Dooku the Magnificent

Contents

Chapter 1 1

Chapter 1

Chancellor Palpatine was sitting tied up in a chair waiting for his "rescue" by Anakin so that Anakin can assassinate Dooku and take his place. His plan was almost complete with Anakin at his side he could start setting things in motion the final stages of his plan to become the undisputed ruler of the galaxy. Anakin and Obi-Wan finally enter the room. What in the force is taking Dooku so long? He should be here by now. My whole plan will fall apart if he doesn't get here soon. He shall pay for this. If I he isn't here for Anakin to kill, I will kill him slowly. He reaches out with the force but can't find him. That is strange, the noise of battle must be distracting me too much. When I get back I must meditate to find him

Anakin arrives and says "Time to leave, chancellor. We have to get out of here now." With no real choice left him he finds his way to the confrontation with Grevious. At least this is going off as planned he thinks. Grevious escapes as planned and so does Palpatine, Obi-Wan and Anakin.

Meanwhile on a cruiser in hyperspace...

Darth Sideous thinks he can replace me with Skywalker does he? Count Dooku thinks. Did he think I wouldn't notice how much time he spends with Skywalker?

He turns and speaks into holocommunicator to a confederacy spy inside the Republic's main military communications center "Initiate protocol 65. Have an entire battalion of clone troopers ready in a half hour. He should be landing by then". His spy, a man named Jando Vorlees, replies "Are you sure the overlays will work." Something indeed to worry about, if he gets caught he would likely be put to death for treason. He was willing to die to overthrow the corrupt republic but not for no reason at all. "Yes, now just get going." replies the count.

In the clone barracks near the Republic Senate inside his Spartan office Clone 13234 also known as Blazer received the message "Order 65 initialization by GAR confirmed, contacting Republican Senate" he then presses a few buttons and a new holo is shown "Mas Emedda, is order 65 confirmed? Has the chancellor been declared a traitor?" He gets the reply "Order 65 is confirmed, the Senate voted on that 15 minutes ago. Do not move until you have an entire battalion with you. The other battalions will follow you in when they have formed up " "Contacting Jedi Council" "Master Yoda, is order 65 confirmed?" "Confirmed Order 65 is, A Sith Lord he is" Yoda confirmed. "Order 65 has been confirmed. Orders to wait to gather entire battalion. I will have to contact the other 3 companies. " Coming out of his chip induced trance Blazer marches down the spotless corridors and says to his men. " We are meeting up with our other 3 companies. Order 65 has been confirmed and now former chancellor Palpatine has been declared a traitor to the Republic. Deadly force is authorized if necessary. Other battalions are on the way there. They must think he truly is a Sith Lord to call together so many men. If he truly is a Sith Lord don't underestimate him. That could well be the last thing you do. This could get messy men if the Senate Guard interferes. Make sure all communications in the Senate Building are cut. "

Deep in the bowels of the Republic's governments main secret communications center Jando Vorlees thinks to himself The tyrant Chancellor Palpatine will soon lie dead and the corrupt Republic will soon follow. I will have a glorious death no doubt and I will be a martyr to the CIS. History will write about my triumph in death and how I helped overthrow the corrupt Republic and instituted a glorious new regime. A regime where the government isn't paid off by criminals. The droid army of the CIS will overwhelm the grasping Republic with its corrupt senators selling their votes to the highest bidder and the hypocritical Jedi when it gets here. Dooku's override sure came in handy, I wonder who made it. It must have been difficult to break Republic Codes, fake the voiceprints electronically, and spoof the retinal scans. He must have planted spies everywhere.

The entire battalion looked impressive on the march. Over 500 men marching in unison. They got into the waiting gunships. 6 more battalions forming behind them and more were gathering in Corescant. Blazer thought it was overkill but orders were orders. Besides that they were apparently facing a Sith Lord. Everything he has read in history seemed to confirm the idea they couldn't be taken lightly. AT-TE were also on the way with their heavy armor and weaponry. Still, 3000 of them should be more than enough. However the Republic was activating virtually every battalion on Corescant. Why the Jedi weren't sent he had no idea but he was not one to question orders and neither were his men.

In the senate building Chancellor Palpatine sat up with a shock. He felt a sudden disturbance in the force. A whole army was coming this way and were after him! He tried calling the Senate Guard but all communications were cut off. As he watched 2 gunships were dropping men into his room. More gunships were dropping off troops all over the Senate Building, by the sound of it they were evacuating it. One of the clones see him move quickly to get his lightsaber just in case the Jedi were coming as well and the trooper saw this as a hostile action and fired. Not bothering to ask questions he uses force lightning on the first 40 men. 25 of them drop dead instantly the other 15 open fire. He survives their fire when another 40 drop in. Through the force he shouts "Anakin, help me!"

