“Good. Ventress, Savage. Tell me, what of the situation of the warfront so far?”

  “We are at a stalemate, sir,” Savage, the humanoid with a ring of sharp horns ringing his head like a crown, and brother to the reclusive Darth Maul, said, “The kyber crystal weapons they have built into their ships… It’s like even our superior numbers and better strategies mean nothing before their power. One blast from those weapons, and whole ships are destroyed in an instant.”

  “Maybe in front of your pitiful strategies, their weapons are unstoppable,” Ventress scoffed, “I have led my own battalion to victory and broke the Galrarian siege with our decisive victory. My victory. We even destroyed one of their weapons in the process.”

  “You! That was nearly a year ago now and you still-”

  “Enough,” Dooku demanded and both of his pitiful Sith apprentices went silent. Dooku sighed. He’d been reduced to these scraps, when things could have been so much better. Skywalker and his power could have made a real difference in this war. Maybe not even as a soldier, despite his strange powers, but in swaying the Ranja Root Order to the Separatist cause.

  Oh, efforts had been made by both sides for influence over the new Jedi Order. But frankly they had been rebuffed without a second thought by the Ranja Root Order. Especially when it had been revealed to the galaxy that Dooku was a Sith after he was forced to fight off another group of assassins with his full powers. Obi wan and his fellow leaders were dedicated to their neutrality, as well as the members below them. And were now wary of Dooku due to him having been revealed as a Sith. But for Anakin… Perhaps the boy could have convinced Obi Wan where Dooku could not. Dooku was sure that the boy would have been able to brought to the fold even after learning that Dooku was a Sith. And Anakin could have worked more magic with those droid designs as he had to help give the CIS such a large advantage in the earliest stages of the galactic civil war…

  Dooku wouldn’t be forced to resort to teaching these pitiful children the ways of the Sith just to raise warriors who could match a fraction of a true Jedi’s abilities in battle. Able to surpass the average Jedi in power and strength perhaps, but none of the control or intelligence to truly stand out from the crowd.

  While the droids were far superior in accounting for the Jedi’s abilities in their strategies now after Skywalker’s innovations, that didn’t make the droids able to counter them any easier. How did one plan around precognition, and all the supernatural abilities that the Force gave him and all other Force users?

  Despite the droid’s mental upgrades, their ability to account for and plan around the Jedi’s powers was still haphazard at best considering the sheer unpredictability and improbability that Force users exerted on their surroundings. Their ability to shatter even the most well crafted plans of the droids with seemingly luck and taking nonsensical actions that only revealed their purpose at the proper moment later to assist the Jedi to survive an ambush or accomplish their mission against all the odds that said doing so was impossible. If anything, the droids always went a bit overboard at throwing resources uselessly at the Jedi in an attempt to slay them. Which usually still failed despite the droid's best efforts.

  Dooku had to admit that he secretly found the droid’s struggle a little bit of a relief despite the inconvenience to the war effort. He wouldn’t want the droids to become too adept at countering Force users abilities after all. Not while he was one of them.

  “Master?” Ventress ventured as Dooku didn’t speak for some time. He scowled at her for a moment and she shrunk back at his glare. He calmed himself and smoothed out his expression. It wasn’t ideal, but this was what it would take to eliminate the Old Order of the Jedi and the Council once and for all. And for that he would use every resource at his disposal. Even… These idiots.

  At least Grievous was somewhat competent. The four armed mechanical cyborg stood on the edges of the room, watching them with a keen eye. Even now Dooku could feel the warrior’s amusement and sense of superiority as he watched the other two Sith bicker and be silenced by Dooku with a single word like scolded schoolchildren.

  “Grievous? And your report? What is your progress on the campaign towards the hyperlanes to the core?”

