Within a dimly lit operating room the whir of drills, saws, and other instruments dug into the flesh of a badly burnt young man.
His skin had melted into itself, and had blackened, like a malignant growth.
"Augh. Aughhh!" Anakin cried out.
A nearby robot was crushed due to the telekinetic waves he unleashed in fury.
Clad in a black robe, Palpatine looked down in disgust. Although he didn't show it on his face, he was disappointed in his newest apprentice.
Groomed from a young age, Anakin had been tested by Ventress, Grievous, and Dooku. Sent on suicidal missions, given the most difficult tasks.
Headstrong. Opinionated. Power hungry.
He was perfect.
The perfect tool to sharpen against his enemies.
Palpatine deliberately dragged the war on to grow the boy's fame. When he could have been done with the Jedi a year ago, Palpatine chose patience.
Patience which would reward him with a powerful, and willing executor.
His plan, THE plan, had been carefully laid out ever since he had learnt that his master had created this life form. Over 15 years were spent developing the perfect weapon against his post-war enemies.
Lord Vader was raised to become the charismatic face of his new Empire, leaving Palpatine time to research immortality.
"Auugh, aughhh!"
All that effort now wasted by a foolish boy's arrogance.
As he stared at his once perfect creation, Palpatine felt a thrum of ice in his veins. It was tempting to start all over again, but Vader had his uses yet.
Power greater than any save for himself or Yoda still coursed through the boy, that much was certain.
Yes. Vader would remain his tool until he had no further use to him. Battered and scuffed he may be, this version of Vader would serve his purpose.
As the procedure came to a close, and Vader rose from the operating table, Vader stared at him.
"Lord Vader, can you hear me?" Palpatine asked.
"Yes, My Master."
Palpatine slightly nodded. Vader knew his place.
"Where is Padme? Is she safe, is she all right?" Vader desperately asked, looking around the operating room as if that wretched girl was still around.
Palpatine felt dissatisfaction at this response, yet also felt satisfied knowing what he would say next.
"It seems in your anger, you killed her." Palpatine said, hiding a grin within his hood.
"I…I couldn't have! I felt her! She was alive!" Vader screamed, breaking his bonds, and crushing the droids around him with the Force.
Palpatine looked on in glee as Vader's sorrow consumed him. All the pain Palpatine suffered raising this boy, all the long hours of listening to Anakin crush over that hated girl, the annoyance Palpatine endured when he complained about his mother, it had culminated into this exact moment.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!"
It was quite cathartic.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leaving Vader to wallow in his despair, Palpatine returned to his office.
The window had been repaired, and the Jedi corpses had been disposed of. Everything was clean and tidy the way he liked it.
Waiting for him inside was his majordomo, Mas Amedda.
As soon as he entered the room, he sensed the burning dread wafting off Amedda like a sweet perfume.
Sly Moore-his personal secretary-was noticeably absent, and the contents of his office had obviously been altered.
"You may speak, Amedda." Palpatine softly commanded.
"My Lord, it is dire news, please forgive me!" Amedda got down on one knee, and bowed his head.
While Palpatine enjoyed acts of supplication, now was not the time to bask in sycophantry.
"What has transpired in my absence, that you feel the need to beg, Amedda?"
Amedda gulped, and pressed a few buttons on his holopad, sending a message to Palpatine's console.
Glancing at the screen, Palpatine caught a glimpse of the Galactic Stock Market.
Everything was down, and numbers were constantly shifting negative.
As a born and raised noble who never once had to care about earning money, the information presented to him did not matter much. He controlled the courts, and the army, there was nothing to be frightened about, but this was cause for concern.
"You worry too much, my friend. I had anticipated that the economy would suffer due to the war, and we passed legislation forgiving all war debts, passing them on to the Republic."
Amedda kept his face to the ground, refusing to raise it. Sweat was pouring buckets onto the fine carpeted floor in front of him. At this rate, Palpatine was more likely to punish Amedda for stinking up his office than for any perceived failure.
"Oh?" Palpatine said, inviting Amedda to speak.
At the same time, he rested his chin on his knuckles, and leaned back in his chair.
"The economy…" Amedda paused to lick his lips. "The economy is failing after the legislation has passed."
"What is the cause of this outrage? We had safeguards in place, threats issued, people paid off. I want names." Palpatine coldly demanded.
The pressure in the room squeezed upon Mas Amedda like an elephant stomping on his chest. He could barely breathe or move, yet all Palpatine had done was let his displeasure be known.
"G-Galactic Bank." Amedda choked out.
"The Anzat has grown so bold? Very well, my new apprentice, Darth Vader shall handle this issue."
