Anakin
Second Month, 970 ARR (30 BBY)
Once he had proven himself by surviving the brutal first few months of physical and mental conditioning, especially Mygeeto, a planet he now hated almost as much as Tatooine, Anakin’s training had accelerated sharply.
Everything he had thought he would learn had finally begun. Sidious had begun teaching him how to call upon the dark side actively, to bend the Force to his will. The obstacle courses that had once been the bane of his existence were now a breeze and various spars with martial arts tutors, mercenaries, and bounty hunters that Sidious had hired to train him helped to harden and hone his skills.
He had even started picking up on telekinesis and other Force abilities such as Force jumps under Sidious’ tutelage, using it during his obstacle courses to enhance his multitasking and hone his ability to use the abilities subconsciously and with easy focus.
Beyond the physical side of things, his studies continued as well. He continued to devour every text of Sith history, lore, and philosophy that he had access too, doing his best to understand and internalize all the lessons they taught while the tutors that had been responsible for acclimating him to the Republic’s education system were astounded by his progress. They estimated that he was already at high school level in almost all of them and would be academically prepared to attend university courses within a year or two at his current rate of progress.
They called him a genius, a prodigy, and perhaps he was. He had just finally been motivated enough to excel to the fullest of his potential. Not only because Sidious expected no less for the eventual cultivation of his public identity within the Grand Plan, but also because the further along he was in his more mundane studies, the more time he had to apply himself to his training in the ways of the Sith.
His Master had shown him what true power looked like there on Mygeeto. And Anakin was intent on ensuring that he was never at anyone’s mercy like that ever again as soon as possible. Not Sidious, not Watto, or the Hutts. No one. And to have that kind of freedom, he needed power, the power that only discipline and determination to master the Sith ways could give him.
As part of his renewed focus and studies, he had finally begun modifying and reprogramming C-3PO. The droid’s annoying personality was still largely intact but Anakin had begun wondering if there was a way for that to be incorporated as a sort of alter ego to disguise the true instincts of a killer he was programming into his subroutines. Assassin and combat protocols that C-3PO was internalizing and absorbing well despite the droid’s exterior personality largely remaining unchanged.
His translation capabilities were also coming in handy, greatly aiding Anakin in his efforts to learn and master the ancient Sith language as soon as possible and study various ancient texts and manuscripts related to the Force and the dark side.
Anakin put his thoughts away as he arrived at the Sith’s hidden base in the Works. His Master had summoned him for some special training today, and it was never good to be distracted when facing Sidious.
Personally, despite himself, Anakin couldn’t help but feel a little eager. While Sidious’ personal training sessions were always brutal, harsh, and painful, he never learnt faster than when he was under his direct tutelage and he was never more focused than when he knew a mistake or a failure would be greeted with a sharp jolt of lightning.
The session might even be enjoyable if it was about what he hoped it was. Impressed by his dedication and progress, Sidious had recently allowed him to construct a training saber though they had yet to progress beyond the most basic principles and the first katas of Form I. Yet even that small lesson had been enough to enthrall Anakin.
He had always been obsessed with the lightsabers used by the Jedi in all the stories and even when he had joined the Sith instead, that passion had not left him. It had only grown stronger in fact. The soothing calm and pleasure that lightsaber training brought him was rare to find in his life these days and Anakin relished in the feeling, especially knowing that the more he applied himself to his saber exercises, the stronger he would become in a fight.
As he reached the main lobby of the LiMerge building where his Master awaited however, Anakin’s guard went up as he realized his Master was not alone. He could sense there was someone else there, a presence that was nowhere near as dark or strong as Sidious yet one that was powerful and formidable in its own right.
Wary and uncertain if the stranger was aware of their true identities, Anakin eschewed his typical bow and knelt greeting to his Master and instead greeted his public persona instead.
“I’ve come as you requested, sir,” he said.
Anakin could tell Sidious was impressed with his mindfulness but it ended up not necessary.
“You may dispense with the pretenses, Vader. Our guest is well aware of our true identities,” Sidious replied.
Straightening, Anakin bowed in deference. “Understood, my Master. May I inquire who our guest is?”
“Indeed, you may. Allow me to introduce your counterpart Vader. The galaxy knows him as a former Jedi Master who left the order in the wake of the disaster at Naboo and took up his rightful inheritance as Count Dooku of Serenno. You however are among the few that will know the truth of him, his real identity as my other apprentice, Darth Tyranus,” Sidious declared.
What?
A dark voice whispered inside his head. What had he suffered so much for if this old man was Sidious’ Sith Apprentice? Anakin was confused between shock and outrage at his Master’s words but he dared not speak. As always however, Sidious could read him like a book.
“I can sense that you have something to say, Lord Vader. Speak it,” he commanded.
