Aristoci trees thrashed in a violent wind on the planet Cothlanu. A vast landscape greener than emeralds and dotted by seas stretched across the world surrounded by five moons. The Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis, hovered above the forest floor. He observed his apprentice, Sheev Palpatine, tear a tiny crack in the soil with his mind. Hands pushed out before him, Palpatine flashed an image of suffering and death to the front of his consciousness ripping sand and rock from the planet's surface, grinding it into dust carried away in the bluster. For hours he had done this, with greater fury and intensity. More and more of the land bent to his will until that tiny crack had become a vast canyon stretching out before them, splitting the forest with a great ragged crater carrying on for miles beyond their view. The young man broke his concentration and his focused rage to see his master float back to the ground, distress written on his long face.
"You appear disturbed, my Master," Palpatine said.
The ancient Lord, Plagueis the Wise as he had become known, waved his apprentice away. "It is nothing, young one. Finish what you have started."
Palpatine glared at the giant gap he had created. With memories of what came before, his face twisted into a mighty scowl. Summoning the wrath of the gods themselves he curled his fingers inward and rose his arms overhead and conjured a wall of salt water towering above them, carried in from a sea miles away. Plagueis grinned at the display of raw power, never threatened by the mammoth mass of seawater, complete faith in the abilities of his student.
The wave flattened the Aristoci forest into a mile wide trench and the rush of gray water conjured a gale strong enough to have swept lesser men from their feet to drown in the depths boiling as they splashed down. Plagueis, the Mune, pressed his knee to the dirt. Salt spray washed up all around. Palpatine's canyon filled with ocean water. It swirled and sloshed and filled the gap to the top. Darth Plagueis was impressed, but Palpatine could see his master in visible pain, overcome by a sudden disease.
Plagueis groaned, but was pleased to see the raging river as it cascaded over rocks and fallen logs at their feet. "You have done it," Darth Plagueis moaned, "you have reshaped the land. Bent this very world to your will. Just as I had foreseen."
"Yes, my master."
"Indeed you are powerful, Sidious."
"Sidious?"
"An architect of space, breaker of water and stone. The Force is strong in you, perhaps stronger than ever," Plagueis said drawing in a weary breath. "Now you are truly a Sith."
Palpatine knelt before his master and bowed his head.
"Rise, Darth Sidious." Plagueis struggled for balance. He coughed. "Take your place in this ancient union." The young one caught his teacher before he could collapse. "By my side."
"Something has stricken you, Master."
"Yes."
"A disturbance, though I cannot feel it."
"It is an illness. Born of this world, I sense it's presence. It has come on fast. I must contemplate its origin. Quickly, we must return to the temple."
Darth Plagueis summoned the last of his strength in rising to his feet. The two Sith walked from the ravaging waters. They passed through the deep jade of the forest to a clearing stamped by a tall fortress. Palpatine, now Sidious, shuddered catching a chill against his skin. A chasm had opened between teacher and student, a gap in the Force Sidious could feel as though a warm body had disappeared from his side. With the flood of a thousand tormented cries Sidious could feel the mighty weakening in his master's powers. The wise Mune's strength leeched from his bones with each passing second and he struggled to reach his bed where he laid down.
"I will fetch you some broth," Sidious said.
"No. The answer has revealed itself to me," Darth Plagueis said, "there is something else I need you to retrieve."
"Name it, my Master."
The Mune ran his hand along his forearm and then he touched the side of his face. "The flesh rots from my body, young one. It will take and take until there is no more of me. This will take years, but already I am in a weakened state."
"Is there a cure?"
"There is. Darth Sidious, I ask this of you. Bring me this cure. An extract of an aged root. Jamturu. You must find it and bring it to me at once. And you must be certain you are not followed."
"Of course," Sidious answered with a solemn nod. "I will not return without this extract, my Master."
"Finding it will prove difficult. It could be in the Ilyarian system. Be cautious of the Jedi, however, Sidious. They continue to search for us, for me, even now after all this time in exile." The simple thought of an entire Republic endlessly searching for him for decades made him weary. Plagueis was overcome with the urge to sleep. He pushed back onto his bed and rested. "Leave me now."
"Yes, Master. The cure shall be yours. You have my word."