Darth Sidious stared out the transparisteel window to the Coruscanti night beyond and contemplated the future.
Senator Amidala had unexpectedly refused the trade of General Grievous for Anakin Skywalker, and now Grievous was on his way to Coruscant to stand trial for his crimes. Anakin Skywalker was likewise being transported to Raxus, the Capital of the Confederacy for ostensibly the same purpose, which left Palpatine in a bind.
Grievous had been painstakingly groomed and selected in order to lead a large portion of the Separatist military. He was a natural warrior made more lethal by the cybernetic enhancements he had undergone as well as Dooku's training. A match for Jedi in lightsaber combat. In addition, his species, the Kaleesh, were immune to most forms of force suggestion and manipulation, this combined with his ruthlessness made him an ideal Jedi hunter and an integral part in prolonging the clone wars, maximizing the suffering of worlds and drawing more and more power to himself. His atrocities struck fear across the galaxy, fear which Sidious was able to expertly use.
Skywalker on the other hand was a hero of the Republic, a counterbalance to Grievous in many ways. He was fearless and his heroics were legendary. While Grievous decimated civilians and embroiled worlds in carnage, Skywalker would pull off impossible feats and do so with remarkably few casualties and countless civilians saved. When Sidious eventually made Skywalker his apprentice these heroics and his legendary reputation would ensure popular support for Palpatine and his new empire, his experience would be invaluable in the New Order as would his power.
They were both integral to his plans, and both headed to their demise.
Not for the first time today did he wonder, "Am I undone?"
Each solution he considered was as wretched and unsatisfying as the last. Briefly he ran through his options again, channeled the power of the dark side and considered his situation with an eye as always towards the future.
He could sit back and allow events to take their course. Skywalker and Grievous would both die, and he would be left to manipulate the war to his desired conclusion without them. An extraordinarily difficult proposition but not impossible. Had Darth Plagueis not told him that, he, Palpatine was the most extraordinary manipulator of events in the mundane world ever to be born, surpassing even Darth Bane. Had he not proven it time and again, first by manipulating the Republic into its crises and then by profiting off them, without anyone knowing. He would be denied Skywalker's power and popularity in his ascension, and later in disposing of the remaining Jedi but perhaps he could make do.
Perhaps he could, but he sensed the problem with this solution did not lie in his ability to manipulate the events of the mundane world but rather in the ethereal realm of the force. Skywalker was ever The Force's favored son, seemingly brought into being by the force itself, he defied odds and expectations with every breath he took and every battle he fought. It was one thing to order his death, another to actually kill him.
The force would almost certainly strike back against any such attempt as it had many times before. Grievous on the other hand, had no such powerful friends, his death would come as would Skywalker's escape which would lead to an intolerable situation. Putting aside their combat abilities, A powerful symbol would be lost for the Confederacy while an equally powerful symbol would be returned to the republic, the dynamics of the war would shift irrevocably and the fear which he had so carefully stoked would fade. Which would result in fewer allies in his quest to build a new order. He would in short, be undone.
Another possible choice would be to intervene drastically. Manipulate events in order to see Skywalker rescued by the Jedi and Grievous by the confederacy, in short, restoring things to their proper order. But in much the same way his previous plan stood up to scrutiny in the mundane world but failed in the ethereal realm of the force this plan would be easy to pull off as far as the force is concerned but would send events in the mundane world spiraling out of control.
Blind, deaf, and dumb the Jedi might be, but even they would be suspicious of such a heavy-handed action. They would begin to realize that their enemy may not be the confederacy at all, but someone who was playing both sides of the war. Such knowledge may lead them to Palpatine, or his confederates, and even if it didn't, it would irrevocably damage the chances of order 66 working as intended.
More plans floated through Palpatine's mind. He could allow grievous to die and train Anakin in the ways of the dark side early. He could rescue Grievous and allow Skywalker to find his own way out. He could instruct Dooku to train Anakin as a Sith. He could attempt to abuse Anakin and turn him into a memory wiped assassin with none of the power of a sith, cunning or indeed any real usefulness towards his overall plan whatsoever and be completely antithetical to what it means to be a sith, and indeed to use the force at all. (ahem)
Each was discarded one by one. Palpatine could not possibly train a full-fledged Sith-Lord while maintaining his guise as supreme chancellor and running the war. Even if he could make it work logistically, who could tell what state Skywalker would be in. Even across the galaxy he could sense his anger and his feelings of betrayal, and yet he knew that wouldn't be all the boy felt. He had an unshakeable almost obsessive attachment to the Senator, one that he believed she shared with him and one that was reinforced by the force. It was one of many reasons he had believed she would have agreed to the trade.
