**Chapter 681: The Mask Cracks**
**Scene 1**
**Chancellor's Private Apartments, Location Classified**
**Coruscant**
**Darth Sidious POV**
Sheev Palpatine sank heavily into the plush couch in the dimly lit living room of his secure temporary residence. The soft glow of a single Coruscanti lamp cast long shadows across the elegant furnishings. He let out a long, weary sigh, rubbing his temples with wrinkled fingers.
The Lord of the Sith was in a precarious situation — one he still struggled to fully comprehend. The only certainty was that Dagon Marek stood at the center of it all.
*How did it come to this?* Sidious thought bitterly.
He had miscalculated. Severely. He had judged Dagon to be nothing more than a bold, reckless fool — a man who had claimed the title of Grand Master without truly earning it. Oh, the darkness within him was real. Sidious could sense it clearly every time they met. That raw, volatile power simmering just beneath the surface.
But that didn't make him a Sith.
Or so Palpatine had believed.
There had been small clues — subtle warnings he had chosen to disregard. The way Dagon's presence in the Force felt… different. Deeper. More chaotic than a mere Dark Jedi should possess. Sidious had dismissed them as arrogance on his own part. After all, for a thousand years, the Rule of Two had held. Master and apprentice. No more. No less.
After murdering Plagueis in his sleep, Sidious had believed himself the pinnacle — the only true Sith Lord left in the galaxy. Dark Jedi minions were useful tools, occasionally allowed to believe they were Sith when it served his purposes. A convenient lie to keep them loyal until they were no longer needed.
And yet…
Sidious sighed again, his yellow-tinged eyes narrowing in the low light. Reports from the recent campaigns painted a disturbing picture. Dagon had used Battle Meditation on a scale Sidious had never seen before — not even in the ancient wars. The man had coordinated entire fleets across multiple sectors simultaneously. Even weakened afterward, the sheer power required for such a feat was staggering.
That kind of mastery was not the mark of a rogue Dark Jedi.
For a brief moment, Sidious' eyes flashed pure Sith yellow with barely contained fury. Too many unknowns. Too many variables slipping beyond his control. And worst of all, his mask — the kindly, wise Chancellor Sheev Palpatine — was now under heavy guard after the nuclear attack on Coruscant. Even he couldn't easily dismiss the protective cordon the GAR had placed around him.
*That damned boy…* Sidious thought. *He has turned my own weapon against me.*
He activated a secure comm channel. A hooded Kuat engineer, one of his long-placed loyalists within Kuat Drive Yards, appeared in hologram form.
"My lord, I have contacted you as requested," the engineer said, bowing his head low.
"What is the current status of Kuat?" Sidious asked, his voice smooth but edged with impatience. "I understand Senator Onara and Dagon Marek… exchanged words recently."
The engineer hesitated slightly. "It was more than words, my lord. They made a wager. One that could be either a grand achievement or a catastrophic failure, depending on the outcome."
Sidious leaned forward. "Explain this wager."
"Onara Kuat and General Marek agreed to each design a new capital warship from scratch — vessels between 700 and 900 meters in length. They will compete in a live combat demonstration at the New Year festivities. If Dagon wins, he gains unrestricted access to Kuat's facilities, designs, and resources. If Onara wins, she receives certain rare materials currently held in restricted vaults — materials none of your loyalists have been able to access."
Sidious' fingers tightened on the armrest. "A childish game… and yet one with dangerous stakes."
**Scene 2**
**Chancellor's Private Apartments, Location Classified**
**Darth Sidious POV**
Sidious dismissed the engineer and leaned back once more, staring at the Coruscant skyline through the reinforced transparisteel window. He remembered the old saying he once told himself: *Enjoy the opera.* But the opera had become far too unpredictable.
Dagon was consolidating power at an alarming rate. With the *Annihilator* and his growing influence, the man could potentially end the war on his own terms. And yet he still held the position of Supreme Commander. The security amendment Palpatine desperately needed to centralize control had stalled — even his own political bloc refused to push it through. Dagon's effective handling of the war had made him too popular.
He needed answers.
Activating another secure channel, Count Dooku's hologram materialized. The Sith Lord appeared weary, his usual aristocratic poise cracked.
"My lord," Dooku said, bowing deeply, "I apologize for my failure in the recent campaign."
Sidious wanted nothing more than to strike the man down through the hologram, but he still needed his apprentice — for now.
"Worry not, Tyrannus," Sidious replied calmly, though his tone carried clear warning. "What happened was… unforeseen. It seems we cannot beat Dagon through direct confrontation as he grows stronger. But this does not leave us without opportunities."
Dooku's expression shifted to cautious hope. "What is your will, my lord?"
"First of all, your apprentice Selena has failed too many times. Eliminate her. She has been given far too many chances."
Dooku nodded slowly. "I understand, my lord. But with her presumed dead after Selonia, I fear I can gain no more from the Nightsisters. They have suffered heavy losses. The dark acolytes have proven unstable and temporary at best. I am left relying almost entirely on clones."
Sidious smiled thinly, the expression cold and calculating. "The dark prophets require assistance. Use Selena's remaining forces to attack the Nightsisters. Wipe them out. Capture whatever dark magics and rituals they possess and deliver them to Korriban. The prophets should then be able to stabilize and improve our clone creation process."
"Yes, milord. I will begin at once," Dooku replied.
"One more thing," Sidious added, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Bring Mon Cala and the mysterious Hapes Consortium under Separatist control. To defeat Dagon, we must first break the Republic's back. Target their shipyards, their economies, their alliances. We need more than brute force — we need leverage."
Dooku bowed once more. "As you command, my lord."
The hologram faded. Sidious remained seated in silence, staring out at the glittering lights of Coruscant.
The game had changed. Dagon Marek was no longer a mere pawn or even a rival apprentice.
He was becoming something far more dangerous.
And Sidious would ensure that threat was dealt with — no matter the cost.