The Challenge

Title: The Challenge
Author: Saydria Wolfe
Fandom: Star Wars
Genre: Fix-it, Outside POV
Relationships: N/A
Content Rating: PG
Warnings: Canon-level Violence,
Author Notes: If you have read my short Children are the Future, it kinda goes with this one. Vaguely. This is another exploration of the same concept.
Word Count: 1,533
Summary: When a stranger challenges Master Yoda for the right to train Padawan Dooku, the result changes his life forever.

 

 

“Grand Master Yoda, I, Master Ben Kenobi, challenge you for the right to train Padawan Dooku Aserenno.”

Dooku’s mouth dropped open in shock.

Later, he could not have said which part shocked him the most. That there was a Jedi Master he had never heard of or seen before; that said Jedi Master challenged Master Yoda for him; or that said Jedi Master said his name the way he preferred. ASA-re-no, instead of A-Serenno. He wasn’t exactly fond of advertising that he had been rejected by an entire planet.

“Accept your challenge, I do,” Master Yoda said as he stood from his council seat.

Dooku had been apprenticed to the Master of the Order for three lunar rotations and had tried to resolve himself to the fact that Master Yoda had yet to name a new Master of the Order to take his place. Had tried to resolve himself to not being a priority to his own master.

Resolve himself to the fact that his master did not care enough about his training to do it properly.

And then, this man—Dooku glanced around the holo he was watching. The man overfilled Yoda’s council seat with no overt signs of discomfort.

“We will continue the holo at five-times speed,” Master Tyvokka said. “The challenge fight lasted nearly your entire educational schedule.”

“Yes, master,” he agreed on autopilot.

His educational schedule for today had been seven hours.

This man—Master Ben Kenobi—had fought for the right to train him for nearly seven hours. He had no idea what he had done to earn such… such consideration from the man.

It was almost comical watching Master Yoda flip and spin around Master Kenobi. Kenobi, for his part, gave no ground. He did not waver. In fact, he barely moved his feet. He shifted his weight, moved his arms as appropriate, but—Soresu. Master Kenobi was using Soresu on a level Dooku had never even heard of.

“We should skip to the end,” Master Kenobi said in a lyrical voice compromised by a crisp Coruscanti accent. “And give him a copy of the fight so he can watch it later.”

“This fight will no doubt be watched later by many. In fact, it will be studied for generations to come,” a Master that looked like both a woman and a tree in a way he did not understand said agreeably.

Master Tyvokka hit several buttons on his chair and suddenly, Master Yoda was on his back with Master Ben’s lightsaber at his neck. It took Dooku a moment to recognize Master Yoda’s lightsaber in Master Ben’s offhand.

“Solah,” Master Yoda said, verbally confirming his defeat. “Congratulate you, I do, Grand Master Kenobi.”

Master Ben sent Master Yoda a dark look.

Master Yoda cackled.

“I did not challenge you for the title of Grand Master.”

“The Will of the Force, it is.”

Dooku swallowed his scoff.

On the recording, Master Ben didn’t bother. “Just say you want to retire and have done.”

Master Yoda cackled some more. “Retire where shall I, Grand Master.”

“Dagobah,” Master Ben said without hesitation. Dooku made a note to himself to research the planet as he had never heard of it. “You will retire to Dagobah but before you go, you will get a long range comm from the quartermaster so that you may seek mind healing once you realize just how badly you need it.”

Master Yoda huffed but did not argue. He simply left when Master Ben waved him out.

“Mandalorians have a saying,” Master Ben told the council, “Ade cuyir te vencuyot. Children are the Future. If you have not raised a padawan to knighthood, you are excused from the Council.”

One Master, a twi’lek Dooku recognized but couldn’t name know stood, bowed, and left.

“If you currently are teaching a padawan, they should be your primary focus, you are excused from the council.”

Two more councilors stood, bowed, and left the High Council chamber. The recording ended after the door closed behind them.