  “It is slow but steady movement, and I estimate that I shall break the Republic resistance within a few months,” Grievous said confidently, “Have you considered my proposal that I sent last week? We could speed up our war effort considerably if we…”

  “No. I understand the temptation,” Dooku answered, having spent quite some time considering the issue for himself when Grievous had initially sent his written proposal to his office. He had told Skywalker at one time that it was irresponsible for a leader to not use every resource at their disposal. That every lie and manipulation in politics was a necessary evil when the consequences of their actions were so dire from choosing to not do so.

  So he had carefully considered the proposal and considered all of the angles despite the distastefulness of it. Distaste was no reason to discard a valuable resource or strategy.

  “But Lord Dooku, if we folded the neutral worlds into our sphere of influence and simply looked the other way to their slave trade, then we could easily bypass heavy Republic resistance and seize the next hyperlane leading to the Core within the week! The Republic would never see such a surprise assault coming and would be crushed!”

  The four armed cyborg took its two right fists and pounded them into its two open left hands for emphasis at the end and started at Dooku expectantly.

  “That is true,” Dooku admitted, “It would certainly win us the battle, but lose us the war.”

  “I do not see it, Lord,” Grievous grunted, “How could this lose us the war? All those slave owning worlds are ripe for being swayed to our sphere of influence. The only reason they don’t join us immediately is because the Raxus senate foolishly banned the slave trade across all of the member worlds as their first action. If that law were repealed then we could instantly gain nearly two dozen strategic worlds, and even more less important ones aligned to our cause in an instant! It would swing the tides of the war our way!”

  “Perhaps. But why gain two dozen critical worlds only to lose a hundred? Despite its short term benefit, it will only hurt us long term.”

  “I do not understand. The Raxus Senators and many member worlds have no strong opinions on the subject. Only a select few would be put off by the repeal of the ban. Surely you haven’t grown a conscious?” Grievous peered at Dooku suspiciously, its eyes narrowed.

  The cyborg suddenly turned and let out a hacking cough to the side into one of its arms before returning to stare at Dooku.

  “Nothing of the sort. Let me ask this. Why was slavery banned in the CIS upon its formation? No member world was calling for it, not even the senators were particularly passionate about the issue. I called for that law. I made it pass through the Raxus senate. Why? Because it was a brilliant political maneuver that still pays dividends to this day. Hutt space… Their whole slave population was freed all at once by the Republic. Only to see their old masters protected and remain completely untouched in the aftermath, unpunished for their crimes by the Republic. Those former slaves… They see us as liberators. The true saviors. Someone to get them the justice that the Republic has denied them.

  “Even now their grassroot guerrilla efforts and devoted separatist cells of partisans work across the galaxy for the war effort in a trillion minor or not so minor ways. Some are not even employed by us, but do so of their own volition with only some minor funding by us as support. They do this because we portray ourselves as better than the Republic. That we will allow them to be free and give them their vengeance that they crave against their former masters.

  “And do you know what would happen if the CIS allowed slavery again? Proclaimed to the whole galaxy that this implicit promise had been broken? All that goodwill, all of their efforts on our behalf, all those groups that view us as the path to a better future for them and theirs…”

  Dooku snapped his fingers and Grievous and the two other Sith flinched.

  “All gone like that. They would switch allegiances to the Republic in an instant. So no, your proposal is rejected. Until such time as the former slaves are no longer so supremely useful to our war effort, we will do no such thing.”

  “I… I see, Lord,” Grievous said, seeming satisfied with Dooku’s ruthless response. The cyborg always thought to test Dooku, to make sure Dooku was still worthy of being followed. Dooku sneered at the cyborg for a moment in distaste before smoothing over his expression again. Even distaste would not make him discard useful resources, he reminded himself.

  “Then is there nothing more to report? Then I believe it is time for me to resume the training for you three in the ways of the Sith. Grievous, we will begin with you. You can not use your Force due to the shriveled husk that you call a body underneath all of those cybernetics. But we will see how you have improved in your dueling forms since we last fought.

  “You two.”

  Ventress and Savage looked at the floor respectfully as he turned to them.

