Palpatine was left alone while Jaxious and Senator Formidas finished up their goodbyes. He stood out on the balcony, gazing out into the Coruscant night.

The Works industrial grey fumes scarred the night sky. The skyscrapers of the Uscru District were all too bright. Speeders were an eternal stream of red blurs. The bustling of people and droids alike underneath him never ceased.

Palpatine didn't want to admit it, but he missed Naboo. He missed the times when he would gaze out onto the sleepy residences of Naboo. Palpatine yearned to see the little lights twinkling in the distance, the trees swaying in the wind and the seas glittering under the gaze of Naboo's three moons.

Naboo was full of natural life, lush fields, and beautiful beaches very unlike Coruscant with its glaring towers and smoldering skies.

Although he missed the world of Naboo, he did not miss his home. Palpatine loathed that vineyard his parents so dearly loved and the house he had spent a decade bound to. Palpatine had yet to receive the final date for his sister's wedding but already was dreading the day he would return.

Amongst the cutthroat world of Coruscant lay an opportunity absent on Naboo. Palpatine could create a life where he could be so much more than a vineyard boy. Palpatine knew that Naboo could never give him the glory he sought.

The path to glory lay in becoming a leader, a senator.

However, to become the senator of Naboo was no easy task with someone like Senator Brik Delos opposing you for the office. Delos was beloved, kind, and genuinely friendly even to the Gungans. Although Delos was too trusting in the world of politics, his one downfall.

Even so Delos's warmth and charm was something Naboo treasured. But Palpatine had something Delos didn't, the ability to create change.

Would Naboo want a senator to be like that? Would they embrace an ambitious and determined boy who had much more in mind than tradition? No, it was out of the picture.

Palpatine's hands formed into fists. Delos was the one thing in his way from achieving his first goal. The second, of course...was cheating death, but that was more off to the side since it was virtually impossible.

If Palpatine wanted to have a good life he would have to thwart Delos... somehow. The somehow, he had to figure out.

Something washed over Palpatine. Something stirred deep within the deepest and darkest corner of his heart.

"Sheev Palpatine?" a voice asked from behind. Palpatine turned to see Bazaron standing against the darkness. "Reflecting, are you?"

Palpatine turned to face Bazaron, his back against the city lights. "There's not much to reflect upon." Palpatine told Bazaron drily.

Bazaron glided to Palpatine's side looking upon the lights of the city. "Oh, but there is." Bazaron paused. "A great many things have happened to you. A great many unfortunate things...I'm afraid."

"Yes, I would suppose so..." Palpatine stopped to glance down at his hands, "The good thing is I am alive." Palpatine turned back to the city.

Bazaron leaned on the railing, his cape billowing in the breeze. His mask faced the young Naboo. "You are alive, but are you well, young Palpatine?"

Palpatine grimaced at those words. His gaze lingered on the Jedi Grand Temple which stood against the night. The Temple's oppressive shadow shrouded the surrounding buildings.

Palpatine drew in a deep breath. "I am well...I just...it sounds irrational, but I never considered that everything could...end in a span of seconds." Palpatine paused and admitted. "Its...disturbing. I'm a fool."

Bazaron's voice took on a more serious and concern tone. "Palpatine...you're no fool. Millions before you fear what you fear." He placed a gloved hand over his heart. "Even I fear the inevitable end."

"But it will come for me whether I chose it to or not. It's foolish to fear the inevitable." Palpatine muttered to himself.

Bazaron placed a hand on Palpatine's shoulder. "To fear is to be alive, Palpatine."

Palpatine mulled this over. His thoughts turning over that single sentence in his mind. "But I don't want that feeling." He looked over at Bazaron. "I don't want to fear anything. It's a sickening feeling. It consumes my thoughts and my actions. I despise it."

Bazaron took his hand from Palpatine's shoulder. The two stood in silence gazing out to the dark night. "Then don't feel fear, Palpatine. It is that simple."

Palpatine spat at Bazaron. "That's nonsense." His gaze went back to the Jedi Grand Temple. "You sound like a Jedi. No fear, but no feeling. Its illogical."

"I agree." Palpatine's head snapped to Bazaron when he spoke. "But to not fear is different than to not feel. One doesn't fear when one becomes...the fear."

"What exactly are you saying?" Palpatine tilted his head.

"There are ways to rid yourself of fear." Bazaron went on. Palpatine thought he glimpsed a glint of yellow in the eyes of the mask. "And rid yourself of the fear of the inevitable end that comes for us all. To live...forever more."

Palpatine could barely look Bazaron in the face. He tried to restrain his shock at those words. "Ar—are you saying there's a way to achieve..." the single word that countless had lusted after for millenniums on his lips.

Palpatine looked up to see Bazaron's mask gleaming in the night. He imagined a shadow of a smile behind his mask. "...immortality." Bazaron finished his sentence. "Yes...I trust that the secret will present itself."

"So...you haven't found the secret to immortality yet?" Palpatine's hope fled.

Bazaron held his gloved hand into a fist. "No, I have not." Bazaron halted. "However, with you at my side. The secret to discovering immorality will surely reveal itself to us."

Palpatine furrowed his brows and crossed his arms. "Although I am flattered. I am no man of science." He shook his head. "I cannot help you."

Bazaron's voice lowered. "You are more than any man of science ever could be Palpatine." He held out his hands before him. "You have something that science cannot explain. You have something that defies the laws of reality as we know it." Bazaron took in an inaudible breath. "And I do too."

There it was...that pull from within. A much larger and greater Force than themselves loomed. It called out as it did before from the darkest depths of his soul. Its answer echoed from a vile place Palpatine secretly relished.

Palpatine ignored that feeling stirring within him and laughed. "No, I don't."

"But you do. I sense it. You sense it." Bazaron moved closer. "It calls out from within your very soul, Palpatine. You cannot deny it. It is as real as I am standing before you."

Palpatine felt a strange feeling tingling in every part of his body from his head to his feet. It was as if a slumbering beast had awoken inside his heart. That feeling Bazaron described, it was there, haunting him. "You have it too?" was all Palpatine said.

"Yes...I feel it, but it is much more than just a feeling. It's a power. A power which stretches beyond the limits of our fragile bodies. A power which can make the matter of this world bend to our will."

Bazaron outstretched his hand.

"Words can only say so much. Observe, young Palpatine." Bazaron's gloved fingers bent and moved. Palpatine watched as a potted plant lifted into the air a few feet from them.

Palpatine's eyes went from Bazaron to the pot. His excited expression evaporated and was replaced with disgust.

Palpatine recoiled, his voice dripping with distaste, "Are you a Jedi?"

Bazaron scoffed. "I am no Jedi."

Palpatine's brows furrowed. "But...you wield the... what's its name? The Force. How can you wield it if you're not a Jedi?" Palpatine expressed.

"Because I am so much more than a mere Jedi, Palpatine." Bazaron clenched his gloved hand into a fist. The pot shattered and the flower within it crumpled. "I am all that the Jedi fear to be."

Palpatine took a step back at the abrupt violent act. "What are you?" he inquired, a tone of frustration in his voice.

Bazaron let out a low and hollow laugh. "I will show you, young Palpatine."