In the Grip of a Tyrant
Disclaimer: Disney owns everything and I make no profit from this.
Summary: Struggling to believe what he saw during his duel with Anakin Skywalker and with his world view being challenged on all fronts, Count Dooku begins to question if joining Darth Sidious was the right thing to do as Qui Gon Jinn pays him a visit to help him see through the lies of the Sith, hoping to turn his Master away from the Dark Path.
Warning: For those who have not read my story "A Messed Up Destiny: Before the Dark Times", it is needed for context of what's going on here and for the other side stories I plan to write that will take place in the same universe. So I suggest you go read it or you'll be completely lost here.
Note: This story takes place directly after A Messed Up Destiny: Raging Wars. It is heavily recommended that you read Raging Wars before beginning this story, since the final chapter will be spoiled. Also, the descriptions for Dooku's vision of his death is heavily inspired from the ones in the Revenge of the Sith Novelization, so some parts are not my own, but I have mixed them with my own writing to fit the story better.
Serenno, Count's Quarters, Dooku's point of view:
The door to my personal quarters opened with a metallic hiss as I slid inside the room, ordering the guards to not disturb me. Skywalker's words were repeating themselves in my head like a broken holodisk and it was tiring, hearing the same thing over and over again.
"I have no reason to kill you, Count. Not when I think that you're simply misguided.", Skywalker's voice rang through my head. He was naïve enough to think me misguided, not understanding that I was doing the right thing. Lord Sidious had promised eternal peace and order for the galaxy. He would deliver on that promise, and I would do what needed to be done.
"I've seen what Sidious' Empire will do to the Galaxy. It will become everything you've sworn to destroy.", the boy had said, but Skywalker's vision was flawed. I would be there to ensure that never happened. After all, Sidious needed me to help him bring that peace, to convince people to give up the fighting when the War would be over.
My mental assurances did nothing to calm my rapidly beating heart however. No, the only thing my mind could do in its weakened state was repeat the words of a Jedi fool over and over, even if I knew them to be lies. "The Jedi in the Temple were slaughtered by his new apprentice, the man that had beheaded you a mere fortnight before on Sidious' orders. He betrayed you and erased your legacy along with the history of the Jedi." Could it perhaps be true? That Lord Sidious would betray me? Betrayal was the way of the Sith, but would he truly have me killed?
A sudden rush of air took me away from my thoughts and into the real world. Deciding to distract myself for the moment, I got in bed, determined to avoid falling for whatever plot the Council had dragged Skywalker in. Besides, the boy's words were clearly nothing but lies.
"Search your feelings. You know it to be true!", a voice, Qui Gon's voice, suddenly said. I looked around the room, waiting for him to appear, to confirm that I had gone insane in the last hour, thought accepting help from anyone, a Jedi especially, might have been proof enough back on Tatooine.
"Qui Gon?", I asked aloud, against my better judgment.
"A very wise man said that once. I recommend you take his advice, Master. It may do you some good.", Qui Gon spoke again, this time his voice seemingly coming from every possible direction at once.
"I told you once that siding with Lord Sidious might be the death of you one day, and it seems that Anakin's words are confirming my warning.", my former Padawan spoke again.
"Padawan? Is it really you?", I asked again, wanting to believe that I had imagined the whole debacle on Geonosis, even though I had scars that proved otherwise.
Perking my head up to listen for a response, I was surprised when none came. At least until I looked behind me, and saw my old apprentice sitting beside me, as if waiting for me to look at him.
"Hello there.", he greeted with a smile, though it seemed more like him laughing at an inside joke than being polite.
"Padawan.", I replied, simply, not knowing what else to say.
Qui Gon looked at me with sadness in his eyes, or perhaps even pity. I couldn't quite tell which. "It seems that you've had quite the day.", he commented, smiling again and looking around the room absentmindedly.
I cleared my throat, trying to get his attention. "I suppose you could say that.", I told him dryly, unsure of why this conversation was happening.
"Is there anything you'd like to ask me now that I'm here?", Qui Gon inquired, obviously wanting me to give in to whatever the purpose of this discussion was, but I –my pride- wouldn't let me.
"The boy…Skywalker…does he speak the truth?", I asked, careful not to choke on the lump that had formed on my throat.
