Kina has no particular advice at this point, but what she is doing is going over the building's plans and comparing them to footage from the Jedi's body cameras.

"Everyone on guard duty, watch your backs; if the Sith's here, there's no doubt he's trying to kill us right now.  Watch out for rocket launchers."

Jedi Sentinels are very good at their jobs, and Kina suggested they tap into the Senate's comm nodes.

There's a variety of outgoing transmissions, but the one from Palpatine's office that nothing can make sense of...

"Yeah, I give high odds that Palpatine in particular just set off some sort of contingency plan; there's comm traffic from his office, judging by models, going weird places and we know he's not going to call Queen Amidala; he's hiding the crimes we know he did from her already.  Eyes open, not just Force senses, we know they know how to hide from us, and if the Sith is not a Senator or inside the Senate building right now, they know where we are and what we're doing, so they will be coming.  Watch out for rocket launchers."

There are rocket launchers!

The first of Palpatine's surprises happens to be Jango Fett, a semi-Mandalorian bounty hunter who's worked with him before, on one assignment in particular. Today, he's above the Senate building, carefully high enough that no one will be able to sense him above them even with the Force. He brought rocket launchers! He also brought a friend!

For now, though, Palpatine's on his own, and pretending to be nice and friendly even though both he and the Jedi know otherwise. "Master Yoda. Master Windu. Have you made any progress in your search?"

"...Well, there are some suspicious transmissions coming from his office...Don't mention that until someone actually shoots at us, though."

"Very little, so far," Yoda replies. "Almost certain, we are, that the Trade Federation and Teem for the Sith work. But prove it, we cannot yet, and our other enemies, we still seek."

"We're wondering how much you know about this, Chancellor," says Windu. "I imagine you understand the inner workings of the Senate. Anyone else we should be investigating?"

Yoda begins to walk around the room, combing his surroundings with the Force.

Palpatine's at a bit of a disadvantage, knowing that he can't use the Force without alerting the Jedi to his powers. But the office is clean. He's already sent five messages, set up one of those six messages so that someone else can send it for him if it becomes necessary, and wiped everything from the device. His lightsaber has been placed far enough away that it shouldn't be detectable. Hopefully there's nothing else incriminating.

But of course, he knows that soon enough, he'll be found out. What's important is that he can escape at the end, and that he deals as much damage as possible in the meantime.

"There are several systems that are in close negotiations with the Trade Federation, and I suspect they plan civil war. Malastare, of course, has Teem, but Geonosis, Onderon, and Muunilinst are also possibilities."

This is fun. Plagueis happens to be from Mygeeto, not Muunilinst, but this should add some confusion to the mix.

Kina, meanwhile, is paging through her sensor network - specifically, a bunch of blaster training droids, with their blasters taken out and remote cameras hastily installed instead, deployed in several strategic locations.  "I'm guessing that there is not supposed to be anyone lurking on top of the Senate dome right now?"

"No, there isn't?" says one of the Jedi. "Who is lurking on the Senate dome?"

After that, she searches some Senators, and comms to Windu: "That's probably actual intelligence, but of course we know it isn't any of them that's the Sith - Senator Bonteri is female; the Senators from Malastare and Muunilinst are not capable of fitting the robes, and the face is wrong for the Senator from Muunilinst to be the biologist Sith...Geonosis doesn't even have a Senator."

"I don't know who precisely is on the roof, but they have spiffy armor, a rocket launcher, and a jetpack."

Oh, shit, they can see him. Time to get going. He starts flying in the direction of Palpatine's office. At the same time, in an area not covered by any camera, a window shatters.

"Annnd he's now heading in the general direction of Palpatine's office.  Might or might not be in our comms, which worries me."

"Also, the security system just reported a broken window in sector 12-Q.  Not sure what the kriff that means but I'd put money on it being enemy action.  Popping a spare drone because I can't see it.  Is anyone in Force range?"

Oh, Jango's in their comms, all right! He should probably shut down that security system. He'll be back for Palpatine soon! For now, he's firing a few shots at the communication towers, and the antennae shatter. Camera feeds start disappearing, and then the whole network turns off.

"You can start moving now," Jango reports to everyone who broke in through the window.

Windu is very worried, but he's staying in character. "We'll be certain to investigate all of them, Chancellor. But none of them seem to fit the right description. The Sith is believed to be a human male, but none of the Trade Federation's allies are that. They might have some secret ally, but we'll need to figure out who - "

"It's Palpatine."

Mas Amedda strides into the room, a grim look on his face and a gold-plated lightsaber in his hand. "This was hidden within Palpatine's Senate pod. He's been a Sith Lord this whole time, and he played Naboo just to capture the Chancellorship and finish his - "

"Kriff."

Kina stands from her comms setup and flares her Force presence, as she herself starts running towards the Chancellor's office and away from where her enemies might know her to be!

She won't be in time to do anything, of course. Jango is always upset by how slowly people move. The droidekas were supposed to be here by now! Well, he can move quickly. He slams through the Chancellor's window, and it's so fast that they can't even see the shot, but Amedda's on the ground, a burn mark now seared into the side of his skull, and the lightsaber's on the end of Jango's grapple, landing in Palpatine's hand.

"My lord, it's time to leave!"

Windu ignites his lightsaber, moving towards Palpatine as he shoves Jango away. Yoda follows.

He thinks Kina won't be there in time to do anything.  He's wrong, because she has a hovercar and she's not afraid to use it.

Palpatine stares at the lightsaber in his hand.

