Wednesdays child is full of woe,
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Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends, rather learn to use enemies. ~ The Forty Eight Laws of Power
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…to teach him. His master had many ways to drive home a point, most of them painful. Sometimes he told stories to teach a lesson. The one Sidious remembered clearest and considered the most relevant was not about the Sith of old, nor about the Jedi. It was about two force-blind men, one powerful and cunning, the other foolish and ambitious.
~~~In ancient times, on some unnamed planet, there was a powerful, cruel king. Dionysius had all a wealthy, mighty ruler could have: luxury beyond imagining, power unequaled. Naturally he was surrounded by flatterers and grasping power-seekers of all types. One particularly outrageous man was named Damocles. One day Damocles exaggerated to the point of lunacy, proclaiming at the end that no man could be more blessed than he who spent even one day on Dionysius' throne. Dionysius, with all appearance of indulgence, offered Damocles his fondest dream. For one day he could sit on the throne.
~~~Sycophant Damocles accepted the offer eagerly and showed up the next morning at the palace. He was immediately escorted inside, dressed in opulent robes, and brought to the throne. Rich food was laid before him and servants stood about to attend to his every whim. Damocles was overwhelmed and barely knew what to do. He indulged himself in every way as Dionysius stood nearby, watching and encouraging him. He grew more and more arrogant as the day continued and nothing was denied to him. Then he glanced up and paled.
~~~Over his head hung a blade on a single thread.
~~~Letting loose a cry he tried to rise, terrified, but Dionysius stopped him; the agreement was to sit on the throne for the whole day. As long as Damocles sat on the throne he could do as he wished, but the minute he left his power he was at the mercy of those he once lorded over. Soldiers entered the room and Damocles begged to know the reason for the blade. Dionysius replied that he wished for power and was granted it, and all that came with it. The frightened courtier pleaded and cried until Dionysius took pity and dismissed him. Damocles returned to his home wiser than when he left.
After he finished Palgous did not bother to explain what it meant. He never explained his stories, using them instead as another test, another way to see if Palpatine was worthy of being a Sith. Sidious felt (and therefore knew) the Sith Master had at least one apprentice before him who, well, had not lived up to his potential. He would not meet the same fate.
The meaning here was clear enough. Those in power are always in danger. So use it against them and be careful.
In the current universe the Jedi had power while the Sith could only hide. But power was a double-edged (ha!) blade. With this power they chose to take on responsibilities. Their responsibilities grew with their power. So give them more responsibilities than they could handle. Either they would not have enough power or else gain it and appear as tyrants. They depended too much on power from the people rather than from the Force. (And used the weaker side though that was neither here nor there.) The people as a whole had power that by its very nature they could not keep, but only choose whom to entrust it too. People can be led. Those that give can often take back. Remember the mistakes of your predecessors padwan, make sure you can keep what you are given. And they will give, have no fear. So long as you promise and they trust they will give and give and give until they have nothing left. And they will thank you for it.
Obviously he would be in as much if not more danger as Sith Master someday. He would not only constantly contend with his enemies and ambitious allies, no. He would also train an apprentice, give him or her shears, and then spend the rest of his masterhood blocking his/her attempts to cut the thread while teaching a better way. How… interesting.
Now though, he looked at his master and smiled. He could almost see the blade poised above him.
In his chambers, years later, the Sith Master slept peacefully and without thought of power, ambition, or betrayal as his apprentice crept in.
Snip.
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Often times when Anakin visited Palpatine told him stories, slowly luring him. The Blade of Damocles though, that one was special. He did not want to pour it into his ears like so much water. The others were water, a hundred little streams making a river that would slowly reshape a rock. This was different. This was wine. He carefully laid the foundations, planned the date based on the boy's lessons, insured the senate reflected what he wanted it to, poured a cup of his favorite tea. Then he told the story carefully, each practiced nuance perfect.
Lapsing into bad habits, the young Jedi picked at the couch as he thought. The older Sith waited, watched every flicker in the boy's eye, all his nerves strained, fully invested in the child before him. Then Anakin's face turned determined.
"As a citizen of the Republic and as a Jedi I promise you don't have to worry about me. I'll never betray you Chancellor, don't worry."
There was never a time in his life that Sideous came so close to screaming incoherently.