Reluctantly, Anakin obeyed. “Forgive me, Master, but I was led to understand that the Rule of Two forbade you from taking more than one apprentice,” he said.
“So it does, under normal circumstances,” Dooku spoke at last. His voice was elegant and firm, with an aristocratic lilt and a condescending tone. His very voice felt haughty, as if he was looking down upon Anakin, and his immense height, taller even than Qui-Gon had been, only strengthened that feeling.
Dooku continued, “But these are far from normal circumstances my friend. We cannot hold to antiquated dogmas like the Jedi do. The Grand Plan reaches its pinnacle and at this most crucial hour, even our most important rules may require bending. In any case, the Rule was created to bring about our order’s final victory over the Jedi and once that is accomplished, it will have outlived its purpose. At that point, an army could be created, a new Sith Order that will lay low any remaining foes we might have and ensure the peace brought about by the Jedi’s destruction is secure. And you and I will both stand at the side of our Master to lead this new order as a new Sith Triumvirate.”
Anakin did his best to keep his face impassive and neutral but he could not help but feel puzzled. This Count Dooku… Tyranus, whatever he wished to call himself, seemed to genuinely believe in the vision he spoke of. Anakin could not help but think that was painfully naïve for a man that otherwise seemed so calculating and logical.
Had he forgotten what had happened the last time a Sith Triumvirate had been created? How Sion, Nihlius, and Traya had all turned upon each other to their detriment and defeat at the hands of the Jedi Exile? Treachery was the way of the Sith.
Anakin looked to Sidious. His outward expression made it seem as if he did not disagree with Dooku’s grand vision but that went against everything Anakin learnt as his apprentice and he could not sense what his Master’s true thoughts were. He suspected however that Dooku and Sidious were not fully on the same page about the future of the Sith Order. However, he kept those thoughts to himself. Whenever the inevitable reckoning came, Anakin would make sure he was on the winning side of that break.
“I see. Your vision is intriguing,” Anakin replied to Dooku diplomatically. He could admit the concept of a new Sith Empire was something that held potential as despite what Darth Bane had believed, history had proven it worked during the Golden Age and the rule of Vitiate, so long as the Dark Lord at the top was powerful enough at least. He couldn’t help but think this whole Triumvirate idea was foolish though.
“In time you will see the full potential its fruition will bring,” he replied dismissively. There was a rather clinical note to his voice that was at odds with the idealistic and naïve ambitions the man seemed to have. It was a complete and utter conundrum to Anakin.
“Tyranus will aid in your training,” Sidious informed him, “He has much more patience with lightsaber instruction than I do and it will justify the future use of your Force abilities in public without arousing suspicion.”
Anakin nodded slowly as Dooku spoke again. “I’m pleased to see that you had the foresight to bring your training saber with you young Vader. Our Master has told me much of your potential and I am… intrigued. I wonder if you can live up to it. It is time we tested your mettle. Let’s see if there’s any point teaching you,” he said, drawing out and igniting a red lightsaber blade from a curved hilt.
There had been no warning. No preparation of any sort, no setup of the room for a lightsaber spar or the reduction of Dooku’s lightsaber from a lethal setting to a training mode. Someone weak and unworthy might have protested but no true Sith backed down from a challenge like this, no matter how unfavorable the odds.
With a determined growl, Anakin ignited his own saber and raised his guard, ready to answer Dooku’s test.
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Fourth Month, 970 ARR (30 BBY)
“An acceptable parry, young Skywalker, but you are using too much force. Brute strength has its uses but it must be utilized sparingly lest you exhaust yourself against a superior opponent,” Dooku barked as he brought his blue lightsaber blade to bear for another quick strike into Anakin’s defenses.
Anakin hurriedly brought up his own blue blade to deflect Dooku’s strike, doing his best to crush his own annoyance at his mistake and Dooku’s biting reprimand for his overextending and losing his balance ever so slightly. The aristocratic count had always insisted that Anakin had to maintain a perfectly level sense of self to ground himself in combat, to avoid losing himself in his emotions and becoming unbalanced.
It seemed at odds with how Sidious had taught him to embrace and sink into his emotions but as he continued to train and incorporate it, he found it was complimentary instead of contrasting to what Sidious had taught. The Sith used their emotions as fuel for power but it was to give them focus and strength. They ruled their emotions; they did not let themselves be ruled by them.
The Sith that did might make fearsome berserkers on one battlefield but they would always find themselves outwitted and defeated in the war at large by their Jedi opponents. It was everything Darth Bane had derided.
Anakin did his best to leash his anger, to use it to draw focus from instead of dwelling on his anger over his mistake and Dooku’s biting instruction. Though even the most basically trained warrior would have noticed his mistake, most outside observers never would and there was no shortage of those where they were training.
