[Having no recollection of what he'd just been about, or any suspicion this was a mind-scape.]
Opening my eyes, I immediately quelled a tiny pulse of alarm after glancing out a window at a unique skyline vantage to discover I was standing within the highest point of the Republic Executive Building .
The location more commonly known as Chancellor's Suite.
Studying my surroundings more closely after this snap assessment, I realized this was all wrong. The red and black decor had vanished years ago, as had the bronzium statues of Four Sages of Dwartii/Legends , and the huge rectangular bas-relief of Jedi and Sith doing battle during the Great Hyperspace War.
Everywhere I looked, I saw signs of Sheev Palpatine's habitation of these suites. It should have chilled me to the bone, because my first thought was I'd somehow been thrust backward in time.
I knew this was all wrong. Knew I'd been a part of plans which had resulted in the monster Darth Sidious being driven from these halls of power. Yet I remained calm in the face of these impossibilities.
It wasn't the most abiding calm I'd ever experienced, but I was balanced and in control of myself.
"I say, I object to being denied my essential humanity in your eyes. Must I be an inhuman thing from the blackest crevice of the netherworld to prioritize galactic order above a few banal existences which would have ended soon enough in any case? I thought you Jedi styled yourselves guardians of the truth."
It was a cultured, urbane voice I'd heard in person once before. One lodging a civil protest as if claiming a point of order in a Senate committee meeting. There was no heat in that voice. Just a mild, slightly injured and faintly chiding overtone to the words.
I spun, my lightsaber already in hand and igniting, but Darth Sidious was simply standing in the doorway leading from this anteroom into "his" office proper.
The sight of the ignited lightsaber bringing a smile rather than any concern to his faintly lined, aristocratically patrician features. In a mild tone, he commented.
"Good, let your desire for a simple and conclusive end to a conflict which has never been simple or conclusive drive you. Allow the wickedness you perceive in me to serve as justification for taking the law into your own hands."
"Maintaining an active shield against a Sith Lord known for launching surprise attacks with Force Lightning is more than justifiable, Your Would-be Highness" I replied in an even tone. Careful to keep the energy shroud of my lightsaber aligned exactly up and down between us.
I'd watched this murderer take advantage of Force Lightning over-saturating one specific portion of a blade held at an angle by a soon-to-be victim too many times to make the same mistake.
"Fair enough, but surely you can sense we're within the uttermost deeps of the Force. Somewhere that words and belief are given considerably more weight than they are in...some other places.
You don't need me to convince you that if I were to swear there won't be any of the usual overt struggles between Jedi and Sith here and now, in this place or any other we might visit as guests of the Force, that the Force would hold me to that."
Palpatine went on after a moment. His tone making it clear he did think I needed him to explain as much, but that he was too cultured and urbane to pointedly declare as much.
A splinter of my attention somehow confirmed he spoke the truth. My brow furrowed in momentary confusion over this. Which seemed to amuse him immensely, if his expression were anything to go by.
Yet I was certain in the same way I understood gravity was a constant, that a promise here would be binding for the duration of a stay here. Wherever "here" was, if it wasn't actually Coruscant, as it seemed not to be by the overwhelming intensity of the Force in this place.
What he suggested was not only reasonable, it was likely my only chance at survival. I was eleven to fifteen years from an outside chance at taking this horror's head alone.
That wasn't a reason to compromise with evil, but not pushing this into an overt conflict I couldn't hope to win seemed to offer more hope of finding some means to defeat him. After all, Luke hadn't gotten it done with a lightsaber or Force-techniques.
"Do you make such a promise? Not some vague, legalistic thing with a convenient panoply of loopholes. A straight out, explicit pledge not to turn this encounter into violent conflict?" I probed after a moment.
"I will offer the most binding of pledges to do you no physical harm, and work no wicked Force-wiles upon you, but I retain the right to advocate for my position" Palpatine immediately retorted. Making me even more cautious, because I knew the most dangerous part of this man was often his tongue.
"Why should I even keep talking to you if I can't bring you to justice? It seems like your being given a free shot to talk me into turning. Something I damned well happen to know you're incredibly good at.
It seems to me I would be just as well served withdrawing and trying to find my way out of the Deeps of the Force" I answered in a cautious manner. I didn't know what was going on, but thought I made an excellent point.
"Light or Dark, the Force is never a thing of lies. I'll freely grant you that it's power can be used to make otherwise unsupportable lies viable, and it can be used to make something seem to be other than it is, but information remains accurate when speaking of things like Far-sight and precognition.
Even when a vision seems not to have come true, that's because other factors occurring after the vision changed circumstances enough to invalidate what was foreseen. Here in the heart of the Force, you might well discover truths I would rather you not know.
I'd even say with binding certainty that somewhere in this mysterious locale is information which might cast down my current plans as effectively as Iteration A of the Grand Plan was overthrown.
Certainly you have a duty to investigate such truths?" Palpatine slyly retorted in the manner of a certain snake in a certain garden.
I sighed, thinking I was likely making a mistake, but the Force itself seemed to be pushing me in this direction every time I reached out to it. "Let's hear that binding truce of a promise, Prince of Lies."
"Oh, I must say, I do like that. You wouldn't mind if I used that, would you?" Palpatine taunted in a playfully cultured manner which was deeply disturbing, before finally getting around to a flat-out promise I was satisfied would forestall any overt and epic clashes of Light Vs. Dark.
