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Let Chaos Reign Chapter 34: The Balance of Power
Dooku was nonplussed. He gave me the biggest ‘are you serious’ look I have ever been given. I cackled like a madman clapping in joy. His frown deepened at the childish display.
“This… is the Quiet Hand I had heard so much about?” Grievous asked aloud, looking everyone over, seeming pleased with what he saw but then finding other things lacking. Such as me.
He stood tall, unbreakable, and a hulking menace just a few meters behind the record Nemesis has made and held to date.
“Indeed, Grievous.” Dooku said, giving the general some side-eye before fully focusing on me. “As for… My mistake, what mistake are you referring to?” His voice was calm, but it felt more like he was moments away from making his displeasure known.
Tension filled the room, with the members of the Quiet Hand shrugging it off unconcerned, with only one running late. Then again, he had been training with a Crown on the outskirts of Mos Eisley. Maul, even with thunder breathing and his growing power in the Force, would take a moment to get here.
His training had increased when word reached me of the current chaos unfolding out in the galaxy. Not that I could blame him, knowing that things had shifted so dramatically and he knew where he stood when it came to the power hierarchy. He was doing his best to try and fix that personal issue of his.
“Oh nothing much… Just you passing on the opportunity to finally topple your master, Sidious, once and for all.” I said between bites of my sandwich.
“Your indirectness is beginning to test my patience. You speak of an opportunity that I would have been well aware of.” He said slowly, each word pronounced with a calm efficiency that hid the coiling rage hidden beneath it.
“You know…” My open hand circled in the air as I swallowed the tomato with slices of bantha meat and lettuce. Various sauces danced across the length of my tongue, creating a chaotic gathering of flavors that coalesced into a form of ascension that food had no right being capable of. “Your massive droid army you could have subverted to just overthrow your master.”
“If it were that simple, I would have done so already. I had to bide my time until the proper opportunity showed itself, so I allowed Sidious the confidence that he held complete control of the droid army. More importantly… I must be the one to kill him. Not some idiotic scraps of metal that waste the space they occupy with their infuriating existences.”
In other words, he basically just said it was a mixture of his own hubris and probably emotional on some level because Sidious did have Qui-Gon killed, but that was hard to say with how long and how far he has been submerged in the dark side. It was also because he couldn’t challenge Sidious on such a thing, not when he was the master that held all the cards in the deck.
“I beg to differ. Set aside some resources while the few opportunities arose that you didn’t have him looking over your shoulder, and he had to handle them while you began the process of creating newer droid models without him knowing. It would be difficult but doable… Well, what’s done is done, since I have now forced your hand.”
Dooku’s eyes narrowed before a red glow with a snap and hiss filled the room with a blood-red blade held over my chest, right where my heart is. “So it was you who somehow convinced General Kalani to begin taking control of the Separatists' army.”
“What are you talking about?” General Grievous asked, now confused, about what was being discussed. He wasn’t completely clueless when his eyes narrowed. Combined with his mask, even with the black smudges, he appeared more serpentine.
Dooku paused before calmly turning towards General Grievous. “It would seem our esteemed host had made an attempt at subterfuge. He somehow convinced the prototype super tactical droid General Kalani to begin undermining the code of the droid army.”
Grievous turned his head slowly towards me with his cloak unclasped and his arms held out, poised and ready to strike.
Ventress’s lightsaber soon joined Dooku's, but unlike her master, she kept it away from me, but the smug smile on her face told me all I needed to know. She fully believed Dooku could handle me…
Setting the sandwich down I slowly stood up, Haki not warning me at all along with the Sharingan active, as it told me that Dooku was allowing me to do this. A laugh escaped my lips, and my eyes crinkled in amusement. A joke that no one else but I understood.
“Wow. Impressive deflection, Dooku. Still needs a little work. How about you come clean to the others… Like General Grievous?” I said back, unconcerned with the blade hovering ominously over my heart.
“Your attempts at escaping your punishment are feeble at best.”
Grievous, on the other hand, paused before drawing his lightsabers. “Come clean about what?”
Dooku paused, now looking towards the cyborg general.
