Master Apprentice Archive Desperate Times, Desperate Measures Quick search:

Characters: Qui, Dooku.

Timeline: Just prior to Episode III.

Rating: G (gen).

Details: No sex or adult language, but there are references to violence.

Archive: Um, MA's welcome to it if they want it; otherwise, just my website.

Category: Non Q/O, drama

Feedback: Yes -- on or off list, positive or negative. I can take it!

Notes: Thanks to Grace, Jedi Rita and Emma Grant for the beta work. Wow, back in the SW universe again... the mind boggles! Also, thanks to Emma for encouraging me to post this here. :)

"They're coming."

"I know."

"Run, Master. While there's still time."

Dooku looked to his left, half-at, half-through Qui-Gon Jinn's ghost. It was almost as if he were looking at a holocom. Blue, transparent, fuzzy around the edges -- he could nearly believe it. But the spectre was too clear, and there was no interference, no feedback; Dooku could only deny so much.

He shook his head. "And where would you suggest I go, my former padawan? Where shall I run?"

Ghosts should have looked serene; Qui-Gon looked agitated. Dooku had never known his padawan to do what was expected of him. "Anywhere. The Outer Rim. Far enough away to--"

"To buy time." Dooku shook his head. "Your chosen one is coming. I know my place. My function in this battle is to do what my lord Sidious commands. If that means I'm to die, then--"

"Don't you want to live?" Qui-Gon interrupted. He wasn't pacing; Dooku suspected he hadn't quite gotten the knack of pacing as a ghost. "You have years ahead of you. You could return to the Temple, renounce the Dark Side. Yoda would help you..."

"Yoda is a fool. Far too kind-hearted to survive in the galaxy we live in today."

"Kindness is never foolish. I wish you still believed that."

"There are a great many things I stopped believing when I left the Order." Dooku turned away, scowling. "You of all people should remember."

"I'm sorry."

Dooku paused, finally turning to look over his shoulder. "I beg your pardon?"

"I said--" Qui-Gon glanced down at the floor, shaking his head, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. Times like this, Dooku realized looking at his former student's ghost was nothing at all like looking at a holocom. It was as if he were there, almost close enough to touch. He seemed so real -- and so obviously far away. "I said I'm sorry," Qui-Gon repeated, now almost chuckling to himself.

"Death's mellowed you," Dooku said. "You never used to apologize for anything."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

Dooku sniffed, turning completely to face Qui-Gon again. "You make it sound as if I still have choices. My choice was made long ago. This is my destiny: here, now. This fight. This death. Perhaps when it's over I'll join you in the afterlife."

One of Qui-Gon's hands came up to graze over his beard. He winced. "If he kills you--"

"--and he will--"

"--Palpatine might still fail. Your death could be for nothing. You can't possibly want that."

"I think you overestimate what my life's worth," Dooku whispered. He reached out, the backs of his fingers trailing over the space in front of Qui-Gon's cheek. The first few times he'd tried for something like that he'd missed and his fingers had passed through Qui-Gon's image. It wasn't like moving a hand through smoke or fog or mist; there was simply nothing there. "The Dark Side promises power, and it delivers; it never tells you what the price is."

"And here I thought a man with your experience in commerce would know that nothing comes for free."

Dooku's hand dropped back to his side. "I see ghosts can be sarcastic."

"Would you believe it was me if I weren't?"

"Probably not." Dooku smiled. Sometimes he wondered if he'd finally lost his mind. Maybe Qui-Gon's apparition was nothing more than a vision brought on by some kind of Force dementia. Very little about the Sith was chronicled; perhaps belonging to the Dark Side made one see what one wanted to see in the long run.

He wasn't going to have time to find out.

"My choice was made long ago," Dooku murmured again. "So was his, you know. Your chosen one. Young Anakin Skywalker will not fail Lord Sidious."

Qui-Gon was silent for several minutes before nodding and looking away again. "I very much fear you're right," he said.

"Do you plan to stay long enough to watch?"

"I haven't decided."

"I think you should go." Dooku closed his eyes. "This isn't how I'd have wanted you to remember me."

"I remember all of you," Qui-Gon said. "The good with the bad." He paused again, and there was anger in his voice when he continued. "Even if all it does is buy time, even if all it does is guarantee your death's a bad one, think of the harm you could prevent. Think of the lives that could be saved. Millions -- billions -- may die because of you. Let your life mean more than that. Let the balance tilt back, Master; it's not too late."

"It is for me."

"If there is truly no good left in you -- only then is it too late."

If Qui-Gon was waiting for a sign, a miracle, something that might change Dooku's mind, he wasn't going to get it. The red alert klaxon sounded, and Dooku's head snapped up.

"REPUBLIC ARMADA APPROACHING. ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS."

"Master--"

"Goodbye, Qui-Gon." Dooku reached out one last time, but touched only air. Qui-Gon flinched back; Dooku couldn't blame him. "Perhaps we'll meet again someday."

"Perhaps," Qui-Gon whispered.

Dooku got as far as the doorway before looking back. Say something else, he thought, another word, something strong enough to bring me home...

But there was nothing. If Qui-Gon's ghost had ever been there, it was gone now.

-end-