COUNT DOOKU

He was facing possibly the biggest challenge in his entire life. No force technique, no training with Darth Sidious and no fight against a member of the jedi order was even half as difficult as his current task.

Maybe it was the force, testing him? To see if he was ready to step out of his master's shadow and create something completely new all by himself, free of any outside influence?

He looked at the object of his focus, before letting his mind flow, deciding he needed a quick break.

War was going well, if such a thing could be said about something as monstrous as war. Republic and Confederacy forces were at a standstill, with neither faction capable of breaking the stalemate. Previous victories of the confederacy, caused by the increased production of the droid army, were mitigated by Core worlds starting to create their own armies in response, consisting of actual troops instead of Jango Fett clones, significantly increasing Republic's strength.

Ironically, it was actually quite beneficial to Dooku, as such action meant decreased morale on the Republic side, as republic citizens wouldn't be happy with such a development. It would also make Core worlds bleed, as droids are easy to replace. People? Not so much. Dooku just had to wait for these planets to deplete their resources.

It all meant that short-term losses suffered now would lead to many benefits in the future. Things were going in the right direction.

There were some complications though. He was recently betrayed by Asajj Ventress and Savage Opress. They were obviously unsuccessful in their assassination attempt, but it meant that he was the only real force user on confederacy side. Sidious turned out to be as bad as the ones he supposedly was fighting against and nightsisters were trying to dispose of him from the start, so he had no one capable on his side when it came to the force.

He sent Grievous to hunt these witches down, deciding to teach them the lesson, but he didn't get any report from him yet.

For now, he would have to think about convincing other force users to join him to fill the void. Maybe this new sith lord, Adas Kallig? He would have to gather more data about him before he would do anything, but it was something to consider.

He heard knocking. He turned his head to the door, only to see his assistant, Abert, entering the room. He was a small neimoidian, clothed in a simple robe, almost blending into the background with how unassuming he looked. Albert didn't have any battle prowess, nor was he a great leader. In truth, he was quite weak and timid. He was however irreplaceable when it came to paperwork and planning Dooku's schedule, which was a reason he was hired as was now working at his side.

As Dooku decided to change Confederacy into something greater, more of his time was being consumed by various chores and meetings, not to mention his current task. Having an assistant was a huge boon, and Abert was the best when it came to that.

There was just one problem with him though...

"Yes, Abert?" Dooku said, returning to work. He didn't need any distractions and he already suspected why he was there.

"Yes! You are scheduled to meet with Wat Tambor in an hour" he then looked nervously at things lying in front of Dooku "And..."

And there it was. Abert's problem was that he didn't understand Dooku's plans. Not truly. He didn't hold it against him though. Not many were able to grasp it.

"I will remember that, Abert," he replied. He was about to return to his task, when noticed that Abert didn't leave. "Yes?" He raised a brow. What else did he have to say?

"Sir, you have been staying here for hours..." Abert started, clearly worried. It was honorable, in its own way, that he was worrying about his superior. He didn't have any reason to do that though.

"You don't have to worry Abert. I know what I'm doing" Dooku said with conviction. Seeing that he wouldn't change his mind, Abert just sighed and left the room.

Now, without any further interruptions, Dooku could return to his task. His greatest challenge! He looked at objects in front of him.

Before him laid various notebooks and documents, all full of ideas and plans. The entire desk was filled with them, indicating how much time Dooku spent working on them.

Currently he was working on two projects, out of hundreds he already thought about.

The first of the open notebooks had "First annual Pod-Racing tournament of the Confederacy of Independent Systems (name to be changed)" written on its cover. Not the most creative name, but he was sure he would be able to come with the better one in the future.

It was actually one of his most brilliant ideas! sports connected people, so it would be one of the first steps in bringing a real culture to the confederacy!

Its citizens would see representatives of their planets racing against each other, bringing everyone closer in the process! It would be the first element of the culture belonging solely to the confederacy, as the Republic didn't have anything similar! It was brilliant!

Another notebook consisted of ideas about the future anthem. The Confederacy already had a battle anthem, but Dooku knew they needed something more. The current song didn't have the universal appeal the anthem needed to have, so he had to come up with something new. He still couldn't decide which style of music would be the best or what words to use, but he was so close to figuring it out!

Dooku could see it now, all citizens brought together by common traditions, marching against the Republic as they had something worth fighting for!

SHEEV PALPATINE

Palpatine was relaxing in his personal spaceship, waiting until he would reach Odessen, a recently rediscovered planet, where Yoda and other force users planned to conduct the ritual to disperse something called the veil of the dark side.

