#sith existing openly in senate focused au

[dathomirdumpsterfire]

if it will keep you from setting them off while people are trying to celebrate. ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ

... but of course. ᕙ⁠(͡⁠°⁠‿⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠ᕗ

[nevertheless-moving]

Could you talk more about your gumbo jar jar au or the frog one? 🐸

hm on close review the frog promise draft is a now redundant drabble from this au. Here it is in its entirety:

“I will never join you,” Luke said with a sneer of disgust.

Palpatine, as well as the nearby politicians, Jedi masters, and reporters were taken aback. 

“I’m afraid I don’t understand your meaning, Master Jedi,” the Senator said incredulously. “Do you mean to tell me that you consider yourself separate from the Republic? I know the Jedi Council had disavowed recognizing you but I never could have imagined...” he trailed off, leaving the crowd to murmur in alarm.

“I mean I will never join the Sith,” the rogue master replied calmly. “I imagine you’re responsible for the traces of the dark side I felt amongst the trade federation leaders.”

“The Sith...I see.” Palpatine took a step back, deliberately reassuring tone and alarmed expression clearly indicated that he suspected the man before him of insanity. “It’s been a very long day and you clearly intended to do good by my humble home world. Perhaps your fellow Jedi can take you to the healers so you can-”

“Why are you working alongside a Sith Lord?” Luke cut off the Senator and addressed Grandmaster Yoda directly. 

“A Sith Lord, you say?” Master Yoda replied. “A most serious allegation, this is.”

Basically, Luke derails the Naboo Crisis by absolutely annihilating the trade federation army, only realizing after the fact when and where he is. This means that Padme turns right around from Tatooine and never voices her vote of no-confidence. Now, Palpatine probably had contingency plans in place, but the public accusation by a Jedi of being responsible for the crisis in the first place, despite absolutely no evidence, hurts his image enough that he’s not going to win a vote, because people will think it’s a power grab. 

And it’s funny cause it’s true but Luke only barely knows that! He’s just accusing Palpatine of being behind the first evil thing he sees and he fuckin happens to be right!!!

Anyway Luke doesn’t focus on Palpatine; there are like 10,000 other Jedi around. He commits himself first and foremost to completing his training with Master Yoda because sometime Yoda just dies and fades into thin air so, you know! He’s not going to procrastinate on that again!

He goes before the council and humbly asks to be taken on Yoda’s student (this is right before Qui-Gon can ask about Anakin- literally, Anakin and Qui-Gon are in the waiting room). He gives several extremely vague banthashit explanations of who he is ‘I’m a follower of the Force,’ where he comes from ‘the Force sent me,’ and why they should train him when he’s way too old ‘the Force willed it.’ Yoda is somewhat impressed because those are some real unhelpfully wise answers and- here’s the kicker- Luke actually believes them! 

He is really committed to being a Jedi! Is 110% all about being a luminous being! This is several years after return of the Jedi and Luke has pretty much just been hanging out in force temples meditating with ghosts so he has quintessential Jedi vibes, he just knows jackshit about anything!

What really clinches it for Yoda is the fact that his robe pocket starts squirming and he pulls out a live Nabooian Salt Frog. And hands it to Yoda like, “These are one of your favorites right? :) I saw it and I thought of you :)”

Now Yoda- let’s step back a second. Yoda is old. Yoda, in his youth, was a bit more feral. He’s a top level predator and the order has always celebrated diversity and being true to your origins! He’s hunted with Tortugans on Shili! He’s unhinged his jaw with Besalisks on Ojom! 

But as the Republic’s boundaries caved in on themselves, he was more and more put into contact with Core senators who tend to be unnerved by more, ah, carnivorous tendencies. And the more he was put into high level positions by virtue of being really frickin old, the more restrained he became in his public behavior. 

Decades passed and younglings who only ever knew his more ‘harmless-prank’ feral tendencies were increasingly shocked and scared to see him occasionally unhinge his jaw to eat a scrocodile whole. Some of the prey-origin younglings from that field trip actually avoided him for the rest of the their lives.

So. Yoda is still a carnivore- but- in private. With his padawans and his closest peers. But his closest peers age and die and his padawans get younger and smaller as the decades pass. He took on two herbivorous padawans in a row and as a result restrained himself from openly hunting with another soul for around for 50 years.

And then there’s Dooku. ‘Ah a human,’ he thinks. ‘They hunt sometimes. Well. They’re omnivores at least.’

And Dooku is- and I’m not saying this to shame Dooku- but he’s prissy. He likes...neatness. He’s not afraid of violence but force forbid it’s untidy. So when Yoda, excited to get his ambush predation on, takes 14 year old Dooku who’s barely ever left the sterile confines of Coruscant on a trip to a swamp world- yeaaahh it doesn’t go well. Dooku- he doesn’t mean to, honestly. How would he even know that Yoda might be sensitive about things? He’s Yoda. 

But Dooku sobbing openly and puking a little in a bush and running away from Yoda because his Master is terrifying and gross. It... kind of puts the nail in the coffin for Yoda being open about that side of himself. He doesn’t really have it in him to try again. People’s view of him is too fixed, they can’t handle him also being a flesh creature so he focuses on the luminous side of him which is and always was, genuinely, more important than him.

And that’s been the last 100 years or so. The thrill of a live kill is just a little piece of himself that he meditates away and that’s ok. He has the force. He has the order. He’s old anyway, a real hunt would probably hurt his joints. 

And then in comes Luke, radiating Light and earnestness and Jedi serenity while also holding out a very tasty looking live frog. And Yoda realizes Dooku’s not around, he’s surrounded by a council he trusts and respects and likes, none of whom are 14 year olds, all of whom have seen the galaxy and seen worse. He is almost seizing the moment but there’s a little part of him that shriveled up when Dooku cried that’s having a hard time accepting this.

“Want it for yourself, you do not?” Yoda cackles, playing off the offer.

