Chapter Seventy Four

Understanding from the other Masters tone that whatever it was Giiett wanted to talk about should not be overheard, Master Dooku led Giiett to his study, a mixed meditation and old-style office, with several actual paper books lining one wall. Sitting down at the desk, Dooku hit a few buttons before moving over to sit in a chair across from Master Giiett. "I just activated a Faraday cage. No signal can come in or out of this room until it is turned off. Now, what was this about?"

Giiett chuckled quietly, shaking his head. "That is a bit of interesting technology that we might want to incorporate into the Jedi Council's room if we can do so without anyone noticing. Perhaps the entire temple, if we can get away with it."

"Why the secrecy? Why is such counterintelligence needed?" Dooku said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the other human Master.

"You were told, of course, about how your former padawan died," Giiett said slowly. "What you were not told over the Hypercom was that the individual who killed him was not some bounty hunter or anything similar." From there Giiett explained what had occurred on Naboo, going into detail on how the Dark Side user had fought and his appearance from Windu's memory of the battle.

"We fear the Zabrak was someone deliberately trained in the Dark Side, not someone who fell into it. Mace thinks, and many of us agree, that he was not a master of the Dark Side. Rather, he was a blunt object trained to counter Jedi, but in no way fully trained."

From there Giiett described the ongoing debate of where the Dark Side user had come from, as well as Master Yoda's belief that he might be a Dark Brother, judging by the markings on his face.

"And you are keeping this close to your chest because you are uncertain of how many of these Dark Siders are out there?"

"We are uncertain of the nature of this threat entirely," Giiett said sighing. "The Jedi Shadows have found very little as yet, and it has been nearly a year now. It is as if this Dark Side user simply appeared fully formed out of the Force."

For a moment Dooku was silent, nothing in his face giving his thoughts away, which had just turned very chaotic indeed. He had never considered the idea that Qui-Gon had been killed by another Force user, let alone a Dark Sider. But somehow it fit. Something about it fit into what he had sensed when Mace told him about Qui-Gon's death. And it filled him with something he had never felt since he was a youngling: self-recrimination and doubt.

The Sith, it has to be a Sith. Master Yoda is wrong. It is not the Dark Brotherhood sect; it is a Sith! Dooku could all too easily remember the years leading up to Komari's rescue where he had been looking into the Sith, trying to find any hint of their being around.

He had not been looking because he felt they were around. No, he had been looking because in his misguided opinion the Jedi Order needed the Sith around in order to keep evolving. Harry and Lily's arrival and their new ideas and techniques, however, had thrown that concept out the window.

That didn't change the fact that he had been interested in them in the first place, however, nor the fact that at times Dooku had felt that something, or rather someone, might have been helping his interest along. I, I would have fallen to the Dark Side if not for the new techniques moving through the Order and the need to help Komari. So, that implies that the Sith might be someone I have met at one point or another, Dooku thought coldly. Whoever it is, I will find them, and I will hunt them down personally! I am no one's tool!

He shared none of these thoughts, however, merely nodding. "I will join you in this search, though I will do so not through my own physical means but through contacts, since I am needed here. I have many contacts: barely legal slicers, business and governmental officials I have met in my travels. I can subtly look for clues about this."

"Be very careful, Dooku," Giiett said. "The Council does not wish to tip our hand in this manner."

"I will be discreet," Dooku said with a thin smile. "Have no fear on that score. Believe me, I will not tip our hand in this." Not until I am certain and ready to strike…

OOOOOOO

Sidious bowed his head slightly, the hood he was wearing further covering his face so that his Master could not see his eyes. Even as good at dissembling as he was, Plagueis could at times read more emotions and thoughts from Sidious than he wanted if the Muun locked eyes with him. "You have been away overlong Master. Are you certain that you can afford to remain on your ship as you are?"

"My story about having been infected with a contagious disease at present will hold among those who know that I have disappeared at all," said the other Sith, his tone somewhat condescending. "Remember, apprentice, I am not truly a public figure any longer thanks to that assassination attempt a few years ago. It is your part to play the foil, to make the visible moves needed to complete the Great Plan. I will stick to the shadows."

"Of course Master," said Sidious, looking up, having regained control of himself. He had hoped to do away with the older male, but apparently that wasn't going to happen just yet. "Can I ask what you have been up to? I know you went to Wayland and have stayed there some months."

