KEYnote: Remember Rey's introduction to the timeline was months before the Phantom Menace, and her appearance did create ripple effects in some characters that may have, I don't know, say lost his council seat because of visions that led him to be obsessed with creating a clone army, cough, cough.

AN: Thank you to the reviewers letting me know I'm on a good path. Your feedback keeps me going :D Shorter chapter this time because well, Rey isn't always going to be my most pertinent MC ;)

Chapter 3 - He Lives

Sifo-Dyas had his head pressed to a pillar as the sun rose.

For once in his life, it wasn't the visions plaguing him.

No, it was his own thoughts about those visions that were driving him crazy. A year ago, even a few months ago, if anyone had bothered to ask him the fate of the galaxy, his answer would be clear.

War.

War is what he saw, what he knew was coming. An all encompassing, doom of the galaxy, doom of the Jedi, world ending war.

He had been convinced that they needed an army, had been building himself up to go to his fellow Council members and impress upon them the need for a clone army. And planning for their inevitable no. Planning to go behind their backs if he had to, anything to ensure the slaughter in his visions didn't become the reality.

But a few months ago everything seemed to change. The Force that had been screaming at him to act, to do something!- that had been crying out into the darkness in mournful despair, had calmed. Like cold water poured into a scalding hot bath, something had changed.

Drastically.

Master Yoda had been insisting to Sifo-Dyas that his visions couldn't be changed, that Force visions would cause more damage to fix than to let the future run its course.

The problem with that was twofold; one, why would the Force give him visions if not to act on them? And two, his visions were never wrong. Never.

In response to this, Master Yoda had simply said that that was the exact reason acting on visions was pointless. If Sifo-Dyas's visions were never wrong then action or non-action would not result in any benefit.

A point that Sifo-Dyas could not accept, fundamentally he had to believe there was a purpose to the Force showing him horror after horror.

So a few months ago when his visions had begun to change, from total warfare to the scrambling of politicians and small scale skirmishes. To the Jedi conjugating instead of dying off, Sifo-Dyas had been left at a loss.

His visions had never before negated themselves. He couldn't understand what was happening.

And then there had been Master Qui-Gon Jinn, his best friend's Padawan.

A pyre.

Too late to change, too late to warn, Sifo-Dyas thought he would never be able to face Dooku again.

But Qui-Gon Jinn had returned from Naboo, returned with a girl that Sifo-Dyas could not wrap his head around. Looking at Padawan Rey made his head hurt.

"Master Sifo-Dyas," Master Yoda's voice interrupted his thoughts.

He spun on the little Master, his breathing heavy and he fought himself for control. He dipped his head in a short bow of acknowledgement, "Master Yoda."

"Troubled, you are."

Sifo-Dyas gritted his teeth, "The future is unclear to me."

Yoda, the insufferable little goblin, laughed, "Clear, for once, the future is to me."

Sifo-Dyas fought the urge to clap, his voice came out cold, "Care to enlighten me?"

"Go to Dooku, you should. Helped you once your friend did, help again he can."

Sifo-Dyas knew his face exposed his astonishment, "Count Dooku is no longer a part of the Order."

"Friend he still is."

He narrowed his eyes on his fellow Council member, "You still think he will come back to the Order one day, don't you? Even after Qui-Gon threatened just this week to abandon us also? Master Yoda, Dooku will never return."

"Fail him, I did. But gone Qui-Gon is not, gone you are not. Help you need, help Qui-Gon need. Be there, will Master Dooku."

"I wouldn't hold your breath," he remarked, looking out into the traffic of Coruscant. Despite his disagreements with Master Yoda, the peaceful mountains of Serenno, the elegance of the city Dooku called home seemed a better place to be for his currently turbulent mind.

"Go," Yoda told him, "Wait not here. See the future, I do. Right, this is."

Sifo-Dyas glared at him, "And since when do you act on visions?"

"Not visions, no, see I the Force. Your path clear, not clouded as we feared."

Sifo-Dyas sighed, he had survived countless visions in his life, but none had ever been so cryptic as the little goblin ordering him about.