Luke smiles sheepishly and pulls out another live frog. “I was saving it for later. Forgive me Master, your senses are keen as ever I see.”

And Yoda...it’s not about the bribe, really, so much as the symbolism, and it’s not about the flattery either, but darn is the kid really pulling out the stops to make himself likable. And he is a kid, to Yoda anyway. Everyone is these days. What does he care about numbers when there’s a boy smiling like his third padawan, an adorable Rodian who took great delight in their more amphibious and wild missions?

Yoda snatches one of the frogs and slowly raises it in a parody of a toast. Luke does the same. The rest of the council quietly watches in various shades of bewilderment and bemusement.

They’re not actually going to eat that right? Mace thinks. Ugh I hate frogs the skin is so slimy. Shaak Ti thinks. I cannot believe they’re not even offering me one. Yaddle thinks.

And Yoda bites the head off the frog in a quick snap of his jaws, the rest following rapidly. Luke does the same- a slight assist from the force helping his less specialized mandible tear through skin and bone in a well practiced move. He chews slower, but finishes the frog soon enough, the rest of the council looking on with deep uncertainty and a tiny bit of hunger, but no actual fear. They’re Jedi Masters; they’ve eaten everywhere, it’s just a little weird for a human to be eating a live animal and Yoda as far as anyone knew only ate stew and also they were in the middle of a council meeting.

Yoda belches and Luke smiles genially.

“Take you on as my padawan learner, I will. Much to learn you have, much to teach you, I do.”

Luke beams. The council looks on in shock. 

“Master Yoda,” Mace Windu says hesitantly, “He’s clearly in his late 20s, at the earliest. If this is about the... frog thing-”

“Was a pleasant surprise, the frog. The reason for my decision, it is not. Had some training already, he has. Know each other before this day, we do. Taking over for a Master passed into the force, I am merely. Our custom, this is.”

Luke bows lowly and an initiate is summoned to escort him to the quartermasters and then the long-empty padawan suite next to Yoda’s chambers. 

Qui-Gon and Anakin are brought in and. Well. It’s a little hard for them to simply reject the boy after Yoda just pulled that stunt. He’s sent to the initiates dorm, eventually. Mace Windu has a headache from the shatterpoints blinking in and out of existence. Shaak Ti is delighted to discuss a hunting trip with Master Yoda and his new padawan learner Luke Svader. 

The force dances.

[gothamcityneedsme]

Since you want them, fine. Jedi au, make it angst. Feed my personal hell.

Putting this under a readmore because it got looooong.  4.8k words under the cut.  I wrote this in a way that’s pretty rough, honestly the plot content of what’s here could probably be a 15-20k storyline.

--- No one said anything to her.

That was the worst part of it, really, the part that kept prodding at her mind, a darkness of anger she suppressed, not able to deal with it yet but also not wishing for anyone else to make note of it. Such emotions were strong, rolling through the force, and her strength could be all too visible if she wasn’t careful. And so, she bit her tongue, both inwardly and outwardly, pretending not to know anything even though she certainly knew something.

And they should know that they travelled together, that he helped her just as she helped him, even though they were set in their particular goals—they were partners.  The Barsen’thor and the Hero of Tython were consistent allies, often together, following each other’s lead—

And yet no one had thought to tell her what had happened.

(Read more)

(Read more)

No one had told her that he had disappeared.  She only knew because of his absence and his failure to respond to her correspondence, or to reach out to her himself.

A thought, freighting as soon as she thought it—perhaps he had died.  But, no, surely, she would have felt it through the Force if he had.  His presence was so important to her, so special, he couldn’t just vanish without her knowing.

And, bitterly, if he perished, she suspected that his ghost would come to her, that he wouldn’t be content to be one with the Force without watching over her, or at least reassuring her.  But, perhaps that was too emotional of her to assume.

She shook her head.  No it wasn’t.  He was as dear to her as she was to him.  Perhaps more, if she listened to the whispers of her thoughts—she shoved them away, down, with her anger.

But no announcement was made about him, none at all. Not about his mission, not about where he was, not about his absence.  His companions had disappeared as well, alongside him.  His fellow knight, Kira, unknown.  The others weren’t as notable to the Jedi, but those two, they were hardly unknown, and Kira’s master still was here, but even from her—silence. Nothing.

Scholarly talk as usual drifted about the temple, occasionally laden with talk of the war as well, but nothing about them.  Nothing.  It was like walking in a dream—like they didn’t exist.  And, somehow, she got the feeling that even mentioning them was taboo in itself now.  They were a forbidden topic suddenly, even to her, who knew him so well.

She was sure he was sent on a mission.  Of which, perhaps, he was told not to tell her of. He would obey that command, and she would not fault him for doing so.  But…she didn’t even understand why he would be commanded such to begin with.  Why not just place them together?  Already two knights were sent on this mission, at least!  Perhaps more, if others that she wasn’t sure about were also involved, but—

She wished she had gone with him.  Had watched him closer or—or something.  Why would they insist on making him go alone?

Trick felt guilty, being at a moment of rest while the war raged, while his status was unknown, but what was she to do?

 She mediated.  It was all she could think of, other than poking her head where she should not.  She sat cross legged in the grass outside of the temple, taking solace in this familiar location, where she had seen him many times while training, where they had become friends.  She stretched out her senses, grasping for the bond she knew was forming between them. It would be stronger, she felt, if he was as attuned to bonds as she seemed to be, but the Force seemed to dwell in him more internally.  It shifted under his skin, powerful still, but less mystic than the usual Jedi. Things were simpler for him, in some ways, he was able to hide his presence, he was able to strengthen himself and only himself in ways that others had to focus for years to do.  He could lose himself in his mind, bringing the Force with him to whatever task it was he was completing.  He was not outwards, like her, like most.

But still, she was strong and had been since practically birth, trained for just as long.  And so, she hoped that her own strength in bonds and sensing could find him, that she could at least use their closeness to help.  To at least learn where he was in the galaxy.  But—nothing.

