Chapter 99

"Come now, my Jedi friends," D'rarel said genially, which on a face so naturally fearsome, just made me shudder. "You tried to hide your fighting styles admirably, but when you live as long as I have… There was a time when you Jedi always had a presence on this world, then you packed your bags, closed your chapterhouse and left. As a young boy, I eagerly watched the demonstration duels the Jedi put forward."

Anakin looked at me briefly. 'Snips?'

'It's pointless to pretend otherwise now. We'd just be angering D'rarel and he could renege on the deal.'

"Wait, we had a chapterhouse here?" Anakin asked, sheathing his blade.

"Oh yes," D'rarel smirked with a pleased twinkle in his eyes. "Since what you call the Ruusan Reformation, until roughly 150 years ago."

It hit me like a starship crashing. Of course the Jedi would put a chapterhouse here of all places, when Stenos was sitting on the hyperspace gateway to Korriban. It was also the exact reason why Dooku would also place his 'retreat' here. I had only given it a passing consideration when I was reviewing the star charts.

'Snips, you feel like a rancor just punched you.'

I shook my head, 'Later, not important right now.'

"We put on demonstration duels?" I rallied my thoughts.

"Our nature as a people was the same as it is now," D'rarel explained obviously. "Combative, competitive, fierce, always loving a good fight. It was part of the deal that let them establish the chapterhouse on Stenos. Those Watchmen were amazing. Fighting with lightsabers mostly, but occasionally also wielding a blaster at the same time." He took a deep inward breath, closing his eyes to savor the memories. "But then the word came from Coruscant, the chapterhouse was closed, the Sentinels and Watchmen left. It took me nearly a decade to learn that it had been done because the Jedi High Council believed that the chapterhouse was no longer needed here and the Jedi stationed here could be used for more pressing matters."

That sounded about right given the era the Republic had been in. After all, why continue to waste sending Jedi to watch over the gates to the dusty ancient homeworld of your equally ancient and 'extinct' mortal foe.

"Well, I'm sorry to say, D'rarel, that we aren't Sentinels," Anakin shook his head. "Most who gain the yellow blade become Temple guardians and only a handful have felt called into the galaxy."

"A pity," he grumbled. "When I realized you were Jedi with blasters and skilled with conventional blade, I let my nostalgia get the better of me. So let's get down to business and I can reminisce on childhood later. You are clearly here for Dooku, is your intention to kill him or capture?"

"Capture."

D'rarel folded his hands behind his back. "That will not be easy. Even if I give you your way in. Dooku is no one's fool and is extremely skilled with that blade of his."

"Are you going back on your deal?"

"No, Master Jedi, I will not. The reason I asked for so much money is to potentially arrange the bribes that would be required for me to flee with my clan."

"Flee off-world? You would break the Penance? For us?" I asked with a raised brow.

D'rarel waved a hand negligently. "You let me worry about the church of Vol. As for why, let's just say that I've had enough of this drek. As a race, we've been scrounging around in the mud for too long. Paying a penance that will never be resolved. The statue of Vol is dust by now and we'll stay locked on this mudball forever if we continue to allow the priests to enjoy their status quo of power."

He held out his massive hands, palms up. In the left hand, glinted a single small data chit. "The blueprints."

Anakin carefully stepped forward, his eyes narrowed and using the Force to sense for any deception in D'rarel's intentions. He reached to his belt pouch, opened it and deposited a small bag full of the highest denomination credit chits that could exist, into D'rarel's other hand.

The huge stenax, pried open the bag with razor sharp fingernails. "Risky, Master Jedi, to walk with that much money on your person."

D'rarel turned over his left hand and dropped the data chit into Anakin's hand.

"Maybe it is," he agreed. "Now, thank you for your business, D'rarel."

"Indeed," D'rarel nodded. "May the Force be with you both, young ones. You'll need it."

'All right, Snips, don't keep me in suspense any longer.' Anakin thought as we were cruising slowly through the night streets on Serec's speeder.

'Stenos is the gateway to a system of great historic importance to the Sith, just one day's travel to the galactic north.'

'Moraband?' he asked.

'That's its modern name, given to it in the Post-Rusaan Era, counting coup and to erase it from memory. I don't know if it was the Jedi or the Sith who engineered it, but both would rather the galaxy forget that it had ever existed, if for different motivations. No, Skyguy, Moraband's previous name was Korriban.'

I felt him stiffen in surprise, 'The ancient homeworld of the Sith?'

'You paid attention in the academy history class at least,' I joked.

'Ha ha,' he thought wryly.