"...the monetary situation is r-rather serious, my Lord." Amedda fearfully voiced his disapproval of sending Vader. "Hyperinflation is rocking the market, bad debt has accumulated, and all transactions over 10,000 credits are being denied. My Lord, there is a protest numbering in the millions at the Senate building as we speak."
"Coruscant is a planet of trillions, a few million are a trifle, nothing the clones cannot put to rest. Lord Vader will handle the bank, but your advice has been noted. After this meeting is over, we shall hold an emergency session to resolve this issue." Palpatine ordered.
Through the Force, Palpatine could tell that Amedda remained highly distraught regarding the economic disaster, however, Palpatine had a plan.
During his career as a politician, he had learned that the most important thing besides always maintaining composure, was to appear as if he was busy trying to solve the people's woes. All he had to do was say a few words to put the people's fears to rest, and then let his economic advisers handle the rest.
Besides, Amedda, for all his long years of servitude, knew next to nothing of the Force. Once the Anzat fell, Galactic Bank would fold, and fall directly into Palpatine's hands.
A hiccup in the economy was expected in a post war scenario, he would make sure the people saw it that way.
Speaking of advisors, Palpatine was rather quite wroth at the disappearance of one of his pawns. Few individuals were aware of his true abilities, and Sly Moore-with her penchant for telepathy-was an effective tool.
"Now explain to me why my office has been violated. What has happened to my secretary?"
"Th-that is the second half of my report. It is believed that a Dark Acolyte, one that learnt under the hands of Count Dooku had infiltrated the Imperial Inspectorat."
Palpatine silently stared at Amedda as if to say 'what does this have to do with anything?'
"Ahem, a meeting was being held to discuss the future of the Empire. Naturally, Moore was present to act as your eyes and ears. It was during this meeting that the acolyte butchered her, and several others. For reasons I am not privy to, the intelligence community suspected the darksider intended to plant a bomb, or set a trap within your office." Amedda explained.
Palpatine searched his memory, and the only two names that were capable of pulling such a daring act off were Maul and Ventress.
Closing his eyes, Palpatine pulled upon the Force, feeling as if there was something more to this.
"The assailant what did they look like?" Palpatine questioned.
"A clone trooper reported him as masked, robed, and wielding twin blue lightsabers. Unfortunately, all we had was a composite sketch, as all the footage from the security cameras had been erased." Amedda replied, then reached into his coat, and handed over a parchment.
Revan.
Palpatine let go of the paper as if he had been shocked. The parchment fluttered harmlessly onto the desk, yet Palpatine couldn't take his eyes off the drawing.
"My Lord?" Amedda asked in concern.
"Leave me." Palpatine ordered.
"The special senate session regarding the economy, should I-?" Amedda began to ask, thought better of it, then left the office.
Palpatine hardly noticed the blue alien leave, as his focus was engrossed on the drawing.
Economic collapse? Explosives in his office? The death of his pawn, and disruption of the Empire's future plans?
These were no coincidence.
His instincts, the Force, it all pointed to this man.
When he had arrived back on Coruscant, he had thought he sensed another presence flying past him in another ship, but it was so faint, that he had ignored it in favor of organizing Vader's surgery, and preparing his armor.
He now understood what had transpired.
As a consummate Sith, Palpatine had studied holocrons, and the writings of his predecessors. In one of those ancient scriptures was the legend of Revan.
It told a tale of a man, the tale of a monster.
The story had enthralled Palpatine, and he had taken Revan's story as a lesson. That so long as one Jedi survived, there was an opportunity for them to proliferate.
Now, millenia later, a Jedi was evoking the ghost of Revan.
This was no coincidence.
It was a threat.
An invitation of war.
"Ha." Palpatine drily chuckled at the absurdity of it all.
Palpatine viewed such a challenge as nothing more than the childish mewlings of a defeated vagabond. One desperate to revive the trappings of the past, and clinging to old legends.
How pathetic.
Once Vader had collected himself, and dealt with the Anzat, he would sicc his black clad failure of an apprentice on this character masquerading as Revan.
And if Vader should happen to fall, then perhaps Palpatine would find himself in possession of a new tool.
Reveling at the thought of ending the Jedi, Palpatine sent a message to Amedda, to schedule an emergency senate session later in the day.
As soon as the message was received, a hologram appeared on his desk, flashed some words across the screen for a second, and then blared an annoying noise.
[Emergency Broadcast! Emergency Broadcast! Emergency Broadcast!]
A moment later, a short recording of Anakin Skywalker brutally slaughtering younglings played, it looped twice, and then cut to a masked man.