It had been a minor headline in the holonews when word had broken that Yan Dooku, sole Count of Serenno and former Jedi Master was training the ward of his good friend, Chancellor Palpatine, in the ways of the Force, but it had ultimately amounted to nothing. Little more than a curiosity about the Chancellor’s ward that everyone and their spies could see for themselves as Dooku publicly trained him in the gyms at the Presidential Palace.
Even the Jedi, the likes of Master Yoda and Windu, had had little to say about it when they spoke on the matter to Sidious in his guise as Palpatine. Dooku had been so highly respected and admired within the Jedi Order that even now the Jedi failed to see any threat in him training the boy they had rejected. Just another mistake that would bring about their Order’s downfall one day.
Until then however, Anakin would continue to train publicly in the Presidential Palace with the Count of Serenno for every visiting dignitary, official, and hidden spy to see and report to their employers. It was simple, boring, and standard. Nothing special. Just typical Jedi voodoo as a highly respected former member of the Order drilled the adopted son of his old friend in the ways of the Force as a favor.
All of their more casual training was handled there in the palace. His normal lightsaber katas and basic telekinesis. All of the non-offensive and non-worrying standard Jedi abilities that would arouse no suspicion. And whenever they had more sensitive training for him to kept away from prying eyes, Sidious or Tyranus or sometimes even both of them would take him to their secret base in the LiMerge building in the Works and train him there in the ways of the Sith.
Because of this careful ruse, one day, when the Grand Plan entered its final stages and their ultimate war was brought upon the galaxy, Anakin would be able to take part in it and fight freely, using at least some of his Force abilities and lightsaber skills without the Jedi questioning anything.
Still, even though his truly intensive training was still held at the Works, it was not like the training he did with Dooku in public was not useful for Anakin. As much as he had his misgivings about their whole Triumvirate, Tyranus was a much kinder teacher than Sidious was and he was truly a sight to behold with a lightsaber.
Sidious had mastered all seven forms of lightsaber combat and it had showed in the prowess of his technique but there had always been something lacking whenever Anakin had observed his movements. A lack of a true passion for the weapon that would elevate his mastery to a truly definitive level.
Dooku did not lack that same passion. His blade moved with all the passion and elegance of a man who truly loved the art of the lightsaber, the intent of a warrior who sought to continuously master and improve the form not simply because it would make him a better combatant but because he truly enjoyed doing so.
And as Anakin had learnt more than well enough already, passion was at the root of the Sith ways and now that Dooku was free of the Jedi Order and its chafing restrictions, he could fully embrace and explore his passions and draw power from it.
His bladework was exceptional and admirable, almost looking like a dance at times. And despite his greater stature and strength, Anakin had never once felt that Dooku was using sheer strength to overpower him. No, it was all skill, complete and masterful skill.
Dooku was a master of the Way of the Ysalamiri. Form II. Makashi. A form designed for lightsaber dueling, emphasizing fluidity, technique, redirection, and disarmament over pure force and skill.
It was a form that Anakin admired and did his best to learn, though on Sidious’ instruction, Dooku did teach him all the other forms as well. Even in the short time since he had been introduced to the forms, Anakin could already feel himself preferring and favoring some of them above others. Forms V and VII especially, Djem So and Juyo, had his interest, and though his current height and physique did not make them ideal for him, Dooku had already predicted that they may serve him well as he aged and matured.
Ultimately it was Anakin’s ambition to master all seven forms of lightsaber combat as Sidious did but to truly take them all to the next level out of sheer passion as Dooku had Makashi. He imagined himself as an immovable object, a hulking giant of phrik armor and might that could wield the careful measured strokes of Shii-Cho, Makashi, Soresu, and Shien to withstand any assault before turning into an unstoppable force on a credit and unleashing a whirlwind of Ataru, Djem So, Niman, and Juyo that would eviscerate any enemy in his path.
His Master might have no true passion for the lightsaber and Tyranus might overly invest in Makashi due to it suiting his aristocratic tendences but Anakin aimed to be a true Sith Battlemaster, a warrior in every sense of the word. He would climb to the heights of Tenebrous, Malgus, Malak, Exar Kun, and all the rest, and then surpass them.
And he had no intention of letting his Force abilities and talents stagnate either. One day he would match and overcome anything Sidious could do with the Force. Qui-Gon had believed he had been conceived by the midi-chlorians hadn’t he? That he had the strongest potential of any Force-sensitive that had ever lived. Sidious had never said anything about it but Anakin suspected that he thought so too.
Once he had passed the test on Mygeeto, it had become just a little easier to read his Master. Enough to glean that he was truly impressed with how fast he was advancing sometimes. Though he was careful never to say it or to confirm his suspicions and Anakin had not let himself slack off. Not just because he feared the punishment that would accrue but for his own sake too.
