Chapter Fifty Five

At the same time that Harry and company were with the High Council, Sidious nee Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo was busy with the Senate, gathering the votes he would need while also giving orders to the opposition via several dozen cutouts. His public persona needed to be surprised by events after all, yet manifestly have the backing to move to aid his planet, eventually anyway. Not until a few Jedi died.

At the same time Plagueis was very carefully keeping watch on the Jedi Temple. The Vergence, a young boy by the feel of the mind, was there. Plagueis hadn't cared at all about the gender the vergence would become only the fact that he had been able to create it in the first place. With his senses and ability to use the Veil watching the boy even in the temple was doable if very difficult. He had to keep any Jedi from feeling his presence and see past all the interfering auras to the one he was most interested in, though again thanks to the Veil the first was far easier than the second.

He had of course felt Fay's arrival, as well as her hangers on, Jedi who did not matter a whit in comparison to her power and sheer ability. Of all the Jedi who were not direct physical threats, Fay was the most dangerous in terms of the impact they could have to the Great Plan. She had already set back several smaller portions of the plan a few times, and Fay's particular soft touch, iron fist in a velvet glove approach was a worrisome example which could not be allowed to spread less the Jedi Order gain too much public support for the Great Plan to succeed. Her Force presence was like that of Yoda himself, but he lacked the thing that made her more dangerous: Yoda was predictable, Fay was not.

That evening Sidious and Plagueis met up in the latter's laboratory as the older Sith Lord sat in his throne and the younger man sat on another, albeit smaller, chair. Though Plagueis considered them near equals, the key word between Sith was the 'near' in that sentence. The younger man had just finished his report on the day's events and Plagueis allowed himself to nod slightly in approval. "And thus the next phase of the plan will go off without a hitch, good. Well done my apprentice, very well done indeed. You make the Senate dance to your tune far easier than I could ever manage."

"Thank you master," Sidious replied, though the word stuck in his throat as it always did these days. But it was not time just yet, no. "And the Jedi? I thought I felt the arrival of that busybody bitch Fay." The term came easily to Sidious, he loathed Fay with every fiber of his being, she represented the best and worst of the Jedi Order in his opinion, setting aside what her example could mean for the Great Plan. He longed for the day where the Veil was strong enough to fool even her senses and would let them lead Fay to her death.

"You did, and her aura made an already difficult task near impossible. Have you any further information on why she is involved with Dooku and why the two of them were on Tatooine? I checked our sources this morning but they hadn't run down any of Jabba's former enforcers yet." Plagueis replied, already sending out a Force Pull towards a nearby droid, which approached with a hologram globe connected to their computer network.

"No master, I haven't checked since before that young fool Padme arrived." The two Sith were silent as Plagueis inputted the commands to bring up the reports from their underworld spies. Perusing the information they both scowled angrily in their hoods, up even here in the comforting darkness of Plagueis' laboratory cum throne room. "A simple rescue mission? Fay felt these other Jedi's distress, and came with Dooku to rescue them? A last gasp of the Light side of the Force to cause events to go in its favor then."

Plagueis frowned, thinking about that information then about what he had felt during the day as he observed the Jedi Temple. "You might be missing the point apprentice. Fay has a padawan now, when we knew before this that she refused to take one. We have new techniques appearing within the Order with no clear source for them. The Force Shield alone has saved many a Jedi's life over the past few years, not least of which Master Giiett of the council during the Yinchorri uprising we instigated. No, there is something else going on here."

"You think Fay is the source of these new abilities? The Stunning and Shield techniques do seem like powers she could have rediscovered. And the Order could have assigned her a padawan to see if they could be passed on before letting her teach this Clan Saa as a larger test group." Sidious mused. Like most of the Jedi Order the idea of rediscovering old knowledge was more palatable to think than the idea someone could create new ones to the Sith.

"Perhaps…" Plagueis frowned, as he recalled the Light Side phenomenon from years before. Yet it had disappeared into the greater Force, so well he could no longer remember what it was. It could well have been something Fay had discovered and Tholme had helped transport. Yes, that made sense, and Fay was extremely hard to track from a distance, yes…

Yet even as he thought that, an unusual seed of doubt grew within Plagueis for a moment before he shook it off. "In any case, she derailed your assassin's first attempt to kill Jinn, and our plans for Dooku will not occur now. I can still see him causing a schism in the Order, but he will not serve as the large scale threat we need for the end game of the Great Plan."

"I have several other Jedi who might serve master, never fear. You know the one whom I speak of."

