"...huh," Kyle muttered. "This is a new one on me, Jan."

"What's that, Kyle?" Jan asked, most of her attention on the controls of the Raven's Claw. "What is it this time? Imperial Remnant? Someone with a lightsaber?"

"Try a lot of people with lightsabers," Kyle replied. "I just went on the Holonet, and it's full of stories about the Clone Wars. Current affairs stories about the Clone Wars."

Jan looked at him, then behind them both.

"You don't think your little trick for getting us out of that pirate ambush might have been a bit… ill considered?" she asked.

"No kidding," Kyle replied. "That's the last time I try flow-walking a starship."

He tapped on the controls a little, then managed to bring up the current date.

"Ah, shavit," he muttered.

"Bad news?" Jan asked.

"We're not far from the Jedi Purge starting," Kyle explained. "It's a matter of days, not weeks. From what Luke's told me, Palpatine killed four Jedi Masters in about a minute, and I'm no Jedi Master."

"Despite what everyone calls you," Jan said. "You're thinking of dealing with the problem yourself?"

"I'm not sure there's anyone else we can trust to do it," Kyle answered. "But there is this one idea I had…"

Jan laughed.

"Now I know we're in trouble," she said. "What is it this time?"

Kyle took a deep breath, wondering if this was a good idea.

"Set course for Ruusaan," he said.

Jan stared at him, then wordlessly set the nav-computer.

Palpatine looked up from his desk, smiling pleasantly as the door opened.

His smile gained just a hint of a frown as he saw the man coming through the door.

The man looked like the sort of man who was owner-operator of a moderately successful independent light freighter, dressed in tough, hard-wearing clothes. But he moved like a nexu, and he had a lightsaber on his belt.

"Master Jedi?" Palpatine asked. "An… unexpected pleasure?"

"I'm no Jedi," the man replied, smiling to himself. "I'm just a guy with a lightsaber."

"Yes, I can see," Palpatine mused. "Though I'm very busy, and I don't believe you have an appointment. Actually, I'm not sure how you got in here… did the guards let you through?"

"Technically," the stranger answered. "I wanted to ask… how long have you been planning all this?"

"The war?" Palpatine said. "My position as Chancellor? I'll certainly admit to have campaigned for the position, master Jedi, but-"

"Call me Kyle, please," the stranger told him. "If it'll stop you calling me Jedi."

He folded his arms. "What I mean is… your plan to take over the galaxy. Wipe out the Jedi. Turn Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side. How long have you really been planning that?"

"I hope you don't think I'm going to listen to this baseless insinuation," Palpatine objected.

"Really?" Kyle asked. "Because you seem to still be listening. Perhaps that means it's not baseless speculation after all?"

He tutted. "But let's not tell ourselves about things which aren't true, Darth Sidious. You've been planning this for decades, haven't you? It makes for interesting reading, when you look at it that way… who'd suspect the Senator from Naboo of arranging the invasion of his own home world?"

Kyle's oh-so-casual mention of his true title had nearly made Palpatine flinch, but he controlled himself.

Not without some difficulty.

"Master Jedi, those accusations are baseless," he said. "What makes you think you can come in here and say those things?"

"The Valley of the Jedi," Kyle answered.

The answer was so strange, such a non-sequiter, that Palpatine blinked.

"The what?" he asked.

"The Valley of the Jedi," Kyle repeated, starting to pace back and forth. "That's what makes me think I can come in here. Because otherwise it'd be foolish to walk into the office of a Sith this way."

"What is the Valley of the Jedi?" Palpatine demanded. "And – what do you mean, Sith?"

"You haven't heard of the Valley of the Jedi?" Kyle asked. "Huh. Well, the simple answer is – it's a force nexus on a planet in the mid rim. Darth Bane tricked the Brotherhood of the Sith into using the ritual of the Thought Bomb, which wiped out all the Sith and most of the Jedi on the planet… except for him, and a few surviving Jedi. Then the Jedi built a tomb there for everyone who was lost."

Palpatine's eye twitched.

"You're referring to the Seventh Battle of Ruusaan," he said. "But – the Thought Bomb didn't create a Force Nexus."

"You seem very sure of that, for someone who isn't a Sith," Kyle replied, with a shrug. "It's certainly there, though."

Palpatine hissed through his teeth.

"It matters not," he said. "If you know that much, you can't be allowed to survive."

