When Plagueis's psychic form manifested, he found that he was now once again a Muun dressed in fine black robes, standing within the campus of Theed University, outside the library of the Legislative Youth Program headquarters building, so many years ago. Except where the skies overhead were blue and clear then, nothing but dark gray shadowed Naboo's heavens, and there was no one else walking around the campus.

No one else except for the seventeen-year-old, pleasant-faced redhead human male standing across from Plagueis, just as he had all those decades ago. And again, where young Palpatine was an otherwise average teenager who didn't have any higher ambitions in life other than to rebel against his tyrannical father's wishes, here, Palpatine, in spite of the deceit provided by his youthful appearance here, was clearly a very experienced Sith Lord who had every intention of rising above the power that his former Master once had.

"This is where it all began," Palpatine said with a sneer. "And this is where it will all end." Suddenly, the hilt of a lightsaber appeared in his right hand, as if it dropped from his sleeve, and a glowing crimson blade appeared. "Any last words, my Master?"

"No," Plagueis said simply.

Palpatine grinned. "So straightforward." Then, with a fierce howl, the younger Sith leaped across the expanse between himself and his former Master and came down to clash blades against the Muun.

The two of them then sparred back and forth for several moments, neither of them gaining nor losing ground, with Plagueis maintaining his typical, cool and calm attitude while his former apprentice allowed his rage and hatred act as his fuel in the fight. The latter growled and roared every so often whenever his frustration over not being able to defeat Plagueis so easily got the better of him, yet Plagueis himself, for all his collected veneer, was beginning to sink into frustration himself. Even though Palpatine grew in power since his Master died and managed to sustain that power after both of his deaths, Plagueis was still the most masterful against his apprentice, and they both knew it.

However, he was fighting in Palpatine's mind, and therein lay Plagueis's disadvantage.

So focused was he against Palpatine, Plagueis didn't even notice that the scene around him had inexplicably changed until nearly half a minute into their fight. When he did notice that change, the minor distraction caused him to lose some concentration against his one-time pupil as the latter parried the former's saber out of the way, leaving the Muun wide open for an open strike. But Plagueis managed to kick Palpatine in the sternum and then flip a couple meters away from him.

They were now over the bridge on Chandrila where Plagueis confirmed that Palpatine was Force-sensitive. But just as quickly as that thought came, it quickly came to an end as Palpatine charged with more aggressive strikes, forcing Plagueis to lose ground as he was driven back to the opposite end of the bridge, where only darkness existed. It only took about ten seconds for Palpatine to lock blades with Plagueis and then Force-shove him toward the darkness of the bridge. But the Muun almost simultaneously used the Force to drive his treacherous student toward him, automatically changing the scene once again.

The biting chill of Mygeeto's freezing climate meant very little to the dueling Sith, whose hatred for each other warmed them more than the heat of their lightsabers ever could. Plagueis turned his fall from the previous scenery into a backward roll that he landed on his feet in a crouch while Palpatine collapsed prone in the snow. But the human then flipped himself through the air and came down like a rock toward Plagueis. Again, they clashed blades for many moments before Plagueis found an opening and sent a Force wave against Palpatine, throwing him back to the other side of the mountaintop they were fighting on. The blow managed to knock Palpatine straight over the edge and sent him plummeting to the icy ground below before the scene around Plagueis changed yet again.

Now in Plagueis's lab within his sanctuary at Aborah, Palpatine, now a man roughly in his thirties, turned his head-on fall into a forward flip that allowed him to land in a crouch a few meters from Plagueis. The Muun was the one who charged his opponent this time, yet still not losing his patience or level-headed veneer. Palpatine, who sprung up to his full height from the crouch, was now being driven back toward the containment tube where the comatose wannabe Sith, Darth Venamis, had been encased as part of Plagueis's experiments to control midi-chlorians and make himself into an immortal. It wasn't long before Palpatine had been back up against the containment tube and ducked beneath his former Master's decapitating swing, cutting a deep furrow through the tube. Fluids gushed out and enveloped the human Sith, accidentally driving him forward to trip Plagueis before using the Force to send the Muun flying to the other end of the room and crash against a wall.