'Yes. We're right next door to the birthplace of the original Sith species, the place where the Dark Jedi were exiled to after the 100 Years War, 7000 years ago. Where they enslaved the local sith, dominated them and eventually even interbred. This would go on to create the Sith cult as we understand the notion today.'

'Korriban, was the place where the Sith Empire of old was born from. It houses numerous tombs of ancient dark lords, Naga Sadow, Ludo Kressh, Marka Ragnos and others. The place is extremely strong with the Dark Side and I'm sure it is a Nexus by now. If you visited it today, you could probably find a fair number of their spirits still greedily clinging to power and this plane of existence. Waiting for the first fool to visit and give them a fleshy body to puppet. So you can see why both sides wanted to keep an eye on Korriban, but neither wanted to actually get close. The power of these ancient dark lords is such that the corruption can begin the moment you exit hyperspace in that system.'

Anakin nodded, even as he struggled to imagine such a corruptive influence could exist at all. 'So the Jedi then gave up on keeping a chapterhouse here eventually.'

'Foolish in hindsight, but after nearly 900 years of nothing happening, I struggle to find much fault with the reasoning of the Jedi at the time. The great earthquake on Stenos had probably wrecked the chapterhouse as well and so it was decided not to waste resources to rebuild a watch post that saw no activity for so long.'

'But now Dooku is here, keeping watch for the Sith.'

'Correct, Palpatine would want an eye kept on Korriban. He may even fancy himself strong enough to eventually subdue those dark lords, harness their knowledge and power for himself. The place will also have many artifacts, creatures and caches buried under the mountains of that world.'

"You two are rather quiet," Serec commented as he turned the speeder onto a new road.

"Just thinking, agent Serec," Anakin demurred. "Did you manage to get your partner out?"

"D'rarel gave me the keys to release him whilst you were busy with your little exhibition match. Thel decided to leave immediately. Didn't want to chance anything else going wrong. He'll meet us at the spice factory tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we better get planning with these blueprints. See what tech we'll need to procure."

It took most of the next day to get everything we needed, packed, checked and squared away in Serec's former speeder, which we would now get to use. He ended up buying a relatively new one for himself. Nothing was truly 'new' on Stenos, only secondhand trading and smuggling in low volumes. This meant that naturally everything had prices that were ridiculously marked up.

Anakin began driving first on the journey.

The Mausk Highlands in the west, was a journey of nearly 1400 km from the capital.

With the laden cruising speed, it took us seven hours to reach the area.

Then, with mountains ahead of us that towered into the sky, we had to find a place to safely stash the speeder and gear up for the journey on foot.

Approaching any closer at speed over the mountain range, would definitely alert Dooku that he had unexpected company, as we were passively detecting active scan emissions coming from beyond those mountains. Faint wisps of emissions that were deflected through the massive peaks.

At this point, we changed into our respective Aegis armors, slung the backpacks and harnesses with our equipment, food, survival tools and set off on the path that M8 had calculated would be best for us to take, given current local conditions. The droid integrated into my armor was quite peppy these days, especially given that she was now mostly made of beskar plate.

"It will be at least ten hours at standard walking speed to reach the hidden escape tunnel in the mountains, mistress."

"And do you really think we'll be walking at standard speed, M8?" I laughed.

"Of course not, mistress. I know you'll never do something so ordinary. Can I also say, I'm… I'm just happy that I can now properly protect you. Even from nasty lightsaber strikes."

"True, but don't get too cocky, M8. A proper sabermaster like Dooku will always go for the weak spots where there is no beskar to get in the way."

Anakin tightened his backpack, "Ready Snips?"

"Ready, master."

We both unsheathed a vibroblade, the foliage and plant life ahead was dense enough that it would be occasionally needed for us to forge ahead. Then took a first step that turned to a jog before we sped up to a full run. Thankfully, internal workings of the Force, such as functionally perpetual stamina didn't carry any risk of compromising our Stealth. Now that we were this close to Dooku, that was an ever increasing concern. We would also have to make ourselves 'smaller' in the Force, so as to not naturally create any ripples through its fabric that would naturally carry to our target.

We managed 9km in the first hour of our run, being slowed down marginally by dense brambles and ranks of dense interwoven trees.

After the second hour, we finally broke through and could sheathe the blades, but now the terrain itself became the issue.

Even aiming to find a pass between two neighboring mountains still meant there were significant climbs ahead. There had been no earthworks or blasting done on our route in the past. We were forging a completely new path through these mountains. If I hadn't been a Jedi wearing armor that could fly, I would've been wetting myself at the thought of casually doing a climb that would make an old Earth solo free climber balk at attempting.

