"Master Dooku, your apprentice has been caught the stampeding herd of shaaks!" cried a local of Naboo.

Jedi Master Tyln Dooku blanched.

"Mace!"

He and his former apprentice, Jedi Knight Qui-Gon, followed the man to the gorge.

"On that tree!"

Sure enough, small, ten year old, Padawan Learner Mace Windu was clinging to a dead tree.

"Mace, hang on!"

"I'm trying!"

A shaak hit the tree, almost throwing him off, and he screamed. Without a second thought, Dooku leapt into the stampede and ran with the herd towards his student.

"Master! Are you insane?!" Qui-Gon cried as he watch in horror.

The Master ran past the tree, skidded under a shaak, and ran back. A shaak hit, sending him tumbled backwards. He looked up just as another shaak hit the tree, breaking it, and sending Mace flying through the air.

Mace screamed as he flew through the air. Dooku called upon the Force, leapt into the air, caught him, and ran with the herd, searching for a place to put his apprentice.

There! A ledge!

He jumped up, setting Mace on it. He had only a second to see that the boy was unharmed before he was knocked back into the stampede.

"Master!" Mace and Qui-Gon shouted.

The two Jedi and the local scanned the herd desperately for the Master.

Then, he leapt high from the herd, grabbed a sloping cliff and began to climb. He was hurt and slipped several times.

"We have to help him," Qui-Gon said.

He and the local made their way towards Mace and Dooku. They reached Mace on another ledge, for he too was trying to reach his Master. Then, there came a sound they'd never forget, a sound even Master Yoda had never heard from Dooku.

He was screaming. He was falling!

"NOOO!!!" Mace and Qui-Gon screamed as their Master fell.

No one saw the dark figure leave.

Once the shaaks were gone, Qui-Gon, Mace, and the local searched for Dooku, praying he was somehow still alive.

It was Mace who spotted him laying under the dead tree Mace had been holding onto.

"There!"

They ran to him. Mace dropped to his knees and touched his Master's face. To their amazement, Dooku's eyes weakly opened.

"Master!"

"Mace."

Qui-Gon and the local knew from his voice that the Master only had moments left to live.

"Yes, Master?"

"I-I'm... sorry."

Qui-Gon knelt beside the boy.

"I will complete his training, Master."

Mace then knew and tears filled his eyes.

"No!"

Dooku touched the boy's cheek.

"Good... bye,... Padawan."

Master Dooku passed into the Force.

On Coruscant, Master Yoda bowed his head he felt his former apprentice's depature as their old training bond was severed completely by the man's death.

Qui-Gon took Mace as his Padawan and continued his training.