High in the tranquility tower, half of the council had immediately vacated the meeting room to confront the disturbance outside their ancient home. The remaining half staring out of the window included Yarael Poof, Depa Billaba, Sifo-Dyas, Adi-Gallia and Grand Master Yoda himself. They had remained, not out of fear of this invader, but with the intent to hold back the waves of the Dark Side slamming against the temple.
On all their faces were varied expressions from disbelief to caution and even some hints of anger. But Yoda just kept his level gaze as he narrowed his eyes at the horizon. Or, rather, at the Dark Side.
To an outsider, it would look as if Vader had been standing perfectly still among the bodies of young Jedi. But whereas those around Yoda could sense the truth, he could SEE it.
For it was not just Vader standing before the temple.
It was something Yoda could scarcely believe, but he was seeing it and knew it to be true. From Vader resonated a call in the force. A call that, unless it was meant for them, only those deeply intoned to the mystical nature of the Force could understand.
It was not a plea for help or a demand of submission. It was not even a declaration of war.
It was, simply, a rallying cry.
A call that was being answered.
Thousands of tendrils of darkness stretched across The Force, from every end of the galaxy, all reaching towards Coruscant. To Vader.
All those who dwelled within the shadows and wielded the Dark Side, for this moment and likely never again, relinquished their grip over the Dark Side of the Force to Darth Vader. And oh, there were so many more than any Jedi had ever dared to even dread.
The great shadow of Vader's mighty power swelled, becoming and behaving like a dark sea in a wild storm, and in every wave was the face and roar of dark-siders from across the stars, and even across time.
But why? For what purpose? Why would all those who crave power suddenly release it to another? Not even the Sith Lords could force such an act on such a galactic wide scale.
'Force, Grand Master?'
Yoda's scowl deepened as he felt the dark presence. Not within his mind, but right before him. For distance meant nothing in this instance. 'Come here, why do you?'
'Why indeed,' Vader responded, disregarding the question as if it were unimportant. 'I didn't need to coerce this from anyone, Grand Master. I needed only to make an offer.'
'Hm. Power for greater power, is that your exchange?' Yoda questioned, unimpressed by the most basic of schemes of those that used the Dark Side.
'No,' Vader answered with just a hint of smugness. 'I merely requested they allow me to remind you Jedi of something.'
'Of the Dark Side? Its Power?' Yoda predicted, scowling as he literally felt Vader's smirk and received an answer.
An answer that might as well have been from the Dark Side itself.
'That we are here.'
Meanwhile
Vader had barely reached the end of the first platform before the dam let loose.
No one would ever be sure who started it. A brash Padawan, a dutiful Guardian, a overly proud Knight, or maybe even a overzealous Master. It didn't truly matter who had leapt first from the temple, only that many more started to follow suit. Over the cries of their comrades and the orders of their teachers, waves of them charged forth to confront the darkness they believed was laying siege to them, that they were meant to fight.
And as the front of the charge closed in, Vader didn't break his stride...not even when they attacked.
Three had come to face him first; Two Knights and a Padawan. Their lightsabers already ignited, one Knight leapt forward in attempt to catch Vader preemptively, while the other ran to try and flank Vader's right, and the Padawan merely stayed in a defensive position to aide their comrades if needed.
Vader's lightsaber seemed to come to life before it ever even flew into his hand, and with a single blur, the three were left dumbstruck. The Dark Lord merely walked by the Padawan as the trio tried to comprehend what had happened. For in their hands, the heads of their lightsabers were cut off and melted, their weapons broken and useless.
The shock left the Knights as they turned to charge at the back of the Sith while more of their comrades came from the front, but the Padawan just stood there as his body shook in fear. The learner turned at an uneasy pace to see the knights trying to stun the Dark Lord with a pair of Force pushes right as another Jedi, a Consolar no less, came down from a Force leap to unleash a spinning strike against Vader.
Thus Vader finally broke his stride.
