V.2-C.60│Preparations III│

There were a few ways and things for Anakin to give Padme the ability to use the Force.

First was trying to increase her midi-chlorian count, but anything he does himself would be very, very limited. The second is trying those magic rituals done by the Zabrak on Dathomir, but he also knows that the benefits are not as great if she is an adult, meaning it would not increase her sensitivity.

So Anakin had to accelerate his plans to create his own midi-chlorians. A more advanced and evolved version of midi-chlorians that should be able to utilize the Force much better than someone that had the basic version.

He was also obviously going to call these midi-chlorians, sky-midi-chlorians... Ok, it is a mouthful and probably wont catch on but since Anakin is the creator, he has the right to call it after himself. Every scientist has the chance to name things they discover after themselves, so why couldn't he do so as well?

"Emperor! I apologize for not receiving you much sooner!" A rather large scientist ran up to Anakin and came to a screeching stop right in front of him, before he promptly got on his knees and worshipped the very ground he walked on.

'This type of zealotry...' Anakin was thinking inwardly while outwardly he didn't show any change in his behavior. "It is ok, I did come here on no prior notice." Anakin stated as he lifted the man off of the ground.

"No! My Emperor, I should have come here to personally greet you-" The scientist was beginning to start up his self-loathing at having to fail him, but Anakin but a stop to that.

"That is enough." Anakin said firmly, which instantly shut the man up.

Anakin had come over to his research department here on Tatooine, where all of the medical pizazz was being done. The department that would be the next step in his very own evolution and the evolution of everyone else that was or had Force-sensitivity.

In fact, this research he was doing into creating a better version of the midi-chlorian would not only affect himself and those around him but probably the entirety of the Empyrean. Basically everyone at that point would be Force-sensitive, meaning that he may need to look into standardizing some basic Force practice into the education systems of the future.

For now, it would only be used on himself so he could better establish a connection and because he could undo the damage by isolating any of these flawed sky-midi-chlorians.

"Lead me to the facility." Anakin ordered the man, and strangely enough if one compared their heights, this scientist was even larger than Anakin.

He looked much more taller, by at least 30 centimeters and was physically more imposing so to speak, but he was reserved and acted subserviently towards Anakin. This person was one of the droids that had become a synth, but he wasn't a normal droid but instead a medical one.

That is why he is down here working in this research department instead of being a part of the military like the others.

Again, Anakin had said he wasn't going to just force everyone to do a certain job but instead let them choose. Obviously they chose what they were passionate about, but most obviously what they were programmed to do.

While Anakin did say he would let them choose, it made sense that they would go on the predetermined path they had been set upon by Anakin. Only a small percentage from all of the living droids had decided to do something different from what their programming from the start gave them the ability to do.

It would be random, this small percentage from being something as simple as a farmer or to something as complicated as a diplomat for one of the planets under the Empyrean. Of course, Anakin allowed them to do what they wanted, he had promised them so and that diplomat guy, even though he wanted to run for a position, had only managed to land some low level office of power.

Again, their choices dont always benefit them, but they had the right. Freedom and liberty, freedom and liberty.

"Of course, my Lord! It is this way." The synthetic scientist lead the way towards the chambers that Anakin wanted to go towards. "My Emperor, if you dont mind me asking..."

"You may." At times like this, Anakin had to put up a semi-facade of being a little uptight to make sure people knew he meant business. Even around his living droids he did so because they were now living, based off of a biological species that was social in nature.

In fact, droids had also been designed with social interaction in mind and that could be seen through how they are supposed to act around others.

"What exactly are we to do after this project is complete? You haven't issued any extra orders, and there was nothing else for us to do..." The scientist said, completely dependent on Anakin for orders.

"You will have to choose your own direction. You all may work for me, and are a part of the Empyrean, but that doesn't mean you have to only do the things I want." Anakin replied calmly, which surprised this scientist.

"Really? But what could we-"

"I will stop you right there." Anakin came to a physical stop as well, to make sure his entire being spoke to what he is about to say. "You are not my slave to do everything I want. You may follow me, and praise my existence just like your breatharian, but I draw the line when it comes to this."

Anakin continued. "There is a fine line between your worship of me and then complete acceptance of giving up your own will to follow everything according to my design." Anakin didn't want this, exactly because of this reason.

Without people trying to be ambitious themselves and growing complacent with him being on the top, fixing all of their problems and being the only source of innovation, it only means it would spell the doom of the Empyrean. He didn't want to end up like the Republic or any other eternal empire from before, from history.

"My Emperor?" The scientist both understood what he meant but at the same time felt renewed in his vigor and faith. "I will do as you say. I will have a will of my own, and through this will, I will create a better society and better galaxy for you to live in."

"It is good to have goals, but maybe you should think about yourself first, before thinking about others." Anakin patted the man on the back, despite the size difference, due to Anakin regulating his growth hormones but his synths having no such thing.

"Yes! Long live the Emperor!" The scientist replied as he followed after Anakin, presumably going towards the facility housing the special project they had been hard at work on.

'Yes, I would hope so.' Anakin thought to himself as he was now the one leading the scientist towards another direction, that was the actual place he wanted to go towards. 'How the hell did I end up in this position...'