Flying these bits with our armors was also considered too risky, as there was every chance that the repulsor emissions could be detected by Dooku's installed security. There was no question that the count had spared no reasonable expense to acquire state of the art sensors keeping watch in every direction from his fortress mansion.

We only took a brief pause after reaching the summit of our first climb, taking the time to rehydrate and eat a snack.

Looking at the vast picturesque expanse that surrounded me from this height was enough for me to take a few holopicts. I could now definitely see why one would come here for a bit of relaxation. To the north there were even a couple of mountains that were snow capped. My mind imagined a ski resort nestled there, with people skiing down it. Sitting in a cozy warm cabin, with a fire nestled in a stove, drinking some Old Brown Sherry, letting it warm my insides and getting pleasantly buzzed from it.

"Come on, Snips. Enough daydreaming," Anakin smiled at me, standing up. "These kilometers are not going to be run by themselves."

I rolled my eyes, put on my helmet and we set off again.

Now that we were in and among the mountains, things would get easier, but also more dangerous. Climbing down tended to lull you into a false sense of security, one little mistake or lapse in concentration and gravity would snatch you into an uncontrolled roll or a fall.

Both weren't especially life threatening for us, but it would require the use of either technology or the Force, which we couldn't do without risking the mission. It brought down the specter of fear to the forefront of our minds; the fear of failure.

"I will not fear…" I mumbled to myself.

Another delay in our journey was avoiding any of the carnivorous fauna that called this planet home.

The first we encountered was a bandigo; a four legged creature with vicious claws, wrinkly skin and a mouth bristling with teeth. It liked to hide itself in bushes or wait at the entrances to cave dens to burst out upon any unsuspecting prey.

There were a number of flying predators as well, with wingspans of over three meters and looked like a cross between ancient pterodactyls with mammalian traits. They were called menalda and I had no idea what they actually preyed on, but they seemed definitely determined to try Anakin and I out for a potential snack.

That lasted for a few seconds, until we unleashed our vibroblades in defense and swiftly sent it tumbling to the ground with slashed wings, where I put it out of its misery by quickly beheading it.

That seemed to do the trick in discouraging any others from trying their luck as the smell of the blood was carried by the biting high winds for many kilometers.

We had to ascend and descend another peak, but M8 stopped us at this point.

"Mistress, active scan emissions beyond this peak are strong enough for you to be detected, there must be a relay mounted nearby."

"Can our lifesign scramblers compensate?"

"Yes, it requires a few minutes for me to recalibrate."

When she was done, we moved on cautiously. I had been keeping a general eye on my technometric senses and the tapestry of prescience, but focused now to the more immediate time and surroundings.

There was every chance that there were passive sensors scattered about now; even primitive hardline sensors that no one would think to look for.

Our caution was proven warranted, when we found a pressure sensor line mounted between a line of brambled trees.

We even fell back onto hand signal communication, not wanting to cause even the tiniest ripple in the Force.

'We still have another mountain to climb before we even see the fortress mansion and already he has sensors set up here.'

'There's no such thing as being paranoid when you're a Sith, Skyguy,' I signed back as we carefully stepped over the disguised sensors.

That final mountain was especially perilous and took nearly five hours to climb, even at the speeds we could achieve, given that we also had to watch out for further sensors.

Dooku had strewn a pretty tight net of them along the perimeter approaches of his mountain retreat and I could begin to see why RI had given up using conventional means to breach the place.

Finally, we crested that final peak and lying down, we carefully poked our heads up to get our first view of the place with our own eyes.

It almost reminded me unpleasantly about another person from my old life, who had a nice little Eagle's Nest in the mountains.

This one used modern tech though and it looked like a wonderful place to actually live in. The amount of transparisteel used would make for heavenly views from inside the mansion. It had a small landing pad for anything from a shuttle all the way up to a fighter. Currently, Dooku's Punworcca-116 interstellar swoop was landed on it and snuggly locked down.

"Well, he's definitely here, I'd remember that swoop anywhere," Anakin commented, his right arm twitching reflexively.

"M8, any lifesigns?"

"Passively detecting one lifesign, mistress and numerous mobile power systems. Dooku has twenty active droids working in this home, six are MagnaGuards, the rest are B1s, maintenance, engineering and one pilot droid inside his swoop."

"Good, that's exactly as expected," Anakin signed. "Come on, Snips, we have to get to that escape tunnel before nightfall."

The local sun was creeping behind the mountains as Anakin and I hid behind a clump of bushes not ten meters away from the hidden exit of the primary escape tunnel.