It was an endless silence, a lack of him in the stars. Dark velvet extending through all of space.  Republic space, Imperial space, Hutt space, even the Outer Rim and the Unknown Regions—no matter how much she tried to extend, how focused she was, how many hours she spent doing nothing but staying still, ignoring the needs of her body, living through the Force, searching—nothing.

It was like he didn’t exist anywhere.  Not even a hint of him.  Not even a spark of his coolness, his soft, almost mechanical presence. Just…a dark silence.

The Force would not solve this for her.  She would have to look elsewhere, push into those places she shouldn’t.  But it would be worth it, to find him.

First, she went to Master Kiiwiks, Kira’s master. Trick didn’t know her too well, but she was the closest to the two knights, especially since Tavon’s master was long passed now.  But Master Kiiwiks closed herself off, almost immediately, shaking her head sadly and saying that she couldn’t share anything.  Not that she didn’t know, but that she couldn’t share.

Trick’s rage bubbled beneath her skin—if you knew why weren’t you doing anything?!  Why just stay here on Tython when they were gone!  Even if it was dangerous, the mission must have been important.  They wouldn’t waste him on something that wasn’t—and if they yet lived why—

Of course, Trick said nothing of that sort.  She was silent, staring in horror as Kiiwiks turned and left, rushed, not wanting to be around her anymore, and she felt a wave of guilt from the master—guilt!

Something in Trick hissed, steam gathering in her heart, the Force tingling in her fingertips and at the tips of her hair. She couldn’t understand what would be worth such abandonment.  What was worth hiding from the Barsen’thor!  What did this rank mean if not to learn secrets?!

She knew secrets, better than many of them, whispers of things unknown to anyone else, and yet still she was untrusted.

Perhaps the Jedi knew how close they were—of their perhaps emotional connection.  Maybe that was enough to make them not want to bring her in.  But…no.  Even with her rank, if they suspected that, they would confront her—she had a good reputation, they would want to bring her to change rather than risk a fall.  They would not be tolerant.

Not that she ever thought her feelings for him would drive her to that—but she had studied enough history to know that such hubris was risky, for even the most well-meaning Jedi.

So, the silence remained, unanswered.  And, instead of seeking openly, she simply started to listen, passively.  Attuning herself with the Temple entire, seeming like she was focusing on her studies in this rare moment of respite she actually had in between the major moments of her life.

Of course, to her, this was just another form of those moments where she had nothing but a battle to fight and a goal to grasp.

Her listening achieved what her active stance had not—finally she began to hear whispers in the halls, the library, the gardens, and just outside of the Council doors.  They were brief, always, he was too difficult to speak of, but slowly a tapestry started to form from the threads.

His fate was not an unknown.  They knew exactly what had happened to him, and were in fact keeping an eye on him, distantly.  They were not approaching, and were ensuring that their eyes did not approach, for fear for their lives.

Fear for their lives?

She didn’t understand.

She heard that he was captured, but he was still acting of his own will, somehow.  He was sent by them to do something, she was correct about that, and they knew what they had asked him to do, but they weren’t speaking of it clearly enough for her to understand what.  A part of her…worried.  Did they send him already…to kill the Emperor?

That had seemed to be a goal, eventually, one day, for all of the Order but—it would be far too soon.  And he wouldn’t be sent alone for that—she couldn’t fathom it. Perhaps he was sent against a higher ranking Sith, but if so then why was he a danger?

He…couldn’t have fallen.

That wasn’t possible.

…Was it?

 It was good that she had learned patience so well in her training.  Meditating for hours to reach a single point of inspiration, waiting for a moment to come that was predetermined by her masters—it was a virtue she took to well.

She finally heard of a destination—of where he was last seen.

Taris.

 It had been a long time since she had been on Taris, and she remembered the struggling outposts, trying to tame and cure the ravaged world.  She remembered helping set up the infrastructure, with him along the way helping as well.  Side-by-side, they had done a lot for this planet, leading to the early successes they Republic had gained upon it, which had even contributed significantly to the rising politician Saresh.  First governor, now senator—it was interesting to see someone she had known fairly well reach that height.

Taris, regrettably, had not risen as its supporters had.  The Republic still held on to a few places, but the Empire’s reinvasion seemed almost worse than their first one.  Instead of orbital bombardment they were instead slowly poisoning the world with toxic waste and strange dark beasts.  The rakghouls were gaining in number and ferocity as their environment was slowly brought to a state where nothing could survive except for them.

Crops were dying, plants were poisoned, animals were sparse…it was a dream turned nightmare.  One of the worst affects she had ever witnessed the war having—how it corrupted this entire planet.

Hundreds of years of environmental repair, gone in but a few months.

 Once on-planet, she signed up to help with what she could.  There were some Jedi on the planet, but the Republic had essentially accepted a loss here. Other than a few scientists who felt that they could reverse the poisoning, Republic forces just wanted to hold a presence, at least, but nothing more.  The Empire didn’t even have that many forces here numerically, but their biological warfare was more than enough to render everything pointless.  An Imperial victory.

So, the presence of the Barsen’thor was a surprising one, and extremely welcome to the forces here.

She didn’t immediately ask about Tavon, biding her time, throwing her senses out to the wastes in between tasks, and there was a hint, a familiar sense, but it eluded her each time she caught wind of it, shifting away, almost like it was hiding.

And it seemed…alien.  More so than his alien mind, but there was something different in his presence.  And she didn’t want to feel it but it was—a sort of corruption.  Familiar.  Sickening. The dark side encroaching on a previously light mind.  But it didn’t feel like the corruption she was used to healing either, that she had grown accustomed to with the ritual.  It was…something different.  Darker, even, as there wasn’t any undercurrent of insanity or the throes of a restless soul—there was just this quiet calm, this silent malice.

