A Venomous Galaxy (Crossover) Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Chapter 5: Dooku's Revelation and Sidious' Contempt

Aboard his vessel, Dooku and Ventress had gone to their own private chambers. Dooku had looked in the mirror as soon as he had some alone time and looked at his face. He couldn't believe what he saw. His skin was pale, haggard in his reflection as if he were some foul undead creature of legend made real, and his eyes were a sickly yellow.

It wasn't the only weird thing he had felt while on that planet. He felt something new stirring in him as he first saw the temple and as the trials had tested him, so too did he feel that same presence creeping inside of him. But once he had touched the Sith holocron, he felt himself changed completely. The things he said to the Jedi, calling himself the avatar of the dark side, it was too arrogant even for him, and he felt as if he had betrayed the very cause he fought for.

Even now he felt dirty. He was no stranger to the pull of the dark side, his eyes had flashed gold under it's power on many an occasion and like many real Sith before him, had plotted insurrection against his master far before Sidious first force choked him for failure. But now he felt as if something had dug it's claws into his skin and gashed him before escaping into the night, making him more of a thing than a man. The yellow eyes staring into him from the mirror's reflection looked diseased and possessed of no power at all. More than a few times he feared that the person looking back at him would smile of it's own will. As if it were a demon from some story meant to scare children.

So he did something that he never thought he would do again. He closed his eyes and used a Jedi meditation technique. Slowly he found himself calming, at peace. It was a feeling he had not known in some time, but after venturing on foot and being transformed into whatever that was, it felt better than ever. When he looked in the mirror again, he was not yet restored to his former features. Yet the blush of life had returned to his cheeks.

In a way he looked even worse than ever. His pale disfigured face colored red and pink made him look like a garish clown at some grotesque theater. But he knew it was a step in the right direction. The force's miracles were not to be doubted. He smiled, relieved and communed with the force again. Slowly he felt his face changing again. He was intent on once again brimming with his noble features and nothing of the abomination he had beheld in his reflection.

When he finished, he opened a communicator with his master. At that point, the sky above Naboo was that dark blue predawn light, and Palpatine had called his personal shuttle to take him back to his official offices on Coruscant. Behind him were Mas Amedda and Sly Moore, hidden from view. He was clad in his dark Sith robes, a sight Dooku had grown used to, yet even then as he beheld Sidious, he felt a strange sensation from him through the hologram, as if the dark side scared him.

“My master, the mission is complete. We found the weapon. But it was nothing. Only some strange creature barely clinging to life. Skywalker cut it asunder and it quickly ran off into the rest of the world. Just some...animal...” He shuddered.

“That is the only thing you have to report?” Palpatine said. He could see the trace of Dooku's disfigured features through the hologram. Even engaging in that Jedi meditation was not enough to fully heal him yet. The sight of that vestigial mark of the dark side on Dooku's face had pleased him as soon as they had opened up communications. His apprentice strong though he may have been and having completed the rituals of sacrifice was merely a placeholder for his designs. But instead of the triumph of the dark side, instead there was a great unease in Dooku's eyes.

Dooku heard the accusation in those words and was looking to save face. “Perhaps it was for the best. Now we know the only thing left on that planet are ancient ruins. Nothing for the Jedi or anyone else to find. They have no new ways to challenge our power.”

“I see.” Palpatine's eyes were hidden under the darkness of his cloak. When he only slightly tilted his head up to look up, Dooku could not see his visage any clearer, yet he felt his master's indignation all too well.

The Sith Master had sensed a change in his apprentice too, as if something had happened in him beyond his knowing. Palpatine knew it well, it was the true fire of the dark side, and he saw the faint marks of deformity still marring on the count's face. It was the sign of all true dark siders and more than that, the heritage of the Sith. The kind and grandfatherly face he wore as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and as Anakin Skywalker's friend was nothing more than a mask, a trick of alchemy he used to deceive the entire galaxy. Such scars were proof that one had given oneself up to power and it was something that any dark sider, apprentice or master, would be proud of.

