Chapter 135: Ignition
Warning! Chapters 131-135 were all posted back-to-back! Returning Readers, make sure you pick up where you left off!
Chapter 135: Ignition
– 500 Republica Tower – Coruscant – 21.4 BBY –
“So, what is the mood of the Senate, Princess?”
Padmé rolled her eyes at the nickname Aayla had stuck her with. She’d tried to refute the argument that Queens didn’t get demoted to Princesses when they retired. Unfortunately for her, Sabé had been in hearing range and had run with it, proceeding to infect the rest of the handmaidens with the teasing nickname. One that Izuku had to admit fit. Padmé had always possessed a certain poise, aura, and elegance in motion that certainly fit the idea of royalty better than most actual royals Izuku had met over the years. The fact that even Mei had given her a princess-related nickname in ‘Xena,’ really said a lot, come to think of it.
“A chaotic mess. If you hadn’t explained why you wanted to make an appearance, I would have strongly advised you to not. Though, honestly, I suspect you might actually have accidentally stalled out tensions coming to a head even earlier. Announcing your visit made all the other players decide they could hold off to make use of your presence.”
Padmé made an irritated gesture that resembled an annoyed cat more than anything, aiming it generally in the direction of distant Senate dome.
“The Separatists want to lean into the fact that a lot of star systems are legally leaving the Republic, using a loophole to join the League. Arguing that such loopholes existing at all fundamentally supports their own right to leave, whatever the laws on the books say or don’t say about the matter. The Peace Party, on the other hand, wants to point your way as proof that non-Republic governments can be a positive thing and exist alongside the Republic instead of being a direct threat to it.”
Izuku grimaced, having predicted both of those positions easily enough. The one he didn’t have a good handle on, though…
“And the Loyalists?”
Padmé’s expression twitched through several emotions before settling on a mix of annoyance and exasperation.
“The Loyalists are oddly split, to be honest. A lot of those from the Mid Rim, even some from the Inner Rim, have benefited from the Hutts being gone. Which means they aren’t inclined to cause trouble with the League. The Core World Loyalists are pissed, almost to the last member. With a very few exceptions like Alderaan and Corellia who don’t care either way, most of the Core is aggravated with the League for causing a spike in costs for things like food and metals. The way you’ve shored up the Rim around your section of the galaxy has given places like the Abrion Sector the ammunition to force fair deals that the Core hates.”
Aayla snorted derisively.
“They were used to being able to cheat the Rim worlds, with those worlds not being able to do anything about it.”
Padmé’s expression shifted to a frown, but she reluctantly nodded.
“Unfortunately, I can’t really refute that. This crisis has made it increasingly obvious that the Core Worlds were abusing the Rim, to the point that the Separatists have entirely too much ammunition for which there isn’t a real answer. The Jedi Order’s recent push against corruption helped slow the rate of those unhappy enough to leave. But it was too little, too late.”
More than one person in the room nodded at that. It was Dormé, in her role as Padmé’s social-political advisor, who spoke up next.
“There’s a second, more unusual element to it as well. Despite a large number of Loyalist worlds being non-human, the Core World subset of the faction has started to take on a somewhat worrying human-supremist bias. Some of the older worlds, like Alsakan, have always had a certain amount of that. Clear back to the Pius Dea era, really. But it hasn’t been all that strong, historically. Yet there’s been a serious upsurge of humanocentrism since the Separatist movement started, with the culprits focusing on the fact many of the larger players in the Confederacy are non-humans from the Mid and Outer Rim.”
Even Padmé looked a bit surprised at that, causing Dormé to shrug as her boss frowned at her.
“Sorry, Padmé. It’s something I was looking into, and you should have a preliminary report buried in your non-urgent briefs, but there’s been a bigger spike of it since the Sovereign’s arrival. Enough for me to finally realize it was a bigger issue than I originally thought. I’m beginning to suspect it’s a major fault line between the various Loyalist factions that we didn’t recognize until now. Worse, I have no idea who or what is fueling it. It feels too sweeping to be fully natural.”
Sabé hummed, nodding thoughtfully before speaking.
“That would fit with some of what I’ve been seeing on the intel and counter-intel side, I think. There are a couple of major powers within the Loyalist bloc jockeying for position. One of them pushing the idea as a way to boost his allies and suppress or marginalize dissenting voices might make sense. A few of those jockeying for position control major Core World news outlets too, which would make it easily to slant things.”
