Chapter Three
Changing of the Guard
The new office of the two Supreme Chancellors was a large, open space, carpeted in the most expensive synthetic materials to be found anywhere in the Core. One wall was made up completely of a large, Alderaanian window, out of which the never-ending, never-sleeping cityscape and liveliness of Coruscant was visible. Two large desks, both carved from a rare hardwood found only on the third moon of the planet Kitruan, stood before the window, their backs to it, so that their occupants might work undistracted by the glorious vista behind them. Lining the room were a collection of broznium statues, all purchased by Hego Damask several standard decades earlier, depicting the Four Sages of Dwartii; Yanjon, Sistros, Braata and Faya, without whom the Republic might never have taken on the form that it now bore.
The form which Damask and Palpatine hoped to tear out by the roots.
Allowing himself respite from the mountain of paperwork which he had already spent over an hour attempting to defeat, Palpatine turned to the large window and watched as the Coruscanti sky turned orange, its star rising into the sky and illuminating the planet below.
"Another day dawns," Palpatine said to himself. He turned his gaze to the gargantuan artifical mountain of the Jedi Temple. The enormous ziggurat structure often occupied Palpatine's thoughts, both because of its status as the headquarters of his most despised enemy, and because of the dark secret that lurked deep beneath its foundations.
Palpatine was jolted from his thoughts by the sound of the communications panel on his desk signalling for his attention. He pressed a small button just below its speaker grill and spoke clearly.
"Yes?"
"Supreme Chancellor," came the cool voice of Sei Taria, the Staff Aide whom Palpatine and Damask had inherited from Valorum, "Jedi Knight Ronhar Kim is here to see you. He does have an appointment -"
"Yes, yes," Palpatine said, sounding cheerful. "Please send him in."
The comm clicked off, and moments later the door to the Chancellors' Suite slid open and a brown-robed Human male with his hair arranged into a top-knot walked into the room. Palpatine left his desk and, ignoring Ronhar's attempt to bow, took the Jedi's hand and shook it vigorously.
"Please leave ceremony at the door, Ronhar," Palpatine said. "For the friendship I bore your father, please feel that you may be informal with me."
Ronhar Kim looked uncomfortable but nodded his head. "I will bear that in mind, Supreme Chancellor."
Palpatine gestured for Ronhar to sit, and unlike Qui-Gon Jinn several weeks earlier, Ronhar accepted the offer. He looked about the room as though searching for something and then said, "Chancellor Damask is running late on his morning commute?"
Palpatine could not help but chuckle. "He is usually here at almost all hours of the day and night," he told Ronhar. "Muuns need very little sleep, after all. But this morning he is attending a breakfast meeting with the Joint-Chairs of the Staffing Committee."
Ronhar let out his breath in a theatrical sigh. "Are they every bit as dull as they sound?"
"Duller," Palpatine replied, and the two men laughed. "But being Supreme Chancellor cannot be all fun and games, just as being a Jedi Knight is not all about going on spectacular adventures and saving the galaxy." Ronhar opened his mouth to respond but Palpatine cut him off. "Shall we take a walk?"
"A walk?" Ronhar said, as though he had never heard of such a thing. "Where to?"
"Just to the other end of the Senate Complex and back again. It's not all that far in the grand scheme of things, perhaps a kilometer and a half, but I like to take my daily exercise that way."
The two of them, followed by two blue-cloaked and helmeted Senate Guards armed with with blaster rifles, exited the luxurious office room, passed by Sei Taria at her desk, and walked out into the corridors that made up the network of walkways and paths connecting the offices of the various Senators and government officials. Palpatine made a point of giving every passerby a polite, sometimes even cheerful, greeting, and wore a smile permanently affixed to his features. It was as easy and natural to him now as was the movement of his chest when he inhaled and exhaled.
"Tell me Ronhar," Palpatine said to the taller Jedi, "how are things within the Jedi Order?"
