Chapter 8: Dwindling Night
21 BBY, Coruscant
Darth Sidious would proudly say that his schemes regarding the Clone Wars were going marvellously. In just a few months, he had cemented his position in the Republic as its hero and beloved Chancellor, who would defend its peace alongside the Jedi Order, something that would be extremely useful when he rose to his rightful post as the Galaxy’s eternal emperor.
Though sometimes, he ached to finally set aside the disguise that was Sheev Palpatine and finally indulge in the true power of the Dark Side. After all, he had shed that name, that identity, when he had killed his family, though he would not deny the usefulness of this identity, as it had helped him rise up until he became the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.
The Great Plan, a thousand years in the making, will unfold soon. The Jedi will be defeated, and the Sith’s rule will be supreme, his rule will be supreme.
Count Dooku fulfilled his role well as the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and his fall to the Dark Side had been a marvel to witness, as it slowly twisted his idealism. Darth Sidious was not one for art, but he had to appreciate the beauty of the Count’s fall. Oh, how his ego had been twisted, his love for power nurtured, truly, there was something beautiful to see a former Jedi fall so deeply into the Dark Side. Oh, he would never be a True Sith, but he would serve as a temporary placeholder until his new apprentice was ready to take his post.
After all, he had spent years carefully cultivating the cracks in Anakin Skywalker’s training, stoking the rage within, which this war would fuel even further with loss and death. Oh, how he looked forward to seeing the result of his work. He will be magnificent, that he knew.
The Jedi remained as blind as they always were, unknowing of their soon-to-be undoing. He, the Dark Lord of the Sith, stood with the entire Jedi Council while standing in the Jedi Temple, and none had noticed his presence. Thus was the depth of his power, to deceive those who arrogantly thought they could see everything.
With the support that he was earning, soon, the Dark Lord of the Sith, as well as the chaos of war, would begin setting up schemes and weapons that would be needed for his inevitable rise and his empire. Unfortunately, until then, he was required to deal with meetings and political games, where Senators thought that they could make fools of him… The thought alone made it all amusing.
So far, he had done his best to keep the Senate divided, fuelling their rivalries while acting publicly as a voice of reason, which earned him the admiration of the Jedi.
Fools!
Unfortunately, for now, he needed to deal with the politics of the weaklings in the Senate. Sometimes, he imagined destroying them all with his Force Lightning, but alas, he needed to be Sheev Palpatine at this moment. And so, he sat in his office, his eyes glazing over the Ancient Sith artefacts that he put on display, ready for another meeting.
Before he could tell his staff that he was ready for the coming meeting, he felt a disturbance in the Force, one that originated in Coruscant. His eyes widened in shock as he realised its source. Someone had found the Sith Shrine beneath the Jedi Temple…
Darth Sidious could not allow this to proceed. This shrine was a powerful piece on the board, one that he did not wish to see discovered.
He had rebuilt it many years ago and performed a ritual with his master to create a veil, a shroud of the Dark Side, by using all of the darkness of Coruscant, a planet filled with corruption, with billions living in despair, trying to survive. And all of this was channelling through the Force Nexus beneath the Temple. The Jedi did not notice the change, given how slow they were. They did not notice their sight darkening as they were blinded by the power of the Dark Side, completely unaware of the truth of their weakness. It had even made young Jedi even more pathetic than they usually were by weakening their connection to the Force.
The shroud had allowed Sidious to scheme without fear of the Jedi detecting him, without seeing the truth behind the Clone Wars, especially that loathsome small, green beast that they call a Grand Master. Normally, Sidious would have personally investigated the source of this disturbance, for it was not a small matter, but he could not be discovered, not while he was required to be seen as the Chancellor of the Republic.
And so, he delved into the Dark Side and projected himself to the Sith Shrine, to confront whoever had come to this place. A part of him had expected it to be Yoda, or perhaps Windu, maybe even Kenobi, given how commonly he interfered in Sidious’s affairs. However, he did not expect to see a figure wearing a silver cloak that he did not recognise, and especially not the strange bird, which slightly resembled Convorees but with white plumage, perched on his shoulders.
Though strangely, Sidious could not sense their power in the Force.
That did not matter in any way. After all, this was a Sith Shrine that he had built himself, that he could even draw power from, even if he would rather not reveal his manipulations to the Jedi. And so, his projection alone was enough to kill most Jedi Masters.