Cordé cleared her throat, causing the whole room to look at her. She acted mostly as an aide/secretary for Padmé’s group, typically having the least to say. So her speaking up drew attention by default.
“As important as that probably is to look into, we’re straying a bit from the question of briefing the Sovereign on what to expect from the Senate.”
That got looks of chagrin from more than one person, and Padmé semi-smoothly redirected.
“Right. On that note, there are a few specific senators that you need to be aware of. The first is Rishi Lenoan, the Senator for Kuat. He’s virtually certain to use this chance to put political pressure on the League, badly wanting details on some of your ship technology and weapons systems…”
The chat would go on for some time, as Padmé did her best to prepare Izuku for the Sarlacc Pit he was about to step into.
… … …
– Coruscant – Jedi Temple –
Jedi Master Luminara Unduli smiled every-so-slightly as she found her ever-dutiful Padawan meditating with a ball of contained Force Light in her hands. It was a skill that too few Jedi were able to use, and a major push had come down from the High Council to find any of those able to manage it. Luminara hadn’t been particularly surprised when Bariss managed it, despite the fact that Luminara herself was still struggling with the skill. She could use it, but not with the ease that Bariss displayed, her Padawan’s natural gifts with healing aiding her.
Force Light was, for all intents and purposes, a power that attempted to heal reality by purging the Darkside of a localized area. The detrimental effects it had on Darksiders were, in fact, something of an incidental side effect of its intended purpose. Given the increasing issues the Jedi Order had been running into with the Dark Side of late, it was a valuable side effect, however. Enough so that the notoriously-stingy Council of First Knowledge had been all but whacked-over-the-head by Grandmaster Yoda and firmly told to dig up the various holocrons that could teach the Force ability. After the way a mass-usage of Force Light had weakened the Veil of the Darkside for a time, First Knowledge hadn’t had a good counter argument, even if they’d grumbled about it anyway.
Sadly, it had proven not to be an easy ability to learn. Not purely from a holocron at least. Several of those that had come back from the Hutt Crusade had managed it much more easily, having encountered proper teachers of the ability. Even with them helping spread it, bringing up the numbers that could use it had been relatively slow, as it required methods of thought that ran counter to the calm contemplation that was the primary focus of the modern Jedi Order. Luminara was, despite her own difficulties with it, honestly faring better than most. Something she attributed to being a Guardian rather than a Consular, even if many people tended to forget that was what she was.
Shaking off her idle thoughts, she reluctantly broke into her Padawan’s meditation.
“Bariss, it’s time to head out. The Senate session will start in less than an hour.”
For just a moment, her Padawan’s facial expression twitched with displeasure, which caused Luminara herself to need to hold back a snort. Bariss was very clearly annoyed that they’d been shanghaied into serving as the Jedi Observers on the Senate. Luminara wasn’t a huge fan of that fact either, but someone needed to handle it, and Luminara was a logical choice. Despite being a Guardian, she was well known as a calm and even-handed negotiator. Added to the fact that she was one of the handful of Jedi that were used as regular ‘Advisors’ by the High Council? With Adi Galia, who normally handled the job absent, and the High Council incredibly busy, she was a good fit. Being an ‘Advisor’ was an unofficial position, but one that almost always indicated you were being considered as a possible future member. Making her the closest thing to a High Council member available.
An unfortunate truth for both her and her poor Padawan, as neither of them particularly liked dipping their hands in the cesspool that was politics. Still, Bariss did good to display that dislike so little, even the small twitch having been something her Master caught only by dint of familiarity. The younger Mirialan let the sphere of light she’d been maintaining fade and rolled smoothly to her feet.
“Yes, Master. If duty calls, we must obey.”
Failing to suppress her snort this time, Luminara decided not to chastise her Padawan for the tone she’d used. It wasn’t like she particularly wanted this job either, after all. Though at least today’s session should be more interesting that most, with Sovereign Midoriya scheduled to speak on behalf of the League he ruled…
… … …
– Coruscant – Senate Floor – 21.4 BBY –
“…and we have with us, as a special speaker today, Sovereign of the League of Free Stars, Izuku Midoriya.”
