Precipice by shadowsong26
Aftermath: Chapter 10
Overall, Darth Sidious was pleased with how well the last two weeks had gone. The civil government was firmly in his grasp. There had been no overt resistance to his takeover, and he knew who the dissenters in the Senate were. He could monitor them, in the months and years to come. Some, of course, he would terminate at the earliest opportunity. But some he would leave alive, as bait for future resistance movements. So long as he knew who the traitors were, after all, they presented no serious threat.
And the Jedi-ah, the Jedi had been crushed. True, some had slipped through the cracks, but he guessed there were less than a hundred survivors. And that was a generous estimate, including those who had been confirmed as injured critically enough to be presumed dead, though no remains had been found. Even Yoda had slunk away in defeat, to keep his head down and lick his wounds. He was, perhaps, still alive, and Sidious would of course keep a wary eye out for any signs the little troll had resurfaced, but he doubted it would happen.
His Separatist puppets, too, had been neatly disposed of. Sidious had dispatched Tarkin to handle the mop up operation on Mustafar-not his first choice, to be sure, but a promising asset for the time being-and had received final confirmation of Tarkin's success this morning.
The Clone Wars were over.
He had won.
It hadn't been a total victory, unfortunately-or, at least, not the one he'd envisioned when he'd authorized his own kidnapping and initiated his endgame-but more than sufficient. A few pieces were missing, a few loose ends left dangling, but not enough to truly detract from his victory.
The biggest of those pieces, of course, was Skywalker. He was the one that rankled the most, too. Sidious still wasn't quite sure exactly how that had gone wrong.
The boy had been perfectly prepared-thirteen years of effort poured into his intended apprentice; gaining his trust; carefully building and aggravating stress points in his psyche; and then applying just the right amount of pressure at just the right moment to break him in just the right way.
There was, he admitted, a slight possibility that he had overplayed his hand. But really, Skywalker hadn't left him much choice but to risk that. It was remarkable that the boy could be so intelligent in so many ways and yet completely miss Sidious' increasingly obvious hints. Most targets would have caught on weeks earlier.
Of course, he had tailored his approach with that in mind, so he doubted that had been the problem.
Perhaps he had undersold it? No, that wasn't it, either. Skywalker had known, with perfect clarity, everything he stood to gain from turning-and everything he would lose, should he fail to do so. Sidious would not have allowed the boy to leave his office, had he not been absolutely certain of that fact.
From the time the boy had fled, the next hour had gone exactly as Sidious had planned. Word had reached Coruscant that Kenobi had succeeded in killing Grievous (not the ideal outcome-he'd rather hoped both of them would die-but Kenobi's absence had served its purpose). And then the Jedi had attacked him, as he had known they would.
That, he thought, was where things had, if briefly, gone off track.
He had drawn out his duel with Mace Windu as long as he could. He had known, of course, that events would quickly overtake him once they were finished; and that Skywalker had to be complicit from the beginning. So he had waited, prepared to give him that final nudge over the edge.
But the boy had not come.
There had been a moment, towards the end, where Windu had shown a rare spark of insight, and deduced what Sidious had been waiting for.
"He's not coming," the Jedi had spat. "You lose."
That first statement, unfortunately, had proved true.
The second-well.
Windu had gone out the window, and Sidious had had to make some very quick decisions. Regrettably, he had been forced to sacrifice all the effort he'd put into Skywalker. There was no time to retrieve him before initiating Order 66. He could not delay the command; the Jedi would all too quickly notice something was wrong and manage to regroup.
And, having failed to secure Skywalker's allegiance before the Purge, his would-be apprentice was lost to him forever. Sidious had known that. Even if the boy had survived-which was unlikely-he would have snapped to his previous loyalties with all the tenacity he could. Sidious would never again have the boy's confidence. Pity.
Skywalker had fought valiantly to the last, of course. The report from the clones who had attacked the Temple-Skywalker's own men, as they were stationed on Coruscant at the time in preparation for Sidious' planned version of events-painted a very clear picture of how brutal the eventual kill had been.
The boy's body was among those that had not yet been recovered, and Sidious did acknowledge the possibility of his survival. A sort of connection had been forged between the two of them over the years. His awareness of it was...somewhat muddled, at the moment. Difficult to tell if it had truly snapped or was merely damaged or forsaken.
On the other hand, his body had fallen from the Temple into the city's underlevels. If he had been killed, the chance of his remains ever being recovered was vanishingly small.
So, another thing to watch for. But if Skywalker did resurface, Sidious was confident he could be handled. After all, for all the boy's power and potential, he was still a mere Jedi, and a young and inexperienced one with that.
Kenobi, though, might prove a problem. Among the known Jedi survivors, he presented the greatest threat to Sidious' plans. A half-decent strategist, for a Jedi, with a talent for persuasion that might well allow him to win allies to his cause. And he was far likelier to resurface than the others.
Well, if and when that happened, Sidious would be prepared. Once he had acquired a new apprentice, he would train that being with that particular goal, among others, in mind.
Or, perhaps, simply lock Kenobi in a room with Maul, solving several problems at once.
He dismissed that difficulty from his mind for the time being. There was very little he could do about it until Kenobi resurfaced.
More pressing was his unfortunate lack of an apprentice. Not that he needed one for the traditional reason, but rather as an extension of his will. Tarkin and the others could only do so much. He needed another Sith Lord.
Taking Maul back was out of the question, of course. The Zabrak had failed him, rather spectacularly. There were no second chances among the Sith.
And Sidious had, regrettably, been far too confident of his success with Skywalker. He had neglected to seek out a suitable backup.
This was not a mistake he would repeat.
He had considered Skywalker's child, of course. Disadvantages of starting with an infant aside, he was guaranteed a powerful apprentice from that quarter. But Senator Amidala's office had released a statement that she had suffered a miscarriage, and would remain in seclusion on Naboo for a month while she recovered. Possibly a hoax, but it would be easy enough to confirm, once he discovered the location of the infant's tomb.
As for Amidala herself-well, he would see how the loss of her husband and child affected her. If, as he thought reasonably likely, her grief cooled that irritating fire at her core, he would allow her to live. Like some of her former allies in the Senate, she would continue to be a magnet for conspiracy. Useful, so long as her spirit was dampened enough that she wouldn't act on them.
And, if not, the tragic demise of the Senator of his own home planet would provide useful political capital.
But, in the meantime, he had an Empire to run and a new apprentice to acquire. And these few imperfections, irritating though they were in what should have been an absolute triumph, were minor when compared to his success. He could attend to them in the fullness of time.
He steepled his fingers and allowed himself to savor the moment with a smile. He had accomplished virtually everything he had wanted to. He had won. Power-absolute power-was his.
Victory had never been so sweet.
Original Author's Note: And this concludes the Polis Massa/Aftermath arc!
Next week starts the Homecoming arc, which doubles the size of our cast as Our Heroes learn to navigate their new normal and get to work, while taking care of the babies.
Thanks so much for sticking with me so far! 3
~shadowsong
Repost Note: From this point forwarded I will be updating on Wednesdays and Saturdays.