The figure was seemingly giving the glowing Sith Runes interesting looks. The art was not one that Sidious focused on, not compared to his master, at least. He would do it when he was Emperor, surpass even Darth Plagueis, if only to show that he was the superior Sith.
Deciding that he would unmask the figure after its defeat, Sidious finally let his projection gather the power from the shrine and released a stream of Force Lightning at the back of the attacker.
Blue arcs of lightning, his condensed power over the Dark Side, rushed towards the intruder, ready to inflict as much pain as he could, while leaving the figure alive. After all, he had many questions to ask, and a lot of frustration from the part of the Senate to take out on the foolish creature that had tried to interfere with Sidious’ affairs.
The cloaked figure must have sensed it as it turned, meaning that he was likely a Jedi, one who was able to hide his presence in the Force. One of the famed Jedi Shadows, perhaps, or a member of what remained of this paltry branch of the Order, one that had become but a shadow of what it once was.
Sidious prepared himself for the man to summon his Lightsaber and foolishly attempt to redirect it, as a Jedi would. After all, this was almost certainly a Jedi, though not one that Sidious recognised. Who else would have a Force-wielding beast and would go into the depths of the Jedi Temple?
It would not work; Sidious’s mastery of Force Lightning was absolute, likely beyond that of any other Sith before him. Even Yoda would be overwhelmed should he attempt to absorb it using Tutaminis, such was his power. Even as a projection, very few would be able to withstand his power.
To his surprise, the man raised his hand, likely attempting to use Tutaminis, and Sidious smirked, expecting the screams of pain of the Jedi. Only, to his surprise, that did not happen. Instead, the lightning was contained within his hands. Sidious pushed further, thinking that he would overwhelm the Jedi’s meagre still in Energy Absorption, only for it to be absorbed. In fact, the energy was condensing into a familiar symbol, a Sith Rune.
The absurdity of a Jedi using Sith Runes, let alone in a way that he, the Dark Lord of the Sith, did not know of, was absurd, and yet, that was what he was witnessing. Despite himself, he asked, “Who are you?”
He could feel a smirk grow on the Jedi’s face, though he did not say anything. Instead, he looked to the side, and Darth Sidious’s eyes widened as he saw the strange white bird fly down towards him, enveloped in some kind of silver light, its talons ready to attack him.
Sidious stopped the Force Lightning and dodged the attack, though one of the bird’s talons grazed his projection’s cheek. He summoned the Dark Side, ready to attack once more, especially that damnable bird, only for his eyes to widen as he saw the Sith Rune in the Jedi’s hand turn gold, and his opponent slamming his hand onto the carved runes of the shrine, letting his golden energy seep into it.
Darth Sidious felt the ritual’s work collapse around him, and the veil of the Dark Side, the one that he had spent years and years working towards, was weakening. Darth Plagueis had described the ritual that they had devised on the Sith Shrine as a delicately balanced imbalance in the Force, one that the Jedi had destabilised by overwhelming the Rune that was maintaining this balance. The veil could be fixed, of course, though Sidious would need to look at his old master's research to do so.
The Dark Lord looked at his opponent, and that loathsome bird perched itself on his shoulder. This Jedi must have gained great knowledge of Sith Runes and rituals to be able to understand the workings of this ritual, and that made him a far greater threat than any other member of the order, bar Yoda and maybe Mace Windu.
But this performance showed Sidious the need to find his opponent's secrets, as well as make him pay for causing such a setback to his grand plan. He needed to know of the threat that the intruder posed, of where he had learned the workings of Sith Runes and rituals, and who else in the Jedi Order had access to such knowledge.
And so, the Lord of the Sith gathered the Dark Side within the shrine, letting his projection get immersed in all of it, and then pushed it all towards his enemy, with the intention of dominating everything within him, his mind, his soul. It would all be bare to him.
However, just as the Darkness pressed toward the Jedi before him, ready to wipe away his meagre resistance, Sidious's eyes widened as he saw two green stars of power suddenly lit up from the depths of the Jedi's silver cloak.
A great silver light appeared from his form, and a great pressure formed around Sidious's projection, as he heard grave words resonate all around him, "BEGONE!"
And just like that, he felt the darkness around him recoil before his projection was shattered, ruined by this strange light, and Sidious opened his eyes to the sight of his office.