"Betrayal is the way of the Sith Master, but I am not here to 'convince' you of anything. I am only here to show you a possible future, something that was and still is likely to happen, albeit with a few alternations in the details, assuming you want me to, of course.", Qui Gon said, far more serious than I had ever seen him look while he was still alive.
That –of all things- was how I knew this was no joking matter. My Padawan's face said it all and I wasn't about to pass up on the opportunity to see what the future truly holds. "Then show me.", I said simply, not daring to speak more less my voice be crushed under overwhelming emotion.
Qui Gon said nothing and merely nodded, his expression sad, as if feeling remorse for what was about to happen, what I was about to see. I tried to respond, to ask why he would feel this way, but my vision faded to black before I could.
When my eyes opened once more, I immediately felt my hands burning, and looking down, I could see Skywalker's blade, an inch away from cutting my right one off. I looked to Qui Gon, who was standing to the side, looking upon the scene with a saddened glare. I saw Sidious, masquerading under the guise of Chancellor Palpatine, strapped on a chair of some sort.
My senses told me that something crucial to the Galaxy's fate was about to unfold and I looked to my Padawan for answers. He said nothing, merely pointing to the windows of the room I had found myself in and I looked outside, seeing an enormous battle rage in the background, but it was as if time itself had stopped, as if I was looking at a painted image and not a real event, only for Qui Gon to give a small nod, trying to convey something, before snapping his fingers.
Immediately, I looked down at my hands as blue fire met the Corellian Nanosilk of my sleeve and disintegrated my bone, burning through flesh. My lightsaber fell away from my hand and to the ground, along with the lost limb, which was trailing smoke and leaving the taste of charred meat in the air.
I could feel Skywalker's heart sing at the sight as he used the Force to catch my blade and use it to cut off my other arm. The pain was unbearable, and I crumbled to my knees, unable to stand on my two feet as my blade swerved into the boy's –the victor's- hand as Skywalker found his visions of the future happening before his very eyes. The Force told me as much. Two blades, one blue and the other red crossed at my throat, not unlike a pair of scissors, ready to end me once and for all.
"Good Anakin. Good. I knew you could do it.", someone –Palpatine, I registered-, said. I wouldn't have needed the Force to know the words that came next, having known the man for so long. "Kill him.", Sidious says to the boy. "Kill him now."
Dread soon overcame me as I realized that this was the moment Skywalker had foreseen, the moment where Palpatine had betrayed me. I cringed at the thought and my head moved on its own, turning to look in the young Jedi's eyes, but I saw only flames within them. No compassion, not even pity, only the fires of hatred burned in the Jedi Knight's gaze.
My mouth suddenly began moving on its own, without me wanting to –or rather, being too stunned to- speak. "Chancellor! Please!", I felt myself gasp, my aristocratic demeanor invisible and my courage being only a bitter memory.
I had been reduced to needing to bed for my life, as Sifo Dyas, my dear friend had done when Sidious had sent me to kill him. "You promised me immunity! We had a deal! Help me!", I felt myself yell, but I knew that this begging would gain me the same amount of mercy that I had dispensed, meaning no mercy at all.
"A deal only if you released me.", Sidious replied, his voice as cold –colder even- as intergalactic space. "Not if you used me as bait to kill my friends.", he added.
It was then that I knew that everything, from the timing to the duel to the words leaving his mouth was going according to the Plan. Sidious' plan. And it hurt to see for myself that I never been the true apprentice, but that I had been nothing more than a tool, a placeholder until Skywalker could replace me. This whole endeavor had been some sort of Jedi trap, but they weren't the quarry. They were –or would be, I supposed- the bait.
"Anakin.", Sidious said quietly. "Finish him.", he orders.
Turning my attention back to Skywalker's eyes, I found myself able to perceive myself as he did. Able to see that he wasn't looking upon a Lord of the Sith, but a beaten, broken, cringing old man.
"I shouldn't.", the boy says, but the denial in his voice is weak. When Palpatine barks for him to do it, he sees it not as the command it truly is, but rather...as an opportunity to do what he has been waiting for his whole life. Permission.
And as I looked into Skywalker's eyes for presumably the last time, I finally understood that I had been deceived, not just today, but for many, many years. I had never been the air to the Power of the Sith. All my victories, all my struggles and sacrifices would end here and now, at the hands of my own legacy. All I am or had one day been, all my visions for the future of the Empire and the Army of the Sith had been nothing else than a pathetic sham, because all of them, all of this…added up only to my death, to my destiny as the victim of Anakin Skywalker's first cold-blooded murder. The first, but certainly not the last.
