The Jedi Conspiracy – A Star Wars Tale – Episode 1 Enter Plagueis

Long Ago In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…

All are glad the Emperor is gone, and the Jedi won in the end, but many have questioned, how they could have been so deceived by the Sith.

If they had known, wouldn’t things have been different, but every battle is not seen.

Every victory is not known, for one Jedi will learn the truth, that they were not mistaken, the Jedi saw and tackled a greater evil, for they knew all long.

Tartien

They set in a quiet corner of Tartien, hoods in place to prevent anyone from staring. It had been a long time since it all started, but they could finally allow themselves something they had not dared since it all began, laughter. The Jedi had been counted out by friend and foe alike, but only a few knew the truth, the Jedi knew all along.

A lot had happened, most at the table we’re supposed to be dead, technically a few were. Yoda hid his blue glow under the holocron robe. Mace’s cybernetic eye scanned the room for danger. Luke, still very much alive, looked at Rey and nodded. The last person at the booth scratched the scarred skin on his neck, and smiled at him.

Now was the time for Luke’s apprentice to hear the true story, how they outsmarted not only the apprentice, but toppled the real threat to the galaxy. Darth Sidious, Palpatine, the Emperor, whatever you called him, was never more than a pawn, and didn’t know it. Darth Plagueis, the real threat never wanted the power his apprentice craved. What he wanted was so much more deadly.

Until today it was possible he’d find it, but the last to arrive ended that with a final trip to Tatooine. The threat was no longer buried in the sand, and now it was time for Rey to hear the story of The Jedi Conspiracy.

Rey’s Question

“Two days ago, a man I believed dead, lands his ship beside of mine, and smiles. I hear this fantastic story that nothing is as it seems, and I’m asked to follow him to beyond the outer rim into wild space, to a planet I’ve never heard of. Someone’s tried to kill us four times, with respect to, who I think you all are, what’s going on?“

Yoda smiled. “Easy this is not, necessary it was. Sidious, your Grandfather, his dangers you know. Far worse was Plageous, steps had to take we did. Young Jedi was I when first I met Plageius, know him I did not.”

Mace spoke next. “The day I saw him, was the day your Grandfather threw me out of his window. That day, he was not masquerading as a Muun, but a Wookie. I would have missed him, if not for the eyes, and the evil smile.”

The shrouded figure with scarred skin spoke, keeping his head down. “I saw him the night Paplatine killed his nephew. I knew it for two reasons. First he told me, second he looked like Palpatine, and that was impossible. I had just left the Emperor, with orders to kill his nephew.”

It was only then that Rey got a look at the face of the person speaking. She did not recognize it, but had a pretty good guess as to who it was. His smile was kind and warm, not what she expected from his reputation. Then, expectation had went out the window when Luke showed up. It was to Luke she looked next.

“If you think that’s amazing, wait til you see this.” He placed an object on the table, it was there, but it wasn’t. It was red, but it was blue. It was metal, but it was changing form. “This is what Plagueis was after. He called it simply the pathway. You may know it by another name, The World Between Worlds.”

Yoda Explains

“Always two there are, the legend of the Sith is it. True and not true, fitting that is for the Sith. Wise Plagueis was, knowledge Palpatine had much of, wisdom not so much. Sidious manipulating, cruel, deadly, and easily deceived.”

“Wanted to kill Plageius he did, succeed he did not. As they are ready, everything the Jedi teach their students, not so the Sith are. Secrets share they do not.”

“Twice Sidious tried to kill Plagueis, both times he failed. Plagueis enacted a plan not known by his apprentice, a way to keep and not keep the rule of two. Rule of two, not a code of honor, but a chain, binding the two together, but limiting their power.”

Rey was about to ask questions, the blast stopped her. Luke’s lightsaber blocked the blow, as all the Jedi but her were on their feet two seconds before the shot almost killed her. It bothered her that she was not.

A horde of red lightsaber wielding purple cloaked figures flooded the cantina. The next fifteen minutes were a blur, but they were able to stop them all. Rey looked at one of their faces, but it had none, only skin. As calmly as when he first spoke Mace looked at the group. “Was it him, or one of his lieutenants who sent the horde?”

