Legacy of the Jedi

Dooku flew toward Lorian, putting extra strength into his moves, his footwork sure despite the uneven material of the roof.

"You hate me, don't you?" Lorian grunted, parrying a thrust. "Just because I finally asked something of you." "Something it wasn't fair of you to ask."

"That is what friendship is."

"Not my definition."

"Yes, your definition is that someone gives and you take. Someone admires you and you accept that admiration." Lorian was breathing hard now. "Someone you can use."

"You have always resented me," Dooku said. "Now I know how much."

He drove forward. Lorian's words filled with him anger. He knew he was only supposed to touch Lorian to win, but that inability to reach him, to even graze his skin, had built up the frustration to a boiling point. His body felt hot.

Lorian made a half-turn to the left and swung out in a wide arc.

I have him now. He knows he's losing. It was Lorian's trademark move.

Dooku already knew Lorian would spring to his rear. If Lorian hadn't been so tired, he wouldn't have tried it. Instead of moving to the left, Dooku moved back two steps. When Lorian came at him, he was ready. He brought his lightsaber down on Lorian's shoulder, right where his tunic had torn along the seam.

Lorian cried out and stumbled back. He looked at Dooku with disbelief.

It had been a true blow, designed to hurt.

"You gravel maggot," he said. He sprang at Dooku.

Now they fought without regard for rules of engagement. They fought hard, using every trick. They used their feet and fists as well as their lightsabers. They kicked at each other and struck out blindly as they moved by. Dooku had never fought like this. In a part of his mind he knew that this style of fighting brought him nothing, that it was sloppy and unfocused and would turn them both into losers, but he couldn't stop.

"Enough."

The word was spoken quietly but it cut through the sound of their battle. They stopped. Yoda had appeared on the roof. They hadn't noticed him. They hadn't noticed that their battle had brought them within sight of the Temple windows, either.

Yoda walked over to Lorian. Dooku saw now that the lightsaber blow had left a deep bruise on Lorian's bare arm. It looked terrible, the center a deep red with a blue-black bruise surrounding it. Lorian had a cut on his cheek and one hand was bleeding.

"To the med clinic go you must, Lorian," Yoda said. "Dooku, to your quarters. Send for you both we will."

Lorian's gaze rested on the ground. He lifted his head. His eyes met Dooku's. In that moment everything formed into a hard knot of certainty in Dooku's heart. They were enemies now.

Chapter 6

Dooku stood before the Jedi Council. He did not know if Lorian had come before him or would be appearing after. He only knew one thing: It was time to tell the truth. He described how Lorian had wanted them to take the Sith Holocron, and later, how Lorian had asked him to lie for him.

"And were you prepared to lie for him?" Oppo Rancisis asked.

Dooku took a moment before answering. He wanted to lie and say that he had never considered Lorian's request, yet he knew the Jedi Masters could see through him like water. He wasn't as powerful as they were, not yet.

"I was not prepared to lie, no," Dooku said. "I thought about it.

Lorian was my friend."

"No longer your friend, is he?" Yoda asked.

This he could answer without getting mired in doubt and hesitation.

The truth was clear. "He is no longer my friend."

"Clear to us is this as well," Yoda said. "A training lightsaber is not meant to wound, yet wound Lorian you did."

"I did not mean to," Dooku said. "I was angry and my control was not the best. My best friend had betrayed me."

"Lost control you did," Yoda said. "And too old for excuses you are."

Dooku nodded and looked down. He had expected this rebuke, but he had not expected it to sting so badly. He had never disappointed Yoda before.

"Tension between you there was, controlled the anger should have been," Yoda went on. "Used the exercise for feelings you should have let go in other ways you did. Meditation. Discussion."

"Physical exercise," Tor Difusal broke in. "A conference with a Jedi Master. You know the outlets available to you. Yet you chose not to use them."

Dooku saw that he had been tricked. He had no doubt now that he and Lorian had been made team captains deliberately. The Jedi Council had wanted to pit them against each other to see how deep the tensions ran.

"Tricked you were not," Yoda said, as if he'd read Dooku's thoughts.

"Given an opportunity you were. Not alone are you, Dooku. To ask for help is no shame."

"I know that." He had been told it enough times.

"Know this you do, but practice it you must," Yoda said sharply.

"Conquer your pride, you must. Your flaw, it is."

"I will, Master Yoda." Dooku almost sighed aloud. Would he never get away from lessons?

"Go you may," Yoda said.

"Your decision?"

"You will hear of it," Tor Difusal said.

There was nothing to do but bow and leave. Dooku heard the door slip shut silently behind him. Only a few words had been spoken, but he felt as though he had emerged from a battle.

The Jedi Council did not make them wait long. Dooku received a reprimand for excessive aggression during the exercise. Lorian was expelled from the Jedi Order, not for stealing the Sith Holocron, but for lying and implicating his friend.

Dooku felt relief course through him. He hadn't felt in danger of being expelled, but the affair could have had worse complications.

Thame Cerulian could have dropped him as an apprentice. That had been his worst fear.

He took the turbolift up to the landing platform. It had always been one of his favorite places. He and Lorian had sneaked in here as younglings, hiding in a corner and naming all the starships. They'd imagined the day when they'd be the Jedi Knights striding through, hoisting themselves up into their cockpits and zooming off into the atmosphere.

He strolled down the aisle as the mechanic droids buzzed over the ships, doing routine maintenance. Now the time that he would be leaving was approaching. Thame was returning in three days. He could be off on a mission within a week.