[]

Rex was being guided by an astromech droid, that went by the name of R2-D2.

'What is with this astromech? It sure has a personality...' Rex thought to himself as he was going over some memories of what had happened to him and his men so far.

After Anakin had decided to just take the clones back with him, he had decided that they would and could do what they wanted. Even if by some chance, those within the Republic came here to take a look at what was going on or were just happening to pass through the Empyrean, they could do nothing if they discovered the clones here.

"Where are you taking me?" Rex asked the astromech droid.

R2-D2 responded with some beeps and whirls of mechanical and synthesized sounding noises and just pushed Rex forward, to continue on his way towards a certain direction.

"Alright, alright... I am going." Rex sighed as he looked behind himself and saw that most of his other brothers were doing alright themselves.

Anakin had set up many things for the clones to do, as they would get bored otherwise where most of them just stayed inside most of the time. They were basically becoming hikikomori's what with being able to experience all of anything they would want through the virtual experience.

Anakin knew that he had made many addictive games, but it would seem it was so addictive that it stopped the clone troopers from doing anything else. Technically he had wanted for them to go out into the world and do their own things, but if they stayed then that meant they would be joining up with the military.

While they are not as good as his synths, by virtue of Anakin makin sure his synths were overpowered, they were still good enough to earn a place within his military.

It wasn't like they were incapable of anything like that, but instead they were all very good at combat, and Anakin had made sure they at least were able to keep their skills through the use of the virtual reality video games. They were so advanced and so addictive that they couldn't help but not leave and stay within the place he had assigned for them.

It was both extremely funny to Anakin and at the same time not all that concerning considering that while they had goals of freeing their other brothers, they didn't seem to be making much progress.

Rex was probably the least addicted to the games, but even he played the games at least a few times.

'How silly, and here I thought we would be rescuing some more of my brothers...' Rex thought to himself as he was being directed by R2-D2. One only had to look at the situation, as while the clones were motivated, they were also drawn into the Empyreans allure to the common folk that wished for a peaceful life.

Not that they always had it peaceful with no upheaval, but instead they did encounter conflicts as well. No, it was because the Empyrean lifestyle allowed for people to be free and to do nearly whatever they wanted.

It was incredibly alluring and the clones were living their best lives rent free, meaning they didn't even have to do anything important or special to live the lives they have now. While not the most productive, it wasn't like Anakin needed them for anything...

Well, there was something he needs them for and that is the recruitment of more and more clones that are slowly being siphoned from the Republic. Why would Anakin let the Republic keep all of their clones to themselves, he had even gone so far as to tamper with the Kaminoans devices.

He had installed himself into their systems and changed the way their manufacture their biological chips inserted into the brains of the clones. He didn't make them loyal to him or anything, but instead made it so that they wouldn't be influenced by anything trying to control them.

Anakin had decided that he would use Mechu-Deru on the system controlling the clones, rather than use it on the clones themselves. He couldn't use Mechu-Deru on the clones as well, because, again, they are not mechanical and are instead biological.

Rex came across the glorious sight of the Skywalker Palace.

R2-D2 had lead him towards this place for a reason, and that reason is because Anakin wanted to see him. "So this is where you were taking me, huh." Rex turned around to see that R2-D2 was going somewhere else, not even bothering to lead him further inside.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you-" Rex was interrupted as a droid came up to him.

"Are you Sir Rex?" The droid, was not any random droid but was instead C-3PO that was speaking to him.

"Huh? Uh... Yes, I am." Rex answered as he saw the droid, covered in gold looking plating, whether this be real gold or just paint, it was anyone's guess as C-3PO was redone and upgraded many times.

"Come this way please." C-3PO gestured towards the palace and started to walk, with Rex following in line behind the droid. "The master would like to speak with you."

"So the Emperor is finally going to do something?" Rex said with some hope as while he did say he was going to do something, it had been too long, at least too long for Rex for him to do anything. It felt like he wasn't planning to do anything at all.

C-3PO didn't answer and just continued to walk through the hallways of the palace, then coming to a stop it gestures to go inside. "Please, this way."

"Right..." Rex was kind of freaked out, he wasn't going to lie to himself here, but he would continue with whatever the droid was doing.

That was something he had noticed within this empire. The droids were weird, or at least they were weird until they got replaced by synths and then there are other droids that didn't seem to serve a function at all but did things for the system here.

Rex also noticed that the droids and technology in general was a massive part of the culture here, even going so far as to say that Anakin, their Emperor was some sort of God and was the creator and protector of all droid-kind.

Of course there were revisions being done everyday to account for the legend of Anakin and of his exploits either within the Empyrean or on the outside as well. It was like the people worshipped him, and it wasn't Rex who was going to tell them otherwise.

They were actually quite scary, the people that is and even the children were better than him and most of his men if not all of them. They were smarter, stronger and faster.

It was kind of scary.

"There you are." A voice was heard coming from the back center of the room, right towards where the throne was. It was Anakin, and he was sitting on the throne with a look that said something was afoot.

"Uh... Yeah, you called me here?" Rex was still confused but he had some expectation as to what was about to happen next.

"Well, you see..."