“Ah, General Grievous, I see you have returned.  You're late.”  Dooku's dispassionate expression still managed to convey his annoyance.

“My mission was successful,”  Grievous said.  “My ship required servicing, so I spent some time planet-side until the repairs could be completed,” he lied.

“You could have taken another ship,” Dooku said, raising an eyebrow.

“My ship is far superior to any stock ship the Geonosians could offer,” the General scoffed.  “Anyway, I will not leave my valuable possessions for them to steal!”

Dooku only frowned.  “I sent you a message.  You didn't answer.”

Grievous didn't falter.  “One of the Geonosians dropped my communicator when they collected it from the ship for me.  It was destroyed by the fall.  As the ship's computers had already been brought down for the repairs, I had no way to receive your message.”

Dooku's frown deepened.  “Well, I have a new assignment for you.”

“Of course.  What is your bidding, my master?”

“I have received word from Darth Sidious of General Kenobi's current location,” Count Dooku said.

Rage flared in Grievous.  “Where?!  Where is he?!”

Dooku smiled calmly.  “Travelling,” he said.  “His location is supposedly a well-guarded secret, but Sidious has discovered that he is on Alderaan with Senator Organa.”

“I will kill him,” Grievous said.

“If you can manage it,” Dooku said.  “You have yet to kill a Jedi Master.  Also, you will bring me the Senator alive.  I require some information from him, and I plan to get it one way or another.”  Dooku explained what information he needed from Senator Organa, and gave Grievous the coordinates of the city he would be found in.

“It will be done,” Grievous said.  “And Kenobi will die.”  He turned and walked away, his cape trailing behind him.

Since this mission would require stealth, Grievous had had to leave his ship and use a more generic one.  Dooku had seemed to derive satisfaction from this fact, almost as if he wanted to punish Grievous for not leaving his ship on Geonosis.  Grievous was more focused on the opportunity ahead of him than his rather lackluster ship, however.  It would serve its purpose.

“State your purpose, cruiser,” A voice said from the communications array.

Grievous pressed a button, and a woman's voice said, “I'm here to visit relatives in the capitol.”

“Very well,” the other voice said.  “Proceed.”

That's it? Grievous thought. No ship scanning?  No further security checks? Then again, no one was anticipating General Grievous to attack someone by himself.  He was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies.  The Republic expected him to come blazing out of hyperspace with a hundred battleships around whatever location he had targeted.  And that was the point, really.  They would never expect this.

Of course Dooku had merely said that Grievous had better know what he was doing.  Grievous was hardly averse to proving himself capable of this.  Of course, Dooku would have to die.  But not before Grievous had successfully captured Senator Organa.  In any event, the cyborg general could hardly turn down such a chance to take on his much-hated Jedi adversary.

He landed in a grassy glade not far outside the planet's capitol.  From there, he was going to have a challenge ahead of him.  Grievous was not built for stealth.  Anyone who saw him would instantly recognize who he was.  He had already programmed the ship to autopilot itself to his location once he gave it the appropriate signal.  But he couldn’t simply pilot the ship into the city, since he didn’t know precisely where his quarry was. Nevertheless, he had devised a way to get himself into the capitol undetected.  He just wasn't going to like it.

Grievous chafed inside the disguise.  Of all the things he despised people thinking of him, he despised being mistaken for a droid the most.  But it was that very misconception which would be necessary for this mission.  He knew Dooku had seemed amused when he had told him of his plan.

“I applaud your resourcefulness, General,” he had said.  “After all, I have no doubt that you of all people will be able to successfully disguise yourself as a droid.”

Grievous hadn’t hid his displeasure at the comment. However, the cyborg knew he needed the element of surprise.  He had waited until landing to implement the disguise, though, waiting until it was absolutely necessary to don it.  Then, very carefully, he fitted himself inside the droid shell.