And then he tosses it to Yoda.

"I don't know what this is about," he whispers, fake fear and indignation plastered on his face, "but I'm not a Sith! Why would - this is - they're trying to frame me, Jedi, don't believe them!"

"My lord, it's too late," Jango says, firing shots that the Jedi easily deflect. "The Jedi know the truth by now. We have to leave, now."

"I'm not - he's trying to trick you! You have to believe me, they want a scapegoat so that they can - take me! Lock me up, I don't care, just get me away from him!"

"Stop trying to convince them, my lord, they won't - "

Jango is then hit by a hovercar.

Kina skids the hovercar to a halt outside Palpatine's office window, and winces as it sends Jango flying into the room.  "Well, the bribery charges should keep you nice and busy anyway," she says, lightsaber half-ignited, blaster leveled at Palpatine.

"It's not my fault," Palpatine babbles. "They threatened me, they said they'd kill me if I didn't - and Naboo! I was trying to save Naboo - surely you understand, I was just - I..." He's not really making much sense, but the whole point of this act is to confuse them.

Now the droidekas show up! They're not really doing much, but they hold off the Jedi for long enough for Jango to flee through the halls of the Senate.

"Yeah, right.  That totally explains everything ever."

She shoots the blaster.  It's set to stun.  Then, seeing Jango recover, she throws her lightsaber, veering it out in front of him as she starts pulling plugs on the droidekas as fast as she can!  She has gotten a lot of practice with fiddling with electronics recently!

Ooh, a lightsaber! Jango always wanted one of those.

...OW. That was his SHOULDER. Does his shoulder still work? Eh, close enough. He'll keep running.

Palpatine lets himself get hit. It's very risky, but hopefully his allies will be able to handle this until he wakes up. First Jango, then the droids - there should be more droids soon, right? - and the third person he contacted should be showing up right about now.

"Hello, Master Mundi! I have some business here, if you don't mind." Dooku pushes him out of the way with the Force, and marches into the Senate building.

Uh-oh. The Council members start entering the building.

Oh, how cute, he thought that grabbing her lightsaber would help him.  No, Jango, it just lets her use leverage to try and break you.

(She's still unplugging the droidekas.)

It doesn't take long to handle the droidekas. Jango and Dooku seem to have both disappeared, and most of the Jedi are still searching for them, but the remainder join Yoda, Windu, and Kina in Palpatine's office.

"Should we kill him?" voices Eeth Koth.

"Arrest him.  Very, very carefully.  Killing him is disproportionate to what we can presently prove.  However...we have that lightsaber.  And if Dooku barged in...He's definitely also a Sith.  Drat.  I rather appreciated the fellow, even if I thought his mere example was dangerous.  Anyway, Palpatine wanted protective custody..."

"He's too dangerous to be kept alive," Windu hisses. His lightsaber's still on. "You really think he doesn't have some more tricks up his sleeve? Dooku - he could be here to break Palpatine out, even if he's asleep - is he asleep? What if he's disguising himself, somehow? And yes, he wanted to be locked up! We'd be playing into his plan if we don't kill him now."

"We have enough to prove our case. I'm sorry about this, Kina, but we can't afford to arrest him. We'll find a reasonable defense for this."

"We can arrest him and then execute him.  Think of our public image.  The man's a politician.  He planned this.  He knows how Jedi think."

"He's absolutely trying to make a martyr of himself, I have no doubt.  So we do not let him do that.  We vanish him into a deep dark Sith-proof hole, especially since he did do crimes, and let the Judicial bureaucracy grind him to dust in a faceless anonymous trial that he can't deny wanting."

"What?! Of course he doesn't want to be a martyr! He's trying to escape, and he's banking on us not killing him!"

Windu sighs.

"Yoda, back me up here. Do we kill him?"

On Dathomir, the clan of the Nightsisters begins their ritual.

On a vessel rocketing through lightspeed, Darth Plagueis begins his.

Master Yoda is perhaps the most powerful of the Jedi Order, if you don't count Kina, and no one really does. That doesn't mean his mind can't be controlled, but it means they can't use the normal methods, even those that are theoretically capable of controlling Jedi. They have to be a little more cautious.

When he sent his instructions, Palpatine had considered trying to force Yoda to turn on his allies. Kill Windu, kill Kina, kill the rest of the Order, and get Palpatine to safety. The trouble was, though, that just wasn't something Yoda would do. If the thought entered his head, he would recognize it as alien, and then he would be on guard. Everything would break. There are plenty of people in the galaxy weak enough to fall for that, but Yoda isn't exactly the type to let someone else's ideas influence his head.

His own ideas, though...

Plagueis and the Nightsisters can't force Yoda to be someone other than Yoda. What they can do, though, is be selective over which parts of Yoda are more active. There's a part of Yoda that knows they have to present a public face of protectors who would never kill anyone innocent, who knows that they still don't have complete, undeniable proof, and it's saying to keep Palpatine alive. There's another part of Yoda that knows Palpatine is dangerous, who knows that leaving him alive will be too dangerous and give him opportunities to escape, who knows that Palpatine might have plans in motion that account for his unconsciousness. Normally, it would be a tough decision.

Today, Yoda is sure of himself. One part of him just happens to be a little louder than the other, that's all. Nothing out of the ordinary.

And so he shakes his head, and he puts both lightsabers into his pockets.

"There's three Sith, Master Windu.  If he dies here, now, I think he wins something for the remaining two.  If he dies elsewhere, elsewhen, then we cannot be accused of trying to do a coup.  Now let's get him the kriff somewhere he's not planned being."