Senator Priship was shocked to hear gunships approaching. Looking out the window he was even more shocked to see AT-TEs outside. A couple of clone troopers crash into his office. One says "Due to the emergency we are evacuating the Senate. Follow us outside." He was about to ask what the emergency was when he heard the sound of fighting upstairs. He decided that it was now a good time to get out. Whatever was happening he didn't want to get stuck in it.

Senator Amidala heard shooting from above her before a clone trooper crashed into her window and said "Due to the emergency we are evacuating the Senate Building". She follows him out and says "What is going on here?" after getting to a safe area. "Palpatine is resisting arrest that was made by order of the Senate, GAR and Jedi Council. Apparently he is a Sith Lord." Padme was floored. The chancellor was a Sith Lord? "When did this happen? I didn't leave the Senate more than a half hour ago and why didn't I hear about it?" The clonetrooper replies "I don't know why you weren't informed but I have more people to evacuate, senator" She follows him and says "Yes, of course. I should have thought of it but has been quite a shock"

Through the force Anakin heard Palpatine's cry. He had to get to the Chancellor right away. As he gets close to the Senate Building he sees entire battalions of men, dozens of gunships and AT-TEs. He asks a trooper on his way in what was going on."The chancellor has been found guilty of treason by the Senate and was declared a Sith Lord by the Jedi Council, general" He tried contacting the Jedi Temple via comlink but all he got was static. He knew what he had to do. He had to get to the chancellor's office right away. The chancellor was no Sith Lord, there must be some mistake. He needed to get there to straighten it out.

Anakin ran into the Senate Building and saw Palpatine fighting 3 score of soldiers with dozens of dead around him and was blasting them with force lightning. Anakin started thinking about things. As far as he knew Chancellor Palpatine was not known for being strong in the force. He wasn't a Jedi or ex-Jedi otherwise he would have known about it . Force lightning was not generally known for being used by the Jedi but the Sith because it caused a great deal of pain. Count Dooku used it against him more than once. . He started thinking about how Palpatine was always supporting him in council which was more than a bit odd considering their age difference. It was far more likely an old guy like Palpatine to back the elder Jedi over a youngster having more in common and more likely to think that the youngster s doesn't have the experience of his elders rather than coming up with new ideas. It must be true , he was a Sith lord and he was leading Anakin by the nose. It was all a ruse to get Anakin to fall to the Dark Side. It was the only thing that made sense.

Reaching out with the force he suddenly grabbed Palpatine and slammed him into the ground, with a gesture he slams him on both walls. Anakin's power was too much for him, particularly after fighting scores of clones. He could do nothing as Anakin slammed him from one wall to another. As he was dying he realized Dooku was behind all this. There was no other way for this to happen. Dooku must have found out about Order 65. He knew Dooku had spy rings in the Republic, he set them up himself. Dooku must have set up more without his knowledge. He must think that now is the time to grab power or perhaps he figured out his plans for Anakin. His last thoughts were Well played, my apprentice!

On the bridge of The Swift Executioner Count Dooku felt the death of his old master with a feeling of satisfaction. Nothing could stop him now. He looked down at his apprentice who said "Are you now going to invoke Order 66?" In his deep voice he answered "No, my apprentice. It is now impossible. Order 66 has to be called by the Chancellor. Since there is no chancellor it cannot be invoked. I had to choose between one and the other. If I invoked Order 66 first there could have been no Jedi conformation of Order 65 and it wouldn't have gone into effect. The Chancellor was more dangerous to my plans than the Jedi Council could be. Indeed we need to retreat to the heart of the CIS as reinforcements are approaching Corescant. Before we can return again I think the Jedi will discover Order 66 and remove it. We have to deal with them some other way. Fortunately the Republic will be in chaos." The Swift Executioner vanished into hyperspace along with its escort. Count Dooku had no intention of dying right now.

The casualty list was in 63 dead troopers, 145 wounded along with 2 gunships sent crashing to the ground. The Republic was in utter confusion. The revelation that its chancellor was a Sith Lord through the government in chaos. If the chancellor was a Sith did that mean Dooku was right and the Republic was so corrupt it needed to be overthrown?

On the other hand Dooku's misdeeds couldn't be overlooked. Too many had seen too many atrocities by Dooku first hand or from family or friends second hand for there to be much doubt that the CIS was much more violent and oppressive. What to do? The Senate quickly realized they needed to pick someone who was almost above reproach and they picked Bail Organa. Bail was Palpatine's main rival for the chancellorship last time round and thus about as far distant from the old leader as you could get. He was also well known for his forthrightness and honesty.

Bail Organa sat thinking. Yes, Palpatine was a rival but he respected him He saw him as an honorable rival for most of his career. Thinking back he realized that Palpatine was grabbing more and more power. He knew that, of course, but he thought that was just ordinary politics as people tend to go into politics to gain power. In most case he didn't seem to push for it in the first place.

