101 Star Wars Variations 26: Count the Count

"I'm afraid it will be difficult...to secure your release."

So spoke Count Dooku to Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet of Geonosis.  Yet years earlier, it was spoken to Dooku himself, rephrased slightly.

"Afraid am I.  Difficult it will be to untangle you from this business."

The circumstances were, as it might be imagined, Master Yoda speaking with his former star pupil.  After deliberations with the complete Jedi Council, Yoda had pulled Dooku aside.  The Count had frequently seen a troubled look on his mentor's face.  Yoda appeared to bear the weight on the universe on his slight shoulders.  Yet the longer they discussed the possibility of the return of the Sith, the more grim his features became.

"An agent we will need," Yoda had said.

At first Dooku felt nothing but honored.  Like the others he liked to feel appreciated by the master, because they all knew how difficult it was to win Yoda's approval.  The more he thought about it, the worse he felt about it.  No one, aside from Yoda himself, knew more about the Sith than Dooku.  He'd spent his apprenticeship studying the Dark Side.  Fear touched his mind for the first time in his life.

None of them knew who had revived the Sith.  It would require a considerable amount of effort just to discover the Dark Lord's identity.  He prepared himself.  He began to meditate with greater fervor than ever before.  He spent long evenings in silence with Yoda.  They had nothing left to say to each other.  When he departed, they both knew the next time they saw each other, it would be as enemies.  At least as far as the rest of the galaxy was concerned.  His Jedi brethren.

He shuddered.  He all but broke down in tears.   But he felt himself hardening at the same time.  It would require a great deal of strength, of resolve on his part.  And he would be ready.

He would justify Yoda's faith in him.