Qui-Gon Jinn's cabin

Queen Amidala's Ship

En Route to Coruscant

"What can I do for you?" Qui-Gon Jinn inquired courteously from his cross legged position on the floor. He had spent the last hour in meditation, seeking wisdom for the upcoming confrontation with Palpatine, only to be interrupted by the mysterious time travelers from the future.

Luke plopped himself down on the floor of the cabin and Leia joined him a moment later.

"We need to talk about Anakin," Leia explained.

"What about Anakin?" Jinn demanded.

"This whole 'stick him in the Jedi Temple and never let him hang with his mom again' thing isn't going to work," Leia stated sternly.

Qui-Gon frowned at this, "Our system has been in place for generations. Younglings must break free from the attachments of their earliest years."

"It's a disgusting system," Luke riposted hotly. "It is normal and healthy for children to bond to their parents. It's amazing you haven't all gone bonkers. But in any case, I understand most little ones come to the Jedi Temple very young, correct?"

"Yes," the Jedi Master admitted. "Children are screened for high midichlorian counts at birth."

"Anakin is nine years old," Leia pointed out. "His life has been a hard one. His mother has been his one positive constant in life. His natural tendency is to go insane and start murdering people in droves, so you need to NOT take away the one person in his life who gives him stability."

"I admit I find it startling that in your timeline, Anakin turned to the Dark Side," Jinn confessed. "He is a charming and selfless child."

"I agree. I have enjoyed meeting him at this age," Leia said, taking a deep breath. "I assure you, however, that he was horrifying in our timeline. He tortured me twice and cut off Luke's right hand in a duel in spite of the fact that he knew Luke was his son."

Jinn cringed at this and sighed, "Perhaps it would be safer if he did not train to become a Jedi."

Luke and Leia exchanged quick glances and Leia leaned forward, "To some degree, that would be a sensible route to take, Master Jinn. Anakin will be more stable if he is not in the Jedi Temple and is with his mother. Shmi has been long dead in our timeline, but on one of our previous jaunts into the past, we met her. She is a lovely, calm, sensible, wise, good woman."

"However," Luke continued intensely, "you must see that Anakin needs to have some training. He is incredibly powerful, and if some Light Sider does not guide him, I have no doubt he will fall to the Dark Side sooner rather than later."

Jinn grimaced at this, "I confess that the news that we have two Sith Lords roaming the galaxy is still a profound shock. If we take them down, I believe Anakin is safe enough, is he not?"

"In our last journey through time, there was a real mix up in the timeline, and the Jedi were evil; with Yoda as Emperor, and Palpatine, Vader, and Ahsoka Tano were good."

"The Jedi were evil?! And who is Ahsoka Tano?" Jinn demanded in bewilderment.

Luke waved a random hand, "She's probably not around yet. Anyway, my point is this; Palpatine mentioned a master in that timeline known as Darth Plagueis. I don't know if this Plagueis guy is still alive or not; he might already have been taken down but until we are certain, we need to consider the possibility that there is yet another Sith Lord lurking somewhere."

Jinn sighed and ran a weary hand over his brow, "I confess to feeling rather overwhelmed by this."

"Yeah, I get it," Leia returned sympathetically. "You had your mission and it was difficult but straight forward, and now the galaxy has been turned on its head."

"Exactly."

"Well, the first step is to deal with Sidious," Luke insisted. "After that, we can sort everything else out. He's like a spider at the center of an invisible but dangerous web. He is sneaky and powerful and will cause all kinds of trouble if we don't deal with him soon. "

Jinn frowned, "You realize, of course, that I have only your word for all of this. I have only met Palpatine a few times, but he seems a benevolent and honest man, inasmuch as that is possible for a politician."

"We can prove it to you," Luke stated starkly.

/

Imperial Senate Building

Coruscant

"That is quite all right, Senator Antilles," Sheev Palpatine murmured softly, bestowing a gentle smile on the senator from Alderaan. "I look forward to discussing further relief to refugees of the Trade Federation crisis, but it can wait a day or two."

"Thank you, Senator Palpatine, for being so understanding about the sudden schedule change," Antilles replied as he glanced at his watch. "My apologies, I must go."

Sheev Palpatine, senator from Naboo, undercover Sith Lord, walked to his nearby shuttle, which carried him to the Senatorial Towers where he currently occupied the entire fifth floor suite. The penthouse was, of course, the most prestigious suite, but currently it was occupied by Chancellor Finis Valorum. If all went well, the current Chancellor would be booted by the end of the week and Palpatine would take his place. After that, it would only be a question of patience and time and cunning before he, Sheev Palpatine, Sith Lord, took over the galaxy as its rightful ruler.

If all went well. He was concerned about Darth Maul, who had trotted obediently off to Tatooine some days ago and had gone space silent. There was also an odd disturbance in the Force. Well, he would handle it, as he handled everything.

He entered the elevator from the landing pad on the roof, entered in his private key code, waited for the doors of the elevator to open, and stepped into the entrance room.

