Edges of the World

Interlude IV

Breaking news! The Confederacy of Independent Systems, in their first true communication with the Galactic Republic since the start of the Clone Wars, delivered to the Republic today a massive amount of evidence supporting the claim of the Jedi Order that Sheev Palpatine was in fact a Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious. Several Separatist leaders are offering testimony about Sidious' deeds in exchange for amnesty in any future War Crimes tribunals. But can one in fact trust anything the Separatists say?

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Bail was worried about their line of defense.

Oh, he did not question that Sheev Palpatine had manipulated them all into passing laws and making decisions they never should have, but could they successfully prove Anakin's innocence on this alone?

Mon seemed to think so, but every time Bail spoke with Obi-Wan, or Anakin himself, the conversation always seemed to circle back to the identity of Darth Sidious. They kept talking about the ancient war between the Jedi and the Sith, how trying to tempt Anakin to the Dark Side had been a direct attack on his person.

Bail understood enough theology to appreciate how serious these accusations were. The Sith were, to the best of his understanding, evil Jedi locked in a war with the actual Jedi. If Palpatine were really a Sith...

Not to mention that the name Sidious was appearing in a lot of the Separatists' records. Not only in the official documents being sent to the Republic as a whole, but also within messages Bail was now receiving from old friends of his. Friends he had not spoken to since they had defected from the Republic three years prior.

Palpatine was the head of the dragon, and if this trial helped Bail fully destroy this evil and seal it away, then it would be of benefit to every being in the galaxy, whether they hailed from a Republic world, or a Separatist one.

He knew introducing the Sith accusation into the trial would complicate things, but surely when the man who stood accused was a Jedi it would be remiss to leave theology out of the case completely. If nothing else it would strengthen the argument that, current state of the investigation into Palpatine aside, Anakin had believed himself to be acting in self-defense.

More importantly, however, connecting Palpatine to this Darth Sidious strengthened his connection to the Confederacy, firming up the argument that Palpatine had been acting against the Republic when Anakin had struck.

His datapad pinged with an incoming message, and he was not surprised to find it was from Mon. She had been absorbed in researching legal codes since this nightmare had started, set on figuring out exactly how they could use this trial to not just save the young Jedi's life, but also build a stronger argument for peace.

What did surprise him was the message's level of encoding, flagged in a way that let him know it contained discussion of materials the Republic had deemed classified. It was to be for his eyes only.

He read the message quickly, curious about what if could possibly contain.

Bail, have you seen this footage yet? The slicers working on the investigation just pulled it from the Trade Federation's drives. It seems they thought they had deleted the data, but it was still stored on their systems. It's of this "Darth Sidious" figure giving them instruction. You can't see his face, and his voice seems garbled and different, but I swear it's recognizable as Palpatine. More importantly the information he is giving them, it's stuff only the Chancellor could have known. Bail, I think we've got him!

And there, attached, was the source of all the classification warnings. Holofootage direct from the investigation, to be viewed for official purposes only. Bail settled back into his seat, eager to see "Darth Sidious" himself.