It was a route that D'rarel had designed as one of the ways to get out of his mansion that didn't involve flying. It was a notion that had been very antithetical to stenax thinking at the time, since everyone had used their wings to fly anywhere, only using shuttles, speeders and hovercraft when the distances were too inconvenient or time was an issue. The tunnel was apparently never used for its intended purpose, I could only assume that was simply because the cunning, murderous merchant had caused all his enemies to have fortuitous accidents at one point or another.

The entrance/exit was very cunningly disguised. It had been the mouth of a cave, but stenax artisans had practically sculpted a door to make it appear as a seamless, natural part of the mountain here.

"What have you and M8 got, Snips?"

"Visual and motion sensors. The door is also undoubtedly hardwired back to the mansion to indicate any movement."

"M8, can you find any remote interfaces you can spike?"

"Sorry mistress, there are none."

"Hard way it is. Skyguy, we better hope that Palpatine has done something on his end to keep Dooku distracted or this won't work."

He shook his head, "Can't believe I'm saying this, but we have to trust that Palpatine wants to defeat Dooku and that he wants to give us every chance to do that."

"Trusting in Sith nature and the Rule of Two, I suppose there's a first time for everything."

I closed my eyes and as carefully as possible, reached out with the Force towards the disguised door.

To keep my impact as low as possible, I could only work with minute applications of telekinesis and inducing electric currents. First, I had to figure out any difference between current systems and what was stated in the blueprints, then make heads or tails out of what was there.

It took me most of the remaining sunlight, occasionally asking M8 for help in what I was sensing via technometry and farsight, before I was confident enough to make my first change.

I let out a heavy breath of relief a few minutes later. "The motion system is looped, it won't detect us. The visual sensors I can disable, long enough for us to run to the door. The door itself can open and I've physically rewired the hardline to always send a positive signal."

"Good work, Snips." He limbered and flexed his legs. "Ready when you are. We sprint on your signal."

"On three… one… two… three!"

We burst forward as fast as our legs would carry us without the Force.

A few seconds later, we used our hands to help stop ourselves against the disguised door.

The smallest of flex with the Force, and the door opened inward, splitting in the middle and turning on smooth motive surfaces.

The moment we had enough room, we squeezed through and I immediately willed the door closed behind us.

"Run!" I shouted across the bond, shorting out visual sensors in the natural dormant lava tube we found ourselves in.

We have to find a blind spot as quickly as possible.

Our legs and arms pumped through the air as we sprinted.

Thankfully, the floor was nice and smoothed out to allow for someone to actually run in the escape tunnel, as that was entirely the point.

There!

The lava tube continued on, but a clearly artificial cut on the right led to a stairway going up.

I dove into the blind spot of sensor coverage there and grabbed hold of Anakin, tugging him into it.

The sensors I had shorted out along the way came back online and now we had to wait, hoping that whatever droid was watching security feeds was still operating on the logic programmed into them en masse by the CIS.

This was the part of infiltration missions I always hated; the long wait between sudden bursts of nerve wracking adrenaline.

We usually gave the droids two minutes to settle back into their programmed routines, but this time I gave it an extra minute.

'This is going to be a long one, master,' I warned.

He nodded in understanding.

With our equilibrium regained, I gave another countdown, shorted out the visual sensor and we burst into another sprint up the painstakingly carved stairs.

This carried us nearly 180 meters upward according to M8's inertial calculations.

I paused our run on the stair bend just before we would hit a modern, recently installed blast door.

'Not exactly an ideal run for someone of Dooku's age,' Anakin signed.

We were both breathing hard. Running up such steep stairs for so long was not an easy thing, even for fully trained Jedi utilizing the Force.

'If he ever uses it, he'd be going down, Skyguy,' I jokingly pointed out the obvious.

'Funny, now can you get this door?'

'Already working on it.'

As this blast door was more familiar, using current tech for its internal circuitry and motive system, it was much easier to work with.

It rose upward with a hiss and the moment it was clear, we sprinted through.

We were at last in what could be called the third level subfloor of the fortress mansion.

Not a few meters from us, was an exit ramp to a curving escape slide that came from the upper floors of the mansion.

I guided us to a blind spot directly underneath a visual sensor.

Anakin gave a look to the slide, 'I wonder if Dooku always builds these things where he lives. Ten credits says that slide leads directly up to both his office desk and meditation cushions.'

'That's a safe bet, master,' I signed as I surveyed the area.

The entire floor was long term storage for food supplies and other sundries. There was enough that Dooku could easily live on for years. It was an apocalypse prepper's wet dream. It was also here that I found the first logic port that I could plug M8 into, right next to the turbolift that was down the hallway we were currently in.