Palpatine didn't know much about it, but he had some texts related to the subject on his person, so he decided he would gain some good will by bringing it to the force users. His plan was to recruit various force sensitive groups to the republic, as well as convincing Yoda to return to the Jedi order, so a small gift wouldn't hurt. Hopefully this and pardon for Yoda would be enough to convince them that he had good intentions and they should consider working for him.

He was disturbed from his thoughts by the sudden voice.

"Sir, we have an incoming transmission," said one of his subordinates. "It's coming from someone named Adas Kallig. Should we answer?"

Kallig? He knew that name. He was the sith lord, who was present during his fight against Windu and Yoda, wasn't he? He was quite interested in contacting him, unfortunately he didn't have an opportunity to talk to his fellow members of the order so far.

"I will talk to him," said Palpatine.

Not long after, Sith lord's figure showed on the transmitter. He couldn't see his face, as it was concealed by his mask, which was quite inconvenient. It was hard to carry the conversation when you couldn't see the other side. He wouldn't say anything. Maybe it was some sort of Sith tradition. He would be considered stupid for not knowing this.

"Chancellor Palpatine" said the sith lord. He apparently wasn't a fan of pleasantries.

"Please, call me Darth Sidious, we are both Sith here" He didn't remember much about the culture he was cultivating before his accident, but he knew their order names were important for the Sith. They were given by masters to their students to signify their closeness to each other and their position in their order, so it was an important tradition. "Is there a reason for your call, Darth Imperius?"

Imperius didn't try to contact him before, so he was quite curious. He could only hope his stupid past self didn't antagonize him!

"...look, we didn't have a great start" So his past self did something. Damn it! "But I suppose I wasn't without fault either, so let's say we are even and start anew, alright?"

"I don't have anything against it" especially because he couldn't even remember what was the problem! "Now that we are friends, can I do something for you? You decided to contact me and we sith have to stick together" it was also his only chance at learning more about his sith heritage, so he wouldn't waste it by acting hostile,

"Well, I was actually calling to ask you something. You see, I recently gained a new apprentice and I wanted to know if there would be any problem with bringing him to the republic space. I know you were working on bringing SIth back to the republic, but I don't know about the results so I wanted to know if it wouldn't cause any trouble for us"

"Congratulations for getting an apprentice!" Palpatine said, happy that his colleague had a student. Maybe he should take one himself? Though he should first learn how to use force, then he would think about it. "And you don't have to worry. The Republic is now completely Sith-friendly. Maybe we should even make this reveal public. People would love to see sith culture blooming!"

"Well, he went into conflict with the Jedi order some years ago, so he may be wanted for some crime," said Imperius, not yet convinced. Well, it was easy to fix that.

"And what is that apprentice's name?" He asked.

"Darth Maul," replied Imperius. Not recalling this name in the slightest, he turned to one of his subordinates.

"Is that name registered in any register of wanted criminals?" When he got a negative answer, he turned to Imperius "There shouldn't be any problem then. And I will additionally grant him immunity in my name. As long as he won't commit any crimes during his visit, he should be safe. Jedi and sith must forget about past grievances, so it will be a great sign of change"

"Thanks" said Imperius, visibly surprised by Palpatine's generosity. To be honest, Palpatine had an active interest in helping other sith. They were quite popular lately, so helping them was good publicity, in addition to potentially teaching him about the sith culture and force techniques.

"It's nothing," assured Palapatine. He then remembered something "I probably should inform you. Many force users are gathering on Odessen to lift the dark veil. I am also going there, so if you would like to accompany me, you can come any time" He would try to learn as much as he could during that trip while also having a powerful guardian in case Yoda was unreasonable.

Imperius stilled after hearing what Palpatine said. Then he asked softly, as if he needed to make sure.

"...you will lift the veil?" He asked, suddenly looking quite agitated. What was going on?

"Yes. Are you saying that we shouldn't do that?" Palpatine probably should make sure. He didn't want to do something horrible by accident. It would be a political disaster if he were to destroy some planet or something! Darth Imperius watched him for a while before slowly responding.

"...no, there is nothing wrong with that. It just means that I have to change my original plans for the next few weeks" he almost looked apologetic when he continued "unfortunately I won't be able to accompany you. I have something important to do"

"I see, it's a shame. the offer still stands in case if you change your mind" he had so many questions to ask after all.

"I doubt I will, but I wish you good luck. Maybe we will see each other after the ritual is over" Imperius said "until we meet again, Darth Sidious"

With these words, Darth Imperius disconnected.

What a nice fellow, thought Palpatine. He hoped they would be able to talk again.