"Yes, what is the thing so much worse than the second coming of the Eternal Empire?"

"Why, death. The end of civilisation, mere brutish suffering. There are far worse masters than the Sith, I am afraid. I fear to say more."

"Ah.  So the second coming of Vitiate is not, directly, him, as you do not fear a second Nathema.  My thanks.  That had concerned me.  And yet, the Force sings with the aptness of the comparison.  What comes from beyond, Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo?"  She pronounces it correctly.  "Is there some curse upon their name or nature?  ...I happen to like the galaxy's continued habitability, and, with Sidious's current predicament, I really must ask if he can still fulfill his side of the bargain he offered.  If he can't, then as the only other Sith in the galaxy, it needs must fall to me - and I've a history of fairer dealing.  I haven't introduced myself, have I?  You can call me Darth Mourne."

"Ah, truly a survival of an earlier age. Fascinating. From what little I have read of the ancient Sith lore, another Nathema or a dozen would be entirely preferable to what comes for us. Too little is known of them, and there may indeed be danger in that name and that knowledge. But I never considered myself limited to one ally among the Sith."

"Unfortunately, while you may not be so limited, I'm fairly sure that both of us are mortal insult to the other.  For him because to let another Sith live is anathema to his line's entire philosophy, and for myself because I will not clasp the Empire's chains around my neck ever again, and Sidious will accept nothing that does not submit to him utterly."

"Ah. This is indeed my fear. One might hope the coming threat might be cause for unity, but as you have yourself illustrated, the forces of division are strong. I mean no insult when I ask - would you sooner die, perhaps after decades of unceasing suffering, than bow to Sidious, if those were your only choices?"

"Those aren't my only choices because I always have the option to rip my soul out of my body myself.  But that's a very interesting question you have there.  I suspect it's because that's the one you're facing, isn't it?

"I didn't throw myself against the Emperor in a blaze of futile glory, and I think that that is the only answer I can give you.

"Though if it comes to the matter of unity, I'm making this call from the Jedi Temple, and they're not trying to kill me."  Her body language smirks impishly.  "Make of that what you will."

"Ah? I admit, I am surprised, and more than a little impressed. My impressions of the Jedi did not suggest that they could be so sensible. And if I put it to you that our only hope for survival were unity of some kind, be it one of the plots of Darth Sidious or otherwise, some singular body with a singular leader to protect the galaxy, what would you say? What would the Jedi say?"

"I would say that I think you underestimate the ability of sufficiently advanced propaganda into fooling people into believing they are self-motivated and therefore pushing themselves further than an external source ever could, though that, too, does often indicate a locus for it.  The Jedi...  Well.  I can hardly speak for them.  I don't believe they'd like that plan either, but they might be foolish enough to attempt to argue from morality in their opposition, which would slide off of you.

"I do note that personally, even as I was effectively an autocrat, I found it very useful to draw upon a diversity of thoughts and approaches to accomplish my goals."

"Aha. Wise of you. Then you know well the danger of... diversity... when it is not properly aligned behind a strong leader. Do you raise yourself up as an alternative to Darth Sidious, then? If the Jedi will back you, perhaps he will have to bow to you. Your truly incredible intelligence network, still active after millennia, does rather speak for you. If the Ascendancy could be persuaded to kneel to you instead, would you have the strength to protect galactic civilisation, at any cost?"

Would she intentionally raise herself up as a new Empress?  No.  Would she mislead this man about desiring to be Empress, in order to save the galaxy from something that may have actually spooked Sidious and also from Sidious?

"Yes, I would, and put myself forward I do."

"Well then. Bring the Jedi into line against the coming darkness, and we shall see about the Ascendancy. And the Republic, of course."

"It would help if I knew more about that darkness."

"Hmm. I had feared that raising the alarm would be counterproductive. The galaxy is a squabbling mess, and it is only rare and special beings whom fear makes more rational. But for yourself, madam - there is a vast and terrible empire beyond this galaxy, of monsters bent on our slow excruciation and death. They torture and murder ambassadors, they breed abominations, and their scouts are here already. Beware the Far Outsiders. May the Force be with you, Darth Mourne; you shall certainly need it."

She nods.  "Thank you, Commander.  We'll be in touch."

Right.

"Well.  The parallels to the Eternal Empire seem to only intensify the more I find out about what's happening.

"At least this time the would-be Emperor isn't on the same side as the extraterritorial world-devouring threat this time, but that's really not much of a reprieve."

She buries her face in her gloves, scrubbing them down her mask dramatically.

"We know where Sidious is, approximately.  Unfortunately, the people who have him, have somehow ended up with worse problems, because at least Sidious is only one man out to cause mass suffering, in comparison to the Chiss Ascendancy's encounters with an extragalactic vanguard that somehow comes off worse compared to the Empire's attitude to diplomacy - because at least we bothered to do it occasionally - and comparable in terms of biological horrors.  As someone who would know, I can confidently state that that takes significant effort.

"And until they're confident that there's going to be a response proportionate to the threat, I don't think they're going to let us go kill Sidious again."

It takes them a moment to come back to themselves. 

That is... not what they wanted to hear, really. Let's put it like that.

"Deception is in the nature of the Sith. ...Present company excepted. If we kill Sidious, then we can see if there's any truth to this."

"Oh, no, no, you're very much right about even present company as regards deception, I was lying my face off to get him to believe I agreed with his ideology enough that he'd tell me anything.  I just know it has a time and place.

"That said?  I would stake - my kyber, my mask - on the certainty that this is a real threat that requires a response at least roughly commensurate to what was asked of me.  Sidious could not have had the time to manufacture these Far Outsiders in sufficient number to actually fool the Ascendancy, let alone control them."

"Little we know, of the Chiss. Outside our reach, they are, and unwilling to speak, hm."

"Sidious fooled us all, for years. We have no way of knowing what he could have said to the Chiss."

"He was-" later, later he can go... home... he doesn't know where, not the Jedi Temple, maybe Padme's apartment but it's never felt quite right, and think about all this, "he wasn't just a monster - he might not be lying. It would make sense."

"...No, Master Kenobi.  Sidious did not tell the Chiss about this.  The Chiss told Sidious."

...Why not us?

"Aren't you sworn to the Republic's service?  Notwithstanding that the last time the Chiss willingly poked their heads out of their corner of space was in my time, and, by my understanding, you can't even reliably project force to the Outer Rim properly these days."