Vader used one hand to block the blow with his crimson saber, reaching up with his other to grab the Consolar by the arm and throw him at the Knights- both physically and with the Force. The green saber wielder gasped in pain, caught between conflicting pressures created by the Force, before Vader's power overwhelmed the Knights', sending the Consular flying into them as the Dark Side began to overwhelm his senses.
The Padawan felt it too, the Dark Side rushing about Vader. It was like snakes that would crush the throat, water that would fill the lungs, and smoke that would steal the breath. It was all these things and it was none of these things. And all the foolish Padawan could do was fall on both knees and bare witness to this day in history.
Vader hadn't even paused in his throw, spinning to dodge another Jedi's strike. A Temple Guard at that, with the traditional mask and double-bladed lightsaber pike, the yellow rays bouncing off his mask as it missed by mere inches.
Another guard landed behind him to attempt a pincer. Vader wasn't sure whether he should be insulted or amused.
With a casualness that was almost dismissive in its own right, Vader blocked the first guard with his saber while the other charged him from the rear. With one hand raised behind him, Vader sent the rear attacker flying with the Force, slamming him into one of the statues that dotted either side of the path.
The temple guard before him redoubled their efforts to lay Vader low, the double ended saber coming from one side to the other, yet Vader blocked each strike with brutal speed until he used his superior strength to redirect his enemy's weapon to block another Jedi's blue lightsaber. With a deflecting push, Vader used the opening to slice at the guard's handle, severing the dual weapon in half. In the same motion, his weapon switched hands as his left shot out to clutch around the newcomer's hands, trapping his opponent's saber in his own grip. As Vader held him high, he unleashed a sudden and surprising kick to the temple guard.
Vader didn't often use such attacks, but between durasteel limbs and the Force empowering his strikes, a kick from him felt like getting rammed with a star destroyer.
Looking back to the latest attacker in his grasp, Vader saw it was a blue Lepi that glared defiantly back at him. In response, Vader merely tightened his grip. The long eared alien grit his teeth as the Dark Lord began to crush the bones in his hands against his own weapon. Soon, the pain was too much to keep hold of his weapon. With a unseen motion of the force, Vader had deactivated the lightsaber and, in the same instance, slammed the Jedi to the ground face first before ultimately tossing him aside, landing before the increasing mass of light-siders.
And from far back at where the march had began, the immobile Padawan watched.
Watched as they tried to surround him.
Watched as those he had already defeated struggled to their feet to rejoin the fight.
Watched as Vader stood against like a dark monolith in a river of light.
And as far from him as he was, the padawan saw him stretch out his hands and heard him as clear as day as they closed in.
"Calm yourselves, Jedi."
Meanwhile
"Captain Panaka, lower your weapon!" Duke Brumel ordered in a hiss to the Naboo soldier, the dark skinned human glaring intently across the room at his target even as a half dozen guns were turned towards him.
While she agreed with the Duke, Amidala couldn't blame her captain. After all, the last being they expected to meet here, barring a potential double-cross, was a Neimoidian
"It's alright, Duke," the Neimoidian in question answered with a surprising gruff and casual tone as he rose from his chair, slowly and languidly while keeping his hands where they could be seen. Despite not having a weapon at the ready, he seemed completely unphased or surprised by the blaster trained on him. "It's not like its the first time this has happened."
"Why is a member of the Trade Federation here if not part of a betrayal?" Padme asked neutrally.
Now, to her confusion and interest, did the Neimoidian become angry. His grey skin wrinkled hard on his face as a strange, angry, but almost melodic sound escaped his throat. Panaka's finger got a hair closer to the trigger, but the Neimoidian stepped forward without the cowardice known amongst his kind. He stopped when he was sure he could see the eyes of the queen, and that she was staring into his rusty colored orbs "I am not of the Trade Federation, Your Highness," he corrected, practically spiting her title.
"Queen Amidala," Brumel spoke up, tense but far calmer than she expected. "This is Cifo Klatt, a rogue amongst his kind."
"Rogue implies I was ever really one of them," Cifo informed harshly, focusing his attention on the Captain. "Do not think you can scare me, human. I have seen things far more terrifying than death in my travels, and my hatred for the federation is far older and deeper than yours."