Kina hauls Palpatine into her hovercar's trunk, stunning him again.  "Master Windu, Master Yoda, with me; the rest of you, keep the Senate safe."

Yoda and Windu hop into the hovercar. The other Jedi leave the room, and patrol the halls some more.

...and yes, the Senate needs to be kept safe! There's now a wave of battle droids coming in! Through the wall!

Further away, the sixth message arrives, forwarded through an anonymous address.

And Kina swears something incredibly creative in Huttese, double-bladed saber whirling in a telekinetic arc through the droids as the hovercar swoops low and flies slow enough for Kina to scoop up one of the carcasses' radios and jam its receiver into a tracking unit - "How the kriff did all these things even get here?!"

(Incidentally, is Padmé somewhere convenient?)

She's watching the events through a Senator's monitor. This is beginning to get crazy.

The Jedi see Dooku now. He's at the center of the Senate, standing next to the Senator from Serenno and... giving a speech? "The Republic has shown itself time and time again to be far too inept and corrupt to handle an actual crisis. The people of countless worlds are forced into a horrible state of oppression as the Republic stifles production and takes our wealth for no good cause other than buying mansions for its own people! We now find that a Sith Lord has manipulated us from the center of the Republic - yes, Chancellor Palpatine himself, a Sith Lord! The Jedi Order are smuggling him away, and I know not of their purposes, but I suspect they plan to use this gap in the system to take control of the galaxy for their own cause!"

"My friends, I spent time learning the ways of the Force - yes, from both the Jedi and the Sith. And what I have learned is that the Jedi are just as corrupt as the Sith, as all of the enemies they claim to protect us from! We now have seen the deadly power of putting the galaxy under the control of such a horrible excuse for a government as the Republic, especially with the Jedi backing them up. I think we are now prepared to move on from this, from both the Republic itself and from all of the bribery, and the uncaring, selfish methods that it uses! Today, Serenno secedes from the Republic, and we shall be the first in a vast Confederacy of Independent Systems!"

This is absolutely not what Palpatine called him here to do. This isn't even close to what Palpatine called him here to do. But Palpatine's a liability, at this point. He might be better than the Jedi, but he's not substantially so. He'll now serve as nothing but the perfect enemy for the new order to rally against.

Plagueis is a little busy at the moment, but he isn't entirely upset about what Dooku's doing. Still, he is upset that Dooku isn't helping protect Palpatine. Looking through Yoda's eyes, it looks like the hovercar is getting a little too far away.

Well, here's something that might draw them back into the fight! Saesee Tiin's dead!

"Oh for kriff's sake.  Masters Yoda, Windu, out, defense."  How'd he even --

Fine then!  She'll cheat too!

The sound of a yellow lightsaber cutting a hole in the Senate's roof is audible for a minute, and then a hovercar flies through the gap.

"It's a bit rude to send the opposition to your plans haring around saving lives you endangered in the first place while you exploit their absence to score political points, Count Dooku!  Would you like your boss back?  Since I sure didn't see the Senator for Serenno send any messages before a certain bounty hunter cut communications, and yet you somehow knew just the time to arrive!"

At which point she dumps a still-stunned Palpatine on Dooku's pod.

"And if you think that the Jedi Order is a willing tool of Republic oppression, I'd like to draw your attention to the recent Naboo debacle, where Jedi had to do something that almost certainly scraped the bounds of Republic law regarding their ability to act, if not outright broke it, because they wanted to save several million lives the Republic would have written off as a trade dispute!  Did you know that Jedi are legally forbidden from rescuing certain victims of slavery, under Republic law?  I do, because when they secured my freedom, I had to sneak behind their back to save my friends, solely for plausible deniability!  I don't even disagree that almost all of the people in this very room are self-centered, corrupt, money-grubbing egotists.  But.

"We can do better than that."

"I make no defense of the Republic, today.  That would require blatant lies.  But the Jedi Order, for as long as I have worked with them, has been striving to do as much good as it can, despite the Republic's corruption.

"And now, that corruption has been dramatically revealed, for everyone to see.  Perhaps things can change in its wake.  Perhaps we can make the galaxy a better place.  But we can't do it under the thumb of the Sith, who Count Dooku presently serves.

"Let me tell you why."

"No offense to you, Count Dooku, but you've been taken in by their honeyed words.  Their actions, however, speak louder.  And you know it.  I felt your anger at the petty, pointless death of Qui-Gon Jinn, murdered with a rocket launcher for the crime of being close to me.  Do you think they really care about the things they claim to care about?  Or can you see the lie they've told you in their actions?"

"Really?" says Dooku. "You still want to accuse me of working for the Sith? I most certainly admit to being here on the orders of my, ah, so-called Master. But I have not, in fact, defended the ways of the Sith, in any way but infiltrating their ranks to take away their power. Palpatine here - Darth Sidious, if anyone wants the name he uses to boost his ego - is most certainly no friend of mine, and neither is any other Sith Lord."

"And I am quite curious, Kina Skywalker, as to what makes you think the Jedi are good for the galaxy. As I understand it, your argument is that a Jedi's job often requires them to refuse to help people, but occasionally they decide to go against orders, so they must be doing the right thing? Far better, I would think it, to just go out and help people ourselves, than to hope that against all odds some Jedi will do what little they can to save us. And an organization led by the Republic is too restrained to have any substantial impact on the galaxy."

