Count Dooku - What If?

The execution of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine by the hands of the droid general Grievous would shock the Galaxy. No-one knew it was coming, save one man. The man who gave Grievous the order to execute the Chancellor live on the holonet. Though Grievous didn’t know it, he had just killed Darth Sidious, thus ensuring his own master’s rise to Dark Lord of the Sith.

 

Whilst he had been reluctant to order his former master’s execution, Count Dooku, the now reigning Sith Lord, knew he had been presented with no alternative. Having witnessed how willing Sidious had been to dispose of a resurrected Darth Maul, Dooku knew all too well that it would have been only a matter of time before his master was ready to dispose of him.

 

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s death would long be considered a decisive victory for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and the closest it ever came to victory in the Clone War. Yet, for Dooku, it was a loss. Sidious’ passing doomed their vision for a New Galactic Order, with the Republic electing Senator Kargan Feigarn of Anaxes to the position of Supreme Chancellor to replace Palpatine. Feigarn, one of the first proponents for the Repubic to muster an army to combat the Separatist crisis, would openly declare in his election speech that the Clone War would not end until the Confederacy was eradicated the Galaxy.

 

Though the Confederacy held a sizable military advantage at the time of Feigarn’s declaration, that would be quickly eroded as Palpatine’s death convinced usually hesitant Senators such as Bail Organa of Alderaan, Mon Mothma of Chandrilla and Padme Amidala of Naboo to approve a significant investment into the Republic’s military budget.

 

With a level playing field, the war began to turn significantly against the Confederacy and they soon found themselves completely pushed out of the mid-rim worlds. But despite this erupting military crisis for the Confederacy. Count Dooku was nowhere to be found. Instead of leading all the systems who had pledged allegiance to his independence movement, Dooku had journeyed to the planet Korriban, ancient home world of the Sith for guidance.

 

On Korriban he would encounter someone he never expected to see again. The spirit of his former master, the evil Darth Sidious. Craving information on how to fulfil the plan they had both spent well over a decade preparing, Dooku would come to learn that Sidious never planned to rule with Dooku by his side. He had long planned to replace him with the young Jedi Anakin Skywalker, the fabled chosen one. Before Dooku could even consider thinking of asking his former master for how best to enact their stratagem without him, Sidious revealed the truth.

 

The stratagem was designed around Sidious, and without him to enact it, it was destined to collapse. Already Sidious’ agents had begun to neutralise the Clone trooper inhibitor chips, eliminating the infamous Order 66 from existence. He’d also taken great care to foster a close relationship with the young Skywalker, thus ensuring that if his apprentice were to remove him, it would ensure that Skywalker would never serve Dooku. Palpatine had long prepared for the possibility that his apprentice would attempt to usurp him.

 

If he was not able to rule the Galaxy, then he would not allow anyone else to either.

 

After being mocked by his former master, Dooku lashed out. Though Sidious and the Jedi both believed the young Skywalker to be the fabled Chosen One, Dooku thought otherwise. After all, to both he and his master, the Chosen One was destined to bring balance to the Force. Not necessarily destroy the Sith, regardless of what the Jedi interpreted it as. Therefore, if he could not use Protocol 66 to reduce the Jedi’s numbers, he would simply have to create a new generation of Sith Lords in order to restore the balance.

 

With that, Dooku would depart Korriban but not without a final mocking from his former master, and it would haunt Dooku for the rest of his life. Palpatine had been preparing to construct a Galactic Empire to unite the Galaxy against an unknown force from beyond that threatened to destroy the Galaxy. Though he would try to dismiss the idea, it would ultimately cause him take a less active role in the leadership of the Confederacy as he made preparations for the future. Most in Republic intelligence suspected this was to avoid retaliatory actions for Palpatine’s execution, but the Jedi believed otherwise. History had taught them that it was never good when the Sith disappeared into the shadows. The Republic would lead a large military campaign to locate the Dark Lord but would ultimately prove unsuccessful.

 

Dooku would meanwhile order the construction of a battle station his master had long sought to create, in the hopes that its destructive power would be enough to give the Confederacy victory over the increasingly authoritarian Galactic Republic. If need be, it could also protect the galaxy from the danger his master spoke of. But with the Republic’s military offensive pressuring the Confederacy on every front in the Outer Rim, Dooku decided to have the station constructed in the Unknown Regions, far from prying eyes.