"Greetings, I am Revan, a Jedi Knight. What you just witnessed was but a slice of the destruction of the Jedi Order.
You have heard Sheev Palpatine's version of events, now listen to ours."
As the hologram spoke, Palpatine sat back, and eagerly awaited his foe's words. Whenever the pretender spat truth, he would spin it into toxicity. Wherever Revan lied, he would bring it to light.
This was going to be a bloodbath.
"Firstly, this is a before and after image of the Chancellor, and the Emperor. The man in the black hood speaks differently, and looks completely different. Can anyone honestly say they are the same person? Speak to any senator, or high ranking military official, and they will tell you that Chancellor Palpatine appeared healthy the night before his announcement."
Palpatine raised a brow. Character assasination from a Jedi, how refreshing. It was amusing to see that they had finally learned a thing or two, but it was much too late.
"In his speech for founding the Empire, he claimed that the Jedi had left him scarred and deformed. With what device? Where did it take place? How did it happen? Does Palpatine have security footage of the Jedi perpetrating these acts? One can only conclude that this hooded figure is a fraud, he cannot be Palpatine. From now on, I'll refer to him as a pseudonym, so that there is no confusion. He is Syphilis."
Palpatine shook his head. Truly a child. If Revan thought this tactic would work, he was too naive. The senators had all worked with the Jedi first hand, and were well aware of their supernatural abilities. None would be swayed by such flimsy reasoning. And Syphilis? What a weak willed insult.
"Syphilis-like the rash he is-has conned the galaxy into dancing to his tune. Every clone is under his command, and are programmed with a chip inside their heads. If a clone unit is stationed on your planet, ask them who their Lord is. The answer may surprise you.
As for you, Syphilis, since I know you are listening, I am afraid that the droid shut down codes are quite inoperable at the moment.
By the way, all those holocrons and ancient repositories of knowledge you intended to loot from the Jedi Temple? They're gone.
To you, loyal citizens of the Republic, the Jedi will always fight for you.
This is Revan, signing off."
The video ended by playing a recording of Palpatine speaking with Vader, telling him to 'bring peace to the Empire' then looped into Vader killing younglings one last time, and cut to black.
Hairline fractures began to travel up the wide window pane behind Palpatine, until it shattered.
Sharply breathing in a breath of cold air, Palpatine let loose with a low, menacing chuckle that reverberated throughout all of Coruscant as he let the hate flow through him.
Ascending to the role of Emperor of the first Galactic Empire, starting the largest war in a millenia, initiating Order 66, turning Anakin to the darkside, they had all been the highest highs of his life.
Now, however, his reputation had taken a substantial hit, the war he had engineered had escaped his grasp, Vader was a shell of a man, there were apparently more Jedi surviving than Yoda & Obi-Wan, and his holocrons were missing.
Frigid winter stirred in his veins, and the darkside found him irresistible, like a thousand irons clinging to a magnet.
This sudden downturn filled Palpatine with malice so potent, that every life form within a 10 mile radius wilted joy, and radiated depression.
Palpatine found himself absolutely brimming with energy as he embraced the darkside of the Force like a true Sith.
Closing his eyes, imagining that mask, Palpatine fed that furnace of hatred deep within his soul his coals of despair, and brought the flames of animosity to new heights.
In short, this event may have damaged Palpatine publicly, but it only served to fuel himself further. Palpatine at this point in time had crossed a bottleneck that had been holding him back for decades. If he were to duel Yoda again at this instant, he was confident in his abilities, that he would destroy his little green friend should they have a rematch.
"Good, gooood. I cannot wait to thank this Revan character enough! In due time, he shall beg for the sweet embrace of death." Palpatine laughed aloud to himself as a Force Storm of epic magnitudes was birthed due to his temporarily enhanced state.
Electrical arcs of pure plasma moved at an ever expanding pace, and rained havoc across the entire Outer Rim.
Random hyperlanes suddenly lost their curvature, careening ships into unknown reaches of space. Entire cities were razed on random worlds as this wormhole of pure energy traversed space at impossible speeds.
In the case of Geonosis-the place where the Clone War began-it received the brunt of this attack, as it was Palpatine's primary target.
Any lifeform unlucky enough to be on the surface of the planetoid was eliminated, and the circuitry inside every droid factory was fried.
Who needed something as mundane as a droid shutdown code when one possessed unlimited power.
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AN: Read up to ch 86 at: patreon.com/KarpQQ
I update there every mon, tues, wed, th
Publicly Friday
Obi-Wan/Yoda ch next week