"Should the Jedi break free from the Republic, and begin to make the galaxy a better place regardless of the rules, I will concede the point. But I doubt such an event will occur."

"I accuse you of facilitating their plans, and being almost as callous as they are, because while you are pontificating and posturing, there are good people dying because you are letting them die, unless you somehow don't have any access codes to the droid army; I know, were I in your position, doing the thing you claim to do, I certainly would.  So prove your intentions.  Steal their power, shut them down and stop this madness.

"I already said I'm not here to defend the Republic, Count Dooku.  I'm here to ensure it doesn't drag the good the Jedi can do down with it, if it cannot cut the corruption off like the rotted, gangrenous limb of the apparatus of power it is.  And while we're speaking of Sith, I don't suppose you know the name of the other one?  Muun, male, obsessed with midi-chlorans, very likely wealthy in his own right because there's no way Palpatine arranged all this on even a Senator's budget, kidnaps and murders Force-sensitives to experiment on their heartsblood...Anyway.  I'm not actually here to debate you."

Kina turns, pacing a circle, meeting as many Senators' eyes as she can.

"Senators of the Galactic Republic, you are here today because of a situation unprecedented since the time of the Ruusan Reforms.  The Sith, long thought forever defeated, stand within your center of power, maneuvering, scheming, to break the Republic apart, to rend its heart in two and feed upon its suffering.  The Jedi stand here to defend you, fighting as best they can from within the chains you've placed upon them.

"Will you squabble, and bicker, and infight, and give them yet more power, yet more ways to hurt your people and yourselves, until your power-seeking grasp seizes nothing but Sith-struck suffering ruins?  Or will you stand up for the ideals the Republic professes, or even simply in sheer self-interest, and free us to help, as the Force wills it?  I call for a vote: If you believe the Republican ideal - freedom, justice, mutual aid and the rights of all sapients - and the Jedi defending it and you, are worth having and supporting...Vote aye.  If you wish to chance it on your own, as Independent Systems, the Sith left to run rampant, with the man dancing on a blood-slick knife's edge as your supreme leader...Vote against this resolution.  Let the voice of the people speak, Senators."

Kina triggers a new vote, pressing buttons on the Chancellor's podium, and the Senate's lighting dims to show its results as she disconnects Dooku's booth's microphone.  Dooku doesn't get more speech time.

Kina and Dooku seem not to have noticed that there's still a battle going on! The droids have been mostly destroyed, but a second Jedi is dead, Adi Gallia! And a third, Even Piell! Who's doing this? Jango doesn't even look like he's here - there are lightsaber wounds -

It's about now that Plo Koon finds the bodies of Oppo Rancisis and Mas Amedda, hidden in a closet. It's also about now that Jango's Clawdite friend attacks him from behind, her face already shifting from Rancisis's to Koon's in preparation for her next kill.

Yoda watches Koon fight the assassin out of the corner of his eye. There's a part of him that wants to help, but his other priorities seem more prevalent at the moment, and oh, it's fine, Koon killed her. For now, though, Yoda's impulse to kill Dooku seems like a pretty good idea! He's a Sith, no matter what he says! It's not the decision he would usually make, but it's still a reasonable one. Nothing's wrong with it.

And so he ignites his lightsaber, and he flips through the air to slam his blade down at his former apprentice -

As he reaches the peak of the jump, the other lightsaber slides from his pocket, and the Nightsisters' spell cuts out.

Kina leaps in the way via telekinetically-levitated plating, bracing herself, lightsaber whmm-ing to parry the blow!  "I really ought to have confiscated the kriffing Sith artifact when I saw it, but I wasn't actually expecting it to do mind control!"  Speaking of which, she will be taking that now.

And telekinesing it at the droids if it's actually a lightsaber.

What just... Dooku's slashing at him now, and he's still dazed, wondering what's going on, and why he... why...

His head's at least starting to clear. He blocks a few times, and Kina's saber is doing some of the work, but he's still... he... he'll leave, for now. Yoda leaps away from the fight, and...

Oh, great, there's the bounty hunter.

Jango's back! His shoulder's fine! And here come the rocket launchers! It is not fair that Zam killed four Jedi Masters, even if she did get a bunch of help. Probably not going to get all eight, but he can at least score a few.

Did Kina's skill with telekinesis not get mentioned to Jango?  She's vaguely surprised, but honestly.  Unguided rockets?  What was he thinking?  Was he thinking at all?  She can just nudge those!

She flips one right back in his face, and finds somewhere non-destructive-of-the-Senate for the others to blow up.  In the mass of droids, probably.

The droids are pretty much all gone by now. The eight remaining Jedi converge on... Palpatine?

He's awake, faster than someone should be able to naturally get up, but he is Darth Sidious and he does not let blasters stop him. Four points out of twelve is a very bad score, but he can't afford to play anymore. The bounty hunters and the droids are gone, Dooku's betrayed him, the spell's broken, and the last person he contacted hasn't actually shown up, although that one was a long shot anyway. He is entirely out of tricks. Except for this one! He throws two Senate pods through the ceiling, and the pillars begin to crumble as he prepares to leap through.

"Master," hisses Dooku, and he lands his blade in Palpatine's heart.

Kina blasts his head off, careful to not actually catch Dooku in the line of fire.  Just to be extra sure.

...Kriffing collapsing building stoppit.

Dooku helps!

"Was there some sort of vote happening?"

"On continuing support of the ideals of the Republic - freedom, justice, all sapients' rights to pursuit of happiness, et cetera - in the face of this treacherous Sith assault, I do believe.  All in favor, Senators?"