“About the backdoor shutdown and control codes hidden in the droid army… The same codes that Dooku and his master were well aware of, to end your revolution once you all served your purpose.” The words came out smooth, the confidence in knowing that it was all true made it all the more convincing.
“… That can’t be.” Grievous denied it, yet he didn’t pull out his lightsabers.
“Do not trust him, Grievous.” Dooku said, glaring at me.
“Dooku, are you really going to give up this opportunity?” I said back to him, the hiss of Grievous's lightsabers igniting joined the hum of Dooku's and Ventress’s blades. “With my help, you can defeat your former master.”
“After what you did? Why would I ever trust you?”
I stepped forward, the Quiet Hand remained where they were. Not a single one of them made an attempt to diffuse the hostile situation or eliminate the threats before them.
“Because you have no choice now. And you're one to talk about trust after what you had done to General Grievous by tampering with his mind.”
Dooku froze for a brief moment. The mask of calm control he projected slipped, and for just a second, concern and potentially even fear crossed over his face before the mask came back.
“What are you…”
“Think about it, Grievous. Think before the ship exploded with you in it. Any gaps in your memories. Any changes that don’t line up with the rest of your memory.”
Dooku had enough, and with a thrust, his lightsaber went right where my heart would be. But instead of the sizzle and destruction of my flesh, there was nothing. Not even a smidge of resistance from my body. His lightsaber went right through me as I continued to walk forward, calmly.
Dooku pulled his blade back and struck at my head. Just like the previous attempt, the blade swished right through my throat with no sign of damage at all.
I stepped between Grievous and Dooku, with Ventress off to the side waiting for an opening. “Well, Grievous. Notice anything off?”
Grievous looked between Dooku and me, deep in thought before his eyes snapped up and towards Dooku. “You!” He growled, falling into a stance.
From what little could be found on Grievous’s history in this galaxy, it leaned more towards his legend's counterpart than it did the later Lucas canon and Disney. What we could find about him after a rather extensive search was his ship exploding and his remains not being found but presumed dead.
I didn’t hold anything against Grievous when it came to them augmenting his mind when he told them not to. Either their methods helped make his mind be in such a state that he couldn’t realize they had done anything in the first place, or with his aggression directed towards Dooku, I think it’s safe to say that could be scratched off the list of reasons.
Then the other ones, like Grievous being the commander of the entirety of the CIS military, wasn’t exactly an easy job organizing all of it and trying to win while fighting and killing when faced with his hated enemy that took everything from him -- the Jedi.
When distracted with all of that, fresh off the operating table and being trained relentlessly by Dooku, I don’t think anyone would have the time to ponder their memories and realize something had been done to their mind.
Regardless, Grievous now realized what they had done to him. Likely noticing some inconsistency with his memories. Just when Grievous was about to enter the fray, I held my hands up.
“Wait!”
He paused along with Dooku, who had his blade up, ready to guard and fend off the mechanical menace that was General Grievous.
“Why? Dooku was the one who had me given this body… That also means he was the one responsible for my mind being tampered with.” He growled, eyes narrowing. His hands spun with a flourish, falling into a modified Makashi form. It had sprinkles of Ataru mixed into it, judging by his legs and feet being poised to move faster than Makashi needed.
“Not necessarily. He was following orders from the one truly responsible. Orders he had no choice but to follow until the time could come where he could bring that slimy bastard to an end.”
Dooku lowered his blade a little, a solitary refined white eyebrow raised in question of just what I was doing. Grievous himself didn’t move despite his gaze boring into Dooku’s.
“You know him. Darth Sidious is the one you seek vengeance upon.” I walked slowly and calmly, hands held out, showing I meant no harm to the badass.
Even if I could defeat Grievous just with my skill with a blade, it wouldn’t be a cakewalk. The guy in the legends was considered a rival to prime suit Darth Vader, who was viewed as the greatest lightsaber duelist in all of Star Wars.
Even if he wasn’t and was close to the top, that’s not something you take lightly when Grievous was held in the same light. Especially since I recalled people talking about Mace Windu refusing to duel Grievous again after he began to replicate Vaapad.
