The Lure of the Dark Side: Chronicle 1-The Turning of an Era
Authored by Doreen Hines with the assistance of the following:
The Star Wars films,
The Cartoon Network Series Star Wars: Clone Wars,
The Revenge of the Sith novel by Matthew Stover,
The Star Wars Databank on the official website,
And the Online Wookiepedia encyclopedia
Summery: What if Padme Amidala was really the daughter of Darth Sidious, and the only reason she was born was to help lure the Jedi's fabled Chosen One to the dark side? This is a look at how the Star Wars universe would be slightly different if this were so.
Note: Most of this story is seen through the eyes of the Sith. As the story progresses, however, it'll be seen through the point of view of everyone: Jedi, politicians, officers, the media, and outside galactic populace.
Disclaimer: The Star Wars franchise belongs to George Lucas. Believe me, if I was him I would be rolling around in a pile of money right now.
Rated PG-13 for action violence, language, and some sexual content
Prelude: Tales of the Sith Era
Palpatine, otherwise known as Darth Sidious, was twenty-five standard years old when The Great Sith War concluded, bringing about an end to the hundred thousand year millennia of the Sith Empire, which took over the Galaxy after the fall of the Old Republic. Sidious' Sith Master, a Munn known as Darth Plagueis the Wise, had trained him since as long as he could remember in the arts of the Force. He was taken from his parents immediately after birth on his homeworld of Naboo, and the result was their deaths by Plagueis' own hand, as they hadn't wanted their son taken away or trained and put up a fight. His master taught him everything he knew, including the path to immortality, a secret knowledge among the Sith. Sidious studied beneath Plagueis until the younger was eighteen standard years. That's when Plagueis taught him how the influence of midi-chlorians inside one's cells to create and sustain life. Greedily accepting this power, at the lesson's conclusion, the apprentice then killed the master in his sleep one night and began to look for an apprentice of his own.
Being as the Sith were in the height of their power at the time, it was common for an apprentice to kill their master when they'd finished training under them. It was the way of things in how a Sith Apprentices moved up from the rank Apprentice to actual Sith. If they could defeat their master, the one who'd trained them from infancy, or toddlerhood in some cases, they were ready for the title Sith Master or Knight, depending on how they defeated them. Since Sidious cleverly extirpated his unsuspecting master, who'd intended on training him several more years before even considering him ready for the trials of becoming a full-fledged Sith, he was named a Sith Master by the Supreme Master of the Sith Empire, Darth Bane, as only he could determine what rank an apprentice was given after training.
The apprentice in which Sidious took on was a two year old girl whom he found on an Unknown Regions outskirts world. He gave her the Sith title of Dark Lady Lumiya, as she was quite the fiery girl for her age, and very strong in the Force.
The Fall of the Sith Empire began two years after these events when a new kind of Force users, "Jedi" they called themselves, emerged out of what seemed nowhere.
Their purpose?
To bring about peace and justice to the Galaxy once more. They, along with a large number of political and military minded people, created a sequel to the original galaxy-spanning system of government called the New Galactic Republic, and intended to use this in governing the Galaxy once the Sith Empire fell.
When war between the Sith and Jedi then began, the Jedi were not a very large group. Couldn't have been anymore than a hundred at best, which was a laugh to the thousands of Sith that lived throughout the Galaxy. But as the war continued, however, more and more Force sensitives were being trained in the path of the Jedi rather than that of the Sith. Now when Force sensitive children were born, the opposing Force wielders fought to see which was worthy enough to train them. About halfway through the war, the Sith and the Jedi were leveled out, both sides having the same amount as the other.
The final battle of the half-decade war commenced at the Sith Temple on the world of Korriban, the original home planet of the Sith species before they were enslaved by the Force sensitives of the clan. This world of mountainous desert laid almost at the edge of the Outer Rim Territories. The Jedi took the Sith by absolute surprise, storming the temple with all their members. As it turned out, mostly all the Sith Order's entirety had been present at the time for a meeting about forming a new strategy to winning the war, and getting rid of these Jedi who wielded the Force as if it were a mere toy. Unbeknown to them, the Jedi had somehow found out about the meeting and decided to use it as an advantage.
