An idea I've been sitting on for a few years now.
Order Zero
Palpatine ran, relying increasingly on the Dark Side to give him the energy needed to keep moving. The wail of approaching sirens made him duck into the shadows, drawing his torn and scorched cloak over his head to hide himself from those hunting him.
"Damn that fool Amedda!" he snarled, anger momentarily overriding his sense of self preservation, "Damn him and his obsession with archaic rules and procedures!"
He had almost laughed when the Chagrian had come to him, holding holding an actual printed book, a concerned expression on his face. As Vice-chair of the Senate, he had become aware of the Clone Protocols and was too useful to simply have killed. Fortunately, he was not aware their true intention to hide Order Sixty-Six as just one amid one hundred and forty-nine others. Amedda had placed the book down on the Supreme Chancellors desk and explained that the orders, as they were written, were illegal. Amused, Palpatine had bid his deputy to explain, and Amedda had pointed to an ancient law, the text half faded with time, dating back to the very founding of the Galactic Republic:
'No law or ordinance may be enacted without procedure to be countermanded by the Office of the President.'
There had only ever been one President of the Republic, and man who's name had been long lost to the passage of time, and traditions held that, even thousands of years later, he still technically held the position. It had been a lifetime appointment, something legends said he had objected to, and as his death had never actually been confirmed...
It had become a myth, a story mothers told their children: in its hour of greatest need, when all hope seemed lost, the President of the Galactic Republic would return to save the day. Nobody actually believed it, but tradition had a way of asserting itself, to the point when there was still an empty office within the Senate building, kept under constant guard, reserved for the President. Palpatine had made a note to turn it into a janitorial store room the moment he finally took full control of the galaxy. But Palpatine had decided to humour his deputy, as there was no harm in at least some adherence to the tradition, so he quickly drafted Clone Protocol Zero: at any time, the President can assume the position of Supreme Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Amedda had been satisfied, and Palpatine had thought nothing more of it...until the unthinkable had happened, and the President had returned.
Oh, there had been pretenders in the past; the crazy and the charlatan, but there had been procedures to deal with them. Only, he'd passed them all, proving he was, despite all logic and reason, the President of the Republic.
The reaction of the Senate, to say nothing of the uncounted masses outside, had been mixed. Some saw it as the glorious fulfilment of the prophesy, others as a damning indictment of just how bad things must be, if he had finally returned. Palpatine had been concerned, but a short conversation with the man had set him at ease. He was a fool, his mind evidently having aged even if his body hadn't. Whatever the myths said about the great leader who had overseen the founding of the Republic, he was very clearly now nothing but a fool, easily manipulated.
Yes, it had actually been almost perfect, in a way: allow him to publicly oversee the end of the war, then kill him and place the blame on the Jedi. He couldn't think of anything that would enrage the Senate, and the public, more, and allow him to finally enact the centuries long plan to supplant them and claim finally victory for the Sith!
The fool had even asked to address the Senate, and Palpatine had readily agreed, even allowing the speech to be broadcast live to every corner of the galaxy, so everyone could see the face of their soon to be martyred President. All he'd had to do was sit back and watch...
"Hello, President of the Galaxy here." the man had looked around the echoing Senate chamber like the overgrown child he was, "Just wanted to stop by and say a couple of things. First, the Supreme Chancellor is actually a Sith Lord, and is responsible for causing this war in the first place, as well as manipulating both sides to keep it going."
The voice echoed around the chamber, just as it did the galaxy, and Palpatine had found himself frozen in place.
"As such, I hereby give the order to execute Clone Protocols Zero and Sixty-Five, effective immediately, and order his arrest." the President had grinned like a madman as he turned to look at Palpatine, and the now deposed Supreme Chancellor saw something different, something old and powerful behind his eyes, "He's sitting right over there. If you're quick, you can catch him before he... Oh, he's run off."
Yes, Palpatine had ran. He'd had no other choice, now he was publicly named as a Sith and being hunted by every single Jedi and Clone in the galaxy. The former, he probably could have talked his way out of, given how little the public actually knew about the Sith. It would have taken a lot of fast-talking, but he could have spun it in his favour over time. But the later... they would never stop, would never give up. The Jedi because he was a Sith, their ancient enemy, and the Clones, because he had made sure they had no choice but to follow orders. And, while he might have been the most powerful Sith who ever lived, he was still only one man.
"Hello, everyone. This is your President speaking." a massive, mobile holographic display drifted past far overhead, that accursed grinning face looking down at the city, "Just a quick reminder that former Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is a Sith Lord, wanted for crimes against the Republic and its peoples. If you see him, report him. Cheery-oh!"
Oh, damn that fool Amedda, damn the Clone Protocols, and damn the President of the accused Republic! He was going to spend the rest of his life, however long it was, running. He'd never be able to trust anyone, no matter how loyal they had been in the past, for fear that they'd betray him.
"Damn you, Doctor!" he swore as he darted for an entrance to the Coruscant Underground, "I shall return!"
The End