Even if it would still be easy to defeat him, I’d rather not poison the well just yet when I could instead turn him to my side. He was already capable with his machine body, now I could already imagine him getting an organic body back with some augmentations…
“But he followed his orders. Willingly. What did you do to me, Dooku?” He growled, the hate in each word rang like a hammer. “How many of my memories did you take… Maybe you were responsible for the ship blowing up?”
Grievous showed that intelligent mind by connecting dots and beginning to realize things. It’s also possible he might have had something investigated without Dooku or anyone being aware. He was the commander of all the Separatists forces, so getting the resources necessary to investigate something wasn't an impossibility.
“Grievous, with how powerful Darth Sidious was in comparison to him, he really didn’t have a choice. He could only do as he was told, then act upon the chance if it ever came to kill the bastard.” I said calmly and slowly, talking him down before he looked between me and Dooku for a brief moment.
After several tense seconds his lightsabers were extinguished. “This isn’t over.” He glared at Dooku with Haki picking up the hate and resentment in him.
Dooku lowered his own blade but didn’t fully extinguish it. That was one more piece taken off of Dooku’s board and hopefully will be added to my own instead. General Grievous was and will always be one of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time.
I didn’t like how his life ended, and maybe I could fix that for him while also giving him a better body than what he had before the incident that took it from him.
“By no means and I understand. What do you want to do, Dooku? Try and fight me with your General here aiding me and the rest of the Quiet Hand in eliminating you and anyone foolish enough to follow you and waste the only chance you're ever going to get in killing Darth Sidious. Or do you want to hear me out on what the plan is going forward and watch as the bastard who took the closest thing you had to a son dies while watching his ambitions crumble before his eyes?”
Dooku stared long and hard at me. What felt like minutes of him deciding and going through who knows how many thoughts about whether he could trust me or not. Calling it trust wasn’t accurate, not when it came to someone like Dooku. In his case, since he is a Sith now, it came down to whether I was bullshitting him and disposing of him before delivering upon what I offered.
Then his lightsaber extinguished. The only one humming in the room was Ventress who looked like she was halfway between doing the same or trying to kill me on her own.
Dooku gave a shallow nod. “I will hear you out at the very least. Not many could put me in such a position without me even knowing until it was too late. Go on then. Speak of your great plan.” His eyes had an intensity to them that promised a patient death.
Dooku was not thrilled, that much was clear. But he also showed me respect for, as he said, not many people could do what I did without him even knowing what was going on until it was too late.
“Good. I am glad you at least can be reasoned with just as General Grievous can be.” My hand gestured towards what was likely now Dooku’s former attack dog.
Ventress finally relented after Dooku shared a stern look at her that she finally relented putting her lightsaber away.
I stepped towards the center of the chamber with the Magnaguards on the edges of the circular room, remaining positioned not moving even an inch when a fight looked ready to break out.
Everyone’s attention focused solely on me. “Now as you all know, the droid army alongside a not so insignificant number of Separatists high command is now dead or missing. Only roughly a third of the droid army is still loyal to us. Despite being outnumbered and losing many worlds filled with resources for the war we are far from defeated.”
I paused letting my words sink in. “But I have prepared for this eventuality. I know Sidious well enough that he would stack the deck completely in his favor so I tossed the board aside and began my own game. The creation of Turbo Slug Inc wasn’t just a business move -- it was a tactical one. With its conception blueprints for newer droid models and designs have begun along with efforts to reach out to any survivors of the various factions responsible for the droid army.”
“We do not have the manufacturing capabilities to match what has been taken combined with the clone army of the Republic.” Grievous pointed out. Not that he was against continuing the fight.
“By no means… It’s why the trap Dooku so willingly sent us into was used as a test for the upgrades I had in mind for every single droid that fights for us.”
Dooku perked up at that, likely having heard of what happened. “Those ships you had modified sustained damage that no Separatist ship could have remained functioning for as long as they had… If we apply that to even a group of B1’s then that changes things.”
His eyes lit up in realization at what I was suggesting. At first, he was hesitant, more willing to go to ground until he could try to find a means to make the mother of all shots in the dark against Palpatine. He was well aware of what I and the rest of my ragtag group had accomplished against what we were pit against in that trap.
