And while Anakin and the others prepared… you walked across the halls of the Senate, towards the Supreme Chancellors Office. His guard, red-robed and seemingly invisible to the Force, let you in, quietly, before leaving, shutting the door behind you.
"Lord Sidious." You said, giving a small bow, a smile cracking under the gaze of the pure malice and hatred that was sitting before you, quietly gazing at you like a predator. You think the only reason you were not dead at this exact moment was because of… curiosity?
No, something more… dangerous.
"Young Padawan." He said with an even, but calm tone. He was trying so desperately to not strike you down in anger. Maintaining a facade of civility and grace he always seemed to have. "I see your master is not here accompanying you?"
You gave a small chuckle as he gestured to the seat in front of his desk. "I think we're both past that point now. Even he couldn't protect me, even if I believed he could, not from you. Anakin maybe… but not him."
"You do not trust Skywalker with this… information?" He raised an eyebrow.
"He has his own worries to deal with, ones that are far more important than this." You replied as you sat back, still feeling on edge. YOu couldn't relax… this place was like a Rancor den, impossible to escape once you entered it.
"Young Skywalker's family is an interest that I will take a keen interest in, once the child is born, and their potential known through the force." Sidious replied, turning around and looking out at the night sky.
"He'll die before that happens." You stated firmly.
"I'm counting on it." He replied. "Skywalker should have been mine… but the Jedi finally decided to change, after a thousand years of entropy. At such a critical moment, in Galactic history."
You scoffed. "I know. The end of the Era of Peace, and Prosperity of the Republic. A new age."
"A better age. An imperial age." Sidious stated. "It would have come without my influence, but with my hand, something far greater than even the greatest era's of the Republic could finally be achieved. 25,000 years is too long for a single government to rule the galaxy."
Once again,you showed disrespect, by scoffing. "I believe the Republic, for all its flaws, is worthy of survival. People still believe in it, despite it's corruption and brokenness. And 25,000 years shows a remarkable will to change, and become what the Galaxy needed of it… if nothing changed, it would have fallen long ago. The Republic is just changing again. Even if you got your empire… people would still remember the Republic, and seek to restore it. That is the power of legacy. That is the power of memory."
Sidious shook his head. "People do not have memory, they don't have ambition, they merely exist, chained to mediocrity and stagnation. Change needs to happen…"
"Under a Tyrant?" You asked.
"Under an unrelenting force," Sidious replied. "Under the Sith."
"It shouldn't matter, we live in a state that does not persecute based on religion." You replied. "It persecutes based on actions. Anyone with a basic constitutional knowledge of the Republic's constitution would know that. However, I do have one thing to ask, before you kill me? Why destroy the Republic, it's given everything you wanted?"
Sidious chuckled. "The Republic is the Jedi, and the Jedi the Republic. They are one in the same, one an arm of security, the other a body of legislation. They cannot exist without one another… The Sith realized that centuries ago, to finally have our revenge against the Jedi and see their destruction, the Republic would need to fall. We have spent millennia eroding the foundations of the Republic, infiltrating and destroying the institutions that made such a state work, all the while sowing distrust and disorder across the galaxy. Showing how corrupt and broken a system is, by creating it, Mas Ameda, Lod Dot, dozens of others what they wanted to see. Showing that fool Dooku that nothing can change without the power of the Darkside, manipulating everything from the shadows until there is only one victor. Me and the Sith."
You sighed.
Finally, he finished monologuing.
That made you stand. "You know, I learned a phrase from Senator Bel-Iblis when I returned to Coruscant… you know what he told me?"
"What?" He said as you felt the force reach for a statue.
"Thus Always to Tyrants." You stated. You then looked at the wall clock. "I think you should watch this vote Chancellor. I think it might be the most important one in your career."
Sidious, for a moment, though you would escape, instead, you turned on the viewscreen and went right to the Senate.
A Senate that revealed a live broadcast of Palpatine… from you.
Padme, for her part, wasted no time in saying the words you had wished to hear since you arrived on Coruscant. And seeing Mas Amedda and several of Palpatine's supporters being arrested by Corellian military officials. "I move to immediately remove Supreme Chancellor Palpatine from his office. All in favor?"
Glad to see Garm was holding his end of the Bargain. He was so smug as he led the Vice-Chancellor and fourth of the Senate in chains.
There was massive Aye from the remaining senators… the ones who still remained loyal to the Ideals of the Republic.