The Killik-manned Chiss Ascendancy Star Destroyers dropped out of hyperspace and into the Csilla system to meet the waiting fleet of hive-minded Chiss-manned vessels. With the unison afforded to them by their collective consciousness, they all wordlessly turned their Destroyers Coreward and prepared for another hyperspace jump.

Thuruht had completed their assimilation of the Chiss into their hive mind. Now it was time for the rest of the galaxy.

.

Reluctantly, Wynn Dorvan stepped outside the Imperial Palace, walked up to the podium erected near the steps leading up to the Palace's entrance for this specific occasion, and cleared his throat before he began to speak to the army of holojournalists and reporters in the crowd before him.

"Good evening," he began. "I, Chief of State Wynn Dorvan, am holding this press conference in response to the leaked information regarding my allowance of Jedi Master Jaina Solo Fel to come here to Coruscant two weeks ago. This information has been damaging not only to my term in office, but also to public morale given the ban on the Jedi Order from Galactic Alliance space more than a year ago." It had been a day since word of this information came out, and still, Galactic Alliance Security couldn't figure out how it all went viral. While Dorvan couldn't know for sure himself, he had a feeling that the sleazy holojournalist, Javis Tyrr, who was now among the crowd of reporters, had something to do with it.

Tyrr had been part of the anti-Jedi sentiment that Daala's reign had so vigorously supported, yet even his methods were ones that Daala was wary of backing up. That was why Dorvan had Daala's blessing as Chief of Staff to disgrace him as the unethical journalist that he was. Around the time of the Jedi Order's ban from the Galactic Alliance, however, he had since regained popularity among a good portion of Coruscant's populace via the HoloNet, and Dorvan couldn't even stop him from returning to the career that had once led to his fall from grace with the public. And now here the reporter was, near the front of the crowd, barely able to repress a smirk; Dorvan could tell this, considering his ability to read people thanks to his inclination as a sabacc player.

"I am ready to take questions now," Dorvan concluded.

As could be predicted by any mortal being, even without the Force, all of the reporters began yelling questions, trying to attract the Chief of State's attention as if they were more important than the rest. Dorvan suppressed a sigh of frustration before he pointed to Javis Tyrr; he figured he should get the worst out of the way first, and the sooner he was done with Tyrr, the better. Almost immediately everyone else quieted down.

"Chief Dorvan," Tyrr called out, "the public would like to know why you would allow any member of the Jedi Order to return to Coruscant given the ban that you just mentioned. Does it have anything to do with the recent problems with the Killiks nearby the Unknown Regions?"

The crisis with the nest of Thuruht wasn't exactly closed off as news to the Galactic Alliance, but Dorvan was surprised that even Tyrr was able to connect the dots between what was happening on Reonoq and Solo Fel's presence here weeks earlier. Still, he answered with, "Yes, it does."

"Could you please elaborate?" a female Gran reporter managed to call out before anyone else could.

"Grand Master Luke Skywalker had asked me to allow Master Solo Fel to track down the whereabouts of six missing Jedi Knights who were specifically assigned to retrieve the Knight known as Raynar Thul from the Killiks' grasp," Dorvan explained, his head perspiring with nervous sweat. He felt like his career might end with this. "So I allowed him to do just that."

"And why would you do that?" Tyrr asked. "Whatever quarrel between any Killik nest and the Chiss Ascendancy is none of the business of the Galactic Alliance, especially when the Jedi Order is involved."

"Well, as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, I felt that it was necessary-"

"You felt, Chief Dorvan?" Tyrr rudely interrupted. "You felt? From what I understand of the Galactic Alliance, someone in your position should act with more reason and care in running the government and in whatever actions it takes. Twice before, we had Chiefs of State who acted with their hearts rather than their minds, and we had Darth Caedus and Natasi Daala in that. What makes you think that we, the public, can trust you as a leader if we can't rely on you to think more clearly than this?"

Dorvan was at loss for words from that. But it only took a moment for him to pull himself back together from the verbal beat down to continue with, "I felt that it was necessary to belay any conflict, even those outside our space, as the last time we had that, enslaved peoples across the galaxy overthrew their tyrannical rulers and necessitated the Alliance's overall involvement to reestablish order. That way, the entire galaxy, including the Galactic Alliance, would not have to suffer for it. I was simply taking preemptive action in allowing Master Solo Fel to come here so that the Chiss Ascendancy's conflict with the nest of Thuruht would not go out of hand."

Tyrr grimaced. Dorvan's heart soared for a moment, as he felt that he could, in fact, justify what he did. But Tyrr's grimace faded instantly before he asked, "Yet wasn't part of the reason that the Swarm War happened nine years ago was because of the Galactic Alliance and Jedi Order's involvement with the Killiks and the Chiss?"

Dorvan sighed. This was going to be a long press conference.

.

Plagueis used the Force to lift a pile of rubble and debris and reveal a dark hole with a staircase that led underground. He then stepped into the hole and began climbing down the stairs, Ford and Five-U following suit.

Almost an hour later, after having explored the undergrounds of the Palpatine residence, the three of them rounded a corner within the cavern when suddenly, a brilliant red glow lit the cavern, nearly blinding Plagueis and almost overloading Ford and Five-U's photoreceptors. But once their eyes and receptors managed to adjust to the light, they looked down at the source of it to find a dagger the size of an adult human arm a dark yellow, brown-striped hand grip.

"So this is it, huh?" Five-U asked as Plagueis bent down to pick the weapon up. "The Dagger of Mortis. Why is it glowing like that?"

"It is responding to my power," Plagueis said in a trace-like tone, never taking his eyes off the Dagger of Mortis. He breathed, reveling in the sensation that the Dagger radiated throughout the Force. "The feeling it gives... It is insatiable."

Five-U leaned in next to his captain to whisper, "He looks like me before I'm about to blow a load."

"You shut up," Ford quickly responded.

"I never realized it would be this easy to find the Dagger like this," Plagueis said to no one in particular, not even remotely appearing like he heard what the droids behind him just said.

That is because it is not easy to actually take, an all-too familiar, gravelly voice echoed in Plagueis's mind, breaking him out of his reverie over the Dagger of Mortis.

Five seconds later, some of the Dagger's glow flowed away from the weapon and began to form something in front of Plagueis. When the manifestation was finished, it held a hideous, snarling visage who Plagueis came to acquaint to treachery in the afterlife.

"Palpatine."