Many Jedi and Sith alike were killed during the battle, which lasted two days straight without stop, with more and more Jedi arriving on the hour. The Sith fought hard, but not hard enough, and as time progressed it was obvious which side was winning the battle: the Jedi.
Already foreseeing that the Jedi would win this battle, and the war, Sidious collected his apprentice and tried to persuade other Sith to join him as he made to leave the planet. No other Sith wanted to come with him though. It was their wish to fruitlessly fight on to the death of a losing battle. As a result, Sidious subsequently left by himself with Darth Lumiya.
However, a Jedi Knight named Exar Kun tracked him upon leaving the planet. Finally catching up to him on the Outer Rim world of Mustafar, the Jedi engaged Sidious and his apprentice in a duel. After Kun successfully killed nine-year-old Lumiya, he made to impale Sidious in the chest with his lightsaber, thus killing him. But the young Sith Lord was ready for just this. As the blade entered his chest he commanded the midi-chlorians inside his cells to sustain his life. So as Kun walked away from the pone figure of Sidious, thinking he'd just killed two Sith, Sidious charged at the unsuspecting fools' back, stabbing his crimson blade into his vertebra and then heart.
Exar Kun died that day with the Sith he thought he'd killed, smirking in twisted satisfaction down upon him as his life Force left his body and he became one with the Force.
The Sith were eventually eliminated by the years' end. It turns out some had heeded Sidious' advice after all and escaped the planet. They, however, were hunted down as well and killed. The Sith were than known as extinct. The New Galactic Republic from then on governed the Galaxy with the Jedi acting as their "Keepers of the Peace."
Though it seemed that peace now shrouded the Galaxy again, a strange prophecy was delivered by Freedon Nadd, the Force sensitive being whom started the Jedi Order. On his deathbed after a vicious duel to the death with Darth Bane, his last dying words were a prophecy about a supposed "Chosen One."
"Though this battle we've won, many more will come.
The Sith have been eliminated yes, but they will rise again.
Even more powerful than before.
Hence out of the darkness a light will bring,
Conceived by the midi-chlorians themselves through a virgin woman,
The Chosen One he shall be.
The only one whom can bring balance to the Force,
Forever destroying the Sith."
Through Sidious' more thorough research, with the aid of the dark side, he discovered that this "Chosen One" would indeed be born, but nine hundred and seventy-eight standard years from then in the Outer Rim Territories of space. Because of this prophecy, Sidious decided to bid his time for next nine hundred or so years before beginning to rebuild the fallen Sith Empire. He would come into full power with the aid of this Chosen One as his apprentice; turning the Jedi's very hero against them.
Once this plan was conspired he contacted the deceased spirit of Darth Bane to seek council on the matter. It was then that Darth Bane presented the rule of two to him.
"Two there should be; No more, no less.
A Master, and an Apprentice.
One to embody power, the other to crave it."
Sidious outwardly scoffed at this pronouncement, thinking the rule ridiculous. He did decide however that though he'd probably start out with two, he'd eventually move on and have others. Yet no more than seven at a time; ten to the most, in this order:
Dark Lord of the Sith (Supreme Master of the Sith)
Apprentice to the Dark Lord (Sith Lord)
Secondary Apprentice to the Dark Lord (Sith Lord)
Sith Lords
Sith Masters
Sith Knights
Sith Apprentices
Before training the Chosen One, nevertheless, he decided to train another. So when the time came to apprentice the Chosen One he'd simply betray the other's trust and have his new apprentice eliminate them.
The next nine hundred and fifty-three years (1,000 – 47 New Galactic Republic Era, aka NRE), the Sith Lord, known by his family name Palpatine, spent quietly living in the seclusion of the Lake Country of his home planet of Naboo, located in a Mid Rim region of space, not far from and right after the Outer Rim onwards to the Core.