Ronhar considered his answer for a few moments and then said, "Well, Chancellor, all things being considered." Palpatine waited for him to elaborate. "No doubt you have heard," Ronhar said eventually," of Master Dooku's resignation from the Order."
"I did hear about that, yes," Palpatine answered, sounding grave and concerned. "What does this mean for the Order as a whole, if a Master so prominent as Dooku has decided to walk away from it?"
Ronhar shook his head. "Nothing, I should imagine. Master Dooku was always a little outside the mainstream of the Order."
"Not from what I hear," Palpatine said. It was Ronhar's turn to wait in silence for explanation, and eventually Palpatine supplied it to him. "I heard a rumour that what finally persuaded Master Dooku to leave was the decision to train this young prodigy who saved my homeworld."
"Anakin, you mean?" Ronhar said. "Yes, he disagreed with Master Yoda on that score, as did Master Windu, Master Bulq, Master Billaba and quite a few others. But Master Jinn spoke most persuasively in Anakin's favour, and the Council voted - narrowly, I might add - that he should be given a place in the Order."
"And what are your personal feelings on that?" Palpatine asked, giving Ronhar a considered look. When the Jedi did not answer for some time, Palpatine said, "You may speak plainly, Ronhar. Your words are safe with me, I promise you."
Ronhar sagged a little in his shoulders, and Palpatine could tell that a weight had been taken off the Jedi's mind by his words.
"I think that the boy is too old," Ronhar said, quickly, as though he had been wanting to say this for some time. "He has already formed too many attachments to truly understand the Jedi practice of disassociating ourselves from all things in the mundane galaxy."
"Perfectly natural, surely?" Palpatine said, deciding to prod at the issue a little further. "He is nine years old, it is not his fault that the Jedi do not routinely search Tatooine for potential initiates."
Ronhar seemed to consider Palpatine's words. "You speak truthfully, Chancellor," he said. "But that does not change the fact that that boy is unsuited to the life of a Jedi. He should be sent back to his mother on Tatooine, but the decision has been made and we must now simply accept that."
Palpatine nodded, as though accepting information that was beyond his true comprehension. "I heard from Master Windu," he said, changing the subject, "that you are to take a Padawan of your own."
Ronhar nodded. "I am. I thought it was past time, and Tap-Nar-Pal has the potential to be a fine member of our Order."
"I am glad to hear it," Palpatine said, still smiling. "Please give this young Tap-Nar-Pal my personal well wishes."
Ronhar opened his mouth to speak, but was itnerrupted by the sound of quickly-striding footsteps coming towards them. Palpatine looked up, as did the Jedi, and saw, walking in his direction with great purpose, the Senator from Kuat, Iulus Viento. A Human in his middle years with close marital ties to a Kuati family so old that it preceded the Republic itself, Viento was cut from the same cloth as Palpatine himself was, which only made him all the more deserving of being watched closely. He had, at one point, briefly been considered by Hego Damask to be someone whom the Sith would be able to put into a position of power and manipulate from the shadows, but Palpatine's rise to political prominence had killed the need for any such plan.
Palpatine turned his fixed smile on Viento as the Senator approached him and was about to speak when Viento cut him off before he could utter a word.
"Chancellor, I must speak with you."
"And I am always happy to converse with you, Iulus," Palpatine said. "But as you can see I am already in conversation with Master Kim."
Viento's face contorted for a moment in frustration, but he regained control of himself almost at once. "There is something I must discuss with you urgently Chancellor, please."
Palpatine made a show of relenting on the matter. "Speak, then, Iulus," he said. "What is so important that it could not wait until tomorrow?"
To his credit Viento wasted no time. "The Senate Guards are compromised, Chancellor. I have ... certain contacts who have informed me on good authority that the unit has been infiltrated, and that an attempt on your life is planned. You must relieve the Senate Guard of their duty to protect you at once, and create a new body loyal to yourself and to Chancellor Damask personally."
Palpatine was about to speak in gentle derision of Viento's words, when the Dark Side whispered to him. Viento was right.