"Yes, he will do nicely. He is well liked and respected among the Core Worlds and out to the Inner Rim. Indeed, with him at the helm the war might become far more general than if we went with our original plan with Dooku at the helm." Plagueis mused. "And I think that Sifo-Dyas can still serve. Regardless of the new abilities the Jedi have, Dyas inability to use precognition any longer has made him far more susceptible to suggestion than the man was 20 years ago. I will approach him after the Naboo incident is done with."

"Doing away with Dyas afterward will prove difficult," Sidious warned. "My pawn might not yet be primed by the time it is necessary. Better to use another cutout and come up with another way to make our new 'ally' prove himself in some other fashion."

"Agreed. I will do that myself I think however, I have already placed a tracker on his ship, and once he has commissioned the work myself and Jango Fett will do well enough to get rid of him. Jango's hatred of the Jedi make him easily manipulated despite his strong mind." Plagueis paused, thinking, his Senses spreading out into the Veil for a moment, feeling the flow of it and the future before speaking again, as if to himself. "Yes, the Jedi are becoming worried, now we make them paranoid, reactionary. Such people will be easily manipulated, and will cause trouble for themselves all on their own. Yes, it is time for your assassin to reveal himself."

The Muun looked up then his eyes locking on his apprentice's. "Qui-Gon Jinn must die. He is the foremost proponent of the Living Force theory, and that theory would let the Jedi regain the kind of flexibility that would let them out of the trap our Rule of Two has been working towards since our pawns put the Ruusan Reformation in place."

"However, there is a complication. Mace Windu was sent along with Jinn for some reason I cannot fathom. It has something to do with Fay's presence, something she showed the High Council. With all their auras interfering I could not see what, but he will be with Jinn, his apprentice and the vergence on Naboo."

"Why is the Order allowing the vergence to go with them? That seems unlike the Jedi Order to place such a young tool in danger." Sidious asked.

"Jinn is taking the vergence along. I sense he feels it might be the Order's Chosen One. As if balance would serve them," Plagueis allowed a small sneer onto his normally blank face before going on. "But Windu is a threat, one your assassin might not be able to handle. He needs to stay away from him. And if he could somehow recover the vergence that would be excellent. Though having him in the temple where we can influence him is good enough for now I suppose given his age."

"I had already anticipated further trouble with Jinn's execution, but I will make certain Maul understands and has enough resources on hand to deal with Windu as well my master," Sidious replied, bowing from his chair before standing and leaving the chamber.

OOOOOOO

The mission to Naboo had gone well, if not the way Mace would have preferred. While he respected Qui-Gon's ability with the Force and his pragmatic view of the universe, his ability to simply let events happen was bizarre to Mace. Yet given what had happened with Aayla, Mace was beginning to question his own opinions in a way that he would never have before. So when Padme had decided to go to the Gungans, like Jinn, Mace went with it. The overall strategy was decent enough and the Gungan's defensive position in the swamps had made Windu happier than he had previously been about possibly sacrificing such a number of sentients on what amounted to a decoy mission.

But then the infiltration force had started to run into problems the moment they entered the palace. Finding traps with the Force was relatively easy for the two Masters given they were on alert as they were, but finding a way into the palace without tripping an alarm was far harder given the fact Padme had insisted she come along, and of course captain Panaka had demanded he and her guards come too. Mace would have given the young queen a dressing down that made her ears ring for that bit of idiocy, but Jinn had reasoned that she might be helpful.

And then Jinn had decided to bring Anakin along too. There at least Mace could also feel the Force saying they needed Anakin along, and reasoned it was for his piloting skills. Watching Jinn attempt to explain this to Padme, who insisted on leaving 'the little boy' behind was amusing, as was the number of faces Anakin made at Padme's back at her apparent betrayal. The boy would need much training to stop letting his emotions dictate his actions, that was certain.

To Windu's surprise, her knowledge of the palace, and her retinal scan, did. Now they were passing through the connecting terminal between an outlying energy plant and the temple, moving toward the palace unseen and Mace decided he needed, for the second time in as many days, to apologize. "I have to apologize your highness, I did not honestly think your knowledge of the palace would be needed. But the number of traps and the way they are arrayed would have made our attempts to enter the palace unseen near to impossible."

"That is fine Master Windu, we're all learning things lately, believe me." Padme replied, her mind on other things. She was speaking about how she had learned that slavery was so prevalent in the Outer Rim and how it felt to be powerless to protect her people, though Mace didn't know that.