"Aren't you concerned I haven't promised anything similar in kind?" I asked after he'd finally finished swearing. The Force had seemed to press closer around the room for a minute, as if it had been witnessing his promise. Now, everything seemed normal again.
Palpatine smirked at me in that "I have an evil plan" manner. "I would love nothing more than for you to cut me down while I am helpless to resist you.
You think you've done so much to prevent the reality of Darth Vader, but the reality is what distance you've gained on him in some respects, you've narrowed in others.
Cold-blooded murder would be the beginning of the end of your time as a Jedi. I'm quite prepared to die, if it means unleashing the most powerful Sith the galaxy has ever known" he said simply. A smile turning up the corners of his mouth in a sinister manner.
Just because promises were binding in this strange place, it didn't necessarily follow the Sith couldn't lie. Besides, he was the last person in the galaxy whose estimate of my soul I'd accept.
Deactivating my lightsaber and returning it to my belt, I spread my hands. "Well? You're the one who styles himself the cleverest man in the galaxy.
Let's hear the justification for all your innumerable atrocities past, present, and future. I'm not the terribly traumatized and isolated young man crippled by a desperate need to protect the one person who gave his life meaning.
I hear you making arguments about galactic order. Let's hear you justify the Empire being on point to collapse before the Rebellion ever found any traction" I declared with passion. Deciding I would be best served by going on the offensive to see if any low-hanging fruit could be shaken free.
Palpatine didn't look the least little bit perturbed, however. Instead, he gave me a pitying look, and replied in that speaking-to-a-slow-child voice I seemed to hear more than my fair share of. "Isn't it so obvious as to go without saying? You know I was going to destroy the Outbound Flight.
Were you truly so blinkered by your Palpatine's-the-villain blinders that you were unable to perceive I might have had reasons to destroy an extra-galactic foray which had nothing to do with killing vulnerable Jedi or suborning Rim faction Senators?
Is there no other basis I might have had for such a decision? A decision in line with my intentions to nationalize many key industries throughout the Empire required to build a massive military not really optimized to face asymmetrical conflict with the Rebels? Nothing comes to mind, truly?"
Ugh, I hated the "The Empire was necessary, or the Yuuzhan Vong would have devoured the galaxy whole" argument, because it required one to argue one of several counter-factual positions if you were interested in refuting the theory. Unless you took the position I was about to take.
"I will go so far as to concede the fact that you triggering the conflict representative of long-brewing resentments among the Rim world for the Core which has so long exploited them under the controlled conditions allowed by your playing both sides was necessary, if some other factor didn't trigger the inevitable war.
I'll even concede that the militarization and rapid increases in many technologies prompted by the Clone Wars would prove useful in a subsequent war against the Vong.
I'll even allow that a less fractious government would stand a better chance of leading the galaxy to victory during the Yuuzhan Vong War" I began after a moment to collect my thoughts.
My words brought a smile to Darth Sidious's thin lipped mouth, but then I continued "None of which requires the death of the Republic. Galactic history has proven again and again that a common enemy will bring about great unity and commitment to a common goal.
A common enemy tends to make any squabbling family turn and present a united front to an external aggressor.
Triggering a conflict like the Clone Wars would have been quite enough. That's why I'm not trying to stop this war. Even though I know it's going to be more destructive than the Clone Wars.
The Ruusan Reformation was a mistake which has needed correcting for the longest time.
Just like the Republic's lack of government control over currency, banking, and inter-system credit, the fielding and maintenance of a Republic Navy and Army are necessary for the defense of it's member-worlds.
If the Republic had already possessed such things, yours and Plagueis's takeover would have been considerably more difficult.
Looking like he'd bitten into something sour for a moment, Palpatine quickly rallied. "Generalities! The Republic's often fractious nature has cost it dearly against foes not half so deadly as the Yuuvhan Vong.
Vitiate didn't possess three quarters the strength of the Yuuzhan Vong, but look at what it took to end him and cast down his works! It's not just a matter of having all the right puzzle-pieces. You need someone with the vision to assemble the puzzle in the time and with the resources allotted."
"You mean like someone willing to take the C.I.S's obsession with super-weapons to the most insane degree possible? Don't try to sell me on your qualifications as a war-leader, Palpatine.
You're a gifted politician, a masterful manipulator, and one of the greatest deceivers the galaxy has ever seen, but I have a better military mind than you.
That's why you had Tarkin, Dooku, Grievous, and all the others. That's why you wanted me so badly. You're making the error most geniuses do if they achieve enough. Thinking you're capable of anything, and can therefore do all things better than others" I retorted with a sarcastic snort and a few shakes of my head..
A flash of rage flickered across Palpatine's visage. Yet that was nothing compared to the shaking overtaking the building, or the hair-fine glowing red cracks now covering almost the entirety of my surroundings like I was trapped within one great and badly cracked egg.
"Sadly, young Skywalker, it seems I will not be chief among your concerns today. You lack the necessary vision for my words to find fertile soil at this juncture, so I must cede my remaining time to another speaker" I heard Palpatine say.
Right before the floor collapsed beneath me. Sending me tumbling into darkness blacker than black.
...
Hey guys can you throw some power stones to Elevate the ranking.
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