The Senators are not actually in a voting mood right now! There is still a giant hole and a bunch of broken droids and bodies! Could they do this some other time?

"Hmph, no sense of dramatic timing.  Anyway.  Dooku, you and I need to have a talk."

"Excuse me, Skywalker," says Senator Antilles, "but I think it's slightly more urgent for me to speak with you. In private."

She has no idea what she's done, does she.

"...Oh, great, something else is about to be revealed to be yet more kriffed up than I ever expected it to be.  Dooku, if you don't want yourself placed firmly in the 'working against the galaxy's interests' bucket, find me after this."

Sure, Senator Antilles.

As Antilles and Kina walk off, the rest of the Senators either split into smaller groups to discuss or hurry out of the room. There also seem to be quite a few reporters and police forces around, and the surviving Jedi are trying to clean things up, but... where's Dooku? Isn't he technically a criminal? But the crowd is too large to handle anything, at this point.

Antilles pulls Kina into a private room, hopefully far enough across the Senate building that it won't have any structural damage.

"Hello, Miss Skywalker. I'm Senator Bail Antilles, if you're not aware. I'm very grateful for your help with the crisis. That being said, your experience with politics seems not to be quite as advanced as your skills in the Force. I'm worried your words to the Senate may have just given the Count's movement a substantial advantage."

"We're very lucky the Senate wasn't prepared to decide the future of the galaxy right then and there, as you wanted them to. But if they had, what factors do you think would have determined their decision?"

When they are finally in a somewhat private space, Kina practically collapses onto the nearest sittable surface.

"I really, truly don't know, Senator Antilles; I have been running off adrenaline, intuition, and sheer panic for the past several days because there was a Sith in the Senate.  I don't honestly think that Dooku is entirely wrong that something needs to drastically change about the way the Republic operates, though, because - Hutt Space exists, Senator Antilles, and the Republic cannot coordinate action to make it not, slavery and all, despite claiming to acknowledge no such entity!"

Kina inhales.  Exhales.  "So tell me what you see, please, because you're right; I don't know how politics actually works.  I have a dream, but - only that.  That people will - act on this moment when the truth was laid bare, and build something better.  Something that actually works, rather than - allowing bribery to run rampant such that Jedi walking the halls of this institution would overhear prosecutable offenses being committed.  Rather than something that permits another Naboo, as exceptional as that was.  There's more Sith out there; they'll try again, and the Senate wouldn't notice.  Do you think there's a way to thread this needle?"

"But in answer to your question: I expect them to be majority driven by greed and fear, though I believe there are yet a few who listen to moral concerns."

"Greed and fear. You expect them to do whatever will help themselves? You give them a little too much agency. Palpatine, Teem, Dod - they, are at least, intelligent enough to be driven by greed and fear. Most are far worse."

"Sadly enough, most politicians - and people in general - do not try to do things that will satisfy their goals, whether those goals be the good of the galaxy or advancing their own wealth. Rather than looking forward to the consequences of an idea, they look backwards, to who proposed it, to some group or ideology that they can round it off to. Prior to your arrival, there may have been at least a chance that the Senators would think about the consequences, and realize that rebellion would only make things worse. But you instead prompted them to do what was all too easy, and choose on a personal ground."

"This is what you presented to them, Miss Skywalker. Imagine some Senator in the middle of a frightening battle, already furious and looking for an enemy. Count Dooku is trying to present his own spin on things, telling them that their enemy is the Sith and the institutions as a whole, and that he will be their friend. And then a kid arrives in front of them, and she gives a speech on how the Jedi, and by extension her, are better than the Senate. That they are, as you said, 'self-centered, corrupt, money-grubbing egotists.' In any case, the Senate would be reluctant to listen to the word of someone so young, but a child who insults them so, tries to call herself superior to them, will give them a narrative to easily slide into."

"Before you arrived, the Senate was choosing between continuing with the way things are, and rebellion, possibly leading to war. Now, the choice they most clearly see is not between actions, but between two sides - between a charismatic politician who, despite unsavory rumors about him, just killed their enemy and told stories of a new order for the galaxy, and a stupid child who arrogantly disregards the adults' experience and describes them as worthless and evil. The content of what you said is irrelevant. All that matters is who said it. And now the symbol for all that we fight for is a child they despise. Do you really expect them to look beyond that symbol?"

"It goes without saying that you were correct about everything you said. Your only mistake was saying it."

Kina presses her face into her hands.  "That's kriffed up."

"I can only hope that their constituents will listen to sentiments so obvious a child sees them."  And Kina Skywalker laughs, darkly, wryly, sarcastically, because she hopes, but can't bring herself to expect.  "Really, in the wake of this, I'm hoping that most of the Senate gets thrown out of office for being so blatantly corrupt.  There's enough bribery just in Palpatine's Senatorial records, as provided by the Queen of Naboo, to take down quite a few prominent members already.  Let alone anything else he's done that was kept elsewhere."

"Thrown out by who? I doubt we can actively override a majority of the Senate. I hope to delay voting for weeks, months if necessary, to break the vote down into component pieces in hopes that we can arrange bargains, and give them time to calm down and consider specific consequences. And yes, if we give the constituents time to speak, they can sway enough of the Senators. I doubt we'll be able to entirely prevent Count Dooku's movement from taking hold. But hopefully we can at least steer most of the galaxy in a better direction."