After another pause to let the droids dismiss the oddly malfunctioning surveillance sensors, we sprinted for the turbolift.

The logic spike from my gauntlet stabbed into the slot below the control port.

"Go M8!"

As normal, she didn't disappoint. Within less than a minute she had control of the sublevel and now we truly vanished from electronic surveillance.

'M8 compare the building to the schematics we got from D'rarel,' Anakin instructed.

'Scanning, Knight Skywalker.'

I placed my hand on his shoulder, so M8 could form a direct link to his own Aegis' HUD.

"General structure is the same, but different subdivisions. More rooms, modernized plumbing, computer infrastructure, a small fusion power plant and he's got an entire company of deactivated commando droids on the sublevel above us," he said over our point-to-point comlink after scrutinizing the feed.

That was definitely not good. "M8, can you do anything about that? I really don't feel like fighting that, Dooku is going to be bad enough."

"The individual droids have overwrite protections that would take too long to break through, mistress. I can create a virus that will intercept and prevent any power-up signal from reaching the droids though."

"That'll be good enough, do it."

"As you command, mistress. I've set up an encrypted comlink to the fortress mansion systems, you can remove the logic probe."

"All right, can you confirm Dooku's position? Make sure you don't show us the live feed. The chance is too great he'll sense our perception of him through the Force."

"He is currently kneeling in front of a robed holographic figure in his main office, mistress. It's an active, highly encrypted off-world Holonet communication. There is a greater than 87% chance that this is Darth Sidious."

"Good timing," Anakin said dryly.

"All right, M8. Give us a path straight to Dooku."

"By your command, mistress."

Something was wrong.

It was a thought that just didn't want to leave him as he knelt in front of the holographic form of his master, as they discussed the progress of the galactic war.

Sidious was never one to really discuss minutia and specifics, unless something was truly critical to his aims. Yet here they were, discussing the current state of affairs on each front, as if they were at a business luncheon, each drinking a cup of caf.

"... the resolution of affairs on Umbara is proceeding as planned. Soon their energy science will be bolstering the main project and bring it a step closer to realization. You will of course be gaining a copy of that, so research not constrained by ethical considerations can proceed."

"Yes, my master."

"You have something on your mind, my apprentice," Sidious said silkily. "Out with it."

Dooku inwardly scrambled behind his mental walls, cursing that his master had picked up on a brief emotional lapse. He smoothly turned to another topic to buy time. "It is… about Durge, master."

"Ah yes," Palpatine crooned. "You have concerns, my apprentice?"

"His behavior of late has been erratic and he barely follows orders. Treating them as mere guidelines. On two occasions he has destroyed potential assets for our cause, instead of merely conquering or subjugating. If he were to cross the line, then I'm also concerned we will not be able to stop him, not before a great deal is lost."

"Durge fulfills an important role, my apprentice. His butchery in itself is something that will be used in the future to shape the course of the galaxy to my design. We know how to deal with him when the time comes. The loss of a few ships is insignificant in the grander scheme of things. Now tell me," Sidious folded his hands, losing them in the voluminous sleeves of his dark robe. "Is our little venture in the north going to work?"

Dooku almost wanted to outright laugh at Sidious calling it a 'little venture'.

If everything worked as it should, it would mean a brand new hyperspace route that would link the Celanon Spur and the northern Hydian Way.

A high capacity route that would let CIS fleets outflank the Ord Mantell front and create a bridge that would allow forces directly into the Hydian, which could race north-east and hit the Corsin system. Securing that vital cross-roads and cutting off any possible Republic reinforcement from the Core.

That would in turn threaten to cut Taris off completely from the Hydian and eventually allow a direct attack on the Mandalorian sector.

The pioneering hyperspace mapping work was only possible with significant investment and loss. It involved hundreds of astrometric cartographers and astronomers working in utmost secrecy, entire universities worth of computers, six months of time and the final piece of the puzzle that acted as the doorstop for any progress in the star charts of this civilized age… blood. Though in this modern age, droid controlled ships could make that final sacrifice.

Enough credits to buy a fleet had already been poured into this endeavor, and a fleet of droid ships had practically been lost to forge this new bridge.

It was almost a pity that it had taken a galactic war for this to be practical and achievable at all. Dooku could well remember a time, a happier time, when a young Qui-gon was still at his side, that such an achievement would've been a cause for great celebration in the galaxy.

Instead it was a secret, done in the shadows and would be used to wage war.

"It will, master. I've kept a close eye on progress there. The only concern of note is that the bridge terminates close to the Hydian in an inhabited system."

"Which one?"

"Kiros, my master."