She wanted to refuse to believe it—she did refuse to believe it.  Something must have taken him—he would not have fallen like this himself.  An artifact corrupted him or—something. She would find out.  She would save him.

 She perched herself on a floating hunk of metal in the middle of a polluted lake, the acrid smell burning her nose, but something in the Force was telling her to come here, to sit, to meditate and stretch herself out once more, to focus.  Zenith was set up nearby, on the other side of the lake, his sniper rifle scanning the underbrush for rakghouls or Imperial forces.  She had chosen him to accompany her for his patience, and his familiarity with long, drawn-out missions, especially as a sniper.  She could trust him with this, and trust him to remain calm and alert while she meditated.

She could sense him now, settled down, his rifle perched on his pack as he scanned the slope.  He was as comfortable as a posted sniper could be, and he certainly seemed to be in his element.

She closed her eyes, resting her hands on her knees, allowing the Force to flow through her, a familiar friend.

Taris was aching around her, shifting in ways invisible to the eye, but clear to the Force.  The planet was struggling and dying slowly, a familiar death it had already suffered.  Except, this time, recovery would take even longer, if it were to occur at all.  She could sense the rakghouls—some of which had always been beasts, but others were sentients, recently turned.  Others, still, had a whisper of the Force in them as well, but she moved on from that, it was not her hunt.  It was not what she needed to sense.

The pain of the planet spoke to her, whispering to her, showing her how slow the corruption was, and yet how complete it was. How it soaked into every scrap of life, how it was sinking even still, scorched earth, slowly spreading and turning everything toxic.  The Republic was trying, and the planet appreciated that, but it wouldn’t be enough to stem the tide of the Empire.

This planet knew it was dying, and it accepted that death.  It would fight, it would try, but it had died before—it knew death, and so it would breathe its’ last, content that it had at least flourished again even if only for a short time.

Trick’s lips twisted into a frown.  Was it right to give up like that?  To not see the hope, to not try to ask for more aid?  To just…allow itself to die?  She couldn’t condone that, couldn’t even fathom it.  Sure, there was a time to accept a loss, but to accept such a wrongful death, to do so before it was even certain, to do so instead of asking for help—it was unthinkable to her.

Taris may had been at peace, but Trick was not.

Why tell me this? She wondered, You know what I seek—why reveal such a true to me?

The Force shifted in her, her eyes suddenly given sight of a place far away, the Imperial base, standing imposing in a sea of toxic green.  She couldn’t see details other than the scarlet emblem of the Empire, and vague shapes of Imperial soldiers on duty, their uniforms blending in with the dark desolateness of the durasteel in the dark.

He was there.

She couldn’t see him, but she could feel it, that cold mechanical aura, that inward focus, that familiar shift of power. Somewhere inside that base, he sat, meditating just as she was.  Taris warned her against straying too close, whispering to her that she should stay afar like this, observe where she could not be observed, to see something, but she pushed her senses forward regardless—this was the most focus she had been able to get on him in all this time, she wasn’t going to just give up.

He still didn’t seem aware, she sensed no attack or acknowledgement of her presence.  The…opposite, in fact.  There was something else he was focused on, so much so that it blinded him to all else. A thread, to elsewhere, to farther than she could see, a presence encasing his mind.

She would have to get much closer than this to be able to examine that, so she shifted her senses to him directly, to his presence, his mind.  And it was familiar, just like the flashes she had seen before—familiar in its unfamiliarity.  If she wasn’t certain, she would almost assume that it wasn’t him, that this was just some Sith on the base—but she knew.

There was a wall around him, one that usually wasn’t there for her, but one that she figured was there for other Force-users. But, it was him, and so she slipped past, almost too easily.

She found only more of that chill, more of that swirling corruption, seeping into him, dark violet.  A thrill, of some kind, just below the surface.  That…was something she had never felt in him before, had never even seen.  It was…distinctly not-quite him—and yet, it was.

She looked deeper, past the parts of him that disturbed her, past the coldness, searching for some part of him that was uncorrupted by whatever this presence was—searching for the man she knew—ah.

There it was—there he was.

Familiar, warmer, shoved down into the deep dark of his psyche.  This was the part of him where she could feel their bond still holding on, where she could reach more easily, press herself in alongside him.  He was so far down that she didn’t think he would be aware enough to even sense her, but she tried to push as much of herself as she could through that narrow thread.

He was…tired.  The place where his mind was focused was draining him with every moment, a slow but consistent pull, weakening this part of him that was left, causing more of him to shift towards the corruption.  The corruption was not a force entering from the outward aspects—it was entering internally, through wearing down this part of him.  Pressing in, an uncomfortable guest he couldn’t push out.

Or—well, she wasn’t sure.  He wasn’t trying to push it out, as his focus was entirely upon it, but there wasn’t any…friction.  Just, awareness, and a soft desire to keep the rest of himself hidden. To just remain like that, in the dark, lulled into a sort of sleep which he was not awakening from.

A part of him was shifting though, responding to her presence even while asleep, and to her horror it retreated.  Only slightly, inching away through its’ slumber, forgoing her warmth—and something, in its’ dreams, sparked.

Fear. He was afraid of something, so desperately afraid that even this shard of him was recoiling at her presence.  And it wasn’t at her. She was not the source—she was—simply a catalyst, reminding him of what he feared as she caused this part of him to awaken—

This was the part of him that was him, the part of him that would fight, to defend both her and himself, so why would he—

A sudden realization hit her like a bell, ringing in her ears.

He has given up.

Well, of course he did, she thought bitterly, No one has tried to save him.

She froze in her mental tracks, simply standing there, in his mental presence, allowing his wakening self to truly realize that she was not fading.  And he did, she could feel more of him opening up to her, more of him recognizing her. That chill, while still there, for the moment was pulled back, hidden from them behind a curtain of thought.

I am here to save you.

He shrunk back.

           Don’t look at me.

She remained, staunch.  I will not judge you.  I don’t know what they’ve made you do.  I’ve been searching for you.  I won’t give up on you.