"I did indeed, and I performed several different experiments I have long been thinking of that will aid us in the long term immensely. For instance, I have discovered why the clones go mad if you speed up the growth process too much. It isn't something I'm going to use very often, but I did start the process of cloning that assassin of yours. With his foolishness on Naboo we might require more of a Force-using element than we had anticipated."

Carefully keeping his eyes from widening, Sidious leaned back, tapping his fingers gently on the armrests of his chair. It was not his normal throne; that would not do when talking to his Master, speaking of too much hubris and perhaps showing him what Sidious thought of his place in the Sith. Instead it was a regular chair in their hidden sanctuary. "I have noticed some clandestine moves on the Jedi Order's part, so that could be a very good move," he admitted. "They do seem to think that there could be more Dark Side users somewhere. Mace Windu's meeting and killing my assassin was a reversal of fortune for us for certain."

"Do you believe that the deceptions we put in place if Maul was discovered will hold?"

"I believe it will for a time," Sidious said after a moment's contemplation. "I have not heard any hints about them looking for the Sith in particular, though there is talk about something of that nature. I believe, however, that is simply wanting to prepare for the worst case scenario."

"That means they will pursue Maul's background all the harder. In that case, my little experiment might prove very necessary indeed. Or at least one of them."

Sidious made an interrogative noise, and Plagueis smiled in his race's manner. "I was experimenting with mixing DNA structures. I thought it would be interesting to see what I could add to that pure clone Jango Fett required as his payment. We shall see if that bears any fruit. I left IG-42 there to look after things."

Sidious nodded, again very carefully keeping any emotion off his face. IG-42 was a medical droid with all of its emotional and moral subroutines removed. It had long been Plagueis aide-de-camp in any experiment which had a medical side to it. That was an area of Sith alchemy that Sidious had never truly had any interest in, not really seeing a point to it outside of the ability to transfer his consciousness into a clone. That, he was very interested in. After all, who wouldn't be interested in the idea of eternal life?

Plagueis eyes suddenly narrowed dangerously. "Speaking of experiments, what of the vergence? What has the Order done with him?"

Sidious allowed a wince to appear on his face, though inside he was calm, watchful. "He has been assigned to Windu as his padawan."

He watched his Master's face close down in a way that would have sent a shiver down most people's back. "Tell me more," Plagueis ordered.

"According to our robotic spies inside the Temple, the boy was taken by Windu as padawan as a sort of parting gift to Jinn. Jinn would've taken on the boy as an apprentice if he had lived, and reading between the lines and using what we know of Windu he might almost have felt guilty about not preventing Jinn's death and sees this as a way to atone."

Plagueis fell silent, and Sidious did likewise. This was, in point of fact, not the end of the world from Sidious's perspective, but it was a somewhat large setback to the idea of twisting the vergence to their own side. Mace Windu was one of the easiest Jedi Masters to manipulate at a distance, but he was also one of the most entrenched in his opinions and in how he viewed the Force and the Order. He would not allow any external influence to influence his padawan, certainly not a 'friendship' with Sidious in his Palpatine persona or any other politician, as Sidious had thought he would be able to do.

Of course, if I try to contact the boy like that, and Mace eventually finds out and cuts such contact off, the boy might feel resentment, which could be used to drive a wedge between them. But that is such an ephemeral plot; I don't want to put any emphasis on it. I might have already developed something of a rapport with the boy on Naboo, but that is not going to stand up to the constant reinforcement of Windu's thoughts and opinions.

"Does that mean that Mace has stepped down from his position as Master of the Order?" Plagueis asked thoughtfully.

"Yes, Master. He has been replaced by the Thisspiasian Ranicisis."

"Interesting. Ranicisis is not as predictable as Windu, nor as logical. That could be a problem going forward."

"It already has proven to be a bit of a problem long term. Master Fay has been doing a referendum on lightsaber styles, connecting deaths in the line of duty to specific weaknesses in the Jedi who fell. Niman might well be set aside completely."

Plagueis nodded absentmindedly, waving one hand as if that was of no moment. "The clones will do for them still when it comes time. No, the vergence is still the most important thing. If Windu is taking missions once more, we might wish to take steps to remove Windu entirely if we can get away with it. And we have those samples from Yinchorri… They would incubate even faster than a human, and Windu was the leader of that mission."

