No Grow without Pain

Rating: PG
Date: July 2005
Category: Star Wars - Sith AU drabble
Word Count: 100 including title
Character(s): Dooku
Notes: Backstory to my Sith AU. Companion piece to Set Free. Dooku's thoughts.
Disclaimer: All things Star Wars belong to George Lucas.



You have come far, my pupil, since the day I collared you. Now I can't teach you what experience could not provide. You are a worthy successor. But I am too young to need a successor.

Should I bind you to decades of service, stifling your potential lest you might desire my position yourself? Or waste my years of teaching by disposing of you? Neither option appeals to me. I'm too fond of you.

So I hurt you. Send you away. But this pain is your chance to grow. Don't look back, Qui-Gon, only forward.