           Have they given up?

She hesitated.  He responded to it, reading her emotions perfectly between their not-quite-bond.  A wave of exhaustion, of this almost calm sort of panic—he had accepted how awful his situation was—washed over her, a gentle anxiety-inducing wave.

Tavon.

           I understand.  I failed, and my failure is terrifying.

What failure?  What did they ask you to do?

There was a brief ripple in their connection, a rustle of Force slipping through, that separate far-off presence almost peeking in, but not really—it was too far to properly do so, or to realize.  But something within it must be aware, like it had seen an insect shift out of the corner of its eye, but saw nothing when it turned to face it.  It was just wind, shifting the fabric of the Force-curtain.

           Kill him.

Claws of ice ensnared her heart.  Her whole body tensed, and for a moment she almost regained awareness of her physical self—but she reigned her reaction in, just enough to keep herself tied to the Force, tied to their bond.

           I was to kill the Emperor.

She didn’t know what to say—what to think, even.  They sent him and Kira to kill the Emperor while the war was still raging so powerfully?  When they had no intel on the Emperor or why he hadn’t been seen by the Dark Council in years?!  They just…sent two knights to fight him?!

Anger spiked in her, a violent shifting she kept under her skin.  To him, she thought,

Alone?!

           They told me to kill him.

His presence was withdrawing, growing softer, quieter.  She reached out, trying to grasp at him, but their bond seemed weaker—no—it was more like he himself was fading, and so naturally their bond would weaken as well.

Tavon?!

           I can’t…stay like this.  You have to—please find me somewhere else.  Don’t find me here.  I’ve…I’ve got to go away for a while now.  I won’t—I won’t ask you to leave me, I know you won’t.  But find me later.  When I…can help…

Their connection snapped and she opened her eyes, the glowing green of the toxic lake taking up the majority of her vision with how dark the rest of her surroundings now were.  She could still sense him, faintly, but it was barely a wisp now, even though they were on the same planet.  Even the cold presence seemed almost undetectable now, just…faded.

Something else had been in there, the whole time.  Something was weakening him, constantly.  He had seemed so afraid, before he recognized her, and even after that, he seemed scared, tired, willing to fight but he knew it was a losing battle. That was what she felt he meant—she had to wait to find him again so that he could fight with her, so that she could help him win.

She would.  But, she would listen.  She wouldn’t meet him on Taris.

 That didn’t mean that she didn’t try to find him, though.  To learn what he was doing here, to maybe get at least a little bit more insight as to what had been done to him.

It was hard to get anywhere close though, especially without being detected.  He always seemed to be encased in a phalanx of Imperial troops, and she wasn’t going to risk being seen or fighting them, not when Tavon himself had told her to keep a distance from him.  He couldn’t know she was there.  For…some reason.  That dark presence.

She masked herself, as well as she could, hoping that their weakened bond was quiet enough to keep her proximity hidden from him. She wasn’t too used to hiding her presence in the Force, but she managed it through careful focus—it helped that she wasn’t fighting.

Qyzen was her companion of choice now, as he was much better at hiding in this sort of environment.  Zenith would have been a fine choice as well, still, but Qyzen was used to underbrush like this, whereas Zenith was a bit out of his element anywhere that wasn’t like Balmorra, having not been extremely well travelled before joining her.

Qyzen, of course, preferred the hunt and thrill of a kill, but he accepted recon as an acceptable tactical focus, especially because he wished to help her as an ally.  He could wait on gaining more points for his Scorekeeper for this. And, if they were caught, there would be points aplenty.

They were in the thick of the Imperial occupied areas now—not at their actual base, but in the areas they were operating within. There was mostly only wildlife around here, though a few pockets of Republic resistance was around too.  It hurt to avoid them, to not be helping them, to know that they were probably ordered to die here for a show of force, but…Trick had to focus.  Had to keep her presence masked so that she could learn something.  She had already done almost all she could for the war effort on Taris.  Now she had to do what she came here for.

She followed the bond, as weak as it was, slowly to the source.  She crept along the edges of a large remnant of what once had been a great tower—she had read that once Taris had once been like Coruscant, a city built on top of another, layer upon layer, although not quite as many as Coruscant itself—Taris always still had the natural core, something Coruscant seemed to lack.  The destruction had been devastating, but that natural core had risen, had taken over the rest, only now to be debilitated again by the poison.

It wasn’t difficult to keep hidden from the patrols like this, next to the fallen structures, sticking to their shadows. Qyzen’s scales blended in perfectly as well, leaving them undetected.

There was a large plain up ahead though, and she wasn’t quite sure how she would even begin crossing it—this must have been a place where the Republic actually worked on restoration, there was little to no debris—nothing big enough for her to hide with really, and even the vegetation was beaten down to a more manageable state.  They had probably meant to build here.  But now, instead of a future town or city, it was just a blank plain, stretching out across what would soon die to toxic waste.

He was here though—actually—now that she clung to it again, it seemed that he was closer than she thought.  It had been difficult to tell through the strange fluctuations of Force, but a sudden tug, a chill running up her spine, made her realize that she was…close.

Too close.

He was on the plain.

If she had stepped any closer, surely even his deafened sense would find her—whoever had done this to him was watching at least that closely.  So she froze, drew herself in.  She didn’t need to sense so acutely anymore, not when he was right there.

Instead, she brought her power to her body, to her eyesight to sharpen it, so that she could make out the figures crossing the plain.

There were several, although the others all seemed to be…Imperial guards?  The red ones, the elites that she rarely saw out in the field, as they were usually posted as honor guards in areas that no member of the Republic typically tread. Not even her.  And, in the center of the group…there he was.

It was like someone had taken his body and dressed it up like a doll—he was clothed in dark robes, the typical style that Sith wore, hood drawn up over his head, but she knew it was him.  His lightsaber was on, activated as a small group of rakghouls approached the group, and it—was a…red lightsaber.

