancellor Palpatine, his friend and official ally of the jedi order turned out to be a sith lord! And for some reason they had to just accept that, having to humiliate themselves by working with him and acting as if they were friends, not mortal enemies! He was relieved it was Obi-wan who had to publicly approve of Palpatine, because if it were to be him, he wouldn't be able to do that.
And now that traitor, that manipulative monster was summoning him! He didn't even want to meet Anakin in his office, asking him to come to the spaceship hangar instead, though he didn't know the reason!
If he expected Anakin to still act as his friend after everything that happened, he would be very disappointed. He wouldn't forgive him for betraying his trust and lying to him for all these years!
Anakin entered the hangar, escorted by Chancellor's guards. When he saw Palpatine, he became speechless.
Palpatine, extremely eloquent and stylish politician, lord of the sith, was for some reason working on a pod racer. He didn't recognize the model, but it was undeniably a pod racer. His clothes were dirty and he was smiling happily. What?
"Ah, Anakin. Nice to see you there" said Palpatine after seeing him. He was tweaking something in the machine, using tools laying next to him. "You probably wonder why a Chancellor like me would do something like that. You see, pod racing was a hobby of mine during my youth. Things are chaotic lately so I decided to try it again, as I remembered how fun it was. It sounds silly, but I told myself, 'why not'?" He shrugged, as if it was completely normal for someone of his reputation to pod race. What kind of madness was that?
"...I see" he didn't, but he didn't know what else to say. "But why did you summon me?" He surely wasn't the best person to meet the Chancellor, especially with their past experiences. What he could have possibly wanted from him?
"Well, I heard you are a great pod race pilot. One of the best even. That's why I wanted to ask if you want to have a race?" Palpatine smiled charmingly, as if he was asking for a small favor. What? It was such a stupid idea! There is no way he would do that! Did Palpatine really expect that he would race against a sith lord in a pod race?
*****
He did. He was not proud of it, but he did. And it was great. Palpatine really had a talent when it came to pod racing. Anakin even made a promise to do it again during his next visit to Coruscant. Palpatine was still a sith lord, enemy of the order. They would never be friends again. But there was something pure about that race, something above conflict between two orders. Just two people trying to win the race.
When he left the hangar after the race, tired and happy, Obi-wan was already waiting for him, frowning heavily.
He was in so much trouble, wasn't he?