Chapter 62 - The Grandmaster

"The L-Drives go here…" Tilleck's attention was drawn away toward a group of Jedi walking down the hall outside. He couldn't imagine his luck, getting a job here, of all places. What will it be like working at the Temple? Side by side with real Jedi!

"... And the bolt cutters are behind the C-Bolts." Ribou Nenn finished. "Did you get that?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. I'm just a little wowed to be working here, of all places." Tilleck confessed.

"Yeah, the Temple." Ribou's eyes sympathetically emulated his shock.

"Do the Jedi ever hang out?" Tilleck whispered the last two words like they were a secret.

"The Knights don't really hang, they meditate. The Jedi code doesn't preclude us from forming friendships outside of the order, but most knights won't be easy to start a conversation with."

"Us… No wait! You're a Jedi?" Tilleck's mouth dropped open. Ribou was introduced as a co-worker. He thought he was another engineer or tradesman. That he could've been standing here with one of them all this time and not known… He was amazed!

"I am temple trained, though my path has been different than most knights." Ribou confessed.

Tilleck smiled. "We can be friends, though. Eeh, Eeh?" he continued to pester until Ribou nodded. "Great, my first Jedi friend."

"Do you understand the mechanical bench, or do I need to go over it again?"

"I've got it. L-drives and C-Bolts." Tilleck parroted.

"Good, What's next?" Ribou seemed to ask himself.

Tilleck heard the clang as the hangar door opened. It seemed a ship was returning to the Temple now.

This sparked an idea for Ribou. "I can go over the Ingress procedure." He grabbed a clipboard with a form on it from the desk and handed it to Tilleck. "This way."

Ribou led him up the ship's ramp. Tilleck remembered earlier, Ribou had said something about not going up to a ship while the Jedi were still onboard. And he didn't think they'd left enough time for anyone to deboard. But he wasn't the one with experience here, and he wasn't force-trained either. If Ribou wanted them to look at this ship now, he was going to trust him.

The door opened, and a Tall Jedi with dark skin stepped out. Ribou immediately bowed. "Master Windu, I'm sorry."

Master Windu didn't blink an eye. It was almost like he was used to peasants kneeling at his feet when he stepped off a ship. He looked down at the hangar with a gruff eye, appraising the whole place to be beneath him. After he cleared the door, another Jedi emerged, and after him, another four.

Ribou lifted his head, and backed up towards Tilleck. "Something's wrong here." he whispered.

Tilleck felt confused. He didn't know what was going on, but then he knew the best way to get things in order was to act like they were. "Greetings Masters. How did she perform for you? Does her engine need a tune up?"

Their attention was drawn towards him as one. Tilleck didn't know how Ribou was handling it, but he was sweating buckets. Before today, he'd never actually met a real Jedi. His interviews for the position were with a friend of his professor, who's recommendation actually got him the job. But if working under them felt like this, he was considering quitting the job and moving offworld. He'd heard Corellia was always desperate for mechanics.

The attention of the Jedi slipped past him quickly to Ribou. "The star, show him. Talk backwards, why do I?" One of the Jedi, a short green female, said.

"It's biological. I can explain it later, but you won't get it." said another, a human male with red hair.

Windu stepped up holding a staff. At the top of the staff, a cloth was tied, covering its top. The Jedi walked past Tilleck and up to Ribou.

"The ship suited us well. Her engines do need upgrades, but for all purposes, they ran just fine." The redhead turned to Tilleck, distracting him from seeing what the other was doing to Ribou.

"Oh, alright. I'll make a note of that." Tilleck replied. He didn't know for sure, but there must be a way to make the notes on the forms. He'll ask Ribou later.

Meanwhile, Windu seemed to pull the cover back over the staffhead. Did he have it off? Ribou nodded to him. Then Windu turned and walked back to the others.

Tilleck stepped past him to get to Ribou, and he whispered, "Is everything alright."

"Yeah," Ribou shook his head. "Clean the ship, I'm going to go with them to visit the Council."

"Hmm?" Tilleck questioned. As an engineer it wasn't his job to clean any of the ships in the hangar. Though sometimes wiping the harddrive is referred to as cleaning by his peers at the university. He supposed Ribou could mean that. But then why wouldn't he just say so?