He still nodded however, then twitched around, his lightsaber activating between one breath and the next, the snap hiss of the plasma blade appearing just barely beating out the sound of the blaster bolt hitting it. "Ambush, droids incoming," the Master of the Order intoned and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan moved forward to join him.

Rolling along the floor towards them came four droidekas. These were expensive droids based around a spherical chassis and head which the droid pulled in as it rolled around, along with two arms with much the same ability and two lasers embedded into each arm. It also had a personal shield, hence the things expense.

Padme's guards immediately opened up firing around the three Jedi, but the droidekas shields popped on, absorbing the bolts before returning fire. The Jedi in turn deflected their blasts, and Qui-Gon shook his head. "The time for stealth has passed I fear. Padme, where are we in relation to our targets?"

The targets in question being her thrown room, which Nute Gunray, Viceroy of the Trade Federation, had taken over, and the palaces prison cells. The majority of the planet's starfighter pilots were apparently being kept there. Indeed, despite the number of reports Padme had seen to the contrary, the number of deaths and atrocities committed on her people had been noticeably few. The amount of personal property stolen was another story.

Looking around Padme determined where they were and pointed straight up and then to the side and forward. "We've already reached the palace's basement levels, so the throne room is up a few levels from here, the prison cells will be in the west wing of the palace a level above us."

"Very well. I will draw as much of the defenders attention down on me as I may, to allow you both to move as quickly as possible. Your tasks will be to avoid combat from here on. Qui-Gon, take the queen and find Gunray. Obi-Wan, take Anakin and a few of the queen's guards with you, free the pilots and get them up into space. Anakin, you know what you have to do." Mace stated.

Anakin gulped but nodded. After having snuck away from the temple and boarding the ship bound for Naboo he had convinced Master Jinn the Force wanted him here, and with his help had convinced the far more intimidating Master Windu. But the Jedi in turn had felt he was here for his piloting skills, and he couldn't argue with them despite a desire to aid Padme however he could. "Yes Master Windu."

"Good, now off with you." At that Obi-Wan looked at Qui-Gon, who nodded to state he agreed with Mace's order. Obi-Wan turned and, letting the two masters take up his portion of the defense he began to cut a way through the wall and the electronics beyond it. From there he cut upwards, and the guards and Anakin followed.

An instant later Qui-Gon too fell back, allowing Mace to see to the now smaller group's defense on his own. One of the droidekas rolled to close, and Mace quickly reached out with his hand grasping it at it. That close the thing's energy shield was no match for the Force, and his Force Crush, shattered it's cylindrical body.

"Have fun Master Windu." With that Qui-Gon leaped up, cutting into the ceiling as below him Padme and the others retreated slightly. The slab of flooring fell, as the human Jedi master rolled aside, before turning nimbly, leaping up into the space revealed.

Turning he gestured down to the others, and Padme found herself slowly being pulled up into the hole by an unseen hand. Padme squeaked once before clamping her lips closed, and Qui-Gon set her aside. Over the next few moments he pulled her remaining guards, two of her maids and three of Panaka's men, up with him, shaking his head at the effort.

Mace looked up at them, nodded once then leaped backwards over the slab of ceiling Qui-Gon had cut. Pulling it up with his own Force Pull he hurled it forward along the ground of the corridor. The droidekas rolled back desperately but were too slow and their shields couldn't withstand being crushed between the slab of stone flooring and the far wall. With that done Mace raced along the same corridor, his lightsaber still activated as he looked for more trouble to cause, running into and through several dozen more patrols, pulling all the attention of the palace's defenders on him.

Qui-Gon, Padme and their party found themselves in what looked like a menial's bedroom, and they remained there for a time as Qui-Gon recovered from his exertions and used his Force senses to see if there were any sentients nearby. Finding droids was an order of magnitude harder but they were also noisier generally speaking when they moved, so he could enhance his physical senses and find them that way.

After about five minutes he nodded, reactivating his lightsaber. "Straight up you said?"

"I would be rather irritated at this damage to my own palace Master Jinn, but I suppose given the alternative I won't complain," Padme quipped, watching as the Jedi went to work once more. Again, the Jedi cut out a slab of the upper story's floor, then caught it with the Force, pushing it upwards instead of letting it fall, since that would have made a noise. With that, the guards were able to lift the two maids and Padme up, then the maids in turn pulled each man up before Qui-Gon leaped through the hole to land neatly beside them.