The scene changed to the inside of the Jedi Temple, the archives in specific, where Master Nu and several Padawans saw the door open as Anakin Skywalker entered the room, flanked by two of his men from the 501st Legion. Qui Gon was standing to the side once more, hiding his face with his cloak, not wanting me to see the tears flowing from his eyes.
I wanted to rush over to him, to tell that everything would be alright and pretend he was still a small boy training to become a Jedi Knight, but I found myself frozen on the spot. I couldn't move at all, my limbs were stuck in place as Skywalker approached Nu and then I saw his eyes. They weren't yellow yet, but something told me it was only a matter of time until it finally happened.
Skywalker said nothing as his men ran inside the archives, blasting away at the Jedi in their sights and I knew that this was it. Order 66 was in effect, with Skywalker leading the charge. The few Padawans in the room were quickly outgunned and the one that tried to attack Skywalker was dead in seconds, leaving only Master Jocasta Nu, who had begun to flee. The Clones tried to go after her, but Skywalker stopped them, redirecting them to other areas of the Temple, where Jedi were dying left and right.
After a few quick kills, the boy put an end to the last Jedi Knight in the room by crushing a statue and letting the Jedi -a young human girl barely above his own age- be crushed under its weight. Skywalker's Clones continued to kill Jedi all around Qui Gon and I, but the boy paid little attention as he made his way to the upper level of the Temple, where a another Jedi awaited him.
"Serra Keto. Cin Drallig's greatest pupil.", he greeted in a cold, almost mocking tone.
Cin's Padawan said nothing as she ruthlessly attacked Skywalker, desperately hoping to destroy the newly turned Sith Lord. I stole a glance at my own apprentice when Skywalker and Keto locked sabers and I saw him wipe away a few tears with the edge of his robe, and realized that having to watch this was torture for him.
Unfortunately, I had no chance to think about it as I watched Skywalker lock sabers with Keto once more. "Don't make me kill you.", the boy said, as if he had any intention of doing otherwise. To her credit, Keto put up the best fight she could have, but she was no match for the power of the Dark Side.
Cin Drallig, who was trying to ferry a youngling away from the fighting suddenly jumped Skywalker, and was taken down after a short duel, but that isn't what surprised me. No, the unthinkable part about all of this was that Skywalker looked like he wasn't even tired. How far would the boy be able to go before collapsing from exhaustion?
My question was never answered however, because the scene changed yet again, this time to a room I could easily recognize as the Council Chambers. Skywalker had just wandered inside, looking for surviving Jedi and stumbled upon a group of Jedi Younglings.
One of them stepped forward and towards Skywalker, unaware that he was their enemy now. "Master Skywalker, there are too many of them! What are we going to do?", the boy asked and Skywalker's eyes focused on the small child. His Lightsaber was called to his hand and ignited, causing the child to take a step back in fear. Thankfully, the image faded away before the blade reached any of the younglings and I awoke in my quarters, laying on my bed.
Immediately, I scoured the room to find Qui Gon, but he was nowhere to be seen. Was this all some sort of dream, perhaps? A wicked vision from the Force?
"No, Master.", Qui Gon's voice said, confirming that this was no dream, not even a nightmare.
"You have seen what will happen if Sidious wins, you know now of how things will end. The Force's Will goes against this. I beg you to help Anakin stop this nightmare from ever happening. He's our only hope and you're one of his only allies. Please Master. Reflect on what has been said and shown today. As Anakin said, make the right choice. I beg you."
Qui Gon was silent after that and I could feel his presence fading away, perhaps to the Netherworld of the Force itself. Taking a breath to steady myself, I hastily decided that I shouldn't be rash when handling this, so I laid back down and closed my eyes, waiting for –an admittedly restless- sleep to make me forget the horrors I had witnessed, even for a few hours.
I really hope you guys enjoyed this story! I had a fun time writing it, especially when coming up with the scenes that occur in the Jedi Temple. Now…I have to say that some scenes were inspired by the Battlefront 2 (2005) game's campaign, but no direct lines were taken from there. As far as exposition goes, I feel like things are pretty well explained so I won't go into it. If you have any questions or comments then feel free to ask/message me via review or a PM. I'll see you in the next story, but until then, May the Force be with you!