Izuku grimaced, still filtering through the thousands of senators present. He’d hoped to do Celeste’s check all in one go, but had horrifically underestimated the impact of the sheer amount of noise caused by Coruscant’s trillions of inhabitants. He’d been on a dozen ecumenopolis worlds previously, of course. Normally, however, he just tightened the filters on the flow of data he got from the Force, excluding anything that wasn’t an immediate threat to him. Trying to filter for suspicious presences, in a room full of thousands of sentients who were nearly all suspicious on account of being politicians? All with the immense weight of trillions of Force signatures pressing down on his filters?
Not easy, to vastly understate the issue.
He’d barely cleared a third of the Senate so far, as his Ambassador’s Repulsorpod floated up to center stage. He started to shift his focus, knowing he had only a few seconds to get his mind in the right zone to make his speech and handle any questions. It was just as he had his filters properly tightened again, squaring his mind to speak…when he finally flew within fifty meters of the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.
Izuku’s brain stopped cold, eyes staring, even as his pod came to a stop perhaps two dozen meters from the man. It rotated to face the rest of the Senate who he was supposed to be addressing, but Izuku unconsciously swiveled himself, eyes locked on the Chancellor. The chamber, expecting him to speak, began to murmur as he did nothing of the sort.
What happened next, he would never be sure if even the Force had predicted.
Perhaps, had he not been shifting between mindsets. Perhaps if he hadn’t been quite so surprised, or if the presence he’d felt hadn’t been so vile. If he’d had any hint or suspicion before that moment. A list of maybes and might haves a kilometer long would occur to him later. Much later. Right now, in this moment, with his mic set to project his voice through the entire Republic Senate, Izuku Midoriya failed to filter the first thought the popped through his brain and out his mouth.
“Wait. How the hell did you guys elect a Sith Lord as your Supreme Chancellor?”
For just a heartbeat or two, every sound in the Senate Chamber stopped as people tried to process what the kriff their guest speaker had just said. Yet, even as Izuku’s eyes blew wide open in realization of what he’d just said and whose face he’d just said it to, it was far too late. A certain Jedi Padawan, whose Master was currently acting as the Jedi Observer for the Senate…instinctively responded to the question by activating the ability she’d been explicitly practicing for use against Dark Siders.
A ridiculously strong pulse of Force Light, fed by the half-panicked reaction of that Padawan, filled the Senate.
Sheev Palapatine was caught completely off guard.
Already reeling from the unexpected question, having gotten zero warning from the Dark Side of the Force due to Izuku’s unique relationship with the Cosmic Force as a whole and routine use of Force Cloak specifically, Darth Sidious reacted. Not with reason, which might have caused him to bluff, to act affronted at the accusation and fake the pain of the Jedi using Force Light being a direct assassination attempt by the Jedi. That might have let him ruin the Jedi, had he had time to think.
But he didn’t have time to think.
Instead, as the Force Light clawed not just at his personal Force Cloak, but also at his connection to the Veil of the Darkside, he momentarily panicked. In a moment of sheer, visceral, reflex he couldn’t have stopped in that instant of unexpected vulnerability, he reached for the Veil, grasped power from it…and launched a brutally powerful burst of Force Lighting directly at the Padawan who had triggered his pain.
A Padawan whose Master was a Guardian, not a Consular, and who had the brute spinal reflexes to get her lightsaber up in time to intercept the lightning. Screams, cries and howls burst forth from hundreds of throats, some few who actually understood what they were seeing, and far more who were merely thrown into panic by the abrupt chaos. Izuku’s own snap reaction to throw up another Force Light caused Palpatine to howl…but this time he had a firm grip on the Veil to power himself and managed to get his mind working through the pain and disruption the technique caused him.
His Force Cloak had fallen with the first burst of Lightning and he knew it.
Every Jedi on the planet had likely sensed it.
For all his evil, for all that Palpatine was merely riding the wave of efforts the Sith had created over centuries of effort, the fact remained that he was still a genius. Not one of Math and Science as his own Master had been, but one of social manipulation and foresight. In bare seconds his mind raced through scenarios and options. Thoughts of trying to play this off were dismissed first. If he hadn’t reacted the way he had, he could have pulled off calling this a power grab by the Jedi. But Sith Lighting was just a bit too well known, once people started looking. He ruthlessly discarded the idea of retaining his position in a way that few Sith would have been willing to accept.
With that done, he began selecting contingencies.