Moments later, Sidious felt the disturbance in the Force, something that was somehow burning away the Dark Side gathered in the Sith Shrine beneath the Jedi Temple, and ruining any chance at rebuilding the shrine and the ritual, as no matter how blind and weak the Jedi were, they would not miss something like this.
Sidious cursed that he had been donning the guise of Sheev Palpatine at this moment, as this would not have occurred had he faced the intruder personally instead of using a projection. And now, he felt the Veil of the Dark Side bristle, and it was, without a doubt, a great setback to his plans.
The Dark Lord wished to lash out at the failure, Plagueis's failure, for he had been the one to design the ritual. To think that it could be brought down so easily... Still, Sidious tightened his grip over the Dark Side to carefully hide his presence from the Jedi. Though not all was lost. The Veil had achieved its purpose long ago, and the Clone Wars began, with many of the Jedi weakened greatly. Traces of his darkness would still permeate their precious Temple, still clouding their sight.
For now, one of his biggest priorities was hunting down the mysterious Jedi whom he had fought earlier. He was an unforeseen variable, and Sidious severely disliked them. And this Jedi, this new enemy, was one that he could feel would require all of his attention to deal with, and to make him pay for what he had done.
A knock on the door of his office broke him from his contemplations, and he spoke up, “Please do come in.”
His assistant entered and spoke up softly, “Your excellency…”
The man stopped, and Sidious noticed that he was staring at his cheek, specifically. Curious, the Dark Lord took a mirror from his desk and looked at his reflection. His guise as Sheev Palpatine was perfect, just as it always had been, except for a very thin red line near his left cheek, specifically, where the Jedi’s bird had grazed his projection.
How was this possible? What was this creature, and how was it capable of doing anything like this? Sidious felt the Dark Side surge within him at the indignation, but he gripped it and controlled it completely.
He would discover who this cloaked Jedi was, and he would rip his secrets from his mind, and destroy him alongside that accursed bird of his, for what they had done to his plans. He would even handle the matter… personally.
Still, despite this obstacle, Sidious's enemy had shown him a critical oversight that he had not expected. With the coming of the plan, Sidious had focused on the Sith arts that would see him rise to become Emperor, leaving his mastery over Sith Sorcery and Alchemy to when he arose to his rightful place. He had not seen the skills as urgent, but now, there was a Jedi in the Galaxy who must have understood their workings, and that meant that Sidious needed to do the same.
Unfortunately, this would all have to wait. And so, Sidious gave his assistant a kindly smile, “Ah, a small accident. I assure you, my friend, that it is nothing that a small Bacta patch would not fix in moments. But for now, why not focus on my schedule today?”
[---]
Harry quickly teleported back to the entrance of the Jedi Council Chamber while wearing his invisibility cloak to hide his little detour. It had been interesting, to say the least. Very educational too, though it was a shame that someone so rudely interrupted him. Still, this gave him a lot to think about, which he did as he took out a mug of Hot Chocolate and took a sip.
Suddenly, the doors to the Council Chamber opened, and a few people ran out, one of whom looked like an old green House Elf or something. Anakin was accompanying them, and quickly, almost frantically, both Aayla and Ahsoka ran with them.
Harry continued sipping his Hot Chocolate as he watched them all go away, raising an eyebrow, “Well, that was rude.”
AN: Well, that’s Harry’s first POV. I had fun writing it, even if I rewrote it a couple of times. As I said before, I’m still getting the hang of writing a Star Wars story, so bear with me if anything feels off.
This chapter had originally been a Harry POV, but I couldn't make it click, so I thought that it would be interesting from Sidious's perspective. I sort of wanted Harry to casually go into the Sith Shrine, undo the ritual, and just watch the fireworks that would follow, but a part of me wanted a little interaction between him and Sidious, even if it's through a projection and could barely be called that. Palpatine will be pretty affected by this setback, almost obsessing over the one who had won against him, expecting him to be some kind of secret Jedi who has unseen Force Techniques.
I'm still really hesitant about how I handled this chapter, to be completely honest. I wanted the 'fight' to be very brief, barely more than a little exchange, but that could change a lot in the long run.
Also, feel free to let me know if you have any things you'd like to see in that story. SW lore is pretty expansive, especially Legends stuff, and there's a lot that I'll probably miss, so I'm counting on you guys :)
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.