In this manner they made their way through the palace. Several times they stopped as the noise of combat reached them echoing through the eerily empty palace as Mace did his work, pulling all the defenders attention down on him. Panaka had shut down and slagged the control grid for the palace's security cameras before they had escaped, and replacing that would take weeks. Now that move proved it's worth, allowing them, in conjunction with Mace's assault to pass unseen.

Panaka took the lead as they arrived on the same level as the queen's throne room, moving once again through the corridors. Because of this, the captain of the palace guard was the first to die.

As the man passed a small service alcove a lightsaber activated with a sizzle hiss searing through his body and sending his corpse to the ground in two halves even as Qui-Gon, warned through the Force shouted "Panaka watch out!"

The man's killer stepped over his body, throwing a cloak off his body to reveal a Zabrak, his face covered by red and black tattoos around yellow slits for eyes. The yellow eyes were the sign of someone who had given themselves entirely to the Dark Side, though given the fact the being ahead of Qui-Gon had allowed his Force Stealth to fall that was not actually necessary. In the Zabrak's hand was a black metal long-shafted lightsaber hilt. From the end of it glowed the red plasma blade he had just used to cut Panaka in half, then as he held it crossways in front of him with one hand, from the other end another beam of crimson power extended.

"Fall back!" Qui-Gon ordered Padme. "Find another way around to the Viceroy, this foe is beyond you."

"Wh-what is he?" Padme asked, shocked by the sudden death of her guard captain.

"I don't know, but I can't defend you and deal with him at the same time, move!"

Padme nodded, and the group pulled back down the corridor, eventually finding a window and making their way out onto the terraces, leaping from one to the next to their target. But Qui-Gon had no time to worry about such thing because a second after they had moved the Zabrak attacked, his assault battering Qui-Gon backwards slashing out with speed and power that was almost beyond the older mans' ability to block. Their lightsabers sparked and spanged against one another as they fought in the corridor of the palace.

Qui-Gon was a practitioner of form 4, Ataru, which emphasized movement, leaps and attacking from all angles. Here in the corridor however he was stymied. He could cut through the walls yes, and did so with every swing, but that didn't mean he could create more space. He was caught flatfooted, off-balance. Only his Force Precognition and the new Force Shield technique saved him. The shield popped into place twice, keeping his opponent from gutting him, yet he could feel the move's drain on his resources, already strained from the telekinesis he'd used that day.

But his opponent could also use Force Precognition. In layman's terms, when Jedi battled it was often part physical, part mental, the equivalent of dueling a fencer while also playing chess. Maul was a master at both, exceeding Jinn's abilities slightly. Moreover, he could feel it, his opponent's exhaustion, his consternation. I can beat this Jedi! I can send him to join the others I have killed!

Desperately Qui-Gon used the Force to wrench a few doors into his opponent's way, leaping up and over his head as the Zabrak cut them down bouncing off the ceiling and down the corridor in the direction the attacker had come from. As he had hoped it opened up into a wider area, a meeting place between four corridors and a wide stairway. The Zabrak followed him, but Qui-Gon turned and attacked ferociously, leaping this way and that, attacking from any angle he could at any target he could, limbs, hands, legs or back.

The Zabrak's odd weapon however matched any of his assaults and his Force Precognition let him keep up even with this assault. The Zabrak turned with him, cutting at him, forcing Qui-Gon to defend himself midair, the hiss and thrum of lightsaber once again resounding in the air. Again and again the Zabrak turned or matched Jinn's leaps with his own coming in at another angle or attacking from above, forcing Jinn to remain stationary then catching him with another blow before Jinn could move once more.

This in turn made Jinn fall back on his Force Shield more often his body tiring out around him and his Force ability quickly following. Each time he did it was weaker, the shield beginning to flicker. As he was falling back into a roll however Qui-Gon thought he saw a chance.

Gathering what remained of his strength he pushed forward harder, pressing the Zabrak down onto the stairway, hoping to disrupt his footwork and stance. Lashing out first with a Force Push to take his opponent off balance Qui-Gon pressed in, aiming a blow to take him in the upper body.

His Force Push however was simply batted aside, and Qui-Gon found his lightsaber blocked, the blade carried up out of position. Before he could use the momentum of that attack to turn and bring his lightsaber around again, the second lightsaber blade came up cutting into his side. His desperate Force Shield flared out a bare second into the lightsaber's strike against his side, Qui-Gon's exhaustion costing him.

The blow continued unabated to cut the Jedi Master's arm off from just below the pectoral up to nearly the neck, searing through his flesh. As the arm which had been holding his lightsaber flew away Qui-Gon Jinn fell without a sound, never even seeing the blow which swung down, decapitating him.