And as the Queen stared at this strange being, an almost living contradiction, she could see something plain as day: disgust. Not for them, but what they thought he represented. "Panaka, lower your weapon," she instructed. She believed he saw what she had, with his lack of protest.
With that, the other dwellers in the room lowered their weapons. "Well, someone lost a bet," one of them said, drawing her attention to him. He was a bipedal amphibian with three webbed fingers and orange fur on his head that faded more towards blue and green scales on his torso and limbs and covered with a blue top and blue pants. He was fairly large, but his muscles were more toned than bulging. She recognized him as one of the Mere from Maramere. "Sol Sixxa, Queen Amidala," he introduced himself with a curt but polite nod.
"The pirate?" Panaka asked with a raised eyebrow, far less offended than he'd be with most pirates. Or than he would have been a few days ago in general.
"Only against the Trade Federation," he countered with a smirk. "Nine out of ten horrible things they say about me is false or spun to Federation propaganda. Or my people not wanting to be associated with me while the droids have our planet," he assured with a nonchalance that worried Padme on some level. There was a rage in those eyes, but it was dulled by experience into acceptance of the current status quo. How long had it taken this man to stop believing that a timely expulsion of trade federation and its droid "security forces" was unrealistic?
She didn't want to learn the answer, nor for her people to.
She scanned her eyes over the others in the room. Two more were other Meres, so she assumed they were with Sol for now. But the last group was five creatures. They were short, only about a meter tall, with long snouts covered in tusks and feelers. They had large arms compared to their bodies, only a few inches from the floor, and stubby legs. She had seen some of them on Tatooine, but couldn't place the name.
And in their eyes was something far worse for Padme than Sol's resignation. There was a despair and tiredness she honestly believed would have belonged to ones like Anakin and his mother: people without home or freedom.
"Your Highness, allow me to introduce, the Patriarchs of the Forlorn Clans of the Vulptereen," Brumel introduced as one of them stepped forward.
"Vulptereen?" she repeated as her brows scrunched. Vulpter wasn't just a core world, but of deep core. What stake could they possibly have in this?
"Queen Amidala," The one who had approached spoke up with a nod, a cynical humor in his eyes. "I am Sod Gert. Welcome to the fight."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, all of you," Amidala greeted with a nod. "Duke Brumel believes we can help each other?"
"My goal is toppling the Trade Federation and removing it from Maramere. Denying them a new planet is something I'll gladly be a part of," Sol Sixxa stated bluntly, his comrades nodding in agreement.
"I'm afraid we are less altruistic," Sod informed solemnly as he looked to the queen with hopeful eyes. "Our people have been adrift for a long time, Queen of Naboo. We saw what would become of our planet generations ago. Both by our hands and those of the federation," he lamented with a heavy sigh. "Our only price is to be allowed to colonize a moon of Naboo."
Padme was internally surprised by that but adapted well. "Do you refer to Rori or Ohma-D'un?"
"I am unclear if either hold a sacredness among your people, but from what I hear, both are habitable," he answered with a shrug.
Padme nodded in understanding. "We can discuss the particulars of which at a later time, but if it is within my power, I promise to allow you to call one your home in exchange for aiding mine," she vowed softly.
The short alien nodded, looking visibly relieved to hear those words.
"And you?" Panaka directed towards the Neimoidian.
Cifo snorted. "You'd think I'd be with the fish on this, but I am aiding you, Amidala, for one simple reason: I don't know what's going on," he answered vaguely with his hands folded behind his back.
"Excuse me?" Padme asked with a raised eyebrow at the admission.
"I don't agree with my people, but I can understand them. I can grasp their cowardly, thrifty logic," Cifo explained with an angry scowl towards the floor. "But nothing about this move makes sense to me. This is too sudden, too bold. A planet such as yours should have been stealthily and steadily conquered through economics. This...invasion, while feasible, is too risky to be done on a planet the senate could and would take notice of."
