『Masters of the Dark』

A knife slowly carved into the tender luscious steak, on a blue plastoid plate, cutting into its rare and bleeding flesh. Pink juices puddled around it as a fork slowly came down to impale it before, pausing and dropping onto the plate.

A man who had aged well, with greying blonde hair, stared down at the plate. He wore luxurious robes and a charismatic face, with a very prominent frown on its lips.

His eyes glared at the steak, as if it failed him for the last time, this man could feel the release of dark force energy on the other side of the galaxy. Suddenly a surge of anger shot through him, shown as he spontaneously stood up and threw half of the items off of his desk in his senatorial flat that doubled as his apartment. "Raaaaaaaah!"

The steak stained the grey carpet, the bloody liquid darkening the already maroon red walls.

Sheev Palpatine's shoulders raised and lowered, before slowly he composed himself. His eyes narrowing on the pinging comlink built into the desk. "Darth Maul has failed..." He uttered, knowing very well that he was now at risk of being exposed. "...I did not foresee this."

What was he going to do? His eyes moved towards the window as he stepped towards the window, overlooking the cityscape of Coruscant, the perceived Political Center of the Galaxy.

Reaching out with his hand the Comlink activated, revealing a Muun who was none other than his Master, Darth Plagueis. "My Apprentice..." The bureaucrat spoke through his re-breather as he looked over the room, before narrowing his eyes on the back of Palpatine's head.

It was clear that his apprentice felt the death of their useful tool that they had used for years to eliminate individuals who were in the way of their interests. "Darth Maul has failed to live up to our expectations so it seems..." The Dark Lord was sure his apprentice was now doomed to be exposed, it was likely he was going to need a new apprentice and abandon Palpatine.

He had been seeing this coming from a mile away, from Palpatine's brash and extremist moves to get things done. The Dark Lord was just surprised he got this far.

"It is but a minor setback," the Sith Lord proclaimed as he turned and looked to the projection of the Muun upon his desk. His eyes traced over the sith, a member of the Banking clan. "We will still destroy the Jedi and take over the Republic, once and for all. Our revenge, will be ours."

Nodding at his apprentice, the Dark Lord squeezed one hand. He was disappointed, they were so close, they had a number of senators in their pockets already. All they needed was the opportunity to take over, to have Palpatine placed a Chancellor so he himself could inhabit the Co-Chancellor chair that Palpatine promised to instate.

The question was though, why didn't he just have him as his Vice Chancellor? Making a new seat didn't make sense, one that essentially meant the same thing.

Palpatine had other plans in the meantime, believing that he could not only turn the Republic against the Jedi and destroy their order, but turn the Republic into an Empire. He wanted to bring his 'order' to the Galaxy.

"Do you have a plan to deal with this mishap?"

Palpatine nodded to his master as he sat down at his desk, taking out a datapad from its top middle drawer. However the moment he brought up the command application for the Scimitar, planning to detonate it remotely as he couldn't retrieve it from Tatooine himself, but he paused. In high galactic, there was a single line of words. "Not Responding? How is that possible...?"

He dropped the pad onto the desk and snapped his neck back. "Who killed him. It couldn't have been the Jedi, I 'foresaw' their death at the hands of Darth Maul..." Or so he said, foretelling the future from several thousand possibilities, was what he wanted to see as his forte.

The Dark Lord seemed to laugh lightly seeing his Apprentice suffering, before coughing and wheezing in pain himself. He quickly regained his composure once his re-breather caught back up with him.

"Do you have another plan?" The Dark Lord gestured towards him, as if making fun of him. Stripping him of what his pride was rested upon. Ready to take whatever Palpatine had, or wanted to have. "That ship was worth a lot of credits... If that falls into the Jedi's hands, they'll find out everything about you and the reports our former tool sent you. The senate will know what you did to the people of Naboo through the use of the Trade Federation. You'll be tried for war crimes." Clearly he was trying to induce fear and rage into his apprentice, to empower and motivate him further.