If we could do what we did against that big of a Republic force with Mace Windu and a not so insignificant amount of Jedi backing him up, then he had a chance.
“It changes a lot. The number advantage the Republic now has will become an even fight for us. But even then I’d prefer to keep this in our favor as much as possible. So Kamino needs to be taken off the board.”
Grievous chimed in at that part. “Before our army was turned against us, we aimed to do just that.”
“You mean you aimed to do that, Sidious never had any intention of letting Kamino fall.” The General paused before looking at me. “He hedged more of his assets towards the Republic… Didn’t you ever wonder why it was that despite easily outnumbering the Republic you didn’t just wipe them out at the beginning of the war?”
Grievous likely had thought of such things but with him so busy trying to make the Separatists into a proper fighting force, he didn’t have time to begin asking serious questions. That and he likely was given half assed excuses that could work to placate him.
He glared at Dooku who was unbothered by the cyborg general being turned against him. The doors opened again, everyone turning in time to see the last member of my group arrive. Maul had the hood down, revealing his face and Dooku froze.
“Apologies, Tobi. I was training far from Mos Eisley.”
I waved him off. “Not the end of the world. In fact you arrived just in time, I was going over the battle strategy of what we are going to do to win this war and put your old master in the ground. Oh before I forget this distinguished gentleman was your replacement under your old master.”
My hand found its way onto Dooku’s shoulder, making him look at the offending limb. He was probably questioning if he should cut it off for having the audacity to touch him.
Maul paused at that, his eyes looking over Dooku before scoffing. “Then it would seem Sidious is getting desperate if he had an old fool like him to take my place.”
Dooku abruptly stood up, hand on his lightsaber while Maul was unbothered. “You have no idea how much effort it is taking me not to cut you down where you stand after what you did to Qui-Gon.” Dooku’s voice had emotion bleed into it. His eyes even turned yellow.
He was a wolf that was owed blood, and Maul was in his sights. It spoke of how highly I thought of Maul after his training with a lightsaber, of how uncertain I was on who would win between the two of them.
If it was the same Maul that battled Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, Dooku would be the victor. There was no doubt of that. Now… It was anyone’s guess.
It wasn’t just anger either, it was filled with a deep pain. The kind that came from losing someone you deeply cared about. I appeared between the two, hands up reassuringly in an attempt to placate the two.
“Both of you, enough. We should be allies, not enemies. Especially when the one who has caused us all no end of suffering and actively plots for our collective demise is running free over in the Republic's Senate. He is the one who abandoned you, Maul. Just as he was also the one who did the same to you Dooku, and above all else, the one who ordered the death of the closest thing you had to a son.”
My words made them both look at me before relaxing, albeit grudgingly. Dooku let out a long breath he had been holding. All the anger, pain, even the memory of the loss he suffered was subdued and placed back under control.
Maul himself I knew held some jealousy despite his resentment of his master abandoning him courtesy of me manipulating the narrative to an extent. Sidious had abandoned him but only because he believed Maul was truly dead. Even if he had found him, he may not have been willing to save him like he did Anakin.
Anakin was the chosen one, and at the time Sidious didn’t exactly have any potential candidates on hand that were worthy of being his apprentice after Anakin got to learn what it feels like to get flash fried.
But regardless I made sure to twist things so that he knew to blame himself for his downfall and his former master for tossing him aside like a used tool.
Dooku stared down at Maul, hand inches from his lightsaber before it finally drifted away. “You have a point. That doesn’t mean I have let it go entirely.”
Maul smiled lightly at the last part. “Anytime, anywhere.”
Maul soon fell in line as we went over the current strategy. “With the clones and majority of the droid army we are going to have a bad time even if we manage to get the multiple redundancies that won’t cost us much, if anything they would save us quite a bit of money. So we need to remove the clones from the battlefield. Kamino is our priority target.”
“We had made plans, slowly creeping towards the homeworld of the clones. With the loss of most of our forces, I doubt we can get there and do much of anything without leaving what planets remain in our control vulnerable.” Grievous chimed in, looking at the map of the galaxy that was projected from a holoprojector.