"And discovering the answer aids you?" Padme questioned curiously.
"Not knowing hinders me. So by proxy, yes," Cifo confirmed vaguely.
She nodded slowly at that, accepting that the Neimoidian had some long term goal other than justice or liberating a world. "I am no expert of war, but I believe I understand the intent here. The Mere Resistance supplies experience with fighting the Federation and the Vulptereens, if I'm not mistaken, are natural pilots," she summarized before looking to a pleased Duke Brumel. "And you, covertly, supply the money."
"And I may have made arrangements for ships capable of defending against, ahem, pirates," Brumel explained shrewdly.
"That was...timely," Panaka noted with a scowl and a raised eyebrow.
Brumel looked amused as snickers came around the room. "We've been prepared for a while now, Captain, for when the Trade Federation slipped up."
"And yet you waited for me to approach you?" Padme questioned in a neutral, curious tone.
"If I had come forward, you would have suspected even more so that I was secretly an enemy and I would have risked exposing our little network of Anti-Federates," he countered smoothly.
"That is not our name, despite his insistence," Cifo informed flatly. "But before we begin, I believe we have some questions, Queen Amidala, regarding your...associate."
Meanwhile
Ahsoka curled herself into a ball, as tight as she could, but it could not keep IT out.
IT was dark, but she could see it clearly even with her eyes closed.
IT was smoke, but she could feel it crushing her from the inside out.
IT was water rushing by, but she couldn't get it to release her.
IT was not attacking her, but the longer she was in it, the more she saw what she knew wasn't true.
She saw her family and people casting her out, unwanted and forced to go to the temple. She saw herself fail every test of the Jedi to become a Padawan, and yet saw herself as a Padawan fail to ever have a Master take interest in training her. She saw herself, a Jedi perhaps, cast out by the Jedi Order and leaving the temple. She saw herself die a thousand different ways and yet live again to die anew.
She screamed, but no sound was made. She ran away, but there was no distance between herself and the images. She tried to cry, but felt no tears on her cheeks.
Finally, she begged. She begged for IT to stop, for someone to make IT stop.
And IT did.
"-soka! Ahsoka! Come on, wake up! I have no idea where I'm going here!"
Her eyes shot open and became aware of herself being jostled up and down. As clarity returned, or what she had for her age, she realized she was being carried in the arms of the boy she had met only...minutes? Days ago? how long had it been?
Not long, she realized, as she felt the dark waves crashing once more against her, but IT no longer...did anything to her. "What...doing?" she asked with a wince, her head pounding.
"Failing at guessing the right path," Anakin answered bluntly as he slowed his run. "You know which way to go?"
"No. Head hurt," she answered, making a conscious effort to stay in Basic.
"Yeah, I found you screaming on the floor," he said, coming to a halt at a three way path in the temple. Carefully, he placed her against the corner as he looked around. Staring down the hall to his left, he saw a crowd of Jedi standing along, looking out the gaps for windo- and Anakin just remembered that Vader was approaching from this side of the Temple.
Turning his attention straight ahead, he saw a window near them as well, before moving towards it. Ahsoka whimpered, almost making him trip in surprise as she reached out to cling onto his arm. He opened his mouth to make some, any assurance that it would be fine, but one look at her quivering mass told him that words meant very little right now.
That she needed him. He wasn't sure why, but she needed him.
Sighing, somewhere between resignation and determination, he hefted her back up into his arms and carefully made his way over to the window and sat her down against it. This time, she did not protest as he moved just a bit away from her, enough to peek out.
It was far away, but Anakin didn't need to be close to see it, to see him. Where all others merely felt the torrents against the metaphorical walls of the temple within the Force, Anakin could feel the ripples; Ripples caused by every swings, every push or pull, and every use of the Force.
And Vader was doing plenty of them all. A wide circle of Jedi laid around where Vader had surely stood recently, some unconscious and others rising again to do battle. Vader himself had long since leapt or moved forward, higher up the steps and was using some combination of lightsaber dueling and levitating debris from several statues to fend off and take down Jedi after Jedi; The skill, the power, the experience...for all the Jedi had with them, Anakin could tell that these ones couldn't bridge the ravenous gap separating him and them. But he saw no Masters, they must not have made it from the tower yet.