“I thought you said he was dead!” Rey demanded. Yoda laughed, “Say that I did not, neutralized the threat was I said. Can not obtain it now can he, but out there he is. Why you are here, he is.”

She sighed. “Oh great, another maniacal Sith after me. Who’s this one my Uncle? Wait, don’t tell me at least not til after he’s dead.”

Luke pointed to the back door, and she followed the group. Fifteen minutes later, they were speeding towards a planet that was no longer there.

Georiox

Mac pointed. “Georiox, there is where she was, even the four moons are gone. It was a thriving planet, probably one of the most powerful in wild space. Plagueis did not care, he discards people worse than Sidious did.”

Rey had been patient, but that was over now. “Can everyone stop talking in riddles, and tell me what we are doing at a place a planet used to be at? If the threat is neutralized, why is Plagueis still trying to kill us. What are you not telling me?”

Yoda opened his hands, and the pathway device floated out of the ship, and to where Georiox had been. Everything began to spin, as the space around it began to glow. Soon, Georiox, and it’s four moons were back.

Rey could feel that the planet was filled with people again. She looked at the glowing blue ancient Jedi ghost, “What did you just do? How?”

Mace spoke. “He didn’t do anything, the pathway did. It reached back into the World Befween Worlds, and put Georiox back from a moment before Plagueis destroyed it. The pathway undid what the Sith caused.”

“That’s what it does at times. At others, it leaves things the way they are. The Jedi do not control it, we don’t seek to. Our job is to protect it, and to protect those who have a connection with it.”

“Rey, you are one of those people. It’s why Plagueis wants you, it’s why he selected Palpatine as his apprentice. It’s also why he allowed him to continue as his apprentice instead of killing him. The Palpatines have a connection with the pathway, the Skywalkers do too.”

“You want answers, we can give you some, but not all. Where we can take you, is to when they happened. Down there, on that planet is both hope and danger. I don’t know which you will find, but you won’t find either of you don’t go.”

Windu’s Dream

His eyes opened, and he was flying out the window again. A moment later, glass pierced his eye, taking half his vision. He used the hand he had left to soften his landing. It was then he heard the wookie’s laughter, and saw those eyes.

Dawning his hood, he chased the wookie until he disappeared in the crowd. Suddenly blue lightning rattled his body until he deflected it. The lightning was not coming from a wookie now, but from a bounty hunter with a face like his. It was then Mace understood, it was also the moment he woke up screaming each time.

Yoda’s blue glow reassured him as he sat in the center of the room. “More frequent the dream now, trigger it Georiox has. Just beginning of the danger it is.”

“For us, or the girl? If Plagueis gets her, can he reverse it? Did we make a mistake bringing her here?”

Yoda shook his head no. “Matter of time it is. Bring we must, or he would. Not survive his methods would she. His apprenti everywhere are they. A successor will he not choose, now that Palpatine is gone, does not have to.”

“Meaning we essentially gave him a loophole when Sidious finally died. Even when we neutralize him one way, he finds another.”

“Greatest danger in sand is buried, second threat we must eliminate. Third threat only Rey can stop. Plagueis, Bane, Revan, Sidious, all sought Alsarin, only Plageius stood on its timeline. Stop him then you did, stop him now we will.”

Yoda closed his eyes, he spoke to someone not there. He heard an answer, Windu did not hear, but he knew who he was talking too. After a moment, Yoda opened his eyes and spoke to Windu. “It is time.”

Alsarin’ s Vortex

Rey had been on many planets, but few like this one. You could barely see for the mixture of snow and ice. Walking was difficult, but not impossible.

“It reminds me of the planet Hoth. Though the animals smell better here. Rey, we’re not trying to be cryptic, we’re telling you everything that is safe for you to know. When you know the rest, you’ll be in greater danger.”

Anger flared in her. “Tell me this, has any of it been real. You’re death wasn’t, what else was fake. Am I really a Jedi?”

Luke laughed. “You were a Jedi when you landed on the planet and we met. I was prepared to share more with you that day, until what happened in the cave. Contrary to what you thought, that wasn’t Palpatine you saw, and it was not a dark version of you. It was Plageius, he wanted to see if you could do what he needed.”