Palpatine tapped his fingers on the desk in front of him. Narrowing his sights on the surface of his desk, missing the steak he had thrown across the room mere moments ago.

"If the Jedi return to Coruscant with the Scimitar," Palpatine turned his eyes towards the projection, "We will make moves to have it reacquired."

"And if they don't?" Plagueis asked, as he had figured that the Jedi were likely involved with another entity on Tatooine. Though neither of them had the information to learn more. "They could use the Scimitar to destroy the blockade... They wouldn't be able to detect a cloaked ship entering their hangar and destroying their reactors..."

Palpatine looked up to the man, "Queen Amidala wouldn't dare. It is her objective to come to Coruscant and gain help and support from the Republic Senate!" He snapped, underestimating the Queen's capacity of wanting to save her people. "I will use her pleas for help to bring Chancellor Valorum down with a vote of no confidence... As he is powerless to do anything, thanks to that scandal that has all but destroyed his standing in the senate!"

"What if they do though...?" The Dark Lord's eyes narrowed on the human sith apprentice and fellow Sith Lord. Though he saw him as a friend and often let his guard down around Palpatine, he knew that this man would one day betray him as he had betrayed so many others. It was inevitable as a Sith.

"The Jedi will not suspect just us... But the entire Senate." Palpatine focused his sight as he turned around on his chair and looked out towards the flying vehicles outside, "Those logs didn't name me, but they'd know the reports were transmitted to Coruscant."

Plagueis was not convinced that his Apprentice was all that safe. Abandoning him seemed to be a good idea, before he could be pulled into a Sith Purge sponsored by the Jedi.

"We shall see.." With a zipping sound, the projector ceased and the Dark Lord vanished.

With his Master gone, Palpatine raised a brow and faced his desk once more, taking the data pad back into his hands. Typing into its command prompt again, he still couldn't seem to access the Scimitar's computers remotely.

It seemed they still existed, the ship wasn't destroyed. There was a signal, well until suddenly there wasn't. He stared at the data pad, it was as if the ship's transponder and receiver had suddenly been overwritten, it was no longer his ship. "What even is this... Was it just destroyed!?" Palpatine cackled, though he saw this as a waste of an expensive asset.

That single Star Courier cost more than a Star Destroyer, if not two or three of them.

+ + +

Ento was standing in the center of the Scimitar, Darth Maul's and ultimately Darth Sidious's Starship. He was using the ability known as Mechu-Deru to gather an understanding of the ship's structure and machinery, and to imprint himself onto it. All whilst also using a variant of Electronic Manipulation to interface and assert his control over the ship's technology directly rather than just through his will.

He had completely cut the ship off from external remote control and wiped its transponder.

If scanned by a Bureau of Ships and Services vessel, the Scimitar would be considered unregistered or even nonexistent due to the stealth technologies used within it.

This was the reason Palpatine couldn't access it remotely anymore from his office, let alone send a command to its database in order to wipe it clean. Everything was now in his, and the Jedi's, hands.

Qui Gon Jin, Anakin Skywalker and Obiwan Kenobi were standing behind him. There was also the Queen's decoy and her handmaidens, along with the true Queen herself, all standing there in the open cockpit.

Jin was amazed on the prowess of the force that Ento showed, but he could also note the mental fatigue of the young aspiring Jedi. He wasn't pacing himself and it was being made clear. Another thing though that he took note of, while he was using controversial powers, he wasn't using his emotions as fuel.

Instead of bending the force to his will, it seemed the force was working alongside him. As if it wanted him to do what he was doing.

"This ship is so cool!" Anakin was geeking out as he was looking over the controls, though he dare not touch these as he could see the weapons. His eyes turned towards Ento who was standing there with his hands folded in front of him and his eyes closed, his head pitched down.