But all Anakin could wonder was why? What had provoked Vader into this? More importantly, why did it feel like there was an army of other beings rolled up into one inside Vader's Force presence now? No, that's not right. Vader's power was still there, yes, undeniably. But this other, THESE others, whatever they were? It felt like Vader was only...directing it...them. Like they were a suit of armor, or...he really had no idea what he was thinking, just that this was a lot more than what it just looked like to someone without the Force.
It was also off topic: What did Vader want with this, exactly? Why was he attacking Jedi and why were Ahsoka and the other children screaming? More importantly, why wasn't he? What in the name of Jabba's floppy folds made him so special? Because if he was the reason Ahsoka wasn't screaming anymore, he didn't know how to keep helping her.
"Anakin!"
Said human boy turned around sharply, shocked out of his thoughts as he saw Qui-Gon's padawan rushing towards him. "Kenobiwan?"
Obi-Wan bit his tongue as he decided not to correct that error in his name. "What are you doing here? And why is she here?" Obi-Wan asked, looking to the disoriented youngling questioningly.
"I came to help Snips and, well...I didn't know where to take her," Anakin admitted sheepishly.
Obi-Wan tried, but could find no fault in Anakin's behavior, being unfamiliar with the Temple as he was. "I'll take you down to the-" he stopped in mid sentence, his jaw hanging open as he caught sight of what was happening outside the temple. "...He's actually doing it."
"What?" Anakin question with a scrunched brow.
"Attacking the temple," Obi-Wan answered as his throat ran dry, trying to gain his calm as he saw the devastation steadily approaching the temple. "We never should have trusted him."
"Obi-Wan?"
"If we hadn't, this wouldn't be happening," Obi-Wan reasoned, seemingly deaf to the world as he stared at the bodies of fallen Jedi.
"Obi-Wan!"
"How many Jedi are going to die beca-OW!" Obi-wan exclaimed as Anakin kicked, actually kicked him in the shin. "What was that for!?" he cried out, more startled than pained.
Ahsoka stared on in silent confusion as Anakin glared at the padawan. "As my mom would say? You were being stupid again," Anakin answered bluntly.
"What are you...?" Obi-Wan started in disbelief, but trailed off as he took in Anakin's expression. "Why aren't you afraid?" he asked with a scrunched brow. With the Dark Side rolling over the place, it was a miracle one as young and untrained as Anakin was still standing in this storm in the Force.
Anakin said nothing at first, just pointing out the window with a hard stare. "Look," he stated intently, as if that simple instruction would clear everything up.
Obi-Wan stared at the boy for a moment before looking out the window again and looked, truly looked. Unseen to both males, Ahsoka inched forward to follow the instructions as well. While Ahsoka didn't know what she was looking for, Obi-wan's eyebrows shot up. "Oh. Oh, Rancor Shit," he muttered in understanding. "Anakin, get down to the main hall past the entrance and find the training rooms on the right. That should be where you'll find the other younglings," Obi-Wan instructed before running off to where he sensed his master.
Anakin glanced down to Ahsoka. "Can you walk now?" he inquired hopefully. While he wasn't above carrying her, he didn't know if he could do it that long and he honestly didn't trust himself not to get lost in here, even with instructions. Thus, he was more than happy when the alien girl nodded weakly as he helped her to her feet.
Meanwhile
Within the LiMerge Building, Sidious simmered in his hate even as his blood sang in envious joy at the terror Darth Vader was unleashing upon the foolish Jedi. Oh, he hated the idea of aiding Vader by funneling the Dark Side to the interloper's aid, but he couldn't resist! No one of the Dark Side could possibly resist this. One of them, mighty and powerful in the Force, laying siege to the Jedi Temple to remind them they were not alone in the Force! And to do so without exposing the Order of Bane?
