Chapter Nine: True Forms
As Palpatine sat in a hidden room on his private transport, the occulted Sith meditated on what had happened to get him to this position of rage and to forge the sea of rage unleashed by such humiliation back into a containable singularity within the recesses of his mind.
Palpatine growled as he slowly rose to his feet. His calm demeanor as the Chancellor was in tatters right now. He could feel his rage and frustration at being thrown down so easily. I can't let thousands of years of careful planning be undone by some mindless reptilians! Palpatine stood, straightened his robes, and took a breath to contain his rage for now. I won't!
Just before she came in, Palpatine felt an aid approach his door. "Excuse me, Excellency," The woman said through the door with a nervous tone. "Are you alright?"
"Come in, Camila." The man said with a kind look towards the door.
Once she came in, Palpatine put on a weary face. He managed a tired sigh and looked at the Alderanian woman half his age with a grandfatherly expression. "I'm fine, my dear." The man shook his head. "I just received some troubling news about Kamino." Palpatine watched with hidden satisfaction as the color drained from Camila's face. "Would you please prepare my transport? I must go to Kamino myself to insure the safety of our troops."
The aid bowed and hurried off to carry out the request of her boss. I feel bad for the man. Camila thought with a sad shake of her head before she informed the necessary people of the Chancellor's departure plans. He's kept The Republic together through this whole war, and there are still those who hate him. Such is politics unfortunately.
As Palpatine opened his eyes, they glowed with harsh, tainted golden power for a moment. Then, the eyes gradually cooled to grey-blue. A faint twisted smile pulled at Palpatine's lips as he thought of his weak-minded aid. When I become emperor, Camila shall be the first to attend my bedchamber. Palpatine's lusts became overshadowed with blistering hate. First, I must kill those who threaten my rule!
With these thoughts driving him, the Chancellor disembarked as rain pelted the platform outside Topoka City. Palpatine could feel the powerful rage of another just inside as small whispers of panic and fear surrounded the foreign source of wrath. I don't understand. Palpatine thought as he walked ever closer to the doors. The rage should be all-consuming if it's this powerful. Palpatine shook his head in visible confusion as he moved to enter the facility. Instead, it's measured and focused.
Meanwhile in one of the many labs within the city, Anakin and Ahsoka could find no way to disengage the chips in a failsafe switch of some kind. The blistering white rooms and control decks had no such "switch" or command.
Anakin began to pace and shake his head in aggravation. He had a leash on his anger as he learned to master during his and Ahsoka's brief stay on Tython, but his natural lean toward the Bogan in his blood as a Darith hybrid made such a task taxing to maintain.
Ahsoka gently brushed his mind with her own and felt her young Skyguy relax at the contact. "The Force surrounds us, Anakin." The Togruta reminded him. "We don't need a physical switch." She smiled and gently touched his scaly face, drawn in by Anakin's blue eyes like always. "You just need to calm your mind and will yourself to connect with every clone in the galaxy."
Anakin scoffed. "No pressure…."
Ahsoka smirked right back. "Who tamed embodiments of the Ashla and Bogan by himself?"
Anakin looked back at Ahsoka as the last of his doubt fled with a look into her steady gaze. "If anything tries to stop us…"
"….it's as good as a clanker: nothing but scrap."
Anakin nodded and sealed himself in a batch control center and began to meditate with his Fulcrum firmly behind him, both figuratively and literally. Meditation came to Anakin much easier than any other time he attempted it while he trained with Obi-Wan. Anakin smiled as he remembered his teacher's instructions on the subject.
A Jedi can feel The Force flowing through him. Obi-Wan's words echoed softly in Anakin's mind. Concentrate.
The last word made Anakin growl in distaste. He could almost feel his ancestors cringe at the demand and rather let The Force flow where it will. First, Anakin felt his mind glide to Mandolore and gently push his way into the 212th Clone Attack Battalion. Anakin felt their rumors about the general and a certain Mandolorian of Clan Kryzes. The young Darith hybrid couldn't help a quiet chuckle as he focused on and disconnected the chips in the unit without any pushback or even awareness from the clones.
For much of the time, the process rolled through Anakin as easily as water through a riverbed. Anakin felt more relief swell in him as more clones became unbound in the chips.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka felt a presence serge and approach the door. With her blade at the ready, the young Force-wielder felt tension rise in her body. Had she still been with the Jedi Order, Ahsoka knew she would be terrified in facing the Sith Lord as he walked into the room after he gave a faux reaction of shock in the presence of the Kaminoians to keep up his appearance as the benevolent Chancellor.
"Why are you tampering with the Grand Army of the Republic?"
Ahsoka glared at him and simply rested a hand on each of her sabers. The young Togruta was no longer an unlearned and sheltered Jedi puppet for Palpatine to control. In that regard, Ahsoka only continued to stare down the puppeteer.