"We will leave a few here to help you. I want the ships prepared to fly out in a few hours. There are still subgroups in the galaxy?" Windu looked at the group, and one who was tall with brown hair nodded to him in reply. "Good, Sidious, you stay here with the other three."

"What! Nosa, me gos wit yousa." Sidious, a Gungan, responded. Tilleck had read a paper about the species in one of his university classes. Doubtless whatever led him to be here was a part of an interesting tale.

Windu rolled his eyes. "Fine, The others are still onboard. They will help you with your tasks."

Tilleck bowed as Ribou before had done, "Yes, Master Jedi."

To that title, Windu seemed to wince, before schooling his face and turning to lead the others out of the Hangar.

Tilleck looked down at the form he still carried. The first part was asking about fuel expenditures, and he figured he'd start there. He'd meet these "Other three," on the way, probably, and hopefully they would know more about procedure here.


Anakin stared at the status screen. Dooku had asked him to notify him when they'd reached a certain point so he could pull out of Hyperdrive and adjust their course. Anakin was learning that doing so required more than just his eyes, but also his instincts. "Now." he waved to the pilot seat.

Dooku immediately pulled the levers to stop their ship. "Aah, good. We are here."

"Where are we?" Anakin asked. They were still a great distance away from where he would've expected them to turn towards Coruscant from.

Instead Dooku turned towards a Gas Giant. "The Fifteenth moon of Stentat. It's small and unremarkable enough, most just go past it to the other twenty two. But my old Master and I set up a meeting place on the moon long ago, and if he remembers it, he will meet us there.

Dooku turned towards the small 'unremarkable' moon and landed outside of a building of some sort.

"Yoda's here?" The younglings took an audible sigh of relief. Anakin felt, similar to them, desperate for this period of upheaval to end, but didn't want to show his grandmaster any disrespect.

Dooku closed his eyes, then answered, "Yes, he's here."

As he opened his eyes, everyone clambored for the hatch to exit the ship. Dooku reached up to stop Tol. "I understand how you feel about the grandmaster, but we must be sympathetic to the others first."

"Yeah, I get that. He's the Great Master Yoda, who's going to make all their troubles go away." Tol rolled his eyes. "No, I won't say anything while the kids are there."

Anakin's brow furrowed in confusion, but Dooku nodded and smiled. "I'm proud of you, my Apprentice."

"Oh, don't get soft." Tol shrinked away, which only made Dooku smile more.

Anakin thought to ask what that was about, but then figured it probably was none of his business. He followed the others to where they had climbed out of the ship. They were all standing around the closed door to the structure.

Anakin looked back and forth between their eyes and the door a few times. "Why don't you open it?"

"We can't. It's locked," Alex said.

"Hmm," Anakin felt the door with the force, and it didn't feel locked, exactly.

Kate reached out and touched the door handle to demonstrate, and it remained shut.

But doors which are locked have a certain feeling in the force that its meant to be blocked. Anakin didn't feel that here. He put his hand on the door and stretched out his senses. Indeed, there was no internal mechanism to lock the door, it would only take a miniscule push with the Force… Soon the door started to slide open.

Dooku by then was standing behind them all. "Good, you've opened the doorway. Let's go in."

In a few minutes they were all indoors and wiping the dirty, ash like sand from the moon out of their cloaks.

"Where is Master Yoda?" Freya asked.

"He's out on the balcony." The voice of a full grown woman surprised them all and made them jump.

"Siri," Anakin ran to her and they hugged.

"Kent, Ramu!" The others greeted their two friends, who were also there.

Anakin looked up questioningly at Siri, and she filled in the gaps. "Master Yoda found us before we returned to the temple. I felt so sick. He said something bad happened to Obi, but he said that you were okay."

"Yoda brought us here to wait for you," Poison spitter filled in.

Dooku nodded, then stepped closer to the balcony. He put his hand out to stop Kate who tried to follow him. "Some confrontations are best to happen alone."

"Come around here, has Master Dooku been taking care of you?" Siri looked over each of the younglings, pausing when she got to Asajj and Tol. "You're his secret pupils, aren't you? We were right about them." She looked over to Poison Spitter for confirmation.

Asajj and Tol stared back defiantly at her, and she corrected them.

