Plagueis was eager to get started with his experiments. However, Hego Damask still had to contend with his other obligations during the day, one of which included tutoring his young protegee, San Hill.

But he had decided he could still make good use of this time.

Hego set his briefcase down on the silvery table in front of him and opened it. San walked in through the door as he removed flimsiplasts and a datapad from the briefcase. As Hego grabbed the last of the flimsiplasts, a small, grey furry six-legged creature with four eyes, a stubby tail, whiskers, and antennae leapt out of the case. A wood vole.

Startled, Hego dropped the sheaf of flimsiplasts he was holding, which fluttered to the floor. The wood vole scurried along the table, its tiny nose moving almost as furiously as its tiny feet. Hego grabbed it before it could leap off the edge.

"Looks like you picked up a hitchhiker," San remarked, stopping.

More like an escapee.  He recognized the creature-subject 312. He always remembered all of his experiments, after all.

San backed up against the far wall, regarding the wood vole with an anxious expression. "I'm just going to stand over here while you deal with that, ah, allergen." Hego was, of course, familiar with San's allergy to furred creatures.

Hego narrowed his eyes at the small mammaloid held firmly in his hand. "Certainly, San. I will dispose of this unauthorized presence," he said, grimacing. He walked to the door of the domed building and, opening it to the forested environs, plopped the wood vole on the path outside the door and quickly slammed it before the animal could scurry back inside. Unauthorized creature disposed of, he thought smugly.

San, looking relieved, walked to the center of the room and settled behind the desk there, sneezing a couple times into a handkerchief. Hego walked back to the table at the front of the room and casually picked up the flimsiplasts scattered on the floor around it.

San clasped his hands on top of his desk. "All right. I'm ready to get started!"

Placing the flimsiplasts onto the table, Hego looked up. "Today, we're going to do something a bit different," he said, calling up three images of Muun brains with colored activity mappings onto the large holoscreen display above the table.

San's eyes widened. "Wow, I know we were discussing the psychology of stock purchases, but I didn't realize we were going to get quite this technical."

Hego laughed. "Oh, no, this is unrelated. You see, I thought you might help me with an experiment I'm running."

San's eyes lit up at that. "Really? I mean, sure!"

"Yes," Hego said. "I thought I'd start with something straightforward so you could familiarize yourself with the patterns. Tell me, what would you say about these brain activity scans?" He gestured a hand towards the row of three images on the holodisplay.

"They're all from entirely different people?" San said.

An unnerving observation. Still, Hego had to admit he'd had the same thought, even knowing that two of them were his own. "Go on," Hego said.

"Wait, these were all induced from the same external stimuli, right?"

"A good detail to verify," Hego said, one corner of his mouth quirking upward. "The answer is yes."

"Alright, I'm trying to remember back to my introductory neuroscience classes--the brain structures look Muun."

"Correct," Hego said. "The middle scan is from a textbook image of the experiment I replicated--a baseline image showing a typical response. The other two are from volunteer data I acquired." Probably almost the only volunteer  data he had ever acquired. He had long had an interest in recording his own physiological data, especially information such as this.

"What's the experiment?"

"Inducing Sympathetic Emotional Responses," Hego said, bringing up the text abstract for the experiment. "The images represent responses to holorecordings of other sapients experiencing pain." He thought it fortunate that he'd long had an interest in this experiment and its numerous variations and so had a number of historical data points of his own brain activity to compare. It seemed extremely applicable to his current predicament.

"Intriguing!" San said.

"Indeed. Do you remember the functions of the different brain regions sufficiently to draw any conclusions here?"

"Sure," San said. "The one on the left is not having a sympathetic response," he said. "Whereas the one on the right is having an extremely strong response and--" he paused, frowning, "that's weird."

"What?"

"Er, a number of things, really. The one on the right shows unusual readings from a lot of the brain structures. Anyway, both are abnormal compared to the baseline image."

How true. He called up another image aligned to the left underneath the other three.

"It's so tiny!" San said, laughing. "A human brain?"

"Yes," Hego said. An old image obtained from Sidious. He tapped a button on his pointer and another human brain, this one from a textbook, appeared to the right of it. Soon he planned to obtain another reading from Sidious -- he simply hadn't gotten around to it yet. "The one on the right is the baseline. Do you remember the analogous human brain structures sufficiently to evaluate the response of the one on the left?"

"Oh, ah-- yes, of course. This human is having a similar response to the Muun on the left, only not only are they not having a sympathetic response, but they're deriving significant pleasure from whatever painful experience they're viewing. Wow, is this one a serial killer or something?"