  “Spar with each other. Lightsabers at the lowest settings and fight for points on strikes. You will channel your rage and anger while maintaining your proper forms in battle. I will spar with Grievous nearby and we will see if you two are pitiful enough that I am forced to stop to correct your mediocre and disappointing skills once again like during our last session.”

  “Yes, Master,” the two said while keeping their heads bowed.

  “I understand, Lord Dooku,” Grievous said, amused once more. Having seemingly quickly forgotten his proposal being so openly rejected in front of the other two Sith apprentices. Perhaps the cyborg just didn’t view them as ones whose opinions that he should consider. Yes, that was probably it…

  “We will spar on the landing pad outside,” Dooku said, “There are no rooms large enough for our needs in this isolated bunker. We will make do with what we have.”

  The four of them made their way outside and almost immediately Ventress and Savage started bickering childishly before fighting. Dooku observed them for a moment before forcefully turning away. Their forms were amateurish and sloppy… But they were using their forms at least. Progress was progress, no matter how disappointingly slow it was.

  Grievous raised his four arms, each clutching a lightsaber as they all activated at once.

  “Let us battle, Dooku!” Grievous shouted, “I shall manage to strike your robes this time, I stake my warrior’s pride on it!”

  “Then prepare for that pride to be broken once again. Let us begin.”

  The cyborg leapt forward and slashed with two lightsabers at once at Dooku while holding the other two in reserve as if to defend against Dooku’s counterstrike to his center mass. A good counter… If Dooku had any intention of doing so.

  Dooku swayed out of the way of Grievous’ lightsabers, before using his own blade to flicker out and land a light strike on the cyborg’s shoulder just as it shifted its arms and went to swing his blades on the other pair of arms towards Dooku.

  This time, Dooku retracted his lightsaber slightly and blocked the blow perfectly before flowing into his next strike upon Grievous’ mechanical body.

  The cyborg shifted gears as it became apparent that his approach was unsuccessful so far. Grievous started swinging its arms in sequence one after another in what seemed to be a continuous rain of blows on Dooku from the front in a storm of blades. But Dooku calmly blocked and shifted slightly when he had to to completely stop Grievous’ assault cold.

  It was almost a shame that Grievous was so weak in the Force, Dooku mused, as he felt another pulse and instinctively knew where the next blow would come from. Dooku moved his lightsaber to block Grievous’ blow even before Grievous’ arm started moving for the blow. Like that, Dooku used his mastery of the Force to predict every one of Grievous’ blows and dodge or block just the right way according to his techniques.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Grievous was talented in martial combat, extremely talented. He had learned the Jedi lightsaber forms nearly instinctively, like a sponge soaking in the knowledge.

  But without the Force to assist him, such talent only brought him barely enough strength to challenge the stronger of the Jedi Knights who might move to oppose him. Let alone a true Jedi Master.

  If Dooku had his way, then after this training session then perhaps the cyborg would be strong enough that such against Jedi Knights battles would no longer be hard fought battles with victory just barely grasped with the edge of his fingertips. But more achievable victories.

  Ventress and Savage were still going at it, taunting and fighting one another. Dooku could feel their genuine anger and loathing for one another through the Force as they fought aggressively. Their technique was terrible… But hadn’t been completely discarded just yet. So Dooku allowed them to continue and resumed his bout with Grievous, punishing every opening and weakness relentlessly and perfectly defending every blow.

  It was only half way through the spar that Dooku realized that the loud rasping coming from the cyborg was a wheezing laugh of delight as it relished the thrill of combat, even as Grievous was completely outclassed.

  Dooku’s communicator buzzed at his side. He continued the battle for a moment and finished one last strike on Grievous before leaping back to give some distance and holding up his hand. Grievous looked like he wanted to leap forward and continue the fight anyway, but restrained himself and grumbled as he stood back.

  Dooku lifted the communicator in front of him and accepted the connection.

  “Yes? I thought I said I was not to be disturbed unless there was an emergency?”