How…gauche.  Just a prop, shoved into his hands.

It’d almost be funny if it wasn’t sickening.

That wasn’t him.

It was the chill, it was that far off presence, slipping down, controlling his mind somehow, but not like how the force plague did—it felt different.  It was too cold.

And the way he moved wasn’t impassioned, it was mechanical, like it was commanded stiffly, like he was lifeless.  His limbs were just moving without looking like him—it was…awful to see.  Even from this far away, even though she couldn’t fully make out what it was she was seeing, she knew.

The Emperor had done something to him.

But she couldn’t save him alone—she had to reach out to him the way she had before, when she had spoken with him, and she had to take his hand and pull—to snap that connection.  To bring him back.

She just had to wait until she could.  For him to recover enough so that their bond became solid enough to grasp.

She would follow.  She would wait.  She could be patient.

She would save him.

[nevertheless-moving]

Unnamed Extremely Bad Plan to Defeat Darth Sideous AU - SW AU NO 9

Hopefully writing down this star wars au will help me exorcise the cringe demon that helped midwife it. Time travel au where obi-wan and Anakin come up with an extremely SPECIFIC and UNCOMFORTABLE plan to defeat Palpatine because it unfortunately, would actually work, as it capitalizes on one of Palpatine’s easiest to reach political vulnerabilities. This is not a unique plan- there are other au’s like this, but this one is mine. When searching for ways to explain exactly why this anti-sith strategy inspires such cringe and delight in myself I realized, with sinking dread, I have seen this in an Always Sunny episode...which yeah. I might be over reacting but hey, cringe is a personal phenomenon, everyone’s different.

Anyway! Uh here’s a bunch of plot that will eventually culminate in the plan. 

*Too much plot, aaaah*. **All plot actually.** ***Its 1 am and this is still a draft*** ****It’s 2am**** *****This post will be just be background I guess.*****

*******STAR WARS AU NO 9 LAZILY OUTLINED CHAPTER ONE*********

Force ghosts Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi have had time to yell at one another without need for breath, and have more-or-less come to terms with the trainwreck that was their shared life. I wouldn’t call them well adjusted, but they’re more stable then they were the last decade or so of their living existence. 

In haunting Luke, they end up encountering an artifact in an ancient Willis temple that offers spirits the chance to fix the mistakes they made in life. It doesn’t truly unwrite what’s been done, but it lets you create an alternate timeline. So this galaxy will still be what it is, but some alternate galaxy somewhere could at least have it better. Its almost never been used, because becoming one with the force usually lets you accept the past, but viewed objectively, Vader and Ben’s lives involved an extreme amount of yikes. They say goodbye to Luke and are flung backwards and sideways.

Anakin is holding his mother as she dies. Obi-Wan is landing on Genosis. 

Vader just barely manages to avoid slaughtering the tuskens. To be honest, he doesn’t really get why he shouldn’t- his moral compass is still pretty f-ed up. He’s fairly certain the force is just torturing him, but still he controls himself (for Padme for Luke for Leia).

I’m gonna say well-adjusted!Vader sees murder in general as more of a vice than a sin- on par with having a beer. And really well adjusted Vader is willing to admit to himself that he’s an alcoholic, he seriously cannot regulate, its a problem. He really can’t let himself go, because he’ll just end up spiraling. And so he restrains himself and only seriously maims a few of the adult raiders.

Vader figures he can always come back later and slowly torture them to death if this whole ‘save the future’ thing doesn’t pan out.

Obi-wan leaves his shuttle and hides under a rock for 30 minutes. He calculates thats just enough time for him to pretend he went on an extremely effective and sneaky fact finding mission- just in case anyone checks R4′s records. Gets back in shuttle and gets the fuck out of there, much to Dooku’s chagrin, who lost sight of him after the shuttle landed and is now going to have to switch to one of his alternate start-the-war plans. 

On the flight back he reports everything to the council- fallen Dooku and the separatist leaders, the trade federation and the massive droid army, Jango Fett the clone template of the republic army (?) working for the separatists. He briefly comms Anakin, but anyone hacking into their conversations would hear only a nonsensical, rambling conversation. Later, a hacker might turn over the idea that they were speaking in elaborate code, but why would Jedi invent such a thing during peacetime?

The war still starts; at this point in the timeline it was inevitable; the artifact was only designed to give them the chance to correct their own failings, not the galaxy’s. Palpatine still gets his emergency powers. 

The same day the armies are discovered, separatist war ships take off to engulf Ryloth. The Jedi are instructed by the senate to lead the clone army and provide immediate relief-this will not be a repeat of the republic’s inaction on Naboo. It’s both better and worse than the first Battle of Genosis. So many more civilians are caught in the crossfire. The first titanic battle is not contained to evacuated droid factories, but rages across an entire populated world. The battle lasts for weeks.

The main reason this fight is less deadly is solely due to the fact that General Kenobi manages to maneuver his way into high command of the entire army.

 “I believe assumptions were made since I was the first point of contact with Kamino, Masters,” the Knight explained apologetically to the arriving high council members. “I realize its not quite appropriate, but for right now I am the Jedi most familiar with our forces and the enemies. I would, of course, prefer to cede the role to someone else.” 

The assembled Jedi can feel the truth in that statement.

“For better or for worse, advance troops were directed by the senate to land planetside and have met heavy resistance. I managed to redirect them to a more defensible position, where they can provide surface based cover fire for incoming reinforcements. The battle has already begun.” He received a grim nod of approval from Master Windu.

“I feel the need to say now, that if there’s one thing I learned from my time as a general on Melida/Dann, or in working against Death Watch on Mandalore, its that having a clear chain of command is vital for a military to succeed. I don’t need to remind some of you that leadership breakdowns were what ultimately ended both the Stark Hyperspace War and the Yinchorri Crisis,” Masters Koon and Tiin exchanged looks before deliberately sending forth a small force wave of approval, understanding where this briefing was leading. 