Count Dooku had been surprised, to say the least, when his old friend had requested permission to visit.

Dooku had of course given his consent, it had been a while since any of the Jedi Council had contacted him, friend or no.

Now, days later, they sat together, enjoying tea.

"You seem more disturbed than normal, my old friend," Dooku remarked.

"You look overdressed, though I suppose it suits you, there was only so much even you can do with Jedi fashion."

"Fashion? Is that what you call it?" Dooku asked, amused.

Sifo-Dyas put down his cup to rub his temples. With his eyes closed, he said, "It has been too long, my friend."

"What ails you, Council Member Sifo-Dyas?"

Not opening his eyes, nor rising to the well meant taunting, his friend said, "A green goblin and good news."

The first was to be expected, but the latter… "Good news? There is a first."

Finally opening his eyes, Sifo-Dyas looked across the space between them, looking terribly haunted.

Dooku let the silence build, sipping his tea, until he feared Sifo-Dyas had fallen prey to another one of his visions, "Sifo-Dyas."

What he said next froze Dooku's heart.

"I saw Master Qui-Gon Jinn die."

Dooku's teacup slipped from his numb hands, shattering on the floor.

Qui-Gon was dead.

No.

He felt the darkness he had been slowly cultivating over the years open its maw to swallow what was left of the light in him.

He hadn't known his heart could break like this. Why didn't the Force tell me, alert me to his passing?

Sifo-Dyas went on, "And that vision was wrong, Qui-Gon did not die, and everything I know or believed is now completely and utterly unreliable."

Dooku's gut wrenched, and he swung to his feet, his cape swirling behind him, his chair falling to the ground with his abrupt movement.

Long, long it had it been indeed since he reached out to that bond that tied Master to Padawan. But Dooku stretched his will out through the ages, through the Force and across the galaxy.

There. He found that neglected tether and at its frayed end, the warm light of Qui-Gon.

He felt his apprentice stagger as Dooku grabbed hold of that bond and yanked, testing its strength, his apprentice's very life force.

Master? the gasping thought came to him.

Do not die, Padawan mine, Dooku commanded him, before slamming the link shut again, pulling back before Qui-Gon could decern more into his mind than Dooku would wish.

"Dooku-"

"How dare you?" he cut him off with voice harsher than ever he had used before. "How dare you bring that message to my home?" He turned back to Sifo-Dyas, "Always did you bemoan the accuracy of your visions, your inability to stop them, and you would lead with my apprentice's death?"

Sifo-Dyas frowned at him, "What is wrong with you? I told you I had good news. I would not have said that if I had truly meant to tell you of Qui-Gon's parting."

Seething, Dooku was holding on to his rage with a lace of frost, so close, so close to the edge he was. He could feel it now, the abyss he teetered on. A precipice he could not return from if he slipped just a bit-

"Dooku!" Sifo-Dyas was at his side now, "Are you- Dooku have you fallen?"

His friend's shock made him laugh, though without humour, "You knew I left the Order."

"My Master taught you about the Dark Side, the Sith, to keep you from this path, not so you would fall prey to it."

"Much has changed."

Sifo-Dyas shook his head and went to lean on the rail. Taking in a deep breath of mountain air, he let out a long sigh, "Yes, change. I don't know anymore. I thought I knew what was right, I thought- I saw the galaxy falling into death and destruction. The Jedi disappearing and tyranny reigning in its place."

"And now?" Dooku asked, calming some, taken aback at the idea of not just Qui-Gon dying, but the entire Order.

"Chaos. I see chaos, and I can't tell what side is right or wrong anymore. I don't know what the future means. I don't know what the Force is trying to tell me, it grieves but now… it- it-" he struggled for a word.

"What?" Dooku pressed.

"It's laughing. Not madly, not- I don't know but it seems to follow Qui-Gon's new apprentice around like a tide around a nexus."