"I'm not the council or the most particular member of the order. I'm not going to judge you, or your master. You look well fed. No lightsabers, has he not been training you?"

"No, the Masters took away their sabers before they left, and locked them up. I haven't been able to open it." Anakin explained.

"I see. Well, that is the first thing I can help with." Siri moved to stand up, then winced. "Ooh, not so fast. Uh oh." Siri turned rapidly back to the corner of the room she had entered from. It had another small hallway going elsewhere.

Poison spitter was on his feet, and he distracted everyone by asking, "Where is this locked cupboard?"


Dooku stepped out onto the balcony. He didn't need to look around to see the green figure leaning against the rail, contemplatively. Nor did he need to announce himself, as the figure turned to acknowledge him, dropping out of meditation.

"I figured you'd be here, with what happened to your favorite, you'd be as shaken as the rest."

"Felt it, I did. Know what happened, I do not."

"I had been in contact with, what I believed to be an apprentice to the last Sith, the one my grand padawan killed on Naboo."

Yoda looked up in surprise.

Dooku continued, "Going back to my experience as a shadow, I pretended to join him, and almost tracked him down. Then the others found me. They went off to capture the last sith, all while leaving me with their padawans. Then it happened." Dooku paused for a moment while Yoda looked up at him with a question behind his eyes.

"Before you ask, we were able to discover a few details after Master Yaddle's apprentice joined us. Did you know the younglings all have a bond of their own? Anakin was able to use his bond to spy on the other youngling's Master." Dooku shook his head. "Amazing. Anyways, I believe they are being possessed now, by long dead Sith. Bane, one of them was named, apparently."

"Darth Bane! Last of the Sith, he was once thought to be." Yoda uttered in disbelief.

"Yes, more importantly, they've left the sith temple, and I believe they are going after more hosts. The Jedi Temple in coruscant. We must warn them."

Yoda nodded. "Warn them, we must." He turned to go back inside, but then turned back at the last moment. "Favorites, I do not have." And dooku felt the old man stroke his side of a bond he'd long ago thought must be dead. It came to life immediately, soothing his soreness and reawakening old memories again.


Dooku slowly followed Yoda out to the main area. The elderly Jedi immediately got on the comlink. Dooku immediately looked around for the younglings in his care, and he felt his head spin when the counted younglings ran around him, back to the uncounted ones. He was starting to understand why Jedi limited themselves to just one Apprentice. Where's Asajj, Alex, and Anakin?" He listed.

"They are back on the ship with Master Poison Spitter." Tol answered. "He picked the lock and got us these." Tol twirled his lightsaber back on his belt. "Now they're looking through the old supply storage for anything that might be useful to us."

"Okay," Dooku felt himself pull back from questioning the strange Jedi name. He did not have time for that now. "I'll go get them later."

"Asajj has your saber," Tol added.

"Mmm-hmm. Now's a good time for this then." He put his hand behind Tol's back and pointed him towards Yoda. "Follow me."

"I have not yet spoken to him, no." Depa answered over the comm. "I just question where you are getting your information from. The warning said not to trust…"

"From Master Dooku, the warning was." Yoda sighed. "Trustworthy and still rooted in the light, he is. Know otherwise, I would." He sounded firm.

"Alright, I'll bring this up before the meeting, but the others were set on hearing him out. I don't know if this will persuade them otherwise."

"Try, you must." Yoda pleaded.

Depa sighed. "I will try. Over and out. May the Force be with you, grandmaster."

"And with you," Yoda returned. Then he shut off the comlink and turned to Dooku. "Arrived there, the others have. Give the Council the news you have shared with me, Depa will."

Dooku nodded. "I brought with me many younglings who need to be comforted, but also one who needs to have his complaints listened to." Dooku gave Tol a push with the Force and brushed his bond encouragingly.

Yoda stood struck still when he recognized the boy. He was now several years older than he was as a padawan, but the old Master knew him instantly.

Tol glared at Yoda. "You. You killed My master. I asked for help talking the man down, and you came in wielding lightsabers. For so long I wanted this moment so that I could strike you down as you struck Kel Vee down, without mercy. And now..." Tol reached for his lightsaber and held it up threateningly.

Dooku felt the desire to protect his apprentice by preventing him from striking the never defenseless Jedi Master, but without a lightsaber, he could do no more than watch. Yoda, meanwhile, didn't shrink back or reach for his own weapon, so maybe there was still hope.