 

It was during the search for a suitable build sight that Dooku would come across a young Chiss by the name of Mitth'raw'nuruodo. The young Chiss’ homeworld had been devastated by a Republic weapons trial gone wrong, which had rendered the planet inhospitable, and thus he was more than willing to join the Separatist cause. It wasn’t until he was able to take out a Republic Star Destroyer with a cargo transport that Dooku allowed the young Chiss to join their ranks.

 

Many speculate the recruitment of ‘Thrawn’, as he came to be known by, was what revived the Separatist military cause, which had been faltering following the demise of General Grievous at the hands of Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. It would be Thrawn’s actions that would strand Jedi Master Mace Windu on the surface of Bodrin, where Dooku would slay the Jedi Master, ensuring Skywalker’s ascension to the rank of Grand Master of the Jedi Order.

 

Whilst the Force could sustain him, Dooku knew that time was against him and thus choose to train five students at once in the ways of the Force. The clear violation of the Rule of Two prevented him from declaring them all his apprentices, so to encourage them Dooku offered to make the one who bested Obi-Wan Kenobi in combat his apprentice. Eventually the group would come to be known as the hands of Dooku to the galaxy, but to Dooku, they were his acolytes. Neither Sith nor Jedi.

 

They were the ones who would help him bring balance to the Force.

 

Countless Jedi would fall to the acolytes´ blades, many of them merely padawan learners. The loss of so many Jedi would create a ripple in the Force, originating from a source deep in the Unknown Regions. Dooku interpreted it as a sign that he was fulfilling his destiny and the Force was being slowly brought into balance, until he found the source itself. It was a singularity through which the Force fed into the galaxy. Eventually, Dooku came to realise that the singularity could be weaponised, and after a year of trails, the singularity was engineered to become part of the Confederacy’s battle station. The entire station was powered using the Force emitted from the singularity.

 

Dooku knew that with the singularity, he controlled the Force itself and began making preparations for the Confederacy’s new campaign to seize Coruscant from Republic control.

 

Though temperamental, the singularity was eventually installed into the battle station, but not without consequences. Close proximity to the singularity would often cause Dooku to hear what he assumed were echoes of the past. The voice of Sidious, vowing to destroy all that they had built. The voice of Yoda, the Count’s former Jedi teacher. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all, was to hear the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn Dooku’s former Jedi apprentice.

 

Whilst he would presume the voice was little more than a remnant, Dooku would come to find there was more to this voice of his former apprentice than it first appeared. Quin-Gon’s ghost would spend any waking moment that Dooku was on board the station attempting to make the former Jedi Master see the error his ways.

 

Dooku would ultimately choose to spend as little time on the battle station as possible whilst continuing to maintain a low profile in order to avoid the prying eyes of the Jedi.

 

It wouldn’t be until the battle station was almost entirely operational that Dooku would come face to face with a Jedi once again. Much to his surprise though, it wasn’t Grand Jedi Master Skywalker as he had long anticipated. It was Obi-Wan Kenobi. Skywalker’s former teacher who had begun to train a new apprentice of his own.

 

The three of them would engage in a duel, and though the Count’s age would hinder him, his strength with the Force allowed him to counteract such a hindrance. But even with such a strong connection to the Force, Dooku was unable to prevent Kenobi from severing his right hand. Vengeance for having done the same action to Skywalker well over a decade ago.

 

However, even in such a weakened state, the Sith Lord bested Kenobi’s apprentice with ease and brought the boy’s life to a swift end by decapitating him. The action would break Kenobi’s spirit, who declared just how ashamed Qui-Gon would be knowing what had become of his former master. Well aware of his former apprentice’s disapproval of his new title, Dooku departed the battle without killing Kenobi, much to Kenobi’s own surprise.

 

Though he had not foreseen his decision to not kill the weakened Kenobi, the Sith Lord new what was about to transpire. Kenobi had managed to plant a tracking device on his cape, and whilst the Jedi Master thought he’d done so without detection, Dooku had long known it was coming. Just as he had desired.

 

With the tracker revealing his location to the Republic, Dooku returned to the battle station and waited for his enemies to come to him. He knew full well that this would be the battle that decided the Clone War, and he was determined to win it. But to accomplish this, he knew there was one thing above all else he had to do.

 

Slay Grand Master Skywalker.

 

As the battle erupted, both Kenobi and Skywalker would manage to board the battle station, making their way to the singularity where they would encounter Dooku. The first time they had duelled was at the start of the Clone War and now, they'd duel for the final time with the fate of the Galaxy at stake.....

Done