To Return and Try Again
Summary: He had lost, everything. His enemy had triumphed. His only hope was to go back in time to fix everything.
Notes: Not what I had intended to write today, but when I sat down, it just… came out. Ok, this is a time travel fic, but it is most assuredly NOT a time-travel fix it. Also, short.
He watched as all he had accomplished was destroyed. As everything he had planned was torn down and made less than nothing.
He watched as the young man who could have been so much chose to be his enemy, to dedicate his life to fighting him and all he had done.
He had lost, lost all he had spent his life building.
He'd lost the galaxy, lost his students, lost everything.
He was old, now, and didn't have enough time to change things.
He could only be grateful that the man who spurned him was also getting older, and had never had children.
But now, there was nothing he could do.
He looked at the device in thought. It had taken him years to track it down. First he'd read about it in an old book (so old, it had been written on paper). He'd scoffed, but…
This might be the only way. So he'd started searching. Finally, in an ancient temple, he'd found the device, and learned what it could do.
He could go back. Back in time, to when he could fix things, make it so he didn't lose everything.
And now, he had to decide if he wanted to use it. If he did, and it worked, he'd be able to fix everything. If it didn't, he'd die.
Of course, he was getting old, and only had a few years left anyway, so he didn't understand why he hesitated.
He needed to meditate on it.
No, he needed to decide. He had meditated, many times. This was the only way forward. It would either kill him, or it would work.
Either he'd be dead, and the galaxy lost to his enemies for all time, or he'd be able to fix things and push the galaxy on the path it was meant to go.
He nodded and reached out, taking the device in hand. This was going to hurt either way. He focused, as the book had said, on the time he wanted to return to.
Back to when his greatest enemy was a child. Back to when he was young enough to make a difference. Back to the days before the reform.
He lunged out of bed and straight for his computer to check the date. Once it was on and he could see he took a deep breath to calm down. It had worked. His master was dead, yes, but he still had enough time to change things.
He turned to his closet to get ready for the day. As he looked in the mirror, his eyes shaded yellow. Sheev Palpatine, Darth Sidious, grinned. First things first, he had to earn young Anakin Skywalker's trust. And then, then he could set about making his empire one that would last for generations.
Notes: Yes. Yes, I am saying that the entirety of the prequel and original trilogies are because an old Sheev Palaptine from a timeline where he never bothered with the young slave boy, came back in time to "fix" things. In the "original" timeline, Anakin was never encouraged to doubt the Jedi. Anakin is the enemy Sidious is thinking about this entire time.