Sidious' mouth, barely visible in the shadows of his cowl, curled into a delighted smile. "How interesting. Yes… yes, that will do nicely."

He did not know what vision or design Sidious had just schemed, but he would not be Sith if he didn't find out quickly. It would not do to be caught unawares.

The Dark Lord continued, "That could be just what is needed to finalize our alliance with Queen Scintel and bring her people into the fold."

"Their strength is but a shadow of their former glory, master," Dooku pointed out carefully, hiding his distaste for anything to do with slavery.

"Their hatred of the Jedi is powerful, apprentice. It would not do to leave such power squandered in the backwaters of the Outer Rim. It should be cultivated, molded and used when the time is right, my apprentice."

"I understand, master."

"Good. Goood," Sidious suddenly chuckled in a way that sent a hollow feeling running down his spine. "Now, my apprentice. I think it's time… I left you… to your duties."

The hologram shifted and winked out, the heavy burden of Sidious' potent power and malice lifted from the room and his shoulders.

Dooku felt his spine stiffen and an ominous feeling settle down on every fiber of his being. Sidious' words, on their own, were typical for him. He never said goodbye or used any of the common verbiage that sentients generally used to part ways. He says what he intends to according to his design, then leaves without a further word.

The fact that he'd parted with those words…

He slowly rose from his kneeling position, automatically using the Force to soothe the aches and pains as a result from the extended period of awkward inactivity.

The tapestry of the Force also opened to him as he regarded his extensive office space.

It was close to his preferred style and structure, similar to his office on Serenno. On one side, an expansive window with a view of the idyllic mountains of Stenos, now bathed in moonlight, his massive desk facing towards it, all the holo systems and computers needed integrated directly into it. Beyond that was a large multi-use space, large enough to meditate, train and even host a large meeting if he had to.

His senses stretched outward, his hands casually falling to his sides and he walked slowly to the center of the room.

There was nothing?

No disturbance in the fabric of the Force.

Yet, Sidious' words rang in his head. There had to be something. The Dark Lord's presence through the holocom had been in retrospect rather overbearing, drowning everything out and reducing his sensitivity and ability to perceive the Force. He had thought it was just Sidious' way of reminding him of his place in the Order.

He turned the Force towards his conventional senses, ramping up hearing, smell and sight.

His head dodged two inches right, just as his combat precognition kicked in.

A small micro dart shot through the space his neck had just occupied.

Dooku whirled on the spot, his lightsaber willed to hand and igniting, falling into a Makashi defensive variation.

Before his mind could even trace the trajectory of that dart, another one shot through the air towards his neck from his left.

His lightsaber easily and contemptuously intercepted it, where it was promptly flash vaporized with a slight fizzle on his blade.

"Reveal yourselves," he declared to the room.

His attackers obliged by sending lethally sharp pre-cut sections of durasteel grilling from his office walls straight to him at a blindingly fast speed, as he felt the Force twisting from the sudden telekinesis use.

One was aimed at his neck, the other directly at his groin.

It was child's play to dodge with a simple diagonal step.

The durasteel sections crashed and clattered to the floor with deafening clangs, sliding to a step against the walls.

From the shadows cast in the new holes in his office walls, two figures emerged from his left and right.

Dooku expertly hid his own surprise at just how effective their Stealth in the Force had been. If he didn't know better, it was almost Sith-like.

Anakin Skywalker in his distinctive armor stepped forward from his left with a lit green lightsaber held casually at his side, whilst his padawan, this time sporting what looked like a full beskar plated version of her own armor, complete with distinctive Mandalorian helmet, shaped to accommodate her physiology, approached on his right.

The Darksaber was scintillating between black and ghostly white in her right hand, whilst her left held the more conventional green blade of a Consular.

Their true presence in the Force unfolded like an asteroid crashing down onto a planet.

Dooku raised an eyebrow at them both, "Well, well, Skywalker and Tano. What brings you to my little holiday home?"

They both stopped just outside the outer ring of defense.

"What else, Count Dooku, but your capture and arrest," Skywalker answered, not even falling into any of the recognizable Djem So forms.

"That is why we began with the darts," Tano continued. "I had little hope it would succeed but the chance was there."

Dooku inwardly scowled, his anger building as he called on the Dark Side.

Yes, he saw it now. That these two were here and now had all the hallmarks of Sidious' hand. That they were not spotted by his extensive security measures at every level, beginning with the hidden orbital scanners, the undercover agents in the capital, the sensors surrounding the estate and finally even his own senses in the Force, spoke of the Dark Lord aiding these two. It also meant the Coruscant spy ring was sleeping on the job.

It was a betrayal and a test, rolled into one.

