Midnight in the Garden

Chapter 35: Unrepentant

One more week. Midnight finishes up next Thursday! 

I have a soundtrack up for Midnight and the prequel to Midnight I am now working on. The prequel is called Masters of the Game and tells the story of Palpatine's first popular election, the one Sereine keeps talking about during Midnight. The soundtrack is on YouTube at this playlist: playlist?list=PLyXt6P7d1IjUO-m8nsVSPZivqdDfn6S9_ . 

You will notice a lot of these are from Fifty Shades. The music and lyrics worked. I probably wouldn't have gotten the idea for Masters without that soundtrack. Masters has some explicit scenes and will start going up here as soon as I figure out how to do a decent cover for it. Until then, it's going up on the fan fiction boards on TheForce.net.

Seven more chapters of Midnight. Enjoy! Thank you for reading, and please consider donating a star. I like comments, too, and I don't bite.

***

"I will not teach you. Our teachings are nothing without power. If you will not use the dark side, you will learn nothing! You will be  nothing -- nothing but a traitor to our Order. You already are -- you have betrayed your master, and refused your name!"

"I will be something," said Anakin, with a proud lift of his head. "I will  be something, within  the Jedi Order. I will be a Scholar -- like Lord Plagueis before you. Palpatine -- if you could be safely released, you would be! No one wants to do this to you. But look at what you've done! And I haven't  refused my name. I will  use it -- to bring honor to the Sith!"

"The Jedi who says he does not hate me denies the knowledge of his own darkness," snarled the Sith. "And a scholar, young one ... is not honorable, and a traitor is less  than nothing."

"Master. I can bring you your Sith books, your holocrons, if you want me to. You must want them. You're allowed to have them here. If you want them, just tell me where they are."

"You  are not to be trusted with them."

And Palpatine turned his back on him.

***

"Not far wrong, is Master Windu, although sarcastic, he may be," said Master Yoda. "Like an illness, this is. Encourage him to fight it, you must. Promised, the dark side did, that powerful Palpatine would become. Instead, necessary it was, to deprive him of power completely. Promise, it does, that free from fear, can one be. But afraid, has the master been, all of his existence. Promise eternal life, the dark side did. Now, die Palpatine will, directly because of its use. See this, he must. Then, emboldened to fight, he may be."

Anakin nodded. "I'll try, master."

Palpatine attempted to escape from the Jedi Temple, once. The deaths of two ysalamiri set off a Force-sensitive alarm, and five Jedi masters managed to coerce an older, weakened master Sith back into the Pavilion without alerting the press.

A year passed. A year and a half. Anakin visited Palpatine several times a week, when he was home. He brought Palpatine books, favorite foods from the worlds he visited, souvenirs from his travels. Anakin knew the old man spent his days communing with the dark side of the Force, knew he longed more than anything to be able to use it to heal himself. Always the yellow eyes seemed to look past him, flitting impatiently about the walls and windows. In his heart, Palpatine still lived out there. And in his heart, he still planned someday to be  back out there.

At last, Anakin returned to the Temple after a two-month posting on Cato Nemoidia. He gave his report to the Council, feeling an odd tension in the room. At the end of the meeting, as the other masters filed out, Obi-Wan stopped him.

"Obi-Wan, what's going on? It's like no one wants to look me in the eye today. Have I done something wrong?"

"No, Anakin, no. But ... your friend Palpatine. I'm afraid all has not been well with him, since you've been away."