To the casual observer, it appeared as if Sifo-Dyas had just fainted. However, losing consciousness would have been much preferable to the blinding pain hammering Sifo-Dyas's psyche, the agonies wracking his mind, the monstrous visions flooding through his consciousness – blood, dismemberment, agonized cries, corpses strewn across formerly verdant fields, entire planets laid to waste through orbital bombardments. He tried weakly to defend himself with the Living Force, but Dooku had caught him off guard. He simply could not focus for more than a couple of microseconds at a time. The Force could not obey such an abridged call, no matter how many midichlorians screamed it.
Slowly, his mental defenses buckled, overwhelmed by Dooku's psychological onslaught. Dooku used the opening of Sifo-Dyas's mind to call up his fears, marching through them as his defenses fell, making it easier for Dooku to access ever more petrifying images. Though Dooku did this for only a few seconds, Sifo-Dyas's terror stretched those seconds into hours – days – eternities. As Dooku bent down to pick up Sifo-Dyas's collapsed frame, he placed his hand on Sifo-Dyas's forehead, intensifying his contact with Sifo-Dyas's mind and the emotional torture he could perpetrate on it. I'm sorry, old friend, Dooku cerebrated into Sifo-Dyas's consciousness, but you were the only Jedi who would open your mind to me and who had sympathy with my cause.
And yet, Dooku continued the torture. It took a substantial amount of emotional control for Dooku not to be overwhelmed by Sifo-Dyas's anguish, to continue the sequence of ever more disturbing images flashing through his mind. Yet Dooku's brief training in the Sith arts had so desensitized him to others' distress – even the distress of an old friend – that he contemplated Sifo-Dyas's wracked psyche as an object of curiosity, like a sadistic scientist who vivisects animals for study.
Finally, Dooku cerebrated another suggestion into Sifo-Dyas's mind. This can pass, my friend, if you do what I ask. Dooku's dulcet baritone echoed through Sifo-Dyas's mind, piercing through his grisly visions. Sifo-Dyas put up a valiant resistance at first, marshaling his remaining psychic defenses to prevent his mind from caving to Dooku's simple, seductive demand.
Please, Master Sifo-Dyas. It is the only way to cease your agony. Do not shut me out. Keep your mind open to me and simply do what I ask.
The last shreds of Sifo-Dyas's dignity were destroyed, ripped asunder by Dooku's relentless ravishment. No being's psychological defenses could last long against such a direct assault, with the mind's own worst fears used against itself by a skillful master of manipulation. And when relief from the psychic attack was promised with such sweet words, with such a stark contrast against the terrifying thoughts and perceptions flooding about, Sifo-Dyas's mind relented to protect itself.
To ensure its survival.
No matter that one formerly called friend was the source of the terror.
That friend now promised release from the terror. Was the release.
Thus did Sifo-Dyas's will fall to Dooku. His mind betrayed him, capitulating to Dooku's whims. For he could no longer close his mind to Dooku; Dooku had wedged too wide a psychic doorway with the Force. A doorway that would close only when Dooku willed it.
And Dooku's will had other plans for the mind of Sifo-Dyas.
Thank you, my friend. Now, you will join me. You will meet my new master. And you will know peace.
Sifo-Dyas's body collapsed onto Dooku's. In turn, Dooku staggered back to his transport with his friend's body in tow, his friend's mind in bondage.
Dooku took Sifo-Dyas down to the bowels of the Sith headquarters within the Surgical Reconstruction Center. He brought the broken Sifo-Dyas into the chambers of Darth Sidious to present the Jedi Master to the Sith Lord for his approval. As Sidious listened to Dooku's account of how he subdued the Jedi Master, he expressed astonishment at how quickly Dooku had bent Sifo-Dyas's will to his own, and he was doubly surprised that Dooku did it in broad daylight and in full view of numerous passersby. A thought fleeted through Sidious's mind that he may have underestimated the strength of his new apprentice.
Dooku then described why Sifo-Dyas was brought to the Sith's inner sanctum. Dooku recapitulated the plans he and Sidious had made for destabilizing the Republic. Dooku was soon to exploit his political contacts to create a Separatist movement that would break away wholly from the governance of the Republic. This movement would involve worlds rich in natural and martial resources whose departure would threaten the very sustenance of the Republic. Thus, the Republic would be forced to fight the Separatists to maintain its existence.
Dooku then proposed to use Sifo-Dyas as a decoy to order a clone army in the name of the defense of the Republic, ostensibly under the auspices of the Jedi Council. However, this clone army would receive special programming delivered to the cloners through Chancellor Palpatine himself. It would ensure that Palpatine would maintain direct control over the clones, no matter what circumstances in which the clones might find themselves.
Dooku had drafted 100 separate Battle Orders to cover all manner of combat exigencies. They would provide clones with guidance on how to respond to being captured, lost in space, subverted by foreign powers, and threatened by virulent and deadly biohazards, among other contingencies. Sidious's gaze was immediately attracted to one order in particular, buried seemingly innocuously among the rest: number 66. It provided for the immediate extermination of any Jedi in the area of the clones if they were to attempt somehow to assume control of the Republic.
A sinister grin spread across Darth Sidious's countenance as he contemplated the myriad ways in which Order 66 could be used. While Sidious gloated, Dooku noted that after Sifo-Dyas had placed the clone order, he would appear to be killed so as to ensure that the true source of the clone army could never be traced. In truth, Dooku would deposit Sifo-Dyas on a system practically uncharted by the Republic, in case his services would be required in the future. Dooku would then recruit the template for the clones himself by testing the mettle and cunning of a variety of contenders. This recruitment strategy would further confuse anyone who hoped to unravel the apparent mystery surrounding the origins of the clone army.
Darth Sidious cackled in sheer joy at Dooku's guile. He approved heartily of Dooku's strategy and insisted that he start it in motion as soon as possible. Then, with a mocking look of concern, he turned to Sifo-Dyas and wryly asked what he thought of Dooku's plan.
Sifo-Dyas could only utter a defeated grunt of despair. Through the fog of Dooku's manipulations, Sifo-Dyas still perceived that he was to be the unwitting agent of the destruction of the Republic...and perhaps even the Jedi Order. But the conduit Dooku had forced into his mind prevented him from resisting. From breaking away. From expressing anything less than grudging approval. From being anything less than the instrument of destruction of all he held dear.