“We don’t need a massive fleet. Currently most of the members of the Quiet Hand are capable enough that we could destroy most of the clone production facilities. What has me worried is if most of us go there as you said, we leave too many planets vulnerable. We are capable and powerful, but we can’t be everywhere at once. It’s why I need to begin getting all of you trained up and begin the next couple of plans that were intended for later but we need them now.”
“Training? Preposterous. We need no training when we are quite capable.” Dooku said dismissively before his eyes narrowed when he followed where my eyes remained as I had a knowing smile.
Ventress scowled, hands clenched as I looked at her.
“Ventress is still being trained by me. Grievous and I are more than capable and do not need to train.” He remained stubborn in his and Grievous’s skill.
“If you say so… Then prove it.” I said, shrugging off my outer cloak, leaving me in a skin tight black silk shirt and matching pants.
The others made room after Dooku nodded, calmly rising off of his seat. We stood across from one another as the others, particularly Maul and Ventress both looked on in great interest.
Dooku with a flourish ignited his lightsaber, holding it no differently than a gentleman would an expensive pen at his personal desk.
A snap and a hiss followed his own with my blue lightsaber developing that yellow glow along the outer edge of it. Sun Breathing had advanced enough that I could begin to manifest that glow along my blade, and as the skill had said it was quite effective at handling most of anything dark in nature.
Between that and what I might be capable of doing with it since I could manifest holy flames combined with pyrokinesis and the plasma of the lightsaber could be argued to be a flame… That’s for another time.
Dooku had a pointed look towards the odd colors of my blade as we walked towards one another. I had no need to rush, a cocky swagger brought me closer while Dooku calmly and methodically walked towards me.
This his arm snaked out with my blade there to meet it. The blades crackled before he brought it back and went through a series of thrusts that were blocked with my own blade. He poked and prodded my defense trying to test the waters and see if there was a gap he could exploit while gauging my skill.
He wasn’t going all out just yet, he needed to know what he was up against. That and likely not happy about my comment for the need to improve for all of them -- Dooku included.
It also gave me an idea of how far the dark side had corroded his body. The man, while powerful, would whither away while constantly using the dark side until he couldn’t even beat Anakin with ease any longer. That would be rectified with the fountain of youth. Besides using it to get some favors and back doors left open by some Senators, it will be used to get the Count back into tip top shape.
After one particular strike that was angled to slash my hand, I went on the offensive. Wide sweeping slashes that the man blocked and parried that made him question just what I was doing. The blows came in fast and hard but he was hanging with me.
That was until I not only upped the speed but switched from the various moves of Shii-Cho to other forms incorporated into Niman. My newly found skills in hand to hand martial arts did have bleed over when it came to using a weapon. Things like footwork which were already superb, became vastly better.
Dooku himself curiously looked at my eyes shifting from their cool blue to a red with the black tomoe when the duel had begun.
His expression soon shifted from curiosity to strained concentration when he struggled to keep up with the sudden burst of speed and power that came from seemingly nowhere. The wide sweeping strikes became precise two handed hammer blows that fed into one another just as each bullet was fed into a machine gun that made the man wince forcing him entirely on the defensive.
One blow in particular after a series of love taps made him miss a step and almost lose his footing sliding back from the force of the blow. Dooku frowned deeply as those who served him watched on, realizing while powerful, he was no longer the strongest in their eyes.
His feet slid against the floor finding purchase only to have me battering away at his blade with each strike adding onto the growing pyre that would see Dooku burned, forcing it further from him before he held it up in preparation for what he sensed to come next. My arm rose up and slammed down, making the count wince.
His teeth gritted together as he didn’t even attempt to counter knowing the attempt would be suicide. The speed I was moving at was overwhelming him and he wasn’t being given a chance to recover and center himself before picking up his own pace.
In a video game this has happened to me before. I underestimated someone looking down on them and didn’t go all out. When they did something I couldn’t process or comprehend and started kicking my ass by the time I mentally recovered it was too late.
Dooku was getting this lesson in real life when the second blow came.