It was obvious the Jedi hadn't put much thought to the Chosen One prophecy. The years went by – year in and year out – and nothing, save a few conflicts here and there, out of the ordinary occurred. The galactic peace remained intact and the prophecy long forgotten to mostly all, dismissed as a myth.
It was after all this time that Sidious finally chose to act, as the Chosen One would be born in exactly nineteen years from then. Through even more thorough research he discovered the name and place of where the child would be born: the Outer Rim planet Tatooine in the settlement Mos Eisley. He would be born to a young slave woman named Shmi Skywalker and be given the name of Anakin.
Later that year, Sidious traveled to the harsh Mid Rim world of Iridonia to retrieve his new apprentice. Kidnapping a small, two year old Zabrak boy from his family, he gave him the Sith name Darth Maul and returned to Naboo. Upon returning, he came out of hiding and ran for the office of the capital city's (Theed) Mayor. He was elected. His plan was to eventually become the planet's Senate Representative in the New Galactic Republic, and then from there continuously move his way on up in power.
Within the next seven years he was Governor of Naboo (40 NRE), and eight years after that (32 NRE) got his wish of becoming the planet's Senate Representative. Because of his election, his time was then divided between two places. The Core world of Coruscant, capital of the Galaxy and New Republic. Most of his time was spent there in the Senate, but when he wasn't too busy, always returned home to Naboo. It was at this time that Sidious began to become more aware of the Chosen One's birth, ten years at this point, and as such made a surefire plan for him to be lured to the Dark Side. Sidious would acquire a lavishly beautiful daughter, whom would later secretly wed the boy and assist her father in luring him to the Dark Side.
Sidious furthered this plan by deciding upon the mother of his daughter being none other than the nineteen year old Princess of Naboo herself. Being the planet's Senator did have its advantages. One of which was his closeness to the Royal Family, The Naberries: King Ruwee, Queen Jobel, and their three children, the twenty-something Princess Sola and Prince Darred, and the teenage Princess Maratina.
Sidious chose Maratina Naberrie over that of her 3-years senior sister Solo because out of the two, she was the more appealing, handsome one, with luxurious dark caramel hair and green eyes. In addition, she was equally just as lovely in attitude as she was in appearance. Sidious grew very close to the girl and she him. And despite him being far too old for her – the Force made his appearance seem as though he was in his mid-to-late 50s – they began to secretly formulate a romantic relationship. Sidious didn't love the girl of course, oh no; he was merely growing close to her, so by the time he struck it'd be too late. It was obvious that she loved him though. He could see it in her eyes every time they were together, even if she never admitted it.
Although their relationship was behind-the-scenes with no one knowing of it, Sola suspected something was going on between the two and confronted them various times, both together and apart. She even went as far as telling her parents, the King and Queen, about it once her claims were denied. Yet since she had no real proof, besides the word of mouth, nothing was done. King Ruwee laughed when his daughter presented the preposterous claims, while Queen Jobel scoffed and Prince Darred thought Sola was being ridiculous. No more was said about the matter, and though Sola continued to suspect, Maratina and Sidious continued their secret affair.
Two and a half years into the relationship, the night after Maratina turned twenty-two, the couple took their relationship to the next level. Both confessed their love for one another and were intimate, and a week later secretly wed in the Senator's seaside Lake Country home. Sidious made sure to do a Sith mind wipe on the minister whom orchestrated the wedding as he was leaving. Maratina wasn't around which was perfect. By the time Sidious was through with him, the minister didn't even remember his own name. He'd been driven into complete insanity. Seeing as there was no longer any purpose for the man, the Sith killed him, making it out that he'd drowned in the sea during a swim. The renown minister was mourned with great sorrow for a brief period by some, before everyone went back to their normal carefree lives.
The next year and a half of Sidious' marriage to the Princess was spent with them only seeing each other on occasion, and the alone time they did share was all too brief. Many times, Maratina insisted they go public with their marriage and let whoever say whatsoever they wished. However, Sidious always shot down these words, saying their relationship was better left in the dark. Maratina reluctantly agreed and their marriage was left the way it was, unknown.
