After a moment, Vader comes to a decision. They didn't have the luxury of hesitating about these sorts of things, after all.
"You will string Sidious along for the time being. I will ensure that he has no reason to suspect you… by making absolutely sure that he lacks the ability to detect our fallen Jedi Master himself."
Padme's eyes light up at that.
"Oh? It sounds like you have a plan, my love."
Smirking easily, Vader nods.
"I do."
A shiver runs through his wife's body and it's obvious his mere confidence is enough to turn her on once more. With a soft moan, she slides down from her place at his side and crawls between his legs. Vader spreads them wide for her, watching as his lithe wife positions herself betwixt his thighs and wraps her slender fingers around his cock.
He quickly begins to grow hard as Padme starts to lightly pepper kisses along his engorging length, before eventually taking the head of his member in her mouth for a long, extended suckle. When she pulls back after a moment, her eyes dance with curiosity and excitement.
"Tell me?"
She doesn't wait for an answer, returning to sucking at his cockhead and indeed graduating towards fully bobbing up and down his member. It's a simple request, but one that has no strings attached to it. If he tells her that she doesn't need to know, Vader can see that Padme will accept it. Her faith in him is absolute.
Smiling softly, Vader reaches down and runs his organic fingers through his wife's brown locks. Then, he begins to outline exactly what he's going to do to muddy Sidious' foresight and distract the Sith Master from everything going on right in front of him.
-x-X-x-
Sitting behind his desk in the Supreme Chancellor's Office, Sheev Palpatine, secretly Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, ponders the state of things. Most everything is still going to plan, thankfully. But there have been some slight hiccups here and there.
Needless to say, he doesn't intend to let anything stop him from his rightful ascension. Every day he remains merely the 'Supreme Chancellor' of this pathetic Republic… it makes his blood boil. Soon enough though, it will be time. Soon enough, the Jedi will be destroyed and their precious Republic will fall with them. In it's place will rise something stronger… something better. His Empire, with him as Emperor.
He can see it now in his mind's eye if he looks forward. His foresight has always been one of his greatest gifts and he sees himself transcendent in so many possible futures. He will become Emperor. He will-
The Force screams in a very specific way and Sidious' eyes snap open.
The Sith Lord immediately rises from his desk, whirling around to stare out the window behind him in a very specific direction. The direction of the Jedi Temple. Except the Sith Lord's eyes do not fixate on the massive Temple itself… no, they slide further down… to beneath it, where the Force Nexus deep, deep beneath Coruscant's surface has just been… tampered with.
Hissing, Sidious whips around and begins snapping out orders that are followed in moments. Mere minutes later, he's traveling by a secret lift down, down and down some more. From there, he's transported by clandestine means to the underbelly of Coruscant.
After a certain point, the Sith Lord must walk under his own power, the last leg of the journey taken alone. It is no matter though. The Dark Side fuels him like it always does and Sidious' strides are far stronger and more purposeful than any of the bumbling fools he has to deal with on a daily basis has ever seen of him.
Eventually… he arrives. His hackles raised, his saber hilt tucked in one of his sleeves and ready to snap out at a moment's notice, Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith and Master of the Line of Bane, gazes around the chamber he's arrived in with a sneer on his face and yellow flickering in his eyes.
… Nothing. The worst possible scenario. There's nothing here. And that shouldn't be possible because… because an hour ago, this would have been the location of a vergence in the Force. A Nexus of Power, one that Sidious had found years and years ago and painstakingly turned completely and utterly towards the Dark Side.
It was that Force Nexus that Sidious had used to blanket first the Jedi Temple, then all of Coruscant, and then much of the galaxy at large in a Dark Side Shroud that had greatly diminished the Jedi's Light.
And now it's gone. Except… not quite. Sidious scowls as he searches the Force, trying to discern exactly what happened here. His Shroud is still in place, still effective, still weakening the average Jedi's ability. Turning Masters as weak as Knights, Knights as weak as Padawans, Padawans as weak as Initiates. This has been going on for so long that they don't even recognize their own degradation, the fools.
At this point, the Shroud is self-sustaining, especially with how much death and despair fills the galaxy thanks to the current war between the Confederacy and the Republic. But the Force Nexus that created it has been… spread out for lack of a better way to describe it.
It shouldn't be possible. And yet, that's the best conclusion he can come to. As though someone has taken the 'ball' of a vergence and then… rolled it out over a massive distance.
Ironically, the Jedi likely haven't even noticed what has happened. After all, they're still blinded by his Shroud. But Sidious… eyes narrowing into slits, he tries to look forward, to use his foresight to see what will come to pass… only to hiss when he cannot.
The future has been muddied. HIS future has been muddied. Impossible. Inconceivable. And yet, here he is, standing in a chamber that had once held a Force Nexus, unable to interact with that Nexus any longer because it has been… used up.
Competition? Or someone stumbling around blindly in the Dark? That is the question here, and it is one that the Sith Lord will need to see answered as soon as possible. There shouldn't be another Sith capable of doing something like this on purpose left in the entire galaxy. Only his Master, Darth Plagueis, might have been able to do this and not only had Sidious killed the Muun, but he also doubted his old Master would have ever wasted a Force Nexus like this anyways.