Now it was as if Dooku had washed himself clean of it, gone well out of his way to put it out. But the smoke of that power was still smoldering off him. Whatever agony the transformations of the dark side brought, any true Sith would revel in being set ablaze in it's hellfires no matter how painful if only to rule from the wicked throne engulfed in such a conflagration as only demons of legend could. Yet having tasted real power and finally come to terms with it, Dooku doused himself of it as if he were ashamed of himself of the change that was wrought in him.

That was the final indication Palpatine needed to know that this so-called apprentice was nothing more than a placeholder. It had been Sly Moore's idea behind him for Dooku to not only retrieve the ancient Sith weapon, but also for this mission to serve as a test if he was fit to be an actual apprentice beyond name only. Sidious knew that Dooku had only come to embrace the dark side in the twilight years of his life.

But he did not wish to believe her suspicion was correct. Winning over this fallen Jedi Master was no small feat, being not only an accomplished statesman but also so strong in the force that he was primed to become the next Grandmaster himself before he abruptly left the council as well as having knowledge of the dark side even before he ever was taken into Sidious' wing, and an excellent lightsaber duelist who could survive against Yoda, someone who even he respected as a warrior. For all the designs Palpatine had on turning Skywalker, Dooku was no small prize either, and he already a formidable warrior, may have been what he needed as the next Dark Lord of Sith as opposed to all the trouble he was going for the Chosen One. Skywalker was a being of legend but for now he was still a Jedi.

Yet now whatever enthusiasm he held for Dooku taking his place was dashed. Even a brute like Maul trained only to be an assassin to dispatch his enemies would be far more worthy to inherit the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith from Sidious than this recently christened Tyranus ever would be. This revelation disappointed him on some level, he had seen this man so close in age to him almost as a strange sort of brother much as he saw the prospective Anakin and Maul before him as a son. But there was what he wanted and then there was what he needed.

He looked at the Umbaran woman behind him and nodded, affirming that her skepticism of the fallen Jedi was correct. Sly Moore's piercing gaze was something that would stir terror into the hearts of many yet it also betrayed just how perceptive she was. Dooku knew he was being left out of the conversation. He thought to say something to regain his master's favor. But then Sidious looked back at Dooku and he realized that chance was lost. “I pray that at least Ventress survived,” he said, seeing more value in her than the backup Tyranus had proven to be.

“Yes, we both survived.”

“Good,” he said, his mood improving already. “She is only an acolyte, but she is so very strong in the force!” Those were not words meant to either encourage Dooku to do better or placate him. Ventress was so much like Maul yet restricted by none of his blind obedience that had made him into a tool rather than a partner and successor, and with this pathetic excuse of an apprentice before him, he was feeling nostalgic for anyone that he would be proud of as his successor. It was only his former apprentice's insolence in daring to form his own criminal empire without contacting him that would earn him his master's ire years later. Such a thing in the control of people as dangerous as other Sith that supposedly obeyed him was much like a venomous snake coiled around his arm, something that would either strike out at his enemies or sink it's poison laden fangs into his neck when he least expected it. He only commandeered the Separatists through Dooku's efforts and later on, General Grievous. He could not risk Death Watch and Mandalore turning on him as well.

Dooku took Palpatine's enthusiasm as approval of himself. “Yes, she is. I have taught her well as you have instructed. And she has performed exemplary, beyond my highest standards.”

That last remark set off something in Sidious. But he said nothing. Nobody there knew what to make of his silence. Underneath the shadow of his hood he furrowed his brow. He wondering if she too had become tainted by the ex-Jedi's weakness. Or worse yet, if he wished to have her take Dooku's place, perhaps she would side with her master over a true Dark Lord and overthrow him together. The Sith were not unknown to dispatching their own when they saw fit for any reason. And he would not risk having his legacy tainted from being usurped by someone so unworthy to wear his mantle.