Into the Future: Chapter 2
When Ship finally came out of hyperspace, the world that Palpatine saw in the viewport was a lush, beautiful planet that the Sith Meditation Sphere wasted no time in flying towards. After several minutes, Ship was through the planet's atmosphere and was travelling down to a nearby beach; all the while, Palpatine had time to admire some vast mountains that stood out as gargantuan landmarks that dwarfed what had to be a city miles away.
Upon landing, as Palpatine stood up from his spot, the Meditation Sphere unfurled a landing ramp for the young man to disembark from. When he was at the threshold, he saw a fair-skinned female human in black clothes wielding a glassy knife and a red lightsaber. With her was a purple-skinned male, dressed in similar attire and holding pretty much the same weapons. It seemed to Palpatine that his and Ship's arrival had interrupted whatever confrontation was going on here.
"Who are you?" the female asked Palpatine after a moment.
"My name is Palpatine," the young man answered. "And I have come here to lead the Sith." He said that last part with more confidence than he really felt at the time.
"Oh? Is that so?" the purple-skinned male asked sarcastically. "And what makes you qualified over the wise elders, our Circle of Lords, who currently rule the Lost Tribe of Kesh?"
During the trip to hyperspace, Ship offered Palpatine nothing as to the destination of this planet; he wondered why Ship kept this place such a grand mystery prior to arrival, but he figured that if it wouldn't give him answers, there had to be a reason he couldn't fathom. "The sentient spaceship behind me said I was qualified," Palpatine said sardonically, nodding his head back to Ship.
"Sentient spaceship?" the female asked. "Do tell."
Palpatine briefly explained from the point of his literal dream of ruling the galaxy to ending up here. When he was done, the female said, "If that's the case, then we must take you and this vessel–What do you call it, by the way?"
"It is a Sith Meditation Sphere," Palpatine stated. "But it likes to be called Ship."
The Sith teens before Palpatine raised their eyebrows. "What an apt name," the girl remarked.
"At least it's simple," the purple-skinned boy replied.
"Anyway, we must take you and Ship back with us to Tahv–" the female indicated the city off in the distance "–where you'll be briefed by the Circle of Lords, Palpatine. So if you'll us to board?"
"After you then," Palpatine said politely as he waved the teens in. They holstered their weapons, with the crimson blades of their laser swords disappearing into the hilts, as Palpatine observed.
Once all three of them were aboard, Ship furled the ramp back up and sealed it back in place as natural part of its hull. Palpatine's accomplices noticed the lack of chairs, so he waved them forward to kneel with him. Vestara knelt at Palpatine's right while Ahri knelt at his left. When they were all comfortable in their positions, Ship lifted off and headed over to the city of Tahv.
"By the way, my name is Vestara Khai," the female said, shaking Palpatine's head. He nodded in acknowledgement.
"Ahri Raas," the purple-skinned male introduced himself, also shaking Palpatine's hand when he was done with Vestara.
"So what were you two doing alone on that beach?" Palpatine inquired.
"Sparring," Vestara answered. "Normally, we'd usually spar in the training camp in Tahv, but we received permission from our Masters to spar in private."
"We proved ourselves to be exceptional enough students to be allowed such a commodity," Ahri elaborated.
"I see," Palpatine nodded in understanding. "You know, those are interesting weapons. What are they called?" He indicated their deactivated laser swords at their belts.
Both Vestara and Ahri gave Palpatine a shared look of incredulity. He looked back to each of them with a look of curiosity and repressed anger over the fact that they were looking at him like that. "What?" he ultimately asked between his teeth.
"Palpatine, if you're to become the 'leader of the Sith,' as you oh-so proclaimed, you're going to have to learn quite a bit about us," Vestara said.
In time, he will, Tyro Khai, the voice of Ship telepathically communicated to the young woman. The latter reacted in abject terror.
"Who said that?" she asked in a panic.
"Vestara, what's wrong?" Ahri asked in worry.
Palpatine grinned in a feeling of satisfaction. Ahri noted this, and his expression changed from that of fear to anger. "What are you smirking at?" the purple-skinned male growled.
"She merely heard the voice of Ship, Ahri," Palpatine said neutrally, but he didn't lose his smirk.
"And how is that amusing?" Ahri asked, his tone of contempt not letting up.
It is amusing to him because you and Tyro Khai underestimate him, Tyro Raas, Ship's voice said to Ahri. And believe me, Palpatine is not one to be underestimated.
As Ship appeared in the sky over Tahv, a large crowd gathered around it in curiosity as it began landing in the center of the city square.
Vestara and Ahri were the first to disembark. Individuals in the crowd broke away in order to ask the teens some questions about the vessel they just came out of. Then the crowd's attention generally shifted over to Palpatine as he disembarked. They began asking him some pretty obvious questions, such as, Who are you?, What are you doing here?, and, What is that ship that you came from?
A few moments of this passed before the crowd was abruptly silenced and parted before a band of white- and purple-skinned individuals dressed in dark robes. They completely ignored Vestara and Ahri and went straight to Palpatine. Their leader, an old purple-skinned male, made himself the most noticeable to their latest arrival.
"I sense the dark side in you, young man," the old man said evenly. "You are powerful in it. Extremely powerful, at that. The energy I sense in you is raw, unbridled, untamed. If you were to receive any proper training as a Sith, you could be one of the most powerful High Lords of the Sith; it may even be likely that you would more than fill my shoes as successor to the title of Grand Lord."
A silent moment passed before Palpatine broke it up with, "But?"
"Quite frankly, I'm not quite sure if we should train you," the old man said. "After all, you are very much a young adult, and we begin training our students right from the point they become toddlers. It would be quite embarrassing for you to begin your training at, how old are you?"
