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"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."
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