Why wouldn’t he seek to advance his full potential? To climb and grow in strength as fast as he could? To master every possible facet there was to the Force and his full potential? If it meant sacrificing every waking moment of his life to achieve that goal, Anakin was more than happy to do so if it meant that it would bring him ever closer to his goal.
One day he would have all the might that he longed for, the skill that Dooku had developed, the raw power that their Master wielded with ease. And nothing and no one was ever going to make him their slave and force him to call them Master ever again.
Anakin would see to it that held true for every being in the galaxy. He would break every chain and shatter every slaver until the day came when the entire galaxy was free.
The Force shall free me.
The pinnacle of the Sith Code. The goal Anakin had no choice but to strive for and he knew he would not ever allow himself to truly rest until he had achieved it or died trying.
Yet, as he moved in with an Ataru strike and Dooku disarmed him yet again, sending his training saber flying and leaving his arm stinging, Anakin knew the road to that goal would be long and full of pain. Nothing worth having ever came easy after all.
“I still do not understand this obsession with Ataru,” Dooku said as Anakin picked up his lightsaber, almost seeming to tsk in disapproval.
“I aim to master all seven forms as someone we both know did. Ataru is one of those forms and easier for me to train with given my age and size. Besides, Shii-Cho is too primitive to stand against you given our disparity in experience and your Makashi is far better than mine and most of the other forms require a stature and strength I simply do not have yet to truly master anything beyond their techniques.”
“Just make sure you transition effectively to superior Forms as you age. Ataru has some useful footwork to incorporate into your personal style but the rest of the Form, all its pointless acrobatics and flashy moves, will only waste your energy and get you killed. As it did Qui-Gon,” Dooku replied coldly.
In the past two months that he had spent under Dooku’s instruction, Anakin had learned as much about him as he could to prepare for a potential future where he needed to face him as his foe. And the things he had discovered had been very interesting.
Among them was that Yoda himself had been Dooku’s Jedi Master and he, Windu and many of the other Council members still considered him a friend even if he no longer returned the feeling for obvious reasons. Most shocking of all for Anakin however, had been the discovery that Qui-Gon Jinn had once been Dooku’s padawan, his favorite even, despite Qui-Gon never quite taking to Makashi as he had wanted.
“Do you think he would have left the Order as you did? Taken the path you now find yourself on?” Anakin could not help but ask.
Dooku looked at him sharply. They both knew what Anakin was really asking.
“It’s hard to say. Qui-Gon was always criticizing the Council for their dogmatic stagnation and refusal to see the galaxy at large. I like to think that he would have seen the wisdom in what I am doing and joined my side but we will never know now. That animal butchered him on Naboo,” Dooku almost snarled.
“He died because the Sith Assassin defeated him,” Anakin said.
He found himself curious what Tyranus thought of their predecessor as Sidious’ apprentice killing his former padawan. That particular discovery had come far too late for himself and he had endured too much for it to make him turn back from the path he had chosen but it did make him curious why Dooku had still chosen to join Sidious when he knew he had orchestrated the death of someone he appeared to care for.
“Qui-Gon died because he was weaker than Maul,” Dooku corrected pointedly. “For all of his savagery, Maul had the benefit of youth and the ruthlessness of an assassin and a highly effective, if brutal, Juyo Form. Qui-Gon was old and tiring, he should never have chosen Ataru as his main form and at his age and size and the location he fought Maul in, the form was next to useless. Even with the modifications he had tried to make to it. Had he chosen another form, like Makashi or Djem So even, perhaps we would be having a very different conversation today.”
Anakin nodded though he hid a smirk as he did so. It seemed Tyranus was smart enough to not reveal his true feelings on the matter and had even turned it into a lesson for him.
Now if only the rest of Dooku’s lessons were as enjoyable. Their Master had tasked him with teaching him about certain things like trade, basic economics, and the etiquette of the elites, and Anakin absolutely hated most of it, especially the latter.
Yet as he had sworn to himself, he continued to apply himself vigorously to every single one of his studies, taking care to master even the most unenjoyable subjects that Dooku or any of his other tutors taught him. He knew that neither Sidious nor Tyranus would have him learn anything that would not be useful for the Grand Plan and one day it would all bear fruit for his ambitions, one way or another.
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Author’s Note: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I think it’s finally answered the question some of y’all had on how Anakin would take part in the Clone Wars and use his Force Abilities!
FYI, Serenno/Dooku have combined EU/Disney lore in this fic. Dooku is the House name, like in the EU/Legends (thus meaning Dooku has a first name), but similarly to House Serenno in Disney, House Dooku here are the sole Counts of Serenno while the other Great Houses are vassal Barons sworn to them unlike the EU’s interesting but complex six Counts of Serenno or whatever. So Tyranus is the sole Count Yan Dooku of Serenno.
Please let me know your thoughts, suggestions, and questions in the comments below or over on Discord! This chapter can also be read on the website!