AN: Good crud, I haven't touched this thing in years. Well, that changes now. And hopefully again by the end of the week, I'm a slow writer.

...who does not own Star Wars or any characters thereof.

Chapter 2:

This chapter is set after Palpatine tells Anakin the tale of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Yoda has just set out for Utapau.

Anakin and Obi-Wan watched as Yoda's fleet climbed majestically into the clouds and out of sight. Anakin muttered, "I should be there. We should be there."

Obi-Wan said, "The Council ordered you to stay on Coruscant for a reason, Anakin." He looked around, checking for potential eavesdroppers, then added in a low voice, "You may be our best hope of uncovering Darth Sidious."

By spying on the closest man I have to a father, thought Anakin. By acting against the most righteous man in the galaxy, on behalf of the Order of other supposedly equally-righteous beings.

If I ever find this Sidious, I'm going to make him pay for putting me through this.

But instead of voicing his bitterness, he decided to take the conversation down another path. "Obi-Wan, have you ever heard of a Sith Lord called Darth Plagueis the Wise?"

Obi-Wan frowned. "A wise Sith Lord? If he's known for his wisdom, he must have been powerful indeed, but I've never heard of him. Where did you get this from?"

"Palpatine."

Obi-Wan's frown deepened as he remembered something Mace Windu had told him about the hunt for Sidious quite recently: The only reason Palpatine's not a suspect is because he already rules the galaxy. [AN: Don't suppose I should be using MLA in-text citations here, huh?] "Palpatine? How did he know about this?"

"I don't know. He just told me a story called the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, when we were at the Galaxies Opera."

Obi-Wan's suspicion gave way to curiosity. "Hmm. What did this story entail?"

"Well –" Anakin swallowed. "Darth Plagueis was so powerful he could command midi-chlorians to preserve life. And then his apprentice kills him, hence the tragedy."

Obi-Wan scowled. "Tampering with midi-chlorians? He must have been exceedingly strong in the dark side. How did his apprentice kill him?"

"Stabbed him in his sleep, pushed him out an airlock, I don't know. Don't Sith do that a lot? Kill their masters and then look for a new apprentice to train and kill them?"

Obi-Wan had to concede the point. "What happened to his apprentice?"

"Palpatine said he became the greatest Sith the galaxy had ever known."

"Well, that implies either a sequel or a factual grounding. Was there a story about his apprentice?"

Anakin frowned. "If there was, I think Palpatine might have mentioned it."

"So perhaps there was a Darth Plagueis," mused Obi-Wan. "When was the story set in?"

Anakin's frown deepened. "I don't know. Palpatine never said. I'll ask him the next time I see him."

Obi-Wan shook his head emphatically. "No, don't get him involved in this." Anakin frowned at him, and he hurried on. "Look, let's go to the library. I'm sure Master Nu can shed some light on this story."

"The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I've never heard of it," said Master Jocasta Nu. She was tempted to prove the tale's nonexistence by its absence in the Jedi Archives, but held her tongue – the rediscovery of Kamino had taught her a sharp lesson on pride, and the man who had provided the lesson was standing right there.

Obi-Wan said, "It's a Sith legend, about a Sith Lord who could use midi-chlorians to prolong life. Are there any legends in the Archives like this? Or historical records of Sith with this power?"

Jocasta Nu raised an eyebrow. "A Sith with the power to manipulate midi-chlorians? Impossible." A sliver of her mind questioned the wisdom of using the word a second time in front of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but this time, she was certain.

Obi-Wan's thoughts immediately strayed to Kamino as well, but he didn't voice his doubts. Jedi don't gloat, he reminded himself, repressing a momentary urge to smile at all the memories of when he'd used that line on his Padawan.

"So you haven't heard of anything similar to this?" Anakin pressed.

"Never," said the old librarian with an air of finality. "What is the source of this legend, may I ask?"

Obi-Wan and Anakin exchanged glances. "Not an expert in Sith history, at any rate. Thank you, Master Nu," said Obi-Wan, hitching a grateful smile onto his face as the duo left the library.

"So how would Palpatine have heard of this tale?"

"Search me," replied Anakin as he and Obi-Wan walked [somewhere]. "Clone Intelligence, maybe?"

Obi-Wan shunted that thought aside. "Intelligence would never bother the Chancellor with a mere legend, and if it involved Sith they'd have told us too. I fear what the Council suspects is true: the Sith Lord may be close to the Chancellor." Windu's voice replayed in his mind. "The only reason Palpatine's not a suspect is because he already rules the galaxy."

"But why would Sidious even mention the Sith to Palpatine?" Anakin wondered. "Surely that would only call attention to himself?"

"Well, why did Palpatine mention it to you, without any reference to a source?"

"I don't know. I could ask him where he got the story from…" Anakin's voice trailed off as he looked into his old friend's suddenly-stony face. "...Or not."

"Anakin, why did he tell you this legend in the first place? What did he tell you that led up to the story?"

Anakin racked his brains, searching for the memory of his conversation with Palpatine. "He was…he'd guessed that I was spying for the Council."