Master Ben came to a stop in front of him and dropped to one knee with a clank that made him think the appendage was a bionic replacement—which made the man’s fight with Master Yoda even more impressive. Robotic limbs were known to make Force communion even more difficult.

“I have fought for and won the right to train you but, as always, final choice lies with you,” Master Ben said. “You do not know me. In truth, I have been away from the Order long enough few other than Yoda remember me.

“I was raised as a consular by a consular. My padawan was a sentinel until he passed into the Force. His student, my grandpadawan, is a guardian though, for a number of reasons, she will never consider herself a member of the Order again. I have studied and can teach all lightsaber forms currently recognized by the temple. I learned them to help my first padawan find his path and I mastered them two-handed to assist my grandpadawan. I tell you this so you know that I can support your path within the Force no matter what you determine it to be.”

The Force within his body welled, warm and excited by the opportunity.

“My hobbies are studying cultures and languages.” A good match, Dooku thought, for his own love of history and languages.

“Despite training as a consular, war has been my calling since I was thirteen years old. I have participated in nearly every war this galaxy has had since I was younger than you are currently. Most recently, my grandpadawan and I ended the Clan Wars the Mandalorian Sector has been stuck in since the Mandalorian Excision.”

Seven hundred years of war. And his master—his lineage—had ended it.

“My grandpadawan is now Mand’alor the Unifier and I trained her chosen senators for their duties here on Coruscant. She has also tasked me with reviving Tarre Vizsla’s Order of Mandalorian Knights. You are my first choice for this order but if life as a Mandalorian Jedi does not appeal to you, I will advocate for you until you find a master that will lead you down the path you prefer.”

Dooku didn’t try to swallow his scoff this time. Master Ben gave him a small smile in return.

“Should you choose me as your Master, Mand’alor Ahsoka will be your sister as I competed her training after the loss of my padawan. You will also have a younger Force-null brother named Tor Vizsla. As a Mandalorian, I am honor bound to raise him as I defeated and killed all of his parents and grandparents in honor challenges in pursuit of peace between the Clans.”

“That sounds like a very hard life,” he said.

Master Kenobi—Master Ben’s eyes were fierce and yet compassionate. “To walk the path of Mandalore is to be both the predator and the prey, youngling. It is not for the faint of heart.”

Dooku touched the Force inside him once again. It was still warm, which was good. He found nothing but certainty within himself. He had never been more certain of his path as a Jedi in his life.

“Will you do me the honor of becoming my padawan?” Master Ben asked right there in front of the entire High Council. “Will you walk the path of Mandalore?”

“Master, I would be honored.”

Master Ben opened his arms and Dooku did not have to be told twice, he threw himself into his new master’s arms. A bond unfurled between them, forged of great care and support that could outlast anything he could name. Dooku hiccupped in relief and fought back tears as his old, cold and distant bond with Master Yoda floated away as though it was taken by a breeze. His new bond was everything he had wanted from Yoda and been denied.

“You need not walk this path with me alone,” Master Ben whispered to him. “If you have friends that the Force tells you should come with us, we can speak to their Masters before we go home.”

The tears he had been holding back fell.

Sy. Dooku could not swear the Mandalorian life was a good fit for Sy but life at the Temple had become a punishment for his friend since his recent manifestation of Force visions.

He could free his friend from the temple! As he had been freed from Yoda!

Master Ben stood easily with him in his arms. “I name Master T’raa Saa Grand Master of the Jedi Order.” Dooku could barely make out the tree lady bowing to Master Ben through his tears. “Master Tyvokka, I declare you the Speaker for the Order.

“There is a Darkness here on Coruscant that must be investigated and destroyed, but not at the cost of our children. You have three years to move the creche and academy off of Coruscant and to a new, natural world that will nourish our children’s souls in the many ways Coruscant cannot.”

Master Ben did not say or else but Dooku did not think he was the only one to hear it regardless.

“May the Force be with you.”

 

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