So for this day and never again, Sidious let slip his iron grip over the Dark Side. In truth, he had no choice. Holding on would have been too torturous in its own way: To feel the fear and despair of the Jedi laid low by Vader, it made every inch of his true nature scream and lurch within himself in a desperate bid to join the fray. At least, in aiding Vader in this way, he felt some relief in feeling his connection to the Dark Side flooding over the ancient temple of the Jedi Order.
It was for this reason that his face could never settle as it shifted back and forth from madden delight to snarling rage.
"Magnificent, isn't?"
Sidious forced a calm over himself as he turned to see his master approaching, smiling that smile behind his breathing mask that had fooled so many hundreds or even thousands of beings. Even Jedi. It was not a smile at all like Palpatine's: Humbled, endearing, polite, and well meaning. No, the smile of Hego Damask II was more often genuine in its own little ways. An amused aloofness that befitted one of the richest businessmen with matters he felt unimportant. But there was neither malice nor benevolence bleeding into it, simply a smile of one who didn't care but wouldn't let such bother him.
Sidious hated that smile when Plagueis used it on him. As if he thought him a paltry minion, a tempestuous child acting up without truly acting out.
"Hardly," Sidious scoffed, drawing that uncaring amusement fully onto himself now. "There should be scores of dead by now."
"Oh, Sidious. Did you think this was an invasion, an assault on the Jedi Temple?" Plagueis asked, shaking his head as if he found the idea hilarious. "Have you not noticed, that many still have not entered the fray? That Yoda himself has not rushed to the defenses?" he pointed out in his teaching tone. "If he had unleashed the true bulk of the Dark Side and all its terrible power, he would have faced the full weight of the entire order. No Sith, not Vader or ourselves, could sustain such a one-sided conflicted and emerge victorious. No, Vader did not come this far to simply make his own funeral pyre upon the temple and corpses of Jedi."
"Then what, pray tell, is the point of this, Master?" Sidious asked with gritted teeth and white knuckles.
"A message," Plagueis answered vaguely before a scowl marred his face. "Why are you here, Sidious? You were supposed to be with the Queen, even during the recess," he questioned in obvious disapproval.
"I thought it prudent to meet since you had a...private encounter with Vader," Sidious explained with a questioning tone.
Plagueis merely shook his head that. "I believed it prudent to speak to this Darth Vader face to face, and grant him with the prospect of an alliance."
"An alliance?" Sidious asked in surprise. "But the Rule of Two-?"
"Did you train him?" Plagueis countered sternly. "I did not. The Rule of Two, as all rules, is not ironclad in the face of something it didn't account for."
Sidious simmered as he tried to contain his rage. "And what did this Vader say to your alliance?"
"That he wasn't opposed to it," the Master of the Dark Side answered bluntly. "But, as a Sith, he's obvious skeptical of an alliance being either sincere or possible if there are...personality clashes."
"Do you not think it unwise to court such an arrangement with someone as unknown as him?" Sidious questioned.
His master gave him a skeptical look before looking out towards the direction of the Jedi Temple. "I think it's the height of stupidity to disregard him as a potential boon."
Something in Sidious raged at the barb, forcing him to swallow his hatred. For now. "How would we even justify this to Maul?"
"Justify?" Plagueis repeated, as if confused. "Sidious, he is your tool, your hound. Either bring him to heel or do away with him: for good this time."
"What could we possibly gain from this one? Was it not you, Master, that claimed that lightsaber duels are a tedious affair? They were nothing but wasted emotion and needless acrobatics?" Sidious retorted discontentedly.
"No, I said they were full of those, not that they were only those," Plagueis retorted casually. "More to the point, Vader is not a duelist. No, a duelist would be Dooku. Darth Vader is a warrior, fear and tactics in proper amounts allow him to rule fields of battle like you have ruled over the Senate, Sidious," Plagueis explained, pausing to look out at the sky. "We always knew such skill would be needed. That was why I permitted Maul as a false apprentice: an experiment, of sorts, for training future soldiers, hounds of the Dark Side for us. But why train beasts for war when one has a warmaster?"