  “Republic forces are above the planet, sir. Looks like an elite strike team based on their advanced weapons and high speed. They just appeared in our scanners out of nowhere somehow and blasted through all the ships in their way without stopping. They’re making their way to your position, and will arrive within five minutes. Their interceptors are fast enough to shoot down any ships attempting to leave your location. Our defensive forces will not reach you in time.”

  “I see. Send all available units to fight them off at all haste. We will remain inside of the bunker.”

  Grievous rolled his cybernetic shoulders, his lightsabers still ignited from their spar. Dooku watched as the cyborg adjusted a dial on the side of its lightsabers and the intensity of the plasma blades increased to a deadly level. Dooku quickly did the same.

  “Ventress, Savage! Cease your spar! The Republic has sent a strike team for us. It seems we have at least one traitor in our ranks to root out after this. Into the bunker now.”

  The two of them paused mid battle and turned to Dooku, their anger forgotten in an instant.

  The four of them hurried into the bunker and sealed the doors inside. Dooku ordered one of the commando droids standing nearby to take his vessel and flee. Hopefully the diversion would distract the Republic task group and give them more time before their CIS reinforcements arrived to support them.

  They waited in the bunker, all of their lightsabers activated and buzzing at full power.

  All of the reinforced blast doors through the ten levels of the bunker were sealed shut, with the defensive droids taking positions to defend in the case of a breach. From the control room in the very base of the facility, they all watched as a Republic troop transport landed a few minutes later on his landing pad.

  Squads of clones rushed out of the three large transports, but it wasn’t only them. There were Jedi, many Jedi, with them. Dooku tried to count them, but there were dozens of Jedi at least with their lightsabers activated. Dooku recognized several of them as Jedi Masters. Mace Windu most prominent among them at the lead of the group.

  “...Is there a way to flee?” Grievous asked, as practical as ever.

  “Unfortunately not,” Dooku said, “We must simply hold out for as long as we can. CIS reinforcements are twenty minutes away. It will take some time for them to get through the facility even with… Such a large force of Jedi.”

  Even as they watched on the cameras two Jedi worked together to carve open the exterior doors to the first level of the facility.

  The droids lying in wait fired at the Jedi, but they leapt to the side and allowed the squads of Republic troopers behind to pour fire into the gap and retaliate against the droid assault.

  After a few seconds of exchanged blaster fire between the clones and the droids, the two Jedi to either side of the door leapt inside, and the clones stopped firing, the maneuver obviously preplanned.

  The two Jedi decimated the defensive groups of droids, and in less than a minute the other Jedi and clones following behind had cleared the entire first level of the bunker of their opponents. Then they started working on the next door, barely slowed down in their path to the control room.

  — — —

  The Jedi were right outside of their door. Reinforcements were only five minutes away now, but it was too late. All they would be able to do was punish the Republic retreat, not reinforce Dooku and the three others inside of the bunker itself in time.

  Dooku wore a deep grimace as he stood in front of the door waiting, the clones having already disabled the cameras on the other side.

  With a heavy thump and the tearing of metal, an explosive slammed against the door and blasted it inwards. Dooku held out his hand and in a burst of the Force pushed outwards and sent the shrapnel flying back into the exterior of the hallway. It only slammed into the opposite wall, only a single larger fragment slamming into a clone who had been out of position, sending him slamming into the far wall with bone crushing force.

  Dooku and Grievous burst from the room and began to do battle, the nervous Ventress and Savage following closely behind.

  Dooku managed to kill four clones before the first Jedi moved from the group to counter him.

  With no time to hold back any hidden cards, Dooku held out his free hand and released all of his hate and rage in a burst of lightning from his fingertips that blasted the charging Jedi.

  The Jedi screamed in surprise, his lightning curving around her blade to sear her flesh as she moved to block. Without knowing the proper Force technique to counter him, she was unable to divert his lightning and force it to strike her lightsaber instead of allowing him free control of its path.

