[u][h2]Imperial Shuttle[/h2][/u][color=D0D0D0]"Exiting hyperspace," Captain Bonma said.

Emperor Palpatine felt thousands of Imperial personnel spiral away from him. They were there for an instant, dwarfed by Vader's beaconlike presence in the Force, before something powerful snatched them all away. In half a moment, something had destroyed decades of hard work and careful planning. Palpatine gasped. He could sense blossoming confusion in the shuttle's pilot and crew. Beyond the shuttle's confined walls was [i]nothing[/i]. There was no welcoming committee, no escorting TIE fighters, no Death Star. The low, distant thrum of Imperial Center was gone. Anger boiled within him.

"NO," he said. He would not let whatever it was destroy the galactic systems he'd created. Emotions were the only worthwhile truth; edges worn raw by contact with power were the only evidence that mattered. Whatever dragged Palpatine away from his Empire would fall to the truths of the Force. The emperor channeled his anger outward, forcing his senses to expand dramatically.

[@Lmpkio]
There was an impossible presence nearby in the Force. A Jedi. It had been so long since Jedi could detect him that Palpatine hadn't shielded his presence. With luck, they wouldn't have noticed him before he re-shielded himself.

Much farther away, a bright beacon approached, power rippling in its wake. It was the same thing that had ripped Palpatine's home universe away from him.

Finally, faintly yet nearby, there were beings similar to Force Ghosts. If Palpatine had not been an expert at masking his own presence, he doubted that he could detect them.[/color]
[hr]
[color=Orange][h2][u]Anubis' Mothership[/u][/h2][/color][color=ffcc88]
Behind a dark, shifting mask, Anubis smirked and stared at the ascended beings observing him. Of course they were on a higher plane of existence, so he appeared to be smirking at nothing.

Janus was also glaring at the ascended beings gathered on the bridge of Anubis' mothership.

"Your insistence on following non-interference to a fault is absurd," he said to the Others.
"We're simply allowing you to see the consequences of your actions," they replied.
"Hardly. If it were up to me, then those rifts would have been closed."
"The universe will always seek equilibrium."
"And we, as sentient, intelligent beings, can and should manipulate that equilibrium to our benefit!"
"You do not yet understand."
"I was about to say the same thing."

[/color][color=cornflowerblue][h2][u]Ahel[/u][/h2][/color][color=lightblue]
The Others dragged him to the [i]Ahel[/i]. Janus could see the quiet conversation between the ship's captain and one of the officers. He'd been sloppy. The manipulations to widen the interdimensional rifts into proper portals meant that he had had to be detectable to the mortal plane. The margin between the ships appearing and his re-ascension had been small enough that nobody would see him, except the crew of the Ahel apparently had.

That was concerning, but he didn't know what it meant. It certainly wasn't as concerning as Anubis pulling in Emperor Palpatine.

Then again, maybe one variable could lead to the resolution of another. It would have to be subtle; he had to walk the line of non-interference now.

[@Dnafein]
He changed a variable in the Ahel's computer core, making it look like frighteningly specific cosmic ray interference. The sensor station abruptly focused on the newly-arrived Imperial shuttle, then flashed back to the other ships.[/color]