"Qui-Gon has taken a new Padawan?" Dooku asked, realizing suddenly that he had yet to met the first one. Surely, he was failing as Qui-Gon's Master if he hadn't bothered to reconnect even to meet his Padawan's Padawan. Whether he was part of the Order or not, Qui-Gon still mattered to him. That much had just been eloquently proven to him. "Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi has been Knighted then?"

Yet another thing he missed.

"No, he hasn't."

Dooku frowned. "Padawan Kenobi has a new Master then? But he and Qui-Gon have been together for years."

"No, Qui-Gon remains Kenobi's Master."

"But you just said-"

"You know," Sifo-Dyas interrupted with a too causal tone, "Qui-Gon threatened to join you in exile."

"Excuse me?" This sent Dooku reeling, and again he reached out to his old Padawan. Searching that light for any hint of darkness.

He felt Qui-Gon freeze in place, saw a flash image of him standing in the Jedi temple. Again, he sent back a thought, What is wrong, Master Dooku?

And again, Dooku pulled back without answering, determined to not reach for him anymore. Qui-Gon was as he ever had been, and Dooku realized that as much power as he had found in the darkness, he would never wish it on his own Padawan.

Why was that?

He felt himself take a step back from the abyss. If this was the right path, why wouldn't he want Qui-Gon with him?

"Qui-Gon threatened to leave the Order," Sifo-Dyas repeated with a rye smile at the obvious surprise on his friend's face.

Rarely had Dooku ever been disturbed so.

"Why?"

"Because he wanted to take on another Padawan."

Dooku shook his head, never having known his apprentice to be hasty in that way. What could prompt Qui-Gon to rush his current apprentice? Such a thing would undercut nearly any Padawan's confidence.

Sifo-Dyas went on, "Originally, Qui-Gon had been pushing for Padawan Kenobi to take his trials sooner rather than later. But Master Yoda asked Kenobi to stay on with Master Jinn to help him with his new apprentice."

"Master Yoda suggested Qui-Gon take on two Padawans?" Dooku asked, too shocked to be annoyed with Sifo-Dyas's obvious enjoyment in drawing out this story.

"It gets better."

"Enlighten me," he drawled.

"Qui-Gon found this girl on Tatooine. She's the most powerful Force user to walk into that temple since Yoda himself. Her connection with the Force would appear unparalleled, and as frustrating as it is for my own powers, the Force feels joyous around her."

Dooku narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "The Chosen One?" He knew Qui-Gon's penchant for the old prophecies, and not liking the emotion his friend attributed to the Force. The Force was many things, but described with overt emotions did not seem plausible.

Sifo-Dyas shrugged, "I don't know, though I would not be surprised if that were so, but no, Qui-Gon brought her before the Council hell-bent on training her to be a Jedi. He and Kenobi claiming that if we just tested her, just met her, the Council would agree. And they were right, we did agree."

Dooku was starting to get an inkling, "How old is she?"

Sifo-Dyas smiled, "Nineteen."

Dooku's brows shot up, "What in the galaxy did you say to the Council to get them to agree to that? A nineteen year old Padawan? That is unimaginable."

"I didn't say much. We agreed to meet her, and we met her."

He glared at his friend, "It could not have been that simple, you could not have said nothing. You are their voice of reason, the Council does not change."

"Mace Windu and Yoda were her largest supporters."

"Impossible."

"She passed our tests. Mace drew on her, she didn't lose control of emotions, and she proved to have a connection between herself and both Qui-Gon and Kenobi. She's something else, Dooku. Yoda seems delighted by her. I haven't seen that old troll this happy since we were younglings."

Dooku stared at him for a long time, "You are telling me that the Council, that Master Windu and Yoda in particular, approved my Qui-Gon to take on a second apprentice, who is uninitiated and nineteen years old?"

"Yes."

Dooku sucked in a breath.

The Council was capable of change?

What did that mean? If they could change on this then…

"You said she was a strong as Yoda?"

"Potentially, yes. She has zero shielding and walked in the Council chamber like a blazing star. Honestly, I said yes to her becoming a Jedi because a power like that doesn't stop being powerful just because we refuse to train her."