He raised his hand, hurling a blast of lightning at Kyle, who absorbed it with a wave of his hand.

"Sorry, didn't I make that clear?" Kyle asked. "I said. That's what makes me think I can come in here. Because otherwise it'd be foolish to walk into the office of a Sith this way."

He shrugged. "You could surrender, you know?"

"A Force Nexus," Sidious said, thinking very quickly, then focused his attention on Kyle.

It was expertly hidden. Tamped down and contained, concealed within his body, in a way most Jedi simply didn't bother to do. But Kyle was a blaze of light in the Force, a mixture of light and shadow that made it clear that this was a Jedi who had walked the dark path before… and turned away from it.

No.

Harnessed it, taming some of the greatest powers of the Dark Side so they would serve him for the light.

He could only be telling the truth. Somehow this man had gained access to a power which exceeded the strength of a legendary force dyad – and – and he had found it on Ruusaan? In the remnants of the Thought Bomb?

"Impossible!" Sidious snarled.

"I find that's a tricky phrase to use," Kyle said, sounding amused, but Sidious didn't bother paying attention.

"I detest Darth Bane!" Sidious declared, his voice loud enough they'd probably heard him outside. "The man engineered a trap to kill off hundreds of Jedi and Sith! He – he absorbed all their strength into a – he created a means of apotheosis! Of becoming one with the Force while retaining physical form! He made a way to become a GOD and he didn't even bother to keep records of it! Or notice! This is – this is - !"

Sidious could not find the words.

In a vague sort of way, he also registered that his chest was hurting quite a lot.

Kyle blinked, feeling off-balance all of a sudden, as the man he still thought of as the Emperor keeled over in front of him.

Several confused seconds passed, then Kyle moved forwards somewhat gingerly and checked Palpatine's pulse.

Sure enough, the old man was dead.

"...huh," he said, then pulled out his comlink. "Jan, can you pick me up here?"

"You're finished already?" Jan replied. "That was quick. How was he in a fight?"

"I… don't know," Kyle admitted. "I think he just died of sheer anger."

He moved his free hand down to cup his elbow, tapping his foot as he thought. "Now what do we do?"

"Apart from get out of here before someone notices?" Jan asked. "Kyle, Palpatine was rescued from a kidnapping by Count Dooku only a couple of days ago, his security's going to be doing regular check-ins…"

"Any leads on who killed the Chancellor?" Anakin asked, worried.

"None whatsoever," Mace replied. "However, the investigation of his office revealed two of these."

Taking it out of his pocket, Mace put the lightsaber down on a table in the middle of the council chamber.

"Is that the murder weapon?" Kit Fisto asked.

"It can't be," Saesee Tiin replied. "The Chancellor had no wounds, didn't he?"

"This is a much worse problem," Mace explained. "One of these weapons was found in a hidden compartment. This is the other one, which the Coruscant Guard released to me after scanning it for prints… it was found on the Chancellor's person."

To make his point, he picked up the blade again, and activated it – letting the red glow fill the council chamber.

"The Chancellor was a Sith?" Obi-Wan asked, from Utapau. "...in hindsight, it does make sense of a few things."

Anakin frowned.

"Like when he told me to leave you on an exploding ship, you mean," he suggested.

Everyone else looked at Anakin.

"Like that, yes," Mace said.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Enter," Mace invited, and the door hissed open.

"Honoured Councillors, I apologize for the interruption," Master Velti said. "I felt Councillor Skywalker would be the best source for this question… how long, exactly, has Tatooine had an ocean?"

Anakin blinked.

"...what?" he asked. "It's never had an ocean, unless you count the dune sea."

"That appears to have changed," Master Velti said. "My initiates were doing a class on outer rim worlds, and it seems that Tatooine now has an ocean covering around half the planet. It seems that a terraforming company calling itself Moldy Crow industries has done it as what they call a demonstration piece."

"Very interesting," Yoda said, sounding amused of all things. "Go there, you must, Skywalker. Take senator Amidala, you should."

He nodded into the holoprojector. "Delayed honeymoon it will be, yes?"

Anakin gaped.

"Don't act so surprised, Councillor," Mace said, with a chuckle. "I know how to act. You don't. We've known for years."

AN:

When Force Sniper Rifle isn't necessarily enough…

I wanted a reason for Kyle to actually use the full Valley… and a particularly ignominious death for Palpy.