From behind him, Palpatine heard the Senate Guards prime their blaster rifles to fire, and at the same instant Ronhar Kim summoned his lightsaber to his hand with the Force, and ignited its blue shimmering blade. Shots were fired, and Palpatine ducked out of their path. But they never reached him, nor flew over his head; Ronhar had caught both blasts on the blue fire of his lightsaber, sending them back at the assassins who had fired them. Palpatine could sense the life leaving one of them already, and the other was injured.
Turning with a look of abject shock and terror on his face, Palpatine saw that Ronhar was bent over the prone form of the assassin who had lived, and was asking him questions in a firm tone.
"Who sent you? Where are they?"
But it was no use. Palpatine, Ronhar and Viento all watched as the assassin merely smiled at them wickedly, and then slumped onto the floor, as dead as his fellow.
"A suicide capsule," Ronhar said. "He must have bitten on it as he fell. Very potent to kill him so quickly. It is almost like ..."
Ronhar trailed off, but Palpatine knew what was on the Jedi's mind.
"Just like the woman who murdered your father," Palpatine said in sympathy. "Perhaps they are from the same organisation?"
Ronhar waved his hand in dismissal of Palpatine's words. "It is a common tactic of assassins who know they cannot escape. It is probably inconsequential."
But the Force will tell you otherwise, Palpatine thought.
The Maladians were behind this. But they never acted without a contract, so who had sent them? And had they targeted Damask as well?
"I think you are right, Iulus," Palpatine said after a long moment of silence. "The Chancellors should be protected from now on by a personal guard."
"Are you sure that they were Maladians?" Plagueis asked him.
"No," Sidious admitted, standing with Plagueis in the main room of the LiMerge Building. "But their method of operation was incredibly similar, and Ronhar Kim certainly seemed to suspect a connection despite what he said to Senator Viento and myself."
Plagueis curled the long fingers of his right hand beneath his masked chin. "Who could have sent them?" he pondered. "It is a surprise that they would seek to kill one Supreme Chancellor and not the other." Sidious tried not to show his true suspicions, but Plagueis guessed anyway. "You think that I sent Maladian assassins after you?" he asked, a note of threat in his voice now that had not been there for some years.
"Only fleetingly," Sidious answered. "And only because I make it a habit to consider every possibility."
Plagueis seeemed more amused at the idea than offended. "If I ever wanted to kill you, Darth Sidious," he said in a tone that Sidious knew to be completely sincere. "I would not need Maladian assassins to do my work for me. Besides," he added, gesturing to the transpirator mask that covered his scarred face, "I have little love for that cult of common murderers."
Sidious said nothing, instead looking out over The Works, drenched in acidic rain and as destitue as any place in the galaxy. The night was ageing rapidly, and he reached out with the Force, trying to sense the being that he and Plagueis were waiting for.
"He is here," Sidious said as a speeder made its solitary way through the night and came to a stop several floors above them. "Shall we make our presence known?"
"We shall."
In unison, the two Sith allowed a tiny measure of their true, dark nature to ripple outward in the Force, and within moments, Dooku stood before them. He was wearing a brown cape, black tunic and trousers, high leather boots, and a lightsaber clipped to his belt. The look of mild surprise that he wore for a split-second on his face indicated that he had not expected to meet with two beings tonight.
"So the animal that Qui-Gon killed was not a Sith?" he said, as though he were merely asking about the weather.
"Not a true Sith, no," Sidious answered. Both he and Plagueis were wearing cowls, and he did not think that Dooku had seen either of their faces yet. "A tool, only."
"Am I now speaking," Dooku continued, "to the two true Lords of the Sith, then?"
"You are," Plagueis replied. "And you ought to consider yourself most fortunate. Many beings have come into our presence and lived far shorter lives."
Dooku bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement. "I do not doubt it," he answered. "May I ask, then, why I was invited here?"
"You were summoned," Sidious said, placing emphasis on the third word in order to correct the former Jedi Master, "because we wish to take your measure."