On the other hand… Sidious knew that there was likely a Fallen Jedi Master somewhere in the Temple. Perhaps they had stumbled down here and made a mess of things without even realizing it. In which case… well, Sidious didn't just want to find them and use them anymore.
No, now he wanted them found so he could torture them for an extended period of time before killing them for stumbling upon something that wasn't theirs and ruining it. It would probably be months before Sidious could see clearly into the future again. Infuriating, to say the least.
With one last look around followed by a snarl, the Dark Lord of the Sith turns on his heel and stomps back the way he came. For now… there's nothing he can do.
-x-X-x-
A few moments after Sidious departs, Vader steps out of the shadows. Sure, there was a risk in staying so close to the 'scene of the crime' and relying on his own cloaking as well as the aftermath of what he'd just done to stay hidden. But at the same time, it allowed Vader to test if his plan was working or not. So far he could safely say… it was.
Sidious hadn't been able to detect him when he was ten feet away. He hadn't been able to sense him at all. Part of that was Vader's own abilities of course, but the other part was the… liquidation of the Force Nexus.
It was a little unfortunate because it meant Vader couldn't use the vergence himself anymore, but seeing as he'd already found the Fallen Jedi Master on the Jedi High Council, it didn't really matter. And this way, Sidious wouldn't be able to see anything Vader had planned coming before it was much, much too late.
Of course, the temptation to step out and kill Sidious right then and there WAS present. How could it not be? Vader was confident he would have won too. Easily.
It was never about whether he could win a duel against the other Sith, however. No, it was always about Sidious' incessant need to have a million backup plans. Already, Vader had started to chip away at his numerous contingencies. Order Sixty-Six would no longer work, for instance. The most valuable pawns of Sidious' apprentice had been turned to Vader's side and they had no idea.
But there was more. Secret cloning facilities in the Deep Core on the planet of Byss that needed to be destroyed. Agents that would only become more and more of an issue with time that needed to be subverted.
… It would be best if Dooku died first and Sidious was forced to rely upon shoddy replacements until such time as Vader was finally ready to put an end to the Banite Order once and for all. And so for the time being, Sheev Palpatine continued to draw breath. Unaware that it was solely because Vader had decided it wasn't his time to die just yet.
As he makes his way out of Coruscant's underbelly in the opposite direction of the Chancellor, Vader receives a message on his comm unit… and has to tilt his head to the side when he reads its contents. Now this… this was strange.
-x-X-x-
"Knight Skywalker, you and the 501st will join with Master Secura and the 327th as they push up the Hydian Way to reinforce Malastare. Do you understand your orders?"
Standing there in the Council Chambers, Vader simply bows his head to Master Mace Windu in agreement.
"Yes Master, I do."
Alongside him stands Aayla Secura, newly promoted to the rank of Jedi Master after surviving the Battle of Geonosis. The blue-skinned Twi'lek clears her throat as she nods to the Council.
"We will not let you down."
Vader doesn't so much as glance in Depa's direction, of course. But he can feel her focus through the Force all the same. Then again, she's not the only one taking this moment to study him. He detects no suspicion from the Masters who make up the Jedi High Council thankfully, but there's no denying that they are paying him more attention than the Jedi Master who he's joining forces with.
No doubt it's because of his status as the Chosen One and how easily he took to this war even before finding himself back in time. Many had doubted back when Jinn first brought him to the Temple all those years ago. Far less doubt it these days though, Vader suspects.
With their briefing finished, the Council dismisses them both and Vader follows Master Secura out of the Council Chambers and into the Temple Halls. He won't deny being a little bit nonplussed by all of this. After all, it hadn't happened previously.
But then, there were changes here and there that made it impossible to rely on every single detail of his memories. The broad strokes might remain the same, but this was not entirely his universe and Vader knew that already.
In this case, he and the 501st being assigned to work alongside Master Secura and her own clone troops had a rather simple explanation, Vader was sure. Put bluntly, in the original timeline he'd been assigned a much younger Ahsoka Tano as his Padawan. And then he'd found himself fighting alongside Kenobi more often than not because they clearly didn't think he was ready to be training Ahsoka alone.
This time around however, Ahsoka was of an age with him and assigned to Kenobi as his Padawan. And they in turn had been paired off with Master Unduli and her Padawan, Barriss Offee.
In turn, Vader was left adrift… and he'd been using that to his full advantage since coming back in time. But alas, not anymore it would seem. He was now shackled to Master Secura and he would have to adjust his plans accordingly.
… Then again, Aayla Secura was a woman who Vader knew had had her own brushes with the Dark Side once or twice. Her Master, Quinlan Vos, was someone who had touched the Dark as well, truth be told.
It might make it harder to hide his true nature from her… but it also might be worth pursuing a controlled Fall for her that would allow him to… guide her in the aftermath.
But then, there would be plenty of time for that as they made their way towards Malastare. For now, Vader needed to send out some messages before leaving Coruscant, so he turns to Aayla and inclines his head.
"Master Secura, I need to handle some things before we depart, but I will make certain that both I and the 501st will be ready to leave by tomorrow morning. Is that acceptable?"
Showing a flash of uncertainty and inexperience on her face, the newly promoted Jedi Master nods after a moment.
"… Yes, that is acceptable, Knight Skywalker. Tomorrow morning it is."
With that, they part ways. It bodes well that the female Twi'lek is… tractable.