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A Grand Plan.
The air of the apartment was thick with the smell of cooked flesh circulating in the air in small clouds of smoke, while the Dark Side of the Force was exultant over the triumph as Darth Sidious became the Sith Master now he had slain his own Sith Master, Darth Plagueis. The murder had come after a long time of being apprenticed to the elderly Muun who should have died long ago, but thanks to Plagueis' unnatural and macabre study and manipulation of midichlorians, the old Muun had managed to live for a long time.
Sidious found it ironic, really; his master had spent so long seeking immortality and respite from the fear of death, even learning how to master the prevention of deaths in others, and yet he couldn't stop his own.
No matter.
The Rule of Two continued to live, and the legacy of Darth Bane, the Founder of the new Sith Order was still in effect. It was an excellent occasion since the Sith Lord was well on the way to becoming Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. And yet, a part of Palpatine now regretted in hindsight the murder of his master.
It was strange, he had longed to murder his master for decades and yet now he had done it, he wished he had done it as soon as he had become Chancellor of the Republic. The murder and the crowned title of Sith Master along with the triumph of a Sith Lord becoming Chancellor of the Republic and being in a position to seize control of the galaxy at a much later date, and complete the Grand Plane Bane had initiated following the countless failures in the past of his predecessors to overthrow the Republic, replacing it with a Sith Empire through force before coming up with the reverse idea of using stealth and manipulation to transforming the Republic into a Sith Empire, and destroy the Jedi Order completely in the process, would have been a great occasion to celebrate.
The Sith had been very busy for the last millennia trying to meet those aims, and for the last few decades under the tenure of Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, the Sith plan had been advanced to a very high degree and now Sidious was on his way to becoming the Supreme Chancellor.
Granted, Palpatine knew the Grand Plan was not yet prepared. Plagueis' last contribution to the plan had been the manipulation for the creation of the clone army who would be used to great effect. But the clones would not be ready for a long time, and so he would need to be patient. In that time Sidious would have little trouble, both in his public persona as the humble Palpatine, and his true guise as the Sith Master manipulating events from behind the scenes while he took stock of every event occurring around him to further his own agenda.
For so long Sidious had dreamt of ending the life of his master and becoming the Sith Lord who masterfully manipulated the galaxy like a macabre cross between the reckless thrill of sabaac game mixed with the patient strategic genius of a Derjarik grandmaster, ruling the galaxy openly and discreetly from behind the scenes.
Sidious had been standing over the Sith-lightning cooked form of his intoxicated master - really, if he had known his master's inability to hold his liquor he would have had no problem taking over long ago - for some time, revelling in his victory over Plagueis.
While he was delighted the dark side was now with him completely, Sidious was puzzled as well by another tremor he could hardly identify. It was…a vague awareness of power, a being, greater than himself.
For a moment Palpatine was stunned, and for a fearful moment, he wondered if Plagueis had somehow succeeded in becoming immortal and he had managed to somehow cast off his flesh body, and became one with the Force and was now preparing to blast him with an unprecedented level of Sith Lightning, as revenge for murdering him.
With that in mind, Sidious prepared to defend himself.
After a few moments, Sidious banished the presence away with the sheer force of his control over the Force, but he was still curious about it. For a moment he speculated if it was a ghost of his former master, but while he wished he could be dismissive about it, Sidious still had questions. Plagueis had always been dismissive of Force ghosts, which was likely due to his master's pathological fear of death and everything that came with it, and while Sidious was not a great believer in them either, Palpatine was more open-minded.
And he had a few questions to go with this feeling around him.
Why would he suddenly feel this presence now so soon after he'd killed Plagueis?
Was it Plagueis?
Could it be something else?
For a moment while he considered the problem, Palpatine happened to glance at the wall Chrono, and he pushed aside all thought of what had happened and his puzzlement. He'd worry about what he'd just sensed later, right now he had a galaxy to win. He had much to do, he would need to prepare the necessary steps in order to force through the growing Separatist movement; whatever the outcome with the Naboo crisis which was already spiralling out of his control, the Separatist movement could easily be manipulated. His control over them was absolute. All he needed to maintain order was to kill one of two of the few fools although he tried not to make a habit out of it, and they were under his control. However, Palpatine preferred to use manipulation through word of mouth or through the Force.
Yes, soon the Grand Plan of the Sith would be met and once more their order would rule the galaxy. And then they would have peace overall.