The awkward droid legs and spindly droid hands were controlled by small microchips through his mental commands, and a wireless connection also served to allow him to see through the droid’s artificial eyes. The rectangular droid frame had been hollowed out to disguise his true body, which he had folded into its smallest possible volume.  The droid body was awkward and ridiculous, not built for fighting at all.  Its walk was more a waddle than a stride.  The disguise was utterly humiliating, but if it allowed him to take Kenobi and Organa by surprise, it would all be worth it.

“No droids!” A burly human stood in front of him, blocking the entrance of the cantina he had been about to check for signs of Kenobi or Organa.  Grievous wanted to kill the human in front of him for his insolence.  Instead, he restrained himself.

“Sorry, sir,” he said in the voice of the gutted droid, and turned away.  This was going to be difficult.  Difficult and infuriating.  And just as he was thinking that, he heard a voice.

“Wait,” the voice of Kenobi called out.  “Now, just wait a minute.”  He walked over to the man who had just blocked the entrance.  “Why are blocking this droid's way?  He could be looking for someone.”

“Don't care,”  the man said.  “We don’t serve their kind here.  Not after what those Separatist droids done.”

Kenobi crossed his arms.  “Well, I care.  And I can hardly believe my ears!  This is clearly not a Separatist battle droid.”  He turned to the disguised Grievous.  “Was there someone you were looking for?”

So close, Grievous thought.  But he couldn't attack him here.  There were too many people surrounding them.  He would be outnumbered.  Also, he needed to find the Senator.

“Yes!  I have an important message for Senator Organa,” Grievous said with the droid’s vocabulator.

“I see,” Kenobi said.  “He's at his estate right now on the other side of the city.  Would you like me to take you to him?”

Grievous forced himself to quell his excitement.  “Yes, thank you, sir.” You have sealed your doom, Kenobi.

Obi-Wan examined the droid as it waddled by his side.  It was an older Alderaanian model, a boxy grey creation with yellow eyes.

“What is your message?” Obi-Wan asked.

“It is for the Senator’s ears only,” the droid responded.

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow.  “That sounds like an important message.”

“Yes,” the droid agreed.

“Who sent you?” he asked.

“It is for the Senator’s ears only,” the droid repeated.

“Well, all right,” Obi-Wan said.  “I’ll get you to him, then.”

The trip didn’t take long.  Obi-Wan flagged down a hover-bus to carry them to the Senator.  He gave the droid a bemused look when it stepped on the hover-bus and caused it to tip briefly.

“You must be heavier than you look!” he commented.

The droid said nothing.  Probably it was only programmed to respond to questions and a limited number of statements.  That was fairly common for droids of this type.

Soon they arrived at the estate where the Senator was meeting with one of the noble houses of Alderaan.  He walked up to the door and knocked, the droid waiting silently by his side.  The door opened and Senator Organa looked between him and the droid.

“What a pleasure to see you, Obi-Wan,” Senator Organa said.  “And I see you’ve brought company.”

“Yes, this droid says it has an important message--for your ears only.”

Senator Organa smiled.  “There’s no need for such secrecy, he said.  Anything that you might have to tell me can be told in General Kenobi’s presence.”

“As you command,” the droid said.  “Let us go somewhere where we might talk privately, however.  This message is not for the ears of bystanders.”

“Of course,” Organa said.  “Come inside, both of you.”

He led them into a windowless drawing room deep within the estate.  Closing the door and locking it, he said, “Now we shouldn’t be disturbed.  What is your message?”

The droid said nothing, though.  Instead, it began to shake.  Then there was a terrible ripping noise as the entire box-shaped center tore apart and revealed a very familiar foe.

“Grievous!” Obi-Wan exclaimed, his lightsaber in his hand immediately.

“Kenobi,” the cyborg general responded, stretching himself from an almost impossibly small size to his full imposing height. “So nice to see you again.  I’ll be taking that lightsaber from you this time.  Oh, and the Senator as well.”

“I think not,” Obi-Wan said.  He calmed his fear and focused on blocking Grievous' attacks.  He could see the panic in Bail’s eyes.

“It’s all right!  I’ll handle him!”  Obi-Wan said, trying to reassure Bail.  He wanted to take the Supreme Commander of the droid armies alive if at all possible.

