"Baggage. You are impure. You must be cleansed."

"Our Master is a fool," she says, pressing the attack with incredibly precise and strong blows, anticipating his movements and forcing him to parry her. "One who destroys his weapons on the off chance they might someday cut him, who turns loyalty to hatred because he cannot stand to think of a world without brutality, who turns away from every true opportunity laid before him because it might require him to change."

Sidious might not be taking the kid down quickly, but he can't touch her all the same.

She attacks him in the Force as she attacks his body. Her Force signature is behaving weirdly compared to Plagueis's, though. It feels Dark, it should lash out with a strength like an avalanche - but it presses against him firmly and evenly instead, wraps around him and searches for every crack in his shields, a dark ocean already closed over his head and dragging him ever deeper. 

(Shmi Skywalker is not the only one who's learned from their partnership. Wielding the Dark Side at all like how Shmi would wield the Light is incredibly hard, requires an intensity of will strong enough to control herself and every scrap of power that flows through her. To move slowly, relentlessly, the ferocious strength of the Dark and the unerring patience of the Light.)

"What has Plagueis told you that you are to him, boy?"

Nnnr. His shields aren't that strong.

"I am a knife."

"He will break you," she says. "It doesn't matter how useful you are to him. He will wear you dull, and then break you and cast you away like trash."

"Darth Plagueis does not believe in loyalty."

"You are a liar, Sidious."

She pushes him back, nearly off balance - 

"I had a knife," she says, "A girl your age. Strong in the Force. Clever, hard working. Utterly devoted to me and to any cause or Master I would give her."

"Plagueis couldn't stand that I had connections that weren't him, no matter how useful they were."

She presses further, not giving him enough space to get his balance, her attacks blurring together - 

"I was Plagueis's knife, and then he ordered me to murder my Danni because he could."

He slips, leaving a critical vulnerability in his grip-

She gestures, knocking him off balance even further and ripping his lightsaber out of his hand and into her free hand. 

He falls, looking up at her in terror.

She reaches out with the Force, pushing him to sleep.

He's out.

Deep breath. She puts both lightsabers away. 

And she kneels over him - checks that he's actually out, that he doesn't need urgent medical attention, that he isn't bugged or trapped or anything -

Sidious gathers the boy in her arms, and carries him to the estate's most secure cell. Arranges him on the floor so he'll be as comfortable as possible on a hard floor in an empty room. 

And then she leaves, locking the door and summoning Starkiller and her best martially trained handmaiden to watch him. 

And Sidious goes to find her daughter. 

Still with Elesse in the birthing room.

Her daughter's calmed down significantly in Elesse's arms, and is currently dozing. 

She pauses in the doorway, wrestling her Force signature back under control, shoving her roaring emotions where they can't spill from her skin. 

Seeing her daughter - unharmed, content, protected - helps. 

(It doesn't help the fear, doesn't help the old doubts creeping in.)

"You're a Sith."

"I am."

"Are you going to kill me for knowing?"

"No. Not just for knowing."

"Why, then?"

"If your survival posed even the smallest threat to my daughter."

"Outside of that - if you threatened me or mine beyond what I can maneuver around or turn to my advantage."

Nod. "Okay."

"You protected her."

"Someone had to."

"Would you put her life above yours?"

Sidious reaches out in the Force - overwhelming, choking - demanding honesty.