“I believe that unnecessarily restructuring command before the battle is won here could do far more harm than good.” The reminder of Obi-wan’s unusually militaristic apprenticeship put some of the assembled knights at ease even as it inspired a twinge of guilt in the older masters. 

“In command you are, General Kenobi,” Master Yoda finally acknowledged. “A Jedi Master you will be, once done this battle is. Have us do, what would you?” 

The battle lasts for weeks, and when its over, the commanding Jedi and Troopers involved will openly acknowledge that had anyone else been in command, it would’ve lasted months, if not years. Facing down logistical, strategic, and tactical problems on a scale unheard of for a thousand years, High General Kenobi does not falter.

Enemy reinforcements seem unending. For all their preparation, every single trooper is new to war, and secretly concerned that should they fall, they will be replaced with cadets who hadn’t even finished their training.

Obi-Wan is putting out fires before they can start. Much to their shock, clone commanders are informed that they will, for the time being, remain in charge of their troops. With a handful of exceptions, Jedi ‘Generals’ were in fact, to be treated as a cross between highly skilled commandoes and advisors with abnormally sourced field intelligence. 

“All of you have spent your lives training to lead your brothers into combat. The Jedi Masters and knights who are being assigned to your divisions have not received such training.” 

General Kenobi addressed the division commanders, some in person, some over holocomm. All focused in rapt attention as their General reordered the shape of their lives using language they could understand.

“The command structure I am issuing is designed to maximize our ability to utilize our respective strategic capabilities, while minimizing potential loss of your life. It will be our great privilege to serve alongside such an army, and while I fully expect a complementary exchange of knowledge in time, for now, focus on survival.”

The Jedi received similar briefings, tailored for their broader array of combat and military experience. Some, including Jedi Master Pong Krell and Grandmaster Yoda, were pulled aside and tasked with the essential mission of infiltrating and destroying the Droid factories on Genosis. If they were to have a chance of winning this war, they they would need to cut off the seemingly unceasing flow of droid reinforcements. 

An elite squadron of Arctroopers and Jedi field operatives were covertly dispatched, Grandmaster Yoda himself in command. Considering Count Dooku had yet to appear anywhere near Ryloth...the grandmaster had the best chance of bringing in the fallen separatist leader alive for questioning.

Shortly after they left, Anakin arrived, having finally turned over Padme’s protection to her regular guard. With the military creation vote past, the assassination risk was considered minimal. The real delay in his arrival came from her repeated attempts to join the Grand Army of the Republic on Ryloth with the intent of coordinating humanitarian assistance. Eventually he managed to convince her that she could do more good in the senate. 

After all, he pointed out, someone would need to followup the military creation act with a bill to grant clones equal citizen rights. Otherwise, the legal grey area that cloning fell under and their non-republic origin would inadvertently make the clones slaves. 

His borrowed Nabooan cruiser entered the warzone with the grace and efficiency as a small neutron bomb.

Those close enough to see its flaming descent watched in horror, realizing that the high generals own padawan would likely be a war casualty before he ever engaged in combat.

The legion nearest to soon-to-be-ground-zero, under the command of Captain Rex of the 501st, were distracted by heated combat, as the temporary barricade they had put up to defend the civilian population gave way to droidika artillery. 

While reloading, several dozen troopers happened to look up to see a speck detach itself from the hull as at spiraled in the lower atmosphere. Hope spread that the Jedi had managed to activate some sort of eject hatch. A skilled shocktrooper could probably control and and survive such a fall with luck, which mean a Jedi almost certainly could. 

A few tactical scouts charged with watching the skies confirmed that the speck was indeed a humanoid. No chute was visible, but even 8 days into the war, rumors had already spread about how Master Windu had passed off his chute mid-air to a troopers who had been damaged by suppressing fire, cushioning his free fall solely with the tank he crushed upon landing. 

Only one trooper, stationed in the town clock tower specifically to track the Padawan’s arrival and issued with a high-resolution farscope, saw the whole thing. Fortunately for his credibility later, in its current setting, the scope automatically logged photos every 5 seconds, ensuring that for years to come Obi-Wan would have a flipbook as evidence that he was not the crazy one.

CT-3609 or Blink (as he was named after winning the division wide staring contest on Kamino two year prior) forwarded the trajectory of the vehicle to command, who confirmed his analysis that it would impact two clicks out from their makeshift fort and not present a risk to civilian or trooper lives. 

As it traversed the stratosphere a figure (desperate repair droid, Blink assumed) emerged from the cockpit to perch on the nose of the ship. As it entered the troposphere, it became painfully obvious that the figure jutting out from the hull of the ship was in fact not a humanoid droid, but an unarmored human. The Jedi stood on the prow of the ship, seemingly impervious to and oblivious of:

air resistance 

centrifugal force

normal space gravity 

Blink’s slack-jawed bewilderment

the flames engulfing the ship below him

At this range, the smirk on the man’s face was visible (man? boy? kriff is he even through puberty?). Several miles above the surface he leaped, diving towards the ground like a bird of prey. 

To the west, the ship made impact with the ground, sending a shockwave that shook the tower just enough for Blink to lose visual in the final moments of descent. Cursing, as while he was confident the Jedi would inexplicably survive, he really wanted to see how. The trooper scanned the droid-engulfed farmland to the north for a crash site, to no avail. Lingering smoke from the burnt countryside negatively impacted visibility low to the ground.

Rather than trying to articulate his report into words, he sent the 50-odd frames the farscope had saved, as well as the coordinates for the jedi’s projected radius of touchdown. A quick radio over to long range electro-ballistics ensured that his landing wouldn’t be marred by friendly fire.

He awaited follow-up questions on the absurd entry method, which, when they came, mostly consisted of variations on “...Is this for real?” and eventually “Can you set the scope to video for a little while?” and finally “Do you think that’s how he got the name Skywalker?”

