『Magister』

"Hmmm.." Damask watched over the three handmaidens who were now surrounding the two teen force users. A brow raised as they were all chattering and touching Vaylin's hair, hardly believing it was real. It wasn't an illusion of any sort.

Dooku looked over the Magister for a moment before looking towards the group of teens. "So..." Crossing his arms over his chest, "Your friend, Palpatine... Turns out to be a Sith Lord who was behind the attempted invasion of Naboo. Now he's plastered all over the HoloNet, my friend, what have you gotten yourself into?"

Sensing the man's suspicions, warned by the dark side that the Jedi Master was likely onto him, the Magister nodded his head lightly. "The boy once known as Palpatine had a troubled past," his fingers gripped hard around the staff in his hand. "His father was hardly any help... I'm sure it is around the time of his sudden emancipation that he had found a teacher in the ways of the force." His yellow eyes moved over towards Dooku, taking in his stone-like expression.

Raising his head slightly in thought, before nodding his head, the Jedi let out an exaggerated sigh. "His apprentice was killed by Ento, who tore his lightsaber apart in mid-battle, prior to joining the Jedi."

With wide eyes, the being looked to the boy who was surrounded by young women. Though he was laying down and looking up at them as they were praising his powers. He didn't seem at all full of himself after the stunts he had pulled.

"That's impressive..." The fact that the boy was trained outside the Jedi Order made sense to him. His exotic powers, and using the lost Jedi power referred to as Art of the Small, used by the Order of Old. "Aren't lightsabers imbued with the force to protect from that kind of thing?"

"Qui Gon Jinn described it as a needle poking through the hide of a beast, and then pulling out the innards... He also pulled out the power cells of the lightsaber staff, not the focusing crystal." Dooku held out a hand in front of himself as he gestured towards the boy.

"And what of the lightsaber that exploded in the senate?" Damask had been there, watching the senate meeting as he was the administrator of the Republic Reserves.

"When I asked him a few months ago, he said... A variant of Mechu-Deru, he claims its progenitor was a Jedi-Sith Art." Dooku was surrendering this information voluntarily, it made for conversation and he was also getting some visual information in return.

Damask was curious, Dooku knew this. His responses also indicated that he was no stranger to knowledge of the force. So, the more he told the man he's known for over two decades, the more he learned about the alien.

Though hearing that this was Mechu-Deru, his eyes remained on the thirteen year old. This boy was definitely capable of Sith Alchemy should he be introduced to it on a wider spectrum.

It was even likely he could rediscover the Force Alchemy that the Je'daii Order once used to imbue their weapons with mystical properties akin to the effects of a lightsaber.

However, as these thoughts of teaching the boy came to his mind, the Dark Side warned him against attempting to convert him. That trying to convert the boy would ultimately lead to his demise. The venerable nonhuman squinted his eyes before looking towards Dooku who was looking at him with his own dark eyes.

"Are you alright, Magister?"

"The technique he used to change her hair color, and promote its growth..." Coughing, Damask's eyes moved back towards Ento who was giving him a glance from the corner of his right eye. "I'm sure it could be used to heal my condition."

Dooku looked over the man, he was forced to breath through a machine, he was visibly dying with every step he took. He looked sickly to begin with. "Perhaps you can travel with us to Serenno, we're leaving about two days from now, once our replacements arrive."

Damask narrowed his eyes forward hearing Dooku's offer. That was where Palpatine was supposedly last sighted. It felt like a trap. "You're returning to Serenno?"

"I am reclaiming my Birthright as Count of Serenno." Dooku nodded lightly, as he was going to be claiming his fortune and his world in order to create a future he can believe in.

"A Jedi claiming the station of power..." Damask seemed strangely content with this, believing Dooku was going to be leaving the Jedi Order soon. While he may not be an Apprentice, he may as well be an unknowing ally of the Dark Lord. "That... Is most intriguing for a Jedi."

Hearing the man's response to his proclamation, he chuckled a little. Though he didn't try to be modest or defend the reason why he was going through with this course of action. Of course, Dooku doubted with Damask's insights of how he felt about the Republic and Jedi Order, that he would argue on behalf of a Jedi's ideology.

"When you gain the title of Count, when you return home, what will you do?"

"Restore Order from Chaos, and destroy rogue elements."

"Restore Order..." Damask liked the sound of that, though restoring order on the planet would mean reversing much planned discontent in the Outer Rim and far reaches of the Galaxy.

The soon to be Count Dooku planned on forming a close knit alliance with other worlds and sectors, most promisingly the Tion Hegemony. From there he knew that the worlds under his alliance would grow... At the same time, War was destined to break out should they all want to break away from the Republic. Just like he and Damask presumed over twenty years ago in a conversation they held during a meeting with himself, Qui Gon Jin, Sifo-Dyas and Jocasta Nu.

By now Sifo-Dyas had already used finances from the Muun to buy the services of the Kaminoans to form a Clone Army, for the Republic, months ago. Through him, he even found the Jedi Master a number of suitable candidates from across the Galaxy to be the base templates... Mainly Mandalorians and other elite warriors such as the Echani.

