Chapter 58 - Contingency

Obi-Wan helped Mace lock the red lightsabers in a compartment on his ship. If they were going after a darkside user, they didn't want to have such a tainted weapon nearby. It could upset the balance of a fight. So they had to leave them behind. But the same, they were leaving their Padawans alone with suspects who allegedly had darkside leanings. They did not want Dooku or either of his trainees to find a weapon.

"Ah-ha! Found it." Qui-Gon pulled a folded flimsy sheet out of a bench he was looking through. "I knew I had this somewhere. Look. It's a map."

Mace sighed. "I doubt the ancient Sith Temple is on your map."

"No. But other things are. Look, Dooku said we have to go west of the city. That's this way." He pointed to the map.

"Brilliant. I could not have found that without such a tool." Mace's voice was flat.

Obi-Wan picked up their tools as they went to board the other ship. The one Mace and Plo arrived in. As he walked away, he felt a strong push on his bond with Anakin. He knew the boy was worried for him. This was turning out to be a harder mission than he had expected. But that is a Jedi's life: Going on missions prepared for one thing, and finding a whole different set of challenges. It's the best lesson he could give the Padawan.

"Why are we playing nice? You know I could…" Tol protested in a hushed voice.

Dooku smacked the back of Tol's head and he shut up instantly. "They are my grand-padawans, and you will do no such thing."

"They're kids," said, fourteen going on forty, Asajj. Dooku was very proud of himself for not rolling his eyes. "We don't have to hurt them. Just lock them in the hold."

"No. I have decided we are going to play along for now. And that's what we are going to do."

"Yes, Master," Asajj did roll her eyes.

Tol sighed. "I want words with the Jedi Grandmaster."

"You can have that." Dooku consented. Whatever went on with the boy's former Master, Dooku had heard Tol's tale, his own former master will have to answer for it.

"Okay, Master. I'll play nice. For now." Tol promised.

"I don't know where we are." Qui-Gon flipped his map around helplessly.

"We're here." Mace announced. "The temple is in there, and the ones we're following left a camp behind those trees."

"But I don't know where here is," Qui-Gon protested. "How are you going to tell anybody you were at an undiscovered Sith temple, and you don't know where it is?"

Mace prepared to sigh again, when Obi-Wan decided to pull out his comm. "Where am I?" he asked it.

"Murkhana, forty two point nine degrees North, twenty nine point four degrees East." Came the voice Anakin had programmed his com's virtual intelligence to have.

"Oh, I see it now." Qui-Gon fingered a spot on his map.

"How far back could you have done that?" Mace asked, sounding even more annoyed.

Obi-Wan shrugged. "Anakin upgraded my comm about a week ago." He left it unsaid how much fun it was watching his Master struggle over navigation. A task which he had always given to his Padawan on missions.

Mace shook his head.

"Come on. Are you guys going to stand there all day?" Obi-Wan ran to the temple entrance, the door to which had already been blown off and pushed aside.

As he did this, he felt his bond with Anakin flare up again. The boy was keeping tabs on him. In a reassuring gesture, he stroked the bond, letting his Padawan know all was well.

Anakin and Kate stepped into the main room of the ship and looked over at Freya and Alex. "How've they been?" he asked.

"Boring so far." Freya answered.

"No trouble at all. They've just been sitting there. Dooku threatened to give the female meditation exercises if she didn't stop wiggling, but that was a while ago."

"Alright, you two go ahead and take a break." Kate said. "We'll keep watch now."

As she said this, Anakin looked over to the Dathomirian. She noticed his stare and glared back at him. He knew what it felt like, to be asked to sit still with nothing to do. During his and Obi-Wan's last mission, they had to wait while politicians talked out a land deal. And they talked ALL DAY! Obi-Wan wasn't bad enough to threaten him with punitive meditations, but Anakin could imagine.

"Hey," he got up and said to the girl. "Do you want to practice a kata?"

Kate looked around, her eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"Not with sabers or anything, here." He passed his own saber over to Kate. "Just to get up and be active. Do you want to?"

She looked down to Dooku for permission, and Dooku nodded, "Go ahead, you can practice your hand to hand."

She nodded and stood up. Anakin gestured her over to the middle of the room, where there was more open space.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Asajj Ventress," she answered.

"Nice to meet you Asajj." Anakin answered, as he took up a starter position.

He saw movement on the sidelines as both Alex and Freya went back to their seats from before.

"We're not missing this," Freya explained.

Anakin bowed and Asajj watched him with a curious eye. Then she kicked him, her foot aiming for his sternum, but Anakin was able to pull away. He turned his body to fight her back and noticed she was smiling.

Mace led the group into the Sith temple. His lightsaber lit up the halls in a violet light.

They walked through the first few chambers without much happening. Then in the third chamber they heard the sound of a blaster going off.

Qui-Gon pulled out his lightsaber, and he wasn't alone. Soon the room was lit in a combination of blue and green light.