"We are not going to involve you in this in any way. I will handle the speeches - no, actually, I lost the election, officially, and that's not a good image for a leader, so I'll find someone else to be a more appealing public face. If you have any comments to make, make them to me, not to the Senate."

"...By the judicial system, for having done rather a lot of crimes.  Or is that as hopelessly corrupt as the Senate itself presently is?  ...And yes, definitely no involving me further in this mess.  Ugh."

Antilles smiles, despite everything. "I'm still glad to have met you, Miss Skywalker. It's refreshing to find someone whose only flaw is being too honest."

He leaves, since he does have quite a bit of work to handle.

"May the Force be with you, Senator Antilles, and hopefully also the Chancellorship."

Kina has many things to handle as well; tracking down the droid control computer, for one, and containing the mind-controlling lightsaber she's not letting out of her sight.  (And berating herself for missing that Jango grazed 'Mas Amedda', when she hears of the dead Jedi Masters.)  And where did Jango go, anyway?

Dooku isn't presently available to chat with Kina. He's busy calling Darth Plagueis, and telling him that of course they're still friends. What? No, Dooku won't kill him! As long as he doesn't mess with any of Dooku's plans! Get back to work on your blood samples.

She is able to find Windu at the Jedi Temple, who's locked up Jango, and for good measure the Clawdite's body. "What is it this time, Skywalker?"

Well, Kina can wait on that.  Or call Dooku's office.

Presumably he has an office.

Still, she's more interested in following the money right now, rather than the Count.  Because she is quite interested in visiting Darth Plagueis's laboratory, and performing a research safety audit.

Once she's either picked up or failed to trace the droids' signal, she asks Master Windu "What should I do with this?  Kriffing mind control focus..."  (The lightsaber has not left her sight since she first saw it, though it is now concealed from plain view, and furthermore handled secondhand.)

Windu points out a notification that yes, she's tracing the droids' signal, to a ship above the planet! While she's looking at that, he picks up a boulder with the Force and slams it as hard as he can into the lightsaber, crushing it.

"Are you out of your damn mind?! Oh, yes, you're not putting your hands on it, how careful of you. Instead you just carry it by reaching through the Force, which happens to be the channel it strikes through! I really hope no one activated that while you had it with you. We already had a close enough call with Yoda!"

(Windu may be slightly pissed off due to the four dead friends.)

Kina flinches.

"I was, after the initial push, touching it at a remove, but yes, that was - rather ill-advised.  Thank you for catching it.  ...To whom do I direct 'impound that ship'?"

"I'll contact the Republic's forces, but I'm not all that confident they'll be able to catch it."

"Also, you are not speaking with Dooku until we settle all of this. He's the leader of an active rebellion against the Republic."

"...If he tries to preserve the Trade Federation, then yes, he most certainly would be."

"Right. The Council will be collaborating with any Senators we can to handle this mess. I know better than to tell you to stay out of it, but at the very least don't do anything without talking to someone first."

"Trust me, I'm not cut out for direct political action.  I'd start with Senator Antilles."

Windu nods and leaves.

Kina is going to go sleep for a week and hope the galaxy doesn't explode without her personal attention.

...Well, okay, first she should probably write down what the kriff happened, where she went wrong, where she could do better...

But she's just.  Done, right now.  That was absolutely terrifying.

Where's her mom?  She needs approximately all the hugs, yesterday.

Shmi is available, and has approximately all the hugs ready.

Oh, good.

"I really hope that there's nothing else about to explode soon, because that was already way too much for me to be handling.  I mean.  I did it, and I think I was probably the best option somehow - Jedi really can't sneak or do - operations or anything that's about getting into battles instead of individual fights - but...Today was really scary, mom."

"I know, Kina. For me, too. Maybe the Jedi can help you with this sort of thing? I'm sure they can teach you ways to help you keep yourself safe."

"You know you've already done so much. The Republic is changing, and someday soon, we might live in a galaxy that's better for everyone. I know there are still a lot of dangerous people out there, but you've made it this far, and I believe you'll be able to keep going. No one's going to explode my Kina."

Kina's mom gets a tight squeeze of a hug.  "Thank you.  I...really needed to hear that."

The next few weeks are blissfully uneventful.  Kina attends lessons, attends funerals - she feels some guilt over their deaths; she'd thought Amedda was spared as a co-conspirator but not identified the right conspiracy, then failed to communicate that...

She checks in with her friends.  Padmé, Obi-Wan, Bultar.

She sends a more official message to the Queen, thanking her for providing the key to blowing Palpatine's conspiracy wide open.

She tries to do normal things, like get excited about mechanics and reading so many new books, like mingle with the kids-her-age.

(That doesn't quite work; after everything she's done in the past few weeks, there's a gulf she doesn't really know how to cross.  She's jumpy.  She's weird.  She talks back in classes like the Masters are peers.  (And she's in weird classes, for that matter; they're all over the spectrum of Jedi coursework.))

She can't stop watching the holonet coverage of the attack on the Senate.  She feels responsible for it.

What happens to her, as time passes?

Not much. She speaks with the Council and Antilles a few times, but they mostly don't contact her of their own accord.

Events in the Senate are getting quite chaotic. No one has actually wanted to arrest Dooku, so he's going around trying to gather support for his Confederacy of Independent Systems. On the other side, many Senators are trying to keep the Republic exactly the way it is, including Teem, who is no longer excited about his potential under the rule of Sith. Antilles's faction, as usual, is trying to present themselves as somewhere in the middle, not ending the Republic, but reforming it, specifically by investigating bribery and raising military power. To stop citizens from worrying that the Republic will end up having too much power, they've chosen Senator Garm Bel Elbis as the public leader of their movement, who, like most of Corellia, favors limited government intervention in everyday life, but is most definitely ready to forcibly end atrocities at the level of slavery.