An Army needed diversity, as well as uniform. If it was to wipe out the Jedi, Damask needed to find a surrogate for Palpatine, but it was now going to take more than a decade to bring what he needed into fruition.

Just as Ento was raising to his feet, he paused for a few seconds before looking towards the doors leading outside. Then his gaze turned toward the Balcony.

Vaylin narrowed her eyes on him before turning towards the doors once more.

"What's wrong?" Padmé raised a brow seeing two of her friends suddenly alert.

"We're surrounded," Ento used the force to call his father's lightsaber to his hand.

Padmé furrowed her brows sharply. "What?"

"Surrounded?" The two handmaidens looked at one another, then towards their Queen. It was their duty to protect her, and thankfully all three of them were armed with S-5 pistols. Though it was unlikely they would be able to do much against the number of soldiers outside.

Vaylin followed Ento's example, calling the second lightsaber to her own hand and extending it into that of a pike. With her polearm weapon at the ready, her eyes shifted towards the Balony.

Dooku stepped forward, his eyes moving along the walls as he reached out with the force to feel those who were now threatening them. There were men outside, wearing yellow armor, members of the Sunguard mercenary group.

The Munn was puzzled, it was the same company he had turned into a Sith Cult. Why were they here all of a sudden? Why are they surrounding the villa? Was he now a target for his own guards? The old man grunted, figuring this was the machinations of Palpatine. There was a high chance that his apprentice had assumed control of his subordinates.

Damask would then follow Dooku, who was now ushering the Handmaidens into a nearby room. "This is most unpleasant... It seems Palpatine still has influence in high places..."

Dooku rolled his eyes at the man's tone of voice and closed him into the room with the Naboo native humans. Using the force, he then called a curved lightsaber hilt, from inside a nearby cabinet, through the power of the force.

As he activated the weapon, a pure synthetic white blade appeared. He had used one of the unbled lab grown synthetic crystals in a new lightsaber.

Ento then activated his own, followed by Vaylin.

The front doors burst open and about two dozen gunman entered the house, blasters at the ready, by their hips. It seemed some of them were even armed with heavy weapons. From either side of the balcony about a dozen more appeared with blaster rifles aiming directly at the trio.

"Jedi! Surrender the Magister immediately for termination! No one else has die!"

Dooku narrowed his gaze on the men which had their weapons trained on them. He sensed they would kill them immediately should they let their guard down. It also seemed the teens sensed the same as well.

"Ready Vaylin?" Ento asked as he glanced at her from the side, a grin across his lips.

Vaylin looked back to him with a simpering expression, "Of course."

Raising a brow seeing the two teens ready to give up a fight in order to protect those who were in the small room behind them, Dooku nodded lightly. "It seems you won't be getting the leading member of the Republic's Reserve Administration."

"So be it..." Raising their weapons, they opened fire with their automatic weapons, aiming to blast the Jedi to oblivion. Yet as they continuously fired, the room filled with smoke.

Ento and Vaylin were using the force to halt all of the blaster bolts coming in their general direction. They seemed like colorful swimming tadpoles of gaseous energy, floating in mid-air.

"That should do it! Cease fire! Cease fire!" The Sunguard momentarily stopped firing, but as the smoke cleared, they could see the blaster bolts floating around the trio in front of the door.

"By the Force..." One of them muttered before all the bolts were sent flying right back at them. Even though the soldiers were all wearing heavy armor, it only protected them so much. These bolts of energy ripped through them volley after volley.

The walls, and things that were on display, were plentily scorched and blackened by the bolts.

Many of them had tried to back off, but they were too slow. Bodies were hitting floor.

Within the next few seconds there were only a couple left alive, but still heavily wounded and trying to crawl away. "We... We have to call for reinforcemeh--"

The sound of whirring cut the man off. As he turned his body to look back, a curved lightsaber bisected the face of his helmet... Killing him immediately. It then came buzzing on over towards the last one which was using the wall to stand back up. It lopped off his leg, sending the man right back down onto the floor face first with a heavy thud.

The weapon then returned to Dooku's hand, "Stopping bolts with the force... That is quite the feat," his eyes narrowed on his Padawan, then towards Vaylin. He had a feeling they had been training that technique in their freetime out in the forest.

"Magister, it appears that the Varykino has been cleared of hostiles." Dooku turned and opened the door to the room which they had taken cover in.

The handmaidens were the first to exit the room with Padmé right behind them. All of them had their pistols at the ready, aiming at the dead bodies. Then they looked to the walls, a deep frown across Padmé's lips was rather evident of how she felt. This was her family's Lake House.

Damask however was the last to step out, using his staff for support as he walked. His eyes grazed over the attackers, that were now summarily deceased, and he shook his head.

"It seems you will be coming to Serenno with us afterall... Or remaining in the protective custody of the Jedi Order during your stay here, Magister." Dooku looked over the Muun who looked clearly displeased with the current events. This was not a planned attack by any means.