Obi-Wan stepped through the door to the next chamber with his lightsaber lit. "It's a droid," he announced, while deflecting its blasts.

Plo and Mace soon joined him. By the time Qui-Gon took up the position by his Padawan's side, the other two were halfway across the room, approaching the sith-made defense droid with their lightsabers lit.

When Mace was close he deactivated it with a few quick and precise slashes of his lightsaber.

Plo looked around, then deactivated his lightsaber. "What was the thing's purpose? Was it defending the temple or the Sith?"

"I suspect the first." Obi-Wan said. "It looks to be a very simple droid. Probably one or maybe two subroutines."

"Hmm," Qui-Gon's eyes narrowed on his former Padawan as he wondered where he'd learned something like that.

"If it's true, it leaves one question." Mace turned his lightsaber around to shine it in corners of the room.

"Whew! Dat was close. Tank yous Jedi per killin' da clanker," an annoyingly familiar voice nearly made Qui-Gon roll his eyes. Then a moment later two hands pulled a hooded Jar Jar Binks up from where he had apparently been hiding.

"Jar Jar! What are you doing here?" Obi-Wan recognized.

"You know him?" Mace asked. Quickly shining his saber in the direction of the Gungan. A Geonosian also crawled out of the hiding place, along with another two humans.

"Yes, he was from Naboo. Master and I met him while protecting the Queen," Obi-Wan answered. "Former Senator Meck, I presume?" he named the Geonosian.

Before Meck could answer, Mace questioned, "The Sith. Where is the Sith?"

Jar Jar looked up suddenly, as he recognized something said. "Oyi, yousa mean da game."

Mace looked annoyed. "Game! The Sith are no game."

Plo put a hand up to stop him. "Perhaps if you tell us what you mean by game."

"It'sa rilly da biggen boss man's game," Jar Jar started. "Whena hesa got pasted mesa founded his plans un decided ta play. Mesa un Dart Tyranus, dat is. Hesa an old palo of da boss. Wesa Sith un wesa tryin' ta take over da galaxy."

There was a moment where four Jedi were nodding along. Each seemed to be struggling to hold in their laughter, and respond in the serene Jedi way. Mace was the first to slip. He laughed a big deep rolling laugh. Then Obi-Wan joined him. Plo cracked last, shaking his head in disbelief.

"When Dooku hears," Plo laughed, "the sith master he's been following the orders of." The Kel Dor nearly collapsed laughing.

"No. No one is telling Dooku. I want to have that honor myself," said a very smug Mace.

Qui-Gon allowed himself a quick laugh over his former Master's blunder, but in the end, he respected him too much to tease him over it. Anyways, if his Master believed Jar Jar to be a Sith, it must have been convincing. As the others were laughing over a very confused Jar Jar, Qui-Gon let his eyes wander around the dark Temple. Everything in the place shunned light. Both in the Force and in reality. The whole place was a dark chamber that even swallowed up the light from Mace's saber in its darkness unusually fast. On one end of the chamber they were in was an electronic display. Very old, the thing was covered in dust, and its writing, what once was probably a now extinct Sith dialect, was worn away and unreadable.

Curious, Qui-Gon eyed a small white light in the upper portion of the panel. So far, even the droid they found in this place had tiny red lights on its body. It was as if the dark sided builders of this place would've tried to cover everything in darkness, pain, or blood. Which led him to question this light, which still had a source of power despite being so long abandoned.

Qui-Gon reached out, intending only to touch the casement around the light.

"What are you doing over there!" The voice Mace used was more critical than questioning.

"Oh. Um." Qui-Gon's hand flinched and his finger covered the light in its entirety. Suddenly they heard the sound of machinery moving in the Temple, and another source of light came down from the ceiling.

Then, in the middle of light, a capsule was lowered. Plo and Obi-Wan reached down to usher Jar Jar and the others out of the way, while Mace bore his lightsaber and came to Qui-Gon's side.

The capsule looked like one of the cloning chambers the Kaminoans used, from the images he had seen. Only colored black, it looked like a more rustic version of the technology. Inside of it was a living, human infant.

"What in Sith Hells is this!" Mace swore.

Seemingly in conjunction with his voice, a dark presence was spat out of one of the carved black stones in the room.

Qui-Gon read its intention through the Force, and made one of those split second decisions the council often criticized him for. He jumped up to guard the child…

The presence seemed to ramp itself up in frustration, and ran into Qui-Gon. The man dropped his still unlit lightsaber, as he choked suddenly.

Obi-Wan lit his saber, and prepared to fight whatever it was as soon as it left his Master. Meanwhile, Plo and Mace stepped closer to the stone where this presence came from.

Qui-Gon seemed to smile as he looked around. "Woah, this is one heck of a contingency plan. All those years of hiding and planning, even I couldn't predict this. Go ahead, Masters."

"Whoa!" Mace stepped back. Out from the stone flew a collection of dark presences. They seemed to swirl around the room, before choosing their targets.