Even after Senator Amidala had betrayed that bond Anakin maybe reluctant to let it go, and even if he did grow to mistrust and hate the Senator, unlikely thought that may be, he would still hold dear his bonds with his padawan and former master. Bonds that would preclude him from working with Palpatine towards the downfall of the republic and rise of the Sith. These bonds would likewise prevent Dooku or anyone else from turning the young jedi without extraordinary difficulty.
Likewise, releasing Grievous would send alarm bells ringing throughout the republic and the Jedi which could trace back to Palpatine, but even if that situation was not a concern, Anakin would be one. His survival and power were the only certainties in the force, not the path which lead to them. Palpatine knew the boy would almost certainly live through his planned execution but did not know how, or to what end. Would he be rescued by Jedi? Would he escape himself through some incompetence of his captors? Would he, faced with his own death, draw deeper into the extraordinary powers he contained within him and break himself free? Where would he go once, he escaped?
Questions on top of questions, with no answer's forthcoming. In his meditations Skywalkers future was more clouded now than ever before, all he knew for certain was that his destiny did not end in a Separatist prison. That kind of uncertainty could not be allowed and would almost certainly hinder his plans.
Sidious gritted his teeth with rage and not for the first time cursed the Senator in his mind. Idly he thought about killing her, but his instincts told him no. Now was not the time for assassinations in the senate, and if Anakin never had the chance to face her after this betrayal it would irrevocably hinder Palpatine's attempts to turn the boy. Not to mention, he thought with increasing vitriol, if an assassination attempt failed, he could very well become the catalyst for their reconciliation, an unthinkable error.
With an effort Palpatine centered his rage towards his current situation and forced himself to calm down and allow his brilliant mind to work. The force was not his only gift, indeed even without it he would have been extraordinary for his mind alone. He had an uncanny ability to divide complex problems into simple accomplishable tasks and delegate them in order to move towards his overall goal. Perhaps that was what was called for here, a division of the problem.
He would start with the highest stakes problem then, Anakin. The boy was being carefully groomed to become a dark lord of the Sith. A grooming that needed to be timed precisely and which had to be accomplished with great care. While that went on though, the boy needed to grow stronger, strong enough to defeat the remaining Jedi after order 66, and to potentially help Sidious against the council if any of them lived as well as eventually killing Dooku, of course. What did he need to keep that on track?
He needed to be able to exercise some control over the boy's future without allowing him to completely derail his overall scheme. He needed to allow the boys feelings of betrayal and abandonment to fester and his power to grow. At the same time, he needed to keep Anakin from growing more attached to his Jedi master and Jedi padawan and indeed any other friends within the order. Senator Amidala's actions may have any number of impacts on the boy. They may push him deeper into his rage and anger and onto the side of the Sith far too early. Alternatively, they could push him towards the jedi belief in separation from attachment in order to prevent more pain.
Indeed, Palpatine realized, he could not allow the boy to return to the order right now. Not at such a critical moment. Nor could he be allowed to venture forth on his own and find his own way back. Perhaps he would order the separatists to hold him prisoner?
He discarded the idea as soon as it came to him. The republic and the Jedi would be expected to spare no expense in finding the hero, even if Anakin failed to escape on his own, they would come for him. And withstanding imprisonment was something Anakin was trained for, as all jedi were. He would dive deeper into Jedi techniques and meditations to get through it, something which was intolerable to Palpatine.
What he needed was to be forced to see the shortcoming of the Jedi and the flaws in the order, without being allowed to influence Palpatine's overall scheme. Imprisoned where he could not escape and yet not in a place where jedi meditation would be first amongst his thoughts. An impossible quandary.
His com beeped abruptly pulling Palpatine out of his thoughts. With an extraordinary effort he pulled himself back into the physical realm. It took more effort to stop from killing the man immediately upon answering it, enraged at having been interrupted at such a critical moment after leaving orders not to be disturbed.
"I left very clear instructions Mas Amedda." He spoke into the device, menacingly. "Why have you violated them?"
The blue toady cringed back from the verbal rebuke but answered nonetheless, "My apologies, Your Excellency, Kinman Doriana is asking to speak with you. He is most insistent. Should I patch him through."
Palpatine paused to consider it. Doriana of all people should know the impact today's events had on his overall schemes. If he was contacting him, perhaps the man had something to offer. "Go ahead" he decided.
The holo changed and Doriana appeared. "Your excellency" he said bowing.
Palpatine glowered at him and spoke. "I have little time for distractions or pleasantries. What was so urgent?"
Doriana smiled widely, clearly pleased with himself. "I found him My Lord."
Palpatine leaned back in his chair and smiled slightly for the first time all day. Finally, something had gone right. steepling his fingers together he spoke. "Tell me everything." By the time Doriana finished Palpatine dark smile was as wide as it had been on the day the clone wars had begun. Amidala may have disrupted his original plans, that much was true, but he suspected by the time all was said and done, she would regret that, very, very much.