"I'd rather not give any details so as not to bias your responses," Hego said calmly. "I'd like to give you this data for further study, and I have a number of analyses I'd like you to perform on it. Do you think you are up to the challenge?" Hego felt increasing urgency to make sense of what the orbs, the--emotional additive, had done to him and Sidious, and he needed an assistant to help him analyze the data, especially since he would soon have a large amount of additional data from his new captives.

"Of course!" San said enthusiastically.

Excellent.  He could have asked Sidious, of course, but sadly his Apprentice did not seem to share his interest or aptitude with such things. To be fair, he was quite diligent at following through on any instructions he was given, but analysis, much less discovery, was another matter entirely.

San was rather young, but had demonstrated both great ability and flexibility in his academic talents. He also possessed considerably more intuition for these sorts of things than Sidious did. He was already far ahead for his age in all of his financial and business courses and Hego had simply been ensuring that he would be the unquestioned choice for replacing the current Chairman of the IGBC when the time came. He could afford to miss a few of those classes.

"Good," Hego said. "I look forward to evaluating your analysis." Yes, San's other lessons could wait. Right now, this task had priority.

Sidious heard the knock at the door. His visitor had been expected; had come here on his insistence, in fact.

Sidious scooped up Maul, who clung happily to his new stuffed toy. Then he walked over to the door and opened it.

"Vidar, please come in," Sidious said solemnly.

"Palpatine, I--," Vidar said, walking into the apartment and rubbing his hands together to warm them, his eyes immediately drawn to the small zabrak on Sidious' shoulder.

"I believe you had something of great import to tell me, my friend?" Sidious said. "Please, take a seat." He indicated an armchair next to a small table. Vidar dropped onto the chair, seeming endlessly burdened, though again he looked up at Maul.

"Palpatine, there's much we must discuss, but first I must know--why is there a baby alien on your shoulder?"

"He's a zabrak," Sidious said, "and my heir. Vidar, meet Maurice."

Vidar's eyes widened. "And the mother? Are you and she--?"

Sidious laughed. "You misunderstand, Vidar.  Maurice is adopted. I haven't decided on how to go about finding a mother for him yet. But if that doesn't work out, I'm sure I can manage on my own. There's just the one of him, after all, and with adoption, there are never any--surprise extras."

Vidar gave him a baffled look, then laughed. It was the first time Sidious had seen him smile since the accident. He returned the smile.

"You weirdo," he said. "Still, I knew you'd eventually realize the importance of leaving a legacy. Even if this has got to be the strangest way of going about that I've ever seen."

"What can I say?" Sidious responded. "I defy the expectations of others."

"That you do," Vidar said, his expression becoming serious again.  "Which is why I'm here today," he continued. "Because you may be one of the only people left that I can trust."

"What do you mean by that?" Sidious asked, knowing very well what he meant by it.

Vidar waved a hand expansively. "My family didn't die in an accident--they were murdered by none other than Veruna and Tapalo."

Sidious frowned, considering the man's ungroomed hair, his tired eyes. This was a man who was sick with grief. Sidious realized unhappily that he understood the feeling.

"You have evidence of this?" Sidious asked.

"I will," Kim said. He held out some flimsiplasts to Sidious, who took them without comment. "These are the reports of the 'accident' scene. I was hoping you might look at them-- perhaps with your knowledge of speeders you will be able to pick out some suspicious detail."

"Of course," Sidious said, placing the documents on his desk.

"Even without that, I know enough about Veruna and Tapalo to oust them from power. And I know exactly who will help me with that, too."

"Who?"

"The Jedi Order."

Alarm flashed through Sidious. "The Jedi? How do you plan to gain an audience with them?"

"Ronhar," he said. "He will speak to them on my behalf, after I convince him to take his place as my heir."

Sidious gave him a stunned look.

"What? It's not like that's any stranger than what you've got going on here." he gestured towards Maul, who had begun chewing on his stuffed shaak's head.

Sidious tried every type of persuasion he could imagine to attempt to dissuade Vidar from going to the Jedi, of all people. But the man was determined to regain his son from them and gain their help to depose Veruna and Tapalo.

Sidious might use the Force instead to compel Vidar to do as he asked, but while that would be completely effective it would also surely damage him. While Jedi could only exert their weak and ephemeral but undamaging suggestion over others, Sidious only knew how to control a mind completely while slowly breaking its will and resolve. Neither of which would do in this case.

Of course it would be the Jedi Vidar would seek. Beings always thought that if only the Jedi were on their side, that if only they noticed their plight, then all things would become possible.

Sidious sighed. Again, he would defy Plagueis. This time, surely, his defiance would not go unpunished. But he had made up his mind. "Vidar, you're in terrible danger. If you are right about your family, they will stop at nothing to eliminate you, too."

"I will not be cowed by those slimy bottomfeeders! I have nothing left but my vengeance and it will not be denied!"