One that felt very old flew into Mace. Another one, less old, flew into Plo. Then one that felt a little unbalanced flew into Jar Jar. Even his human and Geonosian companions were not spared. The only one who was spared was the infant, still in its chamber, and as of yet, Obi-Wan himself.

One of the dark spirits flew at him, and split apart into air particles. It crawled back, then seemed to shake itself off, before trying again.

The one inside of Qui-Gon did not seem to share his fellows disappointment. "With the supposed extinction of our order, loose lips began to flow. My master heard about a prophecy of one who would destroy us. We began to plan accordingly." His hands came up to gesture to the infant, still frozen in its chamber. "I experimented long hours and I was finally able to do it. I created life!"

"Plagueis, is this really necessary? All of us know this tale." Complained the one in Mace.

"But I hardly get to tell it," Plagueis whined. "Besides, it contains pieces I hadn't told Sideous yet." He gestured to Jar Jar.

Jar Jar threw his fists down in anger. "Dissen notsa fair! Dis body isn't bombad. Tis notsa Force Sensitive. It scant even talkie right."

Plagueis shook Qui-Gon's head at the possessed Gungan. "The tragedy of Darth Sidious the Clumsy. Listen up, my pitiful apprentice. Right here, in this Temple, I created Life."

Sideous tilted Jar Jar's head. "Mesa taut dat was da boyo da Jedi founded on Tatooine."

"Did you think that?" Plagueis tilted Qui-Gon's head in a pitiful way. "Good, that was exactly what you were supposed to think." Suddenly all warmth was gone and his voice became very critical. "When the chosen one came, you were supposed to think of him as a brother. Pulling him into darkness as you enacted the final phases of our plan. And when the chosen one did what he was predicted to do…"

"Boot…" Sidious raised a finger. "The Sith haf prophecies too. Iffen mesa turnded hesa un mesa trained hesa inda dark, hesa would haf become…"

"Prophecies have always been scattered. Reading them is like trying to piece together stories from after you've had one of your fits turning my books into confetti." Plagueis argued, and Sideous blushed. "But we had a contingency planned. The Life I created was but a single cell. The thing about human embryos is, once you have one, separating it and making twins is so easy. The work I had done made the two especially strong in the Force. Then I left one twin here, while I found a family with the right political leanings. I wanted to be sure the child wouldn't be sent away to the Jedi. The twin would've been our host for after, but then I wasn't foreseeing a chance like this. Jedi hosts, now we can take over their empire from the inside."

Sidious hesitantly raised a hand. "What about da other younglen? What family did yousa give him to?"

"Palpatine." Plagueis answered.

Sideous went white.

Then the dark presence spun around and was joined by a second. Obi-Wan realized with a shock why none of them had been able to get through. It was Anakin. He was using his bond to shield him. But the boy couldn't keep it up for long. Somehow Obi-Wan always knew he'd be one of those Masters who would fall on a bed of nails to save his Padawan. He just never expected it to be this literal. As Obi-Wan oriented his shields he thought about sending a message, but in the end he couldn't risk it. He didn't know the power of these Sithly apparitions. So he threw up his shields to block Anakin out, then braced as the spirit crashed into him.

Hello Everyone,

Happy Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you, lol.

Special thanks to AO3 user Thanos6 who gave me permission to use the line: "The tragedy of Darth Sidious the Clumsy." It was such a good comment from chapter five.

To come up with the whole sith contingency plan, I was inspired by the Rise of Skywalker movie. I know I said you didn't need to see/think about the sequel series for this, but I want to explain how I got the idea. Palpatine from the movie was basically the worst unexplained plot hole to the series, but he said a couple things that suggested he either was, or believed himself to be possessed by every Sith. "Kill me... and my spirit will pass into you. As all the Sith live in me... you will be Empress... we will be one." In my version, I guess Palpatine never survived, but when he died, his spirit was then one of the ones regurgitated into the infant, who's basically a twin of Palpatine. Then maybe there was an age-up technology already in the temple, and they could take over an Anakin free universe.

In case anyone's as disturbed about that plot hole as I was, try reading my previous fic titled The Skywalker Tale: A Legacy Restored. I came up with a whole different way of sealing that one, plus a couple more.

Well, I did warn you all that by getting rid of Sidious, we would not be getting rid of all bad guys. I felt it was the perfect bit of revenge to put Sidious in Jar Jar, and it helped the chapter flow. I do feel a little bit of pity for the old man now. It's not entirely his fault he fell into the Sith trap. In case anyone is wondering, according to the latest research, personality disorders like the Antisocial one we all suspect Palpatine suffered from, are not wholly genetically linked.

Now, Anakin is going to have to figure out what to do next. Can he trust Dooku, Tol, and Asajj to help them? Or should he get help from other Jedi Masters? And did Mace do what he was probably always criticizing Qui-Gon for not doing? Which is, phone home, when the parameters of a mission change so drastically that you stop looking for a missing person and end up looking for a Sith in a Temple instead.