Dooku didn’t know what to think of Knight Skywalker. The young man was quite unorthodox and his Padawan, a terrifyingly powerful boy from Naboo, stood out just as much. The child struggled to find friends in the temple, but had apparently taking a shining to Qui-Gon. They were the same age, and Qui-Gon was very fond of his strays. That he’d count Skywalker’s Padawan among them wasn’t as unexpected as Dooku wished it to be.
“Truly?” Dooku asked. “Last I recall, my Master claimed he had trained enough Padawans for a lifetime.”
Skywalker only grinned. “Oh, yes. He was constantly bickering about my training with Ben when he thought I wasn’t listening. He said I was too old, to much like my father…” Skywalker trailed off, his expression unreadable. “I hope I made him proud.”
As far as Dooku knew, with Plagueis slain, the future Skywalker had come from would never be. It frightened him to admit how easily he could picture the dark vision of a galaxy broken apart that Skywalker had painted. Dooku should turn his sight towards the light and yet, growing up with the cries and screams that woke Sifo-Dyas from his monstrous nightmares made it too easy to think of all they could lose.
“I am sure your Master would be proud, and I know mine is. He’s just not quite sure how to interact with you, Master Skywalker.”
Skywalker pulled a face. “You know, you can just call me Luke, right? Hardly anyone calls me by my name here.”
“Luke it is then,” Dooku corrected. Luke beamed at him, and Dooku hardly managed to keep his face neutral as his heart skipped a beat.
Mortis Arc: They’re stuck on the planet and Anakin remembers the last time and he’s two steps from panicking as he tries to warn Dooku and Qui-Gon about it and keep them on the ship with him while he repairs it. The Son suddenly shows up and is all like “Join me, Chosen One” and Anakin is like “Nope! Not listening. Go away.” and so the Son kidnaps Dooku to Force him to help him against Father.
So when Anakin and Qui-Gon find Dooku again, the Son has prematurely aged him to TCW age and bled his crystal to red. And Anakin is all like “No! Turn him back or so help me...”
And Son is “Why? I like him as this. He’s like fine wine aged perfectly.”
Dooku and Anakin confront each other and Anakin is trying to reason with him, and Dooku is all feeling betrayed and like “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you say that it was me who hurt you? That I was the Sith you spoke of?”
“Because he’s not you! That future may or may not happen! The future is always in motion, Dooku!”
“That is what Yoda says. It’s his excuse for inaction! Because he doesn’t want to admit that he’s wrong!”
“No! That’s not true! You’re not him!”
“Liar! You know it’s true! The future is fixed!”
“Do you know why you’re not him? He didn’t have me! I care about you, Dooku, and I won’t let you become that man!”
“It’s too late, Skywalker.”
And they fight and Anakin is throwing because he doesn’t want to kill Dooku.
And Dooku ends up killing Anakin.
Story is under the cut.
Upon dealing the death blow and Qui-Gon screaming for his master to stop, the Son releases his hold over Dooku and the aged Jedi Master regains his senses, the fleeing eldritch creature’s laughter echoing in his head as he stares horrified at a dying Anakin.
“No! No, no, no,” he drops his weapon and kneels before Anakin’s prone body, hands reaching and hovering in a panic as if they didn’t know where to hold or what to do.
“Y... yer... back,” coughed Anakin as Dooku finally found what to do with his hands, pulling the dying Jedi into his arms. “Knew... knew it would work.”
“Sshh, be quiet and save your strength. We... We’ll get you back to the ship and...,” bloodied fingers pressed to Dooku’s lips to silence him and the Jedi Master closed his eyes as those fingers tenderly stroked his bearded chin.
“It’s too late for me, Doo.” Anakin manages to get out. “It... it was... the only wa— “
“Anakin?” Dooku held the older man in his arms and felt the body relax as the last breath left him. “No... Anakin.”
“Can’t you do something?” Qui-Gon looks up at the Daughter, tears blurring his vision of her. “Please...”
The Daughter watches the Jedi Master as he breaks from the loss. The padawan beside her is pleading for her help. She knows that she cannot interfere and yet it was her brother who had caused this. Balance must be maintained, she hears her Father’s voice. The old man wasn’t around, and she was sure he was aware of what his Son had done.
“I cannot,” she tells the youngest of the three Jedi, knowing he would not understand.
“You can’t or won’t?” Qui-Gon challenged, refusing to believe that a creature of the Light would not help the desperate. He pursed his lips, “For beings of greater wisdom and of the Force, you’re no better than any privileged mortal. Do something!”
“Even if I did, it would bring imbalance to the galaxy,” she looks to the padawan who stared at her defiantly and disbelievingly, “to the Force.”
“But isn’t what the Son did bringing imbalance anyway? I... I may be young still, but something shifted when Master Anakin died, and I don’t think that is the Will of the Force.” Qui-Gon dares to steal a glance at the two masters. He can see Dooku’s shoulders had stilled and he worried that the older man might spiral downward for real. “Please, don’t let your brother win.”
The Daughter straightened and held up her chin a little higher when Qui-Gon mentioned the Force’s will. Anakin’s passing would not go unnoticed by her Father. The boy was right that something had shifted in the Force. “I cannot do this alone.”
“What do you need?”