It was something he expected. One just had to open the hidden lore of the Sith, to see that the Sith Order was rife with such events. It was alarming that it was happening so soon. The great project was still far from complete. Sidious definitely still needed him, yet he was already throwing these trials in his path. It meant he was starting the battle between master and apprentice already.

"How considerate of you-"

He abruptly released a torrent of Force lightning from his left hand, bending two streams towards his opponents.

Skywalker raised his blade and Tano crossed hers.

He immediately stopped the attack when he sensed and saw almost flawless Tutaminis defenses spring up and absorb the energy.

"How interesting," Dooku smirked. An actual challenge from these two, that he couldn't just swat away with his mastery of lightning. That Tano was capable as well at her age and experience was another surprise.

If they could do that, then it was pointless to engage in a telekinesis battle as well, without the lightsaber thrown into the mix.

He preferred it this way.

There was a purity to combat with the blade. It was not just about who was 'stronger' in the Force, more knowledgeable or enlightened - it was about wits and skill.

His heart sang with pleasure and he brought up his blade into the first guard of Makashi - held upright in the inner ring of defense.

Three blades wielded by two opponents was an interesting twist to incorporate, but not an insurmountable challenge.

His blade flashed into an attack on Tano, even as he stepped back to dodge Skywalker's powerful overhead Djem So slash with range control.

Tano caught his blade with the Darksaber and stabbed forward with her green blade.

A flick of his wrist and the Force directed at her blades, threw her off to the side, her blades actually threatening Skywalker, until she used her own range control to blur backward. Her blades flashing back in an eyeblink to keep her defense up.

With her dealt with for the moment, he flourished his blade to intercept an attack from Skywalker that wanted to charge its way all the way through into his inner ring of defense.

Dooku riposted and his footwork brought him to the left, using Skywalker as a shield to delay Tano from bringing those fascinating blades of hers to bear.

He probed Skywalker with two quick slashes to either side of his neck.

The Jedi brought his strangely green blade to bear to deflect one and smoothly riposted the momentum to block off the second attack, whilst flowing into an attack on Dooku's midsection.

It allowed him to determine that the Jedi was actually fighting with his padawan's third blade.

Most curious and it didn't bode well for him. Skywalker was clearly not as used to the grip and movement of that blade.

Skywalker attacked with a slash into the right inner ring and lunged into a stab for his heart.

As he fended those off, Tano burst into a Force Jump and somersaulted right over their heads, her blades attacking his head.

He ducked, attacking Skywalker's legs, whilst idly using his free hand to throw a Force Push at the padawan still on her way to land.

He felt her take the Force Push and instantly counter it, releasing a counter-Push as she landed. Not even a gesture or mnemonic needed.

Fascinating.

This left him fighting on two fronts with only one blade.

Not a problem.

He released just a brief burst of Force Lightning at Tano, forcing her on a Tutaminis defense, whilst he advanced with rapid strikes on Skywalker, shifting the fight as he defended to once again put him in the way of his own padawan's attacks.

Tano burst forward in a blur of speed and moved around her master, bringing both her blades forward to attack his left arm, whilst Skywalker attacked his hip.

Using the Dark Side, he strengthened his right arm, attacking into her blades, nearly blasting them out of her grip, then smoothly turning it around with an economy of motion to slap down Skywalker's blade.

Both Jedi now seemed to up the ferocity and strength of their own attacks, Skywalker especially began hammering with downward and sideward slashes.

Tano smoothly incorporated her nimble and precise blades into the attacks, and Dooku was forced for the first time to begin actually giving ground.

But he was the Master of Makashi, and he would only ever give ground in a direction of his choosing.

A twist of will, operated a hidden mechanism and a side door opened from his office, down into a narrow passageway.

His blade flashed up, down and to the sides in defense, as he retreated into it. Always keeping his enemy's attacks in the middle ring.

His ripostes were quick and precise, turning the strong momentum of his opponents attacks aside so their blades stabbed and slashed into the durasteel walls, leaving flashing sparks in their wake that strobed the darkened corridor with light.

Their fight emerged into a larger hall, a place that would've been fit to throw a banquet of legend, that had been commonplace in his father's time as count of Serenno.

He briefly stopped his retreat on the balcony that rang lengthwise in the hall, stopping Skywalker's blade cold and pushing him back using both strength and Force Push.

Tano didn't hesitate to attack, sending the tips of her blades at his forehead and chest respectively, but quickly turned one of her attacks at the last moment towards his groin.

How uncivilized, but he supposed he could respect the fact that she fought to win and wasn't relying on some notion of honor.