“So, I’m not the only one who seeks revenge,” Grievous said, countering his attacks easily.  “Do you mourn your fallen brethren, Kenobi? The ones who were slain by my hand?  Do you have the need, the burning desire, to seen me slain by yours?”

“You mistake me, General,” Obi-Wan said, not taking the bait.  “I seek only to disarm you.”  He responded to the General’s lightning-fast moves with his own.  “My fallen friends would never wish for me to commit vengeance in their name.”

Grievous laughed.  “How amusing.  Such pretensions of honor you have, Jedi scum!”  The cyborg flipped out of the way of a lightsaber attack that would have sliced off both left hands.

“Hardly pretensions,” Obi-Wan said, narrowly avoiding the slice of four lightsabers.  “I must admit, I wonder what your, ah, grievance with us is.”

Grievous grabbed Obi-Wan’s face and flung him into the wall.  “Your Jedi nearly caused the ruin of my homeworld.  If it hadn’t been for the Separatists, my people would have starved.  So it’s very simple, Kenobi.  You aided my people’s enemies in their war of aggression against us!  The Jedi have blood on their hands.”

Obi-Wan narrowly avoided another attack as he tried to recover his senses and consider this new revelation.  He had been trying to learn the reason behind the General’s steadfast loyalty to the Separatists for a while.  This was the first time he’d gotten anything resembling a real answer.  He still didn’t know what exactly Grievous was.  But now he knew what what drove him.

“I didn’t know,” Obi-Wan said, using the Force to call his lightsaber back to his hand.  “If what you are saying is true, the Jedi committed a grave injustice against you.”

Grievous lashed out with all four of his lightsabers.  “Yes, and now you will pay the price!”

“Please!  If you tell me who your people are, I can tell the Council that they must stop aiding your enemies.  I can ask them to pay reparations to your people.”

Chairs and tables were sliced to pieces by the deadly dance of Grievous and Obi-Wan’s blades.

“Too late, Kenobi.  Your death is all the reparations my people need from you!”

Obi-Wan sighed and redoubled his defense.  He was disappointed, but not surprised by the cyborg general’s response.  This only redoubled his determination not to kill Grievous, however.  Some of the Jedi had begun to believe that perhaps Grievous had simply been a serial killer with a fixation on Jedi. But Obi-Wan had long felt that there had to be something more behind Grievous’ malice, that it wasn’t simply borne from a violent nature.  If he had been served such an injustice by the Jedi, it was no surprise that the cyborg wanted them dead.  It also meant there might be a way to convince him to stop his war on the Jedi. “I think I’m going to have to pass on that one,” Obi-Wan said.  “But tell me who your people are, who these foes are that we aided, and I will demand the Council redress this injustice.”

“Such noble words,” Grievous scoffed.  “Such noble, empty words.”  Four lightsabers flashed through the air, all in different directions.  Obi-Wan allowed his movements to flow through the Force, weaving through the deadly barrage of light.

The Jedi Master was far from tiring, but he knew the cyborg general could do this all day.

Blaster shots rang out.  Two clone troopers had arrived.  Senator Organa stood on the other side of the room, a look of concern on his face.  Obi-Wan groaned internally.  The blaster bolts had done almost no damage to the General’s duranium frame, and had seemed to change his focus.  Grievous turned and ran over what remained of a table on all six of his appendages until he reached the Senator.  He grabbed Bail as if the robust Senator was a rag doll, flung one of the clones against the wall with his foot, and took the blaster from the other clone as he beheaded him.  Then he fired it at Obi-Wan.  The Jedi Master dodged out of the way just in time.

Grievous glared briefly at Obi-Wan.  “I’ll be back for you, Jedi scum.”  Then he ran to the door and blasted it open.  Obi-Wan pursued him, reaching the door to the estate just in time to see the general jump several times his body height to jump into a ship that had been waiting outside the manor.  The other clones, who had been about to blast the shuttle with a cannon, held back after seeing that the Senator was being held hostage by Grievous.  Obi-Wan watched in dismay and horror as the shuttle zipped away.