There was a temporarily lull in fire from the west, likely a ripple effect from the ship’s explosion. From his vantage point Blink could see his batchmates using the opportunity to try and plug the holes in their barricade with broken droid pieces. Regardless of the itch to join them, he knew he couldn’t leave his post until the Jedi actually arrived in camp. Finally, a distant explosion and thick pillar of smoke gave the Jedi’s position away.

He tried to make out details, but the scope had a difficult time focusing through the haze. Manually trying to fine tune the scope’s settings, Blink caught a glimpse of what looked like half a hover tank sailing through the air to impact with a trade federation troop carrier in a fiery explosion. Several more explosions, flying droid artillery, and plumes of smoke were caught on record before visual contact with the source was established. He was mostly visible as a blue blur, lightsaber mowing a meandering path towards their location. 

It wasn’t until Skywalker braced himself in place to punch a droidaka into pieces that Blink caught actual sight of the man. Only his eyes were visible, nose and mouth covered by layers of cloth. He blurred, then reappeared on top a massive missile launcher attached to an absurdly heavily armored vehicle. A minute or so of rapid blue flashes passed, the longest he had seen concentrated in one area. Then Skywalker was gone, movement clearly visible as he for once he moved in a straight line, plowing a rapid path away from the launcher. 

Less than 30 seconds later, Blink had to wince away from the scope, as a burning white explosion temporarily overwhelmed the direct light filter. The trooper panicked for a moment, thinking he had gone both deaf and blind, but the abrupt, sucking silence ended after a moment with a deafening sonic boom. The shockwave rattled the farscope, nearly knocking it over, but Blink managed to steady it and himself in time. 

A cheer emerged from pleasantly surprised vod below. The entire droid legion that had been guarding the missile launcher and apparent ordinance bay was flattened. 

It took a moment for the realization to set in that the background noise of missile and and anti-missile collisions directly overhead had slowed pace. With the northern flank gone, artillery were able to redouble efforts to the east, and a second white hot shockwave ensued, signaling that the tide of battle had shifted. It was almost too easy for the republics electro-ballistics to tactically devastate the surrounding forces. 

Eventually some sort of win/loss programming must have set in and all forces outside of a certain radius began retreating southward, conceding the scorched land to the republic army. It was cadets work to clean up the final suicidal droid charge. 

A commotion ensued as Skywalker leapt the barricade with a mid-air flip. The vod greeted him with cheers, as they correctly assumed his appearance had something to do with the skirmish’s decisive victory.

Blink sent the video of the battle to command and quickly packed up his scope and assorted equipment. Hurrying down the battered tower, Blink thought to himself that this Anakin Skywalker was the best sort of Jedi a trooper could ask for.

uh sorry i got really sidetracked there moving on

Kenobi and Skywalker quickly become the face of the war once again

they grit their teeth a bit, but when they finally have a moment to really plan they eventually agree that to take down Sideous they have to cut off his political power in addition to everything else, and taking advantage of their public personas was the most accessible way to do so (*evil laughter*)

While Dooku wasn’t captured, Yoda heard the truth in his old student’s cryptic warnings about a Sith in the Senate, and the council begins carefully editing their release of tactical plans to the Chancellor’s office in the hopes of ferreting out the spy in their midst.

Pong Krell looses two arms in his duel with Dooku. Obi-Wan successfully hides his smug pleasure at the news. Anakin enjoys makeing comparisons between him and Grievous. 

Kenobi doesn’t allow the origin of the clones to go unexamined, although he agrees that if the public were informed that they don’t actually know who ordered them it would probably cause panic.

The ‘inhibitor chips’ are ‘discovered’ early on and Anakin leads the effort to ensure that they are phased out and removed immediately. This consists of reminding every Jedi who even hesitates about how how he as a child slave had some experience with control chips and unless you want to take a leaf out of the hutts books lets start doing brain surgery chop chop mmmkay?

(This isn’t to say that Vader doesn’t still a twinge of shame at acknowledging his slave roots. But it is eclipsed by the burning guilt that he knowingly acted as slave master to his troops for decades after Sideous wiped their minds. He tried to rationalize it to himself, after all he didn’t immediately understand what Order 66 had done to the troopers. But while the morality of murder was more of an intellectual concern than a personal one, treating people as things...)

The Kamonions are a little harder to budge, referencing contracts that they refuse to allow the Jedi to see

Finally Vader snuck into the Chief Medical Scientist’s home while she was sleeping and straight-up threatened to murder her and burn down her lab. At the risk of losing her life’s work, Nala Se complied.

Vader left with the final threat that in the event that Darth Tyranus caught wind and activated Order 66 prematurely, he would kill 100 Kamonians for every Jedi felled by troopers. Shaak Ti was pleased by the cloners sudden change of heart. Tyrannus, and by extension, Sideous, are in the dark. 

Obi-Wan frequently publicly confronts Palpatine about the troops citizen status, urging him make use of his emergency powers to grant them citizenship and full pay, with the option to leave the army should they so wish. 

Anakin manages to play off his avoidance of the Chancellor as disappointment in his perceived lack of dedication to anti-slavery efforts

Finally Palpatine gives in- regardless of what happens next, the troops will be looked after.

With 2/3rds of the troopers dechipped, Vaderkin is eager to kill Sideous again, but after several intense screaming matches and sparring sessions, the time travelers come to the agreement that even if they succeed in their duel, with things as they were, the perception of the Jedi military coop would cause mass civil unrest. The scattered sith apprentices, while individually weak, were more than capable of magnifying that fear and anger until the galaxy breaks. Darth Sideous wanted to ensure that if he couldn’t have the galaxy, no one would. 

(Vader knows this. Sideous enjoyed monologuing, and much of his plotting couldn’t be safely bragged about until after he had decisively won, leaving Vader as the unwilling receptacle for years of pent-up rants and self-satisfied gloats about the inevitability of his victory)

Continued Here