Star Wars: Interlude

Count Dooku rubbed the bridge of his nose after he finished another day of ruling the galaxy. Once upon a time he had a convenient Hutt Imperator to push all this governing onto while he spent his time exploring the Force and philosophy as he looked for a new and balanced ethos with which to instruct the next generation of Force users. Instead the lizard had wised up and disappeared into the aether, leaving the responsibility of their oligarchy to Dooku alone.

At least the Third Hutt Empire had fallen to pieces without Grunt there to scare everyone into subservience. The Hutts have big enough egos from controlling their own little personal sectors of space, and the Count would have hated dealing with an actual Hutt Imperator. The scam Grunt pulled claiming to be Jabba's son by way of Krait Dragon was truly inspired. Had the man not been a Wound in the Force, Dooku would have thought that the Force itself guided him to the ruse.

Of course several Hutts had died trying to father children on the remaining Krait Dragons in captivity.

Yes, the galaxy is fundamentally good.

Ventress made the children run another set of laps so she could take a break from dealing with them. Damn Dooku for dumping her with all these brats. At least when Jack and Grunt were around she had people capable of taking the edge off of life without making her soft.

Now… now, Ventress was actually worried about running into the more powerful of the remaining Jedi.

Before she met her friends and lovers, Ventress was arrogant. Willing to leap into combat against multiple Jedi masters even with little chance of victory. After all no one was as fleet of foot as her. How else would she always be able to run away so easily?

They took that insane invincibility away from her yet at the same time gave her a new facet of power to pull from.

Then they left and took that with them.

What was she supposed to pull her power from these days? Was she supposed to be angry at the galaxy she ruled over? Afraid that Dooku would replace her with someone else? Frustration at these thicker than Bantha shit children?

Ventress felt hollow.

Jedi Master Yoda lived in seclusion, spending his days contemplating the various failures of the Jedi Order. Many Jedi would be furious to find out that he attributed any failures at all to the Order, but Yoda was old enough to know better. The seed of defeat exists in the self, not in the enemy.

It would be very convenient to rest all the weight of their defeat onto the shoulders of an enemy too powerful and too clever to be defeated. An enemy that was inevitable, but that is lazy thinking. So Yoda spent his days, not contemplating the strength and cunning of Dooku and his partner Grunt, and instead looked inward at himself. How had Yoda failed?

The discovery after the fact of Sheev Palpatine's role as Count Dooku's Master and the Lord of the Sith was shocking. Only in contemplation without the man's skill in clouding the Force did Yoda notice the darkness of the man. They had worked closely together for many years, and Yoda was hailed as one of the greatest Jedi Masters of all time, and yet he could not see the truth in front of his very eyes.

Most disturbing, this revelation was.

Yoda experienced much disappointment in his time as the leader of the Jedi. Many people fell to the dark side despite the steps the Order took to combat that. Even his own apprentice. Perhaps, if he had taken a more active roll in the galaxy rather than withdraw into the Temple, he could have understood his apprentice, and prevented his descent into the Dark Side.

That was another failure Yoda took credit for.

The Jedi had replaced understanding with dogma, and morals with moralism. It hurt the old Jedi Master to think about how much the Jedi Order had rotted while they held themselves up in the Ivory Tower of the Temple. By withdrawing from the rest of the galaxy their ethos failed to be tested, and thusly failed its ultimate test. A strong philosophy needs to be applied and thrive amidst competing ideas, and the isolation of the Jedi resulted in them never having to test the code and how each person thrives under it.

The Jedi had no way of truly knowing if the tree they nurtured bore good fruit, because they never reached up to taste it, and from the results of this conflict, Yoda believed in his heart that tree he nurtured bore poisoned fruit.

Soon, Yoda will leave isolation and apply his new ideals to the galaxy, and see if there is a future for the Jedi.