"Seventeen, sir," Palpatine stated.
"Seventeen years old, yes," the old man said. "It would be quite embarrassing for you to begin your training at such an age when your peers are just getting out of diapers."
"At least I'm not at the point in my life when I need diapers once again," Palpatine remarked scornfully at the old man.
"How dare you!" another purple-skinned man, of middle age this time, exclaimed from the group that the old man led. "You are not to disrespect our Grand Lord Vol! You deserve the strictest punishment for your insolence just short of death itself!"
"Silence, High Lord Taalon," Grand Lord Vol waved. The, turning his attention back to Palpatine, he said, "Well, it seems as if you have quite the mouth on you. High Lord Taalon is right, you do deserve a discipline that will make sure that you will never forget your place here; that is, if I accept you as an apprentice of the Sith, of course."
"And what will that take then?" Palpatine asked sternly.
Suddenly, Palpatine found himself caught in the grip of an invisible force–which had to be the Force, no doubt–that pinned him right to Ship's hull behind him. He struggled vainly out of Vol's grip as the Grand Lord said, "Respect to your elders, as a start. Along with a willingness to accept discipline, without question, whenever your superiors deem necessary. Is that understood?"
Palpatine didn't answer. He just continued struggling against Vol's Force grip.
"It seems as if you lack both of those traits," Vol said. "Well, in that case, I'm not sure why I should accept you rather than kill you right now." With that, the grip that Palpatine felt around his torso tightened significantly until he was gasping for air.
But then Palpatine reached out with one hand, and Vol suddenly flew backwards. The Grand Lord of the Sith yelped in surprise as he crashed into his band of High Lords behind him. At the same time, Palpatine dropped back to the ground in a crouch, breathing heavy, as the crowd around him gasped in shock at what he had just done to their leader.
Vol's High Lords helped him up to his feet while Palpatine was alone in doing so for himself.
"I will admit, that was impressive," Vol said. "Not even any of the treacherous High Lords who tried to usurp me in all my years as Grand Lord was able to do that to me while I was crushing the air from their lungs. You are doubly strong in the Force, there is no doubt about that. But I still can't accept you as one of our own."
"You say that as if you had any say in the matter, Vol," Palpatine said.
Everyone in the crowd gave the young man an incredulous look, including Vol. "And why do I not have a say in the matter?"
"Because I can do this," Palpatine said as he raised up a hand and snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, Vol, his eyes fluttering closed, collapsed to the ground. His High Lords gathered around him, and one of them, Taalon, bent down to check his pulse. He looked back up to Palpatine. "He's dead. You killed him," he said enviously.
"That's right," Palpatine replied maliciously. "And I can do the same to all of you–everyone in this entire crowd–if you don't accept me as your leader."
Taalon scoffed, though it didn't detract from the hatred he felt for Palpatine for killing Vol. "You, as our leader? I think not. You don't even have any proper training or knowledge of the Sith!"
"So what?" Palpatine asked in scorn. "I can learn on the job."
Taalon's eyes widened at Palpatine's insolence. "Well, let's just see if you're powerful enough to defend yourself from the attacks of more than just a Grand Lord!" With that, Taalon and the other High Lords lifted up their hands to attack Palpatine with the Force.
But the young man was ready. He lifted up his own arms to create an impenetrable Force bubble from which none of the attacks could get through. The High Lords then tried Force lightning, but it didn't even faze the bubble.
So they tried one last resort. They then took out their shikkars and lightsabers–their glass knives and laser swords, as Vestara told Palpatine upon Ship's landing in the city square–and charged. At that, Palpatine dropped his Force bubble but still used his power to simply shove the shining blades against their users, dissecting all of them into various pieces as they fell dead to the ground much to the horror of the amassed crowd.
Palpatine had just massacred the Lost Tribe's entire leadership with just a mere thought. How could anyone possibly stand up to him?
"B-b-but you don't even have any training!" Vestara exclaimed from the crowd. "You barely have any knowledge of our way of life! How is this possible?"
"It's possible because," Palpatine began, "I simply put my mind to it; all I had to do was acknowledge, and then use it to its advantage; something that none of you, in your dogmatic, narrow-minded ways, could ever hope to do."
Ahri then jumped from the crowd, taking out his shikkar but leaving his lightsaber hilted on account of what just happened to the High Lords. But that and his ferocious battle cry didn't even slightly startle Palpatine as he decided to meet Ahri head-on, parrying the blade with the edge of his hand and then using his free fist to punch Ahri straight in the throat. The purple-skinned young man fell to the ground dead in an instant.
"Ahri, no!" Vestara exclaimed, rushing for what Palpatine assumed to be her now-late lover. She embraced his corpse, crying into it before looking up in absolute hatred at the man who killed Ahri. But she didn't make a move; at this point, it wouldn't do any good to join Ahri in death.
"I am also far too powerful to allow any lack of training to hinder my abilities," he said.
~o~
On the surface, Darth Plagueis the Immortal sat patiently in the passenger cabin of his Sienar/Nome Transport Freighter. But deep down, he was anxious to finally rid himself and the rest of the galaxy of the power that threatened his own.
As the freighter travelled through hyperspace, headed for Naboo, where he felt the source of this power, his thoughts always led him back to the same place; what would happen when he finally confronted this presence? He initially believed that he could take on such a challenge; but now, as he felt himself getting closer to this presence from all the millions of miles that the freighter zipped through via hyperspace, he was beginning to doubt himself.
The question that plagued him throughout his musings the entire time was this: Would Darth Plagueis the Immortal finally have his mortality proven.
He hoped not. He desperately hoped not.