This time with even more force that sent tremors up his arms, both hands now clasping his blade instead of just the one. His legs almost buckled and brought low but held strong. Using the momentum from the second blow just as I did the first to flow into the next strike helping it move even faster it came down like a guillotine.
His eyes wide, mouth parted either to say something but fell short or was just awestruck at what was happening. The blow slammed home, his blade crackled, before his strength finally broke apart. It crumbled like a sandcastle before a wave of water, the tide coming in and sweeping it all aside.
His legs finally caved. He fell back, lightsaber blown away from his hands, extinguished and clattering across the floor. The force of the strike was enough to send a gust of wind rushing across the chamber making everyone’s clothes flutter from it.
Dooku lay on his back, staring wide eyed at me with the blue and yellow blade held near his head as he scrambled back, losing all of his composure in a rare moment in his life.
He breathed heavily, favoring one hand to hold him up off the floor than the other. Then indignant rage and hate formed in his heart before he brought one hand up. From the tips of his fingers, azure tendrils of electricity bloomed and closed the distance.
Lightsaber held at my side, not even attempting to block or dodge the Force Lightning. Instead of hitting me and causing great agony, everyone instead was shocked to see what happened next.
His electricity moved to the side and swirled around my form like a blue tornado of lightning bolts, none of it touching me always hovering an inch from my skin. A hand was raised while Dooku stopped shooting his lightning as he watched slack jawed.
The lightning did as commanded with a mental flex, feeling it as an extension of myself like an extra arm. It flowed from around me, before weaving together into my palm as a single glorious glowing orb of pure lightning that illuminated the entire chamber and everyone in it.
Dooku stared wide eyed, incapable of forming coherent words as he realized I had him at my mercy.
For a brief moment he wondered if I was going to kill him. That feeling faded away when my lightsaber was extinguished and he looked up at the offered hand that dispersed the blue orb into fading crackling particles like a sparkler in the air that ceased to exist and was offered to him.
He slowly took it before he got back up and began dusting himself off, regaining that regal bearing and demeanor he liked to project. A string tugged on his lightsaber lifting it up off the floor and into my waiting hand.
“As I said before, everyone needs training.” Dooku this time remained silent, taking back his offered weapon and giving me a curt nod.
“So it would seem. Your skill with a lightsaber and your preferred form lend… Some evidence as to who you say you are. At the very least an argument can be made that you are from an era where the Jedi were more focused on ending threats. No one could have attained that level of skill you showed in Niman of all things on their own.”
Niman being my preferred form to use because of not just its versatility but it has everything I would need to take an opponent apart. But Niman from what I know of it took a lot of time to gain any mastery over it. The kind that could be close to a decade.
With my boosts in training and skill with a blade it made that time much shorter. With Pitou as a training partner I could shrink the time required even further.
“With that out of the way let me tell you something… That was an enjoyable duel. Good show, Count Dooku.”
He took my offered hand after a moment and gave a firm shake with a soft smile at my praise.
Not long after that Pitou gave the code phrase to snap me out of another round of self induced hypnosis. If I believe it to be fully true, then people like Dooku wouldn’t perceive or sense a lie.
Turn General Grievous against Dooku and make him realize what they have done. One gold ticket. Use now? Y/N
[Commander]
|Rare Trait|
You are a commander, you are better at exerting your authority and receiving obedience from your subordinates. In addition, you are better at organizing, managing, and commanding personnel as well as managing their morale.
Defeat Dooku and manage to utterly dominate the man so much so that he realizes he has no chance of beating you on his own, crushing any sense of superiority he had. One platinum ticket. Use now? Y/N
[Cryokinesis]
|Elite Ability|
Allows the user to telekinetically create and control ice and cold, allowing them to create ice constructs, remotely freeze objects etc.
I could only shake my head at having yet another elemental ability that let me control various things in the world. It almost makes me feel like a wizard.
Chaos Gacha:
[Commander]
|Rare Trait|
You are a commander, you are better at exerting your authority and receiving obedience from your subordinates. In addition, you are better at organizing, managing, and commanding personnel as well as managing their morale.
[Cryokinesis]
|Elite Ability|
Allows the user to telekinetically create and control ice and cold, allowing them to create ice constructs, remotely freeze objects etc.