“Him,” she gestured to Dooku and approaches the Jedi Master. Her hand rested on his shoulder and the wizened Jedi glared up at her with reddened eyes that were from tears rather than the Darkside.
“Come to take my life as well, witch?” the grief stricken Master sneered before looking away from her. She could not blame him for his anger. The moment they had been pulled to Mortis it had been nothing but one painful event after another for them.
“I offer a way to bring back which my brother had stolen,” she tells him instead and Dooku stiffened under her hand. She can sense his wariness at the promise of hope.
“I’m listening,” he simply said, voice quieter but wary.
“The Darkside brings decay and death,” she explains as she moves around in front of them. The Daughter kneels before the two at Anakin’s head, her hand gently pressing on Dooku to let him go. “The Lightside is life and renewal. They work together in harmony; one takes and the other renews. But neither can do without the other.”
“You cannot give life without taking it,” Dooku concludes, dark eyes glancing up from Anakin to her.
“I cannot take life to give either,” she adds. “But I can share life with the dying.”
“It’s like redirecting a stream to a wilting field. The water that fed the forest now also feeds the field,” Qui-Gon explained in understanding. “Neither the forest nor field will suffer, so it’s not against what the Lightside is able to do. Right?”
The Daughter nodded and held a hand to Dooku to take. He looked at it distrustfully, having been victim once already to one of these creatures. “But I’m old, he...,” the Son was said with such hatred and disgust, “stole my life. What could I possibly have left to give him?”
“You have more in you than you realize, son of the dragon,” the Daughter tells him and Dooku scowls at the description of him. It wasn’t the first time these eldritch creatures called them of such things. Sons of the Force, the Dragon, and Life. He didn’t know what it meant, didn’t want to know. All he cared about now is the possibility of bringing back Anakin and leaving this forsaken place.
He takes her hand as a leap of faith instead of trust and he felt Qui-Gon at his back, his hand on him as the boy knelt beside him. The Daughter closed her eyes to focus on the life force of the man that lived and of the man that lay still before them.
A glow that could only be explained as the warmth of a sun radiating down upon you and the luminescence of life wrapping around you in a cocoon of serenity and tranquility, surrounded the Daughter and expanded to the connecting hand of Dooku. It encompassed both Qui-Gon as he held onto his master's shoulder, and Anakin as he lay there before them all.
The Daughter reached for Anakin's brow, lightly touching him as she did. Qui-Gon stared, wide-eyed as he felt the Force being pulled toward all four of them at the Daughter's command. He watched in awe as the omnipresent power seemed to swirl in several eddies of energy around them and through them, reminding him of Yoda's lessons of what the Force was. It whispered power but also a richness of life. It was serene and the young Padawan felt the song of harmony tugging at his soul.
This must be what it’s like to be one with the Force, he thought just before a surprised gasp came from his master. Grey eyes fell upon the aged Jedi Master in concern, having bowled over at whatever it was the Daughter was doing to bring back his other master. Qui-Gon could not sense pain coming from Dooku so he suspected that he had not been prepared for what was happening.
Then, without warning, there was an intake of air from Anakin, his body arching for a brief moment as his life was restored to him. The Daughter continued to pour into him the energy, or whatever it was she was using, from Dooku until Anakin's breathing slowed to something akin to normal and his eyes fluttered open. Only then did she finally withdraw from the Force and from the Jedi Master who willing gave to bring him back.
Anakin stared at the star-filled sky above them for a few moments, eyes blinking rapidly before turning to his partner. "Doo...ku?" he blinked, staring and Dooku stared back with unshed tears. Anakin never got the chance to ask what had happened or how he was alive--he knew the answer and only worried what price was paid for it--as strong arms embraced him tightly.
It was strange to be embraced in such a manner. He knew Dooku could be passionate, the many nights they shared was evident of that, but emotional was a word he would not have associated with the Jedi. He was emotional. Dooku was reserved. Therefore, he must be still dead and one with the Force surely.
"Doo, I... can't breathe," Anakin complained fondly and he felt the younger master ease on his grip just a little. He slung one arm around him to return the embrace, his gaze searching until they fell on Qui-Gon questioningly. The boy nodded toward the Daughter and he turned his head as far as he could while he was still in Dooku's embrace. "You? Why?"
"I could not stand by and allow such travesty to exist," she answered, a troubling look in her expression. "My brother will return soon once he realizes I have undone what he's done, and Father..."
Anakin felt Dooku easing his embrace as the man finally let go of him and said, "Then we should leave before either arrive."
"You're still old," Anakin mentions and Dooku flinched at the reminder. "Why is he still old? What... happened. What did you do to him?"
The Daughter turned her gaze away, "I could not undo the transformation, only Father can do that. All I could do is help you live through him."
"What do you mean?" inquired Qui-Gon as he and Dooku helped Anakin to his feet.
"You are bound. As he lives, so shall you," she explains with a gesture. "Like a stream redirected to feed a wilting field. Without it, both the forest and the field will decay."
Anakin and Dooku glanced at each other and it was Qui-Gon who voiced the question, "What's the stream?"
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
After the Mission of Galidraan went horribly wrong, Dooku and Anakin are sold into slavery by Death Watch. Dooku soon learns being a Jedi as a slave is not always a good thing.