Before Plagueis could hit the floor of his own lab, the scene shifted again, and the Muun now found himself falling at a much slower pace to the forest ground below, where Palpatine was now rocketing from to continue their duel. Plagueis met his former apprentice's blade with his own again, and they continued to clash until their feet hit the ground, and by then, Plagueis managed to get past Palpatine's defenses and used his free hand to knock his opponent's lightsaber out of his hand, his strength momentarily heightened by the Force. The now-deactivated blade went sailing off, and Palpatine jumped after it, barely avoiding a strike that would have bisected him by the waist, and the human allowed the low gravity of the world - Buoyant, as Plagueis remembered it as he now had some space it observe his surroundings - to carry him toward the lightsaber.

Palpatine caught the hilt, activated it, and just as promptly sent it spinning back toward Plagueis, blade still active, in an arc meant to end his former Master. But before the latter could easily bat it away, the scene yet again changed, and Plagueis found that they were in the apartment where Darth Sidious, now middle-aged before him, had outright murdered him in his sleep. The saber that was meters away from him back on Buoyant was now sizzling against his own, with Palpatine's hands clasped firmly around his own hilt.

"As I said, my Master," Palpatine gritted through his teeth, "this is where it all ends."

Not saying a word himself, Plagueis pushed back against his former apprentice and the two continued to duel as they have for the past few minutes. This time, however, they were gaining and losing ground interchangeably at various intervals, with no pattern, no rhyme or reason to their movements other than defending and attacking with what they've learned from all their decades of training and knowledge. This was, Plagueis had no doubt about, the end; but here, Lord Sidious would lose, not him.

Finally, as Plagueis was being backed up against the force of his opponent's blows, he tripped backward against a caf table and collapsed on top of it. Palpatine swung his lightsaber down to impale his former Master, but the latter quickly rolled out of the way and then leaped across the room. Upon landing on his feet, he swiftly turned around and, with his free hand, sent an arcing stream of purple lightning against Palpatine. The human caught it easily on his lightsaber, but then Plagueis did something his apprentice didn't think he could do.

He turned up the voltage.

Palpatine now bared his teeth in both determination and agony as Plagueis's lightning was beginning to overwhelm both his lightsaber's defense against it and with his own Force defense against it. After almost half a minute, Palpatine finally collapsed to his knees and his lightsaber, deactivated, clattered away from his hands. The torture of the lightning completely enveloped him as he screamed from the top of his lungs. His visage deformed into the hideous apparition that Plagueis saw when his apprentice was a ghost back in the real world.

But then...

Instead of being enveloped by the lightning, Palpatine began absorbing it into his being, much to Plagueis's surprise. Cutting off the stream, he watched as Palpatine bared a horrific smile before he raised both hands and sent more lightning back toward his Master, shouting in joy and glee. Plagueis raised his saber up in defense, but found that neither his lightsaber nor his own Force defenses could protect him from the initial second of this reprisal.

"Power!" Palpatine shouted. "Unlimited power!" The lightning only increased in intensity as Palpatine enunciated that last word.

For just a moment, Plagueis believed that this would be the end of him; that once again, here, where his treacherous pupil had killed him, he would be defeated again, and that there would be no coming back.

But that was when, against the power that Palpatine had over his own mind, Plagueis himself overcame it through sheer will, and the power of the Force, so that he could shift the scene.

"What?!" Palpatine screamed as he found himself carried by Darth Vader toward the edge of the bridge of his throne room of the second Death Star. As had happened all those years ago, Palpatine couldn't stop his control of the lightning, and he was too late to act as he then found himself plummeting to one of the bright cores of the Death Star, screaming all the way down in total helplessness. And when he finally exploded in a dark side flash, the next thing he knew, he was chained against the unfathomable depths of eternity.

With impotent rage, Palpatine shouted for all it was worth, but it didn't carry an iota of power through the Force.

He was truly gone now.