"And now, I understand why you did it." His hand holding the saber fell. "With all that has happened with the other's masters, I think something Similar happened to Master Vee. And if I were in your position, If cutting the head off my own master would save them theirs, I would do it."

Dooku stared wide at his youngling. Sure, the young man was admitting to being willing to decapitate him, but it was…

"Grown up well, you have. If given the chance to do it again, I was, Slain him there, I wouldn't have. Mercy, he deserved. Try something else, I should have. Glad you found another Master, I am."

Dooku stared open mouthed at Yoda. In the order, Master-Padawan pairs must go through an approval process, then be officially sanctioned by a ceremony before they are counted. But here, the grandmaster of the order was recognizing his bond without any of these procedures. Could the old man be changing?

"Master," Asajj called as she ran into the room. "Master, here. It's your saber." she handed him the sheathed saber, and Yoda flinched.

Dooku nodded and picked up the saber. He felt ashamed, being caught with a bled crystal by his Master. "Oh, this. I uh- I…"

"Undercover, you were. And forced to make do, you were," Yoda filled in.

Dooku nodded as he blushed. "My other one is in the hands of a co-conspirator, General Qymaen Jai Sheelal. I should contact him again. He has an army, and I should make sure he doesn't invade anywhere regrettable while we're gone."

"Grievous," Yoda whispered.

"Yes, that would be bad. Lets see, the Sith's last orders were to invade Felucia, so I suppose he's there."

"Summon him here," Yoda suggested. "If back the Sith are, an army we may need."

"Okay, just our army isn't..." Dooku started to say. He wasn't sure how to finish it. Alive, would be the obvious word, but that would imply he was flying around on a ship full of ghosts.

Before he could say the word droids, Yoda had begun to gather younglings around him. "Peace, young ones. With the Force, your masters are. Warned, the temple has been. Has been done, all that can be done. Now, meditate with me, you should. All of you." Soon Yoda, in true Yoda fashion, had the room full of younglings, even young Asajj, meditating.


"Tempered her darkness, you have." Yoda whispered.

Dooku had been staring at the comlink, waiting for a return message from the council for the longest time. Yoda had been meditating with the younglings and his question made Dooku jump. "Wha…?"

"Your second, I presume?" Yoda gestured towards Asajj. Dooku inhaled, prepared to argue his taking a second acolyte, but Yoda continued, "Done well with her, you have."

"Thank you. I know there is a lot I cannot do. They will fight the darkness their whole lives, now that they've stuck their toes in it. But if I can prepare them for the fight, it will be worth my time."

Yoda glanced down in thought, his eyes trailing the younglings, stopping on Anakin. "Yes, worth your time, it is.

"Hmm." Dooku hummed. "Qui-Gon had said you'd changed."

"Change, all living things must. Always moving and changing, the Force is. Therefore, to follow it, one must look at the world as a youngling does."

Dooku laughed.


Depa sat forlorn and stared up at the timepiece above the Council's office. She had a feeling in her gut that she couldn't quench with her meditation. Perhaps it was because, with her Master gone, and Yoda off on his own, she had been placed in a position of leadership. Depa hated leadership. You'd think being on the council, she would be used to being a leader, but that was the very definition of a council member. She was never truly the one in charge, and always had her other members to refer to if she needed them.

"Depa. Depa." Ki-Adi-Mundi called. "There you are, Depa. Master Rancisis sent me to fetch you. You don't want to miss the meeting?"

"No, you're right." Depa pulled herself up. When she had brought up Yoda's message with the council, they decided to send down one of their own to investigate. Master Rancisis volunteered, and he came back saying all was well. Actually he said the other Masters had important news for the council. So, as Yoda's impromptu fill-in, she supposed it was her duty to be there to hear whatever this news was. Her Master certainly had answers to give as to what was still wrong with their connection, and why he would leave the system without his newest Padawan! And she would make him give it.


Hello Everyone,

I hope you like this chapter. I enjoyed playing with the Dooku-Yoda bond. The characters don't interact much, except for their duel, in canon. So it was fun to show them interacting from a less hostile angle.

Unfortunately, the council didn't listen to their warning. But hopefully there will be something they can do to stop them.