The man took on a look of sadness. "You were such a shimmering star to your men, child." Palpatine told her as he tried to stoke her ego. "Why did you leave your men behind?"
Ahsoka twitched toward her sabers. However she still remained stoic to an outsider. "I didn't leave anyone behind, Excellency." Ahsoka countered. "I simply saw the Jedi for the hypocrites they are and followed a new path." An interesting moment happened as Ahsoka continued to stall for her Mate. When Anakin passed over the 501st, the last clones in the galaxy to be freed from the chips, he felt a small prick once he passed through Rex's mind. The stone in the river of the Force made Anakin stop for a moment and retreat back toward Rex's consciousness. What is that?
General…
The quiet response reminded Anakin of a youngling in the Jedi Temple. To keep Rex focused on the battle rather than himself, Anakin quickly moved on to return back to his body without any more attention on the situation for the present moment.
"Yes," Palpatine's voice oiled out as if he struck a mine of cortosis in that moment. "You are very close to your master. Aren't you, young one?"
Instead of rising to the bait, Ahsoka turned the question on him. "I am close to Anakin, but such is the way of all sentient beings." She said with noticeable conviction before her voice leveled out. "Without connections, we are worse than droids because even droids can form connections with others given enough time." Ahsoka sighed in disappointment. "Jedi are so terrified of the power within themselves that they encourage mechanical living and give themselves to be slaves to directives and programming, much like clones." Ahsoka punctuated her words with a gesture towards the cloning vats on the floor below them. "What do you hope to gain by coming here, Chancellor?"
Palpatine walked over to Ahsoka with a slow shake of his head. "Anakin has corrupted and led you away with the ways taught by these strangers he himself honestly knows little about." The disguised Sith Lord challenged. "How do you know his teaching isn't going to destroy you one day, Miss Tano?"
Ahsoka could feel his anticipation, his glee as the politician talked with her. "What can you hope to teach me, Chancellor?" She asked honestly. "Do you know anything of The Force, or do you simply whimper and cower behind a propped up reputation built with the hard work of others as you coast on the currents of those before you without adding any knowledge or power of your own?" Ahsoka fought a smirk as she felt Palpatine's anger begin to boil and writhe within him. Who knew Sith were so easy to anger?
The familiar voice of Anakin's father laughed as he entered Ahsoka's mind to watch the show from a better view than Yggdrasil could offer. Sith are always so prideful. The Darith sighed. Easy to taunt, easy to trick, the Sith now reveals his fatal flaw: Hubris.
"I have more power than any Jedi." Palpatine growled. "Even if you stop this plan, I have more, you pathetic creature!" Without warning, Palpatine unleashed a blast of Sith Lightning.
A twinge of encouragement from The Force coaxed Ahsoka to simply hold a hand up and intercept it. As she did, Ahsoka closed her eyes and calmly released the anger and rage which spawned the lightning back into the Cosmic Force with no visible strain. Ahsoka felt the rage continue to burn as the currents of energy increased in intensity, fueled by the fury of being held at bay by nothing but a child.
Rather than taunt as she almost certainly knew Anakin's Darith instincts would urge him, Ahsoka waited until Palpatine exhausted himself with his blind rage. Once Palpatine drained himself near the point of collapse to overpower the student of The Darith Way, Ahsoka frowned and shook her head sadly as she looked up at the frankly pathetic man who still clung desperately to his vision of absolute power and control. "The power you have to teach me, I don't want." Ahsoka shivered as she probed the mind of the man before her. For all his boasts and claims to power, Nicholai is right. He's an angry child with a blaster and a desire to control the galaxy or watch it burn if he can't win. "I have more skilled teachers in Anakin and his father."
Palpatine looked at Ahsoka in shock for a moment. What? The Sith Lord thought. How can these beasts be more powerful than me?! "I SHALL NOT BE DENIED!" Palpatine roared and summoned his sabers. "You will die, you miserable child!"
Anakin rushed out to save his love once the threat reached his ears. "I think you're mistaken, my lord." Anakin mocked. "She won't die today!"
Ahsoka looked back and held out her hand. She blocked Sidious' blade with her own while her free hand generated a wall in The Force to keep Anakin away. "Sorry, Anakin." Ahsoka whispered. "You're too important to me."
Damn it, Ahsoka! Anakin growled mentally. You can't beat him on your own! Even with my dad's lessons, you still have too much to learn!
The Togruta's canines lengthened of their own accord as the student stared back at the man who would kill Her Anakin without a second thought. Then, Ahsoka looked in The Sith's eyes as her own began to circle with arcs of violet power. With a powerful strike to break blade lock, Ahsoka began her battery of strikes. Sidious could barely counter each strike, but the Sith Lord's anger and will to not be broken by a child allowed him to match her speed and power for the moment.