  The Jedi screamed and thrashed on the ground as Dooku dashed forward, dropping the tip of his weapon to the ground as he did so. The Jedi’s screams went silent as his blade bisected her. He whirled in a circle and the confused clones around him were killed in a whirlwind of strikes.

  Another lightsaber came from the side and Dooku blocked. He went to blast the offending Jedi with his lightning again, but in a pulse of the Force his Force lightning was diverted and curved to hit the Jedi’s blade instead.

  In a pulse of the Dark Side, Dooku lifted a nearby clone and sent their body flying towards the Jedi in the path of their lightsaber blade.

  The Jedi hesitated and shifted their blade awkwardly to avoid slicing their flailing ally in two as the clone slammed into the surprised Jedi. Dooku capitalized on the weakness and dashed forward and with a single slash carved through the both clone and the Jedi behind him in two with a horizontal slash before the Jedi could move their out of position lightsaber to block.

  Another lightsaber came for Dooku’s back, coming low. He shifted himself and just barely managed to dodge it and whirled to block the follow up blow from the next Jedi in his path.

  For a full furious second of combat, Dooku dueled furiously with what must be a Jedi master, their battle so fast that Dooku’s errant blows to cleave clones in his way in two were barely even a factor in their duel.

  Just when Dooku saw another Jedi coming towards him from down the hallway to attack, the Jedi master’s eyes suddenly widened and they whirled around to block a blow from behind.

  Savage’s eyes widened as his blade was brushed to the side and he was decapitated before he could even register the Jedi Master’s reaction to his attempted backstab.

  But the Jedi Master had taken his attention away from Dooku and their duel, and he was cleaved in two before he could spin around to counter Dooku’s ruthless attack to exploit the opportunity that Savage’s death had given Dooku.

  Dooku glanced behind him and heard Grievous’ wheezing laughter even as the cyborg barely held off the three Jedi Knight level combatants that he fought simultaneously with his four arms and lightsabers. The cyborg was worse for wear, and its mechanical body was battered and covered in searing scorch marks from where his opponents lightsabers had struck his reinforced frame.

  Ventress was dueling her own Jedi, and barely holding on and looking harried as she slowly lost the fight. In her desperation, she had forgotten her forms once again and was drawing on her hatred and fear desperately to strike with sloppy but powerful blows. The Jedi opposing her was using her precise use of the Jedi lightsaber forms to push Ventress back even as the Jedi weathered the Sith apprentice’s strong blows that couldn’t be ignored despite their sloppiness.

  Two Jedi came for Dooku at once and he began panting in exhaustion as he barely held back both of the Jedi master’s relentless attacks at the same time.

  Grievous let out a loud groan from behind, but Dooku was too pressed by the dual assault of both Jedi masters to be able to look behind him to see what had happened.

  Ventress let out a scream that was quickly cut short, and Dooku heard Grievous roar and start flailing wildly with its four metallic limbs. He could hear the cyborg becoming overwhelmed and his normally labored breathing becoming even more raspy and weak as the Jedi that the cyborg was fighting began to bring the giant warrior to the ground under their attacks.

  Dooku noticed one of the Jedi Masters that he was dueling stepped on one of the pieces of shrapnel sitting on the ground from the destroyed bunker door.

  Dooku grabbed a piece of shrapnel underneath the Jedi Master’s foot and forced it to fly upwards at high speed with the Force. Surprised, the Jedi master stumbled and her lightsaber shifted out of position as Dooku moved aggressively to capitalize on the opportunity.

  The surprised Jedi Master still managed to move, to avoid Dooku’s first blow, but he continued his assault and kept with his ruthless barrage of strikes and started to overwhelm her.

  He grunted and gritted his teeth as the other Jedi master behind him slashed his lightsaber across Dooku’s exposed back. But Dooku had pressed forward in his assault so quickly that the blow only barely dug into his back before he’d already moved forward and out of the way.

  Dooku kept pressing forward and was about to land his finishing blow when he gasped and froze.