The Senate needed to be reformed with the Trade Federation totally kicked out but even as chancellor he couldn't do that without reason particularly in the current situation. He could hardly act like a dictator when his predecessor was a hidden power hungry Sith Lord.

The question of the war was puzzling. Should he push for peace now or not? It was easy when he was standing on the sidelines but now that he was in charge and had the safety of the entire republic as his responsibility he had to consider the fact that Dooku might agree to a cease fire merely to use as time to build up his forces. He had to talk to Mon Mothma and Bel Iblis maybe they can help him figure it out.

Captain Rex was trying to console General Skywalker. Rex felt very close to the general and considered it a great honor to serve under him. "You couldn't know, sir" he said "He tricked us all, even Yoda was fooled." Anakin sighed "I know, Rex but that doesn't help. The man was like a father to me. I am an orphan you know so I had no father growing up and I left my mother when I was very young. I feel as bad as people whose own father betrays them. "

He muses "Maybe I should see Obi Wan, he has been like a father to me too, or at least an older brother. As a fellow Jedi who was betrayed as well maybe he can understand what I am going through. No offense, Rex." "None taken, sir. General Kenobi has always had my highest respect and I think talking to him might do you a world of good. " Rex answered and it was true, next to Anakin there was no general Rex respected more than Obi-wan.

Anakin returned to the Jedi Temple where the Jedi Council was waiting for him. Yoda says "Look over you I must. Darth Sideous was a powerful Sith, powerful Sith was he. Block my vision he may have." He gazes at Anakin. He says "Close to the Dark Side, you are. More training to control your emotions you need. Wrong to not train you myself in the first place, it was. Train you now, I will. Too many mistakes I have made. Resign as head of the Jedi Council, I will." All the Jedi gathered look shocked at the last statement. Yoda had been the head of council for longer than any of them have been alive. They could not picture the Jedi Council without Yoda at the head.

Anakin shouts "Are you saying I can't be trusted? That I would ever turn on the Republic?" Yoda answers "A Sith you are not. Become one you may be until learning to control your emotions you do. Much potential you have. To control your emotions you need help. Dealt poorly with Palpatine you did. Allow him to surrender you did not. Kill him in anger you did. The way of the Jedi this is not "

Obi Wan says "We discussed this just prior to you getting here. The war has affected you more than you want to admit Anakin. You are far from the only one in this. A short time away from the war and some time working through the emotional stress can't hurt you. You are far from the only one effected. We are planning to pull many Jedi away from the front line. You aren't being singled out here. I will help you as well and I think Ahsoka might be able to help you too. She might not be a part of the Jedi Order anymore but she knows what you are going through and knows you better than almost anyone else."

Anakin sighs "You are probably right. This war has been going on too long and I have lost too many friends. A number of Jedi and countless clones. It will be good to see Ahsoka again, she is a nice kid but do you think she will help after what happened during her trial? She is far from happy with the Jedi right now."

"She might not help the Jedi Order itself but she will help you. You are her friend Anakin and you stuck by her even in her trial and she knows that. Call her, and bring her here as we have to check her too. Tell her you need her and she will come. I know her enough to be certain of that." Obi Wan replies in his cultured voice.

"You are right, Obi Wan. I will call her right now." Anakin says getting her on the vid. "Hi, Skyguy" Ahsoka said in a voice that made it clear she was glad to hear from him" It's been a while. What is up? Is it about the Chancellor's fall? Everyone is talking about that."

"No, Ahsoka. I need your help. I need you to come to the temple to see me." he replies

"You know I don't want to go to the temple and you know why. They almost let me die. I would have died if not for you. They were doing nothing to help me." she responds. The council looks very uncomfortable about this, more than one looks more than a little guilty.

"I really seriously need your help Ahsoka. Without your help I may not make it." he says She looks shocked and then resolute "If you really need my help I will be there. I will be there as quick as I can. We have been friends for a long time and I won't abandon you."

She arrives 20 minutes later and Yoda looks at her and says "Many of us have fallen to the Dark Side to help Skywalker look deeply at you I must." She looks annoyed then resigned "If that is what it takes then so be it." Yoda looks at her "Like I thought it is" "It's my temper, isn't it? I can learn to control it, I am sure of it." she replies nervously. "Calm down, Ahsoka. Before Anakin arrived we discussed this. Master Yoda thinks that you are strong on the light side." Obi Wan replies

Yoda looks at her kindly " Although control your temper, you must. Strong on the light side you are. " ." The point is, Ahsoka, you can be a good example for Anakin. You can be an emotional anchor when he needs it." Obi Wan adds. "I'll do it." she says instantly "Anakin needs me and he has always stuck by me in the past. I can do no less for him. "