It was right after Maratina's twenty-fourth birthday (27 NRE) that Sidious knew the time was now right to put his plan into action. Late one night, when Maratina thought he was on Coruscant for a season of Congress, the Dark Lord crept into her room and, placing his hand on her brow, did what his late master, Darth Plagueis, had taught him of influencing the midi-chlorians inside one's cells to create life. He made sure she was kept asleep during the time this was done.
When Maratina discovered she was pregnant two months later, Sidious used a Sith mind trick – which is much stronger than a mere Jedi mind suggestion – on one of the servant boys working at the Palace. He had him confess to the entire Royal court that Maratina had thrown herself at him one night and commanded that he impregnate her with an heir. Maratina rightfully denied these claims. Yet when a surveillance video, which Sidious concocted, came to the surface showing what the servant said as true, the boy was cast from the Palace, and Sidious, in his fury at Maratina's betrayal of him, split up with her. Tarring up the marriage license that proclaimed them husband and wife while she cried out protests in anguish. Afterwards, he purposely made sure that word got out to the kingdom about what supposedly happened.
By the following day, a planet-wide scandal ripped across the kingdom and Maratina was left in disgrace. She was referred to as a "whore" and a "harlot", with many thinking she should be revoked of her crown title and kicked out of the Royal Palace of Theed. Neither of these two things were done however. Yet that didn't stop everyone from turning against her. Her father was disappointed in her, her mother and brother ashamed of her, while her sister and other family, Sola's husband and two sons and Darred's wife and daughter, didn't know what to think. The rest of Maratina's pregnancy was spent with her inside the Palace at all times, under constant supervision.
The annual 'End Year Gala' was occurring at the Theed Royal Palace when Maratina suddenly went into labor. Because of this, the festivity was canceled halfway through and all guests were escorted out of the Palace by security. Sidious, however, cloaked his presence and remained behind.
Once everyone, except the royal family and Sidious, was escorted out of the Palace, midwives were called and Maratina was taken to the Palace's medical center.
Everything went according to plan that night: The presently sixteen-year-old Darth Maul turned off all security cameras and killed the entire Royal Guard in and outside the Palace. Right after Maratina gave birth, after an hour or so of being in labor, Darth Maul, with Sidious in tow, burst into the birthing room and proceeded to kill everyone inside, save the small bundle of child.
Collecting his newborn daughter into his arms, the Sith Lord named her Padme Zandeleigh Naberrie Palpatine Amidala. Since the last names of her parents would remain unknown from the public until the time was right, Amidala would serve as an alias surname. And rather than giving her a Sith title, Sidious decided to let Padme choose one of her own when she became of age.
Uproar and chaos surrounded the assassination the Royal Naberrie House. The press and public wanted all the details surrounding the happenings of the night, but since no survivors were found, save Palpatine, details were scarce and scatchy. Palpatine, meanwhile, had concocted a tale of his own as to how the Royals died.
"Two hooded figures robed entirely in black broke their way into the birthing room and headed for Princess Maratina. The only reason I'd been present was because the Princess asked me to stay. I was just leaving when a security personnel informed me she'd requested I remain and offer her whatever comfort I could since her family had been nothing but cold to her following the scandal. Returning to the assassination, when the figures made towards Maratina, everyone tried their best to stop them from getting anywhere near her. However, the figures blasted them out of their way with what seemed to be a field of Force energy. I tried to stop them myself as well, but tripped over a collapsed body that had been blasted to the floor and knocked my head onto it. I blacked out. When I came to, the figures were gone and everyone in and outside the Palace was dead."
Everyone believed and sympathized with him, especially when he was soon adding how he felt responsible for the deaths because he couldn't stop the unknown figures. The guilt he felt over his survival, yet the Naberrie House's demise was "horrendous".