He looked at Obi-Wan, trying to gauge his response, but his former Master only sighed and said, "Sometimes politicians can read minds almost as well as Jedi. Go on."

Another memory surfaced at the mention of reading minds. This one left a bitter taste in his mouth as he voiced it. "He was telling me he thought the Jedi were plotting to take over. He said the Jedi were going to replace him with someone they could manipulate."

Obi-Wan looked incredulous. "He thinks the Jedi Order is just another political opponent, pushing for power?"

"Yes. Yes, that's what he was saying. And he–" Anakin swallowed. "He compared the Jedi to the Sith."

Obi-Wan reeled. "What did he say, exactly?"

"He said the Jedi and the Sith seek knowledge, which brings power, and the reason why they – why we hate the Sith is because they are a threat to their – our power."

"Unbelievable…" muttered Obi-Wan. "Anakin, did he seem mentally stable to you?"

It was Anakin's turn to be taken aback. "Of course! He was fine!" Sane, and all too reasonable, he added mentally, remembering the way the man had so deftly destabilized his faith in the Jedi Order.

"You don't think something happened to him when Grievous captured him, do you? Did they do anything to him, besides abduction?"

Anakin's confusion rapidly gave way to rage. If Grievous had turned Palpatine into a paranoid politician convinced that the Jedi were out to get him –

No, he thought, it must have been Dooku, he must have somehow planted in Palpatine's mind that the Jedi was trying to overthrow him. I'm going to make him pay, pay for breaking the mind of my friend, pay for all the Jedi he's killed, pay for the arm he took from me –

And the memory of just how Anakin had collected jolted him back to reality, quenching his fury in an instant. He swallowed hard, then remembered Obi-Wan's question. "No, he seemed perfectly normal."

There was a pause, then Anakin said, in a small voice, "Obi-Wan?"

"Yes, Anakin?" His tone worried Obi-Wan – Anakin almost never sounded insecure. Anakin looked at him with searching eyes, trying to keep the despondency from his face as he voiced the question that had been gnawing at him since he'd left the Galaxies Opera.

"What is the difference between us and the Sith?"

Obi-Wan gaped at the question. The Sith are evil was his instinctive response, but he held his tongue – if the question was so easily answered, Anakin would never have asked. He tried several other standard Jedi answers and discarded them within the space of a second. Then he decided to try another approach: "Well, what's the similarity between us and the Sith?" he asked, trying with all his diplomatic might to keep his tone normal. That Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, the Hero With No Fear, the man he had taught, befriended, and, yes, loved for thirteen years, would ask such a question was a situation he'd never in a star's age have imagined he would face.

A part of his mind muttered bitterly, this is what you get for betraying him.

And he was frightened.

Anakin repeated everything Palpatine had told him at the Opera, anguish etched into his face. "Palpatine said the Jedi seek power like the Sith. He said the Jedi were selfish, like the Sith. And– " He choked up.

Obi-Wan could guess the last point. "The Jedi betrayed you, like the Sith would."

Anakin closed his eyes. "Yes."

Relief flooded through Obi-Wan, immediately replaced by puzzlement. These weren't proper arguments, these were accusations, and poor accusations at that. Any Jedi could refute these claims with ease, as he now prepared to do. Why couldn't Anakin see the answers? "But the Jedi don't seek power, and we're not selfish."

Anakin opened his eyes to gaze bleakly at him. "Don't they?"

Obi-Wan registered the "they", but didn't respond to it. "We seek knowledge, yes, but not for the sake of power. The Sith would use knowledge for evil – that's to say, to kill, coerce, and manipulate themselves into power. The Jedi don't do that. We keep the peace, Anakin. We only fight because the Sith threaten the galaxy – if they hadn't started the war, we wouldn't have, either."

Anakin's face hardened. "What's the point of me spying on the Supreme Chancellor if not knowledge for the sake of power?"

Obi-Wan grimaced and lowered his voiced. "This Sith legend from the Chancellor only makes the Council's idea likelier than ever - that Sidious is near the Chancellor." He placed careful emphasis on Council. "Look at him, Anakin! He's convinced the Jedi are trying to take over the galaxy! Don't you remember the man he used to be, before we left for the Outer Rim, before Geonosis, the man even Mace Windu admired? Can't you see something's happened to him - someone's done something to him - to make him believe that the Jedi - the Jedi - are plotting treason?"

"They - we are committing treason."

Obi-Wan sighed. "No, Anakin, we aren't! We're trying to find Sidious and end this blasted war, but we can't do that unless you help us!"

Anakin's face went from angry to anguished to thunderous in a matter of seconds. "If this Sidious has been corrupting the Chancellor, I'll find him," he said grimly. "And then - " He stopped abruptly, leaving his vindictive promise unvoiced, but Obi-Wan could still feel the fury radiating from him, a seething mass of dark emotion that he could nearly slice. Fury that he was certain was not directed only at the hidden Sith Lord.

Hurry up, Yoda, he thought fervently. Or it won't be just Palpatine that Sidious wins over...