And halted. There was something wrong. No, someone was wrong.

There was someone in his living quarters.

He grasped the lightsaber hidden in his Senatorial robes and walked carefully down the hallway toward his private study. Yes, the intruder was in there ...

He stepped into the room and flipped on the lights with the Force. There was a gasp and an attractive dark haired young woman, dressed in a black tunic and leggings, looked up from his computer with astonishment and distress. A moment later, the girl had grabbed a blaster and was pointing it straight at him with a steady hand.

"Don't move, Senator Palpatine," she ordered. "Don't move or I'll shoot."

Her voice was attractive, as was her face, which looked oddly familiar. He had never seen her before, he was sure of it, but perhaps she was related to someone he did know?

In any case, he needed to deal with this. His quarters were supposed to be completely secure. How had she gotten in here?

"How did you get in here?" he demanded, raising his hands obediently. Sometimes it was best to humor someone while seeking information.

"Lie down on the floor and put your hands on your head," she directed, ignoring his query.

Well, enough of humoring. He was too old, and too dignified, to lie down on the floor.

He gestured slightly with the Force and the blaster was yanked out of the girl's hand and sailed into his own. The woman's mouth parted in shock.

"How ... how did you do that?" she gasped dramatically.

"I am asking the questions," he snarled, allowing his face to settle into its comfortable contorted expression of disgust and rage. It felt wonderful. It was so hard to spend hours on end looking calm and friendly. Ugh!

The girl backed up a few steps, her own face now twisted with fear, "Don't get near me! Don't touch me!"

"I don't need to touch you," he snarled, letting loose with a maniacal laugh. "You chose the wrong abode to infiltrate. Now, I will ask you again, how did you get in here?"

He reached out with the Force, intent on wresting the information from her mind, only to meet a durasteel wall of incredible sophistication and power.

Stunned, the Sith took a step forward just as the ceiling behind him collapsed abruptly. He spun around in time to observe two figures drop to the floor. One was a young man of approximately 30 years of age, dressed in black, with a green lightsaber lit in his hand. The other was the vile and annoying Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn.

Jinn looked as surprised as Palpatine felt.

"Convinced, Master Jinn?" the girl inquired in a snarky tone.

"Indeed I am," Qui-Gon stated, lighting his own saber. "Senator Palpatine, I confess I did not truly believe you were a Dark Side adept. You shield incredibly well."

"So does Leia," the young man commented with a grim smile. "Admit it, Palpatine, you had no idea that she was a Force user."

Well, this was not remotely Ok. Palpatine lit his own blood red saber and lunged forward, intent on taking out the youth before Jinn could get his own saber ignited. The youth blocked with easy skill and even managed to force the Sith a few steps back. Palpatine shifted his saber to his right hand and sent a Force blast of Sith Lightning towards the young man, who promptly caught it on his saber and held his position.

Jinn had lit his own saber now and was coming in from the side, which was a bit nerve wracking but ...

Palpatine kept the lightning flowing to keep the Unknown in position and swept his red saber to the right to block Jinn. A moment later, there was the familiar sound of a saber coming alive behind him. He suddenly screamed in agony as his legs were abruptly disconnected from his body.

He fell, howling, his eyes dilated as his now disembodied limbs collapsed pathetically to the floor.

"Well, are there any other Sith Lords available? I'm apparently offering a 'cut off your legs' special," the girl commented wearily.

"I know, it's not very sportsmanlike," the youth replied, reaching out his hand and pulling Palpatine's saber to him.

Jinn was regarding the heap of Sith Lord in astonishment, "Truly, it is hard to believe."

"Yes," Luke Skywalker agreed, stepping forward and grabbing Palpatine by the armpits. He dropped him on a nearby chair and stepped back thoughtfully.

"Leia, can you cut off some of those curtain cords to tie him up?"

"Sure thing," Leia said brightly, jumping onto Palpatine's desk and beginning to cut off cords with her lightsaber.

"Who are you?" Palpatine hissed in outrage. The pain was agonizing but it also fueled the Dark Side within him. On the other hand, he didn't have any legs and while he could use the Force to float, it would not be easy to fight and float. Plus he was definitely weakened by being legless.

"I am Luke and she is Leia," the young man explained insouciantly, beginning to wind curtain cords tightly around his torso and arms with the Force. "We are twin Light Siders from the future. Like decades in the future. We came back in time to stop you in this timeline because in our own, you made a huge mess of things what with the Clone Wars and the Empire and all that."

Palpatine gazed at the young man in furious rage. Time travel was impossible, was it not? On the other hand, he knew all the Jedi Masters and this young man was extremely well trained and definitely had never met him before.

"Argghhhhhh!" he suddenly shouted, suddenly angry beyond anything he had experienced in his life. It was enraging to think that another version of himself had succeeded and become Emperor but he was stuck with amputation and unmasking far too early. How could this have happened? His other self must be a complete fool!