As the duel wore on, Ahsoka could feel the Bogan swirl around Palpatine.
I can't beat him definitively on my own. Ahsoka thought with a frown. So long as he can draw on The Bogan, the Sith won't go down!
That's what I tried to tell you, Snips!
Ahsoka winced and began to lose her concentration as burning pain ripped through her neck. Unknown to her, the Mark on her neck began to burn Sith red. Ahsoka's eyes flickered as her power began to wane, thrown into a dangerous imbalance by the surge of rage at Palpatine's threat directed towards Anakin in the cruel aura around the man. You want to turn him? Ahsoka growled as her mind blew past the defenses in Palpatine's mind. YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM! Blood dripped from Ahsoka's eyes and nose as she stood with her glare fixed on Palpatine. Ahsoka reached for the core of the Bogan in Palpatine's Force Signature with the intent to rip The Force from him. She never made it to that goal and sank unconscious to the floor with a wet TWACK! moments before she could get deep enough to render the Sith a harmless but still corrupt politician.
Anakin shivered as he felt part of his Bond to Ahsoka go numb before she dueled Palpatine. This isn't good. Anakin thought as fear threatened to take him. I have to do something; I have to save her!
Calm yourself, Ani. The young hybrid's Mom spoke in his mind. Panic will only draw you into the Dartha's manipulation.
Anakin nodded as tears slid down his cheeks and willed himself to begin meditating. The duel became distant and removed from him as Anakin centered himself. In The Force, Anakin could feel something changing within Ahsoka. The Old Ones far beyond Anakin's own time once said our this change, "No Mate was worthy of their Desired One unless they could fight with them to a draw." Anakin could feel The Bogan building in Ahsoka and reached out to help her restrain it. Anakin felt Ahsoka dive head first to permanently stop Palpatine and cursed. He couldn't reach her mind to stop his Mate before Palpatine lashed out and struck Ahsoka with a typhoon of power.
When Ahsoka hit the floor, Anakin didn't lash out as he had with the Tusken Raiders. The young Dragon didn't rush in and get blasted like he did when he and Obi-Wan faced Dooku. Rather, Anakin began to skirt protectively around Ahsoka. The Force-Wielder's eyes went from blue to blood red. Anakin then went to all fours and grew to block Ahsoka completely with his body, his Darith heritage on full display with wings flared out in a threat pose and challenge to Palpatine. Anakin closed his eyes with a hint of reluctance behind them, drew his head back, and unleashed a blast of fire. Palpatine raised his hands to protect himself from the searing flame and kept himself from being burnt to a crisp. Due to the close range and Palpatine's delayed reaction from exhaustion, the attempt at protection with The Force only partly succeeded. Sith hands smelled of seared flesh as Palpatine yelled in agony.
Chaos, what was that?! Palpatine cried mentally as he drew in on himself in fear. No Sith has that power! The Sith's face twisted from pain to a voracious hunger. I must have it!
In rough Basic due to his changed form having difficulty with Human speech, Anakin spoke with rough and deadly tones. "I seared your connection to The Force with my fire, monster!"
Palpatine grit his teeth and reached out with The Force to choke Anakin. As the power rolled through the Sith Lord, he smirked. The evil smile turned to abject horror and pain when the feeling of power tried to go into the chancellor's hands. "AAAAAHHHHGGGGHHHH!" With that undignified cry, the unknown scourge of The Galaxy collapsed, out cold.
Anakin immediately turned his attention to Ahsoka and knelt by her in , Anakin brushed her head between her horns and felt a moment of relief roll through his body. Thank The Sisters. Anakin gently guided her back to consciousness. It was only surface corruption. Anakin felt a deeper sense of peace when Ahsoka's half of their Bond came back to his mind. The last of Anakin's fear and hiss grossing happiness melted together to bone released in a single tear as the Darith hybrid pulled Ahsoka into a tight embrace.
"A-Anakin?" Ahsoka's weak voice brought Anakin's head up to look in Ahsoka's tired but lively blue eyes. "Wh-What happened?"
Anakin kissed her softly and drew away after a long moment to assure be I dead kissing Ahsoka. "You still has enough much to learn, Snips." Anakin stood slowly. His gaze lingered on Ahsoka before he drifted to Palpatine. "We need to go back to The Temple."
Ahsoka felt Anakin's unease with going back to a place so toxically flooded with The Ashla. She squeezed his hand and passed a soothing peace over their Bond. "I'm always with you, Anakin." The Togruta promised. "I'll keep you safe."
With a final squeeze of his Mate's hand, Anakin nodded, pulled Sidious' cloak over him to make a makeshift bag, and hefted the Sith Lord over his shoulder like a sack of vegetables. Then, together, the pair headed back to the Aether with their minds busy of how to explain this to The Jedi Council.
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