The people's beliefs, as Antilles had hoped, have had a strong influence on the political landscape. While most of the Senators would have either wanted to join Dooku or keep things as they are, their constituents have far different ideas, and most seem to side with Elbis's faction. The overwhelming majority is now prepared to override the Senate, and allow the voters of each planet to elect new representatives and directly determine whether to stay in the Republic. It's not perfect by Antilles's standards - there are still a few planets, such as Geonosis, whose people want nothing to do with the Republic, and will likely join the Confederacy - but they at least won't be able to control the galaxy as a whole.

Kina thinks this is about the best outcome she could have hoped for, politically speaking.  (And if Geonosis so hates the Republic, it shouldn't be forced at gunpoint to stay.)

Does anything happen in Kina's personal life?  There's not much she's had time for, given recent galactic events, but she is hoping that the connections she's made haven't since decayed.

She hasn't had many chances to spend time with anyone, with Obi-Wan still not in the best mood, Padmé on Naboo and incredibly busy, and the other kids not really relating with her very well, even Bultar. But Shmi's there with her, often watching and supporting her during her classes.

Shmi has been a little different recently, though. She's always there when Kina's training with the lightsaber, with that concerned look constantly on her face. It's not even the fear that Kina's getting hurt that's most visible. It's when she hits someone that Shmi winces.

...Kina is clearly not a fan of this 'hitting people with her lightsaber' thing.  In the few spars where using the Force is encouraged, she sometimes doesn't even turn it on, in favor of using bits from belt pouches of spare parts, the exact same wrench she beaned Darth Maul with, or the loops of grappling cord she's taken to carrying, to trip, entangle, ensnare, and otherwise render-inert.  (And quoth she, "Frankly, I expect that if I am in need of a response as powerful as a lightsaber as a combat tool, I will likely turn to a gun.  Unless it is a matter of blaster deflection.  Lightsabers make excellent cutting tools, though!")

It doesn't help that something about the design she presently has just feels wrong for her, still.

Perhaps her mom will talk about what's bothering her when Kina visits the workshop to tinker with her training saber?

In truth, though, it's hardly tinkering that she's doing, the parts laid out in exploded-diagram form, and many more scattered before her.  It's more of a total rebuild, as parts shift back and forth, the casing clearly laying discarded elsewhere, because it's not sufficient for the task at hand.

What Kina's building is at once simple and yet complex, because it's as much an indication of philosophy as a tool of battle.  She's building the ideal parrying dagger, in lightsaber form.

(Not that she knows this, when she starts out - she just has the image in her head, the parts in her hands, and the Force whispering in her ear.)

Shmi is comforted by seeing that Kina's building a lightsaber for defense, but she's still worried, and Kina saying she'll use a blaster doesn't really help much.

Eventually, she does let on that Palpatine's death is sticking in her mind. It's ridiculous, of course, Kina didn't even kill him - well, technically, she killed him, but Dooku had stabbed him first, he had about ten seconds left. Nothing Kina did was wrong in any way.

But still...

"...yeah.  I - I can't say I regret it.  Sometimes...Sometimes people are just...too horrible, and too unwilling to stop being horrible, to let them continue to live and inflict their horribleness on others.  But I do wish I hadn't had to do it, especially not like I actually did.  I don't want to hurt people.  Frankly, if I hadn't known that the other Sith Lord had claimed a way to heal anything, I would have not done that at all.  But - he needed to be dead, because he'd - I could feel his emotions and they were like a three-year-old pitching a fit at losing his favorite toy, or losing the game he was playing.  He wouldn't cooperate with - rehabilitation attempts.  He was wrecking things out of petty spite.  Not even strategically.  And given that...he needed to die, because allowing him to keep living, especially if he escaped, at that point, was - so much cost, for absolutely no gain.  He'd demonstrated he wouldn't cooperate."

And she nods, because everything Kina said is true. But it still doesn't really reassure her.

This is how they said it would go.

Shmi knows she shouldn't trust the message. She's worked out, by now, that it was from Palpatine, that its only purpose was to manipulate her into trying to stop Kina from ruining his plans. The obvious reaction to an argument deliberately made to deceive you is to not listen to it, and that's what she did, that's what she's been trying to do...

But it did, in fact, successfully predict that Kina would kill Palpatine.

She didn't kill Palpatine!

Yes, she did.

No, she really didn't!

...but she did?

She knows Kina has good reasons for all of this violence, and that she's only trying to keep the galaxy safe. She tries to put her fears aside, and just trust her daughter to do what she knows she can do.

But she keeps going back to the message.

Shmi Skywalker,

 

Your daughter is going down a path she won't be able to come out without losing who she is. Already you've seen her fighting, trying to change the world, and it's always been for a good cause, the power she collects always for the sake of helping others. But in time, she'll begin to harness powers that are too great. The dark side of the Force, whether she likes it or not, grants more power to its users than anything else, and when she has no other choice, no other way to help make things right... she'll turn to it.

But for all the strength the dark side offers, it takes a toll on its users. Though it draws from one's passions, it also requires sacrifice of those passions, in the most terrible way possible. The sacrifice necessary to become a Sith Lord, to reach a full potential in the Force that no other path can rival, is not one that you'll want your daughter to make. But if you let her continue, she'll make it anyway.