Sidious smiled evilly. That was actually a very good idea, and Windu's death would remove one of the most dangerous Jedi in terms of combat ability. But before he could speak, Plagueis looked up at him thoughtfully. "But we should not try to remove the vergence from the Order entirely. No doubt by this point Yoda at least knows that the vergence is and has connected him to the Chosen One prophecy."

The older Sith sneered, while Sidious nodded, keeping his face blank. While he found his master's obsession with the vergence a weakness, the Chosen One prophecy was perhaps one of the most telling victories Darth Bane's Order of the Sith had ever scored against the Jedi. Getting the Order to accept the false prophecy had impacted the Order's ability to fight the Veil of the Dark Side in a subtle but telling manner, and he enjoyed the dark irony of it immensely.

"There is more, Master," Sidious said in an effort to change the subject. The least Plagueis can do now that he is back and trying to stick his nose in everything is to give his opinion on this point. "There is talk about some kind of lightsaber retraining center. It will be run by Master Dooku and Master Fay on Serenno."

The two Sith exchanged a sneer at the woman's name, but Plagueis immediately understood his apprentice's concern. Obviously that meant that the techniques that Master Fay had apparently come up with would continue to spread through the Jedi Order. The shield technique in particular had proven to be a lifesaver, and one they had yet to emulate.

"Would you be able to put any Senate pressure on that? After all, I can't imagine the Senate is happy about having the Jedi creating another center of power," Plagueis asked.

"I can attempt it, but it would seem odd that I as the Chancellor would not squash such talk given how I have maneuvered myself to be seen as a friend of the Order. I would have to be very clandestine, and I do not think it would amount to much. Master Dooku and Master Fay are too well thought of in both the Order and the Senate. Some of that, at least, is our own fault in terms of Dooku's position, and his recent activities have made him even more popular in certain circles."

"A spy then?"

"Possibly…" Sidious mused. "We could try to perform the same operation there as we did in the Temple itself."

The two Sith were talking about a program that Darth Paen had created and uploaded into the internal computer system of the Jedi Order, which automatically downloaded into any cleaning droid that connected to it. This allowed the cleaning droids, which had vocal receptors in order to take commands, to record segments of conversation when they were in specific rooms in the Jedi Temple.

It wasn't perfect, but they were an incredibly valuable espionage tool against the Jedi, who had no idea whatsoever that it was there. Force powers could not extend to discovering such minute details of code, and the droids never acted out of character. Indeed, they were not even aware of that segment of their programming. And there was never a living mind looking over the data live for the Jedi to sense.

Nor was the Jedi Order the only place where that program had come in handy. Hundreds, thousands of senators and business leaders were being spied on due to the same code. And there were other, even more esoteric espionage devices in place that only the Sith knew of scattered throughout Corsucant's upper echelons.

"Look into it," Plagueis ordered. "Then send me a copy of everything that has been going on since I have been out of touch. I want to go over it in minute detail, but I'll start with anything pertinent involving the Senate and your plan to slowly centralize authority. Send that to me immediately."

"Of course, Master," Sidious said, no emotion visible on his face. "I do, however, have a meeting this evening that I need to get ready for. The data will be sent to you in a few moments, but I will not be available until late this evening for further commentary."

"That will be fine. It will take me some time to get my thoughts in order about the information in any event."

Sidious bowed, and the connection cut off. A minute later, his anger poured out of him. His lightsaber activated, a red flame in the darkness of the room as he turned and smashed the chair he had been using into kindling. He raged around the room for a few moments, barely keeping control of his Force powers enough to keep them from bursting out from underneath his Force Stealth, before turning and snarling as he exited the room.

The old man might have come up with one or two ideas during his time away, but by the Force itself, it is time for there to be only one true Master here! Plagueis has outlived his usefulness. I am the chosen of the Force! Not him, not the vergence, me! And I have no need of my teacher loitering around the place!

Eventually, however, Sidious gathered his self-control together once more. He would simply have to either wait or look for an opportunity to do away with Plagueis in a less personal manner.

OOOOOOO

Despite his conviction that the Sith were still out there somehow and his guilt about their manipulation of him in particular, Master Dooku was wide awake the next morning, waiting for his new students to appear. He would work with the Masters and a few of the Knights who had been ordered to retrain themselves. The Masters he knew would probably need more work. After all had at last a few decades on most of the Knights, and so would prove to be all the more intransigent when it came to changing their combat skills.