Dooku sneered, "You mean to protect her."

Sifo-Dyas gave him an odd look, "Yes, I do. You may still be my friend, but do remember I am still a member of the Order."

"I have not forgotten." Then another thought occurred to him, "How strong a bond do you mean?"

"Hard to tell, but it was sensible, strong enough you could almost see it. As I said, she has no shielding to speak of."

Curiosity now getting the best of him, he took a deep centring breath. Shoving the darkness inside of him so far down as to appear untraceable. He called on the Force, the Light played along his senses like leaves dancing in a gust of air. So at odds were the two sides of the Force, this was weaker than what he had been using of late, but as he inhaled, the tightness in his chest eased. The fury and sorrow at the thought of Qui-Gon in danger washed away like dirt loosened from his hands when lowered into a cool river.

For a final time, he opened his link between himself and Qui-Gon, this time the link was neither worn nor neglected, but a steel woven rope. He followed that connection, exploring its length and finding two more tethers, one as solid and reliable as his own, the other was more elastic.

And suddenly, he was no longer standing in his palace, but standing in the halls of the Jedi Temple. A young man with a Padawan's braid had a hand on Qui-Gon's shoulder. Beside them was a girl with her hair pulled back in three buns and wearing something both more tight fitting than Jedi robes but also more practical for physical labour. This girl, who had been frowning at Qui-Gon with concern, turned to look at Dooku. Her hazel eyes looked up at him with wonder.

"Hello?" she asked, her voice unremarkable but for the fact that it translated to him as sound rather than thought, as if Dooku were actually standing at Qui-Gon's side. He reached a hand out to her, exploring her aura before his hand could even touch her arm.

Sifo-Dyas had been right, she was powerful.

Qui-Gon turned to look at him too, and Dooku took a step back as Qui-Gon mentally shoved him back, shielding his Padawans from further exploration.

Dooku came back to himself, stumbling back at the force Qui-Gon had used.

Sifo-Dyas frowned at him, "Dooku? What are you doing?"

Dooku shook his head and minute later his comm lit up. Breathing evenly, he picked up to Qui-Gon's irritated voice, "Dooku, what do you think you are doing?"

He smiled, glad to hear his Padawan's voice, "It's been a long time, my old apprentice."

"Yes," came Qui-Gon's diplomatic tones, "it has been. Is there a particular reason you've picked now to reaffirm our Force connection?"

"Come visit me on Serenno, Qui-Gon, I believe we have much to discuss."

"This is because you heard about Rey, isn't it?"

Rey, Dooku would remember her name, from now on, he would aspire to be a better Master than he had been over the years. Though Qui-Gon needed him no longer, that was no excuse for his complete absence. "I heard you threatened to leave the Order."

Dooku could almost feel his old apprentice wince, and he stifled a smile that the bond was this active once more. It would seem time nor distance mattered to the Force.

"I will remain on Coruscant for the next few months, unless something pressing presents itself."

Qui-Gon wasn't happy with him, that was fair, more than fair. "Then I will look forward to seeing you in a few months."

"Maste-"

This time Dooku did smile at the old habit even as Qui-Gon caught himself, "Count Dooku, it would be an honour to see you bu-"

"Very good, and congratulations. Your Padawans are lucky to have you." And with that Dooku switched off the commlink.

When he looked up, Sifo-Dyas was leaning back against the railing smiling softly at him.

Dooku scowled, "What are you smiling about?"

"The little green goblin was right."

"Oh? And what wisdom has our esteemed Master Yoda imparted to you this time?" he asked in a well cultivated haughty tone.

"The Force is strong with you my old friend, and the Light rejoices."

Dooku stared at him, reexploring his own connection to the Force. He had almost slipped completely today, into that sweet Dark where pain was rewarded and rage spared one from all the rest, but now… now that lifeline that tied him to all living things warmed him, not as violent or altogether useful, but larger, widening his awareness to the world around him.

The Force was singing in him, and for the first time in years, he breathed easy.

AN: Reactions, thoughts, ideas, or excited tauntauns?