“What was that? What did he want that was different than the Emperor? How could he be more dangerous than the man who enslaved a galaxy? What could be worse than all of that power?”

Luke pointed. “You see that cave, inside the front of it is a Korvax, a loud terrifying beast that is large, scary, and powerful. In the back is a Herpoch, it’s a bigger, scarier, beast, and the only one a Korvax fears. Few have seen the Herpoch because it feeds in the night silently.”

“That is Plagueis, he was content to give Sidious power, allowing him to have more and more, while he sought a power that Palpatine only dreamed of. The power Plagueis craved, could have a thousand Palpatine’s as his puppets. Across species, across galaxies, and across time.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. How? I have to know more about Plagueis. What is his plan?”

“His original plan was to walk through the pathway and sit at the center of time, shaping realities. Sending his apprenti into different points in time, to have them rampage across time itself, creating alternate time journeys, bending space to a form he controlled.”

“Rey, the first thing you have to know is, this is not Sidious. He doesn’t think like him, he doesn’t have the same methods. He’s evil, he’s deadly, but he is more patient than your Grandfather. If Sidious waiting a hundred years to act, Sidious would wait three hundred. Be very careful, you know nothing about him, and that’s actually the best way to keep you safe.”

“Yoda, Mace Windu, and this version of Anakin Skywalker made it so that he could not enter the pathway himself. It would destroy him, now he needs someone to enter for him. They can’t be forced though, they have to do so willingly.”

“Once inside, Yoda suspects Plagueis has figured out a way to have that person open another door for him. We knew when we stopped him one way, he’d look for an alternate. The Sith do not stop.”

Anakin pointed to their destination, as Mace lowered the craft. “It’s there, I recognize it, I saw the pattern once on a holicron in Palpatine’s throne room. He was gloating over, he thought, having killed Plagueis. He explained that this map was his prize, but he could never figure out how to read it.”

As they got closer to the landing platform, hundreds of purple cloaked warriors stood between them and the city, once the small vessel arrived at the docking platform. “As Obi Wan would say, maybe they’ll listen to reason.” The laughter was mutual as they all leaped from the craft, lightsabers ignited.

Purple, white, green, and blue lightsabers flared against the flash of red for an hour as the battle raged. Soon, the red was snuffed out, and only the other colors remained. Tired, but undaunted, the five Jedi made their way towards the city. The battle was over, the journey was not, and the war between the Jedi and Sith raged on.

Enter Plagueis

A red cloaked figure watched from a vantage point somewhere off the planet. Two yellow hooded figures beside his throne. One noted that, “She is nothing like Sidious.” Plagueis smiled from beneath his robe. “Naturally, she has trust, loyalty, and decency. Had she been like my apprentice I would not have picked her. I tired of him after his second attempt to kill me.”

The other yellow hooded warrior spoke. “Why did you not kill him? Tyranus could have finished what he started? Perhaps you can correct…” He never got to finish the sentence. The droids cleaned up the mess as Plagueis responded. “Sidious tried to kill me, I can live with that twice, but I cannot stand to be second guessed, not even once.”

The new yellow warrior took the place of their predecessor from the hall of apprenti below. This one was from Georiox, the last apprenti chosen before the planet was removed. She had a personal stake with the way things went, and this was dangerous. Whether it was for her, or Plagueis he was not yet sure. Plagueis did not like uncertainty.

“You will return to Georiox, lead the hordes against the Jedi. Stop them in anyway possible, but keep them all alive until I arrive.” She bowed and left. The other yellow cloaked warrior did not move, waiting. Silence had been his biggest ally in the journey, and he would not refuse it now.

“What do you think of her? Is she dangerous, more so than you are? Will she survive?” Plagueis had no laughter in his tone, but the sarcasm was always implied with him.

“Yes, no, and yes, at least this battle.” It was all the warrior responded with, but it was enough to keep him alive. He awaited his assignment.

“Travel to Kasha Four, prepare my welcome for the other guests. We must be ready to greet those who are on their way. Take as many as you need, yellow, purple, and green.”

The warrior leaped backward off the platform, and cloaked warriors of the classes indicated followed. Plagueis sat silently watching, pondering, and calculating contingency plans.