Darth Sidious might not be the greatest or most powerful Sith to ever live, but he was far better than virtually all of them at long-term planning. Despite his own arrogance, despite the unfaltering belief that he would become the Immortal Emperor of the Galaxy, he had still planned for failure. There had always been a chance that, so close to the heart of Jedi Power, someone would manage to detect him. A chance that had been made more real to him by the damage to the Veil during the Hutt Crusade. Damage that had inspired Sidious to review and revise his contingences.
Now, he selected one and executed it with ruthless rage.
A bare instant before Izuku and Luminara both would have lept toward him from their pods, ‘Supreme Chancellor Palaptine’ triggered an override that took control of the security in the Senate Chamber. There weren’t any weapons in the chamber, of course. Auto-Turrets or the like would have presented too tempting a target for assassins with slicing or infiltration skills. What there were, however, were shields.
Lots and lots of shields.
There were shields built into every pod, shields built into the walls, shield projectors aimed to create curtain walls, layered defensive bulwarks for the senators to hide behind and security to advance through. All of them top of the line, all of them rigged to a central system so Senate Security could remotely activate them in the event of a threat. All of them came online all at once, stopping Luminara and Izuku dead as they nearly slammed into the shields generated by their own pods. Pods whose controls locked at the same time. Every Pod except for the Chancellor’s.
Even as Luminara and Izuku began trying to bring down the shields on the Pods, something both could do in a matter of seconds, Palatine was already moving. His own pod hadn’t brought its shield up, and he channeled the Force as he lept for the only entrance his contingency hadn’t just left unshielded, but outright opened. A maintenance shaft which he unerringly found, even as he parried an admittedly potent attempt by Sovereign Midoriya to grab him with Force Telekinesis, Izuku having quickly broken his pod’s shield.
Diving into the shaft…it sealed behind him just as Luminara got free, only for the next wave of the contingency plan to come into effect and give them other problems to deal with.
Explosions ripped through support pillars far under the Senate, in lower levels with less security. It was a great weakness of a world like Coruscant, and Palpatine’s ruthless contingency sought to exploit it. Even as he raced through a pre-cleared path that would see him clear of the disaster, the Senate Dome began to list. Nor was it the only structure so effected. Similar explosions had happened kilometers below parts of the Jedi Temple.
There, at least, the fact that the Jedi had been slowly reactivating and restoring old systems meant that the damage was far more contained than Sidious had planned for. Emergency support systems took the weight of most of the Temple, transferring it back to the mountain the core of the Temple rested on. The damage would be serious and several dozen Jedi would die, as not all of the safety systems had yet been restored. Yet the damage would be far less than he’d hoped for.
One way or another, it would keep them far too busy to chase him as he made his way to a ship that could get him off the planet in a hurry.
The Senate Dome was not so lucky. At one time it had possessed similar safety systems. Yet, like much that was wrong with the Republic, rot and corruption had damaged them. Even before Palpatine got to them, decades of corruption had seen the maintenance budgets for the systems skimmed off, leading to them being poorly maintained. Once Palpatine had gotten his hooks into the Chancellorship, that rot had been shifted, ‘maintenance’ done on the systems actually installed more pieces of this particular contingency instead of fixing the damage. As such, those few systems that still worked abrupted overloaded and the listing of the Senate Dome became a fall.
Back inside that Dome Izuku, senses screaming, reached out for the Force.
At no time, since he first arrived in this galaxy, had he truly stretched to find just how powerful he had become. Despite both his mentor and his original idol, Izuku had never been one to solve all of his issues with brute force. Only now, when brute FORCE was the only option, did he fling himself into the embrace of the Force. Leaning on his recent improvements in letting the Force guide him, for the first time he simply accepted all that it gave, releasing every filter and just letting it flood into him in a way far beyond his ability to control. Then he asked it for help.
The Force surged.
Palpatine stumbled, nearly tripping as he hurried down a corridor, as the Veil wasn’t so much torn as a hole was lanced through it. Inside the Senate Chamber light poured out of Izuku as he began to float, and abruptly the ponderously accelerating fall of the Senate Dome…stopped. There was no slowing, or deceleration. It just stopped, damaging a number of pods as the barely-guided Force channeling through Izuku simply grabbed the building and told gravity and momentum to both kindly fuck off.