"...Why did you relinquish your control of the Dark Side to him?" Sidious question with a scowl.
Plagueis rolled his eyes at this one. "You make it sound so permanent. Any and all of us could seize and rip it back at any time. We and all of the Dark Side across the galaxy have done nothing but allow the Dark Side to bring its full weight together in support of this...performance Vader has put on," he stated with a pleased, interested look. "Besides, the psychological effects this will have on the Jedi, of all ages and species, will be interesting to observe in the long term."
"You sound truly fond of him, Master," Sidious stated calmly.
"Oh? Is that the problem, Sidious?" Plagueis asked, clearly amused. "Are you jea-"
Plagueis got no further as the stinging buzz of a lightsaber met his ears in the same instant his chest was pierced. "Maybe just a bit, Master," Sidious whispered in bitter rage as he pushed his crimson saber further into his teacher, his mentor, perhaps the only person that ever truly saw him as family.
"S-sidious? W-why?" Plagueis asked in numb disbelief.
"Don't play dumb, you useless old fool. I was always going to betray you. That is the way of the Sith! I just never thought you, with all your sentimentality and delusions of being excluded from the rule of two, would attempt to do the same. Bravo, Master, you truly did surprised me once more," Sidious praised before violently ripping the saber out, letting the dead Muun fall to the floor gracelessly.
He took a deep breath to savor his victory. He could already feel Plagueis' power in the force eroding away, leaving a power vacuum. He hadn't been sure if it would work, but he knew that with their relinquished grip on the Dark Side, his master's senses wouldn't be as sharp and Sidious' own actions and feelings wouldn't radiate quite so clearly to the elder Sith Lord. He just had to allow the Muun to get distracted talking and thinking about what Vader...or, rather, what Plagueis's would-be apprentice could do for their cause.
This wasn't how Sidious planned to become the true Master of the Dark Side, but it was just as good. Truthfully, he hadn't been sold on the idea that Plagueis would ever get drunk and exhausted enough for Sidious to kill him with ease, but it would have been worth a try when he got an excuse to celebrate. But it had become abundantly clear to Sidious that he was going to be replace, possibly even before he could become truly Chancellor, allowing Plagueis to take the office as his Co-Chancellor. Or maybe there was some secret other plan he had long since been left in the dark about.
It was as humbling as it was enraging to know how thoroughly he had been played. He still was being played, in his own opinion, so long as Vader drew breath. Speaking of whom, now all he had to do was time it just right. To chose a decisive point to rip the control of the Dark Side from Vader enough to make him lose focus at a critical time in this...attack, if it could be called that, and allow the Jedi to do the dirty work for him by finishing off the Sith assaulting their temple.
Yes, all he had to do was-
"You stupid brat."
Sidious jumped away just as the floor literally screamed below him, crushed and torn into wrathful bits. He rounded to see his Master was standing there, clearly not a corpse and obviously furious behind his calm. He held up his lightsaber to defend or attack, until he found that his hand was vacant. And realized in terror that it had been empty this entire time. "I never betrayed you, Sidious," Plagueis stated with acidic venom in his voice as he held up a deactivated lightsaber. One of Sidious's. A smile of cruelty and pity etched onto the Muun's face as he opened his hand, Sidious seizing the weapon with the force immediately. "But now I know I was correct in my suspicions when I came here. I hoped you weren't so foolish, but what is more foolish than an old man's hope?" he mused as he held up his hand, as if to accentuate his question, before his own lightsaber flashed into his grip.
"If you thought I would betray you now, why am I still alive?" Sidious questioned with a glare.
Now the cruelty left as the disgusting pity remained. "Because you haven't been listening, Sidious. I never wanted to kill you, my former apprentice," he reiterated as he ignited his crimson blade, Sidious doing likewise. "Now, allow me to give you one, last, parting lesson, Sidious. A lesson I've apparently neglected to teach you"
The human sith grit his teeth as he twisted around to block a surprise attack from his Master, now standing directly behind where Sidious had been.
"It's called fear."