It almost looked as if he was mourning, but in this case, he was meditating as he was standing in an upright position.

"Are we going to fly this?!" Anakin looked to the Jedi Master and the Padawan who had been introduced to him as Qui Gon Jin and Obiwan Kenobi much earlier.

Jin chuckled at the young boy's enthusiasm. It was nice to see him happy about something, even as he could sense the boy's fear of losing his mother after they left. It was almost as if Anakin was trying to hide it, but failing miserably as the Jedi could see right through him.

Obiwan looked to his master for a moment, before putting his gaze upon the 'Chosen One,' he then folded his arms over his chest. "We will be taking the Naboo Starship to Coruscant, right master?"

Ento opened his eyes, his hands dropping to his sides as he furrowed his brows. Words, voices and faces. Things he had not seen, or had yet to see were compiling into his mind.

Reaching up and pinching the bridge of his nose, the teen looked to Jin, only for his eyes to flicker towards Padmé. Immediately the face of Palpatine appeared in his mind and he winced, as pain had panged through the side of his head. His evil cackling, the sound of lightning, the embodiment of what he perceived to be corruption sprang loose in his mind.

"Ento?" Padmé dressed as a handmaiden blinked as she stepped forward, seeing him grasping at the side of his head now and leaning forward with his other hand out.

Obiwan and Jin both raised their brows, this didn't look like fatigue, both of them could sense there was much more raw power behind the boy.

Anakin began to panic, grabbing onto Ento's side. "What's wrong?"

Padmé immediately forked her arms under Ento's, holding onto him just as his footing was lost. She could see the pain on his face, as if he was in mental anguish. She followed him to the ground, going onto her knees, the Jedi Master and Padawan helping so neither got hurt.

Anakin stood back from the group, his fingers curling up into his tunic, he was afraid.

Jin however could sense that despite being in so much pain, Ento wasn't screaming. His emotions... They stood like a wall clad in nigh-indestructible phrik, in other words, a metal that could survive a superlaser capable of destroying a planet.

His will was ever strong, maybe as strong as a powerful Jedi Knight, but not as refined as a powerful and wisely aged Jedi Master.

"He will be alright, my young friends... The Force is strong with him," Jin exclaimed before parting his lips seeing Ento's lips moving. At first it was just raspy breaths until he finally released words. "What are you trying to say...?"

His eyes rested on Padmé, wincing and clenching his jaw before the wake of a sharp pain, he then suddenly lost consciousness in her arms.

Padmé remained on her knees with wide eyes, slightly shaking him. "Master Jedi! What just happened to him?"

Obiwan caressed his chin, looking to his Master.

"Master, it seemed like he was being attacked on a telepathic level... But I didn't feel anything.. Perhaps he was having a vision?" He ran his fingers through his hair, looking back down towards Ento who was now being cradled by the handmaiden.

Jin nodded lightly, "A vision so powerful and dark... It could be painful to receive, even fatal, if not trained to perceive them. Hm.. I recommend he be trained by Jedi Master Dooku or the Dark Woman..." His eyes then narrowed on Obiwan, "Or you when you become a Jedi Knight. I can see you helping him gain control over all his faculties."

"You flatter me Master," he didn't necessarily object, but he didn't see himself as a Knight just yet, until he spoke up once again. "I still have a lot more to learn from you, Master."

Giving a light snicker at his Padawan's eagerness to remain his student, his eyes went to the two boys. Though he was worried, he believed Ento would get through this easily.

"Obiwan, I'd like you to take this ship and Ento to the Jedi Temple ahead of the Naboo Starship. Anakin will I will join the two of you later." His eyes then went towards Padmé, "You may join him as well... The face he was making towards you, I believe he has something he wants to tell you... Likely something urgent."

Padmé's brown eyes traced over the Jedi Master's face before they went back down towards the boy in her arms.

Panaka entered the ship shortly afterward, "Master Jedi, my Queen, we have to get going."