Shocked silence lasted only for a moment as Luminara took advantage of the fact that the powerful projected shields protecting the outer Dome itself had failed. Buoyed by the hole in the Veil and the ridiculous amount of barely-controlled Force spilling freely from Izuku, she grabbed the free-flowing Force and shouted, thrusting with the most potent telekinetic burst she’d ever come even close to wielding. The result blew a hole through a weakened section of the Dome. Brutally forcing herself not to pause, despite that action making her feel like she’d hollowed herself out, she grabbed more of the Force and seized hold of the nearest dozen pods. Even as she forced them to move, she began barking orders to her stunned Padawan.
Bariss grabbed another three of the repulsorpods and together they sent the pods, who’s repulsors were thankfully still working, careening through the hole and out into the Coruscant sky. The moment those pods were clear, they did it again, and again, and again. A few other Jedi, young Knights who had all been assigned to protection details and hadn’t managed to react half as fast, still caught on almost immediately and began mimicking her actions. One, close to the Dome and not generally skilled with telekinesis, chose to leap to the tilted surface and cut open a second corridor for the exiting pods to be forced through.
There were a total of 1,024 repulsorpods in the Senate.
Some had been damaged or destroyed, their occupants killed by debris before Izuku could arrest the fall of the building. Yet, even so, the people in over 850 of them had survived, 778 of them in pods with their repulsors still intact and functional. Proving that not everyone in the Senate was lacking in courage or sense, individuals such as Padmé Amidala, Bail Organa, and Senator Yarua of Kashyyk quickly realized what the Jedi were doing. All of those individuals and half a dozen more scrambled to pull those from fallen pods into their own.
Half a dozen more senators, including Garm Bel Iblis and the representatives from Arkania, Balmorra and Umbara, managed to hotwire or override the lockout on their own pods. Garm and Mee Deechi of Umbara used theirs to rescue as many as they could before exiting, while the others showed different priorities by simply fleeing with their own parties. Working as fast as possible, all of the functioning pods were gotten to before Izuku collapsed, with Izuku himself being pulled out at the last second by Bariss after her own Master had similarly collapsed. Sabé had somehow reached the Jedi Observer pod and hotwired it while the Jedi worked, steering it out with Izuku and the Jedi aboard, as the Dome began rapidly collapsing once more.
…
…
…
In the end, despite Darth Sidious’s attempt to decapitate the government of the Republic and eliminate as many Jedi as possible, he accomplished neither. Less than fifty Jedi and less than ten percent of the Senate died. It was still a heavy blow that would only be made heavier when it was learned he’d successfully fled the planet…and that mere hours later, the Confederacy of Independent Systems Fleet would arrive in key systems. Systems where their fleet would smash the defenses flat before dropping armies of droids to invade.
The Sith had been discovered and routed from the Senate, but at a terrible cost, as the sprawling galactic conflict that would become known as The Clone Wars began…
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: MAWHAHAHAHAHAA! Did any of you see this coming? How many of you thought I was going to do the BORING thing and run with the Clone Wars as they happened in canon? Clearly, you don't know my particular brand of literary chaos well enough if you did! I spent a LONG time planting the seeds of this, using individuals like Celeste and Tholme to pick apart the foundations of Palpatine's disguise.
I also, however, outright told people in various places (on various platforms) that Izuku would be able to detect Palaptine...IF, and ONLY IF, he got within range of him to query the 'local' Force about the individuals within it. Which is why I kept him away from Palpy at first...but I intended for a loooonnnggg time for that very ability to be what outted Palaptine and triggered a radically different Clone Wars. I spent a lot of time and word count setting the stage for this. With the galaxy being differently arrayed, dozens of pieces placed just different enough to cause this sequence of events to happen...and for the Republic to not be instantly crushed by the CIS without Palpy to hold them back...
I'm not entirely happy with how the actual reveal scene worked out, it's both more and less chaotic than I'd intended. Let me know what you think!
A/N 2: Once per release, I mention that I have a P-atreon! My fanfiction content is never permanently paywalled, but I do maintain Early Access chapters for each fic. In the case of Displaced Hero, chapters 136-137, amounting to roughly another 15,000 words, are currently in Early Access. That said, while support is deeply appreciated, the chapters will be put up here, as well as on Questionable Questing and Fanfiction.net, with the next update in a month. So you can always just be patient ;-). For those that do wish to support me, you can find a link to my P-atreon in my profile, or simply search the web for 'Novus's Fanfiction Works.'