His blade blocked in the inner ring, turning aside the attack on his head, whilst a backward step and pulling his hips back a few centimeters, prevented his groin from being turned to superheated meat.

He threw a Force Push, just wide enough to catch both master and padawan, before jumping back into a reverse somersault to land in the empty hall.

It allowed for just enough of a delay, whilst they smoothly countered the Push.

Skywalker and Tano followed, landing beyond his outer ring.

She settled into a Jar'kai stance variation - her green blade held horizontal, whilst the Darksaber was down diagonally at her side. Skywalker fell into a primary Djem So - the blade held high and above his head.

Dooku decided to adopt his own Makashi Three - the blade held diagonally to the ground near his right hip.

Tano actually led the attack, opening up by throwing both her blades one after the other.

The speed was such that he couldn't even think about trying to contest the telekinetic control.

His blade flicked right and flowed into a low slash with such strength, that Tano had no choice but to pull the weapons back to her hands or choose to lose both.

Skywalker attacked into this opening using a powerful overhead slash - painfully predictable.

What wasn't predictable was Skywalker, in a flash, using his artificial right fist to punch Dooku in the gut during the brief blade lock.

He felt the pain radiate from the point of contact, the breath threatening to leave his own lungs explosively.

Dooku had traveled the lanes of the Outer Rim and fought so many foes in his lifetime; thugs, pirates, soldiers, guards, even a corrupt senator, the list went on. It was rare for any of them to get so close, but he had never been arrogant enough to believe that no one in the galaxy would be skilled enough. Therefore, it was second nature to use the Force, internally fortify his body, and take the kinetic energy of the hit, converting it to a more useful purpose. Yes, he would be left with a nasty bruise for a few days, which could also be healed with a bit of time… if he had that time.

The only acknowledgement Dooku therefore gave of the blow was a grunt and trying to cut Skywalker's head off.

The Jedi ducked and used his blade to slam into the trailing side of Dooku's own blade, adding a powerful Force Push to the attack.

The sudden telekinetic power unleashed was monstrous!

It took dipping fairly deep into the Dark Side and molding a counter-stroke that cut through and parted the force threatening to explode in Dooku's face.

As it was, the residual effects tore into the side of the hall, denting it so deeply it looked like a speeder had crashed into it and making the overhead balcony on that side partially collapse.

He enveloped the Force around his body and jumped backward to get some distance.

"Really Sky-"

Tano didn't seem to be in the mood to allow to any verbal taunting or Dun Möch, because she raised her left arm at him, her armored gauntlet glowed slightly blue-

His precognition screamed in warning!

A cloud of Mandalorian smart munitions exploded from her, whizzing into the air like angry insects before shooting towards him at barely visible speed.

His anger rose to new heights. Curse that brat! He hated using this skill, even with how useful it was in this situation.

He felt the change in his eyes as the Dark Side took its toll for the use of this ability.

He screamed, pushing his hands outward.

The Dark Side burst outward from him in a spherical explosion.

The smart munitions were batted aside, in some cases even disintegrating, such was the competing forces working against each other.

The Dark Scream radiated further outward and a small part of Dooku hoped that his opponents were up to the challenge of surviving. He didn't want them to die from this. He wanted them to die on his blade alone!

Tano released her blades to hover next to her before clapping her hands together, a move mirrored by her master.

Only those who were perceptive to the Force could see the wave of Dark Side energy part in front of the Jedi, as if they were unbreakable rocks, pushing aside the crashing waves of the ocean.

Thankfully, the strength of the Scream was dissipated enough that it had little effect on the walls and ceiling around them.

Tano's Mandalorian helmet prevented her expression from being visible, but Dooku could feel the intensity of her gaze. The infamous T-shaped visor glinted in the moonlight streaming into the hall from the giant transparisteel window behind him. She reached into a pouch on her belt and without hesitation reloaded her gauntlet with another munition cluster. Then snatched her blades out of the air.

"Those were non-lethal munitions, Dooku, you would've just taken a little nap if one had hit you," she said flatly, her voice was distorted by the helmet but he also sensed the very structure of the Force ripple with her words.

"That distinction is irrelevant," he countered, drawing down on the Dark Side. Pushing the hungry predator aside with a calm mastery, he felt the corruption of his eyes diminish. If he fell here, if he was captured again by these two relative whelps, it would mean Sidious would've won. The Dark Lord would surely free him again through his machinations, but it meant that he would no longer be worthy in the Sith Lord's eyes to be the apprentice. That would mean death. Not today, not in a year, not as long as the war continued.

He flourished his red blade into a high guard, then burst into the air straight towards Tano.

She stood her ground.

Foolish girl.

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