The prospect of two unknown figures on the loose brought fear to many, while to others, such as the Jedi, curiosity. Palpatine was asked to the Jedi Temple to recount in more vivid detail the events of the night massacre. He did so, making sure to leave out any prospect of the two killers being Sith far from likely. It was not yet time for the Sith to be revealed; much still needed to be done. Seemingly, however, the prospect of the figures being Sith didn't even seem to come to any of the Jedi's minds. A few of their thoughts guessed that maybe the figures were rogue Jedi, like a certain Jedi run a mock named Xanatos, the former Padawan of a Jedi Master named Qui-Gon Jinn. Sidious didn't much care what they thought. They were fools, and their time would eventually come.
The Kingdom of Naboo and Senate were mainly in confusion over the fact that they didn't have a ruler for the planet, as no rightful heirs existed. It was suggested that some of Jobel's non-royal family come and rule, but none of them wanted to. They were too toiled with grief. Jobel's brother, however, finally decided that he and his family could come and rule. And it would have happened too, had they not crashed into an asteroid field on their way and died in the wreckage. Or at least that's what everyone else thought, yet Sidious knew better, for it was he who ordered Darth Maul to blast the late queen's family out of the sky near an asteroid field before it could reach Naboo. He once again used a Sith mind trick on an officer of a New Republic cruiser who claimed to be nearby when the crash happened. Actually he wasn't, but Sidious thought it a good idea to have some witnesses to the supposed crash to stop suspicion from rising.
What came next was the hunting down and eradication of the rest of the extended Naberrie family so no other member could rule, even if they wanted to. This caused even more uproar and chaos. No one knew what was going on or what to do, especially for a ruler of the Mid Rim world. It wasn't until Palpatine suggested that Naboo do as a select few other planets did, electing their own monarchs, that some sort of order came back to the situation.
After a session with Congress, it was decided. The majority of Naboo wanted Palpatine to be their King, however, he humbly and modestly declined, voicing his happiness as a Senator.
A well known political activist and speaker, Ginerva Galamore, was elected as Queen and ruled for a term of four years. Next, in 23 NRE, a mayor-in-training, Phinious Renualtie, whom at the age of thirteen was elected as Naboo's first electoral King, ruled for a full two terms. Finally, in 13 NRE, the 3-term holding Mayor of Deeja Peek, one of the planet's distant cities in the Gallo Mountains, Calvin Cavein, was elected as King, but only ruled two of his four-year term due to the fact that he suddenly and mysteriously died of food poisoning. Sidious, naturally, did the poisoning because he didn't much like Cavein as a ruler. He wanted someone else to rule. Someone who would continue carrying out his plan for the Sith's return to full power.
Over the past fourteen years, besides continuing to train Darth Maul, Sidious had trained his daughter Padme, whom took on the Sith title Darth Lady Baynetta at the age of thirteen out of respect for the legendary Sith Lord Darth Bane, in the ways of the Force. He also had her involved in legislative and senatorial youth and intern programs, which helped mold her into the perfect politician he wanted her to be. No one besides he, Lord Maul, and Padme herself, knew the true identity of Padme Amidala as the rightful heir of the Naboo throne. Everyone simply knew her as a young activist in politics who lived in an elegant mansion in the central district of Theed by herself with only a group of servants and maids for company. It was said she'd lost her parents at a very young age and that they'd left her behind with an adequately large fortune and to be in the care of their servants.
It was around the time after King Cavein's mysterious death that Theed's Mayor, aka Princess, Padme Amidala, ran for the office of electoral monarch. Amidala believed in the freedom and equality of all people and was also a firm believer in democracy. When she ran for office, she was up against two other, much older, and more experienced male politicians, yet this did nothing to damper her demeanor. It was her belief that after ten years of two Kings, it was time a female monarch reclaimed the throne. No one really expected her to be elected since she was only fourteen. They said she didn't have as much experience. Padme, reminding the courts that King Renualtie was elected at the age of thirteen, soon shot down this argument.
"Yes, but he was a young male," one of her fellow nominees' had reminded.
"Are you saying this court is sexist then?" an outraged Padme had bellowed.
Though he and the other court members tried to deny it, it was obvious they were.
But alas to everyone's surprise, Padme Amidala, with the aide of Naboo's long time Senator Palpatine sponsoring her campaign, was elected as the second electoral Queen Monarch of Naboo.