  He stumbled back and looked down to see the purple lightsaber piercing into his side, Mace Windu standing there with flaring nostrils right next to him as if appearing from nowhere out of the crowd.

  Windu brought his blade forward and out of Dooku’s chest and with one flick of his blade separated Dooku’s lightsaber hand from his body.

  The room went silent as Dooku stumbled and attempted to brace himself against the wall with his stump hand before turning with his back and slowly starting to slide down the wall.

  He held his still able hand to the searing hole in his stomach and knew that he wasn’t long for this world. Dooku glanced to the side. He saw Grievous and Ventress’ still forms on the ground to the side. It seems that Grievous had been able to take two of the Jedi with him before he was finally defeated. Ventress had been useless as always, her opponent barely even wounded as the Jedi stood over the Sith apprentice’s decapitated body.

  “You…” Dooku groaned, glaring at Mace Windu, keeping himself alive through his massive injuries through the power of the dark side of the Force. Letting the rage and hate flowing through him allow him to persist just a little longer.

  “Me,” Windu said calmly, “Master Dooku. For all the suffering that you’ve caused during these last five years of war. For all the atrocities that you’ve committed against the Republic and its people. For the devastation you brought to innocent worlds standing in the path of your Separatist war machine and cruel droid armies. All of it revealed to be masterminded by you, a Sith who has betrayed the very ideals that you used to hold dear. Do you have any last words?”

  “I’d… Do it all again,” Dooku groaned, “For the chance to make you and the Council suffer for what you’ve done.”

  “Then in the name of the Republic, in the name of democracy, and to avenge all of your victims. To purge the Sith wherever they may hide, waiting to bring chaos and destruction to the galaxy once more… I carry out your sentence. May you join with the Force peacefully, despite your crimes.”

  Dooku went to sit up, to shout, but all he saw was a bright flash of a purple lightsaber and then only darkness.

  — — —

  Dooku felt a pull and he was floating in emptiness. A spirit. He had no eyes, no body, no sensation in his amorphous form. Something that wasn’t quite a body, but almost like a faded impression of one. Yet he still was floating as the pull drew him ever upwards. He was not alone. There were others floating nearby. He could feel them. Many weak, almost lifeless except for the occasional twitch as they floated along with the pull upwards.

  Others moved with more purpose. Most seemed to willingly join with the currents, some even swimming like fish upwards to ascend upwards even faster than what the currents demanded of them.

  Two of the spirits nearby were thrashing and flailing, pulling with all of their might against the current and attempting to swim downwards. But they were too weak, and despite their struggles they were drawn inexorably upwards with the rest, unable to resist the current.

  Should he resist? Dooku instinctively sensed that he would be able to. And with his strength perhaps he’d even be able to succeed, to swim against the current and downwards and away from the relentless power swirling above them all.

  But for what purpose? His rage and anger all felt so distant and pointless now that he was in this place. He still felt that flicker of anger, but just felt more tired and weary more than anything. All of his efforts, decades of dedicating his whole life to bringing down to the Council… And that was his ignoble death. All of it was worthless in the end.

  No, he’d follow the current and see where it led.

  He kept rising with the other spirits, sightless yet still sensing each other as they drifted.

  The higher they rose the stronger the currents grew until they were like the strong undercurrents of an ocean, whipping them upwards at incredible speeds. Swirling like a whirlpool as Dooku felt more and more spirits start to crowd around him.

  Then he felt it. The center, the origin of the pull. The sphere sat there above them like a pulsing star, spinning like a top and drawing the spirits into itself.

  Dooku moved faster and faster in the massive whirlpool until it felt like the other spirits were like streaking bands of light streaming by on all sides around him.

  Then…

  Then…

  He touched the surface of the sphere and merged with it. And then he only felt bliss as he and the sphere became one. Something that he realized had always been inevitable, yet a surprise at the same time.

  Count Dooku, former Jedi, Sith, founder of the Confederate of the Independent Systems… Was one with the Force once more.