Right now, Kina Skywalker is on her way to the Galactic Senate, with a hope to murder Chancellor Palpatine. YOU MUST STOP HER FROM DOING THIS. She has good reasons, of course, flawless reasons. She'll tell you that Palpatine is evil, and she's right. She'll tell you that killing him will make the galaxy a better place, and she's still right. But it will change her mind in a way she can't recover from.

If your daughter kills Palpatine, he won't be the last person to die at her hands. She'll find more people, those who are planning horrible crimes, and she'll kill them to keep others safe. Over time, she'll get used to it. She might not question, as much, just how guilty someone is, as long as she knows it'll probably be worth it. Slowly, she'll start to draw more power for herself, and if someone stands in the way, they're a necessary sacrifice. Every Sith Lord in history has followed that path, and she'll be no exception.

And the final sacrifice to become a Sith... well, she'll make that too, telling herself that one life isn't as important as the many lives she can save with her new powers, no matter who that life is. She'll struggle with it, but she'll find the strength to complete it, in the end. The last step in order for her to become a Sith is to kill the person she loves the most. It's not just your daughter who's running out of time. It's you.

"...You don't look like that explanation helped with - whatever it is that you're worrying about - any."

"Well... maybe. I'm just... it's fine."

"...That response never means it's actually fine, Mom.  What happened?  Please.  You're important to me."

"It's... well..." She sighs. "Kina, when you shot him - and I'm not saying it was the wrong decision, just... what was going through your head, at the time?"

"That -"

Kina drums her fingers on the table.

"I wanted to arrest him.  Have him tried for treason, fraud, bribery, corruption, tax evasion maybe.  But if Count Dooku had already struck a killing blow - and, the biologist Sith Lord claimed to be able to heal any physical wound -

"The Republic's defenders needed to visibly defend it.

"If Count Dooku hadn't struck, I feel like I would have just stunned him again, though I can't be totally sure, because of hindsight bias.

"But I didn't want to kill him.  What I did there was - participate in his already-occurring death.  For optics reasons, and because losing your head means that you're very dead and if he was already dying I didn't want him coming back later somehow."

"I... I mean, I guess this is probably the most innocent way to kill someone, but that's not saying much! Kina, you... I... what are you going to, going to do, are you... someone else... would you..."

She starts to break down. Turning away, she shows Kina the message.

And Kina is hugging her mom, stat.

She has a very important counterargument, to what Palpatine said. Some of it she's already laid out, but she'll go through it all again.

She didn't want to kill even Sheev Palpatine, when she headed out to the Senate building.  She wanted to arrest him, to contain him - but not kill him.  Not even maim him.  She specifically took steps to preserve even his life, while his plans were doing their best to end hers and the Jedi Masters who were also there.

If she'd like to see the camera footage, and have Kina walk her through everything that happened...She can do that.

It'll suck, but she'll do that.

Because kriff no; Palpatine is simply wrong.

She can see the logic that he's spinning, but it's built on a flawed premise.

Kina wants even Jabba and Gardulla to live happily.

Maybe not unconstrainedly, but happily.

They can't do that if they're dead.

So Kina can't kill them.

Not if she has any other choice.

Palpatine denied her any other choice, at the end.  Or perhaps Dooku did.  She might have shot to stun, otherwise; it worked before.  A nontrivial part of her in the moment calculation, there, was that Dooku could not be the only person in the room to have visibly defended the Republic from the Sith Lord if the Republic, and the Jedi Order, were to stay even remotely intact.  This is yet more of Palpatine's bantha dung; he's trying to deprive her of support in self-fulfilling prophecies.

So kriff him.

"Mom?  You are hereby appointed chief 'tell-Kina-she's-staring-into-the-suns' person, and if you tell me that, I promise I'll listen.  Because he's not wrong that getting into high-pressure situations can change a person for the worse, and while I hope I have a better hold of my ethics than that, I really can't be sure; that's not a thing easily noticed from the inside.  ...Maybe holocrons?  I've certainly heard they can store - memory, personality, ethics, judgement.  Need to look that up..."

After another brief period of thought, Kina has something else come to mind, about why Palpatine's shpiel is lies.

"...It's never been about guilt or innocence.

"It's always been about whether someone can cooperate with others, to make something better than this horror.

"And he's defecting, all the way from the other side of the grave.

"I'd be impressed with his tenacity at being so very himself, if his self wasn't so terrible."

"You know what's funny?  The Sith continue to sabotage their own best chances at turning me.  Because maybe I wouldn't have noticed that so clearly before, but - if it's you at risk...I know I won't take unnecessary chances with my values."

Whenever Plagueis finds out about this - which he will, he finds out everything - he will be so pissed off. Of all the ideas Palpatine could have tried, this, and it didn't even work! What was his plan - was he trying to stop Kina from becoming a Sith? Why can't any Sith work together for five minutes without betraying each other? This is why they never conquer the galaxy!

Well, Plagueis did kill his own master. He'll ignore that part.

Shmi seems to have recovered a little. "Maybe you should get back to your training, Kina. I'll... I trust you, you know that? No matter what anyone says. You'll make the right decision, always."

Honestly, Palpatine's plan might have worked if Kina was running around dead on her feet for long enough for that seed of doubt to germinate in the background.

But she wasn't, and Kina was trying to hold tight to her anchors.

So she found out the plan and tore it to pieces.  Because kriff him.

He rolled the dice, and he lost the game.

"...I hope to prove worthy of that trust."

It's hugging time.

It's hugging time.