He brought his electrum-handled lightsaber to his hand, and ignited its crimson blade. Plagueis did likewise, and Dooku, almost reflexively, ignited his own curved-handled weapon, still bearing the green blade of a Jedi.
"Your reputation precedes you, Count," Plagueis said as he and Sidious each flanked Dooku like hunting Nexu. "Let us see how you fare."
Lightsabers clashed. Plagueis attacked first, and then Sidious, both Sith keeping calm expressions on their face and making no noise save the hum and crash of their weapons. Dooku, likewise, fought as if bored, and his mastery of the lightsaber was plain within just moments of their combat.
"We are all highly skilled," Dooku acknowledged. "The Sith have not allowed their swordplay to atrophy, then, even in a thousand years of hiding."
"It is a redundancy," Plagueis admitted. "But we cannot afford any knowledge to be lost."
They clashed again, and this time Dooku was forced to spin his heel as Plagueis and Sidious attacked him from two sides simultaneously. He caught both crimson lightsaber blades on his own, and spun them away from him, causing both Sith Lords to take steps back from him. Sidious summoned lightning from his fingertips, but Dooku was almost casual in his movements as he absorbed the bolts into his green blade.
"I wish to learn all that you have to teach me," Dooku said, even as he positioned himself for another clash of lightsabers. "I have learned all I can of the Light. Now, I wish to know the Dark."
"What we wish and what we receive are often very different," Plagueis said. "But in truth, Count, we have been observing you for some time."
He charged one more time, faster than Sidious had ever seen the old Muun move, and he and Dooku moved almost like a whirlwind, their blades moving and clashing together and breaking apart again that it seemed that they melded into one. Calling on the Force, Sidious took hold of Dooku in a Force Choke that lifted the former Jedi off his feet and caused him to drop his lightsaber to the floor with a clatter.
"Do not forget the opponent not in front of you," Sidious said in faint mockery. "A Master of your reputation should surely know that simple rule of combat."
He released Dooku, who gasped for air and reached for his lightsaber once again. Moving fast, Sidious instead called the lightsaber to his own grip, and examined it.
"A fine make," he said. "The curved handle lends itself well to the practice of Makashi."
"As you have evidenced here tonight," Plagueis said in something like praise. "And, unlike the Jedi, you do not cower from your passions, but allow them to guide your fighting style and direct your actions. There is more than a hint of the Dark Side about you already." Plagueis held his lightsaber to Dooku's throat. "Kneel," he commanded.
Dooku lifted himself from the ground and took a knee before the Sith Master.
"Repeat these words," Sidious said, coming to stand beside Plagueis, his own lightsaber red and shining in his hand. "It is my will to join my destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords."
"It is my will," Dooku said without rancour or resentment, "to jon my destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords."
Beneath his hood, Sidious smiled. "Then it is done," he said. "Stand. The truth of you, now and forever more, will be Darth Tyranus."
There. It is done.
It seemed such a simple thing, now that it was completed. But Dooku's descent into darkness had been long in the coming. Galidraan had been the first blow, followed by Yinchorr, Vosa's fall, and the Council's opposition to his views on the boy Anakin. Dooku - Tyranus, Sidious reminded himself - would be a powerful acolyte indeed.
"Where there were two Sith," Plagueis said, "now we are three. But this is not a partnership of equals, Lord Tyranus."
Tyranus bowed his head in acceptance of Plagueis's words. "I had not expected such, master," he replied.
"You will be the apprentice to both of us," Sidious said. "Both Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious will be your masters in all things, even unto death."
"Might I ask, masters," said Dooku, still managing to sound haughty even as he spoke words of obeisance, "which of you is Lord Plagueis and which Lord Sidious?"
"You may discover more than that," replied Plagueis.
And he lowered his hood.
"I am Darth Plagueis."
Sidious did likewise, showing Tyranus his face.
"And I am Darth Sidious."
"There," said Plagueis, smiling slightly at the look of surprise on Tyranus's features. "Now you know the whole truth of it."