Instead though, he managed to keep his calm, smiled, thanked Anakin, and seriously considered changing plans and looking for a different apprentice. But the boy was so strong. He comforted himself. Skywalker was a Jedi still, later, as a Sith, surely he would understand. So really, the Emperor reflected, sourly considering Vader, he had been forewarned and had no one but himself to blame.
Oh the younger Sith hated him and would kill him if given the opportunity, but he didn't know how to do so. He trained Starkiller, but did not insure he had strong allies nor use his enemies against each other. He acted like an akk dog that growled and snapped rather than a nexu that carefully stalked its prey. Sidious had power, an incredible amount of power. Vader never used that power, the inherent danger of having power, against him.
No Vader just didn't understand. He thought that if he had power, he would be safe and the more he had the safer he would be. He still thought like a slave, watching his peers hurt while the masters went unharmed. He looked at Sidious, saw the older man had more power, and then was obedient while trying to gain more for himself. Vader thought when he was more powerful than the other man he would triumph, not remembering the Jedi started stronger and more numerous than the Sith, or at least failing to absorb the lesson.
It's not like Sidious didn't try to do his duty as Sith Master. How many times had he played Vader and Xizor off each other? Or even Vader against other "flavors of the month"? Yet his apprentice always dismissed the "political games," exasperated. He tried to surround the younger Sith with ambitious, grasping, officers with the competent ones. Instead of cleverly putting them in their place he bulldozed over them. Never mind that they were from powerful families that had long memories and with whom he would have to work as Emperor else have every third planet rebelling. As the fist of the Empire Vader was excellent, but if that was all Palpatine wanted he would have kept Grievous around. Thirty years…
Sidious was beyond frustrated. Nothing he did worked.
Obedience was all well and good, but what he craved was ambition. He wanted Vader to be like Anakin, yanking at the leash, always ready to snap it. He needed a trigger. Vader may not be politically savvy, but could more than make up for it in sheer raw cunning and a streak of ruthlessness that made even Sidious shiver in ecstasy. If he was motivated. When he was on fire he burned hotter than a star. Now Vader was like a bed of hot coals, full of potential but not blazing.
Lord Sidious needed something to make Vader burn again.
Anakin was not turned though soft promises, but passionate decisions. The stories helped, but it was his wife's death that brought him to his knees. There were times when the Emperor almost wished Amidala were still alive. She was, unfortunately, a woman of principle, but was artful enough on the political stage. Lady Vader was not an ambitious woman, not one who craved power. But she knew how to wield it. Whatever her opinions on the Empire she would not have sat back and done nothing if she believed she could help. He could have insured that there was no way to return to democracy, that the Sith Empire would continue. Then convince her through news reports and proxies that she would make a better Empress than he Emperor. Her husband would not deny her and she understood power. Amidala would have been tricky, dangerous to deal with. But he was not a Sith Master for nothing.
The blasted girl died though and didn't even have the courtesy to leave behind a child he could use. He needed something drastic, someone special…
Isard's spies hurriedly sought the pilot who out flew his apprentice until finally, four months after the destruction of the Death Star, one brought back a name. When the Emperor heard of Luke Skywalker for the first time, he did not fly into a rage. Rather he felt excited because now, finally, things were becoming interesting again. Vader had not heard yet, but when he did he would begin to move. Would his apprentice hate him for what he was told of his wife's death? How would he try to claim his child? Would Vader be like Anakin, bold and open, or had he learned subtly? How tight were his feelings for his son? How willing would the young rebel be to follow his infamous father?
Options, opportunities, spun through his mind so quickly he could barely keep tack of them. Should he move toward the child first, capture him, learn what he knew, then either use him as a tool to strike down Vader or a means of manipulating the other Sith? Or should he let Vader act then slip the boy away as he took Anakin from the Jedi? Things were changing, he felt alive again as he had not since the end of the Republic. Dueling with the Jedi, the smallest misstep could spell disaster. With his apprentice's refusal to replace their threat level, things had become boring, but now… It was subtle perhaps, but the universe was not the same. It was his political experience that allowed him to project future courses, that told him that things were shifting beneath the surface. As always though, it was the Force that told him everything he needed to know.
Nebezpečí, veszély, baol, danger, gevaar, opasnost, danje, gefahr, bahaya. There were many words in many languages that could be applied, but were rendered unnecessary. For when the name "Luke Skywalker" brushed his ears all he heard was snip.