Part Two: Revelation
The Dark Side stirred. They were near.
Palpatine returned to his usual state of mind, placing the shroud of the Dark Side around him, but not releasing his power. Everything was calm on the outside—nothing out of the ordinary.
Within him, the Dark Side burned, waiting to be unleashed.
The door hissed open, and Palpatine took in a breath. This was it. The time had come.
He turned his chair slowly to face the doorway.
Four Jedi stood there. On the left; Master Saesee Tin, his horn healed and regrown. Beside him, Agen Kolar. On the far right; Kit Fisto, hero of Geonosis and a legendary fighter.
But the one that drew him the most was the tall, dark man in the center.
Master Mace Windu, most powerful of all of the Jedi.
"Ah," Palpatine said, smiling welcomingly. "Master Windu. I take it General Grievous has been destroyed then."
He looked at the man's face; it was hard, like a durasteel carving. So there was no guesswork. The boy had indeed told them. And been left behind; how much did the Master know?
"I must say, you're here sooner than I expected."
The line was a last test, but clearly, the Jedi did not believe a word of it.
"In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic," Mace Windu said loudly, his lightsaber coming into his right hand. A moment later, the blade hissed into life.
"You are under arrest, Chancellor."
His blade hummed menacingly, violet and menacing. Two beams of green and a single flame of blue appeared around him.
They were not taking chances.
Anger filled Palpatine at this declaration—who were they to speak in the name of the Senate?
"Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?" Palpatine growled through clenched teeth.
"The Senate will decide your fate," Windu replied, not moving.
Again, the reference to the Senate. Anger filled Palpatine, so that he almost lost control…but he released it in a swift retort.
"I am the Senate!" he spat.
"Not yet!"
So calm, yet so hard. It filled Palpatine with anger…but also set in another emotion.
Fear?
Palpatine stood, forcing the fear down, letting the hate flow through him. His hatred at the man before him, talking so brazenly, so confidently. Hatred at the other three, for witnessing this confrontation between the ruler of the Sith and the leader of the Jedi. Hatred at all of the Jedi for what they had done to the Sith.
The Dark Side whispered for a moment, brushing against his arm…
And in that brush, sending Bane into his hand.
"It's treason, then."
Three words. The challenge, the declaration, the final words before the power was released.
His thumb touched the button upon Bane.
And a blade of bloody fire ran from the weapon, an extension of his wrath.
Bane's Fire.
The blade of the Sith. Named for the one who had preserved the Order—the first Dark Lord. A memory of the one who had formed the Sith that ruled today. This lightsaber had been hand-formed by Darth Bane himself. It would always pass to the master. Only once had the apprentice wielded it—and that had been to strike down his own master.
As he would now strike down his enemies.
Darth Sidious let the Dark Side rush through him, let it take him—then, he seized it, drew upon it, summoned the wrath to him completely. In an instant, it came, seizing him, coursing through his limbs, into his mind, around his face, into that well of darkness that was his heart.
He drew on it from every source. From the Senators he controlled…from the clones he ruled…from the Jedi before him. He felt their fear as he stood with this blade. It gave him life, made him stronger—their fear was a conduit for his rage.
And he used it.
Through the Dark Side, he could see the shrouds that had covered the Jedi for so long—they had never seen through the veil of the Dark Side, never looked to see its long, black threads, a web that reached out to touch all that it controlled and drew power from. He saw the fear of the power of the Dark Side—for they had learned to fear it, to avoid it, to beware of it. And that fear hovered around their heads like a dark cloud.
Sidious took that cloud and formed it into a net, a web of terror. And he drew it shut around the Jedi, freezing them, slowing them, making them hesitate…
And he attacked.