At the same time, Harry, Aayla, and the others would train the youngling clan in the Clan Saa techniques, and the remaining Knights and padawans in furthering their own abilities. While this was going on, Lily and Master Fay would observe, getting a feel for the knights and padawans to decide who would join Shaak Ti, Giiett and Alecto in learning how to use runes. They had decided that Mak and Kass would not be introduced to runes just yet, not until Lily and Fay could meet their masters. Padawans knowing things like that which their Masters did not would drive a wedge between them, and the members of Clan Saa had no need to add any more such.

This group was entirely made of Masters and Knights, including many who Master Dooku knew had been forced to come here for retraining rather than simply agreeing to it. As such, he decided to get things off on the right foot.

"I am Master Dooku," he said softly, yet every one of them could hear his voice. It wasn't a Force trick; it was simple physical projection. "You are here because you all practice form six, Niman, the so-called Jack of all trades, master of none lightsaber style. Recent events have proven that this style is not enough. I care not what type of missions you are normally sent on. I care not about what sect you are part of. What I care about and what concerns me is keeping you all alive.

"I see doubt and concern, as well as irritation and other rather self-centered emotions in your eyes," Dooku said, scanning the room for a brief moment before walking through the class. "You do not agree with the council's orders to retrain yourselves in lightsaber skills. You do not agree that you should spend time on more physical Force skills. You believe you are either above them, will not need them, or that your current skills are good enough. Very well. I will not gainsay that just yet."

By this point Dooku had walked through the crowd of Masters and Knights to the entrance to the training area. He reached into a pocket and flipped a switch on a small control device before continuing to walk as several dozen, and then a hundred tiny little training drones appeared all around them, coming out of the small holding areas built into the floor around the training area. These were the same style that he had introduced Harry to when he was training his Force Precognition months ago. Harry was now up to seven of the drones, with Aayla at nine when alone, and together they could handle thirty. Most Knights who didn't specialize in lightsaber combat could handle twenty, most masters forty. Dooku could handle upwards of seventy for a time. Yoda's record was a hundred.

"Instead, I will simply test that belief. If you live through the next few moments without being tagged by my little toys, you are free to go on your way and I will inform the High Council that you have no need of retraining. If not, then I will not listen to further arguments on this point."

Several of the Knights and Masters now looked quite confident. As one the group flicked their lightsabers on, slowly moving away from their fellows into a defensive posture almost automatically.

That confidence did not last very long after the droids began to fire. The tiny droids were being controlled by a nearby combat android, whose intelligence subroutines had been heightened to near sentient level. With the computing ability to concentrate on multiple things at once, this gave the Masters and Knights complete fits, as would any trained group of soldiers with similar numbers. Within three minutes, none of them were untouched. Dooku flicked the switch off then, smiled brightly at them, a very odd and somewhat disturbing expression on his austere face. "I take it I've made my point?"

"That was an unfair and unrealistic test!" said the Sullustan Master Marfel, shaking her head coldly. "After all, how likely are Consulars to run into such numbers? I have never been sent on a mission that devolved into violence at all, let along to such a level."

"There are far more Consulars in the Jedi Order at this moment than Guardians, yet the number of violent missions we are being sent on has risen dramatically over the past five years," Dooku replied calmly. "That information is available to any of you if you wish to check. It is not just my word, it is the High Council who has acknowledged this. The question then becomes, can you guarantee that you will not be sent on a mission which could become violent? Can you guarantee that you would not be targeted by an assassin's blaster bolt?"

The Sullustan master frowned, her face creasing so much her eyes practically disappeared and she wasn't the only one. Several of them were also feeling something like humiliation. Jedi were not supposed to have egos, but that didn't stop many of them from having one anyway. And they had just been made to look like fools.

Unfortunately, logic, which all Jedi, in particular Consulars, believed in almost as much as the Unifying Force, told them that Dooku was right. They could not guarantee that, and yes, more missions were coming the Order's way which ended in violence.

They all could feel the Dark Side continuing to close in, and that too was now grossly effecting their sense of balance and inner calm. In fact, though most of them did not realize it, it was because the Dark Side was occluding their vision of the future that they had begun to become more reactionary, less willing to change.

Yet with their shortcomings logically and very forcefully brought to the surface like this, they couldn't argue. Dooku watched that realization appear on each of their faces, and smiled thinly. "Very good. In that case, we will start now."