Sidious held out a hand in a placating gesture. "Alright, I understand how important this is to you." Suddenly a new approach occurred to him. "But consider the danger this would put Ronhar in."

"Ronhar? Nonsense, he'd surely be able to handle anything they could throw at him. He's a Jedi!"

"Even Jedi are not invincible," Sidious said. Fortunately.

Doubt grew in Vidar's gaze. He crumpled back into the chair, deflating. "I can't lose him, too." He curled one hand into a fist. "But I can't just let this go! What can I do?"

"Simple. Tell me what you know, and let me contact the Jedi for you," Sidious said.  

"You? You'd have even less chance of getting their ear, surely."

"On the contrary, Vidar, I know exactly how to get their attention."

 A knock at the door. This time unexpected, but anticipated all the same. Sidious answered it. There was no one there. He waited several moments, then carefully closed the door.

As he turned to face the living room, he saw Talzin materialize from a green mist. She gave a vase of flowers to her right a disparaging look. Maul of course, also noticed her appearance. "Mama!" he said, holding out the stuffed shaak.

She turned and smiled at him. "And what do you have there, prickly pear?"

"Shaak!" Maul said.

Sidious smiled. "Very good, Maurice."

Talzin looked directly at Sidious, her nose wrinkling. "What?"

"His new name. It's Maurice."

Talzin crossed her arms. "And what, exactly, is wrong with Maul?"

"Nothing," Sidious said. "But it's not a very Naboo name. I do not want him to attract undue attention." He glanced at his tiny Apprentice. "Well, anymore than he already will."

Talzin rolled her eyes. "You should have consulted me. That is a terrible name."

Sidious frowned. "I'm not changing it."

"Shaak?" Maul said, holding out the mottled brown stuffed toy.

Talzin looked over at Maul. "Yes, very good, my little prickly pear. You are just as amazing and smart even with that abominable name Sidious gave you."

Sidious sighed. "And speaking of names, I'll ask you not use my Sith name with him."

She looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "What am I to call you, then?"

"Most know me as Palpatine."

"Palpatine?" she said. "That's it? Just the one name?"

"Ah, not exactly. I don't use my first name often, though."

"But you have one."

"Yes."

"What is it, then?"

Sidious hesitated. "Sheev."

She grimaced. "So terrible names run in your family I see. Your parents gave you that name?"

"No," Sidious said. "My sister, actually. I suspect she never thought I'd really use it. It's--not my favorite, but it gave me something to put on the name-change forms."

"Your original name was worse than Sheev? I'll not ask what that was, then."

"Good."

Talzin seemed consider something. "I haven't had an opportunity to discuss my thoughts on Plagueis with you."

Sidious raised an eyebrow. "You mean you have other descriptors for him, besides pretentious?" Sidious had found that one amusing, but ultimately unhelpful for actually devising a plan to dispose of his Master.

Talzin laughed. "Of course--I was merely collecting my thoughts. It takes time, to reflect upon the measure of a person."

"All right. So what do you think? You attack from the front to distract him, then I stab him in the back with my saber?"

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean about that."

Sidious gave her a baffled look. "Then what did you mean?"

"I mean that he seemed to view you favorably. And to be disinclined to harm you. I am sure you know him better than I, but have you considered attempting persuasion before resorting to murder? Perhaps he might now listen to what you have to say?"

Sidious frowned. It wasn't as if the thought hadn't occurred to him. "And if he doesn't? It would warn him of my intent and rob me of any advantage. I assure you that what you see as pretension is in actuality self-knowledge--his confidence in his own abilities is entirely justified. The only way you and I could possibly defeat him is to take him by surprise."

"Do you want to kill him?"

Sidious scowled. "Yes. And no. But I know what needs to be done. For Maurice's sake, and that decides his fate."

Maul placed the stuffed shaak on top of Sidious’ head.

Talzin sighed, though she gave Maul a small smile. "Alright. I'd simply prefer to avoid any conflicts I may not win. If, as you say, his arrogance is truly justified, I would hate to orphan Mau--my dear, sweet prickly pear."

"I won't let that happen," Sidious said calmly. "I simply need some time to plan an effective attack." Still, her words had caused him renewed concern. What if he was actually being overconfident in his belief that he could pull this off? And what if Talzin was right?

Talzin looked back to Maul. "I can give you a farseeing spell for an hour with--prickly pear."

Sidious tilted his head. "Agreed." It seemed a good deal. What he didn't say was that he would have let her hold Maul even if she hadn't offered anything in return. He found he rather enjoyed her company.

Not that he planned to admit that.

Still, he asked her if she wanted to accompany him to Coruscant when he planned to track down a Jedi on Vidar's behalf in two weeks' time. Unsurprisingly, Talzin expressed immediate interest.

It would be nice to have someone along he didn't have to dissemble to.