Title: The Melting Pit
Author: LadyElaine
Rating: G
Disclaimer: The characters and situations of Star Wars belong to George Lucas.
Summary: POV; Palpatine's thoughts on Darth Maul's death.
The Melting Pit
It is not power that corrupts.
Now, there are those who say that power should be shunned and feared. They are herdbeasts, these beings, with no more wit than the organic molecules that preceded life. Less, even--molecules at least know the value of order. Power--true power--never corrupts the strong: it purifies. It is a siren song to lesser beings, the true seduction.
The Zabrak, a race from Iridonia, are a people of contradictions. A storm of untamed emotions, barely kept in check by such a fine mental control, a power of will seen in few other races. What a species--and what a specimen. His people's traditional tattoos became, for him, a diagram of hatred. He was to have been my masterpiece, a pinnacle of fury. No mere bounty hunter or assassin, a Sith apprentice is the embodiment of both defiance and fear. Defiance of extinction, that long, looming darkness. Fear of the day the learner becomes the master.
But it is not power that corrupts.
His power was such that he would have had legions of dedicated followers, armies of worshippers. So I allowed him to cultivate his pride, lest the order of my galaxy be destroyed in favor of a lesser vision. Yet a Sith must always be honest with himself, and pride is the ultimate deception. It was his pitfall.
"She is more foolish than I thought," I said. Another deception. She was exactly as foolish--and exactly as wise--as I needed her to be. But when he saw the young queen's plan, and recognized the web within the web, I knew he was no longer my servant, my devotee. He made of the following duel a symphony, and I saw my doom.
A nudge of his hubris, from my secure vantage point on Coruscant, and it was over.
* * *
I am not without resources. The boy is already mine, though he does not yet see it. And his weakness is already in bloom. It is love that will someday bring him down, while the great order of my Empire continues.
It is not power that corrupts.