Back at his palace on the outskirts of Galactic City, Palo looked at his Gungan body floating in the Bacta tank and waved over the E3 medical droid.

“How is the body?” Palo asked the droid.

“All vitals are stable,” the E3 droid replied. “The body is reacting well to the bacta submersion.”

Palo nodded and turned to walk out of the lab when Meatbag approached.

“Statement: The clone has bypassed security and entered the estate. I have dispatched the Iron Knights to grind him into meat chunks.”

“Very good, Commander,” Palo told him.

Fortem rushed through the courtyard of the palace with his Songsteel sword in hand, but was soon greeted by the three Iron Knights.

“We cannot let you go further,” an Iron Knight told him. “This is where you fall.”

Fortem attempted to Force push the middle Iron Knight, but it repelled the attack with a Force push of its own, followed by a second Force push by another Iron Knight that threw Fortem off the path into a marble sculpture that nearly crashed down on him before he rolled away.

The three Iron Knights then surrounded the clone and began to spin their electrostaffs as they inched closer and closer. Just as the wind from the spinning staffs reached his face, Fortem ducked and swung his sword at the legs of one of the Knights, separating them from its body and making it crash into the others.

Fortem used this moment to gain a better position as the two remaining Iron Knights shoved the damaged third one to the side and hurried towards him. As they approached, the Dark Side clone turned back and squared off against his pursuers.

“Quit now and we will ask Palo to offer you leniency on our behalf,” an Iron Knight commanded. “We Shard seek a mutually beneficial resolution.”

“You Shard talk too much,” Fortem shouted. “There will be no backing down.”

Fortem immediately rushed the Iron Knights as they began to spin their electrostaffs setting off an impressive battle of man versus machine for a moment before the electric end of a staff hit Fortem in the side as he impaled the Shard of one Iron Knight, sending him flying back into the air and crashing to the ground.

The remaining Iron Knight looked down at the destroyed Shard in the deactivated MagnaGuard and became angry. He rushed towards Fortem who was still laying on the ground and raised his staff high into the air before nearly smashing it down on the clone’s head when he was stopped mere inches from exacting his revenge.

The Iron Knight looked up to see Palo and Meatbag walk into the courtyard. Palo held up his hand and shoved the Iron Knight away from Fortem through the Force.

“Enough!” Palo shouted. “If you Shard can so easily overpower him, then is he simply unworthy.”

“Unworthy for what?” Fortem asked as he made it to his feet.

“You failed to assassinate the Emperor. You failed to defeat my knights,” Palo told him. “The Artusian experiment has ultimately been a failure.”

“A failure?” Fortem raged. “I am the Dark Side. Infused with a Force crystal through Dark Side alchemy. Who are you to-?”

Before Fortem could finish, Palo grabbed him by the throat through the Force and lifted him up and slammed him back down to the ground. As he paced, he dragged Fortem across the ground, pressing him further into it.

“You claim the ultimate Dark Side mantle, yet here I am dragging you at my feet,” Palo bragged. “The monster will never be as strong as his maker.”

“Palpatine knew I was coming,” Fortem managed to say. “I killed who I thought was the Emperor.”

“Of course he knew. After I killed the Moff, he would be waiting for someone. You simply killed the dark puppet of a Mind Walker,” Palo scoffed. “Nothing more.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Darth Sidious is a master of many things. He can shroud the minds of millions. He can cover the eyes of legendary Jedi. He can essence transfer as I can. He can manipulate Force users across galaxies,” Palo told him. “He is the only true threat to my plans, yet I still need him alive for now.”

“So why send me?” Fortem asked.

“I needed to see if he was getting suspicious. Paranoid. It seems he was,” Palo replied. “There was no real hope for you to actually kill Sidious if he was there anyway.”

Palo released Fortem from his grip and the clone rolled over on his back exhausted.

“So I was a just a pawn,” Fortem said catching his breath. “Is that it?”

“Everyone is a pawn to me,” Palo replied.

“You never answered me,” Fortem called out. “What am I unworthy for?”

Palo looked around his courtyard and into the darkening sky above.

“To be the vessel,” Palo answered. “That allows my teacher back into this world.”

Suddenly a strange mist floated through the courtyard and swirled around Fortem.

“What is this?” Fortem asked as he could suddenly make out the same alien face he saw in Palo’s chambers. “What is happening?”

“I will be the judge of who is and is not worthy,” a deep voice said as it echoed across the courtyard.

“Teacher?” Palo asked as he turned around to see the spirit of his teacher enter Fortem’s body.

Fortem struggled as if fighting an invisible enemy on the ground and writhed in agony for a moment before he stopped and lay completely still. An eerie hush swept over the courtyard as Palo slowly walked towards the clone’s body.

As he neared Fortem, a sudden forceful blast emanated out of the clone’s body and knocked Palo, Meatbag and the Iron Knight to the ground. When he looked back up, Palo saw Fortem levitating on the walk with his eyes glowing bright red.

“The crystal flowing through these veins makes this body strong,” the clone remarked. “Much stronger than I anticipated.”

“So it worked then,” Palo asked. “You have returned to exact your revenge upon Sidious.”

The clone looked at Palo and smiled, “I did not spend decades in Chaos just to come back to crush my enemies. That would merely provide fleeting satisfaction. No, my student, I have returned to rule over all!”

“That is not the plan I’ve set forth,” Palo told him. “That is not what I have foreseen!”

“Perhaps you should look again,” the clone remarked.

Palo sensed an attack coming and blocked an onslaught of Force lightning with a Force shield for defense, but also unleashed his own attack of Force lightning that sent the clone crashing into a nearby ion cannon, sparking it to life.

As the ion cannon malfunctioned and began to wildly fire into the courtyard, Palo hurled the clone back and forth across the yard as he fried him with lightning until an ion cannon blast landed at his feet and sent him end-over-end down the elevator shaft that led to the facilities below.

With the Force lightning attack over, the badly damaged clone fell to the ground in a smoking heap. Though the body was mortally wounded, the Dark Lord’s spirit inside willed the body to get back up and make its way to the elevator shaft.

In the depths of the facility beneath the palace, Palo limped along a narrow catwalk that stretched above the rows of inactive MagnaGuards. There he crouched down and awaited his enemy.

Moments later, the clone made his way into the warehouse below the catwalk and stopped at the row of droids in front of him, before suddenly looking up and reaching out with the Force to rip the catwalk from the ceiling.

“I know you’re up there!”

The metal supports of the catwalk began to bend and break, causing it to twist sideways making Palo fall over the side, barely managing to hang on.

“I thought you’d be a worthy apprentice,” the clone called out as he continued to rip the catwalk down through the Force. “Perhaps I was wrong.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Palo replied as he waved his hand towards the legion of MagnaGuards who were all suddenly activated.

Outnumbered from the start, the Dark Lord-possessed clone began to panic as the horde of droids attacked him all at once. While he was able to Force push many away, and even unleash a brief bit of Force lightning, the sheer number of MagnaGuards enveloping him in such close quarters proved to be too much and electrostaff hit after electrostaff hit, the clone’s body soon dropped lifeless to the ground.

As it did, a powerful wind knocked several droids down as Palo heard the voice of his old teacher cry out one last time.